THEY were right, maybe Ron Paul Can't Win..

at least you are setting up delusional excuses ahead of time. good work on the forethought.

The implication of your statement, ..specifically "setting up delusional excuses" tells me you have NO idea how the game really works.

Right from the outset Ron Paul has said that even if the primary goal is not attained, the secondary goal of injecting real issues and solutions will have been.

It's a rigged game, but as I said, win, or lose, he'll win just for showing up and pushing REAL issues and REAL solutions into the consciousness of America.

i wouldn't call it delusional . Hacking the gibson seems like an inevitability.

Voting should be mandatory with color tattoo on forehead

I've been watching the media talk about him the last few days.

Boy, he really is shaking up the people in power for sure.

They keep saying over and over and over that he wants to "legalize drugs" and "close all of our army bases in Germany and Japan, etc."
And then they say that is "out there"

What exactly is "out there"? Legalizing drugs means personal freedom. It's not the govt.'s place to command it's citizens around like puppets and tell us what we can put in our own body.
And I am also in agreement that we need to stop occupying every country in the world with our military. We aren't supposed to be doing that. It costs a fortune. It makes everybody hate us. And history shows that every time a country tries to be an "empire" it ends up with the offending country broke and destitute.

Which is exactly where we are heading.

STOP IT, you're making too much sense

Also, the DRUG WAR = MOST RACIST CAMPAIGN ever. It has destroyed more lives than lynching. Destroys communities.

Simply put, the "DRUG PROBLEM" is a HEALTH ISSUE not a crime issue.

Ron Paul, despite the BS newsletter slam against him, is probably the most ANTI-RACIST politician running because he is for ENDING the worthless drug war.

I agree with that statement.

Also keep in mind that most people who use drugs recreationally are NOT "addicts". Just like most people who like to get drunk on the weekend are not "alcoholics".

All the money spent and lives being ruined (talking about the people who don't have a "problem" but got arrested with a bag of coke or weed on a Friday night by the Gestapo...er, I mean cops).

What good does it really do society to arrest Willie Nelson for smoking pot? Or the 19 year old guy in college who gets arrested for an eight ball?
It's crazy in my opinion. And it probably is 100% related to the multi-billion dollar prison industry more than anything else.

I don't follow the Republican party (or the other party either for that matter) and I don't pay attention until they've figured out who's running. I really don't care either way.

With that said, why don't we start closing our bases down? I'm former military myself, third generation, but do we really need bases in Germany and Japan? Korea? Spain? Italy? Do we really need so many bases?

And then... I don't smoke pot myself, but for the love of god why is it illegal? Make it legal and tax it - Less people in prison and more money in taxes. Win win!

As Bill Maher said: We need those bases in Germany just in case The Soviet Union attacks us in 1957

anyone with any political power that would lose out heavily if pot were to be legalized?

Exactly. Such a huge drain on the economy. Instead of capital being invested in military industries, that capital can go to other ventures which can create more jobs. Not all bases need to go but if the country is very stable like Germany and Japan, pack them up.

If Ron Paul would win the election and become president he would be just as bad as George W, Obama, and every other president of the past. He's just another corporate puppet putting on a good dance until he's in power, just like everyone else has.

Vote for a new system entirely and don't vote.

That is a very sane and reasonable statement... but the media is acting like it's "outside the mainstream"

But I'll do you one better: Even if they aren't "stable"...who died and made the U.S. into "God" to be able to not only run our lives but the lives of other sovereign nations?

We're going to run out of money soon. And then none of it will even matter anymore. Those politicians in Washington are just sticking their heads in the sand and pretending it's "business as usual" so they can keep spending all this "free money".

Absolutely it does. ..Drug users and low level dealers are fed into the Prison Industrial Complex while the CIA runs plane loads of smack in and out of the country completely immune to any scrutiny or prosecution.

That statement SOUNDS crazy.

But I was living in Miami throughout the 1980's and was there when the CIA got busted bringing in cocaine to help fund the Contra war.

As nuts as it sounds...it really does happen! And it was under President Reagan. So while Nancy Reagan was pushing the "Just Say NO To Drugs" campaign, the Feds were pushing really good cocaine to all the dealers in Miami!

Nice to meet you. Sorry, what planet did you say you were from again?

Fail.

Sounds to me like he nailed it. Of course, we already knew the Paultards would use the excuse of rigged elections the moment his name became an option.

They've been busted time and time again. It's well known now, and drug running is the primary way the CIA funds "off book" operations around the World. They won't risk disclosure of their dark operations by going to congress for funding. Especially when their activities are aimed towards US government actors from time to time.

i can't wait until i go to the polls, & see this message on the diebold machine:

Earth, you know, the planet where not one U.S. president has ever worked for the people and has always worked to further corporate agendas. I guess there are still people who walk around with their eyes closed and fingers in their ears though. Nice to meet you as well

I get that fellow Earthling, but to outright dismiss and label Ron Paul as a "corporate puppet" is going a bit, ..well, off planet.

