Megapuss – A Gun On His Hip and a Rose On His Chest.
That just made me want to pick up the Hammer of Truth and bludgeon some fascists and commies. “Hey bo diddly!” proclaimed victoriously, as we know the security state is one of constant fear! We see your hands shake when you lie. RUN AWAY LITTLE CHILD, I HAVE A ROSE ON MY…
Telling the truth is the best fuck you can give, and for some awesome reason it sounds best as a 50s surf song.
I’ll be at the LPCO convention doing daily blogging for Hammer of Truth and doing a little of this and that. I’ll be assuming everyone new I meet is a Fed unless they toke.
I sometimes find use for a secretary/intern/whatever, so any LPers with great organizational skills: hit me up and I’ll cover your ticket.
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I’ve been non-watchdogging the political world for a few weeks, nay a month. I feels *sane* to be more productive rather than ranting about our continuous loss of freedoms. Freedoms wrought from us by an incompetent bureaucracy and powerful police state being erected in contempt of America’s history. We’re galloping into 2013, the Chinese year of the snake. Maybe the Gadsden flag will get dusted off for Tea Party 2.0. Wherein I expect some under-appreciated discontents will finally undigitize the revolution.
Mankind is currently having an identity crisis between eloquent promises of liberty-loving (mostly for themselves) and outright distaste for their fellow man (through their actions of edict and decree). Me? I’m just a programmer coding the shit out of PHP making glorious websites and sometimes issuing my own decree (this is one).
Maybe I’m a selfish prick too, just looking out for #1. Nah, I’ve somehow managed to rope others (ahem, dad) into helping us all tag-team the Revolution while I pretend to do that work thing in an office for pay, (and probably drink too much with coworkers and potential clients).
{cue laugh track with smattering of claps}
Colorado, COLORADO… oh sweet ***Colorado***
I hardly know you, but I’m concerned with your bureaucratic parasites sucking away the freedoms of guns, god and gold (and apparently ganja). Pretty soon they’ll be taking your whiskey away and then it’s back after the weed. How in the world would you fight that again without guns? You wouldn’t, so you shouldn’t back down now.
Dudes… are you smothering them with pot smoke, in which case okay kudos.
The Pueblo and Colorado Springs scene sucks my breath away. Not just because I’ve previously been bopping my head to Ohio’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kid Cudi. But because with indifference and 5000ft altitude, we here also suck when we give them the power over our bodies and minds. But we’re not.
We have the resistance rising up out of antipathy, and it’s going to come from people like you and me, dontchaknow.
So I want you to wish deeply and….
aaaaaaaand…..
aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnddddd…..
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDD!!!!!….
….
…
…AND THAT’S WHY I TURNED OFF THE ADS AT HAMMER OF TRUTH.
{cue theme song, roll credits}
Seriously though, the rest of the editors around here suck, you’re all fired. Just kidding, maintain your post sitting there consuming Hammer of Truth instead of driving it while I was gone, but without ad revenue no one’s ever getting paid, ever… mwuahahahaha…. /our remaining readers are probably laughing at you
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Big ups to the torch-bearer Paul, winner of the 2013 CPAC Presidential Straw Poll:
Today, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2013) concluded with Senator Rand Paul winning the CPAC Straw Poll. The Straw Poll was sponsored by The Washington Times and conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates.
Today’s 40th Annual National CPAC was a high-energy three-day conference bracketed by dynamic remarks by top regional and national conservative leaders.
In first place, Rand Paul secured 25% percent of the vote by registered CPAC attendees, followed by Senator Marco Rubio at 23% percent. Former Senator Rick Santorum received 8% percent of the vote, closely followed by Governor Chris Christie with 7% percent and Representative Paul Ryan with 6% percent.
Speaking of straws, apparently Rubio did a better job of podium drinking on the job this go around:
Let me tell you what the stakes are. Because the stakes are not just America. The stakes are bigger than that. [thank you. never in the history of the world has water been so popular. I appreciate that.].
Let’s start the Senator Rubio game, when he talks about water: you have to pick up your drink from the floor and slowly sip it.
Also, we are totally not implying that Rubio drinks on the job.
In contrast, Rand Paul seems to also have his faux pas moments of style (wearing cargo shorts with a suit top is certainly not one of them, endorsing Mitt Romney assuredly was), but he beats Rubio hands down n the categories of substance and genuineness. Senator Paul is also the tea party favorite and certainly what remains of the Ron Paul Revolution’s best shot at the White House in 2016. Maybe if Rubio would toe the libertarian line more often, his brand of mostly boring republican glass-eyed charm would be an asset.
Let’s take a moment to commemorate the great news that they both stomped the fuck out of Chris Christie and Rick “Spreading” Santorum and elevated a known libertarian and what is probably an honest to god conservative. That’s some great news showing the sanity of CPAC voters (who I assume are an accurate cross-section of the entire Republican Party and not just people off the street).
Congrats to all of them though, I’m sure it’s going to be tough staying positive once the dramatic theater of primary campaigning forces everyone to become an asshole to the enemy opposition.
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Republican turned Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson announced that he will respond to President Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address via a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything).
Here’s the announcement on facebook:
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 3 p.m. PST / 6 p.m EST, Gov. Gary Johnson will host a Reddit AMA or “Ask Me Anything.”
The 60-minute on-line event will give participants a chance to ask the former New Mexico Governor and Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative questions via the popular website, Reddit.com.
Reddit is a source for what’s new and popular on the web. Users like you provide all of the content and decide, through voting, what’s good and what’s junk.
Links that receive community approval bubble up towards #1, so the front page is constantly in motion and (hopefully) filled with fresh, interesting links.
