Babblog

It Is Good for One To Be Free by Charles Goyette

2008-07-17T12:43:00.001-05:00

It is good for one to be free, and we would cherish liberty even if she traveled alone, but she does not. Because Prosperity and Peace are both the companions of Liberty.War, the spirit of destruction, is the destroyer of Prosperity and Liberty. Should any wonder, then, that Americans are losing both their freedom and their well-being?

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"Everyday Anarchy"

2008-05-08T14:30:00.004-05:00

Here is a new pocket book from Stefan Molyneux. You can read the PDF or listen to the audiobook version.

A philosophical examination of our ambivalence towards spontaneous order, political compulsion and the liberty of the everyday...

This book is a must read (or listen) for anyone frustrated with the government.

High Quality Audio
Low Quality Audio
PDF

Check out other books, videos and a great podcast here.

Take Your Money Back

2008-04-14T22:37:00.002-05:00

Ruwart interview on Libertarian Alternative

2008-03-26T12:20:00.003-05:00

Dr. Mary Ruwart is seeking the Libertarian Party's nomination for President. Here is a video interview from 2004.

For more information about her campaign visit: www.votemary2008.com.

Killing and Dying in Iraq for Nothing

2008-03-25T11:37:00.003-05:00

by Jacob G. Hornberger

At the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. government has hit another milestone — 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead.

And what have those soldiers died for? They died for the same thing that 58,000 soldiers died for in Vietnam — nothing.

Well, okay, not exactly nothing:

(1) They died to oust a dictator from office that U.S. officials didn’t like, only to be replaced by a radical Islamic regime that has aligned itself with Iran, which U.S. officials are still considering starting a war against.

(2) They died because U.S. officials need to save face through some sort of “victory” (whatever that means) despite the fact that the U.S. government has no legal or moral right to be in Iraq.

(3) They died in the destruction of an entire country, one whose government and citizenry had never attacked the United States and which, in fact, did not want a war with the United States.

(4) They died as part of an imperial adventure that has sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin, led by a dollar whose value, not surprisingly, continues to plunge in international markets.

At least we know the exact number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq. Early on, the Pentagon decided that Iraqis killed in the war simply would not be counted. That’s why there are only estimates of Iraqi dead, estimates that go as high as a million. The idea was that since the goal of helping the Iraqi people was considered a noble one, no one should really care how many of them died in the operation. In the minds of U.S. officials, no price was too high in the number of Iraqi deaths to achieve their goal.

In a fascinating use of language, U.S. military officials are still referring to the Iraqis they kill as “terrorists” rather than as “insurgents.” For example, according to a front-page article in today’s New York Times, “American forces on Sunday reported killing ‘12 terrorists’ who had attacked ground troops east of Baquba.”

But what U.S. officials never explain is why a person who is fighting to rid his country of an illegal foreign occupier (a war of aggression was punished as a war crime at Nuremberg) is a “terrorist.” I thought that a terrorist was a person who attacked civilian targets for political ends. Since U.S. occupation forces in Iraq are military personnel, not civilians, why are those Iraqis who are trying to oust the occupiers considered “terrorists?”

As the occupation of Iraq continues indefinitely, there will of course be more deaths, American and Iraqi. According to yesterday’s Washington Post, at least American widows or widowers receive half-a-million U.S. dollars for the loss of their spouses. While the U.S. government sometimes makes nominal payments to Iraqis, mostly Iraqis survivors are left with nothing but anger, resentment, and grief, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially since no one asked their consent to the U.S. invasion and occupation of their country.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.

digg story

Are Cubans Freer than Americans?

2008-02-27T15:20:00.004-05:00

by Jacob G. Hornberger

The U.S. government’s policy toward Cuba is a textbook example of the malevolence and hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy.

In the wake of Fidel Castro’s resignation as Cuba’s president, U.S. officials, led by President Bush and members of Congress, appear all too ready to have the U.S. government “help” the Cuban people achieve democracy and freedom.

Now, doesn’t that notion suggest a love and concern for the welfare of the Cuban people?

Yet, look at the cruel, inhumane, and brutal economic embargo that the U.S. government has enforced against Cuba for decades. Year after year, U.S. officials have steadfastly enforced the embargo with the full knowledge of the horrific adverse effects it was having on the Cuban people. U.S. officials simply blamed the economic misery on Castro’s socialism, even while Castro blamed it on the embargo. The truth is that the Cuban people have been squeezed by both sides of the vise — Castro’s socialism and the U.S. embargo.

In calling for a change in direction in Cuba, U.S. officials suggest that Castro’s communist, totalitarian regime is a miserable place in which to live. That’s certainly true. But then what do U.S. officials do to people who escape Cuba? They attack them on the high seas with such weapons as water cannons, then they kidnap them, then they cooperate with Cuban communist coast guard officials, and then they repatriate the defenseless refugees back into the communist society that U.S. officials say is a miserable place in which to live.

Meanwhile, both Republicans and Democrats continue to tell us that sacrificing 60,000 American men in the Vietnam War was worth it to try to prevent the South Vietnamese from having to live under communist tyranny. Now, they say that it’s worth it to use U.S. force to repatriate people into communist tyranny in Cuba.

Oh, did I mention that there is no U.S. embargo against Vietnam today and that Americans are free to travel to Vietnam and trade with the Vietnamese communists?

U.S. officials, both Republican and Democrat, usually limit their criticisms to Castro’s political system rather than his socialist economic and educational systems.

Why is that?

The answer is simple: Castro’s economic and educational systems are no different, in principle, than those embraced by Republicans and Democrats. That makes them very uncomfortable because they’ve always felt that while Castro is a Cuban socialist, Republicans and Democrats have always been “American free-enterprisers.”

Consider the core element of Castro’s economic system: free, universal health care. Sound familiar? Isn’t that what Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama want? And the Republicans aren’t much better. Don’t they continue to be proud supporters of Medicare and Medicaid and don’t they have their own plans for more federal intervention into health care?

Consider the core element of Castro’s educational system: free public schooling for Cuban children. Can you show me even one U.S. official, either Republican or Democrat, who opposes free public schooling for American children?

Consider the secondary elements of Castro’s economic system: licensing for businesses, income taxation, equalization of wealth, drug laws, economic regulations, old-age retirement assistance, subsidies, a central bank, and government-issued paper money.

How many U.S. officials, either Republican or Democrat, oppose any of those programs here in the United States?

Consider these features of Castro’s legal system: kangaroo military tribunals, condemnation of independent criminal-defense attorneys, denigration of an independent judiciary, torture, denial of due process, arbitrary arrests, no restrictions on search and seizure, and indefinite incarceration. Why, those principles are a dream-come-true for U.S. officials, especially the Republican ones. Why would it surprise anyone that they established their torture camp in Cuba rather than the United States?

Americans view the embargo against Cuba only as an attack on the well-being of the Cuban people, but it is much more than that. It is also an attack on the freedom of the American people. If an American travels to Cuba and spends money there without the permission of U.S. officials, he will be criminally and civilly prosecuted by his own government. Doesn’t freedom entail the fundamental right to travel wherever you want and spend your money in any way you want?

While Cubans understand that the economic and educational systems under which they live are socialism, Americans honestly believe that their economic and educational systems, albeit the same, are “free enterprise.”

Given Goethe’s pithy observation, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believed they are free,” one cannot help but wonder whether the Cuban people, despite their misery and suffering, are actually freer than Americans.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.

Ron Paul Music Video by Aimee Allen

2008-02-24T22:19:00.001-05:00

McCain: The downfall of the GOP

2008-02-11T12:17:00.000-05:00

Electing Our Dictator

2008-02-02T05:17:00.001-05:00

The debate between Obama and Clinton over Iraq, along with the positions on Iraq taken by the Republican presidential candidates (except for Ron Paul) reflect what the presidential race is all about. It might not be politic to say so but the fact is that what Americans will be electing in November is not just a president but also a dictator

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Ron Paul Quotes

2008-02-01T10:46:00.001-05:00

Ron Paul Quotes from RonPaulBlogs.com

“We can achieve much more in peace than we can ever achieve in these needless, unconstitutional, undeclared wars.”

“Don’t we know if we sacrifice security for liberty we lose both, that’s what is happening in this country today!”

“If you look at every problem we’re facing today its because for the lack of rule of law and the constitution.”

“We live way beyond our means, with a foreign policy we can’t afford and an entitlement system that we have encouraged.”

“With politicians like these, who needs terrorists?”

“NO! I’m saying that we should take our marching orders from our Constitution!”

“…[the neo-cons] said we’d be in-and-out in 3 months, it’d be ducksoup, and it wouldn’t cost a thing because the oil would pay for it.”

“When we make a mistake, it is up to the people through their representatives to correct the mistake, not continue the mistake.”

“We stood up to the Soviets when they had 40,000 nuclear weapons, and now we’re fretting about third-world countries with no Army, Navy, or Air Force, and we’re getting ready to go to war.”

“They don’t attack us because we are rich or free but becuase we have been over there.”

“I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.”

“When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.”

“The freedom message unites us all, it does not divide us.”

“I am an imperfect messenger, but the message is perfect.”

“There’s a risk I could win.”

“Terrorism is a tactic. You can’t have a war on a tactic”

“Freedom Is Popular!”

“Aggressive wars, income taxes, national IDs, domestic spying, torture regimes, secret prisons, Federal Reserve manipulation — we don’t have to take it any more.” — Ron Paul, Sept 27, 2007

Q and A
“I would start with the departments. . . the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security. . .”

On if he would abolish the IRS:
“Immediately!”

On the war on drugs:
“You wanna get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let’s just get rid of all the drug laws.”

On foreign policy:
“If we think we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred then we have a problem. . .”

On Romney consulting lawyers for war:
“This idea of consulting lawyers absolutely baffles me– Why don’t we open the constitution and read it! You’re not allowed to go to war without a declaration!”

On the Iraq war:
“The only weapon of mass destruction in Iraq is the US military.”

On the Iraq war:
“We just marched in, we can just march out.”

So which one is your favorite? Do you have any more that you like?

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The War on Immigrants Is a War on Freedom

2008-01-29T10:51:00.001-05:00

If a businessman wishes to associate with a foreigner, either personally or in a business relationship, why shouldn’t he be free to do so? Under what moral authority does the government interfere with a person’s freedom to associate with another person?

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The real deal.

2008-01-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

A presidential candidate actually answering real questions from real people. What a contrast to the Fox and CNN gameshow BS.

A List of Fox's sponsors HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS!

2007-12-29T01:33:00.000-05:00

From dailypaul.com:

Please add other sponsors or additional contact info in the comments.

• Crest Whitestrips & Dawn (both Proctor & Gamble) 513-983-1100
• Delphi (Driving Products) 1.888.809.9800
• Mercedes Benz 1-800-367-6372
• Comcast 1-800-COMCAST
• Subaru 1-800-782-2783
• GMC Suv's 1-800-551-4123
• Best Buy 1-888-237-8289
• Travelocity 1 888.872.8356
• Capzasin 1 (423) 822-5020
• New Phase
• Orbitz 1-888-656-4546
• Ditech.com 1-800-DITECH-3
• eloan.com (415) 786-3317
• Toyota 1 800-331-4331
• Centrum (Wyeth) 1-800-322-3129
• Nextel (aka Sprint)1-800-639-6111
• Vehix.com 1.866.698.3449
• Gold Bond (Chattum) 423-821-4571
• Aspercreme " "
• webmd.com via email or webmd.com via other (212) 624-3700
• American Express 1-877-877-0987, 1-800-525-3355
• Holiday Inn Express 1 800-315-2621
• M Professional unk
• priceline.com 1-800-774-2354
• L. L. Bean 1-800-441-7513
• Jet Dry (Dishwasher Products) 1-800-820-8939
Chemistry (Matchmaking Web Site)
Bankrate.com (Mortgages)
Cars Direct.com

The Official Media Guide to Attacking Ron Paul

2007-12-21T18:58:00.001-05:00

Liberty Maven has uncovered a letter from the office of the “Main Stream Media Czar”. Unfortunately, the letter was not signed by name, only title. We didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “Main Stream Media Czar” prior to discovering this letter. My only reaction to this letter was, “it all makes so much sense now.” Here is the letter itself, transcribed word for word.

We in the main stream media all know that Ron Paul cannot win the presidency because of his extremist views. Given this fact, it is important we don’t allow him the same media coverage as our preferred candidates. It is true that we must give him some coverage, but it is also true that we must adhere to the “Mass Media Ron Paul Rule” when giving him coverage during this campaign season. Generally, the “Mass Media Ron Paul Rule” can be summed up in two words:

Marginalize him.

Here are some wonderful tactics to utilize when applying the “Mass Media Ron Paul Rule:

Continually label him as a long shot candidate. This is the most important of all the tactics so we list it first. Sure, it is true that Ron Paul has won or placed high in many straw polls across the country but we must never mention it. Instead, in every article or television news story copy we should use one or more of the terms “dark horse”, “long shot”, “barely registering in the polls”, “quixotic”, or “gadfly”. If we can do this consistently, our job is complete.

Attack his supporters. Ron Paul has a stellar personal record with his marriage of over 50 years, 5 children, and 18 grandchildren. His political record is also exemplary with him never voting to raise taxes and always voting in accordance with the Constitution. Because of this, attacking him on his record is a daunting task. The best method to marginalize him is to attack his supporters. This can be accomplished by calling his supporters names like “kooky”, “crazy”, “conspiracy nutjobs”, “paultards”, and the like. This is classic “guilt by association” and works well on the apathetic electorate.

Call him “Libertarian” as much as possible. Continually giving him the libertarian label is a great covert method of Ron Paul marginalization. This reinforces that he’s not really a Republican even though he has held office as a Republican for 10 terms. We find that if you are in radio or television you may even say the word “libertarian” using a negative tone during questions. This perpetuates the extremism inherent in Ron Paul’s policies even though the word libertarian simply means: one who believes in liberty.

