The mainstream media doesn’t much seem to be noticing as they chew their cud over and over about Romney Bain this and Obama Birther that, in endlessly looped (non-)”news” cycles, but things are looking pretty good for supporters of Ron Paul these days.
At least in as much as the Paul folks seem to be doing one helluva job of deliberately taking over their party from the inside through a seemingly very smart and certainly persistent and definitely well-organized strategy of taking over local district, county and state party conventions (and even party executive positions), all while seeing to it that Paul delegates get nominated to the Republican National Convention in state after state in the bargain.
What will come of all of those delegates once we get to Tampa remains to be seen. But make no mistake, they will be there and in force, and likely not shy about exercising the same strong (small “d”) democratic voice that got them there in the first place. Whether the corporate media has figured out that all of this is newsworthy yet is a different matter. (My bet is that it is.)
But while the persistence of the Ronulans may be paying off with both short and long term political dividends, the democratic process they are participating in itself is also seeing a number of victories, as evidenced by at least one comeuppance to GOP establishment types in the state of Georgia, where we now have a happy-ish ending to a story we reported on earlier this year.
The latest good news resulted in one of the players offering a remark we don’t often hear from inside the Republican Party — at least not by folks who mean it: “This decision re-affirms the party’s commitment to fair, open and honest elections”…
Power Paulitics
In a recent blog item, senior Paul strategist Doug Wead detailed many of the outrages and dirty pool that Paul supporters have been up against while taking on the GOP establishment in state after state. Nonetheless, they seem to be winning a lot of delegates and a number of powerful organizational and executive spots at the local district, county and state GOP level to boot.
“The delegate strategy is working,” wrote Wead. “That is the way we will impact the platform in Tampa. That is the way we will begin the process of change.”
Last night, TPM reported that a number of high-ranking officials in the Nevada GOP have stepped aside in the wake of Paul supporters having “dominated a March county convention to take 13 of 14 of executive board spots and performed similarly at the state convention, securing 22 national delegates to Romney’s three.”
The news suggests the establishment is worried, and they probably should be. The Paul supporters in Nevada, for example, recently “passed a resolution calling for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to resign” and a “shadow state party” there has been created in response by the former establishment out of fear that the Paul folks will “derail Romney’s presidential campaign with ongoing efforts to hand the nomination to Paul,” according to TPM. They report there are now growing concerns “of an ugly feud spilling out at the national convention, where Paul supporters are expected to have a large and visible presence thanks to similar state convention takeovers around the country.”
What these relentless folks are doing — and the nightmares they may be causing for establishment GOP types — is otherwise known as “democracy”. Some of the GOP muckety-mucks who have tried to stamp out how democracy is supposed to work inside the party over the past several months may wanna look up the word before they find themselves entirely on the outside looking in.
Democratic Republicans
In mid-March, we reported on some of the early — and ugly — pushback that Paul supporters were initially receiving when showing up to exercise their democratic rights at a number of GOP county caucuses and conventions. In many cases, they were shut out of the process by Republican Party establishment insiders using virtually any means available to shut them down, as seen in some extraordinary moments caught on video tape.
In St. Charles County, MO for example, as we reported at the time, police were called in as pandemonium broke out, and arrests were made of peaceful Paul supporters. The caucus there was shut down by the establishment entirely before any votes were taken at all for the slate of delegates who were to go on to the state and then national conventions.
In another remarkable scene caught on video — which we described at the time as “A Peach of a Mess in Athens-Clarke County, GA” — the establishment Republicans running the county convention had gone so far as to vote in their own slate of delegates for Mitt Romney, while completely ignoring the apparent majority of participants who were attempting to vote against the slate. The Paul supporters’ calls for a visual or written vote, rather than a voice vote, as per the parliamentary rules for the proceeding, were seen being completely ignored by the party insiders who had decided they owned the meeting and could do with it as they like, no matter the majority opinions to the contrary.
The Clarke County convention was then immediately adjourned — despite another clear majority vote against the sudden adjournment — and Paul supporters were subsequently seen on video tape attempting to get an explanation for the outrage from state GOP officials who, by and large, laughed at them or simply ignored them.
The result was a contested slate of delegates from Clarke County, GA and an official complaint registered with the state party’s Credentials Committee against them.
On our KPFK show a few days later, we interviewed Lori Bone, one of the Clarke County Paul supporters seen trying to receive answers from officials in the video tape (I’ll post that video again below), as well as the Paul organizer arrested for no reason at all — other than he was trying to get a written record of the number of supporters who had been shut out of the process — outside the caucus site in St. Charles, MO.
This week, Bone contacted us with some very good news. As you’ll see in her press release below, based on the irregularities seen on the video tape at that outrageous Clarke County convention, the slate of delegates from Clarke County has now been summarily tossed out and disallowed from participating in the state convention “due to rules violations that disqualified the entire group.”
That victory comes despite the Clarke County establishment’s bogus slate of delegates being defended by both Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State as well as the Secretary of the state Republican Party, according to Bone.
Here is the complete release sent to The BRAD BLOG by Bone earlier this week, along with the message, “I still can’t believe we won”…
Columbus, GA May 19, 2012: Loud cheers and applause were heard after Credentials Committee chairman, B.J. VanGundy announced that the entire Clarke county delegation to the 2012 Georgia state Republican convention would not be allowed to vote or participate in the convention due to rules violations that disqualified the entire group (See video at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22697251 6:08:45 for announcement). Among those representing Clarke County at the convention were Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Secretary of the Georgia Republican party, John Padgett, two well-known and influential members of the Georgia Republican Party. Other prominent local GOP members affected by this decision included Clarke County chairman Matt Brewster and several members of the Clarke County Executive Committee. The entire delegation was asked to leave the convention floor and members lost their delegate status. As a result, Clarke County voters had no representatives at the convention.
The ruling was in response to an appeal regarding the events that took place at the March 10th Clarke County convention, where delegates were elected to represent Clarke County at the district and state conventions. Several of the complainants were themselves delegates or alternates to the convention, but fought to remove the entire delegation because they were not properly elected. During the March 10th county convention, Chairman Matt Brewster ignored calls from the floor to count the votes and pushed through nominations against the will of the voters present. A video posted to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJxoVfrciUo depicting the events, clearly showed that a majority in attendance were ignored by Chairman Brewster. The video subsequently went viral and the allegations of fraud were reported in local, national, and international news stories.
Lori Bone stated, “What happened in Clarke County was wrong. Our hope is that this ruling set a clear precedent and will stop future chairs from employing similar tactics. We are very thankful to the credentials committee for hearing our complaint and ruling in our favor.” Carter Kessler, Republican candidate for Athens House District 118 added “I’ve heard it spun that this was a victory for the Liberty Movement or for the ‘Ron Paul folks’ but it wasn’t. It was a victory for the integrity of the process. This decision re-affirms the party’s commitment to fair, open and honest elections.”
Notes:
• Atlanta Journal Constitution report
• 2nd view of announcement to remove Clarke delegation
• Unedited raw video of March 10th convention (action starts at 3:30)
While all of that is clearly good news for the Paul supporters, and for the idea of democratic rule in general, it’s a pity that, due to the arrogance and outrageous behavior of the GOP establishment in Clarke County, GA, Republican voters there were not represented at the state convention, and may not be represented at all at the National Convention in Tampa.
Bone tells us, however, that they aren’t through yet. “Other portions of our appeal are ongoing and currently rest at the district level,” she says. “We are fighting to have the chairman removed and other members disciplined in any way available.”
Good for them! It’s great to see folks standing up, using their voices and insisting upon their democracy to win, even against some of the most powerful people in the state — or, at least the people who may still think they’re the most powerful…
The following video shows what happened at the 3/10/2012 Athens-Clarke County, GA convention, and in its aftermath, when the GOP establishment attempted to steal the slate of delegates from the majority Ron Paul supporters at the convention. Lori Bone is the woman seen attempting to get answers for the outrage from state officials, and then helping to organize in the aftermath…
Don’t anyone kid yourself – Ron Paul is as dishonest as any other repug or he wouldn’t continue to play these games with that party.
If he could, he would also use “hook or crook” – a man that pretends to be a “outsider” and “different” than the other repugs but fully enables everything and gives a process that is stealing from him credibility does not really have any more integrity than those he complains about.
He just isn’t going to be anointed “king” of the goofballs but he will do what he is told to when push comes to shove.
