Adventures of a Bellinghammer

Whatcom Democrats Sore Tie-ers?

2010-11-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

While Whatcom county and Washington State wait for complete voting results, the outcomes of most of the races are pretty clear.

Out of the candidate races, the biggest surprises to me included the Buys victory over Linville and the Larson victory over Melious. I was surprised not based on the candidates abilities but rather their seniority in the first case and what I perceived as a superior campaign performance in the later.

Initiative surprises included the passage of I1107 as well as the rejection of I1098. These were initiatives that I expected to go the opposite way.

On election night I wanted to follow the election results with fellow political activists. Since I live in Bellingham and also had another earlier evening engagement the only election night party I could attend was the Whatcom Democrats event at the NY Pizza bar in downtown Bellingham. I could write a whole separate post on that experience, and maybe I will if I have time, but in general I had a good time and was welcomed. I didn't hide the fact that I was a Republican (elected PCO) as well as that I was "Bellinghammer" but still enjoyed my evening and had good discussions with several Democrats even as results came in and it was clear that the Democrats weren't going to have as good a night as they have had recently.

That's why I'm a little surprised by several Democrats reactions post election day. Hopefully we can disagree on policy and even roles of government but come together post election, respect the will of the voters and try to work together to get things done.

When you examine the results in this county and for the entire state against the voting recommendations provided by the county parties you see that voters evenly split their votes and sided with Republicans 9 times and Democrats 9 times.

Again, I implore candidates, electeds, and yes even the local political parties to work together and tackle the challenges facing this county, state, and country. If you can't work resolve your differences at least demonstrate respect for the other side. What helps me is to remember that "they" are your fellow neighbors, friends, grandparents and that ultimately we all want the same thing. A better community in which we can live, work, and raise our families.

Will of voters versus Whatcom Party Recommendations
I1053	Yes	R
I1082	No	D
I1098	No	R
I1100	No	D
I1105	No	D
I1107	Yes	R
R52	Rejected	R
40th Seat 1	Lytton	D
40th Seat 2	Morris	D
42nd Seat 1	Overstreet	R
42nd Seat 2	Buys	R
42nd Senate	Ericksen	R
Supreme Court	Sanders	R
COB Prop 1 Sales Tax	Yes	D
BSD Levy	Yes	D
County Council	Larson	R
US Senate	Murray	D
US House	Larsen	D

WA State freezing up access to capital

2010-09-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

I received a new "State Financial Suitability Requirements" notice this morning as I logged into my prosper account. Basically Washington State is deciding whether or not it's wise for people to invest in peer to peer lending. If you don't meet their requirements then you will be breaking the law if you continue to lend.

How long until we see these sort of requirement before one is allowed to invest their own hard assets in the stock market, real estate, heck why not even charitable giving?

For the record my small Prosper investment has payed out 12.44%. That's way more than any of my other more traditional investments. I also appreciate the fact that it gives me the ability to lend capital directly to people and businesses who are in need at a time when we continue to hear news stories of frozen capital markets. Is prosper a risky investment? Oh heck yes, but if investors know that going in and aren't expecting any sort of bailout in the case of lose, then stay the heck out of my financial dealings! I wouldn't be surprised if banks or other financial institutions had a hand in drafting these requirements as they would rather individuals be forced to lend their capital through them rather than via a more direct channel.

State Financial Suitability Requirements
The state of Washington has financial suitability requirements.

1. Financial Suitability Requirement:

The Notes are being offered only to a lender (a husband and wife are treated together as one lender) who satisfies the suitability requirements set forth below. You must meet one or more of the suitability requirements (a-b) in order to purchase Notes from Prosper.

A - I have an annual gross income of at least $70,000 and a net worth as set forth below, of at least $70,000, and I will not purchase Notes that in the aggregate, exceed 10% or more of my net worth as set forth below, or
B - I have a minimum net worth of $250,000 and I will not purchase Notes, that in the aggregate, exceed 10% or more of my net worth as set forth below.
Note: Net worth is calculated exclusive of home, home furnishings and automobiles, and Lender members may not value assets included in the computation of net worth at more than their fair market value.

2. Certification under Penalty of Perjury:

The undersigned has carefully read this Suitability Questionnaire for Individuals and confirms, under penalty of perjury, that the information contained herein is accurate, true and complete and if there should be any change in such information at any time, the undersigned will immediately furnish the revised or corrected information to Prosper.

Under penalty of perjury, I confirm that the information contained herein is accurate, true and complete and:

[ ] I confirm that I meet one or more of the financial suitability requirements in sections a or b set forth above.

[ ] I confirm that I do not meet any of the financial suitability requirements above.

Cornwall's Easter Service Surprise

2010-04-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

Another great Easter service at Cornwall Church this year. A couple of years ago Cornwall stepped out on a limb and announced that it was donating the entire Easter service collection to a number of local and global charities. In spite of the economic downturn, and in great faith, Cornwall Church again chose to give it all away for a good cause.

All the money given on Easter weekend and through April 8 will be used to rebuild an orphanage in Haiti...a home for 39 children.

The original orphanage, located in the Terre Noire Valley, 8 miles east of St. Marc, was significantly damaged by the Jan. 12th earthquake and has since been torn down. The 39 orphans ranging in age from 4-18 years are currently living in tents and small classrooms. Although they have more physical land on their compound than those living in tent cities around Port-au-Prince, they are none-the-less living as earthquake refugees with no place to call home.

Cornwall Church intentionally chose to give all of its Easter offering away because Easter is one of the highest attended services of the year. Simply put: more people means more money for the cause (not the church). You may say, "So what? This is not a first; other churches have done this kind of thing before." The big deal is that Cornwall Church represents many hearts in Whatcom County. Hearts of compassion and generosity. Hearts that believe that individually and corporately we can effect positive change. Three months after the 7.0 earthquake, the need is still great. The need for these 39 orphan children is a place to take refuge from the harsh climate, a place to call home. As a sponsor of one of those orphans this is very exciting news indeed.

If you would like to share your heart of compassion and generosity by helping to rebuild a home for these Haitian orphans, donations must be received by Cornwall Church no later than April 8, 2010. Checks can be made payable to Cornwall Church, and in the notes field write “Easter Donation.”

HB3191 - Custom Software tax

2010-03-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Almost every developer I know has at one time or another worked on side contracts relating to "custom software". Provisions in HB 3191 would require that state sales tax (currently at 6.5%) now be added on.

This provision came to my attention through some discussion on our local Bellingham Linux Users Group mailing list with several people responding that this would hurt their small business as well as one suggesting that they might consider leaving the state.

The Ubermind blog also has a good posting on how this custom software tax will do much more harm than good. Specifically they mention the following great points:

To be abundantly clear, any company in Washington will suddenly have to pay at least 6.5% more for custom software services. Here are a few of the important points that surround this thoughtless bill:

“Professional Service,” not “Retail Sales” – custom software is a professional service no different than the services rendered by attorneys, engineers, management consultants and other similar professions; reclassifying custom software to a “retail service” is simply not logical

Increases an Already Heavy Tax Burden – requiring custom software companies to charge their customers state sales tax will increase the costs and taxes for all types of Washington businesses

Increases Offshoring – large customers of custom software companies will seek to avoid cost increases from state sales tax by using offshore providers, which will lead to job loss among Washington’s custom software providers

Businesses Will Leave – custom software providers may decide to relocate their offices to a neighboring state to avoid the burden of collecting sales tax revenue for the state

Headache for Consumers – companies that use out-of-state custom software providers will be burdened by use tax, which must be paid in lieu of state sales tax that out-of-state providers do not charge

Endless Ambiguity – the Dept. of Revenue and taxpayers will find themselves looped into endless discussions and arguments over tax liability; for example, should a web design firm be considered a “custom software” provider?

Poor Classification – unlike sellers of “digital goods” (e.g. MP3’s from Amazon), the majority of custom software providers are not set up to receive payments from clients via credit card; implementing new e-commerce systems allowing sales tax collection will, again, be burdensome and costly.

Make sure you contact your local representatives and let them know what you think about the custom software tax provisions in HB 3191.

President Obama Special Interview by Fox News, Really

2010-03-19T11:15:00.001-07:00

The Obama White House recently permitted the first exclusive interview to Fox news. The interviewer was Bret Baier. I'm not a Fox News loyalist, but this interview was by far one of the most informative ones I've seen since Obama has taken office. This was due in large part to the reporter being willing to ask hard questions, keep the President on track in his answers, and politely step in when the President attempts to filibuster with wordy but non-informative campaign speak.

Peggy Noonan with the Wall Street Journal provides an excellent recap of the interview and what new information we can glean from it.

Also, you can see the two part interview for yourself here: part 1 and part 2. Check it out now before Rupert Murdoch puts it behind some pay wall.

Does anyone know what the heck the President was talking about when made the case that the "Louisiana deal" in the health care bill will help events like the "earthquake in Hawaii"?

Canadian Premier travels to US for heart surgery

2010-02-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

I came across a very entertaining/interesting article detailing how Canadian Premier Danny Williams came to the US for a heart procedure that could/would not be performed in Canada.

Some interesting quotes from the Premier and points to ponder before we people talk about wanting to imitate the Canadian health care system.

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.
"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

The above quote is in regards to the fact that the procedures available under the Canadian system would have require breaking his bones and a much longer recovery time than the minimally invasive procedure performed in the US for his condition.

"I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. ... I accept that. That's public life,"

"(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that."

Yes, many Canadians (not just their politicians) who can afford it get out of the Canadian health care "line" and choose to come to the US for procedures that can be performed more quickly or efficiently.

"We do whatever we can to provide the best possible health care that we can in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian health care system has a great reputation, but this is a very specialized piece of surgery that had to be done and I went to somebody who's doing this three or four times a day, five, six days a week."

Specialized surgeries and procedures are exactly the kind of procedures that get ignored in socialized health care systems because resources are focused on general procedures that affect the masses rather than more specialized / less common ones. The Canadian procedures offered to the Premier was more blunt and less specific and therefore is a surgical option that could be applied to a larger set of procedures.

Update: I found this other Canadian article talking about the same issue but in defense of the Canadian health care system. It doesn't explain why the premier would choose to get this performed in the US if he could just have easily had it done in Canada, but it does offer some interesting prospective.

SB 6688 - Concerning filling vacancies in nonpartisan elective office

2010-02-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

The Washington state legislature has it's hands full tackling budget issue this session, but it appears they also found time to erode counties rights and responsibilities concerning filling vacancies as well as increasing partisanship.

Senate Bill 6688 aims to change the way that county vacancies are filled. It's interesting that this bill comes up after Whatcom County had it's own difficulties recently in filling a non-partisan county council seat.

As I read the bill it sets out the following vacancy plan:
1. County executive chooses three possible candidates to fill vacancy.
2. Count council votes on the possible candidates.
3. If a majority of the council agrees on a candidate they fill the vacancy, otherwise the state governor chooses the successor from the list.

