Presidential hopeful Ron Paul adds another key member to his team today.  Paul announced his new economic adviser is Peter Schiff, operator of a security brokerage, Euro Pacific Capital, Inc. and author of a new book titled Crash Proof.  Schiff is also co-author of another tome, The Great Income Tax Hoax.

Curiously, the Paul Campaign did not mention Peter Schiff co-authored that book with none other than the infamous Irwin Schiff, his father and current resident of a federal prison.  Irwin Schiff is now serving out a thirteen and a half year term for tax fraud and an additional twelve months for contempt of court.  The elder Schiff has long been a notorious advocate of refusing to pay taxes and has been sued for millions by citizens who followed his advice. 

The Schiff family philosophy is not new to many Paul adherents and yet the addition of Peter Schiff as economic adviser adds a new and interesting dimension to this election  cycle. 

Not mentioned by the Paul campaign is that Mr. Schiff is the son of Irwin Schiff of Las Vegas, now serving his third federal prison sentence for tax crimes. He is also the author of such books as “The Federal Mafia,” which asserts that federal judges are paid off by the Internal Revenue Service, and other books describing the federal government as a criminal organization that illegally extracts income taxes.

Peter Schiff was the co-author of “the Great Income Tax Hoax.”

The son, in interviews, has said he thinks his father is correct in asserting that there is no law to make most Americans liable for income taxes and so they can legally put zeroes on their tax returns. Peter Schiff, however, said that he pays his taxes.

San Jose State University has suspended all blood drives on campus, claiming that the FDA’s rejection of gay men as donors is illegal:

In a controversial move believed to be a first by an American college, San Jose State University President Don Kassing has suspended all campus blood drives because of a longstanding government policy that bars gay men from donating blood.

The policy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “affecting gay men violates our non-discrimination policy,” Kassing said in a lengthy e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students earlier this week.

The issue has cropped up on college campuses across the country, primarily as gay student groups protest blood drives. The American Red Cross and other national organizations that regularly run blood drives have also been pushing the FDA to revise the policy, which has been in place since AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s. State-of-the-art blood-screening techniques make the lifetime ban unnecessary, the groups say.

But a new generation of openly gay high school and college students is protesting what they say is a discriminatory policy that doesn’t take individual behavior into consideration.

This is an out-and-out lie. The policy — and the pre-donation questions it requires — don’t address sexual orientation. Blood banks don’t care whether you like boys or girls. 

HIV — and other blood-borne diseases — are spread by actions, and that’s why donors are asked specific questions about their individual behavior. Have you recently gotten a tattoo or been accidentally stuck with a needle? You can’t give blood, because the action of non-medical needle use has been known to spread the virus. Have you traveled extensively in the UK? You can’t give blood, because the action of eating British beef has been known to spread mad cow disease. Have you had gay sex? You can’t give blood, because the action of taking it up the #2 chute is known to spread HIV.

And now, because a university wants to further legitimize sexual deviancy, the blood shortage will worsen.

UPDATED– Welcome LGF Lizards! (and the inevitable Rabid Paulistinians who will now follow in your wake).

ORIGINAL POST BELOW

In other Ron Paul related news, former CIA officer Phillip Giraldi has joined the campaign as a policy adviser. Congratulations to them both.

Why would Paul want to listen to Giraldi?

What attracted Giraldi to the Paul camp?

While we await an official answer, here are some excerpts from a column by Giraldi that appeared last June on “The Huffington Post,” long known as a bastion of Republican intellectual ferment.

I’ve highlighted in bold a few lines that strike me as particularly noteworthy.

All of the leading president-aspirants from both the Democratic and Republican parties have embraced a fictional feel-good vision of the United States and its role in the world that is positively dangerous because it is so wrong. The story goes something like this: there is a gleaming city on a hill that is called the United States. The United States never does anything bad and is not to blame for anything that happens anywhere at any time. The U.S. has been targeted by evil doers called Islamofascists who hate America’s freedoms and who attack our cities for absolutely no reason. Islamofascists also hate Israel, which is a splendid little democracy that the United States has a moral obligation to defend. The war in Iraq is a necessary struggle to keep the evildoers from coming over to the United States to carry out their attacks. If one criticizes the war at all, it is in the context of it being a poorly executed diversion of resources that is impeding the real struggle against the selfsame Islamofascists, which is going on everywhere all the time. Islamofascists have no rights. Torturing them is okay, as long as you don’t call it torture and only if it produces “information that saves lives.” The United States, already exceeding the rest of the world in military expenditures, must spend even more and build a bigger Army and Marine Corps to be truly safe. And then there is Iran. Manifestly evil and something like Nazi Germany. “All options are on the table,” goes and mantra, including pre-emptive war and the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

