We can cut our offense/military/foreign aid budgets down to a manageable $200 billion instead of $1.2 trillion there by saving our economy and coming close to balancing our budget. Japan, Germany, and Spain will start picking up the tabs for their own defense, and a more secure world will begin to develop.

It is great to know that our economy will start to rebound since so many of our hard working soldiers will be going back to work in the private sector, the very act of them being home, buying shoes, homes, food, will stimulate the economy.

Now that the war on terror is over, we have learned our lesson and will no longer be in other countries putting in puppet dictators, taking their resources and trying to spread democracy through the barrel of a gun, we will know that the people of those countries will not feel the need to plot attacks against us.

Finally we can abolish the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, the PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretaps, the ‘state secrets’ doctrine, and other violations of Americans’ civil and economic rights, and we can have our constitution back.

And now that Unicorns will be shitting lollipops we can breathe easier because all Americans understand the importance of a foreign policy of non-intervention and what a bad idea it is to be worlds police at the bequest of our corporate masters.

Yeah right.

But come to find out the Democrats have now escalated our current wars, and started new ones. They didn’t close Gitmo and have just approved the Patriot Act yet again.

You may have voted Democrat because you believe that corporations control our country. Well you are right, but they also control the Democrats. Unfortunately the only way to keep from having the government give out larger and larger favors to their corporate sponsors is to limit size and scope of what government can do. Libertarians believe the government should not be giving out favors to corporations. Do you want to see the lobbyists flee Washington? Limit government.

It could be you voted for Democrats because you believe that health care should be a right to all Americans. Libertarians believe health care should be much more affordable, and thus available to a much higher percentage of people. But the Democrats didn’t vote to give everyone free health care, they voted to force everyone to buy a product from their corporate sponsors. Great, the new boss is the same as the old boss.

You may have voted Democrat because you believe that some people don’t get a fair shake in life. Libertarians believe that everyone should get exactly that, a fair shake. Ayn Rand said, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” When we try to game the system for anyone we end up adversely effecting others, usually of the same group.

I have a saying that “Democrats are simply one economics lesson away from being Libertarians.” That one economics lesson can be found in the book “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt, in that book Hazlitt talks about the hidden costs of government intervention into the markets, and spells out why there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Libertarians are among the most charitable people on the planet. They just understand that if government can’t balance a budget, why would you want them in charge of your charity?

Especially the Federal government. Let’s take education for example. We know that competition creates better products. So why do we have the Department of Education, an agency 1000′s of miles away from Texas telling us how to run our schools? Why would we take our money, send it to Washington, and then ask them, “Please send us some money?” We are right here. We can spend our own money on our own schools. If we heard Missouri had a program that worked we might be quick to adopt it, but if we hear California is going bankrupt we might be quick to avoid it. The Federal government is destroying education, and competition. Libertarians think that is unfair.

The Libertarian Party is a great blend of sound economics and the idea that you should be free to make your own decisions about your life. You should give us a try. We think you will like us. Lord knows we are light years ahead of the Republicans.

So, here we go again. Another president is starting another war in another country that is no threat to us. And our mission will be limited because our goal is not to kill Gadhafi, only to stop him from killing the people who are trying to kill him. Oh yeah, this is going to go great.

Fake wars come in 2 flavors: Republicans will sell you a war based on the idea of protecting the security and safety of Americans, despite the lack of any immediate threat or even the military capability to harm the United States. Democrats sell their wars based on humanitarian reasons, despite humanitarian conditions and lack of freedom being far worse in many other countries that we consider our allies.

First, there is no threat to American security from Gadhafi. In fact, if Gadhafi’s “evil“ were charted on a graph, it would show a trend of diminishing greatly over time. Gadhafi was a very bad guy, but in the last few years he joined our coalition against terrorism, he got rid of his nuclear program, and has done nothing since to suggest he is a threat of any sort. But, Gadhafi has been pushing for nationalization of Libya’s oil industry since 2009. Could the “slaughter” of British Petroleum’s profits be the “inhumanity” we are there to prevent?

