Brushfires of Freedom

Dr. Paul will be interviewed on Progressive Radio Network’s The Gary Null Show at noon eastern today, and will also appear on Scott Horton’s Antiwar.com radio show at 12:15 pm eastern.

Listen live to Gary Null here and get more information on Scott Horton’s show here.

Update: Dr. Paul will also be doing a phone interview on FOX News’ Your World w/Neil Cavuto at 4:05 pm eastern later today.

Politico reports on the post-election reactions of GOP Senators, and gives some of their thoughts on moving forward.  The piece also features a quick humorous story involving Senator John Warner, the Virginia Straw Poll, and Dr. Paul.

Thanks to TimD for passing the link along.

ABC News reports on a possible compromise reached on the auto bailout by Senate Republicans and Democrats.

Be sure to call your Senators today and urge them to oppose any bailout, whether with money from TARP, a revision of previous loans, or any new grants.

I’m sure most readers have by now seen the wonderful grilling Dr. Paul gave to Fed Chairman Bernanke.  In his reply, Bernanke assured Dr. Paul that neither he nor other central bankers even discuss the idea of switching to gold, in the event that the fiat dollar system collapses.

Isn’t that rather shocking?  Doesn’t the Pentagon have all kinds of contingency plans, like, “Here’s how we’d invade France if for some reason the president ordered us to”?  So you’re telling me that with all of their staff economists, it never occurs to anyone in the Fed to draw up a contingency plan in case, say, China dumps its dollar assets and causes a global run?

What’s worse–if Bernanke is telling the truth or lying?

Ron Paul recently made himself available to the New York Times’ Freakonomics Blog to answer reader’s questions. So many questions came in that they decided to divide it into two separate features. The second one came out today. You can read them both here and here.

Dr. Walter E. Williams’ latest piece concerns the evils of socialism:

Imagine there’s an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here’s my question to you that I’m almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady’s lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I’m hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow’s lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I’d say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate’s mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.

This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need, by reaching into one’s own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another’s pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation….

(Copyright 2008, Creators Syndicate, Inc.)

Read the rest here.

At the 54:04 mark of this C-SPAN video, a C4L precinct leader from Alexandria, Va. questions former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay at a Roll Call event focused on issues to be taken up by the new administration and Congress.

His question concerns the excitement generated among youth, independents, and traditionally non-Republican voters by the Ron Paul campaign, as well as the lessons the GOP could learn from that.

Tom Delay gets his answer right in the beginning - Dr. Paul’s message of constitutional government is what excited so many people - but he follows that point up by stating that the major problem with the Republican Party is their lack of communication skills in getting out their message.

Sorry, but that’s just not the case.  The Republican Party got out their message, version 2008, and it was rejected by voters.  The problem doesn’t lie only with their communication skills; it lies with the message they’ve been communicating.  When Republicans endorsed bloated budgets, nation-building, archaic civil liberties violations, and several hundred billion dollar bailouts, voters found out all they needed to know.

Until their message returns to being one of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and respect for civil liberties, no amount of practice with communication skills will energize the Republican Party in any way similiar to Ron Paul’s lasting effect on young people or estranged voters.

Another lesson to be derived from this is that no matter where you’re at or what you’re doing, any venue can be used to spread the freedom message.  In this case, the question aired on C-SPAN, and who knows how many people may inquire into Dr. Paul’s message because of it.  Whatever situation you find yourself in, turn it to your advantage, and let’s communicate our message.

Earlier today, several Iraqi legislators protested a second reading of the recent U.S.-Iraq Security “Agreement,” possibly delaying the vote until after next Monday.

Joe Knollenberg of Michigan’s 9th District was on Cavuto the other day to show America why voters in his district voted him out this year:

Michigan’s Tim Walberg lost his seat, too, though. Walberg voted against the Great Robbery both times.

Thanks to celticreeler for sharing this.