It had to happen! There is now a real movement to elect a President from the ranks of the bloggers (and not a socialist like Howard the Dean). Jeff Soyer has started it and it is picking up steam.

On July 9th I posted my thoughts on what could happen if the power of freedom loving bloggers was unleashed. My vote was for Ron Paul and Walter Williams. But if we have a blog committee set up to discuss it and run in 2008, we can really win. Our platform can be debated via this website that Jeff is setting up. No bull, no spin, no special interest, no loyalty to any group. The constitution is the platform. We kick butt in the debates. The smallest minority is protected. Civil Service is abolished. Common sense is restored!

How about it? The ticket is currently Glenn and Rachel.

Well, since reading about Gene's link to the Branch Davidians, I feel the need to share my own link. It is after all a small world. By monday I will post it. Busy weekend and no time for writing stories now.

How do I feel about America? This song by Rich Mullins sums up my feelings rather well.

Land of my Sojourn

Thanks to Jon Davis for the link. Jon has two blogs, his personal blog and his taxes blog.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
— President George Washington (1732-1799)

So let us not sit on our hands, let us not whine like children, but let us plant seeds of liberty in everyone that we know. If you want to start a brushfire of freedom, use questions that challenge, not a flood of information that will cause others to run away from anything that you say. Live freedom, because we are free. We are wealthy beyond imagination. Dont believe me? Than write out your budget for the month and only include rice and beans for yourself to eat. Now add up how much you spend on food that you do not need to buy and times that number by 12. (fun with Excel) That is how much you could save in a year if you had to eat like most of the world.

Gene Chapman touched my heart with this post on the Power of God. I am praying for you brother man.

Kim has asked for some comments reguarding national ID, and I couldnt resisit

National ID

We are currently working toward a de facto National ID now with the standardization of the state driver’s license. Once all fifty states are linked together into one searchable database you have your National ID card if you want to admit it or not. Add the soon coming RFID technology and an officer will be able to scan your license without you even taking it out of your wallet. Not having one could mean presumed guilt. What are you hiding? Why is your wallet lined with tin foil? But it would be much safer for police if they could order you to put you hands outside the window and check your ID while you are in the car with you hands up. If you did not obey they would have time to draw their gun and be ready for any attack.

While politicians may claim that they want to decrease illegal immigration, those that work in government enjoy feeling needed and will do nothing to deal with the real problems of immigration. A national ID would do nothing to change the mindset of such individuals.

Identity theft could be dealt with by changing the process that individuals obtain credit, but that might decrease consumer spending on credit and hurt the economy. An implantable chip would also help diminish identity theft.

Each state has to deal with their own election fraud, and California is in no hurry to take away the right of illegal immigrants to vote. And my state of Washington is the same way.

Wacko libertarians like Claire Wolfe argue against the numbering and tracking of individuals. I am prone to agree with her.

They might try to dangle the carrot of universal carry, but why do we need that? Why not just enforce the 2nd Amendment as written?

Ok Doug, this is were you get to prove your manhood and sense of courtesy. The lady has made a request of you to remove the blog you so graciously set up for her.

Will you comply?

This guy has it figured out. How in the world can anyone read this excerpt and not buy this book!

The Checkpoint

I was almost in tears.

For the record I want to say that I support freedom for everyone, in every nation and of every race. It is not about America. We just have the most successful run at it so far.

In was listening to Bill Orielly discuss the situation of sending troops to Liberia, I was thinking about how freedom comes about. Not by just setting up a government. Freedom of religion work here in America because we have a foundation of recognizing that right. Also the recognition of respect for life, individual human rights granted by God. True they are slowly being taken away but we can still look at the founding documents to see them. And we can still read.

But look all over the world, Iraq for instance, no foundation of freedom, no recognition of the God given rights of the individual. Afghanistan, same thing. And there is also no attempt to bring an understanding of these concepts to any country.

There is no freeing of the mind. A democracy where slaves vote for who will be their master is not freedom. Is it better that the Iraqi people now live without Saddam? Sure, but you can not impose freedom on a populace that does not understand it. So where are we now? Good question, I am still praying about it. Any suggestions?

Right now I am the middle of reading the latest Bill Whittle essay, Trinity. Good stuff, I usually have to download these types of links to my palm pilot so I can read them whenever I can fit it in. I have too much work and living to do to sit behind a computer screen all day. It took me 3 days to get through Proactive Liberty again (thanks Allen). As I was reading today I was thinking about the power of the new media (that would be the individual), and what could the blog do for the next run for President. We can see what it is doing for Howard Dean. He has the big Mo going for him now because of the organizational structure of his blog and the use of Meet Up. If Dean and GW go head to head GW wins, no question.

