Posted on 05/17/2007 7:08:13 PM PDT by tpaine
The Ron Paul Smear Campaign
Doug Kendall
By now, it is painfully obvious to most people in the freedom movement that Republican presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, has been targeted for elimination—by his own Party. The politically-connected elite within the Republican Party, along with allied organizations and operatives, are working overtime to make sure that Ron Paul is burned at the stake for daring to speak the truth and defy the Good Ol' Boy system.
In all honesty, Dr. Paul should have known that he would be set up in the second debate—after he scored so high in poll after poll, following the first debate—and after he made it clear that he would not tow the neo-con, police-state, Giuliani-style "war" on terror line. Everyone from Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, so-called "conservative" news websites and columnists, and even local talk radio shows have done everything in their power to define Ron Paul as a "nut-job," "dope," and "moron," calling for his removal from the debates because his views are supposedly "dangerous" for the country.
Glenn Beck even went so far as to repeatedly label Ron Paul a "libertarian"—because there is always some kind of negativity associated with it, when Beck uses it—and then used that as a vehicle to beat up on Libertarians, in general, masterfully trying to kill two birds with one stone.
It's very telling, and very sad, watching these elitists attempt to exterminate those who favor increasing freedom by reducing the size and scope of government. The latest and most sickeningly obvious attempt to discredit Ron Paul, called "Big Outrage," is coming from Fox News.
Fox News anchor, John Gibson, recently stated that the second presidential debate got a little "spicy" after "Paul suggested that the US actually had a hand in the terrorist attacks." He even went so far as to attempt to link Paul to the 911 Truth crowd and Rosie O'Donnell—whose picture they flashed, twice, during the five-minute segment, along with the tagline, "ROSIE O'DONNELL STRONGLY BELIEVES IN 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES." Gibson said that the 911 Truth movement has "infected people like Rosie O'Donnell, and one in three Democrats, and many other Americans—evidently, including Congressman Ron Paul." To make matters worse, he brought columnist and Fox News contributor, Michele Malkin, into the segment and said he would have expected to hear something like this from the Democrat debates. In perfect neo-con newsperson style, Malkin stated, "Ron Paul really has no business being on stage as a representative of Republicans," apparently because of the 911 Truth "virus." She then went on to further drive the point about 911 Truthers being mainly democrats, and mentioning something about a mental illness that typically affects people on the Left, called "Bush Derangement Syndrome."
I have lost no love on Democrats, either, but anyone who is even remotely familiar with Ron Paul knows that Malkin's attempt to link Paul to Democrats is laughable. If you look closely, you will see that Ron Paul's statements had nothing to do with the 911 Truth movement, but Fox News is spinning it in that fashion.
In so many words, Paul stated the obvious and basically repeated the findings of the 911 Commission's report:
Meddling in the affairs of others often fosters animosity and a desire for retaliation, and we would never allow other countries to do to us some of the same things that the US is doing to them—and it amazes me to see the scores of people who cannot seem to grasp those facts. The 911 Truth movement seeks to discover whether or not the Bush Administration had foreknowledge about, or actually had a hand in, the September 11th attacks—and that has nothing to do with Ron Paul's statements. 911 Truth deals with conspiracy, but Ron Paul spoke of consequences from our brand of foreign policy—two very different things.
Being an anarcho-capitalist, I do not care for government—small or otherwise—but Ron Paul is a step in the right direction, and he is certainly the most freedom-oriented and fiscally responsible candidate in the Republican stable—and it says a lot about the Republican elites who are using character assassination techniques to discredit and silence him, instead of debating the issue.
Karl Marx would be proud.
During a radio interview, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) once said, "The hallmark of the Republican Party has always been freedom," but everything I've seen lately further confirms that his statement couldn't be further from the truth. I've always known, but this is just icing on the cake.
I've heard Republicans invite Libertarians to join the Republican Party, to work within a bigger, established Party, but this situation should serve as a warning to Libertarians, and any other freedom-loving types, that you should resist the temptation. Freedom has no place within the Republican Party (or the Democrat Party).
Doug Kendall is the host, scheduler & Webmaster of The Dangerous Doug Kendall Show. Listen to live streaming of the show at www.DangerousDoug.net.
No - that’s what R Paul SAID.
Actually, not it is not.
I actually agree with you. I could care less about bringing democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq - I just want to kill Al Queda, the Taliban and the foreign fighters. But that is NOT what I got from what R Paul said. He said he was anti-war. He then said we should TALK to Al Queda, not destroy it. If R Paul comes out and says that he believes we should reign hell on our Islamist enemies, I will stand up and cheer.
"frothy," huh? That could reference any number of characteristics. I do get awfully tired of seeing something I worked in my whole life (the conservative movement) get hijacked by a bunch of Wilsonian neocon dingleberries who will sell out freedom, liberty, limited government, fiscal stability and literally everything that makes our culture surviving WORTH surviving as a culture..., all for some amorphous "war on terror." They are fascists (patriotic statists), and the worst part is that they are dunderheaded fascists, who because they have hijacked the conservative movement and jerked it into a bunch of nationalist military interventionists, think they are the true descendents and keepers of liberty.
bullhockey. You are either lying or clueless. Take your pick.
And then what?
I recommend decaf.
Paul is first & foremost a constitutionalist. His isolationist opinions do not make him evil, just misguided.
We mind our own business?
And that's it? Are we allowed to publish Mohammed cartoons? Are we allowed to make anti-Muslim films?
Rudy didn’t need to micharacterize Ron Paul:
He said: Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years,” he said.
There ya go - he blamed us.
Sure or, - "something to that effect", aye?
Calm down Sam; - Paul is not the boogie man, he's simply a misguided isolationist.
Have you ever seen or read Paul before the debate?
You never know. We still have over a yr until things really heats up. All we can do is stay tuned.
Wow, you support an Al-Queda lover.
But as I understand Congressman Paul’s position, he does not want to “do the job and get out.” He wants to just “get out”, whether our enemies are in Iraq and Afghanistan or not. Please correct me if I am wrong. Was Ron Paul in favor of either the invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan?
He voted to go into Afghanistan but wanted a formal declaration of war instead of the “irresolution” we got from congress to go enforce the UN mandates... so we did not go to war with will to win and come home. We invaded with no clear purpose but to enforce the UN resolutions and depose Saddam. I guess, since Bush declared victory the day after we captured Saddam that we should have our folks home already.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.