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Ron Paul
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It’s Obama’s Safari – But We’re the Ones Taken for a Ride!
0Source: http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org
Written by Ron Paul
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/
It’s Obama’s Safari – But We’re the Ones Taken for a Ride!
Remember the Sequester? Remember the Administration threatening the end of the world if the phony “cuts” (which were actually just decreases in future spending increases) came into effect? Remember the cuts to Air Traffic Controllers while we were told “good luck” on our flights? Remember the cuts to TSA agents while we were told to enjoy our two hour wait in line to be groped or irradiated?
So now we find out that not only has the president found the money to start a new war in Syria, but also to embark upon his own $100 million African safari at our expense!
As USA Today reports, Obama’s African adventure will include:
“Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.
So the big ticket items are exempt from cuts, while maximum pain is being inflicted upon Americans under the guise of the Sequester. That is how Washington works.
Ron Paul Would Like to See Glenn Jacobs (aka Wrestler “Kane”) Enter the GOP Senate Race in Tennessee
0Source: http://libertycalling.net
Posted by Judy Morris
Ron Paul Would Like to See Glenn Jacobs (aka Wrestler “Kane”) Enter the GOP Senate Race in Tennessee
With the exception of the only constitutionalist and liberty activist in the entire US Senate, Rand Paul, Republican senators are a most pitiful lot of rogues, statists and civil liberties slashing warmongering socialists. While it’s difficult to say who is the absolute worst, the state of Tennessee definitely has 2 of the worst Republican senators, Lamar Alexander, up for re-election in 2014, and Bob Corker, re-elected in 2012.
The folks in Tennessee have an opportunity to vote Alexander out of office and there’s a lot of support for Paulite liberty activist Glenn Jacobs.Reason.com reports:
Received this statement today from former Ron Paul 2012 campaign staffer Matt Collins, who is interested in seeing Glenn Jacobs–who is also the wrestler known as “Kane”–enter the GOP Senate primary from Tennessee next year (where he’d be up against incumbent Lamar Alexander).
Background on Collins, in his own words:
I served on Ron Paul’s 2012 Presidential Campaign as his New Media Manager, and also as a strategic political operative in Minnesota. I am currently working with the Campaign for Liberty to fight the national Internet sales tax mandate.
His statement about Jacobs potential candidacy and Ron Paul:
As an activist for the cause in Nashville in 2009 I helped launch Rand Paul’s Campaign for US Senate. Rand called me in Feb of that year and wanted my help to get him elected. I am hoping we can do the same for Glenn Jacobs against Senator Lamar Alexander in 2014.
Former Congressman Ron Paul and I have emailed back and forth on this topic quite a bit and he has told me repeatedly “keep telling Glenn we need him to do it. It’s important, he’s exactly the kind of candidate we need.” When Dr. Paul spoke at the Knoxville GOP dinner in April I arranged a private 30-minute meeting with Dr. Paul and Glenn in which the potential candidacy for Senate was discussed.
Although Glenn has been hesitant to jump in the race, thus far, some tea party leaders in Tennessee have already voiced private support for Glenn against Senator Alexander.
Read the rest at Reason.com, here.
Obama’s Syria Policy Looks a Lot Like Bush’s Iraq Policy
01 day ago
Source: http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org
Written by Ron Paul
Obama’s Syria Policy Looks a Lot Like Bush’s Iraq Policy
President Obama announced late last week that the US intelligence community had just determined that the Syrian government had used poison gas on a small scale, killing some 100 people in a civil conflict that has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. Because of this use of gas, the president claimed, Syria had crossed his “red line” and the US must begin to arm the rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian government.
Setting aside the question of why 100 killed by gas is somehow more important than 99,900 killed by other means, the fact is his above explanation is full of holes. The Washington Post reported last week that the decision to overtly arm the Syrian rebels was made “weeks ago” – in other words, it was made at a time when the intelligence community did not believe “with high confidence” that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons.
Further, this plan to transfer weapons to the Syrian rebels had become policy much earlier than that, as the Washington Post reported that the CIA had expanded over the past year its secret bases in Jordan to prepare for the transfer of weapons to the rebels in Syria.
The process was identical to the massive deception campaign that led us into the Iraq war. Remember the famous quote from the leaked “Downing Street Memo,” where representatives of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration discussed Washington’s push for war on Iraq?
