The time has come for me to rededicate myself to my quest for a journalism degree. So this will be my last post for a while. (Those who were displeased with one too many Ron Paul jokes, rejoice!) I may reconvert the blog for other purposes. I’ll keep you updated.
The Boston Tea Party has disbanded after approximately two years and Tom Knapp, founder of the party, resigned from its national committee via the BTP Yahoo message board.
In his resignation, Knapp insisted the national committee members remained unresponsive to efforts to schedule the BTP national convention. He wrote, “Aside from an allegedly active New York affiliate, it is my opinion that the Boston Tea Party has ceased to exist as a going concern, and that there is no substantial likelihood of its revival.”
I don’t think Knapp and crew tried everything they could to hold the party together. Did the BTP try offering free coffee to members to stimulate its efforts? Read the message in it’s entirety after the jump. Continue Reading »
Presidential candidate Alan Keyes might be leaving the GOP. In a conference call with supporters last week, Keyes apparently said staying in the Republican Party would be “an occasion of sin” and he is ready to bolt.
Keyes really dislikes John McCain, in addition to every other candidate, so the Bizzaro World Obama wants no part in selecting the “type of deodorant we need to make a stinking candidate acceptable to conservatives.” A Keyes supporter who took part in the conference call confirmed to Radar that the former Reagan administration official said, “he could no longer remain in the Republican Party.”
But never fear. The Keyes campaign will not die. He hinted in January that he might go for a third party bid and an e-mail sent out by the campaign after the call includes a link for supporters who “want to vote for Alan as your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice on the Constitution Party presidential poll.”
A Keyes message board commenter who claims to have been on the conference call last night said regarding the possibility of a Constitution Party run that, “Alan asked us to pray about it. That’s what he is doing as he is considering these things. He did not say he’s definately [sic] going to do it, but from the tone of things I am going to say it’s very likely.”
Lucky for Keyes, I have the Pope on speed dial. Well, actually that’s Chili’s, but while I’m waiting for the Pope to get back to me I can put in an order for an Awesome Blossom. I can’t say it enough: God bless America.
Looks like Ron Paul’s presidential campaign is ending now that the GOP has spoken and wants 100-year-war McCain as its leader. To continue beyond this point would be ludicrous, and we all know Paul has run a sensible campaign until this point.
Jesse Benton, Paul campaign’s communication manager, said Friday that the Texas congressman is ending his run for the White House: “We are acknowledging that Ron will not be the nominee and that we are winding down the campaign.”
Paul already hinted the end was near in a video to supporters posted on YouTube on Thursday:
Oh, Paul. Though you will never be the U.S. president–unless it blew up and you were sole survivor and even then you’d have some competition with Michael Jackson’s former pet Ben–you will always be the president of our Internets. The obscure politician with fringe politics used the Web to raise a staggering $30 million dollars. At one point, Ron Paul’s YouTube videos accounted for five of the top 10 candidate videos, with the largest overall viewership of any candidate. So, farewell Mr. Internet. Hail, to the chief.
Presidential hopeful Mike Gravel isn’t interested in getting votes during his campaign. Instead, the 77-year-old former Alaska Senator wants his idea to save the country to get some recognition.
The plan is called the National Initiative and involves passing a constitutional amendment that would move the U.S. from a representative democracy to a direct democracy by having all laws voted on in federal ballot initiatives. Apparently Gravel is thrilled that his candidacy for the Democratic nomination is giving his ideas a wider reach.
Another plus? He is bigger than J-Lo. “The day I filed for office I got more attention on the initiative than I had in 15 years,” Gravel told me. “I was getting off a plane and Jennifer Lopez was getting her bags — I didn’t recognize her, someone told me — and no one came up to her, but three people came up and pumped my hand,” Gravel told Time reporter Joel Stein.
But the Christmas light-bulb sized spotlight might be making Gravel a bit conceited. During a speech at Harvard, Gravel told a crimson crowd that he had more charisma than front-runner challenger Barack Obama. That’s like the Beatles saying they’re bigger than Jesus. You just don’t do it unless you’ve been officially declared insane or you are God.
Moreover, the little attention Gravel procured has made him more paranoid than usual. He fears he’s such a threat to the military industry complex that he wants to dismantle a sign that says his campaign headquarters in Virginia is on the third floor of a building.
Poor Grandpa Gravel even thinks teachers are after him:
The ex-Alaska Senator’s campaign got a blip of national attention over a surreal campaign YouTube video in which he stares at the camera, throws a rock in the water and walks away. “Two young teachers said I’d like to shoot a video. I said, ‘What do they want me to do?’ They said, ‘Throw a rock in the water.’ I said, ‘Great. I’ll give them an hour.’ So I look in the camera for a full minute and all I can think is I look dumb as s–t,” Gravel says.
Regardless, Gravel plans to stick with the campaign through November. He even said he’d consider running on the Libertarian Party ticket or as a member of another third party. What an attention whore.
The fiery Republican with a libertarian streak, Ron Paul, survived a strong challenge to his day job in Congress on Tuesday, besting well-funded (and well-liked) Chris Peden.
Paul, ran for the White House as a libertarian in 1988 but gained more of a following this year as a Republican. Though he has been a long shot candidate throughout his presidential campaign this year, he did not drop-out of the race. He was forced to scale back his national operation to focus on the race for his Congressional seat in Texas when his constituents started getting fed-up with being neglected by rock star Ron Paulmania and the Maniacs.
Republican primary challenger Chris Peden said of Paul: “I do think the presidential race has exposed some of his values and principles that are not in line with his district, and that exposure has done him harm at home.”
But as Linkin Park would say, “In the end, it doesn’t even matter.” Because Paul power still powered through Peden and beat him in Tuesday night’s election. So there you go R3volutionists. You win!
Ron Paul maniacs should brace themselves. Today, could be the day Paul gets booted from Congress.
The 20-year congressman is facing a challenge from Chris Peden, the personable Republican mayor pro tem of Friendswood, who says Paul is out there “to make a point, not a difference.” Peden noted that out of 351 pieces of legislation Paul has sponsored, only six have made it out of committee and none has ever passed.
As Wonkette noted last week that “to many of his constituents in Texas Congressional District 14, Paul is just a blame-America-first attention whore who completely ignores the people who put him in office. There are no Democrats running in the 14th District primary today— so if Ron Paul loses, he will have the honor of being a double loser in the eyes of his beloved constituents.”
Yikes–perhaps Paul’s fear of the backlash his run for presidency wrought is the reason he avoided debating Peden. Here’s a video of Paul, flustered as he rants about why he won’t. His response? Peden should go “debate himself.”
Columbia University’s School of General Studies held their Annual Gala Saturday night and presented Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Gravel with the first annual Isaac Asimov Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Columbia alum and former U.S. senator to Alaska recalled his years at GS as a student of humble means. Gravel gathered the kids around while he regaled them with tales of working as a cab driver to make ends meet, living off French onion soup, and sharing a graduation cap and gown with a friend. (I think he left out the part about killing a vagrant man, it being a classy event and all).
Does anyone else get the feeling that Gravel was walking up and down the streets of New York, crazily talking to himself, and just stumbled upon this black-tie affair? The awards committee just made up an award to get him to stop yelling at the cheese spread. That’s what any respectable Ivy League university would do for a potential world leader.
Looks like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ditched his independent, bipartisan, clothing for some sexy elephant skin duds.
The New York Times reveals that several weeks ago, the mayor wrote a $500,000 check to help keep the dwindling and increasingly imperiled State Senate Republicans from losing their grip on power.
The Democrats are seeking to gain control of the Senate for the first time in 40 years, and the race is growing personal and bitter.
Bloomberg has made clear to the Republicans that he is willing to personally campaign for GOP senators.
That’s definitely not the rhetoric Bloomberg was touting while he flirted with the idea of running for president. Before he squashed rumors of his candidacy, billionaire Bloomberg promoted his independence, denouncing party politics and dramatically announcing his resignation from the Republican Party.
“The politics of partisanship and the resulting inaction and excuses have paralyzed decision-making, primarily at the federal level, and the big issues of the day are not being addressed, leaving our future in jeopardy,” the mayor said at a the speech in June that set off presidential speculation. “We can accept this, or we can say, ‘Enough is enough!’ and together build a bright future for our country.”
Oh, so he said one thing then did another. I tell people all the time that peanuts are my favorite food. When they buy me a peanut-butter ice cream cake for my birthday I throw it in the trash. In front of them. (I hate peanuts.)
Alan Keyes — who served as Assistant Secretary of State for under Ronald Reagan and has been hiding out in Texas since February – ended his campaign with an election-eve “Rally for America’s Revival” March 3 at the University of North Texas.
Surely the “complete conservative” wowed the crowd with gems like this speech from his Lincoln-Reagan Dinner:
”If we want to win the victory [as a party], we’ve got to stop pretending to ourselves that we shall win it by scaring people to death with our Hillary masks, our Obama masks, and our bogeyman rhetoric. It has worked once or twice, but I can promise you, it will not work this time — any more than scaring them with Democrat control of Congress secured our victory in 2006. No, if we want their trust back, and their faith back, and their allegiance back, then we must trust the truths upon which this country was built….our allegiance to the authority of our God.”
First, I know I said a “crowd” of supporters would be at Keyes’ gala. But is five people considered a crowd if three of them are family members, one is a janitor and the other is a homeless guy lured in with the promise of whiskey and a half-eaten egg salad sandwich?
At any rate I’m sure it was swell. I hope he wore his “Obama mask” to the rally!