The RogueNation: Holiday Edition

It's been nearly 7 months since I last posted an entry here at The Roguenation. In  that time, the economic depression I've been harping about for the past 3 years has made its way to Main Street. People are feeling the effects of an economic correction that was long overdue. The bad news? I don't think we've hit rock bottom yet. It took Japan the whole decade of the 90's and zero percent interest rates to recover from the malinvestment and bubble creation that they went through in the 80's (does anyone remember growing up to stories about how the Japanese were going to buy all of Hawaii from us and what we didn't lose in WWII we were going to lose in the 80's? I think that was a Magnum PI episode).

Well, at least the central planners in Washington DC know that the worst possible thing we can do is start bailing out companies, whether it's banks, or the "Big 3", or any other private enterprise. Because if we do that, it will only prolong the pain and dig us a deeper hole for us to get out of. Oh wait.... aww crap.

More things I need to get off of my chest (Larry King style):

• Given the past 8 years, can't we say that "GOP" and "Democrat" mean the same thing? That is, big government statism with central planning douchebaggery from the bureacratic parasites in DC? I mean really, anyone who thinks W is a conservative (in the mold of say Reagan, Goldwater, or Taft) probably still thinks that the Village People, like Tom Cruise's character in "Top Gun" aren't gay. At least the Dems are out of the closet, so to speak, on their grand politburo designs...



• Speaking of gay (not that there is anything wrong that), I switched over from a PC laptop to one of the new aluminum macbooks from Apple. Three words: FAB U LOUS. I've used Windows XP for years, (on both my desktop and laptops) and knowing what I know now, I probably should have switched years ago...it's easy to use, intuitive, plus I can run XP on the macbook (though I haven't had to yet)...oh yeah, I got an iphone for my personal cel and it runs circles around the blackberries that we got for company use...
  


• Here's a link to a SFW gallery of one of my favorite supermodels: Allesandra Ambrosio
  


• I like to think of it as a palate cleanser after that previous paragraph...
  
  
• Oh yeah, I'm in the market for a gas guzzling full size SUV, I was leaning toward the Chevy Tahoe (for business purposes). I can't carry all of the guns I'm going to start collecting in my Volvo (Nevada has a really healthy respect for the 2nd Amendment, a big plus in my book.)
  


• The good thing about the depression we are in: TAX REVOLTS! We are going to see more and more people say "screw  you, I need to feed my family" to government. This is a great thing, stop feeding the monster that is government and it will be forced to shrink (it's our fault for letting it get this big anyway). I think not paying taxes someone isn't liable for is one of the most american and patriotic DUTIES that we have as citizens of this country. Our country was founded on a tax revolt. THAT tradition will make a comeback in '09...
  

Merry Christmas to all! I wish everyone out there peace, happiness, and hope.

The Fox News Forum

I didn't watch the Fox News Forum sans Ron Paul, but Conservative Belle and Strapz live-blogged it. Click here and here for their reactions.

My boy spent some of the 20 million that his supporters raised last quarter and bought an hour of New Hampshire TV time to get his positions out there. I'm posting the youtube version in 2 parts:

Barry Goldwater Jr. makes an appearance (he's campaigning with Dr. Paul in New Hampshire) a and watching RP talk about economics and the Fed and taxes reminds me again how many levels above the other candidates he's thinking.



Part Deuce

Au H2O

"The turn will come when we entrust the conduct of our affairs to the men who understand that their first duty as public officials is to divest themselves of the power that they have been given. It will come when Americans, in hundreds of communities throughout the nation, decide to put the man in office who is pledged to enforce the Constitution and restore the Republic. Who will proclaim in a campaign speech: 'I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel the old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is “needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.'”

Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative, 1960: Victor Publishing Company, Shepherdsville, Ky., p. 17.

Wow, just wow.

Pilfered from LewRockwell.com

Goldwater endorses Ron Paul!

Well actually it's his son Barry Goldwater Jr.:

“America is at a crossroads,” said Mr. Goldwater. “We have begun to stray from our traditions and must get back to what has made us the greatest nation on earth or we will lose much of the freedom we hold dear. Ron Paul stands above all of the other candidates in his commitment to liberty and to America.”

I'm really not one for endorsements (it doesn't make or break my decision on whom to vote for). But it's nice to see and it makes me think I haven't gone too far off the GOP reservation.

Peter Schiff on Glenn Beck

Peter Schiff of Europacific Capital on the Glenn Beck show:




Peter is a noted economist who really understands what's been happening for the past several years. He had a good teacher, his father. If you have any money for investments, I would look into his firm.

BONUS: Since today was the day that everyone was collecting endorsements. Guess who Schiff is endorsing because of his economic policy? He sent this email to all 60,000 of his clients. Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Ron Paul, Alex Jones, and Neo-Nazis

Hotair printed a mea culpa today regarding a "payment" that the Ron Paul campaign had made to radio host/truther Alex Jones. The $1300 payment to the talk radio host turns out to be a partial refund of a campaign donation for Dr. Paul's presidential run.

Allahpundit writes:

You’ll find the disbursement here about three-quarters of the way down. I could have done without the insinuations of laziness (”bloggers can’t be bothered to do five minutes of research”), especially when bloggers are credited in the same post for having discovered the donation from Don Black — can the campaign “not be bothered” to police for that sort of thing, given their unsolicited yet rising support among white supremacists? — but kudos to Paul for returning, well, not quite all of Alex Jones’s filthy $2,300 but a good-sized chunk of it.

Come on Allahpundit, you belong to "Pajamas Media", there's no intimation of laziness from THAT? But that's beside the point.

Why the name calling and ridicule among the neocons at all? Granted, Dr. Paul isn't Ronald Reagan, he isn't the great communicator. But the histrionics that would make Patti Labelle or Mariah Carey blush have been a hallmark of the neo-conservatives who really get hysterical about the thought of a conservative who literally doesn't tow the party line. Dr. Paul raised 5 million dollars on a message that hasn't changed in 30 years, could it be that the party has left it's base?

Ron Paul's message is resonating with people who are sick and tired of having to choose between 5 degrees of Nelson Rockefeller GOP moderate when what people are looking for is a return to Reagan/Goldwater/Taft conservatism. It isn't just antiwar lefties who are flocking to his campaign. It's libertarians and small government conservatives who have left the party because W's administration has become the second coming of LBJ's "Great Society". It's getting so bad in the GOP that anti abortionists can't even get a seat at the GOP's table...