Ron Paul Roundup (12-01-07)

[RSDavis]

Ron Paul Roundup (12-01-07)
by RS Davis


Hello Freedomphiles! So, yesterday was the last-minute money bomb, and Politico is calling it a failure:

• The goal of the drive — patterned after the original money bomb that turned the Texas congressman from "Ron who?" to a surprise factor in the race — was to raise $2.5 million Friday.
  
  But on the eve of the second bomb, pledges totaled only $230,000 — less than 10 percent of the goal — apparently because many Paul supporters were more enthusiastic about another haul planned for Dec. 16.
  
  The campaign was predicting Friday's haul would total around $500,000. That's a one-day tally most campaigns would drool over, but one that pales in comparison to projections for the money bomb, not to mention the $4.2 million raised on Nov. 5 — the date of the initial haul.

So, this money bomb only raised about $525,000 when all was said and done, but that's hardly a failure. And December 16th is going to be huge, I have no doubt.

USAToday is giving credit where credit is due:

• The Texas congressman can thank Trevor Lyman for a chunk of that cash.
  
  Lyman, a Miami Beach online music promoter, is guiding an Internet fundraising drive that he says could well push Paul past his $12 million fourth-quarter fundraising goal by the weekend — a full month ahead of schedule.
  
  Paul had raised more than $9.7 million as of Thursday afternoon, according to his website. Campaign spokesman Jesse Benton said Paul hasn't had any contact with Lyman and is not coordinating with him. The money "has been spontaneously raised," Benton said. "The grass roots are our big ace in the hole."

Aren't we, though? The Nolan Chart reports on Ron Paul's applauding of the charity of Americans in regard to one young Iraqi boy:

• Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, a 10-term Texas congressman and advocate of military non-interventionism overseas, has condemned the war in Iraq but praised American humanitarian and commercial efforts helping to bring peace to the Iraqi people.
  
  Thursday morning, a five-year-old Iraqi boy named Youssif, was afforded an important and life-altering surgery by CNN.com readers, the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, California, and the Children's Burn Foundation. More than $300,000 was raised to bring the Iraqi boy, whose face was severely scarred after being doused with gas and set on fire in Baghdad this January, and his family to America two months ago. Dr. Peter Grossman, a plastic surgeon with the Grossman Burn Center, has donated his services to repair the scarring to the young boy's face.
  
  Congressman Paul today issued the following statement in support of Dr. Grossman and the generous contributors...

The Los Angeles Times is reporting about Dr Paul's belief in the NAFTA Superhighway.

• Paul did not miss a beat. The Texas congressman coolly raised the specter of a dire new national threat -- an as-yet unbuilt superhighway.
  
  A border-spanning "NAFTA highway" now on the drawing board, Paul said, would link the U.S., Mexico and Canada, worsening illegal immigration and threatening American independence. "Our national sovereignty is under threat," Paul warned.
  
  Federal and state highway and trade officials and transportation consultants reacted Thursday with befuddlement and amusement. The fearsome secret international highway project Paul described does not exist, they said.
  
  "There is no such superhighway like the one he's talking about," said Ian Grossman, a spokesman with the Federal Highway Administration. "It doesn't exist, in plans or anywhere else."

For the record, I disagree with his fear of this issue. More info on it here. The Nolan Chart is also reporting on some Ron Paul supporters trying to get to New Hampshire any way they can:

• A few weeks ago, I did a story about a young Google employee who quit his job and is organizing 1,000 volunteers to go to New Hampshire to work in support of Ron Paul's candidacy. Operation Live Free Or Die has since identified nearly 300 volunteers and has high hopes of recruiting and finding housing for 1,000 to meet the original goal.
  
  Today I want to take a look at another volunteer who is just trying to get himself and a few of his friends to New Hampshire. Aaron Jones of Missouri, a deferred graduate of the University of Indiana, tells a story that is interesting for two reasons. First, his effort is independent of the Operation Live Free Or Die project. Second, his insights and feelings about Dr. Paul's candidacy provide a revealing window into why it is that Ron Paul is so appealing to young people this election cycle.
  
  I found Jones via a YouTube video he recorded in the early hours of this morning. There are hundreds, even thousands of such videos out there, all created independently by YouTube members regarding the Paul campaign. In a sense, I picked Jones' video somewhat randomly, but I also picked it because it shows exactly how "grassroots" the Paul campaign truly is.

And here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbKqLFMJ4u4

Finally, the Redheads for Ron Paul have alerted me to this challenge from Glenn Beck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNEgkAshNnI

I think he should take him up on it.

[Soccrmastr]

Ron Paul needs to get on Glenn Beck