News and Current Events
From today's Wall Street Journal Political Diary, 2/13:
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Who will rally the libertarians?
It's a sign that some Republican primary voters are dissatisfied
with the current field of presidential candidates. Economist Walter
Williams, who often substitutes for Rush Limbaugh, has found himself
the object of a committee drafting him for president. Of all things,
it's headed by a cartoon duck.
It's true. The comic strip "Mallard Fillmore," which is drawn by
Bruce Tinsley, has used several installments to urge the 70-year-old
George Mason University professor to run for president. The
outspoken Mr. Williams has been flooded with e-mails and phone calls
from enthusiastic boosters.
For his part, Mr. Williams agrees that career politicians have
disappointed conservatives. "I personally think that if we chose the
president of the United States at random, we'd get a better
president than any president since Ronald Reagan," Mr. Williams told
the Washington Times.
Mr. Williams is flattered by the attention but says he already has a
candidate: Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas congressman and former 1988
Libertarian Party presidential nominee, who recently announced he is
forming an exploratory committee for president. Mr. Williams is
under no illusion that Mr. Paul is likely to win but he says Mr.
Paul's presence in the debates would be refreshing. "If the framers
of the Constitution were somehow to come back, Ron Paul is one of
possibly only three people in Congress that they'd even talk to," he
says.
The 71-year-old Mr. Paul, a physician, has been in and out of
Congress since 1976 when he was one of only four GOP House members
to endorse Ronald Reagan's challenge of President Gerald Ford. He
has assembled an army of 15,000 individual donors across the nation
who endorse his unwavering support for the flat tax, his call for a
radical reform of the Food and Drug Administration and his hostility
to overseas military conflicts like the war in Iraq and his
disapproval of any and all federal trampling of states rights.
Michael Barone, co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, once
noted in a profile of Dr. Paul that his agenda has marked him as
an "oddball." He concluded: "Of course, in Rep. Paul's view, it's
the rest of the nation's politicians, with their devotion to an
inherently inflationary currency and self-defeating government
programs, who are the oddballs."
-- John Fund
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3 comments:
If Mr. Williams is for Ron Paul, then what better than for Mr Walt Williams to run as his running mate!?
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Come see what's happening for Ron Paul for prez!! :) :)
Here are more appearances and articles for your blog.
US Congressman Ron Paul wows crowd of 150 in NH
Pembroke, New Hampshire
Saturday, February 24, 2007
US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul was still receiving applause as he walked out the door of a private home in Pembroke, NH on Saturday evening after speaking to 150 supporters who donated over $14,000 to seed his bid for the presidency. Paul arrived at 9 PM and stayed to mingle with the adoring crowd until 11:30 PM as they drank coffee and dipped fruit from a large arrangement into a chocolate fountain.
While visiting New Hampshire on a presidential exploratory trip, he also appeared at the NH Liberty Forum in Concord, where he had been endorsed for the presidency on the Friday evening before by former Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.
Paul’s speech at the private reception, which was recorded professionally by California filmmaker Bill Dumas, centered around the financial state of the country, the war in Iraq, and the limited roll of government, and was met with long bouts of applause by the standing-room only crowd.
Supporters believe that Paul’s message can unite fiscal conservatives, republicans, libertarians, constitutionalists, and others who are disillusioned with the direction in which the country is headed, in the cause of less government and reasonable spending and on getting the country back on track with regard to foreign policy.
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US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul has breakfast in NH
Manchester, NH
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Note: The Coalition of NH Taxpayers, NH’s largest taxpayer advocacy and government watchdog group, likes to meet one-on-one with candidates and those exploring the possibility of becoming candidates and endeavors to introduce them to the people in the ‘grassroots’. Ed Naile is their Chairman and he had breakfast with US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul on Saturday morning. Dr. Paul was in NH appearing at the NH Liberty Forum in Concord where he gave the closing speech on Sunday the 25th.
Ed writes:
I had about an hour and a half breakfast with Texas Congressman Ron Paul at the Merrimack Diner in Manchester yesterday morning. Some old friends from past campaigns were there as well. About a dozen of us. No press.
