Ron Paul Blog

An endorsement, of sorts, from me over at stogieguys.com:

As detailed in Monday’s article on Obama and McCain, neither candidate offers a particularly impressive agenda [for cigar smokers]. When push comes to shove, we suppose McCain is marginally better on cigar issues as a whole, but not in a particularly meaningful way.

Not to mention that his record suggests he is likely to flip-flop on tobacco issues (after all, he spent a decade trying to jack up taxes on cigarettes before only recently opposing such a hike). So while the pragmatist in us says a begrudging vote for McCain, the idealist says there must be a better choice. And there is.

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr agrees with us on every important issue: taxes, regulation,smoking bans, trade, and Cuban sanctions. His position can be summed up with this quote: “Washington should leave smokers and other tobacco users alone.” Here, here!

And he’s a cigar smoker too, even talking about smoking cigars with Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report. All that makes it a real shame that he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected. Still, maybe a vote for Barr would help send a message that we smokers are tired of being mistreated by Washington.

That’s what Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer says:

Dr. Paul explains why the American people (who oppose the bailout) are right) and Congress (a majority of which voted for the bailout) are right:

Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA), as quoted in the Baltimore Sun:

“The one thing that’s been proven is the absolute fear-mongering that’s being used to drive us is false,” Sherman said. “I’ve seen members turn to each other and say if we don’t pass this bill, we’re going to have martial law in the United States.”

Given that Dr. Paul was the only Republican presidential candidate who warned us about this economic mess we were creating, I can’t help thinking about what could have been, had the time table on this economic disaster become apparent while the primary was still going.

Imagine if the bailout bill came before Congress a year ago, or even last December, January or February.  Dr. Paul would likely have been the only candidate opposing the bailout. At the very least we wouldn’t have ended up with McCain, who is a self professed economic idiot, and who was calling for lower interest rates (i.e. printing more money and issuing more credit) throughout the campaign.

If only…

Tonight the Senate passed the bailout bill 74-25 (with Kennedy not voting).

The bill swelled to 451 pages.  Want to guess how many Senators actually read the entire bill?  My money is on zero.

John McCain squashed Free Speech rights to combat “the appearance of  corruption.”

But apparently handing $700 billion over to former Goldman Sachs head Henry Paulson (with virtually no strings attached) so that he can bail out Goldman Sachs and the other big investment banks apparently doesn’t qualify as “the appearance of corruption” to Senator McCain.

Make no mistake… this is far from over.  

I’ve been around politics enough to know that when you get a reaction from politicians that is the time to double down.  Emails do nothing, so call, fax and visit in person. Make it clear that you oppose any bailout, and that if they vote wrong you will do everything you can to make sure they are not re-elected.