Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

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Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by MKSheppard »

Washington Post
Associates: Paul pursued strategy of publishing controversial newsletters
By Jerry Markon and Alice Crites, Friday, January 27, 8:29 AM
Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian , has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct knowledge of Paul’s businesses.

The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views.

But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.

“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,’’ said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman.

The newsletters point to a rarely seen and somewhat opaque side of Paul, who has surprised the political community by becoming an important factor in the Republican race. The candidate, who has presented himself as a kindly doctor and political truth-teller, declined in a recent debate to release his tax returns, joking that he would be “embarrassed” about his income compared with that of his richer GOP rivals.

Yet a review of his enterprises reveals a sharp-eyed businessman who for nearly two decades oversaw the company and a nonprofit foundation, intertwining them with his political career. The newsletters, which were launched in the mid-1980s and bore such names as the Ron Paul Survival Report, were produced by a company Paul dissolved in 2001.

The company shared offices with his campaigns and foundation at various points, according to those familiar with the operation. Public records show Paul’s wife and daughter were officers of the newsletter company and foundation; his daughter also served as his campaign treasurer.

Jesse Benton, a presidential campaign spokesman, said that the accounts of Paul’s involvement were untrue and that Paul was practicing medicine full time when “the offensive material appeared under his name.” Paul “abhors it, rejects it and has taken responsibility for it as he should have better policed the work being done under his masthead,” Benton said. He did not comment on Paul’s business strategy.

Mark Elam, a longtime Paul associate whose company printed the newsletters, said Paul “was a busy man” at the time. “He was in demand as a speaker; he was traveling around the country,’’ Elam said in an interview coordinated by Paul’s campaign. “I just do not believe he was either writing or regularly editing this stuff.’’

In the past, Paul has taken responsibility for the passages because they were published under his name. But last month, he told CNN that he was unaware at the time of the controversial passages. “I’ve never read that stuff. I’ve never read — I came — was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written.’’ Paul said.

A person involved in Paul’s businesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid criticizing a former employer, said Paul and his associates decided in the late 1980s to try to increase sales by making the newsletters more provocative. They discussed adding controversial material, including racial statements, to help the business, the person said.

“It was playing on a growing racial tension, economic tension, fear of government,’’ said the person, who supports Paul’s economic policies but is not backing him for president. “I’m not saying Ron believed this stuff. It was good copy. Ron Paul is a shrewd businessman.’’

The articles included racial, anti-Semitic and anti-gay content. They claimed, for example, that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “seduced underage girls and boys’’; they ridiculed black activists by suggesting that New York be named “Zooville” or “Lazyopolis”; and they said the 1992 Los Angeles riots ended “when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.’’ The June 1990 edition of the Ron Paul Political Report included the statement: “Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”

It is unclear precisely how much money Paul made from his newsletters, but during the years he was publishing them, he reduced his debts and substantially increased his net worth, according to his congressional and presidential disclosure reports. In 1984, he reported debt of up to $765,000, most of which was gone by 1995, when he reported a net worth of up to $3.3 million. Last year, he reported a net worth up to $5.2 million.

The newsletters bore his name in large print and featured articles on topics ranging from investment advice to political commentary. Frequently written in first person, they contained personalized notes, such as holiday greetings from Paul and his wife, Carol.

The Washington Post obtained dozens of copies of the newsletters from the Wisconsin Historical Society. Texas news outlets wrote about them in 1996, and the New Republic published extensive excerpts in 2008. The issue resurfaced late last year, when Paul’s presidential campaign picked up momentum. The extent of Paul’s involvement and his business strategy had not been known.

Paul’s publishing operation began through a nonprofit organization he created in 1976, the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, which advocates for limited government and a free market. The group, founded the year Paul entered Congress, published Ron Paul’s Freedom Report, mostly a collection of his congressional speeches and commentaries.

