Redistricting Wars

Every decade a census is taken, and legislative district lines are drawn. This time, the stakes are higher and the outcome somewhat more in doubt than they have been in possibly the last 100 years.

The stakes are high because Obama-backlash and Tea Party momentum have come closer to turning this into a two-party state than perhaps ever before. The outcome is more in doubt because this time not only is one of the three men who will draw the lines a Republican (Secretary of State Mark Martin), but there are issues that have the potential to divide Democrat interests. State-Senator Gilbert Baker, well connected to both Governor Beebe and to national Republicans like Karl Rove, is also taking substantial interest in the project.

Very early on, Baker was pushing for a quick re-drawing of state legislative lines, saying there was an obligation to get as close as possible to the Arkansas Constitution's date of 1 February. Complying with that date is not strictly possible, because FED GOV will not formalize the data until later that month.

Among state legislative districts, one of the huge questions will be whether or not to gerrymander so as to manufacturer more minority-majority districts. If implemented, the effects will be the same here as they have been everywhere else this has been tried: it will polarize the legislature on racial issues and at the same time marginalize minority concerns. A few polticians of color might be better off, but the average black Arkansan will have less influence, not more. This is because .....

(continued, including analysis of the important question of "is Rick Crawford going to be thrown to the wolves to protect Tim Griffin?", on the jump)

Momma Told Me Not to Come: Patriots on Watch Radio

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Political Parties and their effect on the nation is our topic tonight. Mark and Frank discuss the pros and cons of former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's idea of demoting political parties to PACS. Also, how might be implemented? Some review of the "State of the Union" speech and its various rebuttals.

Ceceil Bledsoe Filing Strong Bills

State Senator Ceceil Bledsoe of Rogers has come out with a couple of good bills, you can tell that by how loudly the usual suspects are complaining about them.

Did you know that you are paying tax dollars for abortion in this state right now? If the life of the mother is in danger, or if they claim the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest, Medicaid pays for it in Arkansas. Bledsoe's bill would eliminate taxpayer funding in those last two instances.

The bill still would not end abortion in those instances, it would just end me having to pay for it. I have moral objections to all abortion, unless it's a one life or the other situation, and I welcome not being forced by the state to pay them. It's a difficult situation, but the bottom line is that I don't believe children should get the death penalty because their father raped someone. I don't know that the rape has to be proven in a court of law anyway. In other words, a woman could claim rape to get someone else to pay the bills.

This article on it claims that federal law would likely trump it. I am not so sure. Federal law may "allow" for funding in the cases of rape or incest, but that is not the same thing as "mandating" funding. And if the law does mandate funding, then it ought to be challenged anyway.

WOW! Beebe Admits Illegal Aliens Do Get Benefits!

WOW! Governor Beebe Now Admits He Misspoke - Illegal Aliens Do Get Benefits!

What Does Beebe Mean When He Said He Misspoke? And What Will Beebe Do Now That He Knows The Law Is Not Being Followed?

For years now Governor Beebe has proclaimed that illegal immigrants do not get benefits in Arkansas. Beebe was adamant about this proclamation as late as July, 2010, in this bullet point from an email from his office.

• In Arkansas, illegal immigrants are prevented – by law and regulation – from receiving welfare, food stamps, free medical care provided by the State and heating assistance. Legal status is verified before benefits are extended. Any attempt to defraud the system to gain benefits is a criminal offense.

NOW Governor Beebe admits he misspoke! According to an article in The Democrat Gazette, January 23, 2011, "During the campaign last fall, Gov. Mike Beebe told voters the state tracks how much it spends to provide services to people who are in the country illegally...Beebe's office has since said that the governor misspoke." 1

Governor Beebe not only made this statement that illegal immigrants don't get benefits in Arkansas during the campaign but stood on this premise through two ballot initiatives on immigration in 2008 and 2010. Beebe is quoted as saying in 2008 (and a similar statement in 2010), "All of the major provisions it [ballot initiative] proposes are already covered by federal or state laws, and this ballot title will create bigger government and cost Arkansans money." Now Beebe admits the legal status was not even verified so he is also admitting state and federal laws were not even followed. It is hard to imagine the bureaucratic costs would be more than benefits being given to illegal immigrants. And until real figures are compared, how could Beebe possibly know? And since when did Democrats want smaller government and less bureaucracy? 2

One of the major requirements of the illegal alien proposed ballot initiatives was that the departments must verify the legality of people receiving benefits. Therefore, Beebe's opposition was entirely bogus now that he admits legal status was not even considered. It is strange that people all over Arkansas knew illegal aliens were getting benefits; but Beebe, the Governor of the state, did not know.

So what does Governor Beebe mean when he admits he misspoke? Is Beebe saying he lied? Or is he saying that other people lied to him? Surely he would not have been this adamant about a hot issue that is so important to so many people without having some type of records or reports indicating the departments do keep records. Were documents falsified? Did someone in Beebe's office give him false information? Did the Department heads give him false information? The Departments seemed to readily admit they don't keep records. Don't we need to know where the false information came from?

