Ron Paul: Too Busy for the Troof

As our longtime buddy Sword of Truth pointed out at JREF, this answer should satisfy nobody.

Truthers and Birthers

Okay, here's a post for our liberal readers on the intersection of 9-11 Truthers and Obama birthers:

Their twin demonstrations worked as intended. Troothers walked away from the Democrats and went to the presidential campaign most friendly to them—that of Texas Republican Ron Paul. (An October 20 article posted on InfoWars even denounced Maher as “an apologist and advocate for the criminal cabal.”) With two short strokes the Democrats not only removed an albatross from their neck but hung it on the other party.

It didn’t take long for the word to get to the troother rank-and-file. As if ordered by Clinton and Maher, Pennsylvania Democrat Phil Berg, a former deputy attorney general, dismantled his website www.911forthetruth.com in October 2007. (It is now available only on the Wayback machine.) Berg is now a leading Obama ‘birther’ who has filed several bogus lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility even as he quietly pursues conspiracy-related 9/11 litigation.

I do think the article is a little unfair in the beginning; for the most part the liberals did not treat the 9-11 Truthers as friends; Daily Kos has had a standing ban against 9-11 Truther diaries since 2005. The Maher and Clinton incidents he points to were hardly a turning point; the Truthers were behind Ron Paul well before this, and were not some devious plot by Clinton and Maher to disassociate the Truthers from the Left. And he fails to note that in the general election, the 9-11 "Truth" candidate was Cynthia McKinney, hardly indicative of a swing to the right for the Troofers.

That said, the article does some terrific debunking on the Obama "birther" nonsense:

It is up to the Secretary of State or equivalent election officials of each state to ascertain whether a candidate for president of the Untied States is eligible to appear on that State’s election ballot. This is a process which was carried out in late 2007 as election officials prepared for the presidential primary season. All of the states—whether controlled by Democrat or Republican administrations—determined that Obama was indeed eligible to appear on their ballot.

He further notes that one candidate did not qualify:

Roger Calero, Presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party, openly states he was born in Nicaragua. He admittedly does not meet the Constitutional requirement that a U.S. president be a “natural born citizen.” As a result, the SWP was required to substitute the name of James Harris—a constitutionally eligible candidate—who appeared as the SWP candidate for President on the ballot in seven states (CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, LA, WA). The legally unqualified Calero was allowed on the ballot in his own name in six other states (CT, DE, MN, NJ, NY, VT). In 37 other states plus DC the SWP either did not seek ballot status or was denied a ballot position for other reasons.

Hat tip: Bwa-ha-ha-ha in the comments.

Alex Jones, Ron Paul and Others on FoxNews

This is making the rounds (very critically) on some of the conservative blogs. I am always amused that FoxNews promotes the conspiracy theorists far more than any other mainstream network, considering they consider Ruppert Murdoch the evil center of the New World Order.

Among the Paultards

The Weekly Standard has an amusing follow-up to the Ron Paul Fest.

I decide to bait Ventura, offering that some of the 9/11 Truthers in the crowd are disappointed their viewpoints aren't being represented.

"They will when I get up there," he growls. He says he's been studying the issue "for well over a year and a half," and he feels "very strongly that the truth has not been forthcoming."

When asked what the truth is and whether the government had something to do with it, he says, "I don't know. But I know this, I do have somewhat of a demolition background, being a member of the Navy's underwater demolition team, and I spoke to a few of my teammates a couple weeks ago. We're all in agreement that buildings can't fall at the rate of gravity without being assisted. And that's called physics, that's not an opinion."

Taking the stage, Ventura has the crowd ululating as he hits all the hot buttons, from the evils of the Patriot Act and closed presidential debates to the need to jealously guard our Second Amendment rights. Then, keeping his promise to me (and breaching assurances to convention organizers), he gets down to business, to a little "something called 9/11." It's like lighting a match around the double-knits. They ignite.

