Farage’s upbeat New Year address

Eric over at Libertarian Republican has made a good find, the New Year’s address by UKIP leader Nigel Farage giving an upbeat message of the party’s prospects for next year. Polling is now indicating that the party has replaced the British Liberal Democrats as the third party of choice there and is making significant progress with its moderate libertarian message.
 

 UKIP has made serious inroads into the support from both sides of the spectrum and moved into the mainstream of British politics, forcing both the Labour and Conservative leaders to respond, which gets them past the situation where smaller parties get ignored. It also leads to the possibility of the majors moving to adopt some of their policies, thus improving the whole.

 He has forecast campaigning on abolishing tax on the minimum wage and cutting the soul, employment, and business destroying red tape that overwhelms the private sector of the economy. Both are good red meat issues.

The statement on immigration negates the racist tag often thrown at them in attempts to tar them with the image of the BNP. While acknowledging the legitimacy of their desire to seek better lives, he rejects the unsustainable idea that they should have them at the expense of the British taxpayer through government handouts, free housing and jobless benefits.

 UKIP is a party with fairly strong libertarian principles, having absorbed some elements of the LPUK however the two should not be confused. LPUK can be found here:

Bligh government phone account debacle

Cartoon: Baloo Cartoons

The Bligh government’s fiscal policy was like something from one of those Simpsons episodes in which Bart had got hold of Homers credit card and went wild with it.  It was pretty much carnival time on the taxpayer’s dime with government spending considered the highest of virtues.

The Ski Jumping Centre of Excellence in sub-tropical Brisbane, and the $700,000 egg shaped rock sculpture in an inaccessible area are two of the ultra-stupid ideas hatched by them.  The Health Department payroll debacle, in which an untried system replaced the previous one and didn’t work despite the waste of hundreds of millions in fixes, was another, but it is now revealed that they couldn’t even organize a phone account: 

The Sunday Mail can reveal that a whole-of-government telecommunications deal signed in 2011 commits the current administration to a prescribed level of annual expenditure.
However, public servants are not texting, dialling or googling anywhere near enough to meet the "committed spend" contract, which does not expire until mid-2014. 

The Newman Government has confirmed it received a $15.3 million bill from Optus for under-spent telecommunication services in 2011.  The bill arrived just three days after the LNP took office in March.  Another bill for about $18 million is expected to arrive within weeks. 

The botched communications contract adds to a long line of bungled IT decisions and controversial spending under Labor, from the health pay system rollout to $700,000 for an egg-shaped rock art work in a remote location. … 

Negotiations have been occurring behind the scenes for months between senior government members and Optus in a bid to prevent taxpayers wearing the cost of unused communication services.  But the contract is believed to be watertight, making negotiations to avoid the unnecessary costs amid Budget cutbacks difficult. 

Mr Crisafulli said the Government would continue efforts to reach a sensible agreement with Optus.  "I am certain other ICT providers would welcome the fact that this Government, unlike the last, is seeking real value and better services not pipedream proposals that don't deliver," he said. …

While it’s difficult to imagine that such a deal could be done without some sort of corruption involved, there is little evidence of SingTel-Optus donating in a lop sided manner toward Labor.  They seem to have favored the Liberal Party as far as political donations go.

We probably have to chalk this one up to ineptitude or bloody minded stupidity.

Anchor challenges Democrat Senator on ‘fiscal cliff’

Image: CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo, Source Breitbart 

 Finally; a break in the ongoing and boring saga of the US ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations in which we are fed a constant diet of dire consequences should an agreement not be reached to bring some balance to the budget. We’ve all been here and heard it all before, and are sick and tired of it.

 The Administration and its echo chamber in the mainstream media are maintaining that the problem is that Republicans are refusing to compromise despite the President making it clear that anything other than he wants, will be vetoed. It seems that the Obama definition of compromise is for the other side to give him whatever he wants. Any proposal from the GOP is rejected out of hand.

 This tactic has only worked till now because of the liberal media pushing the party line, something that might be changing with CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo challenging Democrat Senator Ben Cardin to cheering from floor traders:

Bartiromo exploded that narrative by challenging Cardin on ANY alternative type of revenue stream that doesn't include raising tax rates. Cardin would not agree to any of them, thus destroying the idea that Democrats are embracing the "balanced approach.”

