Ballad of Joseph Cohn

BALLAD OF JOSEPH COHN

From behind the veil,
she avoided my eyes
but she was precious
in my sight.

I stood close to her
and I feared her
when she didn’t
run away.

She entered my dreams,
and she told me all her secrets,
which I pretended to understand.

She locked herself into
a room in my heart
She hijacked my world
and tore it apart
She was the only one
I ever wanted to love
and I know I will never
see her again.

She begged me to love her
from the bottom of her heart
and from the bottom of my heart
I loved her.

But I had to build a wall,
it was second nature to me.
I let her die on the
other side.

She locked herself into
a room in my heart
She hijacked my world
and tore it apart
She was the only one
I ever wanted to love
And I fear I will never
see her again.

Created for me
since the day that she was born,
she couldn’t help but love me
more than my own mother.

She wanted me to see
that we were just the same,
for she would never
love another.

She wished I would believe
in heaven above
She brought me an olive branch
from a precious white dove
I was the only one
she ever wanted to love
and I guess I’ll never
see her again.

She wanted to relieve me
from the curse upon my forehead
and the burden that was
weighing on my soul.

She wanted me to keep her,
she wanted my protection.
She wanted to make a deal.

I wish I could believe in heaven above,
for she was the one I wanted to love.
I turned down a gift from a precious white dove
and I know I will never see her again.

She wanted me to believe
in our common destiny
but I guess I just must have
lost the dream.

I made believe I owed her nothing
while she washed my feet
with her tears, and I
continued to deny Jesus was real.

Still, she made herself into a slavegirl for me
She promised to make me the father of a tribe
A generous queen, she gave me everything,
for she dreamed I was her only one.

She told me that all of mankind
came from just one soul,
she said the Father chooseth
whom He willeth.

So I set her free
I just could not agree
I told her, “I’ll never
see you again.”

So hang me from the
blue and white ribbons on my tree
Because I died with her
when she died for me
and I should bulldoze my own house
for that I will never see her again.

So bulldoze my house upon my
Chosen family, then hang me
from the blue and white
ribbons on my daughter’s tree
Because I’d die for her
like she died for me
Knowing I would never see her again.

I regret I will never see her again.

78 drops of olive oil

I finally took the Palestinian embroidered tablecloth to the drycleaners today. I was going to give it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. Every year I grudgingly drop a couple hundred dollars to buy presents for a holiday I don’t even celebrate. Last year I decided to order my gifts from the Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund instead of squandering my money at Pottery Barn. I got a great shawl for my sister-in-law and a beautiful mother-of-pearl Bethlehem souvenir jewelry box featuring the Nativity Scene. I also got a pile of stuff I never even ordered, like a bottle of organic Palestinian olive oil, a handful of little wooden peace-dove pins, and a keychain reading “Bethlehem 2000,” which I recall they were hoping would be a big tourist event but the Israeli troops canceled Christmas that year. Hence, the leftover keychains, I suppose. There was also a stack of about 30 flyers about the Wall.

I was rather astonished when I received the package because the stamps were stuck all over the box in such a disorganized fashion that the post office was not able to stamp them. Later, I soaked the cardboard in water to get the stamps off so I could reuse them. They were the pretty blue and gold Eid Mubarak 41 cent stamps.

Furthermore, there was a strangely long handwritten message written on the packing slip signed “Riad Hamad.” I looked for it after I learned of his untimely demise but unfortunately I could not find it and I have no clear memory of what it said. I remember feeling strangely disturbed because of the tone of urgency with which the note asked me to let the world know what was happening to Bethlehem. A certain part of my brain asked, “What is wrong with him?” because most Islamic or Arabic relief agencies stick to glossy professional mailings free of personality. This charity worker seemed to really want me to know that it was Riad Hamad sending me these gifts from Palestine. I appreciated the gift items but was not sure why he seemed so urgently to feel that I should know his name.

I was even more astonished when I looked at the embroidered table cloth and saw that it had a faint round stain on it, as from a mug of tea.

The JCRC of Boston has hosted a website for years, entitled “MARRIAGE,” which ponders the question of what my husband and I discuss over dinner. So for all you silly Zionists out there here is your answer! I asked my husband if he knew Riad Hamad and he told me, “Sure, you met him too, at the Al-Awda conference.” It was one of our first dates when we were newly married. It was the day that Shaykh Yassin, Mufti of Jerusalem was murdered in his wheelchair by Israeli assassins in a helicopter. I heard him speak once, outdoors in downtown Cleveland during a rally for the release of our beloved brother Imam Jamil Al-Amin. I couldn’t understand anything he was saying since it was in Arabic but his voice kept cracking. He reminded me of an old Native American Indian chief begging us to save his people, who were being massacred.

I told Joachim, my husband, “Your friend at PCWF sent us a stained tablecloth. I paid $100 for that tablecloth.” He started laughing. “He sent you a used tablecloth?” We both cracked up. We decided not to ask for a refund since it was for charity but Joachim told me he’d email Riad to tease him about it. He never got around to emailing him though. (Men!)

Strangely, I was in such a rush to pack the family into the car to go to New Jersey for Christmas, that I actually forgot all the Christmas presents. It was totally embarrassing. But I remember thinking, there must be some reason that God didn’t want me to let go of those things, although I did send my sister-in-law the gorgeous black shawl with red embroidery.

When I saw the news report that Riad Hamad was brutally murdered, I immediately remembered his name. He was the weird guy who sent me the box of Christmas presents from Palestine. I saw his photo on the obituary and he did look familiar. He was someone with a strong and uninhibited personality. No wonder you could feel it just from the paper that he had touched. He was one of the few Muslims who could associate with secularists and leftist Jews and not compromise himself socially.

Last night, I engaged in an act of superstition. A dear friend of mine, aged 38, seems to be convinced that he will die at age 40 since his father died suddenly of heart failure at 40. He has spent most of his life praying and getting ready to pass on to the next world, in my opinion diminishing his joy in life. At one time I was committed to cheering him up. At this point I realized he is enjoying his symptoms.

