I thought I would bring to your attention an article that I recently wrote for a local rag called the Idaho Observer.  I have been a subscriber of the IO for a year and a half now and hold it in high regard. When I was presented the opportunity to write an article from my perspective about the Washington State Republican Convention, I was honored by the request.  Though it took some work to get the article into a mangeable length, I was rather pleased with the end result.  You can check out the article here in it’s entirety - or, for convenience, I have copied the body of the article below.

And of course, here’s a video of the Spokane, Washington Ron Paul march that spontaneously erupted moments after the convention ended.

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It wasn’t all that long ago that I found myself in the improbable position of being a key coordinator for Ron Paul’s national delegate effort at the Washington State Republican Convention. I was on the inside, amongst the most trusted, dedicated and capable Ron Paul supporters in the state of Washington. This group was amazing. Like me, they were willing to deny themselves sleep, spend months of man-hours and do whatever it took to give Ron Paul a fighting chance of getting national delegates at the Washington State Republican Convention.

Together, we had planned out almost every possible scenario, locked down hundreds of details and pushed this State Convention well beyond where any had been before. We had a strong delegation – nearly 40%, or about 450 people. We owned the perimeter with a decked out Ron Paul RV command center, a glow-in-the-dark Ron Paul van and hundreds of Ron Paul signs deployed in the surrounding area. We even had our very own Ron Paul bottled water and an awe-inspiring Ron Paul display directly across the street from the convention center. It was a masterpiece of the grassroots. We were ready.

So were they. During an executive session a few days before the convention the Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) illegally passed an executive rule, ultimately ratified by the Washington State Republican delegation, that essentially controlled the ballots and prevented legal voters from fairly electing a large number of national delegate positions.

Undeterred, we hit the convention floor running – we were prepared to challenge the rules, the credentials report, and the order of business – essentially, we intended to lay down an intellectual fight at every level. It was clear early on that this would be no easy battle…and in hindsight, what we wanted never would have happened. The deck was stacked and the other side was willing to break laws to maintain its position.

Despite being outright denied any semblance of fair representative elections, our delegates were able to win 10 national delegate and alternate positions for Ron Paul. But then something unexpected began happening: At the cost of adopting by acclimation a so-called Soviet style “Unity Slate,” the tide began to change. We were then able to utilize core conservative values to break up McCain leadership’s stronghold and methodically cause their delegates to vote against their conservative conscience in the process of Resolutions and Platform. This caused a crisis in the ranks of the party faithful. Leadership had led them to vote against things like right to life and 2nd Amendment rights just to oppose Ron Paul supporters. If we could claim one major victory during this convention, it would be this: Members of the party who believe in the system discovered that it is a closed system, that your voice will be heard and your vote counted only if they are in agreement with leadership.

As we broke for lunch, there was a definite shift in the attitude among many McCain supporters. It was as if we were no longer the enemy. McCain campaign strategists on the floor were sensing the shift and made a deal with us. They agreed to make no attempt to block our resolutions so long as we did not resolve to withdraw from Iraq. They warned that they would leave the convention and deny us a quorum if we brought up our war resolutions.

Just two hours before the end of the convention, the John McCain leadership began instructing their delegates to leave the convention floor when we resolved to oppose Real ID. Delegation chairmen and McCain leaders, like sheep in the fold, followed orders and began evacuating their willing delegates. Hundreds upon hundreds of delegates sheepishly stepped out of the room. Their plan was to deny the Ron Paul delegates a quorum (a majority) and consequently end the convention right there.

What the McCain camp hadn’t anticipated was that our previous methods had worked. Those who remained, all 700+ of them, established a quorum…we had won over the hearts and minds of the majority. What time we had was only able to be used for passing a resolution that requires the WSRP to officially observe the Constitution when declaring war, thereby requiring an official declaration by Congress. We were about five minutes away from approving a motion to extend the convention until all business had been completed when the McCain people started filing back in and diluted our 2/3 majority. Nonetheless, we had accomplished our goal all along – to cause McCain delegates to question their leadership, realize their hypocrisy and rethink everything they had been told about Ron Paul and his supporters.

In conclusion, the most important thing we accomplished was a political education for hundreds of new people in the state of Washington. I can only pray that these individuals, further resolved by their treatment at the convention, realize the imminent need to further the Ron Paul Revolution, with or without Ron Paul. This is the only hope we have for regaining control over our country and avoiding tyrannical big brother government, bent on keeping us in a prison without bars.

OK…I’ve seen some protests.  I’ve seen some marches.  Heck, I’ve orchestrated such things.  But nothing prepared me for viewing the Ron Paul Revolution march on Washington, DC.

It was funny…as I was watching this video, I began to be a little disappointed.  I was like, “that’s it?” - over a million votes and “that’s it?”  But then the camera man zoomed in on the approaching demonstrators and I did a complete 180.  I can’t even imagine what Minneapolis / St. Paul is gonna be like…but this march is on the magnitude of insane.

I wish I coulda been there…this energy is just fantastic.

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Good things ARE happening in the world…I just hope the mainstream hops on.

