I’m running for President because it’s time to take a stand.

For principle over power.

For conviction over compromise.

For responsibility over recklessness.

For the American people over all those who would defend the status quo while selling out our children and grandchildren’s futures.

Beginning at midnight tonight, my campaign’s grassroots supporters will hold another Money Bomb to help guarantee I can continue building a top-tier campaign and pull out all the stops to finish strong in the Iowa Straw Poll on August 13.

So I hope you will visit www.RonPaul2012.com this Tuesday, July 19, and give whatever you are able to at this crucial time.

I can’t express enough how much I appreciate your support in this rough economy. I know many who contribute to my campaign are sacrificing in other areas so they can help spread the message of freedom and take back their country.

And there has never been a better chance for us to win!

The Iowa Straw Poll is coming up fast, and all eyes will be on the results.

This is our opportunity to further illustrate that our R3VOLUTION is able to turn passion into on-the-ground success.

You and I have seen it in our continuing efforts to Audit the Fed, as we have brought more scrutiny on the Federal Reserve than ever before and forced it into releasing tremendous amounts of information it would have loved to keep sealed in a dusty backroom.

Believe me, the Fed knows that’s just the beginning of what we can accomplish.

And you and I have seen the power of our movement most dramatically with my son Rand’s victory in the Kentucky Senate race, where, despite the establishment’s best efforts, Rand crushed the opposition and has gone on to shake up Washington.

So I firmly believe there is no limit to what this battle-tested movement can achieve when it comes together around a common goal.

The Tuesday, July 19, Money Bomb isn’t about revolutionizing campaign fundraising.

We’ve already done that.

It’s about demonstrating the intensity of the support for restoring America now.

It’s about proving that the torch of liberty is burning bright in the hearts of patriots all across the country.

It’s about sending a message that we will no longer let the establishment decide who is worthy of support.

If you are able, I hope you will chip in whatever you can at www.RonPaul2012.com on Tuesday.

There are many more Americans who are ready to support me for President in this election. But it’s hard for them to see through the establishment’s tired story that I can’t win because I refuse to play by the statists’ rules.

A strong finish in the Iowa Straw Poll would go a long way toward finally doing away with this myth once and for all and convincing more Americans to join our efforts.

I’m proud of my record as a constitutional conservative, and I know that no other candidate for the Presidency has the credentials to match.

But if we are to win, we must get the word out far and wide.

Anything you can contribute at www.RonPaul2012.com on Tuesday will help me purchase tv and radio ad time, send mail, create more campaign materials, and fund my operations in several key states.

And, most importantly, it will help me in Iowa in these last few weeks before the August 13 Straw Poll.

If we work together, I am convinced we can WIN this race and take the White House in November 2012.

Thank you for all you do for freedom, and I hope you can help my campaign send another powerful message by contributing at www.RonPaul2012.com this Tuesday, July 19.

For Liberty,

Ron Paul

P.S. The August 13 Iowa Straw Poll is coming up fast, and my campaign’s grassroots supporters are holding another Money Bomb starting at midnight tonight to help me finish strong in the Straw Poll and continue my campaign’s momentum.

So please visit www.RonPaul2012.com this Tuesday. Any amount you can give will go toward growing this campaign and winning the Presidency in 2012.

This should be a fun one to watch.  Anyone think his supporters can pull enough support this time to get some real attention?

Let me say that again: A judge in New Orleans decided that the President can’t tell a company to stop drilling in our Economic Exclusion Zone (200 nm from our coast) even though the judge has no jurisdiction there either.

However, the President can order the execution of American citizens overseas at will. Overseas is anywhere beyond 12 nautical miles of the coast.

Easy fix: President should order the execution of all drillers who are operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Easy Peasy! They can legally drill all they want to but we can’t promise their survival when the Predators are flying.

Reverbnation has its own charts that artists can climb based on web traffic, song plays, widgets, and unique listeners.  These provide inputs for a ranking method that places artists on the chart as well as determines how much Reverbnation pays their artists.

Many artist on Reverbnation have joined together to “cross-promote” one another by forming their own online music labels.  This allows them to play each others songs, climb the charts and then gain more exposure.

