The Time is Now - Ron Paul 2012

Dear Choice America Network readers, I'm running for President because it's time to take a stand. For principle over power. For conviction over compromise. For responsibility over recklessness. For the American people over all those who would defend the status quo while selling out our children and grandchildren's futures. Beginning at midnight tonight, my campaign's grassroots supporters will hold another Money Bomb to help guarantee I can continue building a top-tier campaign and pull out all the stops to finish strong in the Iowa Straw Poll on August 13. So I hope you will visit www.RonPaul2012.com this Tuesday, July 19, and give whatever you are able to at this crucial time. I can't express enough how much I appreciate your support in this rough economy. I know many who contribute to my campaign are sacrificing in other areas so they can help spread the message of freedom and take back their country. And there has never been a better chance for us to win! The Iowa Straw Poll is coming up fast, and all eyes will be on the results. This is our opportunity to further illustrate that our R3VOLUTION is  able to turn passion into on-the-ground success. You and I have seen it in our continuing efforts to Audit the Fed, as we have brought more scrutiny on the Federal Reserve than ever before and forced it into releasing tremendous amounts of information it would have loved to keep sealed in a dusty backroom.  Believe me, the Fed knows that's just the beginning of what we can accomplish. And you and I have seen the power of our movement most dramatically with  my son Rand's victory in the Kentucky Senate race, where, despite the establishment's best efforts, Rand crushed the opposition and has gone on to shake up Washington. So I firmly believe there is no limit to what this battle-tested movement can achieve when it comes together around a common goal. The Tuesday, July 19, Money Bomb isn't about revolutionizing campaign fundraising. We've already done that. It's about demonstrating the intensity of the support for restoring America now. It's about proving that the torch of liberty is burning bright in the hearts of patriots all across the country. It's about sending a message that we will no longer let the establishment decide who is worthy of support. If you are able, I hope you will chip in whatever you can at www.RonPaul2012.com  on Tuesday. There are many more Americans who are ready to support me for President in this election. But it's hard for them to see through the establishment's tired story that I can't win because I refuse to play by the statists' rules. A strong finish in the Iowa Straw Poll would go a long way toward finally doing  away with this myth once and for all and convincing more Americans to join our  efforts. I'm proud of my record as a constitutional conservative, and I know that no other candidate for the Presidency has the credentials to match. But if we are to win, we must get the word out far and wide. Anything you can contribute at www.RonPaul2012.com on Tuesday will help me purchase tv and radio ad time, send mail, create more campaign materials, and fund my operations in several key states. And, most importantly, it will help me in Iowa in these last few weeks before the August 13 Straw Poll.  If we work together, I am convinced we can WIN this race and take the White House in November 2012. Thank you for all you do for freedom, and I hope you can help my campaign send another powerful message by contributing at www.RonPaul2012.com this Tuesday, July 19. For Liberty, Ron Paul P.S. The August 13 Iowa Straw Poll is coming up fast, and my campaign's grassroots supporters are holding another Money Bomb starting at midnight tonight to help me finish strong in the Straw Poll and continue my campaign's  momentum. So please visit www.RonPaul2012.com this Tuesday. Any amount you can give will go toward growing this campaign and winning the Presidency in 2012. Paid for by Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee www.ronpaul2012.com

Presidential Candidate RON PAUL - 2012

Strong Cities, Strong Communities

Obama Administration

Launches Strong Cities, Strong Communities

to Support Local Development

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Obama Administration launched Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2), a new and customized pilot initiative to strengthen local capacity and spark economic growth in local communities while ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely and efficiently. To accomplish this, federal agencies will provide experienced staff to work directly with six cities: Chester, PA; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; and New Orleans, LA. These teams will work with local governments, the private sector, and other institutions to leverage federal dollars and support the work being done at the local level to encourage economic growth and community development.

Additionally, communities nationwide will be eligible to compete for comprehensive economic planning assistance through a grant competition designed to spark local innovation. By integrating government investments and partnering with local communities, SC2 channels the resources of the federal government to help empower cities as they develop and implement their vision for economic growth.

“Over the past two and a half years, the Obama Administration received feedback from leaders all across the country who described the kind of partnership that would be most useful to them for economic growth,” said Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes. “The result is Strong Cities, Strong Communities, an innovative new pilot that will help strengthen local communities while also delivering federal resources and assistance more effectively.”
  