What will Governor Beebe do now that he does know the truth – that legal status is not even verified in state departments before extending benefits? Will Governor Beebe apologize to Secure Arkansas, and all those citizens that labored hundreds of hours to get the required signatures to make the departments keep records and prevent illegal aliens from getting benefits that are illegal?

As leader of the Democratic Party, Governor Beebe's statement that illegal aliens weren't getting benefits was in essence the stand of the Democratic Party. I don't know of any Democratic leader that refuted his statement, so an entire party was in essence giving false information. Neither do I know of anyone in the media that refuted this information, NOT UNTIL NOW.
If these false statements by Beebe had not been proclaimed and carried across the state by the media, there is a very good chance the Secure Arkansas petitions would have been successful.

And what is Governor Beebe, as a former Attorney General, going to do about it now that he knows the truth. Is Beebe going to uphold the law and regulations that even his office points out in the bullet point above: " Illegal immigrants are prevented – by law and regulation – from receiving welfare, food stamps, free medical care provided by the State and heating assistance. Legal status is verified before benefits are extended."

Is Beebe now going to make sure that legal status is verified before benefits are extended? In an AP article by DeMillo, Beebe is quoted as saying: "I do believe that if something is the law you follow it. If you don't like the law, you try to change it in the way this country was set up and designed to change the law." Will Beebe live up to his own words? Secure Arkansas was trying to change the law, and their efforts were thwarted by Beebe, our Governor, with false information. 3

In a nationwide survey in 2009, "83% Say Proof of Citizenship Should be Required to Get Government Health Aid" Now we learn, "The Department of Health does not require proof of citizenship as a prerequisite of its 12 programs." Only 4 of the 12 programs are required by the federal government for illegal aliens according to the Democrat Gazette article. Will Beebe represent his constituents and now implement measures to make sure illegal aliens don't receive benefits in those other 8 Health Department programs? 4

For rest of article see this link: http://www.wpaag.org/Beebe%20Admits%20He%20Misspoke-llegals%20do%20get%20benefits.htm or click on Wednesday below:

Thomas Woods on Nullification and the Flying Attack Monkeys of the Establishment Media

The guy is a jewel. "You are only allowed to have opinions between Mitch McConnell and Hillary Clinton. If you get outside that three inches of the spectrum, they come after you."

Do yourself a favor and watch his 10 minute video.

The Fed's Next Scheme: Patriots on Watch Net Radio

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The Federal Reserve recently made an accounting change that will allow the big banks to double-down on their looting of the Treasury. Mark explains how. Also, what Jesse Ventura wants to "demote" political parties to PACs. Good for the country, or bad for the country?

Study Finds Link to MMR, Autism, Bowel Problems

I was wondering why the state-controlled media launched another attack on Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who discovered a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. They likely got wind of another study going down that is trending to results that support the hypothesis that the MMR goes terrible wrong for a significant number of children.

Obama Internet Kill Switch to be "Not Subject to Judicial Review"

There is renewed talk of giving Resident Obama an "internet kill switch" he could use in times of "emergency." The legislation contains a provision that this law "would not be subject to judicial review." In other words, Congress decides what the limits of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction is, and they would decide that this law would be outside it.

Such a clause has been used before, usually on things like bills giving companies accept to federal lands for logging or something. They did not want environmentalists tying it up in court for years.

This raises another important point in the struggle to protect innocent life. When the Republicans controlled Congress, the Senate, and the Presidency, they could have "overturned" Roe v. Wade any time they wanted to. They could have simply passed a law saying that abortion is a state matter and that this law was "not subject to judicial review." The fact that they did not do it, did not even talk about it, means only one thing: They don't really want to. They want to leave it as a political football to kick around. Two articles down I talk about another way they could have protected innocent life, by means of the 14th amendment. That did not happen either, but with the new Tea Party crowd it is at least going to get tried.

PS- Boehner is not serious about illegal immigration either.

The Fed and the Bankster's Next Move

The banksters have begun the next phase of The Greatest Bank Robbery, whereby they siphon off the wealth of the country while leaving us nothing but debt in exchange. I was wondering how they were going to initiate this phase. Now that the game plan has been set up, I can only marvel at the cunning manner in which they carry out their rapacious malevolence. First, the history…

Their awful bets in 2008 prompted them to accelerate what they had been doing bit by bit for many years. This was the same crooked racket that President Andrew Jackson caught their predecessors at almost 200 years ago. “Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time,” Jackson told them, “I am convinced that you have speculated in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you split the profits among yourselves, when you lost you charged it to the bank.”

This is a different century, but it’s the same scam. The big politically connected banks speculated with money they created out of thin air. If their picks turned out to be winners, they kept the money. But as the bets got bigger, the risks got higher. In 2008 it all blew up on them at once. When a little guy like you and me makes stupid and reckless investment decisions, we go bankrupt. The big guys have it set up so that when they make mistakes, you pay for it, not them.

