California KQED Forum @ 9am - Call-in with Ron Paul questions and comments!

[harikaried]

Tomorrow, KQED's Forum will be talking about the Iowa Straw Poll:
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201108150900

This is a radio program generally has a couple experts talking to a moderator about a subject, and the moderator brings up questions either posted in comments/emails AND from call-ins.

The call-in number is: 866-733-6786
Someone will pick up asking for:
1) Your name
2) Your city
3) Brief summary of your question/comment

This guy will either answer your question/comment or decide it's interesting to air LIVE where you talk directly over the phone to the experts. It's usually just a one-way affair, but sometimes they let you follow up though.

I find they're more likely to take calls if it follows up on something just said, so make sure you listen before you call. You can stream it online:

http://www.kqed.org/radio/listen/

As usual, be polite and make relevant comments. And I don't think they quite care if you're from California or not -- I've heard people get introduced as "NAME from CITY, STATE listening to the online stream."

[harikaried]

The two guests this time:
- Bill Whalen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for California Governor Pete Wilson
- Joe Garafoli, writer for The San Francisco Chronicle covering politics, currently reporting from Iowa

Joe seems to be recently familiar with Ron Paul -- not particularly positive or negative. He ran into John Dennis at the straw poll:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=95346

Bill has negatively commented on Ron Paul's anti-war views from 5/5 debate:
http://www.benzinga.com/11/05/1062124/bill-whalen-the-gop-debate-moot-points
"Ron Paul's foreign policy views are why he's a limited-ceiling candidate -- sorta the anti-war Eugene McCarthy in a nest of hawks. Yes, he got some applause for suggesting it's time to bring the troops home from Afghanistan."

Bill has also negatively commented on Ron Paul's CPAC win:
http://whalen.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/see-cpac-run/
"But the results will be about as meaningless as most any survey at this point in the game (keep in mind: Texas Rep. Ron Paul was last year’s winner)."


Some more recent comments from Bill:

http://www.advancingafreesociety.org/2011/08/13/iowa-straw-into-gold/
"Ron Paul nearly sprung an upset."

http://www.advancingafreesociety.org/2011/08/11/post-debate-thoughts/
"The Lone Eagle. It would seem that a Paul Administration wouldn’t have a problem with Iran obtaining nuclear weapons (just one of the congressman’s “colorful” libertarian views) and wants to bring the troops home. Paul says the problem is America “doesn’t mind its own business.” Like Charles Lindbergh, Paul is flying solo on the campaign trail with this 21st Century brand of isolationism."

[harikaried]

So looking at the guest's background and the context of San Francisco Bay Area audience (generally democratic but a lot of engineers with relatively higher income):

- Ron Paul is the only one talking about not going into undeclared wars -- why should Californians be funding all these wars when the state is out of money
- Only one talking about Patriot act and TSA -- why should all the California businessmen traveling for work have to be groped every other day
- Federal reserve giving out $16 Trillion of 0% interest loans to their buddies -- $16 Trillion to every US citizen would be over $50k per person!

And probably good to initially pose the question/topic to the screener as "I have a question about the candidates' stances personal liberties like the Patriot Act and TSA". In the actual on-air time, you can say that, and point out "it seems like Ron Paul is the only one that cares about my liberties".

[harikaried]

I suppose another way to frame questions in "I voted for Obama in 2008 to get out of the wars but now we're bombing more places like Libya and Pakistan. Why aren't there more candidates that think we should keep the money in the US instead of exploding our money with bombs around the world?"

Note the high concentration of Obama votes in the San Francisco bay area:
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/states/california.html

[harikaried]

Reminder this starts in 15 minutes.
http://www.kqed.org/radio/listen/

[Verrater]

bump for views

[harikaried]

Not good already. The introduction said Bachmann was 1st and Pawlenty was 3rd with the biggest news being Perry joining.

Joe is standing next to Pawlenty on the hay bales.

[harikaried]

Only 3 people worth watching: Bachmann, Romney, Perry

Perry: Longest tenured governor 12 years.

[harikaried]

Grah. They cut off my question:

"bill said that perry is too socially conservative, and i agree that his mass prayer last week in a texas stadium is too conservative especially that he only allowed christians and kicked everyone else out. but what about more socially liberal candidates who would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level allowing states like california with legal medical marijuana to be in peace instead of throwing citizens in jail.

-- cut off here --

and other states could also legalize growing hemp but still not allow marijuana. ron paul is the only candidate following the constitution with states rights and would let states grow hemp instead of requiring it to be imported from canada.

[harikaried]

+1 for pointing out Obama not reducing military spending. +1 for voting for Ron Paul. +1 for driving all the way to nevada to vote for Ron Paul in the primaries!

[harikaried]

They finally point out that Ron Paul was only 200 points behind Bachmann before closing for the break. And returning from the break, they point out Bachmann just barely edged out Ron Paul.

[harikaried]

I guess I'll have to save my comment for another time.

"i have polling data to answer who obama would not want to fight, rasmussen reports obama loses the most votes when head-to-head against ron paul probably because independents prefers ron paul's anti-war stance. a cnn head-to-head poll shows ron paul doing the best and this could be from Ronald Reagan's endorsement and i quote "Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country." a direct endorsement for Ron Paul from Ronald Reagan.

[wgadget]

Only 3 people worth watching: Bachmann, Romney, Perry

Perry: Longest tenured governor 12 years.

^THIS, my friends, is the official Pravda propaganda for the day. It's everywhere.