Under the impression that there are no stupid questions, Ventura proceeds to ask several: such as why doesn't the FBI website's list of top ten international terrorists include the 9/11 attacks among Osama bin Laden's other crimes? And why hasn't the Justice Department charged Osama bin Laden? Though he doesn't actually accuse the government of participating in the attacks, he doesn't need to, judging from the crowd reaction. "Inside job!" someone chants.

Troofers in St. Paul

Troofers got noticed at the Democratic National Convention, by inserting themselves into protests and harassing journalists. At the Republican National Convention, they find themselves invited, at a Ron Paul "Revolution" counter event:

Then Ventura moved on to a more controversial topic — “something that when I discuss it, I get attacked,” he said. “Something called 9/11.”

Now, at every Ron Paul event I’ve been to this year, I’ve seen people from the so-called 9/11 Truth movement, and this event is no different. (You can tell who they are by their “9/11 Truth Now” t-shirts.) When Ventura brought up 9/11, these people starting cheering and clapping. “ Why is it that when you ask questions about 9/11, it’s out-of-bounds?” he said. “Why has the U.S. Department of Justice not charged Osama Bin Laden for 9/11?”

As Ventura continued to “ask questions” about what really happened on 9/11, a vocal contingent in the crowd (coming from all parts of the arena) took to chanting, “9/11 was an inside job.” At one point, it got so loud that Ventura had to pause for a few moments before going on. Many in the crowd were applauding Ventura throughout his discussion of 9/11, but some were sitting stone-faced, looking on with dismay.

Update: Added video. Jesse joins the Fair Play for Al Qaeda Committee. Check out his pal, Jim Fetzer at the end.

Troof Week Consolation Prize

Well the troofers couldn't get Steve Alten any love, but they can take solace in this factoid:

(CNN) — Ron Paul’s loyal supporters helped him set campaign fundraising records and capture more delegates during his presidential run than some of his high-profile Republican rivals. They even managed to briefly shut down Nevada’s GOP convention earlier this month over a rules change controversy.

Now they’ve taken his latest book to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list. “The Revolution: A Manifesto”, released earlier this month, is currently No. 1 on the Web site’s list of top sellers, besting even Oprah’s latest Book Club selection.

Of course his presidential campaign is still sitting on less than 2 dozen delegates.

Ron Paul Fights On

He beat back the effort to unseat him in the Texas primary, and now is free to continue his quixotic quest for the presidency, even though John McCain sealed up the Republican nomination last night. The LA Times blogger Andrew Malcolm, who's clearly drunk the Kool-Aid exults:

But just Paul's powerful presence, eloquence and outspoken defense of the Constitution has forced every other Republican party luminary out of the 2007-08 race, including Rudy Giuliani, who's now reduced to doing bit parts on "Saturday Night Live," Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Sam who's-its from Kansas and that grumpy guy from Virginia. Tuesday night, faced with the prospect of a hard-charging Paul on his tail, even former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee gave up, although he directed his concession speech at McCain to save face.

Of course, that's intended as parody, but the Ronulans really believe this narrative. The hard-charging Paul got 1/6th as many votes as Huckabee in Ohio, 1/3rd as many in Rhode Island, and most astoundingly only 1/7th as many in Texas, his home state. Yes, his supporters are committed, and they ought to be, but they're still stuck on the same 5-7% of the vote they've been getting since the beginning of the process.

Quick Hits

Maybe we pay too much attention to the Student Scholars? Check out this article:

Martell is quick to stress that the student organization, with 80 members from schools in Canada to Japan, is more focused on the investigation into 9/11 than the possibility of controlled demolition.

Eighty members worldwide? My god there are more professors (admittedly emeritus) than there are students in the college of 9-11 knowledge.

But just so Justin doesn't get the impression we're picking on him check out this astonishing ad for Mike Gravel:



Now that might just be the greatest political ad ever. I think the rock symbolizes 9-11 Truthers everywhere, causing little ripples that fade away quickly, while they sink rapidly to the bottom. Something like that, anyway.

Meanwhile, the other favored candidate of the Truthling Cult, Ron Paul, has started to accept reality:

With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter.

