http://freedomoutpost.com/2012/08/the-final-plea-for-fairness-over-rnc-rules-fell-on-deaf-ears/

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/aug/28/paul-gets-needed-petitions-have-his-name-added-rnc/ 

 
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/aug/28/paul-gets-needed-petitions-have-his-name-added-rnc/  

Dateline: Weds, 2am

Well, I'm sure ALL of you watched the convention yesterday. It's very late right now & I can't type for long as we have to get up waaaaay early to go on a breakfast boat ride. We're calling it our, "Three Hour Cruise." Anyway, above are some articles & videos.

- What you probably didn't know is that very important people on the Rules Committee were kept on buses that circled around the convention center for hours, so those members could not get in & argue against the new, horrible, blasphemous rules - which passed, in a nanosecond. The Teleprompter even said, “The ayes have it!” so the vote was scripted, just like ALL of the convention.

- Earlier, Ron came on the floor at 1:30pm & made his way around the states that supported him, shaking hands & posing for photos. I stayed with Ron for most of his circuit & talked a bit with Doug Wead. He's always been very kind to me & given advice when I've asked. He took my photo w/Ron. But “stayed” with Ron really doesn’t describe what I was doing. Remember that “Mary Tyler Moore” show when the clown had died & the office gang were all crying with their arms around each other, & they shuffled over to the kleenex box on Mary’s desk? That’s what Ron’s tour around the convention hall was like. Inch-long shuffles down between chair rowss, up and down aisles. There were about 527 people trying to walk with Ron in a space for 2. When Ron got to Texas, Dan Rather was on the periphery & I talked with him for awhile. He found out I was on the Platform Cmte & asked me if a Definition of Marriage Amendment had been in there. I said it was & told him how I’d argued against it several times & asked that it be stricken. He thanked me very sincerely for that, & even though I’m no Dan Rather fan anymore, I told him how much I appreciated his bulldogging of Nixon back in the 70's & that he too was responsible for bringing Nixon to justice. Dan lit up that I remembered that, and he gladly asked his grandson to take a photo of me with him when I asked if that was possible.

- But the rest of the day - what can I say? It was absolutely horrible to hear the Nay vote on credentials & rules get positively bulldozed into the rafters. They would NOT hear ANY dissent! We called for “Division,” to have the vote counted, but we might as well have voted for Santa Claus to ride in on a sleigh. Then, the music came up, & those morons danced to GE Smith’s band’s excellent music. Can you believe it? GE Smith of Sat. Night Live fame? His band is GREAT & too good for these schmucks. I doubt any of them could even tell you the name of any blues artist. GE’s band looked like they burned one before they came in, & they probably did to have to sell themselves out to gig for the RNC.

- So, I was upstairs when the Credentials & Rules votes were called. Did you hear me yellling? Boy, my friends/family from Texas were MAD & I could see Jeremy Blosser on the monitors, furiously yelling, “Point of ORDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

- After that, I ran down to the floor as I thought I hadn’t missed Rules & wanted to be down there. While I was running down the warren of stairs in the center (The place is absurd & it’s incredibly confusing trying to get from one floor to the next, in fact to get to the 4th floor, if you’re on the 6th, you have to go to the 2nd & then walk up. I just wondered how many would die if there was a fire, as the hall definitely held more than its maximum & was filled with carpet, cardboard signs, curtains & all kinds of flammable stuff.) Anyway, by the time I got to the floor, the Rules vote was over!!??

- The Roll Call vote for nominations had begun & I made my way over to Nevada. Dr. Wayne Terhune, our Delegate Chair, was already at the mic, waiting. As the states counted down, I wondered what was going to happen. Would we be thrown out? Jim Ayala stood next to Wayne in his black “Oathkeepers” t-shirt & hat. Jim’s a big guy, & he was acting as Wayne’s bodyguard, but we also wanted to send a msg out to the country that we knew our Constitution. The aisle with the mic was PACKED, but the neo-cons had their orders: walk up & down in an already maxed aisle & disrupt Nevada. Back & forth they squeezed past us. One guy with a hat, you probably saw him on tv, actually stood right in front of Wayne to block the camera from seeing him.

