patriotic_dad
01-08-2008, 12:04 PM
I just wanted to share a great email my boss received from his Pastor's son. My boss knows I'm a Ron Paul supporter, from my rp hat if nothing else. However, I'm careful about pushing too hard at work, during work hours that is. Any co-workers that I hang with outside of work is a different story. Without further ado, here is the email:
Subject: I swear I'll never do this to you again...
...but I just wanted to make three simple requests:
1) If you are planning on voting in the upcoming presidential election, tell me what you think the top three important issues are and how you feel about them or why. If you are not planning on voting but are eligible to vote, please tell me your reason.
2) Check out my "propaganda" (wink) note about Ron Paul below and even if you don't want to read it all, at the very least watch the two attached videos. If you are totally against anything in them, please write me and tell me why.
3) Finally, if you think Ron Paul is the best candidate but you think voting for him would be a wasted or thrown away vote so you're voting for someone else PLEASE let me know if you feel this way. I have something very profound to say about that - in fact, what I have to say is SO profound, I can't even say it unless you ask me to. If you want to know my incredibly profound statement on that, then ask me. If you want to guess what I have to say about that, feel free - but you'll probably be wrong - my statement is THAT profound! *wink*
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Everything you wanted to know about Dr. Ron Paul but were afraid to ask...
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Fox News excluded Ron Paul from their debate last night. No matter what you think of the reasoning, it worked in his favor because he got more press and more attention and scrutiny from undecided voters this way than if he had been in the debate and simply ignored...
Besides, Ron Paul isn't the best "slick" debater, so those don't win him much ground with people who are judging people on how well they debate rather than the substance of their ideas, policies, character, and integrity.
So, Dr. Paul had a town hall meeting in Manchester, NH and it was broadcast on local TV. This was an AMAZING chance for Ron Paul to present his positions, and logically defend his positions without having people interrupt him to make rude or non germane comments.
If you SUPPORT Ron Paul, you should watch these to be able to better explain his platform.
If you are UNDECIDED, you should watch these videos to get some valuable information about the issues that isn't being talked about and will help you consider your candidate even if Ron Paul isn't your guy.
If you already are sure you support A DIFFERENT CANDIDATE (especially Sen. Obama), you should watch these videos because he addresses many of the other candidates platforms and offers additional information that may help you better understand where your own candidate is coming from and what they are actually proposing.
Finally, if you are totally OPPOSED to Ron Paul, you should watch these videos so you can all the ammunition you need to argue with me or any other well informed Ron Paul supporter and totally bash one of us into the ground. Ron Paul lays out his policies very clearly here, so this is a great chance to take his own words and use them against someone like me to possibly convert me to your way of thinking. =o)
In other words, pretty much every man, woman, and child in America should watch these videos because they, if nothing else, a very informative perspective that is being repressed by the powers that be and will be very useful to you in your engagement in politics and civics.
Without further ado, I present the meetings.
Ron Paul Townhall meeting, Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VQcpmfT0f4)
Ron Paul Townhall meeting, Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxldrCsVByA)
MrZach
01-08-2008, 03:04 PM
Hi - I'm the "Pastor's Son"
Most of the 500 people I sent this out to who have responded so far are young Sen. Obama supporters. It is sad that even when I can get them to agree Ron Paul is so much better than Sen. Obama, they still want to vote for him simply based on the fact that he is "charasmatic and inspirational." How do you fight ignorance THAT deep? Grrrrr...
Anyway, here are the responses I have made to people so far on certain issues. I'm sure they could use some tweaking, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!! It is entirely possible that I have some of my facts wrong since I don't have references for most of the information I cite. If you have good references I can add to places also - please let me know! =o)
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From the issues you listed and your positions on them, it sounds like you are already a Ron Paul supporter, and you just don’t realize it yet! Let me touch on some of the issues you mentioned...
