Liberty Maven

Ron Paul will appear on The View, Hannity, and The Colbert Report tomorrow under the guise of promoting his new excellent treatise on liberty called, “Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom“; however, will he also officially announce his run for president?

If he wants to participate in the first debate scheduled for May 5th he must meet certain criteria by April 29th. It doesn’t take an expert to know that one of the first criteria is actually becoming a candidate. Jesse Benton has stated that Paul will meet the criteria to participate so that is certainly an indirect admission that the announcement will be forthcoming

So will Ronald Ernest Paul announce his official bid for 2012 on Monday? We’ll know for sure very soon.

May my fellow Paulites grow the grassroots of liberty in 2012 far beyond the inherent limitations of 2008.

My libertarian soul was hooked immediately. Yours will be as well. From the very first pages of  The Immune, a libertarian-infused, science fiction thriller from Doc Lucky Meisenheimer you will crave something. Something that all authors wish their readers would crave–to see what is on the next page, and the one after, and the one after that, and so on.

The Immune reads like a movie that keeps you guessing until the very end. It could easily be a huge blockbuster big screen thriller someday. Of course, that is if those in Hollywood are able to overlook the anti-government and decidedly libertarian message of the story. The great thing about Doc Lucky’s story is that it remains true to the liberty message without being overly preachy. In other words, this is not an Ayn Rand novel. I do love reading Ayn Rand, but this is much more mainstream and accessible. In fact it could be used as a gentle introduction to the libertarian ideology for those just starting down that path.

The book explores privacy, gun rights, civil liberties, foreign policy, government health care, global governance, and more. There’s even an evil character that I can only guess was patterned after Nancy Pelosi.

The story follows physician John Long in the not so-distant future when bio-genetically manufactured organisms that resemble flying “man-o-wars” (called airwars) begin emerging all over the world and killing humans randomly. Long is an ordinary physician who is lucky enough to be immune to the stings of the airwars. This makes him supremely useful to the propaganda machine of an international governing body that uses the airwar crisis as an excuse to continually strip individual freedoms from the world’s citizens. Hmm… doesn’t that sound all-too-familiar? And that’s not all they try to strip away as you’ll find out when you read the book.

This is truly a wonderful first novel for Doc Lucky Meisenheimer. The Immune succeeds on several levels. It is both heavy and light. It works equally as a “beach book” page-turner, and as an intellectual pursuit of individual liberty. Perhaps some of those that utilize it as the former will morph into using it as the latter by the time the last page is read.

If you are going to pursue liberty you might as well have fun doing it. That’s what reading The Immune is all about. I can’t recommend it enough. Add it to your reading list now. You’ll thank me later.

————————————–

The Immune by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer goes on sale May 13th, 2011. To order and find out more, see http://www.theimmune.com/

Last week Donald Rumsfeld went on the Opie and Anthony radio show to promote his new book, “”. It was an odd interview to begin with. Opie and Anthony are not known for their hard-hitting political interviews, but rather, numerous fart and sex jokes. Comedian Louis C.K. was in studio during the interview, and decided to ask Donald Rumsfeld a humorous question. You can listen to the interview here:

Compare that interview with the rather hard-hitting tough journalistic interview Judge Andrew Napolitano did last night with The other Donald:

And here is the Judge after the interview, saying that Rumsfeld described the interview as the “toughest” he’s had. I’m thinking he wishes he’d rather be asked if he’s a lizard by Louis CK than be interviewed by the Judge again.

Earlier today, Ron Paul used his five minutes of questioning to ask Hillary Clinton why we prop up dictators. Clinton’s answer seemed a bit similar to David Letterman’s response to Ron Paul’s son when Rand Paul appeared on Letterman’s show.

Letterman, basically said what Rand was saying didn’t sound right, but he didn’t know why. Hillary’s response to the elder Paul was more or less “sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t”. That is another non-answer, but that’s why they are called politicians I suppose. Check out the exchange below.

Yes, Ron Paul has won his second consecutive CPAC straw poll and as expected all the anti-libertarian, defense=offense, neo-conservatives (and Donald Trump, whatever he is) are dismissing the victory. They say it doesn’t mean anything. They don’t know what they are talking about, as usual. Of course it means something.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that Ron Paul will be the GOP nominee in 2012. Paul hasn’t even announced if he’s running yet. The victory’s meaning really has little to do with 2012 and much to do with the future direction of the Republican Party.

