We talk about the need to unite behind Romney. Why? He is not the majority. Take the primaries and add the votes for Santorum, for Gingrich, for Bachmann, for Paul — and we, the Christians, the conservatives, the Tea Party, the ones who in 2008 correctly rejected Romney for the liberal flip-flopper that he is, outnumber Romney.

One man — Ron Paul — has had the funding, patience, and grassroots support to not give up. Paul is winning caucuses not only due to the diligence of his own supporters but also due to the alliances made between other minority candidates. When the conservatives have worked together, Ron Paul has won. It’s time for the conservatives to unite behind him to defeat Obama.

Curious about how Ron Paul compares with Mitt Romney? A breakdown of Gun Rights, Life, and National Defense:

Gun Rights

Gun Owners of America has given Romney a D– ranking and Paul an A+. Romney has the worst ratings across the pro-gun community of all of the GOP candidates from the 2011-12 primary cycle.

GOA on Mitt Romney:
Gun Rights and Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Won’t Take Stand on UN Guns Treaty

Where Does Romney Stand Today on the Second Amendment?

GOA on Ron Paul:
Rep. Ron Paul: A Second Amendment Champion

Rep. Ron Paul — A+ Voting Record

Life vs. Death by Abortion

Romney has a long track record of supporting and funding abortion. He started to publicly shift positions when he hit the national stage, but then he waivers back and forth. Extremely inconsistent. I haven’t checked out this organization, but this website’s list of his track record is awesome: Mitt Romney, Former Gov. of Massachusetts ®, Tier 4 — Personhood Never

That same site, however, does give very inaccurate portrayal of Ron Paul’s positions on life, so I’d take it with a grain of salt. Glancing through their list of Romney’s votes it looks accurate. They don’t seem to understand Paul’s constitutional method. Paul and Santorum have a public disagreement regarding how to stop abortion. They work towards the same goal, but the difference is in approach.

Rather than pushing for a federal ban on abortion that a) probably won’t happen, b) will take years more to happen if it does, and c) increases federal government power, Paul has a two-pronged approach. First, Paul has introduced to the House the Sanctity of Life Act, which takes away federal authority from abortion. If passed that would overturn Roe v. Wade immediately. Dr. Paul is a Baptist, an OB-GYN from the Houston area, and has delivered over 4,000 babies. Paul says that abortion is murder — always, no exception, it is murder. Murder is a state crime. If we give the federal government authority over it, then a) they have the power to legalize it again, and b) we make abortion a different legal classification from what it is — murder, plain and simple.

Step 1 — make it a state issue so that it can be properly classified as murder at the state level. This worries a lot of folks, because what if a state does not consider it murder? First, it’s easier to get a state to consider it murder than it is the federal government. Second, with the exception of California and Massachusetts, if I recall correctly, each of the states is significantly more pro-life than the federal government. My extremely pro-abortion constitutional law professor — who was brilliant, lovely, and very kind to me as a conservative student even though we completely disagreed on abortion — taught us that abortion MUST be kept a federal issue… because, except for CA and MA, every time a state gets control of the abortion issue it results in tougher abortion laws. As more states get control, abortion is increasingly prohibited. The only thing that bars most states from banning it is Roe v. Wade — which Paul’s Sanctity of Life bill would overturn.

Step 2 — Personhood amendments. Paul supports amendments to the U.S. and state constitutions that would define life as beginning at conception.

The net result of this approach would be rapidly decreased access to abortion, more rights of the states to classify it as murder, no federal interference, and as soon as constitutional amendments of personhood are passed in individual states and nationally, a 100% prohibition of abortion and classification of it as murder. Not just a prohibited medical action, but murder.

Paul also, it must be noted, opposes any funding of Planned Parenthood, including for contraception. I don’t know about Gingrich or Bachmann on that one, but I know that Romney and Santorum both either supported (Romney) or voted for (Santorum) funding Planned Parenthood.

Military and National Defense

Ron Paul has the strongest position on national defense, secure borders, and taking care of the military. He is the only military veteran running for president. He was U.S. Air Force and National Guard, served on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and when he was drafted he did not claim the available exceptions… he went anyway.

He has more private donations from active military personnel than all of the other candidates — all those who have dropped out included — combined.

