Ron Paul Wins Conservative Leadership Straw Poll

The Conservative Leadership Conference was this week - an event that came and past without me noticing. A lot of the political last week coverage seemed to revolve around the S-CHIP and Michelle Malkin, and that white noise drowned out a lot of what would be interesting news.

Like what kind of news? Ron Paul won a straw poll at a conservative conference that it appears Mitt Romney spoke at. The list of speakers at this event reads like a who's who of the Libertarian and conservative caucuses, so it's not surprising that according to PoliticalDerby Ron Paul won with a commanding 32.8% of those voting.

Speakers at the event included: Mitt Romney, Grover Norquist, Bill Redpath, Scott Cleland, Bob Barr, and Dick Armey.

See this spreadsheet for full breakdown.

/rizzn

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Guy McClendon on Ron Paul and the LP Dilemma

Guy McClendon from the Texas State Libertarian Committee had some interesting points on the dilemma American Libertarians face due to Ron Paul's presidential run:

The LP’s big problem is that our LP Nat’l Convention is in May 2008, and the Republican Convention is in ~Sept 2008. However on the plus side, there will have been enough primaries by then to give a great idea as to where he stands by May.

The agony is that LP members need to decide much earlier than May 2008 whether to affiliate with the LP [our obvious preference], or vote for Dr. Paul in the Republican primary. For LP folks who tend to support Ron, their inclination is to do the latter. However, that’s a bad decision for several reasons. An additional 500 votes in the USA is most probably not going to impact the Republican primaries.

It’s always great to have a Plan B. If all the constitutionalists in the LP vote in the Republican primary, there will be nothing but purists in the LP convention. The purists would very likely not vote for Dr. Paul simply because his immigration position is not 100% open borders. Duh … Instead, they would probably vote for some non-credible candidate like George Phillies, or maybe someone having a criminal record. If 500 constitutionalists instead go to the LP national convention, Dr. Paul would be assured to gain the LP nomination … and, would thereby be guaranteed a slot on the general election ballot … in all 50 states.

So far as his chance to win the Republican nomination, it would be political suicide for Dr. Paul to even think about running on a ticket beside the RP ticket. So, I certainly am not going to even ask. Of course, if the neocons flood the Republican primaries and nominate a good communist like McCain, our LP ticket could start looking good to Dr. Paul in May 2008. Do you recall how Joe Lieberman flopped from Democrat to Independent during the 2006 election … AFTER having lost the Democratic primary?

Guy

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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP57

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 57 - download now - subscribe now - review us on iTunes!

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Hey. As I mentioned on the blog earlier this week, we're the number three rated podcast on TalkShoe.com right now. Read more about it here. Our new found celebrity status is getting people to write us. Email us with that link to get your letter read on the show!

We had a heck of a time with the show today. TalkShoe burped on us, and we lost the first iteration of the show. The second attempt was much better.

It was a day of light technical stories today, but some very important political stories. In our ongoing coverage of the 'Vonage Crap' saga, a unique little fold emerges:

Court Says Vonage Needs To Throw Away Money Into Wasteful USF Program
The Universal Service Fund (USF) is a well-known joke. It's a hugely wasteful program with almost no oversight. Yet, last year, the FCC decided that VoIP companies needed to pay a huge chunk of their revenue to the USF, despite the fact that doing so would actually slow progress on getting universal service. That's because the money would go from these new, cheaper services into the bank accounts of the big incumbents who would then promise to provide universal service... without much actually happening. Vonage stood up to this decision and sued, claiming the FCC had no say in the matter, but a court has ruled against Vonage, saying that the FCC didn't overstep its bounds. With Verizon breathing down Vonage's neck over patents, the real irony may be that Vonage will now have to hand over money into the USF, that will go right over to Verizon and not into extending service to underserved areas.

And in news that everyone else but me thinks is important:

The Algorithm Is A Disappointment
There's a lot of discussion today about the newly revamped Ask.com, which remains in the unenviable #4 spot in terms of search market share. Basically, the site seems to have sharpened up its interface a little bit, while incorporating things like news and images into its results page. Additionally, the site offers suggested refinement searches, so if you search for "Sopranos", it'll show you a link where you can get results for "Sopranos Merchandise". All of this is fairly inoffensive, but it's really hard to see how this is going to move the dial at all. Despite the company's insistence that it has developed "A Truly New Way to Search", the whole thing looks like a spin on Google's recently announced universal search strategy, which involves incorporating more types of media into its results. The look and feel is a tad different, but so what? Even if the new Ask.com returns "better" results than Google in some instances, there's nothing here that will actually get people to switch. Right now, the company is making a big effort to explain why the new changes are cool, but most people giving the site a try won't have the benefit of someone explaining to them why the site is now so great. As such, they probably won't see it themselves.

Turning to political news, power balances out and changes hands:

Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas Dies at 74
WASHINGTON (AP) - Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.

The senator's family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

Just before the 2006 election, Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia and had to cancel his last campaign stops. He nonetheless won with 70 percent of the vote, monitoring the election from his hospital bed.

Two days after the election, Thomas announced that he had just been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican party.

In big big news, the corruption charges finally come down on Jefferson:

U.S. congressman indicted in bribery case

Rep. William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, was indicted Monday on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering in a long-running bribery investigation into business deals he tried to broker in Africa.

The indictment handed up in federal court in Alexandria., Virginia, Monday is 94 pages long and lists 16 alleged violations of federal law that could keep Jefferson in prison for up to 235 years, according to a Justice Department official who has seen the document.

Among the charges listed in the indictment, said the official, are racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.(Read the indictment [PDF])

Jefferson is accused of soliciting bribes for himself and his family, and also for bribing a Nigerian official.

