ELECTION MANIPULATION: NEVADA GOP SABOTAGES RON PAUL DELEGATE VOTE

May 2, 2008

World Affairs Brief, May 2, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief ( http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com )

ELECTION MANIPULATION: NEVADA GOP SABOTAGES RON PAUL DELEGATE VOTE

The Republican Party has a real problem with Ron Paul. He just won’t go away quietly. He is still a candidate for President. He hasn’t conceded or dropped out–despite media wishful thinking. Best of all, he refuses to endorse front runner John McCain, the worst warmongering candidate of the entire Republican field. Frankly, Dr. Paul both scares and embarrasses the Republican leadership. They are afraid that if he gets any momentum or significant number of delegates to the convention they will have to let him make a major address on prime time TV and thus more converts. And, Dr. Paul is certainly capable of making converts. He takes all the traditional positions the Republican Party was built upon and that core Republican voters love: small and limited federal government, low regulation, non-aggressive foreign policy, honest money, anti-abortion, and pro-family values. The Republican National Committee wants him to go away so they can get on with the promotion of Sen. John McCai n-a totally dishonest and corrupt insider, according to his own son–and continue the hidden globalist agenda which now rules the Party at the highest levels. This week in the Nevada GOP convention, the party leadership shut down the convention when it became obvious that Ron Paul supporters outnumbered those loyal to party leaders who wanted to elect only McCain delegates to the national convention–even though Romney won the primary and Paul came in second, above McCain. It’s as if they are saying, “If we don’t like the results of the vote, we’ll adjourn till we can muster enough of our people to outnumber you!”

Here’s the best account of what happened by C. Bunce of the Daily Paul online newsletter. It is specific enough to show my readers just how evil this really was and who did it [edited for clarity].

“On Saturday April 26th , 2008, in Reno Nevada, the Republican State convention came to order with a set agenda and rigged rules to basically give complete control of the Delegate process to the party. The original rules would have only allowed for a set list of people that could be chosen as a whole to represent the state. This slate was created by a small group of people and were never published, and even as we began the convention were not known.

“This was the first attempt to keep complete control of the delegate selection process. After three hours of [debate], the convention modified the delegate selection process to allow anyone to run for a national delegate position. Three would be chosen from each of the three Congressional District and twenty-two from the entire body by each person voting for twenty-two people.

“It was lunch at that point in time, giving two hours for the next play to be planned. Upon reconvening from lunch at 2:27pm, [the party] wasted no time in unfurling a new plan, which was to not vote for twenty-two people at large (that would take far to much time), but instead vote for only five. Anybody with an eighth grade math understanding would know this was intended to cut our voting by four. This just rejected by the convention getting with a 75% rejection vote.

“At this time we split into three districts and began to vote on delegates, this only took about an hour and went rather smoothly in district three and one. District two was continually delayed because of a dispute of whether a printed ballot was acceptable or a handwritten one… After this we came back and began to debate planks on the floor.

“From our previous count from observers in the rooms of Congressional District’s 1 and 3, Paul Supporters had won all three delegates spots in District 3 and one Paul supporter in District 1. The counts of these districts took about 30 minutes after voting was completed. The 2nd District was taking very long to complete and no one could understand the delay of more then an hour. Information from observers within its count room relayed that Paul supporters had swept its three delegates as well. This meant that Paul Supporters took 7 out of 9 possible Congressional District delegates to the National Convention.

“The person walking from the counting room made a straight line to State Chairwoman Sue Lowden, leaning over and whispering into her ear. After the person walked off Sue sat there for about 30 seconds tapping her foot and then stood up and walked over to Councilman Woodbury who was sitting in front of me, leaning over she said, ‘If we can break Quorum, can we invalidate this?’ After saying this rather loudly and glancing at the expression on my face she quickly quieted down and I was unable to hear the rest of the conversation.

“I figured out what would constitute a quorum in this convention of 1347 delegates–674 delegates. Soon after Chairwoman Lowden left, a John McCain staffer, Paul Johnson, came by. I had been gathering signs and information from him all day, and he believed I was a hardcore McCain supporter… He began his conversation with, ‘They [presumably the Ron Paul supporters] are trying to pull a coup, we are going to leave and quarter the convention.’ I responded, ‘Do we even have the numbers, all they need is a couple hundred to keep Quorum?’ He answered back, ‘The powers that be [NOTE: the insiders know the term and use it] have the numbers, I am just doing what I was told to do by my boss.’ At this moment I knew that they had lost control of the convention and were desperate.

“I watched the party officers directly in front of me huddling up with the parliamentarian and trying to come up with something. Soon after this huddle, the party began to filibuster the convention [purposely taking up time] filling it with videos and speakers over a course of 60 minutes. During this time Sue Lowden began barking at Chairman Bob Beers, and I could clearly see Chairman Beers not agreeing with what she was telling him. First it was just her talking to him, but by the fourth time he stepped off the stage, eight people were surrounding him and pressuring him, which I can only assume was to end the convention, since that is what happened next.

“When he returned to the stage for the last time, Chairman Beers ended the convention illegally calling an indefinite recess without a vote of the delegation to do so, at 6 pm. This was not before their first plan of ending the convention was attempted to be put into play by a member that was not informed calling for a Quorum which we would still have had. But Beers interrupted him saying, ‘I will save you some time’, and called the indefinite recess. Later it was claimed to be the end of the contract of the room. But upon request from the Hotel they gladly gave us three more hours for free.

