PayPal co-founders fund pro-Paul Super PAC

[PorkChopSandwiches]

http://i.imgur.com/KdgvX.png



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Co-founders of online U.S. payment service PayPal, now owned by eBay Inc, donated to the Super PAC funding group supporting Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, the group Endorse Liberty disclosed on Tuesday.

PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek and Scott Banister, an early adviser and board member, put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC, alongside Internet advertising veteran Stephen Oskoui and entrepreneur Jeffrey Harmon, who founded Endorse Liberty in November.

Texas congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian, has been an unconventional candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, advocating an isolationist brand of foreign policy and a $1 trillion cut in the U.S. government's budget.

"Too often in this country we learn things the hard way ... With its unsustainable deficits, government spending is heading down the same path. Men and women who want freedom and growth should take action. A good place to start is voting for Ron Paul," Thiel said in a statement.

Thiel, a libertarian activist whose $1.5 billion in wealth ranked him 833 on the Forbes top billionaires list last year, became the first outside investor in social networking service Facebook in 2004.

Releasing the donor list before officially filing with the Federal Election Commission, Endorse Liberty founders said they raised $3.9 million to support Paul, who failed to win any of the first three state-by-state Republican nominating contests.

Republicans are voting in the Florida primary on Tuesday. Paul trails frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in most polls in the state, but he is seen as having a better chance in Nevada, which votes next.

Endorse Liberty founders have so far reported spending about $3.3 million promoting Paul by setting up two YouTube channels, constantly buying ads from Google and Facebook and StumbleUpon and building up a presence on the Web.

PayPal began as an independent company, founded in the late 1990s by technology entrepreneurs, including venture capital investors Thiel and Nosek. The business battled with eBay for supremacy in the emerging online payments market. But soon after it went public in 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.

Endorse Liberty also received donations from James O'Neill and Jonathan Cain, who now run the Thiel Foundation that seeks to "defend and promote freedom in all its dimensions: political, personal, and economic," according to its website.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I think the correct headline would be:

PayPal co-founders find a way to waste their money

:tup:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

you're a fool

[RBP]

:woot:

[Muddy]

Ron has no chance of winning Porky... I know you love the words he speaks, but really...

[RBP]

If he got 1/2 the media coverage.... I am not counting him out just yet!

[Teh One Who Knocks]

:-s

He gets more free media coverage than any other candidate FFS

[RBP]

:-s

He gets more free media coverage than any other candidate FFS

Oh please. He never gets mentioned. I listened to conservative talk radio all day today, even there hardly a word.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Yes, because conservative talk radio is such a huge and all encompassing form of news media :|

[JoeyB]

Yes, because conservative talk radio is such a huge and all encompassing form of news media :|

HAHAHAHAHA

Meanwhile, the super pac spending begins...in the last republican primary corporate super pacs outspent the candidates by a two to one margin. I warned you people! It's gonna be all corporate sponsored super pac attack ads this whole election season. Wait until it's time for them to go after Obama. I hope you people are prepared for nine months of this endless crap before the inevitable birth of election day.

[Leefro]

He looks like Burt Reynolds

[RBP]

Yes, because conservative talk radio is such a huge and all encompassing form of news media :|

That wasn't my point and you know it. I was saying that even in non-mainstream media he doesn't get any play.

[DemonGeminiX]

Nobody ever talks about Paul in the media, liberal or conservative, at least not that I've seen.

[FBD]

HAHAHAHAHA

Meanwhile, the super pac spending begins...in the last republican primary corporate super pacs outspent the candidates by a two to one margin. I warned you people! It's gonna be all corporate sponsored super pac attack ads this whole election season. Wait until it's time for them to go after Obama. I hope you people are prepared for nine months of this endless crap before the inevitable birth of election day.
So what's the difference between a "super pac" and a friggin union that will spend tens of millions of its member's dues on political campaigns? at least the super pac money was given and intended to be spent that way - union dues the members have no choice and are basically at the whim of their overlords, who tell them how to vote!

and what of the other "super pac" - the media?

stop whining about the playing field having been somewhat leveled.

[JoeyB]

stop whining about the playing field having been somewhat leveled.

