Ron Paul's Fantastic Interview with Ivan Eland on Recarving Rushmore

Ron Paul interviewed former CATO Institute Director of Defense Policy Studies and current Independent Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty Ivan Eland on his newest book Mounting Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, which can be purchased here, here, here, and here.

The following entire six-part YouTube videos are a treat. Enjoy them!

Part I


Part II


Part III


Part IV


Part V


Part VI


[Cross-posted at the Freeman Chronicles.]

WKBK's Pro-Statist Talkback and Its Censorship Practices

Keene, New Hampshire's very own pro-statist Talkback, a political talk radio show hosted by Cynthia Georgina and Paula Phillips on its local radio station WKBK, is now engaging in randomly systematic censorship practices against Free Staters who frequently call into the program to offer anti-state, pro-liberty viewpoints against the political establishment in the town. Georgina, who is a statist serving in the Keene City Council, has espoused her political annoyance with the pro-liberty activists who call in repeatedly because, according to Cynthia:

CYNTHIA GEORGINA: We get caller after caller after caller calling in and saying, 'You're stealing homes, you're stealing homes.' That's not what it is. We are following the law. And that's not stealing homes. And that's where the problem lies.

Not only that, a number of statist callers phoned into the show, complaining about the Free Staters calling into the show for expressing their anti-state views, including one female caller who has once called into the show before and, on today's show, says once again that Ian Freeman and Mark Edge of Free Talk Live should only talk about their views on their show and stay off of Talkback's airwaves.

Georgina and Phillips, who have agreed with these statist callers that the Free Staters should not be allowed on the show's airwaves, allowed me on the air while I was waiting to go on for a few minutes. While I tried to complain about the statist clods who were defaming my fellow liberty activists in the Keene area, Phillips changed the subject about Obama's stimulus package for Michigan, considering I mentioned my name and my home state to the two of them. I didn't want to get into Michigan's economic woes (considering that's not why I called), but I played along wondering where they were going with this.

Basically, I said that Governor Jennifer Granholm (my governor, yes!) was responsible for destroying the state due to excessive taxation, regulations, overspending, and other pro-state machinations. They tried to make it sound like I was favoring companies getting away with not being regulated (although the fact is, they are regulated), and I was merely ignoring her questions because they were off-topic. As I tried to get back on topic about the other callers, Phillips, as the liar she is, claimed, "That's the caller's opinion, not my opinion!" Yet she and Cynthia agreed with the callers who had a beef with us about our calls into the show.

Anyway, here's a widget of the callers and me calling into the show:

The Statist Caller...

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]

Penn Jillette on Larry King Live: "I Think The President Should Have Much Less Power..."

Libertarian magician/TV personality Penn Jillette was on Larry King Live last night, with leftist talk radio show host Stephanie Miller, leftist Clintonite James Carville, and conservative and former RNC advisor Terry Holt, in which he points out that Obama "should have much less power." Collectivistic liberal Miller rebutts his argument by saying:

STEPHANIE MILLER: Penn, we got to have, you know, help around the world with the War on Terror. I mean, I know, after the Bush administration, it's kind of a low bar for an overseas trip [to London for the G20 Summit]. Uh, as long as, you know, he didn't throw up on someone, uh, chew with his mouth open, or give someone, uh, an unnecessary back rub, I guess we're happy. But, I do think his popularity around the world is really going to help us. You know, I mean, he said something starting for an American president. He said, "I'm gonna listen ... I'm here to listen and not just talk." And I think, I think that's really important.

Jillette responded with the following:

PENN JILLETTE: I was just going to say Bush didn't say the opposite. I mean, it's not, uh, that's not a very profound to thing to just say that you're going to listen. I mean, yes, people like him more. He's better looking, he's a better speaker, and I guess that's okay. But the whole country rallying behind somebody is always a bad idea.

And the following exchange between Miller and Jillette occured, especially given her smug remarks:

MILLER: Listen, Penn, the only people that are in bad shape after George Bush is gone are the people in the effigy business, because he was burned in effigy more times when he went on overseas trips...

JILLETTE: You can't, you can't, you can't I pretend I'm pushing for Bush. I'm not. I'm just saying the President shouldn't have that much power.