“After five seconds of pure silence, disbelief, and confusion, a once consistently civil and controlled convention was thrown into ten minutes of anarchy, while the party [leaders] vacated the room out the back doors. Bob Bears attempted to speak with an angry mob with little to no avail before leaving. After this occurred we attempted to reconvene the meeting but fell 70 people short of a quorum.” Too bad.

What was done in Nevada is merely a prelude to what will happen at the national convention in Minneapolis MN on September 1-4. National GOP leaders will attempt to marginalize Dr. Paul since he “can’t win.” They may even try to avoid a vote and proclaim McCain the candidate by acclamation. That means dedicating the entire convention to McCain and his potential Vice Presidents ignoring Paul’s challenge. I spoke with Ron about the convention and he feels confident they will treat him fairly. He says the GOP national chairman Mike Duncan was very friendly to him on the phone. I think that’s all a ploy to disarm the good doctor. I think we will see Dr. Paul completely sidelined at the convention. Even the RNC website speaks only about building the team necessary to see John McCain elected president. They act as if there will be no contest at the convention.

In light of these developments, not at all unexpected, I’m going to recommend that all Ron Paul supporters continue to seek to become delegates to the GOP convention and to be prepared to embarrass the party if it continues to deny Dr. Paul a voice. That said, we must also be prepared to fight on under a third party banner after the Republicans reject Dr. Paul. Under no circumstances should constitutional conservatives vote for John McCain as the “lesser of two evils.” There is no such thing anymore among the major party candidates.

CHUCK BALDWIN WINS CONSTITUTION PARTY NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT

I was delighted to hear that Pastor Chuck Baldwin won the Constitution Party nomination for president over the very talented Alan Keyes. Alan Keyes is a good man. He ran against Barak Obama for the Senate race in Illinois, but his being part of the black minority didn’t help him garner any endorsements from the establishment. He was TOO conservative and the media hates black conservatives. Keyes is a dynamic speaker with few peers, but (in my opinion) sometimes plays to the audience too much with catchy phrases designed mostly to drum up applause and trigger religious fervor-at the expense of more substantive discussions. These kinds of speeches play well to the conservative-Christian choir and provide political excitement, but ultimately narrows the candidates appeal by turning away those who aren’t interested in organized religion or who are suspicious of a flamboyant preacher-type style.

In the brief of April 18th, I brought up the problem of the traditional political approach of the Constitutional Party being too narrowly focused on its core supporters–all ardent evangelical Christians. If the party is going to grow it needs to more closely emulate Ron Paul’s approach by championing liberty for all without excessive religious rhetoric in speeches–which makes non religious conservatives uncomfortable about using the role of government to enforce religious values (where there is no violation of fundamental rights to life, liberty, property and family covenants).

Those who know my political writings know that I do support an elected officials’ right to make reference to and appeal to God (even in prayer) as part of his service to the nation, but he should do so judiciously and sincerely since pushing God openly is a favored political ploy of the most ungodly politicians. Bill Clinton, for example, would use the name of God (in vain, of course) just to impress naive Christians. Then there is George Bush Jr., wily enough to verbally support being “Born Again” while maintaining his furtive allegiance to with the satanic power cult/club Skull and Bones.

I’ll take an honest, straight-talking statesman like Ron Paul, who follows conscience in his daily walk with Christ, than one of the many charismatic televangelist preachers like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Billy Graham and others who compromise with the world in order to gained access to high level establishment leaders. The personal prestige that gained by such associations is illusory. The establishment despises religious leaders who seek their approval and fail to see they are being played the fool.

Chuck Baldwin is different than most other religious leaders: He pastors his flock with the whole truth, not just the part they want to hear. Baldwin has built up the Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola Florida by preaching a lot of tough truths, including the proper principles of law and government and ably defending them against all challengers. He has not shrunk from attacking even the acts of conspiring men in high office, including presidents, congressmen and judges.

Baldwin’s influence in not, however, limited to his church. He has long maintained an outreach to the world at www.chuckbaldwinlive.com, giving his unique brand of leadership and commentary to anyone on the web who will hear. I’ve long been a recipient of his email missives and can only recall one minor area of disagreement.

This is not mere begrudging acknowledgment. Baldwin is enjoyable to read. He always gets right to the point. You come away feeling satisfied when he comments on any subject. I’ve also had the privilege of hearing him speak. He is well spoken and his ideas are substantive. His demeanor is always interesting but never flamboyant. As with Ron Paul, you immediately sense this is a totally honest man, someone you can trust. I’ve never heard him trying to weasel around sensitive issues like politicians do in a question and answer session.

I don’t think Baldwin comes to this task seeking personal glory. He has no burning personal ambitions like Mitt Romney that will cause him to compromise in order to gain favor with benefit-corrupted voters. For Baldwin it will be a very great personal sacrifice, done out of a passion for liberty and no small “fire of discontent” over what is happening to our country. Here are excerpts from Baldwins first statement on the important issues.

On War: “If I were President, I would begin the process of safely extracting our troops from Iraq. In the first place, our troops are no longer fighting a war, they are an occupation force, which occupies a sovereign country. And this is being done without a Declaration of War. In the second place, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was absolutely unnecessary. Instead of sacrificing more than 4,000 American lives and the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens (not to mention some 2-3 trillion dollars), President Bush should have supported Ron Paul’s bill, H.R. 3076, the September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001. This is the constitutional way to deal with rogue terrorist organizations.

