PRESS RELEASE
March 31, 2003

Concerned Citizen’s Hunger Strike passes 26th Day!

Still No Answers from Government

In Washington D.C , at the Washington Plaza Hotel, the deadline is quickly running out for Congress to answer the questions of Mrs. Rose Lear, before she is permanently harmed when the date of Friday the Fourth of April comes.

On March 5th, 2003, Mrs. Lear, a  52 year-old woman from Muskegon, Michigan, on her own determination began a hunger fast until Death or the government enter into dialogue to completely and accurately answer the questions that thousands of Americans have been seeking a response to since the Summer of 2001.

Mrs. Lear made the determination to give her life for her country, to force dialogue between the government and the people as:

“The Internal Revenue Codes is being misapplied to the majority of Americans who are being victimized, terrorized and abused, leaving those not well-heeled financially without any means to defend their homes or businesses and thus destroying their families.

“For far too long Americans, like my husband William Wallace Lear who is in prison for allegedly violating  the Penalty Statute 26 U.S.C. § 7203, and others like Ruth and Jack Christians and Mr. Jim Courtade, have been forced to endure the brutality of prosecution of defective Grand Jury indictments, which fail to define the actual statute that was alleged to have been violated to have cause to believe a crime was committed.

“For decades the IRS has hidden the Administrative Due Process Rights of the People, despite three acts of Congress reinforcing and defining those rights, and presently has had the U.S. Department of Justice and IRS Appeals Division label assertions of administrative due process rights to be “frivolous.”  Now, the Congress is going to attach $15,000 in penalties against the exercise of those rights when the Secretary of the Treasury arbitrarily defines the Citizens argument as “frivolous” and give the Secretary of the Treasury the sole authority to determine who has Judicial Due Process Rights against the IRS.  This is unconstitutional, unacceptable, and repugnant to the Constitutional, Civil, and Human Rights of the People of the United States of America.

“The Congress has demanded that the IRS do something about shutting up Citizens Rights Groups that are informing the people of and assisting the people in the assertion of their Administrative Due Process Rights, forcing them to remove controversial arguments from their websites, threatening the leaders with indefinite incarceration for contempt of court, all without any specific analysis and rebuttal of the laws discussed and applied by these Citizens as required by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We have reached a critical impasse in what is supposed to be a free nation. The Congress refuses to dialogue with the People in regards to the Internal Revenue Laws and the Rights of the People before the IRS.  The Executive branch refuses to Dialogue with the People who seek remedy through the required and established Administrative Due Process.  The Department of Justice and the Courts refuse to address and acknowledge the specific arguments of the People in violation of the required Standards of Review as established by the U.S. Supreme Court, standards which apply to the Government prior to it placing Gag Orders upon the First Amendment Rights of the People. 

“To secure Peace and eliminate the people’s fear of Government, to secure the First Amendment Rights of the people to confront their government by non-violent means, to secure all that America was to hold as sacred, I will risk and give my life.
  
Mrs. Lear, who was unable to secure responses and actions from her two Senators, Carl Levin (D) and Debbie Stabenow (D), has resolved to understand that these two politicians do not care if their constituents are starving to death, and will not give personal audience to Citizens who resort to hunger strikes in order to force dialogue between the Congress and the People it is supposed to represent.

On Thursday the 20th of March 2003, her Congressman, Pete Hoekstra (R), opened dialogue with Mrs. Lear in a video taped meeting, and on Wednesday, March 26th again met with Mrs. Lear privately where she was able to go into detail regarding the specific issues that have lead her to this desperate and personally dangerous protest.

It was in this meeting that Congressman Hoekstra informed Mrs. Lear that his Staff was working on answering all of the 537 questions of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, which had been served upon his office on April 15th, 2002.  Congressman Hoekstra also pledged to Mrs. Lear that his office would answer the 8 questions that she presented to him that day, which  were specific to her circumstance, pending litigation against Citizens Rights and Political Action Groups and their Leaders, and pending legislation which would attach $15,000 in foreboding penalties against Citizens who press for meaningful due process of law.

