After careful analysis of the available data, we are convinced that separating our grassroots website from RonPaul.com would be counterproductive. There are literally hundreds of thousands of inbound links directed to specific articles, videos and blog posts at RonPaul.com that would all be misdirected if you put up a new website at the domain.
Also, we have many email addresses, social media accounts, t-shirt designs etc. linked to the domain (in particular the popular Facebook page “RonPaul.com”) that we would have to change or abandon. In short, such an abrupt change would lead to chaos on the Internet and - at least temporarily - disrupt the message of liberty.
To avoid these complications we’d like to offer you an alternative domain name, RonPaul.org, for your new website at no cost whatsoever. Please don’t use a monstrosity such as “RonPaulsHomePage.com” as is being speculated on the forums. RonPaul.org is an attractive, high quality alternative, and it won’t cost you anything. (Other than the annual renewal fee; all domains have to be renewed each year and that costs about $10 per year.)
If you do insist on obtaining RonPaul.com (it is the best Ron Paul related domain name), we could relocate our grassroots site elsewhere and sell you the domain name at its current market price of $250,000. That would include a copy of our 170,000 strong RonPaul.com email list; these supporters proactively signed up for our email updates, they expect and welcome frequent communications, and they are completely “untapped” in terms of donations. This means that you (and/or Campaign for Liberty) could easily make back the purchase price in a matter of days. Only you can put this list to its best possible use, which is why we’d include it as a free bonus with RonPaul.com.
It’s worth noting that Paul hadn’t registered the domains in 2008, which is why the fans who built the current site bought them instead. Considering that they would’ve arguably been more valuable when he was running for president, it’s strange that he wants them now. What’s crazier about this situation — that his supporters are trying to charge him $250,000 to ensure some T-shirts don’t have broken links or that Paul, who generally is anti-government-intervention, is trying to get the UN involved?
Glenn Beck announced plans Tuesday during his online television program to expand the news operation in his media company, The Blaze, and refocus it as a libertarian network, opening three foreign bureaus, debuting a nightly newsmagazine show, and relocating his New York staff to showy new offices.
This is an interesting move by Beck, and one which could prove smart based on this last line in McKay Coppins’ piece: “But Beck’s decision to orient the network’s programming around libertarian politics — or at least brand it that way — could be a play for younger, conservative viewers, who find the Republican Party, and the network that most closely aligns with its ideals, Fox, distasteful.”
We have a natural fit with Colorado. I embrace the notion of being a spoiler. The two-party system is outdated. Politics right now is very status quo. It’s really like a non-choice.Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson • Discussing the role he could play in Colorado, where the race is very tight and the state’s marijuana ballot initiative plays to his base’s strengths. He stands a chance to make an impact in the state than most for a few reasons: Libertarians tend to do better in western states, the party was founded in Colorado, and he’s perhaps the best-known candidate on the ballot who supports legalization — which is a hot topic in the state. Depending on how he does, he could take votes away from either Obama or Romney. Spoiler, indeed.
It wouldn’t be my speech. That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.Rep. Ron Paul • Explaining why, despite being given an opportunity to do so, he’s chosen to avoid speaking at the Republican National Convention. Paul would’ve been given the opportunity to speak as long as his words were a) vetted by Romney and b) in endorsement of the Republican nominee. No dice. Instead, Paul held an event of his own Sunday, bringing the true believers down to the University of South Florida to hear Paul’s final presidential campaign speech. This is likely Paul’s last big hurrah as an elected official — having just turned 77, he retires from Congress in January — but he leaves an army of supporters behind.
![thecallus:
theatlantic:
This Is the Obama-Aurora Billboard Everyone’s Talking About
[Image: The Hollywood Reporter]
Sanctioned v. unsanctioned violence.
“That’s a technique of trying to make a point, and maybe it was poorly done.” — Maurice Clements, the guy behind this billboard.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7z9bvVfcY1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
This Is the Obama-Aurora Billboard Everyone’s Talking About
[Image: The Hollywood Reporter]
Sanctioned v. unsanctioned violence.
“That’s a technique of trying to make a point, and maybe it was poorly done.” — Maurice Clements, the guy behind this billboard.
