He's already come out against federal civil rights laws, federal environmental laws, federal gun control laws, the 14th Amendment, foreign aid, and participation in international organizations such as the U.N., World Bank and IMF. Now he's taking a stand against what he perceives as another threat to liberty. He's saying that his fellow Kentuckians who either work as miners or live near coal mines should not be protected by federal mine safety laws. His reason? He doesn't know anything about mine safety, and he hopes to be a senator. Therefor, senators should have no say in the matter. Read:
"The bottom line is: I'm not an expert, so don't give me the power in Washington to be making rules."
If that logic sounds a bit twisted, try this on for size. His solution for making mines safer is to "try" to regulate it locally. And if that doesn't work ... well, that's where he gets a little fuzzy.
"You live here, and you have to work in the mines. You'd try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don't, I'm thinking that no one will apply for those jobs."
He first says that, if you live in the mining areas, you have to work in the mines. Then he says that, if his idea of regulatiing them locally fails, just don't work in the mines.
Yeah. He's really thought this through.
About last April's disaster in Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine, the one where the gross negligence of the management led to the deaths of 29 miners, Paul had this to say:
"I know that doesn't sound … I want to be compassionate, and I'm sorry for what happened, but I wonder: Was it just an accident?"
He's right to be concerned about not sounding compassionate. Paul is taking the exactly the same line that Massey Energy has been taking. Contradicting unbiased experts on the subject who have determined that Massey's recklessness caused this tragedy, Massey has been summoning the families of the dead miners into private meetings where they have tried to bully them into accepting this "just an accident" line. (Read here.) Paul chooses to take the word of these completely biased mine owners over the objective science presented by the experts. Of course, the experts are agents of the federal government, which to Paul may mean that they are secretly trying to promote socialism. If Rand Paul fails to be elected to the Senate, he might consider going to work for Massey.
Rand Paul, still reeling from interviews in which he advocated the politically extreme position that businesses should be free to discriminate based on race, has given an interview in which he advocated completely eliminating the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to those born in the U.S. Interestingly, this interview was with the quirky Russian television network Russia Today, which broadcasts a lot of odd, far-right political opinion in a pseudo-news format. (By Russian, I mean that it's sponsored by the Russian government. It broadcasts in English via cable.) That's how far afield Rand Paul now has to go to avoid being asked about the Civil Rights Act.
Is this the strategy of his new campaign manager, Jesse Benton? Remember, Benton was the communications director for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign, so it would make sense that media image building would be his focus. Benton probably looked at the options, saw RT and said, far-right, outside the echo-chamber, not highly visible, let's go for it. And maybe, just maybe, RT agreed in advance not to ask about the Civil Rights Act or BP comments.
In spite of being limited by his new campaign manager to this carefully chosen safe forum, Paul still manages to put his foot in another whopping pile of crap. His problem isn't just bad political instincts, it's that his views like those of his father are truly crazy. These aren't just unforced errors. These are the man's core beliefs.
Listen at 9:20 of the video below. He even spells out a motive for opposing the 14th Amendment. He worries out loud that "it helps the Democrats".
In addition to advocating gutting the Constitution in this interview, Paul also gets the facts of the attempted Times Square car-bombing wrong, advocates that the U.S. install an underground electric fence along the entire border with Mexico, and says he wants the U.S. to leave the IMF, World Bank and U.N. He's concerned about the U.N. leading armies in battle, although he makes a point of clarifying this by saying that he "likes diplomacy".
Outraged at Rand Paul's poor performance on the Rachel Maddow program last week, during which Paul came out against the Civil Rights Act's ban on racist discrimination by public facilities, Ron Paul advisor Michael Scheuer has written a bizarre screed which actually goes so far as to make the case for armed rebellion against the U.S. government. (Read here: Maddow and the Obamas: Killers of hope, spurs of rebellion | Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention.com.) Scheuer writes that Maddow's interview of Paul was an "attack", then goes on to describe Maddow as an "extremist" and an advocate of "a warmed over version of the 1920s’ Bloomsbury ideology: effete, secular, socialist, pacifistic, elitist, and libertine." He writes that "(a)nyone disagreeing with her ... is not just wrong but perverse, racist, badly educated, antiquarian, and could only come from the scum of the earth". (I suppose he means that these anti-Maddow anti-elitists are regarded or portrayed in this manner, not that he believes this to be true.) He also writes that Maddow advocates that the U.S. "lap up humiliation from Israel and Mexico".
Scheuer goes on to oddly single out Michelle Obama for condemnation as an "elitist", citing as evidence only Mrs. Obama's statement that she was proud of her country for nominating a black candidate and the fact that she attended ivy league universities.
