From RonPaulOhio.com:

Two great defenders of liberty and the Constitution are coming to the Newport Theater in Columbus Ohio on March 8 for an historic event.

Judge Andrew Napolitano will tape an episode of Freedom Watch featuring local Ohio grassroots activists. His special guest will be Ron Paul who will also give a speech that you won’t want to miss.

There will also be an exclusive VIP reception and opportunities for groups to sponsor the event. There is a special focus on coalition building and Ohio Sovereignty. Don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime event for Ohio!

Date: Monday, March 8th
Time: Tentative schedule is 6-7 pm taping of Freedom Watch followed by speech by Ron Paul.
Location: Newport Music Hall, 1722 N High St. Columbus, OH 43201.

See www.RonPaulOhio.com for the latest information on the event, to RSVP, become a sponsor, or obtain VIP access.

There were about 20 of us bundled up for the unforgiving January weather. Much to our dismay, Kentucky is not a fan of sidewalks or salt trucks, so our 3.5 hours of canvassing included a lot of high-speed slush-slinging from passing traffic coupled with unshoveled driveways. Fortunately our hand warmers, lots of coffee, and support for Rand got us through.

According to this writer from The Bluegrass Bulletin, even having 20 of us out that morning was a notable feat:

“I arrived just as Rand and about 20 volunteers had finished going door to door in the snowstorm asking for votes in Louisville in January.  Now for anyone ever involved in a political campaign this is notable for several reasons.  January door to door work is rare.  Doing it in a snowstorm is dedication and getting 20 volunteers to do almost anything this early in a campaign is remarkable.”

Yes, the hope of liberty will make people do crazy things.

Whitney, Rand Paul, and Me

On our way back to drop off the canvassing data, I said to my friend “I hope they give us a bumper sticker or something.” Much to my surprise, we were invited to attend the private reception with Rand and Ron before the rally (tickets were $500 for everyone else.) Let the freaking out begin!

Still in shock, we grabbed a quick dinner and made our way to the reception…

The hour-long reception was mostly taken up by a local media interview (included at the end of this post.) We stood about five feet away throughout the taping, I happened to be at perfect eye level with Ron Paul who made eye contact with me randomly throughout the interview. My heart was racing the whole time, it was so surreal!

WHAS 11 interview

If you’ve never been in the same room as your hero, someone who has single-handedly changed your life/views/future ambitions, it’s impossible to explain, so I won’t even try.

I’m not even sure what exact words we exchanged, I know I said “thank you for everything you do” and mumbled something about being from Columbus but I’m not sure what he said in response. I suck at meeting heroes, I guess.

Me and RON PAUL!

After the reception we managed to snag a photo with Aimee Allen, I love her!

Me, Aimee Allen, and Whitney

The rally started at 4 with Aimee Allen performing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Apparently she had no idea she’d be asked to sing that, and had never once performed it live. Given the circumstances and short amount of time to prepare, I think she did great. She also did a few of her own songs, including an acoustic version of the “Ron Paul Anthem” — substituting “Ron Paul for President” with “Rand Paul for Senator.” Talk about syllabic luck.

Finally, it was time for Ron Paul. He gave an amazing, inspiring speech, as he always does.

I think he had more standing ovations than the State of the Union Address, and his were actually deserved. There was at least one crowd-chanting of “End The Fed!” and afterwards I was left overflowing with a renewed energy to continue the fight for liberty.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

This quote sums up the speech well:

“If you have a true understanding of liberty, everything else falls into place.”
– Ron Paul

Rand Paul came on next, this was my first time hearing him speak live.

My first observation was that he spoke intelligently and eloquently– without a teleprompter. Just like his dad. And he was full of common sense. Just like his dad. I can’t imagine having two of them in Congress.

My remarks on the speeches are limited because it’s best if you listen/watch for yourself.

Ron Paul and Rand Paul’s Rally Speeches:

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Full WHAS 11 Interview with Rand and Ron Paul (unedited)

24 minutes long, includes some predictable/pathetic mainstream media questions like “was 9/11 our fault?” but ultimately yields great responses (as always) from both Rand and Ron.

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Disclaimer: In my previous post I gave the impression I would completely stop being political. That’s not exactly the case. I can’t stop paying attention, stop caring completely, or stop being pi$$ed off because I still have a working brain and heart. But I AM drastically toning it down and sticking to the big stories. Most of the White Flag changes are happening offline, as Congress motivates me every day to spend less time pointing out the obvious and more time prepping for the culminating disaster. I no longer see light at the end of the tunnel, I see an oncoming train. If you want more news stories like I used to post, I suggest checking out my News page, where I’ll continue to highlight events and stories that deserve attention.

