Laissez-faire

The Bush Administration is seeking a new tool for spying on Americans and foreigners. The system, referred to as Einstein, would monitor anyone who visits a .gov website. The Department of Homeland Security has described it as “an automated process for collecting, correlating, analyzing, and sharing computer security information across the federal civilian government.”

The program is already active in 15 federal agencies and DHS Secretary, Michael Chertoff, has requested nearly $300 million for expand it to include all agencies.

“Whenever a system monitors users’ communications, privacy concerns naturally arise, said James Lewis, who runs the technology policy wing of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, and is working with members of Congress to devise cybersecurity policy recommendations for the next president. In this case, however, he said he didn’t see any reason to be alarmed about Einstein quite yet.

“For Einstein to really affect privacy, you’d need to monitor and collect the communications, store them, and analyze them (e.g. have somebody actually read the content),” he said in an e-mail interview after Thursday’s hearing. “I’m told that DHS won’t store Einstein data and won’t be analyzing it, which greatly reduces any risk to privacy.”

Apparently his definition of analyzing is completely different from that of the DHS which had this to say:

“Homeland Security says the setup has helped reduce the time it takes for agencies to share such data from four to five days to four to five hours. The next step is to hire more analysts and enable the analysis to occur in real time, DHS says.”

So either James isn’t being completely honest or the DHS misspoke and wants $300 million to pretend like it’s doing something to benefit our security — not an entirely unbelievable scenario.

Well, I know he’s not qualified, but is it possible that he is not eligible according to the US Constitution? Being that he was not born on American soil, some have been questioning his eligibility. It has been brought up many times, but I disregarded it as detail that would amount to nothing. I was surprised, however, to see the NY Times take notice of it.

The details are murky, and quite honestly I don’t know the ins and outs of the birthright citizenship requirement, but I’m not sure if it matters. It’s not like McCain has shown much respect for the Constitution anyhow.

A young entrepreneur learns his first lesson in running a business: Do not attempt to compete with the government. How dare he offer students a healthy alternative to public school lunch?

(link via lewrockwell.com)

…without permission from the state (a license).

This was a publicity stunt, but it makes a very good point. A man is denied his right to give a consenting woman a manicure because he is not licensed:

This morning NPR reported that the FED cut interest rates again. The commentator also noted that the continual rate cuts are undermining American currency and will lead to excessive inflation.

MSNBC also takes note of the threat from inflation, due to the FED’s “easy money policy.”

Why are the media just now starting to consider the consequences of such reckless monetary policy? Look to the market for more accurate and real-time information. The dollar fell to a record low against the Euro with only speculation of an interest rate cut.

As the dollar continues to drop, we can expect oil prices to rise.

People are going to be wishing they had stood behind Ron Paul — the only presidential candidate with an understanding of economics and monetary policy — when they realize he was right again. Many laugh at him, and call him kooky, but they can’t seem to put their finger on exactly what is so kooky. After all, his “kooky” economic predictions all seem to come to fruition to some extent.

What do Barack Obama and Vanilla Ice have in common?

That’s how much Romney spent on his failed presidential campaign. Over $42,000,000 of which was his own money. This is according to the FEC report which also indicates the remaining republican candidate with the most cash on hand is none other than Ron Paul.

Though his chances are dismal at this point, Justin Raimondo reminds us why he’s not through yet. Besides the presidential campaign, he has his congressional seat to save. He’s being challenged by an opportunist neocon, Chris Peden, who just last, year praised him when he said, “I have an immense amount of respect for Ron Paul. Politics has a way of forcing people to go against their core principles for political gain. That has never been the case for Ron Paul.”

On another note, Obama and Clinton debated last night. It was horridly uninformative as expected. They speak in rehearsed generalities, and make promises that could be accomplished only through miracles. But the people eat it up.

And WHY does the media feel it’s necessary to report on Obama getting an applause after blowing his nose? I guess that tells you something about the substance of his campaign.

People are NOT giving up. Plans are being made for a massive freedom rally and march in Washington DC. A date has yet to be selected, but it will likely be in the spring or early summer, if there is enough interest.

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A California court has ruled to shut down a website aimed at making government more transparent by exposing fraud and corruption through anonymous whistle-blowers. The website, Wikileaks, can still be accessed (at least for now) by directing your browser to the IP address (http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks), despite the domain being blocked. Apparently when the US censors the internet it’s okay, because it’s for people’s safety; when China — or any other country — does it, it’s a threat to democracy. The same kind of democracy, presumably, that the US is attempting to bomb into countries across the globe. The moral of the story: Teach through force, not by example.

(via DailyPaul)

Check out an estimated market value of your house at Zillow.com. See just how much your home value has depreciated due to the government and their FED based monetary policy.

BTW, The Federal Reserve recently pumped another $30 Billion into the banks, so they’d ease up on lending. If we ever pull out of this slump, we can expect to fall right back in.

I would find this video more frightening if I thought he’d actually become president.

“I disagree with what the majority of the American people want.”

-John McCain

But he’d be more than willing to ram it down our throats, given the opportunity.

Auburn Hills is considering taking measures to protect its citizens from the dangers of sagging pants. There is debate within the city council, whether or not they should make sagging pants illegal. Be sure to watch the video which shows some of these dangerous teens wearing their pants lower than socially acceptable (according to public officials). They ought to start a program through which belts are purchased and distributed by the city. Perhaps they could take this to the federal level and start a war on saggy pants.

“Ron Paul is very smart. So I don’t want to talk to him too long for fear that he will convince me.”

-Anne Coulter

(via dailypaul.com)

Looks like Romney will be the next one to rescind his bid for the republican nomination. The only downside to this is that it now becomes less likely that this will come down to a brokered convention. In the case of a brokered convention, we still would have had a shot to nominate an honest man.

John “BS” McCain:

Mitt “Flip” Romney:

Liars and phonies, both.

Toymaker, Lego and Wal-Mart’s Canadian division experienced a disagreement on pricing that led to a discontinuation of business between the two companies. Retail prices in Canada have fallen* due to an appreciating Canadian dollar (Relative to the plummeting US dollar). A drop in retail prices, requires stores like Wal-Mart to request lower wholesale prices from suppliers like Lego. Lego, based in the US which is experiencing a declining dollar due to inflation, is finding it more difficult to compete in Canada’s market, and was unable to lower their wholesale prices.

This is a relatively insignificant example, but I’m afraid it’s a reminder of our current crisis and a sign of what’s to come. The disastrous policy of inflating the money supply and spending far beyond our means, has many more far reaching consequences than higher domestic prices.

*Although, for whatever twisted reason the Canadian government feels it’s necessary to control retail prices of toys (and most everything else), prices would have come down naturally in a free society as well. As the purchasing power of a currency rises, competition alone would drive prices down.

If Ron Paul supporters weren’t already disappointed by his poor showing in the primaries, yesterday’s results were almost sure to push them over the edge. However, DeBosco, over at Daily Paul, reminds us to “be of good cheer.”

The grassroots support for the Freedom Message has been unbelievable. I have never in my life witnessed so many folks with such passion and energy and a willingness for fight for Liberty. When I told my wife what I saw happening on the Internet, I added, “Many of them will have their hearts broken.” When you know that the message is so right, you are stunned that the majority of our fellow citizens just don’t get it.

A couple other things to feel good about:

Ron Paul out of the race?
The Mouse that Roared