“The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result.” – Einstein

“The definition of insanity is voting for Republocrats and not expecting more tyranny, war, and debt.” – Towne

Check out the complete footage and clips from the State Theatre Debate in Easton on Monday, it was a clear victory for the campaign!!

Material pickup for the polls is TODAY, Thursday, October 28 at the American Sandwich Company in Coopersburg from 5pm to 8 pm – if you cannot make it, the materials will be delivered but please try to make it!!

I was also invited to attend the “Rally to Restore Sanity” which will take place on Saturday at Porter’s Pub in Easton.  The rally is from 12-3 pm, and I will be there from 3-4 pm to meet people and answer questions.  You can also pick up materials for the polls there as well.

Feel free to volunteer at the polls on November 2nd, and at the below Halloween parades.  Teams will be heading out to canvass and flyer blitz neighborhoods all week and over the weekend, so feel free to join or flyer your own neighborhood.  An electronic copy of the flyer is here.

Yours in liberty,
Jake

• Northampton Community College Forum, October 28, 11 AM till perhaps 12:30 or 1 PM.  Open to public, Q&A. Location Changed!! Location is in the Student Life Zone on the 2nd floor of the College Center.  3835 Green Pond Rd Bethlehem, PA 18020.  Campus Map.
• Live interview on WDIY, 6-7 PM on Thursday, October 28.  Listen locally at 88.1 FM or here online.
• Rally and Poll Materials Pickup, 5PM-8:30 PM on Thursday, October 28 at American Sandwich Company at 7001 Route 309, Fairmont Village Shopping Center, Coopersburg, PA 18036.  MAP.  A volunteer will be there to hand out materials from 5 PM on, Jake will arrive around 7:30 to talk for a bit.

• Rally to Restore Sanity, 12 PM- 4 PM on Saturday, October 30 at Porter’s Pub, 700 Northampton St., Easton, PA 18036.  MAP.  The Comedy Central march in DC will be televised from 12-3 pm and Jake will be taking questions from 3-4 pm.  This is not a campaign sponsored event.
• Slatington-Walnutport Halloween Parade: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 30. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.
• Replay of “Debate at the State”, 8 PM on Saturday, October 30 on WFMZ Channel 69.

• Easton-Phillipsburg Halloween Parade: 12:30 p.m. Oct. 31. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.
• Allentown Halloween Parade: 1 p.m. Oct. 31. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.
• Bethlehem Halloween Parade: 1 p.m. Oct. 31. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.

• NOVEMBER 2nd ELECTION DAY!! Volunteers are needed to hand out literature outside of local polling stations, please volunteer here and share your name, phone #, city, and if you live in the district, your current polling location.
  • Post-Election Victory Party for all volunteers at 8 PM on Election Day at Pies On Pizzeria at Front and Pine Streets, Catasauqua!!!!

While my Republocrat opponents, Mr. Dent and Mr. Callahan, had enough time to shun six debates locally, they did have enough time to spare for a 1 hour live chat sponsored by the Morning Call.  You can read my transcript here, Mr. Dent’s here, and Mr. Callahan’s here.  Local columnist Bill White wrote that I was the clear victor and the chats were like Secretariat racing two mules.

Mules, donkeys, elephants, whatever.  The career politicians of today are practically dinosaurs, as this short clip demonstrates that both Mr. Callahan and Mr. Dent simply cannot grasp – or, as a far worse possibility, simply won’t talk about – the money-printing practices and upcoming quantitative easing of the Federal Reserve.  They do not wish to talk about their own perks either.  (On the right is a 30 minute interview with Tekoa da Silva of Contrary Investors Cafe.)

Upcoming Events -

• Meet The Candidates Morning with the League of Women Voters, Saturday, Oct 23rd from 10am-noon.  Whitehall Township Public Library at 3700 Mechanicsville Road off of Rt 145.  MAPQUEST.  Refreshments provided by the League.

• Macungie Halloween Parade: 5 p.m. Oct. 23.  Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.

