What happened at the St. Charles County Caucus was a ridiculous fiasco. The “Conservative Values” Slate (Ron Paul) wanted to use Hemp as an alternative fuel source and accused public school teachers of performing medical diagnosis and shoving pills down student’s throats. The few things that I did agree with them was lost to their bizzarre radical rampage of words and action. They shut out the average voting citizen and now they know what it is liked to be shut out. Maybe next time they will work with the Republicans instead of against them on the issues that we have in common, or they can go back to their Libertarian Party.

And I was irritated because the 1st district didn’t end until around noon. I’ll bet it was a loooooong day in the 2nd. By the way, I’m pleased to report that in the 1st district, there were plenty of Ron Paul delegates, and there were no challenges of any kind. There was some brief drama at the start, as forces aligned with Dwight Billingsley attempted to get him elected to something … but once they figured out how to count yeas and nays accurately, everything went along well.

Missouri 2nd CD had the overwhelming numbers at their district, however the old guard tried to discredential the entire county of St. Charles which is nearly all of the 2nd congressional district. The Ron Paul leadership fought back and said that was illegal, (it was) and they moved that the convention was out of order and then called for a motion was made to adjorn the convention and move it to another location, then seconded and then voted on and passed by majority. They (Ron Paul Supporters) later elected 3 delegates and 3 alteranates to the National Convention as did those (old guard) that attended the illegal convention. Both sets of delegates will be challenged at the national convention.

Hiya Jo,

are there many “renegade” congressmen or is it only Paul?

And how many of the 150 contested delegates were “known or suspected” supporters of Senator McCain, who’s labeled a maverick?

How many recognized party regulars do you think actually support McCain? The feeble pulse of the Republican Party hasn’t been checked by most journalists/reporters. You’ve just added your name to that long list.

The party is in a bad way and its members know it. Its leadership knows it too - the letters and pleas for donations and support are becoming more desperate. This is country wide.

Where I live a few stalwarts welcomed the influx of new people, many of which were young and motivated. More reacted with fear and loathing, desperately following authoritarian familiarity. The “new blood” that could have invigorated and moved the party forward was turned away rather rudely.

Little wonder what’s resulted.

Comment by bspencervb — “wanted to use Hemp as an alternative fuel source ”

Leaving aside democrat/republican, this kind of comment shows that the old-guard is unwilling to allow market forces to find alternatives.

Let’s review the democrat/republican energy actions:
clinton/mccain vote for war in iraq to secure oil;
clinton/mccain/obama vote for funding war in iraq to secure oil;
dems/reps vote to subsidize corn ethanol by using taxpayer funds;
corn shortages lead to higher food prices;
continuing war in iraq to secure oil costs $$$, causing USA to print dollars and cause inflation;
inflation raises fuel prices and food prices.

Clinton/Obama/McCain are peas from the same liberal peapod.

Still don’t want to allow market forces to develop agricultural hemp? Why are you fake Republicans afraid of the free market?

I am new to the political scene and young. The SC Caucus was the 1st caucus that I have ever attended. The RP people in the back who proposed using hemp as an alternative fuel source was making gestures of smoking it for personal use instead of getting away from the dependency of oil. I am a Republican and not a Libertarian. If doing what is right is standing with the old guard; I stand there proudly.

Ron Paul was in front center stage for all to listen to his stance on issues. The majority of the people voted for someone else. My candidate did not win either, however McCain is closer to my views than any other that is running. Ron Paul lost so it is time to move forward. Quit being a sore loser and start focusing on the issues that we have in common. Time to stop being the problem and start working on problems that we can fix.

My acquaintance, tho not quite a friend but we’re cordial, the civil but misguided “I’ve never put people ahead of politics and have no intention of starting now” Mr. Akin, is going to be separated soon from power by a lot more than a few cafeteria tables -hundreds of miles and a congressiona office or two for starters - if I have anything to say about it, and I think I will.

Wow ! Somebody sounds extra confident . . . which is great!

There are some things that have been said here that are not accurate. In an effort of disclosure, I am one of the delegates that were contested. That being said, the people on the other side of the divider outnumbered the people on our side, not by much, but by enough. That combined with the “party faithful” that were contested along with the others, there was in no way shape or form ever anywhere close to a majority of dissenting views in that room. By party rules, seeing how this is a party function rather than a government one, contested delegates have no power, no vote, and no right to even be acknowledged until they are voted on (which they cannot participate in.) Since the vote of the none challenged delegates was to not allow the St. Charles or Queeney Township delegates to join the caucus, all the votes and motions made by contested delegates were out of order. None of this was illegal, and all of this was done by a blatant abuse of party rules. All thoughts that this was a legally tenuous move, and that the second meeting held outside in the commons area was anything but a waste of time are really nothing more than delusions of grandeur.

P.S. St. Charles County can send up to 115 delegates to the convention that can have up to 308 delegates. This is far more than any other source, but no where close to a majority of the delegates (55 St. Charles delegates showed up today, at the very least 8 of them were from the Central Committee.)

Hey bspencervb,

Your accusations of Ron Paul supporters behaving in such a manner are unfounded and ridiculous. Yes, we introduced an amendment to use HEMP as an alternative fuel and HEMP cannot be smoked to get high. So, if someone was making gestures as if to indicate they were smoking marijuana the joke would be on them since you cannot get high off of hemp w/o dying from asphyxiation in the process. You may want to educate yourself on hemp as a source of energy before speaking as if it’s a bad thing.

http://www.senate.mo.gov/97info/bills/SB079.htm

Hemp as a Crop for MO Farmers
http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/millerhemp.html

http://www.hemp4fuel.com/

“accused public school teachers of performing medical diagnosis and shoving pills down student’s throats”

LOL We accused no one of anything. Are you the guy that took this matter personally and stormed out because you couldn’t wrap your head around the fact we weren’t accusing you or any teacher in MO of such acts? That was put forth as a preventative measure since in other states the schools are involved/getting involved in medical/psychological diagnosis AND treatment. Since this was explained ad nauseum that we were not accusing any teachers in MO of this, are you saying you support the State mandating medical treatment on children in school?

http://www.edwatch.org/updates05/070505-mhs.htm

“The few things that I did agree with them was lost to their bizzarre radical rampage of words and action”

What are you even talking about? The only people having any rampages were the people NOT on the Conservative Values slate acting like children and storming out of the room.

With a Party Platform that is inviting to so many people (save before the neocons molested it) with different views on different things all the while being Republican and, with party dynamics in general, the fact that there are liberal, moderate, and conservative Republicans; that a certain group of those people should try and claim the ultimate authority on whom or what is Republican is not only arrogant, it’s downright disrespectful to other Republicans - some of whom have been voting Republican since you and I were in diapers, bspencervb.

“Maybe next time they will work with the Republicans instead of against them on the issues that we have in common, or they can go back to their Libertarian Party”

You should speak the same of yourself. We tried working with you since last December when Mr. Bennet would not inform us on how to participate in the caucuses. We then sat in on a St. Charles Central Committee meeting in which all they talked about was getting the chair so they could win and shut us out. Is that what you call a warm welcome into the process?

How can we return to a Party to which we were never part? Maybe you should form your own party since you don’t like anyone that isn’t exactly like you and doesn’t share your exact set of beliefs.

Have fun standing with the old guard, supporting your presumptive Democratic nominee John McCain and his buddy Joe Liebermann. The Republican Party is no longer a party of conservative values and you have yourself and your cronies who are only interested in protecting the Party name and not the Party principles. Without conservative principles, you may as well be a Dem.