Last night's Conference Call

Ron Paul spoke on the national volunteer conference call last night. Click here to listen to it. He called in from DC, where he went to vote, something the other congressional candidates don't seem too committed to doing. He mentions CPAC and makes promises to us as his supporters and shares some interesting insight. Also, I think someone with Tourette's is sitting in on the conference call.

- Allan
In Blue Island, IL

Westboro Baptist Church

A few days ago, a man walked into a store near Chicago and killed several women. A church will be picketing at the funerals of two of the deceased. The First Amendment protects their protest. I encourage you to learn more about this behavior. Debates on the first amendment and hate speech deserve to happen at the extremes of those ideas. Please click here to learn more about what motivates the members of that church to travel so far to come to a funeral. I warn you that the language may be distasteful to some readers.

Allan
in Blue Island

"Well then maybe you should've..."

"Well, then maybe you should have voted for Ron Paul" is a phrase I heard from a discussion between two people talking about the Presidential returns from yesterday shortly after news that Romney was doing to suspend his campaign. I was surprised to hear it, and considering the current options in the campaign, I think I'm going to be hearing that phrase a lot more. The phrase was directed at a person who voted for Romney, not because she actually liked him, but because he was the most "electable" "conservative." There's an odd schadenfreude to that, if that can also be used to refer to one of those, "I told you so" moments.

- Allan
60406

Romney, Paul, ALIPAC, and DOBBS ?

I received a note today from the head of Americans For Legal Immigration. Up until today they openly supported Paul and Romney and openly degraded McCain and Huckabee based on the immigration policies of the candidates. Now that Romney's reported to be out, ALIPAC has decided that in addition to supporting Ron Paul, that ALIPAC needs to try to drag another anti-amnesty candidate into the race. Below I have posted the email.

Wishing you well.

Allan


ALIPAC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 Important Items

ALIPAC Reactions: Fighting Back Against the American Nightmare
Mitt Romney Suspends Campaign for President
Draft Lou Dobbs campaign ready to roll
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friends of ALIPAC,

After reading most of the thousands of e-mails we received from you with your opinions about the Presidential campaigns, we have crafted the following response.

Please read, distribute, and share your thoughts.

Read and Comment at...
ALIPAC: Fighting Back Against the American Nightmare!
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-615131.html#615131




----

We just got the news that Mitt Romney is announcing his withdrawal from the race at the CPAC convention. Michelle Malkin reports that the event organizers are going around begging grassroots conservatives NOT to boo McCain at the event. We hope they do!

Romney to Quit Presidential Race
http://www.alipac.us/article2934.html

----

As you recall, ALIPAC prepared a website for a possible call to Draft Lou Dobbs as a Presidential candidate.

This was done so we would be prepared just in case, after we saw McCain win in New Hampshire.

It is a good thing that we have this site prepared to roll out of the laboratory now that it is needed.

The time has come for us to use the site. Early bird supporters have already pledged almost half a million dollars, if Lou Dobbs runs.

Now it is time for many of you to consider making a pledge of support and making it a strong sum. If you feel that the McCain and Hillary wins have increased your desire to see Lou run, then take the following steps.

1. Visit www.LouDobbsforPresident.org
2. Fill out the form to make a pledge of support as a volunteer and or contributor, if Lou agrees to run.
3. Sign the guest book on the site, with a message for Lou Dobbs.
4. Post links to the site http://www.loudobbsforpresident.org across the web and use the "Tell Your Friends to join us" feature on the site to spread the word to your contacts.



The ALIPAC Team
www.alipac.us

We Accept Euros

At least some businesses are being flexible about the dollar's demise. This link was sent in last night - Allan (in BI)


I thought you'd find this interesting.
=md

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080206/us_nm/newyork_euros_dc

Vietnam Vets

Stevo,

I thought you might find this website interesting. http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/. I never knew people argued that John McCain wasn't really a war hero but a mythical hero.

Dan

Working Links

I made a mistake and published links that didn't work for Roger's new English website and his new German website. The problem was not on Roger's side, but on mine, my apologies. They now work.

english: http://www.ronpauleurope.net/indexE.htm
german: www.ronpauleurope.net

Allan

Valley Forge

I would have liked to have seen better ballot results on Tuesday. To boil things down, however, a whole lot of people have come around to Ron Paul's message and the message underlying the US Constitution. That is a victory, but a smaller gain than I had hoped for.

