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Tea Party Protesters at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium Feb 27, 2009 As promised , here's the update on how things went at the Tennessee Tea Party 2009 on Friday, February 27, 2009. The Tennessean reported : Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the state capitol Friday, despite the heavy rains that turned the War Memorial plaza into a puddle, for a “Nashville Tea Party” rallying against the $787 billion federal stimulus package. In fact, the estimate was about 600 in attendance bearing tea and hilarious signs. One totally crazy guy even dressed up like a Native American the way they did at the original Tea Party in Boston: He argued that we were doing a great thing that day, but that our actions paled in comparison to those of our forebears, who had to disguise themselves to avoid retribution at the hands of a tyrannical establishment. He said that their actions were far bolder than ours and that we 21st century Americans aren't radical enough. He was...

Rand Paul campaigning for his father, Ron Paul in NH - Image by nicco ( CC ) Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul's close and enthusiastic circle of followers is on fire with whispers and rumors about his son Rand Paul 's possible Senate bid in 2010. Here's a little more information: Is Rand Paul Running? He is definitely considering it . Matt Collins, a well-connected Middle-Tennessee activist for liberty and associate of Rand Paul has heard it directly from Dr. Paul himself: After several phone and e-mail conversations with Dr. Rand Paul in the last couple days he has made it clear that he is indeed considering running for Senate in 2010! But if incumbent Senator Jim Bunning (R) decides to run again in 2010, Rand Paul will be much less likely to oppose him in the Republican primary (though supporters hope that is still a possibility). Interestingly, Senator Bunning's reelection bid appears to be on somewhat shaky grounds and the Republican Party leade...

Tea Party Protesters at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium Feb 27, 2009 Hey folks! As you already know if you're a regular reader here, I try to keep the Humble Libertarian updated roughly once a day. I take days off now and then like yesterday and the day before. The reason this time is that I was preparing for the Nashville Tea Party Protest that took place a few hours ago today in Legislative Plaza on the steps of the War Memorial Auditorium. The event was a blast! It's late now and I'm exhausted from today's fun proceedings, so I will let you go with this brief update and a promise to tell you all about it tomorrow. -------------------- ANNOUNCEMENT: I also want to let you know to be sure and check my blog out on Sunday March 1st for a really cool new feature that I will start doing on the first of every month here at the Humble Libertarian. If you think you might forget, subscribe .

One story that made waves over the weekend was the American Issues Project ad which first aired Friday: “Suppose you spent $1 million every single day starting from the day Jesus was born — and kept spending through today,” says the announcer as an image of the three wise men flashes on the screen. “A million dollars a day for more than 2,000 years. You would still have spent less money than Congress just did.” It would be an incredible understatement to say, "That's a lot of money!" Here's the ad: " Every Single Day- The American Issues Project " Totally Missing (Or Ignoring) The Point The media's coverage of this political ad was annoying because they seemed to think the story here was the fact that the ad "used Jesus" to illustrate their point. Politico.com's opening paragraph , which was typical of what most news coverage said: ...

Photo from WhiteHouse.gov Yesterday I argued that Barack Obama's presidency is shaping up to look a lot like George W. Bush's presidency. I offered as evidence the lies and broken campaign promises, the fear-mongering, the disregard for the Constitution, the unrestrained executive power and chilling CIA renditions, the shameless hypocrisy, the Federal money for faith-based initiatives (yeah you read that right... Obama supports those), the out-of-control spending, the warmongering, and the corruption. Then today, one of the frontpage stories on Digg was this: Firing Back on the “Fiscal Responsibility" Lobby The very same folks who just dragged us along on an eight-year drunken binge during which they borrowed-and-spent us into the deepest financial catastrophe in nearly a century are now standing there, faces full of moral rectitude, fingers pointing and shaking in our faces, righteously lecturing the rest of us on the topic of "fiscal responsibility"...

Photo by Pete Souza Barack Obama's One Month Anniversary as President If one more person responds to one of my criticisms of Obama by saying "Oh yeah? Like Bush was any different," I'm going to stab myself in the eye with a ball-point pen. That's the point! If as a nation, we generally agree that Bush's presidency was bad for America, it is no defense of Obama to say that his policies are no different from Bush's. At this point in history, that should be one of the worst indictments against Obama. After just one month of Barack Obama, it is abundantly clear that despite the hype, this administration is just more of the same. Here is a list of ten ways that the Obama Administration is shaping up to look a lot like the Bush Administration. 1. Lies and Broken Promises The Bush Administration was characterized by lies and broken campaign promises. His administration looked nothing like the promises he made during the 2000 Presidential ...