Here is how it worked. They took their bad investments to something called the “Fed discount window” and exchanged them for dollars, or Treasury notes denominated in dollars. The Fed, run by the big banks and for the big banks, will not reveal to Congress how much was given to a bank for a given asset. The excuse for the “discount window” is to provide temporary liquidity to a bank that has a cash flow problem.

But the big banks did not have a cash flow problem- they had an insolvency problem. It wasn’t just that they had valuable assets that they could not sell fast enough, the assets they had were junk not worth half of what they paid for them. They were “underwater” in that they owed more to depositors than they had in net worth. No matter. The fed bought those assets off the banks at secret price, but still we know it was a higher price than the free market was willing to give. Sometimes, the Fed loaned to them with the assets as collateral. Then the banks told the fed to keep the collateral.

continued on the jump.....

Rand Paul Consponsors Life at Conception Act

One of the best kept secrets in politics is that it never did require a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of the unborn. Nor did it require a majority of justices willing to completely overturn the judicial atrocity that is Roe v. Wade. Rather, all it took to protect the unborn and greatly curtail abortion in this country was a simple piece of legislation that would be passed into law like any of the other thousands of federal laws on the books. The abortion issue is used as a political football that both parties have shamelessly used to fire up their bases for a long time. They wanted the issue kept alive, not resolved.

The 14th amendment already empowers Congress to determine who a "person" is under that amendment. If Congress simply recognized the personhood of unborn babies then they could not be deprived of life without "due process of law." Presumably this would mean a legal hearing to determine if there was legal justification to take an innocent life before an abortion could be legally performed. While many judges are so determined to advance the slaughter of the innocents that they would doubtless rule there was "justification" for almost any reason, the very fact that an explanation in court was needed would, IMHO, reduce abortions to a tiny fraction of the current level of over 1 million per year.

Like I said, the leadership of the "pro-life" GOP, and even the NRTL, have known this for years. They knew it when they had the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They just did not want to act on it. Congressman Ron Paul has previously sponsored legislation recognizing the unborn as persons under the 14th amendment. Those bills have never seen the light of day. Now his son Rand Paul is a new Senator from Kentucky. Rand Paul is co-sponsoring a similar bill, and it's a lot harder for a Senator's priorities to be buried in committee.

Tea Party Groups: Defense Cuts in the Mix

While a recent plan by Republican leaders to reduce spending did not address defense spending, many Tea Party leaders are saying that defense cuts should be on the table.

Ventura: Demote Political Parties to PACs

Are We Alone in the Universe?

At least one Doctor of Astrophysics thinks that the answer is "yes", or "for all practical purposes yes."

Dr. Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard, has noted that over 500 explanets (planets which orbit other stars) have been discovered so far, and they all seem to be extremely hostile to life. His conclusion is that "just right" solar systems and planets are a rare, possibly unique, event. While he does not rule out the possibility that some might exist somewhere, there may never be a means to detect them or they us, according to Dr. Smith.

I have long maintained that so many special conditions had to be "just right" for earth to support advanced life that despite the presence of 100 billion stars in this and billions of other galaxies, Earth may well be the only planet in the universe which hosts intelligent life.

The contervailing voice in the article touted Gliese 581 as a possible candidate for life. I beg to differ. It is a tiny class M dwarf with attendant outsized solar flares typical of the class. In addition, it's planet should be "tidally locked" to the star, so that the same face is always showing to the star while the other side is locked in perpetual darkness.

Concept of Truth Tells the Truth About Abortion

I noticed Tolbert had a story up about the "Concept of Truth" group. Women who have had abortions give heart-wrenching testimony as to what a mistake it was. If the "choice" was an informed choice, it might be different. The audio is AWFUL, but the link the website works.

Abercrombie Blinks on Resident Obama's Birth Certificate

The new Governor of Hawaii made big talk about how he was going to end the controversy over Obama's citizenship once and for all. He just knew the supporting documents were in there somewhere. All those "birthers" had to be crazy, right? He now slinks away with his metaphorical tail between his legs.

Barack Obama is not eligible for the office he now holds. It would be true even if he were born in Honolulu and did not forgo his US Citizenship while a child in Indonesia. Now, what can be done about it?

Joe Biden is From Mars, The Republicans are from Venus: Patriots on Watch Net Radio (POW radio)

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But neither of them seems to have any earthly clue as to what we must do to avert fiscal Armageddon. Mark and Frank deconstruct VP Biden's latest bizarre remarks, plus a deeper look at the proposed Republican plan to reduce government spending. Also, a bit on the latest potential nullification effort, in Oklahoma.

Illinois is the New Greece (State Bankruptcy)

The new congress is less likely to bail out corrupt liberal states like Illinois. As it now stands, because they are considered sovereign in a legal sense, states cannot declare bankruptcy. Will states be pushed to abandon their technical, though mostly unused, sovereignty in order to get bankruptcy laws to apply to them? This story has some background.

The Big Bang and the Bible: Patriots on Watch Radio

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Mark shows that despite the Tuscon shooting, members of Congress are, on average, at least as safe as the average citizen- arguing against some urgent need to further restrict citizen's rights based on threats to the safety of members of the ruling class. Also, "the majesty of the law" is wholly dependent on it's legitimacy. Mark expounds on MLK view. Plus, the Pope has declared the "Big Bang" and Christianity do not conflict. Mark goes further, and makes the case that the Bible teaches the Big Bang, and that it actually undermines atheism.

