From the Mail Bag

tngal

don’t they? They lose their focus and and become blithering idiots.

Someone needs to herd them all into a corner, hand them some crayons and pass them their meds.

acat

and at best some will learn how to articulate more complex ideas and become conservatives.

I’m expecting a mix of both. In either case, crayons and meds are an unnecessary expense.

Mew

Wubbies World

Loony Tune Crazies have to find a ‘demon’ to blame for their misery. They have to use conspiracies to rationalize it all. I guess that reality is too hard to handle for them.

Sad

aesthete

are responsible for our current maladies, then life will continue to be hard for you.

notpropagandized

Rand Paul endorsed Romney, Ron Paul’s good friend last night on Hannity! So now Rand and Ron …. are they, … gulp, … liberals?

aesthete

The jury is still out on Ron.

funwithknives

gotten something that needs a salve put on it.

Maybe the *Bilderbergers,and Associates* gave him an advance copy of A Really Itchy Rash.

…and that well-crafted prose…!

tnfriendofcoal101368

is when they start eating the Crayons and coloring with the meds.

http://boldcolor.blogspot.com/ Paula

NT

Finrod

“Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.”

http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

one of his best.

drohan00

I broadly agree with Erick’s assessment. I do however like much of Ron Paul’s economic message. And I know a lot of Iraq and Afghanistan vets who support his foreign policy as well.

Ron Paul does sound sorta kooky at times, but I really like him, and he has a way of connecting with the youth in the country. For which I think we should be thankful. He is bringing the broadly conservative economic message to the mass of otherwise leftist brainwashed mass of students. We should credit him for that.

I also think we should understand that we need to finish the point Ron Paul is making. He has many energized about freedom for the first time in many years. These young people are going to be the important link that keeps our movement going into the next generation. Now we need to embrace them and remind these young folks energized by freedom, that freedom also requires responsibility.

I also think that a healthy skepticism regarding the Bilderbergers et cetera is not so bad. I am concerned any time that number of powerful people meet in secret, which I admit they have the right to do. But all we need to do is hold their feet to the fire on some of their more odd internationalist ideas. However, that doesn’t need to include raving protests or the wearing of tin foil hats.

macwell

I feel sorry for the youth of today being robbed of such great wisdom as the past.

avgjo

went to the GOP state convention as an alternate delegate a week ago.

They acted like animals. I got into an argument with several of them; I made the mistake of trying to reason with them, telling them that they’d do their cause much more good if they’d act mature and play by the rules. When one of their own got hurt (an elderly man), instead of checking on him, they took pictures of him; apparently, he was just a prop to his own kind.

Before, I thought that a number of them were harmless weedheads possessed of kookily extreme libertarian notions.

Now, I know every one of them is the political equivalent of a rabid animal.

http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

But I’m not grateful.

http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

They’re already there. They’ve already been there.

If you go to the big Ron Paul sites, they’re all going off on how Dennis Kucinich is the REAL successor to Ron Paul.

acat

Let the dems figure out what to do with the Paultards.

(gleefully rubs paws together, waits for paultards to further infest Daily Kos..)

Mew

hobarticus

That’s how many Ron Paul primary voters voted Republican in the 2008 general. If he really was interested in bringing young libertarians into the Republican fold, that would be awesome.

You would have to wonder, though: why is that number not higher?

Personally, I don’t think he is interested in furthering the Republican party at all, just his own idiosyncratic message. He can always prove me wrong, though, by sincerely going to bat for Mitt after primaries are over.

Bill S

.

tnfriendofcoal101368

Wow, I commend you for your patience and forbearance.

mikeymike143

and your experience with them is just one of the many reasons that i say that.

mikeymike143

paubots are the bottom feeders of society anyway, so they will feel right at home with the far left wing of the democratic party

trimulchio

but seem to often lack context. They also seem to believe their own publicity.

I support their attempt to get Ron Paul delegates into the convention, the rules allow for it and if there were going to be a contested convention it would be good ploitics . . . but there won’t be a contested convention.

