Thursday, December 18, 2008

Universal Soldier

Aimee Allen at the Rally For The Republic




Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940) ... was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.

...

In addition to his military career, Smedley Butler was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book War is a Racket. His book was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex and after retiring from service, he became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.

In 1934, he informed the United States Congress that a group of wealthy industrialists had plotted a military coup known as the Business Plot to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.




Universal Soldier
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.

Monday, December 15, 2008

The Job Of Eating

Peter Schiff video message.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Dollar Devaluation Is A Threat

In Barron's, Jim McTague takes a few shots at Ron Paul and misses by a mile.

Some asset prices (that were artifically overvalued due to credit and excessive leverage - like real estate) are deflating. Enormous amounts of Federal Reserve Notes are being printed.

Jim McTague's illogical reasoning is summe up in in two sentences:
The danger is that, despite all the government stimulus, demand will stay weak.
Paul doesn't believe this.


Jim McTague says, "... demand will stay weak" and that Ron Paul doesn't believe that demand will stay weak. Jim McTague just put words in Ron Paul's mouth, as Ron Paul isn't talking about demand. Ron Paul is talking about excessive growth of fiat (backed by nothing) money. More money is being printed out of thin air, and this is the DEFINITION of inflation.

Inflation defined:
a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in available currency and credit beyond the proportion of available goods and services.


Ron Paul for over a year has been saying that we are entering an inflationary depression. Ron Paul has been right, while Jim McTague may want to go to Austrian economic school.


Inflation Not a Threat -- Yet
By JIM MCTAGUE

STOW THE RED WHEELBARROW BACK IN THE SHED. DESPITE forebodings by Texas Rep. Ron Paul and other gold bugs about hyperinflation, your wallet will be sufficient to hold your spending money for the foreseeable future.

Paul and other inflation hawks correctly note that the Fed's printing presses are running full tilt. Nevertheless, some economic experts argue that we won't require wagonloads of debased currency to buy a stick of butter, mirroring Germany's 1923 nightmare. Reason: Deflation still hangs like a low, dark cloud over our sinking economy. Too few dollars are chasing too many goods, and this will worsen as unemployment hits 9% or more sometime next year. People fearful of losing their jobs are hoarding cash. Banks have become careful, stingy lenders. The danger is that, despite all the government stimulus, demand will stay weak.

Paul doesn't believe this. He argues that an estimated $8 trillion in bailout commitments by the Treasury and Federal Reserve and other government units has increased the monetary base by 75% over the past two months. "If something that is used as money becomes too plentiful, it loses value," writes Paul in a recent article. "That is how inflation and hyperinflation happens. Giving the central bank the power to create fiat money out of thin air creates the tremendous risk of eventual hyperinflation." He favors a return to the gold standard.

That $8 trillion represents committed funds, not actual loans and investments. You can't add it to the monetary base until it's in someone's bank account. Much of it is being used to cover losses on existing loans, not for new ones. The Fed demands lots of collateral to ensure that lending doesn't get out of hand. And most of its loans are short-term and can be unwound very quickly -- another mechanism to inhibit hyperinflation.

Some experts argue that Fed chief Ben Bernanke is simply replacing money annihilated in our economy's "Great Deleveraging" and that he should print even more. Retired securities lawyer Frederick Feldkamp, a Michigan native, says the Treasury's nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alone erased $33 billion in bank capital. The Treasury inadvertently wiped out the two mortgage giants' preferred stock, which hundreds of banks had held as core capital, and which was considered so safe that regulations let the banks leverage that capital by as much as 50 to 1 when making loans. Feldkamp reckons that when banks wrote off the $33 billion in preferred stock, support for about $1.65 trillion in debt was erased -- a significant credit contraction.

FBR Capital Markets, in a Nov. 19 report, estimated that Goldman Sachs (ticker: GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), AIG (AIG) and GE Capital (GE) combined need $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion of equity capital to shore up their balance sheets so they can begin lending again. FBR estimates that the eight have $12.2 trillion in assets and just 3.4% of that -- $406 billion -- in tangible common capital. "The sheer size of the capital deficiency, coupled with the opaque nature of credit risk, will keep private capital sidelined... ." FBR says.

This isn't to say that inflation won't become a problem down the road. Paul Wachtel, a New York University economics professor, says the Fed should be planning an exit strategy, so that it can absorb cash reserves from lenders when the economy rebounds. Absent such a plan, you may get a chance to use your wheelbarrow when buying that stick of butter, after all.


E-mail: jim.mctague@barrons.com

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Only Real Maverick

Ron Paul spoke the truth about the government interfering in people's food decisions. An Ohio home was invaded because the government refuses to allow people to make their own choices about food.


Why we needed Ron Paul: SWAT team raids a food co-op
by Paul Mulshine December 06

Around this time last year, Ron Paul was making a run for the Republican nomination for president on a platform of cutting the federal government down to size and restoring freedom.

One of the many issues on which he dissented from the Beltway oligarchy was on the issue of raw milk: It's none of the government's business if you want to drink milk that hasn't been pasteurized, said Ron.

I recall phoning Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum around that time and mentioning it to her. She noted that she and her siblings had grown up drinking raw milk. She even wondered out loud whether Paul might have a chance at winning the New Hampshire primary, which was held the following month.

He didn't, of course. The winner was John McCain, the self-styled "maverick" who constantly attacked Paul for having the nerve to challenge the Beltway consensus. But the only real maverick in that race was Ron Paul. Of all the Republican presidential contenders, he was the only one who really wanted to get government out of our lives.


...

The crime, apparently, was failure to follow state agricultural regulations.

...

By the way, the idea of a SWAT team raiding a house on a food complaint seems so nutty that I actually found one blogger questioning whether this is one of those Internet hoaxes. But all indications are that it's not a hoax. The state really did point guns at people for unauthorized sale of food.

Another interesting facet of this case is that if you follow some of the links, you will see that the co-op in question caters to both right-wing Christian fundamentalists and left-wing college students. That's the sort of cooperation that can occur in a free country.

Too bad we don't live in one.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

One Thing Is Clear

During a time of multiple wars and economic turmoil, it may be useful to recall that our Founding Fathers took a stand for freedom and liberty - not for big government.


One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens would pay nearly half of everything they earn to the government.

- Ron Paul

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

If Only We Listened

Rod Dreher: Ron Paul, if only we listened

I didn't vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary (I was a Mike Huckabee man), nor did I write him in on Election Day (I penciled in farmer-poet Wendell Berry). But no Texan this year did more good for conservatism and his country than the congressman from the coast.

Lord knows there was no Republican in the 2008 campaign who talked straighter.

...

But the truth is, if U.S. economic policy looked a lot more like Ron Paul's ideal than what we've had these past decades, the nation wouldn't be tottering on the financial abyss. Dr. Paul has long argued that an economy built on easy credit, insatiable consumption and deficit spending is a time bomb. He backs a national economic model based on savings, investment and production.

An economy that depends so heavily on government intervention to keep it afloat is one that creates of necessity an ever more powerful state. The nationalization of the banking sector only increases the power of the central government and decreases liberty. Dr. Paul warned for years against what we're seeing happen today. But nobody – including me – listened to the old crank.

How much better off would America be today if we had? We'll never know. Poor us.

...

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Who Destroyed Conservatism In America

Conservatives Lost More Than An Election
by Chuck Baldwin
November 7, 2008

That Barack Obama trounced John McCain last Tuesday should have surprised no one. In fact, in this column, weeks ago, I stated emphatically that John McCain could no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton. He didn't. (Hence a vote for John McCain was a "wasted" vote, was it not?) I also predicted that Obama would win with an electoral landslide. He did. The real story, however, is not how Barack Obama defeated John McCain. The real story is how John McCain defeated America's conservatives.

