Opening:

• Was just visited by Henri Makembe. Told me they would be providing for interview with people but I’d have to keep it friendly. “If we make them mad then they won’t want to give any of the other bloggers time.” So… they don’t want me to ask serious questions. What a surprise.
• Have quoted Winston Churchill, Mother Teressa, Mahatma Gandhi.
• They show all these examples of service yet they all appear to be real voluntarism, ie no government involvement.
• “We are not here as Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, socialists or Green party members. We are here as Americans.” I appreciate the shout out but I’m here as a libertarian.
• “We are here today because of Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” Too bad they don’t wish to abide by the ideas contained in those documents.
• “Politicians get a bad wrap. Some deservingly. But there are all kinds of politicians who help America.”
• Being a citizen of the United States is the highest reward.
• If you googled “giving back” you’d likely find “Mike Bloomberg.”
• Bloomberg: New York City’s government school system improvement is an example for the rest of the nation.
• New York City is the city of service because William James who wrote The Moral Equivalent of War (intro by Jon Roland) advocating national service was born here.
• “We are the beneficiaries of those who give their lives to defend us.” Defending from the Koreans? The Vietnamese? The Iraqis? The Pakistanis? The Iranians?
• Bloomberg babbles on about global warming, “We are polluting the air we breath.” Yes… by breathing.
• “Service should be asked of everyone and should be open to everyone. So we are creating new programs.”
• “Democracy and capitalism hasn’t helped everyone…”
• George Bush: Asks everyone to spend two years or 4k hours helping out in a lifetime.
• Laura Bush: “People have more opportunities to volunteer through government programs.” Being incentivized by tax payers money is not voluntarism.
• Rolling Ridge elementary school gives it’s kids service journals and have made ’service’ party of the curriculum.
• “Children who learn the importance of service early are more likely to volunteer later in life.” Gotta indoctrinate them young.
• The program has moved on to personal stories from ‘volunteers.’ One from City Year, Civilian Conservation Corp, AmeriCorps.
• Admiral Michael Mullen: “the soldiers in Iraq are protecting our democracy at home. They are there because of what happened on 9/11.” I thought Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. How is it that our invasion of Iraq is protecting us?
• “There is no greater reward than working for something greater than yourself.”
• “Keep singing (God Bless America), keep waving (flags), and keep serving!” Yay nationalism/fascism!
• Obama, McCain, Dodd, Clinton have said they will cosponsor the Serve America Act from Kennedy and Hatch.
• The language used always refers to “the two candidates for the oval office.”
• Senator Hatch: “We want to help children who want to serve.”
• “Our efforts will start early in our classrooms.”
• “Service learning has shown to keep kids interested in school. So we are going to offer more incentives.”
• 61 million Americans volunteer without government incentives.
• “We will invest into a volunteer fund matched dollar for dollar from the private sector.”
• Want to create funds to help non-profit entrepreneurs.
• Offer older people “education rewards” to give to their children and grandchildren to pay for school.

Read More…

The following is a statement presented Wednesday, September 10, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. It was presented to the media by Rep. Ron Paul, former Republican presidential candidate, joined by Cynthia McKinney, Green Party presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party presidential candidate, and Ralph Nader, Independent presidential candidate. At a later press conference, Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, said he also agreed with the statement (see posting below).

We Agree

Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we reignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders.

The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation.

The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds.

I’ve been wanting 3rd parties to join up on common threads for years. This is a good start. I just hope they continue to work together and keep these issues raised.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

It’s long been my contention that if the demonrats would just jettison the relatively small elitist wing of their party–the condescending limousine liberals, the middle-America and normalcy-hating “urbane” and cosmpolitan condescending types–and just have a mildly populist, redistributionist, soft-socialist but culturally conservative platform, they could clean house and recapture all the inexplicably Republican Joe Sixpack types who are their natural constituency (but who are alienated by Barbra Streisand’s screeching). (See my How the Democrats Could Win.) But their stupidity knows no bounds. Why they need to anchor their image to the vapid Hollywood and libertine types is beyond me. Apparently abortion is all that matters to them.

