$150,000 per day!

Yesterday morning, Sept. 24, Ron Paul's campaign launched a $500,000 end-of-quarter online fundraising push and put up this real-time updating widget on his website to let the world see the money flowing into his campaign. No one would believe that he would raise over $300,000 in TWO DAYS. At this rate, combined with an upcoming debate appearance on Thursday and a Friday payday included in this project, this particular effort could easily break the million dollar mark, in online contributions alone. And this is coming smack off the heels of last week's project to acquire 1,787 contributions during Constitution week.

Do your part and give all you can to help us blow the minds of the media pundits who continue to think he's irrelevant.

The Only One

Extremely powerful Ron Paul video.

The song is "The Only One" (lyrics), on the album The Open Door by Evanescence.

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GOP Candidates YouTube Stats - 9/15/07

I started to think these updates were pointless, since Paul trounces them all every single time, so I slacked off a little. But I got curious myself to see how things were going so here's another update in spite of myself.

Note: the growth charts have Fred Thompson's old Youtube profile numbers. His new profile as an official candidate is only a week old, and will be used in the next update to replace the original numbers in the growth charts below.

Cumulatives:





Averages:





Here are the progress graphs showing actual growth in various user activities for each GOP candidate since May 22.

Channel Views	Cumulative Ratings	Cumulative Comments
Cumulative Views	Subscribers	Ratings Averages
Comments Averages	Views Averages

Previous entries:
Aug 10, 2007: GOP Candidates YouTube Stats - 08/10/07 - Dem Comparison
Aug 2, 2007: GOP Candidates YouTube Stats - 07/29/07 - Launch Pad Edition
July 15, 2007: GOP Candidates YouTube Stats - 07/15/07
July 1, 2007: GOP Candidates YouTube Stats - 07/01/07
June 21, 2007: GOP Candidates YouTube Stats - 06/21/07
June 11, 2007: GOP Candidate YouTube Stats - 06/11/07
June 2, 2007: GOP Candidate YouTube Stats, Charts (Followup)
May 22, 2007: About those Youtube Stats...
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GOP candidates enjoy the surge

Here are some screenshots from Google Trends showing the volume of internet users who are searching for information about the leading GOP candidates. The first shows the trends across all of 2007 for candidates Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. (These images were captured Sept. 10, and it takes Google several days to feed new data into the system so these graphs are a few days behind the actual trends).

The upper graph shows the density of searches for each candidate, while the lower graph in the above image shows the density of news coverage corresponding to each candidate. Huckabee and Paul are the least discussed candidates in news coverage, but Paul enjoys fairly high levels of search interest across the internet. Notice that pre-ordained frontrunners Romney and Giuliani have the most news coverage, while their search trends float along the bottom of the charts. It begs the question: If Paul's campaign were covered more frequently in the media, would people be searching for more information about him? This graph clearly shows the level of demand he inspires on the internet.

This graphic below shows the search trends for just September alone. Two significant events occurred simultaneously resulting in the surge you see reflected on this graph: the FoxNews debate and Fred Thompson's candidacy announcement on Leno.

The drop-off you see for both Paul and Thompson can largely be attributed to lower internet traffic that's typical on weekends. It will be interesting to see how their demand levels off as we go into this next week. Stay tuned for that.
UPDATE: Here is the screenshot for both candidates a week later - notice how the earlier peak rapidly settles out for both:



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Two nasties, a slobbering drunk and lots of thumbs up

It was an interesting night, standing on a street corner holding two Ron Paul signs and a cache of slimjims in the middle of this month's street party event. This particular event was larger than normal due to a Harley motorcycle group who was touring the area, complete with a downtown parade and group-sponsored blood drive. It was an excellent opportunity for alot of face time in heavy but casual foot traffic.

I hooked up with David, a fellow Paul devotee and write-in candidate for a city council seat who was tagging along to advance his own campaign, around 6:30pm and we wandered up the block a ways to settle on the most heavily traveled corner at Third and Cherry, right there at the hub of the busiest intersection in the multi-block street party.

The crowd was very diverse, lots of colorful leathery biker types, whole families from kids in strollers to seniors navigating the crowded sidewalks surprisingly well for their apparent ages, blacks and whites alike all enjoying the atmosphere in and around the numerous sidewalk-seated eateries lining this particular street. The weather this evening was perfect after the month-long scorching heatwave we just had, with a nice steady breeze that kept the air from stagnating in the slowly-milling throngs.