Illegal Immigration: Furthermore, it is absolutely ludicrous to say we are fighting a war on terror half way around the world when we refuse to secure our borders and ports. If I were President, I would immediately seal our borders. I would also see to it that employers in America who knowingly hire illegal aliens are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In plain language: any employer who consciously hires illegal aliens would go to jail. They would not pass Go; they would not collect $200; they would go straight to jail. By sealing the borders and by cutting off the money supply to illegal aliens, the problem of illegal immigration would dry up. As it is, we have no idea how many potential terrorists–not to mention violent gang members such as MS-13–have snuck (and are sneaking) through our borders. And speaking of illegal immigration, as President, I would enforce our visa rules. This means anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law is immediately deported. There would be no “path to citizenship” given to any illegal alien. That means no amnesty. Not in any shape, manner, or form. I would not allow tax dollars to be used to pay for illegal aliens’ education, social services, or medical care. As President, I would end birthright citizenship for illegal aliens. There would be no “anchor babies” during my administration.

Abortion: If I were President, I would use the bully pulpit of the White House to encourage Congress to pass Congressman Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act. In short, this bill would do two things: First, it would declare that unborn babies are persons under the law. Second, under the authority of Article. III. Section. 2. of the U.S. Constitution, it would remove abortion from the jurisdiction of the Court. In essence, this bill would immediately overturn Roe v. Wade and end legalized abortion… And if Congress refused to pass Dr. Paul’s bill, I would use the constitutional power of the Presidency to deny funds to protect abortion clinics. Either way, legalized abortion ends when I take office.

Foreign Policy: On the subject of foreign policy, as President, I would end foreign aid. I would also end the current infatuation with nation-building, empire-building, and interventionism. America is not the world’s policeman. Neither are our military personnel the personal militia of the United Nations. Remember that President Bush told the U.N. in 2003 that the reason we invaded Iraq was for the purpose of securing the “peace and credibility of the United Nations.” (I lie not; that is what he said.) … as President, I would withhold funds from the support of the United Nations. In other words, I would get the U.S. out of the U.N. Beyond that, when I move into the White House, the U.N.’s rent is up! They move out of New York City post haste. By the same token, there is absolutely no reason for us to be in NATO. We should not be antagonizing Russia by attempting to expand NATO… It is time that we recognize the very serious threat that China poses to th e peac e and security of the United States. Our trade practices serve only to allow corporate America to continue to invest in what will surely become an albatross around the neck of our well-being. We must discontinue the practice of allowing China to export its cheap products to the U.S. with no protection for America’s jobs and manufacturing, not to mention the lack of protection for our safety. This must stop, and it will stop when I become President. “Free trade” will no longer mean a free ride for Red China.

National Sovereignty: as President, I would take the preservation of our nation’s sovereignty and independence extremely seriously. This means that the burgeoning North American Union is dead on arrival the day I am sworn in as President. Gone, too, is the NAFTA superhighway. And for that matter, I would lead the United States out of NAFTA and CAFTA altogether. And any prospect for the FTAA would be dead as well.

Gun Rights: As President, I would be the best friend that gun owners (and lawful gun dealers), homeschoolers, and veterans ever had in the White House. These are three of the most persecuted, harassed, or overlooked groups of people in the country. But not if I were President.

Veterans and MIAs: There is no reason why our veterans should wait for weeks and months to receive the medical care they need. It is disgraceful that we would ask our brave men and women of the U.S. armed forces to fight our country’s battles and then leave them to pretty much fend for themselves when it comes to receiving adequate health care. I would make taking care of our veterans an extremely high priority. If I were President, I would also do everything in my power to locate and retrieve any and all MIAs. I personally believe that there are hundreds of our servicemen who are yet being held against their will in various parts of the world. I would make finding them and bringing them home of utmost priority.

Corporate subsidies and federal departments: On the home front, if I were President, I would end corporate welfare. I would also work to disband the Department of Energy (along with the Department of Education and many other federal departments).

Energy: There is absolutely no reason for us to be dependent upon OPEC. There is enough gas and oil under the soil of Alaska (not to mention the Dakotas and the Gulf of Mexico) to meet the energy needs of the United States for the next 150-200 years. There is also no reason that gas should cost more than $1.50 a gallon (which is about what it was before Bush became President).We must begin drilling for the domestic oil that we know exists; we must build more refineries and nuclear power plants. There is no reason why the United States cannot be mostly energy independent. It is time we started putting the people and interests of the United States ahead of the CEOs and interests of international corporations.

Taxes and Sound Money: Lastly, if I were President, I would work feverishly to overturn the Sixteenth Amendment, which would repeal the Income Tax. And, no, I would not promote a national sales tax. That would be disastrous! Can you imagine what a 30% sales tax would do to the cost of EVERYTHING? Plus, give politicians a national sales tax to increase and just imagine what kind of percent that would grow into! I would also work to repeal the ‘death tax,’ inheritance taxes, and property taxes. The American people are already paying somewhere between 30% and 40% of their income to Uncle Sam. It must stop. We are bankrupting our country with this incessant and burdensome tax system. In addition, I would work to expunge the Federal Reserve and to restore the American economy to sound money.

“I enthusiastically supported Ron Paul during the Republican Primary season. I plan to continue to trumpet his call for limited government, non-interventionism abroad, constitutional government, and freedom into the general election as a Third Party candidate. I do not expect the national media to pay us much heed; they seldom do. I do not expect to receive large donations from corporate America. I do expect criticism and ridicule. That is nothing new. However, I also anticipate tens of thousands of freedom-loving people from all religious persuasions and walks of life to rally to our cause. Why? Because thousands of principled people will not be bullied into voting for the ‘evil of two lessers’ being shoved down our throats by the two major parties. Because this campaign is not about Chuck Baldwin. It is not about a political party. It is about freedom. It is about constitutional government. It is about restoring America to the founding principles bequeathed to us by our Foundi ng Fathers. If you believe in those principles, join us!”

