Republican Party WASTING thousands to challenge delegates

I guess the party faithful think they get elected just with THEIR votes. Sorry party faithful but it is the minority in the party that get INVOLVED in the party apparatus on the federal, state, and local level. The majority of people that vote just cast their ballots for the lessor demon then go on with their lives.
It must really get your gall that the REAL conservatives have finally stepped up to the plate to try to bring the party back to the PLATFORM.

YOUR CREDENTIALS HAVE BEEN CHALLENGED. YOU MUST APPEAR BEFORE A SPECIAL PANEL TO PROVE YOUR SELF, BEFORE YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO PROCEED!!!!

WOW!!! This sounds like something from Oh I don't Maybe 1933. In a far away communist country But guess what its not. It Happened right here in the good old USA!!! That's right -- the United States of America -- In fact right in the Midwest of the country The State of Missouri to be exact. Although elected by their fellow republicans at county caucuses some 300 delegates have been challenged across the state of Missouri -- Just this week on Monday May 5th, Some 45 out of those 300 delegates made the trip to the state capital after receiving certified letters dated April 25th 2008 from the Missouri Republican Party. The Letters states that your status as a delegate or alternate has been challenged. No challenged Delegate or Alternate will have more that five minutes to argue their case. The letter signed by Richard Peerson Chairman MRSC Credentials Committee.

At the special Hearing which some now maybe comparing to the likes of a the integration and or a witch hunt. The people that traveled to the state capital in Jefferson City Missouri Found them self's what some has described as star chamber type integration. A signal chair setting in the middle of the floor facing 10 people calling them self's the credentials committee.With The leaders reading the charges. Doug Russell, Jared Craighead, Susie Eckelkamp, Richard Peerson was "Chair" of the committee, Kurt Witzel, Jim Gamble, Karen Foster, Iola French, Donna Spickert and Emily Klie Thermes. Made up the group of interrogators.

Although these people claim they are not challenging the delegates and refuse to provide a copy of the challenge or identify the person or persons making the challenge(s) they ask questions of the delegates that prove they some are more involved than they are letting on. Remember these Names, I am sure that if you are a Republican or just someone with the sense of decency, right and wrong you will want to contact them and the National Republican Party officials an voice your outrage. The challenges are like something that a teenager would come up with and are at best weak. I.e. He said she said kind of stuff. Once you hear the audio recording you can get an Idea of how the more than 6 hours it took to grill the delegates went. You can listen to a brief part of the recording. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWuhAyJyfZQ

If you was brave enough to go face the committee you were on your own!!! no one was allowed to accompany you before the committee. If you was one of the 45 or so people that took a day off work and used your liquid gold to make the trip only to find your self saying you got to be kidding -- Once they sprung the nature of the challenge on you. Here are what the challenges consisted of "Your credentials have been challenged because of your support of Ron Paul." What?? You can challenge someone's credentials because they supported republican candidate other than John Mccain? That's right because these people choose to support a candidate other than the Presumptive Nominee John Mccain they will be chastised, belittled and maybe completely excluded from the party process.

Wait a minute how do they know who anyone voted for? Isn't Missouri an open state? What ever happened to freedom of choice? Who will they come after next? Hummm, Who did you support in the primary?

One thing is for sure these republican delegates will not forget how they have been treated by the party leaders.

I must remind everyone that presumptive nominee they speak of only got 33% of the vote in Missouri.

According to this new criteria presented by the Republican Party officials like Mr. Peerson. Doug Russell and Jared Craighead and others almost 70% of the Republican voters here in Missouri that voted in February primary should not be allowed to be delegates or alternates. Seems that in order to be considered Republican you would have had to of voted for Mccain. Yes if you had the audacity to support a candidate other than the one the party officials have endorsed then you could be challenged and excluded from the republican election process!!! Doesn't sound much like democracy to me. Again who did you vote for? Pinch your self to see if you are still in America.

