Snowmen for Ron Paul - Operation Live Free or Die.

Today they built the biggest snow man you probably ever saw. When it was finished they stuck a Ron Paul sign in his hand. The Revolution is in South Hampton, New Hampshire. It's coming to your home town, too, if it is not already there.

Roxi Collinson was completely alienated from politics. She had never registered, never voted, and had decided that the entire system was corrupt. A good percentage of her generation agree with her. Registration among people in their 20s was low, as was political activism.

Roxi is in her late 20s. It was just nine months ago that she found a candidate who changed her mind. That candidate for president is Ron Paul, the 72 year old Obstetrician and Congressman from Texas has changed the minds of lots of Americans. Raised in a home by parents who she describes as life long, Republicans, Roxi had rejected their party and their ideas. Now, she is a Ron Paul Republican.

When Roxi discovered Ron Paul, in the shock waves of publicity that his appearance in the South Carolina Debate stirred, she began studying his ideas and his life on the Internet. She was impressed. Here was a man who had consistently held the same views for decades. His speeches on subjects of principle did not change. His personal life reflected the same values; he was still married to his wife of over 50 years and they have 18 grandchildren.

His values were about personal integrity and adherence to the principles laid out in the Constitution. Roxi had never studied the Constitution. Civics was not taught in her high school. Today her own copy is well used and discussions of the articles, routine in the House.

Over that period of weeks last summer Roxi had found someone for whom she could vote. Then, she realized that if she and others did not become his campaign she would never be able to vote for him. Others had realized the same thing.

The movement his candidacy has started has changed the way individuals, like Roxi, view politics, and how politics works.

Until what supporters of Ron Paul call The Revolution, started, politics in America ran rigidly, mostly within party likes of affiliation, divided by chasms of distrust over issues that marked the boundaries of Right and Left.

The Ron Paul Revolution is changing that, and everything else. Now, political action has begotten not just a movement but a movement that is changing far more than politics.

Roxi and her boy friend, Jay, had a garage sale, selling off a third of what they owned, to raise the money to go to New Hampshire. That, and some items sold on E-bay came to around $2,500.00. The others in their Meet Up group chipped in to help out. In New Hampshire they immediately began working, canvassing, phoning, and doing things that other campaigns have never imagined doing.

Conventional, hierarchal organizing cannot compete.

Traditional campaigns are run from the top down. This campaign is being run by people who do it themselves. The Official Campaign, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia in a small space over a Chinese Cleaning establishment has practically nothing to do with the campaign that the Paul Candidacy has wrought.

Most campaigns focus tremendous energy on fundraising. Traditionally, those campaigns have a hierarchy and the top level is occupied by the Finance Committee, the well-heeled individuals, many of them actually acting for corporations, who get their circles of business and personal acquaintances to donate large chunks of money.

In the Ron Paul Revolution the money comes in unsolicited or through the efforts of volunteers who, using innovative approaches persuade other activists to donate small amounts of money. The typical donation is around $100.

In that way the campaign raised nearly 20 million this last quarter, more than any other Republican candidate.

Some activists, like Vijay, give more. If you saw the Google Interview with Ron Paul, you know about Vijay. This is from the Operation Live Free of Die Website.

“My name is Vijay Boyapati and I'm an Engineer at Google. Some of you may remember me from the interview with Dr Paul at Google (skip to 42:31 in the interview - that's me). I'm the fellow that flew down from Seattle to hear Dr Paul talk and to write him a check. Seattle's local newspaper, The Stranger, wrote an article about my visit to Mountain View to see Dr Paul.

I'm organizing Operation Live Free or Die because I believe we have a chance, a real chance, of restoring our Republic to the principles on which it was founded. We have a chance to end the undeclared, unconstitutional, murderous War in Iraq and bring our troops home -- immediately. A chance of ending the government's theft of the fruits of our labor via the IRS. A chance to run our lives as we see fit without a bureaucrat in Washington telling us what we can and cannot do. For these reasons I want to do everything I can to restore freedom to our great country by electing Dr Ron Paul as President. I hope you will join me.”

Ron Paul volunteers may well have previously worked in Fortune 500 companies.

Most signs, literature, and other traditional adjuncts to campaigning are also directly provided by the activists, who design, share costs, and pay for printing.

The same activists, who have converted social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, and others to their use and also use the social spaces specifically provided by other volunteers, have found unexpected ways to use each of these tools.

What was mostly Internet is now flooding out into the mundane world.

Roxi is now living in a big old house in Hampton Beach with eleven other activists. According to Roxi there are no problems getting along with each other. They have a common focus, electing Ron President. The house was rented not by the Official Campaign but by Vijay as are 12 other houses around the state.

When a new activist arrives they are taken to the local gas station to discover that there is also a Ron Paul Network for buying. Activists and supporters are working on the problem of buying local by building their own network. Politics, and America are changing.