Almost two years ago, in August 2005, investigators raided Jefferson's home in Louisiana and found $90,000 in cash stuffed into a box in his freezer

And another Republican throws his hat into the ring:

Gingrich Rips 'Dysfunctional' Administration
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said Sunday that President George W. Bush is leading an administration that "is not functioning.

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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP53

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 53 - download link coming soon: check the feed for details: subscribe now

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A bunch of new startup acquisition news. We talk a bit about the acquisitions specifically, and then a bit in general about the prevalence in the news lately of all the startups getting bought:

Look For Confirmation of eBay/StumbleUpon Today
I’m hearing that the eBay/StumbleUpon acquisition will be officially announced sometime today. Keep an eye our for the press release. We originally broke this rumor in April when a term sheet was reportedly signed. The Wall Street Journal picked up the story earlier this month.

I don’t know if the price will be disclosed, or if the rumors of $75 million are roughly correct.

An Old Media company actually gets it right with a new media acquisition:

CBS Acquires Europe’s Last.fm for $280 million
The quickly growing music social network Last.fm has been acquired by CBS for $280 million in an all-cash deal.

UK based Last.fm launched five years ago and has become a social networking favorite with 15 million active users. It has become a massive repository for music information (artist and song wikis, listening data from users, etc.). In the U.S., companies like Pandora, MOG and iLike all compete with some of Last.fm’s features, although none of those startups has built the basic social network/community of last.fm.

The deal sees Last.fm’s management team staying in place and the site maintaining a separate identity.

Last.fm has been an attractive takeover target for some time. CBS as a buyer though is surprising and is a sure sign that the media giant is getting serious about Web 2.0. CBS acquired video blog WallStrip for $5 million earlier this month, and has been on a bit of a buying spree lately after filling out the management team on the interactive side of the business last year.

Previous TechCrunch coverage here.

This certainly explains why Last.fm was a little slow to jump on the Facebook Applications bandwagon last week - they were understandably distracted.

An interesting perspective on the same story:

Don't Look Now, But Old Media May Be Figuring This New Media Thing Out
It's not much, but there are a few signs that some "old media" companies are starting to figure out what makes new media tick. This morning's announcement that CBS is buying last.fm for $280 million isn't all that interesting on its own -- but it's one of a pattern of recent deals by so-called "old media" companies that have them looking to build or buy into communities, rather than just content. The mistake that many media companies have made over the last few years is the belief that the content was king -- and as long as they had the content, the community would form naturally. What people are noticing is that the community is important and it's hard work to build one. Of course, recognizing that is only the first step. The real question is what these companies will do to cultivate these communities. In most cases (MySpace being the one exception so far), these types of purchases tend to wither and die once they become part of a larger company (and the entrepreneurial souls of the community move on).

And other startup news:

Google buys anti-malware browser virtualization startup (Ryan Naraine/Zero Day)
Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software.

And in political news, both Art and I are surprised we didn't hear about this earlier:

Cyber-Spies Tracking Terror on Web
Dana Rosenblatt writes on CNN.com:

There is an unconventional war being waged on the Internet. The battles here know no boundaries; and are fought from homes and offices from small Midwestern towns to Europe and the Middle East.

For the fighters in these battles weapons usually consist of no more than collected intelligence and computer programming skills.

It's no secret anymore that active terrorist cells are currently operating freely and openly on the Internet, using propaganda tactics to illicit prospective recruits.

The emergence of these terrorist groups has spawned their nemesis: groups of researchers, hackers, and maverick computer geeks who cyber-stalk terrorist networks online and take them down.

More here.

Resembling a modern-day Clark Kent, Weisburd is a boyish 40-something former computer programmer who decided to use his background and skills to track terrorists following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

He's proved himself a force to be reckoned with, fighting -- and winning -- a war waged against the "dark side" of the Internet.

Weisburd's reputation has earned him the nickname "the vigilante" in cyber space, a legacy he's eager to shrug off.

"If I was a vigilante running a Web site, I would hurt you," says Weisburd.

"If I find that you're running a Web site for al Qaeda, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll report you to people that will ask you to come quietly, and if you don't go quietly, they may hurt you," he says.

Art jumps for joy:

Fred Thompson to Form Presidential Committee

"Law and Order" star Fred Thompson — will make his flirtation with a White — House bid official this week, forming — a presidential committee and launching — a fundraising effort

His advisers say they do not expect to match the amount of money the others are raising, but profess to be unconcerned.

"He doesn't need as much money as the others have raised," said one supporter, noting that his Hollywood fame has already given him a boost in the polls. "He hasn't raised nor has he spent a single dime so far. People should not expect that he will outraise anyone."

We find a Democrat we like:

Lieberman in Iraq sees "progress,"
What a coincidence. Two years after Cheney said the insurgency was in its last throes, Joe Lieberman made essentially the same prediction.

CNN reports that Lieberman is on an unannounced "surprise" visit to Baghdad. Paula Hancocks followed Lieberman around. She talked to Lieberman and reported, "He said he was happy with the progress. He was devastated by the fact that May was turning in to the deadliest month since November 2004. But he said he did believe that this surge eventually would pay off and it would start to break the insurgency."

And in people turning on the Democrats news:

Cindy Sheehan Quits as 'Face' of Anti-War Movement
Cindy Sheehan, the "peace mom" who made headlines in 2005 by staging a marathon protest outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, said Monday that she no longer wants to be seen as a leader of the anti-war movement.