Right on, Penn! That statist scumbag Miller, whose demeanor on the show is atypical of a limousine leftist, thinks that the American people shouldn't be exercising individualism whatsoever. And not only that, she claims that we must "have help around the world with the War on Terror." But wait a second! Aren't Democrats for civil liberties? Aren't they for ending the War in Iraq? Aren't they against the War on Terror?

The answers to those questions are no, no, and no. It certainly proves that the Democrats were never against the War in Iraq; they were against Bush's handling of the war, because, had they had the White House for eight years after the attacks of 9/11, they would have launched their own invasion and occupation of Iraq. It proves that they are not for civil liberties, as they are not for releasing the inmates of Guantanamo Bay into civilian custody, even though Obama allegedly ordered an end of the detention center. It also proves that they are not for ending the war in Iraq, despite the fact that Obama claims that military operations will "cease" in Iraq on August 31, 2010.

The fact that Miller takes a hostile position against Jillette shows the Left's hypocritical nature and its vile, repugnant ways.

King himself arrogantly says, "You can be individualistic as much as you like. Someone's gotta think for the masses." Excuse me? Someone's "gotta think for the masses"? This sheeple mentality is indicative of the statist mind, including the limousine leftists like King, Miller, and Carville.

Can someone please remind these clowns that America was founded on the ideals of individual liberty, personality responsiblity, and limited government, not collectivism of the tyrannical kind, protection from personal responsibility, and limitless, out-of-control government?

Watch the video of the chat if you dare:



[Cross-posted at the Freeman Chronicles.]

Update: I was told by a fellow libertarian (a big LRC'er) that the conservative guest Terry Holt under Penn Jillette "was also okay but not as forceful." He also said that Holt was "more of a conservative" and had embraced "too many of the democrat premises and terms." For once, he's right. The conservative clown seemed to be more in agreement with Carville and Miller than with Jillette, although he did side with Jillette by saying that the government creates a system of "winners and losers" via the tax system. But, as a typical right-winger, he refuses to call for ending the state's control over the individual, especially by ending the federal income tax and other vile, diabolical government machinations.

The Teen "Child" Pornography Madness

The teen "child" pornography madness, which has been a subject of great mainstream media coverage over a number of months, has been getting out of hand. I'm not referring to child pornography itself (a practice which is very despicable), but to the allegations of "child pornography" that have been popping up in the courtrooms and the mainstream media within the last number of months. I'm specifically referring to today's Generation Y a.k.a. adolescents (teenagers), who used to be called "the youth," and are being prosecuted left and right simply for doffing their clothes and taking nude pics of themselves with their camera phones or just posting them on their social networking accounts like Myspace. Let's not forget that there have been cases of teenage males having been prosecuted for filming their girlfriends in the nude (or while they're having sex with one another) and taking naked pics of them.

Just this week a 14-year-old teenage girl from New Jersey was arrested for posting 30 nude pics of herself on her Myspace account. Why did she do this, you might be asking? Because she wanted her boyfriend to see them. According to media accounts, if the poor girl is convicted, under Megan's Law, she would have to register as a sex offender and serve 17 years in prison. Currently, she's been remanded to her mother's custody for the time being. A court date hasn't been set as well.

What started this brouhaha was that someone tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which then contacted the police. The authorities began a month-long investigation into the matter, sex stinging the girl until they came to the conclusion that she did this for her boyfriend.

An even more interesting fact is that many parents and pundits have lambasted the local law enforcement officials and the district attorney's office, including Maureen Kanka (the mother of the late Megan Kanka whose murder led to her mom lobbying for the passage of Megan's Law) who publicly condemned the arrest, saying that the police should "be ashamed of themselves" for charging the youth. University of Pennsylvania constitutional law professor Seth Kreimer even believes the arrest was insane as well:

To deploy the nuclear weapon of child pornography charges shows almost as bad judgment as posting the nude photos themselves.

Another case involving another 14-year-old teen girl from Pennsylvania provides a disturbing picture of the out-of-control government's obsession with prosecuting and persecuting adolescent women and men for taking sexually-explicit pictures and filming themselves engaging in explicit sexual activity. It also shows that the state is infantilizing (more correctly, "childifying") our youth and treating them like children, while imposing government-mandated "sex education" in the public "government" schools (which is encouraging kids to have sex). Let's also not forget that most parents do not educate their children about sex, because of their uncomfortability with the subject and their irrational fear that, if they did so, their kids would pursue that kind of activity. Yet it is common knowledge that, once the young children enter their adolescent years, they will learn about sex from either their peers or watch porn (and get the wrong ideas about sex and love) or both. And, because of that, it drives them to have sex, especially when they are not emotionally, mentally, and financially ready for that responsibility. After all, teen pregnancy, while having declined somewhat over the years, is still at an all-time high and sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) is very prevalent as well.

