Not Just in Travis - Ron Paul convention takeover reports

UPDATE: 3/31/08 - I am putting the Daily Paul Thread on the Texas conventions at the top. One report on the SD-25 in Travis takeover:

Well after 10 hours of "Ye's", "Nay's", "standing counts", "points of inquiry", "motion to amend", "division", "I call into question" "your out of order!", and finally a "motion to adjourn"; the Ron Paul Republicans took over all convention chairs, the Nomination committee, the Resolution committee. Then proceeded to pass the Resolutions that we had drawn up in committee after several hours of arguments over some big and small changes in wording or whole sections. Then succeeded with the nominations of a heavy percentage of RP Rep. to be state delegates. Of which I made the trip to Houston. : o
So I can say this, we won today at a local level and shook up the base that has been in power here for 30 years at least. We got our guys in the committee chair positions, passed the resolutions that we wrote up and sent our guys to Houston to be delegates.
There was so much fireworks involved with these people losing power you had to be there to see this. It was amazing, it was a 110 to 96 vote that made the difference in the takeover. This went on for 10 hours! It started at 9am, these people went crazy when we took it over you had to be there to see it. There might be video of this, the old committee stormed off the stage and took the flowers that were on the table and all the decorations around it like the red, white and blue runner at the front of the table. It was insane!

If there is any doubt this was a well-organized strategy, he's tipped their hand:

I mean this was just comical at times to see these people get so upset by the takeover. We were well prepared, organized and professional and it worked out the way we planned. We had meetings and worked out the strategy weeks in advance and then met the week of the convention to have our own mock session so we would know what to expect.

It was funny! I still can't get over all that happened today. There were many other funny instances that I can't think of due to the exhaustion of it all.

In Missouri - “Ron Paul backers succeed in guerilla takeover of some GOP caucuses”:

Caucuses in Missouri, held only in presidential election years, are typically low-key affairs attended mainly by party diehards. But this year, the pro-Paul activists commandeered gatherings in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield. Paul supporters also controlled caucuses in at least a half dozen rural counties.

The result: Paul's supporters predict they have snagged roughly a third of the 2,137 state Republican delegates. Those delegates will determine the state GOP platform this spring and help select the presidential delegates to the national Republican presidential convention in Minneapolis in September.

The unorthodox push, which sparked shouting matches in some meetings, reflected Paul's campaign — an anti-establishment, grass-roots movement built on passion.

"This is a movement for change in the long term," said Ruth Carlson, a 24-year-old secretary from St. John who helped organize Saturday's push in the St. Louis area.

At many of Saturday's caucuses, the Paul contingents also won approval for some of their man's key positions, including resolutions for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and against the federal Patriot Act and warrantless wiretaps.

GOP chairman thwarts takeover in Nueces county, near Corpus Christi.

The scene at the Nueces County convention appeared to be part of a larger effort by Paul supporters to gain delegates to the Republican National Convention. The Kansas City Star reported his supporters took over a county convention there March 17 and elected 170 of 187 delegates.

Bertuzzi, who chaired the meeting, said he did not recognize the group to speak and some members were escorted out by the sergeant at arms. Then about 40 members of the faction convened in another room in what's known as a "rump convention."

A report from 'anymouse' on Free Republic on Galveston county:

Down here in Galveston County, the Ron Paul bots tried to hijack the convention using subterfuge and tactical advantage of surprise, that would have made al Queda proud (high-placed sleeper, multiple coordinated attacks with a goal of causing a larger scale effect at the State convention and later at the National convention.

Unfortunately for them it was discovered and thwarted for the most part by perceptive Republicans that took action and alerted others to help block their efforts. But it did make for a long and chaotic mess.

Like jihadists, they took advantage of a weak Party leadership in transition and general apathy of Party activists and precinct delegates.

A high level trusted elected official used the opportunity of a sick convention coordinator, a lame duck Party chairman and an honorary convention chair that did nothing but show up to give a speech at the start of the convention, to appoint weak commitee chairmen and pack key committees (Nominee, Credentials and Platform) with Paulbots, who had never been active in the Party before. To cover the obvious, a few “go-along” follower types were added to the committees to ensure the Paulbot block vote would not be challenged.

I sat in on the Resolutions/Platform committee after seeing some disturbing planks in the draft Platform. I witnessed a shocking railroad job of a Libertarian platform pushed through with highly questionable planks voted through with little opposition. Including one listing a list of complains against Sen. McCain and stating a no confidence in him as the Party’s nominee. This was later removed in a heated floor fight.

Also the trusted official tried to get a change to the rules to allow people that had not voted in the Primary to be allowed to considered as State delegates. Supposedly to allow his daughter who had just turned 18 to go to State as a delegate (an understandable excuse.) But because I had been alerted to the plot to stack the nominations and Credentials committees, I knew that this could also be used to let Libertarians, who had not voted in the Republican Primary to be rammed through as sleeper Ron Paul delegates, merely by swearing to a worthless Party loyalty oath. The Parliamentarian eventually figured out that it was against State Party rules and it was withdrawn, before I could get my turn at the mic to explain the potential hazard of our entire SD delegations being disqualified at the State convention by the Credentials committee discovering that some of our delegates had not voted in the Primary.

They even had the audacity to add Bob Smither to the Nominating committee. Spither ran in the 2006 General election as the Libertarian Party candidate for CD 22. He didn’t show up to the convention, but it was a clear evidence of a concerted Libertarian plot to hijack the Nominations process.

Eventually things worked out in a long and painful floor fight.

