The dollar lost ground again today against other major currencies, a slight bounce occurred after the fed rate cut announcement but did little to help offset the day’s significant losses. The Fed announced a quarter-point rate cut that many investors had expected. The benchmark rate was cut from 4.75% to 4.5%.
Pulp Finance explains: “This also makes US treasuries less attractive to foreign investors which in turn lowers our ability to pay off our government overspending by increasing our debt. Its the equivalent of a company printing more stock shares and putting them on the market, this then lowers the value of every share held and eventually no one wants to buy the diluted paper.” The dollar index also hit an all time low suggesting spikes in inflation and decreased purchasing power.
If you’re looking for Ron Paul’s second appearance on the Tonight Show from 01/07/2008 click here.
Ron Paul had a very favorable appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night. Leno’s question were fair and direct, and gave Paul a great opportunity to clarify his positions to a wide audience.
When Leno asked Paul about his tax policy he responded, “I lean toward a flat tax but I want to make it real flat, like zero.”
Paul noted the popularity of the freedom message and said, “I have my shortcomings, but the message has no shortcomings,” Paul added, “The message of liberty is what its all about.”
Paul expressed his positions confidently and while speaking of the success of his presidential campaign seemed to address his detractors by stating “yes, there probably is a risk I could win.”
Paul appeared on the show with other guests including Tom Cruise and the Sex Pistols. Johnny Rotten even offered a warm greeting to “Mr. Paul,” and also sung “when are we gonna get out of Iraq?” during the Sex Pistols’ performance.
More bullying today came from an executive branch that has too much power:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — President Bush lashed out at Congress today, the third time he has done so in two weeks, this time saying the House had wasted time on “a constant string of investigations” and the Senate had similarly wasted its efforts by trying to rein in the Iraq war. Its failure to send a single annual appropriations bill to his desk, he said, amounted to “the worst record for a Congress in 20 years.” Full Story. . .
Maybe if there wasn’t so much corruption that needed to be investigated they could accomplish more. However, the whole idea of a “checks and balances” system is to limit the amount of junk that gets pushed through congress and written into law. “Wasting time” on investigations is not wasted time in my opinion, unless of course the investigations are meaningless.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the president, “The president calls Congressional oversight that has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq a ‘waste of time.’ We call billions spent in no-bid contracts to Halliburton a waste of money.”
Would a U.S. socialized healthcare system be doomed to follow in the footsteps of the UK system?
British publication “Daily Mail” is reporting that “Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS [National Healthcare Service].” The report stated that an expected 70,000 patients will seek treatment in other countries to avoid the long waiting periods (often several months) and the lower quality of care found in the publicly funded health care system.
Here’s a good clip of an MSNBC interview discussing the “buzz” surrounding Paul’s campaign and his desire to bring the troops home. The reporter mentioned she has been receiving a “flood” of emails from Ron Paul supporters.
The reporter says, “Congressman you are 72 years old and you are a sensation among young people. . .”
During the interview Ron Paul confirmed his position against the Iraq war, his desire to save America the 2.4 trillion dollar cost of the war and bring the troops home.
The report concluded with her asking, “Will you tell your supporters not to flood my inbox?”
Paul responded, “Oh no, I think you should enjoy reading them all.”
In the six years since 9/11, the United States has become a weaker nation. I don’t just mean economically, or militarily, or in terms of national sovereignty (which is all true). Amidst all the rhetoric about “getting tough on terror” and standing up to “those who hate our freedoms,” why is it that most Americans are sitting down? Why is it that most Americans can so easily endorse so-called “liberation” campaigns overseas, but are shrinking with fear and ignorance in the face of attacks on our own freedoms at home?
The Washinton Post reports today that Citic Securities, a Chinese firm controlled by the Chinese government in Beijing, would acquire a nearly 10% stake in Bear Stearns under a proposed joint venture. China has never purchased a stake in a Wall Street investment bank, previous to this announcement.
On November 5th, 2007, our goal is to bring together 100,000 people to donate $100 each, creating a one day donation total of $10,000,000. Pledge to give the Ron Paul campaign $100 on this day, and together we’ll make history.
Manipulative questioning, unusually high amounts of booing from the crowd, and a non-partial moderator raises the question: Was yesterday’s Fox News GOP debate stacked against Ron Paul?
The marginalization began early, before the debate had even started. Frank Luntz, the noted Republican political pollster and operative who has so mastered the art of ideological manipulation that he was featured in the PBS Frontline documentary The Persuaders, was tapped to “moderate” a focus group of twenty-five preselected people (the methodology of their selection was not revealed in the broadcast). Luntz is someone who is not exactly an impartial fellow; according to cited references in his Wikipedia article, he has been “accused of skewing research results to reflect more favorably on specific clients.
Paul was further hindered and marginalized by the makeup of the crowd in the auditorium. It actively booed him on many issues, which had not happened in earlier debates, and he implied in the Post-debate interview that the organizers purposely limited the number of Paul supporters in the hall by issuing each candidate the same number of tickets. With pro-war supporters outnumbering anti-war supporters 7:1, the crowd was guaranteed to be hostile to Ron.
It also needs mentioning, as Ed Morrissey wrote today, that the dramatic MLB game 7 between the Red Sox and Indians started about 20 minutes into the debate. Only top-tier candidates were asked and responded to questions for the first 15-20 minutes of the debate. This effectively minimized the amount of exposure that Ron Paul got, assuming many viewers flipped the channel to watch the game. Very clever.
Its clear that there is an effort to single out Paul as a candidate to be discredited. Ron Paul is now a GOP threat with a lot of campaign support, and the media can no longer passively ignore or nonchalantly ridicule him. Many people are already aware of Fox News’ manipulation tactics, and hopefully more will start to open their eyes. The gloves are off, and its time for Ron Paul supporters to step forward.
In Spite of all the political spinning and propagandizing, Ron Paul won the post debate text poll easily, as he always does. A highlight in the post-debate interview was when Alan Colmes asked Paul, “How does an anti-war Republican win the nomination?”
Paul’s reponse was quick and sharp, “We’ve never had a warmongering president running on that [Republican] program.”
Toward the end of the interview Sean Hannity attempted to shrug off the poll results as unreliable, but Ron Paul shot back by saying, “You mean your own poll isn’t any good?”
5,775 votes were cast in the Values Voters Straw Poll. Each FRC Action member has a unique identifier used when they vote electronically, thus allowing each voter only one vote. FRC Action could choose to either vote on-line, by mail, or at electronic voting stations. All the candidates from both political parties were included on the ballot. Here’s the results:
Candidate Name Total Votes Percentage
1. Mitt Romney 1,595 27.62 %
2. Mike Huckabee 1,565 27.10 %
3. Ron Paul 865 14.98%
4. Fred Thompson 564 9.77 %
5. Sam Brownback 297 5.14 %
6. Duncan Hunter 140 2.42 %
7. Tom Tancredo 133 2.30 %
8. Rudy Giuliani 107 1.85 %
9. John McCain 81 1.40 %
According to the website “FRC Action is dedicated to preserving and advancing the interests of family, faith, and freedom in the political arena.” It seems to be an organization largely supported by the religious right.
The message was “delivered directly to Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House” by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie, who told CNN that Iraqis say, “No, big fat no, N-O for the bases in Iraq.”
Al-Rubaie stated “we believe that is in direct encroachment to our sovereignty, and we don’t need it.”
The premise of the war in Iraq was of course to “establish democracy” after ousting Hussein, yet the neocon document “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” written before 911, clearly stated the Pentagon’s intention to establish permanent bases in the region. Don’t expect the comments by one Iraqi leader today to change the planned course of the U.S. military industrial complex though.
At a recent debate Ron Paul had his own words to say about the permanent bases in Iraq the U.S. is already building:
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