The artist known as “Grout” is one such example.  Having joined 14 different online labels as well as started one himself, Grout has propelled himself to the top 150 pop artists in the world (on Reverbnation) and is currently #2 in San Diego, CA.  Not bad for a musician that has never released an album and has never done a  live show.

Will musicians like Grout ever be signed to a traditional label? Unlikely.  But with the growing number of artists that are bypassing the old business model and getting their music out there with the web, it is a new ball-game and the old corporate structures will have to change with the times.

Status quo for US-Israel relations has not changed for a long time.  US says, “let’s have peace in the Middle East”.  Israel say, “sure.”  US says, “stop expanding settlements and treating Palestinians like animals.  Israel say, “Bite me!”

Although this may be a  simplification of the issues, it does paint the picture of our relationship.  US has continually supported Israel both in rhetoric and financially since Israel’s inception.  This support has come at a great cost to US relations with the rest of the Middle East but it has been unwavering.

Health care reform has also been status quo for a very long time.  President Obama just shook that up.  He demonstrated his ability to change the status quo.  He flexed his political muscle and made change.

Whether you agree with the new bill, you have to recognize that President Obama has made a change in our country.

Israel now has to deal with a man who can change the status quo.  Israel has to worry that President Obama may turn on them and he has the political power to change policy. This is dangerous territory for Israel after years of not playing nice in the sand box.

“Taliban fighters have developed a deadly new generation of their most lethal weapon, the improvised explosive device, or IED, which is almost undetectable because it has no metal or electronic parts.”

and…

“Earlier in the war, IEDs would be mostly triggered by two hack-saw blades separated using a spacer. When the blades were stepped on or driven over they would complete an electronic circuit which so detonated the explosive – often an artillery shell…

…metal saw blades have now also been replaced with graphite blades and the artillery shells with ammonium nitrate. The damage is caused by the power of the blast rather than metal fragments, or shrapnel.”

In case you were not sure… this is bad.  Without metal or electronics, the only way to detect that type of bomb (before detonation… after is easy) is with dogs.

“One brigade commander posted to Afghanistan said that sniffer dogs were the most reliable way of detecting IEDs, but this method took a long time and required a lot of animals. Already convoys have to move at very
slow speeds while roads ahead are checked for explosives. “

All our modern military transportation technology has been reduced to the speed of a sniffing dog by a pile of wood and fertilizer?   Wow.

This is the pain that is  guerrilla warfare…  and a great illustration of how low-tech insurgencies can throw sand in the gears of high-tech conventional forces.  This kind of war is not what our forces are optimized to fight.  I am not suggesting we completely retool our military to be optimized against Taliban and the Wooden Bomb Brigade because that would leave use vulnerable to other modern military forces and that is not cool.  But I think we will have to acknowledge that this is going to be messy and no fun and if we are going to keep slogging it out with these guys then we are going to have some losses.  You can “out tech” a low technology but modern army (i.e. Iraq in 1991), but that doesn’t work if the enemy plays by different rules all together and goes for “no tech”.

One criticism… in the beginning of the article he called these IED’s a “new generation” weapon.  I have a problem with that.   Typically, when talking about new generations of weapons and styles of warfare, it refers to a technological advance that must be matched or surpassed to be defeated.  (cannons over catapults, guns over swords and bows, maneuver warfare over trench warfare, etc).  This is not a “new generation” weapon any more than insurgency/guerrilla tactics are a “new generation” of warfare.  Traps, tricks, underhanded terror tactics (assassination, bombs, etc) have been around for centuries.  These are not new.   They are just becoming more difficult to fight against because we hate to admit that they are still effective against all our expensive toys.

Really?  Should we really be calling the Christmas airline bomber an attempted use of Weapon of Mass Destruction? He burning his lap!  Seriously?

If we use that term to describe the attempted downing of an aircraft then isn’t every anti-ship cruise missile a WMD?  There can be hundreds to thousands of people on ships.  Or what about a 2000 lbs bomb that we drop all the time?  How about a grenade?  If he stabbed the pilots and brought the plane down would that be a WMD?  Will will have to have an international armistice treaty on box cutters!