“So how come you’re not moving forward? What’s the problem? Because the American people are so tired of this, and they are really tired of the lawmakers thinking that the American people are stupid. You can’t keep coming on the show every week saying the same thing: ‘It’s not a balanced approach.’ 

“You’re talking about $1.2 trillion in revenue, but you’re not prepared to put anything on the table. People are not stupid!” … 

… “That’s all you want to do. That’s it. It’s your way or the highway. Raise the rates on the rich. No other way. Your way or the highway. That’s it. That’s where we are. Thank you, Senator.” … 

What happened next was one of this unscripted and spontaneous events that we love seeing on CNBC. Because the anchors are often engaged in these shouting matches while reporting from their perch hovering over the trading floor (or in the case of Rick Sentelli right smack in the middle of the trading floor) the traders, the men and women who actually have to deal with the consequences of politicians' ham-fisted policies, are listening and following the heated exchanges. 

After Bartiromo called Cardin (and all Democrats) out for their duplicitous approach the traders erupted in cheers and applause. They were rewarding her for finally doing what most anchors and reporters refuse to do. …

It’s interesting to speculate on occasions as to whether some of the more intelligent journalists find it embarrassing to be required to constantly recite the party line although the dumber ones like Mathews clearly have no problem with it. Maria seems to break the mold.

US Libertarian Party calls for end to ‘gun free’ zones

In the wake of the killings of teachers and schoolchildren at Sandy Hook the predictable calls for gun control have come thick and fast.  While many of these calls are coming from well-intentioned people, they miss the point by a wide margin.  The problem was not that there were too many guns out there; it was that there were no guns in the hands of law-abiding people at the school.

While the point has been made by a number of the more lucid crowd, it is refreshing to have a political party take a stand on the issue as have the LP:

Libertarian Party: Halt the Massacre of Innocent Children by Ending Prohibition on Self-Defense in Schools 

Families throughout the nation mourn the horrific deaths of 26 people, including 20 young children, killed Friday during a Newtown, Conn., mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

“It’s impossible to imagine the depths of despair and grief that the victims’ families are experiencing right now,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. “Our hearts go out to every one of them.”  

In the immediate aftermath of news surrounding the shootings, pundits and politicians called for new restrictions on firearm ownership, exactly the opposite of the approach needed to combat tragic gun violence in schools.  

“We've created a 'gun-free zone,' a killing zone, for the sickest criminals on the face of the Earth," said R. Lee Wrights, vice-chair of the Libertarian Party. "We've given them an open killing field, and we've made the children of this country the victims." 

Wrights pointed out that merely the knowledge that armed people will be present acts as a deterrent for would-be shooters.  

"They're not going to walk into a police station, and why not? Because that's where the guns are," he said.  

The Federal Gun Free Schools Zone Act prohibits carrying firearms on school grounds in most cases, effectively criminalizing the right to self-defense in places filled with the most vulnerable citizens. Without that federal prohibition, adults working at the school would have been free to defend themselves, very possibly saving the lives of many of the young children and adults who were slain in this horrific tragedy.  

"We must stop blinding ourselves to the obvious: Most of these mass killings are happening at schools where self-defense is prohibited," said Carla Howell, executive director of the Libertarian Party. "Gun prohibition sets the stage for the slaughter of innocent children. We must repeal these anti-self-defense laws now to minimize the likelihood they will occur in the future and to the limit the damage done when they do."  

Responsible gun owners can and do prevent mass shootings from occurring and escalating.  

•                A 1997 high school shooting in Pearl, Miss., was halted by the school's vice principal after he retrieved the Colt .45 he kept in his truck. 

•                A 1998 middle school shooting ended when a man living next door heard gunfire and apprehended the shooter with his shotgun. 

•                A 2002 terrorist attack at an Israeli school was quickly stopped by an armed teacher and a school guard. 

•                A 2002 law school shooting in Grundy, Va., came to an abrupt conclusion when students carrying firearms confronted the shooter. 

•                A 2007 mall shooting in Ogden, Utah, ended when an armed off-duty police officer intervened. 

•                A 2009 workplace shooting in Houston, Texas, was halted by two coworkers who carried concealed handguns. 

•                A 2012 church shooting in Aurora, Colo., was stopped by a member of the congregation carrying a gun. 

•                At the recent mall shooting in Portland, Ore., the gunman took his own life minutes after being confronted by a shopper carrying a concealed weapon.  

