moooooneybomb now!!!

Jeremy

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Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
12,580
http://www.lawsonforcongress.com/donate/

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Thank you for your generous donation of $15.00!
Contribution received!

Thank you very much for your donation to the Lawson for Congress Campaign.

Your donation will allow us to expand and grow our campaign.

You will receive an email shortly with a confirmation number.

The project code you entered was: RONPAULFORUMS
 
A pretty large number of people have donated so far. That's good to see.

The activity will pick up during the day. Please, everyone: donate what you can. I would ask that you all please try to donate at least $100, if possible. At the very least, try to pitch in $25-$50.

I'm sending out an email to 150 large Ron Paul donors. I'll be posting a copy of the email here. You can tell me what you think.
 
I've already donated $50 within hour 1, and will donate another $50 around 12 noon.
 
We could be getting some high-roller company soon. Here's the message that I just sent out to the top-134 Ron Paul donors in North Carolina:

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Dear Fellow Ron Paul Supporter,

My name is Paige Michael-Shetley, and I am a rising senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as the Youth Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator for Lawson for Congress, the North Carolina 4th District Congressional Campaign of Ron Paul-endorsed B.J. Lawson. I also assist with policy writing and research, eCampaigning, and general campaign management tasks. I am a contributor to the blog on B.J.'s website. While there are certainly issues with a short-run nature such as Iraq, economic stress, and health care, I feel as though this election is primarily about the future. The most pressing issues- our financial status, foreign policy, environmental degradation, the erosion of our civil liberties- will have their greatest significance in shaping the society that I and the rest of my generation will inherit.

Indeed, this election is ultimately about the course we want to take toward the type of society we want to have going forward. Will we have a free and more prosperous society where government is restrained to the role of protecting liberty? Or will we have an authoritarian society with an economy crushed by decades of out-of-control debt accumulation and where the government controls our actions and violates our inalieable rights to life, liberty, and property that establish the very purpose of the founding of our country. I'm writing to you tonight- at a time when I could be out in downtown Chapel Hill partying and having a good time with friends- to instead discuss B.J.'s campaign and indeed this election from the perspective as a student and a young American. This will be a long email, as I have particularly bad habits of long-windedness and a lack of restraint when I am as fired up about something as I am about B.J. and his campaign. I ask you to please have patience and read through my testimony, as I believe that I as a young voter express a voice that should be heard more often by our leaders.

My interest in politics began at a very early age. My father- a small businessman- would frequently complain about taxes and Democrats, which I came to observe as synonymous and wicked terms. The Republican Party to me was the party of low taxes, balanced budgets, individual liberty, and limited government. To be a Republican to me meant, and still does mean, that one believes that self-reliance and hard work were the keys to achievement and prosperity, and seeing the success of my parents- both of whom came from rather humble backgrounds- by applying these principles confirmed these ideas to me. On the other hand, the Democrats were the Party of high taxes, big government, and control of people's lives. They believed not only that people were responsible for taking care of one-another, but that this idea was somehow at the root of progress for all of us. Whenever I would hear this, even as early as the 4th Grade, I would always ask myself, "So does that mean that I have to share my answers on tests with other kids in class so that they can have grades as high as mine? How is this fair? How does this make other students smarter or better off?" So I decided very early on that individual freedom and responsibility are concepts I really like.

As I went through high school and my interest in policy increased, I asked myself some pretty basic questions about both parties. How can Republicans be for limited government and individual liberty when they say that certain video games should be banned or censored, that drugs should be illegal, that deficits don't matter, and that gay people don't deserve equal legal and contractual rights to those of straight people? Also, how can Democrats talk about equality and opportunity for all if they oppose education vouchers, view the life of the unborn as less sacred than the life of a convicted murderer, and support corporate welfare? I came to the realization that political parties aren't holy institutions, not even my Republican Party; principles and policies were what really matters. But alas, I viewed the Republicans as closer to my views than Democrats, so I became active in the GOP as a teenager in volunteering for the Elizabeth Dole campaign in 2002 and- despite serious misgivings over the War in Iraq, violations of the Bill of Rights, and large defficit spending- for President Bush's re-election campaign in 2004, my freshman year in colllege.