He uses the more accurate terminology by differentiating between “overseas military” spending and “defense” spending. In the past few decades these have been combined in terminology and in congressional bills, but Paul holds to the traditionally conservative approach. Paul wants to withdraw from the United Nations. Paul wants no U.S. troops under foreign leadership. Paul does not want to interfere with other countries by using our military to destabilize or police other countries… no Libya involvement, no Syria involvement, no Uganda, no Sudan, etc. If our national security is not directly threatened, we should not be involved. It violates the Constitution, bankrupts our country, and abuses our troops.

Instead, Paul wants to massively ramp up our national defense. He has been pointing out for years that our country is very insecure. He wants to open NEW bases in the U.S. He wants to adequately and efficiently fund our bases… instead of the $1,000,000,000 dollars spent on the Iraqi embassy. He wants to pull our troops out of unnecessary foreign locations and put them on our borders… keeping in mind that he’s a Texan, Paul wants to fully secure our borders.

The other big factor that has to be addressed, and this is again a strategic decision that is widely debated among conservatives like us, is how can we most effectively support Israel. Paul was the only elected official who stood up against Congress in 1981 to defend Israel’s right to defend herself as she sees fit. Paul loudly supports Israel’s national sovereignty and rights to defense. We use our foreign aid as a leash to keep Israel in line… and Paul says that’s wrong.

Foreign aid is itself unconstitutional and bad foreign policy — the Constitution says that tax dollars can only be used to the direct purposes of the taxpayers. The federal government is NOT authorized to take money from Americans at gunpoint and then send it to other countries. Foreign aid is inefficient, because it usually goes to local bureaucrats and warlords — look at Africa and the Middle East! — instead of the people in need.

Dr. Paul points out that even though we give foreign aid to Israel — and use it to prevent Israel from defending herself — we give several times that amount in foreign aid to Israel’s neighboring enemies. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that Israel does not need American money or American troops… all Israel needs is the freedom to defend herself without American interference. Paul agrees with Netanyahu. Paul’s strategy is to stop all foreign aid to all countries. That’s one of the major ways he has committed to cutting $1 Trillion in the first year and balancing the budget in three years. Stopping foreign aid will cut the leash that America uses to choke Israel, and stopping foreign aid will immediately cripple the economies of Israel’s enemies… because our American dollars are keeping those countries alive and thriving. If we cut our aid to them then they will have to use their money to survive, not to attack Israel or fund terrorists.

As for the war on terror, Paul has the most direct, most effective, least expensive, and most constitutional solution. Letters of Marque and Reprisal. The Constitution authorizes Congress to issue letters of marque and reprisal. We don’t do this because it is banned by the UN — and Paul says the UN has zero authority over America, Congress, and America’s military. Paul would allow Congress to pay mercenaries to terminate specific targets. He called immediately for such a process to take out Osama Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. Had we followed Paul’s advice, we would not have needed the type of ground campaign and national building programs that we have had… and we would eliminated Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations years faster. We and Israel would be much safer and much wealthier had we listened to Ron Paul’s advice from the beginning and reject the United Nation’s control.

This is very clever ad for an online criminal justice degree. Beautiful graphic and solid information!

Today was a victory for Ron Paul supporters in Jackson County, Missouri.

Further summary is needed to really explain what happened at the end of the caucus that resulted in the Beat Obama slate. I’ve spoken to the Chair, several delegates, and many attendees in order to compile the most accurate report possible.

The Credentials Cmte. reported 1012 people present, but the highest vote — the one for the election of the chair — only had 970 votes. That’s our starting point of voters present: 970.

The day began with approximately 375–400 Ron Paul supporters. Some are confused because over 550 stickers were passed out to ID Ron Paul supporters. However, the team ran out of one type of the Paul stickers and two people were counting. Sticker types were switched and the stickers that did not state Ron Paul were accepted by non-Paul supporters. The sticker counting system failed and was discounted. The door click system was more accurate, and the team’s best count indicated approximately 375 Ron Paul supporters.

Numbers dwindled throughout the day. The best count tracked these walk-outs/early departures: 80 Santorum, 60 Romney, 12 Paul, and 5 Gingrich. By the final vote the total number of people voting was 768.

The final delegate percentages agreed upon by the 768 votes were:
To the State: Paul 73% ; Romney 27%
To the 5th District: Paul: 44% ; Romney 56%
To the 6th District: Paul: 100%
Alternates: Paul 100% to the State, 5th, and 6th.

