The Rally for the Republicans at the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center isn’t your standard rubber-chicken campaign event. Frank Simon, a Louisville religious-right leader known for his strong opposition to gay marriage, leads the crowd of 800 in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Rev. Jerry Stephenson, a conservative black pastor, delivers the invocation, asking “Father God” to “help us start a revolution.” Then the Grammy-nominated rock and reggae singer Aimee Allen, decked out in tattoos, patterned stockings, and high-top sneakers, performs a three-song set, culminating in an anthem helped along by the candidate’s sons on acoustic guitars: “We don’t want no war no more / Bring our boys home to our shore.”

This improbable opening is topped off by the Rev. Jeff Fugate, the right-wing pastor of Clays Mill Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Unlike the previous act, Fugate doesn’t sing about the PATRIOT Act or inciting a riot. Instead he gives a Falwellesque speech about restoring American values.

I believe this is inevitable.  Cong. Paul told courageous truths in 2007 and 2008; the GOP largely attempted to isolate his followers and their message.  But it failed due to the combination of the TARP and Obama’s legislative agenda.  The latest Rasmussen poll is startling:  President Obama 42% and Cong. Paul 41%.  (Thanks to the Lew Rockwell blog for this)

Rand Paul is doing so well that some libertarians are concerned he’ll compromise.  Some think he already has. 

Some libertarians fear the noninterventionist message is being lost entirely. David Adams cautions that “it is an oversimplification to call [Rand Paul] an anti-war candidate,” even though he would not have voted for the Iraq war. The younger Paul is still undecided about what our policy should be in Afghanistan. “Rand is terrified of the foreign policy his father has supported,” opines a libertarian activist who says he was rebuffed when he tried to arrange a meeting between Rand Paul staffers and J Street, an organization that bills itself as a more dovish Israel lobby.

But I believe the Rand Paul campaign may be promising!  So is the Rasmussen poll.  Independents chose Paul over the President by a wide margin but many voters do not know Paul:

Voters not affiliated with either major party give Paul a 47% to 28% edge over the president.  *  *  *  But nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%) are not sure what they think of Paul.

This is encouraging.  Cong. Paul can only go up.  If this report about oil prices is true, we may have an especially angry electorate.  No jobs, inflation, massive debt, and $4 or $5 per gallon gasoline.  I am thus encouraged.  We need a constitutionalist President.  To have that, we need constitutionalist elected officials.  Of course, we dare not trust in men but in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Try out this story from the New York Times last year.  The EU seeks to ban incandescent bulbs by 2012. 

Try this:  In San Francisco, the city seeks to ban plastic bags and bottles as well as require composting of certain items.  Mayor Gavin Newsom said in this video said that those who pick up cans in streets can be fined.  “Composting and food scraps” are to be diverted.  Banning plastic bags and water bottles, too.  Definitely not a liberty-friendly path.  “Educate our kids to educate their parents,” Newsom says.  The mayor also works this tyranny into “universal health care”.  Another good reason to vote against Obamacare.  Thanks to current.com for this video. 

Law enforcement can search trash consistent with the Federal Constitution:  California v. Greenwood.  There also can be DWI checkpoints but not yet drug checkpoints.  See City of Indianapolis v. Edmond. 

There was a serious call for Nurnberg style trials for global warming skeptics.  (Grist magazine did retract it after being called on it by a Senate committee.)  Not just that one.  Paul Krugman called (thank you Sister Toldjah!) global warming skeptics traitors against the planet.  Here’s his closing paragraph:

Yet the deniers are choosing, willfully, to ignore that threat, placing future generations of Americans in grave danger, simply because it’s in their political interest to pretend that there’s nothing to worry about. If that’s not betrayal, I don’t know what is.

