United Liberty

Could they at least get an original name?

On Monday afternoon, MoveOn.org and Rebuild the Dream announced a campaign to build up a popular movement that could match (if not surpass) the debt reduction crowd in both size and energy. And they have borrowed a concept from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) as their organizing principle.

The campaign, led by Van Jones, President of Rebuild the Dream; Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org; and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), among others, is debuting a new Contract for the American Dream. They describe it as “a progressive economic vision crafted by 125,000 Americans … to get the economy back on track.” Its debut will involve a nationwide day of action, as well as an ad in The New York Times to run sometime this week, organizers said.

This “Contract” is very illustrative of the core tenets of modern liberalism – that it is the government that drives the economy, and that the government has every right to commandeer your money if it believes it has a better means of using it. Remember that the government is not some abstract and omniscient system; it is merely a group of power-hungry individuals with enough naivete to believe they know more than the rest of us:

The basic premise of the campaign is that America isn’t broke, it’s merely imbalanced. In order to stabilize the economy, politicians should make substantial investments in infrastructure, energy, education and the social safety net, tax the rich, end the wars, and create a wider revenue base through job creation.

I recently attended an anti-big Government spending and taxing rally “put-on” sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots of Northern California. I thought it was being held at the capitol, amongst the cool tree shaded grounds, for maximum political effect, but unfortunately the powers that be had herded the capons to a sun baked stretch of the state fairgrounds. Where anyone who wasn’t a Tea Party member wouldn’t even know there was a tea party being held in Sacramento. It has been suggested that the real reason for the unfortunate location was the fact that the enormously profitable gigantic vendor tent wouldn’t have fit in front of the Capitol.

Upon attempting to display my sign which read on one side, “THE DOG ATE THE $38 BILLION ‘BUDGET CUT’” and on the other side, “HOUSE REPUBLICANS (RINOS) NO BALLS, NO BONER”, I was approached by the thought police in the form of a little red-shirted moron who informed me that I would have to shield the “Balls” side of the sign from view because we didn’t want to “give the press any excuse to attack us”. Apparently the moron didn’t realize that the statist press already hates the tea party, considers us the enemy, and that no amount of groveling will ever satisfy them, only our complete disappearance from the political scene. (Note: Should the temptation arise to agree with the red shirted surrender monkey, I would suggest consulting Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary or Webster’s Third New International Dictionary so as to avoid having to pull one’s foot out of one’s mouth.)

The protests in Wisconsin against Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal that would require public-sector workers to pay more for benefits and pensions, though they’ll still be better off than private-sector workers, and reforms that would limit collective bargaining by public-sector unions are still receiving an incredible amount of attention.

In case you haven’t seen it, here is video a speech Gov. Walker gave last night explaining the reasons for the proposal. You can read the transcript here:

Walker, who has been falsely accused of favoring certain public-sector unions, has warned that unless the measures are passed to help ensure that the $3 billion budget deficit over the next two years can be cut, 6,000 public workers could lose their jobs.

Switzerland apparently now fines drivers based on their wealth in addition to their offense.  A Swiss man was was fined $290,000 for a speeding ticket.  Because of his wealth, the basic fine was multiplied by 130 to arrive at the higher figure.

Under Swiss law he was fined for the offence, then had the sum multiplied by 130 to account for his fortune.

The penalty is the highest speeding fine handed out in Switzerland. He was ordered to pay half of it in cash immediately with two years for the rest.

Is a crime committed by a rich man more serious than one committed by someone of more modest means?  Should the penalty reflect the relative severity on the individual or should the fine for the same act be the same for all people?

As an analogy, a young man should get a longer prison term than an older man since the sentence would be such a larger percentage of the older man’s life expectancy.  The slippery slope of such a principle could one day lead to differential pricing at supermarkets and other entities that perform a service labeled a “right” or “need” by a government.  When the prices are all different, dependent on your wealth, what is the point of wealth?

And you really want government run healthcare?

Ok, so it’s not really this bad… yet.  But if the incremental intrusions into our privacy aren’t stopped, a phone call like this isn’t so far-fetched for our future.

Milton Friedman answers tough questions with well-reasoned answers, pointing out that many of the arguments against the free-enterprise system are based on questionable assumptions.

This is a great video follow up to the full-page ad CATO published listing hundreds of economists who don’t believe that a “stimulus package” is the best option for American taxpayers.

Glenn Beck is one of the few in the main stream media willing to call Obama’s change what it is- the path to socialism.

In this video, Dr. Paul cuts to the chase by pointing out that Obama is really making an argument for more and bigger government, while attempting to camouflage it behind fanciful (perhaps one could say “Orwellian”) rhetoric.