Operation Cat Herder

[tangent4ronpaul]

Welcome to Operation Cat Herder

The project is launching - go to:

http://OperationCatHerder.com/wiki2/


As a movement, we have several serious problems:

[1] We are not all talking to each other
[2] We don't know who we all are
[3] We are loosing supporters, organizers and Meetups
[4] We lack a corporate memory

*Please give us 15 minutes of your time, and maybe more if you are interested in a bigger part.*

To address these issues, Operation Cat Herder was created. Dr. Paul has stated that beyond the upcoming states and the delegate process he wants us to transition into a long term movement. What exactly his plans are in this regard is anybodies guess – he hasn't announced them yet. What is clear is that we don't have a well oiled and tuned movement to give him.

There is a lot of responsibility and leadership sitting on the table here, just waiting for someone to pick it up. A lot of someones. We need people to show initiative, pick a corner they want to work on and run with it. It is a very distributed effort. We are here to provide tools, outline a direction and NOT to micromanage anything.

[1] Get all the known organizers talking and in the same loops on a national basis
[1a] Bridge the 3 organizer groups (158/511/RPMO) – done (158 should be bridged in a week)
[1b] Conference calls – 511 and RPMO both used to have a weekly conference call,
we need to re-establish these on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. - started, next call 4/18
[1c] Establish a opt-in organizer directory that will only be available to those listed. - pending


[2] Get the rest of the organizers on board and map out Ron Paul space.
[2a] Contact and invite all the organizers that are not part of the bridge or Alliance to join us. That's over
half of them. - ongoing
[2b] Contact all the organizers that are part of either the bridge or the Alliance and ask them to join the other.
There is very little overlap. - pending
[2c] Update state group list and make sure all organizers in a state know about their local one. - ongoing


[3] Supporter networking and migration away from Meetup – or more often, migrating to bigger Meetups in their
area. - This is a ongoing distributed, local effort – we just want to know where you end up and what Meetups
are being phased out so we can add the information to roadmap sites.
[3a] Adopt a Meetup project for maintaining Meetup presence through November, staggered migration away
from Meetup and Group consolidation within states. - ongoing
[3b] Adopt a Social Networking Site project to map and organize State groups on MySpace and Facebook, etc.
[3c] Map other Ron Paul resources: web sites, blogs, suppliers, chat systems, etc. and refer to road map
sites, as above – pending
[3d] Map special resources groups and network people, as above. Video, Artists, Bands, etc. - starting
These people are our most valuable resources!

We currently have contact information for about half the organizers and somewhat less than that are members of one of the 3 organizer groups or Meetup Alliance. This is a easy and quick job that we need a lot of volunteers for – please step up! Write to OperationCatHerder@gmail.com and we will send you a list of 25 Meetups that we don't have contact info for the organizer of. Go to each Meetup and click on “contact the organizer”, and cut and paste this message (what you are reading) into the mail, add a title “Operation Cat Herder” or something, and click send. Then do the next one. It should take you about 15 minutes tops. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO DO THIS! - we need 30-40 people.

Feeling a bit more ambitious? We need to map out and organize Ron Paul space. Avery and I are doing Meetup, Kevin is working on Facebook, Yahoo is done, we need people to take on MySpace, Youtube and anywhere else we have a presence. Web sites, blogs, special skills – artists, promoters, meteorologists, programmers, bands, pilots and so on. If you want to step up, we can point you to known habitats for these folks. If you have special skills, or have someone in your Meetup that does – please write and tell us about them. We are trying to develop “go to” lists. Websites, blogs and Social Networking Sites state groups are encouraged to join http://www.meetupalliance.com/RonPaul2008/

If you are a Meetup organizer or assistant organizer and do not belong to one of the 3 organizer groups or Meetup Alliance, please join the other or both. The organizer groups are bridged, so a post to one goes to the others – so just join one of them. (158 will be bridged in a week).

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/511/
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/158/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPMeetupOrganizers/
and/or
http://www.meetupalliance.com/RonPaul2008/

On state group lists – we are referring to Meetups or web sites, generally forums, that are used to communicate across the entire state. Some are organizer only, while others are open to any supporter. This list will be distributed and is another communication channel in addition to the mailing list and organizer groups/alliance and conference calls – giving us resilience and redundancy. The ability to route around communications problems.

[4] Establish a corporate memory

Here we are talking about searching the Ron Paul space and collecting expertise from people. The goal is to end up with a R3volution field manual written by the grassroots, for the grassroots. To preserve knowledge before people and sites drift away for future use. Mike Esler is setting up a Wiki to aid in this and for other project purposes. A message forum may be added later.

We are looking for people to take on pieces of this, form teams and find or put to pixel all the HOW-TO's we have learned in the past year and 3 months. We want to document the lessons learned, so we don't have to learn them again and can use that as a building point. Things like: making banners and stencils, Burma shaves, reaching out to special communities, infiltrating and taking over the GOP and DNC, the delegate process, setting up a Internet radio or TV station, remote broadcasts, working with audio and video (capture, embedding in web pages, post processing, transcription, compression settings, making YouTube video's, etc), getting ads on radio or TV, renting billboards, projection bombing, preparing fliers and getting them printed, DVD production, setting up call centers and auto-dialers, setting up PAC's, buying newspaper ads and how to read ad rate cards, event promotion, renting charter buses, getting permits for events and renting space, interacting with the media – both positive and negative ways, setting up and using an Advokit system, obtaining voter registration data and precinct maps, yard signs and t-shirts, tableing, voter registration drives and GOTV efforts, hiring a banner tower or a blimp – that kind of thing.

To volunteer, please e-mail us at: OperationCatHerder@gmail.com

[Kotin]

sounds interesting..


bump

[orlandoinfl]

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

[tangent4ronpaul]

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

Oh you are so right - like I have not been able to reach out to fund raise and get an aircraft to fly a banner over a debate in Florida, like I have not been able to network artists and writers to produce fliers that were printed and distributed in many states, like I wasn't able to get folks in multiple states to build floats and enter them in parades, etc...

