Perhaps you thought Uncle Sam was a benevolent spirit but harassing disabled, sick and dying citizens over their medicinal drug of choice is despicable and the most un-American activity I can think of!

In an Obamanation of our founding principles, this administration ejected medical marijuana patients from the workplace, threw them out of public housing, took away their ability to buy a gun, closed down their dispensaries and has shown total disregard for the lives and safer choices of our injured veterans.

The people believe in self-government and self-medication.

"Last week was discouraging and disappointing to those of us who value our Constitution. That the US government asserts the legal authority to pick up Americans within the United States and hold them indefinitely and secretly without a trial should be incredibly disturbing to all of us. Americans should check how their representative voted. Politicians should not be allowed to get away with undermining our liberties in this manner." Presidential hopeful Ron Paul encourages us to vocalize our outrage at the passing of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. How Did Your Senator Vote?

Our heroes, who laid down their lives for this country, died for freedom and for making this world a better place but they will have died in vain if the American dream of self-government dies.

"We dreamed big dreams, we made big plans. Let's never say it might have been." Is a line from a song I enjoyed singing with my Evant High School buds on the bus to and from football games in the early '60's. It inspired me to write, Freedom's Way or Spirit of '76. Just as that great movie, "Rebel without a Cause" inspired me to name my portrait awards, Rebel with Just Cause, dedicated to the freedom philosophy or the American dream.

The real visionaries, who laid down America's laws, those who defined what an American patriot would be, were rebels with just cause. It's not just our right it's an American's patriotic duty to rebel against big government corruption and oppression.

"The suicide rate among veterans is an American tragedy. It’s unconscionable not to use every treatment that may help these young people cope with their physical and mental pain." Wrote Suzanne Wills board member and treasurer of Drug Policy Forum of Texas in a recent Dallas Morning News letter to the editor.

Drs. D. Mark Anderson, Daniel Rees and Joseph Sabia conducted a study titled “Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide.” They found that “ … the legalization of medical marijuana is associated with a 5 percent decrease in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent decrease … [among] 20- to 29-year-old males and a 9 percent decrease … [among] 30- to 39-year-old males.”

Possible explanations for the decrease include the neural protective and neural regenerative properties of cannabis and the patients changing from using alcohol to using marijuana.

Profiteering has no place in medicine, which must be concerned with the well being of the individual not the bottom line. Doctors who have monitored cannabis use by hundreds of thousands of patients in California and Oregon can document a consistent pattern of using less pharmaceuticals including cutting opiates use by half.

Morally bankrupt financiers, empire builders and leaders in their pockets make capitalism abhorrent with their predatory capitalism. Predatory capitalism due to big government interference and protection destroys people, benign or ethical capitalism, America's founders' vision of the free market, creates a world of abundance for all.

The tobacco, alcohol and prescription drug gangs cause more death annually than all illicit drugs. We tolerate their salesmen. End prohibition; stop driving US to drink and use pharmaceuticals with dangerous often fatal side effects.

Patients testify to Cannabis' help in treating post traumatic stress, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, gastrointestinal (GI) tract disorders, Alzheimer's, Cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS and more! They swear it is an effective safer replacement for very dangerous pharmaceuticals.

Thousands of veterans have petitioned the Obama administration to allow disabled US military veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD. Their petition was answered not by the Veterans’ Health Administration but by the drug czar, an ex-policeman, who said that smoked marijuana has not been found to meet the modern standard of effective medicine.

Smoked cannabis is good but the medicinal oil is better. Placing no limit on the number of plants, allows patients to grow enough to make oil and ingest medicine in a healthier way. Ooooops! Who spilled the beans? SCIENTISTS and PATIENTS all over the world, that's who!

“Vets have used cannabis for PTS since the Revolutionary War.” Al Byrne, cofounder of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, emphatically countered the drug czar's bogus claims."We know what we need and to be told by our President, the Commander in Chief, that he does not care about those he has sent to war by denying medicine to the wounded is unconscionable."

"Veterans found cannabis long before states started passing these laws," reiterated Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access (VMCA). “By a long shot, it’s better than the drugs they get at the VA.”

Pharmaceuticals like Zoloft and Luvox cause increased aggression, loss of remorse, depersonalization and mania. Prozac, Lithium and other antidepressants may increase the risk of suicide in persons younger than 25.

"Most of us know at least the basics of the story of Coca-Cola and cocaine, but how many of you know about Bib-Label? Neither did I until yesterday. Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda appeared in 1929 and contained lithium until 1950. Today lithium compounds are primarily used to treat bipolar disorders. What happened to Bib-Label after the lithium was removed? It's still on the market, but its name had been changed in 1936 to...7-Up!" relates fellow reform blogger and retired law professor, Buford Terrell.

