Antiwar Protesters Hold Vigils on Fifth Anniversary of Iraq War

Opponents of the War in Iraq will be holding protests, including vigils, across the country today to commerate the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

Here's an excerpt of the Orlando Sentinel article that ran in the paper today:

WASHINGTON - Opponents of the Iraq war will gather for vigils across the country today in the culmination of a series of protests marking the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

'It has been five years too many. We're in a war that's only for money and oil,' said Kathryn Milholland, 19, a sophomore at the University of Central Florida.

Milholland and six others from Central Florida affiliated with the anti-war group CODEPINK got a jump on the protesting with a week of demonstrations in Washington.

The Supreme Court to Review FCC Profanity Case

The statist-dominated U.S. Supreme Court will formally review a case against the FCC for its profanity rules. Interestingly enough, Fox Broadcasting was the company that brought the case against the government agency, which is heading its way to the courthouse.

Obviously, this is all done in the wake of U2 front man Bono's utterance of a vulgarity when he accepted his Golden Globes award for Best Original Song in 2003 and, of course, Janet Jackson's uproarious right breast exposure (even though her nipple was covered with a pasty) during her half-time performance with Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl game. (Yes, I'm referring to the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" incident all right.)

If these rules are upheld by the Court, then it will most likely pave the way for all radio stations to employ "dump boxes," a measure that will be mandated by the state.

Moreover, this is lunacy at the highest. No government agency -- no matter how coercive it will be -- will be able to stop every performer on television or every caller or talk show host on the radio from dropping the F bomb. It just won't happen. People will find more ways around the regulations, creating perverse incentives along the way. Does anyone really think that this will just solve anything at all?

Plus, the atmosphere of regulating speech on the public "government" airwaves is revolting. It paints this erroneous yet idyllic, white-picket-fenced view of what America is, especially since that idea was installed at the time of the 1950s. Americans during that period were swearing back in those days (although in less numbers than they are today), and today's generation is using them more so in record numbers than ever. This is in large part of the federal government and conservative movement's imposition of morality on the American public, injection of puritanism into our society, and creation of the forbidden fruit paradigm that has come to reign in the U.S.

This is all the more reason to abolish the FCC and let TV stations and their viewers and AM and FM radio stations and their viewers decide what content is objectionable and what content isn't. Let them take personal responsibility for what they say and do. By allowing the free market to come back into existenc, it's a win-win scenario for everyone, because, after all, everyone gets what they want in the realm of social cooperation and voluntaryism, not coercion and control by the diabolical state.

Hypocrisy Regarding the Boycott of Chinese Olympics' Opening Ceremony

A bunch of VIPs, made up of government rulers from all over the world, are calling for a complete boycott of the opening ceremony of China's Olympics because the country invaded and occupied Tibet while employing violence to bring order to the land.

So let's get this straight once and for all. It's outrageous that China invades and occupies Tibet to subjugate an entire population and imposes barbarism on it. But, if the U.S. invades and occupies Afghanistan and Iraq to subjugate their populations and imposes barbarism on them, it's extoled.

Wow! Talk about hypocrisy in every step of the way.

Oops! What do you know? I'm starting to sound like the good Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

The Fed's Days Are Numbered

The Fed has been in existence since 1913 and has been and still is responsible for engineering the business cycles, the depreciation of the dollar, and the redistribution of wealth from the working poor and middle class to the pro-corporate welfare whores on Wall Street, Big Banking, Big Business, the state, and other sections of the powers-that-be. Now its days are numbered.

The need for true monetary reform is stronger than ever: a Rothbardian version of the gold standard.

Ron Paul's Column Now on WND

Ron Paul's column "Texas Straight Talk," which is housed on his congressional website, will be a regular column on WorldNetDaily on Mondays. It starts today, as a matter of fact.

This certainly shows that Ron's pro-freedom message is reaching out to everyone, including conservatives.

(Hat tip to Antoinette Henson of the private RP Meetup Organizers group on Yahoo Groups.)

LP Presidential Candidate Steve Kubby on Economic Stimulus

Here's a full transcript of the speech at Kubby's campaign web site.