/sarcasm

-n

[orlandoinfl]

Hey, if you can pull together a rag tag of half-hearted internet Ron Paul supporters in any meaningful way (ie doing something OTHER than typing their credit cards and refreshing ronpaulgraphs.com), more power to you brother.

I like the points you bring up, especially getting some big money donors. Of course, you know the Golden Rule, right? He who has the Gold makes the Rule.

[tangent4ronpaul]

blimp!

-n

[constituent]

truth be told, i think we're passed the era in human history where people are looking to be a part of something (anything really) on the long-term, excepting perhaps family.

people are more coalescing around certain events/people/causes and then dispersing, some regathering here, others over there.

i wouldn't expect anything different for the rpr. some will infiltrate the repub. party, some the democratic. many will return to the libertarian party, and others back to the greens. still others won't be involved in the political process but will take what they've learned to the dinner tables and coffee shops of america (the most important aspect, imo. i believe it is rp who said the politicians only respond to consensus/noise... we must individually work to manufacture consensus in whichever way we can).

[speciallyblend]

the problem is the gop,not ron paul supporters.. GET OVER IT

[rpfan2008]

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

are you sure...?

I can give you a good example of what online communities can do..go here (http://www.elephantsdream.org/). This is a 3d movie project created only using free software and online funds, powered by a internet community of a free software called Blender.
If its possible to make/sell a full 3D animated movie without seeing all the people making it..what the OP wants here is not such a big deal imo. :)

[JS4Pat]

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

I disagree.

Although I understand the limitations of centralized control (especially given the nature of the membership of this group) I believe it is both possible and essential that there be some type of top down direction. The movement needs a leader, a name, a way to identify ourselves, a mission statement and some clearly articulated long and short term goals. There IS strength in numbers and good communication will be key to our success.

I applaud the efforts of both those just "making it happen" locally and those who are focusing on "herding cats".

I plan to do both. Here in North Florida I am helping organize the NE FL Republican Liberty Caucus - where we plan to educate, recruit and gain power for the movement with the Republican Party.

I am also interested in getting involved in any efforts on a national level that bring us together and facilitate better communication and a stronger organization as a whole.

[pcosmar]

As both a Ron Paul supporter and the owner of a herd of cats, I would suggest that everyone join Freedom Force International.
At least check them out,
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/


WORK FOR RON PAUL OR FREEDOM FORCE?
That’s a trick question that needs to be explained. Some of our members have asked to be excused from working on Freedom Force projects because they feel it is more important to devote their time to the Ron Paul campaign. I am delighted to know that they are doing that because, as we have stated many times in our Monthly Reports, that is a top priority of Freedom Force. However, this is not an either-or situation. Being active in the Ron Paul campaign IS the number-one project of Freedom Force.

Political campaigns come and go. Every four years, large numbers of people become motivated for political activism because they can see (or hope for) a specific victory with a specific date. When that date passes, most of them drop out. They return to inaction and wait another three years before doing much of anything.

THE BATTLE WILL NOT BE OVER IN 2008
The battle to restore the Constitution is not going to be won in 2008 even if Ron Paul is elected. Please re-read that statement. It is naive to believe that getting a Constitutionalist into the White House is going to change the collectivist orientation of Congress, the Courts, and the huge bureaucracy of civil servants that make the wheels of government turn. Getting Ron Paul elected would be a huge accomplishment and a giant step in the right direction, but members of Freedom Force understand that he would be surrounded by enemies, and his every move would be resisted. This struggle eventually will span many years and spread into every branch of government before we can even come close to claiming victory.

We work in the Ron Paul campaign, not because we expect the election of a single man to restore freedom in America, but because we know that political campaigns are a powerful educational and recruiting tool that, because of the passion attached to them, allow us to reach many more people with the message of freedom than is possible in off-election years. Regardless of the outcome in the primaries, regardless of the outcome at the convention, regardless of the outcome in the November election, we know that we have just begun. The long battle will continue into the next election or, if meaningful elections are no longer held, into whatever arena we may find ourselves, and we must be laying the groundwork for that now.

The Ron Paul campaign is not the end-all of our efforts; it is a means to that end. We must work mightily within the campaign, but we also must be preparing and building a foundation to carry the battle, far beyond 2008, to future action and ultimate victory.

For their (our) strategy look here,
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=strategy&refpage=membership

[A Ron Paul Rebel]

Many here on the forums have convinced me that 'the revolution'
is just a hobby.

We've bled ourselves dry.
We aren't bringing in hardly any new peeps.
We aren't bringing in hardly any new money.
We aren't supporting each other's businesses.

It'd be nice if we could evolve beyond this, but
frankly, I really don't think we will. It'll probably
happen with a different generation's revolution.

[JS4Pat]

As both a Ron Paul supporter and the owner of a herd of cats, I would suggest that everyone join Freedom Force International.
At least check them out,
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/

For their (our) strategy look here,
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=strategy&refpage=membership

This looks great!

This is where having some leadership in the movement would help.

FreedomForceInternational could very well be the best option for the movement to coalesce around. However, if we are only able to attract 15%-20% of the people committed to keeping the movement going and the rest splinter off into other organizations and strategies - then I believe we will be weaker as a whole.

Ron Paul mentioned having some type of a summit amongst grassroots leaders. Perhaps representative of the top 3 or 4 strategies/organizations could be invited to present and then one could be chosen and "endorsed" by Ron Paul as the "future of the movement".

[amy31416]

As both a Ron Paul supporter and the owner of a herd of cats, I would suggest that everyone join Freedom Force International.
At least check them out,
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/



For their (our) strategy look here,
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=strategy&refpage=membership

Thanks for the link, looks like a good organization.

[DXDoug]

Bump stay Together!

[Aratus]

you need TLC if you herd cats!
its sorta cool that a national publication
has neatly summed up these HQ related issues!

[raystone]

Many here on the forums have convinced me that 'the revolution'
is just a hobby.

We've bled ourselves dry.
We aren't bringing in hardly any new peeps.
We aren't bringing in hardly any new money.
We aren't supporting each other's businesses.

