I almost fell out of my chair when I heard Charles Krauthammer say this on Fox News last night, but good! The video is excellent. Watch it here.
“I don’t want regulations, I don’t want restrictions, I want a ban on this. Drones are instruments of war. The Founders had a great aversion to any instruments of war, the use of the military inside even the United States. It didn’t like standing armies, it has all kinds of statutes of using the army in the country.”
Hoosier Mark Rutherford sought the Chairmanship on the Libertarian National Committee over the past weekend. He was anywhere from 1 to 7 votes shy on 6 ballots of getting 50% plus 1… Eventually, Texan Geoff Neale, who was only a declared candidate for the position starting Sunday morning when nominations re-opened, won the spot over NOTA (none of the above). Texan Lee Wrights is now Vice Chair.
Let me be clear, the following accounts have been pieced together from multiple sources and is as accurate and as fair as possible. I am not trying to throw people under the bus, but there were some things done this past weekend that need the sanitizing light of the sun placed on their actions.
I learned this morning that one man, William Sparkman, bought convention packages, travel expenses, hotel rooms and food for 34 Texan delegates. There were two vans from Texas that left the Red Rock the same time as Rupert’s RV, filled with Texans. If the supposed Root-controlled cabal had done the very same thing, it’s manipulation. When they do it, it’s principled activism.
One man just bought enough votes at our convention to put his friends in as Chair and Vice Chair. You can look at the two ways: 1. It’s horrible and sneaky, or 2. Why didn’t you think of it first? I’ll let you draw your own conclusion there.
UPDATE: Mr. Sparkman posted this on facebook: “I paid for 3 peoples convention packages, rented 2 vans to transport 15 of us from Austin to Las Vegas, booked 10 rooms at the Red Rock, and put out word that if people weren’t going to come because of room cost that they could stay with us. We wound up with 27 people from 4 States in the rooms.”
Secondly, When it was clear Sunday that the Texas-centered coalition did not have the votes to beat Rutherford’s coalition, the Missouri delegation kicked out 5 Rutherford voters from their delegations, including GOProud co-founder Chris Barron. These 5 delegates were placed there because their states had full delegations, and Missouri had open spots. When it was clear that they weren’t voting the right way, they stopped counting their votes. Other delegations were willing to seat them, but the Missouri Chair refused to go to the credentials committee to release them. There is only one conclusion to draw: The Missouri party has shamed themselves, and should apologize to Mr. Barron and the other delegates, and the party in that state should actively question their leadership.
(SEE UPDATE BELOW)
Now there is a rumor that the Texas delegation is plotting to raise enough money to break the contract with our hotel in Columbus, OH that will host the 2014 convention. Given that one man just spent thousands to send Texans to Las Vegas, it’s not inconceivable that they’d have the money to move the 2014 convention to a place that will be easily accessible for Texas delegates, ensuring their Texan Chair and Vice Chair will be re-elected.
UPDATE: John Jay Meyers of Texas posted this to me on Facebook: “Chris Spangle many parts of your latest article are true, some are complete fabrications. In particular the part about anyone trying to get the 2014 convention away from Ohio, if anyone would know, I would. And no one mentioned or thought it was a good idea, however we do want the 2016 convention in Texas.”
Friends, winning is important, but so is how the game is played. I supported Mark Rutherford this past weekend. I was proud to do so because I work with Mark on several fronts and he has the leadership skills to make our party grow. He had the right vision, and he isn’t the type of person that wants only one type of Libertarian in the LP. He wants anyone in the top-of-center quadrant to work in the LP and win elections. Therefore, I did not want Mark Hinkle, or later, Geoffe Neal, to win. It doesn’t mean they are bad people, just not the right choice.
But that doesn’t mean I’d resort to low tactics to win in the future. There is a healthy competition in the LP between the Southwest and Midwest delegations, and it’s good for our party as long as both sides play the game honorably.
How to gain more influence in the party? Delegate counts are determined by national membership numbers and the vote total in that state for the Presidential candidate.
So game on. The competition is only going to make our party stronger… See you in Columbus.
UPDATE: Got this via email: “The Missouri delegation chair DID go to the chair of the credentials committee, but VERY late. Sometime during the first vote of the morning. Too late for any other delegation to seat Chris or any of the 5 displaced and disenfranchised delegates.”
