Yep.  Ron Paul won 24 percent of the vote in Idaho.

Yep.  Ron Paul.  Idaho.

Idaho.

I.  Da.  Ho.

That’s, um, the state you would expect Ron Paul to do well in.  The thing is that Ron Paul’s success correlates roughly to the amount of sagesbrush in an area — though, Bush has given a bad name to sagebrush with his frequent sagebrush removal at his “Texas Ranch” — which might be why the inhabitants of Sagebrush Land gravitate toward Ron Paul. 

So why isn’t someone setting up a “Paulville” there?

I apparently blinked in my sideways glance of the going ons in Ron Paul World. Somewhere in noticing the various storming of the gates of local and state Republican parties — welcome in some, summarily dismissed in others, in noting the easily overstated upper teen and onto 30 percent in Idaho vote getting in Republican primary, the #1 seller at Amazon.com, and how’s that blimp going?

I missed the latest and newest from Ron Paul World until it received some press in the New York Times. The latest from Ron Paul World is… the creation of Ron Paul World. Libertarian Communes, with all the contradictions inherent in that phrase. “Paulville”, and the first one is now being set up in the Texas panhandle — oddly enough, not in Ron Paul’s congressional district. The one thing I find amusing with Paulville is the line that “people can choose to live off the grid” if they so choose when moving there, off the grid of Paul-ville, which itself is suppose to be off the grid of the nation writ large, which means — there is setting up a big of Libertarian snobbery where the Truly Rugged can thump about and feel superior to those Welfare Cheats sucking off the teet of the Paulville government.

Ron Paul has an opportunity in the waiting here. If he wants to become a true cult figure, there his followers are — ready to be moved.

I suppose it may be borish to mention this, but looking down the local (regional?) mediocre newspaper of record yesterday on the page of “Super Tuesday” results, they listed the results for each state — Democratic results between Hillary Clinton and Republican results between John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee. I believe it was an AP snatch, but am not sure — it came from somewhere or other.

The problem is the matter of Ron Paul. He would not be problematic if he came in fourth in every state, but in a handful of states, he surpassed one of the other candidates — a fact that made the curious result of seeing this tilted missing percentage greater than one of the others. So, the results… where Ron Paul should have been listed instead of one of the other yahoos, by the Rule of 3 criteria:
Montana
(caucuses) Percent of vote
Republicans
Mike Huckabee 14%
John McCain 22%
Mitt Romney 38%
Ron Paul 25%
Number of delegates at stake
Republicans 25

North Dakota
(caucuses) Percent of vote
Republicans
Mike Huckabee 20%
John McCain 23%
Mitt Romney 36%
Ron Paul 21%
Number of delegates at stake
Republicans 23

Utah
Percent of vote
Republicans
Mike Huckabee 2%
John McCain 6%
Mitt Romney 89%
Ron Paul 3%
Number of delegates at stake
Republicans 36If you want to tell me that this is a result of listing the candidates who have a realistic shot of being the White House, I just have to shake my head and take a closer look at the Republican nomination process as it stood on Tuesday. Also worth mentioning.:

Minnesota
(caucuses) Percent of vote
Republicans
Mike Huckabee 20%
John McCain 22%
Mitt Romney 42%
Ron Paul 16%
Number of delegates at stake
Republicans 38

Maybe I should shrug it off, seeing as how last week there was a huge story about the possibility of Ron Paul winning the Maine Caucuses — which, he did not come close to doing so, denting any claim for Respectibility and moving that benefit of the Doubt away from him.  You give him a shot, get burned, and just have to toss it aside.  The Ron Paulites will have to content themselves knowing they have a better presence on World of Warcraft. And maybe he can make a good presence in Idaho?

Two people on the bus talking in that somewhat incoherent griping about the government, and the neo-cons (“They’re not Conservatives; they’re Globalists!”), and the way the Man Is Putting Us Down.

“Something should be done about them.”

“I think they should be tried and prisoned.”

“I think they should be hung for Treason.”

“And that Mortgage Crisis?  The Bilderburg Group orchestrated it in 2005 at their meeting!”

… To line their coffer from Us Down here, I suppose.

“I hope Ron Paul will get in, but he will be shot.”

Ron Paul.  Bingo!

“Is he an old White Man?”  (Here I might as well point out that one of these two are black.)

“Yes.”

“Hm.”

“But he’s against the Corporate Agenda.”
“They don’t like him?”

“Hm.  Marginalize him.  You have to lick their boots in order to get into any power position.   Why he would be shot if he got anywhere.”

I am thinking about pointing out the nature of the old Ron Paul newsletters, but think better of it.  Best not to rock the boat.

“When you give your political heart to a guy who spends so much time worrying about international bankers, you’re not going to get a tolerant cosmoplitan.” — Virginia Pastel, and who’s Virginia Pastel? I don’t know… Some Libertarian or other, it appears, who never warmed up to Ron Paul.

“I’m not a racist. As a matter of fact Rosa Parks is one of my heroes. Martin Luther King is a hero. Because they practiced the libertarian principle of civil disobedience, nonviolence.

