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November 29, 2007
Thoughts on the CNN/YouTube Debate Last Night
First of all, could it have been any more obvious that CNN was trying to favor the "media darling" candidates? Rudy and Mitt got at least 3X the questions that Ron Paul got, and Fred and McCain at least 2X. Time after time I found myself screaming at the TV, "Let Ron Paul answer THAT one!" Most of the time it was to no avail....
My thoughts about the candidates, for what they're worth....
Mitt Romney is the slickest media darling candidate by a long shot. Hair just so, suit just so, sound bites coming out of both sides of his mouth at a time. I can see why the media just love him, but his slickness masks an utter lack of conviction on anything. He will say anything and do anything to win. Unfortunately for him, even if he wins the nomination he will not be able to beat Hillary.
Rudy Giuliani is just freakin' scary. The guy is a fascist who wants to take away all our guns and isn't even subtle about it. He was the most hated mayor in NYC history on 9/10/2001 and nothing has changed except now he can play the 9/11 card. Sorry, it isn't going to work. Hillary will beat him if it comes to that, and she might even do it with my vote. I can't imagine voting for Hillary but I can even less imagine voting for Benito Giuliani. Might as well just go ahead and vote for Satan.
Fred Thompson is just plain lame. He couldn't debate his way out of a paper bag. To me he is less objectionable than Rudy or maybe even Romney but he is just a sad sack on the stage. It's like he doesn't even want the nomination. My theory here is that he doesn't want to go down in history as the first presidential candidate to lose to a woman, which he most certainly would do, because Hillary would eat his lunch in a debate. I can't stand her but she would absolutely clean his clock.
I have a little bit of grudging respect for McCain because he came out strongly against torture. However, he blew that by coming out foursquare in favor of the war in Iraq. Sorry, dude, 70% plus of the country has figured this out by now and you are on the wrong side. And Ron Paul just nuked you out of the water by correctly pointing out that he gets more contributions from active duty military personnel than you or anyone else. Better start kissing up to Ron instead of confronting him, and hope he suffers a momentary lapse of sanity and picks you for VP.
Huckabee has a pretty decent sense of humor. He made me laugh a couple of times, especially with the crack about Jesus being too smart to run for office. However that is not enough to mask the fact that fiscally he is a big tax-and-spend liberal. I wish he and the Clintons would go back to Arkansas and leave us all the hell alone. Well, that will happen soon enough, on Super Tuesday if not before....
OK, so Hunter built a fence between San Diego and Tijuana. Apparently, with his own two hands. Big deal; now what exactly qualifies him to be President? At this point he is just a vanity candidate, maybe hoping for VP consideration?
Speaking of the ultimate in one issue/vanity candidates, now that everyone else is trying to "out-Tancredo Tancredo" ... why is he still running? Unlike Huckabee or Hunter, he's not even a legitimate VP contender. Enough already ... bow out and throw your support to the only candidate who has a fighting chance against Hillary ... Ron Paul, of course.
It was awesome watching Ron Paul go toe to toe with McCain on the undeclared war in Iraq. Ron didn't back down from him an inch, and made some really telling points for those who were willing to actually listen with an open mind. No telling what Ron Paul could accomplish in these debates if they would actually ask him as many questions as the so-called "front-runners" and even then let him get an answer in edgewise instead of calling "time" fifteen seconds into a thirty-second answer. Not to mention deliberately choosing "loaded" questions in an attempt to make him look bad or go on the defensive. He fended those off eloquently, by the way, but he still got only a small fraction of the total air time.
Conclusion: the Republicans are utterly doomed in 2008 if they don't have the good sense to nominate Ron Paul. None of the rest of them match up favorably against Hillary Clinton who will be the Democratic nominee. (Or, in case of a miracle, against Obama, either.) Ron Paul, due to his unique appeal to everyone from hippie anti-war activists to Jeffersonian libertarians to Barry Goldwater conservatives, is the only GOP candidate who can bring together the coalition required to win. One can only hope the Republican primary voters realize this before it is too late and we get stuck with another President Clinton.
Posted by joedumas at 10:38 PM | Comments (5)
November 21, 2007
Keep the Hullander Family in your Hearts
After a long Wednesday before Thanksgiving on the road, my lovely bride and I just settled in to our hotel room and found a Wi-Fi connection to check e-mail and the web. As is my habit I checked the chattanoogan.com and was shocked to see this story with the sad news that the daughter and son-in-law of County Commissioner Bill Hullander were involved in a terrible car crash while on a mission trip in Mexico. The Commissioner's daughter Mandy was seriously injured and, tragically, her husband Chris was killed in the wreck.
I am not a personal friend of Mr. Hullander - I have only spoken to him on a couple of occasions - but as a citizen and political activist I do respect his long and honorable service to Hamilton County. I hope all my readers will keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers this Thanksgiving weekend.
And for all of us who are traveling this holiday weekend: Stay safe out there, folks.
Posted by joedumas at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2007
Great Ron Paul Video - And Another Article
There is a new Ron Paul video available on YouTube that I just saw yesterday. If you are a Ron Paul supporter, or even more to the point, if you are thinking about supporting Ron Paul but aren't yet sure he is your man, check it out!
