Author Archives: Stephen VanDyke

XKCD infographic of 224 years of Congress

Follow the yellow line on the right to see who had the majority. SOURCE:

Interesting to note that Republicans have only had control of the President, House and Senate for a relatively short period (106th, 108th, 109th) and chose to enact tax cuts rather than repeal government largess. And of course that trend quickly reversed when Obama took office and enjoyed a Democrat majority during which his major “reform” measure was to expand government into the healthcare industry.

Is it any wonder that libertarians find themselves better aligned within the GOP than the DNC (when they aren’t piddling with the always marginalized LP)? One is actually willing to give your money back to you and let the government peons flip out over how to pay for things (ahem, fire some bureaucrats please), while the other eventually succumbs to the reality that Obamacare is a massive tax hike.

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U.S. troops in Afghanistan won’t be able to vote

Due to a plane carrying mail crashing and burning up:

Federal officials say that absentee ballots being sent to U.S. military serving in Afghanistan may have been burned in a plane crash.

A top official in the Federal Voting Assistance Program this week notified election officials across the nation that a transport plane crashed at Shindad Air Base on Oct. 19.

The crash resulted in the destruction of 4,700 pounds of mail inbound to troops serving in the area.

Federal officials in their email to state election offices said they did not know if any ballots were destroyed. They also said the lost mail was limited to one zip code.

But they recommended that election officials resend a new ballot to anyone who requested one since the first ballot may have been destroyed in the crash and fire.

The extent of this “limited to one zip code” nonsense could be a red herring as according to an alert the zip code in question is an air base in Afghanistan:

According to an alert received by the Bexar County Elections Department from military voting assistance officials, the crash of the transport plane at Shindand Air Base in Afghanistan destroyed the aircraft and the 4,700 pounds of mail it was delivering to the combat zone.

Military officials weren’t immediately sure if it was carrying ballots, so they issued the nationwide call to local election officials to see if they may have sent ballots to a ZIP code serving three installations in Afghanistan — Camps Shindand, Farah and Stone, also called Herat.

“If you have sent any ballots to the ZIP code 09382, we recommend you attempt to contact the voter and resend a new ballot, as the first ballot may have been destroyed in the crash and fire,” the alert said.

I suspect it will be nigh impossible to get replacement ballots printed/mailed in time (or local boards of elections to even be notified of the situation), so it’s safe to say a large contingent of troops serving in Afghanistan will not have their votes counted in this very contentious election.

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THE SECRET SAL PACE: Burglary, Multiple Public Urination Arrests, Bench Warrant Bespeckle Rap Sheet

This was forwarded to us (and over 3,500 political observers in Colorado) today by one of Hammer of Truth’s veteran opposition researchers:

Police records obtained by Colorado Peak Politics reveal a long and troubling criminal record for 3rd Congressional district candidate and state Representative Sal Pace (D-Pueblo). His criminal rap sheet reveals two arrests for public urination, one for felony burglary and larceny, as well as a bench warrant for failure to appear on his second public urination charge.

  • March 12, 2004 Pace was pulled over and charged with driving without a valid license, driving under restraint, driving without proof of insurance, expired license plates and suspended license plates. He pled guilty and was fined for the suspended license plate violation.
  • August 15, 2003 Pace was arrested for public urination, his second charge for public urination. He pled guilty.
  • August 29, 2003 A warrant was ordered for Pace’s arrest for failure to appear in court on the public urination charge.
  • April 20, 1996 Pace was arrested for obscene conduct, which Pace has confirmed was for public urination.
  • October 5, 1995 Pace was arrested and jailed for felony burglary in the 3rd degree and larceny, which Pace has said was for attempting to steal from his dorm’s vending machine.

These revelations, barely three months after Pace announced his candidacy for the 3rd Congressional district make Pace the worst vetted candidate since Dan Maes.

