It’s Friday and that means another installment of “Quick Hits”…
I read a quite sobering article by Chris Hedges earlier this week entitled, “The American Empire Is Bankrupt”. After reading the headline I said to myself, “well, duh!” But the first paragraph of the article shocked me out of my “duh-ness”. It reads:
This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.
Hedges directs the ultimate economic horror movie, something I’ve tried to prepare my family for after watching Chris Martenson’s excellent “Crash Course” last year. I find myself asking the same question over and over again. Are the doomsayers like Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Jim Rogers, Chris Martenson, Chris Hedges, and Gerald Celente right?
If they are, I know I’m at least partially prepared now and am trying to become more prepared every day. That is, of course, without going completely into the commando-survivalist realm. If I did that, I’d likely have to survive a divorce before I’d get to use any of my newly acquired skills.
A big deal was made this week over Obama murdering an innocent fly with his bare hands during a CNBC interview. As if all of the human Obamatons frozen in O-face since our long national Obamagasm began on January 20th wasn’t enough. He is now the lizard king. He fellates humans with his sharp tongue and strikes down insects with his bare hands. Is there anything this Superhuman-in-Chief cannot do? Removing his teleprompter seems to be his only kryptonite…. or is it?
In many re-branding efforts a new mission statement is derived. My choice for a re-branded GOP: The Free Country Project. The mission could also be worded in this way, “Do the polar opposite of whatever Lindsey Graham suggests.”
I apologize to the wonderful Free State Project for bastardizing their efforts with such a suggestion, but I am quite serious. Instead of putting energy into calling the Obama administration socialists why not abandon the petty, kindergarten-style, partisan bickering and look within? Come up with a new 1994-style “Contract With America” but this time don’t renege on the contract. It should not be called anything similar to “Contract With America” though. Yes, that bad taste is still lingering.
Dubbing it “The Free Country Project” and making more than a half-assed effort to bring libertarianism back into the GOP could be a winning formula. Of course, many will have to tuck their neo-con tails between their legs and embrace Ron Paul and his libertarian friends. I’m not talking about a macho homophobic half-hearted embrace here. I’m talking about a full-on bear hug that will make gawkers worry about dropping the soap in the GOP country club shower.
By now I’m sure you’ve seen the two video clips (here’s the latest) of Lindsey Graham unnecessarily attacking Ron Paul and libertarianism in general. It is odd for Graham to do such a thing unless he feels threatened by Paul. So I take it as a good sign that he is doing so. It is also a good sign that there are people out there, even in Graham’s home state of South Carolina willing to embrace the libertarian label like Mark Sanford as he does when questioned about “libertarianism”.
Lindsey Graham represents the GOP in a death-ward spiral. He is at the point of kicking, screaming, and clawing his way out of the Republican pit of despair. To really illustrate how the Grahams of the GOP operate see the video below. The sad thing is that this kind of behavior is no longer surprising. It is expected. This is the giant wall those that are trying to rebrand the GOP with the same old neo-con leaders are up against. The GOP should take Stephen Gordon’s advice and embrace libertarians of all stripes, otherwise the Grand Old Party may be destined to be the Tired Old Party by 2012.
The Republican Party is more or less in shambles. It is the political equivalent of New Orleans post-Katrina. All of the tired old neo-conservatives are scrambling around trying to make sense of the disaster but “making sense” has never been a ubiquitous neo-conservative trait. Finding the next GOP “leader” is quite easy. It’s hard to step anywhere in DC without having to wipe Red state leadership off the bottom of your shoe. Just about every Republican you bump into these days is trying to use political muscle to be the next Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan. All these attempts will likely fail.
The real problem with the GOP is the lack of activist and faithful followers. When everyone is trying to be a leader, who is left to do the following? The GOP is a city where every building is a comedy club holding an open mic night all on the same evening. The only people in the audience are Democrats laughing out of pity. Well, they are bleeding hearts after all.
