Cry for information consolidation.

OK, I know I went through this before and I still feel the same way. Ron Paul saturation is beginning to hurt his campaign, but there is a new twist that I really did not speak to as much in my previous post.

Information saturation may be turning some off to Ron, but it is also eventually finding others that it needs to and having an effect, but there seems to be another problem. I have spoken to this in other posts and in many blog comments. I have also been seeing it from other RP supporters.

Duplication of the same story, especially on networking sites, is keeping the message down. Creating a blog post with a different URL with similar, almost duplicate content on these sites causes supporters to spread their power. Thus diluting the message and the support for it. Linking from your blog to another directly, that is already posted on the networking site, should absolutely not be done and seems to be nothing more than trafficking for blog hits.

The Ron Paul $1 Million mark is a prime example (on Digg anyway). That news was posted at least 20 times (can't get a good count since Digg's search engine sucks). The Diggs were spread an prevented a HUGE article for the front page; it would have hit in 15 minutes if there had only been one of them...

Let's make an effort to help the message percolate to the top, if you will. When you find something good, search on the networking site before you post it. If you find an identical article, Digg it or upmodded it, whatever. Don't post another; that causes dilution of the support! We can use the Internet even more efficiently than ever if we just take that little bit of time to check first.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from posting. I think it is great and a new movement is afoot; incredible things ARE happening!

I wil try another discussion forum; I love the stuff!

These forums can be so entertaining and you can learn a lot form them.

I will try another without the Ron Paul stigma that seems to scare everyone at Digg away.
No one was signed up for my other board and complained that the name meant they would have non-Paul posts deleted.

I am not interested in that. Yes, I am a Ron Paul backer, but I want real discussion here. I enjoy it and sometimes it is fascinating. Often entertaining, and quite funny.

So go check out the NEW non-biased, totally open 2008 Presidential Campaign forum

Sign up and let the fightin' begin!

(I won't even put my Ron Paul animated Gif on this post for you Paul haters on Digg. Try it, and have fun! I promise; no funny stuff from me.)

Yet another attempt by Giuliani to exploit an American Tragedy.

Although Rudy denies knowledge or endorsement of his latest fund raising drive, I seriously doubt his disapproval and have seen no statement from the campaign stating so. A group of his supporters are asking people to donate $9.11 to his campaign presumably by the end of this quarter. What a shameless scam!

If Rudy thinks this is tasteless, come out and say so. Donate the money to a charity. Prove it to us; stand up and be a man!

Giuliani has been riding the 9/11 tragedy ever since the campaign began. He is brazenly using his "heroism" after the attacks to pump up his campaign. Don't be fooled by this nonsense; he is another rich corporate puppet inexorably tied to the neo-con agenda.

The NYFD, NYPD and MANY others who actually know what was going on during and after the tragedy have continuously rebuked his claims of "heroism". They know the truth and they know his negligence contributed to the complacency that allowed these terrible events to happen. He hung them out to dry and left the mess that became the pit after the towers fell for them to deal with themselves!

Rudy, show people some respect. We are not fooled by your bravado and we know you just want more of the same. The people are ready to take back their country and Giulian is not the man for THAT job. (You know who is....)

Forget Rudy's $9.11 donation; do Ron's $17.76 for freedom!

I'm looking at the upcoming 2008 Election posts on Digg and Jeff Ready has a great idea! Here is his link: http://jeffready.blogspot.com/2007/09/forget-9-11-think-1776.html

This idea is brought to us by the free bumper sticker guy! He is a doing a great service to the campaign with that idea and he came up with another one!

Jeff, I gotta hand it to you; that was a great one!

So let's put Ron over a million this week! Donate $17.76 (0r $17.89!) if you can!

And I have created a pledge on pledgebank:

Sign up there and let's get Dr. Paul over the top for the quarter. His gains for the quarter will put him beyond McCain by far and past Romney's money on hand. That makes him in the top 3 earners for the entire campaign!

