Lew Rockwell interviews Tom Woods, on his new book, Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. Thanks to the internet, Americans can learn about such forbidden ideas as the Principles of 1798, when Jefferson and Madison laid out the idea that to give the central government the sole ability to interpret the constitution was the path to tyranny, and that the states have the right and the duty to oppose tyrannical actions by the feds.
Regimists try to demonize the idea of nullification, as they attempt to demonize all ideas that undermine centralized power, but that is not scaring libertarians, Tea Party people, and other dissidents. Nullification, decentralization, self-government, self-determination, even secession: the time of these un-PC ideas is here, and the Woods book may be the handbook of the revolution.
Podcast: Listen | Download
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
2010 Primary Election
Tea party helps dump four Idaho Senate incumbents
This is really good news! The Idaho Senate has not been very friendly to freedom. They've killed many good bills and helped Otter in his attempt to raise taxes last year. Take a minute to congratulate these winners:
But they funded another win for big-spender Simpson who claimed to be the answer to America's growing debt problem. Congressional District 2 is waking up to his hypocrisy. In the 2008 primary he won 85.2% of the vote. He only won 58.4% this time. Chick Heileson won 24.1% of the vote.
Todd Hatfield won 43.5% of the vote to the incumbent's 56.5%. This is pretty significant for a first time candidate in a statewide race. State Controller Donna Jones won another four-year term. Maybe she'll post state spending online this time.
We have good leverage against incumbents who faced principled opposition, but we'll have to hold their feet to the fire! We have allowed unsustainable levels of government to be erected. None of it will be dismantled without our participation. There are many who would rather raise your taxes.
This is really good news! The Idaho Senate has not been very friendly to freedom. They've killed many good bills and helped Otter in his attempt to raise taxes last year. Take a minute to congratulate these winners:
- Steve Vick (R-3)
- Gresham Dale Bouma (R-6)
- Sheryl L. Nuxoll (R-8)
But they funded another win for big-spender Simpson who claimed to be the answer to America's growing debt problem. Congressional District 2 is waking up to his hypocrisy. In the 2008 primary he won 85.2% of the vote. He only won 58.4% this time. Chick Heileson won 24.1% of the vote.
Todd Hatfield won 43.5% of the vote to the incumbent's 56.5%. This is pretty significant for a first time candidate in a statewide race. State Controller Donna Jones won another four-year term. Maybe she'll post state spending online this time.
We have good leverage against incumbents who faced principled opposition, but we'll have to hold their feet to the fire! We have allowed unsustainable levels of government to be erected. None of it will be dismantled without our participation. There are many who would rather raise your taxes.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Get Out The Vote
Have you noticed how fired up people are all over the country for new faces, new ideas and a return to limited, constitutional government?
Tuesday's election here in Idaho will almost entirely decide who our next representatives will be, and yet the primary will be decided by only 3% of the population. Races are sometimes as close as one vote that decides who the winner will be. Let that vote be yours!
If we elect more career-first, establishment politicians, we won't get balanced budgets. The deficit will not be reduced. Our eroded liberties will not be returned.
What we'll get is just more of the same. More debt, higher taxes, and less freedom for ourselves and future generations of Americans.
And, as I'm sure you'll agree, we can't afford any more of the same!
That's why Champions of Liberty have stepped up to run for many offices, from Precinct Committeeman to U.S. Congressman. Some big races to watch:
Here is what you can do: Please email and call at least 10 friends of liberty in Idaho and encourage them to vote and invite their friends of liberty to do the same. You can register at the polls on election day by providing any document which contains a valid address and a photo I.D. Find out where to vote at http://idahovotes.gov/.
It will be TWO YEARS before we get another chance to replace any RINOs. Let's get out the vote!
Tuesday's election here in Idaho will almost entirely decide who our next representatives will be, and yet the primary will be decided by only 3% of the population. Races are sometimes as close as one vote that decides who the winner will be. Let that vote be yours!
If we elect more career-first, establishment politicians, we won't get balanced budgets. The deficit will not be reduced. Our eroded liberties will not be returned.