Their inexplicable self-destructive behavior is on fully display in their reaction to the Sarah Palin VP nomination. A few choice quotes and examples below:

As I noted here, after Hillary Clinton’s speech during the Democrat convention, Susan Estrich admitted that because of female demonrat disappointment over Hillary’s loss to Obama, if McCain just picks a woman VP, “it’s Cha-Ching” (i.e., he’ll rack up many female votes that otherwise could have gone to Obama). So, she said, “As a democrat, I hope McCain doesn’t pick a woman VP.” So she wanted McCain to discriminate against women. Nice.

In this post on HuffPo, David Sirota explains why Palin “is a pretty smart choice”:

1. Putting a woman on the ticket is McCain’s best hope to peel off some disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters

2. Palin comes from an energy state, and specifically, an oil and gas state. With Democrats’ pathetically (yet predictably) tepid behavior on the drilling issue, the GOP senses an opportunity to exploit it, and you can bet Palin will be making the drilling case, with first-person narratives and anecdotes.

3. It will be difficult — though not impossible — for the Obama campaign to make an experience argument against Palin. Even though Palin is probably the most inexperienced candidate for vice president in contemporary American history, the Republicans have spent months attacking Obama’s supposed lack of experience. So when gnats like Rahm Emanuel issue silly, over-the-top press releases about Palin’s career, they re-open an experience debate that John McCain probably wants to have with Obama.

4. As the Nation’s Chris Hayes reports, Palin is a die-hard right-winger who could help McCain solidify the Republican base.

Sirota fails to mention, however, another important factor: the condescending the way the left is sure to react–is already reacting–belittling normalcy, middle class, “beauty queens,” “small” states is also going to hurt them.

A good example of liberal condescension (and hypocritically sexist, at that) from Jane Smiley: “If the red phone rings in the middle of the night and she’s breastfeeding, will she answer it?” The contempt for normal America–the bizarre, sneering sexism–just oozes out of this liberal vitriol, doesn’t it? Think middle America won’t pick on up on this? Why vote for those who feel they are superior to you and who relegate normalcy to peon status?

And another, by “Michael Seitzman”:”She’s never actually used the word Shiite in a sentence before. She’s never had to. She’s never given any thought whatsoever to nuclear proliferation. She’s never had to. She’s never thought about Israel, Russia, Korea, or Iran. She’s never even thought about Mexico.”

How in the world does he know? He’s implying that unless you are a federal politician, or some savvy DC Denizen, you haven’t “thought” about …. Russia, Korea, etc. Hell, even mere state governors are peons and not worthy to sit at the table with the benighted Beltwaytarians–if you are only governor of “small state”, that is. Gee, I wonder what citizens of, say, most states outside Yankeeland, California, and DC think about that snub? These condescending attacks on Palin, small-town america, “small” states, and normalism are just amazing to behold.

And what’s that say about, say, housewives and career women? I guess they’ve never “thought about” these weighty matters either? I guess they’re too busy breastfeeding or running in beauty pageants or merely being mayors of “small” towns.

Hell, Alaska is even more backward and lacking of culture and interesting people than Auburn, Alabama. And forget about liberals for a sec–how could the Kochtopus support this ticket? Jesus. Listen to these cackling hypocrites. Is dissing Alaska as some hick backwater supposed to help them with voters?

Seitzman continues: “There is not a fireball’s chance in Alaska that Sarah Palin could make that argument in a debate with Joe Biden. She lacks the gravitas, she lacks the knowledge, she lacks the experience. If she were a news anchor we’d say she reeks of local.”

Read that again: She REEKS OF LOCAL? Oh my God, if only I were a Republican so I could enjoy this self-immolation. These clueless condescending nabobs are going to just bury themselves, the condescending, these “cosmopolitan”, “urbane,” “hip” morons!