Continually ask him if he’s planning on running as a third party candidate. This tactic should be used often. It accomplishes two things. First, it suggests that he is not a serious candidate for the Republican party. Second, it will get him on record as saying he won’t run for a third party. If he should happen to run third party at a later date he can be attacked for changing his position.

Ask him if he would support the GOP nominee if he doesn’t win. Ron Paul is against the Iraq war and wishes to bring the troops home from overseas in order to help stem the tide of government overspending. This makes him different than all of the other Republican candidates who support keeping our troops overseas indefinitely. As media we must make all attempts to not only marginalize his candidacy, but also marginalize his steadfast message of linking the cost of the war on terror to our economic woes here at home.

Focus on his campaign strategy rather than his message. Ron Paul’s message of freedom, prosperity, and peace should be overshadowed by talk of his successful grassroots campaign. The more we focus on how he raises money and the types of supporters he has, the less time he has to talk about his message that is sure to resonate with most Americans. We must make all attempts to block or cloud that message. If it were to get out, it could spell doom for our chosen candidates.

Attack him for not returning donations from fringe supporters. White supremacists and prostitutes have donated money to Ron Paul and that is bad. We can use our political correctness and superior morality as a weapon and ask him why does he not return that donation money. After all a white supremacist would do more good with having an extra $500 in his pocket than a doctor who has delivered over 4000 babies while preaching peace and equal rights for everyone.

Abolishing the IRS is crazy. Attacking his stance on abolishing the IRS and replacing it with nothing is also effective. After all most Americans don’t know that we could do without the income tax if we just went back to the same level of government spending that we had in the 1990’s. A great method is to reply to his answer with an incredulous “replace it with NOTHING? How can the government function?” comment. This tactic will scare people into believing in how the government always has our best interests at heart. It will help people ignore the fact that Ron Paul also wants to cut government spending drastically in order to balance the budget.

Label him an isolationist for his foreign policy views. Since he wants to bring our troops home from not just Iraq, but all of the 130 other occupied countries he should be deemed an isolationist. It doesn’t matter that Ron Paul wants free trade and travel with other countries and thus is not truly an isolationist. The people will believe what we tell them to believe.

This directive gives us several tactics to be used in the fight against Ron Paul’s candidacy for president. We should use them all and use them often. After all Ron Paul’s message of freedom, prosperity, and peace is antiquated and has no place in our authoritarian world.

Sincerely,

The Main Stream Media Czar

Bill of Rights Under Bush: A Timeline

2007-12-19T20:46:00.000-05:00

Just so we remember how we got where we are:

2001

January

Presidential directive delays indefinitely the scheduled release of presidential documents (authorized by the Presidential Records Act of 1978) pertaining to the Reagan-Bush administration. Link

Bush and Cheney begin process of radically broadening scope of documents and information which can be deemed classified. Link

February

The National Security Agency (NSA) sets up Project Groundbreaker, a domestic call monitoring program infrastructure. Link

Spring

Bush administration order authorizes NSA monitoring of domestic phone and internet traffic. Link

May

US Supreme Court rules that medical necessity is not a permissible defense against federal marijuana statutes. Link

September

In immediate aftermath of 9-11 terror attacks, Department of Justice authorizes detention without charge for any terror suspects. Over one thousand suspects are brought into detention over the next several months. Link (pdf)

October

Attorney General John Ashcroft announces change in Department of Justice (DOJ) policy. According to the new policy DOJ will impose far more stringent criteria for the granting of Freedom of Information Act requests. Link

September-October

NSA launches massive new database of information on US phone calls. Link

October

The USA Patriot Act becomes law. Among other things the law: makes it a crime for anyone to contribute money or material support for any group on the State Department’s Terror Watch List, allows the FBI to monitor and tape conversations between attorneys and clients, allows the FBI to order librarians to turn over information about patron’s reading habits, allows the government to conduct surveillance on internet and email use of US citizens without notice. The act also calls for expanded use of National Security Letters (NSLs), which allow the FBI to search telephone, email and financial records of US citizens without a court order, exempts the government from needing to reveal how evidence against suspected terrorists was obtained and authorizes indefinite detention of immigrants at the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities.

NJ Superior court judge and civil liberties scholar Anthony Napolitano, author of A Nation of Sheep, has described the law’s assault on first and fourth amendment principles as follows, “The Patriot Act’s two most principle constitutional errors are an assault on the Fourth Amendment, and on the First. It permits federal agents to write their own search warrants [under the name “national security letters”] with no judge having examined evidence and agreed that it’s likely that the person or thing the government wants to search will reveal evidence of a crime… Not only that, but the Patriot Act makes it a felony for the recipient of a self-written search warrant to reveal it to anyone. The Patriot Act allows [agents] to serve self-written search warrants on financial institutions, and the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2004 in Orwellian language defines that to include in addition to banks, also delis, bodegas, restaurants, hotels, doctors' offices, lawyers’ offices, telecoms, HMOs, hospitals, casinos, jewelry dealers, automobile dealers, boat dealers, and that great financial institution to which we all would repose our fortunes, the post office. Link 1 | Link 2

November

Executive order limits release of presidential documents. The order gives incumbent presidents the right to veto requests to open any past presidential records and supercedes the congressionally passed law of 1978 mandating release of all presidential records not explicitly deemed classified. Link

2002

Winter

FBI and Department of Defense (DOD), forbidden by law from compiling databases on US citizens, begin contracting with private database firm ChoicePoint to collect, store, search and maintain data. Link

Spring

Secret executive order issued authorizing NSA to wiretap the phones and read emails of US citizens. Link

Spring

Transportation Security Adminstration (TSA) acknowledges it has created both a “No Fly” and a separate “Watch” list of US travelers. Link

May

Department of Justice authorizes the FBI to monitor political and religious groups. The new rules permit the FBI to broadly search or monitor the internet for evidence of criminal activity without having any tips or leads that a specific criminal act has been committed. Link

June

Supreme Court upholds the right of school administrators to conduct mandatory drug testing of students without probable cause. Link

November

Homeland Security Act of 2002 establishes separate Department of Homeland Security. Among other things the department will federally coordinate for the first time all local and state law enforcement nationwide and run a Directorate of Information and Analysis with authority to compile comprehensive data on US citizens using public and commercial records including credit card, phone, bank, and travel. The department also will be exempt form Freedom of Information Act disclosure requirements. The Homeland Security department’s jurisdiction has been widely criticized for being nebulously defined and has extended beyond terrorism into areas including immigration, pornography and drug enforcement. Link 1 | Link 2

2003

February

Draft of Domestic Security Enhancement Act (aka Patriot Act 2), a secret document prepared by the Department of Justice is leaked by the Center for Public Integrity. Provisions of the February 7th draft version included:

Removal of court-ordered prohibitions against police agencies spying on domestic groups.

The FBI would be granted powers to conduct searches and surveillance based on intelligence gathered in foreign countries without first obtaining a court order.

Creation of a DNA database of suspected terrorists.

Prohibition of any public disclosure of the names of alleged terrorists including those who have been arrested.

Exemptions from civil liability for people and businesses who voluntarily turn private information over to the government.

Criminalization of the use of encryption to conceal incriminating communications.

Automatic denial of bail for persons accused of terrorism-related crimes, reversing the ordinary common law burden of proof principle. All alleged terrorists would be required to demonstrate why they should be released on bail rather than the government being required to demonstrate why they should be held.

Expansion of the list of crimes eligible for the death penalty.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency would be prevented from releasing "worst case scenario" information to the public about chemical plants.

United States citizens whom the government finds to be either members of, or providing material support to, terrorist groups could have their US citizenship revoked and be deported to foreign countries.

Although the bill itself has never (yet) been advanced in congress due to public exposure, some of its provisions have become law as parts of other bills. For example The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge. Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just cause. Link 1 | Link 2

March

Executive order issued which radically tightens the declassification process of classified government documents, as well as making it far easier for government agencies to make and keep information classified. The order delayed by three years the release of declassified government documents dating from 1978 or earlier. It also allowed the government to treat all material sent to American officials from foreign governments -- no matter how routine -- as subject to classification, and expanded the ability of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to shield documents from declassification. Finally it gave the vice president the power to classify information. Link 1 | Link 2

March

In a ruling seen as a victory for the concentration of ownership of intellectual property and an erosion of the public domain, the Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft held that a 20-year extension of the copyright period (from 50 years after the death of the author to 70 years) called for by the Sonny Bono copyright Extension not violate either the Copyright Clause or the First Amendment. Link

April

In Demore v. Kim, the Supreme Court ruled that even permanent residents could be subject to mandatory detention when facing deportation based on a prior criminal conviction, without any right to an individualized hearing to determine whether they were dangerous or a flight risk. Link

Fall

The FBI changes its traditional policy of destroying all data and documents collected on innocent citizens in the course of criminal investigations. This information would, according to the bureau, now be permanently stored. Two years later in late 2005 Executive Order 13388, expanded access to those files for "state, local and tribal" governments and for "appropriate private sector entities," which are not defined. Link 1 | Link 2

Fall

As authorized by the Patriot Act, the FBI expands the practice of national security letters. NSLs, originally introduced in the 1970s for espionage and terrorism investigations, enabled the FBI to review in secret the customer records of suspected foreign agents. This was extended by the Patriot Act to include permitting clandestine scrutiny of all U.S. residents and visitors whether suspected of terrorism or not. Link

2004

January

The FBI begins keeping a database of US citizens based on information obtained via NSLs. Link

Spring

John Ashcroft invokes State Secrets privilege to forbid former FBI translator Sibel Edmunds from testifying in a case brought by families of victims of the 9-11 attacks. Litigation by 9-11 families is subsequently halted. Link 1 | Link 2

June

Supreme Court upholds Nevada state law allowing police to arrest suspects who refuse to provide identification based on police discretion of “reasonable suspicion.” Link

2005

January

Supreme court rules that police do not need to have probable cause to have drug sniffing dogs examine cars stopped for routine traffic violations. Link 1 | Link 2

June

Supreme Court rules that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana users even in states which have laws permitting medical marijuana. Link

Summer

The Patriot Act, due to expire at the end of 2005, is reauthorized by Congress. Link

Winter 2005

Senate blocks reauthorization of certain clauses in Patriot Act. Link

2006

March

Senate passes amended version of Patriot Act, reauthorization, with three basic changes from the original including: recipients of secret court orders to turn over sensitive information on individuals linked to terrorism investigations are not allowed to disclose those orders but can challenge the gag order after a year, libraries would not be required to turn over information without the approval of a judge, recipients of an FBI "national security letter" -- an investigator's demand for access to personal or business information -- would not have to tell the FBI if they consult a lawyer. New bill also said to extend Congressional oversight over executive department usage guidelines. Shortly after bill is signed George Bush declares oversight rules are not binding. Link 1 | Link 2

June

Supreme court rules that evidence obtained in violation of the “knock and announce” rules can still be permitted in court. Link

September

US Congress and Senate approve the Military Commissions Act, which authorizes torture and strips non- US citizen detainees suspected of terrorist ties of the right of habeas corpus (which includes formal charges, counsel and hearings). It also empowers US presidents at their discretion to declare US citizens as enemy combatants and subject to detention without charge or due process. Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

October

John Warner Defense Authorization Act is passed. The act allows a president to declare a public emergency and station US military troops anywhere in America as well as take control of state based national guard units without consent of the governor or other local authorities. The law authorizes presidential deployment of US troops to round-up and detain “potential terrorists”, “illegal aliens” and “disorderly” citizenry. Link 1 | Link 2

2007

May

National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51) establishes a new post-disaster plan (with disaster defined as any incident, natural or man-made, resulting in extraordinary mass casualties, damage or disruption) which places the president in charge of all three branches of government. The directive overrides the National Emergencies Act which gives Congress power to determine the duration of a national emergency. Link 1 | Link 2

June

In “Bong Hits for Jesus” case Supreme court rules that student free speech rights do not extend to promotion of drug use. Link

July

Executive Order 13438: "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq, issued. The order asserts the government’s power to confiscate the property “of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

October

The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act passes the House of Representatives 400 to 6 (to be voted on in the Senate in 2008). The act proposes the establishment of a commission composed of members of the House and Senate, Homeland Security and others, to "examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States” and specifically the role of the internet in fostering and disseminating extremism. According to the bill the term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change, while the term 'ideologically-based violence' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs.” Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

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Joe Scarborough interviews Ron Paul 12/18

2007-12-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

Thank you Joe Scarborough for showing proper respect to the doctor. You are a refreshing change from the MSM robots.

Top 10 Reasons to Overthrow Your Government

2007-12-16T20:11:00.001-05:00

From openjesus.org:
The Top 10 Reasons to Overthrow Your Government

10. The “Two Party System” is not democratic. Democrats and Republicans work hard together to keep additional parties from gaining momentum, even to the point of staging presidential debates themselves to lock other candidates out (ask anyone from the League of Women Voters, they’ll explain it). Any party which operates over a long period of time becomes irreparably corrupt, as do the individuals who come from those parties.

9. The War on Drugs is unjust. First and foremost, the full text of the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” If the Constitution doesn’t call for something as a specific function of the federal government then it can’t get involved. Anyone locked up on a federal drug charge is well aware of their actual status as political prisoner. Besides being an absolute violation of the Constitution itself, the War on Drugs is largely unjust because it is the primary tool by which people are commoditized for use in the prison system, which brings me to my next point.

8. Your prison system is random and for-profit. Based on the existing laws, more than half of all Americans are already criminals. Obscure, rarely-enforced, and sometimes unjust laws are used to maintain a massive prison population for the sole purpose of generating continuous profit for the bloated justice system and corporations which supply and maintain penitentiaries. Your government has put capitalism above human rights by regulating crime as a lottery system where you are the ticket and prison is the prize.

