Ron Paul

AlterNet's Joshua Holland has a piece about Ron Paul and his supporters that's worth a read. I'm not a Paul supporter, and instead of explaining to you why, here's a piece from the article that really explains everything:

Paul's proposed a number of court-stripping measures, shutting the courthouse door to discrimination suits based on sexual discrimination; he's tried to prohibit the government from mandating a minimum wage; he's tried to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees that workers on federal projects be paid a prevailing wage, and the Copeland Act, which bars kick-backs on federal projects; he has proposed freezing Social Security benefit levels and making the program fully optional, which would effectively destroy it; he has opposed measures that promote more voter participation; he would repeal key parts of American anti-trust law, gutting it; he's tried to deauthorize most federal agencies' regulatory powers; he's tried to eliminate all affirmative action programs; he's proposed altering the 14th Amendment to prohibit the children of immigrants from gaining citizenship; he's proposed eliminating or gutting a variety of environmental legislation; he's tried to kill the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and submitted legislation that would pull the United States out of the United Nations 12 different times; he has tried to eradicate the Department of Education, offered legislation to end federal involvement in educating kids; and he has proposed, at various times, the abolition of most taxes on wealth as well as income and the establishment of a flat tax. All of this is legislation that he not only supported, but proposed or co-sponsored.

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Thanks to the wonderful Crooks and Liars for this (it's real, by the way):

China warning Italy about Dalai Lama

China has issued a warning to Italy about the Dalai Lama's future visit. This shouldn't shock anyone since they throw a hissy-fit every time someone meets with him. I love it when world leaders meet with him anyway, but hate that they don't publicly stand up to China.

Candidate: Donald K. Allen

Donald K. Allen is a little-known independent candidate in the run for the 2008 presidency. A veterinarian who's been involved with the military, he has a lot of strong views about this country and how he plans to improve it. His ideal America: "My vision of America is a Christian nation with English as the national language, strong in defending our beliefs and steadfast in our moral convictions."

He also feels that not being a politician will allow him to speak more clearly to the American people. "Perhaps not being a politician is a good thing today."

Government/Military
Allen wants to reform Congress. He says there needs to be term limits to "instill new growth" in both the House and Senate, and riders (what he calls "earmarks") need to be made illegal. He also promotes a Presidential line-item veto. National referendums on issues that matter to everyone is also in his plans. Overall, he plans to take away some of the power that Congress has accumulated.

He supports the FairTax system (no federal income tax - higher sales taxes) since he believes there are too many people who work under the table.

"Everyone should go through some form of compulsory national service in his or her life." He wants to give everyone the chance to experience something akin to military/national service. One aspect of this could be reestablishing the New Deal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

As for war, "...we should give our generals free hand (short of nukes) to do whatever it takes to totally subdue the enemy and its whole populace." He says that, in order to win a war, there needs to be "total unconditional surrender of the entire population or face total destruction," as in the cases of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Holding the entire population responsible is something he believes in strongly, as you'll soon see with his attitude towards the Middle East.

Iraq conflict/Middle East
Allen believes that bringing the troops home will lead to us fighting the same war in Americca, and that "proposing [bringing them home] is only a ploy to appeal to some of our ill-informed voters." George Bush inspires him because of his "determination to 'stay the course' and his strong faith in God." He also feels that there is no reason to think this is a war on oil. After all, how would it be so if it gas prices were still above $3 a gallon?

According to Allen, radical Islamists are the biggest threat to America. He also blames all of Islam: "Roughly 98 percent of Muslims claim that theirs is a peaceful religion, and that the radical 2 percent are murderous villains. What, then, prevents the 98 percent from eliminating that 2 percent themselves? Is it passive acceptance of the radicals, or unspoken support of their actions?" He believes that Islam is doomed to violence.

He shows little sympathy to Muslims who are not terrorists. "...as President I would guarantee to the Muslim world that if any of their faith were responsible for the detonation of a nuclear device in this country, they could immediately expect a similar fate for two significant cities." Also, he suggests using "pig fat as a lubricant on all US military bullets."

Immigration/Mexico
Mexico is helping illegal immigration. Allen wants to finish the massive fence on the border. He feels that our economy rests on the back of cheap immigrant workers doing the "dirty" jobs here in America, but that all immigrants need to be documented and tracked at all times.

One interesting bit that Allen proposed is to pay unhappy American citizens $25,000 to "leave and never return." He put emphasis on the "never return" part, which leads me to believe that he means not even being able to come back to see loved ones. According to Allen, it would "probably save billions in future support for these malcontents." However, due to Mexico's help of illegal immigration, Americans leaving would not be able to relocate to Mexico or Central America.

Social issues/Civil liberties/Rights/Freedoms/Environment
Believes that racial profiling is necessary to protect America. "...keep your eyes wide open for young Middle Eastern men and women. What is really wrong with that?" He doesn't say whether this applies to all people of Middle Eastern origin or to foreigners visiting the USA.

Donald Allen is against the separation of church and state, and believes organizations like the ACLU is akin to the communists in the east and that they are trying to "obliterate any reference to God." Because America was founded on Christian principles, we should go back to that. All that we're protected against in the Constitution is the freedom to practice our own religions and protection from the government declaring a state religion, not the abolition of Christianity.

Claims that there aren't any real infringements on civil rights because unless someone is doing something wrong it's not a big deal.

Personally believes abortion to be "one of the most horrible things mankind does to itself." Believes that many women are irresponsible and abortion is being used as a form of birth control, although he understands that there are cases of rape or health where abortion might be necessary. Also believes that if a woman seeks a second abortion, "she is in serious need of sex education and responsibility, maybe even psychological intervention. I can understand one 'accident,' but the second is pure stupidity."

His plan for healthcare involves a "loser pays" system in which the loser of a lawsuit would pay the costs of both sides, making people unwilling to sue doctors/hospitals. People also need to learn to take care of minor illnesses themselves at home. He would also require pharmaceutical companies to charge Americans the same price as they do people in other countries, and would try to establish "one world price."

War on Drugs: All elected officials, teachers, doctors, and health care workers should have drug testing. Sellers would face very harsh sentencing and the names of buyers would be published. "Our drug users should move to Holland."

Allen feels that minorities should stay out of the picture so as not to give the majority a "culture shock," at least in the case of sexuality. "I much preferred the days when [homosexuality] wasn't constantly thrown in your face."

He would ask teachers what they think can be done to improve our educational system. He's also concocted a program which would allow anyone entrance to college. This system would consist of students initially paying tuition, and at the end of the semester they would be reimbursed until the graduated.

Repeatedly makes a case against liberals and the liberal media. "Much of our news media has become a political arm of the opposition party, and it only publicizes that which serves their agenda to discredit the reigning administration." He blames the liberal media for making "other nations view us as 'heavy-handed' and arbitrary."

He also plans to ban puppy mills because the conditions are terrible, but says nothing about the conditions of animals in factory farming.

He's a proponent of independence from foreign oil, and would be willing to offer a $1 billion prize to whomever could make that happen. "They cycles of global colling and warming occur without our approval, and virtually nothing can be done to change or alter these trends." However, he thinks something can be done to diminish pollution levels.
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Electability (on a scale of 0-5): 0. I can't see a single way this man will be elected.

My Analysis: I couldn't get past the prejudice surrounding the Middle East and racial profiling. Also, his view that some women use abortion as birth control is demeaning to all women. I had a few questions to ask him, but since there wasn't an email contact on his site, I'll post them here:

1. You say that it's ok for racial profiling for "young Middle Eastern men and women" because otherwise it's a waste of time and money and that it wouldn't take away their civil liberties because they aren't American citizens. What about American citizens who are of Middle Eastern origin? Wouldn't they be hurt by such a policy?

2. You're against puppy mills because of the treatment of the dogs, but how do you feel about animal agriculture (factory farming)? One can argue that these animals are kept in much worse conditions than dogs in puppy mills, with many animals kept in close spaces to one another for example.

3. You say that all Muslims are accountable for actions of any of their members. Does this also apply to Christians that blow up abortion clinics? Should we bomb two of their churches?

Further Information:
Official campaign site

Previous profile:
Steve Adams

Internet Freedom

The last year or so has seen the internet becoming far more privatized, and user's freedoms are being taken away. This is a video from FreeSpeech.org.

Republicans trying to trick people...again

The Republican party is starting to become a joke, although it's a scary joke. The things they're doing to gain power is getting frighting. Below is a video from CBS News discussing how California Republicans are trying to reform the way the state's electoral college votes are given out, meaning that even if a democrat wins the popular vote republicans would still get some electoral college votes. You don't have to look deeply into this to see through it - if they were serious about reforming election, they wouldn't working only in California. After all, it's not the only state that votes Democrat. The difference is in its size and number of electoral college votes. And using sick kids to con people into signing their petition is just low.

Misheard Lyrics: Yellow Ledbetter

You gotta love incomprehensible rock songs.

The other side of global warming

Even though most people now agree that global warming is more than likely our fault, it's always good to have basic knowledge about skeptic's views. It's the only way to effectively debate something.

Unfortunately, some articles making the argument against humanity's involvement in global warming resort to bashing liberals and hippies. Thankfully, however, HowStuffWorks has a fantastic article that explains in very basic terms what climate change skeptics believe. It's not very long (don't be discouraged by the four pages), and I highly recommend it.

Are Climate Skeptics Right?

Anytime I mention climate change skeptics, I always find myself saying the same thing. And this time's no different. I love differing opinions, they create an opportunity to really understand something and investigate it. But I fear that the people trying to convince people that global warming is either not real or not caused by humans are almost working against the environment in a way. If global warming isn't real or there's nothing we can do about it, what's going to drive people to change their habits. If, in 20 years, global warming is proved wrong (which I doubt), what's so bad about having invested in clean technology? Our overall lives will still be better. Whether or not you think global warming is real, you still need to be concerned about pollution and the state of the environment.

Prepping kids for drugs

Every once in awhile there's a product put on selves that boggle minds and make us wonder who on earth came up with such an idea. That's how I feel about new Ice Breakers Pacs mints that look like drugs.I actually think it's hilarious, but what company would try to sell this to consumers. I mean, they'd have to realize that parents aren't' going to be too happy with their kids using something that so much resembles cocaine.

thanks, Neatorama