Monthly Archives: March 2014

Ron Paul #39;s Texas Straight Talk 3/24/14: US #39;Democracy Promotion #39; Destroys Democracy Overseas
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By: minnesotachris

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Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 3/24/14: US 'Democracy Promotion' Destroys Democracy Overseas - Video

The younger Pauls nationwide organization, which counts more than 200 people, includes new supporters who have previously funded more traditional Republicans, along with longtime libertarian activists. Paul, of Kentucky, has been courting Wall Street titans and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who donated to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, attending elite conclaves in Utah and elsewhere along with other GOP hopefuls.

For the rest of this year, his national teams chief duties will be to take the lead in their respective states in planning fundraisers and meet-ups and helping Pauls Washington-based advisers get a sense of where support is solid and where its not. This is essential in key early primary battlegrounds, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, and in areas rich in GOP donors, such as Dallas and Chicago.

A national leadership team is an important step, and its a critical one for the movement going forward, said Fritz Wenzel, Pauls pollster. Rand has tremendous momentum, and the formation of this team will guide him as he gets closer to a decision and [will] serve as a foundation for a campaign.

A growing number of Republicans have started to consider presidential runs. Aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) are sketching out how possible bids could look and keeping tabs on donors and potential staffer members. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former congressman Rick Santorum (Pa.), a distant runner-up to Romney in the 2012 race for the GOP nomination, have been wooing conservative leaders.

Christie, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were in Las Vegas on Thursday to attend the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition and to talk to Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate who spent more than $92million on the 2012 campaigns.

At this early point, Paul is consistently at or near the top in polling. A CNN/ORC International survey this month found that 16percent of Republicans and independents who lean Republican were likely to support the senator, putting him at the front of the Republican field. Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, was second, at 15percent.

Pauls leadership team is set up as part of Rand Paul Victory, a group that pools donations. It is a joint committee that overlaps the fundraising efforts of Rand PAC, Pauls political action committee, and Rand Paul 2016, his Senate campaign, and his aides describe it as the basis for a presidential campaign.

There are people in every state who have joined Team Paul, with the money people ready to go, said Mallory Factor, a consultant and South Carolina Republican who has worked with Paul to expand the senators footprint.

Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Romney and House Republican leaders, said the development of a national network was a notable moment in pre-primary positioning.

This framework of supporters is an important building block in the architecture required to build a competitive national campaign, Madden said. What looks like just a name is often someone who knows local reporters, has a fundraising network or has an ability or history of organizing party activists.

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Rand Paul building national network, courting mainstream ...

There is rift among libertarians concerning Russia and the recent annexation of Crimea. Alexander McCobin, a co-founder of the group Students for Liberty, co-authored a column for the PanAm Post claiming that Ron Paul is wrong in viewing Crimean actions as a secession.

According to the column, Pauls views are interpreted by many as wholly representative of the libertarian movement. Not so, said McCobin. There are differences of opinion among libertarians, he contended,and Paul is wrong about Crimea.

Make no mistake about it, Crimea was annexed by Russian military force at gunpoint and its supposedly democratic referendum was a farce, McCobin wrote. Besides a suspiciously high voter turnout with legitimate international observers, the referendum gave Crimeans only two choices join Russia now or later.

Only a day later, Daniel Adams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, fired back a response. Adams questioned McCobins characterization of Russian actions as an invasion.

We know what an invasion looks like it's calledshock and aweand it happened eleven years ago this month, in the U.S. illegal invasion of Iraq. It happened fifteen years ago this month over the skies of Serbia, another illegal U.S. attack, he wrote, according to Slate.com.

Students for Liberty spokesman Frederik Roeder told Buzzfeed that its important to condemn what Russias doing.

Seeming to address Adams' attack and dismissing claims that the United States was somehow at fault in the Ukraine crisis, Roeder said, In the Ukrainian case, its obviously not the U.S. government who is the aggressor but the Russian government who have invaded parts of a sovereign nation.

I think a lot of people got confused by this, including Ron Paul and some libertarians who would say, Oh, thats secession, but we did not observe a secession from Crimea, but a military annexation, he added.

While the followers of Ron Paul may believe that all of this is leading up to a war with Russia, McCobin argues that outcome is not inevitable. In his column he praised Ron Pauls son, Sen. Rand Paul, for his position.

In contrast to his father, Senator Rand Paul gets it right by condemning Russian aggression while not subscribing to hawkish calls for military intervention at the same time, he wrote. It is one thing to not intervene; it is another thing to applaud an autocrat for the sake of blaming our own government.

Originally posted here:
Young Libertarians Say Ron Paul Is Wrong About Crimea

This section displays the last 50 news articles that were published.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Hundreds of people packed Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University to hear former presidential candidate, Ron Paul, speak.

He previously announced he will not be running for president in 2016, but he still has plenty of fans. Paul spoke about his political stances, and answers questions from the audience.

His Libertarian views attract a lot of young followers, which was clearly seen at Wednesday's event.

"His message, his word, has always been consistent. And there is no other politician, in our time, that that can be said about, as far as I'm concerned," said Jay Noone, a Ron Paul supporter.

Christopher Smith, another Ron Paul supporter, said, "His message is not dead. He's still out there spreading the message that inspired me to look at things differently. The future is still bright for the liberty movement for sure."

Paul made a previous trip to Central New York in Ithaca in 2012, drawing thousands of supporters.

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Ron Paul draws large crowd at SU's Hendricks Chapel

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Ron Paul and his think tank don't want the U.S. to get embroiled in an overseas war with Russia over its recent annexation of Crimea. That's reasonable. Ron Paul and his think tank suggest that Russia didn't even invade Crimea, really. That's self-blindered hysterical conspiracy theorizin' bull semen.

Dave Weigel over at Slate has the details on a growing libertarian rift regarding how Russia got its new Black Sea appendage. To wit: Ron Paul's recent speeches have been sort of glib about what happened over there. He parroted Russian talking points, praising Crimea's "right to secede" from Ukraine in favor of the big kid on the block. (Paulie shares that perspective with white Southern secessionists here in the States, too.)

Some libertarians think Paul's argument elides a basic truth: Russia invaded Crimea on the thinnest of pretexts, then gamed the entire "self-determination" vote in Crimeawith troops, with organizers, with propagandato tip it absurdly in the Russian bear's favor.

That's all true. You don't have to want a U.S. war with Russia to recognize that Vladimir Putin pulled a greedy despotic land-grab. You can condemn another country's action and still be skeptical whether the U.S. shouldor coulddo anything to change the situation. Just because you have moral qualms about America's great-power counterparts doesn't mean you have to be a neocon.

But that's not ideologically pure, or truthery enough, for "Daniel Adams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity," who wants you to believe that Russia never invaded Crimea, or forced Crimea to vote for Russian integration! That's a neocon "conspiracy theory":

We know what an invasion looks like it's called shock and awe and it happened eleven years ago this month, in the US illegal invasion of Iraq. It happened fifteen years ago this month over the skies of Serbia, another illegal US attack.

If it had happened earlier this month in Crimea would we not have video? Everyone has cell phones these days.

Surely if the referendum had been taken at gunpoint we would have seen evidence of those on the receiving end. Or does the writer wish us to believe that the Russian military rounded up more than 80 percent of the population and forced 93% of those to vote in favor of joining Russia without having to shoot a single Crimean? That sounds like a pretty wild conspiracy theory.

This insane blather speaks to a larger problem with white-guy-dominated libertarianism: It assumes that coercive power only comes from the barrel of a gun, and not from cultural and extra-institutional pressures.

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Ron Paulies Are Batshit Conspiracy Theorists, Chapter 794