For several years after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, gun prohibitionists blocked pilots from carrying firearms. But after it became undeniable that guns are an essential line of defense against hijackers and other terrorists when the lives of innocent passengers are at stake, Congress finally passed legislation allowing it.  

It's time to take the same approach with teachers, school administrators, and security guards, who should be allowed to carry the tools necessary to protect the students in their care. It's time to put an end to gun-free zones and make it much easier for responsible adults to arm, train, and protect themselves and the people they love from the violent criminals who seek to harm them.  

"You can't depend on somebody else to take care of your own life for you," Wrights said.  "It's too precious to put it into the hands of somebody else, particularly when the seconds count."  

The Libertarian Party Platform on Self-Defense states: “The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights — life, liberty, and justly acquired property — against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. We oppose all laws at any level of government requiring registration of, or restricting, the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition.”

For Australian readers, the firearms policy of our libertarian Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (under review) is here. 

Islamic truthers more nutty than Western ones

Image: Is Sigfried running Mossad?

Western truthers are a bottomless pit of amusement to most of us with their insistence that everything that goes wrong is the result of devilish and sinister plots.  From the Kennedy assassination plot to the faked moon landing, right through to George Bush ordering 9/11, they provide us with non-stop entertainment.

Islamists though come up with some doozies, the latest being the claim by Sudan that the Israelis have mobilized Zionist vultures to spy on their facilities: 

Sudanese officials announced Monday that they have captured an electronically-tagged vulture suspected of being dispatched by Israel on a spying mission. 

The suspicious bird was found to be tagged with an Israeli GPS chip, which is capable of broadcasting images via satellite, as well as a leg band labeled "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem", the Egyptian El Balad newspaper reported. 

Israel's National Parks Service dismissed the allegations, saying that both the band and the GPS chip were standard migration trackers. 

Tensions between the two countries become increasingly tense after Sudan accused Israel of carrying out the bombing of a munitions depot near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in October.  The depot was reportedly supplying Hamas terrorists with weapons to use against the Jewish state. Israel has not commented on the raid.

Islamists have a habit of finding the hand of Israel in just about everything they see, although most totalitarians have a tendency toward paranoia: 

Turkish authorities believe they have found a bird used by Israel for espionage purposes, the country’s media reported. 

According to reports, a Turkish farmer found the already dead bird, commonly known as the European Bee-Eater, with markings indicating it came from Israel.   The bird’s left nostril was reportedly three times the size of its right nostril, leading Turkish officials to believe the Israel had implanted the animal with a surveillance device in its beak. …

In 2008, Mahmoud Abbas's official news agency, Wafa, reported that Israel had released poison-resistant rats to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes. … 

In October of 2008, Iranian officials captured two 'spy pigeons' near the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, alleging that the birds were being used to spy on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear advancements. In 2007, the regime detained over a dozen squirrels believed to be spies of Western powers seeking to undermine the Iranian regime. 

In June of 2010, Egyptian officials blamed a wave of shark attacks on Israel’s foreign ministry intelligence, asserting,” We must not discount the possibility that Mossad threw the shark into the sea, in order to attack tourists who are having fun in Sharm al-Sheikh.” 

Furthermore, in January of 2011, Saudi Arabian security forces detained a vulture carrying a global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitter and a ring etched with the words "Tel Aviv University." Officials exclaimed that the creature was part of a "Zionist espionage plot.

It is to be hoped that these fanatics come to their senses and release the bird rather than put it in front of a firing squad as a spy.

Gympie’s authoritarian council keeps fluoride in water

It is difficult to imagine a more inefficient method to deliver a medication to children than to dissolve it in the water supply of a local authority.  Without going into the moral aspects of mass medication, the sheer stupidity of mixing it into the whole water supply most of which is used for lawns and gardens, industry, cleaning, washing, and flushing toilets is mind blowing. 

Way less than 1% is drunk, with less than a quarter of that by the targeted part of the population, children.  The rest goes straight down the drain, making the whole process dubious from the moral perspective, doubtful from the economic one, and suspect environmentally.

