Paul raises more than $3.5M in one day

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By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, aided by an extraordinary outpouring of Internet support Monday, hauled in more than $3.5 million in 20 hours.

Paul, the Texas congressman with a Libertarian tilt and an out-of-Iraq pitch, entered heady fundraising territory with a surge of Web-based giving tied to the commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day.

Fawkes was a British mercenary who failed in his attempt to kill King James I on Nov. 5, 1605. He also was the model for the protagonist in the movie "V for Vendetta." Paul backers motivated donors on the Internet with mashed-up clips of the film on the online video site YouTube as well as the Guy Fawkes Day refrain: "Remember, remember the 5th of November."

Paul's total deposed Mitt Romney as the single-day fundraising record holder in the Republican presidential field. When it comes to sums amassed in one day, Paul now ranks only behind Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, who raised nearly $6.2 million on June 30, and Barack Obama.

Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said the effort began independently about two months ago at the hands of Paul's backers. He said Paul picked up on the movement, mentioning in it speeches and interviews.

"It's been kind of building up virally," Benton said.

The $3.5 million, he said, represented online contributions from more than 22,000 donors.

Paul has been lagging in the polls behind Republican front-runners. But he captured national attention at the end of September when he reported raising $5.2 million in three months, putting him fourth among Republican presidential candidates in fundraising for the quarter.

Paul as of Monday had raised $6.3 million since Oct. 1, more than half his goal of $12 million by the end of the year, according to his Web site.

Paul advocates limited government and low taxes like other Republicans, but he stands alone as the only GOP presidential candidate opposed to the Iraq war. He also has opposed Bush administration security measures that he says encroach on civil liberties.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_po/...jBUZr_hBuph24cA

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'Criminal' Botnet Stumps for Ron Paul, Researchers Allege

If Texas congressman Ron Paul is elected president in 2008, he may be the first leader of the free world put into power with the help of a global network of hacked PCs spewing spam, according to computer-security researchers who've analyzed a recent flurry of e-mail supporting the long-shot Republican candidate.

"This is clearly a criminal act in support of a campaign, which has been committed with or without their knowledge," says Gary Warner, the University of Alabama at Birmingham's director of research in computer forensics. "The question is, will we see more and more of this, or will this bring shame to the campaigns and will they make clear that this is not a form of acceptable behavior by their supporters?" Warner pointed to provisions of the federal Can-Spam Act.

Ron Paul spokesman Jesse Benton says the campaign has no knowledge of the scam. Warner himself says that he has no reason to believe that the Paul campaign had anything to do with these messages.

Some participants in the online political world have long suspected Paul's technically sophisticated fan base of manipulating online tools and polls to boost the appearance of a wide base of support. But the UAB analysis is the first to document any internet shenanigans.

The finding is significant, because Paul's online support -- as gauged by blog mentions, friends on social-networking sites such as MySpace and popularity in online polls -- has garnered him wide mainstream print and television coverage, despite his relatively poor performance in offline polling.

The spamming allegations are based on a slew of e-mails captured by contributors to the university's Spam Data Mining for Law Enforcement Applications project, a research venture that receives 2.5 million spam messages a day, and selects about 100,000 a week for analysis. The project receives its spam from other researchers with ties to ISPs, and in some cases from "trap" addresses that have never been used for any other purpose.

They were received by the lab following the latest televised Republican debate Sunday afternoon, and had 16 different subject lines, including "Ron Paul Wins GOP Debate! HMzjoqO" and "Ron Paul Exposes Federal Reserve! SBHBcSO." The random string of characters at the end is a common spammer's technique to circumvent bulk e-mail filtering.

The spam went to "several hundred" e-mail addresses harvested for the university project, says Warner.

The e-mails had phony names attached to real-looking e-mail addresses. When lab researchers examined the IP addresses of the computers from which the messages had been sent, it turned out that they were sprinkled around the globe in countries as far away from each other as South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, Nigeria and Brazil.

"The interesting thing was that we had the same subject line from the same IP address, and it claimed to be from different users from within the United States," Warner says.

One e-mail was designed to look as if it came from within a major Silicon Valley corporation, he notes. But when the researchers looked up the IP address, the computer from which the note was sent was actually in South Korea. Another e-mail that was designed to look as if it came from Houston was sent from Italy.

That pattern led Warner to conclude that the messages had been laundered through a botnet -- also a standard spammer practice, though a decidedly illegal one.

The body of a message examined by Wired News covered familiar Paul campaign themes, such as ending the war and eliminating the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve. It also read:

Ron Paul is for the people, unless you want your children to have human implant RFID chips, a National ID card and create a North American Union and see an economic collapse far worse than the great depression. Vote for Ron Paul he speaks the truth and the media and government is afraid of him.

Last week, the prominent conservative blog Redstate banned new Paul supporters from posting on its site because of their "shilling" for the candidate in conversations that had nothing to do with politics. Other sites have disabled their online polls, because they suspected that they were being gamed by Ron Paul supporters.

Notwithstanding such charges, Paul's third-quarter haul of $5 million in campaign contributions seems to show that he does have a larger base of support than offline polls indicate.

