I really enjoyed reading this article, although I think TheOnion.com would be much better suited publisher.

Here are some excerpts:

Banking experts say there is one thing that will save your money if your bank goes under. That’s FDIC insurance. “It’s the gold standard,” says banking consultant Bert Ely. “The FDIC has ample resources. It’s never been an issue,” he says.

As loan delinquencies rise, and bank failures increase, the FDIC is shoring up its reserves.

That’s fascinating, because last I checked (about five minutes ago), the FDIC had in its assets about 1.2% of the deposits it claims to “insure”.

If your bank bites the dust, there’s nothing to fear according to the FDIC. A healthier banking institution normally buys the failed bank according to Barr. “There is little or no interruption to the consumer,” he says. “If you go to bed one night as a customer of a bank, and you wake up as a customer of a new bank, there is nothing you have to do.” Your checks will still clear, you can still use your ATM card.

See? Bank failure isn’t even a bad thing!

The press release — complete with contact information — was posted on free internet press release service PR Log early yesterday morning. It reads as follows:

CLEARWATER, Florida - Anonymous announced their intention to combat the activities of the Church of Scientology on Monday. A spokesperson said that the group’s goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents.

This announcement came as a response to attempts by the Church to keep secret an internal video meant to be viewed only by Scientologists, featuring actor Tom Cruise. Despite their efforts, the movie was leaked and rapidly spread across the Internet. The video caused much controversy, and members of Anonymous posted a message to several of their websites proclaiming war against Scientology. Soon after, Anonymous struck at the church; they blocked access to its website, made prank calls, organized protests, distributed anti-Church pamphlets and information, and extracted secret files from the Church of Scientology and its parent company, the Religious Technology Center.

Anonymous’ members cited several reasons for their actions against the Church of Scientology: many have stressed the alleged human rights violations under the auspices of the Church.^[1] Others accused the Church of fraud due to its costly ceremonies, while some merely sought the entertainment they refer to as “lulz,” a corruption of the Internet slang “LOL,” or “laugh out loud.”

Most members, however, were concerned with the threat to free speech that the Church posed. This was most evident in the recent attacks on websites such as Digg and YouTube, where the Church filtered anti-Scientology comments and replaced their content with the text “[This comment is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Church of Scientology International].”

“The so-called Church of Scientology actively misused copyright and trademark law in pursuit of its own agenda,” one Anonymous commented. “They attempted not only to subvert free speech, but to recklessly pervert justice to silence those who spoke out against them.”

The Church of Scientology’s legal struggle with its online detractors began in 1994 with the Usenet group “alt.religion.scientology”, a community which spoke out against the Church. Legal representatives from the Church confronted them specifically over the use of Scientology in their name, citing trademark infringement and misrepresentation. This led to numerous lawsuits,^[2] and the group was shut down.^[3] The Church of Scientology later found itself in several further conflicts on the Internet,^[4] including some with popular websites such as Google and Slashdot,^[5] as well as an alleged “war” with users of the website YTMND.com.^[6]

The members of Anonymous do not plan to end their attacks on the Church of Scientology. Instead, they will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy. Their main goal is to render the church powerless, and so the war could be one of attrition.

Science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church in 1953. In the 55 years since its inception, the Church has faced allegations of being a commercial enterprise that harasses its critics, exploits its members, and neglects adults in its care. Scientology has also faced criticism over the cost required to progress through its “auditing” system, with the total bill for completing the course estimated at $365,000 - $380,000.^[7]

[1] http://www.whyaretheydead.net/Universal_Declaration_of_H …
[2] http://www.discord.org/%7Elippard/skeptic/03.3.jl-jj-sci …
[3] http://www.nyupress.org/netwars/textonly/pages/chapter06 …
[4] http://www.news.com/2100-1023-959236.html
[5] http://slashdot.org/yro/01/03/16/1256226.shtml
[6] http://www.ytmnd.com/news/?news_id=40
[7] http://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html

The press release is rapidly making its way into the internet via such models as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, BoingBoing, and MetaFilter. Stay tuned!

