I never really considered him more than a fringe candidate, and I don’t think he has a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected, and I still don’t think he would make a very good President at all, but hot damned does he piss off the right people.
There has to be something to that, and I think it works to his advantage. I think every time we get a Red State front pager to post about Ron Paul and his band of die-hard and probably crazed supporters, an angel gets his wings.
Dreggas
Ok Ok I know this is OT but am I the only one who read this and wanted to punch his monitor?
norbizness
Especially (beginning to chuckle) the ones that (stifling laughter) worked for Sam Brownback (wetting self).
r€nato
Now they know how Democrats felt about Ralph Nader and his merry band of greentards.
Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it? Pass the popcorn…
ATS
Ron Paul has annoyed The Lobby. You know— the one that doesn’t exist. Thus the tactic is all too familiar. “See, David Duke agrees about this and that, therefore Ron Paul is Joseph Mengele.”
Like Desmond Tutu.
r€nato
Well, I’m sure that will work out just as well as the no-fly list…
r€nato
I’m seriously considering registering GOP for our state’s primary, just so I can vote for Ron Paul.
(yes, to throw sand in their gears, not because I don’t think he’s a loon)
capelza
Call me paranoid, but I have to wonder (and where oh where would I get such an idea?) how many of the “crazies” are plants. An easy way to discredit Paul is to have “crazies” post all over and then the GOP can say “Hey, look! You can’t support that barking loon!”
Paul might be the candidate for loons (though I would suggest that Bush and the GOP has their own share of these…posting right on GOP blogs…(that’s understatement for anyone that doesn’t recognise it..and yes, lefties have loons, too.)
As for that “permission to travel”…that is so sick I want to throw up.
r€nato
capelza, one doesn’t have to plant ‘crazies’ for Ron Paul anymore than one would need to plant ‘crazies’ at HotAir or FreeRepublic.
capelza
True, and don’t forget RedState either! ..but it seems odd that RedState would be slammed by them. I visit a few sites with wingnuts who post all the time. It is the Paul supporters who have been more level headed..it’s the wingnuts who post in ALLCAPS and with illustrations like Hillary as Hitler, etc.
Rudi
What the Redstate fascist fail to recognize is that Ron Paul is a REAL libertarian. His Austrian economic belief were offended when Nixon took the dollar from the gold standard. It isn’t Code pink that bothers the Red’s, it’s Pauls disgust at the way the Republicans spent money to keep power. Even the ghost of Goldwater may haunt the RNC for this.
r€nato
well, except for that business about being anti-choice. He finesses it by saying, ‘leave it up to the states’, but we all know that really means the end of Roe v. Wade.
I happen to think that’s a pretty serious departure from libertarian philosophy… but then again, maybe they don’t really mean it when push comes to shove. I’ve been quite surprised how many libertarians climbed aboard Bush’s bandwagon after 9/11. I had always supposed they really meant what they said… perhaps not so much.
Zifnab
Is this a new attempt by the White House to forever drive a big fat stake through the heart of the Republican Party? I can’t think of anything that could piss off upper class 50-something white males like having to sign a loyalty oath every time you buy a plane ticket.
Seriously, I can’t think of anything more insulting and annoying. Not even if the government threatened to take away everyone’s guns.
Ted
I’d bet money that will not happen. I’d be surprised if it did. Big Business wouldn’t let it, as it would cause corporations and other businesses even more trouble than it would private individuals.
Ted
Lighten up, Comrade! Mother America’s greatness demands sometimes great sacrifices of her people!
r€nato
I suppose you’d rather be killed by islamofascist terrorists?
/wingnut
rawshark
I am registered as republican and I will be doing just that. :)
Yukoner
In scrolling through the comments of the linked article, one caught my eye. An Eric Volpe urging the author (and the editors) to ban any further discussions of the ban on new(ish) posters discussing Ron Paul. This actually struck me as an intelligent suggestion. You have made a decision, now just enforce it and shut up. But I cannot get the image of a dog out of my head… a dog that goes back to its own vomit for a quick lick, over and over.
disinter
RedState has managed to alienate the only group of people pumping new life into the dieing Republican Party. It is time for the Neocon minority to stop trying to hijack the Republican Party and go create their own, or join an existing party that already agrees with them: the Fascist Party.
disinter
Do you?
Libertarians for Life
http://www.l4l.org/index.html
r€nato
well, far be it from me to tell libertarians which beliefs are the ‘truest’ to their dogma, but I just can’t square government prohibition of all abortions – and the inevitable infringements on reproductive rights as the definition of life is haggled over – with libertarian beliefs that the government should stay the hell out of our personal lives to the greatest degree possible.
leefranke
You would be incorrect.
MNPundit
Well RP is also bat-shit insane. But hey, at least he’s against Iraq.