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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP49

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 49 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
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Succumbing to the pressures of the media around us, Art and I spend the first half of the show talking about presidential politics and campaigning, and whether or not Ron Paul has a real shot at winning this thing. Mark says 'maybe' and Art says definitely not. Noteable Futurama quote from the conversation:

On the TV, candidate Jack Johnson is debating candidate John Jackson

Johnson: It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm
against those things that everybody hates!
Jackson: Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But,
quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said!
Fry: These are the candidates? They sound like clones.
[Squints] Wait a minute. They are clones!
Leela: Don't let their identical DNA fool you. They differ on some
key issues.
Johnson: I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far!
Jackson: And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far
enough!

Turning to actual news, Art and I comment on what can be a real positive move for the monetization of New Media video efforts:

Adsense For Video, Google Still Lagging

Google has announced a closed beta test of Adsense for Video.

According to the post on Inside Adsense, Adsense for Video consists of “in-stream” advertisements. Publishers define at what point the advertisements will appear for each video.

It’s a change in the right direction for Google. The previously announced advertising trials for YouTube consisted entirely of text advertising overlays that lead to video-on-video click to play advertisements; a form of advertising that can easily be ignored by the viewer. Whilst many may find in-video style advertising annoying, it at least comes with a guarantee that viewers are going to see the advertisement.

Adsense for Video, as it is currently explained lacks contextual delivery. Allowing publishers to select where a video is played may empower content creators, but it does nothing in terms of automatically optimizing advertising for the viewer.

Google appears to be lagging in this market; the technology to contextually serve advertising within video is already available, ScanScout providing such a service. Given the massive market share Google holds in the online video hosting marketplace through YouTube, it would normally be expected that Google would be leading development in this field. For reasons unknown, they are not doing so.

Looking for an alternative for Alexa? Your ship may have come in... Art and Mark both give positive reviews of Compete:

Compete API Open For Business

Web analytics startup Compete.com opened its API for public use today. Websites and applications can now access Compete’s data and incorporate it into their own products.

This is timely for the company, which competes directly with Amazon’s Alexa. Recenty, Statsaholic has been in a very public dispute with Alexa over use of its data, with both sides looking bad. That dispute recently went to litigation. As some services shy away from Alexa, either due to public perception or inflexibility over the Alexa APIs, Compete could grab additional market share.

In related SEOish news, Technorati's new changes to their search engine are not well recieved around the net:

Technorati's Authority
Technorati made some changes this month to show it's more than a blog search engine. "Technorati continues to grow well beyond its roots at the leading blog search engine; increasingly, we are the main aggregation point for all forms of social media on the Web, including blogs, of course, but also video, photos, audio such as podcasts and much more", noted David Sifry last month.

The site also introduced a score for each blog that measures the "authority". The pretentious name has one purpose: to cover the real meaning of the number. "Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has," explains Technorati's blog. So each blog that links to me (no matter if it's a spam blog or Slashdot) increases my authority with 1. Imagine what would happen if Google's PageRank was proportional to the number of links to a page in the last 6 months: the top search result for most of the queries should be a page from yahoo.com or google.com, sites that would have the PageRank 100,000. It would be easy to increase your PageRank: just create a new site that links to you; it's as important as a link from New York Times. But fortunately, Google found a better way to rank web pages:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important." Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages' relative importance.

Buzz Out Loud will probably be talking about this later today:

Senator Warns of Email Tax This Fall
cnet-declan writes "State and local governments in Washington this week began an all-out lobbying push for the power to tax the Internet, according to our article at News.com. A new Senate bill would usher in Internet sales taxes, and the Federation of Tax Administrators (representing state tax collectors) advised senators at a hearing on Wednesday not to renew a temporary moratorium limiting broadband taxes that expires in November. One irked Republican senator warned that unless the moratorium is renewed, we could start seeing email taxes by the end of the year. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey blames it on the Democrats taking over, as do Yahoo and eBay lobbyists. Is this a non-hoax version of bill 602P?"

Mark talks of his experiences with red-light cameras, and applaud's Texas's move to ban them:

Texas Looking To Ban Speed Cameras?
There are all sorts of problems with things like speed cameras and red light cameras, starting with technical problems and moving on to the more serious questions about whether or not they make the roads any safer. Since they're usually offered in combination with private companies who receive a large percentage of the fines, it's often pointed out that these cameras are more about making private companies and government coffers money, rather than any real attempt at increasing safety. Still, they've only become more and more popular recently, with a new speed camera catching over a thousand speeders in a single day. However, it looks like Texas may actually be heading in the other direction. Jeff Nolan points us to the news that Texas lawmakers have approved a ban on speed cameras. The law also requires signs warning about red light cameras -- though, it's unclear if that will help, since studies have shown red light cameras often increase accidents, as drivers are more likely to slam on their brakes.

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Another Ron Paul Petition

I got this in the mail today:

Dear fellow patriots,

Please SIGN and then include the following news release in your
future email distributions and on other message boards if you can
see your way clear to doing so:

Ron Paul Supporters Take Action Against Major Media Bias

Dr. Ron Paul has done far better than anyone could have expected in
the early going for the Republican nomination for President of the
United States. After the first Republican debates sponsored by
MSNBC on May 3rd in San Diego, Dr. Paul was the clear winner in all
of the various poll questions conducted by MSNBC on their own
website. Then, on May 15th, he was a very close second (some claim
he finished 2nd and not 1st because of hijinx) in the debates in
South Carolina.

In the first instance, Dr. Paul was "rewarded" by MSNBC by dropping
from 9th to 12th (dead last) shortly thereafter in their rankings of
the Republicans most likely to win the nomination. There was also
not a single mention on their network that Dr. Paul had been the
consensus and clearcut winner in all of their own polling data.

