Ron Paul Fundraiser- This December 16th

It is shaping up that the Ron Paul campaign will break its own record.

The first major grassroots organized fundraiser- thisnovember5th.com set a new record with $4 million raised online in a single 24 hour period. Roughly 18,000 people pledged to donate $100 at thisnovember5th.com . On the actual day, there were over 38,000 donations, the vast majority of which were from first time donors. It proved that Ron Paul`s support is both widespread and growing.

The next major fundraiser- this november 11th.com did a very impressive $200,000. It did not have the massive support that thisnovember5th.com did, but I believe that due to their proximity the two fundraisers stepped on each others toes, so to speak. Also it did not have the time to build support that the previous fundraiser did. It was still a very significant amount raised on a single day less then one week after a massive, record breaking day.

Another major grass-roots organized fund raiser is shaping up to take place on December 16th. You history buffs out there will remember that December 16th is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party- keeping in line with the Ron Paul`s rEVOLutionary campaign theme.Launched on November 8th there are, at the time of this writing there are 11,779 pledges to donate $100 on December 16th. That is about 2,000 people signing up every day. If Ron Paul`s supporters come through like they did on Nov 5th, there is no doubt in my mind that this will be another record breaking day for the Ron Paul campaign.

There is still more then a month to build support – if it is anything like the first fundraiser it will blow the roof off of the Ron Paul campaigns previous record.

If you want to sign up to donate you can do so at www.teaparty07.com

You can track Ron Paul`s fundraising progress at www.ronpaulgraphs.com

Or you can go ahead and donate at the official campaign website- www.ronpaul2008.com

Another Ron Paul Fundraiser

There is another 24 hour Ron Paul fundraiser being organized. This time it is on Nov 11th. (Veterans Day) If you did not have a chance to donate on the fifth, or if you want to donate more you should check it out. You can find the site here. Thus far, it does not have anywhere near the support that the last one had, but any day is a good day to donate to Dr. Paul`s campaign.

Just a short update.

Almost three hours left and so far Ron Paul supporters have raised almost $3.3 million. I think that settles once and for all weather or not Ron Paul has any “real support” or not. I even support Ron Paul and I am a bit shocked at this kind of turn out.

Investment tip- Buy crow futures. A LOT of professional political pundits predicted and projected that Ron Paul could not produce the support to persevere in the Republican primaries. (alliteration for the win!) I figure that there will be many servings of crow to go around. This isn’t the same as winning the primaries…. but nothing is the same as winning primaries except, winning the primaries. Straw polls, phone polls, debate polls, and fundraising means nothing at all after the votes are counted.

I wonder if this guy is sweating just a tiny bit- he bets every penny he has that Ron Paul will not win the general election.

In completely unrelated news, C and I have our plane tickets to travel to the U.S. We will be there in time for turkey-day.

Edit to add: Hard to tell exactly how much was donated online- they added a chunk of offline donations but it looks to be just a hair under $4 million if it didnt break it.  The news sites are all vastly under-reporting the fundraising but I believe that the donations were just pouring in so fast that they cant get a handle on it.  Even online news has some kind of delay.

This November 5th fundraiser for Ron Paul

Watching the donations come in for Ron Paul on the website ronpaulgraphs is addictive. More then 18,000 people pledged to donate $100 today to the Ron Paul campaign. After the first hour, there has been over $138,000 in donations. I would expect, there are many people like me who plan to donate but did not sign up on the website.

If the donations continue at anywhere near this pace, we are looking at 2-3 million or even more.

Now comes the next, and arguably more important part of this fundraiser- getting media attention to show that Ron Paul is no longer a “second tier” candidate and that he has a huge base of supporters.

If you have not yet donated, please do so at ronpaul2008.com

edit to add: at 9:40 a.m. EST The donations broke $1,000,000 and we still have more then fourteen hours to go!

Ron Paul supporters DO exist!

From the blog of the man upon whom the Wired article was based-

How many people do I think were behind the Ron Paul spam? One. And not one that is officially recognized in any capacity by the Ron Paul campaign.

Let me make something very clear. I never said anything that was intended to imply Ron Paul does not have a lot of online support. Is it interesting that others have seen online regularities? Yes. But that doesn’t mean that there not truly a large number of online supporters.

Read the rest of the article here

Again, this points to either 1-shoddy journalism on the part of Wired or 2- a deliberate hatchet job. As to which it was, I could only guess.

One of my greatest hopes for the Ron Paul campaign is that the era of the celebrity politician is drawing to a close. Politicians, like (Bill) Clinton, who run purely on charisma and precious little else will be replaced by more people like Ron Paul. People who gain support on their ideas on what is best for the country and not on who can pander to the largest group of people. Campaigns based on well-formed ideas and not catchy sound-bites.

Ok, ok, I am dreaming but it is nice to be able to, once in a while.