However, it was not long after the 2004 election that I ultimately became disillusioned with politics. I had been studying economics in a serious manner for two years and had begun my Major in the field. I developed particular interest in fiscal policy, and I had been investigating the long-run fiscal condition of the country and its dire consequences. And yet, this topic came up not ONCE during the 2004 election. Republicans- who were supposed to support fiscal restraint- said nothing about the issue. Democrats obviously weren't going to address it, as the cure requires cutting spending on programs they created and that they use to buy support and win elections. And this topic was never brought up during the national debate on the War in Iraq or our foreign policy in general, both of which are extremely costly ventures.

The tipping point came when Congress got involved in the Major League Baseball steroids scandal. Every time I would see a story about the topic on the news, I would shake my head in disgust. Many angry thoughts would cross my mind. Why should the government be stepping into an issue that is the business of the MLB, its leadership, its teams, its players, and its fans? Why should the government be making laws that prohibit individuals from making decisions on what substances they should consume? If we're worried about the message that will be sent to children, then isn't it the responsibility of PARENTS and youth league coaches to discuss the topic of steroids? I found it especially ridiculous and hypocritical that socially liberal Democrats who continually argue against legislating subjective morality were effectively arguing that the government should do just that in this case. Oh, and with two wars, a broken and unjust tax code, massive deficits and long-term fiscal imabalances, WHY IN THE WORLD IS CONGRESS WASTING ITS TIME ON THIS?

After months of this charade, I just couldn't continue being a member of one of the two governing parties in Washington, especially not the Party that I had concluded no longer represented the principles I hold dear. I changed my party affiliation on my voter registration from Republican to Libertarian, a Party at that time which truly represented my views even if its chances at electoral success were perenially slim. However, just two months after this, the Libertarian Party was deregistered in North Carolina, and without my permission, the government changed my registration from Libertarian to Unaffiliated. I viewed this as a tremendous and very personal slap in my face by our political system in which I had enthusiastically participated, and with disgust at the fact that the most important issues of the day were not being discussed thoroughly and intelligently nor would be addressed in the near future, I dropped out of politics entirely and never though I would involve myself again.

Ron Paul's campaign from the very beginning has truly inspired me and, in many ways, changed the course of my life. Dr. Paul had been a hero of mine for years before the campaign. When he first announced, I thought to myself, "Let's see where this goes." Then came the first two debates, the famous duel with Rudy Giuliani over foreign policy, the internet buzz, the fundraising, and the snowballing of enthusiastic grassroots support. But what is most encouraging to me is the reception that the campaign got among young voters and college students such as myself. I didn't think that there were many people of my generation out there who shared my views, as I was typically the only one in my high school and college classes who did.

But then came last fall semester at Carolina, where I started a Students for Ron Paul chapter. It didn't take very long for the group to grow in membership to over 200. Our weekly meetings were better attended than the College Republicans meetings. Our club was able to mobilize 20 students to go to South Carolina over Christmas break to campaign for Ron Paul before the primary there. But this couldn't compare to the amazing effort that Students for Ron Paul turned out in Iowa, bringing 300 college students to the state to canvass and phone-bank the month before the election. Among college students and young voters more generally, the chocie clearly came down to either Barack Obama or Ron Paul this year. The Obama kids won this year, but our Revolution is just beginning.

In order for the Revolution to carry forward, we need quality candidates to carry it forward. And I am 100% convinced that there is no better candidate to spearhead Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty than B.J. Lawson. I knew from the very first time I met him that he would be a tremendous candidate for Congress and, even more importantly, that he is a terrific leader. The Triangle Ron Paul Meetup were very well organized and run professionally. He took a very business-like approach to every decision made. Anyone who meets B.J. will immediately discern that he passionate, energetic, motivated, hard-working, articulate, and intelligent.

But the quality that I appreciate most about him is that, like Ron Paul, he is truly an intellectual, which I as a student consider myself very much to be. We have had many deep and substantive conversations about issues ranging from monetary policy to fiscal policy to environmetal policy, and he is truly someone who is as interested in ideas as I am. He has a brilliant analytical mind, which is what clearly made him a natural fit as an engineer, neurosurgery resident, and entrepreneur. It is a quality that should and will give the voters of the 4th District the utmost faith in his judgment on the most difficult issues of the day. I also feel this is a quality that will serve him well in catching the Dr. Paul's lighting among young voters in a bottle, and it already has, as the active Students for Ron Paul members at Carolina jumped on board with B.J.'s campaign during the primary.

