Bumperstickers: One Last Ron Paul Moment

I generally don't like them. Today I saw a truck with a very impressive graphic displaying the driver's association with the US Marine Corp and his affection for the flag. Okay, that's fine. But underneath all the visual hullabaloo were at least two bumperstickers. The one on the right took me awhile to discern; I assumed it would have said "Bush Was Right," or Rush Is Right, or Support the Troops, or something typically jingoistic. Nope. I don't know if you've seen this one, but it said in all caps with several exclamation points: "WHERE'S THE FENCE?!?!?" Yipes. That gave me a chill up the spine, but shouldn't be surprising in the land of Tancredo. Then I scoped the other bumpersticker on the left side: "Ron Paul '08." If that doesn't give anyone pause who had ever even considered voting for Ron Paul, well. Well it just reinforces my prejudice regarding the American Right Wing "Libertarian" movement and Ron Paul.

And the Right Brothers and their song Bush Was Right reinforces my prejudice of against all things neo-punk. The guitar lick "neener neener neener;" what could be more idiotic? But that was the point of the Ramones. It seemed idiotic, except it was genius.

But, on the contrary side, I don't like the "anti-idiot" talk either. I saw a bumpersticker the other day about what this country needs is to get rid of all the idiots. In Orcinus terminology, this Eliminationist. I want to ask these people, people like comedian Lewis Black, who says we need to get rid of all the idiots: How do we determine who are the idiots? Mandatory IQ tests? What about idiot-savants? What about the Ramones? They seem like idiots, they act like idiots, they sound like idiots, but what they did was genius. Unlike the Right Brothers--who look like fratboys who got moderately high scores on the SAT.

The Ron Paul Episodes: IV(?)

On Monday, a person posted this on the "politics" page on the Denver Craigslist:

"[Ron Paul] and his message is the only one that I can endorse.
Limited govt, more individual liberty, fiscal responsibility, protected borders,
it just makes sense.
goverment the way our founders designed it to be. Of, by and for the people.
Its so refreshing to hear someone articulate this platform.
I dont really care about the polls, he's got my vote."

And so, for the first time, I decided to respond with Sloppy's post concerning this Presidential candidate.

And, interestingly enough, someone else responded to it with this:

"I live in Denver Colorado. I was raised here in Denver until I moved to Boulder in 1987. Boulder, even today is concidered a "hippy" town or a "yuppy" town.

My first year in Boulder I witnessed at least 2 gang related crimes. Bloods vs. Crips in Boulder 1987. When I was 17 I joined the Navy and ended up in San diego for school. Again, I witnessed gang crime on mission beach and again Bloods vs. Crips. The guy in Blue getting shot at for selling drugs in the wrong territory by the guy in Red. Scarry as hell. Then I was stationed in Philly. This town was the worst I'd ever witnessed myself. I watched a Crip in the downtown movie theater have his head blown off because the four Bloods sitting behind him didn't like him. During my year and a half in Philly. My car(RED) was stolen twice. My car trunk was forced open with a crow bar to steal my stereo and my roommate was mugged five times. When I recovered my car the second time(Without police help) Not only did the guy come looking for me(angry I'd stolen my own car back) But he also shot up my friends house where he knew I'd been. The news at the time was warning of three predominently black gangs in the philly, DC and New York areas, as well as the more famous LA Bloods and Crips.

I told you earlier that the police wouldn't help me get my car back. Well just to clairify. I knew where the car was through the friend who had his house shot up. I informed the police and they told me "If we pull someone over in the car we will return it to you, otherwise there is nothing we can do." So, I went and got it myself. This was in 1991. We all remember Icetea, NWA and the other gang rappers of the time telling us "pull out my gat(gun) bam bam.. DEAD mother F@#k$R" These guys made the kids want to be gang bangers. The LA riot was on april 2nd 1992.