7. The illusion of safety. The Constitution outlines only a few legitimate functions of the federal government, one of which is to “provide for the common defense.” Instead of providing this Constitutionally-mandated function, however, your federal government makes you take your shoes off and steals your deodorant before you can board an airplane.

6. The government is intentionally keeping you stupid. Not that it matters anymore, but the federal government does not have the Constitutional power to mandate or involve itself in any way with education. Why is it that children are not provided the most basic education, that the United States continues to fall behind in science, and that very few of you even recognize the flagrant criminality in your own “elected” officials? An uneducated population is a docile population, at least on the political front. Eighty percent of you probably couldn’t tell me what a federalist is, but that’s not your fault.

5. The Internet. The most functional tool for the spread of Democracy in the history of mankind (perhaps excepting the Maxim gun) is under assault by communications companies attempting to remove its core neutrality, and your government is barely resisting. In fact, some might go so far as to suggest that your government is actually complying in this effort. Given the government’s track record with education, insurance, and finances, I’d say the Internet in its current state has about six months to live. As a side note, China also imposes federal controls in the Internet.

4. Your government spies on you. If you told General George Washington that the federal government of the United States of America was tapping phones, snatching emails, and laying down more complex infrastructure to collect the daily lives of Americans he would join Al-Qaeda. The 4th Amendment makes it extremely clear that personal privacy is not to be violated by any level of government. There is no excuse for this type of behavior.

3. You could get arrested for even reading this. Voiced dissent has always been critical to the democratic process, but ruminations unsupportive of the political status quo will always be something of a target to those wield the dual blades of power and corruption. To quote Thomas Jefferson, “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.” To quote George Bush, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” I am deservedly a little scared, as you also should be.

2 . Your politicians are criminals. One of the early tenets of the United States of America was “no taxation without representation.” Politicians accept huge wads of cash from corporations and interest groups to pass laws which benefit only the top few men (and a couple of women) in industry. Sometimes they store this cash in their freezer. Sometimes they have the corporations make a “donation” to their private charities. Even when you, The People, reach a frenzied consensus your demands are ignored, but only because you didn’t bring a suitcase full of Benjamins.

1. Because you’re supposed to. The United States was born of rebellion and maintains that its citizens cannot be disarmed. You are a nation of checks and balances, one of which contains the dual assertion that The People are armed and that poppycockery should not be tolerated. The founding fathers wanted you to use your voices to keep your government from becoming corrupt and unconstitutional, but left you a loophole in case they managed to seize power regardless. Loophole, meet the present; The present, allow me to introduce the 2nd Amendment.

*Note to the FBI: The preceding column was written purely as satire, and is not in any way suggesting that I am “with the terrorists.” I love the USA! Go USA! USA! USA! USA!
.

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Immigration Controls and the Police State

2007-12-14T20:24:00.001-05:00

One of the things that fascinate me about the immigration debate is those people who say that they favor closed borders but simultaneously oppose the police-state programs that are necessary to enforce such a policy.

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Ron Paul on Mad Money

2007-12-14T19:55:00.000-05:00

Finally, somebody in the media is smart enough to question the Federal Reserve.

Meet-Up Groups: Giuliani v Clinton v Huckabee v Obama v Paul

2007-12-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

The Soviet-Style Attack on NORFED

2007-12-08T17:36:00.000-05:00

by Jacob G. Hornberger, November 21, 2007

It would be difficult to find a better example of federal heavy-handedness than the recent six-hour federal raid on NORFED, the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code. In fact, it would be virtually impossible to distinguish the NORFED raid from similar raids conducted by Soviet and Chinese communist officials against private businesses operating in those countries.

After all, by confiscating all the assets of the company, including its coins, computers, records, and equipment, the feds have totally shut down the NORFED operation. But where is the court order authorizing them to shut down this privately owned business? The answer: There is no such court order. All federal agents had was a search warrant issued by a federal magistrate.

Here’s what the feds did that enabled them to engage in their Soviet-style attack on NORFED. Unlike the system that existed in the Soviet Union and that still exists in Communist China, the U.S. government is precluded by law from simply closing down businesses it doesn’t like or that it is feels are violating the law. If the government wishes to have a business shut down, the law provides a remedy called an injunction, which is a formal order issued by a judge that requires a person or business to cease and desist from engaging in a certain operation.

In order to secure a federal injunction, the petitioner files an application for the injunction with a federal district judge. The judge sets a date for the hearing on the application and gives notice to the respondent of the application and the hearing. What is significant about the hearing on the temporary injunction is that the respondent has the right to be present to defend his side of things. He can have his lawyer present, cross-examine witnesses, present witnesses, introduce evidence, file motions and briefs, and make legal arguments to the judge.

At the conclusion of the temporary-injunction hearing, the judge can either grant or deny the request for a temporary injunction. If he grants it, he sets a bond as a prerequisite to the issuance of the injunction, in order to protect the respondent from damages suffered if it later turns out that the injunction was wrongfully issued. The respondent has the right to appeal the grant of the injunction to the federal court of appeals, which ordinarily grants priority to such cases because of their importance and urgency. Unless the court of appeals vacates the temporary injunction, it remains in effect until a trial on the merits is later held, which may be a trial by jury. At that time, it is determined whether to make the temporary injunction permanent.

What makes the injunction process fair and just is that it permits both sides to be heard. It also protects the respondent by requiring the petitioner to file a bond in an amount intended to compensate him for damages suffered during the pendency of the injunction, including claims filed by irate customers. (Among the assets the feds seized were coins that had been purchased and paid for by NORFED’s customers.)

So, did the FBI and Justice Department employ the injunction process to close down the NORFED operation? Did they ask a judge for a temporary injunction to shut down the operation? Did a federal judge enter an order enjoining NORFED from continuing to operate its business?

The answer is “No” to all of those questions. Instead, what the feds did was engage in a sneaky, back-handed, perhaps even fraudulent, trick of using a search warrant to accomplish the same thing that an injunction accomplishes, but without the procedural due-process protections provided by the injunction process.

A search warrant and an injunction involve two completely different procedures, and each serves a distinct function. For one thing, a search warrant is used in criminal cases while injunctions are used in civil proceedings. The search warrant is used when law-enforcement officers suspect that there is evidence of criminal activity inside a particular location. An officer will appear before a federal magistrate, which is a position lower than a federal district judge, and ask for permission to search the particular locale. In support of the application for a search warrant, the officer must file an affidavit (i.e., a statement under oath) describing with specificity the evidence, the suspected crime, and why he believes the evidence is located in that place.

For example, suppose the cops receive information that a gun used in a murder is located inside a person’s home. They are not permitted to simply drive up to the home, enter it, and begin searching. Instead, they must apply for a warrant. If the warrant is issued, they go to the home, enter it, and search for the weapon. If they find it, they can seize it as evidence.

That’s the purpose of a search warrant — to seek evidence in a criminal case, not to shut down a person’s privately run business. After all, it’s not as if selling coins is akin to selling drugs — just ask the Franklin Mint or any coin dealer.

When the FBI went to the magistrate in the NORFED case, its affidavit alleged that NORFED was engaged in illegal activity, primarily violating the government’s monopoly over the issuance of money.

One problem, however, is that NORFED denies that it has broken the law in any respect. It contends that the issuance of its coins is not illegal, a position that is at least inferentially substantiated by the fact that the feds have taken no action to seek injunctive relief for the several years that NORFED has been in business, not even in the context of a federal lawsuit that NORFED has filed seeking a declaration that its activities are legal, a suit that is still pending in federal district court. Indeed, while the feds have known of NORFED’s operation for years and have even had agents secretly infiltrate the organization, they have never secured a criminal indictment against the operation.

Moreover, even if the government is correct in its allegation that NORFED is violating the government’s money monopoly, as an American business NORFED nonetheless has the right to argue and show that the government’s money monopoly is unconstitutional. While NORFED would have had the opportunity of presenting its constitutional arguments in a temporary injunction hearing, the government’s Soviet-style search-warrant ruse prevented NORFED from doing so prior to its business being shut down and its assets confiscated and carted away.

Did the FBI and the Justice Department have sufficient time and opportunity to seek injunctive relief instead of using the sneaky search-warrant procedure that enabled them to mount their Soviet-like raid? Absolutely. For one thing, federal judges are a dime a dozen in Washington, D.C. The feds could have sought an injunction from any of them, including the federal judge who is presiding in the pending litigation between NORFED and the feds. That of course would have permitted NORFED to be heard and to present its case before a federal district judge, something that the FBI and the Justice Department obviously feared or abhorred. At such a hearing the government would have had the burden of proving that NORFED had truly been violating some federal law with its coin business. NORFED, for its part would have had the opportunity of showing the contrary or of showing that such a law is unconstitutional. But who needs some stinking injunction before a federal judge, where the victim has notice and the opportunity to be heard, when one can simply use the sneaky device of a criminal search warrant to shut down someone’s private business, Soviet-style?

Consider a comparable example. Suppose someone opens a postal delivery business to compete against the U.S. Postal Service in the delivery of first-class mail. Can the FBI legally send its gendarmes out and conduct a Soviet-style raid on the business, as it has done with NORFED? No. Instead, the government must go to federal court and secure an injunction requiring the privately owned business to cease and desist its competitive ways. In fact, that is exactly what happens whenever someone has the audacity to compete against the U.S. Postal Service in the delivery of first-class mail.

But here we have the feds using Soviet-style tactics to raid and shut down a privately owned business without providing the victim advance notice or opportunity to be heard. Even worse, in order to deceptively preserve the appearance of legal process to cover up its Soviet-like behavior, government officials abuse the criminal process, perhaps even with the fraudulent failure to disclose their real intentions to the federal magistrate who issued the search warrant.

In a civilized country based on the rule of law, people cannot have their lives, liberty, and property taken away from them without notice, hearing, opportunity to be heard, and other fundamental aspects of procedural due process. Unfortunately, in the post-9/11 world in which we now live, anything goes as far as federal power is concerned. The heavy-handed, perhaps even fraudulent, Soviet-style attack on NORFED is proof-positive of that.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.

Ron Paul will soon take to the sky

2007-12-08T16:55:00.001-05:00

Enough with research on the Internet, or watching the political debates on television or listening to sound bites on the radio. In just a few days, Ron Paul supporters will give the eastern half of the United States a new way to campaign: from a blimp.

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Bush and His Scary (Nonexistent) WMDs in Iran

2007-12-05T22:21:00.001-05:00

The CIA and 15 other U.S. spy agencies (yes, 16 in all!) have issued a National Intelligence Estimate reporting that Iran halted its nuclear-weapon program in 2003, contradicting what Bush and Vice President Cheney have been suggesting for the past 4 years.

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Should socialist education be saved or scrapped?

2007-12-05T22:20:00.001-05:00

I challenge anyone: Show me a better model of socialism than public schooling and use any country you want, including China, North Korea, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. You’ll have a hard time meeting the challenge. Now, ask yourself: Is it possible that socialism can be made to succeed?

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Cop Mistakes Gun For Taser; Kills man, No Charges Filed

2007-12-05T17:18:00.001-05:00

The officer got the order to "electrocute" but thought she heard "execute" so she blasted a handcuffed man in custody, instead of just tasering him. No charges were filed for this "honest mistake."

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The Ron Paul Revolution Movie!

2007-12-03T12:25:00.000-05:00

The Ron Paul Revolution is an hour-long introduction to Congressman Ron Paul and his freedom message. Beginning with the amazing grassroots support his candidacy has spontaneously ignited, the video covers his positions on foreign policy, health care, immigration, monetary policy, income taxes, entitlements, civil liberties and more.

The movie is interspersed with clips of Dr. Paul through a twenty-year career in the House of Representatives. Current clips from the 2008 Presidential campaign are virtually interchangeable with past clips, his consistent positions and unwavering defense of the Constitution clearly on display. Ron Paul is not beholden to lobbyists or special interests, he simply does not participate in politics-as-usual.

Des Moines Register openly displays anti- Ron Paul bias.

2007-12-02T19:59:00.001-05:00

If you thought the New York Times and Washington Post were bad: Despite the doctor's success in Iowa, he will be excluded from 8 editorials comparing candidates on important issues. It's not hard to figure out why this paper's circulation has dropped to below 150K. Is this a local bias or did the order come down from their Gannett masters?

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Get High for Ron Paul

2007-11-30T17:01:00.000-05:00

That's right, It's the Ron Paul Revolution Blimp!

Do I get to fly in the blimp if I donate?

Anyone who donates $25 or more will be entered into a raffle of twenty tickets to ride the blimp. Each ticket will include a 1 day flight on the blimp. You must provide your own transportation to the blimp wherever it may be located. An individual who donates the maximum amount of $5,000 will receive 3 days of flying on the Ron Paul Blimp. There is a total of 12 seats and 100 flying hours so that equals 1,200 flying hours or 200 individual days.

• $25 or more donation enters you into a raffle drawing for 1 of 20 tickets. (6 flying hours or 1 day)*

• $5,000 donation gets you 3 flying days (18 hours) guaranteed + you are entered into the drawing.for additional tickets.

• If there are more flying days left and not many 5k pledgers we will just have more 1 day tickets in the drawing because we know how hard some of you work to promote Ron Paul and maybe just do not have the funds but would really like the opportunity to ride the Ron Paul Blimp. Having these extra drawings will increase your chance of you winning a ticket!

* The raffle will be webcast live. It will show every single name actually being written on paper and then picked from a hat without cutting the camera to ensure there is no fraud (setting an example for our upcoming elections).

Ron Paul Ad competition - Something Big

2007-11-29T13:33:00.000-05:00

Remembering Aaron Russo

2007-11-29T12:23:00.000-05:00

Gary Franchi, National Director for Restore the Republic requested some pictures of Aaron Russo in action.