What we'll get is just more of the same. More debt, higher taxes, and less freedom for ourselves and future generations of Americans.
And, as I'm sure you'll agree, we can't afford any more of the same!
That's why Champions of Liberty have stepped up to run for many offices, from Precinct Committeeman to U.S. Congressman. Some big races to watch:
- Todd Hatfield is running to unseat the incumbent State Controller who failed to put state spending online and then opposed legislative efforts that would have required it. A fiscal conservative winning a statewide Constitutional office that manages Idaho’s fiscal affairs would be a major step in the right direction for the liberty movement.
- In the 1st Congressional District, Idaho backed Raul Labrador is in a tight race for the Republican nomination against an opponent backed by the east coast establishment and who ran John McCain's campaign in Nevada where they shut down the state convention when it looked like Ron Paul delegates had a majority.
- In the 2nd Congressional District, Constitutional Republican Chick Heileson could very well unseat the big-spending incumbent who voted for the Bankster Bailout and a long list of other Big Government schemes.
Here is what you can do: Please email and call at least 10 friends of liberty in Idaho and encourage them to vote and invite their friends of liberty to do the same. You can register at the polls on election day by providing any document which contains a valid address and a photo I.D. Find out where to vote at http://idahovotes.gov/.
It will be TWO YEARS before we get another chance to replace any RINOs. Let's get out the vote!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Fiscal Conservative vs. Fiscal Recklessness
State Controller's Four-Year Term Brought 25% Budget Increase and Huge Losses in the School Endowment Fund
Boise - The incumbent was elected to the office of Idaho State Controller in 2006. While serving her current four year term, the Controller’s budget has increased 25%. It had a 45% increase appropriated for 2009, but that was held back by the Governor and Legislature. This expansion of government has not brought a benefit to the citizens of Idaho.
Todd Hatfield is running for State Controller in the May 25th Republican primary. He says, “I am a conservative, both fiscally and socially. The incumbent's record shows a lack of conservative management and voting. I believe in limited government as per the Idaho Republican Party Platform.”
Instead of posting the state checkbook online for the public to review where tax dollars are all being spent – as many states around the country have done – the incumbent State Controller actually opposed legislative efforts in 2009 for needed transparency of the state’s finances. There is and has been free software available for this purpose that has been utilized by the federal government and by other states.
The State Controller holds a very important position on the Idaho Land Board. This position is a trust for the School Permanent Endowment Fund, of which 70% of revenue is derived from state timber sales. The current Controller’s record during her short term: 4,000 lost jobs in Idaho’s wood producing sector due to federal and state regulations, 14% to 24% unemployment in rural Idaho Counties and $360 million dollars of the school endowment money gambled away by the investment board in equity markets through managers such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, only to be replaced with future tax dollars through bailout money.
“I have successfully led in adapting to market trends and changes in my industry. She increases her budget and has taxpayers fund her office in these tough economic times.” Mr. Hatfield continues, “I have purchased federal and state timber sales. I have actual hands on experience in the daily operations of the logging industry and therefore possess real relationships and ties to people throughout the state. She has photos of visits to saw mills.”
Todd has owned, managed and funded his own general contracting and log home building business for the past 25 years. The incumbent has received her paycheck from you, the state taxpayer, for over the past 15 years.
Todd has a thorough understanding of the administration of timber sales and the simple administrative policy change that will restore jobs, increase manufacturing, reduce unemployment and increase money for the School’s Endowment Fund. He says we must stop investing the School Endowment Fund in risky equity markets. The State Constitution mandates that this fund “remain inviolate and intact” and “shall be securely and profitably invested.” In the first quarter of 2009 the investment board had gambled away over $360 million dollars of our school money.
“It is time to stop the Idaho Land Board from being led by department heads and demand that the Land Board lead the departments. The Land board members are elected to leadership positions and must follow through in that capacity. I have a college degree in accounting and the experience to take that lead.
“I know everyone has limited money. Believe me, I know. But, I really do need your help! Please help with funds, so I can unseat the incumbent. Any amount contributed ($ 20, 50, 100, 500 to a maximum of $5,000) will be put towards printed material and radio in the last two weeks. We are very close, please help to get us over the top and begin restoring accountability to the State of Idaho. The race for the Idaho State Controller will be determined in the primaries May 25th.
Website: http://www.toddhatfield.com/ - paypal available
Todd Hatfield Campaign: Po Box 305, McCall, ID 83638
“Please forward to all you know - email and text message around the state. Vote for Todd Hatfield for State Controller on May 25th.”
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Tea Party Tide Ousts RINO U.S. Senate Incumbent
US Sen. Bob Bennett ousted at Utah GOP convention
SALT LAKE CITY — Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah has lost his bid to serve a fourth term after failing to advance past the GOP state convention.
Bennett is the first incumbent to lose his seat in Washington this year, the victim of a conservative movement angered by rising taxes and the growth of government.
Bennett was targeted by tea party activists and other groups for supporting a massive bailout of the financial industry, securing earmarks for his state and for co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill to mandate health insurance coverage.
"Don't take a chance on a newcomer," Bennett said in his brief speech to the delegates before the second round of voting began. "There's too much at stake."
But convention delegate Argie Shumway, like many, dismissed the importance of seniority, which Bennett made the centerpiece of his campaign.
"We want principled senators in there, even if they're freshman senators," said Shumway, 70, a retired flight attendant from Provo, who supported attorney Mike Lee.
Bennett became the first sitting U.S. senator to be voted out office this year amid a growing conservative movement that insists on cutting taxes, federal spending and the reach of government.
It's a position being heard elsewhere in the country as some Republicans shun moderate candidates in favor of those backed by tea party activists, such as with Senate races in Arizona, Kentucky and New Hampshire.
"It's time to get rid of the incumbents," said Kyle Hosman, a 39-year-old North Ogden delegate supporting Lee. "Quite frankly I'm disgusted by what I've seen in Congress the past 10 years."
Bennett is under fire for voting to bail out Wall Street, co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill mandating health insurance coverage and for aggressively pursuing earmarks.
"I'm ashamed of him," said 56-year-old delegate Paul Smith, from Farmington. "He's a career politician who has forgotten his roots."
Bennett tried to reassure delegates he is a fiscal conservative.
Bennett's best hope for survival was to get more than 40 percent of the delegates' votes and force one of his opponents into the June primary. To help accomplish that, he enlisted the help of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Romney ran the 2002 Winter Olympics here, is a Mormon like Bennett and most of the delegates and is wildly popular in Utah, where he won 90 percent of the presidential primary vote in 2008.
Romney introduced Bennett, 76, on Saturday — to a mix of cheers and boos.
Bennett's elimination from the ballot likely will send shock waves throughout the political community with more incumbents worried they will also become the victims of the anti-Washington, anti-incumbency fervor that is being fueled at least in part by the Tea Party movement.
While Bennett had won the support of several conservative organizations and has received negative ratings from liberal groups, some of Bennett's critics focused on his vote for the 2008 financial bailout, known as TARP.
"I don't think it's a matter of conservative. I think it's a matter of fiscal or financial responsibility, what the Tea Party people are about and the vote for TARP and the vote for the bailout was, in our opinion, pretty fiscally irresponsible and that's what's raised the ire of most people," David Kirkham, a Tea Party activist, told CNN in an interview.
Kirkham, a businessman who builds and restores sports cars, was so upset about the bailout issue that he was motivated to form the Utah Tea Party chapter last year.
"That one vote was pretty toxic," he said. "That one vote affected a lot of things, changed the rules of the game. President Bush said that where we have to abandon free market principles to save the free market and fundamentally, we just don't agree. There's just no way."
"He's had his chance," said Nick Whitehead, 17, a volunteer who greeted delegates at the downtown convention center with a giant placard touting businessman Tim Bridgewater, one of seven Bennett rivals. "It's time for new blood."
Other Republican incumbents are feeling the Tea Party heat. In Idaho, Chick Heileson is gaining momentum in his challenge against the GOP establishment RINO, Shamful Simpson.
Friday, May 7, 2010
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