Another Ron Paul Surge

David Weigel | November 5, 2007

Here's a screencap of Ron Paul's campaign site around midnight this morning.

Here's a screencap from five minutes ago.

In about 11 hours Paul has raised $1.6 million. That surge is part of a mass November 5th fundraiser dreamed up by grassroots Paul supporters: "Remember, remember, the fifth of November" by raising $5 million in one day for Paul. The campaign had fallen well short of its $4 million goal for October, raising some doubt whether it could raise $12 million by December 31. If the donors merely keep up their pace today, they'll get the campaign halfway to that goal with 55 days left. By comparison, Howard Dean blew away the rest of the Democrats in the final quarter of 2003 by raising $15 million. That was after three months as the frontrunner, the endorsement of Al Gore, etc.

Even if you don't like Paul, you have to gasp at what's happening in the GOP race. There are three phenomenons running in tandem: Paul's fundraising, Huckabee's cash-strapped poll surge, and McCain's running-on-fumes poll comeback. Anybody working for the Rudy-Fred-Mitt power trio has to wonder why the Republican base is so hungry for these other choices. (Also, more reason to ignore the campaign finance reformers who whine about big money trumping ideas and good people in politics.)

UPDATE 4:01: Right now Paul's reporting $5.45 million, meaning he's 1)doubled his fourth quarter fundraising in one day and 2)already surpassed his entire fundraising total from the third quarter. I'm pretty sure Paul's broken the record for one-day fundraising in a primary campaign. (Mitt Romney raised $2.5 million in hard dollars at one January event, then inflated the total with $4 million of pledges. Since his donations have fallen off in successive quarters I don't know if all those pledges were fulfilled.)

Comments

robc|11.5.07 @ 11:25AM|#

Election next year is on November 4th. If things go right, we will be remembering November 5th, 2008.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|11.5.07 @ 11:28AM|#

http://www.ronpaulgraphs.com/last_days_total.png

|11.5.07 @ 11:30AM|#

Not only is this setting up Paul to rise into the competetive tier of candidates, but due to some unique characteristics of this race and the candidates in it, it is entirely possible that the Republicans could have a borkered convention - ie, no one comes out of the primaries with enough delegates to get the nomination because several difference candidates won several different states.

What could Ron Paul get in exchange for two or three states' delegates?

|11.5.07 @ 11:31AM|#

Brokered convention.

Although that could end up with people getting borked, too, I guess.

iih|11.5.07 @ 11:32AM|#

Michelle Malkin has opened her website for registration. I recommend that Paul supporters register there so that they can voice their opinions whenever he is brought up, and I do think that with these dollar numbers he will almost certainly will be brought up. Lets just keep things balanced there.

Swedish Chef|11.5.07 @ 11:33AM|#

Bork! Bork! Bork!

|11.5.07 @ 11:34AM|#

What could Ron Paul get in exchange for two or three states' delegates?

Lip service and little else. I think he would need many more before he could make a large impact at the convention. Even then, it's highly unlikely they would win the election against any other democrat.

Vermont Gun Owner|11.5.07 @ 11:34AM|#

Minor Nitpick:

Just to be clear, some offline donations (around $350k) from the past week or two were added today as well. That means it was not $1.6 million raised today, but actually $1.25 million. I am a Ron Paul supporter, but I don't want to distort the story so it sounds better than it is. Besides, it will legitimately get to $1.6 million soon enough...

|11.5.07 @ 11:34AM|#

There is a reason that Dr. Paul has received more contributions from the military than any other candidate, Republican or Democrat, and it is because he speaks truth about our foreign policy. I hope average Americans are starting to realize this as well.

I am a career Naval officer who has been politically neutral for my entire life, but voting for Ron Paul is about voting for America and our Constitution. I am now supporting Dr. Ron Paul with my wallet--and my heart.

robc|11.5.07 @ 11:35AM|#

ronpaulgraphs.com is showing 3.115M as the start of today number, they probably have the offline split out properly.

|11.5.07 @ 11:36AM|#

Good analogies between candidates and college football teams including Dr. Ron at

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebook?page=gamedayFinal0710

|11.5.07 @ 11:37AM|#

He's getting about 40x his usual donation rate. $5M in one day may be a stretch, but it looks like $3M is attainable.

|11.5.07 @ 11:38AM|#

Anybody working for the Rudy-Fred-Mitt power trio has to wonder why the Republican base is so hungry for these other choices.

No, they have to know the Three Blind Whites are buffoons. That's how doublethink works. You have to fully know you're wrong and right at the same time.

Incidentally, I just watch V for Vendetta for the first time all the way through. Excellent! The graphic novel's still in print, right?

|11.5.07 @ 11:41AM|#

Good analogies between candidates and college football teams including Dr. Ron at

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebook?page=gamedayFinal0710

I'm glad they paired WVU and Romney. Fuck em' both.

Pitt will rise again!

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 11:41AM|#

One reason the October figure fell short was due to a quite anemic last ten days of fundraising - which some attribute to donors holding back so they could donate on the "cool" day.

Hopefully the giddy atmosphere of the Guy Fawkes day promotion will lead to more donations "net" than otherwise would have occurred.

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 11:42AM|#

Taktix, the graphic novel is indeed in print, and is in most respects superior to the film IMO.

|11.5.07 @ 11:43AM|#

Although that could end up with people getting borked, too, I guess.

A witty typo recovery!

Vermont Gun Owner|11.5.07 @ 11:43AM|#

"ronpaulgraphs.com is showing 3.115M as the start of today number, they probably have the offline split out properly."

My bad, it may have only been $250k of offline donations. It seems that Weigel is using numbers directly from the website, which lead to a slightly misleading amount.

|11.5.07 @ 11:43AM|#

President Paul! America this may be our last chance for freedom and liberty!

Jay D|11.5.07 @ 11:43AM|#

joe, RE: borkered convention

One thing that could encourage RP to run third party is if he ended up with a plurality of delagates but, in the end, got borkered.

Vermont Gun Owner|11.5.07 @ 11:44AM|#

Fluffy, count me as one of those "some." I was annoyed that they did not choose a date in October, which would have allowed the campaign to meet it's $4 million goal.

|11.5.07 @ 11:44AM|#

The current record of the year for fundraising in one day is $3 million, set by Obama. If things keep going at this rate for Ron today, that figure will be an afterthought.

I would love to see the mainstream media try to ignore or spin this.

|11.5.07 @ 11:46AM|#

The Republican party does not have superdelegates, every single one comes to the convention pledged. If there is no majority than the only mechanism is the bargaining table, who knows, mabye Paul could trade his delegates for an end to the war?

|11.5.07 @ 11:46AM|#

The November 5th goal was originally ten million dollars in one day, even though one million might have been more realistic. Looks like setting a high goal paid off, though. The site had around 18,000 people pledged for $100 each, but some are going over that, and many didn't sign up on the website.

Ron Paul would have little chance in a brokered convention, but since many states are winner-take-all, or winner-take-all by district, he could gain a majority of the delegates while getting substantially less than 50% of the primary vote. Judging from the polls, 30% would probably be enough.

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 11:48AM|#

Jay D -

Even more delicious than a brokered convention would be a third party run by Paul leading to the election being thrown into the House, which would turn the Presidency over to Hillary.

I say "delicious" not because this would be a good outcome, but because of the century of bitching and moaning it would set off.

Timothy|11.5.07 @ 11:48AM|#

Also, more reason to ignore the campaign finance reformers who whine about big money trumping ideas and good people in politics. pretend to think money trumps ideas but really don't want real alternatives to have a chance at the polls.

Fixed it.

|11.5.07 @ 11:48AM|#

I, too, just watched V for Vendetta for the first time. Excellent movie and very relevant. Good choice of references for this movement to search for donations on this day.

As for the steady donations today, I think between 5pm eastern and about 10pm pacific there will be the majority of donations just because people will be home and logging on to their computers...and maybe the evening news will report on this money bomb and there will be a large take this week as a whole because of new supporters. Could change the world forever. How awesome is that?!

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 11:49AM|#

Actually, aren't delegates only pledged for the first ballot?

Isn't the most likely scenario not really a "brokering" in the old style, but no winner on the first ballot, followed by delegates abandoning their pledged candidate in droves?

|11.5.07 @ 11:57AM|#

I think that's correct that delegates can switch allegiance once their guy is eliminated, but how they get eliminated is unknown to me. Is it basically the lowest delegate holder loses his first and those people go to someone else? If this is how it works then Ron Paul does not have a chance, so he really needs to win a majority of delegates because we will all stick with him. I am considering being a NY delegate for Ron Paul, but I have to make sure I will have no conflicts for the convention. I'd love to go if he wins. If anything, just to see the atmosphere where RP supporters are everywhere and neo-con supporters look utterly confused at what just happened.

|11.5.07 @ 11:57AM|#

Wooooooooo! GO RP!

|11.5.07 @ 12:00PM|#

I would love to see the mainstream media try to ignore or spin this.

Ignore what?

|11.5.07 @ 12:05PM|#

The Republican party does not have superdelegates, every single one comes to the convention pledged. If there is no majority than the only mechanism is the bargaining table, who knows, mabye Paul could trade his delegates for an end to the war?

I'm not sure that's true. Here in NY we send 101 delegates to the RNC. 87 are pledged, but the remaining 14 that are sent have more to do with their position within the party. The State Republican Party Chairman goes and holds a vote. I'm not sure he is bound to cast it with the 87 pledged. I'm also uncertain how long each delegate is required to stick it out with the candidate he is pledged to. In Connecticut, where I grew up, the rule was that after the first convention ballot if no winner is chosen, then they were all released from that obligation.

Jay D|11.5.07 @ 12:06PM|#

Even more delicious than a brokered convention would be a third party run by Paul leading to the election being thrown into the House, which would turn the Presidency over to Hillary.

I say "delicious" not because this would be a good outcome, but because of the century of bitching and moaning it would set off.

It's a feature, not a bug!
People wouldn't understand that because they don't understand the constitution.

Another feature is that the Electoral College could avoid a House vote. "Faithless" Rudy Electors could, in theory, vote for Paul, putting him over the top! (yeah, right.)

|11.5.07 @ 12:06PM|#

There was no 4 million goal for October. If he got 4 million for October and still only got 12 million for the quarter, then he would have 3 months of no increase, when he has gained over 100% increase in the past.

If you figure in only a 50% increase in funding, then he is well on pace to get over $12 million for the quarter.

2.6 / 2 = 1.3 million more needed for the month of november. 2.6 + 1.3 = 3.9 goal for the 2nd month. And 3.9 / 2 = 1.95. So, 3.9 + 1.95 = 5.85

2.6 1st month
3.9 2nd month
5.85 3rd month
------------------
12.35 million for the quarter and over the goal.

Elwar|11.5.07 @ 12:06PM|#

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Liberty Donation plot,
No reason the nation,
Forget the Liberty Donation,
When individuals gave a lot.
Ron Paul, Ron Paul, t'was his solution
to return us to the Constitution.
While ignored by the political elite
the r3VOLution took to the street,
freedom loving people were on track
to take their country back.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, listen to this call.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, vote for RON PAUL!

ed|11.5.07 @ 12:06PM|#

Has Reason officially endorsed the candidacy of Ron Paul yet? The magazine used to wait till just before the general election to do that. It gave them an air of impartiality amid the stench of partisan campaigning. I'm assuming those days are gone forever?

|11.5.07 @ 12:08PM|#

Are you kidding, CNN, the networks, and even the local news love this story.

Ron Paul's third-quarter numbers - the report in which he beat McCain - were the headline on the Page 2 story about fundraising in that day's edition of the Boston Globe.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney raising the most money was mentioned farther down in the story.

It's time to get over complaining about "the media ignores my candidate," and graduate to "the media is being mean to my candidate."

Mainstream Media Man #2|11.5.07 @ 12:09PM|#

Ignore what?

I believe they are talking about the fact that Ron Paul (a long shot libertarian with no chance to win, who is polling at -74%) supporters have raised (through identity theft or some form of spamming) less than 5 million dollars today in celebration of a violent attempt to use terrorism on the English Parliament.

Jay D|11.5.07 @ 12:09PM|#

I could be wrong, but I understand the convention this way.

In the first round of voting, delagates vote for who they are pledged to. If there is no majority (50%) all delagates are then free for the next round of voting. New votes are taken until a candidate gets a majority.

|11.5.07 @ 12:10PM|#

Has Reason officially endorsed the candidacy of Ron Paul yet?

Do they really have to?

|11.5.07 @ 12:10PM|#

That's right, MMM#2!

In related news, Britney Spears blah blah blah....

|11.5.07 @ 12:10PM|#

Nick,

I just volunteered my name as well for the RNC delegation from NY. I seriously doubt Paul will be able to overtake Rudy so it's probably a moot point. Having been to a few conventions on the State level and one for a Congressional district, I have to tell you it is an electric atmosphere if there is no outright winner.

|11.5.07 @ 12:12PM|#

It's time to get over complaining about "the media ignores my candidate," and graduate to "the media is being mean to my candidate."

Damn, joe. You're in good form today.

|11.5.07 @ 12:16PM|#

While I don't agree with RP on everything. Immigration and abortion. He is far far superior to those who are considered the mainstream candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. Scary Republican or Scary Democrat I prefer RP at least he will try to tame leviathian.

Edward|11.5.07 @ 12:18PM|#

Morons, all you. That's all that needs to be said.

|11.5.07 @ 12:18PM|#

Watching that ticker is hypnotic. Paul's funds are going up $3000-5000 per minute.

|11.5.07 @ 12:19PM|#

An extra Quarter Million in the hour since this was posted. This is fun!

|11.5.07 @ 12:20PM|#

How about "when the media doesn't ignore my candidate, they outright lie about his policy positions...and they are mean to him...and they call his supporters tin foil hat wearing, neo-Nazi, teenage robots spamming from their mother's basement." Is that better?

robc|11.5.07 @ 12:24PM|#

RP is now over $4.7M for the quarter, which puts him back on pace for $12M for the quarter.

al|11.5.07 @ 12:24PM|#

ROn Paul is supprising many who stay informed. The sad truth though is that the vast majority of voters in the U.S. will not research the candidates. They will instead listen to the "non-answers" candidates give about issues and then change the channel to hear the latest news about Paris Hilton.

If they really understood what is at stake in this election, MABEY they would pay attention.

robc|11.5.07 @ 12:25PM|#

Remember, its just one spammer who has sent in the same dollar 4.7 million times.

|11.5.07 @ 12:25PM|#

Yes, that sounds pretty much like what the supporters of every candidate who receives a significant amount of media attention says, Nick.

Wake me up when they spend several days talking about how Ron Pauls his sandwich, or what he drinks in the morning.

|11.5.07 @ 12:27PM|#

As for the offline donations added in the wee hours this morning, I have no problem with them at all. I know some people were mailing in their donations early so they would be in house by Nov 5th. No reason not to include them. It is an impressive take and if the media asks the campaign about the timeliness of the donations added from offline sources, I think they would be honest. Also, people like to contribute when the numbers climb. If offline donations spur that on, so be it. They are still legit donations that have to be added sometime. Why not on the day the world changed forever?

Overly dramatic? Maybe I can be a writer scab!

|11.5.07 @ 12:30PM|#

Dammit, I thought I was supposed to send in my 100 on 11/1!

Oh well, it's all good, I guess.

|11.5.07 @ 12:31PM|#

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

-Mahatma Gandhi

|11.5.07 @ 12:34PM|#

I just contributed. Flipped back to the home page just in time to see my name and hometown.

|11.5.07 @ 12:34PM|#

Edward why are you still posting here? Can anyone block him from posting? I keeed I keeed ;o)

|11.5.07 @ 12:35PM|#

Why wouldn't the media want a Ron Paul or a Howard Dean or whoever to win? I don't mean the media as an institution or complex -- I mean your typical pound-the-street journalists and pundits. To the extent that it feels invigorating and meaningful to live and operate in a time of historic import, it seems they'd crave this sort of thing, if even on the most shallow, self-serving level.

I mean, we see that phenomenon function on a smaller scale in the everyday sensationalist-story-du-jour stuff we see on the local news. Shouldn't it transfer to this bigger picture? If nothing else, how FUN to cover an event of seismic change on the U.S. political landscape, rather than yet another round of the same old, drab paint-by-numbers politicos.

Yet the Ron Pauls and Howard Deans are the most ripe for brutal, unforgiving media takedowns, when all is said and done.

ed|11.5.07 @ 12:35PM|#

Has Reason officially endorsed the candidacy of Ron Paul yet?

--Do they really have to?

Have they or not? He's certainly their de facto choice, of course. Just wondering if they've made it official yet. A legitimate question I think, given the foundation's mission to provide independent, nonpartisan analysis. Reason appears to have commited to Paul's candidacy well over a year before the election. Which makes them participants--not reporters--in the election process. No one here has a problem with that?

robc|11.5.07 @ 12:38PM|#

Tom,

Why doesnt the media want non-football powers in the BCS championship game? I understand why ABC (or whichever network) doesnt want them, they want ratings. But, the beat writers seem to go out of their way to hold down "upstart" sports teams, when it seems to me the cinderella is the better story.

|11.5.07 @ 12:39PM|#

So, joe, do you agree with many of your fellow liberal Dems when they say Paul secretly hates blacks, browns, gays, and women?

|11.5.07 @ 12:39PM|#

Why wouldn't the media want a Ron Paul or a Howard Dean or whoever to win? I don't mean the media as an institution or complex -- I mean your typical pound-the-street journalists and pundits.

