The Sun Has Set on Chicken Little

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

GreeneWave.com

From Disney's adaptation of Chicken Little.

            A fable is fictional story featuring any number of personified animals, plants or inanimate objects illustrating a moral lesson.  The old folktale of Chicken Little is a wonderful example.

Henny Penny, also known as, Chicken Little is a fable about a young chicken who believes the world is coming to an end after an acorn falls on its head.  On its quest to alert the King Chicken Little convinces others of the impending doom and they join in on the journey. 

At this point there are many endings, however, the most prominent features a fox who capitalizes on the brew of hysteria and invites the entourage to its lair and there eats them all.  It is here that the common English idiom “The sky is falling” indicating irrational fear or fear mongering is born.

We have over the last 50 years suffered from a similar panic when an acorn dropped on the head of one C.D. Keeling, the scientist whom first alerted the world to man made global warming while popularizing the now famous Keeling Curve, a 45 degree angle depicting the unrelenting rise of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

It is in the last decade that this pervasive fear of cooking the planet has reached an alarming crescendo.  The high water mark is no doubt the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, featuring Al Gore awkwardly rising to the ceiling on his very own Keeling Curve elevator.

Ironically, the Daily Mail recently reported that the fear should have abated in 1997, when global warming stopped.  That’s right, the planet hasn’t warmed in 15 years according to University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit.  Climate scientists are not astrophysicists, we know that, but the fact they forgot that the burning ball of gas positioned at the center of our solar system may in fact have something to do with the temperature of our planet is a bit strange.

If you find this hard to believe that “changers” would discount the sun’s impact on our environment, think again.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their infinite wisdom ruled in 2007 that man’s “greenhouse gas emissions has outweighed that of solar variability [emphasis added] by a factor of 13 to one.” 

While their aim was to discredit climate change skeptics the IPCC did not question that the Sun by its very existence dictates entirely the temperature of Earth, they questions only the variability between greenhouse gases and solar radiation.  New revelations about solar cycles reported by the Daily Mail, however, significantly undermines this view. 

Climate scientists at the IPCC, the UN, think tanks, EPA, major universities, and at the countless summits convened over the years evidently haven’t utilized one of the most important steps in scientific analysis – the control.  This only gives credence to the charges anthropogenic global warming is a “pseudo-theory” and that those who proselytize its tenets are engaged in pseudoscience. 

The control here is other planets without humans, i.e. the rest of the solar system.  Evidence that the Sun is the main driver of climate change is reflected in the fact other planets including the Red One have been warming too.

These findings comport with the realization that the Planet Killer carbon dioxide may in fact be lower on the climate change totem poll than originally thought.  It turns out dihydrogen monoxide found in the Earth’s variable ocean cycles may account for most of the last century’s global warming.  Alas, as I have said before Climate Science is a Volatile as The Weather.

It is here that the fox in the story reveals itself.  When Chicken Little and the Fowl Gang were slogging through their pool of anxiety the fox was only so happy to offer the solace of his stomach.  Much in the same mold politicians, big business, entertainers and vested scientists have provided similar overtures enriching themselves alone.

The neo Malthusians promote population control, politicians like Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton laud geo-engineering and economic enders like the Kyoto Protocol.  Al Gore and Goldmann Sachs conjure up cloud speculation a.k.a. Cap and Trade to redirect the wealth of the planet into their own coffers.  Technocrats play king within suffocating bureaucracies like the EPA and global governance is never far behind as is evidenced by the UN’s infamous Agenda 21.  Don’t know what these are?  Look them up.

The Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming’s ultimate goal is not to convince us that carbon is bad, but that humans are destroying the ecosystem.  It is in this altruistic vein that they are in many ways correct and therefore justified in their zealotry.  Moreover, this is where those of us whom are awake might win them over.

The rise of real environmentalism begins with shifting the debate from boogey men to legitimate concerns.  Burning hydrocarbons is not doubt a dirty business however as the catalytic converter and clean coal plants have attested, mankind has the ability to progress beyond initial crude technologies including internal combustion, we should allow it to continue.  