Ron Paul was right about this movement being larger than him. But we still need a champion at the head that is capable of inspiring confidence and expanding the movement. As Ron Paul goes back to Congress to continue the fight there, I believe Chuck Baldwin is the person to continue the fight during this election cycle and beyond. Remember, it isn’t winning this one election that is crucial. We’re building a movement, a remnant of principled believers that will be willing to stand as a wall against this ultimate battle against evil. That last stand will be more than a political maneuver. Chuck Baldwin has the full range of understanding and capabilities to move this movement forward and deserves your support. I would encourage all of you to begin the process of becoming acquainted with Baldwin so that you can inform you friends and neighbors. You can donate to Baldwin’s non-political causes here http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/donate.php His official presidential campaign website (coming soon) will be http://www.baldwin2008.com In the meantime, people can write personal checks for campaign contributions to: Baldwin 2008, P.O. Box 131, Palmyra, New Jersey 08065

In contrast to the honesty and independence of a Baldwin campaign, a small story emerged from Judicial Watch that John McCain has accepted illegal foreign support and foreign financial contributions to his campaign–from the Rothchilds no less. “At issue is a fundraising luncheon held in March at London’s Spencer House, during McCain’s swing through the United Kingdom. An invitation to the event lists Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild as hosts, and indicates the event was made possible with their ‘kind permission’… US political campaigns are forbidden from accepting contributions from foreign nationals.” Don’t expect him to be prosecuted for it.


Ron Paul Nevada Delegates Voted to National Convention Before Recess

May 2, 2008

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Ron Paul supporters not lining up behind McCain

May 2, 2008
STAYIN’ ALIVE

Ron Paul supporters not lining up behind McCain

May 2, 2008

As far as John McCain is concerned, the Republican presidential nomination is a done deal and the party is united behind him. But thousands of Republicans — particularly supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul — aren’t buying that.

In the Pennsylvania primary, more than 215,000 Republicans cast ballots for Paul or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who together captured 27% of the vote.

And that was tame compared with the uproar last weekend at Nevada’s Republican Party Convention.

About 600 well-organized Paul supporters overwhelmed McCain’s forces and engineered a rule change that permitted national convention delegates to be nominated from the floor, wresting the task from party leaders.

That evening, party leaders unexpectedly adjourned the session, saying the proceedings would take too long to finish that night.

But tongues were set wagging about whether the adjournment was a maneuver to save McCain from the embarrassment of being swamped by Paul delegates.

Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the fracas reflected, among other things, that McCain had “yet to capture the hearts and minds of Nevada Republicans.”

All of which suggests there might be some drama at the GOP’s national convention in September after all.

Maeve Reston


What Really Happened at the Nevada Convention

April 28, 2008

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/47172

Posted April 28th, 2008 by cbunce

Out Classed and Out of Options…

Politics is a never-ending game, which has little to no rules, and the rules that do exist can change at anytime. You can choose to start, or stop playing this game at anytime, but no matter how you play this game it comes down who has the most people who care.

On Saturday April 26th , 2008, in Reno Nevada, the Republican State convention came to order with a set agenda and rigged rules to basically give complete control of the Delegate process to the party. The original rules would have only a set list of people that could be chosen as a whole to represent the state called a slate. These slates were created by a small group of people and were never published, and even as we began the convention were not known.

This was the first attempt to keep complete control of the delegate selection process. After three hours of explaining how this was not representative of the convention as a body, the convention modified the delegate selection process to allow anyone to run for a national delegate position. Three would be chosen from each of the three Congressional District and twenty-two from the entire body by each person voting for twenty-two people.

It was lunch at that point in time, giving two hours for the next play to be planned. Upon reconvening from lunch at 2:27pm, no time was wasted to unfurl this plan, which was instead of breaking up into districts to make sure at least three from each one was elected, the party would be kind enough to move around arbitrarily alternates to delegate positions to ensure “a fair distribution”, even better we shouldn’t vote for twenty-two people at large because that would take far to much time, but instead vote for only five. Which took anybody with an eighth grade math understanding to know this was intended to divide our vote by four because in order to vote for twenty people you needed four people now instead of one. So this just was obliterated by the convention getting over a 75% rejection vote.

At this time we split into three districts and began to vote on delegates, this only took about an hour and went rather smoothly in district three and one. District two was continually delayed because of a dispute of whether a printed ballot was acceptable or a handwritten one was, somehow handwritten equals easier to handle to the those that ran the voting for district two. After this we came back and began to debate planks on the floor.

It was two hours in the making, the start of which was a person coming from the count room of the 2nd Congressional District of Nevada, which was the last of three districts to be counted. From our count observers in the rooms of Congressional District’s 1 and 3, Paul Supporters had won all three delegates spots in District 3 and one Paul supporter in District 1. The counts of these districts took about 30 minutes after voting was completed. The 2nd District was taking very long to complete and no one could understand the delay of more then an hour, information from observers within its count room relayed that Paul Supporters had swept its three delegates as well. This meant that Paul Supporters took 7 out of 9 possible Congressional District delegates to the National Convention.

The person walking from the counting room took a straight line to State Chairwoman Sue Lowden, leaning over and whispering into her ear. After the person walked off Sue sat there for about 30 seconds tapping her foot and then stood up and walked over to Councilman Woodbury who was sitting in front of me, leaning over she said, “If we can break Quorum, can we invalidate this?” After saying this rather loudly and glancing at the expression on my face she quickly quieted down and I was unable to hear the rest of the conversation.