New Alabama Gov. Says Only Christians are His Brothers

And of course he is right, and of course the usual suspects are having a conniption fit about it. He does not share the same world view as a pantheist or an atheist so he is not in their philosophical or theological "family". He does not believe Mohammad is God's prophet so ditto with Muslims.

Can he be "fair" to people outside his "family?" Of course he can, much more fair than the secular media is to Bible-believing Christians, because doing good even to our enemies is one of the tenants of our faith. Beyond that, most people can be fair to folks beyond their own family. The whole uproar shows that the real issue is "can secularists and new ageres be fair to Christians?"

Study: Many College Graduates Can't Think Critically

Maybe that's because those who run the system don't really want them to. Read the piece and critically evaluate that for yourself.

Fighting Revisonist History on the Civil War, Lincoln, and Tariffs

Yesterday was not only Dr. Martin Luther King Day, but it was also Gen. Robert E. Lee day. Some people can't fathom any reason to honor such a day but racial animosity. That may be in part because the history they have been taught their whole lives is revisionist history, written (as all history is) by the winners. Here is a sample of the debates going on over history questions most people thought were settled.

Martin Luther King Jr. - Advocate for Nullification of Unjust Law

"How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law."
- Martin Luther King Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

The Trevor Drown Syndrome

Lately I have been turning my attention to why conservative activists fair so badly and are constantly outmaneuvered in political struggles, even though polls show a great deal of support for many of their basic positions. It is hard to escape the conclusion that while they may be wise on policy, they are foolish on strategy. They may know the right thing to do with power, but they don't know the right thing to do to get it.

Some of this is just due to a superior moral position. Conservatives tend to be principled beyond their own self-interest. Liberals will build a coalition with anyone if it advances their self-interest. Given that disparity it is not surprising whose self-interest gets more advanced. But beyond that, I am sad to say that conservatives don't fight smart, even when they fight for the right. And sometimes, their idealism is used against them, to divert their precious time, energy, and money into dead ends that burn them out without a reasonable chance of effecting positive change.

An example of this was Independent US Senate Candidate Trevor Drown. I am still not convinced that he wasn't either a government plant, or a candidate set up by the Democrats to drain votes from John Boozman. If that is true, then conservative activists got suckered, but even if its not true, even if Drown was 100% sincere, they still got suckered. They got suckered into wasting time, energy, and effort in a race it was totally unrealistic for him to win, or even accomplish any laudable goal whatsoever.

It takes a lot of energy to gather 10,000 voter signatures. I know, I've tried and failed for lack of help. Still, Drown got them. If those same signatures had been gathered for an alternative political party rather than a single man, dozens of conservatives could have run for local offices or for state legislative offices. Some of them might have even won. Someone could have run for Governor, and if they had gotten only 3% of the vote (likely given how listless the Jim Keet campaign was), then that alternative party would have gotten automatic ballot access next time. They could have even run someone against Dustin McDaniel, with a decent chance of winning that race. And of course, Drown could have wasted his energies trying to make the US Senate an entry-level political position.

When I gently tried to explain to my political friends that the Drown campaign was an unrealistic goal, I was often met with belligerence. When I tried to explain that we should focus on changing our own city halls and statehouse at least as much if not more than we should on trying to change Washington, I was met with incomprehension. Yet those things were, and are, true.

Mistakes are a part of being human. I make them daily. We all make them. Making mistakes does not make a person stupid, failing to learn from them does. It's past time to have a serious look in the mirror about what we are doing and how we are doing it. It's time to use our heads rather than our emotions to guide our actions. It's time to refuse the "busy work" that D.C. special interests masquerading as reform groups try distract us with.

It's time to do those things, but there is not much time.

CFTC Caves to JP Morgan on Silver Exchange

JP Morgan has been manipulating the price of silver down by buying huge naked short positions on the metal. They are in effect promising to sell more silver than they could ever hope to have, in an effort to drive the price down.

They were caught red-handed in this market manipulation, and as a result the Commodity and Futures Trade Commission was under pressure to take action. To prevent people from offering to sell an unlimited amount of silver that they did not have, it was suggested that there be position limits connected to the actual amount of silver deliverable. There was a giant run-up in silver prices as JP Morgan started unwinding their short positions- likely with settlements that lost them billions.

Now it turns out that Government By the Banksters, For the Banksters, and Of The Banksters has not perished from the earth. The CFTC, run by a Goldman Sachs Guy, has let JP Morgan off the hook. Instead of being punished by the market for their bald-faced attempts to manipulate the price, Morgan is being rescued from the consequences of their bad bets by the government. It's a silver bailout.

I thought that with enough public spotlight on them, the government would do the right thing and stop people from fraudulently offering for sale millions of ounces of silver that they did not have. Clearly, even I have underestimated the extent to which our government at its highest levels is completely owned and controlled by Wall Street banking interests.

