Thoughts from Kansas : "Impeach Ron Paul"

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Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.

The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.

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« Random NrN moments | Main | "They're tired of war" »

"Impeach Ron Paul"

Category: Policy and Politics
Posted on: July 19, 2008 9:09 AM, by Josh Rosenau

Before the Netroots Nation panel with Nancy Pelosi, we got a chance to get all our protesting out of our systems.

"Impeach Ron Paul" seemed to be the consensus.

Find more posts in: Politics

Comments

is that an inside joke???

Posted by: razib | July 19, 2008 12:28 PM

Some horrific fraction of the submitted questions for Pelosi involved impeaching Bush. There were Code Pinkers making a fuss over impeachment, too. Plus, Ron Paul is a Texan. I don't know that there's more to it than that.

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 19, 2008 2:42 PM

Having a bit of fun, I think. Obviously you can't impeach someone just for being an idiot asshole.

If I were going to pick on Ron, I'd point out that states' rights are the enemy of individuals' rights, and that's how Paul's platform became anti-choice on reproductive rights.

Posted by: suprondroids | July 19, 2008 6:02 PM

But I don't want to fight about that right now http://thestrangebedfellows.com/

Posted by: suprondroids | July 19, 2008 6:03 PM

comment hijinks

Posted by: suprondroids | July 19, 2008 6:06 PM

Ron Paul may be a nutcase on most things but he has some things just right:
The Text of HR 3835

A much ignored bill both by Republicans and by those Democrats who are Republican apologists and enablers.

Posted by: Oldfart | July 19, 2008 6:52 PM

please elaborate on why you think ron paul is a nut case. no one ever explains why they think paul is a nut case, they're using just parroting what they've heard on the lame stream media news programs. everything i've ever heard ron paul say sounds extremely logical and constitutional for that matter. usually, anything he says or does that may seem 'nutty' on the surface can easily be explained when you dig a little deeper. and it always makes sense. ron paul is a true patriot. do your own research and stop listening to the media, they lie.

Posted by: floyd | July 20, 2008 11:14 AM

I'm not questioning his patriotism. I do question the wisdom of a gold standard. I think it's insane and irresponsible to suggest destroying Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

I also don't much care for racists, or people who pander to them, and Ron Paul falls into one category or the other.

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 20, 2008 11:33 AM

The biggest racists are Hillary clinton and Bush for green lighting a war thats killed millions of people, hell all the money wasted on that debacle could have paid for health care for the entire nation. At least Ron Paul didnt give Dubya a blank check for a war back in 2003, and doesnt support the racist war on drugs unlike the republicrats.

Posted by: cooler | July 20, 2008 1:49 PM

#10

then I guess that you do not support the ACLU since they support racist organizations by helping those organizations exercise their right to free speech?

Posted by: Mike | July 20, 2008 3:37 PM

#11

Impeach Ron Paul?! He's not in office. He can't be impeached.

Heck - sometimes I wish he WERE our President.

But, who would impeach a guy who balances the budget and mostly keeps us out of wars?

Oh yeah, now I remember - the same corrupt mainstream GOP nutcases who impeached balanced-budget Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky.

I kinda like Ron Paul, although I don't agree with all of his positions. He's a heck of a lot better at the 'small government' thing than the rest of the current GOP. Of course, Fox and Rush Limbaugh wouldn't let Ron Paul be heard during the primaries.

Posted by: Ruth Sponsler | July 20, 2008 4:18 PM

#12

gold has been used as a currency for much longer than anything else. i'd like to hear why you question the wisdom of a gold standard. i think the current situation with our currency makes a gold standard look 'golden' :) however, paul's idea on this issue is to setup competing currencies. keep the fiat currency we have now and also allow gold. allow competition and i guarantee you the fiat system would not be the system of choice. but at least then we would have a choice instead of having to use these fiat pieces of paper that continue to 'lose' their value. the federal reserve is one of the biggest enemies to the american people and most don't even realize it. inflation is the biggest tax imposed on the american people. bernanke admitted this point in congress just the other day. not to mention, gold is the constitutionally sanctioned currency. i'm so sick of our govt. simply ignoring the constitution. if you want to change it then amend it, don't simply ignore it. it's the SUPREME law of the land. treat it as such.

as for the socialist programs you mentioned, the govt. has to steal that money from someone to give it to another (socialism). but again, his idea isn't just to destroy them immediately. he wants to phase them out slowly because there are people who certainly depend on those programs that the govt. promised to them. judging from your picture on this website you and i both won't see anything from social security. what about us? the govt. plunders this program to pay for their foreign adventures for empire while we suffer. i'm sick of it.

speaking of health care... the cost of health care has sky-rocketed since these socialist programs were introduced. the doctors know they can charge whatever because the insurance companies or these programs will pay for it. in a free market economy prices usually come down due to competition. most people, before socialized medicine in this country, could go to the dr. and pay a very affordable fee for thier ailments. not anymore. why? government meddling.

as for the racist comment, i think you should dig a little deeper. ron paul lists ghandi and dr. king as some of his heroes. when ron was accused of being a racist the pres. of the texas chapter of the naacp came to his defense. ron paul wants to end the war on drugs which is unfairly biased against minorities. again, please explain.

