Marco Rubio...a Rand fan

[Backlighting]

See #7

http://news.yahoo.co...-121415016.html

[Selene]

See #7

http://news.yahoo.co...-121415016.html

Finally, a candidate that I like that has rhythm!

Let's just Salsa to the White House baby!

[PDS]

Sounds like a pretty regular guy to me.

[Mark]

I’d never heard of Marco Rubio until I read the article. I see there’s talk of him being Romney’s VP choice so I looked into his career a little. You needn't dig very deep to discover many characteristics of the sleazy politician.

Three reasons to be suspicious of Rubio from the article above:

1. He enjoys rap “music”.

2. He and Jeb Bush are good friends.

3. He thought watching a football game more important than doing the job he was being paid for.

His rapid rise was partly due to the large hispanic population in Florida, and apparently he knows it because after becoming a senator he joined the Congressional Hispanic Conference.

He claimed his parents fled Cuba after the Castro coup. In fact they left three years before. Doubtless his “embellishment” was directed at the Cuban vote.

Jeb Bush wrote of him: “Bilingual and bicultural, he represents the best of the emerging second generation of Cuban immigrants.” Once upon a time, the *first* generation of European immigrants became mono-cultural as soon as they possibly could.

From Rubio’s income grew with his political clout, tax records show -- Miami Herald (reprinted in Tampa Bay Times) -- May 22, 2010:

“Rubio’s recent sources of income include a number of South Florida institutions that regularly lobby in Tallahassee for millions of dollars in state funding.”

His foreign policy views echo Romney’s. Note that he relies on a book by the neocon (but very) Robert Kagan. Quoting him in another article:

“As we work to reduce wasteful government spending,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio in a letter to Mitch McConnell on Thursday, “we recognize that providing for the national defense is a constitutional responsibility of the federal government. Therefore, we must continue to prioritize the security of our nation and the security of our allies, including Israel.”

Another article:

Rubio gave a speech on Israel in June to the Republican Jewish Coalition “about the need for the United States to stand with Israel without equivocation or hesitation,” criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Stand with Israel “without equivocation or hesitation” -- Yaron Brook couldn’t have said it better.

Needless to say he doesn’t support Ron Paul.

His Senate voting includes some stop-gap votes regarding economics, as he helped bolster the national police state:

• Dec. 15, 2011 – National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 – Yea.
  
• Dec. 1, 2011 – Amendment Prohibiting detention of U.S. citizens without trial – Nay
  
• May 23, 2011 – Patriot Act Extension – Did not vote
  
• May 26, 2011 – Patriot Act Extension – Did not vote
  
• Feb. 15, 2011 – Extension of Various Patriot Act Provisions – Yea
  

Don’t be fooled by shards of Atlas Shrugged or the regular guy act.

[GALTGULCH8]

Not too many Americans pay attention to the Constitution these days, although there are hints that it might be making a comeback among those who have reason to believe that the country wouldn't be in the difficulties it is in if the Congress had adhered to the limits they take an oath to uphold.

Whatever Marco Rubio's shortcomings, many find him appealing and possibly in favor of the free market, thus a good choice for VP. However, it is just possible that he was born before his father became a citizen of the United States. So technically he does not qualify as being a "natural born citizen" as required in the eligibility clause of the 224 year old parchment once revered and the supreme law of the land.

"and justice for all" :

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/422243_316686258379276_187021001345803_912260_1153828684_n.jpg

[Mark]

gultch8,

I suppose many people do like Rubio because they perceive him as favoring the free market, and indeed one can quote him advocating same and cite him voting same. I would say to such people:

What does it matter if he saves them a billion here then loses them a trillion to the military, government contractors and foreign aid in the Middle East?

And just what does being for "the free market" mean when you support the DHS and offshoots like the TSA?

I'm sick of people praising a political hack just because he gives them dribs and drabs of what rightfully belongs to them while ultimately working to destroy their lives.

Thanks for the "natural born citizen" information. News articles ought to mention it every time they mention the VP "possibility." And why doesn't Rubio himself mention it? Add that to the account of his sleazy history.

[PDS]

I’d never heard of Marco Rubio until I read the article. I see there’s talk of him being Romney’s VP choice so I looked into his career a little. You needn't dig very deep to discover many characteristics of the sleazy politician.