This is chilling.  Of course, we now know that global warming/climate change is not completely on the level.  I suppose I might be indicted for writing this.  I’m a follower of Christ.  We’ll be tried all right.  Revelation promises it:  “He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.”  Revelation 13:15(NIV)

That’s why I’m for liberty!  As Whitaker Chambers put it in Witness:  We have left the winning side for the losing one – or so it seems!  “For faith is… the evidence of things unseen…”  Hebrews 11:1 (KJV).

Have a good laugh and let’s hope Audi did not unknowingly do a short libertarian documentary disguised as a TV commercial.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (R). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. (Of course this is no endorsement of this blogpost or blog by the International Bible Society or Zondervan)

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I am encouraged by all this attention to Paul and his ideas.  Every time he’s on the air, one or more persons say, “This guy is right.”  Go get ‘em, Ron!

Thanks to Ron Paul News and Lew Rockwell’s Blog for these cites.

I prefer to believe what the Houston Chronicle suggests:  That Ron Paul and Liberty is popular.  History teaches that liberty resonates with a deep need people have.  Our Declaration asserts that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  The Bible agrees:  “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10)

Ron Paul did not get the most votes but his ideas are now available for people around the world to see.  He also has encouraged others to seek lesser office (Rand Paul and Peter Schiff are only two examples) to place liberty ideals into action.  Dr. Paul has cured the apathy of many Americans! 

To paraphrase Emile Zola:  Liberty is on the march!

I’ll never forget the day – about 2002 or so when I first found Cong. Paul.  He was against the war in Kosovo and I soon read about his pro-financial privacy and anti Patriot Act and money laundering laws.  I could hardly believe it.  I knew he was right; I figured Cong. Paul would always be one of those men or women in politics who was right but seldom effective. 

I had just offered to help out for the 2008 Presidential campaign of Jim Gilmore (All right, stop laughing!  Governor Gilmore is a very intelligent politician who knows about the three T’s important to governing:  Technology, Taxes, and Terrorism.  He just had utterly insufficient national name recognition and no way to get it.) in early 2007 when I read the bottom of one of the cable news networks that Cong. Ron Paul was setting up an exploratory committee to run for President.  I said – if Gilmore says no, I’m going for Paul!  I did not get an answer from Governor Gilmore so I switched to Paul. 

Now I admire Governor Jindal for very different reasons than I admire Cong. Paul.  Gov. Jindal has a tremendous record of achievement and is a clear intellectual who wants to solve political problems.  He is willing to look outside the box.  He is a staunch conservative and open believer in Christ.  Jindal is a leader of strong integrity.  Cong. Paul appeals to the libertarian side of me.  He also is a staunch conservative and Christian, too.  He is also not going to change position for political gain.  It’s a hard choice.  Maybe the answer is:  Paul/Jindal 2012!

Paul’s amendment, co-sponsored with Alan Grayson of Florida, will be a comprehensive audit of the activities of the Federal Reserve.  The vote was 43-26.  (I thank several places including the Ron Paul News blog.  I think Glenn Greenwald and the Huffington Post explain it best, so I’ll leave it there.

I will add:  No institution in a free republic is above the law or public accountability.  Of course there are secrets that cannot be disclosed to the public or the timing of the disclosure might be injurious; however, the general rule is all are accountable to the people or their representatives.  Find out if your representative is a sponsor of Audit the Fed and if not, let them know.  I personally spoke to Cong. Cantor (I do not claim he saw the light just because of me!) at the Virginia GOP convention last summer. 

PS:  I can’t believe I cited Greenwald, Huffington and Grayson in ONE post!  I might get kicked out as a conservative!  I agree with Greenwald sometimes, almost never with Huffington or Grayson!

UPDATE:  FireDogLake also wrote about the Paul/Grayson amendment.  I’ll surely be expelled as a right-winger now!  If you want REAL bipartisanship, perhaps Paul’s your candidate…

UPDATE II:  I found Greenwald at Lew Rockwell’s blog.  Thanks to Lew.  I don’t agree with him super often but he’s a great source of Ron Paul and related news.