I sat in a dazed confusion for about five minutes trying to figure out what quorum was in this convention of 1347 delegates, which was 674 delegates. Soon after Chairwomen Lowden left, a John McCain staffer, Paul Johnson, came by. I had been gathering signs and information from him all day, and he believed I was a hardcore McCain supporter. He came up to me and got on one knee as if to propose his undying love. He began his conversation with, “They are trying to pull a coup, we are going to leave and quarter the convention.” I responded, “Do we even have the numbers, all they need is a couple hundred to keep Quorum?” He answered back, “The powers that be have the numbers, I am just doing what I was told to do by my boss.” At this moment I knew that they had lost control of the convention and were desperate. About an hour went by before they finally figured out they did not have enough people to pull off this little stunt.

I watched the party officers directly in front of me huddling up with the parliamentarian and trying to come up with something. Soon after this huddle, the party began to filibuster the convention filling it with videos and speakers over a course of 60 minutes. During this time Sue Lowden began barking at Chairman Bob Beers, and I could clearly see Chairmen Beers not agreeing with what she was telling him. First it was just her talking to him, then after going on and off stage to present the next video or speaker, three people gathered around him, by the fourth time he stepped off the stage, eight people were surrounding and pressuring him, which I can only assume was to end the convention, being that was the next thing that happened when he returned to the stage.
When he returned to the stage for the last time, Chairmen Beers ended the convention illegally calling an indefinite recess without a vote of the delegation to do so, at 6 pm. This was not before their first plan of ending the convention was attempted to be put into play by a member that was not informed calling for a Quorum which we would still have had. But Beers interrupted him saying, “I will save you some time”, and called the indefinite recess. Later it was claimed to be the end of the contract of the room. But upon request from the Hotel they gladly gave us three more hours for free.

After five second of pure silence, disbelief, and confusion, a once consistently civil and controlled convention was thrown into ten minutes of anarchy, while the party vacated the room out the back doors. Bob Bears attempted to speak with an angry mob with little to no avail before leaving.

After this occurred we attempted to reconvene the meeting but fell 70 people short of a quorum.
This series of events leaves me with the understanding that the opinions and concerns of how Nevada Republicans want our government to work, do not matter. The only concern is that we fuel the inner party through our donations. Am I to understand that the people of Nevada are to have no representation and take marching orders from the Republican National Committee, that is two thousand miles away? To accept whatever they tell us, even if it is to support a man that never came to Nevada or would even agree to a conference call to discuss local positions on things such as Yucca Mountain. We know nothing about his positions that would affect the state in which we are to represent as delegates. When asked to come and talk before the January Caucasus, his Clark County staffer told us that he was not concerned with Nevada and would pick up delegates in May if he needed them. So we as a state are supposed to bow down and support a man who does not support our state?

We must complete a process of debate and discussion until we complete the National Delegate process. Being dictated to from people two thousand miles away is reminiscent of some of the central causes of the beginning of our great nation. So like a spoiled child the Nevada GOP officers, after being out played and without any other options they just kicked over the table and went home.

Richard Bunce
Las Vegas, NV
output


Report from Nevada GOP Convention

April 27, 2008

Ernest Hancock
Website: www.ernesthancock.com
Date: 04-26-2008
Subject: Presidential Campaigns for 2008 – United States

(UPDATES ADDED at end as news comes in)

HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO BET THAT THE NEVADA STATE GOP CALL THE CONVENTION BACK TO ORDER SUNDAY MORNING? – Think the Ron Paul supporters will hear about it? – I’ll bet the rules allow them to call it with as few as however many delegates they need. So even 50 Ron Paul Supporters there might be good insurance,… but then you’d have to find the Denny’s they are at :)

1417 is the number of credentialed delegates that can vote and a quorum is 709.
(Comment by: kedinger
Entered on: 2008-04-26 20:30:33
The number of seated delegates was 1347, the larger number was the total attendees with delegates, press, and guests.)
At the beginning of the Convention the State GOP/McCain campaign tried to limit who could be considered delegates (this is how they determined who was _not_ on that list “Nevada GOP Plays Games Ahead of State Convention by Brock Lorber“). This prompted a floor fight that went on for hours. The record crowd wondered why they were there if the people to be voted on were already predetermined.
Already the 3 congressional districts national delegates are… (3 delegates for each Congressional District) One district has awarded all 3 to Ron Paul, the second district went, One for Ron Paul, One for John McCain and One for NV. US Senator John Ensign and the third congressional district is unknown since the convention authorities won’t tell.

Nevada State Senator Bob Beers is also permanent chair of the convention. He approached the podium at 6pm banged gavel and said we lost the room, we’re in recess and have to figure out another way another time to elect the remaining 22 delegates to the national convention and left the room…. but a quorum was present and the people were not finished :)

