Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

The Canadian and Irish governments want to implement SOPA.

TAX AND SPEND:

The Feds might need another debt ceiling increase before the Nov. election.

EDUCATION:

People are downloading textbooks like crazy off of Apple's new service. The textbook industry was such a scam, it's great to see Apple taking it on. Ebooks will wipe the textbook as we know it out and enable real competition in textbooks.

WAR ON DRUGS:

The DEA now has death squads all over the western hemisphere.

"Late on a moonless night last March, a plane smuggling nearly half a ton of cocaine touched down at a remote airstrip in Honduras. A heavily armed ground crew was waiting for it — as were Honduran security forces. After a 20-minute firefight, a Honduran officer was wounded and twodrug traffickers lay dead.Several news outlets briefly reported the episode, mentioning that a Honduran official said the United States Drug Enforcement Administration had provided support. But none of the reports included a striking detail: that support consisted of an elite detachment of military-trained D.E.A. special agents who joined in the shootout, according to a person familiar with the episode."

Government never gets enough death and destruction.

POLICE STATE:

Rand Paul detained by TSA for refusing a full body search. This might work in Ron Paul's favor. Paul takes on the TSA.

"“The police state in this country is growing out of control,” Paul wrote in a statement provided to The Daily Caller. “One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our kids and our seniors and does nothing to keep us safe.”"

Pharaoh Obama stands with the TSA. This is great for Paul. I hope he works this into the debate tonight, and I expect he will. Issues like this is why Paul would beat Obama handily in the general election. Only he can differentiate himself from Obama.

Another TSA agent busted for stealing.

Supreme Court rules police must obtain warrant before tracking people with GPS. Every now and then they get one right.

Judge orders defendant to de-crypt hard drive.

WAR:

Feds send 12,000 US troops to seize oil wells in Libya. Where's the declaration of war? Where's the treaty?

Great graphic puts military spending in perspective. Another great graphic documents the hundreds of US military bases in the US and out.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The EU bans import of Iranian oil, harming Europeans.

"The Islamic Republic, which denies trying to build an atom bomb, scoffed at efforts to choke its oil exports, as Asia lines up to buy what Europe scorns."

This is a big boost to Asian countries and the Iranian government. I sincerely doubt the Iranian government will shut down the Straits of Hormuz as long as it can sell oil in Asia. That would be self-destructive.

The oil embargo and sanctions on Iranian banks push Iran's currency to record lows. This harms the Iranian people and forces them to turn to their government for support. This makes the government more powerful.

After the Arab spring, we might see a European winter has hundreds of thousands of Hungarians protest EU rule.

POLITICS:

Romney is the Goldman Sachs candidate.

Sheldon Adelson's money has transformed Gingrich from a middle east moderate into a hawk. Adelson's wife gives Gingrich another $5 million.

I'm skeptical of claims that Gingrich and Santorum can't win. This argument shows it will be harder for them because they failed to sign up delegates in some states, but that's a long way from "can't".

Gallop reports Romney 29, Gingrich 28, Paul 13, Santorum 11 nationally. Hopefully Santorum will drop out soon.

Newt leads in Florida: Gingrich 34, Romney 26, Paul 13, Santorum 11. Hopefully Santorum will drop out after Florida. Here's another reason Ron Paul is best candidate to run against Obama: a strong plurality of Hispanics support him.

Oliver Stone endorses Ron Paul.

Ron Paul representative documents voter fraud in South Carolina. This another good reminder that Republicans are just like Democrats.

Obama to rephrase communist slogan in State of the Union speech. Obama adopts "change is..." as his campaign slogan.

MISC:

Crowd-sourced version of Star Wars Episode IV, or as most of us know it, Star Wars.

Entrepreneur creates competing Android ap market.