RON PAUL FOR 2008?

By Steven Yates
January 17, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

All too often our columns trade in bad news! I’m sure I’ve given past readers a
few sleepless nights. It is my pleasure this go around to deliver some good
news! Some very good news!

According to an Associated Press report released late last week, Dr. Ron Paul
(R-Tx) is contemplating a run for the presidency in 2008. He has filed papers
in Texas allowing him to form an exploratory committee that can raise money.

The one-time medical doctor and nine-term Congressman from southeast Texas last
ran for president in 1988 on the Libertarian ticket, and received over 400,000
votes. This time around, he will be running as a Republican, which means going
head-to-head against much better known (and better supported) figures such as
John McCain.

This is an opportunity for what might be a pursuit worth thinking about—
retaking the Republican Party, now that the warmongering neocons have run it
pretty much into the ground.

Here’s a thought: both major parties may be controlled from the top—but several
of my associates have offered compelling arguments that a power struggle has
commenced within the super-elite itself. Arrayed on one side are the
longstanding international bankers who want to operate through entities like
the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. On the other are the neocons
and their monied backers, who have a vision of Pax Americana, a global empire
run from Washington (and Israel). Lest there be any misunderstanding: both
camps are globalist through and through. Both have promoted (are promoting)
Fabian socialism and communitarianism. Both would dissolve our national borders
in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it. But they differ
over specifics. One of the areas where the two camps are butting heads is over
what to do about the mess the Bush Administration has made in Iraq.

A few months ago, Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations,
published an article declaring the Iraq War unwinnable and calling for an exit
strategy. The neocon-controlled Bush Administration wants to “stay the course,”
however, with Bush just having called for another 21,500 troops to be sent
there. The neocons are salivating at the mouth to attack Iran!

If I were in the first group, I’d be wondering about the sanity of these people
I had made the mistake of promoting into power! (It’s happened before. I
sometimes wonder if the banksters and other corporate interests who propelled
both Hitler and Stalin into power had counted on the pure evil and bloodlust
that manifested itself in those regimes.)

This is an opportunity for the freedom movement in this country! Dr. Paul is
one of the few Constitutionalists in Congress. He casts his votes exclusively
on what he believes the Constitution empowers the federal government to do, and
votes consistently against bills he believes exceed the authority given
Congress by the Constitution. This, of course, places him at odds with most of
the rest of Congress, including the powers-that-be in the Republican Party.
After all, the Republicans no less than the Democrats departed from the
Constitution long ago. Both endorse the welfare nanny state, just in different
degrees.

Nor will Ron Paul do the bidding of the corporatist globalists. There is also
nothing in the Constitution that empowers the federal government to “partner”
with big business, or to supply it with corporate welfare. Paul has cosponsored
a resolution (H.C.R. 487) to put a stop to the slow, gradualist merger of the U.
S. with Canada and Mexico in the name of “free trade” which isn’t unless you
are part of the corporate elite.

We can’t say this about more visible figures such as John McCain, beloved of
the mainstream power structure. I doubt we can say it about anyone else who
might seek the Republican nomination except possibly for Tom Tancredo who seems
also to have been sending out feelers (and who cosponsored H.C.R. 487).

Dr. Paul appointed Kent Snyder, a former staffer on his Libertarian campaign,
to chair the exploratory committee. Snyder told AP, “There’s no question that
it’s an uphill battle, and that Dr. Paul is an underdog. But we think it’s well
worth doing and we’ll let the voters decide.”

So here is what we have to do—we refers to everyone who wants to live in a free
society. Should Dr. Paul officially announce his candidacy for the Republican
nomination in 2008, we need to get behind him and start working for him—whether
through financial contributions for those able to make them, knocking on doors
where feasible, making presentations, or producing written materials like this
article. If Ron Paul is in the race, we should begin bombarding mainstream
newspapers with guest columns and letters to the editor. If the columns and
letters are refused publication, start circulating them online, through the
many websites, forums, blogs and other Internet resources available to us.
Where possible, start putting up banners and signs along Interstate highways,
exits, and major intersections where traffic often slows. That way thousands of
ordinary commuters, fed up with government bureaucrats, ridiculous regulations
and having over 40 percent of their incomes taken away!
in taxes (including the hidden tax of inflation) will see: RON PAUL,
Republican and Constitutionalist, PRESIDENT IN 2008!!!

The solution to any mainstream media blackout on a Ron Paul campaign: take
direct action to thwart it.

Now this calls on the Freedom Movement to do something many of its members find
very hard. It calls on us to set aside our differences and work together for a
common goal—establishing the credibility, plausibility and practicality of a
Paul Presidency that could reverse the present direction of this country.