How did that deal, the Beat Obama slate, come about?

The Romney and Santorum leaders both approached the Paul leaders about two weeks ago. The local Paul team rejected them completely. After 17 March and the debacles seen then, when Romney and Santorum camps approached them again, they discussed a plan B — a compromise slate — at the Monday night Ron Paul strategy meeting open to Paul supporters.

This group of about 25 people who have been leading the Ron Paul movement in Kansas City with their blood, sweat, and tears, decided that between Santorum and Romney, Santorum was the most dangerous “to the concepts of liberty”. Therefore, they agreed to dialogue with the Romney camp about a possible compromise slate. Later in the week leaders of the local Paul strategy team met with the attorneys from the Romney team and hammered out a compromise.

The deal was strictly a Plan B. Plan A was a full Paul slate. If it was possible to pass Plan A, then Plan A would be voted on. If, however, Plan B was voted upon and lost, then the Romney camp would not agree to Plan B and would go to their Plan C — a deal with the Santorum camp. Therefore, the ultimate decision on the floor of the caucus was down to EITHER pass Plan A OR pass Plan B… and no second chances. If they tried Plan A and lost, they would forfeit ALL delegates because Romney would switch to Santorum.

Even if we’re generous and say that 400 Paul supporters were present at the final vote, that 400 was not the 2/3 necessary to pass the vote (51%) and close the meeting (2/3). The Paul camp did not have sufficient votes to pass Plan A, a full slate.

Also important: two men separately nominated the Ron Paul Constitution slate. Neither of them had been to any of the Paul strategy meetings.*

The first gentleman had good intentions. The Ron Paul slate had been distributed to Paul supporters earlier in the day and had been well-promoted by the team. When it came time to nominate slates, the Paul team captains had already determined that the numbers meant that the 100% Paul slate could not pass. They could not tip their hand to the full room and inform the Paul supporters of every detail, and the first man who nominated the Paul slate wanted to help. Team members spoke with him privately to see if he had additional names to add that would flesh out a second slate and safely give two Paul-centric slates. He did not. He withdraw the slate nomination.

The second man who nominated the Ron Paul slate was a Santorum supporter. He was still wearing his Santorum sticker. He was deliberately trying to divide the Ron Paul vote. He was publicly challenged by the Chair to declare whether he had a full slate of delegates for the RP slate he has nominated. The man didn’t, clearly, and he said as much. His slate was therefore rejected as it was invalid.

The Chair, Mark Anthony Jones, asked each of them if they had a full slate of delegates and alternates. They both said they did not. They had not prepared slates with names of delegates.** These were the two Paul slates that were withdrawn/rejected.

The Paul team had to decide between the compromise slate with Romney that was a definite majority of delegates for Paul, or risking getting no delegates for a slate that was incomplete when they did not have the necessary votes to pass it. The Paul team chose to take the compromise and they won the overwhelming majority of delegates for Paul.

The Romney camp would not have voted for a full Paul slate because they knew they could make a deal with the Santorum camp and get delegates. The Romney votes were far too slim to win anything on their own, but were necessary for either the Paul or Santorum camp to get delegates. Paul had more supporters present than the Romney and Santorum camps individually, but not a 2/3 majority overall.

Today was the best possible victory for Paul supporters in today’s caucus given the number of people present. The team did well. The Chair was honorable and answered the Santorum camp’s concerns. Robert’s Rules of Order were followed. Recordings were permitted.

Ron Paul won the delegates fairly and honestly. Well done, Jackson County!

*   Edited: 04:05PM EST, 3/35. Clarified and expanded situation surrounding the nominations of the Ron Paul Constitution slate.
** Edited: 11:00PM EST, 3/24. Possible inaccuracy removed.

The Caucus in Pulaski County, Missouri, on 17 March, unfortunately suffered from corruption. As in so many places, Robert’s Rules of Order were ignored and violated. The Parliamentarian did not enforce Order. Below is list of the major problems reported.

• The Chair repeatedly voted even though no ties happened.
• No rule was made or announced to declare how a slate would be won. Therefore, the default rule should have been, according to Robert’s Rules, a 51% simple majority.
• Votes were cast by secret ballot. Not against the rules, but generally tacky in a caucus.
• The winning slate was a 50/50 Romney/Santorum combination. It had 26 votes. The other three slates had votes of 18, 17, and 2.
• No slate, or even general vote on a motion, had either a 2/3 or 51% majority.
• When attendees objected and made points of order regarding the lack of sufficient majority, the chair declared that the motion was made, seconded, and had received a 32–29 passing vote.

