Quote of the Day: “While few would argue that criminals ought to be able to keep the proceeds of their crimes, civil forfeiture allows the government to seize and keep property without actually having to prove a crime was committed in the first place. . . . Proceeds from civil forfeiture at the state and local level usually go back to the police departments and prosecutors’ offices, giving them a clear and unmistakable incentive to seize as much property as often as possible.” – Radley Balko

Such outrages are nothing new in the War on Drugs, but we’re seeing more abuses as criminal law becomes increasingly federalized. For instance, federal agents are now exploiting the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to seize bank accounts and computers.

The leader of a new Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering task force admits that unlike criminal cases where the suspect is presumed innocent until proved guilty, in civil asset forfeiture cases . . .

* if you lose property to an asset forfeiture seizure you must prove your innocence in order to get it back
* you have no 5th amendment protections — even your silence can be used against you

Civil asset forfeiture is also alive and well at the local level, where police steal money from citizens in order to pay for new equipment.

Under Illinois law, the state can withhold cash, cars, or other property for six months without even a preliminary hearing! Under the law, three innocent people had to wait over a year to get their cars back. They, along with three innocent people who had money stolen from them, have argued the Constitutionality of the Illinois law.

The “good” news is that this law will be argued in the Supreme Court this month in Alvarez v. Smith.

The bad news is that the most positive outcome is likely to be only a reduction of the time you must wait before a preliminary hearing. The Court isn’t expected to strike down the law, even though civil asset forfeiture proceedings clearly violate the 14th Amendment provision that no state “can deprive any person of . . . property, without due process of law.”

Congress can do what the Court will not. Tell your representatives to abolish Civil Asset Forfeiture using our Educate the Powerful System.

Use your personal comments to mention the example of the widow who may lose her home because her now dead husband grew marijuana that he used to ease his pain from cancer.

You can send your message here.

And don’t forget to share this message with your friends:

http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/whatever-happened-to-quot-presumed-innocent-quot

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DownsizeDC.org

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Sarah Palin In The Land Of McCain's Oz

It is now time to rate the vice presidential candidates on the Paul-O-Meter. We start with John McCain’s VP pick Sarah Palin. The perfect strategic pick for McCain, Palin has little history. She’s been Governor of Alaska for less than two years, but now that McCain’s handlers are pulling Palin’s puppet strings it is difficult to see a difference between the two.

Here we examine Palin on 20 issues to see how she stacks up to Ron Paul. Hopefully this will help some see the lips through the lipstick.

If you’d like to see more ratings or rate Palin or any other candidate or lawmaker head on over to Paul-O-Meter.com and explore the possibilities.