The inability of different groups and organizations to cooperate has hurt the
Freedom Movement terribly! Christians, for example, often refuse to work with
non-Christians, and vice versa. They are often uncomfortable working with those
Libertarians whose worldview they see as “too secular.” Libertarians are just
as uncomfortable working with them. Christians don’t always get along with each
other—nor do Libertarians who have fallen into an in-house squabble over who is
the “purest” Libertarian. Both have their differences with, e.g., the
Constitution Party. There are many other groups each will not work with; some,
in fairness, seem to prefer to remain isolated. There are single-issue groups
focused on, e.g., the income tax.

Should Dr. Paul take the plunge and declare himself a candidate, every one of
these needs to set aside their factional differences and quabbles and come
together under one umbrella. I would go as far as to say that if Ron Paul runs,
third parties should refrain from running a candidate of their own (have
someone on standby, perhaps, in case Dr. Paul by some chance elects to withdraw
altogether). Other groups also need to get with this program: the John Birch
Society, Sons of Confederate Veterans, the League of the South, and so on.

I am hoping that should he choose to run, Dr. Paul can count on the support of
think tanks such as the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Reason Foundation, the
Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, and the Institute for
Humane Studies, among many others less known nationally but capable of doing
great work at the state and local levels. Free market economists such as Walter
Williams will doubtless get behind Dr. Paul, as will their equivalents among
philosophers such as the ever-prolific Tibor R. Machan and myself. There are
differences in all of these. We don’t all work from the same first premises or
have absolutely identical visions of the kind of society we want. People who
are thinking as individuals probably never will. But we should all be united in
the belief that individual freedoms, moral responsibility, private property
rights, genuinely free markets (not corporatism), and the rule of law are
necessary conditions for prosperity in this life.

We do not have a choice in this! Cooperation among all of us “underdogs” is
only way a Ron Paul candidacy has even the slightest hope of making a dent
against a firmly entrenched Establishment. We can worry about our differences
on our own time!

Last weekend, Aaron Russo, filmmaker extraordinaire and creator of America:
Freedom to Fascism, pledged to work on Dr. Paul’s behalf despite some rather
serious health problems. Dr. Paul, of course, appears prominently in A:FTF
pointing out that “the Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express”
and expressing worry about our expanding Brave New Police State. [To order
Aaron Russo's new documovie America: Freedom to Fascism click on the banner
below.

In a letter sent out to those of us on the A:FTF team and widely circulated on
the Internet, Russo wrote, “Congressman Paul will be the only uncompromising
defender of the Constitution in the race… I am 1,000% behind him!

Russo continued, “Ron Paul has stepped up to the plate because he knows what we
all know: the noose is tightening, and there isn't much time if we hope to
restore to Constitutional Government. I called Ron yesterday to tell him I am
on board to do anything it takes to support his campaign.

He stated what I have reiterated here: “Now is the time for the entire Freedom
Movement, all Third Parties, all good Americans everywhere, from all political
stripes and persuasions, to unite to overtake the weakened Republican Party.
Stand firmly behind Ron Paul, and work to restore our Constitutional Republic…
.”

”There isn't a better man for the job. He has an impeccable voting record. He
is ‘right on,’ on Freedom and Sovereignty issues. In a time of universal
deceit, Congressman Paul dares to commit the revolutionary act of telling the
truth.” This last, of course, is a reference to the George Orwell quote that
opens A:FTF.

Sound advice! In the last analysis, we have just two questions to consider: (1)
Do we really wish to reverse our present course and live in a free society? (2)
What are we willing to do to make it happen? We may have here an opportunity to
support one of the few men in Washington who still has the vision of our
Founding Fathers. There are going to be naysayers who will claim Dr. Paul’s
views are “outdated,” or tell us “it can’t be done.” (One article has already
described a Ron Paul candidacy as “quixotic.”) When the naysayers have specific
arguments, let us answer them. When they do no more than scoff, point this out
and then ignore them.

I recall a rather active member of the South Carolina Libertarian Party based
in Columbia, a very energetic man named Dick Winchell whom many of us greatly
admired for his willingness to go into the Capitol building and get in the
faces of the South Carolina General Assembly. Unfortunately, he was often very
much alone. Finally, fed up with the mere moaning and groaning so many
Libertarians do about how terrible the government is, he stood up at a meeting
and said, “When you guys are ready to do something, call me!”

