Archive for September, 2007

Date: September 29th, 2007, Filed under Ron Paul

As I mentioned a few posts back, the Ron Paul campaign is pushing close to their million dollar goal. A few more update number:

As of 5:30 pm CST today, they are at $925,075. That leaves 1775 minutes to go, with the campaign raising an average of $111 per minute over the past 5.5 days. Just a few days go, the average of every previous minute was at 105 dollars per minute. Just a day later, it was at 108 dollars per minute. That 3/minute increase is significant because it is averaged over all the previous minutes of all the days, not just the minutes in the 24 hour period. As of now, that $111 per minute is even more significant, showing a massive jump in donations as the clock ticks down. The actual average of the last 24 hours is approximately $127/minute — including the overnight slow period — wow!

My estimate for the end of the quarter, the complete 7 day tracked period, should be $1,122,757 if things continue. It could be as high as $1,280,000 if the minute-average keeps climbing. Quite an accomplishment, but still far short of what liberty and freedom lovers should be giving. There’s about 30 hours left, so if you haven’t given yet, drop Dr. Paul’s broadcast of freedom $100 right now at the donation center on his website. Remember, this isn’t about supporting a political campaign, this is about giving freedom lovers a voice in the mainstream media.

Forget the election for a moment and focus on the simple fact that someone is getting thousands or even tens of thousands of others into thinking about the focus of freedom: don’t use force, use responsibility.

Comments: 1

Date: September 28th, 2007, Filed under Speedlinks

JDB writes the following:

I just updated my blog template, moving around the headline sections on the right. I’ve carried Lew Rockwell headlines since I started this blog. Recently I learned that LewRockwell.com carries weekly, monthly, and annual top ten article pages. Since I don’t have time to read every single LRC daily article (alas), these are pretty useful to me. And since I am a programmer, I knew how to create my own headline newsfeeds off of these pages.

Check out his list of libertarian newsfeeds over at Voice of John. Don’t forget to subscribe to his RSS feed to stay on top some great posts.

Comments: none

Date: September 28th, 2007, Filed under Ron Paul

Last night at 8:45 pm CST I posted about Ron Paul and the Million Dollar Boost. The PBS debates ended at 9:30 pm CST, so I figured I’d look at some numbers to compare to the numbers at 8:45 pm.

At 10:30 pm CST, the Paul campaign raised $615,000. Averaged over the total 168 hours of the week, that came to $107 per minute, which is quite a jump from $105 per minute just 2 hours early (remember this is averaging all the previous donations in total).

By 12:15 am CST, the campaign was at $631,000. The same per-minute average brings it up to $108, again a nice improvement considering we’re still averaging all the previous minutes since the start.

As of 8:30 am CST this morning, about 12 hours after I first ran my calculations, the campaign is back to $105 per minute on average, which is quite an accomplishment considering most people were napping through the night. Their total of $663,000 with the average of $105 per minute leaves us to estimate that the campaign will just barely cross the million dollar threshold, but of course there are two other outcomes: as donations continue to soar, even more people will be led to donate, or as the week progresses, the supporters will all have given.

Updated numbers

As of 9:05 am CST this morning, the campaign is averaging $106/minute for the entire week. As of 10:35 am CST, the campaign is averaging $107/minute. Definitely an increase again, and if it stays on target over the weekend (hard to say, my traffic drops a lot but maybe his goes up), they may hit $1,070,000 if they stick to that trend. Let’s hope!

$1 million in a week is amazing, definitely. Let’s make these considerations, which we know are untrue:

a) Everyone gave the maximum of $2300. This means Paul only has 434 supporters putting their money where their mouth is.

b) Everyone gave about $20. This means Paul has about 50,000 supporters putting up a measly $20.

See those numbers? They’re tiny. Seriously — how can only 50,000 supporters toss $20 into the till in a week? Or why are there only 434 supporters who are financially solvent enough to donate $2300, which in the grand scheme of things is still not a massive amount of money if you’re earning $60,000 per household. That’s holding back on one plasma TV purchase, or cutting back your coffee shop visit by 2 cups a day, easy for a husband and wife team.

I don’t understand why the campaign can’t blow the doors off everyone, Democrat and Republican, top tier and bottom tier, with numbers that are numbing. It doesn’t make sense to me. I hate debt, but I would tell you to charge $200 to your credit card today and pay it over through the election — that’s how important the MESSAGE is.

I’m not telling you to vote for Ron Paul; not everyone is morally accepting of voting. I’m not asking you to make banners in your garage and hit rallies each month; not everyone has the time. What I am saying, as I said before, is that the message of Ron Paul is one that we may never have the chance to push again in the mainstream press. When was the last time you heard anything BAD about the fraudulent Federal Reserve, the socialist IRS, the horrible outcome of health care due to the HMO Act of 1973? Only Ron Paul has the camera on him, and he NEEDS the money to continue the message.

Yes, to many, the election is important. I sure hope that Paul beats everyone else, because I want my tax money to stay in my pocket each week. I want yours, too, so you can spend it on my businesses, and I can spend my money on your industry. But regardless of the outcome of the likely corrupt and shill-ridden campaign, the message of freedom is the reason to support Paul.