The changing face of the Presidential election.

I started this as a hit piece, but it kind of morphed into something else. But let's start with:
What is Fred doing?

He has dodged the debates; he has not appeared at any of them and he had his chances. He is trying to woo the NRA and gun rights advocates, but why would they support him? What has he done to show that he is interested in their cause. On a side note, what the hell does Rudy think he can offer them? Has he gone crazy?!

Fred has not laid out any kind of platform. He has not spoken to any of the issues even in generalities that I have seen. But I don't follow him either, and the MSM is not putting it in my face either, so you decide... He decided to announce his candidacy on Leno. Come on, Leno??!

Fred obviously thinks his celebrity will translate to political support in this race. It will not. Ron Paul is changing this race into something we have not seen in a long time. He keeps the door open for Huckabbe, Kucinich and others to still have hope.

The base for the parties, especially the Republicans, is fragmenting and this is good for America. People are beginning to realize that they actually DO have choices and power to make a difference. How else could Paul, Kucinich, Huckabee and even Gravel still be hanging around and still getting press, at least on the Internet in some cases.

People are opening their eyes and it scares the "top tier" candidates. They are losing control to the real owners of the power; the people of America. This is going to continue. We will strive for honesty and justice in our government. As Ross Perot said "Vote your conscience.." This is the responsibility of all of us; vote what feels right for you. It doesn't matter if you vote for the winner. You will be the winner in the long run if you do this; we all will be!

Don't let ANYONE tell you not to "waste" your vote on Ron Paul or Kucinich or Huckabee. Like the old saying goes "There are no stupid questions.". Well, the only wasted votes are the ones that are not cast or cast out of fear or ignorance.

What will it take for Ron Paul to get the nomination?

So what will it take for him to get the nomination? How many votes will he have to get in the primaries?

I looked at the numbers on the FEC website from 1996. I don't think the 2000 numbers are as valid since McCain was really the only legitimate candidate running. The 1996 race seems to be comparable to 2008 since there were more than 2 contenders. Forbes, Dole, Buchanan and even Lamar Alexander were all in the running in some states. So it makes more sense to compare that year to this one.

Let's look at the numbers based on the FEC totals from 1996:

• Total votes cast in the 1996 Republican presidential primary: 15,318,525
• ( I will adjust this number by 20% due to the high turnout that year in my opinion)

• Adjusted total:12,254,820
  

The percentages from the FEC seem to show that Dole won about 60% of those votes. That would mean he got approximately 7,352,982 votes (adjust for 20% from above). Seems like a lot of votes to me...

Can Ron Paul get that many votes? If my assumption is correct (and I may be way off!) Ron will need about 7.5 million votes to win the nomination.

There are around 40,000 Meetup members for Dr. Paul. If the vote ratio there is 10 to 1 (meaning that each person can recruit 10 more), that is 400,000 votes. He has $3,000,000 dollars in donations so far and if that is averaged for $50 per donation, that would be about 60,000 donors. But probably 90% of those are also Meetup members; so that is only about another 6000 votes. Based on his media exposure at a national level, I am going to throw in another 1,000,000 which probably includes the Libertarians that will vote for him. I will also be generous and throw in another 500,000 who did not vote in the 1996 primary either due to age or apathy.

My total estimate, at this time, would be about 2 million votes. Not many; he will need four times that many to win, I think. So we have our work cut out for us. Believe me, I hope I am wrong and there is a possibility that I am, but I can only work from the numbers and some guesstimates..

So where does that leave us? Ron has money to spend and I am sure there will be a lot more coming in this quarter. They have almost "filled the quill" for 1787 donors in just 4 days! That is a GREAT sign, but we cannot rest on our heels. We are not even close to being sure Ron can win.

Will there be apathy and cockiness by the "top tier" candidates and their constituents? I think so and hope so which means they may have a lower turnout. Will they be competing for the same group of voters? Absolutely! And there will be MANY who will never vote for them. There will also be Democrats who will vote for Ron in the Primary... But we must continue the exposure.

