Breaking news: Ron Paul has mad cash!
Okay, it's all relative...BUT--he's number 3 among the GOP candidates in cash on hand!
Ron Paul Tops McCain in Cash on Hand
This is outstanding news! Paul should now garner some serious attention--not only from the media and the voters, but from larger donors as well. This should be a big boost for his momentum.
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Immigration is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
I know the immigration bill is dead for the next year and a half, but the issue is still important--so I'm going to give you my personal libertarian take on it. (Just to be clear, I thought the most recent immigration bill was a load of crap, but not for the reasons most Republican were opposed to it. The bill was a Soviet-style, central planning, grossly expensive, big-government boondoggle.)
We don't need a crackdown on immigration.
Immigration, in general, is a good thing. It's the result of natural supply and demand in the free market.
If you consider aggression, coercion, and the initiation of force (meaning not in self-defense) to be inherently wrong, then you surely consider freedom and the free market the most natural and just state of affairs.
It follows that you should be allowed to hire whomever you want at whatever wage is mutually agreeable (this, of course, is why minimum wage laws are inherently wrong).
It then follows that if someone says that someone from outside the country is not allowed to come into the country to work for you, they are engaging in coercion against both you and that person. Stopping people from moving into the U.S. and punishing business owners for hiring certain people are entirely inconsistent with freedom and the free market.
The three real problems we face are:
1) welfare handouts attracting a higher amount of immigration than the market would naturally demand: this, of course, is not an immigration problem--it's an overall socialist scheme that increases poverty and dependence, distorts all kinds of markets (including the labor market), and should be done away with.
2) archaic and complicated rules for getting into the country legally: when it takes years and thousands of dollars to immigrate to the 'bastion of freedom in the world,' there's something terribly wrong. There's nothing inherently immoral about moving from Nuevo Laredo (in Mexico) to Laredo, Texas. Therefore, laws preventing it or making it difficult are, by definition, immoral and acts of aggression. So, if someone is deemed to be 'illegal' or a 'law breaker' due to the fact that they've violated an unjust law to engage in a perfectly moral activity, it seems to me the term 'illegal' loses its meaning. One part of the solution to 'illegal' immigration is the same as the solution to the problem of 'illegal drug use'--get rid of the laws!
3) an interventionist foreign policy has created a group of lunatics intent on entering the country and doing us harm--thus creating a perceived need for 'secure borders.' Even those who agree that there's nothing wrong with immigration, per se, tend to fall back on the need for 'secure borders' to justify their support for a crackdown on immigration. I submit that this is an instance of putting a bandaid on an out of control tumor. First, the amount of government force that would be required to truly prevent determined terrorists from getting in would turn us into one of the most draconian police states in human history. Second, it doesn't address the source of the problem. Islamic nutjobs want to kill us because we've been meddling in their countries for decades (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons). Instead of using one form of aggression (a militarized border) to solve the problems caused by another form of aggression (non-defensive military involvement overseas), doesn't it make a lot more sense to end the causative aggression by bringing all our troops back home where they belong? And no, most Muslims aren't trying to kill us because of our freedom. If that was true they'd be suicide-bombing Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and all those other places that match or exceed our level of freedom. And yes, there would still be a few who really do want to kill us because of our unholy freedom, but once they lose the easy excuse of 'fighting back against American imperialism,' they would lose the widespread support (or at least the lack of condemnation) they currently enjoy from their fellow Muslims.
Remember, immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.
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Who is Ron Paul?
That's the question with which I'll now launch No Coercion.
Who is Ron Paul?
He's running for President, and he virtually owns the internet when it comes to presidential candidates. And he's a Republican. A libertarian Republican (although he often refers to himself as 'conservative,' he doesn't mean it in the modern American sense of the word). He's dedicated to reestablishing freedom in America. He's for massively cutting government involvement in the economy, in social issues, and in foreign policy.
Out of all the Republican and Democrat candidates (and wannabe candidates):
He's the only one who will immediately get us out of Iraq (and all other foreign entanglements).
He's the only one who has voted strictly according to the Constitution during his time in Congress (17 years in total).
He's the only one who will actually bring an end to the disastrous and immoral welfare system.
He's the only one calling for the elimination of unconstitutional entities like the IRS the Department of Homeland Security, the Dept of Education, the Dept of Energy, etc.
He's the only one calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve and a return to some kind of gold (or other commodity-backed) standard for our money.
He's the only one who actually has a good grasp of economics.
He's the only one who sees the War on Drugs for the tyrannical boondoggle that it is.
He's the only one calling for the repeal of the totalitarian Patriot Act.
He's the only one committed to true freedom, both economic and personal.
I'll go ahead and say that Paul is not a pure libertarian, and there are two issues where I definitely disagree with him: he believes it's permissible for the states (though not the federal government) to use coercion to prevent women from having abortions; and he is in favor of the federal government using coercion to restrict immigration. But, hey, two issues isn't that bad given the circumstances.
Does he really stand a chance?
He's cleaned house in every call-in and online poll conducted after the GOP debates. As of this writing, he's got more YouTube subscribers than any candidate, he's got more MySpace friends than anyone but Hillary and Obama, there are far more Ron Paul Meetup groups and members around the country than any other candidate. He's really caught fire on the net.
But here's the thing. He's not one of the mainstream media's anointed 'front runners' so he's not getting much press. He's also not polling well in scientific polls because:
1) many polls only include the 'front runners' (thus helping to ensure they continue to be labeled as such)
2) most polls only look at currently registered Republicans since it's for the primary (and many Ron Paul supporters are currently registered Dem, independent, unaffiliated, or not registered at all)
3) most polls are only looking at 'likely voters,' which means those who voted in the last election (and there is a growing number of Ron Paul supporters who are so young they've never voted, and many who haven't voted recently because they've been so disgusted with the two major parties)
4) every 'scientific' poll only polls people with land line phone numbers, but many Ron Paul supporters are Nexters (and younger X-ers) who have ditched land lines for cells and VOIP
So, he has a very good chance, but it's up to each of us as individuals to talk to our friends and family and coworkers about Ron Paul and keep building his momentum. There's a revolution brewing just under the surface. This country is looking to regain freedom that's been steadily eroded since the introduction of anti-trust laws, the income tax, the Federal Reserve, and the New Deal.
Ron Paul is the leader who will launch this revolution. He'll once again make the government afraid of the people instead of the other way around.
Well, this is more than long enough for the inaugural entry on my long-awaited (by me anyway) blog--No Coercion.
So, Who is Ron Paul?
See for yourself: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/rp-everything.html
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