Would any of you really vote for Ron Paul?

[kraft-t]

I will not vote for Ron Paul but of the republicans, Paul and Housemen are the most attractive if only in personaity and civility. I think Ron Paul is dead on honest on what he beleives but i think he would be corrupted by the wildly offernsive tea baggers.

Yes I know Paul was instrumental in the formation of the tea party but the tea party has been corrupted by Corporate maney. Koch Bros and **bleep** Armey are  now pulling the strings of the tea baggers.

[bruce MN]

Good thoughtful post Red.

I share some of the very same fears that you describe near the end. I've always seen our welfare system as not being geared to help the poor and needful so much as rather to not disrupt the wheel of consumption and corporate profits. Walmart, Costco, Target etc.combined probably benefit more materially than the combined recipients do. The recipients need education and job training and lifestyle incentives etc. while, however, the former beneificiaries would actually see their proceeds drop as a more enlightened, more sustainable, more prudent population was being formed.

And I came to a painful and sudden realization this AM. That being that  the most vile and thoroughly putrid man that I've had the sorry privieldge of watching work at the elected policy level in my country over 60 + years stands at what some say are even odds of becoming it's President in a little over a year from now. And I got to watch Agnew, Helms, Delay, Clinton, Rostenkwski and Blagovitch (so memorable I can't remember his first name) and countless other crooks and scoundrels. None compare.

If we are priviledged enough to save the system so that we get to hold an election the most improtant  "good in the short run" thing that I can think of doing would be to keep Newt Gingrich out of the White house. 

[hardnox604008]

Regardless how morally distasteful anyone might find transfer payments, the simple practical truth for the moment is that if you eliminated tansfer payments without offsetting additions to aggreagte demand (food stamps and unemployment obviously at record levels) then you would have negative GDP growth and the beginning of a downward death spiral in financial markets.

Hitting close to home $10K farmland and $6 corn would not be in that picture.  Which from my point of view is just fine but not so much for the guys over at marketing who are holding for $8.

I'm thinking that about $3 we'd be squealing for a bailout. And the Iowa caucuses would be four years away- maybe not so much sympathy out there.

[Red Steele]

I agree. Newt Gingrich should not be allowed within a ten county radius of the white house. I think people that think they can just hold their nose and support the guy are really oblivious as to what he represents. It ain't us .

Gingrich could very well turn out to be our Adolf Hitler.

If the guy farts , he thinks others in the room should listen and praise him for uttering something profound.

Some of the stories about the guy are just disturbing. Not fit to even mention in a family forum.

I hated Bill Clinton with a passion, for that smirk and the way he thought he was above everything....above all the laws of man and God. Gingrich takes all of this to even a higher level.

I think Gingrich must be the candidate of the insiders, and that is the only way I can explain his almost meteoric rise to the top of the Republican contenders. I still cannot comprehend that anyone would support the guy.

[dagwud]

"The battle isn't for the left, theyre going to vote for Obama regardless of who the r's run. The battle is for the 10% in the middle."

I agree with that comment Sam but think it may be closer to 25 or 30%.  I think in this election more then most we will see many unhappy Dems and Repubs looking for an alternative.

Don, I understand your fear of Paul or any other politician being corrupted by corporate money or outside influences.  However I see it a bit differently.  From what I know about Paul is that he speaks from his gut and is not easily influenced.  Not many politicians would have to guts to come to Iowa before the 08 election and tell Iowans that we should end ethanol subsidies.   I'm guessing as a loyal Dem you will support Obama which is your right.  However if you are worried about Paul being possibly influenced by special interest then I would think you would be worried by the influence the large Wall Street banks and their donations have over Obama.

As it becomes more obvious every day as to the crimes committed by Wall Street banks which could be easily prosecuted I can think of no other reason why the Obama DOJ continues not to act even though these banks and their officials have cost Americans dearly and they are now breaking further laws by evicting people from their homes using fake documents and forged signatures.

[johnaa]

  As I remember it, Nutt quit congress to avoid censer for ethics violations-bribery-.

  Most likely the reason he is portrayed as the front runner by the Murdock/zionocon media is because he has promised to attack Iran.  A big war like that would be good for their business. 

[bruce MN]

I'm quite sure that what put Newt on to my mind right off this morning is the fact that in one last swing through the program guide before I should have been going to sleep i discovered that that BBC was running (it seems that they have been at least once a week lately) the movie work-up of the classic comic book character V,  in "V  for Vendetta".

 It's replacing The Shawshank Redemption as the movie I have on the shelf 10 feet away from the TV set but will still watch a broadcast version of, commercials and all. It's like he (Newt) is in it.

Worth a look.

[Red Steele]

yes, it is funny how a broadcast version of a movie that you own , the really good ones, get your attention even when you already own the dvd. Rob Roy is that way, too.

I will have to see if I can get a copy of V for Vengence and see if I like it. I know Shawshank is on my top ten all time favorites. I like the Green Mile, too, which seems like a sequel to Shawshank , using the same formula. Except Robbins goes to heaven and Hanks gets condemned to a hell on earth for what they do in prison.

[Red Steele]

wasn't Newt doing something like selling books for a certain guarantee to avoid contribution rules? like "give me $200,000 for this pile of books and I speak, and it will all be kosher"

Newt is not a good looking man, and the vision of Newt in the white house is a very ugly vision.

I think I vote for Obama before I go to the polls and cast a vote for Newt.

[Red Steele]

I sold $3 corn for three years out the first time it breached that mark ( I think it was 2005), and luckily for me I own 80% of what I farm. High priced fertilzer and other inputs took a lot of the profit out of farming those years but I still had the soybeans and did make $50,000 doing some Texas hedging one year to stay in the black. Earned every cent of that hedge, too, with margin calls that seemed daily and risk that I never thought could even happen.  I think at the high point, I had about $450 per acre tied up in margin calls. If I had not been extremely well financed,  I would have been closed out at a huge loss . I am now a very cautious Charlie and probably will be until the day I die. Maybe the best experience I ever went through, just like the depression was for my father.

my father graduated from high school while the depression was still going strong, and the stories I learned at his knee were the most valuable inheritance a kid could get. Saved me in the 80's when most of my high school classmates that went bust were trying to be young tigers. I was a turtle for the first half of that decade and that changed the whole narrative of my life.

If corn does retreat to the $3 mark, I will be prepared. I will still be eating regularily. It may happen...actually, it already did happen. Wasn't it the fall of 2009 when corn was at $2.75 for a few weeks, and the call was for it to go to $2?? I bought a farm during that month for about half of what the asking price had been. No one else would even give the owners a bid, and I stepped up and said I would buy it for about 50% of what they wanted and expected.