More Anti-War than Ron Paul?

NC Republican Congressman Walter Jones has been, more or less, left off the table for discussion amongst fellow Republicans in the country; however, why has the liberty movement not rallied behind the message of non-interventionism portrayed by good ol' "Freedom Fries" Jones? He is, truly, amongst the most staunch opponents of foreign war and the r3VOLution could certainly use another Republican on our side on this issue of not only economic importance, but also of pure intrinsic human value.

In a recent interview with Adam Kokesh, Congressman Jones talks about his transformation from voting for the Iraq war, to voting against every piece of war-funding legislation since.

Your work, Congressman Jones, will no longer go unnoticed.

Celebrate National Sovereignty Day!

It's a wonderful day to be an Iraqi, according to a Reuters article released today:

Iraq regained full control of its towns and cities on Tuesday, declaring the day a national holiday for Iraqis to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. troops, six years after invading to topple Saddam Hussein.

In honor of US Troops leaving, today has been named "National Sovereignty Day."  But there is a small catch:

By midnight on Tuesday, all U.S. combat units must have left Iraq's urban centers and redeployed to rural bases, according to a bilateral security pact that requires all U.S. troops except for trainers and advisers to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

Looks like the United State wont be leaving completely yet. All in good time.

Times Online also covered the story here.

"Freedom and democracy" for Iran but not Honduras? It sounds like Ron Paul was right...again.

As the sole dissenting vote in a resolution condemning the Iranian government, Ron Paul recently argued that it is hypocritical to condemn one oppressive government if we do not do the same for all.  Not surprisingly, that has kind of already happened:

The contested election in Iran received widespread attention from both the traditional US media and new media sources including blogs and micro-blogs such as Twitter. Americans wishing to show solidarity with the Iranian people tinted their Twitter avatars green and also wore the trademark color of resistance. The media told us this was all part of a new digital form of solidarity. And yet this solidarity movement starts and stops with this specific Iranian election. There was no such media-led solidarity movement during the 2003 contested election in Azerbaijan or Egypt's contested 2006 election. Likewise, there is no solidarity movement in the US media for the people of Honduras where President Manuel Zelaya has just been ousted during a military coup. The media has not aggressively pursued this story despite the fact that the US is highly influential in Honduras, and the coup was led by General Romeo Vasquez, who is himself a graduate of the US Army School of the Americas. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill reports that the School of America graduates "maintain ties to the US military as they climb the military career ladders in their respective countries."

There is little media interest in the Honduras story even though it seems the US government had advanced knowledge of the coup.

The bit about the School of the Americas (SOA) is particularly important: the SOA is a U.S. government-run training facility for members of South American militaries.  Its graduates have been widely implicated in massacres, assassinations, and the establishment of brutal dictatorships.  The situation in Honduras seems to be more of the same, and despite a situation which is every bit as severe as the one in Iran and arguably caused by the United States because of the role of the SOA, has recieved little attention from the media, Congress, or the Obama administration.  Attention from our government is probably not a good thing, of course, but its lack at least highlights our utter hypocrisy. Read more here.

Amazon Fights Back Against N.C. Tax Scheme

In response to a proposed tax plan likely to pass the N.C. Legislature in the next few days, Amazon is ending its affiliate program in North Carolina.

Over the past few weeks, Seattle-based Amazon has protested legislation in North Carolina and California that would require e-commerce companies to collect sales taxes if they have marketing affiliates - people who get a sales commission from links on their own Web sites - in those states. Hawaii and Connecticut are also weighing similar laws. Amazon says efforts to force it to collect taxes based on marketing affiliate relationships are "unconstitutional" and would backfire if Amazon were to sever ties with its advertising partners.

Bravo to Amazon for protesting North Carolina's unconstitutional tax proposal. When will lawmakers realize that perverse, unfair, and unlawful tax collection schemes and economic legislation have unintended consequences that hurt more than they help? More here. Amazon's letter is here.