THE WAR ON TERRORISM
Ron Paul is the most educated candidate on the root causes why of terrorism has been focused on the United States from radical Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations. For example, Osama bin Laden’s involvement with Al Quada his ire against the United States came about because of our intervention in the first Persian Gulf war. Specifically, he has cited our support of the Israeli state, building bases on the Arabian peninsula (specifically an air base in Saudi Arabia), and our close ties with and support of the House of Saud (the dictators ruling Saudi Arabia) as the reasons he planned the 9/11 attacks. I have not seen a single candidate indicate any knowledge of this. Check out the following video:
Rudy vs. Ron Paul & David Cross
http://youtube.com/watch?v=K7aFXRAW7mg
Former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, Michael Sheuer, has also pointed out that Ron Paul is the only candidate running who understands the contributing factors to terrorism and how to protect the United States from future attacks. I have a host of videos about Michael Sheuer discussing the issue:
Larry King Live on bin Laden part 1
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_WgqUb8X6AA
Larry King Live on bin Laden part 2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uvEUgSfqZyU
Michael Sheuer on “Inside 9/11”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CTtoHx-ia8A
Michael Sheuer Refutes Rudy
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d-o3oMuwXGY
Ron Paul & Michael Sheuer National Press Conference Part 1
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IkZdn3CTgts
Ron Paul & Michael Sheuer National Press Conference Part 2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mXI0UPld1kU
Ron Paul & Michael Sheuer National Press Conference Part 3
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9isEHq-zPmQ
Ron Paul & Michael Sheuer National Press Conference Part 4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=w0yZ_I9ree0
Remember how we went after the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden? The United States actually supported and armed the Taliban to help overthrow the soviets! The United States helped prop up Saddam Hussein to balance out the Iraq/Iran conflict, and the US even installed the Shah in Iran creating even more blowback against us (a terrorist attack against our embassy in Beirut, Lebanon). In fact, the US has been intervening in the Middle East more and more since the late 1960’s and that perfectly coincides with the increase in terrorism against us. Now, Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who isn’t talking about interfering in Pakistan’s affairs and one of the few candidates who won’t remove a nuclear first strike against Iran from the table of options. What on earth are these other candidates thinking??? They obviously do NOT understand these issues and are going to be very dangerous for our national security!
THE WAR IN IRAQ
First, Ron Paul spoke out strongly against invading Iraq. Specifically, he indicated that it would draw our attention away from finding Osama bin Laden, weaken our national defense, and result in a never ending police action in Iraq. All of these things came true. The man knew what he was talking about.
As far as getting out of Iraq, neither Sen. Obama nor Sen. Clinton will pledge to have troops out by 2013. Additionally, they have not indicated that they would reverse our current plan to build 14 new permanent bases in Iraq. In other words, it seems that “getting out of Iraq” really means pulling all our troops into our permanent bases there just as we did in Germany, Korea, and Japan at the end of those conflicts.
Ron Paul House Floor Speech on Iraq (October 8, 2002)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8TZ5cpaPlf4
We went to war with Saddam Hussein, but since we didn’t declare war as Ron Paul suggested we do (even though he was still against any action), we ended up in this situation. If we had declared war, we would realize that we won the war within the first couple of months when we toppled the Iraqi government and captured Hussein. We could have left then and let the Iraqi people handle their own affairs from that point forward.
On the other hand, the Republican candidates all are in favor of a continued presence in Iraq until “the job is done.” Now that “the surge” appears to be working, they are all lining up to indicate their support and endorsement of the surge. The TRUTH about the surge is that it is only working because it has been coincided with a redeployment of our troops. Troops are being removed from many villages and violent areas and local militia is taking over – and in THOSE areas violence has ceased or stopped completely. So, apparently the “surge” is working only in places where we remove our troop presence. In the south, the violence has stopped – because the British completely withdrew from there! In fact, it is has been unanimously stated by all the disagreeing factions in Iraq that the instability is directly related to the US presence, and that stability can only come when the US withdraws from Iraq completely.
This seems to indicate that Ron Paul’s plan of a COMPLETE and immediate withdrawal from Iraq, including reversing our policy to build permanent bases there is the way to go. After all, one base in Saudi Arabia was enough to incite Osama bin Laden’s ire, and now we are building 14 permanent bases there and no one wants to stop this? If you watched the videos earlier, you saw that experts have concluded that our presence in Iraq has increased Al Quada recruiting so much that they are 7 times larger than they were on 9/11! How much larger will this terrorist organization grow as long as we continue a presence there. Only Ron Paul understands this, and all the other candidates are in stark denial of these facts.
Now, to deal with the idea of having an exact plan during the election to talk about. This goes completely against all logic. Sen. Obama plan (from his campaign website) says that he want to withdraw troops “at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year.” It goes on to say, “He would call for a new constitutional convention in Iraq, convened with the United Nations, which would not adjourn until Iraq's leaders reach a new accord on reconciliation.”