After the hotel stated that they had no problem with another 3 hours of room use someone tried turning off the lights.
After running off as many as possible during the confusion the lights started coming back on. Ron Paul supporters are now getting as many back as possible to get the 709 needed to continue to vote for the 22 more delegates that need to be elected.
The lights are back on and now the microphones are coming back on and the convention chair is being asked to take a qurorum count,…. Bob Beers is nowhere to be found soooo….
Brock Lorber our on the scene correspondent (and delegate) will call me back with more shortly :) . I’ll get it to you as I hear about it while I am now in Washington DC (gott’a love the Internet and modern communications :)
====
Brock just called and said that the convention chair refused to reappear. A quorum call was taken and they were short of the 709 by over 100 (I think he said 580 something). Observers to the congressional delegate count told them the numbers of the delegates from the congressional delegates for the two districts that they were involved in but the third district ballots have been confiscated by the GOP and sealed and so have the other two congressional districts without an official report to the convention.
Now the remaining 500+ delegates to the convention are acting as a ‘Committee of the Whole’ to verify WHAT THE HELL IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
I talked to several Ron Paul delegates at the convention that confirmed how the State GOP tried multiple methods to limit which delegates were to be selected from and when that didn’t work their next tactic was to drag out the process as long as possible to claim that there was no more time and end the process. Once this was done all of the McCain/GOP suits left.
I was also told that CSPAN began covering the Convention but soon left after it was clear that it was getting more complicated than could be rationally explained on TV.
Brock called again to say that a second call for a quorum was taken and it fell short. When it was clear that it was over and the delegates began to leave they found over 50 people standing in another room wanting to be around in case there was a quorum met but didn’t want it to happen so they hid :)
Nevada State Senator Bob Beers, convention chair, told Brian Komisky (Ron Paul’s Southern Nevada chair) that most likely the convention will come out of recess in Las Vegas… (Mitt Romney was there to support McCain so maybe he and his supporters have a plan to meet at a secure location)
========
9:30pm update (Nevada Time)
Confirmed by delegates who witnessed a conversation between the state party chairwoman, Sue Lowden at just before 6pm, with counters from the counting room and McCain functionaries that of the 9 Congressional Delegates up for grabs – 7 had gone to Ron Paul. These numbers were told to the state party chair and the McCain campaign people implored the chair to stop the State Convention. Soon after this conversation the Convention chair, Nevada US Senator Bob Beers, put the Convention in recess and the lights were turned off.
A 5th delegate in attendance just reported to me that just before 6pm there were several women running through the crowd looking for McCain supporters. Declaring to be a McCain supporter she was told that they all had to get out of the convention hall immediately. The delegate argued that a lot of party business was yet to be finished (Platform, delegates etc.) but was told that they would conduct business by email if they had to but that the Ron Paul people had taken over the convention and they had to get under the number needed to have a quorum.
Another delegate told me that they heard the Convention chair, Nevada State Senator Bob Beers say, “I’ll save you the trouble, I’m making the announcement that we are out of time”.
I’m really looking forward to the details of how a bunch of “non-existant” freedom supporters exposed the GOP for what it is. THIS is the WIN that I have been working very hard for. It is the “system” that is the enemy (and the Bad Guys that always wind up in charge of it).
Another update: The RNC was involved :)

(this article ” The Games are Afoot in Nevada ” is good prep for what was behind what this guy is describing happened)
YouTube Video by FurkDaJerk
Ron Paul – ABSOLUTE ANARCHY IN RENO, NV – Anarchy Part 1
Ron Paul campaign dominates convention – The Las Vegas Sun (the following day news)
The Bad Guys are sooo not use to this Internet thing,… which is why they _Got to Tax/Regulate and destroy it_
We sooo need a R3VOLUTION


Ron Paul – Reno, Nevada – GOP Convention – 8/26/08

April 27, 2008


The Paul Vote

April 25, 2008

The Paul Vote

by Bruce Ramsey

The campaign may be winding down, but the movement is far from finished.

As I write, Ron Paul has scaled down his campaign for president and gone back to Texas to defend his seat in Congress — which he should. The votes are in — enough of them. He is not going to be president, and we do need to have at least one avowed libertarian in Congress.

Bruce Ramsey is a journalist in Seattle.

Liberty never inhaled the smoke that deluded some into believing that Rep. Paul could win the Republican nomination for president. It began after the debate of May 15, 2007, when Rudy Giuliani tried to indict Paul for the crime of blaming America by criticizing the war in Iraq, and the internet cheered for Paul. Later, Paul won mock primary elections on myspace.com (with 37%) and facebook.com (40%).

The applause for Ron Paul! Ron Paul! came also from crowds of the sort that Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain did not have. Paul did not attract Barack Obama-sized crowds — let us admit that — but among Republicans the fervor of the Paulistas was unrivaled. I was at a rally in Seattle in September. Paul pulled a thousand fans into the Westin Hotel: old rightists, computer geeks, students, and just plain folks. The head of the state party stood by the doorway, feeling out of place in his pin-striped suit, marveling at the turnout.

At InTrade, the internet bookie, a bet on the nomination of Ron Paul was rising from below 1-in-100 in May 2007, steadily upward. By late September, a Paul nomination was trading at 5.2, which was higher than McCain’s. The bet price of Paul kept rising, hitting 9 after his “money bomb” in early November, slumping to 5, and hitting 9 again in December, with the success of his second money bomb. Paul ended the year trading at 8.

Then, on Jan. 3, 2008, came the first caucus, Iowa — in which Paul got a 10% vote. Here was reality. For a candidate as radical as Paul, 10% was a good showing, but the “investors” were expecting something higher than that. His InTrade price collapsed. A week later came Jamie Kirchick’s slime attack in the New Republic (See “Is There a Racist in the House?” Liberty, April 2008). The damage had already been done: the Paul dirigible had been deflated by the election returns.

By late February, Paul’s InTrade quote was back to 1. So much for the superior judgment of markets. A market does reflect what participants know — and also what they hope and believe.