My initial response upon seeing this bill was to ask why is the State legislature taking it upon themselves to setup county specific rules? This is not something that should be the purview of state government. Once I got past that initial revulsion of state infringement on local issues the following questions arose:
The state governor is a state-wide partisan office.

How is the state governor more qualified to make a county specific decision than the more local, non-partisan county executive?
Since the governor is elected on a statewide basis. Doesn't this in effect give voters outside the county a voice in filling vacancies?
Doesn't the state governor have other more pressing state wide issues to concern themselves with? How much time could they possibly devote to making a county specific decision taking in nuances and traits specific to that county?
If the state attorney general has made it a pratice to not issue opinions on county specific legal issues for counties operating under home rule charters then how/why should the state governor be given authority to name a successor in those counties?

So far SB 6688 has passed the Senate and will be discussed on Feb 19th at 11am before the House Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs. Please take some time to contact the members of this committee and voice your opinion on this bill. Also please contact your state representatives and ask them not to infringe on the rights and responsibilities of county government.

It is clear after Whatcom county recently went through the process of filling a vacancy that changes and clarifications are needed to our county process. My understanding is that the Whatcom county council is taking steps to clarify this process, let's handle this on a local level and not rely on outside influences to determine who fills non-partisan county positions.

Please contact your state representatives today!
40th LD
REP Dave Quall
REP Jeff Morris
SEN Kevin Ranker - Voted FOR SB 6688.
42nd LD
REP Doug Erickson
REP Kelli Linville
SEN Dale Brandland - Voted AGAINST SB 6688.

I'll be asking my 40th LD representatives where they stand on this bill. Hopefully we won't see it get enacted. Stay tuned.

Update 1: County councilman Ken Mann also commented on this bill. Included with his post is a comment from Bellingham city councilman Stan Snapp. Thanks Ken and Stan for your support of non-partisan local government!

Republicans, its time to caucus!

2010-02-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 13th at 10am Republicans around the state will be gathering to discuss:

How we can build and strengthen the Republican Party.

Help write a Platform and elect delegates that best represent our issues.

Get active and help bring genuine change to Whatcom County.

Learn more about candidates who are running for office.

The precinct level caucus is the first step in a series of elections and conventions that result in our county and state platforms being adopted. It also provides for a great opportunity to network with others in our community.

Whatcom County Chair Luanne Van Werven described the process this way:

At the precinct caucuses, delegates are elected to county conventions. From there, each county elects delegates to our state convention, where the state party’s platform is drafted for 2010. This year, the State Convention will be held in Vancouver, WA June 10-12, with two special guest speakers: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be the keynote speaker and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin will be the banquet speaker. The state convention agenda will be forthcoming and posted online at: www.wsrp.org.

Check the Whatcom Republican website for details about your particular Caucus Location.

Note: The Democrats aren't holding caucuses. Instead they meet in off years for "caucus like" strategy sessions. From what I can tell, the only difference between the strategy sessions and actual caucuses are that delegates are not selected to represent the individual precincts at the county level.

Costco favors sales tax over members savings

2010-01-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

I want to start off by saying I love Costco and that I do a lot of shopping there. My family buys the majority of our food as well as gas and other necessities there. That being said, I have a huge beef with how they treat their members.

While examining one of my Costco receipts recently I had difficulty getting the taxes to match up. After quite some time I discovered that the only way I could get the tax balance to match up was if I added the original prices of items that I had purchased with coupons. I assumed this was a mistake since other places I frequently shop at, like Fred Meyer and Target charge tax on the discounted price rather than the original price. After talking to a Costco representative it was explained to me that Washington State allows businesses the choice of charging tax on the discounted or regular price and that Costco chooses to apply tax at the regular price. Say what!?! I always thought Costco worked hard to provide its members the best possible value.

New government spending figures and cash for gold

2010-01-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

Over at Yahoo Finance you can see the latest government financial figures as of January 25th, 2009. Never mind the fact that Obama more than tripled the year over year deficit amount from 454,798,000,000 to 1,417,121,000,000. Just remember, it's ALL Bush's fault! Also included in the figures was a total of the US gold assests as of last September which totaled a measly 11,041,000,000. This reminded me of the following classic Onion News Network report.

U.S. To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

Good for a little laugh before you begin crying for the fiscal state of our country. Even if Cash 4 Gold were able to cash in the entire gold reserves of this country (with probably most being sent to China, India, and the middle east) it would do little to dent the level of deficit spending under Obama or his predecessor.

Haiti Earthquate and devastation

2010-01-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

A major earthquake occurred near the Haitian capital of Port of Prince at 4:53pm local time on Tuesday. Given the conditions in Haiti an earthquake of this magnitude so close to the capital city of a million plus people will prove to be completely devastating.

There are a great deal of local connections between Bellingham, WA and Haiti. Cornwall Church, where I am a regular attender, has sponsored an orphanage of roughly 30 kids for the past several years. Besides just caring for the orphans they also ensure that many more children and families in the community receive at least one steady meal a day and have an opportunity for schooling. A medical mission team connected with Cornwall was planning on travelling to Haiti this Friday.

There will be many opportunities for local people to help Haitians in the coming days. Whether it be the Red Cross or other relief organizations, please consider helping the neediest Country in our hemisphere recover from this devastating event.

Here is one such article covering the devastion if you are not already aware of it. There are also several videos on youtube, but I must caution you that viewing them can be very unsettling. Maybe that's a good thing.

Jury duty

2009-12-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

For the first time ever I've been selected for jury duty. This is just fair warning that if you have a jury trial coming up in the next two weeks you'll have the Bellinghammer swimming around in the jury pool. So far I've made it to the voir dire phase of a criminal trial but was not chosen to sit on the jury.

In the juror training video as well as statements made by the judges and lawyers they want jurors to feel like jury duty is your way of being part of the government. I disagree. I see the jury as representing "the People" not the government. The whole jury system was created and designed to ensure that the government does not overstep boundaries and unfairly or indiscriminately strip individuals of their life, liberty, or property.

In fact it's awesome to me how difficult the founding fathers intentionally made it for people to be stripped of their liberty and freedoms.
For example, the accused:

are innocent until proven guilty.
must be proven guilty "beyond all reasonable doubt".
has the right for a trial by a jury of their peers.

Bellinghammers Election Predictions

2009-11-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here are my predictions regarding this election. They contain some hopeful thinking, but I've read there is power in positive thought. I hope my predictions are correct, but expect to be wrong on some or most of them. We'll find out soon.

Local elections
Initial results released by the County auditor will show that the liberal/progressive candidates for county council are leading. It will also be noted that there are a large number of write-in ballots. When all the write-in ballots are counted our new county council members will be Kershner, Mann, Luke, and Knutzen. There will also be a big upset in the Bellingham City At large race with Orphalee Smith becoming the first ever successful write-in candidate to be elected to the Bellingham City council.

Orphalee Smith winning the Bellingham City At large position is obviously a long shot, but it would be very exciting if it turned out that way.

I believe Mann will best Teigrob based on how well he ran his campaign. He did an amazing job at utilizing social media including his Bellingham Herald Blog, facebook fan page, as well as some of the interactive aspects of his website. He kicked off his campaign with a hefty warchest. He prepared for this campaign by increasing his name recognition and defending the conservative/libertarian position on the PM Bellingham talk show he co-anchored. He had an excited group of volunteers supporing him. Ironically his main weakness may have been his involvement on the Planning Commission which in almost any other election cycle would have been viewed as a positive.

Statewide measures
R-71 is accepted by a decent margin.
I-1033 passes by a small margin.

Glenn Beck, Ron Paul and the Groups They Inspire

2009-09-21T15:36:00.001-07:00

Looks like Glenn Beck is now solidly behind Ron Paul and his ideas and even goes to the degree of wishing he could go "back in time" and support his candidacy.

This article is a good example of his progression from Ron Paul hater to Ron Paul enthusiast. It will be interesting to see what happens now that Beck has come out and said that Ron Paul was right. I expect to see plenty of backlash from neocons and other establishment Republicans who have so far been supporting him but have a seething disrespect for anything related to Ron Paul. A good example is the following blog post by David Frum to David Horowitz in which Frum is arguing that Beck is Paul's "Chief TV enthusiast and publicist". There's plenty of good YouTube video links in the above blog posting to back up that assertion. I think it's funny how Frum points out the November 2007 video was before Beck left CNN for Fox as if his going to Fox had anything to do with Beck's transition. Once at Fox Glenn Beck covered Ron Paul favorably a number of times including: here, here, here, here, and other times conveyed a message very similar to Ron Paul like he did here, here, or finally here. On the other hand many in the Ron Paul/Campaign for Liberty supporters refuse to forgive Beck for what he said back in November 2007. Some (hopefully just a few) in the Paul camp even wonder if Beck is some kind of CIA plant to hijack their message.

Glenn Beck isn't 100% responsible for the creation of the Tea Party/We The People group that is developing, but he played a large part in helping its creation and many in that group are big fans of Beck. I think it is vitally important that the Campaign For Liberty and the Tea Party group work together and not view each others as adversaries. The Campaign For Liberty group has been on point with this shared message for more than two years. We have a lot to offer the Tea Party people and I think it's important all grassroots conservative/libertarian groups work together on the common areas of their focus/mission and whenever possible celebrate our similarities rather than nit-picking at our differences. In other parts of Washington I've heard about some very promising examples where these two groups have meshed well in coordinating and organizing events and I hope we see the same cooperative spirit up here in Whatcom county.

Just look how close these two mission statements read:

Campaign For Liberty:

Our mission is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

BHAM Tea Party (WCCF):

Reverse deficit spending and the concentration of power in central government,
in order to preserve states' rights and individual liberty for future generations.

HR 1207 and Representative Rick Larsen

2009-06-10T09:10:00.001-07:00

House Resolution 1207 - Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 is a bill that calls for an open and transparent audit of the Federal Reserve. This is a bipartisan resolution with currently over 200 co-sponsors.

I would be extremely surprised if Representative Rick Larsen has not been receiving significant constituent feedback requesting his support for this bill and he can expect to hear more feedback at the public hearing he is holding in Ferndale on June 13th, 3pm at the WECU Ferndale Education Center.

Political grandstanding and interventionism

2009-06-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

Today mark's the 20th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre. So of course the US House of Representatives has time to pass a resolution admonishing China for an event that took place 20 years ago and to dictate to them actions that they should take today. I find it interesting that in the 20 years since "the incident" China has emerged as a manufactoring and economic powerhouse and we are heading down the path to becoming a poor indebted nation.

~~My guess is that this resolution will pass with only Ron Paul opposing it as he refuses to play the same political games as other elected representatives.~~
Update: This Resolution DID pass 396 to 1 on June 2nd.