It'd be nice if we could evolve beyond this, but
frankly, I really don't think we will. It'll probably
happen with a different generation's revolution.


if you really think that, you need to get out more.... look at Washington state, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin. the GOP takeover is happening now

[JS4Pat]

you need TLC if you herd cats!
its sorta cool that a national publication
has neatly summed up these HQ related issues!
What national publication and what HQ related issues?

[Jane Aitken]

Many of us, after doing the work in our state, are just back at doing the same thing we were doing before -- being Ron Paul Republicans at the local level which is where it's at.

Believe me the UN has infiltrated our local governments and this is where the work is needed to expose the push to take away our money and our property and our freedoms.

Some things we continue to fight in NH:

- Real ID
- Fed Ed in the public schools (because 90% are forced to send their children there)
- UN in the public schools (because 90% are forced to send their children there)
- Homeschooling restrictions
- Firearms restrictions
- Taxes and more taxes
- Other restrictions

[Aratus]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/131748 George Will's column!
trying for a leadership position in the libertarian party was
likened to what would happen if one is trying to herd cats..
http://www.lp.org/yourturn/archives/000573.shtml

[A Ron Paul Rebel]

if you really think that, you need to get out more.... look at Washington state, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin. the GOP takeover is happening now

Ohh, I'm following the delegates and conventions and think
it's an awesome and beautiful thing... And I'm 100% convinced
that we can win Dr. Paul the nomination.

But as far as us really working together and focusing our
efforts for mass change in society (in all areas not just
convention delegates), I have little hope that it will come
from here.

[hillbilly123069]

:cool:

[orlandoinfl]

There are some very decent people on here. We need to follow the NH model in our own states. Free Nation Project.

[Peace&Freedom]

While online-based communities have led to some tactical offline accomplishments here and there, overall they have been a distraction from focusing on the strategic big picture that could have turned the election for Paul. Did the average online person recruit dozens of workers in their state to hunt down major endorsements of Paul within their state? Did they try to persuade thousands to change their enrollment in organized registration drives? or at least try to efficiently focus on Republican districts, versus 'outreaching' and sign-waving to people who couldn't vote in the GOP primaries?

I have run (and seeded many other) meetups with hundreds of members, but in each of them only one fourth to one third truly active at any time---so what is the point of "unifying " passive people? By contrast. much of the energy of the grassroots (leading to significant results) was done by supporters who never joined a meetup, or an online forum or email list. Centralizing the online passive/ discussion-only armchair activists into another mega-schema has not, and does not solve the problem of cultivating the offline grassroots movement. It exacerbates the problem by putting the focus on the wrong organizing platform (the web), since Paul could not break through the silicon ceiling, any more than Howard Dean or Harry Browne before him. The 'let's organize some more online' approach is not a matter of steering cats---it's focusing on the wrong herd.

[Zera]

This is an out of the blue question, but the musician thing caught my eye. What if we get John Mayer to help us out somehow? Maybe come to the march? I know he's a Paul supporter.

[tangent4ronpaul]

While online-based communities have led to some tactical offline accomplishments here and there, overall they have been a distraction from focusing on the strategic big picture that could have turned the election for Paul. Did the average online person recruit dozens of workers in their state to hunt down major endorsements of Paul within their state? Did they try to persuade thousands to change their enrollment in organized registration drives? or at least try to efficiently focus on Republican districts, versus 'outreaching' and sign-waving to people who couldn't vote in the GOP primaries?

I have run (and seeded many other) meetups with hundreds of members, but in each of them only one fourth to one third truly active at any time---so what is the point of "unifying " passive people? By contrast. much of the energy of the grassroots (leading to significant results) was done by supporters who never joined a meetup, or an online forum or email list. Centralizing the online passive/ discussion-only armchair activists into another mega-schema has not, and does not solve the problem of cultivating the offline grassroots movement. It exacerbates the problem by putting the focus on the wrong organizing platform (the web), since Paul could not break through the silicon ceiling, any more than Howard Dean or Harry Browne before him. The 'let's organize some more online' approach is not a matter of steering cats---it's focusing on the wrong herd.

You seem to be missing something important here. Meetup organizers - that is the people that make things happen on the ground, are the ones that have been talking and we are trying to get the rest of them talking.

Part 4 is about on the ground activities, the howto of them.

and so on... This is very much about physical space, not virtual space so much. But it's about the virtual space too.

-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

blimp

[John of Des Moines]

bump

[tangent4ronpaul]

Something here people seem to be missing. We have a direction, sort of a plan that can be added to. We are looking for people to step up and take chunks of it - and own their chunk, perhaps in combination with others.

We are providing tools, resources and networking. A Wiki should be up soon to aid things - it's very distributed.

We have no desire to control how states organize, but we want to know how they are transforming into a long term movement. How to contact them - so we can publish a list and let people know where to find groups and supporters in various states as we transform. WA state is forming into 2 main groups, one republican and the other libertarian - they will be addressing their future direction in coming weeks and know more then. NV and TX have both formed central groups outside of Meetup, IA has a statewide organizer and supporter Meetup people are condensing into, AL seems to be joining the United Liberty Alliance that has some people that were involved with developing the official RP website. etc. Just in the preliminary stages of talking to people and gathering info now.

There are 18 known state groups that we have known about for a while.

On the Adopt a Meetup project, we don't even keep track of who has adopted or joined a meetup to steer members to a larger group so that one can phase out - We like it when they post about what they have done, as it encourages others. When the Wiki comes online, this info can be updated by the people adopting so people know what groups are covered and which ones need attention. We just run a scan and let people know what groups are going away in the next 2 weeks. Suggesting several alternate plans of action to avoid disenfranchising supporters.

This project is about enabling communications, providing tools, preserving knowledge and networking - not control.

We've had a bunch of people write in and volunteer, but for the short term projects, maybe a third of how many will be needed and for the longer term project - well, it will probably take more.

On the R3volution Field manual - that's a distributed effort and will be Wiki written, like Wikipedia. It will probably have a couple of editors to bring it into a consistent form, but it's by the grassroots for the grassroots.

Please volunteer! - We need you!

thanks.

Nathan

[tangent4ronpaul]

wOOt! - we are going live!

just waiting for the DNS to propagate!

