AZ Libertarian
05-13-2012, 12:51 PM
Even though I am 'AZ Libertarian', I jumped ship to go GOP and support the 1988 Libertarian Presidential Candidate. I attended the Arizona State Convention yesterday, and the following is my personal account of some of the events of the day.
http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/d/2/0/event_119212512.jpeg
Ok, here we go…
As an Alternate Delegate for Arizona Legislative District 15 the first thing I can report to you is that I remained in the ‘Alternate Delegate Section’ of the Convention for fourteen hours without being seated. By the ‘end of the night’, there were only five of the fifteen seats of my LD occupied, but repeated attempts to have me seated by several Delegates were denied. The reason given was that after Credentialing was closed, the set amount of Delegates seated could not rise above that number; in order for Alternates to be seated in the vacated seats, their credentials must be turned in. Of course my LD was stacked from the beginning, and there was no way that they wanted anyone but ‘one of their own’ to vote at all. And I wasn’t alone. Jill Ballard also sat for the duration without being seated (her slot was higher than mine and she would have been seated before me, but that wasn’t happening either).
There is so much info, I have a hard time trying to piece it all together. Let me address the Lamestream Media OUTRIGHT LIE that I saw generated right away, and was picked up by the National feeds, and have been run away with in just a very short time.
MITT ROMNEY’S SON WAS NOT ‘BOOED OFF THE STAGE’. This is a complete fabrication. They crowd did give him some grief because he made the mistake of waving the ‘Unity Slate’ the Romney people were pushing (there’s not supposed to be direct electioneering from the floor), he right away mentioned Ron and was given great applause. The mix-up occurs when the FOLLOWING SPEAKER, a Native-American whose name escapes me for the moment, started calling for everyone to unite under the Romney banner – HE got mercilessly booed to the point he didn’t know what to do, but kept on and was shouted down. Once again the Lamestream Media says something and commenters come out of the woodwork with their armchair opinion of ‘Arizonans’. When are you going to turn that thing off and ASK THE GRASSROOTS what happened?
As for ‘Delegate Count’, I had my slate and kept close attention to any changes sent us. I say this because when we arrived yesterday, after getting Credentialed, we all stood in this loooong line that went out the door to get to the Ron Paul table, just inside the far right-hand door of the hall entrance. Contrast that with a puny 4’x4’ pop-up canopy and a couple of signs and bumper stickers on a table manned by two people (this is all Mitt wanted to pay for I guess). Anyway, when we got to the RP table, our e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers were put into an automated system that text-messaged everyone with any additional information we needed (special instructions and changes to the Slate). In the afternoon, with the Congressional District Caucuses completed, names on our Slate that were elected as Delegates were replaced with others in line. That said, I show eleven Delegates from our Slate elected at the CD level so far: Jill Skayfel, David Guthrie, Richard Gaydosh, John Laurie, Razi Berry, Deb Wells, Patricia Lewis, Gianluca Zanna, Annette Freeman, David Fitzgerald, and Franklin Fiedler. My notes do show a change of substituting Pam Webe (possibly Pam Weber? Text truncated) for Easton Kelsey, but I don’t remember if that was due to his being selected as delegate or not – that is highly possible).
When we were ‘shown the door’ the tallying was not yet complete, and we do not know what the results of the At-Large Delegates or the Alternates yet, and we possibly may never find out. I say this because when the ballots were handed out for these races, it was two pages long. A lot of names. The pages were differentiated by marks on the face the scanners used would recognize. Problem here is, there was nothing on the ballots that would ‘marry’ the two documents in the system! There was no way to tell Delegate #1’s first page of votes from Delegate #2’s second – thereby creating a system allowing any Delegate to make 31 marks on the first page (the maximum number of votes allowed in that round of voting) AND 31 marks on the second page. If the computer can’t tell the difference between Delegate’s pages, it can’t determine an overvote. I believe that due to this error (intentional or not) the results of this round will become null and void.
We’ll see.