To ask a question, visit www.reddit.com at 3 p.m. PST / 6 p.m EST, Tuesday, and just search “Gov. Gary Johnson”. Governor Johnson is anxious to hear from you!
Please join us!
Sincerely,
Our America Team
When: Tuesday Feb 12, 2013
Time: 3 p.m. PST | 4 p.m. MST | 5 p.m CST | 6 p.m EST
Where: Online www.reddit.com just search “Gov. Gary Johnson.”
You can easily track Johnson through his account GovGaryJohnson.
One of the questions we expect will be asked is whether he is formally announcing his candidacy for 2016. Considering the official Johnson store has been selling 2016 merchandise for several weeks now, that answer will undoubtedly be “yes”.
Another issue sure to come up is Johnson’s enormous $1.1 million campaign debt that looms over a future bid. It could easily be problematic for Johnson’s finger-wagging at Obama’s loose spending habits.
Oddly enough, when checking out Johnson’s pre 2016/post 2012 campaign site ouramericaninitiative.com, we discovered (using NoScript) that there was a serious technical issue with spam. We hope Governor Johnson’s web team will quickly patch that glaring exploit.
UPDATE: Johnson has finished the AMA, answering 29 of the more than 300 questions. It was a far smaller turnout than the IAmA during the 2012 presidential campaign, which had over 9000 responses.
On the 2016 question he responds, “Yes, 2016 is far off, and we will see what it brings. Right now, I am determined to be a voice of sanity re spending, civil liberties, and putting an end to unnecessary and costly foreign interventions.”
Sounds like the politician way of saying “yes” to me.
For the question of “Where did the money go?” (to paraphrase), Johnson seemed to deflect the issue by drawing distinct comparisons to the millions thrown around by Obama and Romney.
“There are several questions along this line. Let me be clear. We raised and spend 1/1000th of the amount spent by Obama and Romney, and financed substantial travel, grassroots development, social media presence and an aggressive email campaign. We put as many resources as possible on the air in advertising, but appropriately spent much on developing the base that will be able to go forward.”
Unfortunately, the AMA was not so much a SOTU response as just another chance for Johnson to stay relevant to the hivemind of reddit. And Johnson picked probably the worst timing, because all eyes for the past few hours have been focused on the Chris Dorner situation. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of questions on the subject of Dorner, Johnson simply elected to answer none of them.
UPDATE II: It seems Governor Johnson might have missed out on reaching a lot more redditors when he unwittingly posted in r/AMA (36 thousand subscribers) instead of r/IAmA (2.7 million subscribers).
Johnson’s media folks ought to be slapping themselves on the forehead over this.
UPDATE III: A pointed question about the campaign finance (using the same link to ParaPolitical cited in this post) has hit the most upvoted spot in after-hours discussions. Libertarians have a tendency to publicly piss all over each other for sport, so this AMA derailing certainly won’t bode well for Johnson putting the issue to bed.
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Hey Hammer of Truth fans, I’ve been busily moving the site away from our hosting provider we loved for seven years over to Amazon Web Services EC2. As you might have noticed, this has caused a few hiccups, which has led to a temporary slowdown in post frequency (because yay distractions and uncertainty).
We’ve gone from a managed hosting environment where I put in support tickets and was told to spend lots of money buying better servers, to a self-serve model where we spend less money but the tradeoff is having to know a lot of technical stuff.
Luckily I know a few things. Enough to break things, and enough to fix them again.
Well, I’m about 98% sure that all these odd little bugs that came up during the migration from one server environment to another have now been worked out now (like the caching issue that displayed a weak, ugly mobile theme instead of our usual kickass design). Frabjous day!
I want to ask all of you to drop a comment here if you notice any problems with the site. Or just to high five us for the success.
Yes, we’re doing regular backups.
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This year, New Orleans’ Superdome had the distinction of being protected not just by the Department of Homeland Security and 4,000 private security guards. More than 70 federal agencies working out of the Joint Operations Center at the New Orleans FBI office, ostensibly with the goal of stopping anyone who didn’t belong inside the “National Special Security Event”.
Included in the clusterfuck of alphabet security soup is one that should probably be an expert in the matter, but is somehow the exact opposite — Customs and Border Patrol. CPB posted a self-congratulatory release on their website this week:
When the San Francisco 49ers faced the Baltimore Ravens, fans in the New Orleans Mercedes-Benz Superdome probably did not realize the level of security that covered them long before they made their way into the stadium. They may have been unaware of the nearly invisible protected air space that blanketed the venue hours before the kick-off and well after they left the stadium.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) once again was part of the super security team supporting New Orleans in their efforts to host a safe and secure Super Bowl XLVII experience. As part of the team, CBP brings its operational experience and assets to support their federal, state and local law enforcement partners, the National Football League (NFL) and the community.
The rub? Two students from Savannah State snuck their way past the army of security and into the event sans tickets. Their technique was simple enough — wearing matching hoodies and exuding extreme confidence. They even video-recorded the whole exploit, Savannah Now has posted portions.
Priceless reaction after the duo waltzed by security: “They should have stopped us.”
On Monday February 4th, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul tweeted the following:
Understandably, a shitstorm ensued as people inferred that Ron Paul was saying Chris Kyle had it coming because of his past history as a Navy SEAL sniper. In fact, the writers at ronpaul.com said just that in a tactless post titled “Ron Paul: Chris Kyle Had It Coming“.
TheWeek jumped on the story:
And just like that, the three-time Republican presidential candidate’s tenuous coalition of pro-gun libertarians, anti–Federal Reserve goldbugs, and foreign policy non-interventionists crumbled. Paul is an opponent of gun control — saying after December’s Newtown, Conn., grade school massacre that “more guns equals less crime” and that “private gun ownership prevents many shootings” — but also of U.S. military adventurism. Kyle, also an outspoken gun-rights advocate, earned a reputation in Iraq as one of the deadliest snipers in U.S. military history.
