Laissez-faire

I’ve come to expect extreme bias in the debates hosted by major networks, and they did not let me down last night. Though the format of last night’s CNN YouTube debate was different than the others, the partiality to the status-quo, establishment candidates was still overtly clear. Some of it was admittedly very comical, though unintended I’m sure.

After almost 30 minutes, allowing Romney and Giuliani bicker about illegal immigration, and giving the other candidates a chance to speak, they finally gave Ron Paul a question, albeit an awful one intended to discredit him. He was asked if he believed the “conspiracies” that many of his supporters believe, regarding plans for a North American Union and the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations). It was a loaded question, but Dr. Paul’s answer couldn’t have been better:

Lew Rockwell made the following comment:

PS: Regarding that first CNN-planted question, the Council on Foreign Relations–to which every candidate on that stage but Ron belongs–is an old, influential pro-big business, pro-war, pro-empire lobbying group. It represents the bipartisan, establishment consensus on interventionism. But ooooh, don’t mention it. And don’t mention the North American Union either. Such matters are not for hoi polloi.

Tancredo’s responses are comically predictable. You know he will somehow tie just about everything to border protection; almost as sure as Giuliani will reference 9/11 or national security. I don’t think Tancredo realizes that there are more problems plaguing this country than illegal immigration.

“Mike, that’s not your money. That’s the taxpayers’ money.” Romney said regarding Huckabee’s use of taxpayer money to pay for schooling of illegal immigrants. That statement almost seemed satirical coming from Romney, who is by no means a fiscal conservative.

Huckabee continues to pull at people’s heart strings with his sermon like responses, void of substance. It’s apparent he is very committed to his faith, and unfortunately, to imposing it on the American people to some degree, but conservatives also need to consider that he is a progressive. I believe he is a good man with good intentions, but his compassion apparently blinds him to the ill effects of government intervention. This was reinforced by his praise of NASA (and his attempt to erroneously make a connection between NASA and many technological achievements) and his encouragement for a massive government program for more space exploration.

When asked if Republicans have forgotten how to control spending, McCain said, yes, “…we came to power in 1994, [to change] the government…and the government changed us.” Ron Paul correctly interjected, the next time he spoke, that McCain’s statement does not apply to him. After 20 years as a congressman, he remains dedicated to his principles of limited government.

Romney, Thompson, and Giuliani gave their disingenuous answers to that question, without laying out specific details of course.

The question, which comes up often in various forms, was “What are the names of the top three federal programs you would reduce in size…” Ron Paul is the ONLY one who can ever fully answer it. He very simply said:

I would like to change Washington, and we could by cutting three programs, such as the Department of Education — Ronald Reagan used to talk about that — Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security is the biggest bureaucracy we ever had.

And then the inevitable happened: Ron Paul called for a withdrawal from Iraq, thereby inviting a desperate attack from one of the other candidates:

And besides, what we can do is we can have a stronger national defense by changing our foreign policy. Our foreign policy is costing us a trillion dollars, and we can spend most of that or a lot of that money home if we would bring our troops home.

It was McCain this time, and here’s the exchange:

I’m glad Paul pointed out that he receives more donations from military personnel, than any other candidate. I’m no expert on WWII, but from what I understand, it was the United States’ Interventionist foreign policy that led to WWI under the guise of making “the world safe for Democracy,” as Wilson put it — a reason eerily similar a post-hoc reason for going into Iraq. The US, through military involvement in WWI eventually turned over a large portion of Europe to communism. This laid the groundwork for WWII, which we did not remain neutral in. Apparently I’m not the only one who thought Paul came out on top.

Romney said he supports farm subsidies after he scolded Huckabee for frivolously distributing money that isn’t his. Giuliani agrees.

Giuliani was asked about the surfacing of his latest scandal, involving abnormal levels of “security” expenditures during his extramarital affair. He replied that his security follows him everywhere and he can’t discuss the threats that warranted the specific security expenses.

Giuliani then struggled to explain his awful record on the 2nd Amendment. He kept reminding us how important the right to bear arms is, amidst flimsy justifications for his unconstitutional gun regulations.

One of the most awkward moments was when Romney mentioned that he has two guns in his home and they’re owned by his son Josh. Then he interrupts to say “he buys expensive things for me.” I have no idea what that meant. It occurs at about 2:00 into this clip.

