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.”

…In reality they will likely post your home address and phone numbers on their blogs if you mess with their leader.  A teacher and Live Journal user “Makkabee” made the mistake of writing a post on his personal blog about an inspired math lesson he used to help his students learn about line graphs.  And poor Makkabee soon incurred the wrath of the Ron Paul Nation.

In the offending post, the teacher wrote about how he “talked about the [presidential] candidates rising or falling, and extending the lines on their graphs, I’d end with “and Ron Paul stayed flat” and add another segment to his straight line near the zero marker.” 

Apparently the kids loved it, but Paul supporters did not.  So they defended the outcast GOP candidate with all the might their love for him and the Internet can muster.  According to a post Makkabee wrote the next day, his real name, phone number and address were on Ron Paul Forums all over cyberspace.  Paul-heads are so good, they should be hired by the CIA to locate Al-Qaida cells.

Yikes.  Let’s just hope they stick to virtual harassment.  Although, Makkabee claims they “reported on his planned movements.”  Hmmm.  Did I ever mention that I was kidding whenever I talked smack about Paul on this blog?  Please, don’t take my lunch money.

Read Makkabee’s egregiously offensive post after the jump.

Continue Reading »

Five Green Party presidential candidates, including every voter’s favorite presidential election ruin-er Ralph Nader and former Democratic party congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, will be trying to be the candidate to siphon undecided votes in November by getting on the the ballot in the California Green Party’s primary on “Super Tuesday” Feb. 5.

A party spokesperson today said it is the most competitive race for President in the history of the Green Party.  Somewhere in the world John McCain is giving out high-fives.

Almost one-third of the Green Party delegate will be determinedon February 5 between Illinois, Massachusetts, Arkansas and California–the most significant of the Green primaries. 

California has 168 of the 836 delegates (over 20%) that will nominate the Green Party nominee on July 13 in Chicago makes California pretty critical to both Nader and McKinney in securing the Green Party nomination.”

Also crowding joining the race are:

Jesse Johnson, a filmmaker and 2006 Senate and 2004 gubernatorial candidate for the West Virginia Mountain Party.

Kent Mesplay, a biomedical engineer who sought the Green Party presidential nomination in 2004.

Kat Swift, the Texas State Party Co-chair, progressive activist and newspaper credit manager.

They look like a colorful bunch.  And according to California Green Party spokeswoman Susan King these candidates will provide a much needed “real choice” at the polls.  You know, because there have been so few candidates throwing their hat in the ring this year.

This promises to be the most competitive presidential primary on record for the Green Party of California. And it comes at a time in our state and nation’s history when voters need a real choice at the polls, and an opportunity to elect a President who will make a difference by ending the war in Iraq now, protecting our planet now and providing universal, single-payer health care for all.” 

All very unique ideas that NO candidate currently in the presidential race has mentioned yet…  Time will tell if “going green” will pollute the democratic effort later.

It appears that Ron Paul is as popular as fresh lobster in Maine.  The Republican presidential candidate said Monday he is hoping for “a grand showing” in Maine’s Republican caucuses Friday through Sunday.  He visited the State House in Augusta and made remarks to a crowd of nearly 200.

Paul is the invisible candidate nationally despite his success in campaign fundraising and general popularity.  However, state Republican Party Executive Director Julie O’Brien says his supporters may have been the most active in Maine. 

According to Natalie Schultz of the Nolan Chart said Paul has a good chance of taking 21 delegates during the state competition because his campaign fits right into the politics of the area:

“Because outside of the political elite urbanites who control the state, the majority of real Mainers are very anti-government gun-lovers. Huckabee is gaining a Christian following, but truthfully, most Mainers are old-school Christians, not Evangelicals.”

Paul winning Maine has the potential to throw the Republican presidential bid race into complete chaos.  If John McCain loses to Mitt Romney in Florida on Jan. 29 there will still be no clear front-runner.  With 9/11 poster boy and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the verge of bowing out if he does not grab Florida, which he probably won’t, there will be no one left in the Republican race whom the media can use to hide Paul behind.  

Like it or not, Paul is getting harder to ignore.  Time for mainstream media and the Republican Party to put their heads together and figure out another way to hide Paul in plain sight.

          +    =   

While most Democratic hopefuls have cleared the path to the White House for the three titans, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, the blue party has yet to shake the last couple of stragglers.  Most notably former U.S. Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel is still kicking, but fading fast. 

No one has heard much from Gravel in the last couple weeks.  Though he was the first known candidate of either party to enter the 2008 presidential race 2 1/2 years before Election Day, Gravel has since fallen off the map. 

Democrats are not inviting him to debate events anymore.  The most recent comment from Gravel was about how fellow Democratic competitor Dennis Kucinich is hypocritical for complaining that candidates John Edwards and Hillary Clinton failed to mention his exclusion from MSNBC’s Jan. 15 debate when Kucinich failed to mention Gravel’s exclusion during MSNBC’s Philadelphia debate in October.

While Gravel definitely is not making head-weigh in campaigning–he’s dead last in the Democratic race–at least he is making headlines.  On January 6, he told a group of students to choose marijuana over alcohol during a visit to Phillips Exeter Academy.  Gravel said, “I’m sure a lot of you have tripped out on alcohol. It’s a lot safer to do it on marijuana.” Later he told the students, “If you’ve got a problem with coke, go to a doctor, get a prescription and get it filled at a drug store.”

Gravel has not been shy about his support for the decriminalization of marijuana, but perhaps his most recent controversial words are the reason he has been laying low lately.  Then, again, if Gravel can throw out more entertaining nuggets of insight like:

“Go get yourself a fifth of Scotch or a fifth of gin and chug-a-lug it down and you’ll find you lose your senses a lot faster than you would smoking some marijuana.”

I say he is overdue for an appearance.

The race for president is not official to me without third party candidates buzzing around the chosen Republican and Democratic party candidates once the primaries are over.  They provide a little more color to the campaign trail when red and blue starts getting stale.

Fortunately for everyone–or unfortunately for major party candidates–Ralph Nader might be making another bid for the White House.  The consumer advocate has run in the past four presidential elections.  He is most notoriously known by critics as the man who sucked away enough votes from then Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 campaign to help George W. Bush win the White House.  Fast forward eight years and we all know how that story ends.

Nader, 73, told a Montreal radio show that he will “decide in about a month” whether he will throw his hat in the ring.  Who is ready for another three-ring circus and thinks Nader should enter the race?  I thought so.  I’ll bring the popcorn.