Now that the Queensland government has decided to allow freedom of choice on fluoridation, residents of the Gympie Regional Council were expecting a referendum on the subject, but council has refused this.  The most galling aspect to this is the arrogance expressed by councilors in their insistence that they should make the decisions for the community, not the community itself: 

A motion by Cr Ian Petersen to suspend fluoridation pending a referendum, drew ridicule from many councillors and was only supported by Mary Valley councillor Julie Walker. … 

"We are here because we need to make decisions for the community," pro-fluoride councillor Mark McDonald said.  "A lot of people don't even know this discussion is going on. They rely on us," he said.  He told the last Gympie Regional Council meeting of the year he firmly opposed any change.  "I believe fluoridation is good for the community and good for our children's teeth," he said. 

Various councillors described anti-fluoridation views as the work of "a noisy minority" and "conspiracy theorists".  … 

Cr Wayne Sachs said the council had a responsibility to continue with fluoridation.Cr Mick Curran said the current policy was supported by the World Health Organisation, the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Dental Association.  "We are not conducting compulsory mass medication.  "People have the option of drinking council water.  "They can drink tank water or purchase bottled water," he said. 

Cr Dyne said: "I think there is enough medical evidence to say it benefits children's teeth. We have an obligation to look after the community," Cr Dyne said.  "There is a noisy minority that will oppose it and who will oppose immunisation," he said. 

Cr Petersen's motion called for a referendum. "I am not qualified to decide which scientific argument is correct, but I am qualified to decide that the democratic process should prevail." 

Addressing Cr Dyne he said, "As a member of the LGAQ policy committee you would be aware of the policy position ... which states, 'it is a principle of ethical public health policy that mass involuntary medication must never proceed without the express consent of the community'."

The suggestion by the Mayor that opponents of fluoridation will also oppose immunization is trite and offensive, as is his talk of noisy minorities.  The poll taken with the report, which is admittedly unscientific, has that ‘noisy minority’ at 86% of the respondents.

With the exceptions of Crs Petersen and Walker appear to be arrogant and condescending towards the residents who oppose them on this issue.  The council’s ‘obligation to look after the community’ should only go as far as the provision and maintenance of roads and infrastructure.  We already have duplicated health services from the state and federal governments, and don’t need another.

Still, ratepayers should be glad that Crs Dyne, Perrett, Sachs, Curran, and company haven’t got a bee in their bonnets yet over the rate of depression in the community.  Who knows what might end up in the water if they did?

Crowder challenges union thug to fight

During and since the passage of ‘right to work’ legislation in Michigan, union thugs have done their worst in order to disrupt proceedings. Their main achievement of their actions was to give the public a real demonstration of why their power has to be broken in order to allow civilization to take its place.

 Demonstrators at one stage dropped the tent occupied by Americans for Prosperity on the people inside it, luckily not causing any injuries. Conservative commentator, Steven Crowder attempted to intervene but was punched in the face several times by one unionist while another was clearly heard on video threatening to kill him.

 Gateway Pundit is now reporting that Crowder has challenged the thug, who has now been identified to a Mixed Martial Arts style fight with the proceeds going to charity:
 
It is to be hoped that Crowder is not just mouthing off and is capable of carrying this off. It would be nice to see the offender go into the ring and cop a flogging.

UKIP poised to become third biggest party in UK

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has become the fastest growing political party in the UK and is about to replace the disappointing Liberal Democrats as the third biggest party behind the Conservatives and Labour. Their leader Nigel Farage is the most recognizable face of the party, commanding international recognition for his fiery speeches, libertarian message, and clashes with Eurocrats. We have a modest example here:


Essentially the people of the UK are getting tired of the growing influence of other European nations in their regulatory and legal framework, as well as the growing cost of an additional layer of government.  While it is not uncommon for parties facing election to offer lip service to the problem, it goes nowhere after elections are over.  Farage is different:

With Farage leading the charge, the "Independence Party in Britain is about to replace the Liberal Democrats as the third-largest political party behind the Conservatives and Labour," which "heaps more pressure" on Cameron to deal with the rising anti-European Union sentiment.  

Some in Cameron's Conservative party, seeing the rising threat of the Independence Party and the general anti-European Union sentiment across Europe, "called for the Conservatives to enter an electoral pact with the Independence Party before the next election in 2015, in return for a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the European Union." 

The Times writes Farage takes glee in disseminating his "his anti-European Union message by highlighting the bloc’s bureaucratic absurdities and spendthrift tendencies" and "mocking with glee the most prominent proponents of a European superstate." 