Ron Paul certainly doesn't dance to the tune of corporate interests. He has a long track record of strict adherence to the Libertarian, and Constitutional principals in which he ascribes to. A "principled" fella, yes. A corporate whore, no.

I see it as the opposite. The govt. milking big corporations for money. From lobbying right on down the line.

Either way it sucks.

But it does seem to me that common sense would dictate that if the govt. (you know the ones who actually make all these laws that control everything) were being run by "big corporations" ...then wouldn't the economy be roaring right now?

Seems to me it would be. That way the "big corporations" would make even more money because consumer spending would be through the roof.

Instead we have the highest corporate tax in the world and pretty much drive them out of the country (God knows if I owned the big cigarette companies I would pull out of the Carolinas and Virginia tomorrow and move the whole operation to South America and tell the U.S. to "fuck off" for all the things the govt. has done to destroy their business).

Seems like if "big corporations" were running the govt., things would be a lot better. lol
Not saying the govt. doesn't panic like they did with the bailouts. But don't forget...when the govt. bailed out the car companies and banks, they practically took them OVER.

Hell, the President actually demanded and got the resignation of the head of GM and then appointed HIS choice for the job!
Is the tail wagging the dog or vice-versa?

When you have the merger of State and Corporate interests, you have Fascism. Under a fascist regime, the corporations conspire with the government to shut down their competition through increased regulation, bureaucratic red tape, sweetheart deals, no bid contracts, and and what not. The corporations then get fatter and fatter with the aid of the government until they knock the little guys out (who are the true growth drivers of the economy). So, ultimately the little guy is left with no business, and much less to spend/reinvest back into the economy.

I just read the definition of Fascism here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

I didn't see anything there about corporations "conspiring" with govt.
I read the govt. TAKING OVER corporations is one small part of a fascist govt., not exactly what you are describing

You may be a bit too intent on looking for ways to prove what you already believe in instead of keeping an open mind about it.

Do giant corporations influence our govt. through money? Hell yes.
But if we didn't allow politicians to have a thousand terms and spend their lives in Washington D.C. taking that money...then the problem wouldn't be there.

Just my opinion. But in the end the govt. is the monster. They are the ones with the power. They are the ones who make the laws. They are the ones who run every detail of your life from what you can and can't do to what you can see, read, and hear.
Think about it.

I hope you're right and I'm dead wrong, I really do. It's just that watching president after president promise change and then screw the American people has made me incredibly pessimistic. It seems with every election we lose a few more freedoms and the gap between incredibly rich and middle class is increased.

Iowa Vote Count at Secret Location

The Iowa GOP will count presidential caucus votes at an undisclosed location, Politico reports. The state party has not yet told the campaigns exactly where the returns will be tabulated -- only that it will be off-site from the party's Des Moines headquarters. "We are not commenting on specific security procedures," said state GOP Chair Matt Strawn.

http://www.drudge.com/news/151873/io...ecret-location

I see reports of corporate profits at all time highs and then reports of employee hiring at all time lows. This seems to suggest that economy is working exactly how they (corporations) want it to. Widen the gap between the mega rich and everyone else.

But, I'm no economist. Just telling it how I see it. Which could be completely wrong.

I don't think he will win because he has very little compassion.

Rather we like this or not, it's needed in the free world.

Not having to pay all those employees and all the benefits and matching their payroll tax (so the govt. can double dip) is part of the reason that SOME corporations are making a killing.

And of course oil companies are just setting prices at any pricepoint they care too.

Bottom line is...so what? If you and I started a company and it went BIG and we started making MASSIVE profits and didn't need a lot of employees to conduct our business...so what? I'd love that.

Why should a corporation hire more people if they don't NEED them? That would be terrible business sense.

And what purpose would the evil corporations have to somehow make all the rest of us poor and/or destroy the economy? Eventually you have to SELL to somebody. And if nobody has money or a job then they can't buy your product and you're fucked.

I don't know what the end game is, I wish that I did. But, if you have all the money, you have all the power, and at that point you don't need customers, you don't even need a product.

Maybe I'm just paranoid

ron paul wont win because ron paul sucks

I think you just described the federal govt.

Here is the list of the top corps in the world:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...ist/index.html

Walmart is number one on that list. They profited 16 billion in a year.
The U.S. govt. SPENDS 10 billion dollars a DAY!

And the govt. has all the money, all the power...and no product.

I'm only paying half attention to what I'm posting here, I have lots going on, but yes, I guess even more appropriately "Corporatism." There are many flavors, everyone seems to have a different definition, and theory and practice always seem to differ.

?Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power?
- Benito Mussolini

Yeah, but didn't Mussolini's idea of "merger" actually mean the Govt. taking it all over? I'm pretty sure that's how he famously made the "trains run on time"

Haha, you're absolutely right. What scares me about the increasing income gap and the ever decreasing freedoms, is this democracy (what's left of it), turning into a dictatorship.

Yeah me too.

I just don't know if there is anything we can do about it.
I'd say "vote"...but the reality is, even if I were to become a politician today and miraculously won the Presidency and went to D.C. to fix shit and make it right...I'd probably see all that money and power and get greedy and do exactly what everybody else has done and are doing in Washington and the country would still be fucked.