The only result of this is that the price of silver will be artificially pushed down- for a while. There will be an obscene divergence between the paper price of silver and the price we have to pay to actually get some physical silver in our hands. On paper, JP Morgan will offer to sell you tons of it cheap, its just that all you can buy from them is a paper promise to give you silver later, not actual silver. This pushes the silver moonshot off into the future, and insures that when it gets here, it will be even more sudden and dramatic. The commodities index will be like a fantasy world almost completely unconnected with supply and demand fundamentals in the real world.

Education Week Gives Arkansas High Marks

Progressive Arkansas has a link up noting that Arkansas Education was ranked 6th in the nation by Education Week magazine. They posted it without comment, but to me the details provide a lesson in hype verses reality in education fads.

Our high overall rank was due to high rankings in three categories. "Transitions and Alignment" (1); "The Teaching Profession" (2) ; and "Standards, Assessments and Accountability" (7).

"Transitions and Alignment" means how quickly Arkansas jumps unto whatever latest BS (bovine scat) fad the Feds want to implement. The "Teaching Profession" refers to how many hoops we make someone jump through to get in the teaching profession and stay there. It means we require a lot of bogus "teacher training" which guides teachers on how to implement the "transitions" to "alignment" with beltway education standards. The "Standards, Assessments and Accountability" refers to how much our student testing lines up with said transition and alignment goals, and accountability refers to how big a stick the state uses on districts who don't comply.

The whole premise is that conformity to federal education standards is a good thing. It's not. There is no reason to have anymore faith or confidence in DC on education than we do in any other area of life. Perhaps less so since by definition, any federal initiative in education is done in spite of zero constitutional role for them in education.

And that leads me to where Arkansas is weak in education, according to the magazine. "K-12 Achievement" (36) and "Chances for Success" (45). Ironically, our education system scores very well in keeping up with federal fads, but does not do too well at actually getting students to achieve and be successful. But hey, who cares about that so long as we follow the program DC has in mind for us?

Protecting Rights vs. Upholding the Law

Craighead County Sheriff Jack McCann is on record as being mortified at the prospect that the open-carry bill sponsored by Rep. Denny Altes might pass. Sheriff McCann is aghast at the prospect of law-abiding citizens exercising the liberty to keep and bear arms as enshrined in both the US and State Constitutions. The Sheriff took an oath to uphold these constitutions. I wish he'd re-think his position in order to keep that oath.

There should be such a thing as the majesty of the law. But the law's majesty does not come from itself, but as a result of its reflection of a higher moral law that is engraved in the conscience of most every decent person. When the law no longer reflects the higher moral law, it loses its majesty. When it retains its majesty, the enforcers of the law are also the protectors of our natural rights- including the natural right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. The profession of law enforcement loses its dignity and honor when its officers forsake enforcing laws which protect the natural rights of the people, and instead become enforcers of law which are at odds with those rights.

All across the country we find cities whose financial condition is so desperate that they are cutting back on police protection. Even before that, it has often been said that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. It is no disrespect to the police to say that we should not be wholly dependent on them for our security. In these hard times that are likely to get harder, the police are likely to be stretched thinner.

Some law enforcement are sympathetic towards citizens who take personal responsibility for their own protection. Those are the kind you want. Such policemen are easy to respect, because they respect you. Those like Sheriff McCann, who get upset at the idea of citizens exercising their natural right to keep and bear arms, are the ones it is difficult to respect, because it is clear that they do not respect you, or their oaths.

Tea Party and Conservative Activists: Plan for Disapointment

I want to go on record with a prediction right now. New RNC Chair Reince Priebus will be a neocon big-government elitist Republican. He will make Michael Steele look like the good old days, except that he can raise more money from global corporations.

Steele reminds me of a coach who turns his team around and wins a BCS bowl, only to be fired because the big-money boosters don't like him. I have consistently seen in the GOP party hierarchy that sucking up is the definitive skill. I can think of several names in the state that have sucked the money out of one candidate after another and led the party to defeat, only to get promoted. Then Steele is at the helm during this remarkable turn-around, and he's out. Go figure.

The Tea Party and conservative activists should prepare to be disappointed. It makes less sense than ever for them to put all of their chips in the GOP basket. It's past time people started thinking outside the box rather than repeating the Charlie Brown role for Lucy and her football.

The Big Bang and the Bible

The Pope of the Catholic church made news recently by his pronouncement that the the idea of a Creator God and the Big Bang don't have to be in conflict.

While I agree with what the Pope said, it's hardly news. The Protestant apologetics group reasons.org, led by Dr. (of astrophysics) Hugh Ross has long made the case that not only are God and the Big Bang compatible, but that the Bible actually taught the Big Bang before scientists did. Here is an example which lists the scriptures.

Most evolutionary scientists are actually uncomfortable with "the" Big Bang. They understand that the properties of this universe are "fine tuned" for life. The only credible way around the conclusion that the universe was Intelligently Designed to harbor life and re-throne Chance is to postulate an infinite number of random universes.