I'll never forget the time I spent with Aaron in 2004. He was a true inspiration. His passion and vigorous pursuit of liberty were infectious. His legacy lives on in film and in our hearts.

Tenacious Aaron Russo fired up Libertarians at Valley Forge Brewing Company

Aaron Russo with former LPPa Chair David Jahn.

Aaron Russo assists ballot access petitioner Chuck Moulton.

Aaron Russo on the campaign trail with Montgomery County Libertarian, Charles Fournier.

Our best chance to repeal the American Empire...

2007-11-28T10:54:00.001-05:00

Hillary and Giuliani have endless special interest groups trying to buy a spot at the federal trough. Ron Paul has us. Please dig deep for the future of our country. Victory will be expensive, but it's a bargain compared to price of failure.

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Ron Paul : House of Cards

2007-11-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

The Second Amendment: American’s Guarantee of Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger

2007-11-23T00:48:00.001-05:00

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide the gun-control case arising out of Washington, D.C.’s, ban on handguns. You know — the city in which there are no murders with handguns because criminals obey gun-control laws. (Sarcasm!)The major issue in the case is whether the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right or whether it pertains instead to the National Guard.Hopefully, the Court will bear in mind that the primary purpose of the right to keep and bear arms is so that people will be able to resist violently the tyranny and oppression of their own government. Unfortunately, all too many Americans have lost sight of this, believing that gun ownership is about shooting deer and burglars.

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The Real Thanksgiving Story

2007-11-21T21:59:00.001-05:00

In the middle of December 1620 the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, leaving behind the sinfulness of the “old world” to make a “new Jerusalem” in America. Three years later, in November 1623, they had a great feast thanking God for getting them through an earlier famine, and now for a bountiful crop.What had created the earlier famine and then the bountiful crops? The story is told in the diary of Governor Bradford, who was one of the elders of that early Puritan colony.

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I Used To Not Be Anti-Cop

2007-11-20T13:14:00.001-05:00

Manuel Lora says the police state is making him anti-police, a change of heart from his previously held belief 'that the police had a duty to serve and protect, to care for our property and to keep criminals away.'

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Media notices local Ron Paul outreach

2007-11-19T23:37:00.001-05:00

Drivers honked their horns and gave the activists thumbs-ups, as the grassroots campaigners braved the brisk weather to chat with residents and hand out various literature to citizens. Many of the placards and posters were hand-made, including one carried by Al Pigeon who supports Paul because the congressman promises to “restore the constitution.”

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Media notices local Ron Paul outreach

2007-11-19T23:33:00.001-05:00

"A Video for America"

2007-11-16T18:29:00.000-05:00

Part 1

Part 2

Philadelphia Rally Video by Bill Dumas

2007-11-16T11:12:00.000-05:00

Feds pull off massive gold heist!

2007-11-15T14:41:00.000-05:00

Update 4:13 pm: The FBI in Indianapolis wouldn't confirm or deny anything. They did refer me to:
Sue Ellen Pierce, Public Information Officer in North Carolina (704-338-3120). I left a message.

If there was no raid, wouldn't they be able to say that, without referring me to another state?

This morning I received the email below. I was hoping that it was a sick hoax, but corroborating information is trickling in. The Liberty Dollar website is not taking orders. This appears to be the largest gold heist in modern times and the fed's latest attempt to trample our rights. It is a truly sickening development.

Dear Liberty Dollar Supporters:

I sincerely regret to inform you that about 8:00 this morning a dozen FBI and Secret Service agents raided the Liberty Dollar office in Evansville.

For approximately six hours they took all the gold, all the silver, all the platinum and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that where just delivered last Friday. They also took all the files, all the computers and froze our bank accounts.

We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know what was ordered or what you are owed. We have nothing but the will to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty and our right to have real money as defined by the US Constitution. We should not to be defrauded by the fake government money.

But to make matters worse, all the gold and silver that backs up the paper certificates and digital currency held in the vault at Sunshine Mint has also been confiscated. Even the dies for mint the Gold and Silver Libertys have been taken.

This in spite of the fact that Edmond C. Moy, the Director of the Mint, acknowledged in a letter to a US Senator that the paper certificates did not violate Section 486 and were not illegal. But the FBI and Services took all the paper currency too.

The possibility of such action was the reason the Liberty Dollar was designed so that the vast majority of the money was in specie form and in the people’s hands. Of the $20 million Liberty Dollars, only about a million is in paper or digital form.

I regret that if you are due an order. It may be some time until it will be filled... if ever... it now all depends on our actions.

Everyone who has an unfulfilled order or has digital or paper currency should band together for a class action suit and demand redemption. We cannot allow the government to steal our money! Please don’t let this happen!!! Many of you read the articles quoting the government and Federal Reserve officials that the Liberty Dollar was legal. You did nothing wrong. You are legally entitled to your property. Let us use this terrible act to band together and further our goal – to return America to a value based currency.

Please forward this important Alert... so everyone who possess or use the Liberty Dollar is aware of the situation.

Please click HERE to sign up for the class action lawsuit and get your property back!

If the above link does not work you can access the page by copying the following into your web browser. http://www.libertydollar.org/classaction/index.php

Thanks again for your support at this darkest time as the damn government and their dollar sinks to a new low.

Bernard von NotHaus

Monetary Architect

Great Salon.com article: Ron Paul distortions and smears

2007-11-13T20:41:00.001-05:00

For a long time now, I've heard a lot of people ask: "where are the principled conservatives?" -- meaning those on the Right who are willing to oppose the constitutional transgressions and abuses of the Bush administration without regard to party loyalty. A "principled conservative" isn't someone who agrees with liberals on most issues; that would make them a "principled liberal." A "principled conservative" is someone who aggressively objects to the radicalism of the neocons and the Bush/Cheney assault on our constitution and embraces a conservative political ideology. That's what Ron Paul is, and it's hardly a surprise that he holds many views anathema to most liberals. That hardly makes him a "fruitcake."

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Hypocrisy and Cowardice in China and the U.S.

2007-11-13T10:06:00.001-05:00

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Members of Congress are upset with Yahoo officials for giving Chinese officials confidential online information about one of their customers in China. The Chinese authorities used the information to send the Yahoo customer to jail for 10 years for engaging in subversive, anti-government activity.

Meanwhile, Congress is talking about the importance of giving immunity to U.S. telecommunication companies for illegally giving U.S. officials confidential online information about their customers in the United States. The U.S. officials say that they needed the secret information to ferret out subversive activity against the U.S. government.

Oh, well, no one ever accused Congress of a lack of hypocrisy.

Yahoo’s general counsel, Michael J. Callahan, said that Yahoo employees had little choice but to comply with the Chinese government’s demands.

Ironically, that’s what the U.S. telecommunication companies are saying as to why they complied with the U.S. government’s demands!

The fact is that all these executives are the par excellence of cowardice. Yahoo does have a choice — stand up for your customers or don’t do business in communist countries. And U.S. companies also have a choice — stand up for your customers and tell the feds to take a hike, even if it means they come after you with a retaliatory indictment, as they did with Qwest, which, unlike Yahoo and the U.S. telecommunications companies, said “No” when the little tyrants came demanding their information.

For decades both the American and Chinese people have loved their big governments, mostly because their big governments take care of them like parents with education, health care, social security, and other forms of welfare. But as we are learning with the Yahoo and U.S. telecommunications scandals, there is big price to pay for big government.

Isn’t it ironic that Americans have the most powerful government in history and the most terrified citizenry in the world? It is not a coincidence. Big government produces small, frightened people. As earlier generations of Americans could attest, small and weak government, on the other hand, results in strong, self-reliant, and courageous people.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email (jhornberger@fff.org).

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CNN's Ron Paul rally coverage (hilarious)

2007-11-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

This must be the latest tactic to down-play Ron Paul's success: send in the most idiotic interviewer you can find. This coverage is a testament to what has become of this once respected news source.

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Freedom is popular in Philadelphia

2007-11-11T07:04:00.000-05:00

Five thousand (or so) freedom lovers packed into Independence Mall to welcome Ron Paul. It was my privilege to work with the grass-roots volunteers that made this the campaign's biggest rally to date. This was definitely my kind of crowd. Not even rain and cold wind couldn't dampen the spirit.

I posted a photo galley of the days events, including the meet-up briefing with Dr. Paul and the post rally after party at Buffalo Billiards.

My friend Henry Whitney posted some pictures and his reflections on the day here.

You can watch Dr. Paul's full address here.

Ron Paul On CNN The Situation Room 11-8-07

2007-11-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

Dr. Paul hits another one out of the park! Why am I still amazed?

Rally City Paper Ad

2007-11-05T15:54:00.001-05:00

This artwork was produced by Angel of Mike Angel Studios

Ron Paul Rally in Philadelphia

2007-11-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

Parents Are Idiots, or So Believes the State

2007-11-03T17:24:00.001-05:00

Thank goodness parents are idiots. Otherwise, at least half of the current tax-funded bozos – the so-called public servants whose sole mission is to supplant parental rights and decision-making – would be unemployed, taking their aggressive panhandling to the streets nonetheless. And, we can't have that, can we?Of course, not all parents are idiots. One special class of the omniscient exists; those parents employed by government or associated organizations (can you say teachers unions). These folks are never idiots since they drink from the fountain of enlightenment. The fountain whose source is the never-ending stream of tax dollars, and whose drain is the never-clogged pipeline of bloated salaries.Parents are idiots. Yes, that is a harsh statement. However, from what I read – from what the state and its minions believe, it is absolutely true. Offensive, but true.

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Jeremy Scahill - US war of conquest in Iraq

2007-10-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

Here's to the crazy ones…

2007-10-30T23:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Pauloween!

2007-10-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

Don't forget to contribute on November 5th!

The Fraud of the War on Terror

2007-10-29T08:51:00.001-05:00

Immediately after he denounced Fidel Castro for being a dictator, President Bush unilaterally decreed new sanctions against Iran, moving the United States closer to war against Iran. Would someone please tell me how it is that Bush exercises such omnipotent power, without even a peep from both Congress and the mainstream press?

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Ron Paul on the $2,400,000,000,000 War

2007-10-26T11:50:00.000-05:00

How to get banned on RedState.com

2007-10-24T12:38:00.000-05:00

After reading about the ban at RedState on Ron Paul information from new subscribers, I posted a message of "agreement" on their site. Because I have been a registered user for nearly 2 years, the new policy did not apply to me. None the less, it appears that someone eventually recognized my post as sarcastic and alerted the polit bureau. My account is now suspended.

I was a bit surprised at their cowardice and lack of sense of humor regarding differing opinions, but I have no problem with RedState banning anyone for any reason because I respect private property. Although I followed their usage guidelines, it's their site to do with what they please. It must be hard to justify their imperial agenda when presented with actual facts and wit, so banning dissenters makes perfect sense. Why not take a page from the playbook of another red state?

Brad Spangler also had a great post on this topic. For his sake, I hope he gets banned as well.

This development can only be seen as progress for the Ron Paul Revolution. The big-government wing of the GOP is on the defensive.

Support the Ron Paul ban on Red State

2007-10-23T12:45:00.001-05:00

RedState should remain a place of comfort for pro-war, big government Republicans. Where else can we have a forum that supports OUR agenda for the world? We have spent too much energy increasing executive power to be turned back now. God forbid, we get a president without the balls to shoot first and ask Congress later.

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Penn & Teller on the Frank Luntz Whore

2007-10-22T20:09:00.000-05:00

On Fixing Social Security

2007-10-20T22:19:00.001-05:00

It's a shame that I'll have to pay $15,300 in FICA taxes next year, plus another $5,000 in Federal income taxes, since FICA payments are not deductible from income on my 1040 form. I will also pay at least $7,000 in income taxes on my income from Social Security. Oh, yes, plus state income taxes on the income I will use to pay FICA.

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Let Freedom Ring Video

2007-10-19T18:19:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen support like this for any candidate?

Sanctions and Embargoes Are Immoral and Counterproductive

2007-10-19T15:35:00.000-05:00

by Jacob G. Hornberger

In an unusual moment of candor, President Bush revealed why so many people around the world hate and resent the U.S. government for its foreign policy. In his news conference this week, Bush pointed out how he is hoping that the U.S. sanctions against Iran encourage the Iranian people to oust their rulers from power. According to the New York Times:

“Mr. Bush sought in the news conference to make clear that his pressure tactics, including economic sanctions, were aimed at persuading the Iranian people to find new leadership. ‘The whole strategy is that, you know, at some point in time leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it,’ and to me it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government,’ Mr. Bush said.”

So, there you have it — the same nasty, cruel strategy of sanctions that was aimed at the Iraqi people for more than 10 years and against the Cuban people for more than 50 years.

Bush knows that sanctions and embargoes attack the citizenry, not the rulers. He knows, for example, that it wasn’t Saddam Hussein who paid the price for the sanctions against Iraq but rather the Iraqi people, who lost hundreds of thousands of their children as a result of the sanctions. He also knows that it hasn’t been Fidel Castro who has paid the price for the embargo against Cuba but rather the Cuban people, who live on the verge of starvation.

The idea is that if the citizenry are sufficiently squeezed economically, especially through the prospect of death, they will have the incentive to oust their rulers and install a pro-U.S. regime in their stead, which will cause U.S. rulers to drop the sanctions, establish friendly relations, and flood the country with U.S. foreign aid.

Unfortunately, all too many Americans have yet to figure all this out — that this is the core element of U.S. foreign policy — regime change — the ouster of independent regimes and their replacement with pro-U.S. regimes. They prefer to convince themselves that the lofty pronouncements issued by U.S. officials regarding democracy-spreading, liberation, and loving foreigners are true despite the manifest evidence to the contrary, including the willingness to kill an unlimited number of foreigners to achieve their goals. Thus, Madeleine Albright’s infamous statement that the deaths of half a million Iraqi children from the sanctions was “worth it.”

