Convention-Related News & Such

* Deseret News: "Romney to Meet with Utah GOP Delegates" (2008 Aug 30)
* Cable News Network: "Police Raid Headquarters of RNC Protesters" (2008 Aug 30)
* WorldNetDaily: "Flammables, Duct Tape, Knives and Urine, Oh My!" (2008 Aug 30)
* Associated Press: "Ron Paul Followers Gathering for Own Convention" (2008 Aug 30)
* MinnPost: "Ron Paul's Rally: The Other Political Convention in Town" (2008 Aug 31)
* Salon: "Scenes from St. Paul -- Democracy Now's Amy Goodman Arrested" (2008 Sep 01)
* LewRockwell: "Sarah Palin's Career Ends in Tragedy" (2008 Sep 02)
* Fox News: "Thousands Rally at Ron Paul Convention" (2008 Sep 02)
* YouTube: "Ron Paul - Rally for the Republic Pt 1" (2008 Sep 02)
* YouTube: "Ron Paul - Rally for the Republic Pt 2" (2008 Sep 02)
* YouTube: "Ron Paul - Rally for the Republic Pt 3" (2008 Sep 02)
* Fox News: "Paul Tops Off Rally for Republic with Fiery Speech" (2008 Sep 03)
* Daily Newscaster: "Secret Service Confiscates Books & Buttons from Ron Paul Delegates" (2008 Sep 04)
* MinnPost: "Paul Supporters Wonder: What Happened to Our Votes?" (2008 Sep 04)
* Washington Times: "'Black Hats' Keep Lookout for Troublemakers" (2008 Sep 05)
* NewsWithViews: "Over 10,000 Ron Paul Supporters 'Rally for the Republic' in Minneapolis" (2008 Sep 05)
* Campaign for Liberty: "Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic Videos" (2008 Sep 06)

Dave Garber's Rally Report

On Friday, August 29th, after a morning appointment, I departed Provo and spent two days driving to Minneapolis, spending a night in Nebraska and seeing a few sights along my way.

On Sunday, August 31st, I slept too late to attend Church, sadly, and spent most of that day attending a Real Politics Training School, along with hundreds of others. This school's main speaker was Mike Rothfeld. I noted that he was rather bold about his Christianity, as were several other Ron Paul revolutionaries whom I met and/or heard there in Minneapolis. Unlike at the Revolution March held in D.C. earlier this year, attendees didn't boo any expressions of faith but, if anything, applauded them. So, either the anti-religious sorts had decided to be more respectful this time or else they were absent. I understand that the Campaign for Liberty will be holding more of these schools around these United States in coming years. This school's topics included: (1) The Real Nature of Politics and Politicians; (2) Choosing When, Where, and How to Fight, which included (a) Types of Battles, (b) Legislative Season, and (c) Election Season; (3) Access versus Confrontation; and (4) Keys to Victory, which included both (a) effective communication and (b) effective fundraising. Basically, it was about how we can effectively mobilize ourselves and others to get what we want from legislators. We enjoyed a free dinner between sessions. I apologize that I've been swamped with things to do since returning from Minnesota and still haven't typed up my notes from this school yet--but this task remains on my to-do list and I will complete it as soon as I can.

On Monday, September 1st, I attended a Leadership Summit, along with hundreds of others from about 398 of America's 435 Congressional districts. We all enjoyed both a free breakfast and a free lunch. I enjoyed chatting with people from many different states and backgrounds. Also, Ron Paul visited and many of us got our photo taken with him. This summit lasted for several hours. Most speakers were Campaign for Liberty staff members; others spoke to educate/inspire us from their own experience. Below, I'll post a fuller account of what we discussed. During this summit, some controversy arose due to concerns about the top-down nature of the CFL, as some participants urged more use of open-source software and social-networking technology and such. After this summit, I drove to a Ron Paul Nation Celebration, where I enjoyed a variety of free outdoor entertainment that evening, including Rick Ellis' impersonations of Frank Sinatra, Marc Scibilia's rock, Aimee Allen's pop, and Rockie Lynn's country. I encountered some folks whom I knew from MySpace's political forums. And I even met Ron Paul revolutionaries from both Canada and Germany. Ron Paul spoke briefly as this event ended; I can't recall much detail about what he said there.

