The Military Loves Ron Paul, The Proof is in the Pudding

The candidates’ second quarter donation reports are in, and once again Ron Paul is dominating the rest of the field in donations from active military members, just like he did in 2008.  In fact, Ron Paul got more money in donations from the military than ALL other candidates combined, including Obama! [Source: Ron Paul 2012]

Military Donation Receipts, GOP candidates 2Q 2011

Military Donation Receipts, GOP Field

Military donation receipts, entire field 2Q 2011

Military donation receipts, entire field

Paul raised over $33K from the military, whereas the closest GOP contender, Herman Cain, raised just over $7K.  Obama, the titan fundraiser that he is, only raised about $20K.

These numbers tell a lot about what the military feels should be a proper foreign policy.  They are tired of being forced to police the world and nation build in countries that hate us.  They see first hand how our involvement around the world causes blowback.  They just want to come home safe and alive to their families.  Thus, they are speaking directly with their money by donating to Ron Paul.

If any neo-con tells you that they think Ron Paul is weak on defense or is anti-military, this donation report completely defies their argument.  If they think you’re making this stuff up, please direct them to this page.  You can’t argue with cold hard numbers!

It’s time to change the status quo and return to a humble foreign policy espoused by our founding fathers.  Thomas Jefferson stated that America’s stance should be “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.”  Ron Paul is the only candidate who’s consistently preached this philosophy and as president he will have the conviction to follow it.

Portugal, 10 Years after Decriminalization

According to a recent Forbes article, 10 years ago after all drugs in Portugal were decriminalized, drug abuse in the nation has been cut in half.  Portugal has had one of the most progressive drug policies out of modern countries, and they are a shining example of why we should follow their example and end the War on Drugs.  Most critics to Portugal’s decision thought that it would make the country a drug vacationing destination, but contrary to popular belief this never happened.  Drug addiction switched from being treated as a criminal problem to a health issue, and this allowed addicts much easier access to seek treatment instead of having them locked up in a cage.  Thus, drug abuse was treated more humanely and at a far cheaper cost to society.

According to the report:

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

“This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”

New Santa Barbara County Redistricting Map: Status Quo and Corrupt

New Santa Barbara county district map proposed by George Relles and approved by liberal supervisors

Every 10 years we are given the chance to rewrite district lines to adjust for population growth and to fix the mistakes of the past.  Sadly, the newly accepted district map for Santa Barbara county only meets one of these criteria, as it reeks with political corruption.  Once again, it appears that Santa Barbara county is getting it’s lines gerrymandered by the liberal supervisors who are more interested in keeping the status quo and protecting their power.  To make matters worse, the redistricting process was conducted by the supervisors themselves, while working with a political insider, instead of a citizen panel like the California redistricting project.  The supervisors who are perpetrating this scandal are Doreen Farr, Janet Wolf and Salud Carbajal, and the political insider whose map they are accepting is George Relles, a long time supporter and campaign consultant to these supervisors.  George is associated with the progressive group SBCAN, the Santa Barbara County Action Network.  Farr, Wolf and Carbajal are also all members of SBCAN.  This organization ended up controlling the redistricting process, which as it turns out was not a public process at all, but simply a big sham.

At the public hearings, numerous citizens put forth map proposals which would have moved Isla Vista from the third district to second district because it shares more of a community of interest to Goleta and Santa Barbara than to Lompoc or Santa Ynez.  Additionally, many Lompoc citizens, including the city council, wanted Lompoc to be a part of a single district to have their vote count for something.  None of these requests were considered by the liberal supervisors, who instead gave them the proverbial middle finger.  With the new map, Lompoc is now getting split into two districts, one sharing a district with Santa Maria and one sharing a district with Isla Vista.  Nothing says disenfranchisement like having your votes in Lompos offset by transitory college students!  Liberals claim that keeping IV in the third district ensures the swing vote when determining the county supervisor majority (ie. which is code for liberal incumbent protection).  But it’s quite obvious that Doreen Farr would have never been able to win the third district without IV, thus it was vital for the liberal majority to maintain the status quo map to retain their power.

According to Lompoc resident and GOP central committee member, Robert Jeffers, who was interviewed by the Santa Maria Times, “His (Relles’) map was designed to solidify the incumbents in the lower regions,” referring to the South Coast. “In Lompoc, our vote is pretty much toast. Lompoc’s voice won’t be heard because we’re a minority in both districts.”

Andy Caldwell, executive director of COLAB (Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business) told the Santa Maria Times, “This has to stop, this is wrong.  They (the board majority) take Relles’ map, and Gray and Lavagnino say can we talk about lines in our areas and they said no. They screwed Lavagnino and Gray for their own interests. They gerrymandered the entire North County.”

We need to convey to the public what has transpired and ask the Board of Supervisors to relinquish the power to draw their own district boundaries.

We DO HAVE RECOURSE!!!

