It warms my heart to know I am not the only one who recognises the absurdity of a career politician, corporate lobbyist, social-engineering Think Tank mastermind like Dick Armey thinking he is the leader of anything but the small fraction of dimwitted Tea Partiers who run around calling themselves Tea Party Patriots, guided by freedomWorks handlers.

The Tea Party representatives you see promoted on Fox News and other media sources are the Tea Party Hijackers serving corporate interests, and the Tea Party profiteers serving themselves.

I'd wager at least 95% of people who consider themselves Tea Partiers don't give a damn what Dick Armey thinks and keep a wide berth between themselves, their local grass-roots Tea Party groups, and the FreedomWorks Tea Party co-option machine, myself included. Let Dick have the morons who don't realise they are being played for fools. It's called Social-Darwanism, and makes the genuine Tea Party stronger.

BOB Leader of The Official Tea Party of New Jersey " Not.

Reply from The Daily Bell

It is stronger as a non-political movement than a political one. Notice how so many professed Tea Partiers voted once again for the Patriot Act!

The contract from america so not extrimist, though the adding of banning offensive, rather than defensive, wars would be required. I would require a republican to sign this contract before I'm willing to vote for them. I applaud Dick Armey for wanting to clean up the Republican Party. In the last decade, they've become the same bought and paid for party that the democrats became a decade prior. Different words, same result. It's time to take back the party.

Sorry about this belated feedback -- I'm looking through the archives to see what I've missed.

Armey's "Contract from America" is just conservative boilerplate, the virtually meaningless baloney which Republican audiences have been eating up for generations (fed to them by b.s.-artists like Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich ad nauseum). Only now the natives are starting to get restless, so Republican operatives are using their savvy and power elite funding to piggyback onto what had been the Tea Party movement.

Let's look at the "particulars":

"1. Protect the Constitution"

How? By stopping the unconstitutionally delegated power of the president to deny habeus corpus or invade foreign countries without declaration of war?

Obviously that's not Armey's objective. It's just sloganeering without any fixed meaning. But Republican audiences revel in that kind of doubletalk.

"2. Reject Cap & Trade"

A good thing, but -- this is much too narrowly focused on one current issue. Why not something like: Stand up in principle against federal taxation and regulation of industry.

"3. Demand a Balanced Budget"

Notice -- not refuse to vote for the budget unless it's balanced, but just "demand" one that is, whatever that means. Weasel words.

"4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform"

More weasel words.

"5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government"

Whatever that means.

"6. End Runaway Government Spending"

Whatever.

"7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care"

"Replace"? As in: Require healthcare by politically connected providers and insurance companies?

How about instead: Complete separation of the federal government from healthcare? Or end federal licensing of healthcare professions and federally funded research-&-healthcare-education spending? No more Medicare? End all federal patent law and thereby allow Big Pharma to fall by the waistside?

"8. Pass an 'All-of-the-Above' Energy Policy"

We don't need an "energy policy" -- which sounds like an excuse to retain and expand unconstitutional federal rule. We need to get the government out of energy policy. Abolish the Department of Energy, and really end all its components, don't just pass those components back to other federal departments.

"9. Stop the Pork"

Armey's got the cart before the horse. Pork is the inevitable consequence of massive, ongoing federal spending. End the spending and you end the pork.

"10. Stop the Tax Hikes"

Weasel words again. Repeal the taxes, all the taxes, instead.

Click to view link

Reply from The Daily Bell

Joe Pistone's positions on NATIONAL SECURITY (from his websiter):

'Defending our nation ... My first objective is the security of our country. We must increase the resources of our Human Intelligence Capability, and integrate Technical and Human Services.

We must provide our military men and women with the necessary equipment they need to keep us safe. We must be prepared to fight 'Bioterrorism and 'Cyberterrorism. Global Terrorism is rapidly developing and changing the threat to America. We must continue to keep our armed forces at FULL STRENGTH!!!

We must ensue that all measures of safety are implemented, including our intelligence, law enforcement and military agencies. We must provide them with all of the resources to communicate with each other, and act immediately when a threat to our nation occurs.

Homeland Security dollars shall be allocated and distributed based on the security measures requested and needed, including port security for cargo. Safeguarding our transportation infrastructure is critical to our Homeland Security!

When a crisis strikes, there can be NO BUREAUCRATIC RED TAPE!

In order to control cost and promote fair competition, we must also reform defense budgeting and the acquisition process.

@David Alan

"He has shown thee, o Man, what is good, and the LORD does require of Thee, but to do justice & love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God."

This is commonly called 'The Micah Mandate'.

-------

"And what is good and what is not good, Phaedrus? Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"

Robert M. Pirsig.

