Monthly Archives: August 2009

9/11 and big government rhetoric

This is excerpted from “Anti-State, Anti-War, Pro-Market” on mises.org.

Vice Pesident Richard Cheney: “one of the things that’s changed so much since Sept. 11 is the extent to which people do trust the government big shift and value it, and have higher expectations for what we can do.”

‘Conservative’ columnist George Will: “[9/11] forcefully reminded Americans that their nation-state … is the source of their security …. Events since Sept. 11 have underscored the limits of libertarianism.”

Johns Hopkins University Professor Francis Fukuyama: “fall of the libertarians.” “[9/11,] not the market or individuals, [has reminded Americans] why government exists, and why it has to tax citizens and spend money to promote collective interests.”

Albert Hunt of the Wall Street Journal: “It’s time to declare a moratorium on government-bashing.”

10 Surprising Facts about American Health Care

1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers.
2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians.
3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries.
4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians.
5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians.
6: Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the U.K.
7: People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed.
8: Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians.
9: Americans have much better access to important new technologies like medical imaging than patients in Canada or the U.K.
10: Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations.

Details and references at ncpa.org.

Seven New US Military Bases in Colombia

“In a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady laments an apparent shift left in the Obama administration’s Latin America policy. Clearly, O’Grady hasn’t been keeping up to date with current events. If she had been, she would have heard about negotiations underway between the U.S. and Colombia to establish at least seven U.S. military bases in Colombia. Last I heard, folks on the left tend to oppose increased militarization; it’s tough to see seven new military bases as a move to the left.” (Read more from commondreams.org)

Change?

Censoring Ron Paul (then and now)

Ron Paul is certainly getting more mainstream media attention than he did when he ran for President, but the censors are still at work.

Justin Miller deserves credit for his Atlantic article pointing out how Gallup and Rasmussen polling agencies are ignoring Ron Paul as a potential 2012 candidate. They list Tim Pawlenty and Haley Barbour, but no Ron Paul. Justin Miller makes the rather obvious case for Ron Paul’s consideration.

Rasmussen: “In a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, it’s close to a three-way tie when GOP voters are asked whom they would vote for � from among a list of six prominent Republicans – in the 2012 party primary in their state: 25% say Romney, while 24% say Palin and 22% opt for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

After that, GOP primary voters list former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (14%), while Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty each received one percent (1%) of the vote. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate.”

(What a convenient list of establishment candidates.)

Gallup:

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Kudos to Justin Miller, but I feel he should have at least acknowledged the widespread censorship and slander Ron Paul faced during his presidential campaign. I detailed much of it here: Censoring Ron Paul – Why the rEVOLution will not be televised, back when I was a fledgling blogger. I saved my own copies of only some (not all) of the offending coverage. Unfortunately, some of the most glaring examples have been removed by the news sources.

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Lets not be surprised that Rasmussen is ignoring Ron Paul now. They even did so DURING the election:

(click for saved web page)
And this poll was AFTER Ron Paul’s 6-million-dollar money bomb.

Fox “News” ignored Ron Paul’s second place finish in Nevada:

(click for larger image)

Fox “News” also edited Ron Paul out of AP news stories.

USA Today cover story / photos / candidate-profiles covered four of the five candidates still in race at the time. The excluded candidate was . . . (drum roll) . . . Ron Paul.

MSNBC debate bias
Romney: 21 minutes, 11 seconds (12 answers and asked 1 question)
McCain: 16 minutes even (12 answers and asked 1 question)
Giuliani: 13 minutes and 50 seconds (10 answers and asked 1 question)
Huckabee: 12 minutes and 11 seconds (8 answers and asked 1 question)
Paul: 6 minutes and 31 seconds (5 answers and asked 1 question)

The CNN/YouTube debate went for 35 minutes before Ron Paul got a question. He received the least amount of time, and only four question. (Giuliani got nine.) Hear Ron Paul comment.

Washingtonpost’s post-debate commentary excluded Ron Paul.

In a staggering display of selective perception, NY Times columnist Bob Herbert laments the GOP’s militancy, completely ignoring Ron Paul’s presence. This is especially asinine, as Herbert’s own beliefs most closely resemble Paul’s. Herbert mentions all GOP presidential candidates in his column except . . . (surprise, surprise) . . . Ron Paul.

CNN’s Glenn “Bandwagon” Beck held a political poll and excluded Ron Paul

BBC news’s election guide excluded Ron Paul.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper ranks almost all the candidates on Israel-issues (except Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich).

(click for saved web page)

Ahead of Florida Primary, extensive Miami Herald article does mention Paul, once, right at end.

LA Times poll excludes Ron Paul.

Real Clear Politics polls exclude Ron Paul.

Article about CBS news censoring Ron Paul from graphics and commentary (removed)

CNN puts up the words “Blaming America for 9-11” under Ron Paul during this video. Unfortunately, the video has been removed.

MSNBC’s Hardball:

Given Giuliani’s abysmal performance in the election, you wonder who decided he was 1st tier, and Ron Paul was 3rd tier.

Two NY Times articles attack Ron Paul on 24 Dec 2007. The NY Times then apologizes, sort of.

See Also:

(thanks Eric C.!)

The list goes on. Check out my old post Censoring Ron Paul – Why the rEVOLution will not be televised to see more. Unfortunately, there are many dead links.

UPDATE: Also check out The Orange Line – anatomy of a smear campaign.

1 in 9 Americans now on food stamps

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps in May, the government said on Thursday, another symptom of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression.

Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in the latest month for which figures are available.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Remember the Newsweek headline? “The Recession is over”

US troops now a ‘coalition of one’ in Iraq

“The war in Iraq was truly an American-only effort Saturday after Britain and Australia, the last of its international partners, pulled out.

Little attention was paid in Iraq to what effectively ended the so-called coalition of the willing, with the U.S. — as the leader of Multi-National Force, Iraq — letting the withdrawals pass without any public demonstration.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Good thing we have chairman Obama now. Our dear leader inherited these problems. We must not criticize our dear leader, as he is working toward a better future for you and me.