For all intents and purposes, conservatism--as a national movement--is completely and thoroughly dead. Barack Obama did not destroy it, however. It was George W. Bush and John McCain who destroyed conservatism in America.

Soon after G.W. Bush was elected, it quickly became obvious he was no conservative. On the contrary, George Bush has forever established himself as a Big-Government, warmongering, internationalist neocon. Making matters worse was the way Bush presented himself as a conservative Christian. In fact, Bush's portrayal of himself as a conservative Christian paved the way for the betrayal and ultimate destruction of conservatism (something I also predicted years ago). And the greatest tragedy of this deception is the way that Christian conservatives so thoroughly (and stupidly) swallowed the whole Bush/McCain neocon agenda.

For example, Bush and his fellow neocons like to categorize and promote themselves as being "pro-life," but they have no hesitation or reservation about killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in reckless and unconstitutional foreign wars. By the same token, how many unborn babies were saved by six years of all three branches of the federal government being under the control of these "pro-life" neocons? Not one! Ask the more than eight million unborn babies who were killed in their mothers' wombs during the last eight years how "pro-life" George W. Bush and John McCain are.

As a result of this insanely inconsistent and pixilated punditry, millions of Americans now laugh at the very notion of "pro-life" conservatism. Bush and McCain have made a mockery of the very term.

...


Across the country, rather than stand on principle, hundreds of thousands of pastors, Christians, and pro-life conservatives capitulated and groveled before John McCain's neocon agenda. In doing so, they forfeited any claim to truth, and they abandoned any and all fidelity to constitutional government.

...

Again, it wasn't Barack Obama who destroyed conservatism; it was George W. Bush, John McCain, and the millions of evangelical Christians who supported them. And until conservatives find their backbone and their convictions, they deserve to remain a burnt-out, has-been political force. They have no one to blame but themselves.

...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

What Happens Next

Ron Paul interview on CNN.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

CPAC2009

The elections last night handed Democrats victories up-and-down the ballots.

Conservative Political Action Conference 2009 invitee list has been announced. Ron Paul has been invited.



McCain not included on CPAC invite

(CNN) — Votes are still being counted in some states, but conservatives stinging from last night’s losses are planning to get together to plan the movement’s future — and so far, it doesn’t look like that vision includes John McCain.

McCain, who made a poorly-received appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year, was not included on a list of major movement figures invited to next year’s gathering e-mailed to supporters Wednesday morning. More than a dozen conservative leaders made the cut — including McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have also been invited to address CPAC in February, along with McCain’s former primary season rivals Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
...

Friday, October 24, 2008

Fraudulent Monetary System

Ron Paul: 'Monetary system is fraudulent'

(CNN) -- Former presidential candidate Ron Paul was interviewed Friday morning by CNN anchor John Roberts on "American Morning."
Rep. Ron Paul says that what really needs regulating is the Federal Reserve.

Rep. Ron Paul says that what really needs regulating is the Federal Reserve.

Paul, a Republican from Texas, spoke from his home in Clute, Texas. The topic of the discussion was the current economic crisis and the Capitol Hill testimony Thursday of former Fed chief Alan Greenspan.

John Roberts, CNN anchor: Up there on the Hill, Alan Greenspan was basically saying, "Oops, I missed this one, sorry about it," but he was optimistic for the future. Congressman Paul, do you even listen to him anymore?

Rep. Ron Paul: I have to because somebody like you might ask me a question about him.

No, I don't really listen in the sense that I'm going to get a lot of new information. I used to listen to him when he was writing back in the '60s because he agreed with free market economics and no respect for the Federal Reserve.

Lately, though, I mean, he's been part of -- and right now he's really gotten bad because what he was saying yesterday was that the only place where he might have made a mistake is he didn't advocate more regulations.

Well, if you're a true free market person it isn't the lack of regulations. Trying to regulate and improve on the conditions that the government creates. I mean we created this problem. The Federal Reserve created this. The Community Reinvestment Act created it. The FDIC created it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac created it.

It was all seen there but now he says if we could have only had more regulations ...

Roberts: Right.

Paul: ... we could have salvaged this clogged system.

Roberts: Well, you believe that markets can be or should be self-regulating?

Paul: Well, to a degree, but the government does have a responsibility to deal with fraud, but the monetary system is fraudulent. Instead of perpetuating fraud in the monetary system they should be dealing with real fraud.

But just regulating prices -- that's what they're doing now, they're trying to regulate prices and set prices for these assets that hasn't -- have no value. So, no, that's not the kind of regulation we want, but there is certainly a role for regulations.

We should be regulating the Federal Reserve system is what we really ought to be regulating.

...

Spending $1T Overseas Running An Empire

I can't agree with socialism.
This, to me, is a dollar crisis. What we are doing is guaranteeing the devaluation of the dollar.

What you have to look at is the purchasing power of the dollar.
You can not save the dollar by printing more dollars.

You have to allow the liquidation of debt. You have to allow the market to set prices.

We are spending $1 trillion overseas running an empire and it is coming to an end.


Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Rally Video

Only gold and silver should be legal tender.

There is no authority in the Constitution authorizing a central bank which means there should be no Federal Reserve system.


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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Ron Paul's Presidential Pick

A New Alliance - By Dr. Ron Paul

The press conference at the National Press Club had a precise purpose. It was to expose, to as many people as possible, the gross deception of our presidential election process. It is controlled by the powerful elite to make sure that neither candidate of the two major parties will challenge the status quo. There is no real choice between the two major parties and their nominees, only the rhetoric varies. The amazingly long campaign is designed to make sure the real issues are ignored. The quotes I used at the press conference from insider Carroll Quigley and the League of Women voters strongly support this contention.

... I’m supporting Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party candidate.





Ron Paul makes his presidential pick
By Drew Zahn

Representative Ron Paul of Texas, a former seeker of the Republican nomination for president, has endorsed Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin for president in 2008.
...





THANK YOU, DR. RON PAUL
By Chuck Baldwin

Yesterday, September 22, Congressman Ron Paul publicly gave me his endorsement for the office of President of the United States.

...

As President, I would seek to overturn the 16th Amendment, eliminate the Internal Revenue Service, and disband the Federal Reserve. I would lead the charge to return America to sound money principles. I would seek to reduce federal spending to constitutional levels by eliminating those same federal departments that Newt Gingrich promised to eliminate in his Contract with America back in 1994 (and then failed to do). I would seek to eliminate the Departments of Education, Commerce, Energy, etc. I would demand that Congress pass a balanced budget and that we stop deficit spending.

Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama will do any of the above. If he were President, Dr. Paul would do it, however, and so would I.
...

On The Financial Catastrophe

Ron Paul Weighs In On The Financial Catastrophe <<-- Click to listen to NPR interview

The conversation about the financial crisis, and the details about the proposed $700 billion bailout continues to stir strong opinions. Republican Congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul opposes the bailout plan.




Chris Cox versus Alan Greenspan on derivatives

Listening to Chris Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, giving evidence to Congress a few minutes ago, I was particularly struck by his assault on the lack of regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market.

Mr Cox described the unregulated $58,000bn credit default swaps market as “ripe for fraud and manipulation”, saying that it was a forum for the shorting of corporate debt without the oversight imposed on cash markets.

It was, of course, Congress that chose in 2000 not to extend regulation to OTC derivatives markets, as I noted in my column on Saturday. One of the most influential proponents of not regulating OTC derivatives was Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve.

...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

This Bailout Won't Be the Last

Ron Paul: This Bailout Won't Be the Last
by Luke Mullins

I recently chatted with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) about the gigantic financial bailout that the government is preparing to undertake.