Three reasons to be suspicious of Rubio from the article above:

1. He enjoys rap “music”.

2. He and Jeb Bush are good friends.

3. He thought watching a football game more important than doing the job he was being paid for.

His rapid rise was partly due to the large hispanic population in Florida, and apparently he knows it because after becoming a senator he joined the Congressional Hispanic Conference.

He claimed his parents fled Cuba after the Castro coup. In fact they left three years before. Doubtless his “embellishment” was directed at the Cuban vote.

Jeb Bush wrote of him: “Bilingual and bicultural, he represents the best of the emerging second generation of Cuban immigrants.” Once upon a time, the *first* generation of European immigrants became mono-cultural as soon as they possibly could.

From Rubio’s income grew with his political clout, tax records show -- Miami Herald (reprinted in Tampa Bay Times) -- May 22, 2010:

“Rubio’s recent sources of income include a number of South Florida institutions that regularly lobby in Tallahassee for millions of dollars in state funding.”

His foreign policy views echo Romney’s. Note that he relies on a book by the neocon (but very) Robert Kagan. Quoting him in another article:

“As we work to reduce wasteful government spending,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio in a letter to Mitch McConnell on Thursday, “we recognize that providing for the national defense is a constitutional responsibility of the federal government. Therefore, we must continue to prioritize the security of our nation and the security of our allies, including Israel.”

Another article:

Rubio gave a speech on Israel in June to the Republican Jewish Coalition “about the need for the United States to stand with Israel without equivocation or hesitation,” criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Stand with Israel “without equivocation or hesitation” -- Yaron Brook couldn’t have said it better.

Needless to say he doesn’t support Ron Paul.

His Senate voting includes some stop-gap votes regarding economics, as he helped bolster the national police state:

• Dec. 15, 2011 – National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 – Yea.
  
• Dec. 1, 2011 – Amendment Prohibiting detention of U.S. citizens without trial – Nay
  
• May 23, 2011 – Patriot Act Extension – Did not vote
  
• May 26, 2011 – Patriot Act Extension – Did not vote
  
• Feb. 15, 2011 – Extension of Various Patriot Act Provisions – Yea
  

Don’t be fooled by shards of Atlas Shrugged or the regular guy act.

Well, I suppose since John Galt isn't on the ballot, I better not vote then. My bad.

[Mark]

PDS replaces

"Rubio is a colossal hypocrite, he's working to set up a police state while mouthing bromides about free enterprise."

with

"Rubio is not John Galt and only John Galt will do."

The later is ridiculous, therefore we should like Rubio.

It's an example of the straw man fallacy. "Rubio is not John Galt" does not summarize my critique, and I realize that a good statesman needn't be fully consistent with the ideal statesman.

[Selene]

Mark:

In the last two (2) decades, were there any elected Federal Senators, Congresspeople, Governors, or, Presidents that you would unequivocally endorse and support?

Adam

[Dennis Hardin]

“Rubio was more likely to read the sports page than weighty philosophical tomes. But by the time he finished his first legislative term, he had devoured Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged twice.”

And Paul Ryan was in the habit of requiring that his staffers read Atlas and giving it to friends at Christmas—that is, until some prominent Catholics pointed out her philosophy did not exactly coincide with the teachings of Jesus.

From an interview with National Review:

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.

In view of his abject betrayal, I consider Ryan more of an enemy of Objectivism than someone who never read one word written by Ayn Rand. It’s nice to know that Rubio has read Atlas Shrugged, but it really means absolutely nothing.

[GALTGULCH8]

Mark,

Thanks for the thanks. I usually get scoffed at for my understanding of the meaning of "natural born citizen" on this site, with only a very few exceptions. Just so you know where my research of the concept led me, it was to the work of one Emerich Vattel, a Swiss academic who wrote Law of Nations in 1757 or so, translated into English and widely referred to by those who worked on our Constitution. In that work Vattel wrote that a natural born citizen of a country is one both of whose parents are citizens of that country. My understanding is that the Founders feared that a disinherited royalty from some obscure country in Europe might come to America and seek to become president. The natural born citizen requirement that both parents must be citizens would handily exclude that kind of intrusion.

There are those who want the government here to intervene in a host of ways into our lives and have done so largely by ignoring or misunderstanding the meaning of various parts of the Constitution. Many engage in sophistry to find a granted power where there is none. An example would be the "necessary and proper" clause at the end of Article 1 Section 8. I have encountered a colleague who simply blanks out the word "foregoing" and ends up with an unlimited source of powers despite their absence from the list of enumerated powers. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessary_and_Proper_Clause

Virtually every supporter of Ron Paul understands that he took his oath of office to mean that he should, and did, identify powers being sought in Congressional bills, and if they were not listed, that is, among those powers granted by the Founders, he voted 'No,' and as the sole "No" vote over 300 times!

