Schiff Set To Run!

In a video blog posted today by Peter Schiff, President and owner of Euro Pacific Capital who is known for predicting the housing bubble well before it burst, has announced that he plans on running for Senate.

He will run...IF the funding is there. This makes sense, of course, because he arguably is not as well known among primary voters as his competition, and funds can help this in a few ways:

1) Media Attention - If he raises large sums of money for his campaign, the media will definitely cover this fact, giving him exposure to potential voters.

2) Momentum - Raising funds can work wonders for a campaign. The Ron Paul Presidential campaign raised $4 and $6 million respectively in its two money bombs. Ask anyone who took part in this and they will tell you it really got them pumped and ready to go.

3) Spending funds on advertising will give Schiff more exposure to potential voters, which is the ultimate goal.


He said he will need at least $20 million to win the campaign. He will only run if the funding is there, and he plans on running to win. If you listen in the video, it is pretty obvious this guy does not waste his time, nor does he plan to waste contributors capital on a campaign that is anything less than a campaign to win.

A few months back, before I even followed Schiff closely or had read either of his books (which I know have) I made a facebook group challenging people to match my $20 donation to his campaign. There are now over 160 people in this group. Though it's not a TON of money, it sure as heck is a start. I would love to see someone make a money bomb similar to the August 20th Rand Paul money bomb where we will attempt to raise over $1 million in one day. Schiff and Paul both need our support, and I hope others will join me in donating whatever they can (even $5 would help) towards their campaigns. Oh, and of course, if he decides that the funding just isn't there, he will refund every dollar you give to his campaign!

So check out his video blog and join the fight for common sense in Washington!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5VbZBpdaKc

Schiff's Campaign Site

'Send a Letter to Franken' Day

Today everyone at the Daily Paul decided today's target was Senator Al Franken for a fax/email/call bomb regarding S604 (which is the Senate version of HR1207). This bill would allow a full audit of the Federal Reserve, which currently enjoys the ability to keep information about their dealings from the public. Now, since I truly do believe the Federal Reserve was largely to blame for the economic crisis we are now in (read Tom Woods The Meltdown), I am very excited about the possibility of an audit. HR1207 has 260 co-sponsors from both parties, and now if we can get support going in the Senate this could be huge.

Below is my letter to my Senator Al Franken. If you are pissed off about the economic situation our nation is now in, and especially if you live in Minnesota, I would highly recommend sending Al Franken a letter similar to mine. Even if you don't know anything about the Federal Reserve or have never heard someone blame the Fed for the economic crisis we now find ourselves in, can more transparency really hurt?

info@franken.senate.gov

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Senator Franken,

Congratulations on FINALLY getting sworn into office! I'm sure you will do a fine job on Capitol Hill representing all of us Minnesotans.

My name is David Carlson and I live in Woodbury, Minnesota and go to school at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. What I wanted to bring to your attention is S604, the partner bill of HR1207. This bill would allow for a full audit of the Federal Reserve by the GAO. All Americans would then be able to see this audit.

This is important to me because the Federal Reserve has so much power currently over our country. They control the dollar, which is the lifeblood of our economy. Regardless of whether you believe they are making the "correct" moves or not, I as well as many other Minnesotans would appreciate this important power check on the Fed.

HR1207 has enjoyed wide bi-partisan support with 260 co-sponsors. S604 currently has eight, and nothing could make me more proud than to have our new Senator signing onto the bill. It would be a sign of bi-partisanship on your part and proof that when you talk about transparancy, you truly mean it.

Thank you for your time, and make Minnesota proud.

-David Carlson

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The Man Who Predicted the Crisis

Recently I have read both books Peter Schiff has written. The first I read was The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets which is his most recent followed by Crash Proof which he wrote in 2006 predicting the economic meltdown we are now experiencing. I also found out that Crash Proof 2.0 is available for pre-order, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

I first heard about Peter Schiff when I saw the video of the economist Art Laffer laughing at Schiff explaining we are in the midst of a housing bubble. Laffer is likely regretting this encounter, as he has now lost a lot of the credibility he built up as an economic advisor to Reagan. But really what brought me to reading Schiff’s books has been the past year or so when I have been very interested in Ron Paul and his political positions. I don’t think it was a coincidence.