Typical of the tea party right and Ron Paul supporters, Scheuer goes on to make much of the fact that some presidential appointees are referred to as "czars", although Scheuer seems to mistakenly believe that this is an innovation of the Obama administration. In fact, this harmless term of art for an appointee who heads some significant office but does not require congressional approval, was an innovation of the FDR administration. It doesn't refer in any way to elitism, arbitrary exercise of power, socialism (!), or any of the other absurd imputations made by the teabag right. In fact, the George W. Bush administration had far more "czars" than the Obama administration does. (Read here.)
Scheuer then runs through a laundry list of far-right talking points, along the way calling the American Medical Association "murderers for hire" because its members "have murdered... more than 47 million unborn Americans".
He calls upon private citizens along the border with Mexico to take up arms, writing that they should
arm themselves to protect their kith and kin against the brigands flowing across the southern border and the federal officials eager to prosecute U.S. citizens and defend the brigands.
Don't be distracted by Scheuer's antique vocabulary. He's saying that private citizens should take military action against people they believe to be illegal immigrants, and, astoundingly, against federal officials! How Scheuer expects federal authorities to protect the border while under attack from his band of amateur border agents, he doesn't bother to explain.
After running through his extremist bill of particulars against the "elitists" he thinks are ruining this country, singling out both the federal government and "Hollywood" for particularly strong approbation, Scheuer offers a modest proposal for a solution. Revolution. He recruits two of America's greatest revolutionaries as posthumous (and therefor involutary) supporters for his cause: Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson.
So what can Americans do when words, appeals, patience, demonstrations, elections, and petitions have long lacked impact; have no current impact; and appear to have no chance of future impact? That question is yet to be decided. But in thinking about such things, one can fruitfully turn to the Founders. In the great stock of wise guidance they left for posterity, for example, one finds powerful and sobering words written by John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson in 1775. After describing Britain’s flagrant violation of the colonists’ rights, and recounting the King’s refusal to hear and rectify the colonists’ repeated and peacefully presented grievances, Dickinson and Jefferson wrote a paper that, in part, said:
“We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of [the king's] irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we have received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness that inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them. …
With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, [and] the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ [them] for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die Free-men rather than live Slaves.”
As Americans move forward, then, their heritage as free men; the responsibilities imposed by their duty to posterity and the Declaration of Independence (1776); and the Founders’ wisdom together constitute a formidable arsenal for fueling a campaign that seeks peaceful political change by any and all possible means, or – as a very last resort — armed redress of grievances. It also is an arsenal that is timeless and indestructible; it cannot be invalidated by the words or actions of our coercive political elites and their media and academic apologists. Whether and when Americans draw on this repository of sanity, self-reliance, courage, and liberty to restore the constitution is up to them.
And, by the way, Dickinson and Jefferson entitled their paper “A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.” And far from being the conclusion of just the two men, the paper was published by the Continental Congress on 6 July 1775 — in the name of all Americans.
I guess that Scheuer was pretty upset by Rachel Maddow's interview of Rand Paul if he resorts to calling for the armed overthrow of the government in reaction.
Interestingly, this extreme, irrational reaction has garnered support among a certain sector of the electorate who are more comfortable with doctrinaire explosions such as this than they are with rational political discourse. I refer of course to Ron Paul supporters. At the official forum of the Ron Paul presidential campaign in exile, known alternately as the "Ron Paul Forums" or "Liberty Forest", Scheuer's column has gotten raves. (Read here.) It's a special breed of patriot and "Constitutionalist" who calls for the overthrow of the government when their candidate performs badly on television.
Following up on my earlier post about mutual support between the Hutaree Militia and the Ron Paul / Rand Paul campaigns, here's something that should have been included in that post. The video below is from last Saturday's pro-gun rally at the State Capitol Building in Frankfort, Kentucky, at which the featured speaker was Rand Paul who's running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator. The video features a speaker accompanied on the dais by several men heavily armed men dressed in camouflage fatigues with Rand Paul stickers. They are not with the police or military. They are members of the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters Militia ("OVFF"). The speaker describes himself as a "colonel" of that organization. Watch this:
"This latest forced health care bill, which is really about people control, the same thing as gun control, is the modern day equivalent of the 1765 Stamp Act, its only more disastrous to our freedom, living, way of life, etc… History it seems is ready to repeat itself. After a long and costly civil war that is imminent and sure to be forced upon us, we are taking note of those who are responsible for the treason, and they will be held accountable. I advise the press to start getting it right from this moment on, and stop aiding and abetting un-American activities. Like the Tories of old, the worst shall be hung,"
The "Freedom Fighters" cite as a hero and inspiration Charlie Puckett. (Read here.) Puckett was the leader of the Kentucky Militia and one of the key figures in the militia movement until he was brought up on weapons charges for possessing machine guns and pipe bombs. He later threatened a witness and was charged with felonious witness intimidation. He copped a plea, went on the lam briefly, then turned himself in to serve a 30-month sentence. (Read here.) In spite of his crimes, the OVFF still boast of having worked with Puckett. (Read here.)