Added Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, “This is exactly the kind of federal initiative that President Obama pledged to create – one that respects the wisdom of local leadership and helps mayors and other local officials utilize federal resources more effectively. President Obama has consistently demonstrated his commitment to a robust partnership with America’s cities and counties– Strong Cities, Strong Communities is yet another example of this important partnership.”
Through this pilot, the Obama Administration will focus on three key goals:

• Improving the way federal government does business: Cutting through red tape and rationalizing the federal bureaucracy to help deal with the overlapping maze of agencies, regulations and program requirements that are sometimes confusing to local governments;
• Providing assistance and support – working with local communities to find ground up, not top down solutions: Providing on the ground technical assistance and planning resources tailored to local governments’ needs and helping them use the federal funds they already receive more efficiently and effectively; and
• Partnering for growth: Developing critical partnerships with key local and regional stakeholders that encompass not only municipal and state governments, but also new partnerships with the business community, non-profits, anchor institutions, faith-based institutions, and other public, private, and philanthropic leaders.

In addition to building the capacity of local governments, SC2 aims to encourage partnerships among local community organizations, anchor institutions, businesses, foundations and government agencies, helping to leverage federal investments and increase impact. The four components of SC2 include:

• SC2 Community Solutions Teams: Community Solutions Teams comprised of federal employees from several different agencies will work directly with cities to support mayors in Chester, PA; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; and New Orleans, LA. Community Solutions Teams will assist cities with issues mayors have identified as vital to their economic strategies, including efforts to build on local assets, strengthen regional economies, develop transportation infrastructure, improve job-training programs and support community revitalization. 
• SC2 Fellowship Program: A complement to the Community Solutions Teams, a new fellowship program will select, train, and place early- to mid-career professionals to serve multi-year terms in local government positions to give cities additional capacity. An intermediary will be selected to run the fellowship program, and Fellows will be selected through a competitive national process. The Program will be funded primarily by philanthropic partners; the Rockefeller Foundation is providing $2.5 million in initial funding.
• SC2 Economic Planning Challenge: In addition to the six pilot locations, SC2 includes an Economic Planning Challenge designed to help additional cities develop economic blueprints. This national grant competition will enable cities to adopt and implement innovative economic development strategies to support comprehensive city and regional planning efforts. Six cities will be competitively selected to receive a grant of approximately $1 million that they will use to administer an “X-prize style” competition, whereby they will challenge multi-disciplinary teams of experts to develop comprehensive economic and land use proposals for their city. The Challenge will be administered by EDA, and EDA will assist cities in the administration of the competition.
• National Resource Network: Pending authorization of funding, the National Resource Network (NRN) will aggregate public and private resources to provide a broader set of cities, towns and regions with access to a one-stop portal of national experts to provide holistic policy and implementation support. Once funds are secured, HUD will host a competition to select an intermediary to run the NRN. Cities, towns and regions will apply to get access to the NRN, and outside experts will apply to be able to provide consulting services through the NRN. A menu of customized and comprehensive technical assistance in a variety of policy areas will be available to communities, delivered through on-site training and staff development. The NRN will also foster peer-to-peer learning to strengthen the network of urban practitioners and thinkers.

SC2 pilot cities were selected on the basis of economic need, strong local leadership and collaboration, potential for economic growth, geographic diversity, and the ability to test the SC2 model across a range of environments. Federal assessment teams spent time on the ground working directly with mayors and other local officials to determine needs, opportunities and gather input for the pilot initiative.



Hard Times Generation: America's Homeless Kids

Middle East On Fire

This Syrian Tinderbox

Could Set Fire To The Region

Assad's regime threatens dire consequences for the bloodshed in Jisr al-Shughour. They may not be restricted to Syria's borders

by Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk

Carnage in Jisr al-Shughour has taken the Syrian crisis to a new level, even as Bashar al-Assad's regime descends to new depths. Three risks now stand out. The first and most obvious is vicious regime retaliation against residents of the north-western town where 120 army and security personnel are said to have been killed. The second is the very real spectre of civil war raised by this escalation. Third, and most dangerous for Israel and the west, are growing, linked attempts by the regime and its ally Iran to externalise the conflict.

Syrian ministers are threatening dire consequences for the Jisr al-Shughour deaths, which they blame (without offering evidence) on armed gangs. Their alarm is justified in one respect: this turmoil threatens the very existence of the Assad clan's ascendancy. Of the more than 1,000 civilians killed since the uprising began in March, the largest number – at least 418 according to a new Human Rights Watch report – died in the south-western Daraa governorate.

This week's events in Jisr al-Shughour, involving organized armed resistance and well-directed counter-attacks against regime targets, are of a different order of seriousness to Daraa's peaceful pro-democracy protests. In Daraa, the report says, "systematic killings and torture" by security forces probably amounted to crimes against humanity. So what untold horrors may be in store for Jisr al-Shughour residents, where the stakes are so much higher and where the same media curbs prevent independent scrutiny?

This chill moment is reminiscent of the day in July 1995 when Serbian forces brushed aside UN peacekeepers and seized the besieged Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Europe held its breath, fearing the worst. What transpired was even more awful than most could have imagined.

