End the Fed: Filmmaker Tad Lumpkin Animates the Financial Crisis

www.theamericandreamfilm.com screen capture 2011-3-11-22-39-30

“Any time you give unlimited capacity to print money, then the government’s going to grow,” says filmmaker Tad Lumpkin.

Lumpkin created the animated feature The American Dream, which is available on YouTube, to explain U.S. monetary policy and its consequences in a way that would be accessible to a mass audience. Although some in the media, and at the Federal Reserve, blame a lack of regulation for the financial crisis, Lumpkin argues that the Fed itself is the primary cause for the collapse of the housing sector.

Lumpkin sat down with Reason.tv’s Tim Cavanaugh to discuss the folly of central banking, why Ron Paul is an important political force, and why it’s time to end the Fed.

The American Dream Film-Full Length

Captain Disingenuous Strikes Again

Captain Obvious

As the latest demonstration of his lack of economic depth, President Obama put forth a series of falsehoods in the form of a press conference. The indispensible Jeff Dunetz pointed out the tsunami of falsehoods, so Go Read That.

But the president also used his typically bad logic to push his green agenda.

Because even if we were to grant his false claim that the US has only 2% of the world’s oil and uses 25% of it, there would be nothing wrong with that.  We are the world’s biggest economy, and there is a world market for oil.  We are just as much at the mercy of that market as anyone else.

The unspoken premise is that there is some fair amount of oil to which we are entitled. The implication is that our oil ration bears some relation to the amount we produce. But if that were so, then countries that produce little or no oil at all, such as Japan or the Koreas, would not be entitled to any.

The fact that President Obama believes this argument to be persuasive, even dispositive, demonstrates further his socialist mindset. We do not have a ration, and there would nothing wrong with the United States using up every last drop of oil the rest of the world produces, as long as we’re willing topay for it.

But in granting that the US produces 2% of the world’s oil, we are forced to note the incredible array of constraints placed on oil production. With his boot still firmly on the neck of the oil industry, Obama need not remind Americans how little we actually produce.

Maryland House of Delegates Kills Same-Sex Marriage Bill, Black Democrat Opponent Called N-Word

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Today the Maryland House of Delegates shocked supporters and opponents alike when they recommitted the bill to committee, effectively killing it for the year.

After narrowly passing the Senate with a vote of 25-21 and with publicly stated support for the bill by the state’s governor,  proponents of the legislation thought they were headed toward victory. But according to the House Speaker they just didn’t have enough votes.

Most shocking to the public (not so shocking to our readers) was the way in which Democrats who opposed the bill were excoriated and demeaned by  the bills supporters — Exhibiting behavior, all to common to the liberal movement, Delegate Emmett Burns, a Democrat, said he’s been threatened and called the “N-word” by supporters of the bill:

“The civil rights movement as I knew it… had nothing to do with same-sex marriage,” he said, “and those who decide to ride on our coattails are historically incorrect. The civil rights movement was about putting teeth into the Declaration of Independence.”

The following is a press release from the National Organization for Marriage:

Whizzing by reality on high-speed rail

High speed rail

The Democrats in Congress want to spend tens of billions of taxpayer–okay, let’s be honest, borrowed dollars on “high speed rail” projects that only a fraction of Americans will ever ride. Meanwhile, our existing automobile and other infrastructure is falling apart because no one is willing to spend the money to fix it. Democrats want to spend up to $43 billion in Federal and state money just for high a high speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and are looking at giving away over $50 billion through the “Stimulus” legislation passed last year. Joe Biden, Harry Reid and President Obama each have expressed their intense desire for these projects to go forward.

A little quick math here but even at $200 per one-way ticket it would take 215 million riders for the Los Angeles-San Francisco line to pay for itself, and that’s getting the maintenance, energy and labor to run it for free. I’m pretty sure ridership projections, even projected over the next 20 years, aren’t that high. If they are, the people who wrote the ridership report should be in jail for fraud, because Americans don’t ride the rails.

Killing the small business in the cradle

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[Editor's note from Susannah: The great blogger, Da Tech Guy (who is also my good friend), is now going to be writing in our Business and Tech section--and, he is occasionally going to be posting his awesome interviews with movers and shakers in the conservative movement on the front page. Please extend to him a warm TMR welcome. Thank you.]

As regular readers of my blog know, I spend a lot of time going door to door talking to business people in order to sell ads for my radio show (DaTechGuy on DaRadio Saturday Mornings 10 a.m. on WCRN AM 830 BTW).

With the economy in trouble nationwide and jobs scarce to come by, many people (including me) have decided to go into business for themselves. Just yesterday I met a lady at a cleaners shop in Acton who is painting silk scarfs as a new business while she looks for other work.

Small Entrepreneurs usually have it tough. One or two person operations put in an inordinate amount of labor to make a small amount of money (if any). In addition they have to follow all the governmental rules that are put before them as they attempt to get started.

One of the biggest advantages for such a person these days is the internet. The ability to market, sell and connect to a national and/or international customer bases gives the micro businessman a chance to succeed and the opportunity to grow into something larger than they ever dreamed…unless they live in Illinois that is.

Pat Quinn, the newly elected Democratic Governor of Illinois has decided to buck the prevailing winds and attempt to close his deficits by a new tax on internet sales signing Bill HB3659.

NPRgate and the King Hearings

nprgate

Posted with permission from the Center for Security Policy | Mar 10, 2011

By Frank Gaffney, Jr.

