The RNC was a total Sham

Want to see obvious and blatant disenfranchisement? Watch the Ron Paul delegates being stripped of their voting power at the 2012 RNC convention.

Democracy? Not at the RNC!

This level of pettiness reminds me of dictatorships like North Korea, where any admission or acknowledgement of opposition is prohibited.

I wish that Dennis Kucinich supporters would have had the same gumption and spine as Ron Paul's delegates. I guess it's harder to create a clear contrast with the DNC though, because DNC candidates talk like they are populist anti-war candidates, and then turn around to serve Wall Street and bomb 3rd world nations.

Sequestration and the Death Machine

Will Hopkins of New Hampshire Peace Action asked me to do a video about sequestration. So this is that video.
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The Punk Patriot interviews Ayn Rand

There was an audio problem with the original, and I finally got around to fixing it.

Ayn Rand has been dead for nearly 30 years, making her quite the "get."

Seeing what consequences her philosophy has had for the world, will she recant?
Watch and find out!

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Link to Nathaniel Branden's rebuff of Ayn Rand's cult: http://bit.ly/muKj
Also, Ayn Rand had a serious crush on a serial killer who kidnapped & brutally dismembered a 12 year old girl and modeled the protagonists in her stories after him:
Article 1
Article 2

Death and Taxes

It becomes easier to like Ron Paul when the GOP hates him.

via TYT



Ron Paul is hated by establishment Republicans. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks down a politico article on the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate.

Ron Paul is now the frontrunner in Iowa.

via RawStory

According to a new poll release from Public Policy Poll, Paul has surged ahead at 23 percent, with Mitt Romney now in second place at 20 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has seen a dramatic drop in support, falling to third at 14 percent.

"If [Bachman] thinks we live in a dangerous world, she ought to think back to when I was drafted in 1962, when there were nuclear missiles in CUBA, and Kennedy calls Krushev and talks to him, and talks him out of this thing so we don't have a nuclear exchange. and you're trying to dramatize this and say that we need to treat Iran like we've treated Iraq, and kill one million Iraqis, and some 8,000 Americans have died since we've gone to war? You cannot solve these problems with war!"

Also, to hear the applause coming from a GOP audience at the line, "WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER WAR!" gives me goosebumps. It might really be possible that Ron Paul could be the nominee of the GOP. I would LOVE to see a debate between Ron Paul and Barack Obama.

Why?

Because this right-wing hardliner would be running to the LEFT of Obama on War, Civil Liberties, Drug Legalization, and Gay Marriage.

I want to make clear-- I disagree with 50% of what Ron Paul stands for. I disagree that personal liberty and economic liberty are the same issue-- in fact, those two things are often at odds with one another (see Singapore for example).

But the 50% I agree with, I agree with 100%.

Ron Paul talks about Student Debt

via Occupy Student Debt:

"‎This is not an endorsement for or against Ron Paul. He is just discussing some important issues about our plight, and it is well worth watching and considering. He is the only candidate from either party to really take this subject head-on in an open and honest way."

I would like to add that Ron Paul's idea of taking away access to loans and letting the free market sort things out is koo koo bananas.

The reason why people who work would want their taxes to pay for the college of somebody else, is because that somebody else might end up being the heart surgeon who saves their life later-- if they get to go to college.

A well educated society benefits everybody. College should be free for those who want to go. College students have become the new sub-prime mortgages. We absolutely should "bail out" student debt: That's the transition to a society in which education is free for those who want to pursue it.

I disagree with 50% of what Ron Paul stands for

But the half I agree with, I agree with 100%.

[MUSIC] - WAR CRY

Lyrics: 

I don’t know what I’ve been told

you can win the war but you’ll lose your soul

you can drop a bomb that will burn a hole

through everything you love and know

Brothers face down in the soil

your machine it runs on oil

brothers face down in the mud

your machine it runs on blood

you pretend that it’s anything but wrong

(war cry)

All this death and all this strife

so you can life your American life

we cannot quench our lust for more

we lost our soul but we won the war

Uncle sam can lend a hand

brothers face down in the sand

I don’t know what I’ve been told

you can win the war, but you lose your soul

you pretend that it’s anything but wrong  

(war cry)

OTHER STUFF:

* I'm headed back down to #OWS tonight, and I'll be there till very late Sunday night (actually 1:30am Sunday morning).  I'm doing some volunteer work for the documentary I worked on previously.  I really want to see the project through now that I've been working on it for so long.  If you're at OWS at anytime during that period, say hello!



