As Chaos Mounts, Ron Paul’s Convention Plans Remain Mysterious
In Oklahoma on Saturday, Paul supporters and Romney supporters reportedly came to blows as the Paul side fell short of electing their slate of delegates amid cries of foul play, including the use of a voice vote instead of a more painstaking roll call to decide the outcome. Speaking at the event, Romney surrogates Tim Pawlenty and the state’s own governor, Mary Fallin, drew jeers.
At the state convention in Arizona, also this weekend, the presumptive nominee’s son, Josh Romney, was booed off the stage by Paul supporters, some of whom derided his father as “the white Obama.”
At this point it’s way too late to keep Paul from having a sizable presence at the Republican National Convention, and likely control of enough state delegations to put his name up for a floor vote against Romney. But it’s still an open question just what these delegates and other Paul activists planning events for the national convention will do when they actually get there.
Paul himself has bristled at the suggestion that a convention with a substantial presence of supporters would be a chaotic affair, even while he has endorsed their continued efforts to score delegates.
“It certainly isn’t for the reason of disrupting the convention,” Paul told CNN last week. He said he was following his current strategy because “moving an agenda is very important and to do that we need to maximize the number of delegates that we have.”
A spokesman for the Paul campaign did not return requests for comment, but interviews with pro-Paul activists revealed a number of differing goals, including a total win-or-go-home effort to make Paul the nominee and long-term efforts to make sure the movement is poised for stronger runs in 2016 and beyond.
“That is the long-term goal,” Nguyen told TPM. “They deal with a lot of the rules that the national Republican Party puts forward. It would be really great if we can get national committee people to make sure the rules favor the grassroots.”
But Nguyen doesn’t believe the Republican convention will be a quiet affair.
“I don’t think it’s going to be smooth,” Nguyen said. “But I think that because of our numbers and because of the writing on the wall, they’re going to have to by default recognize that there are Ron Paul supporters, there are new ideas, there are new bodies coming into the Republican Party.”
Kurt Wallace, a spokesman for the independent grassroots site DailyPaul, which has helped organize supporters for state conventions throughout the race, insisted that the Paul delegates were not part of any larger plan beyond the immediate primary race.
“The goal is to win,” Wallace said. “I don’t think they’re thinking ‘Let’s get in there and disrupt the process and be a thorn in the side of the Republican Party.’ It really is a pure intention to get the man that they support elected.”
Josh Tolley is helping to organize a concert and rally in Tampa for convention weekend, Liberty Festival, that he hopes will attract over 100,000 Paul supporters in order to help pressure Republicans to recognize the libertarian wing of the party. While it may be too late to stop Romney, he suggested a strong presence at the convention would be a “warning shot across the bow” to the next election’s candidates that they’ll need to acknowledge Paul supporters’ demands.
“Right now a lot of Ron Paul supporters are hoping Rand Paul gets to run in 2016, but what they’re not realizing is the establishment is grooming a new crop, whether it’s Paul Ryan, Chris Christie or Marco Rubio,” he said. “If Romney wins it only helps the Ron Paul movement in that it adds fuel to the fire. People will say, ‘Here we go with another four years of not having liberty in the platform.’”
Paul and Romney are publicly friendly, and their relationship could help sand the edges of what might otherwise be a raucous and contentious floor fight. But Tolley scoffed at the notion Paul could tamp things down by embracing Romney once activists actually arrive. He predicts a mass exodus from the GOP to third-party candidate Gary Johnson if supporters feel they don’t have a viable option.
Others said they would, in fact, look to Paul himself for guidance as to how to behave. Adam Kokesh, an Iraq veteran and spokesman for grassroots group Vets for Ron Paul, is planning a march in Tampa and is hoping to pair delegates with veteran Paul activists as their guests to get them on the convention floor. But he said no one was certain yet what the goal for that weekend will be.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” he said. “You’ll have to ask the candidate himself. We’re there to support Paul in whatever he wants to do.”
No one is sure exactly how many delegates Paul has accumulated — the New York Times puts him at 104, but he may have far more as supporters take over defeated candidates’ slates and even elect delegates bound to support Romney on the ballot. The only thing certain at this point is that the movement is growing more and more difficult to contain.
Ron Paul Takes Himself Off Campaign Trail, Says He's Still Running to Win As Much as He Can
Brian Doherty
Ron Paul speaks, from a press release today:
Ron Paul speaks, from a press release today:
This campaign fought hard and won electoral success that the talking heads and pundits never thought possible. But, this campaign is also about more than just the 2012 election. It has been part of a quest I began 40 years ago and that so many have joined. It is about the campaign for Liberty, which has taken a tremendous leap forward in this election and will continue to grow stronger in the future until we finally win.
“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.
“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.
“I hope all supporters of Liberty will remain deeply involved - become delegates, win office, and take leadership positions. I will be right there with you.My book on how Ron Paul got to where he is now, Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired.
Ron Paul Statement on Campaign Going Forward
“We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.” – Ron Paul
LAKE JACKSON, Texas – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul issued the following statement to supporters and the general public concerning the continuation of his historic bid for the GOP nomination.The statement tees up forthcoming information the campaign will release concerning its fruitful delegate-attainment strategy still occurring at delegate-selection events such as state conventions ahead of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Below please find comments from Congressman Paul:
“As I reflect on our 2012 Presidential campaign, I am humbled by the supporters who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much. And I am so proud of what we have accomplished. We will not stop until we have restored what once made America the greatest country in human history.