Report from Lara P.

The meeting started off okay, but as the proceedings went along, you could see a “good ole boy” system. No big deal. We had about 1/3 of the registered voter attendees (RP supporters). The county GOP chair was nominated and elected caucus chair very quickly It There was such a majority in his favor, it was not worth contesting. I was nominated for secretary and so was the county GOP secretary. He won 46–18. We managed to get a person on the rules committee and nomination committee. the Parliamentarian was worthless and did not enforce ANYTHING! The caucus chair seemed to be just winging it, and many times, an older gentlemen in front of us, kept pointing out that the chair was not following Roberts Rules on items that weren’t amended by the Rules Committee and voted on. When it came to the point that the slate of delegates be voted on, the chair did not state how the winning slate would be decided and it was not specified by the rules committee. We voted secret ballot and the slate that won was Romney/Santorum (50/50) with 26 votes. The other 3 slates (which were made up of delegates from each party) received 18, 17 and 2 votes. So we stated that according to Roberts Rules that majority is 51% which the winning slate did not have. He then stated the motion was made, seconded and voted upon 32–29 in favor of the winning slate. We tried to make points of order, motions, discussion and he refused to even acknowledge (call on) us and quickly moved onto the platform. The parliamentarian made no decisions but let the caucus chair have all the say. Anytime a RP supporter tried to speak, they were either ignored or shot down with the answer that the motion had been made, seconded and voted. There was never any 2/3 or 51% votes made today that should have been. We even had some who were not RP people state he was in the wrong and violated the rules but he refused to acknowledge it. Also, the caucus chair voted on everything — there were no ties (which is the only time he’s suppose to vote).

Throughout Saturday, 24 March 2012, I’m liveblogging the Jackson County, Missouri GOP caucus with reports from attendees. Keep checking back for updates! If you prefer, I’m also updating Twitter @lorienjohnson!

CONFIRMED: Paul wins majority of delegates in Jackson County, Missouri. Paul 80% Romney 20%!

03:31 PM CST — Beat Obama Slate wins 531 to 237 and wins Jackson County.

03:17 PM CST — Limited Paul supporters abstaining to fight the deal. Paul camp doesn’t believe a deal is necessary.

03:13 PM CST — CONFIRMED: Combined Paul/Romney slate proposed, Paul with overwhelming majority on the slate.

03:10 PM CST — CONFIRMED: Paul did not have majority. It was Deal or Nothing…

03:02 PM CST — Ron Paul Constitution slate withdrawn. Sounds like a deal in progress. http://bit.ly/mocaucus

02:56 PM CST — Romney and Paul camps made deal to shut out Santorum camp, one person reports.

02:51 PM CST — Voting on Slates is next. Some people are leaving.

02:45 PM CST — Rules accepted, 589–100. Many have left according to some reports.

02:34 PM CST — Debate on rules closed, 581 to 204. Multiple Santorum people are trying to privately address Chair.

02:30 PM CST -  Attendees are reporting feeling like the Santorum crowd is deliberately drawing out the process.

02:14 PM CST -  Santorum and Gingrich supporters increasingly loud. They clearly lose every voice vote, but for fairness at their request the Chair has held standing votes. To ensure accuracy and fairness, Chair agreed all votes should and will now be strictly by Standing vote. Every motion.

02:11 PM CST — NAY on Proportional delegates, 411(yea) to 531 (nay).

02:00 PM CST — Loud Nay vote on Proportional delegates. Chair holds standing vote to be certain. @Rakundig reports that the Chair is being very fair.

01:56 PM CST — @TracyWardForKC says: “Now voting on proportional slates out winner take all. This crowd is getting antsy.”

01:55 PM CST — Sounds like all of the campaigns are angling at the moment. No substantive news.

01:35 PM CST — Analysis from a Platte County resident and caucus organizer, Darrel Drumright: Each district has it’s own convention. If you live in the 5th district you would be nominated for delegate to the 5th district convention. If you lived in the 6th district you would vote for delegates to the 6th district convention. They should make a motion to vote on the stage convention delegates first and then divide by district. The caucus today votes for delegates for three different conventions. The 5th district convention, the 6th district convention and the MO state convention. All three send delegates to national.