They all have a comfort zone, and will go to great lengths to protect it. And the MSM is well aware of their slide to irrelevance, and will squeeze out as much influence as they can until the day that happens.

|11.5.07 @ 12:43PM|#

Well, I'm not sure about the slide-to-irrelevance theory -- the fact that so many people still furrow their brows over mainstream-media coverage (including on this thread) shows that the media still wields immense power.

But the comfort zone thing -- yes, there's certainly something to that. But it's weird... If you know any journalists personally, you probably find them to be among the most cynical, relativistic, aww-just-fuck-it people you know. Yet when it comes to actually putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, they often lapse into easy habits. The comfort zone, as you say. It's odd.

Mike|11.5.07 @ 12:44PM|#

This firms up Dr. Paul's position...

http://www.truthalert.net/Republican%20Presidential%20Candidate%20Rankings.htm

|11.5.07 @ 12:45PM|#

So they have to endorse someone because they write articles about them? Do you think nobody notices you are trying to change the topic to something totally different, in an effort to discredit the topic?

How long have topics about other candidates been going?

You sir, are transparent.

|11.5.07 @ 12:45PM|#

beat writers seem to go out of their way to hold down "upstart" sports teams, when it seems to me the cinderella is the better story.

If the #2 team is a traditional powerhouse with 1 loss and they get pounded, then the #1 team is an all-time great and the hacks can compare them to "insert greatest ever college team here". If the #2 team were a Boise State or a Hawaii and THEY get pounded, then why, oh why didn't the best team in "insert local conference here" get a chance since they actually played somebody?

It's a prisoner's dilemma of sorts and the sportswriters are so scared of a life term that they happily take the reduced sentence.

|11.5.07 @ 12:45PM|#

Cesar,

I think it's pretty clear Ron Paul has some..."old fashioned" ideas about certain things.

I haven't seen anyone accuse him of being a hater, though. Then again, if you've ever been accused of racism by a liberal, you've noticed that they can be incredibly fleet of foot.

|11.5.07 @ 12:48PM|#

joe-

I guess you missed out on this.

Apparently Ron Paul is a theocrat who hates minorities and women! As brownish atheist Ron Paul supporter, I guess I'm just too stupid to figure that out.

|11.5.07 @ 12:48PM|#

Wake me up when they spend several days talking about how Ron Paul eats his sandwich, or what he drinks in the morning.

1)Cut in triangles, with crust.

2)Chuck Norris' blood. With cream and sugar.

|11.5.07 @ 12:50PM|#

If Ron Paul were racist he wouldn't advocate ending the war on drugs.

|11.5.07 @ 12:51PM|#

I guess you are, Cesar. Just how fleet of foot are you, anyway?

Liberal uses overwrought language to describe opponents' position. News at 11.

Luke Johnson|11.5.07 @ 12:52PM|#

Hurm, based on the thisnovemberfifth.com screencap, the donations just broke 2 million since midnight.

http://www.thisnovember5th.com/images/RP_Nov5_Start.jpg

Probably be 2 million up from Reason's screencap soon, another half hour or so. Not too shabby.

|11.5.07 @ 12:52PM|#

But I must admit - finding somebody in a comment thread using overly-strong language: well played, sir! Bravo!

|11.5.07 @ 12:54PM|#

If Ron Paul were racist he wouldn't advocate ending the war on drugs.

It never stopped William F. "Right now the white race is the superior race" Buckley.

|11.5.07 @ 12:55PM|#

I guess you are, Cesar. Just how fleet of foot are you, anyway?

Don't know how I am now, but I was a sprinter on the track team in high school. I'm sure Michelle Malkin would think I'm good at making it across a desert, too.

But I must admit - finding somebody in a comment thread using overly-strong language: well played, sir! Bravo!

Well, they found a newsletter being ghostwritten from back in 19991(!) and accused him of writing it--despite the fact its not his style at all, and despite the fact he never said anything even close to what was in the news letter any other time in his entire career.

|11.5.07 @ 12:55PM|#

If Ron Paul were racist he wouldn't advocate ending the war on drugs.

And if he was afraid of vaginas, I doubt he would be an OBGYN.

|11.5.07 @ 1:01PM|#

Yeah, the upstart is only a good story once they've won. Then people will talk about it after the fact. But it doesn't drive readership unless they win which is less often than winning. I find readership for many egotistical reporters to be the driving force. There aren't that many I-want-to-report-history-in-the-making reporters any more. They're probably just like the rest of us, trying not to get fired. Self-preservation is a natural tendency. Hell, just being on the winning side is a natural tendency for many. That's why so many people are bandwagon fans. They just want to be able to say, "I am a fan of the winner" or "I voted for the winner." I know several people who actually vote for who they think will win just because they think they will win. These people don't have any real convictions and very little loyalty. They may disagree with the winner, but at least they "knew s/he would win." Then they can puff their chest out and brag about how smart they are. Assholes.

|11.5.07 @ 1:01PM|#

I don't think there will be a brokered convention. Romney wins Iowa and New Hampshire, and a la John Kerry catapults to the nomination. Giuliani fizzles out after South Carolina, McCain and Thompson never really get off the ground. Huckabee does well enough to save face and be chosen by Romney as the VP nominee as sop to southerners religious right.

Edward|11.5.07 @ 1:02PM|#

There's nothing left for me to do but kill myself. I'm never posting here again.

|11.5.07 @ 1:03PM|#

Cesar,

He - Ron Paul, personally - put his name on that article, and never asked for it to be renounced.

he never said anything even close to what was in the news letter any other time in his entire career. His comment about 90% of the black males in Washington, D.C. being criminal wasn't exactly ripped from a Martin Luther King speech, either.

Let's not get all fan-boi defensive here. Even your very favoritist professional politician is going to have some smudges on record, like all the other ones. Ron Paul's a bit of a hick, and it comes through sometimes. That's not the worst thing in the world.

|11.5.07 @ 1:05PM|#

HA! You all think this is impressive, just look at how much Mike Huckabee has raised so far this month!

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/

|11.5.07 @ 1:06PM|#

I don't think there will be a brokered convention. Romney wins Iowa and New Hampshire, and a la John Kerry catapults to the nomination.

I would agree, except for the Mormon thing. I don't think Romney can win a single southern state, and that will screw everything up.

|11.5.07 @ 1:06PM|#

Let's not get all fan-boi defensive here. Even your very favoritist professional politician is going to have some smudges on record, like all the other ones. Ron Paul's a bit of a hick, and it comes through sometimes. That's not the worst thing in the world.

I'd say he comes off more as an old man than a hick.

|11.5.07 @ 1:08PM|#

For governing purposes, it doesn't matter at all if Ron Paul is a racist because he holds an anti-collectivist agenda and would presumably stick to that. From an election standpoint, however, it will come up time and again, that 1991 newsletter. He needs to set the record straight on national TV before an opponent mentions it, because whoever does it first will benefit more than any later retractions or clarifications can manage. Only front-runner bandwagon candidates can survive such a controversy. They actually use them to their advantage sometimes, but the upstart can't afford it.

|11.5.07 @ 1:09PM|#

I would agree, except for the Mormon thing. I don't think Romney can win a single southern state, and that will screw everything up.

I thought so, too. But then Bob Jones endorsed him. If a nut like that can get over his Mormonism, than so can a typical Southern Baptist.

I have no idea how he is as a campaigner in a general election, but I have a feeling he will be crucified by Hillary.

|11.5.07 @ 1:09PM|#

Yes, Cesar, that's a much better description.

I'm going back to my original terminology - he's old-fashioned on these things. Not a hater, not a racial ideologue, but someone from an earlier generation.

|11.5.07 @ 1:12PM|#

Approaching 5 mil in 5 weeks. Nice. Maybe 7 mil in 5 weeks by the time this day is over. Anyone know if the money tracker on his website includes or excludes general election money? Presumably it does not, but does anyone know for sure?

|11.5.07 @ 1:12PM|#

I didn't know about the Bob Jones thing. That could be important.

I think he'd give Hillary a better race than any of the others. He can get to her left on the war, and comes across as an honest man who calls 'em like he sees 'em.

Ron Paul vs. the Murdoch-backed Hillary would be a weird race. It might even entice a neocon Republican to run on a third-party ticket.

|11.5.07 @ 1:13PM|#

joe and cesar remind me of that howard stern thing where the people who hated him listened and talked about him more than the people who liked him.

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 1:14PM|#

HA! You all think this is impressive, just look at how much Mike Huckabee has raised so far this month!

Well, maybe like Huckabee's theory of the Earth's age, Huckabee's accounting is just a bit off.

|11.5.07 @ 1:14PM|#

Plus, if the Democrats look like they are going to increase their majority in Congress, which is likely, Paul becomes the candidate of divided government.

It's strange to say, but from a structural point of view, the libertarian could be the best-positioned candidate.

|11.5.07 @ 1:15PM|#

Nick, I'm pretty sure he isn't even accepting General Election donations yet. I would give to it if he was.

|11.5.07 @ 1:18PM|#

Heres Bob Jones endorsing Mitt Romney, if anyone is interested.

|11.5.07 @ 1:19PM|#

Dr. Ron Paul's campaign has now programmed thier illegal spam bots to donate money, creating impression the campaign has money to operate with!!


GO RON PAUL!!!!

|11.5.07 @ 1:19PM|#

I would not be surprised if Romney wins NH and IA but the other states will be so split it will take all states to decide this race. I wouldn't be surprised if Super Tuesday decides nothing. Every GOP candidate is waiting until then to decide whether or not to pull out and they might all stay in because of the diversity of those Feb 5th states. Giuliani wins NY, Fred and Huck split some southern states, McCain wins a state or two, Ron Paul wins AK perhaps and by some miracle CA as well. Who knows? It is the most interesting election ever. And on the other side, the Dems are morons. John Edwards with VP Bill Richardson would probably beat any Republican this time around but their base is supporting Hillary and Obama who will draw out the disenchanted GOPers who might otherwise not show up. They can't get out of their own way. That's the only reason this GOP race even matters. Otherwise, after 8 years of W, it would be a slam dunk for the Dem.

|11.5.07 @ 1:25PM|#

If John Edwards goes nuclear on Hillary and Obama, either Richardson or even Dodd could come up if enough primary voters get turned off by the negativity.

The Extispicator|11.5.07 @ 1:26PM|#

Guys, you've got the wrong screenshot. That's not Paul's fundraising total, but the number of times Edward has solemnly declared that he would never post here again.

|11.5.07 @ 1:27PM|#

Under the arm Pitt! Go WVU and Ron Paul!

|11.5.07 @ 1:28PM|#

2 million dollars in less than 14 hours is impressive. Anybody talking about the Nov 11 Veteran's Day money bomb? Is that supposed to be $100 also?

The Extispicator|11.5.07 @ 1:32PM|#

I haven't seen anything about the 11/11 money bomb, but how about $111 per person?

|11.5.07 @ 1:33PM|#

Ron Paul on Racism

R C Dean|11.5.07 @ 1:37PM|#

I think it's pretty clear Ron Paul has some..."old fashioned" ideas about certain things.

Like the Constitution, perhaps?

|11.5.07 @ 1:37PM|#

Even my wife, who is a joe-level Democratic loyalist, has expressed interest in RP's candidacy. I believe he's starting to reach a lot more people than many believe.

I doubt he'll win (unfortunately), but his campaign has *already* had an impact, and I believe that the best may be still to come.

|11.5.07 @ 1:37PM|#

Under the arm Pitt! Go WVU and Ron Paul!

Q: Why don't they have ice on the sidelines at WVU games anymore?

A: Because the guy with the recipe graduated...

|11.5.07 @ 1:40PM|#

Analogies are how dumb people understand things. Sports analogies are how REALLY dumb people understand things.

How in the fuck-all do we compare college football teams to anything like a political candidate? This is a way too simplistic description that doesn't really bring any new factual information to the debate at all.

|11.5.07 @ 1:41PM|#

Sounds good. We have to keep being creative with these donation pushes. Money bomb ideas are great, but we need other ways too. I have a jar of coins to cash in and donate as well as football office pool winnings. I've heard some people are having Ron Paul garage sales and selling things on eBay to donate. Any other ideas. It feels even better to donate if I don't have to give up eating this week;)

|11.5.07 @ 1:44PM|#

Great piece, Max.

He writes a column about racism and Don Imus affair, and his criticism is aimed entirely at outside agitators and the federal government.

Not a single word indicating that Don Imum did anything wrong, or that there was anything to be upset about, except for the fact that people criticized Imus.

One of those "the REAL racists" articles. Not a racist statement, but what might be called "anti-anti-racism," the mindset that thinks that everything would be fine if it weren't for outsiders stirring up trouble.

|11.5.07 @ 1:44PM|#

Sports analogies are used for everything. Hell, sports even steal terms from other sports to compare things. Like a long pass that they call "going for a home run" or "the quarter back of the Sabres power play." The term front-runner is a sports term. People like sports, Max. What's the big deal? You have to remember, the majority of Americans are not as smart as you. Speak their language and you might get someone to listen.

|11.5.07 @ 1:48PM|#

That's $5 million...

gan|11.5.07 @ 1:48PM|#

And now the total has passed $5m!

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

|11.5.07 @ 1:50PM|#

The new graphic on Ron Paul's website has been up only one day and they're gonna have to change it by dinner time. Not enough room for the next 15 hours of donations.

|11.5.07 @ 1:52PM|#

Why oh why did they pick today of all days? Are they too blinkered to know what November 5th stands for?

If you're a bigoted Brit, then Guy Fawkes Day is an anti-Catholic holiday. Otherwise you're celebrating violent revolution. It doesn't matter if it's the historical Guy Fawkes, or that stupid movie, it's still about blowing up buildings and the people inside them.

Don't associate Ron Paul with this violent day! Ron Paul is a peaceful man. He does NOT condone violent revolution. He does NOT condone blowing up buildings.

If you were going to donate to the campaign today, then don't! Donate tomorrow instead. Stop celebrating violence.

|11.5.07 @ 1:52PM|#

Joe, I think its a fair point that people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson need to keep racism alive so they have careers. Ditto for the NAACP. Its in their interest to find racist incidents, if racism disappeared tomorrow they would have no reason to exist. So they blow every incident out of proportion (witness, the Jenna 6, Imus) and defend the indefensible (Duke rape case, Michael Vick, O.J. Simpson).

Now, just because I believe that doesn't mean I'm part of the Steve Sailer-VDARE-Peter Brimelow "white heterosexual anglo males are the ones who are REALLY oppressed these days!" bandwagon, either. They're race pimps just as dependent on racist incidents for their survival as public figures and commentators.

|11.5.07 @ 1:56PM|#

I've read that article. RP has posted other informative articles on LRC. Doesn't seem like the views of a racist to me.

|11.5.07 @ 1:56PM|#

"if the Democrats look like they are going to increase their majority in Congress, which is likely"

If Hillary is the nominee, the Democrats could actually lose Congress. If Hillary is the nominee, Republicans will show up in droves to keep her out. They will also vote against lower level Democrats while they're at it.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|11.5.07 @ 1:58PM|#

Why doesnt the media want non-football powers in the BCS championship game? I understand why ABC (or whichever network) doesnt want them, they want ratings. But, the beat writers seem to go out of their way to hold down "upstart" sports teams, when it seems to me the cinderella is the better story.

Because the sports media, by and large, is made of up ex-BCS conference players and BCS conference graduates.

|11.5.07 @ 1:59PM|#

If you're a bigoted Brit, then Guy Fawkes Day is an anti-Catholic holiday.

Sorry, I thought RP was running for president of the US...didn't realize I needed to consider what the brits might think.

|11.5.07 @ 2:00PM|#

Cesar,

It's as "fair" a point as saying that Ron Paul and the Reason Foundation need to keep big government alive in order to have a career.

Which is to say, not at all. That's a cheap shot that can be hurled at any political activist or politician.

|11.5.07 @ 2:01PM|#

That's possible, Rattelsnake Jake.

|11.5.07 @ 2:03PM|#

Brandybuck,
Don't worry yourself about it. From this day forward, the Fifth of November will be remembered as RON PAUL DAY.

|11.5.07 @ 2:04PM|#

Joe I didn't get that at all from the article. RP is right the government can't legislate against racist thought. People have a right to be assholes when it comes to race (really skin color and where you're from) without government trying to make it wrong. If you don't think that being a bigot is wrong no law that government can create will change that it will just restrict our freedoms even more. You have a right to say dumb shit just don't try to hurt anyone.

robc|11.5.07 @ 2:05PM|#

Because the sports media, by and large, is made of up ex-BCS conference players and BCS conference graduates.

S Florida, Rutgers (last year), Louisville (last year), Kansas, Arizona St, and Boston College are all BCS conference teams. While only Kansas remains undefeated, all of them had (while undefeated) their schedules ripped apart in ways that Ohio St. hasnt been subjected to. If Kansas is 4th because of their schedule (which is fair enough, it has been gawdawful), then why is OSU #1? Theirs has been only marginally better, at best.

|11.5.07 @ 2:05PM|#

joe-

Let me know when Hillary Clinton comes running to Nick Gillespie to apologize for advocating big government.

|11.5.07 @ 2:06PM|#

Brandybuck, I think the point of donating today is because A) it is an anti-establishment theme and B) it has a catchy rhyme to go with it.

The Revolutionary War was a violent revolution because the Americans that wanted to be free were not granted their freedom by peaceful means. Violence is sometimes necessary. On the flip side, donating money today or any other is a peaceful means to freedom. Both are good causes that should be fought, not because one is violent and the other is not. Those are just means to an end. Let's hope our peaceful means are successful.

