Another poll that was published today by Public Policy Polling included a match-up between Paul, Romney, and Obama, in which Paul scored 17% as a third party candidate.

In the PPP poll, Jon Huntsman and Donald Trump were also polled as third party challengers to the Romney-Obama major party nominees and scored 11% and 19% respectively.

Consumer advocate and progressive liberal Ralph Nader said Thursday he will send a letter to a targeted group of 40 former university presidents, retired congressmen, progressive business leaders and civic activists and ask them to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

“The pitch is this: Look, take six months off from your routine, form a slate, challenge Obama in the primaries,” Nader said on Fox News.

The letter will go out in “a few days,” he said.

“If he’s not challenged from the progressive liberal wing of his party that elected him, there’ll be a very dull campaign,” Nader said.

Read more…

Republican Presidential contenders are melting like tourists on the Vegas Strip, without sunscreen, on a 117 degree day in July. Doesn’t anyone in the GOP actually want to run against the worst President in modern American history?

It can’t be Obama’s record that’s scaring Republicans. Obama is overseeing the worst economy since 1929…contributed heavily to the worst sovereign debt crisis in history…presiding over the worst collapse in real estate ever…helping to ensure the highest gas prices in history by refusing to allow oil drilling until recently…the list goes on and on. You’d think the Republican contenders would be licking their lips at running against that record? Instead they are falling by the wayside.

Let’s examine the carnage. This analyst and political pundit predicted Donald Trump’s political career was over three weeks ago when “The Donald” played casino pit boss and F-bombed his way through a Vegas speech. Have you ever heard of multiple F-bombs in a major political speech in by a Presidential contender? Unimaginable.

Forget the birth certificate controversy. Trump was still sitting high in the polls even after Obama released his birth certificate. But there was no escaping using multiple F-bombs on the biggest political stage. Not in a GOP filled with evangelical Christian voters, and parents who wash their children’s mouth out with soap for using that same word. Donald “F-bomb” Trump’s political career ended that day in Vegas.

What about Huckabee? A Presidential frontrunner, this former man of God couldn’t turn down fame and money. Huckabee proves even the Presidency isn’t as lucrative as a TV show on Fox News.

Then there’s Newt Gingrich. I winced as I heard Newt’s words on Sunday. It’s tough to watch a political career implode on national TV. Newt’s career is over. Forget President. I mean any future political career. Senator. Governor. Dog catcher. Newt was electrocuted on the third rail of GOP politics. He supported big government control of our lives, backed the central tenet of Obamacare, called the GOP proposal for cutting Medicare spending “radical right wing social engineering,” and back-stabbed GOP Congressional hero Paul Ryan. All in one day. Goodnight Newt. You and your third wife can go home now.

And then there’s Mitt Romney. Mitt had the White House for the asking. One speech apologizing for Romneycare and promising to never allow it to happen again, and Romney is the next President of the United States. Here’s the speech that Mitt should have given:

“I made a big mistake. States can act as laboratories for new ideas. We tried an experiment with government-directed health care in my state. It didn’t work. Costs are up. Waits are up. Doctors are leaving the state. The experiment failed. I was wrong and I apologize. But good things can come out of failure, if you learn a lesson. Here’s what I learned. Big Government cannot manage the nation’s healthcare system…or anything else. Government drove a brothel into bankruptcy in Nevada. Government ran gambling (Off Track Betting) into bankruptcy in New York. Big Government has given you a $14 trillion national debt- $100 trillion if you add in unfunded liabilities. Your children and grandchildren face a bleak future because of Big Government. Big Government is a failure; I proved it in Massachusetts. I won’t let it happen again. I’ve learned from my mistake. I will not allow Obama to destroy our healthcare system by putting the government in charge. You have my word.” Insert: STANDING OVATION.

But no, Mitt didn’t deliver that speech. He delivered the only speech that could possibly snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory. He defended the disaster he created in Massachusetts. Really? Could anyone be that blind, deaf and dumb? Who wrote his speech- the Chicago Cubs?

Then we come to Libertarian legend Ron Paul. When it comes to economic issues, Paul is a visionary. This trailblazer warned America and the GOP about the dangers of big government, overspending and the Fed long before it was hip. If he ran as a Libertarian or independent third party candidate, Paul might actually have an opportunity to win the Presidency, or at least build a serious third party movement. Unfortunately his views on war, military spending, and Osama will make it highly unlikely he can win a GOP primary. But I see an ideal role for Congressman Paul in any Republican administration- Treasury Secretary or Federal Reserve Chief. Now that would have an impact.

Doesn’t anyone want to beat Obama? Who’s left? Tim Pawlenty and Mitch Daniels? Two boring middle-aged white guys with the charisma of Al Gore? That’s the best the GOP has? Watching wet paint dry is more exciting, than watching Pawlenty or Daniels deliver a speech. Sorry, boys, but wet paint drying isn’t going to defeat Obama. Not if he has his teleprompter working properly.

Yes others could yet become the darkhorse for the GOP nomination- Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, perhaps even Sarah Palin.

But someone in the GOP had better hope that Chris Christie is having a change of heart. Then get down on your knees and pray. Pray hard. Then ring the doorbell of the New Jersey Governor’s mansion and start begging. Because without a Christie miracle, the worst President in modern history just became the favorite for re-election.

Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee. He is the best-selling author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts.” His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com

Obama Awakens a Sleeping Giant

By Wayne Allyn Root, Former Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee

Mark the date – Thursday May 19th. It’s the day the leopard showed his spots. It’s the day Obama stabbed Israel in the back. It’s the day he told Israel, DROP DEAD.

For the first time in history an American President has chosen to abandon our great friend and ally, Israel, in favor of radical Muslims led by the terrorist group Hamas. But, mark this also as a great day- the day Obama lost the 2012 election. Obama has awakened a sleeping giant- American Jews and Christians, united in their love and support for Israel. They are outraged, shocked and sickened. Obama clearly showed his radical and hateful colors. The American people will not forget.

Just days ago, because of the weak GOP field, I wrote that Obama was the favorite for re-election. Thursday that all changed. Obama’s ego and hatred of Israel could not allow him to play possum for another eighteen months when he’d be re-elected. He could then unleash the full extent of his anti-capitalism, anti-American, anti-Israel venom without having to ever face American voters again. But, like all radical true believers, his hatred is so extreme he couldn’t wait. He’s been so indoctrinated by communist organizers, Marxist professors, terrorist sympathizers, and radical Muslim apologists, that he just couldn’t contain himself.

On Thursday, Obama left no doubt that he sides with and wants to redistribute money from American taxpayers to Palestinians and radical Muslims like Hamas that target Israeli women and children…that encourage their own children to become suicide bombers…that hand out candy in celebration for the murder of an innocent Jewish baby…that force women to endure public lashings for disobeying a husband…that execute women for “allowing themselves” to be gang-raped…that pour acid on the face of little girls who dare to want an education…who throw gay men off the roofs of buildings…who marry off their 5-year-old daughters to pay the bills…who imprison all women for life behind dark veils in 120 degree heat, to keep them from being seen by other men.