Furthermore, his son was in the United States working with our government military contractors. If Libya is such a threat, then why wasn’t Gadhafi’s son on the no fly list? I mean we have 10 year old Boy Scouts who inadvertently make it onto the no fly list, but not “the Butcher’s” son? Either “The Butcher” isn’t considered that bad of a guy, or we have the worst homeland security force ever… (okay I didn’t realize that statement would sound so ironic). I suppose you could make a case for bombing based on Gadhafi’s ties to the perennial economic threat and sponsor of dictators, the Federal Reserve, which gave Libya $26 billion during the financial crisis.

During his speech on March 28, President Obama imagines “mass graves” and an army threatening the “city of Benghazi, home to nearly 700,000 men, women and children who sought their freedom from fear.” But is this the reality? When they show the areas that were struck by Gadhafi, there are men with guns and tanks and/or anti aircraft guns. Something tells me Gadhafi does not consider them to be “his own people”. And Jon Lee Anderson reported that actual rebels number fewer than 1000. How many other humanitarian crises affecting 1000 people have we ignored? How many casualties will a war cause? It’s almost as if the rebels are just a small group of people who have been well armed and are paid to make a lot of noise in front of the media.

So that leads us to believe these wars must be about oil and resources, and once we became locked into this nightmare we are told that there are only 1000 soldiers fighting against Gadhafi, in a country of 6,000,000 people. I would have hoped that our commanders knew that tidbit prior to launching the first missile, and it’s odd that the media correspondents embedded with the rebels didn’t mention this earlier. And who are these people that we are supporting? Do we know anything about them or what they stand for? It seems like we might want to distribute some questionnaires and get a little insight. There are only 1000 of them, so it’s not like we have to poll half the country.

And what about the civilians that actually support Gadhafi? We act as if we are up against this one man, but it appears that is not the case. The rebels are being run out of towns by other citizens carrying guns. Once Gadahfi is taken out, are there not going to be countless dead people (citizens) on the other side? What about their lives? What about the people caught in the crossfire? Is it not humanitarian to try to save them?

But why do the Republicans not just join in with the Democrats so they can continue their wars for oil in bliss? Because that is the rub. They have to take different sides to maintain the illusion that Americans have a choice between two completely different ideologies. Then if the country gets completely fed up, the people will just vote for the other guy. If voters understood both sides were the same they would have to find someone else to vote for. They don’t want you going off and voting for a third party so they pretend they are different.

This latest war shows a lot about our own leadership. Fake wars come in two flavors. This one is the humanitarian variety. Could you tell the difference? If any of the selfless reasons offered by the president had any merit, then this country never would have sponsored puppet dictators nor removed democratically elected leaders elsewhere in the world. Both Republican and Democratic presidents have started wars for the same resources, placated the public with the same false humanitarian rhetoric, and demonized the enemy in the same way to focus the people’s hate. The fake wars may have two fake varieties, but the people behind them are all the same. So much for change.

Have we grown so pathetic as a nation that the opportunity to power the entire United States for the price of worthless desert land has become a confusing business proposition?

If this were true, who wouldn’t be scrambling to buy stock in that revolution? But instead we just see more people clamoring for a government hand out, “Government must give us money to fund our endeavor!”, which is what leads me to believe, it’s not true. The highest of start up costs would be wiped out quickly if you could supply that much energy, you would have to be a fool not to do it. So I am guessing when people who are smarter than Bill Maher do the math, they don’t come up with the same numbers.

The key to straightening out our energy woes is simple, get the government out of energy. Our subsidies for oil make the real cost of gasoline $12 a gallon. Almost all forms of energy would seem to have a leg up on that, but if you, like alot of people, believe these wars and our foreign policy are about oil, that would bring the cost of gasoline to a whopping $22 a gallon, now gas really loses the bang for your buck.

Why do you see commercials for energy companies trying to tell you how great their particular brand of energy is?Because they need your support at the ballot box to vote for people who will support their corporation. The beauty of this is that they use your taxes as a subsidy to pay for the commercials that support their particular brand of energy, so you get screwed twice.

If we got government out, we would soon find out what the cheapest, cleanest forms of energy are because they would be forced to compete in the market, thus lowering prices and in some instances raising prices, but displaying the true winners in the market. It would also show us who the real polluters are when our officials aren’t making regulations that actually protect conglomerates from legal action.