I held the near empty bottle of Riad’s organic Palestinian olive oil upside down and said to God, “Tell me how many years he will live.” By the end of the 30s, I admit, it really did seem like time was running out. But it kept on slowly dripping until it reached 78. The last drop didn’t fall, it just hovered there until I got bored of standing there with my arm raised. I used my finger to wipe out the last bit. 78 years. It’s not forever, but it’s more than 40 years. Or, however old Riad Hamad was when he died.

This little event reminded me of when Ribhi Ramlawi, the owner of Jerusalem Garden in Ann Arbor, died. I used to work there. Upon hearing of his sudden death, one of the other waitresses, Amy, burst into the kitchen and brought out the vat of hommos that had been prepared for the coming day. She told us to eat, because this was the last hommos Mr. R. had ever made. His hommos was truly the best hommos I ever had in my life.

I was so relieved to hear Riad Hamad had an Islamic burial. Nothing feels quite as empty as a leftist funeral without prayers. The brother who washed his body said part of Riad’s brain was missing, as from a blow or a gunshot wound. I don’t know why someone would have wanted to do this to him. I do know that embroidery is a powerful force. I remember wearing my embroidered Palestinian shawl and playing “This Land is Your Land” on my fiddle in Highland Park, New Jersey. The older Zionists went sort of white and crossed to the other side of the street when they saw me, as if they had seen a ghost. The younger psychotic Zionists tried to interrupt me as I played my violin, and when that failed, they formed a circle discussing me. One of them asked me where I got my shawl. He demanded to know how I got into the Occupied Territories. I refused to tell him but in truth I got my shawl from the Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund. As I continued to play old American and Klezmer songs on my violin on the street during that festival, even though they were too timid to approach me, some orthodox Jews sent their children to tell me how much they liked my violin playing. There was something so powerful, almost magical, about that Palestinian embroidery.

Now I know why God made me forget to bring the gifts from Bethlehem. He wanted me to have them. In the years to come, I may need them to remind me of why I am alive. What am I doing here. I am here to struggle for Allah. The owner of the drycleaners seemed to believe there was no doubt the tea stain could be removed. Maybe there is some hope for the life to come.

One thing I thought was so interesting about the JCRC commentary on my marriage was that Jonathon Haber compared me to Cleopatra. Many years ago an ex-fiance published a book of poetry in Italian, which includes a number of poems about me, one of which speaks of me swimming in the Mediterranean Sea at night, “naked as a Cleopatra.” And here I am, middle aged, and some Jew pens an apparently permanent online commentary about me, again referring to me as Cleopatra.

So I just wanted to mention something that I hope might mean something to Riad, if he can hear me out there, and all the Palestinians scattered in the world out there and beyond. I grew up in America, never feeling like I quite belonged here. My mother came here in search of feminism and my father came here in search of my mother. I always wanted to return to Europe. For most of my teenage years, that was what I planned to do. By the age of 20 I managed to charm a Swiss man into offering me his gold confirmation ring with his initial on it. His family owned land in Italy and I went to see it. Olive trees in a sandy orchard as far as the eye could see, and on the horizon, the speckled lights of the ancient city of Florence. The house was over 100 years old. He had been born there, as had his mother. It was beautiful. There was an oil painting of the Virgin Mary on the wall, and a terra cotta roof. Wine in barrels and olive oil and chickens running around in the yard. An ancient stone oven in the garden, where one could bake bread without overheating the house. The neighbors were old folks, drinking their grappa beneath the grapevines. Not too far away was his actual home in Switzerland, in the mountains, near crisp cold sparkling clean waterfalls and rivers that rushed through the dark green forests of the most beautiful region in the western world. His parents started fixing up the old house when they learned he had fallen in love with me, hoping for grandchildren, I suppose.

I just couldn’t go through with it though. America was my home, and I had already fallen in love with Islam. Europe, as beautiful as it was, seemed to me to be a place whose time had come and gone. Now it was just old folks enjoying the scenery, waiting to die, essentially. The churches all empty, the women’s wombs all barren. I invited him to join Islam, but he said he was just a simple village boy. He didn’t think he could be something as exotic as a Muslim. So I left him. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I left him behind for the sake of Allah (not that I’m that great of a Muslim or anything). I accepted to live in this ridiculous country, the ugly and cheap United States of America.

Why?

Now I know why because Riad Hamad reminded me. He wanted me to have those gifts to remind me of why I am alive and why I am going to die. What am I doing here. I am here to struggle for the sake of Allah. I am here to remind you that there are more important things than olive trees as far as the eye can see. There is more to life than rings of gold and even fresh eggs from the chickens in the yard. That thing that makes life go forward is purpose. God wants every person to have a purpose, yours to unfold the true potential of your soul’s longing. I would have been bored to death there. I need struggle.

And so do you. Because struggle is the essence of the seed which grows, simply to affirm its own self worth, and pushes its way through the darkness of the soil until it explodes, so to say, above the soil and becomes a flower, and then a fruit. That is what life is. You don’t get the flower and the fruit unless you go through that struggle of sheer hope that what what you are doing is the right thing, pushing your way through the darkness, searching for the Light, knowing it must be there.

All plants are Muslims so we have to learn the lesson from the plants. The Land is not the goal, it is a means. We struggle through the land, through our lives, through our every effort, because we are reaching for the Light. And the Eternal Light is the Nur of Allah.

I would rather be a Muslim in America than to own every olive tree in the Mediterranean. Because on the day that I die, that is the only thing that is going to matter.

I am so happy Riad has found that Light and he is so lucky to have died as a Shaheed. I envy him.
Please make me worthy of a death as honorable as that of Riad Hamad and give me Paradise as well.

To Allah belongs the Kingdom, and the Glory, forever.
Amen.