Obama wants to redistribute your taxpayer money to radicals who attack churches and murder Christians. He wants more foreign aid for Egypt, a country headed for domination by the Muslim Brotherhood, an ally of Nazis in WWII. That is who Obama has chosen to side with over a modern, capitalist, American-loving Israeli society with democracy, freedom and equality for men, women, gays, and Arabs. Not perfection, because we all know that neither America nor Israel is perfect. But, like in America, all people (including Muslims) enjoy far more freedom in Israel in any Muslim country.

If you are a thinking, fair-minded person, Christian or Jew, that supports Israel’s right to exist, you must be sickened and outraged by Obama’s demand for Israel to return to its 1967 borders. That demand displaces over 300,000 Israeli citizens. What right does America have to make 300,000 people of another country homeless? What right does America have to meddle in Israel’s affairs? What right does America have to demand an ally give up its own territory won in a defensive war? Should America give Texas back to Mexico? Should we hand Boston back to the British? What right does Obama have to give away the land Israel needs to provide natural defenses from Hamas missiles and terrorist attacks? What if America’s meddling leads to the destruction of Israel and the death of millions of innocent Israelis? With friends like this, Israel no longer needs enemies.

If you are a Libertarian non-interventionist who has “no dog in the hunt,” you should be outraged that an American President is choosing sides at all. You should be outraged that Obama is inflaming tensions that could lead to World War III. You should be outraged that instead of cutting off foreign aid to radical countries, or eliminating all foreign aid, Obama on this same day recommended several billion dollars in new foreign aid to countries filled with radical hate for America, as well as Jews and Christians worldwide.

If you have common sense you should be outraged at the very idea of throwing away more money. America is broke. We must cut back dramatically on foreign aid, or eliminate it. Why would we commit billions to countries ruled by despots and radicals that hate America and support the destruction of Israel? Billions from where? We now borrow almost 50% of what we spend and Obama wants to give away more money that we have to borrow from China, or have the Fed print more fake money to give away to people that hate us? This defines reckless and radical.

Obama no longer speaks for the American people. On Thursday he made that clear. He also lost the election that day. Jewish voters will never again feel the same about Obama. And while Jews make up only 2% of America’s population, they provide a majority of the donations to Democratic politicians. Obama lost many crucial Democratic donors on Thursday. But Obama’s biggest mistake was awakening a sleeping giant. It is Christian voters that elect Presidents. And almost 100 million evangelical Christians who love Israel will now vote and donate to Obama’s opponents with a fervor and passion of a patriotic group on a mission to save America and Israel from destruction. And sadly, they will be right.

Posted to Wayne’s blog: www.ROOTforAmerica.com

As smart as Jones is, adds Hartman, he was not smart about running for office.  “Why don’t you sit down and think about a strategy?” she asked him. “Why don’t you study Barack Obama? He had a plan. He wasn’t jumping up to run for anything that popped up in front of him. He was running for what he could win. Start with the state Senate, or an aldermanic seat. You don’t walk into a company and say, `I’m an intern, and I’m applying to be President.’”

Jones has accepted her advice. He told me in a telephone conversation Sunday evening that while he doesn’t regret running for the U.S. Senate—he said he got statewide name recognition that would have cost him millions in advertising to replicate—his next race will be for a seat in the Illinois House. He is angling to be appointed to the 26th District seat now occupied by Will Burns, who won the 4th Ward aldermanic race—the seat held by Toni Preckwinkle. Burns will resign his seat on May 16th. The Democratic committeemen—one of them Preckwinkle, now President of the Cook County Board—will decide who serves out the rest of Burns’ term. If Jones doesn’t get the 26th District appointment—he acknowledges “residency issues” since he currently lives in the 31st District—he says he will start planning for 2012. He’ll run in the 31st District against Rep. Mary Flowers, 59, a member of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

This isn’t insanity. It’s insanity squared. Since the day Obama took office he has tried to fleece, tax, regulate, redistribute, harass, and hound small business to death. I’ve argued again and again in media appearances and commentaries that Obama’s strategy appears to be right out of the playbook of Cloward & Piven, two Marxist professors from Columbia University (where Obama and I graduated as classmates in 1983). That strategy is overwhelming the business community, taxpayers, and high-income earners with so many socialist, Big Brother-like, job-killing bills, that we get dizzy and exhausted trying to keep up with them. Eventually they overwhelm the economy, cause massive unemployment, crisis, and dependency on big government. It’s happening before our very eyes — millions of Americans are now on 99 weeks of unemployment benefits; 45 million are dependent on food stamps; over 90 teenage girls are pregnant at the same time in one Memphis high school — all sure to go on welfare, food stamps and aid to dependent children for life.That’s one school. The system is officially overwhelmed.

It’s true that Obama took a few days off to portray himself as a friend to business and a born-again tax cutter. But after a short rest, the old Obama is back. The man is a relentless Ginsu salesman for taxes, spending and socialism. The overwhelming attack has started all over again.

In just the past few days, Obama has put the White House in partnership with the Bar Association in a brazen attempt to impose lawyers on every businessman and women in America. Then he suggested dramatically raising unemployment taxes on businesses. Then he proposed a dramatic reduction of tax deductions for homeowners and charitable givers. Next up in the “tax murderer’s row” was Obama’s announcement of his 10-year plan to reduce the national debt. It happened to cut the debt by a measly $1 trillion, while simultaneously raising taxes by about $1 trillion — including the largest income tax increase in U.S. history. Obama is relentless — he attacks from so many angles, that even the strongest of fiscal conservatives eventually grows weak and punch drunk.

But wait, we’re not done. Obama has more! The “Ginsu guy” is also selling a big heaping dose of Big Brother– simultaneously attempting to unionize American business through new rules implemented by the National Labor Relations Board, and impose cap and trade (that he couldn’t pass through Congress) through new EPA rules. Those draconian new EPA rules put Obama and Big Brother in control of industrial America, big energy, even the trucking industry — the delivery system for all goods.

But wait, Obama isn’t done yet. There’s more to dislike. The IRS has just announced a request for thousands of new auditors and agents, at a cost of almost $400,000,000 just to oversee the start of Obamacare in 2012. We get 81 new IRS agents just to oversee the new tax on tanning beds. What a deal! Wait until you see what the IRS requests when Obamacare moves into full gear.

Back to the biggest insult of all — the lawyers. Obama has put the government in partnership with the American Bar Association. This re-defines unconstitutional. From now on, anyone who calls the White House or the Department of Labor to complain about their boss will be given a Toll Free 800 number (think Ginsu knives) that connects directly to trial lawyers. The American Bar Association has agreed to provide an army of lawyers that will work for free — no up front legal fees, only a cut of the action — to sue American business.

But wait, there’s more. Michelle Obama wants to encourage breast-feeding, especially (her words) in the African-American community. So from now on the IRS will make breast pumps and other breast-feeding products tax deductible. Will she offer “extra credit” for being black and breast-feeding? Perhaps our first-ever affirmative action tax deduction?

Is this really our country? Your home mortgage should no longer be deductible according to Obama. Neither should your charitable giving to churches or synagogues. Your money isn’t yours according to Obama. It belongs to government. It is needed for redistribution to Obama’s contributors, cronies and entitlement-addicted voters. You can’t even choose to tan without paying additional taxes. Your business will be hounded by lawyers, in partnership with government. You are ordered by government to buy health insurance or face fines or prison. And all of it will be overseen by a new army of IRS agents.

