Monday, January 14, 2008
Ron Paul sometimes sounds like an interesting candidate. And then you scratch the surface and figure out he's just a typical Republican.
Ron Paul 
Hey, that Ron Paul is pretty swell, right? He sure is great when he gets up on that debate stage and tells those Republicans the truth about American foreign policy! Why, it almost makes me want to vote for the guy, just to get up the noses of all those politics-as-usual, corporate-owned douchebags. There's no difference between the two parties anyway!
If you've ever experienced a fleeting thought like this, maybe in the wee hours, when you're alone, nursing a glass of Scotch and the resentment you've accumulated over the past seven long years, well that's okay. It's natural. After all, it is fun to watch that cranky old white guy stick it to all those other cranky old white guys.
But at the end of the day, any liberal with a brain should know that Ron Paul isn't exactly the most progressive candidate in the race. Last week CNN obtained copies of the "Ron Paul Political Report" - a "series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul" - which were published from the 1970s to the early '90s. Let's take a look...
Paul defended himself last week, insisting that he'd never read the articles and didn't know who wrote them. He said, "People who know me, nobody is going to believe this. That's just not my language. It's not my life. ... Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, they're the heroes (of my life)." Well yes, and I'm sure they would understand why he never bothered to read the white supremacist newsletter that his name was attached to for twenty years.
But oddly enough, according to the Austin Chronicle, Paul's excuse was a bit different when he was running for Congress back in 1996:
And a 1996 Houston Chronicle article notes that:
Hmm.
See? He's not really a crazy terrorist-loving racist after all. In the context of "current events and statistical reports of the time" it was perfectly okay to say things like that.
Hey, that Ron Paul is pretty swell, right? He sure is great when he gets up on that debate stage and tells those Republicans the truth about American foreign policy! Why, it almost makes me want to vote for the guy, just to get up the noses of all those politics-as-usual, corporate-owned douchebags. There's no difference between the two parties anyway!
If you've ever experienced a fleeting thought like this, maybe in the wee hours, when you're alone, nursing a glass of Scotch and the resentment you've accumulated over the past seven long years, well that's okay. It's natural. After all, it is fun to watch that cranky old white guy stick it to all those other cranky old white guys.
But at the end of the day, any liberal with a brain should know that Ron Paul isn't exactly the most progressive candidate in the race. Last week CNN obtained copies of the "Ron Paul Political Report" - a "series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul" - which were published from the 1970s to the early '90s. Let's take a look...
The controversial newsletters include rants against the Israeli lobby, gays, AIDS victims and Martin Luther King Jr. -- described as a "pro-Communist philanderer." One newsletter, from June 1992, right after the LA riots, says "order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."
Another says, "The criminals who terrorize our cities -- in riots and on every non-riot day -- are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to 'fight the power,' to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible."
In some excerpts, the reader may be led to believe the words are indeed from Paul, a resident of Lake Jackson, Texas. In the "Ron Paul Political Report" from October 1992, the writer describes carjacking as the "hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos."
The author then offers advice from others on how to avoid being carjacked, including "an ex-cop I know," and says, "I frankly don't know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming."
Another says, "The criminals who terrorize our cities -- in riots and on every non-riot day -- are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to 'fight the power,' to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible."
In some excerpts, the reader may be led to believe the words are indeed from Paul, a resident of Lake Jackson, Texas. In the "Ron Paul Political Report" from October 1992, the writer describes carjacking as the "hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos."
The author then offers advice from others on how to avoid being carjacked, including "an ex-cop I know," and says, "I frankly don't know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming."
Paul defended himself last week, insisting that he'd never read the articles and didn't know who wrote them. He said, "People who know me, nobody is going to believe this. That's just not my language. It's not my life. ... Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, they're the heroes (of my life)." Well yes, and I'm sure they would understand why he never bothered to read the white supremacist newsletter that his name was attached to for twenty years.
But oddly enough, according to the Austin Chronicle, Paul's excuse was a bit different when he was running for Congress back in 1996:
Paul now explains that he's been wronged -- his "academic, tongue-in-cheek" opinions have been stripped of their context.
And a 1996 Houston Chronicle article notes that:
Paul, a Republican obstetrician from Surfside, said Wednesday he opposes racism and that his written commentaries about blacks came in the context of "current events and statistical reports of the time."
Hmm.
Other tidbits from Paul's newsletter -- also released to the press by the Morris campaign -- include inflammatory quasi factoids such as the contention that 95% of African-American men in Washington, D.C., are criminal or semi-criminal. He writes that he doesn't think that "a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That's true for most people." But, he continues, "black males, age 13, that have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary, and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." He also implied that a mortar attack of a federal building was not such a bad thing, since no one was hurt.
See? He's not really a crazy terrorist-loving racist after all. In the context of "current events and statistical reports of the time" it was perfectly okay to say things like that.
# posted by The Punisher @ Monday, January 14, 2008 
Comments:
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Ron Paul's insightful comments on the Imperial US Military, the causes of 9/11, the need to restrain the American OVerseas Military, and the Federal Reserve are a big siren's call for many. Myself included.
Sadly, these comments and his comments on evolution surface. and I find I can not support someone who would be either that ignorant or merely another politician pandering to get votes and $$$.
If Paul runs as an Independent I'd probably vote for him, with the foreknowledge my single Vote for President doesn't matter in my state (it'll go to the Dem nominee) and that I can not support either Warmonger R or Warmonger D...
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Sadly, these comments and his comments on evolution surface. and I find I can not support someone who would be either that ignorant or merely another politician pandering to get votes and $$$.
If Paul runs as an Independent I'd probably vote for him, with the foreknowledge my single Vote for President doesn't matter in my state (it'll go to the Dem nominee) and that I can not support either Warmonger R or Warmonger D...
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