Peter Johnson
I believe there are valid reasons for DHS to require permission to fly, but I’d have to hear more about how the plan will be implemented. Would it apply to everyone or just to noncitizens? Would it be possible to get a one-time security check so that one could fly freely from there on in? Until we know the answers to those, I don’t think we really know that this is about and whether or not it’s a good idea.
I don’t see the point in railing against it when we don’t even know what it entails. But that’s just me. I don’t read DailyKos.
Abe Froman
I’d vote for ron paul to in the primary…. If i didn’t live in pennsyltucky. Lousy late voting…
capelza
Peter Johnson, please please tell me you are a parody.
Why do I need permission to travel? PERMISSION?
Did you read the links? It isn’t just non-citizens and it isn’t just flying. Exactly what freedoms are our soldiers fighting for again?
RareSanity
First, it must be understood that Roe v. Wade did not legalize abortion. It invalidated the State’s rights to have their own laws regarding it. It would not make abortion illegal.
If the end of Roe v. Wade were to happen, it would only mean that State’s could pass their own laws regarding abortion.
It is just the simple truth that Ron Paul wants the State Legislatures, which are closer to the people they represent, to be writing the laws on the subject.
teh
Best part of the Redstate post: It claimed that Ron Paul’s campaign was in cahoots with Nazis because some Nazis put up a Ron Paul widget on their site that anyone can put up, and linked to a post saying it was calling them Zionist kooks when that accusation was in like the 30th comment.
But when your argument makes as much sense on the merits it can’t hurt to just make more stuff up.
r€nato
r€nato
…and forgot to close the blockquote tag.
r€nato
we don’t allow states to decide which of our fundamental rights they wish to honor, those are governed by the Constitution in all states. That’s why we call it a ‘union’.
VidaLoca
OK — I’ll join the growing crowd calling shenanigans on Peter.
Soliton
Peter Johnson,
Internal passports, eh?
I seem to have heard that term before somewhere..
I have to wonder; just how old are you?
r€nato
…adding, the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy falls under the right to privacy, which is inferred – and rightly so – from the Ninth Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (see Griswold v. Connecticut).
The Other Steve
I know Ron Paul supporters personally. They’re loonier than the general Republican population.
That being said, I’m support Ron Paul in next years Republican caucus. Just to piss them off.
VidaLoca
Silly capelza — they’re fighting for our freedom to tell the Iraquis how to run their country!
The Other Steve
My girlfriend left hers back in the former Soviet Union.
r€nato
Harry Browne, Libertarian candidate for President in 1996 and 2000, would beg to differ with you.
r€nato
…and he would, if he weren’t dead…
The Other Steve
Most Libertarians are not Libertarians. So this doesn’t surprise me.
r€nato
yikes. He died of ALS. That sucks, and hard.
r€nato
heh, indeed…
VidaLoca
Oh, bullshit.
Ron Paul wants the Legislatures to write the laws on the subject because he knows full good and well that most of the Legislatures are controlled by anti-abortion fundamentalist whack-jobs that are just itching for the opening to outlaw abortion in their states. Were that not the case he would be advocating for some other means to legislate against abortion. The one thing he would NOT do is support a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion because then he’d have even less than the vanishingly small chance of getting nominated that he currently has.
r€nato
I agree that this ‘let the states decide’ business is a dodge, but I don’t at all doubt that Ron Paul’s sentiments on abortion are sincere. He is an OB/GYN, after all. Not that all OB/GYN’s are against abortion, just that, you know, he might well have some sincere feelings on the subject…
r€nato
I’ve been reading up on Ron Paul at Wikipedia, and man the guy alternately makes me want to cheer and then infuriates me:
We could use some Democrats like this…
For a guy who’s so gung-ho on the Constitution, why would he want to remove these matters from federal jurisdiction? Simply because he doesn’t like the answers he gets? Pure wingnuttery.
RSA
My impression is that “real” libertarians (whoever they are) would want to leave decisions to the individual. Even the pro-life libertarians that I know say that they’re personally against abortion but would not like government legislation against it. Of course, they’re all minarchists and anarchists, which probably influences their views on the topic.
Peter Johnson
So presumably it’s a joke then. More seriously: don’t you think that it would be reasonable to subject non-citizens, especially foreign nationals from, say, Saudi Arabia to some kind of background check before they fly? I mean, given that’s where the 9/11 hijackers came from and all.
r€nato
if you want to kill the tourism industry and prevent foreigners from seeing our wonderful country for themselves, then yes this is a brilliant idea.
our government already has a system for controlling entry by undesirable foreign nationals… see, there’s this document called a ‘passport’, and they check it when you try to enter the country…
snorkel
…feelings which, as a good libertarian, he would like to impose on all other OB/GYNs – via state legislatures.
stickler
Regarding the new, shiny flying restrictions from the Heimatssicherheitshauptamt, I have to take issue with this mordant prediction:
I flew not too long ago. And I stood in a long-ass line at the security boondoggle. And next to me was a line for “express” passengers, those with first-class tickets, and business travelers.