To deal with his first notion – Sen. Obama is not a military operations planner. He is selling a load of BS with this “detailed” plan because it is impossible to create a detailed plan without consulting with the military operations planners who would execute it! This is just a “sound good line” he is selling the American people, and most likely will never happen the way he describes it. The best experts have said that a complete withdrawal would take at least 18 months if that includes removing permanent bases. A presidential candidate, and a president for that matter, cannot plan operational details to this level. Instead, they would formulate a policy and a goal, send that down the chain to the generals who would build a plan or range of options, and that would be kicked back up the chain to the President and the Joint Chiefs who would make a decision. That’s how any large corporation works, that’s how the executive branch of the government works, that’s especially how the military works. Sen. Obama is just exposing his complete lack of experience in all three of these arena by making promises to withdraw in this exact way!
Additionally, why on EARTH does Sen. Obama think we have a right to convention a constitutional convention in Iraq, or that we and the members of the UN would have a say in what they choose to do with their own country? This notion of nation building is old, and it has been a failed policy of the United States for decades in the Middle East – not the “new direction” or “change” that Sen. Obama is promising, but more of the same old failed policy of nation building. Aren’t the Iraqi leaders the only ones who should have a say in the creation of their constitution? What truly sovereign nation has invited other nations in on the process? The US certainly didn’t, and if we expect Iraq to be a sovereign nation that isn’t depending on us for troops, aid, and decision making authority, we have no business in the process of forming THEIR constitution.
Ron Paul on the other hand understands the danger of this completely. He recognizes that we have no business bullying other countries around and telling them how to run their affairs, and he realizes that this only creates animosity against the United States and ultimately we end up going right back into that country years later to topple their regime again because we don’t like what they’re doing and start the whole process all over again. We propped up Saddam Hussein, and we took him down. We propped up Gen. Musharraf as a dictator in Pakistan and send him billions of dollars, and look how well that is working out for the Pakistani people. When will the United States stop creating these horrible situations and just worry about our own affairs and leave other people alone? Probably whenever we wake up and realize that is exactly why we are getting our butts kicked all over the place by terrorists. OR when Ron Paul is elected president.
HEALTH CARE
This is a great issue for Ron Paul, because he is the only candidate who is a medical doctor and understands the healthcare issue inside and out. Ron Paul correctly points to the fact that healthcare for the middle class and underprivileged was not an issue 50 years ago because the government and corporations were not involved in health care. Doctors worked independently, could create contracts with their patients, costs were extremely low, and doctors were able to make enough money from their patients who could afford care that they could work out a graduated pay scale for poorer patients and offer free service to those who couldn’t afford health care. And they did!
Dr. Ron Paul was one of those doctors. Even after medicare and medicade were started, instead of accepting taxpayer dollars from the government, Dr. Paul gave free service to patients on those plans or worked out a generous discount payment plan. This is a man who is extremely compassionate and cares deeply for making sure everyone in America has access to the best health care available, and only he understands how this will be possible.
Dr. Paul correctly points out that it was when the government started passing legislation at the behest of corporations and insurance lobbyists, that the cost of health care began to sky rocket – and that money wasn’t even all going to the doctors – it was mostly going to the corporations and insurance companies! Out government propped up the flawed system we have today, and now our politicians are calling for more government involvement with health care as a solution? It is interesting that most of the campaigns of these individuals have taken large donations from health care corporations and insurance companies, don’t you think? You think these donations are to help someone get elected who is going to dismantle the system that is making them so much money? Probably not.
Dr. Paul has also correctly pointed out that only the industries that the government regulation and/or management are the industries that prices do not decrease as technological advances are invented. Better technology has made your cell phone, iPod, laptops, automobiles, etc. cheaper and cheaper – despite inflation! On the other hand, technological innovation seems to make health care more expensive! As Gov. Huckabee pointed out in the ABC debate, “It’s about a thousand dollars for a Kleenex in a hospital now.”
Exactly! And why is this? If you really want to see poor people and middle class people receive health care, you want a president who will help get rid of all the legislation that benefits the insurance industry, the large corporate health care programs, and expensive and wasteful bureaucracy that government has created and drives up health care costs. Once the markets are opened up and it is legal for doctors to contract directly with their patients, competition will drive down the costs of health care, and everyone will benefit. Since I took the class with you, I KNOW you know enough about economics to understand how this is going to work.
Government run health care also places a price ceiling on a non-free-market system and this only causes a shortage of care and a backlog of patients – which only reduces quality to serve every patient! This is exactly what is happening in Canada, the UK, German, and France! They wait in line forever and then they get horrible care anyway, so it is actually worth it for many to spend the extra money to fly to the US and pay a doctor here from their pocket just to get quality care – even in our overly expensive system! And we expect things to get better if we adopt the programs of these other countries?