I’d like to congratulate Fox News on beating their own record of outrageous censorship, again.  This time, instead of removing a 4th place candidate from straw poll results, they’ve removed a Top 3 candidate from the results of a presidential election!  Take a look:

Here are the uncensored results from the Nevada Republican presidential caucus:

Here are the results that Fox News reported:

Thanks to Stephen Gordon at Third Party Watch.

I’ve done my best to stay out of this, but I’d like to make a few things clear to others who are new to the libertarian movement:
What you are observing is a war between parties within the libertarian movement that has nothing to do with honest journalism or getting news to the public.  This is all about getting back at various parties because of things that happened decades ago.

The author of the New Republic article that started all of this knew well that Dr. Paul is not a racist, but was seen laughing when someone brought this point up to him around New Years.  Then CATO jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that this is why they hadn’t endorsed Dr. Paul.  Now Reason is pointing fingers at Lew Rockwell without citing any real evidence or even without quoting any reputable people.  These most recent articles, mind you, were released on the day that Lew was scheduled for eye surgery, presumably so he wouldn’t be around to defend himself for the next few days.

This was all done at the expense of the movement that CATO and Reason claim to be promoting.  They’re throwing away our only chance at having a president who truly believes in limited government for the sole purpose of slinging mud at others within the movement.  They had an unprecedented opportunity to further the libertarian cause but chose to cannibalize it instead.  It’s sickening to watch.

And to other young libertarians:
Take note of this ridiculous war and what it’s costing us, as libertarians.  Remember that someday we will be the leaders of this movement and that it will be up to us to ally and accomplish things without letting past disputes get in the way.  Don’t fall into the trap of collective thinking by hating various libertarians because of the organizations they work for or because of who they were taught by.  Analyze each person based on his or her individual views, find common ground, and work to promote freedom.  Let ours be the generation of libertarians, and not of ancient rifts that prevent us from doing something great.

See this post to learn of the anatomy of the Orange Line smear campaign and this post to learn by beltway “libertarians” engage in anti-libertarian activism.

I wasn’t going to post this until the final article was ready, but since the Daily Paul broke it, I feel a bit pressured to at least offer a teaser.

First of all, if you don’t know who Frank Luntz is, watch this video for some critical background information:

Well, to make a long story short, I was invited to one of these focus groups. More on how I managed that will be in the coming article. Because I had heard first-hand accounts of Luntz’s manipulative tactics, I purchased a voice recorder and decided to check it out for myself. For now, suffice to say that there is indeed a tremendous amount of bias involved in both the selection process as well as Frank’s administration of the focus group session itself. In fact, the very person I randomly sat down next to to have dinner with turned out to be incredibly shady. More on details on that will be in the article to come, but for now, see for yourself that this isn’t his first time in one of Frank’s group:

So, after the “focus group” was concluded, a gathering of people who apparently already knew what Luntz was all about met him at the door and started to confront him. I was completely content to stand by and watch the show until I heard Frank claiming that he didn’t try to influence participants. After sitting through three hours of his tricks, I couldn’t help but chime in to clarify what I had just seen. Frank calls the crowd “mean”, but having seen what Frank does for a living, I don’t at all blame them for being displeased with him.

Stay tuned for an article that includes a rundown of Frank’s incredibly biased selection process, my hour-long discussion with the mysterious Chuck, and Frank’s manipulative “focus group” methods.

A few important notes:
- I did not ambush Frank Luntz. Other people did that, and Mike and I walked up and saw it happening. I only opened my mouth when he tried to tell people that he doesn’t misrepresent public opinion.
- These people were supporting various different candidates. This was not a crowd of supporters from any one campaign.
- Mike videotaped and uploaded it to YouTube. However, I never asked for it to be posted on a high profile blog. However, since it was already public, I wanted to explain and figured I might as well use it as a teaser for the article I was already planning to write.

Local Fox affiliate, KPTM Nebraska, has covered the exclusion of Ron Paul by News Corp’s national Fox News Channel.

