Allison Bricker

OFFICIAL STATEMENT – Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country. Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration’s operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending. However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all. [TRANSCRIPT]

Related Material(s)
	Dr. Ron Paul Texas Straight Talk for August 30th, 2010 “Iraq – An End or an Escalation?” TRANSCRIPT (PDF 246kb)

Source(s): Representative Ron Paul, House Website • MinnesotaChris YouTube Channel

Allison Bricker

SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA – Representative Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty (C4L), formed after his 2008 Presidential Campaign so as to continue advocating the message of limited Constitutional government, has launched a new push to stop H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Hoping to build on the successful effort to secure an Audit of the FEDERAL RESERVE, albeit the FOMC and international transactions are still protected from view, C4L now focuses on creating a groundswell to stop the insidious scheme by Corporatists in government to create a ”cap and trade” framework.

If passed and signed into law, the system will solely benefit the largest of companies thus further consolidating their power while simultaneously stifling competition, which of course is the number one sin in the mind of the Corporatist.

Austrian Market analysts estimate that should the bill pass the Senate, we as individuals could see approximately six-hundred and fifty billion in new taxes and caution that such a boondoggle will also prevent the creation of new jobs from upstart companies on Main Street while further insulating Wall Street’s corporation from bearing any form of pressure by the market whatsoever.

Thus, the Corporatists know that such a system should it be proposed voluntarily would suffer a complete failure before it even began due the enormous barriers raised for new and small business, and therefore must rely on the FORCE of government in order to corner the energy market.

As such, C4L has launched an email blitz of its existing members and has created a website, where individuals can consent to sending a letter to both of their Federal Senators. The draft letter goes on to formally request that their Senators vote against both HR 2454 as well as any future efforts at a Cap and Trade scheme, and even goes so far as to urge the Senators to wage a filibuster if needed so as to kill the bill prior to a final vote.

Source(s): Campaign for Liberty, Stop Cap and Tax • Mises Institute, “The Costs of Carbon Legislation” by Robert P. Murphy Published June 01, 2009 • Government Printing Office Online Document Depository, H.R. 2454 • The Washinton Post, “Tilting at Green Windmills” By George F. Will, Published Thursday, June 25, 2009

Allison Bricker

Dr. Paul Cites Growing Momentum to Abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but will government make Smaller Banks Act as New Proxy?

In his weekly Texas Straight Talk address, Representative Ron Paul discusses the growing momentum to abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nevertheless, Dr. Paul points out that this would be only the first step to allowing the housing market to normalize and that unless the people speak up, the Central Authority will merely seek to put indenture smaller banks to act as proxy agents to continued government backing of mortgage loans regardless of the borrowers ability to repay. [TRANSCRIPT]

Related Material(s)
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	Representative Ron Paul Texas Straight Talk for August 23rd, 2010 _TRANSCRIPT (PDF 252kb)

Allison Bricker

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – The Republican faithful gathered at the Riverside Hilton hotel in New Orleans for their quadrennial conference SRLC 2010, to discuss election strategies, attend workshops and listen to the Republican party’s s most public figures. Further, the conference’s most highly covered event the straw poll, featured a tie for first place this year between former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney and Texas Congressional Representative, Ron Paul both receiving 24% of the vote.

Representative Paul who failed to place whatsoever in the previous conference in 2006 and who was widely mocked by the Republican status-quo during the 2008 Presidential campaign is finding an ever-growing audience due to his consistent promotion of Constitutionally limited government as well as his dedication to a humble foreign policy more in line with that of the Founding Generation.

This is Representative Paul’s second straw poll victory having placed first by a wide margin during the CPAC conference held this past February. He credits the growing acceptance of the message to both the explosion in information via the internet and the energetic youth who see that their economic liberty is on the hook thanks to promises made by the federal government regarding Social Security, Medicare, continuing imperial wars, and the new massive health care bill signed into law by President Obama.

Nevertheless, even as Representative Paul and the message of Liberty continue to gain momentum, the old-media as the LibertyMaven points out⁽¹⁾ is none to thrilled and spare no chance to minimize the statesman or the prospect of greater Liberty in our lifetime.

Source(s):⁽¹⁾Liberty Maven ^“Straw Poll Media Bias: Ron Paul vs. Mitt Romney” by: Marc Gallagher, published April 10th, 2010 • MinnesotaChris YouTube Channel

The Smoking Argus

Government and Gasoline

As we head into the summer driving season and gasoline prices are again creeping up, the administration has announced plans to explore opening up more off-shore areas for exploration and drilling. On the one hand this can be lauded as a positive step. On the other hand, it is too little, much too late to have any meaningful or long-term effect on what Americans pay at the pump any time soon, if at all.

