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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Of Straw Polls and Piss Poor Journalism

     August 15th, 2011:

     The results from the Iowa "straw poll" are in and, believe it or not, Ron Paul is essentially tied as the Republican front runner!  You would not be aware of this, unless you live in Russia or somewhere American news is actually reported.  American journalism has outdone itself this time in it's loathsome misrepresentation of the facts.
    
     The reality of the situation is this: Ron Paul and Neocon puppet Michelle Bachman accounted for almost 60% of those polled (4671 and 4823 respectively), followed by Tim Pawlenty with 2293, which caused him to promptly drop out of the race.  Apparently he feels that he cannot statistically overcome fellow Minnesotan Bachman, let alone Ron Paul or the two supercandidates lurking around the corner.  He should have understood this fact to begin with.
 
     Following Pawlenty was that freak from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, with 1657 votes despite extensive campaigning in Iowa of late.  Close behind sat Herman Cain, former Federal Reserve board member and winner of the Horatio Alger Award (an appropriate award for many Federal Reservers, I suspect), with 1456.  Texas governor Rick Perry, despite not being on the ballot or in the debates, received 718 write in votes.  Following him was Sean Hannity's "winner" of the debates, Mitt Romney, with a paltry 567.  Newt Gingrich and the rest were inconsequential.

     A debate was held two days prior to the "straw poll", an event held in Ames, Iowa the summer before every presidential election year.  This event is mainly a Republican fundraiser used to showcase the party and create somewhat of an initial pecking order for the next year's primaries.  The event this year was preceded by a highly publicized debate aired on FOX news (while the heavy handed attack on Tripoli went unreported) and spun throughout the entire propaganda industry.

     Mitt Romney looked very much like a Saturday Night Live charicature of Mitt Romney, and did very little to distinguish himself.  He made one strong, sensible comment related to the tenth amendment, although it was actually a lie he was never called on. 
 
Why wouldn't you just let each state make their own decision?  And the reason is because people move from state to state of course in a society like ours, they have children.  As to go to different states, if one state recognizes a marriage and the other does not, what's the right of that child?  -  Mit Romney
     Bachman was quite possibly the loser of a nasty side debate relating to Minnesota politics with Pawlenty, a waste of dialogue which was incessantly egged on by the fine journalists from FOX news moderating the event.  Herman Cain was not asked the right questions and did not answer the ones he was asked in dramatic enough fashion to really make an impression.  He does not seem to have the flair to stand out among the sharks he is swimming with.

     Newt Gingrich, however, was given royal treatment by his friends at FOX.  Presented off to one side and seemingly above (due to camera angles) the other candidates, he answered softball questions with an authority, clarity, and statesmanship unrivaled by his opponents.  Due to his treatment by FOX, he seemed like a professor lecturing his pupils (the other candidates) rather than a crooked hypocritical womanizer.  Fortunately, nobody saw through it and his miserable showing in the subsequent straw poll is a good indicator of his impending elimination from this race.  I cannot figure out his motivation or agenda, although it is surely evil, and expect him to crawl back into the establishment woodwork sooner than later.

     Rick Santorum, also looking like a caricature of Rick Santorum (more MAD magazine than SNL), did himself no favors by repeatedly whining about lack of coverage of his own twisted viewpoints.  Furthermore, this extreme establishment candidate repeatedly affirmed his Obama-like contempt for the U.S. constitution as a whole, and also affirmed that he is a very disagreeable individual.  Mr. Santorum, despite his rabid fundamentalist social agenda (similar to the social structure of the most backward corners of the Islamic world) stood shoulder to shoulder with all the other candidates not named Ron Paul on three main points.  The war must go on, the federal government does not have to abide by the tenth amendment, and our current situation must be remedied from the bottom up.  Attacking entitlements, government workers benefits, and government work programs in a down economy will accomplish nothing but a greater acceleration towards complete breakdown.  This is merely a simple reversal of Communist class warfare tricks, targeting the poor rather than the rich, and these concepts are much better debated by cooler heads AFTER the bigger fish are fried and the U.S. economy is back on track.  To start by attacking these issues will bring nothing but further economic, social, and structural decay to our once great land.

     Despite the existence of Barack Obama, Rick Santorum has the potential to be quite possibly the most dangerous political frontman in American politics today.  Seemingly one of the rare politicians to actually believe his professed viewpoints, Santorum appears to hold legitimate Presidential aspirations.  His stand on the Tenth Amendment clearly shows his strong desire to use the federal government to force his social agenda on America.  The possibility of another dead fetus lover (Barbara Bush kept one in a jar) in control of the White House and both houses of Congress brings to mind visions of a Third Reich controlled by a hybrid of Pat Robertson and Jiminy Cricket.  America could not survive such an ordeal (particuliarly on the heels of the Bush/Obama right/left combo), although, thankfully, we will not have to.  Santorum made the calculated decision to attack Ron Paul (the others ignored Paul), showing that he is operating with true motivation rather than just following some Neocon campaign script.  Ron Paul was the favorite of the crowd, and leading in many obscure polls.  To defeat him in debate was a logical move in Santorum's mind in order to give him an edge over the other candidates.

We have Ron Paul saying, oh, what the states want to do -- whatever the states want to do under the 10th Amendment's fine.  So if the states want to pass polygamy, that's fine.  If the states want to impose sterilization, that's fine. 

No, our country is based on moral laws, ladies and gentlemen.  There are things the states can't do.  Abraham Lincoln said the states do not have the right to do wrong. 

I respect the 10th Amendment, but we are a nation that has values.  We are a nation that was built on a moral enterprise, and states don't have the right to tramp over those because of the 10th Amendment.  - Rick Santorum

     This was a big mistake for at least two reasons.  Ron Paul's following is so far removed from Santorum's vision of a better America that he has less chance than Obama of stealing any of their votes.  More importantly, Ron Paul shredded him in the ensuing debate.  In the process of educating Mr. Santorum on the finer points of foreign policy, the Tenth Amendment, simple economics, and telling the truth in general, Ron Paul hit several home runs, stole the show for a little while, and set himself clearly apart from the rest of the group on the issue of the unpopular, expensive, and largely illegal wars currently being fought by our nation.
    
I think we need to recognize that right now Iran is on offense and our troops are in danger everywhere in that region.  And I think we need a very serious national debate about it.  -  Newt Gingrich

     Another interesting fact of this debate was the claim made by most of the candidates to one another that "you stand shoulder to shoulder with Barack Obama...." on this or that issue.  When asked about our current military policies, all except Ron Paul stood shoulder to shoulder with Barack Obama.  New statistics show that America's dissaproval with our post 9-11 military policy is at an all time high.  Not as surprisingly as you might think, Republicans are now more in favor of ending the wars than Democrats, although the sentiment is shared by voting majorities in both parties.  Ron Paul, unlike all the other current Republican candidates, has the most potential to appeal outside of the increasingly polarized Republican base.  Even with Obama's lower than ever approval ratings, the incumbent's base will stick with him and swing voters will NOT go out of their way to vote for another Texas governor, let alone a female from the North Woods.  Ron Paul's growing number of supporters will not, for the most part, let Obamaphobia cause them to vote for an establishment Republican.  If he gets the nomination, we could actually see "change" in Washington.  If not, the elephant party will be split, and Obama will be granted another four year reign of terror, despite the probable Republican takeover of the Senate.

If the federal government can force American citizens or if a state can force their citizens to purchase health insurance, there is nothing that the state cannot do.  This is clearly an unconstitutional action  -  Michelle Bachman
 I support the federal marriage amendment.......I also want to say, when I was in Minnesota, I was the chief author of the constitutional amendment to define marriage as one man, one woman.  -  Michelle Bachman
    
     Immediately following the debate, Sean Hannity proclaimed Mitt Romney the obvious winner and announced that results of a FOX online poll would show who won the debate within the hour.  Sean Hannity, doing what he does best, managed to put the entire audience to sleep before the hour was up, and FOX decided against showing the results of the poll.  Before boring everyone away, however, he proclaimed Romney the winner, interviewed the always robotic Bachman, and discussed every candidate's performance except that of Ron Paul.  When I first saw the poll, about the time they were supposed to show it on FOX, Ron Paul had somewhere around 5000 votes, with the others trailing substantially (by substantially I mean the others only had several hundred votes apiece).  This was actual news, and therefore had no place on FOX anyways.

     For Ron Paul, the Freak candidate whose followers are on Homeland Security watch lists, to be leading all these establishment clowns was the biggest story to hit a campaign trail since Dewey defeated Truman, yet was barely even mentioned in the mainstream American media!  For all practical purposes Ron Paul and Michelle Bachman tied, and the others were eating their dust.  This was the biggest news, a bombshell in fact, to come out of Ames, yet the average headline went like this: "Bachman wins straw poll, Perry to enter race..." and the ensuing story generally completely ignored Ron Paul.  (CNN did mention Paul's second place in their headline, but the article barely mentioned him.)  The sound byte repeated on the propaganda wires was of Michelle Bachman saying that this somehow proved Barack Obama would be defeated (in so many words).  How exactly a Republican splitting votes with other Republicans in a straw poll fifteen months before the general election says anything about dethroning a Democrat is beyond me.

     To make a long story short, by Monday Ron Paul was still getting the very intentional silent treatment from America's corporate media, while fellow Texan Rick Perry was receiving something along the lines of fellatio from every media source imaginable.  Rush Limbaugh did mention that Ron Paul was a "nutjob," although what that makes Rick Santorum is anybody's guess.  Coincidentally, the big three of right wing talk radio conveniently did not even watch the debates.  The Glenn Beck show took the stance that Rick Santorum won, although Glenn Beck's extreme Neocon radio partner most definitely falls into the "nutjob" category.  Rush Limbaugh, while still wistfully trying to push Romney on his unresponsive masses, decided to jump on the Rick Perry bandwagon (between Sarah Palin plugs), and Michael Savage also seems to be taking the Perry train.  That train is headed straight for Hell, and America would be wise to steer clear.

     Regardless of who commentators and particuliarly professional journalists personally endorse, they have an obligation to get the story right rather than slide the facts around to make the story agreeable to their point of view.  Ron Paul essentially won the straw poll hyped by those who would like to silence him.  The media has gone above and beyond in order to suppress this story and it's ramifications from the American people.  Why?   More to follow...............

   
...and our goal should be peace and prosperity.  It is under the principles of liberty that you have the greatest chance of achieving peace and prosperity.  That is why I am so down on these wars that are costing us trillions of dollars, why we have to reform the monetary system, why we need honest money, a gold standard and not paper money out of the Federal Reserve system...  -  Ron Paul