Pimpin Turtle Dot Com
12-18-2007, 11:09 AM
The AR newspaper posted this article about our "Illegal" activities supporting RP
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/211009/print/
Ron Paul supporters take campaign message to the streets
BY MARK MINTON
Posted on Tuesday, December 18, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/211009/
LOWELL — A series of Ron Paul banners fluttered from Interstate 540 overpasses Monday morning, the latest signs of a presidential campaign gone viral.
The unauthorized banners and other push-the-envelope marketing tactics are the product of Internet-savvy supporters gathering in Ron Paul “meetup” groups multiplying in cyberspace.
Freewheeling and unfettered, the Internet is proving especially valuable for the Republican congressman from Texas. On Sunday, an online “money bomb” fundraiser delivered $ 6 million in pledges to his campaign.
But mostly, the Web is powering his grass-roots effort with cheeky creativity.
There is the Ron Paul blimp, for instance.
The blimp, “a grassroots-sponsored publicity stunt,” circles the skies promoting Paul for president, its location tracked via satellite on a supporter’s Web site.
In Northwest Arkansas, marketing strategies that have made the jump from the Web include cardboard signs that at first seem to be advertising a yard sale or a missing dog but actually tout the candidate. One was spotted at the corner of Township Street and Arkansas 265 in Fayetteville.
At nearby Gulley Park, chalk sidewalk messages left clues leading to a Paul message. A $ 1 bill that a Democrat-Gazette reporter pocketed as change at a convenience store recently was stamped in red ink: “Ron Paul for President.”
Paul supporters said they operate independently from the official campaign. They don’t ask for permission.
“People put out ideas; others jump,” explained Patricia Mikkelson, 53, a Fayetteville volunteer active in forming local Paul groups through the meetup. com networking site. The best ideas “take off virally,” Mikkelson said. That means they spread fast over the Internet, she said.
Jason Sheppard, the newly appointed Arkansas state coordinator for the Paul campaign, agreed that grass-roots strategies are not suggested or authorized by the campaign. But he called them invaluable.
“If it weren’t for them, the campaign wouldn’t be as successful as it is right now,” Sheppard said.
“I give a lot of credit to the imagination of our supporters and the amazing free exchange of ideas that is taking place on the Internet,” said Allison Lukens, a 25-year-old waitress whose meetup. com group gathers weekly at Qdoba Mexican Grill on Fayetteville’s Dickson Street. It has about 115 members, Lukens said. It is one of eight Paul meetup groups in Northwest Arkansas.
Neither Lukens nor Mikkelson could say just who strung the white-sheet banners from the overpasses in the darkness before the Monday morning rush.
“Not legal,” said Randy Ort, spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
The agency collects piles of illegally posted political signs every election cycle, Ort said, and usually just returns them to those who ask. Most aren’t draped from overpasses, however.
By 10: 30 a. m. Monday morning, the Highway Department had removed all the sheet-sized banners, which depicted Paul’s head and shoulders. Crews in Benton County collected 11 Paul signs, said Ralph Fulton, district engineer for the Highway Department. They removed two in Washington County. Nobody had claimed them by Monday afternoon.
“It could be someone from the group,” Lukens said. “Probably is. There’s a lot of spontaneous individual action going on.”
The Paul campaign has 88, 893 supporters registered in 1, 371 meetup. com groups nationwide, according to a search of the Web site. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is No. 2 among the presidential candidates, with 6, 264 members in 275 groups.
Huckabee’s campaign seemed more structured. Kori Hudson, a Fayetteville photographer who formed a Northwest Arkansas group for Huckabee, said his campaign gives specific tips and guidelines “for things you can do to be effective.”
Paul supporters are more freewheeling.
“It’s like people just do what they feel inspired to do,” Mikkelson said.
One Web site Paul supporters found online offers ink stamps for $ 9. 95 plus shipping. “Stamp out fascism” the ad states. It depicts a Ron Paul for president slogan stamped on envelopes and on a $ 1 bill.
Technically, defacing a dollar in such a way is illegal, said Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the U. S. Secret Service.
No one would consider it a high priority for enforcement. Paul supporters in Northwest Arkansas said they don’t know who might have stamped dollars locally.
But it’s hardly unheard of, they acknowledged.
“I just got an e-mail that said, ‘ Let’s do a money bomb where we stamp all the money, ’” Mikkelson said.
