All right, y'all, welcome back to the show.
It's anti-war radio.
I'm Scott Horton and our next guest on the show today is Karen Kotowski.
She used to be a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S.
Air Force, worked in the Pentagon.
It was her boss was that guy, Bill Lutie, I was just telling you about, who lied us into war and is, uh, lately has been briefing Rick Perry on, uh, how the world works, uh, welcome to the show, Karen, how are you doing?
I'm doing fine.
I did not realize Bill Lutie was briefing, uh, Rick Perry.
This is, this is really scary.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What I read was that, uh, I guess he asked Don Rumsfeld, who should I talk to?
And Rumsfeld sent him to Fife and Lutie.
Oh my goodness.
And then I think it was Eli Lake in the Washington times, although I may have my footnote wrong on which report it was that I read that said he'd spent hours and hours talking with Douglas Fife, so Rick Perry did.
Yeah.
Rick Perry.
Oh my God.
And he didn't get sick to his stomach.
Listening to that idiot.
I don't know.
I guess he was looking up to a guy in the mentor position.
Cause Rick Perry himself, he doesn't, he looks, he looks like a tool, but, uh, it's unfortunate.
Let me tell the people that you also write for lourockwell.com and that you're running for Congress in Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley.
Is that right?
Yeah, that's right.
I'm, I'm running as a Republican in our Republican primary.
We have a 20 year incumbent.
He's a Rhino, a pro Patriot act, pro war, you know, those kinds of things.
So, um, he's, he's somewhat conservative in other things, but he does like to regulate.
So basically he's as good as having a Democrat.
So we're going to try to, and I hate to insult Democrats that way and do the party thing, but around here, everybody's a Republican.
And so, uh, what we have is basically a, not a representative that we can use.
So, um, I'm trying, I'm trying to challenge him and it's, uh, you know, it's an uphill battle because they're so used to having this guy around.
Uh, but you know, we'll see how it goes.
We're fighting him.
We're making him angry.
We're getting him worried.
We're causing him to spend his money.
And that's what we like.
Well, that's good.
Uh, I mean, what kind of progress are you making?
Giving a lot of speeches and got a lot of volunteers and that kind of thing.
We have, we're working on our volunteers and I'll tell you, most of them at this point are, uh, well, two categories, one tea party organization.
And of course, uh, uh, third category, really Ron Paul supporters.
Um, cause the tea party, you know, was originally Ron Paul's thing, but the Republicans in some ways, in some places, uh, attempted to co-opt them.
And here in the Shenandoah Valley, um, it's about half and half, about half of our key parties are independent and they welcome people of all members and all, all parties and stripes if they're independent, you know, libertarian, conservative, uh, Democrats that are disillusioned with Obama, all those types of people that tea party, some of, some of them welcome them.
And then other of them are more like Republican groups, uh, that, that say they like the constitution, but you know, they, they, this is where a lot of the support is coming from because they're very disillusioned by all those folks are disillusioned by what's happening in Washington and all that spending and borrowing.
Um, Ron Paul, people, of course, uh, libertarians I'm counting on and hoping for, although some of them are upset that I didn't run as a third party.
And, um, who's the other group?
There was another group.
Oh, well, disillusioned establishment Republicans within the party unit.
Yeah.
They're upset.
I mean, come on.
It's very, it's a, it's a wide range.
Um, and so we're working all those groups and we're getting a lot of positive feedback.
In fact, I went to two fairs, two different fairs in the past, uh, couple of days.
We're going to go to another one this week.
We've got one of the big ones, but we talked to people there about, you know, what's on your mind and you know, what do you think what's going on?
And they, they're very unhappy with the direction of Washington and they're unhappy with their representation here, which of course is what I'm interested in, but they're also just tired.
They're tired of Washington's antique.
Yeah.
Well, um, of course all the opinion polls coming out lately say that congressional, the congressional approval level is lower than ever that they even did one.
Although I didn't really like the way they phrased the question.
It seemed like they were asking the wrong thing, but something about consent of the governed is at an all time low.
I guess the question wasn't, do you consent?
The question was, do you think everybody else does or not or something, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, if you look at those numbers, I, that one was an interesting poll because, um, it basically indicated that 67% feel for sure that they have not consented to what Washington is doing.
And that's not just an anti Obama sentiment.
That's anti Congress to come, you know, it's anti Washington.
So, um, that's the majority.
If we were actually, uh, you know, a majority that, that understood our power, our great, great power, just as being people who withhold our consent, you know, whose country would be totally different.
But we don't understand our power.
