The Present in Plain Text

Ron Paul Schools Bernanke

Via Tex MacRae at the LRC Blog, ol' "kook" Ron Paul takes the chairman of the Fed to the cleaners on monetary policy and, specifically, why the devaluation of the dollar is especially damaging to the elderly.

Pay particular attention to the very end as Bernanke is speechless upon realizing he can't compete with people who know much more than he does.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

Only this time, we're not hoping to save the king.

Over 17,000 people have pledged to donate at least $100 today to Ron Paul's campaign, and at the time of this writing (9:33 a.m.), Freedom Man has already accumulated close to a million dollars in donations. I wonder how Mitt and John are doing today?

Click here to see the live donation graph.

UPDATE: As of 2:30 p.m., today's fundraiser had passed the $2 million mark and it continues to climb. In fact, the live update is being accessed so frequently that the November 5th campaign is having bandwith issues. Here's a screen shot, as of 4:13 p.m.

 

Club Against Growth

I guess we should be happy the Club for Growth has finally acknowledged Ron Paul's tenacious fight for the presidency.

Until recently, the Club hadn't even included Rep. Paul with the likes of Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback in their economic profiles of the candidates. You'll note that the Club released Brownback's record on economic issues way back in February, and only this week released a white paper for Ron Paul.

I'm not exactly sure why the Club suddenly decided to profile Dr. Paul, but maybe they figured it looked a little silly to ignore him when they've already compiled a scorecard for a guy who's not even in the race anymore. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that Paul raised as much money as John McCain in the third quarter and trails only Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson in primary cash on hand.

So congratulations to the Club for Growth for finally waking to the idea that the only truly pro-growth Republican in the race deserves some recognition. Maybe my inner cynic is coming out to play here, but I don't believe this has to do with anything other than trying to save face. After all, Ron Paul refuses to go gently into that good night, and only the fool still clings to the belief that Paul is a sideshow -- a "kook," a "pencil head" -- as he spreads his message of freedom and liberty.

But that doesn't mean the Club won't still do its best to discount Paul's viability. Indeed, Club president Pat Toomey analogizes Ron Paul as "the perfect as the enemy of the good."

"While we give Ron Paul credit for his philosophical ideals, politicians have the responsibility of making progress, and often, Ron Paul votes against making progress because, in his mind, the progress is not perfect," Mr. Toomey continued.

That's right, folks. Ron Paul is just "too principled" for America. Apparently, the Club for Growth would rather only endorse candidates for president who are kinda-sorta pro-growth. Toomey criticizes Paul for opposing "free trade" agreements primarily composed of terms dictated by the U.S., and federal school choice programs that are no business of the federal government. Fair enough, Mr. Toomey, but just don't go around touting your organization as dedicated to economic growth. That the federal government deigns to regulate (i.e., limit and control) trade or education in the first place is abhorrent and is the very antithesis of pro-growth policy.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Club's white paper on Ron Paul is the insistence to not just find, but emphasize, the (supposedly) negative in Paul's policy when it does the opposite for virtually every other Republican candidate. Go ahead and read Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani's reports for starters and tell me they don't read as if the Club's trying to turn a prostitute into a prom queen.

But Ron Paul? Hey, he's essentially perfect -- indeed, he's "ideologically committed to pro-growth limited government policies" -- but Paul's supposed opposition to "all but the perfect" will apparently spell our country's turn to disaster should he win election in 2008.

In short, I've never read anything so bizarre in all my life. The Club for Growth ostensibly exists to fight for principles of economic growth, yet it categorically denounces the one presidential candidate it admits is the most economically principled. It laughably suggests that because Ron Paul insists on possessing a voting record that is consistent -- in other words, what Ron Paul says is what Ron Paul does -- "we might never get a chance to pursue the good too."

I don't know exactly where the Club for Growth has been lately, but our politicians in Washington have been shoveling a lot of crap for a long time now. And as far as this writer is concerned, I'm about ready for our lawmakers to pursue nothing if "good" means continuing to settle for a federal government that will maintain and likely extend its collective control over virtually every waking minute of my life.

Those Who Change the World

Thanks to the LRC blog for finding this Ron Paul You Tube that's been around for a while, but which I completely adore.  It uses that Apple commercial narrated by Richard Dreyfuss to make the point about the moment we may be living through right now.  I wanted to blog this here to remind myself of it in the future, and to be able to look back on it and decide whether I did enough or not. 

At the end of the day, all we can do is look back and review what we've done, and I know, for myself, that I hope to do so with a modicum of pride.  I don't know if I will, but, hey, a guy's gotta have goals.

Ta,

Liv Reminds Us About Nov. 5th

Great Moments In U.S. History - Click here for more free videos

What else needs to be said.  Oh yeah:

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November,
the pledges for reason and gold.
I can think of no treason
like pledging for reason
Worthy of men free and bold.

In Ron Paul did we entrust
to stop the booms as well as busts;
and the wars of endless time, the punishment
without a crime,
The taxes of which rob and fleece,
Both the living and deceased.

Come on Boys, Come on Girls, Join the Revolution!
Come on Women, Come on Men, Remember the Constitution!

Ta,

This November 5th is Ron Paul Day

Casey Khan at the LRC Blog asked for an update to the doggerel that accompanies the remembrance of Guy Fawkes failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.  I obliged him, right after I signed myself up for the big event planned by these guys.  He posted it to the LRC Blog this morning (enjambment all wrong, but hey, I'm not complaining.):

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November,
the pledges for reason and gold.
I can think of no treason
like pledging for reason
Worthy of men free and bold.

 

This fund-raising idea got me thinking this past weekend and after ignoring my wife for a couple of hours, I put together an article and submitted it to Lew Rockwell for publication (still pending).  In that first draft I decided to complete the work begun above to mirror the entire song sung on 11/5 each year. So, while Lew can't publish direct appeals for fund-raising on his site, I have no such restrictions here:

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November,
the pledges for reason and gold.
I can think of no treason
like pledging for reason
Worthy of men free and bold.

In Ron Paul did we entrust
to stop the booms as well as busts;
and the wars of endless time, the punishment
without a crime,
The taxes of which rob and fleece,
Both the living and deceased.

Come on Boys, Come on Girls, Join the Revolution!
Come on Women, Come on Men, Remember the Constitution!

We're at 6100 people and climbing.  The goal is 100,000 people on November 5th.  Even reaching 20% of this goal would be quite the achievement, if only a tactical nuke as opposed to a MIRV, to extend the money bomb analogy.  In my mind we can do this peacefully or not.  The choice is ours, and it's before us two weeks from today..

Ta,

CNN's Cafferty: Should We be Listening to Ron Paul?

Hit tip to the LRC Blog for this and the e-mail address:

CNN's Jack Cafferty just gave a wonderful report on Ron Paul, and has asked for his question of the day:

"Should more people be listening to what Ron Paul has to say?"

Tell him: [email protected]

I did just that.  Here's the e-mail I sent, please do something similar:

Mr. Cafferty,

Absolutely.  We ignore him at our own peril.  Dr. Paul is the only presidential candidate willing to speak truth to power and the only one with the answers to most of our problems.  With humility, dignity and keen analytic skills he's the embodiment of what we should seek out in a public servant.

If we want to see Ron meet his fund-raising target of $12 million for the 4th quarter, it'll only happen if we build on the momentum created by the last $5 million.   

Ta,

5 Million? The Ron Paul Revolution wants $100 million!

So, the 3rd quarter fundraising numbers are in and the Ron Paul Campaign took in just under $5.1 million.  That's an eye-popping number that has the MSM all a-flutter as to how something like that could conceivably happen. 

I mean, they didn't donate to his campaign after all, which, in my mind, is a very good thing.  Personally, most all of them aren't invited to the R-EVOL-ution, notably Chris "Oh God!" Matthews, who got whacked by John Stewart recently,and this Nora O'Donnell at BSNBC, who couldn't look less thrilled if she'd just found out her daughter was a stripper. 

In response to the very successful end of the quarter fund-raising campaign which drew in $1.2 million in 7 days, the Paul Campaign has raised the bar again, to $4 million per month for 3 months, so they can have a solid war chest on hand for the early primary states. 

Personally, I gave $100 of that $1.2 million last week, and am prepared to donate more during this next quarter as funds make themselves available.  But, on top of that I have signed this pledge to raise $100 million by January 1st.  The pledge is simple...

"I will donate $100 but only if 1,000,000 other people will do the same."

As of this writing the number of pledges stands at 967, but that rate is beginning to increase.  If the response from the news of his 3rd quarter totals is anything like the response from the 2nd quarter, I think the campaign will reach their fund-raising goals with ease.  If this pledge drive is successful, well, it would seem to me that the MSM and their masters will be the only ones not participating in the revolution.

Ta,

How many Republicans Reject War/Socialism?

From the NRO blog linked to at the LRC Blog this morning:

"Raising the question of how many Ron Paul supporters are truly
Republicans... How many lifelong Republicans look at a field of ten
other candidates (if you include Thompson) and say, "I reject all of
them"?"

Let's see how many ways I can answer this question:

1) Those who voted for Reagan and, possibly, Goldwater?
2) Those who are tired of voting against false Boogey-(Wo)men Democrats?
3) Those who quote: "Held their nose and voted for Bush?"
4) Those who've read the Constitution?
5) Those whose image of the Republican Party started with Taft and not Lincoln?

and most importantly...

6) Apparently a whole lot more than he thought.

and those are just the ones I can come up with in 5 minutes at work.  I'm sure if we worked at it we could add to my meager list and then send them all to Mr. Geraghty.

Ta,

I Guess I'm a "Paulnut"

Hey, Tex, I too can't believe I once had a subscription to National Review. Here is Richard Brookhiser on libertarian nutjobs like Ron Paul and those of us who endorse freedom.

So "Ron Paul is a pencil head, leading a jacquerie of wicked idiots." That sure is some top-flight analysis right there, especially from a publication that purports to partake in serious political commentary. I think I'd rather belong to a "jacquerie of wicked idiots" than a coterie of establishment hacks content to cede their (and my) liberty to the state, thank you very much.

And incidentally, whose ad appears at top right of the screen shot up there? Apparently "pencil head" is good enough for advertising revenue just as long as he keeps his ideas to himself.