Schiff is the President of Euro Pacific Capital, a brokerage company that specializes in foreign investments. Their motto is "Because there's a bull market somewhere.” What I found profound about his investment strategies is that he looks above and beyond what other advisors look at. What he looks at is truly a global perspective. His future predictions are both alarming and urgent.

In his books he talks about how the dollar will inevitably come crashing down. What this means for America is very important. For everyone who has their wealth in the dollar, either through domestic investments, cash, bonds, etc. they will see their purchasing power diminish greatly. Currently, the dollar is the global reserve currency. If other nations (such as China) decide that the debt we have been selling them is worthless and they will not be repaid, there could be a “dollar rush.” Imagine if all those dollars held in reserves came rushing back to the United States. Talk about inflation!

The winners are going to be those who have their investments in countries that will see favorable results from this dollar rush and ultimate crash. Imagine two individuals, one with his million dollars invested abroad and in currencies that will gain against the dollar, and another who has a million dollars in just that, dollars. If the dollar loses half its value, the first investor will see gains in whatever currency they are invested in while the second investor will have only half the purchasing power he used to have. In today’s day and age you don’t have to BE abroad to invest abroad. These two individuals could be neighbors who originally had the same purchasing power but now have significantly different purchasing power, all because of the country and currency their wealth was invested in.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and an attempt to explain what Schiff is getting at. I would highly recommend reading his books and deciding for you whether what he is saying makes sense. He has a collection of commentaries and video blogs at Europac.net that you can sift through as well.

To me, at least, it is no mystery why Ron Paul picked Schiff as one of his economic advisors to his recent Presidential Campaign.

The Fourth of July

When I think of the Fourth of July, I think of fireworks, grilling, family, friends, and the colors red white and blue. But most importantly I look back to the founding of our great nation. What makes us so great and set apart? I believe it is because this nation was founded on principles of freedom, liberty, and the power of the individual to pursue his happiness.

The founders believed that there were some rights that government could not take away from us. These natural rights include the right to choose and practice our religion, the right to keep and bear arms for our own protection (both against thieves and criminals and against tyrannical government), and freedom of speech just to name a few. The Constitution may not be perfect, but it serves its purpose well: to protect individuals against both the government and the majority.

The Constitution, being an imperfect document, also allows for change. Many point out the fact that slavery was allowed under the Constitution. The document allowed for abolition of slavery, though, through an amendment. This is an awful part of our history that I know many wish never had happened, but I am thankful that the founders put a system in place that could right these wrongs. Women’s rights are another issue, but again the Constitution allows for proper change when it comes to issues such as these.

Despite its flaws, the Constitution is possibly the most important document in political history. So today we celebrate the Fourth of July and the courage of the founding fathers to stand up to tyrannical government and create a government that is based on the individual, free market economics, property rights, and extremely limited government. We look to these ideals, and though we have strayed FAR from the government that our founders envisioned, I believe that we can and will return to these ideals.

Have a great fourth everyone, and remember WHY our nation is great!

John McCain supports Cap and Tax

Ron Paul once said that John McCain knows nothing about economics. Without fail, Senator McCain proves to us that this is all too true. Somehow I did not see this video, but in February 2008 McCain said that cap and trade would stimulate green jobs. At what expense? My own Congresswoman Michele Bachmann hosted cap and trade forums last spring where it was made clear that cap and trade was simply just a tax. It is simply amazing that we could have nominated such a neo-con to represent the GOP! As if Bush was not enough, we had a candidate who endorses a huge tax and regulatory increase in the guise of helping fight global warming. What a joke!

I can’t help but agree with Peter Schiff. He said that unfortunately Obama was the lesser of the two evils between the two Presidential candidates. His reason? McCain would be viewed as a “free market” president. We all know he is FAR from a free market and limited government representative. Since he would have likely continued the Bush interventionist economic policies which will ultimately fail, the free market would take an undeserved but somewhat lethal hit from four years under McCain. After that forget it, the Democrats would have taken power for the next two decades.

Besides his pro-life stance, what did people see in this guy? I would love to see a more intensified primary challenge. His vote for the bailout should be career-ending.