While on the subject of ballots, the Delegates were extremely distraught when they got to their CD Caucuses and found out that not only were the ballots not listed in alphabetical order, there was an asterisk next to the names listed first, and a notation at the bottom stating that these Delegates were recognized by the Romney Campaign. This created such a problem that it set back business at least two hours as many of the CD’s demanded that the ballots not be used. Runners had to be sent to Kinkos to print new ballots. By the time it was over, the reason given why some were marked was that supposedly both the Romany and Paul Campaigns were offered to ‘endorse’ (I don’t know if that is the term used by them, but it’s what I perceive) their Delegate preferences on the Ballot Face, but only the Romney Camp took them up on the offer! I can hear it now: “Do you want your people marked? No? Ok, we’ll just mark everybody else then…”
Next, “Robert’s Rules of Order”. The book was waved as a magic wand to create order. That’s about all it was used for. The Chairman was obviously clueless regarding this document, but after many National Conventions and the Continental Congress 2009, where I have had ‘the rules’ used to beat and berate those I stand with to the point that I had to study these rules, I can confidently state that this is not uncommon. Just recently at the Libertarian National Convention, former Chairman Bill Redpath (who has been at it for years) actually promised the Delegation Seated that he would read RROR cover-to-cover in the following year.
Please Mr. Morrisey, I beg you to do the same. If you still hold the Office of Chairman, that is. You see, when the people in charge couldn’t make up their minds as to whether they wanted to declare a quorum (50% + 1 of the Delegates seated) or not, they gave two different interpretations of the rules. At one point, it was stated from the dais that once a quorum was established after Credentialing was closed, the Party could complete all business listed on the Agenda no matter how many Delegates vacated the floor. Then, I guess they decided that was a bad tact, and I saw the Chairman, a former Chairman, and a third individual speaking together, and then the two went around and down off the dais, and went to the front row in front of the podium. One raised his hand and said “Mr. Chairman, I move to adjourn!” which was quickly followed by a second from his cohort, followed by the Chairman ‘proclaiming’ that the Convention was adjourned, and he ran off the stage as quickly as he could. Problem here is, the rules specifically state that adjournment is motioned from the floor, seconded, and voted on by the delegation. This was not done.
Because this was not done, pandemonium ensued. The Convention was still live. Then, and unnamed individual sprang into action, stepped to the podium, and declared that the Chaiman had abandonded his position (at which point the mike was turned off, and he started shouting to be heard), and entertained motions from the floor to have him removed, and nominations were taken. Matt Papke and LD Chairman David Fitzgerald were both nominated, and nominations were closed, and David Fitzgerald was elected by voice vote. Now all during this action, there were people on the stage actively trying to prevent all this from occurring, but the floor was having none of that. As the New Chairman was starting to speak, three ‘Campus Cops’ from the University came on stage and menacingly approached David, who smartly knew what was happening, and said “Ok, let’s take it to the parking lot” – where we proceeded to as the lights were being shut off.
At this time I wish to point out to the ‘Armchair Brigade’ that it wasn’t ‘the Cops’ and it wasn’t ‘Sheriff Joe’s Goon’s’ sicced on us at the request of the Establishment. When all of this occurred, it was 9 p.m. and the County Officers had left long ago. There was no ‘police presence’ at the City level – we know this because Joe and Bryan (both Delegates and RP Supporters) were physically assaulted on the Delegation Floor earlier that day – but when reported to the County Officers present, we were told that it ‘wasn’t their jurisdiction’ and that Phoenix City Police had to be called in if law enforcement was needed.
Once we were in the parking lot, we proceeded to an area included on the Campus of Grand Canyon College that housed a Church that we had gotten permission from to use their portion of the parking lot for a Ron Paul Hospitality Area (that we had parked a large RV and set up tables with food and drinks). It’s a good this we had this, because the Campus Police tried to chase us off the entire Campus. Not happening. David climbed up on the RV, and spoke candidly to those in attendance. He said that we would be fooling ourselves if we tried to conduct any business there, but we definitely made our presence know, and that we were on track to populate the Republican Party Leadership with American Patriots that believe in and follow the ‘Rule of Law’. There were plenty of videocameras in play, and I’m sure you will see a lot more than I am able to relate here.
Many untold thanks to all who came to our spot in the desert to restore Representation of the PEOPLE instead of the Good-Old-Boy Network that has had a stranglehold on Arizona Politics for far too long.