I much prefer this environment for politicking as opposed to a busy intersection in rush hour traffic. This particular scenario allows plenty of opportunity to engage the curious, inspire the oblivious, and close the deal with multiple fence sitters. I probably fielded about two dozen "who is Ron Paul" inquiries, graciously accepted about the same number of thumbs-up kudos, and put a slimjim directly into the hands of over 100 people who showed even the most subtle interest in comprehending my purpose for being there. The majority of the crowd however simply smiled as they meandered past with not a care in the world.

And of course, we had a few interesting and shall we say unsupportive encounters. About an hour into it, a man whose attire announced his unquestionable affiliation with the biker group, stepped away from his party and approached me, looking me dead in the eye as he slowly withdrew his hand from his front jeans pocket. Stopping about 10 feet away and suddenly leaning toward me, he flipped a quarter at my feet and avowed, "Not a Chance." Not immediately grasping the entirety of his intention, I continued to smile at him as he stomped back into his own party of friends, turning only once to scowl at me as if I'd somehow just insulted his dog. Ahh, ok, I get it now. I broadened my smile and nodded to bestow my best blessings on the poor lost coward of a man who has probably never even read the first Ron Paul writing, let alone knew anything of his actual positions on the issues.

Next up, about a half hour later, a chubby white haired man attired to exude a certain affluence stared intently at the sign I was holding, racking his brain to recognize the familiar name in front of him. Just as I slid the slimjim from my stack toward his semi-outstretched hand, his look of pained concentration immediately leveled into disgusted contempt as he felt it necessary to utter, "I'm a republican.." while snapping his hand into his ribs to keep my offering from even making contact with his ascribed personal body space. Unaware of the cusses emanating from this man's body language, my friend David took this utterance as his cue to engage the man on the more proximate issue of asking for his vote in the upcoming city elections. The man would have none of it, nearly issuing his own fatwas as if to purge the streets of myself, David, Ron Paul and every other freedom-loving soul inhabiting his planet earth.

Not too long after that David needed to seek out the source of a particularly appetizing aroma that had pervaded the breeze for almost the entire time we'd been there, since he hadn't stopped to eat beforehand. We quickly finalized our plans for more campaigning the next day and we bid our adieus for the night. As it was nearly dark at this point I resolved to stay in this nice visible spot as long as the people remained amicably sober.

Along comes a man very intent on having a conversation with me by first indulging my desires to discuss what I find so appealing about Ron Paul. He listened attentively throughout my explanation, and merely offered his affection for Huckabee, albeit somewhat uncommitted. When I acknowledged that I too liked Huckabee, he began to explain the basis of his appeal, being the Huckster's alleged moral compass that will essentially put God back into everything we do. My smile remained steady, fueled by the comedy of my mind's presentation of eyes rolling at the dreaded church/state argument I was convinced was about to ensue. But at the first mention of the ten commandments, this man abruptly stopped to ask if I could name them. I'm sure I can, I thought, having discussed this issue hundreds of times recently. But, being caught off guard at the man's inquisitiveness, I suddenly drew a blank, succeeding in naming only 4 (honor parents, no lying, stealing or coveting) while struggling to find the rest of them hiding away in inaccessible retreats of the mind.

At this point the man had fully embarked on his well-rehearsed spiel in an attempt to save my soul from damnation. If you've worked in any capacity involving crowds of strangers over the last few years, I'm sure you've encountered similar which always starts off with the stranger offering you something you believe to be of value, such as a (fake) $1 million dollar bill or (fake) golden chain. The purpose of this ploy is to lead you into temptation then guilt you into holy repentance. The first time it was tried on me, a man offered me a million dollar bill. I immediately told him there's no such thing so I didn't care for it, thus undercutting his approach and throwing him off balance. Well in tonight's challenge to list the ten commandments, he offered me the ten commandments engraved on a penny as if it were a highly prized valuable keepsake.

Overall we had a nice conversation that lasted about 20 minutes, but I want to believe that I managed to sway him from his Huckabee attraction, using his own "God needs to bless America again" logic. I told him I did not agree with Huck's position that we remain united even to the point of the entire nation going over a cliff. I tried to explain that God will never bless this country as long as corruption permeates all levels of government, our entire economy is based on the successful inducement of covetous behavior, and trickery and deceit are employed to justify our aims at conquering the world by force. In light of the current state of affairs in this country, there's no way any one of God's children in our right minds should drop our principles and morals and remain silent and subservient to a horribly lost and broken government just to keep the country united. Where is the honor in that?

