Peter Schiff for Senate

It is looking more and more like he will run. He set up an exploratory committee recently. View the website here.

Terrible Government Schools

Only 3.5% of Arizona high school kids can pass the US citizenship test according to a new study by the Goldwater Institute. This is compared to the 92.4% first-try pass rate by new immigrants. Those who support stealing our money in order to run public schools need to see what actually goes on there (hint: it's not learning). Then they need to watch John Stossel's "Still Stupid in America."

My solution? In order of the most urgent actions: 1) abolish teacher's union legislation at the State and Federal levels 2) abolish the Department of Education 3) abolish educational department bureaucracies at the State level 4) abolish public schools altogether or at least return the choice back to the local communities. These four steps would guarantee lower cost and higher quality schooling.

Scary Forecast from Gerald Celente

Are States Too Small To Secede?

A recent post by John Payne from the "The American Conservative" explains why the objection to secession based on States being too small is completely erroneous. In his July 3rd post, entitled "Celebrate Secession", Payne provides four reasons why secession right now is a good idea. On the size of our States, he writes,

Many of our states are as large as most other countries. There are more people in California than Canada; more in New York than Taiwan, Australia, or North Korea; more in Florida than the Netherlands; almost as many in Missouri as Ireland; and more in Texas than Austria, Switzerland, and Isreal combined. Furthermore, our state economies are even larger than our populations relative to the rest of the world. Check out this map to see what country the GDP of each state matches up with; it’s pretty mind boggling. New Jersey is on par with Russia; Nebraska with the Czech Republic; North Carolina with that supposed paragon of social democracy Sweden. The most common objection I hear to secession is that the states are too small to survive on their own, but that position has no basis in reality.

The map is rather interesting. Virginia is on par in economic size relative to Sweden. No doubt with 1/3 of our incomes back, our economy would be much larger than the socialist Swedes.

Happy Secession Day!

It is important to remember that today is a day to celebrate the secession of America's free and independent States from England. It is a day to celebrate freedom from oppression, to celebrate natural rights, and to celebrate individual liberty - these are the principles upon which America was founded. In contrast, the founders of this country would not want today to be celebrated by flag waving and worshipping of statism and militarism as many Americans will unfortunately be doing. As Robert Higgs writes this morning about the holiday,

"[L]oving America has nothing whatsoever to do with loving its governments and their actions. Moreover, everything about this country that truly warrants a free person's love is antithetical to the operations of its governments. The country worthy of our love most emphatically does not consist of its disgusting politicians or of its hired killers (soldiers) or of its petty tyrants acting as regulators, police, and other wielders of unwarranted – and all too often unchecked – coercive power over their fellows."

Also, Ron Paul has a message out about the holiday on the CFL site:

Only 26% of Massachusetts Voters Say State's Healthcare Reform is Successful

An interesting poll released by Rasmussen tells us that only 26% of Massachusetts voters and only 37% of Massachusetts liberals say the State's healthcare reform has been a success. The reform (basically universal healthcare) was enact in 2006 by Republican Governor Mitt Romney. Since then, healthcare costs have skyrocketed in Massachusetts, increasing by 42% with average cost 33% higher than the national average. To battle costs they are considering rationing. Meanwhile only 10% in Massachusetts say the enormous increase in costs have resulted in better quality.

Amazingly, Romney was on TV today bashing the Obama plan and touting what he did in Massachusetts to "get everyone insured" stating that his plan was a "free market" socialist healthcare plan. I guess he imagines that Obama has a socialist socialist healthcare plan which is a little bit too much socialism even for Romney. Thank you Republicans.

Nonintervention is a Conservative Tradition

Writes Ron Paul in a column from today's Washington Times:

Generations of conservatives followed the great advice of our Founding Fathers and pursued a restrained foreign policy that rebuffed entangling alliances and advised America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, not to "go abroad looking for dragons to slay."

Sen. Robert Taft, the stalwart of the Old Right, urged America to stay out of NATO. Dwight Eisenhower was elected on a platform promising to get us out of the conflict in Korea. Richard Nixon promised to end the war in Vietnam.

Republicans were highly critical of Bill Clinton for his adventurism in Somalia and Kosovo. As recently as 2000, George W. Bush campaigned on a "humbler" foreign policy and decried nation-building.

The Argument Against Foreign Intervention - NC Rep Walter Jones on His Transformation

North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones has joined sides with Ron Paul to become a vocal non-interventionist. He has voted against every piece of war-funding since he came to the realization several years ago that foreign intervention, such as our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are detrimental to average American and especially the young men and women in the military.

Not only do these operations cost billions, but they allow for an expansion of government - patriot act, homegrown terrorist prevention act, torture, secret prison camps, warrantless wire taps to name a few. In addition, foreign intervention creates what the CIA calls "blow back", which makes us less safe. The winners of wars and intervention are the politically well connected military industrial complex and big government. This occurs at the expense of the rest of us average Americans.

Listen to Walter Jones, formerly known for the "freedom fries", discuss his transformation from pro-war to anti-war with Iraq Veteran (now also non-interventionist and Congressional candidate from New Mexico) Adam Kokesh.

Why Support HR 1207? Ron Paul Explains, Bernanke Panics

The FED has already hired a former Enron lobbyist to combat HR 1207. Bernanke is now starting to use scare tactics as he explained recently,

My concern about the legislation is that if the GAO is auditing not only the operational aspects of the programs and the details of the programs but making judgments about our policy decisions would effectively be a takeover of policy by the Congress and a repudiation of the independence of the Federal Reserve would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the Dollar and our national economic situation.

So if we actually knew what Bernanke and the FED were up to, then the dollar would collapse? What is it that might be revealed by a simple audit to make this happen? I think it's likely that when we find out about where the trillions of dollars have gone and when we find out about the corrupt deals they make with foreign banks, that the American people will demand an end to the FED. That's what they are really scared of - they want to maintain their domination of the currency and the fractional reserve banking system, which feeds money to the politically well-connected at the expense of the rest of us.

Texas Secession

Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, was on Glenn Beck this week to discuss why secession is necessary. Miller seems to be very intelligent, which should help to give his cause some legitimacy in the public eye.

I especially liked Miller's reference to Judge Napolitano on why secession is a natural right. To add to that point, the War Between the States, did not decide the debate over secession. It only proved that the North had a better military than the South. They were the biggest bully on the block and Lincoln proved he was a tyrant willing to invade and slaughter his own country. Nothing regarding the moral or legal legitimacy of secession can be determined from war.

If somehow Texas actually does secede, I will be moving there immediately.