The Republican Party doesn’t need new leadership. It needs old-style leadership, very old-style leadership. Newt Gingrich with a makeover is still neo-con Newt. A kinder gentler Rush Limbaugh? I thought the GOP was against drugs? And please don’t let me go down the lipstick on a pig avenue again regarding Sarah Palin. What a giant heaping pile of leadership!
Another wonderful week of Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano is in the bag. Attempts to unite Ron Paul and Daniel Hannan were met with technical difficulties, but both appeared on their own to great effect. Especially Hannan who had a quite eloquent answer to a question from the Judge about Constitutional responsibility. Watch that clip isolated here.
Or if you prefer to watch the whole darn show (and why not?) watch it all below.
Lew Rockwell, 2010 liberty loving candidate RJ Harris, Cody Willard, Free State Project founder Jason Sorens, Peter Schiff, and twitter-maven Shelly Roche also join the Judge.
Remember, all episodes are posted at http://freedomwatchonfox.com/ as soon as they are available. You can also find upcoming guest and topic lists as well as the latest news about the show there.
I hate to admit it but when I first became interested in politics, I was a liberal. I was naively taken in by the feel-good positions and promises of politicians such as Paul Tsongas, Mario Cuomo, and Bill Clinton. I felt that, of course, the government should help people, take care of people. It was those evil Republicans who were mean-spirited and nasty all the time.
So I voted for Clinton. Twice. But near the middle of his second term I started to become jaded by politics in general, and I focused the majority of my daily attention elsewhere in life.
At some point later, I started listening to Rush Limbaugh “just to see how the other side thinks” and ended up becoming pursuaded by many of his arguments against those blasted liberals, so I thought I might really be a Republican.
But that didn’t last long, because I found the Libertarian Party. I realized I was most attracted to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, most notably Jefferson and Madison. I began to realize that there isn’t much difference at all betweens the Democrats and Republicans, that both support statist, authoritarian ideals.
Since the election of 2000, I’ve voted for the Libertarian Party candidate. (Well, this past election I changed my affiliation temporarily to Republican so I could vote for Ron Paul in the Primary, but then I changed back to Libertarian after the election). Today, while I typically agree mostly with the Libertarian-Party candidates, I don’t find myself wed to the Libertarian Party itself; I tend to be more of an anarcho-capitalist, believing mostly in the free market and ahbor some of the powers that even the Constitution gives the Federal government.
Then, in the past year or so, with the economy tanking, I became interested in economics for the first time in my life. I immediately realized that the Austrian school of economics are very in line with my way of thinking — and it seems so fitting, since Austrians tend to be small-government, libertarian thinkers. Therefore, it seemed natural to me that Democrats, liberals, and progressives, if they gave more than a modicum of thought to the subject of economics, would be attracted to Keynesian theory, which pushes deficit spending to artificially “stimulate” the economy.
But why were so many conservative politicians voting (and even campaigning) for stimulus packages? The idea of a “conservative Keynesian” seems to be to be a paradox in terms. Read More »
The question of secession was more or less settled during the Civil War. Thanks to that low point in American history the right of secession has been tied to slavery ever since. Isn’t it time again to make an effort of untying that knot?
I will not complicate the untying of that knot by quoting our Founders nor Abraham Lincoln. I will instead make an attempt to use logic. It is up to whomever reads this to decide if I’m successful in this endeavor.
The right of secession is a claim of freedom from the State. It is a rejection of State slavery. It is purely libertarian yet it has always been associated with the “peculiar institution” which was a complete rejection of liberty. Slavery has muddied the secession debate to the point that it is difficult for anyone to sound off in favor of secession without being demonized as a kook (at best) or a white supremacist (at worst).
I want to claim publicly, before I get labeled, I abhor slavery in all forms. It is pure evil. How hypocritical it was for the Confederate States to use States Rights in an attempt to continue violating human rights. It is also quite hypocritical today for those who claim to believe in liberty to marginalize those that support secession as a recourse for combating creeping State tyranny. Such tyranny is nothing more than a form of collective slavery.
