Not to be a complete and utter Ron Paul hater here but I noticed on Flickr some photos taken by DaveGarber1975 at a Provo, UT Ron Paul Meet-up. It is really nice to see people getting together in support of politics but the numbers seen in the photos give a good representation of what I think is the

Though the site is Not Safe For Work I also found this at Sleeping-Monkey which details how people like those pictures manage to delete their cookies to inflate the Ron Paul presence on the net.

August has been a SLOW Month for the most part. Congress is out of session, the president is taking a vacation, aside from the Democrats destroying each other and Republicans waiting for Fred Thompson to announce, not much has been going on. So sorry the Daily News reports have been light, there just hasn’t been enough to fill the database.

* Romney’s Flips Caught on Web

* Giuliani set to unveil tax policy

* Buffalo proves fertile ground for Giuliani

* Biden adds to support in Iowa

* Detroit lawyer charged for 2004 Edwards donations

* Giuliani Rips Democrats on Taxes

* Clinton words on terror surprise some

Robert Novak has a two-part scoop concerning Fred Thompson this week. Part 1 is that Thompson will officially open his campaign with a video that will surely spread throughout the Internet and Part 2 that non other than Newt Gingrich, who is rumored to be considering a bid himself, gave the actor/former Senator the idea.

The larger implication of Novak’s scoop is that Gingrich may well be a part of any Thompson run. The sad part about the story is that Thompson or any Republican needs to be told to put a video online. Most of the Democrats opened their campaigns with online videos as well as speeches and the idea, at this point, just seems like commonsense for anyone running and wanting to court the younger generation.

Today Senator Barack Obama talked aboutsome Republicans he would consider working closely with when president:

“On foreign policy I’ve worked very closely with Dick Lugar,” Obama said. “I consider him one of my best friends in the Senate. He’s someone I would actively seek counsel and advice from when it came to foreign policy.”

“Senator Warner is another example of somebody with great wisdom, although I don’t always agree with him on every issue,” Obama said. “I would also seek out people like Tom Coburn, who is probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate. He has become a friend of mine.”

My thoughts? Does Obama know any Republicans outside of the Senate? Not to be picky BUT he platform is based on the notion that he is a about change over Washington experience. I am sure there are plenty of Republicans from the outside that would like to join in on the fun!

Florida recently voted to move its primary date up to Jan. 29th which is earlier than the Democratic National Committee (DNC) allows. The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is looking over the issue and is expected to rule today that if Florida doesn’t change its date it will lose the count of its delegates in this years nominating process. The move would make visiting Florida virtually useless for the 2008 Democratic candidates.

Some Democrats like Sen. Hillary Clinton who is polling very well in the state say they will go “wherever elections are held” but the DNC may also impose penalties on candidates who violate this ruling and participate in non-binding primaries. Right now there are many other states looking to change their primary dates to an earlier time.

My take? This is a difficult issue because any candidates who ignore Florida risk offending voters for the general election but putting resources into a state whose vote isn’t part of the primary race will hurt their organization in other early primary states.

At the end of the day the DNC isn’t going to back down, Florida will have to or risk losing its voting status. I am of the mindset that a one-day national primary would be a better system but i’m probably in the minority there.