I don't know if you've been paying attention but real issues and real solutions have had and will continue to lack any place in this primary.

We use that base in Germany for ALL sort of things and it is, in fact, useful.

A war on drugs is essentially a war against your own people. It's bullshit, promotes organized and violent crime and needs to go.

Maybe I'm a snob, but I still think things like crack, meth and heroin should remain illegal or at the very least heavily regulated.

you can think the war on some drugs is a scam and war sucks and not be a paulbot. this is not an either/ or situation.

An Open Letter to Ron Paul from Michael Rivero

It is one thing to speak of principles and quite another to fight for them.

Dr. Paul

I am but one of the millions of Americans who supported you in 2008 and support you now. We have donated to you, volunteered for you, promoted you, defended you, and in a very real way fought for you. Now may be the time for you to return the favor.

All across Iowa, alarming indicators are rising that those who wish to continue the nation down the path of fascism are preparing to steal the Iowa Caucus from you. We all know you are a gentleman and still believe in the ultimate fairness of our nation, but in this one regard I fear you are being dangerously naive. As the HBO Documentary "Hacking Democracy" illustrates, election fraud, always a reality in the past, is now epidemic across the nation. Iowa has a prior history of vote fraud shenanigans, as shown in 1996 when vote fraud shaved 13% from Pat Buchanan's totals all across the state, tipping the victory to Bob Dole.

As I am fond of telling my radio audience, this election is not a gentlemanly contest. It is a bare-knuckles, knock-down, spit-teeth-in-the-gutter fight for the future of this nation, with a nuclear world war hanging in the balance. Your opponents espouse that God wants this nuclear war waged on the Arab world and the problem with politicians listening to those voices in their head is that they truly believe that lying, cheating, stealing, even assassination is no sin in the furtherance of what they claim is a divine agenda.

Of course, we all hope that the voter turnout for you is so great that cheating will be impossible, and that we are headed for yet another "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment in history. But your sudden decline in the public media polls, with number arrived at through fraudulent means signals an attempt to "pre-sell" your defeat to the more gullible segments of the public. Rumors coming from Chicago, known for political skullduggery, that the Iowa votes will be counted in Illinois rather than Iowa, should send a clear warning signal that fraud is afoot.

Dr. Paul, We The People stand with you. We ask that you stand with us, and if indeed, as appears to be the case, Iowa is stolen from you, then it is time to take off the gloves and fight for those principles which have attracted so much support for you. Because the vote stealers are stealing more than just a victory from you, they are stealing our nation from all of the people. They are stealing a life of peace from our children. They are stealing prosperity from us all. They plan an eternity of war for the world and if they succeed, none of us will ever live to see a time of peace again.

If we do not choose to fight against these people now, we will soon have no choice but to fight for them from now on.

Far more than just your political ambitions are at risk here. If the election is allowed to be stolen, then all we have to look forward to is nuclear war without and violent revolution within.

If Iowa is stolen from you, we need you to be the leader we all know that you are and demand a recount by hand of all ballots.

Michael Rivero

Like what? And if it's so cool to have bases in other countries (at great expense), then why don't other countries have THEIR military stationed in OUR country?

But the way, my brother is stationed there waiting to go to Afghanistan (he was in Iraq the last 2 years). Everything is outsourced...right down to the food and even the base security!

Just spending money like it's a game of freakin' monopoly. lol

Anyway, we have ZERO business being in Germany almost 70 years after WW2 ended.

Your brother is there and they don't know what currently goes on at that base? Not the least of which is top tier medical care for our wounded.

fallacy of the excluded middle

Oh, and Robbie... Foreign troops are stationed here, not just in the same capacity.

Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline established in 1950 and covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Special Activities Division from 1950 to 1976

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America_%28airline%29


TRAFFICKING

The Boom and Bust of the Air America Cocaine Ring.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/bo...he-hangar.html

They also had Intermountain Airlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermountain_Airlines

And currently utilizing

Evergreen International Aviation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergre...ional_Aviation

You are predicating that based on our military fighting wars constantly.

Maybe if we weren't occupying all these countries we wouldn't have to have medical care for our wounded. That's what I'm saying.

We shouldn't be in these countries with our military.
Our own citizens would NEVER stand for another country to station their military troops on OUR soil.

Seriously...think about it. We fought World Wars over that kind of thing, and now here we are doing the same stupid thing that has been done throughout history by failed "empires". And it never ends well.

I don't think we should be "isolationists", because that is impossible anyway in the information age. But we should NOT be trying to rule and lord over other countries because we don't like them.

Jesus...we POUNDED Libya and then turn a blind eye to Syria. The hypocrisy is just unreal.

And we both know the only reason to have bases in Germany and Japan is to allow our military to attack countries in Europe, The Middle East, and Asia whenever our "interests" are threatened.

It's just not right. And it's not supposed to be what America stands for.

And we are BROKE and can't afford this insanity anymore.