Moreover, the state doesn't get that, as long as it continues to raise teens as little children, Generation Y'ers will act out as children and not as young adults. Once they are childified, it's almost impossible for them to snap out of it and it sticks with them for the rest of their lives.

As long as the state proceeds to prevent teens from learning responsibility and behaving like adults, they will be immature, irresponsible, and insecure. This is what the state is doing to the adolescent population: it's shielding teens from growing up and learning from the consequences of their actions. If teens were allowed to marry, sign contracts, have children, take control of their education, vote, join the military, drink, emancipate themselves from their abusive parents and families, etc., they would be more likely to wait until they were ready to handle those responsibilities. While the state deserves the lion's share of the blame here, the parents deserve it just as much.

Moreover, the sex registry system creates a new criminal class, which sticks with the convicted sex offenders for life. It's almost impossible for them to lose that label. Since there are no victims and the teens who are infantilized by their parents and the state are said to be victims of "statutory rape" (used to be called "jail bait"), the state will accuse the offenders of engaging in these "rapes," considering teen women voluntarily choose to be sexually active with their male lovers (who are usually older than them) and do not cry out rape. Not only that, the offenders are required to re-register with the state whenever they move and find it difficult to land jobs, considering employers tend to be leery about hiring them to begin with.

It's time for the state to get out of this business of protecting teens. It's also time for parents to assume the role of protecting and raising their kids and teaching them about sex, so they can wait until they are ready to deal with all and any adult responsibilities.

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]

Obama and Press Secretary Gibbs to Everyone: No to Marijuana Legalization

Raw Story leaked this story about President Obama's answer to the press about his position on the legalization of marijuana during his town hall Q & A event (simply billed as the "Open for Questions Town Hall event"). YouTubers and the American public, as reported by the mainstream "government" media, print media, and blogs like the Huffington Post, were online, asking him questions from his plan to nationalize the banks and mortgage industries to his insane socialized medicine plan. (Here's a New York Times transcript of the event here.)

In response to the questions that 3.5 million people voted on the "Open for Questions" section of the White House website, one user with the username "Green Machine" asked the following question on the site:

Will you consider decriminalizing the recreational/medical use of marijuana(hemp) so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?

Obama answered the question by issuing the following statist response:

THE PRESIDENT: Three point five million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy -- (laughter) -- and job creation. And I don't know what this says about the online audience -- (laughter) -- but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy -- (laughter) -- to grow our economy. (Applause) [Emphasis on the "applause" added.]

Here's the video of Obama's response:



Here's White House Press Secretary Robert Gibb's repugnant and sick response to a reporter's question about Obama's position on pot:



[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]

Former BTP At-Large Member Steve Trinward's Clarification on His Resignation

Former At-Large Member Steve Trinward, who resigned from the Boston Tea Party last night, has issued a clarification as to why he relinquished his seat on the BTP National Committee and the Party.

Here's the following explanation he gives for his decision:

This confirms my reasons for resigning; comments below

--- In btpnc@yahoogroups.com, "Douglass G." wrote:
>
> Tom's concerns were addressed here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/btpnc-talk/message/953
>
> This is why it is important for members of the committee to check both forums at least once each day and before voting on a motion.

Clearly, I should never have allowed myself to be nominated for this spot. I did not realize that the only difference between serving on:

a) the National Committee of a multimillion-dollar political party, with multiple organized state affiliates, a number of elected officials and at least some clue of how to proceed; or

b) the National Committee of a non-money-based, fledgling and grassroots online discussion group, whose primary function seems to be passing resolutions that then disappear into the Internet ether ...

is merely the variety of energy-sink they entail.

Instead of quarterly meetings, requiring travel & hotel & meal costs ... this one requires TIME -- constant monitoring of Yahoo discussion lists, with tiny signal-to-noise ratios -- on the off chance something of substance shows up. ANd it's not enough to monitor the committee discuss list, one has to also play in the chat-pool ...