Big History teaches an ambitious world history course that tells the tale of the entire universe -- from the Big Bang 13 billion years ago to present day. Our shared history is brought to life, revealing common themes and patterns that help us better understand people, civilizations and the world we live in. It's an evolving study of independent disciplines taking a holistic view of our universe founded by Bill Gates and David Christian, available to everyone on line.

Throughout history, big government has caused more harm than good; often hiding tyranny under the guise of good intentions. Our founders knew big government would always mean a gang of evildoers. The Spirit of 1776 was the Holy Spirit and is our true North.

Today mass communication, social networking and other high-technologies allow us to band together and form a powerful united front for good over evil more easily and quickly than ever before. The web is the fastest growing communications medium in the history of the world. A powerful tool, a window of opportunity, in our war of good over evil; the Internet continues to revolutionize the way we communicate and has enormous potential for reshaping the political process.

A recent DMN article by Alfredo Corchado shows how the, "Mexican youth movement may be harbinger of a digital revolution! Experts see rising Web, mobile use as catalyst for political activism."

Knowledge or awareness is power. Ignorance is no longer bliss. All who follow a code of ethics or principles are self-governors. Our system is meant to protect the self-governors from those without ethics and principles, perpetrators of fraud and violence. The state does not run the affairs of people in a free society. It upholds justice between people who conduct their own affairs.

The Holy Spirit is our true North, our moral compass. As each individual spirit recognizes humanity's similarities, our oneness, we coalesce to create a world changing energy and stand in solidarity, tolerant of our differences.

Barbara Natterson-Horowitz is a cardiology professor at UCLA and Kathryn Bowers is a writer. This interesting essay, "Our Animal Natures," is adapted from their forthcoming book “Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing.” "Why is it so hard for addicts to “just say no”? It turns out that saying “no” is hard for animals too." Brain scientists say, "As far as the brain is concerned, a reward's a reward, regardless of whether it comes from a chemical or an experience. And where there's a reward, there's the risk of the vulnerable brain getting trapped in a compulsion."

Addiction does not respond well to punitive laws. All drug use is medical use. Social use to relax, to relieve stress is self-medication.

Prisons propagate crime, violence and sexual deviance. Putting nonviolent offenders in this breeding ground is madness. Support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with support for individual freedom, constitutional government and the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

We have the potent tool of nonviolent civil disobedience to effect positive change. The Holy Spirit gives us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics, "Make the injustice visible."

When the mothers of America realized that prohibitionists were making their kids more vulnerable to booze, Drug War I (the Volstead Act) was licked! Drug War II devastates the lives of nonviolent drug users and their families. Taking children from the homes of loving parents who have simply made a safer health choice is senseless policy. Taking property from these same, destroyed by government families, is legalized extortion!

The Sacramento Bee reports, "CHILDREN TAKEN FROM MOM IN POT RAID INFLAME BUTTE COUNTY BALLOT DEBATE." The audio tape of the howling, hysterical mother went viral. "Oh, my God! My baby! My baby! My baby!" screams Daisy Bram, 30, as Butte County child welfare officers take custody of her newborn infant and 18-month-old toddler.

“Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its US counterparts." First among the states means first in the world and that is an terrifying fact, unacceptable to liberty loving American patriots everywhere!

Charles Blow asserts in the NYT's "The picture that emerges is one of convicts as chattel and a legal system essentially based on human commodification."

“A prison system that leased its convicts as plantation labor in the 1800s has come full circle and is again a nexus for profit,”sums up The Times-Picayune of New Orleans recently in a devastating eight-part series. Population declined in half the states from 2008-2009. The federal population has more than doubling since 1995.

The last year Texas' incarceration rate exceeded Louisiana's was 1997. The state used an expansion of treatment and diversion programs to accomplish this improvement. Texas also began using sanctions short of incarceration for probationers and parolees who make mistakes, the poor souls that make up two-thirds of prison admissions! These changes have spared many the damaging experience of imprisonment and saved the state money.

Beto O'Rourke wins without a runoff to defeat the incumbent in El Paso. Go Beto!!!! A huge roar for O'Rourke and all reformers! Can you hear us now?! The author of, "Dealing Death and Drugs: the big business of dope in the US and Mexico," was relentlessly attacked by the incumbent for wanting to legalize drugs.

Servants of tyranny are good at ignoring history and science while catering to the needs of special interests but very bad at determining what is best or safer for the individual or society. They play on our fears to make us more accepting of their waste of our precious lives and resources.

"The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear," proclaimed Hitler's best bud, Heinrich Himmler, however he was just paraphrasing those early empire builders that professed to be a republic like US, the Romans.

Tyranny's growth depends on keeping the people fearful and begging for more protection from an infinite number of invented or exaggerated enemies and hazards. So called "independent media," actually controlled by government and corporations, achieves news shaped to their storyline and manufactures consent. Truth and transparency achieves informed consent, much safer for the individual and society.