The anchor at the end of the clip is apparently not aware that Ron Paul raised more money in a single day than any candidate in American history, or that he raised far more money from real people this quarter than any of the other candidates raised last quarter. (Romney gave himself $8.5 million in Q3) Of course, he also trounces all the other candidates in online polls, forums, searches, and overruns other candidates in number of supporters who show up at events.

So, as it turns out, the story I broke yesterday at 8PM on LewRockwell.com about Ron Paul being excluded from the debates was true.  I cited an AP story which listed five other candidates who are to be attending.  Several people called the official campaign and were told that it was true, and between the AP and official campaign, I felt there was ample evidence to justify breaking the news on LRC.

Well, it wasn’t long before I got an email from someone who profusely insisted that my post was likely incorrect, that the New Hampshire GOP would not allow this to happen, and that I was a horrible person for posting it.  (I’m paraphrasing here.  She actually copied my boss on her emails and asked how I could post such “nonsense” several times.) Because she’s someone who seemed to be very close to the campaign and very close to the New Hampshire GOP, I believed her when she said, “I have an invitation at my home with his name printed on it.” (That’s a quote.)

It was one of my most embarrassing moments since childhood.  I thought I had tarnished the reputation of Lew Rockwell and had discredited myself in the eyes of tens of thousands of Ron Paul supporters who read LRC daily as their primary source of information. As a result of my post, the New Hampshire GOP’s servers and phone lines were out of commission because of hordes of angry Ron Paul supporters.

I quickly posted a very personal retraction that resonated around the blogosphere.  I received dozens of emails from angry Ron Paul fans who asked how I could have posted something like without checking out my sources.  (One would think the Associated Press and the official
campaign would be reliable sources of information, right?)  I then spent the next 17 hours trying to squelch copies of my news on dozens
of others blogs as they popped up, further making myself look like an ass.

Well, as it turns out, FOX has indeed excluded Ron Paul from the forum.  The official campaign has published a press release about it. 
The AP was right.  The people answering the phones at the campaign were right, and the retractions on all of the major Ron Paul sites were in vain.

In the defense of the person who sent me these emails that caused me to post a retraction, her chief complaint now is that the NH GOP is not the right outlet to complain to.  Due to reasons I agreed not to publish, she may be right
about that.

What a horrible experience.  I will, however, be confirming all Ron Paul-related news with the chairman of the Ron Paul campaign from now on if we end up making contact tomorrow.

Now, about Ron Paul being excluded…  Here’s where you can send your complaints:

• General Comments
• Email: yourcomments@foxnews.com
• Phone: 1-888-369-4762
• Marty Ryan, Executive Politics Producer
• Phone: 202-824-6403
• Kathy Ardleigh, Sen. Politics Producer
• Phone: 212-301-3186
• Email: kathy.ardleigh@foxnews.com
• Thom Bird, Fox News Sen. Producer
• Phone: 212-301-3250
• Email: thom.bird@foxnews.com
• Todd Ciganek, National News Editor
• Phone: 212-301-3352
• Email: todd.ciganek@foxnews.com
• Ian Rae, Exec. VP News
• Phone: 212-301-8552
• Email: ian.rae@foxnews.com
• John Moody, Sen VP News
• Phone: 212-301-8560
• Email: john.moody@foxnews.com
• Brian Lewis, Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications
• Phone: 212-301-3331
• Fax: 212-819-0816
• E-Mail: brian.lewis@foxnews.com
• Irena Briganti, Vice President of Media Relations
• Phone: 212-301-3608
• Fax: 212-819-0816
• E-Mail: irena.briganti@foxnews.com
• Brian Knoblock, International Editor
• Phone: 212-301-5486
• Email: brian.knoblock@foxnews.com
• Kim Schiller Hume, Wash DC Bureau Chief
• Phone: 202-824-6389
• Fax: 202-824-6426
• Ken LaCorte, Los Angeles Bureau Chief
• Phone: 310-571-2000
• Fax: 310-571-2009
• Justin Schmidt, Chicago Bureau Chief
• Phone: 312-494-0428
• Fax: 312-494-0445
• Brit Hume, Managing Editor
• Phone: 202-824-6470
• Fax: 202-824-6426
• David Asman, Fox News Host
• Phone: 212-301-3944
• Email: david.asman@foxnews.com
• Shepard Smith, Fox Report Host
• Phone: 212-301-3711
• Email: shepard.smith@foxnews.com
• Bill O’Reilly, O’Reilly Factor Host
• Phone: 212-301-3320
• Email: bill.oreilly@foxnews.com
• Jane Skinner, News Anchor
• Phone: 212-301-5023
• Email: jane.skinner@foxnews.com