What’s the difference between Obama and a Ginsu salesman? With the Ginsu guy you actually get 10 items for one low price. With Obama, you lose everything you’ve got — your home, your income, your business. All you wind up with is a tax-deductible breast-feeding pump. Somehow without the force of government putting a gun to our heads, I don’t think Obama’s product would sell.

Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee. He is the best-selling author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts.” His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com

The administration claims that the Republican spending bill currently under debate does not provide enough military funding. According to the administration, "The bill…would reduce funding for the Department of Defense to a level that would leave the Department without the resources and flexibility needed to meet vital military requirements."

As a percentage of GDP, military spending under Obama has been higher than it was during any year of the hawkish George W. Bush administration.

Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle said, "Apparently the Republican spending bill isn’t military-friendly enough for President Obama.

Hinkle continued, "Liberals are supposed to want schools, not bombs, but Obama wants all the bombs he can get.

"The Republican bill actually increases Defense Department spending 1-2% over 2010 levels, but the administration calls that a reduction.

"Liberals and Democrats, as well as independents and Libertarians, should call out the president and demand that he cut military spending, not increase it.

"Nobody expected Republicans to offer significant cuts to military spending, but I thought liberal Democrats like Obama were supposed to be different. Apparently the president is more interested in handing out gigantic contracts to his friends in the defense industry.

"Libertarians believe that America should set an example of freedom and respect for other nations by withdrawing our military from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as many other countries where we have forces stationed today. The Libertarian vision of a humble foreign policy would allow us to cut military spending dramatically."

For more information, or to arrange an interview, call LP Executive Director Wes Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America’s third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website.

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Social conservatives and libertarians don’t get along. Here’s a FOX News opinion piece about the recent CPAC Conference illustrating that point. (To my friends on the right: yes, I occasionally read FOX News, holding my nose the whole time.) Social conservatives can’t stand libertarians wanting a voice within the Republican Party, though they courted libertarians eagerly enough in the 2010 election cycle, mostly through the TEA Party concept. Now that the 2012 Presidential posturing is well underway, both factions within the GOP are openly rude to each other when the cameras are rolling.

I say: it’s time to break out the popcorn and watch the GOP self-destruct.

The Republican House of Representatives will be unable to deliver a Federal budget that satisfies its TEA Party constituents. That means strong primary challenges in “safe” GOP seats on one end of the spectrum, and growing disillusionment with the TEA Party concept on the other. With President Obama weathering 2010 with an approval rating still over 50%, the Democratic Party is poised to reclaim the House, keep the Senate, and keep the Presidency… IF Democrats get out there and work hard in all 50 states.

To my libertarian friends: this weekend’s spectacles at CPAC are exactly why I think the Libertarian Party deserves access to the kinds of infrastructure enjoyed by both the Democratic and Republican parties (ballot access, financial support from the states for primaries/caucuses, and so forth). As a proud supporter of one of the two major political parties in our country, I still see the need for multiple, strong, national parties. TEA Party Republicans are a mix of two factions (social conservatives and libertarians) that, despite all the media hype, are not a natural fit and never will be.

The author does not mention that many, although not all, Libertarian Party members oppose taking financial support from the states for primaries/caucuses on principle, and would prefer to see all parties stop receiving such government aid.

For background see:

Supporters of former Libertarian candidate Ron Paul heckle Cheney, Rumsfeld, call them war criminals at CPAC

Huffington Post on CPAC Straw Poll: Ron Paul wins Again! Gary Johnson tied for third place

Libertarians at CPAC present Republican Wall of Shame

Libertarian Party Monday Message: Video from CPAC 2011

Libertarian Blue: ‘Libertarians are Right Wing?’

Ralph Nader and Ron Paul on Freedom Watch: Alliance Against Corporatism

Ron Paul could lead a new libertarian/progressive coalition

Nader advocates for Progressive-Libertarian Alliance

Barack Obama and the U.S. government have called for a “peaceful transition” in Egypt, in response to massive protests, riots and escalating anarchy. But I wonder if President Obama is taking notes? I wonder if he realizes just how close America is to facing a similar crisis that could result in riots, revolt in the streets, and economic paralysis. I wonder if President Obama would act much different than President Mubarak in Egypt. So far, small signs hint that Obama might turn out to be just as intolerant to dissent as Mubarak. 

Think it couldn’t happen here? Think again. Let’s review the economic crisis that America faces at this very moment. Just in the days since Obama’s State of the Union speech there have been numerous signs that the U.S. faces an economic Armageddon. Dark storm clouds are fast approaching: 

* The U.S. budget deficit is far more than even economic experts imagined. 

* Unemployment is up yet again — far more than the experts projected.

*Social Security shortfalls are bigger and have happened sooner than any expert predicted — a decade sooner.

*Fourth Quarter GDP was lower than projected — and even the figure released was merely the result of the Fed printing fake money 24 hours a day, to create false consumer confidence, to prop up a U.S. economy that is falling off a cliff.

* The foreclosure crisis is deepening beyond what any expert imagined. As a result, real estate prices are falling even further, thereby threatening not only consumer spending, but the very survival of major banks.

* Inflation is skyrocketing on the two things that matter most — food and energy prices. One more disaster — perhaps the fall of Egypt, leading to an oil crisis — could lead to a hyperinflation that could turn America into a combination of Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic.

* We already face economic Armageddon on a state and local level. U.S. cities, counties and states are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Their grave financial condition is the result of massive unsustainable spending and debt, caused in large part by irresponsible public employee salaries, pensions and health benefits. The worst part of this crisis is that the stimulus money is gone and the federal government is bankrupt, unable to bail itself out, let alone the cities, counties and states. 

*There are early signs of revolt and anarchy here in America — with a record number of policemen shot and killed during a two-week period in January.

* The Middle East threatens to turn into a powder keg that could lead not to democracy, but to radical Islamic control of many Arab countries. This grave new threat to America, American interests, and the survival of our ally Israel, would lead to more military spending and a potential oil crisis that could engulf and overwhelm the U.S. economy. In our current vulnerable economic state this tragedy could set off a worldwide economic panic. 

* Japan’s credit rating was downgraded on what most economists agree is a disastrous slide toward oblivion. Japan’s debt is so huge it can never be repaid. As one famous economist describes the crisis they are facing: “Japan is a bug in search of a windshield.” Japan’s impending implosion could also trigger a worldwide economic panic. 

 * Spain just announced unemployment of over 20%. Not only does this news threaten the survival of the EU, it also drives a stake through Obama’s strategy for saving the U.S. economy by creating green jobs. Spain proves there is no market for green jobs. The whole idea is a mirage created by leftist progressive politicians desperately grasping for straws.

 Can you imagine that all of this toxic news has occurred in only the few days since Obama’s State of the Union? Our economy, our country, and global conditions are deteriorating faster than any expert imagined. The threats we face are unprecedented. Although they are running the presses 24/7, our Fed can’t print money fast enough to keep up with deteriorating conditions.

 Our “real” U.S. unemployment may in fact be close to 20%. Among youth and minorities unemployment may be well over 30%. For the first time in modern history, there are few jobs for millions of new college graduates, while they each face education debt of $100,000 or more. There are seemingly no jobs at all for minority youth without college educations. All at the same time that prices are exploding for basic essentials. Sound familiar? Those are the exact same incendiary ingredients that led to revolt, revolution, and anarchy in Egypt.