Let it not be said we did nothing.
Good job.
Ed in Phoenix
http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/d/2/0/event_119212512.jpeg
Ok, here we go…
As an Alternate Delegate for Arizona Legislative District 15 the first thing I can report to you is that I remained in the ‘Alternate Delegate Section’ of the Convention for fourteen hours without being seated. By the ‘end of the night’, there were only five of the fifteen seats of my LD occupied, but repeated attempts to have me seated by several Delegates were denied. The reason given was that after Credentialing was closed, the set amount of Delegates seated could not rise above that number; in order for Alternates to be seated in the vacated seats, their credentials must be turned in. Of course my LD was stacked from the beginning, and there was no way that they wanted anyone but ‘one of their own’ to vote at all. And I wasn’t alone. Jill Ballard also sat for the duration without being seated (her slot was higher than mine and she would have been seated before me, but that wasn’t happening either).
There is so much info, I have a hard time trying to piece it all together. Let me address the Lamestream Media OUTRIGHT LIE that I saw generated right away, and was picked up by the National feeds, and have been run away with in just a very short time.
MITT ROMNEY’S SON WAS NOT ‘BOOED OFF THE STAGE’. This is a complete fabrication. They crowd did give him some grief because he made the mistake of waving the ‘Unity Slate’ the Romney people were pushing (there’s not supposed to be direct electioneering from the floor), he right away mentioned Ron and was given great applause. The mix-up occurs when the FOLLOWING SPEAKER, a Native-American whose name escapes me for the moment, started calling for everyone to unite under the Romney banner – HE got mercilessly booed to the point he didn’t know what to do, but kept on and was shouted down. Once again the Lamestream Media says something and commenters come out of the woodwork with their armchair opinion of ‘Arizonans’. When are you going to turn that thing off and ASK THE GRASSROOTS what happened?
As for ‘Delegate Count’, I had my slate and kept close attention to any changes sent us. I say this because when we arrived yesterday, after getting Credentialed, we all stood in this loooong line that went out the door to get to the Ron Paul table, just inside the far right-hand door of the hall entrance. Contrast that with a puny 4’x4’ pop-up canopy and a couple of signs and bumper stickers on a table manned by two people (this is all Mitt wanted to pay for I guess). Anyway, when we got to the RP table, our e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers were put into an automated system that text-messaged everyone with any additional information we needed (special instructions and changes to the Slate). In the afternoon, with the Congressional District Caucuses completed, names on our Slate that were elected as Delegates were replaced with others in line. That said, I show eleven Delegates from our Slate elected at the CD level so far: Jill Skayfel, David Guthrie, Richard Gaydosh, John Laurie, Razi Berry, Deb Wells, Patricia Lewis, Gianluca Zanna, Annette Freeman, David Fitzgerald, and Franklin Fiedler. My notes do show a change of substituting Pam Webe (possibly Pam Weber? Text truncated) for Easton Kelsey, but I don’t remember if that was due to his being selected as delegate or not – that is highly possible).
When we were ‘shown the door’ the tallying was not yet complete, and we do not know what the results of the At-Large Delegates or the Alternates yet, and we possibly may never find out. I say this because when the ballots were handed out for these races, it was two pages long. A lot of names. The pages were differentiated by marks on the face the scanners used would recognize. Problem here is, there was nothing on the ballots that would ‘marry’ the two documents in the system! There was no way to tell Delegate #1’s first page of votes from Delegate #2’s second – thereby creating a system allowing any Delegate to make 31 marks on the first page (the maximum number of votes allowed in that round of voting) AND 31 marks on the second page. If the computer can’t tell the difference between Delegate’s pages, it can’t determine an overvote. I believe that due to this error (intentional or not) the results of this round will become null and void.
We’ll see.