Indeed, if increasing domestic energy production was really a priority, the administration would direct the EPA to remove its many roadblocks and barriers to energy production. In fact, abolishing the EPA altogether would do much to improve our country’s economy. Instead of protecting the environment as they are supposed to do, most of what they do simply chills the economy. Polluters should be directly liable in court to any and all parties they harm, rather than bureaucrats at the EPA. [Full Transcript]

Related Material(s):
	Representative Ron Paul Texas Straight Talk: Government and Gasoline April 4, 2010 TRANSCRIPT

Source(s): Representative Ron Paul’s House Webpage • MinnesotaChris YouTube Channel

The Smoking Argus

In this week’s Texas Straight Talk, Dr. Ron Paul discusses the reality of how through the government management of health care, medical costs will only continue to escalate. He also discusses the misnomer of health care being right seeing that the government must first employ force to offer the service to another. Pointing to that health insurance was originally intended to be used in case of serious injury or disease and not routine doctor visits and other non-emergency situations. He continues by posing the hypothetical question, “What if vehicle insurance covered not only major accidents but all routine maintenance and expenses such as gasoline. Stating that with no market force to measure to balance supply and demand the cost of gasoline would skyrocket in as more and more individuals began to rely on their automobile policy to cover the expense rather than budgeting for the necessary consumption thereof.

Further, Dr. Paul takes umbrage with the notion that by wholly removing health insurance from any sort of market restraint that the promise of government to reduce costs is pure fantasy. Continuing, he describes that the already overburdened welfare state may very well collapse as cost begin to escalate and the much touted savings begin pushing the original estimates into the red, just as every previous government program has done especially in the case of Social Security, which this year is projected to pay out more than it takes in through payroll taxes. To Dr. Paul and other student from the Austrian school of economics, this new entitlement will only further erode our economy further delaying any serious recovery in the near future.

Source(s): MinnesotaChris YouTube Channel • Official House Website of Representative Ron Paul (TX)

Allison Bricker

In this week’s Texas Straight Talk, Dr. Paul discusses the historic House vote resulting in passage of the government run health care scheme. Further, he speaks to his dismay at the continued trampling of the Constitution whereby the Government seeks to impose a mandate upon Americans to purchase a service. He explains how this in turn will have the exact opposite effect of the stated goals of lowering costs. By securing a protected market, the passage of the health care bill ensures costs will continue to rise even more so due to the fact that no meaningful tort reform was included in the final bill.

Moreover, Dr. Paul speaks to the dangers of utilizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as an enforcement arm, whereby the government will now have expanded access to even more personal information, including insurance coverage, medical history, et cetera. He also opines upon the flawed logic offered by supporters such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Slaughter (NY) of pointing to the “success” of Social Security and Medicare, when the fact of the matter is that both programs are operating in the red and ultimately headed towards total insolvency.

The notion that expanding the welfare roles while simultaneously cutting payments to doctors is an anathema to Representative Ron Paul and will only lead to fewer health care providers and increased debt. So has been the case as in every other country with a similar system, thus revealing the promised deficit reduction as just another fanciful pipe dream sold to the American people in order to secure populist sentiment.

Source(s): Official House Website of Representative Ron Paul (TX)

Allison Bricker

This Saturday, March 20th, 2010 is the 7th Anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Seeking to help bring more public pressure and return the U.S. to a more humble foreign  policy in line with the vision of the Founding Generation, Liberty activists from across the Republic are hosting an all day radio marathon. The group is hoping to raise funds to further fund the Peace Blimp project and other anti-war outreach activities.

The all-star line up includes Trevor Lyman, the originator of both the first money bombs and Ron Paul Blimp, Future of Freedom Foundation President & Founder Jacob Hornberger, Kurt Wallace of LibertyPulse, my debate partner from earlier in the week, Jack Hunter, Editor & Publisher of the DailyPaul, Michael Nystrom, Congressional House candidate and Iraq veteran Adam Kokesh, and many others from the Liberty Movement. In addition, the all-day marathon will include interviews  ranging from  Representatives Ron Paul of Texas and Alan Grayson of Florida to Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney.