In 2001, Puckett told his followers to learn "where every socialist lives, works, etc.," adding that "sooner or later, they will need a big hug and kiss as in Waco." (Read here.) That same year, Steve Anderson, one of his followers, opened fire on a cop who had pulled his car over for having a broken tail light. After a car chase, Anderson escaped and has been at large, considered armed and dangerous, ever since. Searches of his abandoned car and home revealed pipe bombs and a vast arsenal of other weapons. Anderson is an adherent of the Christian Identity movement, which teaches that Jews are descendants of Satan. Prior to his escape, he promoted these beliefs in a radio program called "The Milita Hour". He also used that radio program to advocate killing federal agents. (Read here.)
In the pre-Obama era, the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters Milita seemed to make silly dirty tricks a specialty. Their website boasts that (read here):
"We were involved in many operations in the 1990's, mainly PSYOPS, the most noteworthy was when we infiltrated the radical gun banning group, and the Ky. chapter of Handgun Control, Inc [Sarah Bradley’s people] .Two of our members was assigned to run their booth at the Ky. State fair, where we promptly turned it into a militia recruiting booth."
But they grew increasingly ugly in the Bush years, and have taken a turn toward armed demonstrations and veiled threats of violence since President Obama took office. In September, OVFF members roamed around a Louisville teaparty rally dressed in camouflage fatigues, reportedly armed with AK-47s and handguns. That rally was filled with racist images of President Obama, images of him as anti-Christ and tyrant, and placards and speeches charging that the country was becoming communist -- the ugly stuff seen at many if not most of the teaparties. (Read here.)
With the atmosphere of the teaparty movement in mind, let's remember what OVFF people advocate. They say that they have the constitutional right to take military action against the federal government when it acts in ways they define as tyrannical. Those ways include the normal business of the federal government. They take an oath to act on a war footing with the federal government, under certain conditions, in order to "to return America to the Constitutional Republic our forefathers envisioned". (Read here). Elsewhere, by publishing an absurd bill of particulars written by an Indiana militia leader, they say these conditions now exist (read here). That document, which calls state governments "quislings" of the federal government and warns that we are under the control of the "Bilderbergers", should be read to get a sense of the sheer insanity of this group. They also take an oath to resist federal and state enforcement of a wide range of laws, specifically those limiting weapons possession.
Now add to that the violent anti-Obama backlash of the teabag movement; the fear that their weapons will be confiscated, the fear of communism, or Muslims, or the Illuminati; and the Hutaree Militia arrests. Add to that the legitimization of paranoia by allegedly mainstream figures like Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, Michelle Bachman, and now Rand Paul. Ominously, Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters Militia currently declare themselves to be on high alert for "imminent enemy action", prepared to do battle with the federal government or other enemy with only two hours warning, or as they call it, "Code Orange". (Read here and look for color code here..)
Watching this militia parade around Rand Paul's pro-gun, anti-Obama rally in Frankfort last weekend with their AK-47s, I get the sense that Rand Paul's senatorial campaign is so deeply irresponsible and reckless as to be a public menace. How can the front-running candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky work hand in glove with advocates of armed insurrection?
UPDATE (4/4/10): Members of the OVFF militia used a January 30 Rand Paul rally in Louisville to recruit new members. (Read here.) According to their internet forum, militia members attended the rally in their full militia regalia to seek new members by handing out literature and business cards. The rally took place at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center, and included speeches by both Rand Paul and Ron Paul. (Read here.) According to the posting on the OVFF website, the militia contacted the Rand Paul campaign and got permission from them to pass out flyers at the entrance to the rally site, and to limit their recruiting inside the rally to passing out business cards.
Is anyone else going to this? If so the ORP (objective rally point) is throntons at 4309 crittenden drive, we need everyone at the ORP by 15:00 hours to meet up, tickets to get in are $25 dollars a piece, I talked to a guy from the Rand Paul campaign on the phone and he said we can't pass out flyers on the event grounds but thats fine off the event grounds so We'll probably pass out flyers outside of the event before it starts then go in when it starts. We can also pass out personal business cards on the premises (thats not flyers, but cards with your name and number)
Bring a pen and paper for this.