Hours later, after a lot of backlash on social media and the conserva-sphere, Ron Paul meekly put out a follow-up tweet pointing to a short facebook post:
As much as it pains me to say it, Ron Paul simply doesn’t look good here.
Hopefully Paul will come out and say it was an intern posting tasteless drivel his accounts, but don’t count on it.
UPDATE: Lt. William J. Lawler II, M.Ed posted the following praise of Ron Paul’s tweet at LibertyCrier which hit my inbox along with a lot of negativity from military veterans:
When I first heard about the shooting I felt bad.
As soon as I learned who Chris Kyle was and how proud he was of how many people he had murdered, I felt less bad.
What goes around comes around.
In this case it was on an individual level. Soon it will be on a national level.
Unfortunately, those of us who fought against the tyranny of the American Empire are going to have to pay the price for all of the scumbags and idiots that supported American Imperialism.
Oh well, life’s not fair.
There’s definitely a schism growing in the Ron Paul revolution over this tweet. It’s unfair to veterans, many who have fought in wars and killed people, to suddenly claim that for them to die would be no great tragedy.
I reiterate that the Iraq war was misguided and a terrible spilling of blood on both sides, but that’s no excuse to start flinging insults and derision at the soldiers. The blame lies squarely on the politicians who fabricated evidence and ordered aggression.
As libertarians, we ought to be taking the moral high road and insist that all deaths are tragic, even those of our soldiers.
Let’s not forget that many allies in the Ron Paul revolution have fought in previous wars under a draft. Those troops are going to view any slights against the rank and file soldier as a severe affront to their patriotic duty to protect those who can’t or won’t fight from those who would.
UPDATE II: Someone from Liberty Crier dropped by and rudely commented. I have responded.
On Monday, January 28th, Bill Stevens gave a short three minute testimony to a special Connecticut Congress hearings called the “Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety”.
Here’s a transcript of his powerful testimony:
My name is Bill Stevens, I live in Newtown.
My fifth grade daughter was in “lock down” on December 14th, 2012. Unfortunately, her classmate’s little sister… was murdered in Sandy Hook that day when “lock down” and 911 weren’t enough to protect her from an evil person. Not protect her from an assault rifle or some type of inanimate object, but from an evil person.
Quite different, from the elaborate security you all enjoy here at the capitol. It was fun getting frisked on the way in. [Some laughter]
I’m not here to cite the crime statistics: lives saved with a gun, or the economic impact of the proposed asinine legislation (some of these gun control bills you have proposed). I will however read from the Connecticut state constitution. Section 15 reads very clearly… We all know what the Second Amendment says… But section 15 in the state constitution says very clearly: “Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.” [Applause]
There’s no registration, there’s no permitting, there’s no background check. It’s quite clear.
I’m frankly shocked by some of the testimonies today.
In case some here failed American history, there’s something called the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and a process by which to amend it. The same goes for the state constitution. These rights are inalienable and endowed by our creator — not you politicians — to all citizens regardless of gender, race or creed. In order to limit the rights of citizens, there is something called “due process”. And, “legislation” is not “due process”.
You wanna take my rights away, let’s go to court.
And with regard to due process, the final report with all the facts on Sandy Hook will not likely be issued until this Summer. It was stated clearly in the newspapers. How can any legislation be passed in good faith or good conscience without all the facts?
Again, gun ownership is a constitutional right, but it’s not for everyone. That’s okay, and shouldn’t make gun owners suspects regardless of how many guns they have or how much ammunition they may have.
My guns are not dangerous. They are at home, locked up, collecting dust and cat hair. [Laughter]
But criminals and tyrants — tyrants, especially — BEWARE! “Lock down” is not an option at the Stevens residence. And 911 will be dialed after the security of my home has been established.
Why is that same security my daughter enjoys at home with her dad not available at school in Newtown? That is what you should be considering, not making her dad a criminal.
Charlton Heston made the phrase “from my cold dead hands” famous. And I will tell you this today: You will take my ability to protect my Victoria from my cold dead hands. [Applause]
Mr. Stevens then pounded his fist on the table, closed his laptop and strutted out of the hearing like a boss. And America applauded his audacity to stand up to tyrants and criminals.
UPDATE 2/7: We have been informed that Bill Stevens is not actually a Sandy Hook parent, in fact he has gone out of his way to disabuse several media outlets of this notion. From an update at the bottom of an article at Examiner.com:
Thank you for the nice article about my testimony in Hartford. Unlike the Liberal media who don’t let facts get in the way, I just wanted to let you know that my daughter does not attend Sandy Hook Elementary, but was in “lock down” nonetheless on December 14, 2012 at Reed Intermediate School (5th & 6th grade) about a mile away with her classmates, one of whom lost his little sister that day.
As you’ll note in his testimony, at no time does he claim to be a Sandy Hook parent, instead saying simply that he is from Newtown and had a daughter in a school that was in lockdown.
We have edited the title of the post to reflect this revelation and regret the error. We were just as snookered as everyone else by the wishful thinking of the YouTube video description.
How does a company get around copyright and trademark over-zealotry? By being bitter about intellectual property rights.
In Samsung’s commercial about making a SuperBowl commercial (so meta, you guys), Bob Odenkirk — best known as the lawyer Saul “better call Saul” Goodman from AMC’s Breaking Bad — asks comedians Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd to pitch ideas for some new product (flashed at us for only a mere three seconds).
