Liberty Maven

At the end of Judge Andrew Napolitano’s “Freedom Watch” he closes with the following words, “Stay Free”. Out of context one may think he’s doing a commercial for feminine “protection” products. But it is those two words that should mean the most to all of us right now. Those two words define succinctly the quote (that may or may not be from Thomas Jefferson):

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Staying free is what the Tea Party protests should be all about. It is what Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign was all about. It is what Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch is all about. The online show wrapped up its 10th episode today. With regular guests like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and Lew Rockwell there is no other show practicing and preaching the message of freedom so perfectly.

The show deserves to be on the regular Fox TV channel lineup, and you can help make that happen. All you have to do is watch the show on youtube, rate it, comment, and spread it around to everyone you know and some you don’t. If you believe in freedom, it is time to be eternally vigilant as freedom is on the wane. Getting this show on television could be one of the most effective methods for spreading the liberty message far and wide. Do it now.

Incidentally, the Tax Day episode of Freedom Watch aired today and it is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Keep spreading the freedom. Keep spreading the liberty.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “All political power comes from the barrel of a gun.” — Mao Tse Tung

If not for the threat of government violence — of arrest, incarceration, and the loss of all your property — how would you choose to spend your money. Would you rather . . .

• Give money to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or Habitat for Humanity?
• Contribute to government foreign aid projects, or Doctors Without Borders?
• Rely on the FDA for safe food and drugs, or the Underwriter’s Laboratory?
• Deliver your mail through the post office, or Fed Ex and UPS?
• Contribute money directly to research clinics, or filter it through the National Institutes of Health?
• Receive treatment in a V.A. Hospital, or a private one?
• Give 15% of your income to Social Security, or use that money to buy annuities from a diverse portfolio of insurance companies?
• Continue paying taxes to a ponzi-scheme Medicare program that must eventually cut benefits and ration your health care, or pile-up those funds in a tax-free, interest bearing Health Savings Account?
• Contribute money to local charities to change and improve the lives of the poor, or to a food stamp program that merely maintains people in their poverty?

Imagine the choices you would have if the politicians didn’t use the threat of violent arrest, incarceration, and the loss of all your property, to make you fund their preferred choices?

No corporation or charity ever threatens you with violence if you don’t buy their product, or contribute to their cause. Only “The Violent Entity,” The State, or what we inaccurately call “government,” does that. And it is only by colluding with politicians that corporations and other special interests gain the power to pick your pocket.

The State only performs the functions of a government when it protects us from violence, through courts, police, and a tightly controlled military that does not initiate violence against other countries and peoples.

But . . .

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In 2002, Ron Paul offered up using Letters of Marque and Reprisal for going after those terrorists that attacked us on 9/11. The Bush administration and Congress didn’t listen. Almost $1 trillion later Osama Bin Laden is still running around making propaganda videos like Michael Moore.

A couple days ago Ron Paul released a video suggesting the same method for dealing with the pirates looting and pillaging commercial ships off the coast of Somalia. Will Obama and Congress listen now? Yesterday the Pentagon released information indicating that they are toying with the idea of sending ground troops into Somalia, UN sanctioned of course.

From CNN:

Pentagon planners are preparing a variety of options for dealing with Somali pirates, and a United Nations resolution gives them the authority to conduct operations inside Somalia.

“The ultimate solution for piracy is on land,” said Vice Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the Combined Maritime Forces.

“Piracy around the world stems from activity where there is lawlessness, lack of governance, economic instability; things of that nature. And wherever you have that, you’re going to have criminal activity at sea,” he said at a Monday briefing.

The Defense Department could mean that they aim to send a small contingent of troops into Somalia to combat piracy. However, the third paragraph above suggests that Somalia needs some nation building in order to neutralize the threat of piracy which certainly indicates the use of more than a few American soldiers. This lunacy is more proof of the over-riding “empire mentality” we have when it comes to intervening in world affairs.

What is so morbidly hilarious about this is that in Ron Paul’s video (released less than 24 hours prior to this Pentagon story) he said he was concerned about further U.S. intervention and reminded everyone what happened the last time Clinton (and father Bush) tried to intervene in Somalia. How naive I was to react to Paul’s suggestion in the video with, “Our government would never go for that!” It’s beginning to look like Ron Paul was right (again). I should have known better. Analyzing the way our beloved government is handling the economy should be evidence enough that past failed tactics will be repeated again and again no matter how many times they’ve failed.

