Ron Paul

All i can note are my own personal observations. I have no expertise obviously.

When we were in Austin, i saw a lot of Ron Paul signs in yards and along roads. They were the only political group to stake out a patch of ground in front of the Austin City Limits Festival and proselytize (although i did see a few Obama stickers on backpacks.) I just chalked the signs up to the libertarian technology community in Austin.

It's November and i live in Hammond, Louisiana. The only presidential campaign signs that i've seen up in town are Ron Paul signs. We walk through neighborhoods downtown, and there in front of a lot of well-upkept homes, although i've noticed that they are more prominent in mixed race neighborhoods, which is a little disturbing.

Ron Paul scares the shit out of me. I'm seeing the Clinton and Giuliani match-up as inevitable, but the Ron Paul factor is spooky. He doesn't seem to be part of the predetermined equation between two self-entitled political machines, but he doesn't seem to be a force for good either. Few of the people who are disgusted with the establishment seem to be grasping the danger of Ron Paul though.

Two local blogs, Your Right Hand Thief and Library Chronicles have tackled the Ron Paul phenomenon. Library Chronicles has covered how Paul is making an impact in New Orleans. Paul's Louisiana profile is important to me, as we are a relatively political backwater, so nationally something more powerful must be on the move, but he also nails something that has been coalescing in my head:

My model stars Rudy! Giuliani as the ghoulish authoritarian Nixon, Hillary Clinton as the bumbling centrist Hubert Humphrey, and Paul as the insurgent x-factor George Wallace. In '68 Wallace's run exposed a dangerous fault in the old Democratic "New Deal" coalition splintering the working class populist vote along racial and social lines and ushering in a major political realignment which appears to have peaked with the rise and... perhaps... fall of the Rovian neo-cons currently ruining our Constitution and pretty much blowing up the world.

Again, very fucking scary.

Both blogs point to this Orcinus post.

I don't have much hope for 2008.

Louisiana gets what it deserves

The only upside to Bobby Jindal being elected to being governor of Louisiana is that perhaps i can finally stop hearing about what a big brain he has in a year or two. Has anyone looked at his voting record as a representative? There is no evidence of a keen intellect there, just a yes-man in over his head.

Then again, every time i look at him, i think of the Smiler from Transmetropolitan. His supporters make the same vapid points about him as well.

Louisiana would probably re-elect Bush if given the opportunity.

I miss Huey Long. Really and truly. Me and my loved ones need to get the hell out of this self-loathing sewer drain, the septic tank of America, post haste.

local politician Ackel is a crass opportunist

Over in Slidell, someone many years ago snuck a picture of Jesus (of the Eastern Orthodox varity) into a courthouse. At first, i misunderstood what the painting was, as i thought it was part of a larger display, barely noticeable. I wished that the ACLU would focus on something more relevant and forgot about it. I don't want religion preached in my courthouses, but we have bigger fish to fry these days.

Yesterday, i received a mailout from a jackass by the name of Adam Ackel, titled In God We Trust:

Dear Friends,

Most of us in Louisiana were blessed with strong traditional values. Recently, the liberal ACLU filed a lawsuit to remove the image of Jesus Christ from the Slidell Courthouse. Now, we are finding more and more liberal groups are trying to remove symbols of our faith that we grew up with and are trying to pass down to our children.

It is important government officials work to guarantee our rights as citizens to support our faith. I don't believe that we should be forced to separate our faith from our daily lives because of government interference.

Blah, blah, blah. It goes on with crap about his family. Then this ignorant thug has to audacity to ask for money for his campaign to run for state representative! He doesn't even ask for money for the suit against the ACLU. It's all about Adam Ackel pumping gullible bastards for cash!

I've now seen a photo of the painting of Jesus in question, and it's nothing like it was described to me. It has no business whatsoever in a government building. The ACLU has better things to do than to worry about that damned painting, but it galls me that this little twerp is trying to cash in on this controversy.

I don't intend to get into any arguments with Christian zealots over this, but it should be pointed out that some branches of Christianity itself find representations of Jesus to be a form of idolatry. This is why the maliciously stupid Ackel needs to shut up, as he needs to keep whatever corrupted values he has to himself, teaching them his unfortunate family in his home and church of his choice. My values are not his, and i don't want the image of Jesus hanging in the courtrooms that we are obliged to share as citizens. We might obey the same laws, but we don't have the same religious beliefs. Don't make assumptions, Ackel, and don't presume that your traditions are somehow older. Again, i assert that my family has been in the Florida Parishes over 200 hundred years. I don't give a good goddamn about what you think is traditional around here. I know better.

Oh yeah. He's a Republican. Typical.

Thanks, ACLU, for giving this scheming baboon a drum to bang on.

Fred Thompson as VP?

It's not going to happen. The plot to oust Cheney is going to be discussed in the future like those people who love alternate histories like to speculate about what would have happened if the plot to assassinate Hitler had worked, but it's not going to happen. Cheney is the real power. He's not going to step aside quietly, unless Fred Thompson is completely Cheney's servant.

I agree with Atrios. It would be a good move to improve Thompson's chances in the 2008 election, but it is fantasy speculation by delusional people on the cocktail circuit of Washington DC who still think that it's politics as usual, and have yet to understand that something very strange and wrong happened in the fall of 2000.

The Iraq War was to spread democracy too, and we're about to turn the corner. Idiots.