Do Ron Paul supporters actually exist?

A massive “A-HA!” raced across the Internet when Wired broke a story that someone was using bots to push a pro-Ron message. So that’s where all this has come from. There is no Ron Paul Revolution… it really is just a few hackers causing all this ruckus.

Of course there is no evidence to suggest that a Ron Paul supporter is behind the activity, let alone the Ron Paul campaign. Anyone with the expertise on how to launch this bot-net attack would have known that it would be relatively easy to identify the email as spam. I would also imagine that if the person or persons behind the spam were smart enough to launch the attack, he/she/they would also be smart enough to know that this would cause a lot of negative publicity for the campaign. Personally, I would give at least even odds that this activity was done to attack the Ron Paul campaign.

But lets ignore that relatively simple chain of logic. If it has Ron Paul’s name on it, on a secure and well ordered media like the Internet, then Ron Paul must surely know about it and approve it….. right? (And people bash Ron Paul supporters for being conspiracy theorists.) Lets ignore that the Wired article declines to state how long the spam has being going on for. It does not say if it has being going on a day, a week, a month, or if they have no idea. The article just ignores that relatively important detail and lets the matter hang. By leaving it out the article creates the impression that the entire Ron Paul campaign originated from the spam. A-HA! There is no Ron Paul Revolution. It is all just a few hackers in their mothers` basements.

Personally I find this, and other hatchet-job blogs and articles that are floating around with more and more frequency to be comforting. Why? I think it is the biggest proof that the Ron Paul campaign is gaining traction. Spammers are using Ron Pauls name in their emails to get people to look at their ads for Viagra. Adult websites are using Ron Paul’s name to drive traffic towards their site. Why? because using Ron Paul’s name brings people in. Either there are many people who are interested in Ron Paul or the handful of spammers in their mothers basement are very, very busy people.

Do I think there is some sort of conspiracy against Ron Paul? No I do not. I do think that because he draws his support from all across the political spectrum, because he is still largely based in the wild new frontier that we call the Internet, that his campaign is hard to get a handle on.

Does Ron Paul have a good chance of winning? Again, I do not think so. Not yet. The backlash against Ron Pauls growing popularity is only getting started. (For every new fad there is always a backlash. You do remember disco, don’t you?) There are also alot of middle-men Ron Paul would like to cut out of government and needless to say, those middle men are very interested in maintaining the status-quo. Regardless of weather the spammer sought to promote or hurt the Paul campaign, there will be increasing attacks on the Ron Paul revolution in the future.

With an army of 56,000 activists registered on meetup.com, $2.5 million raised just in the month of October and 16,336 people registered to donate $100 on this november 5th you better believe the campaign is just getting started.

Finally someone sues the Westboro Baptists.

All I can say is, it is about time.

For those who don’t know, the Westboro Baptists are a tiny cult that garner a lot of media attention by picketing U.S. Servicemen`s funerals. They blame every tragedy on homosexuals, or who ever else they hate (Which for space reasons, I wont get into here- it is a long list, which surprisingly enough according to wikipedia, does not include Canadians. Which of course shows a lack of logical reasoning. To have all the hate that they do and not direct it towards our Northern Neighbor? Just doesn’t make sense. Which leads me to another question. I spend a good two, three hours a day angry at Canada. How can they find the time to hate so many people? They must use a day planner.)

Finally, someone won a lawsuit against the cult for a cool ten million dollars. (read the article here )

Putting up the the silly, sinister, offensive and bizarre is part and parcel of living in a free society, and of course the Westboro nutters claim this violates their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. While I personally support libertarian views, and I defend the right of the silly and crazy to be, well, silly and crazy I don’t think it applies here. I don’t have the right to spout my Anti-Kanuckite propaganda in a crowded theatre- after all the people inside payed to watch a movie. (I dont think that counts as a mixed metaphor, but it is certainly bad writing.) Nor do I have the right to protest at a mixed Canadian/American wedding. While it may be a public space, it is most certainly a private event. It has nothing to do with national policy or society at large.

With any luck the lawsuit will stick. They have a right to be offensive and annoying, but they don’t have a right to force their way into people`s private life.

A short, documentary on Westboro (warning-some language) and by documentary I mean cheap comedy bit.

Ron Paul on Tonight Show video clip

Here is the video clip of Ron Paul on the Tonight Show, Oct 30th. I had a bit of trouble finding it on youtube, though it is sure to rise rapidly.

It is good to see Dr. P becoming a much more polished speaker, without losing that edge. In regular Tonight Show style, Dr. P got a series of soft ball questions, and thanks to the meet up groups the audience was definitely Ron Paul friendly. But an appearance like this will go a long way in counteracting the usual mudslingers that try to paint Dr. P as an eccentric freak.

Ill be interested if there is any change in his fundraising, which seems to be in a kind of an end of the month slump. You can find a variety of Dr. Paul related graphs here.