Because of the massive time and effort spent on the mirage of global warming we have stunted the growth of other environmental debates like mercury accumulation, genetically modified foods, geo-engineering, nuclear fallout, BPA awareness, soil depletion, and sodium fluoride.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it seems like we may at least be closer to checking off one more.

Newt is Right, Time to Shoot The Moon!

 

            Newt Gingrich’s bold new idea, recently revealed at a stump speech in Florida, of seeding the Moon with American astro-colonists is actually not all that crazy.  What is crazy is asking taxpayers to continue to spearhead space exploration for another 53 years; on this point he is as usual – wrong.

In last night’s Jacksonville debate, former Governor Mitt Romney seemed to agree, I know Ron Paul does.  Romney, however, merely saw a golden opportunity to mock Newt for his outlandish idea and to weigh in on it as a former businessman:

“If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I’d say: ‘You’re fired!’” Romney boasted.

Only one problem, there are a lot of businessmen whom disagree with the former Bain Capital CEO.  Evidently Romney doesn’t know mitt about interstellar business.

Sir Walter Branson founder of Virgin galactic has kind of a knack for creating value and he sees a lot of it in space.  For example, Branson just completed the world’s first international spaceport in New Mexico and will soon shuttle wealthy space enthusiasts into low earth orbit. 

Virgin Galactic isn’t the only celestial startup, Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nevada aims to create orbiting luxury hotels and SpaceX has developed one of the first operational private space capsules called the Dragon.  For a surprising list of private space companies and their ideas for the future look, here.

            Newt’s reason for bringing up a moon base makes a lot of sense.  Evidently Florida’s Space Coast, a community heavily reliant on high tech spending, is hurting more than the rest of the country, treading water at 12% unemployment.  While I’m not necessarily a fan of some of Planet Newt’s ideas namely his love affair with geoengineering, what he refers to as “cheap” market-based approaches to anthropogenic climate change, he might be getting warm on this one.

            It is time to emancipate the U.S. from the U.N. “Space Treaty” we signed in 1967 in the midst of the Cold War and explore the final frontier!  Why can’t start colonizing the moon under a “northwest ordinance” and reignite the idea of manifest destiny?  Why can’t the moon be our 51^st state?  Are we to extend the same concept to the entire cosmos?  Do we have to become One World before we step off this rock?  If we wait there is a lot to lose.

            Gingrich wrote a pretty straightforward book a few years back: Drill Here, Drill Now.  In that vein Newt is for once consistent, a Moon base would be a colossal job creator.  NASA, however, probably shouldn’t build it even though they’re in talks with Russia for a joint venture to do so.  If Florida’s Space Coast want’s jobs they’ll find it in companies like Shackelton Energy Co. which seeks to extricate fuels like plutonium-238 and helium-3 by transforming the moon into a interstellar gas station.  Gingrich should write another book after he loses the election: Drill There, Drill Soon.

            Barack Obama deserves some kudos too.  Although Obama receives his due ration of ridicule I would like to thank him for ending the space shuttle program as it was because he highlighted for Americans the fact we don’t need government to be inventive, curious, or passionate when it comes to space travel.  When everyone was afraid we’d be hitch hiking on Russian and Chinese ships I said Goodbye NASA, Hello Space Age.  Finally the monkey is off our back.  Private companies might not be in it “For the Benefit of All” as goes the NASA motto, but their work will benefit all.

22 Ways The MIC is an Entitlement Program

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

BEFORE YOU READ: Realize how big this building is.

The Military Industrial Complex in the News

Last Friday the Associated Press released this video about East Orange, New Jersey.  Previously crime-ridden, suffering from gang violence and urban blight, East Orange recently became proving grounds for high tech pre-crime technology, courtesy of the federal government. 

From nearly a mile away and controlled remotely from the comfort of either a surveillance station or a squad car a bright red beam of light fixed above a video camera can instantly bathe anyone suspected of possible criminal activity.  Aaron Dykes of InfoWars.com breaks it down.  While this is an astonishing development it is unfortunately a typical domestic attendant of our national security posture. 

