Ron Paul Rejects Trump Iowa Debate

Trump’s participation will contribute to circus-like atmosphere and is odd considering his slight to RPI

 

ANKENY, Iowa – The Ron Paul 2012 Presidential campaign released the following statement concerning the selection of Donald Trump as moderator for the December 27th Republican debate to be held in Iowa.  Below please find comments from Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton:

 

“The Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee rejects the selection of Donald Trump as moderator for the Republican presidential debate to be held on December 27th in Iowa.

 

“We have conferred with our Iowa campaign chairman Drew Ivers and vice-chairmen David Fischer and A.J. Spiker who are all RPI State Central Committee Members, and they concur with this decision.

 

“The selection of a reality television personality to host a presidential debate that voters nationwide will be watching is beneath the office of the Presidency and flies in the face of that office’s history and dignity.  Mr. Trump’s participation as moderator will distract from questions and answers concerning important issues such as the national economy, crushing federal government debt, the role of the federal government, foreign policy, and the like.  To be sure, Mr. Trump’s participation will contribute to an unwanted circus-like atmosphere.

 

“Mr. Trump’s selection is also wildly inappropriate because of his record of toying with the serious decision of whether to compete for our nation’s highest office, a decision he appeared to make frivolously.  The short-lived elevation of Mr. Trump’s stature as a candidate put him on the radar of many organizations and we recall that last spring he was invited to keynote the Republican Party of Iowa’s annual Reagan Dinner, yet at the last minute he left RPI holding the bag by canceling.  In turn, RPI canceled its biggest fundraising gala of the year and suffered embarrassment and in addition RPI was required to engage in refunding measures.  Our candidate will not even consider participating in the late-December debate until Mr. Trump publicly apologizes to Iowa party leaders and rectifies in full the situation.

 

"Therefore our candidate Ron Paul, the champion of the Constitution, has advised he will not attend.”

In Case You Missed It: Michele Bachmann’s (Really) Tough Week

#TweetFail, Iran tidbit, curious VP picks, ‘borrowing without asking,’ and missed SarbOx vote hinder clean execution – especially in Iowa

 

ANKENY, Iowa – Campaigning for our nation’s highest office is difficult, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is experiencing a really tough week that isn’t even over yet.

 

On Tuesday, Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman Tweeted an under-140-character mini-gaffe, writing that there were moving trucks outside pizza baron Herman Cain’s Iowa headquarters, assumedly for a quick exodus from the first-in-nation voting state.  The offending Tweet even included a photo of the trucks.  The trouble is, the trucks were delivering thousands of campaign signs, requiring Bachmann’s Iowa campaign manager to apologize.

 

On Wednesday while in Iowa, Bachmann told supporters that if elected President she would close the U.S. Embassy in Iran as a gesture of her firm stance against the nation.  The only problem is, the U.S. hasn’t had an embassy in Iran since 1980, the year when Blondie’s hit single “Call Me” filled the airwaves, Mt. St. Helens erupted, and Ted Turner launched CNN.

 

Also Wednesday, Bachmann floated some names of those who might have the high honor of serving as her Vice President, should she be elected.  Names include such stalwarts as her strategic competitor Rick Santorum, and U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).  The list also includes real estate developer and reality TV host Donald Trump.  Uh-oh.  Is this the same Donald Trump that left the Republican Party of Iowa holding the bag by backing out of the party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner?

 

On Thursday, Bachmann’s name came up yet again.  This time it was for pilfering a list of homeschool family emails from the well-regarded Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators (NICHE), and using that list to send two communiques to this “niche” market.  The misuse of the email list was traced to a NICHE board member who is a paid Bachmann staffer, necessitating a multi-pronged email response to members from NICHE President Justin LaVan.  The email included the requisite apology to members, an assurance of corrective measures, and an interesting list of FEC compliance actions including giving other campaigns an equal opportunity to use this listserv for the same purpose.