Paul’s fans cursed the media. “This blackout is systematic and it is self conscious,” wrote former Paul aide Gary North on LewRockwell.com. It did seem like a blackout sometimes, particularly on Fox News, and being in the media industry I know that most editors never took Paul seriously. But there was reason for that. The purpose of an election is to choose a winner, and it was obvious that Paul was not going to win. He is a radical in a non-radical nation. That is not the kind of candidate who suddenly appeals to great masses of voters who have no ideology and are only vaguely paying attention. Huckabee was that kind of candidate; he could zoom from no place to the top of the heap; then poof! Barack Obama is quintessentially that kind of candidate — and most likely will be the next president of the United States.

Paul did, in fact, get a fair amount of coverage. He got more than Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo, and he started with about the same chances they had. He got more than Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, or Mike Gravel. He earned attention because of the internet polls, the money bombs, and the crowds chanting Ron Paul! Ron Paul!

The Paulistas who kept bellyaching at the press seemed to think that their man had an egalitarian right to the same air time as Mitt Romney. My word to them: Tanstaafl. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. You’ve got to earn it. Ron Paul would have received more favorable attention — and a whole lot more unfavorable attention — if more Americans had voted for him.

By late February, Paul’s InTrade quote was back to 1. So much for the superior judgment of markets.

The voters have spoken in many states. As with all candidates of strong belief, Paul did better in the caucus states — where participation requires support at a public meeting — than in those with a convenient secret ballot. At press time, he had done the best in the following caucus states, with the percentages applying either to the participants voting or to the delegates they elected: Montana 25%, Washington 22%, North Dakota 21%, Maine 19%, Alaska 17%, and Minnesota 16%.

These states are all on the Canadian border. Paul, who is from the Gulf Coast of Texas, apparently peaked at the 49th parallel.

In primary elections, Paul did best in New Hampshire 8%, the District of Columbia 8%, Washington state 7%, New York 7%, Michigan 6%, Maryland 6%, and Tennessee 6%. (Washington state has caucuses and a primary, and in its primary, Paul did best — over 11.5% — in five rural eastern counties, including four on that mysterious Canadian border.)

In primary elections, he did his worst in the Deep South, pulling 3 or 4% in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. He also pulled 3% in the most Republican state, Utah — but that is also the Mormon state, favoring Romney. Paul won only 4% of the Republican vote in McCain’s home state, Arizona, and the same in California. His best showing in California, 11%, was in Alpine County in the Sierras.

[table]

Paul actually won in some county caucuses. In Nevada, where he took 14% of the caucus vote overall, he won in Nye County, a large, thinly populated territory (two people per square mile) that includes legal bordellos, gold mines, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, and the home of Liberty contributing editors Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, who moved there because it didn’t require building permits. Paul took four scattered counties (Blue Earth, Lincoln, Meeker, and Red Lake) in Minnesota, and several in Montana.

Who were the Paul supporters? Probably many were like the voters labeled generic libertarians in various surveys. Writing in the Cato Policy Analysis of Oct. 18, 2006, David Boaz and David Kirby used data from the Gallup Organization, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, and American National Election Studies to estimate the libertarian voter at 13% of the electorate. Qualifications were not rigorous. According to Pew, generic libertarians tend to be male (59%), young, and white. In regard to race, religion, education, and income, Pew’s demographic portrait of generic libertarians is much like its portrait of generic liberals (more white, less religious, possessed of more education and income), except that most liberals are women.

Pew’s survey of New Hampshire voters before the primary showed Paul running at 3% among women and 14% among men.

The Paul attendees at the Iowa caucuses also skewed toward men, and they tended to be young, less religious, and better educated than the average. Yet, although Paul supporters there were of all income levels, they were located disproportionately toward the lower end of the income scale.

I note that in the state of Washington, Paul’s best counties are among the poorest in the state. They are places of rugged living — small ranches, orchards, and hardscrabble farms, logging operations and gold mines. They are places where people go to live off by themselves. So are Nye County, Nevada, and Sierra County, California. So is Montana, and so is Maine. So is Alaska.

Paul actually won some county caucuses. Who were the Paul supporters? Many were like the voters labeled generic libertarians in various surveys: male, young, and white.

That is not to say that most of Paul’s vote is from such places. Alpine, pop. 1,200, is the least populated county in California. Paul won a much smaller percentage of voters in San Francisco, but he got more votes in San Francisco because there are many more people — and more libertarians — there. It is the same with the states: the total Paul turnout in Montana — about 400 — could fit into a middle-school gymnasium.

The Paul phenomenon has divided professional libertarians. The Cato Institute has mostly ignored it — either because the Cato people are embarrassed by Paul’s nationalist rhetoric over the supposed North American Union and by other trappings of conservatism, such as his stand on abortion and immigration, or because they don’t want to tie themselves to someone who’s going to lose, or because their attorneys warn them about losing their 501(c)(3) status.

At LewRockwell.com, where Cato is derided as a corral of “beltway libertarians,” enthusiasm for Paul has been so great that Rockwell had to agree, last summer, to give up 501(c)(3) status.

Rockwell was Paul’s chief of staff decades ago, and has been cheering for Paul at high decibels.

On the Paul phenomenon, Rockwell writes:

In addition to garnering more primary votes than any libertarian candidate in American history, Ron has accomplished precisely what he set out to do. He has re-founded the libertarian movement on a principled basis, liberated the ideas of peace and free enterprise from monopolistic control, exposed the political apparatus for the fraud that it is, and laid the groundwork for a future flowering of liberty.

I made a more modest claim in the August 2007 Liberty:

What Paul can hope for — and it would be a very big thing — is to lead a group willing to identify itself as Republican and opposed to a foreign policy of preemptive war.

