Who was Benazir Bhutto? I wish that was a real question. Unfortunately US government interventionism has created a Pakistani government that is at odds with the people of Pakistan. Why is the US taxpayer extorted to support President and General Musharraf to the tune of $700 million dollars a year (that they will admit to)? Why-why-why?

Right wing finger puppet says "I believe that Government officials Assemblyman Mark Leno, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong want to prevent the public from defending themselves. Are they afraid that the peaceful residents of San Francisco, California might wish to defend themselves against criminal activity with a firearm they might purchase at a future gun show at the Cow Palace (originally known as the California State Livestock Pavilion)? The Cow Palace indoor arena is actually located in Daly City, California, bordering San Francisco."

Left wing finger puppet responds, "Naw, they just want to make sure that that visitors to the San Francisco Zoo understand that they would rather have someone killed by a wild tiger than allow people to own firearms for their lawful self-defense. Tigers and criminals will never be hampered by "illegal gun" over-enforcement, only those law abiding individuals who are prevented from arming themselves due to the chilling effects of autocrats like Gavin Newsom."

Voice from the back, "Perhaps they should work a bit harder on tiger control before they continue with their efforts on victim disarmament (e.g. gun control)."

BTW, the next Crossroads of the West gun show at the Cow Palace is January 19th and 20th in Daly City, California. If you print out this coupon you can obtain $1 off the price of admission.

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These are two superkalifragilistic music videos from Kim Grannis, a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas.

Going by his last email to supporters Democratic Party candidate Bob Lord apparently thinks all he needs to do is repeat "I am not John Shadegg" enough times and people are going to magically forget that the Majority Democrats in the House have done as poor a job in advocating for the taxpayers as those congressmen who lost their seats in 2006. John Shadegg was not among them. Bob Lord needs to start articulating what he believes in rather than what he doesn't believe in. Bob Lord claims that we the people are hungry for change but I fail to see what the change is that he is promising to bring to us (other than more status quo). I do know is that Bob Lord apparently failed to ask for a speaking slot at the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers annual luncheon . I didn't see Bob Lord at the podium extolling limited government (perhaps he had a table in the back). John Shadegg did a very good job letting the audience know that he knows what America wants (less government). Perhaps Bob Lord was too busy repeating "I am not John Shadegg" to ask.

P.S. Bob Lord, no matter your spin on Mr. Shadegg's fund raising, opensecrets.org shows you as $125,000 behind.

P.P.S. Bob Lord, you might want to take a look at fellow candidate (AZ-3 Independent) Annie Loyd's web site for some ideas. I can tell what her position is on the ongoing Iraq occupation and I think that is a good thing.

Why Ron Paul Scares Terrorists

3,895 dead US soldiers later is anyone ready to ask "Is it time to get out of Iraq?"

I watched the initial take-off of the Ron Paul blimp. On one side of the blimp are the words "Who is Ron Paul?" with a subtitle of "Google Ron Paul" and I am told the other side shows "Ron Paul rEVOLution"

That is a very good question to ask: http://WhoIsRonPaul.name/

A few questions people should be asking:
Where is the John McCain blimp?
Where is the Rudy Giuliani blimp?
Where is the Mitt Romney blimp?
Where is the Mike Huckabee blimp?
Where is the Tom Tancredo blimp?
Where is the Duncan Hunter blimp?

and lastly... Where is the Fred Thompson blimp?

And should you wish to know exactly where the Ron Paul blimp is, take a look at the map.

Online photo editing. Today I wanted to reverse a photo and I couldn't find a program in my Macintosh that would do that. I tried three online photo editing web sites before I found phixr.com. Yea!

Should you wonder who the folks are at top right - they are the band World Class Thugs of Phoenix, Arizona.

No amount of country music and pans to Chuck Norris is going to make Mike Huckabee into anything but what he is, one more status quo, tax hike loving, indefinite Iraq war occupying Republican.

http://whoismikehuckabee.name/

I went to the monthly Maricopa County Libertarian Party meeting earlier today. Jim Burns was invited to address us. He is running for President of the united States and is seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party. He asked all us us to visit his web site at JimBurnsForPresident.com. I was favorably impressed with what Mr. Burns had to say about the need for 34 united States Senators to prevent impeachment. I asked him where he was based out of and he said "Las Vegas" which I assume to mean Las Vegas, Nevada. He told us that he would be criss crossing the united States spreading the word. After the meeting wrapped up I shook his hand and and wished him safe travelling.