 The 8 Questions are as follows:

1.	Why are U.S. Attorneys deceiving Grand Juries to return indictments against U.S. Citizens for violating a penalty statute (26 U.S.C. §7203) instead of revealing the specific law alleged to have been violated?

2.	Why are Federal Trial Judges proceeding to trial on Grand Jury Indictments and U.S. Attorney Informations for Tax Crimes which fail to specify the law alleged to have been violated, instead of throwing the actions out of Court as the government does not know how to bring forth a specific charge of a violation of law?

3.	Why have Federal Trial Judges allowed so many U.S. Citizens to go through the financial and emotional brutality of criminal prosecution for violation of 26 U.S.C. §7203, which only sets forth the Penalty for violation of tax laws?

4.	Why are the IRS, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Office of the Commissioner of the IRS, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Courts refusing to specifically address U.S. Citizens application of the definition of “exempt income” regarding U.S. Sources, in the regulations for 26 U.S.C. §861(b), just as the definition of gross income at §61 allows?

5.	Why are the IRS, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Office of the Commissioner of the IRS, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Courts calling “frivolous” U.S. Citizens application of the definition of “exempt income” in the regulations for 26 U.S.C. §861(b) when there are 5 federal cases which show that this section of law applies to U.S. Citizens?

6.	Why are the IRS, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Office of the Commissioner of the IRS, and the U.S. Department of Justice calling “frivolous” Citizen’s assertions of violation of administrative Due Process rights and published IRS Administrative Procedures?

7.	Why are the IRS, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Office of the Commissioner of the IRS, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Courts using the term “frivolous” to avoid addressing the issues of the People and shutting down Citizens Rights Activists by Federal Injunction when such an act Constitutionally requires specific analysis (Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S. 513 (1958) before any injunction against speech can be issued by a Court?

8.	Why is the Congress threatening to undo the advances in clarification and understanding of Citizens Rights before the IRS, as set forth by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights I and II, and the RRA of 1998, by enacting the CARE Act of 2003, which will:

a.	attach a $5000 penalty for the “frivolous” use of each of three separate steps and remedies within the IRS procedures, which are the only Due Process for the People;
b.	delegating power to the Secretary of the Treasury to Define what is “Frivolous” while he has already shown complete contempt for the requirements of Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S. 513 (1958) in not providing specific analysis of speech before ignoring, penalizing, or seeking injunction of speech; and;

c.	conferring upon the Secretary of the Treasury sole authority to determine who has any subsequent Judicial Due Process? 

Since this meeting Mrs. Lear has spent 2 hours a day on the steps of the Rayburn Congressional Office Building to demonstrate to the Congressman her continued resolve, as subsequent discussions with Mr. John Van Fossen, Chief of Staff for Congressman Hoekstra, have revealed that the individuals providing the answers to the questions will not answer even the 8 questions under an oath against perjury.

Mrs. Lear finds answers without an oath to be unacceptable, as she asserts that communications from the Congress when dialoguing with the People must not be dismissive, ignorant, and specious, but must be on-point, informed, and truthful, or the dialogue is invalid and a sign of Sham Democracy.  Mrs. Lear says, “If dialogue with this Government requires that its Citizens risk their lives like I have, then I demand that there be accountability for the Government’s side of the Dialogue.”
  
It is time for all Citizens, especially those who care about their Due Process Rights before the IRS, their Right to question their government and make arguments of law, and their First Amendment Rights to meaningful redress of grievance by their government, to contact Mrs. Lear’s Congressman and Senators, and to Fax the Questions to their own Congressman and Senators, as well as call to demand that at least the 8 questions be answered under oath.  This needs to happen before this heroic woman is physically damaged by the actions apparently required in order to force dialogue with this open government, and more individuals who have threatened to follow her example are forced to do so.

Mrs. Lear’s Representatives are:

Congressman Pete Hoekstra
2234 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-2202
PH: 202-225-4401
202-226-0779

The Honorable Carl Levin
United States Senate
269 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2202
PH: 202-224-6221
Fax: 202-224-1388

The Honorable Debbie Stabenow
United States Senate
702 Hart Senate Office Building
PH: 202-224-4822
Fax: 202-228-0325