Great, DB !

We all need to commit those to our 'talking points'.

And I agree with more than a few of your feedbackers that the TEA party may have it's heart in the right place by it's rejection of 'politics as usual' vis a vis the Two Party Deception, but until it gets its 'head in the right place' by gaining a recongnizance of these 4 point, it will make no headway.

As I speak much with both Libertarians AND Evangelicals (frequently being to much of one type, for the other & vice versa), the challenge is to put the most thoughtful reasoning together, to bring light to both.

For example, though I preach about the need for a broadly Christian based culture, I can conceive of no authority or structure, other than that of appeal to individuals to embrace such a viewpoint / conversion / agreement.

Even to those who feel they can't believe in Divine Revelation, I ask if their essential rights might not be more secure under leaders & living amongst fellow citizens (from which pool leaders are invariably drawn...) who feel a moral accountability to a Higher Power, and thus must deal fairly & honestly with their fellow men.

These 4 key points are crucial because they are keystones of the arch of cultural power " other wise Baron Rothschild would not have said: "Allow me to control a nations currency, and I care not who makes it's Laws."

The temptation to have power over other men due to a tip in the scales of Justice is too much. What else but mens hearts being converted, can make them desire 'to do justice & love mercy' towards their fellow men ?

That phrase is from Micah 6:8, the whole context says: "He has shown thee, o Man, what is good, and the LORD does require of Thee, but to do justice & love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God."

This is commonly called 'The Micah Mandate'.

Can't we agree that if that was the heart attitude of any significant, active citizenry, before long the criminal enterprise of the FED would be called on the carpet " and it's thieving of the citizens wealth via inflation (and taxation) would be forbidden by Law ?

And the other issues would follow along these lines.......

Keep up the great work !

Reply from The Daily Bell

This is commonly called 'The Micah Mandate'.

Thank you. Wise words indeed.

@ Daily Bell

Another impressive tract, my friends! Thanks for blowing the whistle on the phony Armey takeover attempt; I well remember the 1994 'Contract With America' via Newt Gingrich " a true snake in the grass, if ever there was one. Great Talker " full of smelly garbage upon closer inspection.

Newt was as morally sound as the Clinton he criticized so well. Leaving his wife as she lay dying of cancer, for his mistress was a helpful unveiling of his moral depravity for any who cared. I met very few GOPer's who thought it mattered much " their morality followed their economic interests, sad to say.

Dick Armey is a worthy fellow traveler with Newt Gingrich, though he does seem to have avoided the moral odiousness clinging to Gingrich.

The DB and many commentators here are correct; those points put forth by Armey are toothless proposals designed to deceive citizens; they will strip no power from unjust rulers, restore no essential Liberty.

Would you please restate the 4 points you thought to be so crucial, not just here, but also do a full news commentary piece on them ? That would give us free market Christian Libertarian, Austrian school leaning blog-bots (do we mind that moniker ?), a link & provoking story to salt here & there for influence sake.

I love the addition of # 4 by Bionic Mosquito's suggestion " he's right on the money, about the 'Government (they're far from 'Public') Schools' being, in effect, a missionary arm of the messiah State.

Thus, we homeschool our children, and our motivation is two fold:

1) Children are given in trust by God, to the family " we hold them as Stewards do, and must therefore teach them the Truth about God, His World & their place in it.

This is as ancient as the Hebrew Shema " in Deuteronomy chapter 6 " the passage charging Fathers & Mothers NOT to 'tithe their children to the State, implicitly, but to give them to the LORD, instead (explicitly stated).

2) Caesar " In an attempt to ensure the continuity of His stolen power & hegemony, will attempt to either kill the children of the righteous citizens, or to indoctrinate those he cannot kill " stealing their souls to serve him " as slaves of the state.

The State, divorced from limitations on power, will ALWAYS tend towards an attempt at 'god-hood' on earth " all of history testifies to this: Pharoah, Nimrod, Caesar, Hitler, Tojo, and now the USG Fedgov & it's allied corrupt institutions " not that the US is alone in that regard " much of Europe has repudiated it's birthright of Christian Liberty, and thus under invasion by Muslims who do at least embody the idea of advance thru passing along their worldview to a large posterity. The average Muslim family having 6 children vs. 1.5 for Europe & barely 2 for the USA.

The main question then: will enough American Christian parents come to their senses, re-claim their children back from the deceptive & destructive grasp of the "Caesar Cult of Government Propaganda", or will we continue to expect the blessing of Liberty, while tithing our children to Caesar " and expecting good to come from that moral abdication ?