As I said, I’m sticking to the big stories now. And this Spendulus bill is REALLY big. Equal to a third of our annual budget, in fact. It is indeed the Democrats’ own Patriot Act (which Mr. Obama voted for in 2006):

• Presidential fear-mongering for its passage
• passed by Congress without them even reading it
• late-night voting
• ignoring the people’s calls, emails, and faxes that are 100 to 1 against
  
• and ultimately the crushing of the shriveled remnants of our Constitution.

Congress has done this before and apparently hasn’t learned their lesson. Another year, another Congress, another President. OBAMA = BUSH = CLINTON.

I’ve already ranted about how completely ineffective and wasteful this bill is, in fact it only got worse since that posting. But I haven’t yet mentioned how its passage is breaking an important campaign promise made by Obama back in 2007.

He LOVES to talk about transparency. It gets the zombies excited. So excited they forget to actually demand it.

BEFORE:

“When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.”

Barack Obama
June 22, 2007, Manchester, N.H.

AFTER:

“Approved earlier by the House, the [Spendulus] plan — which went through multiple permutations as it bounced back and forth on Capitol Hill over the past week — now goes to Obama’s desk, where he plans to sign it into law by Presidents Day.”

- CNN

B R O K E N .

The bill passed the Senate on Friday night and will be signed Monday? That’s 48 hours at the MOST. And why should we have to work on the weekend when the government doesn’t have to? Fortunately the bill is a light read, just 1,100 pages, so you only have to read 550 pages a day to finish it by Monday. If you read quicker than that, you’ll have enough time to write up some feedback to send to Obama beforehand, I’m sure he’ll take it into serious consideration.

I’d like to start reading except right now I can’t find it anywhere on Whitehouse.gov and there’s nothing on Recovery.gov. Found it, sort of, it wasn’t easy — plus one of their links is broken so only 998 pages will load. They’re even soliciting comments, acting like they actually care what you think. Not that it’ll make a difference, but tell them anyway, maybe we can blow up their server. Thank god for the people at ReadTheStimulus.org who are devoting their time to making it at least somewhat accessible. But why isn’t Obama’s team doing that?

A side note: Ohio’s own Senator Brown was the deciding vote. It’s safe to say he will NEVER AGAIN get my support (as he did in 2006), and I vow to financially support anyone that runs against him in the future. Mr. Brown, you’ve sold out the people of Ohio and the rest of this country, you should be ashamed. As should all the Senators and Representatives who supported it. You have failed us. Again.

Before I step away from this and start enjoying my weekend, I will leave you with a glimmer of hope. Somehow Congressman Ron Paul manages to fight on and speak the truth, and thank god for that. Ron Paul is my President. Buck Farack.

(Can’t see the video? Speech transcript here.)

It’s official, President King Obama has taken his first steps towards ruining our country, seamlessly picking up where George W. Bush left off.

Last night his $825+ BILLION “Stimulus” bill was passed. NONE of the House Republicans voted for it (for once Ron Paul did not stand alone), and all but 11 Democrats voted for it (including Mary Jo Kilroy, new Representative for Ohio’s 15th District, who will NEVER AGAIN get my vote.)

Congressional Democrats had no problem rushing through a spending bill that they surely didn’t read (it’s 1,588 pages.) It seems all a President has to do now to get their agendas passed is claim that it’s an emergency (DO IT NOW, OR ELSE!!!) and threaten that “it’ll be worse if we do nothing.” Hmm, I think that’s the same line they used to justify rushing the TARP bailout plan through. And look how successful that’s been, aren’t we all much better off now?

So what’s in this bill that’s supposedly going to bring back jobs, fix our broken mortgages, and put more money in our wallets? Let’s examine some of the ridiculous things Mr. Obama has deemed urgently necessary:

Allow me to remind you: it’s NOT the federal government’s job to make sure you have digital TV service, museums, and trains. If you can find this clause in the Constitution, I’ll give you $100. It’s obvious that 98% of these items don’t have anything to do with emergencies or job-creation, they’re just going to expand an already overweight federal government and feed its bureaucracy.

What Obama hasn’t told you is that this bill has added an additional $6,700 of debt for every man, woman, and child in this country. Do you really want new sod that badly? What about your kids, how do you feel about enslaving them without their permission? It’s been said the tax cuts in this bill will put an extra $12 a week in the wallet of every American. Which number is bigger: 12 or 6,700? At $12/week it would take 10+ years to get that $6,700 back, and you can bet it will be worth WAY less than it is now thanks to inflation.