It’s one thing to have a criminal rap sheet as a state legislative candidate in a safe district where no one pays much attention to the race.

It’s entirely different to run for Congress in a competitive district with a long and illustrious criminal background that invites comparisons to disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Certainly a bombshell story about Colorado’s 3rd Congressional district candidate Sal Pace’s rather interesting rap sheet. We’re hoping it will be making national news soon, because it’s rather salacious and scandalous.

I think he’s kind of like the R. Kelly of Colorado politics. What will he get caught peeing on next?

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Presidential debates, auto-tuned songified

From the Auto-Tune The News — excuse me, Songify The News — folks down under (Australia, the land where pretty much every animal has killed a human) comes Town Hall Debate Songified:

Everyone’s obviously curious about these “binders full of women” that Romney speaks of thumbing through, and I will affirm that Candy Crowley would certainly not ever be in mine, but whoever did the singing in lieu of her would.

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Are the presidential candidates smarter than a fifth grader?

The Commission on Presidential Debates has held three events so far this year, and I wanted to know if our next commander-in-chief (or the next in line) were able to beat out a fifth grader (hello, pop culture references). I sliced and diced the transcripts of each participant (including the moderators and audience) and ran them through a couple of algorithms.

The Flesch–Kincaid readability test and the Gunning fog index are widely recognized methods for determining the education level needed to grasp subject material — in this case the dialogue transcripts of the debates. The numbers shown indicate the grade level one would need to be able to comprehend each respondent.

The results are presented below:

First Presidential Debate (Denver, Colorado)

Kincaid Fog
Jim Lehrer (moderator) 4.1 8.1
Barack Obama 8.3 11.9
Mitt Romney 5.8 9.5

Vice Presidential Debate (Danville, Kentucky)

Kincaid Fog
Martha Raddatz (moderator) 4.4 7.9
Joe Biden 4.9 8.1
Paul Ryan 4.5 7.8

Second Presidential Debate (Hempstead, New York)

Kincaid Fog
Candy Crowley (moderator) 3.1 6.5
Barack Obama 6.4 10.0
Mitt Romney 5.7 9.3
All audience 7.8 11.5

UPDATE: Added the fourth debate (third presidential debate) and overall scores based on D/R, below:

Third Presidential Debate (Boca Raton, Florida)

Kincaid Fog
Bob Schieffer (moderator) 4.3 7.5
Barack Obama 7.6 11.1
Mitt Romney 5.6 9.0

All Presidential Debates (averaged)

Kincaid Fog
Moderators 3.9 7.5
Democrats 6.6 10.1
Republicans 5.3 8.8

Apparently the moderators are not smarter than fifth graders, and the candidates are barely eking by according to Kincaid standards.

However, it’s interesting to note that the debate audience at the second presidential debate — a town hall format — scored off the charts in smarts compared to all the candidates and moderators.

Maybe we should go ahead and elect one of them.

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LIVEBLOG: Danville Kentucky CPD VP debate

From time to time, here at Hammer of Truth one of us will liveblog a debate or something. This is what it looks like.

On Thursday October 11th 2012, Democrat Vice President Joe Biden met with Republican nominee Congressman Paul Ryan to lay into each other in the new public blood sport democratic process of getting to know our next-in-line to commander in chief. Romney/Ryan are still trailing far behind Obama in projected electoral vote counts, but walked away with a national poll bounce from the Denver performance (mostly due to Obama’s apparent boredom). Jim Gray, the Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate was not invited to attend due to not meeting the required 15% threshold.

An official transcript of the debate can be found here.

All times are in Eastern Daylight Time.

12:30AM (10/12): The Judge Jim Gray debate response livestream archive seems to have been made private for unknown reasons. I’ve reached out to the Johnson campaign to see what’s going on and will let everyone know what we find out. Unfortunately I was busy with the Biden/Ryan debate and have no idea if Jim Gray performed well or not, so I’ll reserve judgement for the moment (others aren’t so kind).