Bin Laden and the rest of the world are aware, even if the presidential candidates are not, that the United States has used its post-World War Two primacy to invade more countries than all other nations combined. The fact is that in only five years George Bush’s go-it-alone America has become one of the most disliked countries in the world, universally reviled as a leading threat to peace. Everyone but America’s politicians is seemingly aware that the United States supports corrupt, dictatorial regimes worldwide while at the same time talking hypocritically about promoting democracy. When democracy does occur and the result is unpalatable, as has occurred in Palestine and Lebanon, the U.S. pulls the plug.

And then there is Iran, which is really about Israel because Iran does not actually threaten the United States. The Iran agenda includes pre-emptive military action if necessary and the implicit deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Tehran’s alleged weapons program, both issues that should make even the most hardened politician pause. But all the leading candidates have unflinchingly completed their obligatory obeisance to Israel and its principal lobby AIPAC. All have sworn to defend Israel to the last dead American soldier if that should become necessary though not a single one has bothered to make a coherent argument why that should be so beyond the usual assertions about terrorism, which, incidentally, have themselves been carefully crafted by Israel and its lobby to justify the “special relationship.” The rest of the world sees it all somewhat differently. Israel is engaged in a brutal occupation that is clearly visible on satellite television nightly. Its repression of the Palestinians is enabled by the United States. If the candidates actually believe that the United States should go to war for Israel no matter what Israel does, perhaps they should say so unambiguously. Ignorance of the negative consequences of the U.S.’s writing of a blank check for Israel, which fuels much anti-American sentiment and terrorism, should not be acceptable.

And then there is the support of all the leading presidential candidates for a larger army. Why on earth would the U.S. need more soldiers? To fight more wars, obviously. The wearing down of the armed services due to never-ending involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has resulted from a series of bad decisions, not because the world’s most competent military was inadequate. More bad decisions to invade other places with a bigger army would not constitute a solution and increased resources only invite the politicians to engage in more mischief. Far better a lean and hungry Pentagon. The rest of the world is not confused by the patriotic rhetoric and crocodile-tear concern expressed by the candidates for “our troops.” It is simply following the presidential debates to learn “Who’s next?” on the Pentagon hit list.

Lovely.

This is what Western Civilization is up against:

Two mentally retarded women strapped with remote-control explosives—and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers—brought carnage Friday to two pet bazaars, killing at 73 people in the deadliest day since Washington flooded the capital with extra troops last spring. The coordinated blasts—coming 20 minutes apart in different parts of the city—appeared to reinforce U.S. claims al-Qaida in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

Even the use of the handicapped in suicide bombings is not unprecedented in Iraq. In January 2005, Iraq’s interior minister said insurgents used a disabled child in a suicide attack on election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to have Down syndrome.

This is not about U.S. foreign policy. It’s not about some group striking back at its oppressors. It is about civilization against barbarism.

In preparation for the inevitable reconquista of Texas, I’m happy to present the following love song as a public service.

There are a few basic certainties in life:

• Death
• Taxes
• Journalists suck at math

By way of example, here are a few goofs the Chronicle made just today:

Pit bulls attack four miniature horses, killing one

A miniature horse used for therapeutic healing was killed and four others were injured Thursday after an attack by two pit bull terriers.

Five miniature horses, not four.

Here’s another instance of copy editors being unable to interpret small numbers

Houston gas prices drop a penny to $2.86 per gallon

Houston — $2.865, down 1.9 cents

Two pennies, not one.

If the Chron’s journalists are unable to deal with numbers like “five” and “two,” it’s no surprise that numbers like “$144,000″ just blow their minds. To the Chronicle’s credit, all the errors have been corrected. But why were they there in the first place?

Because of Basic Certainty #3.

In recent months you might have noticed an ad on LST for Chris Peden, a KSEV-listener who a few years back, with the endorsement of CLOUT, helped lead a property-tax revolution in Friendswood.

Peden is now fighting to replace Ron Paul in Congress, on the basic premise that people who live in District 14 actually deserve an elected representative who cares more about looking out for their interests in D.C. than trying to persuade a bunch of dope-smoking, Kucinich-loving college students in Seattle that America’s problems are the result of a flawed monetary policy controlled by a wealthy and secretive elite.

Anywho, how are things going?

Let’s check in with this morning’s Houston Chronicle (final paragraph):

In the neighboring 14th District, Republican incumbent Ron Paul and primary challenger Chris Peden each raised less than $50,000 in the last three months. But thanks to funds from previous campaigns, Paul had a balance of $144,000 at year’s end, twice as much as Peden. Paul can use in the congressional campaign some of the millions he raised to run for president. [LST NOTE: See update below]

Gee, that doesn’t sound too good.

Except here’s the thing–the Chronicle got the numbers EXACTLY BACKWARDS.

Here’s Chris Peden’s fourth-quarter FEC report; scroll down to Line 27, “Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period” and you see $143,949 dollars and 92 cents.

Here’s the fourth-quarter FEC report of the Most Honorable Man In America; Line 27, “Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period” reads $66,225 dollars and 34 cents.

Whoops.

Of course, Dr. Paul is allowed by “law” (really just “regulations” issued by an unconstitutional and illegitimate so-called “Federal Elections Commission”) to shift some of the millions he’s raising from across the nation as part of his Presidential run to his congressional campaign coffers… but that really wouldn’t be very honorable, would it?

After all, those millions were donated to support Dr. Paul’s pursuit of the presidency, not to keep his grubby little hands on a congressional seat… right?

UPDATED– As of noon, the Chronicle has erased it’s earlier error, Soviet-style, without a trace.

They will be noting that Peden has twice as much money Cash-On-Hand as Paul, no?

Prudence or discrimination?

A blind student of acupuncture is making a second request for a state license to practice the trade after being rejected last year because of her lack of vision.

The licensure committee of the Texas State Board of Acupuncture Examiners was set to rehear Juliana Cumbo’s request for a license today. She would be the first blind person to be issued a state license, board members said.

Meng-sheng Lin, the licensure committee chairwoman, said she’s inclined to repeat her vote against Cumbo’s application. She said Cumbo’s case was the first time she had encountered the issue.

“I’m just trying to fulfill my duty to protect the public,” said Lin, an acupuncturist in Dallas. “Would you go to a blind acupuncturist?”

She makes a good point — I wouldn’t go to a blind acupuncturist. Then again, I wouldn’t go to an acupuncturist with perfect vision.

I’m not sure where I come down on this one. The woman successfully completed her training, so I’m inclined to let her practice. Then again, she needs to react if something goes wrong, and sight could be necessary. What do you think?

Ever since defenders of pit-bulls persuaded me that this much-maligned breed is actually lovable, docile and perfectly safe, I’ve really begun to notice how biased the Mainstream-Media is when “reporting” on incidents where young children, or pregnant mothers, or bed-ridden old ladies arrogantly insists on existing in the same physical space in which one of these dogs has a God-given right to roam.

Here’s the latest example, courtesy Channel 11 in Lubbock:

Two pit bulls went on a violent rampage Thursday morning - killing one miniature horse, and seriously injuring four others.

The horses are part of Hearts and Hooves of Lubbock, a non-profit organization that brings them to people who need therapeutic healing.

“A lady knocked on my door it was about 7:50 a.m. She said ‘there are some dogs attacking your horses’ so I immediately ran out,” says Kauli Sparks, with Hearts and Hooves.

It was a scene Kauli Sparks was not prepared to find. Four of her miniature horses bleeding profusely from their necks, ears and hind legs - the result of a vicious pit bull attack. Sparks quickly realized one miniature was missing.

“Oreo which was one of our larger miniature horses was actually dead in the stall. I don’t understand how that happened because I figure he was in the stall,” says Sparks.

Kauli’s husband, Darrel, found the male and female pit bulls and trapped them in the barn. We were on the scene when Animal Control found a microchip in one of the dogs identifying the owner’s address.