01:29 PM CST — Some people are so angry that delegates might be divided that they are leaving.

01:21 PM CST — Mark Seitman (sp?) motions to amend rules to divide into 5th and 6th districts instead of voting as county.

01:15 PM CST — Rules Committee now reporting.

01:13 PM CST — All singing God Bless America while waiting for Rules Cmte.

01:08 PM CST — Motion made and passed to suspend the reading of the call to convention to save time.

01:05 PM CST — Munyan elected Secretary, 587 to Finch’s 281. Munyan is a GOP Committeeman and local attorney. Very honorable reputation, and I have met him and heard him speak. Good choice.

12:55 PM CST — Voting on Secretary. Had to iron out minor counting error. Good accountability!

12:51 PM CST — Voting still very slow, people are impatient. Downside to a big metro caucus!

12:37 PM CST — Chair doubling Tellers to increase speed. Secretary Nominees: Ralph Munyan & Jennifer Finch.

12:34 PM CST — Chair called order, appointing committees. Nominations coming in.

12:25 PM CST — To answer your questions, yes, Mark Anthony Jones supports Ron Paul. However, more importantly he is committed to following Robert’s Rules of Order and has met with Parliamentarians to learn the processes. He will honestly and honorably Chair as a neutral entity as required by Robert’s Rules.

12:19 PM CST — 10 minute Bathroom Break agreed amid some limited dispute.

12:16 PM CST — Mark Anthony Jones elected Chair by 596 to 374.

12:01 PM CST — Voting for Kraus for Chair is now being counted. Kraus is the Santorum Chair. This is Will Kraus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Kraus and http://www.willkraus.com/

11:55 AM CST — Will Kraus’ motion was removed. Voting continued. Waiting for report on vote.

11:52 AM CST — 1 section being recounted. Will Kraus is angry and objecting. According to @rakundig, “He was objecting to some fool moving between sections while votes were being counted.”

11:41 AM CST — Voting for Chair… looks like Mark Anthony Jones may have it. Votes are STANDING votes, which is good for accountability.

11:35 AM CST — Kraus motioned for only 2 people to count votes in crowd over 1k. Crowd disapproved so strongly he withdrew the motion.

11:30 AM CST — Tellers elected for each presidential candidate. Aaron Dunn is the teller for Ron Paul.

11:26 AM CST — Nominees for Chair are introducing themselves.

11:21 AM CST — 834 attendees in 5th District, 178 in 6th District. Credentials Report passed. Now taking nominations for Chair.

11:13 AM CST — Still only a temporary Chair, Shirley Simmons. Waiting for Credentials Cmte to present report.

11:10 AM CST — Candidate Reps just finished speaking. Jason Greene gets huge applause for Paul.

10:32 AM CST — Drawing seating lines. Many more 5th district than 6th.

10:17 AM CST — Doors still not closed. Registration started 30 mins late so meeting will also be late.

09:19 AM CST — They’re up to 640 attendees in line now.

08:10 AM CST — Approximately 300 attendees in line.

Special thanks to Andrew, Rakudig, Claire, Tracy, and the many others whose reports made this liveblog possible!

I recently wrote about the Cass County Missouri Caucus. Cass Co. wasn’t as bad as some of the other counties in MO last Saturday. Summary: without authority to do so all recordings were prohibited, the Santorum crowd played dirty, and the Chair (Ron Johnson, a Gingrich supporter) tried to unilaterally fill empty Santorum delegate slots with Gingrich supporters in a move so foul that even the other Gingrich supporters denounced the attempt. However, it appears that Robert’s Rules were followed.

Ron Johnson, Auditor of Cass County MO and Chair of the Cass County MO Caucus, stopped by the blog a few nights ago. If not him, someone very close to him. He posted the following comment to my article re: the Cass Caucus (click to zoom and read):

Nothing bothersome… tried to make a big deal about the fact that I’m writing reports based on the reports of other people since I moved to DC three weeks ago. HE says he asked the secretary if my name was on the roster (it’s not, I wasn’t present — I just moved away from Raymore). However, he is defending what happened in Cass and saying that all rules were followed. He refers to the “chair” in third person and says “I wouldn’t want his job”. He calls himself “Truth Seeker”.