Amazingly enough, some stoooooooopid people thinks he actually believes what he and his toxic son Rand sper, would never act on in a meaningful way, and could actually get legislation passed to implement his batsh!t ideas anyhow.
But he can raise a lot of money, can’t he.
I am sure Brads interests here are in the charade that republicans are parading before the nation and the dysfunctional election system.
But someone should still say that Ron Paul is actually no ones friend when it comes to meaningful policy – he just throws meat to the teabaggers to get them riled up and then they will vote Romney in fall.
As a Ron Paul republican, I can assure you I will not be voting for Romney this fall. that is what the Write-in line is for.
I cannot vote for the continuation of the Bush-Obama policies war mongering, NDAA infinite detention, asset forfieture, worrentless wire tapping, disappearing and assassination of us citizen, etc. regardless if those policies are pursued by Obama or Romney.
Blowback’s a Bitch both internationally and in Georgia.
Might I add for those of us that oppose undeclared wars, indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping, disappearing and/or assassinating of US citizens, a Ron Paul presidency can stop those immediate by exercise of executive authority even under his very fastidious and restricted view of executive power. More precisely he would refuse to exercise power he views as extra-constitutional. He would likely nominate James Ostrowski as Attorney General and purge the treasury department (as best the Civil Service Act allows) of the vampire squids from Goldman Sachs. This is something that would drive Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein apoplectic as well as precipitate them retaining the criminal defense attorneys they should had on retainer since 2007.
But on matters such as: Eliminating the Department of Education, altering social security, changing the disbursement highway funds, etc. he would be largely impotent. All require congressional approval/action. The most extreme outcome would be a presidential veto. I grant this is serious consideration. Congressman Paul is known as Dr. No As president he could easily become Dr. Veto. A gridlocked federal government would result in a Dr. Veto situation
In summary the things I care about most: civil liberties, the rule of law, protecting whistle blowers, scaling back the American Empire, President Paul would execute policy I approve of and do so immediately and with dispatch. On every other matter I care about which requires Congressional approval you get deadlock and a continuation of the status quo.
Upside for what I want changed and deadlock on the topics I do not want changed; A recipe for support.
I hope the cited examples demonstrate why on matters of “meaningful policy” I support a Paul presidency and why I don’t consider the non-passage of legislation to be problematic.
Four years of troop returning home and four years prosecuting banksters, may be time well spent even if only legislation that get passed does so with 2/3 approval of the Congress.
Actually, we didn’t win anything at all. If we were going to win, and now nobody can go the advantage switches back to Romney. All they need do is get disqualified everywhere Paul leads and poof! Instant majority. We can only hope they will have to disqualify so many conventions there is not q quorum available to select the nominee.
GOOD STORY BRAD – too bad your readers want to use to bash Ron Paul. If Paul is such a creep… WHY is the GOP establishment risking exposure to stop him? Why isn’t Wall St supporting him? Why is the MSM ignoring him? Power to the people not the Govts!
@Jack Blood;
I think you’re missing Brad’s point. By posting this he is not criticizing Paul as a creep. Actually Paul is only indirectly related to this post because it’s HIS SUPPORTERS that he’s highlighting for their organization and persistence in demanding that their GOP primaries actually be run democratically. This post was in no way meant to slight Paul or his supporters. You appear to be inferring criticism by those that have commented on this post rather than the post itself.
Jack Blood @ 6:
One reader says something about your candidate you don’t like and you slam all of them? Too bad you use one comment to bash all readers of The BRAD BLOG.
Psst…The people ARE the government. Read that constituition I know ya love as much as I do. If you don’t like the people now running it, change ’em.
But, other than that, thanks for the nice words, Jack.
@Jack Blod;
I was commenting in response to BadgerBadger, not Brad’s fine article on this topic. I took offense at the phrase:
But someone should still say that Ron Paul is actually no one’s friend when it comes to meaningful policy – he just throws meat to the teabaggers to get them riled up and then they will vote Romney in fall.
I belive my support for Paul is with regards to meaningful policy and I take umberage at the notion that I will be mindlessly voting for Romney just because there is an R after his name.
To Brad: Sorry for the thread highjacking. Any further comments will actually be about the article to which it is attached.
