Meeting of Republican Liberty Caucus and Libertarians of Mid Hudson Valley

Several members of New York's Republican Liberty Caucus met with about 15 Town of New Paltz and Westchester County Libertarians this evening (Tuesday) at the College Diner in New Paltz, New York. Carl Svensson, founder of the New York Libertarian Caucus organized the meeting, and I felt the meeting was a success. The attendants ranged from college students at SUNY New Paltz who have organized a campus Libertarian Club to a retired math professor and a recent candidate for mayor of Peekskill, New York who lost by only two percent. The meeting focused on strategy rather than ideology and the attendees are thinking of ways to get involved in Republican politics and to potentially run for office in several cases. The dynamic and lovely Raquel Okyay was in attendance. Carl Svensson is doing an excellent job, and we anticipate that the meetings will continue next month. I am on the state board of the RLC. As long as the ideological discussion can be minimized and the focus remain on action toward a few well defined goals, the group can potentially make a dent.

Obama Follower Threatens Atlas With Censorship

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs reports (h/t Larwyn) that she has received the following threat from an Obama supporter who calls himself "GuyInGothamX":

"I am monitoring your site---if you or any of your hate- filled followers even make a passing joke about violence toward Barack Obama or his family, I am going straight to the FBI. I don't put anything past you or your racist followers----everything you do is an incitement to violence... additionally, i have reported your site to the Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance, the ADL, the ADC and the NAACP... you may think race-baiting and religious bigotry are entertaining, but i'm not sure those organizations will."

I have followed Pamela's site for the past year and have never once seen any race bating on her site. In fact, I am an occasional contributor to Wiesenthal, the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center and reject racism of any kind. I have never sensed any racism or hint of violence on Pamela's site, which won an attack from MSNBC's Keith Olberman a few weeks ago.

It seems to me that the prejudice is on this anonymous e-mailer's part. Once again we see the left attempting to censor anyone who disagrees with its views. Keep up the good work, Pamela!

Nancy Razik Lets Fox News Have It

I just received the following e-mail from Nancy Razik:

>Fox News - A big old F-U to you. When it looked like B. O. would be coronated, you dropped all pretense of fair and balanced and turned into a clone of MSNBC. When will Olbermann get his own show on your network? He could join Shep Smith and they could fly off the handle together (or whatever sordid little things they like to do).Those throwing Sarah Palin under the bus can kiss my big old white ass. I can't decide if it's insecurity due to a woman with power or if it's just pure jealousy that a woman can look good, raise a family and be a governor but there would not have been 1/3 of the votes for McCain without Palin on the ticket.I don't want to hear another peep about racism or affirmative action. We've got our first affirmative action president. White guilt? Take your white guilt and shove it where the sun don't shine. Don't want to hear no bitching when the New Black Panthers become part of an Obama administration - after all they helped him out in Philly so he owes the brothers. All race cards have expired and are no longer valid in this country.I look forward to watching the koolaid effect wear off over the next 4 years. It's hard to believe in hope and change when you're standing in the unemployment line. Free college education? Handouts? Help with your mortgage? Dream on - you'll be lucky to still have a pot to piss in when the Dems get through with
you. But don't complain or Rahm "ballerina" Emmanuel will send you a dead fish... Gracious Loser - no damn way. Not at the cost of my Country and the Constitution. Taking a cue from the new "first lady"For the first time in my adult life, I'm ashamed of my country.

Senator Inhofe and the Year America Was Suckered

Dan Friedman just sent me Jim Myers's excellent Tulsa World article which quotes Senator Jim Inhofe as complaining that:

"Congress was not told the truth about the bailout of the nation's financial system and should take back what is left of the $700 billion 'blank check' it gave the Bush administration.

"'It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone,' the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World.

"'It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don't know. There is no way of knowing.'"

I teach classes called "Conflict and Negotiation" and "Managerial Skills" in which I go over how to identify and avoid confidence schemes.

This has been a year of confidence. First, we had the Obama campaign arguing that we should take Obama's bona fides on trust and that he was serious about his slogan "change" even though he and his pissant propagandists at the New York Times had no clue as to what it meant.

Then, we had Hank Paulson and the Bush administration tell the American public that a "bailout" was necessary and that Congress needed to give Paulson $750 billion, but no one could quite explain for what or why.

Senator Inhofe raises some red flags that are characteristic of con men's tactics. First, one tactic is to say that the deal needs to be made right away. Paulson did that. Second, there's an avoidance of details, or blithe explanations of the details. "Change". "Crisis". Who needs to know why? Third, inevitably the con artist calls for "trust". "Trust me, I'm for change." "Trust me, I'm an American citizen." "Trust me, there's a financial crisis."

Jim Myers does a good reporting job but why does Senator Inhofe remind me of Jim Chanos, the hedge fund investor who sold Enron short in 2000, a year before the firm collapsed, when everyone, including the editors of the Times and five casewriters at the Harvard Business School were touting it as the most "creative" company?