Tonight’s Debate

I’m incensed at how Ron Paul, and Huckabee for that matter, were nearly discluded from the debate tonight. Despite what the media may think, this thing is far from over. McCain has no money. The only reason he’s still alive is because of, surprise, free media.

Just unbelievable.

Awesome

He gets a little angry, and flirts with some language, but he speaks the truth. After an interview with Mitt Romney, this guy is voting Ron Paul.

This is what our economy needs

Taken from http://www.ronpaul2008.com/Prosperity

Introduction

America became the greatest, most prosperous nation in human history through low taxes, limited government, personal freedom and a belief in sound money. We need to return to these principles so our economy can thrive again. When enacted, my plan will provide both short-term stimulus and lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity.

Other candidates talk a lot about stimulus packages, but my record stands alone. I have fought for these measures for years as a member of Congress and will make them a top priority as president.

Ron Paul, a 10-term Republican congressman from Texas’s 14th District, is currently the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology. He has been named “Taxpayers’ Best Friend” for 10 consecutive years by the National Taxpayers’ Union. Ron Paul is also the author of several books on monetary policy and economics.

The Four-Point Plan

1. Tax Reform: Reduce the tax burden and eliminate taxes that punish investment and savings, including job-killing corporate taxes.
2. Spending Reform: Eliminate wasteful spending. Reduce overseas commitments. Freeze all non-defense, non-entitlement spending at current levels.
3. Monetary Policy Reform: Expand openness with the Federal Reserve and require the Fed to televise its meetings. Return value to our money.
4. Regulatory Reform: Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley regulations that push companies to seek capital outside of US markets. Stop restricting community banks from fostering local economic growth.

1. Tax Reform

• Eliminate Taxes on Dividends and Savings. The basis of capitalism is savings, and Americans who do so should be rewarded.
  • Pass HJ Res. 23 to encourage savings over consumption.
• Repeal the Death Tax. Attacking small businesses and breaking up family farms smothers growth and kills jobs.
  • Pass H.R. 2734 to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
• Cut Taxes for Working Seniors. Grandmothers and grandfathers working to make ends meet should keep all the fruits of their labor.
  • Pass H.R. 191 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the inclusion in gross income of Social Security benefits.
• Eliminate Taxes on Social Security Benefits. That money belongs to seniors, not the government. They paid into the system for a lifetime, and they should be free to spend every penny as they see fit.
  • Pass H.R. 192 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the 1993 increase in taxes on Social Security benefits.
• Accelerate Depreciation on Investment. We need to help companies grow and create jobs.
  • Pass H.R. 4995 and amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reduce corporate marginal income tax rates.
• Eliminate Taxes on Capital Gains. Investment should be embraced and rewarded.
  • Pass H.J. Res 23 (The “Liberty Amendment”), proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.
• Eliminate Taxes on Tips.The single parents and working students who earn their income chiefly through tips deserve to keep all of their money. This tax on “estimated income” is unfair and should be ended.
  • Pass H.R. 3664 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that tips shall not be subject to income or employment taxes.
• Support Mortgage Cancelation Relief Act. Working families who lost their homes should not be punished a second time with a big IRS bill.
  • Pass H.R. 1876 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income of individual taxpayers discharges of indebtedness attributable to certain forgiven residential mortgage obligations.

2. Spending Reform

• Reduce Overseas Military Commitments. Our bases and troops should be on our soil.
  • It’s time to stop subsidizing our trading partners in Europe, Japan and South Korea.
• Freeze Non-Defense, Non-Entitlement Spending at Current Levels
  • I vote against all bloated, pork laden spending bills and will veto them as president.
    

3. Monetary Policy Reform

• Televise Federal Open Market Committee Meetings. An institution as powerful as the Federal Reserve deserves full public scrutiny.
• Expand Transparency and Accountability at the Federal Reserve
  • Pass H.R. 2754 to require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to continue to make available to the public on a weekly basis information on the measure of the M3 monetary aggregate and its components.

