Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? – William O. Douglas
I couldn’t make up my mind so I put up both versions. At prices that range from $750 to $22,000 I don’t think I’d buy one of these even if I could afford to spend that much on a watch. I do admire the craftsmanship and technology though.
Jamie Kirchick, who compiled the newsletters four years ago, told TPM that the most incendiary parts were hardly stray cases.
“Ron Paul’s characterization of the newsletters as only containing ‘eight to ten sentences’ that can be characterized as ‘offending’ is preposterous,” he said in an e-mail. “As anyone can see from the scans of the newsletters available on the TNR website or posted elsewhere, the documents contain pages upon pages of bigoted statements and outright paranoia.”
On the other hand he’s toast. I mentioned just recently that no one voter gets everything they want from a candidate. I doubt that even the most fervent Paul supporters are wild about everything he says. Sometimes Paul can say something that is amazingly concise and has more truth to it than many other politicians are willing to risk, Ron Paul: Sanctions against Iran are ‘acts of war’
Paul, one of the leading contenders to win next week’s Iowa caucuses, said Iran would be justified in responding to the sanctions by blocking the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. He compared the western sanctions to a hypothetical move by China to block the Gulf of Mexico, which Americans would consider an act of war.
I disagree that sanctions in the case of Iran are “acts of war”, but they might be unnecessarily provocative. Paul even sounds like Glenn Greenwald at times.
Apparently alluding to Israel and its nuclear-weapons arsenal, Paul said that “if I were an Iranian, I’d like to have a nuclear weapon, too, because you gain respect from them.”
To approving applause from a crowd of about 125, the Texas congressman said that “we always seem to have to have a country to bash,” linking the current saber-rattling against Iran to previous hawkish rhetoric that led to conflicts in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.
The usual suspects – the jackboot polishers at Gateway Pundit , etc – in typical reactionary mode have reflexively accused Paul of being anti-Semitic based on that remark. Never mind how true it is. Once you get nukes the international community does tend to back off. There is no reason to think that Iran has fissionable material ready to make a bomb at the moment. The Right – the very same neocons who lied quite a few Americans to their deaths about the “threat” Iraq posed are using the very same propaganda about Iran, The Chicken-hawks Who Learned Nothing From Iraq. The Right, of which Ron Paul and his daffy son, are paid up members does have a reality attack once in a while. Romney and Gingrich ( as well as the right-wing conservative Heritage Foundation) were both for a health care mandate at one point. Mitt and Newt also professed that the science of global warming was compelling. Newt famously thought that conservative wunderkin Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to gut Medicare was right-wing “social engineering”. Ron Paul has established a pattern. It is one that finds itself firmly planted, up to its neck in far Right crazy – Ron Paul, Conspiracy Theories, and the Right
On the New York Times “Campaign Stops” page, James Kirchick, author of several conversation changing pieces on the Ron Paul newsletters, shifts his attention from their racist and anti-gay content to the candidate himself and his career-long cultivation of support from conspiracy theorists. For example, he’s long associated with the John Birch Society, regularly appears on a Texas radio show hosted by Alex Jones, and once responded to the question, “Why won’t you come out about the truth about 9/11?” by replying, “Because I can’t handle the controversy, I have the I.M.F., the Federal Reserve to deal with, the I.R.S. to deal with — no because I just have more, too many things on my plate.” As it happens, these and other conspiracy theories with which Paul is associated are virtually all of the variety for which I haven’t even a tiny bit of patience.
[ ]…But Rep. Paul’s critics are on questionable ground when they write as if he alone among Republican Party members fails to confront — or even leverages — conspiracies in which his supporters believe, or that he is unique in consorting with conspiracy theorists. Alex Jones broadcasts some indefensible nonsense, from what little I’ve heard of his show. I’ve insufficient basis to compare it to other broadcasters I’ve listened to much more frequently, but I can say this: if Glenn Beck’s show on Fox News was less nutty than the Alex Jones Show, as it may well have been, it nevertheless was rife with nutty conspiracy theories — and lots of prominent conservatives were happy to appear on it. Sarah Palin, for one.
…How many election cycles has the conservative movement used the canard that reinstating the Fairness Doctrine was agenda item one for Democrats if they regained control of the government? How many Sean Hannity radio listeners think that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim? Haven’t Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Herman Cain all played on conspiratorial fears that we’re on the verge of sharia law being implemented right here in America?
National Review employs as a national-security journalist a man who alleges that President Obama is allied with our Islamist enemies in a “Grand Jihad” against America, and Gingrich dissents from that theory only because he believes the Dinesh D’Souza thesis that it is actually Kenyan anti-colonialism that guides Obama’s behavior.
Gateway Pundit comment
Far Right conservatism is far Right conservatism. Paul drinks the green kool-aid, Romney the red and Newt the purple. At the end of the day its all kool-aid. I did go over to a couple right-wing sites that still believe Iraq had something to do with 9-11, Iraq had WMD , think Iran is the next Third Reich and we’re all going to be living under Sharia law any moment ( one commenter claims we already are. That American Muslims are going around killing Christians and Jews with impunity -see graphic.) To Paul’s credit he doesn’t seem to buy into the Islamophobia. At the moment such independent thinking in conservative circles is the third rail. Without the neocons who still control the road to the White House, Paul doesn’t have a chance. He will continue to be an interesting trouble maker with a loyal following – Picture of the Day: Ron Paul Fans Wear It on Their Sleeves
Although few believe the Texas representative is headed to the White House, his support isn’t just another bubble, because his numbers are made up of true believers — the sort of folks willing not only to wear their support on their sleeve (literally), but also to tattoo it on their arms. A Time poll released Wednesday has Paul just three points behind Mitt Romney among likely Iowa caucus-goers.