===

SULLA SPIAGA DI VIAREGGIO
by Cosimo Pieracci
Vita: Madre di Parole

Ma ora il tuo sguardo brilla di vino e fatica, sorridi.
Sei solo un’ombra nell’aria densa
di questa discarica di sabbia.
Esercizi di yoga accanto alla striscia d’argento
generosa carezza che luna
stende qui come su altri mari.
Io scrivo con gli occhi pieni
di zanzare e di sonno.
Vorrei addormentarmi,
farlo possibilmente senza doverti baciare;
Tu non chiedi nulla e nemmeno saetti
all’improvviso la tua lingua attraverso le mie labbra
cosi mentre parlo o sbadiglio:
il sorprendente bacio del camaleonte!
Ti stendi leggera, aspetti il sonno, lo ottieni.
Dovro ancora lottare a lungo contro posto o poco distante da li.
La mattina e un paradiso:
sono venute le rondini, il sonno ha spento i motorini
e la giostra, un cono di silenzionsi gabbiani attraverssa
il latte dell’alba dove ti bagni
nuda come una Cleopatra.
Vedo la tua nuca andare verso l’acqua,
entrare nel rumore della risacca, sparire.
Il tuo pube torna al nostro giaciglio proprio
prima che l’oro cominci a colare sui passi lunghi
si muti magicamente in azzurro.
Le lingue del mare si srotolano sulla spiaggia,
tra le zampe di quattro bastardi ubbidienti e felici,
facendo una piccola schiuma nell’orgasmo di leccare il mondo.
Comprendo le’estasi di cui parlavi ieri alla mi mente
stanca nel momento in cui tornavi a sdraiarti sul ventre.
…Cosi le nere ombre della notte si sdraiano caute
sulla sabbia, copiando per non essere scorte, le forme del mondo…
Quanto poco possono sul tuo corpo le mie mani ora che sai
la dolcezza con cui ti carezza il tuo immenso amante di zaffiro.

Letter to American Muslims

Brothers and Sisters,

While hateful sentiments are certainly a normal response to US
history, never in the history of the world has hate dispelled hate.
When the Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) began to preach, the most powerful
people tried to stop him and they put the Muslims under torture and
starvation just like today. But when the Muslims grew in power and
came back to Mecca the Prophet (pbuh) decided NOT to destroy Mecca.
This decision resulted in Islam becoming the most powerful nation on
earth. God gives people victory only when they are acting for His
sake. When Ali (pbuh) was about to kill one of the enemies of Islam,
the guy spit in his face. Immediately Ali released him. When asked why
he released the man, he said that when he has spit in Ali’s face, it
made him feel angry. He knew that if he killed a man out of anger he
would burn in hell.

If we want truth and justice to prevail in the land, we have to use
cold objectivity. NOT revenge. The most powerful force is the warrior
free of emotion. Who looks where there is an opening to exploit, and
is awake. America is a house that is burning. It is falling apart. We don’t
have to do much to protest it because there is no more government.
Our country has been hijacked by criminals. There is no one in control.

Our job is to create an alternative government: SELF government. That
is actually boring and tedious work that requires you to talk to your
neighbors. It’s not as fun as being angry and vengeful. But the fact
is America is full of deceived people. Why are they deceived? Because
true Christians and Muslims, including Arabs have not been doing their
job to explain to Americans what is going on, how they are being lied
to, how they are being manipulated. In their sadness and hatred, they
wrap themselves in a shawl of fake helplessness and fake
self-righteousness. Then, when push comes to shove, they start
character assassinating or even murdering each other. What kind of
example is this to wake anyone up from their self-deception? Most
people would prefer to go back to sleep than to deal with fixing this
chaos.

So when we see an opening - Americans looking around, scratching their
heads, trying to figure out the disconnect between FOX News and
reality, wondering why they voted for Bush - this is when and where we
are needed. We have known the truth for years. Here we have a group of
people willing to listen. And what do Muslims and Arabs do, and
leftist peace activists? They behave arrogantly. They turn up their
noses and gossip with each other. To say that they are “following God”
is as absurd as George Bush saying he is following God. They are both
doing the same thing. ALLOWING CRIMINALS TO RUN THIS COUNTRY.

The neocons are going to split with the money and after that the
entire country of USA will be bankrupt like Detroit, Michigan. At that
point, Islam will become the dominant force and we will take over the
social services and participate in re-educating the people so that
they can overcome their delusions.

Basically if you want to “do something” about the situation in the
world you can either submit to your lust for revenge and talk about
how much you hate Americans and want them all dead, or you can BE
America. If you are so great, then why are YOU not doing what it takes
to turn this country around? All it takes is 20 people per precinct to
elect whoever you want into office. Why are you sitting on your behind
complaining?

I’m tired of all the arrogant bad-mouthing by Muslims, towards those
of us who are working 18 hours a day to save this country and help the
people shake off the Federal Government. Do you want to help us shake
off the Feds or not? At this stage of history Muslims are marching in
lockstep with the Jews. Don’t you want to do something new? Since this
“attitude” of yours has NOT stopped a single death of one Iraqi in 16
years? Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and expecting different results.

Now, and this is urgent: if anyone really wants to stop the neocon
rampage that is destroying the world, then join the movement of
Americans who are intensely organizing to stop the neocons. Ron Paul
is running as a Republican but his philosophy does not have anything
to do with Reagan or Bush. He is a Constitutional Libertarian. That
means he wants you to be able to keep your money instead of giving it
to the Federal Government. Given that your biggest sin as a Muslim is
those income taxes you pay that get sent to Israel, you should be the
first in line to make sure you offer yourself as a human shield to
protect Ron Paul’s life and help him totally. He is not a figurehead
that’s going to “make it all better.” All he has promised to do is
give you back your money and let YOU run your life instead of letting
the Federal government do it.

If all you had to do to stop Iraqis and Afghanis and Africans from
dying like flies is that you had to organize your neighborhood and
start talking to people and encouraging them to work together
politically, why not?

The real reason a lot of Arabs and Muslims hate Ron Paul is simply
because they are LAZY. They use their anger as an excuse to become
paralyzed with grief and rage, and therefore they are of no use to
anyone. As long as you just keep having your post traumatic stress
symptoms and inflicting more and more pain on those who love you,
there is no way you are going to stop Israel or America. You will just
turn America into Iraq. And what will that solve? Who is going to
clean up the mess that America made, if you kill America?

No, America will have to work for the next seven generations to clean
up the mess we made and it’s YOUR responsibility to make sure that we
do. Join the movement for Liberty, or at least clean up your own act.

The basic underlying reason that the Liberals are trying to pressure
Muslims not to help Ron Paul, and filling their heads with vacuous
garbage, is because the “peace movement” WANTS to disarm everyone.
They WANT a strong Federal Government that not only takes the guns
away from the American citizens but also takes the guns away from the
citizens of other countries. It makes us more manageable. One of the
basic disagreements that Muslims and Arabs usually have with Liberal
peace activists is the issue of whether or not Muslims and Arabs have
the right to bear arms against their military occupiers. They think
that we should all take the “higher road” of allowing ourselves to be
killed, in order to not be seen as “naughty.”

