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Liberty is Life - Liberty is Life

Campaign Finance laws are really incumbent protection laws

August 24th 2010 18:20

If you want elections to matter, then you need to be able to fire your elected representatives. This is nearly impossible because of the campaign finance laws. These laws are really incumbent protection laws. They make it almost impossible for challengers to raise competitive funding, while doing almost nothing to control the true causes of government corruption.
We were told that the campaign finance laws -- the contribution limits and the reporting requirements -- would curtail or even prevent corruption. Now, with 40 years of experience, we know that they do the exact opposite.
Powerful special interests have more control than ever. While it may be true that campaign contributions "buy" some small amount of access, or influence, it's very clear that other factors are far more important

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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End the Mexican Civil War (on drugs!)

August 17th 2010 12:48

The Mexican government reports that its War on Drugs has killed 28,000 people over the past four years. This ongoing tragedy is undermining Mexico's stability, which is bad news for the United States.

But that's not the only way drug prohibition is hurting us. I urge you to watch this interview with Neill Franklin, the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (under 9 minutes) Really Long Link
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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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NRA sells out!

June 16th 2010 17:41

I am truly appalled with the NRA. They have decided to support a bill that throws away our first amendment rights and help incumbents keep their elected positions. In a move that has dire consequences for our First Amendment right to freedom of speech and for any grassroots group's ability to fight for our freedoms, incumbent politicians have colluded with a super-sized establishment lobbying group, the National Rifle Association, to push H.R. 5175, the DISCLOSE ACT, or as I like to call it, the "Establishment Protection Act," through the House of Representatives as soon as this week.
You might ask 'How did this happen?' or maybe you just don't believe it. But here are the facts.
According to Politico, the NRA bargained for an exemption for itself and other large, established groups while trampling the rights of private citizens, new groups, and small organizations

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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One man's thoughts on Regulation

June 8th 2010 02:16

Do we really solve the problems of humanity by giving one small group of imperfect humans (i.e. politicians) vast control over the rest of us? And here's my reasoning - If a business does something I don't like (BP Oil Spill), then I can quit buying that company's product and show it that I don't like the way it does business. But, if the government does something that I don't like, what recourse do I have? If I quit paying my taxes, they send a taxman to my door, and ultimately a policeman with a gun to take my money by force. So you're probably asking what my solution is, and it's got two very simple parts.
First, we remove/repeal all the limits that the politicians have so graciously put in place to protect their campaign contributors in all the various realms of business. This government supplied protection must end. The people must be allowed to make the companies pay dearly for mistakes, otherwise we will be at their mercy (Like we are right now).
Second, we let the marketplace dictate which businesses survive. The consumers will not do business with companies that do bad things. Whether they are harming the environment or making things that turn out to harm us, the consumers have historically punished businesses that they don't like. This form of regulation is well expressed as 'The customer knows best

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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Are you guilty until proven innocent?

May 25th 2010 15:49

"Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets, all without so much as charging you with a crime. Unlike criminal forfeiture, where property is taken after its owner has been found guilty in a court of law, with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with or convicted of a crime to lose homes, cars, cash or other property. Americans are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but civil forfeiture turns that principle on its head." - The Institute For Justice, "Policing For Profits"
Scary to think about, isn't it? The government doesn't have to prove their claim in court under the standard of 'Beyond a reasonable doubt'. Instead of 'innocent until proven guilty', the property owner must prove innocence at their own expense. Of course the funds necessary to pay for that defense are usually also confiscated. Police departments are becoming more dependent on forfeitures to pay for their budgets during these tough economic times. Instead of "protecting and serving", they are being pressured to investigate 'crimes' which provide the most opportunity to seize property and cash.
Just by looking suspicious or through a simple misunderstanding, you can lose your house, your car and your life savings! Civil asset forfeiture is a moral and constitutional outrage

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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U.S. Government to blame for Oil spill

