From Huffington:

Ron Paul Disavows White Supremacists, But Takes Their Money

….Paul’s 2012 campaign has received more than $6,000 from people who have identified themselves as white separatists or supremacists, or who are listed on anti-hate group sites such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Two prominent donors are leaders in what may be the most ambitious white nationalist political movement in the U.S., American Third Position. One is William Johnson, the group’s chairman. Another is Virginia Abernethy, a former Vanderbilt professor who is listed as a director of the party.

You are probably shocked that Ron Paul would take such money — or even garner the support of white supremacists (why do they like Ron?).

On an unrelated note, Rand Paul’s former spokesman Chris Hightower is running for State Representative over in the 16th because “Kentucky needed more regular people in office.”

And on an even less related note, WFPL reports that Senator Rand Paul is firing up his campaign machine, sending an email to his supporters telling them to head out to the Republican Party precincting and reorganization process:

The Republican Party of Kentucky holds its reorganization every four years to coincide with presidential elections. During the process, party members elect individual precinct leaders and the head of the RPK.

In an e-mail to supporters, Rand Paul asks them to take part in the precinct elections and to get involved as county delegates to the state convention where the top leaders of RPK are chosen.

Cool idea, Rand. The RPK elections go down on March 31st (like the Dems) and from the Precinct elections come, eventually, the delegates to the national conventions.

Also a cool idea — and now even less related… I apologize for the totally scattershot flow of this post – Ron Paul is quietly amassing an army of delegates while GOP frontrunners spar:

While the Republican nomination race is focused on the ongoing battle between frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, the Ron Paul campaign is waging an under-the-radar “delegate strategy” that could make the libertarian-leaning Texan the surprise kingmaker of the race.

In states that have already voted via a caucus system – rather than a straight primary ballot – Ron Paul supporters are conducting an intensively organised ground effort aimed at securing as many convention delegate slots as possible, often in numbers that far outweigh the number of actual votes that Paul got in the ballot.

If successful, it means Paul’s campaign could arrive at the August Tampa convention at the head of an army of delegates far larger than the proportion of votes that it won during the nomination contest.

It could also increase the chances of a contested convention – where no candidate has enough delegates to declare the winner – as well as give Paul much greater ability to inject his beliefs into the Republicans’ 2012 policy platform.

The strategy is based on the fact the GOP race is in fact a “delegate contest” despite an overwhelming focus by the media and most campaigns on “winning” individual states by coming top of the popular vote. But in reality, each state, weighted proportionally by population, sends a number of delegates to Tampa where a nominee is then chosen.

Read the rest of that story at The Guardian…

From the John Birch Society:

Have any plans for Constitution Day? Join JBS and leading Constitutionalists at the inaugural Liberty Political Action Conference in Reno, Nevada, September 15-17.

JBS is a proud cosponsor of this inaugural event. We hope you can join us at the Grand Sierra Resort for what is guaranteed to be a weekend to remember and a refreshing time among other Patriots ready to restore limited, constitutional government in America.

….Speakers include Congressman Ron Paul, Senator Rand Paul, Senator Mike Lee, Congressman Justin Amash, JBS CEO Arthur Thompson, and many more.

It only costs $109 (and just $35 if you have a valid student ID).

The top item on their agenda… attacking the unconstitutional Southern Poverty Law Center because they are a “Danger to American Liberty.”

The subject of Rand’s speech is not yet disclosed and Pappy Paul will give the Sunday evening keynote.

If you aren’t familiar with the Birchers, it’s hard to know exactly where to start, except to say that the Tea Party is nothing new and neither are really simplistic views of the US Constitution. They are rippling with racism and terrified of the non-existent threat of communism and “collectivism.”

One of the founder members is Fred Koch, energy magnate and Tea Party underwriter.

And… you know what. I’m doing a bad job of explaining it. Let me hand this over to a real John Bircher now…

Ron Paul came in 2nd at the Iowa Straw Poll and Rand could’ve been happier but he was happy nonetheless:

“People want to downplay it and say it doesn’t mean much because it’s a straw poll but at the same time, presidential candidate’s whole futures can be determined by the fact that Tim Pawlenty dropped out so that shows it must be fairly important.”

Of course, the wider Ron Paul campaign is tripping over itself to define the current state of their “revolution” as maligned by media inattention. Unfortunately this is having a bit of the reverse effect. Rather than ginning up respect for the seriousness of the Paul candidacy, this Ron reframing seems to have just made Ron Paul “the candidate everyone ignores.”

Story after story is coming out in mainstream outlets across the spectrum, left right and center, each asking, “Is the media ignoring Ron Paul?” and then spending most of their time navel-gazing at the media rather than talking about any of Paul’s issues. Issue talk, apparently, is better left to Bachmann, Perry and Mittens. So, Ron will have to try harder, and his supporters should spend less time talking about how he’s ignored because, currently they’re talking a lot about him (it’s just only about how he’s ignored — the media and the Paul revolutionaires are on the exact same page!)

But back to Rand Paul, son.

Reports the Courier Journal:

Rand Paul pledges to work to protect military funding

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul met Tuesday with state leaders of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where he pledged to do all he can to preserve funding for the military and veterans — despite his tea party beliefs in smaller government and less spending.

“There are a few things the federal government should be doing, and one of them is national defense and the other is taking care of veterans,” said Paul, a freshman Republican from Bowling Green.

Which is funny, since Rand’s supposed to be a sensible Republican who understands the wasteful spending America pours each year into the bloated military budget. He’s supposed to be the Republican who doesn’t want America’s military marching off all over the place dropping million dollar bombs willy-nilly on whomever it pleases. Hell, he’s the candidate who just six months ago pledged to strip Israel of its US military aid.

And he’s the man who, days after his election, said he wanted to cut military spending:

Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday he believes government spending cuts shouldn’t exclude the military.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Paul said: “Republicans traditionally say, oh, we’ll cut domestic spending, but we won’t touch the military. The liberals — the ones who are good — will say, ‘Oh, we’ll cut the military, but we won’t cut domestic spending.’”

“Bottom line is, you have to look at everything across the board.”

So has Washington changed Rand Paul? Or is he lying to veterans? Or have the black helicopters gotten to him and magnetically fried his braid and/or implanted a statist chip?

Or should we just ignore this?