Get out and talk to people; put up a yard sign; chalk it up at your school, the young people are a very good source of "never voted" in my opinion and maybe most attracted to the message. Hang up signs in your neighborhood; yes, they will be taken down, but make them cheap. Trash cardboard and a marker can do wonders just to get Ron's name in people's faces. They will do the rest of the work; Ron's message is contagious!

We can't and should not give up! We ARE the patriots of our age and we have the power to make this happen. Ron is leading us and our power will become evident very soon!

Simple (and cheap) way to help Ron spread the word.

I have done this before and almost made it. But that was before my blog and
I posted it directly on Digg. But I will try it again.

I have created an easy and very cheap pledge on pledgebank.com to post
some Ron Paul campaign signs in your neighborhood. We will start small..
Just 25 signs, and I don't mean bug professional signs. I mean get the
yard sign from Ron's site or here from my photobucket album, go to
any office supply store or the grocery store or wherever and print 25
copies of any of these images on 8.5X11 sheets of paper.

Take them out and staple them to telephone poles, tape them to street
sign poles; any where people will see them. Try to find the highest
traffic area possible; local festivals, a bust intersection or next to a
busy highway! Lotta traffic there!

There will be people who will take them down, so try to put them
somewhere visible, but kind of inaccessible. High up on anything
works well. Those people might not be malicious, just want to keep
paper out of the area. They do the same thing with yard sale signs,
so don't take offense..

But get out and do it! You will be surprised how much it can help and
how few people really know about Ron....

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Some observations about Ron Paul's appearance on O-Riley's show.

I am not a regular viewer of Bill's show and I do not pay much attention to him.
I know he is a loud mouth who likes to talk about nothing of substance in general
and likes to hear himself talk. He adds little of value to the news since most of
his presentation is just his opinions... So I guess that is not really news at all..??
(Not that Fox news really shows anything of great value and nothing that can
be useful..)

But, as I and many others on Digg predicted, it was a shout-fest by Bill and
some interrupted answers to the same question over and over from Ron.
O'Riley never really did give Dr. Paul any kind of chance to answer any of
his questions, except for one point where I think the producers must have
told him that he had to give Ron SOME time... Ron did well considering the
context, of which there was none. Of course O'Riley is just looking for a
sound bite, 10 word answer, which is what he generally provides to his
viewers.

Personally, I think it was some kind of "freak show". O'Riley brought Ron
on to embarrass him, to show his (Bill's) "intellectual superiority" and astute
analysis of the situation in the Middle East in general. He has no clue!!
He would not allow any discussion about what got us into the whole mess
in the first place! Yes, it is a little irrelevant right now and we have to deal
with the situation as it is, but in order to do so, one must know how we got
here.

Ron's quotes from the debate are RIGHT ON THE MONEY!! None of them
want us there (another link to my blog, sorry). We have been there way too
long, way beyond THIS war in Iraq and we are in bed with the rich leaders
in the Arab nations who support terrorism and commit human rights
violations! No wonder they hate us!! Like Ron says, it is the policy that
is wrong! The world is less safe when imperialistic administrations like
we have now think that they can cram their ideals down the throats of
everyone else. It just can't work. Believe it or not GW, EVERYONE
wants to be free; not just Iraqis and Americans...

Should we step in when atrocities are being committed; yes.
Should we as Ron says, "...mind our own business, defend our borders
and defend this country..". Hell, yes! I have no desire to police the
world and the rest of America is getting just as tired of it!

Look at these polls:

Iraq CBS News/New York Times Poll. Sept. 4-8, 2007. N=1,035 adults nationwide
FOX News Poll: Even With Surge Improvements, Most Want U.S. Out Of Iraq (granted from July 2007)
Global Poll: Majority Wants Troops Out of Iraq Within a Year

Technorati Tags: ron paul, election, 2008, iraq

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I am now convinced...