Here the head of British intelligence was reporting back to his government after a trip to Washington in the summer of 2002:
“Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”
That is exactly what the Obama Administration is doing with Syria: fixing the intelligence and facts around the already determined policy. And Congress just goes along, just as they did the last time.
We found out shortly after the Iraq war started that the facts and intelligence being fixed around the policy were nothing but lies put forth by the neo-con warmongers and the paid informants, like the infamous and admitted liar known as “Curveball.” But we seem to have learned nothing from being fooled before.
So Obama now plans to send even more weapons to the Syrian rebels even though his administration is aware that the main rebel factions have pledged their loyalty to al-Qaeda. Does anyone else see the irony? After 12 years of the “war on terror” and the struggle against al-Qaeda, the US decided to provide weapons to the allies of al-Qaeda. Does anyone really think this is a good idea?
The Obama administration promises us that this is to be a very limited operation, providing small arms only, with no plans for a no-fly zone or American boots on the ground. That sounds an awful lot like how Vietnam started. Just a few advisors. When these few small arms do not achieve the pre-determined US policy of regime change in Syria what is the administration going to do? Admit failure and pull the troops out, or escalate? History suggests the answer and it now appears to be repeating itself once again.
The president has opened a can of worms that will destroy his presidency and possibly destroy this country. Another multi-billion dollar war has begun.
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Ron Paul photo added to the original post.
Read more here:
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/
Ron Paul Thanks Whistleblower; List of Those Spied on by NSA to be Used in Court Against Gov’t
01 week ago
Source: http://www.spreadlibertynews.com
By Ezra Van Auken
Ron Paul Thanks Whistleblower; List of Those Spied on by NSA to be Used in Court Against Gov’t
By now everyone realizes that former Texas Representative Ron Paul certainly led the way for the ideas of libertarianism and civil liberties after leaving nearly three decades of a career in Washington DC. When it comes to issues such as the National Security Agency’s huge PRISM spying scandal, relying on Paul for interjection isn’t a bad idea. Since the NSA’s powerpoints were leaked, which revealed a huge encroachment of privacy and the Fourth Amendment, Paul has been very vocal.
Since last week’s intelligence leak Paul officially thanked Edward Snowden, the whistleblower and Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the story. “We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk,” Paul stated in a Campaign for Liberty publication. The former Congressman also explained, “The government does not need to know more about what we are doing. We need to know more about what the government is doing,” calling out Obama’s secrecy.
Reiterating his support for civil liberties across the board, Paul noted, “The Fourth Amendment is clear; we should be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, and all warrants must have probable cause. Today the government operates largely in secret, while seeking to know everything about our private lives – without probable cause and without a warrant.” Then Paul took to his “Texas Straight Talk” podcast segment for putting more exposure on the NSA scandal, calling for more transparency in the government and not the people.
Interestingly in the wake of the NSA’s confirmed spying on Americans through communications such as the computer and phone, a YouTube video has gone viral of Paul speaking on the floor in 1984. The then-Congressman warned of the very problems that Americans are witnessing today – government spying. Paul said, “It’s now common knowledge that the federal government computers are routinely used to compare lists of 18 year olds who get drivers licenses with those who have registered for the draft.”
The Texan finished his 1984 remarks saying, “Why is it that it’s so difficult to defend freedom consistently across the board?”
Even in the early days of this NSA leak, Americans have yet to see the “tip of the ice berg”. What many missed on Monday morning is what journalist Glenn Greenwald told CNBC. Greenwald told the CNBC news anchor, “Part of what the documents include that he [Snowden] turned over is a list of the people that the US government has been targeting, and one of the reasons he did that was so those lawsuits can proceed. So that we can now know who has been subjective to this surveillance, so they can go into court and ask for a court ruling,” on whether government spying is constitutional.
The lawsuits Greenwald was referring to are recent lawsuits such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) taking to the courts to challenge the constitutionality of government surveillance. What makes the task impossible for those in the ACLU and other advocacy groups is that instead of receiving a fair challenge, the government has repeatedly told civil liberties groups that government surveillance is too classified to proceed with any trial. Greenwald detailed, “The government has continuously said it is too secretive to allow courts to review and because we do all of this in the dark nobody can prove they’ve been eavesdropped on and therefore don’t have standing to sue.”