Time will tell.... Yours, For Christ & Liberty, Texas Republic

Reply from The Daily Bell

Thanks for the kind words. We mostly analyze elite memes of the mainstream media, so we might no write an article right away on the four additional points that the Contract From America missed. We picked up on two of them and then another two were contributed by perspicacious feedbackers. The four points the Contract should cover but doesn't, include:

1. Abolishing the Fed.

2. Stopping military adventurism.

3. Ending the "war on drugs."

4. Ending mandatory public schooling as it currently practiced

As soon as I saw Armey's name I knew the news wouldn't be good...the audacity of these political/establishment hacks is truly stunning...absolutely no shame, integrity, or respect (for themselves or anyone else).

I was a Ron Paul supporter from the first (having followed his career and writings for some time) I saw him make his announcement to run in the 2008 Republican Primaries, getting more involved (actually going door-to-door) than I ever dreamed I would and most likely never will again. I saw it as possibly a last-ditch effort to turn the tide at the federal level. I even attended his Rally For The Republic (driving to Minneapolis from southern California).

I was not encouraged by the two local Tea Party-rallies I've attended. WAY too GOP-mainstream for me, a lot of familiar-sounding neocon hogwash about "American exceptionalism", pro-empire, pro-war on terror, pro-"family values", much military-worship, and the typically clueless idolization of Reagan ("we've gotta get back to Reagan 'conservatism'", blah, blah, blah) and the myth that he was a champion of liberty.

Who knows what the future of the TPM is, but at present I do NOT have high hopes that it'll achieve anything but the election of Republicans who will, mostly, continue along the current path. Conservatives just aren't very bright when it comes to economics and liberty, and make no mistake, THEY are the ones who represent the majority in the TPM.

Dick's/Rupert's "Contract From America" and its vague, meaningless, and useless 'reform' garbage is EXACTLY the kind of stuff these people lap up. They don't have a revolutionary bone in their bodies nor an original and innovative thought in their heads. Libertarians are just too outnumbered at present (internet notwithstanding) to turn the tide.

Reply from The Daily Bell

Oh, cheer up.

"Political hack out of Washington".

Spot on. Another opportunist inside-the-beltway homing pigeon (for perpetual sinecures) gussies himself up with a new coat of feathers.

QUOTE: "Actually, as we understand it, the Tea Party phenomenon was inspired by the libertarian-republicanism of the Ron Paul presidential campaign that created small activist cells. Rick Santelli ‒ and we have seen his "glorious rant" ‒ had nothing to do with this spontaneous manifestation of anti-state protesting. Santelli's TV statement came much later. The reason we have concentrated on this article is because it is a superb example of how the mainstream media reworks memes to make them palatable and useful to the powers-that-be."

"How about a market?"

And make it a free one!

I expect you could be right about Mr. Armey's intentions and power base, but I can't get past the irrelevance of his attempt.

I have to shake my head whenever I hear about someone running for federal office on the platform of decreasing the size and power of federal government. It seems like such a complete oxymoron, right up there with killing for peace. Does anyone really think that the way to end the tyranny of Leviathan is by joining it?

Revolution doesn't work either, it just creates a power vacuum. If we want to end the reign of the Federal Government we can't take it over; to do that is to become the problem. Walt Kelly said it best with his "We have met the enemy, and they are us!"

Nope, the only way to get rid of it is to ignore it, make it irrelevant and replace it with something else entirely. The key to that is in the Constitution and I think the only people who really see it are the ones who're promoting Nullification, the idea that a State may elect to nullify any law or regulation passed by the Federal apparatus that exceeds federal authority as defined in that document. Similarly, it is the responsibility of the counties, cities, townships and ultimately individual people to refuse to accept 'illegal' takings by so called higher government at each level. It's the only way we're going to get back to small government with limited powers, the rule of law, and "government by and for the people".

How many times have we said to ourselves "I can't find anyplace in the Constitution that says they can do that!"? I'm sure we're wrong sometimes, but not always. Doesn't that suggest there's something wrong with both our legislative process and also with our judicial process? Perhaps we should look for a pony in that room? But I believe that won't really fix our problems either because I think the real cause of our situation is that we're greedy and we've sold our rights. Perhaps "sold" is incorrect. If we're lucky we may find we've only leased them.

I think the process goes a bit like this. We decide we want something, say a bridge or a highway or a school, but we don't have the money for it. Maybe we vote to take out a bond, maybe we don't. Somewhere in the conversation an elected official says he can help, he'll talk to some folks in (town, the State Capital, Washington DC) and see if he can bend some ears. That's how it begins. Later, we find out the deal we made isn't all that good. Now the guy who brought the money wants to tell us how fast we can drive on the highway and what we can teach in the school. We're faced with doing what he says or picking up the tab ourselves. That's more or less where our freedom ends.

