Ron Paul 2012: Real Hope, Zero Hype.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The January 26, 2012 CNN GOP debate sucked.
The questions and the tangents the debate moderator tried to force is what sucked. As much as I disagree with three of the four candidates on a wide range of issues, I am really most disgusted with the media and the petty bickering it seems to foster.
President Obama State of the Union Address
Republican Rebuttal by Senator Rand Paul
Follow up to President Obama speech by Rand Paul
Also enjoyed some of what Ralph Nader had to say on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. Google that one.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
This Camp is A Problem - Oh... the hypocrisy
Posted by Greg Chamberlain
As someone who loves LA, lives in the county of Los Angeles, and who has done philanthropic service in and around Skid Row, I can attest to the truth about this image.
Many of those on skid row are veterans who have served in life or death missions abroad and have been thrown away upon their return. All, while the police work indirectly for the corporatists too not allow those challenging the status quo to take up public space to hold peaceful protest. Instead of hospitals dumping homeless vets on skid row, Los Angeles Police should deliver homeless vets to a safe place for them to be nourished and regimented enough to enter society. If they are unable, they are not to be discarded back on Skid Row. We are to build one less bomber to pay for this must fix now problem. Kudos to Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver and a team of devoted local and federal leaders to force the VA facility in West Los Angles to stop renting space to corporate renters on the VA property that was originally donated by a philanthropist who did so with the rule that the facility be utilized only to support Veterans and Veterans services. Shriver and his friends are doing something useful and important, but there some others in government have it all wrong.
As someone who loves LA, lives in the county of Los Angeles, and who has done philanthropic service in and around Skid Row, I can attest to the truth about this image.
Many of those on skid row are veterans who have served in life or death missions abroad and have been thrown away upon their return. All, while the police work indirectly for the corporatists too not allow those challenging the status quo to take up public space to hold peaceful protest. Instead of hospitals dumping homeless vets on skid row, Los Angeles Police should deliver homeless vets to a safe place for them to be nourished and regimented enough to enter society. If they are unable, they are not to be discarded back on Skid Row. We are to build one less bomber to pay for this must fix now problem. Kudos to Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver and a team of devoted local and federal leaders to force the VA facility in West Los Angles to stop renting space to corporate renters on the VA property that was originally donated by a philanthropist who did so with the rule that the facility be utilized only to support Veterans and Veterans services. Shriver and his friends are doing something useful and important, but there some others in government have it all wrong.
Stop Internet Censorship - Essay by Ron Paul on SOPA/PIPA
Hear Congressman Paul read his weekly column aloud at 888-322-1414
The Essay is updated every Monday morning.
Stop Internet Censorship
Weekly Essay by Ron Paul for January 23, 2012
Although Congress was back in session for scarcely more than a day last week, private citizens across the country managed to cause an uproar felt across Capitol Hill. The uproar took the form of hundreds of thousands of phone calls to both Senators and Representatives, urging them to oppose two draconian new bills that threaten the free and unbridled flow of information on the internet.
On Wednesday last week, dozens of prominent websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, and Craigslist, were blacked out in protest of two bills known in DC jargon as SOPA and PIPA. SOPA is the House bill; PIPA is its Senate companion. These bills ostensibly will combat internet piracy, and of course we also are told they will help us wage the never ending "war on terror."
What these bills actually do is force website owners to police the internet; create entry barriers to the only relatively free and open medium of communication; and threaten to break the technological structure of the internet itself. They also violate our 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech and our 4th Amendment freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
SOPA and PIPA have been drafted not only without respect for the Constitution, but also without an understanding of the how the internet works. These bills attack the very system upon which the entire orderly organization of the web depends. Search engines, internet service providers, advertising sites, and sites with user-generated content such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter--all magnificent creations of the market-- are directly threatened by these bills. They will be held responsible if even a single of their millions of users posts even one link to a website that a copyright holder claims is violating a copyright.
Note that under the bills as written, the Department of Justice or a copyright holder do not have to prove that their copyright was violated-- they simply have to claim copyright infringement and an entire site is shut down. The burden of these regulations on the internet will be enormous, shifting resources away from productivity and innovation and into monitoring and censoring. It turns internet companies into involuntary tools for Big Brother government, further eroding our Constitutional rights.
As is typical of so many bills in Congress, SOPA and PIPA were not crafted to make life better for the American people, but rather were written at the behest of big business trying to enlist the federal government as its strong-arm. For example, the Motion Picture Association of America spent more than $1.2 million so far lobbying for their passage.
But the internet community is fighting back effectively, not just with websites that went black but with millions of users who expressed their solidarity. Congressional sponsors of both bills have been jumping ship in response to the outrage. The House Judiciary Committee canceled the SOPA hearing they were planning to hold last Wednesday; the House leadership announced they have no intention of considering this bill; and at the end of the week Senator Reid announced he was postponing the vote until a "compromise" could be reached. The American people are speaking, and with their continued grassroots efforts the marketplace for free ideas and communication will prevail over government controls and censorship.
The Essay is updated every Monday morning.
Stop Internet Censorship
Weekly Essay by Ron Paul for January 23, 2012
Although Congress was back in session for scarcely more than a day last week, private citizens across the country managed to cause an uproar felt across Capitol Hill. The uproar took the form of hundreds of thousands of phone calls to both Senators and Representatives, urging them to oppose two draconian new bills that threaten the free and unbridled flow of information on the internet.
On Wednesday last week, dozens of prominent websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, and Craigslist, were blacked out in protest of two bills known in DC jargon as SOPA and PIPA. SOPA is the House bill; PIPA is its Senate companion. These bills ostensibly will combat internet piracy, and of course we also are told they will help us wage the never ending "war on terror."
What these bills actually do is force website owners to police the internet; create entry barriers to the only relatively free and open medium of communication; and threaten to break the technological structure of the internet itself. They also violate our 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech and our 4th Amendment freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
SOPA and PIPA have been drafted not only without respect for the Constitution, but also without an understanding of the how the internet works. These bills attack the very system upon which the entire orderly organization of the web depends. Search engines, internet service providers, advertising sites, and sites with user-generated content such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter--all magnificent creations of the market-- are directly threatened by these bills. They will be held responsible if even a single of their millions of users posts even one link to a website that a copyright holder claims is violating a copyright.
Note that under the bills as written, the Department of Justice or a copyright holder do not have to prove that their copyright was violated-- they simply have to claim copyright infringement and an entire site is shut down. The burden of these regulations on the internet will be enormous, shifting resources away from productivity and innovation and into monitoring and censoring. It turns internet companies into involuntary tools for Big Brother government, further eroding our Constitutional rights.
As is typical of so many bills in Congress, SOPA and PIPA were not crafted to make life better for the American people, but rather were written at the behest of big business trying to enlist the federal government as its strong-arm. For example, the Motion Picture Association of America spent more than $1.2 million so far lobbying for their passage.
But the internet community is fighting back effectively, not just with websites that went black but with millions of users who expressed their solidarity. Congressional sponsors of both bills have been jumping ship in response to the outrage. The House Judiciary Committee canceled the SOPA hearing they were planning to hold last Wednesday; the House leadership announced they have no intention of considering this bill; and at the end of the week Senator Reid announced he was postponing the vote until a "compromise" could be reached. The American people are speaking, and with their continued grassroots efforts the marketplace for free ideas and communication will prevail over government controls and censorship.
Monday, January 23, 2012
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