I have been careful not to focus too much on Romney’s flip flopping, trying to keep in mind that people change their minds, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they are inconsistent or hypocritical. But after this debate, seeing Romney bobble his answers, I have been convinced otherwise. He CAN NOT give a straight answer to a question. It has become more evident that he is being guided by a lust for power rather than a set of principles — not even a loosely defined, misguided set.

For instance his responses regarding:
Torture (water boarding)
Belief in the Bible
Gays in the military

The last question addressed directly to Ron Paul was a ridiculous one basically asking if he will run as an independent if he does not get the republican nomination. It’s ridiculous because he has been asked this questions so many times within the mainsteam media alone. And he responds the same way every time: He’s focusing on the republican nomination right now and that’s it. He made the best of the question and used the opportunity to discuss the tremendous progress his campaign has been making.

The final question was THIS; because, while our economy is suffering; the value of our currency is being debased; our civil rights are disappearing; people are being tortured, held without trials, denied habeas corpus, spied on and arrested without warrants; our troops(3800+ so far in Iraq alone) and civilians (1,118,000+) are being killed overseas; and we are increasingly plundered by our own elected officials, there should always be time on the debate stage to ask the most corrupt candidate about his support for a particular baseball team. Words cannot describe my disgust.

**update: I forgot to link to the final question video. here it is.

It appears likely now, since last nights meeting of Michigan lawmakers, that Michigan’s sales tax will be extended to include many services. According to many business owners, this extension, which could go into effect this Saturday, would have a negative impact on their businesses and thus the Michigan economy as a whole — as if it isn’t struggling enough.

The adverse effects posed by this tax would especially be realized by owners of small businesses:

Taxing services in Michigan would have especially detrimental effects on small businesses, which routinely contract out for bookkeeping, accounting, office equipment repair, janitorial, legal, computer and a host of other service activities. A large competitor can often provide such things in-house, thereby avoiding a sales tax. This should concern us, since the lion’s share of new jobs are created by small businesses.

Ultimately this will be damaging to the citizens of Michigan, as the additional cost of these services — particularly those that people will continue to use despite higher costs — will be passed on to the consumer. Those services that are less essential to people, will suffer, and some will likely be forced to close.

The Republican presidential candidates will meet tonight for the CNN YouTube debates, hosted by Anderson Cooper. This is a new approach to the presidential debate process. Questions are asked by people who send in 30 second YouTube videos via the internet. The democrats already had theirs a few months ago.

Originally, all the republican candidates had declined the invitation — save John McCain and Ron Paul — citing scheduling conflicts. After an animated snowman was used in a video to ask a question to the democratic contenders, Mitt Romney expressed his distaste in answering questions from a snowman. Apparently since then, his campaign aides have explained that it wasn’t really a snowman talking, but rather humans using stop-motion animation to ask a question in a creative way. The debate was rescheduled for tonight, and I believe all the remaining candidates will also be attending.

8pm ET, on CNN

The Michigan Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals decision. The January 15th, Michigan presidential primary will remain as scheduled. We WILL have a say in who the democratic and republican nominees are. This is very good news.

Last week, Federal Agents raided the Evansville, IN headquarters of the Liberty Dollar, confiscating all the coins, gold, silver, dies, computers, and records, and froze all the bank accounts.

The Liberty Dollar was founded almost 10 years ago as an inflation proof alternative to federal reserve notes — the unbacked paper money that we are mandated to use. All of the currency distributed by the Liberty Dollar company is 100% backed and redeemable in gold and silver, as their website clearly states. Not many vendors currently accept liberty dollars, since it is relatively unknown, but they have nearly $20 million dollars in circulation.

It seems peculiar to me that they had been operating for almost 10 years without a problem. It wasn’t until Ron Paul — whom they have a coin named after, due to his strong criticism of the Federal Reserve and their inflationary monetary policy, and his support for sound money like the Liberty Dollar — started making great progress in the election. I find the actions taken by the FBI to be very alarming.

The FBI has still declined to comment on the reason for the raid, referring questions to the US attorney’s office which also declined to comment. However, the affidavit for a search warrant has been leaked to the internet and can be found here.

Since the raid, $20 Ron Paul Liberty Dollar coins have been selling in excess of $200.