CNBC's Rick Santelli gave a rousing performance today, venting the frustration that many Americans feel over the government's mismanagement of our economic troubles and calling for a modern-day Boston Tea Party to be held this July in Chicago: If he is serious about organizing such an event, I hope with all my heart that my schedule will allow me to be in attendance. Santelli fumbled for an answer as to what we would dump into the waters this time- I'd be happy if it was Federal Reserve notes! -------------------- UPDATE: The White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs lashes out at very publicly and personally at CNBC's Rick Santelli for his viral on-air rant Thursday:

"Are you an economy with performance issues? If you find it hard to achieve and maintain growth, maybe Stimulis is right for you. Take Stimulis once every election cycle or whenever you're in need of economic enhancement." "Stimulis" is written and produced by Ted Balaker, and edited by Alex Manning . And a Tip of my Hat to The NYU Law Libertarian who posted this : Good luck and keep fighting the good fight. It's encouraging to know that enthusiastic, articulate defenders of freedom are shining the light of liberty in the dark and stagnant places of academia.

MoveOn.org ran a famous ad that asked the question: "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?" They were correct to answer thusly: Our children pay off deficits. Future generations pay off deficits. The people who enjoy their tax cuts today will pay off deficits (with interest) tomorrow. Both "sides" have been hypocritical Many Democrats likely nodded their agreement when the MoveOn ad came out- where are they now? And what are they saying about Obama's unprecedented deficits after only a month in office? Polls show that Democrats skew heavily in favor of the stimulus ( 82% supported it by Feb 11 ). Many Republicans oppose Obama's deficits now, but where was their concern these last five years? They defended Bush's deficits using Obama's current rhetoric: "We were experiencing an emergency. We had to spend that money. If we didn't our country would sink into an irreparable catastrophe." The def...

Barack Obama speaking at a campaign rally in Abington, PA ( source ) So now that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (inaccurately dubbed "the Stimulus Package") has passed , we have a very interesting situation developing: The public can view and comment for five days before signing President Obama has already twice broken his campaign promise to allow public review of legislation before signing it. You can view this promise on his campaign website : Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days. And at WhiteHouse.gov : One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and co...

Frederic Bastiat argued against "The Broken Window Fallacy" that underlies the economic thinking behind proponents of the "stimulus package." Read the full text of his argument here . I can barely comprehend the monumental stupidity of it: House OKs $787B stimulus bill with GOP opposition WASHINGTON (AP) - Handing the new administration a big win, House Democrats passed President Barack Obama's $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy on Friday despite a wall of Republican opposition. The bill was approved 246-183 and sent to the Senate, where a vote was scheduled late Friday afternoon. The 1,071 page, 8-inch-thick measure combines $281 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses with more than a half-trillion dollars in government spending. The money would go for infrastructure, health care and help for cash-starved state governments, among scores of programs. Seniors would get a $250 bonus Social Security check. And no one even read it! ...

The "Stimulus Package" might just be hazardous to your health. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has startling health provisions that should leave Americans squirming, but which have been more or less ignored by both major parties and the mainstream media in discussing the merits of the "Stimulus Package." I discussed criticisms of the "Stimulus Package" in my article entitled Economic Folly: 7 Reasons Why The Stimulus Package Will Be Very Bad For America . I am writing this to follow up with an 8th reason: the largely overlooked health provisions in this legislation. In a recent column , Betsy McCaughey outlines some of the negative effects of these provisions: The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be ...

The Problem With Washington's Stimulus Package The belief that government infusions of cash during an economic downturn will bring relief and lower unemployment is based on older, flawed, and now widely discredited theories of economics . We should know better now, but as it goes with many other important truths, our society and leaders are slow to learn. For a detailed critique of the stimulus package, I will refer you to my article: " Economic Folly: 7 Reasons Why The Stimulus Package Will Be Very Bad For America ." In summary, the problem with the stimulus package is that it doesn't really stimulate anything (except the government!). Though it makes sense that putting money into the economy would help stimulate it, the so-called stimulus package doesn't put money into the economy. That money doesn't come from some external place and infuse the economy with new cash- it comes from the economy . It's already in the economy, and the package just moves...