Roxi left her young daughter with her mother, quit her job, and put everything she still owns in storage to go to New Hampshire to work for Ron Paul full time. She has a mission, as do the others who are working with Operation Live Free or Die. Activists come from across the nation and around the world to work at their own expense.

Roxi says she is doing this for her daughter because, unless America returns to the Constitution, the future will be bleak for all children. Roxi and her fellow activists are this generation's Minute Men. Using the tools of edge technology they will take America back to the vision on which our nation was founded, community, responsibility, and individual rights.

Hear for yourself why ordinary people are joining the Revolution; ask yourself why you are not in New Hampshire with Roxi.

Roxi Collinson will be on Off the Grids, or the Spiritual Politician, this Friday at 4:55 pm Pacific Time. Read about Roxi's New Hampshire RonPauling on her blog, Tulsa to New Hampshire. Listen, call, and find out what is moving Americans, left and right to support the Doctor from Texas. Find us at BBSRadio.com.

The Battle of Milford, The Second American Revolution

I nearly deleted my invitation, my finger poised for a nanosecond over the key. I never go to events, I thought, why even open it.

Then my son called wistfully for lunch. My poised finger paused as I experienced a surge of Motherly Guilt. Arthur is 29 now, but he suffered two severe brain injuries when he was in his first year of college, the first a motorcycle accident the second a bullet through his brain in a failed suicide attempt. Sometimes we get miracles. Arthur is very patient, he learned to be during the long rehabilitation. He can walk now but he still needs help. I am his full time caretaker. I try not to make him wait.

Back upstairs in front of my computer I read my invitation to a very special Log Cabin Event. In case you did not know it, the Log Cabin Club is the Republican Club for Gay Persons. I am not gay myself. I joined as a matter of solidarity. Gay people are very marginalized in the Republican Party. That annoyed me so I joined.

I understood why the writer was so excited about being asked. This is like the crippled kid being asked to play on the baseball team. Then he finds out he gets to be second base. Gay persons are generally as welcome as pigs at the wedding for Republican Events. So why was their participation being solicited?

This is what my invitation said,

“Next week, the eyes of the nation will focus on the state of New Hampshire , as Granite State voters are the first to cast votes for the office of President of the United States . On Sunday, January 6th, the national media will follow the candidates for president as they attend the New Hampshire Republican Party’s “First in the Nation Presidential Primary Brunch”. Every Republican candidate for President has been invited to speak, so this event will be THE place to be just two days before the New Hampshire primary – AND YOU CAN BE THERE!

Log Cabin Republicans has signed on as a sponsor of this high profile event. The benefits of the sponsorship entitle Log Cabin to tickets to the brunch and a reception before the event. You are invited to join Log Cabin Republicans at the center of the political universe next weekend in New Hampshire .

Please click here to see how you can join us for this important event!
 
We realize the lead time is very limited. Moreover, the holiday
 season makes it even more difficult to sign up for some travel.
 That said, we are lucky that the event falls completely over the
weekend, and it's very feasible to fly into Boston on Saturday
 and then fly back home on Sunday afternoon. Log Cabin has arranged for everything once you arrive in Boston, including lodging, Saturday night dinner, transportation to New Hampshire and then a return trip back to Boston Logan Airport. All you need to do is get to Boston!

This is such a 
special and unique opportunity for Log Cabin. Please give it
 every consideration as you make your decision.

If you have any questions about the event, please email jsinovic@logcabin.org”

Now, this letter is interesting for several reasons. First, the Log Cabin Folks evidently think all the candidates were invited. They are wrong, as we all know. That is sort of ugly, don't you think? It is a direct lie. Maybe they would not care; maybe they really are that delighted be included, but maybe they would want to know that this will not be exactly what they have been told.

That happy burble of enthusiasm over being INCLUDED demonstrates what I said above.

Now, if Ron were to attend there would be standing room only. But Ron is speaking at the Liberty Forum at just that moment. That is in Nashua, around 11 miles down the road.

Did you know that Ron Paul Activists outnumber the opposition around 50 to 1 on the ground in New Hampshire? The activists did that with Operation Live Free or Die.

Roxie Collinson, one of the activists who quit her job to work full time as a volunteer, told me she will be going on to Nevada after this. She is not going to quit; she is a soldier for freedom and Ron Paul. Right now we are fighting the 2^nd American Revolution.

You see it every where you look.

The only candidate that elicits any enthusiasm is Ron Paul. Otherwise this election is one pathetic show of electoral enthusiasm. This is mirrored around the country at places where campaign signs are usually thick upon the poles this many days before the primaries. Those signs are curiously absent, all but those for Ron Paul. And very few of those signs are designed, printed, paid for, and placed by volunteers.

