Watering Hole: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 – The Paulies

The other evening, I saw a pick-up truck that had a Ron Paul for President sign that took up half of the back panel.  It was huge and it made me think, “What will this person do on election day?  Will they write-in ‘Ron Paul’ or will they simply not vote for any of the presidential candidates?”

The Republican Party has been trying to ignore Ron Paul and his supporters and they even attempted to keep Ron Paul’s delegates from attending the Republican Convention.  There is no assurance that the “Paulies” will vote for Mitt Romney.

What the Romney campaign fears is that the Ron Paul supporters will never vote for Mitt.  The campaign had Paul Ryan address this problem at a recent Ohio rally in which Ryan called on the “Paulies” to vote for Romney.

Though Paul is no longer in the race, many of his supporters have vowed to “write him in” in ballots across the country. For them, the Romney/Ryan ticket doesn’t represent their ideals, and many believe there aren’t substantial differences between Mitt Romney, who, as governor of Massachusetts, signed into law a health care bill largely considered to be the blueprint for the unpopular Obamacare, and the current occupant of the Oval Office.

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But now, Paul supporters seem to have the upper hand as Election Day nears and the Republican ticket seems to be scrambling to keep what has been — at least, until now — a close race to unseat President Barack Obama. And it remains to be seen if some of Paul’s most fervent supporters would give the Romney/Ryan ticket a chance, especially after numerous incidents during which they felt alienated by the establishment wing of the Republican Party as the GOP primaries unfolded.

The first debate is scheduled for tomorrow, October 3rd and only two candidates will be part of the debate.  There are other candidates that will appear on ballots across the nation, such as, Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party and Jill Stein, Green Party.  They were not invited to the debates.  Let’s face it.  On the national level, America is governed by a two party system.

This is our Open Thread.  Feel free to Speak Up!

The Watering Hole: Super Tuesday, March 6th – Is this really important?

Image found at Funny Pictures

In a way the Republican Primaries tonight are important, they will need a nominee eventually. Presumptive Candidates fall all over each other in Marx-Brothers-Sans-Brains fashion and it is more or less entertaining. Or, it would be entertaining, if this wasn’t supposed to be the choice of the man who was to lead one of the World’s remaining superpowers. The last time around they have presented us Sarah Palin and we thought it was a horrible abberration. This time around they stacked the whole deck with similar dunces and treat the world to a first class train crash to watch.

On the other side of the intellectual divide there is this cool and collected man, doing what needs to be done for your country in a very pragmatic and undogmatic way.

For many Europeans the re-election of President Barack Obama is a no-brainer. If we seriously look at the difference of the four vs the one, the Republican Primaries tonight are not really important after all.

This is our Open Thread. What is important to you?

Upon further examination…Ron Paul is a terminal nutjob

Created for TheZoo by Paul Jamiol
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World

The Watering Hole: December 23 — Ron Paul, goofball

via Politico

Putting my own loving touch on Politico’s Ron Paul 2012: Six comments he needs to explain:

1.  I think we can further thank Ronald Reagan for doing a good job [on furthering the Libertarian Party]. He certainly did a good job in 1980 pointing out the fallacies of the Democratic liberal agenda and he certainly did a good job on following up to show the disaster of the conservative agenda as well.

I agree with Politico — if you’re calling yourself a Republican, don’t be taking the name of St Ronnie Raygun in vain.  It doesn’t matter that everyone knows Ronnie was a glorified meat puppet, Republicans enjoy their denial.

2.  Fox News’s Chris Wallace: You talk a lot about the Constitution. You say Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all unconstitutional.

Ron Paul: Technically, they are. … There’s no authority [in the Constitution]. Article I, Section 8 doesn’t say I can set up an insurance program for people. What part of the Constitution are you getting it from? The liberals are the ones who use this General Welfare Clause.

Silly liberals!!  Why are liberals using the General Welfare Clause, when Ron Paul clearly says that only things in the Constitution are to be available to the people?  Oh wait…so Ron Paul cherry-picks the Constitution like all the other wingnuts?  Say it ain’t so!

3.  I think that might be the No. 1 reason for the drug laws … to raise the funds necessary for government to do illegal things, whether it’s some terrorist government someplace or whether it’s our own CIA to fund programs that they can’t get Congress to fund. I think it’s tragic and the sooner we get rid of the drug laws, the sooner this will end.

Uhhh, right.  Because we don’t live in a ridiculously moralistic society that thinks it ought to be allowed to decide that the people are not allowed to use drugs that aren’t prescribed by a doctor.  Cuz lawd knows no one ever gets addicted to prescription drugs, right Elvis?  How about you, Michael Jackson…?  

Noam Chomsky on Ron Paul’s 9/11 Theories: “What He Said Is Completely Uncontroversial”

Ron Paul was almost booed off the stage at last night’s “Tea Party” debate on CNN when he spoke about the real reasons al Qaeda attacked us. His explanation was followed by being chastised by Rick Santorum.

Raw Story:

Appearing on Democracy Now! on Tuesday, U.S. scholar and MIT professor Noam Chomsky responded to comments made by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) during Monday’s tea party debate, suggesting Paul had said nothing controversial at all, despite the audience’s negative reaction.

