November 3 ~ Saint Martin de Porres

Ironically and perhaps providentially, today is the feast day of St. Martin de Porres, known as Martin of Charity and also the Saint of the Broom (for his devotion to his work, no matter how menial). It is also true that whoever wins the election will likely have four years of hard labor cleaning up the unholy mess left by the current occupant.

Note: I endorse neither McCain nor Obama and consider them both to be fine men who represent much that is good about America. I deplore the current ungraceful politics in vogue and ask that everyone ~ right,left, center and fringe ~ acquire some manners and civil discourse.

Three things are essential for a functioning society: respect, compassion and honesty.

Man, know thyself. Love Thy God. Get along with thy neighbor.

p.s. For what it's worth: I am pencilling in Ron Paul. God bless the other two. But the one is an unwitting pro-war corporate puppet and the other is a pro-abortion unwitting corporate shill. Nothing to chose between IMHO.

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"If Elected I Promise"

For my American readers, a gentle reminder that Christ told us to not "put our trust in princes nor sons of men." Vote on Tuesday, in accord with your conscience, your mind and your convictions. Always remember that the USA is a place where "I may disagree with what you say, but I shall defend to the death you right to say it."
Never ever give in to those who say we should hate because others are hateful, that we should war because others are warlike, that we should grab and worship the golden calf because others have ill-gotten gains. Stand tall, America. You are better than that, and if you have fallen, get back up.

Both presidential candidates voted for the obscene “bail-out” that was just stolen from our national treasury against the documented wishes of 85% of Americans. The rhetoric has gone beyond empty—it is a vacuum that sucks rationality and critical thinking from the minds of a panicked public.

There was one candidate who actually represented “stopping the madness” in this election cycle: Ron Paul. His candidacy is over, thanks to a media black-out, but the movement he represents is in full swing. We at the Campaign for Liberty are trying to bring together third-party and independent voters from all across the spectrum. We want your help whether you are Green party, Naderite, Independent, Constitution Party, Libertarian, or even a Democrat or Republican. We will be in your area soon, and we hope to talk about things that matter.
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Ron Paul on Fox News 10/10/08

Note that Fox News tried to slip in the word "conspiracy" because popular wisdom is that only "nuts" believe in them, and if they could get Ron to say it was a "conspiracy" then he is proved to be a nutter. Yet again Ron Paul outclasses them, and stays right on topic with insight so lacking from our politicans today. Nearly everyone I have asked, everyone, says they would vote for him or Dennis Kucinich, in the case of Democrats, if they were on the ballot.
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The View From Here

As some of you know already, I am something of a tightrope walker politically and have good friends both staunch and true, who are nearly every political stripe there is. Many times these people would not even be comfortable in the same room together. The exception was early on in the Ron Paul presidential campaign when we bonded as antiwar, pro-Constitution, pro-civil liberty Paul-promoters. A unique and wonderful phenomenon it was, too.

Now that "the R3VOLUTION" is passing on and morphing into something else entirely our friend Laura at Red State Eclectic has issued a thoughtful analysis from a libertarian-GOP point of view. Take a look.

QUOTE My hope would be that people who are truly serious about liberty could form up as a coalition under the banner of the Campaign for Liberty--but that they could respect one another as they go about pursuing liberty in different ways. There is little (I speak from experience) that is more disheartening than to pour your time and efforts into changing things, only to be told by people who supposedly agree with you in principle that it's a waste of time because it's impossible to change that system, and that the system that you're working in--and you, by extension, I guess--are irreparably corrupt. Human institutions are all capable of changing. Political Parties are human institutions. Hence political parties are capable of changing.

Make a choice--work from within one of the two major parties, or from without. But how about we give our brothers and sisters fighting for liberty the benefit of the doubt? If they believe they can make change from wherever they are, let them have at it, without having to fight off criticism from other liberty lovers. Isn't following the path of your choosing sort of what liberty is about? Criticism from your own "family"--from the people whose respect and admiration you most want--will only reduce the resolve to make a difference; celebration of even small successes will encourage the continuation of the effort. UNQUOTE
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RSE's Rally For the Republic Synopsis

At last, here is the long-awaited synopsis of the Ron Paul Rally For Liberty in St. Paul, attended by Red State Eclectic's editor, Laura Ebke. While I haven't as much in common with the Campaign For Liberty as I thought I might (their paleo-conservatism is a few tics to the right of my posture on many issues) I have nothing but affection and respect for Dr. Paul and for RSE, where I used to blog some.

QUOTE The highlight, of course, was when Barry Goldwater Jr. introduced Ron Paul, and the good Doctor appeared on stage, and had red-white-blue confetti fall around him. The crowd went crazy--and a good chunk of us stood throughout his speech--in part because there wouldn't have been much point in sitting down, since we were on our feet cheering so much. It was a special time, and for an hour or so, it didn't matter what was happening on the other side of the river; we were there with OUR nominee accepting our nomination, we were celebrating our achievements, and we were committing ourselves to a long fight for liberty. UNQUOTE
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Ron Paul News Coming Monday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jesse Benton
September 5, 2008

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – On the heels of his historic three-day rally in Minneapolis that drew over 12,000 attendees, Congressman Ron Paul will make a major announcement next week in Washington at the National Press Club.
More details will be announced Monday.
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Whaaaaaat??? Will he endorse McCain? Baldwin? Barr? The Dalai Lama? Go all Third Party on us? Move to Switzerland? Unveil three elite Aliens from Betelguese who are here to help us?
Stay tuned...
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Liberty, Peace and Freedom

What has that Ron Paul been up to? Promoting his Campaign for Liberty. Gearing up for the alternative convention, Rally For the Republic, since he was shut out of the Republican one. The mission of the Campaign for Liberty ~ formerly the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign ~ is to promote and defend the time-honored American principles of individual liberty, civil rights, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a non interventionist foreign policy (meaning peace in Iraq), by means of diplomatic, educational and political activity. I was floored by his courage last spring, and worked on Dr. Paul's Presidential campaign, personally starting the local Ron Paul meetup (which after half a year or so I handed off to Dr. Laura Ebke, current Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus in Nebraska, a group of "Ron Paul" Repubs) canvassing, sign waving, even going so far as going to the county Republican convention (!!) and braving the hordes of alcohol-saturated suited helmet-haired neocons to vote for the RP delegates.

Laura will be doing some blogging from the Campaign For Liberty and the Republican National Convention and I'll link to her posts in the coming week.

Reaching all the way back to one of the heroes of my youth, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, who set a pattern and protoype for Paul, Kucinich and other peace loving iconoclasts of today.

JibJab Flick" The Ron Paul Version

ROFL

Two Roads Diverged: Ron Paul & The Libertarians

In a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

to where it bent in the undergrowth

From Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Just kidding, I only warm up to one of the possible branches in this road. The "True Conservative anti-war pro-life" fork.

This is bit of a long read, but a worthwhile one. Justin Raimondo at TakiMag explores in depth what the Ron Paul Revolution means to the libertarian movement. I was, previous to the RP phenomenon, adverse to the libertarians since I only knew the "free-for-all/confusion of liberty with license" mindset found in a certain elite wing of the Liberts ~ but now I find myself actually very sympathetic to the Ron Paul "revolution".

DJY

QUOTE That war breeds tyranny and subverts republican forms of government; that we were fighting national socialism overseas only to witness its triumph on the home front; and, central to it all, an acute consciousness of America’s tragic destiny as an (anti-)imperial power, doomed, like all the others, to degenerate into a parody of itself. UNQUOTE