Finally, the diverse line up will feature a live performance by Nadir beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. You can tune into the all day event scheduled to run from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at PeacBlimp.com.

Source(s): PeaceBlimp.com

The Smoking Argus

In this week’s Texas Straight Talk, Representative Ron Paul discusses the need to end the war in Afghanistan, which has become an occupation, long outlasting the original authorization of force. Issued just after the attacks on September 11th, the war is now approaching a decade with no end in sight. Al-Qaeda has long since left Afghanistan and now sits and waits for America, much like the Russians, to bankrupt itself, whilst simultaneously recruiting Afghans turned off by the American occupation, who themselves have a long and bloodied history of resisting foreign occupations.

Dr. Paul opines that while many in Congress continue to couch their support for an UnConstitutional war in terms of supporting the troops via continued funding of the operation, the simple fact remains, needless deaths of American soldiers in a war long past its original mission is an immoral path to secure their bids for reelection. Further he continues that not only are members of Congress completely blind to their Constitutional duty, members even abdicate Congressional responsibility to enforce the War Powers Resolution of 1973, passed after Vietnam, which attempted to restrict the President to using troops for no more than 90 days without appearing before Congress to obtain a formal Declaration of War.

Source(s): Minnesota Chris YouTube Channel • Official Congressional Website of Representative Ron Paul

Allison Bricker

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senators Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina are meeting today with President Obama to discuss tactics on how best to orchestrate the appearance of bipartisanship regarding comprehensive immigration reform. However, immigration reform is not the sole reason for the Senators’ visit. Also on the agenda is the culmination of the plutocrat’s fetish like desire to track all Americans with yet another attempt at shackling us with a national identification card.

Since the events of September 11th, the aristocrats on the hill have sought a way to effectively track like cattle all U.S. Citizens; however, despite their relentless fearmongering of boogiemen terrorists, the American people have in large part resisted the attempt to achieve “safety” via a mirroring of 1970’s era East Germany.

In a fashion similar to when the FDIC proposed the “Know Your Customer Rule” before public backlash forced a retraction, the statist have returned to their default playbook to achieve their end by swaddling in a national identification card under the guise of “securing the borders”. Then Assistant Director of the FEDERAL RESERVE, Richard Small provided keen insight to the minds of plutocrats when he spoke at the Mid Atlantic Compliance Conference in 1999, quipping that success of “Know Your Customer” depended on simply renaming the provision in order to avoid public scrutiny; the Central Authority hopes to replicate a corresponding trajectory for the National ID.

Whereas, “Know Your Customer” finally became law upon passage of the unconstitutional USA PATRIOT Act, the National ID card has encountered continued resistance thanks both to the new-media and internet-at-large. First as REAL ID, then as the PASS Act, the National ID has thus far repeatedly run up against an ever-growing chorus of Americans awakening to a federal government intruding ever further into our personal lives and business.

As recently reported, efforts are now under way by Imperial Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Scott “Tea-Party” Brown (R-MA), and seven other co-sponsors co-conspirators to indefinitely detain Americans merely upon suspicion and without trial. Further, details remain sparse on the Obama Administration and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair’s request to be granted authority by Congress to assassinate Americans suspected of committing belligerent acts against the Central Government. Now the seek to saddle us with a biometric ID which confirms identity be scanning the veins in our hands?

These several recent legislative maneuvers by the treasonous statists in Congress are scheming what can no less be described and ought rightfully be referred to as the “New Intolerable Acts”.

While we are fortunate to have a robust and growing body of enlightened pro-liberty advocates, thinkers, and teachers such as Representative Ron Paul, we must not rest upon their hard work to reclaim our quickly atrophying liberties. As his interview with Megyan Kelly of Fox News demonstrates, we must also consider utterly detaching ourselves form what was once referred to as “the fourth branch of government”, ergo the old-media, as it is obvious at least to this blogger, that they are but mere shills for the statists. Her inference that an erosion of our natural liberties is of no consequence and a necessary concession under the current events, shows her to be a cold lifeless traitor to human liberty.

Make no mistake, the world, why undeniably dangerous, has always appeared to be at an unrivaled level of hostility when viewed through the lens of the here and now. Whereas it took close to 2,000 years of human civilization for an imperfect generation to rightfully proclaim the individual as the standard-bearer of liberty, in full possession of our natural rights, and offer the opportunity to form a more perfect Union.

Let us not now shrink in the duty to be ever vigilant defenders of both our own and our posterity’s unalienable natural liberties in the face of this growing tyranny.