OperationCatHerder.com

We are reaching out to congressional candidates and helping them, establishing skill pools, writing a field manual - well, it's the grassroots that's really writing it, gluing together communications pathways and last weeks adopt a meetup list scored 16 adopted meetups!!!!

Way to go guys! - it's working!

-n

[Bryan]

wOOt! - we are going live!

just waiting for the DNS to propagate!

OperationCatHerder.com

We are reaching out to congressional candidates and helping them, establishing skill pools, writing a field manual - well, it's the grassroots that's really writing it, gluing together communications pathways and last weeks adopt a meetup list scored 16 adopted meetups!!!!

Way to go guys! - it's working!

-n

Great news! Thanks for the update- I'm not getting the site yet but will be checking again soon.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Looks like we need a link or something on the server side - it was parked, then went to a blank page... it should be up tomorrow.

-n

[Mahkato]

OperationCatHerder.com

There's just one problem with that domain. It looks like Operation Catherder, which makes me think of this:

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:mEy-eNqyDAzxiM:http://product-image.tradeindia.com/00119888/b/Foley-Catheter.jpg

[FindLiberty]

Yes, stay together, stay on point, stay alert, save the USA.

It's alive!

Where do we sign up, or have we done this already via RPF and RP2008?

[LibertasPraesidium]

An exercise in futility? Passive Ron Paul supporters?

There is a need in most everyone to feel needed, to belong to something bigger than just family. The 4 reasons listed on the first post, point to real problems. Networking online maybe harder, but even "half-hearted" efforts get off the ground.

Part of the communication problem is the negativity, there has to be a hope that there are at least a few people willing to dedicate sometime to this. Without centralized planning from the top down (something we've received very little of from the actual RP campaign) but we have received some of it. We would not be able to make decisions.

The point, however, that I see is that many many many people do not like the direction the neo-command gives. Its as easy as yelling into a group and only having a quarter of them raise their hands to help. IF we spontaneously group together, and then establish the communication necessary to pool our efforts there will be no need of a centralized plan, we all know the goals, we all know what we want, that is why RP's campaign became the revolution it is today.

Communication between these groups is a necessity, without it we would not function well, and might I point out that Operation Chaos by Rush Limbaugh and Moveon.org do just fine on there own. Once networking begins and the communication is established then the Government would have more of a problem containing the spread of the revolution in any form.

That is the overall goal, to take our nation back away from these corporate-sponsored, money-grubbing, warmongers bent on taking control over our very lives. If this is what you wish then I purpose pushing legislation that allows the Presidential Candidates to show there sponsors, like Nascar, put the oil company who supports you on your Presidential Candidate Vestment.

Think about it, we could have Mountain dew and Mcdonalds buying into these campaigns, it forces there hands at that point. If you push the already known corporate sponsors we can get more groups together. :-)

There would have to be rules to the sponsorship though, things like caps on money, but then they could still get free advertising on soda cans, or at the fuel pumps.

Otherwise, we need to stop the corporate sponsorship, changing FEC regulation to the point to allow money to be donated, but with no back scratching, IE the oil company can give money to the candidate but if the candidate then makes it easier for them to steal money from us or gives them the advantage with fewer taxes or regulation we would have to stop it.

Just some thoughts, remember no one is perfect, we are all in this together, whether you want to be neutral about it or not. Communication can help us and hurt us, but it would give rise to a new organizational method, networking millions of people together to stop the government in their tracks on the ground.

Getting people motivated is probably the hardest thing to do, but when you show them that their very lives are threatened most respond in turn with fervent support. Others may passively watch or just not realize the implications, but enough would support it.

As more and more of our freedoms are taken and OUR Constitution gutted, we will be giving way for corporate dominance in our own lives, they already tell us what to eat and what not to eat. Soon are they going to be telling us what we can say?

There are more tragedies going on in our own country and it is simply about time we stood up and said no more. This is the path I would like to take, and I am willing to help any person willing to stand with me.

It is not about me, or my freedoms, but the freedoms of those who haven't even tasted what it is to be alive. Those not old enough to vote or born yet are who we are fighting for, why should we punish them for the mistakes we made. Personal Accountability would help to push this effort.

As I said, these are just my thoughts, and I have been wrong before, but I cannot in good conscious let passivity rule, that is what got us in to this mess. We appeased them, by asking for more government interference into our lives and enough people are being made aware that there is a way to change it.

There is Hope, and it is US.

[jeremy6d]

Guys,

I was working on custom software for the Virginia RP2008 Campaign until they sort of disappeared around february or so. I've put some work into a web application that would allow people to organize by congressional district, unit committee, state, etc. to better communicate. Basically, it would give coordinators a way to create bulletins which would be posted to a region-specific blog and also get emailed to the region's volunteers.

I had some specific ideas about how I wanted to expand on the site to help people self-organize. I'd like to incorporate features of wikis, chat, and forums, too, but I'm still working on the implementations. Anyway, I'm gonna open source it soon and just wanted to see if there was any interest, or any Rails coders who wanna help.

But catherding in the RP community was what this application was designed to do. I want to give local groups the tools to organize instead of waiting for permission or encouragement from on high.

- Jeremy (<my screenname>@gmail.com)

[anaconda]

OMG the "virtual communities" have used every imaginable tool to promote a man and a platform to national prominence and double digit results in the Republican primaries. The internet has been a wisely-used and highly efficient tool for this purpose. Everyone admits that this translated into the most visible ground campaign of any candidate. The notion that it didn't "translate into votes" is strange indeed when about 35000 people donated on the money bomb days but a million or so will end up voting for Dr. Paul in the primaries this year. What we need to do is organize all of the meet ups and more and move forward. I wish we could money bomb a few good candidates. It would really make a difference and the media would pay attention and other candidates would begin to gravitate to the RP platform.

[ronpaulbillboards]

I just launched 2 new websites for the culmination of activist related info and news.
JustGetThere.us is the news hub and RightThere.us is the social nexus. These two websites are my attempt to provide a neutral zone for all activists to get together and educate, collaborate and work towards positive change. Our sites are user driven, so please use them to post your content and relevant news. Together we can help grow this movement by reaching those who have not been exposed to this information.