There is a movement. And, as we continue in it, I reflect back on the words of Ralph Nader from 8 years ago, as I sat in Foellenger Auditorium at the University of Illinois before some bone-headed college republican kicked him off the stage early that night. He referred to resilience as a key virtue in any civic movement.

At Valley Forge,Washington and his troops were near disbanding. They won a victory of the will however, and persevered. Below, is an email sent from a fellow Operation Live Free or Die member who now works for the campaign. Jeremiah and I made phone calls together every day in New Hampshire and staying in New London, we both road back and forth together at the end of every night and the beginning of every day. His words were much appreciated by me and I hope that you will find them of value as well.

--

Super Tuesday is the Valley Forge of the Second American Revolution.

Victory looks impossible, defeat looks inevitable. Our army is tired, ill equipped, out-manned, out-gunned, undertrained, underfunded, and generally in despair. This is a time of great uncertainty for us. There will be deserters, there will be nay-sayers, there will even be calls for Dr. Paul to give up.

An inspirational statement is the motto of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and comes from Virgil, "Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito!" or "Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it!"

We must NEVER give in! We must NEVER surrender! Defeat is not an option!

If you believe that 'they' are just going to give us our freedom back, or even let us keep the bits that we have, you are wrong! We must regroup, and go forward with a greater tenacity than we have ever known! We must be ever-vigilant, we must never allow the light of Liberty to be extinguished from this nation!

As General John Stark once wrote, "Live Free or Die; Death is not the worst of evils." When given those options, which do you choose?

The war is not over, it has just begun. There are many tough battles ahead, and we will need every one of us in order to win. Texas is March 4th, with 140 delegates at stake, and Pennsylvania (where the Continental Army regrouped at Valley Forge and emerged a force to be reckoned with) is the ONLY contest in April, with 74 delegates available. Most states with a caucus have not held their State Conventions yet, so their delegates are not even decided, contrary to what the media would lead you to believe at a glance! We are still in this!

Time is on our side, and as the other candidates continue to pick each other apart we will continue to bring in new supporters, more money, and storm the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota with so many Ron Paul Delegates they'll never know what hit them!

Jeremiah G.

My FBI File

FOIA is great and part of my time off will be spent sending out a letter or two (or eleven) like this - http://www.getmyfbifile.com/ because that is something that I have been wanting to do for a while. I hear lots of people have them these days, and I'm curious to see if a file even exists for me. : )
- Allan (in Blue Island)

RonPaulEurope.net

Roger sent in this letter. Thank you for getting this up and running Roger. It was good of you to take the lead and cover the expenses for this website, the website discussed at the Strasbourg Tea Party.
- Allan in Blue Island



Good day,

Ron Paul Europe Network now with News Section. The most important headlines and links for everybodies concern. Updated daily!

english: http://www.ronpauleurope.net/indexE.htm
german: http://www.ronpauleurope.net

(Note from Allan: These addresses are right, but I can't get the linked text to work, please just cut and paste the URL to get there. Thank you ! )

Best regards,
Roger B.
webmaster@ronpauleurope.net

Columbia Journalism Review - Delegates

The Columbia Journalism Review does some great articles. This is one about last night, not Ron Paul related, instead critical of the media coverage we are receiving in the US. Delegates are so very important to both parties right now, and the popular vote is minimally important. Good article from CJR.

http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/who_understands_our_electoral.php

Allan
Blue Island, IL

Free State Project

An interesting group of folks that I encountered in NH were the "freestaters." The goal is to move 20,000 folks to NH to make the place a free state. The website is well worth exploring:
http://www.freestateproject.org


I rather like this list of 101 reasons why NH is a good place for such an activity:
http://www.freestateproject.org/files/101-Reasons-to-Move-to-NH.pdf

- Allan - Blue Island - 60406

A video from the NV Caucus - January 19

A good video from Frank from Operation Live Free or Die on Caucus day in Nevada. It demonstrates how the atmosphere was in general and gives some details about how the caucus was run. My caucus location looked very similar to the one Frank was at, and from talking to folks it seemed that it was what many of the Clark County caucus locations looked like. What followed was, back at the Las Vegas headquarters then back at the OLFD house. - Allan

The Road to Super Tuesday

The road to Super Tuesday has come to an end. It's time for me now to determine my next step. I'm very happy to be able to say that returning my focus to writing may come next, and I'm happy to have been able to say that I've put down my pen to follow such a worthy cause. I've found it noble to put aside my own interests to support a man who risks life, fortune, and sacred honor to fight for the freedom of his fellow Americans.