Well, let’s seek some truth. Why do I think he’s Ron Johnson, the Chair of the Cass County Missouri Caucus, or else someone close to him?

His email address, cassmogop@**********.*** (redacted for his privacy), is the email address for the Cassmogop Facebook group and for the private account of Ron Johnson.

I noticed that the Cassmogop Facebook page openly promotes Newt Gingrich. Who else involved at the Cass Caucus, who has the ability to ask for names on the caucus roster, supports Newt? Ron Johnson. On that hunch, I looked at Ron Johnson’s Facebook.

Ron Johnson posted the same Newt link to his wall as was posted to the Cassmogop/Truth Seeker Facebook wall seen above. Could be Ron just linking Cassmogop/Truth Seeker’s link, right?

Well, look at what happened earlier on the 16th. Ron Johnson posted a different link to his wall at 7:43pm and then Cassmogop/Truth Seeker posted the link at 7:45pm.

This is offensive. The Cassmogop who commented on my blog calling himself “Truth Seeker“was posting official caucus information with links to his candidate. Everyone knows who I support for the presidency, and I would not ever use an official, neutral platform to promote my candidate. If I’m correct that “Truth Seeker” is Ron Johnson, then this man was very openly using his official position to promote one candidate over the others. Badly done, sir.

Further evidence that Ron Johnson and Cassmogop/Truth Seeker are the same person: on March 16 at 1:10pm, the very same minute, the same status update was posted to both profiles.

One of the photos on the Cassmogop Facebook group is of a man with a woman in the background. The man is someone else (name redacted). The woman in the background is Ruth Johnson, Ron’s wife:

The slogan on the Cass County Missouri Auditor Facebook page, featuring Ron Johnson’s photo, is “Accountability: making right decisions, choice, accepting consequences, responsibility”.

Ron Johnson: You used your position as Chair to try to fill delegate slots for your candidate. You used your Cassmogop Facebook page to promote your candidate. You tried to anonymously suggest that the reports of your corruption weren’t truthful, in which case you did not have the courage to use your own name.

Ron Johnson, I am holding you accountable.

The caucus in Cass County, Missouri, was an interesting affair. I only have limited reports at this time, but apparently the process was greatly extended due to strange happenings in the Santorum camp followed by the Gingrich-supporting Chair trying a bit of a bamboozle.

The Chair announced before the meeting that no recordings were allowed, just like in St. Charles. However, apparently most of the Cass County people did not know that that demand is illegitimate. The caucus was opened amid a flurry of points of order from the Santorum camp on several issues, and I don’t have records on what they were disputing. Apparently it was very confusing.

A straw poll was held with the count: Santorum: 162 Paul: 88 Romney: 37, Gingrich: 27. Originally a proportional delegate slate was propose, which would have resulted in S: 22 P: 12 R: 5 G: 4 delegates. The Paul, Romney, and Gingrich camps all submitted the correct number of delegates and alternates to fill out their portion of the slate. The Santorum camp only submitted 22 delegates with no alternates — not enough. The caucus repeatedly gave the Santorum camp time to add more delegates but they would not add more. The reason is unknown — if they had 162 people, why refuse to submit more than 22?

The Chair, Ron Johnson, began to usurp power by filling out the unused Santorum delegate slots with Gingrich people (he is a Gingrich supporter). Almost everyone objected, but the Gingrich camp behaved fairly and opposed this cheating with vehemence!

In the end, the Santorum camp and the Romney camp reached a compromise:
Santorum: 38 and 10 alts,
Romney: 5 and 22 alts,
Paul: 0 and 11 alts,
Gingrich: 0 and 0.

Analysis: The Santorum camp deliberately delayed the process, and the Santorum-leaning Caucus Committee repeatedly extended their time to the detriment of the other groups, so that a Santorum/Romney deal could be struck. By delaying and creating a deal, Santorum gained 16 delegates than had they complied with the proportional slate originally agreed/voted.

