I believe so. He hasn't denied that the material in the newsletters was hateful and wrong, he's denounced those writings, and taken personal responsibility for their being printed. His platform, which is nearly identical to his 1988 platform, with the exception that he is no longer for the death penalty or soft border control as it relates to immigration.
I realize that Earl has no interest in voting for Ron Paul, but I respect him enough to want to make sure this is clear.
heheh....I was nominally supporting Biden.....(good thing I didn't put money on it huh?). I liked his proposal on Iraq. That was my major perspective. Of interest, yesterday I was speaking with an American who was native born in Iraq, left when he was 4 years old, and has worked for DOD contractors over the past 4-5 years, been throughout the middle east, worked with some Iraqi bigwigs since govts have been reinstalled post Saddam. With regard to my perspective....he said the wrongest guy and the wrongest perspective was Biden's and that separating Iraq into sectarian areas would only worsen the situation. He also felt that the media is partly responsible for the sectarian violence and hatred....of course buttressed by sectarian leaders who made it a big thing after Saddam was overthrown and also buttressed by outside terrorists. He was quite adament that there is a strong presense in Iraq that would happily move back to a sectarian state where intermarriage and interaction between Sunni's and Shiites would be reconstituted....or so he hoped. Back to me.....with Biden out of the race.....I don't know. I sort of wish a non ideologue would run. Yes....I have no interest in Paul. The racist stuff has totally thrown me. That is a mean nasty streak that shouldn't merit being in the race...let alone be a congressman. He should go under lots of scrutiny to explain that stuff. I think his ideas on govt are way radical and potentially dangerous. Pulling all troops and presense out of everywhere simply allows more bad guys to be brutal around the world....and ultimately strike the US. There is no effective international police force in North Africa.....and it is genocide. Its brutal. The economic stuff seems to me to be exotic theory. I'd be scared of its application. Further the world economic situation is so different than what that theory ever dealt with....let alone what current practice ever dealt with. There are enormous...no gargantuan production forces in China, India and elsewhere that simply have changed the competitive world economic landscape. I doubt anyone has a strong fix on how to keep America strong in light of enormous quantities of goods being made in those places. Additionally, the enormous price increases in oil are basically sucking something like an extra $150-300 billion out of the american economy. Its like a tax that isn't even going to Washington DC to be redistributed internally. Its all going overseas. Huge drains on and different circumstances with the world and American economy. Its scary to me. Who can best deal with that stuff going forward? dunno.
I believe this is the "Paul Plan". Btw, I liked Biden too, but more because he is a statesman, then for his specific plans. I can live with that. Well, we already enable bad guys like Musharaff and the Saudi princes. How long have we been propping up Dictators in Africa? The reality is, we can't afford it anymore. We're either going to leave in an organized manner, or we're going to compromise our forces by underfunding them, and in a worst case, having to abandon them economically. Economic theory, I know we have some disconnect on that, but it's not unsound. In fact, it's pretty much what the Chinese are working towards. We have to get competitive. That's gunna mean trimming the fat, lowering taxes, and removing excess regulation. The Asian market is not going to stop competing with us, and we've pretty much given up the fight. You and me. The people. It is scary. Whether we can agree on a candidate or not, now more than ever, we need to get ahead of right-left doctrine and cult of personality politics, and start getting involved, not just in the Presidential, but the local, state and Congressional races.
Here is the official response to The New Republic article: I don't buy into it for reasons described below...... A paid newsletter that went out under Paul's name generated income. I assume Paul made the money from the newsletter. As I mentioned above, and I'll expand upon the idea.... If a Guerilla newsletter or Grim newsletter went out and articles were ghost written by GTech, and expressed GTech's perspective....lets say some of the specific types of posts where he calls RP followers liars..... and the newsletter was under Guerilla's or Grim's name. And funds flowed to the newsletter from subscribers.....who is responsible for the newsletter? Would either of you guys allow that to occur? I wouldn't. I don't think a normal person would allow perspectives to be published under their own name to which they were diametrically opposed. Moreover if the publisher was collecting funds from the newsletters....that creates an even greater level of responsibility. I can't comprehend allowing those types of racist comments to go out under my name.....and then a decade or two later totally disavowing it. Where is the responsibility? Where does the real truth lie? In that perspective I don't understand what Paul means when he claims taking "moral responsibility" for the situation...nor do I understand what has transpired over a decade (which Paul claims) wherein he claims he accepted this "moral responsibility". Rigorous scrutiny comes out in a campaign. It is more rigorous in a national campaign than in a local campaign. That is part of the price of running a national campaign. Here are excerpts from The New Republic article...... The article further references a $25 video they were selling with an opportunity to buy by calling a Ron Paul 1-800 number. I guess the money was going to Ron Paul. I guess if one really wanted to investigate level of responsibility one should check his IRS records for the years he was publishing these documents and find out how much money he earned from the various publications. On further sourcing, if it was possible, one could cross-check political contributions to his various campaigns with records of subscribers to his publications. After the first time I heard Paul in a debate last year I admired his forthrightness and commentary that sounded so different from the other candidates in the debate. At a different time in my life I might have supported his stances. I'm glad I never supported him.
He took responsibility for the newsletters in 1996. He's championed decriminalizing drugs and freeing hundreds of thousands of minorities from the prison system for non-violent crimes prior to these newsletters. Take it however you will.
Why are we still talking about this newsletter when it has been proven again and again that Ron Paul did not write it or endorse it??? They can't find anything that will stick on RP so that keep repeating the same lies over and over and over like a broken record. Pathetic really. Focus on the real fucking issues that we are facing as a country, like the economy, our liberties, the constitution, health care, illegal immigration, the Fed, the Iraw war, a weakening dollar, stagflation...and so many more!!! WTF are you people so fixated on a newsletter that means nothing!!!
I think it's nice to know that someone hear read this post of mine and felt that I deserved a negative rep for it, with the following comment. Anyone want to grow a pair and identify themselves so I can put you on ignore and disregard your future posts? Thanks. I won't be holding my breath that the pussy will show himself.
Seeing my name on your post I am guessing you think that it was me, well it wasn't. BTW, I wouldn't whine about the red rep especially in the P&R section. It comes with the territory. You should see all the 4 letter words that AGS knows when he reps, it is like a preteen in JR High who just learned the words....
Nah debunked, I don't think it's you, that kind of rep is just incredibly infantile and I definitely give you the benefit of the doubt there.