If you want to delve into the question of whether Palin truly is similar to Ron Paul read onward.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – Palin is a bit wishy washy on her liberty voting record. She supported the infamous “Bridge To Nowhere” first and then changed her position when it became the popular thing to do. She does to a certain extent try to follow the Constitution, for instance she refused to sign a bill from the Alaskan state legislature stating that the Real ID will not be funded in Alaska. She let the signing period expire which ended up making the law pass. So she didn’t exactly stand up for liberty in that case. Score: 3
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Palin hasn’t mentioned this issue thus far. She seems to be taking the same position as McCain so it is hard to tell where she stands on the issue. In any case, she is certainly not like Ron Paul who calls for abolishing the Fed and legalizing competing currencies. Score: 0
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Palin has stated several times her support of going into Iraq before even being chosen as VP. She now has adopted John McCain’s foreign policy of intervention, the polar opposite of Ron Paul. Score: 0
4. Taxes – She supported lowering taxes in Alaska, but did raise the sales tax. As VP she’s taken John McCain’s promise to lower taxes on businesses to promote job growth. This is tinkering from a Ron Paul perspective. She does not support repealing the 16th amendment nor a consumption tax. Score: 1
5. Government Spending – She was a champion of curbing spending in Alaska and is continuing the same lines as VP. She hasn’t mentioned reducing the national debt, but has echoed John McCain on earmark reform. Score: 2
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – Palin is not quite a friend to Privacy and Civil Liberties. She created “FBI Day” in Alaska to “support fighting global crime”. No word from her on FISA or the Patriot Act. Similar to Ron Paul, she has stated that she doesn’t support hate crime. Because she allowed Alaska to vote to not fund the Real ID she deserves at least a point or two. Score: 2
7. Immigration – It’s very difficult to find Palin’s stance on immigration. According to Laura Ingraham though who talked with Palin, she disagrees with McCain on “comprehensive immigration reform” which supports amnesty. If true, she is more like Ron Paul on illegal immigration than John McCain. Score: 3
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – She is a large advocate of the Second amendment and supporting the repeal of the DC gun ban. Score: 5
9. Internet Regulation – Palin hasn’t stated anything publicly about internet regulation specifically. There is conjecture that she may support Net Neutrality based on other legislative actions, but that is unreliable. She has promised to not expand “gambling” in Alaska saying it is harmful to society so it is certainly probably she would be for UIGEA which virtually bans online gambling. Given the lack of information we must guess at the score. Score: 2
10. Adherence To The Constitution – She has voted against her own personal views in Alaska because the bill was unconstitutional. At least with respect to Alaska and her view on gun rights she seems to be a Constitutionalist. Her statements on privacy and civil liberties, though, call into question her stance on the Fourth Amendment. Score: 3
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – Palin publicly declared that U.S. involvement in the Iraq war was the “will of God”. She also has injected religion into her speeches and statements quite regularly. This is quite opposite to Ron Paul. Score: 0
12. Environment – She has spoken out against John McCain’s “cap and trade” proposal. She has voted against endangered species legislation in Alaska. She seems to be closer to Ron Paul on this issue than John McCain. Score: 4
13. Energy Policy – She is a strong advocate for drilling in ANWR and off the U.S. coastlines. She seems to be right in line with Ron Paul here. Score: 5
14. U.S. Sovereignty – Palin doesn’t seem to have ever mentioned the NAU nor the threat to U.S. Sovereignty. Score: 0
15. War On Drugs – Palin is a drug warrior like McCain. She doesn’t support legalizing medical marijuana. Score: 0
16. Education – She doesn’t support abolishing the Department of Education, but she does support school choice and home schooling. Score: 3
17. Welfare Programs – Palin supports Social Security reform, but is quite short on specifics. It seems she refuses to give a straight answer on this topic. Score: 0
18. Abortion – She is a mirror of Ron Paul on the abortion issue. Score: 5
19. Health Care – She seems to echo Ron Paul on health care. She supports competition and putting decisions back in the hands of doctors, not bureaucrats. Score: 5
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Palin doesn’t have a liberty message on most topics, revealing that her being a “libertarian” is a complete misnomer. Therefore she doesn’t deserve much of a score here. Score: 1

Sarah Palin’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 44 out of 99 points.

Those that call Palin “libertarian leaning” are simply mischaracterizing her positions. She’s no libertarian, leaning or otherwise. She is a low fat neo-conservative. She always supported the Iraq War. She is a drug warrior. Obama’s much criticized statement that John McCain in choosing Palin was trying to put “lipstick on a pig” therefore has another meaning. McCain is trying to put “libertarianism” on a “neo-conservative”.

Hopefully, the mindless masses will see what’s behind McCain’s curtain before the end of the movie.

It is now Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin’s turn to be spun through the Paul-O-Meter. So far we have rated Barack Obama, John McCain, and Bob Barr. Will Chuck Baldwin beat Bob Barr’s current high score of 88? Read on to find out.

For a detailed description of the Paul-O-Meter look here.

NEW: If you’d like to rate the candidates on the Paul-O-Meter please do so on our Paul-O-Meter user rating application here.