10:30PM: Liveblog portion over, here’s a link to Judge Jim Gray’s live responses (will archive shortly), which should be a source of entertainment to anyone disappointed with either of these D/R VP candidates.

10:21PM: Are either of you embarrassed by the “tone” of negative ads? Biden metaphorically waves a flag for the troops, then smacks Romney around for the 47% thing again. I think he’s missed the point.

Ryan proceeds to do the same thing. Wonderful bipartisanship.

10:15PM Candidates asked about their religious faith. Oh great, the wedge issue of abortion. Ryan says don’t kill babies in America (but gleefully kill them in the Middle East??) *barf*

Biden answers in the affirmative that he’s going to dodge this issue by claiming he’s Catholic pro-life but wouldn’t impose that on anyone else. But he’ll impose death? Yep. Another two-faced fucker.

10:14PM: Ryan asks what his criteria is for waging war. Answers, “strategic national interests of our country” which is diplomatic code for “resources”.

10:08PM: Now on Syria; Biden still angry; Biden wants you to know if it blows up and wrong people gain control the whole region is fucked. Let’s bomb, but not put American boots on the ground. Yes, that wins wars (not). “We are doing it exactly like we need to do to blah blah blah Sunni Shiite regional war. Pew pew pew, shoot more brown people with drones.”

10:03PM: Now Biden is arguing with the moderator over the effectiveness of the surge (bringing them home during the “fighting seasons”). Biden angry, drink. see more…

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LibertyManiacs presents the Veep debate drinking game

I’ll be live-blogging the Vice Presidential debate (sober, unlike the press in Kentucky), but friend of the site Dan McCall of LibertyManiacs has put out a timely rules chart for how you might want to “enjoy” the show the duopoly tag team has in store.

“If you’re going to drink the Kool-Aid, you might as well spike it.” Well said:

Also, one side-show to keep an eye out for is Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate Judge Jim Gray — who promises to make his own stand online by answering the same questions as the other candidates. Go ahead and drink if he mentions “Obamney”, “The Federal Reserve” or that neither party is “following the constitution”.

Yes, that drinking game is much more depressing.

Whether you’ll be drinking or not tonight, brace yourself, the internet is going to be slammed with drunk libertarians and independents…

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Confirmed: You’ll need to be drunk to cover the VP CPD debate

Washington Examiner reporter Susan Ferrechio tweeted the following picture, confirming our suspicions that the media covering politics has to be imbibing large quantities of alcohol to wash down the inanity of presidential and vice presidential debates:

We don’t see anyone giving it back, that would be silly in this economy. And hey, bully on Bulleit for getting their brand out there.

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14% of adult entertainment industry wants “someone else”

Not surprisingly, Obama leads the XBIZ poll with 68% to Romney’s surprisingly fatally low 13% support in the porn industry. This is a shock upset to an unnamed “other” candidate who garnered 14%:

Evil Angel founder John Stagliano, who overcame a federal obscenity prosecution that generated nationwide attention in 2010, pointed to his support of another presidential hopeful.

“The only candidate who protects our right to do business is the Libertarian Party candidate, Gary Johnson,” Stagliano told XBIZ, referring to the former governor of New Mexico who has garnered the most support of any of the third-party candidates heading into this election. “He was the only person dealing with the real problems we have, like war, the debt, censorship and inefficient government.”

Aside from economic considerations affecting voters’ decisions in November, the issue of federal obscenity prosecutions figures to be a major factor for adult film producers. According to the notorious pro-censorship organization Morality in Media, Mitt Romney earlier this year, along with other Republican candidates at the time, offered assurances that if elected, they would direct the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute porn producers for obscenity violations.

Republicans have traditionally been seen as meddlers in the industry, and our long-time readers may remember that primarily adult hosting company NationalNet was kind enough to give Michael Badnarik — the 2004 Libertarian Party presidential nominee — pro bono hosting during the final months of his campaign.