• Hellertown-Saucon Valley Halloween Parade: 1 p.m. Oct. 24. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.

• Express Times Debate, Monday, October 25 at the State Theatre in Easton, 7 PM.  453 Northampton Street Easton, PA 18042.  MAP.  Suggest arriving at 6:30 PM to ensure seating.  Open to public.  Channel 69 to broadcast on October 30 at 8 PM.  Airing live on Service Electric Channel 69.3 Retro TV.
• Northampton Community College Forum, October 28, 11 AM till perhaps 12:30 or 1 PM.  Open to public, Q&A. Location Changed!! Location is in the Student Life Zone on the 2nd floor of the College Center.  3835 Green Pond Rd Bethlehem, PA 18020.  Campus Map.
• Live interview on WDIY, 6-7 PM on Thursday, October 28.  Listen locally at 88.1 FM or here online.
• Rally and Poll Materials Pickup, 5PM-8:30 PM on Thursday, October 28 at American Sandwich Company at 7001 Route 309, Fairmont Village Shopping Center, Coopersburg, PA 18036.  MAP.  A volunteer will be there to hand out materials from 5 PM on, Jake will arrive around 7:30 to talk for a bit.

• Slatington-Walnutport Halloween Parade: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 30. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.

• Easton-Phillipsburg Halloween Parade: 12:30 p.m. Oct. 31. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.
• Allentown Halloween Parade: 1 p.m. Oct. 31. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.
• Bethlehem Halloween Parade: 1 p.m. Oct. 31. Help hand out flyers before the parade begins!!  Contact the campaign at 610-392-8156 or towneforcongress@gmail.com for meetup details.

• NOVEMBER 2nd ELECTION DAY!! Volunteers are needed to hand out literature outside of local polling stations, please volunteer here and share your name, phone #, city, and if you live in the district, your current polling location.   
  • Post-Election Victory Party for all volunteers at 8 PM on Election Day at Pies On Pizzeria at Front and Pine Streets, Catasauqua!!!!

Today is the anniversary of the September 17, 1787 ratification of the Constitution of the United States.   While the federal government no longer even pretends to follow the Constitution, I would like to write for a moment on the second-most important safeguard the founders tried to leave us.  (The most important safeguard being sound money, which by itself greatly inhibits rash war-making, as beautifully illustrated in this clip.)

“The Congress shall have Power… to declare War.” – The Constitution of the United States, 1787-present. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11.

The founders feared more than anything a strong executive branch, a President that would loom as powerful and as tyrannical as a King George.  While the Constitution bound the sovereign States closer together for the purposes of national defense, Congress was given this grave responsibility for a reason:  as the House of Representatives was directly elected by the people, it was viewed as the safest place to entrust a declaration of war, and people unhappy with Representatives could remove them fairly quickly – within two years.

Two Americans who long foresaw the day when America would ring the world with military bases – over 750 bases in 150 of the world’s 194 countries – were General Smedley Butler, WWI hero with two congressional Medals of Honor, the highest decorated Marine in US history and Garet Garret, who wrote the long-lost text of “The People’s Pottage” in 1953.

These men both understood the clip above – the consequences of the federal government’s actions is the ceding of America’s sovereignty to those who control the debt that endless wars and the military-industrial complex create. The greatest threat to our national security is the national debt, not malevolent boogeymen living in caves in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden and his ilk will never destroy America – it will be the Congress who first destroy the country financially by looting our blood and treasure.  This is the true threat to our way of life.

Smedley Butler in 1933 wrote “War is a Racket,” which neatly summarizes the true definition of war.  I’ll leave it to the reader to read Butler’s powerful essay.  However, I’d like to partially paraphrase Garret and due to time constraints just weave in some of my own thoughts in what Garret listed way back in 1953 as the five heights that need to be regained in the coming years to restore America and the rule of law, to restore the Constitution:

The first height is a state of mind. To recover the habit of decision the people must learn again to think for themselves; and this requires a kind of self-awakening. This is so because thinking has been laid under a spell. The hypnotic powers are entrenched, combative and dangerous. But once the self-liberated mind had regained that first height, it would see not only that there is an alternative course but that above the noxious emanations of fear and the fog of propaganda the view is fairly clear as to the next steps.