Another Female Presidential Candidate for President?

Dr. Mary Ruwart, the author of Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle and Healing Our World In an Age of Aggression (which is an update of her widely-read yet much-beloved book) and a devout libertarian in the Libertarian Party, is said to be a candidate for president on the LP ticket.

According to an excerpt of a post made by LP activist Less Antman, CPA on the Yahoo Groups list lpradicals regarding the timing of her "official" announcement:

I spoke directly with Mary, and she estimated it would be late this week (I said within 10 days to provide a limit she would beat). Obviously, the grapevine wasn't as accurate as the information I received. Keep in mind that she probably contacted me early because I had promised to make the legal maximum contribution as soon as she committed to running, and not because I'm in any way more important than other people.

The reason for the delay is that you only get one chance to make a first impression. She wants her web site to look good and to have the ability to take credit card contributions, and there are a few other matters that protocol requires before making a public declaration.

Ruwart, who is originally from my home state of Michigan, moved to Texas in recent years, I believe, with her husband where she accepted a job at a pharmaceutical company there. I corresponded with her once on the phone, and she seemed like a nice lady. I did it to talk to her about a draft campaign to get her appointed to the FDA as a commissioner which eventually turned out to be unsuccessful. All in all, we had a pleasant conversation on the phone.

Check out this LP survey of LP convention delegates which shows that she beats frontrunner Wayne Allyn Root (who's the most pro-war, anti-immigrant collectivist Republican infiltrator in the party).

New New York Governor Admits His Affairs

Newly-sworned in New York Democratic Governor David A. Paterson is now coming out of his closet full of political sins: he had extramarital affairs. This is all now a revelation, considering many people were going ape over Spitzer's high-paid call girl scandal.

However, when peaceful individuals and entrepeneurs are being persecuted and crucified for breaking draconian vice laws and the evil state is enforcing putrid drug laws and tax laws and invading your private bank accounts (among other things), they are atrociously silent. Where's the justice and fairness in all of that?

The state never gets prosecuted for committing terrible crimes against the law-abiding citizen, but the state always goes after the little guy. That's the real monstrous crime there.

Hungry Taxifornia's New Download Tax

An $8 billion shortfall which is affecting the State of California is leading state legislators to come up with a proposal to tax downloads of music from online stores like Amazon and iTunes.

Here's an interesting excerpt from the Oakland County Register piece that says it all:

New taxes require a 2/3rd vote of the Legislature, meaning some anti-tax Republicans would have to sign onto the proposal, but Calderon got creative.

Instead of proposing a new tax, AB 1956 simply requires the Board of Equalization to amend the definition of 'tangible personal property' to include 'digital property.' That needs only a majority vote, meaning no Republicans necessary.

Voila! A new tax – without a 2/3rds vote.

'This is crazy stuff,' said Michelle Steel, Orange County's representative on the Board of Equalization, who has been the lead opponent of the 'iTax' since before it was even in bill form.

'It's totally illegal,' she said.

To be fair, California isn't the first state to propose the tax. Far from it. A 2006 report by CNET News.com found that 15 states and the District of Columbia tax media downloads. A November survey by the Washington state Department of Revenue found 21 states tax cell phone downloads.

'It's not new,' said Calderon, who readily admits he's trying to cut out Republicans. Calderon said their opposition to new taxes shouldn't get in the way of a legitimate policy debate.

'Our economy's changed,' he said, 'shouldn't our laws?'

Madeleine Albright on One of Things She Misses

Madeleine "the price was worth it" Albright is quoted on one of the things she misses in an intriguing Washington Post piece covering items that are now becoming a thing of the past:

'Network nightly news broadcasts as a source of common information and national unity. Opinions differed, but Americans began thinking with the same images and facts in mind, brought to them by experienced journalists. If you cared about national or world affairs, you scheduled dinner before or after the nightly serving of Cronkite, Rather, Brokaw or Jennings.'

That collectivistic ideology of hers makes one shiver. This is the Washington elites' paradigm: "We must control you; therefore, you may not get your news from anywhere else but us. We own your mind. Accept it or else."