The last year and a half of my life has brought about great transformation. Where I used to be a philosophical pessimist bent on arm-chair quarterbacking an ineffective bitch fest, I am now a decided and battle tested foe in the war against American civil liberties, personal privacy and individual freedom. What brought about this change?

Ron Paul.

It was with mixed emotion that I learned of the Ron Paul presidential campaign coming to an official end. On one hand, I have invested so much of my time, blood, sweat and tears as a grassroots activist for his bid for Presidency, and I’m wondering what I can do now that it’s clear that America has made two bad choices. On the other hand, though, I realized quite some time ago that mainstream America was not READY for Ron Paul and that this effort was more about the message than the man or a Presidential seat. It is an effort to steer America off this path of certain financial ruin, to preserve the original intent of our country and to stave off hundreds of powerful elitists that want as much control over mankind as possible.

I have been concerned for some time that this movement of freedom fighters inspired by Ron Paul would fracture into thousands of pieces and eventually and irrevocably be lost until the next great conservative comes along. I was hoping that Ron Paul would steer us in a right direction - a channel to funnel our energy into effectual change based around the principles we love and cherish. Freedom. Peace. Prosperity.

As I have frequently found the case, he and I share consistent concerns. I am happy to announce that Dr. Paul has done it right, yet again. He has announced phase two of his campaign - a much broader and
longer term project - the Campaign for Liberty. Essentially, it is an advocacy group to educate and inform the public, promote our common principles and insure the retention of this amazing network of some of the smartest people in America. There is no doubt there’s something amazing about this group - within 24 hours of the announcement of this new phase, almost 42,000 supporters have joined the new campaign and it’s growing by the minute.  These are numbers that can seriously change things, especially if they are a group that is paying attention, dedicated to the cause, and can focus their energy on the same things at the same time.

If you haven’t done so all ready, please consider joining the campaign. As always, keep learning.

Here’s the official announcement from Ron Paul:

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I did something today that I’ve never done before in my life. I donated money to a presidential campaign - specifically, Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign. It was a piece of cake, I feel good about it and for a moment, I was recognized world-wide for it.

Ron Paul’s campaign website provides instant feedback for those who donate to their campaign - names scroll across a graphic, showing the most recent people who have donated. I wondered if these names were real people…there were so many that I’d seen over the last few weeks since they introduced it. Well, I’ve got absolute confirmation it’s real. Within seconds of my donation, my name graced the graphic for several minutes…I liked it. It was fun, encouraging and best of all…personalized. What a great personal touch for the rather “mundane” act of giving money to a politician?

As of my donation to this writing (about ten hours), the total has gone from $539,617 to $588,448…yeah!! How about over half a million in ten days? RP supporters - you ROCK! Let’s keep it going!

If you haven’t heard, Ron Paul is shooting to raise over $12 million dollars by December 31st. If you also weren’t aware, Ron Paul recently raised over $5 million dollars for his campaign, surpassing the relatively dismal efforts of almost all the other candidates. His message is being spread by thousands of grassroots supporters in a blinding effort to raise awareness to the great things he could do for our nation. Where Ron Paul has held the title of internet superstar, the people that believe in him are insuring that it goes well beyond just that…we’re putting real dollars in the bank, and we’re hittin’ the streets making sure you’ve heard about him. We’re gonna make sure he’s the GOP candidate. We’re not just talking Ron Paul revolution, we’re walking it.

Why?

A lot of us Americans have had this uneasy feeling about the direction our country has taken. This is not a new feeling - it’s been gradually building over the course of many Presidential terms. We’ve bounced between neo-con and neo-liberal factions for a couple decades now and the “massiveness of scale” of our ever-increasing government is finally being recognized as a huge financial liability. As our national debt hovers just under $10 trillion dollars and inflation pushes our cost of living higher and higher, a lot of us are wondering how we could ever pay that down…especially if we continue to overspend, decade after decade. Many of us are growingly concerned over dependence on foreign money…concerned because it has implications that affect our nation’s sovereignty.

Bush & Congress have really screwed up our country. In so much as the Patriot Act, the military tribunals, the Real ID act, prisoner torture, the North American Union and other laws that have all but chipped our Constitutional freedoms to dust, we’re just not the same nation as we once were. I personally know an American on the “no fly list” and they’re neither a criminal or a terrorist. My friends have died because of this war. These were irrational acts of fear, perhaps acts of purpose, not determinate acts of protection.

As far as I am concerned, there’s one item in Ron Paul’s campaign that really stands out…and it’s what has inspired me to not just vote for Ron Paul, but to be one of those grassroots activists that insists he get into office. “Stop the national ID card.” Sure, I support the idea of limited government, ending the IRS, getting out of Iraq now, international non-intervention, stopping deficit spending - but the whole Real ID national drivers license is a really bad thing for America. My blood boils when I think about having to accept a microchipped driver’s license in 2009. If we’re to be a free nation, we cannot allow government to track our every move through RFID tracking chips found in our driver’s licenses. I tell you now - that IS what the Real ID will do. Ron Paul’s committed to stopping it…Hillary, Obama, Giuliani…pretty sure they’re for it.