I stand by my post above – Ron Paul is a publicity hound that can raise tons of money taking extreme positions, some insane when given close scrutiny.
But if he had any integrity and actually wanted to do something, he wouldn’t play patty-cakes with the republicans decade after decade.
He has earned a “special place” in GOP that has nothing to do with being a policy maker or even relevant other than throwing red-meat to a wacko-fringe that then is worked over to vote for the annointed repug candidate.
But let me apologize if anything in my first post comes across as speaking for Brad whom I respect. I don’t speak for him.
But I have been reading this blog for essentially as long as Brad has been online and I know him not to be a bagger and Rand/Ron Paul fanatic.
Well, actually not my post, but one of our collaborators – we did that one together as we talked during a coffee break.
Just remember: If Republicans will screw each other like that, just imagine what they will do (and have done) to Democrats.
@JackHughes: hey, the Dems have screwed the pooch, each other, and all of us-they are having a FINE TIME cooperating w/the wholesale takeover of the country. The Dems have always been SLIGHTLY less alarming in their mismanagement & malfeasant-it’s a deal, a Kabuki dance. The power of the people has been capitulated into the hands of a few thousand sociopaths. And the Dems have either aided & abetted or ignored the means, method and madness of these sociopaths.
If you don’t read OpEdNews just check over there. It’s not the greatest, but it offers a far greater range and in-depth detail on more subjects than BradBlog’s heroic one-person operation.
Folks, between the incredible lack of attention to the ongoing global threat of the Fukujima meltdown, ignoring the methane releases & skyrocketing CO2, failing to halt the foreclosure scandal, rewarding the robber banksters with ‘bailouts’, and passing laws that fail to do anything but turn our country into a gigantic prison cell, not to mention engaging in warmongering, murder (of American citizens without the least bit of effort to support their reasoning), and massive expansion of the Surveillance State, I’m thinkin’ the Dems are just a tattered ragtag band of pilot fish for those intending, apparently, to rule over a dark, dead, airless, waterless, radioactive, unsustainable rock.
Don’t think the Dems don’t know all this. They do.
I don’t understand why sophia saw a need to slime dems here – don’t think anyone is posting that they have an answer.
If you were here in Wisconsin, you would see there is a HUGE difference between Walker’s ALEC/Koch brother’s agenda and the dem party.
But that party is not looking out for many (most?) of us either and I see obama as a big FAIL.
No, we need to fight back against them too; but if you think repugs/dems are the same, you will be proven wrong if scott walker wins recall.
This will have HUGE national implications and you have not seen anything yet – the folks are dangerous.
Putting the brakes on the shameless repug agenda DOES matter and make a difference.
Then we need to work to take back the Dem party or find a way to put together a viable third party.
I think brad has covered the shenanigans in the Republican primary process very well. I like his analogy of paying attention to the track condiditions instead fo the horse race.
The track conditions in the republican primary have bee particularry difficult this cycle. I don’t know if that is because the dirty tricks are common, but unusually publicized this cycle or if there are more reports because types and number of dirty tricks have increased.
I did not think much of Brad’s brokered convention prediction (or the Ron Pual Nomination Scenarios), but now I must admit I was completely wrong.
What convinced me my error was the real delegate count found .
here
The “It’s Da Delegates, Dummy” strategy seems to be working and promises for a Tumultuous Tampa. Tampa will tumultuous because the convention results will ultimately be decided by the credentials committe of the Republican National Convention via the decisions made as to which delgates to seat and which to exclude. That will not be pretty. The most significant example is the two competeing delegate slates submitted to teh RNC on behalf of the state of Oklahoma. But more seem to be in the offing as the State conventions and delegate selection proceeds in June.
More significant though is the transformation of the Republic party by the young turks inspired by Ron Paul. The dirty tricks of today will be remembered tomorrow. For good or ill such a transformation is on par with the capturing of the Republican party by the Religious Right in the 80’s and 90’s.
Brad’s article is still spot on. Wrong is Wrong regardless of who is being gored. Eelctions are deeply procedural and if you corrupt the procedures (the track conditions) nothing good will follow during the election (the horse race).
Because of this Brad gives even the Devilish Republicans the benefit of Law.
