Ron Paul and the Libertarians Can Not Be Discounted.

This is by John Zogby in FORBES:

Ron Paul And Libertarians Can't Be Discounted

If the Republican Presidential race were decided on intensity of support, Ron Paul would be the frontrunner. Of course it’s not, so Paul’s constant showing of about 10% in nearly every poll allows the political class to treat him as a fringe candidate.
Whether or not you agree with his libertarian doctrines, he deserves more regard because of the loyalty he draws from his supporters and the importance of their votes. Handicappers will speculate on who will win Paul’s voters when he is forced to drop out. I don’t expect Paul to drop out, or for very many of his supporters to abandon him when the process comes down to the two-person race many anticipate between Mitt Romney and Herman Cain or Rick Perry. Instead, I could see Paul gaining support, especially if Cain’s candidacy is blown up by sexual harassment charges.
Paul is the hero of libertarian voters. He is a physician turned Constitutionalist politician. His first run for President was as a Libertarian in 1988, and ran as a Republican in 2008. Paul has represented a district near Houston that includes Galveston for 12 terms, beginning in 1976 and including two separate breaks in service. He has said he will “never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.” He opposes foreign interventions (Paul voted against the Iraq War Resolution) and favors withdrawal from the UN and NATO. He opposes NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. Paul has pledged never to raise taxes and or vote to approve a budget deficit.
While he has been called “the intellectual Godfather” of the Tea Party movement, he is not the favorite among Tea Party supporters in our IBOPE Zogby polls. Paul’s views on our use of military power may be one reason for that. Instead, Cain is the runaway leader among those who say they are influenced by the Tea Party. Paul’s supporters are more uniquely and proudly libertarian.
Our polling samples usually yield just more than 100 voters who identify their ideology as libertarian. That isn’t sufficient for me to cite specific polling numbers for that subset, but it is enough to give us a sense of what they think about all of the candidates, including our incumbent President.
Libertarians who approve of Barack Obama and believe he deserves re-election are rare. In match-ups with Cain, Romney or Perry, Obama gets less than 10% of libertarians. Those numbers are predictable, but less interesting than the roughly one-third of libertarians who say they would vote for someone else or not vote at all if the race was between Obama and Romney or Perry. That number becomes smaller if Cain opposes Obama.
Those results are from an early October poll, before charges of sexual harassment against Cain. An Oct. 18 poll, also before the Cain accusations, found Paul the expected leader among libertarians, but with Cain not far behind.
There are parallels between Paul and the candidacy of Ralph Nader. Yes, Paul is running as a Republican while Nader ran as an independent or on the Green Party line. But in both cases, the support for Paul and Nader is a rejection of both parties. Don’t expect Paul to endorse one of his GOP rivals, or for it to matter very much to libertarians if he did.
Instead, the Republican nominee must go to the libertarians with proposals that fit their views. Cain would appear to have the least trouble succeeding with them, probably because he comes to the race as a businessman, not a politician. If Romney is indeed the likely nominee, he would need to move even harder to the right to win the trust of libertarians. The risk of doing so might not be worth the reward in a campaign where Obama will present himself as the centrist running to prevent a right wing takeover of Washington.
Paul gets labeled a fringe candidate. But in this era of a closely divided electorate, anyone who commands the allegiance that Paul does from an activist libertarian movement must be accounted for in the political calculus.

POSTED BY TONES IS A LIBERTARIAN

ALIPAC Exposes ADL and SPLC

Contact: Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)
WilliamG@alipac.us, (866) 703-0864

March 26, 2009

ALIPAC is issuing a national advisory to all local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies and officers, along with all DHS Fusion Centers, a warning against any reliance upon faulty and politicized research issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti Defamation League (ADL).

A national scandal emerged in Missouri, after their MIAC Fusion Center issued an eight page document which made many false claims. The documents attempted to politicize police and cast suspicion on millions of Americans. The 'Missouri Documents', as they came to be called, listed over 32 characteristics police should watch for as signs or links to domestic terrorists, which could threaten police officers, court officials, and infrastructure targets.

Police were instructed to look for Americans who were concerned about unemployment, taxes, illegal immigration, gangs, border security, abortion, high costs of living, gun restrictions, FEMA, the IRS, The Federal Reserve, and the North American Union/SPP/North American Community. The 'Missouri Documents' also said potential domestic terrorists might like gun shows, short wave radios, combat movies, movies with white male heroes, Tom Clancey Novels, and Presidential Candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin!