But what about 2008? And I don't think that it would be out of line to shoot for just that. What percentage of Americans read blogs? What percentage of Americans even has a blog? If we are at over 1 million Blogger.com users, (sure they are not all Americans) where will we be in 2006? Really I am still a Republican. Why? Because I believe that if every liberty minded individual got active, as in actually attended the caucus and tried to be a delegate at the conventions (county, state and national) we could take over the debate and elect the next president. I do not believe that there is any way for a third party to win on a national scale. But imagine if you will, a Republican candidate for president that says "Social Security is a scam, the income tax is something that should have no place in the lives of a free American and 95% of what the Federal Government spends has no authorization in the Constitution. And another thing, if we want to export Freedom lets start with Mexico." And then you had all kinds of bloggers backing him up and pointing to why it makes sense and we were all doing the Meet up thing and inviting 2 friends that are not even into computers to get excited about this candidate we would see a Revolution.

Do you know how many people show up at a caucus? My first one they packed out this lady's house because we were there to take over. And we were all voting for Pat Robertson. Go ahead and laugh but it was my first taste of how the system actually works. But a typical caucus there are only about 9 people. There is no way that Pat would have won a national election. And you know what? There is no way that Neil Smith would win a national election either. That does not mean that he wouldn't do a great job. Can you imagine how cool it would be to have Neil Smith as the President? But it won't happen. But look at someone like Walter Williams. Articulate as all get out. I wish that he would host the Rush Limbaugh every day, or at least send out some e-mail alert whenever he is guest hosting.

But if we could get a blog committee together, something like Liberty Dogs, and start to rock, take over the Republican Party. The conservative base would totally be on our side. They are just as sick of taxes, but they think that they are legal. But so do people like Bill Whittle, Steven Green, Rachel Lucas, Walter Williams and Ron Paul. So lets get going. Maybe we can see our first blogging President, and it be someone that loves freedom and liberty.

I think that Samuel Adams would have liked to blog.

"It is no wonder that a measure calculated to promote a correspondence and a free communication among the people, should awaken apprehensions; for they well know that it must detect their falsehood in asserting that the people of this country were satisfied with the measures ... and the administration of government."

As we approach Independence Day, I wanted to share some soundbytes from The Federalist newsletter.

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come." -- Samuel Adams

Wow! He is talking about Jesus Christ. The entire newsletter is awesome and really puts you back into your seat. Here is another section,

Adams believed, as we do, that liberty and virtue are inseparable: "Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals." And, "As long as the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security."

He is talking about morals and virtue, words that have lost meaning these days. What did they mean back when he said them? Go to the 1828 Dictionary,

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VIRTUE, n. vur'tu. [L. virtus, from vireo, or its root. See Worth.] The radical sense is strength, from straining, stretching, extending. This is the primary sense of L. vir, a man.]

1. Strength; that substance or quality of physical bodies, by which they act and produce effects on other bodies. In this literal and proper sense, we speak of the virtue or virtues of plants in medicine, and the virtues of drugs. In decoctions, the virtues of plants are extracted. By long standing in the open air, the virtues are lost.

2. Bravery valor. This was the predominant signification of virtus among the Romans.

Trust to thy single virtue.

[This sense is nearly or quite obsolete.]

3. Moral goodness; the practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and conversation to the moral law. In this sense, virtue may be, and in many instances must be, distinguished from religion. The practice of moral duties merely from motives of convenience, or from compulsion, or from regard to reputation, is virtue, as distinct from religion. The practice of moral duties from sincere love to God and his laws, is virtue and religion. In this sense it is true,

That virtue only makes our bliss below.

Virtue is nothing but voluntary obedience to truth.

4. A particular moral excellence; as the virtue of temperance, of chastity, of charity.

Remember all his virtues.

5. Acting power; something efficacious.

Jesus, knowing that virtue had gone out of him, turned - Mark 3.

6. Secret agency; efficacy without visible or material action.

She moves the body which she doth possess,

Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue's touch.

7. Excellence; or that which constitutes value and merit.

- Terence, who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable, the sticking in of sentences.

8. One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.

Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.

9. Efficacy; power.

He used to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him reception in all the towns.

10. Legal efficacy or power; authority. A man administers the laws by virtue of a commission.

In virtue, in consequence; by the efficacy or authority.

This they shall attain, partly in virtue of the promise of God, and partly in virtue of piety.

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MOR'ALS, n. plu. The practice of the duties of life; as a man of correct morals.

1. Conduct; behavior; course of life, in regard to good and evil.

Some, as corrupt in their morals as vice could make them, have been solicitous to have their children virtuously and piously educated.

What can laws do without morals?

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So looking at our nation today it is easy to see where our freedom has gone.

"but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader"

We have lost virtue, and we have surrendered. It is about submission. "Virtue is nothing but voluntary obedience to truth" Obey the truth or you will be a slave.

"...Our enemies have made it an object, to eradicate from the minds of the people in general a sense of true religion and virtue, in hopes thereby the more easily to carry their point of enslaving them."

I would add here that true religion is that which Jesus spoke of, not what an institution says it is. God continues to work through the church because it is filled with disciples that are submitted to the Holy Spirit. Not every man that goes to church or leads a church is following the will of God, only God can judge that.

So my challenge is that you examine yourself, and look at where you are disobedient to truth. And Jesus is the Truth.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me

Doug must be the coolest uncle ever