For months now, I have had this recurring nightmare: the Bush/Cheney junta figures out how to stay in power. I used to think they’d come up with some version of an our-national-security-is-at-too-high-a-risk-to-permit-elections scenario and refuse to leave, just hanging on to the reins themselves, hunkering down against all critics. That, however, was apparently too big a leap for even these most calloused of neo-Cons to attempt (though I’m not confident the American people couldn’t have been cowed into doing without elections). Now their strategy is apparently to do what a year ago seemed beyond belief: they’ve actually found a candidate to run under their banner who promises to keep the Ship of State on the precise course they’ve steered for the past eight years.

That was certainly a very tough search. Even more incredibly, they managed to find someone to do so that seems capable of doing it with a straight face! There is in my estimation no more straight-faced person in American politics today than John McCain., and after hearing some of his recent public pronouncements, there may be no more boring politician on the American scene than John McCain. The guy seems capable of making even Fred Thompson at his most somnambulant sound comparatively exciting. However, we’ve had yawn-inducing candidates many times before. That is part of the price we pay for Democracy. What is scary about McCain is not that he is capable of putting us to sleep but that he is hell-bent on replicating every blunder of Dubya’s administration…and tacking on a few doozies of his own for good measure.

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Ron Paul won’t quit the race, insisting that actual conservatives have a candidate to vote for at the Convention. He has been smeared as a racist by association, as now seems to be the main way to destroy or attempt to destroy any genuinely reformist politics in America. But his legacy will endure because, as Michael Grunwald points out, he actually represents something honorable:

When his fellow candidates denounced big government, Paul was there to remind them that President Bush and the G.O.P. Congress had shattered spending records and exploded the deficit. When they hailed freedom, Paul asked why they all supported the Patriot Act and other expansions of executive power. And when they called themselves conservatives, Paul asked what was so conservative about sending thousands of young Americans to try to transform the Middle East.

These questions have not and will not go away. At its very best, Iraq, it is now more than apparent, is a decades-long, bankrupting, utopian liberal attempt to build a democratic culture where no such culture has ever existed; and at worst, it is a corrupting, demoralizing cancer on America’s reputation and power in the world.

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Republican presumptive nominee John McCain has ignored official campaign expenditure limits and has overspent millions in the primary.

According to spending reports filed last week by McCain’s campaign, the Arizona senator has broken the limits set by the presidential public financing system.

Candidates such as McCain, who have committed to public financing, are only allowed to spend up to $54 million on the primary. McCain, however, spent $58.4 million.

This is while lawyers of the 71-year-old senator contend that the spending cap does not apply in the current situation.

They allege since the Republican hopeful announced after February 6’s Super Tuesday victories that he would withdraw from the matching-funds program he had entered last year, the spending cap does not apply to him.

“The FEC regulations specifically state that candidates who do not receive public funding payments from the US Treasury are exempt from the primary spending ceiling,” expounded one of his senior campaign officials.

Chairman of the commission David Mason, however, warned McCain last month that his withdrawal request had not yet been granted.

Source

What’s this? Ron Paul runs a conservative campaign with no loans?

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and his thousands of fervent supporters may be fighting more over the soul of the Republican Party nowadays than they are for the actual presidential nomination, seNo it’s not your eyes It’s Republican presidential candidate and House member Ron Paul on a giant TV screen in Killeen Texas a GOP House of Representatives member from Texas who continues to campaign against Sen John McCain. Paul reported his campaign finances March 19, 2008 having raised nearly $35 million with nearly $5.6 million cash on hand and like a good conservative no debts.eing how the congressman is more than 1,000 delegates shy of what he’d need to head the ticket.

And John McCain has already wrapped up the September nomination so tightly he’s not even campaigning and has headed off on an overseas trip this week with congressional colleagues.

This just so happens to provide photos back home of him talking to foreign leaders like a president and praying at the Wailing Wall while Democrats argue over Florida again.

McCain’s entourage includes Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman, former Democratic vice presidential candidate, former Democratic senator, current independent senator and probably McCain’s future secretary of defense. Although that hasn’t been officially announced yet because McCain first has to win this little thing called a presidential election.

The 72-year-old Paul has plenty of free political time now because no Democrat, not even in Texas, is dumb enough to take him on in the November House election, which will award Paul his 11th term. On March 4, Paul vanquished his main Republican challenger in the 14th District by capturing 70% of the vote. Other than that, it was close.

Paul says he’ll continue to take his conservative message of…

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Bear Stearns marks the moment when the global financial crisis went critical. Up until last Friday, it had been possible - just about - to believe that the worst was over and that things were about to get better. That pretence was stripped away when JP Morgan, at the behest of the Federal Reserve, stepped in when the hedge funds pulled the plug on the fifth-biggest US investment bank.

It is now clear that no end is in sight to the turmoil, and the reason for that is that the Fed and the US treasury are no closer to solving the underlying problem than they were eight months ago. The crisis will only end when house prices stop falling and banks stop racking up huge losses on their loans. Doing that, however, will require the US government to intervene directly in the real estate market to end the wave of foreclosures. Ideologically, it is ill-equipped to take that step and, as a result, property prices will fall and the financial meltdown will go on and on.

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ATTENTION PENNSYLVANIANS and freedom lovers everywhere

PennDOT has been going forward with Real ID. $20 million has already been spent implementing 11 of 17 benchmarks. Pennsylvanians who have recently gone to get their licenses renewed have been issued temporary cards while extensive background checks are conducted.

Two bills are currently pending in the PA General Assembly to block Real ID in the state. We have been gaining ground for the last 6 months, but we are still short of the 2/3 majority needed to override a veto and assure Real ID’s demise in PA.