With Ron Paul, we have an opportunity to do something. Let’s not squander it—
especially, let’s not squander it by fighting amongst ourselves. There are, of
course, separate battles to be fought—against Real ID, for example, or against
electronic voting, and against the stealth merger of the U.S., Canada and
Mexico. A Ron Paul anywhere near the White House put a stop to all the
unconstitutional police state tactics and all the globalist nonsense. But he
has to get there first. To paraphrase Kent Snyder, this has to happen at the
grassroots level or it will not happen at all. And it is probably our last
chance!

© 2007 Steven Yates - All Rights Reserved

For the Presidency of the United States of America
By Marc Emery, Publisher, Cannabis Culture Magazine, Congress Watch

Two outstanding Congressmen from the House of Representatives are seeking the nomination of their parties for the Presidency of the United States in the November 2008 election.

Ron Paul, a family physician representing the Gulf Coast region of Texas around Galveston, is seeking the Republican nomination. Ron Paul was rated by Cannabis Culture Magazine as the #1 Congressman of the last decade, far and away the #1 Republican in the House of Representatives, and the highest score of all 435 Members of the House of Representatives in Cannabis Culture’s Survey of the 109th Congress. Ron Paul voted against The Patriot Act, the Iraq War, every aspect of the Drug War. Ron Paul was one of only 5 Members of the House who voted against re-authorizing the budget of the Drug Czar John Walters office (ONDCP). Ron Paul co-sponsors many, many bills each year whose intent is to repeal the drug war, repeal the intrusions of Big Brother. Ron Paul is incorruptible. He votes against any and all expansion of government authority.

Ron Paul is a libertarian Republican who constantly enrages the GOP (Grand Old Party – The Republicans) because he actually believes in a small federal government and sound fiscal policies. He’s anti-death penalty, anti-drug laws, anti-police state, anti-Patriot Act and anti-anything that’s not authorized by the Constitution. I admire him for his “principled anti-war stance,” while pro-abortion voters don’t need to worry about the obstetrician/gynecologist’s strong pro-life stance — he knows the federal government has no right to get involved in such stuff.

Contenders for the 2008 Republican nomination include prohibitionist heavyweights like for New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain. Marijuana arrests rose from under 6,000 a year in New York City in the year before Giuliani became Mayor (1993) to over 62,000 arrests in 2001, the final year in his term-limited second term. Giuliani was America’s most rabid drug warrior and his views have not changed.

John McCain’s most recent job prior to becoming a politician in 1986 was as a brewery executive (his wife is the heir to Hensley & Co., the second largest Anhauser-Busch beer distributor in the USA). McCain has expressed the most hawkish positions on drug policy. On March 5, 2000, McCain told the Boston Globe he wants to increase penalties for selling drugs, supports the death penalty for drug kingpins, favors tightening security to stop the flow of drugs into the country, and wants to restrict availability of methadone for heroin addicts. He said he would push for more money and military assistance to drug-supplying nations such as Colombia.

McCain supports the following principles concerning illegal drugs:
Increase penalties for selling illegal drugs
Impose mandatory jail sentences for selling illegal drugs
Impose capital punishment for convicted international drug traffickers
Strengthen current laws dealing with non-controlled substances, including inhalants and commercially available pills
Increase funding for border security to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the US
*Source: Project Vote Smart, 1998, Project Vote Smart - American Government, Elections, Candidates and Voting Jul 2, 1998


John McCain has not moderated his views perceptibly.

There will be no better Republican seeking the GOP nomination than Ron Paul. And the contrast between Ron Paul and Republican front-runners Giuliani and McCain is very stark. Very opposite worlds. Of the other 7 Republicans who have announced “exploratory committees”, only Tom Tancredo, an iconoclast Representative from Colorado whose immigration policies have gotten him attention, supports state’s rights to medical marijuana.
Among the Republican Party candidates for President, only Ron Paul has voted against both the 2002 Iraq War Resolution and the funding of the war in the annual Appropriations Bill.

Ron Paul is a wonderful idealist, a prolific and intelligent writer and columnist, a true Man of the People who is completely devoted to the ideals of free men and women in a free society of bodily autonomy and freedom of choice. Ron Paul was rated the only Congressman with a perfect record of voting for the cannabis culture and against big government, the drug war and the war in Iraq. We must support Ron Paul for the Republican nomination for President. If you are so inclined, register as a Republican so you can support, campaign, and lobby other Republicans to make Ron Paul their choice for President in the primaries next year.