We don't realize our, you know, we're like, uh, you know, we're like little baby Superman, you know, we just don't know yet what our power is, but the power of the people is, is great.
Uh, and if they're tired of Washington, they can't change it.
And it's not necessarily through the voting booth, but they can change it.
Well, I wonder about that.
I wonder if you're, uh, if your, uh, struggle is basically just to get the people to support you and vote for you.
Uh, just like in the, you know, uh, public school textbook, or whether you're up against, you know, the establishment and all of that.
Cause I mean, especially as we go into this Ron Paul thing, especially just over the weekend, you know, he got second place in this thing and yet they ignored him all weekend.
No, by a hair, by a hair.
He was, he was second place, right?
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what they say on TV, they didn't really explain why they thought this, but they just said, he's got no chance on CNN.
Uh, Roger Simon and the Politico said, well, he's got no chance.
And that's why we won't talk about him.
Cause he just cannot win.
It'll never happen.
And it seemed like they're saying, cause the people can't, even if they want him, they can't have him.
Well, now that actually from the, from the establishment's point of view, that could be true.
Even if the people want Ron Paul, someone who's honest, someone who is, uh, understands how government works, uh, understands and loves the constitution.
Uh, we'll put power back in the hands of the States and the people, um, we'll take care of the elderly as we transition away from this crazy system that we have that, that is going to kill our young.
It's already killing them.
Um, you know, this is a guy that people want, and it may be that the establishment is right when they say we can't have what we want.
Okay.
And that's fine.
Let's interpret it that way and get angry.
Cause we're going to get what we want.
We have every right to it.
And we don't have to be spoonfed these establishment characters.
And you know, Rick Perry is really a cartoon of, uh, of what the Republicans have been about for the last, I don't know, 20, 25 years at least.
I mean, he's just, he's just a caricature of everything wrong with the Republican party.
Um, now my sentiment, and I don't know how you thought about it, but when they put McCain up, you know, McCain, you remember how he placed in, uh, in Iowa, he was like six or seven.
He was like a, he was like a Herman Cain or a, well, Herman Cain would be better than McCain, but he was like a, uh, who's the last place guy down in Iowa?
I think, right.
Yeah.
Santorum.
Okay.
Well that would be a McCain, uh, showing, uh, and yet McCain went on to become the Republican nominee because the party establishment wanted him.
Now McCain is despised.
Uh, here in the sixth district, uh, you, he's despised.
We have, you know, remember when he had this McCain Palin stickers, the bumper stickers for people, McCain was on the top.
They cut McCain off and they just run around with Palin.
That's what they do.
They ain't McCain.
He's not, he's an establishment Republicans choice.
He's a status quo guy.
And the Republicans put him up there, but I believe they did it precisely to give the election to the Democrats.
I mean, I think they, they thought, you know, we need to regroup.
It's good to have an enemy.
Let's put a Democrat up there.
Um, plus some of the Bush, uh, you know, the Bush spending, I mean, a lot of the people in the know, not just the, the, the smart guys we read about, you know, we read in Lou Rockwell and, and, uh, you know, commodities trading and things like that.
But the smart people in politics also knew, um, the pipe, you know, the Piper had to be paid with, with all this spending that Bush was running up his deficit work.
So, you know, better yet, you know, why not, why not have a Democrat?
I think they wanted a Democrat.
And so, uh, you know, they decided that's how it would be.
They would run a really lousy, um, you know, campaign with McCain and Palin.
Well, not that they had much else to choose from.
I mean, they had Ron Paul, then they treat him just the way they do now.
But this time it's different.
See, this time is very different because Ron Paul has not changed his tune at all.
But the four years or the three years intervening have proven everything he said was right.
Uh, people became aware of him in the last race.
And now they already know there's no big learning curve.
Now we're just expanding the base.
You know, the, uh, the learning curves are done I think in most, in, in most ways.
And this is why to get back down to your, your come back around to your, your question or your, you know, the topic, this is why the media can't talk about it.
It's out of their control already.
This is the final, I mean, they can't even, he's got it.
He's got it.
He has got the attention of the American people.
He's the only one telling the truth up there.
And it's very obvious.
Yeah.
CNN says we have YouTube.
That's right.
We don't.
Yeah, that's right.
We have YouTube.
Somebody likes what they see.
They pass it around.
And you know, I'll tell you there's another related thing and you guys related thing till we get back from this.
Okay.
It's Karen Katowski.
Everybody go back and read her archives at luerockwell.com.
We'll be right back.
All right, y'all.
Welcome back to the show.
It's anti-war radio.
I'm Scott Horton.
