Ron Paul Rally in Wisconsin Draws 5,200! Media Blacks It Out

Rand Paul Stands Up to the Warmongers

Finally, someone is intervening here -

Rand Paul has effectively single handedly blocked a bi-partisan bill to place yet more crippling economic sanctions on Iran, by demanding an amendment to prevent the White House using the legislation as an authorization to attack the country.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wanted to immediately pass the sanctions bill by unanimous consent Tuesday. However, Paul intervened and blocked it, in order to ensure that unauthorized use of military force against Iran does not transpire. Paul’s one sentence amendment reads: “To clarify that nothing in the Act shall be construed as a declaration of war or an authorization of the use of force against Iran or Syria.

The Real Effect
People, you can get all wigged out abut Iran, Syria, rights violations, nuclear weapons, despots and everything that is evil under the sun. You can scream, cry and obfuscate the facts but in the end there is a supreme law of the land call the Constitution. In this document, there is a process by which we wage war in this country, which coincidentally hasn't been followed in generations. 

This process is the only legal process by which we can wage war on another country and it ensures that the People have a voice at the table via their Representatives. ANY individual who feels we should do an end run around this is advocating treason at the highest level and should be punished accordingly if found guilty by a jury of their peers. ANY politician advocating such a position should be removed from office immediately as they have demonstrated that they have zero desires to live within the lawful constrains of the office that they took an oath to uphold. (Conservatives, I'm looking squarely at you.)

Only after such a process has taken place and we have voted via our representatives, would we as a country go to war. Ask yourself, why would someone oppose this?

The answer is simple: Because they have no respect for the rule of law.

Afghanistan, Another American Mess

Vox points out that NRO has found the elephant in the middle of the room -

This is not a Good War.

In other words, I’m with Andy: It’s time to wrap up this decade-long farce, time for both civilian leaders and military brass to take a long, hard look at the demoralizing mess we’ve made in Afghanistan, and to ask how America can avoid such mistakes in the future.

We might start by forgetting the concept of “nation-building” in places where there are no nations to build. The nation-state, it should be remembered, is very much a Western concept, forged over 1,000 years of often painful European history.

The Real Effect
People often have a very difficult time understanding the finer points of these conflicts and get lost in trying to 'simplify' it. I have maintained that most issues are incredibly easy to understand IF you can get access to the relevant info.However, seeing as how certain individuals have a vested interest in making sure things go the way they want, it is not beneficial to them to allow things to continue, shall we say, unguided. (To this end, tens of trillions is spent managing things.)

Usually this is where another commenter and I will part ways solely due to the fact that these individuals are only interested in confirming what they already believe to be true, not in what the facts say. Perhaps it's this exact sentiment that caused Solomon to write "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:" in the book of Ecclesiastes. 


We were attacked on 9/11/2001. There is no doubt to this fact.
But the question was never answered - Who attacked us? and perhaps more importantly Why?

In the aftermath of 911, the media started investigating and oddly enough, they had 'answers' on the day of the attack. A short time later Bin Laden denied involvement in these atrocities, yet to us, these were just denials. Yet later, another tape surfaces in which 'Bin Laden' suddenly does a 180 and admits to his involvement. Never mind the inconsistencies, one confirmation is all it takes to set the American military loose in your country. Never mind the fact that Bush had the orders to invade Afghanistan on his desk before 911 or that there were already troops in the area waiting to go in.

But like a grieving mother who lost her only son, vengeance is all that mattered to most Americans. We cared far less about the actual human damage then we cared that the 'MIGHTY AMERICA HAD BEEN WRONGED!'. Preachers preached the eeeevuls of those dirty, dirty Muslims, civic leaders hung flags and spoke of solidarity and our young men marched off to war.

Over a decade later, we find ourselves in the same position that the Soviets did in the 80's. Our military has not defeated anyone. True, they have killed plenty, but they have secured little. The country is now turning hostile against our help and our economy is collapsing. Internally, we find ourselves resembling less and less the America of 1776 and more the Russia of 1980. 

Yet we cannot see the handwriting on the wall. Why? Why do we struggle to see that which is so obvious to everyone else? 