Let’s do it. Let’s blow the doors off the numbers today. Can you give $50, or even $200, from your debit or credit card? The more he gets, the more attention he’ll get. The more attention he’ll get, the more his message gets out, and the better his chance of winning. Cut back on those coffees, a movie or two, a pair of jeans or a purse and give a little bit more than you can afford to. If you can only afford $20, give $30. When you overspend to promote the message of freedom, you will be MUCH more understanding of where your money goes before it hits your checking account — it hits all those agents against freedom, the agents that Paul wants to fire and send packing. A $200 from each of us, all 1 million fans of freedom, would ring throughout the world when the Paul campaign announces a $200 million boost. Hilary who? Giuliani who?

Additional thoughts:

I received some e-mails in the past 24 hours regarding why I support Paul but I don’t support voting. As I said above, giving money to Paul’s campaign is not giving up your sovereignty, nor is it supporting government on any way. If and when Paul gets elected, that’s the voters, not the donators.

We’ve never had an outlet in the mainstream press pursuing freedom. Attending rallies is great, but it doesn’t give the MSM any reason to promote Paul’s perspective and wins. Rallies don’t always means votes. Yet showing that people will put their money up DOES give the MSM reason to take notice. In order for Paul to truly win, even with all the “free” support of the Revolution, he needs more money than anyone else. He needs to blow the doors off of everyone else.

Giving up the equivalent of $40 a week for a year might be painful, but it is doable, and the return on investment would be amazing if he won (even without your vote). Right now I’d say that if he spent all $10 million or so that he’s raised in total, the return on investment is amazing because it is bringing freedom lovers together, and showing the Internet world that we’re a force to be reckoned with. $10 million isn’t enough to bring that message to the masses, though. He needs 10 times that just to be even with the rest. Your typical nuclear family is not browsing the web looking for freedom, they need to see Paul on the tube, hear him on the radio, and read about him in the paper.

Comments: 2

Date: September 27th, 2007, Filed under Ron Paul

As some of you know, the Ron Paul campaign set up a $500,000 goal to hit in terms of fund-raising for this week, which marks the final week of the 3rd quarter. In 3 days, the campaign hit this goal, and is now trying to raise $1,000,000 total for the week. You can see their current status at the Ron Paul for President website.

I was calculating an estimate yesterday for how much they’d raise if the average hourly fund raising numbers stayed consistent, and as of yesterday, the number would be $920,000.

As of 8:45PM CST today, the campaign raised $590,010. This means they’re raising about $105 per minute. There are 4455 minutes remaining, so if they continued at that rate, they’d reach $1,057,000. That sounds like an impressive number, and for the Paul campaign it is.

But it isn’t enough, and it is far short of what a campaign promoting freedom should be getting.

Look at it this way. There are an estimated 250,000 Libertarians in the US. There are an estimated 1,000,000 libertarians (small L) in total. What are these people doing with their money?

I’m not a fan of voting, because I look at most votes as immoral. But I have no problem morally giving money to anyone — for any reason. I support Ron Paul because his message is making a difference TODAY in the hearts of tens of thousands. I’ve never seen more debates on the fraudulent Federal Reserve, or the IRS, or the various Wars. This is a good thing, and my money goes far.

If all 1,000,000 libertarians in this country would skip 4 cups of coffee a quarter, they could give the Paul campaign $20,000,000 per quarter. Most of us would see more than 100 times that returned to us just by chopping the IRS off the budget and let them work purely voluntarily or by donations. Let’s see it happen.

If you go to rallies, give a few bucks. If you love freedom, give a few bucks. If you’re afraid of what your kids will live through a generation from now, give a few bucks. If you’re sick and tired of the Baby Boomers who are kicking their bills to us, give a few bucks. If you’re a Baby Boomer afraid of watching your fixed income retirement disappear to inflation, give a few bucks.

$1 million is not a goal, it is just a nice number. $20 million is a goal, and it is a goal that we should seek for the fourth quarter. We’re giving the maximum this year ($4600), and if a million freedom lovers gave even $1000 a piece, you’re talking about a BILLION DOLLAR CAMPAIGN. Remember, $1000 today could mean $6000 back in 2009 when the agents of IRS are picking strawberries, putting stickers on babies at Wal*Mart, and wiping your car windshield looking for some extra cash.

Do it. Give a few bucks. Every week. Skip dinner this week. Skip coffee.

Comments: none

Date: September 26th, 2007, Filed under Anarcho-capitalism

We’ve all seen pictures of what the masses likely believe Iraq and Iran look like, take a look at a different perspective at the anarcho-capitalism site.

Comments: none

Date: September 26th, 2007, Filed under Gold Investment

Over at the new mises.com forums, I posted a reply to a topic titled The Myths surrounding the phenomenon of inflation…:

The problem in defining what causes inflation is that the two parties generally do not agree what the definition of inflation is.

Austrians, such as most of us, believe that the definition of inflation is “the increase in money supply,” therefore the cause of inflation is “increasing the money supply.” Non-Austrian Economists tend to believe that the definition of inflation is “the increase in prices in a market,” and is caused by an increased demand for a market, or a decreased supply of that market (services or product).

Read this entire article at the gold investment site.

Comments: none