Farage, for instance, has said the head of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy, are “ghastly people, and neither pass the Farage test: Would I employ them or would I want to go have a drink with them?” 

He has relished ridiculing the European Parliament to his face as he "squirmed." "I said you’d be the quiet assassin of nation-state democracy,” Farage once told the European Parliament president Herman Van Rompuy. "And sure enough, in your dull and technocratic way, you’ve gone about your course.” 

This "damn the technocrats" rallying cry -- "raw, profane, and born of genuine conviction," as the Times describes -- is sweeping across other European countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, who feel shackled by bureaucrats far removed from their countries and the lives of their citizens.  

The Times notes that Farage's political views started to gel when he "witnessed the ejection of the pound from the Europe-imposed system of fixed exchange rates that was a precursor to the euro" and "concluded that any power ceded to Brussels, about monetary policy or anything else, would be sheer folly.”

Probably one of the most disturbing features of the European Parliament other than its unelected leadership, massive bureaucracy, its contempt for the concept of nation states, and refusal to accept democratic principles, is the sight of the parliament in session with an almost empty chamber.  ‘Captain Ranty’ has a post on just how bad this really is in a series of images here. 

Rural fire service tale of incompetence and bureaucratization

 A friend of this site, Dale Stiller has made a couple of postings on the evacuationgrounds site highlighting the problems faced by rural fire brigade volunteers owing to the growth of central control and bureaucratization within the service: 

On Tuesday I was called out to a fire north of Miles on the Hookswood Road and witnessed one of the biggest stuff ups, of incompetency that you don't want to see. Qld fire & rescue set up a controll centre, overrode local people and treated volunteer rural fire brigade people like dirt. 

They stood around that long talking about what may happen with the fire that it did happen. The fire went from big to massive while us volunteers weren't allowed to do anything. Then at 6.30 when the incident controller was sending in the locals to do some backburning to save people's houses, his mates left in a heap of units to go back to Toowoomba. 

I got to bed a 1am, I have to go now & fight a much bigger fire than yesterday with many unsecured fronts.  I will be having a lot more to say about this.

The subsequent post explained his position: 

In my previous post, Hookswood Rd Fire, I expressed my frustration at the incompetence of Qld fire & rescue who took control of all efforts to fight a fire and by their inaction causing a big fire to grow to something far more dangerous and destructive. 

I was also angry to learn from those who were on the scene on the Sunday, Monday and first thing Tuesday before I was called in as part of the Downfall Creek rural fire volunteers, of 3 occasions were the fire could have contained as a small fire and that on 2 of these occasions the opportunity wasn’t taken because of blindly following of the rule book by Qld fire & rescue. Having hours of inaction on my hands during Tuesday and hearing the outrage of my fellow rural fire volunteers I made sure that their views became known to the media. These two articles are the result - Heat on resourcingas fire threats intensify More RFS review forQld 

This image above was developed from the NAFI web site gives the perfect illustration of why preventive burning is very important.   The image also shows what sectors of the fire the Downfall Creek brigade played a part. 

On Tuesday night our crew joined others to back burn to save property of a family. The Qld fire & rescue incident controller would have had a heart attack if he knew that we went to the lead of the fire yet many km’s away. The sky glowed red, thick smoke billowed overhead and the roar of the fire was enough to strike fear. Earlier we had sighted a spot fire start up 1km in advance of the fire front. We knew of nothing that would stop this fires advance. We left that location to go back to burn a wide band around the house and buildings.  

The Downfall Creek rural fire brigade operated within the Barakula State Forest at the western flank of the fire from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday night. The forestry fire fighters were on the eastern side of the fire on the Wednesday and could only bring equipment to the western side on the Thursday. When the forestry workers shift changed soon after dark on Thursday we learnt from the shift supervisor what stopped the fire front from going any further. 

On Wednesday night he was just off to the east of the lead of the fire front. At 3am the fire was still crowning, that is burning in the tree tops, when it hit an area that had a preventive burn back in September. In the image above it is the peach colour area. The fire lost its ground fuel source and bit by bit died down to a halt.

Look at the image to see how few preventive burns have occurred in the fires path, both in privately held land and the state owned state forest. There was a large fuel build up in this area. You don’t need to be Einstein to know that fuel load plus hot temperature plus ignition equals destruction. More needs to be done to encourage cool burns in August and September.