If you were to meet Mike Muckabee, What would you ask Mike Huckabee?

Dietary Vanadium - good or bad for you?

I recommend consulting with a health professional before taking any nutritional supplement.

Power to the people.

Rudy Giuliani is running for the office of President of the united States of America. Who is Rudy Giuliani?

This is a post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Rich Woman - Financial literacy for women. Today I was asked about the book Rich Woman: A Book on Investing for Women - Because I Hate Being Told What to Do! by Kim Kiyosaki. I didn't know much but I do know that everyone, including women, should educate themselves on personal finance. Education is power. You can see Kim Kiyosaki's latest video on her web site.

Lately I have been thinking about the Boy Scouts of America. In my earlier days I was a cub scout and I think I got up to wolf or bear. In my morning walk I took the time to pick up a few pieces of litter, business cards in this case.

Is the charity Bush Clinton Katrina fund (.org) a good thing? My first impression is that it is not, but please read up on them and decide for yourself. If you have anything to say, good or bad, please put a comment and tell us your story.

This is what I did this morning. I got up, took a bath, brushed my teeth. I had slept all the way through till past noon. I had broken two pledges. I was supposed to visit a friend and also give a ride to a friend of a friend. I felt bad. My first friend doesn't have a telephone so I hope she will forgive me. I hope acquaintance Mr. Y. will forgive me. I hope I can find Mr. Y's phone number so I can ask for his forgiveness as well. In any case I was ready for the day. I ask my nephew (his name is not John) if he wants to go on a walk. He says OK. I get my keys, hand Not John a empty food container with plastic pieces in it, turn of my light and get ready to go. I lock the door behind us. Not John has a baby baseball bat. I have on my lyme disease education program wrist band on my left arm. So we start off and I start telling him a story about a lady in New Hampshire. I say

There was this lady in New Hampshire and she was driving somewhere and the police stopped her. The police officer walked up to the lady and asked the modern day equivalent of Your paper's please.

TO BE CONTINUED.

1st Question: Why Did Ron Paul Give Up on the LP?

Answer: Courtesy Christine Smith.
2nd Opinion: I would ask Ernest Hancock.

2nd Question: Why is the Libertarian Party the only principled choice?
Answer: I would ask Barry Hess

Today I feel Zen.

The folks at Slatecard.com have a cool tool. It is limited to Republicans. How long will it take to find one for Libertarians?

If you enjoy watching ABC's "The View" and you want to learn more about Ron Paul the candidate for President, these two video clips will help. The first is 10 minutes, the second is 9 minutes. The first is Rosie O'Donnell and co. discussing Ron Paul. The second is Whoopi Goldberg and co. *with* Ron Paul discussing his positions on all the important issues.

In the battle for ideas, mindshare and money you can find some awesome clashes. Christine Smith of Colorado (Libertarian Party) is battling Ron Paul of Texas (Republican Party) for mindshare (and the rest). The debate floor is the campaign for President of the United States. If you look at the Googlebattle between these two contestants you will find that Christine Smith is currently the underdog. Who will prevail? I don't know.

It looks like John McCain's pulse is doing much better than assumed by Blog for Arizona back in April. After watching the CNN Youtube Republican Presidential debate last night one thing that I have to give kudos to John McCain for is his unequivocal and dogged defense in favor of decency (e.g. absolutely, positively no torture). Mitt Romney sadly was not able to 2nd the vote in favor of decency and instead repeatedly defended the pro-Bush position that the water cure AKA water torture AKA waterboarding is OK.

In the hustle and bustle of reading emails from Bob Lord crowing about how much money he is raising and how much he is not (repeat not) John Shadegg it is easy to overlook the fact that there are more than two announced candidates for AZ-3. Michael Shoen is running as a Libertarian Party candidate. I couldn't produce his web site and I won't attempt to summarize it. I encourage you to visit his campaign web site as well as the great news site that helped me remember that sometimes there *are* more than only two choices: freedomsphoenix.com

H/T to wikipedia for their article on 1984's Inner Party.