The trio then spend the next minute hashing out how exactly to even make a commercial when they are muffled by legal precedent and unable to speak any of the trademarked names (they are constantly shushed by Odenkirk before they can finish them, but it’s clear what’s been unsaid). The Super Bowl becomes “the big game” and ultimately “el plato supremo”, while the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers are re-nicknamed the “black birds” and the “fifty minus one-ers”. At which point they all laugh and embrace “hashtags” because twitter hasn’t been smart enough to trademark that term yet.
Samsung doesn’t deserve a free pass on intellectual property abuse themselves. Ironically, and rather hypocritically, Samsung has previously partnered with the International Olympic Committee — one of the most notorious trademark enforcers around the world.
And consider the following: If anyone made a widely broadcasted commercial without clearance (“hey guys, go download the new Hammer of Truth’s message notification buddy app widget thingie, which works awesome on my Samsung Android” *holds up $40 flip phone from 2004 for camera*), Samsung’s legal department would certainly be sending out cease and desist letters. For a company that has spent millions of dollars on litigating against the little guy, for them to hire three multi-millionaire actors to play the roles of potential chilling effect victims is only convincing… because they hired convincing actors.
Regardless, for a commercial focused on the inanity of legal hurdles involved in making commercials, it’s a well deserved poke in the eye of copyright laws.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what they’re selling.
Earlier this week Darryl Perry wrote here at Hammer of Truth that the No Budget, No Pay Act (H.R. 325) was an unconstitutional measure, and a sure sign of Republican weakness to boot:
The 27th Amendment reads, in part, “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of the Representatives shall have intervened.”
Despite the fact that the compensation is not changing, the bill could still be unconstitutional as it alters the scheduled dates of pay, which would be “varying the compensation.” It is unlikely any of the Republicans will challenge the bill, and the Democrats reportedly see “the legislation as a white flag on the part of the GOP, something that allows Congress to skirt the debt limit issue and move on to other fiscal arguments.”
On Tuesday, Justin Amash — a second-term, libertarian-leaning, Republican Congressman from Michigan — posted his take on facebook:
I voted no on H R 325, No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013. The bill has two parts.
First, the bill suspends the debt ceiling through May 18, 2013. In other words, it allows the government to operate as though there is no debt ceiling. On May 19, the debt ceiling will automatically increase by the amount borrowed during the suspension. Because the government borrows about $4 billion per day, this bill will likely increase the debt ceiling by $400 billion or more, without any cuts or reforms to reduce future spending. see more…
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Back in mid-September, I told earsucker readers about Macklemore as an up and comer in the music biz. I shared his great video “Thrift Shop”, and then that dude totally blew up.
Bad economy be… thanked?
Ryan Lewis has a look. It’s the look that comes through the 99 cent apparel, the half-long/half-stubble haircut, and the cheap clothes. Lewis wears the inestimable look of getting the job done, building class out of thin air.
Lewis is happy to boast that look in this well done, and rather polished music video about a rather unpolished subject (being poor, having to shop at crummy thrift stores, something we doubt any presidential candidates are doing). Singer Wanz throws down his own fortunate rhymes about pink granddad suit thrifting finds, and well… some people just understand the formula for awesome.
The popularity of “Thrift Shop” has even spawned a parody video called Pot Shop (which is damned hilarious and has nearly 1.5 million views).
Now, Macklemore is riding a wave of popularity to become the first unsigned artist to top Billboard’s Hot 100 in nearly 20 years. He has a very special message for those that would grant him greatness and deny him his share through recording contract shenanigans:
Macklemore makes his strong feelings about big labels no secret on the album: In a song titled “Jimmy Iovine” — named for the chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M who helped make another white rapper, Eminem, famous — Macklemore takes down record contract politics with the unequivocal closing line, “I’d rather be a starving artist than succeed at getting f—-ed.” Geez, Mack, tell us how you really feel.
It’s always been a love/hate relationship between new talent and behemoth companies with a room full of marketing employees. But thanks to the Internet’s leveling of the playing field, the tables can turn very quickly in favor of the upstarts. A similar parallel has occured in politics as grassroots candidates are able to raise significant amounts of money in short periods and run successful online campaigns. The phenomenon of online social engagement that was unheard of decades ago is now practiced by the majority.
What does this mean for politics? It means the new gatekeepers are blogs. Period.
Politicians and business execs take note, the game has officially changed.
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Reason/Rupe conducted a phone survey (of mostly retarded people) asking an open-ended question, “In just a few words, how would you describe an assault weapon?”
The list of uninformed opinions they posted shows how incredibly stupid some people are in this country when it comes to limiting the rights of others. In other words, they’ve been successfully brainwashed:
[...] A GUN
I THINK ANY WEAPON THAT CARRY MORE THEN 4 OR 5 BULLET IN A WEAPON
SOMETHING THAT IS QUICK FIRE AND HAS MORE THEN SIX ROUNDS IN IT.
SEMI AUTOMATIC WEAPON CLIPS RAPID FIRE. DESIGNED FOR OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE.
ANYTHING CAN BE AN ASSAULT WEAPON LIKE KNIFE FRYING PAN HAMMER BOARD.
A WEAPON THAT SHOTS VERY FAST THAT HAS A MAGAZINE THAT HOLDS A LOT AMMUNITION AT ON TIME
A WEAPON DESIGNED FOR MASS KILLING
HIGH REPETITION LARGE CAPACITY MAGAZINE AND SIZE OF AMMUNITION
ANYTHING THAT SHOOTS CONSECUTIVELY
PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS GUNS, I DON’T KNOW THAT MUCH ABOUT GUNS BUT THEY SEEM KIND OF WICKED [...]
That’s just a small sampling, and shows that at least one person out there now thinks a hammer is an assault weapon. Fuck yeah, mission accomplished.