In the post-debate show conducted by Fox News after their debate on
May 15th, the treatment of Dr. Paul was blatantly negative. One of
the invited guests on the show actually said that "Dr. Paul is
finished," moments before the results of the Fox News call-in
polling flashed on the screen showing that Dr. Paul had won their
debate. Sean Hannity was also blatantly rude to Dr. Paul after the
debates.

These are merely examples. The mainstream media's treatment of Dr.
Paul has been routinely negative and/or purposely inaccurate. The
campaign supporters have begun a petition demanding fair and equal
treatment in the MSM. You can view and sign the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/487443841

This petition calls for Congressional hearings in the event that
this type of blatant distortion of Dr. Paul, his message, and his
campaign prospects continues within the MSM, on the grounds that it
is an aggregious attack on the entire democratic process.

Thanks!

God bless.

For the Republic,
Steve Martin

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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP46

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 46 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
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We're focusing on immigration today, and the immigration bill being debated in the Senate right now for two reasons... we've neglected the news last week, and two, Art isn't here to provide is violent protest of immigration to America.

This comes from the Patriot Post:

“This administration has a case of the slows on border enforcement. If we have border enforcement, we will be able at that point to start to regulate the internal problem that we’ve got. Because as long as you’ve got a revolving door and you have no border—and this 2,000-mile porous border, incidentally, is our biggest homeland security problem; it’s not just an immigration problem, it’s a homeland security problem—we need to build the border fence. We need to have a Border Patrol which is big enough to get the job done, and we need to be able to ask people when they want to come into America, knock on the front door, because the back door is going to be closed.” —Rep. Duncan Hunter

I spoke at length on my ruminations on border security, immigration, and Ron Paul. I read this quote from the most recent edition of the Patriot Post, a reader's question and the Post's reply:

“It appears The Patriot is following the Leftmedia’s lead and ignoring Ron Paul. He did not even get a mention in Alexander’s essay, ‘The GOP—a party in distress’, last Friday. Why?” —Chesapeake, Virginia

Editor’s Reply: First, you know we always follow the “Leftmedia lead”! Second, we publish Ron Paul’s excellent arguments about domestic policy issues, but we do NOT support Paul as a presidential candidate because his isolationist foreign policy and national security positions are disastrously, appallingly and potentially, catastrophically wrong. Two of the president’s most important constitutional responsibilities pertain to foreign policy and national security, and Paul’s Libertarian views earn him an F- in those departments.

The bottom line is this: Why does Ron Paul get a bum wrap when he's the only candidate with a sure-fire plan to toughen border security and solve our woes in foreign entanglements? No other candidate on either side of the aisle has proposed a legitimate response to that question.

Furthermore, why does Ron Paul rank at the bottom of polls done by newspapers and certain Old Media organisations, when even now in New Media and even certain Old Media polls (like FOX and MSNBC), he's leading the pack? Is it conspiracy, bias, or his rabid base? You're responses are welcome here - guesswho@rizzn.com. They'll be read on the show this week.

Turning to other political news, we revisit the Florida Primary Voting story:

Florida shakes up early presidential voting
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. --Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida's 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 29 and shaking up the race by bypassing a dozen other states set for Feb. 5.

The move puts Florida's primary, which had been scheduled for March, behind only the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and on the same day as South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Florida has by far the largest population of any of the early voting states set for January and is the most expensive in which to campaign, giving well-funded candidates an even greater advantage and possibly drawing attention away from the smaller states.

"This is going to require the serious candidates to spend very, very large amounts of money and time in Florida," said Merle Black, a politics professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "If you can't compete in Florida, that's going to be a sign that you're not a serious contender."

Crist, a Republican, and other state GOP leaders have argued Florida's diversity and size merit more influence in deciding the nation's leadership. The delegate-rich state decided the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Florida's early election could also have implications in the Feb. 5 primaries scheduled in a dozen other states, including New York and California.

A win in Florida is a big prize because the state is seen as a microcosm of the nation with its diverse population, so it shows how a candidate might do in other states, Black said.

Remember... that's the same state who's Democrats aren't going to regard the votes of the party members, but simply decide on their own who should be the state's Democratic candidate. Does anyone but me see the irony of who the Democratic Presidential candidate is going to be largely decided by non-democratic methods?

In other political news, just a bit more about immigration:

Bush's backing of bipartisan immigration deal splits GOP

The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — President Bush's embrace of this week's Senate bipartisan immigration deal has split the Republican Party.

Capitol Hill operators were besieged with calls from interest groups Friday, and immigration clearly was Topic A on conservative talk-radio shows. Other key figures, including analysts at the Heritage Foundation and National Review columnists, derided the agreement as a sellout of conservative principles, while most GOP presidential candidates criticized the plan as a form of amnesty — a characterization rejected by the White House.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who last year said similar efforts for a comprehensive immigration bill were "reasonable," called the deal reached this week the "wrong approach" to the problem. "Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new 'Z-Visa' does, is a form of amnesty," he said.

Turning to Tech News, let's be talkin' bout Bebo!:

Is Bebo Worth $1 billion?

See our earlier post on possible acquisition talks between Yahoo and Bebo for $1 billion or so. The original report for the story comes from the UK’s Telegraph, based on a very weak source - “silicon valley gossip.” Still, we though it was worth a look at the most recent data to see if Bebo really could pull off a $1 billion or more sale.

We’ve pulled worldwide Comscore stats for MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. The most recent data (March) shows MySpace with 107 million unique monthly visitors. Facebook had 32 million and Bebo had 13.7 million. Bebo users tend to spend a lot of time on the site - on average they view just over 20 pages per day each, about equal to Facebook and a bit more than MySpace..

