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"NAIS [National Animal Identification System] means more government, more regulations, more fees, more federal spending, less privacy, and diminished property rights. It's exactly the kind of federal program every conservative, civil libertarian, animal lover, businessman, farmer, and rancher should oppose."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 05/29/06
"America's liabilities have more than doubled from some $20 trillion in 2000 to $46 trillion in 2005, according to the Government Accountability Office."
"The mortgage you didn't know you had" by Debra J. Saunders, 05/25/06
"More than a century after the Spanish-American War, phone companies have succeeded in getting rid of the tax created to pay for it."
Bloomberg News, 05/26/06
Karl Rove met with House Republican members this morning at the Capitol Hill Club as a follow-up to his meeting with them last week. After last week's meeting, a congressman told me that he and several others were "tired of Rove telling us what to do." It's about time these congressmen remember they are elected members of the U.S. House, not zombie puppets of the White House.
It's been standard operating procedure ever since W. moved into the Oval Office that nothing comes out of Congress unless it is first cleared by the folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, which explains why W. has never vetoed a bill. Why would you veto your own bills?
Kent Snyder
"Rove to address House GOP, again" The Hill, 05/24/06
Below are remarks that were made last night by Congressman John Duncan (Tenn.) on the House floor in support of Congressman Ron Paul's (Texas) amendment to stop the National Animal Identification System or NAIS. The amendment will be voted on tonight.
Mr. Speaker:
I rise in strong support today of the gentleman's amendment in opposition to the National Animal Identification System.
Two Tennessee legislators who also represent parts of my District, State Representative Frank Niceley and my own State Senator Tim Burchett, have introduced a bill to prohibit the use of state funds to implement this program in Tennessee.
As Rep. Niceley told the Knoxville News Sentinel, "I think this thing had more to do with the selling of chips than anything else."
He said: "I just get tired of businesses going to Washington and selling their business plan up there and getting rich off the public."
The people pushing this are international and national bureaucrats, who want more power and control, their academic supporters, and especially a very few agri-giant businesses.
Small and medium-sized farmers don't want it.
"Classified military spending has reached its highest level since 1988, near the end of the Cold War, a new independent analysis has found." Knight Ridder, 05/19/06
"GOP's family feud over spending" The Christian Science Monitor, 05/22/06
"A strike on Iran in coming months would create serious trouble for an American economy that is already struggling with high energy prices."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 05/22/06
The Hill newspaper reports on the goings-on among Republican House members; in particular those who don't follow orders from the leadership on the budget. 05/18/06
"Is the NSA's phone call database legal because the president says so?" by Jacob Sullum, 05/17/06
Big Agriculture and Big Government are pushing for a federal program to track every livestock animal in the nation using radio frequency identifiers (RFID) or microchips. This program is the National Animal Identification System of NAIS.
Congressman Ron Paul will offer an amendment to the 2007 agricultural appropriations bill (H.R. 5384) to stop NAIS. The U.S. House will consider that amendment next week. Urge your representative to support the Paul amendment to the agricultural appropriations bill to stop NAIS.
Kent Snyder
"Organization forms to fight NAIS" News 8 Austin, 05/17/06
"Big Brother Wants to Know if You Own Animals, According to Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance" 05/15/06
"Confidence in GOP is at a new low in poll" The Washington Post, 05/17/06
"Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants."
CBS News, 05/16/06
So, Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, tell us how you really feel about President Bush's gesture to send the National Guard to the southern frontier:
"Sending unarmed troops to assist the [U.S.] Border Patrol with logistics consisting of paper-pushing and vehicle maintenance is...[a] political scheme during an election year. President Bush's political maneuver will do nothing more than place career desk jockeys and support personnel in a very dangerous environment -- and will greatly anger the American people."
Anything else?
"We do not take lightly those who try to take us for fools."
