Monthly Archives: May 2008

The Ron Paul Cult’s 7% Solution

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Andrew Malcolm was displaying some wishful thinking on his blog, or perhaps channeling his inner Paulnut, when he wrote this piece which implies that Paul’s cult of Communist/Libertarian/Pacifist/Minute Men would be embarrassing anyone but themselves at the R.N.C. convention with an attempt to hijack the G.O.P. and turn it into a less coherent version of the Libertarian Party:

But in the meantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people the forces of Rep. Ron Paul and his libertarian-minded GOP backers are collecting delegates at the local level and planning a revolt against Sen. John McCain at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September

Paul’s presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.

But what’s been largely overlooked is Paul’s candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party’s most conservative conservatives. As anticipated a month ago in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today’s expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.

Nevermind Ralph Nader, Republican and Democratic parties both face….

…potentially damaging internal splits that could cripple their chances for victory in a narrow vote on Nov. 4.

Just take a look at recent Republican primary results, largely overlooked because McCain locked up the necessary 1,191 delegates long ago. In Indiana, McCain got 77% of the recent Republican primary vote, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who’ve each long ago quit and endorsed McCain, still got 10% and 5% respectively, while Paul took 8%.

On the same May 6 in North Carolina, McCain received less than three-quarters of Republican votes (74%), while Huckabee got 12%, Paul 7% and Alan Keyes and No Preference took a total of 7%.

Pennsylvania was even slightly worse for the GOP’s presumptive nominee, who got only 73% to a combined 27% for Paul (16%) and Huckabee (11%).

Paul did reasonably well in one state where if it was two person race he still would have been trounced, in other primaries his best showing is to average 7% (including Libertarians and “independents” who registered to vote for him) and he and his cult are going to embarrass the G.O.P. establishment?

It’s they who should be embarrassed, not given more credit than they deserve. Alan Keyes has run a much more successful campaign to challenge Republicans to examine their values and he did it without getting the morons from Digg to donate all their money to him. What Ron Paul has done is cobbled together a coalition of fringe groups from all parts of the political spectrum, including neo-Nazis and Anarchists, and milked those suckers for all they’re worth.

Malcolm goes on to lay out the movie villain-like aspirations Paul has for his army of pot-smoking web nerds:

They hope to demonstrate their disagreements with McCain vocally at the convention through platform fights and an attempt to get Paul a prominent speaking slot. Paul, who’s running unopposed in his home Texas district for an 11th House term, still has some $5 million in war funds and has instructed his followers that their struggle is not about a single election, but a longterm revolution for control of the Republican Party.

Who wouldn’t want a party controlled by rape loving racists, sex tourists, gangs of stalkers, Communists pretending to be Libertarians, Islamists pretending to be Libertarians and of course Andrew Sullivan.

At Hot Air Allahpundit puts the Ron Paul “revolution” in focus for those duped by the small but vocal Paulites:

One look at the delegate count should make the scope of the nascent revolution clear. Paul has won all of 26 delegates. Even if he wangled a few dozen more through manipulations in caucus states like Nevada, at best he’ll come up with 100 delegates in a 2,200-delegate convention. That’s not a revolution, it’s a lunatic fringe.

Hey, if you’re a Libertarian that’s fine. Vote Libertarian. But Ron Paul has hooked you marks into helping him with his doomed plan to seize control of the G.O.P. and become the Conservative version of Lyndon Larouche.

Paul will never convince Republicans that Isolationism and rolling back the military will make us safe. Isolationism didn’t keep us safe from a militarized Japan in WW II and it won’t keep us safe from Militarized communist and Islamist regimes who are even now dreaming of rolling their tanks into Times Square. And thankfully the “revolution” will never convince Republicans or the rest of America that our best defense is to rely on fighting spirit of effeminate, immature drug abusers, sorry I meant Libertarians, to turn back the tide of an invading army.

7% of people on the right (and it this case that number includes people so far left they just seem to be on the right) agree with Paul’s fevered fantasy of a new revolution. I think I speak for the other 93% when I say count us out.

Border War! Border Patrol Takes Fire from Mexico

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From the Arizona Daily Star:

U.S. Border Patrol agents were involved in two violent incidents with drug smugglers Wednesday and Thursday in downtown Nogales.

On Wednesday night at 10 p.m. east of the Dennis DeConcini port of entry, agents using a remote video surveillance system — a stand-alone 60-foot pole that holds four cameras — spotted three people carrying bundles, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
They lost sight of the trio as they made their way into a housing development butshortly after, spotted a sport utility vehicle leaving the area.

Agents tried to stop the black Ford Explorer as it headed south toward Mexico at high speeds. The vehicle came to a stop near the border and agents saw a a the driver get out and jump over the fence into Mexico, Scioli said.

Then, agents heard a yell followed by a volley of gunfire from Mexico. Agents took cover and were unable to identify the gunmen or if they shots were aimed at them, he said..
They called Mexican authorities who responded to the area but didn’t find the gunmen. Agents found three bundles of marijuana inside the sport utility vehicle weighing 158 pounds, Scioli said.

A few hours later, at 1 a.m. Thursday, camera operators spotted three men climbing the border fence at Short Street east of the Dennis Deconcini port of entry, he said. An agent driving an armored Border Patrol vehicle known as a “war wagon” responded to the area and was peppered by rocks from south of the line. He countered by using his pepper ball launcher to saturate the area, Scioli said.

The article goes on to relate the number of violent assaults on American Border Patrol agents since October 1st is 132. We don’t pay them enough.

This comes on the heels of an incident where Border Patrol had to fire at a truck barreling down on them to keep from being run down.

Race Riot in Los Angeles High School

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Up to 600 Black and Latino students were involved in racially tinged violence at the Locke High School in South Los Angeles. The riot was described as the worst violence many of the faculty had ever seen in a high school plagued with violence and what the L.A. authorities are euphemistically calling “tagging crews.” It took 60 officers, some in riot gear, to restore order and only four arrests were made. One of the arrested was a non-student carrying a knife.

From The L.A. Times:

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs.

The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes. Overwhelmed school officials called Los Angeles police for help, but students and faculty said it took about half an hour before dozens of officers, many in riot gear, restored order.

“The kids were crazy, running from place to place, jumping on other kids,” said Reggie Smith, the school’s band director, who said he ran to pull his students from the melee. “Some of my kids were crying because they were walking to class with friends and they got jumped.”

Los Angeles Unified School District police said that there are only two officers assigned to Locke but that the school police force brought in about 60 officers after receiving word of the brawl. The Los Angeles Police Department also dispatched more than a dozen patrol cars and about 50 officers.

Susan Cox, an LAUSD spokeswoman, said police arrested four people — three students for fighting and one non-student for illegal possession of a knife. Four students were treated in the school nurse’s office for minor injuries.

The campus at 111th and San Pedro streets has long been one of the city’s most troubled. This school year has been particularly difficult, with near-daily fights — albeit on a much smaller scale — during much of the fall and winter. Locke is about to be reorganized as a cluster of charter schools run by Green Dot Public Schools, which will take over in July, and some faculty and staff have accused the district of letting the campus drift in its final year as a traditional public school.

“Morale has really dropped because they don’t feel like they have everybody behind them,” cheerleading coach Marlo Jenkins said recently. “There are just fights upon fights upon fights now.”

Not the kind of leadership needed in areas where the growing tensions between Blacks and Latinos is creating a culture of racist warfare. Locke High School is 65% Latino and 35% black, and though many students say there isn’t much open hostility the people interviewed in the article admit to both self-segregation of the groups and near constant “black on brown” fights. The actions of the police after restoring order should tell you how bad the situation really is in Los Angeles despite the rosy picture many try to paint regarding race relations:

After securing order, authorities rounded up the students who hadn’t returned to class and segregated them by race, holding Latinos in the boys gym and African American students in Hobbs Hall, the school’s multipurpose room.

Beginning at 2 p.m., school officials began releasing students in small groups to go home. The school remained on lockdown until the last group had left about 3:15 p.m.

LAUSD’s Cox said that there would be an enhanced police presence at Locke during school hours next week and that the district would send human relations staff to the school to talk to students.

In recent years, melees have broken out periodically at many campuses with a black and Latino presence, including in Los Angeles, Lynwood and Compton. There have been fights between Latinos and Armenians in other areas that led to campus lockdowns.

Soon we’ll end up with segregated schools. The Latino vs. Armenian violence mentioned is a problem that has been going on since the 90s apparently, with a gang called Armenian Power forming up specifically to protect Armenians from Latino gang violence. A.P. is small but extremely violent and have fought MS-13 on occasion. In ’05 there was a riot in Grant High School involving Latinos and Armenians.

If the youth in Los Angeles is any indication then race relations in America are getting much worse. The fact that authorities can barely control the groups involved make America’s future look bleak indeed.

There’s a video report from the local ABC affiliate. Breitbart has a nuts and bolts report.