According to Comscore, Bebo today is about as big as Facebook was in May 06. Based on fairly aggresive growth estimates, Yahoo valued Facebook for as much as $1.6 billion at that time or a little later. If Bebo sold for $1 billion today, the buyer would be paying around $73/unique visitor, which is certainly in the range of acceptable.

Both Facebook and MySpace are growing faster than Bebo is today. But neither of those properties are available to Yahoo, so perhaps they are dipping down a little deeper into the social networking well.

In other social networking news, I take this opportunity to narrowcast a bit to those in my audience who I know are closely involved in social networking projects. Bottom line: be the platform.

Facebook Going Platform
It's no secret that Facebook has big ambitions and has supposedly turned down huge buyout offers. However, at the same time, there's been a lot of talk about how, despite tons of page views, advertisers weren't entirely thrilled with the returns they got from advertising in Facebook. Still, the site is unquestionably popular, and in many ways more palatable than MySpace, which has built up a tremendously negative reputation in the eyes of many. Over the past year, Facebook has also been aggressive in rolling out a variety of new features to make it start looking like much more than "yet another social network," and the latest is that the company is going to start positioning itself much more as a platform for others to build on. It's already made some effort to allow others to build on its platform via APIs, but this sounds like they're going even further in that direction. There's certainly no guarantee that this will actually catch on, but we've long believed that the strategy to really "own" the next generation of internet users has to be based on being the platform on which apps are built. This is something Google should have done three years ago, but they continue to fall down on the job and certainly have opened up a huge opportunity for others to do it instead. Seeing Facebook as the latest such entrant isn't necessarily a huge surprise, but it again shows that Google's inability to focus on the platform side of things has opened the door for many others.

In obligatory Google news:

Google Cracks Down on Made for AdSense Sites
JenSense reports that a lot of AdSense users who built sites with almost no original content, but full of AdSense ads, had their accounts removed.

Numerous AdSense publishers have been receiving emails from Google the past couple of days stating that their use of their AdSense account is an unsuitable business model and that accounts would be disabled as of June 1st, giving publishers about two weeks notice to prepare for the loss of the AdSense accounts... and since it seems that arbitrage publishers are the ones receiving this account disabled email, to give those publisher enough time to shut down accounts or use an alternative source for their outgoing traffic.

These users usually bought cheap keywords from AdWords and sent the visitors to their sites that also displayed ads, but for more expensive keywords. The sites didn't contain almost anything valuable, most of the time they scraped content from other sites, but they made a lot of money by tricking users.

Related links to this story: viralinstigator.com (not reccomended as a service).

And in the rumor mill this week Feedburner + Google = Feedboogle? GooBurner? heh...:

Should Google Buy FeedBurner?
When I first heard about FeedBurner I wondered what's so great about "burning your feed". Well, you get stats for your feed, you can customize your feed, add dynamic content at the bottom of each feed entry and transform that weird XML file into a nice HTML page that lets people subscribe to the feed.

FeedBurner transformed from a site that offered a way to make your feeds more humane, to the one-stop-shop for bloggers. They now offer stats for your blog, email subscriptions for feeds, ads for feeds and blogs. FeedBurner has dedicated services for companies, so there's no wonder that AOL, Wall Street Journal, Reuters are among their clients. But even if FeedBurner grew so much over the years, they keep adding new features, the customer support is excellent even for non-paying users.

There's a rumor that says Google intends to buy FeedBurner and this seems a very good idea. Not just because FeedBurner is the Google of feeds and has a great team. What could FeedBurner do for Google?

* make Blogger's feeds smarter out of the box

* FeedBurner's services could become totally free (currently you have to pay for more advanced stats)

* offer a lot of interesting information to mine

* integrate the stats for feeds with Measure Map and create the perfect analytics solution for blogs

* FeedBurner has a very big number of feeds: more than 700,000. Google has a lot of advertisers, but the AdSense for feeds program is still in closed beta.

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP41

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 41 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
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Art Lindsey, still heavily medicated yet still forging forward, returns as co-host in this One-Hour Special before the possible one week hiatus.

We get the show kicked off with Vonage Crap coverage:

Vonage gets a marketing chief
We ordinarily wouldn't make much about a service provider's new chief marketing officer, except the service provider in question is Vonage, which needs new marketing ideas in the same way that a wildfire needs water. Jamie Haenggi joined Vonage in November from ADT, the alarm company. There she was head of marketing and started at Vonage as something called "vice president of company life." In her new job, she'll be in charge of marketing, retail sales, and corporate communications.

For more information about Vonage's new CMO:
- read this article from TMCNet

Related Articles:
Vonage gets its stay, launches astroturf site. Report
Vonage CEO steps down. Report

In more yahoo deadpool news:

Yahoo Shutting Down Auctions - Second Service To DeadPool This Month
Reuters is reporting that Yahoo Auctions will shut down in the U.S. and Canada as of June 16, and new auctions will not be accepted after June 3. Auction sites in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan will stay live.

This is the second service closing announced this month for Yahoo - last week it was confirmed that Yahoo Photos was closing as well.

In the case of Yahoo Photos, users will be directed to Yahoo-owned Flickr as well as other third party services. The closure removed a product conflict and helps focus the company. Auctions is closing for a different reason - it just cannot get traction v. eBay and other competitors. It also shows Yahoo’s commitment to focus on key (growing and profitable) businesses as it streamlines its offerings.

In Tier Two acquisition news:

Breaking: Odeo Acquired By SonicMountain
Details are just coming out, but New York based SonicMountain, a new startup, has acquired Evan Williams’ Odeo. The announcement will come sometime tomorrow. The price is not being disclosed but is in excess of $1 million, and the deal was all cash.