Some excerpts from the interview:

What's your take on this huge financial bailout?
It's more of the same. More debt and more inflation and more pressure on the dollar. Ultimately, although the markets are responding very favorably at the moment, I think it is going to be devastating to the dollar and to our financial situation in this country.

... If this process continues, we're going to own General Motors and Ford, then we will have to own the airlines. We are socializing our country without even a vote by the Congress. ...

Will this bailout stabilize the crisis?
I personally don't think so. It might be temporary, but no, there is much more involved. I mean, we are talking about trying to unwind trillions of dollars of derivatives . . . You have to get rid of all that stuff.

Will this bailout be the last?
No, no. This won't be the last one. There will be something else later on. But that doesn't mean you might not have a few months of a reprieve. But it will continue.




Ron Paul warns of fall of dollar

GOP congressman Ron Paul says the radical bailout of the troubled US financial market will only lead to the destruction of the dollar.

The Bush administration is asking Congress to authorize the government to buy $700 billion in troubled mortgages, a costly plan to bail out Wall Street's beleaguered financial institutions.

Congressman Paul does not approve of the plan and says it will fail to produce a practical outcome.
...

Friday, September 19, 2008

Economic And Market Manipulation

Ron Paul has been warning of the economic crises for several years. Ron Paul has also provided solutions for the problems.

Ron Paul on the Financial Crisis
Our problems start with the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a monopoly and it controls interest rates artificially low, causing people to make mistakes. That’s the basic source. But then on top of that in the housing market we had the Community Reinvestment Act which told investors that they had to loan to risky borrowers, and that was the complication.

HUD contributes to this. FDIC contributes to this. It’s called moral hazard. Everything that we have done over here creates moral hazard.
...

Ron Paul, The Nostradamus Who Predicted the Current Financial Crisis
...
All of our candidates and Congress are pretending to scramble for answers and solutions. Yet, all one has to do is look back at the four-part plan which Ron Paul previously proposed; one which I believe most Middle Class Americans would fervently cry out for, if they were only simply told about it. The even better news is that it’s not rocket science. It’s a simple matter of instituting lower taxes, less spending, a sound monetary policy and regulatory reform.
...



Wondering What to Think About the Financial Meltdown? Here's What Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, and Others Are Saying
Written by Larry Greenley
Since I was wondering what to think about the serial financial crises of the past couple weeks, including federal government bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG, I did a little quick research and here's what I found.
...


The article has links to audio and video from the named people.

Monday, September 15, 2008

United Nations Funding

The United Nations favors abortion and gun control. Chuck Baldwin says in part, "All funding for the United Nations stops."

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Two-party system and democracy

Ron Paul discusses flaws in the two-party system, how the two-party system pretends to have debates while excluding other candidates, and how most voters don't vote for the winning presidential candidate.

Pretending that a true difference exists between the two major candidates is a charade of great proportion. ... The truth is that our two-party system offers no real choice.



Ron Paul Backs Third Party and Independent Candidates
Ron Paul organized a news conference today with Ralph Nader (Independent), Cynthia McKinney (Green Party) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party). ...


Chuck Baldwin saying in part, "We have two wings from the same bird of prey."

Friday, September 5, 2008

The John Birch Society at Ron Paul’s Rally

Several years ago I only knew about JBS by what I had read in the mainstream media. JBS is a group dedicated to small government. Everyone with JBS who I have spoken with has been low-key, pleasant, and knowledgeable.


The John Birch Society at Ron Paul’s Rally

...
The rally, which drew an estimated 12,000 people, was held not far from the Republican Convention in neighboring St. Paul.
...
But if Wolf found McManus’ appearance a bit odd, the crowd did not judging by their response to McManus’ speech (Part 1 here; Part 2 here), as well as to the hi-tech John Birch Society booth. McManus’ speech was repeatedly interrupted with applause, and the JBS booth was the most popular one at the rally, as evidenced by the large number of people who gathered around and visited it throughout the day.
...
Yet Ron Paul’s message in support of the Constitution, limited government at home, and minding our own business abroad is not odd at all.

What’s odd is the Republican Party’s treatment of his positions, and the major media's complicity, even as they defend or rationalize our country’s almost $10 trillion debt, endless war, lack of border enforcement, debasing the currency, and a host of other problems slowly ruining our nation.
...
“We’ll keep spreading the message of the John Birch Society contained in our motto, ‘Less government, more responsibility, and — with God’s help — a better world,” John F. McManus said in his speech.
...

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Rally Coverage From Russia

Russia Today coverage of the rally.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Speech at Campaign For Liberty Rally

Barry Goldwater Jr. and Ron Paul at Campaign For Liberty rally.





Media coverage of rally:
RNC Snorefest Drives Journalists to Join Ron Paul Rally
Ron Paul's Minions, 10,000 Strong, Rallied in Minneapolis' Target Center on Tuesday


Ron Paul Returns
MINNEAPOLIS -- As Republicans celebrated their first full convention night Tuesday, the Ron Paul Revolution received another breath of life in Minneapolis where thousands turned out for their own convention featuring the fourteen-term Texas Congressman so many Libertarians love and so many Republicans wish would just go away.

Converging on the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, Paul supporters turned out in droves to see their hero take the stage the same night as President Bush took the digital stage to address Republican convention via satellite from Washington.
...



Ron Paul slams GOP for avoiding what he calls important issues
By ALAN BERNSTEIN Copyright 2998 Houston Chronicle
MINNEAPOLIS — A few hours before his Campaign for Liberty rally got under way here today, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, or St. Paul to many of the 9,000-plus people at the gathering, bashed his Republican Party for what he said was avoidance of important issues such as deficit spending and civil liberties.

""If we are Republicans and we believe in limited government and personal liberty we ought to be talking about these things, and I don't think they are really too interested," he said of the national convention downriver in the Twin Cities.
...

Thursday, August 28, 2008

RNC Calls Nevada GOP "Inept"

The Nevada GOP shut down their state convention when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates would dominate the convention. The Nevada GOP then hand-picked delegates who support the 3rd-place MCcain, while other delegates continued the convention and picked a slate that included many Ron Paul supporters.

Both slates were presented to the RNC, and the RNC has determined the Nevada GOP was "inept".


RNC panel calls Nevada GOP 'inept'
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY – 2 hours ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A key Republican committee says it is troubled by the "ineptness" of the Nevada GOP and called the state party's attempt to choose delegates for next week's national convention "flawed, inadequate and unacceptable."

A ruling from the Republican National Committee panel said the state party violated rules when it appointed, rather than elected, its group of 34 delegates and 31 alternates, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

The RNC Committee on Contests was asked to review the delegates by a group of supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who argued they were shut out of the delegate selection process. The Paul backers elected a separate delegation to the convention in St. Paul, Minn., which also was rejected by the RNC panel.

...

Friday, August 15, 2008

From Baltimore to Beijing

Gold medalist swimmer Erik Vendt supports Ron Paul.


Tracking Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff, Carmelo Anthony and all things Olympics

Swimming with the 'big guys'

...

Vendt and Phelps are an interesting yin and yang as training partners. Vendt is a voracious reader, a student of history, an outdoors enthusiast and a political junkie. He and Bowman traded friendly barbs during the build-up to the New Hampshire primary, with Bowman supporting John McCain and Vendt supporting Ron Paul.

"Ron Paul is my guy," said Vendt, who describes himself as a libertarian ideologically. "It's really frustrating the way the mainstream media just ignored him and acted like he was a fringe candidate without doing any research at all. I think he's really what the country needs. ... I'm definitely not a fan of the huge tentacle-like arms of the federal government invading everything in our lives."