 

Lastly, again on Thursday, Bachmann made what smaller and newer publicly traded business owners might call a fatal error in missing a key vote on the House Financial Services Committee.  Congressman Paul adjusted his New Hampshire campaign schedule to vote for a SarbOx compliance exemption for businesses of this kind.  Yet, Bachmann missed the committee vote and therefore she delayed a step toward regulatory relief for businesses already burdened with the kind of overregulation that prevents hiring, even during these trying economic times.

 

“Campaigning for the presidency is challenging and this fact is one of the reasons why my admiration for Ron Paul grows with every stop along the campaign trail.  On behalf of the whole Iowa campaign team, I’d like to wish Rep. Bachmann a future schedule free of hiccups,” said Ron Paul 2012 Iowa Chairman Drew Ivers.

20 issues trump birth certificate circus

WASHINGTON - In the wake of the much-discussed release of President Obama's long-form birth certificate, Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle had this to say:

"Instead of wasting so much ink on this birther story, the press should be giving a lot more attention to the many real disasters of the Obama administration. The Libertarian Party recently released a list of '20 Obama problems, 20 Libertarian solutions.'

"Of course, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are only part of the problem equation. The Republicans deserve an equal share of the blame, for their unwillingness to cut military spending or entitlements, their addiction to government programs like farm subsidies, and their big-spending compromise bills of December 2010 and April 2011.

"I wonder if Obama and the Republicans might just be conspiring to keep this birther stuff alive, to distract everyone from all the real problems they're causing. The president might have been worried that the birther talk was about to die down.

"When you consider that we're involved in three foreign wars, our entitlement state is crumbling, we have record-level spending and deficits, unemployment is high, and inflation is growing, the president's birth certificate seems less significant somehow.

"We need to be more focused on the fact that massive debt is driving our government toward bankruptcy -- something Republican birther Donald Trump would know a lot about.

"Nearly two years ago, one of our junior staffers mocked this very issue:

Socialized healthcare is on the horizon. The DHS, NSA, TSA police state is expanding, the Drug War is still being pursued by an arrogant, ignorant government and Obama is expanding the war in Afghanistan! Frankly we have got bigger problems to pursue than blogging endlessly about where the President was born.

"Hopefully Americans will worry less about long-form birth certificates, and more about thousand-page spending bills."

For more information, or to arrange an interview, call LP Executive Director Wes Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website.

###

P.S. If you have not already done so, please join the Libertarian Party. We are the only political party dedicated to free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can also renew your membership. Or, you can make a contribution separate from membership.

Allegory of the Cave and American Politics, part 5

By Zach Foster

Continued from Part 4

The remaining Republican hopeful is Ron Paul.  Congressman Paul is one of the select few members of Congress who can boast an untarnished record.  In his private life he has served the community and the country, and his entire career as a public servant has been dedicated to restoring Constitutional law and fighting against government corruption and the stripping away of the rights of the citizenry.

He received his medical degree from Duke University in 1961 and served as a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon from 1963 to 1965.  He continued to serve the country with his medical skills in the Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.  He opened a private practice after his military service and, rather than bow down to the authoritative whims of insurance companies, he ran a much more philanthropic private practice by giving reduced-cost services or pro-bono services to the poor.  In chapter four of his book The Revolution, Ron Paul explains how this system was much better for the poor and uninsured than the jokes today known as PMOs and HMOs.

Having been a former airman, he knows how the military works better than the non-veterans who love to shout about their patriotism while campaigning.  Machiavelli disdainfully describes the downfall of the latter in The Prince (chapter 9).  As a long time successful doctor, Ron Paul also has a firm grasp on how the health insurance and health care market, unlike the incumbent President and most
(if not all) Republican nomination hopefuls.