My friend, Donna Volatile, noted no signs on her drive to Santa Fe except those for Paul and two hopeful signs for Hillary. The area is very liberal. Donna was a liberal like I was once an Objectivist. Lots of us have changed things we thought worked because they don't.

Back to the Log Cabin Club.

Since I was curious about the Fox New Hampshire GOP event I linked over to the Log Cabin Website. There was a schedule and instructions. That included this.

“Please join Log Cabin Republicans at the

First in the Nation

Presidential Brunch

hosted by the State Republican Party of New Hampshire

Hampshire Mills --- Milford, New Hampshire

Sunday, January 6, 2008 11:00 a.m - 1:00 p.m.

Log Cabin Republicans has signed on as a sponsor of this high profile event. The benefits of the sponsorship entitle Log Cabin to tickets to the brunch and a reception before the event. You are invited to join Log Cabin Republicans at the center of the political universe next weekend in New Hampshire. Click here to sign up! Questions? jsinovic@lobcabin.org”

You can imagine the conversation at the GOP HQ, New Hampshire before the invitation was issued.

“What do you mean no one will come?”

“Well, Fartus, these Ron Paul people just, I mean, well, we can get the people at the Derry Retirement Home to come. If you pay for their tickets.”

But...they will get to meet the candidates for President!?”

“Yah, but they will come anyway if there is a free lunch.”

“Well, we have to get some bodies! Make it happen.”

And so Log Cabin gets its invite.

Ron Paul would tell them that it is an economic principle that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But he will not be there.

But that does not mean that his presence could not be felt.

While the Corporatized Candidates are sitting huddled with Chris Wallace in their smoke filled room at Hampshire Hills Sports & Fitness Club in Milford, probably playing Paper, Stone, Scissors to decide who will get to play president and vice-president and who will relegated to serving on a corporate board, we can change the rules on them. Not just an event but a call to America for Ron and Freedom all will hear.

We need to stop asking to be included so that we can show America how they have been enslaved and change directions.

To this moment the corporations have driven the dialogue;they have said, “out of our charity we will include you.” Now, we need to let them know that is over. Now we show them that it is not they who govern us but the people who govern themselves.

The Republican Party was a vehicle for upholding the Constitution. It could be so again, if we can pry their fear-ridden fingers from control. But it was never the political parties that mattered; those are just tools. What matters is our rights and the vision of a people who govern themselves from their own homes and communities. That is the revolution, what we have been doing without even realizing it.

That is what makes us Revolutionaries.

In Milford we will show them what it means to stand on a record that contains the whole, unvarnished, unedited, truth. Theirs are riddled with spin, they are flawed, ugly; they are funded by the greed that wishes always to consume others using the tools intended to secure freedom for all of us. Let that be seen.

We will show America what they really are. Then America can become the vision to the world it was meant to be.

Our questions will be answered. These are the questions that are never asked in their 'debates.'

Their actions will finally speak for them. That afternoon in Milford we can hold a Forum for Truth. We can broadcast it on line; America will listen.

Ron's presence and voice has already transformed the debate on many issues. But there is much more he needs to say. At the same time we must show Americans how they can regain control of their own communities.

In the next week we can produce the record on each of them. We can ask America to help, and they will. Let all secrets about the Corporate Candidates finally be known.

Their 'visions,' their dreams of power are our nightmares. America needs to make an informed choice next November. We will cut down through the meaningless rhetoric to the facts.

Our nation faces unimaginable challenges, problems never that have never before confronted any nation in history. Americans see this and all are worried.

Our country faces a complete economic meltdown; Banks are being subsidized at the rate of billions every day. Instead of bringing our troops home each corporate candidate has committed himself to continuing the failed policies of George Bush and those who preceded him. It has been a very long time since America had a non-corporate administration.

All of these disasters have profited the ugly alliance of government and corporations.

It is time for Americans to understand what those visions would mean to our families and to us. We can do that in Milford.

Will we have homes left to live in? Will we have food to eat? Jobs?

Will we watch those we love die, untreated because we can no longer afford medical care? Will we see on the television that our pension fund is gone, sucked dry through investments that were high risk when no such investments were to be permitted?

Will our children be able to get an education? Will we see them go off to college or off to endless wars that send them home in coffins or mangled and without hope?

I look at my son and wonder what the world holds for him every day. Arthur wants to go to Disneyland. I tell him we need to wait just a little longer. When you look at your own children you ask yourself the same questions.

Each of these candidates stands by a government that has canceled rights granted not by government but by God. Therefore they stand by a government that has made itself God.

Milford is a charming little town with lots of local shops, wonderful restaurants, charming old homes. There, we can give Americans a Forum for Truth.

Our event will give America the understanding needed to survive and take America back.

Come and sign the Declaration of Independence, it will be there with the causes that make our actions necessary. They need to know we mean it.