Now a somewhat lengthy article from Politico explores Ron Paul’s suggestion in depth. The article puts an almost universally positive spin on using Letters of Marque and Reprisal for combating piracy.

National security experts estimate that this week’s ship captain rescue by Navy SEALs cost tens of millions, although a Navy spokesman says the military cannot confirm the exact cost of the mission.

Instead, privateers would be incentivized to patrol the ocean looking for key targets — and money would be paid only to the contractor who completed the job.

“If we have 100 American wanna-be Rambos patrolling the seas, it’s probably a good way of getting the job done,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow and security expert Eli Lehrer. “Right now we have a Navy designed mostly to fight other navies. The weapons we have are all excellent, but they may not be the best ones to fight these kinds of pirates. The only cost under letters of marque would be some sort of bounty for the pirates.”

Do you think this time those in power will listen to Ron Paul or will we see yet another trillion dollars squandered with little benefit and more loss of life?

If the latest Rasmussen poll is any indication it seems we may be in for more costly interventions overseas. 72% of those polled said they support using military action against the pirates. To be clear I have little problem with the way the recent rescue was performed in order to save Captain Phillips. I do have a problem with escalating such actions into another excuse for nation building, occupation, and spreading democracy at the point of a gun.

Ron Paul appeared on CNN American Morning today to discuss his views on legalizing drugs and the insane drug war. This time the host allowed Paul to answer the questions without interruption and Ron Paul did a pretty good job of doing so.

He did seem to avoid the question on introducing legislation to legalize drugs (all drugs, not just marijuana), but overall it was a good appearance. The clip cuts off the results of the CNN poll where 49% of those polled thus far stated they wanted all drugs to be legalized. This gives me hope that someday, maybe in my lifetime, the insane war on drugs will be abolished.

Enjoy Ron Paul making sense below.

“America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.“ -  Dr. Laurence J. Peter (Author of The Peter Principle)

Today is tax day. It is also Wednesday which means that Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch is on at 2pm EST.

One of Liberty Maven’s newest contributing authors Shelly Roche (BreakTheMatrix.com) is going to be an in studio guest. She will be functioning as social media liaison by reading comments/questions she receives on Twitter during the show. To contribute your own questions/comments check out the details here. Her Twitter profile is here. Also feel free to follow Liberty Maven too.

The main topic of the show will be the Tea Party Tax Day protests happening all across the country.

Ron Paul also makes his triumphant return to the show after a one week hiatus.

The full guest list from FreedomWatchOnFox.com:

Ron Paul – On HR1207 and the DHS Report on Right Wing Extremism

Peter Schiff – Euro Pacific Capital

Lew Rockwell – Mises.org and LewRockwell.com

Dr. Liam Fox – UK Shadow Defense Minister

Michelle Muccio – The Rebel Economist

Shelly Roche – BreakTheMatrix.com – A Freedom Watch social media experiment.

Tune in at 2pm EST today for another great show. Stream it live online from http://foxnews.com/strategyroom.

Remember you can also watch previously aired episodes at FreedomWatchOnFox.com. The most recent episode is usually posted around 6pm EST each Wednesday.

During Ron Paul’s second appearance today in response to Barack Obama’s speech on the economy his attempts to calmly educate the MSNBC audience on economics seems to fall on deaf ears. Hopefully, a few people in the viewing audience learned something.

Chris Martenson, creator of the highly-recommended Crash Course on Economics and one of my personal heroes for putting his money where his mouth is by radically altering his lifestyle to conform to a minimalist one (to prepare for the coming economic meltdown), has written a scathing commentary on his blog in which he discusses the obvious looting operation going on by  Timmy Geithner,  Lawrence Summers and Rahm Emanuel.

As cynical as I am, I just can’t keep up.

That sentence is a paraphrase of a quote by Lily Tomlin that reads, “No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.”

