Category: Politics

People Like This Are the Problem

Our country is a mess. We have accumulated so much debt that we’re never going to be able to repay it, the government continues to spend even more money that it doesn’t have, our country is involved in several wars, and nothing seems to change. While I can’t address the first three items I just typed out I can address the last. The reason nothing changes in this country is because of people like this:

I had the pleasure of attending my caucus on Tuesday night. Presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke. He said some things that I agreed with wholeheartedly (70 percent), and some that I thought were either unrealistic, unfeasible, impossible or flat-out lunacy (30 percent). He took no questions.

I came to the caucus with no real “dog in this fight.” I ended up supporting Rick Santorum, but not enthusiastically. At the caucus, I asked a Paul supporter two questions: 1) Is Paul a real Republican or a libertarian, and 2) If he loses the nomination, will he support the eventual Republican nominee and swear off running as an independent or libertarian?

I had kicked the hornets’ nest. I was greeted with some obscenities. I was “a tool of the system.” I was the problem, not Ron Paul.

I was young and dumb once, and wasted a vote on Ross Perot. The folksy rich guy turned out to be nothing more than a unbalanced, mean spirited 1-percenter who would do anything to see that George H.W. Bush didn’t get a second term. Perot finished a distant third, but got his wish on Bush’s reelection, and I got eight years of an unprincipled guy willing to fool around with girls a third his age.

Huyck is a classic example of somebody who puts the part before political common sense. He’s not concerned about putting the most qualified man into the Oval Office, he only cares that his party is the one occupying it. The problem is, with a single exception, everybody running for the Republican candidate is a big government war monger that wants to legislate morality, the exact thing that has gotten us into the massive mess we face now. Ron Paul is not a Republican in the modern sense and expecting him to swear an oath of loyalty is pure stupidity. What this country really needs is an individual who understands economics, liberty, and is willing to buck the trend of ever expanding government. While Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich continue to pay lip service to such concepts they have no track record backing up their rhetoric. Even though people blame our current mess on Obama and the Democrats the truth is that the Republicans hold just as much responsibility as they also continued to expand the size of government. It’s not the red Republicans against the blue Democrats, it’s just one big fucking party of purple.

Huych then talks about “wasting” his vote on Ross Perot. Here’s the thing, statistically speaking, all votes are wasted. One vote doesn’t matter and Huych voting for Ross Perot wasn’t the death knell for Bush Senior or Dole. Does he honestly thing this country would have been better under a second term of the first Bush or a term of Dole? Hell we wouldn’t have been any better off if McCain won instead of Obama. Honestly, in my opinion, any vote cast simply to support a party instead of an individual is entirely wasted.

Finally I love his last line:

All I ask is that everyone treat their vote like it really matters.

JAY HUYCK, MAPLE GROVE

Unfortunately, as the link I previous posted proves, your vote doesn’t matter. Whether I go to the ballot and vote for Romney or stay home the outcome will be exactly the same because no major election has ever been decided by a single vote. I’m not entirely opposed to voting, it’s a tool the state allows to enact some kind of change and if we can get a liberty minded candidate in office I’m going to support him through and through. What I will not do is waste my time going to the poll to vote between Romney, Santorum, or Gingrich versus Obama. In that race no matter who wins we all lose.

Caucus Results

I’m sure you’ve all read the news that Santorum won the Minnesota straw poll. While I feel a great deal of shame for my state selecting a raging homophone war monger as their current Republican choice I’m glad to report my precinct didn’t follow suit.

Ron Paul swept my precinct in both the straw poll (Ron Paul came in first with 16 votes, Santorum came in second with 11 votes, Romney made third with 10 votes, and Gingrich came in dead last with 1 vote) and delegates. The important part of this race are the delegates and the Ron Paul campaign has demonstrated great organizational ability when it comes to getting them.

Buying the Election

In the United States you may not actually be able to buy votes but money does but you marketing and marketing has been proven to win elections. Considering this fact it appears as though Obama is sitting pretty with $81,761,012 at hand. Romney comes in a very distance second with $19,916,126 and the good Dr. Paul comes in at a an even more distant third with $3,761,886 at hand.

If money can buy elections Obama has this one in the bag… sadly.

In Rick Santorum’s View the Government Owns You

Of all the currently standing Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum is easily the one I hate the most. While Romney and Gingrich at least pay lip service to the idea of individual liberty Santorum firmly believes that the government has the right to control the actions of the people. But don’t take my word for it, ask the idiot himself:

It must be fun viewing one’s self as a king among men.