Despite Ron Paul having absolutely no connection to this company — and the Liberty Dollar doing nothing wrong other than threatening the coercive government monopoly on money — I fear this will be used to smear his campaign.

These are some quick notes I took while watching the CNN Democratic debate last night. I didn’t watch the entire thing, but I assume it didn’t get anymore insightful than what I saw. Excuse my spelling and grammar. I was typing while I watched it:

*according to obama, one of the reasons that people are struggling financially is because they don’t think Washington is listening to them…oh…that makes sense…? off to a great start with the hollow rhetoric.

*first 5 mins…it’s already chaotic. hillary, obama, wolf and a few people in the audience compete for the floor. i thought the democrats claimed they were united, unlike the bickering republicans.

*edwards concedes, he’s not perfect. i agree.

*why exactly does hillary propose tax credits for health care? she has a plan for universal health care, but she wants to make sure people can afford it…? is anyone else confused by this. i was under the impression that universal health care meant that every person received health care for “free.” furthermore, how does she expect to pay for this “free” health care, if she’s giving everyone tax credits?

*joe biden is way cooler than the other dems. and funny too. still no substance though.

*edwards keeps talking, but there does not appear to be a point to his bantering. wait…nope, nothing. it sounded nice, but there was nothing related to public policy. the audience eats it up.

*dodd want to focus on packing washington full of people with a (D) next to their name. who cares what they stand for, as long as they are democrats. that’s what america needs: party loyalty!

*bill richardson chimes in. he wants to “give peace a chance.” but he wants to use the brute force of government to take the fruits of one man’s labor and give it to another. that’s not very peaceful. In fact, that’s downright violent, when it comes down to enforcing it.

*kucinich is the only one who does not agree to unconditionally support the democratic nominee, if it’s not him. good for him.

*peculiar isn’t it; illegal immigrants often work without “protections” like minimum wage and worker safety laws, and obama is concerned about this. why is it then, that they want so badly to have these miserable jobs? illegality aside, why should the government intervene when the employee and employer are both content, and make a consensual adult transaction — labor for money?

*obama does an excellent job of dodging the drivers license question: should illegal immigrants be issued drivers licenses? but then it comes back — wolf blitzer demands a yes or no answer — and he fumbles. almost as badly as hillary did during the last debate

*hillary does a much better job of answering this question than last debate. she probably practiced because she couldn’t answer it last time. she said “no.”

*richardson: teachers aren’t payed enough. we need a minimum wage for teachers at $40k/yr…merit pay…? how about teachers get compensated based on their performance, judged by their employer — who has a direct and personal stake in the quality of education the children receive? novel idea. it’s not going to happen with any of their proposed plans, because that is what would happen in an economically free society, and they don’t condone that.

*cutting off military aid to pakistan might undermine our national security because they have nuclear weapons and a strong terrorist presence? umm…shouldn’t that be a reason to quit funding them? I guess we won’t realize that until we are invading packistan, 10 years from now, and fighting terrorists that we trained and armed.

*edwards will rid the world of nuclear weapons. that’s very ambitious (i.e. not gonna happen). let’s get rid of all the guns and knives and explosives as well.

*what’s more important…human rights or national security? some say human rights; others say national security. clearly it must be one over the other (sarcasm).

*i changed the channel because i got word that MSNBC was airing a story on giuliani’s latest scandal. it gives me great pleasure watching his campaign crumble due to his corruption. that debate was getting boring anyhow.

The following is an excerpt from an interview of Judge Andrew Napolitano by Reason’s Brian Doherty. While discussing his new book, A Nation of Sheep, the Patriot Act was brought up. Napolitano reminds us that the tipping point for many American colonists was an action taken by the British government then, that is currently being taken by our government now:

“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.

“Remember that the British government permitted its soldiers to execute self-written search warrants. They called them “writs of assistance,” and they were one of the last straws that caused American colonist to rebel. It’s bitterly ironic that 230 years later a popularly elected government would authorize its own agents to do the same thing that when a monarchy did it, we fought a war of rebellion in reaction—which we won!”

The full interview is here. I highly recommend it. Judge Napolitano is full of interesting facts.

A Grinnell College student recently decided to make known a dispicable campaign tactic used by Hillary Clinton. According to the 19 year old student, a senior Clinton staffer planted her with a question to ask Clinton during a question and answer session following a speech at the Iowa college.

Apparently others have also come forward, claiming the same thing happened to them.

It should come as no surprise that Hillary would resort to such pathetic tactics. After-all she has been having some difficulty weaseling her way out of questions as of late.

The upcoming Michigan presidential primary has been scheduled for January 15th in 2008. There have been a few complications involved with this, including a lawsuit filed, requesting that the Michigan primary be canceled.

I understand the concerns raised by Mark Grebner — the man who filed the lawsuit — though it’s clear he is mainly concerned with making a profit from selling voter lists. A much bigger concern in my opinion, is the fact that the participation of Michigan citizens in the presidential nomination process is at stake.

If the primary is scrapped, the Michigan delegates sent to the national convention will be casting their votes for presidential nominees selected by a very small number of delegates that have already been elected. This is contrary to the democratic principles that so many people cherish in this country. Though I am hesitant to use the term “democratic” — as I understand the United States is a Constitutional Republic and not really a Democracy — I realize that there are democratic aspects intertwined, and people use the term to mean that the people play a direct role in their governance, which I believe is absolutely necessary to sustain liberty.

The stronger the voice of the individual, the greater our freedom.

I urge people to write their state senator and state representative as soon as possible and let them know you want the primary to remain. Here are the main points to convey:

Find your State Senator’s contact information here.

Find your State Representative’s contact information here.

Let them know you want to take part in the presidential nomination process!

The AP reports that Ron Paul brought in an astonishing $4.2 million in 24 hours, setting a few records, including highest number of donors is a single day. Over 37,000 contributors participated in yesterday’s push.

The media has taken note of this remarkable event, albeit with the same negative slant they typically have. I think the people are one step ahead of the media though.

Donations continue to steadily pour into Ron Paul’s campaign. In just twelve hours, over $1,500,000 has been raised, with no slowing down in sight.

I don’t know what the record is for campaign contributions in a single day, but if this doesn’t exceed the record, it has to be coming close. I’ll see if I can find any information on that.

A significant amount of attention was directed at the Ron Paul campaign for bringing in just over $5,000,000 last quarter. So what is to be made of the fact that he will likely top $5,000,000 (today!), less than half way through the fourth quarter?

*UPDATE: Thomas Woods writes: “The all-time record for single-day fundraising during the primary season is $2.3 million.” this just might be broken today.

*UPDATE: ronpaulgraphs.com is experiencing bandwidth issues due to the large amount of people watching Dr. Paul’s fundraising go through the roof. it just recently exceeded $2,000,000!

*UPDATE: well, $2.3 million has easily been passed, but apparently that isn’t the record. according to an email distributed by the Paul campaign, Romney holds the record at $3.1 million. That could very well be exceeded as well. it’s not letting up.

Today is the 5th of November; the day chosen by a group of Ron Paul supporters to “money bomb” the campaign. I’m not sure where the term originated, but a “money bomb” is when a person or group of people pledge to donate a certain amount to a campaign (or any cause I suppose), on a specific day, and encourage others to do the same. For the Ron Paul campaign it has resulted in noticeable spikes in fundraising which can be seen at RonPaulGraphs.

This money bomb is by far the most ambitious one yet, seeking to get 100,000 people to donate $100 each today, in effect raising $10 million in one day. I think the goal will be far from met. However, I do believe that a significant amount will be raised today. I estimate around $2,000,000, which should be enough to generate some media attention. I wonder how they will spin it though.

I was astonished to check Ron Paul’s website at 7:30 this morning and see that over $500,000 had already been raised since midnight.

If you’d like to be part of this historical event for the freedom revival movement, you can donate to the campaign here.

*UPDATE: Here is a good link for tracking the results.

*UPDATE: It’s 10am and it has topped $1,000,000!

The FBI is making it more difficult to obtain essentially harmless chemistry sets; the same kind that you probably experimented with as a child. Apparently they have become a security threat to our police state.

That’s okay, we can keep the children occupied with television, strictly monitored by the FCC, and cell phones that can be used by the CIA to eavesdrop on them (without the inconvenience of warrants of course) if they are to somehow procure a threatening chemistry set without proper government clearance.

Any bets on the next security threat? Model rockets? Toasters?