Director of Animal Services Kevin Overstreet says they have been called out to that address in the past. The owners did sign the dogs over to be euthanized, but the Sparks say nothing can replace Oreo or the health of the other four miniatures Jolly, Pepperjack, Sparkles and Honor.

Oreo. Honor. Sparkles. Pepper Jack. Jolly.

Remember those names. They are the vicious and aggressive therapeutic-healing miniature horses that manipulated these poor pit-bulls into their stables and a fight that will now cost two members of that noble breed their lives.

When will the injustice end?!

NOTE: Yes, I’m being sarcastic. If you’d like to make a donation to Hearts & Hooves, a fund has been set up at HF&C Feed at 7811 W. 82nd, Lubbock, TX 79404.

Houston police chief and noted moron Harold Hurtt, who couldn’t patrol his way out of a paper bag, is refusing to allow his officers to receive training in dealing with illegal immigrants:

But Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt made it clear Thursday that his department won’t be taking on ICE duties any time soon. Hurtt said enforcing immigration law in Houston would tie up officers and add long delays to police response times.

“Local police don’t want to be immigration officers, they want to be able to enforce (local) laws,” Hurtt told a state legislative committee.

 ”That’s a major city in itself,” Hurtt said. “If we had to enforce immigration laws the response time to emergency calls — which now we have around five-minute response time — could possibly go, with our present resources, go to 30 or 45 minutes. And I don’t think that’s acceptable to citizens of Houston.” He added that the longer response time would put people at risk.

Keep those numbers in your mind. Hurtt claims that arresting illegal immigrants would increase response times by 500-800 percent.

Major Juan Jorge of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, who spoke before the task force Thursday, said afterward that local immigration enforcement could “darn near cripple” his department.

“It probably could lessen your response time by 10, 15, or 20 percent,” Jorge said.

Uh, which is it, guys? Will response times drop from 5 minutes to 45 minutes, as Chief Hurtt claims? Or will they drop from 5 minutes to 6 minutes, as Major Jorge claims?

Regardless, it looks like the Houston and Harris County areas will be at the mercy of criminal aliens, as our law enforcement officials aren’t up to the task of, um, enforcing laws.

UPDATE by Texpat:

The law creating the 287g Program was passed in 1996. It wasn’t until 2002 that the first local police department was actually enrolled. There are several problems with law officers enforcing federal statutes in their local jurisdictions. A police officer detaining an illegal alien on alleged violation of immigration laws must actually know what the proper guidelines and procedures are in order for the subsequent prosecution to proceed without violating some technical point which might void the government’s case. There also need to be mutually agreed upon procedures between the local departments and the regional federal offices so the lines of communication are open and clear.

Thirdly, and most important to the individual officer, he must be officially protected by the federal law enforcement shield against personal liability in the performance of enforcing federal laws. Otherwise, it could open the door to all sorts of legal entanglements for him and his local department.

The laws enacting this program created a valuable feature in allowing for customizing each local program. Police departments and ICE officials can draw up the initiative to fit the manpower, local terrain and other characteristics which effect the practical workability of such efforts. I am providing links below relating to what is apparently a good federal program the Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff’s Department are foregoing in the interest of political expediency.

Following is a quote from a Heritage Foundation memorandum on the 287g Program of ICE:

A program that can meet all of these essential requirements already exists. Sec­tion 287(g) of the INA allows the DHS and state and local governments to enter into assistance compacts. Both sides must agree on the scope and intent of the program before it is implemented, which gives states and local communities the flexi­bility to shape the programs to meet their needs. State and local law officers governed by a §287(g) agreement must receive adequate training and operate under the direction of federal authorities. In return, they receive full federal authority to enforce immigration law, thereby shifting liability to the federal government and providing the offic­ers with additional immunity when enforcing fed­eral laws.

The ICE page describing the program is here.

And in the interest of fair play, here is commentary from the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights.  Their description of the program is very clear and their objections are fairly muted.

——————–

——————–

Get paid to tell us what you think– Register to participate in one of our focus groups; earn money telling us what you think about politics, your community and consumer goods. Click here to learn more and sign-up!

——————–

——————–

Dawn Wolf Design– LST’s full-service graphic designer of choice. Talented, professional, competitively priced; a generous LST volunteer, we could not recommend her more highly. | 713-984-9200 | website

——————–