Is this how the party should be acting? Is this the kind of message we want to send to anyone republican or not?

I believe that we as Republicans have the chance to change our countries path if we get involved. We need to unite now and show the world that we are ready to bring our party and country back to it's connective roots, By the People and for the People.

I am shocked by the party leaders actions. I am upset because they have decided to play this game and push forward with such un American tasteless tactics. If we keep turning people away it is almost assuring a loss for our party this November. Why are the Republican party leaders are trying to close people out of the party at a time when we need every vote? Shouldn't we be welcoming people to the party with open arms? The party leaders seem to be saying if you voted democrat or even third party you can forget trying to vote republican we don't want you. Oh yea if your a democrat and you just can't bring your self to vote for Obama or Clinton we don't want you either. I think we can see growth in the third parties if we are going to take the path of exclusion.

The party leaders are using some of these and other despicable tactics across the country to oust some of the delegates. Why?

What is the sense of spending the money and wasting resources like fuel, and having hundreds and thousands people attend caucus and conventions in the state and across the country if the out come has been predetermined? What Does a presumptive nominee mean? Why do we have any other primaries if anyone candidate has received the number of delegates for the nominee of that party? Is our next president elected by a handful of what now seem to be hand picked delegates from each state?

What can we do? Pass this along to everyone. Meetups in other states, other republicans, news media, even people with no party affiliation. Call, email and or write the Republican Party leaders both local and national tell them that you find the actions by the party leaders unacceptable. Tell them you wont donate another dime until they stop these questionable tactics. Please get involved attend any conventions even out of state if you can. United we stand.

Here are some links to call and email let them know what you think.

Doug Russell

1616 Arbour Dr, Apt 1

Phone: 417-588-1046

Lebanon, MO 65536

Email: drussell@durhamcompany.com

Richard Peerson

P.O. Box 1627

Jefferson City, MO 65102

Email: dpeerson@wallstreetins

.com

Missouri Republican Party

204 E. Dunklin Avenue
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Phone: 573-636-3146
Fax: 573-636-3273

Jared Craighead

Executive Director

RNC contacts

Office of the Chairman

Mike Duncan, RNC Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8700
Fax: 202-863-8820
Email: Chairman@gop.com

Office of the Co-Chairman

Jo Ann Davidson, Co-Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8545
Fax: 202-863-8631
Email: Info@gop.com

Republican National Committee

310 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

Phone Numbers:
Comment Line & General Information: 202.863.8790
Phone: 202.863.8500
Fax: 202.863.8820

Email Addresses:
General Information: info@gop.com Technical Contact: ecampaign@gop

http://www.mogop.org/wp/about/

Missouri committee numbers and emails

http://www.mogop.org/committees/State.pdf

Kansas city star

Dave Helling
816-234-4656

dhelling@kcstar.com

Who's calling who out

On a recent episode of our local talk show two interesting topics of Ron Paul was brought up. It appears the first one was a caller who generally wondered what the position of the host was on Ron Paul. It is NO secret that many media sources have gone out of their way to promote an agenda that is trying to discredit the Paul movement. Anyone with a thimble of common sense can go look at Mr. Paul's voting record or his web site to see this representative is the MOST Constitutional candidate this nation has seen since Thomas Jefferson. Media types are more than willing to misrepresent this man because they know very few people will do the research on their own, however the information is out there for the curious too look at.

One only need to listen to the speeches of Ronald Reagan and the voting record of Ron Paul to see that Mr. Paul is by far the most experienced and constitutional candidate on the floor of the House of Representatives.

During the show this morning it was said by our local radio show host that the people in the Ron Paul movement have tried to get said radio host fired from his position and by caveat have come after his family. Too bad it wasn't rating sweep week as this would've moved him straight to the top of the ratings heap. I have it on good authority the people who went down to the radio station asked for EQUAL TIME to present their side of this one sided argument. VD Jericho has misrepresented Ron Paul and those in this movement for quite some time so it is only telling that they would want for their side of the information to be presented as well. Mr. Jericho hasn't mentioned quite a few times that he would be willing to have some public discourse on this topic, but apparently he has backed out on this position. I guess he has been told by Dr. Scott Magill that this movement actually has intellectual people in it that can hold their own in the narrative sense. Can't dare do anything to make the host look like an idiot.

