Um, that’s basically what Ron Paul always says as well. He is for increased spending on veterans and thinks it’s one of the few things our national government should actually splurge on.

“Does Lawson have any real chance in the general election?”

I’m not sure overall how the party lines break down, but the 4th District contains some areas that are VERY liberal, such as Chapel Hill and Durham and Carrboro (which is almost socialist). It also contains some areas, like Hillsborough and Chatham County and Cary, which may be more Republican-leaning. He will have to appeal to independents and Democrats. He has lots of volunteers and has had success reaching out to churches and African-Americans. That will be key, because Durham is almost 50% African-American.

If he can raise money and get TV and radio ads on the air, I think he should be good. There will be the usual attacks from all sides, of course, just like there is with any candidate.

I have had many Democrats in this district tell me that they don’t like David Price because he’s not “progressive” enough; they prefer the neighboring congressman Brad Miller. Price has voted for continued appropriations for Iraq, he voted for the Patriot Act and for the Real ID Act and for many other damaging bills, and he has many, many corporate and special interest donors funding him. Democrats may be for him because of the D next to his name, but when they see what he’s really done in Congress, they might not be so impressed. That should work in BJ’s favor. I think it probably really helps that he is against the war, the Republicans would have been nuts to put up a pro-war candidate in this district.

Speaking as a Ron Paul supporter, I had no problem with going into Afghanistan, but after we let bin-Laden and much of the rest of the Al-Qaeda (and Taliban) leadership escape into Pakistan due to the incompetence/cowardice/Machiavellian design of the Bush/Cheney administration at Tora Bora in December of 2001, that became a war which we had lost. What I don’t understand is why we’re still fighting a war we lost six-and-a-half years ago.

As for words, history and context are as important as current definition. See “well regulated militia” for a perfect example. I’m sorry that your own understanding of the differences between political and philosophical contexts is so limited.

Maybe Benzair Bhutto was telling the truth before she got whacked…

“So Michael Seeback, I take it you opposed the War in Afghanistan? Pre-Emptive strike right?

“You’re one of these who favors the Orange Spandex-wearing Bounty Hunter approach to respond to 9/11 attacks, ‘eh?

“Or, maybe you’re one of these conspiracy types who believes 9/11 was an “inside job.” Cheney was behind it, right?”

And I laugh back:

Nope, 9/11 was all a vast conspiracy orchestrated by Rosie O’Donnell and Garrison Keillor to drive Eric Dondero into insanity, get him fired from Ron Paul’s staff, and become a comic relief shill village idiot on TPW.

And I get serious:

I was on a USAF base that day and got locked down. I saw two planes in the air that day. One was NEACP. The other was an A-10 Thuderbolt, the best sight to see that day. A person with my name DIED in WTC #2 that day.

My ties to NYC run very deep. 170 years deep. Civil War Militia deep.

I was there providing secruity for the local mosque when a local idiot threatened to torch the place. So was the local LP, and their prayer services went on without any problems. Why? Freedom of Religion.

Islamofascism, my ass!

I saw the 9/11 plaque for FDNY unveiled at the National Frefighters Memorial the following summer. Pure emotion.

I was there when the local police caused a riot at the peace rallies in Feb 2003 by firing tear gas into the dispersing crowd. One of two riots of all of the protests on all SEVEN continents (Yes, there was a protest at McMurdo on Antarctica!) involving millions of now-proven-correct people. The other riot was Athens, Greece.

Chowderheads like you, dolts that share your war beliefs, are responsible for that riot, for the dead in Iraq, and for wrecking this nation emotionally, economically, and internationally.

Afghanistan was no pre-emptive strike, and if you think so then you’ve been hitting the neocon kool-aid way too much. We just screwed up on how to run it correctly, mainly because the morons in charge wanted to keep the main force away to invade Iraq no matter what. They forgot Warfighting 101:

1) State the objectives and milestones clearly.
2) Go in strong, with overwhelming numbers and firepower.
3) End their world. Achieve the milestones.
4) Leave.

In Afghanistan we’re 0 for 4.

And yes, initially I supported it. Not now, because it was screwed up.

Orange-Spandex-wearing Bounty Hunters? That sounds like a wrestling tag team, or one of your many delusions.

As I have said, you are clueless. Whatever clue you ever had died on 9/11.

As for issuing letters of marque and reprisal against Bin Laden, you’re right- if we did that (which is at least constitutional) we might not ever have caught him.

If that’s the definition of “firing” please, please give me more of it.

You’re one of these who favors the Orange Spandex-wearing Bounty Hunter approach to respond to 9/11 attacks, ‘eh?

Or, maybe you’re one of these conspiracy types who believes 9/11 was an “inside job.” Cheney was behind it, right?

He’s not only a pacifist on War, he’s also fiercely opposed to the death penalty in any form. He hates guns personally. He hates rap and rock music that’s violent. (Believe it or not Ron is a big fan of elevator music – I shit you not, not just making this up.)

He opposed the US intervention in WWII even, believing that it was a conspiracy by FDR to get us into the War.

He does not support violence for any reason whatsoever, and is a religiously based pacifist, almost a Pennsylvania Quaker type.

Sorry, but reverting to namecalling means you’ve lost credibility.

And Ghandi was a small-in-stature philosophizer with worn feet and bad breath. He was a super-calloused-fragile-mystic-plagued-by-halitosis. He was also a philosophical pacifist. He’s also dead. My position stands.