At this point, even sheriffs and police — the very folks who would supposedly be tasked with enforcing “assault weapon” bans — are starting to look at each other and shake their heads in disbelief.
Alex Jones — the tinfoil-hat wearing, alternative-media maven, and liberty activist who’s arguably been right more times than is comfortably acknowledged — is running a high-value prize contest called “Operation Paul Revere”. The contest terms:
Requirements
• Film can be documentary or fictional narrative (any genre)
• All work must be free of copyright issues. If requested by InfoWars, you must provide detailed information regarding the source, creator and background information of your work. If you utilize any 3rd party materials, such as music, you must provide license and/or consent forms to InfoWars upon request. Any news clips used must be short and clearly fair use.
• Videos must be in English or subtitled in English
• Submission deadline is 11:59 PST April 30, 2013
• The majority of the Content must be newly created and previously unpublished
• Submission consists of posting on YouTube and one other alternate video site on or before contest deadline and notifying InfoWars at PaulRevere@infowars.com
• Video title must include “Operation Paul Revere InfoWars.com Contest”
• Video description must include the website (http://www.infowars.com) It is important to “liberty place”, i.e. product placement of InfoWars.com and related Alex Jones awakening information tastefully into your production.
• Slate at beginning stating your name and InfoWars Contest information
• Running length must be between 3 minutes and 2 hours
• Film must contain no profanity, offensive language, nudity or otherwise objectionable material, the determination of which is solely at the discretion of InfoWars
• Multiple unique submissions are allowed and encouraged
• Cash Prize winners will agree to non-exclusive, unrestricted, royalty free use by InfoWars.com and Free Speech Systems, LLC, in perpetuity in the known universe. All contest entrants authorize InfoWars.com and Free Speech Systems, LLC, and its media platforms to air their submission in whole or in part in perpetuity.Eligibility
• If a collaborative effort, one person must enter
• Contestants must be over 18. Minors wishing to participate must present a signed waiver from parent/legal guardian
• Residents of Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), Northern Ireland, and Quebec, or to other individuals restricted by U.S. export controls and sanctions are ineligible for Cash PrizesJudging Criteria
This is a judged contest. Winner will be picked at the discretion of Alex Jones. Judging criteria will be:
• effectiveness in promoting liberty
• creativity and originality
• aestheticsEntries will be available for public viewing and comment
Cash Prizes
• 1st Place: $100k cash prize
• 2nd Place: $10k cash prize
• 3rd Place: $5k cash prizeRequirements for payment of cash prizes are
(1) timely delivery of a properly-executed Filmmaker Agreement;
(2) timely delivery of all properly-executed Talent Release Forms (and, if applicable, Music Rights Clearance Forms);
(3) full content clearance by InfoWars of the submitted video
“I’m more excited about this than any other contest we’ve held. It is my goal to release the explosive power of liberty. If you are reading this information, remember YOU are the resistance.” – Alex Jones
Even though it’s a certainty that the contest announcement video will be better looking than the majority of the entries, this is an impressive feat: Jones putting his money where his mouth is.
I’m excited to see what kinds of pro-liberty (and anti-tyrannical fear-mongering, awkwardly entertaining, made-by-folks-who-don’t-realize-how-they-sound) videos this will turn up. Here’s hoping the winner doesn’t turn out to be a two-hour documentary. Because seriously, have you ever watched a two hour documentary with a micro budget? Yawn.
The Week has a three-point list of divisions the Republican Party is currently squabbling over:
1. Libertarians vs. social conservatives
These two GOP strains have never gotten along with each other. One group says government should stay out of people’s personal lives while the other tries to impose its own morality on others.
2. Right wing populists vs. the pro-business crowd
Despite campaign rhetoric, pro-business Republicans are usually just fine with government subsidies, liberal immigration policies, and bailouts — as long as they help keep the profits flowing. But the populist strain in the party sees big business as no better than big government.
3. Deficit reduction hawks vs. small government activists
Though it would seem these two groups have a lot in common, real deficit hawks recognize we must raise taxes along with cutting spending to get the country out from under the debt burden. But the small government fanatics are against all tax increases for any reason.
Republicans have been able to paper over their differences for decades, mainly by uniting the party against the common enemy of “big government.” But when the GOP controlled all branches of government during the Bush years, they actually did nothing to shrink government. It just got larger, helping to exacerbate the tensions between the various factions.
Of course, the real story isn’t GOP factions fighting over these issues, but that libertarians have filled their ranks and converted minds since the the Ron Paul revolution began in earnest back in 2007. Libertarians are flanking GOP statists from all sides and enthusiastically showing the errors and results of the Republican establishment’s deviations from their core principles.
After all, it hasn’t been mainstream Republicans spearheading a Federal Reserve audit, corporate entitlement cuts (opposing bailouts) and ending foreign entanglements, but it’s something that even John Boehner can no longer ignore. The fights that once belonged to libertarians, until the Tea Party movement began forcing those issues into the mainstream, are not something party leaders are willing to come to terms with, but they will.
Now, the Tea Party brand has obviously crested and is being re-enveloped by the indefatigable libertarian brand. In its wake is a generation of liberty activists who have grown up and come of age having failed to see the Republican revolution of the 90s keep its promises. These libertarians now threaten to either: topple the Republican establishment from within towards limited government principles; Further implode it into a powerless vacuum of dissent and antipathy.
This isn’t fracturing, it’s a war of transformation back to small-government principles, and libertarians are riding a tsunami of discontent all the way to victory.
File-sharing megahero Kim Dotcom is giving massive amounts of interviews to accompany his recent launch of Mega.co.nz — the file sharing portal that’s had over a million signups in about a week.