Vendt said he's almost been able to convince Phelps to join the Paul Revolution.

"Michael is a big online poker guy, and that's one of Paul's issues, legalizing online gambling," Vendt said.

Vendt says he could see himself possibly getting involved in politics someday.

"People joke around and talk about running for office, and I say 'OK, if you do, I'll run your campaign," Vendt said. "But it's definitely something I'm interested in."

...

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Car Trade-Ins

Better fuel efficiency, less polluting vehicles, and more (American) cars sold. This would help the middle class and the environment!

Paul Introduces Tax Credits For Car Trade-Ins
by John Pape

In the wake of record gasoline prices, area congressman Ron Paul has introduced legislation he says will lower both pollution and the cost of gasoline by providing tax credits for Americans to trade in older, less fuel-efficient vehicles.
slideshow In the wake of record gasoline prices, area congressman Ron Paul has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that he says will lower both pollution and the cost of gasoline.

The bill, HR 6441, is called “The Energy Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Automobile Tax Credit Act of 2008.” Paul said the bill would, which will help Americans reduce pollution and the amount they pay for gas by trading in older, less fuel-efficient cars for newer models.

...

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Ron Paul stirs up Nevadans

GOP RENEGADE: Ron Paul stirs up Nevadans


Before he heard about Ron Paul, Wayne Terhune wasn't much into politics.

"I kind of voted for the lesser of two evils every time," said the 57-year-old Northern Nevadan, who has a dental practice in Sparks but lives a ways out of town -- at the end of a dirt road in a house that's off the electrical grid, powered by solar and wind.

That changed when he got wind of Paul's message.

The Texas congressman, who made a run at the Republican presidential nomination, advocated strict adherence to the Constitution, radically shrinking the size of government and expanding individual liberties.

...

Paul came in second in the caucuses, getting 14 percent of the vote. His 6,087 votes were almost 500 more than McCain got.

...
"Paul struck a chord with a lot of voters. In a lot of people's eyes, he's the only one out there speaking the truth."

...

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Endless Struggle

Ron Paul speech on the floor of the House, covering fuel prices, inflation, virtual war resolution with Iran, ten years of Iraq sanctions.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Chuck Baldwin

Issues

American Independence

The globalists are after our sovereignty, our freedom and our national independence. I will stand up for the economic security and independence of our people and the sovereignty of our American republic. Read more…

Economy

A Baldwin economic policy will provide opportunities and freedom for millions of average Americans, not obscene profits for international bankers and multinational corporations. Read more…

Education

I support the right of parents to provide for the education of their children in the manner they deem best, including homeschooling…and my administration will oppose any federal legislation that would interfere with or restrict that liberty.” Read more…
Military Adventures & Empire Building

We will stop this international meddling and empire building. When Chuck Baldwin is sworn in as President of these United States the ‘New World Order’ comes crashing down! Read more…

Health Care

I strongly support the freedom of choice for all citizens in their health care decisions and management! Read more…
Border Security & Illegal Immigration

America’s illegal immigration nightmare ends the day I become President! Read more…

Sanctity of Life

I will demand that Congress enact Dr. Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act which would set forth that every unborn child is a ‘person’ under the Constitution, entitled to equal protection of the law and therefore, no unborn child could be killed without due process of law. Read more…
The 2nd Amendment

The Second Amendment Protects Our Liberty! To help keep your family safe and your country free, go buy a gun. Read more…

United Nations

As President, I will terminate United States membership in the United Nations. Read more…

Veterans & Military

I am eternally grateful to America’s veterans who have sacrificed so much to protect our nation and to preserve our liberty and, as President, I will honor our nation’s commitment to them in every way. Read more…

A Strong National Defense

We will have a national defense that is second to none, with armed forces that serve only under the American flag, and whose mission will be to defend these United States of America! Read more…

Restoring Liberty

Great are the dangers of giving unlimited, unconstitutional power to a government that does not respect the checks and balances intended by our Constitution and Bill of Rights! Read more…

Eminent Domain Abuse

I will champion the property rights of individuals and families and I will oppose eminent domain abuse whenever and wherever I find it in this country! Read more…
There is Still Hope for America

As we get out our message and it is received by the people of America, we will find a ready audience for our message of freedom and hope!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Idaho GOP Says Abolish Federal Reserve

SANDPOINT -- It appears the Ron Paul wing of the Idaho Republican Party has scored its first victory at the party's state convention in this North Idaho resort town.

The state party's platform committee voted overwhelmingly Friday to add to state platform language supporting abolishing the Federal Reserve System and pegging the dollar to gold and silver.

The idea has been championed by Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican who recently gave up his run for the presidency.

Paul won 24 percent of the vote in Idaho's Republican primary and many of his backers are at the convention trying to pull the party to the right and get Paul delegates seated at the Republican National Convention.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

In the final analysis

In the final analysis,” I wrote in my new book The Revolution: A Manifesto, “the last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on needless wars, destroys the value of their dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would all be without it, there is no force that can stop them.”

Interpreting The Constitution

Ron Paul's Compelling Manifesto
by David Gordon

To say this at once raises a new question: how is the Constitution to be interpreted? Paul answers that it must be read in a way consistent with the underlying principle of the document, the promotion of freedom. In this connection, he cites effectively a speech by Daniel Webster that condemned conscription as unconstitutional. The Constitution does not mention the subject at all: how then could he be so sure that the government lacked this power? Webster said that since the Constitution aims to promote freedom, no infringement of freedom could possibly be constitutional unless the document explicitly mandated it.

A free government with arbitrary means to administer it is a contradiction; a free government without adequate provisions for personal security is an absurdity; a free government, with an uncontrolled power of military conscription, is a solecism, at once the most ridiculous and abominable that ever entered into the head of man. (p. 56, quoting Webster)

Webster's view, here adopted by Paul, closely resembles Lysander Spooner's method of constitutional analysis, by which he controversially attempted to show the unconstitutionality of slavery, long before the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Of course the most well known of Ron Paul's recent attempts to use the Constitution to check federal power involves the Iraq war. The Constitution vests in Congress, not the president, to right to declare war. The Iraq war is then illegal, since Congress has not issued such a declaration. Supporters of the war cannot appeal to "authorization of force" resolutions. Congress cannot constitutionally delegate its power to declare war to the president, leaving it for him to decide when force is to be used appropriately.

Paul makes his criticism even stronger by connecting it to the just-war tradition. It is an uncontroversial part of that tradition that a war cannot be just unless it is initiated by one holding authority to do so. In our system of government, it is Congress that possesses this power. Absent a Congressional declaration of war, then, the Iraq war is unjust. (The point must not be misunderstood. It is not a requirement for any just war that it be authorized by legislative resolution: it is only that if a legal system vests the power to declare war in this way, it cannot be justly exercised otherwise. In the American system, war without a Congressional declaration is unjust as well as illegal.
)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Mini-Convention

Ron Paul is the real maverick.

Ron Paul plans his own convention
By David Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Maverick GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul has booked an arena in Minneapolis for a "mini-convention" that could steal some of John McCain's thunder just days before he accepts the Republican nomination.

...