As a quick example our congress voted to cap the amount of damages an oil company would have to pay at 75 million dollars, though 75 million dollars A DAY in damage can come at the result of one oil leak.

If companies were held responsible for the damage they do in the markets they would be much more consicious of what jeopardy they impart on the environment, unlike now.

We have really shot ourself in the foot in regards to energy, and it is just one more thing where ding bats like Bill Maher will swear that “Government must do something!”, when in the reality the answer is “Government should do nothing”.

The Key ingredient is having a guy like Richard Forsythe who owns a truck and a trailer, Richard has been a real trooper when it comes to supplying his property for our events.

We invited people via our meet up group to help decorate, and asked for more volunteers to “have fun” during the parade itself.
People at these St. Patty’s day events LOVE beads… so give them to them. But we also gave out trinkets at the Gay Pride parade, so just remember to bring something, if you can’t think of anything else, bring candy! mmmm candy.

Also, you need to set yourself apart, we have an excellent DJ who really appeals to the college kids. Remember the key is to have fun, you want to associate your brand with something positive. We had four volunteers walking beside the float handing out literature.

So the check list looked like this:
Truck and Trailer, free thanks to Richard
Admission into the parade $100.
Generator and gas $70 (to power the mobile DJ)
Volunteers to pass out literature, and others to ride on the float and throw out beads… free.
DJ, with pumpin public address system, free (thanks Reid Robinson)
Propaganda (literature), it would be cooler to give out beads with our logo on them, but we have yet to think that far in advance ; )

So for around $200 we got our faces out in front of 100k plus people.
Can’t beat that!

Here is a link to some images:

“No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.”

To that I say “of course”.

The question is, by what means do you want to establish affordable healthcare? Do you want to use the magical fairy dust method, which somehow brings about great service and better care, covers more people, and doesn’t cost a dime? Or, do you want to endorse the only method of reducing costs that has ever worked in the real world, the free market?

Some will say, “wait a minute, isn’t it the free market and the greed of corporations that caused ridiculously high prices in the first place?” No, it is not. There is no free market in health care right now, so the free market cannot be the cause of the high prices. Here’s an example to illustrate the point.

Let’s talk about a simple commodity: food, specifically fast food. Right now as consumers we have nearly limitless choices of places to go, and a broad variety of menu options at each restaurant. If prices at one place get too high, we go across the street. If the deluxe meal is too pricy, we forego the fries and drink, or choose from the dollar menu instead. Fast food is therefore inexpensive because of a relatively free market.

But if government regulated fast food like it does health care, it would be a very different story. We would first be forbidden from crossing the street to buy our lunch. We would be forced to take the one on our side of the street. Next we would be unable to choose among the various menu items and would be compelled to take the standard meal. Government mandates would require us to purchase the fries and drinks even if we didn’t intend to eat them. Prices would skyrocket due to few alternatives and coerced food purchases. This is the way health care is handled now, and this is why there is no free market in health care.

This situation came about due to building government intervention over many decades. During World War II the government engaged in wage and price fixing. This forced businesses to offer health benefits to attract employees, since they could not offer higher salaries. Prices rose as a result of ever increasing demand as more and more employers provided coverage. Higher prices led to a problem where retired people who didn’t work could no longer afford health care costs. The government’s solution was to institute Medicare, another program where artificial demand grew exponentially because there were no market controls. Then came Medicaid. Due to lobbies from various groups like big pharma and the AMA, government regulations restricted supply just as demand was ballooning, and this soon created a very un-free market that only helped to super inflate prices.

This was great for insurance companies, because if health care prices become unreasonable then it means you will have to purchase insurance. So the two industries have driven prices almost off a cliff. But instead of understanding that the solution would be to remove government involvement in health care, there are people who want to just build a higher cliff.

The $20 Snickers Bar

Okay, so here is the situation we’re in right now. There is a Snickers bar in front of you. You go to grab it, and I say, “hold on there big fella, that will be $20″. You say, “$20 for Snickers bar!? That is way, way too expensive!” That’s when I get a big grin and say, “that’s right, and I am with the government and I am here to help”. When you hear these words, it’s always a good idea to run.

Now, here come the solutions.