At best, they may stiffen Gov. Romney’s spine on economic issues.

acat

They’re poseurs, they want to look smart by throwing around big terms like “Austrian school economist” and “gold standard” .. but when you try to pin 90% of the paulistinians down on what these terms mean or would be practically implemented … you get a 2nd grader’s understanding of E=MCsquared.

Mew

http://libertynews.com/ mbecker908

They just think they are.

And my hope would be – and it won’t happen – that none of his delegates would be seated and he should not be allowed to speak.

Ron Paul is a raving loon. His “supporters” are worse.

runner12

Here is a man who I do believe loves the Constitution and has a few good ideas when it comes to economic policies. But his foreign policy beliefs, his acceptance of earmarks, and his questionable associations in the past make him unacceptable as a candidate.

Unfortunately, his supporters only focus on his few positive attributes, while being totally unwilling to discuss his problematic negatives. This kind of blind allegiance is more cult-of-personality in nature. This, coupled with their reactions when anyone attempts to engage in any form of debate with them, has earned them the reputation they now possess.

I would even venture to say that some of his supporters are not even fully aware of some of his problematic negatives (ie, earmarks).

aesthete

We have a winner for most accurate commentary regarding RP and his fans on RS.

‘becker gets runner up prize for his consistently devastating and hilarious commentary on the subject.

Melody Warbington (rwm52)

There are a more than a few RP fans in our tea party, and after several discussions with a very nice man who is very active with our tea party and local GOP, he asked why I knew more about RP than he did (thanks, redstate). He was unaware of many of RP’s associations. Unfortunately, now that he knows, he’s chosen to ignore them or is believing the spin.

Dave_A

His economic policy can be summed up in 3 words: Destroy America Now.

His foreign policy comes down to the same ideals…

The problem, is that his cult is too IGNORANT to understand what the policies they are supporting would do to THEM – not to ‘Americans’ but to his own supporters, who are by-and large middle class citizens with more debt than cash & a huge stake in the continuation of the US economy.

Sure, Paul has his die-hards, like the guy up here in WA with the bunker… The ones who hoard ammo & gold for ‘the coming revolution’…

But most of his supporters are socially liberal college kids who understand ‘Socialism BAD’ but don’t quite know enough about capitalism & economics to know disastrous policies when they hear them…

That’s why they say things like ‘he has good ideas when it comes to economic policies’ – because they don’t know how BAD his economic policies are – specifically in the area of monetary policy.

In a sense, it’s not completely their fault – no one ever bothers to teach econ in school, which leaves these kids at the mercy of the cracker-jack crap they stumble upon on the internet – without enough background knowledge to know that just because it’s on YouTube doesn’t make it true.

Universal education in economics, with Milton Friedman’s videos & an explanation of modern Monetarist economics would wipe out the Paul movement in 4 years.

runner12

No text

runner12

I was referring to are his criticisms of the Federal Reserve. His overall economic policies I will admit to not being knowledgeable enough to engage in a substantive debate.

Economics and its’ theories are not my expertise, and I only have a cursory understanding of them.

runner12

experience with Ron Paul supporters as well. Whom, by the way have all been 40+ years of age. I have not run into college-age supporters, unless you count driving by a few bumper stickers on the road.

runner12

To clarify, I meant some of his criticisms of the Fed. The return to the gold standard of yesteryear would be “nice”, but I do not think is in any way feasible nor practical.

Dave_A

Paul’s criticisms of the Federal Reserve ARE the exact problem I was talking about.

Plus you say a ‘gold standard would be nice’…

You illustrate the very ignorance that fuels the Paul movement.

A gold standard is ECONOMIC DEATH, as is abolishing or restricting the Federal Reserve.

What you don’t understand, is that going to a gold standard, or taking away the Federal Reserve’s power to control the money supply and giving it to Congress would both DESTROY the US Dollar.

A gold standard would make dollars so rare that no one would be able to use them as money – they’d become artifacts to be hoarded, not a medium of exchange to be spent.

The Congress – the sole archetects of the 2008 crisis – is incapable of balancing it’s budget, much less managing the US money supply.

Here are the economic FACTS that Paul’s economics runs afoul of

1) You cannot have BOTH ‘hard money’/low-inflation and a society with high personal and business debt.