[Falstoffe]

Bump.

One thing has been demonstrated based on funding and Delegate Conventions: We are definately better at Herding Cats than McCain is at Herding Sheep.

I think it's a good idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmgLtg1Izw

[tangent4ronpaul]

OK - I've been waiting for our server guy to fix the server side so that our domain name goes directly to the wiki, but he seems to be busy. For now, you can get there by using this URL:

http://operationcatherder.com/wiki2/

To participate, you must register and verify your address. You can also e-mail operationcatherder@gmail.com

There are many ways to contribute - read the "we need volunteers" section for some ways. In the grassroots field manual, the "getting the word out" section is the most developed.

If projects need work space that could benefit from a Wiki, we can set up a sub-Wiki off the main page. We probably need to add an events category too.

This site is all about sharing information and connecting people with skills and resources to those that need them.

Please check us out!

thanks,

Nathan

[Mahkato]

Much of what you seem to want to be doing with this is already on RonPaulGateway.com (http://www.ronpaulgateway.com/), which I own.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Much of what you seem to want to be doing with this is already on RonPaulGateway.com (http://www.ronpaulgateway.com/), which I own.

Cool! - redundancy is good!

Much of what we are doing is not on your site too - like the field manual, running for office, delegate info, adopt a meetup project, grassroots classifieds, skills bank, etc.

I think the main difference is your mainly a raodmap site (good to have!), while we are more involved in making stuff happen and preserving collective knowledge.

We'll be sure to list you as a meta resource site.

thanks,

-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

There's just one problem with that domain. It looks like Operation Catherder, which makes me think of this:

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:mEy-eNqyDAzxiM:http://product-image.tradeindia.com/00119888/b/Foley-Catheter.jpg

lol!

yeah - just be kind and remember to squirt a little lido up the urithra before inserting that thing and don't forget the lube!

:)

-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

The domain name issue got resolved. We are now at:

http://operationcatherder.com

please drop by!

-n

[wowabunga]

There's just one problem with that domain. It looks like Operation Catherder, which makes me think of this:

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:mEy-eNqyDAzxiM:http://product-image.tradeindia.com/00119888/b/Foley-Catheter.jpg


Ha Ha Ha.... good laugh.

Now we need to start waking up the sleeping public as fast and as organized as we can. It does not really matter much to me the name of the domain just as long as what we find there is educational and moves the message forward. Look at that goofy name ebay... what the heck where they thinking ... means nothing... but they did do a lot of online advertising early on and caught my eye.

Like the idea of the field operations manual. What are you looking to have inside the manual ???

[tangent4ronpaul]

Ha Ha Ha.... good laugh.

Now we need to start waking up the sleeping public as fast and as organized as we can. It does not really matter much to me the name of the domain just as long as what we find there is educational and moves the message forward. Look at that goofy name ebay... what the heck where they thinking ... means nothing... but they did do a lot of online advertising early on and caught my eye.

Like the idea of the field operations manual. What are you looking to have inside the manual ???

Check it out!

http://www.operationcatherder.com/index.php/Grassroots_r3VOLution_Field_Manual

The most developed section so far is:

http://www.operationcatherder.com/index.php/Getting_the_Word_Out

Remember, this is supposed to be by the grassroots, for the grassroots - ie: *YOU* get to help write it!

Besides submitting original writing, we are looking for people to search Ron Paul space (Myspace, Meetup sent mail spools, Yahoo groups, web sites, here, Daily Paul, etc.) and search on category terms for HowTo posts, and then condense them down to just the meat of the article. In general, a 2-3 page thread will result in a paragraph or two packed with HowTo stuff and resources. Some of these partially condensed captures and listed under "scratchpad" at the bottom of some pages if you want to edit them down.

Some categories are empty, others have tidbits here and there, while some pages are slightly huge and packed with a lot of data.

You must create an account to submit material or edit and your e-mail address is verified with a confirmation e-mail. All submissions and editing is done on the discussion pages, then a team of editors will move material over to the publicly viewable pages. This is done to prevent vandalism.

thanks,

Nathan

[libertythor]

http://www.hrcapitalist.com/images/catbert.jpg

[FindLiberty]

lol!

yeah - just be kind and remember to squirt a little lido up the urithra before inserting that thing and don't forget the lube!

:)

-n

Remember, deflate it 1st before removing! Then just pull... like you're starting a lawn mower.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Hay - we are growing, but we need LOTS of help! - please volunteer!

tasks start at 15 minutes of your time and can range up to weeks of effort. There is something for everyone here. Help the rEVOLution!

http://operationcatherder.com



-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

Operation Cat Herder

We need volunteers


15+ minutes of your time projects

These are low time commitment projects that anyone can participate in.


Contact organizers

We have batches of Meetups where we need to contact the organizer and try to get them in the loop. Currently we only have contact info for half of our organizers, we want to be able to contact all of them and re-activate them come 2010. We also want to get everyone talking on a national basis. Our orientation is distributed control - bottoms up. States are autonomous units. But we want to know who all the state groups are and how to contact them.
Contact people with skill sets

New Batches should be ready in a few days.

Other projects are things like contacting all the bands that support Dr. Paul and get them into a skills pool list. In some cases, this means finding them too.


What's the situation in your state?

We need updates - some groups are changing their names - generally to freedom this, liberty that. Effectively, they are going underground and making themselves impossible to find. We need to know where to find every one and if we know their situations and status in various states, that helps everyone. Please let us know what's going on with the r3VOLution movement in your state.

Updates should be mailed to OperationCatHerder@gmail.com or you can create an account and submit them through the discussion pages (tab at top of wiki). Only registered and verified uses can edit or submit material.

http://www.operationcatherder.com/in...y_State_Status



Adopt a Meetup

If you are a Meetup organizer, you get 3 meetups for the price of one. To keep Meetups alive, we are looking for volunteer organizers to adopt meetups in their states and keep them alive. These are generally the larger Meetups. Last weeks list got 16 groups adopted! - WAY TO GO PEOPLE!

