Th, May 17, 2012, 6pm chili dinner, 6:30pm program. Ben Cayetano, Honolulu mayoral candidate, on Rail & other issues. Kaiser High School cafeteria, 511 Lunalilo Home Rd, Honolulu. Flyer (pdf).
Su, May 20, 2012, 11am-5pm, Israel Day Hawaii, Honolulu Hale Civic Grounds, 650 S. King St., Honolulu. Details, map.
W, May 23, 2012, 6:30-8pm, Honolulu mayoral debate with Ben Cayetano, Peter Carlisle & Kirk Caldwell. On KFVE, KGMB, KHNL TV.
Th, Jul 12, 2012, HI primary registration deadline
Sa, Aug 4, 2012, HI primary election absentee application deadline
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
What could they [GOP presidential candidates] possibly have been thinking about, in the first place, when they agreed to a [debate] format based on short sound bites for dealing with major complex issues, and with media journalists — 90 percent of them Democrats — picking the topics?
From the RT introduction: Jamie Dimon, CEO of America’s largest bank by assets is downplaying the impact of the $2 billion loss that JP Morgan recorded from its risky bets, the loss that turned out NOT to be the tempest in a teapot he had previously blown it off as. Dimon said the bank will still earn a lot of money this quarter. Banks are supposed to earn money by helping the economy grow. Making money while the rest of the economy suffers isn’t earning money, it’s extracting it, stealing it – a theme we see on both sides of the Atlantic. From bank bailouts in the eurozone disguised as bailouts for societies to the casino capitalism of Wall Street banks disguised as legitimate businesses. We speak to Gerald Celente, founder of Trends Research Institute and publisher of the Trends Journal about it all. Plus, the US Department of Justice can’t tell you how many criminals have been prosecuted in the financial crisis because they don’t keep track and a Facebook co-founder ditches his US citizenship for residency in Singapore. Demetri, Lauren and Shannon give you their two cents on today's Loose Change.
Link:
Finally, Honest TV: Executive Producer Demetri Kofinas talks to Lew Rockwell about why Russia Today’s "Capital Account," starring Lauren Lyster, is so good and so right. [Lew Rockwell]
The establishment turned off the air conditioning at the Arizona State GOP Convention last weekend, trying to sweat the Ronulans into leaving.
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In Oklahoma they pulled out a ballroom divider to cordon off Ron Paul supporters and shut them out of participation. Later they turned out the lights. Voice votes that were clearly lost were declared won.
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In Carson County, Nevada they turned off a microphone when a Hispanic tried to speak, they knew that Hispanics were for Ron Paul.
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In Minnesota they told their people not to vote for any delegate under the age of fifty.
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In Alaska, they defeated the majority by retaining the committee which “interpreted rules” and later, after taking the delegation, reluctantly gave up the party control to the new majority but transferred all of the money out of the Republican Party accounts.
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In Virginia, at a District Convention, they coaxed the Ron Paul delegation outside and then locked the door. The pastor of the church that was hosting the event was, himself, locked outside.
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In Missouri they had all the delegates sign up at County Conventions and then had their County Chairman take the rolls outside and lock them in their car trunks so they could block roll call voting and have their chairman declare lost voice votes as won. At another convention delegates were arrested.
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Our people have been punched, yelled at, lied to and worked until they can hardly stand. But on they come, fighting for their children, fighting for their future, angry at the corruption of the banks, of Wall Street, of the lobbyists, of the congress, of the White House. The battle for liberty is not over. It has just taken on a new phase. It cannot be stopped by the national media. If that were the case it would never have been born in the first place.
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Even a Nobel Peace Prize winner can’t avoid a pat-down.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got searched by a Transportation Security Administration employee while going through a security checkpoint at LaGuardia Airport in New York Friday, The Washington Post reports.
Kissinger, who was in a wheelchair, was told by a TSA agent that he needed to be searched.
In what is an unorthodox turn of events, the Oklahoma Republican Convention has reconvened in the parking lot of the Embassy Suites in Norman, Okla. The state convention was held today inside the Embassy Suites with party officials calling for an adjournment at or around 5 p.m.
From early in the day, old guard Republicans refused to conduct the official meeting according to established Republican Party rules. Party officials adjourned the convention without concluding scheduled party business and without the support of the delegates in attendance. Under parliamentary procedure, the chairman presiding over the meeting is present to keep order as opposed to leading the meeting according to a personal agenda.
by Republican presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)
Last week I held a hearing to examine the various proposals that have been put forth both to mend and to end the Fed. The purpose was to spur a vigorous and long-lasting discussion about the Fed's problems, hopefully leading to concrete actions to rein in the Fed.
First, it is important to understand the Federal Reserve System. Some people claim it is a secret cabal of elite bankers, while others claim it is part of the federal government. In reality it is a bit of both. The Federal Reserve System is the collusion of big government and big business to profit at the expense of taxpayers. The Fed's bailout of large banks during the financial crisis propped up poorly run corporations that should have gone under, giving them a market-distorting advantage that no business in the United States should receive. The recent news about JP Morgan is a case in point. JP Morgan, a recipient of $25 billion in bailout money, recently announced it lost another $2 billion. If a corporation shows itself to be a bottomless money pit of "errors, sloppiness and bad judgment," the Fed shouldn't have expected $25 billion in free money to change that or teach anyone a lesson in fiscal discipline. But it determined that this form of deliberate capital destruction was preferable to one business suffering bankruptcy. Clearly, some changes need to be made.
Several reforms for the Fed were discussed at the hearing. One was a call for the full employment mandate to be repealed, in order to allow the Fed to focus solely on stable prices.
Another reform calls for changes to the composition of the Federal Open Market Committee. Still another proposal was for outright nationalization of the Fed or of its functions. But if what the Fed does now is bad and inflationary, allowing the Treasury to print and issue money at-will would be even worse, and could possibly lead to a Weimar-like hyperinflation.
The problems and advantages of the gold standard were discussed at the hearing. The era of the classical gold standard was undoubtedly one of the greatest eras in human history. For a period of several decades in the late 19th century, the West made enormous advances. However, the gold standard was still run by government. The temptation to suspend gold redemption reared its head again with the outbreak of World War I. Once the tie to gold was severed and fiscal restraint thrown to the wind, undoing the damage would have required great fiscal austerity. Instead, the Western world proceeded to set up a gold-exchange standard which lasted not even a decade before easy money led to the Great Depression.
While returning to the gold standard would certainly be far better than maintaining the current fiat paper system, as long as the government retains the power to go off gold we may end up repeating the same mistakes.
The only viable solution is to get government out of the money business permanently. The way to bring this about is through currency competition: allow parallel currencies to circulate without receiving any special recognition or favor from the government. Fiat paper monetary standards throughout history have always collapsed due to their inflationary nature, and our current fiat paper standard will be no different.
It is imperative that the American people be educated on the dangers of the Fed and the importance of restoring sound money. The laying of the groundwork must begin today, so that the American people will be prepared for the day when the mirage the Fed has created evaporates completely. The full hearing footage is available on my website and I would encourage every American to take a look.
by Republican presidential candidate Congressman 