In Paul They Trust (The Feds May Differ)

Washington Post ^ | 11/17/07 | Alec MacGillis

[xtinct]

The ardent supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, the iconoclastic Texas libertarian whose campaign for the presidency is threatening to upend the battle for the Republican nomination, got word yesterday of a new source of outrage and motivation: reports of a federal raid on a company that was selling thousands of coins marked with the craggy visage of their hero.

Federal agents on Thursday raided the Evansville, Ind., headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and Internal Revenue Code (Norfed), an organization of "sound money" advocates that for the past decade has been selling a private currency it calls "Liberty Dollars." The company says it has put into circulation more than $20 million in Liberty Dollars, coins and paper certificates it contends are backed by silver and gold stored in Idaho, are far more reliable than a U.S. dollar and are accepted for use by a nationwide underground economy.

snip...................................... In the affidavit, an FBI special agent states that he is investigating Norfed for federal violations including "uttering coins of gold, silver, or other metal," "making or possessing likeness of coins," mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. "The goal of Norfed is to undermine the United States government's financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency for the purpose of repealing the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code," he states. snip....

[incindiary]

What is insane is bankrupting our country by overspending and spreading ourselves too thin around the world, having to borrow from China, continuing to elect corrupt, status-quo globalist RINOs, just to keep out the other corrupt, status-quo globalist Dem, not caring that our sovereignty is eroding away, or that the constitution is being trampled, and not caring about the direction this country is heading in.

I think the ones who have no problem with continuing the status-quo are the ones who are insane. Or worse.

[live+let_live]

It should be no surprise that the Fed’s would stop anyone attempting to offer a more secure alternative to the Dollar. If this group has done nothing illegal, a new crime will be made up for them.

[George W. Bush]

The ardent supporters of Rep. Ron Paul ... got word yesterday of a new source of outrage and motivation

They got that part right. Notice the article is a little sloppy though. They failed to identify Ron Paul as a Republican, for instance. I'm not sure if they're trying to help/hurt him with that or just being sloppy.

This is a rehash of WaPo's blog entry. Apparently, they have learned that proper articles on Ron Paul magically draw the Paulian Horde, driving up their traffic and ad revenue. LOL. In Ron Paul Coins, Federal Agents Don't Trust (WP)

[Mudcat]

Lately I cannot stop being amused at the number of my fellow Freepers who claim to know Ron Paul's platform and recent activities, while then proceeding to display their utter ignorance of the same. One would think Freepers would be quite pleased that someone is out there motivating large groups of Internet-savvy young people towards the Republican Party, while understanding that what motivates young people is often quite different from what motivates older people; alas, it seems too many "conservative" Freepers would rather have a smaller, older, less electable Republican Party.

As a businessman, at a minimum I'm astonished more people from the so-called "capitalist" faction of our country aren't familiar with the concept of loss-leader marketing during an election year... even Ron Paul has expressed his utter surprised to have done this well! How unfortunate that some of us have found a new reason to hold our own in emotional contempt, without bothering to use a little reasonable analysis.

[mnehring]

Thank you Puddleglum, you just proved MNJohnnie's point, there are now specifics as to how. This, for example, is no a how: Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals
that, is a concept. A how would include specific steps such as complete funding of border fence, move xx troops to xx area of the border (oops, Paul doesn't believe in moving troops on the border and said a border fence wasn't that important.. next).. specifics would include steps as to how you would control entry, what ID do you verify and ensure it isn't fake, how do you work with other countries to check backgrounds, how do you track people once they are in (oops, I think that goes against Paul's privacy concerns.. but that's for later.)How about funding this? What specific path would you take for funding the fence, troops, ids and background checks? Would we use private or public contractors for the work?

Everything you posted in the 'discussion page' is exactly what MNJohnnie said, nothing more than slogans with no specific step by step approach for anything. There are no details, just rhetoric.

[mnehring]

Correction: there are now specifics as to how

[MNJohnnie]

And in addition to what you pointed out Mnehrling, Paul has offered no indications at all of HOW he intends to accomplish any of the things he is promising his followers.

See to answer “how” Paul would have to be saying something like this below. The whole problem with him is his whole campaign is based on misdirection and emotional hysteria, not a serious rational discussion of the issues of the day.

Paul might be taken seriously by thinking people if he said something like this instead of merely spewing slogans.

On Federal Spending. Federal Spending is out of control. To put our fiscal house in order my Administration will work with the Congress to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. I will work with Congress to abolish base line budgeting, eliminate earmarks, impose strict pay as you go rules for new spending. In my 1st term, I will reduce the federal deficit to zero and return our Govt budget to surplus. To achieve that goal, I will impose a mandatory 2 increase% cap on all executive agencies budgets, require a top to bottom review of all agency functions and reduce or eliminate departments x-y-z.

That is just the 1st step. Serious budget reform can only take place when we reform both the tax code and the systems of entitlements we have created. There has been no serious Social Security or Medicare reform since the systems were created! Obvious a system that is 75 years old in one case, and 40 years old in the other are way over due for an overhaul.

To overhaul these systems I will introduce legislation to the Congress that will privatize the following parts of both the Medicare and Social Security systems...

That is an example of answers that tell us HOW a politician plans to do something. Nothing in Paul’s campaign does any of this. All he does is spew reckless demagoguery based on Talk Radio culled slogans designed to push the emotional hot buttons of a certain fringe segments of the US population Too bad for them we don't elect a President simply for spewing the best sounding rhetoric on this emotional hot button issue or that one. We elect a President on the base of his whole agenda.

[darkwing104]

There you go again, injecting reason. How unconstitutional... ;_)

[Puddleglum]

Aw, all candidates talk more about what than how. Paul cites a few bills he had introduced on different issue topics. The question on how he would secure the borders, though, is a good, one a commander-in-chief could actually address rather directly. I will look to see what he has said on it.

As to the thornier issues, resolving all of them depends on building a will to act in Congress, and RP does tap into a will to change ther status quo.

There are many frogs being boiled by the incrementalism of growing government who tell themselves, “it’s just a pleasant hot tub.” But you know, it’s more than hot enough for me right now. That is my impetus for watching this election and sounding out the various candidates (though really, the prez can only do so much). I am tired of safe choice/status quo candidates. With Ron Paul and the others, I ask myself “what’s the best that could happen?/what’s the worst that could happen?” Folks have been pretty vocal here on FR about outlining the worst. I try to dig into the other side.

Ps - Free Pissant!

[oldfart]

Printing your own money isn’t as illegal as some think. After all, just what are those “coupons” we get in the mail every day but privately printed (and backed) money? Sure, the value of each of them is minuscule but they add up. Otherwise the companies wouldn’t bother.

Now, we hear that privately minted and backed coins and paper currency are “illegal.” Why? Is it because they are more valuable than the junk distributed by the government-subsidised Federal Reserve?

As usual, after the trumped-up charges against the principals are dropped, the valuables seized by our ever-benificent government will be held until doomsday “for safekeeping.”