This weeks list has 9 adoptions, so far!

Not a meetup organizer? - we need people to join meetups that are going away and point their members to Meetups in that state that are larger and will be staying around. Prevent losing contact with supporters.



Raid your bookmarks

We do not know who we are - no one, save perhaps our opposition, has mapped out "Ron Paul space". All the web sites, forums, blogs, state groups, etc. Contribute what you know of so we will all know. This is the Grassroots Road Map area.

Add sites here:
http://www.operationcatherder.com/in...sroots_Roadmap



Got skills? - Help the freedom movement

We have a couple of writer and graphics pools, and lesser so tech pools. There are a lot of people with skills out there, and we want to create a one stop shop for connecting you and people needing those skills. If you have skills, please get listed!

A web submission form is being put together for this that should be up soon. You can also send URL's to: OperationCatHerder@gmail.com or contribute them via discussion pages here:

http://www.operationcatherder.com/index.php/Skills_Bank

unless you ask, your e-mail will not be put on the site, but rather we will match requests with skills.



Help write the Field Manual

Everyone in this movement has knowledge of what they have done, and used. We want to write a Field Manual - by the grassroots, for the grassroots. This is to preserve knowledge, lessons learned, so we are not starting from square one next time and can build upon that knowledge rather than re-inventing the wheel. Please add what you know and search RP sites for data on specific sub-categories.

Contribute via discussion pages, and once again you must be registered:

http://www.operationcatherder.com/in...n_Field_Manual



Grassroots Classifieds:

The Grassroots Classifieds is a wants and available page - please use it. New entries via discussion pages or e-mail us as usual.

http://www.operationcatherder.com/in...ts_Classifieds

thanks,

Nathan

[tangent4ronpaul]

THE EDITING ISSUES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED!

You can add text by clicking the discussion tab, at the top of any page if you are registered. An editor will move it to the public pages. Main pages are read only for users.

http://operationcatherder.com

thank's,

The Cat Herder Team

[tangent4ronpaul]

Got skills? - The Freedom Movement needs you!

Please volunteer for a skill pool or list yourself individually. There is still much to be done and we don't want to lose you as we transform into a long term movement. Ron Paul projects are still active, our candidates running for Congress need help and most importantly, we want to hit the ground running come 2010 and roll out a huge movement!

If you have skills to offer, please take the following survey. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qsFp4BWPX9nCw1rUf9Gcxg_3d_3d

[walt]

can you make the cartoon readable?

[tangent4ronpaul]

can you make the cartoon readable?

It says I think I'd rather be managing a major software development project.

we may be able to get it to display larger, it's on the too do list, but is a pretty low priority.

we actually found that on the net somewhere and it was the closest to appropriate fro the project out there - may get someone to come up with a better custom logo later.

-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

Operation Cat Herder is hosting a Grassroots Classifieds service. If you have or need materials, a support resource or anything else you'd like to share with other Meetups, supporters or one of our Congressional Candidates this is the place to post it!

For Materials Available, please enter your information here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=53ZqYLAK9V3v3xudGcY32Q_3d_3d


For Materials Wanted, please enter your information here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ct3smXo4I_2fS8w1nFFQRFOg_3d_3d


For Skilled Support or Resources Wanted please enter your requirement here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=uf_2bfp5680dJdj_2bq6n8xHCg_3d_3d


If you would like to be listed in our Skills bank as available for Ron Paul, Freedom and Congressional projects, please enter your information here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qsFp4BWPX9nCw1rUf9Gcxg_3d_3d


Your personal information will not appear on our web site, unless you specifically request us to put it up. You can also use these forms to respond to a specific listing or cancel a listing.

To see the current Grassroots Classifieds:

http://operationcatherder.com/index.php/Grassroots_Classifieds


To see the current Skills Bank listings:

http://operationcatherder.com/index.php/Skills_Bank


Thanks,

The Operation Cat herder Team
operationcatherder@gmail.com

[suzypotaka]

cat herder: please capture this video --in case it disappears!

check out the video on the main page!

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/

[A Ron Paul Rebel]

are you doing anything to influence McCain Delegates?
For example, in North Dakota where there's 12 McCain dels to
Paul's 11?

[tangent4ronpaul]

The DVDs 4 Delegates project and the book bomb is. We are actively supporting the former project through the skills bank and helping them contact organizers in various states as well as publicity.

We also helped them connect to content resources and were in the middle of gluing the book bomb and DVDs project together - well, the CA one, to share delegate lists and not duplicate efforts. So I guess your answer is yes, we are helping with that as much as we can.

-n

[SnappleLlama]

I've completely revamped the Grassroots Roadmap section, and I'm actively seeking additional links to add to the page. I'm getting the feeling that we might have to eventually write mini summaries of each link, just so people know what they're clicking!

[Up Front]

good try but it will never work because we as ron paul people do what we want when we want. WHY? because we are free!

[Truth Warrior]

Cats just do that. ;)

Try nailing Jello to a tree. :D

[princessredtights]

can you make the cartoon readable?


I second that motion!

[tangent4ronpaul]

It says "I think I'd rather be managing a large software development project"

I don't think we can make it larger.

-n

[SnappleLlama]

Anyone involved in Cat Herder: should we be trying to publicize the Cat Wrangler site? I haven't heard much from anyone....

[tangent4ronpaul]

Anyone involved in Cat Herder: should we be trying to publicize the Cat Wrangler site? I haven't heard much from anyone....

We did quite well, reached out to every meetup with over about 40 members and about half the meetups overall.

We should have been able to contact them all, but too many ppl bailed after a while after volunteering.

-n

[tangent4ronpaul]

We are going to ramp up some projects and need volunteers - please PM me if interested.

thanks,

-n

[Highland]

only posting because it was stuck on sixes.

[Highland]

post...this is stuck...thread of the beast.

[Highland]

post to get rid of the negativity...here on the forum

[Highland]

posting for negativity removal.

[Highland]

maybe this thread is why we've been arguing so much. can't have evil numerology here.

