Please fill out the short form here and pledge to purchase American Empire at Amazon.com on August 2nd. Help us push the book into Amazon's Top One Hundred and demonstrate the strength of support for a constitutional, common sense foreign policy!
Posted by Matt Holdridge on 07/30/10 Last updated 07/30/10
Judge Napolitano weighs in on the controversial Arizona immigration law. Judge Susan Bolton recently blocked Arizona from enforcing the new policy.
The Arizona legislature deemed the law, "critical to address serious criminal, environmental and economic problems Arizona has been suffering as a consequence of illegal immigration and the lack of effective enforcement by the federal government."
What are your thoughts on Judge Napolitano's verdict?
Posted by Tim Shoemaker on 07/30/10 Last updated 07/30/10
There are some ideas whose time never should come... this is certainly one of those. On Thursday, Newt Gingrich suggested America should attack the rest of Bush's "Axis of Evil"...
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich twice called on the United States to attack North Korea and Iran Thursday because the United States has only attacked "one out of three" of so-called "Axis of Evil" members by invading Iraq. He also claimed that Muslims are trying to install Sharia law on America and said that the "War on Terror" should have been a war on "radical Islamists" instead.
Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute event, Gingrich compared not following through on President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" agenda with not fully engaging the Axis power in World War II.
"Regime Change" was one of the worst (and most dangerous) policy decisions the neoconservatives ever put forth during the Bush administration. The concept was to quickly move from one country to the next, first Iraq, then Iran, and eventually North Korea. After the US toppled Saddam's regime and Bush declared "mission accomplished", it seemed only logical the Pentagon had set their sights on the Iranian regime next. Perhaps it was an act of providence the US military became bogged down fighting a prolonged insurgency in Iraq that thwarted any potential plans for going after the next target.
Newt Gingrich and furthermore neoconservative chickenhawks in general deserve to be ostracized from the Republican party. Like a gangrenous limb, they must be cut off, never to return to power. These people are not conservative, nor do they stand for truly limited government (which you cannot possibly hope to attain with an interventionist foreign policy). President Bush and the neoconservatives almost destroyed the right completely with eight years of their failed policies. A resurgence of these views should be shunned by anyone who is a friend of small government, personal freedom, and a truly strong national DEFENSE.
China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others. (CNBC)
My take: Gotta get that Rosetta Stone for Chinese.
We are all screwed (I thought the motto was "Don't be evil"?):
The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time - and says it uses that information to predict the future.
The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents - both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine "goes beyond search" by "looking at the 'invisible links' between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events."
The recession was deeper than the government previously thought. The Commerce Department, in revisions issued Friday, estimates the economy shrank 2.6 percent last year -- the steepest drop since 1946. That's worse than the 2.4 percent decline originally estimated. The economy's plunge underscores why the unemployment rate surged to 10.1 percent in October, a 26-year high. (AP)
My take: We already, even if the government didn't.
Three U.S. troops died in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63 and surpassing the previous month's record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war. (AP)
Democrats may water down or repeal new tax-reporting rules that are supposed to raise $16 billion for health-care legislation, facing a chorus of criticism about the rules. (Wall Street Journal)
As the conflict in Afghanistan continues to drag on, it seems each month is deadlier than the last for the armed forces. The AP reports three soldiers died in blasts in Afghanistan bringing the total for the month to 63 US troops, surpassing last months high of 60. Last month had also been the deadliest for international forces with 104 deaths. How many more must die to save face in Afghanistan?
Posted by SteveBierfeldt on 07/29/10 Last updated 07/29/10
Campaign for Liberty knows how important it is to listen to and respond to the ideas of our grassroots activists throughout the country. As Campaign for Liberty has grown, we have received a number of inquiries and suggestions about new projects and programs that you, our dedicated supporters would like to see.
Within the next few months, Campaign for Liberty would like to launch a number of new programs, the first being a brand new quarterly print newsletter. This newsletter will be filled with updated information, helpful activism tips, in depth interviews, profiles in courage, and much more. A private message from Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul is featured in each issue. Our newsletter is printed in full color and is delivered right to your home. Impress your liberty loving friends by knowing the, "Who, what and where," before anyone else.
Today we are proud to announce the start of Campaign for Liberty's "Patriot Club," a monthly giving program of $10 or more that will allow us to fund our projects and provide greater access to our grassroots activists. Individuals who sign up to contribute at least $10 or more per month are enrolled in our Patriot Club, and will receive.
• In Liberty our official, full color, quarterly newsletter
• Supporter recognition gifts, sent to you throughout the year
• Exclusive access to "The Movement," our Grassroots Conference calls featuring special project briefings, updates from coordinators and stories from the field from grassroots activists throughout the country
• Exclusive acess to "Leaders in Liberty," our interactive tele-town Halls featuring guest speakers, authors, tv/radio hosts and other leaders in the liberty movement.