I could have talked longer because I really enjoy that level of intensity in civil conversation, but I felt I was neglecting the first priority of introducing people to Ron Paul so I stopped rebutting his remarks and allowed him to wind down to his conclusion so he would leave and let me get back to it.

No sooner had I recomposed myself to embrace the crowd when a slovenly fat drunken man put his putrid breath about 6 inches from my nose and insisted that I stop this nonsense and vote for Hillary. Ignoring all internal alarms shooting danger signals so strongly into my frontal lobes that my jaws tensed rigid immediately, I foolishly asked the man "why do you want Hillary?" "Because we need (hic) change. We need a change," he said. Still ignoring my inner guidance I replied, "yes we do need change. Drastic change. And this man's going to do it by putting this country back in touch with its constitution." Coming off such a satisfying conversation with Mr. Salvation, I was stupidly unwilling to shut down on the next conversation that arose. When this creature got 2 inches from my face and told me, "you're a woman. Give Hillary a chance. Vote for a woman so we can have a change," I nearly puked in disgust at the man's obnoxiously drunken sexism. FINALLY, my body shut down and ceased all voluntary responses to this vile stimuli invading the deepest levels of my personal space. This paralysis apparently worked to motivate the man to back off and go on about his night, but one more wreaking molecule of this man's toxic emissions penetrating my olfactory membrane was going to cause a scene to which the dozens of officers onhand would have gladly responded to justify their presence at this heretofore uneventful night.

And with that, at 9:18pm I dropped the signs to my side and left without so much as a nod to the next mass of cheerfully approaching revelers. What a terribly sour note to end an otherwise amazingly fulfilling evening on the streets for Ron Paul.

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Ron Paul in FoxNews Debate 9-5-07

See why he won the latest Fox Textmessage poll with 35%.


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Zero Tolerance destroys another life

Swiss Army Knife In Cobb School Parking Lot Should Not Be Prosecuted
County's 'Zero Tolerance' Program Ensnares Another Student

Wednesday, September 05, 2007 at 3:00 PM

Atlanta, GA - Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr today blasted school officials in Cobb County, Georgia, a northwest suburb of Atlanta, for seeking to bring felony charges against a 12th grade student, Wilford Ray Chandler, Jr., for simply having a small Swiss Army knife in his car in a school parking lot at Wheeler High School.

"The student posed no threat to anyone, and he was not using the knife in any threatening manner," Barr noted, "in fact, he was not using the knife at all - it was simply in his car." "Trying to ruin a student's career before it even begins, by treating such an innocuous activity as having a Swiss Army pocketknife in a car, is nothing short of an unthinking, stupid, and vindictive exercise of government power," Barr, a former federal prosecutor, said.

Barr said he hoped the county's prosecutors, including District Attorney Pat Head and Solicitor Barry Morgan, would quickly drop any charges against the student, and thereby "exercise the common sense and understanding that county school officials and police apparently lack, as evidenced by the unyielding and ridiculous 'zero tolerance' program and the unreasonable application of the policy to a student with no criminal record or intent and who exhibited nothing that could be remotely viewed by reasonable people as criminal behavior."

For further information please visit http://www.bobbarr.org or contact Derek Barr at 770-836-1776.

Barr, a former Member of Congress (1995-2003), also served previously as a US Attorney and with the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a lawyer and currently works with national organizations on issues related to privacy and national security.

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Constitutional catch-all

The easiest response to the question, "why do you support Ron Paul?" is "because of the Constitution." But it's much deeper and diverse than that.

But interviews with Paul supporters of all political stripes suggest less sunny reasons: alienation from both parties and a pervasive sense that the country, as they know it, is slipping through their fingers.

For some, it's a bellicose foreign policy that culminated in the Iraq war. Others cite economic unease, globalization and a sea of national debt. Some fret about civil liberties lost in the post-9/11 era. Yet others argue that U.S. sovereignty is threatened by porous borders.
Link

Plus, considering that 81% of us think this country is going in the wrong direction, how about a big, resounding DUH!

81% of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, and in the same poll, 72% believe our Founding Fathers would be disappointed with the state of our nation today. Link

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Another Liberal crosses over

I’m going over to the Dark Side; I have joined the Republican Party. If we’re going to have warrantless detentions, torture, prison camps, and corporate handouts, I want to be on the inside. Power and pork, here I come!

Link

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They are terrified of Ron Paul

For Dr. Herndon, a candidate to watch is Ron Paul.