In this day and age, much of firefighting has come under the control of state bodies, as has land use and management owing to the increased influence of the Greens who tend to be based among the inner city trendies.  As result, fuel reduction burns have become a sacrifice to political correctness and policies developed by the ignorant of reality and idealists who believe standard practices are the result of the stupidity of those they see as yokels.

State bodies are by nature bureaucratic and inclined to follow the rule book rather than rely on commonsense.  Initiative is scorned by such people as a dangerous anarchic tendency.

Most people raised in the bush get their first experience of firefighting soon after their dads deem them strong enough to swing a wet corn sack, and understand that a buildup of dry grass and shrubbery is a disaster waiting for the next ‘dry storm’ where a lightning bolt can set the country aflame.  This experience should be utilized rather than scorned.

The one trillion dollar coin; or, “The Simpsons solution”

Apparently someone has been watching back episodes of The Simpsons to take his mind off the current fiscal cliff crisis, and was inspired by the one where Monty Burns has stolen a trillion dollar banknote.  Apparently such notes are not legal under the current rules, but a coin could be as long as it is not composed of gold, silver, or copper.

This has prompted the suggestion that the US Mint could produce a couple of one trillion dollar coins made of platinum or palladium that could be placed in the treasury and provide funds for all the cheques the Administration wants to write.  Some have waxed lyrical about making enough of them to pay off the entire national debt.

The idea is so bad that even Paul Krugman thinks it’s silly: 

KRUGMAN: You can issue — it appears to be legally possible to... 

STEPHANOPOULOS: That are worth a trillion dollars each? 

KRUGMAN: ... to print — to mint a $2 trillion platinum coin, which is ridiculous, but the whole debate is ridiculous, right? If you've got somebody who's holding the American economy hostage and trying to extort policy concessions that they could never actually pass through Congress and that they could never get past the voters, you go for whatever you can do to stop it. But he won't do that.

The question though, why use something as expensive as platinum or palladium if the problem is only the use of gold, silver, or copper? 

Steel is relatively inexpensive, and the corrosion problem could be adequately addressed by using galvanized iron.  The mining, machinery and construction industries use large washers in gal or even in alloys, which would be even better, which could be stamped with the relevant value.

The hole in the middle should not be a problem as there are many examples of coins with a hollow centre.  Actually if the head of the President was stamped on one side the hole might swing some of his opponents in favor of the idea.

RLC campaign against Boehner

Fiscal conservatives have been watching the antics of the Republican establishment for over a week as it prepares the ground for abject surrender on the issue of ending the ‘Bush’ tax cuts.  There are growing reports of representatives repudiating the Norquist tax pledge, but to cap it off, House Speaker John Boehner has removed four fiscal conservatives from key financial committees.

The RLC has committed to booting him out of the Speakers role, and should that fail, are determined to replace him with a Liberty Republican in the 2014 primary.  It is already collecting a war chest in their PAC for this purpose. 

RLC Chairman, Dave Nalle states:

Liberty Republicans Have Had Enough of Boehner 

The Future of the Republican Party Starts with Leadership Change 

In response to the recent purge of fiscally conservative members of key finance committees by House Republican leaders, the Republican Liberty Caucus has launched a nationwide campaign to draw attention to the failures of party leadership and in particular to the malfeasance and abuse of power of Speaker John Boehner. 

Justin Amash (R-MI) and Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) were removed without notice from the Budget Committee on Tuesday and Walter Jones (R-NC) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) were removed from the Financial Services Committee. All four had records of opposing past budget compromises and were reportedly ranked below other Republican representatives on a secret loyalty index put together by the house leadership, because they were more likely to vote based on principle and constituent requests rather than in lockstep with the leadership. These removals were made over the objections of the chairmen of the committees. 

We believe that the practice of penalizing principled Republican leaders for not complying with the demands of party leadership is damaging to the party and an abuse of the power entrusted to the leadership of the party by grassroots constituents.  These represenatives are among the most popular and most respected junior leaders in the House, noted for their integrity and responsiveness to their constituents.  We want them to think for themselves and do not want them to slavishly follow the leadership.  They represent the future of the party and Boehner and his thugs represent the failed past. 