On Tuesday, September 2nd, I enjoyed a brief visit to the Mall of America and then attended Ron Paul's huge Rally for the Republic, along with over 10,000 others. After enjoying a few days of beautiful weather, it turned overcast and rainy today; however, since this day's events were entirely indoors, this didn't matter so much. Some Ron Paul revolutionaries stood in front of this building as part of a massive honk-and-wave. I gave them some leftover campaign literature to distribute. Lines to enter the main part of the center were both long and slow. Once inside, I encountered a variety of booths from all sorts of pro-liberty organizations. As I finally reached the interior, this rally was finally getting started. Because I'd attended the Leadership Summit, I'd received VIP tickets and got to sit very close to the stage. Few folks had brought handmade signs, as Dr. Paul had invited us to do, but a large number of mass-produced rally signs found their way around this hall, reading "Rally for the Republic" on one side and "Calling the GOP Back to Its Roots" on the other side. CSPAN2 had cameras there to broadcast everything. This rally's peakers were generally excellent and received plenty of applause. It was clear that some leaned more left-wing and others more right-wing. I cringed when I heard one praise George H. W. Bush. My favorites were Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus, Lew Rockwell, John McManus of the John Birch Society, two former governors (Jesse Ventura and Gary Johnson) who shared very inspiring personal stories about how relatively-good folks can still get elected, and Barry Goldwater Jr., who introduced Ron Paul. And, naturally, Ron Paul himself. Dr. Paul was at his finest that night and delivered a marvelous speech that covered a broad range of principles and issues, all received with thunderous applause and occasional chants like "End the Fed," especially, and "No ID." Dr. Paul even suggested civil disobedience to those of us who are willing to face its consequences. Enthusiasm there was electric and everyone seemed exhilarated. Afterward, country singer Sara Evans performed and, although she was excellent, she couldn't help but seem anticlimactic after Ron Paul's speech. It grew so late after her performance that we all had to exit rather hastily. Some folks attended a nearby after-party featuring Jimmy Vaughan while I simply returned to my hotel. I agreed to let Ron Levine carpool back to Utah with me and, so, he accompanied me on the rest of my adventures below.

On Wednesday, September 3rd, I'd hoped to spent at least a little time at the Republican National Convention, doing what I could to win over some national delegates. Unfortunately, I discovered that it would not resume until that evening--and I was eager to depart Minnesota for Utah sooner than this. So, Ron and I visited the Dalles of the St. Croix River and then tried to visit the Minnesota History Center in downtown St. Paul only to discover, after taking a very long and winding route to get to it due to construction and roadblocks and such, that it was closed. We did get to see plenty of St. Paul on our way there. We also witnessed at least part of how our government spent those $50 million of our taxes on convention security--virtually every intersection seemed to have at least one policeman and/or other security agent patrolling it, if not several. At one traffic light, we saw a cop arresting a girl on a bicycle for reasons that were far from obvious. Fortunately, even with my Ron Paul car-topper, no cops bothered us at all--and one group of them even cheered for Ron Paul as we drove past them, which was surprising but welcome.

I expected to spend two days driving home. Unfortunately, it appears that my car was slowly destroying itself during this trip and, on Thursday evening, as Ron and I reached Evanston, Wyoming, we had to stop just two hours short of home. By this time, my car was producing such a horrid cacophony of squeaks and groans and thunks that it sounded like it could fall apart at any second. On its right front corner, as we soon learned, its wheel bearing was shot, its knuckle was mangled, and its CV joint wasn't looking too great, either--and we ended up replacing all three of these. Sadly, this setback cost me 2 extra days and over 350 extra dollars--but it could have been far worse.