Everyone in America should be concerned when our House of Representatives is willing to debate and most likely pass a resolution of which the official text of said resolution is not even available to review! Good grief.

From: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/tx14_paul/China.shtml

Statement of Congressman Ron Paul

United States House of Representatives

Statement on H Res 489 Regarding Tiananmen Square

June 3, 2009

I rise to oppose this unnecessary and counter-productive resolution regarding the 20th anniversary of the incident in China’s Tiananmen Square. In addition to my concerns over the content of this legislation, I strongly object to the manner in which it was brought to the floor for a vote. While the resolution was being debated on the House floor, I instructed my staff to obtain a copy so that I could read it before the vote. My staff was told by no less than four relevant bodies within the House of Representatives that the text was not available for review and would not be available for another 24 hours. It is unacceptable for Members of the House of Representatives to be asked to vote on legislation that is not available for them to read!
As to the substance of the resolution, I find it disturbing that the House is going out of its way to meddle in China’s domestic politics, which is none of our business, while ignoring the many pressing issues in our own country that definitely are our business.
This resolution “calls on the People’s Republic of China to invite full and independent investigations into the Tiananmen Square crackdown, assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross…” Where do we get the authority for such a demand? I wonder how the US government would respond if China demanded that the United Nations conduct a full and independent investigation into the treatment of detainees at the US-operated Guantanamo facility?
The resolution “calls on the legal authorities of People’s Republic of China to review immediately the cases of those still imprisoned for participating in the 1989 protests for compliance with internationally recognized standards of fairness and due process in judicial proceedings.” In light of US government’s extraordinary renditions of possibly hundreds of individuals into numerous secret prisons abroad where they are held indefinitely without charge or trial, one wonders what the rest of the world makes of such US demands. It is hard to exercise credible moral authority in the world when our motto toward foreign governments seems to be “do as we say, not as we do.”
While we certainly do not condone government suppression of individual rights and liberties wherever they may occur, why are we not investigating these abuses closer to home and within our jurisdiction? It seems the House is not interested in investigating allegations that US government officials and employees approved and practiced torture against detainees. Where is the Congressional investigation of the US-operated “secret prisons” overseas? What about the administration’s assertion of the right to detain individuals indefinitely without trial? It may be easier to point out the abuses and shortcomings of governments overseas than to address government abuses here at home, but we have the constitutional obligation to exercise our oversight authority in such matters. I strongly believe that addressing these current issues would be a better use of our time than once again condemning China for an event that took place some 20 years ago.

C4L Regional Conference from Seattle - Thanks TVW

2009-05-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

Sadly I missed out on the free portions of the Campaign for Liberty Regional conference that went on last weekend in Seattle, WA. Luckily TVW was there to capture them on video!

Here's the video from the "Freedom Celebration" that occured on Friday, May 22nd.

TVW Link

MP3

Here's another video from the conference in which State House of Representatives Matt Shea (R-4) and Carry Condatta (R-12) talk about our style of government and how bills become law.

TVW Link

And finally, if you want to check out photos taken at this event they can be found on Flickr.

Update: The first TVW video covering last Friday's "Freedom Celebration" is not currently available. If you follow the TVW link it says that this video will be rebroadcast today (May 29th) at 3pm so be sure to set your DVRs!

TOTUS Emergency

2009-05-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently there was an accident with one of the TOTUSes today. For those of you not aware TOTUS stands for Teleprompter Of The United States - aka the REAL commander in chief. Anyways, I guess VP Biden even had the audacity to joke about this tragedy. Video is available on Real Clear Politics here. So far I haven't been able to listen to the joke live as it appears the RCP is getting slammed with requests. Biden was quoted as joking:

"what am I going to tell the President when I tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?"

When I heard the news I immediately checked out the TOTUS blog to make sure the telepromper was alright. It posted the following update.

See Ron Paul in Seattle for free

2009-05-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend everyone in the northwest has the chance to see the man who predicted the housing meltdown back in 2003 as well as learn a little more about state politics. Campaign For Liberty is having a regional conference in Seattle and Congressman Ron Paul as well as many elected State officials (and Tim Eyman) will all be speaking there. There will be some free events as well as some fund raiser events. If anyone local to Whatcom county wants to carpool down to the "freedom celebration" on Friday or regional training on Sunday, both free events, just add a comment to this entry and I'll send you an email and attempt to coordinate things.

More information about the conference can be found on the Campaign For liberty conference page or in this Campaign For Liberty blog post.

Just to recap:

Freedom Celebration: Friday, 8pm at the Double Tree Hotel in Seattle, Washington. I'll be leaving Bellingham at approx 4:30pm if anyone is interested in carpooling.

Regional Training: Sunday, noon to 4pm at the DoubleTree in Seattle. Speakers and training to help Campaign for Liberty in our Region work with the tools that were given. Speakers will include Tim Eyman the initiative king, State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders and several other speakers who will be training us on the ins and outs of Washington State politics.

I biked to work today!

2009-05-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful morning to bike in to work and the ride was made all the better by having Celebration Stations sponsored by the 12th annual Whatcom County Bike to Work day. I visited five celebration stations on my route in to work this morning including:

Barkley Village Haggen

Sunnyland (James St)

Shuksan (Northwest Rd) - This one was a surprise! Not on the map.

Bakerview & Northwest

Cordata at Westerly Road

Thanks to all the volunteers who staffed the stations this morning!

On Capitalism and Greed

2009-02-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me this short video which I think is another great example why a free market system is best. Republicans/Conservatives/Libertartians/all those who love freedom and personal liberty need to be able to debate using points like those contained in this video.

At the very end of the video Milton Friedman asks the following question:

"Tell me where in the world you are going to find these angels who are going to organize society for us?" I guess those angels are Obama/Pelosi/Reid.

Coherent Conservative Response to Stimulus Bill

2009-01-31T10:06:00.000-08:00

A fiscal conservative speaks about the stimulus bill, and explains how we got here.

Political thoughts and personal reflection

2008-12-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

I can't count the number of times I told my wife that my active involvement in politics is almost over. First I told her that I would cut back after participating in our precinct's primary caucus. Then I told her it would be after our county convention since I had been elected a county delegate. In the mean time I had started to also attend the monthly Whatcom County Republican Party (WCRP) central committee meetings to get more involved, meet elected officials, and discuss ideas. When I learned that the PCO for my precinct was unable to run again due to health reasons I stepped forward and got elected to be PCO for my precinct. When an opening presented itself I was lucky enough to be elected to the Executive board of the WCRP.

At this point I had stopped telling my wife that I would soon be able to stop my active participation in politics and was simply trying to convince her that after the November election my involvement level would decrease. Until then there was plenty of important work to be done.

Little did I know that I had to again revise my schedule because after the general election a new and unexpected election began, this was for the next set of officials of the WCRP. Luckily I didn't have to help out in campaigning for this election, but being a voting member of the Central Committee I spent lots of time talking to all the candidates... and the nice thing was that every position, except for Treasurer, we had two good candidates competing for them.

I think the officer board we ended up with is an excellent mix of old and new, diverse viewpoints but same goals, and am excited about the possibilities for the party going forward. The urge is strong to stay active if not participate MORE so we can see some real change in this city, county, state, and country.

We've got a bigger Central Committee than we've had for a long, long time. I believe we went from 46 PCOs a few years ago to 84 presently, and if everyone who was elected but did not make the 10% mark is included that number would go up to 96. Not only has the number increased, but the group has grown more diverse in many ways.

If Barack Obama's election was really about "Change" then why isn't that reflected within the Democratic Party or in his cabinet choices? Do you see any new people in leadership positions? Nope. You have the same party bosses making the same decisions and dictating it down to the people. The only thing that's changed is how it is packaged and sold to the public.

Republican Organization Meeting

2008-12-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

The Whatcom County Republican Party organization meeting took place on Saturday, December 13th. The new 2009-2010 leadership team will consist of:

Chair - Luanne Van Werven
Vice Chair - Larry Helm
Treasurer - Bill Crawford
Secretary - Suzanne Chandler
State Committeeman - Charlie Crabtree
State Committeewoman - Barb Reilly

Check out the official announcement here.

Civilian Defense Farce

2008-12-02T08:31:00.000-08:00

I ask my Democratic friends to try the following thought experiment. What would your reaction be if Dick Cheney came out and declared that the Bush administration was going to institute a minimum of a three month draft of all 18-25 year old's for required training in a government run camp. In this camp they will "Learn what it means to be an American", and the name of this program will be Universal Civilian Defense Training.

If ANYTHING like this were to be proposed by the Bush administration it would be called fascist, the indoctrination of our youth, and a great blow to our civil liberties from the media, ACLU and elsewhere. I'm sure the Daily Show and The Colbert Report would run some satire about it comparing it to Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Fascist Italy.

Well my friends, Obama hinted at this exact program when he was running for President when he referenced his plan for the "Civilian Defence Corps". Before elected though, he provided scant details as to what this would entail. Now that the election is over and especially after he announced his choice of Rahm "Never let a crisis go to Waste" Emanuel for Chief of Staff we are seeing a LOT more details about this program.

I HOPE with all my heart that my democratic friends can see through their rosy view of their beloved leader and stand up and oppose this as they would if Bush or McCain had proposed it.

Rahm Emanuel said in the video embedded in this article that this program will "give people a sense of what it means to be an American". Well I certainly hope that a mandatory, compulsory government service program isn't needed for that, because last time I checked one of the things I valued of being an American is our civil liberties, including the individual liberty valued by our founders and built in to the foundational laws of our land. Compulsory service in a government run training camp runs against every thing I believe America stands for.

References:
WorldNet Daily Article 1
WorldNet Daily Article 2
Obama's America (required to) Serves
Bellingham Ron Paul Blog July 2008
Bellingham Ron Paul Blog November 2008
Heritage Blog Post November 2008
News Busters blog post

I wish I could reference some additional "mainstream" media sources but none seem to deem it a worthwhile topic to report on.

"Battlefield" Rifles: To Ban, Or Not To Ban?

2008-11-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I came across this article (from Armed and Safe)from the Tyler Morning Telegraph. The editor was requesting comments on the "gun run" we've seen since shortly before the election. The following was my response, but my comment was refused by the editor because I registered as "Jay S" rather than "Jay Summerfelt". This is against their Terms of Use.

The comment I was most concerned about was this bit:

"I think people are completely overreacting," Chad King wrote in a reader comment he submitted. "It's funny to me that people are buying guns that they fear are going to be taken away from them. That makes absolutely no sense. ... Republican or Democrat, we all have to agree somewhere in the middle that certain guns only belong on the battlefield and serve no purpose in the hands of children and criminals."

