Casting your fake-vote for fake-president

Paris Hilton | Fake-President | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Are we really a nation that believes in the rule of law?

We hold ourselves to be a nation of laws, but are we? Apparently, it's perfectly okay these days for a government official to off-the-cuff decide which laws will and which laws won't enforced.

Here are a couple of examples where the law apparently means nothing.

• Under Georgia and federal law, the influenza vaccine is held to be a "dangerous drug" that requires a prescription by a licensed medical doctor. Despite this law, you can get a flu shot just by walking into most any chain pharmacy in the state, and have been able to for years.
  
  Georgia's Gov. Sonny Perdue (a Freemason, by the way), when asked why this protective law isn't enforced, said that the State wasn't going to be "persnickety" about the law, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week.
  
  "This administration will not call for sanctions against those acting in the best interests of Georgians and in a manner consistent with past practices," he said in a prepared statement. "It is my expectation that health care professionals will act in the best interests of public health and continue prior practices."



• Former Congressman Bob Barr, who is running for President of the United States as a Libertarian, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding that both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain be removed from the Texas ballot because neither candidate met the official filing deadline.
  
  "The seriousness of this issue is self-evident," the lawsuit states. "The hubris of the major parties has risen to such a level that they do not believe that the election laws of the State of Texas apply to them."

Sonny Perdue | Barack Obama | John McCain | Bob Barr | Vaccinations | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

R for Revolution

While the world oohs and ahs over sexy librarian Gov. Sarah Palin and the stirring socialist speech of equally inexperienced Sen. Barack Obama, the disenfranchised followers of Rep. Ron Paul roll on.

WASHINGTON (Aug. 30) — There's no room at the Xcel Energy Center for maverick Ron Paul, so his acolytes have packed their cars, hitched rides on "Ronvoys" and will pitch tents at Ronstock '08 in Minneapolis in defiance of next week's GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.

More than 9,700 tickets had been sold for the Rally for the Republic, which seeks to bring together activists who are anti-war, anti-government regulation, anti-immigration, anti-taxes, anti-Federal Reserve, anti-outsourcing, pro-individual liberty, pro-civil liberties and pro-Paul.

The Ronvoys — fleets of buses and vans carrying Paul's loyalists — were to begin arriving Saturday. A few rally-goers planned to walk from Green Bay, Wis., and join up with Paul for the final miles of their Walk4Freedom. Other attendees are driving, carpooling or flying in for the convention alternative.

Paul, a Texas congressman who failed in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, considers the rally a celebration of traditional Republican values of limited government — and a poke in the eye of the GOP. They don't plan to crash the Republican party, but to show they and their Campaign for Liberty are not going away.

"No matter how much our message is ignored or ridiculed, as was done in the campaign, no matter how much they did to us, it only energized our grass roots," Paul said.

The rally builds on Paul's presidential bid, in which he set a record for single-day fundraising on the Web and touched a nerve with some disaffected voters, largely in the Republican Party.

In a few Western states, Paul was a serious contender for votes, placing second ahead of Republican John McCain in Nevada and Montana. He drew 14 percent from McCain in New Mexico, a battleground state.

But Paul has no speaking role at the GOP convention. He said his staff made overtures to the party, but nothing came of its efforts.

Republican Party spokeswoman Joanna Burgos said she had to research whether Paul was invited to speak when asked about a convention role for Paul.

"Our focus is really on this side of the river," Burgos said. "We think there's enough excitement and energy on this side." McCain's campaign spokesman did not return a phone message.

Paul's faithful still hope to permeate the ranks of the establishment by winning local and state races and pulling in disenchanted party members. There are a couple dozen Paul delegates attending the GOP convention, though some loyalists say there are more delegates who support Paul.

Meanwhile, their focus is on their own political convergence in Minneapolis.
"We only want to cause noise in the sense of letting people know there are other movements out there that other people believe in," said Kathleen Buchholz, 28, of Denver.

Unable to take time off from school for the rally, Buchholz is attending Tuesday's events, when Paul will speak. She's bypassing sleep to save on hotel costs and flying out early Wednesday.

Rally organizers reported last week they sold all 500 tickets priced at $85 each for their Real Politics Training School scheduled for Sunday. Attendees will learn political-organizing skills and "how to compete and win at the political game," organizers said on the rally Web site.

Speakers at the Paul rally include former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, tax activist Grover Norquist, former California Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr., political commentator Tucker Carlson, former two-term New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and the baby-delivering doctor supporters call Dr. Paul.

A few entertainers also are joining in, such as country star Sara Evans; pop singer Aimee Allen, known for the song "Cooties" from Hairspray but whose favorite song among rally-goers is "Ron Paul Anthem"; and Texas blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.

Paul backers who aren't staying at the Minneapolis hotel or a budget motel planned to bunk in group cabins at Camp Ihduhapi on Lake Independence, park RVs or pitch tents at campgrounds or head to a Goodhue, Minn., dairy farm for Ronstock '08, an imitation of the 1960s Woodstock counterculture festival. Organizers there say a neighbor of the farm's owner is donating a cow to feed the flock.

Sonny Thomas of Springboro, Ohio, plans to drive 12 hours to attend the rally, leaving Sunday. He was offering in a Web posting to fit one or two others in his car.

"I feel as one person who stands up, I have a voice and letting it be heard sends fear to the establishment," said Thomas, a gas station manager who was laid off a previous job.

— Suzanne Gamboa, AP

Thanks to Burning Taper reader Diogenes for sending this story.

Ron Paul | Ronstock | Grass Roots Campaign | Campaign for Liberty | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Six possible futures

The presidential candidate field has cleared quite a bit in the past month or so, and the pundits have all but decided who will be the nominee for the Republicans while milking the Democratic run for all they can.

Who do YOU think will be the next President of the United States? Not who do you support or who do you want or who did you or will you vote for, but who do you think will actually become the next president? There are six probabilities, some admittedly less likely than others, but all are at this moment possibilities.

There are six possible futures for our country. Which path do you think we'll collectively follow?

And what will our lives — personally and as a nation — be like in four years?



Presidents | Election | Future | America | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Ron Paul, Barack Obama lead by wide margins in our presidential primary polls

I'm moving our ongoing Burning Taper presidential primary back to the top of the page, in case there are new readers who may be missing seeing it buried ten articles down.

Moving it to the top again will make it fresh food for Google, too.

This poll has almost as much legitimacy as any other poll you're reading about in the papers. Many "professional" polls have fewer than 800 participants; we're only a magnitude of ten behind that, with (at this writing) 71 people voting in our Democratic primary, and 90 in the Republican primary.

Current results:

Barack Obama is out front in the Democratic field with 39%, followed by John Edwards with 27%, Hillary Clinton with 13%, Dennis Kucinich with 11%, Bill Richardson with 6%, and Mike Gravel with 4%.

In our Republican primary, Ron Paul leads the pack with 48%, with challengers Mike Huckabee at 14%, John McCain and Fred Thompson each at 12%, Mitt Romney at 10%, and Rudolph W. Giuliani barely registering with just 3% of the vote.





2008 Presidential Primaries | 2008 Presidential Election | Democratic Primary | Republican Primary | ABC - NBC - CBS - FOX - CNN - AP - News | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Ron Paul on Jay Leno

As I'm sure you know, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate, was excluded from Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" debate Sunday night, despite his respectable showing in last week's Iowa caucuses.

Paul's campaign has recently set records with its phenomenal fundraising. Paul decided to spend some of that money putting on a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, while the Fox debate was going on.

NBC talk show host Jay Leno invited Ron Paul onto his show Monday night. Leno called Paul's exclusion from the Fox debate "blatantly unfair."





Ron Paul | 2008 Presidential Election | New Hampshire | Jay Leno | Fox News Republican Debate | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Are you smarter than a pollster?

Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? might be stumping us, but playing along at home during the debates and the upcoming primaries has never been easier. Just cast your vote here, and find out if you're smarter than those annoying television talking heads who tell us who has won before the election has even begun.





2008 Election | Vote 2008 | Presidential Election | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

'Burning Taper' endorses Dr. Ron Paul for President

Today's political news brings us the woman whose husband didn't inhale reefer smoke apologizing to her opponent for making references to his admitted use of marijuana and cocaine as a teenager. On the other side of the aisle, the various "religious" candidates are poking each other in the eye with pointed crucifixes over whose God is bigger than whose.

It's painfully clear that none of the "major" candidates running for the U.S. presidency are qualified to be school crossing-guards, much less president of the United States of America.

Despite the supposed differences between candidates, should America elect Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee or that actor guy — the country will continue to slip-slide away from our once-proud ideals. Debt will continue to mount, personally and nationally. We'll entangle ourselves in further senseless wars, at home and abroad. Gas prices and taxes will continue to rise, and home values may continue to plummet as foreclosures increase. Much of the rest of the world will keep on hating us. Our Constitutional freedoms will continue to evaporate.

While the press bombards us with the daily antics of these seven clowns and buffoons, pretending there are no other candidates in the race, U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas is getting his message heard via the Internet.

I first heard of (and voted for) Ron Paul when he ran for president in 1988 on the Libertarian Party ticket. Then, as now, he was all but ignored by the mainstream media.

Why has the mainstream media ignored him? Because what he says makes sense, and if his policies were enacted, we'd soon live in a significantly different, and in my opinion, better world, a world in which much of the status quo would be overturned. Dr. Paul's message doesn't play well with entrenched pundits and mega-corp advertisers who thrive on keeping America titillated by sensationalist gossip, mudslinging and flag-waving while ignoring more serious, fundamental issues.

Who is Ron Paul?

Congressman Ron Paul is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation’s capital. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Paul tirelessly works for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. He is known among his congressional colleagues and his constituents for his consistent voting record. Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill.

Some background on Ron Paul as a U.S. representative:

• He has never voted to raise taxes.
• He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
• He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
• He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
• He has never taken a government-paid junket.
• He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
• He voted against the Patriot Act.
• He voted against regulating the Internet.
• He voted against the Iraq war.
• He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
• He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
• Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.

Ron Paul is the only candidate running for president whose record indicates an unwavering support of liberty and freedom.

The Burning Taper joins with countless other voices across the nation and across the Internet to support Dr. Ron Paul's campaign for president.

Last week a group of academics from across the U.S. endorsed Ron Paul, in part with these words:

A Paul administration would dramatically reduce the size and scope of the federal government over our lives and liberties. President Paul will work to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, emphasize free trade and diplomacy over confrontation, cease the war on drugs, which has destroyed the lives and liberties of the poor in inner cities, and end our error-ridden system of federal capital punishment. To accomplish these goals, and ensure that those in greatest need do not suffer during the transition, Paul will bring home the troops and abandon our ruinously expensive and futile effort to police the world.

Paul is the only presidential candidate with a proven record of defending academic freedom across-the-board. He has stood against efforts by both the political right and left to restrict the free discourse of ideas in higher education. He strongly opposes the use of speech codes to restrict academic freedom. For the same reason, he has spoken out against the so-called Academic Bill of Rights and other proposals that would empower politicians to impose "ideological balance" in the classroom. As Paul points out, these "speech codes of the right" would, if implemented, create a chilling effect on free and creative academic inquiry and teaching.

I couldn't have written it better myself. A Paul presidency would restore and renew our country, returning us to the ideals of which we still boast but seldom (or never) practice.

The Widow's Son and The Burning Taper endorse Dr. Ron Paul for President to restore the American principles of peace, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited government. You are urged to vote for Dr. Paul in your state's Republican primary.

Related link: Ron Paul's official campaign site

Image: U.S. Representative (R-Texas) Dr. Ron Paul

Presidential Endorsement | Ron Paul | 2008 Presidential Election | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com