We need everyone in uniform and looking sharp.
More Details to follow.
A subsequent posting on the website indicates that OVFF members not only handed our flyers at the rally decked out in their militia uniforms and went inside dressed that way, they also met and were photographed with both Ron Paul and Rand Paul. (Read here.)
UPDATE (4/8/10): At 2:52 of the below-embedded video, Rand Paul comments on armed militia particiaption at the Frankfort gun rights rally at which he spoke. He claims that he didn't hear what they said there, and that he rejects their call for violence including hanging journalists who disagree with them. He fails to comment, however, on why he thinks it appropriate for them to participate in his campaign rallies, or for him to share a stage with them.
With respect to the OVFF militia's connections to the Hutaree Militia, look at the following screen shot of the OVFF myspace page. Note the friends listed in the lower right hand portion of the page.
Meanwhile, Stone and his militia have gotten some support from fellow Ron Paul supporters. One, writing illiterately on a forum called the Gold is Money Forum (which is largely devoted to organizing support for both Ron Paul and his son Rand) writes (read here):
what did they do wrong .... all i have read was there in Jail ....... FOR WHAT ......... being arm and ready get you lock up now
At least they're doing something. What are you doing?
And, worse, this post claiming that the Hutaree Militia were guilty of nothing other than being critical of Jews, and that's not against the law.
Worse than that was posted on the Ron Paul Forums, a website maintained by Ron Paul's political organization (read here). The author calls himself "torchbearer":
So this is how the jews felt in germany when the jackboots were rounding them up.
torchbearer ends this and every other of his posts with a link to campaign material for the Rand Paul for U.S. Senate campaign.
Speaking of the Rand Paul for Senate campaign, I found the following video posted in the same Gold is Money Forum that had the supporive messages for the Hutaree Militia (read here).
Rand Paul gave that pro-gun, anti-Obama speech the day before the Hutaree Militia arrests to an audience some of whom were ostentatiously armed with automatic weapons. He said
I'm not armed today, but I feel pretty safe. I feel like I have a private security detail out there.
UPDATE (3/30/10 4:30pm): Another connection. The Hutaree's YouTube page is mutually linked to a Liberty Tree YouTube page maintained by a Ron Paul supporter and apparent Hutaree Militia supporter. (Read here.) That YouTube user, "LibertyTreeRadio", posts videos of Hutaree Militia training, Ron Paul speeches and lectures on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories given in front of a Ron Paul banner. In the video embedded below, which was taken from the LibertyTreeRadio YouTube page, the speaker will tell you that Jews are not actually Jewish but Satanists of Central Asian descent, and that they control the world through the banking system.
Glenn Beck is becoming the model for the Intentionally Obtuse bloc of America's right wing nutcases: At the very moment when it's becoming virtually unanimous -- even on Fox News -- that all this talk about "death panels" is the biggest load of hooey since black helicopters, he host a segment on his Fox News show with Ron Paul's son, Rand, proclaiming the threat of government-sponsored euthanasia real, real, real.
Of course, it came with a Beckerwockian caveat:
Beck: Tell me about – am I wrong in saying, without any inflammatory speech here, don’t call them “death panels”, just let’s call them what they are – you have a certain amount of money, you have a certain amount of people, you can’t -- they don’t -- you can’t give everything to everybody, isn’t it inevitable that you have to make tough choices?
Paul: Well, you know, the president says he isn’t going to pull the plug on grandma, but what I think he really means is, he’s not going to put the plug in in the first place, because you have to decide, some committee’s going to have to decide, what is the cost-benefit analysis for grandma? Grandma is not just your grandmother, she's a statistic, we have to decide, what is the cost to society to keep her alive? And I think she won't get plugged in. Her ventilator won't be plugged in if she's 92 years old, because society may say we don't have the money to do that.
Sounds like someone has been watching Soylent Green...
The neo-Nazis at Stormfront are backing the senatorial candidacy of Ron Paul's son Rand. Jamie Kelso, who goes by the screen name "Charles A. Lindbergh", has posted video of a Rand Paul fundraising speech on the Nazi website.
It looks like Stormfront has been pretty active in supporting Rand Paul. It wasn't just a single post. A google search of the Stormfront website for the term "Rand Paul" gets 367 hits, which can be viewed here. A search of the terms "Rand Paul" + senate yields 64 hits, which can be viewed here. Some of these hits are posts supporting Rand Paul's candidacy or actually organizing on his behalf.