 So how will President Obama react to massive protests, riots, and revolt in the USA? Will he choose to shut down the Internet? He criticizes Mubarak, yet Obama is already asking Congress for the authority to do just that (without judicial review). Will Obama cut off access to Facebook and Twitter? Will he try to shut down talk radio and FOX News? Obama and his Democratic allies have already suggested doing that (before a true crisis) with “The Fairness Act.” Will Obama attempt to ban guns? He has already come out strongly in support of gun control or bans on numerous occasions before he was even elected President. Will Obama call in the military to contain the riots of unemployed, hungry, angry youth here in America’s biggest cities? Will he allow free speech — even if massive protests call for Obama to step down?

 Is Obama taking notes in Egypt? He had better. Because Egypt’s crisis could eventually be coming to a city near you.

 Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee. 

He is the best-selling author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts.” His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com

The Community-Organizer-in-Chief Forms Unholy Alliance Between Big Brother and Big Business

Poor Obama. He just has no idea how to create a job. He’s changed strategy by 180 degrees…and he’s still grasping at straws. That’s what happens when you hire a community organizer as President. Obama’s previous experience at creating jobs was to extort them in protests against big corporations. But that approach doesn‘t work when you’re President. The President can’t count “jobs extorted.” That is why poor Obama is grasping at straws.

The first desperate act of Obama’s Presidency was to play the socialism card. He thought if government took control over vast swaths of industry — banking, autos, student loans, and healthcare — that would create jobs. Instead job losses accelerated. Then Obama guessed that if government threw large sums of money into job creation that would certainly solve the problem. He soon found that any job created by government costs obscene amounts of money and actually takes a job (or two) away from the private sector.

Then he gave a huge welfare payment disguised as a “tax cut” to his voters — people that never created a job or paid taxes. That added more debt, but didn’t create one job. Next there was a jobs bill that created exactly -0- jobs. Then there were multiple attempts at massive tax hikes. No dice. The American people were repelled. Worse, American business reacted to the uncertainty by killing more jobs, or shipping them overseas — where taxes are lower. The community organizer was stumped.

Back to work organizing more nasty, socialist, job-killing bills such as Obamacare, Cap and Trade, and Card Check. You gotta love Obama’s enthusiasm for unions. Card Check makes it easy to unionize the entire country — even small businesses with 5 employees. Why not? After all, the states with the highest number of union members all lead the country in moving vans leaving the state. And of course we all know how well unions worked out for the automakers, U.S. Postal Service, and government-run public schools. But hey, the desperate community organizer was running out of options.

For good measure Obama threw in lots of sermons to demonize business. That backfired. Unemployment went up, the American people (who are employed by business) got angry, and Obama’s Democratic Party suffered the worst landslide in modern political history.

So, now poor desperate Obama had to re-organize (kind of like a bankruptcy). The marxists, union organizers, lawyers, and Ivy League eggheads he appointed to every level of government weren’t working. So he changed direction 180 degrees — Obama embraced business. Or so the lefty media tried to convince us. But Obama hasn’t embraced business. He has embraced BIG BUSINESS…i.e. corporate America. He has sold out to the biggest companies in America at the expense of small business. He has brought in the CEO of GE and the Daley family to run things. That’s like putting the mob in charge of an entire city. That didn’t work out so well in Chicago. But hey, it’s the only trick Obama has left.

Hiring William Daley may make Wall Street smile, but it won’t create one job on Main Street. He’s the son of the royal family of Chicago. They’ve never created a job in their lives — they’ve taxed, extorted, and zoned in return for favors and money. Daley is a $10 million per year Wall Street big shot. He knows as much about creating jobs on Main Street as the old King of England. And as far as Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE who now heads Obama’s Economic Council…he’s merely along for the ride so he can arm twist the community-organizer-in-chief for another few hundred billion dollars in stimulus funds and solar energy tax breaks for GE.

Here’s the brutal reality. The great community organizer has in fact joined hands with big business in an unholy alliance that will destroy even more jobs. I have nothing against big business. In fact, I love capitalism. But nothing is more dangerous for society than crony capitalism. The alliance of big business in bed with big government distorts capitalism. Together this group’s goal is to create more laws, rules and regulations that destroy the ability of any small business to survive, so that big business holds the monopoly (and all the special interest tax breaks). They want only multi-national companies with armies of lawyers, lobbyists and accountants to survive — a world where the only employers are big government and big business. They want a hybrid of socialism mixed with fascism– a form of corporatism.

Poor desperate Obama has chosen the wrong path once again. America is built on a foundation of small business. Most of the taxes and jobs are created by small business and small entrepreneurial start-ups. Seventy percent or more of new jobs are created by mom and pop businesses. Since 1980 not one net job has been created by big business- the entire increase of net jobs was created by companies with 200 or fewer employees. Yet Obama has now morphed Big Brother with big business to “save the economy.” Remember when Obama talked of “saving jobs.” That didn’t work out too well either. Every time our President mentions “saving us” we should run the other way.

Desperate people make bad choices. Obama has chosen a path to power, not a path to economic recovery. He may have helped his chances of re-election, but I fear he has dealt one final deathblow to the economy. There will be few new jobs in this Obama Great Depression.

Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee. He is the best-selling author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts.” His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders challenged Democrats and Republicans in the 112th Congress, as well as President Obama, to end a decade of reckless violations of the U.S. Constitution, international agreements, and other laws by the U.S. government and begin a new era of respect for the rule of law.

“The new Congress began with a reading of the Constitution in the U.S. House, but the document seems to be incomprehensible for many Representatives,” said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of the Miami-Dade Green Party in Florida, http://www.miamidadegreenparty.org. “The protections enshrined in the constitutional amendments and Article Six’s requirement that the U.S. honor treaties are not subject to the whims of Presidents, State Departments, the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, or any other government body. If we don’t restore the rule of law now, we’re in danger of seeing the end of the U.S. as a republic and a free country.”

Greens listed examples of official lawlessness and disregard for rights since 2000:

The Obama Administration has maintained many of the Bush-Cheney abuses of the Constitution: denial of habeas corpus, detention of suspects for long periods without charges, persecution of whistleblowers, targeting of innocent Muslim and Arab individuals and organizations, and surveillance without warrant of U.S. citizens. The Obama Justice Department has refused to investigate and prosecute Bush-Cheney officials for torture and other crimes — including President Bush himself, who has boasted publicly of his approval for waterboarding.

Guantanamo and several ‘black sites’ remain open. The treatment of Khalid El-Masri (tortured under the U,S,’s extraordinary rendition program, later found to be innocent), PFC Bradley Manning (detained in solitary confinement but unconvicted for leaking classified material to Wikileaks: see http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning and http://www.psysr.org/about/programs/humanrights/gates-manning-letter.php), and other prisoners reveals increasing disregard for laws against torture in the U.S. Constitution and Geneva Conventions.

The Green Party of the U,S. endorsed impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) introduced articles of impeachment in December 2006, before joining the Green Party and becoming the 2008 Green presidential nominee.

Military action outside of immediate self-defense is prohibited under international law, but the Bush Administration launched the invasion of Iraq based on the neocon doctrine of ‘preemption,’ which is now embraced by both Democrats and Republicans. Some members of Congress have urged a military assault on Iran based on the same doctrine.