Jailbreaking to Become a Criminal Act Again

All legislation creates new crimes where none existed before. Some of these new crimes are absolutely moronic such as the ones created by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which made it illegal to circumvent copyright protection. A couple of years ago the Copyright Office made an exemption to the DMCA for jailbreaking devices but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is warning us that the exemption is about to expire:

The Problem – Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential. Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that’s been approved by the manufacturer. Modifying a device to run independent software – known as jailbreaking – is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users. But jailbreaking creates legal uncertainty. Some device manufacturers claim that jailbreaking violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which carries stiff penalties.

The Solution – EFF is asking the U.S. Copyright Office to declare that jailbreaking does not violate the DMCA, and we need your help. In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking smartphones doesn’t violate the DMCA. This year, we’re asking them to renew that exemption (otherwise it will expire) and expand it to cover tablets. We’re also asking for a new exemption to allow jailbreaking of video game consoles.

Personally I don’t give a shit what Apple or any other company things; if I purchase a device it is mine and I will do with it as I damn well please. On the other hand it would be nice not having the threat of prison looming over my head because I decided to modify my device.

Making Everybody a Felon

I’ve spoken out against the restriction that disallows felons from owning firearms many times. My reasoning is simple, most felonies aren’t even violent crimes so why should simply being found guilty of a felony be criteria for losing a supposed right?

By prohibiting all felons from owning firearms the state has created an effective means of enacting backdoor gun control. If the state can’t get the laws it wants passed it can just turn everything into a felony and disarm the populace that way. Perhaps this is the thought process being used by New York as they try to make cheating on SATs a felony:

New York would make felonies out of cheating on the SAT college entrance test under a bill released Tuesday as part of a legislative investigation into a scandal in an affluent New York City suburb.

The measure proposed by Sen. Kenneth LaValle of Suffolk County would create new felonies of facilitation of education testing fraud and of scheming to defraud educational testing and create a misdemeanor of forgery of a test. The felonies would apply to a test taker who impersonates someone else for pay.

The police state is best able to control those who are criminals and if you make everybody a criminal, well, you get the picture.

The State of The Union

Last night Obama gave the State of The Union address. I didn’t watch it because I have better things to do than listen to some asshole lie to me for an hour. Come to think of it Obama took an hour to cover the state the union is currently in while I can summarize it in a single sentence.

The economy is in the tank, we’re at war with a good deal of the world, we’re going to be at war with more nations soon, this country is turning into more of a police state as we speak, and the government can indefinitely detain your ass whenever it damn well pleases without charges.

Supreme Court Puts the Kibosh on Warrantless GPS Tracking

The Supreme Court finally ruled on whether or not government agencies can use GPS tracking devices to track suspects without first getting a warrant. According to a unanimous ruling they can’t:

The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously restricted the police’s ability to use a GPS device to track criminal suspects in a first test of how privacy rights will be protected in the digital age.

The court rejected the government’s view that long-term surveillance of a suspect by GPS tracking is no different than traditional, low-tech forms of monitoring. But its decision was nuanced and incremental, leaving open the larger questions of how government may use the information generated by modern technology for surveillance purposes.

This ruling is one of those few speed bumps being encountered by the government as it speeds down the road to tyranny and I’m glad for it. Anybody with a couple of brain cells to rub together would be able to determine attaching a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car without so much as a warrant is a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The complete Supreme Court writeup can be found here [PDF].

The Ultimate Shut Up Slave Legislation

Listen up slaves, you’re government has now decreed that you are to shut up while traveling overseas. HR313, the Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act of 2011, will make it illegal for American citizens to discuss acts that are verboten under the Controlled Substances Act:

The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) — even if the planned activities are legal in the countries where they’re carried out. H.R. 313, the “Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act of 2011,” is sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and allows prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who discusses, plans or advises someone else to engage in any activity that violates the CSA, the massive federal law that prohibits drugs like marijuana and strictly regulates prescription medication.

Nice huh? What’s even better is the fact this has already passed a House vote. This is a wonderfully verbose and yet horrible piece of legislations:

‘(b) Whoever, within the United States, conspires with one or more persons, or aids or abets one or more persons, regardless of where such other persons are located, to engage in conduct at any place outside the United States that would constitute a violation of this title, other than a violation of section 404(a), if committed within the United States, shall be subject to the same penalties that would apply to such conduct if it were to occur within the United States.’.

The government’s fingers spread far and wide in an attempt to control the actions of the people it claims to rule over. Even fleeing to another country is no longer a safe harbor.