We just added a new page listing videos posted by and about some of the top Liberty Congress candidates. With the Ron Paul campaign being such a creature of the internet, it only makes sense for serious candidates to take advantage of the new media to get their message out.

It turns out that the list of candidates running active campaigns correlates highly with the list of candidates posting videos on the web. We took advantage of this situation by posting some donation links on that page. If you visit B. J. Lawson's Campaign Website, you will notice that he has posted an interactive widget much like Ron Paul's that includes a realtime update on donations and names of recent donors. Very nice!

Meanwhile I had the opportunity to talk a little bit about this website on the "Rule of Law" internet radio program. Here is a link to the show archives. I am the featured guest during Hour 1 of the January 11, 2008 show. I hope it's not too boring!

Murray Sabrin has announced that he is running for the U.S. Senate. Sabrin has run many times in New Jersey and is well known there for his anti-tax-and-spend stances. Not only is Murray running as a "Ron Paul Republican", but he has also received the rather rare honor of being endorsed by Ron Paul himself! That is based on a 25 year friendship as fellow travelers in the realm of academic study of finance and the economy. In fact, Murray is a Professor of Finance and wrote the book "Tax Free 2000" which gained a fair amount of attention when it was published.

We have added Mr. Sabrin as one of our Liberty Congress All Stars and proudly feature him on our home page. He replaces Jeff Flake who was recently dropped down a notch in grade when several astute readers suggested his views on foreign policy did not quit measure up to our ideals. Still Congressman Flake is a leading light in the battle for limited government and we have no problem recommending that he continue in office.

Meanwhile we have added a dozen other candidates and, as you can see on the new "in progress" page, we have many more on tap. We keep adding moderators and soon I expect they will be up to speed and cranking through the expanding list of politicians who share our vision for Peace, Liberty and Prosperity.

Thank you for your continued support. We are working hard on the site and we think that it is time to start spreading the word about what we are doing. To help make that happen we have made some more banners. Please try to get these posted on popular political websites and, if you have some artistic talent, please take a whirl at making some additional banners as well.

There are two new pages at Liberty Congress. One lists all the politicians in our database and presents them in alphabetically order by last name. The other groups the politicians by state. These pages, as well as our Ron Paul Endorsers page, now include thumbnail photos of the candidates. Also in development is a map-based interface to our candidates.

This blog has been updated too. There is now a functional feed, a search capability and a facebook app that you can use to put blog entries on your facebook profile. (We are working on a facebook app that will provide our standard candidate listings under facebook as well as an option to list selected candidates, such as the candidates from your home state, on your facebook profile.)

We still need more moderators as the number of candidates needing attention is mounting. At this moment we have listed over 50 candidates, but there are another 100 or so that need to be added right away. There should be hundreds more filing for office in the next month or so. If you would like to help moderate the content on this site, please send an email to moderator@libertycongress.org and tell us a bit about yourself.

The Ron Paul movement is internet savvy and so it makes perfect sense for Liberty Congress candidates to concentrate on posting effective websites, creating videos and doing other internet activities that can engage likely supporters and, ultimately, likely voters.

A Liberty Congress member who is helping lead the way in this regards is congressional candidate Theodore Terbolizard of California who has a YouTube Channel that includes plenty of discussion by the candidate about key issues facing our country. We have viewed a few of the videos already and have been favorably impressed. We may very well have to raise Ted's rating on Liberty Congress to Excellent!

Another novel activity is a joint podcast that Ted makes along with another Liberty Congress member, congressional candidate Dean Santoro of Florida. Called Congressional Coast to Coast, Episode 14 was just posted a couple of days ago. These audio only webcasts are also aired from time to time on Ron Paul Radio.

To keep up with the expected influx of video content, we are working to add a new "Video" section to our website. We are doing this as a way to spur our candidates to get busy and start creating the video content that they need to convince voters that they are worthy of support. The big money special interests and Old Media are generally not interested in our freedom message, so we need to spread the word through the internet in order to kickstart Liberty Congress campaigns.

One thing that candidates can do to separate themselves from the pack is to get involved with video production. First a little history...

Michael Maresco, who is probably best known as the Ron Paul Rider, really liked my concept for this website when I discussed it with him when he pedaled through my home town of Austin, Texas. That encouragement was the final straw that inspired me to get this site up and running.

Well Michael recently posted on the new Liberty Candidates section of the Ron Paul Forums about a candidate for congress in North Carolina named B. J. Lawson. After looking over Mr. Lawson's website I was compelled to add him right away as he is an excellent example of the kind of candidate that we need running for office.

But what made Mr. Lawson's site and candidacy particularly compelling were the excellent speeches that he made, videotaped and posted on his site. These videos definitely put him in the top echelon of the new breed of liberty candidates. I highly recommend that other liberty candidates follow suit if at all possible!

If you are a candidate that can't make a great speech or find some local help for making videos, there are still avenues available to you. A member of the Ron Paul Forums named Antonius Stone made this fine video piece highlighting some quotes from a number of fine Liberty candidates. I am sure that he would be able to add other liberty candidates to his future videos or perhaps work with an eager candidate to assemble a custom video of their own. If not Antonius, consider that there are thousands of videographers assembling Ron Paul videos for YouTube. Many would be happy to help out a liberty minded candidate.

So make it happen! This is a practical first step in making sure that the Ron Paul Revolution has an impact on the critical elections that are taking place further down the ballot during 2008.

I just found out that one of our Liberty Congress All-Stars -- New Jersey State Assemblyman Michael J. Doherty -- was interviewed by USA Daily last month. Check it out!

Liberty Congress now has evaluated 40 candidates for your benefit. We have identified another 40 to add to the site during the next week. Somehow we think that is still just the beginning and so we have decided to recruit one or two more people to serve as site moderators. If you think that you might be up to the task, then please go through some of the notes that we have already posted on some of the candidates (which may be next to nothing in some cases) and let us know how we could improve them. That will give us a sense for your writing skills and your political thinking process.

We are also working on further improvements to the look of the site. Look for thumbnails, state flags and other useful eye candy to make the site easier to use and easier on the eyes.

Finally let us know what you think of our first crack at a banner for advertising the site. If you decide to copy the image and use it with a link to out site, let us know that as well. If you think you can make a better one, have at it! We would love to see what you come up with.

We love to hear that Ron Paul inspired candidates are signing up in bunches. Here is a report about Maryland's new candidates including 6 for the U.S. Congress. This news coverage was quickly topped by this piece on the Washington Post website.

Way to go Maryland!