The law allows District Attorney Dudley, the Superintendent of Schools Bill Cirone, and the County Clerk Recorder Joe Holland to perform the task of redistricting.  We have hope and do trust that these three elected officials will not recruit a campaign consultant to do this important task to the detriment of the voting public.

The Board of Supervisors only had ONE meeting to debate and discuss their campaign consultants map.  It will not take ANY time at all for Dudley, Cirone and Holland to finish the task of drawing fair lines for district boundaries in the time allotted by the law.

Please contact your County Supervisors and demand that they withdraw themselves from this process.  They have demonstrated that they are overtly partisan and cannot be trusted with this task!

Please prepare to attend the Board of Sups meeting on August 2 and do contact the Board members in the meantime.

1st District: Salud Carbajal

Phone:	(805) 568-2186
Fax:	(805) 568-2534
E-mail:	SupervisorCarbajal@sbcbos1.org
Website:	Salud Carbajal

2nd District: Janet Wolf

Phone:	(805) 568-2191
Fax:	(805) 568-2283
E-mail:	jwolf@sbcbos2.org
Website:	Janet Wolf

3rd District: Doreen Farr, Vice-Chair

Phone:	(805) 568-2192
Fax:	(805) 568-2883
Solvang:	(805) 686-5095
Fax:	(805) 686-8133
E-mail:	dfarr@countyofsb.org
Website:	Doreen Fa

4th District: Joni Gray, Chair

Lompoc:	(805) 737-7700
Santa Maria:	(805) 346-8407
E-mail:	jgray@co.santa-barbara.ca.us
Website:	Joni Gray

5th District: Steve Lavagnino

Santa Maria:	(805) 346-8400
Fax:	(805) 346-8404
E-mail:	steve.lavagnino@countyofsb.org
Website:	Steve Lavagnino

To read more, check out these articles below:

• Santa Maria Times – Board Approves Status Quo County Map
• The Lompoc Record – Giving County Voters a Fair Shake
• Santa Ynez Valley Journal – Several Riled as Board Supports Status Quo Redistricting Map

Tabling for Ron Paul downtown Santa Barbara

I can’t talk for other Ron Paul Meetup groups, but our Santa Barbara one has been quite active lately and we’ve already begun taking the message of liberty to the streets!  This time around more people know who Ron Paul is and he has a much better chance at winning the GOP nomination.  With the insurgency of the Tea Parties, Paul’s ideas are now becoming mainstream and he can no longer be ignored by the media.  Our goal for the tabling events has been to get the word out to as many people as possible that Ron Paul is running again for president and to find supporters to join our Meetup group and to fight with us for liberty.  In addition to tabling, we have been phone banking in Iowa to get people to attend the Ames Straw Poll in August, which is a crucial event in Ron Paul’s campaign.

Here's our table setup downtown. You can see the signs at all angles. Two of the Meetup members are engaging with the public.

Ron Paul's freedom fighters!

Wisconsin School District Improves Immediately after Union Reforms

The unions and Democrats have called Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker the anti-Christ. They have claimed that his recent collective bargaining reforms would destroy public education. Lo and behold, these threats are turning out to be a lot of hot air blown out by groups of thugs vying for relevancy and not wanting to release their parasitic stranglehold over taxpayers. According to a recent article by Bryon York of the Washington Examiner, many school districts in Wisconsin are seeing benefits from Walker’s reforms.  In fact, one school district in particular has seen immediate improvements despite all the predictions of gloom and doom.

Kaukauna School District was struggling and facing a deficit of $400,000, but a day after Walker’s law was signed the school officials began putting new policies into effect that are projected to turn the district’s budget deficit into a $1.5 million surplus.  Teachers and staff are now required to pay 12.6% of their health coverage (compared to 10% before), and contribute 5.8% of their salary to pensions (compared to 0% before).  These changes alone will save the school district an estimated $1.2 million a year.

In addition,the district can now negotiate with any health insurance coverage group instead of just a group called WEA Trust (a company created by the teacher’s union).  This year, WEA Trust told the school district that they were going to have to increase their premiums significantly, so the district decided it was time to shop around for better prices.  Because of the district’s threat of dropping their coverage, WEA Trust immediately changed their position so that they’d match the lowest bid.  These new terms will save the district substantial amounts of money on health coverage.

Teachers will also be asked to work 40 hours a week at school instead of 37.5 hours a week.  Additionally, pay increases and benefits will transition to a merit based system, which will save the district money and allow them to hire more teachers.  “These changes mean that the district can  reduce the size of its classes — from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students.”

Overall, these changes will improve the classroom experience for all students while at the same time saving taxpayer’s money and putting the school’s budget back in the black.  The fight over collective bargaining reform has been ugly in Wisconsin, but once people notice the improvements it will bring this next school year, the more Governor Walker’s decision will be justified.  Freedom works when given the chance, and in Kaukauna district’s case it is working wonders.  Hopefully many other states like California will realize it is time to embrace collective bargaining reform and pass Right to Work laws.