The U.S., under both Bush and Obama presidencies, has continued to politically support and fund Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians, which violates scores of UN Security Council resolutions and amounts to war crimes under international law.

……The Wikileaks cables have exposed extralegal actions and official lies, including U.S. airstrikes in Yemen (denied by President Obama), secret military operations in Pakistan, a secret agreement with Britain to allow U.S. bases in the UK to stockpile cluster bombs, and bribery and illegal surveillance to undermine opposition to U.S. climate change policies, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4215.

“Exposure of wrong-doing by government officials, which often requires publication of secret documents, is the responsibility of the press in a free society. The claim that Julian Assange doesn’t deserve First Amendment protections because he isn’t a credentialed reporter is unfounded, since the First Amendment covers everyone, not just professional journalists,” said Pat LaMarche, weekly columnist for Maine’s largest daily newspaper, The Bangor Daily News and 2004 Green nominee for Vice President. (See http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=372)

Irregularities in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections disenfranchised thousands of U.S. citizens, especially black, young, and low-income voters. The Supreme Court’s patently biased Bush v. Gore decision (2000), which handed the presidency to George W. Bush, held that no national right to vote exists.

Greens led the effort in 2004 to expose and challenge election irregularities in Ohio and New Mexico,http://www.iwantmyvote.com. Although two Republican operatives were convicted in January 2007 of election tampering in Cuyahoga County, OH, Congress has taken no action to protect voters’ rights.

Greens have argued that Section 2 of the 14th Amendment requires punishment for states that “abridge” voting rights. In the wake of the 2004 election, Asa Gordon, chair of the DC Statehood Green Party’s Electoral College Task Force, filed suit against the malapportionment of Electoral College votes under the U.S.’s winner-take-all election system, citing Section 2′s penalty clause and the legacy of racial disenfranchisement in southern states.

On January 4, the day before the first session of the 112th Congress, Gordon was granted an emergency presentation of arguments before U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy challenging the seating of Representatives from southern states. Gordon’s motion is currently pending. (More information and documents:http://www.electors.us or contact Asa Gordon at 202-635-7926 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-635-7926      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-635-7926      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-635-7926      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-635-7926      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-635-7926      end_of_the_skype_highlighting)

Whole populations of the U.S. remain outside the U.S. Constitution’s coverage. The local laws of the District of Columbia are subject to Congress’s control and veto power, regardless of the will of DC residents. Whether Democrats or Republicans have been in control, the White House and Congress have ignored the repeated requests by the citizens of the nation’s capital, with its black majority, for full representation in Congress and statehood.

The U.S. has also ignored demands by the people of Puerto Rico for self-determination and independence, ignoring protests against U.S. Navy bomb detonations in Vieques, which have spread depleted uranium contamination, and unwanted laws and policies imposed on the island by the U.S. government.

“The Green Party calls for the end of the colonial treatment of people living in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and others who’ve been denied self-determination and self-government,” said Darryl! L.C. Moch, who serves on the steering committee of the DC Statehood Green Party, http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org. “We support statehood for DC, http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=172. We support the 2005 draft resolution by the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonization calling on the U.S. to allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their right to self-determination and independence, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/gacol3121.doc.htm. Bipartisan inaction on DC and Puerto RIco are an affront to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S.’s own equal protection laws. It’s time to complete the unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement and the national rights of U.S. colonies.”

Counterpoised to these brute force tactics, a more traditional and effective means of information management is to prevent positions judged unacceptable from finding their way into print in the first place.  In its internet variant, this takes the form of editorial decisions with respect to the content of front page postings at the major left websites.  Central among these was the topic of the open letter; namely, the maintenance of “critical support” with respect to the Obama campaign and subsequent administration.  Those who viewed the Obama phenomenon with grave suspicion both for its stated  policies and for its likely effect in undermining opposition movements, almost never found their positions represented on the front pages of any but the most marginal internet outlets, and, for that matter, in left print publications.

It is true that the far left spectrum of the internet represented by Counterpunch allowed challenges to this conventional wisdom.   But even here, leftists such as Norman Solomon, David Michael Green and others could be found making the case for “critical support” and in some cases expressing unbridled enthusiasm at the prospect of the nation’s first African American president.  In the months after the election, as predictions of even Obama’s most unenthusiastic supporters collided with the hard right reality of the Obama administration, pieces stating the obvious fact of the matter — that virtually the entirety of the mainstream left and much of the so called “radical left” — got it wrong remained hard to place.   Again, speaking from my own experience, what I regard as one of my better pieces “Who Got it Right” was consigned to the far fringes of the web, having been rejected for publication from the all of the major left sites I sent it to.

It is obvious that no single rejection by itself, or, for that matter, a boxful of them, constitutes censorship.  As stated earlier, articles can, and should, be rejected based the quality of the expression, factual accuracy, logical consistency and relevance among other factors. Proving censorship requires demonstrating that a piece meeting normal standards for publication was rejected purely on the grounds of its content having been considered as outside the bounds of acceptable discourse, which meant in this specific case challenging what had become a widespread left conventional wisdom with respect to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign.

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent Socialist, of Vermont, came of age. At last. With just about the best progressive voting record, Senator Sanders has nonetheless been an underachiever in the minds of those Americans who marveled at his tenure as mayor of Burlington, Vt. before he became a Congressman and now a Senator.

Last Friday, Sanders tore the covers off an oligarchic driven Congress and a concessionary President with eight-and-a-half hours of non-stop presentations of facts and figures and a plea for fairness and justice. His goal was not heated rhetoric, though he showed deep moral indignation, but to attempt to rally the American people “to voice their feelings” to their members of Congress via phone calls, letters and e-mails. C-Span carried him live, since he was the only activity on the Senate floor that day.

He asked the over-riding question of “who is winning and who is losing?” The winners were the giant, bailed out corporations and other companies so coddled with tax breaks and subsidies that they pay no federal income tax at all. He named some of these company bosses who make sky-high salaries and bonuses and take advantage of tax havens. ExxonMobil, Sanders noted, made $19 billion in profits last year, paid no federal income taxes and even received a $156 million refund from the U.S. Treasury!

Senator Sanders filled the Congressional Record with statements about a variety of inequities and contradictions regarding President Obama’s capitulation. Highlights follow:
–A Government Accountability Office report states that two-thirds of corporations making $2.5 trillion in sales over several years paid no federal income taxes.

–During the giant Wall St. bailout of 2008-2009, the Federal Reserve also bailed out with huge credit draws foreign banks from Bavaria to Japan. Such disclosures will be more common as a result of a successful Sanders amendment to the financial reform law earlier this year.

–The Obama-Republican deal would increase the deficit by $900 billion dollars over ten years but devote “not one nickel” to any infrastructure projects in local communities.

–He cited Warren Buffet and 90 other very rich Americans who wrote a letter to Congress opposing a tax cut for rich people like themselves.

–He cited the top one percent of the richest Americans who have wealth equal to the bottom 90 percent and receive 24% of all income. “When is enough, enough, do you want it all?” cried Sanders to an empty Senate chamber. (His colleagues had gone home Friday morning except for Senators Sherrod Brown and Mary Landrieu who conducted brief colloquies with Sanders while he rested his voice or went to the men’s room.)