UPDATE 2: ““Sort of. There were 3 delegates, not 5. One had left already, so it turned out to affect 2 voters. Cisse had total authority to add and subtract delegates to the MO delegation. (Not a good way for a state to arrange things, btw.) The two couldn’t be re-seated because the last report of the credentials committee had already happened that morning. Timing was the problem. It had nothing to do with Cisse “releasing” them—I don’t even know what that means.
This was procedurally permitted, but certainly not right. I wish I would have done more and tried to talk her out of it on ethical grounds.
Emily Salvette
Chairperson, 2012 Libertarian National Convention Credentials Committee”
Democrats are a coalition of special interest groups that come together to elect politicians that will assist those special interest groups. Republicans are monolithic. Any diversion from the common line is usually met with punishment.
Libertarians need to quickly understand that they are a coalition of closely related philosophical coalitions. The problem is that those small differences often cause easy rifts. As a party, the LP needs to stop trying to emulate the monolithic Republicans, and embrace the coalition mind set of the Democrats. We may not always agree on philosophy or tactics, but we still need to come together to work towards a common goal by being a little more tolerant of each others differences.
Ron Paul is not a successful politician because he’s a great speaker, a great congressman, or a charismatic figure… He’s successful because libertarians decided to stop their bickering, get off their butt, and do big things.
This attitude is one I will carry in to the upcoming national convention. Who can build coalitions, consensus, and will lead us towards doing big things?
You may have heard about China’s policy of forcing abortions and sterilizing women in an effort to force families to only have one child. You know of this policy because of a brave whistleblower named Chen Guangcheng.
Here is a scene inside China’s true war on women:
When she became pregnant again in 2006, Ji said local authorities confronted her and told her she was breaking the law. “We were willing to take the punishment of fines and losing our jobs. It wasn’t as important to us as our child,” she said through a translator. This time, the authorities refused payment in fines and “dragged” her outside and beat her husband. Ji said she was sedated and the abortion was performed while she was unconscious. They had also installed an intrauterine device into her uterus after the abortion and told her she was responsible for its cost. Ji, now 35, had the device removed in the U.S., but her doctor found cervical erosion that will hinder her ability to have children. “After the abortion, I felt empty, as if something was scooped out of me. My husband and I had been so excited for our new baby. Now, suddenly, all that hope and joy and excitement had disappeared, all in an instant,” she said.
Self-taught in the law to fight the injustice of his government, Chen was forced to face trial without representation. After his inevitable prison term, Chen has been a prisoner in his own home without legal recourse or any charges. He had only one hope: America…
Chen… blind… felt his way silently over a wall and slipped past nearly 100 guards that were stationed around his home, around the courtyard walls and at every nearby road and bridge. He walked for hours from his own home in the middle of the night. He was wounded, wet, covered in mud. He swam across a river,” Bob Fu, the founder of ChinaAid, told ABC News. Chen was picked up by supporters and driven to Beijing on April 23. Several friends hid him in different locations until his last host was able to reach out to the U.S. embassy in Beijing on April 27, Fu said.
Unfortunately for this Chen, America is in an election year and he is a resident of a country that holds a tremendous amout of debt. ABC analysts give the quandary:
China has replaced Iraq as the focal point for foreign affairs this season. Republican candidate Mitt Romney is accusing President Obama of being “soft” on China. If the U.S. accepts Chen and his family, it risks further upsetting an already sensitive dynamic with the Chinese government; hand him over to Bejing authorities and the White House gives Romney arsenal for attack that could also be seen as backpedaling on commitment to an issue the Democrats have long championed.
In my estimation, there shouldn’t be a quandary. The man is a political prisoner, and we ought to grant him asylum. Unfortunately, the world’s second largest economy (theirs) is propping up the world’s largest government (ours), and we have very little leverage. The only thing that stands between Russia dumping its U.S. Treasury bonds on the markets is China, which is as dependent on our economy as we are on theirs. This means that our government will compromise on our values, and find some “solution.” Chen will most likely remain in China, and a political prisoner until his death. I hope I’m wrong.
The difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets…
- Will Rodgers
Bohemian Rhapsody On The Way To School
About Chris Spangle's Blog
