Rep. Dr. Ron Paul recognizes that the U.S. Constitution is the rulebook for public servants granted the task of governing the country. He has been swift to oppose and condemn such travesties as the so-called Patriot Act, the Iraq invasion and occupation, and the Real ID Act, which will go into force in May 2008. He recognizes that the legislative and executive branches of government have responsibilities to act only within limits set forth in the Constitution, instead of seeking to push those limits and circumvent its restrictions. I support his candidacy because it is critical to the cause of liberty in the United States that our government return to respect for the document that authorizes and legitimizes its existence.

Given the amount of funds raised by the Ron Paul campaign in the 3rd Quarter and the obvious interest in and support for Ron Paul among Salon readers, as evidenced in this series of letters, I suggest in the future Ron Paul be included as a serious candidate in all forthcoming Salon articles about Republican candidates. In actual fact, there is little reason to treat the other candidates in individual detail, since all appear to be neocon apologists and Bush supporters. Only Ron Paul offers a clear and radical departure from neocon orthodoxy and a return to traditional Republican values of frugality and personal responsibility.

I'm not an insider, so I could tell you exactly how it happens, but somewhere in corporate executive offices or boardrooms, certain individuals are endowed or anointed with "Front Runner" status. I suspect these persons have made some kind of Faustian bargain with the corporate culture to continue to use the American military to intimidate and assault nations not falling into line with giving up their resources cheaply, to continue to let hoards of illegal immigrants into the country, to continue to deficit spending that devalues the currency for the benefit of the rich and powerful, etc. These people get 10s of millions of dollars of free publicity on TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines.

The rest, often conscientious citizens with great ideas for serving the American people instead of the corporate culture, people like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, are appointed "Second Tier" status. They are ignored, mocked, and marginalized. Every kind of possible device is used to eliminate them from having a serious chance at attaining the presidency.

What's unusual about this year is that one of these non-corporate candidates, Ron Paul, seems to have caught public attention with his plain spoken opposition to the whole program of turning America into exploitive corporate-run police state and has a campaign that is gaining support rather than withering away. It will be very interesting to see how far Dr. Paul can go in the face of the disparate efforts certain to be made to eliminate his candidacy.

After 37 years of faithfully voting for candidates from the Democratic Party and helping to elect a Democratic Congress that was going to bring the Bush criminal enterprise to a grinding halt, I've found that they are spineless shills for the neocon war machine, excepting perhaps Henry Waxman, John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, and the 13 other Democrats who signed on a co-sponsors for Kucinich's resolution to impeach Dick Cheney.

I'll be donating to Cindy Sheehan's campaign to unseat arch-betrayer Nancy Pelosi.

I'm now a registered Republican who enthusiastically supports Ron Paul's candidacy. His record is unsullied by compromise with neocons; his opposition to warrantless wiretapping and the Iraq invasion and occupation has been principled and consistent.

If you want your country to be taking the fast-track to becoming a corporate-controlled totalitarian police state, vote for any of the "front runner" Democrats or Republicans, it probably doesn't make a dime's worth of difference which.

If it wasn't for Ron Paul standing up and telling the naked truth about our country and its government, the Republican debates would be nothing but a sickening sludgefest. Instead of constantly headlining the chosen "Front Runners" of both parties, all of whom are shameless shills to the authoritarian corporate globalist elite, let's open up the mainstream media to Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich so the public can learn about alternative programs that will better serve their interests.

Al Gore hasn't given his one-person global warming show hundreds of times for self-promotion; there are dozens of other ways he could have drawn more attention to himself more easily and more cheaply. The fact is that Al Gore believes scientific data is actionable and recognizes that this belief and this knowledge make a morally compelling case for such action. His work to publicize this possibly most critical challenge to humanity and to motivate people to rise to the challenge is very much to his credit.

We now contrast that accomplishment with the negative accomplishments of the current White House resident, who was less popular than Al Gore with the voters 7 years ago and is certainly less popular today. The morally bankrupt cretin in the Oval Office has driven the government into hopeless debt, attacked and occupied another nation without just cause, violated Constitutional rights and processes beyond the dreams of any of his predecessors, and endangered our future with his denial of inconvenient scientific data on global warming and alternative energy.

An Al Gore candidacy might tempt me back into the Democratic Party.