–The top 25 hedge fund managers each made an average of a billion dollars last year with much of that income taxed only at a 15% rate. The richest 400 families paid a 16.6% effective tax rate on average. The Obama deal would extend their tax cuts for another two years.

–There has been zero net job creation since 1999 leading to a decline in average household income. Inequality of wealth in the U.S. is the worse in the industrialized world.

–The U.S. has the highest rate of child poverty in the western world, in some cases five to six times that of Scandinavia.

–The Obama Republican deal would divert for the first time $120 billion from the payroll tax, leading Sanders to say this is the beginning of the unraveling of social security, “eating our own seed,” he added.

– “Let us be very clear: This [estate] tax applies only–only–to the top
three-tenths of 1 percent of American families; 99.7 percent of American
families will not pay one nickel in an estate tax. This is not a tax on the rich, this is a tax on the very, very, very rich.” (The estate tax is reduced, while the exemption is increased, leading to $30-52 billion retained by the very wealthiest of estates over two years.)

–And of course over $120 billion over two years are left with the highest income rich, worsening the deficit in the coming years.

“We can do better” repeated Sanders, noting that Obama challenged his liberal base in Congress by asking “where are the votes?” To which, Sanders replied: “Our job is to mobilize the people of America,” noting a rising flood of support for a fairer deal.

Of course, Obama has a healthy majority in Congress until January 2011. It is the threat of a Senate Republican filibuster—which Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid et al have never made the Republicans use during the first two years of the Obama Administration—that has neutralized that majority. Moreover, the Senate Democrats could have changed these obstructive rules by a simple majority vote back in January 2009. But they chose not to allow their own working majority of well over 50 votes to prevail.

Obama came to the White House swearing that he would not live in “a bubble” and that he would keep his promises, which explicitly included no further extensions of tax cuts for the rich and a $9.50 federal minimum wage (still lower in purchasing power than the federal minimum wage in 1968!) by 2011.

So what do we see from the President? Well, he boasted about being a community organizer in Chicago years ago. Yet for months, knowing what was coming, he failed to arouse the citizenry against the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy which Obama swallowed last week. He is known to be an expert poker player, but he displayed none of that skill with the Republican corporacrats, Rep. John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell. Where are Obama’s touted oratorical skills? How smart can he be−undercutting his own Democrats and presenting them with the results of a closed-door sweetheart deal with their Republican adversaries?

Obama has frittered away his comfortable majority in Congress on many accounts for two years. And millions of people and their children will be paying the bill for his failure to fight for them.

My Friend Barack
by Ralph Nader / 11-22-10

After nearly two years out, I can imagine George W. Bush writing his successor the following letter:

Dear President Obama:

As you know I’ve been peddling my book Decision Points and while doing interviews, people ask me what I think of the job you’re doing. My answer is the same: He deserves to make decisions without criticism from me. It’s a tough enough job as it is.

But their inquiries did prompt me to write you to privately express my continual admiration for the job you are doing. Amazing! I say “privately” because making my sentiments public would not do either of us any good, if you know what I mean.

First, I can scarcely believe my good fortune as to how your foreign and military policies—“continuity” was the word used recently by my good friend, Joe Lieberman—has protected my legacy. More than protected, you’ve proven yourself just as able—and I may say sometimes even more so—to “kick ass” as my Daddy used to say.

My pleasant surprise is darn near limitless. Your Justice Department has not pursued any actions against my people—not to mention Dick Cheney and I—that the civil liberties and human rights crowd keep baying for you to do.

Overseas, all I see are five stars. You are roaring in Afghanistan, dispatching our great special forces into Yemen, saying, like me, that you’ll go anywhere in the world to kill those terrorists. When you said you would assassinate American citizens abroad suspected of “terrorism”—that news came over the radio during breakfast when I was eating my shredded wheat and I almost choked with amazement. You got cajones, buddy. I was hesitant about crossing the border into Pakistan—but you, man, are blasting away. Even Dick, who would never say it publicly, told me he is impressed.

The Leftists are always trying to have your policies show me up negatively. Hah—they’re having one hell of a tough time, aren’t they?

Me state secrets, you state secrets. Me executive privilege, you executive privilege. Me stop the release of torture videos, you backed me up. Me indefinite detention, you indefinite detention. Me extraordinary rendition; you extraordinary rendition. Me sending drones, you sending tons more, flying 24/7. Me just had to look the other way on collateral damage, you doing the same and protecting our boys doing it. Me approving night time assassination raids, you’re upping the ante especially since General Petraeus took over. Me beefing up Defense, you not skipping a beat. Me letting the CIA loose, you told them operate at large. Me demanding no pictures of our fallen troops, you doing the same, but allowing the families to go to Dover which I should have done.

There is one big difference. I never cracked a law book. You are a top Harvard lawyer and teacher of constitutional law. So when you do what I did, man, it’s—what’s the word—legitimization!

Domestically, sure you rag Wall Street, but you continued the big bail out of the bankers and their supporting cast. Sure, you’re tougher with your words, but they deserve it—remember I said that the Wall Streeters “got drunk” and “got a hangover”.

What I get such a kick out of is how you handled the unions and libs who backed you with dreams of Hope and Change. How smoothly you let them learn they got nowhere to go, just as we used to tell our conservative wing the same thing (though now they’ve been reborn as growling Tea Partiers). So, cardcheck, single payer, rolling back my Party’s passage of legislation in Congress—you made them forget it!

You have been such a great president—backing me on so many things—keeping most tax cuts and shelters, support for my oil and gas buddies (my base), big loan guarantees for nukes, keeping Uncle Sam from bargaining down pharma, expanding free trade, not going tough on China (my Daddy especially liked this one), avoiding class struggle rhetoric and so on.

You want to know how confident I am about you? Even though you called waterboarding “torture,” I proudly admitted approving its use to protect our country and its freedoms. Isn’t that really what the Presidency is all about, along with honoring our troops and the entire national defense efforts?

Semper fi—
George W. Bush

P.S. My mother Barbara is a big fan. She calls your term so far Obamabush. Cute, aye, for someone who was never a wordsmith.

Legend holds that during one of the famines that swept across France during the reign of Louis XVI, his Queen, Marie Antoinette, upon being told that the peasants had no bread, replied, “Let them eat cake.”

That phrase has acquired symbolic importance over the years when used to demonstrate the complete lack of concern and selfishness of the upper classes toward working people.

“Let them eat cake,” then, is an appropriate way to describe the current state visit of the Obama family to India and other nations in Asia.

Not since the days of Roman emperors has a head of state traveled with such pomp and grand expense. The entourage was transported on 40 airplanes, including 3 Boeing 747’s. The 3 presidential helicopters had to be disassembled, loaded on airplanes and reassembled in India. It took 6 armored cars to transport the presidential party on the ground when they were not occupying one of the 800 hotel rooms they rented, including the entire Taj Mahal hotel. That particular hotel, along with a couple of others, was the scene of a bloody terrorist attack in which 171 people were killed a few months ago. Thousands of Secret Service and other security personnel provided security for the president as he was watched by dedicated satellite 24 hours per day. The visit even required a fleet of ships to provide security off-shore.

The estimated cost of the 10-day trip for a bankrupt nation is $200 million per day.