Here is the report from Matt S.:

No recording was announced by County chair Ryan Johnson at the very beginning, before anything took place. He wouldn’t recognize anyone from the floor at this time, mainly Santorum folks. Voters were turned away who brought children due to space restrictions. The County chair Ryan Johnson allowed people with children near the end of registration when there was still room. I have no idea who these people were or supported, but Ryan was a Romney guy.
The main problem was after the straw poll Santorum: 162 P: 88 Romney: 37, Gingrich: 27, a proportional slate was proposed as in the draft rules. The delegates would have been S:22 P:12 R:5 G:4. Three camps submitted the correct amount of delegates and alternates.
The Santorum people only submitted 22 delegates, no alternates. They were given an additional 15 minute recess to get it right. They gave 5 more minutes, and then I believe 5 more. They still failed to complete their slate.
The caucus chair Ron Johnson (not Ryan to avoid confusion) filled their alternates slate with 22 Gingrich supporters(his candidate) because we needed a full slate to vote on. This was voted down by Santorum and Romney people and we recessed again.
Paul and Newt supporters both pointed out that this was an illegitimate vote (the proportional slate because Santorum offered no alternates and the caucus chair unilaterally filled it at his discretion with Newt people) that should be re-done, but Ron would have none of it.
He (Ron Johnson) is supposedly a Gingrich guy and was getting the most heat from his own camp. He was going to read the names of the delegates from the Santorum camp, who now owned the majority due to walk-outs, but was met with objections from the Newt and Santorum camps. Romney’s people had cut a deal with Santorum people as well. We had the offer of 11 alternates which we had to take or get nothing. The slate was approved by Romney/Santorum follks.
Santorum: 38 and 10 alts,
Romney: 5 and 22 alts,
Paul: 0 and 11 alts,
Gingrich: 0 and 0.

I have no idea why the Santorum camp was objecting. The whole day they were calling for points of order. They could have stayed completely quiet, followed the rules and taken everything. They were exactly what they accuse the Ron Paul camps of being: disruptive, rude, overbearing. Their points of order were recognized and addressed. Most of the time they were wrong in calling point of order. The Santorum camp’s leader Mike Medsker was constantly speaking out of order. They were treated fairly, yet still would not just shut up and win, or submit a complete slate. It was a 5 hr process that should have been 2–3 hrs.
I just can’t understand why they did not submit a full slate repeatedly with all the support they had. I am hearing today (which I cannot verify) that their regular delegate list had multiple names repeated on it.
The largest objection to the slate was from Gingrich supporters (the Chair’s people) who had much less to gain than the Paul camp but were interested in fairness.

My friend Dana asked a critical question regarding the shocking executive order entitled National Defense Resource Preparedness:

Why now?

My thoughts have not been thoroughly organized yet, but I’m eager to open the discussion. My thought process follows.

We’re gearing up for significant war. Whether we have a Republican or a Democrat for our next president, we’re looking at military action in Iran. This could be relatively contained like our current and previous Middle Eastern wars, or it could activate the treaties held between Iran, China, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia (of which only China and Russia pose serious threat). I don’t know enough to predict how that will play out and who will choose to get involved. They have a variety of treaties in place, but who knows whether they’ll follow them?

We did have to keep an eye on this in Bolivia, though, since Iran has stated that if Israel bombs them then they will declare on the US, and Bolivia has agreed to declare on the US if Iran does (oh, so scary. yawn.). Even if the next phase of engagement is localized to the Middle East, we (both parties!) have deliberately destabilized the entire region. Our troops will be on the ground. We will have a miserable experience. We won’t lose, but we will be miserable.

Meanwhile, our national defense is incredibly, shockingly weak. Our troops are spread thinly across the globe, our local bases are underfunded and our military morale pretty low, and our borders are nonexistent.

This executive order is signed in the same few months as the NDAA that suspends habeas corpus for American citizens and the Trespass bill that prohibits speech and assembly. Both bills had extreme Republican support in Congress and the Senate and both were opposed by only one presidential candidate (the same one who has been shouting for years that our national defense is weak, that we need more bases at home, and that we need our troops securing OUR borders rather than the Afghan-Pakistani border or otherwise out solving other countries’ problems).

This is the most bipartisan time in the entire election cycle. All attention is on the Republican nomination process, and most people are so burnt out by that that they are tuning out all things political.

If you want to pass questionable, controversial, offensive legislation, do it when everyone is outraged/scared (post-9/11 PATRIOT Act) or when everyone is looking elsewhere (now).

War supported by both major parties. Destabilized danger zones supported by both major parties. Totalitarian legislation approved by both major parties.

It doesn’t look good.