EDIT: Please note that any ads that appear on this blog don’t necessarily represent the feelings of Heather or I on any particular issue. In a hilarious moment… mentioning Ron Paul apparently triggers google to start showing McCain ads.
Last week there was an article on digg leading to a youtube video of excerpts from a speech made by congressman Ron Paul in the House of Representatives. The video also contained quite a bit of anti-semetic imagery put there by the creator of the video, as such it’s not as effective as the original speech made July 10, 2003. I’m sure people are sick of hearing about Dr. Paul on our blog but he is truly unique. He might be a little loony compared to your average politician, but it’s only because he doesn’t know when to spin, he just says what people need to hear. This speech explains the neo-conservative movement and names names of those involved. You can find the original transcript here.

I’ve posted the entirety of the speech after the jump.


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Tags: election 2008,neo-con,politics,Ron Paul
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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Sophia has joined the Army. As you can see she has her boots already, the uniform is in the mail.

Tags: Heather,politics,Sophia
Categories: Heather, Sophia
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I’m going to reprint the text of the speech in it’s entirety. I believe his methodology to correct the issues he addresses in the speech to be wrong but his sentiment is spot on. Here’s the speech in it’s entirety as found at the huffingtonpost.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
“A More Perfect Union”
Constitution Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

The rest after the jump:


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Tags: election,obama,politics,rhetoric
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What a unique experience during the presidential primary cycle. Texas matters. I received two phone calls over the weekend asking me to vote for their candidate, one for Obama and one for Ron Paul. I’ve already “thrown my vote away,” for Ron Paul, but every time I can push the school of thought that many of Ron Paul’s views represent I’ll continue to vote outside of the frontrunners or the major parties.

Obama is going to win the Democratic primary and the election. There’s too much of a groundswell surrounding him for there to be any other outcome. I think he’ll do well to restore the US in the eyes of the rest of the world. His largely globalist view of world politics could push us more to the forefront in the various organizations we participate in, but he’s an unknown quantity in economic matters. He’s pro-consumer in his legislative rhetoric, but not damning enough towards big business to stifle. If he looked like he would cut corporate subsidy, I’d start to support him more heavily, but his rhetoric is too generic for me to know what to think. He has softened on gun control. His energy policy has a good background but his current rhetoric reflects the current chicken little viewpoint on greenhouse gasses. His healthcare viewpoints are sound as they rely on individual subsidy and avoid community rating and mandating coverage limits. I hope he remembers that younger voters are voting him in when it comes time to start pushing healthcare reform. His foreign policy seems to be UN based. I dunno. I can always “Hope” that the huge cavern of possible policy stances his rhetoric could encompass leans towards liberty over socialism.

Here’s a quote from David Boaz of the Cato institute.

The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can’t tolerate a libertarian community.

Tags: election2008,obama,politics,Ron Paul
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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I know I had mentioned that I wouldn’t discuss Ron Paul much more, but a huge controversy over his background came up again. It’s an issue I had previously written about here. This is specifically about the newsletters that had been penned in between the period of his Libertarian run for president and his current run as a Republican congressman. They came to the forefront on the day of New Hampshire primaries based on a hit piece by a writer over at The New Republic. Even if not actually penned by Dr. Paul there’s some obvious white nationalist thought published under his name during that time period. Please note these were also associated with a gold investment company that pushed it’s association with the aforementioned newsletters. Dr. Paul has not come forward with the name of the person/persons involved in the publication of the newsletters with these comments in them.

Some interesting things have happened since then though. Let me frame the implosion. There are two major institutions/think-tanks that push libertarian thought. One is the Cato Institute, and the other is the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Their respective online support comes in the form of Reason Magazine (of which I am a subscriber) for the Cato Institute (note: the Cato Institute has a larger influence on political thought) and LewRockwell.com for the Ludwig von Mises Institute. There had always seemed to be a rift between the two organizations, and I never knew why. Now I do (link to a long article at reason.com regarding authorship). Anyway, here’s a summation from a former Ron Paul staffer.

Dear Lew,

You have now had three opportunities –1996, 2001, and 2008 — to prove that you are a friend of Ron Paul and freedom, and you have failed to do so each time.

This week, for the third time, the puerile, racist, and completely un-Pauline comments that all informed people say you have caused to appear in Ron’s newsletters over the course of several years have become an issue in his campaign. This time the stakes are even higher than before. He is seeking nationwide office, the Republican nomination for President, and his campaign is attracting millions of supporters, not tens of thousands.

Three times you have failed to come forward and admit responsibility for and complicity in the scandals. You have allowed Ron to twist slowly in the wind. Because of your silence, Ron has been forced to issue repeated statements of denial, to answer repeated questions in multiple interviews, and to be embarrassed on national television. Your callous disregard for both Ron and his millions of supporters is unconscionable.

If you were Dr. Paul’s friend, or a friend of freedom, as you pretend to be, by now you would have stepped forward, assumed responsibility for those asinine and harmful comments, resigned from any connection to Ron or his campaign, and relieved Ron of the burden of having to repeatedly deny the charges of racism. But you have not done so, and so the scandal continues to detract from Ron’s message.

You know as well as I do that Ron does not have a racist bone in his body, yet those racist remarks went out under his name, not yours. Pretty clever. But now it’s time to man up, Lew. Admit your role, and exonerate Ron. You should have done it years ago.

John Robbins, Ph.D.
Chief of Staff
Dr. Ron Paul, 1981-1985

Regarding this news lewrockell.com is coming off of my links and bookmarks.

Tags: election2008,politics,Ron Paul
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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