The following seeks to clarify the issue. Please review this basic argument and use it the next time you find yourself discussing the topic with someone who opposes a strict interpretation of the Constitution. (Of course, these arguments are not aimed at those who are already Second Amendment supporters. These are not new arguments.)

Can civilians really own "battlefield" rifles?
When the average person thinks of the rifles our soldiers, allied soldiers, and enemy soldiers carry, they typically think of weapons like the M16 (the rifle that many US soldiers use) and the AK47/74 (very common among ex-Soviet bloc nations and many middle-eastern police and military personnel).

A major distinguishing feature of these weapons is that they are "select fire" weapons. That means that many variations of these weapons can be "set" to safety, single shot, burst (fires a few rounds with one depression of the trigger), and full automatic.

Unfortunately common knowledge of firearms is limited to what is seen in the movies. Most people do not understand that these "battlefield" rifles aren't found in possession of civilians. In the United States, the average law abiding civilians can only legally own semi-automatic versions of these rifles. The AR15, for instance, is asemi-automatic only version of the M16. Another example is the M1A, a semi-automatic only version of the M14. In other words the civilian-legal "versions" of these rifles look like a duck but they don't quack like a duck.

Civilian ownership of full auto rifles is impossible in most cases. In the few cases where ownership of these full auto rifles is legal, it is prohibitively expensive and heavily regulated. (Essentially the ownership of even a single full auto weapon is limited to very rich dedicated collectors due to licensing fee, huge cost of the weapon, and intrusive inspection.)

Also interesting to note is that the US Military defines "Assault Rifle" as such (emphasis added):

"Assault rifles are short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachinegun and rifle cartridges."

Civilian-legal "assault" weapons are not capable of select-fire. This definition is virtually identical to one of the earlier definitions of an "assault" weapon by the Nazi army.

What's an "assault" weapon?
The difference (since 2004 anyway) between the weapons our soldiers have and the weapons a law abiding citizen can buy in a gun shop is that soldiers have access to full auto (one trigger hold makes lots of shots) and select fire (one trigger hold makes a few shots). Civilians have access only to semi-automatic (meaning one trigger hold makes one shot).

So what's the difference between these civilian "assault" weapons and the typically pretty wood-stocked rifles that you see carried by hunters? The difference is purely cosmetic.

You read that right! The definition of "assault weapon" is arbitrary and capricious. This was a definition that was invented by a handful of hardcore anti-gun politicians. A few examples of these cosmetic features:
- A forward vertical grip (ergonomic feature)
- Adjustable stock (ergonomic feature)
- Bayonet lug (most don't even know what this looks like)
- Detachable flash suppressor (even during the ban this could be fixed to the barrel - so you could have one, but you couldn't remove it)

Let me illustrate my point more clearly. Look at these pictures:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee232/longdayjake/CIMG2149.jpg

http://bastardsinc.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/m1a_scout_ebrb.JPG

What's the difference between those rifles?

Nothing. They're the same gun. They fire the same round. They both only fire one shot per trigger press.

Are you telling me that the first weapon belongs in the hands of a civilian where the second gun does not, simply because of some ergonomic features?

(The astute observer will note that the wood-stocked gun has a longer barrel, but this is really not relevant to this discussion. The longer or shorter barrel could be placed on either weapon.)

There's also the matter of magazine capacity, something that anti-gun politicians purport to be the source of much evil. However, statistical analysis of the 10-year AWB does not suggest that reduction in magazine capacity had any statistically significant effect. (One can always just reload, after all!)

Why do you "need" that gun?
These guns are great for all sorts of things.
- Target shooting (in fact the AR15 and M1A are the most popular platforms for marksmanship practice and competition)
- Small and medium game hunting (.223 is fantastic for small, and a strong .308 load is fantastic for medium and some large game)
- Personal defense, especially against small animals or intruders
- Any time you need a "handy" light rifle: camping, canoeing, trail/ranch gun, you name it. Anywhere it's handy to have an aluminum receiver to lighten the weight and you need a rifle that can shoot out to 200 yards or so.

If you're not buying the reasons for ownership of such a rifle, consider this: look around the room you're in right now. Do you have anything that you don't "need"? A fancy watch? A second monitor on your computer? High quality speakers on your stereo or computer? An iPhone? Do you have fancy wheels on your car?

Besides, should we ask the government to take away everything you deem "unnecessary"?

These features make the rifle handier and more comfortable. What about ergonomic comfort and convenience begs for a ban?

The future of the "assault" weapon ban
Now that I've exposed the very term "assault weapon" as arbitrary, capricious, and fraudulent, I will further my case by pointing to the "future" of such bans. Many anti-gun politicians would like to see the following banned as well:
- Lever guns (yep! those are defined as "assault" weapons in some newly proposed "assault" weapon bans)
- Semi-automatics of all kinds (pistols, rifles, shotguns, you name it)

Should we allow Washington to go down this slippery slope? Consider: the '94 AWB made a statistically insignificant impact on violent crime (ie. statistical analysis could not 'prove' that the ban was effective). Less than 2% of violent crimes involving the death of a police officer involve these "assault" weapons.

What's the point of adding restrictions that are ineffectual, intrusive, and subject to the whim of politicians who simply hate - for whatever reason - the fact that normal citizens can own rifles that look like the "real thing"?

So why are we panicking?
Voting records speak volumes of a politician's intent. Just like there are strong pro-gun Democrats (John Murtha of PA or Mark Begich in AK for instance), there are politicians that simply lie to protect themselves from the pro-gun vote. President Obama is one of these politicians. He has supported a ban on all semiautomatic weapons. He has supported a ban on concealed carry (something that is statistically proven to not cause more crime). He has supported a permanent and expanded "assault weapon" ban.

"Yeah, but when the Second Amendment was ratified all they had was single shot muzzle loaders!"
Well, those were the "assault" weapon of the day. Nobody kept them from owning bayonets, did they? Even the lifetimes of the framers saw significant advancements in firearm technology. Rifling was an important advancement, for instance, allowing guns to shoot farther and be far more accurate. Yet never once did a framer proclaim that the Second Amendment was a mistake, or that "common sense" restrictions need to be enacted.

Get informed when discussing restrictions on constitutional rights!

Welcome guest writer Jay Summerfelt

2008-11-12T11:32:00.001-08:00

I would like to welcome Jay Summerfelt as a guest writer on the Adventures of a Bellinghammer blog.

He used to post quite frequently on his blog over at The War Is Coming - Perspective from the sidelines of the culture war...

Let me introduce Jay by describing our history. I first met Jay when he was hired on were I work. Two first impressions I had of him were the portrait of Thomas Jefferson he had hanging in his office cubicle and his computer background which lets just say emphasized his support for 2nd Amendment rights. Over time we became good friends.

When the Presidential campaign started heating up I became an early fan of Romney, then Fred Thompson. When I mentioned this to Jay he asked me if I had ever heard of Ron Paul. Of course the rest is history. Although Jay isn't involved in party politics he was the impetus for me and at least two other co-workers learning about Ron Paul, realizing how far our Country has strayed from its Constitutional Republic roots and getting more active in the political process. Now the tables are turned and I'm the one trying to convince him to get more active in the process.

As you'll soon see Jay has a knack for writing posts that are very informative and thought provoking.

Yes We Can (rebuild the party)!

2008-11-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

My inbox has been inundated with several conservative groups suggesting how they can fix the party and make it successful again. They all have decent ideas and usually culminate in a solicition for funds to make it happen.

In contrast, the new website Rebuild the Party does not solicit for funds and has some extremely good points that can be implemented today. You can sign up and submit your own suggestions on what you think can be done to turn the success of the party around.

More about the GOP Liberty Alliance

2008-11-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

Washington State's GOP Liberty Alliance (GOPLA) is rapidly organizing in Washington State. They already have a board of directors which includes our local Dr. Robert Neff as 1st Vice President.

On Saturday, November 8th there will be an event called the "Council at Yakima". More information about the event can be found here, but here is a short description of the happenings:

We are coming together to discuss the nuts and bolts of how the freedom message can have political impact here - from the state level, down to the precinct level. We are gathering at this all-day Council to:

* discuss immediate Washington State political action items
* plan short and long term local goals
* compare strategies from different counties around the state

Also speaking at the event will be Washington Supreme Court Justice Sanders.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the Campaign For Liberty meeting early as it was running long and I promised my wife I'd be home by 9:30pm. I didn't get to hear Dr. Neff's presentation about the group.

Campaign For Liberty Meeting tonight

2008-11-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

There will be a Campaign For Liberty meeting tonight at the Ferndale WECU. The meeting will consist mostly of a showing of the movie End of America, which I believe is based on the book End Of America, Letter of Warning to Young Patriots.

The meeting will start at 7pm and the full meeting agenda is as follows:

7:00pm - Movie: The End of America
8:25pm - Short presentation about how you can get involved in the political process in Whatcom County
8:30pm - GOPLA presentation
9:00pm - Adjourn

GOPLA stands for GOP Liberty Alliance. I don't know much about it beyond that. I wouldn't be surprised if this website is affiliated with the group, but I'm not positive. We should learn more about it tonight.

The meeting is open to everyone, hope to see lots of new faces.

Here are a couple of quotes about the book, not the movie, from people that I often don't agree with. This movie should be interesting.

"The framers of our Constitution fully understood that it can happen here. Patriots like Madison, Paine, and Franklin would certainly applaud Naomi Wolf and recognize her as a sister in their struggle."
—Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again

"Naomi Wolf sounds the alarm for all American patriots. We must come together as a nation and recommit ourselves to the fundamental American idea that no president, whether Democrat or Republican, will ever be given unchecked power."
—Wes Boyd, cofounder of MoveOn.org

Obama's aunt is an illegal alien

2008-10-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely astounding.

According to this AP story, Obama's Kenyan aunt who is currently living in a Boston slum is an illegal alien in the United States.

Wow.

Trick or Treat, sounds like more of a trick

2008-10-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'd be wary of eating Halloween candy this year as it appears there's a good chance some of these candy products were made in China during the recent Melamine fiasco. According to the below video these candy products have been pulled from China and most other countries shelves, except for here in the United States.

The FDA claims these products are safe, but they have no data to back that up and these candy products were produced within the time frame that tainted products were being made in China.

Make sure any candy you consume during Halloween this year that contains milk or milk powder was not made in China.

Obama and Ayers shared the Dream

2008-10-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

Obama has said that Bill Ayers is just some guy that lives in his neighborhood and his interactions with him are minimal.

But now a literary expert named Jack Cashill is convinced that Bill Ayers actually wrote large portions of Barack Obama's supposed autobiography Dreams of My Father, if not the whole book. Check out these links for yourself.

Here's a pretty lengthy, but detailed, video interview of Jack Cashill on the B-Cast.
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=208823

And Jack Cashill's website breaks down his research into parts [1] [2] and [3]. He seems to make a very strong case.

