Paying Some Attention To Ron Paul

[Kathianne]

I'm glad to see a conservative publication providing some coverage on what purports to be mainstream conservative/libertarian. It's not.

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/08/23/ron-paul-and-the-neoliberal-re/


Ron Paul and the Neoliberal Reeducation Campaign (http://spectator.org/archives/2011/08/23/ron-paul-and-the-neoliberal-re) By Jeffrey Lord (http://spectator.org/people/jeffrey-lord) on 8.23.11 @ 6:09AM
To bring about radical and permanent change in any society, our primary focus must be on the conversion of minds through education.
-- Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul



Sigh.



Somebody needs to say this.



Does Ron Paul have a lot of interesting ideas he puts forward as a presidential candidate?
Yes. From his honestly libertarian views (he was the 1988 Libertarian presidential nominee, so he's been at this a long time) to his willingness to challenge the status quo on economics (questioning the role of everything from sugar subsidies to the Federal Reserve) to his emphasis on the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, Congressman Paul has been fearless in sticking with his principles. And in bringing new ideas -- or old ideas -- to an American electorate that has been staggered by the far-left reality that is the Obama Administration.



But as complaints surface in the wake of his strong showing in the Iowa Straw Poll, complaints from Paul supporters and candidate Paul himself that he is not receiving the attention that is his due -- someone should say the Congressman and his supporters are correct. There should be -- must be -- more attention paid to the Paul campaign.



Why?



Because the Paul campaign is not just a campaign for president. This is a campaign -- a serious campaign -- to re-educate the American people to an alternate universe of reality. A campaign that goes far beyond whatever will happen at the polls in 2012.



And sorry to say, this re-education campaign does not present a pretty picture of itself.

Looming over the interesting and appealing ideas of the Paul campaign is a veritable political tornado of allegations involving anti-Semitism, racism, pacifism, far left-wingism and, at the edges, a tiny flicker of intimidation.



So let's spill it all out on the table and take a look...



That's the intro, takes up about 3/4 of the first page. The article is 6 pages long. Enjoy.

[logroller]

I made to page four before it became readily apparent this was a smear campaign, not journalism.(Bookmark The American Spectator in the conservative bias section) It seems every time somebody criticizes the American foreign policy in the middle east, they're quickly branded anti-Semitic and leftist. It's a diversionary tactic which has been all too effective. We need to wise up and quit crying foul every time somebody challenges the status quo and focus on the problems We have right here, right now. That or just admit you prefer America as an imperial power; bound and determined to install, maintain and support any regime which affords us the most favorable trade.


http://youtu.be/w0yOa7FrgUg

[revelarts]

I made to page four before it became readily apparent this was a smear campaign, not journalism.(Bookmark The American Spectator in the conservative bias section) It seems every time somebody criticizes the American foreign policy in the middle east, they're quickly branded anti-Semitic and leftist. It's a diversionary tactic which has been all too effective. We need to wise up and quit crying foul every time somebody challenges the status quo and focus on the problems We have right here, right now. That or just admit you prefer America as an imperial power; bound and determined to install, maintain and support any regime which affords us the most favorable trade.


http://youtu.be/w0yOa7FrgUg


THANK YOU,
And Concerning the Debate last night Ron Paul has tried again to inform the other candidates and the booing crowd what the CIA and Intelligence Agencies have known for years.

Ron Paul also mentioned the book "Dying to win" after Giuliani made the ignorant (but politically expedient) statement about suicide attacks, here's a product description of "Dying to win" from Amazon.


Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but there is great confusion as to why. In this paradigm-shifting analysis, University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape has collected groundbreaking evidence to explain the strategic, social, and individual factors responsible for this growing threat.

One of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject, Professor Pape has created the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. With striking clarity and precision, Professor Pape uses this unprecedented research to debunk widely held misconceptions about the nature of suicide terrorism and provide a new lens that makes sense of the threat we face.

FACT: Suicide terrorism is not primarily a product of Islamic fundamentalism.

FACT: The world’s leading practitioners of suicide terrorism are the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka–a secular, Marxist-Leninist group drawn from Hindu families.

FACT: Ninety-five percent of suicide terrorist attacks occur as part of coherent campaigns organized by large militant organizations with significant public support.

FACT: Every suicide terrorist campaign has had a clear goal that is secular and political: to compel a modern democracy to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland.

FACT: Al-Qaeda fits the above pattern. Although Saudi Arabia is not under American military occupation per se, one major objective of al-Qaeda is the expulsion of U.S. troops from the Persian Gulf region, and as a result there have been repeated attacks by terrorists loyal to Osama bin Laden against American troops in Saudi Arabia and the region as a whole.

FACT: Despite their rhetoric, democracies–including the United States–have routinely made concessions to suicide terrorists. Suicide terrorism is on the rise because terrorists have learned that it’s effective.

In this wide-ranging analysis, Professor Pape offers the essential tools to forecast when some groups are likely to resort to suicide terrorism and when they are not. He also provides the first comprehensive demographic profile of modern suicide terrorist attackers. With data from more than 460 such attackers–including the names of 333–we now know that these individuals are not mainly poor, desperate criminals or uneducated religious fanatics but are often well-educated, middle-class political activists.

More than simply advancing new theory and facts, these pages also answer key questions about the war on terror:

• Are we safer now than we were before September 11?
• Was the invasion of Iraq a good counterterrorist move?
• Is al-Qaeda stronger now than it was before September 11?

Professor Pape answers these questions with analysis grounded in fact, not politics, and recommends concrete ways for today’s states to fight and prevent terrorist attacks. Military options may disrupt terrorist operations in the short term, but a lasting solution to suicide terrorism will require a comprehensive, long-term approach–one that abandons visions of empire and relies on a combined strategy of vigorous homeland security, nation building in troubled states, and greater energy independence.

For both policy makers and the general public, Dying to Win transcends speculation with systematic scholarship, making it one of the most important political studies of recent time.