The Awful Eight: Environment Bill Passes Thanks To 8 Republicans

Yesterday H.R. 2454 passed by a final vote of 219-212 passed the House of Representatives. Only eight Republicans voted in favor of this bill. If these eight Republicans had voted against the bill, this massive tax increase would have been shot down. But sure enough, it passed the House and is headed to the Senate. With the large majority Democrats boast in the Senate, I just don’t see this bill being voted out.

What is possibly the most disturbing part of this bill is the fact that nobody could have possibly read the 300 plus page amendment that was added to the bill at 3 a.m. Friday morning. House minority Leader John Boehner pointed out the many ludicrous additions found in this amendment.

The energy bill will surely join the Patriot Act and the recent stimulus bill as the most recent member of a not-so-exclusive club. This club is made up of massive measures passed in a hurry before it was physically possible for the members to have read and understood the bill.

We have got to start holding our elected representatives to a higher standard. If not just for the flawed reasoning among many other serious problems with this bill, then at least reading the bill should have been a required prerequisite before voting a bill into law. I would applaud representatives from both sides of the aisle who state they can’t consciously and honestly vote for a bill that they have not had enough time to read and fully understand. All the implications of a bill should be taken into consideration before a representative can vote in favor of it; otherwise a no vote should be the standard.

This cap and trade “clean energy” bill is simply going to burden our economy in a time when over regulation and government policies have already tanked our economy. China, India, and all other developed countries surely applaud yesterday’s passage, as they gain yet another leg up on the United States in the global economy. Worse yet, this bill does NOTHING to fight global warming, not even bringing down the global temperature by half a percent Fahrenheit by 2050! Surely you would need to review the science and reasoning of such a massive proposition if you were going to vote it into law? Apparently this common sense does not apply to over two hundred elected representatives who passed the measure.

There is no excuse for the eight Republicans to have voted for passage. There is simply none! Any argument they can present in favor of the bill ultimately is trumped by the fact they surely could not have a grasp of the full implications of the bill since they did not read it, let alone process the information.

Here is what I like to call the “awful eight.” Their vote yesterday should result in nothing short of the end of their political career

Bono Mack (CA)
Castle (DE)
Kirk (IL)
Lance (NJ)
Lobiondo (NJ)
McHugh (NY)
Reichert (WA)
Chris Smith (NJ)

Fall From Grace: Mark Sanford

My personal favorite choice for the Republican Presidential candidate for 2012 was none other than South Carolina's Mark Sanford. As most of you know, he admitted to an extra-marital affair with a woman from Argentina. He even disappeared for a few days last weekend to meet up with her.

I was all set to do anything I could to get this guy in office, starting with the Republican nomination. Now I truly have no idea who I will get behind. Granted it is early, but I would hate to go through another Presidential election cycle where I can't get behind the Republican "conservative party" nominee.

Just look at our last nominee, McCain. Clueless on economics, a strong believer in our imperialistic foreign policy, supportive of the war on drugs, and probably incapable of explaining why the Federal Reserve should be abolished. Heck, he voted for the bailout! The economic policies that he supports are literally destroying America. In The little book of bull moves in bear markets Peter Schiff explains that if McCain had won the election, the same economic policies would have been implemented, and the media would crucify capitalism as an utter failure, despite the fact McCain is FAR from a free market supporter. Now at least we can fully blame the failure of the President's economic policies as interventionist.

Sanford was as free market as the GOP had (not counting Ron Paul, of course). Now his entire career is tainted and it would be a mistake to run him against Obama. Who do we run? I can compromise on issues (I'm a big supporter of Michele Bachmann, despite the fact she would probably never vote for bills legalizing marijuana or online poker, for example) and Sanford I was willing to compromise on some issues because he was such a free market supporter. We'll have to see what field of candidates run for the GOP nomination, and go from there.

Disturbing Stories - ABC working for Obama and “TeddyCare”

So there are two very disturbing new stories I came across today, and I just have to share them.

The first news story originated on The Drudge Report. Basically, on June 24th programming will indirectly (or directly, depending how you look at it) be given over to the Obama Administration for an hour to push the Democratic health care agenda. Charlie Gibson will be airing World News from the White House and it will be talking specifically about health care reform. Problem is, there will be no representation from a free market health care advocate, just the socialized health care side. Yikes! Luckily Lost (the best show on television) will not be back until winter so I can join in the boycott of ABC.