Hey, let’s hope that this housecleaning continues in the Republican Party on a national basis. The Party was co-opted in the 80’s by a religious faction which intends to run our country as a Theocracy while being fed financially by our Beltway oligarchy.
Let’s put a theocratic label which is more descriptive than “religious Conservative” on the existing R power base. Today’s Republican party is a war party which focuses on Judeo-Christian-Muslim conflict. It’s the Crusades Part 2, and it should be exposed for what it is. GET IT OUT OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY…
Perhaps a 3rd. party can come from this. Ron Paul can revive and rebuild the Republican Party, and the religious faction squatting in there can go hang its own shingle somewhere else.
The Democrats need a similar house cleaning. Their Marxist faction needs OUTING. Maybe our country WILL survive if we start installing more windows in these political closets.
I work in the former Soviet Union much of the time. Our country is beginning to resemble that region in very disturbing ways. TIME to clean it UP!!!
This was a victory for neither Ron Paul nor the process, and won’t be until the Ron Paul slate is seated IN PLACE of the Romney slate.
Laughable how some have tried to use the article as a vehicle to bash Ron Paul. If you don’t support Liberty, Truth and the Constitution then I suppose Ron Paul does not appeal to you. Likewise I have no respect for those that would support a CRIMINAL, CORRUPT establishment. The United Socialist States of Goldman Sachs does not appeal to me. Both Obama and Romney are sponsered by and large by the criminal banking cartel. Where as RON PAUL #1 contributors are THE PEOPLE, including The U.S. Active Military. So you say you support the troops? Really? By sending them to serve and die in bogus wars brought on by corrupt bankers and politicians? You support a criminal establishment when you support Romney. Stupid is as stupid does.
This is good news, Brad.
While I’m not a Paul supporter, I look foward to further coverage of the Paul supporters rightfully fighting their disenfranchisement
… GA Bull Dog said…
… one of those words does not belong in that sentence…
@madison voices: you are totally correct in that the massive numbers of ordinary dems are blameless in this matter. But the ones in charge of the election process, the ones with their hands on the wheels of the party, are so damn dirty it’s beyond disgusting. Obama is PRESIDENT and he is letting Goldman Sachs, BP, Bank of America and a ehole lot of other criminals walk. And the voting machine situation has allowed TWO DEMOCRATS to ‘lose’ elections that hey’ve been proven to have won. At some point, the leaders of the Democratic Party have to be either lobotomized blithering idiots or IN ON THE FIX. Did you know Joe Biden wrote the Partiot Act? This gives me the idea that the latter is true.
That’s why I’m sliming the Dems. They KNOW what’s goimg on & they are aiding and abetting it. The PEOPLE are never wrong but I’m tired of putting time & energy into a rigged casino betting system.
My apologies to the beautiful folks in Wisconsin. But even there, the context between Supreme Court candidates appears to have been stolen and the Dem (A woman) seems to have walked away, a la Al Gore & John Kerry. It MAKES ME SICK that well intentioned ordinary people throw their blood sweat & $$ into supporting candidates who ought to know the scare by NOW. And that no one has lifted a finger to change this horror show makes me very very suspicious of the entire power structure in the Democratic Party.
Sorry for the typos-that wrap function failed me again!
Ciao for now.
Major typo correction: ‘know the SCORE by now’. My point being: Al Gore & John Kerry didn’t see fit to fight for the OBVIOUS victories, and voting anomalies exist from sea to shining sea, and NO ONE asks questions! Well, Joe whatsisname in Alaska! That’s about it. What happened in South Carolina where that totally unqualified NOBODY won over a reasonably well-known long-time politico in a primary?? Do you think the writing hasn’t been on the wall for over a decade? And not a single Dem has stood up against those vile voting machines OWNED & OPERATED BY KNOW REPUBLICAN PARTY PARTISANS.
I’ve read this blog long enough to be able to recite chapter and verse already.
So what is the matter with these people? They feel free to take well-meaning folks’ money, time, effort, and faith, and frankly, we’ve LOST the CONSTITUTION, our Civil Rights, and so much else-so much more since Obama’s election that my head is spinning.
So, if he is in charge, then let him DO something.
He SIGNED the NDAA. I could go on, @Madison Voices, but I know I’ve said too much.