Sorry, folks! IN a very few months (Bastille Day to be exact) I shall be celebrating the completion of six decades in this cycle of human-form existence ... the last four-plus of which I have spent doing some form of "fighting for liberty" or another. Inasmuch as in doing so, I've tossed aside a lot of potentially lucrative pathways, in order to have the time to devote to that "higher goal" (while being taken for granted (and/or undervalued) by a wide variety of folks within the movement and beyond it? but I won't go there), I'm now scrambling to create enough ongoing and self-sustaining ventures so I may not need to be delivering pizzas when I am 80!

no time to check in every day in case something might be of interest; and even less time to do so without some notation that something pertinent to the "business" of the NC might be found there ...

good luck - Steve

Good riddance to a smug, arrogant jackass who really proved to be worthless on the Committee.

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]

Boston Tea Party Founder Tom Knapp and BTP At-Large Member Steve Trinward Resign from the BTP National Committee and the BTP

It looks official: Boston Tea Party founder and KN@PPSTER blogger Thomas L. Knapp has just dropped a huge ball on the BTP members and supporters by posting a message to the BTPNC Yahoo Group list, announcing that he was resigning from the Boston Tea National Committee and the Party as well.

This is what he said:

To whom it may concern,

I have resigned from the party, which in effect means that I've resigned my national committee seat (and any admin role on the site, since my resignation consisted of deleting my account).

I apologize for putting the committee through yet another vacancy-filling election. I also apologize for what looks like, but was not, a suddenly undertaken decision to resign. It's been coming for some time, and the latest episode of "whatever Tom Knapp says has implications for the party" was the straw that broke the camel's back. It's never been JUST my party, but that card's been played so many times that the only way to get it out of the tricksters' deck is for it not to be even partly my party.

I will leave this Yahoo! group as soon as I post this message. Naturally, I continue to welcome personal correspondence with any or all of you.

Best regards,
Tom Knapp

Of course, I have forwarded the post to the BTPNC-Talk list, which is also on Yahoo Groups' server.

Interestingly enough, an hour and 14 minutes later, At-Large Member Steve Trinward (a former Libertarian Party member and Tennessee LP member who once served on the LP's Libertarian National Committee some years ago) decided to follow suit by posting his resignation on the same list.
Here's Trinward's resignation as well:

Dammit, Tommy - Now I look a copycat.

I too am formally resigning from this whatever it is ... when I get a chance I will likely drop off the membership as well.

This has also been coming for a while, but other parts of my life have taken precedence. They continue to do so ...

This latest "resolution" is just the final straw. The effort to "amend" faulty language, while dealing with neither of Tom's concerns as he raised them, says it all. This is just another right-wing cover group, no more worth my energies than any other out there.

it's been ... interesting - Steve Trinward.

Trinward's gripe with a "resolution" is in reference to a resolution I authored and amended (see an incoming separate post, which will discuss the motion [original and amended] in great detail). Basically, this resolution condemns and repudiates President Barack Obama's backpedaling on the war in Iraq, which I believe was well-worded and no other objections were raised (except that Tom issued his concerns about my proposed motion). Former BTP Chairman and current Kansas BTP Chairman Jim Davidson responded to Tom's concerns, which is something that Trinward didn't even to notice.

I'm not sorry to see Trinward go. He has been highly unproductive and hasn't been voting on a number of motions, although he did manually vote on the first two resolutions after I became Secretary of the BTP. I am, however, disappointed and sad that Tom decided not to make a formal announcement of his departure from the Committee and the Party to the party base. After all, the BTP is and always will be his baby, and he is and always will be credited for that.

Although Knapp doesn't want me to publish my private correspondence with him, I will not do it. This is out of respect for the man, so people can draw their own conclusions as to why he left the Party.

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]

Chesterfield Township Bureaucrats' Outrageous Business Permit "Tax" Fee

Government central planners are even more insane and ludicrous than we thought, especially in my township here in my home state of Michigan. The Chesterfield Township bureaucrats recently voted to hike the town's "business permit fee", which is really a business permit tax on small, local businesses that have registered to pay in order to keep their annual permits up to date. The tax, which is disguised as a "fee" assessed and levied on small, local businesses that are required to pay it on an annual basis to the town officials, has been hiked from an annual rate of $5 to $25.