If they’re not willing to say that — that’s their prerogative — but clearly they’re not Mitt Romney delegates.A national Republican Party leader • Discussing an issue with Republican delegates in Massachusetts — sixteen Ron Paul backers who defeated Mitt Romney’s picks — who were disqualified after failing to file affidavits pledging their support to Romney. The delegates say the affidavits were a ploy, and they were received the forms less than a week before the set deadline. Republican leaders are reportedly concerned that the Paul-supporting delegates may cause trouble at the Tampa convention next month. Paul has officially stopped campaigning, but his supporters hope to make their presence known at the convention.
There was a guy cruising bars pretending to be me and picking up women about ten to fifteen years ago. When I heard about it once, I dismissed it. When I heard about more times, I became a little alarmed.Libertarian-leaning Fox Business Channel host John Stossel • Discussing the bizarre quandary he faced back in the late ’90s, when a guy pretending to be Stossel apparently used his similar look to the mustachioed former ABC host to pick up some ladies at bars. Stossel found out after at least three women mentioned it to him — and Stossel got in touch with the dude’s mom, though he doesn’t remember if he called or if an ABC News staffer did. He can laugh about it now, kinda, but really not cool, Stosselganger.
If the entire moon was made of heroin, it would still be unprofitable.SpaceX Employee Steve Davis • At the libertarian Atlas Summit, discussing the main problem his company, like all other rocket companies, faces — cosmically high transportation costs. SpaceX, run by Paypal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk, is attempting to create cost-effective rockets that can be used on more than one flight. The company is already the first private rocket company to ferry cargo the the International Space Station, and seeks to make mankind “multi-planetary.” The most important question: Can I pay for my rocket through Paypal, or will you force us to use Square, Elon? source (via • follow)
“Let’s sh*t on East Europeans: their English is bad, won’t respond & actually do what they’ve agreed to & reelect govts that are responsible.”—
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, going after Keynesian economist Paul Krugman on Twitter after the latter criticized Estonia’s use of austerity measures to produce a steady, though still incomplete, recovery from the recession.
Ilves sent out a series of very angry tweets in response to Krugman’s short article, and later shared a lengthy article he wrote in March explaining his support for thrifty policies in Estonia — and how well they have worked compared to the policies of many of Estonia’s European neighbors to the West and South.
The Estonian Finance Minister also followed up in a press conference, saying:
In reality, Krugman has to a great extent supported the system that created our poverty and which is now over — and which regulated and printed money according to their own interpretation of economic rules. In the US that is possible, but we cannot solve our poverty according to those recipes — by borrowing money and buying ourselves expensive things.
He’s right — except that it’s not really possible for us either.
This is one of the more entertaining arguments to happen on Twitter lately — and it will be interesting to see if Krugman has to eat his words on this one in a year.
Thoughtful Rant of the Day: The great libertarian Penn Jillette derides President Obama’s medical marijuana policies, his appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and his drug use — all without taking a breath.
(Not Safe For Work — explicit raving.)
[vvv]
For those of you who like well-spoken rants.
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Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.
Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.
This is not a total campaign suspension, because Paul’s actually had some success lately with the state convention strategy, stealing away some of Mitt Romney’s delegates in multiple states. And clearly he has to stay in the race at least until the Ron Paul video game comes out.
“The president recently weighed in on marriage and you know he said his views were evolving on marriage,” the Kentucky Republican said at Iowa’s Faith and Freedom Coalition meeting. “Call me cynical, but I wasn’t sure his views on marriage could get any gayer.
Call us cynical, but we aren’t sure this was the best thing for Rand to say.
In a follow-up to our post from this morning, we should point out that nearly all of Maine’s delegates are going to Ron Paul supporters. 21 of 24, to be exact. In other news, this guy has a really awesome jacket — and a pretty cool mustache to boot. (photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP)
» Should Mitt be worried? Clearly, Paul’s attempt at building a campaign is a bit unorthodox — he only has 80 delegates, but he could end up stealing some of Romney’s if he keeps it up — but even if he can’t win outright, he could damage Romney’s campaign. As The Hill puts it: “National Republicans worry that if grassroots party loyalists aren’t supporting the presumptive nominee, the party could struggle against President Obama’s fundraising and organizational efforts.”
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