I only point this out, because at the time when these things were said. The gang issue WAS out of control, there were National outcries. Not just in DC but ALL of the cities from DC to NY and LA. The television was telling everyone that these laws needed to updated. The police were doing nothing about the issue(Not that WE knew this). So, if the not so perfect Ron Paul jumped on the anti-gang band wagon like everyone did. Then so be it. knowbody is perfect. He would still make a better president then we have seen in over 100 years. I also doubt anyone could find a politition who wasn't on that band wagon in 1992. "



So, well, I don't know. I guess what I find most interesting about this is how responsive people are to this...I still see those hand-stenciled Ron Paul signs around town, and about how wonderful it is to have a grassroots effort such as that, but how misguided they might be. But I know I am too, because the candidate that I ultimately will endorse is not the perfect choice. But I guess that's what being a grown-up is all about...settling with these lowest common denominator choices and dealing more directly with the things in my life I can actually control.

huh.

More Fun with Ron Paul: Ghostwriters in the Sky

Well, my mind on Ron Paul was decided as soon as I looked at his fundamental ideology. People seem to be attracted to him because he speaks his mind, and he wants to restore "liberty" to the constitution. Say what you will about the democratic candidates, but, ultimately, each one of them is at least in favor of traditional liberal values. You know, New Deal, Great Society, Unions, Civil Rights such as Immigrant Rights, Gay Marriage, Women's Rights (including icky abortions), active oversight on industry, all that wonderful crap. Ron Paul is not a liberal. He is a libertarian. If that means something to you, great. If not, well, more power to you. It means enough to me not to vote for him. Though I would welcome Ron Paul one-billion times more as president than I would Rudy Giuliani.

Anyhow, in reference to those quotes, I got them from this openleft post, which pulled them from a realchange.org article entitled "Ron Paul's Skeleton Closet." As the article entails, the quotes were culled from a newsletter, his own newsletter in an article bylined by Ron Paul. The newsletter was not intended for the general public, but for fellow Libertarians; and it was written before he switched to the Republican party. This was 1992. Realchange puts it:

In 2001, as Paul moved to the mainstream and rejoined the Republican party, he disavowed these comments and blamed them on an unnamed ghostwriter. But when Paul ran for Congress in 1996, as a Libertarian, his opponent brought these up to show that Paul had fringe ideas. At that time, Paul told the Houston Chronicle that he opposed racism and his commentaries about blacks came in the context of "current events and statistical reports of the time." In other words, he didn't deny writing the Ron Paul column in the Ron Paul newsletter, profits of which go to Ron Paul, until many years later. Then he claimed that his campaign aides thought it would be "too confusing" to tell the truth, so he had to lie and accept responsibility.

It's all just too confusing. Just like Bush's military and criminal record, as openleft points out. So if you love Ron Paul, don't worry about it. We must be too stupid to see how he's not racist.

Update:

And for more about the legal definition of byline and ghostwriting, see this. But that's only for those stickler-types.

My regards and interactions to The Ron Paul Post

So, I was highly amused by those Ron paul quotes that sloppy gave us a few days ago. Amused because I have seen all these gen y-ers around town with their stenciled "ron paul 2008" signs hastily taped to light posts and highway signs and what not. A real grassroots campaign!



I was amused, like I said, so I decided to repost that post on myspace. Then I realized that Ron Paul was one of the few Presidential candidates that was not my "friend." So, I requested it. And he immediately responded. We are now "friends."



So, because I'm a very good "friend" and because I'm also a very part time internet rabble-rouser, I decided to send him that post. Again, almost immediately I got a response:

Date:
Nov 21, 2007 10:06 AM
Flag as Spam or Report Abuse [ ? ]

Subject:

RE: Request to Approve Comment

Body:
show me the videos or the original letters in Ron Paul's own writing that this came from. I bet my life savings that you cannot. The sources were congressional opponents who made them up in a smear campaign.

Regards,
Greg Chamberlain
MySpace Moderator for Ron Paul

Wow! The system works! So, my question is, what next? Should I give him those source sites, forget it, insult him, what?