Greenwald made sure to say the list is nearly the most important part of the leaked information. Now with the list of “who has been spied on”, the content and nature of the surveillance grid can be righteously challenged in court, putting Obama’s administration on the hot seat.
Ron Paul Warned Us About ’1984′–in 1984
01 week ago
Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com
Posted by Lew Rockwell
Ron Paul Warned Us About ’1984′–in 1984
(Thanks to Daniel McAdams and the Ron Paul Institute)
U.S. Helping Iranians With Surveillance Circumnavigation Technologies
01 week ago
Source: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com
U.S. Helping Iranians With Surveillance Circumnavigation Technologies
There’s never a shortage of irony when it comes to the U.S. government.
We know that while Americans get their genitals grabbed (or a shot of radiation) at the airport to protect us from Al Qaeda, the U.S. government gives weapons to members of Al Qaeda over in Syria, because those are the good ones that want to take down Assad.
As if that’s not enough…
Today, while Americans are (amazingly) making a big deal that the NSA is spying on everyone, Obama comes out and fervently defends the practice. You see NSA spying on you is the good kind.
The “bad” surveillance happens over in Iran.
So what else for the U.S. government to do than supply Iranian citizens with surveillance circumvention technologies!
Bloomberg reports:
“The U.S. State Department is helping develop a number of general-use surveillance circumvention technologies,” Sascha Meinrath, founder of the Commotion Wireless Project, a non-profit group trying to build such devices, said in an email.“
The irony is so thick, you can barely see!
Our every digital move is being watched in the U.S. and the circumnavigation technologies are heading to Iran! Courtesy of the U.S. government!
The excuse is, of course, Iran’s tightly-controlled June 14th presidential election.
To which we Americans say: Remember when Ron Paul ran for President?
Ron Paul & Rand Paul on NSA, Rand Paul to Reintroduce 4th Amendment Preservation
01 week ago
Source: http://libertycalling.net
Posted by Judy Morris
Ron Paul & Rand Paul on NSA, Rand Paul to Reintroduce 4th Amendment Preservation
In response to Wednesday’s news of the United States National Security Agency spying on millions of Americans through phone records from Verizon, liberty advocate and former Congressman Ron Paul gave a few comments.
According to Ron Paul News, Paul explained, “I wish I could say I was shocked at the reports the NSA is secretly spying on the private phone calls of millions of Verizon customers. However, this is a predictable result of a government that continues to erode our liberties while promising some glimmering hope of security.” After all, domestic spying by the government has been going on since President Nixon’s era.
“The Fourth Amendment is clear; it says we should be secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects, and that all warrants must have probable cause,” Ron Paul reminded readers. “I opposed and continue to oppose the Patriot Act because I believe it throws the Fourth Amendment right out the window. It is certainly not patriotic to support warrantless wiretaps, blanket ‘metadata’ collection, and spying on innocent American citizens,” he reiterated. Supporters are familiar with Dr. Paul’s opposition to the Patriot Act and any violation of the Fourth Amendment.
He concluded, “Unfortunately, what is worse than the reports, is knowing that politicians of both parties will continue to defend this practice as necessary to supposedly keep us ‘safe’. We do not have to sacrifice our liberties for security. At times like this, the question must be asked, ‘if we are willing to change our way of life and our very definition of freedom while tolerating the invasive searches at our airports and now of our phone calls, have the terrorists already won?’”
Ron is not the only Paul to speak out against the NSA spying scandal. His son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul also feels the same way.
Read the rest at Spread Liberty News, here.
Ron Paul on the Failure of the State
01 week ago
Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com
Posted by Lew Rockwell
Ron Paul on the Failure of the State
(Thanks to Jay Stephenson)2006,
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Related posts:
The EyeOpener Report- The AP Spying Story: What You Aren’t Being Told
Ron Paul: the 4th Amendment Has Been Wiped Off the Books
Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of Interventionism
01 week ago
Source:http://the-free-foundation.org
By Ron Paul
Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of Interventionism
May was Iraq’s deadliest month in nearly five years, with more than 1,000 dead – both civilians and security personnel — in a rash of bombings, shootings and other violence. As we read each day of new horrors in Iraq, it becomes more obvious that the US invasion delivered none of the promised peace or stability that proponents of the attack promised.