John Trasher, Democratic opponent to Trent Franks (AZ-2), says the US Army should leave Iraq... eventually. I wonder how many US soldiers and innocent civilians will die in the meantime. I predict that voters will fail to be inspired enough to put stamps on their absentee ballots for Mr. Thrasher unless he learns to turn up the VOLUME and the inspiration. Quiz for Mr. Thrasher: The US Army should be located and defend which country A) Iraq, B) Kuwait, C) South Korea, Japan and Germany or D) None of the Above?

As requested, I get a steady stream of email from Bob Lord, Democratic candidate for Arizona district 3. So far it appears that he is running a John Kerry for president 2004 campaign. Most of what I remember from the 2004 presidential campaign era is the meme "Anybody but Bush". Mr. Lord's meme of choice seems to be "I am not John Shadegg". I imagine for some positions, like Shadegg's opposing more government health care, this angle is sufficient. I am still hoping that Mr. Lord will add some positions and press releases that state what *he* believes in rather than casting himself as the anti-Shadegg. Hint, hint: there is the little matter of the ever-ongoing US occupation of the Iraq that you might want to mention sometime soon. Bringing American troops home to protect America is a rather popular position.

Just a reminder, "Anybody but Bush" didn't win. "I am not John Shadegg" is not a winning campaign slogan.

In case anybody wondered what happened to The Libertarian Enterprise. Two lives down, seven to go. And if you haven't read the fine libertarian comic Roswell, Texas, please do.

When is a picture worth a thousand words? or even $97.4 million dollars. When it comes to crony capitalism within the City of Phoenix, it continues apace. Why do we need to subsidize development in Phoenix? Luckily voters in Phoenix have a principled candidate running for Phoenix City Council District 3, James Iannuzo.

Mitt Romney, gun control cheer leader or Mitt Romney, protector of the second amendment? Will his support of the right of self-defence disappear as quickly as his web site article on the second amendment?

Of course, it looks like someone has already done a fine job of documenting Mr. Romney's history on that boogeyman "the assault weapon".

And while Mitt Romney's Second Amendment page is 404, Ron Paul's page is here and shows what someone who really trusts the people would do to repeal unconstitutional gun prohibition in the US. Or you could read Ron Paul's own articles about firearms.

JPFO Founder and Gun Owners of America Founder Speak

To me nothing goes to show who relies on emotional and illogical arguments than the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its VidiVoice.com campaign with comedian Lewis Black as its lead celebrity. Using the three videos I watched from their "Speaks Out!" series, not a one had its comments enabled. I did a search for youtube.com videos from the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) and the very first video I watched had comments enabled. It seems like the JPFO isn't afraid of someone commenting on their video but the trust always in government rules crowd doesn't want to risk that someone might get any viewpoint or comments but their own. I'm not afraid that a rational thinking person might learn something from "the opposition" but apparently the gun control advocates are.

Huckabee Wins, Paul Loses.

In absolute terms, absolutely so. Mike Huckabee should be rightly proud of his campaign's achievement in Ames, Iowa. Ron Paul came in fifth with 1,305 out of a total of 14,302 votes (9.1%) in the Ames Straw Poll.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has a fantastic statement about why the people should support the Second Amendment limitation on the government. If only he didn't support the horrid Fair Tax (and the continued indefinite occupation of Iraq by the US Armed Forces) he might be worth considering.

Luckily there is a candidate who supports the right of the people to defend themselves against crime and oppressive government, Republican Ron Paul from Texas.

Ron Paul's position of freedom is uncompromising and in a environment where many claim that compromise is key I find that to be quite inspiring. 9.1% in the straw poll means that there is still plenty of work to be done to advance the Ron Paul for President campaign to the winner's circle. I'm not afraid of a little hard work and one less than glamorous turnout in one poll isn't going to dampen my enthusiasm one bit.

This is the source of the picture.

I plan to be listening to the Smith vs. Kubby debate on The Liberated Space. I imagine that I will learn something new. I spoke with candidate Christine Smith recently. I imagine she will have something good to say. I believe that Steve Kubby will share some wisdom as well.

Free speech vs unfree school. Nobody knows how this will pan out but it sure does remind me of Penn Jillette's chiquita banana story. I am so happy that there are people out there with guts.

Supposed documentary "SiCKO" opens in US theatres yesterday and my father went to see it. BoingBoing.net complains that Google.com offers businesses who would be squashed by universal government medicine the opportunity to counter Michael Moore's socialist propaganda. What is BoingBoing afraid of? That someone might have a chance to hear a little truth?

