No offense Tarzan, but I think that you may not be the most unbiased person to make a decision about it. I came in here after I saw your post expecting something just like what you said, because you guys are doing the Freedom's Ground thing.
I am not criticizing, just calling it like I see it..
Tarzan has helped out quite a bit with Freedom's Ground but no one (him included) is making money on it or anything along those lines.
If there are any sour grapes between FG and CFL it is because when I saw no strong future focus coming from the campaign I started work on Freedom's Ground (at the end of January). We incorporated Freedom's Ground in Pennsylvania as a 501 (c)(4) in March and had our first real fundraiser in April. I discussed Freedom's Ground in great detail with 2 individuals directly associated with the campaign and in a bit of detail with yet another campaign associate, primarily in March and April. I sent them links, had multiple hour-long phone conversations answering questions and providing details, etc... trying to work with them and help get something going for the future. After stating that they were unsure which direction they were going to take and then starting to move in other directions they suddenly appeared just a few days ago with the CFL and some of the most well articulated goals they are touting appear to be close, if not direct copies of ideas I discussed with them that they were not interested in pursuing.
Maybe these ideas came to them recently and they don't remember anything from my website, justin.tv or our phone conversations. Perhaps they forgot where the ideas came from and thought they thought them up...I don't know. It just doesn't feel quite right. People who have been backing my efforts are frustrated for me and I appreciate it.
Some of these may seem like a stretch but I think you can understand how I might be upset;
From CFL's site: "Encouraging the formation of discussion groups and book clubs at the local level to help people learn more about our ideas."
I discussed Freedom's Ground's "Local Charter Groups" in great detail and explained how members would read and discuss books to engage them in continuous education and would invite locals to attend so they can learn about our ideas and also to form strong local networks. These groups would also host educational events just for neophytes.
CFL:"Establishing a speakers bureau to give presentations around the country about the great principles we champion."
Now this idea is pretty obvious and they could have certainly come up with it on their own but still, they didn't have interest in it when I mentioned it months ago...I discussed Freedom's Ground's plan to have experts and leaders in our movement sign on with the organization and give presentations nationally of information scaled in such a way that even those new to the movement could understand.
CFL:"Gaining a foothold in political life at every level of government by expanding our precinct leader program."
I only discussed this with one of the individuals affiliated with the campaign in detail (but it did also appear in one of my justin.tv spots that are archived and has 100 recent views) but I explained how Freedom's Ground planned to use the precinct system to assign territories to our members so that they could get to know people in their communities and invite them to attend meetings, participate in educational events and to build rapport and strong community to help strengthen the movement.
CFL: "Developing materials for homeschooling families, to help them educate their children in history, sound economics, and related fields."
This just constitutes a side idea for Freedom's Ground but I discussed creating an educational program for children that would initially be marketed to homeschoolers but might eventually get into the public/private schools if we at FG were careful to be non-partisan and not bash individuals.
On our incorporation document states that Freedom's Ground was instituted as a 501(c)(4) for the purpose of "...advocating a Constitution based government directly to the American people and empowering the electorate through education."
I am a pretty nice gal and tend to think the best of people but this has been really rough for me.
Katharine
so give it time
plus it's up to us to make the gop realize their errors,if we want Ron Paul to be our republican nominee, we have more work to do ,so let's get to it, the fat lady doesn't sing until convention, IT'S FAR FROM OVER