And I guaran-damn-tee you that if DHS implements this new Prussian lunacy, they’ll have a nice, fat loophole for plutocrats and CEOs. Just like they already have for, well, the same.
So it’ll just be you, me, and Joe Sixpack who has to get prior permission from DHS before we fly off to that weekend in Branson. Warren Buffett won’t, Paris Hilton won’t, and Osama bin Laden’s rich cousin won’t either.
VidaLoca
Say, that’s a great idea. And we shouldn’t just stop with the Saudis. Let’s harass any of those low-life French people that come over here, too. Because they’re cheese-eating surrender-monkeys and all.
Luke
The first two pages of Google news today shows several Red State (Fitting name, nyet?) rants about Ron Paul.
Apparently, these guys just can’t stop talking about… how Ron Paul isn’t worth talking about.
ROFL! Ron Paul Derangement Syndrome!
Andrew
I would ask, “How pathetic is RedState?” but that would be like heaping abuse on a retarded quadruple amputee with Tourets and a bad BO problem.
Jeff
Peter Johnson — DougJ is/was much better at it than you!
TenguPhule
As long as McPenis Boner consents to having his ass probed by other countries when he tries to fly to them…oh wait, did you forget that Americans are considered non-citizens everywhere outside of the US of A?
Psycheout
That could be fixed by putting a tax on all foreigners living abroad.
Bombadil
Do you mean a tax on all foreigners living abroad from their vantage point (meaning a tax on everyone not living in their native country), or a tax on all foreigners not living in the US? Either way, that sounds like a brilliant way to raise revenues. Would this be a flat tax, or based on some rolling scale based on income level?
Bombadil
Another question — will refugees from their home countries be exempt or get some kind of deduction? And which country will handle the paperwork?
This idea just gets better and better — with the clerical work alone, we could probably increase the employment rate to stratospheric levels, and the gross national product of India will outpace that of China just from the outsourcing contracts required to keep up. This is exciting!
Johnny Pez
The technical term is “spoof”, and it’s an interesting question. On the one hand, the name practically screams spoof (“I’m a dick! GET IT?”) But on the other hand, his blowjob comment in an earlier thread (which I can’t seem to locate at the moment) had the ring of genuine cluelessness about it. If that was spoofery, then it was the product of genius.
Billy K
Look, I’m no fan of the French, but they’re not brown enough to require extra security checks.
Evinfuilt
I get to live in Ron Pauls district. Gee, aren’t I lucky. But it was a big upgrade from moving out of Sugarland (Tom Delay’s.)
Oddly enough, I have yet to meet anyone else around Dickenson who thinks he’s sane. Then again, judging by where I live, I’m undoubtedly not sane either.
Maybe if I get to move back to Colorado, Tancredo can be my representative. I have such great opportunities (okay, while I lived in downtown Houston for a year, I had Shelia Jackson Lee, and was very happy with how she votes.)
There are no big drives for Ron Paul as President in his own district. Heck, in November he didn’t have a single sign outside the school where I went to vote.
Sojourner
These days, I think foreign tourists are more concerned about the US Government disappearing them.
HyperIon
And that preening ass Sullivan writes:
He does not allow comments at his site but RP supporter are welcome. It’s not like Red State barred RP readers. How does one have debate at the Dish? Moron.
VidaLoca
Well obviously he’s in favor of debating them over there so he doesn’t have to debate them over here.
Justin
John, I couldn’t agree more with your original post. It’s so f&#&%ing hilarious to see how much Ron Paul “annoys” the Redstate crowd. Like someone else said, pass the popcorn and let’s enjoy watching the Bush cult tear itself to shreds (with some occasional prodding, if needed).
Capelza, the others are right – although Ron Paul is dead right about Iraq, he tends to attract conspiracy theorists of all stripes – whether it be NWO, World government, illuminati, trilateral commission, “skull and bones,” etc. This is largely because he panders to this audience.
That said, Iraq is the big issue on the table. He’s the perfect candidate to split the Republican party concerning Iraq and the Imperial Presidency. That’s why they figure he has to be silenced.
Doorman
When Paul stated in the debates that we brought 911 on ourselves by muddling in the affairs of the Middle East and unbalanced support for Israel…. he nailed it.
The only guy to have the guts to speak the truth in either party.
lysias
Gravel and Kucinich also largely speak the truth. Even where I don’t agree with them, I think they are honestly saying what they believe.
lysias
Gravel and Kucinich also largely speak the truth. Even where I don’t agree with them, I think they are honestly saying what they believe.
BIRDZILLA
Come on RON PAUL is better then any of those other yahoos out there especialy the demacrats