Earlier, when Ron had come on the floor, I’d pulled my “zip” RP banner out of my shirt where I stashed it before our convention entrance frisking. We’d been told that we’d be checked for EVERYTHING, but the inspection was minimal. When our host buses took us from the Doubletree to the center, we traveled on freeways that were totally devoid of traffic, except us! The freeway on-ramps were closed & there were Secret Svc checkpoints at ea. one. When the agent on the bus & the ground exchanged their codes to let us in the perimeter, I jokingly said, “We’re just Bozos on this bus!” but no one got the reference. Lisa Marie Johnson & I were sitting up front so we could dash to our committee meetings first thing. Platform turned out to be a waste of time because all we did was vote the final Platform up or down. What else could you do? It was all printed & the Chairs were busily autographing copies. I’d brought my anti-NDAA language just in case there was a final chance, but I was crazy to think it could ever get in.

Anyway, I pulled out my trusty, “I AM Ron Paul!” sign & held it over my head as I followed Ron around the room, then a thug/security stepped up & told me in no uncertain terms to hand over the sign. I meekly said, “I’ll put it away, sir.” and stuck it back in my shirt. “NO, GIVE ME THE SIGN!” so I had to hand it over. When we were at the mic with Wayne, Victoria happened to have another zip sign, so she passed it over. We unfurled it, and the same thing happened. Our sign was taken, BAD LIBERTY LOVERS, BAD! But, we had another zip sign, reloaded & held it hidden until the last minute, when Wiz raised it over his head. I asked Jim Uprichard if he had the length of RP stickers I’d given him that morning. He did, & I peeled one off to put on my cheek at the last minute.

  “Nebraska......” We would be next! The tension mounted. The glares from Nevada’s neo-con delegates lasered in on us & especially Wayne. Heidi Smith, out-going National Committeewoman, who had her marching papers handed to her by us at our state convention, held up her Mitt sign. It didn’t matter. I stuck the RP sticker on my cheek, turned my head, stood on my tiptoes & looked at Wayne. He began to read his pencil-written notes and the hall erupted into screams as we nominated Ron with 15 votes from Nevada, 5 abstained votes, and as an afterthought, 5 for Romney. We did it!

I’ll tell you later about how underhanded & rotten just getting that nomination form in, was. Former Gov. Bob List (who had called RP supporters “Angry Bees” in a television interview a month ago) marched up to Wayne, “YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Wayne’s daughter, who stood to his right during the nomination widened her eyes, “Is that the language that a former governor of Nevada should be using on a national convention floor?” List sputtered out more angry rhetoric, and the video Jim Uprichard took will be up on youtube soon with the entire altercation documented. In fact List got right in Wayne’s face & spit flew out of his mouth as he stridently attacked Wayne. Jim touched List in the shoulder, warning him to step back. List turned to a reporter and snarled, “He’s had his 15 minutes of fame and THEY’RE UP!”
  Meanwhile, the press swarmed in & got what they wanted, but most of them did not have the whole story.

- Nominating paperwork had to be in to the convention Secretary, an hour before the roll call. Six states had the majority they needed to nominate Ron according to the rules requiring five states. If we had five, Ron would be nominated & get some speech time, with one extra state, -- lagniappe! The states he had were: NV, OR, IA, MN, and the Virgin Islands. So, just go to the Secretary & submit the paperwork, right? Well, that Secretary just couldn’t be found. She was here - somewhere. Yeti would have been easier to find than that Secretary. She was “wearing a red dress.” No one of that description could be found. “Oh, she changed her dress!” Doesn’t everyone change their dress midday? Then when found, she wanted to call EVERY person on the six states nominating paperwork to verify their signatures in LESS THAN AN HOUR!!

  Well, it all was moot anyway, as when those Rules were passed in committee, they had raised the six state minimum to EIGHT!!! A nomination rule passed EX POST FACTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello? Are we in the United States still, or some banana republic? Later we joked that if we’d gotten eight states, they would have wanted 50, or SIXTY, or even Canada & Tasmania thrown in. Whatever it was, the RNC WAS NOT ALLOWING ANYONE TO BE NOMINATED, ER -- CROWNED BUT THEIR FAVORED CLOWN!!

