Saturday, September 1, 2007

Reality Check: What would a Ron Paul presidency be like?


OK, some believe, as I do, that Ron Paul can win the presidency. So we must wonder
what America would be like if it happened.

I know even THINKING about a Paul win scares some senseless, but I have already
spoke to that... I still don't know why that is..

Now for a quick review on the US Federal government configuration (I know we all
had this lecture in middle school, but it is needed for this discussion). The Federal
government is supposed to be divided into three branches in order to ensure
checks and balances. That way, no one of them will have more power than any
other, thus allowing the citizens control over their decisions at least in an indirect
way.

So, the Senate and House present bills to be voted into law. If they make it out of
Congress, the President has to sign it to make it law. He/she can veto it, but the
Congress can still pass it with a 2/3 vote. After the law is passed, it is the
responsibility of the Judiciary branch to decide if and how it can be enforced.
They can also determine that it can't be a law at all if it violates the Constitution.

Of course, there are loopholes like executive orders and agencies like the DOJ,
IRS, FBI, etc. that have some autonomous power themselves.

With all of that said, let's look at what Ron Paul actually COULD do if he were
elected President. By this I mean what could he do IMMEDIATELY that would
align with his aspirations as outlined in his campaign strategy.

  • Shut down the IRS? (not without help from Congress)
  • Shut down the Federal Reserve? (again not without help from Congress?) **
  • Bring the troops home from Iraq RIGHT NOW. (Not without world and US outcry; very unlikely)
    • Although quick deescalation is a real possibility.
  • Withdraw the US from world organizations; UN, etc. (Not without world and US outcry; very unlikely)
    • May be impossible without congressional help.
  • Immediate deportation of illegal immigrants and wall building
    • Yet again, not without congressional help.
  • Shut down the big entitlement programs. (again not without help from Congress?)
Need I go on.. Isn't it obvious that he can't possibly enact everything he believes in in one
presidential term? Could anyone clean up the mess our country is headed for in a lifetime of terms?

So what COULD he do?

He can be what he has always been: Dr. No! No new entitlement spending. No new
corporate tax breaks. No unbalanced budget! How about that one!! New Supreme
Court judges that actually support the Constitution. Drastic troop reduction in Iraq.
Immigration reform momentum. End to the Patriot Act.

I think all of that is possible and it is worth fighting for.. And who knows, maybe Congress
will get the message and we can get some of the other stuff done. Reign in the IRS, fix
our horrible money system and maybe wake the world up to the mess they are heading for
with credit. Reign in spending; work for accountability.

I do know this: few of the career politicians that are in the race today have any interest in
any reform at all. Especially anyone who is considered a front runner.. If we end up with
Hillary versus Rudy, you can expect continued growth of the Federal Government, increased
spending which automatically comes with waste, decreased personal freedom. In other words:
the same old crap we have been complaining about forever....

** It would be possible to reign in the Federal Reserve to some extent:
Executive order 11110 amendment to order 10289 issued by JFK allowed for the US Treasury to
print money that is backed by silver not air like Federal Reserve notes. This could be used to
begin the end of the value of the Fed notes... After all, which would you rather have? Money
that held its value in precious metal or money that held its value in the word of a banker?
Oddly enough, I could not find the text of 11110 in the Federal Register online although there
are many like that.. No conspiracy here; it WAS short in length... But incredibly important...




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A question for the Ron Paul haters on Digg.


What exactly is the cause of the treatment of the Paul fans there?

Is it the "RP spam" (and what is spam to Digg?)? Is Digging stories spam?
I don't feel like it is..
The most popular seem to be pictures of something?? Posted on the Digg news site! ??
I do know that the dailypaul gets out of control and I agree, it can be a bit much at times...

Any way you can ignore it. Or bury it to try to force it off the popular list..
I assume that is what you do to other non-ron paul posts that you are not interested in...
I tend to ignore the stuff I am not interested in; I thought that was the idea.
And there is A LOT of it recently... But I find what I like and Digg it. I generally
only bury true spam (ads, porn,etc.) and duplicates..