Another factor to consider with respect to Iran, of course, is that U.S. officials have never forgiven the Iranian people for ousting the pro-U.S. shah of Iran, whom the CIA installed in a coup in 1953, and replacing him with an independent regime during the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

On top of the immorality of sanctions and embargoes, there are two other important factors to consider.

One, sanctions and embargoes produce anger, hatred, and resentment, which manifests itself with terrorist blowback. In fact, one of the primary reasons for the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (along with the attacks on the USS Cole, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the Pentagon) was the rage that the continual deaths of the Iraqi children produced among people throughout the Middle East, not to mention the effect that Albright’s unbelievably callous statement had on people in the Middle East.

Two, sanctions and embargoes are a direct infringement on the economic liberty of the American people because they deprive people of the fundamental right to spend their money the way they want.

Sanctions and embargoes are immoral and counterproductive. Americans should constitutionally prohibit the federal government from ever imposing them again.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.

Big Brother at school

2007-10-17T11:58:00.000-05:00

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | October 17, 2007

"FREEDOM of education, being an essential of civil and religious liberty . . . must not be interfered with under any pretext whatever," the party's national platform declared. "We are opposed to state interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringement of the fundamental . . . doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government."

That ringing endorsement of parental supremacy in education was adopted by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1892, which just goes to show what was possible before the Democratic Party was taken hostage by the teachers unions. (Wondrous to relate, the platform also warned that "the tendency to centralize all power at the federal capital has become a menace," blasted barriers to free trade as "robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few," and pledged "relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate expenditure.")

Today, on education as on so much else, the Democrats sing from a different hymnal. When the party's presidential candidates debated at Dartmouth College recently, they were asked about a controversial incident in Lexington, Mass., where a second-grade teacher, to the dismay of several parents, had read her young students a story celebrating same-sex marriage. Were the candidates "comfortable" with that?

"Yes, absolutely," former senator John Edwards promptly replied. "I want my children . . . to be exposed to all the information . . . even in second grade . . . because I don't want to impose my view. Nobody made me God. I don't get to decide on behalf of my family or my children. . . . I don't get to impose on them what it is that I believe is right." None of the other candidates disagreed, even though most of them say they oppose same-sex marriage.

Thus in a little over 100 years, the Democratic Party - and much of the Republican Party - has been transformed from a champion of "parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children" to a party whose leaders believe that parents "don't get to impose" their views and values on what their kids are taught in school. Do American parents see anything wrong with that? Apparently not: The majority of them dutifully enroll their children in government-operated schools, where the only views and values permitted are the ones prescribed by the state.

But controversies like the one in Lexington are reminders that Big Brother's ideas about what and how children should be taught are not always those of mom and dad.

Americans differ on same-sex marriage and evolution, on the importance of sports and the value of phonics, on the right to bear arms and the reverence due the Confederate flag. Some parents are committed secularists; others are devout believers. Some place great emphasis on math and science; others stress history and foreign languages. Americans hold disparate opinions on everything from the truth of the Bible to the meaning of the First Amendment, from the usefulness of rote memorization to the significance of music and art. With parents so often in loud disagreement, why should children be locked into a one-size-fits-all, government-knows-best model of education?

Nobody would want the government to run 90 percent of the nation's entertainment industry. Nobody thinks that 90 percent of all housing should be owned by the state. Yet the government's control of 90 percent of the nation's schools leaves most Americans strangely unconcerned.

But we should be concerned. Not just because the quality of government schooling is so often poor or its costs so high. Not just because public schools are constantly roiled by political storms. Not just because schools backed by the power of the state are not accountable to parents and can ride roughshod over their concerns. And not just because the public-school monopoly, like most monopolies, resists change, innovation, and excellence.

All of that is true, but a more fundamental truth is this: In a society founded on political and economic liberty, government schools have no place. Free men and women do not entrust to the state the molding of their children's minds and character. As we wouldn't trust the state to feed our kids, or to clothe them, or to get them to bed on time, neither should we trust the state to teach them.

What 19th-century Democrats understood, 21st-century Americans need to relearn: Education is too important to be left to the government.

Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.

Awesome Ron Paul video!

2007-10-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

Why the GOP Must Nominate Ron Paul

2007-10-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

Why the GOP Must Nominate Ron Paul
posted October 2, 2007

Why must the Republican Party nominate a 72-year-old grandfather from the Gulf Coast of Texas, until the past few months little known outside his district, as its 2008 standard-bearer? Very simple: the alternative is eight years of President Hillary Clinton. That ought to be enough to get the attention of every conservative who happens upon these words, so let me explain.

It should come as no big revelation to anyone inside or outside of the Republican Party that the GOP has lost touch with its conservative roots. Massive deficit spending that would make Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter blush; foreign adventurism beyond the wildest dreams of Woodrow Wilson or Teddy Roosevelt; more big government programs than FDR or LBJ (Google "Medicare expansion" for a massive example) ... the Republican Party of the early 21st century is clearly not your father's or grandfather's GOP.

There are no more Robert Tafts, no more Barry Goldwaters, not even any more Ronald Reagans (as imperfect as he turned out to be after reaching the White House) ... except one: Ron Paul. Dr. Paul (an OB/GYN who has delivered more than 4,000 babies) is the last, best hope for the GOP to reclaim its once-upon-a-time status as the party of limited government.

It isn't his status as the leading advocate of limited, constitutional government that makes Ron Paul a must-nominate for the GOP, though. It is true that in the long run, the Republican Party needs him to help it reclaim its spirit, and this indeed will be his lasting legacy. But, in the short run, the party needs him to win the 2008 election and save the country from another Clinton presidency that would be far worse than the first. (Unlike Bill, who was apparently mainly involved in politics to get the attention of the ladies, Hillary is a true believer in socialism; and, with a Democratic majority in Congress, she will have an excellent opportunity to expedite its widespread implementation in America.)

Fact one: Hillary Clinton will win the 2008 Democratic nomination. She is an experienced, cut-throat politician with deep ties in the party, and can take Barack Obama down pretty much any time she wants to. And John Edwards is not serious about pursuing the nomination. He is just positioning himself to be the VP nominee again, because in the wake of the 2006 Congressional elections he believes that Hillary will win the Presidency by taking a few key states where John Kerry fell short. Long story short: forget the others - Hillary is the woman to beat in 2008.

Fact two: The 2008 election will be won by the candidate who most credibly addresses the growing anti-war sentiment that has been embraced by the majority of the country's voters. (Google "2006 mid-term elections.) 70% or more of Americans want out of Iraq, and for many of them, it is the defining issue of the campaign. You may agree or disagree, but it's a fact and it's going to decide the 2008 Presidential election.

If it comes down to Hillary Clinton vs. any of the "establishment" Republican candidates, she wins by default. She may have voted for the war originally, but she will continue to claim that she was misled by the Republican administration, and that we should trust her to make things right. (Of course she won't really get us out of the Middle East mess, but Joe Six-Pack won't figure that out until after she wins the election.)

If any of the supposed "front runner" Republican candidates (Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, or Fred Thompson) wins the GOP nomination, Hillary Clinton is essentially a lock. Not only will she win over a sizable portion of the independent vote with her (perceived) status as "the anti-war candidate," but - simply put - the GOP will not turn out its base in sufficient numbers to win.

Nominate Rudy Giuliani? Conservative, red-state voters are not going to turn out to support a gun-grabbing Northern liberal faux Republican who dresses in drag and is a charter member of the Wife-Of-The-Month Club. The social conservatives, along with the fiscal conservatives and the key swing voters (libertarians and constitutionalists) will either stay home on Election Day or vote third party. Rudy won't even carry his home state, and ask Al Gore how that usually works out. Slam dunk, Hillary wins.

Nominate Mitt Romney? You get basically the same result as Giuliani without the (bogus) "America's Mayor" 9/11 cachet. Conservatives in the South and West won't turn out for the former governor of "Taxachusetts" who has flip-flopped on virtually every issue they hold dear. The fact that Romney is a Mormon won't help him with the mainstream Christian base, either. He probably can't win the GOP nomination, but even if he does, Romney is toast in the general election.

Nominate John McCain? Not gonna happen. His campaign has taken a nose dive from which it will be virtually impossible to recover. As of the end of the second quarter, even (supposed) long-shot Ron Paul had more cash on hand - and, when the third quarter numbers come in, McCain will be even further behind in the money game. He probably won't even be in the top five on the GOP side. Stick a fork in him, he's done. And even if he could pull off the apparently impossible and come back to win the Republican nomination, he loses to Hillary on the war and many domestic issues as well.

Fred Thompson? He's the last hope of those Republicans who are looking for a "mainstream" candidate to save them from looming, seemingly inevitable defeat in 2008. On the surface, he appears to have more of a chance than the previously mentioned "big three." After all, he has the "actor factor." It worked for Reagan and, more recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California - couldn't it work for Fred, too? Well, no, not this time around.

Like Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson is reasonably good at reading a script. Unlike the Gipper, though, Fred is just awful at speaking extemporaneously. In case anyone was wondering why Thompson waited so long to declare his candidacy, it's obvious to those who know anything about his abilities and liabilities: he wanted to avoid as many debates as possible.

Like Obama on the Democratic side, Thompson is an empty suit. He looks reasonably presentable, but sooner or later he has to open his mouth, and when he does he doesn't say anything of substance. The less he speaks in public (especially with other candidates around to rebut him), the better for Fred. Unfortunately for Thompson, while he has so far been able to duck any direct confrontation with his GOP rivals, he won't be able to avoid debating Hillary if he wins the Republican nomination. And about five minutes into the first debate, with no "Law and Order" writers to put words in his mouth, it will be over. Game, set, match, Hillary.

When you look at it objectively, there isn't a single one of the "Big Four" GOP candidates who can beat Hillary Clinton head-to-head. And none of the "second tier" candidates (Huckabee, Brownback, Hunter,
Tancredo, et al) have stepped up to the challenge. Really, there is only one remaining viable Republican candidate: You guessed it, Ron Paul.

Only Ron Paul can take advantage of the Internet the way Howard Dean did before he imploded four years ago. Indeed, he has already captured the Internet ... the Ron Paul Revolution is already in full swing online. It sure was nice of Al Gore to invent the Net for Ron Paul supporters to take over, wasn't it?

Only Ron Paul can outflank Hillary Clinton both to the left on the war, and to the right on everything else ... which is the only winning strategy the Republicans can plausibly employ in 2008.

Only Ron Paul, who is truly pro-family (married to the same woman for over 50 years, with five children and 18 grandchildren - no "trophy wives" here) can motivate the socially conservative base to actually turn out and vote.

Only Ron Paul, who wants to eliminate the IRS (and a host of other federal agencies) and stop the Federal Reserve from devaluing our money through runaway, printing-press inflation, can motivate the fiscally conservative base to cast a GOP ballot in 2008.

Only Ron Paul can keep the Libertarians and Constitution Party members from splintering off to support their own third-party nominees rather than another neo-con, Bush clone Republican. (In fact, the 2004 nominees of the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party, Michael Peroutka and Michael Badnarik, have both already endorsed Ron Paul's candidacy.) While the LP and CP may command only a small fraction of the overall vote, that may well be enough to turn the tide in a crucial state or two. Ask Al Gore if he could have used a few thousand of Ralph Nader's votes in 2000....

Yes, when you look at things objectively, there are only two candidates who can win the White House in 2008: Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul. The contrast could not be more stark, nor the results for the future of America more divergent. If you are a social or fiscal conservative, a libertarian, a constitutionalist, or just a concerned independent ... now is the time to consider your options and act accordingly while there is still time to affect the outcome.

The Ron Paul Revolution has begun.

Joe Dumas
joe@joedumas.com

Ron Paul's plan to eliminate the Income Tax (without a new replacement tax)

2007-09-21T12:36:00.001-05:00

"Individual income taxes account for only approximately one-third of federal revenue. Eliminating one-third of the proposed 2007 budget would still leave federal spending at roughly $1.8 trillion-- a sum greater than the budget just 6 years ago in 2000! Does anyone seriously believe we could not find ways to cut spending back to 2000 levels?"

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Liberty Forum 2008!

2007-09-14T17:47:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul, John Stossel, Michael Badnarik, and many more were at the Free State Project's New Hampshire Liberty Forum 2007.

The next Liberty Forum will be January 3-6, 2008. Don't miss out!
http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum

Ron Paul's Speeches of Freedom

2007-09-14T17:29:00.001-05:00

Dr. Ron Paul, who has called LRC his favorite website – the one he looks at the first thing every morning – has given five historic addresses on liberty for LewRockwell.com. Now, at this exciting moment, these eloquent speeches are collected for you, your family, and your friends to listen to, to share, and to keep for the future.

Of course, you also help keep LRC on the air by buying these well-priced, handsomely produced, and inspiring recordings.

For a four-CD cased set, the price is just $29 plus $6 shipping and handling in the US.

For an MP3 CD, the price is just $15 plus $4 shipping and handling in the US.

For 5 business-card-size MP3 CDs (with all 5 speeches on each) – to hand out to family and friends, and what a great introduction to Dr. Paul! – the price is just $25 plus $4 shipping and handling.

Please add sales tax if we are shipping to a California address.

*Phone Cathy at 800-982-7070 during California office hours to charge to your credit card, or
*Mail your check to LewRockwell.com, 851 Burlway Rd., Suite 202, Burlingame, CA 94010, or
*Pay online by credit card, being sure to indicate what you are ordering and where we should ship it.

Thank you!

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Ron Paul Trumps in Last Night’s Debate

2007-09-06T10:48:00.001-05:00

Ron Paul trumped in last night’s Republican Presidential Candidate Debate in New Hampshire. His views on Iraq and freedom were shining beacons amidst the black smoke the other candidates emitted. As the rest of the GOP hopefuls tighten their chains to the war wagon heading over a cliff, Paul’s views will propel him forward.