The second height to be regained is intelligent, public debate of foreign policy.  No longer can the President  blindly frog-march the American people to war without a constitutional declaration of war from Congress.  Let foreign policy be debated once more by those who may have to die for it, and let the wind be cold and merciless. Let those  responsible be nakedly exposed to the horrors of war, who so misunderstand the nature of what they have done that they can find no respite, no solace in the abdication of their human responsibilities.

If they can justify themselves to the free and disenthralled intelligence of the people, so that the people knowingly choose to go on with them, then there will be nothing more to say, or to do, but to perform the death rattle of the Republic. Until this is settled it will be useless to discuss domestic policies because what is at stake is the fate of the republican form of constitutional government.

On the next height lies control of the public purse and the national debt.  Until the people have recovered the public purse, they cannot tame Executive Government. Passing laws to control or restrain it is of no avail whatever. The only way to reason with it is to cut it off at the pockets.  When it came to setting up the American government, the Constitution said that control of the purse should be in the hands of the House of Representatives because that was the popular side of Congress. While the people have not always managed the purse well, there is a difference; no matter how badly Congress may manage the public purse, it cannot control the people, whereas in the hands of the government control of the purse becomes the single most powerful instrument of executive policy touching the lives of the people.

The next foe is one of insatiable evil, located right inside the public purse.  It is the fourth branch of the government known as the Federal Reserve.  This monstrous evil’s chief weapon is inflation by the printing press. Its weapon of defense is an invisible vapor, the effect of which is to cause people to become economic alcoholics, afflicted with the delusion that they can get rich by destroying the value of money.

It is no good to think of cutting off the head of this serpent. It has millions of heads, all in the likeness of human heads, and as fast as they are chopped off others appear in place of them. Moreover, at this point, even in the ranks of the dragon hunters, dissensions will break forth, people saying: “Don’t kill him. If he dies  chaos and deflation will come, and this is worse. Only chain him down.” At that every one of the heads begins to grin in a most sardonic manner. The serpent knows its life is safe and wiggling out of its chains is a light morning exercise. (Photo courtesy KamaInv, license)

There is only one thing to do with this monster. It can be sickened and starved, not to death, because the life in it is immortal, but to a harmless shadow. Its food is irredeemable paper money. Sound money is its poison. Victory here will never be complete.  A guardian will need to be left, then a watchman to guard the guardian, and then the people must keep going back to ensure the serpent always remains bound and starved.

These heights in the lost terrain that have been named are vital. To save the constitutional republic they must all be stormed and captured. Others are important, but if these are taken the others can wait; but there is still one more, the last and highest of all, and as you approach it you may understand the serpent’s sardonic grin. The slopes are steep and barren. No enemy is visible. The enemy is within yourself. For, you see, the only way to conquer this peak is with your own fortitude.

The cost of saving the country will be extremely high. It could be as high as the cost of setting it up in the first place, 223 years ago, when the love of political liberty was a mighty passion, and people were willing to die for it.

When the economy has for a long time been moving by jet propulsion, the higher the faster, on the rocket fuel of perpetual war, endless debt, and planned inflation, a time comes when you have to choose whether to go on and on and dissolve your very being in the stratosphere, or decelerate.

However,  deceleration will cause a terrific shock.  Who is willing to face the grim and dangerous realities of the economic depression, of wars without end, that have already begun?

For the good of our children, the answer must be yourself.  No doubt the people know they can have their constitutional republic and democratic elections back if they want it enough to fight for it and to pay the price.  The only problem is that not enough leaders have yet stepped up to the plate with the courage to ask you to choose liberty instead of tyranny.

Choose liberty.

For the Constitution,

Jake Towne

Congressman Dent’s campaign informed PA2010.com that they prefer independent Jake Towne – who is running as a private citizen under no political party – be silenced and barred from debating Dent this fall.

