The 2012 Republican Convention
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It ought to be interesting.
TAMPA, FLA. — The GOP convention doesn't officially start until Monday, but trouble is already brewing between presumptive nominee Mitt Romney and Republicans who are concerned by his campaign making an aggressive power play to control the party.
The Storm Gathers in Tampa
Posted on August 27, 2012 by Matthew Gagnon
...snip
One thing the delay does afford us, though, is more time to prepare. Today, I spent a great deal of time in the Tampa Convention Center (where much of the staff, news organizations, and support organizations work from), as well as the Forum (where the actual convention takes place).
For the uninitiated who have never been to a convention, allow me to give you a preview for how this massive beast of an event happens.
Protesters at GOP convention blame weather and police presence for lousy turnout.
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Aug 27, 12:27 PM EDT
Small crowds attend Republican convention protests
By MIKE SCHNEIDER and TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press
OTAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Protesters blamed ...Isaac and...massive police presence ... for ... weak showing ....Only a fraction of the 5,000 expected demonstrators...turned out ...
....police officers and heavily armed...Florida National Guard patrolled...streets of downtown Tampa. The protesters ... required to conduct ... rallies and parades in designated areas and along specified routes, none closer than ... half-mile from where Republicans would be gathering.
"They've militarized Tampa. The chilling effect has succeeded," said Cara Jennings, a voter outreach organizer....
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Does anyone else see the blaming and deflection as typical of the liberal protesters?
Liberals are always big on threats and small on followthough.
Says to me that a lot of the protesters were planning bad behavior and then thought otherwise once they realized it'd be tough to get away with it. Tampa is run by a Democrat mayor, who made no bones that peaceful protest was acceptable but illegal activity was not.
Meantime, Code Pink is reportedly classing up the joint by showing up in their razzle-dazzle vagina costumes. Couldn't find any stills of their current activity, but here's a shot of a recent display of their haughty coture, and here's a link to a video allegedly shot either yesterday or today.
Way to go, ladies! Nothing makes me change my mind like costumes in the shape of body parts!
I had to ask . . what is the point . . Bing returned (audio) . .
Andrea from Code Pink is wearing a vagina costume. She explains why at Downtown Tampa
The link includes a picture of Andrea (I think) and her slogan which will no doubt give new meaning to the 'Bush Legacy'.
She goes on to explain the paucity of protesters. So there. Now you know.
I'm sure their mothers (and grandmothers) will be terribly impressed with their "classy" appearance on the nightly news.
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Ron Paul delegates mounting floor fight over new rules
The Associated Press
Monday, August 27, 2012 at 3:00 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Ron Paul's delegates are trying to mount a floor fight over new GOP rules designed to limit the ability of insurgent presidential candidates to amass delegates to future Republican conventions.
It is unclear whether they can rally enough support to force a vote on alternative rules. But they could provide an unwanted distraction to party leaders and Mitt Romney, the party's presumptive nominee.
Does anyone really agree with these rules? I hope not.....
Some Maine Ron Paul folks get a mention in a NPR blog about this rules fight:
Saul Alinsky must be smiling at this Saul Alinsky style power grab by the Romney cabal. Under his proposed rules he could reject and replace any national committee member he doesn't like.
huh???? from Narans linked article~
"over new GOP rules designed to limit the ability of insurgent presidential candidates to amass delegates to future Republican conventions."
why do we even have conventions then??? isnt the point~ to amass delegates? This makes as about as much sense to me as the claim that people "took over" a caucus....or a convention. if you have the numbers you have the numbers...isnt that sort of the point of primaries and caucuses?
anyway in other news~
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/texas-delegates-planning-floor-mutiny...
"While opposition to the rules began with Ron Paul supporters, it has spread to the entire Texas delegation and significant portions of those from South Carolina, Colorado, Virginia and Louisiana too."
There's an interesting choice of words: " . . insurgent presidential candidates . . " Can anyone come up with something more inflammatory?
Definition of INSURGENT
1: a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially : a rebel not recognized as a belligerent
2: one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one's own political party
Again, is the purpose of the convention to create policy or enforce it?
Regardless, here's the current convention itinerary. Welcome back to Northern Exposure.
Updated: 3:44 PM
Convention protesters try to arrest Condi Rice
The Code Pink group says Rice is guilty of war crimes and intends to try to arrest others from the George W. Bush administration.
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. — Police in Tampa stopped a dozen anti-war protesters from entering an event attended by ...Rice after the group said it intended to arrest her for war crimes.
... Code Pink carried handcuffs...tried to enter...performing arts center. Rice ...attending an event in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. They said they wanted to make a citizen's arrest of Rice....
Officers told protesters to leave... They went back to the sidewalk and.. lay down under sheets... blood-splattered.
The group says it will try to arrest other members of the...Bush administration.
Help me out, here . .
A lady walks into a bar, dressed as genitalia and swinging a pair of handcuffs . .
Maine Delegates --> 14 for Mitt Romney, 10 for Ron Paul.
Help me out, here . .
A lady walks into a bar, dressed as genitalia and swinging a pair of handcuffs . .
Lots of ideas. None that wouldn't attract Auntie Mabel's wooden spoon.
It's now time for all good Mainers to make a decision -- do we want four more years of Obama, or do we want a Republican President?