Congress Safer Than We Are

Some in Congress, like Republican Pete King, are poised to pass legislation further restricting the liberties of the people. The excuse for this additional violation of their oaths to uphold the Constitution is that they do not feel "safe" after the horrid shootings in Tuscon that seriously wounded Congressman Gabrielle Giffords and killed five Americans.

If Rep. King feels that he cannot be safe without casting aside his oath of office and setting up unconstitutional federal restrictions on speech and firearms, then the honorable thing to do would be to resign so that some braver soul might serve. I don't expect that much, but at the very least the pretext which King uses to disregard his oath should be a rational fear rather than an irrational one. The stats show that the average congressman and senator is in no more danger of criminal violence than the average American.

I can't think of another congressperson to be shot in the last decade. Can you? Yet the stats show that in a typical year about 50,000 Americans (52K in 2000)are deliberately shot by guns and survive. Add to that about 18,000 homicides per year. That is 68,000 violent acts each year for the past decade, or 680,000 total. Divide by the population of the country (300 million) by that figure, and you get one incident for every 441.17 Americans. That's quite close to the 435 members of congress, of whom one has been a victim of this kind of violence in that same time span. Perhaps a fairer number would be 535, since I can't recall any Senators falling prey in the last decade either.

The rights of 300 million people should not be cast aside due to the actions of one insane person. More especially since members of Congress are in no greater danger than most of the rest of us.

Patriots on Watch Net Radio (POW radio) : Missed Opportunities

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Mark and Frank talk about the ways that the Tea Party and other reformers miss opportunities to have a lasting impact. Also, state leaders call for more college graduates as a cure for an ailing economy. Here's why that won't work.

: Patriots on Watch Net Radio (POW radio): Toning Up the Rhetoric

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Is "heated rhetoric" a problem? If so, what's the root cause of the problem? Mark gives his answer. Also, why silver took a (temporary) dip, and commentary on Dan Olmstead's autism findings.

Beebe Calls for Doubling of College Graduates

The Governor says there is no room in the budget for any tax cuts except perhaps to shave another penny from the sales tax. Perhaps that's because he has an ambitious agenda of doubling the number of college graduates in the state.

Will that help grow the economy of the state? How could it when we can't even find suitable jobs for the college graduates we have now? I just had an engineer friend take a job on the east coast. Lot's of college graduates have and are working in jobs that don't require the degree simply because they want to live here and its all the job they can get.

It's madness to think that doubling the number of college graduates will grow the economy. It will be a tremendous expenditure of resources, and if they want suitable jobs they will simply move elsewhere. In effect, we would be subsidizing the tax base of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. We may even have to go to surrounding states and offer their young people scholarships in order to find enough bodies to fulfill the goal. There are only so many young people in this state who want, or in truth are cut out for, college.

We have to get the industry first. We have to grow our business base first. Then we can let Texas pay for educating them while we get them to move here once they become taxpayers.

I have been saying this stuff for years, and I am finally hearing it said some out there, but it seems like the guys on top are the last to know sometimes.

My Take on the Redux from the Giffords Shooting

I don't have to give one because Paul Joseph Watson has said what I wanted to say, and has done so powerfully in this piece which I implore you to read.

Rebalancing Leaves One More Chance at Sub $30 Silver

Gold and silver have taken hits in January. One reason is unexpected, and unlikely to last, strength in the dollar. The other reason is something called portfolio "rebalancing." Every year around this time managers rebalance their client's portfolios.

For example, suppose you had a client who at the beginning of 2010 had a portfolio that was 50% stocks, 40% bonds, and 10% metals. That is a conservative mix, but lots of portfolios look about like that. Over the course of the year stocks and bonds stayed fairly stagnant, but gold soared 26% and silver 80%. Now its time to "rebalance" that portfolio. In other words, make the ratios of the assets look like the 50/40/10 that the client specified.

Since gold and silver rose relative to the other two asset classes what that means is selling gold and especially silver. Their rising values made the same amount of metals worth a significantly higher percentage of the portfolio. They will need barely more than half the silver they had going into the year to maintain the same percentage of the portfolio value. So they sell.

Now imagine that scenario repeated one million times. The bottom line is a lot of gold and even more silver is being sold this month almost on autopilot. They are being artificially depressed as a result of their past success. I would say this month is our last chance to grab some silver under $30 an ounce. Once the rebalancing ends, the underlying forces which propelled PM gains in 2010 will once again dominate over this temporary background noise.

Autism Link to Vaccines Derived from Aborted Fetal Cells

A three month investigation by United Press International links autism to the MMR and the Chicken Pox vaccines. Those two vaccines are live-virus, and they culture the live viruses in stem lines from aborted fetal tissue. Soundchoice.org had previously reported that genetic material from the aborted cells winds up in the viruses and from there can be integrated into the DNA of the subjects who receive the vaccines.

This study does not delve into how the MMR and Chicken Pox vaccines are produced, but does note that when they are given too close together the rate of autism increased in their study. They did not compare results to a control group which got neither of these vaccines, but my guess is that the rate of autism would diminish to the extremely low and level rate we had for decades before these shots were pushed on people starting in the mid 1980s.

