Ron Paul: Racist?

Well damn.......Republicans just can't seem to catch a break these. They desperately want to avoid electing Mitt Romney, but every contender has had their 15 minutes before fizzling into obscurity. Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Straw Poll, and then people seemed to forget she existed. Rick Perry was, at one point, deemed to be the man to beat Romney. We all know how that story ended (hilariously, for those of you who don't). For some godforsaken reason, pizza mogul Herman Cain was leading in the polls by no small margin, but a history riddled with sexual harassment claims from female employees thankfully ended that charade. Newt Gingrich was the latest to take a lead ahead of Romney in the polls, but, thanks to his history of extramarital affairs and general bombast, arrogance, and dis-likeability, I feel as if his moment in the sun is nearing it's end. So who's left? Which of these Greedy Old People (GOP, get it?!?) will save America? Surely, it won't be Rick Santorum, whose only political contribution is making life harder for gay people. Wait...look up in the sky! Is it a bird? A plane? No, it's Texas Representative Ron Paul! Crazy Uncle Ron. The firebrand libertarian who don't take s**t from anyone, especially the government! For the most of the primary so far, Paul was an afterthought. His extreme views put him out of touch with many conservatives. The mainstream media pays little to no attention to him. In reality, he's an idealist rather than a realist. Yet despite all of this, Paul has been riding a wave of support in Iowa, and is now considered something of a frontrunner. WILL HE BE THE MAN TO TAKE OUT ROMNEY, AND ULTIMATELY OBAMA? It was a long shot, but still within reach, until the political gods noticed this and went, "Oh, HELL naw! Scandal time, hombre." In the 1990's, it has become known that Paul made racist and homophobic remarks in the Ron Paul Political Report, a newsletter he circulated. Some examples: (concerning the Los Angeles riots) "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks." (Concerning inner-city crime in Washington DC) "I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal." Ron Paul criticized the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, calling it "Hate Whitey Day", and suggested that people with AIDS should not be allowed to eat at restaurants. His newsletter was also heavily promoted by the Heritage Front, a neo-nazi group. Two main responses have been employed by Paul when defending himself: the ol' "I didn't do it!" routine, followed by the equally ol' "It was taken out of context!" and "I was only joking!" routines. Paul's campaign was a stretch before this, but now, it's all but done. Long story short, this is just another tale of a GOP presidential hopeful who lost their edge just as quickly as they gained it. Dickstein, out.

UFC 2012: Romney vs. Gingrich Showdown......THE WAR IN WASHINGTON

At this point, this is what the GOP primary has become. An old fashioned,  no holds barred throwdown between Mitt Romney, the sleek and handsome former governor as Massachusets, and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, and evil cousin of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. This was exemplified in an article in a recent issue of the New York Times. The attacks were ruthless. Gingrich attacked Romney over his work in the private sector: he said Romney should "give back all the money he earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain." Gingrich also declared himself the front-runner in the race. He has shot up in the polls due to an incredible surge. Strong words from a man whose campaign was thought to be dead in the water over the summer. Meanwhile, Romney's playing it cool. Said he to voters in New Hampshire (concerning the Newt): "Just saying outrageous or incendiary things will get you a lot of kudos and drive your numbers up. But it's not going to win us the White House, and it's not going to win us the respect of people on the other side of the aisle who we have to bring together to overcome the extraordinary challenges we have." The Oven Mitt also made quips about the money Gingrich made working for Freddie Mac. But I don't think Romney is really sweating Gingrich at all. Newt's extramarital affairs and general bombast and arrogance make him an incredibly in-electable candidate. At this point, it's more a test to see if Romney can whether the storm. Or will he fall under pressure? It will be tough, but I think Romney's got this in the bag. Gingrich is just the latest in a string of candidates to have their 15 minutes of fame at the top of the polls, only to fade into oblivion a few weeks later. Of course, only time will tell. Dickstein, out. 

The GOP debate on ABC: A Tale of Exhaustion

For those of you who were not able to catch the recent GOP debate on ABC Saturday night, this is what you missed: A bunch of rich white people accusing each other on not being a "true conservative". Frankly, it's exhausting. Barack Obama will win the presidency again, not because he's done a particularly good job, but because the GOP literally has nothing better to offer. But let's dissect all the high flying action that went down, shall we? The two candidates with the targets on their backs at this debate were Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. It seemed as if the main goals for the other 4 candidates was simply to try to bring down those two.  Ron Paul called Gingrich out on the $1.8 billion he had received from Freddie Mac, the government sponsored mortgage lender, the result of consulting work he had done for them. Michele Bachmann referred to Gingrich and Romney as "Newt Romney", accusing both of them for being in favor of the so-called "Obamacare" health care plan. Pretty much every candidate railed on Gingrich about his extramarital rendezvous. This debate could be easily likened to a monkey cage: a bunch of beings with low IQ slinging s**t at each other. The candidates seemed more concerned with bad mouthing their rivals than talking about, say, their policies. Seriously, the most in-depth any candidate seemed bothered to discuss about their specific policies was that they would create jobs and not raise taxes. That's it. That's the most specific they were bothered to get. Hardly did they mention HOW their policies would work, just that they WOULD work. Actions speak louder than words, and, unfortunately for Republicans everywhere, words are all this batch of candidates has to offer. Dickstein, out.

Apparently, Rick Perry doesn't really want to become President after all...

After releasing a baffling campaign video yesterday, Rick Perry has all but told the American people that he doesn't REALLY want to become the 45th president of the United States of America. The crux of the 31 second video is that Obama and the liberal media are staging a war on terror, but, have no fear, Rick Perry is here! With fundamentalist Christian values, Perry will bring this country back! Blah blah blah...none of this is really interesting. It seems that every conservative Christian in the world thinks that there's a war against them. Oh, the hardships that fall upon the most practiced religion in the world! No, that's not the devastating part of the video. The truly campaign-ending moment comes near the beginning of the video, where Perry says, and I quote: "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school." Can you read that? Are you in a state of disbelief? I know I am. Who does Rick Perry think he is? How in the world does he think that gays serving openly and a separation of  church and state are even NEARLY related to one another? Guess what, Rick...OUR COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE! Is that really that hard of a concept to grasp? And, you know, our kids actually CAN celebrate Christmas and pray in school. They can go to a private Christian school. Sure, it costs money, but if a religious education is that important to someone, price shouldn't be an issue. If we were to allow prayer in schools for Christians, we would need to do the same for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc...the list goes on. Soon, there's no time for school, since all the day is spent praying! And what about the atheist kids? Bottom line, prayer in public schools is discriminatory and generally not a good idea. Now on to his comments about gays serving in the military: to quote John Malkovich in the movie Burn After Reading: "What the f**k?" These people are risking their lives for the good of America, and you have a cojones to insult them? That takes nerve. Really, there's no issue with gays serving openly in the military. It's all a bunch of paranoia stirred up by ignorant Conservatives who hate change. DADT has been repealed for a minute now, and you know what's happened in the military? Nothing. Because it's not a big deal. In fact, it's not even a small deal, or a deal whatsoever. If someone wants to serve their country, at least have the decency to let them serve freely. But yeah, this video is just nails in the coffin of Perry's bid to become president. A series of gaffes, a legendary brain fart on live TV, and...uh, the uhm...what's the third one there.....oops....have all lead to the demise of the man who, at one point, was considered the front-runner in the GOP nominee race. This video was insulting, alienating, and basically just a weight on Perry's already sinking ship. Moral of the story: Rick Perry is an idiot, and trusting him with our country would be nothing short of irresponsible. Dickstein, out.

For those who always wondered what a train wreck looks like, here's a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA&feature=share