Media Prep to Derail Ron Paul in Iowa

   by Roland Hulme

The media have begun their campaign to derail Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is the GOP's dirty little secret.

If the Republican party has a dirty secret, it's Ron Paul.

The fiercely-principled Libertarian lawmaker has been running for President for over a decade now - backed by an incredibly loyal following, a meaty campaign budget and a set of political principles that have remained unwavering over thirty years.

The Republican party establishment are terrified of him; because his message challenges every hypocrisy they have.

Ron Paul doesn't just talk about balancing the budget - he puts forth painful spending plans to actually do it. He doesn't just hide behind the Constitution; he upholds it with such fearsome diligence that it makes social conservatives nervous. Ron Paul is beholden to no-one - not big business, not the lobbyists - not even the media.

Which is why the Republican party continue, at every turn, to try and brush his campaign under the carpet.

Some examples of this are difficult to ignore.

Why else, do you think, that Fox News and the mainstream media announced that Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were 2012's presidential "frontrunners" when Ron Paul had beaten at least three of them in the polls?

Why else would Herman Cain get six minutes of airtime during a presidential debate, when Ron Paul was given less than two? They are simply terrified of the public waking up and listening to what Ron Paul is saying - especially in this taut political climate.

But in 2012, they might have finally run out of options. As the Republican party gears up for the first GOP caucus in Iowa, polls are putting Ron Paul neatly at #1. Buoyed by the bipartisan support of young voters, and back by almost 75% of the military, Ron Paul's campaign finally looks like it's going to hit the headlines in a manner in which the Republican party establishment will no longer be able to ignore.

Which is why plans are underway.

Plans like this news story - Iowa GOP worried by hacker threat to caucus vote. Aware that there's a very real possibility that Ron Paul will carry the Iowa caucus, there are suspiciously timely news stories circulating that the results of the vote will be 'tampered' with - placing suspicion on whoever comes in first (and neatly allowing the media and the GOP to disavow a Paul victory as the result of his loyal 'hacktavists.')

It's their back-up plan in case Ron Paul takes Iowa - which polls suggest he might do. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen.

Remember in 2008 that Hilary Clinton was meant to be a shoe-in for the Democratic presidential candidate, but a surprise victory in Iowa put the relatively unknown Barack Obama into the public eye - and subsequently into the White House.

If Ron Paul catches a similar break during the GOP caucus, could the same thing happen again?

A Reality Check for Occupy Wall Street

  by Roland Hulme

OWS need to realize that their "enemy" and their "solution" arethe same entity

An Open Letter from a Rational American.

Dear Occupy Wall Street,

I, like millions of Americans, are torn between support for what you're trying to achieve, in your ramshackle camps in Zucotti Park and elsewhere across the United States, and contempt for both your ideology and your methods.

We can all agree that the current system of "American capitalism" is all screwed up; but your ideas towards fixing it (and your squalid camp outs -filled with rapes, shootings and crime) are totally lopsided.

So here's the skinny, from somebody who is not blindsided by political allegiance or partisan dogma. Here's where you're going wrong; and here's where you're going absolutely right.

First off, your primary concern that corporate America has too much influence in American politics is half right. Almost every single problem that we are enduring - from nearly 20% real unemployment, to the 2008 housing crisis and beyond - can be laid at the doorstop of American politicians working in conspiracy with American business.

But here's when you're wrong - asking government to fix it.

Because this is the kicker you Occupy folks haven't seemed to get your head around yet: Corporations interfering with the government is not the problem. It's the government interfering with corporations that caused this mess. Every time you wave a placard proclaiming that "capitalism is the enemy" you seem to be unaware of the fact that the system we live in - even in America, the most capitalist society on earth - is very far from true capitalism.

We live in a society of crony capitalism; in which instead of competing on the open market, businesses one-up their rivals through the work of lobbyists and legislation.

The evidence is everywhere.

You Occupy types would like to blame the 2008 housing market collapse on the banks; but that's simply not true. 80% of all mortgages in this country are backed by Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae; which are essentially government bodies even if the paperwork claims they're not. The housing crisis was caused by lawmakers passing regulations to force banks into lending money to bad risk investments; investments which later failed to pay up and sank the industry.

The reason nobody can get a loan today is not because banks don't have any money (they do - they're sitting on trillions of dollars) but because they're looking at these potential loans as business investments; not required action by the government (for which lobbyists and lawmakers enjoyed a commission kickback.)

This abuse goes still further.

Just look at how Governor Rick Perry 'mandated' vaccinations for teenage girls not because he believed HPV was a potential risk for them growing up, but because he was getting kickbacks from the only company that produced the vaccine.

When I worked for SIRIUS Satellite Radio, our merger with XM was nearly nobbled by lobbyists from the terrestrial radio business; who used their influence to drag a "yay or nay" out interminably not for the benefit of the radio consumer - but to try and force both companies into bankruptcy before they could consolidate.

A similar example occurred recently, when wireless companies AT&T and T-Mobile were refused permission to merger. Was this to prevent them from creating a "monopoly"? Very far from it - even as a single company, they'd still face fierce competition from Verizon and Sprint.

No, the truth was that lobbyists from these rival companies pressured lawmakers to deny the merger because they knew that a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would present more serious competition; and so instead of beating them on the open market, they hammered the nail into their coffin in the back rooms of Washington instead.

Now reading this, you might think that I'm validating everything the Occupy Wall Street crowd is going on about; that business should get out of government.

But I believe very strongly that it's the other way around.

When it comes to issues like wireless companies combining, or whether or not the impoverished should be trusted to manage variable rate mortgages, you have to ask yourself whether this is the business of government at all.

Deciding whether I have commercials or not during my radio listening was certainly not amongst the roles and responsibilities set out for government by the Founding Fathers.

The simple fact is; capitalism is the greatest and fairest system of economy in the world, and we have traditionally done 'capitalism' best in America - but we're screwing it royally up.

And the problem isn't that business is intruding into government - although it is, inexcusably.

It's that government has maneuvered itself into areas which were traditionally dictated only by the forces of the free market; and that has enabled unscrupulous businessmen to gain the upper hand over rival business not by offering better services, or cheaper rates, or any of the other things that cause one company to win out over the other, but by bribing the elected officials who are unfairly in control of such things.

Yes, Occupy Wall Street, it's true that American business today has the country in a stranglehold - but don't blame capitalism. True capitalism - unfettered by corruption, graft, greed, bribery and vice - could never have led us here without the knowing compliance of the corrupt, crooked, unscrupulous bastards who we unwittingly elected into power to "protect us."

Government poisons business; not the other way around.

Sincerely,

Roland Hulme