hopeforamerica
12-14-2007, 01:55 PM
In AZ a PC is the lowest level of the republican party. It's the first step in working towards becoming a delegate. My husband typed up these entertaining meeting minutes. Keep in mind Mick and Steve thought they would be the only Ron Paul supporters there:
___________________
Unofficial AZ-LS20 meeting minutes from 2 new Ron Paul PCs:
Steve and Mick showed up to the LD20 monthly Republican meeting after they became PCs. About 25 people were in attendance, most of them new.
Mick got there way too early and met the meeting chairman. "Are you one of the new Ron Paul supporters?" he quickly asked. "YES!" I replied. He said he hadn't made up his mind. This was probably going to be a short meeting, he added.
The regulars were quite friendly as they filtered in. It was really nice that they went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Mick struck up a conversation with some very senior citizens. Since we were in a firestation I asked if they heard about the Dept of Homeland Security training Phoenix firemen to report suspicious "terrorist" activities since they didn't need a warrant. "Sounds like a good idea to me as long as they don't abuse it." HOLY $#!+
Steve came in and told Mick that he counted 5 cars with Ron Paul bumper stickers, not including Mick's. Impressive.
After a prayer and the pledge of allegiance, we got down to business. One person had a golf tournament fund-raising idea which Mick thought was great, as long as people could afford it. The LD20 meetings don't really spend too much money, so 1 fundraiser for the year should cover it.
Mike, the meeting chairman, presented a graph on poster board that Showed the next agenda items were to have anyone running for office get up and say a few words, then take a few questions. There were 4 candidates. Laura was running for US Congress, Jeff and Frank were running for State House of Reps, and Daryl (a woman) was running for city council of Tempe. Laura spoke first.
She was well-spoken and experienced. Her main platform was tax cuts and to get the Federal Government out of our schools. Who can argue with that, huh? Mick wanted to see what she was really made of, so he asked, "what would be the top 3 laws that you would repeal?" He wondered if that would stir things up a bit. Her answers were all good - the AMT, No Child Left Behind, and do something about this problem of combining unrelated legislation (this, BTW is officially covered at www.downsizedc.org in their One Subject at a Time Bill). Those would certainly be on our hit list, too, but maybe not in the top 3. Laura mentioned her democratic incumbent a lot - how he flip-flopped on tax issues and how good it was that George Bush was there to veto some of the egregious Democrat legislation. WTF? Are you kidding me?
The flood gates were open. Steve chimed in and asked if she went astray on her promises how we, her constituents, could recall her. A lot of talk but not a solid answer. Perhaps not a question you think to prepare for.
Jeff got up next. He seemed young and inexperienced, but likeable enough. "Malleable" came to mind. Of course he was for all the right things - stop illegal immigration, lowering taxes (***was it this guy who was for eliminating the state income tax?***)... no
plans though. He tried to address the top 3 laws to repeal without Mick asking. Steve was first - AZ is one of 4 states that denies your right to a jury trial for misdimeanor with jail sentence. Would you work with me like our other state senator did to bring a bill to rectify this?
That opened the Bill of Rights for discussion. The new folks were right in there with their $.02. It drifted to the abolition of habeus corpus and that's where some regulars got in the
conversation: How many people have been affected by that?... implying it wasn't a
problem for them. Steve shot right back: 127,000 according to estimates given at congressional hearings. Another newbie shot chimed in: What if it were only 1 - isn't THAT too much? (great response!) Jeff was all for anything we asked him to support. Time for Frank.
Frank had a little speech and was a lot more refined and passionate than Jeff. But Frank was one of the people who didn't think losing habeus corpus was a problem. Steve asked his jury bill question again. Frank wanted to call a meeting with all the stakeholders and
talk about how to solve the problem - bring in everyone for the bill and those against it (there were several organizations who opposed the right every Arizona citizen to have a trial, one was a chief of police union and the other was a municipal judges group). Laura chimed in how well that method worked for one of our state senators (the same
one who tried to sponsor Steve's bill, BTW, so it couldn't have worked THAT great). The newbie PC’s did not want to hear anything about negotiating on our God-given rights and slammed Frank up and down. Frank stuck to his guns and reminded us that it wouldn't get
solved without negotiating. Next.
