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Libertarian Saturday
Author: TriSec    Date: 05/24/2008 12:28:42

Good Morning!

Is everyone enjoying the convention weekend?

What??? You mean the Mainstream Media isn't giving a whit of coverage to the 2008 National Libertarian Convention???

Well, I guess it's up to the blogosphere again...


That's right folks, it's Convention weekend in Denver for the Libertarian Party. Unlike the big boys, this convention is attended by 'ordinary' people (I could have gone for less than $1,500 if I was so inclined), and there's a whole boatload of speeches, events, and entertainment...


The 2008 Libertarian National Convention is America's largest gathering of freedom minded people. This event is open to the public, more than 1,000 Delegates, and their families from all 50 states. This may be the defining moment of the twenty first century.

The 2008 Bi-Annual Convention & Exposition is where Libertarian delegates conference to select the presidential candidate, select the National Committee, perfect the Libertarian bylaws and platform, network, learn about campaign issues/trends, and find new ways to fight for freedom.

Enjoy four days of excitement, intrigue, and education at the glamorous Sheraton Hotel in beautiful Denver, Colorado. Take advantage of this fabulous event to network with other freedom loving people. Vendors, showcase your companies' products and services at the 2008 Libertarian Convention & Exposition. This may be the only exhibit hall sporting a Starbuck Coffee shop and dozens of scheduled demonstrations and lectures!



Since there's no real primary process, there's a whopping 14 candidates for President that need to be whittled down this weekend. Curiously, one of the qualifications is fundraising...you need to meet a minimum threshold to make the list, but it's tiny; something like $500,000 or so. I've read up on most of the candidates, and I rather like George Phillies. (It helps that he's a local guy, from Worcester!)

I know most of us here (including myself this year) are throwing all our efforts behind the big "D" to make sure the Republicans don't continue their ruinous regime....but you should at least check out some alternates. You never know...



Speaking of ruinous regimes...we hardly need a reminder why more Bush woud be bad...but now Charley Reese is chiming in echoing something we've been saying for years....they're all insane!
President George Bush and his tag-along buddy John McCain are repeating almost word for word about Iran the pattern of lies and threats they used to justify the war against Iraq.

Our intelligence agencies have said that Iran gave up the pursuit of a nuclear weapon three years ago. President Bush makes speeches as if he's never heard of any intelligence agencies. That's what worries me about President Bush. His words very often defy and contradict reality.

Recently, he almost repeated word for word a theme he often used in the buildup to the Iraq aggression. It was, he said, unthinkable to allow "the most dangerous regime to acquire the most dangerous weapons." This guy might actually launch an attack on Iran before his term expires. If he does, you can kiss the world economy goodbye. You don't like $4-a-gallon gas? How about $10 a gallon?

In the first place, Iran is far from the most dangerous regime in the world. I would say it is not dangerous at all, so far as the United States is concerned. Except for idiots, sane people assess threats based on capability, not on political rhetoric, intentions or imagination.

So what are the capabilities of Iran? It has no nuclear weapons. We have about 3,000 or more. One American submarine could destroy the entire country of Iran and its population. Iran has no missiles that could reach us. It has no aircraft that could reach us. Its army couldn't even defeat Iraq.

So what I want to know is how in the blankety-blank Hades Bush and McCain define the word "dangerous"? When their statements about Iran are placed side by side with the known facts, Bush and McCain sound insane.

Nothing alarms me more than the thought of an irrational person in the White House. I'm OK with stupid. I can live with venal. I can tolerate a womanizer, even a drunk, but a crazy person in command of our nuclear forces gives me the heebie-jeebies. Somebody who can't tell the difference between a nuclear-free Iran with no ICBMs and Russia with thousands of nuclear warheads sitting atop advanced intercontinental missiles has no business being allowed in the White House, even as a tourist.

There are two countries that have the capability of being a threat to us – Russia and China. That's foreign policy and geopolitical strategy at the kindergarten level. They have the capability. No other country in the world does. Only a moron would worry more about an ex-college professor with a long name whose office doesn't even control the armed forces than he would about Vladimir Putin. This present American administration, in one of the dumbest moves in the history of diplomacy, neglected our relations with Russia while it got us bogged down in two small desert countries that don't amount to a hill of coffee beans.

Also bear in mind that it doesn't matter diddly squat if some small country manages to make a few nuclear weapons. A few is no threat to many. Nobody with a few would be tempted to attack any country with many nuclear weapons.