Melvin Blevins Update: Toddler Forced to Smoke Pot also had Cocaine in her System

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Remember Melvin Blevins? He and his 16-year-old girlfriend video taped themselves forcing a toddler to smoke pot in what was the one of the most shocking crimes we’ve seen in the last few months. It gets worse however, as there are reports that the toddler, who was Blevins’ niece, tested positive for Cocaine in her system:

The video was seen around the world: A toddler was given a pipe to smoke marijuana.

Though well-watched, the videotape still was hard to watch.

It showed 16-year-old Angel Dailey and 18-year-old Melvin Blevins allegedly giving a toddler a marijuana pipe. Dailey pleaded guilty to the crime Friday, NBC 4’s Mike Bowersock reported.

The video of the toddler was found at a pawn shop. NBC 4 learned in court Friday that the 2-year-old little girl had not only marijuana in her system but cocaine, too.

The article relates the plea deal 16-year-old Angel Dailey accepted for her role in the crime and interviews the toddlers mother, who had left the child with her ex-husband and didn’t know Blevins was going to be “caring for” the little girl:

“That was family. She shouldn’t have done that to family,” Amber Pruitt, the child’s mother, said.

Dailey said the child’s uncle is the man in the video allegedly trying to get the toddler to smoke marijuana.

Pruitt told Bowersock she remembered the first time she saw the video of her daughter smoking marijuana from a pipe.

“I almost got sick. I started crying,” Pruitt said. “I was in my living room. I had no idea about any of it. She was with her father for a few months because my mother had passed away … I really thought she’d be safe in the care of her father and her grandmother. I didn’t even know she was left with her uncle.”

Blevins, the boyfriend, was charged in federal court with even more crimes, including drug and gun possession.

The judge in the case was waiting for mental tests to be done on Dailey before sentencing her.

Waiting for tests no doubt because Dailey comes from a family of pot dealers and there is likely a question as to whether she was exposed to Marijuana early enough for it to stunt her development.

I’m thinking yeah, that’s probably the case.

Victimless Crime File: World’s Greatest Mother Stabs Friend, Pays Babysitter in Marijuana

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I know, I know, this all would have happened regardless of how often these people got high. From The Sun-Gazette we have the story of Dina J. Jackson, who stabbed her buddy after an argument about marijuana. The same marijuana she used to pay the babysitter of her five-year-old daughter:

MIDDLEBURY CENTER — Dina J. Jackson, 45, of 11784 Route 287, Middlebury Center, faces several charges in connection with the alleged stabbing of Chad Orvek early Wednesday morning.

During her arraignment before District Judge Phillip Sweet Wednesday afternoon, Jackson was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of children, and intimidation of witnesses or victims and possession of instruments of crime.

According to the state police affidavit, around 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, Orvek arrived at Jackson’s residence with Tonya Walker after being out at a restaurant.

Police say Orvek and Jackson got into an argument, allegedly over marijuana, which turned physical when Jackson pushed Orvek and then he pushed Jackson down.

As Walker tried to pull Orvek off Jackson, he knocked her into the television stand.

Orvek then turned toward Jackson and she ran into the kitchen telling him to get out of her house.

Walker opened the door and tried to push Orvek out.

As he was leaving, he turned to yell at Jackson.

Walker said she was pushed by Jackson, and then she noticed an object in Jackson’s hand.

Jackson immediately washed it and put it in the dish drainer. Orvek was by that time outside the residence yelling that he had been stabbed and needed help and Jackson was on the phone with police.

Walker related that Jackson told her that Orvek probably hurt himself to get them into trouble, to which Walker responded that was not what had happened, and that she had stabbed him. Walker then related that Jackson told her to say she didn’t see anything, that she had washed the knife and “there is no evidence.”

Walker said Jackson also told her to “watch out” if she told police anything differently.

Jackson’s five-year-old daughter was at the residence at the time of the incident.

Police said Jackson paid the babysitter with half of the marijuana that she and Orvek had purchased together.

Hey, what’s wrong with leaving your five-year-old daughter with a babysitter you pay in drugs in the apartment you where some dude you score weed with likes to visit? I mean, it’s not like the person who takes drugs in lieu of money for services rendered can’t be trusted, right? It’s not like for some extra weed they’d turn a trick with your drug partner in front of your kid, is it?

The “restaurant” Orvek and his friend were coming home from was actually a tavern according to this report. And yes, this all took place in a mobile home.

Don’t worry about Chad “I’ll fight women in front of kids” Orvek though, he’s been released from the hospital and is as O.K. as I guess he’s ever going to be.