Is it the candidate? Do you really hate (and fear in my opinion) Ron Paul that much?
How? How can it be that you would have such a personal hatred of someone you
most likely have never even met and will never meet?

Why be afraid of Ron Paul?

I don't hate the Clintons, John Kerry, Rudy Giuliani or John Edwards, but I would
NEVER vote for them; kinda like Huckabee, though. But I don't bury their posts on Digg;
and there are many...

Do you feel like the Paulers have invaded your site? I can kinda understand that...
But it is a public site; it is open for everyone to use freely as they wish as long as
they do not abuse it. Maybe you are old time Diggers and feel that way.

I am new to Digg and I think it is great but it does seem tainted sometimes by
stuff like this:

"Just want to remind anyone who may be joining us late that Ron Paul is a racist,
pro-genocide, fundamentalist Christian extremist who supports fringe economic
policies, wants to ban abortion, opposes the Civil Rights Act and wants to eliminate
the income tax, abolish the FDA and replace the military with private mercenaries
operating under letters of marque and reprisal." And this is VERY mild...

Stating opinion as fact; no sources to back up any statements. I asked for them
and got a reply from a different user that I was just a spammer spreading lies....

I guess the point is: state your real gripe, but understand that we all have a right to
use Digg in an appropriate manner... None of these reasons give anyone a right to
abuse anyone else or intentionally manipulate the Digg system. You know there is a buryronpaul
user/group on Digg... I think that violates the terms of use...

Rudybots

Sorry about the links to my blog, but it helps illustrate my point...


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Friday, August 31, 2007

Rudy bots are on the prowl on the Digg site!!!

The "Rudy bots" seem to have hit the social network website Digg about 3:00 pm or so...

121 posts in a little over 5 hours from bliptv.com and the same user: RudyGiuliani

Sound like abuse to you....???

Digg terms quote:

"By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree not to use the Services:...

5. ...to create or submit unwanted email ("Spam") to any other Digg users or any URL;

9. with the intention of artificially inflating or altering the 'digg
count', blog count, comments, or any other Digg service, including by
way of creating separate user accounts for the purpose of artificially
altering Digg's services; giving or receiving money or other
remuneration in exchange for votes; or participating in any other
organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of
Digg's services.
"


Guess the Ron Paul supporters have a challenge on their hands...

I have seen some Ron Paul spam on there, but nothing like this...

(And obviously I am a Ron Paul supporter...)


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Ron Paul: personal beliefs versus political beliefs.


There seems to be some confusion about what Ron Paul's intentions might be in running
for President. He certainly wants to become president, but think about the reasons why:
  • Reduce the size of the Federal government.
  • Restore American constitutional values.
  • Protect personal liberty.
  • Create real value in the American economic system.
  • Make the Federal government work for the people not the corporations.
  • Create responsibility and accountability in government
He has the vision to do this and I think every American would like to see all of this come true.
I also believe that there is a tide of support beginning to swell for him. People are fed
up with big government providing whatever the big corporations need. And making
themselves rich in the process. (See Bush bail out the banks, total irresponsibility in
lending by both borrowers and lenders, etc.)

We are also becoming fed up with the manipulation of our monetary system for the good
of the banks and growing tax bills to feed an ever money hungry Federal spending machine
that seems to have a knack for wasting as much as possible. Imperialism seems to
be on the rise, especially in this administration and Americans grow tired of policing the
world at their cost in both lives and dollars.

We want to be free to decide for ourselves what we think is right. That is what our Republic
is all about. Free states that are SUPPORTED by the Federal government; not ruled by it.

And yes, Dr. Paul is against abortion, a devout Christian and many other things that we all
(including me) do not agree with all of the time. But his passion for personal freedom and
emancipation from Federal rule that we all live under give us protection from a President
that would try to force anything like this upon us. The society we live in now DOES NOT protect
us from this at all; it facilitates this kind of oppressive rule.