In 1984, just before losing a Senate bid and leaving Congress, Paul formed Ron Paul & Associates. He soon began publishing the Ron Paul Investment Letter, initially offering mostly economic and monetary information. Texas tax records listed Paul as president of the business, his wife as secretary, his daughter, Lori Paul Pyeatt, as treasurer, and a longtime Paul associate, Lew Rockwell, as vice president.

Ed Crane, the longtime president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said he met Paul for lunch during this period, and the two men discussed direct-mail solicitations, which Paul was sending out to interest people in his newsletters. They agreed that “people who have extreme views” are more likely than others to respond.

Crane said Paul reported getting his best response when he used a mailing list from the now-defunct newspaper Spotlight, which was widely considered anti-Semitic and racist.

Benton, Paul’s spokesman, said that Crane’s account “sounds odd” and that Paul did not recall the conversation.

At the time, Paul’s investment letter was languishing. According to the person involved with his businesses, Paul and others hit upon a solution: to “morph” the content to capi­tal­ize on a growing fear among some on the political right about the nation’s changing demographics and threats to economic liberty.

The investment letter became the Ron Paul Survival Report — a name designed to intrigue readers, the company secretary said. It cost subscribers about $100 a year. The tone of that and other Paul publications changed, becoming increasingly controversial. In 1992, for example, the Ron Paul Political Report defended chess champion Bobby Fischer, who became known as an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier, for his stance on “Jewish questions.’’

Paul has said he wrote portions of the economic sections. The people familiar with his business said there was no indication that he wrote the controversial material.

Rockwell was the main writer of the racial passages, according to two people with direct knowledge of the business and a third close to Paul’s presidential campaign. Rockwell, founder of a libertarian think tank in Alabama, did not respond to phone calls and e-mails requesting comment. In 2008, he denied in an interview with the New Republic that he was Paul’s ghostwriter.

Paul “had to walk a very fine line,’’ said Eric Dondero Rittberg, a former longtime Paul aide who says Paul allowed the controversial material in his newsletter as a way to make money. Dondero Rittberg said he witnessed Paul proofing, editing and signing off on his newsletters in the mid-1990s.

“The real big money came from some of that racially tinged stuff, but he also had to keep his libertarian supporters, and they weren’t at all comfortable with that,’’ he said.

Dondero Rittberg is no longer a Paul supporter, and officials with Paul’s presidential campaign have said he was fired. Dondero Rittberg disputed that, saying he resigned in 2003 because he opposed Paul’s views on Iraq.

The July 15, 1994, issue of Survival Report exemplified how the newsletters merged material about race with a pitch for business. It contained a passage criticizing the rate of black-on-white crime when “blacks are only 12 percent of the population.’’ That was accompanied by two pages of ads from Ron Paul Precious Metals & Rare Coins, a business Paul used to sell gold and silver coins.

“The explosion you hear may not be the Fourth of July fireworks but the price of silver shooting up,’’ said one of the ads.

Hathway, the former Ron Paul & Associates secretary, said: “We had tons of subscribers, from all over the world. . . . I never had one complaint’’ about the content.

Hathway described Paul as a “hands-on boss” who would come in to the company’s Houston office, about 50 miles from his home, about once a week. And he would call frequently. “He’d ask, ‘How are you doing? Do you need any more money in the account?’ ” she said.

The company also had an office in Clute, Tex., near Paul’s home, which it shared with Paul’s foundation and his campaigns at various points, according to Hathway and Dondero Rittberg.

In 1996, as Paul ran for Congress again, his business success turned into a potential political liability when his newsletters surfaced in the Texas media. Paul was quoted in the Dallas Morning News that year as defending a newsletter line from 1992 that said 95 percent of black men in the District are “semi-criminal or entirely criminal” and that black teenagers can be “unbelievably fleet of foot.”

“If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them,” the newspaper quoted Paul as saying.

Paul won reelection, then dissolved Ron Paul & Associates in 2001. His nonprofit foundation is still in operation.

Staff researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
Also, in other news....

THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF RON PAUL
It’s not just the newsletters of years ago. According to Adam Taxin of the NY Jewish Examiner, Paul’s website has been publicizing and distributing the infamous anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Meetings of the Elders of Zion for the last three years!

Writes Taxin:

The website for “Campaign for Liberty”, an organization started by “Republican” anti-Israel Presidential candidate Ron Paul, has, since late 2008, been featuring a page offering the opportunity to purchase the notorious forged anti-Semitic book The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

As word spreads of this, inevitably Paul’s campaign will take down the page and claim the situation was a mere innocent mistake with which Paul (who of course hopes to lend his managerial skills to the entire nation) had nothing to do, a la the controversy over his newsletters in the 1990s. This of course despite the fact that the page with the link has now been up for over three years.


Indeed the web pages involved have now been taken down. The links, available from Taxin’s article, now read: “This blog entry doesn’t exist. Perhaps it once did, and was un-published or deleted, or maybe it’s just an invalid entry ID…” Maybe, maybe not. Unfortunately, Taxin has the screen grab with all the creepy ravings of one who calls himself “Free American.” The web is written in indelible ink, as we know.

Paul may not be an anti-Semite. He claims his devotion to the, largely Jewish, Austrian School of economics proves he isn’t, but that could be taken as a variant of the old “some of my best friends are” argument. Whatever the case – and I suspect Paul isn’t truly anti-Semitic, just clueless on a human level – he clearly attracts supporters who are and doesn’t vet them. Taxin is right to question the presidential candidate’s “managerial skills” at the very least. Someone should ask him about this at Thursday night’s debate.
Screenshot to former page in question

Google Cache of the page in question

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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Stark »

How does this sort of business decision work in libertarianism? You're exploiting racial fears and creating negativity to make money. Is the response for your opponents to also make similar statements in the market of ideas?
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Post by LaCroix »

So according to someone imvolved with the newsletters, Paul actually prooved them, and he was selling the Zionist Protocols?

I wonder what rationalizations people will spin to still claim that he isn't racist. :D
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Panzersharkcat »

Because it said he wrote the economic portions only and not the racist parts?
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Flagg »

LaCroix wrote:So according to someone imvolved with the newsletters, Paul actually prooved them, and he was selling the Zionist Protocols?

I wonder what rationalizations people will spin to still claim that he isn't racist. :D

Actually alot of them just say that his racism doesn't matter.
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Post by Purple »

You don't necessarily have to be a racist your self to be a manipulator profiting off the racism of others. Not saying that its any better to be one or the other but just offering an alternative.
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Post by Sidewinder »

What a coincidence, we just had a thread in which command responsibility is relevant.

Anyways, Ron Paul may not have written the racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic articles. He may not share those views. But the fact it's HIS NAME on the newsletter in which they're published, makes him responsible.

You'd think he'd know better, i.e., TAKE HIS NAME OFF THE DAMN NEWSLETTER before agreeing to pander to racists, anti-Semitics, and homophobes.
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Post by jegs2 »

Have decided my vote will go to Dr. Paul, whether he's on the ticket or not. All other candidates (including the one occupying the WH) would do nothing about our crushing debt, other than pander to their base (promising "cuts" that aren't really cuts on only politically-popular programs to cut, knowing good and well the opposing party would block any such attempt) while continuing to drive our once-great nation into the dirt.
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Post by D.Turtle »

Considering that the US can currently borrow at historically low rates, I don't think the debt is a pressing short-term problem for the US. In fact, right now is the perfect time to use those low interest rates in order to stimulate the economy.
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Post by Flagg »

SOCIALISM!
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LaCroix wrote:So according to someone imvolved with the newsletters, Paul actually prooved them, and he was selling the Zionist Protocols?

I wonder what rationalizations people will spin to still claim that he isn't racist. :D
We have the passive-aggressive defence right here:
Panzersharkcat wrote:Because it said he wrote the economic portions only and not the racist parts?
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Grumman »

Sidewinder wrote:What a coincidence, we just had a thread in which command responsibility is relevant.
Call me crazy, but I'm more concerned about people doing stupid, offensive things (like murdering innocent civilians) than saying stupid, offensive things.
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Post by Akhlut »

Grumman wrote:Call me crazy, but I'm more concerned about people doing stupid, offensive things (like murdering innocent civilians) than saying stupid, offensive things.
So, profiting off of hate speech isn't stupid or offensive? Pandering to racist, bigoted morons is generally a pretty big disqualification for most rational people, because it does point to a history of engaging with bigoted people for personal gain.

To say nothing of Ron Paul's campaign against women and homosexuals, in addition to a stated platform of dismantling the portions of government tasked with actually keeping American citizens safe and healthy (EPA, USDA, OSHA, etc.), in addition to his personal hatred for such horrible legislation like the Civil Rights Act.

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Post by Lord Zentei »

Grumman wrote:
Sidewinder wrote:What a coincidence, we just had a thread in which command responsibility is relevant.
Call me crazy, but I'm more concerned about people doing stupid, offensive things (like murdering innocent civilians) than saying stupid, offensive things.
You would normally be expected to hold presidential candidates to a higher standard.

On a related note:



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Post by Count Chocula »

Paul talks a good talk about reducing the size of the Fedgov, and its spending, yet year after year his district gets pork and he maintains his righteous indignation. How? Simple...he inserts his own pork into bills he opposes, knowing they'll pass anyway, then votes against them. Win win: he maintains his 'principles' and his district gets mad money...and the Rondroids fall for it. I was tempted to vote for him as the crazy option, but nope...he's another three-decade Washington playa. Pass.

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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

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Ron Paul fans upon finding the Washington Post article.

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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Panzersharkcat »

Considering how earmarks are basically a rounding error in the federal budget, it'd be pointless to not get some of his district's money back to it. He has said so himself. Anyway, Paul himself responded to the first article in the first two minutes or so of this video. For those who don't want to watch, his response was she's making shit up and people should stop beating a dead horse.
EDIT: Considering that I've asserted that I'm sure he knew, way back as part of the whole "paleo-con" strategy, you can shove that up your ass.
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

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You have to love Panzersharkcat's passive aggressive defence of Ron Paul.
What Panzersharkcat is actually saying wrote: Never mind that the newsletters were published in his name, they were written in the first person, with his personal signature and had his personal anecdotes for decades!

Forget that Ron Paul touted his newsletters back in the 80s and early 90s!

Forget that multiple staffers that now say that he was directly involved in the newsletters and proofread them!

Forget that many of his close friends and associates worked on the newsletters!

HE ONLY WROTE THE ECONOMIC ARTICLES!!!!11! LOLZ!
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Post by Flagg »

Can we just title all of the Ron Paul supporters as racist apologists?
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by LaCroix »

Grumman wrote: Call me crazy, but I'm more concerned about people doing stupid, offensive things (like murdering innocent civilians) than saying stupid, offensive things.
:banghead: He is a politician - SAYING stuff is their way of DOING stuff, they work with their VOICE...
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LaCroix wrote:I wonder what rationalizations people will spin to still claim that he isn't racist. :D
Like any other LOLbertarian, he is only doing it for his own advantage. :P
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Jim Raynor »

Man, the shit keeps coming. Again, the defense is that what he said isn't what he'll do. So again, it should be pointed out that this is evidence that Ron Paul is willing to do the sleazy and immoral thing to score political points.
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by General Brock »

In his 2008 book The Revoution: A Manifesto, Ron Paul outright states that:
In the long run, the only way racism can be overcome is through the philosophy of individualism, which I have promoted throughout my life. Our rights come to us not because we belong to some group, but our rights come to us as individuals.

And it is as individuals that we should judge one another.

Racism is a particularly odious form of collectivism whereby individuals are treated not on their merits but on the basis of group identity.

