Cyclone,
While it is understandable for people to be wary of how they use thier money, especially in how it relates to campaign finance, through the Private Messages you've sent me it's clear that either:
1: You have almost no understanding of how the law works, but will make claims you do anyway, or......
2: You are just so against the Blimp, you're asking questions and making statements is not for the purpose of recieving answers to satisfy real concerns, but to fight against the Blimp project.
You don't understand the law, you cannot cite any laws that would make it illegal for individuals to sponsor the Blimp, yet you are unwilling to accept valid answers, and don't take the time to actually comprehend the answers given. I am not advocating people sponsoring the Blimp, but I am interested in Paul supports at least having as accurate infomation on it and being in a position to make an informed choice in the matter.
While I am not a lawyer, and I am not going to advise anybody on what they should do with thier money, or that I am qualified to give legal advice, I will state that in my opinion, if you have any questions about independent expenditures by individuals, a good place to start looking for answers is in my post #50 earlier in this thread:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=732085#post732085
This is not the whole post, but I'll quote a short excerpt below:
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer! This is not legal advice, as I am in no way qualified to give any legal advice. I've been told there's alot to it, and someone qualified to give legal advice should be consulted. In addition, this information does not refer to donations or contributions to an organization or candidate, only to independent expenditures.
That said, I found these on the FEC site:
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml#ie
Independent Expenditures
Independent expenditures provide yet another way to support Federal candidates. An independent expenditure is money spent for a communication that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified Federal candidate. It is "independent" only if the individual making the expenditure does not coordinate or consult in any way with the candidate or campaign (or agent of the candidate or campaign) benefiting from the communication. Independent expenditures are not considered contributions and are unlimited. You may spend any amount on each communication as long as the expenditure is truly independent.
You may, for example, pay for an advertisement in a newspaper or on the radio urging the public to vote for the candidate you want elected. Or you may produce and distribute posters or yard signs telling people not to vote for a candidate you oppose.
When making an independent expenditure, you must include a notice stating that you have paid for the communication and that it is not authorized by any candidate's committee. ("Paid for by John Doe and not authorized by any candidate's committee.") Additionally, once you spend more than $250 during a calendar year on independent expenditures with respect to a given election, you must file a report with the Federal Election Commission (either FEC Form 5 at
http://www.fec.gov/pdf/forms/fecfrm5.pdf , or a signed statement containing the same information).
Because this brief explanation does not cover all you need to know about independent expenditures, contact the Commission for more information.
Since before the Blimp project was first changed to a for profit company (which I thought was a smart move), people who had just joined this site and had very few posts started trying to raise doubts or even ouright attack the Blimp. To have doubts and concerns is valid. Everyone should be looking out to make sure they're doing the right thing with thier money and stay out of trouble. But in the time I spend reading here, I see alot of people vehemently trying to get people riled up about this or that, and instigate them to do things that would hurt the campaign. I cannot claim there aren't Paul supporters who go on to sites of other candidates supporters and stir up trouble, so I realize some of us here are guilty too. But we need to realize not every who comes on this board and tries to rally people to bomb some offender with emails or boycott some project has the best interest of the Paul campaign at heart.
Each of us needs to take a step back from the "mob mentality" of getting all riled up and joining a stampede. Take a breath, gather what the known facts are. Take your time to evaluate the information you have, and the methods used by the people who are providing the info. Is someone simply trying to inform or rally to action? Or are they trying to BS you, ignoring or attacking valid arguments and info that would make people see the situation more clearly?
I have no doubt this board has quite a few infiltrators. I'm not going to accuse any particular posters, and likely many who advocate positions that might undermine the campaign are simply mistaken or have fallen for the arguments of an infiltrator.
Again, I'm not advocating support of the Blimp. It very well may be true that there are valid reasons to not send your money to the Blimp people. But let's base our decisions on reason, not rumor and attacks. Unlike posters here who I have no idea what thier commitment or credentials are, I know Trevor Lyman is a Paul supporter who has proved his value to the Paul campaign, and he's recruited Brad Smith who used to be the Director of the FEC.
And yet we have posters trying to act like the Blimp people are trying to lure Paul supports into sponsoring the Blimp in violation of FEC regulations and get them thrown in jail? Yet can't cite any law or court case to back up thier claims? Agian, there may be problems with the Blimp, and it's correct to be cautious, but if someones going to critisize the project, at least give valid concerns and be willing to accept valid answers.
Happy New Blimp - er - Year, Kat! 
!