Congressman Ron Paul is legendary among many libertarian-leaning Republican conservatives and libertarians in general. He is a living, breathing, elected, example of what our Founding Fathers had in mind for limited government. From speaking with him I think he realizes that the march FORWARD to the time in our past when US citizens had so much more freedom is going to be long one.
He seems to agree with what I believe could be the starting point of that return to less government, and that would be a financial crisis created by our dependence on foreign banks to float our economy. Many voters pay little attention to our dollar’s value. The ones that do pay close attention to Congressman Paul.
Later in the day he was shown a grand evening at a private residence with about 150 people attending. It was set up with the help of one of our CNHT Directors. You won’t see much in the press about it, but 150 is quite a large crowd for a Congressman this early in the campaign. Enough to make some of his issues part of the debate on the Republican side, I would say.
Here are some of his core principals:
- Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
- Property should be owned by people, not government.
- All voluntary associations should be permissible — economic and social.
- The government’s monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary unit, not participate in fraud.
- Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.
- The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government’s.
Congressman Ron Paul is also pro-life and pro-family. Note that is pro-life stand includes ending capital punishment and unnecessary war.
He is for returning to the gold standard.
100% tax fighter! He gets awards consistently from national groups for his anti-tax/big government votes.
Congressman Paul holds an anti-intervention view of foreign military involvement with a provision for hunting down and dealing with terrorists on an individual level.
He is not your average US Congressman by any standard, and a close look at his votes will always stir an interesting debate.
***
Note: This is not an official Ron Paul press release but news from NH grassroots supporters.
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http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2007022601010
Pres. hopeful warns of economic doomsday
By Michael Coburn
Published on Monday, February 26, 2007
Likely presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, warned of an impending collapse of the U.S. economy during a fireside chat at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity Saturday.
Paul represents the libertarian wing of the Republican party and was known as "Doctor No" for his opposition to government spending bills and his votes against most forms of government regulation. Some of Paul's chief goals are the abolishment of the income tax and the IRS and the gradual replacement of the Federal Reserve by the gold standard.
Paul used the chat as an opportunity to warn the audience about what he called the "grave state" of the American economy. According to Paul, Congress simply does not have enough revenue to finance the government's programs, and is forced to borrow and use the Federal Reserve to print enough money to keep the government afloat.
"If we collected all the taxes we needed today, our system would collapse." Paul said. "We delay payment to delay the crash. We borrow almost $3 billion a day to pay for what we have created."
As a libertarian, Paul has frequently butted heads with the Republican leadership.
"There are two parties in Congress right now," Paul said. "Big government conservatives and big government liberals. The only difference is what they want to spend money on."
Perhaps the most obvious issue where Paul disagrees with Republican leadership is the war in Iraq. Paul was one of the only Republicans to vote against the Iraq War resolution, and believed that the maintenance of the "American Empire" overseas was no longer financially feasible.
He also warned against America's continued war-mongering with countries such as Iran and said he believes that the issue was of particular importance to young people because they are the ones who would be drafted should such a war occur. To highlight his point he talked about his own experience with the draft.
"I like to tell people that I was a volunteer and served five years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War." Paul said. "The truth is I got a notice saying that you could be drafted and be a private in the front lines or you could volunteer to be a captain and practice medicine. I immediately volunteered."
Paul said that as a college student at Gettysburg College he had never been very involved in politics. He graduated and pursued a career of medicine as an obstetrician in Galveston, Texas. It was only after he had read the works of the free-market writers of the Austrian School of economics that he began to develop an interest in politics and decided to run for representative in 1976.
"When I told my wife that I was going to run," Paul said. "She told me 'it's dangerous,' and I said, 'Why's that?'" Paul recounted. His wife's response? "You might get elected."
Paul did not think he would win as a Republican because Texas was a heavily Democratic state at the time, but he wanted to help educate the people.
"I want to talk bluntly about our monetary policy, and how it related to war, welfare and foreign policy." Paul said. "Monetary policy is the vehicle for financing what you want to do."
Paul, however, did win the election and although his views are still a minority in his own party, Paul has hope in the future of libertarianism.
"There's enthusiasm for the freedom movement," Paul said. "It's spreading not through the government or universities but through the Internet. Our numbers are now growing by leaps and bounds. The question is will we accept these principles soon or will government collapse, or will both happen at once."
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