RedStateEclectic

When Whacko Birds Attack: Rand Paul Lectures Congress

This is so awesome! For those of you just tuning in, Apple was called to testify before Congress, because Congress is offended that Apple didn't pay taxes they didn't owe.

Rand Paul seems to think that Congress is a bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites:

 

 

Edited to add: Here's an editorial on the subject written by Paul.  If you want to know the history of Gorilla Glass, you'll have to click through.

 

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On Adam Kokesh, Revolution, and Lolita

OK, I have to admit that I'm an Adam Kokesh fan for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that we can't have a revolution without revolutionaries.  

I realize that sometimes he does outrageous things that drive people away from the liberty movement, like this moment, right before he was forcefully removed from the 2008 Republican Convention:

And sometimes he organizes events that seem silly, like the Dance-In at the Jefferson Memorial:

But sometimes, his methods give us a glimpse of what we're up against and reveal what the government really thinks of us. This weekend is one of those times.  

Adam was speaking at a marijauna legalization rally.  While I think that drug laws should belong to the states, to be honest this isn't one of my issues and that's partly because it isn't a freedom that the traditional GOP voter is ready to embrace (yet). 

But Adam wasn't smoking pot, he wasn't carrying pot, and he didn't organize the event. However,the police moved in on him when he was speaking, and he was arrested.

The Kokesh wing of the movement has been aflutter all weekend about it, and if you want to know more specifics, I suggest you visit his Facebook page or click ont of the links at the bottom of this entry because I want to focus on one small event that will likely go unnoticed, and it's in this video.

This officer is answering phones that are apparently ringing quite a bit as people call to check on the status of a quasi-celebrity. You won't need to listen long, I promise:

  

Who is the provacatuer again?

This is why I like and admire Adam.  He never loses his cool, and his ability to do so exposes small bits of the arrogant power structures we're facing.

And in case you doubt the authenticity of the video, this is Part II, where the kid who recorded the call shows evidence in his favor:

  

 

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Liberty's Dawn

SNL Mocks TEA Party For Not Anticipating Government Intimidation Tactics

Saturday Night is still on, even though they stopped being funny about the time John Belushi died.  Apparently they're settling for being political hacks:

Actually, Amy, the courts have held that you can't be pulled over just for having a license plate or bumper sticker that arouses suspicion. But thanks for reminding us that the Democrats aren't really about civil liberties as much as they are brute force.

All hail the police state.

 

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Thought of The Week

Why is Google Telling People That James O'Keefe is an Identity Thief?

I subscribe to a myriad of email lists from lots of different political organizations, including Project Veritas from James O'Keefe.  You might remember him as the activist filmmaker who created a series of undercover videos that forced ACORN out of business to change their name.

These emails routinely end up routed to the spam bucket, probably the result of people who either didn't realize they signed up or got tired of seeing them and clicked "spam" instead of "Unsubscribe." That action sends a message back to Google's e-brain, essentially telling the system that because lots of people seem to think this is spam, it probably is.

I check my Spam folder every few days and add the misdirected newsletters' email adddresses to my address book, which seems to route things to my inbox .

I've seen lots and lots of misdirected mail. From eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, MoveOn.org, The GOP, The DNC my dentist, my eye doctor...the list goes on and on.  But what I haven't seen on them is this:

A message from Google, implying that O'Keefe had used previous communications to scam recipients.

I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but like I said, I've pulled plenty of list-type messages from my spam folder, and I've never seen any of them with this red warning emblazened across it.  

In fact, just this morning, Michelle Malkin's newsletter was also in my spam box. Not surprising, because I just signed up for it, and her email wasn't in my inbox.  But it didn't have a big red scary warning splashed across it. (Yet?)

And just to clarify -  I have seen this red message before but only on emails from real scammers. You know the type - the ones that claim to be from Paypal, your bank, or a Nigerian prince asking for your account number and password. 

So, I had to ask: Why is Google now telling people that James O'Keefe is an identity thief?

 

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Coolidge

Amity Shlaes just published a biography of Coolidge.

“When in 1929 the thirtieth president climbed onto a train at Union Station to head back home to Massachusetts after his sixty-seven months in office, the federal government was smaller than when he had become president in 1923.”  Why, you may ask, do we not know more of this man, this American leader?

The source.

 

See also Ships Not Shops, and Amity Shlaes on the Forgotten Man ...