Here Come the Intimidators

I've been feeling poorly this week, and not up to any real challenges- so I guess I'll just do something easy and demolish another John Brummett column. This time it's his "Here Come the Converters" piece. In it, he takes a couple of straw men, puts David Barton and Jerry Cox's names on them, and then starts hacking away. Barton runs Wallbuilders, a group dedicated to advancing knowledge of America's Christian heritage. Cox runs Arkansas Family Council, a pro-family group.

Brummett even took the likeness of the Taliban and of cult leader and convicted child molester Tony Alamo and added them to the lineup- in other words lumping Barton and Cox together with them as "religious extremists". It's absurd to put Christianity in the same box with Wahabbism. It's like saying aspirin and meth are both drugs.

It's even more absurd to put Cox and Barton in a box along with people who behead women in soccer stadiums and fly passenger airplanes into skyscrapers full of civilians. It's hysterical nonsense, and it is unfathomable to me as a serious person how John Brummett retains even a shred of credibility amongst the general public.

This is character assassination of the lowest sort, and it's what John Brummett does for a living on behalf of the establishment. Powerful people tend to resent the idea that there is any higher power over them to whom they will be held accountable. The idea that God has placed limits on the role of government is irksome to those who control government. After all, they sought government work because they enjoy gaining and holding power over people like you. Is there something so bad about telling legislators that there are limits to what they should do, and that God is watching them?

While Brummett slimes the people he calls "converters", he and his ilk are intimidators, and that is much worse. Why shouldn't Cox, Barton or anyone else have a perfect right to make the case for their position in the hopes that the listeners will convert to it? That is a lot better than using libel, character assassination, and smear to intimidate people who hold contrary views to yours into being silent about it. One is a matter for rational debate, the other is an attempt to silence it through bullying.

So when one goes into histrionics telling people that someone is like Al-Quida and like Tony Alamo, one had better have some specific examples of the kind of terrible things they want to become law. Brummett cited two as the most "frightful": "The Family Council’s view of the traditional family’s responsibility in child care led the group to oppose gay adoption and gay foster care and thus limit arbitrarily the available homes for our neediest children."

Yep. Trying to protect disadvantaged children from being turned over to homosexuals was one of the two most "frightful" things he could think of. Some of us, even if we don't want adults arrested for what they chose to do in their own homes, still don't want the power of the state to be used to turn other people's kids over to homosexuals. While they may have a right to screw up their own lives, that does not entitle them to state assistance in screwing up helpless kids. John Brummett here compares anyone opposed to homosexuals getting state assistance in obtaining access to other people's children as being like Al-Quida.

His second "frightful" policy is about of the same quality. "To say it is the church’s responsibility to care for the needy is to put at risk Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and unemployment compensation, sacrificing them to some vague notion that independent churches could somehow fill the gaps in a timely and coordinated way."

No John, what's putting those things at risk is that we have aborted too many of the next generation to keep them funded. It's your secular Taliban that has brought this nation the rivers of innocent blood, not the Christian church. And those programs are going to fail, the mathematics are irrefutable. They will fail at a time that people will be most dependent on them- unless non-government safety nets are in place.

We are all Freaking Doomed!

Figure 1: This chart compares total debt (or “credit”) in the U.S. to GDP (or Gross Domestic Product) on a percentage basis. Current total credit-market debt stands at more than 340 percent of total GDP. More details here.

But don't worry, the newly elected GOP team proposes a one-time one hundred billion dollar reduction in spending. Take THAT you 1.4 trillion dollar annual federal deficit!

Big Guns Say Goodbye to CPAC

Interesting read. Homosexual activists are the skunk that the almost exclusively LA and East Coast board insists on inviting to the garden party, driving long term guests and sponsors away.

Obama and Repubicans Reach Agreement: Let Mexican Trucks In!

FROM THE NYT "The Obama administration offered a proposal on Thursday to allow long-haul Mexican trucks to move cargo in the United States.

The proposal, which the Mexican government greeted as a positive step, was the latest sign of a new willingness by the Obama administration to support free-trade measures backed by Republicans and by businesses....."(read full article here)

There ya go folks. There is the change you are getting by exchanging one group of globalist corporate sellouts for another. Why, if they screw you again, you will be so mad you might even vote for the OTHER group of globalist sellouts again. And if THEY screw you again, why, you might get so mad that you will go back to voting for the OTHER ones again.

I long for the day when my countrymen realize that they are playing a rigged game, whose rules we must change if the republic is to be restored. I believe in the back of their minds they do realize it, but it is human nature to hope for an easy way out, and building a non-globalist political party would be hard work. While the delusion of hope can be maintained, the easy way out is to believe the promise "this time, you can trust us."

Patriots On Watch Radio: Ignorance of the Law

Listen here.

Is ignorance of the law now an excuse? Mark thinks so. A winding discussion with Mayor Frank Gilbert which takes us from John Boehner to Ron Paul to Ayn Rand and David Barton.

Strange Happenings: Is the New Madrid Coming to Life?