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The Carnage in Iraq - Past, Present, and Future

2007-09-02T15:07:00.001-05:00

Bush compares the Iraq to the fiasco in Vietnam to show that we must "stay the course" to avoid the carnage that tormented SE Asia after the US withdrawal. A million and a half Vietnamese died during the war. Now between half a million and a million Iraqis are dead. If we stay, more will die than if we go. More dead US soldiers won't help.

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Senator Craig’s Innocence

2007-09-02T11:16:00.001-05:00

In a way, we should all be appreciative of Senator Larry Craig’s post-conviction claim of innocence. At long last we have a member of the United States Senate who has acknowledged the phenomenon of the false guilty plea, if not the pervasiveness of wrongful conviction itself. Or better yet, by insisting he did "nothing wrong" despite violating a statute, Craig may have finally expressed doubt in the laws that lawmakers have rained down on us. Viewed in their worst light, the allegations made against Craig hardly seem to rise to the level of criminal conduct. Yet Craig’s guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges will prevent him from formally appealing the conviction and will likely haunt him for the rest of his life.

Senator Craig’s proclamations of innocence are ironic given his membership in one of the earth’s most punitive deliberative bodies. During Senator Craig’s tenure in Washington, Congress has:
(1) criminalized hundreds of previously non-criminal acts under federal law;
(2) increased criminal penalties for many federal offenses;
(3) drastically increased collateral consequences of minor criminal convictions, subjecting some convicted misdemeanants to lifetime infringements of civil rights and occupational opportunities;
(4) applied these collateral consequences retroactively;
(5) strategically and systematically limited the appeal rights of convicted persons;
(6) carved away the ancient availability of habeas corpus review of convictions;
(7) created "procedures" to circumvent the plain language of the Sixth Amendment for accused terror suspects;
(8) expanded the authority of police to evade the Fourth Amendment by wiretapping, searching without notification, searching without warrant, and surveilling citizens without cause;
(9) exponentially enlarged the budget of the U.S. Justice Department;
(10) diverted federal tax dollars into local law enforcement agencies to pay for extra officers; and
(11) eliminated all statutory relief for convicted persons.

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38,814 Members, 817 Groups, 671 Cities, 16 Countries, 4,138 events so far..

2007-08-30T15:37:00.001-05:00

Guess which presidential candidate has this much support (as of 8/30/2007).

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Governor plans to suspend Pennsylvania Constitution

2007-08-29T20:29:00.001-05:00

"The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned." Unfortunately the governor disagrees, suspends all commercial gun sales for a 3 day constitutional blackout. Let the impeachment begin!

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The Moral Hazard of Central Banking

2007-08-27T17:55:00.001-05:00

by Gary North

Let me present a syllogism. 1. Theft is immoral. 2. Inflation is theft. 3. Fractional reserve banking is inflationary. 4. Central banking is government-guaranteed fractional reserve banking. 5. Immorality leads to judgment.

Therefore, we should expect. . . ?

Economists, other than Murray Rothbard's disciples, never associate the concept of theft with monetary inflation. They speak of theft in terms of reduced efficiency and increased transactions costs, not morality.

When it comes to avoiding morality, they are worse than lawyers. A lawyer might appeal to morality if he had a really weak case. This appeal might persuade a jury. An economist would rather lose the argument than appeal to morality. He regards the shame of invoking morality as personally more inefficient than winning the argument by an appeal to morality. Once you appeal to morality, academic economic theory collapses. Economics was the first science to be self-consciously designed to avoid moral questions.

So, when stock market bulls attack Federal Reserve monetary policy, they do not invoke morality. They invoke the falling return on investment. Having invested their money or other people's money on the assumption that the central bank's monetary policy will always hold down "interest rates" – we are never told which ones – they loudly decry as unnecessary the widespread and accelerating losses that are being sustained because the central bank has slowed down the rate of monetary inflation. Why unnecessary? Because the central bank can create liquidity by buying Treasury bills.

This will lower the interest rate on T-bills. But how does this lower all interest rates? How does it lower bond rates and mortgage rates, which always have an inflation-defense premium in them? It doesn't. It raises them.

The critics say that this forced reduction of the FedFunds rate is only temporary. They are not calling for sustained inflation. Oh, no. They just want a little loosening of monetary restraint, just this once. Just get overnight money rates down.

This is what Japan has been doing ever since 1990. It gets overnight money rates down. It keeps it down, year after year. So, international traders grew bold. They borrowed yen at less than 1% to buy other currencies. Then they used these to invest in bonds at 4% or more. It's like money in the bank.

Yes, it is. But what happens if there is ever a bank run?

A MODERN BANK RUN

The "run" has begun. The Japanese yen is now rising against foreign currencies. Those who borrowed short and lent long are facing a serious crisis: their debt is in yen, and it is rising fast. So, they sell longer-term debt and buy yen with the money. This forces up long-term rates.

Which raises mortgage rates.

Which undermines the housing bubble.

Which undermines consumer confidence.

Which leads to more saving and less spending on consumer goods.

Which produces a recession.

In anticipation of the recession, the stock market falls. This produces a televised tantrum by Jim "Mad Money" Cramer.

Which catches the FED's attention.

Which then lowers a symbolic interest rate (discount window).

Which creates brief euphoria among fund managers.

Which leads Cramer to tell people to buy, buy, buy.

Which is called a bull trap.

The FED must now make a decision: inflate slowly (2% a year) or inflate faster (5% a year). I don't think the FED would consider 10%. Economists believe in change at the margin. So, 4% or 5% will probably do it.

Do what?

Restore confidence in the gigantic confidence game that all modern finance is based on. This game rests on this slogan: "Too big to fail." It is more than a slogan. It is a mantra, a confession of faith. It is the shema Mammon.

The FED will act to increase liquidity sufficiently to prevent disaster in the stock market. This will calm the markets. This will once again persuade investors that there is a safety net for them. Ironically, this perception is designated a "moral hazard." This is the only time the word "moral" is seriously used in modern finance. A moral hazard – correctly named – occurs when central banks intervene to save specific industries, i.e., too-big-to-fail industries.

MORAL HAZARD

Greenspan used the phrase. His words are worth considering. In testimony before the House Banking Committee (Oct. 1, 1998), in the wake of the near-meltdown of the financial futures market the previous August as a result of the Long-Term Capital (Ha!) Management, Ltd. collapse, he said:

Of course, any time that there is public involvement that softens the blow of private-sector losses – even as obliquely as in this episode – the issue of moral hazard arises. Any action by the government that prevents some of the negative consequences to the private sector of the mistakes it makes raises the threshold of risks market participants will presumably subsequently choose to take. Over time, economic efficiency will be impaired as some uneconomic investments are undertaken under the implicit assumption that possible losses may be borne by the government.

That sounded good. It sounded almost as if he had reverted to his free market youth as a follower of Ayn Rand. But he was in front of Congress to justify the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's intervention, calling the lending banks together over the weekend and recommending that they inject another $3 billion into LTCM, Ltd. So, he added this:

But is much moral hazard created by aborting fire sales? To be sure, investors wiped out in a fire sale will clearly be less risk prone than if their mistakes were unwound in a more orderly fashion. But is the broader market well served if the resulting fear and other irrational judgments govern the degree of risk participants are subsequently willing to incur? Risk taking is a necessary condition for wealth creation. The optimum degree of risk aversion should be governed by rational judgments about the market place, not the fear flowing from fire sales.

What is a fire sale? The FED apparently has a new operational definition: "Anything that leads Jim Cramer to throw a tantrum on CNBC."

Central banking has been a moral hazard ever since Parliament gave a monopoly to the privately owned Bank of England in 1694. Central banking exists primarily to protect large fractional reserve commercial banks from bank runs, and therefore to preserve the fractional reserve banking system nationally. Of all modern institutions, none has been more committed to subsidizing moral hazards than central banking.

Along the way, central banks preserve stock markets from sell-offs that might produce runs on commercial banks, or what is the same today, cascading cross-defaults when overextended banks cannot pay off each other at the end of the business day, which today is international.

INDIVIDUALS ARE TRAPPED BY THE SYSTEM

Jesus told His disciples to be in the world, not of the world. This has been the message of most major religious reformers throughout history. It is good advice.

We live in a world that we have inherited. It is not mainly of our making. We are forced to make choices in a world that has structured and limited the choices we make. This is always true.

Consider the FED's choices regarding monetary policy. There is this inescapable choice: stable money leading to a recession and maybe a depression, given the prevailing level of debt, vs. monetary inflation, which keeps the debt structure alive and encourages additional debt to "pay off in cheap money." This policy subsidizes the market for new moral hazards. "When the price falls, more is demanded."

At the top of the visible hierarchy of control, politicians and central bankers say they want to avoid making this choice between stable money and inflation, but one or the other policy cannot be avoided in the long run. This makes short-run decision-makers out of politicians and central bankers.

A few of us prefer this choice: a money system that is not tied to credit and debt in any way. That would mean a monetary system tied to gold and silver, as it was in 1914. This is not available as a choice, nor is it likely to be, short of a complete financial collapse, which unfortunately would kill most of my readers – a breakdown in the division of labor.

So, we must make second-best or third-best choices with our money because generations of politicians made very bad choices.

As investors and decision-makers, most people tend to go with the flow. The flow is established by central bank policy: in the United States, in Japan, in Europe, and in China. Going with the flow is bad when you are floating toward Niagara Falls.

We are trapped in an international credit system which has relied on monetary inflation to pump up the capital markets. This has led to a huge expansion of debt. To keep this debt from imploding in a wave of defaults – "cascading cross defaults," Greenspan called this – central banks inflate even more.

This is a vicious circle. Ever since 1914 – World War I and the first year of the Federal Reserve System – the West has been unable to escape from this circle. As a result, the dollar buys 5% of what it bought in 1914. (See the Inflation Calculator at www.bls.gov: the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

None of this is new. Leaders always face choices. These choices will affect those under their authority. Sometimes the effects are catastrophic.

I believe we are trapped in a vicious monetary circle. We cannot get out at anything like zero price.

Americans have been in this sort of situation before. As background, let us consider a similar vicious circle. Let us go back 230 years to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

GEORGE MASON'S DILEMMA

I am in the process of editing and revising an amazing manuscript on conspiracies in American history. It was written as a series of newsletters over 40 years ago. The author is dead, as far as I know. I am not sure. Some of the chapters hold up well. No one has seen these articles in over 40 years, and very few saw them then. A decade ago, I paid to have them scanned in. I have added footnotes where I can. I have been editing the final copy this week.

In one of the newsletters, the author cited a statement by George Mason. Mason is rightly called the father of the Bill of Rights. He was a participant at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Here is the passage cited:

As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.

I wanted to cite the source in a footnote. Google lets us locate sources more easily than ever before in man's history. I tracked it down late in the evening on August 22. Mason made this statement on August 22, 1787 – 220 years to the day prior to my search.

What caught my attention was its context. Here is the full citation.

Slavery discourages arts & manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the immigration of Whites, who really enrich & strengthen a Country. They produce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.

Mason was arguably the most eloquent political opponent of American chattel slavery in his generation. Yet he owned 36 slaves. He did not set them free in his will, unlike George Washington. Neither did Jefferson, who also opposed slavery.

More than anyone among the framers of the Constitution, Mason saw what was coming: a great national division over slavery. He recognized a looming confrontation between moral principle and property rights. At the Virginia ratifying convention in 1788, he made an assessment of the situation. This was in reference to the Constitution's 20-year extension of the importation of slaves from Africa: the international slave trade. This was abolished by Great Britain in 1807, in the final year of legality of slave imports into the United States. Mason offered a two-part critique. The parts were in complete opposition to each other: one moral and the other legal. First, the moral and political:

The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind. Yet by this constitution it is continued for twenty years. As much as I value an union of all the states, I would not admit the southern states into the union, unless they agreed to the discontinuance of this disgraceful trade, because it would bring weakness and not strength to the union.

Second, the legal and economic:

And though this infamous traffic be continued, we have no security for the property of that kind which we have already. There is no clause in this constitution to secure it; for they may lay such a tax as will amount to manumission. And should the government be amended, still this detestable kind of commerce cannot be discontinued till after the expiration of twenty years. I have ever looked upon [slavery] as a most disgraceful thing to America. I cannot express my detestation of it. Yet they have not secured us the property of the slaves we have already. So that "they have done what they ought not to have done, [allowed importation of slaves for at least 20 years] and have left undone what they ought to have done." [protected slaves as property]

Slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. Southern secession was. The South seceded because of two men: John Brown, whose murderous attempt to launch a slave revolt in 1859 sent waves of fear throughout the South, and Abraham Lincoln, whose party was pledged to restrict the extension of slavery into the territories. This policy would increase the political power of abolitionism in the Senate. Slavery could then be eliminated by law, exactly as Mason had warned in 1788. The fact that America's geography precluded the extension of slavery as a social system after 1850 did not stop the secessionists in 1860–61. The political deadlock that had prevailed until 1849's 30 to 30 tie in the Senate was broken with the admission of California as a free state in 1850: the Compromise of 1850. All new states would probably be free states. That should have been clear in 1850 to anyone who had seen the soil west of Dallas: no water. That meant no cotton, no rice, and no tobacco. It meant cattle ranching. It meant slaves on horseback. It meant few slaves except household servants – consumer goods, not commercial goods.

The South could have seceded in August, 1850, and gotten away with it. Millard Fillmore was not the late Zachary Taylor, who in February had told one group of Southern Senators threatening to secede that he would personally lead the Army into the South and hang every secessionist, just as he had hanged deserters and spies in the Mexican-American War in 1847. Taylor died in July. Fillmore became President. But the South's politicians agreed to the Compromise of 1850 in September, and that decision sealed the region's fate, politically and militarily, a decade later. Lincoln was the symbol. The reality was the soil.

