Ron Paul

This is as funny as it is sad. Part of the reason I stay at all in tune with national politics is because I believe that if we can promote honest discussion on important issues, especially in the media, we will have a chance at reforming Washington.

All this tells me though is that the MSM pretty much comes from the same big business sources and that FOXNews is not really a "conservative" news channel, unless all the major networks are conservative in that they viciously protect the status quo at all costs. Honesty in important topics?

Let Jon Stewart say it funny:



I watched most of an episode of the O'Reilly factor show last night for the first time in a long time. I wasn't mad, I just got really bored. What a boring show. A bunch of people arguing over politicians and not one informative let alone intelligent thing is ever said. I couldn't keep watching and eventually had to watch Ryan Dempster pitch for the Cubs. That's how bad it got.

Audit the Fed

As anyone who follows politics realizes quickly, some things stay the same, some things change. I've been shocked that this Audit the Fed bill, pushed by Rep. Ron Paul, has gotten as far as it has. First off, who cares about monetary policy? Second, with super corrupt politicans running both parties, who'd a thunk that they would support the audit of an organization that so many of them, just months ago, said should run the unsupervised distribution of trillions of taxpayer dollars. Ahhhh yes, the voters are mad. I guess that still makes a difference in this day and age. Voters getting mad has changed, politicians doing anything to keep their jobs has not.

I encourage you to watch this whole video, it's not super long, just over 13 minutes. Take the time to understand how confused some of these experts are on the difference between auditing an organization and controlling it (would they object to a corporation getting audited as the same thing as relinquishing control of it?). Look how mad the opening Republican is. I also especially like the ending of it, where the healthcare bill slips into conversation, as does Clute, TX.

McCain, How Do You Sleep At Night?

"On top of a pile of money with many beautiful ladies."

So that quote is really from McBain, not McCain, but it would be pretty funny if the Senator shared those sleeping habits.

Oh yeah, this post is about a recent exchange McCain had at one of his town meetings regarding the presence of troops in Iraq. My better half pointed me to this NY Times blog article that defended McCain, or at the very least attempted to provide a more fair account of the aforementioned exchange than the D.N.C. (as described in the article).

McCain takes a pretty hawkish stance on this issue, essentially arguing that American troops and bases are needed around the world to ensure national security. I'd be interested to hear his reaction to the other side of this chicken-or-the-egg argument (the one Ron Paul espouses), that the reason our national security is threatened is because we have bases all over the world.


I find it encouraging that both McCain and Paul have consistent and honest messages, but I think the answer is somewhere in between. I agree with Paul, that our presence in their land is a significant cause of the anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. Removing or at least dramatically decreasing our presence there is a perhaps the ideal solution.

I can't believe that it is the most practical solution, however. I believe our nation is stuck in a situation where it is extremely dependent on stability in the Middle East. I can't believe I just wrote "stability in the Middle East" and was not attempting humor. Maybe it's better (and easier) to say, we can't have Iraq become Afghanistan.

I continue to contend that although we need to see progressive turnover of responsibility to Iraqis, it would be a mistake for a candidate to promise and plan a complete pull-out when they take office. In the long term, I agree with Paul and disagree with McCain that we need bases in places like Japan, Germany and Korea. But the practicality of removing our presence in the Middle East is strongly tied to our nation's ability to remove its dependence on the petrol flowing from the region.

I invite comments from everyone, be it on McCain, Paul, any other candidate or the subject of our military presence overseas. I know I will learn more by discussing with you.

Scaredy Fox! Scaredy Fox!

Fox News decided that Ron Paul was not worthy of entry into the Republican debate in New Hamphire, even though Paul's results in the Iowa caucus (10%) were triple that of Giuliani (3.5%), and he was close to 3rd in New Hampshire polls. What is this, Nader all over again?

Hats off to Jay Leno, who recognized the undeserved snub and had Paul as his headlining guest on Monday night. I doubt that the Leno appearance helped Paul in NH, but I wonder if nationally this might have worked out better for him than attending the debate.

Here is Leno's interview of Paul:

Part 1:



Part 2: