I don’t know how long this has been going on, but I suspect based on the traffic records that it’s been days.  So, for you dedicated readers who come by here and see if I’ve updated anything, sorry for the big white error screen if you got that.  It’s obviously been fixed, and I’ll keep an eye on things just in case something gets squirrely again.

And, again, thanks for continuing to stop by, even when I’m so incredibly delinquent.  I hope it’s still worth it.

But something fascinating is happening today.

In light of Ron Paul’s huge $4.2 million haul yesterday, where are we likely to read or hear about this amazing news?  I’m seeing it in the New York Times, ABC News, the LA Times… you know… common liberal news sources.  In the middle of the fundraising last night, you could find the stories on the front page tickers of the websites of Yahoo, ABC News, and CNN.

But this morning, what are we hearing from the conservative talk show hosts?  Nothing.  Crickets.  There might be some mention of the news pretty quickly, but the rest of the discussion is all about Giuliani and Romney.

The silence from the conservatives about what grassroots supporters of Ron Paul have done yesterday for his campaign is deafening.

Isn’t this behavior, dismissing major news like this, of the sort that conservatives usually accuse the liberals?

What this is revealing is that for all the kinds of “power to the people” talk that conservatives like to parrot, we’re finding they’re every bit as pro-establishment, pro-big government, anti-individual freedom as the other side of the single ruling party.

I’m suspecting that ideas like “power to the people” really have more to do with “power to the elite people” than conservatives want to admit.  Else, why is there such huge silence regarding earth-shattering news as we received yesterday about Ron Paul’s campaign?

Not surprising, just saddening that we find out again that more “conservatives” than we would like to admit are simply 3-monkey Republicans.

But the best part is going to be the stammering, dribbling and incoherent comments made by such “conservatives” if the Ron Paul campaign continues to go the direction that it has been.  They have no category for what he’s been accomplishing.  They can’t imagine that people of all political stripes would get behind this guy.

But they are.

It’s estimated that yesterday’s haul for the Ron Paul campaign was done, essentially, by about 40,000 people offering about $100 each.  No big givers here, just lots and lots of people who have figured out that Paul is the only one talking about the things that really positively affect freedom and prosperity in America.

Even a major online betting website has moved Ron Paul’s odds at becoming president from 200-to-1 in May this year to 4-to-1 just recently.

Um, 4-to-1!  Hello?!  When was the last time you saw Vegas be terribly far off on determining odds?  Right.

So, enjoy this ride, all you freedom lovers.  And if you want to return freedom to America, don’t stop supporting Paul.  He’s the only pro-constitution, pro-small-government, pro-ending-the-war, pro-individual-freedom candidate of BOTH sides of the aisle.

And certainly enjoy the contortions of the conservative elite as they do everything possible to dismiss Paul’s campaign.  It doesn’t get better than this.

The Web Economy Bullshit Generator is one fantastically funny piece for those of us (you) who may be in a line of work at a corporation which deals with technology somehow on the internet.

So, here it is… I challenge you to generate some Bullshit and insert it into your official company documents in a way that not only doesn’t get called as “Bullshit”, but actually impresses the higher-ups so much that it helps you get a leg up in your career.

Of course, if you do this successfully, you have to come back here and tell us about it.

Oh, and if you only get one Bullshit phrase in, that’s not actually impressive.  But if you can get several into a paragraph and pull it off, now we’re getting somewhere.  And if you’re REALLY good, you can get a whole series of these to form one single sentence and still pass it off.

That, I would love to see.

In recent weeks, Countrywide had announced 1,400 layoffs. Mozilo said Friday that those cuts were included in the 10,000 to 12,000 expected cuts among Countrywide’s more than 61,000 employees.

The company’s banking, insurance and loan servicing operations will see few reductions, with the bulk of the job cuts affecting loan officers, processors and other employees of divisions that generate loans, Mozilo said. Though Countrywide provided few additional details, Southern California will clearly suffer because the company employs about 15,000 people in Calabasas and elsewhere in the region.

“They’re a significant employer” in the West San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, said Nancy Sidhu, vice president and senior economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “The anxiety factor has to be rising for residents of the area.”

So far, however, her business advocacy organization does not see evidence of serious economic problems spreading beyond the housing sector, she said, an assessment shared by real estate and finance expert Stuart Gabriel of the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

No evidence of spreading beyond the housing sector?  Come on over and I’ll make a bet with you right now.  No, I won’t take your cash.  Go buy some silver or gold and make your bet with that.  That’s the only currency I will take.

