Rangel Rankled

Luke Russert rankles Representative Charlie Rangel with a question about his ethics violation.



How dare someone ask this "honorable" political hack about the consequences of his actions.

Quit Meddling and Balance the Budget

Stopping our meddling overseas and bringing the troops home would go a long way towards balancing the budget. From PolitiFact:

“Ron Paul claims that the U.S. spends $1 trillion a year on foreign policy. Our experts acknowledged that the figure largely depends on one’s definition of “foreign policy.” Changing the definition means altering the expenses that one includes in the calculation. There was disagreement, for example, on whether to include the interest payments on debt-financed military spending and how to calculate that debt.

Still, give or take, most of the numbers that the experts threw at us come relatively close to, or even exceed, the $1 trillion mark. We find that Paul’s underlying point is valid, and rate this one True.”

The ruling class is lying to you. The biggest terrorist threat resides in Washington DC. The politicians and their cronies are destroying our economy and country.

All the partisan rhetoric is mere bread and circuses to keep you from seeing how you are being ripped off.

854,000 People Hold Top Secret Security Clearances

From Texas Congressman Ron Paul:

On the Bloated Intelligence Bureaucracy

I have often spoken about the excessive size of government, and most recently how waste and inefficiency needs to be eliminated from our military budget. Our foreign policy is not only bankrupting us, but actively creating and antagonizing enemies of the United States, and compromising our national security. Spending more and adding more programs and initiatives does not improve things for us; it makes them much much worse. This applies to more than just the military budget.

Recently the Washington Post ran an extensive report by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin on the bloated intelligence community. They found that an estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances. Just what are all these people up to? By my calculation this is about 11,000 intelligence workers per al Qaeda member in Afghanistan. This also begs the question - if close to 1 million people are authorized to know top secrets, how closely guarded are these secrets?

They also found that since the September 11 attacks, some 17 million square feet of building space has been built or is being built to accommodate the 250 percent expansion of intelligence organizations. Intelligence work is now done by some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private contracting companies in about 10,000 locations in the United States.

The former Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, has asserted that US intelligence now has the authority to target American citizens for assassination without charge or trial. How many of these resources are being devoted to spying on American citizens for nefarious reasons at home rather than targeting foreign enemies abroad?

It has been pointed out how much information we had about the impending attacks on 9/11, but because of layers upon layers of bureaucratic inefficiencies, our intelligence community was unable to act meaningfully on that information. Obviously we needed drastic change. But it was pretty clear that we did not need more bureaucracy, more confusion, more expenditures and more government.

It is even claimed by some leaders that the intelligence community has grown this way by design; that it is advantageous to have more than one set of eyes looking at the same information. With this logic, is there any number of intelligence employees at which we achieve diminishing returns? Can there ever be too many cooks in the kitchen, in their view?

Are there any problems at all that the government wouldn’t attempt to solve by throwing more money at them? Even now, the government is trying to solve our economic problems related to too much government spending and debt, with more government spending and debt.

The problem with our intelligence community before 9/11 was not an inability to collect information. Therefore, the post-September 11 build-up of the surveillance state does nothing to enhance safety. Instead what Americans have gotten in return for the billions of tax dollars spent on security is a surveillance state that reads our e-mails, wiretaps us without warrants, and strip searches grandmothers at airports. This is yet another instance in which Americans would be safer, richer and freer if our government would simply look to the Constitution and respect the boundaries it has set.

Security Theater

Most of what is claimed to be security is nothing more than an illusion.

From the New York Daily News a story from February of this year:

The brutal beating and robbery of a girl in a Seattle bus tunnel has been caught on tape -- along with the inaction of three security guards from whom she sought protection.

A teen girl and three young men face first-degree robbery charges stemming from the attack, during which they allegedly stole the 15-year-old's purse, phone, and iPod.

The 15-year-old victim, who is black, told cops the altercation began at a nearby Macy's, where some in the group taunted her saying she had "nice things" and acts "white," according to court papers filed Wednesday. One of the defendants claims the victim pepper-sprayed a person in the group.

Two Seattle police officers noticed the escalating situation and kicked the group out of the store, then brought the girl and her friend to another exit, the victim said. She reported that she asked the officers for an escort to the bus tunnel, just below the department store, but the officers refused.

She said she then deliberately stood next to the security guards in hopes of warding off further confrontation.

"I went to the security and told them that these kids were trying to jump me," the girl said. "I know that I am about to get jumped and I am hanging around the guards to try and get protection. ... I thought the security guards would defend me."

