Thread: Ron Paul on the Issues

Send The "Gray State" Documentary Team To The RNC! ~ VIDEO

Submitted by Barracuda_Trader on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 21:41
Daily Paul Liberty Forum



Please help send the Gray State team to the RNC this year to cover what is likely to be yet another excuse for open federal tyranny. To contribute to the cause and get exclusive Gray State perks, visit Send the GRAY STATE Team to the RNC -- Indiegogo

If you've been following the Gray State effort, you know that it is a simultaneous exposé on the dissolution of our bill of rights at the hands of a tyrannical government AND a narrative feature film. Even though the effort has been going on two years, it is still in its infancy as it gather steam to plow ahead into big-budget production. So if this is something you care about, please contribute to the cause, as we're going to be taking the opportunity to initiate grassroots marketing, spread the word to the thousands of liberty-minded people at the RNC, go on radio shows, and approach potential investors. This is a HUGE move for the Gray State effort, so if it's a message you care about, please help us out.

Subscribe to the Gray State YouTube Channel and get the latest updates as the Gray State doc effort AND the feature film effort continue.

"Like" us on FaceBook for daily news and updates at Gray State | Facebook .

Contribute to the cause and get exclusive Gray State perks: Send the GRAY STATE Team to the RNC -- Indiegogo

http://www.graystatemovie.com

Send The "Gray State" Documentary Team To The RNC! ~ VIDEO | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

How Aussies see American Influence - Ron Paul Could Change That

Submitted by freddomsupp on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 23:02
Daily Paul Liberty Forum

A laconic interpretation of world politics as seen by Aussies

I find it interesting that the US Governemnt wants to impose its justice system throughout the world, and won't entertain the notion that its soldiers comply with the laws of the land where its troops are stationed.

There's a case going on right now where a drink driving American soldier killed an Australian woman while stationed in Australia, but relatives of the dead woman have to head off to the US to see the case being prosecuted.

And Obama had no option to withdraw from Iraq because Iraq insisted that crimes committed by US soldiers in Iraq would in future be prosecuted in Iraqi courts.

Ron Paul supporters should not be offended by my comments - I fully understand that you are doing more than any to try to redress these sorts of issues. I hope you enjoy the read. It covers a lot of issues.

Guy Rundle on Julian Assange extradition, May 2012 | Crikey


How Aussies see American Influence - Ron Paul Could Change That | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

THEY WARNED US! MAYBE NOW YOU WILL LISTEN



if your not awake by now! then this should help

They started by enslaving the Americans, now they have taken over parts of eastern Europe and Russia, and the Middle east...The public WILL NOT rise in revolt, not until each individual is unemployed, homeless and has nothing to eat and no where to turn to...And that state/condition is what THE POWERS ensure to control and avoid to continue making their trillions...

G. Edward Griffin on Ron Paul's Restore America Plan



Published on May 28, 2012

G. Edward Griffin's Newsletter Sign Up: Free subscription

G. Edward Griffin comments on Ron Paul's 'Restore America Plan', a 12-page budget that proposes to eliminate the Department of Commerce.

Related Video about Paul's plan to eliminate the Department of the Interior:
Ron Paul's 'Restore America Plan' Smashes Federal Tyranny - YouTube

Hacking Democracy - the Hursti Hack (Demonstration and Testing)



Published on Apr 11, 2012 by Volatus

"Can the votes on this Diebold system be hacked using the memory card?"
2 people voted Yes. 6 people voted No. The machine reported 7 Yes, 1 No.

As a software "hacker" (in the proper, non-malicious definition), I can say this is definitely a completely valid and utterly shocking "hack" that may have affected countless elections over the years...

"If I had not seen what was behind this, I'd have no reason not to, I would have certified this election as a true and accurate result of a vote." - Ion Sancho, Supervisor of Elections, Leon County, Florida.

From the highly underrated documentary, "Hacking Democracy". See more about the hack and its background: Hursti Hack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


If you are paying attention; Romney mainly win's in Non Caucus states ... another words... where Diebold Machines are used.