Dr. Paul knows this issue inside and out, and he knows how to solve it – by giving doctors and patients full control over the process and getting corporations, insurance companies and government away from it. This is the only way to insure everyone in America can afford health care.
He speaks at this at length in the town hall videos. Here are the links again:
Ron Paul’s Manchester Town Hall Meeting, Part 1
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WxldrCsVByA
Ron Paul’s Manchester Town Hall Meeting, Part 2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8VQcpmfT0f4
VETERANS
Part of the problem with health care for veterans is the fact that government runs it. This is the same government we want to run ALL our health care, but apparently we want the same government to run health care for all of us.
Dr. Paul is also a veteran, so he has some very strong feelings about this issue, and a record to prove he is the man to get the job done. He served as a flight surgeon for five years when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. Dr. Paul has spoken out greatly against our government’s mistreatment of veterans, and has helped obtain medals for hundreds of deserving veterans, aided thousands of veterans with health care and pension problems, and fought for benefits for veterans exposed to Agent Orange. He is also a leading advocate for POW/MIA families and wants the Department of Veteran Affairs to commit more resources to finding every last missing soldier in the world, something that has been largely ignored.
Ron Paul has promised to reform the VA, give employers a tax credit for hiring veterans, narrow the pay gap that exists between military and private sector pay scales, restore health coverage to retired service members, allow veterans to receive BOTH disability and retirement pay (which currently isn’t happening), and establish a House Select Committee on POW and MIA affairs. His main thing is ending the requirement that disabled veterans give up their military retirement pay in order to receive VA disability benefits. This has always been one of Ron Paul’s top priorities during the 10 terms he has served in congress since 1976, and it will be one of his top priorities if he were elected president. No other candidate apart from John McCain has such an amazing record of being a hero for veterans.
GLOBAL WARMING
I’m pretty burned out typing, so I’m going to just direct you to Ron Paul’s page on this issue:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/environment/
Just to let you know, however: In several countries in Africa, they have experimented with privatizing reservations, and the land occupied by endangered species. This actually led to the restoration of these lands and, get this, the INCREASE in the population of these endangered species, even though once illegal hunting of some of these animals is now taking place!
ELECTABILITY and THE MYTH OF THE WASTED VOTE
I think your final statement was that Ron Paul doesn’t stand a chance against any of the Democrats or John McCain and that he is not well known enough to win the people’s attention. Well, I hate to tell you this but no one had a clue who Barack Obama was four years ago and Ron Paul has been around a lot longer than he has. What boosted Sen. Obama’s know ability factor? The media. That’s pretty much it. On the other hand, the media has consistently ignored Ron Paul, but he has gained significant ground, thanks in part to being censored at the Fox News debates. He has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher twice, Larry King Live, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno twice (tonight was the second time), and every debate except some of the early ones because they were excluding him but couldn’t justify it anymore because of the rise in his poll numbers.
Someone once said to me said, “He is not well known enough to win the people’s attention, that is why he is not in every debate.” That is simply not true. Early on, this was slightly true, but now that is absolutely not true. He is polling better than Rudy and Thompson in New Hampsire, he finished higher than Rudy in Iowa, he even is polling higher than Thompson in some national polls, and he has raised the most money of all the Republican candidates in the last quarter – actually, two, three, and four times more! He actually raised almost exactly what Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama raised last quarter. The debates have nothing to do with him being liked by people or recognized – candidates are INVITED to the debates by private media organizations organizing them, and those organizations are CORPRATLY sponsored. It is the big corporations who are afraid of Ron Paul restoring personal liberty to Americans and ending their reign of government subsidized rule over our lives who are keeping Ron Paul out of the debates.
Check out tonight’s Leno show and decide for yourself. Seriously, it is as plain as day what the issue is.
Ron Paul took 10% of the vote and was within 3 points of McCain and Thompson in the Iowa Caucus, and Rudy who only took 4% of the vote! This is INSPITE of the fact that he only receives 15 seconds of news coverage for every 90 minutes Rudy is on the air. I worked with the campaign in Iowa and spoke with thousands of Iowans who all are very well aware of who Ron Paul is. I attended two caucuses. In one Ron Paul received a 2nd place finish behind Gov. Romney and in the other, he took 3rd place behind Gov. Huckabee and Gov. Romney by ONE vote. I happen to know that there was a disastrous technological failure in the campaign headquarters that crippled the essential “get out the vote” phone drive that every campaign does (calling all their identified supporters in the state on the night of caucuses and making sure they go out to caucus and providing rides to those who have trouble getting out). Not only was Ron Paul’s campaign that did not execute this drive because of the system crash in their campaign headquarters, I actually spoke with more Ron Paul supporters who liked him best but “didn’t think he had a chance of winning” than I did with supporters of any other candidate – and this was in the western counties of Iowa where Gov. Huckabee finished strongest! I believe that it is very safe to say that if the campaign executed its get out the vote, AND if every person who actually liked Ron Paul best went out and voted for him, he would have finished 3rd place in the state for sure, and possibly even finished 2nd – most people who didn’t think he could win were voting AGAINST Gov. Romney or Gov. Huckabee.