Yesterday’s videotaped revelations by the intrepid James O’Keefe provides welcome grist for many mills. Most obviously, it offers irrefutable evidence that National Public Radio employs elitists who are hostile to Republicans, Tea Party activists, and others derided as gun-toting, white “racists.”

The principal focus of the expose filmed last month, Ron Schiller, the network’s now-departed vice president of development and president of the NPR Foundation, declared that his organization would be “better off in the long-run” without government underwriting.

Presumably, such sentiments will make it impossible for members of Congress to justify continued public funding of the organization when the Senate considers the decision taken by the House of Representatives to zero out NPR in the latest stopgap funding measure.

What is particularly instructive, however — and highly relevant to the hearings that Rep. Peter King will convene in his House Homeland Security Committee tomorrow — is the subtext of the new O’Keefe und

ercover videos: NPR seems to have had no problem sitting down with, and apparently entertaining the offer of $5 million from, representatives of a group that explicitly described itself as a Muslim Brotherhood organization and that promoted the “acceptance worldwide” (read, imposition) of shariah (the Islamists’ totalitarian politico-military-legal program).

Chairman King has made the focus of his first hearing what he calls “extremism” in the Muslim American community. A more accurate term for what ails that population would be shariah, for it is the adherence to that supremacist doctrine that obliges its followers to engage in jihad.

As a distinguished group of national security experts observed in a new book published by the Center for Security Policy, titled Shariah: The Threat to America, we must be concerned about more than just the threat of violent jihad. After all, according to shariah, where violence is impracticable, jihadists are supposed to use stealthy (or pre-violent) means to advance the cause that O’Keefe’s fictitious Muslim Education Action Center and the myriad real Muslim Brotherhood fronts share with al-Qaeda and its ilk: the imposition of shariah everywhere and the establishment of a global Caliphate to rule pursuant to it.

In tomorrow’s hearing and, those that will presumably follow it, Mr. King and his colleagues will have an opportunity to explore the role the stealth jihadists are playing in the Muslim American community. Muslim Brotherhood front groups like the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have, with Saudi money and that of other enablers of jihad, created organizational infrastructures.

With help from successive U.S. administrations, they have been legitimated in their bid to be seen as the sole representatives of American Muslims. Most recently, that message was communicated tangibly by the visit paid to a prominent shariah-adherent mosque in the Washington, D.C., suburbs by the deputy national security advisor to the president, Denis McDonough. In his prepared remarks, McDonough extolled one of the top Muslim Brothers in America, Imam Mohamed Magid, president of ISNA, the largest MB front in the country.

Worse yet, this top U.S. national security official actually parroted talking points pushed out by CAIR and its ilk to suppress expression concerning the threat Rep. King knows needs to be addressed. McDonough warned that, if we choose to criticize those in the American Muslim population who encourage shariah, “we risk feeding the very feelings of disenchantment that may push some members of that community to violent extremism.”

No examination of the “response” of the Muslim-American community to the “extremists” in its midst — which is the self-described purpose of Rep. King’s hearing tomorrow — would be complete without exploring the role being played by the Muslim Brotherhood and its operatives. Here’s hoping that the evidence James O’Keefe has provided of how open to penetration and influence operations are key elements of our society will provide fresh encouragement to the chairman and his colleagues to identify and root out the Brotherhood and other shariah-adherent “extremists” in the Muslim American community.

This article first appeared at PJM.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. held senior positions in the Reagan Defense Department. He is president of the Center for Security Policy (www.SecureFreedom.org) and host of the syndicated weeknightly show, “Secure Freedom Radio” (www.SecureFreedomRadio.com).

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President Obama’s Energy Presser: Running on Empty

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Today, President Obama’s press conference was long on talking points but short on facts. Quoting the tired Democrat talking point that domestic production was at an all time high since 2003 and continuing the narrative that “big oil” is doing just fine!

The fact is, that under the Obama Administration, domestic oil production has dropped by 16 percent versus projected levels, and future projections show continued decreases in domestic production.

>> WHITE HOUSE SPIN: “White House spokesman Jay Carney said … Domestic oil production last year rose to its highest level since 2003.” (Rising Gas Prices Spur Calls For U.S. Oil Production, NPR, 3/10/11)

>> FACT: Obama Administration policies have caused domestic oil production to drop by 16 percent versus projected levels, and future projections show continued decreases in domestic production and more foreign imports. (Obama Administration Spins U.S. Oil Production Numbers, Takes Credit for Predecessors’ Pro-Energy Polices, House Natural Resources Committee, 3/10/11)

Obama: “It would be so much easier to be the president of China”

Obama w China Pres

It would be much easier to be President of China…no pesky constitution would be getting in the way of your dictates. Easier for the President means more difficulty for The People.

From The Weekly Standard:

“Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, ‘No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.’”

Mr. Obama is right.

If you’re president of China, people around the world who are fighting for freedom don’t really expect you to help. If you’re president of China, you don’t have to put up with annoying off-year congressional elections, and then negotiate your budget with a bunch of gun-and-religion-clinging congressmen and senators. If you’re president of China, you can fund your national public radio to your heart’s content. And if you’re president of China, when you host a conference on bullying in schools, people take you seriously.

Unfortunately for him and us, Barack Obama is president of the United States. That job brings with it certain special responsibilities. It’s a tough job—maybe tougher than being president of China. But Barack Obama ran for president of the United States. Maybe he should start behaving as one.