Decius wrote:

Better yet, check this YouTube video in which Guiliani literally laughs at Ron Paul's defense of Habeus Corpus:

I agree that Guliani is a tool. But I think that video clip is taken out of context.

Here's the question that was asked:

"How will you be different in any way from President George W Bush?"

He was probably laughing that kind of tight, nervous laugh when you think someone's point is incredulous. I think everyone's done that. Guiliani acts like he is lock step with the President and treats him as infallible, so I think it's a natural reaction to hearing a charge levied against one of your allies.

As much as I like what Alex Jones has done with the Infowars/Prisonplanet sites in reporting on unpopular/underreported issues, he can get carried away with the selective editing and baiting, so that's also why I take this with a grain of salt.

I meme'd this a few days ago, it's worth checking out:

Ron Paul Q&A, May 3rd debate

One of the most telling things to me was this question, and what the moderator said afterwards.

Moderator: "Should we change our constitution, which we believe is divinely inspired, to allow men like Mel Martinez, the chair of your party, born in Cuba, great Patriot Senator from Florida, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to stand here some night?"

Ron Paul: "I'm a no because I'm a strong supporter of the original intent.

Moderator. "Oh god."

I'm supporting Ron Paul's campaign. Kind of weird, I've never voted for a Republican presidential candidate before (not saying I always voted Democrat either...) but I like what I'm hearing from Ron Paul.
Modera

Hijexx wrote:
I'm supporting Ron Paul's campaign.

Do you support getting rid of the federal reserve bank and putting the United States back on the gold standard?

Decius wrote:

Hijexx wrote:
I'm supporting Ron Paul's campaign.

Do you support getting rid of the federal reserve bank and putting the United States back on the gold standard?

I don't really believe in the gold standard. Gold is a commodity that is just as subject to price fluctuation as any other commodity. Gold has no intrinsic value, and money does not derive its value from scarcity. You fall into the same situation of someone's opinion of what gold is worth as you would a fiat currency.

Entries in a computer account for most money these days. Those zeroes and ones are a form of commidity if you will. Somebody is at the switch of all of this, creating new entries into the pool of available accounting entries to go around.

That form of centralized control is a good thing in my eyes ONLY if it is transparent. The Federal Reserve, in choosing to stop publishing M3 currency stats last year, took a huge step backwards in accountability. The picture of how much currency is being printed got a lot less clear after that move. When we can't clearly see how many dollars are chasing how many goods, you can't really peg how much your currency is appreciating or depreciating.

I'd feel a lot better if there was some reform at the Fed. I never really understood why the US government lets a private banking cartel run its monetary system. Why not abolish the Fed and let the US issue its own money? I don't believe in getting rid of centralized control of the currency per se, but it needs to be 100% transparent. Every dollar that is ever created needs to be accountable and all of that information should be available to the market. To me, that is "sound money."

I am also no fan of fractional-reserve banking. Ever stopped and asked yourself, why does the FDIC only insure deposits in a commercial bank up to $100,000? Then did you ever ask, why is a private corporation the one that insures my deposit? Then asked, why does my country's currency need to be insured by a private corporation? Which leads inevitably to the question, why does my country not issue its own money?

Our monetary system is definitely fishy to me, but getting back to your questions: "Yes, no."

Decius wrote:
Well, I've yet to find a candidate in this pack that I support, but there are clearly a few that I don't. Rudy Guiliani just moved from a maybe to an absolutely not under any circumstances. These are direct quotes from him:

Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

We're going to try to cut back on the Patriot Act. We're going to cut back on electronic surveillance. We're going to cut back on interrogation. We're going to cut back, cut back, cut back, and we'll be back in our pre-September 11 mentality of being on defense.

Better yet, check this YouTube video in which Guiliani literally laughs at Ron Paul's defense of Habeus Corpus:

Wow, fuck that guy. I didn't know he was that insane.