An interesting quote from part 1 is the following:

As an undergraduate, Obama had written what he justifiably calls some “very bad poetry.” He published nothing under his own name in The Harvard Law Review, where he served as an editor and as president. And after leaving Harvard, he published nothing in its review or in any law journal.

Then, in 1995, this untested 33 year-old produced what Time Magazine has called--with a straight face-- “the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician.”

Cashill does some pretty deep analysis to prove that the writing is very much like that of Bill Ayers. He in the least makes a great argument that it is very unlikely that Barack Obama was the sole author of the book as he claims.

3rd Party Presidential Debate Today

2008-10-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

There will be a presidential debate held today at 1:30PM PST between Baldwin, Barr, McKinney, and Nader. You can watch it live from WVIZ IdeaStream or it will supposedly be rebroadcast on the CSPAN channel later in the day. Regardless of whether you have already voted, I would recommend watching this debate so you can hear ideas from candidates outside the two major parties.

Personally, filling out my ballot was easy for every spot but President/Vice President. I am still having a hard time choosing between the candidate who I believe would make the best President or the candidate that would have the best chance to stop Obama. More on that decision and the rationale behind it in a later post.

Obama does NOT respect the Constitution

2008-10-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama is running for President of the United States. Should he win the presidency how in good conscience can he take the following oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

First we have this quick little clip where he says the Constitution has a "fundamental flaw."

I wish I had context for this clip because if he's talking about slavery, then I agree that the Constitution was created with a flaw, but what's remarkable about it is that it also has built into it a process in which it can be updated. My guess is that his comment goes beyond slavery and is maybe addressing the Constitution's lack of wealth distribution.

Next up we have this duzy of a clip where Barack Obama again laments about the lack of Wealth Distribution and how he wishes the Supreme Court would require redistribution of wealth. What's absolutely remarkable in this clip is that he specifically spells out the purpose of the Constitution one minute in to the clip when he says:

It (the Warren Supreme Court) didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution... That generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the States CANT do to you. It says what the Federal government CANT do to you. But it doesn't say what the Federal government or State government MUST do on your behalf.

Barack Obama says many more shocking things in this clip and I definitely recommend you watch it. This interview ticks me off to know end because before I watched the clip I assumed Obama simply didn't understand the Constitution, but he clearly does as this clip shows, but he wants to fundamentally change it (or atleast its interpretation). That's NOT change we can believe in.

Questions for Kevin Ranker

2008-10-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I received this document in an email from a friend. At first glance it is a rather critical letter that appears to offer many details and specific charges against Kevin Ranker. I know at least one reporter received this information and decided it was not newsworthy after fact checking the accusations included in it. It would be nice to get confirmation from those in the media responsible for publicly vetting our candidates that they have indeed looked in to these allegations and share publicly why or why not they deemed them irrelevant.

Of the several charges leveled at Kevin Ranker in the previous document there are two specifically that I think potentially hold some weight and deserve further attention. I trust that there are some good explanations for them and believe Kevin Ranker deserves a chance to defend himself and speak up against them.

In 1995, Kevin Ranker was arrested and charged with Resisting Arrest and Interfering with a public event.
Check out these official police report documents [1], [2], [3] for more information.

As I understand it, at the time Kevin Ranker was attending Evergreen State College. He and two others illegally entered a parade via a side route and began disrupting it with signs and politically themed chanting. They basically were protesting for the release or re-trial of Black Panther organizer (and convicted cop killer) Mumia Abu-Jamal. Kevin Ranker eventually got the resisting arrest charge dropped (although if you read the police report it sounds like it was warranted) and plead guilty and paid a 50 dollar fine for the disorderly conduct charge.

Some questions I have for Kevin Ranker surrounding this event are:

1. What group was he participating with when he committed the disorderly conduct/resisting arrest incidents at the Lake Fair parade?

2. Does he regret his actions or still stand by them today? Would he repeat those same actions today?

3. Why did he feel so strongly about Mumia Abu-Jamal that he was willing to break the law in support of him?

Kevin Ranker's Mysterious Australian Restaurant

I believe that Kevin Ranker's website used to explicitly mention the fact that he owned a restaurant in Australia. I can't find that reference any more, but he does still claim to have "private sector experience" mentioned here which I'm assuming is referring to this restaurant endeavor. If he has other private sector experience, it would be nice if he could explicitly cite what it is. The restaurant is mentioned specifically in this Bellingham Herald article as well as other articles on Kevin Ranker and apparently at some of his campaign events.

I would like to know more details about this restaurant endeavor specifically:

1. What was the name of this restaurant or bar in Australia and where was it located?

2. What business functions did you perform at the establishment?

3. Is this restaurant still operating today?

4. Is this the only source he has for his "private sector" experience?

I believe these matters deserve to be openly looked in to by the voting public and media for full disclosure and refuted and or explained by the candidate who wants to represent us.

Update:
Kevin Ranker's arrest was documented in the Olympian.

Paul, Pelosi, and Moore on the financial bailout

2008-09-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

According to the House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi it was the Republican's fault that the bailout failed to pass the house this morning. Hmm, last time I checked democrats controlled the house and although more Republican representatives voted against the bailout package many Democratic representatives did as well. There were many groups on the left who also opposed the bailout package including MoveOn.Org and Michael Moore.

I'm against the bailout as well and think that Ron Paul provided a great argument as to why he's opposed to it. On the other hand Nancy Pelosi's floor speech didn't provide any good reasons why representatives should support it and possibly ended up costing the bill several supporters.

Ron Paul had been warning about this exact financial doom scenario for several years now and goes in to specific reasons why it came about.

Michael Moore, who also opposed the bailout had a very interesting analysis as to why the financial crisis is upon us. He steps right over a much more accurate reason why this crisis came about when he says:

This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford.

I wouldn't call them "working class idiots" but I would say that thanks to GSE's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who the democrats refused to regulate and were creating a large share of the bad loans, many people who couldn't afford certain loans were getting them anyways. Instead, Michael Moore sees the underlying problem as being... (drum role please)

Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

Wow, what an idiot. I'm waiting for Al Gore to come out and say this financial crisis was all the result of global warming, and it's Bush's fault because he didn't sign Kyoto.

Encouraging Obama Statement

2008-09-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

This Presidential election has been "all about the money" for me. That's why I was an early Ron Paul supporter. Only Paul was talking about our coming economic difficulties (which we are now starting to see) unless we brought about real change. Not the kind of change that Obama or McCain are peddling. Neither candidate were talking about the economy before the "housing crisis" hit. Ron Paul even predicted the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac meltdown back in 2003 saying in part:

Ironically, by transferring the risk of a widespread mortgage default, the government increases the likelihood of a painful crash in the housing market. This is because the special privileges granted to Fannie and Freddie have distorted the housing market by allowing them to attract capital they could not attract under pure market conditions. As a result, capital is diverted from its most productive use into housing. This reduces the efficacy of the entire market and thus reduces the standard of living of all Americans.

Despite the long-term damage to the economy inflicted by the government’s interference in the housing market, the government’s policy of diverting capital to other uses creates a short-term boom in housing. Like all artificially-created bubbles, the boom in housing prices cannot last forever. When housing prices fall, homeowners will experience difficulty as their equity is wiped out. Furthermore, the holders of the mortgage debt will also have a loss. These losses will be greater than they would have otherwise been had government policy not actively encouraged over-investment in housing.

Ron Paul's presidential campaign speeches focused on economic and monetary issues, music to my ears. But I digress.

The point of this post was that I am somewhat impressed by Obama's statement today that he may not be able to implement some of his initiatives (health care, education, energy, etc., etc.) due to the current financial crisis and the state of our economy. I'm encouraged by this on two fronts. First, it shows that he does know his initiatives will be extremely costly to the US taxpayer even if he never talks about the costs of the initiatives or how he plans on paying for them and secondly it shows that he might restrain his actions to only those things that we can afford (or put up with the burden of funding) rather than pushing them through now and trying to figure out how to pay for them later.

I'm hoping that McCain will follow suit. He hasn't proposed nearly the same amount of domestic spending increases that Obama has, but his military expansion/adventurism and additional tax cuts would be just as costly.

Since I gave Obama a complement, I must also admonish him on something. He has been arguing to great lengths that our current failure is the result of the "free market" run a muck. He couldn't be more wrong. The market always has a tendency to want to correct itself, and the reason why things are so bad right now is because the government is continuing to intervene in the market place and trying to stop that correction. The more the government tries to stop this correction the more pressure that is building up on the other side.

Lets not forget the roots of this problem which was the Government Sponsored Entities (GSE) Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. The Republicans were very close to passing legislation back in 2005 to better regulate these quasi-governmental beasts but it failed in committee specifically because of democratic opposition. This article gives a good recap.

VP Switch-a-roo

2008-09-11T12:21:00.001-07:00

September 10th apparently wasn't a great day for Vice Presidential running mates. First Wayne Allen Root, the VP nominee for the Libertarian Party offers to step down if Ron Paul is willing to take his place (which he's not). Then at a rally in Nashu, NH Joe Biden says Hillary Clinton would have made a better Vice Presidential candidate than him.

Can a VP or even the Presidential nominee be changed after they are elected via their party's nominating convention?

Response to Lynden Tribune Letter to the Editor

2008-09-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just before the primary ballots were mailed out a letter to the editor was published in the Lynden Tribune. This letter attempted to paint all Ron Paul/Campaign For Liberty supporters as morally corrupt radical Libertarians who wanted to take over the local Whatcom County Republican Party. It also went on to provide a list of "authentic" republicans that it recommended voting for. A Campaign for Liberty member wrote a great letter in response to try to attempt to clear up the confusion that the letter to the editor writer had about us. I thought it was a great response and worthy of a larger audience.

August 6, 2008

Dear [Letter to the Editor Writer],

I am writing this to personally respond to your letter to the Lynden Tribune Editor on July 30 regarding a so-called "infiltration of the Republican Party by Whatcom Libertarians". First let me introduce myself. My name is [Campaign for Liberty Member], I am a Christian, a Professional Engineer, a part-time Bible teacher, and I am married and a father of six children. I also happen to be a patriot, love my country and a supporter of the Ron Paul campaign. My family has always been conservative republicans. Therefore I take offense at your implication that I am not an "authentic republican". Since I know many if not most of the people that actively supported Ron Paul in this county, I was incredulous at the amount of misinformation and false accusations contained in your letter.

Before I address your words point by point let me say this: The principles of the Ron Paul campaign and the Campaign for Liberty are simply to return our country to a Constitutional Republic and as far as the Republican Party is concerned, to return it to the principles of the Founders and the likes of "Mr. Republican", Robert Taft.