Friday, June 6, 2008

Let it not be said

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 10, 2003

Let it not be said that no one cared, that no one objected once it’s realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy. A few have, and others will continue to do so, but too many—both in and out of government—close their eyes to the issue of personal liberty and ignore the fact that endless borrowing to finance endless demands cannot be sustained. True prosperity can only come from a healthy economy and sound money. That can only be achieved in a free society.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Dr. Murray Sabrin on The Fed

Quotes from Dr. Murray Sabrin in this video:

Ron Paul is the only one who had blown the whistle on the scam that has been in effect for a hundred years. ... The federal reserve destroys the value of money ... that means our standard of living will go down.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Paul has best showing yet, in Idaho

Paul has best showing yet, in Idaho
Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor May 28, 2008 11:06 AM

In fact, in Tuesday's little-noticed Republican primary in Idaho, the iconoclastic Texas congressman had his best showing so far, grabbing 24 percent of the vote, nearly 30,000 votes in all.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Soviets Lost Because They Didn't Have A Viable Economic System

"... and ours isn't much better right now."

Friday, May 16, 2008

What's next for the Ron Paul revolution

What's next for the Ron Paul revolution?

...

Paul sees this and other problems – runaway taxes, mounting US debt, an "American Empire" mentality that has put US military bases in 130 countries – as symptoms of Washington's failure to follow the Constitution.

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, says of Paul: "I was very distressed, frankly, with the way he [Paul] was sort of dismissed [by other GOP candidates]…. He was speaking to values that they should respect." He says: "Ron Paul is talking to people who are thirsting for the real thing. And he's hitting the same chords that Goldwater hit and that Reagan hit in the early days…. He's a very healthy phenomenon."

...

Continuation of the American Revolution

Ron Paul's 'Revolution'

NPR audio interview with Ron Paul

In his book, Paul says that his "revolution" is not new: "It is a peaceful continuation," he writes, "of the American Revolution and the principles of our Founding Fathers: liberty, self-government, the Constitution, and a noninterventionist foreign policy. That is what they taught us, and that is what we now defend."

Paul Questions Fed Chairman Volcker

Congressman Paul Questions Former Fed Chairman Volcker

...

Volcker mentioned in his opening remarks that the United States suffers from overconsumption, and that we cannot sustain the current build up of debt. He postulated that consumers could be realizing that fact and shifting spending habits accordingly.

...

Congressman Paul pointed out that the roots of the current crisis are a misunderstanding of capital and debt, over-regulation rather than under-regulation, and the Federal Reserve’s distortion of the marketplace with artificially low interest rates and promises of bailouts which encourage malinvestment and irresponsible behavior among banks.

...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Legalized Fraud

Quotes from Ron Paul:
We have legalized fraud ...
Then we bail out everybody ...
The little guys get hurt ...
This idea that you can bailout forever is complete nonsense.


Monday, May 12, 2008

FDA Takes America Closer To North American Union

Canada, USA, and Mexico are converging into a North American Union without debate by our elected representatives. Congress didn't authorize giving up information, "compliance and enforcement" powers to other countries.

From the FDA web site:
Trilateral Cooperation Charter Between
The Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada Canada,
The Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services The United States of America,
and
The Federal Commission for the Protection from Sanitary Risks, Secretaria de Salud Mexico



Working Groups
The Trilateral Cooperation undertakes its work through Working Groups. Three Co-chairs representing each country head each Working Group. The Co-chairs are responsible for identifying issues for discussion and for seeking the Steering Committee's support. Current Working Groups include the following:
Canada-US-Mexico Compliance Information Group (CUMCIG): Its purpose is to increase the exchange of emergency preparedness and response, compliance and enforcement information between the three countries. The Group coordinates related enforcement activities with counterpart agencies in appropriate cases. Lead Country: United States of America.
Mexico-US-Canada Health Fraud Group (MUCH): Its purpose is to maintain a formal framework for cooperation in combating health fraud and to identify appropriate lines of communication to ensure a continual exchange of information on compliance and enforcement activities among the three countries. Lead Country: Mexico.
Laboratory Cooperation Working Group: Its purpose is to establish and maintain cooperation in the area of regulatory laboratory operations. Through continual discussions, this group is expected to share information with a view to building confidence in our respective analytical results. Lead Country: Canada.
Canada-US-Mexico Training Working Group: Its purpose is to share existing training information, establish a communication strategy between the Training Working Group and the other Working Groups, and to assist in identifying training needs of staff who will be engaged in Trilateral work. Lead Country: United States of America.

False Choice

...

The Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate always said there was no justification for war with Iraq – no weapons of mass destruction, no threat to the United States – and his colleagues in Congress and most of the American people ignored him.

Ron Paul also saw that we were headed for a financial collapse and runaway inflation because of the Federal Reserve Bank – and his colleagues in Congress and almost all of the American people ignored him.

Now, Americans realize the war was wrong, and they want the troops to come home – but they still vote for candidates who won't promise to bring the troops home and who are ready or even eager to commit troops elsewhere.

Now, Americans know the economy's in a recession, if not a depression, and inflation worries loom – but still they vote for candidates who offer no serious monetary reform.

Apparently there is much educational work to be done – and now Ron Paul is taking up that challenge, too.
His new book, "The Revolution: A Manifesto," presents his political philosophy and provides a blueprint for restoring a peaceful, prosperous American Republic.

Paul shows how Republican politicians pull the wool over conservatives' eyes.

...

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Former CIA Analyst Says Ron Paul Is Only Candidate Who Has A Clue About Terrorism

Michael Scheuer, who led the search for Osama bin Laden in the CIA, discusses terrorism.
At 5:25 in the video, Michael Scheuer mentions the presidential candidates and states, "... not one of them has a clue about what the dangers we face are in this world except for a guy named Ron Paul from Texas. The rest of them are just wind-bags ..."

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Ron Paul Predicted Housing Crash

Housing Market Crash Predicted By Ron Paul And Alan Greenspan
Published 05/08/2008 - 1:40 a.m. GMT

The inflation and subsequent collapse of the residential real estate market was facilitated by the Federal Reserve over nearly a decade. ...

The leader of the Fed and manipulator-in-chief of the economy during the primary boom years was Alan Greenspan, who once believed in things such as the gold standard, the impossibility of sustaining a housing bubble, and speaking to Congress in riddles and financial jargon. His main adversary in the Congress was Ron Paul, who still believes in things such as the gold standard, the impossibility of sustaining any manufactured market bubble, and is a master riddle-solver himself with a strong Austrian economics background.

...

Ron Paul, as well, understood the consequences of the housing bubble. In a speech made into the Congressional Record on September 6, 2001, he stated, "Refinancing especially helped the consumers to continue spending even in a slowing economy." The same monetization of rising property values that Greenspan was concerned about became Greenspan's policy when looking for a new bubble.
Neither Paul nor Greenspan believed that a continual cycle of rising home prices and refinancing could continue, however. As Greenspan himself claimed in his doctoral thesis, "There is no perpetual motion machine which generates an ever-rising path for the prices of homes." Paul, in the same entry into the Congressional Record as referenced above, agreed: "This, too, will burst as all bubbles do." And the more inflated the bubble became, and the more capital was misdirected into it, the greater would be its fall.

...

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

#1 on New York Times Best Seller List

Ron Paul #1 on New York Times Best Seller List

May 7, 2008

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s newest book, "The Revolution: A Manifesto", is number one on the New York Times Best Sellers list for May 18th, 2008. The ranking is yet another of the many successes Dr. Paul has had during his presidential candidacy spreading his message of personal freedom and constitutional government.

Upon its official release on April 30th, “The Revolution: A Manifesto” was the number one bestseller on Amazon.com and remains the number one bestseller in political books.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Price Controls Are Not The Solution To High Gas Prices

Paul Blames High Gas Prices On Congress, Federal Regulations
by John Pape

With gasoline prices at the $3.50 per gallon mark throughout Fort Bend County, an area congressman is putting the blame for soaring prices at the door of Congress itself.

In a statement released Monday, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson) said that those who are proposing federal price controls have forgotten failures of the past. Paul’s district includes portions of Fort Bend County, including the Cinco Ranch area.