Libertarians are incapable of being a racist because racism is a collectivist idea. You see people in group. A civil libertarian like myself see everybody as an important individual. It’s not the color of their skin that is important. As Martin Luther King said. What is important is the character of the people. What’s really interesting, though, and this might be behind it because as a Republican candidate I’m getting the most support from black voters and now that has to be undermined.” — Ron Paul

I’m probably giving Ron Paul short swift in quoting him there, as he goes on to explain his problems with the judicial system and the disproportionate burden it places on black Americans, as well the war as reasons that he is “getting the most support from black voters” of any Republicans and why he is not a raciste. The numbers for that — woohoo! The Most Popular Republican amongst Black Americans! — would have to be rather absurd, discoverable through the power of a microscope… what with the 9 to 1 ratio in voting habits. Also amusing is tying your legacy to Martin Luther King, Jr and Rosa Parks — heroes, I guess — the Civil Rights legislation of 1964, as well the toothless measure in 1957, being — y’know, not at all libertarian and charged with ye olde claims of Federal Government Intervention, rally the Confederates against the New Reconstruction, etc.

Which is whereabouts Ron Paul got in trouble here in the first place.

I could add that there is a reason right wing cranks, as littered the newsletter released through the 1990s bearing Ron Paul’s name, claimed Martin Luther King, Jr attended some Communist Training School and on from there. For instance, from the belly of the Beasts — one step removed from the type who’ll throw up that McCarthyite charge.

Back to the first quote. To what degree do you believe in something of an “International Bankers’ Conspiracy” — which, I suppose to the extent that financiers move money around and wield power across international boarders has that level of legitimacy, even if that is short of its real meaning of… The Jews.

Aiie aiie aiie.

My sense is that Ron Paul doesn’t really have any excuse for it, and his pleading of a conspiracy to undermine his black support is somewhat pathetic. My sense is that your newsletters ended up as a sort of “Ron Paul Fan Club”, and in the period of time that would have been the almost exclusive terrain of militia types and … um… Art Bell fans. (Today edged a bit further to the realm of… anti-war activists and liberals and leftists who believe that “At least he believes in the constitution”, but I’m giving him short swift in some respects. He has the 9/11 Truthers behind him, after all.) I actually did see the controversy looming, if anyone cared to look into it, based on some blog posts stating that they exist.

A bit more interesting background:

Kirchick, a New Republic associate editor, first contacted Wisconsin Historical Society circulation librarian Laura Hemming in November. The Historical Society has Paul newsletters under four titles: Ron Paul Investment Letter; Ron Paul Political Report; RonPaul Survival Report; and Ron Paul‘s Freedom Report.

At the time, the Historical Society’s Paul newsletters were not microfilmed and were stored off site. Because of Kirchick’s query, and Paul’s presidential candidacy, the society has since put them on microfilm. Kirchick was then able to obtain them through an interlibrary loan.

The newsletters attacked Martin Luther King Jr .; praised the KKK’s David Duke ; championed quarantining people with AIDS; bashed Israel, “an aggressive, national socialist state”; and supported the right-wing, anti-government militia movement in the United States.

Why were these newsletters collected in Madison and almost nowhere else? Because the Wisconsin Historical Society in general and its longtime librarian Jim Danky in particular have worked diligently to catalog all manner of seemingly fringe publications, because as this week demonstrates, you never know what may one day be important.

“We acquired them because we try to cover politics comprehensively,” Danky told me Thursday.

It has perhaps the best collection anywhere of leftist, underground publications. And the Historical Society’s collection from the political far right was praised in an essay by Chip Berlet in the Sesquicentennial Issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

Berlet, who is with Political Research Associates in Massachusetts, wrote: “There are other collections at libraries and archives around the country, but none offer the range and depth of the collection combined with the cheerful staff knowledge and painless retrievability. The society’s periodical collection is a national treasure as far as our staff is concerned, and we mine it frequently. Where else can you find a librarian who asks if the particular type of hate-group newsletter you are looking for is Ku Klux Klan, racial nationalist, neo-Nazi, Third Position, homophobic or Christian Identity?”

Chip Berlet? Never heard of him.  Doesn’t he write for High Times or something?

Anyway, it is amusing to scan by the Ron Paul fans — see prisonplanet.com — squirm.

Air falling out of that famous blimp they have… 

Best-selling author and Bilderberg sleuth Daniel Estulin says he has received information from sources inside the U.S. intelligence community which suggests that people from the highest levels of the U.S. government are considering an assassination attempt against Congressman Ron Paul because they are threatened by his burgeoning popularity.

And lest you don’t believe the Inner Core of the nation’s Elites could do such a thing, we’re not just talking ANY Inner Core here…

Estulin, author of the global bestseller The True Story of the Bilderberg Group described the concept as a “trial balloon from the inner core within the inner core – it hasn’t gone beyond that but it is obviously on the table because I think needless to say they are very much concerned,” he added.

It’s the “INNER CORE OF THE INNER CORE”.  We’re peeling the Onions here to reveal more peeled onions, folks!

In a June appearance on The Alex Jones Show, Congressman Paul acknowledged that such a threat is “real,” agreeing with a number of historical examples where leaders were killed or attacked for successfully standing up to the system. “That’s right. They’ll do it,” Paul said, making reference with Alex Jones to upstarts like Andrew Jackson, “The Kingfish” Huey Long, Bobby Kennedy, George Washington and even George Wallace.

Huey Long and Ron Paul…

Incidentally, I cannot say I’m terribly impressed by the prediction cited:

Over 18 months ago Estulin correctly made the call that the Iran war had been delayed and was probably off the table, which is looking to be exactly the case after the release of the recent National Intelligence Estimate.

An outcome which wouldn’t take much in the way of inside sources or tinfoil hats to summise.

If someone wants to fight in a “foreign war,” fine.   But, Dr. Paul warns, do not expect a Libertarian Government to foot the bill, or pay for any part of the space program not essential to national defense.  Dr. Paul refuses to call himself an isolationist, but that is how many others see him.  A man who relishes to fight with hecklers, he sometimes draws angry reactions.  At Jersey Village High School northwest of Houston, a student shouted accusingly: “No armed forces in other countries?  No foreign wars?  This was basically the idea that got 6 million European Jews killed during the Second World War.”

Though the students cheered, R. Paul replied, “We were there and we still didn’t prevent it.”

— NYT 10-16-1988 “Now For a Real Underdog”, Andrew Rosenthal.

Wayne King, 8-10-1988, “SOME REPUBLICANS BACK FOE OF BUSH:Key Supporters of Robertson Push Candidacy of Former Texas Congressman “ 

Mr. Paul was campaigning in Texas yesterday and could not be reached for comment.  But he said in a recent interview in The San Diego Union, ” I identify with Robertson and I identify with a lot of people who follow him.”  But he said, “He’s not a libertarian — he’s weak on civil liberties and I’m not sure about his foreign policy — but we all know Pat Robertson is not going to go anywhere so we’re the only place they can go afterwards.”

Mike Gravel… will not be participating in the next presidential debate.  Too bad.  I guess all I have to look forward to is a new youtube video where he stares into the camera with intent silence.

Rudy Giuliani, Mr. New York and Mr. “Look at my Yankees cap!”, made a major faux pax by saying, for the benefit of New Hamsphire primary voters — still Red Sox Country, that he was rooting for the Red Sox.  I don’t think you can underestimate the power of the sports fan in dashing about such wanton pandering.  He declares it is a matter of rooting for the American League, something akin to rooting for a piece of architecture, methinks.

Fred Thompson has been putting his audiences to sleep.  It is a really strange campaign where he is the Republican Saviour.

Hillary Clinton has been playing along with Drudge, developing a wink and nod strategy with that tedious Internet standby.  In addition, Rudy’s baseball gaffe has spotlighted her old gaffe of a few years ago where she said that if the Yankees and Cubs both made the World Series, she would alternate between rooting for the two teams.  I admit to having done such a thing before with two basketball teams I could care less about — to the confusion of the people I watching the game with — in cheering on any play that looked cool.  (I need to work up my Skull and Bones racket regarding Hillary Clinton, and line things up for a thought-bubble.)

The scandal that has been plaguing Barack Obama involves the fact that he is not wearing a flag-pin.  I will say that I would have greater respect for him in the flag-pin flack if when asked he hadn’t given a spiel about the true meaning of Patriotism, but instead had told the questioner to bug off.  Anyway, this matter may be one of those wink and nod jobs with Hillary and Drudge — Who knows?

It is claimed by the world’s most famous Crystal Stroker that Dennis Kucinich saw a UFO.  But supposedly so did Jimmy Carter.  Perhaps they can get together and compare and contrast.

If I were the Republican Party, I would nominate Mike Huckabee.  I firmly believe he to be the party’s best chance in snagging the White House in 2008.

A trip to Mitt Romney’s blogonetwork shows the Romney supporters trumpeting his Mormonism as an asset in terms of fire-fighting.  It goes along with the Mormon tendency to prepare for the rugged Apocalypse to Come.

Various Internet sites of Conservative status, redstate and free republic, have taken to banning Ron Paul supporters from their site.  “Retarded Vulture Fringe” is how redstate calls it.  Wrong critter, I says.

John McCain made fun of Woodstock at the last Republican debate, which only added to the sense that he is old and out of touch.  You don’t make Woodstock jokes, and you shouldn’t have for maybe the last 20 years.  (Maybe he can go back to the “Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran” singing?)

Chris Dodd’s campaign has proven to be most useful, in setting a bar with which his fellow Democratic Senate Presidential hopefuls need to meet, currently in line with Amnesty for the Telecom industry regarding FISA misdeeds.

I don’t think Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Joseph Biden and Alan Keyes have done or said anything interesting, and it speaks volumes about the campaigns of anyone whose name I have not mentioned.  But now that I’m thinking about it… Say… what’s John Cox up to?