The Southern Poverty Law Center was cited as a research source for the 'Missouri Documents'. Furthermore, the attempt of these documents to cast suspicion of violent and life threatening behavior on millions of Americans who are concerned about these issues is consistent with the regularly released political materials of both the SPLC and ADL.

Since the SPLC was listed as a source in the MIAC Missouri Documents, ALIPAC sent a letter of inquiry to the Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on March 20, 2009 asking for more specific sourcing information.

"When many of us read these Missouri Documents we felt that the false connections, pseudo research, and political attacks found in these documents could have been penned by the SPLC and ADL," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "We were shocked to see credible law enforcement agencies disseminating the same kind of over the top political propaganda distributed by these groups."

Colonel James F. Keathley, Superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a letter of response to ALIPAC and other sources on March 25-26, which states that the Missouri militia documents are being withdrawn, more oversight will be applied to future releases, the Missouri Documents do not meet the high quality standards expected from the MIAC, and that "certain subsets of Missourians will not be singled out inappropriately in these reports for particular associations".

FOX Radio Network is reporting that Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (R-MO) has asked that Missouri Public Safety Director John Britt be placed on administrative leave. The report also says Kinder has issued a public apology to Presidential candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin.

ALIPAC would like to advise all media sources, law enforcement officers and agencies, that the ADL and SPLC are political organizations, with stated political goals and agendas which are contrary to the candidates, political parties, and millions of Americans besmirched by the MIAC documents.

While both the ADL and SPLC actively market themselves and seek roles as advisers to law enforcement and the media, both groups regularly engage in political tactics like those observed in the now withdrawn Missouri Documents. Materials from one or both organizations contributed to this scandal.

"In the past, these groups have served a helpful role in America by providing information about racist and potentially violent groups like the KKK and Neo Nazis," said William Gheen. "Unfortunately, their mission has drifted into political efforts to paint almost any American or group who opposes their broader political agendas as being associated with racist or potentially violent groups just like what we saw in these scandalous MIAC documents in Missouri."

ALIPAC hopes that future scandals can be avoided by issuing this advisory and promoting awareness of the faulty information distributed to police and media in America by the Anti Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center to prevent future scandals of this nature.
_________________
Vox populi vox Dei
Ad majorem Dei gloriam

Rust In Peace

This is an op ed piece that I wrote for my local newspaper when the indoctrinating school board was considering ending the middle school band programs, they are chomping at the bit to get rid of the arts in schools. All politics is local.

RUST IN PEACE

I can remember the nervous pride I felt standing tall in the uniform on the 50 yard line in the Gator Bowl on a Friday night. Hundreds of fans were screaming from the bleachers waving red and white pom poms with excitement and anticipation to see what we were going to pull off this week.

Three very tall, very sharp drum majors in starched white uniforms and ten gallon shakos slowly strutted out of the center of the band, stopping in unison with striking precision. With 400 eyes rivited on the trio, batons raised and up snapped trumpets, trombones, sousaphones, saxophones, piccolos, clarinets, euphoniums,cymbals , snares, and that big old bass drum. With a strong downbeat of the batons we were on the march again!

You see, because of diligent practice under the direction of a band master who spent much more time with us than his paycheck reflected, and hundreds of hours after school, we knew exactly how long that step should be and how many steps it took to get from yard line to yard line. We knew when to pivot, when to rear march, right flank, left flank and when to stop. We knew how to make that football field come to life with circles and boxes, weaving in and out of rank and file, all the while filling the stadium with rousing Sousa marches, familiar classical melodies and this week's favorite pop tune.

Then one day the music died. The children hung up the beautiful uniforms and took off their feathered shakos and put them on the shelf. Into their cases they lovingly placed the trumpets, trombones, sousaphones, saxophones, euphoniums, flutes, piccolos and clarinets. Snares and cymbals were stacked like steadfast soldiers at the back of the band hall while they finally covered up that big old bass drum. The band master who had decided to make music his life, and help children do so as well, took one more look around before he closed the door behind him. You see, someone...up there...had decided that the children really needed another PE, diversity or basket weaving class and there just wouldn't be enough time for band, chorus, art or theatre.

Now, during halftime, the football field is empty as the crowd shuffles to the concession stand to the grinding, redundent beat of the digital mess blaring from the press box as the trumpets, trombones, saxophones, sousaphones, euphoniums, flutes, piccolos and clarinets tarnish alone in their cases.
RUST IN PEACE. (RIP)


agentprovocatur (From my Chap Book "Musology")