Needless to say, I’m beyond angry at this point, our political “representatives” (along with the American people) are RUINING this country with their apathy and lack of education on basic economics. Piece by piece we are building our own graves, and people are actually applauding it. The basics are simple to understand, and yet Americans still can’t grasp how it works. We are $10+ TRILLION in debt (counting unfunded obligations, that number is $50+ trillion), so Obama proposes tax cuts and spending INCREASES? He never once considered spending LESS on our military budget, pre-emptive wars, and empire-building, of course. I suppose once you get above $10+ trillion, the number is incomprehensible anyway, who cares how much higher it goes, right? (Unless you’re aware of what happens when you expand the money supply by trillions of dollars.) Americans see nothing wrong with this. We can spend, spend, spend, it’s all okay!

No, it’s NOT okay. Let me try making an analogy using these same principles, free from political terms that confuse and turn off most Americans:

Joe the Plumber is $500,000 in debt. He ran up his credit cards buying a bunch of things he didn’t need, lives in a house that he can’t afford, and financially supports a family in another neighborhood that constantly tries to attack the people next door to them. He’s lived this way for years and years but suddenly now he’s FREAKING OUT because he can’t make his monthly payments so the credit card companies are getting very angry, threatening to take away all of his assets, and the power company is threatening to turn off his electricity. He had to fire his pool boy, the dog’s private yoga instructor, and his private chef. Times are tough.

Joe comes up with a plan to fix this problem: he’s going to take a pay-cut at work and spend $100,000 using another credit card. He uses that $100,000 to buy a fancy new BBQ grill, some new trees for his yard, a new car, presents for the family in the other neighborhood, and other non-essential amenities. Joe the Plumber is now making less money each month, and is another $100,000 in debt. Do you think his plan will work? Will Joe wake up next week and suddenly be debt-free, with his pool boy and Spot’s yoga trainer back on the job?

If you support Obama’s plan, I have 3 assignments for you:

1. Find where in the Constitution it says the federal government is allowed to use tax-payer money for these things.
2. Read the Stimulus Bill for yourself. All 1,588 pages.
3. Report back to me in a few months and tell me how many jobs have been created and how much better off we are thanks to this emergency pillaging.
4. EXTRA CREDIT #1: Research how FDR’s New Deal programs actually prolonged the Great Depression.
5. EXTRA CREDIT #2: Research the Weimar Republic and how hyperinflation affected them.

The kicker of this whole thing is that Obama has said over and over again that it’s time for an Era of Personal Responsibility. This means NOT RELYING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU.

If you really want to follow the King’s advice, quit begging for help from the government and then crying even louder when they make it worse. Quit asking for more debt. Quit asking for less control over your life. Try some COMMON SENSE, America.

All Americans who are concerned over the fiscal irresponsibility of Congress and the inflationary effects of its trillion dollar deficits, trillion dollar bailouts, and trillion dollar stimulus package, MUST contact their representative immediately in opposition to H.R. 1, the economic stimulus package.

“There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government.  Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people.  Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment.  Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.”

- Congressman Ron Paul

Rep. Ron Paul issued a statement yesterday regarding this bill which makes it clear what type of bill it is and some of the reasons why we must oppose it. Here are some highlights:

• “In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate….. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc.  These promises are worthless.  This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print.”
• “At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs … and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.”
• “To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection.”
• “$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.”
• “Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects.”
• “This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.”
• “There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government.  Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people.  Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment.  Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.”

The bottom line is that Americans need to help preserve their freedom and prosperity by opposing this nearly trillion dollar economic stimulus package.

Speak out against this, contact your Representative immediately!

As another year draws to a close, there are some important transitions ahead of us.  Not just transitions to a new administration, but also economically, politically and culturally.

Many hoped that the changes would signify overwhelming positive steps for our country, and that we would enter a new era, as promised during the campaign.  I would like for this to be true, but based on the continuity so far, I would not be surprised to see America stay on the same course of failed monetary and economic policies.  The course has been set for several decades, and in reality there is little the new administration could do to fix things without actually making them worse.  But I expect them to try.  The only real solutions involve allowing the market to liquidate the debt and malinvestment.  The political reality is that this is not going to happen.

