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Well, it looks like the 2008 Presidential campaign is really starting to heat up. Although Hillary Clinton may ultimately deserve much of the credit, Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich are also causing voters to look at candidates in a whole new light. Specifically, attention is turning from the candidates, to their spouses. Enquiring Americans want to know whether their next President’s spouse will cross the White House threshold sporting a cigar, or a tongue stud.

While this angle parodies the Searching for meaningless leitmotif that will surely characterize lamestream media campaign coverage; in this case I think it serves to brighten up an otherwise dreary field of poseurs, cretins, and imbeciles. (Ron Paul being the exception that proves the rule, of course.) I’ll simply enjoy it as an entertaining sidebar before getting back to issues that are really important. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

Well, I guess it’s official now. Apparently a new poll indicates that meaningless bullshit will once again be the deciding factor in the upcoming Presidential election. (See video report below.) This comes as no surprise, I suppose. After all, Americans have a long tradition of concentrating on meaningless bullshit - as anyone who’s spent any time in a grocery store checkout line can attest. So it’s only natural that meaningless bullshit would dominate their electoral choices as well.

Perhaps some enterprising candidate will capitalize on this by choosing Britney Spears or Nicole Richie for their running mate. Hey, mom’s are big in America too! Anyhow, gotta go now - E.T. is coming on soon.

Just when you think there might be hope for the lamestream media they go and prove you wrong. The Ron Paul campaign has garnered a good deal of attention lately because of the good showing he’s made in numerous online and Republican straw polls. So how is one to justify the coverage in an MSNBC article about the results of the Conservative Leadership Conference in Nevada. The headline reads “Romney Loses NV Straw Poll.”

The actual result of the poll was Ron Paul in first place with 33% with Romney a distant second at 16%. Shouldn’t it read “Ron Paul Wins NV Straw Poll” instead? I guess MSNBC doesn’t want to put Paul’s name in a headline; at least not one with positive implications. So they’ve spun it as a loss for Romney instead. It may do more to hurt Romney in the long run however, as it will cause search engines to spit out an article that brands him a loser. This will be aided by the fact that the rest of the article centers on Romney and his efforts to woo conservatives. Unsuccessful efforts it would seem.

I read a great deal of information from many, many sources and some of the things I’ve read indicate that today, or at least the near future, could be more than a little interesting. If the things I’ve read are correct we may be in for a good deal of unpleasantness, to put it mildly. I’ll try to outline my thoughts on this in a cogent fashion.

First has to do with the financial markets. An advisory service I subscribe to posits a theory which holds that today (plus or minus a few days) marks a major simultaneous top for the gold, oil and stock markets. Seeing as these markets are all at or near all-time or long-term highs, this seems plausible. Should we expect them to continue to bull upwards, or will they undergo perhaps severe corrections? Might we experience another ugly October stock market crash like 1929 or 1987? If so, what will this mean for the gold and oil markets?

Continue Reading »

As long as I’m on the topic of great Ron Paul promotions, I would be remiss if I neglected to give a plug to my favorite Ron Paul promoting babe. Her name is Liv. She’s funny and she’s wonderfully cute, but sadly, she’s young enough to be my daughter!

I encourage everyone to click on whatever part of her picture you wish and visit her site. Once there you can watch Liv take off her clothes, shoot a beer, and generally be a bad influence. In short, all the things I look for in a girl. But best of all she makes a stupendous Ron Paul billboard. As you can see!

Well, it’s finally here. Ernie has finished his video of the Great Truck Stop Billboard Caper… and what a great job he’s done this time; on both the signs and the video about them. It just ticks me off that I had to work that weekend because this is one project that would have been very satisfying, as well as great fun to be a part of.

Not much else to say except that my hat if off to Ernie and the AZ-CA-NV crew. I’m humbled again.

Oh, and remember that this Ron Paul thing is just an internet thing and these billboards are just internet spam… or something. And Saddam had WMDs. And Osama did 9/11. And I won’t… you get the idea.

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This past June I went to an excellent, but woefully under-attended concert featuring David Bromberg at Phoenix’ Orpheum Theater. David has been around a long time — having been a session guitarist in the 60s for the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker and others. He also recorded what, for my money, is the best version of Walker’s Mr. Bojangles back in the 70s. David’s Orpheum performance was delightful and his band was as tight and talented as any you’re likely to see. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing many of my favorite Bromberg tunes live.

Surprisingly, there was a bonus in store that I hadn’t expected. Also on the bill was The Angel Band which I hadn’t previously heard of. They are a trio of lady vocalists, ala The Dixies Chicks, whose performance was every bit as impressive as David’s. This may have been partly because they were backed by the same superb musicians, including David. However, hearing their beautiful voices, tightly arranged with stunning harmonies, was truly a wonderful experience.

But why on earth take my word for it? You can download an mp3 version of their song We Are Shepherds for free, give it a listen and make your own musical judgement. I heartily recommend it, and I’m sure you’ll add the song to your personal mp3 player just like I did. Then I’m sure you’ll want to purchase their CD Beautiful Noise as well. Happy listening.

As the Presidential campaign season approaches in earnest, its time for everyone to start paying attention. Certain questions need to be asked at this juncture:

• Just what do these candidates represent?
• Which candidate best represents my views?

Well, we’re in luck because a Quad City area TV station has taken the time to make it easy to get a pretty good answer to both of these questions. Pop over and take the “Select a Candidate” quiz. Just answer 11 questions and the quiz will provide you with a ranking of which candidate best represents you in 2008.

Can you guess which candidate it “selected” for me?

Like a Ghost of Christmas Past, a bright specter continues to haunt the GOP establishment. They keep waking up screaming as, again and again, Ron Paul is there to remind them of their perfidy to conservative principles, and their treachery against the U.S. Constitution. You can bet they don’t like it a bit and they are doing everything they can to make him stop.

Ron Paul

Having failed to slow the Ron Paul campaign’s momentum — hey, they raised a cool $5 million in the third quarter; including $1 million in the final week — the latest gambit is to stop him in the primaries. To do that they are moving up the registration deadlines in many states to try and head off Libertarians, Independents and Democrats from registering as Republicans to vote in the GOP primaries. They are also moving to prevent Independents from voting in “open primary” states altogether.

This is true in California, despite its open primary law. It is also true in Arizona where the powers that be have established open primaries for every office except President of the United States. Voters in Arizona vote in what is known as the “Presidential Preference Election,” rather than a Presidential Primary, and Independents will not be allowed to participate. I could go on for a long time about this one, having fought it as a Libertarian, but I’ll spare you the long story. What it boils down to is that the Presidential Preference Election is ultimately non-binding and is really little more than a taxpayer financed publicity stunt. We referred to it as a beauty contest. It was established over a decade ago by supporters of, if I recall correctly, Steve Forbes, in an effort to give his campaign an early publicity boost.

The bottom line is that if you are not yet registered as a Republican and you want to vote for Ron Paul in your state’s primary - immediately run, don’t walk, to wherever you must to get yourself registered as a Republican. The deadlines vary by state, but they are as early as October 12 in New Hampshire and New York.

Be sure to encourage any friends or acquaintances who support Ron Paul to do likewise.

Alan Greenspan

It has been an interesting summer in the financial markets, but they appear to have stabilized after the liquidity crisis in August; although the extent of the damage is only now starting to become clear. Naturally, the Federal Reserve has been doing its part to provide emergency liquidity and keep money flowing between the big financial institutions; thus far averting wider damage. Still, I think we might be in for an interesting autumn as well. I’d rather not say “fall” in this context

I guess it’s only fitting that, in the midst of it all, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has published a book and gone on tour to promote it. Makes you wonder what might happen if someone, say a precocious college student - or even a penguin, were to show up on his tour and start pointing out some inconvenient facts. It could wind up being a highly charged situation, eh?