I hope you take the time to read the below response to the points and insinuations you made in your letter:

1. "infiltration" of the Republican Party. You must think that good intelligent conservative people getting involved in local politics because they are fed up with the unconstitutional policies of the federal government is a bad thing. Since that is our motive to be involved, your use of the word "infiltration" must mean then that those that you consider "authentic republicans" disregard the limitations placed on the federal government by We The People as codified in the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and are threatened by us that hold that the government ought to be limited by those documents.

2. "Whatcom Libertarians": This charge is baseless. Although we are a diverse group, I don't know any that are members of the Libertarian Party. Secondly Ron Paul has been a Republican congressman for thirty years, and has the most consistent voting record to limit spending, limit government to its constitutional powers, decrease taxes, defend private property, defend the Bill of Rights, etc. I do find however that the Republican Party leadership has, especially since the 80's, moved so far to the Socialist side that anyone that mentions the Constitution is labeled a "Libertarian". Apparently contrasted from your point of view on the Socialist side of the Republican Party, we are libertarians.

3. "highly organized": Ours is a grassroots effort, not a top down decree as to what to believe, who to support etc. Top down dictates is what we have discovered is running the Republican Party, rendering the caucus and convention system a sham that doesn’t represent the people. However if we are viewed as highly organized we will take that as a compliment although I realize by the context which you used it in that you intended to invoke fear or apprehension.

4. "militant effort": Your use of the word militant is an absurd but typical propaganda technique. As far as I know you haven't met me and from asking around you haven't discussed politics with any of us that supported Ron Paul's campaign or at least those that are actively involved. Your use of this word is nothing more than fear mongering by using a word that invokes images of armed and dangerous individuals. Nothing could be further from the truth.

5. "seizing control ......" Once more you use a word to invoke a false image of a person or persons using violence or strong arm tactics to steal something that isn't theirs. The Ron Paul campaign was made up of peaceful citizens that worked hard through the political process to support a candidate that stands for true Republican principles. If there has been any "seizing control" of the party it has been by NeoCons bent on destroying the foundations of which this country was founded. If there has been any "seizing" it has been by those that blindly follow the Party leadership in unethically stifling debate or voting at State conventions.

6. "alien worldview": I would certainly be interested in discussing this with you in person to find out exactly what you consider an "alien worldview". In your mind is, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers for the consent of the governed." an "alien worldview"? That in a nutshell is what this so-called "highly organized militant" group believes in.

7. "radical individualism": I'm not sure what exactly you intend to mean by this. But we stand for the preservation of our unalienable rights. We also understand the proper purpose and jurisdiction of government which is to secure those rights and protect the just from the unjust. We also believe in the rule of law as applied to government. Nowhere in the limited delegated powers given to the Federal Government by We The People is there any power to legislate morality or possession of substances. While I don't support the abuse of drugs of any kind whether legal or illegal, the Federal Government has no delegated authority to make possession of these items a crime. Furthermore, it took an amendment to the Constitution to outlaw alcohol during the 1920’s prohibition; where is the amendment to the Constitution giving the government the authority to make other substances illegal? Or was that when we believed in adhering to the Supreme law of the land, and now we don't? I don't support homosexual marriage and a person should be astute enough to realize that this a tax and government benefit issue more than anything else, and if we returned the government to its constitutional delegated powers then the "marriage" recognition issue would go away.

And when did we give the authority to the Federal Government to certify marriage? The answer is that we didn't. As a Christian you should know that the State and Church have no jurisdiction over marriage. That institution belongs solely to God and the family. If Christians would read the Bible and review the history of western civilization they would realize that whenever the State or the Church usurps jurisdiction over marriage then tyranny, corruption and abuse is the result. The Founders realized this, which is why you won't find any mention of marriage in the Constitution. Socialists, Marxists, Communists, Fascists on the other hand desire that the government control marriage, children, education, and everything else. Is that what your “authentic” republicans support?

8. Abortion: What did a Republican White House, Republican Senate, and a Republican Congress do in regards to abortion? Answer: Nothing. I personally believe that the unborn baby is a Life that should be protected by the Law and that no person shall be deprived of their Life, Liberty, or Property without due process of law. The debate is when does this Life begin? Therefore, you would know if you did some research before spouting off, that Ron Paul is the ONLY congressman to introduce an amendment to the US Constitution that would define Life beginning at conception. That would end the politicizing of the issue once and for all and cause the unborn Life to be protected by the Fifth Amendment. Barring that definition being embodied in the US Constitution, the Federal Government has no jurisdiction, and it becomes a State issue falling under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. If as you say "Republicans want cohesive, unambiguous federal protection of unborn babies" then why did they not overwhelmingly support Ron Paul's bill? The most feasible conclusion is that what they really want is the abortion issue as an ongoing political tool to garner votes of the uninformed masses who seem to be ignorant of how the law is supposed to work in this country.

As far as your term "checkerboard" approach, consider this:

"The way to have safe government is not to trust it all to the one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent....To let the National Government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and it's foreign and federal relations..... The State Governments with the Civil Rights, Laws, Police and administration of what concerns the State generally. The Counties with the local concerns, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all it's subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best." Thomas Jefferson

By the way, I do not think God is approving of the hypocrisy of those that claim that they are "pro-life" and supposedly abhor the killing of the unborn American babies, while on the other hand support and even cheer acts of preemptive aggressive war such as sanctions, bombings, invasions, and occupations that kill untold numbers of innocents. Is that what the followers of the Prince of Peace are to support? I guess that leads me to the next item.

9. "Isolationists": People that support unlimited government spending and unconstitutional power in expanding and maintaining a global empire always throw out the irrational term "isolationist". Ron Paul and those like minded are not isolationists, but advocate a foreign policy of peace and free trade. We believe that we should return to the foreign policy of peace and free trade with all nations that are willing to and engage in "entangling alliances with none". This is the foreign policy that our Founding Fathers endorsed and was an American patriotic principle for at least the first hundred and fifty years. We believe that we should not try to impose our self righteous view on sovereign nations by force of arms, sanctions, foreign aid, and other disruptive, coercive and imperial techniques. The interventionist foreign policy of the last one hundred years has been a failure and threatens our liberty and security by spawning hatred and blowback against a political, economic, and military invader. Finally it is immoral and dishonest to tax us and future generations by inflating the money supply through printing more fiat money to fund this foreign policy of empire and intervention as well as fund domestic social programs.

In short our current foreign policy of hubris is unconstitutional and leads to the removal of the very liberties our forefathers shed their blood for. For example the War on Terror has spawned the creation of more Federal Departments and Agencies to spy on Americans, it has brought about a redefinition and acceptance of torture of prisoners, it has all but eliminated Habeas Corpus, It has increased police powers in violation of the 4th amendment, it has limited freedom of speech, freedom of travel, and will soon require a National ID card, so that Americans will have to show "Papers". All because the government through propaganda has convinced the American people to be afraid.

On the "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive war here is what Dwight Eisenhower said: "Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing." Why did Americans and especially Christians listen?

On foreign policy and war we would do well to listen to the Founders and ask ourselves: Were these men "isolationists" or did they have wisdom gained from a knowledge of the history of the world, and an understanding of the character of man and government?

James Madison put it this way:

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps the most to be dreaded because it compromises and develops the germ of every other."

"The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it."
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
"The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war."

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

"War...should only be declared by the authority of the people...instead of the government which is to reap its fruits."

Thomas Jefferson said it this way:
"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."

George Washington said:
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
"It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world."

In conclusion, you mention that our "rhetoric implies" that we would not vote for McCain. I can't speak for others on that issue, but for myself I can say this: How can any principled person vote for the most liberal, socialist candidate the Republican Party has ever put forth? McCain is substantially no different than Obama. Both are for Big Government, More Government Spending, and the continuing of the demise of the Republic. Their rhetoric only differs on minor points on how to further the overblown government and spend more money. We supported the only candidate that stands consistently for the conservative values and principles of limited government. The Party Leadership and The Media rejected that candidate and selected McCain as their candidate. It would go against my principles, my ethics, and subject me to God's judgment to vote for such a man. My loyalty is in this order, God, Family, Country. Political party is a tool to support those priorities; therefore if a candidate violates the first priorities then he cannot get my support or vote. If more people would think like that and not just blindly follow a party or a man, we would be a lot freer and much more prosperous. An “authentic” Republican is not a blind follower of the Party leadership, but a supporter of a set of principles. When the Party Leadership violates those principles then the real patriots and Republicans are to speak out against it, not lick their boots and follow.

Lastly, your tactics of spreading letters around neighborhoods listing who you think the "authentic" republican PCO candidates are is dishonest and unethical. You are making claims about people you don't know and have never spoken with. You are spreading falsehoods and tale bearing, both of which are condemned by the Bible you claim to believe. This tactic will be discussed with the local leadership of the GOP as I am sure they don’t endorse it, and it is certainly against good ethics.

I suggest you get to know us, and I welcome a personal discussion with you over coffee to discuss these issues and any others you would like. I believe that you will find that we have more in common than you think, and rather than name calling you might actually find common ground with us and make some friends.

Sincerely,

Campaign For Liberty Member

Palin more experienced than McCain, Obama and Biden

2008-08-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

When it comes down to it Sarah Palin is the most experienced candidate running for President or Vice President.

If you look at Biden's and McCain's past experience it is completely rooted in the legislative branch of government. Never did they serve in an executive manner. The same holds true for Obama. Before becoming a US Senator he served in the Illinois legislature. Before Sarah Palin became Governor in 2006 she had served as mayor of a small town since 1996. That's over ten years executive experience.

Some will try to argue that she was mayor of a small town, and even now is governor of a state of fewer than 1 million people. Well, when Clinton was elected in 1992 he was governor of Arkansas which is presently just under 3 million people and he seemed to do alright.

Before coming in to office, every President since Kennedy has had SOME executive experience.

Bush Jr - Governor of Texas
Clinton - Governor of Arkansas
Bush Sr - Vice President for Reagen
Reagen - Governor of California
Carter - Governor of Georgia
Ford - Vice President for Nixon
Nixon - Vice President for Eisenhower
Johnson - Vice President for Kennedy

Not since the 1960 Kennedy/Johnson ticket has America chosen to elect two legislators to the oval office with no combined executive experience.

Sarah Palin is McCain's presumed VP

2008-08-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't researched her yet, but I like what little I have heard and read. Here's my very early top 5 reasons why I think this is a great choice.

1. Executive Experience
I was really hoping McCain would pick a governor as a running mate. If you look at previous Presidential elections the person with executive experience wins. Carter - governor of Georgia, Reagan - governor of California, Bush Sr. - Vice President, Clinton - governor of Arkansas, Bush Jr. - governor of Texas. I was surprise that Obama would choose a Senator as his running mate, I'm glad McCain picked someone with some executive experience.

2. Outside the beltway
She doesn't have the taint of being a life-long DC politician like McCain and Biden. Also, her political career didn't start in Chicago, one of the most politically corrupt cities in America. Unfortunately Alaska's political image has been somewhat tarnished recently no thanks to Ted Stevens and Don Young.