I have long been a cynic of the bailouts, and, unfortunately, I cannot detect even the slightest sliver of daylight between the prior and current administrations. The reason, I fear, is captured by this quote from Simon Johnson, the former Chief Economist at the IMF and current professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management:

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.

The unfortunate conclusion here is that our system and processes are fully “captured” by a tangled web of interests that serve themselves over everything else. Your future, my future, and our future is being systematically ruined by a self-interested group of insiders that can no longer distinguish between their good and the common good.

Here’s the latest string of outrages from this week. [Continue reading]

Ron Paul appeared on CNN today to give a response to Obama’s speech regarding the economy today. Ron Paul said a lot of what you’d expect him to say and then some.

“We’ve had a new deal and a fair deal and I think this is a bad deal!”

Ron Paul is asked if he is being “responsible” for tossing around the word fascism. He makes the case that we are experiencing economic fascism and there is a difference between military fascism and economic fascism. The host is clearly shocked at the use of “that” word.

My response to the host would be that Ron Paul is one of the very few people in government that is being responsible by exposing the truth in the sea of misdirection that the public always gets from their elected officials.

Watch the exchange below.

Ron Paul was a guest of Montel Williams on “Montel Across America” recently. He discussed his own view of the Tea Party movement and the overall comparison between Bush and Obama. As always he brings everything back to the monetary system being at fault for our woes, and the fundamental question he asked during his Presidential campaign:

What should the role of government be? Listen to the interview here.

Montel is quite appreciative of having Ron Paul on his show and allows Paul to speak without interruption. The segment is very short, but quite good, and leaves me looking forward to the next time Ron Paul is a guest on the show.

The show is available on the left-leaning Air America network and further proves that Ron Paul is an equal opportunity liberty seeker. He appeals to both the left, the right, and in between. Could this be his Achilles heel? The Left adore Ron Paul on foreign policy, but despise him for his anti-regulatory free market beliefs. The neo-conservative Right adore him for his free market principles, but despise him for his anti-war, anti-interventionist foreign policy. Generally speaking, there is something to love about Paul on both sides, but there is also something people don’t like. Or am I being too general?

I’m falling into the same old trap here. I say the words “both sides” like there are only two options. In fact Ron Paul merely represents the Founder’s version of America. If the Founding Father’s were running for office today they’d all be running via a third party or as independents. It is also quite possible that they would be running within one of the two major parties trying to change it from within like Ron Paul is attempting today. This just illustrates how far the “main stream” political culture has veered off course in America. We shouldn’t have to fight so hard at restoring America’s founding principles, yet we do.

All we are saying is give freedom a chance (again).

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day: “Will these Tea Parties be a one-time event, where the participants expend considerable energy, and then when the world doesn’t change, will these same participants become discouraged, say to themselves, ‘That didn’t work,’ and then drop out and give up?’” – Mark, an Ohio activist.

There’s an exciting movement brewing. Crowds are showing up at demonstrations called Tea Parties. Scores of them are scheduled for this Wednesday, April 15, Tax Day.

I’LL BE SPEAKING AT ONE IN STEUBENVILLE, OHIO. But I’m forced to wonder, with Mark, who provides our Quote of the Day . . .

Will these Tea Parties result in continuing, growing activism? Or will they be another . . .

RANDOM ACT OF LIBERTY

When is something a random act? When you don’t come out of it bigger and stronger and able to do more and better things. The result is burn out and failure. That’s why . . .

At DownsizeDC.org, we have a wheel-like strategy. We recruit, then activate, then ask the newly recruited activist to also recruit . . . and on we roll. Moreover, we recruit people to low cost activism — the kind that can be done in your bathrobe, from your home, and on your schedule. This minimizes burnout.

We take on a number of legislative issues. It’s important to us to win them, and we’ve done so 18 times since early 2006.

But that’s NOT our most significant goal. Our top priority is to emerge from each battle bigger and stronger than we were when we entered.

Voltaire said, “God tends to be on the side of the bigger battalions.” We’re going to lose more battles than we win, especially in the early going, but long-term, we’ll build a huge army and win the war.

Random Acts of Liberty can really hurt a movement. We’re excited about these Tea Parties. Yet, the question we have about everything we do, as well as about these thrilling Tea Parties is . . .

“WHAT NEXT?”

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