Yet the leading politicians of the South did not speak of Lincoln as a symbol or the West as a desert. They proclaimed a legal argument: the right to a specific form of property. Politicians tend to be former lawyers. When the facts of the case are against them, they argue the law. As for morality, both sides do their best to ignore it.

The results of the war were horrifying: the deaths of 620,000 Americans in 10,400 battles. This was paid for in the North by an expansion of national debt from almost nothing in 1860 to over two billion dollars in 1865. It was paid for in the South by mass inflation and the destruction of the South's economy. The South did not begin to match the North's economy for a century.

"By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities."

Mason did not sell his slaves. His example, not his words, was imitated by his social peers in the South. The calamity came in 1861–65.

CLEAN HANDS, DIRTY MONEY

We cannot opt out of the debt money economy. To use a checking account, to use a credit card, to spend a Federal Reserve Note, we subsidize the system. We preserve the profits of the government-protected fractional reserve banking system.

What is our version of selling our slaves in order to opt out of the system? This encompasses far more than this short list. But I offer this list of five.

1.

Avoid consumer debt. The mantra is Max Blumert's law: "Buy the best, pay cash, take delivery."
2.

Pay off all credit card debt before buying T-bills or bonds. Here is my law: "Escape from the trap before setting any of your own."
3.

Pay a tithe. This is your personal declaration of dependence on God rather than dependence on Bernanke.
4.

Don't take on any debt that is not collateralized 100% by an asset in your possession. This applies to mortgages. Your house should collateralize your mortgage.
5.

Emergency debt is for emergencies. Regard both as disasters. Save for emergencies.

If you have other rules along these lines, send them to me here.

CONCLUSION

The debt economy makes us all vulnerable to unforeseen crises: illiquidity, insolvency, low credibility. All three are institutionally visible today. They are threatening Cramer's world.

All three are the result of the moral hazard of central banking. This is why Cramer screamed against the Federal Reserve System. He was correct: the FED is responsible. Earlier.

The FED should have done nothing in 1914. It should have done nothing thereafter. If it had done nothing as a matter of policy, there would be no debt crisis facing the U.S. economy. There would be no advocacy of the creation of yet more moral hazards in the financial community.

There is now a looming immoral hazard. Eventually, the FED will imitate the People's Bank of China in order to re-liquify the financial system. It will inflate at double-digit rates. The difference is, Americans do not save 40% of their income, nor are they rebounding from Marxist tyranny and incomparable poverty. The division of labor is being extended by China's monetary inflation. This extension has produced China's many bubbles. Our division of labor is already highly developed. It can increase only slowly at the margin. American productivity will therefore not rise fast enough to match the FED's double-digit inflation, as it has in China, thereby concealing the true rate of inflation.

Between then and now, Cramer will have lots of opportunities to scream on national TV.

August 27, 2007

Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com. He is also the author of a free 19-volume series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible.

Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell.com

Aaron Russo: American Revolutionary

2007-08-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

It is with great sadness that I note the passing of another champion for liberty. I am thankful for the time I spent with Aaron Russo when he was seeking the Libertarian nomination for president in 2004. His enthusiasm and passion were truly infectious. His wold famous documentary, America: Freedom to Fascism has literally informed and energized millions.

An American Revolution is taking place right now. When our country pulls out of it's tailspin, Aaron will be remembered as one of the revolutionaries who made it possible.

RIP Aaron. We will continue to fight for ALL our freedoms, ALL the time!

Please help bring Ron Paul to Philly!

2007-08-18T18:09:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard by now, there is a fundraising contest between the meet-up groups. The group that raises the most, wins a visit from Dr. P. The fundraiser begins today and ends on August 31. Contributions are being tracked using a project code.

The Philly area Ron Paul meet-ups are working together to make sure the Greater Philly meetup wins.

Use this link to give the Greater Philly meet-up credit:
https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/?c=MU0025

I've wanted to make another contribution after seeing Dr. P skillfully defend his positions on the IRS, the Federal Reserve and foreign policy, while under fire from the worst of the mainstream media. Who else would invoke the name of Lysander Spooner on Fox News?

I just made a $200 contribution using the link above. Will anybody here match me?

Jim Babb, Organizer
Valley Forge Ron Paul Revolutionaries
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/691/
610-539-8825

Dick Cheney tells the truth?

2007-08-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

Obviously, the consequences of the Iraq adventure were well known in advance, but were unimportant to the US government.

Ron Paul: In for the Long Haul

2007-08-06T15:27:00.001-05:00

About Ron Paul's FundraisingOn July 15th, the Federal Election Commission announced the 2nd-quarter fundraising totals for each presidential candidate. In the Republican field, Ron Paul's $2.4 million placed him:3rd in total receipts for the quarter4th in total receipts to date3rd in total current assets (ahead of former front-runner John McCain, and just $800,000 behind Mitt Romney)Thus far, 47% of the contributions made to Ron Paul's campaign are donations of under $200 from individuals (John McCain's 17% is the second-highest percentage). This is a telling statistic, as it highlights the fact that most other candidates rely heavily upon donations from corporate interests and political action committees (PACs) (i.e. moneyed, influence-seeking sources who can readily afford to contribute large sums). Since Congressman Paul has always voted against special favors and privileges for anyone, special interests know they have nothing to gain by stuffing Ron Paul's campaign coffers. As one member of my local Meetup group put it on a home-made sign, "Ron Paul is thin because he won't let special interests buy him lunch."Among all candidates, Dr. Paul is now first in total donations from military personnel and veterans. While this may come as a surprise to some, Tom Engelhardt identified the primary reason when he asked rhetorically, "why should (military personnel) want to be endlessly redeployed to a lost war in a lost land?" (see Why the US Military Loves Ron Paul).Why, indeed – President Paul would bring them home now.

read more | digg story

Ron Paul and the Empire, by Steven LaTulippe

2007-07-31T21:03:00.001-05:00

Can Ron Paul really win? Does he have a snowball’s chance of becoming the next president, or are we all kidding ourselves?At the moment, Rep. Paul’s quixotic campaign seems to be picking up steam. His recent fundraising statistics reveal a blossoming, internet-based movement that is uniting libertarians and other concerned citizens from across the political spectrum. His performance in the media has been sharp, and his organization seems to be honing its message.While there are plenty of reasons for optimism, I think we need to be clear-eyed about the road ahead. If Rep. Paul somehow manages to remain a viable candidate and to seriously challenge his mainstream opponents, things will get extremely interesting. He faces a set of obstacles unlike any other candidate in my lifetime.

read more | digg story

Health Care: Government vs. Private, By Walter E. Williams

2007-07-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2007, AND THEREAFTER

Health Care: Government vs. Private

Sometimes the advocates of socialized medicine claim that health care is too important to be left to the market. That's why some politicians are calling for us to adopt health care systems such as those in Canada, the United Kingdom and other European nations. But the suggestion that we'd be better served with more government control doesn't even pass a simple smell test.

Do we want the government employees who run the troubled Walter Reed Army Medical Center to be in charge of our entire health care system? Or, would you like the people who deliver our mail to also deliver health care services? How would you like the people who run the motor vehicles department, the government education system, foreign intelligence and other government agencies to also run our health care system? After all, they are not motivated by the quest for profits, and that might mean they're truly wonderful, selfless, caring people.

As for me, I'd choose profit-driven people to provide my health care services, people with motives like those who deliver goods to my supermarket, deliver my overnight mail, produce my computer and software programs, assemble my car and produce a host of other goods and services that I use.

There's absolutely no mystery why our greatest complaints are in the arena of government-delivered services and the fewest in market-delivered services. In the market, there are the ruthless forces of profit, loss and bankruptcy that make producers accountable to us. In the arena of government-delivered services, there's no such accountability. For example, government schools can go for decades delivering low-quality services, and what's the result? The people who manage it earn higher pay. It's nearly impossible to fire the incompetents. And, taxpayers, who support the service, are given higher tax bills.

Our health care system is hampered by government intervention, and the solution is not more government intervention but less. The tax treatment of health insurance, where premiums are deducted from employees' pre-tax income, explains why so many of us rely on our employers to select and pay for health insurance. Since there is a third-party payer, we have little incentive to shop around and wisely use health services.

There are "guaranteed issue" laws that require insurance companies to sell health insurance to any person seeking it. So why not wait until you're sick before purchasing insurance? Guaranteed issue laws make about as much sense as if you left your house uninsured until you had a fire, and then purchased insurance to cover the damage. Guaranteed issue laws raise insurance premiums for all. Then there are government price controls, such as the reimbursement schemes for Medicaid. As a result, an increasing number of doctors are unwilling to treat Medicaid patients.

Before we buy into single-payer health care systems like Canada's and the United Kingdom's, we might want to do a bit of research. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based Fraser Institute annually publishes "Waiting Your Turn." Its 2006 edition gives waiting times, by treatments, from a person's referral by a general practitioner to treatment by a specialist. The shortest waiting time was for oncology (4.9 weeks). The longest waiting time was for orthopedic surgery (40.3 weeks), followed by plastic surgery (35.4 weeks) and neurosurgery (31.7 weeks).

As reported in the June 28 National Center for Policy Analysis' "Daily Policy Digest," Britain's Department of Health recently acknowledged that one in eight patients waits more than a year for surgery. France's failed health care system resulted in the deaths of 13,000 people, mostly of dehydration, during the heat spell of 2003. Hospitals stopped answering the phones, and ambulance attendants told people to fend for themselves.

I don't think most Americans would like more socialized medicine in our country. By the way, I have absolutely no problem with people wanting socialism. My problem is when they want to drag me into it.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

“How Foreign Warring Subverts Freedom at Home” by James Bovard

2007-07-23T10:13:00.000-05:00

From FFF’s recent conference “Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties”

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Ron Paul Gets the Most Military Donations

2007-07-21T15:40:00.000-05:00

Fox tries to explain it away.

Hillary returns to #1 position on iTunes despite lower popularity

2007-07-20T20:20:00.000-05:00

Here are screen shots of the iTunes Music Store on 7-20-2007. Hillary's podcast is listed first, despite Ron Paul's higher popularity. Perhaps Hillary's promise of a mandatory MacBook for every kindergartner, is paying off.

Ron Paul most popular on iTunes (Sorry Hillary)

2007-07-19T19:05:00.000-05:00

I guess it is no surprise that Ron Paul's weekly podcast leads the "Government and Organizations" category in popularity on the iTunes Music Store.

The revolution is in progress!

Libertarian Party ranks up 18% in '07

2007-07-16T13:44:00.001-05:00

The Libertarian Party has had an 18 percent increase in membership since January, said Shane Cory, executive director of the Libertarian National Committee. More Americans are joining the Libertarian Party because they are "disillusioned with typical party politics and are looking for a change,"

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Why Germans Supported Hitler, Part 1

2007-07-16T13:40:00.001-05:00

Why did some Germans support the Hitler regime while others opposed it? Each American should first ask himself what he would have done if he had been a German citizen during the Hitler regime. Would you have supported your government or would you have opposed it, not only during the 1930s but also after the outbreak of World War II?

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The Reason for bin Laden’s Jihad

2007-07-02T14:45:00.001-05:00

Jacob Hornberger’s Commentary 7/2/2007

An interesting part of the Jose Padilla trial failed to garner much publicity, not surprisingly. Certainly U.S. officials, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney, ignored it. It involved a statement by Osama bin Laden that was contained in a videotape that was shown the Padilla jury. In the videotape, bin Laden tells the interviewer, Peter Arnett: “We declared a jihad, a holy war, against the United States government because it is unjust, criminal and tyrannical.”

Notice the operative word in that sentence — government, the U.S. government to be exact. That’s right — no talk about hating America because of its “freedom and values.” No talk against the First Amendment, rock and roll, or religious freedom. Bin Laden is directly his words against the U.S. government and its foreign policy.

Of course, this is what we have been saying here at FFF since the 1990s, that is long before the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government went into the Middle East with its bombs, missiles, sanctions, embargoes, no-fly zones, invasions, occupations, and foreign aid to Israel and other Middle East regimes, including that of Saddam Hussein. All those things produced massive death and destruction, which produced the anger and rage, which produced the terrorist blowback.

As we have long pointed out, the reason that the president and vice president and their minions cited hatred for America’s “freedom and values” immediately after the 9/11 attacks is that they did not want Americans to question the pro-empire, pro-interventionist foreign policy that the U.S. government had been pursuing and intended to continue pursuing. If Americans figured out that the real reason for the 9/11 attacks, along with the previous terrorist attacks (i.e., the 1993 attack on the WTC in 1993, the 1998 attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole) was U.S. foreign policy, then they might demand that such policy be changed, a terrifying prospect for imperial Washington, D.C.

As I was recently going through security at the airport, I reflected on this as I watched people take off their shoes and display their plastic bag containing their tiny containers of toothpaste, shaving cream, and deodorant. I thought to myself: Look at all of us going through this nonsensical, childish humiliation, not to mention loss of critical liberties, ahd all for the sake of maintaining the U.S. government’s pro-empire, pro-intervention foreign policy.

So, there you have it: a foreign policy that produces terrorist blowback that is then used to take away the liberties of the American people and subject them to ever-growing petty humiliations. It’s not surprising that federal officials, with their ever-growing thirst for more power, would favor such a policy. What’s disappointing is that the American people would choose such a policy, especially knowing the consequences.

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

Ron Paul on the Daily Show 6-4-2007

2007-06-07T18:08:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul: "The two parties are very much in control of the system and exclude individuals who aren't in that mold."

Republican Moral Degeneracy on Display in N.H. Presidential Debate

2007-06-06T17:01:00.000-05:00

Jacob Hornberger’s Commentary 6/5/2007

The moral degeneracy of the Republican Party was on full display in the presidential debate in New Hampshire. With the exception of Ron Paul, the other candidates said that they would be more than willing to drop nuclear bombs on Iran to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yes, nuclear bombs—as in the type of bombs that have radiation that can kill untold numbers of people within the blast radius.