[Bruno]

:-)

[Highland]

:-)

yes bruno, problem has been repaired, doesn't everyone feel better that we found the stinky spot on the forums? I know I feel better!:)

[dr. hfn]

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

U r an idiot

[dr. hfn]

Are you kidding me?! The strength of this movement is that it's loose and flexible and unpredictable! We are citizen patriots! We reject central control and power!

Long live the Freedom Movement!

We should all move to
MARS

[wizardwatson]

While online-based communities have led to some tactical offline accomplishments here and there, overall they have been a distraction from focusing on the strategic big picture that could have turned the election for Paul. Did the average online person recruit dozens of workers in their state to hunt down major endorsements of Paul within their state? Did they try to persuade thousands to change their enrollment in organized registration drives? or at least try to efficiently focus on Republican districts, versus 'outreaching' and sign-waving to people who couldn't vote in the GOP primaries?

I have run (and seeded many other) meetups with hundreds of members, but in each of them only one fourth to one third truly active at any time---so what is the point of "unifying " passive people? By contrast. much of the energy of the grassroots (leading to significant results) was done by supporters who never joined a meetup, or an online forum or email list. Centralizing the online passive/ discussion-only armchair activists into another mega-schema has not, and does not solve the problem of cultivating the offline grassroots movement. It exacerbates the problem by putting the focus on the wrong organizing platform (the web), since Paul could not break through the silicon ceiling, any more than Howard Dean or Harry Browne before him. The 'let's organize some more online' approach is not a matter of steering cats---it's focusing on the wrong herd.

Haven't posted on this thread yet, and have wanted to.

I disagree with this poster. It isn't about re-constituting everyone into some new mega-schema. That's what Campaign For Liberty and all these other campaigns would like to do. They think the internet is some kind of 'regimenting' device, that will funnel all the grass roots money into a neat little pile for them. This poster seems to realize thats clearly not the case and takes that to mean that this 'herd' isn't worth troubling with.

Anyway, I don't want to be divisive.

Point is to organize some leadership and administration stuff online at next to zero cost and outperform the competition ( other orgs/parties/socities/etc. ). There's also some transparency things that I think a lot of people would like to see addressed.

[wizardwatson]

Much of what you seem to want to be doing with this is already on RonPaulGateway.com (http://www.ronpaulgateway.com/), which I own.

Not anymore.

[Aratus]

this topic is of the hour!

[Aratus]

Welcome to Operation Cat Herder

The project is launching - go to:

http://OperationCatHerder.com/wiki2/


As a movement, we have several serious problems:

[1] We are not all talking to each other
[2] We don't know who we all are
[3] We are loosing supporters, organizers and Meetups
[4] We lack a corporate memory

*Please give us 15 minutes of your time, and maybe more if you are interested in a bigger part.*

To address these issues, Operation Cat Herder was created. Dr. Paul has stated that beyond the upcoming states and the delegate process he wants us to transition into a long term movement. What exactly his plans are in this regard is anybodies guess – he hasn't announced them yet. What is clear is that we don't have a well oiled and tuned movement to give him.

There is a lot of responsibility and leadership sitting on the table here, just waiting for someone to pick it up. A lot of someones. We need people to show initiative, pick a corner they want to work on and run with it. It is a very distributed effort. We are here to provide tools, outline a direction and NOT to micromanage anything.

[1] Get all the known organizers talking and in the same loops on a national basis
[1a] Bridge the 3 organizer groups (158/511/RPMO) – done (158 should be bridged in a week)
[1b] Conference calls – 511 and RPMO both used to have a weekly conference call,
we need to re-establish these on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. - started, next call 4/18
[1c] Establish a opt-in organizer directory that will only be available to those listed. - pending


[2] Get the rest of the organizers on board and map out Ron Paul space.
[2a] Contact and invite all the organizers that are not part of the bridge or Alliance to join us. That's over
half of them. - ongoing
[2b] Contact all the organizers that are part of either the bridge or the Alliance and ask them to join the other.
There is very little overlap. - pending
[2c] Update state group list and make sure all organizers in a state know about their local one. - ongoing


[3] Supporter networking and migration away from Meetup – or more often, migrating to bigger Meetups in their
area. - This is a ongoing distributed, local effort – we just want to know where you end up and what Meetups
are being phased out so we can add the information to roadmap sites.
[3a] Adopt a Meetup project for maintaining Meetup presence through November, staggered migration away
from Meetup and Group consolidation within states. - ongoing
[3b] Adopt a Social Networking Site project to map and organize State groups on MySpace and Facebook, etc.
[3c] Map other Ron Paul resources: web sites, blogs, suppliers, chat systems, etc. and refer to road map
sites, as above – pending
[3d] Map special resources groups and network people, as above. Video, Artists, Bands, etc. - starting
These people are our most valuable resources!

We currently have contact information for about half the organizers and somewhat less than that are members of one of the 3 organizer groups or Meetup Alliance. This is a easy and quick job that we need a lot of volunteers for – please step up! Write to OperationCatHerder@gmail.com and we will send you a list of 25 Meetups that we don't have contact info for the organizer of. Go to each Meetup and click on “contact the organizer”, and cut and paste this message (what you are reading) into the mail, add a title “Operation Cat Herder” or something, and click send. Then do the next one. It should take you about 15 minutes tops. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO DO THIS! - we need 30-40 people.

Feeling a bit more ambitious? We need to map out and organize Ron Paul space. Avery and I are doing Meetup, Kevin is working on Facebook, Yahoo is done, we need people to take on MySpace, Youtube and anywhere else we have a presence. Web sites, blogs, special skills – artists, promoters, meteorologists, programmers, bands, pilots and so on. If you want to step up, we can point you to known habitats for these folks. If you have special skills, or have someone in your Meetup that does – please write and tell us about them. We are trying to develop “go to” lists. Websites, blogs and Social Networking Sites state groups are encouraged to join http://www.meetupalliance.com/RonPaul2008/

If you are a Meetup organizer or assistant organizer and do not belong to one of the 3 organizer groups or Meetup Alliance, please join the other or both. The organizer groups are bridged, so a post to one goes to the others – so just join one of them. (158 will be bridged in a week).