I'll post some photos of these events on our Meetup site once I've scanned them.

CFL Leadership Summit Notes

I've done my best to synthesize my disjointed notes from this summit into a semi-orderly presentation, as follows...

Structure. The Campaign for Liberty (CFL) is chartered as a 501(c)(4) organization. CFL membership will have various levels; dues-paying members will enjoy access to online tools to organize their precincts and such. Organizational structure will be built from the precinct level upward. As justified by membership, the CFL will supervise organization of both local and state chapters. Its state chapters will enjoy relative autonomy. It will appoint interim state coordinators until active state chapters are established. By the way, ours is the incredible Lowell Nelson. CFL will work in tandem with Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), which is also a 501(c)(4) organization and will establish its own chapters on college campuses. Each campus chapter must have official collegiate recognition, a chapter plan, a permanent mailing address, and 4 dues-paying members. YAL can be considered as a revival of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), but with a better ideological foundation. Also, CFL Meetup groups will continue.

Mission. The CFL's mission is "to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity." And, it will be added, "to incite a revolution in every precinct in America." Someone suggested that the word "peaceful" should be inserted before "revolution." Its long-term goal is for a majority of public officials at all levels (federal, state, and local) to be pro-liberty Constitutionalists.

Activism. The CFL will identify like-minded individuals, recruit them to ourselves (and our allies), activate them, train them, equip them, and mobilize them. YAL will conduct similar activities on college campuses.

* Identification & Recruitment & Canvassing. The CFL will begin by recruiting known Ron Paul supporters--inviting RP supporters to join it and inviting RP donors to fund it. People who can't give labor will sometimes give money, instead--and "we can't save the world if we can't pay our bills." The CFL will next seek even more members through conducting surveys, distributing fliers, staffing booths at local events and county fairs and political conventions, and building coalitions with like-minded groups (and working with them as appropriate). CFL members should also use their personal contacts--it's sometimes surprising what people will do if only they're asked. Never fear being told "no!" The CFL will continue to canvass precincts to identify supporters, opponents, and persuadable undecideds. We need to take responsibility for our respective neighborhoods as precinct leaders--and find others to take responsibility for theirs. We need to go door-to-door, meet with our neighbors, and build personal relationships with them, so that we can win precinct by precinct, county by county, and state by state. Each precinct leader will be expected to: (1) sign a non-disclosure agreement, (2) pay $35 dues each year, (3) recruit one fellow precinct leader each year, (4) participate in 12 CFL-approved activities per year, (5) recruit members, (6) canvass voters, (7) attend CFL training, (8) participate in party meetings, (9) participate in one worthy campaign, and (10) spend at least five hours per month on these duties.

* Training & Equipment & Mobilization. The CFL will conduct Real Politics Schools across the USA to train its activists. It will provide state-of-the-art online tools, real-time legislative alerts, calls to action at federal and state and local levels, a weekly "Washington watch," a quarterly newsletter, sample letters-to-the-editor, and candidate voting records. The CFL may not endorse nor oppose candidates, due to its legal status, but it will administer Constitutional competency tests to candidates, provide candidate comparisons to voters, sponsor local issues discussions, and so forth. It will also recruit candidates (but not directly, due to legal restrictions). CFL members will involve themselves politically--be active in local politics, attend local political meetings (note: sometimes, half of winning is simply showing up--and staying until the end), build relationships with fellow political folks, volunteer in political offices, and slowly "become" the GOP and, thereby, bring it back to its roots. This will require time and effort and patience. Similarly, YAL will aid students via both training sessions (such as the Leadership Institute's schools about youth leadership and/or campus elections) and leadership conferences; and it will help students to win campus elections (or even local public offices) and to "de-fund the left."

Education. The CFL will sponsor local discussion groups, local book clubs, and a national speakers' bureau. It will produce educational materials for homeschoolers. It will also maintain a state-of-the-art in-house studio.