Ron Paul can begin the end of all that we would like to see go. Just give him a chance;
listen to what he says and believe that America is ready for this. We all want to be free
and we all can be!. We just need to start somewhere and Ron Paul has helped us find
that starting line.


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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Why be afraid Ron Paul?


OK, IF there is a Ron Paul spam conspiracy, why have none of the other candidates learned from it?
Do they think the Internet does not matter in an election? (Maybe it doesn't..)
Do they somehow think that it is immoral to mobilize people to vote in these polls?

OR is it possible, just possible, that the Ron Paul spam conspiracy does not exist!!??
And that Dr. Paul really does have that much support??? His fans really are
that dedicated and numerous?

But in order to buy the "spam bot" theory, you must ignore the straw poll results.
Surely none of the Internet support translates to real people on the ground... ;)
See for yourself: http://www.redpills.org/?p=300

Are people afraid of this? Are the neo-cons and the Democrats afraid of this?
Do people really only hate what they fear?

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Further 2007 Federal spending analysis


Since my last post caused such an outcry of comments on Digg, I think we should compare some
of the data and look at the priorities. It should be quite interesting and should prove out even
more of Dr. Paul's ideas for reduction in the Federal government.

Again, all of the number quoted from Wikipedia; I'm not making any of this up (although someone may
have, but the wiki is pretty well policed..)

Let's look at debt repayment:

This article by Mike Hewitt at Dollardaze shows we owe $3.85 trillion (45%) of all national debt to
the Federal Reserve. Wikipedia says we will be paying only $243.7 billion to interest on debt
and I assume that is spread across all of it; not just to the Fed.
Check out Mike's article; it is very enlightening: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1571.html
All of his numbers are referenced for the convenience of the Digg naysayers.

Now let's compare that to the 2007 expenditures for some other things:

  • $72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits
  • $89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training (I assume this is education in general)
  • $26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development
  • $1.1 billion (+47.6%) - Energy
  • $33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment
  • $223.5 total
All of these combined are still less than what we pay on our debt and a little over half ($243 *.45 =$109) of
what we pay to the Federal Reserve alone! One other note; Japan owns around $600 billion
of our debt themselves...

Now where would we be if we had a gold standard and no Federal credit; no Federal Reserve.
I think Dr. Paul has the right idea. Money (credit) could not be conjured from thin air and the
Federal government would have to control spending.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Political yard sign (the Constitution suppressed!)


OK, so here we go; another reason Ron Paul must become president...

Seems a young man in Orlando, Florida (Clermont, actually) put a Ron Paul sign is his yard.
He was not asked to do so by the campaign; he did it of his own volition on his private property.
The city code enforcement officer seems to think he must either take it down or pay a $50 dollar fee.
TO POST THE SIGN IN HIS OWN YARD!!!!!!



City ordinance 102-18, section 3 says:
"The candidate or someone designated by the candidate, whose sign is erected or placed on any
premises, shall make that deposit..." Assuming the $50 deposit/fee.

Clearly, this man is neither the candidate nor someone designated by the candidate so this ordinance does
not apply to him.

This is obviously a misapplied ordinance in this case and section 4 of the Florida constitution does protect
free speech specifically! As does the Constitution of the United States.

So, what should he do:
(Disclaimer here; I am not a lawyer; do not have a law degree and have never attended law
school, BUT I do know what our Constitution says about free speech. This is merely my view.)

1. Put the sign back up! (what is the worst they can do? $50 dollar fine? Gotta pay it any way)
2. Search out legal help on the web. There are surely places (ACLU comes to mind) who would
LOVE to get some teeth in this one!!
3. Gather as much information as possible about this exact issue; see below:

4. Take this information to city council and whatever court would hear this case and argue it to the death!
5. Be sure to let everyone in town know (by adding another sign, maybe) that your First Amendment
rights as well as your Florida Constitutional rights are being violated. DEMAND clarification of the
ordinance by the city council!!!
This is a total outrage and I actually expect something like this in my town soon. My signs will bother
someone but we have no such ordinance. I served on council and have a copy of the ordinance book to
reference.

Steal these images and spread them around the web...

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