Here's a snip from the The Voice News (a local, community newspaper that serves cities in Southeastern Michigan like Fair Haven, Algonac, New Baltimore, Chesterfield Township, Richmond, and Marysville), which goes into detail here:

Businesses in Chesterfield Township have paid the same amount for their annual permit for 30 years. However, that's all recently changed in an effort to bridge the 30 year gap and generate extra revenue for the township. More increases are on the horizon to update other decades old fees.

"It's been $5 since the '80s," Township Clerk Jan Uglis said of the business permit fees. "We've got to be financially responsible."

The board of trustees voted at the Jan. 5 meeting to increase the fee from $5 to $25.

In the midst of the economic downturn, Uglis said the township has been looking for ways to cut costs and make increases where needed. While the $25 fee might be a shock to some, Uglis said it's still low compared to other communities.

"It's a way to bring more money into the township without raising taxes," she said.

Also new is a late fee the township is imposing. For every month a business doesn't pay the permit fee, they will be charged $15. Uglis said the code enforcer will be out to make sure all businesses are in compliance and take legal action, if needed.

"It's part of the ordinance," she said.

Uglis said it was easier to change the fee to $25 outright instead of gradual yearly increases. The gradual change would have required yearly resolutions; each of which would be required to go before the board of trustees.

"I know this is a bad time, but you have to understand, your business has increased in 30 years," Uglis said.

"Even at $5 people were years behind."

When the fee was still $5 Uglis said some of the businesses had failed to pay. She said for those who hadn't paid in two years, they had to pay $10 for both years and then the $25 on top of that. It added up, she said, especially if they had to pay a late fee.

Jan Uglis, a highly-overpaid township clerk (who is, by the way, a long-time progressive/socialist Democrat and was a proud member of my old church Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, which I used to attend many years ago), is justifying the hikes, claiming that they had not gone up in recent years, but she's not telling the truth. The true reason why the township is in bad shape is because of government overspending, high taxes, (surprise, surprise!) and a police tax, which have plagued the area for a few years now.

Even one resident has complained about this action and has expressed his ardent opposition to it. The rest of the Voice article gets worse. The next couple of paragraphs showcase, in tonality, the diabolical and vile nature of the beast we call government:

The permit was put into place as a way to safeguard the business and the community. Uglis said the business has to fill out the permit and state what they sell, whether there's any kind of chemicals on the premises and emergency contact information, among others.

"If the fire department has to go in after a fire, they have to know what kind of products are inside," she said.

Considering the fact that the local government's fire department is hardly efficient and swift in the deliverance of its services, I can easily tell you that it takes more than 10 minutes for the Chesterfield Twp. Fire Department to respond to a fire on someone's property, let alone a business. This claptrap about "safeguarding the business and the community" is a ruse, because government bureaucrats, even at the local level, respond by brute force. This tax and other machinations are souped up by big business and township interests to undermine and destroy commercial activity that has been, for the longest time, the backbone of the small business community in the area. By raising this tax, they are doing exactly that.

Here's another hair-raising fact: the town even wants to skyrocket its Class C liquor license. As Uglis admits, the township is preparing to raise it from $500 (which had remained that way for 30 years) to a mind-bending $2,000. If a start-up party store (or convenience store) wants to sell booze, that's too costly for any company to pay that amount. Sure, businesses like my local CVS Pharmacy and Kroger can pay that amount, because, as long-time established businesses, they have the volumes of cash, plus the legal and accounting departments to off-set those costs. A new business with a compliment of 200 employees or less simply can't afford to do that.

At a time when the township's economy, the county's economy, and even the state's economy are in god-awful shape and unemployment is boosting at the local, county, and state levels, this will even deepen the already-known one-state depression we already have, even though it's being officially touted as a "recession."

[Cross-posted at Let Liberty Ring.]

Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal Plan Calls for Drawdown on August 31, 2010

Obama's "Iraq withdrawal plan" calls for a pull out of the 142,000 U.S. forces (comprising of Marines and Army personnel) on August 31, 2010.

Here's the Fox News story which, in part, describes the unveiled plan to congressional lawmakers yesterday:

The Iraq war will come to an end on Aug. 31, 2010, senior officials said, following President Obama's decision to end all counter-insurgency missions by that time.

Obama told top leaders in Congress on Thursday that he will transition the mission in Iraq to training, advising and engaging in limited counter-terrorist operations, according to congressional sources.