“Some politicians claim that the way to reduce gas prices is by expanding the government’s power to regulate prices and control the supply of gasoline. For example, the House of Representatives has even passed legislation subjecting gas station owners to criminal penalties if they charge more than a federal bureaucrat deems appropriate,” Paul said. “Proponents of these measures must have forgotten the 1970s, when government controls on the oil industry resulted in gas lines and shortages. It was only after President Reagan lifted federal price controls that the gas lines disappeared.”

...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Lots of Talk, Little Action as Stagflation Predominates

Some financial commentators are beginning to sound the economic themes of which Ron Paul speaks.

Lots of Talk, Little Action as Stagflation Predominates

It seems like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. The most-advertised recession of all time has come without any of the talking heads in Washington having done anything to actually prevent it. And, it appears that the politicians have done everything to actually cause a recession instead of preventing one.

...

In addition, the bush and his fellow-travelers in Congress pushed through legislation requiring diversion of substantial quantities of our Corn crop to Ethanol production, causing food prices to skyrocket, all in the name of reducing the cost of importing oil. Instead, both energy and food prices have gone through the roof.

...

Since the Fed bailed out Bear Stearns (an investment bank), 259,000 homes have been foreclosed upon. Where is the Fed when they are really needed?

If this is the best we can get from the Fed, why do we need them at all? They play games with our money, debasing it and then promising it to their banking friends in case they lose it. All the while, taxpayers are given short shrift by the bankers and lose their homes.

...

The bush in the White House is now planning to lead the country's future, its young people, into yet another war in the MidEast in the name of "freedom." It's about time the citizens of this country stood up and refused to participate in the evilness of this bush and his band of cronies, both Democrats and Republicans, in Washington. And, considering how badly the Fed has done its job, it's probably time to consider repealing the statute which created this public-private entity, which at its heart violates the Constitution, which prohibits the government from ever printing money.

...

Our Patriotic Debt

Our Patriotic Debt
by Elwood Earl Sanders Jr.

...

Hence, there is extreme temptation for bankers to, in effect, inform on their customers. It was not always so: Particularly onerous Treasury regulations proposed in 1999 called ‘Know Your Customer” were beaten back by Congress in a victory for Rep. Ron Paul, who is now a presidential candidate. Alas, many of the rules adopted in the Patriot Act were identity requirements made into law. There can now legally be no secret accounts or accounts under an assumed name in the United States.

The financial surveillance is only just the beginning. There’s also the passage of the Real ID Act of 2005, which sets new security and authentication procedures and forces states to register driver’s licenses and state identification cards into a national database for so-called official government purposes.

Real ID is not really an identification system at all.

...

Once civil liberties in the United States are lost, they can never be reclaimed. Who will be affected? The usual suspects: political and social activists, people of faith, along with educators, artists and writers. Let’s start today with financial privacy and Real ID to reclaim the constitutional republic. The ultimate fate of a world without financial privacy was stated nearly 2,000 years ago, in the Bible, Revelation 13:16-17: “He also forced everyone … to receive a mark on the right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark.” Financial privacy, civil liberties and national sovereignty must be an essential part of any constitutional republic.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Nevada Republican Officials Walk Out Of Their Own Convention

After a super-majority of Ron Paul supporters captured control of the Republican state convention Saturday, state party officials abruptly canceled the event without electing delegates to the national convention.

...

Paul spokesman Jeff Greenspan said the walkout was a first in his 21-year career in politics.

"I've seen factions walk out, I've never seen a party walk out," he said. "I've never even heard of that."

Friday, April 25, 2008

A Free Market in Gasoline

Congressman Ron Paul Wants A Free Market in Gasoline

(PressMediaWire) - Congressman Ron Paul's writings on free market on gasoline - Many Americans understandably are upset with the sharp spike in gas prices since Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast in August, and are concerned by reports of oil company profits. But we must understand that high oil prices are not the result of an unregulated free market. On the contrary, the oil industry is among the most regulated and most subsidized of U.S. industries. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves whether too much government involvement in the oil markets, rather than too little regulation, has kept the supply of refined gasoline artificially low.

...

Centralized government planning, on the other hand, cannot solve our energy dilemmas. The Nixon-era price controls on gasoline in the 1970s produced nothing but disastrous shortages. By contrast, the Reagan administration’s immediate deregulation of the oil industry resulted in an unprecedented boom in oil production and a dramatic reduction in prices. This is the lesson we must remember.

...

Ron Paul Is My Hero

Ron Paul Is My Hero

It’s kind of odd saying that a politician is my hero, but he is no typical politician. He has integrity that no other politician has, he always votes in line with the Constitution. Senator John McCain told Kent Snyder who worked for Paul’s campaign in 1988, "You’re working for the most honest man in Congress."

...

Ron Paul for years has been warning us of a looming economic disaster due to our nation’s insatiable appetite for nation building and the fact that we have a fiat currency thanks to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and for Nixon when he took the U.S. off the gold standard.

...

Washington State Delegates

What’s this? Ron Paul tops McCain?
By GREGG HERRINGTON, Columbian editorial writer

...

Item 1 — Paul prevails: ... it’s clear that Paul outpolled McCain by a substantial margin overall. Most of that margin was built among participants from the 18th Legislative District of north and far east Clark County, where Paul forces captured between 25 and 28 of the 30 delegate slots bound for the state convention.

...

Paul’s forces big in Spokane, too

If local Republicans are mortified by the thought of the county party sending more Paul delegates than McCain delegates to the state convention, they can take solace knowing what happened at the Spokane County GOP convention was even weirder.

The Paul forces “ate McCain’s lunch,” a Spokane reporter told me, vastly outnumbering them and pushing through a get-out-of-Iraq-fast plank in the local party platform. That must be a real hit at state GOP headquarters and at the altar of pre-emptive war in the White House.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Real Winner Was None Other Than Ron Paul

Ron Paul Achieves Stunning 16 Percent

The real winner in Pennsylvania yesterday wasn't Hillary Clinton or those of us who never have to see TV ads again. No, of course not: The real winner was none other than Ron Paul, who took 16 percent of the vote for second place in the Keystone State.

... only 73% of voting Republicans yesterday selected the GOP nominee.

...

Some Republicans said a vote for Paul was a message vote — a way to tell their party they are not happy with its direction and presidential selection. Richard Dekalb, an 80-year-old Republican who lives in Ann's Choice in Warminster, doesn't like McCain and wanted to vote for “anything as far away (from him) as I could.

...

Understand the Presidency

Ron Paul: Clinton 'doesn't understand the presidency'

Wednesday, April 23 2008 @ 07:29 AM MDT
Contributed by: Admin
by Nicholas R. Schwaderer

This year’s presidential election isn’t out of surprises.

When America had just settled into the Obama vs. Clinton vs. McCain political equation, Ron Paul proved Monday night that his message still has a place in the fray.

Earlier Monday, Clinton said she was prepared to “totally obliterate” Iran in response to a nuclear attack on Israel. She elaborated on that statement in later interviews, saying her goal was to reestablish a Cold-War-style deterrence.

The Chronicle asked Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul about Clinton's statement during a press conference immediately before his rally at the University of Montana.

“She doesn’t understand the presidency if she’s making this type of commitment,” he said, launching into a discussion on foreign affairs.

Paul explained his core position through the lens of the current Iraqi conflict. He asserted that we are in the midst of an unconstitutional war that was never declared by Congress. He also expressed his distaste of treaties under which America is obligated to go to war.

When asked what his response would be under the same circumstances, Paul said Israel is safer without our presence and could sufficiently wipe out Iran on its own. He pointed out that Iran ‘may’ have been working on ‘a’ nuke since 2003, while Israel possesses 300.