I don’t object to the president and his family being protected and kept safe on a state visit, even when it is done with excess, as this visit appears to be. I’m sure the president doesn’t tell the Secret Service what they can and can’t do to protect him, but he does have control over who goes and who doesn’t. He did not have to travel with 152 members of his administration.

I thought of the Marie Antoinette quote when I saw the president and his wife dancing and touring obviously happy and going the extra mile to portray opulence to the world, and especially to the Indian people. I wondered about the president’s sense of modesty and propriety. Doesn’t he know that his nation is at war in at least 3 admitted countries and many other ones that are not admitted? He apparently does not see the need to tone down the strutting just out of respect for the nation’s dead.

Back at home, more than 42 million people subsist on food stamps. The number of people not in the labor force has set all time records for 14 consecutive months. Twenty-one percent of American children live below the poverty line. Twenty-eight percent of American households have at least one member looking for full time work. Almost 15 million people owe more on their homes than they are worth. One out of six Americans is now enrolled in at least one federal anti-poverty program. The president of the nation’s 10th largest bank, BB&T, recently was quoted as saying that the bankruptcy of the U.S. is a mathematical certainty.

I submit that all of these things and many others should serve as evidence that a time of moderation, restraint, and introspection, if not sack cloth and ashes, would be appropriate. People are aware of the condition of our country and they just gave the president a reminder of that on November 2nd.

What, then, has been the presidential reaction to the impoverishment of the American people? Let them eat cake.

Dear President Obama,

The U.S. government bailout of, and acquisition of a majority share in, General Motors was an exceptional action, taken in response to exceptional circumstances. The U.S. stake in GM obviously poses novel managerial challenges to the government. The appropriate response to those challenges, however, is not to run from the responsibility through passive ownership and premature sale at a loss to taxpayers.

We write as GM prepares to undertake an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of stock that will reduce the government stake in the company to 43 percent. We urge that the government as primary owner arrange for the suspension of the IPO and then begin exercising the responsibilities attendant to ownership. We would like to highlight some of the numerous reasons for, and applications of, these recommendations.

1. Ensuring the best return to taxpayers

The government obviously has a serious fiduciary duty to taxpayers to obtain the best possible return on our investment in GM. This should not be the government’s only consideration in managing its GM stake, but it should be a priority.

News reports indicate the planned IPO will cause taxpayers to realize a $4.9 billion loss. Certainly no one can predict the future of GM or the markets with any certainty, but many analysts have offered the view that GM’s financial prospects are very positive. Simply recognizing how severely the Great Recession has crimped auto sales in the United States gives credence to this view; annual sales remain down by more than 25 percent from a few years ago. Many analysts believe that the IPO is being driven by a government desire to exit from GM ownership as soon as possible, even at the expense of better recoupment of the taxpayer investment.

Investor prudence thus counsels for maintaining the government’s current share, and delaying a sell off so that the government can capture likely improved returns in the future.

2. Protecting jobs and investment in the United States

We believe the government emergency investment in GM was necessary and proper, though we were and remain critical that the government imposed conditions on its investment to lower GM costs but not to advance broader public interest objectives.

The primary rationale of investing in GM had to be to preserve jobs and prop an economy in a severe downward spiral. As we pointed out at the time of the government investment, it was incumbent on the government to ensure that GM maintained production in the United States. There may be a rationale for GM to produce overseas for overseas markets, but it should not be opening new facilities abroad to ship back to the United States; and choices about facilities closings should favor keeping U.S. plants open, especially for vehicles produced for the U.S. market. There is a broader concern: the U.S. government has an interest in ensuring the locus of GM’s research and product development remains in the United States.

As majority shareholder in GM, the United States has the ability to direct or influence the company’s investment decisions. As the U.S. reduces its share, so its capacity to influence such decisions diminishes. Had the government invested in GM for pecuniary reasons, the legitimacy of affecting such decisions would be lessened. But the government did not invest in GM for pecuniary reasons. It invested precisely to preserve U.S. jobs and manufacturing capacity. It is now incumbent on the government to manage its investment to advance these objectives.

Underscoring the importance of suspending the IPO to ensure protection of the U.S. national interests in GM are reports that various foreign auto manufacturers — including China’s SAIC — and sovereign wealth funds are considering purchasing large blocs of shares in GM.

3. Addressing climate change, safety and environmental challenges

Looming over all the other great challenges facing the country and the world is the threat of catastrophic climate change. Addressing climate change is going to require massive, across-the-board changes in the way we generate, distribute and consume energy. No area will be more important than transportation.

Your administration has taken some positive steps in increasing vehicle fuel economy standards, but we need even more to achieve transformational change.

Holding a majority stake in one of the world’s largest auto makers, even if due to an historic anomaly, positions the U.S. government to directly advance the transformational changes we need. In addition to prodding the auto makers to do better through always-contentious and often-undermined regulatory processes, the government can and should direct GM to increase dramatically its investments in electric cars and other transformational technologies, and to make sure safety is not compromised with such new technologies.

The ability to direct such investments will decline as the U.S. share in GM declines.

Such direction makes even more sense given the second gift from TARP to GM in the bailout — a provision allowing GM to keep a $45 billion tax loss carry forward that normally is erased in restructuring. GM can avoid that amount in future tax liability on its profits.

4. Preserving our democracy from influence from unaccountable corporate entities

Whether by government directive or some very modest sense of propriety, GM suspended its lobbying and campaign contributions while undergoing the government rescue.

But now, outrageously, with the government still a majority shareholder, the company has resumed lobbying. To peruse GM’s lobby disclosure forms is to see a corporate entity working to shape policy on a broad range of issues, including: auto and truck safety, Wall Street reform, taxes, appropriations, climate change, fuel efficiency, trade (including trade agreements with Korea, Peru and Colombia, and negotiations at the World Trade Organization), and currency valuation.

Why in the world is a majority government-owned — that is, publicly owned — entity permitted to lobby the U.S. Congress and executive agencies, often against your own administration’s legislative and policy positions, such as the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 legislation to correct statutory deficiencies resulting in the Toyota debacle, presently pending in the House and Senate? With the ballot boxes barely counted, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (of which GM is a prominent member) is already reneging on fuel economy rules it agreed to with your administration less than two years ago.

The government as majority shareholder should not permit this to occur; and it should not permit its shareholding stake to be reduced in such a way that GM gains greater latitude to affect policymaking.

As the government was preparing its rescue of GM, we highlighted each of the concerns mentioned here, and urged that they be addressed as part of the rescue process. Those recommendations were, unfortunately, ignored. But it is not too late for the government to exercise its control of GM responsibly, and to advance vital public interest objectives. We urge you to act to suspend the IPO.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader
P.O. Box 19312
Washington, DC 20036

Joan Claybrook, President Emeritus
Public Citizen
1600 20th St., NW
Washington, DC 20009

Clarence Ditlow, Executive Director
Center for Auto Safety
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 330
Washington, DC 20009

Robert Weissman, President
Public Citizen
1600 20th St., NW
Washington, DC 20009

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 4 — According to the Associated Press, 90 million Americans — only 42% of registered voters — pulled the lever for a congressional candidate on Tuesday. That’s just a hair under 29% of the US population of 310.6 million.

“So much for the consent of the governed,” says Thomas L. Knapp of the fledgling X2012 Project. “In a typical district, the next US Representative was chosen by, at most, one out of four or five registered voters and less than one in six of his or her alleged constituents.”

