It's the last weekend of the NFL regular season

I pilfered this from the sportsblog Kiss Me Suzy Kolber. I've got to hand it to the Patriots, they ran the table this season. This picture interested me because if you look closely behind Tom Brady's left shoulder you can also see OJ, Gary Condit, and the dude who gets to bang Jessica Alba .

Dirty Tricks in Politics?

Who knew? Reason.tv has a great video interview with Roger Stone, a veteran of eight presidential campaigns and one of the premiere "dirty tricks" artists out there. From the blurb:

Beginning with his first disinformation campaign in grade school (ironically, aimed at his later idol, Richard Milhous Nixon), Stone learned the ropes as a teenager at Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (C.R.E.E.P.) and has spent the last 30 years in the political shadows, playing a major role in the “Brooks Brothers Riot” during the 2000 Florida recount and waging a highly public ongoing battle with Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-N.Y.). As a battle-hardened and scandal-heavy veteran of eight national presidential campaigns, Stone understands the skulduggery and strategems of the modern political campaign like no one else...

He really unloads on Elliot Spitzer, calling him "f---ed up" psychologically" and also talks a little bit about the difficulty of running a sucessful 3rd party campaign. Among other things. Oh and he gives Ron Paul zero chance of winning the GOP nomination.

Click here to watch the interview.

I'm glad we're getting our money's worth

This is the story of an artist named Steve Kurtz (the article says he's pretty famous, but I've never heard of him) and government run amok (emphasis mine):

Kurtz’s legal nightmare began when he was arrested in May 2004 after he called 911 due to the unexpected death of his wife, Hope. The police notified the FBI because they saw commonly used biological equipment, such as petri dishes and test tubes, in his house.
...

Suspicious of bioterrorism, the FBI arrested Kurtz and searched his house. It was quickly confirmed that Hope had died of natural causes. Weeks later the New York State Commissioner of Public Health determined that the biological materials posed no public health risks. Eventually, charges of bioterrorism were dropped completely. But instead of dropping the case, the prosecution decided to pursue it. Millions of tax dollars and approaching four years later, the prosecution is now charging Kurtz with mail and wire fraud for a transaction worth less than $300.

For the love of all that is holy and great in this world, please someone, explain to me who comes out the winner here? It's not Kurtz and it sure as hell isn't the tax payer. If I find out that the prosecutor was someone looking to finish out his twenty years and collect his taxpayer funded pension my head is going to explode. This is literally a federal case, over a transaction valued at less than $300. Ridiculous.

The whole article is here

Benazir Bhutto

Wow, I've been sitting in my car the whole day and haven't been able to get to my computer, but I did spend my time trying to call into Tammy Bruce's show when she was talking about Bhutto being assassinated. The Pondering Penguin has a nice piece about her (pilfered from Conservative Belle)

Here's Ron Paul and his reaction on Fox News:

Judge Napolitano should be nominated to the Supreme Court (part deux)

Here is Judge Andrew Napolitano's keynote speech at an event called Reason in DC.
It's 40 minutes of Constitutional history. Brilliant.

Tis the Season

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Every time I've seen an episode of South Park I have always been entertained. But I can't say that the series is a "must watch" every single week. I'm going to have to re-evaluate my position after watching "Woodland Critter Christmas". A Christmas tale that has Good versus Evil, Satan versus Santa Claus, cute animals, and an unexpected twist at the end. This is probably a classic already, but I saw it for the first time today. (content warning for graphic images and themes) I pilfered this from the blog Doubleplusundead:


To watch this episode (and every single other Southpark) click here

Can't get this song out of my head

Kina Grannis is a talented singer who has made it into the top 10 for some contest where she can win a record deal and have her music played at the Superbowl. Why do I have a post on her? Because I can't get this damn song out of my head. Check out her blog here and if you like what you hear vote for her:

Gotta Digg by Kina Grannis (her song hit #1 on Digg.com last night):

Blowback from the Nannystate

Over in England, a new "sport" is gaining popularity: Burning or destroying traffic cameras. There's a website that talks about it (from Wired.com):

"Motorists Against Detection, the vigilante anti-speed camera group have announced a summer of MADness which will see them target for destruction all speed cameras in the UK. It’s now going to be a period of zero tolerance against all speed cameras, said their campaigns director Capt Gatso. (((A remote descendant of General Ludd, I reckon.)))

"The group claims speed cameras are just money-making machines and they have given the authorities long enough to prove their worth. The first camera to fall in the summer campaign is in south east London on the A2 at the Sun in the Sands roundabout on-slip heading northbound towards the Blackwall Tunnel.