I never realized just how much potency this campaign had to attact youth support as I do now after having crafted and instituted our student internship program. We currently have more than 40 student interns either working for the campaign now or who will be joining us during the fall when they come back to the Triangle for school. These interns are taking a direct leadership role in the campaign in areas such as policy research, marketing, organization, fundraising, and communications. There are two things that particularly strike me as I've observed the interns in our meetings so far. The first is that, by far, the largest group of interns we have are policy interns, which tells me that young people are truly interested in the issues and not just in politics as a spectator sport. The second is the massive diversity of interns we have. They come from a diversity of ethnic, socioeconomic, and political backgrounds. Our group includes libertarians, conservative pro-Iraq War Republicans, and Democrats who have previously inerned for the Obama and John Edwards Presidential campaigns.

They're coming together for two very simple reasons: the terrific message of liberty, and the energetic and inspiring messenger who sticks by his principles and represents a change in the way that politics is conducted. This has trickled up to the construction of the staff, which includes political newbies like myself and Wake County Coordinator Andrea Walker, Republican veterans like Events Coordinator Linda Williams and Durham County Coordinator Ruthy Jones, and staunch Democrats like Field Director Ray McKinnon- who worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign during the Primary- and Orange County Coordinator Bonnie Houser. Heck, there's even a Scottish dude on the team in Political Director Marc Conaghan, who is COMPLETELY indecipherable.

B.J. has run a top notch campaign up to this point, and we have bulit a top notch organization from staff to students. We've already demonstrated our potency, defeating our primary opponent 71% to 29%. We're building a great support base among Republicans, independents, and Democrats who want change and are disaffected by their Party's weakness on issues such as the Iraq War, civil liberties, corporate welfare, fiscal responsibility, and the environment. We have built the foundation of what can take the Revolution to the next step. Imagine if we were to beat David Price, an 11-term Democratic incumbent, during what looks like is going to be a Democratic year in politics? Can you imagine the shockwaves this will send throughout our political system? It will be a major national media story. It will lead to a revolt against the current corrupt leadership of the Republican Party, and indeed of Washington as a whole. It will motivate and inspire thousands of candidates across the country to run for office on every level with the same principles and message, which will have proven to be a winner.

Unfortunately, in order to win, we are going to have to raise a lot of money, and very quickly. We absolutely must raise $500,000 over the next three months. Beginning at 12 AM this morning, a money bomb organized by grassroots supports began with the goal of raising $80,000. If we can raise this amount of money by midnight Monay night, we will ahve $100,000 on hand at the end of the 2nd Quarter. This would be a monumental result and a launching pad for the campaign. We will shock the local political pundits, media, and potential supporters and donors who may see this figure. Many are writing us off in this election because of the situation in which we're going up against an 11-term Democratic incumbent in a Democratic district. Some may call us in this campaign- from the student interns to the staffers to even B.J. himself- idealistic, perhaps even naive. But all great things occur as a consequence of a profound vision of possibility.

I ask you to please share in this vision of possibility- and to validate the hard work, dreams, and aspirations of the young people like myself who are giving so much to the campaign- by donating as much as you can to this campaign by midnight Monday night. If you have the capacity to make a $1,000 donation, or even to max out at $2,300, please do not hesitate to do so. We encourage that you participate in the money bomb today with other supporters from around the country and, indeed, from around the world who have pledged to donate on this day. As an investor in the campaign, you will be receiving weekly email updates from me, just as an investor in a private company would receive. We're asking for you to incur a financial cost now, but Liberty is PRICEless, and we pledge to give you a quality return on your investment with the election of yet another "Dr. No" to Congress. With your help, we can take the Ron Paul Revolution to the next level.

For Liberty,

Paige Michael-Shetley
Youth Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator,
Lawson for Congress
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 919-740-2675
 
Thank you for your generous donation of $50.00!
Contribution received!

Thank you very much for your donation to the Lawson for Congress Campaign.

Your donation will allow us to expand and grow our campaign.

You will receive an email shortly with a confirmation number.

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