Hat Tip on Gravel Ad: Lisa Simpson at the JREF Forums.

Go Check Out Mikey Metz!

He's recently graduated from college and has more time to blog. Read the post that got him banned at the Looser Forums. Learn of Ron Paul's lunatic wrestler supporter, and of Mikey's realization that the center is where it's at. He's right (I'm a moderate myself), but one lesson I've learned is that when you're in the center, you'll frequently find yourself getting shot at from both sides of the street.

Mikey's a terrific writer, and a much better thinker than I was at his age.

The New Ron Paul Sign

Don't know who created it, but that's terrific! Found here.

Doctor (Paul's) Strangelovers

This is OT, but it's so good that I felt I had to link it. A blogger catches a Ron Paul supporter's wrestling with his conscience over the New Republic's scoop last week about Ron Paul's racist and homophobic newsletters. Eventually the conscience loses and the supporter remains a cult member.

Hat Tip: Longtime commenter Edmund.

Yet Moron the Ron Paul Nuts

Here's a clip of a particularly vile group of Ronulans harassing Sean Hannity. Warning: Lots of filthy language, definitely NSFW.



Ron Paul answers a question about his 9-11 kook supporters in last night's debate:



Asked about whether the Troofers should abandon the "9-11 was an inside job" rhetoric, he replies:

"Well, it doesn't do me any good, so if they care about me they should."

Of course, the fruitcakes twist themselves into knots trying to convince each other that he doesn't really mean it:

Just my personal opinion, but I thought Ron Paul handled himself very well with this question. I know you guys don't want to hear this, but anyone who has been paying attention to the recent trends with the issue of 9/11 truth and the presidential race knows well that if Ron Paul had answered any other way, FOX News would never have let him get past it.

BTW, with all the talk about John McCain's age, how many people know he's actually a year younger than Ron Paul?

Update: Our buddy the Feathered Bastard has his own inimitable take on Ron and his KKK supporters:

Hess explained that he and Paul are the best of pals. He stated that Paul's message resonated with a lot of folks, not just the Sand Land schutzstaffel.

Oh, man, I wish I had half his writing talent! Highly, highly recommended!

Adios to the Ronulans

I was listening to Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters on blog talk radio today, and he mentioned that he put up a post yesterday linking to the now famous piece in the New Republic which exposed some of Ron Paul's newsletter's choicer bits (as James posted last night). But what surprised Ed was that none of the Paulestinians responded. As all bloggers know, if you put up a piece critical of the Doc, you get an avalanche of negative comments.

Paul finished fifth in New Hampshire, and realistically if the story had broken earlier he might have done even worse. Some of the folks who decided to back him are having second thoughts:

After everything, this is McCain's night. After the awful news about Ron Paul's ugly, repellent past newsletters, I find myself rooting again for the man who was my second choice.

I do feel a little sorry for the Paul fans; they really do have passion for their man. Too bad they chose such an unworthy vessel for their affection.

Update: Let me add here that Ron Paul actually did extraordinarily well in New Hampshire; 8% is far more than anybody with any political experience thought he'd get even a few months ago. The problem was that the Paulbots had done such a terrific job of spamming internet polls that they actually began to believe that he was electable. Here's a good recap of what went wrong with the "freedom movement" (from a sane supporter).

Conspiracy Theorists are Now the Least of his Worries

We have been criticized for linking presidential candidate Ron Paul to 9/11 conspiracy theorists, tax protestors and other assorted nuts like Alex Jones, but now The New Republic has found some of Mr. Paul's old newsletters, and provides not just a connection, but an endorsement of extremist views. Some choice examples:

While bashing King, the newsletters had kind words for the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. In a passage titled "The Duke's Victory," a newsletter celebrated Duke's 44 percent showing in the 1990 Louisiana Republican Senate primary. "Duke lost the election," it said, "but he scared the blazes out of the Establishment." In 1991, a newsletter asked, "Is David Duke's new prominence, despite his losing the gubernatorial election, good for anti-big government forces?"