But with over 30% of the entire internet’s web traffic, porn producers could have a more sizable impact on elections than Republicans or Democrats are willing to admit.

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LIVEBLOG: CPD Denver debate

From time to time, here at Hammer of Truth one of us will liveblog a debate or something. This is what it looks like.

On Wednesday October 3rd 2012, Democrat President Barack Obama squared off against challenger Republican Mitt Romney to lay into each other in the new public blood sport democratic process of getting to know our next commander in chief. Romney has been trailing far behind Obama in projected electoral vote counts, so we’ll see if the economy, healthcare, and rule of law questions will work in his favor or against him. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate was not invited to attend despite apparent growing support and a lawsuit against the CPD due to not meeting the required 15% threshold.

An official transcript of the debate can be found here.

All times are in Mountain Daylight Time.

6:55PM: Jim Lehrer had his chair pushed in for him… aww, how sweet of his boyfriend assistant.

7:00PM: Opening remarks on the economy by both candidates, Obama is more interested in making sure we keep looking For war (d) instead of at the past four years of his record. Romney comes out and has a five point plan that focuses on business, but is more about making hay of Obama’s large government programs.

7:08PM: Obama rebuts by saying we need more spending on education.

7:11PM: Obama going after Romney on tax issues. Romney rebuts with “economy tax” that Obama is crushing people with.

7:12PM: Romney “I like coal”. He wants to cut taxes.

7:16PM: Red tie/blue tie, they are both empty suits and we’re officially declaring this debate a loss for America. Why the hell didn’t they invite Gary Johnson?

7:17PM: Romney saw a study on taxes, he’s seen lots of studies. Well then.

7:21PM: Lehrer notes that we’re way over the 15 minute time limit for this segment. Romney starts talking about the price of gas. Obama wants to change the subject.

Man, I wish I could power my car with the hot air these two are spewing. see more…

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Gary Johnson crowd surfing in Utah

Have you ever seen a candidate with such literal support at a rally? Well Johnson is showing he’s actually a rock star that can rely on the people to have his back. {cue groans at puns}

Check out the video.

I’m betting if Obama or Romney tried this, someone would drop them.

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Man making gun parts with 3D printers gets lease revoked, interrogated by BATF

In early August, we presented a novel idea where a DIY maker was able to print upper receivers for handguns using a 3D printer.

Well it seems the manufacturers of Stratasys didn’t like this idea and have revoked a license and physically removed a printer from one customer. From CNet:

Stratasys has voided the lease for the printer Defense Distributed had rented, and sent representatives to physically reclaim it last week.

Further, Beckhusen reports that a visit to the Austin, TX branch of the ATF turned into an unexpected questioning session for Wilson when he went down to investigate the legal requirements of the Defense Distributed project.

Beckhusen also writes that, according to Wilson, “the ATF believes he’s not broken any laws, and that the agency believes 3-D printed guns fall into a regulatory gray area, but that he still needs to get licensed if he’s to manufacture a weapon.

Now legally, making gun parts from scratch isn’t something the BATF is able to regulate unless the parts are made available for sale, but we’re a little surprised that a 3D printer manufacturer would go to such lengths to reclaim a printer.

The lesson here is abundantly clear: if you’re going to use your 3D printers for things that fall into the gray areas of a license agreement (which you should probably read and heavily consider when shopping for printers) — then you’re probably better off keeping your mouth shut or using a pseudonym when sharing DIY schematics online.

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Gary Johnson polls over 10% in Ohio

Great news for Libertarians, people are so disillusioned with Obama and the weak Romney effort that Gary Johnson is making a surprisingly strong showing in the Buckeye state:

Conducted September 21-22, a Gravis Marketing/Capitol Correspondent poll first asked the usual Obama or Romney question, which revealed a tight race. (The full results are here.)

  • Obama/Biden: 45.2%
  • Other/Unsure: 10.4%
  • Romney/Ryan: 44.3%

Then, Gary Johnson was added.

  • Johnson: 10.6%
  • Obama/Biden: 44.5%
  • Other/Unsure: 7.1%
  • Romney/Ryan: 37.8%

Not so tight, anymore. And Johnson’s numbers are up from September 7-8, when he pulled 4.5% in Ohio.

Johnson had optimistically pegged his chances during an AMA with reddit earlier this month, “We really don’t want to peak too early, so we have them right where we want them.”

If the current trend continues, Johnson could be more than the mere “spoiler candidate” this year in many states. Now if only the media would take note of the electorates’ thirst for a truly sane foreign policy.

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Californians buying most expensive website in world

Buried on the second page of a New York Times article on California Health Benefit Exchange’s gung-ho efforts to deliver a yet unnamed portal in preparation for the full effects of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) are the costs:

The exchange itself has so far been financed by three grants, worth $237 million, from the federal government. Most of the money is committed to consultants, including Accenture, which has a $327 million contract to build and support the initial operation of the enrollment portal.

But who’s footing the bill? Only all of California’s nearly 38 million residents:

“It’s all good for consumers,” she said. “But somebody’s got to pay for it, and that’s going to go into the premium.”

Despite the full-throttle approach here, another uncertainty is the outcome of the presidential race. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has vowed to repeal the health care law and restructure Medicaid, not only scrapping the planned expansion but making the program much leaner. Even without a repeal, Republicans could undo the federal subsidies and other financing for the law if they won the presidency and even a narrow majority in the Senate.

“If the federal funding stopped,” Mr. Lee said, “we would be at a ‘press reset’ button.”

Move over $18M recovery.gov 2.0, California is set to dethrone the federal government when it comes ridiculously expensive website boondoggles.

And by the way, Accenture is indeed the same outfit that was previously called Andersen Consulting (Arthur Andersen). The same firm infamously tied to the Enron document shredding scandal is now in charge of delivering the world’s most expensive website to gullible Californians.

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EPA trying to enforce minimum “E15″ gas purchases

What’s the best way to get people to stop bitching about ever-higher gas prices and their fallout in the ethanol market? The EPA seems to think it’s to just jack up the minimum amount people are allowed to buy — to four gallons:

With prices at the pump worrying Americans, Republicans have railed against the Environmental Protection Agency’s new gas mandate that requires consumers to buy at least four gallons when purchasing from stations with hoses containing 10 percent and 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel.

On Monday, Republicans on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Chief Administrator Lisa Jackson criticizing the agency’s approval of the sale of gasoline containing 15 volume percent ethanol.

Specifically, the EPA will require that consumers purchase a minimum of four gallons when buying from a gas station that sells gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol and 15 percent ethanol — also known as “E15″ — out of the same gas pump.

A black market will undoubtedly emerge for people who just need less than four gallons. I look forward to seeing the skeezy onesies pushers, stinking of petroleum as they rush to your car with liters of gold liquid sloshing around in their large jackets.

Ultimately, the EPA will have only themselves to blame when customers find themselves caught between two unfree markets (the gas station tasked with enforcing silly federal laws and the bootleggers ignoring them) and it starts to slowly dawn on them who the lesser of two evils really are in that hilarious instance.

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Gary Johnson urges pullout after embassy attacks

From a campaign release today:

It is tragic when Americans serving their country are murdered, and we both mourn their loss and honor their service.

Part of honoring that service is to ask the obvious question: What U.S. interest is being served by putting our people – and our money – in places where U.S. personnel can be killed by extremists over a video? We launched millions of dollars worth of missiles to bring down Gaddafi, and this is what we get. We hail and encourage the outbreak of an Arab Spring in Egypt, send them billions of dollars we can’t afford, — and our embassy is breached and our flag desecrated.