Towne stated, “I take objection to their actions as anti-democratic and a sign of weakness. Congressional races should not be similar to sports teams duking out a popularity contest, we should have a healthy debate on the issues – for the good of the PEOPLE.  My novel-yet-simple “Our Open Office” idea for accountable government and how to solve the unemployment problem deserve to be heard.”

The Towne campaign has accepted invitations to two debates, including the major one held by the Morning Call.  Towne has issued challenges to both Dent and Callahan to debate since the fall of 2009 with no response.   In November 2009, he wrote both career politicians saying:

“The times we live in are not normal. The dollar is in crisis and unemployment is rampant. Civil liberties are restricted more with each passing day. We have apparently endless wars continuing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I am traveling the district and the people are hurting. Congress’s solutions of more spending through the stimulus plan and more taxation via the Cap and Trade bill on energy and even our health care seem dubious at best.”

Last week the Callahan campaign sent a spy to videotape a “Towne Hall” event, indicating they are also worried about Towne’s independent campaign. Towne has appeared on PCN TV, FOX News several times, and Russia Today on foreign policy.

Ballot access requirements are far more demanding for independent campaigns than for the two major parties. While he is running for US Congress, Towne must collect nearly twice the number of signatures required to run for President of the United States or Governor of Pennsylvania.  Towne’s campaign is one of the largest independent campaigns in the nation, raising over $40,000.

Towne is a chemical engineer who worked in the semiconductor industry prior to running for office as an independent private citizen, including the past 4 years in China. Towne has promised to accept only the median household income and not enlist in the congressional health care or pension plans. The remainder of the $174,000 salary will be donated to local non-profit hospitals. He also champions sound money and a novel-yet-simple form of accountable and transparent government, “Our Open Office” which is linked below.

(Sent in a press release 7/22/2010.  FYI the campaign is throwing a Freedom Concert to celebrate on Friday, July 30th, details here!! A few talks given by Jake on PCN TV, FOX News, and Russia Today are below.)

The campaign will be holding a Freedom Concert on Friday, July 30th to celebrate the campaign’s progress so far!!   You won’t want to miss this event!!   We will be celebrating filing for ballot access!  See the below flyer, which can be downloaded from here.   Facebook invite here. Under 18 can attend for free, adults can give a $10 donation to Towne for Congress, and families are welcome!!!

Time: 7:00 – 11:00 PM

Location: Garfield Hotel and Grille, 1750 Main Street, Northampton 18067  (South of the Roxy)   MAPQUEST

Payment can be made below by credit card or by cash or check at the door to “Towne for Congress.”

Bands playing include:

• Pleasant Corners, a local experimental jam band named after Pleasant Corners, PA in Heidelberg Township
• Kinetic Blu, local independents (just like the campaign with Jordan White.  See the below video, “September”
• Dave Cahill from the Easton/P’Burg area, performing an acoustic set, see below video. “Come Together”
• Peace Tank, a patriotic rock band
• and last but not least, Poker Face, the Bethlehem-based patriotic band with five independently-released CDs including Peace or War, see below video “I’d Rather Die”

Freedom Concert Flyer for July 30th

The campaign had a successful week, collecting plenty of signatures for ballot access at campaign events.  The photos in the post were taken this Sunday at Easton’s Heritage Day, where at times the booth was overwhelmed by people signing the petition and speaking with me or other volunteers.  This Saturday, the campaign will have a booth at Nazareth Days in the borough park, see below!

While the campaign will continue to collect signatures at community events to expand the safety margin, our main focus is 1) notarizing all of the signatures already collected by volunteers and 2) verifying the last sets of signatures collected.

This Friday evening the campaign will be verifying signatures at headquarters<REDACTED>, and volunteers can get petitions notarized for free at this Wednesday’s Towne Hall in Bethlehem or the Fun-Raiser on Monday in Catasauqua.

If you would like to help verify signatures and are not available Friday evening, feel free to send an email to towneforcongress@gmail.com or call 610-392-8156 with the times and dates you are available to meet and verify.

