Man, I've been busy.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been running a little ragged.

It started with helping out with a float for the Atlanta Pride Parade.  The Libertarian Party of Georgia made its third annual appearance in the parade and also hosted an outreach booth in Atlanta's Piedmont Park.  The parade was on Sunday and took about 12 hours out of my weekend.  Totally worth it, though.  We gathered a few hundred new subscribers to our weekly online newsletter "Georgia Libertarian Online".  The LP Float had the world's largest QR code on either side that took the scanner directly to the LP Georgia sign up page.  I think we had about 125 people scan the code while we eased on down the road.

Monday morning following the Pride weekend, I hopped on a flight from Atlanta to Harrisburg, PA to visit a customer.  The outbound airport experience was nothing out of the ordinary.  I fly so much that I know most of the TSA agents by name, all 300 of them.

I ended up working in my client's manufacturing plant about 70 hours over the next 4 days.  My feet and back are still sore a week later.

My return trip started out ok, but as I approached the TSA screening area, the agents stopped using the magnetometer (walk through metal detector) and fired up the Microwave Oven Naked Body Scanner. Now, I have no use for the security theater that goes on in airports these days and have no intention of having my DNA scrambled in a Jiffy Pop popcorn cooker, so I "opted out" and had an "enhanced pat down".

This was no "pat down".  I am a former Federal Law Enforcement Officer and have been trained in the art of searching suspects as part of an arrest.  I truly thought a cavity search was coming. I asked Barney Fife how he liked poking and prodding the genitals of complete strangers.  That got a smirk.  I then recited the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution to him.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

This only pissed him off.  He attempted to tell me that it didn't apply, since I was not under arrest. Hmm, I think he confused that pesky Constitutional Amendment with the Miranda Act.  Obviously, pointing out his mistake led to a little Constitutional Convention of our own with the TSA agent, his supervisor and local law enforcement. I offered all of the participants a parting gift from my briefcase (Campaign for Liberty Pocket Constitutions with a foreword by Congressman Ron Paul) and made my way to the gate.

The following Saturday, I was honored to take part in a round table discussion for television on "We Speak".  The subject matter for the show: Constitutional Powers - Expressed Vs. Implied.  It was a ton of fun teaching the Executive Director of the GA Democratic Party a few things about why her interpretation of the General Welfare clause is just plain wrong, but that will have to wait for another post.

I spent this week catching up, so I apologize for my absence.

Waxman and Weiner attacking Goldline.

Under the pretense of "consumer protection", Reps Waxman and Weiner are attacking perfectly legitimate private businesses like GoldLine in order to silence conservative speech. Using the specious claim that GoldLine "grossly overcharges" its customers, Weiner is specifically targeting sponsors of conservative thought-leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Fred Thompson.

Not so fast - take a look at this:

Raw Price + Shipping						Total Price			Shopping Cart	Website
$1,239.05 + $24.95 shipping						$1,264.00			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	APMEX
$1,256.22 + $17.95 shipping						$1,273.17			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Gainesville Coins
$1,255.48 + $27.00 shipping						$1,282.48			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Blanchard Online
$1,240.01 + 24.95 shipping						$1.284.96			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Golden Eagle Coin
$1,295.00 + free shipping						$1,295.00			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	GoldLine
$1,278.74 + $20.95 shipping						$1,299.69			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Brandon's Coins
$1,247.92 + $49.51 shipping						$1.297.43			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	BullionDirect
$1,299.00 + $19.95 shipping						$1,318.95			1 oz. 2009 Gold American Eagle	Austin Gold Information Network
$1,399.00 + $7.45 shipping						$1.406.45			1 oz. 2009 Gold American Eagle	Steve's Collectibles
$1,435.00 + free shipping						$1,435.00			1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	GovMint

So the reality is that Goldline is kind of middle of the road as far as their pricing goes. APMEX appears to be the least expensive and wait, isn't that odd? The most expensive place to purchase gold coins - The US Mint.

The truth of what is going on here is Waxman and Weiner trying to squash the Freedom of Speech rights of Conservatives by cutting off the funds that keep them on the air. If they are successful in shutting down Goldline and other bullion dealers that advertise with Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Gordon Liddy, etc..., they believe those people would be silenced.
Not since Lincoln's seizing of opposition newspapers, suspension of habeus corpus, and jailing of 10's of thousands of people who spoke out against his policies has the USA seen such a blatant attack on Free Speech.