Liberty Maven

Here is the video of Ron Paul’s recent speech at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

In John Stossel’s latest column he reiterates Ron Paul’s position on the campaign trail that he “doesn’t want to run the economy”.

The presidential candidates have been repeatedly asked how they would “manage the economy.” With the exception of Ron Paul, every candidate has accepted the premise that this is something the president of the United States should do.

Or can do.

Nonsense.

Read the rest of this great column at ABC News.

Now that John McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee the media attacks have begun. Did they build him up as a set up so they could then knock him down? You’ll have to be the judge of that.

Earlier this week the New York Times released a story citing potential improprieties with a female lobbyist during his year 2000 campaign. To me it seemed exactly like what McCain called it: a smear. It’s interesting to note that the New York Times endorsed McCain earlier this year. It is also interesting that this story has been in the works since late last year (according to the story itself), long before the endorsement.

Today there is news of FEC issues for McCain regarding him trying to withdraw from accepting public matching funds. The FEC wrote him back denying his request. Furthermore, McCain’s campaign apparently borrowed $1 million from a bank to fund his campaign. This alone isn’t too horrible, but he did so, by trying to use matching funds as collateral. Read all about it at the Washington Post.

So the New York Times and the Washington Post have come out and attacked John McCain now that he is the likely GOP nominee. I only ask why did they wait until he was already the nominee to do so? They certainly aren’t the most conservative publications around.

It may not be that they wanted him to be the nominee because he is an easy target, but the suspicion certainly exists. It will be interesting to see what future attacks will be levied by the media. Right now it is circumstantial. Any others may indicate a trend.

American voters will have a choice between the lesser of two evils yet again in the Presidential election of 2008.

It is the equivalent of choosing mint chocolate chip over strawberry ice cream. Sure they taste different, but the end result is the same. You will still get fat. Or in the case of the election you will still get evil. Like ice cream, evil comes in many flavors. This year your featured flavors are fascism and socialism.

On the Democratic side you have the choice of two flavors: light vanilla socialism or french vanilla socialism. On the Republican side your only choice is a single scoop of soft serve fascism. Unfortunately, the political reality is that an independent or third party flavor will likely melt away into non-relevance unless enough of us truly want change.

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Ron Paul gets a bit of attention from CNN after the primaries yesterday. And as usual Ron Paul does very well when given time to answer the questions. Most of the questions center on his campaign and the potential movement sparked by his run. I must say though, that I’m a bit disappointed in his answer on the Cuban sanctions. Not that what he said was wrong, but one thing he could have said. I believe he should have strongly pointed out that the sanctions actually hurt us and help the Cuban leaders. Anytime there are complaints from Cuban citizens their leaders need only to blame the American sanctions to save political face. It is yet another example of unintended consequences with our foreign policy.

Contrary to what Newsweek and others that enjoy attacking Ron Paul will have you believe it seems that the NAFTA Superhighway does exist. After all, why would so many Texans get together to rally against something that doesn’t exist?  See the report from CNN below.

Who will John McCain ask to be his running mate? Apparently, my original thought that Huckabee would be the man is now a big “no-no” now that Huck is staying in the race and talking about a brokered convention. Yet another example of Huckabee taking ownership of another Ron Paul idea.

I’ve lost what little respect I had for Romney after he dropped out and endorsed his arch-enemy McCain. That decision for him was all about politics rather than principle. I’ve lost much of my patience for that.

So who will McCain choose? All kinds of names are being talked about. One such name is Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina. If he is chosen and accepts the role, which he likely would, if asked, I will lose respect for Sanford as well. He is a guy I expected to come out and officially endorse Ron Paul. He never did, and now we may know why. He had his sights set on the big political prize of a potential Vice Presidency.

This looks like a great choice from McCain’s perspective. He could bring up the case when, during his first term as governor, Sanford brought pigs into the House chamber to protest “pork barrel” projects. McCain never misses an opportunity to rail against the “pork barrel”. This fact alone gives credence to Sanford being a likely running mate.

Whomever McCain chooses, it will be someone who helps him with the conservative base of the GOP. Evidence of this comes, not just from knowing the politics of the matter, but McCain himself. Every chance he gets he calls himself a “foot soldier of the Reagan revolution.” If that isn’t using an inane statement to play to the conservative base, I don’t know what is.

Maverick my ass. He’s just another politician getting blown…  like Bill Clinton….  by the political winds.

Continuing our interview with Collins Bailey here is part 2. If you haven’t read part 1 yet, check it out.

For all Liberty Maven interviews see the interview page.

LM: President Bush and Congress recently worked out an agreement on an economic stimulus bill. If you were in Congress for the vote on this bill would you have voted for it?

Bailey: It is truly amazing how quickly Congress can act when it stimulates their reelection. Since Congress is running a deficit of one billion dollars per day, any additional spending will be offset with a further devaluation of the dollar causing a loss of buying power equal to the “rebate”. The money for the “stimulus” bill will be paid with money borrowed from China and Saudi Arabia.

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Congressman Ron Paul has introduced two bills that could bring the above benefits.

His 15-word “Honest Money Act” (HR 2756) would repeal the 41-word legal tender law, while his 104 word “Free Competition in Currency Act” (HR 4683) would repeal the 69 words of Title 18 Section 489. The legal tender law gives the Federal Reserve a monopoly over the money supply, while Title 18 Section 489 gives the United States government a monopoly over the creation of coins for use as currency.

If you’re well versed in economics you may already know why these simple changes could help end both inflation and recessions. If so, you can ask your elected representatives to cosponsor both HR 2756 and HR 4683.

If you don’t know the significance of repealing the legal tender law and the coinage monopoly, or you’re looking for good talking points to use your in your message to Congress, an explanation follows . . .

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Former head of the CIA Bin Laden Unit Michael Scheuer is a guest on The Radio Factor with fill-in host Michael Smerconish. It would have been more interesting if he was on with Bill O’Reilly himself, but this way at least he is able to make his points without interruption. He echoes the sentiments of Ron Paul when it comes to the motivations of “Islamic Jihadists” and American foreign policy. If you don’t believe Ron Paul, shouldn’t you believe the man who spent a good portion of his life studying Bin Laden?