He has done something broader than that, maybe more like what Rockwell says. He has run an explicitly libertarian campaign within the Republican Party. If a political party is imagined as a tent, Paul has enlarged the tent to include people who were outside it, or maybe were in it and about ready to leave. Now they have a champion. Paul uses classic Republican language to defend a libertarian point of view and to demand that his small-government, constitutionalist, antiwar, and free-market faction be recognized and accommodated as Republicans.

This faction is far from a majority. The idea that most Republicans believe Paul’s philosophy, and that they would flock to him if he enunciated it, was always a delusion. But before Paul’s campaign, they could ignore it. Now they have to argue with it. When they argue for continuing the occupation of Iraq they can no longer pretend that all their opponents are Democrats. They have opponents in their own tent. It is only a faction, but other factions, such as the foreign policy realists, may be able to ally with it. Having a faction also allows new issues to be put on the table — in Paul’s case not only a withdrawal from Iraq but also the currency issue. It might not be a gold dollar, but even a Republican emphasis on a strong dollar would be a change.

The influence of Paul’s faction depends on how Paul plays his cards. He has said that he will not run an independent candidacy, which is smart. If he did, his influence within the party would be no greater than Ralph Nader’s in the Democratic Party. In 1988 Paul ran as a Libertarian, got 0.47% of the vote, was invisible and had no influence whatever. To do it again this year, merely to satisfy the people who get a thrill (and a salary) from campaigning would be a colossal mistake. He cannot do this, no matter how much his groupies importune him. He will have to endorse McCain — not now, and not with enthusiasm, but he will have to do it after McCain is nominated. Paul can still argue with McCain, of course, and he should — as a Republican.

Being in the party, and in the Congress, gives him a place to stand and be heard. And other Republicans will have to deal with him. (Says Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard, “He [McCain] must attract the relatively small contingent who’ve supported Ron Paul to prevent Paul from running as a third party libertarian candidate for president.”)

Paul’s influence also depends on what happens later on. Gary North wrote in July 2007, “It will be interesting to see what his campaign organization does with all those email addresses” of contributors. In January 2008 North wrote about those addresses again: “I have read that Ron Paul has 100,000 email addresses of supporters.”

North has made his living in newsletters, and the value of the list would be obvious to him. He wasn’t mentioning it as a sales list for gold coins or newsletters, but as a list of Americans who could be inspired by a campaign of political ideas.

There is yet more to the story of Ron Paul.


Nevada GOP Plays Games Ahead of State Convention

April 25, 2008

Nevada GOP Plays Games Ahead of State Convention

Brock Lorber
Blog: Bloody Mary Breakfast
Date: 4-23-2008
Subject: Presidential Campaigns for 2008 – United States

After a conversation this evening with Ernie Hancock, in which we wondered aloud what games the Nevada Republican Party would play against Ron Paul in this weekend’s state convention, I received the answer in the form of a telephone survey.
As background, it must be stressed that, in Nevada, the Republican party is a private enterprise. While we comply with state election laws, the conduct of the party, its bylaws, and operations are conducted privately. Members, officers, and delegates are bound only by their consciences.

Under a new system implemented this year, Nevada Republicans do not elect a presidential candidate, but rather conduct thousands of mini-elections to select delegates, first at the precinct level and then at the county level. The delegates elected at the county level converge at the state convention to elect 34 delegates to the national convention. As in every other step, those delegates are bound only by their consciences.

Having said that, the apparatchiks in charge of this private party have done everything possible to thwart the Nevada campaign of Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul (who, by the way, placed second in the straw poll conducted on the morning of the precinct caucuses). State officers tried to extort $10,000 from the campaign for the list of Clark County (Las Vegas) delegates while the other major campaigns got the list for free. Other counties reported similar shenanigans.

There was no question that the NRP would battle Ron Paul Republicans this weekend, the question was how they would do so without inflicting collateral damage on non-Paul delegates. The answer is, by using our non-refundable registration fees to survey delegates before they show up.

While I was in a meeting tonight discussing this weekend’s festivities, I received a call from (866) 750-5167. After I left the meeting in disgust (it turned to talk of leadership councils, committees, and bylaws), I dialed the number and got a busy signal. About twenty minutes later, I received a phone call from the same number asking for me by name.

Now, the phone number on which I received the call is special. It is a temporary number until I get my usual number ported to a new provider. Until yesterday, only four people had that number: my wife, my father, the Ron Paul Campaign Coordinator for Clark County, and Ernie Hancock. Yesterday, however, I registered for the state convention and provided that number specifically because it is a temporary number.

On answering the phone, I was informed that the call was from mumble-mumble (Consumer Research Realty Corporation?) with a three question survey for me. Without waiting for assent, I was confronted with these three preambles and questions (paraphrasing):

1)The surge in Iraq has decreased attacks on civilians and our own troops. Do you think we should stay in Iraq and finish the job?

2)There have been no terrorist attacks in the US since 9-11. President Bush says that is due to the provisions in the PATRIOT Act. Do you support the PATRIOT Act?

3)Who are you supporting for President in this caucus cycle?

I answered all three questions honestly and intelligently, that is, wrongly. Therefore, officially, I am marked as “one of them”. As I am out registration fees, hotel, and airfare for this weekend, who wants to bet that I won’t be seated as a delegate this weekend?

On a related note, if anyone is up for a little bingo-bango-bongo on the golf course in Reno Saturday, let me know. I’m pretty sure I’ll be free.

ADDENDUM: After writing this, but before posting it, I’ve received an unconfirmed report that the calls are coming from the John McCain campaign. If this is true, then the NRP is providing private registration information to the McCain campaign, a whole ‘nother level of scummy. If not, still scummy, just less so.