Nation/Politics, Inside the Beltway, The Washington Times, 05/16/06
"Depending on the source, the numbers range widely - from about 7 million up to 20 million or more." The Christian Science Monitor, 05/16/06
"The consequences of a rapidly declining dollar are not fully understood by the American public. The long-term significance has not sunk in, but when it does there will be political hell to pay in Washington."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 05/15/06
"When the plan was being debated and voted on in Congress in late 2003, the cost was estimated to be about $395 billion over the next decade. But a more recent estimate of $724 billion nearly doubles that, troubling many fiscal conservatives."
"The ABCs of Medicare Part D" The Christian Science Monitor, 05/15/06
Col. Sam Gardiner (USAF, retired) spoke to members of Congressman Ron Paul's Liberty Caucus on Thursday, May 11th. Later that afternoon, Col. Gardiner spoke to a group of congressional staffers.
Col. Gardiner has taught military strategy and operations at the National War College, Air War College and Naval War College. He has been interviewed by the broadcast and print media numerous times. A copy of the five slides he presented to House members and staffers on Thursday, May 11th is linked below. The slides summarize a new paper Col. Gardiner is developing.
Kent Snyder
Soon, Summer or Fall: The US Military Option for Iran by Col. Sam Gardiner
Jonathan Emord will interview Kent Snyder today at 4:00 p.m. ET on Health, Law & Politics. Immigration will be the subject.
"In 2000, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) was given a ticket and a $25 fine after running over a child's foot with his car on the East Front plaza. He left the scene of the accident. The lawmaker said a Capitol Police officer 'waived him on' and he returned to his office."
The Hill, 05/12/06
News Alert from the Institute for Health Freedom
May 9, 2006
Support YOUR Opinions on National Health-Policy Reform by May 15!
A group* financed by YOUR TAX DOLLARS is collecting Americans' views about health reform -- including privacy -- and will submit a report/make recommendations to President Bush and Congress. The group needs your feedback by May 15 to be included in its preliminary recommendations.
Voice YOUR opinions by taking this poll (results will be shared with the President and Congress) and/or commenting in your own words.
Act NOW! Your comments are needed by May 15.
And be sure to tell others about this important opportunity to share their views.
*Note: "Citizens' Health Care Working Group was created by legislation sponsored by Senator Hatch and Senator Wyden in the Medicare Modernization Act. The Working Group is charged with engaging Americans across the country in a discussion on health care services, financing, and trade-offs before making recommendations to the President and Congress. Five committees (Finance, HELP, Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, Education and Workforce) will hold hearings on these recommendations. Visit www.citizenshealthcare.gov or contact Jessica Federer at 301-443-1521 for additional information."
"In the next several months, high-school seniors will begin the college-application process in earnest. Many will soon discover that having a 4.0 GPA, 1500 SATs, and a dazzling extracurricular list means less than having the property ethnicity. And being a U.S. citizen means nothing at all."
"An Illegal Advantage" by Peter Kirsanow, 05/10/06
If you thought Newt and Hillary made a cute couple when they teamed up to promote more government control over health care and attack medical privacy, then you'll love the dynamic duo of ex-HHS secretaries Tommy Thompson and Donna Shalala. Despite their partisan differences, both ex-secretaries agree that our medical records should be stored in a national database. They also praised Massachusetts' new government health care program. They also both support a federal tax on "unhealthy" foods.
It is not surprising to find Shalala endorsing the fax tax, but Thompson is suppose to be a conservative Republican who opposes this type of social engineering...unless compassionate conservatism is nothing more than Hillaryism dressed up in GOP garb.
Richard Wilkins
TCS Daily, 05/05/06
Who needs Congressmen when lobbyists write legislation? For example, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sneaked a provision preempting state liability laws to ensure vaccine manufacturers are not held responsible for any harm done by their products into the defense appropriations bill. He did so in the middle of the night.
A new report from Public Citizen reveals that vaccine-industry lobbyists essentially wrote the provision themselves. The Tennessean reports:
Vaccine industry officials helped shape legislation behind the scenes that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist secretly amended into a bill to shield them from lawsuits, according to e-mails obtained by a public advocacy group.
E-mails an documents written by a trade group for the vaccine-makers show the organization met privately with Frist's staff and the White House about measures that would give the industry the protection from lawsuits filed by people hurt by the vaccines.
