Sovereign citizens spin history, reject government

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

They call themselves sovereign citizens, U.S. residents who declare themselves above state and federal laws. Many don't register children's births, carry driver's licenses or recognize the court system.

Some peddle schemes that use fictional legal loopholes to eliminate debt and avoid foreclosures.

... As many as 300,000 people identify as sovereign citizens, the Southern Poverty Law Center found in a study to be published Thursday that was obtained by The Associated Press. Hate group monitors say their numbers have increased thanks to the recession, the foreclosure crisis, the growth of the Internet and the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

... At the heart of their belief system: The government creates a secret identity for each citizen at birth, a "straw man," that controls an account at the U.S. Treasury used as collateral for foreign debt. File enough documents at the right offices and the money in those accounts can be used to pay off debt or make purchases worth thousands of dollars.

... In April, a group called the Guardians of the Free Republics sent letters to governors demanding they leave office or be removed. The group's website calls for the restoration of lawful government and an end to tax forms, vehicle registrations and marriage licenses. An e-mail to the group was not returned.

... In a 2003 document Jerry Kane filed in a county recorder's office in Ohio, he said he was not a "Fourteen Amendment Citizen." Many sovereign citizens believe the 14th Amendment created a new class of citizens, people who had no constitutional rights but were instead slaves to the government, according to Mark Pitcavage, investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gvxDjyFH9E0S959CVlV4Fhbo7IzgD9HHN4901

[PBS Poll-435]

1. K&R

WOW.

[qb]

2. sounds like a confused bunch

:crazy:

[FSogol]

3. Wonder if we'll every come to the point where we will need re-education camps

for all the morons in this Nation? (That concept ought to get their panties in a bunch.)

[Omar4Dems]

7. We don't have enough black U.N. helicopters to round 'em all up with

We need to get some more.

[sui generis]

4. in some significant ways I consider myself a sovereign human.

I don't believe that the government has a "right" to press me into military service. I don't believe the government "owns" my citizenship if I decide it shouldn't.

I do pay my taxes without complaint, and believe in our system of government but more importantly I believe that governments should compete for citizens, not the other way around. And my rationale for that "progressive" idea is that the only differentiators between governments would be our adherence to human rights as the central standard for citizenship and the rights that follow therefrom.

I am absolutely and unassailably an individual before I am a citizen, a person, before I am an American, and that is as it should be.

However, those people referred to in the OP are the fucking whackadoodle elite.

Just for kicks though, there are few DU'ers who disagree with my attitude. Please don't respond or else step up for your verbal beating. :P

[mike r]

5. "In good times they focus on tax cheating, in bad times they focus on getting out of debt"

[sui generis]

6. that's the thing - they look at Social Security and taxes as "direct billing"

and so they want to "line item" the use of taxes. They believe if they live off-grid they owe nothing. If they don't use hospitals for birthin' their babies they don't want to pay Hospital district taxes, and they sure don't want to pay taxes if they're going to be used for the arts, any program they don't approve of, or somebody else's welfare or unemployment.

Ironically the issue about citizenship and locale is that if they want to go start their own country where they won't have to do all that, they are more than welcome to leave this country.

They forget that the very underlying concept of taxation (with the notable exception "sin" taxes) is that taxes are a collective activity that benefits the collective one individual at a time. They couldn't even remotely afford a direct bill for government services such as police, fire, road maintenance, and security, much less the full cost of disability income, welfare and medicare/medicaid.

They is just ignant selfish shits who want something for nothing.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I know a city where the city attorney tried to push this sovereign concept.

Very suspiciously, a host of lawyers worked together to use a development issue inside this city to push the concept of self-determination. The City ended up with a huge civil lawsuit from an unexpected source. The thing is, that a confidentiality clause was slapped in the settlement agreement and people haven't really figured out what really was behind the mess that cost the citizens so much money.

Sneaky shit.

[Green_Lantern]

9. They probably send out newsletters using Federal postal

Systems.

[Green_Lantern]

10. it's funny how they only cry "sovereign citizen" when caught doing

something wrong like running guns or neglecting to pay child support.