2) You cannot have a prosperous economy without easily available credit

3) You cannot have easily available credit on a gold-standard or an insufficient money-supply (Paul’s goal in abolishing the FED is to saddle the US with an insufficient money supply).

4) In a society with high levels of personal and corporate fixed-rate debt, Inflation that is close to the rate of GDP growth is GOOD , not BAD.

5) Deflation – Ron Paul’s desired economic condition – is only ‘good for’ one thing: Destroying nations and bankrupting their populations.

Dave_A

6) You cannot have a vibrant and innovative economy without easy and free access to credit for those persons and businesses who lenders find capable of repaying their debts.

The ideology Ron follows sees credit as evil, and seeks to punish Americans for utilizing it.

The end result of his economic ideology is a nation-destroying crash, and a feudal confederation with gold-horarders on top (eg, recreating the pre-1865 South, but without African slavery – just slavery to your family name/trade)…

Dave_A

If they ignore that Ron wants to bankrupt them personally to ‘teach America a lesson’…

Then they’re as lost as an Obama voter, and you just have to wait for them to grow up….

1stRichard

This problem extends down to the roots of the Tea Party, this constant focus on every conspiracy out there from the Bilderbergers to Birthers. Their chances of doing anything constructive are the same as Ron Paul becoming president and I must measure their worth by this. If I could find some measure of worth that out weighs the negative then they should have a corner in the big tent, I have yet to find anything of value.

http://www.powersnotdelegated.com Rodney Page

…how they get the reputation as nut cases. Blind loyalty and conspiracy-centric thinking ain’t a good combination.

bbjaylive

,”He has good ideas when it comes to economic policies.” His cult thought he could do no wrong.

Second, I’ve watched a lot of Friedman’s videos on YouTube, and the viewers appear to be either people who were mostly attracted to Friedman’s libertarianism and forget or deny that he was against a gold standard or that he would probably be in favour of QE, OR they would be rabid Austro-anarcho-capitalists who think Friedman was a socialist.

runner12

reason. As in, it was a somewhat sarcastic commentary on the desire for some to return to the days of yesteryear. In other words, while it might be a nice sentiment to want to return to the simpler times of the past when gold reigned supreme, it cannot be done for some of the reasons stated above.

One question though, don’t you think the Fed needs to be investigated and reformed? At least audited? This is no some loony Paul theory. Corruption has become a stape in D.C. To pretend the Fed has not been compromised would be foolish and naive.

acat

yearly internal audits.

The results of these are certainly available to a long-term congresscritter on the relevant committee.

This cat concludes that either Paul has seen the results and knows there’s a fire but for some reason can’t *leak* the results … which is rather unlikely, or Paul has seen the results and knows he’s just tilting at a windmill.

Yes, I’m assuming – in the absolute absence of real evidence to the contrary – that the existing audit procedures have kept the Fed from being corrupt to the point where it’s failing in its’ job.

Mew

Dave_A

Any more than JPMC does, or any other bank.

Paul’s ‘audit’ is a ruse for Congress to sieze control of a semi-private (originally supposed to be 100% private, before the Democrats got involved) institution specifically DESIGNED to be outside the reach of Congress by wiser men than those we now elect.

There’s absolutely no evidence of corruption at the FED – they are doing their job perfectly – our monetary policy is aligned with the interests of our debt-laden, non-saving citizenry (note: I didn’t say government)….

The fact that people who don’t ‘get’ economics flap their arms & scream about hyperinflation (which is impossible for a bank like the FED to cause, btw – only Congress & the President can do that – and it’s done by NON-ECONOMIC actions like losing a war or seizing private property) doesn’t change the facts on the ground…

A nation where the PRIVATE CITIZENRY refuses to save and borrows multiple times their annual income can NEVER have a sub-1% inflation economy.

And NO NATION can survive prolonged NEGATIVE INFLATION (eg deflation).

Now, if the FED were pursuing a ‘strong dollar’ policy, then it would be time for heads to roll – because it would seem in that case, that they are acting against the interests of US citizens & businesses

kowalski

‘Lex Jones knows the *real* whackos meet at 1 degree and 359. They tend to congregate there.

Onward through the chaos, Erick.