During an interview with Russia Today, Dotcom explained his views on how to end the snooping surveillance state the U.S. government has slowly wrapped around every packet traversing the internet. He wants everyone to start encrypting their online communication:
RT :The new program, Mega, is fully encrypted, and you’re touting it as an encrypted program so that people will want to use it. Do you think this is even necessary, right now, that people need encryption on the Internet?
KD: I think it’s important for the Internet that there is more encryption. Because what I have learned since I got dragged into this case is a lot about privacy abuses, about the government spying on people. You know, the US government invests a lot of money in spy clouds: massive data centers with hundreds of thousands of hard drives storing data. And what they are storing is basically any communication that traverses through US networks. And what that means they are not spying on individuals based on a warrant anymore. They just spy on everybody, permanently, all the time. And what that means for you and for anybody is that if you are ever a target of any kind of investigation, or someone has a political agenda against you, or a prosecutor doesn’t like you, or the police wants to interpret something in a way to get you in trouble — they can use all that data, go through it with a comb and find things even though we think we have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong. They will find something that they can nail you with and that’s why it’s wrong to have these kinds of privacy abuses, and I decided to create a solution that overtime will encrypt more and more of the internet. So we start with files, we will then move to emails, and then move to Voice-Over-IP communication. And our API [Application Programming Interface] is available to any third-party developer to also create their own tools. And my goal is, within the next five years, I want to encrypt half of the Internet. Just reestablish a balance between a person — an individual — and the state. Because right now, we are living very close to this vision of George Orwell and I think it’s not the right way. It’s the wrong path that the government is on, thinking that they can spy on everybody.
Dotcom is so confident in his website that he has already issued a cash prize challenge, saying “Let’s see what you got.” Well Ars Technica went in and told us, “here’s the problem”:
A lot of the issues with Mega’s cryptographic implementation appear to be tied with the desire to make the service as “thin” as possible, requiring only a Javascript-capable browser (preferably Chrome, according to Mega). On one hand, this means there’s no client required, and the Web browser itself functions as the application platform—this simplifies the testing and deployment of new Mega features, since all Kim Dotcom’s guys have to do is update the site’s Javascript files. It also immediately buys total cross-platform compatibility, working on any computer in (just about) any browser.
On the other hand, the documentation and implementation have no small number of weaknesses and potential exploits. The RSA key pair generation process needs to be overhauled post-haste, and there needs to be some method of backing up and modifying a user’s encryption key.
The fact that encrypted data is not a total mystery to Mega is the most troubling issue.
Troubling indeed.
Thankfully we don’t need Dotcom’s Mega to do all the work of file encryption thinking for us. There are many options available out there, such as TrueCrypt. For browser encryption (without reminding yourself to change http to https or relying on site to do it automatically), Firefox and Chrome users can head on over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s HTTPS Everywhere project and begin encrypting all their traffic between browser and servers with a simple (and mostly transparent) plugin/add-on. PGP email encryption is nothing new to savvy geeks, even if they still have to send plain-text e-mail to their non-techie families.
Sadly, easy universal encryption has been slow in trickling down to the masses. And even worse: Even when it finally arrives, there remains the problem of a tyrannical government potentially forcing website owners to hand over unencrypted end-point data on users (for all we know, Dotcom’s servers could be raided again, providing a treasure trove of information to the snoops).
But don’t write off cyber privacy as an unwinnable battle just yet, Kim Dotcom may just be on to something, albeit on shaky grounds.
“Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit. That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one neither”
Move over Big Boi, Lupe Fiasco is the latest Hip Hop artist to steal the limelight with dissent against the status quo. For thirty minute straight, the rapper held court at The Hamilton Live, regaling the audience with an extremely extended version of his song “Words I Never Said” — a political rap aimed squarely at President Obama’s Inauguration event in which he was invited to perform.
Here’s just one verse of the lyrics:
I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip?
9/11, building 7, did they really pull it?
Uh, And a bunch of other coverups
Your child’s future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts, then wait, here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the upper crust
You get it, then they move it, so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV, all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”
Dude is dating so and so, blabbering ’bout such and such
And that ain’t Jersey Shore, homey, that’s the news
And these the same people supposedly telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people, yeah
The LUPEND blog has what appears to be the first-hand account:
So Lupe just performed the first verse of Words I never Said for 30 minutes straight. He had to be removed from the stage…. for performing. Im at a loss for words…
20 min straight… **they cut his mic off**. Raps with no mic for 5-10 more minutes, People booing and everything. They cut the power to the stage. All those people… stunned! Security had to remove the homie from the stage.
He did the entire set, all the music from all the songs he was going to play were played… but he only did that verse. He stopped and had water once, and then he started the verse again…and again… and again… and again… No arrests… they just removed him from the stage. Nothing violent or negative was done. Just an #EpicShow!
Take this Day serious. #MLKDay – @LupeFiascoStore
A lot of people (*cough* some reddit liberal douchebags *cough*) are already speculating that the stunt will harm his music career and sales. I beg to differ, HoT fans will remember Kelly Clarkson had a similar prediction made about her by liberal fans when she came out in support of Ron Paul at the end of 2011. Only instead of watching her album sales dip, they skyrocketed in the following weeks as fans lined up to support her decision.
It’s hilarious that Lupe willingly went into enemy territory to make his political point in person (beliefs that somehow escaped the talent bookers). But it’s pathetic that some thugs (Secret Service by the looks of it) would manhandle an internationally acclaimed artist for peacefully protesting with a microphone.
UPDATE: StartUp Rock On, the concert’s organizers, issued a press release early Monday morning that Lupe “left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not ‘kicked off stage’ for an ‘anti-Obama rant.’”