This piece has received a lot of traffic, largely from Ron and Rand Paul supporters. Although some of the comments from Paul supporters disavow racism, a majority of comments have expressed the view that racist organizing on behalf of Rand Paul is unimportant. It is not enough, however, to state that, because Rand Paul does not endorse racism, he can wash his hands of what his supporters do. Racists have a history of using campaigns such as those of Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul as opportunities to recruit new followers. They participate in these campaign precisely because a connection to mainstream politics confers an undeserved air of legitimacy. It seems very clear to me both why it is important for candidates to clearly disavow such support and why it is difficult for some to do so. In spite of what his base of supporters say, I hope that Rand Paul does the right thing and explicitly condemns Stormfront and other racist organizations, disavows their support and returns their contributions. I am not at all optimistic that he will do this; his father did not, when faced with the same situation.
I would also like to address a message to those of his supporters who have posted on the Ron Paul Forum (which is working as a major part of the Rand Paul campaign) comments to the effect that, because my blog's recommended websites area has links to the ADL and SPLC, my motives are somehow suspect. (Read here.) Your form of advocacy on behalf of your candidate tends to create the very fears about his candidacy that you intend to counter.
Regarding an unpleasant aspect of the response this post has received: I have a message for those who think that posting obscene or threatening comments is clever. It isn't. Those comments won't be published here. Neither will any comments that refer in any way to my family. Don't bother trying. The fact that you post these comments anonymously leads me to believe that even you understand that your behavior is shameful. Why not act on that feeling?
UPDATE August 6, 2009 11:00 am
Following up on Roland Dodds' comment that racists support Ron and Rand Paul because their version of federalism would allow local governments the freedom to be racist:
Ron Paul opposes all federal civil rights legislation. He opposes the Civil Rights Act. His advocacy of states' rights is so extreme it includes the right of states to secede from the union. He has testified in court on behalf of secessionists who believe that they aren't legally bound to pay federal tax. He expressed support for New Hampshire militia types who refused to pay a huge tax bill and holed themselves up in their house armed to the teeth.
Ron Paul also pushes the sort of isolationist conpiracy theories the racists do concerning a purported plan for a North American Union, international bankers, Israel lobby, one-world government, etc. -- a sort of post-Cold War version of the old John Birch Society paranoia. He recently reveled that he would support an investigation of the 9/11 truth conspiracy theories but didn't have the time to do it or the stomach for the controversy.
You wonder why these racist groups would support someone like Ron Paul even though he's stopped publishing his racist newsletter columns? Maybe because, in so many other areas, they're in complete agreement.
With repsect to Rand Paul, he seems to be running as a Ron Paul clone. I don't know where he stands on these issues -- maybe you can tell me. It would appear that, at least for Stormfront, they're happy enough with Rand to support his fundraising efforts and offer him a platform to campaign. That seems to me at least to be a warning sign that Rand Paul's views on these issues require close scrutiny.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ron Paul supporters made up for their lack of popular support by gaming the sort of unscientific instantaneous "polls" conducted by TV shows and websites. I put polls in quotes because these barely qualify as polls. They are presented as an unscientific snapshot of the audience's opinion, but they are not even that. They are so easily gamed by an organized group as to be worthless.
This was demonstrated by the Paul supporters, who won virtually all of these polls by wide margins, even as Ron Paul got mostly single digit percentages in the Republican primaries. This led many Paul supporters to allege a conspiracy to rig the vote. It also led to embarrassed explanations from CNN anchors.
Now comes news that Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky, is going down the same path.
So far, Rand is LOSING - 204 - 131 to Grayson! You know what to do!
This post is followed by comments tracking Rand Paul's sudden rise in the "poll" as his supporters game it. The last comment reads:
11:15 am On July 28th, 2009 freeyourmind says:
Trey Grayson 226 44%
Bill Johnson 4 1%
Rand Paul 286 55%
Total Votes: 516
---------------------------------------------------- The revolution will not be televised...
Here's a word to readers of Kentucky.com: I don't know whether or not the revolution will be televised, but I do know that it will not be reflected in instantaneous poll results on Kentucky.com.
(As of 6:00 pm on July 30, Rand Paul is ahead in the "poll" with 3841 votes, 77% of the votes cast.)
UPDATE July 31, 2009 11:00 pm
The Ron Paul campaign admits to gaming the polls in Kentucky to make Rand Paul look like he's doing better than he really is -- right here.
UPDATE August 1, 2009 1:15 pm
A member of the Ron Paul forum has posted the following on that forum's thread about the poll gaming:
"Check out the blogger Adam Holland's "worth reading" list. Meed (sic) I say more?"