Somewhat leveled? You clearly have no idea how super pacs work and how corporate backers shuffle money to support their candidates.

It is a corrupt practice, one exacerbated by this 'corporations are people' bullshit.

Want to level the playing field for real? Ban all super pacs, ban all political donations, ban all political ads until two weeks before the election, and give each of the major players the exact amount of free airtime. One gets a commercial, followed by the other. Order of airing reverses each time. Everyone receives not only the same number of minutes, but they must always be aired in sync.

Let the issues, not the corporate backers, decide the campaigns.

Mark my words (again) you will see an insane amount of Obama attack ads airing for half a year before the election, all sponsored by nebulous groups such as 'Americans for voter suppression' and 'Patriots who hate niggers in office'.

Yes, there will be super pac groups slamming whatever corporate shill the republicans put on the ticket, but the spending will be significantly less than what you see from Republican-friendly super pacs.

Argue all you want, by November I will be proved correct.

By the way, Mitt Romney has officially joined that tired and pathetic republican/tea party club. The one I've documented on here before:

Here's what Mitt Romney said after he won the Florida Republican primary last night:

"While we celebrate this victory, we must not forget what this election is really about ..."

... What do you think he said? Not getting the economy moving. Not keeping America safe. Not improving people's lives.

"While we celebrate this victory, we must not forget what this election is really about: defeating Barack Obama."

This has been a party line all along. Republicans have no real interest in doing anything but ousting Obama. Don't care how, don't care who.

Also, I've learned that his generous charitable donations, which I believe were in excess of five million, are comprised of at least four million to the Mormon church, as well as tens of thousands of dollars to groups who exist to promote anti gay and lesbian laws.

So Mitt, the sanest looking Republican, has a real issue there...blacks and gays will not be overly pleased with him.

[Acid Trip]

Yeah because Democrats don't have super pacs of their own! :roll:

In 2004, Soros gave $23.7 million to Democratic groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. For the 2006 election, he contributed $3.5 million to organizations working to elect Democrats. Two years later, he donated a total of $5 million, according to the non-profit group that tracks campaign finances.

In 2011, Soros gave $75,000 to the House Majority PAC, dedicated to returning the House to Democratic control, and $100,000 to Majority PAC, an organization working to keep the Senate in Democratic hands, according to the FEC reports.

Peter Lewis, who contributed $23 million in 2004 to defeat President George W. Bush, gave $200,000 to American Bridge in 2011

Obama’s presidential campaign has out-raised his Republican challengers in total donations and cash on hand. In 2011, Obama for America raised $128 million and ended the year with $81.8 million in cash.

Reference: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/soros-sits-out-obama-s-super-pac-money-race-beside-big-democratic-givers.html

[JoeyB]

Romney's cash has recently come from corporate backers. Only less than 10% has been raised by individual donations.

And Romney is the least sold out of the bunch.

Says it all.

[Goofy]

He looks like Burt Reynolds

More like Kenny Rodgers :tup: ......... i'd vote for Kenny Rodgers as President :)

[JoeyB]

More like Kenny Rodgers :tup: ......... i'd vote for Kenny Rodgers as President :)

Kenny Rogers the country music superstar? I wonder what song Lionel Richie would write for president elect Rogers...

[Goofy]

Kenny Rogers the country music superstar?

Of course :tup: "Oh Roooooooo beeeeeeeeeee......... dont take your knickers down"

[JoeyB]

Of course :tup: "Oh Roooooooo beeeeeeeeeee......... dont take your knickers down"

Somehow...associating the word 'knickers' with Kenny Rogers strikes as as being somewhat unsavory. In fact, it might well haunt me.

[Muddy]

Lets do away with all super Pacs to be fair..

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Lets do away with all super Pacs to be fair..

that would be fair, super pacs just allow the largest companies to fund the candidate of there choice skirting the laws. So the richest one wins :roll:

[Acid Trip]

Lets do away with all super Pacs to be fair..

You would have to eliminate donations from groups like Unions as well. Just to be fair of course.

I would be best to only allow personal donations and cap it at $1,000 per candidate.

[Muddy]

You would have to eliminate donations from groups like Unions as well. Just to be fair of course.

I would be best to only allow personal donations and cap it at $1,000 per candidate.


Fine by me.