Of course, speed limits are a fact of life in United States. I'm of the opinion that speeding tickets are just too great of a revenue stream for many cites and states to get rid of. What is interesting is, there are some experiments in other parts of Europe that are doing away with speed limits, traffic signals and traffic cameras entirely, with good results.

How does THAT idea work. From the Spiegel article:

"The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We're losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior," says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project's co-founders. "The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."

With the following conclusion:

Strange as it may seem, the number of accidents has declined dramatically. Experts from Argentina and the United States have visited Drachten. Even London has expressed an interest in this new example of automobile anarchy. And the model is being tested in the British capital's Kensington neighborhood.

I don't know if the "automobile anarchy" model would work in this country, it would be a tough sell to the "safety nazi" crowd as well as probably the "eco-nazi" crowd as well (not mention, again, governments have a vested interest in keeping that revenue stream going). But then again, maybe we still have a relatively lower threshold of acceptance for the nanny state in this country compared to Europe.

Ron Paul on Meet the Press

Dr. Paul spent time this morning on the Tim Russert show, not quite the full hour as advertised but long enough to answer some tough questions. Dave Wiegel over at Reason live-blogged it and has a link to the transcript here.

Some of the questions that Russert asked were a bit esoteric, (the Civil War question comes to mind) but Dr. Paul's take on the Civil War makes sense if you study the history behind that conflict closely.

I did like how Dr. Paul turned into a broken record when asked about eliminating the income tax. "We need to cut spending" he kept on repeating, I couldn't figure out why Russert kept on asking him about the lost revenues. As if the amount of government we have is the right amount.

Here's the link for MSNBC's video or here's youtube

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four

Aimee Allen and the Ron Paul Theme Song

Here's a behind the scenes video of her new music video. :



Check out her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/aimeeallen

If you check out Aimee's Video and Myspace you will see why Ron Paul is going to win Reason #32123 - Hotter Chicks

Why did I Spend $85,000 to Support Ron Paul

Lawrence Lepard took out a full-page ad in USA Today supporting Ron Paul, it cost him $85,000. To explain why, he is taking a full-page ad in the New York Times to run next week (I have no idea how much that cost him) To see what that ad looks like, click here.

Net Neutrality is a Big Scam

Why Government should stay out of regulating the internet:

The hype surrounding broadband socialism has grown over the past year. New political alliances have begun to promote regulations that will allow the federal government to use its seemingly idle hands to touch private pies.

Not only do presidential candidates such as Barack Obama seek to subsidize technological rollouts at the expense of coerced taxpayers, but, along with Representative Ed Markey, they want to regulate what network property owners do with their own infrastructure. All of this is done under the guise of the new populistic policy called network neutrality.[1][2]

And while the political rhetoric will almost certainly pick up pace throughout the election year in 2008, the joke is once again on statolatrists: it has already been tried numerous times.

Read the rest of the article here. There are a bunch of articles over there at the Mises Institute that will give you an education on free-market economics from the Austrian School as well.

Tucker Carlson on RP in the New Republic: Pimp My Ride

No quotes, just read the whole thing.

Yoga with Tara Stiles Ford Model

This week: Bends

Check out Tara's myspace: www.myspace.com/tarastiles

BWE: Ten Best Things to Happen to the Internet because of the Writers Strike

Number 3: Not the Daily Show



Go see the rest of the list here.

Alan Keyes is Running for President

I've been a fan of his for a long time. He's someone who really knows the Constitution and I would even consider him as someone who would make a great addition to the Supreme Court. I can't support him for President though. But I'm glad he's running. He was on Hannity and Colmes tonight (pilfered from Ian Schwartz):



And this is my favorite article from him, evah, that I still reread every once in awhile. It is called : On the establishment of religion: What the Constitution Really Says. From Worldnetdaily:

The First Amendment to the Constitution plainly states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ..." Since there can be no federal law on the subject, there appears to be no lawful basis for any element of the federal government – including the courts – to act in this area.

Moreover, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution plainly states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." This means that the power to make laws respecting an establishment of religion, having been explicitly withheld from the United States, is reserved to the states or to the people.

Taken together, therefore, the First and 10th Amendments reserve the power to address issues of religious establishment to the different states and their people.

The article is long, but is an eloquent, powerful, piece that explains why the federal government has no authority to make a law, or listen to a court case in which religion is the subject matter and why states rights are so important to the foundation of this republic. I would just recommend reading the whole thing.

Is Iran really the new Nazi Germany?