This Ron Paul movement has been portrayed as a socialist movement, a peace network movement, and various other ideas which in NO means could be possible of "TRUE" Ron Paul supporters. It is quite possible for a few people to infiltrate the ranks but the vast majority of Paul supporters are firms believers in the Constitution, and are far more conservative then most in the Republican Party. After all we have local republicans serving in the state legislature who haven't a care in the world that private property rights are being usurped by local governments, and in the mean time these representative have DONE nothing but pay lip service to the idea of protecting these rights. And yes I can name names should I need to do so and back it up with proof. I would sooner have a couple of peace nuts in my movement then have elected state officials in my party who could careless about MY property rights and ownership of land.

It has been said the Paul supporters are trying to usurp the rules of the delegation process so they can nominate Paul from the floor at the convention in MN. Here in MO the Republican Party literally sent out hundreds if not thousands of certified letters trying to challenge those that had been elected delegates and alternatives, because these individuals had had their loyalty to the party challenged including yours truly. I knew I was going to be challenged after all I hold an elected position for the local Libertarian Party, but for the party to go to this extreme shows clearly that those working for liberty and the Constitution are NOT WELCOME in the party which espouses its belief in such.

It is said that Mr. Paul is an isolationist, a liberal for his stance on the War on Terrorism, even though he voted to go into Afghanistan, a lunatic for wanting the U.S. to go back to the gold standard. An abortionist even though he states in many areas he is PRO-LIFE. How does this information get so misleading ?? Ron Paul is an advocate for states rights which means the federal government will abide by Amendment X. This type of thinking scares many in the Republican Party as this means some of their pet projects and government programs will be dismantled and allowed for the states to decide what is best for the population of each state, this is a scary transition for those that have been so successful in creating a NEED for government largess.

http://www.ksgf.com/Podcasts/VincentDavidJerichoThisMorning/tabid/3507/Default.aspx

At 36:30 a gentlemen by the name of Chris comes on to talk about Dr. Paul and his stances, which said radio host once more misrepresents by instituting his own agenda instead of what Dr. Paul has said for himself. This call last until 42:05 with the caller still liking the constitutional aspects of Dr. Paul which means the radio host wasn't able to sway him from his thought process with an untrue diatribe.

Later on in the show a caller by the name of Jim calls in to inform radio host of his well made up fallacies on the issue of Dr. Paul. This happens at 47:42 and last until 50:30 where most of the airtime is wasted on the talk show host calling the caller every name possible with the caller on mute. This speaks volumes of the intelligence level of the host as he isn't able to hold an intelligent conversation with an individual Ron Paul supporter who calls up to call his bluff and misinformation on the subject.

I will give VD Jericho his do as he has done wonderful things here on the local level, but time and time again when he goes to the national level he gets in WAY OVER HIS HEAD and becomes nothing more than a parrot to the mainstream media and political party leadership.

Your losing it !!!!

I have been paying little attention to the election cycle as of late since it seems quite evident the American people are willing to sell their souls for another four years of government rule. I became aware of something Rush Limbaugh has been doing since before the TX primary called Operation Chaos , in which Republican Party members were supposed to cross over and vote for Hillary. One reason of doing this would've been to make sure Hillary would become the nominee of the Democrat Party and with her baggage she should be able to be beaten by presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

As of late I have listened to Rush to hear him proclaim victory for this Operation Chaos but I fail to see that Hillary is any closer to Barack Obama then when Rush started this goofy scenario. In order to proclaim victory one must be winning at something unless we employ the republican strategy of saying we are winning when in all reality just the opposite is true. Keep repeating the same false statement and eventually many will believe it is true. This seems to be quite similar to the "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" mantra applied to President Bush during his photo op on the flight deck of a Navy carrier after the Iraq invasion.