If any of this concerns you, well, there’s finally something you can do about it.

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Help Ron Paul help US…donate today. It’s fun, you’ll be famous for a moment and you’ll be participating in what could be the most important fight for freedom ever waged in America. Even if it’s $25…with Paul’s frugality, he’ll make that go a long way.

If you haven’t joined your local Meetup group & you want to make a real difference for America…get started today!

In light of my hypocrisy, I’m gonna go a little nutz with the videos here. I particularly liked these videos as they’re an excellent introduction to Ron Paul’s views and political strategies.

Now, for a moment, I want you to pretend that there are no political affiliations and also pretend that you don’t have to vote for the media anointed idiots, such as Hillary, Giuliani, and Obama. For just a second, let’s pretend that the most pressing issues facing our country are not a woman’s right to choose, the death penalty, and faux religious affiliation. Let’s look at this coming election from the big picture.

Where are we at? If you’re paying attention, you might have noticed that a National ID card, designed to track our every move, is being shoved down our throats in 2009. We’re being lead into a surveillance-laden police state, hell bent on destroying our civil liberties and freedom, all in the name of perceived (not actual) safety. We’re fighting a war, ultimately for oil, at an astronomical cost that can neither be maintained nor actually provide us a modicum of national safety. Our financial outlook is bleak with nearly 9 TRILLION dollars of debt and rampant inflation that destroys the middle class and poor’s purchasing power. We have an illegal IRS system that literally destroys people’s lives, all to support a massive government machine, that garners anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of our incomes, month in, month out. Our dismal educational system suffers from continual cutbacks as we shuffle our dollars towards failed foreign policies, petroleum superiority and policing the world in a failed effort to make the world “safe” for Democracy. We’re in a pretty bad way…but there’s hope for America…Ron Paul is running for President in 2008.

With the primaries just around the corner, time is running short for Ron Paul’s ever-growing base of patriots and lovers of liberty to fight like hell with their grass-roots campaigns to get you, the average American, to open up their eyes and see things how they are. With all the political “enemies of the state” that want to continue trodding down this path of reckless abandon and financial ruin, there’s never been a more important time to think outside the party lines and base our decision, not on has-been Republican/Democrat ideologies, but rather what is most important for our nation.

So, with that said, I present you with the core views of the beloved Ron Paul. Remember, forget everything you thought you knew about politics and let the man talk to you with a common sense that is all together foreign in this day and age.

First, we have Dr. Ron Paul discussing the success of his internet media campaign, quite possibly the first time an election has utilized the tools of the web, on a large scale, as a primary means of reaching out to the American people:

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Next up, a two-fold view on the American economy, representing Dr. Paul’s critical foundation towards financial stability and preserving the (currently falling) value of the American dollar. The first shows his views on American fiscal policy and the second, relating to what we can all get behind - the abolishment of the IRS. If you’re wondering how on earth we can abolish IRS, you need to understand the difference between direct taxation and indirect taxation. Our country can actually survive on indirect taxation alone - that’s how taxation in America began and there was never an intention of going to an direct taxation system, such as the IRS like we have today. Watch the late Aaron Russo’s America: From Freedom to Fascism for more information about this.

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As the only physician that’s running for President, Dr. Paul has some refreshing views on how to handle our failing, corporate-run healthcare system. The gamut of healthcare is not just between socialized medicine or privatized, for-profit corporate-moguls who’s interest is reaping every dollar they can out of American wallets.

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Then there’s the billions of dollars that we waste, every year, on failed entitlement systems. You need to wake up and realize that you are not ENTITLED to anything other than life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. With those freedoms alone, we will take care of our own because we LOVE and because we can afford it, not because a government insists on robbing Peter to pay Paul. If everyone has a lower level of taxation and we follow Dr. Paul’s healthcare plans, we’ll be able to provide for our own. He wouldn’t strip programs for the disabled and other critical programs - but the abuse of our current entitlement systems are a huge financial burden for the poor and middle class.

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Then, of course, there my hot-button topic…the erosion of American freedom and the battle we’re waging RIGHT NOW to preserve our civil liberties. It seems that Dr. Paul is the only candidate wise enough to see the importance of civil liberty and certainly the only one that makes freedom the core of their campaign.

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And you can’t go without discussing gun rights. Gun rights were never established so we could “pop a cap in your ass” or wage gun-battles in America’s schools. Just because there are violators of law (which there always are and always will be, people), doesn’t mean we should disarm the American people. Frankly, if more people had guns, there would be LESS crime…we can’t rely on police that are MINUTES away to protect us from threats that are happening NOW. Not just that, but a disarmed people opens the door to a totalitarian government with nothing to stop them from throwing any man, woman or child into political prisons, or much worse, the hijacking of what was once a great country for the purpose of wielding great power.

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So, there you have it. A Ron Paul video extravaganza! Break free of the political mind-prison that is being constructed for you on the television and other media outlets. Consider out future, for a change…consider your freedom of choice. Reach deep down and find the patriot within you…stand up and fight for liberty. America may never be free again if we don’t fight for it.