Pride.


No more, no less. We, the People have erred in that we have not been diligent about returning the power that was stolen to us. We have been negligent in our duty to insure that our civil servants to not run amuck, raping and pillaging. Now we face a decision. What do we do next?

The answer is always the same, no matter what the situation is. We do the right thing, consequences be damned. We withdraw from Afghanistan, we withdraw from Iraq. We start our own political war here and home and we clean house! WE hold the Representatives responsible and we incarcerate the individuals who have lied to us and pursued fraudulent activiteis on our behalf. 

This is the far greater menace then any existential threat. Only when we have removed the log from our own eye, will we then be fit to remove the speck from our brother's eye.

Hidden Camera Catches Missouri GOP Admitting They Rigged....

"...we tried to come up with a set of rules that were going to best represent the entire county voice."

2012 Election Fraud and Irregularities By State

Maine: Feb 11, 2012 (Total delegates - 24) 
Official Results - Mitt Romney 39 %, Ron Paul 36%

• Mitt Romney declared winner by GOP Party Chairman Charlie Webster, 196 votes with 84% of the votes counted
  • Webster admits there were clerical errors in the tally on February 11. “What I tell people is that I’m not going to fire my staff because they make clerical errors,” he told the Daily Caller. “My poor staffer is in tears, because people are harassing her.” 
• Counties
• Waldo County - Vote held in Belfast on Feb 4th, the majority of the votes will not be counted.
• Initially was reported that Paul got 37 votes to Romney's 30, Ron Paul won 71 to 50. 
• Many cities were reported as 0.
• Washington County (Typically 110 -120 voters, Ron Paul won in 2008) - Concerns over a non-existent snowstorm by a Mitt Romney supporter canceled the election. In Maine.
• Pembrooke - 50% of votes went to Ron Paul, none to Romney.
• Waterville City - Results were reported but not counted in the state's total (Paul won 21-5)
• Hancock County (Feb 18th) had not yet held their caucuses.These votes will not be counted.
• Washington County is  a Ron Paul stronghold
• Unofficial Real Results
• Video

Georgia
Link
- Delegates of the convention attempted to nominate people from the floor yet were summarily ignored without vote by the chairman.
- The Athens Clarke County precinct delegates were disenfranchised (by Matt Brewster, Chairman) and the county convention was closed without majority and without the proper respect to the procedural process as outlined in our party rules and Robert’s Rules of Order.
- The initial “all in favor” request did not give a chance for the “ayes” and the “nays” to have a separate chance to vote. Instead, the chairman called for both “ayes” and “nays” to be voiced at the same time.
- The count of the “ayes” versus the “nays” was inaccurate. According to our count, 25 of the 37 people in attendance were Ron Paul supporters, and did not vote “aye” when a voice vote was called for.

Minnesota
Official Results - Rick Santorum , Ron Paul 27%

Nevada
More votes then voters


Iowa

• 8 precincts of 1774 precincts  worth of votes went missing

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/226751.html

Missouri


GOP admits to rigging the vote.  


Note: This is a resource and will be updated as necessary.

Financial "Crisis" in Greece

College Debt, Still Soaring

We are going to have some of the best edumutated dead people on the face of the planet -

The student loan market has expanded like a financial virus in the last decade. Even during the financial meltdown where credit was being restricted across all sectors of the economy, student debt kept on growing at a feverish pitch. It would be one thing if the quality of education had increased or wages were going up for college graduates but the opposite occurred. The quality of education especially at many of the for-profits is suspect at best and borders on thievery. This is where a massive expansion has occurred thanks to the financialization of our entire economy. Student debt has grown from $97 billion in 1997 to a stunning $870 billion according to conservative Fed reports to inching closer to $1 trillion this year by other measures. Higher education is definitely in a bubble and younger Americans are dealing with the brunt of this new predatory financial epidemic.

The Real Effect
"Education is our future!" is one of the misused, wrong and idiotic thought processes I have ever heard. Perpetrated primarily by overcompensated teachers and paranoid mothers, these individuals attack people verbally at local budget meetings in order to 'save the children'. Yet if one peruses the haggard laboratories that are regarded as schools, just see yesterday's article for an example, and factor in the high failure rate you are hard pressed to come up with a justification to allow these monstrosities to continue to exist. Most attempts to bring some sort of accountability to the table are largely rebuffed as being ignorant and fatalistic by the myopic self-important parasites.

Upon closer scrutiny, it turns out that this edifice of importance has grown to monstrous proportions due to several reasons:

1. Denial. Like most bubbles before it, most purchasers of these financialized products are now engaging in mental gymnastics in order to justify their own foolish decisions. Their arguments are often a form of bait-and-switch in which the arguer either deals with the conditions of a bygone era like 100 years ago or  substitutes a program like nuclear physics for an advanced degree in dog grooming. The truth of the matter is that all markets tend to change and this market is no exception.
2. Conflict of interest. Like a used car salesman's 'You need this car!' pitch, there is significant amounts of tax money in play here. (Why do you think your property taxes are so high?) These individuals are heavily invested in making sure things swing their way. However the very justification given for government is to ensure that no one party can steal another person's future. 
3. Bad math. Hard to believe isn't it? But much like our current Federal budget, these yahoos really believe that 70% of your budget can go to education. Food? Secondary. Housing? Get a real job so you can afford one! Literally the argument goes something like this - 'We want a 10% increase, but we're only getting 5%, so we took a 5% CUT.' ...crickets....
4. Bad arguments. The aforementioned bad math gives way to the inevitable argument of the next budget cycle...'We took a 5% cut last year, so we demand a 20% increase to make up for it this year!' Uh yeah, not going to happen. And yes, you guessed it, this equals a 15% cut in their eyes. Sigh...

The long and short of this inevitably becomes that just like housing before it, prices go through the roof. And just like housing, it too shall pop in time. And then we can behold the shrill cries of the teachers as they beg the broken, destitute government to prop up their shattered delusions of grandeur.

Is this how we should treat our children?

Schools Banning Forming "Best Friends"

Hot on the heals of tag bans, hugging bans and other forms of inanity, comes the 'best friend' ban -

TEACHERS are banning schoolkids from having best pals — so they don't get upset by fall-outs.

Instead, the primary pupils are being encouraged to play in large groups.

Educational psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni said the policy has been used at schools in Kingston, South West London, and Surrey.

She added: "I have noticed that teachers tell children they shouldn't have a best friend and that everyone should play together.

"They are doing it because they want to save the child the pain of splitting up from their best friend. But it is natural for some children to want a best friend. If they break up, they have to feel the pain because they're learning to deal with it."

Russell Hobby, of the National Association of Head Teachers, confirmed some schools were adopting best-friend bans.

The Real Effect
 Is there really any doubt that these are no longer "educational centers" and are swiftly becoming de facto "reprogramming centers"? The longer these institutions continue to be state run without forced competition, the worse this will get.

Here's the money sentence regarding educators intents with your children their students -

They are doing it because they want to save the child the pain of splitting up from their best friend.

The mad scientists in the lab coats are at it again, except this time, they believe your children are fair game for their experiments.But in part, we are all to blame because we not only encourage, we venerate this "change the world" nonsense. Any prepubescent individual that disagrees with someone and wants to "fix the world" is given the reigns of power in an attempt to "make a better world". This madness is on display everywhere from Sesame Street to our local "See something, say something" campaigns.

This creates an environment that breeds hordes of people that think it's normal to wage a form of war against your neighbor and his progeny because you dislike his brand of deodorant. Combine this with instant information via Social Networking and you have an armed populace that feels that it has a duty to fix everyone's outlook. The ultimate conclusion of this is not the MLK "I have a dream" speech, but a Orwellian nightmare where one is castigated for simply not wanting to discuss your choice of breakfast this morning.

The Foolishness of Centrally Planned Economies

Behold the brazen stupidity -

First Solar is an Arizona-based manufacturer of solar panels. In 2010, the Obama administration awarded the company $16.3 million to expand its factory in Ohio -- a subsidy Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland touted in his failed re-election bid that year.

