Promises, Promises

Obama Disses Black Farmers
Associated Press | April 21, 2009
As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away.

GM, Chrysler to get $5.5B more
Associated Press | April 21, 2009
General Motors Corp. could get as much as $5 billion more in federal loans, while Chrysler LLC could get $500 million as they race against government-imposed deadlines to restructure, according to a government report filed Tuesday.

GM gets another $2 billion as deadline approaches
By Shawn Langlois | MarketWatch | April 24, 2009
General Motors Corp. has received $2 billion in fresh working capital from the Obama administration as the ailing Detroit giant works to revamp itself ahead of a June 1 deadline, Treasury Department officials said Friday.

Ayn Rand Forum

Ayn Rand’s ideas, capitalism trigger heated Firestorm debate
The Daily Planet | 16 April 2009

In response to a $1 million donation by BB&T to Western Carolina University, tied to demands that included the addition of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” to WCU’s required reading list, several people at Firestorm Café in downtown Asheville recently held a two-night showing of a documentary on Ayn Rand titled “A Sense of Life.”

Each screening was followed by a discussion — sometimes heated — of Rand, her ideas and the possible flaws of capitalism.

Liberty Asheville member Tim Peck said he learned in advance of the program and convinced several backers of Rand’s ideas in particular, and free enterprise in general, to attend and offer a defense.

The screening, split over Jan. 12-13, was followed each night by group discussions.

More than 30 people attended on the first night, during which the Daily Planet was the only newspaper represented. The paper did not cover the second night, which reportedly involved a more subdued discussion and drew a smaller turnout.

Discussion participants did not identify themselves, but one man said of Rand, “I think she was kind of naive. She had a sort of idealism. She saw things in black and white.”

A young woman added that she had “a big issue with a sophomoric idealist. I’m pretty outraged” that Rand’s ideas are being made required reading at WCU through the corporate clout of BB&T. She added that, in her view, “Capitalism revolves around exploitation.”

In response, Peck said that “none of your characterizations of capitalism are correct.” He said he sees laissez-faire capitalism as the political-economic social system of freedom.

On the second night, a Firestorm worker explained that BB&T worked out a compromise with WCU, wherein it agreed to drop requirements that a professor of capitalism be hired, that capitalism only be mentioned in a positive light and that “Atlas Shrugged” be required reading.

Halfway through the Jan. 12 discussion, the Planet representative was threatened with bodily harm by one unidentified attendee if he continued to shoot photos.

Later, some Firestorm “Collective” members demanded that the Planet’s photos be surrendered, but the Planet reporter refused and the meeting continued. A few weeks later, Firestorm sent the Planet a letter of apology for not responding to the threat, but that permission be sought to cover its future meetings.

Countdown to Tax Day Tea Party

The view from Asheville, NC
by Erika Conrad Franzi
Michelle Malkin Blog
April 12, 2009 06:01 AM

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of guest-blogger posts from tax revolt/Tea Party activists across the country. Erika Franzi is a homemaker, mother of 4, and business owner in Asheville, NC. The Asheville Tea Party blog is here. Franzi blogs at Jane Q. Republican.)

Six weeks ago, I sat in my living room, checking the status of my Facebook invitation to area patriots to attend the February 27th Tea Party Stimulus Protest. In two days of timidly gauging interest and finally issuing an invitation, I had found a grand total of 80 people to invite to the “Tea Party.” Eight had confirmed their intent to be there. The day of the event was rainy and cold but, hot cocoa and fliers in hand, I headed to the protest location to await the diehards. Before the day was over, 40 people had registered their attendance and The Asheville Tea Party was up and running.

In the intervening 6 weeks, the momentum has built and our focus has become clearer and more defined. Our first Tea Party was a “Stimulus Protest.” The Tax Day Tea Party is a protest of wasteful government spending, confiscatory taxation, the selling of our posterity into the bondage of debt, the devaluation of our currency, and bailouts of private enterprise. The refinement in our message has brought us clarity on the issue of non-partisanship as well. The abuses to which we stand in opposition are abuses which have been perpetrated by elected officials from both sides of the aisle. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can claim to be champions of our cause. These are not partisan issues; they are Constitutional issues and all citizens, Democrat or Republican, should be concerned with them.

The media would like nothing more than to portray our movement as a partisan effort to attack the Democrats and Obama. It would please them greatly to find our Tea Parties populated by partisan Republicans and professional Republican speakers. In this vein, we have turned down multiple offers from area politicians, political figures, and partisan groups to participate in and speak at the Asheville Tax Day Tea Party. Our Tea Party will instead be carried out by the citizen patriots who attend it, a cross section of folks that defy the media’s preconceived notion of who we are.