Only Ron Paul has a long history of defending the American people’s
Constitutional right to bear arms, and that specifically included a
person’s right to own assault weapons. That makes freedom sound like
the real thing, not just the choice between Coke or Pepsi. Peace
activists are at core loyal to the Jews. They fear American freedom as
much as the pro-war people. They want to wrap themselves in a fake
cloak of self-righteousness and feigned helplessness, and just stand
there with a sign that says “Peace.” “Peace! Peace!” is what a bunch
of hippies were shouting while a gangster pounded a friend of mine’s
head on the sidewalk, breaking his teeth. Slogans of peace do not stop
a bully. The bottom line when it comes to the definition of freedom is the
personal right to bear arms and the necessity of protecting this basic
Constitutional liberty.

That is why Muslims need to wake up and join the true citizens of
whatever country they are in, and stop joining the Jews in undermining
the integrity of their own country. Freedom is not about popularity and
self-gratification. As Khomeini taught, “True Revolution is about
self-sacrifice.” The biggest sacrifice Muslims can make without
breaking a single fingernail is sacrificing their egos: start
considering their non-Muslim neighbors as human, and work together on
a local level to make sure America survives even if the federal
administration goes belly up. If there is no more gasoline and the
stores have no more food on the shelves, do we have a plan yet?

Allah knows best.

Umm Yakoub

*********************************************************************

WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE

To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
wvns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

NEWS ARCHIVE IS OPEN TO PUBLIC VIEW
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/

Need some good karma? Appreciate the service?
Please consider donating to WVNS today.
Email ummyakoub@yahoo.com for instructions.

To leave this list, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Precinct by precinct, freedom is now

Every candidate that is running for office right now, Democrat or Republican, except Ron Paul, has promised AIPAC to continue the US belligerent stance against Iran. Obama promised that he would continue to threaten to bomb Iran. Furthermore there is a good chance of US troops in Sudan, Pakistan, and other places. So if we care about the future of the planet our number one concern is to pull the plug on this system of funneling US taxpayer money into corporate subsidies that finance Israel’s wars.

Everybody disagrees with Ron Paul about something. Many left-leaning Democrats reject him because of his pro-life stance on abortion. Yet, Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate in your lifetime that has promised to bring home all troops from every US base that is not in the US. He has promised to cut off all foreign aid to Israel and the Muslim dictators. Did you hear that folks? He is offering you your freedom. He wants to phase out income taxes. The Prophet (pbuh) was also opposed to income taxes.

Ron Paul has taken a moderate stance on the immigration issue. He wants to help 60 million foreigners immigrate here legally. He is the only candidate that is opposed to home to home searches for illegal immigrants. He is realistic about the tax burden on society that is created by uncontrolled immigration. Some people think that you can’t be a nice person if you don’t want amnesty for all illegals. But if your neighbor lost her house and became homeless because of your coercive charity plan, was it worth it? Dr. Paul’s position is not a fixed position regarding immigration. He believes that in a good functioning economy people will be more tolerant of newcomers. He is the only presidential candidate that is not embarrassed to talk to Iran. He promised to lift the sanctions against Iran, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, etc. He is a fiscal conservative. Best of all, he has really good manners. He doesn’t act. He is humble and genuine. He is the only presidential candidate I trust to talk to Ahmedinejad or Bashir. He is in favor of a currency backed by gold or some other commodity. He will stop printing paper money. Isn’t that what we believe in?

Best of all he claims he will liberate thousands of non-violent prisoners his first day in office and give all the US detainees the right to a fair trial. He will shut down Guantanamo and repeal the Patriot Act. He doesn’t believe in “Islamofascism.” He calls this kind of speech war propaganda. There are so many deeply important things that Ron Paul is doing for the Muslims that we should be willing to give everything and do everything we can to be of service to this remarkable man. Don’t go by the official campaign ads; The official campaign flyers are geared towards a certain type of mainstream American consumer audience and don’t give you a good picture of the clarity and depth of Dr. Paul’s grasp on reality. http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/ has his articles and speeches and are a better indication of his thinking on the issues.

Ron Paul has 10 years of a voting record that shows he is the closest to a friend that we have in Washington. No other candidate, not even Kucinich, has promised to cut funding of Israel. If you are not registered to vote as either Unenrolled or Republican, you cannot vote in the primary anyway but you can still get involved with freeatlast2008.com. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying because of US interventionist policy. Ron Paul is the only candidate talking about non-intervention. That’s priceless.

Also keep in mind: As president he doesn’t have a lot of power to do much about the “controversial” issues like immigration and the gold standard because he’d have to get it through Congress. The only power he really has as president is commander-in-chief of the US military. He’d be authorized to end the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan etc. And he can pardon prisoners. Everything else has to go thru Congress. He’s a low-risk candidate to back, and by doing so you can tap into a VIBRANT peace movement! It’s not your usual leftist peace protest, it’s a socially conservative peace movement. That is so priceless.

It’s important to mention that there is currently a precinct by precinct coordinated attempt to reclaim American democracy from the special interest lobbies. It has been proven that all it takes is about 10-20 people per precinct to turn things around entirely. By hooking into the ronpaul.meetup.com network you would gain valuable contact with other Americans who support the Constitution.

Please watch http://youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA

In closing I want to urge you to give Dr. Paul a chance because the press combined with coordinated email attacks to smear Dr Paul as the scariest man imaginable is because of his refusal to continue funding for Israel’s wars. Nothing they say about him is true. Please note that the people who spearheaded the vicious anti-Paul campaign are the same group of people who always smear CAIR and our mosque. I would only go on like this about a course of action we must take together now, if I thought it were a life and death situation. And it is. We have to pull the US out of everywhere and the only way we can do that is by pulling the plug on war financially. Ron Paul plans to do that.

Martin Luther King Day Money Bomb - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA2AGnOOp3g

Who is behind the Ron Paul media blackout?

Pat Robertson is connected to this group of rumormongers. Many of David Horowitz’s talking points end up in Pat Robertson’s sermons and on his website. Horowitz is the guy who said Ron Paul supporters are terrorists. Pat Robertson is backing Giuliani. The Lobby has a huge power over FOX news and that is probably why Giuliani gets all the TV time even though nobody votes for him.

The pro-Israel mailing lists are very very detailed and RonPaul needs to learn from this. We are the first group of people who have even begun to compete against the communication monopoly of the Israel Lobbyists. But they have target audience databases not only a list of email addresses. They arrange their database by personal interest. For example “Homosexual Israel supporters.” They probably sent an email to that list telling them that Dr. Paul hates homosexuals. Then they went to their “Christian fundamentalist Israel supporters” list and told them that Dr Paul is not a real Christian. Then they probably emailed the “Black Churches” list with accusations that Dr. Paul is going to cut off food stamps, etc. They have a thousand front organizations so it’s not always obvious who is behind the various PR campaigns. Special interest groups will employ people to join chat groups and spread their slander. The New Republic article smearing Dr. Paul as having insulted MLK was just one of many smear pieces circulated on the internet and sent as press releases to every news agency in America.

Whenever news breaks all over the nation on every station on the same day, you know you are dealing with the email networks of the Israel Lobby. Example - Save Darfur became a news story sensation overnight. Even though the killing has been going on for years and years, all of a sudden, on the same day, there is a front page story in every major newspaper on the planet about “Genocide in Sudan!” Compare that to Bosnia, where the news came in like a trickle, with many people doubting its veracity, and conflicting reports. With the Save Darfur campaign, there is NO VARIATION in opinion about Sudan from the left wing to the far right.

The only people who weren’t sold on the “Genocide in Sudan” story were the international investors.

I just signed off the “Jewish Libertarians” list and boy have they been busy smearing Dr. Paul. Their entire reason for existence seems to be to paralyze the Libertarian party by creating internal friction. (I’m not blaming all Jews just this particular yahoogroup). Apparently the CATO Institute, which claims to be Libertarian, hates the good doctor because their definition of Libertarianism is not the traditional, Constitutionally based “live and let live” but “I can bomb and plunder anyone I want. Na na na na na.”

Dr Paul’s most powerful opponents are the billions of dollars a year Israel Lobby and that’s who is keeping him out of the debates and telling FOX to treat him the same way as they told Columbia University to treat Ahmedinejad. I assume the Jewish retirees in Florida are swamping the media stations demanding that they nix Dr. Paul just like they write letters to their Congressman demanding that we bomb Iran. One of their journalists in the New York Times wrote a hit piece against Ron Paul as a Nazi.

This is a coordinated effort by people who are not loyal to a particular candidate but are only loyal to continued US taxpayer funding of Israeli wars and continued subsidies for American Jews to get mortgages with 2% interest rates on stolen property of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Hit Piece Bruises Ron Paul

Hit Piece Bruises Ron Paul
January 10, 2008
MariaHussain.wordpress.com

Martin Peretz, owner of the New Republic and funder of
Hillary really hurt Paul yesterday. It was a typical
Peretz thing to do - smear someone as a “homophobe”
and “racist” the day of the election. The New
Republic’s Jamie Kirchick ludicrously claimed that Ron
Paul personally called Martin Luther King a “gay
pedophile,” and other outlandish claims he later
retracted as mere gossip.

A very similar thing happened in Somerville on the eve
of the vote about whether or not city funds should be
invested in Israel or locally - in order to make it
sound more “controversial” than the issue really was,
all the neocon pundits went crazy, making up stories
about how I am a supporter of the local investment
movement and I’m a homophobic terrorist supporter that
hangs out with David Duke. This is a common tactic. It
makes you seem really “scary” to liberals. Liberals
whose vote we were counting on.

If the American people can’t get beyond the
“homophobic” smear in order to save their country,
America probably deserves to be crushed like a bug
quite frankly. People act exactly like insects.
Running around doing what “they” expect, never
thinking.

We have to be prepared in advance. I mentioned a
couple weeks ago the Zionist press is going to do
this. Dr. Paul needed a pre-emptive attack - a
statement on how his program is best for Blacks and
Gays. As we all know, there is no difference between
Huckabee and Hillary when it comes to AIPAC issues.
This game is a distraction. But there is a comeback.

Is Dr. Paul a racist? No, Dr. Paul WILL SET YOU FREE.
We need to emphasize his prison release program and
make sure people realize that Hillary and Obama are
NOT going to end war, they want new wars. Ron Paul is
the Black Man’s Best Friend. He is going to bring your
sons home from the war and release all non-violent
drug offenders from prison his first day in office, he said.
Ron Paul has more Black supporters than any other
Republican candidate and more active US military
personnel supporters than any other candidate.

The issue is not which candidate will win or lose. The
real issue is are we going to lose our country?
Americans are such sheep. If we don’t somehow teach
our friends to mistrust the media and double check
everything, that’s it for USA.

The sad part is that Dr. Paul was polling at 17% but
then a lot of those people went to vote Democratic
because they were embarrassed by the homophobic racist
smear that was circulated on the internet. It is true
that there was reportedly voter fraud. The hand count
of the votes puts Dr. Paul at 15% not 8% as the
newsmedia erroneously reported. But that still means
he lost 2% of the expected vote and all of the
fence-sitters who could have put him above 20% just
because of this typical Jewish smear tactic that was
coordinated and planned to not give Ron Paul time to
answer the accusations before the election.

Dr. Paul will not be counted as a winner unless he
wins by an overwhelming landslide. Even then, the
neocons might send in the National Guard to prevent
him from taking office, except the Guard is in Iraq.
(How convenient.) What happens next? No country in the
world knows what the next step is, how to get free.
The question is, how much longer will Americans fall
for these tricks?

RON PAUL’S RESPONSE

Ron Paul has already responded to these ridiculous
accusations and slammed them as political haymaking to
coincide with the New Hampshire primary.

“The quotations in The New Republic article are not
mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever
believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce
such small-minded thoughts.

In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King,
Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content
of a person’s character, not the color of their skin.
As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on
April 20, 1999: `I rise in great respect for the
courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood
steadfastly for the rights of individuals against
unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.’

This story is old news and has been rehashed for over
a decade. It’s once again being resurrected for
obvious political reasons on the day of the New
Hampshire primary.

When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine
full-time, a newsletter was published under my name
that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to
the product. For over a decade, I have publicly taken
moral responsibility for not paying closer attention
to what went out under my name.”

[We invite readers to share their views on Mr.
Kirchick’s article by e mailing him at
james.kirchick@gmail.com.]

Dr. Paul has an honest opinion. The neo-liberals have
think tanks working night and day doing marketing
analysis and using psychology to turn the public away
from Dr. Paul. There are Israeli/neocon spies that
keep tabs on every political activist in Boston and do
write-ups about them in Jerusalem, and meet with the
local & Israeli government about how to neutralize
them. In Palestine they just use a laser gun if
someone starts telling the truth. In America they
character assassinate more often. Like we have any
importance whatsoever. They flew the mayor of
Somerville to talk to Ariel Sharon about how to
silence eleven Boston responsible investment
activists.

Basically how the Lobby won it (and it was a close
race, 45 to 55%) was they made a bunch of slick
posters with Deval Patrick’s face on it, AND they
released a number of news reports and commentaries
that totally twisted the positions and arguments of
both sides, so that the average voter would be
confused about what they were voting for or against.
They also used a lot of psychological pressure
labeling people as “racists” “anti-Semites” etc. so
that the people who would normally support the ballot
initiative got scared away.

These people are very serious about not wanting Dr.
Paul’s voice to be heard and they don’t want him to
win. But they always use the same tactics.

If they don’t succeed in turning Dr. Paul’s name into
mud, they will turn on the organizers of the movement.
It’s going to go on and on and we have to strategize.
Is there a strategic planning wing of the People for
Paul movement?

Wear a Condom for World Peace!

Glenn Greenwald went on for paragraph after paragraph in Salon Magazine http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/22/klein/index.html going on and on about why he still deserves to live even though he’s considering voting for a pro-life Republican, namely Dr. Ron Paul, for president.

It is stunning to me how many people would rather have an abortion than have world peace. It seems pretty selfish to me. But I guess that’s what having an abortion is all about. Men who don’t want to take responsibility for their offspring. It has absolutely nothing to do with women’s rights if you ask me, and I have always been female. It has to do with the assumption that women must earn a living or else they are a drain on society.

Glenn Greenwald wrote:

“There’s no question that abortion — whatever one’s views on it are — is a vital, even central issue of individual rights… But abortion isn’t the only important issue… of Paul’s candidacy.”

There are actually a lot of questions about what are the most vital issues concerning the individual rights of women, and how abortion fits into that picture. If you ask me, abortion is a distraction from the three fundamental rights of sexually active women.

Marriage - the promise of a man to provide for his offspring and fulfill the needs of his woman.

Dowry - a gift given from the man to the woman to legitimize his interest in her.

Maintenance - all expenses paid (food, clothing, shelter, medical care) for life.

In the ideal world, every woman should and would demand this from any man seeking to enjoy her. Abortion “on demand and without apology” destroys this ancient security net for women.

“If people who support a candidate with the wrong position on abortion (or gay rights) can be accused of being indifferent to the rights of women or gay people, then — by the same exact “reasoning” — those who end up supporting candidates who affirm America’s right to act as an imperial power or who want to continue many of Bush’s executive power abuses [as Hillary Clinton certainly does and as even Barack Obama and (to a lesser extent) John Edwards do] should be accused of being indifferent to constitutional liberties, the rule of law, and the lives of millions of innocent Muslims,” continues Greenwald.

I do not presume to know what the “right” position is on abortion. Neither does Ron Paul. He doesn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of the Constitution. He says leave it up to the state. There is no way New York Jews are ever going to criminalize abortion. So it’s a non-issue.

Islam: Where do I begin?

Ask Maria Anything! Use the comments feature.
http://mariahussain.wordpress.com/

Q: I am in love with Islam. I don’t have the guts to change my lifestyle yet, but I am engaged in deep thinking and my entire world view has shifted. Where do I begin to try and approach God through Islam?

A: There are millions of “sleeper Muslims” like yourself throughout the world. Some were born ethnicaly Muslim but were never taught how to perform the religion, while many were raised in another tradition. Especially in the 1970s, due to the ministry of Malcolm X, a lot of people in the civil rights movement converted to Islam, mostly in theory but not in practice. But that may be an illusion. Being a “good Christian” in this country amounts to not much more than just back-stabbing materialism. But being a “good Muslim” is a full time job. By choosing to identify as “bad Muslim” we choose a moderate path, a general philosophy which has the potential of propelling our society forward in a positive direction.

Islam is about making a conscious choice to work on becoming a true human being. A Mensh, as the Yiddish like to say. Someone upright, truthful, and compassionate yet firm. The Path of Islam is about using your time in this life to purify your worship through ego reduction. Before you can “become the rider of your own elephant” (to quote the Buddha), it is necessary to respect yourself. Most people have been demoralized or traumatized in some way by their family or culture and this leaves scars on our hearts that keep us from living life freely without baggage. To reach the place of peace and clarity we usually first need to wade through a lot of muck with a great deal of effort and courage.

Islam is about learning how to be a clean person, inside and out. First step we keep our homes clean. The thing that distinguishes humans from animals is that humans, when they are living in a godly way, clean up after themselves. A bird poops anywhere anytime. A human being disposes of his own poop in a safe and sanitary manner. A Muslim cannot look at feces or urine. We do not live with dirt in our home. A home can be messy, but not dirty. A dirty house is not a home. Filth erodes the faith because it causes us to disconnect from our consciousness in an effort to avoid noticing the dirt.

If someone sprinkled when he tinkled, clean it up immediately. Anything rotten or foul smelling should be disposed of. Clothes and sheets should be kept clean. The Prophet, peace be upon him, taught that there are unseen creatures which live in dirty places that bring disease and misfortune to the people.

The most essential thing that distinguishes a Muslim from a non-Muslim is that Muslims keep their butts clean. It is the most elementary thing, but it prevents bladder infections, enhances sex, and just feels right. Why walk around smelling musty when you could RINSE?

If Islam is interesting to you, try obeying the Shariah in just one aspect and see how your life changes. For example, start keeping your butt clean. After you urinate, rinse off. After you poop, wash your butt. The Islamic tradition is to keep a jug of water next to the toilet, it looks like a watering can with the spout cut off, but even a soda bottle or plastic cup works. While sitting on the potty, you pour the water over your privates with your right hand, using your left hand to guide the water and open the folds of skin. This is important because you can actually go to Hell for slime sticking on your pubes. So don’t let it happen.

Another hygeine aspect of the Shariah is shaving off your pubes. It makes it easier to wash. It doesn’t hurt. Some people like to get it waxed off. That hurts. Muslims are not supposed to walk around with a smelly hairball in their pants. The Islamic law says you have to at least clip your pubes with scissors once every three weeks and don’t let it get long. Same goes for the underarms.

Clipping your fingernails. Islamic fundamentalists keep their nails short without nail polish, like the Swiss. Learn to view fingernail attachments and decorations as low class.

Circumcision. If you are not circumcized you might consider it. I hear it prolongs erection and makes the wife very happy. In any case it reduces her risk of catching disease from your smegma. If you can’t face it, then don’t worry. There are some Islamic laws that allow you to forego that ritual.

Keeping your nose clean. Cup water in your right hand and sniff it up your nostrils. Use your left hand to squeeze and clean your nose while you blow all the water out. That is the Islamic way to blow your nose. Looking up someone’s nose (if you are petite like me) is the quickest way to spot a pagan. Muslims keep their butts clean, their noses clean, their hands and feet clean.

There are so many rules that I could go on and on. I recommend the book “Morals and Manners in Islam” by Marwan Ibrahim Al-Kaysi if you want to know all the rules for human behavior. But if you start with these few tips, I guarantee you will have improved health and self-esteem. Maybe even better luck in love.

Muslims discover Ron Paul

After the Republican debate on Tuesday evening in Dearborn, Mich., a reporter from the Arab-American News asked Ron Paul what he thought of the term “Islamic fascism.”

“It’s a false term to make people think we’re fighting Hitler,” Paul responded. “It’s war propaganda designed to generate fear so that the war has to be spread.”

The call has gone out to all the Muslim Americans to hurry up and register to vote Republican so that they can vote in the Republican Primary to support Ron Paul, the anti-interventionist, non-isolationist candidate for President of the United States. Muslims are opening their wallets and joining teaparty07.com as well.

An anonymous Ron Paul supporter posted the following message on the internet: “Muslims and Americans have an unique window of opportunity for the 2008 election. There is a candidate running as a Republican that would work to completely cut off the funding to Israel, remove ALL US troops from Arab lands, and repeal the Patriot Act. He’s a Republican with Libertarian views named Ron Paul. Ron Paul’s policies ranging from monetary to foreign are top notch. Till now Muslims and Americans have not had an American Presidential candidate that really suited their best interests. This election is unique in that we have a man running as a Republican that speaks the truth…We know the current policies in the Middle East are failing, not only making it less safe in the world but hurting and killing innocent Muslims, which our media callously calls collateral damage. It is our duty as Muslims to follow the truth regardless of how futile it may seem. Ron Paul is the only candidate that does not seem to be swayed by the influential lobbies that the other candidates are catering to.”

Ron Paul stood up in Congress in 2006 and opposed a resolution that sided with Israel in the Lebanon-Israel conflict. He stated the following.

Ron Paul: “Mr. Speaker, I follow a policy in foreign affairs called non-interventionism. I do not believe we are making the United States more secure when we involve ourselves in conflicts overseas. The Constitution really doesn’t authorize us to be the policemen of the world, much less to favor one side over another in foreign conflicts. It is very clear, reading this resolution objectively, that all the terrorists are on one side and all the victims and the innocents are on the other side. I find this unfair, particularly considering the significantly higher number of civilian casualties among Lebanese civilians. I would rather advocate neutrality rather than picking sides, which is what this resolution does.”

Ron Paul has also sponsored a bill to overturn the Patriot Act. He is one of the few members of Congress from either of the major houses that is speaking rationally about these issues. How can we get everyone, and I mean everyone, to join the Ron Paul Republican voter sign-up campaign?

There is general frustration with politicians these days, and the unwillingness to believe that supporting a particular candidate will make a difference. But whether Ron Paul wins or loses, ronpaul.meetup.com is a great way to meet your neighbors who are against the war and organize the community on a grassroots level. If something like Katrina ever happened to us, knowing our neighbors could mean the difference between life and death to our families.

The common thread I’ve been reading lately about leftists and Jews is that they are having trouble getting more than a dozen people to come to their stuff (whether anti-Zionist or Zionist). The anti-Israel movement is not moving forward, because “protest Zionist imperialism” is just not a catchy slogan. By contrast, there are over 400 RP activists against war taxes in Boston alone. Every day the list of passionate anti-war activists grows. Very few of them agree with every single RP position, they just want to get the Lobby out of the way and pull the troops out of Iraq.

One reason it’s working is because of the software. They made the ronpaul.meetup.com site almost like a dating site, where you can make friends with people in or near your zip code. They made it very easy to get together with new people to join the activism. You can’t beat technology, may as well use it.

In the event that RP actually won the election and got the Hamas treatment, his supporters are fully in support of the Right to Bear Arms. It would be interesting to see what followed.

If anti-war protesters want to continue to focus on the genocidal machinations of the global zionist-imperialist military, industrial, financial, political, neoliberal, media complex, they have to be willing to meet with anyone any time to hear what ideas people have to address this, which is our primary responsibility - even if they are Republicans.

If you ever saw Ron Paul in an interview it cannot be said that he avoids discussing vital issues. He is someone who is willing to make a statement and stick by it even when no one agrees with him. I don’t “believe” in electoral politics but it’s not that much sweat off my brow to go and vote to end war.

I think the fact that NO pro-Israel group will let Ron Paul speak at their convention, not even peace Zionists, is evidence enough that he is the only person to put in charge as commander-in-chief. And, even if he loses, making all these contacts with local anti-interventionists is priceless. If you want to expand the peace movement so that it overlaps with the freedom movement like ripples in a pond, you just have to respect the fact that people might agree with you, but for different reasons.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/muslims_for_ronpaul/

Why not Ron Paul?