Last September while covering a debate between libertarians and neo-conservatives I highlighted one of the most glaring inconsistencies within conservative dogma.  While on one hand, with regard to social welfare, conservatives spit incendiary rhetoric at nearly every encroachment by the federal government; on the other, in foreign policy they applaud almost identical invasions (pun intended). 

Why is there is no cry from so called conservatives for restraint when our National Security Budget for fiscal year 2012 is estimated at $1.2 trillion, $185 billion of which is in interest payments alone?  It is because Eisenhower’s infamous Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is not dissimilar to its sprawling domestic cousins – a burdensome and ineffectual entitlement program with teeth.  The MIC provides an entitlement in four ways, from September’s article:

“…First to those presidents [and politicians] whom wield its power for political gain either through victory or diversion, second to those military and intelligence commanders [and bureaucrats] whom direct massive swaths of tax payer dollars to influence world affairs, third to a high tech industry addicted to generous government injections and [fourth] to foreign entities whom ‘invite’ our intervention and therefore defense subsidization in order to accomplish what they cannot [or will not] on their own.”

By no means is this list exhaustive.  As John Stossel recently points out on his Fox News program the noble foreign policy goals, which our Dear Leaders burden themselves with know no bounds.

            The American public wants a lot from their military and considering they pay $1.2 trillion per annum, a lot is to be expected.  But as we have seen in the case of East Orange, local law enforcement has become militarized and it isn’t the first time pre-crime technology has been in the news.  Pre-crime software has been used in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. to route future criminals for months!

Militarization of Law Enforcement

Much of these developments fall under what I term industrial blowback, the unintended allocation and consequences of our military’s equipment and or expertise.  For example, a local New York CBS News affiliate just days ago reported the NYPD experimenting with drones over the city.  It might seem reasonable at first; New York City after all is one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.  The problem is, drones are being used in rural areas as well and not just to protect the border. 

Last December a North Dakota family was arrested with the help of a Predator drone for ‘stealing six cows’, which evidently kept wandering onto their land; pretty expensive toy for such a remote area.  These aren’t isolated incidences, there are scores of other examples of our military’s tools being used at home namely a field-tested surveillance blimp previously designed to help troops in Iraq conduct door-to-door raids.  If you’re a resident Ogden, Utah you might have already seen this little beauty flying over your Sunday BBQ.

The fifth entitlement recipient is obviously local law enforcement and like any welfare queen it is quickly becoming addicted to government largesse.  Faced with addiction the best thing to do now is: Step One, Admit There’s a Problem.  Unfortunately, as is most often the case, intervention is all that is left.  In many ways this explains the rise in the protest movement and protest candidates like Ron Paul.  However, while the protester may have been Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and Ron Paul is more popular than ever our national security infrastructure is still metastasizing, as there has been no real anti-war (or its anti-police state ancillary) movement since the election of Barack Obama exposed it as largely anti-Bush.

Where have they gone and why?  Obama has yet to come through on closing Guantanamo Bay, we are still mired in Afghanistan after 10 years, still involved in regime change and the Transportation Security Administration is still busy reaching in our pants and they have left the airports too.  Toting their backscatter x-rays among other things onto American highways, beta testing their V.I.P.E.R. teams, testing their F.A.S.T. technology at large public events and still flouting the Constitution, just ask Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).  On Monday TSA agents detained him on his way to the Senate in brazen violation of not only the 4^th Amendment, but also his privilege as a Senator from arrest before a vote in Congress.

    Sen. Paul may be awake and speaking out against the growth in our police state, but it has been evident watching the endless GOP debates that mainline conservatives weren’t influenced by the Washington Post’s two-year investigation exposing Top Secret America.  This amazing series details how politicized and privatized our national security infrastructure has become. 

Since 9/11, 854, 000 people now hold top-secret security clearances, 33 building complexes have been built for top-secret work, the equivalent of almost 3 Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings – nearly 17 million square feet!  The most shocking statistic testifies to an inherent conflict of interest.  Apparently over 265,000 private contractors retain top-secret clearances; our government has effectively incentivized creating enemies!  But do they actually create real life straw men?  There is evidence.  Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News exposed the FBI for as much in this video, a must see.           