July 14, Wednesday  “Towne” Hall in Bethlehem

Time: 7-9 PM

Location: 2900 Farmersville Road, Bethlehem, PA 18020  SITE MAPQUEST

Jake will briefly introduce himself and then take questions from the crowd.  A notary will be present to notarize any signatures collected.

Friday, 7/16 Antiwar Protest in Allentown

Time: Noon-1 PM
Location: In front of Allentown Courthouse, Hamilton and 5th, Allentown, PA 18101  MAP

Please RSVP by calling 610-392-8156 or email towneforcongress@gmail.com.

Friday 7/16, Signature Verifying and Letter Stuffing

Time: 3 PM – 9 PM, stop by anytime!!
Location: <REDACTED>

While we only have one spare computer, if you have a laptop please bring it!!   If we run out of computers, there are plenty more envelopes to stuff!!

Saturday 7/17, Nazareth Days

Time: 9 AM till 4 PM.  Come anytime!
Location: Nazareth Borough Park, North Broad St. Extension by E. Schoeneck and Spring Brook Terrace.  MAP

The campaign will have a booth close to the pool in the non-profit section.  There will be bands and food all day long, and fireworks are a bit later at 10:00 PM.   Please RSVP by calling 610-392-8156 or email towneforcongress@gmail.com. The raindate is Sunday 7/18.  If you would like to help setup the tent, stop by around 7:45 AM!

July 18, Sunday Interview on “March for Liberty”

Time: 7-8:30 PM EST   Listen Live here!  LINK

Call-in at 347-326-9311.  Please join in the conversation with Gary Wood and myself here!  “Constitutionally focused candidate for Congress, Jake Towne is a force in the march for liberty.  He has appeared on Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano, brought reality to the notion an Independent can take on the major parties.”

July 19th, Monday  Fun-Raiser at Pies On Pizzeria in Catty

Time: 6:00 – 9:00 PM

Location: Pies on Pizzeria at Front and Pine Streets, Catasauqua 18032   MAPQUEST

We will relax with some great pizza, drinks, and entertainment alongside the historic Lehigh River!!  A notary will be present to notarize any signatures collected.  To reserve a spot, you can:

1) Donate $25 here per person online and send an email to towneforcongress@gmail.com to RSVP and make sure we reserve your spot.

2) Mail a $25 check using this form made payable to Towne for Congress, PO Box 22542, Lehigh Valley, PA 18002

3) Pay with cash or check on the day of the event, but please RSVP with towneforcongress@gmail.com with your name(s), phone number and address to reserve your spot.

July 30th, Friday  Freedom Concert at Garfield Hotel and Grille

Time: 7:00 – 11:00 PM

Location: Garfield Hotel and Grille, 1750 Main Street, Northampton 18067  (South of the Roxy)   MAPQUEST

You won’t want to miss this event!!   We will be celebrating filing for ballot access!   A bunch of great liberty-minded local bands from several genres including Kinetic Blu and Dave Cahill will be on hand to rock the town as the campaign shifts from ballot access to the offensive.

Families are welcome at this event, and is free and open to the public.  If you have the means, an optional donation of any size ($10 per person is suggested, kids are free) to Towne for Congress is appreciated to help take on the Republocrats!!  Payment can be made below by credit card or by cash or check at the door to “Towne for Congress.”

(and yes, even the Lafayette Leopard wanted to sign the ballot access petition!!)

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read in three spots in Pennsylvania following the Fourth of July. One such spot was Easton’s historic Center Square. 233 years later, a small band of 300 patriots showed up once more. Here is the first speech (and video!) I ever gave a year ago on July 3rd, 2009 at the fountain in Easton’s Center Square, Pennsylvania.

This Fourth of July I will be around the area collecting the signatures to get on the ballot in November.  Feel free to help at any of these events, as freedom sure isn’t free!