Having been a leading member of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute for twenty-nine years, Ron Paul can easily call himself one of the leading economists in America—a title and personality cult currently being held by professional inflationists like Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.  For many decades, Congressman Paul has studied the economic theories of the leading thinkers in the Austrian School mof economics—Luwdig Von Mises, Frederick Hayek, Murray Rothbard, etc.—whose theories are based on monetary solidity, free trade, and the [proven] idea that individual freedom and economic prosperity go hand in hand.  To give a brief example of the accurate theories of the Austrian School, Ludwig Von Mises accurately predicted (to the detail) the fall of the Soviet Union in his book Socialism, written in 1919 (less than two years after the USSR was formed).  Ron Paul knows sound economics and, unlike most members of Congress, he offers concrete solutions to restoring the value of the dollar and restoring the economy in his books The Case For Gold (1982) and End the Fed (2009).

Under Ron Paul’s Presidency, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be drawn to a close, establishing peace with honor (without abandoning our allies) and this country would no longer be the “world police” (and certainly wouldn’t be involved in the Libyan Civil War, whose marginal-at-best U.S. involvement grows ever less popular).  The list of Ron Paul’s qualifications to be an excellent President goes on—the author doesn’t need to write them since they have already been written by other Ron Paul supporters who, rather than take a politician at his word, investigated his record and his writings and proposed solutions, and found overwhelming evidence testifying of his qualifications.

While Democrats blindly follow the shadows that cheer for Barack Obama and Republicans chain themselves down with Fox News propaganda, following Donald Trump’s shadow puppets on the cavern wall, there will be a minority of Americans who have awakened to the growing nightmare of their loss of more and more liberty, the Monopoly play money that is the U.S. dollar, a spiraling national debt, and the stretching thin of the American Empire.  They will not be fooled by shadows, for they have been freed and have grown accustomed to sunlight and fresh air; they know the truth and they seek to awaken their peers who still dwell in the cave.

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is. And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

Certainly, he would.

—Plato

END.

Allegory of the Cave and American Politics, part 4

By Zach Foster

Continued from Part 3

Let us examine the sights and sounds being experienced within the cave, both the prisoners chained to the cavern wall and by the escapee who has seen the light.  Americans are turning their focus to the 2012 Presidential elections which, as of April 2011, have four main candidates.  Barack Obama is running for reelection and has the support of the Democratic Party.  The three likely Republican candidates are Donald Trump, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul.

The author has already torn apart Trump’s charade as Republican Presidential material which, frankly, is an insult to the intelligence of every free-thinking American who is neither chained to the wall, looking at shadows, nor blissfully ignorant of being imprisoned in the web of media lies.  Arguments condemning Trump have been lightly touched upon here but in greater detail in the above-recommended article (“Why Barack Obama Will Be Reelected”).

The next most popular potential nominee is the author and businessman Herman Cain, whose biography and résumé truly command respect and admiration.  Cain’s life story speaks volumes in contradicting the dogmatic Marxist religion by proving that in the United States it is in fact possible for a poor boy to overcome both racial prejudice and poverty, and transcend class barriers to become wealthy through hard work and determination.  Some call it luck; others call it capitalism—the author prefers to call it the American Dream.  Cain has worked as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy, chaired large companies, and advised the President of the United States on economic matters.  Many Conservatives are in love with Cain both for his Conservative platform and personal accomplishments.  The author is also impressed with Cain, but slightly distraught that he has never once held a seat in public office. Seldom have junior politicians been successful without at least some experience in lower-level public office, and going straight from CEO to President of the United States may be a bit too much for a novice to handle.  Cain’s résumé does not qualify him for the Presidency.  However, given his vast experience in the private sector, he would make an outstanding Secretary of Commerce or Secretary of Labor.  It would be a great shame if the next President did not have Cain in the Cabinet.

