Liberty Maven

Ron Paul was interviewed on Glenn Beck’s new FOX Channel show today. Not much new, but interesting nonetheless.

I like how Beck keeps comparing Ron Paul to our founding fathers.

Watch it below.

Almost a year ago, Ron Paul stood before the U.S. House of Representatives and delivered a speech in which he offered a compelling case for the legalization of alternative currencies that would compete against the declining fiat U.S. Dollar.

…allowing for competing currencies will allow market participants to choose a currency that suits their needs, rather than the needs of the government. The prospect of American citizens turning away from the dollar towards alternate currencies will provide the necessary impetus to the US government to regain control of the dollar and halt its downward spiral. Restoring soundness to the dollar will remove the government’s ability and incentive to inflate the currency, and keep us from launching unconstitutional wars that burden our economy to excess. With a sound currency, everyone is better off, not just those who control the monetary system. I urge my colleagues to consider the redevelopment of a system of competing currencies.

With the Dollar in even worst shape, and the inflationary policy as set forth by the Federal Reserve, there is no better time than now to allow private currencies to compete in the marketplace alongside the Dollar, and let the winner reign supreme.

Heck, even in the U.K. well-known leftist George Monbiot is calling for the legalization of alternative currencies.

…I know that without money there’s no business, and without business there are no jobs. I also know that most of the money in circulation is issued, through fractional reserve banking, in the form of debt. This means that you can’t solve one problem (a lack of money) without causing another (a mountain of debt). There must be a better way than this.  [ Except from guardian.co.uk ]

Ron Paul appeared on Bloomberg TV this morning to discuss the likely confirmation of Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary.

While it is good news to many that Henry Paulson is headed out, it is little comfort that another establishment status quo drone is taking his place.

Unsurprisingly, Ron Paul assesses the confirmation as a mere formality and says that it is a sign that nothing is really going to change fundamentally.

Watch the interview below.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “All great truths began as blasphemies.” — George Bernard Shaw, Annajanska, 1919

Subject: Mexican Civil War could spill over into U.S.

You’re not hearing about it yet, but a civil war is raging in Mexico — between drug lords and the government. The Mexican government deployed 36,000 troops to fight this war in 2006, but the problem is getting worse. Here are the disconcerting results . . .

* There have been more kidnappings in Mexico than Iraq! 1,000 have been officially reported, but human rights groups estimate the real number at 3,000.

* Despite high-profile arrests but the bloodshed has doubled from 2007 to 2008, with between 5,300 and 5,700 dead in the past year from attacks related to the drug trade.

* The city of Ciudad Juárez ended the year with 1,600 of those deaths

Now this violence is threatening to spill across our border!

* The violence is so bad in Ciudad Juárez that the mayor and other elected officials have moved to El Paso, Texas, and commute to work from there.

* In October, Hidalgo County, Texas officials issued fully automatic weapons to deputies patrolling the river in the Rio Grande Valley. Sheriff Lupe Trevino has authorized his deputies to return fire across the border if smugglers or other criminals take aim at them.

* According to the Dallas Morning News, “A U.S. intelligence official based along the Texas border (has) warned that U.S. officials, American businessmen and journalists will ‘become targets.’”

* Mexican gangs have begun to expand their operations into several states, including some in the northern tier, such as Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

* Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has ordered plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement. Even Chertoff concedes that his plan could cause the bloodshed to spill over into our country.

Why is this happening, and how can we stop it?

Read More »

The irony and hypocrisy of Barack Obama being sworn in on the Lincoln Bible is not lost on Liberty Hero Walter E. Williams in his most recent column.

President Obama can be forgiven for celebrating the hypocrisy of Abraham Lincoln because the victors of wars write their history and glorify the winners. The recognition that slavery is a despicable institution does not require hero worship of a president who made the largest contribution to the unraveling of our Constitution. After all when it is settled by brute force that states cannot secede, as they thought they had the right to in 1787, then the federal government can ride roughshod over states and their people’s right — in a word make meaningless the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

Read the whole thing.