Perhaps I will refocus on my own writing, perhaps I will continue to focus on this fight. Regardless, after today, I will try my best to take a little break.

Maybe to take my suits to the dry cleaner, to go for a jog, to cook a meal for a few friends, to stick my nose in a book.

Thank you, all of you, for your support through this endeavor.

Allan
(writing from Blue Island, IL)

WGN joins the blackout

A local TV station in Chicago, WGN, which is broadcast throughout the US, has taken to using the phrase "a three candidate race" for the GOP primary. This is the latest, but every single day someone tells me of the latest saga in the Ron Paul blackout.

I think after Tuesday, I will, based on principle, boycott all local news that does not give Ron Paul fair coverage and boycott their advertisers as well.

Something that worries me, however, is that doing so will distance me from the omissions in a way that will not permit me to reference them in my conversations with others. Referencing them and recording them are important in order to credibly portray the blackout to others, and in return strengthen Ron Paul as a legitimate candidate despite the fact that he is virtually unknown.

The media has done a genuine disservice to the American people by not reporting on a candidate who opposes the war, opposes our foreign occupation, and seeks to bring our soldiers home in order to defend our own soil and fund programs like Social Security. I know that this disservice happens because several times a day it is clear to me that the person I am talking to is longing for a candidate saying the things Ron Paul is saying. Just today, I spoke at a retirement home and two members of the twenty member audience came to me and told me essentially that. Others, from the nods, from their comments, found sense in his words. I want Ron Paul to be president, but we NEED for Ron Paul's ideas to become a legitimate part of public dialog.

Yesterday, a buddy of mine who was not aware of Ron Paul just a few months ago, wrote a letter on this topic to a well respected local anchor. I might place that letter and her response here in the future, with his permission. These personal letters to respected journalists and to advertisers, pointing out specific omissions of Ron Paul must become commonplace. The loss of respect that we have for the journalists that we've always respected must be told to them. They must hear how disappointed we are in them, in the hopes that it inspires better behavior in them. And if that doesn't work, we will definitely get the word to them via their advertisers (who don't expect reduced sales from their expensive advertising budgets).

Local election boards decide who the candidates are, not journalists or media moguls.

Allan
(writing from the South Loop HQ in Chicago, IL)

Delegate results from Maine

I was getting frustrated with the Maine GOP pulling the same stunts as the Louisiana GOP - report unofficial results at first and then take your sweet time getting to the official results, so I dug around a little and found this press release from the RP camp. As you read the press release please remember, Ron Paul admires the details that make each state unique, remember that he dislikes a strong central government with one way of doing things for all people, out of that way of thinking comes a campaign that says "we will win this race by taking note of those things that make each state's election process unique and using that knowledge to our advantage." Ron Paul sure looks bad in the media, but he is succeeding in his strategy of securing delegates for St. Paul in September. I read this with pleasure.
Allan
(writing from the South Loop Ron Paul office in Chicago, IL)

Ron Paul Beats McCain in Maine Caucus, Primed to Win Over 1/3 of State Delegates

In the race for delegates, Ron Paul appears to closely trail Romney for first place

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2008

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – While most reports about this past weekend’s Maine Caucus focused on the purely symbolic presidential preference poll, in the meaningful race to secure delegates to the state convention Ron Paul is primed to finish second with likely 35 percent of the total delegates.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis are elected by the state delegates. Internal results from 10 of 16 counties, including the largest cities of Portland, South Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, Augusta, Waterville, Bangor, and Brewer, show Ron Paul picking up 215 of 608 State Convention delegates so far reported, or 35%.

“Ron Paul’s strong second place finish in Maine, in which he beat John McCain, is proof that this race is far from over,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore. “We’ll continue to battle for every delegate in this wide-open race for the Republican nomination.”

In the presidential preference poll, with 70 percent reporting, Ron Paul is in third place just two percentage points behind John McCain. However, the Maine preference poll is purely a beauty contest, and in the actual election of state delegates the so-called “frontrunner” McCain is far behind Ron Paul.