The selection of Cain also could also lead one to make additional conclusions.  Though Cain has an impressive history and a solid Conservative platform of ideas, he is not the only Republican hopeful that boasts such attributes—not by a long shot.  One might remember that a large contributing factor to Obama’s 2008 election was his race.  Americans still felt the stigma of racism and its painful legacy and saw in Obama a perceived way to overcome it.  Such suspicions would be confirmed by the extensive media coverage (more of a jubilee) making a big deal that for the first time America had a black President.  While it was certainly impressive to many within America and around the world that the ball and chain of racial prejudice and discrimination, as well as interracial distrust, had largely disappeared, the author has believed for years that racism did not fade away during campus protests and sit-ins demonstrations, but rather in the mountains of Korea and the jungles of Vietnam as white, black, Asian, and Hispanic soldiers fought to save each other’s lives.

Still, Americans were glad that they had their ethnic minority President.  Now as 2012 approaches, it seems highly likely that the GOP is fumbling through the directory of honorable Republican politicians—each with virtually the same qualifications—and picking a token ethnic minority to run against the incumbent ethnic minority, who was the Democratic Party’s token minority whose job it was to wave a magic wand and erase the national guilt trip.  One might also believe that Cain is the last-minute replacement for former GOP National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who may have been intended to be the GOP’s secret weapon for 2012.

The tragedy of this trend of Messianic politics, which has expanded from the realm of working miracles to also include the realm of race and ethnicity, is that it does a huge discredit to the individuals on the ballot who are being used.  This trend of propping up a candidate simply for the convenience of their race is perhaps the most racist action of all, and selecting a candidate simply because of gender is the most sexist thing of all.  The candidates themselves, who have worked hard all of their lives and who are intelligent people with perhaps some very good ideas are being used like commodities, or even worse, must endure a personality cult being placed on their shoulders and pressuring them to work miracles.  Honestly, how realistic was the rush of the Hope and Change high of 2008?  What made Obama different from Ken Salazar, John Lewis, or Sanford Bishop?  Today, what makes Cain different from Allen West, Marco Rubio, or Bobby Jindal?

Concluded in Part 5: Enter Ron Paul

Allegory of the Cave and American Politics, part 3

By Zach Foster
Continued from Part 2

If simple mayors can simultaneously strip their indifferent constituents of freedom and make themselves rich, what is stopping members of Congress—who have multibillion dollar special interest groups throwing money and favors at them—from going down the same crooked route?  In the last decade alone, over a dozen members of the U.S. Congress were caught in some sort of scandal that cost them their position and whose actions harmed people.  This is only members of Congress, only those who got caught, not counting Legislative Branch employees, federal judges, Executive Branch officials, and administration officials.  While many American elected officials work hard to both make life better for their constituents and preserve freedoms against legislation and government action that would strip freedoms, there are those who are in politics only for themselves.  Several things motivate them, chiefly the money and perks coupled with the general indifference and willful ignorance of a population.  Where are the watchdogs?  Why are people not vigilant towards their elected officials?  Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and other national founders universally stressed that the preservation of liberty comes by dissent and a vigilant watchful eye.  Yet nowadays, not only do public officials go corrupt and unnoticed by a population hypnotized by Party propaganda or some social network, but corrupt people run and get elected!

The author fears that this trend will continue in the 2012 Presidential election.  The Democratic Party will be endorsing the incumbent President Obama, who has a strong likelihood of being reelected.  Of the forty-four U.S. Presidents, only twelve have served a single term—thirty two served more than one.  Furthermore, Obama has not completely alienated his supporters, and despite disillusionment over his continued waging of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his supporters still cling to him because of the passage of the Health Care Reform Act.  The Democratic Party is strong and united behind Barack Obama while the Republican Party is weak in its disunity.  See the article “Why Barack Obama Will Be Reelected” for further and in-depth reasons for his coming reelection.