The problem is that the Democrats in POWER, the incumbents, the barnacles encrusting our Congressional offices, have sold out, and any new blood will go their with high hopes, find out ‘how it’s done’ and get in line or get bullied (or gerrymandered!) out of office. They get absorbed by the Borg. Do the names Weiner, Grayson, and Kucinich ring a bell?? There’s a few more for the list, but I’ll let you look for the few progressive voices left. The ones we used to be able to trust are now carrying water for the bad guys (Wasserman-Schultz, Boxer, Slaughter and other so-called STRONG women’s voices have voted to END OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES & CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS-they are TRAITORS). SO, deep breath, I’m just wondering which Democrats I’m supposed to look to for salvation, sustenance, reassurance, when unarmed, peaceful Occupy participants are being tear-gassed, rubber-bulletized, and pepper-sprayed all over the country, and most ESPECIALLY in cities with ‘Democratic’ mayors like Chicago & Oakland.
Agreed: ALEC made the Rethugs very very efficient, and in almost NO TIME the country does look like Russia in the bad old days.
So, anyway, another long rant to justify my first attempt.
Folks, we in BIG trouble. The upcoming elections will be chaos incarnate. No one will KNOW who won because the machines are totally corruptible. And the people managing the elections are now very experienced at ruining our opportunity to hear what the people want to say.
And WORSE, when the people DID say ‘ENOUGH’ loud & clear & elected a very nice seeming family man to run the country, I am SURE they did not mean run the country into the ground, let MILLIONS of people lose their homes, PAY THE BANKS OFF for the privilege of destroying our economy, letting stone-cold criminals walk away from destroying the Gulf region, and in so many other ways, let the crazy people run the whole damn show.
The lesson: JUST BECAUSE WE ELECT DEMOCRATS doesn’t mean it’s all gonna be ok.
And, Wisconsin, I hope y’all boot that son of a bitch Walker & his cronies out on June 5. And I hope this is turning the tide.
But man, the water has been poisoned with Corexit, and with nuclear waste, and the atmosphere is facing unprecedented amounts of methane gas releases, the Transportation bill has been allowed to die, and NOBODY seems to be willing to do what the Rethugs did during their turn-DO WHATEVER THEY DAMN WELL PLEASED.
My husband & I are financially dead-we have to choose between paying for health insurance for the next six months or bankruptcy. We’re waiting permission to emigrate to Canada. We’d hoped we’d get there before our funds ran out-wrong.
It is DISGUSTING what we are allowing to be done to one another-single payer ALONE would right the ship, but god forbid anyone shows the leadership to make this happen. We ALL would be in such better shape. And most americans WANT this.
Why isn’t ANYONE listening??
Be well, all. I’ll crawl back into my hideyhole again. I try not to comment too often, because most of y’all ARE THE GOOD GUYS, but yikes, sometimes the minutiae gets in the way of the big picture, and me, I’m a big picture kinda girl.
It hard to make heads or tails of the Republican party since there is no one person you can get behind. They all seems to have the character flaws.
The only thing Ayn L Rand disciples bring to America is destruction.
Ron Ayn L Rand Paul belongs in a white padded room wearing Depends and a wraparound jacket. As loony as Daffy Duck but without his charm.
Brad, we really need you to cover the Louisiana state GOP convention. Ron Paul had a majority of delegates because Ron Paul won the caucus. Santorum had won the primary but they were two different things. At the convention the establishment chair was ousted for a Paul supporter chair, he is the man being taken away in the video. You can hear him yell. Apparently (per a facebook entry) his hip was dislocated and he was taken by ambulence AND ARRESTED. You can hear the crowd replace the chair AGAIN, and you can see the majority physically turn their chairs to the back of the room, and elect a slate of national delegates, most of whom are Paul supporters (five are, I understand, Romney supporters, since Romney had five bound to him in the primary.)
YOu can find more discussion, but this is a start, from what I know now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnSb9l9rwQ&feature=youtu.be
OK, people are back from the convention and have straightened the story out, here it is from their reports with more video: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/content.php?1596-Louisiana-Republican-Convention-comes-to-Shreveport-Includes-local-news-video
here is more: http://www.thedeadpelican.com/2012/convention.htm
A video compilation of most of the important procedural parts of the LA State GOP convention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k884ZKUNwbo