The second news article goes along with the first: Socialized health care. Now being called “TeddyCare” after Ted Kennedy, this scary piece of legislation (not yet an official bill) should make anyone who loves liberty and freedom quite literally freak out. This proposed piece of legislation would include a federal database of medical records. What the author of this article is trying to get at is this health care system would ultimately be mandatory. Besides that, all information shared at a doctor’s meeting would be put into the database. Admitting something like “I smoked marijuana ten years ago” could put you in jeopardy of losing gun rights. Grandpa has Alzheimer’s? His antique gun collection would be taken away. As a libertarian, this type of stuff really makes me cringe.

So there are your two disturbing stories for today. It is unfortunate that we have gone this far in the direction of socialism.

Liberty Candidates Gearing up for Congressional Runs

Last fall I followed the B.J. Lawson campaign daily. Lawson is what I like to call a “liberty candidate.” To me, a liberty candidate is a candidate who promotes such things as free market (Austrian) economics, sound monetary policy, a foreign policy of freedom, and is generally libertarian-leaning. Last fall, Lawson became the first candidate I have ever donated money to. This was the least I could do for someone who is willing to stand up to the liberal and neo-con political machine that runs Washington.

I saw an article on Liberty Maven that said Lawson is gearing up for another run. There is no official announcement, but I hope this is true. The current Representative of North Carolina’s 4th District is Democrat David Price. A quick look at some of the stances Price has on issues should be enough for anyone to become excited about a possible liberty candidate knocking Price out of office.

Next year will be different. There is not just one liberty candidate who is running. Besides Lawson, there are three more that are making runs. Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul, will be running for Senator of Kentucky. Adam Kokesh will be running for House of Representatives out in New Mexico. Also, RJ Harris will be running for House of Representatives in Oklahoma. These are three solid liberty candidates whose campaigns I will be following very closely for the next 14 plus months.

In a recent interview with The Motor Home Diaries, Ron Paul makes a statement that a few extra people in Congress will help, but that the mindset of Americans as a whole must be changed. I truly do believe that getting a few extra liberty-minded individuals into Congress will help change the mindset of Americans. If you look at the Libertarian Party, the problem does not necessarily lie with their ideology, but their lack of elected representatives. Ron Paul has made the impact he has by working within the Republican Party. Sure he often is in disagreement with the party line, but the impact he has made is phenomenal. I think that not only will these campaigns bring libertarian ideas into the mainstream, but if these candidates do in fact make it in office it is just the tip of the iceberg for the liberty movement.

Online Poker and Individual Responsibility

Unless you have been paying close attention to the online poker/gambling battle going on in the United States, you might have missed two big events that happened recently.

The first is the freezing of $34 million in assets that belong to online poker players by the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. There was an article relating to this in today’s Wall Street Journal. This made me realize that the attempt by Minnesota to outlaw online gambling is a much smaller concern in retrospect than actual asset freezes. The second event was that Internet Service Providers dropped a federal lawsuit against a senior state law enforcement official Monday after he withdrew requests that the service providers block access to hundreds of online gambling sites. So it seems as though the online gambling issue in Minnesota, at least for now, should die.

Unfortunately this issue has become so messy that its hard to know who is right. On one hand, we have states that “kind of” pursue it but then eventually back down but still maintain that it is “illegal.” Then we have the federal government who do not try to make it cut and dry illegal, but instead go after banks or the middle men when it comes to transactions between the online sites and the consumer.

Though I almost always disagree with Representative Barney Frank, I do applaud him for introducing a bill that would legalize and regulate online poker. He is absolutely correct in his statement that there is a huge market (The Poker Player’s Alliance claims more than 10 million Americans engage in online poker each year) that should not be ignored. If Conservatives are worried about it encouraging gambling, what they should be concerned about is how easy it is for an under aged individual to get money on the site. I was on Pokerstars at age 16 and had no problem immediately getting cash into my account.

Let’s start promoting individual responsibility in this country and stop the nanny state where this logic that somehow government should decide for us what activities we can or cannot engage. When an individual engages in poker (or drinking, or smoking) they bear the full consequences of that action. Government is not above the individual, and never could be.