“We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech,” the organizers said. “This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.”
However, careful examination of the video will reveal the truth: Lupe had fans in the crowd, and they were cheering him. Maybe a good jarring of bizarrely repetitive truth is exactly what this country needs right now.
At the top of the U.S. budget problem (and tied with Social Security), is the Department of Defense. It is one of the larger of spending programs in the federal budget, raking in over half a trillion per year.
Yet we rarely hear anything about cuts or austerity for the military from the media, who remains focused on lesser value programs.
Well, it turns out the military cuts last year may be a good indicator of things to come this year. From Wired:
About 80,000 Army soldiers and 20,000 Marines are getting downsized. Half of the Army’s conventional combat presence in Europe is packing up and ending its post-Cold War staycation. Replacing them, according to the $613 billion budget previewed by the Pentagon on Thursday: unconventional special-operations forces; new bombers; new spy tools; new missiles for subs; and a veritable Cylon army of drones.
This is the first of the Pentagon’s new, smaller “austerity” budgets: it’s asking Congress for $525 billion (plus $88.4 billion for the Afghanistan war), compared to a $553 billion request (plus $117 billion in war cash) last year. Only the Pentagon is emphasizing (.pdf) what the military is keeping, not what it’s cutting. That’s because congressional Republicans don’t like swallowing these cuts — and really don’t want to acquiesce to a currently-scheduled law that could tack on another $600 billion-plus to the already-scheduled, decade-long $487 billion in cuts. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is preempting the objections, promising a force that’s “smaller and leaner, but agile, flexible, ready and technologically advanced.”
That means no changes to the U.S. fleet of 11 aircraft carriers and 10 air wings, all reflecting the Obama administration’s emphasis on the western Pacific. It means leaving the nuclear triad — the bombers, subs and missiles that can end all life on earth — alone. (With one exception: the military will delay replacing the Ohio-class submarine by two years.) It means electronic weapons to jam enemy defenses and attack online networks. It means elite commando forces like the ones who just rescued two aid workers kidnapped in Somalia. And it means drones for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
If the past choices by the DoD are any indication of what’s in store for the FY2014 budget (factoring in the most recent fiscal cliff crisis). We’re going to see even further cuts to human personnel, but greater spending on drones, weaponry and technology.
We’re arming robots to the teeth, and de-emphasizing the humans who are supposed to be in charge of them, moving us one step closer to a dystopian future run by Skynet.
But rest assured, while Congress and Obama may be proposing hilariously small cuts to military spending, the average voter is far more rational.
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Back in November, German politicians were grumbling that they wanted to see their gold deposits being held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Now, they’ve upped the ante and are beginning to cash out, demanding shipment of 300 of their 1,536 tons of gold held in the U.S.:
In what sounds like the setup for a stylish Hollywood heist movie, Germany is transferring nearly 700 tons of gold bars worth $36 billion from Paris and New York to its vaults in Frankfurt.
The move is part of an effort by Germany’s central bank to bring much of its gold home after keeping big reserves outside the country for safekeeping during the Cold War.
Shipping such a large amount of valuable cargo between countries could be a serious security headache. A gold robbery — the subject of such movies as Die Hard 3 and The Italian Job — would be embarrassing and expensive for Germany.
The high-stakes, high-security plan is to move the precious metal — 374 tons kept in vaults in Paris and 300 tons stored at the New York Federal Reserve Bank — to the Bundesbank in Germany’s financial center over the next eight years.
The speed at which the German central bank’s transition from an audit to actaully moving gold has been rather swift. As they are now in negotiations Lufthansa Cargo to move the 300 tons of gold across the Atlantic, they’ve allowed themselves until 2020 to complete the process of being able to store half their gold reserves in the Heimatland (homeland).
By 2020, the Bundesbank intends to store half of Germany’s gold reserves in its own vaults in Germany. The other half will remain in storage at its partner central banks in New York and London. With this new storage plan, the Bundesbank is focusing on the two primary functions of the gold reserves: to build trust and confidence domestically, and the ability to exchange gold for foreign currencies at gold trading centres abroad within a short space of time.
Interestingly enough, stashed away in the extended Bundesbank press release was an interesting nugget (translated from German):
Function of Gold – Why do Central Banks hold Gold?
- Diversification
- Universal Acceptance
- Resilience to Shocks (State or currency risks)
- Confidence
This money-like exchange of gold for foreign currencies will likely embolden critics of Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. Bernanke, who was queried by Ron Paul in a 2011 Congressional Committee famously folded on the issue, stated that gold wasn’t actually money, rather “it’s tradition. Long term tradition.”
In Germany, that tradition is alive and well, and demanding the Federal Reserve hand it over.
President Barack Obama today was seen signing 23 executive orders on gun control in front of a group of children ignorant about their rights (the orders have yet to be published on the White House website for us to properly ridicule, so we’ll ridicule the whole affair).
Here’s the relevant portion of the accompanying proclamation from WhiteHouse.gov:
Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following:
Section 1. Research. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other scientific agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, shall conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and the ways to prevent it. The Secretary shall begin by identifying the most pressing research questions with the greatest potential public health impact, and by assessing existing public health interventions being implemented across the Nation to prevent gun violence.
Sec. 2. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
Sec. 3. Publication. You are hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
His game of “Let’s play take away the guns from law-abiding Americans because a few assholes can’t act responsibly” has yet to be officially recognized by anyone with half a brain. Millions of Americans continue to wave loaded AR-15s and handguns with high-capacity lips and a copy of the Constitution in defiance of the latest effort to destroy liberties.