Mahatma Gandhi once said of his freedom movement in India, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Predictably, Ron Paul's campaign has made it through stages one and two and has now arrived at stage three (on its way to stage four). Now that his campaign has made history by raising $4.3 million in one day, the media can no longer ignore Ron Paul ... so now the attacks have begun. For a detailed look at why the smear campaign is happening and why it will fail, check out Justin Raimondo's article at AntiWar.com.
Posted by joedumas at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2007
Ron Paul Op/Eds
There are a lot of good op/ed pieces on Ron Paul from all around the country. Here is one that someone sent me today. The author (appropriately) compares Ron Paul to Barry Goldwater and suggests that Dr. Paul learn from Goldwater's experience.
"The pundits are at a loss to explain what is happening, but it really doesn't seem that complicated. Ron Paul, like Goldwater, is advocating liberty in all its forms. And — surprise! — Americans like liberty. They like being free to do as they like, think what they like, and believe what they like without government interference.
"But now, if history is any lesson, Ron Paul needs to be careful. For much of the run-up to the 1964 election, Goldwater was overlooked. Most people assumed he didn't have a chance. But as his campaign picked up steam, the modern Republicans and the liberal-leaning media got scared. They started to attack him in whatever way they could — comparing him to Hitler, lying about supposed ties to extreme right groups in Germany, implying he would start a nuclear conflagration. They did anything and everything to keep him out of the White House....
"The Old Right libertarian message is making a comeback. Let's hope it has more success than in 1964."
By the way, here is the most recent Ron Paul-related article on the chattanoogan.com web site.
Posted by joedumas at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)
At Last - Fiscal Responsibility in Signal Mountain
In case anyone missed Monday night's meeting (it was a packed house) or the write-up in the Chattanoogan.com, the Signal Mountain Town Council (all-new members since last year's election/recall) finally stood up to the plate and exercised some fiscal discipline, voting down a request to allocate an additional $317,000 of town taxpayer funds to the new middle/high school under construction, and instead applying that money to our large, outstanding (3 years ago the town, very unwisely, made a $7.7 million commitment to the school) bonded indebtedness.
Predictably, the "tax us more for the children" crowd are crying in their beer - including some folks who aren't even from Signal Mountain. Give me a break! We have already given $7.7 million more Town tax money than we should have to build a county school. When is enough enough? When does the well run dry? Thankfully, three of our five council members said, now. No more!
Three cheers on behalf of the taxpayers for Bill Lusk, Susan Robertson, and Vice Mayor Hershel Dick!
Posted by joedumas at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2007
A $4.3 Million Day for Ron Paul
The final numbers from the Fifth of November are in. As of midnight, Ron Paul's quarterly donation total was over $7.1 million. This includes over $4.3 million in the 24-hour period from midnight to midnight, Eastern time.
Money talks, and you-know-what walks. Let's see if the mainstream media can find a way to ignore this! (Some of them have picked up on it already.) Ron Paul just set the GOP single-day fundraising mark for the 2008 campaign (formerly held by Romney at $3.1M), plus what I believe is the all-time record for online donations in a day.
The Ron Paul Revolution is in full swing ... join it now!
Posted by joedumas at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
Ron Paul's Huge Fundraising Day
The "money bomb" has hit in a big way for the Ron Paul campaign!
Ron Paul supporters are flooding his coffers in a one-day blitz to show the world that they, and his campaign, are for real.
As of last night, Ron Paul's quarterly contribution total was somewhere around $2.7 million. Right now (4:30 Eastern) it is up to over $5.5 million and climbing! (That means he has more than doubled his quarterly total in less than a day.) By midnight tonight Ron will likely have eclipsed all records for single-day fundraising for any political campaign.
Take that, establishment candidates!
Posted by joedumas at 04:33 PM | Comments (1)
November 03, 2007
An Open Letter to the Signal Mountain Town Council
[Update 11/06/2007: the letter below has been published on the chattanoogan.com.]
Dear Mayor and Council Members,
I regret I was unable to attend the special meeting on October 25th at which plans for the new school were discussed. Had I any idea that the subject of providing additional town funds would come up, I would have done anything possible to be there to oppose it.
The Town has previously committed $7.7 million to the construction of the school. In my view, that is already $7.7 million too much -- it is a county school and, like every other county school, it should have been funded 100% by the county. To compound this mistake by giving the Hamilton County Department of Education an additional $317,000 would be an inexcusable diversion of Town taxpayer money away from important needs such as paving roads, building and repairing sidewalks, maintaining facilities and so on.
I know that the local option sales tax money, the source of the $317,000, is earmarked toward the school. With that in mind, it is obvious that the correct and proper use of this money is to help pay down the remaining bond debt that was incurred to raise the $7.7 million already committed. This will reduce the amount that property taxes paid into the Town's general fund must subsidize the bonded indebtedness.
If you as our representatives wish to put the $317,000 in sales tax money toward a specific project or program at the new school, this would be appropriate only if and when a formal memorandum of understanding is signed with the HCDE stating that the money put to that purpose counts as part of the $7.7 million being provided by the Town for the school, and not in addition to it.
Continue reading "An Open Letter to the Signal Mountain Town Council"
Posted by joedumas at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)