"The deadliest form of violence is poverty," reminds Gandhi. So, may we please make our first priority that poverty disappears from planet earth. No fear and no hunger! America and all the world is a work in progress just as we are as individuals.

Benjamin Barber author of, "Fear's Empire" encourages us to be an engagaged Citizen instead of a Spectator in America. "Spectatorship is an invitation to fear." The propaganda of fear robs us our civil liberties and multiculturalism under the guise of protecting us. "Citizenship is how we fight the politics of fear." Being engaged true patriots, taking responsibility, being tolerant of our differences and celebrating our similarities is the way to fight terrorism.

"Strike the root!" Be brave, that's how we end terror. All we have to do is stop being afraid, and stop acting out of fear. True patriots never forget America is the home of the free and the brave.

"A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible."
Woodrow Wilson warned us about a century ago and the fact is painfully obvious today. He reminds us, "America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal - to discover and maintain liberty among men."

Focus only on the bottom line means, "Is it moral or legal?"changes to: "Is it cost effect to disobey the law or compromise the ethics of do no harm?"

WE, the consumers, are all powerful! We can refuse to buy from morally bankrupt sellers responsible for causing harm, destroying people or our environment. The free market is a more powerful and efficient regulator than government. Downsize DC, make that LEAP of faith to let ethics, compassion and the free market rule! Get tough on violent crime!

Based on a 2003 study by addiction researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo: Alcohol makes domestic violence 8 times more likely, marijuana does not! Retired Police Officer Howard Wooldridge and founder of Citizens Opposing Prohibition told me he responded to around 1,500 calls for domestic violence during his career. Not one of them involved marijuana/cannabis!

According to a recently released Rasmussen poll, Coloradans support regulating marijuana like alcohol (Amendment 64) by a margin of 61% - 27%!

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." Dr. Martin Luther King restates our founders' vision of a true patriot, a rebel with just cause.

Americans are not the only rebels with just cause but it is our patriotic duty to rebel against big government corruption and oppression. One of the 2011 Rebel with Just Cause portraits is awarded to Marc Emery, our hero for taking a stand for justice against a morally bankrupt, violence triggering, nightmare policy.

Uphold Your Promise Obama! -Stop using our precious resources to arrest and prosecute nonviolent cannabis users. Harassing disabled, sick and dying citizens is an Un-American activity! Call in to the national Obama campaign office at 312-698-3670. Evil triumphs when the good do nothing.

The other portrait will be shared by Bradley Manning and Julian Assange: for posting the Afghanistan war diaries on wikileaks. It is not a crime to expose war crimes.

Uphold Your Promise Obama! Allow Government Transparency! Protect Bradley Manning! Call in to the national Obama campaign office at 312-698-3670 Ask President Obama to stand tall for our Republic and the rule of law, ask him to end torture, wars, and all policies of aggression.

One 2012 Rebel is journalist and poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was killed in drug prohibition-related violence inspiring him to galvanize Mexican society and awaken international debate. In the summer of 2011, tens of thousands marched across Mexico to protest the drug war and the 50,000 drug prohibition related deaths in the previous five years.

The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity is planning a caravan through the United States that will bring the discussion of the War on Drugs to Americans. Beginning in August in California, the caravan will travel through over a dozen cities on its way to Washington, DC. Earlier this month, Javier Sicilia, traveled here to meet with US grassroots organizers in Latino and African American communities, asking them to join the caravan and the dialogue.

Kevin Zeese is the other 2012 Rebel for his tireless efforts for peace. He is the Executive Director and cofounder of VotersForPeace. He is an attorney, and a long time peace advocate.

Find out who you really support in the coming election. Take this fun little election quiz. You'll get a % figure of how much candidates agree with your political views. Surprised me! I agree with Gary Johnson even more than Ron Paul. Former New Mexico Gov. Johnson has picked California Judge Jim Gray, a prominent pro-marijuana legalization advocate, to be his running mate. (See YouTube video at top of this page.)

Here's another way to connect and tell Congress what you feel on any subject. "We heard your complaints. Writing Congress is now easier than ever. During our relaunch of Congress.org last week, we removed the requirement that you register and log in every time you want to write your lawmakers." Now, all you need to do is enter your zip in the 'Join the Conversation, Write Your Lawmakers' box in the upper-right corner of the site. Or, you can click on a link below to be taken to a form to write all of your federal or state representatives at one time."

Write all your federal representatives at one time.

Write all of your state lawmakers at one time.

Revolution is Easy! Exercising your political might is just a click away. Thanks for all you do for reform!

Save lives instead of ruining them. Join LEAP! It is a LEAP year!! Join COP and DownSizeDC!

Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!

Track your Senators' and Representative's votes by e-mail.

Changing who's in charge will not affect much. The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on down-sizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for future generations and ourselves.

Compiled and written by Colleen McCool

Uncle Sam Vs The People