Five weeks before the 2010 election, Strickland announced more than a million dollars in job training grants to First Solar. The Ohio Department of Development also lent First Solar $5 million, and the state's Air Quality Development Authority gave the company an additional $10 million loan.

After First Solar pocketed this $17.3 million in government grants and $15 million in government loans, Ex-Im entered the scene.

In September 2011, Ex-Im approved $455.7 million in loan guarantees to subsidize the sale of solar panels to two solar farms in Canada. That means if the solar farm ever defaults, the taxpayers pick up the tab, ensuring First Solar gets paid.

But the buyer, in this case, was First Solar.

A small corporation called St. Clair Solar owned the solar farm and was the Canadian company buying First Solar's panels. But St. Clair Solar was a wholly owned subsidiary of First Solar. So, basically, First Solar was shipping its own solar panels from Ohio to a solar farm it owned in Canada, and the U.S. taxpayers were subsidizing this "export."

The Real Effect
Part of the malfunction with "modern" anything is the gross disconnect with mathematics, specifically the equation. (You know, the = sign?) Vast fortunes are spent today soothing itching ears with nonsense that purports to be able to continually defy not only the law of supply and demand, but often the laws of physics as well. These, can we call them anything but foolish, individuals really believe that they can get something for nothing in these situations. And when the formula fails? Additional sums are spent trying to find the hidden culprit that the experts are certain stole their purported gains. After all, it most certainly is not their fault, the model said it was all good.

Well, if Climategate taught us anything, it's that the model is slave to the data and if the data is bad...well, you can draw your own conclusions. With that in mind, let's look at a simple formula.

X=X (Input = output)

If we change one side of the formula, the other must change.

X + 1 = X +1

This, we know to be true. However, planners usually try to sell you garbage like this..

X -1 = X + 1

That is, if you add a person "managing" things, they will do such a wonderful job, they will increase the output. While this idea is premised on a very solid foundation, it is generally taken to an absurd end.For instance, organizing your kitchen will help you find items more quickly. Simply put, indexing your search allows for a significantly faster find. However, organizing the kitchen for 6 years will not yield a new car when a search is executed. Why? Indexing will remove inefficiencies to speed a system up, but it will not create new growth. The savings can be reinvested, but it is not a new creation.

Cowards In Blue Uniforms

Celente: Hawks circling over Iran as only ally Syria on ropes

Breitbart, the NDAA, Assassination and the GWOT

If Wikipedia is to believed, in 1994, 800,000 individuals were systemically slaughtered during the subsequently named Rwandan Genocide. There is little doubt that even more bloodshed will eventually follow as people attempt to understand 'what happened' during this turbulent time. Needless to say, this tragedy is due in part to a government's attempt to control another group of differing individuals.

History has seen groups of individuals annihilated because of trivial and matters of great importance. Time and time again, these lambs have been led to the slaughterhouse and while their ethnicity or perhaps their names have changed, the slaughterhouse methodology remains roughly the same. Take an example from Rwanda -

Rwandan police have arrested an independent journalist for comparing President Paul Kagame with the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler, police said, but an official denied her detention was linked to upcoming elections.

Saidati Mukakibibi, a journalist who works for independent newspaper Umurabyo, was arrested for defamation, inciting public disorder and ethnic “divisionism”, police spokesman Eric Kayiranga said on Monday.

What is not important to this discussion is whether or not Saidati was actually causing any sort of ill consequences in her country. The only germane point at this time is how the government reacted to her. In this example, we see the the government disdain for an opinion that it does not itself possess.  In this case, incarceration was utilized to prevent "inciting public disorder and ethnic “divisionism”".

To prevent these sort of outrages the 1st amendment was ratified that stated in part  -

Congress shall make no law respecting ... or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 In this act, the framers understood that opinions sometimes run contrary to perceived fact and that in order to ascertain the truth, public discussion must be allowed to occur. By creating this radical doctrine, a country was born where an individual held as much power and rights as those controlled the levers of power. Sadly, the political leaders of our once great nation have seen to it that this will no longer be the case.

At this point, the most egregious example of the erosion of our Constitution is the enactment of the NDAA. Ostensibly, this grotesque piece of legislation redefines the battlefield on the Global War On Terror as to now encompass the American heartland and transfers battlefield rules to the President to facilitate the completion of that role. The literal killer piece of this act, is the creation of a precedent to legally assassinate U.S. citizens without public knowledge!

Now what does Rwanda, Hitler, the NDAA and the GWOT have to do with Andrew Breitbart? The correct answer is, possibly nothing at all. However, if the line of reasoning is that the possibility of unrest due to a journalist making a written comparison of a sitting leader to a mass-murderer warrants arrest, how much more does the actual assassination of citizens by its government directly cause this supposed "public disorder"?

Quite simply, what is the only answer one can give when a concerned citizen asks "Did the US government kill Andrew Breitbart?"

Honestly? We can't reasonably say it didn't, let alone that it didn't do it legally.

And therein lies the rub. How can a government, which purports to be able to legally kill you or your countryman at any time, for any reason, assure you that it hasn't? And if that hurdle has been jumped, what's to assure you that you're not next?

Anything which creates this sort of fear in its citizens is far more devastating to the peace then any silly journalist who says just about anything.

Sec. Clinton Confirms Syrian Rebels are Al-Quaeda

Remember this from December?

Now what would US force possibly be doing in Jordan? Could they be thinking of invading Syria to provoke Iran? Naaaaah...

As if there is any other conclusion to assume? Of course we're attacking Syria to get to Iran and Mrs. Clinton just confirmed it -

In an interview with BBC News (watch video), Clinton states, “We have a very dangerous set of actors in the region, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and those who are on our terrorist list, to be sure, supporting – claiming to support the opposition [in Syria].”

Clinton’s admission that Al-Qaeda is supporting the armed insurrection in Syria dovetails with reports that the same Al-Qaeda terrorists who helped overthrow Colonel Gaddafi in Libya were airlifted into Syria by NATO forces.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri’s has also publicly expressed support for Syrian rebel forces.

The Real Effect
This playbook is soooo old and worn out, a 5 year old could predict this stuff. However, we can assure you that The Real Effect is composed of super 5 year olds to bring you even better news.
Dec 2011-

Troops are appearing near Syria -

Nov 2011 -
The terrorists are now our allies as we start going after Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya,  Syria. (And by proxy Russia, Iran and China) Of course, we've got that covered too.

June 2011(This one is especially good) -

 'We might invade Syria and the local powers might try and stop us. So we have to deploy enough force to repel them.' How did we get to this point? Easy -

• A target is identified, in this case Syria.
• The media runs cover for the political class covering the latest "injustices" occurring in someone else's country. (Forget the accuracy of such reports, we must do something.)
• This reporting founds the moral basis and justification for eventual intervention.
• Money is funneled through foreign aid programs ostensibly designed to help the "poor". This money is generally confiscated by the "bad guys" via arms or fraud.
• This action provides further fuel for the media's reporting.
• Private organizations and mercenaries are hired to cause problems in the target country.
• The media portrays this as "freedom fighters" desperately trying to win their liberty.
• The target country tries to exert their laws via force to prevent the coup of their government. (Libya is a recent example)
• Some "horrific" event takes place which justifies the rationale for a military invasion. This is generally staged or exaggerated. (Think incubator babies in Iraq.)
• Eventually the public somewhat rallies behind the idea of fixing the situation in the target country.
• As part of the final settlement with the rebels, a central bank is installed.

If you can grasp this, you can understand the bulk of events in human history as the same script is relentlessly recycled to justify yet another tyrannical move.

Jan 2011 (Deals with the IMF riots) -

The Muslims are sure getting whipped into a frenzy. Gee, I wonder who's doing the driving? I expect that it will emerge that the U.S. is behind this via some alphabet soup agency. It appears that side 2 and 3 are getting goaded, one of the questions becomes when is side 1 (The Christians) going to receive the same treatment?

I believe that is being positioned for possibly late 2011, probably mid-to late 2012. (As stated in 2011 predictions)

August 2010, July 2010, and so on... If you wish to read all the reports, click on the "Syria" label.