United Liberty

Jason Pratt, founder of Givv.org, wants to tell you about his organization and how you can get involved to help the liberty movement.

Givv.org is a brand-new site that helps you donate to multiple organizations at once, from a single donation. Users have called it “simple”, “brilliant”, and “effin’ rad”. Right now, Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty is the #1 recipient on Givv.org, which shows that liberty lovers are among the most enlightened when it comes to voluntary donations. (EFF and Wikipedia are #2 and #3, so freedom, knowledge, and privacy are all quite popular.)

When you donate on Givv.org, you can stay anonymous, give in any amount (even small amounts like $1), and manage your giving completely by adding and removing recipients any time. Plus, others see who people are donating to (but not how much!) so there’s a built-in publicity benefit for your favorite organizations. You can add any recipient you want, and the moderators at Givv.org will get them set up with PayPal.

Check out the site and give it a try. If you’re donating to liberty causes already, see about moving that activity over to Givv.org (it’s free) so that your favorite organizations get the extra cred of having you as a donor.

Stephen Vasil, a reader, attended Rep. Jim Marshall’s town hall meeting last night in Forsyth, Georgia. He was kind enough to send in his report of the event.

Jim Marshall held a town hall meeting this evening in Forsyth to discuss healthcare reform and current issues. Approximately five hundred concerned citizens were in attendance.

Marshall opened the meeting stating he opposed all five current healthcare reform bills in the Congress and Senate. He said, “American people don’t like the current healthcare system because of two bureaucrats.” The two bureaucrats that he alluded to were the government and health insurance companies.  He also offered that the current Veterans Administration health care system is effective because patient surveys in this government ran system have been proven to be twice as good as non-government ran hospital surveys. He added that this is “why we should not totally be against government regulated healthcare.”

When questioned about where he received this information by a meeting attendee, he ignored the question and quickly moved on to the next question. One attendee asked, “Will PAYGO eventually lead to rationing of healthcare services.” He replied, “No” and would not listen to this person’s next question.

Another question raised by the crowd was from a concerned physician, “If the finances were available, would you support any of the five healthcare reform bills”? Marshall replied, “No.”

Nearing the end of the meeting another citizen asked, “You have replied No, that you disagree with all of the current healthcare bills, but you have not told us what kind of bill you would support.” Marshall simply stated he would support any bill that would not increase the current debt of the country because that would not be a good steward of America’s money.”

At the end of the meeting I finally got the chance to ask the question that had been lingering in my head through the night. I asked, “Tonight, you have said you are a member of the Blue Dog Democrats, but you have proven to not be fiscally conservative by voting for HR 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and HR 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, therefore you are liar and you need to apologize to all of these people here for lying to them about being concerned about America’s financial debt.”

As, you would expect, he responded very sternly that, “he has a strong character which he must uphold when answering this question and he does not appreciated being called a liar. He also said he does not need to apologize to anyone.” He then ranted and raved over the TARP bill and how he not only voted for the bill, but he strongly PUSHED for this bill to be passed.”

Throughout the night it was noticed by several attendees that he was very rude and short with almost every question asked. He talked to the citizens which he states he is working for like two year old peons. The crowd was distraught over the way he disrespected the citizens taking their time to express concerns.

In a nut-shell, I want someone in office who acts as though they are working to serve us and not someone who treats us like we don’t know what in the hell we are talking about. Then again, that is just my opinion.

Here’s a bargain for you.  General Motors’ current market value is about $500 million.  In a breathtaking abuse of executive power, the Bush administration “loaned” GM $13.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) in December, 2008, plus an additional $4 billion in February, 2009.  (Congress had not authorized the money to be “loaned” to GM.)  On June 1, 2009, the Obama administration announced that it would invest an additional $30 billion in GM.  About $41.2 billion of the “loans” will be converted into equity in GM, making the United States the principal shareholder with 60% of GM’s stock.  You, the United States, have paid $41.2 billion for $300 million worth of GM stock.  Congratulations!  You overpaid for GM stock by 137 times its value.  

One of the more entertaining news stories from the last week is the squabble between RINOs Colin Powell and Dick Cheney. Cheney observed on a talk show that he didn’t realize Powell was still a Republican. Powell retorted that he was a Republican because he had voted for Republicans Reagan and Bush II as well as Democrats Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, and Obama. Powell’s response makes as much sense as Cheney’s reputation for being a conservative, which nonsensically appears to be based on his advocacy for business interests and war in Iraq.