Ron Paul released a video message with his reaction to Barack Obama’s Inauguration speech.

He answers an email question reiterating his own worry about the coming growth of government from the Obama administration.

Earlier today I responded to a friend asking me what I thought of Obama’s speech with a long email full of thoughts. The following statement by Dr. Paul sums up my own thoughts perfectly. I could have saved some typing:

“We should not be feeling reassured by any fancy words”

One of our own Liberty Maven contributing authors has a thoroughly researched piece (as most of his articles are) published on the Campaign For Liberty site as a featured article. Jake Towne, also known as another Champion Of The Constitution is the author. Since he has been contributing articles to both Liberty Maven and the Nolan Chart I’ve been a fan of his work.

His article on the C4L site is a great read. Here is an excerpt:

Therefore our central economic planners must take “immediate and dramatic action.” Now, notice that by “reviving the economy,” he really means to create jobs. In the Romer/Bernstein paper Obama references, they claim 3.3 to 4.0 million jobs will be created by Q4 2010, or two full years later. I could spend another article demonstrating that their voodoo BLS employment statistics and Keynesian GDP math are complete hot air, but let us just take note of page 9/14.  On this page, these central planners have lovingly estimated the job growth in each sector from the funds they plan to distribute to the nearest thousand. Notably missing is the 92,000 new soldiers that Obama plans to create to support more war-making. How do these Keynesians know what our economy should look like in two years?  That Industry A should be favored over Industry B?  I assure you, they do not have a clue.  As I will shortly demonstrate, they do not even know how to make a pencil.

Read Jake’s full article here.

A quick thought on the Coronation… er uh.. Inauguration…

There are no better words written to help ground some of the high flying words being spouted on CNN and other media outlets over our next President Barack Obama than Gene Healy’s “The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power“.

I’m glad I read this book earlier this year. How glorious it would be to be handing it out to all of the Obama revelers today in DC. Since there are 2 million of them though this is an impossible task.

Instead, why not buy it for your favorite Obama dreamer today.

It is just going to be too easy to “Deep Fry the Barackcuda” during his Presidency… it’s almost as if this guy is George Bush!

by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
Originally published Sunday, January 18, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article5824.html

On January 20th, America will spend $150 million taxpayer dollars to inaugurate Barack Obama’s regime, which dwarfs the $43 million spent at King George II’s and the $33 million spent at Clinton’s.  Americans expecting “Change” are hardly expecting their “Chains” instead.  Right on cue, the Israeli army claims a ceasefire is in effect, although their army still brutally occupies Gaza, with at least 700 of the 1,300 dead civilians.  Wouldn’t want to have Obama’s joyful anointing interrupted by a little bloodshed, would we?  Wouldn’t want to have another bombing of more United Nations buildings or children in a schoolyard while Obama is swearing to obey the Constitution, would we now?

Read More »

Since the Federal Reserve has done such a good job since it was instituted in 1913 — our currency has maintained its value beautifully and our economically has been running smoothly — the geniuses running the Obama team are now considering a National Bank.  Never mind that it’s been tried before, unsuccessfully, in 1781, 1791, and 1816.  (And never mind that in doing so he’ll be violating the Presidential Oath of Office he’ll be putting his hand on the Bible and swearing to tomorrow).  This time it will work, dad bernit!

Obama team weighs government bank to ease crisis

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – The incoming Obama administration is considering setting up a government-run bank to acquire bad assets clogging the financial system, a person familiar with the Obama team’s thinking said on Saturday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp have been in talks about ways to ease a banking crisis that is once again deepening — and a government-run “aggregator bank” is among the options.

Outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair both said on Friday a government bank was one of a number of ideas U.S. regulators had been discussing.

The source said advisers to President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Tuesday, were also considering the idea of an aggregator bank among a range of options that could be pursued.   (Continue reading at reuters.com)