"Ron Paul is striking a phenomenal emotional chord with voters -- when they have access to his message. The mainstream political and media machines are terrified. And global financial controllers are in an outright panic. Every effort is being made -- and will be made -- to marginalize him.

Link

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I watched Zeitgeist, pt III

Actually I watched the whole thing, but the whole Horus=Jesus=the sun thing was completely unnecessary in a too-much-information kind of way. The only way I can think to get others to watch it is to challenge them with "I don't think you can handle it." And not just the whole thing in its entirety, but even just Part III: Don't Mind the Men Behind the Curtain.

Speaking of, here's part III, if you think you can handle it.

Given the choice, "Mr. Freeedommmm" Ted Nugent would pick Hillary

What an obnoxious neocon tool. Watch this clip of Ted Nugent begging Obama, Hillary and Feinstein to suck on his assault rifle, then belching a most perverted "freedom" yell to publicly declare his fascist intoxication.

I guarantee you, when it comes down to a contest between Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul in November 2008, this bozo will follow every other neocon into Hillary's pro-war globalist camp with glee. Not a single molecule in this man's body has the faintest notion of the concept of freedom.

The best way to shrivel this guy's engorged bravado is for Hillary to march right up to him and say, "Here I am. Do it, big boy."

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Fighting back

Howard Dean used to say, "You have the power!" Once that chant sunk into the consciences of lethargic voters, they got off their butts and starting doing something on their own to make things happen. Well, for a while anyway. But this post is not about Dean's March 2004 implosion. It's about people waking up and realizing the "power" to change the world is entirely in their hands. No longer content to sit around waiting for the official powers that be to make enough improvements in our social atmosphere to have a positive effect on individual lives, they've started taking matters into their own hands. And coming up for 2008, we're about to see how motivating their levels of discontent really are.

Let's take the corporate "mainstream" media as a solid source of this discontent. They've selected the frontrunners of the presidential campaign and annointed them as the only viable choices for the voters. But after repeatedly being discredited for broadcasting their falsehoods all the way back to the beginning of George Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, the people seem to have finally had enough.

And now they, the corporate media, find themselves the topic in more and more discussion about what's wrong with our society. Certainly media-controlled censorship is not a new phenomena by any means, but the extent of it lately appears to be reaching critical mass.

Let's start here with an article about their roles as democratically-subversive kingmakers: Corporate Media Won't Let the Public Pick the Next President.

This example of reality's absence in mainstream media best illustrates the extent of the bias in their coverage of the presidential campaigns: Ron Paul Wins Five Straw Polls, Mainstream Media Remains Silent

Next, Prof. Paul Levinson analyzes the blatant media bias against Ron Paul as a central theme in his recent lectures and interviews:

We discussed the problem of media bias in general - easy to find, it's pervasive - and I even offered my view that the FCC, in daily violating the First Amendment to our Constitution, is treasonous.

(Podcast here, Levinson's blog here)

Now these two fellas have taken a more aggressive approach to hold the media accountable, accusing corporate media of conspiring to censor Ron Paul's campaign to the point of launching RICO criminal charges in their sworn affidavits. Best of luck to them, but after the recent court ruling that says TV news stations can lie with impunity, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one.

The point here is that with the internet's end-run around media's censorship, and by the power of the internet's equalizing effect as Dr. Paul would say, more than a few grains of sand are starting to shift underneath the monolithic establishment's foundation.

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Police Confiscate $23,700 from trucker.. because they can.

Anastasio Prieto of El Paso gave a state police officer at the weigh station permission to search the truck to see if it contained "needles or cash in excess of $10,000," according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the federal lawsuit Thursday.

Prieto told the officer he didn't have any needles but did have $23,700.

Officers took the money and turned it over to the DEA. DEA agents photographed and fingerprinted Prieto over his objections, then released him without charging him with anything.

Border Patrol agents searched his truck with drug-sniffing dogs, but found no evidence of illegal substances, the ACLU said.

Link

His crime? Mere possession of $23,700. America, America, God shed his grace on thee...

You're next, protestors.

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Another Innovative Stunt by Ron Paul Supporters

I am continually amazed at the creativity of passionate people coming up with innovative, effective ways to increase Ron Paul's name recognition among the voting public. Every single bit of this activity is being initiated, funded and coordinated by local individuals without the knowledge or support of the official campaign.

For the upcoming Maryland Straw Poll, a group of 100 exuberant (and probably highly decorated) Paul supporters will emerge from a truck at the MD State Fair. Yes this event will be videotaped and shared on Youtube.com.

