Ohio Olympics Update

Jamie Moriarty (Pepper Pike) pushed his team's bobsled USA-3 to a 13th place finish in the Winter Olympics yesterday. While eclipsed by Steven Holcomb's stunning gold medal win on USA-1, the achievements of our fellow Ohioans should not go unnoticed.

The Olympic Games are a source of not just national, but local pride. I encourage my fellow Ohioans to support promising athletes both for the Summer and Winter Games and the various championships leading up to the Olympics, as representatives not only of the United States, but of the State (and future Republic) of Ohio.

If you're a Texan with a Citibank account, you might want to go shopping...

Whiskey & Gunpowder reports that New York-based Citibank has sent out a notice with its statements nationwide:

“Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change,” Citigroup said on statements received by customers all over the country.”

According to Ira Stoll at The Future of Capitalism, the notice was meant to apply only to depositors in Texas.

From checking accounts? One has to wonder, is Citi that insolvent, are they just harrassing Texans because of the strength of their secessionist movement, or are they just trying to see how much they can get away with? One has to wonder...

Might be a good time to buy some bullion (Monex latest: Gold $1,112; silver $16.38 per troy ounce).

Virtual buckeye to Old Rebel at Rebellion.

Ohio Olympics update

The U.S. women's hockey team, including forward Kelli Stack and backup goalie Brianne McLaughlin, won silver after being defeated by Canada 2-0 yesterday.

Jamie Moriarty will be competing in the 4-man bobsled USA-3 (or bobsleigh, if you prefer) this afternoon.

Finding the Ohio Libertarian Party

A commenter to my Feb. 19 post listing the Constitution and Libertarian Party candidates noted that he was unable to access the Libertarian Party of Ohio site. I have found that my access to that site has been sporadic, which suggests to me that the Libertarian site has server problems.

I am therefore giving another link, the Ohio page to the Libertarian Party's national website, which contains some useful information for Ohioans interested in that party.

I would be grateful if a Libertarian will inform me when the state party site is again operational.

How to wage a revolution

It's as simple as this, and my last post on holding local politicians accountable.

From Ten Bears at the Ohio Freedom Alliance Forum:

I've stopped in on occasion, but mainly have been active only in my local community forum.

I wanted the opportunity to share a recent event.

Last weekend on 2/20, I met with three other posters to my local forum.We recognized one another on the forum as people with genuine concerns and decided to meet one another over coffee. It was by far one of the most moving experiences that I have had in recent times, It would be pretty fair to say it was the most positive experience that I have had in at least a decade in regards to community.

Each one of us that met that day came from different backgrounds both personal and political. After the initial introductions, we struggled a bit as we really had not discussed the agenda of this meeting. Each of us had something to say, all of which were various tangents of the same concern...Government.

I have had a fair amount of experience in talking to small groups and directing the group to positive results. We agreed to a quick consensus exercise.The object of the exercise being to identify our common concerns.

Something amazing happened, after identifying the individual concerns and listing them, we then moved on by giving each person a piece of paper and a pen. Each person was to prioritize the list of concerns in order of their perception of importance. We then tallied up the concerns and the results were truly amazing. People from all walks of life from both sides of the aisle found common unity, we shared common ground. We learned something.

It was 2 and half hours on a Saturday morning. We're meeting again soon.We left the initial meeting determined. There is too much division, we've all participated in the "Us vs. Them" game at one point or another, it's futile.

We each are spreading the word to our friends and family and in just a few days have tripled the number of people that will join us for coffee the next time around.

This time we're going in with an agenda,
1. Introductions
2. Identify common concerns
3. Identify common solutions
4. Identify next steps.
5. Present the (me x 3) philosophy. If your coming back to the next meeting bring three or more people with you.

I'm looking forward to it. My intent is to share the results of the next meeting on this site. I just wanted to say that hey I'm still here and still alive, and have begun attempting to nudge people into action. I believe in democracy, I've always believed that it only works when people are involved.

Looking forward to sharing our results and expect that shortly you will see an increase in traffic, the consensus of the first meeting leaves no doubt.

Keep up the good work, Ten Bears -- but make sure you move from talk to action as soon as possible!

How anyone can work to preserve the Constitution

Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best. Take, for example, this one from Gahanna City Councilman John McAllister, who has frequently bucked his colleagues in resisting federal grants for his city for purposes he shows to be unconstitutional:

Hold all officeholders accountable to their fidelity to the Constitution. All officeholders swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States (and, except for federal officials, the Constitution of the State of Ohio as well). If monitoring the Statehouse seems too difficult or intimidating for you, then hold the feet of your city councilmen, township trustees, and county commissioners to the fire.

Councilman McAllister elaborates, on his page localpoliticians.net:

If "we the people" are ever going to have a Constitution that has any teeth in it, then "we the people" will have to give it meaning by acting at the local level and confronting local politicians who violate their oath. When the next local election comes up, the Constitution can be made the issue by making it known how many times an incumbent violated his or her oath.