I give you once again Lenora Fulani.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenora_Fulani

And I also give you the Muslim Brotherhood 9/11 Truthers

http://infowarrior.infowars.com/

Oh, wait, that was Jason Bermas. Here’s the Muslim Bro:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/21/911-truther-leading-egyptian-presidential-race/

What’s the difference between Jason Bermas and the Muslim Brotherhood? Production values and Manchester, NH.

Dave_A

Weather he really gets all the ways his father is nutzo…

-or-

Weather he believes the same insanity, but hides it better…

My vote is for #2.

kowalski

The other day on Drudge in an article discussing politics. I had drawn it myself several times in the past ten years but never got it published in Forbes. The author made his bones at Antioch and it had the left and right wing in a circle with the two separated by about 5 degrees at the top of the circle. I didn’t need to go to Antioch to know that, it was obvious at the law school I used to work for.

Ahhh……here it is, sorry I had to look it up. It was in Forbes, linked to by Drudge:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/06/02/obama-gets-left-behind/3/

It took a professor at Antioch to draw that crappy little graph, which anyone with some sense has known from the beginning. The original article was by Kenneth “What’s the Frequency?” Rapoza at Forbes.

—————–>

That was my liberal school. One adjunct professor with environmental activist blood in her veins, and whose name I cannot remember, explained to me how the left was like the right.

<—————

'Lex Jones is one lefty/righty kind of guy. He's right there at the top of the circle.

kowalski

It also helps explain why Chomsky has good words to say about Ron Paul on Amy Goodman’s show.

It’s very clear. People who don’t understand it don’t understand the way politics really *IS*.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVp8tnbdCAw

Chomsky is neither left nor right. He’s an anarcho-syndicalist as I was.

acat

What I’m looking for is what Rand does once he’s – and it’s inevitable – in the Senate leadership.

I am prepared to argue “innocent until proven bat-{guano} crazy”.

Mew

kowalski

I’ve thought about starting a parody site that would just take whatever Alex Jones’ headlines were and them into coffee mugs that people could buy, like:

“These beans are from Bohemian Grove”

“Bilderbergers, Inc.”

“Me and the Joooooos. Watch out for the Drones.”

Actually, the best thing to do would be to start a new fast food chain:

“Build-A-Burgers”

“Here at Build A Burgers, you don’t have to worry about the Burger Elitists. We cook the best Burgers right there in front of you on our state-of-the-art grills, and we even fry them if you’d like. You can choose from standard Beef burgers or soy-beef Vegetarian/Vegan burgers with a wide choice of toppings. There aren’t any secret societies deciding what you can put on your Burgers, here. We have everything from locally grown Jalapeno toppings, fresh tomatos and every vegetable topping you want the world to know about, along with eight different kinds of cheeses you can order on your Build-A-Burger. You can start with a kiddie size, 1/4 pound, 1/3rd pound, 1/2 pound, a full pound, and even our Super Secret Special Burger, which we bring out to your table in any size you want, delivered by associates Dressed in Black.”

“And our side dishes here at Build-A-Burger are even more special, but not just for the elite. We have everything from kale to potato pancakes, from boiled asparagus to plain old kettle chips with sour cream and onion. We even have the Mexicans covered with authentic corn tortilla wrapped enchiladas as a side. Nothing is elitist at Build-A-Burger’s, we’re all working like Royalty so you can have the best meal ever.”

acat

or CafePress or one of the other “small-batch silk screen” outfits.

A tee-shirt with that picture of a giant Dagwood of a hamburger Becker posts every now and then on the back, and “Build A Burger, the secret’s in the sauce” on the front pocket …

Mew

runner12

That would place it outside the hands of Paul and others (which would be a reform).

To be clear, when I am speaking of Fed reforms, I am not speaking of the ones that Paul advocates. I am speaking of some of the common sense suggestions made by other Conservatives.

In other words, returning the Fed (like other government agencies) back to the Founders orginal intent is the kind of reform I would support.

aesthete

if he understands *all* of the problems with his father’s policy positions, nearly as much as I care about him 1) being able to prioritize, and 2) being his own man. So far, so good — and as long as he continues to prioritize issues that I agree with him on, and act as a counterweight against bad policy, I’ll support him. He’s certainly better than the establishment hack he was running against, I’ll say that much.

aesthete

Increased transparency is not. The Fed was much more transparent in the 70s (almost all meetings were transcribed and released for public consumption; policy goals were made clear, that sort of thing), and the public deserves to know what is being done with the dollar and why.

