Anyone going to the Hollywood Fundraiser?

If so, care to provide an estimate on the number of people who show up?

I've been looking at the numbers and I think if offline fundraising remains steady we should be able to meet the projected October totals and with a little luck pass them.

Also, if you live near a campaign office, go do phone banks, It's boring as hell, but you get to directly contact primary voters and drop the Ron Paul name and message to them. If you go, don't get discouraged by hangups, they are usually 90 percent of the calls you make. Stuff like this is very important. Also, I'm sure the campaign has a 72 hour plan in place for early states like SC IA and NH. It's really fun and you get to go out at 4 in the morning puttin up signs at precincts and drinking a crapload of Red Bull. All of these things are extremely important to the final hour success of campaigns.

Finally, go to www.jimdemint.com and sign the petition to eliminate earmarks. It's a good way to fight government spending, even if you don't agree with all of Demint's positions, this one should be right up your alley. Here is the synopsis of the petition.

"Last November, voters sent all of us a message about the way Congress needs to change. I, for one, received that message loud and clear. I believe it is long past time to finally start doing things differently in Washington.

When I got back to Capitol Hill in December, I teamed up with a few of my colleagues who were equally concerned about the direction Congress was headed. In our opinion it had turned into one gigantic “favor factory.”

Something had to be done to stop the excessive government spending that had grown out of control. After exhausting a number of options, our last alternative was to block the entire annual budget bill from passing the Senate. As a result, we saved U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in pork filled pet projects.

At the time, highly regarded conservative columnist Bob Novak said, “The hero of the lame-duck session was freshman Republican Jim DeMint. He was instrumental in blocking a Senate-House conference on a military construction appropriations bill, which would then be used as the last train out of town to carry pork.” (12/11/2006)

Shortly thereafter I was elected Chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee – a group of conservative Senators fighting to keep the party faithful to its roots. I pledged to do my best to change the way Washington operates and work with whomever would listen to our agenda.

The American people have the right to know how their money is being spent in Washington. Currently, undisclosed earmarks (federal spending on Congressional pet projects) lead to billions of dollars in hidden pork barrel spending every year. Even under Democrat Speaker Pelosi’s control, the House passed a bill which required the disclosure of all earmarks on the Internet 48 hours before they are voted on. I introduced a similar measure in the Senate and after much partisan sniping from the Democrats, it passed by one vote.

But some Democrat leaders in the Senate were unhappy with this outcome and continued to debate it… even after all the votes had been cast.

Thankfully, after a few short days of hearing from their constituents, these same Democrat leaders voted unanimously to pass my amendment.

But my fight hasn’t stopped there, because this bill has not yet become law. I continue to pressure Democrat leaders for a complete overhaul of earmark rules, because some congressional leaders say they support these reforms, yet continue to try and circumvent the intent of the amendment they voted for with delay tactics and watered-down substitutes.

Congress must stop playing Washington shell games and start being accountable to American taxpayers who are footing the bill.

And voters must check Congressional rhetoric against Congressional action. Only then can we finally bring more accountability to our government and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

To continue making real progress on the issues we all care about, it is critical that we keep fighting to move our agenda forward. And that is exactly what I intend to do. Unfortunately, in most cases, many long-standing members of Congress would still rather block necessary reforms and keep the power of the pork-purse in their hands.

That’s why I need your help today.

We are building a team of 100,000 Strong for Earmark Reform and I need you to join. By clicking here you can petition Congress to act now and pass earmark reform. But the work doesn’t end there. After petitioning Congress we will have to start putting grassroots pressure on members of Congress that stand in the way of real reform. That’s when I will truly need your help.

Please click here, join 100,000 Strong for Earmark Reform and let’s get to work ending the Congressional Favor Factory."