            Still not convinced ex administrators like Homeland Security’s Michael Chertoff are raking in millions after building up their own entitlement nest egg and slipping into the private sector to reap the rewards?  Below, I expand on John Stossel’s list and show how foreign policy hawks turn into central planners right before your eyes.  According to Stossel: “People Want The Military To…”

·      6) Keep Oil Cheep – As I have argued before oil may in fact be abiotic, in other words it is not a fossil fuel and in fact renewable.  This would clearly undermine the Peak Oil theory, but that’s an argument for another day.  However, as OilPrice.com recently covered, America has the largest oil and gas reserves on the planet!  Instead of fighting in the Middle East “conservatives”, libertarians and independents should fight job-killing pseudo-environmentalists here at home.  While cheap oil is what Americans want invading armies merely create more instability and therefore higher prices.  The entitlement – not only the high gas prices and record profits for oil companies, but establishing a false scarcity providing the environment for green energy subsidies to flourish whether they are justified or not.  Peak Oil theory sure makes for strange bedfellows…

·      7) Contain China – The Defense Department really hasn’t done a good job of this at all.  Take Afghanistan for example.  Evidently it not only harbors terrorists, but nearly $1 trillion in precious metals too.  Unfortunately we lost the opportunity to develop Afghanistan’s biggest copper deposit to, you guessed it, China.  I guess our troops are meant to scurry around the country trying to win hearts, not mines.  Next door, the Pakistani government asked China to build the Gwadar deep-sea port, potentially giving China broader access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.  If that wasn’t all, Africa is opening up to the China too.  The Seychelles is the newest country to court China for a military base and this time it’s right in the backyard of a not-so-secret U.S. drone headquarters.  Want more examples?  I’m sure you can find them on your own, HINT: Brazilian oil.  The entitlement is obvious – foreign defense subsidies.  Evidently it’s a buyers market with two super powers quietly competing.

·      8) Chase Terrorists – We’ve done that for over 10 years, but evidently we’re now in the business of helping them – wait what?  CLUE: Who were Libya’s rebels?  We also kill U.S. citizens whom are accused of aiding terrorists, as was the case in Yemen when Anwar Al-Awlaki and his teenage son were eliminated by a CIA drone.  If that was a touchy subject the NDAA bill made it ok to arrest U.S. citizens without trial.  Appalled?  Don’t worry the new Expatriation Act will revoke U.S. citizenship if you’re deemed a menace.  What!?  I thought I read somewhere all men were created equal and with certain unalienable rights?  Maybe terrorists aren’t human then, that must be it.  The entitlement – perpetuating fear, a war that by definition can never end and expanding Executive power.

·      9) Train Foreign Militaries to Chase Terrorists – Danger Room, Wired.com’s national security blog, just reported we have new clandestine commando team operating near Iran, known as Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council, JSOTF-GCC for short.  They are responsible for training all of our allies in the Middle East and even Blackwater’s newest guise is still winning big contracts. To understand a little more about our peace president’s Secret Wars here is the Daily Beast.  The entitlement – more foreign defense subsidy, reliance on the private/public intelligence apparatus, private contractors, and equipment manufacturers.

·      10) Protect Sea Lanes – Evidently we do more than that.  Our Coast Guard has been responsible for not only our shores, but Iranian shores as well.  They recently rescued 6 Iranians 50 miles southeast of the Iraqi port city of Umm Qaser.  I thought they were called the U.S. Coast Guard not the U.N. Coast Guard.  The entitlement – Iranians can spend a little more on domestic concerns rather than their own coast guarding capabilities with the U.S. on the ready.

·      11) Stop Genocide – This is the most compelling argument for intervention, I know it tugs at my heart, but as was the case in East Timor and Darfur unless you have resources crucial to American interests you’re most likely SOL.  The entitlement – public relations i.e. “The Global Force for Good.”

·      12) Protect European, East Asian, and Middle East States from Aggression – Don’t they have their own militaries?  Also when it comes to rich countries like Australia, Japan, Germany and South Korea why can’t they begin to take care of themselves?  The entitlement – a generous tax break for their economies at the expense of the U.S.