- Okay, so we’d thrown ourselves on the barbed wire, were bleeding and needed a drink. Wayne wanted to go en masse, and throw Monday’s credential badges (we needed to keep that day’s badges for our own security) on the stage & march out. I said we needed to stay to provide solidarity for the other states trying to nominate Ron. He agreed. Rhode Island came over & asked to borrow our sign, “Sure!” I noticed two piles of Romboid signs on the floor -- one pile mass produced, the other their faked-up homemade signs. Disgusting. They have to provide homemade signs because no one even makes their own signs for Romboid. Whereas we lovingly make our signs, design gorgeous graphics, make bold, innovative youtubes, write stirring songs, fly blimps, erect bill boards, organize Ronvoys, etc., all because we love our Constitution, and its defender, Ron. We stood at the back of our delegation (we were seated on the sides, the layout is rectangular, way at the very back, on purpose by the RNC, giving favored status up front to those states that are better-behaved than we rowdy Nevadans), & roared for Ron every time his name was heard. I made a point of screaming “Ron Paul” every time there was the momentary gap in commentary between states. I didn’t care about looking disruptive or looney. The woman who repeated the vote counts for each State wouldn’t even SAY Ron’s name or the vote count. You only heard it from the Delegation Chair’s report at the mic. What is this, the USSR? Four legs good, two legs bad?

  The roll call was coming to an end & I said, “Wayne, I don’t think the badge deal is a good idea. I think they’ll laugh at us & no one’s going to see us anyway. They won’t point the cameras at us.” He agreed. So we split up to get something to eat & meet for our official delegation group photo upstairs.

As I’ve mentioned, getting around in that center is a challenge. I knew the lay of the land from traversing the levels to find my Platform mtg, so I grabbed a hunk of pizza & a water & went to the photo site to wait. Delegates trickled in, some were in tears, others were fighting mad. It took a while to wrangle us as we’re such a contentious lot :0) ...but finally we all assembled on the risers. No, make that “some” of us assembled on the risers. There were members of our delegation that now found us untouchable & didn’t want to be in our official photo. Fine, just makes the photo nicer!

  Meanwhile, out on the floor, the neocons were grooving & frugging to GE Smith & his band. All the scene needed was a Golden Calf on the stage, and Moses striding out to break the Ten Commandments over their heads. These sheeple have obeyed their masters & voted for the WORST party rules in the history of democratic vote. Hey!

Time to PARTEE’!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

What was the plan? I decided to throw in with Sherry & her husband, with Ann & Jim, walk to their car & drive back to the Doubletree. Off we went. First, was about a mile of tented walkway, which passed by CNN’s HUGE official studio, bar, grill & dancefloor -- a general den of media hedonism. We thought, “Hey, I’ll bet they’d like to interview some of those BRAVE, liberty-loving Nevadans, right?” Knock, knock (you needed the special Communist News Network badge to get in), “Hello, we’re part of the Nevada delegation that nominated Ron Paul, is there anyone in there who might want to interview us? Piers Morgan? Wolf Blitzer? Maybe Anderson Cooper? We DO have that champion of Individual Rights, Cynthia Kennedy, with us, who argued so strenuously for Individual Rights in the Platform, and oddly enough was defeated - along with the rest of us. We happen to have enough time for a short interview with CNN.”

Remember that scene in the “Wizard of Oz” where Dorothy knocks on the door of the Emerald City & is told to go away. Well, that was our response. We were already old news. In the space of an hour, we were fish wrap. Now, Ann Romney & her saga of painful existence in the millionaire’s milieu in which she found herself after marrying Mitt, was of more interest. Screw that fair elections & fair representation crapola when we’ve got another Barbie (potential) first lady to promote.

  So, we walked, a mile this way, a mile that way. About two miles out we passed three guys holding Ron Paul signs and happily greeting delegates as they walked by. It must have been 90 degrees with 90% humidity, but there they were, in ties, spreading the RP Love. We stopped & chatted, took a few photos. A woman w/a media badge walked by & asked, “What happened in there today?” I responded,” Haven’t YOU been watching the news?” She: “No.” Me: “Well, then I can’t begin to tell you, just that the cheaters won.”