I am looking on youtube if there is any footage of the crowd outside the studio. If any of you can find it, let me know.

Say it aint so, Dr. Paul!

So, as an avid Ron Paul fan, after returning from Europe I eagerly awaited the unveiling of his first TV spot. You can watch it  here.  Take a look- it is only 30 seconds long.  Go ahead, Ill wait.

My question is, why Dr. Paul? WHY did you approve of that message?

Wow.  I mean wow.  I can hardly imagine a worse TV spot.  (Well I can, I just cannot imagine a worse one actually being aired.) It has the production value of an after school special from the early eighties.  Now I know a lot of Dr. Paul supporters want something that mirrors their kind of passion, where the campaign wants to start attracting mom and pop I-don’t-like-to-think-too-much-about-politics-types.  But still, starting a commercial with “Well, I don’t always agree with Ron Paul…” that is not the way to grab peoples attention.  They then follow that up with a guy who says “Actually, I agree with him most of the time.  I really do.”  Well if that doesn’t inspire confidence and passion, I don’t know what will.  Also the way he says it is more like “Actually….(wait, wait, I need to re-read the cue card…) I agree with him…”  I know the actor was just reading the lines he was given, and I know he probably has a family that loves him.  Still doesn’t change the fact that the way he delivers that line makes me want to punch him in the uvula.

The whole thing reminds me of the movie “The American President” where the Presidents re-election slogan is “Dont change horses mid-stream.”  Dr. P`s commercial also sounds wishy-washy and weak and it is not a good choice for someone who attracts support because of his honesty, passion, and enthusiasm.

To give Dr. P`s campaign a break, they do have an incredibly difficult task.  The Dr. Paul message is not an easy one to grasp, as people have been trained for so long that the government is responsible for their lives.  (wait… wait… you mean the solution to everything isn’t passing more laws?) 

They also have to explain that Dr. Paul`s positions are not just pie-in-the-sky daydreams.  While at the same time re-assuring people that Dr. Paul will not take away the entitlements they have already earned.   The fact is, old people vote.  They also tend to be registered Republican, and vote with much more frequency in the primaries.  Obviously if they have the slightest fear that Paul would stop their social security checks, they aren’t going to vote for him. (Not that I blame them, after paying into the system my whole life and being heavily reliant on those checks to survive, I would be a mite protective too.)

And don’t think for a second that the main-stream media hasn’t picked up on this.  Almost every news clip I have watched on youtube about Ron Paul begins with  “Dr. Paul, who wants to end social security….”  Even though he has said repeatedly that he would not strip entitlements from people who depend on them. 

If I were to write a Ron Paul commercial it would involve him slaying Romney and Clinton lookalikes with a samurai sword, then writing the pre-amble to the Constitution on the wall in their blood.  I don’t think it would play well in Peoria though.

A pox on your intertubes!

Spent a long time today putting together a long post with pictures and comments plus a slide show, but for some reason I borked all of the pictures while uploading them. So instead here is a link to a buddy of mine from Australia`s blog. He and his better half had an epic four and a half month journey around Europe.

The post card C and I sent her dad from the Vatican finally arrived here today. God does move in mysterious ways, and when it comes to mail, apparently he takes his sweet time.

Still haven’t received word about my sister fleeing from the San Diego area due to the fires, and canceled classes. But while I have been searching for information on the fire, I have come to one conclusion- The Gen Xers had it right. Don’t believe in any thing, it only causes trouble.

On the one hand you have religious nutters claiming that the fires are the wrath of God in response to some recent legislation. Right. The fundamentalist Christian God (or the Islamic one, neither one them seem to be the sunshine and puppy dogs sort of Deity) comes down from on high to start a fire in a very wealthy, conservative neighborhood while leaving the very flamboyant West Hollywood untouched. Apparently God has terrible aim. (perhaps he has bad eyesight, that would explain the postcard from the Vatican.)

On the other hand you have the environmentalist nutters claiming that the fire is a result of global warming. Obviously the Santa Ana winds only started with global warming, California has never had a drought, and there has never been a major fire before global warming. (The fire of London was probably another cover-up initiated by George W. Bush.)

Here is my theory- the San Diego fire was due to the fact I had a record low number of page views on that day. Had more people been reading my blog, there would be 2,000 families that would not be homeless right now.

Hey, it makes as much sense as the previous two theories.

Then of course are the real jerks who just say “serves em right for living there, they should have moved a long time ago.” My question is where? Tornado alley? The Hurricane Coast? The blizzard covered north east? How about up by earthquake country near San Fran? The Mississippi flood plain? The volcanoes of the north west? Is there anyplace in the U.S. that is not prone to at least one kind of natural disaster?

How about people learn that crappy stuff happens from time to time, and you can either A: Have a heart and do something about it or B: be like me and write sarcastic comments about it on your blog.