Daryl was next. She talked and talked and talked, and she sounded genuine! She had 2 exceptionally long stories about how she rescued an HOA from certain bankruptcy and how she took on SRP and got them to install powerlines underground. The stories were too long for the senior fellow sitting next to Mick who got tired of complaining under his breath and left. Still, why is she only going for city council?
We would have loved to have her replace any of the other 3 we just suffered through. (Later Steve contributed to her campaign even though he didn't live in her city and told her in a lighthearted manner that if she screwed up he'd put up a ton of signs to recall her.)
We thought that was the end, but Brian got up for a quick plug about how he was running for something or other in the AZGOP system.
Brian was the guy who thought no habeus corpus was OK if nobody was affected. Steve leaned over to Mick: No f***in' way am I voting for that guy. He's the antichrist! Mick, you should run against him. Mick replied: I've never even heard of the position! I want to run against her (referring to Laura who is running for Congress) Steve agreed and tried to embolden Mick to do it.
Short meeting? It took 1.5 hours to get through it all. Now THAT was a fun night!!!
Folks, we are winning. AZLD20 is (was?) made up of hardcore republicans and they got their meeting handed to them by the Ron Paul R3VOLution. They had no idea what had just happened. It wasn't just Mick and Steve. It was everyone. Comments were flying left and
right. And this is happening EVERYWHERE!
We The People are tired of the status quo and that night We The People realized that We had the power to change it. Who knows, we might be accidentally left off of the invite list for the next meeting, but we'll find it anyway.
Find out when your next PC meeting is and GO RAISE SOME HELL!!!! Your fellow R3VOLutionaries *NEED* your support, even if you just sit there and just clap when the truth comes out. But I guarantee that you will leave feeling a lot more empowered than when you entered.
___________________
Unofficial AZ-LS20 meeting minutes from 2 new Ron Paul PCs:
Steve and Mick showed up to the LD20 monthly Republican meeting after they became PCs. About 25 people were in attendance, most of them new.
Mick got there way too early and met the meeting chairman. "Are you one of the new Ron Paul supporters?" he quickly asked. "YES!" I replied. He said he hadn't made up his mind. This was probably going to be a short meeting, he added.
The regulars were quite friendly as they filtered in. It was really nice that they went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Mick struck up a conversation with some very senior citizens. Since we were in a firestation I asked if they heard about the Dept of Homeland Security training Phoenix firemen to report suspicious "terrorist" activities since they didn't need a warrant. "Sounds like a good idea to me as long as they don't abuse it." HOLY $#!+
Steve came in and told Mick that he counted 5 cars with Ron Paul bumper stickers, not including Mick's. Impressive.
After a prayer and the pledge of allegiance, we got down to business. One person had a golf tournament fund-raising idea which Mick thought was great, as long as people could afford it. The LD20 meetings don't really spend too much money, so 1 fundraiser for the year should cover it.
Mike, the meeting chairman, presented a graph on poster board that Showed the next agenda items were to have anyone running for office get up and say a few words, then take a few questions. There were 4 candidates. Laura was running for US Congress, Jeff and Frank were running for State House of Reps, and Daryl (a woman) was running for city council of Tempe. Laura spoke first.
She was well-spoken and experienced. Her main platform was tax cuts and to get the Federal Government out of our schools. Who can argue with that, huh? Mick wanted to see what she was really made of, so he asked, "what would be the top 3 laws that you would repeal?" He wondered if that would stir things up a bit. Her answers were all good - the AMT, No Child Left Behind, and do something about this problem of combining unrelated legislation (this, BTW is officially covered at www.downsizedc.org in their One Subject at a Time Bill). Those would certainly be on our hit list, too, but maybe not in the top 3. Laura mentioned her democratic incumbent a lot - how he flip-flopped on tax issues and how good it was that George Bush was there to veto some of the egregious Democrat legislation. WTF? Are you kidding me?