If anyone notices that I've omitted anything significant, then please let me know and/or post it below. Thanks!

CFL Real Politics Training School Notes

I finally typed up all of my notes from the Real Training Politics School near Minneapolis on August 31st. I posted them here among our group's Files; but I decided to restrict access to them--so, please contact me if you'd like to read them.

Convention Week Photographs

I also finally developed and scanned and posted my photographs of Ron Paul's events last week, from the intense training to the free entertainment to the huge rally. You can view them here among our group's Photos. Enjoy!

Utah's "Ron Paul" Delegates

Roobah just shared this report about Ron Paul Republicans on Utah's national delegation...

As many or all of you are aware, THREE delegates agreed to be Ron Paul supporters and were pretty much elected as national delegates for those very reasons. They were Larry Meyers, Don Guymon, and Brian Jenkins. I do NOT believe most people on this board are aware about what actually happened concerning those delegates and their national delegate vote:

Here's my summary.

1. Larry Meyers caved into Stan Lockhart's pressure and, even though he spoke AGAINST binding delegates to McCain and was one of 12 (out of 90 present) members of the SCC on 8/23/08, who voted against doing so. However, IMMEDIATELY after losing the resolution (essentially BINDING all delegates to McCain through convoluted rewording of the meaning of the word "candidate"), Larry spoke with the press and agreed to change his mind and vote for McCain as a national delegate. And that's what he did at the convention, without ever a second thought to consider voting for Romney or Ron Paul.

2. Brian Jenkins NEVER caved in and maintained TRUE RON PAUL support THROUGHOUT all phases of the convention. He even tried to cast his National Delegate vote for Ron Paul but was forced to change his vote. Opting to serve Ron Paul as best as he could, he was the other delegate besides Nancy Lord who voted for Mitt Romney and NOT McCain. I give 1000 Kudos to Brian for STICKING TO HIS PROMISES AND PRINCIPLES no matter how hard he was pushed by the GOP leaders from Utah. I hope all of you out there remember that, too, if you see Brian running for some political office in the future. The idea is to know WHICH candidates WALK THE WALK. BRIAN WALKS THE WALK. Brian is facing having his party credentials stripped at the next SCC meeting for DARING to make such a vote and potentially EMBARASSING the Utah delegation. (NO, BRIAN OPTED TO FOLLOW THE RULES. TECHNICALLY he REALLY could have voted for Ron Paul, but under threat of his vote not counting, he didn't vote that way.)

3. Don Guymon STRONGLY campaigned on being the Ron Paul-type candidate, while running as National Committeeman and as National Delegate campaigning for "Constitution, Freedom and Liberty!"

As you may remember, Don also ran against Mike Ridgway and Bruce Hough and Adam Peeples (Adam was never really a candidate for the position of NCM). Don got quite testy against Mike for NOT dropping out of the race and seems to believe his reason for losing was DIRECTLY due to Mike not dropping out of the race -- perhaps true as Bruce won on a plurality vote and Mike and Don's total votes exceeded Bruce's vote.

In fact, Mike WAS going to drop out of the race, but refused to do so when Mike, after speaking with Don a few days before the convention, realized Don's reasons for running had NOTHING to do with his "love of Ron Paul" and had EVERYTHING to do with his "self-serving, personal promotion" -- that's how both Mike and I see it. Mike decided to STAY in the race to PROVE Don would lose unless he gave up his "self-serving attitude" ... which he never did do.

Nevertheless, as long as it served a personal positive purpose, Don Guymon also held out as willing to vote for Mitt Romney on the first round of voting at the National Convention. However, when PRESSURED by the party leaders, Don admits he prayed about HOW to vote at the convention. This is how he describes the need to change his vote at the last minute (clipped from another newsgroup posted on 9/9/08):

donguymon@... wrote:

"Ivan Dubois came and asked us how we were voting. I instructed Ivan that I was casting my vote for Romney but in the event the nomination was wrapped up by the time Utah cast its votes, I would vote for McCain because at that point the nomination had been wrapped up."