...

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Paul Phenomenon

Paul Phenomenon
Ron Paul corners Fed chief Bernanke over rates: fuss-budget


Representative Ron Paul has cornered Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke at a congressional hearing this month, on whether rate manipulation got the US economy in trouble - again.

...

A central bank's power lies in its ability to manipulate rates (usually lower them) by printing money when the market forces demand a higher rate.
This ability is very useful for governments in times of war and to finance programs to buy votes, but it is also the key problem with central banking that results in bubbles, high inflation and also personal financial ruin of ordinary people.

In a market driven economy, a central bank is an anachronism that can change the interest rates by bureaucratic decisions (monetary policy committee) rather than actual market forces that drive the demand and supply for credit.

In the US the Fed was established in 1913 amid stiff opposition, through a bill that was secretly promoted by the big banking families of the US.

...

But central banks were relatively benign under the gold standard, when their ability to print money was restricted by a link to gold, though a boom accommodated by the Fed during the 1920's later caused the great depression.

The link with gold was broken during the World Wars and re-established under the Bretton Woods agreement where the US dollar was linked to gold and other currencies were linked to the dollar.

Ultimately the US government defaulted on its obligations under the Bretton Woods agreement in 1973 when heavy money printing (and the Vietnam War) made it impossible to preserve the link with gold.

The US finally went to a fully fiat (paper) currency in 1973 after firing a global commodity bubble and oil shock.

For more than one and a half centuries before that gold was priced at 35 US dollars an ounce and there was no long-term 'inflation'.

But since 1973 the US currency has been debauched to 1,000 dollars an ounce and the world is now in the grip of another massive 1973-style bubble which is bringing real misery to millions of poor people around the world in the form of higher food prices.

Meanwhile, the US is now printing more money to save its banking system (rate cuts) and chase an elusive concept called 'growth'.

n Asian dollar linked countries like Sri Lanka which do not have an independently floating currency to counter US inflation and is burdened with a weak domestic monetary system that creates it own inflation, people are suffering with high rice prices amidst the highest inflation it its history.

...

At a congressional hearing this month Fed chairman Bernanke was forced to make an admission by Ron Paul (see transcriptions below) to the shocking extent to which central banking rate decisions are a little more than guesswork.

Paul, who is associated with the Ludwig von Misses Institute is one of the few politicians of the world who has an in-depth understanding of 'monetary policy', with the possible exception of senior ministers in Singapore who actually run that country's monetary authority.

He makes the point that central banks create 'growth' by keeping rates artificially low and giving rise to business cycles or bubbles which then burst spectacularly (like the sub-prime bubble).

...



Representative Paul (interrupting): Does excessive credit and low interest rates cause mal-investment? Artificially low interest rates, which aren't market driven?

Chairman Bernanke: Well, the question is you know is the judgment where the interest rates ought to be. We have a mandate of course for maximum employment and price stability. We are trying to balance these obligations.

We could make mistakes and put the interest rates to the wrong place and that would have negative impacts. I agree. So we are doing the best we can to find the right place to put the interest rates. One that is consistent with the neutral rate. Or the rate that establishes the full employment in the economy.

Representative Paul (smiling): And some day we may try the market to determine the interest rates. Thank you.

Ron Paul Slams Federal Reserve For Destabilizing The World By Printing Money

Ron Paul Slams Federal Reserve For Destabilizing The World By Printing Money

US congressman Ron Paul has launched a scathing attack against the US Federal Reserve, which the Congressman claims is printing money in order to manipulate interest rates and undermine workers wages and old people’s savings.

Paul, one of the few politicians with an insight into fiat money wrote "The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation."
...

Saturday, April 12, 2008

National Taxpayers Union Honors Ron Paul

Nation’s Largest Taxpayers Group Honors Congressman Ron Paul

WASHINGTON , DC – Congressman Ron Paul deserves applause for a pro-taxpayer voting record last year, according to the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU). The nonpartisan citizen group announced that Congressman Paul was one of only a few dozen lawmakers in the House and Senate to win the 2007 “Taxpayers’ Friend Award.”

“While many Members of Congress talked about reducing the size of government last year, Congressman Ron Paul backed up those words with votes,” NTU President Duane Parde said. “This award proves that Congressman Paul is a staunch ally we can count on in our battle to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington .”

...

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Interview - Inflation, Stagflation, Monetary Policy

Radio interview of Congressman Ron Paul by Chris Waltzek of GoldSeek.com.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Health Ideas Make Economic Sense

Ron Paul’s Health Ideas Make Economic Sense
By Rick Coddington

...

On health care, Paul was quoted as saying: “Health care should not be left up to HMOs, big drug companies and government bureaucrats. It is time to take back our health care.”

That, to me is the solution in a nutshell. As I have said over and over, the problem is insurance and drug company profiteering and the government bureaucrats that propagate this broken system.

Paul starts by proposing to make all medical expenses tax deductible by doing away with the current 7.5 percent IRS deduction. Simply put that means that you wouldn’t have to get to some IRS number to deduct your expenses, they would be immediately and totally cut from your taxes.

Next, Paul proposes eliminating federal regulations that discourage small businesses from providing coverage. He then moves onto the supply side of the problem by proposing to give doctors the right to collectively negotiate with insurance companies and drive down the cost of medical care.Excellent!

Paul goes on to propose changing the rules to make every American eligible for a Health Savings Account, or HSA, and removing the requirement that individuals must obtain a high-deductible insurance policy before opening an HSA. That means that we could pay ourselves (a tax deductible amount), put it into an account that we have control of and immediate access to and not have the insurance execs carving out their percentage from our money.

...

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Ron Paul Owns The Future

...
And whatever anyone says about Ron Paul, his so called “fringe,” is the only political movement left with a systematic argument for the role of government. He talks about strategic issues, while all the rest quibble over tactics. There is no question that the Paulists now have the intellectual and moral power. They are ignored or ridiculed because no one can answer their arguments. And those arguments, left unanswered, will only cause their movement to grow.
...
But Ron Paul owns the future.

Freedom Rally At University Of Pittsburgh

Ron Paul at Pitt

Yet another presidential candidate will add his name to the list of politicians visiting Pittsburgh in anticipation of Pennsylvania's presidential primary on April 22.

Republican candidate Ron Paul, in an event sponsored by the College Republicans, will give a speech in Bellefield Hall at 9 pm ...




KDKA radio interview with Dr. Ron Paul.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Ron Paul Supporters vs. Real Conspiracy Theorists

Ron Paul Supporters vs. Real Conspiracy Theorists

...

The recent events of Ron Paul supporters organizing and working within GOP convention rules to win delegate seats and resolutions has been labeled by the Republican establishment as a coup against the Republican party. This notion is preposterous and is nothing more than a conspiracy theory of their own in order to motivate opposition to true conservative ideas. Ideas that they say they believe in, but rarely practice anymore.

...

Now the Republican establishment is accusing Ron Paul supporters of taking over the party. Maybe they should stop with their own conspiracy theories. Ron Paul supporters are merely trying to rescue the Republican Party and take it back to its true conservative roots. Something that is long over due. Instead of denigrating and blocking the Paul supporters, they should welcome the infusion of new blood. Hopefully they realize it before it is too late.

Purpose Of NATO

Berlin hardens 'no' to NATO offer for Georgia and Ukraine

The German government underlined its opposition Friday to NATO opening the door to membership to former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia.
...




NATO was created to defend Western Europe from the Soviet Union. NATO's mission was accomplished, so has NATO's time passed?