Deterrence worked when the Soviet Union had 30,000 nuclear warheads, but these moronic, unscrupulous, intellectually dishonest, dishonorable neocons would convince you that deterrence wouldn't work against Iran.

I know most secular folks equate religion with insanity, but they are not the same. Iran is a religious nation, but its leaders are not crazy. They are smart and well-educated. They fought a long, grueling war with Iraq, and I think what they want more than anything else is a little peace and prosperity. But I think they are worried about Bush, McCain and Israel, and I don't blame them.



Lastly this morning...in yet another reason to foster regime change at home...we can no longer afford to pay for our own wars; we can no longer borrow against our own future, so any further war funding is going to have to come from offshore. Nice, huh? It's an endless cycle of ruin that will lead to the downfall of the Republic if we're not careful. Of course, we've seen this before. Check out the late 80s and early 90s history of that "other" superpower....and see how well the cycle of war abroad and poverty at home worked out for them...
The US Senate has voted $165 billion to fund Bush’s wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq through next spring.

As the US is broke and deep in debt, every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed. American consumers are also broke and deep in debt. Their zero saving rate means every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed from foreigners.

The “world’s only superpower” is so broke it can’t even finance its own wars.

Each additional dollar that the irresponsible Bush Regime has to solicit from foreigners puts more downward pressure on the dollar’s value. During the eight wasted and extravagant years of the Bush Regime, the once mighty US dollar has lost about 60% of its value against the euro.

The dollar has lost even more of its value against gold and oil.

Before Bush began his wars of aggression, oil was $25 a barrel. Today it is $130 a barrel. Some of this rise may result from run-away speculation in the futures market. However, the main cause is the eroding value of the dollar. Oil is real, and unlike paper dollars is limited in supply. With US massive trade and budget deficits, the outpouring of dollar obligations mounts, thus driving down the value of the dollar.

Each time the dollar price of oil rises, the US trade deficit rises, requiring more foreign financing of US energy use. Bush has managed to drive the US oil import bill up from $106 billion in 2006 to approximately $500 billion 18 months later--every dollar of which has to be financed by foreigners.

Without foreign money, the US “superpower” cannot finance its imports or its government’s operation.

When the oil price rises, Americans, who are increasingly poor, cannot pay their winter heating bills. Thus, the Senate’s military spending bill contains more heating subsidies for America’s growing legion of poor people.

The rising price of energy drives up the price of producing and transporting all goods, but American incomes are not rising except for the extremely rich.

The disappearing value of the US dollar, which pushes up oil prices and raises the trade deficit, then pushes up heating subsidies and raises the budget deficit.

If oil was the reason Bush invaded Iraq, the plan obviously backfired. Oil not merely doubled or tripled in price but quintupled.

America’s political leaders either have no awareness that Bush’s wars are destroying our country’s economic position and permanently lowering the living standards of Americans or they do not care. McCain says he can win the war in Iraq in five more years and in the meantime “challenge” Russia and China. Hillary says she will “obliterate” Iran. Obama can’t make up his mind if he is for war or against it.

The Bush Regime’s inability to pay the bills it is piling up for Americans means that future US governments will cut promised benefits and further impoverish the people. Over a year ago The Nation reported that the Bush Regime is shedding veteran costs by attributing consequences of serious war wounds to “personality disorders” in order to deny soldiers promised benefits.

Previous presidents reduced promised Social Security benefits by taxing the benefits (a tax on a tax) and by rigging the cost of living adjustment to understate inflation. Future presidents will have to seize private pensions in order to make minimal Social Security payments.

Currently the desperate Bush Regime is trying to cut Medicaid health care for the poor and disabled.

The Republican Party is willing to fund war, but sees everything else as an extravagance. The neoconized war party is destroying the economic prospects of American citizens. Is “war abroad and poverty at home” the Republican campaign slogan for the November election?



Oof, that was rather long today, hmm? :peace:

I'm sensing another blog bumper sticker....so far we've got a few.

Although it's mainstream now, we believe our own Livin was the first to say "Voting for McCain is like voting for a third term of Bush"

The lovely starling has "Bitter voter for Obama"

So let's add "War Abroad and Poverty at Home - Vote Republican!"

 

41 comments (Latest Comment: 05/25/2008 02:38:19 by livingonli)
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