However, many are now anxious about how the government will try to enforce such ludicrous orders and bans being swiftly implemented (with New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s legislation being called “draconian” by the NRA). The flurry of legislation and imperial decrees now contrast to gun sales have hitting astronomical rates since 2008, and exploding in November/December of 2012.
One way in which Obama is flexing unConstitutional executive powers has been to direct doctors and mental health professionals to ask patients whether they own guns (and how many).
The answer to that line of questioning is obvious to liberty-lovers: NONE OF YOUR DAMNED BUSINESS.
UPDATE: Interesting statistic of the day: the DEA has a budget of $2.415 billion (2010) and employs 10,784 (2009), while the BATF has a budget of $1.12 billion (2010) and employs 4,559 (2006). Obama has just budgeted another $500 million for gun control activities.
The War on Drugs has been an epic failure even though it has twice as many federal enforcers and funding. Does anyone seriously doubt the latest “War on Guns” will be any different?
UPDATE II: Scratch that previous update number, the apparent amount being budgeted for the attempt at a gun controlling police state is over $4.5 billion. The biggest expenditure is $4 billion “to help keep 15,000 cops on the streets in cities and towns across the country.”
That’s just over $260 thousand dollars per cop.
Last month Antwan Andre Patton, aka Big Boi of the Outkast crew, left radio hosts shocked and speechless after telling them he voted for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson during a segment on racism. Now, in an interview with the Huffington Post (LIVE!), Patton not only confirmed that “hey ya” he’s a libertarian voter… but went even further and stood up as an ardent supporter of libertarian views.
Here’s the interview video, and the relevant transcript:
ALYONA MINKOVSKI, HUFFPOST LIVE: There was a radio interview that you did where you recounted a story of a woman coming up to you after Barack Obama’s election saying, “We won.” And then you said, “I voted for Gary Johnson.” What’s the story behind that? Did you really vote for Gary Johnson?
ANTWAN ANDRE PATTON AKA BIG BOI: Well, I was, you know, leaving to go out of town, and it was a lady — a Caucasian lady — and she was like, “Oh yeah, congratulations on y’all win last night,” you know, with like an attitude. And, you know, just to let her know I was on my P’s and Q’s, I was like, “I don’t know what you talkin’ bout, I voted for Gary Johnson.” And she looked shocked to even know that I knew there were other candidates on the ballot, you know what I’m saying? So, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
MINKOVSKI: Did you vote for Gary Johnson?
PATTON: Yes, I’m a Libertarian. I’m liberty, justice for all, liberty for all. I’m really pro-people, pro-freedom, and, you know, this is all about positivity. Like, you know, I have nothing against the president at all, you know, he’s a nice guy, but, it’s just, you know, the things that they’re standing on right now just didn’t agree with me. Anything that benefits the public and not just big banking, that’s what I’m with.
Not in the transcript but definitely in that interview: his outspoken support of the second amendment for use against tyranny… including whatever guns you want, just so long as you’re responsible (sounds libertarian to me).
Patton, we like the way you move with that positivity (hit him up on twitter to say hi). Libertarians, you can chalk another famous name on the boards.
Huffington Post reports:
A police officer can’t pull you over and arrest you just because you gave him the finger, a federal appeals court declared Thursday.
In a 14-page opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the “ancient gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity.”
John Swartz and his wife Judy Mayton-Swartz had sued two police officers who arrested Swartz in May 2006 after he flipped off an officer who was using a radar device at an intersection in St. Johnsville, N.Y. Swartz was later charged with a violation of New York’s disorderly conduct statute, but the charges were dismissed on speedy trial grounds.
A federal judge in the Northern District of New York granted summary judgement to the officers in July 2011, but the Court of Appeals on Thursday erased that decision and ordered the lower court to take up the case again.
Richard Insogna, the officer who stopped Swartz and his wife when they arrived at their destination, claimed he pulled the couple over because he believed Swartz was “trying to get my attention for some reason.” The appeals court didn’t buy that explanation, ruling that the “nearly universal recognition that this gesture is an insult deprives such an interpretation of reasonableness.”
If you’re planning on displaying your denunciation digit with your local boys in blue, you’ll definitely want to download and print out the full ruling (PDF).
Stephen Gordon — the highly acclaimed expert Libertarian/Republican strategist, consultant and commentator (and HoT alumni) — posted his picks for who to watch in the 133th’s Congress. As stolen from his facebook page:
| Senate Starters: Rand Paul Jeff Flake Mike Lee Ted Cruz |
Senate Second String**: Ron Johnson Pat Toomey Tom Coburn Marco Rubio |
| House Starters: Justin Amash Tom McClintock Steve Stockman Thomas Massie Walter Jones Adrian Smith Scott Garrett Kerry Bentivolio Ted Yoho Steve Chabot Jason Chaffetz Jimmy Duncan |
House Second String**: Tim Huelskamp Jim Jordan Dave Schweikert Michael Fitzpatrick Raúl Labrador Mick Mulvaney Tom Price |
* This is just the preseason lineup, which will obviously change through this congressional session. It’s my best guess, at this moment, of who is most likely to carry the freedom football in the proper direction for a touchdown for liberty.
** These players have demonstrated some potential ability, but have thrown too many interceptions, fumbled the ball too often, or otherwise made too many mistakes on the field to be included in the starting lineup. However, with enough constituent coaching, liberty workouts and freedom scrimmages, they have the potential to help move the ball towards the liberty goal line.
For all the naysayers who buy into the malaise and believe the endless propaganda asserting that the libertarian message of fiscal responsibility, freedom and liberty is dead in Congress, there’s twenty-seven representatives who are apparently working hard to disprove that notion.
Of course it’s a little awkward to note that there’s no women in this liberty team lineup, so hopefully the 2014 elections will see some females putting on some makeup and running serious campaigns.
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