If you’re currently attending or have considered attending the UCLA Anderson School of Management, I’d seriously find other options.  That level of ineptitude is simply inexcusable in our current market conditions.  Morons!  This is like saying the sun isn’t in the sky during the daytime.

Let me say again, I and some friends have speculated as early as three to five years ago that the market corrections we’re beginning to witness would be starting this year, and we’re right on target.  I guess we’re in the wrong line of work.  But how do you put “prophet” on your resume and sell it successfully?

NEW YORK — The dollar fell to a 15-year low against major currencies on Friday as data showed U.S. payrolls fell last month for the first time in four years, raising recession fears and pressure for an interest-rate cut.

Traders dumped the dollar after the government said the United States shed 4,000 net jobs last month, the first contraction since August 2003. It also reduced estimated June and July job gains.

The payrolls data followed a larger-than-expected decline in July pending home sales reported earlier this week — more evidence that a credit crunch that began with losses on bonds tied to risky U.S. mortgages was starting to put the brakes on growth.

“Today’s employment report and the revisions are enough to justify several interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve,” said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors in Vineland, New Jersey. “It is clear from this report that the U.S. employment situation is worsening.”

Markets are now pricing in a 74 percent chance that the Fed slashes its 5.25 percent benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point when it meets on September 18.

“The Fed cannot keep ignoring the fact that the subprime and credit crisis has indeed hit the real economy,” said Kathy Lien, senior currency strategist at DailyFX.com in New York.

“Americans are feeling the pain and this will translate into weak consumer spending, which will drive speculation for a possible recession,” she said.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, tumbled to a 15-year low.

The low-yielding yen was the biggest beneficiary, at one point rising 1.8 percent to a three-week high of 113.28 yen per dollar as investors fled risky trades funded by borrowing the Japanese currency at low interest rates. The dollar also fell 1.1 percent to 1.1890 Swiss francs.

The euro was up 0.6 percent at $1.3765, near a session peak of $1.3799, according to electronic trading platform EBS.

Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Conn., called the payroll report “one of the bigger real surprises we have had for some time, and (it) can only add significantly to building negative dollar sentiment.”

If these guys are seriously surprised the payroll news this week, or the market drops, or the housing market drops, they’re either so naive that they shouldn’t be employed at their current jobs or they’re a bunch of evil swindlers who need to be fired as soon as possible.

Many Americans are about to get a very rude awakening in how the markets work when you’re printing worthless dollars to pay your debts and float the economy.  This is exactly why it’s a terrible idea to have a central banking system.

The piper’s about to come calling.  And it’s entirely the failure of a government system that was 99.9% likely to end up here.  And it’s the fault of the American people for continuing to allow themselves to be fed the lie that big government and socialism is a better solution than the free market which has worked for us so well for hundreds of years.

Hold on tight, everyone.

Here’s a quick excerpt from near the end.

Moyers: You are saying you want the judiciary committee to call formal hearings on the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheyney?

Fein: Yes!  Because there are political crimes which have been perpetrated in combination.  It hasn’t been one or the other being in isolation.  And the hearings have to be not into “this is a republican or democrat” thing, this is something that needs to set a precedent whoever occupies the White House in 2009.  We do not want to have that occupant, whether it’s John McCain or Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani or John Edwards, to have this authority to go outside the law and say, “I am the law.  I do what I want.  No one else’s view matters.”

This is simply a great discussion which reveals much about what is being done by our current administration in direct violation of the constitution.  Please check this out when you have a moment.

So, on this day of all days, I thought I’d drop a note in here echoing what I saw from Vox earlier.  That is that this day has become a day of mourning for us.  It no longer is a happy occasion.  We remember what the day used to be about, but too many people have been seduced into selling out their freedom for peanuts.

So on this day, we remember my favorite old Gadsden flag and in the spirit of “Don’t Tread On Me”, I pull out a nice Sam Adams quote that’s been passed around among us recently:

“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”—Samuel Adams

Get… this… book.  Now.

Guys, this is not an option, even if you are not a father.  You must at least look at it.

Give the gift of joyous masculinity for once, to yourself and boys of all ages that you may know.

It should be noted that he is not against going to war, and I think it’s very important that people understand that much of the position he’s taking is based on the 9/11 Report.  I have yet to read that, but with all that’s going on, I’ll probably start trying to get my hands on it so I can scour it a bit.

You may disagree with Dr. Paul on this one overall, but if you’re going to make an argument, argue against his points, please.  I believe he’s making strong arguments in this case.

Also, please note that I don’t think this is exactly parallel with the discussion regarding dealing with the growing muslim situation which is making many people nervous.  And I don’t necessarily believe that any issues that arise in that discussion will be resolved by what Dr. Paul is proposing.  I think that issue will probably need to be dealt with separately and require its own long-term strategy apart from what’s going on in Iraq.

** Supplemental **

We’re in a tough spot right now and I don’t necessarily think it’s as simple as Dr. Paul is making it sound.  The enemy is angry at us and growing.  Pulling out will likely only incite further violence from them.  But I don’t think fighting in Iraq is necessarily synonymous with fighting the terrorist enemy.  The difficult thing about our current enemy is that they’re such an amorphous group that it makes it difficult for us to know where to take the fight to.

In short, if this thing can be “won” at all, our military needs to have defined targets and we need to knock those targets out with all the fury we can muster.  I think the hardest part of this whole thing is going to be nailing down the correct targets.  Once that’s been done, the hardest part of this fight will be over.

Guys like Saul are making moves that basically make it clear that they no longer care about limited government.  The RNC has been trying (though not too hard) to gloss over that fact for a long time, but every once in a while they reveal their big-government socialist desires.

This is one of those times.

So, are you a small-government Republican?  Don’t think socialism and big government make America better or increase freedom or that those things run contrary in many ways to the U.S. Constitution?  Well, it looks like your own party is declaring it’s desire to leave you on the roadside.  You just don’t match their demographic anymore.

Just what would you do if one of the biggest small-government proponents was no longer allowed into the debate?

Ball’s in your court.

But, again, the problem remains that our federal government has its tentacles deeply wrapped around the education of our children, and as such, most of our kids will never understand the simple laws written into our constitution that prevent such behavior regarding treaties as is performed regularly by some lawmakers.  Which is to say that to do so is illegal.  Of course, since so few are educated well enough to be able to bring charges, the criminal behavior continues.  The inmates are running the asylum.

Without a proper education how is a child supposed to be able to grow up and understand how important little words like “under” are in these documents (at least in this case)?

Well, either way, here’s a little fun with what Dr. Caine has written:

By Article II, Section 1, paragraph 7, the President is required to swear he will: "...preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Article VI, paragraph 3 requires all Federal and State officers to also swear:"...to support this [U.S.] Constitution..."

Article I, Section 10, paragraph 1 declares: "No State shall enter into any Treaty..."

All civil magistrates are bound by oath to abide by the U.S. Constitution, and nowhere in the U.S. Constitution is any authority given for these United States to be subject to and bound by any earthly piece of paper that abrogates or is alien to the Constitution of the United States. As a matter of fact, Article VI, paragraph 2, the latter half of which is quoted at the outset above, in its first half, says only three (3) pronouncements are "the supreme Law of the Land":

(1) "THIS [the U.S.] Constitution," (2) "the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof" (i.e., as permitted by, in conformity with, and to implement this Constitution), and (3) "all treaties made....under the Authority of the United States" ("under" designates that treaties are not over, not above, and not even equal to the authority of the United States granted to it by the States via the U.S. Constitution - but remain under, inferior to its jurisdiction).

A treaty may not do or exceed what the Congress is charged to do or what it is forbidden to do. Constitutional authority supersedes, overrules, and precludes any contrary treaty authority.

No matter how much some may wish it to be, our founding documents do not allow our federal government to go and whore out our sovereignty and resources.  Which is why some have worked so hard to circumvent the constitution to be able to pull off what they have, such as membership in the U.N.  Of course, “circumvention” of the constitution can not legally be achieved.  The way the constitution is written prevents such a thing.  It is illegal.  To do so is to break the law.

Don’t like it?  Get a constitutional convention together and make the change you want via the stipulated process which allows changes to our founding documents.  Other than that, any attempts to “circumvent” the constitution that are clear violations of the law as it is written in the constitution require investigations, impeachment hearings and trials.  So let’s get busy.

"...and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the [not "this"] Constitution [ of any State] or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. [Emphasis added.]"

So, the Judges in each State must obey a bona fide treaty, even if the treaty is contrary to that state’s Constitution or contrary to any law of that state.

Thus, a properly/legally concluded U.S. treaty overrules any STATE law and any STATE Constitution, but a properly/legally framed U.S. treaty does not, may not, can not, and is forbidden to overrule the U.S. Constitution or abrogate the Sovereignty of the United States. If it does, it is not bona fide. It is a usurpation. It is not "under the Authority of the United States" to make such a treaty.

