Where were the Paulaholics?

At last night's Common Council meeting, Jess King, Bryan Bain and I voted against giving the blessing to the WI Air National Guard's "dry attack" plan. In my statement, I mentioned all the Ron Paul for President signs we see around town. Though not a supporter of Mr. Paul, I believe the dry attack situation is a good example of the kind of issue on which he makes total sense.

As I understand it, Congressman Paul says that we are bankrupting the country and losing our freedoms in the name of empire. Last night I focused on the "losing our freedoms" part. The Air National Guard does not need the permission of local government to run the attacks, and the ANG reps told us that if we voted NO they might or might not still run them. In other words, a No vote would not have the force of "No." As one citizen in the audience suggested, the council was being asked to participate in a public relations exercise (I think she used the word "propaganda").

I made the point that our men and women are in Iraq and Afghanistan are allegedly fighting for democracy. Are public relations style votes by elected representatives the kind of democracy they are fighting for? PR votes are what they used to have in the old Russian Duma during the Cold War; party apparatchiks would give their "blessing" to the Kremlin's desires and No votes were meaningless. Ron Paul (not to mention Dwight Eisenhower) would agree, I am sure, that civilian government as PR flak for the military represents a real and troubling loss of freedom.

The dry attack presented the Paulaholics with a good opportunity to come to the Council and make the case for freedom. I didn't see any; perhaps they were busy making YouTube clips.