I'll admit; when I first found out Ron Paul was running for the Republican
nomination, I thought little of it.
I did some research, found a lot to like about him and began backing his
campaign. Did I think it could
really happen? No way! I believed George Stephanopoulos when he said Dr.
Paul had no chance.
I thought he had a sure bet when he said he would wager everything he had
right to Ron's face that he could never win the nomination.

I plowed ahead any way. I wanted to at least be a part of what I saw as a strange phenomenon that
I had not seen in Americans for at least 10 years. Some of them really seemed to care what was
happening. They were energized and enthusiastic about someone that could save them from
enslavement by the Federal government. I wanted to be in on that! If nothing else, I wanted
all of us to send a message to Washington: Some of us do care what you do and we will no
longer stand aside while you run our lives!

So I started this blog. I began to follow Digg and Reddit and the GOP sites and many others. I
found Lew Rockwell and could not believe what he was saying. I educated myself on the IRS,
Irwin Schiff, the Federal Reserve and many of the other things Dr. Paul feels so strongly about.
I began to feel the same way, but I still thought there was no chance we could pull it off. I hate
the Patriot Act, the IRS, the banking system, the New World Order, all of it! I even created a
slideshow with some pics of the Ron Paul support and posted it on Youtube and Google.....

Then came the September 5, 2007 Republican debate. Fox tried to mess with Ron; he was
having no part of it. They hated what he said, the audience LOVED what he said and Fox
STILL tried to downplay his success. The idiots insisting on "Paulbots" spamming the
text message poll when it was not possible to vote more than once, again! Same as the
last debate...

But my friends, I am becoming convinced that it CAN happen and IS happening right now
in America!! The numbers don't lie to us; the media might but the people are not kidding
themselves any more. They are beginning to speak via text polls, online polls and feet on
the ground at straw polls. The people are on the ground; you can see it. Go to Youtube;
go to Google video; they are recording themselves showing their support. The Memphis
Revolution video is awesome by itself! No other candidate can even come close to having
the support Dr. Paul has from people getting off their butts and spending their time and
their MONEY to do these things!! It is becoming a real revolution in our time but we are
able to do it without firing a shot.... I would wager with George that all of the Republican
candidates COMBINED cannot compare to Ron's support ON THE GROUND!!

So what is the next goal. In my mind it is media coverage. True, any press is good press
and if the talking heads want to complain about the "Paulbots" skewing their polls, that is
fine; at least it gets Ron's name into the mainstream. They are helping us and don't even
know it. But yes, the movement is being suppressed in the mainstream.
The GOP Straw poll even went as far as to ban Ron Paul and threaten to keep the ban
on as long as they continued to receive complaints!! We don't need them and we cannot be
held hostage by their poll. As one Digg poster said (and I wish it was me, but it wasn't
because it is genius)"...Their poll is the ONLY one we can BE SURE was rigged so far..."
and that is true.

Now on to the next goal (after that rant). I feel like our best chance to influence the MSM
at this point is through a mass assault of communications. E-mail, snail mail, phone calls
whatever your preferred method. Any and all work well, but e-mail is the easiest to send
(and easiest to ignore, I guess..) I suggest this: I will create a form letter requesting
a more balanced approach to the Presidential campaign which will benefit all involved.
Republican, Democrat and Independent. We will insist that equal coverage is the
responsibility of the media and that the process and therefore the country benefit
overall. It will not be scathing nor specific to a candidate.

This blog contains media contact information links that are formatted just for e-mail use
and bulk mailing (at least one is). Please review the letter and post comments suggesting
changes, either minor or wholesale; we will come to consensus and move forward with
the communication campaign.

See Ron Paul Business Honor Roll for the letter (since I have received only one response
for it; please send me info about your businesses that back Dr. Paul!!!! dave4Rpaul)
Give me until 9-9 to post the letter.

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