For the sharp-eyed observer, the photo also shows the darker side of Paul’s base. In addition to a good number of white supremacists, whose views (though not support) he has repudiated, his supporters also include an even greater number of conspiracy theorists. This man’s wristband advertises InfoWars.com, one of the sites maintained by radio host Alex Jones, one of America’s most prominent 9/11 truthers.
Romney Compares Obama to Marie Antoinette. How original for the Right to repeat something that has a ring of populism about it yet wrongly attributes it. There is no historical proof that Antoinette ever said Let them Eat Cake.
Former Massachusetts Gov. and Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney recently called President Obama a modern-day Marie Antoinette. She was the queen who was overthrown during the French Revolution.
“When the president’s characterization of our economy was, ‘It could be worse,’ it reminded me of Marie Antoinette: ‘Let them eat cake,’ ” Romney told the Huffington Post.
Maybe some political adviser in the Romney camp thinks the Democrats are all rich elitists who are also in league with the big banks, but are also socialists who will mandate equal economic outcomes for everyone. As a matter of fact that has been one of Romney’s most perverse lies thus far – that President Obama has some kind of black helicopter UN sponsored plan to force everyone to have the exact same economic status. Someone might want to check the Mittster’s hair oil for toxic ingredients. The Right has been recycling some form of that urban myth-plainly contradictory bilge for decades. Some reality based research into the subject of public policy and who gets what they want most often shows that the wealthy – like Mitt – get more of what they want from government than do the middle-class or working poor. Another tack Romney and the Right in general is taking for this election is that we need a businessman in the White House because only someone who has actually run a business knows how to turn the economy around. Well Romney sucks at that according to his record – Fact Check: Romney’s Real Economic Record In Massachusetts
During Romney’s Tenure as Governor, Massachusetts’ Economic Performance Was “One Of The Worst In The Country” On “All Key Labor Market Measures.” [Boston Globe, 7/29/07]
In Romney’s Four Years As Governor Massachusetts Ranked 47th Out Of 50 In Jobs Growth. [Marketwatch, 2/23/10]
Under Romney The Wages Of The Average Worker In Massachusetts Fell By Nearly 2 Percent. [Boston Globe, 7/29/07]
Factcheck.org: It’s “Correct” That Romney Proposed 8% Higher Spending Per Person In Massachusetts. [Factcheck.org, 10/12/07]
Romney’s Third Round Of Business Tax Hikes Were Cut In Half After Democrats Balked “Amid Protests From Some Of The State’s Leading Business Groups.” [Patriot Ledger, 1/26/08] ( Obama has cut small business taxes 17 times)
Romney can play populist all he likes – remember Bush 43 went to one, just ONE, NASCAR event the Right drooled over their keyboards for a week about how that proved h was an average guy. Maybe Romney sold two of his four mansions to prove what a regular guy he was. Back in 1994 when he lost his Senate bid to Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy, Romney said that Ted should release his tax returns, it was only right. Romney has had 20 years to rethink that – There’s No Mystery to Romney’s Taxes and Tax Plan
Why is Mitt Romney alone among the Republican presidential candidates in refusing to release his tax returns? And why is the former Massachusetts Governor also the only major GOP contender not calling for the complete elimination of the capital gains tax? As it turns out, the answer – horrible political optics – is the same to both questions. Because Romney’s continuing millions in annual income from Bain Capital are taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, Mitt already pays a much lower share to Uncle Sam than most middle class families. And if he called for changing the capital gains rate to zero, Mitt Romney would have to explain to voters why the $250 million man should pay virtually no tax bill at all.
Newt rose up like the great white whale of trophy wife collectors, bungled flip-flopper denials and janitorial jobs for every kid in America. Locally, guess where I’m getting fodder for the most effective anti-Gingrich arguments. From a secretive PAC (Restore Our Future?) rumored to be supporters of Romney ( Newt supporters welcome to the world the conservative SCOTUS has brought you via the Citizens United decision). Now that he is swirling around the tank Newt is likely to start acting out again – Newt Gets Wet
Newt does not respond well to nonrecognition of his world-historical destiny. His exit will not be pretty. He may act out. There is a certain wan dignity, though, in the fact that the “baggage” that is proving to be Newt’s undoing is not so much his rabbity love life or his lucrative, un-historian-like subprime lobbying as it is his past forays into unorthodox decency, such as recognizing that mass roundups and deportations of undocumented immigrants and their children is inhumane as well as impractical, acknowledging that global warming is a reality, not just a secular-socialist hoax designed to crush freedom, and (the latest news from five years ago) suggesting that medical care should be available to everybody—all hundred per cent, which necessarily includes even more of the undeserving, the improvident, and the ungodly than does the ninety-nine per cent.
Who knows maybe Newt could leverage his way into a conservative administration as Sec. of Transportation. Where he could avail America of his outside the box transportation ideas, like kids pushing people to work on roller blades.
The Long Goodbye 