Ron Paul's 'Restore America Plan' Smashes Federal Tyranny



Published on May 30, 2012

Full article: Ron Paul's 'Restore America Plan' Smashes Federal Tyranny

Only 19% See Obama, Romney As Best Possible Presidential Candidates <--- LINK

This is what G.W. Bush did to YOUR Children

This is what B.O. Obama is doing to YOUR Children

This is what W.M. Romney says will continue with YOUR Children

Almost half of new vets seek disability

Wednesday - 5/30/2012, 3:43am ET


FILE - In this Wednesday, March 7, 2012 file photo, Army Pfc. Kevin Trimble, 19, adjusts his myoelectric upper limb prosthetic for occupational therapy at the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio . At 19, Kevin has lost both legs above the knee and an arm from a bomb in Afghanistan . A staggering 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now seeking compensation for disabilities they say are service-related - more than double the 21 percent who filed such claims after some previous wars, according to top government officials. The new veterans have different types of injuries than previous veterans did, in part because improvised bombs have been the main weapon and because body armor and improved battlefield care allowed many of them to survive wounds that in past wars proved fatal. (AP Photo/San Antonio Express-News, Lisa Krantz, File)

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Chief Medical Writer

(AP) - America 's newest veterans are filing for disability benefits at a historic rate, claiming to be the most medically and mentally troubled generation of former troops the nation has ever seen.

A staggering 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related. That is more than double the estimate of 21 percent who filed such claims after the Gulf War in the early 1990s, top government officials told The Associated Press.

What's more, these new veterans are claiming eight to nine ailments on average, and the most recent ones over the last year are claiming 11 to 14. By comparison, Vietnam veterans are currently receiving compensation for fewer than four, on average, and those from World War II and Korea , just two.

It's unclear how much worse off these new veterans are than their predecessors. Many factors are driving the dramatic increase in claims _ the weak economy, more troops surviving wounds, and more awareness of problems such as concussions and PTSD. Almost one-third have been granted disability so far.

Government officials and some veterans' advocates say that veterans who might have been able to work with certain disabilities may be more inclined to seek benefits now because they lost jobs or can't find any. Aggressive outreach and advocacy efforts also have brought more veterans into the system, which must evaluate each claim to see if it is war-related. Payments range from $127 a month for a 10 percent disability to $2,769 for a full one.

As the nation commemorates the more than 6,400 troops who died in post-9/11 wars, the problems of those who survived also draw attention. These new veterans are seeking a level of help the government did not anticipate, and for which there is no special fund set aside to pay.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is mired in backlogged claims, but "our mission is to take care of whatever the population is," said Allison Hickey, the VA's undersecretary for benefits. "We want them to have what their entitlement is."

The 21 percent who filed claims in previous wars is Hickey's estimate of an average for Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The VA has details only on the current disability claims being paid to veterans of each war.

The AP spent three months reviewing records and talking with doctors, government officials and former troops to take stock of the new veterans. They are different in many ways from those who fought before them.

More are from the Reserves and National Guard _ 28 percent of those filing disability claims _ rather than career military. Reserves and National Guard made up a greater percentage of troops in these wars than they did in previous ones. About 31 percent of Guard/Reserve new veterans have filed claims compared to 56 percent of career military ones.

More of the new veterans are women, accounting for 12 percent of those who have sought care through the VA. Women also served in greater numbers in these wars than in the past. Some female veterans are claiming PTSD due to military sexual trauma _ a new challenge from a disability rating standpoint, Hickey said.

The new veterans have different types of injuries than previous veterans did. That's partly because improvised bombs have been the main weapon and because body armor and improved battlefield care allowed many of them to survive wounds that in past wars proved fatal.

"They're being kept alive at unprecedented rates," said Dr. David Cifu, the VA's medical rehabilitation chief. More than 95 percent of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have survived.

Larry Bailey II is an example. After tripping a rooftop bomb in Afghanistan last June, the 26-year-old Marine remembers flying into the air, then fellow troops attending to him.

"I pretty much knew that my legs were gone. My left hand, from what I remember I still had three fingers on it," although they didn't seem right, Bailey said. "I looked a few times but then they told me to stop looking." Bailey, who is from Zion , Ill. , north of Chicago , ended up a triple amputee and expects to get a hand transplant this summer.

He is still transitioning from active duty and is not yet a veteran. Just over half of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans eligible for VA care have used it so far.

Of those who have sought VA care:

_More than 1,600 of them lost a limb; many others lost fingers or toes.

_At least 156 are blind, and thousands of others have impaired vision.

_More than 177,000 have hearing loss, and more than 350,000 report tinnitus _ noise or ringing in the ears.

_Thousands are disfigured, as many as 200 of them so badly that they may need face transplants. One-quarter of battlefield injuries requiring evacuation included wounds to the face or jaw, one study found.

"The numbers are pretty staggering," said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who has done four face transplants on non-military patients and expects to start doing them soon on veterans.

Others have invisible wounds. More than 400,000 of these new veterans have been treated by the VA for a mental health problem, most commonly, PTSD.

Tens of thousands of veterans suffered traumatic brain injury, or TBI _ mostly mild concussions from bomb blasts _ and doctors don't know what's in store for them long-term. Cifu, of the VA, said that roughly 20 percent of active duty troops suffered concussions, but only one-third of them have symptoms lasting beyond a few months.

That's still a big number, and "it's very rare that someone has just a single concussion," said David Hovda, director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center . Suffering multiple concussions, or one soon after another, raises the risk of long-term problems. A brain injury also makes the brain more susceptible to PTSD, he said.

On a more mundane level, many new veterans have back, shoulder and knee problems, aggravated by carrying heavy packs and wearing the body armor that helped keep them alive.

One recent study found that 19 percent required orthopedic surgery consultations and 4 percent needed surgery after returning from combat.

All of this adds up to more disability claims, which for years have been coming in faster than the government can handle them. The average wait to get a new one processed grows longer each month and is now about eight months _ time that a frustrated, injured veteran might spend with no income.

More than 560,000 veterans from all wars currently have claims that are backlogged _ older than 125 days.

The VA's benefits chief, Hickey, gave these reasons:

_Sheer volume. Disability claims from all veterans soared from 888,000 in 2008 to 1.3 million in 2011. Last year's included more than 230,000 new claims from Vietnam veterans and their survivors because of a change in what conditions can be considered related to Agent Orange exposure. Those complex, 50-year-old cases took more than a third of available staff, she said.

_High number of ailments per claim. When a veteran claims 11 to 14 problems, each one requires "due diligence" _ a medical evaluation and proof that it is service-related, Hickey said.

_A new mandate to handle the oldest cases first. Because these tend to be the most complex, they have monopolized staff and pushed up average processing time on new claims, she said.

_Outmoded systems. The VA is streamlining and going to electronic records, but for now, "We have 4.4 million case files sitting around 56 regional offices that we have to work with; that slows us down significantly," Hickey said.

Barry Jesinoski, executive director of Disabled American Veterans, called Hickey's efforts "commendable," but said: "The VA has a long way to go" to meet veterans' needs. Even before the surge in Agent Orange cases, VA officials "were already at a place that was unacceptable" on backlogged claims, he said.

He and VA officials agree that the economy is motivating some claims. His group helps veterans file them, and he said that sometimes when veterans come in, "We'll say, `Is your back worse?' and they'll say, `No, I just lost my job.'"

Jesinoski does believe these veterans have more mental problems, especially from multiple deployments.

"You just can't keep sending people into war five, six or seven times and expect that they're going to come home just fine," he said.

For taxpayers, the ordeal is just beginning. With any war, the cost of caring for veterans rises for several decades and peaks 30 to 40 years later, when diseases of aging are more common, said Harvard economist Linda Bilmes. She estimates the health care and disability costs of the recent wars at $600 billion to $900 billion.

"This is a huge number and there's no money set aside," she said. "Unless we take steps now into some kind of fund that will grow over time, it's very plausible many people will feel we can't afford these benefits we overpromised."

How would that play to these veterans, who all volunteered and now expect the government to keep its end of the bargain?

"The deal was, if you get wounded, we're going to supply this level of support," Bilmes said. Right now, "there's a lot of sympathy and a lot of people want to help. But memories are short and times change."

Get the Gun Rights Ad up in South Dakota!

Submitted by Skyorbit on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 22:35



Please get This Radio Ad on the AIR!

Donate! South Dakota for Liberty

Tracy

Get the Gun Rights Ad up in South Dakota! | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012

Neoconservative Foreign Policy Destroyed VIDEO!

Submitted by fatlibertarian on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 01:40
Ron Paul 2012

My thoughts on how ignorant Bill Whittle's (a neoconservative's) argument is in relation to war, terrorism and Iran. As a former neoconservative I think I undressed his stupidity for everyone to see.



Neoconservative Foreign Policy Destroyed VIDEO! | Peace . Gold . Liberty | Ron Paul 2012