On July 15th, 1776, 72 patriots led by Benjamin Franklin issued Pennsylvania’s Constitution. One sentence read: QUOTE That ALL POWER is originally inherent in, and consequently derived from, the PEOPLE; therefore all officers of government are their trustees and SERVANTS, and at ALL TIMES ACCOUNTABLE to them.

Our founders clearly realized that all power stems from the PEOPLE, from US, and all officers of government are NOT masters, but SERVANTS.

Most importantly, the Constitution was written under the principle of “positive grant.” What “positive grant” means is that the government can ONLY exercise the powers which are specifically granted to it and nothing more. The Constitution is not the AUTHORITY over our lives, it is simply the LAW meant to CONSTRAIN the actions of government.

However, over time the federal government has slowly and steadily taken more and more power from the people, from our local and state governments.

Look at the bailouts of the banks, insurance companies, car companies, and investment firms. There is NOTHING – there is NOTHING – in the Constitution that gives Congress or the Federal Reserve the power to do ANY of this.

So what to do? What can be done against this government? What are the BEST actions that people who believe in the rule of law, who believe in freedom, do?

What I favor is a strong shift back to the America that our founding fathers and mothers had in mind. If we can shift these powers back closer to the People, from the federal governments to the State and local governments, the better off we all will be. The more local each issue becomes, the more voice, the more power each individual has, and the happier we will all be.

The 4th of July for the Patriots of ‘76 was only the start of a long march towards freedom and liberty. It is in their spirits that we, from our families FIRST, from our local communities SECOND, and from the State of Pennsylvania THIRD must rise up and defend freedom from a government that disrespects the Rule of Law and the boundaries of its Constitutional powers!

We can start and WIN this revolution of our lifetimes TODAY if only a few good women, a few good men are brave enough to place their bodies and their minds between our families and the Establishment, this government that acts as if the Constitution were just “a piece of paper!”

As for myself, I have decided to run for political office even though I have no prior political experience. I have a very strong message to share and a plan to implement accountability and transparency, to return the ‘money power’ from the government to the people where it belongs, and to fiercely defend individual liberty and the rule of law.

I have decided to run as private citizen, unaffiliated with any political parties. I do not desire to represent either the Democrat or Republican Parties, I desire to represent US, the people of this district whom I am willing to serve.

I believe that the current Republican and Democrat representatives have been leading our country down the path of both MORAL and ECONOMIC ruin.

Our two-headed, one-party political scene is not the sharp divide the politicians and the media want us to believe. The true difference between the Democrat and Republican politicians in power is no greater than the choice between picking Coke or Pepsi at a supermarket.

To me, the real choice today is simple.

We either choose LIBERTY or we choose TYRANNY!

We either choose PROSPERITY for those who earn it or POVERTY for us all!

TODAY we decide between a REPUBLIC of LAWS or MOB RULE by the Gang in Washington!

TODAY we decide if we are Women and Men of PRINCIPLE or if we will let “politics as usual” and the “lesser of two evils” ruin our lives and the lives of our children!

What I would like MORE THAN ANYTHING is to join with a team of candidates who HAVE the spirit of ‘76, who SHARE the same principle and belief in individual liberty as I do, and are focused on saving our great country from those who threaten it, THE TRUE ENEMIES DOMESTIC.

America was conceived in liberty, and I will not let our Republic fall to the cowards who defile her without a bitter fight. These cowards will do whatever they can to remain in power, to control us by debasing our money and throwing away our liberties as if they were garbage. Our Republic was not established by cowards, and cowards have no chance of preserving it!

Their favorite strategy is “Divide-and-Conquer.” They will prey upon our differences in Race, Skin Color, Gender, and religious creeds in attempts to turn us upon ourselves. They will try to set our Citizens Senior against our country’s young people. They will try to set the Rich, the Poor, and the Middle Class at each other’s throats for this is the ONLY way they can stay in power.

We must act together, we must recognize that we are all Americans, we are all on the SAME SIDE. As our founders signed the Declaration of Independence, Ben Franklin said, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

Article Archives

The original 1754 political cartoon by Ben Franklin with the same overall message to fight against the Republocrats.