I'm on the line with Karen Katowski, Pentagon whistleblower on the neocons who lied us into war with Iraq.
Check out our archive at luerockwell.com for more information about that.
Also in Rumsfeld's shop at the American conservative, the new Pentagon papers at salon.com soldier for the truth and the LA weekly and a bunch of other great stuff like that.
Just search around.
You'll find it.
I think if you spell it like it sounds, then Google will correct you and know who you're talking about.
Also, she's running for Congress in Virginia.
And I wanted to ask you, we're talking about, uh, your and Ron Paul's, uh, electoral prospects here.
And I guess, uh, you know, before I was an anarchist, I was a minarchist.
And I used to think that, you know, the American people could control the Congress.
I mean, there's 435 districts and we can at least thank James Madison for the fact that really it's all about the house of representatives, all taxation and appropriation must originate in the house and impeachment, uh, can take place in the house of representatives, uh, for, um, not just the president, but any executive officers, uh, and judges too.
And, uh, so maybe the little D democratic system can work.
Maybe Ron Paul was an anomaly, but maybe we could actually fill the house of representatives.
Maybe we could actually fill the house of representatives with people like him or, or people on the left, but, uh, of principle, people like Dennis Kucin or something, somebody like that.
Um, and actually change the way things are done.
Well, I mean, you're running for Congress, so you kind of think so, right?
Well, yeah.
And I'll tell you the way I would see my role in Congress, uh, would, would, first off, um, you know, I'm not, I would not plan to be there for a long time because I don't particularly care for Washington DC in any way, shape or form.
But, um, the thing that I would be doing is, is, uh, communicating and, uh, legislating away from big government, you know, reducing federal power, eliminating federal regulations, or drawing it back, um, reexamining stuff and changing some of the processes by which they spend their money so easily.
And one of the, you know, there's a lot of little things.
Downsized DC has a great little group of three legislative proposals.
First, they want the Congressman to read the bill.
What a shocker that is.
Okay.
Have them read the bills.
Verify under oath that they have read the bill, that they are signing.
Okay.
That's one.
Number two, they need to write the bill.
Okay.
And, and they don't, that means that the lobbyist can't write the bills for them.
APAC cannot write the bills on foreign aid to Israel for them.
Okay.
They have to write it themselves with their staff or whatnot.
And so put some, you know, and verify this.
So there's that.
And then the third part is, if you vote on something, it has to be a single topic bit of legislation.
If you want to vote on a military budget, you vote on a military budget.
Um, you don't throw a bunch of other legislation in there.
And, uh, I don't know if you remember when, uh, Rand Paul in the Senate was, uh, trying to filibuster the Patriot Act extension cause he, and he wanted to get some amendments to it.
Uh, the law that they were, that the Senate was actually voting on, what had nothing to do with the Patriot Act.
When you looked for that, you had a really hard time finding what it was they were voting on because the Patriot Act was the fourth item of that had been attached to this other bill that had nothing to do at all with the Patriot Act.
So, um, you know, we need to have bills named properly and including only single topic, single subject, none of this omnibus stuff, uh, make them make a decision each and every time and have it debated.
So, you know, if you did things like that, if you cut the congressional pay, if you eliminated retirement programs for congressmen, that's just insane.
The founders never thought of anything like that.
They couldn't believe it.
This is, this is just insane.
That should be eliminated.
There should be no retirement.
Healthcare should be whatever they decide privately to purchase for themselves.
They're well paid enough and they can certainly do that.
So, you know, if you, if you make Congress hard work and if you make it kind of tough to do the things they want to do so easily, which is to pass lots and lots of legislation and to please lots and lots of, of, uh, of donors and lots of, lots of lobbyists and, and big business and things like that.
If you make it difficult, you won't have to vote in term limits.
You know, one of the easy things people talk about, Oh, term limit, we need to limit their terms.
You don't realize they don't, they don't buy the Congress abides by no law.
And they usually right up front exempt themselves from the laws that they do pass.
Even the ones that apply to them, they ignore them.
You know, they're not going to spend more than they have, you know, unless there's a murder.
So to declare war before they send troops anywhere where they don't do that.
So do you think if we had a, you know, a term limit vote and it was a law that they would abide by that, they would figure out ways to rotate in and out or make exemptions to grandfather, everybody, anyway, eliminate the pension program and you won't have a problem with people staying too long.
They just won't do it.
Well, again, it all comes down to the people demanding it.
I mean, that's right.
And the people have to demand that they do that in a, in a political, you know, if you have to, if you have to have government, we've got one.
The way it's set up is that people have to demand these things both directly and through their representatives.