The plan to fund these projects is ambitious. Initially it requires 500 supporters to join the Patriot Club by October 1st. If we can reach this mark, we will be able to start implementing all of the above. It will then require an additional 500 supporters, or 1,000 total, to join the Patriot Club by November 1st in order to have all of the projects fully functioning, and provide some additional exciting benefits to our members.
As true believers in fiscal responsibility, Campaign for Liberty will not spend money it does not have. Just as we refuse to believe the United States government can continue to tax and spend without consequence, we also refuse to carry debt, no matter how tempting the project may be. That is why these projects, including the first printing of our official newsletter, will only take place when we reach 1,000 members in our Patriot Club.
I hope you are excited about these new projects and the additional grassroots activism they will be able to create. Our race to 1,000 supporters in our Patriot Club begins right now!
Whether you love it, or hate it, Facebook has changed the way people interact, stay in touch with old friends, network, etc... Last week, the company announced they have surpassed 500 million users and Congress has set their cross-hairs on the organization after several highly publicized privacy policy changes.
Company executives testified in two separate congressional hearings this week, answering lawmakers' questions about online privacy and the risks posed to consumers who share personal details online.
Both the House and Senate are considering legislation that would place sweeping new rules around how Internet companies are allowed to collect, share and store sensitive information for advertising purposes. Bret Taylor, Facebook's chief technology officer, warned senators Tuesday that imposing vague technological regulations would stifle online innovation.
In April, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a group of senators in demanding that the company implement easier-to-use privacy controls. Schumer also sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission calling for regulators to come up with clear rules for Facebook and other social networks.
Congress is once again wading into something they do not understand and do not belong engaging in. People join Facebook voluntarily and put whatever information they choose on their profile. As far as I know, noone has been forced to join Facebook against their will (maybe in extreme cases their friends peer-pressured them into it).
While I would certainly agree with Sen. Schumer the privacy controls on Facebook should be simpler, this is an issue that should be dealt with between the users and the company, not a third party regulator creating arbitrary guidelines.
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. (WashPost)
"My point was that fascists had the wherewithal to be truly popular - they offered (racially vetted) people material benefits, that was one of the things Germans and italians liked about them. I don't see american reactionaries making the same offer. that is (one reason) why I don't see them as today's equivalent to the Nazis and Italian fascists. Who were, I guess i need to say this, incomparably evil." [emphasis added for obvious reasons] (Good grief!)
Oh my, spoke too soon again:
"I'd also say that the fascist and National Socialist right had an intellectual heft that the contemporary American right lacks. I'd much rather read Heidegger, Junger, Schmitt, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound etc. than Limbaugh, Coulter, Beck, Mark Steyn, etc."
States are putting hundreds of thousands of people directly into jobs through programs reminiscent of the more ambitious work projects of the Great Depression.
But the new efforts have a twist: While the wages are being paid by the government, most of the participants are working for private companies. (NY Times)
My take: If it's paid for by government, it's just a welfare program not a job.
A federal judge's rejection of the most controversial elements of Arizona's immigration law is unlikely to change the entrenched immigration politics in Washington, where not a single Republican senator supports the overhaul that many experts say is needed to fix what President Obama calls a "fundamentally broken" system. (LA Times)
"The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act...enacts the toughest Wall Street reforms since the Great Depression...establishing unprecedented levels of oversight, transparency and accountability in the financial system." -- Rep. James Clyburn (SC)
On the heals of President Obama signing the Dodd/Frank Wall Street Reform Bill, Tuesday the SEC cited a provision of the new law that exempts them from disclosing information to the public.
Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.
That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would "increase transparency in financial dealings."
The article goes on to argue the SEC is using the provision to cover up their own failures.
The SEC cited the new law Tuesday in a FOIA action brought by FOX Business Network. Steven Mintz, founding partner of law firm Mintz & Gold LLC in New York, lamented what he described as "the backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC's failures secret. The only losers here are the American public."
FOX Business Network sued the SEC in March 2009 over its failure to produce documents related to its failed investigations into alleged investment frauds being perpetrated by Madoff and R. Allen Stanford. Following the Madoff and Stanford arrests it, was revealed that the SEC conducted investigations into both men prior to their arrests but failed to uncover their alleged frauds.
FOX Business made its initial request to the SEC in February 2009 seeking any information related to the agency's response to complaints, tips and inquiries or any potential violations of the securities law or wrongdoing by Stanford.
Fox Business has announced they will challenge the SEC's interpretation of the new law in court.
Sigh. American personnel are dying because they are trying to build a modern nation state whose security forces prefer to get high than fight bad guys.
Here Dr. Paul talks on the House floor about the horribly unjust and inequitable drug war, and an effort to stem some of the greatest sentencing abuses. It's a good start, but does not go far enough, Paul concludes.
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson
Campaign for Liberty is a 501(c)4 lobbying organization which neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office and claims no responsibility for the actions of individuals or groups of individuals who use the Campaign for Liberty logo or name or who may claim to act as representatives of the Campaign for Liberty without prior written consent of the Campaign for Liberty. [?]
RSS Feed