Continue reading to see our ratings for Chuck Baldwin.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – Baldwin does not have a voting record so by default he gets a 3. Score: 3
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Baldwin wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and has advocated for a return to the gold standard. Baldwin’s Communications Director states that Chuck supports competing currencies. Score has been modified to a 5 (see comments for details). Score:5
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Baldwin calls for an immediate return from Iraq and switching to a non-interventionist foreign policy just like Ron Paul. Baldwin’s Communications Director states that Baldwin has advocated for bringing our troops home from military bases stationed overseas. Score has been modified to a 5 (see comments for details). Score:5
4. Taxes – Baldwin is perfectly in line with Ron Paul on tax policy. He wants to repeal the 16th amendment and replace it with nothing. No flat tax and no consumption tax. Score: 5
5. Government Spending – Baldwin is exactly like Ron Paul on government spending. He mentions specific departments he would abolish and continually advocates returning our government to its Constitutionally limited size. Score: 5
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – Baldwin is identical to Ron Paul here. He is against FISA, Real ID, and the Patriot Act. He would leave the definition of marriage to the states. Score: 5
7. Immigration – Baldwin mimics Ron Paul on this issue. He speaks about removing incentives and lashes out against amnesty. He allows for the possibility of a border fence, but isn’t that keen on the idea. Score: 5
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Baldwin echoes Ron Paul here as well just about perfectly. Score: 5
9. Internet Regulation – He is against Net Neutrality and has said he opposes federal regulation of the Internet. However, he was given an ‘F’ by the Poker Player’s Alliance for his stance on online gambling and he was not forthright with his answer in a recent interview about regulating online gambling. Score: 4
10. Adherence To The Constitution – Baldwin speaks regularly of restoring the Constitution and obeying the rule of law. Score: 5
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – Being a member of the Constitution Party it is difficult for Baldwin to score high here. Baldwin being a pastor also doesn’t help. In most of his writings and speeches he mentions religion or relates policy to it. This is unlike Ron Paul. Ron Paul rarely mentions religion on the campaign trail. Score: 1
12. Environment – Baldwin is directly in line with Dr. Paul here. He believes global warming is a cyclical act of nature and he advocates using property rights and the court system to handle environment disputes. Score: 5
13. Energy Policy – Baldwin advocates for drilling in ANWR and off our coastlines. He advocates building more Nuclear Power plants. Score: 5
14. U.S. Sovereignty – Baldwin regularly speaks out against the North American Union and advocates for strong U.S. Sovereignty. Score: 5
15. War On Drugs – Baldwin says we need to “rethink” the war on drugs, but he hasn’t advocated ending it. Instead he suggests sealing the border as the solution to our perceived drug problems. He hasn’t advocated freeing all non-violent drug offenders either. These are not in line with Ron Paul. He has however, suggested that medicinal marijuana use be best regulated by the states. Score: 3
16. Education – Baldwin is perfectly in line with Ron Paul here. He advocates abolishing the Department of Education and advocates for school choice and home schooling. Score: 5
17. Welfare Programs – Baldwin advocates for phasing out of Social Security just like Ron Paul. Score: 5
18. Abortion – Baldwin is a twin of Ron Paul on this issue. Even though he is personally pro-life he would support Ron Paul’s “Sanctity Of LIfe” act which would overturn Roe vs. Wade and leave all abortion regulation to the states. Score: 5
19. Health Care – Baldwin is exactly like Ron Paul here. Wants to leave medical decisions to doctor’s and patients. He does not support any kind of government run national health care system. He wants to restore free market competition to health care. Score: 5
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Baldwin certainly has a liberty message; however, his ability to spread it by getting coverage on main stream media outlets is severely lacking. Score: 2

Chuck Baldwin’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 88 out of 99 possible points

It was extremely difficult to find Baldwin’s positions on some of the issues. His new web site doesn’t have an “issues” page and many of his columns do not outline his positions in detail. We were surprised to learn he has not come out as a strong advocate for ending the “war on drugs” like Ron Paul has done. We could have easily given him a 2 on that issue. He has criticized the drug war so that earned him some points there. Likewise, we could have given him a ‘0′ or a ‘1′ on his ability to spread the liberty message, but he has such a strong message that earned him some points there.

If our readers can point us to direct quotes that refute some of the things we were able to find through our research we will happily adjust the score accordingly. For instance, with monetary policy we could find nothing about Baldwin advocating for competing currencies like Ron Paul. Also, on the foreign policy issue we could not find any direct quotes from Baldwin on removing our troops from our bases stationed overseas. (NOTE: Baldwin’s Communication Director responds to these questions in the comments. We have adjusted his score accordingly.)

Stay tuned for next time when we measure stalwart independent Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

NEW: Now you can submit your own ratings using our new Paul-O-Meter web polling service. Check it out here.

Our rankings for Bob Barr are below.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – Barr voted for the Patriot Act and for the Iraq War Authorization back in his days in Congress. Those two votes alone should earn him a zero here, however he has denounced those votes and worked towards repealing portions of the Patriot Act almost immediately after passage. Score: 1
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Barr was interviewed on Glenn Beck’s radio show and denounced the Fed and stated that if he could wave a magic wand and make it go away he would. He says nothing of competing currencies like Ron Paul. Score: 4
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Barr is virtually identical to Ron Paul on this issue. He advocates for a safe immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and switching to a non-interventionist foreign policy. He also advocates bringing our troops home from South Korea, Europe, and Japan. Score: 5
4. Taxes – Barr advocates radical tax reform similar, but not quite exactly in line with Ron Paul. Barr advocates for repealing the 16th amendment and replacing the income tax with either a low flat tax or perhaps a consumption tax (like the FairTax), but he has made clear he has reservations about a consumption tax. Score: 4
5. Government Spending – Barr is identical to Ron Paul on limiting government spending. He advocates for getting rid of earmarks. He also details federal departments he would phase out or abolish such as the Department Of Education and the Department of Commerce. He always couples his lower taxes rhetoric with also cutting spending. Score: 5
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – Barr is a Ron Paul twin on this issue. He supports repealing the Patriot Act. He is against the recent FISA bill. He is against the Real ID Act. He is for leaving same-sex marriage to the states. Score: 5
7. Immigration – Barr is against any kind of fence on the border. He is for reducing government incentives for illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. He has a voting record of being against amnesty, but lately he has been non-committal regarding amnesty. Score: 4
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Barr is almost perfect on gun rights. He lauded the recent Supreme Court Heller decision and has a very pro-Second amendment voting record. He has wavered though, on a limited number of gun control provisions. Score: 4
9. Internet Regulation – There is not much out there about Barr on this issue, but he has worked with the ACLU on protecting data privacy. He has a record of voting against specific internet regulations.  Due to his record it is likely that he is against Net Neutrality like Ron Paul. Score: 4
10. Adherence To The Constitution – Barr has transformed from a compassionate conservative to a Libertarian. He advocates federalism on issues he personally disagrees with. His continued criticism of the Patriot Act and FISA along with his fight for bringing back habeus corpus suggest he is now identical to Ron Paul on Constitutional issues. Score: 5
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – Barr rarely mixes religion with his politics. He has been critical of those who do. Score: 5
12. Environment – Barr is identical to Ron Paul here. He is skeptical of global warming and advocates utilizing the courts and property rights rather than government regulation to handle environmental disagreements. Score: 5
13. Energy Policy – Barr advocates for allowing drilling both in ANWR and off our coastlines. He is a strong supporter of nuclear power. Score: 5
14. U.S. Sovereignty – Barr spoke out against the potential for the NAU during his interview with Glenn Beck on television. He sounded just like Ron Paul on the issue. Score: 5
15. War On Drugs – Barr has been criticized for his drug warrior past by some Libertarians, however; he now is a strong advocate for ending the war on drugs and decriminalizing marijuana. However, he has only hinted at pardoning non-violent drug prisoners. Score: 4
16. Education – Barr advocates abolishing the Department of Education. He promotes the idea of school choice and is an advocate for home schooling. Score: 5
17. Welfare Programs – Barr does not directly advocate ridding ourselves of Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. He does promote the idea of strong reforms and allowing for private accounts. Much of what he has directly said about welfare programs could be construed as “tinkering”. Score: 3
18. Abortion – Barr is similar to Ron Paul on abortion. He’d like to see Roe vs. Wade overturned. He wants to leave it up to the states though he is personally pro-life. Score: 5
19. Health Care – Barr is against socialized national health care. He would like to get government regulation out of the health care industry and return the free market. He believes this will lower costs and put health care decisisons back into the hands of doctors and patients. This is exactly like Ron Paul. Score: 5
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Bob Barr is alone at the top among the third party/independent candidates at spreading the liberty message. He has been on CNN, ABC, FOX News, The Colbert Report, countless radio stations, and the media appearances keep coming. He also actually has a liberty message to spread. Score: 5

Bob Barr’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 88 out of 99 possible points

It is true we at Liberty Maven are Bob Barr supporters and we even had some disagreements on how to rate Barr on certain criteria. In one case we marked him down (Welfare Programs) and in another we marked him up (Health Care). In all cases we tried to solely focus on how close his current positions are in line with Ron Paul’s current positions. We could not overlook his poor voting record where he earned a 1. In the end when one looks squarely at the issues, Bob Barr is about as close to Ron Paul as you can get.

The next candidate has a chance at scoring even higher than Barr on the Paul-O-Meter. He fully and officially endorsed Ron Paul and has take a very similar stance on many of the issues. He is Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin. Look for his rating next week.

Read on for John McCain’s scores on the issues.

1. Liberty-based voting record – McCain certainly has some horribly anti-liberty votes, but he’s been “ok” on both gun rights and health care. Certainly not perfect but the case can be made that he’s fairly similar to Ron Paul on those issues. Score: 1
2. Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – McCain’s view of the Fed is at complete odds with Ron Paul’s view. McCain has praised the Fed for it’s rate cuts and suggests the institution is doing a good job regulating the “markets”. Score: 0
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – John McCain’s now infamous ‘100 years’ comment says all we need to know about this issue. Score: 0
4. Taxes – McCain proposes more “tinkering” tax proposals than the outright repeal Ron Paul proposes. He doesn’t have a good record on lowering taxes. He voted against the Bush tax cuts twice even though he now says he is for making them permanent. Score: 2
5. Government Spending – McCain preaches for cutting “pork barrel spending” and earmarks continually, but he rarely gets specific about what departments and programs he would eliminate. He has said he would balance the budget and reform certain programs, but there is simply no details on how he would do such things. He purposefully stays away from cutting military and defense spending. Because of his lack of specifics it is difficult to believe he will actually reduce spending much, if at all. Score: 2
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – McCain supports FISA, fully supports the Patriot Act, and fully supports the Real ID Act. Even though during the primary campaign he spoke out against torture, he voted for allowing it to continue. His score here is painfully obvious. Score: 0
7. Immigration – McCain was a main proponent of the immigration bill that angered so many Americans in early 2007. It instituted a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants. That is completely at odds with Ron Paul. These days McCain has backtracked a little on his immigration position. He, at least, is calling for securing the borders like Ron Paul, but he does so in a very generic fashion. One wonders if he actually believes in doing so. Score: 1
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Like Ron Paul, McCain supported repealing the DC gun ban and believes it is an individual’s right to bear arms. However, he has continually led efforts to undermine those rights by regulating gun shows, requiring trigger locks, and supporting extending Brady Bill restrictions to pawn shops and gun repair shops. He’s far from a pure Second Amendment proponent like Ron Paul. Score: 2
9. Internet Regulation – McCain is against Net Neutrality like Ron Paul. He also says he will ban Internet taxes permanently. He does not seem to much care to talk about online gambling. The Poker Player’s Alliance gave him a grade of ‘D’ on the issue. Score: 3
10. Adherence To The Constitution – McCain has an unconstitutional voting record. He rarely references the document in his speeches. He votes against the principles of the Constitution all the time. He voted for the Iraq war authorization, Patriot Act, and FISA. Score: 0
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – McCain actually shines on this one. In fact, on the campaign trail he sometimes changes his own religion on the fly, as has been documented. He rarely utilizes religious sentiments in his speeches. He effectively separates religion and policy like Ron Paul. However, he has sought relationships in the past with John Hagee and Jerry Falwell in efforts to garner support from the religious right. Score: 4
12. Environment – McCain is a huge proponent of more government regulation over environmental issues. He strongly supports implementing a “cap and trade” system. This runs completely counter to Ron Paul’s position. Score: 0
13. Energy Policy – McCain is against drilling in ANWR, and used to be against drilling off of the U.S. coastlines. He now supports drilling off the coastlines. Like Ron Paul he wants to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce demand. He previously was an outspoken critic of ethanol subsidies, but during his primary campaign in Iowa he spoke favorably of them. Score: 2
14. U.S. Sovereignty – Like most candidates McCain doesn’t talk about the North American Union. Score: 0
15. War on Drugs – McCain regularly ignores questions about the decriminalization of marijuana during his town hall meetings. He does not advocate for ending the war on drugs nor for releasing non-violent drug offenders from prison as Ron Paul does. Score: 0
16. Education – McCain is wishy-washy on No Child Left Behind. He seems to believe that it doesn’t go far enough. He certainly doesn’t advocate getting rid of the Department of Education. He is the opposite of Ron Paul on this issue. Score: 0
17. Welfare Programs – He is not advocating phasing out Social Security or other welfare programs. He is calling for reforms though. He supports personal accounts for Social Security. He supports changing the medicare prescription drug benefit to only cover low income beneficiaries. Still, this is a far cry from being like Ron Paul. Score: 1
18. Abortion – McCain believes in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He also believes abortion should be left up to the states. This is in line with Ron Paul. Score: 5
19. Health Care – John McCain is against socialized medicine at the national level. However, a quick glance at his health care issue page reveals he’s not too close to Ron Paul on government intervention in the health care industry. McCain lists all sorts of federal government programs and incentives to further meddle in the health care industry. Score: 2.
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Simply put, John McCain doesn’t have a liberty message to spread no matter how much media attention he gets. Score: 0

John McCain’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 25 out of 99 possible points

After Barack Obama’s score of 17, this is about where we expected McCain to end up. What was most eye opening to us was that his health care plan is a clear attempt to win over people that believe that everyone has a right to health care. Also his perceived strength on cutting government spending is unfounded. On many of his positions he tries to play both sides and it is difficult to know where he actually stands on the issue. This is not a shock coming from a life long politician. In the end it is no surprise that McCain doesn’t hold a candle to Ron Paul on the issues.

Tune in next time when we light up the Paul-O-Meter for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.

Today we begin rating the Presidential candidates with our rating for Barack Obama. The Paul-O-Meter will give us a total score on 20 criteria. The closer a candidate gets to 100 points the more that candidate is like Ron Paul. For each criteria we will give the score and a short justification for that score. Read the results for Barack Obama below.

1. Liberty Based Voting Record – Obama has a rather leftist voting record yet he votes for unconstitutional Iraq war spending and now says he will vote for the warrant less wiretapping FISA bill. Score: 0
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – The Fed is not even mentioned on Obama’s campaign site. The only articles regarding Obama and the Federal Reserve are by people lamenting that he hasn’t said word one about the Federal Reserve. Score: 0
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Obama advocates removing our troops from Iraq within 16 months. However he has an exception that makes one wonder if he means “all” the troops. From his issues page on his website: “if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.” This is far from a non-interventionist foreign policy like Ron Paul. He also will not remove troops from other U.S. occupied countries. Score: 2
4. Taxes – Obama said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts, one of the few good things Bush did in his Presidency. He will raise taxes on the wealthy and lower taxes on middle and lower income families and individuals. He also advocates making the tax system simpler for certain income earners. Score: 1
5. Government Spending – Obama certainly advocates for reducing the national debt and curbing earmarks, but he also advocates creating so many new government programs that his debt and earmark reduction rhetoric is rendered meaningless. Score: 0
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – He continually speaks out about restoring Habeus Corpus like Ron Paul. Obama voted for reauthorizing the Patriot Act. He supports the REAL ID Act. He plans to vote for the latest FISA bill in the Senate. He stated that he would leave same sex marriage up to the states even though he personally is against it. Score:2
7. Immigration – Obama supports a convoluted version of amnesty for illegal immigrants. He has voted for the creation of a border fence, but also has voted against amendments to extend it. His rhetoric on ending the incentives for illegal immigrants to come here echoes Ron Paul in some ways, although he focuses on making companies accountable for hiring illegal workers. He speaks nothing of ending birthright citizenship like Ron Paul. Score: 2
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Obama tries to triangulate around this topic by paying lip service to having a right to own guns, but always with a caveat that the government has a right to restrict them. He supported the DC Gun Ban and was disappointed with the recent Heller Supreme Court ruling overturning the ban. Score: 1
9. Internet Regulation – Obama voted for the SAFE Port act which contained the ban on online gambling. He also strongly advocates for “Net Neutrality” unlike Dr. Paul. Score: 2
10. Adherence To The Constitution - Obama regularly speaks about restoring Habeus Corpus and he has advocated for states rights on certain issues, but the larger part of his platform runs counter to the rule of law in the Constitution as strictly interpreted by Ron Paul. Score: 1
11. Religion vs. Public Policy - Few candidates have been put under religion’s microscope as much as Obama in this election. In just about all cases he has answered the critics by advocating separating his religion and his politics similarly to Ron Paul. He has certainly had to defend his religous beliefs as much, if not more than Mitt Romney. Score: 4
12. Environment - Obama and Ron Paul could not be further apart on environment isssues. They disagree on how to handle global warming. Obama favors more government regulation and Paul wants to leave it up to the market and court system. Score: 0
13. Energy Policy - Obama is against drilling in ANWR and domestic drilling off of our shorelines unlike Paul. He advocates renewable energy but does so by implementing new government programs and regulations whereas Paul would leave it to market competition. Obama and Paul are opposites on energy policy. Score: 0
14. U.S. Sovereignty - Obama was asked specifically about the NAU and it’s threat to U.S. sovereignty, his reply was that he saw no evidence of it even existing and that there was no “conspiracy amongst” the governments of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Score: 0
15. War On Drugs – Obama is a bit like a typical politician in speaking about this topic. He never outright advocates for stopping the drug war. Instead he talks about “shifting our focus to prevention.” He is certainly not as forthright about the issue as Ron Paul. Score: 2
16. Education – Obama proposes more than a dozen new programs at the federal level to help fix America’s education problems while Ron Paul advocates obeying the Constitution and abolishing the Department of Education and returning the role of public education back to the states and localities. Score: 0
17. Welfare – Obama and Paul are on opposite ends of welfare reform. Paul advocates a graceful move towards ending welfare programs like Social Security. Obama advocates strengthening Social Security through higher payroll taxes. Score: 0
18. Abortion – Obama is pro-choice and would work to protect a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion at the federal level. This completely contradicts Ron Paul’s position to get the federal government out of the abortion debate and leave the decision to ban or allow abortion to the states. Score: 0
19. Health Care – Obama believes health care is a right to all Americans. Ron Paul does not and questions where such right exists in the Constitution. Obama supports a national health care plan while Dr. Paul supports getting the government completely out of health care so the forces of the free market can help lower costs. Score: 0
    
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message - Obama has probably more ability to spread a liberty message than any other candidate in the race, yet his platform runs completely counter to Ron Paul’s message of liberty. Obama advocates raising taxes, futher redistribution of wealth, and countless new federal government programs. There is no Ron Paul-style liberty in that message. Score: 0

Barack Obama’s Final Paul-O-Meter Score: 17 out of 99 possible points

(Remember only Ron Paul can score a 100 on the Paul-O-Meter)

This was a brutal exercise. Obama doesn’t even come close to Ron Paul on the issues. He scored far lower than we expected. We incorrectly assumed he would score much higher on the privacy and civil liberties issue. His highest score was on the Religion vs. Public Policy criteria with a 4. If the results of this Obama Paul-O-Meter reveals anything it is highly unlikely that many Ron Paul supporters will be voting for Obama in the general election.

The next candidate to be dragged through the Paul-O-Meter will be presumptive Republican nominee John “The Chameleon” McCain. Following McCain we will begin tackling the third party/independent candidates.

Soon you will be able to submit your own scores for each of the candidates.  Stay tuned!

Everyone knows the perfection of Ron Paul. He is already a living legend. All future candidates are damaged goods simply because they are not Ron Paul. There is only one Ron Paul. So to see how other candidates measure up to his perfection we are introducing the “Paul-O-Meter”.

The Paul-O-Meter ranks candidates on a scale from 0 to 100 depending on how closely they are in agreement with Ron Paul on chosen criteria. Since no candidate can possibly equal Ron Paul, the highest score on the Paul-O-Meter attainable for candidates other than Ron Paul is 99. To simplify the ranking, each candidate will be graded from 1 to 5 on each of the 20 criteria. The 20 criteria are listed below, along with a short description for each.

NEW: Now you can submit your own ratings using our new Paul-O-Meter web polling service. Check it out here.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – Ron Paul is the standard bearer of a true liberty and constitutional based voting record not equaled by any candidate. It should be virtually impossible for a candidate to get a perfect score of 5 here. For candidates that do not have voting records the default score should be a 3.
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Most candidates don’t even discuss this. If a candidate wishes to abolish the Fed à la Ron Paul they should get a 4. If they also want to legalize competing currencies then they should get a 5.
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – A candidate advocating a non-interventionist foreign policy and returning our troops from Iraq deserve a 4. If that candidate also wants to bring our troops home from bases overseas that deserves a 5.
4. Taxes – Abolishing the income tax and replacing it with nothing earns the candidate a 5. Advocating for a low flat tax or a consumption tax should get a 3. If that candidate also wishes to repeal the 16th amendment it should earn a 4.
5. Government Spending – Advocating for decreasing the debt, curbing earmarks, and a yearly balanced budget is not enough alone. Actually shrinking government by eliminating explicit departments and programs must also be pushed. They are both required otherwise a low score is warranted.
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – Voting or speaking out against the recent FISA bill gives a candidate a 2. Also advocating for leaving same sex marriage up to the states brings it up to a 3. Advocating for repealing the Patriot Act as well brings the score to a 4. Also advocating against the Real ID Act brings the score up to a 5.
7. Immigration – Advocacy for no amnesty gives a candidate a 3. Advocating for no border fence as well gives a candidate a 4. Treating the problem by reducing the welfare incentive brings the score up to a 5.
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Having a pro-Second-Amendment voting record gives a candidate a 3. Lauding the latest DC Gun Ban Supreme Court decision as a big win for the Second amendment brings it to a 4. Completely rejecting any form of obstruction to the free ownership of any type of firearm (to include background checks and waiting periods) brings the score up to a perfect 5.
9. Internet Regulation – Being against Net Neutrality is a 3 since, as Ron Paul says, it is regulation even if you may agree with the goal. Advocating for Internet gambling and protecting freedom of speech on the Internet brings the score up to a 5.
10. Adherence To The Constitution – How well do the programs (or voting record) a candidate supports match the Constitution? This could be considered a fairly subjective one.
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – Ron Paul walks the religion vs. public policy line very well. He very rarely ever mentions his religious beliefs on the campaign trail. The more a candidate wears religion on his sleeve the lower the score should be for this one.
12. Environment – If the candidate believes that the jury is still out about man made global warming he/she gets a 4. If he also advocates allowing the free market and court system to handle environmental problems and disputes he gets a 5.
13. Energy Policy – Advocating drilling in ANWR gives the candidate a 3. Also advocating drilling off of our coast lines gives the candidate a 4. Also advocating for more Nuclear power brings the score up to a 5.
14. U.S. Sovereignty – Speaking out against the North American Union (NAU) gives the candidate a 5. Most candidates don’t even mention it. Those that don’t get a zero.
15. War On Drugs – Advocating ending the war on drugs gives the candidate a 3. Also advocating leaving medicinal marijuana use up to the states brings that up to a 4. Adding to that the order to free all non-violent drug offenders from prisons brings the score up to a 5.
16. Education – Advocating getting rid of the Department of Education scores a 4. Advocating for home schooling as well brings this score up to a 5.
17. Welfare Programs – Wanting to gracefully rid ourselves of the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs earns a 5.
18. Abortion – Being personally against abortion, wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade, but leaving the legality of abortion up to the states earns a 5.
19. Health Care – Advocating for any kind of socialized national health care system earns zero points. Leaving it up to the free market, putting health care decisions back into the patients and doctors hands earns a 5.
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – This is, for the most part, the ability to get media attention/appearances on main stream media outlets. The more people hear the sweet liberty message the better. Keep in mind some candidates have the ability to spread the liberty message but don’t actually have a liberty message, and should get downgraded.