So if you had a representative up there working really hard to make some of these things happen and you, and you had maybe 40 or 50 of those guys, you wouldn't even need a majority because one of the big problems that Congress says is they got no backbone.
Are you making the empire a centerpiece of your campaign?
I'm not making the empire the centerpiece, but I am making bringing troops home and closing down military bases that we don't need.
Okay.
That's the way I'm, that's my minarchist, uh, approach to dealing with this stuff.
Because, uh, empire, when, when you say the word empire here in the sixth district and a lot of places around the whole country, they don't, they don't associate that with America.
They don't understand what our empire looks like.
And they don't, if you tell them it's an empire, they say, well, that's a dirty word.
It just sounds like something Lennon would say, you know, imperialist.
And they don't, they don't think of it as something that we do.
Um, cause you know, we actually in the sixth district, um, don't even have other than VA hospitals.
We don't have any military bases here, which is great.
We don't want them, but um, but Virginia does.
And there's a whole lot of sense that the military spends money and creates jobs.
There's this huge sense there.
So, so my approach is, uh, you know, and, and unconstitutional wars.
Okay.
That takes us out of a lot of them bring troops home where we don't need them.
And that includes Pacific theater as well as the, the Asian theaters and, and the near East South Asia, you know, the Middle East.
And of course, other places that we are South America, you know, people don't have any clue how much we got deployed down in South America, you know, trying to foster the drug war.
I don't think we're fighting it.
I think we're trying to foster it.
Good point.
That's certainly the effect of it.
Yeah.
Now I am, I am, uh, not, I haven't actively given a particular topical speech on this or anything, but I'm pushing for agricultural hemp to be, uh, able to, you know, we should be able to find that here in the Valley and go along with anything else, uh, food freedom and farm freedom, all that.
So that fits in with things that folks here are a little more in tune to, but I'm not saying in the empire, in those words because it doesn't mean anything to a lot of people.
They don't realize like you and I do.
And like people that, uh, are really focused on our overseas policy.
Now, one of the things people hear, and I think around the country, they do realize we give away a lot of money overseas.
So foreign aid and that includes military aid.
So I'm definitely advocating major, major reductions in foreign aid and military aid.
And that impacts the growth of the empire.
In fact, that would shrink the empire to some extent.
So anyway, that's the approach I'm taking.
You know, I think it's consistent with my, you know, with, with my, uh, well, I know it's consistent with what I believe.
Uh, it's not a hundred percent leap.
It's more of a, it's not a baby step, but it's just a step in that direction.
It's not, it's not radical.
I guess you could say, I don't, I don't consider that position.
You know, I don't consider closing down military bases that you don't need radical.
Do you?
No, it all ought to go apart 20 years ago.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, there was a woman, uh, one, someone here, Republican in one of the Republican meetings that we had talking to my campaign manager, we'd handed out our brochures and some other information.
And on that one, it one bit of information was the things that I would do and included closing down unnecessary military bases.
And she went up to the campaign manager and said, um, this is just bad.
This is just wrong.
She's going to close down all the military bases.
And Lisa goes, well, I don't think she said, I don't think that's what's there.
I don't think it's going to close down all of them.
And so we went, she went to it with the lady and they looked at it and Lisa says, no, no, she's going to close down unneeded and unnecessary military bases overseas.
And I didn't even specifically say in the, you know, into the domestic arena, just overseas.
And the woman was a little, you know, she, she calmed down a tiny bit, but her impression was still, that's all right.
That's all right.
So anyway, this is the kind of thing we're doing with her.
She said, close down all the unnecessary ones.
And that includes all the ones around here.
Now, speaking of that though, and this is, I don't know how much, do we have a little bit like a minute?
Cause I definitely want to have one, one minute, something that concerns me a great deal, not have nothing to do with my campaign.
Um, but this argument, the debate point that was brought up, I think by Santorum regarding the threat that Iran poses to the United States.
It is, there is no threat that it poses to the United States at all.
Okay.
However, if this straw man is being pushed out by guys like glutey and Fife, the neocons, the neocon think tanks in DC, uh, the neocon candidates, it's been, I have gotten, I don't know, have five, six different emails from different conservative organizations, into my email inbox telling me what a terrible risk and threat to this country.
Iran is so that needs to be cleared up.
Yeah.
Well, you're the one to do it.
And especially with that platform, are you going to be able to debate this guy on TV?
Well, we're challenging him to do so.
We're hoping to do so and challenge him to a series of give us the website real quick, Karen, Karen Kutowski for congress.com or look us up on Facebook.