Rush has clearly slid way down the slippery slope since when he first got his start at KFBK, Sacramento, CA. He has become a shell for the republican party instead of standing up for what is right.

Are you kidding me 80 million dollars to broadcast satellite radio, sounds like government extortion.

By Jeffrey Yorke

It’s been 16 years since Primosphere Limited Partners filed with the FCC to get a license to beam radio programming from satellites to receivers in North America -- and for Cliff Burnstein it was also $140,000 ago. Now he’s hoping that a satellite merger will open the door to Primopshere’s long-awaited license.

Burnstein, who grew up in Chicago loving radio – and later was a stakeholder in a group which owned 15 stations on the West Coast in Bakersfield, Santa Maria and other cities until selling out to Clear Channel in the go-go days – still wants to recreate a bunch of channels that draw listeners to radio like the old days.

And, he tells R&R, his partner Peter Mensch, feels the same way. Burnstein says they have no opinion on whether the merger between Sirius and XM should be approved by the FCC, but they have had five meetings with the agency to let the government know that if the companies are merged, they want the Feds to live up to the original rules and have at least two different license holders. And they want to be one of them.

Primosphere, along with Digital Satellite Broadcasting Service, CD Radio and American Mobile Satellite Radio Service paid the government $70,000 each for two “satellite slots,” recalls Burnstein. The government then changed to method of the proceeding and asked for bids on the rights. CD and American Satellite, which later became Siruis and XM, and the ultimate winners with bids between $79 million and $84 million for the licenses, respectively, never returned Primosphere’s original $140,000 deposit.

Burnstein says that “the rules said there had to be two providers and our position from a technically legalistic standpoint is that we should be the other provider.”

Despite a handful of meetings with senior deputy chief of the media bureau Roy Stewart and commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, among others, Burnstein says, he still could not get a read on where exactly the FCC was going with a ruling on the satellite merger but it was also clear to him that FCC officials are “uncomfortable with a single provider.”

Another group, minority owned Georgetown Partners based in Bethesda, Md., is also seeking a government-forced award of satellite spectrum if the merger happens, and it too, has had several in-person meetings with ranking FCC officials to win their favor. But Burnstein says “they don’t have any standing in this. We have a legal standing even if it is by a thread.” And, he adds, Primosphere does not need funding and could be up and running with newly built studio space within six months.

The company would, however, need the FCC to mandate that the merged entity lease some technology to a second company that would need uplink and downlink capability for its programming to satellite receivers. Primosphere would be advertising-based and would offer about 30 channels of mostly music programming, forecasts Burnstein, who is a longtime friend of former XM programmer Lee Abrams. Burnstein says Primosphere’s “will come at this from a music and programming perspective.” While nearly 60, he’s still “a little bit idealistic” but his idea is not to compete with terrestrial radio but “to serve the underserved.”

Burnstein and Mensch operate Q Prime in New York, which has managed Def Leppard for 25 years as well as Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shania Twain and the now-disbanded bluegrass group, Nickel Creek, among others.

U.S. April Business Bankruptcy Filings Increase 49%

This is the price some pay to finance debt in order to achieve tax breaks. The results of overspending both in the business sector and in the government sector has become quite evident.

U.S. April Business Bankruptcy Filings Increase 49% (Update2)

By Bill Rochelle and Bob Willis

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Business bankruptcy filings in the U.S. increased 49 percent in April from a year earlier, the biggest gain so far in 2008, as the slowing economy prompted more companies to shut down.

Business petitions rose to 5,173 during the month, according to statistics compiled from court records by Jupiter eSources LLC in Oklahoma City. Total bankruptcy filings, including those by individuals, were up 31 percent from a year earlier to 93,096, the group said.