The president is expected to deliver a speech Friday at the Marine base in Camp Lejeune, N.C, in which he will order the immediate drawdown of the 142,000 Marines and Army personnel in Iraq.

Obama's decision reflects his belief that "there have been real advances" in the country and, as result, the U.S. military should now be ordered to carry out "a fundamental change in mission," senior administration officials said.

With 142,000 U.S. forces in Iraq now and counter-insurgency operations conducted on a near-daily basis, "it is a war, no question," a senior adviser said.

And this war, senior officials said, will officially come to an end on Aug. 31, 2010, when the president orders all U.S. troops to focus their efforts on advising, equipping and training Iraqi security forces as well as assisting in reconstruction and political reconciliation.

"This is a plan that responsibly ends the war in Iraq," said a senior official who participated in the deliberations. "He is living up to a commitment he made as a candidate but is doing so in a way that has the support of the inter-agency task force on Iraq."

The president will order U.S. military commanders to leave a residual force of between 35,000 and 50,000 troops in Iraq. Under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, the U.S. must remove all military personnel by Dec. 31, 2011.

This is going beyond the 16-momth plan that Our Great Leader set forth throughout his campaign and even after he was elected to and inaugurated into office, even though some thought it would be "difficult" to implement it. 19 months? It's no secret that he had soft pedaled and somewhat backed off from his plan in the beginning of his term last month, despite what the Obamameter on PolitiFact.com shows.

I'm not confident that the war in Iraq will end or that Obama will pull the troops out. Perhaps he'll prove me wrong in the final analysis, but I'm not counting on that.

[Cross-posted to The Freeman Chronicles.]

Tucker Carlson Joins CATO

It's official: conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, former host of CNN's now-defunct "Crossfire" and his failed MSNBC show "Tucker," has joined the CATO Institute. Carlson, who briefly flirted with a presidential run by running for the presidency under the Libertarian Party's banner and then decided against it, will be serving as a senior fellow at the think tank.

According to a press release on CATO's website, Carlson will do the following:

Carlson will use his initial time with Cato to focus on writing a book on the state of the American polity. Through other writings as well as media and public speaking appearances, he will also seek to educate the broader public about how the libertarian philosophy differs from the standard liberal and conservative orthodoxies embodied in the two main U.S. political parties.

The next paragraph of its press release caught my eye, enabling me to shake my head in disbelief:

"Tucker Carlson is one of the most effective communicators of libertarian ideas in the nation," said Cato founder and president Ed Crane. "We are delighted to have him associated with Cato as a senior fellow."

First of all, Carlson is not "one of the most effective communicators of librtarian ideas." He's not a libertarian; he's a conservative. He may have a libertarian bent in his conservative thinking, but he's a conservative. It is true that he has come out against the war in Iraq and the War on Drugs, but he's not a consistent defender of liberty. He's not even a radical. Sure, he has expressed his admiration and respect for Ron Paul many times (he had Ron on his show during the course of his presidential campaign) and had been involved with his campaign. (Interestingly enough, one MSNBC toadie who had filled in for Carlson on his old show bashed Paul on December 27, 2007 for openly and truthfully declaring that the United States didn't need to have its own civil war to end slavery.) But he is a conservative of the Barry Goldwater-style variety. His view on independent migrants a.k.a. "illegal aliens" epitomizes my point.

Second, why CATO? Why not the Ludwig von Mises Institute? CATO serves the interests of the beltway "cosmopolitan" libertarian crowd that embraces Milton Friedman's Chicago school of thought. CATO is not truely liberarian; it's libertarian only when a Democratic government and a Democratic president are in power. They were neither libertarian nor attempting to be libertarian when Bush was in power for eight years. In fact, many of its key personnel were (and still are) big supporters of the Republican Party, including Bush. Not a single peep came from them (with the exception of a very few) when Bush dragged us into Iraq, called for and launched the U.S. Department of Homeland Stupidity (I mean, Security), and signed into law the Military Commission Act, the Patriot Act, and the REAL ID Act (among many draconian and pro-state bills).

Carlson may be feeling at home in the think tank's D.C. offices, but CATO's Ed Crane calling him an "effective communicator of libertarian ideas" hardly passes the ideologically pure smell test.

