Next time you talk to an anti-Federal Reserve type...

You may want to mention this: History of the Anti-Semitic Roots of Federal Reserve Consiracy Theorists.

In more recent years, the anti-Semitic notion that "the Jews" dominate and command the U.S. Federal Reserve System and in effect control the world’s money has surfaced across the extremist spectrum. Contemporary economic anxieties and distrust of government have given new life to this timeworn myth.

Just keep it in mind. Ron Paul's rhetoric smacks of this fairly frequently.

Fuck Ron Paul Some More.

To those who ask if Ron Paul can actually win in Iowa, Jonathan Chait has this:

No, he really can’t. It would be nearly impossible to imagine the Republican Party nominating a candidate who spent years and years publishing a racist newsletter and has deep associations with the fringe far right. (Here he is speaking to the John Birch Society on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.) It would be even more impossible to imagine the Party nominating a candidate who favors total withdrawal from world affairs and takes a Chomsky-ite line on American power. The notion that the Party might nominate a candidate who does both these things is totally preposterous.

...

Paul’s supporters seem to believe that the media ignoring him is the only thing keeping him from challenging for the Party nomination. More likely, it’s the only thing that’s allowed his candidacy to progress to this point. If more people actually understood the full scope of Paul’s fringe-right views, a huge portion of his support would peel off.

Ron Paul is a atavistic racist scumbag. Yeah, he's good on foreign policy (some), but other than that he's a crazy fundamentalist christian right wing nut job. Fuck him, and if you're too lazy too look into what his actual policy proposals are and where he's been fuck you too.

Fuck Ron Paul.

What Digby said: Paul Fever Entering Our Precious Bodily Fluids and Corrupting Our Purity of Essence.

At the John Birch Society 50th anniversary gala, Ron Paul spoke to another favorite theme of the Reconstructionists and others in the religious right: that of the "remnant" left behind after evil has swept the land. (Gary North's publication is called The Remnant Review.) In a dispatch on Paul's keynote address, The New American, the publication of the John Birch Society, explained, "He claimed that the important role the JBS has played was to nurture that remnant and added, 'The remnant holds the truth together, both the religious truth and the political truth.'"

Yes, Ron Paul is essentially part of the John Birch Society. He's also a Christian Reconstructionist. Also, Ron Paul is a bigot and an asshole and a misogynist (no-exception abortion ban!). His economic policies are fucking retarded (gold standard, really?).

Re-thinking American foreign policy and leaving other countries the fuck alone is a an admirable policy position, but it is very nearly the only one Paul holds that is not fucking insane.