In fact, Ron Paul is the only candidate to have won an entire county in Iowa besides Gov. Huckabee who won all the rest. The grassroots there organized some very interesting tactics which are already being adopted by grassroots here in South Carolina and other primary states and will have a very significant impact. I’m sorry I can’t share the details with you, but I’m sure you will start to see the results.
Ron Paul’s campaign is picking up HUGE momentum, and since Illinois is a super Tuesday state, it is essential that every supporter of Ron Paul get out and vote for him to show the nation who they think the best candidate is. Ron Paul is tied with Gov. Huckabee in all the New Hampshire polls – in fact, he is polling slightly better – however when all the news organizations reported all the polls, the excluded Ron Paul’s name from the list! No wonder people think he can’t win! No wonder you don’t know much about him! He is being censored! Despite everything being stacked against him, his message is getting out, and best way that you or anyone else can get that message out is to VOTE for him! If you vote for someone else whom you don’t actually prefer, you are wasting you vote and violating your integrity. It is that simple.
Finally, in respect to being competitive with the Democrats. I can’t keep track of the number of articles from reputable news sources that have indicated that the closest race would be one of Ron Paul against Barack Obama or any of the other Democratic candidates. In fact, all the other Republican candidates are the ones who don’t stand a chance against the democrats! Thousands of anti-war republicans have defected from the Republican party because they didn’t like George W. Bush and the fact that the “front runners” in the party were all for the war and a continued presence in Iraq. These guys are all going to get creamed against an anti-war Democrat, plain and simple.
On the other hand, Ron Paul doesn’t have that problem because not only does he want us out of Iraq, but he wants us out of Korea, Germany, Japan, and the other 130 countries we have our troops stationed around the world where they don’t belong. This is EXACTLY what democrats want, but Ron Paul is offering it to them better. Truth be told, tens of thousands of democrats are defecting to the Republican party JUST to vote for Ron Paul in the primaries – and remember, this is with his already extremely low media exposure.
If Ron Paul won the Republican nomination, the whole “not well known enough” factor would be completely irrelevant. There would only be two candidates in the race, and “equal coverage time” requirements for the news organizations would be strictly enforced and America would know all too well who Ron Paul is and what he stands for. Some of the same polls that show all the GOP candidates losing to Clinton/Obama/Edwards have even shown that he would BEAT all three of them in a 1 on 1 race. Why do you think this is? Well, because instead of being the “radical” that the media tries to paint him as, Ron Paul is the most moderate and centrist of all the candidates running for election right now! He holds broad appeal to Republicans and Democrats, and again, in Iowa, Ron Paul actually took 29% of the independent vote – higher than ALL of the other Republicans. I already told you why the rest of those independents probably voted for the other candidates – because they believed the media’s lies about him being unelectable and voted against someone else rather than for their top choice. In and one and one race, this simply couldn’t happen: He would take in a HUGE portion of the independent vote.
Don’t be a victim of the biased media, and all the lies and spin that politicians are trying to sell you. You’re well educated, and you are totally equipped to understand how these issues work in reality and are able to reject the lies of these politicians who most of the time are changing their positions on the issues just to get the most votes possible. John McCain said of Ron Paul, “He is the most honest man in politics.” – John McCain said that. He obviously never thought he would be running against him in a presidential election. Even if Ron Paul does not get the Republican nomination, do you really think that the candidate you are planning on voting for is going to win or lose by just one vote? In the case of Ron Paul, every vote counts – especially if he doesn’t win – since each and every vote will send a clear message to the rest of America that we want what Ron Paul has to offer, and all the other candidates who like to adopt “electability” positions better listen up and start adopting Ron Paul’s message. Make your vote COUNT. Please don’t waste your vote and vote against your integrity for someone you don’t believe in as much as Ron Paul.
Actually, it’s already happening. Check it out:
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS182557+07-Jan-2008+BW20080107
Make your vote count. Take responsibility and vote for liberty, and let fate, not the media, decide the rest.
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