A simple action plan Just ask your neighbor if he or she thinks it's right for their local politician to violate their oath to the Constitution. If your neighbor says, “No it's not right”, you've got a chance to make a convert out of him or her and explain the original meaning of Article I, section 8 [Page 8 on this link]. So now you've got two people monitoring the local votes. Two can become four in the same manner and four can become eight, etc.

Wouldn't it be nice if during "hearing of visitors" people came to their local government meetings and started publicly asking their local politicians if they were going to violate their oath by voting for an unconstitutional ordinance?

This is a movement that requires no national organization or money-raising. It is a movement that could "go viral" with emails, youtubes, blogs, etc. Every American respects the U.S. Constitution, but most have not read Article I, section 8 and do not realize that it is the part of the Constitution which places limited powers on Congress.

Gee, d'ya think??

Ohio freedom activist Jason Rink has posted an interesting graph from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook on his Facebook page:


Mr. Rink's comment: "Of course, it's only the Democrats' social welfare programs that are bankrupting the U.S., not the cost of maintaining an empire."

What it takes to win

Facing Reality - Part 3 of 2

I had not planned on writing a Part 3 to my recent series on facing reality, but a comment by Mike Smitley in Facebook reminded me of an additional point that needs to be made.

Mr. Smitley wrote:

If the legislators won't change, then Americans must elect different candidates. The problem we currently face is ballots rarely include bona fide small government candidates who actually have what it takes to run a competitive race. Sure, there are Libertarians and independents listed in many of these races, but those choices will never be legitimate until they stop trying to win votes with issues and begin trying to win them with viable campaigns (competitive fundraising, big-budget-style marketing techniques and an adequate network of grassroots volunteers to get out the vote.)

Some questions: Assuming existing legislators will NOT change election law in a manner that makes their parties vulnerable...

1) Can viable candidates successfully leverage existing party networks to win primary elections against big government encumbents?

2) Is the Libertarian Party's history of insignificance preventing it from running successful races regardless of the candidate's viability?

3) Can independent candidates competitively raise funds without the assistance of existing partisan networks?"

The comments that Mr. Smitley made about the Libertarian Party applies with equal force to all parties and candidates other than the major parties; and he is right. Campaigns cannot be won on issues alone. If the voter is not forcefully made aware of a candidate (as through mass media, mailings, and door-knocking), they do not know about the candidate; or if they do know of the candidate, are quick to assume that the candidate isn't viable. This is perhaps the harshest reality of all, but it is still a reality that must be dealt with, if our candidates are to start winning elections.

The GOP for small government? I don't buy it. Neither should you.

I remember a time when the Republican Party did stand for less government. Unfortunately, that hasn't been true since 1980 -- Ronald Reagan's rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.

Do the Republicans think that we are so desperate for legitimacy, or have such short memories as to think that they are sincere when they try to embrace Ron Paul and the Tea Parties? If the GOP does embrace them, it will be a bear hug that will save the party and kill them.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com expands on this idea:

This is what Republicans always do. When in power, they massively expand the power of the state in every realm. Deficit spending and the national debt skyrocket. The National Security State is bloated beyond description through wars and occupations, while no limits are tolerated on the Surveillance State. Then, when out of power, they suddenly pretend to re-discover their "small government principles." The very same Republicans who spent the 1990s vehemently opposing Bill Clinton's Terrorism-justified attempts to expand government surveillance and executive authority then, once in power, presided over the largest expansion in history of those very same powers. The last eight years of Republican rule was characterized by nothing other than endlessly expanded government power, even as they insisted -- both before they were empowered and again now -- that they are the standard-bearers of government restraint.

Have we forgotten how we felt only 15 months ago?

What makes this deceit particularly urgent for them now is that their only hope for re-branding and re-empowerment lies in a movement -- the tea partiers -- that has been (largely though not exclusively) dominated by libertarians, Paul followers, and other assorted idiosyncratic factions who are hostile to the GOP's actual approach to governing. This is a huge wedge waiting to be exposed -- to explode -- as the modern GOP establishment and the actual "small-government" libertarians that fuel the tea party are fundamentally incompatible. Right-wing mavens like Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and National Review are suddenly feigning great respect for Ron Paul and like-minded activists because they're eager that the sham will be maintained: the blatant sham that the modern GOP and its movement conservatives are a coherent vehicle for those who believe in small government principles. The only evidence of a passionate movement urging GOP resurgence is from people whose views are antithetical to that Party. That's the dirty secret which right-wing polemicists are desperately trying to keep suppressed. Credit to Mike Huckabee for acknowledging this core incompatibility by saying he would not attend CPAC because of its "increasing libertarianism."

Some people in the liberty movement may be ignorant, but they're not stupid. The difference? Stupidity is permanent. Ignorance can be fixed.

Virtual buckeye to Elizabeth Wright at Issues and Views - The Blog.

An immodest proposal

A flag for secessionists now, and the Ohio Republic later. It is the same as the state flag, but enlarging the buckeye and "O", and removing the 17 stars which symbolize our yoke to the Union.

I personally think removing the stars both simplifies and improves the design.