This degenerate mindset is absolutely unbelievable. The attitude toward the Iranian people is no different from that which pervaded the U.S. government during the Iraq sanctions and, in fact, during the entire Iraq occupation. From the standpoint of U.S. officials and Republican presidential candidates, the deaths of Iranians are simply no big deal, just as the deaths of the Iraqi children from the sanctions and the deaths of countless Iraqis during the U.S. invasion and occupation are no big deal. In fact, in a nuclear strike on Iran, there is no doubt that U.S. officials would have the same policy that they’ve had toward Iraqis—not to keep count of the deaths because Iranians, like Iraqis, just don’t count.

Let’s keep in mind the obvious fact: Iran has not attacked the United States and has never threatened to attack the United States. The primary reason that Iran wishes to acquire a nuclear weapon is to deter a regime-change attack by the U.S. government. Iranians have not forgotten the secret and surreptitious regime-change operation in 1953, when the CIA ousted the democratically elected prime minister of Iran and re-installed the brutal, dictatorial, tortuous regime of the shah of Iran. They don’t want another U.S.-installed puppet to rule over them, torture them, and execute them. They also have learned the lessons that Iraq and North Korea have learned: Acquire a nuclear weapon and the U.S. military will not level a regime-change attack on your country. But fail to do so, and it will, no matter how many foreign casualties must be incurred in the process.

Let’s spare ourselves the bromides about how the Iranian people are just a bunch of radical, extremist, Islamo-fascists who hate America for its freedom and values. After all, don’t forget that when the shah of Iran was partnering with the U.S. government, the Iranian people were considered to be friends and allies of the U.S. It was only when the Iranian government became independent of the U.S. Empire that U.S. officials turned against the Iranian people, to the point that killing them with a few well-placed tactical nuclear weapons is no big deal.

Ultimately, it is up to the American people to end the U.S. government’s arrogant, pompous, self-righteous, aggressive, deadly, and destructive role as the world’s international policeman, invader, occupier, interloper, intervener, bomber, torturer, and destroyer. The well-being of the American people depends on it. The well-being of the Iranian people depends on it. The well-being of the people of the world depends on it.

Tomb of the unknown…

2007-05-31T12:21:00.000-05:00

Why you should support Dr. P in 8 minutes

2007-05-30T13:08:00.001-05:00

This is a great video montage highlighting some of the best reasons to support Dr. Paul's candidacy. Even people who don't agree with him on every issue can see he's America's best hope for peace, freedom and prosperity.

The special interests have deep pockets. We need to dig deep to give the campaign a chance. Internet polls and well wishes aren't enough. How about $20 a month? https://www.ronpaul2008.com/forms/contribute.cfm

Shaking the Republican Establishment: Why Ron Paul’s Answer Terrifies Them

2007-05-23T22:12:00.001-05:00

If the US govt's foreign policy of interventionism is, in fact, the root cause of terrorism against the US, as Congressman Paul contends, there is an obvious solution to the problem: End the US govt's role as international policeman, invader, intervener, interloper, provider, and sanctioner. Foreign terrorism against Americans would disappear

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Ron Paul CNN Late Edition (05/20/07)

2007-05-23T02:10:00.000-05:00

Watch Ron Paul do his job.

Paul vs the emperor

2007-05-18T23:55:00.000-05:00

"Fair and balanced" Ron Paul coverage on Fox

2007-05-18T23:37:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul on CNN after SC debate

2007-05-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul at the 1st Debate

2007-05-18T12:38:00.000-05:00

America's best hope for peace and freedom…

Pajamasmedia removes Ron Paul

2007-05-14T01:29:00.000-05:00

The pajamasmedia polling widget has been removed from this site. It was of questionable value from the beginning, but a curiosity. The spineless nature of the poll administrators was confirmed when they deemed Dr. Paul unworthy to grace their presidential poll choices,despite being a previous poll winner.

Ron Paul (Republican, week 16’s winner) have been removed from the poll because they did not reach one percent on Gallup.

What is worse than special interest controlled major media? Pathetic wannabee boot-lickers like PJM.

Goodnight Pajamasmedia.

Ron Paul leads MSNBC poll after debate

2007-05-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

I never put much faith in internet polls, but it's still nice to see Ron Paul succeed. Perhaps MSNBC will now include Dr. P. in their list of promoted candidates.

National Debt Chart

2007-04-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

The chart below shows the United Stated national debt (per Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia and US Government data with the various Presidents’ terms marked by vertical lines.

The Sanctity of Iraqi Life, by Jacob Hornberger

2007-04-26T01:15:00.000-05:00

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Sanctity of Iraqi Life

President Bush recently delivered two interesting speeches. According to the New York Times, in a talk at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, “Bush invoked the powerful imagery of the Holocaust on Wednesday to intensify pressure on Sudan, warning that the United States would impose stiff economic sanctions and seek others from the United Nations if President Omar Hassan al-Bashir does not bring a quick end to the brutal violence in Darfur.”

Bush’s other talk was to the fourth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Addressing a crowd that included Catholic priests and the bishop of the Arlington, Virginia, Diocese, Bush said, “We must continue to work for a culture of life — where the strong protect the weak, and where we recognize in every human life the image of our Creator.”

Unfortunately, it seems that none of the people in either audience asked Bush to reconcile his remarks with what the U.S. government has done to the people of Iraq. Consider the number of Iraqi people killed by the U.S. government since the U.S. broke off its partnership with Saddam Hussein in 1990: an estimated 600,000 in Bush’s war and invasion, an estimated 300,000 Iraqi children during the sanctions period (although U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright didn’t dispute the estimate of half-a-million when she stated that the deaths of the Iraqi children were “worth it”), and an estimated 100,000 deaths in the Persian Gulf War, for a total of some 900,000 Iraqi dead.

That’s almost 1/6 the number of people killed in the Holocaust! That is not a small number of dead Iraqi people. And on top of that are the hundreds of thousands of injured and maimed Iraqis.

Wouldn’t you think that people who are strongly committed to the sanctity of human life would have as much commitment to Iraqi life as to American life? Aren’t Iraqi people created in the image of God as much as Americans are? Why didn’t those hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi people have the same right to live their lives out naturally as Americans do? Under what moral authority did the U.S. government engage in an operation that ended up snuffing out the lives of so many Iraqi people?

Apparently none of the Catholic priests at the breakfast chose to ask Bush those questions. Perhaps it’s because many of them have “patriotically” supported the Iraq War and subsequent occupation, regardless of how many Iraqis have been killed.

For example, consider the pro-war stance of Catholic theologian George Wiegel, whose pro-war articles have been printed in the Arlington Catholic Herald, the official newspaper of the Arlington diocese. Weigel steadfastly maintains that Bush’s war and occupation are justified under Catholic just-war theory. But if Weigel is right (and there are many Catholic theologians who say he’s not), then I say that the Catholic just-war theory is in desperate need of being abandoned by Catholics as a guide to war, given that it would be difficult to find a better example of a war of aggression, a type of war crime punished at Nuremberg, than Bush’s war on Iraq.

The Catholic priests had an excellent opportunity to confront Bush directly with his wrongdoing in Iraq, ask him to confess his sin and to repent the wrongful killing and maiming of so many Iraqi people. Unfortunately, unable to muster the courage and moral fortitude that the late Pope John Paul II reflected in opposing Bush’s invasion of Iraq prior to the invasion, the Catholic priests, while reaffirming their commitment to the sanctity of human life, decided to remain mute on the deaths of almost a million Iraqis.

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

Rockwell on Libertarianism

2007-04-22T23:26:00.001-05:00

Government is always and everywhere a rich man's business. The poor have never played a role in the administration of the State, except insofar as they are used by elites as a cover. In fact, the emergence of the State itself grows out of the successful cartelization of one sector of elites against all its competitors. So of course these same elites rule on behalf of themselves. In the whole history of humanity, there is only one means by which the class of the poor have successfully converted their lot into something higher, and that is capitalism.

read more | digg story

LTE on Art Farnsworth from Ken Krawchuk

2007-04-17T14:13:00.000-05:00

Folks:

The following letter to the editor was printed today in the MontCo/Bucks
Co. Intelligencer (and I assume in the sister papers as well).

I note with some annoyance that they deleted the sentence with the URL
and the paragraph about the kangaroo. Otherwise it made it out intact.

Happy April Fool's Day everyone!

- Ken

=====================

To the Editor:

Imagine that you're driving your car and come to a green light.
Inexplicably, other cars are stopped for it. You safely proceed through
the intersection but are immediately pulled over by the police and given a
ticket for running the green light. When you look at the ticket, it
doesn't say what law you broke or what the fine is, and when you appear in
court to ask what's up, you receive no answers and are thrown in jail.

An outlandish scenario? Absolutely! But it describes what happened to
tax honesty advocate Art Farnsworth.

From his research, Art concluded that there is no law requiring the
average American to pay the federal income tax. When he asked the IRS to
show him the law requiring it, they wouldn't comply (i.e., couldn't
comply), so Art stopped filing. The IRS then brought charges against him,
but they never identified which law Art broke by not filing, which tax he
owed, nor how much. Despite the lack of any assessment, they convicted
Art anyway for not paying a tax he didn't owe.

Where is the outrage, the outcry? Have we become so numb to the chronic
erosion of our rights that we just knuckle under when faced with the
kangaroo court of IRS trials?

Alarmingly, these sorts of unbelievable horrors are not only happening to
poor Art Farnsworth. First they came for the tax honesty advocates, and
now America routinely throws people in prison, tortures them, and
confiscates all their assets without a trial, again to no outcry. Even in
those rare cases where the citizenry does awaken, such as when America
invaded another country on trumped-up charges, the outcry falls on deaf
ears. Clearly, America is in a dangerous downward spiral and heading for
a nasty crash landing with all of us aboard.

Fortunately, Aaron Russo (producer of the Eddie Murphy movie Trading
Places) has released a new documentary, "America: Freedom to Fascism",
detailing the truth behind the income tax fraud and many other ills of our
nation. It can be viewed free on Google video at www.TinyURL.com/YBDB9J.

You owe it to yourself and to America to become educated about the fraud
the IRS is foisting upon us -- and soon too, before America's Darth Vader
chooses to target you as well.

Ken V. Krawchuk
Abington

Babblog

It Is Good for One To Be Free by Charles Goyette

"Everyday Anarchy"

Take Your Money Back

Ruwart interview on Libertarian Alternative

Killing and Dying in Iraq for Nothing

Are Cubans Freer than Americans?

Ron Paul Music Video by Aimee Allen

McCain: The downfall of the GOP

Electing Our Dictator

Ron Paul Quotes

The War on Immigrants Is a War on Freedom

The real deal.

**A List of Fox's sponsors** HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS!

The Official Media Guide to Attacking Ron Paul

Bill of Rights Under Bush: A Timeline

Joe Scarborough interviews Ron Paul 12/18

Top 10 Reasons to Overthrow Your Government

Immigration Controls and the Police State

Ron Paul on Mad Money

Meet-Up Groups: Giuliani v Clinton v Huckabee v Obama v Paul

The Soviet-Style Attack on NORFED

Ron Paul will soon take to the sky

Bush and His Scary (Nonexistent) WMDs in Iran

Should socialist education be saved or scrapped?

Cop Mistakes Gun For Taser; Kills man, No Charges Filed

The Ron Paul Revolution Movie!

Des Moines Register openly displays anti- Ron Paul bias.

Get High for Ron Paul

Ron Paul Ad competition - Something Big

Remembering Aaron Russo

Our best chance to repeal the American Empire...

Ron Paul : House of Cards

The Second Amendment: American’s Guarantee of Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger

The Real Thanksgiving Story

I Used To Not Be Anti-Cop

Media notices local Ron Paul outreach

Media notices local Ron Paul outreach

"A Video for America"

Philadelphia Rally Video by Bill Dumas

Feds pull off massive gold heist!

Great Salon.com article: Ron Paul distortions and smears

Hypocrisy and Cowardice in China and the U.S.

CNN's Ron Paul rally coverage (hilarious)

Freedom is popular in Philadelphia

Ron Paul On CNN The Situation Room 11-8-07

Rally City Paper Ad

Ron Paul Rally in Philadelphia

Parents Are Idiots, or So Believes the State

Jeremy Scahill - US war of conquest in Iraq

Here's to the crazy ones…

Happy Pauloween!

The Fraud of the War on Terror

Ron Paul on the $2,400,000,000,000 War

How to get banned on RedState.com

Support the Ron Paul ban on Red State

Penn & Teller on the Frank Luntz Whore

On Fixing Social Security

Let Freedom Ring Video

Sanctions and Embargoes Are Immoral and Counterproductive

Big Brother at school

Awesome Ron Paul video!

Why the GOP Must Nominate Ron Paul

Ron Paul's plan to eliminate the Income Tax (without a new replacement tax)

Liberty Forum 2008!

Ron Paul's Speeches of Freedom

Ron Paul Trumps in Last Night’s Debate

The Carnage in Iraq - Past, Present, and Future

Senator Craig’s Innocence

38,814 Members, 817 Groups, 671 Cities, 16 Countries, 4,138 events so far..

Governor plans to suspend Pennsylvania Constitution

The Moral Hazard of Central Banking

Aaron Russo: American Revolutionary

Please help bring Ron Paul to Philly!

Dick Cheney tells the truth?

Ron Paul: In for the Long Haul

Ron Paul and the Empire, by Steven LaTulippe

Health Care: Government vs. Private, By Walter E. Williams

“How Foreign Warring Subverts Freedom at Home” by James Bovard

Ron Paul Gets the Most Military Donations

A List of Fox's sponsors HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS!