A Parting Look at Ron Paul's Veracity

Justin Paulette

Justin Paulette is an attorney practicing international law in bella Italia. He hails from the great Buckeye State, "The Heart of it All," the only state with a bridge which you can cross and still be on the same side of the river, home of the hot dog, pop top soda can and the largest basket in the world! Though he's spent the past decade jet-setting across the Atlantic with one foot in London and the other on Capitol Hill, he still fancies himself a Mid-western, God-fearing, role-playing geek at heart.

Posted:

02/12/08

Ron Paul's facts checked. Following up on Christopher Weber's post covering Ron Paul's "viva la revolution" speech (which ought to be translated as "the revolution is over" in political vernacular), FactCheck.org has just posted their first review of Ron Paul's truthfulness.

The internet inquisitors over at FactCheck find several faults with Paul's recent statements, but the most egregious seem to be Paul's conspiracy theory claims regarding a NAFTA Superhighway. Apparently, Paul has augured that a spooky consortium of foreign corporations and quasi-governmental organizations are plotting to establish a North American Union. The means of this nefarious scheme is to erect an enormous highway: "a ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optics cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside."

Of course, it just ain't so. Nor is his assertion that the U.S. spends $1 trillion / year on "foreign operation to operate our empire" - a foolishly absurd number amounting to over 1/3 of total 2008 U.S. spending. Ron Paul's tendency to exaggerate the truth an infinitum, and always in the direction of sci-fi lunacy, might provide the reason so many voters mistook the libertarian Congressman for a cult-leader or disgruntled extra from the X-Files.