BY THE TIME THE VOTE TALLY CAME TO "U" FOR UTAH, JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK THE TALLY WOULD BE DON???

To which I replied in another newsgroup:

Don,

That is the most Humpty-Dumpty sitting on the fence decision I've seen in ages! You should run for political office, you'd make the PERFECT candidate -- willing to bend your decisions to fit the moment, but only the moment. (That seems what politicians traditionally master to keep a positive face before the public.) Don, you CANNOT sit on the fence like that for your whole career. This decision was NOT that difficult that it deserved that kind of action.

I wonder, were any other National Delegates out there this wishy-washy in their decision to vote the way they did? (I HOPE NOT!)

I hear at least ONE delegate was FORCED to change his vote, and he did, but it wasn't for lack of trying that his vote was changed.

Don, I don't mean to sound mean, and I happen to be the master of stating the obvious, but your decision really needs to be reread by every delegate who voted for you at the convention, as NCM and National Delegate, and then ask themselves if you had made this statement immediately prior to voting that day, would such delegates have STILL chosen to vote for you as they did?

Roobah Fox

I am posting this thread here because I KNOW MANY OF YOU HERE VOTED FOR DON BECAUSE OF HIS STATED BELIEF AS A RON PAUL SUPPORTER. Then and now, MOST of you ARGUED in various groups there was NO WAY you could support Mike as a Ron Paul supporter (ROB ALEXANDER, RONALD LEVINE, MOSTLY) and instead would throw your support behind Don Guymon as "the Ron Paul delegate". I argue, do you really THINK if you had instead voted for Mike he would have come up with a statement like this or changed his mind like this? NO WAY! He would have been as ROCK STEADY in his convictions as Nancy was in hers. I GUARANTEE, TOO, if Mike had the opportunity under the rules to have voted for Ron Paul, he would have done it. Not as a die-hard supporter for Ron Paul, but as one NOT wanting to see McCain or Romney as winners.

I argue both Larry Meyers and Don Guymon voted for personal political gain AGAINST the wishes of the delegates who voted for them at the convention. I HOPE those of you who voted for these persons on PRINIPLES you HOPED would be upheld, remember this for future conventions and elections for political office.

Don and Larry, I must say that I'm terribly disappointed. Brian, YOU ARE THE MAN!!! I feel like throwing a party in your honor; it's too bad that I'm pretty much broke. What can we get you elected as?

Here's Don Guymon's response to Roobah's report above...

I recently saw a message board discussion on this group about my vote at the national convention and my run for national committeeman. Since I know many of the people on this group supported me (which I am thankful for), I felt I should explain what happened. In a prior post, there were allegations made against me, which are not truthful.

I felt I should explain what happened.

As you well know, a meeting was held by the state central committee just prior to the national convention. At that meeting a ruling came down on what the meaning of the word candidate was. The SCC decided to change what the meaning was.

I was very much against this definition. I wrote an oped piece in The Salt Lake Tribune about the unbinding of delegates. The article can be found at Salt Lake Tribune Op Ed Piece.

I talked to central committee members, emailed and also spoke at the meeting. The vote was taken and our side lost.

I was torn between doing what I felt was right (I disagreed with the vote that was taken and the definition of the word candidate) and also following the party rules. I have served on the C&B committee as the vice chair (2001-2002 before it became a forum for abusing delegate rights).

As stated in numerous newspaper articles (Washington Post, Standard Examiner, Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune). I stated my intention to vote for Romney because he was considered a candidate.

I also spent quite a bit of time in prayer and pondering on the issue. I felt I received an answer that I needed to vote for Romney but in the event that the nomination had been decided and Romney would not be considered a candidate, I would cast my vote for McCain. Based upon the rules of the Utah Republican Party, I felt that once the nomination had been decided, the only candidate that could realistically be considered was John McCain. This did not excite me, as I have not been a fan of McCain.

