White House attacks gun rights, sparks trade war as Obama leaves for Latin American trip
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama leaves today for a trip to meet with Latin American leaders, and America’s third largest party urges him to use the occasion to open up markets to American products, instead of continuing to use foreign trips to attack American beliefs and freedoms.
“President Obama has already traveled to Europe to blame American capitalism for the global economic problems, and his administration is already blaming American gun rights for Mexican crimes largely caused by a corrupt police force,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “Instead of blaming capitalism and constitutional rights for the world’s problems, the president should try defending freedom and creating jobs by opening foreign markets to American goods.”
[Full press release here.]
Published in HuffPo:
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera reported head of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes’ yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion, today officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal. According to one of his closest confidants, he said, “I couldn’t have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you.”
According to sources in the Mexican government, President Calderon is begging American officials to, in the words of reggae great Peter Tosh, legalize it. “Oh yeah,” said an official close to the Mexican president, “Felipe is going crazy. He’s screaming at everybody who comes in, ‘Why don’t they make this sh*t legal already! You’re killing me here!’ Look, everyone knows, when you have Prohibition, you create gangsters. And the more you prohibit, the more gangsters you make. El Chapo is hero now to all those slumdogs who want to be millionaires. Kids in the street, when they play games, they all want to be El Chapo, the baddest man in the whole damn town.”
Meanwhile, many speculate that rich and prominent Mexican families are in cahoots with American businessmen in the alcohol industry, wealthy industrialists who launder the unprecedented profits from the drug business with their legitimate enterprises, and lawmakers who get gigantic kickbacks and payoffs to make sure that these drugs remain illegal, so they can remain rich, fat and happy. According to sources on both sides of the border, tens of millions of dollars in payoffs and kickbacks are stashed in Swiss banks every year, blood money from the brutal business made possible by a corrupt system supported by laws that don’t, and have never, worked.
Rather than putting El Chapo and his kind out of business by modernizing outdated laws and in the process making billions of dollars from taxing drugs (as is done with cigarettes and alcohol), United States government has spent hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars chasing its tail, and offered a $5 million reward for the capture of El Chapo. Many have said that the offer is unofficially: Dead or Alive.
Meanwhile, as an epidemic of murderous violence rages on the Mexican-US border, and the American government wastes boatloads of badly needed money on the illegal drug business which results from the Prohibition laws, El Chapo is laughing all the way to the bank. “Whoever came up with this whole War on Drugs,” one of his lieutenants reports he said, “I would like to kiss him on the lips and shake his hand and buy him dinner with caviar and champagne. The War on Drugs is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and the day they decide to end that war, will be a sad one for me and all of my closest friends. And if you don’t believe me, ask those guys whose heads showed up in the ice chests.”
strikes me that the platform doesn’t address gun violence in Mexico specifically.
You would want it to be that specific? In another thread, ADP wants to make the platform into the program. Here, we are talking about having every single news item covered by the platform? How is that possible?
I was of the opinion that people kill people.
Of course people kill people. They do so for a variety of reasons. In this case, control of drug markets created by US prohibition.
strikes me that the platform doesn’t address gun violence in Mexico specifically. I was of the opinion that people kill people.
but, sure, drug prohibition TENDS to create incentives to use violence to max. profits.
such are the dangers of promoting 101 of ANYTHING. it runs the risk of sounding doctrinaire and simplistic.
The press release is fine as far as it goes, but pdsa has hit the nail on the head on what is missing.
Would any of you like to help us write some LP press releases as you think they should be written? I don’t mean general suggestions, I mean actually write them.
[I]” … want them to step-up in support of the LP Platform, with loud clarity stating that the violence Mexico is presently enduring is a direct effect of America’s War On Drugs. This is libertarianism 101…” – pdsa
The press release is fine as far as it goes, but pdsa has hit the nail on the head on what is missing.
please excuse my typos. have to rush to get to work now :p
and yea, it’s defnitely better to have your property rights AND be able to smoke some marijuana if you’re into that. but it’s a no-brainer imo that economics trumps personal liberties of importance to the individual.
You know, I actually loved the dems when they were in the minority. e were both for drug decriminalization, but then they got in the major and, well, the rest is history… now you see dems defending bailouts. very pathetic
#11
“ROTFLMAO! The GOP does not support free-markets. they instead support legislation that regulates non-transparency into business transactions. The GOP are obscene crony capitalists, deeply pocketed tools of transnational collectivist business entities.”
Not all Republicans think that way. Not everything is black and white 🙂
you can have life without liberty, but you can’t have liberty without life. Life = property rights, and I’ve never met a dem that was much of a libertarian. Have you? I’m still searhing.
But I’m no Republican, I’m affiliated with no party.
Plz Paulie [or what ever your REAL name is….]
Paul is my real name. Paulie is a commonly used variation of Paul in NYC, where I grew up. Before that I was in the USSR, where it was Pavel, which translates as Paul. An equivalent for Paulie in Russian is Pasha.
Speaking of real names, where are all the other prestigiously degreed, triple named members of Citizens for a Better Veterans Home that used to post on TPW (all of whom, curiously, have the same exact unique writing style as Donald Raymond Lake, or whatever his real name is?)
When have YOU taken a pro Conservative, Bible Thumper, or Libertarian unethical poster to task?
All the time. Check the archives.
The only one one I am aware of is Phil Sawyer. I asked him on Ballot Access News; he either said no or did not reply.
Who else did you suggest, Don? How do we reach them? How about if they reach us? Either way…
If you mean Kimberly, A) When did you ever suggest her B) I asked her a long time ago, and more than once.
I also asked other people such as Ron Hardy of Green Party Watch, who said no. I asked on the Arkansas Green Party yahoo group and I asked people face to face at the Green Party national convention. I posted open notices here and at BAN and GPW and TPW comments quite a few times.
Gregg Jocoy, another Green, has been here from the start. Ross Levin has been here almost from the start.
Don lumps LP and CP together, yet most of the LPers on this site are closer to Greens than to CP (including me).
Which one, one of what? Repeating your falsehood does not make it true.
No, I don’t. Make with the names and contact info or continue to be exposed.
They use informal Lib short hand: reform is not the Reform Party, but reformist Libertarians. They blast on the site with no preamble and start talking ‘Libertarianeese’ from word one.
We don’t censor comments, Don. So sorry this doesn’t suit you.
Plz Paulie [or what ever your REAL name is….] tell us that you do not comment on commentors! Plz, plz, plz…………
When have YOU taken a pro Conservative, Bible Thumper, or Libertarian unethical poster to task? You [who ever you REALLY are] sure spend enough time with me, and often such silly replies!
A reply is one thing. A slanted unethical reply is just setting up false information, like Hitler, like Stalin.
If anyone understands Lake’s language, please translate.
Not by design, since that is more where Trent fits in, that’s just who has expressed an interest in writing here so far.
Over the years, I have recommended a dozen alternatives,
Who are they? What is their contact info? Are they interested? Why haven’t they asked to write here?
FINALLY one got contacted! Finally!
Baloney on rye with limburgher cheese. Several have been contacted, repeatedly. Not everyone who gets asked agrees. You’ve been asked to supply names and contact information, repeatedly. So far, you haven’t.
ONLY ONE WAS EVER CONTACTED. You know who they are and yet you ask for an original list from Lake. [Soooooooooo Paulie]!
To Paulie the Unfair:
Dragged on, as in ‘from day one’…………
You know like putting words [never ever spoken or written] into the other guy’s mouth!
Examples of this allegation…?
IPR and MORE OVER TPW, have repeated dragged on non Conservative, non Lib, non Lib Lite bloggers.
“Dragged on”? What does that mean here?
IPR’s bloggers:
Trent Hill: libertarian Republican. Mainly writes about independents, at least lately.
Paulie Cannoli: left-leaning Libertarian former Democrat; I’ve been covering all the parties, not just Libertarians.
Fred Church Ortiz: Not sure, Ron Paul supporter I think. Wrote about Socialists and Communists for the most part.
Gregg Jocoy: Green Party
Ross Levin: Mike Gravel supporter. Mostly writes about Greens and independents.
Tom Knapp: left-leaning Libertarian. Voted for McKinney.
Darcy G. Richardson: Never actually posted here yet. Libertarian-leaning leftist, judging from past comments.
Susan Hogarth: left-friendly Libertarian.
Kimberly Wilder: ex-Green, no longer a party member but still of that political philosophy.
Morgan Brykein: Registered LP, but supportive of government intervention in economic issues.
Mostly writes about non-LP topics.
Brian Holtz: Geo-libertarian.
Pretty good mix of Greens, Libertarians and Independents of various shades. What we are missing is probably more conservative-leaning Libertarians and Constitutionalists.
Not by design, since that is more where Trent fits in, that’s just who has expressed an interest in writing here so far.
Over the years, I have recommended a dozen alternatives,
Who are they? What is their contact info? Are they interested? Why haven’t they asked to write here?
FINALLY one got contacted! Finally!
Baloney on rye with limburgher cheese. Several have been contacted, repeatedly. Not everyone who gets asked agrees. You’ve been asked to supply names and contact information, repeatedly. So far, you haven’t.
Responders repeatedly treat the site as a de facto Lib poster board. They use informal Lib short hand: reform is not the Reform Party, but reformist Libertarians. They blast on the site with no preamble and start talking ‘Libertarianeese’ from word one.
We don’t censor comments, Don. So sorry this doesn’t suit you.
knee jerk Lib AGREEMENT with my complaint[s][?
What agreement, where? You must be hallucinating again. The pill bottle says take two every ten hours, not ten every two hours, Don.
The two celebrieties formally repeatedly denied that they were ‘involved’. How ever, day after day, week after week, month after month they acted [informally, de facto] like they were a couple.
?
I have no idea what this babble is supposed to mean.
Finally [even the defenders of TPW and IPR] had to agree [correctly] that the couple was ‘an item’!
We are not connected to Turd Party Wash. Some of us used to write there under previous management, but that was a long time ago.
That’s all I’m saying: if it quacks like a duck………..
…then it sounds more rational than Mr. Lake.
To Paulie The Unfair:
As bad as the Dems and GOP are, SOME alternative types use unethical tactics like the big guys, the bad guys.
Has any one else noticed that Paulie CONTINUALLY deflects criticism with tools the big guys, the bad guys use? You know like putting words [never ever spoken or written] into the other guy’s mouth!
Way to go Paulie, your philosophy is so weak that you have to resort the smoke and mirrors!
Dear: thank you, the three big lies of 2009: GOP is non conservative, just corporate puppets AND Libs do not often speak like Libertarians [horrible , even lethal, government programs for veterans yet given a ‘ pass’ by LP] AND my ‘paranoid delusions’!
IPR and MORE OVER TPW, have repeated dragged on non Conservative, non Lib, non Lib Lite bloggers. Over the years, I have recommended a dozen alternatives, and FINALLY one got contacted! Finally!
Responders repeatedly treat the site as a de facto Lib poster board. They use informal Lib short hand: reform is not the Reform Party, but reformist Libertarians. They blast on the site with no preamble and start talking ‘Libertarianeese’ from word one.
If I am so delusional, then ‘what whit’ the knee jerk Lib AGREEMENT with my complaint[s][?
The two celebrieties formally repeatedly denied that they were ‘involved’. How ever, day after day, week after week, month after month they acted [informally, de facto] like they were a couple.
Finally [even the defenders of TPW and IPR] had to agree [correctly] that the couple was ‘an item’! —-That’s all I’m saying: if it quacks like a duck………..
No, no, no Cork! The Libs, this site, and the Libs that visit this site as if it were “Libertarian Political Report” are all fair and on the up and up. Knock it off Cork. And quit thinking for yourself!
Many of us Libs agree with Cork. How does this fit in with Mr. Lake’s paranoid delusions of bias (apparently because we don’t have comment quotas for supporters of each party like the CSPAN call-in shows)?
Libertarian Joseph – “What is up with you guys always wanting the LP to side with economic fascists against the GOP?”
ROTFLMAO! The GOP does not support free-markets. they instead support legislation that regulates non-transparency into business transactions. The GOP are obscene crony capitalists, deeply pocketed tools of transnational collectivist business entities.
I’m sick of the LP National singing JingoBells, and want them to step-up in support of the LP Platform, with loud clarity stating that the violence Mexico is presently enduring is a direct effect of America’s War On Drugs. This is libertarianism 101. What the f**k is up with the LP National?
And from Politics1.com:
TEXAS. Governor Rick Perry (R) thinks many Texans may want to see the state eventually secede from the union. “There’s a lot of different scenarios,” Perry said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.” Perry faces a significant GOP primary challenge from veteran US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison………
No, no, no Cork! The Libs, this site, and the Libs that visit this site as if it were “Libertarian Political Report” are all fair and on the up and up. Knock it off Cork. And quit thinking for yourself!
These tired America First hominaries are recycled from the ole Viet Nam Days where the entire world knew we were pawns of evil [and on an expensive road to Haydes] and we [LBJ, Nixon, Bob McNamara, the guy who gave us the Edsel] just put wax in our ears, including going out after any critics, including patriotic military types who told the truth!
I meant that most Greens do not support free market environmentalism. Do you want to know what the Greens would do if they were in power? They would make their reforms MANDATORY for every citizen. They would single handedly destroy the economy.
#4
What is up with you guys always wanting the LP to side with economic fascists against the GOP? I just don’t get it. And, for your info, maybe Greens do not support free market environmentalism 😉 so, not much to agree on with them.
LP: Getting Votes Is Our Highest Principle!
Rightly so! Otherwise, how could we hope to attract top shelf talent such as the Clintons to the LP?
When did the LP become a jingoistic party, blind to reality? Or is America just always above blame?
But G.E., you don’t “get votes” by being honest. You “get votes” by telling voters what they want to hear.
Plus, foreigners can’t vote in U.S. elections, so blaming them is a surefire “vote getter,” with no downside.
LP: We’re great! Our country’s the bestest in the whole world! All problems are caused by greasy foreigners, who, by the way, hate America because we’re so free and wonderful!
LP: Getting Votes Is Our Highest Principle!
Oh god, the pandering to conservatives is really becoming tiresome. Why can’t the LP be more like the Green Party on non-economic issues. The Greens are far more radical and libertarian on a lot of things.
http://gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=97
Why can’t we ever hear this kind of antiwar rhetoric from the LP?
The LP seems more intent on slamming Obama at every chance it can in order to score some political points with the choir. Same tired game and same tired story.
It is America’s fault… When did the LP become a jingoistic party, blind to reality? Or is America just always above blame?
It would be nice to see some free market capitalism being advocated, but I won’t hold my breath.