Major Fox Advertisers (Thanks to David P. Martin!)

Earl J. Hesterberg
Vice President, Marketing
Ford Motor Company
1 American Rd
Dearborn, MI 48126-2701
TEL: (313) 322-3000
FAX: 313-845-6073

Koichi Kondo
President& CEO
American Honda Motor Co.,
Inc.
1919 Torrance Boulevard
Mail Stop: 500 - 2N - 7D
Torrance, CA 90501-2746
TEL: (800) 999-1009
FAX: (310) 783-3023

Rick Kornhauser
Vice President, Marketing
Chattem, Inc.
1715 W 38th St
Chattanooga, TN 37409-1248
TEL: (800) 366-6077
FAX: (423) 821-0395

Patrick M. Byrne
Chairman & President
Overstock.com
6322 S 3000 E Ste 100
Salt Lake City, UT 84121-6931
TEL: (801) 947-3100
FAX: (801) 944-4629

William R. Rhodes
Chairman
Citibank
399 Park Ave
New York, NY 10022
TEL: (800) 285-3000
FAX:

Henry A. McKinnell, Jr.
Chairman & CEO
Pfizer
235 E 42nd St
New York, NY 10017-5755
TEL: (212) 573-2323
(212) 573-7851

Javed Ahmed
Executive Vice President
Reckitt Benckiser Inc.
Morris Corporate Center IV
399 Interpace Parkway
Parsippany, NJ 07054-0225
TEL: (800) 333-3899
FAX: (973) 404-5700

R. Kerry Clark
Vice Chairman
Procter & Gamble
1 Procter & Gamble Plaza
Cincinnati, OH 45202
TEL: 513-983-1100
FAX: 513-983-9369

Charles Fruit
Chief Marketing Officer
The Coca Cola Company
1 Coca Cola Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30313
TEL: 404-676-2121
FAX: 404-676-6792

Paul Carothers
Vice President, Public Affairs
Kraft Foods
3 Lakes Drive
Northfield, IL 60093
TEL: 847-646-2000
FAX: 847-646-6005

Kathleen Flaherty
Chief Marketing Officer
AT&T
1 AT&T Way
Bedminster, NJ 07921
TEL: 908-221-2000
FAX: 908-532-1675

John Middlebrook
Vice President
General Motors
300 Renaissance Center
Detroit, MI 48265-3000
TEL: 313-556-5000
FAX: 248-696-7300

Janine M. Bousquette
Chief Marketing Officer
Sears
3333 Beverly Rd
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
TEL: 847-286-2500
FAX: 847-286-7829

Kelly Mankin
Vice President, Marketing
DaimlerChrysler
1000 Chrysler Dr
Auburn Hills, MI 48326-2766
TEL: 248-576-5741
FAX: 248-576-4742

Jill Kelly-Paget
Corporate Communications
Director
MediaVest
1675 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
TEL: 212-468-3828
FAX: 212-468-4110

Charlie Rutman
President
Carat USA
3 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
TEL: 212-689-6800
FAX: 212-689-6005

Dennis Donlin
President
General Motors Planworks
150 W. Jefferson, Suite 400
Detroit, MI 48226
TEL: 313-237-8111
FAX: 313-237-8490

Cheri Carpenter
Media Contact
Starcom MediaVest
35 W. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
TEL: 312.220.6218
FAX: 312.220.6530