In response to this action, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) observed “For a party that’s trying to expand its base and make sure that it reaches out to young people and new groups, I think it’s pretty outrageous frankly. It’s pretty clear I come from a more libertarian wing of the party – this is the growing portion of the Republican Party. And, really, it’s a slap in the face of all young people who are out there thinking about being Republicans, want to be part of this party and are being told ‘well, if you disagree with leadership just a couple times, we’re going to send you home and we’re going to tell you you’re off the committee and you don’t get to participate.”  This is not the kind of party we believe in. 

Working through our state chapters and our national board the Republican Liberty Caucus has launched a three-phase campaign to put pressure on House members to demand that these four representatives be reinstated on their committees.  This campaign includes direct email, constituent call-in and social media promotions with an expected reach of over 200,000 grassroots Republicans.  We have already received reports that phones in the house have been ringing nonstop and that email boxes are overflowing since we began our campaign yesterday.  In addition, we are building up a campaign warchest through our Political Action Committee to help support efforts to remove Speaker Boehner from his position after the holidays. 

The party's failure in the recent national election cost us many races which we could have won and showed how desperate the need is for change in the party.  We need a party which holds firm on essential princples, but is tolerant and inclusive enough to attract new constituencies.  The principles of the Liberty Movement are the best basis for a new and stronger party and the reform we needs starts with getting rid of self-serving and ineffectual leaders like John Boehner. 

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a grassroots membership organization with chapters in almost every state which promotes the traditional Republican Party valies of limited government and individual liberty.

Justin Amash (R-MI) summed up the issue after being kicked out of his position on the Budget Committee, “Only in Washington, DC, is a person taken off of the Budget Committee for wanting to balance the budget .”

Don’t take your goat to town son …

Image; The Rocks police had trouble finding a charge for it and needed legal advice before a ticket could be issued. Finally, police put Gary and Jimbo in a paddy wagon to transport them to North Sydney. Picture: John Grainger Source, Daily Telegraph

Several years ago a friend, Woolfie mentioned a hilarious tale of his daughter who was a mad horse rider deciding to ride down the main drag in town.  About half way down the street she was pulled up by a cop who was determined that she must have been breaking some law even though he couldn’t put his finger on one at the time. 

What followed was half an hour of threats of fines or imprisonment, interspersed with radio calls to police HQ insisting that as there are laws against nearly everything, there must be something she could be charged with.  Eventually, she was allowed to go on her way.

‘Goat in the city’ is a similar tale.  Comedian, Jimbo Bazoobi took his pet goat, Gary for a walk through Sydney when a similar occurrence took place: 

Dear Police Commander of the Rocks,I am writing to you about an infringement notice I got issued from an incident that happened at Circular Quay at about 10am on 22/08/12.  It was issued by a constable whose first name is Shane. I’m not sure of his surname 

The issue related to my goat, which was eating grass at the park outside the MCA.On the day that Shane found me, the first thing he told me was that I’d broken a whole lot of laws.  I asked him to name one and from there the incident has escalated into what I feel is a complete waste of our court systems time and I ask you to consider dropping the matter before it becomes a complete tabloid farce.  Here is a brief summary of the situation from my angle.

I’m a comedian who travels around the country with my goat Gary. He’s incredibly tame, follows me everywhere and people love him.  On this particular day I was walking him down George St and was immediately followed by a Daily Telegraph photographer who thought it worth taking some snaps of.  He followed me all the way down to Circular Quay where I was surrounded by Shane and about four other police officers. 

Like I said before, Shane immediately started telling me that I’d broken a whole lot of laws.   I then asked,’ well can you name one?'  And from there on in, Shane didn’t like me very much.  He then spent over an hour detaining me while he tried to tell me what law I’d broken, while a crowd slowly built up around us. 

He couldn’t get me for an out of control animal because my goat wasn’t out of control. He couldn’t get me for not having it on a leash because it wasn’t a dog. This continued on to most people’s amusement except Shane’s.  In the end he let me go saying he was going to continue to find a law that I had broken and send the fine in the mail to me. 

In the meantime the Daily Telegraph sent in photos which made a colour spread on Page three the next day.  The link to the story (with Shane’s photo in it) is here:
The reporter made a point of asking the police what happened and they said (as reported in the newspaper) that there was no fine issued.  Shane obviously couldn’t let it go though because he sent me a fine for $440 for ‘damaging vegetation without authority’ about two month later.   The penalty notice is 4912388800 

I obviously didn’t want to pay this because a) it wasn’t me, it was my goat b) My goat wasn’t damaging vegetation. He was simply taking the top off some grass plus some leaves off some bushes (next to some council workers with a lawnmower and clippers who were doing the same thing.) 