* Yet another big thank you to PE Nolan for letting me crash on her couch.



* THIS is extremely exciting:  A contingent from #OWS is marching from NYC all the way to Washington DC, covering 20 miles a day for two weeks straight.  Holy smokes this is awesome.



* The next 16 people to order t-shirts from my Etsy store will get a copy of my band's cd FOR FREE!



* My band, Theodore Treehouse, just launched a kickstarter project for our second album.  We're trying to raise $8,000 to a) pay for recording b) pay for mastering c) pay for publishing and d) repair our van so we can e) go on a tour of all the Occupied cities in the USA.  Which is getting to be a larger number every day.  We're raising the money in $10 and $20 increments.  So that's a lot of people.

Picking campaign music for the GOP

So the New Yorker has an article in which Ben Greenman makes some dry, unfunny jabs at the GOP frontrunners by picking their campaign theme music.

For Michele Bachman, for instance, he picked "Shine on you crazy diamond." For Mitt Romney, he went for a pun by picking cheap trick's "Stiff Competition." Get it? Because Romney is stiff and charisma-free!

*yawn*

Rather than digging through the top 40 hits of the past 40 years, they should look to death metal. In particular, one band:

Cannibal Corpse.

I mean, what's more appropriate to show that you as a candidate are in support torture, (er ahem, "enhanced interrogation") than Cannibal Corpse's "Make Them Suffer"?




And at pro-life rallies, just to get everybody all riled up, they can play "Butchered At Birth." as you walk onto stage. Y'know, to remind everybody what abortion means. Because those giant posters with body-parts splattered across them[editor's note: the image at the link is graphic] just don't quite convey the message succinctly enough.



And in support of our three illegal and immoral wars, they can play "Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains."






Actually, you could use any of these for quite a few Democrats too.

Ron Paul is on Team Wikileaks!

ARE YOU?!



CLICK HERE AND GET SOME

Why Private Fire Departments DON'T WORK

From ThinkProgress:

there are currently two competing visions of governance in the United States. One, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own society, and informs a policy agenda that primarily serves the well off and privileged sectors of the country. The other vision, the progressive one, believes in an American Dream that works for all people, regardless of their racial, religious, or economic background.

This is the perverted version of America that Ron Paul, libertarians, and the Tea Party want to bring you:


From Huffington Post:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A smoldering rage may be all that remains after Gene Cranick's home burned to the ground last week in Obion County, Tennessee.

Firefighters are usually the bold "veni, vidi, vici" sort, but those from neighboring South Fulton could only say "veni, vidi." They came. They watched. That's it.

Cranick lives outside of the city limits and he admits that he forgot to pay a $75 annual service fee that would have provided him with fire protection. Firefighters wouldn't lift a finger, much less the hoses that might have saved the house.

The fire reportedly started in some barrels outside. As the flames crept closer to the home, Cranick says he offered to pay whatever it would take. The plea fell on deaf ears. Hours later, the home was gone.

So were three dogs and a cat.

"They coulda' been saved if they put water on it. But they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC.

The South Fulton firefighters did show up and managed to save a neighbor's field. The neighbor had paid the fee. But they would provide no heroics for the Cranicks. A local news report shows them climbing back on their trucks, flames still dancing over what was once the family's home.

Read the rest: click here

This shirt was originally meant as a joke, but it seems sadly apropos today:


Click the image to go to my Etsy Shop


I want to set up a fund so that proceeds from the sale of this shirt will be donated to Gene Cranick's family. (I still have to figure out how to get in contact with them-- if you know how, please contact me)

What do you think about this?

---

UPDATE: So I've decided to push ahead with it. I'll start trying to raise money now, and if I get anything, I'll figure out how to get it to them. I don't yet have any money raised to worry about right now, so I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it. I've been in contact with both MSNBC and WPSD. Any other leads would be appreciated.

Jim Chappelow :: Veterans for Peace 25th Annual Convention

Jim Chappelow served in Iraq, and is now a member of IVAW and Veterans for Peace.

Matt Gonzalez, Ron Paul, John Dennis - Anti-war rally in San Fran

The Punk Patriot's Rap-A-Long Vlog

WHY PROTESTS TODAY SUCK

Protests today are totally impotent...

