Posted by Todd A Carter on 02/16/09
Last updated 02/16/09

These are posted sticky as a reminder to ME of what needs to occur in a Blog post.

1. State your point succinctly and clearly.
2. Ask for support for your view.
3. Provide a method for direct action.
4. Give an example of your direct action.

Number one is fairly self-explanatory.  Make sure people can understand what you are saying.  Make it short and to the point.  Do not include a bunch of "extra" information that is not relevant to the one topic.  A blog is for a specific topic.  If you wish to expound on several related topics, then use multiple blog entries.

Number two.  You want people to read your thoughts and to take action.  Ask them to take action. If we are all just blathering into the ether, nothing will change, other than the amount of blather.  See "Tilting at Windmills."

Number three.  You need to specify a method that can promote the values that you espouse.  Provide a link to a congressman's email page.  Provide a link to a newspaper's OpEd page. (Not so much action, but a different medium that may reach different people.)  Provide a link to an Action oriented web page, i.e. EndtheFed.org, or our own CampaignForLiberty.org.  Link to a scheduled event.

And finally Number Four.  Show what you did with the information.  Give an example so that people can more easily visualize themselves taking action.  Provide Sample text for their email.  Anything to help create an atmosphere of Action.  Not just talking, but DOing.

tac

Posted 04/03/09 Bill Greene Amelia Court House, VA

EXCELLENT. I wish more bloggers would use their blogs "activistically". :-)

Posted 05/07/09 R R I M M L P BATMAN Ann Arbor, MI

Todd A Carter, it is EXTREMELY GOOD OF YOU to list all of this!!!! One of the ways that we can take our Country back, is by the use of blogging. Furthermore, you can help Ron Paulite's/Paulista's alleviate Stress/Burnout from Mind-Body-Soul perspectives is by Blogging (i.e. having an outlet to "vent"), which is in the best interest of the Ron Paul Movement to put it very mildly. Peace. very sincerely, Emre N. Kazan

Posted by Todd A Carter on 09/01/10

Freedom Fighters,

Here is a speech given on 8/24/2010 in Slovakia by Archbishop Chaput of Denver that highlights the foundation of our actions. He builds on the Nazi and Soviet history in Slovakia and Eastern Europe and shows us what is at stake.

This is powerful stuff. http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/4396

I know that many of you are not Catholic, many may not be Christian, but each of us believe in Individual Liberty... my ability to determine for myself what choices I will make. We each are critical to success. Without our ability to stand up and fight for liberty, all will be lost. Thus freedom itself is at stake.

If you wish a more secular vision, I suggest Anthem by Ayn Rand.  http://manybooks.net/titles/randaynetext98anthm10.html

God Bless each of you.

Todd

Posted by Todd A Carter on 08/31/10

I just returned from the Michigan GOP Convention. I am encouraged by:

1) all the participation.
2) the welcoming attitude by the existing GOP leadership.
3) the possibility of "Re-Inventing" Michigan.

It seems that there is a future for the individual in politics. However, it is a delicate new growth that must be encouraged. In recent history, it has been just about power and that translates to money. He who fund raises the best wins.

How do we get back to a discussion of issues and quality? How do we get people to embrace the good of personal responsibility, using just what you need, and NOT desiring power over people? These were parts of our constitution. Trusting that individuals could handle their own affairs and the relations between individuals. The government was supposed to handle the exceptions, not everything. The battle cry of "There ought to be a law." is the enemy of freedom. You ought to be able to control yourself. You don't need a law to do the right thing.

I see some movement that direction, but I fear for its existence. For if there is resistance in the Republican party, then there will be out right hostility from the Democrats. This idea of personal responsibility and freedom takes power away from the leadership and invests it in the individuals. The leadership does not like to lose power. Which leads us back to the fund-raising and advertising to control the people.

I do not like using labels like Republican and Democrat. There are thinking, living, breathing individuals in each of those groups. Unfortunately, many of those individuals have abandoned their individuality in the heady rush of greed and power. How do we return from the fantasy that one person or a small group of people can define what is good for everyone? They do not know my circumstances. By sweeping individuals into groups, you eliminate their uniqueness and destroy their value.

But, as I said earlier, there is action in the trenches. Individuals are waking up and realizing that they must be involved to preserve their value. It will take time and diligence, but we will reclaim our individual freedom. The first time it was tyranny from outside our land. Today it is tyranny from inside. Just as Martin Luther King Jr. said as he lamented racial disparity, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I honor Dr. King, and honor the validity of his message.

Posted by Todd A Carter on 05/26/10

So, how does the Pepsi refresh project fit into Liberty?

Pros:

1) A non-government entity doing what it wants with its own money.
2) Encouraging others to work together on "good" ideas.
3) Encouraging a democratic process.

Cons:
1) Large corporation with too much power?

BTW, vote for the Saline Project Lead the Way for science and engineering education.

Please vote at http://www.refresheverything.com/salineprojectleadtheway

Thanks.

Todd

Posted by Todd A Carter on 01/20/10

The Republicans will claim a big win and a huge shift toward Republican policies with the upset win by Scott Brown in Massachussetts.  They will claim a repudiation of the Democrats healthcare and how they are working for the people.  Don't believe it.

It all comes down to power.  In this race, the disenfranchised independent voter (DIV) got up off his couch or out of her office long enough to vote.  Typically these people who used to vote one of the two party lines without thinking, if they voted at all, are buried at work trying to keep their heads above water or are apathetic and don't waste the effort.  The extream disruption to the accepted political process which has been accellerating since LBJ, has finally twisted our country so far that the DIV has noticed.

Our job, is to keep their attention.  We must help the DIV to see the broken nature of the existing system and give them the knowledge necessary to decide how to fix it.  We must make the points about the Federal Reserve and how it is responsible for the boom and bust economic cycle.  We must accurately describe how term limits will help to quell the corruption in the machine.  We must show the results of the existing hidden election system and how rampantly elections are stolen. We must describe the chaos that our imperial military actions creates in the world and how that chaos comes home to roost.

We must highlight the value that these disenfranchised independent voters bring to the party.  Without them we are locked in an epic battle between two unthinking behemoths whose only goal is staying in power.