The organizers of CPAC sheepishly denounced their own straw poll prior to announcing Ron Paul as the winner. Appropriately enough, while they denounced the presidential preference question they gushed when talking about the results to the other questions in the poll. Yet the same people that voted for Ron Paul answered those other questions as well. Why did they not suggest that those results were skewed?

Yes, Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty made it easier for supporters to attend CPAC by offering discounted tickets and lodging packages. They did not “bus them in” as some suggested. The reason so many showed up at CPAC for Ron Paul is because they are true political activists. They are active, vocal, and dedicated to spreading the liberty message to those who are and aren’t willing to listen.  This is something the GOP has been missing for a long time.

It is mainly foreign policy differences that keep the old guard GOP from embracing these young Ron Paul activists. Perhaps if the rest of the Republican Party could ever understand the fundamental differences between…

1. preemptive war and national defense
2. isolationist and non-interventionist
3. anti-semitism and ending all foreign aid
4. blaming America and blaming American policy

…they could welcome Ron Paul and his supporters. The CPAC straw poll result suggests an effort should be made to understand and perhaps embrace these differences. After all, isn’t the ultimate Republican goal to defeat Obama in 2012? Seeing eye to eye with Ron Paul and his numerous activist supporters could go a long way toward that goal.

I have little hope this will happen, but in the long run it may not matter. Many of those young Ron Paul supporters are growing up, feeding on liberty, and will become office-seekers in the future.

The result of the CPAC straw poll does have meaning. It suggests the future is burning bright with the fire of liberty.

There are cerebral strategists and balls-to-the-wall activists in the tent of Ron Paul. Both were evident at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today. Prior to Rand Paul’s stellar speech the surprise speaker was Donald Trump. Many of us in the audience had come to get our seats to see The Rand instead of The Donald, and things got a bit ugly.

During Trump’s speech there were some vocal activists shouting out Ron Paul’s name, among other things. At one point when Trump mentioned there were no good GOP candidates the shouts of Ron Paul became too much for him. The video below shows what happened:

Yes, the out-of-touch celebrity with lots of money reacts by telling the crowd that Ron Paul has zero chance of winning. I immediately said something that was later echoed by Rand Paul, “Trump has an even less of a chance of winning than Ron Paul”. That was only the beginning.

Read More »

How is it possible that omitting Ron Paul’s name from this Reuter’s article about CPAC was not done on purpose? CPAC begins today with several presidential hopefuls attending and making speeches. One of those speeches is from last years run away CPAC straw poll winner, Ron Paul, yet the article excerpted below ignores him. I had to re-check the agenda for CPAC to see if they had somehow erased Paul’s name, but no, it was still there.

My only question is did the memo about Ron Paul from the mainstream media czar go out early this time around? Here is the relevant excerpt suspiciously omitting Paul:

“It’s one of the first times that they get to showcase their actual credentials among key constituencies and generate publicity for themselves early on in the cycle,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.

Among the speakers are two former governors, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota; former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and sitting governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Mitch Daniels of Indiana.

Gingrich and two other possibles, Representative Michelle Bachmann and former Senator Rick Santorum speak on Thursday.

Romney, Pawlenty, South Dakota Senator John Thune, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Daniels speak on Friday and Barbour speaks on Saturday. Attendees will decide their favorites in a Saturday straw poll.

Ron Paul hasn’t even announced he’s running in 2012 yet and the media is already trying to ignore him. I ask again, how can this not be on purpose?

Let me begin by refusing to apologize for the inflammatory rhetoric in the title of this post because I’m not CNN’s John King. Once again, Ron Paul has re-introduced his Audit the Fed bill in the House. This time his son, Rand Paul, has introduced the companion bill in the Senate. It’s time to put your lawmaker in your cross-hairs and get them to target the Federal Reserve for an audit.