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.}

Boston Tea Party Founder and At-Large Member Tom Knapp Introduces Pro-Second Amendment Resolution to the BTPNC

Boston Tea Party founder and At-Large Member Thomas L. Knapp has introduced an excellent pro-Second Amendment resolution to the party's own National Committee discussion list on Yahoo Groups. Seconds later, he issued an amendment to his resolution removing the word "both" in the phrase "it is both the constitutional obligation." I seconded this revised version of the moved resolution just seconds after he sent it to the list.

Here are the original and amended versions of the resolution. Either way, it's an outstanding one, given Attorney Generalissimo Eric Holder's promise to restore the old, god-awful 1994 assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. (Here's former BTP Chairman Jim Davidson's assessment of Holder's plan to revive the expired gun law.)

Here's the original version of the resolution:

Whereas, every man, woman, and responsible child is possessed of a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and constitutional right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- handgun, shotgun, rifle, machine gun, anything -- any time, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission; and

Whereas it is both the constitutional obligation of government to respect and defend, rather than suppress, that right; and

Whereas all attempts by government to institute measures of victim disarmament, a/k/a "gun control," are illegal, unconstitutional, subversive of public safety and morally repugnant;

Be it resolved that the Boston Tea Party opposes all new victim disarmament legislation and all attempts to re-impose past victim disarmament schemes, including but not limited to the Obama administration's contemplated re-introduction of an "assault weapons" ban.

Here's the revised version that's currently pending and is to be discussed later today:

Whereas, every man, woman, and responsible child is possessed of a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and constitutional right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- handgun, shotgun, rifle, machine gun, anything -- any time, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission; and

Whereas it is the constitutional obligation of government to respect and defend, rather than suppress, that right; and

Whereas all attempts by government to institute measures of victim disarmament, a/k/a "gun control," are illegal, unconstitutional, subversive of public safety and morally repugnant;

Be it resolved that the Boston Tea Party opposes all new victim disarmament legislation and all attempts to re-impose past victim disarmament schemes, including but not limited to the Obama administration's contemplated re-introduction of an "assault weapons" ban.

Any BTP member and liberty lover is encouraged to spread this far and wide as much as possible.

[Cross-posted to The Freeman Chronicles.]

It's Official: I'm the Boston Tea Party's Newly-Elected Secretary

It's official: I'm the Boston Tea Party's newly-elected secretary on the National Committee. The special election for the seat ended on Tuesday, February 23, and all the votes were finalized by the party's own chair on the same day.

I will be -- and have already started being -- faithfully aggressive in fighting for transparency on the board, as I have promised my voters in the Party. And I've already started my duties after having immediately taken the Secretary seat.

Any loyal BTP member who wants any pro-freedom resolutions or would like to offer pro-freedom motions to be put on the table, please feel to let me know at my email addy here.

[Cross-posted to The Freeman Chronicles.]

Ron Paul Calls for the Abolition of the Federal Reserve on Glenn Beck

Ron Paul on Fox News' Glenn Beck, making an outstanding and purely moral, philosophical, and financial case for the abolition of the Federal Reserve system. More than that, he calls for a new monetary system.



It's nice to see conservatives like Glenn Beck coming around to the good side, even though Beck, during Ron's presidential campaign, called Ron Paul supporters "terrorists" and accused them of advocating "blowing other people up." Here's an old clip of Beck on his old CNN show back in December 2007 after Paul's money bomb resulted in $4 million raised on December 5, commemorating Guy Fawkes Day:



After 8 years of conservatives supporting a diabolical "compassionate conservative" presidency plagued with igniting a war in Iraq, huge spending deficits, abuses of civil liberties and powers of the Oval Office, and other vile acts associated with the Bush administration, it's amusing that many of them are now turning on the Barack presidency after briefly being chummy with him. Watching them squirm and seeing the errors of their evil ways have been quite interesting, to say the least, although not necessarily enjoyable in any way.

Chrystia Freeland: Economic Activity "Will Ground to a Halt"

Bill Maher, whose show Real Time debuted its seventh season on HBO last night, had three panelists - Chrystia Freeland of the Financial Times, Tina Brown of The Daily Beast, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters -- who took issue with Dr. Ron Paul's argument against the Federal Reserve and the socialist view that the laissez-faire capitalism is the root of the U.S.'s economic and financial woes.