The flood gates were open. Steve chimed in and asked if she went astray on her promises how we, her constituents, could recall her. A lot of talk but not a solid answer. Perhaps not a question you think to prepare for.
Jeff got up next. He seemed young and inexperienced, but likeable enough. "Malleable" came to mind. Of course he was for all the right things - stop illegal immigration, lowering taxes (***was it this guy who was for eliminating the state income tax?***)... no
plans though. He tried to address the top 3 laws to repeal without Mick asking. Steve was first - AZ is one of 4 states that denies your right to a jury trial for misdimeanor with jail sentence. Would you work with me like our other state senator did to bring a bill to rectify this?
That opened the Bill of Rights for discussion. The new folks were right in there with their $.02. It drifted to the abolition of habeus corpus and that's where some regulars got in the
conversation: How many people have been affected by that?... implying it wasn't a
problem for them. Steve shot right back: 127,000 according to estimates given at congressional hearings. Another newbie shot chimed in: What if it were only 1 - isn't THAT too much? (great response!) Jeff was all for anything we asked him to support. Time for Frank.
Frank had a little speech and was a lot more refined and passionate than Jeff. But Frank was one of the people who didn't think losing habeus corpus was a problem. Steve asked his jury bill question again. Frank wanted to call a meeting with all the stakeholders and
talk about how to solve the problem - bring in everyone for the bill and those against it (there were several organizations who opposed the right every Arizona citizen to have a trial, one was a chief of police union and the other was a municipal judges group). Laura chimed in how well that method worked for one of our state senators (the same
one who tried to sponsor Steve's bill, BTW, so it couldn't have worked THAT great). The newbie PC’s did not want to hear anything about negotiating on our God-given rights and slammed Frank up and down. Frank stuck to his guns and reminded us that it wouldn't get
solved without negotiating. Next.
Daryl was next. She talked and talked and talked, and she sounded genuine! She had 2 exceptionally long stories about how she rescued an HOA from certain bankruptcy and how she took on SRP and got them to install powerlines underground. The stories were too long for the senior fellow sitting next to Mick who got tired of complaining under his breath and left. Still, why is she only going for city council?
We would have loved to have her replace any of the other 3 we just suffered through. (Later Steve contributed to her campaign even though he didn't live in her city and told her in a lighthearted manner that if she screwed up he'd put up a ton of signs to recall her.)
We thought that was the end, but Brian got up for a quick plug about how he was running for something or other in the AZGOP system.
Brian was the guy who thought no habeus corpus was OK if nobody was affected. Steve leaned over to Mick: No f***in' way am I voting for that guy. He's the antichrist! Mick, you should run against him. Mick replied: I've never even heard of the position! I want to run against her (referring to Laura who is running for Congress) Steve agreed and tried to embolden Mick to do it.
Short meeting? It took 1.5 hours to get through it all. Now THAT was a fun night!!!
Folks, we are winning. AZLD20 is (was?) made up of hardcore republicans and they got their meeting handed to them by the Ron Paul R3VOLution. They had no idea what had just happened. It wasn't just Mick and Steve. It was everyone. Comments were flying left and
right. And this is happening EVERYWHERE!
We The People are tired of the status quo and that night We The People realized that We had the power to change it. Who knows, we might be accidentally left off of the invite list for the next meeting, but we'll find it anyway.
Find out when your next PC meeting is and GO RAISE SOME HELL!!!! Your fellow R3VOLutionaries *NEED* your support, even if you just sit there and just clap when the truth comes out. But I guarantee that you will leave feeling a lot more empowered than when you entered.