Except there's an unpermitted protest coming up in March, that I didn't know about at the time of filming, which I hope proves me wrong:
http://www.thepeaceoftheaction.org
The usual stuff:
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NEW T-SHIRT ON ETSY

Visit the PunkPatriot.Etsy.com Store RIGHT NOW!


Light green text on dark green shirt, one of the many varieties available. You pick and choose your colors.

It's an HTML joke! In Helvetica! (for those who follow those things.)

Also, seriously, end war. Not just the ones in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the idea that forcing people in one country to kill people in another country proves something.

Since these are handmade, they are available in a near infinite number of color combinations.

Many other color combos are available. Just ask. Also, be sure to include what SIZE you want in your order.


Light green text on dark green shirt again, but in poorer lighting.
T-Shirts, as always, are $10 per each, $5 shipping and handling.

FBI: Census worker possibly murdered by anti-government extremists

My father is a census worker, so this hits especially close to home for me.

MSNBC.com
Full Story after the jump



WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether anti-government sentiment led to the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word 'fed" was scrawled on the dead man's chest.

The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment. An autopsy report is pending.

Investigators have said little about the case. The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, said Wednesday the man was found hanging from a tree and the word "fed" was written on the dead man's chest. The official did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word.

FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is helping state police with the case.

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved — and that's part of the investigation — and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a census worker," said Beyer.

Beyer declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.

'Deeply saddened'
Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a month.

Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.

Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said.

The U.S. Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."

Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."


Full Story after the jump

Where were you on 9-11-01?

I remember waking up, getting ready for English class. It was my second week of my freshman year of college. Before leaving to catch the bus to the other campus, I was checking the primussucks.com bullitan board, as was my habit at the time. There were several posts about the "airline accident" in NYC, and then suddenly, there were posts of a second plane hitting. It was probably a few minutes after 9am. My class didn't start until 10:30am.

I ran downstairs to see what was going on on the news. I sat there watching in disbeleif. I had become friends with the RD of the dorm, and I ran and got her, because I figured she ought to know.

She and I sat there watching transfixed as the towers burned. As the first tower fell, I was in total disbelief. I knew at that time that a steel structure building had never collapsed due to fire. Cookie was concerned that the buildings might burn down, and I mentioned that to her. Time was static, so I don't know how many minutes after that I was proven wrong. I imagined all the people's lives inside being extinguished in a horrible instant, and my could feel my heart, and my soul, fall to the floor with the tower. Felt completely empty.

Cookie, the RD turned to me and said, "I would hate to be president right now." I looked at her, and asked if she was kidding. I looked back at the television and said, looking into the smoke, "for at least a year after something like this, you could pass whatever laws you wanted to. If he wants to the Senate to declare war, he can declare war on whomever he wants. Nobody will question the President during a crisis like this."

Looking back, I don't know why I said that, or how I knew that's what would happen. I'm not a Machiavellian person. It was what little American history I'd studied, probably; knowing how we interned the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. Knowing how we had the Red Scare during the 1950s. During the Gulf War I was too young to understand what was going on, but I knew enough by the time Clinton was in office that I was against Clinton bombing Iraqi aspirin factories during the Monica Lewinsky scandal as a distraction. I had followed the 2000 election quite closely as a Senior in high school, watched as it was stolen, and was convinced that G.W. Bush would, like his father before him, declare war on somebody. I even have a letter I was assigned to write myself in High School by myself as a College Sophomore writing to my self as a High School Senior about what the future holds for me. It scares me a little now, but I said in that letter, half joking, "with George W Bush in office, we're sure to be at war with somebody by now, for no good reason." There was an inevitability I felt about it. Perhaps I was just jaded.

Sitting there watching as the remaining tower burned, Cookie looked back at me after my comment with tears and bit of anger in her eyes, visibly upset by what I'd said, and understandably. She said then, what I would come to agree with in the following October, when the congress passed the USAPATRIOT act. She said then, sitting next to me, "I hope you're wrong."

I wish I had been too.

***

Back on the couch, watching the images of the one tower smolder, still feeling raw as I felt the souls of every person in tower two extinguished in an instant, I didn't know what the appropriate thing to do was. Everything felt out of place and inappropriate in light of recent events. At 10:00 or so, I went and got on the bus to go to the Portland campus.

English class was still held, and I thank my professor to this day for not canceling class. His example is exactly what was actually meant when they said, "If we change our ways, the terrorists have won." For an hour and a half, we did grammar and writing style, as if nothing had happened.

I don't think Mr Phillipson realized at the time exactly what was happening or how serious it was, and he apologized the following class period for not having canceled class, but several of us thanked him.