How can individual slavery be so wrong and collective State-sponsored, taxpayer-funded slavery be right? The answer, of course, is that it cannot. Slavery in all forms is immoral, whether it be evidenced through the government’s incrementalist approach of freedom reduction or by the sound of a whip gashing a man’s back. The drama of the latter should not minimize the evil of the former.
To be a supporter of secession while denouncing human slavery is consistent and moral in the cause of liberty.
History has shown that one era’s fringe is another era’s mainstream. It is unlikely that secession would be considered a viable option by the masses for combating the ceaseless expansion of government today, thanks in large part to those that feel compelled to associate it with slavery. The secession principle is wholly libertarian and deserves more respect than it is receiving from the detractors.
Ron Paul has been a favorite target of the detractors because of his recently released pro-secession video. In it he focuses on the right message, the principle of secession. Instead of attacking Ron Paul we should be emulating him.
If we make the effort to unmuddy the water of secession in our time perhaps the next generation won’t be afraid to swim in its clarity. After we are gone they will thank us for our eternal vigilance so they still know liberty.
It appears by most accounts that the Tea Parties held just about everywhere yesterday were a success. My own measure of success is that they didn’t completely evolve into a GOP lovefest and an Obama hatefest. While there were some reports of anti-Obama rhetoric and signage the majority seemed to stay on the anti-tax, anti-spend, and anti-big-government train.
Glenn Beck, broadcasting from the Alamo backed by Ted Nugent on guitar, allowed a crowd member to plug Ron Paul’s HR1207 (Fed Transparency Act) which drew cheers from the rest of the crowd. See it here:
What I find somewhat amusing about the above clip is that the man holding the microphone is Pat Gray. A talk radio host who subs for Beck on his radio show every so often. Gray (like Beck) denounced Ron Paul during the presidential campaign. Fast-forward to yesterday and he’s holding a microphone allowing someone to plug Ron Paul’s HR1207 to millions of viewers.
Later in the show Beck interviews Penn Jillette. They discuss the Tea Parties with an emphasis on rejecting the two party system. Jillette doesn’t disappoint.
What happens now that the Tax Day Tea Parties are over? We are all about to find out.
This week’s Freedom Watch as another great one. Judge Napolitano interviewed British MEP Daniel “Devalued Prime Minister” Hannan to kick off the show. The rest of the show was pretty much dedicated to the TSA audio that Steve Bierfeldt captured as he was detained trying to fly back from the Campaign For Liberty event in St. Louis, MO 2 weeks ago.
In addition to Bierfeldt, joining the Judge for the discussion were Peter Schiff, Mike Ferguson, Lew Rockwell, Michael German (ACLU), and Michelle Muccio (Acton Institute). Apparently, Ron Paul was unable to participate this week marking the first time in 9 weeks that he’s been absent from the show.
Still it was a great in depth discussion surrounding the TSA and knowing your rights when flying. Watch it all below in the embedded playlist. You can watch all the previous episodes of Freedom Watch at FreedomWatchOnFox.com.
Last night Ron Paul was interviewed on the Jim Bohannon show (from a guest host) out of Pittsburgh, PA. Paul is introduced as a “major libertarian voice in Congress”.
Paul opens by admitting he didn’t watch Obama’s press conference last night and asks the host to let him know if he said something special. The host admits that Obama said nothing “terribly special”.
A large portion of the interview focuses on the financial system. Paul discusses his own beliefs for the future of the U.S. economy and the dollar.
“It’s as close to Socialism as you can get”, he says at one point.
Liberty Maven
I hate to admit it but when I first became interested in politics, I was a liberal. I was naively taken in by the feel-good positions and promises of politicians such as Paul Tsongas, Mario Cuomo, and Bill Clinton. I felt that, of course, the government should help people, take care of people. It was those evil Republicans who were mean-spirited and nasty all the time.
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