I would have loved to have voted for Ron Paul, but based upon my strong feelings about rules I knew that I could not do that in good conscience. I would have loved for there to be a second round of balloting, so we could be unbound but this did not happen. In fact, I was quite surprised that very few delegates were not voting for other candidates.

On the flight to Minneapolis, I actually sat next to another delegate who supported Ron Paul. He was in the same predicament.

On to the comments that Roobah made about me and the national committeeman race that I was not really supporting Ron Paul but was using my run for national committeeman for self promotion.

This is the first I have heard this allegation. In fact, Mike Ridgway stated that he stayed in the race (which may have cost me the election) because I would do nothing to help him on his state delegate status. This was humorous to me, because the only reason I knew they were not going to seat him was because I asked him.

After I asked him, I told him I would do what I could in my power but that I was very busy with the race. He had wanted me to speak on the floor of the convention on his behalf. I had told him, once again, that I was running for office and may be involved in talking to delegates but I would do what I could.

I did attempt to raise awareness of the issue of his delegate status in email groups with delegates. I was not able to get to the floor but got to a position where I could vote. Unfortunately the vote went against Mike.

I have stood up for Mike in the past. Back when the Salt Lake County Republican Party removed him from his positions (I believe it was in 2004); I wrote a letter on his behalf. A letter which he posted to his web site. I was not able to attend the meeting where he was removed (and I am not certain I would have had a voice anyway as I live in Davis County because I was working that evening.

Hence the decision to go after me, is very disappointing. On two different email groups to which we belong, I gave Mike the opportunity to refute my story about what happened because I felt he was not being truthful he never responded.

I am not certain why Roobah is stating that I was in the race for self promotion. I have never spoken to Roobah (unless she was on some three way call with Mike but I do not remember). I did tell Mike that this would give me a chance to get known by state delegates for future opportunities (if I remember correctly) but I was in the race to promote our principles in the party. Principles which I still have up on my web site, principles by which I attempt to live by).

If I was not really a Ron Paul supporter as appears to be the claim, why would I have donated to Ron Paul's campaign on at least two occassions (during the money bombs)? I believe the donations were approximately $120.

If I was not really a Ron Paul supporter, why would I have said I supported Ron Paul in the Washington Post, Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune and Standard Examiner? Every article I was interviewed for; I stated that voted for Ron Paul in the primary. Stating I was a Ron Paul supporter is not exactly the way to win friends for future political advancement especially when over 90% of Utahns voted for Mitt Romney.

If I am really involved in politics for my self promotion as Roobah claims, why would I spend hours doing the GrassRoots report (which I have done since 2001). If you want to visit the website and read the reports go to Utah GrassRoots I have spent considerable hours away from my family researching and writing this report. Including sending a mailing each year to the legislators (at my own expense) with letters, a report from the previous year, and a prompt card (you can read the prompt card) at my blog at Don Guymon Blog Spot

Each year, we are pretty critical of the legislature and the governor. If I was really out for my own self promotion would I not be out currying favor with all of them?

When I first started writing the report certain legislators used to call to get me to give them higher scores. I told them we picked the bills and if they voted wrong so be it. Soon they stopped calling because they knew they could not influence me.

On the state central committee, I have been an active voice for state delegate rights. On the floor of the state convention, I fought against the constitution and bylaws committee when I was vice chairman of that committee. The committee was upset with me, and I attribute this to the stand I made against them on the state convention floor.

I have stood against having an unlimited number of automatic delegates including making presentations on the floor of the state convention.

I sponsored a resolution at the state central committee on automatic delegates, which was defeated back in 2003.

I appreciate your taking the time to read my answer to Roobah. If any of you would like to work with me in the future on freedom issues, please do not hesitate to let me know. If you want to believe I am the evil manipulative person that Roobah attempted to portray me as, so be it.

I have learned long ago that we in the freedom movement do an awfully good job of eating our own; hence we are always destined to be in the minority. I hope one day we can move beyond that.