PoliticalAction.com Blog

Young Americans for Liberty declares war on Washington and mobilizes hundreds of youth activists to win on principle this fall!

Our plans are set.

Now in the final weeks of campaign season, YAL is prepared to mobilize our trained activists in five key states: Kentucky, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

Since Ron Paul’s Presidential Campaign, YAL has built an active youth network, trained hundreds of our members, and organized new chapters on more than 150 campuses.

NOW is the time to activate YAL’s network!

To make a tangible impact in these targeted states and beyond, YAL activists will raise awareness about candidate positions on key issues and get voters to the polls on Election Day.

YAL has developed a leadership team and training model to recruit hundreds of committed young activists, train them in on-the-ground campaign field work, and provide them with opportunities to volunteer for local campaigns.

This influx of volunteers can make a significant difference on Election Day.

With candidate commercials flooding the airwaves and drowning out our message, grassroots activists strategically placed on the ground will have the biggest impact in November.

But, I can only move forward with this effort with your backing.

You see, YAL’s current operating budget does not include these mobilization efforts. But these additional expenditures could be the most important activities YAL accomplishes this year.

Will you help me immediately mobilize hundreds of trained youth activists into the field?

There are only 39 more days left until Election Day. You and I must act now!

Because I believe you understand what is at stake here, I have already hired three full-time staffers in North Carolina and two full-time staffers in Nevada.

I would like to hire five more field staffers this month, but I can only move forward when I receive your support.

Can you help YAL hire more staff and mobilize more activists?

A donation of $500, $250, or $100 is an investment in this effort which will directly influence our ground game.

Even if you can only pitch-in and give $50, $25, or $10, contribution is vital and will make a difference.

If you make a donation this weekend, I will email you next week with a full, detailed outline of our activities this fall in each of these five states.

This exclusive announcement is only for YAL supporters, so please contribute any amount you can afford today.

You may recall our past efforts last spring which brought more than 150 young people to Kentucky. Additionally, another 40 youth activists were deployed in North Carolina this summer.

YAL is now prepared to enhance this program and expand our reach just in time for Election Day!

YAL members mailed more than 10,000 letters to voters in Kentucky.

Forty YAL members trained in North Carolina for field work.

YAL members mailed more than 10,000 letters to voters in Kentucky.

Forty YAL members trained in North Carolina for field work.

I assure you that my staff and I will redouble our efforts and maximize our impact these last few weeks.

Please give generously and join us so hundreds of young activists can carry out our five-state plan. I will be sure to email you all the details next week if you contribute to our success.

Thank you in advance for renewing your commitment to advance our shared message. You will help YAL take advantage of this historic political opportunity before us.

I cannot wait to celebrate with you on Election Day!

For Liberty,

Jeff Frazee
Executive Director, YAL

P.S.- Next week, I will reveal YAL’s five state campaign strategy, but I am only releasing this information to our supporters.

My staff and I are ready to train and mobilize literally hundreds of young activists into targeted states, but it requires me to raise enough funds first.

Every donation helps. Please pitch-in and give any amount you can. I sincerely thank you for supporting this effort to win on principle in 2010 and develop the future leaders of tomorrow.

WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama today announced that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 28 percent by 2020. Reducing and reporting GHG pollution, as called for in Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, will ensure that the Federal Government leads by example in building the clean energy economy. Actions taken under this Executive Order will spur clean energy investments that create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build local market capacity, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy industries.

As the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy, the Federal
Government spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008
alone. Achieving the Federal GHG pollution reduction target will reduce
Federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205
million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one
year. This is also equivalent to a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion
in avoided energy costs through 2020.

“As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a
responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient,” said President Obama. “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”

Federal Departments and Agencies will achieve greenhouse gas pollution
reductions by measuring their current energy and fuel use, becoming more energy efficient and shifting to clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal. Examples of agency actions that are underway are available on the White House Council on Environmental Quality website and can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/ceq.

On October 5, 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, setting measureable environmental performance goals for Federal Agencies. Each Federal Agency was required to submit a 2020 GHG pollution reduction target from its estimated 2008 baseline to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by January 4, 2010. The Federal target announced today is the aggregate of 35 Federal Agency self-reported targets.

Greenhouse gas emissions serve as a useful metric to measure the
effectiveness of agency energy and fuel efficiency efforts as well as
renewable energy investments. Agencies are already taking actions that will contribute towards achieving their targets, such as installing solar arrays at military installations, tapping landfills for renewable energy, putting energy management systems in Federal buildings, and replacing older vehicles with more fuel efficient hybrid models.

As a next step, the Office of Management and Budget will validate and score each agency’s sustainability plan, assuring a long-term return on
investment to the American taxpayer. To ensure accountability, annual
progress will be measured and reported online to the public.

Dear Friend,

As both a defender of Liberty and a Medical Doctor, I’m very concerned about the plans the Obama Administration and many in Congress have to increase the government’s role in healthcare.

Medical decisions being made by government bureaucrats, loss of privacy of medical data, and our ability to keep our own insurance and doctors are all up for grabs once Congress starts moving on these government takeover and rationing schemes.

But the good news is you and I can fight back.

Because you’ve joined me in battle before, I wanted you to be among the first people contacted by Campaign for Liberty in their fight against this federal power grab of our healthcare.

As you may know, Campaign for Liberty is carrying the Revolution forward and is leading the fight in Congress and all across the country, mobilizing Patriots to battle.

This battle against government-run healthcare is one I sincerely hope you will join.

Please watch this video I recorded to in response to this Government Healthcare Takeover Plan.

For Liberty,

Congressman Ron Paul

www.chinaview.cn 2009-06-15
By Jing Zhao Cesarone

CHICAGO, June 14 (Xinhua) — Taking issue with the Obama Administration’s contention that the economy is showing signs of recovery, Peter Schiff, a well-known American economic commentator, firmly believes that this economy will never recover unless the government changes its policies of taxing, spending and expanding the government.

Schiff, currently serving as president and chief global strategist of the brokerage firm Euro Pacific Capital Inc, told Xinhua during an exclusive interview on Saturday that “the things the government is doing with the economy only put us into deeper debt and deeper trouble. All they will probably do is buy us time, interfere with the current situation and postpone the unpleasant consequences in exchange for more damage in the future.”

Regarding recent numbers showing slight growth in retail sales and a dip in first-time jobless claims, Schiff said, “they’re depending on that to reign in the massive deficits they’re creating. But they aren’t doing anything that will lead to recovery; they’re doing the opposite!”

As an expert on money, economic theory, and international investing, Schiff is best known for his prescient predictions of the economic crisis of 2008. He is one of the few investment advisors to have correctly called the current bear market before it began.

He said, “the Obama Administration will be like Jimmy Carter’s. They’re going to tell everyone to ‘sacrifice’ to support a government that is just too large and too powerful. Regarding interest rates, Schiff noted, “We may have reduced interest rates now, but with higher inflation, we will have to raise them in the future. Then, we will have recession, rising prices, and no available credit. This will smother any potential for recovery.”

Turning to the unemployment rate, Schiff pointed out, “the current headline unemployment rate of 9.5 percent does not truly capture the situation on the ground because it ignores those who are ‘marginally attached’ to the workforce; 16 percent is more realistic representation of the situation, and I estimate about a 20 percent unemployment rate by the end of this year.”

Commenting on the government’s stimulus plan and its effect on job creation, Schiff said: “The kind of jobs created by the government stimulus are not productive and viable for the economy, but the private sector is forced to subsidize them. Not only are they a drain on the real economy via taxation, they also divert human capital from private businesses.”

Then what should the government do to bring the economy back on track? Schiff advised: “If the government changes its policies, the economy will start to recover immediately. But the symptoms will get worse before they get better. It’s like ripping off a band-aid — they’re so worried about the pain that they’re pulling it off slowly. If they just ripped it off, it might hurt a lot for a second, but then it would be over and we could move on.”

Schiff criticized the Federal Reserve as the ultimate culprit in this crisis. He said, “in response to the dot-com bust, Alan Greenspan kept interest rates artificially low to stimulate the economy. The only thing he stimulated was an artificial boom in real estate and stocks. Now, we’re paying for that with a recession.”

“Instead of allowing this restructuring to happen, Ben Bernanke has dropped interest rates to near-zero and started intervening directly in the market. He’s ‘monetizing’ Treasury debt to make up for a drop in foreign demand. These policies will lead to a collapse in the dollar, which will be much worse than the current crisis,” he added.

Schiff is a supporter of the Austrian School of Economics and the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and was an economic adviser for Ron Paul’s campaign in the 2008 Republican Party primaries, through which Schiff also expressed support for sound money, limited government, and free market capitalism.

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R), TX-14

While Congress is sidetracked by who said what to whom and when, our nation finds itself at a crossroads on the issue of torture. We are at a point where we must decide if torture is something that is now going to be considered justifiable and reasonable under certain circumstances, or is America better than that?

“Enhanced interrogation” as some prefer to call it, has been used throughout history, usually by despotic governments, to cruelly punish or to extract politically useful statements from prisoners. Governments that do these things invariably bring shame on themselves.

In addition, information obtained under duress is incredibly unreliable, which is why it is not admissible in a court of law. Legally valid information is freely given by someone of sound mind and body. Someone in excruciating pain, or brought close to death by some horrific procedure is not in any state of mind to give reliable information, and certainly no actions should be taken solely based upon it.

For these reasons, it is illegal in the United States and illegal under Geneva Conventions. Simulated drowning, or water boarding, was not considered an exception to these laws when it was used by the Japanese against US soldiers in World War II. In fact, we hanged Japanese officers for war crimes in 1945 for water boarding. Its status as torture has already been decided by our own courts under this precedent. To look the other way now, when Americans do it, is the very definition of hypocrisy.

Matthew Alexander, author of “How to Break a Terrorist” used non-torture methods of interrogation in Iraq with much success. In fact, one cooperative jihadist told him, “I thought you would torture me, and when you didn’t, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That’s why I decided to cooperate.” Alexander also found that in Iraq “the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq.” Alexander’s experiences unequivocally demonstrate that losing our humanity is not beneficial or necessary in fighting terror.

The current administration has reversed its position on releasing evidence of torture by the previous administration and we must ask why. A great and moral nation would have the courage to face the truth so it could abide by the rule of law. To look the other way necessarily implicates all of us and would of course further radicalize people against our troops on the ground. Instead, we have the chance to limit culpability for torture to those who were truly responsible for these crimes against humanity.

Not everyone who was given illegal orders obeyed them. Many FBI agents understood that an illegal order must be disobeyed and they did so. The others must be held accountable, so that all of us are not targeted for blowback for the complicity of some.

The government’s own actions and operations in torturing people, and in acting on illegally obtained and unreliable information to kill and capture, are the most radicalizing forces at work today, not any religion, nor the fact that we are rich and free. The fact that our government engages in evil behavior under the auspices of the American people is what poses the greatest threat to the American people, and it must not be allowed to stand.