Tea Party Rally Planned for Ron Paul

I got my information from http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=52638

Saturday, December 15, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com

Hundreds of Ron Paul supporters are expected to peacefully converge in downtown Boston on Sunday, December 16th at 1:00pm on the State House steps for what is anticipated to be the largest one day fundraiser for a presidential candidate – ever.

The event, dubbed The BostonTeaParty07, will coincide with the 234th anniversary of the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773 which is widely recognized as helping to spark the American Revolution.

The event in Boston on December 16th also corresponds to the second planned “Money Bomb” that Paul’s supporters have organized independent of his official campaign.

Supporters of the ten term congressman will begin the rally at 1:00pm on the State House steps and walk the Freedom Trail to Faneuil Hall where the doors will open at 2:30.

Inside Faneuil Hall banks of computers will be set up ready to securely process online donations made directly to Ron Paul’s official campaign site. Tea will be served while participants listen to lectures from prominent figures regarding the historical significance of the Boston Tea Party, the origins of The Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as commentary on current events. Dr. Rand Paul, the candidate’s son, is also slated to speak.

Ron Paul stands apart from the other GOP presidential contenders by vigorously opposing the war in Iraq. Citing the Constitution as his guide, Paul opposes law enforcement or anti-terrorism measures that encroach on civil liberties. His views on small government extend to eliminating the IRS and The Federal Reserve. He favors limiting immigration and strengthening border security while promoting a foreign policy of “non-intervention”.

Ron Paul’s campaign made headlines on November 5th with its first “Money Bomb”, a one day fundraiser which netted over $4.3 million. The December 16th event seeks to surpass that number.

=====

BostonTeaParty07 was planned by members of Boston Ron Paul MeetUp #68 and paid for by Liberty League PAC

www.LibertyLeaguePAC.org

The event is not authorized by the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign

Ron Paul is no longer a dark horse

CARLA MARINUCCI
San Francisco Chronicle

They were a lonely band of rebels until just a few weeks ago, backing the darkest of dark horse presidential candidates.

But with Republican Rep. Ron Paul's fundraising on the rise - $4.2 million raised on the Internet in one day this month - and his poll numbers jumping, the Texas congressman might no longer be a "who?" but a potential problem for leading Republican presidential candidates in key states such as New Hampshire.

And in California, the state where the 72-year-old doctor-politician has raised the most money, those who call themselves part of the "Ron Paul Revolution" couldn't be happier.

Paul's backers are people such as Brad Sanford, 29, a Silicon Valley tech worker who said he never had been involved in politics or campaigns until this year.

Sanford, attending a Paul campaign Bay Area "meet-up" event, said he first caught Paul's appearances on cable programs like "The Bill Maher Show," "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report." Since then, Sanford has registered Republican for the first time to vote in the California presidential primary on Feb. 5 while "maxing out" his political donation budget with $2,300 to Paul's campaign.

Sanford now is walking precincts for Paul because he said the candidate is strongly against the war in Iraq and can appeal to millions who believe that America has "strayed too far from our values" and fundamentals laid out in the Constitution.

"For young people, it's the war; for older people, it's a straight common-sense approach" to taxes, the economy and values, said Holly Clearman, California field coordinator for the Paul campaign.

Clearman said the life of a Ron Paul supporter used to be a lonely undertaking.

"I thought there were only 10 of us, and nobody I knew," she said. But that changed in recent months as the candidate raised $9 million this quarter, and "the cat is out of the bag."

Paul followers are buoyed by the latest polls from CNN and the New York Times showing that their candidate has jumped ahead of former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Iowa, the site of the nation's first 2008 primary on Jan. 3.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain still dominate the race in that independent-minded, "Live Free or Die" state. But Paul's recent rise has prompted pundits to acknowledge that the Texan - once dismissed as a fringe candidate - could have an impact on the presidential race.

Paul's eclectic mix of fiercely libertarian and conservative values has created a passionate support base that might be unlike any other candidate in the 2008 presidential race.

The former practicing obstetrician, who has served in the House about 20 of the past 35 years, is vehemently anti-abortion - voting against federal funding of abortion, stem cell research and even family planning funding in U.S. foreign aid - and strongly pro-gun rights. His views have gained him high ratings from conservatives and groups such as the Christian Coalition and the National Rifle Association. Paul also is seen as strongly anti-environmental by groups such as the League of Conservation Voters, which gave him just a 5 percent legislative rating on his voting record.

But Paul also appeals to progressives on a number of issues: He supports repealing most federal drug laws, including those against medical marijuana, is against the death penalty, vigorously opposes the war in Iraq and is against the Patriot Act and free trade agreements such as NAFTA.

Indeed, some political analysts suggested he is the 2008 campaign's political ink blot test - able to represent whatever voters see in him.

Stephanie Burns, 50, a construction manager from Sausalito, Calif., who helps arrange biweekly Bay Area meetings in support of Paul, said the Texas congressman's campaign - like Democrat Howard Dean's in 2004 - has skillfully utilized the Internet to reach out to voters who might otherwise never be connected. "And ever since the $4.2 million, it has changed things," she said. "There's a lot more recognition by the media."

Burns motioned around the room to some of the people the Internet has brought to Paul's cause.

"I've never even been interested in politics my whole life," Brandy Alexander, 34, a University California-San Francisco researcher, told the group.

But after she and her boyfriend, William Newby, 28, a computer programmer, watched Paul slam U.S. involvement in the Iraq war and expound on his views during the televised GOP debates, they were hooked.

Thanks to Paul, she said, "Now, I find myself borderline obsessed with it.

RON PAUL INTERVIEW ON IRAQ, BUSH, MONEY part 1&2

part1



part2

Huckabee "I drink a different kind of Jesus juice,"

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. -- In 2005, a Republican state senator named Jim Holt introduced a bill to deny public benefits to Arkansas' soaring population of illegal immigrants. Holt, a Southern Baptist minister, figured it was a rock-solid conservative idea -- a matter, he said, "of right and wrong."

Arkansas' governor at the time was also a professed conservative, and also a Southern Baptist minister. But Mike Huckabee had only scorn for his fellow Republican's proposal.

Huckabee called the bill "race-baiting" and "demagoguery," and argued that the denial of health services could harm innocent children. The bill, Huckabee said, did not conform with his take on Christian values.

"I drink a different kind of Jesus juice," Huckabee said.

Today, Huckabee is seeking the Republican nomination for president, and voters nationwide are getting to know a different kind of candidate: He is the Southern preacher who favors droll wit over brimstone sermonizing, a rock 'n' roll bass player who believes in creationism, with an Oprah-ready story about a 110-pound weight loss that probably saved his life.

Here in Arkansas, where Huckabee ruled as governor for 10 1/2 years, voters grew accustomed to a different brand of Republican -- a governor with an idiosyncratic agenda that was sometimes difficult to categorize, but always driven, Huckabee insists, by his Southern Baptist faith. That faith influenced major policy decisions that could be deemed moderate, if not liberal, including a significant environmental initiative and a vastly expanded healthcare plan for low-income children.

Though Huckabee took strong stands against abortion and same-sex marriage, his record on taxes -- a key pillar of Republican orthodoxy -- was distinctly heterodox. He supported tax hikes on cigarettes, gasoline, groceries, sales and income. A video circulating on YouTube -- and played, in part, on the CNN-YouTube Republican debate Wednesday -- shows Huckabee addressing the Arkansas Legislature in 2003 and suggesting that he would be open to raising a broad range of taxes.

Initiatives like the children's health plan tapped a deep vein of populism, helping Huckabee win two gubernatorial elections. But his record on taxes and immigration alienated some Arkansas Republicans, who are watching with trepidation as Huckabee's prospects soar in the GOP primary race for president.

The most recent Des Moines Register poll, published today, showed Huckabee overtaking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (Huckabee's 29%-to-24% lead in the Register's poll is within the margin of error, but it's a huge advance from his tie for sixth place in the same poll in the spring.) Other surveys showed him gaining ground against former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in Florida.

Holt, the former state senator, has a warning for conservatives around the country who think they have found their candidate.

"I think if they knew [his record] it would totally de-energize them," he said. " . . . His policies are just wrong."

In a phone interview, Huckabee, 52, asserted that he left Arkansas a stronger state when term limits forced him out of office in January -- with improved highways, more accountable schools, low unemployment, and an $800-million budget surplus. He also stood by his conservative credentials.

"I'd put mine against anybody's on that Republican stage," he said.

His achievements were won in the face of an often-vigorous Democratic opposition that controlled the Legislature throughout his governorship. At times it seemed he was "getting it from both sides," said Ann Clemmer, a Republican and Huckabee supporter who teaches political science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "I think he did a lot just on his own -- really on his own counsel. And in that regard I think you have to say he was a leader."

Huckabee hails from President Clinton's hometown of Hope, and his political career has played out in Clinton's shadow. In 1993, voters narrowly elected Huckabee to replace Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who succeeded to the governorship when Clinton was elected president. Huckabee became governor three years later, when Tucker resigned after being found guilty of two felonies as part of the Whitewater investigation involving the business dealings of Bill and Hillary Clinton and others.

To observers like Rex Nelson, a former political editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Huckabee represented a welcome change.

"I think everybody wanted some calm, some stability," said Nelson, who signed on as Huckabee's press secretary in 1996 and served for nine years.

Arkansans eventually turned their attention away from Whitewater and the Clintons, and toward the teetotaling preacher who had once led Baptist congregations in Pine Bluff and Texarkana. Then, as now, Huckabee put his religious convictions front and center. Early on, he developed a mode of governing that seemed to be both expedient and from the heart.

Political consultant Dick Morris, who also worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee in his first race for lieutenant governor. He told Huckabee that to succeed in Arkansas, he should avoid acting like a "country club" Republican who only represented the rich.

Morris also recalled saying to Huckabee: "I assume you're against parole for violent criminals, because you're a conservative." Huckabee told Morris that he would hold open the possibility of parole because he believed, in some cases, in the power of forgiveness, Morris said.

Romney lying on tax record

Romney lying about his tax record (update)

Update: The Boston Herald wrote about Romney’s lousy record on this stuff this morning.

According to Bloomberg, Romney has been so butchered on his flip-flopping on social issues, that now he wants to talk about economic issues. There his strategy seems to be to just lie rather than flip-flop.

Mitt Romney said the other day:

McCain opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, Romney noted.

“I supported them,” the former governor said.

Like most things that Mitt Romney says now about his record as governor, it just isn’t true. I refer you to an AP article from 2003, at the end of the post. (H/T Romney is Fraud).

We will begin with Barney Frank’s praise of Mitt Romney for standing up to George Bush:

"I was very pleased," Frank said afterward. "Here you have a freshman governor refusing to endorse a tax cut presented by a Republican president at the height of his wartime popularity."

Agreeing on tax policy with Barney Frank is not usually how one runs to the right, but Mitt Romney is smarter than the rest of us… Need to keep reading? There’s more:

According to the observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Romney told the delegation that he "won’t be a cheerleader" for proposals he doesn’t agree with, "but I have to keep a solid relationship with the White House."

Shawn Feddeman, Romney’s spokeswoman, said the governor has neither endorsed nor opposed the tax cut plan because "it’s just not a state matter."

However, while President Bush was pushing for tax cuts, without Romney’s "cheerleading", Romney was open to tax increases:

In addition to refusing to endorse the president’s tax cut, the governor surprised several people at the meeting by saying he is open to a federal increase in gas taxes. "He wants it dedicated to transportation construction," Capuano said.

I don’t suppose that will make it into his speech today… For nearly everything that Romney says he is for now, you will find him saying the opposite. And for nearly everything that he says about his record, you will find that it is false. Lexis is your friend.

ROMNEY WEIGHS IN - CAREFULLY - ON BUSH TAX-CUT PLAN GOVERNOR WON’T GIVE HIS ENDORSEMENT The Boston Globe April 11, 2003, Friday

Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company

The Boston Globe


April 11, 2003, Friday ,THIRD EDITION


METRO/REGION; Pg. A3

842 words

ROMNEY WEIGHS IN - CAREFULLY - ON BUSH TAX-CUT PLAN GOVERNOR WON’T GIVE HIS ENDORSEMENT


By Wayne Washington, and Glen Johnson, Globe Staff


WASHINGTON - Governor Mitt Romney refused yesterday to endorse tax cuts at the heart of President Bush’s economic program, but he told members of the state’s congressional delegation during a private meeting he also would not oppose the cuts because he has to maintain "a solid relationship" with the White House.


Meeting with the all-Democratic group of House and Senate members for the first time in Washington, D.C., the Republican governor found himself challenged as the group talked about the state’s $3 billion budget gap for its coming fiscal year, as well as the Bush administration’s recent decision not to include Massachusetts in a $100 million round of federal antiterrorism funding.


Representative Barney Frank of Newton asked the governor whether he had spoken against the $726 billion worth of tax cuts the president is currently pushing at the federal level. Coming on top of $1.6 trillion worth of tax cuts in 2001, Democrats argue that the next round will expand the budget deficit, drain the US Treasury of money for social programs, and prevent the federal government from assisting states facing revenue losses caused by the downturn in the economy.


Romney said he had not publicly opposed the cuts, according to one observer at the meeting, prompting Frank to ask, "Will you?" Romney replied that he probably would not. The answer triggered laughter in what both sides described as an otherwise bipartisan session.


"I was very pleased," Frank said afterward. "Here you have a freshman governor refusing to endorse a tax cut presented by a Republican president at the height of his wartime popularity."


According to the observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Romney told the delegation that he "won’t be a cheerleader" for proposals he doesn’t agree with, "but I have to keep a solid relationship with the White House."


Shawn Feddeman, Romney’s spokeswoman, said the governor has neither endorsed nor opposed the tax cut plan because "it’s just not a state matter."


Underscoring Romney’s delicate task, his next stop after leaving Capitol Hill was the White House, where he spent over two hours attending meetings with, among others, Andrew H. Card Jr., the chief of staff; Karl Rove, senior counselor to the president; and Ken Mehlman, the president’s political adviser.


Despite speculation that the administration may try to use Romney to counter Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts as Kerry seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, the governor said, "any mention of Senator Kerry was just a passing reference and a little humor."


"Our meetings were not political in nature," the governor said in an interview.


Asked whether he might assume the role of a surrogate campaigner for the president, Romney said: "I see my role as helping do a good job for the people of Massachusetts, and so I’m not going to be playing a political role outside of that."


Instead, Romney said, he spent the bulk of his time lobbying to get Massachusetts included in the next round of federal antiterrorism funding. He also discussed the formula for distributing the money to the states, an issue he must deal with in his new role as the Republican cochairman of the National Governors Association homeland security committee. After his session at the White House, Romney headed for a meeting with Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and a session with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

Romney believes states should funnel the money to their cities and towns based on need, rather than the federal government distributing it based on a formula predicated on population or some other index. "I would like to see it go to cities like Chelsea and Everett, which have major homeland security needs, as opposed to communities of similar population without the same homeland security needs," the governor said. Chelsea is next to Logan International Airport, while Everett is home to massive Distrigas liquid natural gas tanks.


Since taking office in January, Romney has been reluctant to voice support or opposition to the president’s tax cut proposals. As he emerged from the delegation meeting yesterday, he again refused to be specific. "I very much support an economic stimulus," he said. "An economic stimulus is a good thing for Massachusetts."


Pressed further, he said, "I don’t wade into national politics. I will let our delegation sort that out."


Representative Michael Capuano of Somerville, one of the state’s 12 members of Congress, said he understands the governor’s caution. "That strikes me as politically smart for the benefit of the Commonwealth," Capuano said. "He is, after all, the only Republican in the delegation, so to speak."


In addition to refusing to endorse the president’s tax cut, the governor surprised several people at the meeting by saying he is open to a federal increase in gas taxes. "He wants it dedicated to transportation construction," Capuano said.

Debts@Taxes

Working Americans like lower taxes. So does Ron Paul. Lower taxes benefit all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives.

Whether a tax cut reduces a single mother’s payroll taxes by $40 a month or allows a business owner to save thousands in capital gains taxes and hire more employees, that tax cut is a good thing. Lower taxes allow more spending, saving, and investing which helps the economy — that means all of us.

Real conservatives have always supported low taxes and low spending.

But today, too many politicians and lobbyists are spending America into ruin. We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don’t cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future — and yours.

In addition, the Federal Reserve, our central bank, fosters runaway debt by increasing the money supply — making each dollar in your pocket worth less. The Fed is a private bank run by unelected officials who are not required to be open or accountable to “we the people.”

Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia, because their central banks also finance our runaway spending.

We cannot continue to allow private banks, wasteful agencies, lobbyists, corporations on welfare, and governments collecting foreign aid to dictate the size of our ballooning budget. We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United