###

Jim Rogers on Ron Paul

Investor Jim Rogers comments on Ron Paul while being interviewed in the Austrian daily "Der Standard". Here is my translation of the relevant parts:

STANDARD: What would be your advice to the next president?
Jim Rogers: To resign (he laughs). Look, the problems can be solved. But whoever runs on a platform to change the whole system is not going to be elected. You had to change the whole tax system... Furthermore: America has stationed troops in 120 countries. Bring them home! We only make enemies, it doesn't make us safer, and it costs us a fortune.
STANDARD: That's what the Republican longshot candidate Ron Paul says. You once said you'd vote for him.
Jim Rogers: I said he is the only one who understands the situation. A longshot? We'll see in November. Currently he doesn't stand a chance.
STANDARD: What about those who stand a chance?
Jim Rogers: I wouldn't vote for any of those...

For those of you who understand german, you can read the full interview here.

-- Johannes

Great Endorsement

The American Conservative finally endorses Ron Paul. That comes as no big surprise to anyone familiar with this fine conservative magazine. You find the text of the endorsment here.

The reasons given for their support, I think, can be best illustrated by the following quote: "He [Paul] alone understands that the ever expanding federal government is a far greater threat to American liberty than some tinpot dictator in the Caucasus". This nicely sums up Ron Paul's position on America's role in the world and his concerns about domestic developments.

They favouralby mention the many young poeple Ron Paul has introduced to his ideas and laud his principled approach to politics.

Fully aware of the dim chances to win the nomination TAC nevertheless urges to vote for Dr. Paul: "This campaign sends a signal to both parties that a significant number of Americans value their country’s great Constitution, that many conservatives reject wiretaps, waterboarding, and senseless wars. There is far more realism in Paul’s analysis than can be found in those Republicans who..."

-- Johannes

January 31

It was neat to see that even Derbyshire was donating money today to the Paul campaign as part of the 51st Anniversary celebration. Would anyone have thought that an option 1 year ago?

Today, at about noon, I got a phone call telling me to find County Coordinators for about 80 counties in Illinois. I did that by 9 pm. I was happy about that. Someone told me today that I am now one of the "State Coordinators." I do not know what that means, but I do have access to many helpful things in the computer system, so I am happy about that.

In these last few days, it has been good to see that I am getting things done that could not been done without large blocks of free time in the week. That makes my time here feel more valuably spent. It has been frustrating that in each state it takes time to develop a rapport with the campaign before they trust me with significant tasks, I mean, I'm not some jerk off the street, and I'm not going to disappear tomorrow, I came across the Atlantic just for this. Except, you can't just come out and say that, I guess. Those first few days, where you look at how much more capable you are than the jerk rudely bossing you around (in Nevada) is kind of challenging.

I think for the next state I go to, I will send out resumes ahead of time and make the campaign managers interview over the phone before I decide who will get me : )

A good night to all of you.

Allan

REAL ID - Good Ad

There are many inequities in life.  Its usually the ones that creep up
on you quietly that cause one to give pause.

Last weekend my friend was pulled over by the state police at 2 in the
morning.  Not because of any traffic violation; we all know the
penalties for such things.  No, my friend was forcibly dragged from the
driver seat, restrained and then detained for a case of mistaken
identity.  He even showed me his bruises!

The whole episode began when he had rushed his girl friend's cat to the
animal hospital, earlier that evening.  On his way home, those pesky
electronics at every intersection had identified my friend as a thief!
Yes, his facial scan had him correctly identified this time, but his
passenger Muffins was identified as some other cat.  This triggered a
mismatch between the cat's owner and the cat; essentially cat theft!
Somehow, the cat's information had been saved improperly at the
hospital.  So as my friend passed each intersection, and the cat's RFID
tag was scanned, Muffins was identified as stolen property.  My friend
only made it eight blocks from the hospital too!

Although the theft charge got dropped, he remains charged with
resisting
arrest.

So funny, but let me back up 15 years.  This is the same friend who
laughed at me on May 11, 2008 when I told him for the 100th time that
the Real ID Act of 2005 was real!

While you still have time, find out about the Real ID.  Check us out,
then consider helping before its too late.

http://stoprealidcoalition.blogspot.com

Thank you,

Stop Real ID Coalition