3. Lives out Pro-life values
She lives out her pro-life values. When she discovered that she was pregnant with a down syndrome baby she could have chosen to have an abortion like 91 to 93% of people choose to do. Instead she believed in her convictions that the unborn baby had a RIGHT to life.

4. Gender equality
If Hillary Clinton put 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling, Sarah Palin's going to bust through it.

5. She's no Dick Cheney
Biden has already been declared the NEW Dick Cheney by some in the media. I guarantee you that Palin could never be viewed as such. Obama had to choose someone with more experience and proven leadership than himself to give his ticket credence, likewise McCain was able to choose an outsider with new ideas to complement him. It makes sense that the bottom half of the Presidential ticket be the one with less experience and more idealism doesn't it?

These are just my first impressions, but so far they are very positive. Can I vote for the McCain ticket? I still don't think so, but so far I could easily cast a vote in good conscious for Sarah Palin.

Update 8/28/2008 9:28am - It's official. McCain just declared Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Biden the internationalist

2008-08-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

The very first article I read after learning Obama picked Biden for VP and I come across this gut punch of a statement.

An internationalist and strong supporter of the United Nations, he is a leading critic of what he sees as the vague, unilateralist approach of President Bush.

This is just great, I thought Obama, Mr. Citizen of the World, was the internationalist. This does not boad well for the ~~isolationists~~ non-interventionists out there.

People need to understand that both internationalists like Obama and Biden as well as unilateralist like Bush and McCain will continue involving our nations in foreign occupations and interventions. These are neither helpful for the occupied country (in the long run) nor something that our broke and indebted nation can continue to afford to take part in.

Our military was meant for one thing and that was to be the collective defense of the States.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. -- Thomas Jefferson

Ronvoy saves Rally for the Republic

2008-08-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a supporter, but even I had my concerns that Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic event wouldn't be able to fill up the 12,000 seat Target Center in Minneapolis. The event is going to have some amazing speakers and performers as well as be the spring board for Ron Paul's new organization, the Campaign for Liberty. My concern was that it seemed like a logistical nightmare for supporters who wanted to attend. A supporter interested in going would need to work out accommodations, travel, transportation and meals. This is made even more difficult by the fact that the Republican National Convention is going on at the same time in nearby St Paul. I looked in to it ever so briefly before reluctantly dismissing the idea of going.

I had hoped the organizers would setup remote sites across the country with live video feeds so that it would be easier for more people to get in on the convention. It looks like the organizers of the Rally for the Republic were thinking about the logistical difficulties and came up with a different solution ... the Ronvoy.

For those of us in the pacific northwest you can jump on the Seattle Line, kick back and relax. Hurry now, because the Ronvoy packages are only available until August 22nd, and I'm betting the limited number of tickets sell out before then.

Not only does it solve the travel problem, but also includes accommodation, meals, and transportation and all for 320 bucks, that's quite a bit less than half an American Gold Eagle for those of you who don't deal in fiat currency.

Anonymous comments now allowed

2008-08-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Blogger seems like a decent tool for hosting a free blog, but it does have a couple of downsides.

1. There doesn't seem to be a way to monitor page views or traffic information.
2. The settings are sometimes hard to find.

I thought I had comments open to all, but it turned out posting comments required a Google account or an OpenID account (whatever that is). Anonymous comments are now enabled so hopefully there will be more lively discussion.

A meaningful thank you

2008-08-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

I must admit I'm new to the whole campaign contribution thing. I gave pretty generously to the Ron Paul campaign, and made very minor contributions to Dino Rossi, Doug Erickson, and Steve Van Luven.

I'm sure Dino and Doug are thankful for my meager contributions, but only Steve sent me a hand written thank you note! A meaningful note at that. The envelope was hand addressed as well.

Let me also say it was an honor to vote for you in the primary Steve, and I'm sure you'll make an awesome State Senator.

The letter reads:

Dear [redacted],

Thank you very much for your contribution to my campaign. It is greatly appreciated and will be used wisely.

Steve

Whats wrong with our public education system

2008-08-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

As I was dutifully reading through the voter guide making my selections for various public offices I had to sit up and take note of a specific candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate statement. First it made me laugh, but then after thinking about it for a moment I wanted to cry.

Candidate Statement

Viva Chavez! No, I haven’t lost my mind - just my profession (teaching) and students.* Disgusted by voter apathy, I’m trying to tap into the energy generated by Venezuela’s president. Hugo Chavez has some good ideas, too - like holding corrupt corporations accountable and nationalizing strategic industries. In fact, public education’s biggest problem is corporate corruption, the de facto privatization of our schools. Yet the media have once again turned this race into a forum on the WASL - which I’ve fought for over a decade. So why do the media ignore and even lie about me? This race has also been dominated by corrupt teachers unions, another scourge I’ve been attacking for over a decade. This isn’t a tea party, folks. We’re at war with our own government, with Corporate America, and we’re getting our butts kicked, liberals, conservatives and independents alike. Well, I’m not afraid to fight. I’m even attacking Bill Gates, right in his home town. I don’t respect software terrorists who exploit children.

The thing that made me cry was the fact that this guy had taught students in Seattle for 16 years. I wonder if his personal political sentiments were reflected in his teaching? If he wants to emulate Hugo Chavez then I'm sure it was.

Back in March Clark Howard went on a rant about California's decision to criminalize home schooling. In my book California decided to make a "Hugo Chavez" inspired decision. I strongly encourage everyone to download and listen to Clark's ideas for education in this country. The podcast is available free, and it's 11 minutes EXTREMELY well spent. He starts talking on the subject at 50 seconds in to the podcast. I'm trying to decide on a public Superintendent that would model Clark Howard's ideas rather than Hugo Chavez. So far I'm leaning towards John Patterson Blair. He has some interesting ideas on how we could do education differently in this state. He probably wouldn't be successful in implementing his plan, but having someone with his ideas as superintendent would be helpful I believe.

You can see this information for yourself in your WA state voter guide or by going to the online version and then drilling in the left hand tree view under State Executive, Washington State, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Lynden Tribune and Republican PCO Race

2008-07-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

As much as I would like to claim that ~~Ron Paul~~ Campaign For Liberty is responsible for the masses of Republican PCO filings, that would not be 100% accurate. Sure, the local ~~Ron Paul~~ Campaign for Liberty meetup group inspired new people to run for PCO positions this year, but Campaign for Liberty was not the only group trying to drum up candidates for Republican PCO positions. Case in point, check out this Lynden Tribune article. John Robinson, a current Whatcom Country Republican PCO has been a very vocal critic of Ron Paul supporters in the past as well as in the current Lynden Tribune article, and this year he faces a challenger for his PCO position and surprise it's not from a Campaign For Liberty supporter. Robinson's challenger goes on to say that he has nothing against him, but "other Republicans" talked him into putting his name in. Also big thanks to Christi Lynse the new Whatcom County Republican Party chairperson for having this to say about all the new PCO candidates:

"We're just very happy to have the enthusiasm and the interest."
Republican leaders have worked hard to build up the PCO base, and Robinson may represent "old school" when "we need to change and grow if we're going to succeed," she said.

During the short duration, 8 months or so, that I have been involved in the Whatcom County Republican Party I have witnessed some growing pains. Some of these pains could be attributed to over zealous (and very excited) Ron Paul/Campaign for liberty supporters and some can be attributed to existing Republican party activists fearful of an influx of new people. Regardless, as time goes on and the new people are absorbed into the local party most people have come to accept one another, even if it means agreeing to disagree on some (national) issues. This does NOT mean that newly absorbed Ron Paul/Campaign for Liberty people will vote McCain in November (unless he makes some really unexpected gestures towards our constituency), but from the state level on down there's a good chance that these new activists will be supporting Republican candidates. And who knows, hopefully they'll become Republican candidates of tomorrow.

Oh and if Obama is so good at firing up the grass roots how come the number of Republican PCO filings greatly outstrips the number of Democrat PCO filings and many more precincts will be lacking a Democrat PCO than a Republican one?

McCain's Conservative model

2008-07-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

After reading this interesting article about who McCain views as his conservative model, I found it interesting that he picked Theodore Roosevelt. I had never heard of Theodore Roosevelt described as a conservative model before. Typically when asked this question candidates choose either Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan. Being the product of America's great educational system I decided to go to Wikipedia for a refresher as to what it had to say about Theodore Roosevelt and specifically his conservative credentials that McCain might like to emulate.

What I discovered is that trying to label Theodore Roosevelt as a conservative is a huge stretch by anyone's imagination. In fact by many people he was and should be labeled a Progressive. This line from Theodore Roosevelt's Wikipedia entry stuck out specifically to me:

He was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into the Progressive camp.

After all Roosevelt was the first US President to call for universal health care as well as national health insurance. He also had a very aggressive and interventionist foreign policy, modifying the standing Monroe doctrine to include the Roosevelt Corollary which stated that only the United States has the right to intervene in Latin American countries and should do so when we thought necessary.

I would like to know what actions Theodore Roosevelt took during his presidency that McCain most admired and would like to build upon. If he chooses Roosevelt's interventionist "Big Stick" foreign policy or nationalized health care/health insurance plans then I'm even less interested in McCain.

The boys have arrived

2008-06-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

My wife delivered two beautiful baby boys late Sunday night. What a treat that they were born on Father's day. Mom and babies are recovering nicely. Needless to say, I probably won't be posting any new blog entries for a while.

Paul on Obama: You offer no change

2008-06-12T08:02:00.001-07:00

All the pundits say this is going to be a "change" election and that whoever can win the change debate will probably win the presidency. By their rhetoric it seems that both McCain and Obama agree with this conclusion because both speak of change so much.

Ron Paul mentions many ways in this video how Obama stands for the status quo. If the Republicans really wanted to win the "change" debate their best chance would have been with Paul.

Thanks to the Daily Paul for pointing out this fine video.

Obama, on your shoulder!

2008-06-07T10:09:00.001-07:00

I just watched this video on my way out the door and just had to pass it on. This is some hilarious stuff.

And here's another one, not quite as funny for our very own Christine Gregoire.

The Great PCO Race of '08

2008-06-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

Candidate filing ended today and there's plenty of good news to report. First off, I'm running unopposed for my Republican PCO position, hurray! Secondly, the number of PCO filings for both the Democrats and Republicans is much higher than the current number of elected PCOs.

If you compare the number of elected Democratic PCOs from their website to the number of Democratic PCOs on the ballot in August the number has almost doubled from 34 to 61. The Republicans don't have their PCOs listed online, but I seem to remember being told that they had slightly fewer elected PCOs. This makes the fact that this time around candidates have filed for 82 Republican PCO positions even more impressive.