Bob Lilley
Vice President, Media Marketing
Optimedia
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
TEL: 212-820-3161
FAX: 212-820-3300

Charles Courtier
Worldwide Executive Chairman
MediaEdge
825 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10019
TEL: 212-474-0000
FAX: 212-474-0001

Robert Mancini
Executive Director
Ford Motor Media
500 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, MI, 48226-3428
TEL: 313-964-3800
FAX: 313-845-6073

Marc Goldstein
Chief Executive Officer
MindShare
498 7th Ave
New York, NY 10018
TEL: 646-756-4000
FAX: 646-756-4060

Mike Vogel
Chief Executive Officer
PHD Detroit
840 W Long Lake Rd
Troy, MI 48098
TEL: 248-293-3400
FAX: 248-293-3434

Peter M. Butterfield
President and CEO
KIA
PO Box 52410
Irvine, CA 92619-2410
TEL: 949-470-7000
FAX: 949-470-2800

Richard D. Fairbank
Chairman, President and CEO
Capital One
1680 Capital One Dr
McLean, VA 22042-4500
TEL: 703-720-1000
FAX:

Jay Carothers
Chairman and CEO
Levitz
300 Crossways Park Dr
Woodbury, NY 11797
TEL: (516) 496-9560
FAX: (631) 927-1780

John Stratton
VP & Chief Mktg Officer
Verizon
180 Washington Valley Rd
Bedminster, NJ 07921-2120
TEL: (800) 214-3555
FAX: (908) 306-7766

John F. Antioco
Chm & CEO
Blockbuster
1201 Elm St
Dallas, TX 75270-2102
TEL: (214) 854-3000
FAX:

Yukitoshi Funo
Pres
TOYOTA
19001 S Western Ave
Torrance, CA 90501-1106
TEL: (310) 468-4000
FAX: (310) 468-7800

Eric Milledge
Company Group Chairman
LifeScan, Inc.
1000 Gibraltar Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
TEL: (408) 263-9789
FAX:

Jim Julow
Vice President
Dodge Magnum/Dakota,
DamlierChysler Corp
1000 Chrysler Dr
Auburn Hills, MI 48326-2766
TEL: (248) 576-5741
FAX: (248) 512-2817

Emil J. Brolick
President
Taco Bell
17901 Von Karman Ave
Irvine, CA 92614-6253
TEL: (949) 863-4500
FAX: (949) 863-409

Marc Covent
President
Slim Fast
777 S Flagler Dr Ste 1400
West Palm Beach, FL 33401-
6176
TEL: (561) 833-9920
FAX: (561) 822-2876

William R Rhodes
Chairman
Citigroup
TEL: (212) 793-6872

And here’s a link to more FOX News sponsors.

I’ll post more contact info as I get it.

So the night before Christmas, the New York Times posted what is very obviously a childish anti-Ron Paul smear piece.  A diminishing group known as their readers called them on it, and the NY Times responded by removing the comments!  However, due to widespread pressure from Lew Rockwell and internet bloggers, they’ve now begun publishing a few hundred of them.

The old media is still used to being able to get away with this sort of thing, but each time they try they inch closer to grocery-store-tabloid status.  Gone are the days when publications like this could publish whatever they want without any accountability, thanks to the internet.

UPDATE: The New York Times has retracted their smear piece.

This news is a few days old but is critically important, none the less. A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that the right not to divulge his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) passphrase is protected by the 5th amendment. A pseudo-anonymous blogger points out the significance:

If this becomes a precedent, it will be distinctly different from European countries such as the U.K, where a new law provides for up to two years of jail time simply for refusing to reveal a key.

As people’s digital storage increasingly becomes an integrated part of their identity, the right to keep certain data private will become increasingly important. The right to keep encryption keys private will increasingly mean the freedom to keep certain thoughts private, whether they are stored in wetware or digital form.

Click here to read the story on News.com Since the ruling, the DOJ has refused to answer any questions regarding their stance on citizens being forced to reveal encryption keys.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the federal government reacts to this. From the article:

“We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,” long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free — provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.

Click here to continue reading.