As a friend noted, “I must admit I found the statement about “mayor of a town of 9,000″ particularly stupid. If somebody could pull out a map for me and show me where, precisely, they intend to pick up electoral votes with such a statement, I would be thrilled. In fact, if ever a party were determined from the outset to find a way to win the popular vote and lose the electoral college, it would look an awful lot like what the D’s are up to these days. Of course, maybe they are trying to lose both - here I had thought that the popular vote was a foregone conclusion, but Obama, et al. are trying to lose even that.”

Finally, see this collection of demonrat comments on Palin. It’s just incredible. As a friend of mine might say, LOL Democrats!

Update: S.M. Oliva notes in a post on the Mises blog: “… it seems to me that “experience” is more about the possession of certain credentials then time spent furthering the evils of the state. Mr. Obama may not have any particular legislative achievements or “executive” experience, but he does possess an undergraduate degree from Columbia and a law degree from Harvard. Mrs. Palin, in contrast, has only an undergraduate degree from the University of Idaho - her fourth stop in an extended college career - financed partially through her winnings as a beauty pageant contestant. She is, as one Democrat told me yesterday, one step removed from white trash.”

Some people want to know how the Democrats could loose this election? This is how. Sarah Palin deserves to be criticized. She appeared to be a relatively decent, more traditional, small government Republican. Her husband and oldest son aren’t registered to a party and she talked highly of Ron Paul. Her selling of her soul to the neocons however has completely tainted her. Or at least it should. But this limousine liberal, high and mighty, attitude will likely not fly with the average voter. Obama already has this aura of elitism. This ’she’s a local’, ‘one step removed from white trash’ will just push blue dog democrats and centralists to McCain, IMO.

http://www.nytimes.com/…

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Occasionally I’ll discover a political book at a used book store. My latest find is this book from 1962 by William J. Lederer.

William, or Billy as I’ve come to call him, wrote a book complaining about some major government blunders and the ignorance of US citizens during the cold war. What follows are some brief descriptions of these problems:

1. We gave money to the wrong people in Laos and now the people of Laos hate us and the communists are well liked by the locals.
2. We gave money to the wrong people in Thailand and it’s not being used correctly.
3. We give money to Chaing Kai-shek and his nationalist army in Formosa, but China is still red and now Formosa doesn’t like us.
4. We supported Syngman Rhee in Korea and now the Koreans hate us.
5. Foreign students come to this country and learn nothing about our culture because we don’t invite them into our homes. To top that off foreign students are usually sons and daughters of diplomats, not the common people we should be trying to reach.

Billy then goes on to name the culprits. He points out failings of the government, the press and US citizens. Finally in the last few pages he offers some solutions:

1. Reinstate the draft and force young people to serve in a diplomacy force. They will learn foreign languages and work in foreign countries. As a bonus they get to see the world.
2. Revamp the foreign student program so the government pays to have foreign, working class teenagers educated in the US.
3. Educate US citizens by having them become pen-pals with people from other nations.
4. Try to minimize the use of foreigners in government.
5. Begin a service by which common citizens can send telegrams to the president at a reduced rate.

This book has a good smattering of communist bashing, including repeated use of the term pinko, which brought a smile to my face. It also has some great quotes like:

Every man on the street and woman in the kitchen…

That being said, it seems fairly radical for it’s time period. I think if you could remove some of the government force used to implement these programs they aren’t all terrible ideas. Interestingly enough he does mention the peace corps once in the book, but doesn’t go into detail about how they wage peace.

It was really pathetic. Paul and Huckabee were completely marginalized. Cooper was a complete jackass to Paul, cutting him off at least thrice and lying that he would give Paul and Huckabee more time. You could see both men getting frustrated as they were continuously ignored and cut off. Paul got only one direct question and had less than 8 minutes of total speaking time. McCain looked like a pompus ass and I’ve been reading a lot of stuff online criticizing him on his behavior. He also incorrectly corrected Paul on Eisenhower running to get us out of Korea. I would have liked to see Paul give a better answer to the “Would Reagan endorse you?” question. It started good but the gold standard comment should have been thrown in earlier or bridged into more examples where Reagan and him agreed and he was endorsed prior.

This second video is only available online… so much for getting the message out because of demand.