Those of us who came into class, looked around confused about what to do or feel. Then our professor came in, threw his books down on the table, and said, "so, crazy stuff going on huh? Okay, let's do grammar."

At the time it struck me as being cold and detached, but looking back, it was exactly what we needed. It was nice to leave the insanity that was going on outside and focus on "Strunk and White." That class that day was a sort of psychic haven, while people standing outside the classroom door watching the screens, talking to one another about the end of the world.

***

That night, there was a girl in my dorm whom like most kids in my building in the 2nd week of classes, I didn't know, she was on the phone that night in the hallway, calling over and over again, crying, trying to find out if a friend of hers was on one of those four flights.

The phone lines were still all completely jammed as everybody in the USA was calling their loved ones to find out if they were okay. I really wanted for her friend or relative not to have been on one of those planes. It turned out that her friend was indeed on one of those planes. She dropped out of school. I did not see her again after that.

Over the next couple days, as the list of names of those who were in the towers came in, I made a list, and printed it off, and hung it up in the hallway of my dorm outside my room. I made it a point to read every single one and imagine who they were, see in my minds eye the person attached to that name. Something inside of me broke, but for the better. The bubble of security that had come with being an American born in the 1980s, the end of the Cold War nothing but a fuzzy childhood memory, had been not popped but shattered. There was an entire world of people out there, and it mattered what our government did. We could die because people in our government were killing people somewhere else in the world. I hadn't been paying attention in much detail to what my government had been doing. It was time for me to start.

I remember watching over the next few days, as no clear case was built for Osama Bin Laden. They just started repeating that it was suspected to be him, and at some point, it shifted from being suspected to be him, to be unquestionably by him, without any supporting evidence to report confirming this. It was because of this that I became skeptical of the official storyline very early on. There just wasn't any evidence to support what they were saying, or if there was, they certainly weren't presenting it. They were just stating things as fact with no evidence. The Bush administration refused to investigate for nearly two years, despite the pleas of family members who had lost their loved ones. Documents released on the matter were few, and those that were were almost entirely redacted.

It seemed like the talking heads were just making it all up, and just expecting us to believe whatever they said because we were in a state of shock, and they were the NEWS.
I had become too cynical and skeptical to just believe whatever I was told. All I wanted was evidence. Apparently four women who had lost their husbands in the attacks felt the same way. The whole thing reminded me too much of George Orwell's "1984."



Later, on October 26th, 2001, I saw on the crawl at the bottom of the screen that the congress had passed a new "anti-terrorism" bill. I didn't understand the need. Terrorism was illegal already. They didn't need to pass a law against it. I wondered what it could possibly be about. With the help of Jefferson.gov and the New York Center for Constitutional Rights, I started reading through the USAPATRIOT act. Turns out it was something straight out of 1984. At that point, I became more skeptical of the official story. Especially as I then learned from the New York Center for Constitutional Rights that this bill had been prepared and drafted a year prior, but was introduced at the last minute, giving nobody a chance to read it.

And that's really when everything began to change. Our libraries were (and still are) subject to search at any time by federal agents, and librarians who spoke out were slapped with law suits and detaining orders, telling them that they could not speak to anybody not even a lawyer. The librarians started putting up signs saying that federal agents had NOT searched their records yet. Over time those signs disappeared, and the librarians couldn't talk about it, by law.

I checked Jefferson.gov to find out who'd voted against the USAPATRIOT act. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. They became my heroes, even though I didn't know who they were at the time.

I became urgently interested in foreign affairs, history, and policy. I asked the questions that everybody was discouraged from asking, like, "why do they hate us?" I didn't want to go to the mall or go shopping or go to Disneyland, like Bush advised. I didn't want to "soak up the sun, and tell everyone to lighten up" as Sherly Crow's song, released just barely a year after, suggested. This was serious, and the responsibility was personal.

I researched our CIA's and Military's history in the Middle East and all around the world. It became clear to me through study why the USA was hated. 9-11 was, as Ron Paul said, "blowback."



For me, 9-11 was a wake up call, an alarm going off, calling me to civic responsibility. To personal responsibility. It seemed to me that most of the country hit the snooze button.

Don't forget.

..||..

The Punk Patriot * How to Vote like a Pro

The Punk Patriot becomes preachy, and then bores you with math.

And you can still buy offensive t-shirts that I make here:
http://punkpatriot.etsy.com