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/511/
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/158/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPMeetupOrganizers/
and/or
http://www.meetupalliance.com/RonPaul2008/

On state group lists – we are referring to Meetups or web sites, generally forums, that are used to communicate across the entire state. Some are organizer only, while others are open to any supporter. This list will be distributed and is another communication channel in addition to the mailing list and organizer groups/alliance and conference calls – giving us resilience and redundancy. The ability to route around communications problems.

[4] Establish a corporate memory

Here we are talking about searching the Ron Paul space and collecting expertise from people. The goal is to end up with a R3volution field manual written by the grassroots, for the grassroots. To preserve knowledge before people and sites drift away for future use. Mike Esler is setting up a Wiki to aid in this and for other project purposes. A message forum may be added later.

We are looking for people to take on pieces of this, form teams and find or put to pixel all the HOW-TO's we have learned in the past year and 3 months. We want to document the lessons learned, so we don't have to learn them again and can use that as a building point. Things like: making banners and stencils, Burma shaves, reaching out to special communities, infiltrating and taking over the GOP and DNC, the delegate process, setting up a Internet radio or TV station, remote broadcasts, working with audio and video (capture, embedding in web pages, post processing, transcription, compression settings, making YouTube video's, etc), getting ads on radio or TV, renting billboards, projection bombing, preparing fliers and getting them printed, DVD production, setting up call centers and auto-dialers, setting up PAC's, buying newspaper ads and how to read ad rate cards, event promotion, renting charter buses, getting permits for events and renting space, interacting with the media – both positive and negative ways, setting up and using an Advokit system, obtaining voter registration data and precinct maps, yard signs and t-shirts, tableing, voter registration drives and GOTV efforts, hiring a banner tower or a blimp – that kind of thing.

To volunteer, please e-mail us at: OperationCatHerder@gmail.com

we are coming of age...
we are a movement...

[wizardwatson]

we are coming of age...
we are a movement...

This project/thread/idea needs to be revived.

OperationCatHerder and other things important to the movement, rather than some insignificant campaign-as important as Rand and others may seem, needs to be brought back to the fore-front.

The good ideas like this thread have died and we're back to playing electoral politics when we should be hitting the streets and finding each other and doing rallies we want instead of sign waving for moderate liberty candidates.

[wizardwatson]

The domain name issue got resolved. We are now at:

http://operationcatherder.com

please drop by!

-n

Site gone?


Much of what you seem to want to be doing with this is already on RonPaulGateway.com (http://www.ronpaulgateway.com/), which I own.

Not anymore.

Be nice to hear from tangent4ronpaul why this project fizzled.

[DXDoug]

Nice Find! Thanks why isnt this sticky

[Aratus]

STICKY THIS THREAD! PLEASE! ADMiN! STICKY THIS THREAD!

[wizardwatson]

Nice Find! Thanks why isnt this sticky

Because it's old news probably. This is the telling quote from the OP.


Dr. Paul has stated that beyond the upcoming states and the delegate process he wants us to transition into a long term movement. What exactly his plans are in this regard is anybodies guess – he hasn't announced them yet. What is clear is that we don't have a well oiled and tuned movement to give him.

Well, RP's handlers plans were to build CFL. There's a thread where CFL came right out and said we're the grass roots management and everything you guys are doing is wrong, you need to send us money and start becoming precinct leaders, or something, I'm definitely paraphrasing lol. And well the tone of CFL kind of turned people off. And now big "ideas" like catherder and other "overhaul" ideas get shit on cuz many think we're pretty settled with CFL and RPF, and we don't need anything more.

Last sentence still applies though, we don't have a "well oiled" movement.


STICKY THIS THREAD! PLEASE! ADMiN! STICKY THIS THREAD!

If I've learned anything about forums its that its very hard to get ideas off the ground on a forum. Or at least about as hard as in real life. Whether its stickied or not.

[wizardwatson]

Still would like to hear from tangent4ronpaul on why this idea/project died. Think I'll PM him.

[Aratus]

sticky this thread anyway

[tangent4ronpaul]

Catherder isn't dead. There is work being done and core people are talking.

The web site is down at the moment. I need to call the Sysadmin, but have been waiting for a reply to an e-mail I sent him. At least 3 people have a full dump of the site, so if we have to set up shop somewhere else it shouldn't be a big deal. We need to update info anyway.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

btw: we still control 3 meetup organizer groups that are networked
a candidates group
a graphic artists group
a video group
an activism group
basically all the RP yahoo groups and the moderators group for that
and so on...

Yeah - cathearder is "dead" :rolleyes:

-t

[wizardwatson]

Catherder isn't dead. There is work being done and core people are talking.

The web site is down at the moment. I need to call the Sysadmin, but have been waiting for a reply to an e-mail I sent him. At least 3 people have a full dump of the site, so if we have to set up shop somewhere else it shouldn't be a big deal. We need to update info anyway.

-t


btw: we still control 3 meetup organizer groups that are networked
a candidates group
a graphic artists group
a video group
an activism group
basically all the RP yahoo groups and the moderators group for that
and so on...

Yeah - cathearder is "dead" :rolleyes:

-t

Thanks for update/info. Sorry if I offended by assuming the project "dead". With the site down didn't know.

Tangent, can you check this out, it might be a good tool for a lot of what you are trying to do.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?278304-A-Better-Means-of-Organizing

[Travlyr]

Last sentence still applies though, we don't have a "well oiled" movement.Not a "well oiled" movement yet... but we're not giving up. Persistence is the key.


If I've learned anything about forums its that its very hard to get ideas off the ground on a forum. Or at least about as hard as in real life. Whether its stickied or not.

That's for sure. It is the same on forums and in real life. Imagine what Ron Paul must have felt everyday of his life before the Ron Paul movement took off. He has studied, worked, talked, legislated, presented, written, and taught for 30 or 40 years about using honesty in transactions, and he still gets minions from the elite demonizing him. Ron Paul stands proud anyway because he knows what he says is true and noble.

Ron Paul makes it very clear in his speeches and writings that central banks are the enemy of liberty. Yet, even today a majority of Dr. Paul's supporters would rather work the political process than focus like a laser beam to "End The Fed".