A 1987 issue of Paul's Investment Letter called Israel "an aggressive, national socialist state," and a 1990 newsletter discussed the "tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to wok [sic] for the Mossad in their area of expertise." Of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a newsletter said, "Whether it was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little."

Indeed, the newsletters seemed to hint that armed revolution against the federal government would be justified. In January 1995, three months before right-wing militants bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, a newsletter listed "Ten Militia Commandments," describing "the 1,500 local militias now training to defend liberty" as "one of the most encouraging developments in America."

Bubba to Ronulan Troofers: You're Nuts!

Bill Clinton now ranks #1 and tied for #2 in our "favorite putdowns" of the kooks.

Eventually, Clinton stopped outside a bakery, offered some remarks, and took questions. As he was answering one on Iraq, one of the Paul backers interrupted and shouted that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job, and that the U.S. didn’t need to be in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When he dropped an F-bomb, the crowd booed. Clinton, who had tried to talk over the man, gave up.

"You wanna know what I think?” Clinton said. “You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims' families. You're nuts."

Thumbs up, Bill!



Mark Steyn chips in:

Too true. Many of my friends and neighbors are supporting Ron Paul. He has by far the largest number of lawn signs (or snowbank signs) in New Hampshire's three northern counties. And when the votes are all counted he may yet push Giuliani into fifth place. I know Derb thinks he's a serious chap who'll return America to minimalist constitutional government, but on the ground you hardly get a word about such stuff either from the candidate or his noisy supporters. You do, however, hear a lot of paranoid drivel from folks who are indistinguishable from the kook left.

Anti-war? Fine. Isolationist? Cool. But "inside job"? Clinton's right. (And good for him for saying it: John Edwards would have nodded thoughtfully and promised to get back to the guy.)

Actually, he did.

Idiotic Loose Change Forum Post of the Day

This one reveals the problems that younger people have with understanding Baby Boomer cultural references, and just about had me rolling on the floor.

Huckabee Says, "PAUL IS DEAD"--JUST RELEASED ON CNN WHEN PLAYING HIS CHRISTMAS ADD-- sick bastard !

I viewed the ad brifely, did he actually say: Ron Paul is dead, meaning he's going to be assassinated, like rumors I've been hearing, or was it indirect, or just a figure of speech.

Would like to find out exactly what he meant.

Okay, kiddies, here's the answer. Huckabee was responding to criticism of his "Christmas" ad, in which many people claim that a bookshelf in the background was actually a sneaky, subliminal cross. In a joke that everybody who lived through the 1960s would get, Huckabee said, "If you play the ad backwards, it says "Paul is dead, Paul is dead."

He is not referring to Ron Paul, he's referring to the late 1960s' rumor that Paul McCartney was dead. This was a red-hot item back then, sparked by some over-medicated people listening a tad too closely to the music. The idea was that John Lennon had placed clues to McCartney's death in some Beatles' songs; one song, when played backwards, supposedly said "Paul is dead, miss him, miss him."

Just How Out Of It Is Ron Paul?

The "Only Man Who Can Save America" as I believe it is termed, is on Glenn Beck's show being asked about his nutjob followers. Glenn Beck of course is right at the top of the troofer hit list for his previous program with Michael Shermer and James Meigs. The troofers are not going to be happy with this clip though, although not so much for Beck, as for Ron Paul, as he unequivocally states that he does not believe in the tenents of the 9/11 conspiracy theories such as no plane hitting the Pentagon or remote control planes. I can't really endorse his response though, because bizarrely, he claims that he was not even aware of being supported by wacko conspiracy theorists. When asked about the Pentagon being hit by a missile or remote controlled planes, he claimed that he had "never even heard of these challenges before".

WHAT? Hello, how many times have you been on Alex Jones' radio program? Have you even paid attention to who Alex Jones is? Not to mention that these are hardly the only fringe elements that he hangs out with. As I pointed out previously he has been the main speaker at event like those run by the Freedom Law School, which is on the watchlist for extremist organizations by the ADL, and is frequented by all sorts of fringe types such as tax resisters, anti-Semites, and conspiracy theorists.