So I applied for my fine to be contested in court assuming Shane wouldn’t be silly enough for this to be taken to court given that my key witness was a Daily Telegraph photographer who had been with me the whole time while taking photos of every move my goat did.  Anyway, it now looks like we’re all going to court over this on 23/1/12.  My case number is 2012/00336061. 

It’s listed as a crime under, ‘Damage, destroy, remove a tree, plant, other vegetation’.  I.e. Shane wants me at 42 years of age to have my first criminal record because he found my goat eating grass in public! 

To make things more farcical, it’s recently being pointed out to me that the Harbour Bridge and George Street is still classified as a stock route.  I’ve told all this information to several lawyers and they’ve all told me the case is going to be thrown out of court immediately, so I shouldn’t be worried about it. …

You have to wonder when, if ever, these idiots are ever going to develop a sense of humor, or at least leave things alone when there is no disturbance of the peace, nor anything that causes concern taking place.

Mali Islamists launch ‘charm offensive’; people want freedom back

One of the weaknesses of Islam is its controlling nature, demanding as it does, total compliance with patriarchal social rules from fifteen hundred years in the past.  The new Egyptian democracy appears to be coming unstuck as Morsi attempts to seize totalitarian powers to enforce his will, turning the ‘Arab spring’ quickly to autumn with the winter of discontent fast approaching.

In Mali, where Islamists have taken control, a different tack is being tried with some success.  They seem to be using funds from outside to subsidise such things as water and electricity supply and provide free services: 

In Timbuktu, Amadou said, the Islamists provided free ambulances to the local hospital as well as a weekly shopping shuttle to bring women from outlying towns to market. "When people have a problem with their health, they bring a car and take them to the hospital for free," he said. 

"When it was our government, they were always asking for something. But (AQIM) don't want anything. They say they are doing it for God and they will wait as long as you need." He and Aboubakar gave only one name, to protect relatives from reprisals. 

During the Muslim festival of Eid, when it is traditional for families to sacrifice a sheep, the group capped the price of livestock to roughly $56 an animal, Amadou said, barring traders from charging inflated prices, which can reach up to 2 1/2 times as much. 

Basic staples such as rice are about 50 per cent cheaper in Timbuktu and Gao, 320km to the southeast, compared with Bamako, because the supplies arrive tax-free from neighbouring countries. 

Diplomats in Bamako suspect that the Islamists, who grew rich by kidnapping foreign tourists, are also subsidising food by deliberately overpaying. In Timbuktu, families pay just $US4 ($3.80) a month for water and six hours' electricity a day. In Gao, Ansar Dine spokesman Omar Hamaha said the price was $US3, compared with $US15-$US20 for an average family in Bamako.

While this seems to indicate that under Islam the people live in the equivalent of another socialist workers paradise, (at least while the money holds out) there is a downside in the loss of their accustomed freedoms:

More than 400,000 people have fled northern Mali this year as Islamist militants seized an area larger than France, instigating corporal and capital punishments for breaches of Islamic law. 

Amadou, a fellow tourist guide who fled Timbuktu because he had a child out of wedlock, said AQIM put an end to the looting and lawlessness that followed the rout of the government. … 

… "The problem is people still don't have any money," said Ali, a driver in Timbuktu. He said people were weary of the occupation, especially the women, who had been used to dressing and acting as they pleased. 

"Everything is cheap but we were not free," said Aboubakar. "We miss our freedom. For six months we weren't allowed to listen to music, we couldn't smoke. When you are young you want freedom, to go to the beach, to go to the nightclubs."

Meanwhile the kids are given floggings for the heinous offense of ‘comingling’: 

Timbuktu residents say that Islamist extremists controlling the city publicly whipped 6 young people, males and females aged between 16 to 22 years, who each received 100 lashes for having talked with each other on the city streets. 

Aboubacrine Yattara, who lives in Timbuktu and witnessed the whippings, told Associated Press over the phone that the young people were arrested last week by the Islamists controlling the city and were convicted Wednesday of comingling. He said they were flogged Thursday in Timbuktu’s small market.

Any regime that forbids young guys and chicks from chatting each other up, is doomed to failure.