He agreed with Paul’s assessment about al Qaeda’s stated motives for attacking the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001: it’s not American freedom or the nature of its society, it was U.S. policies that drove them to such a savage attack.

“What he said is completely uncontroversial,” Chomsky said. “You can read it and go in the documents. You can find it in polls. Maybe people don’t like to hear it.”

He concluded that many Muslims around the world had opposed the U.S. “not because they hate our freedoms, but because they opposed murderous and brutal policies.”

The Tea Party can’t bear to hear the truth I guess… Or, the simply have no interest in the truth.

The Watering Hole: Tuesday, September 13 – Republican Election Machine

The Debate is over. Nothing new, except for Ron Paul being even more callous than I thought possible. Isn’t he a doctor by profession? Wasn’t there a thing called the hypocratic oath? (ht: peteIngh)

This is our Open Thread. Give us your take on yesterday’s, today’s or tomorrow’s news.

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Matt Davies, CTNews

Under Their Scheme

Please don’t sue me, Disney. I just wanted to warn people about the dangers of what the Republicans are trying to do, and I thought a catchy little tune might help. This also happens to be one of my all-time favorite Disney songs.

Under Their Scheme
Original words and music “Under The Sea” by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, 1989
Additional lyrics by Wayne A. Schneider, 2011

Sebastian (spoken): Ariel, listen to me. The Ayn Rand world is a mess
Life under their scheme is deader than anything you’d want out there

(singing) The sequence is always greener, in somebody’s else’s take
You dream about growing up there, but that is a big mistake
Just look how their view confounds you, they scare you and want you poor
Such powerful things astound you, what good is they working for?

Under their scheme, under their scheme
Medicare’s deader, not getting better, take it from me

Bierfeldt Records His Shakedown By TSA

When you listen to how the TSA handles this detained passenger, Steve Bierfeldt, at the St. Louis Airport, they are completely out of line.  A little background, Steve Bierfeldt, works for the Campaign for Liberty, had Ron Paul bumper stickers and $4,700 cash in his carryon.  His crime you ask? How did he arouse the TSA’s suspicion? The officials said it was because he was carrying so much cash on his person.

Steve talks about the MIAC Report, here is the background that had him so worried while he was being detained.

The Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) basically correlates libertarians and more specifically supporters of Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin, with potentially being a domestic terrorist or member of a militia.

Titled “The Modern Militia Movement,” the report is dated Feb. 20 and designed to help police identify militia members or domestic terrorists. Red flags outlined in the document include political bumper stickers such as those for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, talk of conspiracy theories such as the plan for a mega-highway from Canada to Mexico and possession of subversive literature.

I went to the TSA website to see their prohibited items for travelers.  I found out gel shoe inserts and gel-type candles are not allowed.  But no mention of cash.

Bill Maher interviews Ron Paul

They discuss removing federal prohibitions on mari-hoochie…

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Bob Barr Asks Ron Paul to be his Running Mate

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that:

Barr sent Paul a letter Tuesday asking him to be his vice presidential nominee. Barr already has a running mate, Wayne Root of Las Vegas. Root said in the letter he would step aside for Paul.

Paul has not responded to the request, Davis said. Ike Hall, who coordinated Paul’s campaign in Georgia, called Barr’s invitation “terribly interesting,” but added that Paul made clear he has no intention of running as anything other than a Republican this year.

Hall called Barr’s decision to skip the Paul press conference “unfortunate. What Ron Paul is trying to do is, he’s not endorsing any other person. What he’s endorsing is an idea.”

Ron Paul warns of Worldwide Economic Collapse

I am not a Ron Paul supporter, but this man has a lot of very intelligent and practical things to say sometimes.. This is one of those times.

Vodpod videos no longer available. from rawstory.com posted with vodpod

Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul on Bill Moyers Journal this Friday

via: Truthout

PBS Airtime: Friday January 4, 2008, at 9:00 p.m. EST on PBS (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/about/airdates.html).

What do the results in Iowa say about the press and politics? In two interviews, Bill Moyers talks with candidates shut out of key debates – Paul by Fox News from an upcoming debate in New Hampshire and Kucinich by Iowa’s biggest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, in December.

On the Friday after the Iowa caucuses, Paul and Kucinich will give their perspectives on the results, the politics and the process as the field heads to New Hampshire. Also on the program, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, examines the campaigns and coverage in Iowa and looks at the power of the press to systematically advantage some candidates and disadvantage others.

This should be interesting..

On the Fence About Ron Paul?

From Truthdig:

At the Republican debate, when the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they didn’t believe in evolution, Ron Paul was the only one who didn’t raise his hand, but when asked about having not raised his hand, he responds…

Paul responds to a question about the incident by saying that it was an “inappropriate question,” but that “I think it’s a theory—theory of evolution—and I don’t accept it.”

I’m shocked and dismayed!  He lied!

Paul hasn’t been hiding his religious convictions. He wrote back in 2003 that the “secular Left” has been waging a war on religion and Christmas and that “[t]he notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers.”

Well, that’s just all messed up.  Have the courage of your convictions, Mr Paul.  You should have raised your hand.

Go to Truthdig for the video clip.