An attitude prevails that there is no going back, that the country has moved beyond the vision of the Founders who lived in a different time, and whose principles no longer apply. Objectivists should appreciate more than anyone else that human beings are capable of checking their premises, realizing that the country is in its present state of affairs because it deviated from the principled path envisioned by the likes of Thomas Jefferson. He found no "implied powers" in the Constitution and was all for nullification of unconstitutional federal laws.

There are at least three movements which are growing among the younger generation in the colleges with the intention of restoring our limited constitutional Republic. Part of that process involves understanding the Constitution as written. Both the Students For LIberty and the Youth For Liberty recently released their annual reports and reveal that they have affiliates on a growing number of colleges with the promise that their work to enlist and enlighten their fellows will continue until they succeed. This may take time and one hopes that we do not descend into a dictatorship where such activity must go underground as Ayn Rand knew from personal experience.

Campaign For Liberty is another active organization which is growing.

I have a colleague at work who is an outspoken statist, who thinks that the military draft should be in effect and does not see that as "involuntary servitude." He said that our representatives voted for the Selective Service Act and that makes it voluntary?!

It is astonishing to encounter such mentalities. He has three young grandchildren and I told him today that i will be fighting so that his grandchildren grow up in a free society while he fights for them to grow up in a society with "safety nets."

[Selene]

Well so much for Marco's word...

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is also seeking the Republican nomination for president, had threatened on Thursday to delay passage of the package. Speaking on Fox Television, Mr. Rubio said, “We can slow down the process and force them to make changes and there is no doubt and we can and we should and will. There is an effort with many conservatives to make it happen.”

But shortly after his remarks, Mr. McConnell went to the floor and secured an agreement for a fast-track series of votes on Friday morning — a process that Mr. Rubio could have blocked but did not, much to the relief of his Senate colleThe agues eager to begin their holiday recess.

The whores have spoken loudly and clearly...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/us/congress-spending-bill.html?emc=edit_na_20151218&nlid=53564225&ref=cta

[syrakusos]

Thanks for your work, Mark. I appreciate your cogent essay and the subsequent comments.

I'm sick of people praising a political hack just because he gives them dribs and drabs of what rightfully belongs to them while ultimately working to destroy their lives.

Thanks for the "natural born citizen" information. News articles ought to mention it every time they mention the VP "possibility." And why doesn't Rubio himself mention it? Add that to the account of his sleazy history.

[Selene]

Not too many Americans pay attention to the Constitution these days, although there are hints that it might be making a comeback among those who have reason to believe that the country wouldn't be in the difficulties it is in if the Congress had adhered to the limits they take an oath to uphold.

Whatever Marco Rubio's shortcomings, many find him appealing and possibly in favor of the free market, thus a good choice for VP. However, it is just possible that he was born before his father became a citizen of the United States. So technically he does not qualify as being a "natural born citizen" as required in the eligibility clause of the 224 year old parchment once revered and the supreme law of the land.

"and justice for all" :

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/422243_316686258379276_187021001345803_912260_1153828684_n.jpg

This is not settled Constitutional law gentlemen.

A...

[Selene]

Marc:

DES MOINES --- Sen. Joni Ernst is set to appear on the campaign trail Monday with Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio with only a week until the Iowa caucuses kick off.

Ernst, who maintained she is remaining neutral in the race, will be introducing Rubio at an event in Des Moines.

"Our nation faces exponential threats, and over the past year, I've had the opportunity to work alongside Marco Rubio on issues critical to our national security," Ernst said in a statement. "Marco is not only a strong conservative and a good friend, but someone that I trust to secure our country."
"As I have made clear, I will not be endorsing in the caucuses; that is a promise I will maintain to Iowans," Ernst continued. "On Monday, I look forward to introducing Marco to more Iowans and discussing the important work needed to keep our nation safe and secure."

This may be a key to a better showing at the caucus.

deleted

[Selene]

Sorry about that...deletedthe video is in the article ...

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Adam,

Is there any disable provision to disable autoplay at the site you got this video from?

If not, why don't we just link to it instead of embedding it?

Autoplay sucks. You start reading something, then get disrupted by a video you haven't even decided to see.

Michael