I think a more honest term would “attempted mass murder.”  How about we save WMD for the big stuff like nukes and not water down our own language.

This is a very common scene. I even saw a man driving a scooter in traffic with a woman and two small children (one on each leg) sitting side saddle. But if you are thinking they are not concerned about safety… think again. Check out this safety warning on a Patong Beach street corner…

See? Thailand cares about safety.

Here is another example of good motoring sense…

The Inflatable Car

I am a huge fan of new ideas and inovative technology.  XP Vehicles is developing an inflatable car that is an absolutely phenomenal idea.  If you don’t want one for yourself then that is fine.  You can’t deny that a car made out of “airbags” (the same polymer materials used to cushion NASA’s rovers when they landed on Mars) is a pretty cool idea.  Especially when that car uses no gasoline and gets over 125 miles per battery charge. Not to mention the company’s claim that you can drive the car off a cliff without serious injury, and that it will float in a flood or tsunami.

But the Department of Energy says…

REJECTED!

 Here is an excerpt from an email I received from XP Vehicles:
“Detroit” wants XP Vehicles stopped!

The DOE reviewers, mostly from “Detroit”, have turned down XP’s loan application in favor of “Detroit” players. Are we a nation where innovation and great ideas win support or where great influence buyers win the support? If you want an XP Vehicle, call Congress now and ask for action!

In the next 48 hours you will see a Press Release sent out by XP Vehicles after we were contacted by the Department of Energy and informed that our application was being rejected. We have been told that most of the smaller, advanced technology electric car companies’ applications are being rejected in favor of Ford, Nissan and GM applicants. XP was told it was rejected because it did not use E85 gasoline and was not building millions of cars.

As stated in our Press Release, we have no problem with the federal government supporting our traditional automotive industry, we do have a problem with absolutely no support for smaller companies who have not made the mistakes of the Detroit Three and are just trying to get new technology on the roads today and available to consumers. Americans deserve the opportunity and right to make the right choices and start reducing our energy consumption and air pollution TODAY.

If America, and the world, wants a car that goes an almost unlimited range via hot-swap cartridges, costs less than $20,000.00, uses no gasoline, is easy to repair, easy to build, saves your life better than any other car, is faster than competing solutions, does not require an extension cord, uses electricity and creates green jobs; then we hope they will let Congress hear their voices.

XP Vehicles needs your help. If you want to support them you can send the below letter to your congressman:

DATE

The Honorable John Doe

U.S. House of Representatives/United States Senate

Washington, DC 20515/20510

Dear Representative/Senator Doe:

As your constituent and a firm supporter of our nation’s environment and energy independence, I was extremely disappointed in the recent announcement made by the U.S. Department of Energy to reject a comprehensive and thorough Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan application submitted by the California-based company XP Vehicles. Their innovative car technology has produced a vehicle capable of delivering about 125 miles per one battery pack charge and uses no gasoline. I cannot understand why the Energy Department is not willing to fund a car that goes an almost unlimited range via hot-swap cartridges, costs less than $20,000.00, uses no gasoline, is easy to repair, easy to build, saves your life better than any other car, is faster than competing solutions, does not require an extension cord, uses electricity and creates green jobs. I hope that you have the same questions and would be willing to phone or write Secretary Chu and ask him directly.

While I realize that some of these loan monies should go to established and traditional automotive companies, I find it unbelievable that the Department is not being more forward-thinking and allocating some of their investment in the future.Again, as your constituent, I am asking you to call or write Secretary Chu and ask him to reconsider the loan application submitted by XP Vehicles.

We need to invest in companies that are working on advanced technology to develop more fuel efficient, safer vehicles and will put Americans back to work in “greener” jobs. If you have any questions or would like a sample letter to send to Secretary Chu, feel free to contact XP Vehicles’ Washington Lobbyist Janet Kopenhaver at 703-528-7822 or via email at janetk@eyeonwashington.com. Thank you in advance for supporting advanced technology, less dependence on foreign oil and a cleaner environment.

Sincerely,YOUR NAME

Will this make a diference?  Probably not.  But at least you will have tried.