Here's the clip of the first part of the panel discussion. However, watch it from 1:14 to 2:41, where Freeland and Waters criticize Ron Paul's "extremist economic view" that we must reject the "too-big-to-fail" doctrine and that there should be no regulations on the banks:



Maher asserts to the women on the panel that they are "well-versed in economics." Freeland, talking about the Austrian/freedom lovers, says that she "wouldn't want to live in a country that tried that experiment." She goes on to make this ludicrous yet misguided statement that is the central thesis of this blog post:

I mean, there is this sort of very extremist view called the Austrian school that says what Congressman Ron Paul was saying...that, you know, absolutely these companies got themselves in trouble. We should be absolutist free marketeer; let them all go broke. But would you like to live in a country where economic activity grinds to a halt? I think it's too risky an operation to try."

And, as Brown asks whether economic activity will grind to a halt, Freeland then naively states:

No, no, it would be, it would be a lot worse. If, if you let the banks go broke, imagine what would happen."

Then Waters chimed in with her nonsensical tripe, saying that she likes Ron Paul and has "shaked up, ya know, the Congress," but he is a "true believer" (after Maher says it). But then she really "parts" with him on his view that there should be no regulation. Yet ths is the same Congresswoman Waters who supported the government-propped up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac institutions -- yup, that's right; the New Deal programs that Democrats love and want to preserve -- that encouraged the reckless "no-money-down," overextension of the housing market/bubble that burst within the last couple of years. These are the same institutions that purchased malinvested "bad" loans and resold them to banks that would lend them out to credit-risky home buyers. These same home buyers would put "no money down," accruing interest while their loans were deferred and would end up paying high mortgage payments that they knew they couldn't afford.

Waters, Brown, and Freeland are wrong about Ron Paul, the Ausrian school of economic thought, and the "absolutist free marketeer" position on the "too-big-to-fail" doctrine and the regulatory state. Big banks like Citigroup and Bank of America can get past these regulations (they are supporters of the corporatist state as well, as they have lobbied for banking and other financial service regulations), and the smaller banks that are even nationalized as well as the big ones have a difficult time getting past the regulations. No one person can simply start up a new bank without reviewing and agreeing to abide by a myriad and a web of regulations that make it cost prohibitive to do business in the U.S. And the big banks get corporate welfare because they have become insolvent and are unprofitable ventures (although the executives are profitting from the taxpayers at their expense). Those business' losses are heavily socialized, thus cementing a future where today's generation will face their future being heavily mortgage that they will be stuck paying all the way to their own graves.

Isn't socialism grand?

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]

Ron Paul to Bill Maher: "You're Listening to the Wrong Economists!"

Ron Paul was featured on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight, which premiered its new season on HBO tonight. Paul, who appeared on the show to Maher in his one-on-one interview, said that the real problem with the state of affairs in the U.S. is we don't "do a lot less" and that we "should hardly be doing anything in Washington." He notes that it's "politically unacceptable" and yet "that's the right thing to do." He nailed it on the head with the fact that, when you have too much investment and there is too much debt and malinvestment and too much malvestment, you "have to liquidate it." After Paul provides his well-thought out example of what happened in 1921 when we were in a depression (which lasted a year because the government wasn't involved) and then we got into another depression in the 1930s (which was pro-longed by the U.S. federal government's intervention), Bill Maher asks:

But if that's true, why do so many economists say we should do the opposite?

Paul responded with the following:

Well, you're listening to the wrong economists if you think they're serious. All Keynesian, socialist welfarists will say you have to do something. If you believe in the free market and you understand the business cycle, the business cycle was caused by the Federal Reserve system, you know that you have to get rid of the mistakes that were building the system. The real cause is created by the Federal Reserve, and yet very few people are talking about the Federal Reserve.

Here's a clip of Paul's appearance on Real Time:



After Paul's appearance on the show, Maher and his Keynesian, socialistic guests kept shilling for the banks. Panelist Chrystia Freeland of the Financial Times took potshots at Paul's Austrian views, saying that she wouldn't want to live in a country where there's "no economic activity" if we didn't bail out the financial services (banking) industry. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (an airhead socialist if there ever was one) made some glowing praise about Paul, but "parted with him" on the need to get rid of regulations (which Paul didn't even bring up on the show and wasn't the point on the show to begin with).


[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.]