Tuesday, January 08, 2008

The Ron Paul Newsletters : He is Done-- UPDATE: TNR provides links to the newsletters

[Update] TNR has a page out which now provides links to the PDF files of the newsletters themselves.

The Newsletters:  Since at least 1978, Ron Paul has attached his name to a series of newsletters--Ron Paul's Freedom Report, Ron Paul Political Report, The Ron Paul Survival Report, and The Ron Paul Investment Letter--that frequently made outrageous statements:


The newletters which are linked deal with Race, Gays, Survivalism and Militias, Conspiracies, and the Middle East. [End Update]

I have not had many nice things to say about Ron Paul nor his supporters as they have been represented here in the comment section of any piece that had his name on it, as they scoured through the search engines and clicked on any link speaking of Paul and spammed those comment sections without addressing issues, but simply shilling for Paul.

Still, on the worst days, I never imagined that those infamous newsletters I constantly see people referring to, would be as bad as they actually are and because of TNR's previous credibility problems (see Scott Thomas Beaucamp as an example), I am waiting for the newsletters themselves to be published by TNR, so I can read through the whole things, but the quotes already seen are bad enough and show him to be what he is...... a racist, bigot, anti-homophobic, anti-semitic piece of garbage that either wrote, in the worse case scenario, or allowed to be published in his name, best case scenario, the sickness that is seen in the newsletters that have been published

In a piece called "The Angry White Man", written by James Kirchick, over at TNR, has the histry of the "Ron Paul Political Report", which was a newsletter Paul had circulated to a network of some 7,000 subscribers from the late 80s and early 90s.


From TNR:

When I asked Jesse Benton, Paul's campaign spokesman, about the newsletters, he said that, over the years, Paul had granted "various levels of approval" to what appeared in his publications--ranging from "no approval" to instances where he "actually wrote it himself." After I read Benton some of the more offensive passages, he said, "A lot of [the newsletters] he did not see. Most of the incendiary stuff, no." He added that he was surprised to hear about the insults hurled at Martin Luther King, because "Ron thinks Martin Luther King is a hero."

In other words, Paul's campaign wants to depict its candidate as a naïve, absentee overseer, with minimal knowledge of what his underlings were doing on his behalf. This portrayal might be more believable if extremist views had cropped up in the newsletters only sporadically--or if the newsletters had just been published for a short time. But it is difficult to imagine how Paul could allow material consistently saturated in racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy-mongering to be printed under his name for so long if he did not share these views. In that respect, whether or not Paul personally wrote the most offensive passages is almost beside the point. If he disagreed with what was being written under his name, you would think that at some point--over the course of decades--he would have done something about it.

The only problem with that little denial and Ron Paul's denial, are quotes from newsletters like this one, where it is stated:"I've been told not to talk, but these stooges don't scare me. Threats or no threats, I've laid bare the coming race war in our big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS (my training as a physician helps me see through this one.) The Bohemian Grove--perverted, pagan playground of the powerful. Skull & Bones: the demonic fraternity that includes George Bush and leftist Senator John Kerry, Congress's Mr. New Money. The Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica."

Let him or his supporters deny he personally wrote that one.


Pajamas Media has quite a list of some of the quotes from some of Paul's newletters and I will show but a sample here to give you an idea.

The PJM quotes was compiled by Daniel Koffler, a former Paul sympathizer.

From PJM before they list some of those specific quotes:

As Kirchick reports—whether describing post-apartheid South Africa as a “destruction of civilization,” alleging that Martin Luther King “seduced underage girls and boys,” warning of “tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to wok [sic] for the Mossad in their area of expertise,” or urging white readers to arm themselves after “the first skirmish in the race war of the 1990s,”—virtually every historic trope of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-gay bigotry, or conspiracy theorizing has been featured in the “Ron Paul Political Report” in one way or another. For his part, Paul has alternately acknowledged writing some of the material that went out under his name, only to deny authorship when confronted with the most disturbing details. In any case, Paul has taken “moral responsibility” for the contents of the “Ron Paul Political Report.” What follows is a quick digest of some of his greatest, which is to say most disgraceful, hits.


“[O]ur country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists—and they can be identified by the color of their skin.”

“I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city [Washington, D.C.] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”

“We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational.”

“Blacks have ‘civil rights,’ preferences, set-asides for government contracts, gerrymandered voting districts, black bureaucracies, black mayors, black curricula in schools, black beauty contests, black TV shows, black TV anchors, black scholarships and colleges, hate crime laws, and public humiliation for anyone who dares question the black agenda.”

“If this walking bomb had gone off, it would have demolished the House Chamber and most of the congressmen in it. Yet this attempted terrorist attack was buried by the media. Why? Because the perpetrator was an undoubtedly mad Israeli, furious over alleged slights to his country… [T]he Israeli lobby deep-sixed the story, and no one outside of Congress ever head about it.”

Source: The Ron Paul Political Report, date uncertain. (Right side of that link, hit next or previous for 6 different pages.)

That is just a very small sample of some of the racists quotes, PJM has dozens more to show you, so go read it all.

For those that will cry foul, excuse, try to explain, lie or just ignore the obvious, do not bother.

PS........ Expect the indignant ourage in 5....4.....3.....2......1....BLAST OFF!!!!

.