Review of Aaron Russo's Documentary - America: Freedom to Fascism

I'm sure everybody's heard of Arron Russo by now; if you haven't, you've been missing some highly debatable stuff regarding the federal tax laws. Aaron Russo is an entertainer turned politician, turned documentarian. In 2004, he ran for the Libertarian Party's nomination for President of the United States. And at the Libertarian National Convention in May 2004 Russo was defeated on the 3rd and final ballot. He ran for Governor of Nevada in 1998, I was here and vaguely remember the buzz. He lost, I didn't think he was anything more than a crazy tax protester.

I haven't seen many documentaries, but have seen splashes of Micheal Moores work, I'd say this is similar as Russo gets a lot camera time to pose his questions, hypothesis, and warnings. Russo took this to the Cannes film festival in May, (for some reason global warming got all the press) and it opens in major U.S cities in July.

The film starts right off with the history of the Federal Reserve Bank, and how it was formed in 1913. Russo contends that it's not even owned by the government, it's owned by a group of powerful private bankers that print money not connected to precious metals, (fiat currency) and then make interest loans to the government. He contends that tax laws were not ratified, and are unconstitutional - - and also that written documentation does not exist to support the income tax law. He is constantly asking to see the law, even going so far as standing outside of IRS headquarters in Washington trying to get an answer. He does get a Homeland Security escort off the property.

He lays down some convincing arguments with the help of interviews with former tax agents; including retired IRS Commissioner Sheldon Cohen who when questioned about the 16th amendment actually states, "You want a 1920 Supreme Court decision to take precedence over an IRS code that was written years later?" Not something you want to hear from the bureaucracy, but do. Do they make up the laws as they go along?

During one segment a citizen questions an IRS agent asking to see papers of authority, and the agent responds, (direct quote) "I asked my boss about that written delegation of authority, and he says my badge is my written delegation of authority." (How long before they won't even have to do that, or is it already happening?)

There is also a compelling interview with a juror who sat on a case of a tax protester. A protester who said he would happily pay if he could see the law. The juror mentions, (and we see) an IRS agent perjuring himself, and also states that when they asked the judge to see the law, the judge told them, "You have all you need." The man was acquitted, and according to the juror, "The judge's face turned white and he left the room, "without saying a word." Russo asks her why they didn't see the law. she answers, "Because there is no law."

The documentary doesn't stop at the tax education movement, but continues to the National Identification card, that will be law in 2008. It's the card with the radio frequency identification. How about in a capsule inserted under the skin. Is it already in product labels? Some disturbing; Orwellian stuff here, as he posits that the world is indeed marching toward a New World Order - - controlled by the bankers.

There wasn't the fear voice or fear music one might expect from this type of documentary. Russo's comical accent detracted somewhat from the issues that he raises. Not a slickly produced documentary by any means. I'd have liked to see Russo advocate something a little more workable than demanding to see the law that requires Americans to pay federal income tax. Some might call him a dangerous clown.

Quote wikipedia - -Some tax protesters, conspiracy investigators, and others opposed to income taxes cite what they contend is evidence that the Sixteenth Amendment was never "properly ratified." One such argument is that because the legislatures of various states passed resolutions of ratification with different capitalization, spelling of words, or punctuation marks (e.g. semi-colons instead of commas) from the text proposed by Congress, those states' ratifications were invalid. A related argument is that various states illegally violated procedural requirements of their constitutions when passing their ratification resolutions. These and similar arguments have been universally rejected by the courts.

Russo contends that tax laws are out and out illegal, and he could get you into trouble if you follow his advice, however; I do recommend this as an educational, and disturbing wake up call to what the future may hold for America ...and the World.

The Documentary is online if you want to sit in front of the monitor for 1 hr 49 min 28 sec:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198