Ron Paul scores a 5 for each, giving him a perfect score of 100. It is not possible for any current candidate to get a perfect score. Ron Paul is a unique vessel for liberty. Similarly to the pursuit of happiness, candidates can only pursue their Ron Paul-ness.

Note that the rankings are (for the most part) completely subjective, based on our opinion. We invite readers to submit their own rankings in the comments within each candidate’s analysis article. Your rankings have as much weight as our own (i.e. not much). Perhaps at some point we will create a web-based polling application to solicit rankings and then post the running average.

This is meant to also be a somewhat humorous effort to emphasize the fact that supporting Ron Paul tends to ruin other candidates rather quickly since they just never seem to measure up. Indeed, it is almost as if Ron Paul is a member of his own “Ron Paul Republican” Party rather than the actual Republican Party.

Our first candidate to step up and face the Paul-O-Meter will be “Creeping Socialism Party”, uh, I mean Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama. Stay tuned for his detailed Paul-O-Meter article and ranking soon.

After analyzing each candidate’s ranking over the next few days and weeks we will post the complete results in an easily readable table. We will be analyzing the following candidates: Barack Obama, John McCain, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, and Cynthia McKinney (though not necessarily in that order).

Check it out at RawStory.

Read the forum post here for more information.

We are already aware of Ron Paul’s stance on this issue from the previous post. Now we have a wonderful quote from Rep. Barney Frank:

“In the end, adults ought to be able to decide for themselves how they spend the money they earn themselves.”

Of course then there’s the opposition…
Rep. Spencer Bachus from Alabama, countered with the following:

“Some people claim that illegal Internet gambling’s a victimless crime, it’s a “mushrooming epidemic leaving in its wake suicides, crime, family tragedies.”

I just puked in my mouth a little.

History, from the failed experiment of prohibition to today’s futile “war on drugs,” shows that the government cannot eliminate demand for something like Internet Gambling simply by passing a law.

He, naturally, voted against the act in July of 2006.  Fast forward a few months and the bipartisan backed extremely popular SAFE Port Act readies for passage.  Bill Frist and other supporters of H.R. 4411 decide to go all in with the SAFE Port act at the last minute in order to push the legislation through.  It worked.

Ron Paul even found it in himself to vote ‘YES’ this time around. I believe it is because he values protecting our borders (ports) more than he enjoys a nice game of online holdem. In fact in the same speech speaking out against H.R. 4411 he stated the following:

I happen to personally strongly oppose gambling.
I think it is pretty stupid, to tell you the truth.

That taken out of contest may seem like he is for the bill.  Of course, the fact that he voted for the bill when it was part of the SAFE Port act makes me question his motives.  If anyone has a quote from Dr. Paul on why he voted for the SAFE Port act I’d like to hear it.

In this rare case, Ron Paul has let me down, but I can understand why he would support a bill to protect our ports.  I just wish, and perhaps he does too, that he didn’t have to implicitly support something he spoke out against just months prior.