Probably the funniest bit of political commentary all year is right here
That's Paul's essential argument. His solution: allow competing currencies.
If individuals want to circulate gold or silver coins (or scrip backed by metal reserves), let them. Give citizens the chance to decide which money they trust.
The owners of NORFED, an Indiana coin company, gave it a shot. The company minted and sold thousands of silver Ron Paul dollars, complete with the candidate's face in profile, before federal agents showed up in November and confiscated their entire remaining inventory. In its affidavit for a search warrant, the FBI accused NORFED of trying to "undermine the United States government's financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency for the purpose of repealing the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code." That may be a crime, but it's also pretty close to Ron Paul's stump speech.
...about Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. Except I'm leaning even more towards Paul because he was the only candidate to vocally oppose preemptively nuking Iran in the June Republican debate. The only real problem I have with Paul is that he's a little too isolationist for my taste (though admittedly, the absurdity of nearly every single foreign policy statement from both parties' candidates gives Paul's position more and more credibility).
I'm glad to see the Democrats taking up the concerns of the working class, but they remain the party of The Unlimited Abortion License and the Unrestrained, Government-subsidized Libido. The Republicans, on the other hand, can't decide whether they want to be the party of Pillage and Burn Capitalism or the party of Killing All the Damn Arabs We Can. Paul is the only candidate who avoids both of the unconscionable extremes. That doesn't mean I favor legalizing prostitution or that I'm a gold-standard fanatic*, but the harm Paul can do where I disagree with him is far outweighed by the fact that voting for him doesn't mean I have to determine which is "better": nuking Persia or the more than one thousand abortions permitted in our country every day.
* - Even here, I think most people don't understand Paul's position -- he doesn't say the gold standard is the single best money we can have, but that we should have our government backed by something besides... er.... nothing, and that unless we amend the constitution, that something has to be gold or silver.
- Wired - "How a Fringe Politician Took Over the Web
- Interviewed at length by Tom Ashbrook on On Point. If you want to know more about Ron Paul, start here.
Some gems:
Ashbrook: Congressman, what about it? You say, "No Department of Education," "No Department of Homeland Security," "No Department of Energy," "No" to abortion, "No" to gun control... "No" to immigration reform. You are Dr. No.
Paul: Well, I'm Dr. Yes for the constitution and I'm Dr. Yes for liberty... I approach all of those positions through the Constitution because it's the only oath I take... So I see no place in the constitution for the department of education. I also see that it's not doing a very good job.
Later...
"...Containment has worked before. We stood down the Soviets with 40,000 nuclear weapons... We didn't have to fight them. But here we're going after countries with nuclear weapons and they don't even have nuclear weapons."
The American Conservative has two pieces on Congressman Paul this week: Michael Brendan Dougherty has a very favourable profile while Kara Hopkins zeros in on the Paul/Giuliani spat from the Republican presidential debate and on the shameful way Paul has been treated since.
other Paul sightings:
Also, Catholics for Ron Paul is up and running.
I'm not quite on the Paul bandwagon, but he gets more appealing every day.