Dan Hubbard of security company Websense reviewed one of the messages captured by the university. He believes that there was some type of spam-laundering in use -- though not necessarily a botnet.

"I have not seen a malicious-code sample yet that is sending these mails, therefore I would say it's likely that either they are using a botnet, or they are using open relays," he says, referring to unsecured e-mail servers that will accept anonymous e-mail and forward it back out to the internet.

Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said in an e-mail, "This is the first I've heard about this situation."

"If it is true, it could be done by a well-intentioned yet misguided supporter or someone with bad intentions trying to embarrass the campaign," he wrote while ferrying his boss to tape an appearance on The Tonight Show. "Either way, this is independent work, and we have no connection."

[Jasman0717 9]

Wow

[Geist 0]

The Ron Paul bot has already been disproven:

Ron Paul Bot or Not

US Presidential candidate Ron Paul's political campaign hit its biggest snag yet with revelations that someone (nobody knows who yet) sent out mass spam emails using the dreaded Internet bot. A bot is an artificial life form that can do everything a human can, only in the speed of light. Bots cannot feel emotion and they cannot vote, however.

So what's up with Ron Paul "Botgate"? Leave it to our Gambling911.com sleuth, Jennifer Reynolds, to get to the bottom of this matter. She says not to be so quick to jump down the throats of Ron Paul supporters, who may have had absolutely nothing to do with this gaffe (or could it have been a ploy by an opposing campaign?)

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Are you a real Ron Paul supporter or are you a bot?

Sadly, some jerk decided to send out actual spam to unknown people around the world "in support" of Ron Paul. No one in the Ron Paul campaign sent this thing out, but the blowback from this is falling all over his shoulders and the shoulders of the rest of his supporters. Once again, the doubters are at it again saying that this one spam message that does exist proves that all of the rest of Ron Paul's support doesn't exist. The USA Today, a widely read publication had an article today (slyly citing another source so if the information turns out to be false they can't be blamed for it) which read "Researchers say 'criminal botnet' is behind Ron Paul's Web Support.

So, I put it to you reader, are you a criminal botnet? This is a difficult question for me to answer because I do not know what a botnet is, but it doesn't sound good and it certainly doesn't sound human. Since I know I am human, I am probably not a botnet, but we know that doesn't prove anything to a fine upstanding company like the USA Today who would never print a misleading headline. Of course, they did say, that "Researchers" said this thing, not them, so they are only reporting the news you see. They have no hidden agenda. They are being fair and balanced.

One way to prove to the USA Today and any other rag (just a friendly term for newspaper) that you are not a botnet or a bot or a net is to get on board with the November 5 Money Bomb for Ron Paul. The idea is to get 100,000 people to donate $100 to Ron Paul's campaign all on the same day. What a marvelous way to support freedom and liberty and Ron Paul and tell all of those papers that we are here and we are real all in one shot! Have you ever been able to say so much with so little? Here is the website: http://www.thisnovember5th.com . Go there, sign up and join in the shot heard around the world. You can also Digg the article if you like. Your choice. So far, over 204,000 people have visited the page. Only 15,405 have actually signed up for this. With any luck a lot of people are planning on making a donation without signing up at this webpage. You can also donate directly to the campaign at www.ronpaul2008.com . Actually, whether you donate directly or notify this site that you plan on making a donation, always only donate directly to the campaign. This site is just a way to track the people who are joining the cause. Either way, on November 5, 2007 you have the chance to tell world if you are a bot or a person. We all know the computers won't be donating the money. (Well, at least WE all know the computers won't be donating the money, I am not sure what THEY will think.)

Please send this article to everyone you know. Pass it along. The Revolution is growing faster than you know. So many people have already stated that they intend to donate much more than $100. If Bill Gates is not in your family tree however, all donations of any size will be welcome that day. There are only three days left. Right now they are a long way from their ultimate goal. You have your one chance to prove you have a pulse. Join in. Teach the world what a Revolution is all about! And hey, if they only raise $100,000 that is still a lot of money! Hopefully, they will announce not only the dollars raised, but how many people actually donated. The goal is astronomical, but we can only get what we want if we reach for the sky!

Here's to all the bots supporting Ron Paul!

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So, far it looks like the total fundraising for today will surpass $4 million with at least 30,000 individual donors. The support for Ron Paul is real

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Inconsequential, even if it's real. He's already said he has no plans of running as an I.

[Geist 0]

Inconsequential, even if it's real. He's already said he has no plans of running as an I.

....which is why he's running as a republican, not as an I.

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Inconsequential, even if it's real. He's already said he has no plans of running as an I.

....which is why he's running as a republican, not as an I.

lol he has no shot as an R. None.

[Geist 0]

Inconsequential, even if it's real. He's already said he has no plans of running as an I.

....which is why he's running as a republican, not as an I.

lol he has no shot as an R. None.

I beg to disagree

First people say he has no shot, now it's he has no shot as a republican...next I suppose he'll have no shot as a dem? It's ridiculous.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Geist

[Otto 83]

(psst...he has no chance!)