Myself, despite everything that's happened in Maine politics over the last year, I say --> Romney/Ryan 2012.
Please - for Maine, and for America --- Let us all unite and take back our Country in November.
Thank you.
Same problem . . coming up with something sufficiently sanitary.
Anyway, while trying to watch Buzzfeed/NYT livestream . . 2 boneheads kept right on a yakking straight through the National Anthem. There's our media.
I agree Naran. I will be voting for Mitt Romney. However, we have to have a real discussion about how we move forward as a state. I am done with the GOP in Maine and I will make it my personal mission to make sure that both Republicans and Democrats who do not support a fiscally responsible agenda get called out for it. I will continue to press for financial sanity and I will hold Romney's feet to the fire for his economic approach. It is time for us to stop giving the GOP a pass for the "better of the party" and start calling out those who's agenda does not support the "betterment of the Nation". Let's end the war in Afghanistan, let's pass a balanced budget amendment and budget, let's audit the Fed, let's shutdown some of the bases oversees that spend billions and bring those troops home, rebuild bases here in the US and use them to spur economic growth in tough communities. It can be done, we have the leadership out there to do it, and if we put America, not the GOP, first, we can succeed.
Well, I know there are some around here who aren't fond of Peggy Noonan, but apropos of your question (and given that the WSJ saw fit to publish it, here's how she led out Friday's column:
It is good that Joe Biden is going to the Republican National Convention. . .. People make fun of his gaffes. . . but he's no fool and he knows how to take it to the other guy. The speech he is working on. . . will be stirring and stentorian: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Tampa, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Tampon.'"
I wish that were mine. It came in the mail from a Hollywood screenwriter, one of the gifted conservatives who quietly toil there.
EagleIsland, you owe me a new screen for my laptop, mine is now covered with soda....
Let's get the names of the 14 romney delegates from Maine, I want to see what politicians went down there
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-ron-paul-supporters-walk-out-...
snip“It’s a disgusting, disgusting display of a hostile takeover from the top down,” said Ashley Ryan, 21, a Maine delegate. “It’s an embarrassment.”
Paul did not win a single state, but his ardent followers worked arcane local and state party rules to take over several state delegations, including garnering 20 of Maine’s 24 spots. snip
Received via email.
Aug 28, 6:23 PM EDT
Maine's Ron Paul delegates walk out of convention
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Part of Maine's delegation walked out of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday in a boycott over a decision to strip away half of Ron Paul's delegates.
Supporters of the Texas congressman, some wearing clothespins on their noses, tried one last time to appeal from the convention floor before walking out. Despite their absence, 10 Paul delegates were included in Maine's roll call vote, with 14 for Romney and 10 for Paul, said Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster.
Mark Willis, a Paul supporter from Dennysville, said it was a "travesty" that the Maine vote didn't include all 20 delegates elected at the state convention.
Webster said that both the state party and Paul supporters made mistakes at the convention in May in Augusta. But Webster said Paul supporters were unwilling to compromise either with the state party or with the national party.
"At some point your candidate loses and you have to accept the other guy, or sit it out," Webster said.
Willis said there was no need to compromise, or to sit it out.
"We were duly elected at the Maine convention," he said. "We played by the same rules and we had the numbers and we won. We never gave in, never wavered, never compromised."
Before the roll call vote, Paul showed up on the convention floor, signing autographs and posing for photos.
As he left the arena, he declined to say if he felt his delegates were being treated unfairly. "I'll let you know when it's over," he said.
C-SPAN audio during live coverage of the credentials report picked up many delegates chanting, "The fix is in!"
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Okay, folks. Time to put on the big-person pantaloons, and unite to work for a Republican presidency and political majority in November.
Mainstream Republicans had to deal with defeat at the state convention. They did so. They got over it, and they moved on. Time for the Maine Ron Paul supporters to do the same.
Mainstream Republicans had to deal with defeat at the state convention. They did so. They got over it, and they moved on.
They moved on and got over it alright, they overturned it at the RNC.
No Justice No Peace
Choice --> work to elect the Republican nominee in November, or deal with four more years of Obamanation.
Yours to make.
EagleIsland, you owe me a new screen for my laptop, mine is now covered with soda....
I don't owe you doodly-squat. Way I figure it, Noonan, her screenwriter friend and the WSJ owe ME a new screen. If I hear back from any of 'em, I'll forward you their email addy. Fair enough?
Anne Romney just won the election.
I was impressed but Judy and Gwen (PBS) were breathless at the conclusion of Anne's speech.
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TAMPA — The Republican National Convention Rules Committee voted 63-38 to approve a new rule allowing granting the Republican National Committee — and Mitt Romney — sweeping new powers to amend the governing document of the GOP.
The move came at the encouragement of Mitt Romney supporters on the committee, including Romney's top lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who stressed that it would grant "flexibility" to Romney and the committee to adapt to changing political environments. The rule allows the RNC to amend the party's rules without a vote by the full Republican National Convention.
Making rules as they go
And it offers the Republican Establishment a new tool to keep at bay Tea Party initiatives that threaten to embarrass or contradict party leadership and stray from a planned message
God forbid that anyone questions the leadership.
This is necessary for the world in which we find ourselves in," Ginsberg told the committee, adding that it is "important for the political survival of the party in the electoral context," for the committee to be able to change the rules as it sees fit in the intervening four years between conventions