Assad should know by now that violence added to violence is not the answer. Amazingly, he does not. Or perhaps he is no longer in control, superseded in effect by his more martial younger brother, Maher, and other Alawite hardliners in the palace-general staff clique. The risk of civil war now looms large over Syria, in part because of this uncertainty about who is in charge; in part, also, because much of the Jisr al-Shughour bloodshed seems to have been the result of infighting between reluctant army units, filled with conscripts, and plainclothes security men – Syria's equivalent of Iran's notorious basij militia.

Wissam Tarif, director of Insan, a human rights organisation, was quoted on Monday as saying that many deaths resulted from clashes between loyalists and defectors, an account he said was backed up by local witnesses. There have been previous reports from other flashpoint towns of conscripts being shot for refusing to open fire on civilians, always officially denied. But the unprecedented regime casualty list in Jisr al-Shughour suggests the rot is spreading inside the many-headed security apparatus. Assad now faces two revolts. One on the streets, another within his own power structures. Like autocrats elsewhere, he will discover you cannot shoot down an idea.

By trying to externalise the conflict away from Syria's cities into the wider region, effectively projecting it on to Israel and potentially Lebanon and Iraq too, the regime poses a greater threat to western and Israeli interests than at any time since the 1973 Ramadan (Yom Kippur) war.

France and others are finally waking up to this evolution, with Paris demanding UN security council action. There is talk of referrals to the international criminal court. The US is considering even tougher sanctions. Assad's legitimacy "if not gone, [has] nearly run out", says Hillary Clinton. Nobody is talking about military measures, not yet at least. But momentum is building. Meanwhile William "behind-the-curve" Hague remains publicly fixated on his misjudged pursuit of Libya's Gaddafi and a Yemeni boatlift – all but oblivious to the vastly more dangerous implications of a Syrian implosion.

Recent incursions into the Israeli-occupied sectors of the Golan Heights, orchestrated by Damascus, dramatically illustrate how the Syrian conflagration could be purposefully spread. And what price a completed US withdrawal from Iraq this year if the country is destabilised by a spillover flood of Syrian combatants and refugees?

Southern Lebanon, ruled as a fiefdom by Iranian-armed Hezbollah, resembles an ideological hayfield scorched by five years of drought – while in Beirut the only certainty is political weakness. One match, struck in Damascus, might be all it needs to ignite a repeat of the July 2006 rocket war against northern Israel. And Israel, as ever, is not one to show restraint when brutal escalatory over-reaction will do.

Behind the expanding Syrian crisis lurks Iran. The Tehran regime is likewise embattled and destabilised by popular demands for reform, bitterly divided and seeking to deflect and project domestic unhappiness on to foreign foes. Two new developments this week amply illustrate the gathering danger.

One is the International Atomic Energy Agency's confirmation that buildings destroyed by Israeli bombers in 2007 housed an illicit Syrian nuclear reactor, most probably built in collaboration with Iran. Does Syria have other nuclear capabilities the IAEA does not know about? Nobody can say. Second, Iranian attack submarines have entered the Red Sea, the Fars news agency reported, accompanied by elements of the Iranian navy's 14th fleet. Their goal, it said, was to "collect information and identify other countries' combat vessels".

This is disingenuous – and alarming. Iran's goal is to project its military and political influence across a weak, restless Arab world. And to protect its repressive brother-in-arms, Syria, from western interference, military or otherwise. Iran's deluded, autocratic regime would rather fight than compromise on Arab spring democratic change. It may yet get its wish.



Ron Paul Back On Top

New Winner in June Straw Poll!

Ron Paul Back On Top

Congratulations to 2012 Presidential Candidate Ron Paul who has won the June Townhall.com & HotAir.com Presidential Straw Poll! This is the second time since January that Ron Paul has won the Straw Poll. He also saw the biggest jump in support this month at 5.8%. In fact, he was one of only four candidates who gained ground this month: Sarah Palin (+4.1%), Michele Bachmann (+5.3%) and Rick Perry (+3.4%). Not surprisingly, those candidates received the most buzz in the media this month. Herman Cain, the May Straw Poll Winner, received the biggest drop in support at -6.6%. Has the Hermanator's support peaked? Is Sarah Palin making a comeback in anticipation of a possible presidential announcement? Are new faces Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry beginning to gain momentum?   Regardless, Ron Paul has taken a firm lead without question. Ron Paul is fast becoming the #1 Presidential Choice among Republicans, Democrats and Independents as more and more American's discover the "Constitution Candidate" and the powerful Ron Paul Revolution.

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it’s all aBout cHoice!

it’s all aBout yOu!