The Bigger Government Solution: Regulations and barriers to entry removed the supply of many colorful choices that used to be available. They then realize it’s now too expensive for you (notice the addition of “for you”) so they now propose to charge each of your friends $1, and then you can get that $20 snicker bar for only $1. Your friends are a little upset, and you have not actually changed the ridiculous price, but in some strange logic it has now been made “affordable”. In fact the $20 Snickers bar will become even more expensive as the government collective increases demand while even tighter regulations strangle supply.

The Free Market Solution:We realize it’s too expensive, so we remove the barriers to healthy competition and consumer choice. By keeping the government out of it and opening the free market, the next thing you know people are offering you Snickers bars for $10, then $5, then a Three Musketeers for $2, then a Milky Way for $1 and some guy shows up offering you a Snugget bar for $.50 (I have no idea what a Snugget is…but it sounds delicious).

The people in need, the ones who absolutely cannot afford it, are few enough, that just the donations of doctors and charity would cover them.

This isn’t about saving lives. It’s about the fact that people were about to revolt against high prices, and the government has been lobbied to get involved and force everyone to pay, which will allow the prices to stay artificially high.

Our hospitals are flooded with people that are receiving free health care right now. They are not dying. But the thing is, they are not happy and neither are the hospitals that have to provide it, nor are the taxpayers that get billed the cost of “free” emergency room visits at five times the rate of a normal doctor visit.

Whereas little clinics like the one by my house are popping up and people are flocking to them. The care is not free. It costs $80, but these folks are willing to pay $80 to avoid paying $1600 and waiting 8 hours in a congested emergency room.

Some say we have to do something, else insurance premiums are going to jump up to 3 times their current level in the next few years. No they wont. Do you know why? Because no one is going to pay it. That is unless we get locked into some sort of universal government plan, then I guess we will be forced to pay it.

The only reason the government wants to be involved in health care is because they want to maintain high drug prices, high insurance prices, and high care prices for their lobbyist friends. It also gives them a reason to justify their existence. Most problems the government tries to solve, are problems it created.

The more government gets involved in health care, the more we head towards potentially limitless price increases. Do we currently have unlimited pricing for fast food or candy bars? No, because the free market offers a multitude of choices. But since government is involved in health care, it now uses the problems it created as justification for even more intervention.

Specific Proposals

- Allow people to purchase insurance anywhere giving consumers many more health care options. This measure alone will make health insurance available to so many more people.
- Allow Doctors a dollar for dollar tax rebate for serving patients unable to pay for services, during a transitional period.
- Allow competition from clinics staffed by nurses to handle small medical needs.
- Encourage individual insurance plans by giving them the same tax advantages of employer insurance. We should initially discourage government and employer based health care plans, since this is the source of outrageous costs.
- All people are then free to purchase their own insurance, but, since it is their own money they will be much more thrifty and competition will be increased.
- Phase out Medicare and Medicaid over 20 years. They are bankrupt institutions that have bankrupted this country. Encourage buyouts, right now.
- Encourage personal medical savings accounts that are tax free, and unused portions are passed on to families.
- Any type of government health care is done using “health stamps”. Like food stamps these would allow people to understand exactly what they are spending. When you have transparency of costs, you have desire to control them. This would also encourage people to shop around to get the most bang for their buck.
- Tort reform to make payments more realistic will further bring down health care costs.Make health care bills easy to understand so customers have a better idea of what they pay. – Allow a place on tax forms so quick donations to the needy can be made voluntarily.
- Finally, any other health care measures should be left to the states according to the 10th amendment of the constitution.

If we enacted some of these changes to actually create, rather than further prevent, a free market in health care, then we would greatly reduce costs. Additional regulation and artificial demand leads to waste and fraud, and gives consumers the false impression that their health care is “affordable”. Health care is a commodity like any other because of its scarcity. Now, let’s treat it like one and give people the freedom to make their dollars work in the most efficient and effective way possible.

By John Jay Myers, edits and assistance from Jordan Wagnon.Credit to the Cato Institute, Advocates for Self Government, John Mackey, the Mises Institute, and common sense.