Signs of distress, such as bankruptcies and foreclosures, are rising as economic growth has slowed to its weakest pace since the last recession in 2001. The economy lost jobs in April for the fourth month in a row, for a total of 260,000 jobs cuts so far this year.

The latest casualty is Tropicana Entertainment LLC, the owner of 11 casinos that filed for bankruptcy reorganization last night. Tropicana blamed its filing in part on a $2.1 billion cash acquisition of five casinos two years ago which company President Scott Butera said represented, in retrospect, the ``height of the real estate market.''

``When you go into a downturn, the cyclical industries tend to get hit,'' said Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado. ``Any sudden downshift in growth will generate rises in these numbers.''

Housing Recession

As the U.S. faces its worst housing recession in a quarter century, almost 650,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure during the final quarter of 2007, up 112 percent from a year earlier, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac, which monitors foreclosures, said last week.

Foreclosures and bankruptcies alike are increasing as falling home prices make it harder for those in the U.S. to refinance before adjustable-rate mortgages reset. Median prices for existing homes fell in 22 metropolitan areas in February, down 7.7 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said April 22.

Tougher lending standards are also making it harder for small businesses and homeowners to stay afloat. The Federal Reserve said yesterday the proportion of U.S. banks making it tougher for companies and consumers to borrow approached a record in the past three months as the credit crunch intensified.

1.1 Million Filings

Mike Bickford, president of Jupiter's Automated Access to Court Electronic Records service, said in an e-mail that he anticipated 2008 bankruptcy filings will total about 1.1 million compared with 827,000 in 2007 and 590,000 in 2006, after a new federal law took effect in October 2005 that made it harder for people to erase debt.

There were more than 90,000 total bankruptcy filings in March, Jupiter eSources reported last month. Computed on the basis of daily filings of all types, April petitions declined less than 2 percent compared with March, halting increases in the first three months of 2008.

More than 18,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy protection in the first four months of 2008 to liquidate or reorganize. Through April, about 2,700 companies sought relief from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. Almost 43,000 businesses went into bankruptcy last year, including more than 6,200 in Chapter 11.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Rochelle in New York at wrochelle@bloomberg.net; Bob Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net.

free market economy ?????

I notice this article does not go into any detail on why the license was pulled

Owner of Tropicana casinos files for Chapter 11 protection

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer Tue May 6, 7:05 AM ET

2 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The owner of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, nearly five months after New Jersey regulators stripped the Tropicana Casino and Resort of its license.

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Tropicana Entertainment LLC said Monday it plans to continue operating its remaining properties throughout the country, including the famed Tropicana Casino and Resort on the Las Vegas strip, and will keep current staffing levels.

The company was buffeted by a chain of events that began Dec. 12 when the New Jersey Casino Control Commission determined that the company was incapable of running the "first-class operation" required by state law and stripped the Tropicana in Atlantic City of its casino license after less than a year.

That touched off a funding crisis that the company desperately struggled to fend off until filing for protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, listing assets of $2.8 billion and liabilities of $3.3 billion.

Scott C. Butera, the company's president, called the filing "an opportunity to take a breathing spell," get its debt under control, and move forward.

He urged current patrons of the Tropicana and the company's other casinos to keep coming.

"This is the first step in making things much better," he told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "I'd encourage them to remain a customer of the Tropicana, and I'm sure the customer will be rewarded as we do better things and invest in our assets."

He said the company generates positive cash flow from its operations and has lined up $67 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Greenwich, Conn.-based Silver Point Finance LLC.

"We have more than adequate resources to meet our ongoing financial needs," Butera said. "We will continue to offer our visitors and players a full range of lodging, entertainment and gaming services."

The bankruptcy filing covers nine properties: The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Las Vegas; Bayou Caddy's Jubilee Casino in Greenville, Miss.; Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind.; Horizon Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss.; Horizon Casino Resort and the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, both in Lake Tahoe, Nev.; the Tropicana Express Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; River Palms Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; and the Sheraton Hotel and Belle of Baton Rogue Casino in Baton Rouge, La.