Millions live in constant fear, refugees do not return home, and the economy is destroyed. The Christian community, some 1.2 million persons before 2003, has been nearly wiped off the Iraqi map. Other minorities have likewise disappeared. Making matters worse, US support for the Syrian rebels next door has drawn the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government into the spreading regional unrest and breathed new life into extremist elements.
The invasion of Iraq opened the door to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which did not exist beforehand, while simultaneously strengthening the hand of Iran in the region. Were the “experts” who planned for and advocated the US attack really this incompetent?
Ryan Crocker, who was US Ambassador to Iraq from 2007-2009, still speaks of the Iraqi “surge” as a great reconciliation between Sunni and Shi’ite in Iraq. He wrote recently that “[t]hough the United States has withdrawn its troops from Iraq, it retains significant leverage there. Iraqi forces were equipped and trained by Americans, and the country’s leaders need and expect our help.” He seems alarmingly out of touch with reality.
It is clear now that the “surge” and the “Iraqi Awakening” were just myths promoted by those desperate to put a positive spin on the US invasion, which the late General William Odom once called, “the greatest strategic disaster in American history.” Aircraft were loaded with $100 dollar bills to pay each side to temporarily stop killing US troops and each other, but the payoff provided a mere temporary break. Shouldn’t the measure of success of a particular policy be whether it actually produces sustained positive results?
Now we see radical fighters who once shot at US troops in Iraq have spilled into Syria, where they ironically find their cause supported by the US government! Some of these fighters are even greeted by visiting US senators.
The US intervention in Iraq has created ever more problems. That is clear. The foreign policy “experts” who urged the US attack on Iraq now claim that the disaster they created can only be solved with more interventionism! Imagine a medical doctor noting that a particular medication is killing his patient, but to combat the side effect he orders an increase in dosage of the same medicine. Like this doctor, the US foreign policy establishment is guilty of malpractice. And, I might add, this is just what the Fed does with monetary policy.
From Iraq to Libya to Mali to Syria to Afghanistan, US interventions have an unbroken record of making matters far worse. Yet regardless of the disasters produced, for the interventionists a more aggressive US foreign policy is the only policy they offer.
We must learn the appropriate lessons from the disaster of Iraq. We cannot continue to invade countries, install puppet governments, build new nations, create centrally-planned economies, engage in social engineering, and force democracy at the barrel of a gun. The rest of the world is tired of US interventionism and the US taxpayer is tired of footing the bill for US interventionism. It is up to all of us to make it very clear to the foreign policy establishment and the powers that be that we have had enough and will no longer tolerate empire-building. We should be more confident in ourselves and stop acting like an insecure bully.
Ben Swann’s Liberty is Rising Truth in Media Project
02 weeks ago
Spotted on: http://www.dailypaul.com
H/T to my friend Judy Morris
Ben Swann’s Liberty is Rising Truth in Media Project
Friends,
I want to begin by saying thank you for signing up for this email list and for your incredible support of my work with Reality Check and Full Disclosure over the past 2 years.
As promised, you are now the first to hear in detail about my- actually our- next step. Beginning next week on Monday, June 10, we will officially launch the “Liberty Is Rising Truth in Media Project” on Kickstarter. As I have told you, this is the most involved and meaningful project I have ever been involved in and it is not something I can do on my own.
The “Liberty is Rising Truth in Media Project” is a 3 step process:
Inform, Engage, Activate:
Step 1: INFORM
The first step of this project and the primary use of Kickstarter is to create high-end, high-quality Reality Check style segments that can be presented to the public via streaming content sites such as Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or devices such as Roku and BenSwann.com. Our goal is to produce 100 high quality five to six minute shows and by launching this project independently, the restrictions on subject matter by corporate bosses will not be an issue.
Why do the videos need to be so high quality? Simple, we need to spread this message as far out as we can. Like it or not, we live in a very media-savvy culture and if the public at large is to take this kind of journalism seriously, they need to be able to hear and see it in a way that is deemed credible. You can watch network news programming all day and never hear anything of substance but it sure looks pretty. If we are to educate and inform the public on issues of war, the drug war, monetary policy, drone strikes, the NDAA, CAFR, crony capitalism, etc… it MUST be done in the style and format generations of Americans have been trained to accept as “professional”.
The films will be distributed via multiple platforms. First, we continue to share new content virally via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, BenSwann.com, and continue to allow alternative media blog sites to use our films without charge and embed them, as long as they are shown in their entirety. This is important because we want as many people exposed to our journalism as possible.
We will be rolling out a highly interactive, informative website that will include all Full Disclosure episodes, a forum, Ben Swann podcasts, and a mobile app.
Also, as I mentioned, we are going to attempt to spread these films into new arenas such as streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify. Again, the goal is to engage the largest audience possible.
Step 2: ENGAGE
Each of us must impact our own circle of influence.
We are currently building out a multi-faceted platform of engagement where you and I will work together to take single issues and impact public opinion. This platform will contain resources like stats, infographics, archived articles, and other educational materials that will be available to download or share.
Students:
This platform will work directly with college student groups like Young Americans for Liberty, Young Republicans, Young Democrats and politically independent groups, giving students hard facts and data to share with peers and teaching them how to hold information sessions on campus.
Journalists:
We will work with journalists across the country challenging them to engage in critical thinking and questioning of local, state and national leaders on issues of importance. We’ll equip them on how to challenge the status quo in their newsrooms and move beyond reading press releases.
Faith Based Communities:
We will engage faith-based communities (Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, etc) and challenge the acceptance of government control over their religious activities.
Local Lawmakers:
We will engage local and state lawmakers and challenge the over-reach, over taxation, and policing for profit that is taking place in every city and town in America.
Tea Party:
We will engage those in the Tea Party movement who entered the movement for the right reasons, to protest over taxation and government control.
Occupy:
We will engage those in the Occupy movement who rightly protested the consolidation of wealth among a small group of people and who have created a crony capitalist system (that isn’t capitalism at all).
Building Consensus:
The goal is to help Americans escape the Left/Right paradigm of arguing with each other while politicians and big money run the nation and our lives. We desire to create unity among all these groups in the areas where we can agree. That happens when we are defined not by who we stand against, but what we stand for. It is not about Left vs. Right or Republican vs. Democrat… but Liberty vs. Tyranny.
You and I will go through this process together. Beyond just sharing the content, you will be instrumental to the gathering of information and the actual creation of that content. With your engagement we will be able to create public awareness and social willingness to drive change.
Step 3: ACTIVATE
The best part of this step is that the work you and I will have already done is key. Having forced important issues into the forefront of public awareness we will have already changed minds and that will allow action to be taken.
Through strategic partnerships with established political and student groups as well as individual experts in the fields or medicine, education, economics, security, drug policy etc. we will begin to crowd-source “change strategies”.
The end result of these strategies will include legal and legislative process for changing U.S. policy overseas and here at home. We will challenge lawmakers who continue to engage in hypocritical behavior and are unwilling to stand up for rule of law. As a long-term goal, we will eventually work with lawmakers to draft legislation to correct the nation’s trajectory. Dr. Ron Paul borrowed the words of Victor Hugo when he declared in 2008, “An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government.”
Ron Paul Said It Best:
I recently had the chance to interview Dr. Paul and we talked in depth about the changing media landscape. How has media changed for a man who has spent his entire life attempting to change the system?
“When I first started in politics in the 70′s, we basically had three major networks and they were very, very close together on philosophy…..But now the options are great…..Now the information is going out differently. It’s going out on handheld devices and computers and telephones and they can turn you on and off when they want. They have so many more choices.”
Dr. Paul then added:
I’m optimistic that things are going to do well and I’m optimistic because you’re (Ben Swann) involved in this fight with us.”
Again, I want to thank you for your support so far. As you can see this next step is a very ambitious project. There is risk here but I believe that every great movement in history has been accompanied by great challenge and risk.
Between now and June 10th, I need your help.
1. Please go sign up for this Facebook event for the project:
https://www.facebook.com/events/182282331926426/
2. Please forward this email on to friends and family who you believe might want to be a part of this project.
3. Please share the new cover photo featured on my Facebook pages that can be found here.
There has never been a moment like this before in world history where a society has had this kind of collision of technology and information. This is our moment. I hope that next Monday, you will commit to helping me to shake the media landscape in America! I leave you with these words from a great patriot Samuel Adams who once proclaimed,
“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” - Samuel Adams
#LibertyisRising
B
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Related post:
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