May 22nd 2010 14:57

Last Month’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was really the fault of the U.S. Government. Let me show you the facts, and you can decide if you agree with me or not. In 1990, Congress passed a law that did 2 bad things. First, it capped oil company liability for spills at $75 million. Second, it created a fund, paid for by the oil companies, to pay for the rest of the cleanup. Basically, this is a government run oil spill insurance program, but without the risk management provided by real insurance companies. This whole scheme came about as a direct result of the rich oil companies lobbying Congress to get themselves some protection and someone to share the risks for offshore oil drilling.
Now this fund has been used a whopping 51 times to pay for spill cleanups, meaning 51 times the costs have exceeded the cap. That alone should have raised a red flag and caused Congress to rethink the whole idea. But because of the liability cap, BP may have been less cautious than it would have been if only it’s own money was at stake.
And everyone will say that we need to regulate them more, but in reality that doesn’t work and I’ll you why. Government regulators don’t have the profit and loss incentive that private insurance companies do. They also tend to impose one size fits all rules that don’t work as well as the site specific requirements that private insurance companies would impose. Worst of all , government regulators tend to act as partners in the industry they regulate, not as watchdogs

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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Selective Transparency

May 16th 2010 20:31

Mr President, the man who campaigned under the more transparency in government platform, had decided that WALL STREET needs more transparency instead. While the Senate debates a financial reform bill that could audit the federal reserve bank and expose all the shenanigans going on there, the President is more concerned about financial transactions that he cannot yet control. He doesn't want the Federal Reserve Bank to be completely opened up to an audit, because then we would all learn what he already knows - the Federal Reserve Bank was a main contributor to the economic collapse of last year and is driving us straight into one of even greater proportions. Buckle up your bootstraps and buy all the Gold and silver you can, people, because soon the dollar won't be worth the paper it's printed on. And I would bet it won't be long before the Government decides to try and stop any private citizen from buying precious metals for investment purposes, so that they can better control the currency. Just remember where you heard it first.

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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ObamaCare is coming...

March 22nd 2010 12:34

Well, Obamacare is on it’s way. The President broke every campaign promise he made after meeting behind closed doors for weeks on end (he promised more transparency in the government!), and leaving all the special interest, pork barrel bribery (payoffs for votes in favor of bill) in the healthcare bill that passed Sunday, March 21st. In his speech on Saturday, the President called on the Congress to ‘ignore your constituents’. Never in the history of our nation has such sweeping legislation been passed in the face of such bipartisan opposition.
Never, in the history of our nation, have the leaders of a party had to stoop to so many bribes and threats to pass a piece of legislation. In addition to the cornhusker kickback and the Louisiana purchase, you have a new Student Loan takeover exemption for North Dakota, which Nancy Pelosi snuck into the reconciliation bill to get a needed vote from that state.
But all is not lost. There will be a long line of legal challenges now, including Attorney Generals in several states suing the federal government over lost Medicaid & Medicare monies. The ACLU and other rights groups plan to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of requiring Americans to buy insurance (or anything for that matter!). There is legal precedence in this matter. And of course the fallout will be a republican controlled house next year, because I guarantee you that voters will turn out in droves to remove arrogant legislators who ignored the people they were supposed to represent from office

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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Healthcare reform for real

January 22nd 2010 05:14

Perhaps now we can talk sanely about health care reform. It's time to admit that forcing the current house measure of health care 'Reform' on us is ridiculous at best. The solution is much easier that they want to admit. Just allow people to but insurance across state lines and make those payments tax deductible. For example, the minimum insurance requirement in NJ is more than the lease payments on a ferrari. The average medical plan in New Jersey costs $37,164 per year. The monthly premiums exceed the lease for a Ferrari!

By comparison, Indiana has far fewer corporate welfare mandates dictating what health insurance must cover. People in that state can choose between 43 plans costing less than $5,400 annually

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Posted By: Jeff Cannon - Category: No Category

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Spending Omnibus Bill is a joke

December 12th 2009 20:03

The latest end of year spending bill is being forced through, like everything else lately, by senate Democrats. How sad that a bill that is over 1000 pages long and contains over 5000 at home projects for each of the 60 senators that voted in favor of it to a tune of $3.9 BILLION dollars is being rushed through. More bribery by another name. It includes 10 percent INCREASES to most programs controlled by congress, as well as pay increases and more 'help' for a particular industry, the car dealers.
How much longer are we going to stand for this fiscal irresponsibility?
How can they possibly justify this spending bill

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August 2010

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June 2010

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