America isn't really governed by laws any longer, it's ruled by debt and "we the people" are on the hook. That is the fundamental issue. The only way we're going to get our freedom back is by either defaulting on that debt or paying it off. But the Pusher Man, he don't want nobody payin' anythin' off. If you get close to getting free, he'll find some new shiny thing you want and can't afford. Like Universal Health Care.

As the Bell says: "It's about control".

Reply from The Daily Bell

"Replace it with something else entirely."

How about a market?

"We, the citizens..."

Pathetic.

You gave us a chance to save our Republic Dick Armey, but our women rather wanted someone who wanted to fundamentally transform our government into Marxism(anti-messiah), as he promised to do. I hate to beat a dead horse, but in addition to being a self-professed anti-messiah, he is also the "forbidden foreigner" discussed in the Book of the Law(Deuteronomy 17:15)! We have not seen anything yet! Watch!

All attempt to "improve" the current sociopolitical System will fail. One can comes up with any list of good suggestions and place them in any priority sequence with the same result: the System will find a way to bypass and restore. This will happen even if Americans managed to elect a very good guy to a president. Mr. Regan's presidency is a typical example.

The action to "soothe" the Tear Party with very good wish list is one of the attempts of the System to take on angry people in advance. The message to the People reads: "don't look further " all you need is this list, and we'll see what we can do for you".

Dearie me.

What's with Americans? Seems you have only the ability to count to two (2)! Well, i guess that's better than one (1) as in China, Saudi and other one party states but golly, can't you at least try to get to three (3)? North of the border, Canucks count to four (4) and are learning to like number 5 " Green party. Smaller parties exist; they may not officially count but they add spice to the democratic sauce. Try it, you'll like it. As it is, the tone of public discourse in America is so politicized/ partisan that it's hardly worth listening to " The Daily Bell and readers excepted!

Then again, try looking up Athenian Democracy on Wikipedia. A lottery system (as in jury selection) is probably the best idea.

Reply from The Daily Bell

The best government governs least.

I don't know who developed the list of (10) items in the Contract From America, the suspicion I have is that it was a Grade 6 student being prompted by Dick Armey or another self serving Political Hack out of Washington!! The items are "Mealy Mouthed" without substance or force of implementation. I believe the "common people" can do better....If they try. It must be clear to those that sign up to "Pledge to the United States of America" there are consequences to Cheating/Lying/Self Serving/Turn Coating/Double Talking, the threat of immediate Recall should form the basis for support. Regardless of how many items get listed (I have 14) but one should be that it's an offence against the nation to "Apologise to any despot leader or country in the world" for the actions and/or compassion of the USA.

@ DB

Your list of three reforms is much more powerful and important than the 10 listed by Armey. I will humbly suggest a fourth -- get the government out of the education business.

The State will educate your children. The concept should cause any thinking person to choke on the bile. It is a revolting thought.

I will paraphrase Rushdoony -- many complain and protest about taxes, regulation, other government interferences of all sorts, yet gladly tithe their children to the state.

Is it such a surprise that we follow like sheep to slaughter. The idea of public education was put in place even before central banking took full root in America. The brainwashing was necessary before people would willingly trade their labor for pieces of scrap.

Reply from The Daily Bell

I will humbly suggest a fourth -- get the government out of the education business.

Excellent. Now we have our own list!

What a mushy list

1. Protect the Constitution

They already take an oath to do this. Are they saying that they really, REALLY mean it now?

2. Reject Cap & Trade

Certainly there are other schemes already planned.

3. Demand a Balanced Budget

What will they cut from spending? Blank out.

4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
The VAT, perhaps?

5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government

Isn't this already part of the job description? Is there a politician that doesn't already mouth these words?

6. End Runaway Government Spending

Does this mean they will draw the line at $1.5 trillion deficits? Or was $400 billion enough?

7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care

Are they really going to kill Medicare?

8. Pass an 'All-of-the-Above" Energy Policy

How about repealing all current energy laws instead?

9. Stop the Pork

Every politican already says this. One man's pork is another man's jobs program.

10. Stop the Tax Hikes

"Read my lips, no new taxes."

@ Raymond Riess:

"We need to attack both the extreme left and extreme right. We need to bring home the troops and set them on the border with orders to shoot to kill."

Riiiight.

Nice to hear about "free market economics" instead on Austrian economics, just leave the Austrian out, it just doesn't help, and this is of course nothing against Austria or Austrians, far from it, just a very practical but important issue: to spread knowledge of it is of paramount importance