Elephants Remember….

Last night, I attended the Douglas County Republican Party Elephant Remembers Dinner with about 35 of my best liberty loving Republican friends.  

Coincidentally, the event fell on my husband’s 52nd birthday, and Omaha is about 1 1/2 hours away from our home.  So, even though my husband doesn’t often attend political functions with me, this happened to hit on a good weekend (no call), so I suggested he take the afternoon off, I’d get Grandma to come and stay with the kids, and we’d go to Omaha, spend the night (and then, on Saturday morning, we could go to Cabela’s in Omaha for the latest in sporting goods shopping—I think it was Cabela’s that convinced him that this would be a good idea).

Now my husband’s lunchtime getaway ended up being closer to a 3:30 departure from work (we were wanting to leave by 4 for Omaha), due to a baby delivery and some other things that had come up.  I had all of my things packed, but I hadn’t packed all of his clothes for Saturday, since I thought he’d be back in time to do so, so things got a little bit frantic as we were getting ready to depart after I’d picked kids up from school (Grandma was here by this time).  We were trying to get the last of the things together, and I specifically recall asking him, as he walked down the stairs from our bedroom, if he’d gotten the suitcase—and he said “yes, it’s down there already”…a comment which I took to mean “in the car.”

It was 3:50, I was saying goodbye to the kids, getting the last of my stuff together, and we were ready to go.  We got to Omaha, I went in to check in (same hotel where the event was taking place), and then he was going to pull the car around to the appropriate door and bring our luggage up so we could freshen up from the drive a bit before we headed to the dinner (fortunately, we’d put our suits on before we' left).

I ran into him, coming from the front desk, as he walked into the building.  I asked where the suitcase was… “I’ll see you in 3 hours” was his answer.  Long story short, we determined that in our rush, the suitcase had gotten as far as the garage, but not actually into the car.

After some discussion, I suggested that it made no sense for him to drive back home and get the suitcase—that we could just drive home after the event.  Ultimately, neither of those were palatable alternatives, and after the event, we ran to the 24 hour Walmart up the street, way over-dressed in our suits at 11:30 p.m., and each of us bought a pair of jeans, socks, t-shirts, underwear, deodorant and toothbrushes, so that we could wear something other than our suits to Cabela’s  this morning (again, we would have been terribly overdressed).  Oh, and we got the cheapest shoes we could find, too.

As for the event, there was a very nice turnout.  The Republican Liberty Caucus of Nebraska sponsored 4 tables—and was one of the Gold Sponsors of the event—the only organization to serve in that capacity, and right up there with U.S. Senators and other “big names” in GOP politics in the sponsorship list.  We had a lot of people coming to talk with us—including people who in the past that have run away from us (although there are still a few doing that).  We are, I think, moving the liberty ball down the field within the GOP.

The keynote speaker for the event was Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.  Now I have no idea where Governor Walker stands on issues of foreign policy, but I’m going to tell you that he was very impressive in his talk on issues of smaller government, state power over national power, free markets, etc.  And he’s a VERY impressive as a speaker—he connects well with the audience and has a certain charisma.  I am not easily impressed anymore, and tend to be a critical analyst of politicians (even ones I like), but I was impressed.

Could he be the next Reagan?  Yes, I know that many of my libertarian-anarchist friends have problems with Reagan, but in our system of government, someone who talks the talk and moves the ball in the right direction, even without scoring a goal, or even getting into the “red zone”, is far better than someone who always goes the wrong way.  Scott Walker may have a future in Republican politics, and while he wouldn’t be the ideal from the perspective of many of us, he might be one of the best among those who could potentially have some electoral success.  Keep an eye on him.

Christians Ferreting Their Fair Share

The Greens have made civil disobedience a hobby:

Today Hobby Lobby announced that they will not comply with this mandate to become complicit in abortion, which the Greens believe ends an innocent human life. Given Hobby Lobby’s size (it has 572 stores employing more than 13,000 people), by violating the HHS Mandate, it will be subject to over $1.3 million in fines per day.

Full Story.

This reminds me of a dialogue from the movie “You Can’t Take It With You”. Grandpa Martin is haggling with Mr. Henderson, the “friendly” IRS agent, over the right price of government:

Henderson: According to our records, Mr. Vanderhof, you have never paid an income tax.
Grandpa: That's right.
Henderson: Why not?
Grandpa: I don't believe in it.
Grandpa: Look, Mr. Henderson, let me ask you something.
Henderson: Well?
Grandpa: Suppose I pay you this money--mind you, I don't say I'm going to pay it--but just for the sake of argument--what's the Government going to do with it?
Henderson: How do you mean?
Grandpa: Well, what do I get for my money? If I go into Macy's and buy something, there it is--I see it. What's the Government going to give me?
Henderson: Why, the Government gives you everything. It protects you.
Grandpa: What from?
Henderson: Well--invasion. Foreigners that might come over here and take everything you've got.
Grandpa: Oh, I don't think they're going to do that.
Henderson: If you didn't pay an income tax, they would. How do you think the Government keeps up the Army and Navy? All those battleships...
Grandpa: Last time we used battleships was in the Spanish-American War, and what did we get out of it? Cuba--and we gave that back! I wouldn't mind paying if it were something sensible.
Henderson: Sensible? Well, what about Congress, and the Supreme Court, and the President? We've got to pay them, don't we?
Grandpa: Not with my money--no sir.
Henderson: Now wait a minute! I'm not here to argue with you. All I know is that you haven't paid an income tax and you've got to pay it!
Grandpa: They've got to show me.
Henderson: We don't have to show you! I just told you! All those buildings down in Washington and Interstate Commerce and the Constitution!
Grandpa: The Constitution was paid for long ago. And Interstate Commerce--what is Interstate Commerce anyhow?
Henderson: There are forty-eight states--see? And if there weren't Interstate Commerce, nothing could go from one state to another. See?
Grandpa: Why not? They got fences?
Henderson: No, they haven't got fences. They've got laws! My God, I never came across anything like this before!
Grandpa: Well, I might pay about seventy-five dollars, but that's all it's worth.

I wish the Greens well, but it’s not how the government does things. One can not safely apply his or her own subjective value to government. Democracy goes along with the biggest mob. If your mob doesn’t like being out-mobbed, then you have to grow in numbers.

The GOP grew, at one point and in part, because of the abortion issue then reneged when empowered. They started wars, stripped rights, and spent tons of other-people’s-money domestically. When the power shifted, the other socialists passed Obummercare. Now we’re hearing it from Christians who waved the flag all through the aught years of Bush 43.

Like abortion, these wars are anathema to me. They end innocent human lives. Yet, I can’t call up the IRS and refuse to pay for them without an end to MY way of life. During the Bush years, my Christian brethren would quickly dismiss my concerns by referring me to the Old Testament whenever the subject was brought up. Certainly, the New Testament wouldn’t do much for their side of the argument.

I now offer them some Old Testament, too. Lamentations 1:9

Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.

Tax Increase for Everyone But the Favoured Wealthy Few

It has been a constant theme, especially in my earlier writing here at RSE, that America is becoming more and more European, i.e. a social democratic country with an overblown welfare state that - largely unrelated to improving the common weal - is the outcome of the unprincipled compulsion (of our form of democracy) to buy votes and other means of maintaining power. In the meantime, I have come to believe that America has turned European a long time ago, at least in a number of rather crucial issues.

At the same time, I have always supported the Americanization of Europe, i.e. the absorption of America's great tradition of liberty by the peoples my side of the pond. Some of it is happening. Thus, I was made aware of the below article by a German liberty-friendly blog that draws heavily on American sources.

The Wall Street Journal has this to report on "a tax increase for everyone but the favoured wealthy few":

In praising Congress's huge new tax increase, President Obama said Tuesday that "millionaires and billionaires" will finally "pay their fair share." That is, unless you are a Nascar track owner, a wind-energy company or the owners of StarKist Tuna, among many others who managed to get their taxes reduced in Congress's New Year celebration.

There's plenty to lament about the capital and income tax hikes, but the bill's seedier underside is the $40 billion or so in tax payoffs to every crony capitalist and special pleader with a lobbyist worth his million-dollar salary. Congress and the White House want everyone to ignore this corporate-welfare blowout, so allow us to shine a light on the merriment.

The entire article.

Ben Swann: “Hang the Nullifiers”?

Amash on Hannity Radio Show 12/12/12

Amash is continuing to raise his profile here with this purge by leadership. How far can he go though proposing radical ideas like balancing budgets and spending less money in DC?