PC SPEECH JOHN KING STYLE DISCLAIMER: We do not condone literally putting your lawmaker in the cross-hairs of your gun or guns. We merely mean that you should become active and request that your lawmakers support a full audit of the Federal Reserve as outlined in these bills. We also do not mean to suggest you, Ron Paul, or Rand Paul, literally grab a double barrel shotgun and shoot it at the Federal Reserve building or any Federal Reserve employee or official. Ok, enough! Now read the damned press release below, please.

SPRINGFIELD, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Congressman Ron Paul and his son, Senator Rand Paul, today introduced companion legislation in both chambers of the United States Congress to require a full and thorough audit of the Federal Reserve.

The bills, both titled The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011, but known better as “Audit the Fed,” are numbered H.R. 459 in the House and S. 202 in the Senate and continue the efforts championed by Ron Paul last year that won 320 co-sponsors before passing the House and 32 cosponsors in the Senate before falling short on a floor vote.

H.R. 459 starts the session with 56 original bipartisan cosponsors, while Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) are original cosponsors for S. 202.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 would open up the Fed’s funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility to Congressional oversight and audit by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office. Additionally, audits would include discount window operations, open market operations, and agreements with foreign central banks such as ongoing dollar swap operations with European central banks.

Public polling conducted by Rasmussen Reports in December 2010 indicated that 74 percent of the American People demand transparency at the Fed and support a full audit as called for in the Audit the Fed legislation. In 2009 and 2010, Campaign for Liberty generated over 2.5 million grassroots contacts to federal lawmakers in support of Audit the Fed.

“The Federal Reserve and its loose money, easy credit policies are the culprit for so many of the dire economic problems we face. Americans continue to demand transparency at the Federal Reserve, and Campaign for Liberty is proud to lead the fight to make this legislation the Law of the Land,” said Campaign for Liberty President John Tate. “All across the country, grassroots citizens are uniting behind Ron and Rand Paul and will demand this audit, this year.”

After the mostly nauseating SOTU speech by Obama… I noticed that Rand Paul’s press release earlier today announcing his bill to cut spending by $500 billion in 1 year. Not only that but he posted the bill itself along with a 37 page overview with highlights of specific departments/funding he would cut. It’s quite interesting to read and rather bold. In other words… I love it.

Yes, it will never pass, but I still love it.

Some highlights if you are not interested in opening the pdf linked above (though I recommend it because he explains why the cuts can be made):

• Legislative Branch – Cut by 23%
• Judicial Branch – Cut by 32%
• Dept. of Agriculture – Cut by 30%
• Dept. of Commerce – Cut by 54%
• Military/Dept. of Defense – Cut by 6.5%
• Dept. of Education – Cut by 83%
• Dept. of Energy – Cut by 100%
• Health and Human Services – Cut by 26%
• FDA – Cut by 62%
• CDC – Cut by 28%
• NIH – Cut by 37%
• TSA – Cut by 40%
• Housing and Urban Development – cut by 100%
• Eliminate Amtrak Subsidies
• EPA – Cut by 29%
• International Aid – Cut by 100%
• NASA – Cut by 25% (mentions fostering private space exploration/tourism)
• FCC – Cut by 22%

I often grow sleepy reading the incessant and inane Twitter comments from the Left about Rand Paul. Granted, it’s hard for some to be enlightening in 140 characters or less. Given some of the comments though, I doubt they’d be enlightening with more characters at their disposal. So in that regard, thank gods for Twitter’s character limit!

Rand Paul’s ideas, like his fathers, do go beyond the length of a tweet, or a debate soundbite. And they are even enlightening, sometimes. To demonstrate this here is a recent tweet from an un-named and un-enlightening liberal individual:

DADT REPEALED!!
65-31. Sorry for your loss, Rand Paul…SUCK ON IT!

The casual reader would automatically assume that Rand Paul’s position on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” would be strong on keeping it in place. However, Rand Paul’s actual position is that it should be left up to the Pentagon (or “the leadership of the military“) to decide whether to repeal it or keep it. The statement from his campaign also denounced the “political posturing” associated with the issue.

Paul’s position, at first glance, could be seen by some as political posturing in its own right, but digging a bit deeper, isn’t his position the correct one? Isn’t it also a libertarian one? It is essentially, a states rights argument. Shouldn’t the decision be made by those that are closest to the issue? This statement hardly demonstrates that Paul is against DADT repeal.

Read More »