Through the coming months and years, our nation will find itself at many crossroads, as all manner of socialist, corporatist, protectionist and nationalist initiatives will be thrown at the economy to see if anything will reflate it.  Some of these so-called fixes will be enacted amidst much outcry, as with the $700 billion TARP bailout, which the public was right to oppose.  About half of that money is gone without a trace, with no accountability, and the economy is no better off for it.  Others, such as the proposed new $800 billion plus economic stimulus the new administration is already clamoring for, might have limited public support, as many will find the prospect of receiving a government check a little too tempting to object to.  After all, Wall Street got a bailout.  What about the little guy?  Everything will be attempted by government in the short run to remedy the worsening situation – everything, that is, but freedom.  Therefore everything attempted will fail.  Unfortunately, government will continue to consolidate and abuse power at an accelerated pace.  Government will get bigger, in the short term, and as monetary policy goes from irresponsible to absurd, I have every expectation that we will soon shift from some prices falling to an inflationary nightmare.

But there is hope.  As all these attempts fail, more people will demand freedom, and see that it is the only way.  Government can only get so big before the country goes broke.

It is regrettable that we keep forgetting what history has shown over and over to be true, because truly, it is a hard and destructive lesson to keep learning.  Perhaps it is just something that every generation has to learn for itself.  The political and cultural changes that come from these economic transitions will be key to the direction and quality of life for future generations.  But I am hopeful because of the strength of the American people and the increased number of voices recognizing that liberty really is the only way to peace and prosperity.

A year ago today, I was in Boston amongst hundreds of rabid (I say that lovingly) Ron Paul fans in Faneuil Hall.

We were there because 235 years ago, our fellow Patriots took a much-needed stand against their British oppressors. In the spirit of those Patriots, a man named Ron Paul wanted to take a stand against our domestic oppressors.

We were filled with so much energy and hope, I remember the almost palpable energy of the crowd after every speaker would fire us up even more. Rand Paul was there, John McManus from the John Birch Society, and many others.

Oh yeah — not to mention that small feat of raising over $6 MILLION that day.

As the gloom of the dollar crash and Obama’s socialist regime looms over our heads, the holiday stress builds up, and the roads start to ice over, it’s nice to float back to Boston for a bit…

…Back when there was still time for our energy and hope to convert itself to primary wins and an eventual victory in November.

Imagine if only that had happened…?

What do these four companies have in common?

• Citigroup
• JPMorgan Chase
• Goldman Sachs
• Morgan Stanley

Give up? They were all top donors to Barack Obama and John McCain.

This is classic banker strategy, prop up BOTH candidates, so either way— they win.

How, exactly, do they win? Well, for starters, take a look at potential candidates for Obama’s Treasury Secretary:

• Lawrence Summers, Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and World Bank economist
• Timothy Geithner, President of New York Federal Reserve and Treasury Undersecretary under Bill Clinton
• Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Chairman
• Jon Corzine, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs
• Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase and Company

So, CHANGE is going to come in the form of putting either a former Clinton official and/or a former Wall St. big wig in charge of the Treasury Department.

That CHANGE is about as refreshing as room temperature coffee that’s been sitting in my car for a week.

Think about it. Really think about. Is it in the best interest of this country to put someone even remotely tied to the Federal Reserve Banking system — comprised of private bankers who profit IMMENSELY from federal gov’t. spending — in CHARGE of federal gov’t. spending?!

For now though, while people are still in their Barack the Vote dream land, he’s pretending like he gives a damn about what YOU THE PEOPLE think, and is asking for ideas to “help us solve the biggest challenges facing our country.”

If this post pisses you off (it should!), I strongly urge you to head over to the website and tell him what you think.

What did I suggest to him?

I told the President-Elect that if he really wants to fix this jacked up economy, instead of incessantly TREATING THE SYMPTOMS with complicated tax breaks and stimulus packages, he needs to CURE THE DISEASE by using the bully pulpit of the office of the President to urge Congress to abolish the Federal Reserve System.

Congressman Ron Paul has already introduced the legislation necessary to do so, the paperwork is already done. Ending the Fed and returning to a Constitutional sound monetary system where our currency isn’t printed and regulated by a private bank would do WONDERS for our economy, and it’s what the founding fathers had always intended.

I have many friends who voted for this guy. I hope anyone who truly adores and trusts Mr. Obama to bring forth this utopian Yes We Can! world will give him a real loyalty test and demand real changes, not recycled chunks of status quo.

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Former presidential candidate Ron Paul was interviewed Friday morning by CNN anchor John Roberts on “American Morning.”