So the man is either lying, or he is completely clueless about a social movement that is fairly widely known in the country as a whole, and that is rampant among his followers. Do you want this man running the country?

Alex Jones Proves Ron Paul Is a CIA Stooge!

You know, conspiracy theory logic may be frustrating for the sane, but sometimes it is fun to use it. It is in this spirit that I discovered this morning that Troofer presidential favorite Ron Paul is a CIA stooge, well that is if you believe what you read on Alex Jones' websites.

How can I prove this? Well let's look at this article from just a few months back on Infowars.com.

Former Intelligence Agent Says Google In Bed With CIA

Steele also sounds off on 9/11 doubts
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com October 27 2006
A former clandestine services officer for the CIA who also maintains close relationships with top Google representatives says that the company is "in bed with" the intelligence agency and the U.S. government. He has also gone public on his deep suspicions about the official explanation behind 9/11.

So it was with this in mind that I was stunned to see this headline on Prison Planet just this morning.

Google Tops Among Ron Paul Donors

Is he really so foolish to think that we cannot connect the dots? Hah! I am going to go make a You Tube video now and come up with some snazzy slogans to scream through a megaphone.

Paulistas Gone Wild

We have been criticized for connecting the Ron Paul supporters and the truthers, but it seems they do have a lot in common, from the WSJ:

Taco John, the online moniker of Isaac Lopez, a 32-year-old technology marketer in Vancouver, Wash., is one of many cyber-soldiers for Dr. Paul, the Texas congressman, gynecologist and vociferous opponent of the Iraq war. The Paul brigade has largely drawn attention for its fund-raising prowess, raising a record $4.2 million online in a single day in November and leaving the 72-year-old politician with more cash on hand than several rivals and a $1 million TV ad budget for New Hampshire. But some Paul supporters are displaying an aggressive side that seems to spill beyond advocacy into harassment of those who disagree or fail to show Dr. Paul sufficient respect.

Taco John, for example, posted contact information for a university professor who called Dr. Paul "unqualified to be president." He also provided information on how to reach several reporters with whom he quibbled, as well as the Iowa Republican Party after it helped set rules for a debate -- later canceled -- that could have excluded the low-polling Dr. Paul.

Kevin Barrett anyone?

And apparently they have the same behavior as truthers on the Internet:

"Basically, it got to the point where someone could put up a post saying they were going to the bathroom, and a dozen Paultards would comment, 'Vote for Ron Paul while you're there,' along with another dozen warnings of the Zionist conspiracy in the toilet," says Erick Erickson, founder of popular conservative blog Redstate. A month ago, the site banned posts from some Paul supporters, branding them "MoRons."

Afterward, the site was "deluged" with comments and "swarms and swarms" of hate mail, Mr. Erickson says. He changed the site's phone number, and says other blog owners have contacted him seeking advice on discouraging Paul supporters from posting.

Ron Paul: Dancing With the Troofers

As others have pointed out, Ron Paul was on Alex Jones' radio show yesterday, trying to pick up the support of those who hold his paranoid economic and political views, without endorsing the conspiracy theories outright. This little bit caught my attention.

Paul: A lot of people’s standard of living is going down. Seventy-five percent of the American people say they are now having economic problems, and yet our government keeps telling us there are no problems, no inflation, everyone is employed and yet the people are hurting and it is mainly because their purchasing power is being lost. It is the dollar value that is really the big issue.

Jones: Are you worried about this triggering a credit crisis in credit cards and then maybe even the derivatives.

Paul: You know, I think so, I think maybe that is the vulnerability. You have economic chaos, then you have political chaos and then once again, if you have a 9/11 incident or something like that, they use that to do the things that they had planned all along. So if we have more economic chaos there will be individuals who say, well we need more government, not less government. That is our greatest threat.

I have no idea where is he coming up with the 75% number, probably the usual CT cherry picking. The rest sounds like he has been watching Terrorstorm though.