The final language of the provision was exactly what the vaccine manufacturers requested in their e-mails and meetings.
How did the industry get such VIP treatment from Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert? Generous campaign contributions always help. But what was also helpful was the lobbying team that represented the vaccine manufacturers. That team included three former Frist staffers and Dennis Hastert's son, Joshua Hastert.
Frist and the lobbyists got away with this because they could put the provision into the defense appropriations bill shortly before the bill finalized and rushed to House floor for a vote. Most House members did not even realize that this controversial vaccine liability provision was added to the appropriations bill before they voted on it in the early morning just before leaving town for the Christmas break.
Congressman Ron Paul's proposed Sunlight Rule would ensure that members of Congress could not sneak provisions (many of which are controversial or favors for special interests) into legislation in the dead of night. The Sunlight Rule would also stop congressional leaders from ramming such monumental legislation, such as the PATRIOT ACT and the Medicare prescription drug bill, into law before most House members, and the public, had a reasonable chance study the legislation.
Source: Think Progress, May 8, 2006
Richard Wilkins
"The sooner we get out of Iraq and allow the Iraqis to solve their own problems the better. Soaring gasoline prices are one giant unintended consequence of the war, pure and simple."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 05/08/06
"The GOP may be richer overall, but the Democrats have the really big bucks. Though 32 of the 50 wealthiest members of Congress are Republicans, the top four are all Democrats, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. Leading the wealth brigade: Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), with $750 million, mostly from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Next is Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W. Va.), heir to the Standard Oil fortune and worth $200 million. Sen. Herb Kohl (D., Wis.), a former department-store owner, has $136 million. And Rep. Jane Harman (D., Calif.) has a net worth of $128 million, thanks in part to her husband, an electronics magnate. Rounding out the top five is Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), with $121 million. By the way, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R., Tenn.) is No. 13, with $14.2 million."
Parade, May 7, 2006, page 12
"The new GOP: Pricey and pointless" by Deroy Murdock
Further evidence that the Founding Generation thought warrantless searches were inherently unreasonable, oppressive, and contrary to liberty can be found in the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and in Virginia's proposed amendments to the Constitution of 1787. These documents speak for themselves in the face of the current "conservative" legal sophists who are trying to destroy our legacy of liberty.
Stewart Rhodes
"That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted." -- Virginia Bill of Rights, June 12, 1776
"Fourteenth, That every freeman has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches and siezures [sic] of his person, his papers and his property; all warrants, therefore, to search suspected places, or sieze [sic] any freeman, his papers or property, without information upon Oath (or affirmation of a person religiously scrupulous of taking an oath) of legal and sufficient cause, are grievous and oppressive; and all general Warrants to search suspected places, or to apprehend any suspected person, without specially naming or describing the place or person, are dangerous and ought not to be granted." -- Amendments Proposed by the Virginia Convention, June 27, 1788
Only 32 Republicans (including, of course, Ron Paul) and one Democrat voted against creating new federal penalties for "price gouging" by oil companies. Making it a crime to sell a product above the state-approved price is right out of the Bolshevik playbook. Lenin and Stalin would feel right at home in today's GOP.
Richard Wilkins
Related item: "Congress Tells FTC to Define Price Gouging" The Washington Post, 05/06/06
Dr. Lawrence Parks of the Foundation for Advancement of Monetary Education (FAME) was Congressman Ron Paul's guest at a Liberty Caucus luncheon meeting yesterday afternoon. Dr. Parks met with several members of the caucus and discussed the question: U.S. Dollar Collapse...Unthinkable or Inevitable? Afterwards, Dr. Parks discussed that question with a group of congressional staffers pictured here.
Dr. Parks distributed copies of his book What Does Mr. Greenspan Really Think? to both groups. His compelling message was not a happy one, but one that Americans should hear; especially middle-class Americans.
A copy of Dr. Parks' discussion points he used during his presentations is linked below.
Kent Snyder
"The activist group will pass through 12 US cities during a push for tighter US borders. Polls show most Americans support that."