Paul, a Republican from Texas, spoke from his home in Clute, Texas. The topic of the discussion was the current economic crisis and the Capitol Hill testimony Thursday of former Fed chief Alan Greenspan.

John Roberts, CNN anchor: Up there on the Hill, Alan Greenspan was basically saying, “Oops, I missed this one, sorry about it,” but he was optimistic for the future. Congressman Paul, do you even listen to him anymore?

Rep. Ron Paul: I have to because somebody like you might ask me a question about him.

No, I don’t really listen in the sense that I’m going to get a lot of new information. I used to listen to him when he was writing back in the ’60s because he agreed with free market economics and no respect for the Federal Reserve.

Lately, though, I mean, he’s been part of — and right now he’s really gotten bad because what he was saying yesterday was that the only place where he might have made a mistake is he didn’t advocate more regulations.

Well, if you’re a true free market person it isn’t the lack of regulations. Trying to regulate and improve on the conditions that the government creates. I mean we created this problem. The Federal Reserve created this. The Community Reinvestment Act created it. The FDIC created it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac created it.

It was all seen there but now he says if we could have only had more regulations …

Roberts: Right.

Paul: …we could have salvaged this clogged system.

Roberts: Well, you believe that markets can be or should be self-regulating?

Paul: Well, to a degree, but the government does have a responsibility to deal with fraud, but the monetary system is fraudulent. Instead of perpetuating fraud in the monetary system they should be dealing with real fraud.

But just regulating prices — that’s what they’re doing now, they’re trying to regulate prices and set prices for these assets that hasn’t — have no value. So, no, that’s not the kind of regulation we want, but there is certainly a role for regulations.

We should be regulating the Federal Reserve system is what we really ought to be regulating.

Roberts: Well, regardless of what we talk about this morning, the Dow is going to go off a cliff again today so let me turn to politics if I could.

A lot of people have said, particularly because of the economy, this is a bad year to be a Republican. John McCain behind in the national polls, seems to be behind in the battleground states as well. He’s got a long and difficult road if he hopes to win the Oval Office.

If Republicans really take a beating, Congressman Paul, on November the 4th, where does that leave the Republican brand?

Paul: Well, I think they’re in big trouble, but I think I mentioned that a year or so ago, that they’ve sort of lost their way. No, it’s going to be a lot worse, but you have to say that the markets aren’t being reassured about the obvious victory that’s going to occur.

Then they said, “Oh, my, you know, we’re going to have Obama and a Democratic Congress stronger than ever so things are going to get a lot better.” They haven’t discounted that yet.

The country is in a mess regardless, but I think the Republican Party really in a mess because …

Roberts: I mean, I mean how …

Paul: …they’ll probably lose a fair amount of seats again.

Roberts: How bad a blow could it be and how long might it take the party to rebuild?

Paul: You know, I was first elected — I first ran in 1974, and I think there were about 145 members of Congress, Republicans, then. It took 20 years. So that is the case. But, you know, I think it’s secondary to what the Congress is doing.

If both parties have bad ideas, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. Right now …

Roberts: And I wanted to ask you about …

Paul: …I think both parties follow those ideas.

Roberts: You’re on the ballot in a couple of states. You’re on the ballot in Louisiana. You’re also on the ballot in Montana, and in Montana you were polling 4 percent there.

That’s exactly the difference between Senator McCain and Barack Obama with Barack Obama on top. I mean you could be the spoiler here and take Montana away from Senator McCain, and I know that some Republicans, friendly to you, say hey, get off the ballot in Montana. You tried, you couldn’t.

How are you going to feel if because of you McCain loses Montana?

Paul: Well, I think it will be a pretty far stretch if McCain loses the election that they’re going to blame me. I haven’t been campaigning in Montana. People who are supporting out there are spontaneous. They’re enthusiastic. They don’t like either candidate.

So I don’t think the person whose name they picked is the one that does the spoiling. I think there’s something else that is wrong. Maybe it’s the flawed policies of both candidates.

Roberts: Congressman Paul, it’s always good to see you. Thanks for joining us this morning. We’ll check back with you again soon.

Paul: Thank you. Good to be with you.

Source: CNN

“…I’ve thought about the unsolicited advice from the Libertarian Party candidate, and he has convinced me to reject my neutral stance in the November election. I’m supporting Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party candidate.”

Finally! I’m not the least bit surprised. There’s no way Ron Paul could vote for anyone BUT Chuck Baldwin. Still— it’s good to see an official endorsement.

Here’s the full post: