United Liberty

The Senate passed Porkulus III by a vote of 70-28 with 13 Republicans demonstrating their party’s new found fiscal conservatism by crossing over to vote with every Democrat present for the bill. Like the first Porkulus signed by George W. Bush in 2008 and the Porkulus II passed last year, Porkulus III forks over billions of borrowed dollars to fund various special interest projects and tax gimmicks in the name of “creating jobs”.

The gimmicks funded in this lastest round of Porkulus include a tax holiday for the remainder of the year on Social Security payroll taxes, but only if the company hires someone out of work for more than 60 days. In addition, Porkulus commits to billions in in more mass transit spending and more highway projects (ie. more pork barrel spending).

The Senate’s version of Porkulus must be sent over to the House where it must be reconciled with the House’s much more expansive $154 billion Porkulus bill. However, the Senate plans to pass more items in the House’s bill one at a time so that Senate Majority Harry Reid and other Democrat leaders can find out how much the prices of the votes of “fiscally conservative” Republicans are.

Included are proposed Senate bills giving away corporate welfare to ethanol producers, which is expected to be supported by farm state Republicans. In addition, there is another planned Senate bill to keep Americans out of work longer by extending unemployment benefits and COBRA.

The RINOs who supported Porkulus III today are:

There’s something terribly ironic about the fact that Rand Paul may be riding into Kentucky’s United States Senate seat as a beneficiary of Sarah Palin’s endorsement. While they may be politically beneficial to each other, Palin and Paul represent two different approaches to political issues which are diametrically opposed to one another.

Even though it is actually short for Randall, Rand Paul shares in his first name the last name of one of libertarian’s intellectual icons, Ayn Rand, symbolic of his embrace of many of the free market intellectual works that he read as a young adult. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is unapologetically anti-intellectual, using the description “law professor” to deride Barack Obama, as if teaching law is some sort of epithet.

I know many United Liberty viewers are considering kicking off campaigns this cycle, so I wanted to share some thoughts I’ve gathered since our big success with various moneybombs over the last few years.

What is a Moneybomb?

“Moneybomb” is a term for an online donation drive managed through a campaign website and attached to a predetermined financial goal; a time limit is placed on the event to add a sense of criticality, often 24 hours but potentially as much as a week.

The first such event completed by Terra Eclipse was during Constitution Week of Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign. This set the stage for later single-day drives which were timed to meet quarterly financial targets and immensely successful in doing so.

Setting a Plausible Goal

The first thing I tell anyone about a moneybomb is that 95% of them are doomed to failure at the hands of overzealousness. Politics is largely a game of expectations — setting an unattainable goal and missing the mark can destroy supporters’ confidence in your campaign. Conversely, vastly exceeding expectations makes your campaign appear much stronger and more capable. Think of it this way: when considering your public image, a house party spilling over into the streets will play much better than a football stadium only one quarter full.

Setting an attainable goal — even if it seems less significant — is far better than attempting to shoot for the moon and raise an impossible sum. Even for established political figures, setting a modest initial goal of $50K allows for supporters to easily throw their hat into the ring and fuel measurable success. If something sounds easy, people will gladly participate; if it sounds completely implausible, they will instinctively shy away from it.

On this week’s podcast, we discussed the resolution drawn up by members of the Republican National Committee to “re-establish the party’s conservative bona fides.” Believe it or not, there are some who think I do not pick on Republicans enough, so I thought I would channel my inner xenophobic, pro-war, and socially intolerant Republican and jokingly insert the subtext I infer from their statements.

After attending several Atlanta area health care town hall forums sponsored by legislators in support of HR 3200, I decided to participate in one hosted by MY Congressman, Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA, 11th). I should note that I did not vote for or against Dr. Gingrey in 2008, as I lived in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District then. The convenience of the location of August 31st’s event could not have been better, unless it took place in my living room (the Cobb Civic Center is across the street from my neighborhood), however a 5:30 PM start time made it difficult for many constituents to attend.

I arrived at the Civic Center shortly after 5 PM to find a parking lot approximately half-full, some cars present as early as 3:30 PM. Outside the venue, there were a few individuals and groups handing literature to those entering, including members of GOP gubernatorial candidate, John Oxendine’s You Can Stop ObamaCare. I expected police-enforced restrictions that I encountered at previous town hall events, so my only tool to capture and share media of the event was my cell phone.

Once inside, I noted many of Rep. Gingrey’s older constituents in attendance, as I expected from reports of his previous forums on the subject. I also expected that most in attendance would be opposed to the health care reform bill known as HR 3200, also known as “ObamaCare,” like their Congressman, Rep. Gingrey. There were a handful of

As we mentioned a few days ago, the Republican establishment in Washington is getting behind Trey Grayson over Rand Paul in the primary for United States Senate in Kentucky.

On September 23rd, more than half the Republican caucus in the Senate will host a $500 per plate dinner on behalf of Grayson.

KentuckyFight.com (see the ad on the right) is looking to gather 5,000 liberty-minded folks to give $100 each on the same day to send a message to the elites in Washington, DC.

We here at United Liberty encourage you to give $100 on September 23rd to help put a true believer in liberty in the United States Senate.

Editor’s note: Please welcome Eric Von Haessler to United Liberty. Eric is a radio broadcaster (part of the of The Regular Guys), based out of Atlanta. He’ll be posting here as he can find time.

When I was a kid I always looked forward to the next television appearance of a guy known as The Amazing Kreskin. Kreskin called himself a mentalist and would demonstrate his ability to read minds by surprising members of the studio audience with his knowledge about what they were thinking right then and there. He ended every demonstration with a great gimmick. The host of the show would hide Kreskin’s paycheck somewhere on the set and the mentalist didn’t get paid for the appearance unless he found it before the end of the segment.

My enjoyment of this act was tempered by maturity. As I got older it became obvious to me that it was impossible for one person to read another person’s mind. My favorite TV mentalist was certainly entertaining but it was a parlor trick. I didn’t have to know exactly how he created the illusion- it was enough to know that no one can read minds. Therefore Kreskin cannot read minds. That epiphany from my young adult years strangely applies and helps to navigate me through the chronic Red state/Blue state bickering that now passes for debate in America.

If every passionate member on the Left and Right would take the time to remind themselves of their inability to read minds we’d be spared this endless cycle of faux-argument followed by faux-outrage. You know the drill. First a famous or semi-famous person makes a specious claim about the country, the administration, or whatever- then members of the opposite ideology begin the public handwringing and name calling that leads to an eventual boycott of something somewhere.

If it isn’t Sean Penn and Michael Moore raising hackles on the Right, it’s Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck poking at the Left. The brain dead Kabuki rolls ever onward and both sides turn out to be fueled by the same mistaken assumption. The idea that it’s possible for one person to read another person’s mind lurks at the bottom of the entire national discussion.

While perusing the morning headlines today I was greeted with the latest example of false debate from actress Janeane Garafalo. Ms. Garafalo, a well-known hater of all things right wing and Republican is now calling the Tea Party protestors ‘functionally retarded.’ She then adds that anyone of these functional retards that shows up at a rally or Town Hall meeting and shouts, “I want my country back” is just speaking in code. What they really mean is, “I want my white guy back”- presumably because they can’t handle the reality of dealing with a black president.

So how is she able to pick up on and decipher this right wing code? Well it’s obvious. She can read minds. No matter how much you natter on about the Constitution and free-market capitalism Janeane will not be fooled. She’s in your head. She knows what you are really thinking. It would be comforting to think she is alone in her mind reading quackery but it turns out to be a crowded field.

Garafalo’s latest gamma-burst of stupidity is only a parry to comments made by TV/radio host Glenn Beck about the President a few weeks ago. While opining on the whole Obama/Harvard Professor/Police Officer fiasco Mr. Beck couldn’t contain him self to commentary on the President’s actions alone. In order to round out his argument he made the claim that the President was in fact, a racist. He then went on to speculate about what might cause this deep-seated hatred of white people that lay at the core of Obama’s identity. Has the President ever expressed this hatred in a speech or interview? No. But he doesn’t need to do that. Glenn Beck can read minds and he knows what the President is really thinking.

Examples abound:

-Members of the Left just ‘know’ the war in Iraq was all about profits for the two oil men who occupied the White House at the time. Neither Bush nor Cheney claimed such a goal but the Left knows what they were really thinking.

-Many of my friends on the Right insist that Barack Obama hates the country and is engaged on a mission of sabotage in an act of personal revenge. President Obama has never articulated this as an item on his agenda but the Right knows what he’s really thinking.

Enough already. Speculation about the mindset of another may be a fun game to play but it has no place in the assessment of truth. The only proper way to judge a politician or anyone is to compare words and action. If a promise is made and broken, or a claim is found to be wanting, it is proper to draw conclusions about the veracity or competency of that person based on the evidence.  But this judgment gives you zero insight into the mind of the person you’ve just passed judgment upon. It can’t provide that insight because you don’t have the ability to read minds.

Give credit to The Amazing Kreskin. At least he understood how to entertain with claims of clairvoyance.  The white noise of constant outrage emanating from both the Left and Right is driving many of us to simply tune out.

If Glenn Beck and Janeane Garafalo continue to insist upon revealing the inner dialogue of their political enemies, we should demand a better show. Can you imagine the spectacle of Garafalo and Beck tearing apart the Fox News and MSNBC studios in search of their next paycheck? Now- That’s Entertainment!

Some of you may remember The Libertarian Vote, a Cato Institute study released back in 2006, which showed how libertarians and libertarian-leaning voters (fiscally conservative, socially liberal) were abandoning Republicans largely due to dramatically increased spending, the war in Iraq and increased intervention in individuals private lives.

During the 2008 president election, a couple of surveys, specifically Rasmussen, showed that libertarian voters were supporting Barack Obama over John McCain in the race between the “lesser of two evils.”

Many Republicans are standing tough against President Obama’s proposed takeover of the American health care system; however, many prominent voices within the GOP are at the same time displaying an unprecedented level of hypocrisy when they oppose Democratic health care reform.

I came across an article with a disturbing title, “Cheney: Execute Terrorists If Cuba Prison Must Close”, published by the conservative-leaning online publication Newsmax.