“This campaign fought hard and won electoral success that the talking heads and pundits never thought possible. But, this campaign is also about more than just the 2012 election. It has been part of a quest I began 40 years ago and that so many have joined. It is about the campaign for Liberty, which has taken a tremendous leap forward in this election and will continue to grow stronger in the future until we finally win.
“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.
“Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.
“I hope all supporters of Liberty will remain deeply involved – become delegates, win office, and take leadership positions. I will be right there with you. In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.
For Liberty,
Ron Paul.”
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2012/05/14/ron-paul-statement-on-campaign-going-forward/
Plastic explosives: Al-Qaeda-trained surgeons put the bomb in suicide bombers
AFP Photo / Bertrand Langlois
The hunt is on for doctors implanting explosives in suicide bombers in Yemen. Security has been stepped up at airports worldwide as surgically-doctored terrorists plot revenge attacks following the one-year anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death.
The implanted bombs would be undetectable to airport body scanners, dramatically increasing the likelihood of a mid-flight terrorist attack, the Daily mail reports.
Experts say explosive compounds such as PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) could be inserted inside of would-be bombers.
The implanted explosives would then be detonated via injection.
A western security source is quoted by the Sunday Times as saying: “This is a transferable skill and there is still some concern.”
Western intelligence agencies fear doctors are currently working with Al-Qaeda’s chief bomb maker in Yemen, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, to realize his plans.
The CIA is now racing against the clock to catch the ‘body-bombers’ before they go off.
Al-Asiri’s bomb plots have had a particularly intimate touch in recent years.
He was responsible for sewing a packet of PETN into Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s underwear in the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing on a US jetliner en route to Detroit. Al-Asiri also shoved a bomb up his brother Abdullah’s rectum in a botched 2009 suicide mission targeting Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muhammad bin Nayef.
Saudi fugitive and bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri.(Reuters / Saudi Interior Ministry / Handout)
A
would-be suicide bomber turned double-agent working with the group
managed to get his hands on an updated version of al-Asiri’s underwear
bomb last week. Saudi spooks planted the agent in al Qaeda’s Yemeni
affiliate, who convinced his handlers to give him the bomb aimed at
bringing down a US-bound flight.The device is now in the possession of the FBI, which is currently analyzing it.
The latest non-metallic bomb would not set off metal detectors, but could be discovered by body scanners and more thorough security checks.
However, not all US airports are equipped with body scanners.
Support a Full Debate
But considering the damage an out-of-control Fed has inflicted on our dollar and our economy over the years, you and I can’t afford to lay off the pressure to hold it accountable.
Currently, there are two open seats on the Fed’s Board of Governors, and those who eventually occupy those spots will also sit on the Federal Open Market Committee, meaning they will have tremendous influence over the direction of our economy.
A full term for a Fed Governor is 14 years.
So it’s vital that the Senate, which is in charge of confirming the President’s nominees to the Board, never take its responsibility lightly.
Yet, recently, Senator David Vitter has come under harsh attack for simply demanding a full debate over the President’s nominees, Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and investment banker Jerome Powell.
The Fed’s supporters would love nothing more than for these nominees to sail through on a “unanimous consent” vote.
But Senator Vitter is rightly concerned that these nominees will just be “rubber stamps” for a more aggressive, interventionist Fed.
Since Senator Vitter has placed a “hold” on these nominations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must come up with 60 votes to move ahead with their confirmations.
Senator Reid could move at any time to force a vote on these nominees, so I’m asking C4L members to join with Senator Vitter in demanding a full debate.
Click here to find your senators’ information.
Call and write them today to urge them to stand with Senator Vitter.
As Senator Vitter has stated, "These two Fed nominations and Fed monetary policy are tremendously important matters. Because they are, and because I have serious concerns with the Fed's activist, easy money policies, I'm demanding a Senate debate and vote rather than just rubber-stamping the nominations with no debate."
Your senators can also stand for common-sense economic policies by voting “No” on any cloture vote.
Turning around this economy will require cutting spending, removing abusive regulations and burdensome taxes, and holding an out-of-control Federal Reserve accountable – not increasing its “activism.”
Senator Vitter took a brave stand in support of Audit the Fed when his Senate colleagues were caving in to support a watered-down audit in 2010, so I hope you will join with him today.
In Liberty,
Matt Hawes
Vice President
P.S. Senator David Vitter has come under harsh attack recently for simply demanding a full debate on the President’s two nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, an extremely influential position that has a full term of 14 years.
Senator Vitter is rightly concerned that these two nominees could just become “rubber stamps” for a more aggressive, interventionist Fed.
Senator Reid could move at any time to force a vote on these nominations, so I hope you’ll contact your senators right away to urge them to join with Senator Vitter in calling for a full debate.
They can also take a strong stand for common-sense economic policies by voting “No” on any cloture vote.
After you've contacted your senators, please consider contributing $10 or $25 to help us continue taking the fight straight to the Fed.
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