The feed is available here:
http://www.theportermethod.com/ronpaul/index.rss

For those of you that have not heard of Ron Paul, he is a Republican member of the House of Representatives representing Texas that is running for President in 2008. Though he is running for the Republican party nomination he doesn’t really fit the Republican party of today. He tends to be more of a Libertarian in his views or possibly a Thomas Jefferson style Democrat from the days of old. I recommend you check out what he has to say. His message fits with what most of my friends and I think is important for our country going forward. Check out his Wikipedia page for some more information.

If I had to sum up his platform, I would say Common Sense, Personal Freedom and Responsibility, Limited Government, Fiscal Restraint, and State’s Rights. He always looks to the Constitution for guidance in his voting and is not afraid of standing up for his beliefs. And get this, he actually reads the full text of all of the bills he votes on (related see the Read The Bills Act). Contrast this with the majority of Congressman that have no idea what is contained in the bills they vote on (the Patriot Act comes to mind, also the Campaign Finance Reform bill that the Congress voted on and then had to bring in special trainers to teach them how to follow it).

Also, this is one candidate I actually contributed money to (first and probably only time ever) since he really needs help getting his message out. You can help out too by donating here or buying some swag from his cafepress store. He may not win the nomination (probably won’t due to lack of funds), but if he can just get his message out on a national level I think it will get people thinking about what is important long term in this country.

Also, if you want to check out the Ruby script I am using to put this feed together, you can download it here: ronpaulfeed.rb

As with the other feeds, if anyone associated with Ron Paul’s organization would like me to send this feed to them nightly for their use just let me know.

Here’s to non-traditional individuals for government office. I’m tired of career politicians. Just seems like a bad idea. Hulk Hogan for President in 2008…Vote or get body slammed, Brother.

He came to my attention because he has been forcing each additional pork project being stuffed into an emergency spending bill to come up for a vote. Unfortunately so far only one project has been axed thanks to this vote (a multi-million dollar earmark for the Gulf Coast seafood industry). I’m sure the people in Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine are very pleased they aren’t going to be paying for marketing for the Gulf seafood industry with their tax dollars.

Senator Coburn’s website is very good as well. He has an RSS feed and a podcast feed. He has pledged to only serve two terms and looks like he is really making waves by confronting the excessive spending.

Now if only we had more like him. Then we might actually spend less federal money than we take in (you know, like you and I have to do in our own personal budgets).

Keep an eye on this guy. Hopefully others will follow his lead (like some of my silly Alabama congressmen that don’t seem to care about cutting spending no matter how many letters I write). Unfortunately I have a feeling he will be black-balled and forced out in the end. But at least he is taking a stand.

Hooray Senator Coburn. Keep up the great work.

If you missed my mention of Vulcan and pork, check out this page and Ctrl-F for Vulcan.

Luxury leasing Congress’ top perk

I’m sure this will be quite comforting to all of the college students that will be paying more for their student loans (one of the few federal programs I actually endorse and would not cut if I were elected King). Government excess at its finest. I vote that we institute the official car of the United States Congress….the Kia Rio.

A bargain at around $10,000. Not as sexy as the BMW 530i that Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York rolls in, but much more economical.

Hopefully in the next couple of days I’ll have the posts up from my trip with Casey to Washington D.C. Also my Unofficial Don and Mike RSS feed is currently broken thanks to them changing hosts. That’s the beauty of screen scraping, very fragile. Hopefully I’ll get it updated in a couple of days.

While the domestic spying angers me greatly, this one is even more overt and really makes me want to scream.

From Bruce Schneier’s blog and full story here:

Perspective: E-tracking through your cell phone

The gist is that your cellphone’s location is fair game to law enforcement at all times without any probable cause even though when lobbying for the passage of the bill in 1994, FBI Director Louis Freeh ensured the Senate that the bill would not be used for these purposes.

I must admit that of late I have become so disillusioned with our political system. The best we can hope for is gridlock in the Legislative branch. Regardless of which team in our Two-Party system has the majority, all they do is serve special interests, buy votes, get richer themselves, and pretty well screw things up. I hope everyone realizes that not one person that is in public office and has been re-elected at least once has not made deals which compromise their integrity. The only honest ones didn’t get re-elected when they refused to play ball. (Didn’t you ever wonder why people raise and spend Millions and Millions of dollars to get someone else a $400,000/year job?)

Mid-year elections are coming up for Congress. Vote wisely. Gridlock is Good. And make your voice heard to your elected officials by writing to them. They don’t really care what you think, but at least you can say you expressed your opinion. (Congress.org is good site that lets you easily write to them online)

Confessions of a Welfare Queen: How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars – John Stossel