Ron Paul is "firm backer of Ed and Elaine Brown"

[dmitchell]

Take a closer look at Ron Paul’s heroes (http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070714/OPINION01/207140316/-1/news)


Perhaps of more interest to New Hampshire, he [Ron Paul] is a firm backer of Ed and Elaine Brown, the well-armed tax evaders who have been facing down federal marshals from their home in Plainfield for the past several months. The Browns have been sentenced in federal court to 63 months in prison for failing to pay more than a million dollars in taxes. They claim no federal law requires citizens to pay income taxes. The court disagrees.

Paul, the presidential hopeful, says the Browns are “heroic” and “the true patriots.” In an online interview the other day, he said: “What they’re doing is they’re standing up for the law.” That is what he said. He went on to liken the couple to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. King also “fought laws that were unfair and unjust,” Paul explained.

Ron Paul is entitled to his views, however incendiary. But he really ought to leave Martin Luther King out of it. Let’s hope New Hampshire Republican primary voters are paying attention.

[micahnelson]

I submitted an email to their newspaper showing them the Cavuto Interview. I received a response that they would be looking into it. I was CC'd on a letter to a couple other editors.

[LizF]

Thanks for posting this, I was just getting ready to do the same!

I was wavering between posting to this subforum (the most appropriate one, given the negative spin in the article :mad: ) and the "News & Discussion" one, since that one gets more traffic, and we would do well to get some response to this (actually two) New Hampshire papers.

[Bryan]

Thanks for posting this, I was just getting ready to do the same!

I was wavering between posting to this subforum (the most appropriate one, given the negative spin in the article :mad: ) and the "News & Discussion" one, since that one gets more traffic, and we would do well to get some response to this (actually two) New Hampshire papers.
Feel free to do both- just add a link in the Media Matters one to the discussion one so everyone knows where to talk about it. :)

This sub-forum is best for just reporting the problem, the other is for calls to actions on the problems, etc.



BTW, OP- thanks for the contribution.

[LizF]

Thanks for clarifying that Bryan!

[micahnelson]

Be sure to thank the Nashua Telegraph. They will be running another editorial in response to this one.

They handled it very well, in my opinion.


Thank you very much. I appreciate your concern and prompt reaction on the matter. It is a testament to your seriousness in honest reporting and you should be commended for your professionalism and integrity.

Also, if you haven't yet, please take a look into Ron Paul's campaign. He strives to have a similar level of integrity when it comes to honoring his oath to uphold the constitution.

On 7/16/07, Claudette Durocher <cdurocher@nashuatelegraph.com> wrote:

I have spoken to the Keene Sentinel about the editorial and another editorial on the subject will appear in the Sentinel on Tuesday. It will also appear in The Telegraph. Kindly yours, Claudette Durocher, The Telegraph.

From: Damon Kiesow
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:23 AM
To: Claudette Durocher
Cc: Nick Pappas
Subject: FW: Serious Error in the Editorial " Take a closer lookat Ron Paul’s heroes".

Claudette - this has also garnered a lot of discussion on the forums. This is the only email I got - thought you would be best positioned to respond:

From: Micah Nelson [mailto:micahnelson@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 1:23 AM
To: Damon Kiesow; Ernesto Burden
Subject: Serious Error in the Editorial " Take a closer lookat Ron Paul’s heroes".

I am writing to inform you that there is a serious error in the Editorial " Take a closer lookat Ron Paul's heroes". Besides the obvious typo in the headline, the premise is untrue.

Ron Paul was falsely associated with comments regarding Ed and Elaine Brown several weeks ago. The day that news came out he went on Fox News to set the record straight. While he did say he supported the concept of civil disobedience in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, he clearly stated he could not support violence. He stated he was not familiar with the case of Ed and Elaine Brown.

To support my claim, you may see the video of Dr. Paul's Fox News interview at this address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI4zeBCJHQ8

Please remove this editorial from your website, as it was likely written to intentionally mislead the public. For the sake of those who have already been misled by this editorial, I would appreciate a retraction.

Opinion is important to public discourse, but it is important to ensure that information presented as fact be, in fact, factual.

Thank you for your time and action in this matter.

-Micah Nelson

[LizF]

Well done Micah! The Nashua Telegraph printed the new (only slightly grudging) editorial from the Keene Sentinel:

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070718/OPINION04/70718017/-1/OPINION01


Another view of Paul’s stand on the Browns

Published: Wednesday, Jul. 18, 2007

Editor’s note: A Keene Sentinel editorial published by The Telegraph on Saturday about Ron Paul’s stand on tax resisters Ed and Elaine Brown has drawn criticisms from Paul supporters, saying Paul does not consider the Browns heroes and has said so.

In an editorial today, the Sentinel expounds further on the issue. Its latest editorial follows.

Ron Paul does not necessarily support Ed and Elaine Brown, the well-armed Plainfield couple that has been sentenced to prison for tax evasion and has refused to surrender to federal marshals. In fact, in a TV interview, the Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate said, “I know very little about the case.”
So how does that square with our July 11 editorial, which criticized Paul for calling the Browns heroic and equating them with the nonviolent actions of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior?

In a lengthy online interview last month (www.roguegovernment.com
/news.php?id=2720), Paul was asked this very specific question about the Browns:
“Currently there’s a situation up in Plainfield, New Hampshire, with Ed and Elaine Brown, and these people are simply asking the government to show them the law that requires them to pay income tax on their labor. And instead of the government showing them the law, they sent a bunch of U.S. marshals with guns and urban assault vehicles.” The interviewer went on to ask Paul what the Browns’ situation tells us about the Internal Revenue Service “and the legality of the income tax.”

Paul answered: “It gives you the perfect reason why we have to get rid of this monster, you know, because of what has happened. And a lot of individuals have taken the IRS on and some of them have suffered from it. It sounds like they may be on the verge of suffering or have already suffered. . . . And what they’re doing is they’re standing up for the law.” Then Paul went on seemingly to include the Browns in a category of “heroic” tax resisters who, he said, resemble Gandhi and King, who “fought laws that were unfair and unjust.”

But in a subsequent interview, Paul was asked by Neil Cavuto on Fox TV (www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2rVCI9-tSI) whether he thought the Browns really were heroes.

“I never said that,” Paul replied, “but I know very little about that case. I’ve never talked to them. I don’t know the details.” He added later, “People have an obligation if they feel there’s an injustice to stand up, but they have to bear the consequences. . . . I’ve never advocated violence.”

Well, good for Paul. Sort of. In the end, he is the ultimate expert on what he intended to say – although it is difficult to understand what he was talking about in that first interview, which was the subject of so much attention by the news media. It is possible he meant to say that people in general who refuse to pay their income taxes (but not necessarily the Browns) are heroic in the manner of Gandhi and King. Then again, he was asked specifically to comment on the Browns.

Or perhaps, as he now says, he was just commenting on something he knew very little about – not the best strategy for a presidential candidate.

In any event, we like the position Paul took in the Fox interview better than the position he seemed to take in the online interview: “People have an obligation if they feel there’s an injustice to stand up, but they have to bear the consequences.” Our point precisely.