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 2:06PM|#

"He does NOT condone violent revolution."

Ummmm...He seems to think very highly of a violent revolution against the very monarchy that Fawkes had a problem with.

You have to remember that from the British perspective, the revolutionary generation were murderous traitors. Just like Fawkes. They just couldn't get their tea-stained fingers on Washington or Madison to hang them.

|11.5.07 @ 2:07PM|#

I would like to suggest that each of us, and other supporters take a few minutes to email so called major media to insist that this amazing event in support of Ron Paul be covered, and not marginalized. No matter who the candidate might be, such an event is newsworthy, period.

Tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on.....

Here's a handy dandy list to help make it happen.

FAIR's Media Contact List
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

|11.5.07 @ 2:07PM|#

Cue Bill Donahue to go on tv and accuse Paul of being an anti-Catholic bigot!

|11.5.07 @ 2:08PM|#

I dislike Sharpton and brother Jesse and I'm black. Without "racism" they wouldn't have careers. It annoys the hell out of me to see their asses on tv everytime some issue about race gains national attention. Who elected them the "black" leaders. The media needs to quit giving them so much face time when it comes to "race" related issues. They are con men and as interested in using the system to gain advantage for themselves and their friends as any politician.

|11.5.07 @ 2:12PM|#

james,

It would have been nice, when discussing the issue of racism, for private-sector-loving, beat-racism-in-the-marketplace-of-ideas arguing Ron Paul to actually, you know, make the point that insulting people using racist terms is wrong.

And I don't see how you can read that article and not realize that he's putting the blame for the episode on those "outside agitators."

And since the entirety of those critics' program was to criticize Don Imus, without a single call for any government interference, the fact that Paul skipped over discussing Imus at all and went straight to talking about the government being the cause of racial diviseiveness seems even stranger.

|11.5.07 @ 2:15PM|#

james,

I equate the way the news media treat Sharpton and Jackson the way some white people treat the one black guy in the office.

So, Bill, what do bla- I mean, what do you think about the Iraq War?

Elwar|11.5.07 @ 2:17PM|#

"Why oh why did they pick today of all days? Are they too blinkered to know what November 5th stands for?"

The brits should have learned by now that we take all of those British traditions and change them for our own purposes. We've usurped this holiday for ourselves and nobody will know the root reason for it.

Just like back in the day when we stuck a feather in our hat and called it macaroni.

|11.5.07 @ 2:18PM|#

"Anybody working for the Rudy-Fred-Mitt power trio has to wonder why the Republican base is so hungry for these other choices."

I think it's bizarre that they're stuck in a parallel universe where they're relevant; fact is, Ron Paul doesn't need to "energize" his base: his base is self-energizing.

|11.5.07 @ 2:19PM|#

Ummmm...He seems to think very highly of a violent revolution against the very monarchy that Fawkes had a problem with.

Except that Great Britain fired the first shot in that revolution. It wasn't started by us. To be sure, a few government ministers got tarred and feathered before it started, but that's much different from blowing up buildings to guaranteeing that innocent bystanders will be killed.

Btw, Guy Fawkes was no libertarian. Celebrating this is a libertarian holiday is as stupid as celebrating Robespierre Day or McVeigh Day.

robc|11.5.07 @ 2:22PM|#

Brandybuck,

Think of it as day we find out who wins next year Day. Im sure it will be after midnight before the results of November 4th are final.

Its the negative first anniversary!

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 2:23PM|#

Rudy is up 2 points in the very latest poll released over the weekend. His tracking is on an uptick. Just check out the daily RealClearPolitics.com culmaltive polling data (click on the very upper lefthand GOP Tracking Poll).

That's hardly what I would call "worriesome" for Giuliani supporters.

And McCain's rise is due almost entirely to Thompson's dip.

Oh, and Ron Paul? Latest poll according to RCP, has him at 3%, neither up nor down from last month.

Don't believe the hype by Republican-bashing Reason Bloggers. Just check RealClearPolitics.com first.

|11.5.07 @ 2:25PM|#

DONDERRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO!

I always wanted to be the first to do that.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 2:27PM|#

Just coming over the wires...

Ron Paul has had a close friend and political ally in Rightwing Washington circles for over 30 years. This gentleman who is widely known and well-respected on the Right, has supported Paul in virtually all his political efforts over the years, with money, advice and other support.

His name? Paul Weyrich.

Well, today Weyrich announced that he is officially endorsing...



MITT ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT

This must be a major blow and dissapointment to the Ron Paul Campaign. Paul himself must be deeply troubled by Weyrich's personal betrayal of him. Weyrich after all, has been a huge backer of maverick and out-of-the-mainstream rightwing political efforts. You would have thought that Paul's quixotic Presidential campaign would have been tailor made for Weyrich support.

But alas, he's backing Romney.

|11.5.07 @ 2:27PM|#

At his time Ron Paul has received $2.5 million since last night.
This is more money in one day than any candidate in history has ever received.

I think he might be able to buy some advertising time now in New Hampshire and Iowa and elsewhere!

|11.5.07 @ 2:27PM|#

Hey Joe!

You Wrote:t would have been nice, when discussing the issue of racism, for private-sector-loving, beat-racism-in-the-marketplace-of-ideas arguing Ron Paul to actually, you know, make the point that insulting people using racist terms is wrong.

Maybe you didn't read the article I posted thoroughly enough. Ron Paul believes, "Bigotry at its essence is a sin of the heart, and we can't change people's hearts by passing more laws and regulations."

What more does he need to say to come out against racism. Bigotry is all-inclusive to mean the collectivist mind-set whether it is racism, sexism, etc.?

Awik Dunder(head)oooo|11.5.07 @ 2:27PM|#

oh Thsesar. Thit. you were firtht.

But just with EDDDIEEEE last night, coming (in) second can also be divine.

robc|11.5.07 @ 2:28PM|#

personal betrayal

Projecting much?

|11.5.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Paige wrote: The current record of the year for fundraising in one day is $3 million, set by Obama. If things keep going at this rate for Ron today, that figure will be an afterthought.

Where are you seeing that characterization of the record? I can't find it anywhere, and in the meantime I've come across this -- "Romney Raises $6.5 Million in One-Day Blitz" -- among other things.

|11.5.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Dondero, Giuliani has become a family guy punch line. I'd like to see him try to give one speech without saying "9/11". Theres no way Republicans would nominate him, and if they do, theres going to be a third party split.

|11.5.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Hey Dondero,

Why are you touting flawed polls, man? Follow the money.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Ceeeeeeeeesaaaaaaaar!!!

I always wanted to be the first to do that too.

Pero, mas prefiero el sonido de eso en espanol. Piensalo con un accento Mexicano.

|11.5.07 @ 2:29PM|#

At his time Ron Paul has received $2.5 million since last night.
This is more money in one day than any candidate in history has ever received.

My above post goes to you, too, DenisL.

Franklin|11.5.07 @ 2:30PM|#

Damn! And I know of 4 donors (myself included) that haven't even made their donations yet today.

Also, Ron Paul Delegate Info.

And, for some of the media related posts... are you really under the impression that the journalists themselves get to decide on what gets printed or aired? The best that they can do is present ideas. Sometimes they're not even told by their producers why a story won't be used. I imagine there are times that their producers don't know why either. There are many documetaries with very well known journalists talking about the subject.

Yes! Dondero's back! I was getting tired of all ROTFL comments coming from people with names like "Joe" and "Edward".

|11.5.07 @ 2:31PM|#

And, for some of the media related posts... are you really under the impression that the journalists themselves get to decide on what gets printed or aired?

Speaking as a journalist, yes.

robc|11.5.07 @ 2:32PM|#

Tom,

Im not sure where I saw it (ronpaulforums.com maybe) but Romney got $6.5M in pledges in one day, but only collected $2.5M that day. And didnt necessarily receive all the rest of the pledged money.

I think the record is from 4 years ago. Kerrey got 5+ million in one day, I think.

|11.5.07 @ 2:33PM|#

Max,

Once again, he could have said that Imus was wrong. He didn't. Not once. He wrote an article about the Imus affair, and never once thought to say that it was wrong to insult those women using racial slurs.

That's what more he could have said - addressed the central point of the issue, and indicated that he thought slurring people with racial terms was as bad as criticizing people for using racial slurs.

|11.5.07 @ 2:33PM|#

Pero, mas prefiero el sonido de eso en espanol. Piensalo con un accento Mexicano.

Campaigning for PAN?

|11.5.07 @ 2:35PM|#

Rather, he fell back into generalities, and then aimed his fire more at those who oppose racism.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 2:37PM|#

Cesar, how old are you?

I'm 44. In my 44 years on this planet there has not been a single event more powerful, more devastating, more explosive literally in the United States of America, than 9/11.

Our Nation is 230 years old.

I would challenge you to find a single event in our Nation's history more important than 9/11.

Yes, Pearl Harbor, and the invasion of Normandy come awfully close. Perhaps Pearl Harbor does equal 9/11. I admit one could make that argument.

But in our lifetimes, (and I'm assuming here that you're in your 30s or 40s), NOTHING EQUALS THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. And perhaps NOTHING ELSE EVER WILL.

For you to say that Rudy Giuliani talks about 9/11 "too much" is downright insulting and a great offense to anyone and everyone who is a loyal citizen of this great country.

If anything, WE DON'T TALK ABOUT 9/11 NEARLY ENOUGH!!

There's been a grand total of 2 major Hollywood movies made about 9/11: Flight 92, and the one about the Fireman in the Twin Towers starring Nicolas Cage.

How many movies were made about WWII?? Hundreds???

When is the last time you remember ANY News outlet showing the jets flying into the Twin Towers? Maybe Discovery Channel or the History Channel late at night on one of their specials. But that's about it.

Are American schoolchildren today taught about what happened on 9/11?

Hell No!!! It's all been blotted out by the liberal media.

Thank God, WE FINALLY HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO IS WILLING TO TALK ABOUT THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11.

I say for that reason alone, Giuliani more so than anyone, deserves to be the next President of the United States.

Oh yeah, plum forgot. Ron Paul talks about 9/11 too. Especially when he wants to blame America for the attacks.

Arkham_Angel|11.5.07 @ 2:38PM|#

Goin' strong folks! I've never donated to any candidate..until today! $200.00 aint much but every bit helps! Even $5.00. Go Ron Paul!

|11.5.07 @ 2:40PM|#

Joe because I grew up dealing with bigotry I understand that it is wrong. But it is not my job to make sure that all the racist change their stripes. Racism is fucked up if someone is racist I don't deal with them it is really that simple. That doesn't mean though that I have to believe that they should be prevented from spewing their bile. I believe in freedom and an individuals right to do what ever they want provided they don't infringe on anyone else's right to do the same. Now if you are calling me nigger and you try to touch me well you have earned the asswhooping that I will deliver. If you are just talking crazy well I will ignore you. If you are too fucking dumb to see that racism and bigotry is bullshit why should I waste my time trying to convince you otherwise (I don't mean you Joe I'm referring to bigots and racists in general).

The problem with race in America is that lots of people think it is real and denotes something that is real. Race as the term is used by most people is a social construct. I have white ancestors, black ancestors, native american ancestors.

RP is right the government is the problem. The Fugitive Slave act was a government program. Jim Crow was a direct result of Reconstruction. Separate but equal was a bullshit government doctrine. So yeah I believe government has played its part in the "race" problems that face America. We weren't even considered whole people in the census blacks were only 3/5 of a fucking person the government enshrined that bullshit. And you believe government can make it better. The WOD bitch slaps minorities and the poor. Look at the discrepancy between sentences for powder cocaine and crack. If you are black and you have five grams of crack you will get the same amount of time as a person who has 500 grams (that is half a kilo) of powder cocaine. Your representives did that shit not racist bigots on the street.

|11.5.07 @ 2:41PM|#

Thank God, WE FINALLY HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO IS WILLING TO TALK ABOUT THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11.

Oh, yeah. Thank God. Lord knows, politicians don't ever talk about 9/11.

Folks, this is the level of reality that illuminates pretty much all of Dondero's political thought.

Arkham_Angel|11.5.07 @ 2:43PM|#

Eric Dondero: I think what a lot of people are saying about Mr. Giuliani is that 9/11 is all he has to talk about because the majority of his political views are certainly not in line with the current or traditional views of the Republican party.

I must disagree with your view that "for that reason alone he deserves to be the next President of the United States."

miche|11.5.07 @ 2:44PM|#

I donated $200 this morning and am at my max for the primary season. It's exciting watching that counter go up.

|11.5.07 @ 2:47PM|#

james,

If you are actually a libertarian, than don't you believe that individuals pushing their ideas in the marketplace of ideas is, in fact, the right way to make social progress?

How can Ron Paul talk about that concept out of one side of his mouth, and then criticize as troublemakers those, like Sharpton and Jackson, who took the step of pushing anti-racist ideas in the marketplace of ideas? If he wanted to argue against racism and against government, he should have been holding up the way anti-racists denounced Imus as a model of how private-sector activism can work to change minds and demonstrate to corporations what the public thinks. Instead, he looked at them doing exactly what libertarians want people to do when fighting against racism, and blamed THEM for being divisive.

|11.5.07 @ 2:50PM|#

Dondero, would you do anything to ensure that no American ever gets killed by a terrorist ever again?

|11.5.07 @ 2:50PM|#

Mr. Dondero

9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/119/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 2:53PM|#

Dondero, pull the other one. No one who listens to Rudy can be enough of a Giuliani believer not to notice that he's a Family Guy joke at this point with the 9/11 references.

Or maybe he's a South Park joke. He's from Planet Marklar, except it's actually Planet 9/11. "Would you 9/11's please pick up that 9/11 and bring it over to the 9/11? I have to go out to pick up some 9/11's later on, and I don't want all those 9/11's laying around where someone might trip on them while I'm gone."

|11.5.07 @ 2:53PM|#

Ugh, why don't y'all just ignore him?

|11.5.07 @ 2:54PM|#

Nick: Technically if its biggest loser goes out first style Paul does have a "chance". Its quite possible that their delegates could go to Paul. Paul won't be the biggest loser.

|11.5.07 @ 2:54PM|#

Check out Dondero's "libetarian" website...love the link to "libertarians for Giuliani" as well as the link to celebrity libertarians like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matt Drudge, John Stewart.

I think we can safely replace the old joke that libertarians are republicans who smoke pot. Apparently, libertarians are republicans who like to drink and drive.

|11.5.07 @ 2:54PM|#

Ah yes, Dondero the punching bag is back for more abuse. And once again I'm reminded why I will not be voting for Mr. Guliani, so that douchebags like him do not get the last word.

And yes Dondero, I am personally attacking you and if you in the same room, I would also call you a douchebag.

Fuck off.

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 2:55PM|#

Joe -

It's impossible to separate the campaign against Imus from the implicit threat that hangs over the license of every radio broadcaster every day of the year.

FCC complaints WERE made. Demands for fines WERE made. Calls for licensure action WERE made.

You can't just try to pull out the marketplace of ideas card.

|11.5.07 @ 2:56PM|#

Joe, Ron Paul does not feel it is his job to blast people for their speech. The reason why we have free-speech is so that we can know who the morons are...like Dondero up there with his Giuliani 9/11 speech.

Do you really expect him to address everything you disagree with so that you can feel better?

If you haven't noticed yet Dr. Paul sticks to the issues and doesn't distract people with irrelevant matters like who said what and why they are wrong.

|11.5.07 @ 2:56PM|#

Eric, it is disingenuous of Rudy to use his role (he was mayor at the time, woohoo!) on 9/11 as the sole reason he thinks he should be president. He is using that attack that no one has forgotten to win political points and gain higher office. What a creep. Other politicians don't need to mention 9/11. People remember it clearly. What I have learned since that day is that our country is not innocent. The murdered civilians, yes, but we have a foreign policy that contributes to the hatred of our country by those that we come into contact with in their countries. So, we should perpetuate that hatred by continuing to fight the war in Iraq which Giuliani supports? How does that make sense? How does it make sense that you, a man who says he is libertarian support a gun grabber like Giuliani? I know you have a personal grudge against Ron Paul, but why Giuliani? Just because he happened to be mayor of the city that was attacked? Hillary happened to be senator of NY at the time, why not support her? He and she are the same anyway.

|11.5.07 @ 2:57PM|#

Dondero--

Just leave the war and the Holy Day of 9/11 aside. Please explain why you support a smoking-ban supporting, anti-prostitution legalizing, drug-warring, executive-power grabbing mayor from what is probably (behind San Francisco and Massachusetts) the third most left-wing place in America? Don't let your brain hurt too much.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|11.5.07 @ 2:58PM|#

November 5, 2007


What an incredible day to be a supporter of Ron Paul!

You have raised over $2 million so far today, putting us closer to our $12 million fourth quarter goal. This is more than any Republican has ever raised online in one day!

So far in 2008, the biggest day belongs to Mitt Romney. On January 8th, he raised just over $3.1 million. Will you help us beat Mitt Romney and raise more in one day than anyone has this year?

Please ensure Ron Paul's place in the record books with your most generous donation: https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate. Tell your friends to donate today, too!

Jonathan Bydlak
Fundraising Director
Ron Paul 2008

|11.5.07 @ 2:58PM|#

I believe that someone on this very blog referred to Ghouliani as "dry humping a mass grave."

Indeed.

|11.5.07 @ 3:00PM|#

OK Fluffy, by that logic, it is impossible to separate criticism of college professors from the threat to cut off the research and student aid funding they receive.

|11.5.07 @ 3:00PM|#

a smoking-ban supporting, anti-prostitution legalizing, drug-warring, executive-power grabbing

And gun-grabbing.

|11.5.07 @ 3:00PM|#

... And I was conceived on the WVU campus. For years, WVU has been a party school with a great team. We're all Mountaineers at heart and don't cotton to preppy, loafer-wearing sissy boys. "Gravitas" must be a $20 word that means "balls." Being the blue collar folks who fight and die in American wars, West Virginians have strength of character, and it shows in our football games.

Someone else said Mitt Romney was endorsed by Bob Jones. Now, that flip-flopper and BJU are a good match!

|11.5.07 @ 3:00PM|#

"You have raised over $2 million so far today, putting us closer to our $12 million fourth quarter goal. This is more than any Republican has ever raised [b]online[/b] in one day!"

Ahh, there we go.

|11.5.07 @ 3:01PM|#

Christ.

online

Damn UBB coding.

|11.5.07 @ 3:01PM|#

Besides, Fluffy, read the Ron Paul article Max linked to, and look at his criticisms of Imus's detractors.

|11.5.07 @ 3:02PM|#

Max,

Joe, Ron Paul does not feel it is his job to blast people for their speech. Funny, he didn't seem to have any problem blasting Imus's critics for their speech.

Their terrible, divisive speech.

|11.5.07 @ 3:03PM|#

Yes, gun-grabbing too. If theres anything a candidate should have to be for to even be remotely close to an even libertarian leaning position, its the second amendment.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:06PM|#

Gimmee a break Cesar. The gun issue is important, yes, but not the be all and end all. If anything, there are two lithmus test issues for libertarianism:

Property rights and Tax cuts.

Guns are way, way, way overblown in the grand scheme of things.

|11.5.07 @ 3:08PM|#

Likely within the hour, Paul will cross the $2.5 million mark for the day.

Crossing the $3 million threshold before midnight looks pretty easy at this point.

|11.5.07 @ 3:08PM|#

For all the people saying that Paul shouldn't have picked the 5th of November, he didn't!

The campaign wasn't behind the pledge drive, they were just put on notice and got prepared to rake in the dough. It was the idea of independent supporters, and judging by how it has gone so far, it's been a real shot in the arm of the campaign.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:08PM|#

Cesar, if you seriously think that San Francisco, Massachusetts and New York are the "most leftwing places in America" you have obviously never visited Seattle.

Trust me, there is NO PLACE IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES MORE NUTTY LEFTWING THAN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.

|11.5.07 @ 3:09PM|#

My short list:

1)Taxes/spending
2)Drug War
3)Second amendment

In.That.Order.

|11.5.07 @ 3:09PM|#

WRT Seattle, what Eric said. They's crazy around here.

|11.5.07 @ 3:11PM|#

Dondero,

"I would challenge you to find a single event in our Nation's history more important than 9/11."

December 15, 1791. Go look it up. ;)

|11.5.07 @ 3:11PM|#

Gun rights, drugs, foreign policy.

Snoozer issues!

True libertarianism is sipping a martini (or even two or three) with a cute chick while being satisfied that the federal budget grows at 4.5% per year rather than 4.8% per year like those damn liburuls want.

|11.5.07 @ 3:11PM|#

Tax cuts without a balanced budget are tax deferments. And don't count on having a balanced budget and low taxes in a warfare-welafre state.

Oh, and I see a "voluntary military" is supported by "mainstream libertarians". Do tell, Eric, with our limited manpower and lack of allies, how exactly Giuliani would get enough troops for the invasion of Iran he no doubt wants to commence once in office? Are they going to fall out of the sky?

|11.5.07 @ 3:12PM|#

Eric Dondero, how will I defend myself against terrorists? Oh yeah, I won't be able to because Giuliani took my gun. Meanwhile, the criminals in my town can steal my car (there are my property rights taken) and I can't get to the voting booth to vote for the tax cuts. I could have defended myself and my property from the criminals and terrorists but Giuliani took my gun. Thanks for nothing.

B Reyes|11.5.07 @ 3:12PM|#

Ah, Eric Dondero.

Whenever anybody mentions Dr Paul in a good light, here comes the liberty hating, war-mongering, neo-con sycophant named Eric that the good doctor fired years ago.

Maybe, just maybe, he's so hurt and irritated that he was seen lacking that he has to go and level snarking attacks on the best presidential candidate in this race.

So, Eric, how's your campaign going? (I don't mean the one to smear Ron Paul-- I mean your run for his district's congressional seat, have you quit yet?)

|11.5.07 @ 3:13PM|#

I have recorded one of RPs radio spots as part of my cell phone answering machine recording. "Please leave your message after hearing this one." Then record his message. Every little bit helps!

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:14PM|#

Arkham Angel,

I respectfully disagree. These days Giuliani talks about two things: His tax cutting record in New York, and his opposition to Hillary's Health Care program.

Now that's all fine with me. But as a Giuliani supporter, I'd like to see him talk more about his record in fighting terrorism and his leadership on 9/11.

Do you know not once that I am aware of has Giuliani talked about how he told that Saudi Prince to stick his $10 million up his ass the month after 9/11, cause the Saudi Prince had blamed the attacks on Israel.

My God, Rudy should be talking about that event every day on the campaign trail. He should be making campaign commercials about it. He should be boasting from the rooftops about it.

I truly believe that that was truly his finest moment, even eclipsing his leadership on September 11, and the days afterward.

Yes, tax cuts and fighting socialized health care are very important. But not even in the same (Yankee) ballpark, as fighting the threat of Global Islamic Terrorism.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:16PM|#

Nick,

I'd much rather have the big bad-ass United States Military defending me from Terrorists, than have to defend myself, thank you.

If you're so damned intent on defending yourself with a gun, against all enemies, than I have some advice for you:

JOIN THE UNITED STATES MARINES OR US ARMY!!

|11.5.07 @ 3:17PM|#

Property Rights and Tax Cuts are the libertarian litmus test!?!!?!

Tell me this is just a joke and libertarianism is really about minimal government and free markets!!!!

If I'm wrong, I'll make sure to leave immediately, because this isn't what i signed up for.

|11.5.07 @ 3:17PM|#

But as a Giuliani supporter, I'd like to see him talk more about his record in fighting terrorism and his leadership on 9/11.

He has no record fighting terrorism, he moved the emergency management HQ to the World Trade Center AFTER it had already been attacked by terrorists seeking to topple it, and his refusal to spend the money on interoperable radios killed hundreds of first responders.

Gee, why do you think he's just letting 9/11 provide atmosphere for his campaign instead of talking about his performance surrounding it?

|11.5.07 @ 3:18PM|#

Yeah, Eric, we can trust responsible government organizations like the BATF and FBI to defend us. I mean, government organizations always protect us, they never violate our rights. And police departments can always be there for us, they have great records and are never corrupt or incompetent! /sarcasm

|11.5.07 @ 3:18PM|#

Joe RP isn't really a libertarian as I understand the term. He is a Republican with libertarian tendencies. My view of libertarianism comes more from my reading of Lysander Spooner and earlier libertarians before government became this monolithic construct you could say I'm a paleo-libertarian. I believe in freedom first and foremost. Freedom to live life as you see fit it doesn't matter to me if an individual is a racist or a bigot. Like I said I avoid people like that because I recognize the nonsense that is inherent in believing skin color somehow gives one magical advantages. If you are a bigot or a racist you are an idiot but I will defend your right to believe what you want to believe. If you don't want to sell things to blacks or minorities, it's your business do what you want your profits will I'm sure reflect the fact that you have excluded a segment of the population from enjoying your product. That is an individual choice. Government shouldn't be able to make you do something with your property or person that you don't want to do.

Concerning Jesse and Al I think RP recognizes that they are hucksters trying to turn issues of "race" to their personal advantage. Like I said earlier who elected them as The Black Leaders? Why is it that only black people are assumed to have leaders that presumably speak only for them? Jesse and Al try to use these situations for their personal advantage. I can get this number of black people to support this so therefore I have political clout you better give me money for this or that program or else we are going to boycott you. Racism and bigotry is unfortunately a part of our society. I don't believe in Utopian bullshit. Without sadness how can you possibly comprehend joy. Without death how can you appreciate life. Most of us want to only have good things happen to us but without the bad things how can we recognize the good.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:18PM|#

Cesar, funny little trick there you're using. Doing a little deflection there 'eh?

The news out of Iraq is nothing but good, good, good, good, and more good. So, all you can talk about is how the "evil Bush Administration" are planning an attack on Iran.

Funny how you leftwing Anti-War Libertarians suddenly change the subject when the news just isn't going quite your way.

See the latest clip from CNN today, reporting with stats on how the Surge has worked and the War in Iraq has made a dramatic turn-around, and is a stunning success at www.libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com

|11.5.07 @ 3:20PM|#

Eric, the surge can only last until Spring 2008. Then we run out of troops. Our army is over-stretched and under-powered. Look, I live in a military state, I've seen it first-hand. And thats without Iran. So, would you support a draft so we can keep the surge going? Go ahead, sacrifice all your principles on the alter of neoconservatism.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:21PM|#

So Cesar, am I to presume than that you are indeed NOT a libertarian, but rather an anarchist, since you do not support the existence of a United States Armed Forces?

I dare say you are on the wrong website. Last time I checked Reason Magazine was for libertarians NOT anarchists.

And please explain to me how it is that the FBI and the BATF are considered to be part of the United States Military?

|11.5.07 @ 3:23PM|#

So Cesar, am I to presume than that you are indeed NOT a libertarian, but rather an anarchist, since you do not support the existence of a United States Armed Forces?

I wouldn't want to abolish them, no. But I'd want to close all our overseas bases, end the war, and cut their budget by about half. Oh, and focus the money we do have towards things like veterans care, manpower, and training instead of subsidizing Boeing to build Cold War-era toys. And if you accuse me of being against defense for wanting that, thats like saying I'm against education because I want to abolish the Department of Education.

|11.5.07 @ 3:23PM|#

Eric, the top stories on CNN.com are how the US is trying to prevent Turkey from destabilizing the one stable region in Iraq and how our ally in Pakistan is threatening to dissolve the government so he won't be booted out of office. Yeo, everything's going great over in the middle east.

Oh, and Iraq violence is down to merely acceptable levels from catastrophic.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:24PM|#

Blah, blah, blah, Cesar, that's just the latest Leftwing talking points garnered directly from Huffington Post and Daily Kos: "Oh my God, the sky is falling, the sky is falling... The US Military has missed their recruiting goals this month by .02% so they will be unable to continue finding enough troops for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan..."

Gimmee a break. I am a 20-year Federal Appointee to the Selective Service Board (Houston Region). I can tell you straight out, that the chances of a Military Draft are slim to none. Much closer to none.

Stop reading those leftwing America and Military hating sites. They'll rot your brain.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:26PM|#

So, you are indeed an Anarchist than Cesar. You do want to essentially abolish the Military. Thanks for being honest at least and admitting it here at Reason Blog. I can see now why you hate you hate America so much, and why you are a Ron Paul supporter.

Might I also go out on a limb and make a wild guess that you are not a Veteran?

x,y|11.5.07 @ 3:27PM|#

Eric Dondero | November 5, 2007, 3:06pm | #

Gimmee a break Cesar. The gun issue is important, yes, but not the be all and end all. If anything, there are two lithmus test issues for libertarianism:

Property rights and Tax cuts.

Guns are way, way, way overblown in the grand scheme of things.

The right to own guns is merely a subset of the right to own property.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:27PM|#

Lost in Translation go to this site for the latest extensive video report from CNN on the progess in the War at www.libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com

(Apologies to Reason Blog for the shameless plug).

|11.5.07 @ 3:29PM|#

Eric, for Christ's sake we have a bigger defense budget than the rest of the world combined. Cutting it in half is hardly abolishing it! I'm libertarian, I want to cut wasteful spending everywhere, and the military isn't sacred and exempt.

You remind me of people that balk when someone makes a suggestion like "We should cut the federal budget in half". They think you're crazy. Nevermind the federal government ran just find on half of the current budget only ten years ago.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|11.5.07 @ 3:31PM|#

sage,

In.That.Order.

I think you mean:

1)TaxesSpending
2)DrugWar
3)SecondAmendment

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:31PM|#

I am accusing you of being anti-Defense Cesar.

You say quite clearly that you want to "cut the Military in half." Are you fucking nuts???

In the age of 9/11, when we have just come off the worst attack on the soil of the United States of America in our Nation's 230 year history. And you want to cut the Military???

If anything we need to expand the size of the Military twice over.

You are obviously unaware of the enormous threat we face from Islamo-Fascism. There are over 1.1 Billion Muslims on this planet. By one very reliable poll done last year, fully 20% of them could be viewed as "Radical Muslims."

They have already killed 3,000 of your fellow countrymen. And you want to respond by cutting the Military in half?

I was wrong. You're not just an Anarchist. You're a flaming leftwing America-hating looney tune pacifist.

|11.5.07 @ 3:31PM|#

They just passed the $3 million mark for the day.

If the overall rate since midnight continues, Paul is on track to land $3.8 million today.

|11.5.07 @ 3:32PM|#

My ex-boss was a real jerk. He didn't want to wear a dress when I asked him too.

Rudy, on the other hand, likes to wear dresses.

He's a real man!

I've got my kneepads on, Rudy!

Not Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:33PM|#

I am accusing you of being anti-education, Cesar. Our public schools are failing, drop out rates are rising, and you want to respond by abolishing the department of education? Are you nuts?

|11.5.07 @ 3:34PM|#

If you pretend that the Surge was intended to gain the support of anti-government Sunni militias while convincing Muqtada al Sadr to declare a cease fire, it's easy to say it's worked.

If you have this nagging voice that keeps talking about political reconcilliation, not so much.

Funny how political developments that the military describes are "surprising" get retroactively transformed into military objectives.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:35PM|#

Cesar, you know I would have half agreed with you in and abouts 1991/92/93 in the aftermath of the fall of Communism. Sure, I would have been all in favor of cutting the size of the Military back then. Not half it, as you would. But I could have gone along with some scaling back, and reductions of our forces oveseas.

But not even the Cold War equaled the veracity of the attacks on 9/11.

We face a threat today from worldwide Islamo-Fascism that is 100 times more dangerous than the threat from the Nazis and the Communists combined.

The Nazis and Commies never really invaded the United States, (with the exception of a couple wayward U-Boat sailors who got stranded on the outer banks of North Carolina in the early days of WWII).

The Islamo-Fascists have killed 3,000 of yours and mine fellow Americans.

And that doesn't even count all the Europeans like Theo van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn, French Jews, Danish free speech advocates and others they have slaughtered these past few years.

|11.5.07 @ 3:36PM|#

It doesn't matter how much of a failure history has proven our main-force military response to 9/11 to be.

What matters is that people like Eric mean well when they advocate for it.

|11.5.07 @ 3:36PM|#

Eric, how can the military defend me when they are in Iraq or a hundred other countries. If a terrorist or other criminal comes up to me and tries to kill me, should I wait for the police or military to save me? I am part of the well-regulated militiathe Second Amendment called for. And by well-regulated I mean I have enough amunition (not the bogus regulation by legislation). I expect the military to defend my country from other countries, not from individual perpetrators. I expect my rights to be protected and no one can protect them better than me. Police always show up after the fact when its too late.

|11.5.07 @ 3:38PM|#

The dept Education is the reason schools are falling apart. When government gets too involved in education parents think they no longer have to.

|11.5.07 @ 3:38PM|#

Veracity?

Anyway, I think a armored brigade supported by a wing of F-117s is exactly the correct tool to use to stop people from stabbing film makers.

|11.5.07 @ 3:40PM|#

We face a threat today from worldwide Islamo-Fascism that is 100 times more dangerous than the threat from the Nazis and the Communists combined.

Not really, but you can pretend they are. Let me know when theres a continental super-state aiming 30,000 nuclear warheads at every American city on hair trigger alert.

Oh Eric, heres our defense budget in comparison to the rest of the world. In 2001. See how gigantic it is? No one else even comes close. It didn't stop 9/11 from happening, and I doubt throwing more money at it now would prevent attacks in the future.

You're like the drug warriors. "All wee need is more Thrown more money thrown to our department, and the problem will vanish!"

Of course, when things go well, the response is "We have done so well! So give us more money, and we will make things even better!"

|11.5.07 @ 3:41PM|#

You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As we say in Texas, I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you. You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon. You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done. I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell? Try to edit your responses of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly. You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs. You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot. And what meaning do you expect your delusionally self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with us? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake? You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile, one-handed, slack-jawed, drooling, meatslapper. On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go. You smarmy lagerlout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill. You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid, so stupid it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh. The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. I have snipped away most of what you wrote, because, well... it didn't really say anything. Your attempt at constructing a creative post was pitiful. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of insults among a load of babbling was hardly effective... Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known, that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.

|11.5.07 @ 3:43PM|#

NOTHING EQUALS THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. And perhaps NOTHING ELSE EVER WILL.

The preceding is NOT the stupides thing I've ever read at this site. Close but no cigar, Dondi.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:43PM|#

Guess you missed the news today there 'eh Cesar? Turn on CNN or Fox. There's a huge crisis in Pakistan.

Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Pakistan has a very large Islamo-Fascist population.

Yes, the Soviets were powerful and had many nuclear weapons. But at least they were civilized.

Hope you and your loved ones will sleep safe tonight, knowing that Al Qaeda, and Pakistani Islamists are just one Presidential overthrow away from launching nuclear missles at the United States.

|11.5.07 @ 3:45PM|#

E.D. - And nobody is clearer and more consistent regarding property rights (which includes owning guns, they are private property) and tax cuts (like a flat tax of 0%) than Ron Paul. And yes, there are 2 somethings more devastating than 2 (I mean, 3) corporate towers getting demolished and Pearl Harbor combined in our history: the Civil War and the Great Depression. They both left huge familial scars that are still felt today and both can be traced back to a very important special interest group (the money power), as well as improper actions by an overbearing, centralized executive branch. Guiliani would be so authoritarian as to make FDR and Lincoln blush.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:45PM|#

Hey asshole, how about trying paragraph breaks in your diatribes. A lot easier on the eyes. You lost me after the first "dickhead."

Oh, and incidentally, I notice you're here in Texas. I live in Angleton. Bring it on mother fucker. I'd love to meet you any time any wheres.

|11.5.07 @ 3:46PM|#

Hey Eric! Guess who has been giving military aid to Pakistan for years? Thats right! The USA! doesn't seem like it was such a smart idea now, does it?

Nevertheless, Pakistan has maybe, oh, 100 nuclear weapons that could reach their neighbors. We have 100,000+ That can reach every corner of the globe. I'm not scared.

Again. They. Don't. Have. ICBMs.

|11.5.07 @ 3:47PM|#

Pakistan has a very large Islamo-Fascist population.

Actually, polling in Pakistan indicates that an Islamist political party would get about 15% of the vote.

But hey, look at the run al Qaeda had in Iraq. They went from non-existant in 2002 to controlling whole cities by 2005.

So I'm optimistic that with just a little Donderian military policy, we can get those numbers up in Pakistan, too.

|11.5.07 @ 3:47PM|#

And please explain to me how it is that the FBI and the BATF are considered to be part of the United States Military?

By whom? Morons?
Well, you'll get that cigar yet, Dondi. Keep trying.

|11.5.07 @ 3:47PM|#

Ghouliani is a nutbag. Eric is not a libertarian he is a neoCon. The "Islamofascist" don't hate us because of our freedom. They hate us because we are bothering in their countries affairs in the name of "national security (ie security of American corporations to loot and rob sovereign countries of their resources)" Look at the PSA's that we expect Iraq to sign. The terrorist are not a threat that can destabilize the US Donderoo quit drinking the gov't Kool-Aid

Nash|11.5.07 @ 3:48PM|#

"I'm 44. In my 44 years on this planet there has not been a single event more powerful, more devastating, more explosive literally in the United States of America, than 9/11.

Our Nation is 230 years old."

And despite all of our spending on the military. Despite all of our intervention overseas. Despite our nuclear arsenal. Despite all of our investment in the intelligence communities. Despite ALL the resources we as a country devote to a "strong national defense" we couldn't prevent it from happening.

We cannot control absolutely everything that these people do. We claim to be waging war on Islam but we haven't touched their presence in Africa or Southeast Asia and we have a laundry list of countries we want to invade in the M.E. and we're already stumbling on "phase 1 and 2".

This "fight" is totally un-winnable. We cannot wipe all of them off the map and we can't invade every single country that has factions that hate us without going completely bankrupt.

We are putting sanctions on Iran to "send a message" and the dollar is so pathetic they don't even care. We can't even do that effectively anymore. They are more than happy to deal with China and Russia in other currencies instead.

We need to re-think what we are doing here. We as Americans still have a lot to lose and the longer we do this and the harder we push the worse it's going to get at home.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:49PM|#

Nick, it's called the National Guard. That's why we have the Guard. The Military is to be used for protecting us overseas before they get here.

Or, would you rather wait til they've taken over Matamoros, Reynosa, Juarez, Mexicali, and Tijuana, and lobbing missiles across at McCallen, El Paso, and San Diego, before we fight them?

And screw our Mexican friends, right? Who cares if the Islamo-Fascists take over Mexico. None of our business, right? After all, it's not our country.

|11.5.07 @ 3:49PM|#

Hey asshole, how about trying paragraph breaks in your diatribes. A lot easier on the eyes. You lost me after the first "dickhead."

Oh, and incidentally, I notice you're here in Texas. I live in Angleton. Bring it on mother fucker. I'd love to meet you any time any wheres.

Wow! Is this the kind of language that elected official-hopefuls in Texas use? That just blows my mind.

Rick Fisk|11.5.07 @ 3:49PM|#

Eric,

You, who hates America more than anyone who posts here, really have no room to criticize anyone about hatred.

We need no overseas bases to provide a strong national defense.

The founders originally didn't want a permanent standing Army. The constitution doesn't provide for that and never has.

Insofar as you have identified property rights as an important tenant of libertarianism, what gives a "libertarian" society justification to invade other countries and confiscate the property of its individual citizens when the country itself did not attack first?

If you even attempt to justify that, you are, by definition, not libertarian and a blatant hypocrite.

|11.5.07 @ 3:50PM|#

RON PAUL is raising MMMMMMMMMMIiiilllllllliioonnssss. Mmmmmmiiiilllliioonnnnnssss and mmmmmmmiillllliioonnnnnsss of dolllllaaaarrrsss. Bwah ha ha ha ha. Now at last the time has come to unleash the the r3VOLution. Arise my fellow libertarian minions! Arise! No longer must we hide our true selves as we walk among the people. Show yourselves, stand up and be counted! For now at last our time has come, and we shall rule the earth!!

And what is the first thing we shall do once we seize the reigns of power? I will tell you. We will give Dondero a wedgie.

|11.5.07 @ 3:52PM|#

Eric, how would you feel if China was building military bases in Mexico and Central America to "defend their interests"?

Sean|11.5.07 @ 3:53PM|#

Me and my girlfriend just donated $100 each.

Ron Paul is going to win it. Suck it nanny lovers!

RON PAUL 2008!! Wooooo!

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 3:53PM|#

Dondero, pull the other one. No one who listens to Rudy can be enough of a Giuliani believer not to notice that he's a Family Guy joke at this point with the 9/11 references.

Fluffy,

It's worse than that for Rudy. Rudy is now a Joe Biden joke.

|11.5.07 @ 3:53PM|#

Eric, you use 9/11 as a reason to do the insane, which is fight endless wars (killing more of our defenders) for stupid reasons, like islamo-faciscm which is a contradiction in terms by the way. Are you a bit-writer for Sean Hannity? 9/11 was a terrorist act, we know this. The threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists is real, we know this. A) We have to stop doing the things that make people want to kill us, like occupy their lands. B) We have to bring our military to its proepr defensive posture, which is at our borders, land and sea, and even stationed at our airports or in international terminals where planes can be hijacked to be flown here. Basically, we need to stop terrorists from coming here, not create more by attacking Iran (where there is a sizable moderate bloc that will likely vote out Amhadenijad next election) and train our military to defend our nation against all enemies, not just the enemy du jour. Eric, the neo-con plans you support and promote do not make us safer. I know your only concern is our safety and that's fine, but if we give up our freedom to defend us against terrorists, they win by default. Their whole goal is to get us to change. Your plan makes it easier for them. You are allowing yourself to be made afraid. Score one for bin Laden. Oh yeah, he's still out there, and not in Iraq or Iran. But thanks for making it easy to refute everything you say.

By the way, Pearl Harbor was a far greater attack than 9/11. It destroyed some of our ships in addition to the thousands of peopel that were killed. 9/11 was terrible, too. Both have caused us to forget about our freedom. Japanese internment camps, Guantanamo and suspension of habeas corpus...we should never give up our rights or freedoms because someone else cuts us, however deep.

You, Eric, are weak. I forgive you. I will continue to defend your right to be wrong even if the politicians you support try to take that right away.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 3:55PM|#

Hey Nash, guess what. We've already won. And it's been an absolute stunning success.

We accomplished nearly all of our objectives in Afghanistan. It was over in less than 40 days.

We captured Khalid Sheikh Muhammed. (With the help of the Pakistanis).

We finally captured Saddam, hanged the mother fucker, and shot dead his two thug sons to boot.

We got Zarcawi!

And though, it's been a rough ride, we have finally succeeded at establishing a firm and relatively stable democracy in Iraq.

Yes, there's still Iran to be dealt with. And yes, Osama may still be alive somewheres in Eastern Pakistan.

But overall, we have pretty much won the War on Islamo-Fascism.

If we retreat now, after we've won, the enemy will regroup and reorganize and come back at us. We need to hold on and solidify our victory.

But of course, that course is not in the interests of liberal Democrats who don't want to admit that Bush was right all along. And coincidentally, it's most certainly not in the interests of Anti-War Libertarians either, who've been claiming all along that the War was a "dissaster" and "illegitamate" and all sorts of other crap.

Anti-War Libertarians like the lib Dems have major egg on their face these days. What else can they do but last out at those of us who were right all along.

Thus the foaming at the mouth vitriol we are witnessing here today.

Jay D|11.5.07 @ 3:55PM|#

Brandybuck,

I learned in grade school that in America, we don't change the government with gunpowder, but with elections. I see this fifth of November stuff as changing the government the American way.

That said, I'm not giving today.

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 3:56PM|#

And screw our Mexican friends, right? Who cares if the Islamo-Fascists take over Mexico.

OK. That's just certifiably, batshit insane.

|11.5.07 @ 3:56PM|#

Dondero said:

I would challenge you to find a single event in our Nation's history more important than 9/11.

1)The Second Continental Congress
2)Marbury Vs. Madison
3)The Civil Fucking War
4)The Louisiana Purchase
5)The Manhattan Project
6)Pearl Harbor
7)Nixon's Resignation
8)Brown Vs. Board of Education
9)Black Tuesday (Oct 29, 1929)
10)D-Day

There Ewik, that's ten events more important than a bunch of whack-job fundies who got a lucky shot in...

Jay D|11.5.07 @ 3:57PM|#

Hey Nash, guess what. We've already won. And it's been an absolute stunning success.

We accomplished nearly all of our objectives ...

Wonderful. What are we still doing there?

COME HOME!

R C Dean|11.5.07 @ 3:57PM|#

Guns are way, way, way overblown in the grand scheme of things.

Not really. I think a pretty good case can be made that the fundamental human right is the right to self-defense. In the modern world, you can't seriously claim to have the right to self-defense unless you have the right to own a gun.

|11.5.07 @ 3:59PM|#

You know, I am going to regret this but...

You are obviously unaware of the enormous threat we face from Islamo-Fascism. There are over 1.1 Billion Muslims on this planet. By one very reliable poll done last year, fully 20% of them could be viewed as "Radical Muslims."

No linkee, no believee.

robc|11.5.07 @ 4:00PM|#

Jay D,

Wonderful. What are we still doing there?

Thats my thought. Weve already shown we can overthrow any government in

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:01PM|#

Nick, give up our freedoms? Gimmee a break. What freedoms?

You call the inconvenience of having to take one's shoes off at the airport and check one's tube of toothpaste in one's luggage instead of carry-on, "giving up freedom"?

You call the FBI having the ability to access computer records of NON-US CITIZENS HERE IN THE UNITED STATES ILLEGALLY FROM MIDDLE EASTER COUNTRIES OVERSTAYING THEIR VISA, when they are logging onto computers at public libraries, (SUBSIDIZED BY US CITIZENS), you call that "giving up our freedoms"?

Explain to me how it is that a mother fucking Middle Easterner who has overstayed their Visa has just as many freedoms as I do - a taxpaying United States Citizens born and bread in the good ole' USofA?

Come on, I'd love to hear that one.

"Giving up our freedoms..." Gimmee a mother-fucking break. We haven't sacrificed JACKSHIT to fight these Islamo-Fascists.

You sit there behind in your comfy armchair staring at your computer, and you're talking about sacrifice?

The only ones who've sacrificed are our brave men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces today, and their families.

If you ain't one of them (or a Veteran of the Military), DON'T YOU MOTHER FUCKING DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT SACRIFICE!!!

Andrew Taylor|11.5.07 @ 4:01PM|#

Well, well, well…It's no surprise that the scabrous traitor Eric Dondero Rittberg showed up here to try to rain on the Ron Paul parade. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, when it comes to Rittberg, "Never have so many things been found so wrong in so short a time."

Rittberg thought that Dr. Paul's principled opposition to the illegal and immoral Iraq War would provide him a nice launching pad with which to challenge the good doctor for his House seat. After all, Rittberg has never worked an honest job in his life, being part of that parasitic class that depends on the government and political entities for life support.

Instead, Dr. Paul has been embraced by millions who now know that Dubya lied about "weapons of mass destruction" in order to settle scores with a secular dictator (who was hated by al-Qaeda, by the way) who had threatened to assassinate his Daddy. And Rittberg? Before his late and lamentable appearance here, he was last posting on blogs that he was conducting some sort of "double secret probation" activities in Mexico that smacked of the same absurd inflated sense of self-importance of the "Star Wars Kid."

Now the foul-mouthed Rittberg is promoting Rudolf Ghouliani for Emperor. So "Mainstream Libertarians" like Eric think spending trillions on endless wars, as well as the destruction of civil liberties under the guise of "fighting terrorism," are consistent with historic libertarianism? Give me a break. Ayn Rand is spinning in her grave.

Eric, do us all a favor and stick to writing profiles of yourself for Wikipedia. You wisely tucked tail and ran when it became obvious that you would be annihilated in a head-to-head primary with Dr. Paul. Yet you remain embittered that you hooked your wagon to a falling star that will crash and burn upon impact.

It would be best for you to set aside that self-destructive animus and to get about trying to find work for which you are eminently qualified - in the food service or housekeeping industries.

|11.5.07 @ 4:01PM|#

OJ jailed, Paris Freed, Britney's kids, Whoopi and the View, all distractions. While mainstream media creates illusions, the gov't steps on our throats by opening our mail, suspending habeas corpus, stealing private lands, banning books like America Deceived (book) from Amazon, conducting warrantless wiretaps and starting wars for a foriegn gov't.
Vote Dr. Ron Paul and end this madness. $2 million and counting....

robc|11.5.07 @ 4:01PM|#

stupid less than sign eating my post. Guess at the rest of it.

|11.5.07 @ 4:01PM|#

If Eric Dondero was Prime Minister during WWI, he's still be landing troops at Gallipolli, and crowing about how well it's going.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:03PM|#

Kwix, if I remember correctly that poll was done by Gallup or Pew. I forget which one. But it was very widely covered by the media.

Sue me if I don't have time to drum up a link for you.

|11.5.07 @ 4:03PM|#

Thus the foaming at the mouth vitriol we are witnessing here today.

If you ain't one of them (or a Veteran of the Military), DON'T YOU MOTHER FUCKING DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT SACRIFICE!!!

I'm not sure Eric has enough self-awareness to qualify for sentience.

Baslim|11.5.07 @ 4:05PM|#

When Eric went missing in Mexico was he downthere fighting the Islamofacist trying to take over?

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 4:07PM|#

Anti-War Libertarians like the lib Dems have major egg on their face these days. What else can they do but last out at those of us who were right all along.

Eric, this is called "projection." It's when you try to apply a trait to someone else when that trait in fact applies to you.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:07PM|#

From Andrew Taylor:

After all, Rittberg has never worked an honest job in his life, being part of that parasitic class that depends on the government and political entities for life support.

From Eric in response:

Does that include my 6 years working for US Congressman Ron Paul?

Not a day's honest work, just sponging off the taxpayer, 'eh?

Tell ya what. I'll drop a little email off to Ron Paul's Chief of Staff Tom Lizardo, and Ron Paul's Legislative Director Norm Singleton, both of whom are still friends of mine, and I'll let them know that they are "not making an honest living," since they work for the US House of Representatives.

I'll be sure to tell them that that's what some guy on the Reason Blog, named Andrew Taylor had to say.

Oh, and I guess my 4 years working for the United States Military wasn't a "day's worth of honest pay" either, huh?

Nice to see that you think so lowly of the US Military and those who serve.

Let me go out on a limb here, and make a wild guess that you are not a Veteran yourself? Just a wild guess, mind you.

Andrew Taylor|11.5.07 @ 4:11PM|#

Wrong as usual, Rittberg. I entered the U.S. Marines at the ripe old age of 18, and retired after 20 years of faithful service. I served during the first Gulf War, and retired just as Dubya was launching this illegal and immoral war.

You just don't know when to quit, do you?

|11.5.07 @ 4:11PM|#

Umm... need to update this. Total is over $ 5.5M at 3PM CST.

|11.5.07 @ 4:12PM|#

Eric is right. Those who have ever served in the military deserve more respect than anyone else.
So keep your traps shut and let them all die for a fabricated and ridiculous cause!

|11.5.07 @ 4:12PM|#

If you ain't one of them (or a Veteran of the Military), DON'T YOU MOTHER FUCKING DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT SACRIFICE!!!

One does not need to be a member of the military to talk about how the military conducts it's affairs. That's called militarism, a key component to fascism. But instead of a fascist state, we live in a liberal (classical sense) society, where we are allowed to voice our opinions without any prerequisites, such as military service.
This is called free speech.

Conversely, we have all sacrificed a great deal for this war under which we live, that being many of our freedoms, much of our money, and really any hope of a secure future.

Perhaps if you'd sacrifice a bit of pride, you'd see that you were being a O'Reilly-wannabe douchebag.

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 4:12PM|#

CNN has a story coming up in a few minutes about Ron Paul's fundraising today. Teases Blitzer: "Wait until you see how much money he's raised over the Internet."

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:12PM|#

Really Franklin, and please tell us, do you still believe that the War in Iraq has been an "utter failure" and that the Surge "hasn't worked"?

Let's get you on record. At least one of you mother-fucking Anti-War Libertarians.

I used to know you to be a generally good guy. That is long before you blew up like a balloon from all those twinkies and hostess cakes. (But I digress.)

Try to hark back to those days when you were a sincere libertarian political activist.

Let's get you on record. Have the courage of your convictions. Step up to the plate there ole' Franky boy.

Tell us straight out that you still believe that the War in Iraq has been an "utter dissaster" and that the "Surge is a total failure."

Just say the words, Franky. Come on, I know you can do it.

Put down those twinkies for a sec. Walk away from the Boob Tube. Just type in the words:

I, T. Franklin "Franky" Harris of Anniston, Alabama, still believe as I have always believed that the War in Iraq is an utter dissaster, and that the Surge has failed.

ACJohn|11.5.07 @ 4:13PM|#

I wonder how much of RP's money "surge" is from the military. I do believe he leads in that category? Maybe they know something we don't.

iih|11.5.07 @ 4:13PM|#

But overall, we have pretty much won the War on Islamo-Fascism.

I am confused. So why do we need RG in office and why do we need to raise defense budget if we won?

Eric, which way is it? Are we winning and can now slow down on the defense spending, or are we in great danger and need to increase defense spending?

|11.5.07 @ 4:14PM|#

CHECK THIS OUT,ON CNN JUST NOW 1:05 ,THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT RON PAUL DONATION SPIKE!!

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:16PM|#

Spoken like a true Sissy boy there Taxtik.

But then again, if I was in your shoes, having never served my country in the US Military, I'd probably try the very same tactic: diss the Military and Military guys at every chance, downplay the importance of the Military, talk about how Military guys are just dumbasses who've been lured into service by the prospects of big bonuses and paid collete tuition.

That's about the only way that a non-Veteran American male can justify in his own mind his failure to serve his country.

In another day, circa 1930s, 40s, 50s, and even well into the 1960s, we would have just called such a man, A SISSY BOY COWARD.

|11.5.07 @ 4:17PM|#

MY BAD ,4:10 ON CNN(TV)

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 4:18PM|#

Well. I guess that put me in my place.

|11.5.07 @ 4:18PM|#

Eric -
If you hate everyone so much, who are you trying to save? You surely know that most American men have never served in the US Military. Why defend them? Who needs productive members of society to pay the military's bills anyway?

|11.5.07 @ 4:19PM|#

Well, Eric, not everybody has the stones to disappear into a bottle of Tequila for two weeks.

Andrew Taylor|11.5.07 @ 4:19PM|#

Interesting, Rittberg, interesting indeed. You do realize that you've just described your chosen candidate, Rudolf Ghouliani?

We both agree that military service is noble. Yet there are only two fellow veterans in this race -- your former employer and John McCain. So why have allied yourself with a tough-talking "sissy boy coward," "non-veteran American male" like Ghouliani?

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:19PM|#

iih,

I say we can begin to pull back and scale down in a few months, maybe Spring of next year. I'm not at all opposed to beginning to bring some of our troops home even now before Christmas.

But we'll need a major presence in Iraq and Afghanistan for at least another 3 to 5 years.

But we've largely accomplished all our goals.

Victory is ours. Mission accomplished. Time to begin bringing the boys home, but with extreme caution, and loud expressions to the Iraqi and Afghani peoples that we stand behind them and stand ready to re-intervene if there's any resurgence of Al Qaeda/Taliban in their countries.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:20PM|#

Reinmoose, I am completely puzzled by your post. Please rephrase it. It makes little if any sense.

What do you mean, if "I hate everyone so much..." Who?

|11.5.07 @ 4:21PM|#

Donderoo is a real person? There is no way that any real human believes the stuff he just spewed. I'm not buying it he is like the Uber Troll. He cannot possibly be real. People I think he is scamming us. No one is that crazy. Good one Eric or whoever you are.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:21PM|#

Joe, for the record, it was two bottles of tequila, and quite a few bottles of Tecate' light to go along with it. And I was lost for 3 weeks in the Mexicali bars, not two weeks.

Andrew Taylor|11.5.07 @ 4:24PM|#

Rittberg, as a veteran you should know that there's one thing that any real man despises -- a weak man's attempt to make himself appear "strong" and "tough" by abusing alcohol. You've watched too many bad movies. How long were you in the army?

|11.5.07 @ 4:25PM|#

Like I said eric, most American men never served in the military. You clearly believe them to have failed to serve their country, and that they are cowards.
I'll tell you what. Real heros who go to sacrifice their lives for a cause they believe in (right or wrong) don't talk down about the people they are sacrificing to save. If they do, their motives aren't nearly as noble as you claim.

|11.5.07 @ 4:25PM|#

Eric, I too am a tax paying, born in the good ol US of A American. My father was in the Navy and my father-in-law was a colonel in the Air Force, and I contribute to EPVA, the USO, and other military support groups. And you know what, even if I haven't contributed to any of those, nor been from a military family, it still doesn't change the fact that I care about my country, I want to defend my country, myself, and my family from all enemies, and it doesn't change the fact that you are a foul-mouthed turd of the highest degree.

I just want you to show me where it says that only military members or their families are permitted to question their government or the government's shill Eric Dondero. It is the right and duty of every American to question the mistakes of our government. It is our job to find the lies that lead to death and destruction, like WMDs, yellow cake, etc so we may continue to be free. You think warrantless wiretaps do not infrionge upon our freedoms? You think suspension of habeas corpus does not make us al hypocrits? The Constitution grants the rights of those on our soil the same freedom we have. You said you are 44 years old yet you speak like a petulent, scared child. Grow up, Eric. Read a book, preferably about history.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:25PM|#

James, here's my cell number 832-896-9505. Call me right now, if you want confirmation that I'm a "real person". Or, just ask Reason Asst. Editor Brian Doherty. Him and I go way, way back in the libertarian movement to the days of the 1980s.

Or, just ask Franklin Harris right here on our friendly little thread. Franklin and I go way back too.

And even though I hate the SOB's political stances, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the young guy, since I made him sleep on a raunch old cot in my guest room for 2 weeks with my rowdy cats, back in Tallahassee.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:28PM|#

Reimoose, I don't give a flying fuck if you diss me and my motives, if you think me "less than noble" since I'm a Vet and "talk down" civilian men who haven't served.

Diss me all you want.

But the moment you talk one negative word about the brave men who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, I will literally reach through this mother fucking computer and wring your puny little neck of yours. And that ain't a threat, that's a promise.

|11.5.07 @ 4:29PM|#

If you ain't one of them (or a Veteran of the Military), DON'T YOU MOTHER FUCKING DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT SACRIFICE!!!

Dondi, I'm a vet. 20 years and 4 days, cocksucker. If your microscopic brain can't figure out that citizens of the USA have the right, nay obligation, to opine about the issues of the day, you're an assho;e. An anal retentive, mommy worshiping, trisexual, (boys, farm animals and appliances) cat feces chewing. ill mannered cunt.

Go back to your cave and mastubate to family photos. Your tiresome, stupid, filled with false bravado, rants bore the hell out of people who have progressed beyond Jr High in terms of wisdom & maturity.

In words you maybe, MAYBEwill understand, Eat shit and bark at the moon, cur.

|11.5.07 @ 4:29PM|#

Just as predicted, the war's supporters are attempting to cover their ass by pulling out and declaring victory, while pretending the manpower-imposed timelines mandating troop reductions represent a strategic decision based on achievements on the ground.

In case it wasn't too obvious that Eric's yammering was aimed at anything other than covering Republican asses.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:30PM|#

Nick, thank you for your Dad's service to our country. Thank you for your contributions to the USO. My respect has gone up for you a notch.

You are doing what you should be doing. If you cannot join the Military yourself, than support Military supporting organizations like the USO. You set a fine example for other libertarians.

But I dare say, you're one in a thousand. Bet only a handful of other libertarians ever contribute to Military organizations, help Veterans, or do similar things.

|11.5.07 @ 4:30PM|#

I just wish people would make this simple point about Rudy and 9/11:

If 9/11 happened in Las Vegas, and the Bellagio was stuck by a plane, Mayor Goodman would have been down there on the front lines, covering his mouth with a cloth, giving impassioned speeches about what a horrible day this is for gamblers everywhere.

And people would say, "Mayor Goodman was the hero of 9/11. He was there for us."

Apply this same logic to nearly every major city in the country. My point is, heroism-by-association is not heroism.

However, I give credit to Rudy because he took things maybe a step further than some other mayors would have: he put himself down there at ground-zero, realizing what a great photo-op it was.

Now he's used it to prop himself up, shamelessly extolling his 9/11 and terrorism-fighting "creds" with superlative-laced puffery that's led to a nation tranquilized by demagoguery.

Andrew Taylor|11.5.07 @ 4:30PM|#

James,

Just don't do an Intelius search for "Eric Dondero," as that's not his full name. His full name is "Eric Dondero Rittberg." Using Rittberg's "logic," one might say that his desire to drop his real last name is psychologically significant. Remember Gary Hart(pence)?

|11.5.07 @ 4:31PM|#

Why would anybody drop a name with "-berg" on the end?

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:33PM|#

Okay Joe, when do you suggest we pull-out?

Immediate pull-out, that makes me a little nervous, but even with that, we still by definition have won the war.

Joe, let me tell you something. Listen closely please.

THE VERY DAY WE CAPTURED SADDAM HUSSEIN IN THAT SPIDER HOLE IS THE VERY DAY WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ!!!

Yes, killing Uday and Qusay was a major victory. Yes, killing Zarcawi was HUGE. But both of those accomplishments pale in comparison to actually capturing Saddam, the Hitler of our time.

We won the War that very day in late 2003 when Saddam was captured. Everything else since has been mop up, similar to post-Nazi Germany in 1946/47.

Occasionally brutal, yes, like the Nazi Wolfgangs killing US Soldiers for years after the end of the War in the Bavarian woods.

But still mop up.

|11.5.07 @ 4:34PM|#

diss the Military and Military guys at every chance, downplay the importance of the Military, talk about how Military guys are just dumbasses who've been lured into service by the prospects of big bonuses and paid collete[sic] tuition.

Eric,

I said nothing to this effect whatsoever. If you want to have an argument with yourself, fine, just don't put my name on it.

In another day, circa 1930s, 40s, 50s, and even well into the 1960s, we would have just called such a man, A SISSY BOY COWARD.

It is obvious that you are now simply trying to get people riled up, likely because people of your mental stature have little else they can do without their fists.

I want to understand how you, no matter what era, accomplish anything by calling people names, especially the childish, obtuse phrase you are trying to affix to me.

That's what separate people like you, Eric, from people like me. While I am trying to talk about how the real world works, you are mindlessly spouting aggressive, divisive and counterproductive rants, driven far more by passion than any semblance of reason and logic.

I'm sure you'll do fine for the Giuliani campaign, and I'm sure you really do have those politician buddies you claimed earlier. Politicians love people like you, because you will repeat their propaganda without a second thought, likely reaching the point where you believe you thought of it yourself.

I only wonder how you justify your actions in your own mind, considering you advocate for the things that your brothers-in-arms fought so hard to defeat in World War II.

You can't claim moral or ethical superiority for being in the military when, in the next post, you urinate on the grave of those buried in U.S. soil in Normandy.

|11.5.07 @ 4:34PM|#

Dondi, perhaps you could regale me with a brief summary of you illustrious military service. I haven't heard any unmitigated lies since the last debate. So please, go ahead.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:35PM|#

Hmmn, Andrew, you mean like Michael "Cloud" Emerling?

At least Dondero is my real name from my biological father. "Cloud"? Emerling just plucked that out of the sky, so to speak.

iih|11.5.07 @ 4:36PM|#

Victory is ours. Mission accomplished.

Cool!

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:38PM|#

It's called Military talk there Taxtick. That's what us old guy Veterans do. We throw out the fucks, mother fuckers, pisses, shits, bullshits, pussy lickers, sissy boys, ect... out there like it's going out of style.

Sorry, if I've offended your virgin ears.

Oops, I plum forgot. You never served in the Military. Well, that might just explain why you are such a pussy boy and offended by Military-type language.

Aww, shucks there Taxtick. I'm so sorry.

I promise in the future I'll do my damnest, oppose sorry, I mean darndest, to try to sound more like a little girl on this forum.

|11.5.07 @ 4:40PM|#

But Justin!
"Hero Rudy" was also the Mussolini of NYC. He "cleaned up the city"! Who cares if he used draconian tactics and quasi-legal shenanigans, he is a True Leader™. Just imagine how he would whip America into shape.

|11.5.07 @ 4:40PM|#

Eric, I don't care that your opinion of me has gone up. I still think you're wrong about everything. As someone who was in the military, you of all people should be ashamed and disgusted that they are being used for reasons other than the defense of the United States of America. Why are you not as pissed as other military members that the government has used the volunteer force for reasons other than finding the perpetrators of 9/11? They lied and our heroes die because of it Eric. Wake up.

|11.5.07 @ 4:40PM|#

But the moment you talk one negative word about the brave men who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, I will literally reach through this mother fucking computer and wring your puny little neck of yours. And that ain't a threat, that's a promise.

Abu Ghraib

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:42PM|#

J sub D,

1981 to 85, honorable discharge

USS Kittyhawk CV-63 Aircraft Carrier, San Diego
USS Luce DDG-38 Guided Missile Destroyer, Jacksonville, FL

4 years sea duty

Two tours in the Persian Gulf including Iraq/Iran War

One tour in the Pacific/Indian Ocean

3 medals: Sea Service, Humanitarian (for assisting with Vietnamese Boat people in S. China sea), and Expeditionary (for service in a War Zone in the upper Persian Gulf - our Sister ship the USS Starke was bombed by Saddam Hussein killing 37 of my shipmates.)

|11.5.07 @ 4:43PM|#

OK I concede you might be a real person and not a troll. Do you really believe what you said about service to the country? I believe the Fighting Quaker was spot on when he said,

"My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military."

Wake up your mental facilities Donderoo. War is hell there can be nothing noble about death and destruction.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:43PM|#

Why am I not pissed Nick? Cause I'm too pissed off at all these goddamned Radical Muslim fucks who want to kill my countrymen. I have no hate left in me. It's all directed towards them.

You might do well to get a little hatred for them, as well. Or do you not care what they did to your fellow citizens on September 11, 2001?

VM|11.5.07 @ 4:44PM|#

I will literally reach through this mother fucking computer and wring your puny little neck of yours. And that ain't a threat, that's a promise.

Oh dear.

AAAABBBBBBUUUUU GGGGHHHHRRRRAAAAAAIIIIIBBBBB!!!

Somehow even if you were around, somehow, for some reason, I just wouldn't be worried. Now why is that... hmmmm.

and I'll gladly downplay the military. I can read this. I thank a teacher. It's in English. I'll thank another teacher. And geography. But mainly a teacher.

But, Abu, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that if you were in Vietnam, you'd be talkin' "it's a tie" and shit, wouldn't you?

|11.5.07 @ 4:45PM|#

But the moment you talk one negative word about the brave men who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, I will literally reach through this mother fucking computer and wring your puny little neck of yours. And that ain't a threat, that's a promise.

I forgive you Eric

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:45PM|#

Don't concede it there James. Call me. I'm waiting. My cell number is 832-896-9505.

I live in Angleton, Texas 30 miles south of Houston, but I also spend a great deal of time in southern California.

Willing to meet you any time any place.

Warning though: I eat pussy-boy non-Military serving Anti-War Libertarians for breakfast.

Andrew Taylor|11.5.07 @ 4:46PM|#

Rittberg,

Your numbers don't add up. The first Iraq War wasn't between 1981 and 1985. Did you serve 1991 to 1995, or did you serve twice?

|11.5.07 @ 4:46PM|#

Why should the military be the only branch of government beyond criticism? Somehow, that doesn't strike me as a good thing in a republic.

|11.5.07 @ 4:47PM|#

I'm still not totally convinced that Donderooooo isn't the real live version of Walter from The Big Lebowski...

VM|11.5.07 @ 4:48PM|#

thảm sát

Mỹ Lai, Mỹ Lai, Awik.

You know, come to think of it, you're quite touchy today.

Warning though: I eat pussy-boy non-Military serving Anti-War Libertarians for breakfast.

oh!oh!oh!

Somebody is quoting the movie "Commando". And *checks listings* that was on last night. Did you dress up and shoot the badguys along with Arnold? Did you remember to clean the spittle off the tv from your explosion sounds?

what a good boy!

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:48PM|#

Oh, and James, just for the record, I've got a libertarian activist resume that would make your head spin.

We're talking 25 years of hardcore libertarian activism, including 2 years on the Libertarian National Committee, 2 years as Ron Paul's Travel Aide in his '88 Presidential campaign visiting over 40 states, Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus, 1st RLC Chairman and Exec. Director for 5 years, Campaign Coordinator for Ron Paul for Congress in 1995/96, Senior District Aide to US Congressman Ron Paul from 1997-2003, and over 40 libertarian petition drives, including at least 20 for Libertarian Party ballot access.

Is that real enough for ya?

|11.5.07 @ 4:49PM|#

Warning though: I eat pussy-boy non-Military serving Anti-War Libertarians for breakfast.

God almighty, man. This is just so ... stupid.

It's just dumb.

OK, you have testosterone. That's cool. We all bow in awe. The chicks must love it. You're the man, and stuff.

But your comments just make you sound like a doofus.

I say all this as someone who is a firm supporter of the War on Terror. I'm not really your political opponent. I just think you're kind of goofy.

|11.5.07 @ 4:49PM|#

Eric you would not ever want to meet me. I'm 6'5" 240 lbs and I would literally stump you out of existence. Ha Ha Ha. You my friend have been watching way way too many Arnold movies. LOL

|11.5.07 @ 4:50PM|#

Eric, I find your method of engagement rather intriguing.

Rather than having the balls to address Andrew Taylor's criticism that a your calling a non-military serving "civilian" a "Pussy Boy" applies equally to Rudy "America's Mayor" Giuliani you instead ridicule Taktix for taking your language usage to the mat.

If you were in combat right now, I have no doubt you would use that same technique, telling your arguing semantics with your CO instead of firing your weapon at the oncoming enemy.

|11.5.07 @ 4:50PM|#

We're talking 25 years of hardcore libertarian activism, including 2 years on the Libertarian National Committee, 2 years as Ron Paul's Travel Aide in his '88 Presidential campaign visiting over 40 states, Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus, 1st RLC Chairman and Exec. Director for 5 years, Campaign Coordinator for Ron Paul for Congress in 1995/96, Senior District Aide to US Congressman Ron Paul from 1997-2003, and over 40 libertarian petition drives, including at least 20 for Libertarian Party ballot access.


You can put a dress on a pig, but you can't make em' pretty...

|11.5.07 @ 4:51PM|#

EDIT:
If you were in combat right now, I have no doubt you would use that same technique, arguing semantics with your CO instead of firing your weapon at the oncoming enemy.

squarooticus|11.5.07 @ 4:51PM|#

Having mostly avoided the Dondero threads in the past, after reading this crap I can safely say Eric needs to cut down on the PCP.

How anyone this openly aggressive and in favor of foreign interventionism, against the basic human right to self-defense, and in favor of the apparatus for ubiquitous government surveillance could ever have considered himself a libertarian (of *any* stripe, whether anarchist or minarchist) is completely beyond me.

On second thought, this has to be a joke. The guy can't be this clueless, can he?

|11.5.07 @ 4:52PM|#

Donderoo your rants indicate you don't understand the first thing about libertarianism. You my friend are a neoCon and not a very bright one. Bright neoCon and oxymoron if I ever heard one. LOL

|11.5.07 @ 4:52PM|#

Eric,

We should pull out as soon as possible. We should have been laying the political and diplomatic groundwork for the withdrawal for the past four years, as John Kerry was saying, but didn't. If we had, we'd be out by now.

That day Saddam was captured can only be called "winning" if you completely ignore the stated objectives for which this war was launched, and retroactively make up new ones to allow yourself to declare victory.

And it's an odd sort of mop-up that kills an order of magnitude more troops than the war itself.

|11.5.07 @ 4:54PM|#

I gave $25. First time in my life I've donated political money to someone other than the NRA. I feel like a sucker, I think.

Timothy|11.5.07 @ 4:55PM|#

DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'd call you a mongoloid, but that'd be an insult to Mongolians and retards everywhere. Nice of you to give those extra few chromosomes a home, though. Seriously, they'd have dripped down the inside of your whore mother's thigh otherwise.

DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

|11.5.07 @ 4:55PM|#

WELL IF RUDY CARE SOME MUCH FOR HIS CITY,HE WOULD HAVE GOT NEW RADIO'S FOR HIS fire Dept.,this whole 911 was a inside job ,everybody from asshole Bush to cross dresser Rudy covered it up,(whake up america!!!)

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 4:56PM|#

My God, Andrew, you are a complete dumbass.

Iran and Iraq were at War for 9 years!!! I don't remember the precise date, but I believe the War started in 1982. May have been '81.

And no, I was not in the War, in 1981/82 because at that time I was stationed on the Aircraft Carrier, and Carriers at that time did not enter the Persian Gulf.

I was in the War for 9 months on the USS Luce DDG-38 in 1984.

Okay, you've forced me to go into my closet and pull out my USS Luce Yearbook "Arabian Nights" from 1984. On page 4 of that yearbook there's a reprint of an article from Time Magazine, dated June 11, 1984. There is a photo of my ship, escorting the oik tankers bombed by Saddam out of the War Zone, and afterwards, 3 more pages of full color photos of those tankers.

Surely, you remember the bombing of the USS Starke by Saddam Hussein that killed 37 sailors around that time, right?

Well, the Starke was the sister ship out of Mayport, Florida, for my ship, the USS Luce.

|11.5.07 @ 4:56PM|#

Dondi,

Small word, you low ranking puke. What rate. I was on the Shitty Kitty from 9/75 - 9/76. Did a couple aof Adams class DDGs, and aa Tico class cruiser. BTW Sea service is a decoration, not a medal. Though you should have been awarded a National Defense Medal. you also should have been awarded the Southwest Asia Service Medal, and the Liberation of Kuwait Medal. But then, I was actually there, y'know.


For everybody that isn't military, the medals Dondi (and I) named are referred to as "showing up medals". IOW, they don't mean shit, but you can lie to the pretty girls about them.

J sub D FCCM, USN (Ret)

Timothy|11.5.07 @ 4:56PM|#

Joe: I'd say DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! never pulls out soon enough, but that presumes they let him put it in and I'm really not sure that's the case.

|11.5.07 @ 4:57PM|#

I have no hate left in me'

Ah, that must be why you spent the entire thread spewing bile at your fellow Americans.

No one hates Americans like a neocon.

Timothy|11.5.07 @ 4:57PM|#

DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Has anybody ever told you that you're like a teen aged Gary Gunnels?

DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

|11.5.07 @ 4:59PM|#

Iran and Iraq were at War for 9 years!!!

When I want to be taken seriously, I use way more exclamation points than this. SEERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

|11.5.07 @ 4:59PM|#

Dondi, Ooops my bad. Rereading your post, you were escorting tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf. Not real heroic stuff, but honorable.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:00PM|#

Andrew, here's a pertinent sentence from the Time article:

"In the meantime, Saudi Arabia is trying to exert some influence over Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who began the tanker attacks earlier this year as a way of forcing Khomeni to enter into peace negotiations."

And here's the caption under the photo:

"With a tanker in the background, the U.S.S. Luce lies at anchor off Bahrain"

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 5:00PM|#

This has got to be someone spoofing Dondero, because he wasn't this stupid the last time he was here.

First of all, Dondero, if we won the Iraq War the day Saddam Hussein was caught, then the 3000 men who died since then died for nothing. They died to run up the score, by your own statement. The $500 billion spent since then was spent to run up the score. Where is your denunciation of the insane cockmunchers who would spend $500 billion and the lives of 3000 men to keep fighting a war they had already won? Where is your denunciation of the two-bit New York thug who wants to spend even more money and lives on a war that's already been won?

And leaving aside your absurd ravings about how Islam is a greater threat than Communism was, I'd like to ask you:

Please itemize Giuliani's terrorism experience and expertise. In detail. 9/11 simply doesn't count, because every action Giuliani took on that day demonstrates disaster recovery experience, and not terrorism experience at all. Giuliani never saw a terrorist. He did not have to analyze the attack and determine who was responsible. He played no role in formulating a response to the attack. He has no demonstrable knowledge of or experience in Middle Eastern politics or culture. He speaks no Middle Eastern language. Except for the time he has spent playing with his soulmate dictators in Kazakhstan, he has spent minimal time in any Middle Eastern country. The guy simply has no experience. He walked around with a mask over his face and he held a press conference on 9/11. Period. Every other New York city resident who coughed or got some dust on their shirt is one press conference short of Giuliani's 9/11 terrorism experience.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:02PM|#

Apology accepted J sub D. Yes, not nearly the heroic stuff that my brother and Dad did in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 on the frontlines against Saddam.

But I will say this: We were called to General Quarters twice during that 9 month tour, that were not drills, but the real thing. We knew Saddam had missiles capable of reaching our ships and we had seen on the news what he had done to Iranian ships in the Gulf. Scariest hours of my life, for sure.

|11.5.07 @ 5:03PM|#

Eric, I am pissed at al Qaeda, I am pissed at anyone who thinks the 9/11 hijackers were justified in killing civilians, I am pissed at our government fior not going after al Qaeda but for gonig after a useless Saddam Hussein, I am pissed at GWB for declaring Mission Accomplished a couple months after the Iraq War started and yet we're still there. I'm pissed at GWB for lying us into a war in Iraq. I'm pissed at Cheney and Giuliani for politicizing the war for their neo-con agendas. I am pissed at you for shilling for their cause. I am pissed that 30% of Americans think Iraq had something to do with 9/11 (they were Saudis whom Bush coddles at every turn). I am pissed that my fellow Americans have been asleep at the wheel for too long that has allowed us to go down this road. I am pissed at "our ally" Pakistan for hindering our ability to catch bin Laden. I am pissed that we are still in Iraq if we've won the war there. I am pissed that our politicians are stupid. I am pissed at the people that vote fro stupid politicians. I am pissed about a lot of things, Eric. I have lots of brain power. I can be pissed at a lot of people for a lot of things all at the same time. I'm sorry for you that you can't focus your anger at more than one enemy. Your narrow focus is too often shared by those in high places and the people that vote for them. Our most dangerous enemy is apathy and the second is our government allowing terrorists to define what we do. The terrorists lose on the battelfield because of our brave men and women who are better soldiers than them (obviously). The terorists win in our halls of government because our politicians are idiots. So we may be winning the Battle of Iraq but we are losing the War against what you call Islamo-fascism (I call it religious fundamentalism) because of people like you. Thanks a lot.

|11.5.07 @ 5:03PM|#

Eric,

Thanks.
Your fucked ranting helped me reach the conclusion that, though I don't agree with a lot of what Ron Paul says, someone like him really needs to step in and put the breaks on this crazy Utopian Neocon crap.
That said, I just hopped on his site and donated $100.
Seriously, thanks.
I mean it.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:04PM|#

Fluffy, so now I'm a "spoof."

Very easy to confirm. Here's my cell phone number 832-896-9505. Call now! Don't delay. Don't be a pussy boy. Pick up the goddamned phone and call me.

If you don't call then stop saying shit on here like I'm "not real" or some sort of "spoof."

Or just ask Franklin Harris here on this Forum. Is that too fucking hard to do? Franklin knows me very well.

|11.5.07 @ 5:06PM|#

I GUESS WHEN RON PAUL BECOME PRESIDENT,THERE BE A LOT OF PEOPLE FEELING LIKE SUCKERS!!!

|11.5.07 @ 5:07PM|#

Eric, do you by chance have a handlebar moustache? I have a hard time visualizing you without one.

|11.5.07 @ 5:07PM|#

Eric,

I think his point was that anyone could claim to be you and post ridiculous things in your name. Personally, I think you're just crazy (really, if posting your cell number in an internet thread to pick fights with other commentors isn't crazy, I don't know what is).

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:09PM|#

Nick, you are a victim of leftwing website rants if you believe that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda.

Saddam and Osama bin Laden were tied at the hip. Bin Laden's top boy Zarcawi was in Iraq for 3 years immediately after 9/11.

Read:

Shadow War by Richard Miniter - Appendix D. Minter outlines over 40 specific instances of direct cooperation between Al Qaeda and Saddam.

Read:

Saddam's Secrets by Iraqi Air Force General Georges Sayda - 2006. He discusses in detail in his book the direct links between Saddam and Al Qaeda. Sayda was an Iraqi Air Force hero, and Saddam's top non-Muslim Military General.

Don't believe everything you read from the Huffington Report, Daily Kos and Slate Nick. The left has an agenda. And that agenda is to pretend that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. And believe me, they will jump through hoops to continue to play up that myth.

Sean|11.5.07 @ 5:09PM|#

Don't feed the trolls.

|11.5.07 @ 5:10PM|#

Surely, you remember the bombing of the USS Starke by Saddam Hussein that killed 37 sailors around that time, right?

I'm unaware of this incident. Why did Saddam bomb a US ship during the Iraq/Iran war when we supported him in that war?

ACJohn|11.5.07 @ 5:10PM|#

Eric, was that 3 week binge in Mexico subsidized by staring in homosexual donkey shows?

|11.5.07 @ 5:11PM|#

If Dondero is really himself and not a troll trying to discredit him in some way, then he has succeeded in making me rethink my support for Ron Paul.

Anyone who would hire a psychopathic alcholic to a trusted high-level assistant position is not a good decision maker.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:11PM|#

Yeah, it may be crazy David, but I notice not a single person here has taken me up on the offer. What the fuck??

You gotta admit, it's pretty fucking sleazy for someone to post on a public board that so and so is a "stooge" a "plant" or "not real." And that person then posts his cell number, and not a single person calls to verify it.

Fluffy|11.5.07 @ 5:12PM|#

Hey, if you're the real Dondero, I was just trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Anyone can post as anyone here, as I will now demonstrate:

|11.5.07 @ 5:13PM|#

Remember, people donating to Ron Paul are sending their own money. Corporate donations to other campaigns are shareholders' funds.

|11.5.07 @ 5:13PM|#

I have to admit that I can't give any examples of Giuliani's terrorism experience because there aren't any.

I was hoping everyone else wouldn't notice. That's what the candidate is hoping, too, so I was just being a team player here.

Sean|11.5.07 @ 5:14PM|#

Dude, posting your phone number on a forum is sooooo 1999.

|11.5.07 @ 5:15PM|#

Donderoo check out LRC and Mises if you want to learn about libertarianism.

|11.5.07 @ 5:15PM|#

I blow goats. I love the sweet taste of goat spooge. I like when it sticks in my throat. Heavenly! Mmm-mmm!

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:15PM|#

Aha, and that's where you make your mistake there Nick. You are assuming that the United States backed Saddam Hussein in the War against Iran in the 1980s. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Those of us who were fighting against Saddam in the Military at the time, know that in fact, that he was the enemy. The Iranians largely left us alone. Yes, they scared us too. But it was Saddam who was killing and capturing US Sailors and Marines.

Your a victim of leftwing media bias. You believed the bullshit they were feeding you. Took it in hook, line and sinker.

You see, the left needs to continue to play up the myth that we were somehow aligned with Saddam against Iran in that Iraq/Iran War. They need to also sweep under the rug the Starke incident, or as some have done, write it off by a "bad mistake by Saddam."

Wasn't no goddamned mistake. Those of us who were there no the truth.

Saddam Hussein meant damned well to scare off the US Navy from the upper Persian Gulf. It was him after all who was the one bombing the oil tankers, NOT THE IRANIANS!!

|11.5.07 @ 5:16PM|#

LET"S ALL CALL ERIC DONDERO,AND GET HIM MORE PISSED.

|11.5.07 @ 5:17PM|#

Eric, I didn't get that from any leftists sites. I go to them just to rip on them for being stupid, but I have been known to get from CNN, Fox News, and the AP news that the Bush Administration now even admits Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. Some book by a neocon won't change reality. The government could easily show the connection if there was one. There isn't so they stopped trying.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:18PM|#

James, check out www.mainstreamlibertarian.com and www.libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com if you want to learn the truth about real libertarianism.

(And btw, I have finally been spoofed. Someone did post something under my name above which I did not write. The post about the "blow goats.")

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:20PM|#

Nick, Richard Miniter is no NeoCon. He's a self-described "libertarian."

And Georges Sayda is no NeoCon either. He's an Iraqi. I don't think he'd have any friggin' idea what the word "NeoCon" meant.

And of course, the Bush Adminsitration wants to deny that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11. They'd get creamed by the liberal media if they even suggested such a link. Just like the Bush Administration had been real tepid about admitting about the WMD.

But it doesn't really matter much. Bush is getting the last laugh on the media, with the Surge being a success.

|11.5.07 @ 5:21PM|#

I hope for your sake that wasn't your private home number or personal you posted. Thats not a good idea to do.

|11.5.07 @ 5:21PM|#

It is kinda silly Donderoo to post your personal number on a thread. What if one of the posters were as crazy as you pretend to be and took you up on your offer. You are doing a lot of woofing. I've learned that dogs with a lot of bark have very little real fight in them. Not really picking on you but a 44 year old ranting the way you have. Come on man admit that it's just silly.

|11.5.07 @ 5:22PM|#

Aha, and that's where you make your mistake there Nick. You are assuming that the United States backed Saddam Hussein in the War against Iran in the 1980s. Nothing could be further from the truth.

1) I like how he capitalizes war.
2) Does he always invent facts when the real ones are inconvenient for him?

|11.5.07 @ 5:23PM|#

Donderoo we sold Sadaam arms and covertly helped his war with Iran. Who do you think is the largest arms exporter on the planet? Why we are the good ole US of A.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:24PM|#

Nick, what are you afraid of? Afraid of learning the truth? Afraid of reading the Minter book?

It's not like Richard Miniter is some unknown flakey author. His book has been endorsed by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, and Steve Forbes.

You just don't want to read anything that may present a challenge to your nice little set of beliefs or your template of "Bush always wrong/There were no WMD/No connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda" The Miniter book will prove you wrong. So, you've got to do everything you can to avoid reading it.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:28PM|#

James, fine it's silly, it's stupid. I don't care what you want me to call it.

Point is, not a single mother fucking pussy boy here has bothered to pick up the phone and call me to confirm that this is really me, nor have they even bothered to post a note to Franklin Harris to confirm same.

How fucking easy would it be to do either one of those things.

But you see, none of you can do that, because you'd be proven wrong. Instead you gotta come up with excuses as to why you can't.

Kind of like Nick, with his doubting of the connections between Al Qaeda and Iraq. He can't dare read the Richard Miniter book because it would crush his entire neatly fitted world.

So instead, he has to call Miniter names, like "NeoCon" or to write him off as some crank.

lunchstealer|11.5.07 @ 5:30PM|#

If you ain't one of them (or a Veteran of the Military), DON'T YOU MOTHER FUCKING DARE TALK TO ME ABOUT SACRIFICE!!!

Fuck you Dondero. I didn't do a stint in the military. I'm sick and fucking tired of people thinking it's OK to shout down my opinions just because I didn't put on a uniform. It was 1991, we'd won the cold war, we'd just kicked Saddam's ass six ways from Sunday, and we were in the process of scaling back the military. I decided that I could make more of a contribution to this country by finishing my education and fucking contributing to the economy of this country than by putting everything on hold for six years and driving submarines or airplanes or tanks around.

Now I can't fucking talk because I, and millions of Americans just like me, chose not to go into a military that didn't need me? Fuck you and the fucking moral highhorse you fucking rode in on you cocksucker.

Come up here to Dallas and make me fucking not talk about sacrifice.

|11.5.07 @ 5:31PM|#

Maybe people simply do believe it's really "you"?

Also, maybe smart people care a lot more about arguing ideas than getting caught up in people and personalities?

Sean|11.5.07 @ 5:32PM|#

stop feeding the trolls.

GinSlinger|11.5.07 @ 5:33PM|#

(Server ate my post.)

Goddamnit Doooooonderrrroooooo!

Your service record still isn't adding up. Let's start with the USS Starke. There's no such ship, never hase been, never will be. There is a USS Stark (FFG-31). The Stark was not "bombed," it was hit with two Iraqi fired Exocet Air-to-Surface (Antiship) missles. Anyone on an aircraft carrier would know the difference between a bomb and a missle--hell, I've never been on an aircraft carrier and I know. Furthermore, The attack occured in '87, so how were those 37 killed, 21 injured your "shipmates?" Finally, why is your name absent from the service rosters for both of those ships? Navy clerical error?

I've never served active duty, but I know scores of current and former service members. I know first hand what they do to people who invent military service. I'll be sure to pass along your phone number you sad sack of merde.

Akston|11.5.07 @ 5:34PM|#

I can see how some folks might use a mass murder by 19 criminals (mostly from Saudi Arabia) to justify an endless war on previously targeted countries which have no direct connection to the perpetrators.

Terrorists try to instill terror. It's part of their job description. In the case of 9/11, it worked amazingly well on some. There is, of course, a difference between using the lesson of 9/11 to energize our search for the ringleader of those murderers and using it t fuel an endless war on all nations with tough-talking despots who share the same religion as the murderers.

By the way, how is the search for that ringleader going again?

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:34PM|#

Awww, isn't that special there lunchstealer, you had to "finish your eduction." Too self-centered there 'eh to contribute anything to your country.

Wonder what sort of country we'd be if the Patriots back in 1776 felt the same way you did; "Can't serve in Gen. Washington's Army cause I gotta finish tilling the fields, and my wifey pooh is sick, and my dog has diareaha..."

Or how about those young lads back in 1941 who stormed the beaches of Normandy: Well golly gee there General, you see I can't really go to France cause I like stubbed my toe, and I have a gal back home who wants me to come home in one piece. Best to let other guys in our company take my place for the landing..."

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:35PM|#

Lunchstealer, are you a man or a woman?

If you're a chic, fine you get a pass. But a real man would have served in the Military.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:37PM|#

Akston, so let me get this straight. Those "19 men" acted alone, huh? Didn't have any help from nobody. Just another run of the mill every day crime, and should be treated as such.

And there's no such thing as Global Islamic Radicalism. There's no threat to Americans from Islamic Radicals. It was just those 19 "crazy dudes," who did it all.

lunchstealer|11.5.07 @ 5:37PM|#

My wife did serve in the military. I didn't.

Come the fuck up here and tell me to my face that I can't talk to you about sacrifice. It's not that long of a drive you pussy.

GinSlinger|11.5.07 @ 5:38PM|#

Dooooooooonnnnnnndddddeeeeeeerrrrrooooo

Did you miss my post? Or are you going to ignore it? Doesn't seem very "manly" to ignore it tough guy.

|11.5.07 @ 5:41PM|#

If you're a chic, fine you get a pass. But a real man would have served in the Military.

Fuck you, you flag-waving prick.

And please do answer Ginny about why you don't appear on the duty rosters of your purported ships. Is it a clerical error? Maybe you're on there under your maiden name.

GinSlinger|11.5.07 @ 5:41PM|#

Dondi, what years were you on the Kittyhawk? I just rmembered that one of my ex-roommates served on the Kittyhawk before going glowworm.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:42PM|#

Okay Ginslinger, my legal name is Eric Rittberg. Check that.

My photo is on page 75 of the USS Luce DDG-38 "Arabian Nights" Yearbook from 1984.

Would you like me to fax to you a copy of my discharge papers? Would that satisfy you?

And yes, alright, you got me. Sorry for the misspelling of the USS Stark, and you are correct it was most definitely a missile.

But hey, this brings up a rather interesting point now doesn't it.

Ole Nick, was saying just a few minutes ago, that he had never even heard of the Stark.

Well Nick? I think some apologies are in order. We now have confirmation from a bonafide Dondero basher or Dondero's facts.

|11.5.07 @ 5:42PM|#

Even my wife, who is a joe-level Democratic loyalist, has expressed interest in RP's candidacy. I believe he's starting to reach a lot more people than many believe.

It's a faintly sad thing to realize most of the people supporting Ron Paul aren't libertarians, but fed-up liberals and moderates and conservative. We wouldn't even hear about the guy in the media if every libertarian in the country were loudly supporting him.

It's a really great thing to realize there are enough mainstream folks who care about their country to reject in large numbers what their parties are doing.

|11.5.07 @ 5:43PM|#

Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels Donderoo. I didn't serve because I had an uncle who served two tours of duty in Nam as a Marine. When he enlisted he had to have my grandmother give the OK because he was too young. When I came out of high school and was thinking about enlisting in the military. He basically told me hell no not to do it. He didn't have a very high opinion of military brass. He saw lots of friends die over bullshit and he didn't want me to sacrifice my life on the altar of the State. Unlike you he could be quite scary but he was also extremely intelligent so I listened and didn't enlist.

Franklin Harris|11.5.07 @ 5:43PM|#

I was out running errands. What have I missed? Ah, yes:

1. Eric is real.
2. Richard Miniter is a fellow at the Hudson Institute, which is a neoconservative think tank.

And, for the record:
3. The Iraq War has been a disaster. Apart from the lives lost (troops, civilians, and contractors), we now have the Kurds in northern Iraq fighting the Turks, an increasingly unstable and repressive government in Pakistan, and no signs of political stability in Iraq in spite of the surge, which was the main point of the surge in the first place. Oh, yes, and we have increasing Iranian influence in Iraq. All of this instability is exactly what the war's supporters claim is the real danger, so how has the war not failed in its supporters' own terms?

Jenny|11.5.07 @ 5:43PM|#

Hay, Eric, I just love a sailer. My number is 867-5309

|11.5.07 @ 5:45PM|#

The big question on my mind is, did the URKOBOLD® serve his country? Is he man enough to take on Dondero?

GinSlinger|11.5.07 @ 5:45PM|#

Dondi, what years were you on the Kittyhawk? I just rmembered that one of my ex-roommates served on the Kittyhawk before going glowworm.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:46PM|#

I was on the Kittyhawk from around June of 1981 til about December of 1983. I was flown out onto the flight deck from Diego Garcia in the summer of '81. Finished off the WesPac with the ship til I believe December of that year. Than we were sent to the shipyards up in Bremerton, Washington for a year.

In 1983 I got a transfer to the East Coast to serve on the USS Luce DDG-38.

I was an SK (Storekeeper) E-3. (Made it up to E-5 once, but got busted back down to E-3 for the usual drunken fighting bullshit.)

|11.5.07 @ 5:46PM|#

Speaking of, this is fresh off of LRC.

Don't Enlist
by Laurence M. Vance

Over 181,000 people joined the U.S. military during the fiscal 2007 recruiting year. This is more than joined the military during fiscal years 2006 and 2005. All four of the services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for 2007, as did four of the six reserve components.

Why?

Why are all these people joining the military? Why, in spite of multiple duty tours, ever-increasing deployment terms, an increase in sexual assaults, post-traumatic stress disorder, the breakup of military families, and the suicide rate, and almost daily reports of U.S. military personnel being killed or maimed in Iraq, are so many men and women joining the military?

It could have something to do with the military:

Spending over $4 billion a year on recruiting
Raising the maximum enlistment age
Accepting lower entrance scores on aptitude tests
Granting more medical waivers
Giving more moral waivers
Permitting ex-convicts to enlist
Relaxing the physical fitness requirements
Loosening weight restrictions
Allowing non-citizens to gain their citizenship after one year of active duty
But it could also have to do with the military:

Giving enlistment bonuses
Providing tuition assistance
Granting educational allowances
Assisting with student loan repayment
Offering assignment incentive pay
Then there is the career training, the world travel, the thirty days of vacation every year, and the free medical and dental care. And who can forget the GI Bill, VA loans, and the generous retirement benefits.

After the September 11th terrorist attacks, many people joined the military because they believed the president when he said: "Freedom was attacked, freedom will be defended." Others, ignorant of the blowback we reaped after decades of an interventionist foreign policy, joined the military because they thought they were actually going to take part in defending the United States against unjust aggression. Some actually supposed that by joining the military they were participating in a religious crusade against Islamofacism.

But what about now? After almost five years of needless destruction, senseless deaths, and billions of wasted dollars, after all the lies of the Bush administration have been exposed, after the principle of "blowback" has been thoroughly explained and proved, after the genocide that the Iraq War has become - why do American men and women continue to join the U.S. military?

There are some things that they know. They know that they may be put in harm's way. They know that being deployed will take a toll on their family. They know that they may be put into a situation where they will have to kill or be killed. They know that there is no end in sight to the war.

There are also some things that they may not know but should. They should know that many generals with much more military knowledge and experience than any recruiter they know have denounced this war. They should know that by joining the military they are helping to carry out the foreign policy of an evil empire that stirs up strife and creates terrorists. They should know that the military does very little to actually defend the country. They should know that if they die fighting in Iraq that it will be for a lie.

So why do thousands of people continue to join the military? In most cases, the decision is a financial one - just like the decision to sell crack or become a prostitute. But until joining the military receives the same stigma as those activities, enlistments will continue. Because we are in the middle of an unpopular war, because there is no draft, and because the majority of people who join today's military do so for financial reasons, the conclusion is inescapable: They are mercenaries, they are contract killers - they are killers for hire. "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).

GinSlinger|11.5.07 @ 5:47PM|#

I call shennanigans!

I only have access to part of the DoD on-line archives--I know perfectly well what your real name is--you're not in there.

The Starke/Stark thing is pretty devestating. Everyone I know with service backgrounds remembers every detail.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:49PM|#

FRankling, well, thank you for your honesty. But at least I now have you on record.

Hey quick question. You mention the lives lost in the War in Iraq, as a reason that it's been a dissaster.

What would you have said about the 450,000 American lives that were lost fighting Hitler and the Japs in WWII? Was that a "dissaster" too?

How about the over 1 million casualties in the Civil War? Would you say that that was also a "dissaster"? Freeing those slaves and all. That couldn't have been worth that death toll, right?

x,y|11.5.07 @ 5:50PM|#

Dondero,

All the libertarian activism in the world doesn't make the positions you stake out any more valid than they are on their own merits. Sorry to break it to you.

|11.5.07 @ 5:51PM|#

Point is, not a single mother fucking pussy boy here has bothered to pick up the phone and call me to confirm that this is really me, nor have they even bothered to post a note to Franklin Harris to confirm same.

No one has bothered because no one really gives a flying fuck about you or your opinions.

I suspect the only reason people are still responding is that with each successive ignorant and myopic post, Eric, you make yourself look more and more stupid, banal and generally irrelevant.

P.S. Note the longer lead time it takes from Eric to respond to my posts. This is because he needs a dictionary to read about 25% of the words I use. You see, when he took that piece of shrapnel to the head, during his noble service, he's had a lot of trouble putting together coherent thoughts and remembering, well, anything.

Eric, go fuck thyself.

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:53PM|#

x, y all the rants in the world about how "libertarian" one is on an on-line computer forum does not make a libertarian. Sorry to break the news to you.

He who worketh hardest for the libertarian movement, is the most libertarian of them all.

All-time champs:

1. Scott Kohlhaas
2. Paul Jacob (I'd say I'm tied for 2nd with Paul, and he would probably confirm that)
3. Leon Drolet
4. Phil Blumel
5. Jake Wittmer
6. Bill Redpath
7. Handful of others

|11.5.07 @ 5:55PM|#

Oh, I keep hoping that Eric's posts will yield yet deeper levels of Teh Crazy. I figure that someday it will make a great book, "Crazy Shit That Swims in the Mind of Madness".

|11.5.07 @ 5:55PM|#

Hey quick question. You mention the lives lost in the War in Iraq, as a reason that it's been a dissaster.

What would you have said about the 450,000 American lives that were lost fighting Hitler and the Japs in WWII? Was that a "dissaster" too?

Aside from the risible leaping on a typo, wow. Citing WW2 - and throwing in a lame racial epithet! - to feebly try to distract people from the fact that nothing has been gained by the war in Iraq and nothing was protected by doing so.

Yes, disaster seems a good characterization.

|11.5.07 @ 5:55PM|#

"Made it up to E-5 once, but got busted back down to E-3 for the usual drunken fighting bullshit"

Dondero drunk and violent? I find that impossible to believe.

Matt|11.5.07 @ 5:55PM|#

Eric Dondero:

You seem to deeply misunderstand the developments in the modern strategy and tactics as applied to war - especially the war on terror.

The approach you're standing for (i.e. using the state troops) is an outdated concept from the previous centuries. It could've work few hundred years ago, but not today.

Private military corporations are much more effective, technologically advanced, better trained, and more cost-efficient - take, for instance, Blackwater U.S.A. (which has trivially small collateral damage ratio, negligible compared to the state military).

Besides organizing the trainings domestically for the federal agencies (e.g. FBI), Blackwater is also visibly present in Iraq - Congress officials prefer Blackwater's protection to the state-controlled military. Ever wondered why?

Welcome to the 21st century. Private market-oriented solutions _ALWAYS_ work better in any given industry - and that definitely includes, but is not limited to, the military industry. If one fails to grasp that, one is not just a socialist, but a deeply confused socialist.

Add to that we're dealing with terrorism here - decentralized hostile entities working through dispersed loosely connected networks - Ron Paul, his understanding of this matter and his solutions are the cutting-edge in this respect.

The obsolete ideas of attempting to "fight" the terrorism by using the centralized state military belong rather to the Middle Ages, and now long-gone (except for fourth-world African countries) nation-wars, making any candidate who supports them, with all due respect, completely unfit for the job in this century.

|11.5.07 @ 5:56PM|#

Hay, Eric, I just love a sailer. My number is 867-5309

Damn you, Jenny! You and Tommy Tutone both! I'll have that crap floating around in my brain until my third Tullamore Dew.

Akston|11.5.07 @ 5:57PM|#

Eric Dondero,

The 19, and all the people who associate themselves with al-Qaeda which took credit, should indeed be targeted. But I can't support you in targeting any group you decide to call Radical Islamists. It's too collectivist for this libertarian (I used my own definition). "Bluster" does not necessarily equal "threat", as we saw in Iraq.

|11.5.07 @ 5:57PM|#

Storekeeper

Noble indeed...

A Good Samaritan|11.5.07 @ 5:58PM|#

As a public service, I did just call. The number is genuine, or at least the message is (he didn't pick up).

|11.5.07 @ 5:58PM|#

Eric

But in our lifetimes, (and I'm assuming here that you're in your 30s or 40s), NOTHING EQUALS THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. And perhaps NOTHING ELSE EVER WILL

If you think 9/11 is this important then perhaps it does make sense to support Giuliani. But there are two things I don't understand.

One : Why is it so important? If you did a pie chart of causes of death over the last ten years in the US then you would have trouble even finding terrorism as a cause. Heart disease and cancer take out more than a million people a year. In that context, what is the significance of terrorism? It pales even next to the risk of death by traffic accident. Why would this be the entire basis of your voting strategy?

Two : Even if you concede that 9/11 is important, isn't it as valid to argue that returning troops to the mainland is a good way to reduce the risk of terrorism? After all, the reason given for the attacks was the US presence on holy islamic land.

|11.5.07 @ 5:58PM|#

Hallelujah, We won the war!
Dondi, Tell the folks what they've won!

|11.5.07 @ 5:59PM|#

Spot on Taktix

Eric Dondero|11.5.07 @ 5:59PM|#

And Matt, what about the simple concepts of revenge, and fighting for one's honor?

They seem to be completely absent from your piece. Just all technical stuff.

It's much more simple than that. The only thing our enemies need to know is that if you "fucka with my country, we fucka with yours back 10 times harder."

Or, you kill my countrymen, we will hunt you down, hunt down your family, and destroy your village while we're at it.

|11.5.07 @ 6:01PM|#

All-time champs:

5. Jake Wittmer

Oh, I know Jake Wittmer. I knew him when he hired me and several others in Pittburgh to petition for LP ballot access.

Funny thing was, he collecte