Odeo was publicly put on sale last February. The company was bought back from investors late last year.

Twitter is no longer part of Odeo, so this will not be included in the acquisition. Twitter and Odeo were both wholly owned subsidiaries of Obvious Corp.

Evan Williams will be working with SonicMountain as an advisor for six months or so.

In other news of the idiots, MCI math is replaced by MPAA math:

MPAA Math: 40% Plus 70% Equals?
Ah, the MPAA and its ability to simply make up numbers continues. Last week, we noted that the MPAA was claiming that New York City was where 40% of camcorded movies came from, following earlier claims that 50% came from Canada. However, now that NYC has passed a law with tougher crimes for camcording (note this last passed just last week), apparently, the MPAA can now shift its numerical focus to Canada. Michael Geist points out that along with Warner Brothers' pointless decision to stop promo screenings in Canada, the studio is claiming that 70% of camcorded movies now come from Canada. 70%? Considering they were unwilling to back up earlier reports claiming 30%, 40% and 50% don't expect them to explain the 70% number either. However, we are wondering how the movie industry adds up the 70% coming from Canada with the 40% coming from New York City (not to mention all the camcorded movies from elsewhere) and still come up with 100%. Is there a reason that reporters never bother to ask the MPAA and its studio members to actually back up any of this stuff?

Turning to regular ol' political news, Florida Democrats figure out a way to prevent vote fraud altogether... by ignoring the votes:

For Democrats, Florida Primary May Not Count
be951 writes "Democratic party leaders are seriously considering making the Florida primary 'nonbinding', meaning they could ignore the actual vote by Florida democrats and allow party leaders to decide how Florida's more than 200 delegates are divided up among the candidates. 'I think it's much higher than 50-50 that we will make Jan. 29 a nonbinding' election, said Jon Ausman, a veteran Democratic organizer in Tallahassee and member of the Democratic National Committee. This is in response to Florida's move to an earlier presidential preference primary, which scrambled the primary calendar carefully worked out by the two national parties."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In WOOOOOOGG! (WOG) news:

Surprise Arrest For Online Scientology Critic
destinyland writes "An online critic of Scientology was confronted at a routine hearing Tuesday with surprise arrest warrants and thrown into jail. Six years as a fugitive ended in February. (After picketing a Scientology complex in 2000 over the unexplained death of a woman there, he'd been arrested for 'threatening a religion' over a Usenet joke about 'Tom Cruise Missiles.') But 64-year-old Keith Henson had been out on bail, and was even scheduled to address the European Space Agency conference on Space Elevators. He's a co-founder of the Space Colony movement, and one of the original researchers at Texas Instruments. In this interview he discusses both space-based solar energy and his war with the Scientologists — just a few days before he was arrested."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

And the breaking news of the day...

Report: Colorado HS Locked Down; Masked Men Inside
Masked men inside of a Boulder School…pray that this is merely some sort of terrible misunderstanding. None of the domestic mass murderers have worn masks which leads me to wonder if we are not seeing a terrorist attack unfolding. BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - A high school was locked down Thursday amid unconfirmed reports that two [...]

MSNBC's Republican Presidential Debate

I watched the debate, and I must say I was impressed with the aptitude that the Republicans handled themselves. I suppose that after years and years of being exposed to Republican ineptitude, its refreshing to be exposed to the flip-side of it.

Here's the most interesting thing to come out of this debate; given the huge field of the early Republican lineup of candidates that prevented Paul from elaborating much more on what makes him so very different from the rest of the pack, and the scant 90 minutes afforded the public to know who they are, Paul did as well as he possibly could going from near last to FIRST place.

This shake-up is very interesting.

BEFORE the Republican "debates":

1. Giuliani 41%
2. McCain 31%
3. Romney 28%
4. Huckabee 14%
5. Thompson 11%
6. Tancredo 10%
7. Brownback 10%
8. Paul 9%
9. Hunter 7%
10. Gilmore 4%

AFTER the Republican "debate" at 9:28am the next morning:

1. Paul 35%
2. Romney 30%
3. Giuliani 25%
4. McCain 20%
5. Huckabee 16%
6. Tancredo 10%
7. Brownback 9%
8. Thompson 9%
9. Hunter 8%
10. Gilmore 7%

Here's where you can watch and judge for yourself:
Part 01 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 02 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 03 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 04 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 05 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 06 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 07 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 08 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 09 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...
Part 10 of 10 of MSNBC's first Republican Presiden...

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP29

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 29 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
  
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
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I started off the broadcast talking about Bert Powell, and the events that almost led up to him getting beat up by me, this morning. Look for a blog update on that later today. After that, I went into the news:

Why Boycott Israel? [from the Washington Post]

By Richard Cohen

In Iran, the government overturned the convictions of six men who, among other things, killed a young couple because they were walking together in public. In China, local authorities seized about 60 women and forcibly aborted their pregnancies. In Russia, the Putin government expanded its control of the media. In Cuba . . . oh, well, you already know. But what you may not know is that given such a vast palette of injustice and depredations, the British National Union of Journalists made a truly original move: It singled out Israel to boycott.

The boycott, mind you, is not a journalistic one. Instead, it will extend to lemons and melons and that sort of thing. The boycott was issued as "a gesture of support for the Palestinian people," some of whom, as it happens, abducted a BBC correspondent, Alan Johnston. One group has claimed that it executed him, although no proof has been offered. Suffice it to say the situation is dire.