Even more exciting for the Republicans is that several of those PCO positions have 2 and in some cases 3 qualified candidates. I'm guessing Sam Crawford and Ward Nelson didn't think they would have to campaign again so soon, but both their PCO positions will be contested. 22 of the Republican PCO positions have 2 candidate filings and 5 of the Republican PCO races have 3 candidates!

Final words on the State Convention

2008-06-06T08:17:00.001-07:00

Speaking as an outsider, you can definitely tell there was some contention at the convention. This is normal and I believe healthy for the body as long as it is done constructively.

The State convention proceedings can be watched here, here, here, and finally here.

I recommend that anyone who is commenting on the happenings of the convention see for themselves what happened before reaching a conclusion. Personally, I think I'm going crazy because I actually enjoyed watching the 7+ hours worth of video. I'm considering donating to TVW in thanks of their coverage.

I'll (or others) can comment to this post with specific times in the videos where Whatcom County delegates participated.

Ron Paul Media Team

2008-06-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

The Whatcom County Ron Paul media team came through as promised. I attached their videos below. It's unfortunate that Fred wasn't able to record any footage inside the actual convention but his media credentials were rejected by the state GOP. He talks about that in this article. Fred considering this was your first time making/publishing videos and articles, you did a great job.

Eric Earling over at Sound Politics mentioned in a short post the results of the state convention, but much more can be learned from reading the comments.

Battle at Spokane

Battle at Spokane II

Battle at Spokane III

GOP WA State Convention Updates

2008-06-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the news coming back from the state convention is no where near as positive as our county convention.

Fred James (aka Il Fettucinni) has had difficulty covering the convention since his press credentials were denied. This is listed among the laundry list of complaints found in the second article.

His first article covers the Ron Paul pre-convention planning session. His second article covers Day 1 convention highlights and low lights. Mostly low lights.

Choices for POTUS

2008-05-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of Presidential hopefuls that I hope everyone will consider before casting their vote in November.

Most people refuse to consider third party candidates. They issue their protest vote by voting for the other dominant party's candidate even if they disagree with their positions. I ask everyone for a moment to suspend this type of voting practice and become aware of the actual choices you do have. If everyone did this we wouldn't be locked in to this broken two party system in America.

* Note John McCain, Barack Obama, and Cynthia McKinney are the presumptive nominees for their party. They won't be the official party candidate until elected by their party's national convention. Ron Paul and Hillary Clinton are still officially in the race for their respective party's nomination.

Excitement building for WA State GOP Convention

2008-05-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

The Bellingham Ron Paul meetup group is busy preparing to send the Whatcom county Ron Paul supporters to this weekends Washington State GOP convention in Spokane. They just linked to a good article from the Spokane Review which estimates that as much as 40% of the convention attendees may be Paul supporters.

I'm about equally excited to see how the national delegate selection turns out as I am to see how much impact they can have on our GOP State platform. Hopefully they have as much success at a state level as they did on a county level in Spokane.

A couple of Ron Paul supporters have formed the "Bellingham Ron Paul Media Team" and intend to:

Our aim is to broadcast the highlights of the Spokane Convention to you via YouTube and Nolan Chart LLC. We will have video interviews and other reports available to you and the world for free.

The Media team is requesting the following equipment:

Today an anonymous lender placed a Canon video camera and mike with cables into our hands. We now need to concentrate on finding a laptop (Best a MAC but not necessary!) that will accept this camera's feed. The laptop needs to have WIFI and software that can deal with video inputs.

If you have media equipment that you could donate for five days as they travel to Spokane or want to meet the media team and give them support. They will be meeting at the Bellingham Library tonight (Tuesday, May 27th) at 6pm to test out the equipment.

My take on the Libertarian party convention

2008-05-26T06:21:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that I did not go to the Libertarian convention only watched what was available on C-SPAN and read many blogs and news stories.

It took six rounds of voting before the delegates finally settled on former Republican Senator Bob Barr. Bob Barr won the final round with only 54 percent of the vote as compared to Mary Ruwart's 46 percent. Of the 11 candidates running for Libertarian candidacy only Bob Barr had organized opposition.

Some in the Libertarian party felt like Bob Barr is not a principled Libertarian. He's been in the party for just over 2 years. He has worked hard for the causes of civil liberties and freedoms, and has changed his opinion on several of his former Republican, non-Libertarian stances on issues like the War on Drugs, the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), and most importantly, the War in Iraq and America's interventionist foreign policy.

Wayne Allen Root was picked as his VP running mate. Root did a great job in the debate on Saturday and is youthful, high energy, with a strong business background. He too is a former disenfranchised Republican. His strong business background may prove useful if the economy continues to be a big issue.

The Barr/Root ticket may disappoint some left leaning Libertarians, but if Barr/Root can regain their support they do have a good chance of making this a great year for the Libertarian party.

I was somewhat surprised that the convention settled on a Barr/Root ticket because many conservative leaning Libertarians participated in the Republican primary so they could support Ron Paul. I expected this to tip the balance of power the other direction. It was mentioned that the convention this year was not as heavily attended as in the past which is atypical of an election year party convention.

Next weekend we have another exciting convention taking place. The Washington State Republican Convention in Spokane, WA. I'll be watching that convention very closely to see if the Republican party is as welcoming to liberty minded Republicans as the Libertarian party has shown to be.

Exciting times for the Libertarians

2008-05-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Libertarian convention in Denver. I love the way the Libertarians handle their presidential preference. Instead of holding state primaries for several months and then naming a "presumptive" nominee way before their actual convention, the Libertarians have one big knock down debate at the convention, hold several rounds of voting and then see whose left standing. Not only that, but the convention nominates both the Presidential and vice presidential candidates. That's also an interesting change from letting the Presidential candidate choose their own VP candidate.

Almost all the candidates running for Libertarian presidential nominee say very favorable things about Ron Paul and share many of his view points. Bob Barr seems to go the furthest in trying to connect himself to Ron Paul's ideals and stances, but he faces some challenges from Libertarian regulars. Mary Ruwart also pays much homage to Ron Paul and mentions how many of his supporters have endorsed her.

I'm hoping the Libertarian convention gets some press coverage and TV coverage would be even more exciting. I've heard rumors that CSPAN will be covering parts of the convention so hopefully I can find the times on my Tivo.

I'll finish this post with a powerful graphic that makes me really question whether I should be supporting the Libertarian party rather than fighting for change within the Republican party.

How McCain could reach out to dissolutioned Republicans

2008-05-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

An open letter to John McCain offering how he might be able court conservatives without alienating other groups:

Dr. Mr McCain,

I want to offer you some campaign strategy that could help you woo additional conservative supporters, maybe even some of the Ron Paul supporters, without having to change your "maverick" stances. If you think it's not important to reach out to these people, Ron Paul supporters specifically, then I think you should take a look at two Presidential candidates likely being offered by the Libertarian and Constitution parties. These candidates (Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin) will have little impact on the democratic nominee, whoever that might be, but could siphon many possible voters from your block. Also do you notice any similarity with their campaign websites and one of your previous competitors?

I understand your concern about Global Warming and Climate Change. One way you could position yourself on this issue is to first call for a Constitutional Amendment that specifically grants the federal government authority to address climate/environmental issues that extend beyond the boundaries of any single state. You wouldn't need to change your stances or ideas in any way but it would speak volumes to those who don't currently agree with you on the issue. Even they (myself included) would be in favor of addressing the problem Constitutionally even if we didn't support the proposed amendment. It would also demonstrate a clear alternative to what the democrats are offering and make them explain why their "solutions" would not require a Constitutional amendment in order to be enacted.

Concerning "The War on Terror". This is one of the biggest sticking points between you and many of those who are not currently supporting you. One way you could bring on more supporters is if you were to call for congress to make official the "War on Terror". Currently it is operating under a few resolutions granting the President authority to take action in certain limited ways. If you were to call for an official declaration of War on terrorist groups and hence legitimize the "War On Terror" as mandated by Article 1 Section 8 then it would again demonstrate that you are committed to following the Constitution to promote your agenda.

Another big issue this campaign season is health care. One thing you could do is publicly question how Obama's and Clinton's plan is Constitutionally sound. Where does the executive or even the congress get the authority necessary to implement their solutions without a Constitutional amendment? Reference the 10th Amendment for some arguments against the legality of their plans.

These are some ways that you could promote your agenda which at times may be at odds with some of your supporters without alienating those who disagree with you. Include some statements how the oath you took to preserve and protect the Constitution when you joined the Navy and every time you are sworn in as a Senator is important to you in your stump speeches and town hall meetings. Taking this approach would position you nicely to question how some of the "change" initiatives being promoted by the Democratic party can be legally performed without a Constitutional amendment. Making the democratic nominee explain how they are not breaking the law in the way they are addressing problems would paint you in an extremely good light.

From 'Brain-dead liberal' to free market capitalist

2008-03-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

I just read this long winded explanation of how David Mamet went from being a self described 'Brain-dead liberal' to a rational free thinking Constitutional Conservative. It sounds like what finally converted him was the following:

I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

This is the type of conservatives I hope can once again become the majority in the Republican party. Not the War-loving, civil liberty limiting kind we have so many of today.

You can read the full article over at the Village Voice.

McFalation and a 0% interest rate

2008-03-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

Back in one of the Republican debates focusing on the economy McCain said "I'm glad whenever they cut interest rates, I wish interest rates were 0." Here's one such Youtube video that shows that statement.When I heard him say this I laughed because I assumed he simply didn't know what he was saying. I'm beginning to believe that he actually does want 0% interest rates and all the disaster that would bring.

Here's a great link put out by our own Fed reserve that makes things very clear: http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fed101/policy/money.htm

I would recommend that you first click on the "Money Creation" link and then click the "Buy" button. This shows how the Fed "creates" money. No need to click on the "Sell" button as the Federal Reserve hasn't done this in many years anyway. Next I would suggest you click the "Interest Rates" link and then the "Decrease" button. This shows how the Federal Reserve manipulates the securities market to try and control interest rates.

If only McFlation would watch these two demos he would begin to understand that in order to sustain a 0% interest Rate the Federal Reserve would have to create new money to essentially buy up any available securities. Now think a moment how this might affect inflation...

Lastly if you watched the demos you'll notice that the Fed does their magic by manipulating the securities market. One of the largest forces generating upwards pressure on interest rates is our own government's monumental federal debt. So in essence much of this new money being created to try and artificially lower interest rates is actually buying up the federal debt.

Politicians have learned its much easier to cover their out of control spending by creating money (and debt/inflation) rather than raising taxes. The people (especially Republicans) get angry when talk of raising taxes occurs, but we are oblivious to the effect that their monetization of our federal debt has on our purchasing power.

This is why I believe that McFlation suggests that everyone wants 0% interest rates. By everyone he's talking about all politicians. They can finally make good on their promises of unlimited spending and no taxes.