This guy is a big Ron Paul supporter

Forbes reports:

Sovereign Extremist Injured in Texas Bomb Explosion

On June 20, 2012, a 33-year old Texan named Anson Chi was arrested and charged with a hideous crime. According to case investigators, Chi had manufactured a bomb in his parents’ home and was attempting to blow up an above-ground natural gas pipeline in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Plano, Texas. The bomb had gone off while Chi was standing over it, and the explosion caused a large, circular indentation in the strong, metal pipes. Natural gas began leaking out, but luckily for nearby homes, did not ignite. Chi, however, was badly injured by the blast.

 Here's the freak's MySpace page, replete with pro-Paul crap.

Maddow on how the Paul crowd is quietly beginning to take over the GOP

Very good analysis of what's happening in the state level Republican infrastructure. The lesson to learn? These guys get knocked down but they get up again, and they're never really gone:

Fox Nation: Culture Boobs

Apparently Fox Nation equates "culture" with "boobs." At least, that's what I'm left to conclude when of its top nine features in the new stories section, three (33%) entice with cleavage photos and are tagged "Culture."

Should I keep blogging about this guy?

Sure, it seemed like a good topic at the time. Ron Paul was making noise and people were asking (again) about his racist, kooky newsletters. So I collected them, and I intend to keep doing so, but luminaries such as the New York Times via Salon seem to think Paul is going to once again slide out of the public spotlight:

Or maybe, and just hear me out here, maybe Ron Paul has always been a niche candidate with a small but incredibly vocal base of support? Maybe the rallies full of thousands of college students represented essentially the entirety of his following and not just the most committed element? Maybe a cantankerous lifelong congressman who combines a steadfast antiwar position with long-discredited crank monetary ideas was never actually remotely likely to come close to winning the Republican nomination? (And his history of embracing racist white populism probably hurt him with “independents,” besides the racist independents.)

Maybe, maybe, most of America actually doesn’t care for Ron Paul or his ideas!

So as of now, I'll be broadening the scope of this site to examine in more granular depth the esoteric sources of many of the weird things we hear right-wing leaders and candidates saying. Stuff like Sarah Palin's ties to people who think they battle demons, for example.

It's sure to be hilariously terrifying. It'll be hilerrifying.

Hey young people! Listen to somebody who actually knows what he's talking about re: the gold standard!

From The Atlantic Wire:

We wondered Tuesday morning why Ben Bernanke was offering a live-streamed lecture series to college students on the history of the Federal Reserve, and now we have at least one answer: He's reaching out to young people -- the young people who conveniently make up a core constituency of notorious Fed-antagonist Ron Paul.

This is great. Youngsters who have been listening to Ron Paul's endless droning about the gold standard on YouTube can now get real information about it, from the Chair of the Federal Reserve rather than from a gynecologist.

What would Gandhi say?

I've debated for some time about whether to do this. But I finally decided to go through with a collection of nutty internet forum quotes from Ron Paul supporters. Is it nut-picking? Of course it is. But I firmly believe that if one were so inclined, one could compile a list a hundred times this length.

So. I promise they're not made up. These are just a few of the many wacky things said online by Ron Paul supporters:

"look the plan is to let bang bang i will kill you if you are different obama, mitt is there to look good oh he has nice hair there is no change there never was going to be thay will & have set fema camps up for you .look if you want change LOOK AT IT ron paul will put the usa & world back too greatness if that is what you wont ,but if you wont evil vote mitt or bang bang LAST CHANCE.good luck." -- nellyyllen1, YouTube


"A question for the Ron Paul voters:

If Mr. Ron Paul was elected President of the United States, would he release the classified files about UFOs?

Would he disclose all information about HAARP and its use as a weapon of mass destruction?

Would he start a serious investigation about 9/11 and disclose the truth about the flase flag attacks?

Or not? Or will him keep the secrets of the Military–industrial complex?" -- IWantTheTruth, GodLikeProductions


(Part of a discussion of whether Ron Paul is a Reptoid) "Anything is possible, but if he is, he is the most cunning reptile ever as he displays none of thier traits.

The best of the rest all display some form of snobbery/stupidity/callous/sexual diviance. They can't avoid it as its part of thier genetic makeup.

Paul never displays any of these traits, he's always %100 honest and correct and he always behaves like a human being.

I'm prepared for anything, but as of now I stand behind him with no doubts." - Crisitunity, davidicke.com


Check back for more!

Why Ron Paul doesn't really matter that much

So why do I talk about him so much? Because this is the Internet, where Ron Paul is a really big deal, not the real world, where he isn't:

Tim Hwang, a researcher of online movements and memes and the managing director of the Web Ecology Project, says that Ron Paul illustrates a fact we often overlook: "The Internet is notcoterminous with the real world." He told me by email, "Like in a rearview mirror communities can be smaller than they appear on the Internet: discussion is often subject to parties who are loudest and can rally the most participants to appear online and participate at that specific moment."
This time around, for Paul, the Internet rally seems to have been sound and fury signifying little.Paul's big hopes for Alaska, Idaho and North Dakota were dashed on Super Tuesday, and he has yet to score a victory in a single contest in this election.

This is actually rather similar to the Tea Party strategy from a few years ago. Remember the Tea Party strategy memo that was leaked? Its advice, according to Talking Points Memo:

The memo ... suggests that tea partiers should "pack the hall... spread out" to make their numbers seem more significant, and to "rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation...to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early.... to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda...stand up and shout and sit right back down."

 Ron Paul's people simply do the internet version of this, on individual websites and as a whole. They like to seek sites where a smaller group of people comment -- it makes them seem like a larger percent of the user base -- and on the Web as a whole, they proliferate with pro-Paul sites. The online presence of the Ron Paul movement may seem impressive -- but it's really just a roaring mouse.