·      13) Humanitarian Missions – As I mention above the latest “humanitarian mission” in Libya put into place a dubious regime.  The entitlement – you don’t have to have legitimate broad appeal to start a revolution just the right connections.

·      14) Respond to Natural Disasters – We responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and to the 2010 Haitian earthquake, which killed thousands and while these efforts are praiseworthy where is the mandate?  It isn’t found in the Constitution and the American people are rarely asked to vote on it.  Our charity is undeniable in this country; there are many ways of aiding needy foreign nations without involving our military.  In the end its our money and our governments should be planning and saving for a rainy day of our own.  The entitlement – disaster relief, in other words, national disaster insurance package courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

·      15) Secure the Internet – The ultra secret National Security Agency is completing construction of 1.5 million square foot NSA West officially known as the Cybersecurity Data Center in Utah.  Regarded by Sen. Orin Hatch as the largest defense construction effort in recent memory.  The entitlement – brand new battlefields and weapons a la stuxnet!

·      16) Police the Mexican Border – American’s may want the military to do this, but this is one of the legitimate activities the military is not engaged in.

·      17) Transform Failed States into Democracies – Democratizing states are notorious for being violent.  In the end effective democracy is more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.  We’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan for years and we haven’t come close to achieving the results American’s would consider acceptable.  The aforementioned nations are not healthy, peaceful or friendly.  The entitlement – public relations, “making the world safe for democracy.”

A few Stossel didn’t mention in closing:

·      18) Opening Markets – We opened the biggest market on Earth not with a missile, but with a ping-pong ball.  Richard Nixon’s open door policy was one of his forgotten triumphs.  When we have used military force things generally get a little dicey: 1854 Mathew C. Perry forces Japan to trade with the U.S.  Touched by power politics by 1904 Japan turns imperialistic and expands its holdings into Russia, China, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The 1953 CIA backed Iranian coup d’ etat results in the Iranian Islamic Revolution.  The 2003 Iraq invasion results in an Iranian Super-state.  The entitlement – more problems to fix.

·      19) Policy Leverage – A recent article on Essential Intelligence covered the “crisis” brewing in the Strait of Hormuz, where most of the world’s oil now passes.  The dot connectors suspect that this may be in part a ploy to highlight the vulnerability of the strait and therefore muster support for an Arabian Oil Pipeline.  The entitlement – further subsidization of international corporations’ adventurism abroad ignoring the emancipating prospect of energy independence at home.

·      20) Support NGO Activity – The rise of non-governmental organizations has been met with both hope and skepticism.  Alleviating the burden of nation building, relief, intelligence gathering, etc. from governments saves money, but when these NGOs become guises for politians and their special interests they become a menace.  John McCain’s International Republican Institute had its hands all over Libya.  The entitlement – first dibs on contracts, information and influence in nation building.   

·      21) Direct Foreign Aid – Is the easiest and most obvious form of foreign welfare, most Americans are against it unless a small socialist ethnocracy is the recipient.

·      22) Drug War – Since the Vietnam era nearly every theatre of war has seen an increase in drug activity.  It unfortunately is a way of providing funding for covert operations, it provides future leverage against “fri-enemies” and is very often a backdoor through which to pass and garner information.  The entitlements are endless – off the books funding, information gathering, immunity, but most importantly it sustains deep state politics a world beyond the purview of our representatives in Congress.

Prepper, The New "er" - Deriding Survivalism

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Image Source: CreativeUncut.com - "Survivalist"

You have all heard it before, the disparaging “birther”, “truther”, “bagger”, and now added to this impressive mass media lexicon is “prepper.”  While it may not seem immediately pejorative and I doubt many who are in fact preparing for the worst lose any sleep over being called a readier than most i.e. smart, this MSM nomenclature is typical of a system which harbors some incredible disdain for individual planning.  In the end the fact that being a prepper is self-proclaimed is just icing on the cake for them.