• Return Value to Our Money. Legalize gold and silver as a competing currency.
  • Level the long-term boom and bust business cycle by passing H.R. 4683, which would repeal provisions of the federal criminal code relating to issuance coins of gold, silver, or other metal for use as current money and making or possessing likenesses of such coins.

4. Regulatory Reform

• Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley. It has seriously wounded our capital markets and helped make the UK the financial center at our expense.
  • Ending these misguided regulations would bring jobs flooding back to the United States
    
  • Pass H.R. 1049 to reform Sarbanes-Oxley and reduce the burden it places on small businesses.
• Repeal or Remove Costly and Unnecessary Federal Regulations. Neighbors know best how to help their neighbors.
  • We need to make it easier for community banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions to better serve their communities and to help people in these communities get access to credit and capital.
  • Pass H.R. 1869 to enhance the ability of community banks to foster economic growth and serve their communities, boost small businesses, increase individual savings, and for other purposes.

In Case You Haven’t Heard….

Ron Paul is running for President.

Wait, you have heard? But you have no idea what he stands for… except that he’s against the war in Iraq. He must be a liberal right?

No, he’s probably more conservative than you are… you just don’t realize that what passes for conservatism these days is really the Liberal foreign policy from the 50s and 60s.

Check out this interview of Ron on the Glenn Beck program. If you’re a small government federalist, this stuff should make your mouth water. The guy knows what he’s talking about, and he wants to shrink a ballooning, inefficient, on its way to bankruptcy government near you.

New Job

Today I start a new position as the worship minister at the Hermitage Church of Christ.

Its gonna be scary. But its also going to be new, and exciting, and enjoyable. With the few meetings I’ve had with elders and deacons, as well as members of the congregation, I’ve been treated with great hospitality. The church is at a place which is ripe for growth, and I’m really pumped to be a part of that.

If you ever want to visit, just let me know. We’d be glad to have you!

Ron Paul, The Fed, The End of an Empire

I was reading a story in the New York Times Magazine today and saw this in the comment section below. It succinctly sums up why we need a complete overhaul to our monetary system, before its too late.

We should all hope that Ron Paul is not only nominated, but elected President, for if not then this country is in for an extremely hard road ahead due to the pressing issue of the failing fiat monetary system. If Ron Paul is not elected then the next President, either Republican or more probably Democratic, will only continue allowing the Federal Reserve creating money out of debt until the entire system fails under the mounting pressure of an irreversible debt which will rapidly require far more service than the economy can continue to produce.

Dr. Paul is the only candidate that even brings up the issue of our failing monetary system.

Consider this: a person making $32,000 per year today has the equivalent purchasing power of $5,907.40 1970 dollars. So, the same person making $15.38 per hour today is equal to making $2.84 per hour in real purchasing power in 1970 dollars. It is not the price of goods and services that have risen so much, but the purchasing power of our dollar that has been so drastically reduced. Our standard of living has been effectively reduced through fiat money inflation.

Is there any wonder that poverty is becoming rampant? The government has no other choice but enforce minimum wages in order to keep the working poor at some level of subsistence. At the current $5.85 per hour a person has the same 1970 purchasing power of $1.08 per hour, at 40 hours per week that person is effectively making $43.20 per week to make ends meet.

What are we waiting on, to become serfs of the State?

The fiat system has a finite lifespan and will terminate due to the fact that every single fiat note is nothing more than a legal notification of a debt obligation carrying on top of that debt an interest obligation. It is simply mathematically impossible for such a system to maintain viability for an extended period of time before it collapses under the weight of the debt that both maintains it and must be serviced by it.