Dennis Kucinich was the third highest rated Congressman in our survey of the 109th Congress. Only Representatives Ron Paul and Barney Frank scored higher. Dennis Kucinich wants to decriminalize marijuana, curtail the powers of the Drug Czar, end the War in Iraq immediately. He has co-sponsored many bills that seek to amend the slew of prohibitionist legislation that has come out of Congress over the last decade. Dennis Kucinich is a thoughtful and intelligent man who gives many speeches and articulates his many messages well. Not coincidentally, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul co-sponsor and co-operate on many amendments and bills to reign in the US federal government. His campaign for the Democratic Nomination for President is at Kucinich for President 2008

Certainly Dennis Kucinich, like Ron Paul, is a long-shot for his Party’s nomination. The two leading contenders for the Democratic Party nomination are New York Senator Hilary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Other announced Democrats in the race for their party’s nomination include Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Connecticutt Senator Chris Dodd, North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Kucinich is the only Democratic contender for President in 2008 who actually voted against the Iraq War and its funding. Senators Biden, Edwards, Clinton, Dodd, all voted YES on the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, while Senator Obama has voted to finance the war since he has been in the Senate. Among the Democratic Party candidates for President, only Dennis Kucinich has voted against both the 2002 Resolution and the funding of the war.

Barack Obama has voted to finance the Iraq War while speaking against it, which shows equivocation. As to his views on drug use, following is a passage he wrote about his own marijuana and other illicit drug use in his 1996 book:

“I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory. I had discovered that it didn't make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate's sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you'd met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl. You might just be bored, or alone. Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection. And if the high didn't solve whatever it was that was getting you down, it could at least help you laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bull**** and cheap moralism.”
*Source: Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama, p. 87 Aug 1, 1996

There’s insight in those remarks. On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Senator Obama said his youthful marijuana use was a “mistake”, but he didn’t seem negatively affected by the experience. In fairness to Senator Obama, he doesn’t appear to be a man who has a mean streak or a dominator complex, and that bodes well.


New York Senator Hilary Clinton is not on record as saying anything against prohibition. Considering she is from New York, of the infamous Rockefeller Laws, and she has almost no drug law reform mentions in 6 years in the US Senate, it’s clear drug-law reform is not on her agenda.

In the 2004 campaign, this magazine endorsed Dennis Kucinich for the Democratic Party nomination for President. A former Cleveland Mayor now representing the 10th District of Ohio, Kucinich spoke well and often about the misguided drug war. During the 2004 campaign, Loretta Nall had the opportunity to interview Rep. Kucinich over the course of that campaign and became one of his consultants on drug policy reform. Loretta has assured me she will be campaigning for Kucinich in 08.

Representative Kucinich is now Chairman of a Congressional Oversight Sub-Committee with the broadest oversight authority of any subcommittee in the federal government, with jurisdiction over all Domestic Policy in the United States. In fact, Kucinich has oversight of the Drug Czar’s office, the Office of the National Drug Control Policy.

Americans in the cannabis culture must talk up and gather momentum for Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. 2007 will be all about sorting the contenders from the pretenders. The internet can be very useful, please promote Dennis Kucinich For President and Ron Paul For President on your myspace, blog or other cyberspace media. Nothing beats talking to people about getting involved in perhaps the most important election ever! Ideally, our dream election would “ Dennis Kucinich(P) & Maxine Waters(VP)” on the Democratic ticket vs. “Ron Paul(P) & Dana Rohrabacher(VP)” on the Republican ticket. Maxine Waters is a great Congresswoman from California who was rated in our survey among the top ten Representatives. Ohio-California, good state mix, two of the top liberals in the House with outstanding credentials for honesty and integrity. Ron Paul and Dana Rohrabacher are the #1 and #2 top rated Republican Representatives in the House (by CC #63) , and both co-sponsor bills to provide state rights to medical marijuana and other drug-law reform bills. These two also have impeccable credentials and are untainted by lobbyists, greed, corruption. Texas-California is good state mix for a ticket.

Both tickets would feature highly principled seasoned legislators with very clear agendas. The citizens would really hear some ideas in that Presidential campaign!

Contribute money to the campaigns of both, money is essential in gathering any kind of momentum. Buy bumper stickers, T-shirts, buttons, posters and put these promotional items to regular use. Get Ron Paul For President or Dennis Kucinich for President stickers, posters, and handouts made to be given out on campus, at Peace rallies, 4/20, Global Marijuana March, summer festivals, everywhere! It’s a long grueling 20 month campaign and this may be the most important Presidential primary season ever coming up!

"He’s anti-death penalty, anti-drug laws, anti-police state, anti-Patriot Act "
Bad, Good, Good, Bad

2 out of 4 for me

__________________
Dr. Spaceman: Now Jenna, medically speaking for your height your weight puts you what we call the "disgusting" range. Fortunately there are solutions. For example, crystal meth has been shown to be very effective. How important is tooth retention to you?

Looks like a pretty good Libertarian to me. It's too bad third parties are so weak in the US.