David Weigel of Reason Magazine is from Delaware, and knows about Joe Biden. He exposes the Senator’s penchant for big government solutions, including his active commitment to the War on Drugs, his early advocacy of more power for the federal government to deal with terrorists, and more.
Full expose here http://reason.com/news/show/128237.html
“We’ve heard how the value of the dollar affects gas prices – and indeed the price of everything. I was pleased that my request for a hearing on such was granted by the Financial Services committee and we were able to hear some very informative testimony. Certainly domestic policies, regarding off-shore oil drilling bans, ethanol mandates, refining capacity, and CAFE standards are interventionist and harmful enough in the energy market.”
“But how does foreign policy affect gas prices? One important factor is that oil on the world market has been priced in dollars exclusively since 1973. Only two leaders have gone against this arrangement - Saddam Hussein in 2000 and more recently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with the recently opened Iranian Oil Bourse which trades in non-dollar currencies. But since oil is otherwise exclusively traded in dollars, this means that oil producers have vast amounts of assets held in dollars. Especially since the War on Terror and the PATRIOT Act, many oil-producing nations and banks are concerned the US government may freeze assets based on flimsy pretexts. This fear contributes to dollar weakness, and therefore also high oil prices.”
Ron Paul on how warmongering leads to high prices at the pump http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003480.html
“Looking at the budget crisis, Governor Schwarzenegger has ordered a temporary reduction of the salaries of 200,000 state employees to the minimum wage. This gesture is largely symbolic, for it will probably not last very long. Meanwhile, the governor is scheming to borrow $9.3 billion more in the form of a water bond.”
“Some commentators have pointed out this disconnect, but Schwarzenegger has consistently championed bonds while claiming fiscal discipline. He campaigned in 2003 on a platform including large bonds, and within a month of election he was campaigning around the state for a $15 billion bond.”
“He’s supported bonds ever since, most notably in 2006 when he backed a bipartisan $42.7 billion bond package for transportation and education infrastructure, housing programs, and flood control.”
“California needs dramatic reforms. The budget crisis is very real, and with a recession kicking in nationwide, the reforms will have to amount to much more than a temporary cut in state employee pay.”
Full column by Anthony Gregory @ http://ca.lp.org/lp20080821.shtml
“A major theme of John McCain’s campaign is that he has far more experience in foreign affairs than does Barack Obama. McCain has now escalated his attacks by targeting Obama’s judgment as well — especially the latter’s pessimism about the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq.”
“There is little doubt about McCain’s lengthier foreign policy experience. But it is not at all apparent that his judgment is superior to Obama’s. Indeed, the record indicates that McCain’s own judgment is alarmingly bad.”
“Even if one concedes that Obama was excessively negative about the surge’s prospects for success (and the jury may be out on that point for months or even years to come), McCain’s own prognostications on Iraq have repeatedly been off the mark. He was not prescient about the course of the war: As senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee prior to the invasion, McCain predicted Iraq would be a quick and easy victory, and even told MSNBC he had “no doubt” U.S. troops “will be welcomed as liberators.”
Full column by Ted Carpenter and Malou Innocent @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9595
“One problem with politicians is that when problems they create come to a head, they typically feel this irresistible urge to DO something, rather than to UN-do something, or to simply back off to avoid exacerbating the situation. Too often, that which they end up doing has very little connection to the cause of the crisis, but plays well in the press and superficially makes everyone feel better. Bills that are rushed through Congress under duress are never studied enough, providing too tempting an opportunity to quietly slip in unrelated provisions that erode freedoms in ways that would never pass as a stand-alone bill. We famously saw this with the PATRIOT Act, but Washington learned nothing from that.”
“The current housing crisis and the corresponding big government fix are another prime example. First of all, the so-called solution will actually make the problem worse. The problem stems from easy credit and a rush to flood the housing and mortgage markets with money. Relaxed or non-existent lending standards led many into mortgages and houses they could not afford. As more foreclosures hit, the lending institutions will continue collapsing like dominoes under the weight of all the bad paper they underwrote.”
Rep. Ron Paul critiques interventionism @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003456.html
“The dangers inherent in the foreign policy advocated by the neo-conservatives are well known. While many Americans have become increasingly aware of those dangers, far less attention has been focused on the dangers of neo-conservative economic policies. This issue is of critical importance right now, because many are mistakenly pointing their fingers at the free market as the culprit behind our current economic plight.”
“There are only a few in elected office who have any real loyalty to free markets and limited government. The agenda of neo-conservatives in the economy calls for a very active central government. Indeed, while there are some neo-conservatives who continue to use the rhetoric of limited government, and who oppose increases in the federal income tax as a way to maintain the political benefits that apply to those who talk about free markets, it is now the neo-conservatives who promote fiat monetary policies even more than those on the liberal left.”
Rep. Ron Paul warns us @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003449.html
Jesse Ventura, former Independent Governor of Minnesota, will speak at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic on September 2 in Minneapolis. He joins former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico, former Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr and others in calling for limited government and restoration of our liberties.
In 2002, Norm Coleman was elected to the U.S. Senate as a supporter of President Bush and his pending war with Iraq. He has been a loyal supporter of Bush and Bush’s war. He even tried to provide an after the fact justification for the war with his investigation of the U.N. supervised “Oil for Food” program.
The war has proved to be a fiasco, and is now widely unpopular. But Minnesota Democrats have only been able to come up with a comedian to challenge Senator Coleman.
Minnesota voters have another choice. Dean Barkley is seeking to challenge Sen. Coleman as the candidate of the Independence Party. Dean Barkley helped elect Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota in 1998, and has briefly served as appointed Senator.
Dean Barkley calls for fiscal responsibility, and points out the Federal Debt is killing our economy and our children’s future. Barkley calls for ending the Iraq War, and points out that Americans were misled into supporting the war.
Dean Barkley calls the War on Drugs a failure, and calls for an emphasis of rehabilitation rather than imprisonment as a way to deal with the drug problem.
Dean Barkley campaign site @ http://www.barkleyforsenate.org/
Tuesday, July 29, 2008: Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies:
“The new budget estimates show that federal spending will top $3.13 trillion in 2009, up 68 percent from $1.86 trillion when the current president came to office in 2001. That increase is enormous — indeed it is more than twice the 32 percent increase under eight years of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The deficit is expected to rise to a record $482 billion next year and then decline and magically disappear by 2012, based on the usual phony accounting that we have become used to from this White House. However, the deficit can be, and should be, erased by major spending reforms and cuts, and that should be the top domestic priority of the next president.”
Source: http://www.cato.org/pressroom.php?display=ncomments&id=102
The Campaign for Liberty will hold a three day Rally for the Republic, as a counter convention to the Republican National Convention. The Rally for the Republic will take place from August 31 to September 2, 2008 at the Target Center, in Minneapolis.
Tucker Carlson will MC the events. Featured speakers will include:
**Barry Goldwater, Jr, former Congressman from California
**Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico
**Bruce Fein, former Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan
**Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform
**Adam Curry from MTV
More information @ http://rally.campaignforliberty.com/