On the subject of being a racist Paul sites, for one thing, the Los Angeles rioting that followed the Rodney King trial against Los Angeles police officers. The letter includes more detail than most of us had a chance to read in the media reports of Rodney Kings arrest and subsequent "beating" that was taped. It included some of the descriptions of the aftermath of the trial, in which the police officers were acquitted, and quotes Mayor Bradley's feeble attempt to quell any rioting, which instead encouraged rioting, looting, racially motivated black on white beatings, looting, and general terrorist style destruction, some of which was directed toward the Korean owned businesses in the area. Paul's comment that the rioting ceased after three days when welfare checks were due to arrive is more "evidence" of his bigotry, but the same day that welfare checks arrived in the mail, the looting stopped.

His opposition to making Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday is the subject of more "evidence" of Ron Pauls "racial hatred". He was opposed to making King's birthday a holiday for good reasons, and he wrote of those reasons in his newsletter, for which he should make no apology. Some of the things he mentioned in those columns were direct quotes from authors Carl Rowan from his book "Breaking Barriers" and from David Garrow's Pulitzer Prize winning biography of King.

Paul was a congressman who was put into the position of having to vote for or against the holiday. He chose to vote against it for reasons he cited in his newsletter. Those charges made in that newsletter have not been proven false, among which was that MLK plagiarized his doctoral dissertation, was an adulterer, and according to Rowan's book, was caught on tape in a sexual relationship with his fellow Christian minister Ralph David Abernathy. Rowan by the way is black.

The charges of homophobia (which I find a strange word, since it would mean fear of homo, or man) stem from his articles on the HIV and AIDS outbreak. He wrote one article from which the quoted words "Bring back the closet" were emphasized. Paul was pointing out in that article how few cases of AIDS and HIV infections there were prior to the Gay Pride movement being started. Since it became a point of gay pride to claim your homosexuality there also became a more widespread acceptance of gay sex and also an accompanying of HIV/AIDS outbreaks. It would take being dropped here from some strange planet for one not to recognize the truth in his statements. Paul also went to the defense of none other than Andy Rooney for his being criticized for making the same observations. He mentioned other instances of homosexual problems, some in the first Bush administration, that were covered up to hide any embarrassment to the administration. None of his accusations has been proven to be untrue.

I can find no evidence in the cited reports to indicate that Paul is an anti-semite. His call to cut off aid to Israel is consistent with his call to cut off aid to all foreign governments. He believed then, as he does now, that Israel would stand on it's own two feet if we didn't stand on them, keeping them from making a strong defense on their own, a defense that would keep all of it's enemies from harming it's people. Israel was, afterall, the only nuclear "superpower" in the region. Bullies don't pick on the big guy in the schoolyard.

I would encourage anyone who believes that Ron Paul is guilty of the accusations in these articles to read the reports they site. I found them by going to New Republic's site and doing a simple search for Ron Paul reports, but if you go directly to Kirchick's column, which can be found at: 
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=e2f15397-a3c7-4720-ac15-4532a7da84ca

  
or if you can't cut and paste this address, go to www.tnr.com and type in their search engine "Angry white man" and it will take you to the Kirchick story, in which you will find the links to the Paul reports he cites.

What I find amusing and amazing is that if the same things being said about blacks that Paul said were used instead by Bill Cosby, Walter Williams, or Thomas Sowell nobody would or could call them racist, and yet all three have said some of the same things, although maybe not in the same words.

Political correctness has kept some of us from recognizing truth when it is told, even though most of us know that truth is truth and that nothing can alter that truth. If we don't like the messenger, just say so, but don't accuse the messenger of something he is not guilty of.