The filing does not cover the Tropicana in Atlantic City, which is in the process of being sold by a state-appointed conservator. The sale was mandated when the former owners lost their license in December.

The other Tropicana Entertainment property excluded from the bankruptcy filing is the Lighthouse Point Casino in Greenville, Miss.

Casinos owned by a corporate affiliate — the Amelia Belle Casino in Louisiana, and the Westin Casuarina Las Vegas Hotel Casino & Spa, are also excluded from the filing.

In court documents, Butera decried the decision by New Jersey regulators to wrest control of the Atlantic City Tropicana from the company, saying that led directly to the anticipated bankruptcy filing. He laid out a cascading series of problems that formed a perfect storm that befell Tropicana's owners almost from the moment they took over the property on Jan. 3, 2007.

When they bought Aztar Corp. for $2.1 billion after a heated bidding war, the company unwittingly violated a fundamental principle of business: buying high just before the market fell.

Using tactics they had successfully employed elsewhere, management began cost-cutting measures including nearly 1,000 layoffs in Atlantic City, prompting an uproar from unions.

A slowing national economy made gamblers more cautious about parting with their money, and real estate values plummeted as well. Then credit markets tightened, leaving Tropicana Entertainment "very little margin for error," Butera wrote in court filings. The company simply could not afford any significant setbacks, he added.

The company suffered a huge setback with the loss of the Atlantic City casino license. The company is appealing the license denial, but the bidding process is well under way and a new owner could be selected within a few weeks.

The company will receive the proceeds from the sale but is worried that a forced sale in a bad economy will result in a depressed price.

It is already selling its Evansville and Vicksburg casinos to help reduce its debt and could decide to sell other assets as the restructuring process unfolds, Butera said.

The filing asks the court's permission to continue to make wage and benefits payments to employees, honor customer loyalty programs, and pay critical vendors and suppliers while continuing to operate uninterrupted.

The privately held company and its affiliates have 11,000 full and part-time employees in five states.

Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corp., the hotel corporation founded by Tropicana owner William J. Yung III, shares administrative and business functions with the Tropicana affiliates but is not involved in the bankruptcy filing.

The fruits of much labor

Fellow workers for liberty,

We are beginning to catch up on our sleep after two weeks of grueling work and "all nighters" and I want to say Congratulations and THANK YOU to everyone who worked to hard collecting signatures! The fruit of our labor was delivered to the Secretary of State well before the deadline Sunday afternoon and the certification process has begun.

To illustrate the momentous task we had before us, consider the fact that our two amendments were the only constitutional amendments to collect enough signatures to be filed. There were three other issues (Casino loss limit, Renewable energy, Health Care), but these three are only statutory changes, not constitutional amendments. As such, they needed far fewer signatures than we did.

What's next? As far as the petition is concerned, all we can do is wait for each county clerk to review the signatures for validity. We have scans of every petition sheet and are in a position to defend any signatures that they might not allow. In other words, we will fight for any signatures we need to qualify.

In the mean time, y'all can be starting / continuing the education campaign leading up to the November election. Although this issue has always polled extremely well, we can take nothing for granted. The developers, municipalities and maybe some lawyers will pull out all the stops to defeat us. We need to keep this issue alive in the news and among our friends and neighbors.

Continue to point out abuses every chance you get - call radio programs, write letters to the editor and talk to your friends and neighbors about the injustice of private use eminent domain.

Thanks again for everyone's hard work!

- Ron

ps I was in St. Louis the last two weeks and could not fix an email problem I had, so I have been missing many emails. If I have not returned an email you sent me it was probably because I didn't get it.

--
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Ron Calzone, chairman
Missouri Citizens for Property Rights
33867 Highway E
Dixon, MO 65459
Phone: (573) 368-1344
mailto:ron@mo-cpr.org
Web URL http://www.mo-cpr.org
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