Ergo, treaties ( "made, or which shall be made" ) that violate the U.S. Constitution by subjugating the United States to an outside power ARE PROHIBITED, of no effect, and thus, null and void.

For a Senator to violate his sworn oath is perjury, a felony, an impeachable offense.

Since treaties are compacts between/among " the powers of the earth" of "separate and equal station" as stipulated in the Declaration of Independence, treaties may not be consummated with other than sovereign nations.

Consequently, for at least these two reasons --- 1) because the U.S. Senate in 1945 ratified the United Nations (UN) Charter as a treaty and the UN is not a sovereign nation, and 2) because membership in the UN makes the U.S. inferior to the UN --- U.S. "membership" in the United
Nations is unconstitutional, FORBIDDEN, and thus declared null and void. Ditto for the World Court and the nebulous entanglements of the New World Order.

Thomas Jefferson was clear on this point: "If the treaty power is unlimited, then we don’t have a Constitution. Surely the President and the Senate cannot do by treaty what the whole government is interdicted from doing in any way." Alexander Hamilton agreed: "a treaty cannot be made which alters the Constitution of the country or which infringes any express exceptions to the power of the Constitution of the United States."(2)

So many would-be usurpers are condemned by the laws they’re so clearly breaking.  Time for our generation to educate the coming generations so that they can understand that they need to indict for this behavior.  Breaking the law typically has consequences.  And at the highest levels it can have consequences once again if first the people can understand which laws have been broken and why breaking those laws is so much worse than breaking some others.

Because, unlike basic crimes like theft or murder which typically affect a very small and limited number of people, breaking constitutional laws, such as these regarding treaties, can and does directly affect the lives of millions of individual citizens.  And it affects their freedom… our freedom.  And, if I remember correctly, isn’t that what our lawmakers are supposed to be protecting?

We are not giving the children of our country a stable platform. We are instead giving them a soul-shaking sense that life is unsafe, incoherent, full of random dread. And we are doing this, I think, for three reasons.

One is politics--our political views, our cultural views, so need to be expressed and are, God knows, so much more important than the peace of a child. Another is money--there’s money in the sickness that is sold to us. Everyone who works at a TV network knew ratings would go up when the Cho tapes broke.

But another reason is that, for all our protestations about how sensitive we are, how interested in justice, how interested in the children, we are not. We are interested in politics. We are interested in money. We are interested in ourselves.

I’m thinking that one of the greatest causes for this symptom of increased fear is being missed, though.  I believe this has more to do with the feminization of our culture than most Americans would be willing to admit.

Masculine men and strong fathers have been demonized and minimized for so many years now, they simply aren’t around anymore to be able to give their children any security.  That’s one of the great things that masculine men do.  They don’t take away all the scary things in life, but they give children the ability to deal with those things properly and not be so scared by them.

The real man pulls the bogeyman out of the closet, in plain view of the children, and beats him into the ground.  The bad guy is decimated, the real man sparing the children none of the intensity or ugliness of the battle.  The children need to see that masculine man take care of evil with no holds barred, to watch evil be ground in to dust in the midst of sweat and blood.  Because then the kids understand that they have an advocate that will fight for them and do whatever it takes to make their world safe.  And that then teaches those kids, in turn, to be fighters and advocates for their children, fighting those ugly and painful battles for them in their defense.

But where do we think society is going to go if we minimize the masculine and promote the feminine?  There is a place for both these things, but too much of either one has its pitfalls.  And right now, we are at a point where we have abdicated our right to self defense to others and don’t know what to do when faced with an armed lunatic.

This country need to get its backbone back.  The men need to stop putting up with the feminized attacks on them and their role in the family and society.  All our kids need strong fathers back in their lives.  They need strong men all around them who can teach them how to defend themselves in life, on all levels.  They need masculine men who teach them the value of being prepared to deal with ugly situations and crazy and evil people, and even preparing those kids to kill these evil people in defense of self and family if necessary.

Bring back the alpha males, bring back the wild man, bring back the true masculinity as C.S. Lewis wrote about and I guarantee that our kids won’t be nearly so afraid anymore.  And then the bad guys might just be a little more nervous.  And our world could use that right now.

This has got to be the best way I’ve seen yet to deal with bad office equipment - a la Office Space.  If you have the ability to pick up some of the hardware used here, I highly recommend it.  And I’m not referring to the printer.