So who are we really? Well, I can tell you who I am. I am a Republican. Yep, you got me. Not all of us are, but I happen to be one. If you think you know me now, you might be surprised. I lean strongly Libertarian. I read Ayn Rand, but I read Michael Pollan too. I am nearly as concerned about sustainable food supplies as I am about our economy. My husband and I have four kids who we are raising in the Christian faith. They also attend a liberal secular school with kids from all kinds of family settings so they’ll know how to be compassionate and how to live in this world. I grind my own wheat to make bread for my family, I shop at the local tailgate market, and I used cloth diapers on three of my four kids. I’m not sure what Tea Party detractors imagine when they conjure up an image of a Tea Party protester, but I’m betting I am not it. I doubt any of us are.

“Why now?” some may ask. “Where were you 8 years ago?” I have heard. To those questions and others, I offer this. Perhaps no legislation has ever been more aptly named than the “stimulus.” It remains to be seen if it will have a stimulating effect on our economy, but it has already had a stimulating effect on the consciousness of our nation. The commitment of our Federal Government to spend $1 Trillion in taxpayer’s money on projects and programs that are beyond our control pushed us to action. I am the first to admit that we were asleep at our post over the last 2 decades while the Federal Government was growing with increasing speed. We are awake now and we can thank President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid for providing the $1 trillion alarm.

In any case, we don’t have the luxury of looking back and mourning the day that we should have acted. We have to begin today because tomorrow is the day my children ask, “How did you let this happen?”

The turnout at the Asheville Tax Day Tea Party looks like it might be slightly larger than the February 27th protest. Three hundred and twenty confirmed so far…

Will you be there?

Tax Day Tea Party

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor, Asheville Daily Planet,

In March 2009, the Federal Reserve printed one trillion dollars in new currency, entirely untethered to anything of value, to prop up previous failures of government intervention.

What will be the effect of the injection of this new, additional money on all current and future currency? The effect of inflation of the money supply is currency debasement.

Currency debasement leads to price increases as markets seek equilibrium. However, when the money is new, it holds its current value. When that money eventually trickles down it is worth less and less over time. The rich and well-connected get to use the money while it temporarily retains value. The rest of us get the debased money. And so do your children, and their children.

Economist and philosopher Frederic Bastiat said, "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

It is time now, at long last, to put an end to generational theft and unconstitutional over-reach before the U.S. dollar collapses and the vision of the Founders is a curious textbook memory.


Photos from Asheville
Ashevegas
Jenny Bowen
Asheville Citizen-Times
Hendersonville Times

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North Carolina Tea Parties

Tea party will draw many kinds of people
Roderick, Marilyn McLennan | AC-T | Mar 30, 2009
The best thing about the upcoming Asheville Tax Day Tea Party is that all kinds of people with many kinds of political, sociological and religious views will gather together.

Atlas Shrugged and the Tea Party Revolts [video]
Ayn Rand Center | April 06, 2009
Atlas Shrugged provides a vivid depiction of an America similar to today's and provides the ideological causes of today's failing policies.

Join the Tax Day Tea Party against fiscal ruination
Erika Franzi | AC-T | April 12, 2009
At a time when the word “prosperity” is no longer identified with this nation, it is inconceivable that our government continues to spend tax dollars as though the supply is endless...

See you at the Grand Junction Tea Party
By Linn and Ari Armstrong | Grand Junction Free Press
Finally there’s a reason to feel good about April 15 again. Yes, it’s tax day — and the federal government is spending more of our money than ever before. But this year the date also marks the Tax Day Tea Party, to be held in cities around Colorado and the nation.

The Tea Parties Are Financed By Fox News [video]
The tea parties are just “phony populism.”

Speech by Dr. John Lewis [video]
Charlotte Tea Party | April 15, 2009

New Official Home of the Tea Party Movement

Asheville Tea Party Video:
Bernard Carmen on Government Accountability
Matt Hoagland on Audit the Fed
Gary Shoemaker on Sovereignty Movement

The Bama

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Glenn Beck rips Barney Frank, AIG, Fannie [video]
Beck explains why Obama and Democrats (like Frank) are using the art of political misdirection to push us away from the real problems we are facing.

Chuckles the President
Steve Croft: "Are you punch-drunk?"

Presidential: http://snipr.com/e8wmv
Not Presidential: http://snipr.com/e8wpv

Obama on signing statements [video]
"I will not use signing statements."

Obama issues signing statement
Two days after criticizing his predecessor for issuing guidelines on how to put legislation into practice, President Barack Obama issued such a directive himself.

Dollar Declines on Geithner’s Comment
By Oliver Biggadike and Ye Xie
The dollar fell the most in almost a week against the euro on concern Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner supported a Chinese plan to blunt demand among global central banks for the greenback.

The Obama Deception [video]
The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people.

Divest, Retrench, Move Out

Part 2 | Part 3

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Battling Obama by Going Galt
By David Weigel | Washington Independent | 3/6/09
”Do you ever wonder,” wrote Dr. Helen Smith, “after dealing with all that is going on with the economy and the upcoming election, if it’s getting to be time to ‘go John Galt?’”

John Galt Calls on Atlas to Strike!
by Terry Paulson | March 16, 2009
Writing letters, complaining to your representatives, even tax-revolt demonstrations may not be enough! When workers reject their contract, they strike. Maybe it’s time for Atlas to do more than shrug! Is it time for the top tax-paying Americans to go on strike?

Is Atlas Shrugging? [video]
PajamasMedia TV | Mar 16, 2009
Guest: Yaron Brook, President, Ayn Rand Institute

Amazon Fiction Ranking
#3 - Atlas Shrugged
#4 - Atlas Shrugged
#6 - Atlas Shrugged
#19 - Fountainhead
#48 - Virtue of Selfishness
#61 - Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC)
#65 - Atlas Shrugged Cliff's Notes

When Will Atlas Shrug?
John Andrews | March 16, 2009
What is the breaking point? Where will the resistance form? Heavy questions, but unavoidable in the current political climate. The productive members of society can only be pushed so far, some say.

Banker fury over tax ‘witch-hunt’
Financial Times | March 20 2009
Senior executives on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday warned of an exodus of talent from some of the biggest names in US finance, saying the “anti-American” measures smacked of “a McCarthy witch-hunt” that would send the country “back to the stone age”.

Singapore
Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom

Lancing Boyle

Boyle column was long on criticism, short on substance
Tim Peck | Asheville Citizen-Times | March 5, 2009

Regarding the commentary by columnist John Boyle, “Maybe it's time for council to fight back,” (AC-T, Feb. 28): I find it odd that Boyle can spill so much ink crafting an uncharitable caricature of city council member Carl Mumpower while avoiding any substantive analysis of the presumed demerits of his position. Nor are we shown specifically in what way Mumpower's characterizations of state legislators are in error.

Instead Boyle simply argues that the local delegation is popular, therefore, "it makes sense to try to work with them." As if this in itself is a sufficient rebuttal to Mumpower's claim that these legislators are "stealing control of a $1B asset owned by the citizens of Asheville" through the legislative manipulations of Sullivan Acts II & III.

Boyle then urges Mumpower's colleagues on city council to fire back at him, but without offering any ammunition in the form of a valid counter-argument.

Boyle also complains that Mumpower voiced his criticism in a public meeting without explaining in what way it is inappropriate for a council member to address public policy in a public meeting. Nor does Boyle reveal the nature of the sentiments held by fellow council member Russell who voted with Mumpower against a settlement in the water issue.

I await answers from “The Answer Man.”

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Asheville City Council Report
Leslee Kulba | February 24, 2009
Notes 36, 37: As you all know, I took Asheville's side in the Water Disagreement because the county couldn’t give me internally-consistent answers and the legislators repeated the same, strange rhetoric.

Predatory Governors

The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alaska have indicated that they are seriously considering turning down the federal stimulus money being targeted for their states. In some cases, citing fear of a "strings-attached" package deal.

The governors of California, Michigan, and North Carolina have publicly stated that they would gladly take any stimulus money that other states turn down -- even if it means renting moving trucks to get it.

The federal government, of course, does not have any wealth to distribute to any individual, organization or state that it does not first forcibly confiscate from those productive individuals who have created or earned it. Unless, of course, it borrows money from other nations or simply prints new money untethered to anything of tangible value.

Taxes must be expropriated from the limited resources of individuals and enterprises, leaving crumbs for the pursuits of industry and livelihood. Borrowed money is lent upon condition of repayment in time. Fiat money is backed by nothing but future debt. In each case, the wealth represented by these funding sources must come from the pockets, paychecks and currency values of working American citizens, now or in the future, and on unfathomable scales.

If activity of this nature were to occur in the private sector, it would be called theft, involuntary servitude and fraud. And the perpetrators of these crimes would be punishable by law. In the public sector, it is called public policy and is championed by politicians, media and partisan voters, who heap praise and fortune on the perpetrators.

States that accept stimulus money derive the government-provided funds from one of those sources. The government being merely a pass-through agency -- or, the perpetrator of immoral activity. The governors of states that willingly accept the loot collected and distributed by the federal government are the recipients of ill-gotten gains. And the governors of states that reject the loot extracted from taxpayers, consumers and generational debtors remain untainted by crime.

In this desperate economic environment, there are clearly some who would eagerly sacrifice their good moral standing and accept stolen goods, without regard to the suffering of those who involuntarily provide it, if doing so would offer momentary relief to their dismal material condition and perhaps sweeten their prospects for praise and political security.

The governors who stand by quietly waiting for a share of the public bounty to come their way, while willfully ignoring the plight of their invisible victims, are contemptible. But those governors who would fill their bellies with the fiscal entrails of the innocent and then come back for the scraps left by those few governors with moral clarity are beneath contempt. They are truly predators on the national treasure and they richly deserve scorn, ridicule and persecution.

We know who they are. They have given us their names themselves. Will we know enough to revile them?

RELATED

The "Economic Stimulus" Myth
by Harry Binswanger | February 24, 2009
It is amazing that in this crisis, which is a crisis of over-consumption, over-borrowing, too little liquidity, the government's idea of a "stimulus" is to encourage more consumption, more borrowing, and less liquidity.

Battle Lines Quickly Set Over Planned Policy Shifts
By Lori Montgomery | Washington Post | March 1, 2009
[Obama's] plan would produce annual deficits far larger in dollar terms than any recorded before the recession...Washington would continue to borrow heavily, and the national debt would double over the next five years.

Taxation Is Robbery
by Frank Chodorov | 1962
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines taxation as "that part of the revenues of a state which is obtained by the compulsory dues and charges upon its subjects."

What You Should Know About Inflation
Henry Hazlitt | 1964
When the supply of money is increased, people have more money to offer for goods. If the supply of goods does not increase — or does not increase as much as the supply of money — then the prices of goods will go up. Each individual dollar becomes less valuable because there are more dollars.

Government Debt Has No Upside
Robert P. Murphy | 1/16/2006
When the government spends more than it takes in through taxes or other methods of acquiring funds, it must make up the difference by borrowing.

What Could Happen
By Don Stott | Whiskey and Gunpowder | Feb 27th, 2009
I am not trying to be an alarmist, but I am worried about a lot of things. I just have to imagine what the chain reaction of the current downhill slide of the world’s economies can bring.

Sanford first to reject funds
By James Rosen | McClatchy Newspapers | March 10, 2009
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is expected Wednesday to become the first governor to formally reject some of the federal stimulus money earmarked by Congress for his state.

Texas gov. rejects stimulus money for unemployment
By MONICA RHOR | Associated Press | Jan. 27, 2009
Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday rejected $555 million in federal stimulus money

Economy Cure Thyself

This shaky economy is not going to cure itself
Keith Keller | Asheville Citizen-Times | February 28, 2009

Ah, good news — some Republican governors, like Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford, are going to refuse federal bailout money. Like former Republican President Hoover, they believe that “prosperity is just around the corner.” They think they can do nothing and the market will correct itself. There's no need to regulate anything. There is so much criticism about the bailout from most of the Republicans, but where is their plan? To do nothing now will hurt too many and possibly finish the job President Bush began by further destroying our country. But, it not just professed Republicans. Our own Democratic congressional Rep. Heath Shuler has voted twice against the bailout. Remember in November.

RESPONSE

The headline is correct. The economy cannot cure itself under current conditions. The economy can only correct by removing all government interference in the operations of the marketplace. The economy is actually struggling to correct, but is prevented from doing so at every turn.

Housing prices should fall to affordable levels, but no, the government props them up artificially. Mismanaged businesses should fail, but no, the government bails them out. Interest rates should rise to reflect the true availability of capital, but no, the Fed lowers the rate to falsify reality and encourage malinvestment. The riskiest Americans should default on over-valued homes and become renters, but no, the government will pay their mortgages with other people's money. The regulated market should be set free to cure the disease of government intervention, but no, the government comes bounding in once again to hamper the economy and further hamstring economic freedom.

The current interventionist administration is doing precisely the opposite of what is needed to stimulate the economy. It is increasing its interference, meddling and control and will enormously damage our world-renowned prosperity and our ability to recover and thrive -- perhaps forever.

Tea Party

"One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary." —Ayn Rand, 1975



Video by Robert Clay

RELATED

WLOS TV 13 news coverage
February 27, 2009, 12:00pm
It will benefit the few, based on political calculation, at the expense of the rest of us. The only proper role of government is to protect of individual rights -- period, not to interfere in the economy or to control the economy in any way.

WLOS TV 13 news coverage
February 27, 2009, 4:30pm (modified)

Photos
Erika Franzi | A Rainy Day Success! | February 27, 2009

Pictures from the tea party
Jen Bowen | February 27, 2009

Tea party updates
Instapundit | February 27, 2009

Get angry
Freedom is the Solution | February 20, 2009
If you haven't seen this rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC, I highly recommend it.

Santelli Responds to The White House
The Kudlow Report | CNBC | 02/20/2009

Ayn Rand and the Tea Party Protests
Paul Hsieh | Pajamas Media | March 2, 2009
Protesters must couple their outrage at bailouts with a positive vision of a properly limited government.