TOMORROW (Thursday, March 13) The House Intergovernmental Affairs Committee plans public hearings on Real ID in PA. Restore The Republic, NVCCA, and our local meetup Ron Paul Revolution Pittsburgh Area Freedom Activists will be sponsoring an anti-Real ID rally and press conference at these hearings. WE THE PEOPLE must show up in huge numbers and make our opposition to Real ID clear.

For more information about Real ID, its status and PA, and this event, please watch this video that I have made:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1344134382517909492

Spread a link to this video to everyone you know. A win in PA only encourages other states to do the same.

Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 10:00 AM
William Pitt Union Ballroom (University of Pittsburgh)
3959 5th Avenue
Pittsburgh , PA 15213 (Oakland)

McCain Advisers Lobbied for Europeans to Win Air Force Tanker Deal

WASHINGTON — A co-chairman of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and other top campaign advisers and supporters were lobbyists for the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, part of a group that beat out Boeing for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force.

Boeing, which has filed an appeal with the Government Accountability Office, is expected to focus at least in part on Mr. McCain’s role in the deal, including letters that he sent urging the Defense Department, in evaluating the tanker bids, not to consider the potential effects of a separate United States-Airbus trade dispute.

That contract was won by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, known as EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, the military contractor based in Los Angeles.

Mr. McCain has long expressed pride at having a central part in scuttling an earlier Air Force plan to lease the tankers from Boeing. That deal collapsed in 2004 in a major corruption scandal that sent two Boeing executives to prison.

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“If you’re in a campaign for only gaining power, that’s one thing. If you’re in a campaign to influence ideas and future of the country, the campaign is never over,” said Dr. Paul on CNN this morning.

This has been the mentality of the Campaign since day one: they were never running to win an election. Dr. Paul and the people he chose to lead the Campaign never conceived that they could “influence ideas” and win votes.

The few, feeble efforts made by the Campaign to win votes (e.g., the shirtless Mexican postcard sent out in Texas, the Tancredoeqsue “No student visas for illegal aliens” scare-tactics ad ran in Iowa) demonstrated the utter political cluelessness of those responsible.

We deserve candidates who are serious about winning–not for the sake of power, but in order to advocate, and maybe even implement, our ideals in the Congress and, some day, the White House.

Such a mindset is completely alien to those running this Campaign. Woe unto anyone who looks to them for leadership in the campaigns of the future. The first question we should ask any “Ron Paul Republican” is:

• Are you running to win (consistent with your principles)? Or are you just trying to make a point?
• Besides speaking out for freedom, what will you actually do for freedom if elected?
• What kind of leadership experience do you have?
• Why should we believe that you can distinguish between competence and incompetence in your decisions about whom to hire and fire?

We can all accept Ron Paul’s ideas as the “gold standard” for our future standard-bearers, while at the same time demanding more political savvy, seriousness and professionalism than has been exhibited by this campaign.

The Pennsylvania campaign immediately needs a volunteer(s) who has use of a location(s) in or near the Pittsburgh area to store campaign materials that just came into the state. This consists of eight (8) 4′ x 4′ pallets of supplies. An unused garage or shop space would be great. Please send email to me at the campaign website (go to the Pennsylvania page) or you can email Nick Ramaglia if you have his email address. This need is extremely time-sensitive: they are at a FedEx warehouse and must be moved by Tuesday. We will otherwise lose these materials.

I wish to stress again that Ron has not withdrawn. The national campaign is indeed winding down but Ron is going to the national convention.

For anyone who might think that McCain has the GOP nomination sewn up, let me try again to put as clear as I can - it’s time to unplug from the matrix. A great many of the delegates that he has to date “won” in primaries don’t like him one bit. They are not on his team. THEY WILL NOT VOTE FOR HIM. McCain will represent conservative values when monkeys fly out of ….

Pennsylvania is going to be sending a number of delegates to the national convention. Our delegate candidates have a great number of top ballot positions. When elected, they will have no voting restrictions imposed on them at the convention - they will be “unbound” free agents and they will vote for Ron Paul. THE REVOLUTION IS NOT GOING AWAY. We’ll see how much America really loves McInsane.

New Generals! - You may start receiving information from Don Ernsberger and Frank Szabo via the Precinct Leader email system. They speak for Pennsylvania in all matters alongside me.

Long live the fighters.

Bill Faust

Pennsylvania Field Director

Ron Paul 2008

By Ron Paul, before the US House of Representatives, March 5, 2008

Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to H. Res. 951, a resolution to condemn Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. As one who is consistently against war and violence, I obviously do not support the firing of rockets indiscriminately into civilian populations. I believe it is appalling that Palestinians are firing rockets that harm innocent Israelis, just as I believe it is appalling that Israel fires missiles into Palestinian areas where children and other non-combatants are killed and injured.

Unfortunately, legislation such as this is more likely to perpetuate violence in the Middle East than contribute to its abatement. It is our continued involvement and intervention – particularly when it appears to be one-sided – that reduces the incentive for opposing sides to reach a lasting peace agreement.

Additionally, this bill will continue the march toward war with Iran and Syria, as it contains provocative language targeting these countries. The legislation oversimplifies the Israel/Palestine conflict and the larger unrest in the Middle East by simply pointing the finger at Iran and Syria. This is another piece in a steady series of legislation passed in the House that intensifies enmity between the United States and Iran and Syria. My colleagues will recall that we saw a similar steady stream of provocative legislation against Iraq in the years before the US attack on that country.

I strongly believe that we must cease making proclamations involving conflicts that have nothing to do with the United States. We incur the wrath of those who feel slighted while doing very little to slow or stop the violence.