            Reuters today gives their take on it.  Evidently they believe this “subculture” never used to be our culture, there was no mention that this is in fact a movement of rediscovery not something wildly new.  Jim Forsyth of Reuters never reminded his readers that not so long ago we were mostly agrarian and self reliant, that this was prudent and normal behavior. 

The most interesting angle Forsyth took was the beneighted comparison of individualist movements and Christian fundamentalism as he harkened back to the gullible Millerites of the 19^th Century whom followed Joseph Miller and his belief in the immenent 2^nd coming of Christ. 

Forsyth’s article was peppered with ecclesiastical language meant to tie preppers with Christian occultism.  Using language like: “guiding light of the prepper movement”, J.W. Rawles book was described as the “prepper’s Bible”, “Glenn Beck seems to preach prepper’s message”, he interviewed Cathy Gutierrez an expert on “end-times beliefs”, and eventually in a seemingly back handed defense claimed preppers are at least not setting a date for the collapse like Harold Camping the crazed radio preacher of recent comic infamy. 

There was an interesting omission in this piece as well, the topic of guns even after a series of record setting months in nationwide gun sales.  Moreover, Forsyth claims it is not necessarily that preppers are afraid of terrorism, societal collapse, or an environmental cataclysm, but that they are “worried about no government.”  Really? 

Most preppers that I have run into would probably put government as concern #1 just above the Golden Horde in a serious meltdown, hence their rural domiciles.  There is nothing that gives me the willies more than some do-gooder FEMA agent corralling me into a camp “for my own good”, but hey that might just be me.

            In the end those whom are self-reliant, prepared and sleeping well at night knowing their future is a little more secure no matter what may happen are hardly bothered by this type of drive by journalism, just ask GreeneWave.com’s Prepper Don, but the effect is to downplay the danger of collapse.  Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.  Forsyth gave no examples of times when humanity should have been prepared, but weren’t - so here you go:

Irish Famine (1740 – 1741) – Central planning for potatoes led to 1 million deaths

Taiping Rebellion, China (1852 – 1870) – 100 million deaths

Weimar Germany (1918 – 1919) – Hyperinflation gave rise to Nazi Germany

Soviet Famine (1932 – 1933) – 6 million deaths

          Granted these are associated with big government or monetary mismanagement so here are some Mother Nature signature disasters, nice list can be found here:

Chinese Floods (1931) – Estimates of nearly 2.5 million deaths

Tangshan Earthquake, China (1976) – Estimates as high as 800,000

Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) – Estimates as high as 310,000 deaths

Haitian Earthquake (2010) – Estimates as high as 316,000 deaths

          While much of these deaths were do to the immediate disaster many occurred through starvation and disease without access to needed supplies.  No list is complete without man-made disasters, which can poison populations and cripple local economies:

Deepwater Horizon oil spill, USA (2010) - $60 - $100 billion

Chernobyl, Ukrain (1986) –  €235 billion over 30 years

Three Mile Island, USA - $1 billion

Fukushima, Japan (2011) – Full magnitude of radiation and cost TBD

           In nearly all the aforementioned cases government was shown to be clearly inept and often to blame for policy decisions, timeliness of response, the lack of oversight, management of fallout and holding those responsible accountable.  Why try and malign people who are attempting to make sure they don't weigh too heavily on a government trying to help its citizens in a time of panic and disaster?  It would seem to me that we need to praise these individuals for taking a large burden off the state.  When the SHTF the best policy is the one you develop on your own.

Paul's Guerilla Grassroots Could Win Nevada & Latinos

You can buy this shirt at Atomic Flip for $29

The Guerilla Grassroots

It is no doubt to anyone that Ron Paul is running an unconventional campaign and it isn’t just his patented guerilla grassroots replete with money bombs and a legion of fervent Paulistas that raises eyebrows.  Paul has a unique and long-term caucus strategy focusing on proportional delegates, picking his fights carefully. 

His campaign is famous for relying on relatively decentralized even “rouge” and local efforts who distance themselves from even official Ron Paul campaign organs, as evidenced in South Carolina.  The Washington Examiner reported: “Charleston for Ron Paul prefers the official Paul campaign to stay unaffiliated.”