Christian Science Monitor, 5/02/06
Senator Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) tries to derail the pork gravy train. CBS News, 5/04/06
"Hedge funds work to build K St clout" The Hill, 5/04/06
There is no better renunciation of the outrageous idea that our government may secretly spy on us or ransack our homes without a warrant than the fiery words of Founding Patriot James Otis who spoke against the NSA spying of his time; the Crown's use of similar searches without a showing of probable cause before a judge, known as writs of assistance or general warrants.
Take a few minutes to step back in time and read an account of one of the chief causes of our forefathers taking up arms against their own government in defense of inalienable rights, in the words of one of this nation's greatest patriots. And then resolve to do your utmost, even at risk of YOUR life, YOUR fortune, and YOUR sacred honor in defense of those same inalienable rights against our own King George.
Stewart Rhodes
James Otis before the Superior Court of Massachusetts, Feb. 24, 1761:
"It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law-book...a kind of power, the exercise of which in former periods of history cost one king of England his head and another his throne...one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege...officers may enter our houses when they please; we are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars, and everything in their way; and whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court can inquire. Bare suspicion without oath is sufficient."
The Hill reports that Rep. Martin Sabo (Minn.) doesn't trust his House colleagues to use the House gym late at night. Why? That in a moment.
First, House members who want to exercise should join the nearby Golds or Results gyms, instead of forcing the U.S. taxpayers to provide them with a private work-out facility that includes "three basketball half-courts, a golf driving net, a workout room with weightlifting and cardiovascular machines, a sauna, whirlpool machines, a swimming pool and a spacious locker room." (House members do pay $100 a year to use the gym; a simple gimmick of course.)
However, Rep. Ray LaHood (Illinois) says the present gym facilities aren't good enough. LaHood is "contemplating a significant expansion" of the gym, which of course will be paid by U.S. taxpayers.
So, there shouldn't be a House gym in the first place. But since there is, why doesn't Martin Sabo trust his House colleagues to use it late at night? He, and others, remember how that taxpayer-financed facility was used for more than playing basketball and swimming laps.
Kent Snyder
The Hill, 5/02/06
Bruce Bartlett, who lost his job when his criticism of Bush's Big Government ways angered his employer's funders, addresses the growing fear that Bush represents a disaster for conservatives and whether Bush can fairly be called a conservative. Bartlett sees resemblances between Bush and another "Big Government" Republicans who conservatives supported to their detriment.
Bartlett says, "With George W. Bush's popularity down to just 33 percent in the latest Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, liberals like Paul Krugman are starting to salivate at the possibility of bringing down not only the Republican Party, but conservative ideas, as well. Conservatives, too, are becoming concerned about the prospect, and some now are looking to distance themselves from the looming Republican crack-up.
"Those most concerned about this are conservatives old enough to remember when the conservative movement's attachment to the Republican Party was much more circumspect than it is today. They remember too well the viciousness of the Republican establishment's attacks on conservatives like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Although these men eventually became viewed as pillars of the party, it greeted them initially as wreckers.
"Older conservatives also remember Richard Nixon, with whom they made a fateful alliance in 1968, even though they knew he was never really one of them. But the imperative of getting Democrats out of the White House and his electability caused them to united behind him. In the end, Nixon proved a disaster for conservatives and the Republican Party, as well."
Bruce Bartlett quotes leading conservative thinker (and advisor to The Liberty Committee) Professor George W. Carey's criticism of Bush.
"Is a crack-up coming?" by Bruce Bartlett
Richard Wilkins
"Five facts about France's new immigration law" 5/02/06
Congressman Tom Tancredo (Colorado) asks, "What would a day without illegal aliens really be like?" 5/01/06
"A recent Hudson Institute study found that, last year, American citizens voluntarily contributed three times more to help people overseas than did the United States government."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 5/01/06
"Money Monitor: Dissecting Bernanke's Testimony" by Greg Weldon
Dean Glenn Hubbard sings "Every Breath You Take" to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (1979 photo). 