"This might hurt a little." - Michael Moore

You aren't kidding

APCW Reports: Jon Kyl ~ American Patriot

One man's opinion of Jon Kyl. Is it any wonder why so many people ask "Whose Senator is he?"

Freedom is Popular

Ron Paul in Kansas City, Missouri. Is it any wonder why people get excited about Ron Paul?

In 1992 an article was posted, copied from a newsletter, reportedly written by Republican Ron Paul, congressman from Texas and candidate for President of the United States. The article characterizes black people as prone to commit crime, among other points. It has since been brought up by newspapers and quite a few web sites and blogs. I've taken the time to note a sampling of these articles. If you should come across one of these articles and desire to obtain a definitive answer to the question "Is Ron Paul a racist?" please research the issue and then read Ron Paul's words. I have faith that the average person can reach a conclusion in Ron Paul's favor.

An up or down vote today on decamping Iraq (well - eventually), HR 2237 failed with a vote of 177 in favor of leaving and 255 in favor of staying.

Some of those in favor of leaving Iraq:

Raúl Grijalva (D)
Ed Pastor (D)
Ron Paul (R) [from Texas]
Dennis Kucinich (D) [from Ohio]

Some of those in favor of more of the same (stay in Iraq):

Harry Mitchell (D)
Gabrielle Giffords (D)
Jeff Flake (R)
John Shadegg (R)
Trent Franks (R)
Rick Renzi (R)

The picture above was sourced from here per this license.

Can one man with an inspiration change the world? Perhaps that is the only thing that can.

I saw John Mayer perform "Waiting On The World To Change" while watching the Steve Jobs iPhone introduction at Apple Macworld 2007.

Fanatics. Most everyone believes that fanatics are the problem. People who feel they are justified in using force to impose their will on others, disregarding truth and justice as irrelevant. Amanda B. Carpenter (humanevents.com) wrote a very interesting article on the movie "300". Amazingly to me many people mentally identify the Spartans as the US and the Persians as the Iranians/Arabs/Muslims. I can easily see the opposite with George Bush as King Xerxes and the Persian Army as the US soldiers sent to attack the rebellious Spartans. The rebels in Iraq fight occupying forces face supported with technology such as the AC-130 gunship and communication technology that one might believe would readily beat the navtive rebels into submission. The foreign based fighters, a combination of US soldiers, British soldiers, South Korean soldiers and private mercenaries hired by the US government patrol Iraq and occasionally are maimed or killed by the ingenuity of those rebels who refuse to surrender. Unfortunately in the real world evil is often plotted in green rooms by people who rarely resemble the villains as portrayed in the movies. Who is the hero and who is the villain takes a little bit more effort than assuming that "our side" are the good guys and "the others" are the bad guys. It has been 4 years since the US led coalition forces invaded Iraq, I wonder when Mr. Bush will decide that it is time to use some reason and logic and ask the question, "is the invasion and occupation worth it (and for whom)?"

Saturday I went to see the movie "300" with other members of the Phoenix Objectivist Study Group. Was it worth the price both of time and money? Yes.

From the real government of Iraq, the Multi-National Force of Iraq, (a bit less Multi-National now that Britain and Denmark declared that they intend to leave Iraq). MNF-I forces shoot at ?something? on Haifa Street, Baghdad, Iraq

Ron Paul Revolution - Phoenix

Freedom good, government bad, bad, bad.

Dennis Kucinich Urges Conversation about Impeachment

Watch this and reflect on the actions of the current POTUS and his demagoguery about Iran.

While this video is meant to tear down Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama would do well to reflect on what "V" said:

"And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror."

A timeless commentary on the nature of government and the collective.

If you can't afford a $44 ticket to go to the stage version of 1984, there are plenty of very affordable book and DVD versions available at amazon.com.

Whether you consider yourself a Republican, Libertarian or Democrat (or something else) the amazing influence of George Orwell on society cannot be denied. A stage performance of his story "1984" will be appearing in Scottsdale on Friday and Saturday (March 24th and 25th) at 8:00 PM. $44.00 per ticket.

I am all in favor of a pinch of salt. That is why I follow with interest the skeptic crowd which from my vantage point is headed by Penn Jillette. Mr. Jillette endorses James Randi and has had him on the Penn Radio show several times.

It is a sad day however when BoingBoing.net reports that James Randi claims that 36 homeopathic sleeping pills is a fatal dose. I would be hard pressed to find a reference *anywhere* that alleges that there is any dose of homeopathic medicine that will cause a negative side effect such as that claimed by Mr. Randi.

I would have no complaint if James Randi claimed that homeopathic medicine is ineffective (he is welcome to his considered opinion, one I happen to disagree with) but his current claim about homeopathic medicine is preposterous. If one takes webmd.com as a reasonably orthodox baseline, its article at most quotes medical figures and journals stating that homeopathic medicine is ineffective, not deadly.

Fix or scrap. In politics that is a question often posed and government will nearly always choose fix, euphimistically called "reform". Such is the case when it comes the the Arizona Clean Election system which the Arizona House of Representatives just voted to reform. 57 yes'es, 0 no's, 3 not voting. Sad-sad-sad.

A note to freshen up the references to Senator Jon Kyl - at least I haven't seen anyone claim that Mr. Kyl is "most likely to blow up the world" (that award goes to Arizona Senator John McCain). How old will John McCain be come election day 2008? Answer: 72 years old. Older than Ronald "I cannot recall" Reagan who was 69 years old upon becoming president.

There is something indescribable to be learned from Sarah Silverman.

Iraq:The hidden story. From UK station Channel 4 dated May 12th, 2006, 48 minutes.

Over at aznetroots.com the simmering hate of current day liberals boils over even as government regulation rachets up one more notch. Luckily you can demonstate the reason why government minimum wage laws hurt people in just one picture.

At least one person at Hot AZ It Gets thinks we should be sympathetic to the continued efforts of the Arizona legislature to get a pay increase. As if getting paid $24,000 a year plus $35 dollars a day they are in session isn't fair. For a job where they are only required to work 120 days of the year (compared to a working man's 260 days) I think that is fine and plenty fair. If they really addressed all the issues they wouldn't be called for special sessions and the populace could breathe easier knowing that the legislature and executive departments weren't concocting some new way to regulate Arizonans in a new and different way.

From Gabriel Gifford's Cactus Roots Connection, Vol. 22 we learn that the Democrats still haven't learned that government minumum wage laws have negative effects:

Raising the Minimum Wage
Giffords also backed legislation boosting the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, the latest in a series of sweeping measures enacted by the 110th Congress. Giffords is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan minimum wage bill, the first pay raise for working Americans in a decade. Now $5.15 an hour, the minimum wage will go up $2.10 over two years and directly benefit an estimated 13 million workers and their families.

In Arizona, an estimated 148,000 workers will benefit from the hourly wage hike. Nearly 70 percent of those workers are at least 20 years old and almost 60 percent are women. "This pay raise is long overdue," said Giffords, the former president and chief executive officer of Tucson's El Campo Tire Inc. "Over the past ten years the minimum wage was stuck at $5.15 an hour, while members of Congress benefited from nearly $32,000 in pay increases. That is unacceptable."

And how many wokers won't benefit from this hike and will be fired or never hired in the first place? Shoot folks, if the minimum wage is so good why not immediately raise it to $9.00 a hour? The reason is that the negative effects would be too evident and the voting public would learn that Democrats can't be trusted (the Republicans can't either but that's an item for another day).

For some background:

According to a claim by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the passage of the first Federal mandated minimum wage in the United States in 1933 led to an estimated 500,000 blacks losing their jobs via replacement by higher skilled and more educated white laborers. Milton Friedman, 1976 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, called the minimum wage one of the most "anti-negro laws" for what he saw as its adverse affects on employers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#_note-mack

I do not agree with liberal socialists and I do not agree with conservative socialists but I imagine everybody agrees that the vermin who create badware are to be despised and shunned. Visit www.stopbadware.org to learn more about this scourge and find out what Google, Lenovo, Sun Microsystems and a couple of non-profit groups are doing to turn back the tide.

Ron Paul Speech on the Patriot Act

Ron Paul talks about the Patriot Act and how the government eventually catches up to what the people want. Recorded August 31st, 2006.

It is good to see that there is at least one Democrat pointing out those electected democrats who aren't smart enough to figure out that some people who voted for Democrats wanted less war and not more.