Many lauded the technical acumen of the Obama campaign for its utilization of social media and get out the vote efforts, but it pales in comparison to the self-starting nature of Ron Paul’s campaign.  For example, RonPaulCountry.com has a “Grassroots War Room” founded by volunteers out of New Jersey and it literally makes you feel as if you’re in a real time political bunker. 

Inundated with timetables for the next primary and information directing potential Paulites to where they are needed most.  It offers an impressive platform all the while reminding its members: “…Because saving the country should be fun”, yet another example of the privatization, technical prowess and devolution inherent to Paul’s unique brand of electoral politics.

While some in the mainstream media saw the Paul campaign backing off in South Carolina it could have also been as easily characterized as de facto delegation of campaign responsibility.  If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.  In the end Charleston for Ron Paul efforts were entirely volunteer, self-funded and self-directed – frugal. 

These examples of spontaneous organization couldn’t be more fitting for a man who has spent over 30 years educating the American public on the benefits of the invisible hand in the free market, a hand which evidently has its fingers all over Ron Paul’s campaign.

Looking Past South Carolina

            While South Carolina wasn’t a win for Ron Paul, the Gingrich win will sap strength from Romney and guarantee a longer primary season, moreover it will reduce the prospects of Rick Santorum climbing any higher than his Iowa zenith.  While Paul has sustained a significant blow in South Carolina, his campaign will undoubtedly continue to slog through this back loaded GOP marathon. 

As I have argued before Ron Paul’s plans to Win the West, a region more in line with his libertarian social platform is key to his success at forcing the GOP to assimilate much of his platform.  Even if Paul doesn’t win the nomination if he can accumulate enough delegates he might be able to impose a libertarian platform upon the eventual nominee.

            After South Carolina, while the nation has already started to become distracted by the Florida throw down and its boatload (no pun intended) of delegates, Ron Paul was the first to buy ad time in Nevada and Minnesota (site for his 2008 shadow convention).  Nevada political guru Jon Ralston confirmed my sentiments about the libertarian leaning Silver State, which may deliver Ron Paul a needed victory.  According to Ralston: “Nevada is to some extent still a very libertarian state…That goes across party lines and Paul is officially a libertarian running in the Republican party.  There’s a lot of resonance there.”

The Hispanic Vote

            Time’s blog Swampland mentioned that much of Ron Paul’s appeal to Hispanics which makes up 26% of Nevada’s population, nearly 34% in California, 27% in Arizona will theoretically play into Paul’s favor.  While Ron Paul supports English as the official language of the Federal Government, building a boarder fence, minutemen volunteerism, ending or better put clarifying the 14^th Amendment’s controversial birthright citizenship provision, and rejecting amnesty he is overall pro immigration free from federal subsidy through food stamps, social security, hospital mandates and free education.

            The disparate affects on Latinos on both sides of the borders who are caught in the middle of the War on Drugs should prove to play in the West as well.  Recently, it was found the US-Mexico border region was deadlier than war torn Afghanistan, the vast majority were cartel-sponsored murders.  There were even bizarre stories of gladiator games, which would select the strongest captor for suicide bombings in towns controlled by rival cartels. 

Stateside, Latinos are four times likely to be incarcerated than whites according to the Department of Justice, talk about "resonance".  Both Romney and Gingrich scoff at the prospect of reevaluating drug laws, they would rather demagogue the issue than solve it.  Hispanics evidently agree with some of this as 51% view Paul in a favorable light compared to 25% for Romney.

The fact the West Coast as well as upcoming Minnesota leans left bodes well for Dr. Paul as he is often credited for pulling left of center issue voters into his coalition of civil libertarians.  West Coast independents whom gravitate toward these same social values will find Paul’s brand much more appealing than those of Gingrich and Romney whom are attempting to desperately evince social conservative metal.