Nothing in my political philosophy, which is the exact opposite of the racial totalitarianism of the twentieth century, gives aid or comfort to such thinking. To the contrary, my philosophy of individualism is the most radical intellectual challenge to racism ever posed.
(Text divisions are mine to facilitate clarity)

This was back in 2008. Any longstanding Paul watcher should be aware of this. Is this a racist manifesto? Hardly. It does, however, threaten the underpinnings of institutional racism by attacking the institutions that support it.

I dug up a live Paul response to racism charges:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6hTCQpYegU

Ron Paul has insisted he is not a racist. He cites being against the death penalty and war on drugs, wars in part because of the injustice inflicted by the system on minorities. His tone and body language indicate sincerity as well as embarrassment that the newsletters exist to me.

As for Lew Rockwell, he has this to say, responding to a Jeffrey D. Sachs:
"...
Where in the thousands and thousands of pages written by hundreds of libertarian authors over centuries is there exposited a known and established linkage, brief or otherwise, narrow or broad, between racism and serious libertarian political philosophy? Can Sachs name half a dozen prominent libertarian writers who have espoused racism? Which of them can Sachs say has tied the libertarian political philosophy to racism, i.e., to a belief that (quoting Wikipedia) " inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination"?

He cannot do it. Libertarianism champions equal rights. It champions the person and the potential of every person to use liberty to the fullest. Libertarians would NEVER have authored Jim Crow laws or denied the vote on the grounds of race or denied equal access to public facilities depending on one's race. Libertarians have for decades preached against the drug war, which severely discriminates against blacks and browns. The prisons are filled disproportionately with people of color. Libertarians have stood staunchly against wars initiated by the U.S. against people of color and fought to a large extent by American soldiers of color.

So where does Sachs get off linking libertarianism to racism when there actually is no philosophical or logical or theoretical link at all and no link that can be found in major libertarian books and journals of record? His attack is on Ron Paul and the Ron Paul newsletters, more of which are being publicized as I write. And attacks based on their content are going to continue in order to discredit libertarianism in general.
...

Sachs wants to suppress the racists by force of law. He wants to bring private behaviors under public scrutiny and law. Once this boundary is breached, however, by taking away the liberty to act as one wills in private (without of course initiating violence against others), the door is open to more and more regulation of private behavior. The door is open to totalitarianism. That is the dangerous road Americans are traveling. That is the road that libertarians are against.
Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/a ... 03617.html

It is unlikely that Ron Paul is a racist. I'm not sure about Lew Rockwell; he doesn't outright say he isn't or was at some point racist; readers are only invited to think he isn't based on how closely he follows libertarianism. Either way, they appear to champion human rights through the individual, not state power. There may be something to not relying upon the state to say who's persecutable and who's not.

What if government were dominated by racist Islamophobes? It wouldn't matter that the government people were not against other minorities or religions right at that moment. Fiat government powered on fiat money with no respect for the individual could obviously turn on whomever it wanted to. The whole point of government by Republic is to discourage that kind of arbitrary rule.

Lastly, another interpretation of those newsletters it that they were an attempt to skim money from racists. That would be some pretty desperate money-grubbing, and it was the racists who were misled, with as yet unknown Paul people cynically targeting them for easy cash. Not terribly honest, and of course and flies in the face of respecting racists as individuals. While the gun is still smoking after all these years, who was actually being shot at is as suddenly unclear as what Paul knew about them.
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by UnderAGreySky »

Fiat government powered on fiat money
Is that supposed to make some sense in the real world? Or are we supposed to completely ignore large swathes of history where your fantasy world was tried, failed and was rejected?
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Re: Ron Paul approved newsletters personally, and BONUS!

Post by Sidewinder »

General Brock wrote:Lastly, another interpretation of those newsletters it that they were an attempt to skim money from racists. That would be some pretty desperate money-grubbing, and it was the racists who were misled, with as yet unknown Paul people cynically targeting them for easy cash.
Which means Ron Paul is just like any other politician. So why should I vote for him, when NO CHANGE can be realistically expected?
Please do not make Americans fight giant monsters.

Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.

They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
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