If W and War Party are to be believed, yes. On the other hand, there are these pics by one of those peaceniks over at Lew Rockwell:





regarding the picture above:

For example, we can tell from the abundance of Christmas cards and trees and wrappings and ornaments and Santa Claus suits that Iran has a capitalist, consumer-oriented economy, with a large enough Christian community to support a whole host of retailers, wholesalers, distributors, suppliers, importers, and tree farms. And if we glance back at that incredible first shot of Tehran at the foot of the snow-covered Alborz Mountains, we can even say with certitude that the area around Tehran has just the right terrain, soil, and climate for the new-cut Christmas trees you see.

The rest of the column talks about Iran being rather cosmopolitan, with a big middle class and maybe not as oppressive a society as the government or the MSM would have you believe. What's the truth?

Tancredo to withdraw, where will his supporters go?

Tom Tancredo according to Fox News, will be making an announcement tomorrow formally withdrawing from the GOP presidential nomination.

Where will his supporters go? If you ask Craig Halverson, director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp, he says this:

"I'm shocked," Halverson said. "All the work and all the time we put in. We're shocked. We thought he was going to go all the way."

Halverson said he would wait for the official word, "then I'm going to jump on the bandwagon of Ron Paul."

Tancredo has always been pegged as a single issue candidate, that issue, illegal immigration has been big enough for him to hang around for awhile. He has been polling around 6% in Iowa, not an insignificant amount, and enough to change the complexion of the race there.

Why Ron Paul Should Keep Money Donated from Neo-Nazis

Ron Paul: Sure, I'll Take Money from Nazis - Headline from Hotair
Ron Paul Campaign Keeps White Supremacist Money - Headline Worldnetdaily
Ron Paul No Problem with Donations from Neo-Nazis - Headline Little Green Footballs

The latest attack on presidential candidate Ron Paul after his record setting fundraising day on Sunday is not really new. It's the same guilt by association attack that comes whenever Dr. Paul's grassroots campaign makes news.

Don Black is a "White Nationalist" who runs a website called Stormfront. If you click over there, you'll see David Duke featured prominently at the top and then a forum towards the bottom. The language (from my admittedly brief perusal) in the topics section, if to be taken at face value, isn't that much different than you would find on any forum that talks about politics and current events. The slant is different, of course, but if you compared it to the language of any other forum where ethnicity is the primary focus you would find more similarities than differences. The Nation of Islam comes to mind.

Don Black says this about Ron Paul:

Black said he supports Paul's stance on ending the war in Iraq, securing U.S. borders and his opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"We know that he's not a white nationalist. He says he isn't and we believe him, but on the issues, there's only one choice," Black said Wednesday.

"We like his stand on tight borders and opposition to a police state," Black told The Palm Beach Post earlier.

That last statement is hardly a call to arms and hooded robes and cross burnings. While there may be unsavory characteristics of Don Black's world view, so what? It's a free country last I checked and in a free country, as long as you don't violate me and my property and my rights what you do on your own time, what you talk about, or who you call your friends is no concern of mine...Where is it? Oh yeah (emphasis mine):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The great irony of the websites listed at the top is that all of them have faced the same charges of being "hate sites" or "racist" because their particular slant isn't in tune with "the mainstream". Little Greenfootballs in particular has had to deal with "racist!" charges. Should we call for all the websites that link or associate with LGF (like all of Pajamas Media) to give back all of the ad revenue they have generated because someone disagrees with their worldview? How rich is it that they have resorted to the same sort of attack on a point of view and people they disagree with that they themselves have been subject to?

UPDATE: This is what the "conservative argument" against Ron Paul amounts to:

One can see for themselves in the debates how nuts Ron Paul is but his supporters confirm it. I've noticed that those who are angry and/or pessimistic towards the government or just in general seems to gravitate towards Paul. He also attracts conspiracy theorists by the dozen. If I was Paul and these were my supporters I would be concerned, but he seems happy to have them. Nothing more needs be said.

The more I think about it, if you are a Christian and you are against abortion, wouldn't that automatically mean that you advocate shooting doctors who perform abortions and firebombing the clinics they perform them at?

Oh Come On!

Conservative Belle has been compiling all of the candidates video Christmas cards (which you can view here)

Hillary's card has to be the greatest advertisement on why polls are worthless. How can she be leading in the polls if her message is essentially "I am the Santa of all nanny-staters". Really, handing out "gifts" like free healthcare, free preschool. Promising everything to everyone? Well what about me Hillary? I'm looking for the card that says "stay the hell out of my wallet" or "leave me the hell alone". Alas, those are the gifts that none of the candidates from either party are willing to give. Unless you are the candidate with two first names.

Pilfered from Hotair