In Afghanistan, we continue to put our troops in harm’s way 10 years after our post-9/11 mission was complete. Why?

The airwaves are filled today with political chest-pounding and calls for decisive action. The most decisive and prudent action we can take today is to stop trying to manage governments and peoples on the other side of the globe who don’t want to be managed, get our people out of impossible situations that have no direct U.S. interest, and immediately stop sending money to regimes who clearly cannot or will not control their own countries.

Protecting America with a strong national defense and a rational foreign policy is our leaders’ most basic responsibility. But let us not confuse national security with senseless intervention where our interests are clearly not being served.

Or you know, just let tweedle dee or tweedle dum keep putting people in harm’s way, while also stoking the fires of hatred on both sides.

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Gary Johnson’s “America Needs A Handyman” ad

Johnson’s campaign has delivered yet another positive ad in a campaign season characterized by negativity and character attacks.

And what’s that? A Libertarian proving it’s actually possible to fix the shit out of the roads and deliver a freedom utopia (the opposite of a centrally planned hellhole) if Americans will just give them a goddamn shot at the job? Finally.

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Totalitarianism in the US: an “accident” waiting to happen

Clear-eyed “Numerian” over at The Money Party reminds us we’re on a dangerous historical path:

Show trials and party purges

The Republican Party has not yet been able to use the judiciary as a means of enforcing party dictates (other than through the traditional means of stacking the courts with Republican judges). Even though we haven’t had 1930s style show trials in the US, there has been an ominous development this week that has set the Republicans on the path of purges that weed out undesirables in the party. The usual process of the quadrennial political conventions is for the first ballot to be an open ballot, so that all the candidates who have run in the primaries and who won delegates to the convention will allow their name to be placed in nomination and votes counted from their supporters. Even in the case where a candidate such as Mitt Romney has locked up the nomination, this ritual is observed, if only to preserve party unity in the election (the losing nominees after the first ballot “free up” their delegates and urge them then to vote for the winner of the primaries).

This ritual was not observed this week at the Republican National Convention. Ron Paul received a substantial number of votes in the primaries and had a large number of delegates at the convention. The Romney team pushed some of these delegates off the floor and out of the convention quite unceremoniously, using trumped up reasons (with the seating of the state of Maine’s delegates, for example). Then, when it came time for the first ballot, even though the states went ahead and announced the votes for Ron Paul, the chair would ignore those and announce only the votes for Mitt Romney. Worse was to come. The party introduced rules that will make it much harder in future primaries for someone like Ron Paul to get much if any votes. These were put up for voice vote, and even though the nays obviously shouted louder than the yeas, the chair – in this case House Speaker John Boehner, called the vote for the yeas. In fact, people could see the teleprompter Boehner was using, where it clearly instructed him to say the yeas had won the vote no matter what he heard.

This is a classic party purge, and a number of Ron Paul delegates walked out of the convention in disgust (many of them are using the internet to announce they have left the party altogether). For the first time, and despite the fact Romney is in a very tight race for the presidency, party purity is more important than party unity. Once purges begin they are very difficult to end, and since Romney is something of an empty vessel on matters of principle (his policy program is nothing but the trite Republican bromides of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and endless defense spending), it is up to the Tea Party faction to fight it out with the Evangelical Christian faction and the Oligarchic funders of the party to see which side will remain standing.

I put “accident” in quotes for Mr. Numerian because totalitarian fascist pricks tend to look a lot like the mafia. Family above all, turf and homeland. These concepts are evident even among democrats who recently claimed “the government is all we belong to“. Presumably, you eventually can’t leave.

“Nice country/business you got there, it would soy-ten-lee be a shame if anything happened to it. Especially because of those barbaric ________________ [insert current xenophobia-based bogeyman].”

But as Ron Paul kept reminding us: freedom is popular. And thankfully we’re seeing an overwhelming, and undeniable, surge of organized libertarian movers and shakers because of it.

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National Review’s Romney/Ryan cover looks Soviet

Well, we’re officially beyond cynical. Good luck, America!

Yes, it’s very much real.

Favorite facebook retort: “In Soviet Russia, nation reviews YOU!”

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Ron Paul on Leno: jokes of 2016, no endorsement (video)

Ron Paul officially put to bed speculation he would be returning to the presidential stage this year as a candidate — or that he’d endorse any of the remaining candidates — on Tuesday’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

“The system is very biased,” Paul responded when asked by Leno whether he’d give it a shot as a third party or independent candidate.

“We talk a lot about democracy, and send our troops overseas, and want to spread democracy. But democracy isn’t all that healthy in this country. Because if you’re in a third party… you don’t get into the debates. The truth is I had tried to do for the last five years, what I have done, in a third party, I probably wouldn’t have gotten… made it to your show.”

Leno acknowledged Ron Paul’s refusal to be given a speaking role at the RNC last week, asking “If you had endorsed Romney, would you have gotten a speaking role?”

“I imagine I would have,” Paul replied, careful not to mention Romney by name.

Leno pressed for information on how negotiations went down with RNC event managers, Paul explained “the tent was too small and we had too many people.” Asked again if a Mitt Romney endorsement was a prerequisite, he confirmed it was, but “it’s not in writing.”

Leno cracked wise back, “kinda like NBC. Yeah okay, I get it.”

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Libertarian Chair helps explain Paul’s presidential predicament

Libertarian Party Chair Geoffrey Neale, in an letter to members helping allay rumors that Ron Paul was planning to magically take over the LP ticket:

Many supporters of Ron Paul have asked what it would take to get Ron Paul included on the Libertarian Party Presidential ticket. The scenario envisioned by inquirers is either Ron Paul taking the Presidential slot, with Gary Johnson dropping to the VP slot; or Ron Paul replacing Jim Gray in the VP slot.

Either scenario requires certain things to happen, and many have serious implications for the LP Ticket:

First, we have no indication that Ron Paul is interested in or would be willing to pursue such a path. Without such an indication, this really remains an intellectual exercise.

The second consideration is found in our Bylaws regarding the role of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) in relation to our Presidential ticket. Article 14 Section 4 states: “The National Committee shall respect the vote of the delegates at Nominating Conventions and provide full support for the Party’s nominee for President and nominee for Vice-President as long as their campaigns are conducted in accordance with the Platform of the Party.” In short, the LNC does not have the authority under our Bylaws to change the ticket unless “for cause”. No matter how strong an argument is made about the benefits of such a change to our vote totals, our delegates have set strict and strong limits upon our authority.

[...] I certainly can sympathize with the supporters of Ron Paul, and their hopes for being able to vote for Ron in November, but I think the feasibility of the LP being able to do so is difficult, and could be very costly to our Presidential Ticket results, due to the loss of ballot access in so many states. Even a large gain of Ron Paul supporters could be offset by the absence of our ticket on a large number of state ballots.

What I can say with certainty is that there will be a Presidential ticket on the ballot that supporters of Ron Paul can choose to vote for, and I urge each and every Ron Paul supporter to support the Libertarian Party ticket in November. [emphasis added]

With Ron Paul officially giving his farewell to the political race on Leno (both middle fingers metaphorically extended towards the bi-assed party system), not all is lost. Gary Johnson’s campaign may yet pick up some high-profile, willing endorsers now left without a candidate if they get out the lead and realize they don’t need Ron Paul to tell them it’s okay.

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Will Ron Paul make an independent run in 2012?

The Daily Paul has the most wishful thinking opinion pieces up post-RNC:

So we all know Ron is making a special announcement on Jay Leno on September 4th. I know many of us are hoping it’s that Ron is running Indy or third party. Some are hoping he will endorse Johnson.

I just got off the phone with someone very close to Ron and want to tell everyone that a third party run is possible. At this point that is not what the announcement is going to be. It’s also not a Johnson or Romney endorsement, so says my well placed source. Again, take it worth a grain of salt, but I trust that this person is close enough to Ron to know.

Up until know I have believed that there was ZERO chance Ron would run third party. However, after my phone call I believe there is a glimmer of hope. It’s too late for Ron to get on the ballot as an Indy, however Johnson has said in the past that he would step aside for Ron.

Now for the bad news..Ron does not think the grassroots would fully back him because of all of the Rand and Benton bashing that has taken place, but RON would LOVE to make a last major push for Liberty in the presidential debates.

WE HAVE TO TELL RON BEFORE SEPTEMBER 4th THAT WE WILL SUPPORT HIM AND FUND HIM AND BACK HIM. If he knows that, there is still a chance he could change his mind, and if Gary really will step aside for Ron, Ron may take one final shot as a Libertarian. There is no chance Johnson will be anywhere near 15% and therefore no chance Gary is going to be in any debates. However, if Ron is the LP nominee and Gary as VEEP (as much as I dislike Gary, I could accept that) Gary would be debating Biden.

Sadly, Paul supporters (the ones that truly go full paultard) should properly educate themselves about the 50+ different ballot access hurdles before spouting off nonsense like this.

I love that little “not hype” at the end of the headline… pshaaaa! see more…

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HBO’S Newsroom Finale: Republicans in name only

Newsroom, starring Jeff Daniels as anchor Will McAvoy, isn’t pulling punches. But with hindsight super-abilities comes the flip side of preaching to new audiences who were first unaware of any of the facts (quasi-history).

Maybe they were tuned into TMZ, I mean TMI and not the issues of deficits run up by the imperial and christian alliance. But those audiences will look at this and think: “hmm, this looks about right.” Maybe they’ll get interested in getting up and giving a damn about their country direction — realizing it’s they who control that course.

Or maybe they’ll just hate news people a little more and realize what unhappy pathetic people they also are (fictional: feeling sorry for yourself after a hit piece in New York Magazine, oh boo hoo don’t console yourself with your millions… swallow pills).

Sadly enough, Sorkin has done a terrible job giving Ron Paul any credit for his true role as godfather of the tea party (before it was hijacked by every interest group and became a reactionary nationalist movement), relegating him to brief quips on economic issues and once again trudging through the racist views of others that were published under his banner without his knowledge. In a recent episode, going so far as to ironically have the only black man in the newsroom play Paul during a mock debate. The humor and jabs at everyone in the truth industry is indeed the most ironic thing about this show.

Still, I love them for trying to understand the republican narrative that’s developed since the 2008 crash and Obama’s presidency, but that’s the power of a hindsight fictional show far flung from the actual power centers covering the screwups in the news: even they won’t get the story right.

Newsday reviewer Verne Gay writes on the season’s finale:

But I was struck in a couple of instances by what some viewed as the series’ chief virtue — that it offered a candid look at how editorial decisions are made in the newsrooms of major television networks.

I didn’t have the heart to tell those readers, but . . . no, that is not the series’ chief virtue. That doesn’t even belong on the list of virtues. “The Newsroom” is a fairy tale, almost wholly disembodied from the real world of television journalism, even with its real world takes on newsmakers as diverse as Casey Anthony and Grover Norquist.

But Aaron Sorkin, in his defense, isn’t seeking verisimilitude as much as (if I may coin a new word) quasi-similitude, in which viewers are lulled into thinking this is a real world when in fact all Sorkin wants to do is mount an entertaining series and score a few points at the same time.

“The Newsroom” is kind of a Trojan horse of a series, ingratiating itself and then — once inside your head — unleashing its hordes of Sorkian notions of fairness, Democracy, the Tea party, threats to American life (as he sees them), and so on. Verisimilitude be damned.

That’s another way of saying there’s not much accuracy, but it’s entertaining as hell.

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