Another creative supporter laboriously printed out individual panels of a large Ron Paul sign and spliced them together manually to place the finished product on the roof of his truck in an effort to be spotted and broadcast by TV station traffic helicopters.

The hardhitting "We Told You So" flyer shown in my previous post was created by a group of enthusiastic supporters sitting around discussing the best approach to reach people in their community. The flyer was used as a paid insert in their local paper, funded by a single donor at the local level, with no affiliation whatsoever with the official campaign.

The beautiful Ron Paul "We the People" full page ad funded entirely by volunteers that ran in the Ames Tribune on the day of the Iowa Straw Poll was a collection of photos provided by Ron Paul supporters to this website, massaged into Dr. Paul's likeness and overlayed on the Constitution by an enthusiastic group of unpaid volunteers trying to help Paul's standing with Iowa voters.

The Ron Paul Revolution phenomena was born out of the minds of avid Ron Paul supporters and launched very early in the campaign through this site, which has no affiliation whatsoever with the official campaign. These banners have been strung from bridges, streetcorners and balconies all across America with impressive flair.

New Hampshire's Kelly Halldorson took it to the streets, literally, in a one-day, 38 mile walk from her home to the steps of the capitol building in Concord to promote Ron Paul's candidacy. Her spectacular feat inspired others to do the same, and helped launch a national movement of supporters everywhere conducting their own local Walk-for-Paul events, orchestrated to occur simultaneously on August 26, 2007. Are you walking, too?

Other national, unaffiliated Ron Paul events are popping up everywhere. The Memphis "Paint the Town Ron" meetup group has issued a challenge to all the other groups in a contest to see which local communities can outdo each other painting their towns Ron. Another Paul supporter has plopped down his own cash to fund a contest to see who can create the most effective, persuasive Ron Paul videos.

Musical talent is oozing out of this very excited mass of freedom lovers. We've got everything from Rap, Folk, Pop, Country and even some Reggae freely emanating from these souls. And you can dance to nearly all of it.

And what recap of Ron Paul supporter creativity would be complete without sending you to the video collection of anonymous supporter "Aravoth?" He has voluntarily and without pay created some of the most moving Ron Paul clips I've ever seen. I'm sure you'll agree.

What are some other amazing bursts of creativity that Ron Paul inspires? Share them in the comments section and we'll add to this list over time.

We Told You So

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This is how we win.

Print your own (PDFs), or order 10,000 of these handouts ($0.04 each) and distribute them all over town. Use them as newspaper inserts with your local paper, hand them out at churches, football games and upcoming fall festivals. Use the front page as a newspaper/newsletter advertisement.

This is what the Ron Paul Revolution is all about.

Update: flyer modified 8-27-07.

Download the original PDF file here
Mirror file here (my modifications as pictured at left):
edited_founders15.pdf

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North American Union & Amero news coverage

Bump, originally posted Feb. 24, 2007 to showcase several Lou Dobbs videos about this administration's plans for a North American Union (NAU), growing out of Bush's Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), without congressional or voter knowledge and consent.

Below are a selected handful of different media clips showing that these developments are now being brought however slowly to the public's attention.

Here's a new video added Aug 21, 2007 discussing the Amero for the NAU/SPP.


5-31-07:


2-21-07:


2-7-07:


1-18-07:


1-5-07:


12-26-06:


12-1-06:


8-26-06:


More to follow. Please share these far and wide, the citizens of this country need to know what's going on without their knowledge or their approval.

FEC complaint filed against Fred Thompson

...apparently for violating the law by running for president as a non-candidate.

He has been presenting himself as a candidate for President, he has been raising large sums of money beyond what would be required to explore a possible candidacy, and he has signed a long term lease on a headquarters for his campaign. He has even spent advertising dollars, which are specifically prohibited by the law.

Read the full complaint.

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Must see Ron Paul newsprint Ad

This full-page ad, which appeared in the Aug. 11 edition of the Ames Tribune (IA), was created just a few short days ago by a team of creative, dedicated Ron Paul volunteers led by "Lord Xar" at the Ron Paul forums, using photos submitted by Ron Paul supporters from all over the country. He's currently modifying the graphic for our unrestricted use as a generalized ad/poster/sign, and when he's done I want this ad to appear in every newspaper in this country, and the poster [buy it] to appear in every public venue and hang proudly in every American's home.

Ron Paul Endorsements

More mindblowing creativity from the grassroots.