If Ron Paul was disappointed in last night’s Iowa caucus results , it didn’t show. The Republican Congressman from Texas finished a strong third behind Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum , but certainly served notice that he’s a factor in 2012. Paul wanted some legitimacy and a bigger platform for his movement, and by securing over 20 percent in the first-in-the-nation caucuses, he’s on his way. On stage before a cheering crowd Tuesday, Paul said winning elections is the best way to promote a cause, and that he was one of three winners last night: Ron Paul Speech After Iowa Caucus Claiming a ticket out of Iowa, Paul vowed to continue his fight, even as GOP rivals such as Newt Gingrich, Romney and Santorum dismiss him as unelectable. Iowa voters thought otherwise, taking to Paul’s small-government, anti-war and pro-civil liberties message in enough numbers to lift him into the top tier. Evangelicals, home schoolers, young people, moderates, libertarians and disaffected Democrats formed an unlikely coalition that led to his strong showing. Can it be replicated or improved upon elsewhere? That’s the key question. “We have tremendous opportunity,” Paul said. “It won’t be long that there’s going to be an election up in New Hampshire, and believe me, this momentum is going to continue, this movement is going to continue and we are going to keep scoring.” With a huge smile at the end, he continued, “So tonight, we have come out of an election where there were essentially three winners, three top vote-getters.” “We will go on, we will raise the money, I have no doubt about the volunteers.” Indeed, Paul’s fundraising and organization make him formidable almost anywhere. As the field narrows ( Michele Bachmann is already out), can he gain support? We’ll find out in New Hampshire.
Does this make Willie Wilkerson the King of Soul? Call him what you want, he’s engaged to Aretha Franklin! The iconic singer, 69, is planning to marry her “forever friend” Wilkerson, her rep confirms , adding that they are discussing tying the knot on Miami Beach, with an exclusive reception aboard a private yacht. Here’s a photo of the soon-to-be newlyweds: On the celebrity fashion front, Aretha “is considering Donna Karan, Valentino and the queen of wedding dresses, Vera Wang, to design her gown,” says her rep. Franklin, who lost 85 pounds last year after a health scare, said “I feel fabulous.” Adds the singer herself of the upcoming nuptials to Willie Wilkerson: “We’re looking at June or July for our date and no, I’m not pregnant, LOL!” LOL, indeed. And congratulations! [Photo: WENN.com]
With just one day remaining before the Iowa caucuses kick off the GOP primary process, Ron Paul dinged surging rival Rick Santorum for being a fiscal liberal. Paul said the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and staunch social conservative, who has gained traction of late, voted for too much spending while in Congress. “I mean, have you looked at his record? Go look at his record,” Paul told CNN. Ron and Rand Paul Interview Accompanied by son Rand Paul, Ron continued: “He spends too much money. He wasn’t leading the charge to slash the budgets and vote against big government.” Rand Paul, who was elected to the U.S. Senator from Kentucky in 2010, added that Santorum’s voteing history proved he wasn’t a true conservative. “He voted to double the size of the Department of Education,” Rand Paul said. “He voted to expand Medicare and add free drugs for seniors and he has voted for foreign aid.” “Those are not conservative principles … 77 percent of the American people are opposed to foreign aid and Rick Santorum has voted for it every time it’s come down.” Ron Paul, who is running neck-and-neck with Mitt Romney and Santorum in Iowa, again addressed a potential third-party bid should he fail to win the GOP nomination. “I have no plans in doing that,” Paul said. “Tomorrow is a big day. We’ll see what happens but I have no intention of doing that, no plans and no desire.”
There may be one thing Josh Krajcik does better than sing: accept defeat. The X Factor runner-up may have lost to Melanie Amaro last Thursday night , but you’d hardly know it based on the way Krajcik greeted reporters after the show. He was giddy and gracious. “It’s been an amazing process to be a part of, I’ve met so many incredible people,” Josh said. “I feel like the future’s bright and everything I’ve done in my life has led to tonight. It’s a turning point in my life and now it starts. Now I’m ready to get to work.” As for Amaro? “She deserves to win. She’s wonderful. America decided, and she’s got such an amazing voice and she’s such a great girl. I couldn’t be happier for her.” Krajcik added that he’s gonna go home for a week and then “go to work” on his singing career. We have a feeling his days of slinging burritos are long behind him.
GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul appeared on Fox News Friday and was asked about a possible third-party Donald Trump run, now that he’s become an independent . Paul is not concerned. “To each his own, he may do it. I doubt he’ll do it,” he said. “If he really wanted to be president, why walk away? Why is he concerned he couldn’t do it as a Republican?” Ron Paul on Fox News With Neil Cavuto “I have no idea what he is going to do,” Paul said. “I don’t think he will be calling me for advice. I don’t think he will ask for an appointment to come see me to get advice or an endorsement. I’m not expecting that.” Your World host Neil Cavuto asked the Republican hopeful why he never “kissed Trump’s ring” like many of the other candidates had over the past year. His reply: “I didn’t think it was necessary or appropriate … How could he endorse what I’m doing? My positions are pretty much opposite of what he talks about.” “He doesn’t believe in free market. He likes the Federal Reserve. He is not a free trader. He likes tariffs. So there is not a lot we have in common.” That about sums it up from Paul’s perspective.
This dude can’t be serious. Ron Paul is trying to avoid getting played out like Rick “Ni**erhead” Perry by blaming his old racist writings on “ghostwriters.” SMH. Trying to head off mounting controversy, Texas Congressman Ron Paul apologized Friday for decades-old racist and homophobic newsletters that were sent out in his name. While the GOP presidential hopeful issued the mea culpa, his said the hate-filled screeds were not the work of his pen. “[T]here were multiple ghost writers involved and he does not know who penned the particular offensive sections,” campaign spokesman Jesse Benton said in an email to Reuters. “Ultimately, because the writing appeared under his name and he should have better policed it, Dr. Paul has assumed responsibility, apologized for his lack of oversight and disavowed the offensive material.” The congressman, who is leading in many polls in the early voting state of Iowa, has come under fire in recent days for the newsletters. They were published under a handful of titles, including Ron Paul’s Political Report and Ron Paul’s Freedom Report, during his time and in out of public office during the late-1980s and early 1990s. “We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men; it is hardly irrational,” one declared. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, another Paul hate-sheet read: “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.” Others took aim at AIDS patients. One screed alleged a conspiracy between the federal government and the homosexual community to minimize the disease’s impact. Another accused people with AIDS of enjoying “the attention and pity that comes with being sick.” The candidate’s apology was issued as video from 1995 surfaced that showed Paul discussing the controversial newsletters, which he had claimed he had not read until about 2001. In the resurfaced video, an interview with C-SPAN, Paul — then out of office and trying to return to Congress — describes the “educational” newsletters and seems to be knowledgeable of their contents. “It covered a lot about what was going on in Washington: financial events, especially some of the monetary events, since I had been especially interested in monetary policy, had been on the banking committee and am still very interested in that subject,” said the libertarian-leaning lawmaker. “This newsletter dealt with it. This has to do with the value of the dollar, the pros and cons of the gold standard, and of course the disadvantages of all the high taxes and spending our government seems to continue to do.” The video was posted on YouTube by Alexander Kaczynski, a self-described “political junkie” who has unearthed several old videos of current presidential hopefuls. Before the candidate’s apology, his spokesman told USA Today that Paul was detailing an investment newsletter and that the incendiary comments were in others he did not write. But on CNN Wednesday, a testy Paul said he only read them on occasion and did not write them. The normally mild-mannered congressman eventually walked out on the interview. In 1996, Paul told the Dallas Morning News that the material was accurate but had merely been taken out of context. Critics say the newsletter flap could hurt him in Iowa, arguing that although the controversial newsletters were reported on before, many voters were unaware of them until now. The seeming flip-flopping and “controversy makes Paul look like just another politician,” said the Christian Science Monitor’s Peter Grier. Leon Wolf of the conservative blog Red State said the C-SPAN video was damaging. For “not having any inkling about what was in it, Paul was remarkably well informed as to its contents,” he said. These Republican candidates are a trip. The GOP is gonna be hard pressed to find somebody without a cheating scandal, gay scandal or racist past to put up for this next election. SMH. Source More On Bossip! Silver Spoon Swag: Stars That Were Born Rich Already! Sneaky Geniuses: Stars That Are Wayyyyy Smarter Than They Look Gone Home To Glory: The Notable Names That Passed Away In 2011 Part 1 X-Rated Bangers: The Hottest Black Adult Movie Stars In The Biz…Would You Wife Any Of Them?
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he would deport President Barack Obama’s uncle, who authorities say was arrested in August for DUI near Boston. Onyango “Omar” Obama is, allegedly, an illegal immigrant. In an interview with Boston radio host Howie Carr, Romney said “yes” when asked if “Uncle Omar” should be deported. Romney at first did not recognize the name, and was far from incendiary about it, saying simply that U.S. immigration laws should be enforced. Take a listen to the exchange: Mitt Romney on Obama’s Uncle Onyango Obama is the 67-year-old half-brother of the commander-in-chief’s late father, Barack Obama, Sr. His case is pending in Framingham, Mass., District Court. He was initially held without bail by immigration officials on allegations he violated an official order to return Kenya issued 20 years ago but has since been released.
GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul furrowed his eyebrows, growing agitated before taking off his mic and walking away from CNN interview about his old newsletters. As Paul has gained traction in recent polls, the media has turned up the heat, alleging that he made money and won fame with a sometimes racist series of publications. Paul claims he didn’t read most of the newsletters and their controversial content, written during the 1980s and 1990s, despite them being published under his name. He has taken responsibility for being a bad publisher, but disavowed the views, as he explained to CNN’s Gloria Borger, who grilled him on the topic yesterday … Ron Paul Walks Off CNN interview “Why don’t you go back and look at what I said yesterday on CNN and what I’ve said for 20 something years. 22 years ago?” the 76-year-old Paul said at the outset. “I didn’t write them, I disavow them, that’s it.” Borger pressed on for a few seconds before urging Paul to react to what people are saying about the allegations. “These things are pretty incendiary,” Borger said . “Because of people like you,” Paul snapped back. Later, when talking with Borger about the interview incident on air, Situation Room host Wolf Blizter suggested that Paul “got tired of talking about” the allegations. He could have probably handled it a lot better, although he has answered the same questions the same way a ton of times now, including last week on Hannity . What do you think? Is Paul’s explanation satisfactory? Will the fiery newsletters from long ago continue to dog him, or will they become background noise?
This one was one that you just couldn’t let go – that libertarian champion and former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, Texas, doesn’t have a basic understanding of economics. That was the claim made by CNBC senior analyst and commentator Ron Insana on the June 14 broadcast of “Closing Bell.” At issue was a June 14 Washington Post article by Robert O’Hara and Dan Keating that suggested there was a conflict of interest in Paul’s investments and his policy stances, as in he is a proponent of the gold standard and other uses for the precious medal. ” Rep. Ron Paul is captivated by gold,” O’Hara and Keating wrote. “Over the past two decades, he has written books about the virtues of gold-backed currency. He has made uncounted speeches about the precious metal. He even took a leadership post on the House subcommittee that oversees the nation’s monetary policy, mints and gold medals.” O’Hara and Keating detailed just how extensive Paul’s investments are – valued at $1.7 million. “But his focus on gold goes beyond the theoretical,” they wrote. “In recent years, Paul (R-Tex.) has poured hundreds of thousands of his own dollars into stocks of some of the world’s largest gold-mining operations, according to a review of his financial disclosure forms by The Washington Post. In 2008, while advocating for the United States to reinstate a gold standard, he reported owning up to $1.5 million in shares of at least nine gold-production companies. In addition, he disclosed up to $200,000 in silver stocks. In all, those holdings represented close to half of his assets.” But according to Insana, who has had an on-again-off-again career at CNBC after a failed attempt to try his hand at running a hedge fund , took a shot at Paul’s investment strategy, claiming the Texas congressman was some sort of investing simpleton. “Listen, the Ron Paul stuff, you know, if it weren’t part of a conflict story would be funny because Ron Paul is one of the many elected representatives who we have that doesn’t even have a basic understanding of fundamental economics, let alone more complex issues and better ways to hedge against inflation than buying gold,” Insana said. “Gold is a complex instrument. You know, it speaks to a bigger point. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing.” As unsophisticated as Insana’s claim that Paul’s investment in gold is, assuming Paul had held this commodity going back to late 2008, he would be up over 50 percent with his investment, while the S&P 500 is down nearly 13 percent in the same time period.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is in the news! The newly-anointed Republican candidate for U.S. Senate told Rachel Maddow last night that he supported a business’ right to exclude blacks. Everyone got very excited by this. Who is this man? More