“We’re having so much fun.”
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/211009/print/
Ron Paul supporters take campaign message to the streets
BY MARK MINTON
Posted on Tuesday, December 18, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/211009/
LOWELL — A series of Ron Paul banners fluttered from Interstate 540 overpasses Monday morning, the latest signs of a presidential campaign gone viral.
The unauthorized banners and other push-the-envelope marketing tactics are the product of Internet-savvy supporters gathering in Ron Paul “meetup” groups multiplying in cyberspace.
Freewheeling and unfettered, the Internet is proving especially valuable for the Republican congressman from Texas. On Sunday, an online “money bomb” fundraiser delivered $ 6 million in pledges to his campaign.
But mostly, the Web is powering his grass-roots effort with cheeky creativity.
There is the Ron Paul blimp, for instance.
The blimp, “a grassroots-sponsored publicity stunt,” circles the skies promoting Paul for president, its location tracked via satellite on a supporter’s Web site.
In Northwest Arkansas, marketing strategies that have made the jump from the Web include cardboard signs that at first seem to be advertising a yard sale or a missing dog but actually tout the candidate. One was spotted at the corner of Township Street and Arkansas 265 in Fayetteville.
At nearby Gulley Park, chalk sidewalk messages left clues leading to a Paul message. A $ 1 bill that a Democrat-Gazette reporter pocketed as change at a convenience store recently was stamped in red ink: “Ron Paul for President.”
Paul supporters said they operate independently from the official campaign. They don’t ask for permission.
“People put out ideas; others jump,” explained Patricia Mikkelson, 53, a Fayetteville volunteer active in forming local Paul groups through the meetup. com networking site. The best ideas “take off virally,” Mikkelson said. That means they spread fast over the Internet, she said.
Jason Sheppard, the newly appointed Arkansas state coordinator for the Paul campaign, agreed that grass-roots strategies are not suggested or authorized by the campaign. But he called them invaluable.
“If it weren’t for them, the campaign wouldn’t be as successful as it is right now,” Sheppard said.
“I give a lot of credit to the imagination of our supporters and the amazing free exchange of ideas that is taking place on the Internet,” said Allison Lukens, a 25-year-old waitress whose meetup. com group gathers weekly at Qdoba Mexican Grill on Fayetteville’s Dickson Street. It has about 115 members, Lukens said. It is one of eight Paul meetup groups in Northwest Arkansas.
Neither Lukens nor Mikkelson could say just who strung the white-sheet banners from the overpasses in the darkness before the Monday morning rush.
“Not legal,” said Randy Ort, spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
The agency collects piles of illegally posted political signs every election cycle, Ort said, and usually just returns them to those who ask. Most aren’t draped from overpasses, however.
By 10: 30 a. m. Monday morning, the Highway Department had removed all the sheet-sized banners, which depicted Paul’s head and shoulders. Crews in Benton County collected 11 Paul signs, said Ralph Fulton, district engineer for the Highway Department. They removed two in Washington County. Nobody had claimed them by Monday afternoon.
“It could be someone from the group,” Lukens said. “Probably is. There’s a lot of spontaneous individual action going on.”
The Paul campaign has 88, 893 supporters registered in 1, 371 meetup. com groups nationwide, according to a search of the Web site. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is No. 2 among the presidential candidates, with 6, 264 members in 275 groups.
Huckabee’s campaign seemed more structured. Kori Hudson, a Fayetteville photographer who formed a Northwest Arkansas group for Huckabee, said his campaign gives specific tips and guidelines “for things you can do to be effective.”
Paul supporters are more freewheeling.
“It’s like people just do what they feel inspired to do,” Mikkelson said.
One Web site Paul supporters found online offers ink stamps for $ 9. 95 plus shipping. “Stamp out fascism” the ad states. It depicts a Ron Paul for president slogan stamped on envelopes and on a $ 1 bill.
Technically, defacing a dollar in such a way is illegal, said Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the U. S. Secret Service.
No one would consider it a high priority for enforcement. Paul supporters in Northwest Arkansas said they don’t know who might have stamped dollars locally.
But it’s hardly unheard of, they acknowledged.
“I just got an e-mail that said, ‘ Let’s do a money bomb where we stamp all the money, ’” Mikkelson said.
“We’re having so much fun.”