While on the subject of ballots, the Delegates were extremely distraught when they got to their CD Caucuses and found out that not only were the ballots not listed in alphabetical order, there was an asterisk next to the names listed first, and a notation at the bottom stating that these Delegates were recognized by the Romney Campaign. This created such a problem that it set back business at least two hours as many of the CD’s demanded that the ballots not be used. Runners had to be sent to Kinkos to print new ballots. By the time it was over, the reason given why some were marked was that supposedly both the Romany and Paul Campaigns were offered to ‘endorse’ (I don’t know if that is the term used by them, but it’s what I perceive) their Delegate preferences on the Ballot Face, but only the Romney Camp took them up on the offer! I can hear it now: “Do you want your people marked? No? Ok, we’ll just mark everybody else then…”
Next, “Robert’s Rules of Order”. The book was waved as a magic wand to create order. That’s about all it was used for. The Chairman was obviously clueless regarding this document, but after many National Conventions and the Continental Congress 2009, where I have had ‘the rules’ used to beat and berate those I stand with to the point that I had to study these rules, I can confidently state that this is not uncommon. Just recently at the Libertarian National Convention, former Chairman Bill Redpath (who has been at it for years) actually promised the Delegation Seated that he would read RROR cover-to-cover in the following year.
Please Mr. Morrisey, I beg you to do the same. If you still hold the Office of Chairman, that is. You see, when the people in charge couldn’t make up their minds as to whether they wanted to declare a quorum (50% + 1 of the Delegates seated) or not, they gave two different interpretations of the rules. At one point, it was stated from the dais that once a quorum was established after Credentialing was closed, the Party could complete all business listed on the Agenda no matter how many Delegates vacated the floor. Then, I guess they decided that was a bad tact, and I saw the Chairman, a former Chairman, and a third individual speaking together, and then the two went around and down off the dais, and went to the front row in front of the podium. One raised his hand and said “Mr. Chairman, I move to adjourn!” which was quickly followed by a second from his cohort, followed by the Chairman ‘proclaiming’ that the Convention was adjourned, and he ran off the stage as quickly as he could. Problem here is, the rules specifically state that adjournment is motioned from the floor, seconded, and voted on by the delegation. This was not done.
Because this was not done, pandemonium ensued. The Convention was still live. Then, and unnamed individual sprang into action, stepped to the podium, and declared that the Chaiman had abandonded his position (at which point the mike was turned off, and he started shouting to be heard), and entertained motions from the floor to have him removed, and nominations were taken. Matt Papke and LD Chairman David Fitzgerald were both nominated, and nominations were closed, and David Fitzgerald was elected by voice vote. Now all during this action, there were people on the stage actively trying to prevent all this from occurring, but the floor was having none of that. As the New Chairman was starting to speak, three ‘Campus Cops’ from the University came on stage and menacingly approached David, who smartly knew what was happening, and said “Ok, let’s take it to the parking lot” – where we proceeded to as the lights were being shut off.
At this time I wish to point out to the ‘Armchair Brigade’ that it wasn’t ‘the Cops’ and it wasn’t ‘Sheriff Joe’s Goon’s’ sicced on us at the request of the Establishment. When all of this occurred, it was 9 p.m. and the County Officers had left long ago. There was no ‘police presence’ at the City level – we know this because Joe and Bryan (both Delegates and RP Supporters) were physically assaulted on the Delegation Floor earlier that day – but when reported to the County Officers present, we were told that it ‘wasn’t their jurisdiction’ and that Phoenix City Police had to be called in if law enforcement was needed.
Once we were in the parking lot, we proceeded to an area included on the Campus of Grand Canyon College that housed a Church that we had gotten permission from to use their portion of the parking lot for a Ron Paul Hospitality Area (that we had parked a large RV and set up tables with food and drinks). It’s a good this we had this, because the Campus Police tried to chase us off the entire Campus. Not happening. David climbed up on the RV, and spoke candidly to those in attendance. He said that we would be fooling ourselves if we tried to conduct any business there, but we definitely made our presence know, and that we were on track to populate the Republican Party Leadership with American Patriots that believe in and follow the ‘Rule of Law’. There were plenty of videocameras in play, and I’m sure you will see a lot more than I am able to relate here.
Many untold thanks to all who came to our spot in the desert to restore Representation of the PEOPLE instead of the Good-Old-Boy Network that has had a stranglehold on Arizona Politics for far too long.
Let it not be said we did nothing.
Good job.
Ed in Phoenix