... NATO is an organization whose purpose ended with the end of its Warsaw Pact adversary. When NATO struggled to define its future after the Cold War, it settled on attacking a sovereign state, Yugoslavia, which had neither invaded nor threatened any NATO member state.

...

Ben Bernanke "We Can Make Mistakes"

Ben Bernanke, Chairman on the Federal Reserve, says "We can make mistakes."




Learn about the Federal Reserve (not a federal agency, has no audited reserves) in The Money Masters.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Not In Debt

The other three campaigns are in debt, while Ron Paul's campaign is not in debt.

Clinton $8.7 million campaign debts.
McCain $4.1 million campaign debts.
Obama $625,000 campaign debts.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Draft

Ron Paul, The Draft, and John McCain

John McCain has said publicly that he is against reinstating the draft. He also has admitted that we need 100 thousand more troops to effectively wage the war on terror. Perhaps McCain has some magic pill to feed our young people so they will enlist in the service “voluntarily”. Without a draft or another 9-11 like event he will be hard pressed to get enough young people to raise their hands to fight in the doomed perpetual war on terror.

Ron Paul had some predictions back in 2002 about where we may be headed due to our government intervention into our economy and overseas. Many of these predictions have come true. One of the predictions was the the reinstatement of the draft. He made this prediction prior to the US going into Iraq. Certainly, John McCain would balk at the idea now, but if he were to become President would it surprise anyone if he pushed for the draft? After all, he has a history of voting against his own rhetoric.

...

Rights Belong To Individuals, Not Groups

Washington's good doctor
To write off Ron Paul as a loopy reactionary ignores his courageous stand on Iraq and Israel

...

Paul is a real physician, serving as a US air force doctor before delivering more than 5,000 babies as an obstetrician. He is an intransigent libertarian, who believes that "rights belong to individuals, not groups; that property should be owned by people, not government; that government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth; and that the lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government's".

...

Ron Paul Republicans Surround DC

Ron Paul Republicans Surround DC

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The Light Of Compromise

Ron Paul has a bipartisan plan for Social Security

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Throughout his campaign Ron Paul has repeatedly outlined a solution to the problem that gives both the Democrats and Republicans reason to smile. Paul proposes to utilize some of the massive amounts of money saved by switching to a non-intervention foreign policy to help those people currently dependent until the programs can be phased out over a long period of time. He would let the younger people immediately opt out of the program. The approach is a sensible and gradual approach.

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Ron Paul gets criticized by many for being too principled and stuck in his ways. How ironic it is then that he has shown both parties the light of compromise at the end of the Social Security tunnel. If only they would interrupt their political gamesmanship and listen to the man.

We Need To Control Spending

Time to Listen to Ron Paul?
By Elizabeth MacDonald

Time to listen to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the lone voice of reason in Congress today who’s got to feel like he’s shouting into a field of cotton with his repeated warnings about the dangers of a collapsing dollar, while the administration goes AWOL on the problem.

The dollar just hit a record intraday low against the euro on reports that consumer confidence levels have dropped to levels not seen since the post-Watergate era. It is down 7% year to date against the Chinese renminbi, it’s weaker than the Japanese yen and the Canadian loonie.

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“Empires fail because they run out of money, or more accurately, run out of the ability to spend or inflate,” Congressman Paul warns. “We need to control spending, immediately, before it is too late.”

What Muslims Actually Believe

Proof Ron Paul is right, John McCain is wrong

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Michael Scheuer was the author of one of those Rudy’s Reading List books. He was the Chief of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit. He is one of the so-called experts that Giuliani and others tried to refute. It is more difficult to refute him now that he has a billion Muslims agreeing with him. Scheuer, in “A Book Americans Must Read Before Time Runs Out“, wrote the following:

On no other foreign policy issue since the Cold War’s end has the truth been so easy to establish on the basis of hard facts but so hard for Americans to see – primarily because their leaders eagerly distort or ignore the truth. The reality accurately presented by Esposito, Mogahed, Pape, and Sageman – as well as by Dr. Ron Paul – has never eluded Osama bin Laden, however. Five years before Gallup even started collecting its data, bin Laden knew that U.S. foreign policy effectively united the Muslim world’s moderates and radicals in anti-U.S. hatred, and that when he defied Washington and attacked U.S. interests because of those policies he both drew and grew support for his jihad against America.

John McCain will likely not have to resort to the measures of banning books. The American public and media seem blinded by the “maverick”, “war hero”, and “straight talk” McCain labels. It is almost if most Americans need to hate someone or some group in order to be motivated. For the liberals it is George W. Bush. For the neo-conservatives it is “Islamic extremists”. For me and many other liberty minded individuals we just hate the spin, lies and propaganda.

It is a good thing Ron Paul is still in the Presidential race even if he is largely ignored. Those like us who seek the truth still have a voice thanks to the good doctor. Meanwhile McCain travels the country raising money for his campaign touting the great success in Iraq on the very day the death toll for American troops breaks 4000. The phrase “completely out of touch with reality” seems too tame for McCain.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

A True Assault On Big Government

Why Ron Paul Scares the GOP

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The GOP candidates all claimed to defend taxpayers, but Paul was the only one who refused to accept a taxpayer-funded pension or taxpayer-funded junkets. The candidates all talked about shrinking big government, but Paul was the only one who included the Pentagon and NSA wiretaps and petroleum subsidies in his definition. Bush's approval ratings have been abysmal for years, but Paul was the only Republican who really campaigned for change.

And in doing so Paul illustrated what was so striking about the Republican race. The leading candidates had all strayed from Bush and current orthodoxy in the past — Rudy Giuliani on abortion and gay rights, John McCain on tax cuts, torture, health care and campaign finance, Mitt Romney on just about everything. But while Paul was getting attacked every time he called for a new direction, the rest spent the primaries minimizing and renouncing their previous departures, implicitly promising four more years of Bushism.

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Charlie Wilson’s War

Charlie Wilson’s War and Ron Paul Economics

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Ron Paul preaches the foreign policy ideology of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington in an age where doing so is quite unpopular. Neither the Democrats or Republicans are willing to keep the over-reaching US hands overseas to ourselves. Charlie Wilson seemed to possess this trait as well. The Cold War then is equivalent to the War on Terror today. How ironic it is that if it weren’t for Charlie Wilson’s interventions in Afghanistan in the 1980’s the War on Terror may not even exist today. At least not in its current form.


Osama Bin Laden was amongst those rebels we gave weapons and money to in order to help them defeat the Soviets. This was Charlie Wilson’s doing. He like many at the time were blinded by the evils of the Soviet Union and communism. So instead of foreseeing the inevitable economic collapse of their empire and letting Afghanistan run its course, he lobbied to get weapons and funding funneled covertly to the Afghanistan resistance. This propped up Afghanistan enough to push the Soviets back in retreat. Once this was complete, the US stopped the funding. This left Afghanistan out in the cold and alone with 50% of their population 14 years old and younger (according to the movie).

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Speak at Nevada State Republican Convention

Congressman Ron Paul to Speak at Nevada State Republican Convention
03.20.08, 11:55 AM ET

Republican congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has accepted an invitation from the Nevada Republican Party to be a keynote speaker at the Nevada Republican State Convention on April 26th. The Texas congressman came in second place in the presidential preference poll held on January 19th in Nevada, and continues to enjoy fervent support among many Republicans in the Silver State.

"Dr. Paul's visit to the Nevada Republican Party State Convention reflects Dr. Paul's continued commitment to the presidential race and to the traditional conservative movement in the Republican Party," said Jennifer Terhune, Nevada communications coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign. "Throughout this election cycle, Dr. Paul has recognized the important role Nevada can play in the selection of a presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention in September."

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