The guards didn't intervene, though. They have standing orders to "observe and report," so they called police but did nothing else as another 15-year-old girl punched and repeatedly kicked the victim in the head.

King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said the guards were right to follow their training.

"If you're a bank teller and you do something other than give them the money, you're going to get fired," Urquhart said. "We don't expect civilians to take police action. In this case, it was a violent fight, and they were outnumbered by this pack of people 3-to-1."

Representative Marcy Kaptur July's Porker of the Month

From ReasonTV:

Reason.tv presents Citizens Against Government Waste's Porker of the Month for July 2010: Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)!

Back in March, the House Appropriations Committee banned members of Congress from awarding earmarks to for-profit companies.

Kaptur publicly praised the new ban, but privately she taught corporations (including one of her biggest campaign contributors) how to get around it, thus ensuring that their steady diet of taxpayer-supplied pork would continue.

Way to go, Rep. Kaptur!

Disregard of the Rule of Law Creates Problems

Texas Congressman Ron Paul comments on the consequences of the disregard for the Rule of Law:

When There is No Rule of Law

Last week ended with some promising news on finally stopping the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, the administration still seems to believe that shutting down working oil wells is a higher priority than effectively dealing with the broken one. They are again issuing a moratorium on off-shore drilling, while maintaining a de facto ban on new permits even for shallow water drilling, which they previously stated would be unaffected. The courts have twice declared this unconstitutional, over 70 percent of the people see this as unreasonable, yet the administration seems determined to simply end off-shore drilling, at least for those producers that cannot afford to sit idle for an unknown period of time until the ban is lifted.

Whether or not this latest effort will hold up in court is yet to be seen. Sadly, many smaller oil producers in the Gulf see the writing on the wall, and instead of waiting around and risking their livelihoods on the whims of American politicians and judges, they are leaving for friendlier business climates. What is happening to this country when the Republic of Congo is better for business than the United States? One big factor is regime uncertainty.

Regime uncertainty is the opposite of the rule of law. It is the rule of the whims of the people in charge and what mood they are in on any particular day. It is usually associated with third world dictatorships and plays a major role in why some countries remain poor. When a business cannot predict whether a government will issue a permit, confiscate or nationalize their capital investments, tax them into bankruptcy, or arbitrarily stall their operations, they tend to do business elsewhere. This type of government hostility is not conducive to wealth creation and it is tragic to see it chasing away businesses here when we need the jobs and productivity more than ever.

When the rule of law is respected, it provides business with some measure of predictability so they can plan and operate smoothly. When it is not respected, there are just too many variables, too much risk of loss or waste.

Of course, disregard of the rule of law creates other problems too. For the larger and better-connected businesses, it creates the opportunity of regulatory capture. If the government becomes too unpredictable, one business survival strategy is to become so involved in government and regulatory bodies that they effectively gain control over the very entities that are supposed to keep them in line. In other words, if you can’t beat the government, become the government. A business that achieves regulatory capture is also able to write and implement laws and regulations that it can deal with, but its competitors cannot. The eventual outcome is that companies use regulation to drive everyone else out of business until a monopoly is achieved, putting consumers at its mercy.

Meanwhile, the people develop a false sense of security, assuming that the many regulatory bodies in place are protecting them. Without respect for the rule of law, however, those bodies and their regulations are more likely protecting and enabling big business at the expense of small business and the consumer.

We see this not only with big oil, but big banking, big defense contractors, you name it. This is why, especially in a crisis, we should uphold the Constitution. It is the ultimate consumer protection from crony corporatism.

Jewish-Arab Sex Taboo

From Russia Today:

Inter-racial dating is a taboo in Israel. In a Jerusalem suburb there are special patrol groups that prevent Arab men mixing with Jewish women, and couples who mutually choose to rebel are ostracized. The most recent case involves an Arab man who posed as a Jewish bachelor. A Jewish woman agreed to have sex with him -- but after she found out he was an Arab, and not a Jew, she filed a police complaint. The courts took the case so seriously that Sabbar Kashur has now been convicted of rape by deception and sentenced to 18 months in prison. The judge said he had an obligation to protect the public from sophisticated criminals who could mislead innocent victims. Kashnur denies pretending to be Jewish and is going to appeal his conviction. RT talks to political journalist and analyst Gideon Levy.

Unusually Uncertain

Texas Congressman questions Ben "Unusually Uncertain" Bernanke.