Birds falling from the sky. Fish washing up on the shore. Hundreds of tremors in Arkansas. Are they all tied together? At least one person makes the case its related to renewed activity in the New Madrid fault.

Legislator Elect May Not live in the State

The Democrat Party of Arkansas has looked the other way, but will the legislature seat this man?

Arktimes Goes After Beebe Legacy

The leftist Arktimes complains that Gov. Mike Beebe did not use any of his excess political capital to stop Republicans from winning a large number of offices around the state. The complaint that Beebe is only in it for Beebe reminds one of the Huckabee legacy in Arkansas, where the popular candidate is all about the himself, not building the party or advancing an ideology.

My conclusion is that this is just what successful politicians do. They act in their own interest while getting you to act in their interest too. They collect as many commitments as possible while giving as few as possible. There are exceptions, but Max Brantley and the Arktimes may not like to hear it. Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, and Ron Paul are three who have shown a willingness to go out on a limb to make endorsements. In Palin's case they are a bit all over the place in terms of ideology, but all three are willing to do it. So occasionally a conservative politician will be selfless, but I can't think of a leftist one who is. What might that tell us?

Is College Education in a Bubble?

One writer from Forbes magazine thinks so. I have often maintained that it is one of the most over-funded areas of state government because we don't have the economy to support as many college graduates as we have capacity for. We wind up subsidizing Dallas and other job markets.

Photos of Tornado Strike

Susie Doerr has pictures of the results of the tornado that hit southwest Washington County last week. There are not many homes out that way, but lots of tall trees torn up by the roots.

Mystery: Thousands of Birds Fall from the Sky in Beebe

More here.

It's Not the SEC, It's the South

The SEC is the top college football conference in the nation. My observation is that the reason for this is that the South is where the players are, and this is where the 'tude is. The football that teams play down here looks faster, and rougher, than that played elsewhere. The players tend to look more thickly ripped and muscled as well.

Some have used the early losses to non-SEC teams in bowl games to trash-talk the SEC. It is clear that the lower-rung SEC teams have lost games, but look who they are losing them to: other teams from the south.

Tennessee lost- to North Carolina. South Carolina Lost- to Florida State. Georgia lost- to University of Central Florida. I am sure that I am not the only one who has noticed how well the "minor" Florida teams are playing. Florida and Texas are the two deepest talent pools in the nation and not every young stellar athlete has the academics for an SEC school.

In the meantime, Florida is down, but still has enough to beat well-regarded Penn St.
Michigan is down too, and Miss. St. made them look like doormats in a 52-14 beat down. Alabama brutalized a Michigan St. team that was seven notches higher in the rankings 49-7.

My point about the SEC is that critics from the north and west have little to crow about. If they are losing, they are losing to their neighbors where football and the martial spirit is predominant, not to yankees and surfer-dudes!

Even tiny TCU managed to defeat Wisconsin, which is an excellent power football team. They are the best team in their region and could have finished as high as fourth place in the SEC. Should I wait until Arkansas plays Ohio State to write this smack-talk column? Yes, but I have a hunch the Hogs are going to take Ohio State and confirm what I am writing, for the reasons I am laying out.

I guess that means I am picking Auburn for the national championship game. Oregon was smart enough to come to Texas and recruit a couple of their biggest guns. That ought to keep it close, but Auburn is chock full of southern football warriors up and down their roster.

Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse

....so they say, but it might be if I was on the jury. When that phrase was coined the law was only a tiny fraction of its present volume.

Congress routinely passes new laws, sometimes thousands of pages in length, that they don't bother to read. Then they empower an alphabet soup of bureaucratic agencies to enact regulations that have the force of law. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people are paid to add to or change these laws and regulations on a full-time basis. Lawmakers don't know what the law is anymore. A talk with two different agencies might give you contradictory answers on what the law is on a subject in which they are both supposed to be experts. They can't even track the intended consequences of what they mandate, and are even more clueless about the unintended consequences.

Those of us with any initiative at all to be anything other than worker-drones with no political, business, or other aspirations simply cannot know about, much less comply, with all federal law. I no longer believe that "Ignorance of the law is no excuse". I now believe that the makers and enforcers of the law have an obligation to make the law comprehensible to those to whom it applies before that maxim becomes true.

We are all lawbreakers now, even if we don't know it yet. And how does one dare challenge the system if one knows the system can selectively brand you an outlaw at the first sign of trouble that you cause it? I believe that the ruling class has an obligation to make the laws understandable, just, and reasonable in scope. If they are not willing to do so, then we cannot have a moral obligation to obey laws that not even they fully understand.

Is there a method to this madness? Writer Ayn Rand thought so, and expressed it through the persona of a character in her novel....

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be
much easier to deal with." ('Atlas Shrugged' 1957) {WMail Issue #23}"

Six States to Enact Arizona-Like Laws

From the nullification files: Six states move to do the job that the Federal government is paid to do, but won't do. I guess they are too busy spying on American Citizens without a warrant, spending us into oblivion with unconstitutional programs, and sending our sons and daughters to nation-build around the globe.