There is no one candidate that Republicans are rallying behind.  The current popular front runner for the Republican nomination is Donald Trump.  Upon first learning of his popularity with Republicans, the author thought it was literally a joke.  Yet the frightening reality has set in that Republicans see him as the Messiah who will defeat the Muslim Stalin and restore Zion, bringing about the second coming of Ronald Reagan.  This could remind many of how so many Americans overwhelmingly placed quasi-Messianic hopes on Obama in 2008.  Try to recall the closing of the polls on November 4, 2008.  Recall Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson crying tears of joy, Chris Matthews rambling ecstatically, college students everywhere falling over weeping with happiness, Keith Olberman actually having something positive to say…  The underlying motivation for such belief and emotion was pure utopian idealism from the American Left and much of the Center.  They bought completely into his propaganda of hope and change.  On the Right, Obama has been viewed as nothing but a Marxist-Leninist Al Qaeda-sympathizing non-citizen who is out to destroy America and the free world.  They too have bought into partisan propaganda.

All over the political spectrum Americans are willfully chaining themselves to the cavern wall and choosing to believe that the shadows on the wall represent the real world.  One of their fellow prisoners escaped and saw the real world, and returned to open their eyes to the truth—yet they don’t recognize his voice and they see only the shadows on the cavern wall.  For some, the shadows are the hope and change, the low gas prices, the stable economy with a plethora of available jobs, and the immediate end of the Iraq War which were promised in 2008.  For others, the shadows are whatever hateful propaganda Fox News has spouted—any network that endorses the idea of Donald Trump running for President is deceitful, dishonest, and a remorseless propaganda machine.  To endorse a man who is an openly imperialist extortionist and one of the CEOs whose foolish too-big-to-fail policies brought about the financial recession to take the helm of the party of financial responsibility and the party that best represents the working class is the equivalent of chaining one’s self to the cave, chaining another person to the cave, and making that person join in watching the shadows.  Again, for elaboration on Trump's poor qualifications, see the above-recommended article.  Many Conservatives—especially ultraconservatives—love to laugh and point at the Leftists for their delusions while ignoring their own indoctrination as they lock-step march to the tune of the Party, hijacked by extremists, ultraconservatives, and ultranationalists.  This is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black—of the prisoner laughing at his cave-bound brother for being in bondage.

Continued in Part 4: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul

Why Barack Obama Will Be Reelected, part 2

By Zach Foster

Continued from Part 1

The only likely poster boy for the GOP at the moment is Donald Trump, the self-nominated candidate and self-appointed Messiah.

While Trump has used his money and influence to make himself the darling of Fox News talk shows, he has no qualifications whatsoever to be a public office holder.  The only prestige he can claim is the ability to build wealth, though that in itself is questionable.  While he knows an investment opportunity when he sees one, Trump’s huge investment sprees have caused mounting and crippling debt for his companies, many of which have been bankrupted—NOT a great track record when seeking the nomination for the party of financial responsibility.  Furthermore, in the 2008 financial crisis (remember when the banks and Wall Street destroyed the American economy?) Trump was among the ranks of many corrupt CEOs during the crisis, most notably when he failed to pay a $40 million loan to Deutsche Bank, citing the financial crisis as an Act of God and suing the Bank for damaging his image.  Is it really possible for someone to tarnish the image of a deadbeat?  The world will never know…  But it does know that Trump joins the ranks of CEOs who have bankrupted their companies, contributed to crippling the American and world economies, financially destroyed small businesses and the middle class, and were still paid millions for their failure.

It is known that many Republicans and independents equate Obama’s presidency with the wasteful New Deal programs that prolonged the Great Depression.  That point of view makes sense, but they must also be able to equate Trump with the reckless buying and spending on credit that started the Great Depression in the first place.

Trump has on numerous occasions expressed a willingness to make our South Korean allies and other countries pay for the “protection” they are receiving from locally stationed U.S. troops.  1)  The troops are in allied lands there because of treaties, and 2) What Trump wants to do is commonly known as EXTORTION.

