Ron Paul takes the lead in Iowa.

[Felch]

You take all your opinions from Gerson?

[HalfLotus]

Ironic that he worries about Paul destroying the party when his former boss, GWB, did just that.

edit: Apparently he's also the man who coined the "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" metaphor prior to Iraq. Talk about your Grade A propagandist.

[kentonio]

Bush smashed the party repeatedly with a large hammer. Paul now wants to collect up the bits, piss on them, set them on fire, bury them, salt the earth above them and then pretend the party never even existed.

[Hauldren Collider]

You take all your opinions from Gerson?

Is this your rhetorical way of dodging the reality that he's completely correct here?

[Imran Siddiqui]

It is amazing that some are denying that Paul is HIGHLY reactionary.

[DaShi]

Is this your rhetorical way of dodging the reality that he's completely correct here?

That's all he needs to do. Unless you, yourself, have anything substantial to add....

[Felch]

Is this your rhetorical way of dodging the reality that he's completely correct here?

He frames the statements in an unfavorable light. It's not false, but it is propaganda. The key hint is that he's only quoting one or two words at a time. You didn't think it the least bit strange that Gerson supplied the context for every single example?

Watch this:

Bugs described Ron Paul as "relentless." Kentonio said that Paul wants to "collect up the bits" of the party that Bush "smashed [with a] hammer." Imran said that Bachmann, Santorum, and Perry were not "within the mainstream of the Republican Party."

It's all correct, but it's a dishonest way of representing what they all said.

[HalfLotus]

There's no small amount of shenanigans poised to turn the caucus into a circus tomorrow.

Occupy is in town, ready to cause general mischief and also try to make as many sentences as possible with the words "ninety-nine percent".

Also an anonymous Anonymous youtube video calls on people to disrupt the elections. They are apparently in cahoots with Occupy as well.

These have made very convenient reasons for Iowa "officials" to move the final vote count (to Illinois?), beef up physical security, and also get their digital hands on election data, for the ostensible purpose of "protecting" the voting data.

Brietbart is reporting that the transmission of voting data from precinct to HQ can be hacked and manipulated.

PPP polling still has Paul ahead by 1%, however (edit: Despite establishment's media's current, and false, narrative that Paul's support is collapsing). As I had guessed, the smear campaign had a small effect on the Good Doctor's numbers.

Should be an interesting day.

[Zevico]

It's all correct, but it's a dishonest way of representing what they all said.

Except the "context" is that Paul's a conspiracy-mongerer convinced that any reason to involve the government in practically any foreign policy endeavour, successful or not, tremendously advantageous to the United States or not, for the past centur-yand-a-half, was nothing but a dark conspiracy concocted to expand governmental power. What do you expect from a man who calls for another investigation of 9/11? Paul may speak in lofty tones about the size and scope of the federal government. He may or may not be right to say that nation-building is doomed to fail in Iraq and Afghanistan; but that that has nothing to do with the threat posed by organisations, movements and countries like Iran or Hezballah, or for that matter, present-day Turkey. To downplay the threat posed by them as merely a byproduct of American intervenionism is simply ahistorical. It is to igonre aside their ideas, priniciples and beliefs, each of which are rooted in an Islamic-Islamist interpretation of the world and won't change no matter what we do. The United States can either choose to act against the Islamist threat now or wait it has encompassed even more nations than it already has.

Paul is opposed to even identifying Iran as an enemy state; he doesn't believe they're Islamists with an agenda, but merely the oppressed victims of the American oppressor. Lose the oppression, lose the enemy, goes the logic. It is ahistorical and naive foolishness.

[HalfLotus]

Something Rotten in Iowa? The “Hacktivist Threat” Timeline

Turns out the "hacker" video has been online for about 6 weeks, but the "threat" didn't become news until Ron Paul became very competitive in Iowa polls. Details about the video's uploader have emerged as well. He is a Ron Paul precinct captain, but also got arrested "protesting" at Ron's office.

Why would a Paul precinct captain upload a video to shut down the caucuses? And then protest Paul's office on behalf of Occupy....while holding an End the Fed sign??

edit: And Davidson, the uploader, who initially claims he has no connections to Anon, goes on to post 3 comments on the video speaking on behalf of Anon.

[DaShi]

Something Rotten in Iowa? The “Hacktivist Threat” Timeline

Why would a Paul precinct captain upload a video to shut down the caucuses? And then protest Paul's office on behalf of Occupy....while holding an End the Fed sign??

Exactly. It's clearly a conspiracy against the people. America needs Ron Paul, but certain "powers", who shall not be named, are keeping him from his destiny.

[HalfLotus]

Re: the foreign policy debate:

CIA Bin Laden Unit Chief Endorses Ron Paul

Scheuer supports “founders’ foreign policy wisdom,” notes Revolution PAC.

Northbrook, IL | Top Republican presidential contender U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has been endorsed by former head of the CIA’s “Bin Laden Unit” Michael Scheuer, reports Revolution PAC. In his endorsement, Scheuer backs Paul’s longstanding non-interventionist foreign policy views and warns of bankruptcy and increased hostility toward Americans both at home and abroad should current bipartisan foreign adventurism continue.

Scheuer writes, “Any other Republican candidate or a reelected Obama will keep lying to Americans by claiming that we are being attacked because of our liberties, gender-equality laws, and elections rather than because of Washington’s constant intervention in the Islamic world. This now two-decade-old lie – which is abetted by most of the media – has hidden from Americans the fact that all of the would-be Islamist attackers who have been captured in this country were motivated by the invasion of Iraq, U.S. support for Israel, or some other U.S. government action in the Muslim world.”

A 22-year CIA veteran, Georgetown University Security Studies adjunct professor and bestselling author, Scheuer blasts the Obama administration’s reckless nation-building efforts in the Middle East and sounds the alarm on a Western first strike on Iran.

“Indeed, Washington, Tel Aviv, and London are already conducting a lethal, covert-action war inside Iran which is killing Iranian nuclear scientists and destroying nuclear-related facilities, as well as trying to goad Tehran into reacting with violence and thereby give the West a casus belli,” continues Scheuer. “Such a war would be a financial and military disaster for the United States, and would be watched with glee by Russian and Chinese leaders who — while their countries would lose some trade with Iran during a war — would applaud another U.S. self-inflicted would that further erodes the already failing economy that is the base of American power.”

Scheuer notes that throughout the Republican primary campaign, Rep. Paul has raised more money from active duty military members than all other candidates, including Barack Obama.

“What we have not fully accomplished in eight centuries cannot possibly be attained in Egypt, Afghanistan, or elsewhere in the Muslim world in 6 weeks, 6 months, or six years, not least because none of those places separate church from state,” asserts Scheuer. “Dr. Paul’s precise use of history and commonsense exposes the exorbitantly costly effort to build democracies in the Islamic world for what it is; namely, Washington throwing money down the drain for a cause that is impossibly lost from the start and one that will involve us in wars where we have no interests.”

[DaShi]

My God! America can't afford to not have Ron Paul as president!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Exactly. It's clearly a conspiracy against the people. America needs Ron Paul, but certain "powers", who shall not be named, are keeping him from his destiny.

I am shocked that Paul supporters are setting up this narrative!!

[Hauldren Collider]

I think an Unbelievable! is in order here.