Julian Assange: WikiLeaks Whistleblower

Julian Assange editor in chief and spokesperson for the controversial website WikiLeaks is interviewed by Chris Anderson of TED:

Mary Ruwart Interviewed

Mary Ruwart talks about how she became a libertarian and an author.

Paramilitary Police Raids in the United States

Radley Balko discusses paramilitary police raids in the United States. From Reason TV:

What happens when video of a routine police procedure is posted online? In the case of a Missouri SWAT raid, outrage, anger, and a viral sensation viewed over 1.2 million times.

Reason Magazine Senior Editor Radley Balko sat down with Nick Gillespie to discuss the raid, the video, and the fallout.

Here is the original video:




Who could answer the door in the time given? They always shoot the dog.

Real Unemployment Rate is 16% to 22%

Texas Congressman Ron Paul discusses economics and the deception in government statistics.

Never Heard of Nullification?

Susan Modaress of PressTV’s “The Autograph” interviews Tom Woods on the subject of nullification. Woods' book explains how nullification works and how it has been used to uphold the first amendment and to knock down slavery laws before the Civil War. Nullification is a power the Founders expected the states to use.

Part I:



Part II:



PressTV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Yes, once again the foreign press covering an issue that the American mainstream media ignores.

Global Scares

English author and journalist Christopher Booker spoke to Russia Today about the causes of the economic crisis that the EU is facing, and shared his view on how global warming and other 'global scares' of the 21st century develop and evolve.

The Peace Movement is Dead

A suggestion for an alternative strategy for the anti war movement:

The Right to Obscenity

Protecting freedom, means protecting the freedom of those you may disagree with. From ReasonTV:

"When did women exchanging bodily fluids and a little light bondage become the most obscene thing in the land?" asks Constance Penley, a University of California at Santa Barbara professor well-known for her classes on pornography.

That question may be answered this week when porn producer John Stagliano's federal obscenity trial enters its second week. Stagliano faces up to 32 years in prison for distributing the adult films Milk Nymphos, Storm Squirters 2: Target Practice, and a promo reel for a trailer for Belladonna's Fetish Fanatic Five via his website for Evil Angel Productions (adults only).

(Full disclosure: Stagliano has been a donor to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)

Emboldened by the Stagliano trial, a group of anti-pornography organizations recently held an event to demand a new "War on Pornography." "We have a war on pornography and we're going to win it," declares Patrick Trueman, a former Department of Justice prosecutor and leader of the War on Pornography Coalition. "The pornographers know exactly what they're doing and they're not going to respond to anything but the stick of the law," adds Donna Rice Hughes, founder of Enough is Enough.

But Reason.tv speaks with others, including an adult film actress and fetish film director, who promise to resist the anti-porn crusaders. And there is a bigger issue at stake, says Marty Klein, author of America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty. "The right to see South Park, may actually depend on the right to watch Butt Busters 3," says Klein. "If people want to have the right to do what they want to do, they have to protect the rights of other people to do what other people want to do."

Michael Steele Commits Heresy Against the War Party

Jack Hunter comments on the neocon backlash against Michael Steele for questioning the neocons' policy of perpetual war:

Protecting Us From Fruit Puree

Video showing Chicago health inspectors destroying perfectly good fruit puree.

More from the Chicago Tribune:

In a sad struggle that unfolded in a West Town kitchen Thursday night, Department of Health inspectors seized, slashed open and poured bleach over thousands of dollars of local peaches, pears, raspberry and plum purees owned by pastry chef Flora Lazar. She'd purchased the fruit from Green City Market farmers last summer and had planned to use it to make local fruit gelees for her business, Flora Confections.

More than $1,000 of food owned by the Sunday Dinner Club caterers was also destroyed by health department inspectors.

Inspectors cited no health problems with any of the food. They even encouraged Lazar's son to eat the confiscated granola bars from Sunday Dinner Club. They only said the food was prepared by chefs who didn't have the proper business licenses to prepare and sell it. But apparently in Chicago, you also need a license to give fruit to your child.

Even after Lazar had given the cooler to her son, health department inspector Greg Nelson refused to let him keep it. Instead the inspector called the Chicago Police Department to take it away from him.

When I asked the inspectors why her son couldn't take the frozen bags of fruit, Nelson said "no comment." He gave the same reply when I asked if it posed any health risk. The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection has been similarly unresponsive to any of my calls about the issue this week. The last message I got was that they would try to look into it.

Well this is from Chicago, a city with a jerk for a mayor who has armed escorts, yet denies guns to honest hard working citizens, so what would one expect.