“A majority of those who could have voted refused to. A supermajority either chose not to vote or weren’t allowed to vote,” says the edgy and contemplative media coordinator and senior news analyst for the Center for a Stateless Society. “Yet for the next two years, that politician will claim to ‘represent,’ and to possess legitimate authority to rule, all of them.”

The X2012 Project, which hopes to build grassroots support for a massive boycott of the 2012 general election, aims to put the lie to those claims. Launched as the polls closed on Tuesday evening, X2012 is a “branding campaign” which allows non-voters to dispute the conventional wisdom that their abstention is rooted in apathy or that it constitutes implicit consent to the existing system of government.

By the time 2012 rolls around, the project hopes to have millions of non-voters on the record as non-consenting.

A July Rasmussen poll found that only 23% of Americans believe the US government functions with “the consent of the governed” — the criterion of legitimacy set forth by America’s founders in the Declaration of Independence.

“Thomas Jefferson didn’t say ‘a majority of the governed,’” says Knapp, a longtime third-party activist who ran for vice president on the nascent Boston Tea Party in 2008 while simultaneously garnering 8,628 votes as the Libertarian Party’s nominee for Congress in Missouri’s 2nd congressional district.

”Even a significant minority of dissenters calls the legitimacy of a government into question,” says Knapp. ”Some estimates say that fewer than one third of Americans supported the Revolution at its beginning. We’ve got a better case against John Boehner, Harry Reid and Barack Obama than Tom Paine had against George III.”

Darcy G. Richardson is the author of six books, including five volumes of a planned seven-volume history on independent and third-party politics in the United States.

Hinkle said, “The TSA should end the strip-search machine program immediately.

“We’ve reached a point where our government has no qualms about humiliating us.

“Everyone who cares about civil liberties should be outraged that the Obama administration has shown no respect for travelers’ privacy or their right to be free from unreasonable searches. The fact that I want to travel on an airplane does not make me a threat, and it does not allow anyone to conduct a warrantless search under my clothing. The Obama administration apparently agrees with the neoconservative philosophy that there are no limits on government power in the areas of security and terrorism.

“Terrorists win when they provoke our government into overreacting. Apparently they have manipulated our government into chipping away at our rights and privacy. We should not let them get away with it.”

American Pilots Association president Dave Bates recently spoke out against the strip-search machines, expressing concern about the possibly harmful radiation they emit.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) recently filed the opening brief in its lawsuit against the program. EPIC says that the machines violate the federal Privacy Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, and the Fourth Amendment. EPIC’s president called the program “unlawful, invasive, and ineffective.”

Hinkle continued, “We can ignore the government’s assurances that images will not be stored. Regardless of policy, some security personnel will want to store the images, and they will find ways to do it. This is already reported to have happened in Florida, where U.S. Marshalls stored thousands of images from a courthouse scanner.

“Many airlines are probably relieved to have the federal government assume responsibility for security. But it’s the airlines who ought to be responsible, and they should bear the liability for what happens on their flights. Rather than have a one-size-fits-all approach imposed by the government, passengers and airlines should be free to work together to determine what methods and levels of security fit their needs best.

“We encourage Americans to call their newly-elected members of Congress and tell them that they don’t want this expensive, worthless, intrusive, unconstitutional program.”

For more information, or to arrange an interview, call LP Executive Director Wes Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America’s third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website: http://www.lp.org

Obama Unhinged: Leftist Anger, Bitterness and Mental Breakdown Leads to Historic Landslide Defeat.

Las Vegas Oddsmaker Now Sees 60 to 70 Seat GOP Victory and Major Independent Gains too.

By Wayne Allyn Root, Best-Selling Author and 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee

Think Reagan vs. Carter in 1980. The Presidential race was dead even until days to go. At the last moment, common sense mainstream American voters all broke the same way, at the same time, to the same place- Reagan. It’s happening before our eyes again this Tuesday. American mainstream voters are abandoning Obama, big government, tax and spend, and any hint of socialism. The landslide will be bigger than anyone- including me- realized even days ago.

As a Las Vegas Oddsmaker-turned-Vice Presidential nominee, I predicted a historic 50 to 60 seat GOP House victory only a week ago. But that was before Obama unhinged in front of the country. That was before Obama lowered the office of the President by appearing as a guest on the Jon Stewart Show, where the Commander-in-Chief was called “dude” by a comedian. That was before our leader called the lame job done by his failed economic advisor Larry Summers “a heck of a job.” That was before Obama lowered himself by arguing with protestors at a Democratic rally. That was before Obama appeared on Univision (Hispanic TV) to call mainstream voters who disagree with illegal immigration “enemies.” That was before he gave divisive speeches across the country telling Republicans to “ride in the back.” That was before ABC’s “The View” host Joy Behar called Nevada Tea Party Senate candidate Sharron Angle a “bitch” on national TV and compared her commercials about illegal immigration to Nazi propaganda films. And let’s not forget the high-profile NPR (National Public Radio) controversy of days ago- the disgraceful firing of commentator Juan Williams for exercising his free speech and speaking honestly and fairly about an issue that I’ll bet 80% of Americans agree on.

The left is coming unhinged. It’s a meltdown on the biggest stage in the world. Obama and his cronies appear angry, bitter, and unstable. They sound-to be blunt- nutty. And mainstream American voters are turned off and FRIGHTENED by this leftist mental breakdown.

Mainstream American voters hate “radical, extreme and dangerous.” Ironically those are the three powerful words Democrats tried to tie to the Tea Party candidates. Yet it’s Obama and Democrats who appear radical, extreme and dangerous in the closing days of this campaign.

The result? I now predict historic GOP and independent voting gains. Instead of a 50 to 60 seat shift in the House, I now predict a 60 to 70 seat GOP gain as within reach. Yes, SEVENTY. And I see independent candidates across the country gaining as well. Libertarian Party and other independent candidates will see the highest vote totals in half a century. In particular, Libertarian vote totals in Ohio and Indiana should break all-time records. Tom, Tancredo could be the next Governor of Colorado as an independent. In other words, voters are turning to anyone, but Obama and the Democratic Party.

Once and for all, big government expansion, tax and spend, and socialism will be repudiated by the American people. The massive landslide on Tuesday will “shock and awe” the pundits, media know-it-alls, and Beltway insiders.

Wayne Allyn Root, is the author of the new paperback, “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold, and Tax Cuts.” He is a Las Vegas oddsmaker turned Vice Presidential nominee. Root is available to the media to provide pre and post election analysis, discussion and debate. His website is: ROOTforAmerica.com.

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Wayne Root’s election predictions

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Admittedly, it didn’t happen this cycle. Nevertheless, Lincoln Chafee got the next best thing.

On October 25th Barack Obama did his usual thing as a President right before mid-terms: gave his blessing with rallies to a few of his party’s candidates, raised funds for his party, and did a little bit of local glad-handing.

But there was one conspicuous absence: Obama never endorsed the Democrats’ nominee for Governor, Frank Caprio. It seems a question of loyalty. Lincoln Chafee was one of the first Republicans (although he was an Independent by then) to endorse Barack Obama for President. With Chafee in a tight race with Caprio and Republican John Robitaille, Obama chose not to step on an early supporter’s feet in an admittedly Democratic-friendly state.

Chafee has already capitalized on the move in his latest ad: