tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62378668619667444052024-03-05T07:36:02.748-05:00A Political SongLess role model, more cautionary taleValeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-5602541697923952832015-07-14T14:52:00.000-04:002015-07-14T14:52:24.719-04:00Thoughts on Today's Special Election for HD 146I have met all of the candidates running to fill the House District 146 seat vacated by outgoing Majority Leader Larry O'Neal. I actually worked with Larry Walker, III, managing the business that managed his website for two and a half years. During that time I found Larry to be very professional, likable, and open to suggestions on how to improve his website when I offered them.<br />
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I don't know Shaw Blackmon and Kelly Burke the same way, but I know Kelly holds a lot of the same limited government views I hold, particularly with regard to the 2nd Amendment. While I know the least about Shaw's positions, he is also very personable and has a good team supporting him.<br />
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All in all, any of these gentlemen would be fine representatives for House District 146, each with their own pros and cons, which is why I have mostly been quiet about the special election. None of these gentlemen are what I would call 'Liberty' minded, however. That fact will probably please a lot of people, unfortunately.<br />
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-70603586622531694612014-02-22T14:13:00.001-05:002014-02-23T09:18:14.247-05:00Sam Moore, Sex Offenders, and Your Preferred Narrative<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday newly elected representative to Georgia House District
22 Sam Moore was publicly excoriated, humiliated, and denigrated for
introducing House Bill 1033 before the Georgia Legislature. It was a move that
revealed a lack of political savvy on Moore’s part. More on that in a minute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was on my way to a doctor’s appointment yesterday morning
with my son when I read the news on facebook. A long-time Georgia Republican friend
now working in Washington D.C. was irate that a freshman rep would be so
foolish as to introduce such awful legislation that stupidly gave cover to sex
offenders. He lamented the setback it would be to Georgia’s stellar political
reputation, probably on a nationwide scale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without even knowing what bill this friend was referring to,
I knew he was talking about Sam Moore. How did I know? I’m accustomed to
Republican ‘outrage’ when anyone ‘new’ introduces anything, especially anything
that doesn’t go through the normal vetting process, e.g. doesn’t adhere to the elbow
rubbing, back patting, pay your dues-ing, lunch eating, waste-of-time protocol
HB 1033 so clearly must have avoided. The arguments from these Republicans are
always over how such actions discredit the party, or Georgia, or them
individually as they tirelessly work for the good of Georgia’s great citizenry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I already knew instinctively that whatever bill Moore introduced wasn’t what the press and pundits wanted to claim it to be. I knew it had to
be part of some greater effort toward smaller government and more liberty. I
also knew from experience that the mischaracterization of these efforts to
limit government gives great joy and glee to many who make their living reporting
on the expansion of power and those in power themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I wasn’t prepared for, however, were Moore’s natural
allies in the legislature, most of whom I know personally, taking the road my insider
Republican friend did and going along with the ‘for the children’ scare
tactics by making loud public pronouncements against Moore and the bill. Particularly
when I’m certain these legislator friends knew the true objectives behind Moore’s
legislation: the intent to return many
of our 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> Amendment constitutional protections
back to Georgians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me repeat, I’m very doubtful that those legislators didn’t
know where Moore was headed with this bill, a bill which basically attempts to
make right the burdensome requirements to identify oneself to law enforcement even
if one is not suspected of a crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of using the controversy over Moore’s legislation as
an opportunity to educate their constituents on the broader purpose of Moore’s
legislation and where Moore was probably wrong or right, these legislators let
their confused constituents pat them on back for a job well done in ‘protecting
the children.’ That’s something I’m accustomed to seeing Democrats do. Republicans
don’t usually brag about letting the emotional argument get in the way of being
rational.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Furthermore, any of these legislators could have said to
Moore privately, “Let’s work on this. You’re going to get a knife in your back
if you go ahead with this.” And for all I know they might have talked privately with Moore. But they
certainly didn't hesitate to step on Moore’s back publicly in an easy
effort to further their own reputations in the eyes of their colleagues and constituents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are already people out there <a href="http://politicalvine.com/politicalrumors/law-and-justice/hb-1033-the-truth-behind-speaker-david-ralstons-ambush/" target="_blank">making the connection</a> between Sam Moore’s first failures as a new legislator and a rehash of the
election he just won. His old opponent <a href="http://www.cherokeetribune.com/view/full_story/24625655/article-Biello-announces-intent-to-oppose-Moore-in-primary?instance=home_top_bullets" target="_blank">vowed yesterday to fight him again in May.</a> Some surmise that Sam’s legislation was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1440605452843878&id=1437835576454199" target="_blank">handled in a unusual way procedurally</a>
to exact vengeance against him for winning without GOP insider support. I will
let others make those arguments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me I’m content to shame those who would impugn Sam Moore’s
motives and character just because it suits their preferred narrative. This
fight is not about giving sex offenders access to school children. That’s a
stupid, simple-minded argument, since there are literally dozens of laws written to protect children against child predators. The fight is about power at the Gold Dome and what happens when
someone refuses to play the game. That so many used the ‘for the children’
argument to try to bring down this bill proves once again that ‘the children’
are easy pawns for too many in this fight. I refuse to be swayed anymore by those
invoking ‘children’ as a political tactic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would remind those legislators who spoke out against Sam
yesterday that in the near future they will be asked to distance themselves
from legitimate legislation simply because leadership doesn’t like who
introduced it. At that point those
legislators will be irrelevant and will know it and all their short term gains
will be at the expense of the long term.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, so what if Sam Moore didn’t handle the introduction of
his bill right this time? He is fighting to uphold a populist conservative
philosophy that rests on smaller and less-intrusive government at all levels. Something
I support passionately. We will send you reinforcements, Sam, and together you
all will get it right eventually. I personally don’t think you did too much
wrong for your first piece of legislation, anyway.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-48798344308765773502013-12-26T16:44:00.000-05:002013-12-26T18:38:03.552-05:00The Pre-Congressional Campaign Bob Barr Interview<div style="line-height: 13.65pt; margin-top: 0in;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;">Bob Barr is running in the Republican Primary for U.S. Congress in Georgia's 11th Congressional District. Below is a transcript of an interview Proof Negative and I did with Barr on August 7, 2012, on The Proof Negative Show at FreedomizerRadio.com. The interview covers several topics: Barr's endorsement of Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential primary in 2012, the trouble with 3rd Party political campaigns generally and Gary Johnson's campaign as the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate in specific, and some other ancillary issues like Iran, UN Arms Trade Treaty, the Patriot Act, the NDAA, and domestic drone use. You can learn more about Barr's Congressional run<a href="http://barrcongress.com/" target="_blank"> here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;">Some may look at Barr's run for president in 2008 under the Libertarian Party's banner and presume Barr must be 'Liberty'. This interview will likely shock those people. Those who've been paying attention, however, will not be surprised when Barr touts people like Paul Ryan, Mitch Daniels and Rob Portman as possible VP nominees, or when Barr explains why he favors Iran sanctions.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;">Barr does manage to propose some big ideas about suing the TSA to disclose some of its operations and protecting habeas corpus by ending some FISA court abuses. Where I think Barr fails is in his belief that regular Republican Party Establishment insiders have the political will to defend civil liberties. Most don't.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The Proof Negative Show, even though it's a news show, is more hyperbolic than my old radio show. I hope no one faults Barr for going along with Proof's more conspiratorial line of questioning. I thought Barr handled it professionally. I also thought Barr made a salient point about the purpose of political parties: to win elections and change policies, not just debate.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;">It became obvious to me while </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">transcribing this year-old interview with Barr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;"> that even long-serving political leaders don't understand how to answer questions to appeal to a growing base of liberty-minded people. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 18px;">If you plan to have a future career in politics you need to understand what the liberty-minded expect to hear you say. If you don't know what that is, you will struggle. If you need help because, for reasons of principle, you truly want to attract that demographic, I am willing to help you.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafbfb; color: #4e5665; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">BOB BARR INTERVIEW:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:21:25]Proof Negative
[Proof]: And of course, as everybody knows, he was the 2008 Libertarian Party
candidate for president, former federal prosecutor, he spent a lot of time at
the House of Representatives in Georgia... well, Bob Barr, it's a pleasure to
meet you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:21:40] Bob Barr
[BB]: It's a pleasure being with you. I'm sorry I had a little bit of trouble
calling in there, but good to be with you and your listeners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: You made it. You
made it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">BB: Yep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: So I wanted to
ask you here, first off, I wanted to get your opinion of the UN small arms
treaty, because I know that you, you serve on the board for the NRA, and I just
feel as though part of what stalled the UN small arms treaty was that they don't
want states to decide that their rights supersede the United Nations'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:22:12]BB: The small
arms treaty, or as its officially known the ATT, the Arms Trade Treaty, is
something that Americans should never accept and should be very, very wary of
whatever they call it because it would, as you've indicated, it would in very
large measure deal not so much with international transfers of illicit
firearms, which is what they advertise as the primary purpose of it, but it
would lead to various registries and restrictions on internal, that is
domestic, transfers and registration of firearms. We were lucky that we sort of
dodged the bullet so to speak last month when they could not reach agreement,
but the UN never gives up on these sorts of things, and they will keep trying
and trying and trying to get it through. So it will come up again as soon,
perhaps, as the general assembly meeting September in New York.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right. So let me
ask you, Bob, is the goal to get... obviously the goal is to disarm all American
citizens, but is this an incremental process or is it just one day we're gun
owners, the second day it doesn't matter what kind of gun you own it's going to
be illegal?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:23:37]BB: No. They
understand the realities of the world the Chuck Schumers and the Carolyn
McCarthies and the other... Diane Feinsteins in the Senate and the U.S.
Congress the same way they understand if they went out and they said, "OK,
we're going to ban firearms or ban ammunition," they know that they would
lose. They've learned over the years that the best way to do is to do it very
carefully, very incrementally, and couch what you're doing not in terms of gun
ban or gun control or ammunition control but something very different. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">They
seized, as you'll recall 12 years ago, on this notion of assault weapons,
so-called assault weapons. They'll use terms like that and what the UN uses is
the term the illicit trafficking in firearms, the illicit international
trafficking in firearms. But of course they know and many Americans do not realize
that in order to control the illicit trafficking in firearms, which, in my
view, is not the job of the UN in the first place. In order to do that you have
to necessarily set up some system of domestic, national registration. They will
do it very carefully, incrementally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: All right now,
Valerie, I know you were screening a call a second ago, so we were discussing
the small arms treaty just to keep you up to date. [silence] Oh, I thought you
were here. Ok.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Valerie Sargent Martin
[VSM]: I'm sorry about that, Proof.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: There you are.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: The switchboard's
slow tonight, yeah. Thank you, Bob Barr, for joining us tonight. I really
appreciate that. Exciting to have you on the show. You've been on a lot of
important projects both as a Republican and as a Libertarian. I wanted to kind
of get your thoughts on the current presidential race and maybe have you
handicap it for us and tell us what you think about what you've seen so far in
the election cycle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:25:49]BB: I'd be
glad to but I'd also be glad to hear what you and your listeners think about
it. I mean, you're certainly in touch with many, many thousands of listeners
and people across the country.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My view is that
ultimately on Election Day Obama will lose very decisively. I don't think that
the recent polls that indicate that the election is very close, sort of going
back and forth by a couple of percentage points, to me that doesn't mean
anything because the vast majority of Americans, contrary to those of us on
this call and your listeners who pay attention all the time to these things,
the vast majority of Americans don't. And they won't focus on the election
truly until the last few or several weeks before the November elections. So
these early polls don't mean anything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But the way I look at it
President Obama… he, he will keep the core liberal democrat vote. The problem
is I don't think he will excite his base and I don't think that he will gain
the independent vote that he gained last time. The big question mark is to what
extent will Romney be able to pick up that independent vote. Romney does not so
far indicate or illustrate an ability to excite the independents, but when push
comes to shove in the fall I think the majority of the voting public will
recognize that this president has failed utterly to fulfill his promises that
he made four years ago, that he has not done what he says he would do, and at
least be willing to give Romney a chance. So I think Romney will win almost
despite himself.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right. So let me ask you then, do you feel as though the
Romney vote is more of an anti-Obama vote, or is this a pro-Romney vote?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">BB: I think it's a
little bit of both, but probably more an anti-Obama vote than anything else
because this President has done such a miserable job following through on his
promises. Now in many respects I'm certainly glad he hasn't followed through on
his promises because his promises are all Big Government. But for his base, for
the Democrats out there, they are very disappointed and that will show up on
election day with him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: And what do you
think is a good, attainable goal for your 'brethren in crime' there? Well,
maybe not 'crime,' but anyway, Libertarian [Party presidential nominee] Gary
Johnson. What would be a good goal for him?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:28:40]BB: I like
Gary very much. I first met Gary back in the mid-1990s when I first served in
the Congress. We were at that time on different sides of the drug issue, but I
always enjoyed debating him, I enjoyed talking with him, he's a very decent
human being, he knows what he's talking about, he marshals the facts, he's a
very, very solid candidate. And Judge Gray, who is his running mate, is as
well. The Libertarians have a very solid ticket this time in Johnson/Gray.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The problem of course,
the primary problem, remains for Gary and Judge Johnson [sic] same as for
myself and Wayne Allen Root four years ago is money and organization. It is
extremely difficult to buck the tide the way the laws nationally and the
various states have been set up that make it much, much easier for the
Democrats and the Republicans to organize themselves and raise money than for
Libertarians. The real problem that Gary will face is simply having the
resources to get his message out. But I think he'll run a very solid race. It
will be very difficult to get into the debates because they simply, 'they'
being the two major parties and the media, they like to keep it an exclusive
club with just the two parties. Unfortunately I don't think he'll get into the
debates which would really make for an interesting race.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Yeah. Can we talk
about that for just a minute? Because supposedly if Gary polls 15% as the
Libertarian candidate, or third party candidate, then the two major parties are
supposed to be willing to participate in major national debates. It seems like
Rasmussen and some of the other polling companies refuse to include Gary in
their polling questions, so it's not really possible for him to get that 15%.
What do you think about that?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:30:57]BB: It's very unfortunately and it's extremely unfair
and the American people ought to demand that if they're going to set an
arbitrary figure like 15%, which I think is unrealistically high given the lock
on electoral politics that the Democrats and the Republicans have, but whatever
that number is it needs to be a number that can be arrived at fairly and it's
not.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The two major parties
and the media basically decide who they're going to poll, when they're going to
poll them, so they don't include Bob Barr, or, in this election cycle, Gary
Johnson, and many of the polling questions so of course they're not going to…
he's not going to poll well enough. It's something the America people ought not
to stand for.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right. And I'm
sure you ran into that buzz saw yourself four years ago. Were you close to getting
into any of those debates on TV?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:32:07]BB: No. We
really weren't. Early on in the '08 campaign, shortly after the Libertarian
National Convention -- which four years ago was held in Denver -- some polls
indicated that we were doing 10, I think maybe even 12% in a couple of states, but
we simply didn't have the financial horsepower to sustain that. I hope that
Gary will have better resources so that maybe he can. But here again the only
person in recent decades that has been able to meet the criteria that is established
by the two major parties, and that is this arbitrary 15% polling, was Ross
Perot and that was due largely to the fact that he had a large amount of his
personal wealth that he was willing to put into that race. I certainly don't
have that, and did not have that wealth, and Gary doesn't either. So, you know,
third parties really operate at a distinct disadvantage in terms of both money,
and the way the system is gamed against any third party.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: So, Bob, with that
in mind, is that your pragmatism about his chances? Is that why you didn't come
out and endorse Gary and instead chose to endorse Mitt Romney?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 13.65pt;">[00:33:47] BB: I don't…it
really wasn't that. Of course at the time I endorsed Mitt Romney several months
ago Gary was not the [Libertarian Party] nominee. My primary goal this go
around is to defeat Barack Obama. I think this man, if he is re-elected to a
second term, will do such significant and perhaps permanent damage to the
structure of this country, the infrastructure of this country, the political
infrastructure, that we simply have to do everything we can to defeat him. And
that was my thinking in coming out in support of Mitt Romney.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mitt Romney to me is far
from the perfect candidate. I think a lot of Republicans and independents feel
that same way, but I think they also realize that now that we have seen what
this man has done and wants to do to this country after having gone through
four years of the Obama administration and knowing that he would be far worse
unfettered by trying to win re-election this year. That to me supersedes
anything else, even how I might feel about Gary Johnson personally, and I like
him very, very much.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: So what do you say
to people who say there is no difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama,
that they're both cut from the same Big Government cloth? I mean, after all,
Mitt Romney was the architect of Obamacare, and a lot of the policies that Mitt
Romney put into place in Massachusetts as governor mirror several of those that
Obama has wanted to promote at the federal level.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:35:40] BB: As I say,
to me, Mitt Romney is far from the perfect candidate. He, in many respects,
typifies the lack of a deep, substantial difference between the two parties.
Both parties, both, the two major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats,
favor a strong federal government.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But this go around,
again, with Obama very clearly being in support of a massive, a truly massive
increase in government involvement in the economy, not just in healthcare, but
we saw it through the automobile, auto industry bailout and so forth, and so-called
stimulus package. There is nothing, no part of the economy, or no part of our
lives, that this particular president does not want to regulate and regulate
heavily. That being the case - and he is really pushing the envelope of
government control and government taking away freedom - that even though Romney
is indeed in many respects a typical Republican, that is, they do like
government for a lot of purposes that we as libertarian-leaning Americans don't
want, he still is much, much better than the alternative in this particular
instance.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In some respects, yes,
the two parties still are cut from the same cloth, although in this instance
Obama is so far to the left that there are indeed some very significant
differences in tax policy, healthcare policy, between Romney and Obama that it
does make it, I think, appropriate to support Romney over Obama.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: I have a question
here regarding the GOP. Valerie and I were discussing earlier how these states
have their delegate counts, then they see that someone that they don't like
wins the delegate count, they just decide to scrap everybody and then they
choose their own people. As a federal prosecutor, I'm wondering how legal that
is, that they can just choose people without a vote.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:38:12] BB: I've seen it over and over again here in my own
state of Georgia. At the state level and at the [congressional] district level
the same thing happens. It really isn't so much a legal question because the
political parties -- and I don't have any problem with political parties
running their internal structure pretty much the way they see fit as long as
they don't discriminate based on gender or race, for example, which are -- not
gender, but race is a constitutionally protected basis for non-discrimination.
So as long as they don't violate the law or violate the case law based on the
Constitution, the 14th Amendment, for example, or the 16th Amendment, for
example, I think political parties ought to be pretty much free to decide what
they want to do. And the courts have pretty much upheld that.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">What we really need to
do as Americans is to try and open up the political system so we get away from
this notion that two and only two political parties represent, and are the only
way that Americans can represent their views politically. I really favor
opening up the political system. I tried four years ago and Gary is working on
that this time, but it's very difficult institutionally, but I do think we
ought to keep trying.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: What are some of
the things we could do possibly to correct this? I think it's a broken system,
personally. I mean, you're right. I agree with you that it's very heavy handed
either from the Republican Party side or the Democrat Party side. It's very
difficult for any kind of independent person to get involved in the process.
What could we do to correct that?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:40:16] BB: I think
we ought to… Americans ought to be much more open to support a legitimate third
party. I don't favor going to a European system where you have virtually
unlimited political parties. That leads to great uncertainty and constant
change. But I do think that Americans ought to do a better job and a more
discerning job of identifying a third party that they can support.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The parties themselves
need to do a better job, including the Libertarian Party, of presenting
themselves to the American people. They need to recognize that certain issues
can appeal, have appeal and relevance to the average voter and other issues
don't. You don't have to give up your philosophical support for those other
issues -- whether it's the drug issue, for example -- but you have to recognize
that the average voter out there -- and it's the average voter that decides
these elections -- is concerned, not about the drug issue, they're concerned
about freedom of education. They're concerned about government regulation. They're
concerned about taxes. And the Libertarian Party, for example, and some of the
other third parties, could do much better, I think, in terms of presenting
themselves to the average voter with issues that are relevant and have meaning
to the average voter.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">They also need to organize themselves better and present better
candidates. As I would tell Libertarian groups a few years ago, you need to
support candidates and identify candidates that you would not be embarrassed to
bring home to meet your parents, because those are the candidates that appeal
to the voters out there, not candidates that dress up like the Statue of
Liberty or something.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: So these third
parties, their main problem is they don't… they focus on fringe issues and the
candidates they choose to run for these offices are not appropriate
candidates.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:42:41] BB: Not in
every instance, certainly, but I think the parties… if the Libertarian Party,
to use an example, is going to continue to call itself the Libertarian Party
with an emphasis on the word 'Party,' then it has an absolute obligation to
behave as a political party and not as a debating society. As a political party
your goal is to achieve political ends, that is, to get votes and change
policies. That means you have to organize yourself, you have to raise money,
and you have to develop candidates who appeal to mainstream voters out there,
and to present issues to those voters that the voters can relate to.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Hey, Proof. You
still there?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">BB: I'm still here.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: [Laughter] Ok, Bob.
With that in mind, I wanted to say why did you decide that you believed you
were more aligned with the Libertarian Party? You were a pretty die-hard
Conservative Republican back in the 90s. What happened that changed your point
of view enough that you felt that you needed to switch to a different party?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:43:58] BB: Back in
2005-2006,which led to my switch at the time, it was the record of the Bush
Administration on civil liberties. For a president of the United States and his
Attorney General in the latter part of the Bush second term, Alberto Gonzales,
to take the position that the American government could spy on Americans
without any particular reason to do so, that they could ignore and violate the
laws on surveillance and torture, and that they did not have to abide by the
centuries old principle of habeas corpus -- that they could not detain a person
without a good reason to do so --for a political party, a president of a
political party to take the position that the government could do those things,
to me, struck at the core of what this country stood for and on which we were
founded. So those issues were much more important to me even than the
tremendous spending, the flagrant spending policies of the Bush Administration.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Right, but Mitt Romney is not very good on any of those
issues either. I mean, specifically with the NDAA and the Patriot Act he didn't
really come out strongly against them. He actually supports the Patriot Act.
How do you justify that if your primary reason for leaving the party was to go
where civil liberties were more protected? How do you align that belief with
getting behind Mitt Romney?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:45:45] BB: Well,
with the Bush Administration we know what they did. They imprisoned Americans
in violation of habeas corpus. The Bush Administration supported the amendments
to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and even went beyond that and
surveiled Americans in violation of the law. If in fact Governor Romney wins
this election and he does those same things, then shame on us. I hope that he
won't, and I do hope that there will be at least some pullback from that. I'm
certainly going to work diligently to see if we can bring back, reign in some
of the excesses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments and the
Patriot Act. Unfortunately neither of those two major party candidates are
particularly good on those issues.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">With Obama we have a
president who as a candidate said he would be against these things and then
went back on his word so we know where he stands. With Romney you're absolutely
correct. He is not where I would like to see him be on these civil liberties
issues, but hopefully we'll have at least something to work with him, but if
not, then we'll have to seek a change four years from now.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: See and that's my
biggest worry, is that. Just like we expect Barry to be a one-termer, my worry
is that Hillary Clinton runs in 2016 then we get the clean-up of whatever the
current President right now couldn't finish. Because if Hillary runs by name
recognition, with the lack of enthusiasm with Romney, he's going to have to do,
he's going to have to grow by leaps and bounds in order to get a second term.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:47:47] BB: Well I worry a great deal similarly about Hillary
Clinton and I think that she is positioning herself to run regardless of who
runs this time. If Romney wins I can see her making a play as a Democratic
candidate to run against him in four years. If Obama wins then he of course
will be term limited and that will… she will be running for an open seat.
That's a bridge we're going to have to cross regardless.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Of course a lot of
things can change between now and four years from now. We do have a number of,
I think, very good, young up-and-comers out there, particularly on the
Republican side. I don't see any particularly good ones on the Democratic side.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I guess maybe in a sense
I've become a little bit more practical. I think there will be so much damage
done over the next four years if President Obama wins that the goal absolutely
has to be ensuring that he does not get a second term, and we'll address
problems with whoever does get in four years from now, we'll address those at
that time. I just cannot see this country surviving in terms of our fundamental
freedoms with another four years of this president.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right. At best, I
see if Barry gets another term, at best I see we become Venezuela.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:49:21] BB: Well, it
has some seeds to that, no doubt about it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Proof tends to be
at the extreme on the beliefs sometimes, and that's fine.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: I wouldn't
consider myself an extremist or anything. I just think that I, hey, if I see a
spade I'm going to call it a spade, and I see huge socialism happening in his
second term because he has nobody to answer to. If he tried anymore of his
stuff now, he could be voted out.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Well, you know...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">BB: Absolutely...I'm
sorry...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: No. Go ahead.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:50:01] BB: I think
going back to your very first question about the Arms Trade Treaty, I think had
it not been for the fact that this is an election year and right before an
election, I think this administration would've pushed very hard to have the UN
adopt the ATT, the Arms Trade Treaty. The only reason I think they did not push
very hard for it, because that's certainly where their heart and soul is, is
because he wants to win re-election.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If in fact he were to
attain that goal there's, as you say, nothing stopping him from pushing that
kind of agenda over the next four years.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Which is really [inaudible]for me because we pretty much
see at any given point we can have World War III on our hands. If we, the
United States… if Obama gets desperate and decides to bomb Iran and China and
Russia both said, "You bomb Iran we're coming right at you," what
would be a better time than to take everyone in the United States' guns away?
It would be like Iran, China, Russia, and the United States against the United
States.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:51:16] BB: I worry a
great deal about that as well. And not only in the Middle East, but with Iran I
think it would be a disastrous move to take military action against Iran like
that. I don't think it's necessary. I think there are steps that can be taken
far short of military action with regard to Iran to begin turning that
situation around.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I also believe -- and
I've lived over in Iran. I graduated from high school in Tehran, many years ago
certainly, but the Iranian people are by and large are very pro-Western. It is
a young population. It is a highly educated population. It is a very large
country. If we were to play our cards right and have somebody in the White
House that truly understands what's going on over there and support the young
people over there -- I think it's important to support the economic sanctions.
I think it's important to support very quietly some of the opposition groups --
I think that we can turn that situation around. But I worry about the hawks in
Washington looking to gain politically by taking some sort of military action,
which I think would be extremely costly and destabilizing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: One of the
reasons why I'm not voting for Romney is I did see him on Meet the Press when
he was...he did mention that the president now has the power to call a war or
go through the United Nations, not by going through Congress. You could
Executive Order something now. He said one of the first things he's going to do
is go into Iran. That scares me.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:53:12] BB: It would me also. The only good and the bad news
on that is that he's sort of been on both sides of that, which is not good, but
I've also heard him make some more tempered statements. It's a real problem
area. No doubt about it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right. I'm
guessing by some of the questions I'm throwing at you, you might guess that I
do side with Ron Paul on many issues. Is there anything that Ron Paul can do at
this point to even become a speaker at the GOP? It seems like they want no part
of him.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:53:54] BB: I would
be very surprised if they do give him any sort of prominence there. I do hope
that some of the other younger Republicans, like Paul Ryan for example, are
featured prominently. I mean in terms of Romney choosing a running mate I would
like very much to see him choose a Paul Ryan, somebody that has a very solid
foundation in truly limited, conservative government fiscal policy. I'd much
prefer to see that than some of the other names that have been bandied about.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Yeah. Who...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right... Go
ahead.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Well, I was just
going to ask Congressman Barr who some of the other young up-and-comers that he
might suggest as possible VP candidates.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:54:55] BB: Paul Ryan
would be near the top of my list. I like Mitch Daniel very much, although he's
taken himself out of the running.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Right.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">BB: I don't know, personally I don't know Tim Pawlenty, and I do
think that he's got some solid economic credentials, fiscal policy credentials.
I think that somebody like a Bob McDonnell, even though I have some very
serious disagreements with him on some of his civil liberties policy
statements, for example he made a statement that I think he regrets in support
of use of drones domestically by law enforcement. I do think that his expertise
in sound, conservative fiscal policies would make him a relatively good choice.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Even though Marco Rubio
down in Florida garners a lot of support, generally, among conservatives, I
just think he's too young, too untested to step into that job. Rob Portman,
even though he's probably not the most conservative of the field of potential
vice presidential nominees, I do think he has a solid foundation, I think he
has, here again, some necessary experience in getting things done. I do think
that he is a sound fiscal conservative, so I certainly would have no problem
with him serving in that capacity either.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: I was just going to
mention, I'm actually an alternate representing the 8th Congressional District
here in Georgia to the Republican National Convention in Tampa in two
weeks. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 13.65pt;">BB: Good.</span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 13.65pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Well, it's been a
very hard-fought process for me...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">BB: I know.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM:...because I am, I'm
more of the libertarian leaning mindset and it's taken me over four years to
make my way within the local GOP to be accepted as one of them and there's
still a high level of distrust among us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I wondered if you could
address that. Is there a way that we can heal this? I mean, I don't like what's
going on with these states that are just wiping clean all of these delegates
and alternates that were selected in our convention process. To substitute
these delegates with handpicked 'party' people, it's very frustrating for me
and people like me. I wondered if you could talk about this divide we face
right now.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[00:57:52] BB: It is
frustrating, and I share your frustration because I like to see a party be more
open and inclusive on these substantive issues. People like yourself who truly
have sort of a Reagan-esque understanding of what libertarian with a small 'l'
really is, and that it is at the heart of not only the fundamental foundations
of this country but the Republican Party. It's what the Republican Party used
to stand for and the Republican Party used to practice.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">You're dealing with
institutions, you're not just dealing with individuals. You're dealing with
institutions and you're dealing with moneyed interests. It's very difficult to
change that. It takes time, it takes a great deal of patience, it takes a
willingness to work within the party from one election cycle to the next, to
stick with it, to work kind of quietly sometimes within the party and for local
candidates to become accepted, but without changing your views.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">When I first joined the
party back in the late 70s and into the 1980s when I was active, there were
some very tough fights between the party as well between different factions.
Those ultimately that are able to work their way into the party structure are
those that are willing to compromise, not on principle, but to compromise on
the tactics and how do you get into the party and who are willing to take
defeats with victories and stick with it. It's very difficult to change the
direction and the views of a political party, but I think it's absolutely
essential.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I guess the one
characteristic or the one element that is more important than any other is patience,
and not to lose sight of your ultimate goal.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Yeah. Sometimes it's frustrating when we have these
situations where people are talking about being practical or pragmatic and
compromising on issues that, to me, are not issues we should be compromising on
like the NDAA or the Patriot Act, civil liberties in general. I feel, on a lot
of levels, people like me may have lost the battle to retain our label as
Republicans. I wondered if maybe you saw it that way, too, when you decided to
run as a Libertarian.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:00:43] BB: I did.
It's a matter of, I think, recognizing that it's not so much the battle that
you have to keep your eye set on but the war. It's not just one election cycle,
it's a number of election cycles that matter. It's also how one goes about it.
Some of the Ron Paul people go about it in a way that clearly rubs other people
the wrong way. Whether one likes that or not, or agrees with that, it's a fact,
and you have to have people that you put forward to argue these points that
understand that. I mean, it's part of the political process, the maturity of
the political process. It can't be a sort of 'in your face' kind of attitude
which some of the Ron Paul supporters practice. It's not… that's not going to
win the ultimate war.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Right. But at the
same time, going back to the delegate counts, it's hard to win that war also if
23 out of 28 people in your state side with Ron Paul and they just kick
everyone out. It really makes those 23 people as well as the others that tried
to get on feel as though it's a set up.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:02:10] BB: In many
respects it is. The system is gamed against people who have views that are
different from the majority views in a particular party. But it's the same sort
of problem that we faced four years ago and that Gary Johnson is facing now.
You can't give up on it. You have to keep trying. You have to be willing to
accept partial victories, maybe small steps, in order to work your way into a
party structure.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Ok. Valerie, do
you have anything else here? I'm going to let you finish up because we got to
get ready for Steve Gelder here momentarily.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: Sure. I was just
going to ask Congressman Barr about any new projects he had upcoming, anything
he wanted to tell us about that's in the works.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:03:04] BB: We do. I
have an organization called Liberty Guard. We have taken on TSA recently. We
have a lawsuit pending against TSA simply to get them to disclose information
that we believe the law requires them to disclose. We filed a couple of years
ago a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, request. They have stonewalled on it so
we had to sue them and we're moving forward with that.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We're also moving
forward through Liberty Guard with a project to raise public awareness against
the use of domestic drones, which is also very important. That's one particular
project, Liberty Guard. People can go to the Liberty Guard website to get more
information.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I think it's important
not to allow these agencies like TSA, like Department of Homeland Security to
run roughshod over the American people and over the Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Well, Bob, I've
seen so many times in regards to TSA, I can't count how many times they've said
they're going to stop rolling kids 12 and under through the nudie machines and
they’re going to stop frisking them. Then you see people getting arrested a day
or two later because they don't let their kids go through the nudie machines.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:04:36] BB: But there
have been some positive steps. What we need to do is we need to keep the
public's attention focused in a positive way on what TSA is doing. I think if
we do that -- and we're not going to win by having people put up a big fuss and
they go through and take their clothes off or get in arguments with TSA, you
can't beat them that way, but you can beat them by consistently fighting these
issues and developing more supporters in the Congress. There are --for example,
John Mica, who heads the transportation committee -- there are a lot of friends
that we have in the Congress, particularly in the House, that are willing to
fight TSA on these issues. We need to support those members -- Chaffetz out in
Utah as well -- we need to support those particular members, show that we
support them and that in turn will in turn encourage more members to come on
board.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Ok. Well, that
sounds awesome. Anything else, Valerie?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">VSM: I just wanted
Congressman Barr to know we posted a link to LibertyGuard.org on the
FreedomizerRadio.com website. Yeah.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:05:55] BB: We
appreciate that, and I appreciate what y'all are doing and raising these issues
and asking the tough questions. They need to be asked and they need to be asked
over and over and over again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: Well, I
definitely want to thank you, Mr. Barr, for taking time out of your night here.
I'll let you know if it's not Ron Paul I'm definitely going Gary Johnson. I
feel that he's, at this time, better than what everybody else has to offer. I'm
willing to help support the Libertarian Party.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:06:28] BB: Gary
Johnson is an outstanding man. He's a very credible candidate. His vice
presidential nominee is a very credible candidate. I'm not going to argue
against that. I've chosen for very practical reasons this time to try and get
Obama out of there, but Gary Johnson is a fine individual and would make an
outstanding president.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: All right, well,
thank you, Mr. Barr. Maybe we can have you back some other time. We appreciate
your time tonight.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[01:06:58] BB: I'll look
forward to it. Y'all take care.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Proof: All right. Thank
you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-86297129940297598572013-09-17T20:25:00.000-04:002013-09-17T20:29:12.406-04:00Happy Constitution Day! An old Interview Proves Nothing Much ChangesLess than a year ago I interviewed Jack Hunter, formerly known as the Southern Avenger, who's moniker and Paulist associations recently earned him the disdain and rebuke of the <i>Free Beacon</i> and much of the pro-war Right and Establishment Republican Party, despite his success as a co-author of Rand Paul's book <i>The Tea Party Goes to Washington</i>.<br />
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In the interview we chatted about Continuing Resolutions, Debt Ceiling Negotiations, the various purity tests within the Liberty Movement, his status as an 'operative', and, sadly the trouble with mass shootings. The interview transcript is below along with a link to the entire radio show from December 16, 2012, from which the interview was excerpted.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxODiT-stN33gzxM7elB26oXWgH7KvCfl-9-XIkM-o3Zmk2nXe2c8nn9Ud6dm3x8sYA2IqkgiEeuyvwrQqB82CxW0J4YTvGy5RW7PhVIT3NplnPcQTEILTxeb1b0cqrmrMWOlmWuExkGXQ/s1600/jack+hunter+avatar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxODiT-stN33gzxM7elB26oXWgH7KvCfl-9-XIkM-o3Zmk2nXe2c8nn9Ud6dm3x8sYA2IqkgiEeuyvwrQqB82CxW0J4YTvGy5RW7PhVIT3NplnPcQTEILTxeb1b0cqrmrMWOlmWuExkGXQ/s320/jack+hunter+avatar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/valeriesm/valsmshow-20121216" target="_blank">The Valerie Sargent Martin Show w Jack Hunter/Tarrin Lupo, December 16, 2012</a> </div>
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Welcome back, everybody. It’s the Valerie Sargent Martin
Show. Our number to call in is 347 324 3704. Or you can join us at the
FreedomizerRadio.com chat room. On the line with me now we’ve got our guest for
this hour pundit, writer, radio personality, Liberty Movement superstar Jack
Hunter. Hi, Jack.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jack Hunter [JH]: Good to be with you, Valerie. How are you?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: I’m doing great. Thanks so much for joining me today.
I’m thrilled to death to have you with me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: I’m glad to be here. It’s been too long.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Well, all right. So I invited you on specifically to
talk about Jim DeMint’s departure from the Senate because you are a South
Carolinian.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: I am. I am sad to see Senator DeMint leaving the Senate.
I am glad that he will be in charge of the Heritage Foundation, an organization
which, for the good things it does on occasion, I think also is an Establishment
defender, particularly during the Bush/Cheney era. I like the fact that a guy
who’s moving more in the liberty direction on issues – that’s not to say he’s
perfect, but he’s certainly veering more in that direction than the average
Republican – will be in charge of an organization like that with an $80 million
annual budget. That makes me very happy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As far as what’s going to happen with his seat, well, that
is a big loss for us. You know, when guys like Mike Lee and Rand Paul were
voting against things like indefinite detention, you know, for our liberties,
DeMint was right there with them a lot of the time. You would hope somebody
would be in that seat that would continue with those same votes. If I had to
guess, I think Governor Nikki Haley would probably appoint Tim Scott who is
actually my congressman in my home district, the 1<sup>st</sup> Congressional
District of South Carolina. Tim Scott is very conservative and good on some
things, you know, and not good on others, in my opinion, but, you know, he’s no
Jim DeMint, and the more he could possibly be like Jim DeMint would certainly
be a good thing. My first pick for South Carolina would be Mick Mulvaney as far
as people who have said they’re interested. There’s other people who aren’t
interested who I would pick also.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[16:00] VSM: Mick Mulvaney is a current congressman.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Right. He’s a current congressman. And he has made,
there was a story in Politico last week talking about Republicans who are
encouraging defense spending cuts and he was the main focus. He even uses the
term ‘Military Keynesianism.’ And for anybody who’s been following my work for
a long time, what has prevented the conservative movement and the Republican Party,
and something Ron Paul has talked about until his face turns blue, and so many
of our liberty leaders and activists, if we can’t cut pentagon spending, if we
can’t cut all these bases around the world, the trillions and trillions of
dollars that we spend on mindless wars that don’t make any sense, we will
never, ever be able to shrink government.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Entitlements are unquestionably the biggest culprit when it
comes to our debt and deficits, and our foreign policy is the second. And if
Republicans, conservatives, can’t get their heads around that we will never,
ever be able to shrink government.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Yeah, well, let’s talk about the fiscal cliff stuff
first and then we’ll get back to the Jim DeMint issue in a moment. What do you
think’s going to happen with the fiscal cliff stuff?<o:p></o:p></div>
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[17:27] JH: Well, Washington D.C. being Washington D.C. I
can see nothing happening at all, and, you know, my preference is that sequestration
goes through. For there to be a deal would probably mean there’s not going to be
any cuts. And [cuts are] what needs to happen. And nobody needs to raise taxes.
The idea that the government doesn’t have enough money is just stupid on its
face. It would certainly hurt jobs. But more important than anything we have to
start cutting. Sequestration is not enough, but at least it’s something. So I
would like to see no deal happen, but, you know, John Boehner is sort of a
joke. Barack Obama’s certainly a joke.
It will remain to be seen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: How big is the sequestration cut? I mean, it’s an
automatic, across the board…what percent cut on every government…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Yeah. I think, Is it 10% across the board? I think it
does unequally target Pentagon spending. But even, you’re talking about taking
Pentagon spending back to 2009 levels. I don’t remember having a bare bones
military that couldn’t adequately protect us back in 2009. And that’s what you
see these neocon guys like, you know, some senators and others saying, you
know, “Oh, they’re gutting the military. Obama’s gutting the military.” Well,
no, no, not at all. 2009 is not exactly a bare bones military. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And also, by and large, not this year, but in general, it’s
not an actual cut. It’s a decrease in the rate of increase. And conservatives
always argue with liberals on domestic policy. When conservatives say we need
to get rid of the Department of Education, or do this, that, and the other, and
say, “Oh, well, conservative Republicans hate the kids, and they hate
education, and they hate the poor.” Well, all we’re talking about is reductions
in the rate of increase. Never a cut. I can’t remember the last time a cut
happened in D. C. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Same thing with Pentagon spending. You’re watching
supposedly conservative Republicans making the exact same argument when it
comes to Pentagon spending that liberals do with domestic spending. <o:p></o:p></div>
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[19:30] VSM: Right. And, you know, even Senators like Bob
Corker, and some of the others I’ve watched on CNBC recently, when they talk
about cuts it’s really more addressing the Medicare problem, the Social
Security issue. They never talk about fundamentally restructuring government so
that we’re only paying for those things that are covered by the Constitution.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Absolutely. There was actually a piece by a liberal
writer in the New York Times whose name escapes me right now talking about why
Republicans can’t cut and he makes a very good point, might have been a she I
can’t remember, that they, you know, theoretically [say], “Oh, we’re for cuts.
We’re for small government,” but they can never tell you where they’re going to
do it. Why? Because they haven’t done what Ron Paul’s encouraged them to do for
going on, well, he’s been doing it for almost 30 years, popularly for 5 years:
to reexamine the role of government.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Entitlements, by and large, have to change. That is the
biggest culprit on our debt. Pentagon spending. As I mentioned earlier. Guys
like John Boehner and the Republican leadership haven’t even begun to reexamine
the role of what government should do. It should do, as you said, according to
the Constitution, so how are they even going to begin to cut spending? They
don’t even know where to start because they aren’t any more serious about it
than the Democrats.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s what the Liberty Movement, that’s what we’re about.
For 30, 40, I don’t know how many years you’ve had all these people talk about,
“Oh, we’re conservatives. We’re constitutionalists. We’re going to shrink
government,” and they’ve been lying. They’re not serious about it. And that’s
the difference between what we stand for – and what we’re trying to push,
whether within the Republican Party and the conservative movement, but within
American politics as a whole – and what existed before, as represented by
Democrats like Barack Obama, Republicans like John Boehner, or even Mitt
Romney.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[21:10] VSM: Well, what do we do about that, Jack, when our
own leadership, the Republican Party’s own leadership, is purging true
conservatives, true constitutionalists from these Budget and Finance
committees?<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: We kick their ass. That’s what you have to do. John
Boehner deserves to be punished. Now, can we get rid of him? I don’t know. I
don’t know the logistics. I, we can certainly make life tough for him and raise
hell. That’s what we’re supposed to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The trick with our movement, we do represent something
different, and we do. Ron Paul started, and the liberty leaders that followed
in his wake, his son Rand Paul, Justin Amash, Thomas Massie, who I think is
going to be a very good congressman in Kentucky, and others, we need to be able
to hold the Republican Establishment’s feet to the fire, which is what we’ve
been doing. That’s how all those gentlemen I just mentioned got elected. Going
up against the Establishment, against the establishment candidates. But also,
when our guys, who aren’t always going to be perfect, not even Ron Paul is
perfect, do get into a position where they can do something, we need to give
them a little bit of backup, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You know, people like National Review and Weekly Standard
are going to, for the next four years, use every opportunity to put guys like
Marco Rubio on their cover, talk about things that are more neoconservative. We
as a movement need to look at guys like Rand Paul and Justin Amash and Massie
and others and say, “We’re going to champion these guys as well. We think
they’re better than your neocon leaders.” I don’t see enough of that. I think
one of the rare exceptions, actually, is probably Reason Magazine, is very good
about covering our guys and promoting our guys. But, by and large, I don’t see
as much of it as I think should happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The grassroots is absolutely great at it. Programs like
yours, and you know, just the grassroots movement that’s just built up through
the Ron Paul Movement, they’re good at it. You can go on facebook or twitter
and see all sorts of stories. And a lot of it’s just people writing on their
blogs and whatnot. But there needs to even be more of that. And there needs to
be people at even higher levels doing that. I think it’s important.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[23:13] VSM: Do you think that they are being ignored
purposefully by the media, or just that they are not well-known enough to merit
coverage by the media? You know what’s so interesting to me is Paul Ryan. One
thing you can say about him is that he promoted himself extremely well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Absolutely.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: He was always on CNBC. He was always everywhere where
he could be seen. That’s why he got the reputation for being the leader on the
budget issue.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: You’re absolutely right. He’s a great self-promoter.
Look, Paul Ryan deserves credit for one thing and one thing only: having an
adult conversation about entitlement reform. That needed to happen. He’s been
the most popular leader for that in most people’s minds. He deserves credit for
that. What he does not deserve credit for is the rest of his record. He voted
for TARP, he voted for No Child Left Behind, he voted for Medicare Plan D. In
fact, he was a big champion for TARP. You can go on YouTube and see videos of
him chastising fellow Republicans for not being for this.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, that said, that leads to our second question. Why do
some of these guys get promoted more than others? Are they not high-profile?
Are they not important enough? Well, some of that’s true. But I also think it’s
this: take a guy like Paul Ryan who was a <i>cause
celebre</i> even before he became a VP choice for Romney. Mainstream
Republicans absolutely love Paul Ryan. You’d agree with me there, right,
Valerie?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Sure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: When we talk to people they like Paul Ryan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: All right. OK.
And when we, as Liberty Movement people, we say, well, even when we
throw him a bone about entitlement reform we still point out the rest of his
record, as I just mentioned. TARP, Medicare Plan D, No Child Left Behind.
Generally they don’t want to hear it. They think we’re just being contrarian,
naysayers, and, “How dare you bring this up? Paul Ryan’s our guy, and you need
to shut up.” That’s basically their attitude towards us. Is that what you’ve
experienced?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Of course.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[25:05] JH: OK. All right. So, Paul Ryan is going to be on
the cover of all these mainstream Republican magazines, talk radio, Fox News
darling and everything, and everybody’s going to love him despite having really
a bad record at the end of the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, take somebody like Rand Paul or Justin Amash who, 90,
95 percent of the time vote exactly the way that we would want, the way that
Ron Paul would vote, whether in the Senate or the House with Justin Amash. What
do we do with a near perfect record from the perspective of our movement? Do we
say, “Man, these guys are great. I don’t agree with this vote, but, man, these
guys are great.” Or do many of our people say, “Well, I hate this guy. He’s a
neocon. He’s completely wrong because we don’t agree with this little bit.” Do
you see that a lot?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: I do. I know where you’re going with this, I think. <o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: My point, the other side, the people we really don’t,
the mainstream Republicans and the neoconservatives are very good about, they
don’t need perfection, but they have their guys. People we don’t like because
they’re for bad things. And they push them, they promote them, their guys, and
that’s how they change the political narrative. What do we do? We take people
who are generally 99 percent of the time doing what we like and tearing them
down every chance we get.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, I say ’we.’ I think there’s a small percentage in the
Liberty Movement that tends to do that, but they’re loud and they’re there. And
that’s not to say you don’t hold these people’s feet to the fire. You have to.
We don’t want to be like those other guys. But at the same time, good God, you
know, appreciate this overwhelmingly good stuff that people do and don’t act
like they’re <i>persona non grata </i>because
they did one or two things you might disagree with. I think that’s going to be
the big challenge for our movement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If we’re going to be serious, if we’re going to scare the
socks off of guys like Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer and Max Boot and
Lindsey Graham and John McCain going down the line, we’re going to have to
learn to be able to do that. We have to learn to fight fire with fire. And I
think some on our side don’t really, aren’t temperamentally capable of doing
that yet, at least.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[26:53] VSM: I think, and I know what you’re saying here,
the movement, to me, is sort of like…I’m trying to…You know, back in the 80’s
and 90’s before they played alternative music on the radio…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Right. I know where you’re going now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: OK. Anytime you heard a song, you thought it was
awesome, it was only awesome up and until that point when everybody else
started listening to it. And then once everybody else had accepted that song
and said, “Yeah, we like that song, too,” well…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: I’ll give you two examples. One was Metallica and one
was Green Day. And I’m 38 years old. I
was a Metallica fan for all those early albums and I remember when <i>Enter Sandman</i> came out. All my metalhead
friends said, “Aw, these guys have sold out.” And what happened is that music
just became bigger than it ever was. And it wasn’t part of their small club.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Same with Green Day. They were a punk band from San
Francisco, San Diego, I can’t remember, Southern California, and I had their
early albums. Nobody knew who they were. And that one album came out whose name
I won’t say on your radio show because I don’t want to offend. And they blew
up. The whole world loved them. A lot of those punk rockers were like, “These
guys have sold out.” And they’re bigger than ever. If that’s the point you’re
making, yeah I think that’s exactly…<o:p></o:p></div>
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[28:00] VSM: Well, yeah. That’s how I view people within the
Ron Paul group and the Liberty Movement in general, and minarchist/anarchist
wings of our group. It’s only great to have somebody on our side until they’re
successful…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Right.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: …and then our tendency is to want to find someone else
to push up to the top and sort of push those people to the side and be harder
on them than we would be on somebody else.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: That’s right. If Ron Paul wasn’t who he was, everybody’s
good about giving him the benefit of the doubt. I’m talking about from our
perspective, because they do. He’s Ron Paul. He’s awesome. But they need to
learn to do that with other people. I mean, I can picture people in another
universe saying, well, “Ron Paul, why are you in the Republican Party. That’s
selling out.” But most people don’t say that. We </div>
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need to learn to do that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it is exactly what you said. I remember when Metallica
went on the Grammys and had their first video. My heavy metal friends were
like, “Well, they’ve sold out.” It was basically them going to another level.
And that made them bigger, making a video, going on the Grammys. Our people
have to go to the U.S. Senate, and maybe do one or two or four things that, you
know, might not be ideologically totally pure, but at the end of the day
they’re holding off a war with a country, protecting the Fourth Amendment, and
doing things that nobody else in Washington D.C. is doing. Basically taking Ron
Paul’s ideas and making them stick. Yeah, I think we need to get behind them. I
think it’s important. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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[29:38] VSM: Well, let’s talk about Rand Paul in that
instance, because he recently submitted an amendment on NDAA, an NDAA vote that
was basically a restating of the Sixth Amendment. When that didn’t pass, the
amendment didn’t pass, he still went ahead and voted for the bill that Nancy
Pelosi put out there, and it wasn’t strong enough. Even Justin Amash, who we
hold up as a standard bearer in the House, disagreed with Rand Paul’s vote in
favor of that. Is this kind of what you’re talking about?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: Actually, it’s exactly what I’m talking about. The
argument basically is that Justin says, Representative Amash says, that, and he
has a very good point – and I even read it two or four or ten times myself, as
did many people I know, because it can get very confusing some of the legalese,
if you will – his point was that the
NDAA 2013 with the Feinstein-Lee Amendment which prevents indefinite detention
for American citizens is somehow null and void because of the 2012 NDAA vote.
But the point of Senator Mike Lee and Rand Paul and the people who voted for
Feinstein-Lee is this is an annual event, NDAA. Every year it changes. So 2013
counts and so does 2012. So you can argue that back and forth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The main point is, does anybody from our perspective doubt
that Justin Amash is fighting against indefinite detention and for the Fourth
Amendment? Does anybody doubt that Senator Rand Paul and Mike Lee are fighting
against indefinite detention and for the Fourth Amendment? If you see what I’m
saying.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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VSM: Right.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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[31:23] JH: Justin Amash put it perfectly. He goes, “I love
that I belong to a Republican Party and a movement that we have enough people
that we could even have these arguments amongst two people who are basically
fighting for the same thing.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He’s right. Because I can remember a time when none of this
would’ve been happening and nobody knew who Ron Paul was. That’s what makes me
excited about the future all the time. He’s absolutely right. But what does our
movement do? “Well, one guy’s absolutely right and one guy’s absolutely wrong
and he’s as bad as Lindsey Graham.” No, there’s actually a lot more nuance to
it than that. And these guys are both pretty close to Ron Paul. Not exactly
like Ron Paul on this issue. We need to learn to give them the benefit of the
doubt.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the way, Feinstein-Lee, I think Representative Amash did
get that wrong. It does protect American citizens from indefinite detention.
And we’ll find that out if somebody tries to pull the trigger. We’ll see how
far Feinstein-Lee goes. Once again, it wasn’t an unreasonable question to ask,
but I do think it’s unreasonable to throw all of these people under the bus.
Immediately. The neocons don’t do that. They never do that. When they were jumping
on the Sarah Palin bandwagon in 2008 because she sounded a little more pro-war,
and then she would say something that might not sit well with them, you know,
about maybe getting troops out of Afghanistan. Well, they wouldn’t just throw
her under the bus and run away. No, they stick, stay by it, and they use it,
and they see how it’s going to pan out. To the degree that we can learn to do
that we’re going to be able to win. If we throw people who are just nearly
perfect politically for us under the bus every time we turn around we’re never
going to be able to accomplish anything. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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[32:42] VSM: Yeah, we have something similar like that here
at the state level here in Georgia, and you probably do in South Carolina. I’m
sure most states do. We’ve got some representatives that weren’t necessarily
Paul supporters, but they are doing the right thing when it comes to limiting
the size and growth of government at the state level, trying to make our
government more accountable, those kinds of things. And some of our Paul
supporters are exceedingly hard on them because they weren’t Ron Paul
supporters.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: That’s politics. You have to build those coalitions. You
know that, Valerie, at the level you’re talking about, the state. These people
are with you on these issues so you’re going to work with them on these issues.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You know what I would say to those supporters? And I’ve said
this for a long time, most Ron Paul supporters I know love Dennis Kucinich.
Would you agree with that?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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VSM: Yes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: Ok. Why do we love him? He’s great on foreign policy and
civil liberties. He’d also take all of our money, redistribute it as he sees
fit, and create a socialist hell if he had the chance. Am I, do I mis-view
that?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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VSM: No.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: I’m not trying to, Ron Paul is a friend of mine and
Dennis Kucinich is a good friend of his. I’m not trying to be insulting. I’m
just trying to talk about what his politics are.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sort of contrarian nature within our movement, the
impulse, allows us to say, “Well, he’s on the left. We have common enemies. So
we like him.” Even though, really, half of his agenda, if not more, is
something we find deplorable. But then people that are considered on our Right,
who’d be considered on our Republican side, the people you’re talking about, or
even the people like my friend Senator DeMint who’s very good on a lot of
issues, but not perfect, and certainly needs to get better, you throw those
people completely under the bus because they’re not perfect, even though
they’re trending in your direction. That’s not how you do it. And it’s
hypocritical when you look through the lens of leftists we like, like Glenn
Greenwald…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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VSM: Yeah.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: …who I consider a friend. One of the best, if not the
best, writers definitely on civil liberties, but on politics period. When it
comes to domestic spending we have a lot of disagreements. But that’s ok because
we agree on some important things that need to be talked about.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that’s how you do it in politics. You build those
coalitions. When Ron Paul gets up there with Barney Frank for marijuana
legalization, I think that’s a wonderful thing. Does that mean Barney Frank’s
great on everything? Hell no. He’s terrible on most things. When Senator Rand
Paul gets together with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden about industrial hemp
legalization, does that mean Ron Wyden should not be, you know, we should not
cooperate with him because he believes in Obamacare and whatnot? No. I think
that would be foolish.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s just…it’s a maturity thing that we’re going to have to
learn.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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[35:10] VSM: Well, I think also it still shows that we
haven’t discerned who we’re really fighting against sometimes, you know, and
what the methods of our enemies may be. And I hate to use the term ‘enemies,’
but I’m just saying that the people that we want to challenge politically…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: Enemies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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VSM: …have been doing this a very long time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: I’ll use it. Enemies. That’s how I see them. I don’t
mean it personal. I can talk to some of these people on a personal level. Talk
about their families and things. I’m talking about politically. That’s, I see
the neoconservatives as my enemies. I did when I was 20 and I do now 20 years
later. Yeah. That’s exactly what we’re going to have to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other mistake is to do what the Christian Right did.
They got a little bit, they got their foot in the door where they might have
some influence and power through the Moral Majority in the 80’s with the
Christian Coalition. And then they totally became the Establishment apparatus.
I mean, it basically became, “Democrats and liberals are bad and anything
Republicans do is good.” You don’t want to become that. That’s an awful
mistake. At the same time, you know, basically, when most of what we’re doing
is fight within the Republican Party, Rand Paul and Justin Amash and Ron Paul,
these guys are fighting against other Republicans as much as they are
Democrats. Don’t give those other guys, you know, the benefit by not helping
our guys and getting our guys support. I think it would be a big mistake.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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[36:50] VSM: Yeah, you know Jim DeMint, Jim DeMint got quite
a bad rap for trying to bring more folks into the Senate like himself and Rand
Paul. Does that have anything to do with why he left, do you think?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: Well, you know, I did help him with the book, and I do
know that he hates Washington D.C. Probably even more than we do because he has
to be there every day. And I don’t think his family, particularly his wife, is
fond of Washington D. C.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Senator DeMint, even when we disagree on issues, and we’ve
discussed that before, he is 100% sincere. He’s doing, his fights are for all
the right reasons, even if some of the votes we don’t agree with. He’s changed a lot on those votes because
he’s seen the light on a lot of issues thanks to people like Rand Paul and Mike
Lee.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He, I think, feels a lot better leaving Washington D. C.
because there are others to carry on that fight and it’s not just him anymore.
I mean, here’s a guy when Medicare Plan D was being pushed through, and guys
like Paul Ryan were urging everybody to get on board, who told Karl Rove and Dick
Cheney and Bush straight to their face in the Oval Office that he wasn’t going
to do it, and Karl Rove said, “Well, we understand you’ve got an election
coming up down there. We might look at some primary challengers.” And Senator
DeMint looked at Rove and said, “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but I’ve got to
do what’s right here, and have conservative principles. Y’all do what you need
to do.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You didn’t have a lot of that during the Bush years. It’s no
surprise to me that he now is sort of a Tea Party Champion, constitutional
conservative, that he’s sort of risen above what the Republicans in general
have been doing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
VSM: I was listening to Judd Gregg call him ‘irrelevant’ and
‘not a factor.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: [Laughter]<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
VSM: Yeah! Seriously!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: Karl Rove is irrelevant and a non-factor more than Jim
DeMint at this point, but OK.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
VSM: Right. Right. How much of a threat is this movement of
ours to people in power in Washington D.C.?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[38:49] JH: See, that’s what excites me the most. When I see
people mad that Justin Amash didn’t call himself an anarchist on some forum or
something, I’m actually looking at…I think of how flippantly…I’m just amazed at
sometime the level of vitriol toward our own people about nothing. I’m excited
by seeing some of the neocons who’ve sort of dismissed us and our movement and
Ron Paul starting to get frightened. I will go to particular websites and see
them calling Rand Paul ‘anti- Israel.’ And, you know, “He’s a real threat
because we could marginalize his dad because he was crazy, but some people like
this isolationist Rand Paul guy.” You see this all the time from the neoconservatives.
I’m not talking about the guys who you might see on Fox News all the time
who’ve been playing nice so far. I’m talking about maybe some of the
intellectuals behind that, and some of the people, used to be AEI and the
Project for New American Century. When they’re getting scared I know we’re
winning. I’ve never seen them more frightened in my life. And I’m speaking as
somebody who was a Pat Buchanan supporter in ’96 and 2000, and [Buchanan] talked
about the neocons openly, and hated the neocons. I have not seen them this
frightened or worried about their own position of influence in my lifetime. It
thrills me to no end and I want to keep going and I want to stick the knife in
and keep turning it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[40:09] VSM: What do you think about Republican Pundits like
Erick Erickson, blogger Erick Erickson, who has finally – and we’ll talk about
FreedomWorks, too, if you want to, and a couple of other groups, The American
Majority and a few other folks – that actually are condemning people in
Republican leadership now for their stances on this budget deal?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[40:36] JH: I think it’s absolutely great. Erick Erickson,
I’ve disagreed with him a lot. I was actually offended by many of the things he
said about Ron Paul. He’ll lavish praises upon Rand Paul. A lot of this is identity.
Rand can say what his father says just in different ways and Republicans say,
“Oh, yeah. That’s great!” And Ron’ll say it his way and they’ll say, “Oh, we
don’t know about that.” I would say
maybe [Erickson has] been guilty of that sometimes. But to the degree he’s
willing to help our ideas and our movement, welcome aboard.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A group like FreedomWorks I think is absolutely wonderful in
the sense that you’ve had all these hack GOP Washington establishment groups
around for forever that are supposed to be the think tanks, or activists groups
supposed to be doing conservative stuff, and all they do is just defend the
Republican Establishment. FreedomWorks, on the other hand, actively challenges
establishment Republicans at the congressional and state levels, excuse me,
senatorial level, and other levels, and puts in anti-establishment candidates
[like] Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz. That’s
what they do on a regular basis. They’re all about spending and the debt. And
when they’re asked about issues of importance to us like, well, they’re
actually very good on civil liberties, foreign commitment, they’re anti Patriot
Act and whatnot. But even on foreign policy, when they’re asked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was a great interview by the Daily Caller’s Jamie
Weinstein, who’s very neoconservative, and he asked FreedomWork’s Matt Kibbe,
[Weinstein] said, “Well, you have two trends in the Republican Party in the
Senate right now. You’ve got Senator Rand Paul and you’ve got Senator Marco
Rubio. One is for a very robust national defense,” is how he put it, “and one
is more isolationist,” which is what they call Rand Paul, and that’s absurd.
It’s not true. Matt Kibbe answered and he said, “Well, we don’t take an
official stance on foreign policy. We’re about spending and the budget, but we
think everything must be cut.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, reading between the lines there, if we’re going to cut
everything, you’re automatically agreeing with Rand Paul. People on the neoconservative
side, as you’ve seen, by saying we’re gutting the military, don’t want to cut a
damn thing. They want to keep Pentagon spending just like it is.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A group like FreedomWorks, which is popular on talk radio
and Fox News and in conservative grassroots, is about spending and the debt, has
their trust. When it comes down to the wire, we’re looking at a Rand Paul budget
or others who cut Pentagon spending and do what needs to be done. The neocons
are upset FreedomWorks is going to be on our side. They’ve already been on our
side with these budgets. Each and every time. So just because they’re not
explicit about foreign policy doesn’t mean implicitly they’re not with us where
it counts, when it matters consistently. I think it’s a beautiful thing within
the Republican Party, within the conservative movement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All this - I don’t need to remind you, Valerie, but we need to
remember - all this comes from Ron Paul. None of this would’ve been possible
without Ron, Dr. Paul. His example, running for President, and the movement
we’ve built.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[43:18] VSM: Yeah, I agree with you on that, but I don’t
know how soon they’ll give him credit for that. I would venture to guess that
it’ll be a while before he’ll get the full credit he deserves for a lot of this,
especially when the Tea Party Movement still wants to disassociate itself and
its origins from Ron Paul. But a lot of that is OK with me right now because
the Tea Party movement is not doing a good job at promoting itself, defending
its positions right now. They are getting a black eye these days. A lot of
people want to say that the 2012 presidential elections, and the House and Senate
elections as well, were a repudiation of the policies of the Tea Party of 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: Well, a couple of things there. Barry Goldwater didn’t
get credit for his accomplishment until 1980, sixteen years later. We’re only five years removed from when Ron Paul
started running for President the first time as a Republican. I think in the
coming years, I don’t know if it’s ten years, or, God forbid, when Dr. Paul’s
no longer with us, I think history will look back on him as a major
revolutionary figure in politics.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
VSM: Yeah, I don’t want it to take that, though.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: I don’t either, but his accomplishment is there. It’s
not going anywhere. And it could be bigger than what Goldwater accomplished in
creating the modern conservative movement. I think it could be that big. That
will remain to be seen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As far as the Tea Party and what you mentioned, the original
Tea Party was about spending and debt. I remember when Glenn Beck, who does
some things I like and some things I don’t like, had that “Restoring Honor”
Rally in Washington D.C. I wrote a column for The American Conservative and I
was fearful that the Tea Party was going in a different and wrong direction.
What I meant about that was, first of all, I don’t know what ‘restoring honor’
meant even to this day. But I have no problem with faith and values. I’m a
Christian.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The beauty of the Tea Party Movement, any mass populist grassroots
movement, is it has a singular focus. The [focus of the] anti-war movement in
the 60’s was get out of Vietnam. [The Tea Party] was about spending and debt. To
the degree that it became about many other different things, it loses steam, it
loses focus, and it loses power. I think that’s what’s happened to the Tea
Party Movement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, there’s still that mass of people out there who will
vote for candidates we like who are upset about spending and debt. Will they
reemerge and do that again? I think they will. They haven’t gone anywhere. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are people that call themselves Tea Partiers that are all for all sorts
of authoritarian nonsense, and pro-Patriot Act. Call themselves
constitutionalists while hating the Fourth Amendment. Those contradictions have
always been within the conservative movement. Our movement, the Liberty
Movement, has been meant to address those, and target them, and take those head
on. That’s part of our job.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Tea Party’s not this one singular thing that’s either
all good or all bad. It’s a mixture. And
I still think it tends to be more good than bad and will be useful for our
efforts moving forward.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[46:27] VSM: Yeah, sometimes it’s hard being on the fringe
of the Republican Party. That’s where I consider myself right now. Because
mostly what I’m doing is trying to hold my own party, the party I’ve been a
member of – we don’t have to sign membership forms or anything – but the party
I’ve been a member of for twenty years, I’m just trying to hold it accountable.
That’s been less and less welcome in the five years that I’ve been extremely
active. So I wonder about what’s next for us. How do we get people that think
like you and I to win, to get them into office. How do they win?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: Well, I think that’s going to happen more and more. Once
again, this is all thanks to Ron Paul. I don’t say that, like, he just
revolutionized what is possible in our politics now. And if he’d not come
along, we wouldn’t be talking, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. We both
know that. It’s just a different world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What can we do moving forward? There’s going to be other
candidates like Thomas Massie or Kerry Bentivolio in Michigan who are both Ron
Paul guys. Justin Amash has been there. Senator Rand Paul. There will be others
in two years. There will be others four years after that. People who are
already up there on Capitol Hill who might have, in a closeted way, believed in
some of these things, but had no Republican backup will now be more inclined to
do it because they do. Raul Labrador, a Congressman, is one who immediately
comes to mind who’s really good on a lot of those issues now,[who] feels a lot
more comfortable that he has people like Justin Amash to back him up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s the narrative we need to keep pushing. And not just
in Washington D. C., but at the state level, the local level. I know there’s
Ron Paul people running for local councils and for state house seats. All that,
at every level, taking over the GOP apparatus, as Ron Paul’s presidential
campaign has allowed us to do to a large degree, much to the chagrin of people
in places like Iowa. That’s what we need to keep doing moving forward. Being
politically realistic while still keeping our principles, and jealously so.
That’s how we win. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s how we’ve won thus far.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s going to be many different ways of doing that.
There’s going to be many people with many different talents. And it’s not even
a question – you mentioned earlier about anarchists and minarchists – we need
radicals. They need to keep our feet to the fire. All that needs to be there.
My only plea, I guess, is that different people with different talents don’t
hurt each other working towards the same effort. If there’s practical, pragmatic
people, let them do their thing. If there’s radical people that don’t want so
much to do with that, let them do their thing, and just don’t hurt each other.
And help each other where you can. That’s the way you do it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Barry Goldwater was running he had Carl Hess, [Hess] was
one of his speechwriters. He actually wrote the line, “Extremism in defense of
Liberty is no vice.” Carl Hess was an anarchist at various points in his life.
He was a pretty radical guy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
When William F. Buckley founded National Review one of his
mentors was a guy named Albert Jay Nock, which many libertarians might know. He
was an anarchist. About as radical as you can get. There’s always been radicals
within the conservative movement, even at the highest levels. Look at Judge
Andrew Napolitano. That’s a pretty radically libertarian dude. He’s on Fox
News. Murray Rothbard, who’s a hero to me and many libertarians, one of the
most practical radicals I’ve ever encountered, or, you know, studied, in my
entire lifetime.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s not a question about everybody has to be pragmatic. You
wouldn’t want that. Or everybody has to be radical. You certainly wouldn’t want
that. It’s everybody doing what interests them. As Dr. Paul says, having fun.
What they like to do. Their passion. We can work together in conjunction as
much as we can without hurting each other, without harming the larger movement.
And that’s how we win.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I know that’s a little vague sometimes, but that’s exactly
how we’re going to be able to do it. And that’s how we’re already doing it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[50:20] VSM: Yeah, I’m often, this is funny, because when I
tell people, “Yeah, I’m going to have Jack Hunter on the show,” I know you see
it [on facebook], and they’ll be like, “Well, Jack Hunter’s an operative,” and
I’m not really sure…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: What does that mean? Operative of what?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: I think what they say is that you don’t ‘jealously
guard our interests’ well enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: You know it’s funny. I’ve heard that before. I’m
somebody who basically subscribes to Austrian economics, wants to end the Fed.
I make no bones about the fact that foreign policy has always been my main
thing. I just really, really don’t like the neocons and what they’ve done to my
country. I really don’t like that at all. That’s always been a focus. But
before I got in this movement, before Ron ran for president, Dr. Paul, I was a
news junkie. I would scour the news looking for any sliver of anything going on
that might be useful or helpful to the principles I believed in, which is basically
Old Right, Robert Taft conservatism, Republicanism that Dr. Paul has mentioned
in his speeches so many times, and there was hardly anything.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, now we’re at a point where there’s lots of things. I’m
out there promoting them and defending them and whatnot. I really talk the way I
always have. I’ve had the same interests I’ve always had. But maybe because I don’t talk in a pure
Libertarian language, or maybe talk about anarchy or something, which, that’s
never been where I’m coming from to begin with, people assume things. Or think
things that aren’t true. I don’t really know what to tell them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think it’s funny.
At this point I don’t really get offended by it, I just think it’s kind
of silly and funny that, just knowing where I come from, how much the
establishment types, whether in my home state of South Carolina or whatnot,
really despise me, consider me a pain their ass. The idea that I’m them is
pretty funny. And if it’s indicative of our success, then so be it. That would
be great.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I want the Liberty Movement to be the Republican Establishment.
We call the shots. What we think is a good idea is Republican orthodoxy. I
think that’d be great. You can stamp an elephant on my forehead at that point. <o:p></o:p></div>
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[52:20] VSM: I’m pretty certain, Jack, that you’re going to
be called an operative if you make any money supporting the Liberty Movement. I
think that’s the criteria. If you make a living…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: If you earn a living?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Yes. If you earn a living…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: So is Ron Paul an operative? Is my friend Tom Woods an operative?<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: That’s the
dividing line there. It’s really about if you are doing this and you’re
actually getting paid by something, somewhere, somebody, then surely you’ve
sold out somehow. Just like we talked about in the music, you know, the
alternative…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: Right. Huh. I think it’s people maybe not getting,
people who are taking advantage of what we built. I would certainly agree with
that. Just normal people making money…<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Well, there may be one or two that know how to do that.
I think most people within this movement, and there are, like I said, one or
two charlatans in the movement that are doing it strictly for profit motive, but
I just, almost nobody does this for money, because there’s really not much money
in it. If there’s any money, I don’t know. I mean, I’m not getting paid any right
now, but I’m just saying if there is money in it it’s not like we’re getting
fat off of anybody, I don’t think…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: [Laughter] No. No.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: People who have figured out a way to do that. That’s
the market, you know?<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: If I wanted to make a lot of money I wouldn’t be in the
Liberty Movement. I’d go be a neocon. I could’ve done that a long time ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Yeah, sure. With one of those PACs, super PAC…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Look at all these hacks. They have these young hack
writers that are absolutely stupid. Can’t piece two thoughts together. They carry
water for these guys and they make them stars. We see it all the time. I’ve
mentioned a couple of them on this call. That would be the easy route, but I
couldn’t live with myself. I might as
well not go on because this movement and these ideas are my life. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My personal happiness, family, and friends is the most
important thing and why we should care about any of this. But in my
professional life, pushing these ideas forward in a bigger and better way than
I ever thought possible, thanks to Ron Paul, and to hold it together the best
we can. The beauty of this movement is that it’s so hard to hold together in
the sense that everybody, I mean, a movement full of radical individuals are
going to be radical individuals, and political success also requires working
together. As a good friend of mine who’s worked for Dr. Paul for a long time
said - you know, they say herding libertarians, getting libertarians together
is like herding cats - and he said, “No.
It’s much worse because a cat won’t turn around to you and say he’s a sovereign
individual.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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[Laughter]<o:p></o:p></div>
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But, that said, look at how far we’ve come. We’ve got a lot
farther to go. And to the degree that people can think about the big picture,
the ideals that we share and the enemies that we share, that we can defeat and
are already making nervous, we can really do some really great things. It
should never be about the individuals, the personalities involved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I care about this movement way more than I care about me or
my name or what people think of me. I do what my gut and my heart tells me is
right every time and if people don’t like…I let them say what they like, I bite
my tongue. If I ever do say something, and I’m not perfect, sometimes I’ve
regretted some of the things </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve said, it’s always, even when I attack, it’s
always for the benefit of the movement and what I think is best for the
movement period.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[55:57] VSM: I want to ask one quick question before we have
to go here, and it’s not Liberty Movement related.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, it is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You know, what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday
was a terrible, terrible thing. But I wanted to remind folks that back in 2011
Ron Paul had introduced a bill…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Gun Free school zones. Get rid of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Exactly. Yes, to get rid of gun free school zones. Why
do you think people just so misunderstand that premise?<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Gun control advocates, liberals, it’s like a religion to
them. It’s not about common sense. It’s not about basic logic. It’s not about
empirical evidence. I mean, common sense tells you that the only thing that could’ve
stopped that shooter is somebody else with a gun. That’s what happened to
Alabama. We also need to remember that the chance of people’s school children
being under assault by a mad, crazed gunman is still very, very small. You
probably have more chance of drowning in the bathtub tomorrow or something
happening.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s an emotional issue, and liberals, “Oh, if we get rid of
guns…” That’s like saying if we get rid of knives Jack the Ripper would’ve not
existed. It’s just stupid. But it is emotional, it’s almost a religion-type
position for them to hold, and they’ve held it for so long you can’t talk them
out of it. What do you do with that? We keep making our arguments and they’ll
keep making theirs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[57:19] VSM: Yeah, but when their argument starts turning
into a national gun control law that’s a serious, you know…are we saying that
the Second Amendment is irrelevant then? I am always confused by people who
don’t understand what it means when the Constitution says it “shall not be
infringed.” We still have lots of laws on the books…<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Well, look, Republicans and Democrats hold up the
Amendments they like and ignore the ones they don’t. Republicans historically,
at least the last ten years, hated the Fourth Amendment and in some instances
the First Amendment. Democrats have certainly hated the Second Amendment.
They’re all hypocrites. And that’s the purpose of our, one of the purposes of
our movement, to be constitutionally comprehensive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As far as them passing national legislation, yes, that’s the
fear. That’s why we’re here. We have to fight against it tooth and nail. I do
think when tragedies like this happen, that we do ourselves a favor by being
decent people, showing respect to families and the victims by not immediately
going for the political jugular. Let the liberals look stupid and do that for a
day or two, and then we’ll wait and that argument will be had.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think we always do well to ask ourselves, and I’m not
trying to be weird here, what would Ron Paul do in this instance. I think
that’s a pretty good example to follow.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[58:41] VSM: I agree. So what’s next for you, Jack Hunter?
Where are you going? What are you doing?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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JH: Oh, I’m going wherever this movement is going. This
movement is my life and we’ve got people to champion, we’ve got ideas to push
forward, and we’ve got enemies to piss off and keep attacking. And I plan on
keeping…doing that. This is the rest of my life. You’re looking at it right
here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we go down in flames, I guess I’ll have to go do
something else, flip burgers like I did once or something. That’s fine. That’s
dandy. But I sure would like to see this thing take hold and us keep changing
American politics, and for Ron Paul to look back on his own legacy and say,
“Look what I’ve done. Look what I’ve accomplished.” He can already do that.
Let’s make it bigger and better, not only for his satisfaction, but for the
sake of us and future generations. That’s not some stupid Republican campaign
rhetoric. That’s serious. </div>
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We are really screwed if this doesn’t continue to
take hold and we don’t continue to make progress with these ideas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: I feel certain that we will succeed, but I know that a
lot of us get weary and feel like sometimes we have some…especially with the
election and things like that. It’s hard to understand it and make sense of it
all. Well, not really. I mean, we knew what was going to happen with the
nominee we got on the Republican side, so anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s frustrating when you feel like you’re saying the same
things over and over again. I try to remind myself that we really are reaching
new people every day and we can’t grow tired.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: And just so you said that, saying these things over and
over that sound like old things to us are brand new to many ears. That we’ve
been saying for five years or longer, especially grassroots conservatives, are
like, “Hmm. I never thought of that, but I guess the Fourth Amendment is
important,” that’s new to them. It’s old to us, but we just keep repeating it.
We’ve got to drive it home. I think repetition’s a good thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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[1:00:27] VSM: I agree. So where can folks find you online?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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JH: SouthernAvenger.com. You can find everything I do right
there. <o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: All right, Jack Hunter. Thank you so much for spending
so much time with me today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: Thank you, Valerie. And I just want to say I do know it’s
your last show today. And it’s because of programs like yours, which is an
absolutely fantastic show, that this movement is what it is. You’re one part of
a much greater whole. And if it wasn’t for people like you we wouldn’t be
anywhere either. So I hope this isn’t the last we hear of you, Valerie.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: I’m sure it won’t be. I appreciate that very much, Jack.
Hey, and I’m sorry that I didn’t get to meet you personally when we were in
Tampa. I saw you a couple of times, but the time I wanted to talk to you Ann
Coulter was bending your ear…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JH: [Laughter] That’s funny.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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VSM: …at a billionaire’s house. We were at Peter Thiel’s
house at a party there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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JH: That’s right.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
You know, I was actually mad that day. Justin Amash was
there and she was, and she didn’t know who he was. And I walked out of there
kind of angry. In my mind Ann Coulter, she knows who the hell Justin Amash is.
And we’ve been talking about that the last hour. That’s exactly what I’m
talking about, Valerie. He should be on her radar screen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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VSM: I agree. I agree. But we will eventually run into each
other I’m sure. I thank you for what you do, and hopefully we can do something
like this, if it’s not this radio show, something else similar in the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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JH: Absolutely. Take care, Valerie. Hope to talk to you
soon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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VSM: Thanks, Jack.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
All right that’s Jack Hunter, Everyone. SouthernAvenger.com.
Hope everybody will go check his work out. He is a class act. He’s a pro. I
know where people’s disappointments lie, but I think that what he’s doing is bigger
than that. And you’ve got to hold him accountable, sure, let’s do that. But
let’s also give kudos where they’re due. And Jack’s worked really hard, and he
deserves at least our respect on that front. I totally…he has my respect.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-15507964082973073842013-07-17T10:20:00.001-04:002013-07-17T10:45:39.249-04:00Athens-Clarke County Tea Party Convention - Lessons in Legitimacy<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was asked about giving support to Athens Clark County
Tea Party Chairman Keyantwon Stephens’ plan to organize a “Tea Party
Convention,” Stephens had already burned through all of his credibility with
me. (For background on the problems with the event go here: </span><a href="http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-07-12/questions-swirl-around-payments-owed-athens-tea-party-group">http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-07-12/questions-swirl-around-payments-owed-athens-tea-party-group</a>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtl6AHciVUuIPpFmylM6cchSLsl6FdhQD1AoiRyiP_XYyrLgsLqO5jJ9SpZEohlpr9mNv2g8Y_uR87hl7mFD29au_Uxu6Usx1qEU_B2cgVRthO9oDEPOXjDTVS6HeYzgLNkOQdoLazhBzy/s1600/tpinaction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtl6AHciVUuIPpFmylM6cchSLsl6FdhQD1AoiRyiP_XYyrLgsLqO5jJ9SpZEohlpr9mNv2g8Y_uR87hl7mFD29au_Uxu6Usx1qEU_B2cgVRthO9oDEPOXjDTVS6HeYzgLNkOQdoLazhBzy/s320/tpinaction.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I won’t go into all of the reasons that I doubted Stephens
knew what he was doing, but his young age wasn’t ever a factor. In fact, he has
shown despite his age an incredible ability to confidently attract attention
and win support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem with Stephens, who’s run for Congress, proposed
running for governor, and most recently announced his desire to head Georgia’s
Democratic Party, is that his ‘dream big’ mentality lacks any grounding in
reality. The ‘Convention,’ which in the end had many prominent local and
national political speakers, was a manifestation of Stephens’ ability to convince himself and
others that he can do great and meaningful things. Never mind that there was no real plan to pay
for it or support it in any real way.
Stephens has been, for a while now, writing metaphorical checks that,
sadly, finally caught up with both his reputation and his real-life bank
account.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think the visceral reaction against Stephens from within the libertarian-minded circles stems from the fear that Stephens, who has sometimes worn the 'Liberty' mantle, has exposed the underlying inexperience of many in the movement that want more leadership roles and responsibility in formal politics. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm disappointed at those who say Stephens purposefully misled
people, though. I am fairly certain he didn’t.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone who meets Stephens, including
myself, wants to see him succeed. He is charming and soft-spoken, and yes, young
and idealistic. It was utterly disappointing
for me when I finally realized and accepted Stephens has no awareness that his
attempt at this high level of community organizing is something most would
consider quite difficult. His lack of awareness hurt him and his ambitious event. It may ultimately hurt the efforts of others, as well.</span><br />
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Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-21399203752903689472013-05-11T16:59:00.004-04:002013-05-15T11:54:24.755-04:00Raw Milk Drink-In a Celebration of Natural Rights<br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're
protesting bad law by drinking good milk. Will you celebrate our natural rights
with us? <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/524927074231734/" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/524927074231734/</a><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5gpigwEwgELIY_G4-VIdeCzdHTn4Ka6rRGC86Y9D23-CPHibbRk9UYuT8_AT8PIhar88l-xzesceZ1oClFLmlPT-cIGqCe69lpW5NBPXC7E9z1yhQ6ZOKV5srhD_oCaII1cbv5cN7kGv/s1600/milk+sky+promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5gpigwEwgELIY_G4-VIdeCzdHTn4Ka6rRGC86Y9D23-CPHibbRk9UYuT8_AT8PIhar88l-xzesceZ1oClFLmlPT-cIGqCe69lpW5NBPXC7E9z1yhQ6ZOKV5srhD_oCaII1cbv5cN7kGv/s400/milk+sky+promo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tastes like Freedom. Sweet, sweet, delicious, raw Freedom. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Raw Milk
Drink-In is about the absurdity of bad laws and the requirement of informed
people to disobey those laws. It is about the real and direct effect that
burdensome government regulation in all industry has on people’s day-to-day
lives. It is about the unjust authority our government exerts on us when it
acts outside its constitutional size and scope. It is about the arbitrary and
subjective way in which laws are enforced.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Raw Milk
Drink-In will use food freedom - the principle that government should not
determine what foods adults are allowed to eat, even under the auspices of
health and safety - to make our point that the government has overstepped its
bounds. Breaking state and federal laws about the sale and consumption of a
basic food item is symbolic of our natural right to be free of government
intrusions in our decision making and dealings with others. It is about our
right to the results of our own work. It is about our right to defend ourselves
when others seek to harm us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The event
will take place outside the Classic Center in Athens, Georgia, because several of the organizers and
attendees are delegates and alternates to the GAGOP State Convention being held
there that day. The goal is to remind the Republican Party that it has walked
away from its duty to uphold its stated principles of small, local, and limited
government. We submit as proof legislators within the Republican Party who
allow the obtrusive and corrupt government process that prevents the sale of
raw milk, a wholesome and natural food consumed throughout all of human history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even though
this is being held at a Republican venue, everyone is invited to attend. We hope
to reinforce the idea that people on both the Left and Right agree on the
protection of civil liberties.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday, May 18th, shortly before 9:00 a.m. we will sell raw milk shots for a nickel while supplies last.
We will read a few quotes about civil disobedience. We will mention the
symbolism behind our event. Then we will have a brief toast, hold up our raw
milk, and drink in unison. That will be the end of the official event. Anyone
who wants to stay longer is welcome to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The exact
spot of the event is to be announced. All money raised will be donated to
Georgia Alliance for Raw Milk. The event is sponsored and organized by members
of Hoco4Liberty. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HoCo4Liberty">https://www.facebook.com/HoCo4Liberty</a><br />
<br />
UPDATE: At the suggestion of friends in Georgia Alliance for Raw Milk, we will donate any proceeds from the event to Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund at <a href="http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/">http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/</a> and the Weston A. Price Foundation at <a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/">http://www.westonaprice.org/</a>. We hope you'll spread the word and donate, too.<br />
<br /></div>
Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-67360750557759696142013-05-05T14:46:00.001-04:002013-05-05T16:44:39.367-04:00The Speech I Wanted to Give<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s a little truth for you: I’m an awful public speaker.
It’s true. I am. There’s a reason people fear public speaking more than death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday, I received the Republican Liberty Caucus of
Georgia’s 2012 Citizens Award. Here's what I meant to say yesterday, but didn't get quite right. Sorry. :(</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Thank you all. It’s a huge honor. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the
passing of our friend Karen Ross this week, a liberty activist and long serving
member of the Republican party who fought hard to be named a delegate from
Georgia’s 1<sup>st</sup> Congressional District just so she could attend the
Republican National Convention in Tampa to help nominate Ron Paul from the
floor of the convention. She was fighting her battle with cancer even then. Karen was very proud to be there and made a
point to say how proud she was to see Catherine Bernard stand up for her
beliefs amid</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> harsh criticism at the first convention breakfast. I’d like to
accept this award in Karen Ross’s honor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So many of us here started out together in 2007. Remember in
2008 at the state GOP Convention when Randy Evans ran the convention and tried
to humiliate us by insisting that we turn around and personally acknowledge how
few of us there were when we voted to suspend the rules and allow nominations
for delegates from the floor? As I look at us all assembled here it’s clear
that effort backfired on him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been very fortunate, lucky, had good karma. I’ve been
blessed. I was in the sweet spot
age-wise for this movement. I was a grown woman, a parent in her 30’s who was old enough to be taken seriously as an officer in the Republican Party and as a candidate for public office, yet I was young enough to promote this movement, and, yes, promote myself, on
social media like facebook and twitter, and last year on online radio.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's something most folks don't know about me. I've run five marathons. I like to run marathons, but it takes four months to train for one. That kind of training takes a lot of</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> patience and persistence. You have to keep your long term goal in mind. Let's all remember that our fight to defend constitutional principles is long-term fight that we must continually train for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been a Republican for 20
years.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have as much right to define
what it means to be Republican as any other person who calls themselves ‘Republican.’
And so do you, don’t be afraid to say that at your local Republican meetings.
You prove by your participation that you’ve earned that right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, keep your spirit of gratitude while you work to change things. Let's be grateful. We, hopefully, with God's grace, will one day see the results of all of our hard work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you again for this award. God Bless You."</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-cFsBwtzS9E8iAZqZjm8o2y7gBcSEHrqKuc_L38CXl1K2B7FRVEKhEYQIkvzPyLM-n0tsNUUJBaW50_0unXHhFnvaT4gpm59ntTsGxze5GmHsgT6x5dq_u6GQGW9DQhHOCgq_HcfF8yb/s1600/karen+ross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-cFsBwtzS9E8iAZqZjm8o2y7gBcSEHrqKuc_L38CXl1K2B7FRVEKhEYQIkvzPyLM-n0tsNUUJBaW50_0unXHhFnvaT4gpm59ntTsGxze5GmHsgT6x5dq_u6GQGW9DQhHOCgq_HcfF8yb/s320/karen+ross.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-16592347325604034532012-09-07T11:46:00.000-04:002012-09-07T12:18:06.913-04:00What I saw at the Republican National Convention<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>The real man smiles
in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection. ~
Thomas Paine</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Last week at the
Republican National Convention was indeed a week full of scripted appearances,
fakery, and rules abuses. Many of you will read that line and say, “So what?”
but you will say it for different reasons. Some will say, “So what?” because
any tales told of scripted appearances, fakery, and rules abuses for the sake of
unity will be what you’ve grown to expect from a party who has used the same
tactics throughout this year’s caucus/primary process. Others will say, “So
what?” because you will feel the fakery, rules abuses, and scripted appearances
were done to prevent an unfair overthrow by a group of people whose candidate
couldn’t garner popular support. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The Republican
National Convention this week was nothing more than a giant party for delegates.
No actual business took place. Sure, there was business a week earlier, but the
votes during that business fell far short of what was needed to make the
process accountable to the liberty-minded. Delegates were disqualified so that
Ron Paul could not be nominated from the floor. Rules changes were pushed
through so that local caucuses and conventions are now rendered meaningless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">So many long-time
Republican Party folks misunderstand the gravity of the rules change. One nice
man characterized it as a family fight that was quickly fixed so that all could
come together. The idea of public dissent petrifies this party so much that
three or four random folks from each state speaking out is horrifying. Young
Paul supporters in Georgia elected as delegates at the District Level got
publicly berated, chastised, and ostracized by some for refusing to help fake a
unified front for Romney, instead of being accepted as holding a set of ideals
different from the majority.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I've decided I don't want
to be the person who tries to argue for reform with those long-serving members
of the party. There doesn’t appear to be many long-serving people with any real
desire to reform the party either. Most of the people I met are nice people
personally. That isn't the issue. Their 'niceness' will never become
enlightenment. I don't discount the possibility that maybe I am just a failed
messenger, and that someone else may have better luck explaining how things
could be more correct. But even our best messenger, Ron Paul, has taken 30
years to break through, if one can even call it that. On some levels I credit the extremist,
anti-liberty, pro-security-at-any-costs mindset that happened after 9/11 that
caused the Liberty pendulum swing. Ron Paul,
luckily, was the benefactor of that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s fairly obvious to
me that party insiders expected some sort of uprising this week. A huge one.
Full of violent revolt. I’m almost certain the secured perimeter was meant to
be as intimidating to inexperienced participants as it was to outsiders. This
only goes to show how little the party bosses knew about the Liberty Movement. All
the protests, and there were multiple protests inside the convention, were
peaceful. And, sadly, they were mostly theoretical. After all, if a tree falls
in a forest and CNN doesn’t report it does it really make a sound? Some people
who use the internet hear it, I guess. Maybe we are reaching a time where that’s
all that matters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7jG_iJjwAUc1kpNJFxkdOV7ZikyKqPJ5eYloTTMnNg-f4-WiWzJuUQneIekQl9tdPz0VzuuqfxgSndNSkVUHZpM7hxE4uYrzgoSN0En3g3S-rJy0Es2z0SkDTJULY2jpeS1XrulmdlE_/s1600/20120830_215521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7jG_iJjwAUc1kpNJFxkdOV7ZikyKqPJ5eYloTTMnNg-f4-WiWzJuUQneIekQl9tdPz0VzuuqfxgSndNSkVUHZpM7hxE4uYrzgoSN0En3g3S-rJy0Es2z0SkDTJULY2jpeS1XrulmdlE_/s320/20120830_215521.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Me (3rd from Left) with Georgia Paul supporters. Ann Romney glares disapprovingly in the background.</div>
Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-25247748986773769552012-07-10T19:08:00.000-04:002012-07-10T19:11:49.365-04:00Will You Be the 'Super Trooper' Donor Meow?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;">I would appreciate any
financial help toward the $2,000 I anticipate I will pay to be an alternate to
the Republican National Convention this August in Tampa, Florida. So far I've paid a $400
convention deposit and paid $699 for lodging. I anticipate $250 for travel
expenses and $300 for meals.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 8.4pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-line-height-alt: 8.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;">If you donate, I will send you a
picture of myself using your funds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-line-height-alt: 8.4pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;">For example, if you donate $15 I
will send you a picture of me eating a meal. If you donate $40 I will send a
picture of me putting gas in my car. If you donate $150 I will send a picture
of me sleeping in my hotel bed. If you
donate $500, I will send you a picture of me wearing a pin with your name on it
and will mention you frequently at the Convention and during any speaking
engagements/radio programs I do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-line-height-alt: 8.4pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;">If you donate $1000 I will say
your name in my conversations the way they say 'meow' on the movie 'Super
Troopers.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 8.4pt;">
<span style="background-color: white;">And here’s a clip to the movie ‘Super Troopers.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mXPeLctgvQI" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
And here’s my cute daughter drinking a milkshake at The Hangout in Gulf Shores, Alabama, last week.
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipO3dOwTLmkjBYLAY2tLj4ZXmoKFjN2xEXdJ1c6zG8ssVQzqF8SRFKN79vfnzMyG6SoThOBCiD2K2Pdi6rie8ehj2V5HiIxRXalYxwuWkGDC9b__QhC-pHzfhTfgQln20Lx1CQ9WVbVRJx/s1600/hangout+milkshake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipO3dOwTLmkjBYLAY2tLj4ZXmoKFjN2xEXdJ1c6zG8ssVQzqF8SRFKN79vfnzMyG6SoThOBCiD2K2Pdi6rie8ehj2V5HiIxRXalYxwuWkGDC9b__QhC-pHzfhTfgQln20Lx1CQ9WVbVRJx/s400/hangout+milkshake.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Thanks for reading!</div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-30464210872753041612012-05-29T03:45:00.000-04:002012-05-29T03:45:36.268-04:00My Interview of Molyneux and Woods and the History and Philosophy of Liberty<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here's the link to last Sunday's show. My 4 o'clock guest was Keyantwon Stephens who recently left the 9th District Congressional race here in Georgia, but plans to primary Republican Governor Nathan Deal in 2014. My 5 o'clock guests were activist/lecturer Stefan Molyneux and best-selling author Tom Woods. Both were there to promote their upcoming speaking engagements at the Libertarian Party of Texas's state convention being held June 8-10th. But we also discussed whether people really want to be free and whether my participation at the Republican National Convention legitimizes a inherently violent system. Forward to the 58:30 minute mark to hear the show.<br />
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/27/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/27/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin</a>
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There's also video of the second hour. Stefan made it. You can watch it here</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
</span>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d7EKyhz33sM" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
Links<br />
<a href="http://lptexas.org/2012convention">http://lptexas.org/2012convention</a> LP Texas Convention event info.<br />
<br />
Tom Woods Info<br />
<a href="http://www.tomwoods.com/">http://www.tomwoods.com/</a> Information on all things Tom Woods is here.<br />
<a href="http://www.libertyclassroom.com/">http://www.libertyclassroom.com/</a> New educational venture Tom has started.<br />
<br />
Stefan Molyneux<br />
<a href="http://freedomainradio.com/">http://freedomainradio.com/</a>
<br />
<br />
Articles mentioned on the show<br />
<a href="http://www.kcentv.com/story/18638489/florida-man-eats-a-mans-face">http://www.kcentv.com/story/18638489/florida-man-eats-a-mans-face</a>
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<a href="http://ivn.us/2012/05/27/texas-senate-race-puts-tea-party-strength-to-test/">http://ivn.us/2012/05/27/texas-senate-race-puts-tea-party-strength-to-test/</a>
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-82345266431247797812012-05-27T01:35:00.000-04:002012-05-27T01:42:56.463-04:00Republican Congressional Candidate Greg Pallen's InterviewRepublican Congressional Candidate Greg Pallen joined me last Thursday in the first hour of the Proof Negative Show instead of my regular 8-9pm time slot. Greg's running for Congress in Georgia's 4th District. Greg was a good sport about having his interview time changed. Thanks to Greg!<br />
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Here's the link to Greg's interview, and it starts right when you press play. No need to forward. Isn't that great?<br />
<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/25/proof-negative-show-real-patriot-news-">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/25/proof-negative-show-real-patriot-news-</a><br />
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Proof Negative (not his real name.lol.), our network owner would like for you to look for the show archive by using our "FR Tour">"FR Show Archive" links at <a href="http://www.freedomizerradio.com/">www.freedomizerradio.com</a> to help boost our Alexa rankings. If you don't mind, try to find the archive of Greg's interview that way (the date was May 24th), that way Proof will be happy.<br />
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The reason I did the show in Proof's hour was because of a technical problem with BlogTalkRadio . I named the show the 'Late Night Party Rock Edition,' although that's a pretty silly name, so I decided not to title this blog post like that.<br />
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Here are the awesome links from the show:<br />
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<a href="http://gregpallenforcongress.com/index.php/20-promises">http://gregpallenforcongress.com/index.php/20-promises</a> - Neato! Greg P. has 20 commitments to you the voter.<br />
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Greg was endorsed by G. Edward Griffin. He wrote this really intriguing treatise on the unconstitutional beginnings of the Federal Reserve:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=apolson-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=091298645X" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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This link is coverage of GA GOP state convention NDAA Resolution Vote from last Saturday with footage of Debbie Dooley, a prominent leader of Georgia's Tea Party Activists, calling to vote AGAINST the amended resolution. ??? I know. I don't get it either.<br />
<a href="http://www.fox19.com/category/195974/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7327189#.T772T_y51y8.facebook">http://www.fox19.com/category/195974/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7327189#.T772T_y51y8.facebook</a>
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Music for the show provided by Chris Trentham, Trevor Simpson, Ethan Maas, Shawn Bray, and Pro'Verb. There are others, but these are the ones I used Thursday (and use nearly every show). If you have great music, forward it to me. ValerieSM@freedomizerradio.com.<br />
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LOVE.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-64505683592075813942012-05-21T12:59:00.002-04:002012-05-21T13:12:12.055-04:00Two Different Interpretations of the GA GOP ConventionMy guests on yesterday's Valerie Sargent Martin Show were Tony Robbins and Jordan "Alex" Johnson. Robbins is a Middle Georgia businessman and longtime Georgia Republican Party regular. Johnson is an attorney and the Chair of the Dekalb County Young Republicans. Johnson nominated himself for Georgia National Committteeman from the floor of the Georgia Republican Party state convention last Saturday in Columbus, Georgia.<br />
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I invited Robbins and Johnson on the show to give their thoughts on the convention. Forward to the 55:00 minute mark to hear the show. Tony Robbins' interview is at the 66:00 minute mark, Alex Johnson's is at the 119:00 minute mark.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/20/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/20/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin</a>
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Tony Robbins (with wife Carolyn and Judy Hufstetler at GAGOP Convention) </div>
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Jordan "Alex" Johnson</div>
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-38777328585572590622012-05-16T20:02:00.002-04:002012-05-16T20:02:54.501-04:00I Cohosted an Intense Show Last NightI don't think I ever agree 100% with the guests on my own radio show or on the show I co-host,The Proof Negative Show. I knew when I signed up to start hosting back in January that <a href="http://freedomizerradio.com/">FreedomizerRadio.com</a> operates on the fringe of alternative news. I also know that the traditional talk radio stuff I try to do is pretty 'boring' in comparison. With that in mind, you'll understand why I probably wouldn't have Texe Marrs and Holland Vandennieuwenhof, the two gentlemen that were guests on Proof's show last night, on my show without presenting a lot of disclaimers first to avoid controversy.<br />
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Which sort of makes me disappointed in myself.<br />
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Link to the replay of the show:<br />
<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/16/proof-negative-show-real-patriot-news-">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/16/proof-negative-show-real-patriot-news-</a>
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Long as heck Ustream recording of me during the show. Not worth watching. <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22615485">http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22615485</a><br />
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Texe Marrs related links:<br />
<a href="http://www.texemarrs.com/">http://www.texemarrs.com/</a>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Einhorn">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Einhorn</a>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgibsonD.htm">http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgibsonD.htm</a>
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"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."</span><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Read more </span><a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henrydavid161709.html">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henrydavid161709.html</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben-Gurion">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben-Gurion</a>
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=apolson-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=0691129266" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
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Holland Vandennieuwenhof:<br />
<a href="http://freemindreport.com/about/">http://freemindreport.com/about/</a>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/holland.vandennieuwenhof">http://www.facebook.com/holland.vandennieuwenhof</a>
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<a href="http://kurthaskellforcongress.com/">http://kurthaskellforcongress.com/</a><br />
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Other stuff we talked about:<br />
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/this-is-not-a-joke-government-issues-study-of-a-study-about-studies/">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/this-is-not-a-joke-government-issues-study-of-a-study-about-studies/</a>
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<a href="http://www.macon.com/2012/05/14/2025065/suspected-burglar-shot-in-warner.html">http://www.macon.com/2012/05/14/2025065/suspected-burglar-shot-in-warner.html</a>
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Just throwing this out there.<br />
<a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/05/mitt-romney-gay-adoption-/1?csp=obinsite#.T7MwxOtSSkw">http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/05/mitt-romney-gay-adoption-/1?csp=obinsite#.T7MwxOtSSkw</a><br />
<a href="http://www.iamthegrandchild.com/2012/05/13/fabulous-fail-ginger-howard-runs-for-borg-queen/">http://www.iamthegrandchild.com/2012/05/13/fabulous-fail-ginger-howard-runs-for-borg-queen/</a> (This is a different take on how some people view my show and my guests. It is unflattering, but it is still helpful to see where people are coming from.)<br />
<a href="http://www.dailymile.com/people/ValerieM10#ref=tophd">http://www.dailymile.com/people/ValerieM10#ref=tophd</a> (Did you know I run?)Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-60561776875946813612012-05-13T22:26:00.004-04:002012-05-13T22:26:43.521-04:00Links for the Mother's Day Episode of The VSM Show<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Link to a replay of today's radio show with Republican candidates for the 2nd District, John House and Rick Allen. GA Natl Cmtewoman </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100003656774527" href="http://www.facebook.com/LindaHerrenRNC" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Linda Herren</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> also joins us. Forward to the 53:00 minute mark to hear the show.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/13/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/13/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin</a>
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I also recorded the show on Ustream. Keep in mind you'll only hear my side of the conversation, no guests or music. <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thevaleriesargentmartinshow">http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thevaleriesargentmartinshow</a><br />
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Candidate John House<br />
<a href="http://johnhouse.us/">http://johnhouse.us/</a><br />
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Candidate Rick Allen<br />
<a href="http://rickallenforcongress.com/">http://rickallenforcongress.com/</a>
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Georgia National Committeewoman Linda Herren<br />
<a href="http://www.lindaherren.net/">http://www.lindaherren.net/</a>
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<a href="http://www.gop.com/index.php/rnc_counsel/">http://www.gop.com/index.php/rnc_counsel/</a><br />
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Time Magazine Cover: "Are You Mom Enough?"<br />
<a href="http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20120521,00.html">http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20120521,00.html</a>
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New music courtesy of Trevor Simpson<br />
<a href="http://soundcloud.com/djtrevorsimpson">http://soundcloud.com/djtrevorsimpson</a><br />
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Other music provided by Chris Trentham <a href="http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=chris+trentham">http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=chris+trentham</a><br />
Pro'Verb, Andrew Mott, Shawn Bray, Ethan Maas, Eric Jerardi Band, and Animal Grace.<br />
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I love independent musicians. Please send me links to your music. </div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-91745203315622600082012-05-06T23:23:00.001-04:002012-05-06T23:23:37.898-04:00Links to Today's 'Republican National Committee, Etc.' Episode<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Who are Georgia's candidates for National Committeeman and Committeewoman? Two of them, Ginger Howard and </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100003753548716" href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003753548716" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Frank Strickland</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">, joined me today on the VSM show. Forward to the 50:00 minute mark at the link below to hear the show. Yes. 50:00. Not 60:00. For some reason the hour-long show before mine only lasted 50 minutes today.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/06/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin-1">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/05/06/sound-doctrine-valerie-sargent-martin-1</a>
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<br />
Ginger Howard - Candidate for Georgia's National Committeewoman<br />
<a href="http://gingerhoward.net/about">http://gingerhoward.net/about</a>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/GingerForGeorgia">http://www.facebook.com/GingerForGeorgia</a>
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Frank Strickland - Candidate for Georgia's National Committeeman<br />
<a href="http://www.sbllaw.net/ourlawyers/fbs.html">http://www.sbllaw.net/ourlawyers/fbs.html</a>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003753548716">http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003753548716</a>
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Odds and ends with Sonny Thomas, Music Promoter/Tea Party Activist<br />
<a href="http://www.thomasmassie.com/">http://www.thomasmassie.com/</a>
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<a href="http://www.pressleyforaustin.com/home/about_laura">http://www.pressleyforaustin.com/home/about_laura</a>
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<a href="http://thehmd.com/index2.html">http://thehmd.com/index2.html</a>
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It was a great show today. I always say that, but it was really great. After the show I went to watch my daughter's choir concert. She did well and makes me proud. Here's a picture.<br />
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Before the radio show today, I fixed french toast for the kids. I made it out of leftover hot dog buns which sounds pretty gross, but turned out exceptionally great. Here's a picture.</div>
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Thanks for reading!</div>
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-52435925145746306922012-05-05T14:45:00.002-04:002012-05-26T11:54:10.133-04:00How to Listen to The Valerie Sargent Martin Show<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You can listen to the show three ways: online via the website, by phone, or via Skype.</span><br />
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To listen online go to <a href="http://www.freedomizerradio.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.freedomizerradio.com</a> and scroll down to see the 'blogtalk radio' box on the left of the screen. Then press the 'play' button. Depending on when you connect you may hear the previous hour's show. Be sure to hit your browser's 'refresh' button at the top of the hour to hear the show live. </div>
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If you want to connect via Skype, be sure your Skype account is open then go to the website <a href="http://www.freedomizerradio.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.freedomizerradio.com</a>. On the main page of the website there is a 'Skype' button at the top of the page. Click the button and, once you're connected, you will hear the show playing live.</div>
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To listen by phone, dial the call-in number <a href="tel:%28347%29%20324-3704" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" value="+13473243704">(347) 324-3704</a> during the show hours, Sundays, 4-6pm Eastern, or Thursdays 8-9pm Eastern, and the show will be playing live. This is the same number guests use when they call in for their interview, but I only answer callers who have pressed '1' to notify me that they wish to talk. All other calls just sit in the queue. </div>
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The show is also recorded and available for replay shortly after the live broadcast and can be found on the main page by clicking "FR Tour," then "FR Archive," then choose the show from the list of all the recent FR broadcasts. I usually post a link to the replay on my facebook page.<br />
<br />
UPDATE: I have been told by a knowledgeable person that there is a blogtalkradio app for iPhones and Android phones. Search for FreedomizerRadio.</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-58713453576805455882012-05-01T16:25:00.001-04:002012-05-01T16:25:03.121-04:00A Thousand Open TabsHere are links to stuff I'm reading that I probably would've talked about if I had done the radio show last Sunday.<br />
<br />
Ron Paul Caucus Success Continues<br />
<a href="http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/04/ron-pauls-campaign-claims-victory-in-louisiana-caucuses/">http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/04/ron-pauls-campaign-claims-victory-in-louisiana-caucuses/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/04/ron_paul_supporters_dominate_l.html">http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/04/ron_paul_supporters_dominate_l.html</a>
<br />
<a href="http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/LA-R">http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/LA-R</a>
<br />
<a href="http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-30/metro/31478610_1_romney-slate-mitt-romney-massachusetts-governor">http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-30/metro/31478610_1_romney-slate-mitt-romney-massachusetts-governor</a>
<br />
<a href="http://robertringer.com/roberts-insights/romney-nightmare-ron-paul-resurfaces-yet-again/">http://robertringer.com/roberts-insights/romney-nightmare-ron-paul-resurfaces-yet-again/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/ron-paul-supporters-team-joe-miller-take-over-alaska-republican-party">http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/ron-paul-supporters-team-joe-miller-take-over-alaska-republican-party</a><br />
<a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-gop-warned-stop-meddling-ron-paul-delegates">http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-gop-warned-stop-meddling-ron-paul-delegates</a><br />
Info on new AK GOP Chairman and Ron Paul supporter Russ Millette's political affliation is here: <a href="https://givemeliberty.org/user/congress/state.aspx?state=ak">https://givemeliberty.org/user/congress/state.aspx?state=ak</a>
<br />
Video of AK State Convention when State Senator endorses Romney<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNcDCaFFlw8&feature=youtu.be">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNcDCaFFlw8&feature=youtu.be</a>
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRf5ZQyYhsw&feature=youtu.be">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRf5ZQyYhsw&feature=youtu.be</a>
<br />
<br />
The terrible CISPA vote<br />
<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/04/why-cispa-worse-sopa/51638/">http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/04/why-cispa-worse-sopa/51638/</a><br />
<br />
Random<br />
<a href="http://www.saveamericafoundation.com/2012/04/29/what-or-who-killed-andrew-breitbart-now-the-coroner-is-dead-what-did-he-know-by-fred-brownbill/">http://www.saveamericafoundation.com/2012/04/29/what-or-who-killed-andrew-breitbart-now-the-coroner-is-dead-what-did-he-know-by-fred-brownbill/</a>
<br />
<a href="http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/04/28/a-killer-among-us-thingsobamakilled/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/04/28/a-killer-among-us-thingsobamakilled/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter</a>
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<br />
Last Sunday was a cluster. Held the headline guest slot open too long in the hopes that we could get Congressman Austin Scott to discuss his vote in support of CISPA. Even my secondary guests were not firm and everything just went downhill.<br />
<br />
I didn't feel well anyway. I decided to put off my secondary guests and play a rebroadcast of Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's interview, but couldn't get the file loaded to the studio in time. Boo. Thanks to Minister Kenneth Emmanuel, Sr. for filing in while I worked on the file. Thanks to C the Power for her help, as always.<br />
<br />
This good video came after Sunday. Ron Paul takes Nobel Prize Winning Economist Paul Krugman to task.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jEmKIRqz9AI" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
Thanks for reading! -VSMValeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-76569187913291238282012-04-23T22:10:00.002-04:002012-04-23T22:23:49.376-04:00My Creative Side<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I'm working on an ad for Freedomizer Radio.com and I was telling my husband how I wanted to make it like the theme song to Garry Shandling's show.</span></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8cWbkWTYwTw" width="480"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Here are the lyrics to my proposed ad jingle:<br />
"This is an ad for Freedomizer Radio.<br />
An ad for Freedomizer Radio.<br />
This is the music that you hear when we hypnotize you.<br />
We're almost halfway finished.<br />
How do you like it so far?<br />
Advertise on Freedomizer Radio.<br />
<br />
This is an ad for Freedomizer Radio.<br />
An ad for Freedomizer Radio.<br />
We're the site that consistently ranks high nationally and internationally.<br />
Check us out on Alexa Rankings.<br />
We're up there really high.<br />
Advertise on Freedomizer Radioooooooo dot com."<br />
<br />
I was a tiny, tiny baby when I watched Garry Shandling on HBO. This was back in the day when parents were irresponsible and just let their kids watch whatever they were watching. Speaking of HBO I think I literally saw that Michael Keaton movie 'Mr. Mom' a thousand times on HBO one summer.<br />
<br />
Oops. Not HBO. Showtime.<br />
<br />
P.S. My husband had literally never heard of Garry Shandling at all. Which is why I thought this was funny at first. But actually, I feel old now.Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-23820317140450905482012-04-22T23:42:00.000-04:002012-04-22T23:42:55.821-04:00VSM Show Links April 22nd<div class="tlTxFe mbm shareUnit aboveUnitContent" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; text-align: left;">
Replay of today's VSM Show (at the 61:00 minute mark) with guests Andrew Simpson (71:00 minute mark), Michael Morton, Jr. (123:00), and <a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1227250729" href="http://www.facebook.com/cjlester88" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">C.j. Lester</a> (139:00 minute mark).<br />
<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/22/pedol-hrvalerie-sargent-martin" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/22/pedol-hrvalerie-sargent-martin</a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Andrew Simpson talks about abuses of special needs children in the Public School System and the effectiveness of Georgia's Anti-Bullying law. Here are links related to my interview with Andrew.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109306/Cerebral-palsy-student-Aaron-Hatcher-died-teacher-forced-wear-neck-brace.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109306/Cerebral-palsy-student-Aaron-Hatcher-died-teacher-forced-wear-neck-brace.html</a>
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<a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/death-highlights-lack-of-100352.html">http://www.ajc.com/news/death-highlights-lack-of-100352.html</a>
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<a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/north-fulton/treatment-of-disabled-students-1148223.html">http://www.ajc.com/news/north-fulton/treatment-of-disabled-students-1148223.html</a>
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<a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/student-handcuffed-seven-hours-868761.html">http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/student-handcuffed-seven-hours-868761.html</a>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.cssfirm.com/2011/10/05/autistic-student-abused-at-atlanta-school-receives-a-measure-of-justice/">http://www.cssfirm.com/2011/10/05/autistic-student-abused-at-atlanta-school-receives-a-measure-of-justice/</a>
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<a href="http://www.newtoncitizen.com/news/2012/apr/05/group-says-feds-probing-georgia-school-discriminat/">http://www.newtoncitizen.com/news/2012/apr/05/group-says-feds-probing-georgia-school-discriminat/</a>
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<a href="http://www.southerneddesk.org/alleged-school-bullying-victim-speaks-out-on-new-law/">http://www.southerneddesk.org/alleged-school-bullying-victim-speaks-out-on-new-law/</a>
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<a href="http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/news/georgia-news-menu/285-anti-bullying-bill-passes-in-final-hours-of-ga-legislative-session">http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/news/georgia-news-menu/285-anti-bullying-bill-passes-in-final-hours-of-ga-legislative-session</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.ourchildrenleftbehind.com/news.htm">http://www.ourchildrenleftbehind.com/news.htm</a></div>
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Michael Morton, Jr. discusses the 'All Paul' delegate slate he proposed at last week's 8th District Convention of the Georgia GOP.</div>
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And C.J. Lester, Chairman of Rockdale County Young Republicans retells the story of his encounter with Rockdale County GOP Chairman Don Williamson when Lester wanted to vote for a candidate for national delegate other than the prescribed delegates proposed by the nominating committee at the 4th District GA GOP Convention. Here are links related to my interview with C.J Lester.:</div>
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<a href="http://edwardctracey.com/">http://edwardctracey.com/</a>
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<a href="http://rockdale.weebly.com/">http://rockdale.weebly.com/</a>
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Other News Links:</div>
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<a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/20/romney-asks-gop-delegates-to-sign-pledge-but-some-refuse/">http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/20/romney-asks-gop-delegates-to-sign-pledge-but-some-refuse/</a>
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<a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/case-dismissed-against-jury-nullification-advocate/">http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/case-dismissed-against-jury-nullification-advocate/</a>
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<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2012/04/19/lets-be-blunt-its-time-to-end-the-drug-war/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2012/04/19/lets-be-blunt-its-time-to-end-the-drug-war/</a>
<br />
<br />
New music courtesy of Trevor Simpson<br />
<a href="http://soundcloud.com/djtrevorsimpson">http://soundcloud.com/djtrevorsimpson</a>
<br />
<br />
Other music provided by Chris Trentham <a href="http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=chris+trentham">http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=chris+trentham</a><br />
Pro'Verb, Andrew Mott, Shawn Bray, Ethan Maas, Eric Jerardi Band, and Animal Grace.<br />
<br />
I love independent musicians. Please send me links to your music. </div>
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<br /></div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-25434485125650416772012-04-20T17:26:00.001-04:002012-04-20T18:00:40.465-04:00The VSM Show w Congressman Austin Scott's AccuserHere's the link to last night's episode of The Valerie Sargent Martin Show with guest RB Ashley, one of the people who asked Congressman Austin Scott about his NDAA vote at the luncheon after last Saturday's 8th District GOP convention in Tifton, GA. Forward to the 120:00 mark to hear the show. (There's a two hour show before mine.)<br />
<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/19/lu-moretti-reportvalerie-sargent-martin">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/19/lu-moretti-reportvalerie-sargent-martin</a>
<br />
<br />
In the interview I talk like someone my age would talk, i.e. "Don't you know how much time I've put in and how much work I've done, Sonny?" And my guest talks like some young guy would talk, i.e. "We should hold these traitors accountable!" That's basically the entire interview.<br />
<br />
We had several callers for this show, which is good. Thanks, Callers! I thought I gave them ample opportunity to explain their points. RB Ashley sent me a link of the video of the group questioning Congressman Scott at the convention but so far it doesn't work for me.<a href="http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7We0hZ0oo6Q">http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7We0hZ0oo6Q</a><br />
<br />
I also had new music this show provided by friend and musician Andrew Mott. Andrew's music came in at about the 124:00 minute mark. Other artists featured on the show are Chris Trentham (my intro music), Pro'Verb (my outro music), Ethan Maas, Shawn Bray, Animal Grace, and the Eric Jerardi Band.<br />
<br />
Somebody in the freedomizerradio.com chat room called me a phony last night. They, of course, wrote it anonymously.<br />
<br />
Thanks for listening. VSM<br />
<br />
Oh, P.S. When RB Ashley and I were first arguing I called him a 'nihilist,' which ultimately spiraled down into Big Lebowski jokes and videos. Here ya go.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SEmvf_6k0pM" width="480"></iframe>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-44295300701541927622012-04-17T09:35:00.000-04:002012-04-17T18:59:39.926-04:00A Right Way and a Wrong Way<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It is absolutely, 100% right
to hold your congressman accountable for his voting record, in public, in front
of his constituents. I said so when I was pulled aside by a longstanding member
of Houston County's GOP who was trying to make sense of why several Ron Paul supporters were heckling Georgia's 8th District Congressman Austin Scott for his vote on the NDAA bill after his speech at last Saturday's District Convention . Unfortunately, the questions Scott was asked were indirect. Not really questions, even. More like shouted accusations and blame.<br /><br />Party insiders think that all Ron Paul supporters get organized before
these things and the insider I was talking to assumed, incorrectly, that what happened last Saturday was part of a concerted effort, and that I
was the head of it, or at the very least had some control over those responsible for it, which I don't. In our conversation I had to justify the heckling and never got to the substance of the questions on NDAA.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I am a lifelong Republican. I
ran in 2009 for the seat that Austin Scott now occupies. I did it as a single mom
with two young children in tow while I was working on my MBA. It was hard and thankless
and many in the Party were unnecessarily rude and dismissive of me (and others running) because they wanted someone with
legislative experience to run against
the incumbent Democrat Jim Marshall. And in the end they got their wish. Many, though, saw how I fought even when I wasn't always treated fairly. In 2011 I ran for 2nd Vice Chair of the
District GOP and I was the only officer who ran unchallenged from the floor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">When I was running for Congress, I was the highest ranked
non-incumbent congressional candidate recognized by liberty groups in 2009. I
was ranked higher than Rand Paul by LibertySlate.com. That is why, two years later,
someone sought me out to do a radio show that is nationally recognized, and why
I get to speak at Campaign for Liberty events, and why I'm featured on the
news. But I've also stood alone waving
Ron Paul signs on a corner near a shopping center the day after Thanksgiving in
2007, during Ron Paul's last campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I'm only saying all this to
prove the point that there is room for every kind of person in the liberty movement. We all shout down the establishment in our own way. But for the record,
there is a good way to ask pointed questions and a terrible and sloppy way to
ask pointed questions. The terrible and sloppy way includes shouting rudely at a sitting member of Congress, which only confuses the audience. The terrible and sloppy way also includes accusing long time activists like me of being a "boot-licker" who's "sitting silent and absorbing lies." If you need help on the 'good' way, I suggest you ask
Adam Kokesh, Nathan Cox, Michael
Boldin, and several others. None of them are "boot-lickers" to the
Republican Party, either, and there's no denying that the whole world knows that they
are in love with liberty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Ron Paul and Myself chatting at Campaign for Liberty event January 2010</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSk86MR52dQWDORuvhRsFRbEWB0sAMVozTzoDOTMm9gUW4NB1pNOcCGJ-wixFpcFKS3z4H1LKsihXPgbHgpqQr86wuIzaVexbnraHPr5iD-Yd5CbL_EyM-1qxJiiOjPNKERmqrOL1jANae/s1600/Val_RonPaul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSk86MR52dQWDORuvhRsFRbEWB0sAMVozTzoDOTMm9gUW4NB1pNOcCGJ-wixFpcFKS3z4H1LKsihXPgbHgpqQr86wuIzaVexbnraHPr5iD-Yd5CbL_EyM-1qxJiiOjPNKERmqrOL1jANae/s1600/Val_RonPaul.jpg" /></a></div>
Update: Ugh. I just realized if you're not privy to the back story, the original version of this post makes it sound like I'm angry at being asked by the party insider about why someone was questioning the Congressman in the first place. No. I was angry that I had to make excuses for the manner in which the question about the NDAA was handled in the first place.<br />
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-34599571994428954062012-04-09T03:50:00.000-04:002012-04-09T03:50:07.312-04:00Belated Posting of a Television Appearance.I can't remember if I ever posted this or not. I think I always meant to, but never got around to it. I was asked to give my opinion on the Georgia Republican Presidential Primary last month on a local news broadcast. My segment comes after the first commercial.<br />
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<a href="http://www.newscentralga.com/news/live-at-five/Live5-3512-142331165.html">http://www.newscentralga.com/news/live-at-five/Live5-3512-142331165.html</a>
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</object>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-51864745711316302012012-04-09T03:43:00.000-04:002012-04-09T03:43:11.576-04:00Links for Foreign Policy Etc. Episode of The VSM Show 4/8/12<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Here is yesterday's radio show. The best part of it begins at the 101:00 minute mark. I interviewed foreign policy expert and author Lt. Col. </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1772749750" href="http://www.facebook.com/tspooky" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Anthony Shaffer</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">. The show itself starts at the 60:00 minute mark.</span>
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<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/08/pedol-hrvalerie-sargent-martin">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/08/pedol-hrvalerie-sargent-martin</a>
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<a href="http://www.operationdarkheart.com/">http://www.operationdarkheart.com/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022459,00.html">http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022459,00.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pentagon-bought-destroyed-9-500-copies-army-reservist-lt-anthony-shaffer-memoir-article-1.444119">http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pentagon-bought-destroyed-9-500-copies-army-reservist-lt-anthony-shaffer-memoir-article-1.444119</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://highmtnfire.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/the-medias-blackout-of-ron-paul-has-gone-openly-hostile-ignoring-chico-st-uc-berkeley-and-ucla-rallies/">http://highmtnfire.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/the-medias-blackout-of-ron-paul-has-gone-openly-hostile-ignoring-chico-st-uc-berkeley-and-ucla-rallies/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=apolson-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B0052HKOGG" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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Thanks much to Eric Bell for joining us today, too. He saved me by joining us earlier in the show than we'd originally planned when I had trouble reaching Col. Shaffer. Eric is the organizer of 'Rock the Republic' being held May 1st in Valdosta, Georgia. I'll be speaking and broadcasting live from the event.<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/296339437102190/">http://www.facebook.com/events/296339437102190/</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14px;">What old guard GOP thinks of the choice of the May 1st date for the event </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Per our discussion of devaluation of the Dollar</div>
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<a href="http://www.wealthwire.com/news/inflation/1134">http://www.wealthwire.com/news/inflation/1134</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p>This came from Fred Wheeler. I'm on his email list. </o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">January 2009</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TODAY</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">% chg</span></u></i></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Source</span></sup></u></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Avg. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$1.83</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$3.44</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">84%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$43.48</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$99.02</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">127.7%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$38.74</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$91.38</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">135.9%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$3.56</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$6.33</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">78.1%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$9.66</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$13.75</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">42.3%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$13.37</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$35.39</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">164.7%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">7.6%</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9.4%</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">23.7%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unemployment rate, blacks</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12.6%</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">15.8%</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">25.4%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Number of unemployed</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">11,616,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">14,485,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">24.7%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Number of fed. Employees</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2,779,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2,840,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2.2%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Real median household income</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$50,112</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$49,777</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-0.7%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Number of food stamp recipients</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">31,983,716</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">43,200,878</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">35.1%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Number of unemployment benefit recipients</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">7,526,598</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9,193,838</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">22.2%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Number of long-term unemployed</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2,600,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6,400,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">146.2%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poverty rate, individuals</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">13.2%</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">14.3%</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8.3%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People in poverty in U.S.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">39,800,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">43,600,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9.5%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">U.S. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">n/a</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">10</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Present Situation Index</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">29.9</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">23.5</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-21.4%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">11</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Failed banks</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">140</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">164</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">17.1%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">U.S. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">89.76</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">82.03</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-8.6%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">U.S. Money supply, M1, in billions</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1,575.1</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1,865.7</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">18.4%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">13</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">U.S. Money supply, M2, in billions</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8,310.9</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8,852.3</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6.5%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">13</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 5.0in;" valign="top" width="480">
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">National debt, in trillions</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 132.0pt;" valign="top" width="176">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$10.627</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 102.75pt;" valign="top" width="137">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">$14.052</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 70.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">32.2%</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt; width: 36.75pt;" valign="top" width="49">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<sup><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">14</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: inset 1.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Just take this last item: In the last two years we have
accumulated national debt at a rate <b><i><span style="background: yellow;">more
than 27 times as fast</span></i></b>as during the rest of our <b><u><span style="background: yellow;">entire nation's history</span></u></b><span style="background: yellow;">.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Over 27 times as fast.
Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and
a car rockets past you in the left lane. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">27 times faster, it
would be doing 7,555 MPH!</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Sources</span></u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">(1) U.S. Energy
Information Administration;<br />
(2) Wall Street Journal;<br />
(3) Bureau of Labor Statistics;<br />
(4) Census Bureau;<br />
(5) USDA;<br />
(6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">(7) FHFA;<br />
(8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller;<br />
(9) RealtyTrac;<br />
(10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ;<br />
(11) The Conference Board;<br />
(12) FDIC; </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">(13) Federal Reserve;<br />
(14) U.S. Treasury</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
Events I promo'd on the show:<br />
<br />
Veterans March on the RNC<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/222975741135078/">http://www.facebook.com/events/222975741135078/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.adamvstheman.com/">http://www.adamvstheman.com/</a><a href="http://www.adamvstheman.com/">http://www.adamvstheman.com/</a><br />
<br />
RonPaulstock.com<br />
<a href="http://www.ronpaulstock.com/">http://www.ronpaulstock.com/</a>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Music from the show is provided by Chris Trentham, Shawn Bray, Ethan Maas, Pro'verb, Animal Grace, and the Eric Jerardi Band. Thanks to Sonny Thomas, as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Some day, I promise, I'll have music from these other artists. I thank them for their patience:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Jack Witteveen </span><a href="http://www.jackwitteveen.com/">http://www.jackwitteveen.com/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">David Lee Williams </span><a href="http://www.supersampler.com/dlw/main2.htm">http://www.supersampler.com/dlw/main2.htm</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Mark Augustyn </span><a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/mynameismark">http://www.reverbnation.com/mynameismark</a><br />
<br />
If you've read down this far please visit <a href="http://www.millersgrainhouse.com/">http://www.millersgrainhouse.com/</a> and tell Donna Miller you found her courtesy of The Valerie Sargent Martin Show and FreedomizerRadio.com. DO IT! :)<br />
<br />
Today's easter egg (intentional hidden message for those of you in Rio Linda):<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcYHFP22yQpVlSB-xVXMk86Nr4xXiGZCTpFwqmIFec97Dud3LoGiYiXVxRIjnLT_gMiYprugNbWuajNalnH2_rk_MmRhcrlpY1DpOQyr8e3LTuoaw7FkqDK0EYsmEVkI2mV9bEOsZCn5Lo/s1600/ChocolateEasterEggs3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcYHFP22yQpVlSB-xVXMk86Nr4xXiGZCTpFwqmIFec97Dud3LoGiYiXVxRIjnLT_gMiYprugNbWuajNalnH2_rk_MmRhcrlpY1DpOQyr8e3LTuoaw7FkqDK0EYsmEVkI2mV9bEOsZCn5Lo/s320/ChocolateEasterEggs3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
My daughter Isabel sang today in church for Easter Sunday. This is her 7th year to sing with the Children's choir. Tuesday she turns 13. She and I went to see 'Titanic' in 3D tonight to celebrate. It hit me tonight that she can't stay a little girl forever. She asked me in the car was I sad about her turning 13. I said that 13 is a great age and I'm very happy. That's the brave thing you have to say when you're someone's mother. -VSM<br />
<br /></div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-59497965660680290552012-03-29T23:17:00.001-04:002012-03-29T23:24:20.782-04:00Tonight's Radio Show Links: Doug Wead and the Hostile Takeover EpisodeA replay of tonight's The Valerie Sargent Martin Show with my guest Doug Wead, Senior Adviser to Ron Paul, starts at the 120:00 minute mark. <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/03/29/lu-moretti-reportvalerie-sargent-martin">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/03/29/lu-moretti-reportvalerie-sargent-martin</a>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsSbG25y2kHhxiuFzOUOgpcmScV2lHGWX1Lhyphenhyphent8SVs3dWauOra4_Lk6fT2HTNn-1Sj2_l2PhIPQrgfRS5o7BJl40pEKPNC9eSRVnv5ewKMJf3XFeVVNaMrDgj610TvIPVa9-NZMwakDdQ/s1600/DougWead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsSbG25y2kHhxiuFzOUOgpcmScV2lHGWX1Lhyphenhyphent8SVs3dWauOra4_Lk6fT2HTNn-1Sj2_l2PhIPQrgfRS5o7BJl40pEKPNC9eSRVnv5ewKMJf3XFeVVNaMrDgj610TvIPVa9-NZMwakDdQ/s1600/DougWead.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
If you know Doug, please tell him thanks for being on the show and encourage him to come back another time.<br />
<br />
Doug Wead Links<br />
<a href="http://dougwead.wordpress.com/">http://dougwead.wordpress.com/</a>
<br />
<a href="http://dougwead.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/corruption-in-georgia/">http://dougwead.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/corruption-in-georgia/</a>
<br />
<br />
James Altucher<br />
<a href="http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/10/the-1-most-effective-habit/">http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/10/the-1-most-effective-habit/</a>
<br />
<br />
Supreme Court Healthcare Link<br />
"Scalia Upbraids Obama Healthcare Defender" (unduly long for some reason)<br />
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsmax.com%2FNewsfront%2Fscalia-health-care-kagan%2F2012%2F03%2F27%2Fid%2F434048%3Fs%3Dal%26promo_code%3DE89A-1&h=CAQEx56zZAQHFFpUwqyQPcZrVjpq-ZGc-x<br />
<br />
Mish Shedlock<br />
<a href="http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/03/healthwreck-obamacare-bill-may-go-down.html?x#echocomments">http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/03/healthwreck-obamacare-bill-may-go-down.html?x#echocomments</a>
<br />
<br />
Google Search Meeting Video<br />
<a href="http://searchengineland.com/an-unprecedented-video-glimpse-into-how-google-crafts-its-search-results-114682">http://searchengineland.com/an-unprecedented-video-glimpse-into-how-google-crafts-its-search-results-114682</a>
<br />
<br />
Seth Godin<br />
<a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/">http://sethgodin.typepad.com/</a>
<br />
<br />
Dan Zarella<br />
<a href="http://danzarrella.com/">http://danzarrella.com/</a>
<br />
<br />
Right Scoop: Obama Caught Repeating Same Lines to Every Country<br />
<a href="http://www.therightscoop.com/just-embarrassing-obama-caught-repeating-same-lines-to-every-country/">http://www.therightscoop.com/just-embarrassing-obama-caught-repeating-same-lines-to-every-country/</a>
<br />
<br />
Veterans March on the RNC<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/222975741135078/">http://www.facebook.com/events/222975741135078/</a>
<br />
<a href="http://www.adamvstheman.com/">http://www.adamvstheman.com/</a><a href="http://www.adamvstheman.com/">http://www.adamvstheman.com/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Music from the show is provided by Chris Trentham, Shawn Bray, Ethan Maas, Pro'verb, Animal Grace, and the Eric Jerardi Band. Thanks to Sonny Thomas, as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Some day, I promise, I'll have music from these other artists. I thank them for their patience:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Jack Witteveen </span><a href="http://www.jackwitteveen.com/">http://www.jackwitteveen.com/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">David Lee Williams </span><a href="http://www.supersampler.com/dlw/main2.htm">http://www.supersampler.com/dlw/main2.htm</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">Mark Augustyn </span><a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/mynameismark">http://www.reverbnation.com/mynameismark</a><br />
<br />
If you've read down this far please visit <a href="http://www.millersgrainhouse.com/">http://www.millersgrainhouse.com/</a> and tell Donna Miller you found her courtesy of The Valerie Sargent Martin Show and FreedomizerRadio.com. DO IT! :)</div>
<br />
Saw this last week in the TJ Maxx Parking Lot. Yes. It's a rubber chicken hanging out of the front of a beat up Toyota Corolla.<br />
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMaNtG31oOngeU2mkRZF4VHCuYaEtNv3BXJTESqg2BMV3EhWJSQDw5dHr6OQK01WY3KQt2grj3Ty62obum35o5SzuXQ_txVnACwi4ePfgJV2y2eG3lgl2iSGEsD-MFqI00ogleTpmW0C9/s1600/RubberChicken_BeaterCar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMaNtG31oOngeU2mkRZF4VHCuYaEtNv3BXJTESqg2BMV3EhWJSQDw5dHr6OQK01WY3KQt2grj3Ty62obum35o5SzuXQ_txVnACwi4ePfgJV2y2eG3lgl2iSGEsD-MFqI00ogleTpmW0C9/s1600/RubberChicken_BeaterCar.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span class="huge" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.</span><br />
<span class="bodybold" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/winston_churchill.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #660099; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Winston Churchill</a></span>
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<br />Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6237866861966744405.post-41566073893446224842012-03-27T01:02:00.001-04:002012-03-27T01:02:53.925-04:00A Diary for March 26th<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whenever I go running, I always see things I think would make for a great 'blog story,' but then I get home and get busy and forget.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But today I had my phone with me while I ran so I decided to take a picture. Here it is:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZKsyewEAbYZQ2PkGNfbWmfYLJ68YV-9WdQ6SJf1vlssXffc2wRzeX-7LdzQeHJY-fAw8xBy-qY2P5S8ZcHEgvL2sdPtogQEJjFwmMcw4oLnTufx6e5cFhQ7zGJAJs_8yMXY1NmT___b6/s1600/Horses+on+my+run.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZKsyewEAbYZQ2PkGNfbWmfYLJ68YV-9WdQ6SJf1vlssXffc2wRzeX-7LdzQeHJY-fAw8xBy-qY2P5S8ZcHEgvL2sdPtogQEJjFwmMcw4oLnTufx6e5cFhQ7zGJAJs_8yMXY1NmT___b6/s1600/Horses+on+my+run.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are the horses that live on my main running route. Their little barn and grazing pasture is by the hill where I like to do hill repeats. The one closest to the camera gives me dirty looks when I'm wearing my running cap. I wasn't wearing it today so he wasn't interested. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are nice horses, I guess. They basically ignore me except for the hat thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I was running, I found a running glove I'd dropped on my route about 2 months ago. I thought it was lost for good. I brought it home and compared it to the other one for wear. They looked about the same. I wanted to post a picture, but for some reason the blog won't let me. Here's a picture of my new petunias instead:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHCn8OzaxvDIgOrllF5XKHS1ygTwm_9vny6v9CFn3dtO9JBL8O3SbjwTQuOMEpei2S4x0aJ0lDjdNIo3lJlXqjRW017WAPFnfx5TbnUpfIDAVca4o6B4WQz18h7rngc_lm9V8MIg9HZ-8/s1600/petunias20120326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHCn8OzaxvDIgOrllF5XKHS1ygTwm_9vny6v9CFn3dtO9JBL8O3SbjwTQuOMEpei2S4x0aJ0lDjdNIo3lJlXqjRW017WAPFnfx5TbnUpfIDAVca4o6B4WQz18h7rngc_lm9V8MIg9HZ-8/s1600/petunias20120326.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I read a lot of links today. Here they are with brief descriptions. Thanks for reading. You're awesome.</span></div>
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<a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000080515" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/<wbr></wbr>?video=3000080515</a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;">This is an exerpt of an interview with AIG CEO Benmoche. He's explaining to Jim Cramer why paying back taxpayers for the $130+ Billion loan with 4% interest was a great deal for taxpayers. The Fast Money crew seems not just unimpressed, but angry. Good stuff.</span><br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /></div>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<wbr></wbr>Kelo_v._City_of_New_London</a> The Supreme Court decision on eminent domain that was probably one of the worst ever for private property rights.<br />
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<a href="http://www.examiner.com/buzz-in-atlanta/is-the-chick-man-s-eviction-part-of-roswell-s-2030-comprehensive-plan" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;" target="_blank">http://www.examiner.com/buzz-<wbr></wbr>in-atlanta/is-the-chick-man-s-<wbr></wbr>eviction-part-of-roswell-s-<wbr></wbr>2030-comprehensive-plan</a> Someone who thought he had private property rights, but the city had other ideas. Now he is dead.<div>
<br /><a href="http://dougwead.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/gop-leader-claims-romney-santorum-gingrich-unite-to-stop-ron-paul/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://dougwead.wordpress.com/<wbr></wbr>2012/03/26/gop-leader-claims-<wbr></wbr>romney-santorum-gingrich-<wbr></wbr>unite-to-stop-ron-paul/</a> Latest GOP shenanigans covered by RP senior adviser Doug Wead.<br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><a href="http://ivn.us/2012/03/26/rule-changes-unenthusiastic-romney-supporters-prolong-gop-race/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rule-changes-unenthusiastic-romney-supporters-prolong-gop-race&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://ivn.us/2012/03/26/rule-<wbr></wbr>changes-unenthusiastic-romney-<wbr></wbr>supporters-prolong-gop-race/?<wbr></wbr>utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&<wbr></wbr>utm_campaign=rule-changes-<wbr></wbr>unenthusiastic-romney-<wbr></wbr>supporters-prolong-gop-race&<wbr></wbr>utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_<wbr></wbr>medium=twitter</a> More Republican Primary drama.<br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><a href="http://piccsy.com/2012/03/picc-pyb01jls/" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://piccsy.com/2012/03/<wbr></wbr>picc-pyb01jls/</a> A picture of a Big Mermaid.<br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_triangle" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<wbr></wbr>Project_management_triangle</a> In project management you can only pick two of these three for any project: Good, Fast, or Cheap.</div>
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<br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><a href="http://t.co/tIRNM2wH" style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://t.co/tIRNM2wH</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> Landmark Legal Foundation Supreme Court arguments against Obamacare.</span><br style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><a href="http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f32197d443411f581741729df&id=dcccd86329&e=e65265caec" style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://us2.campaign-archive2.<wbr></wbr>com/?u=<wbr></wbr>f32197d443411f581741729df&id=<wbr></wbr>dcccd86329&e=e65265caec</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> Mackenzie Image Consulting Spring Shopper's guide.</span><br style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br />
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</div>Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17001190556372768907noreply@blogger.com0