And in more technopolitical news:

Presidential Debates Get Webby
'Here's news guaranteed to tickle anyone who, like me, is both a geek and a presidential-campaign junkie: Yahoo, Slate, and the Huffington Post have announced that they're going to cohost the first-ever online presidential debates during the 2008 campaign. There will be one for Democratic candidates and one for the Republicans, and both will be hosted by Mr. Charlie Rose.

'The press release doesn't have a lot of detail, other than that the debates will be held after Labor Day of this year, and that the Democratic one will have opening remarks by DNC Chairman Howard Dean. So I have a few questions. Such as....' (PC World blog entry).

And in extremely geeky news:

'Kryptonite' Discovered in Serbian Mine
Rubinstien writes "A mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum was contracted to help identify an unknown mineral found in a Serbian mine. While he initially thought the miners had discovered a unique compound, after its crystal structure was analyzed and identified the researcher was shocked to find the material already referenced in literature. Fictional literature. Dr. Chris Stanley, from the BBC article: 'Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns ... I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either — although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange.'"

And in what's normally a boring corner of news, DNS stuff:

OpenDNS Adds Short-Cut Service
DNS is boring, but OpenDNS has added a new Shortcut feature that lets you visit URLs without all that nasty typing. Shortcuts are short, multi-letter abbreviations for your favorite sites. Instead of typing “www.nytimes.com,” you can just type “NYT.” You can also create short-cuts for popular search sites (”g monkeys” to search Google for Monkeys, for example).

And in followup to the Virginia Tech Story:

Ismail Cho was a Liberal

Rush is right on the money again. Apparently Ismail/Cho was leftarded. So it is hardly surprising that those animals at MSU were spewing invectives when there was an attempt to remember the victims of the Virginia tech shooting (check out the video here.) Check this out over at ABC News. The liberal hypocrites (libhyps?) over at ABC are appalled by this, I applaud it;

On the April 19 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show , the famous conservative talk radio host opined about the political views of Seung-hui Cho, the Virginia tech massacre madman.

"If this Virginia Tech shooter had an ideology, what do you think it was? " Limbaugh asked. "This guy had to be a liberal. You start railing against the rich and all this other -- this guy's a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it's a liberal that committed this act. Now, the drive-bys will read on a website that I'm attacking liberalism by comparing this guy to them. That's exactly what they do every day, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just pointing out a fact. I am making no extrapolation; I'm just pointing it out. "

Limbaugh went on to say that "back in the early '90s, when there was any kind of an incident, crime or what-have-you that attracted national attention, in the early days of this program, the drive-by media went out and they tried to connect the perpetrator to this program. They did everything they could. In fact, it went so far as Bill Clinton blaming me for influencing Timothy McVeigh to blow up the bureau building . These are the people sponsoring lies and distortion for the purposes of dividing this country and creating hatred. These are the people that invented this kind of tactic, if you will ."

Mormonism and Mitt Romney

My good friend Art recently talked about Mitt Romney and his religion. To be honest, I had no idea that Mitt was a Mormon, and truly it makes little difference to me, as I'll never be in a position to influence the man's religious beliefs. Apparently, though, in the circles Art runs in, everyone is 'in a tizzy' about it. Art doesn't understand, as he states in his post, why people have a problem with the Mormons and the LDS belief structure, and why the rest of Christianity doesn't consider Mormons as Christians.

To prove his point, Art listed a set of superficial criteria comparison of Mainstream Christianity to Mormonism. The list made it appear as if Mormonism is really just another flavor of Christianity, but I'm here to tell you, it isn't.

Mormonism, much like Scientology and Jehovah's Witnesses, is a belief structure full of weird and often alien (in the literal and figurative sense) beliefs. Whether or not you can get along with a Mormon and be led politically by one is one thing. Whether a Mormon is a Christian is quite another.

If your judge of a 'good person' is whether or not they respect and aim to help their fellow man, most Mormons fall into that category (except, of course, if you're black). Black skin is a curse from God, they teach (1 Nephi 12:23, 2 Nephi 5:21, Alma 3:6, Jacob 3:8, 3 Nephi 2:15, Morm 5:15).

If your judge of a 'good person' is whether or not they are cleansed by the blood of Christ as is taught in mainstream Christian doctrine and the New Testament, then Mormons are in fact not 'good people.' That is directly to say that they are not Christians in the literal sense. Their doctrine mandates that they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that they should be seeking the Holy Spirit and God the Father.

Additionally, all of their doctrines I've ever read are very careful to inform their congregations that while Jesus was instrumental in witnessing to the humans of earth, Jesus's sacrifice on the cross was not what saved us of our sins' penalties. On the other hand, mainstream Christian doctrine states that "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God" (Romans 3:23) and that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that they who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16).

In short mainstream Christianity believes that Christ was God's only son. He died having committed no sin so as to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. We Christians who believe this and accept the gift of sacrifice may spend eternity with God, the Holy Spirit, the angels and Jesus Christ.

In short mainstream Mormonism believes that God the Father was a man who lived on a planet near the star Koleb (Book of Abraham 3:3-16). God had physical sex with Mary and conceived Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ lived a good life and taught all of us about God, but left a lot out. Joseph Smith came along and taught us all that in addition to eternal life, if we pray to God and behave extra good, when we die, we might get our own planets to rule as well as multiple wives instead of just living in eternal bliss and worship in Heaven (D&C 132:63, see also...).

I'm not here to tell you Mormons are evil or in any way insidious people. I do see their belief structure as quite insidious from a Christian perspective - enticing in folks with attractive rewards, but leaving out the very bits of Christianity that make it worthwhile and Holy. It almost deliberately leaves out the parts that mainstream doctrine require to gain admittance to heaven. I don't know exactly how judgement day is going to work, and if deceived Mormons are going to be punished for eternity for missing the point on Christ's sacrifice. I have a feeling that the creators of Mormonism will ultimately have to answer for their distortion of the Gospel, however.