I Heart the Do-Nothing Congress

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Source: Blogs.E-Rockford.com

           Yesterday Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times penned Congress logs most futile legislative year on record in which he lambasts the 112^th Congress for not doing much of anything.   Looking at six specific yardsticks: time spent in session, number of bills passed, number of floor votes each chamber took, number of pages amassed in the Congressional Record, number of conference reports, and finally number of bills signed into law by the president Dinan surmised the 112^th to be a next to useless exercise in democracy.

            Considering the neck braking pace of legislative activity achieved under the Democratic 111^th Congress before the 2010 Republican landslide I’d say our country has been through enough.  Do we have such a short memory?  Moreover, isn’t there a missing story here?  Who still believes Congress passes most of our laws?

            The Washington Times may have done their due diligence with regard to the Congressional Record, however, they missed the glut of Government decrees found in the Federal Register.  This tedious tome of over 200 volumes is the official law of the land and records not only laws passed by Congress, but all executive orders and regulation passed by the horde of administrative agencies whom enjoy freedom from the deliberative process, public scrutiny and political logjam which impedes Congressional activity.  It is this administrative law, which comprises most of the law in our country not those passed by Congress.

            The Federal Register for example in a 12-month period, which ended in March of 2006 contained a breathtaking 77,537 pages including laws passed from over 319 independent and executive agencies!  Barack Obama after the passage of ObamaCare tentatively created 159 new bureaucratic bodies ostensibly to encourage efficiency and cost effectiveness in the new health care system.  While it most assuredly with fail in this endeavor it will be able to pass laws as most other agencies do with little impunity.

            The late libertarian economist William Niskanen, eulogized here, was famous for coming out and celebrating the “Case for Divided Government” and it is the 112^th Congress, which proves his point.  One-party governments of both political persuasions spend three times as fast, per his calculations.  We should be thankful for the legislative breather, considering the national anxiety caused by the 111^th Congresses who wants a Do-Too-Much Congress again?

Iraq the Iranian Super-state & The Afghan Stalemate

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

What are we doing?

            Barack Obama having failed to convince the Iraqi government to keep U.S. forces in Iraq pulled the majority of our troops out by Christmas of 2011, but he managed a slim political victory by feigning to keep a popular campaign promise.   Now that our troops have left its obvious what our blood and treasure have purchased – an Iranian Super-state.

            Iran has been able to inject its proxies and influence at all levels of the Iraqi government.  Adding insult to injury recent reports indicate Iran with be strengthening its military ties with Iraq as well.  It is no wonder why Rick Perry in the last debate swore he’d reintroduce American forces immediately.  While its obvious Perry understands what is happening he evidently forgets how we arrived at this point.

            George W. Bush was fond of saying history would be his judge, but I doubt he thought it would judge him so soon.  His ousting of Sunni Sadaam Hussein merely allowed the resurgence of Shia Iraq and therefore the regional realignment in favor of Iran.  What began as a search for WMDs, transformed to building a strong and stable Iraq has all, but resulted in an open alliance with Iran.  All George W. Bush will be remembered for besides abject failure will be reopening Iraqi oil, nationalized since 1973, to private exploration and exploitation – even that is a tenuous accomplishment.

            Barrack Obama’s copycat surge in Afgahnistan has similarly accomplished nothing.  A recent intelligence report surmises the situation in Afghanistan to have reached a stalemate.  The original task of denying Al’Qaeda safe haven was accomplished long ago and no interim goal aside from “winning the peace” was proffered in its place.  The Taliban evidently is the lesser of two evils – occupation or indigenous subjugation; the Afghan people evidently prefer the latter.

             NATO has botched the complicated relationship with Pakistan so much so that it looks as if Pakistan might be seeking security relationships elsewhere namely, China.  Afghanistan meanwhile is mired in corruption as was evidenced by the murder of President Hamid Karzai’s drug running brother and in light of this the Taliban is being viewed in an ironically positive light.  Alas this is the game we chose to enter.

            The War in Afghanistan is the longest in U.S. history and its time we asked the Pentagon, our President and ourselves what we have accomplished.  In light of yet another Abu Ghraib style PR blunder this time at the hands of U.S. Marines, it is hard to see any definitive success after 10 years of fighting.  Osama Bin Laden is dead, we’ve spent trillions its time to come home.