Friday, December 3, 2010

Ron Paul Jumps the Shark

Ron Paul has officially crossed the border between Reality and Insanity by coming out in support of Julian Assange's release of government secrets designed to hurt the United States of America and its capacity to keep its citizens safe and conduct diplomacy. Assange is acting out a technological version of the anarchists who travel the world to break windows and set cars on fire every time the G-20 meets.

Politico reports:

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is taking a stand as one of Julian Assange’s few defenders in Washington, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder should get the same protections as the media.

Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department is examining whether Assange can be charged with a crime for posting hundreds of thousands of leaked government intelligence documents and diplomatic cables.

Many Republicans have gone even further in their attacks on Assange, especially former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee, who said this week that the source who leaked to the WikiLeaks founder should be tried for treason and executed if found guilty.

But in a Thursday interview with Fox Business, Paul said the idea of prosecuting Assange crosses the line.

“In a free society we're supposed to know the truth,” Paul said. “In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it.

How can he say that truth can never be treason? Does he think that trading nuclear secrets to the Soviets in the 1940s would not be treason just because the revealed information was true? It is OK for people to tell America's enemies all about America's plans to foil terrorist plots just because those plans are true? Actually, it has to be true in order for it to be treason!

Ron Paul is a libertarian and here he crosses the last boundary marker separating him from anarchy and the far left. It is time to shut down Julian Assange and launch an investigation into his connections to George Soros. We would all be better off with both of them out of commission.

5 comments:

Dave said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

what do you mean "out of commission"?

Craig Carter said...

Michael,
I mean "rendered incapable of exposing government secrets."

penny farthing said...

I thought he jumped the shark a long time ago.

Anyway, I agree with Ron Paul that Assange should get the same protections as the media, but only because I think those in the media responsible for releasing classified info should be prosecuted as well. Take, for example, the NYT, who reprinted the wikileaks documents, and have also exposed US efforts to track terrorists' banking transactions, but didn't feel it was responsible to print any of the climategate emails. Treason is treason, and the media shouldn't get a free pass either.

Peter W. Dunn said...

I agree with you about the Assange issue--the man is dangerous: Congressman Paul is wrong about this. However, he has been a relentless critic of monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. He is an advocate of the gold standard, and "gold bugs" are ridiculed by the media, despite the 10-year bull market in gold which has resulted from the dangerously loose monetary policy of which Paul is a critic.

Democracies can be destroyed by bad national defense or by bad economic policy.

It is too easy to say that Paul is merely a crack pot and then simply dismiss him on the issue of the Federal Reserve.