Trump has been confirmed to have had extramarital affairs.  Though he certainly wouldn’t be the first American president to sleep around—definitely not the first hypocrite politician to do so—this is a terrible mark against a candidate for the party that stresses family values.  By this point in analyzing his qualifications (or lack thereof), the only thing about Trump that Republicans could possibly find better than Obama is that there would be a (R) after his name on the ballot rather than a (D).

Trump is a terrible candidate.  There is no possible way that Trump could be allowed to take over the party of great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, and Dwight Eisenhower, especially not when there are honorable Republicans, well respected by both parties, such as Ron Paul and Colin Powell, dedicated to upholding the Constitution (and both have fought in combat to defend it), who are established leaders with undisputed credibility who would be excellent Presidential candidates.  The fact that Republicans could allow themselves to be hypnotized by Fox News talk show hosts actually entertaining the idea of Trump as President not only shows how Fox News is as fair and balanced as a see-saw with an obese child on one end, but that more and more Republican voters, self-described Conservatives and Obama haters, have allowed themselves to be fooled into becoming automatons in lock-step with the Party’s platform.  Excuse the author of this article for being a bad comrade and a counterrevolutionary, but there is no way that Trump could make a good President!

In the face of Republican disarray, the Democratic Party and its leaders—whether they like it or not—are united and strong behind Barack Obama, and that is why he will be reelected in 2012.

Why Barack Obama Will Be Reelected

By Zach Foster

Yesterday the President announced his intention to run for reelection in 2012, in case there was ever any doubt.  There have been mixed reactions in the combined rat race and battle royale slap fight that is American politics.  Republicans and anyone else who has more than a slight dislike for the President, his administration, and his actions are already groaning about the very idea of enduring (what they perceive to be) four more years of Stalinist oppression.

The fact of the matter looms over the heads of those who are aware of it and possibly dread it: Barack Obama will be reelected.

Why?  Well, the reasons are simple.

Obama is an incumbent President, and incumbents usually are elected to serve additional terms.  After all, they’re already in office and their political party already has power—the hard part is over—and now they simply need to defend their power and incumbency against the challenger.  Though incumbent Presidents have lost reelection campaigns periodically throughout American history, this tends to be the exception compared to the number of Presidential reelections.

Obama has not completely cut off his support.  Yes, he has broken campaign promises, though he isn’t the first and won’t be the last politician to do so.  He promised in his first campaign to oppose tax cuts, but early this year made a quid pro quo with Congressional Republicans to extend the Bush era tax cuts.  He made a large stink out of ending the Iraq War and withdrawing at least one U.S. brigade a month, essentially abandoning the Iraqi forces.  However, after his swearing in he was forced to abandon his naïve campaign views and realized the seriousness of a Vietnam-style withdrawal and the serious implications of a power vacuum in Iraq.  American troops are being withdrawn, but only slowly, as the Iraq War is winding down but not yet over.  Obama mirrored George W. Bush’s Iraq War surge and implemented a similar strategy in Afghanistan, much to the chagrin of his staunch anti-war supporters. The one major campaign promise he has been able to deliver is passage of a health care reform bill, though it is highly inefficient, socialist in nature, and will prove to be very costly to the national coffers in the long run.

The most significant reason that Obama will be reelected is simply that the Republicans have no one to challenge him with.  While House Republicans like to console themselves with the fact that they repealed the health care reform act within the House itself, they ignore the fact they are in the minority in the Senate and will never get the law legally repealed in this session of Congress.  Yes, it is true that there are Republican members of Congress (mostly from the House) and governors who are honorable civil servants, but not one of these Republicans has proven to be a popular leader within the Party, nor have any of them inspired Republicans with the Reagan/Palin charisma that the GOP fell in love with.  The only likely poster boy for the GOP at the moment is Donald Trump, the self-nominated candidate and self-appointed Messiah.

Continued in Part 2:  "Really, Trump is the best the GOP has to offer?!"