IMO, the best reform for the Fed would be to require them to reveal their various targets in the form of mission statements which would then be voted on in Congress. Based on that vote, the Fed would either pursue their mission statement or write a new one. In either case, they would have discretion to pursue their targets, but would also have to make all meetings available for public records (same with any deals that they make).

runner12

Fed. Because is certainly has not prevented corruption, mismanagement of funds, etc. within the other government agencies.

I would not put it past Paul to withold results that would keep him from beating the same drum. Sometimes when I hear him speak on tv, it is as if he is repeating the same talking points over and over to keep up the cult-of-personality type following he has. It is annoying.

acat

but yeah, the Fed used to use more sunlight (as aesthete describes in his reply, the meeting notes were available to the public) than they do now .. and I think it’s no coincidence that the decrease in sunlight follows an increase in Congressional oversight.

Mew

runner12

This is the kind of change at the Fed I was speaking of that I wouls support. I was just not doing a good job of articulating it.

aesthete

It’s about accountability.

If we don’t know what the Fed is doing with our money, then it is difficult for voters to make informed choices.

The audit, while essentially useless, is an attempt to publicize data about the Fed which is being kept secret for reasons which run counter to the public interest. Personally, I would rather impose various transparency requirements in exchange for continuing the Fed’s charter and privileged position.

runner12

I had forgotten that it was created in the early 1900′s. But did not one of the Founders propose or suggest something similar back in the day? I am trying to remember.

Another question comes to mind. Is the late creation date of the Fed why some people question its’ Constitutionality?

runner12

Now I know why some conservatives oppose it. Leave it to the Congresscritters to try to use something as simple as an audit to try and control and get their hands on something.

acat

Remember, it’s rather different from the TSA … there aren’t the same kind of low-level Fed flunkies.

(and no, not having a “gold standard” is not an indication of corruption)

See my note below – aesthete reminded me that the Fed used to use more sunlight – they used to release the notes of the meetings of the Fed Chairmen.

It’s ironic that the amount of sunlight has decreased as congressional oversight has increased, no?

Mew

aesthete

They were chartered banks which were more closely tied to Congress (i.e., they were not private or independent, but part of the federal government). They were rather unpopular, however, and eventually both banks lost their charters and what followed was a period of free and state-chartered banking which was widely blamed for a series of short but harsh recessions between the 1830s and the 1900s.

The Constitutionality question is, I think, silly: the question about the Constitutionality of the First and Second Banks was resolved very early on, and the Fed is a subset of central banking powers.

acat

Give me 48 hours and I can probably find you a flat-earther. I only try to understand why people believe stuff that isn’t true when I’m bored, eh?

There were earlier “national banks”, but I believe – and I’m very outside my area here – there was a repeat problem with the national banks being too much under the government’s thumb. The Fed was set up to be quite independent .. and it has overall worked.

Let’s put it another way. Imagine the Fed if Dodd, Frank, and Paul had additional control over it. The thing either has to be independent of the idiots who would use it to fund their voter plantations, or it has to not exist.

Mew

runner12

I had always wondered why people would question the Constitutionality of the Fed. It did not appear to make much sense to me.

Thanks for the history lesson on the Fed and its’ predecessors. I learned something new today. I feel that I can debate a little better with those who bring up Ron Paul-type arguments about the Fed.

trimulchio

know are numerous honors graduates of top-flight national engineering schools and liberal arts colleges. While this is anecdotal, I would venture to say it probably applies to the Paulists you know as well. It does seem to be a “Children’s Crusade,” but it is a deeper problem when bright people can suspend disbelief like this.

People are scared and want a savior. Dr. Paul is a benign figure for this sort of thing, when you consider who has answered this kind of call in the past.

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

From the Mail Bag

COMMENTS

ALL

COMMENTS

POPULAR

#RSRH

PICK YOUR STATE & GET LOCAL