We will begin to notice that all the patches and band-aids the Federal Reserve slaps on the economy no longer do the trick as we approach the fiat systems lifespan termination point. Everything we now place our collective faith in regarding the economy and our financial futures are hinged upon a system that is failing like all fiat systems before it have. Every single Federal Reserve Note is borrowed into existence and the expansion of monetary circulation is in direct proportion to the underlying debt on which it was created however, on top of all that debt is the attachment of an interest obligation which only adds to the pressure and shortens the lifespan of the entire system. All your investments, your pensions, your 401ks, your savings, your insurance, government bonds, all government programs and all commerce is completely built upon a fiat monetary system that will terminate in the near future and there is absolutely nothing that the government or the Federal Reserve can do within that system to stop that collapse. It will take a complete scrapping of the entire system and only Dr. Ron Paul has an inkling of what it is going to take to accomplish such a transition.

By 2012 we will all wish that it was Ron Paul in the White House instead of the establishment darling candidate that is most likely going to “win” this election.

From  Republicae on January 21, 2008 3:09 PM in the story here.

Slippery Slope

Many people wonder why I am so against giving the government any more power than is absolutely necessary, and why I’d be willing to give up security for freedom.

Watch these two videos, and you’ll see exactly why.

Watch out. They could take your kids. And there’s literally nothing you can do about it.

The government is evil. It is composed of the same self interested and power hungry people that the rest of the world is. The only difference between a government employee and a greedy CEO is the CEO and his corporation has no legal right to do anything to you.

Diebold

I never imagined myself to be one of the “crazies” that believed that folks were cheating in elections.

But, the more I learned about Ohio in 2004, I started thinking maybe it was possible.

And now, I think its pretty clear that the Clintons, or the powers that be, had something to do with New Hampshire.

And it appears that Ron Paul voters were undercounted as well.

Sometimes you just get that feeling…

You know, the feeling that the situation you are in is bad, but there’s not really a reason for you to feel that way?

That happened to Carrie and me last night

Let me preface this by saying I do not get freaked out by homeless people. I’ve dealt with them a ton in Memphis, and now in East Nashville. But last night was something different. Its entirely possible that who I ran into was just a well dressed 40 year old white homeless man who had some how picked up a picture ID that he wore around his neck. But I can’t shake how freaked out I was.

Carrie and I went with some friends to Sam’s Sports Bar in Hillsboro Village. Parking is always tough in their lot, so we parked in the Bank of America lot a block over. The sign said that it was bank parking only during business hours. It wasn’t business hours, so we went ahead and parked.

We ate dinner and watched the UNC game, and after our failed attempts at participating in the trivia game going on at Sam’s, we decided to cut out. We walked to our car, and were getting in when I heard someone talking to who I assumed to be me, from somewhat of a distance. I hopped back out of the car and turned around to see what was going on. A man walked up to me and reiterated what I hadn’t heard completely before, that the tow trucks had come out and were about to tow my car, but he convinced them not to.

I was confused, because there should have been no reason for a tow truck to be in that lot, which, according to the signs, was fair game after business hours (it was 9 oclock). I mentioned that the signs said it was BOA parking only during business hours, so I was confused as to why the tow trucks would have even been there (and I’m thinking at this point, why would they even listen to this guy).

He continued on that he worked at the Cathedral, and he flashed this picture ID hanging around his neck (which I didn’t study intently, as he didn’t give me a chance to). He was a white man, clean shaven, clean in general, with a navy blazer and a plaid button up and slacks on. Not the normal threads of a homeless man looking to score a buck. He told me that his car had broken down and he was walking back to his house in Green Hills. I said ok, and started to get back in the car. He started talking again as I got in the car and asked if I was going to Green Hills. I said no, and that I was headed to East Nashville, the complete opposite direction. I got in the car and immediately locked the doors as he walked away into the next parking lot. Carrie and I sat for a second, discussing how creepy it was, and as we drove away, he was walking back to the parking lot that he’d previously been in, and I decided to call the non emergency police number.

He may have just been a guy down on his luck who didn’t know quite how to bum a ride. But all I was thinking the entire time I was talking to him was “serial killer”. I know that’s terrible, but sometimes you have to go with your gut. And my gut was saying, “Get the hell out of here.”

Anyone else from Nashville run into this guy before?

Well, hope may be gone for a Paul presidency

But with things like this going on, we may eliminate the government without holding an election.