Does America have a future? Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of choices here. You want Rudy Giuliani, who dressed up as a woman and marched in the gay pride parade, and who has been profiteering off 9/11, or you want Hillary, who strongly supported the genocidal sanctions against Iraqi children while she was First Lady? Both of them have promised AIPAC to bomb Iran. Also, Obama is influenced by AIPAC. At this point, there is nothing more important than pulling our troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere. I heard that Cynthia McKinney might run as a Green, but her chances of winning are slim because the Green Party has no money and has very few active volunteers. Ron Paul actually has a fighting chance to stop the wars because he has a strong base of support among the Young Republicans who are very enthusiastic and remarkably sane. He wins every debate because he makes a “self-interest” argument for ending the wars which works with Americans. Even Jay Leno respected him.

Ron Paul is a Constitutionalist and a non-interventionist. Everybody disagrees with him about something. The leftists hate him because he’s anti-abortion. But again, we have to put aside our personal opinions and stop the war immediately or lose our democracy. We only have one chance. The only thing that can unite Americans is the Constitution (as flawed a document as it is - but it’s better than the lawlessness of Bush). Not a single Jewish organization supports Ron Paul for president.

Ron Paul approaches the Constitution almost like an Islamic jurist. He did not say he didn’t think universal health care might be a good idea. He said it’s not in the Constitution that the US government has the role of providing health care. If you want to do it, then you have to amend the Constitution. If you allow Congress to do things that the Constitution doesn’t allow, then we no longer have a constitutional democracy. They can declare war without an act of Congress, they can cancel your currency value, they can put you in jail without evidence, etc.

I have never come across him saying anything racist. He did say, “I certainly join my colleagues in urging Americans to celebrate the progress this country has made in race relations. However, contrary to the claims of the supporters of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the sponsors of H.Res. 676, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty.”

That is certainly true. Boston’s bizarre busing system destroyed neighborhoods which had closely knit communities that worked together on a local level to organize social programs like Boy Scouts, now we have a welfare state where you have to enter a lottery to get your kids into a decent school, and they waste a lot of gas busing kids across town when there is a school walking distance from their house. Nobody attends Boy Scouts anymore, and neighborhood crime is rampant. The situation for blacks and whites has worsened since the 1960s because our economy is going down the drain due to our foreign policy. Studies have shown that the more racially mixed a neighborhood is, the less likely it is that the people will be active in community organizing. So that leads to increased dependency on government services. I guess there is idealism on one hand, and the reality on the other hand. In any case, he has a rational argument for his views.

The current drug policy in the United States is completely irrational. The CIA invades a country, forces them to grow drugs, then the CIA brings it into the country and sells it to the police, who then sell it to the drug mafia, and then we spend billions of dollars putting people in jail for non-violent crimes. By decriminalizing drugs, and dismantling the CIA, as Paul proposes, you will have far fewer social problems created by criminal mafias and gangs because something like cocaine would no longer be profitable. And our tax money would no longer pay for these drug wars. That was also the approach in the early days of Islam. Scholars, including Caliph Ali refused to criminalize intoxicating herbs because there was nothing specifically in the Quran outlawing any plant. There was no criminal offense for hashish or opium, and usually they were prescribed by doctors as medicines. Avincenna (I forgot his name in Arabic) talks a lot about the medieval Muslim uses of what we now consider to be “illegal” drugs. The drug wars have cost US taxpayers billions of dollars and have not improved anything. So it’s useful to look at how America used to deal with these issues. Did you know that George Washington grew marijuana on the White House lawn? Farmers used to pay their taxes with hemp. The laws changed in the 1940s due to pressure from special interest groups. The herbicide (genocide of plant species) led to great dust storms, the ruination of farmers, and the Great Depression.

I am aware of “states rights” connection with the American history of slavery, however in this day and age, states rights gives you protection from Bush. And it also protects people. Because as long as, for example, gay marriage is a states issue, then every state can decide if it does or doesn’t want to have gay marriage. If you gave the Feds the authority to make that decision, a special interest lobby could convince the federal government to legalize or outlaw gay marriage for the entire country. So there are pros and cons to Ron Paul’s positions.

Affirmative action has not succeeded in addressing inequalities in society. What most average black and white people want is more money to live. So again, smaller government would decrease the individual burden on average people to sustain an empire with their taxes and we’d have less poverty. Dr. Paul is a moral person so I’m sure that minorities could work with him to end poverty in ways that conform to the Constitution. In Roxbury here, the black community has been having a lot of meetings to figure out what to do because even though they succeeded in getting federal funding for all kinds of stuff, the crime in the neighborhood is just getting worse and worse. So, the socialist approach isn’t working and Ron Paul’s approach - locally based government, is what the black community is doing anyway, out of necessity. The #1 concern for black youth right now is not wanting to get killed in Iraq. Paul has a young black following.

Bottom line, we have to stop the war. Ron Paul is approachable. He is neither a criminal nor insane. As long as you can make an argument from the point of view of the Constitution you can get by. Sort of like when you are dealing with the Taliban, you have to make your argument based on Quran/Hadith and they will listen.

About immigration, I think it’s a non-issue for those who immigrated here legally. I suspect that the anti-Mexican rhetoric is playing to popular sentiment, yet with his “small government” proposal, we’d have less of a police state working night and day to bust into the homes of the Mexicans, so they still might be better off with Ron Paul, and also, fewer Mexicans would join the US military and kill Muslims in order to get a green card, if there was no war. Ideally, the US should have a less predatorial relationship with Mexico so that their country would not be so impoverished that their young people would all have to leave home.

Some people feel that “ideally” they want some kind of welfare system with open borders. They don’t want to support Ron Paul because they disagree with this or that. However, what we have right now is Bush and a government that has descended into lawlessness. No amount of protesting is going to automatically transform what we have into a socialist utopia. In fact, the US is bankrupt. So either we give in to complete tyranny, or we stick to the Constitution. I don’t see any other choice. There is no other candidate who has indicated willingness to uphold the Constitution when it comes to declaring wars, detainee rights, and our personal freedoms.

Watch Ron Paul karate slam CNN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K0uwNjXooI&NR=1

To help Ron Paul, visit teaparty07.com - ronpaul.meetup.com - ronpaul2008.com