Posted by: floyd | July 20, 2008 7:59 PM

#13

Ron paul also critisizes the federal reserve, before the Fed were were barely in debt and Andrew Jackson eliminated the debt and the central bank, since the Fed in 1913 weve had the worst depression in history and our 9 trillion in debt. Biggest Debt ever.

Posted by: cooler | July 20, 2008 11:22 PM

#14

Cooler: Since 1913, we also won two World Wars, thanks in part to the Fed.

Floyd: The fact that people did things one way for a long time is an ass-stupid argument for anything. Slavery was common for a long time, as was monarchy. Also, retirement used to doom people to poverty, now it doesn't. Social Security isn't running out of money: I'll see my payments, thanks very much.

Also, the gold standard wasn't so good for workers: "If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

The rest of you: I don't give a shit about Ron Paul. I do give a shit that this obsession with fiat money is shared by few others than whacked out racists in the militia movement. I give a shit that his newsletter published racist tracts under his name, and that his name is shouted proudly by KKK websites all over. Show me a KKK site fundraising for the ACLU, and I'll grant the comparison.

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 21, 2008 2:59 AM

#15

Josh does a very good job of defending my view of Ron Paul as a nutcase who has some good ideas. The very best you can say about Ron Paul is that he is inconsistent in the quality of the company he keeps and the quality of the people he allows to use his name.

And I did not get my views of Ron Paul from the media, buddy. I got it from researching Ron Paul......

Posted by: Oldfart | July 21, 2008 9:01 AM

#16

well, i would concur with you that doing something simply because people did it for a long time is an ass-stupid argument. however, that's not the argument i was making. gold currency was used for a long time AND worked for a long time. big difference. good luck on those SS payments. don't see it happening.

that quote you have there makes a very impassioned plea against the gold standard doesn't it? interesting quote, which is actually the last paragraph of a speech that was given by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. gotta love google. anyway, i think you should probably read the rest of the speech. the main point of this speech was that Bryan was supporting bimetallism, meaning gold and silver, not just gold (which is also what myself and ron paul happen to support). so, he's arguing for a GOLD and SILVER currency instead of just a gold currency. that little excerpt you have there makes it kind of sound like he doesn't want gold as a currency. quite the contrary it seems...

more quotes from the same speech

"If they say bimetallism is good but we cannot have it till some nation helps us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we shall restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States have."

"We go forth confident that we shall win. Why? Because upon the paramount issue in this campaign there is not a spot of ground upon which the enemy will dare to challenge battle. Why, if they tell us that the gold standard is a good thing, we point to their platform and tell them that their platform pledges the party to get rid of a gold standard and substitute bimetallism. If the gold standard is a good thing, why try to get rid of it? If the gold standard, and I might call your attention to the fact that some of the very people who are in this convention today and who tell you that we ought to declare in favor of international bimetallism and thereby declare that the gold standard is wrong and that the principles of bimetallism are better�these very people four months ago were open and avowed advocates of the gold standard and telling us that we could not legislate two metals together even with all the world."

here's some quotes about the Fed (central bank) from same speech...

"The gentleman from Wisconsin has said he fears a Robespierre. My friend, in this land of the free you need fear no tyrant who will spring up from among the people. What we need is an Andrew Jackson to stand as Jackson stood, against the encroachments of aggregated wealth." (Andrew Jackson got rid of the 2nd central bank this nation has had)

"He says that we are opposing the national bank currency. It is true. If you will read what Thomas Benton said, you will find that he said that in searching history he could find but one parallel to Andrew Jackson. That was Cicero, who destroyed the conspiracies of Cataline and saved Rome. He did for Rome what Jackson did when he destroyed the bank conspiracy and saved America."

"We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government. We believe it. We believe it is a part of sovereignty and can no more with safety be delegated to private individuals than can the power to make penal statutes or levy laws for taxation."

"Mr. Jefferson, who was once regarded as good Democratic authority, seems to have a different opinion from the gentleman who has addressed us on the part of the minority. Those who are opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jefferson rather than with them, and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a function of the government and that the banks should go out of the governing business."

it's actually a pretty great speech. thanks, i hadn't read that before.

you keep trying to associate ron paul with racists but the newsletter thing came out quite a while back and was de-bunked back then as well as again this year. ron paul is not racist. gold and silver would at the very least, be worth trying. the federal reserve is part of the problem. you're not digging deep enough.

Posted by: floyd | July 23, 2008 12:03 AM

#17

Er, slavery and monarchy seemed to work for a long time, until people came up with something better. Similarly, the gold standard (and variants thereof) were tried, and the current monetary system has been found to work better.

Posted by: Josh Rosenau | July 23, 2008 12:23 AM

#18

"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves." ~Harriet Tubman

Posted by: floyd | July 23, 2008 1:12 AM