  Then we walked another few miles, all this time passing 100's of National Guards, State Police, Secret Service, Ho Chi Minh’s Red Army, Buckingham Palace Guards, Czar Nicholas’ Royal Cavalry, and a couple of mountain men with black powder rifles. None of them were doing anything. Milling seemed to be the order of the day. We ran into another group of Paulistas on a corner & they were beating a drum & waving signs. Trucks circled the permitted area with RP signs, & EVERY street crossing button had a RP sticker above it.

  Finally, we reached the car!! Sherry had dropped off her husband at the center earlier that day & then found a parking space in Georgia. At least that’s the state I think we were in, it might have been Alabama. I’m directionally challenged here & have already gotten in fights over going south when I know we’re going west. If it’s one direction I know, it’s WEST - dammit!! All this time, I had to pee, but I couldn’t have. My pants were so drenched with sweat that I couldn’t have peeled them off anyway.

  Back we went to the Doubletree, and soon the rest of our delegation joined us. They had found a cab that had just about enough seats for all of them, so they tied a few on the roof (that’s why they are called “bound delegates”) and took off. “Air conditioning, PLEASE,” they begged the driver. We’d done the same thing when we found our car. Wayne’s cabal though, had been captured again by the RNC (they’re always trying to get us down) & when the air was turned on, it was HEAT!! After walking to Kentucky to get a cab, they had to ride like slaves on the ship Amistad with no air, and their Moroccan driver confusing “air” with “hair” or some other North African phrase that means, “I’m as hot as I’ve ever been in my life and am about to explode, would you please make it HOTTER?!”

  BUT, we had been oh so smart to blow Dodge by our own means. When the buses came to take the delegates back to their host hotels, it took at least THREE HOURS for them to get thru their security gauntlets - nanananananananaaaaah!

Meanwhile, WE Defenders of the Constitution, were defending our right to put copious amounts of rum, vodka, coconut liquor, maraschino cherries, pineapple, and paper umbrellas in OUR bodies at Whiskey Joes, the site of Ron Paul’s GIGANTIC blow-out after his festival Sunday. Texas had organized this (Long Island Ice) TEA Party, and we met some of their stalwarts on the deck selling “Remember the Alamo” t-shirts that had the battleships from all the states that didn’t get seated, on them. BTW, did you hear the crescendo of “SEAT THEM NOW!!” that went out? WOW, we rocked that place with our shouts. But, the rino’s went into gear & countered with “USA now!” which you heard in greater force on tv, as they engineered it that way. Can you believe that? They PLANNED on drowning out any of our cries with pre-recorded audio, and a trained choir of the Vienna Boy Rinos.

  I ran for the bar & got a Mai Tai & then joined our peeps & got a salad & some fried calamari. It was so good, that Sherry & her husband are going back just for that. Meanwhile, the Texans were having a summit. While Nevada sat in their booths scarfing fish tacos, Louie salads and other viands, and drinks coming by the score, Texas kept making impassioned speeches about the days’ events & what they had spawned. Boy, we were called “Angry Bees” by our former Guv, but Texas was like an enraged hornets’ nest. That’s what the neocons never thought of, of course, they think of mean & nasty things they can do to us, like a h.a.a.r.p. hurricane, and airconditioning that doesn’t work in cabs, but they don’t not squat about:
BLOWBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, Ron would have smiled. The blowback that night made Isaac look like a gentle breeze, faintly tosseling a young child’s curls, on a spring day with bluebirds singing, and rabbits hopping about in nature’s sleepy reverie.

  This blowback was Wagnerian, and I could hear the choppers blades’ whirling as Jeremy Blosser and his gang stood on chairs and entreated the four winds, all the seas, and God’s archangels to join in our fight for justice. Then Richie Havens walked in, pulled out his guitar & began to sing, “Freedom.” No, not really, but that was the atmosphere in the room. This guy I didn’t know, Richard Engle, from Oklahoma (Are you a parking lot delegate, or a bathroom delegate, a convention hall delegate, or a deli delegate? I only mention this because lots of Oklahomans were parking lot delegates & they had a VERY cool t-shirt which I tried to buy, but many RP people will NOT sell you the shirt off their backs because they intend to wear it until the day they die & be buried in it as they WILL NOT FORGET, NOR WILL THEY LET ANYONE FORGET & they want to let everyone know THEIR ROLE IN THE FIGHT FOR OUR CONSTITUTION (and don’t you forget). Our neighbors at the villa/dump, at Saddlebrook are also parking lot delegates. I’ve told them I’m a Big Lots delegate just to have some parity, though I’m actually one of those ordinary State Convention birthed delegates. I mean, I didn’t even get socked in the nose once to get elected, or have a mic bashed over my head (did I mention how the Zitt people were banging their signs over the heads of the Paulistas on the convention floor? Boy, did that make people mad, esp. the Texas women with their big hair. Hell doth not know the fury of a Texas woman who has had her carefully-sculpted big hair beaten down by a campaign sign. Oh, but all the RP woman aren’t of the big hair sect. They mostly have long braids, wear Birkenstocks, and roach clip earrings dangle from their lobes. “Those RP people, they only want to end the War on Drugs so they can get stoned - stoned? STONE THEM!!!” But honestly, the Zittsters were hitting Paulistas with their signs. “You square peg get in that round hole -- NOW!”
  Let’s see....I was talking about Richard Engle....he made a REAL good speech, talked about how this was his fourth convention & he WAS NOT going gently into that good night. Such rousing stuff.

Jeremy came over & wanted to hug in case we didn’t see each other again. I told him I wanted to kiss him instead, and remarked about how GREAT he looked on tv, yelling, “Point of ORDER!” You can always tell the measure of a man by the intensity of his Point of Order. I ribbed that he looked like Kinky Friedman’s son in his Stetson hat & state of Texas shirt. He said the press had a field day with their states’ outfits & they did look like a Broadway cast of “Oklahoma,” or an Olympic squad that had made a right (faaaaaaaaaaaaaar right) turn to Florida, and missed London.

  Boy, I could have (pretended) to dance all night, but we had our “Three Hour Cruise” tomorrow & had to be at the docks at 8:30am. Whose idea was THAT! We drove home to the villa, where the unit of Sheriff’s patrol cars stood sentry, protecting the compound of golf courses, tennis courts and delegation digs.
  Even though it was TWO A.M., the lure of the internet was too strong & laptops were snapped open & we poured over the reportage of the days’ events. Gee it’s fun to be the object of scorn & derision, and then loved & practically deified. 

Nevada REPRESENTED!!!

I wanted to transcribe Kurt’s speech to the Rules committee, but the lights had to go out. At 7:30, when the alarm went off, I hurriedly dressed & was ready, and in the minutes left before we got in the car, I transcribed Kurt’s notes & added beginning & ending paragraphs & sent the article off to my editor. 

The “news” had reported that Ron didn’t get enough states for the nomination. Nothing I saw explained that he DID have enough states, THEY just CHANGED the RULES!

  Our progress to the pier was impeded by traffic, broken down cars & a guy pushing his car. We laughed at all the things the RNC had done to keep us from our boat ride. Yesterday, I’d left a msg on Carol Paul’s phone, inviting the family to join us. We thought we’d have a lot of room as the neocon faction of our delegation surely wouldn’t show, & they didn’t. Below is her response:
  “Thanks for the breakfast invitation - after the storm warning and cancelling of Monday - the bus wanted to get them (the family) back so they have already gone to Texas. Ron and I will also be returning earlier than planned. We know nothing about the video (the “tribute they’re going to show Weds. night) or where the pictures came from, etc. We will listen to Rand on the TV -- I think he has 8-10 min. Thanks for all the messages and updates. Carol”
(Stuff in the parens is my addition -- CK)

  The boat ride was nice, but we couldn’t stop talking politics. It’s so wonderful to be with people who can never get enough. It’s all we talk about. We’re just totally manic.

  Now, back at the Doubletree, I wanted to interview Wayne & Jennifer about yesterday, and how everything went down, but they got by me & I think are taking naps. That’s fine, they needed sleep. I’ve only been able to write in this casual format about a small percentage of this experience, but when I get home, I’ll try to fill in the gaps. Meanwhile, I’m bivouacked here at the Doubletree & we’ll head out on the buses, or take a cab, to get to the convention in time for Ron’s video & Rand’s speech at 7pm. After that, I’m sure we’ll split, and maybe go back to Whiskey Joe’s for more calamari & Hurricanes!

Love,
Cynthia

PS: Thank you to everyone who has sent me such kind messages (and $$!) of support!