Ten Reasons to End the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Now

A recent message from the Libertarian Party highlights ten reasons we should end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq immediately:

The long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been back in the news recently, and we just had the bizarre spectacle of the Republican National Committee Chairman saying he didn't like Obama's war in Afghanistan, while the DNC chastised him for failing to support the troops.

Here are ten reasons to end the wars now. I hope you'll take a look at some of the links.

1. American military and contractor casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Iraqi and Afghanistan civilian and military casualties.

3. These wars are a tremendous waste of taxpayer money in a time of extreme deficits, high unemployment and a falling stock market.

4. Invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq feeds terrorism.

5. Osama Bin Laden and his co-conspirators who attacked the World Trade Center were Saudi Arabian.

6. As Congressman Ron Paul recently said: "In Afghanistan, we are fighting the Taliban, those dangerous people with guns defending their homeland. Once they were called the Mujahideen, our old allies, along with bin Laden, in the fight to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s."

7. Most Republicans in Congress now admit Iraq was a mistake.

8. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's comments show that even the hawkish Republican Party can't support this war with a straight face.

9. As James Madison said, "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." (Witness the PATRIOT Act.)

10. The U.S. military has been in Iraq over seven years, and in Afghanistan almost nine years. It's time to give peace a chance.

(Note, the LP doesn't necessarily endorse the organizations linked above. We encourage you to research these issues for yourself.)

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict
Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee

Zombie Interview

Tom Woods interviewed by a typical mainstream media type:

Protecting Us From Beer

ReasonTV explores the Pennsylvania nanny state that conducts raids on "unregistered beer".

Back in March, the owners of Philadelphia's popular and upscale Memphis Tap Room found their place swarming with Pennsylvania state police searching for "unlicensed beer." As reported by the Philadelphia Daily News: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board - a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania. Based on a complaint from someone the State Police refuse to identify, three teams of officers converged last Thursday on the three bars, run by Leigh Maida and her husband, Brendan Hartranft. Checking their inventories against the state's official list of more than 2,800 brands, the cops seized four kegs and 317 bottles, totaling 60.9 gallons of beer, according to police calculations

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie recently sat down at the scene of the crime with the Tap Room's Hartranft to talk about the long reach of nanny state alcohol laws that just seem crazy, especially in the city that birthed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The Great Philly Beer Bust shines a dark light on how capricious enforcement of stupid regulations undermines life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Or at least a perfectly chilled Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Red Ale.

Drugs Should Be Legalized

Professor Thomas Sowell wrote this essay in 1984 on why drugs should be legalized. It still applies today.

Independence Day: The Founders' Vision

Here is a commentary I wrote that was published in the Rochester Post Bulletin on June 29, 2007. I have posted it on my blog the last three years, but I think it is worth repeating (I do update the number of years each year):

This Fourth of July as we go about our activities with family and friends, we all should take some time to reflect upon the true significance of the holiday. Yes, it is a celebration of our country's Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, but it is much more than that. It is a celebration of an idea that was revolutionary then and unfortunately is still considered revolutionary by many today.

The Declaration of Independence boldly states: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ..."

This revolutionary declaration is the foundation of American political thought and has inspired millions around the world in the 234 years since Thomas Jefferson wrote it. The common view at the time was that rights were granted by the government to the people. Instead, Jefferson declared there is a higher law, "unalienable Rights," that every human has by their mere existence. Government only has those powers granted to it by the people, to protect these natural rights.

Unfortunately today it seems that many have rejected Jefferson's declaration and have returned to the antiquated idea of government supremacy. They define patriotism as supporting the government. Most disheartening of all are the discussions about the Constitution.

Political commentators, major party politicians and Supreme Court nominees talk about our "constitutional rights," as if the government were granting us our rights through the Constitution.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the Constitution, the founders again make it abundantly clear that all power comes from the people. The Constitution is a document where the people have granted the government certain limited powers: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Further, the Ninth Amendment declares: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Because so many Americans have forgotten the fundamental idea behind the founding of this Country, today we have people willing to abandon our basic liberties, giving the government the power to do anything it wants.

They falsely assume that invasions of liberty and privacy will not affect them, though history has shown otherwise. Too many today are willing to abandon freedom for the illusion of security.

Benjamin Franklin said: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

This Fourth of July please take time out from the celebrations to reflect on the founders' vision for America.

The Crazy War in Afghanistan

Jack Hunter says the war in Afghanistan makes no sense.