If anything, that speaks volumes of their agenda and their mindset that they want to impose upon us and the rest of the world. Down with traditional news media! Go alternative news media!

Andrew Bacevic on Conservatives for Obama

Conservative author and brilliant university professor Andrew Bacevic, whose only son was butchered by the neocons and their beloved War Party in Iraq last May, penned a piece for the the American conservative, which makes the case for a conservative support of Barack Obama.

Excerpt:

Give the neocons this much: they appreciate the stakes. This explains the intensity with which they proclaim that, even with the fighting in Iraq entering its sixth year, we are now 'winning'—as if war were an athletic contest in which nothing matters except the final score. The neoconservatives brazenly ignore or minimize all that we have flung away in lives, dollars, political influence, moral standing, and lost opportunities. They have to: once acknowledged, those costs make the folly of the entire neoconservative project apparent. All those confident manifestos calling for the United States to liberate the world’s oppressed, exercise benign global hegemony, and extend forever the 'unipolar moment' end up getting filed under dumb ideas.

Yet history’s judgment of the Iraq War will affect matters well beyond the realm of foreign policy. As was true over 40 years ago when the issue was Vietnam, how we remember Iraq will have large political and even cultural implications.

As part of the larger global war on terrorism, Iraq has provided a pretext for expanding further the already bloated prerogatives of the presidency. To see the Iraq War as anything but misguided, unnecessary, and an abject failure is to play into the hands of the fear-mongers who insist that when it comes to national security all Americans (members of Congress included) should defer to the judgment of the executive branch. Only the president, we are told, can 'keep us safe.' Seeing the war as the debacle it has become refutes that notion and provides a first step toward restoring a semblance of balance among the three branches of government.

Ken Gregg, RIP

Last Friday sensational classical liberal blogger Kenneth R. Gregg, the creator of his Classical Liberalism blog on Blogger, passed away at the age of 57, resulting in a wave of eulogies and commentaries from libertarians like "free market anticapitalist" Kevin Carson, paleolibertarians like Karen De Coster, and libertarian publications like Reason Magazine. While LLR was linked to his blog, I never personally corresponded with him, the fact that he doesn't know that LLR exists. But I do wish I had spoken with him in private and had gotten to know, as the personal obituaries made about him, as of late, have been pretty warm and kind. Regardless, in the wake of his untimely demise, I must say that I feel rather saddened that the libertarian movement has lost one of its best writers and intellectual thinkers.

I had noticed that his blog had been on inactive status for a while, although I had wondered why that was so. Now I know: he had been suffering from health problems within the last few years and died of congestive heart failure.

According to some discussion group postings, Ken had lost two of his three children to a series of reckless driving accidents six years ago. The man had experienced some great tragedies in his life, yet this latest shocker takes the cake.

As long as I have been blogging online, I have never heard of anyone say a negative thing about the man. He was a good soul and a valuable asset to the entire libertarian movement. He will be greatly missed.

More Delegates for Ron Paul

And they hail from the good State of Washington.

(Thanks to Lew for reporting this on his blog.)

Jim Cramer's Reponse to His "Bear Sterns Is Fine" Advice

Jim "Insane Money" Cramer attempts to pull an "ends-justify-the-mean" malarkey today on CNBC with a response to his "Bear Sterns is fine" advice by defending his statement. In fact, he even states that he does not regret his "advice" by saying, "If you had your money in Bear, you still would have got it today."

This clod should be fired and hoisted on his own petard, considering he lied on the air, even though he was caught with his pants down.

He kind of reminds me of those used car salesmen that I've been told to stay away from. If a shady salesman tries to sell you a lemon and people try to warn you that it's a lemon, you might want to take heed of their advice and not Cramer's.

Here's the video of his appearance for those who are not in the mood to go to YouTube to see it:

Jim Cramer's Biggest Critic Skewers Him

Jim "Insane Money" Cramer, the state/pro-corporate-welfare whore and shill for the government-insulated, government-protected financial service and housing sectors, suffers the wrath of one of his critics, who happens to be not a fan of his, the Fed, or even Wall Street (given that it's infested with so many corporate welfare drones).

Update: Here's the video of the critic that's currently on YouTube: