Ayn Rand: How Is She Still A Thing?

From last night's Last Week Tonight.

Infighting Is Funny, Part 93

From the New York Times:

Mr. Cruz and his aides believe he is uniquely suited to galvanize conservatives, pointing to his leadership of the effort to cut off funding for the Affordable Care Act — confrontational, pugnacious, disdainful of President Obama. Mr. Cruz, 42 — a Texan, a born-again Baptist and son of an evangelical preacher — also connects naturally with Christian conservatives, many of whom have become foot soldiers in the Tea Party and view Mr. Paul as too unorthodox on social issues.

Mr. Paul’s inner circle privately derides Mr. Cruz as “the chief of the wacko birds,” echoing a phrase from Senator John McCain of Arizona. And, while allowing Mr. Cruz to lead the charge on Obamacare, the Kentucky senator has quietly been reaching out to more establishment forces within the Republican Party, trying to prove to big donors and mainline Republican organizations that he is more than a Tea Party figure or a rerun of his father’s failed candidacies.

Image source.

Ron Paul Backs Bradley Manning

The screaming across Teabagistan this morning is really something.  And the senior Paul's position is miles away from his son's.

"There do have to be laws to protect some secrets. I think if you’ve got the, you know, the plans on how to make a nuclear bomb that is a state secret. If you give that to the enemy, that is being treasonous,” said the Senator from Kentucky, “Even if you reveal it, you just have to have laws against that. What Manning did was just willy-nilly, just released millions of pages of things and I think some people have said there is potentially some harm from that. You know individual agents that could have been killed or put at risk from this. So there is a problem with that. So I just can’t support that.”

Quote Of The Day - Ron Paul

"Do we really want to live in a world of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, metal detectors, X-ray scanners, and warrantless physical searches? We see this culture in our airports: witness the shabby spectacle of once proud, happy Americans shuffling through long lines while uniformed TSA agents bark orders. This is the world of government provided 'security,' a world far too many Americans now seem to accept or even endorse. School shootings, no matter how horrific, do not justify creating an Orwellian surveillance state in America." - Ron Paul, responding to NRA head Wayne LaPierre's call for armed guards in every public school. Paul's Tea Party followers will surely not be pleased.

Ron Paul Delivers Farewell Speech

Rep. Ron Paul, as you probably know, did not run again for his House seat this year in order to pursue the presidency. Yesterday he delivered a million-word farewell address to the appropriately empty House chamber. Let's just hope the news cameras are there when the people of his home planet send their spaceship for the return voyage.

UPDATE: I failed to mention that during his 12 terms in Congress, Ron Paul introduced 620 (almost entirely) wackadoodle bills.  Only four of the bills sponsored by Ron Paul ever got to a floor vote. And exactly ONE passed. 

Who's Posting Those Petitions?

The press has begun looking into the authors of all those secession petitions. The results are unsurprising.

“Derrick B.,” the man who started a petition seeking Alabama’s withdrawal from the U.S., is a truck driving, knife collecting former owner of a topless car wash who describes himself as “an absolute Libertarian.” Derrick Belcher, 45, of Chunchula, said in an interview late Monday that secession may be the only way to save working Americans from crushing debt, burdensome federal regulations and rising taxes. Belcher said he believes secession can work if states band together to support each other. “I don’t think any one state can stand alone. But if we’ve got 20 of them, then that starts to be something ,” Belcher said. “If you look at a map of the red states, we have all of the oil and we produce all of the food. We’re the ones that are carrying the rest of the nation.” Belcher said he is a Libertarian and that he supported Ron Paul as a candidate for president. He said President Barack Obama won re-election last week because of voters who are dependent on the federal government.

Belcher blames the government for the loss of his topless car wash, which was closed eleven years ago after he was arrested and charged with obscenity.

Ron Paul Delegates Revolt

Romney delegates shouted them down with "USA! USA!"

Repent And Vote For Ron Paul

"The First Commandment is to love God, not to get rid of Obama with a Mormon who blasphemes Jesus. Can a Christian vote for a Mormon? No. Romney thinks Jesus is a created being-the spirit brother of Lucifer. That is evil. Galatians 1:9 teaches Romney is 'accursed.' Christian Ron Paul will bring back freedom. Paul will cut $1 Trillion from the national debt, but Romney and Obama would increase the debt. Jesus died for you. If you knowingly sin with Romney or Obama you may have a reprobate mind. You may not be saved. Why won't you repent?" - Pastor Steve "Jazz Hands" Andrew, via press release.

Dump ROMinee

Having read the same polls as the rest of us, the Not-Romneys have published a massive manifesto calling for a delegate revolution at the Republican Convention in two weeks. From the nine-page memo announcing the campaign:

"DUMP ROMNEY" contends that no delegates are actually "bound" by law or GOP rules to vote for Romney and that, to win the White House and toss-up Senate seats, delegates must exercise their right to "conscientiously abstain" from Romney on the crucial first ballot, aiming for a stronger ticket leader in subsequent convention voting rounds. The core of a hard-hitting new 80,000 word book and incubating Tampa insurgency, the entire memo can be read online free via Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader using the Amazon.com search term "DUMP ROMNEY." "Were frontrunners simply entitled to the nomination, a convention wouldn't be necessary," the texts say, noting that Intrade predictive markets gives Obama odds of about 60-40 over Romney and that New York Times political analyst Nate Silver projects about 300 electoral votes for Obama, rating Romney's current odds around 21%.

The group calls themselves "Jews And Christians Together."

Photo Of The Day - Polish Paulites

Ron Paul's followers are everywhere, including at Mitt Romney's stop in Gdansk, Poland. Tomorrow they will protest his appearance in Warsaw. Source.

IOWA: Ron Paul Follower Declares Herself To Be U.S. Senator Of Parallel Government

The crackpottery of the Ron Pauliverse just hit new heights of batshittery.

A Republican state Senate candidate in Iowa has decided to bow out of the race and become a U.S. senator of an alternative form of government. In a letter released Friday, Randi Shannon informs supporters of her new position as “U.S. Senator in the Republic of the United States of America.” You see, according to Shannon, the U.S. government has been acting unlawfully as the “‘official government,’ which clearly it is not!” The libertarian-leaning group she joined claims it “re-inhabited” the government on March 30, 2010. The group claims the “United States Corporation” unlawfully formed in 1871 without the American people’s consent. “Since 1871, the abuses of this corporation upon both the international community as well as the American people are inestimable and unconscionable,” the group’s website claims.

Read more about the Republic of the United States here.

God Wants Ron Paul To Win

"Will you pray, 'Father, who do you want for President? In Jesus' name. Amen.' When I prayed God told me, 'Of the three, I want Ron Paul.' It matches Scripture. If the Republican Party doesn't nominate Ron Paul, then Christians should join the Constitution party and vote for Virgil Goode. Do you want someone with the Holy Spirit in the White House? Paul is going to seek the LORD for the USA. Romney and Obama are deceived and would seek Satan because they refuse to make Jesus Lord." - Pastor Steven "Jazz Hands" Andrew, via press release.

Headline Of The Day

And the carnival rolls on.

Ron Paul Delegates Plan "Chaos"

Stock up on popcorn.

An obscure rule change made four years ago by the Republican Party has opened the door for Paul forces to cause a major headache for Mitt Romney when he tries to nominate his choice for vice president at the party convention in August. The Republican National Committee could change Rule 40 in the week leading up to the convention, but that would risk the appearance of jamming Romney's nominee through, and likely cause a subsequent backlash. Republican officials are still waking up to the fact that Paul loyalists -- who control the majority of delegates in Maine, Minnesota and Iowa, and have sizable contingents in a number of other states -- could very likely enter Paul's name into nomination for vice president. This would force a roll call vote where each delegate of each state is polled on the floor of the convention. Such a move would transform a symbolic procedure that has taken mere minutes in the past several conventions into a chaotic and time-consuming spectacle that could eat up the better portion of a day.

The above-linked piece speculates that delegates may attempt to force Ron Paul into the vice presidential slot.

GOP Delegates Sue To Ditch Romney

Not surprisingly, Ron Paul is behind this.

In a revolt against Romney, at least 40 more national convention delegates asked to join 123 previous plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Republican National Committee, and their attorney said hundreds more may soon follow suit. The first 123 delegates, all from the 9th Circuit, sued the RNC, its Chairman Rince Priebus, and every state party chairman in the 9th Circuit in Federal Court on Monday, demanding the right to vote for the candidate of their choice on every ballot at the Republican National Convention, including the first. The delegates claim the party violated federal law by forcing them to sign loyalty affidavits, under threat of perjury, to vote for Mitt Romney, though he is not yet the official nominee. They also claimed that state party chairmen are fixing elections at state conventions and changing ballots so that all votes cast count for Romney.

The lawyer behind the suit claims: "If the judge rules in our favor, I won't be surprised if three or four new candidates, say Sarah Palin, jump in and say they want to be considered."

Headline Of The Day

Politicker reports that the Ron Paul campaign is complaining that the media only focuses on his fringe supporters. And they don't even do that about gay people anymore.

“Shirtless hunks in leather tutus and motorcycling ‘Dykes on Bikes’ are no longer the point of the gay-rights spear,” Mr. Westover wrote. “It’s the gay lawyer/gay accountant, lesbian legislator/lesbian physician–same-sex couples with kids and fundamental concerns about faith, family and freedom–who are now the face of the movement. Focusing commentary on the remnants of the gay-rights fringe is something the media would never do.”

(Tipped by JMG reader Hunter)

Ron Paul Can Still Win This Thing!

So sez hardcare Paul follower Adam Kokesh, who is telling Ron Paul delegates to disrupt the Republican Convention.

RELATED: Five years ago many of us panted for Kokesh during his anti-war protests at the U.S. Capitol. Kokesh was eventually separated from the military over his activism and he then ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2010. Then came the cray-cray.

The Attack Of Zombie Ayn Rand

(Tipped by JMG reader Dwayne)

Ron Pauls Beams Up

But he'll continue to work on his delegate count from the safety of his flying saucer.

ARIZONA: Ron Paul Supporters Boo Romney's Son Off Convention Stage

Mitt Romney's son got booed off the stage at this weekend's Arizona GOP Convention.

"We cannot afford four more years of President Obama," said Josh Romney, the third of Mitt Romney's five sons. "We need someone to step in there and turn things around." But Josh had to stop repeatedly as people booed and yelled for Paul, who has continued campaigning in the Republican primary. All other challengers, including Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, have dropped out of the race, and Romney has a commanding lead over Paul in the estimated delegate count. But Paul supporters have begun flooding state conventions, recently winning control of delegate majorities in Nevada and Maine.