John Jay Myers
www.JohnJayMyers.com

You might believe some speech gives away national secrets, for instance how we prop up puppet dictators in foreign countries, or how we have been training troops who are now turning against us in droves, or how we are supplying billions of dollars to countries who supply those who want to attack us, or how we back companies that supply men with young boys for sex slaves in Afghanistan, or how the leaders of the countries we manipulate are now scared that we aren’t bombing Iran. Surely no one should become privy to this.

Or should they? I am shocked to realize that the American people don’t stand up and say, “Why are we putting in these puppet dictators? Why are we arming and training troops to fight us? Why are we giving billions to those who want to do us harm? Why are we pimping young boys? Why would we want to bomb Iran in the name of Saudi Arabia?”

It seems to me we have an ostrich mentality in America. Americans can choose to have information, or they can go lock step with their favorite news channel and fight for the right to keep their heads buried in the sand.

They say knowledge is power. Would we rather cede that power to the same government officials 87% of us are completely dissatisfied with? Do you really believe that in matters of foreign policy this corrupt group of ninnies somehow becomes more competent? Is it possible that their secret actions actually put our nation, the American people, and our military personnel in more danger?

We have to make a choice, do we want to know these things that could save countless lives and restore America as the shining light on the hill, or should we sacrifice our greatness for what may harm a few? Would our leaders put those few in harm’s way in the first place if government actions were truly public?

It’s pretty odd that a foreigner who exposes unconstitutional secrets that enable a dangerous foreign policy of belligerence should be accused of treason and condemned for risking the safety of our nation. Instead, Wikileaks actually needs to become a permanent policy for American government. I think all government correspondence that does not involve missile codes or troop locations should be public, and any government correspondence that isn’t made public should be labeled as treason.

We should just make all government wires transparent, starting now. Tell all federal employees, “Oh by the way, all of your correspondence is public. Any correspondence you engage in that is ‘government business’ not made public will be labeled as treason.” Freedom of information and government transparency make us safer by keeping government officials accountable to the American people and to the Constitution they swore to defend and uphold. Wikileaks would be the full body scanner for the United States government.

Were you aware that Iran was offering to help in the stabilization of Iraq and the war on terror if we would remove their name as a sponsor of terror? I was not, but thanks to Wikileaks I am.

Maybe we would consider diplomatic above board solutions rather than espionage and corporate sabotage. Maybe we would stop doing backroom deals with mega corporations like Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, and BP. Maybe we should start dealing with other countries and their people, and let those people stand up for their own freedom instead of being inspired to hate us by our foreign policy of corporatism.

I imagine there is quite a bit of “small stuff” in the 248,000 yet to be released documents that the media has not sifted through to protect the innocent, which I might add is a procedure that has happened to all 1200 of the pages released so far.

But I don’t sweat the “small stuff.” What concerns mean is the big stuff, the obvious information that reveals our government is lying in regards to how our trillion-dollar foreign policy is working out. They are lying to us in regards to the actions we are taking in other countries and even lying to us in regards to whether we are violating the Constitution.

If the government is involved with illegal activities then they need to be exposed no matter the cost. Wrong is wrong, and the safety of the people is no excuse for hiding illegal secrets that threaten the safety of the people. The more these acts are disclosed, the less likely they will occur in future, and the safer we will be.

The most disturbing factor about Wikileaks is the nature of the attacks from the political class and the media. It should be startling to all of us the lengths those who are supposed to protect us will go in order to maintain a web of lies. Those lies allow government to exercise powers it does not have. We must never forget that an unchecked government is the greatest threat to our freedom, and a government immune to scrutiny will inevitably escape its constitutional bindings.

It could be that the most enlightening thing about Wikileaks is just how anti-Constitution our leaders have become.

John Jay Myers is a small business owner from Dallas Texas, Vice-Chair of the Dallas County Libertarian Party, and member of the Executive Committee for the Libertarian Party of Texas.

This video talks about how Foreign Aid isn’t charity, or charitable for that matter. It just hurts:
watch?v=pkN3oPI2HnU

This video has a great section (I think) in regards to how much we pay for gas if we consider war a subsidy:
watch?v=OpfgpLCaVso

This is just a collection of relatively funny or random parts:
watch?v=wIfq-UoJaik