Paul’s Pals Perturb Polls

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who has explored a presidential run, doesn’t register very high in the national polls featuring 2008 presidential candidates (1 percent, tops). But there’s one place that he simply rules: the Internet.



Fans of the libertarian have stormed the Web — in ways both good and bad — to show their supportI've been talking about this for a while.



read more | digg story



Like I said, there's an interesting cyberwar going on.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who has explored a presidential run, doesn’t register very high in the national polls featuring 2008 presidential candidates (1 percent, tops). But there’s one place that he simply rules: the Internet.

Fans of the libertarian have stormed the Web — in ways both good and bad — to show their support. Over at TechPresident.com — a Web site that tracks candidates’ “friends” on the popular social networking site MySpace.com — Paul is tops for Republicans, with 3,107 “friends” (Mitt Romney is second with 1,785).

But elsewhere, the voraciousness of Paul’s supporters has sparked the ire of others. The Web site 2008HorseRace.com, which features an ongoing poll for candidates, issued this notice on Feb. 23: “Ron Paul has been suspended for two weeks because of repeated use of mob intimidation tactics and multiple threats made by Ron Paul supporters against racetrack operators, racetrack officials and racetrack sponsors.” PajamasMedia.com removed Ron Paul from its presidential polls after it was discovered that someone had rigged the poll system in his favor. It has since implemented a rule that it will only include candidates polling at 1 percent or more in credible national news polls.

And a MySpace page titled “Opinion Polling” posted the following note this week: “Temporarily shut down due to Ron Paul will be back eventually.” A source said that the page’s owners shut it down because Paul supporters “invaded the place.”

Paul’s exploratory committee spokesman Kent Snyder thinks he knows why Paul’s supporters are so gung-ho for their guy. “One of the reasons that Dr. Paul is getting a lot of cyber support is because he voted against regulating the Internet,” Snyder told Yeas & Nays.

An Interesting News Weekend.

There were a lot of things interesting about this weekend’s news, aside from the endless barrage of Anna Nicole crap, and the Barrack Obama lovefest. I know I’m not the only one who thinks of Alfred E. Neuman every time I see this joker, but to prove it to you, peep this:

At any rate, I was woken up to the news this morning that Jesus’s divinity had been totally debunked by James Cameron. Yes, I repeat, James Cameron.

The upshot is that James Cameron has such a hard-on for the factually inept DaVinci Code that he roped the rubes at the Discovery Channel into giving him some money to dig up some 2000 year old graves in Jerusalem so he could get DNA evidence that Jesus did the nasty with a whore, had some kids, and therefore was not a worthy sacrifice for the sins of all humanity when he died on the cross, so we’re all going to go to hell.

Thanks a lot, Jim.

This sounds like a messed up dream or something, but it’s not.

I won’t go into debunking Jimmy-boy’s idiocy but to say that most of what he said and posited is debunked in your standard book review of the Da Vinci Code.  Check out this link for a good starting point.

Then there were the Oscars. Al Gore won for Best Powerpoint Presentation, a new category I intend to enter next year with my presentation on Rizzn.Com Stats Analysis: A history of a mediocre website.  Move over, Al, I’m gunnin’ for ya!

Then there is this ‘Super-Size Tuesday’ thing, a move to completely eliminate the slim chance that minor candidates have in achieving success on a national presidential bid. This is another step in destroying the process. In America, the idea is that anyone can be an elected official, and the longer we progress with the current establishment doing things like this... the close we become to a class system – where you have to play ball with the corrupt 'aristocracy' to get elected.

It hasn’t always been that way. It used to be more of a meritocracy, but it's not that anymore. If you had the skills in the past, you could get elected. Of course, you had to come from some kind of upper class background to get the skills. Now, everyone has access to get the skills. But they move the bar so that you have to have massive amounts of money and skills.

Ah, well. Plenty of stuff to make my hair go grey lately.  Just throw this up on the pile.  See ya later, folks.

/rizzn

Ron Paul Watch

http://blog.lewrockwell.com/

Ron Paul has accepted an invitation to participate in the first national presidential debate in New Hampshire on Wednesday, April 4. It will be hosted by Wolf Blitzer and will be carried on CNN TV, radio, and cnn.com from 7-9 p.m. EST. (Thanks to Johnny Kramer.)

Politico.com and MSNBC have invited Ron Paul to join their first GOP presidental debate at the Reagan library on May 3rd.

Ron's race will not be ignored. Laughed at and otherwise attacked, perhaps, but NOT ignored. He will be invited to nearly all the debates if he announces his candidacy and will be including in polling and straw polls. I spoke with Ron the other night (at an RLC teleconference) and he was excited about having campaigners at the national YR convention in Hollywood and said he might try to get down here for that in July.

I worked like crazy for Ron in 1988 and saw him ignored nationally, although Sean and I made sure he was not ignored in Gainesville, Fla. But he won't be ignored this time. For one thing he will be in a major party primary and secondly he will be a Republican antiwar candidate, a fact the media will love. So far, the only antiwar GOPers exploring a run are Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Chuck Hagel. If
Chuck doesn't run, Ron will own that issue.

-- Philip Blumel, www.rlcfl.org

/rizzn

Ron Paul for President

Ron Paul for President! You heard it hear first.

Representative Paul has not yet made his announcement public yet, but today incorporation papers were filed for the Ron Paul for President Exploratory Committee.

This is exciting news. Finally, a presidential candidate that I'd actually want to vote for.

/rizzn