Most of the State delegates and alternates ended up being known Republicans, but there were a few that made it, that I didn’t recognize as well as quite a few known Ron Paul supporters. So don’t be surprised if other Paulbots make it to the State convention in Texas and elsewhere and try to infiltrate the State committees and attempt other mischief in a vain attempt to push Ron Paul as a viable nominee over McCain.

Although we are not thrilled with McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee, we cannot allow the resulting Party angst and apathy to be exploited by another Party, the Libertarians (and their radical Left and Right Paulbots) to hijack our State and National conventions.

What's the reason? -
Could this be a new strategy for the (small l) libertarians - give up on the (big L) Libertarians and take over the GOP:

I joined the Libertarian Party in 1972. I do not regret the 35 years I donated, worked, and voted for them. However, the time and opportunity has come to take control of the Republican party from the Nixonian Neo-Cons.

Previously finding other like-minded liberty loving people was a big obstacle. The internet and meetup groups have made this easy. Third parties try to do things back-asswards, attempting to get national exposure. If Libertarian and Constitution party members will join the Republican party at the county level, they can get control. Control the county parties and the state will follow. Control the individual state parties and the national party will be controlled as well.

At the aggregate meeting before we broke into precinct caucuses, motions were made for the party platform. This was my motion: "Republicans should once again stand for fiscal responsibility and stop spending like drunken sailors and Democrats." After the cheering, the motion passed with a 100% yes vote.

In my Precinct (I was the PCO) were sent 6 delegates, myself included, to the county convention. All are Ron Paul supporters.
After banging my head against a brick wall for all these years, this is going to be easy.

Frankly, it makes a lot of sense. It's what the Religious Right did in the 1980s and 1990s and helped them wield a bigger stick with the party.

Another Report on SD-14 Convention

David Nalle did his own "live blog" of the SD-14 Convention. I met him, he's a local party member as well as a part of 'blogcritics' crew. He also blogs at RepublicofDave.com. He stayed there to the bitter (10PM) end. I have some followup comments, which I'll post as an update.

Btw some interesting comments - I consider this ... "You are absolutely correct. Those individuals sporting earpieces ARE establishment Republicans who have connections with the Legacy PAC (as if 'Legacy' doesn't SCREAM establishment/status quo)" ... The most ironic post-Sager-era comment possible. The "Renegades" who battled Sager are 'establishment' now?!? Cue The Who's "Don't Get Fooled Again".

UPDATE:
Gardiner Selby (Statesman) - Paul supporters win one, lose one. As in, they took over SD-25, lost the SD-14: "Robert McDonald, an Austin CPA elected the permanent chair of the county’s GOP SD 25 convention, said he won the post by about 17 votes—after which some of what he called the old guard walked out, including the temporary chairman, Brian Padden."

McDonald was Libertarian Party candidate in 2006 for JP precinct 3, helping to defeat Republican Melissa Goodwin in that race. Libertarian Wes Benedict does the high-fives over it. It looks more and more like we really dodged a bullet in the SD-14 convention.

It's semi-official: KBH is Running for Gov

Corpus Christi paper reports: "U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is planning to run for governor in 2010, her spokesman Matt Mackowiak said while he was in town Wednesday."

Obama helped Farrakhan with 1995 Million-Man March

Via FR and Newsbusters, From a Farrkahan biography: "In 1995, along with other prominent black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Barack Obama, Farrakhan helped lead the Million Man March on Washington..."

Audacity of propoganda is what Newsbusters calls the lack of media interest in Obama's 1990's words and actions, words that peg him as a 'progressive' man of the left. Obama's comments to rally blacks to the march, that came from a glowing 1995 review of Obama, show a man fully versed in 'blame whitey' rhetoric:

"This doesn't suggest that the need to look inward emphasized by the march isn't important, and that these African-American tribal affinities aren't legitimate. These are mean, cruel times, exemplified by a 'lock 'em up, take no prisoners' mentality that dominates the Republican-led Congress. Historically, African-Americans have turned inward and towards black nationalism whenever they have a sense, as we do now, that the mainstream has rebuffed us, and that white Americans couldn't care less about the profound problems African-Americans are facing."

A real Travis on "Travis Monitor"

With his inaugural post, we welcome Travis Fell to our Travis Monitor blogging crew. Travis has been blogging at Voice in the Wilderness. Welcome aboard.

God Blessed Texas...

...With Affordable Housing and a Good Economy

Seen in an AP story on Yahoo News last Thursday:

"Four Texas metropolitan areas were among the biggest population gainers asAmericans continued their trend of moving to the Sun Belt in 2006 and 2007,according to Census Bureau estimates to be released Thursday. ....

"People are running away from unaffordable housing, from the economic slowdown," said Karl Eschbach, a state demographer in Texas. "I would expect Texas to stay at the top of a slowing game." ....

According to figures compiled by Eschbach, 16 percent of Americans who moved to other states between July 2006 and July 2007 came to Texas, which led the nation for the second straight year in that category."

For more, click here.

Needed: Conservative Apologetics

Via American Thinker: Alan Roebuck is concerned about 'Seeker-sensitive' conservatism, which conforms to rather than challenges liberal assumptions. He says: "Let's fight liberalism where it matters most: in the realm of ideas." How? He wants a conservative apologetics to challenge the Liberal hegemony and bringing conservative back to the American people. Our most difficult challenge - "In the long run, conservatives must break the liberal monopoly over education." We need a conservative alternative institutions in higher education.

A statement that has stuck with me was the comment by a Johns Hopkins sociologist "We are at any time, twenty years from barbarism." Our culture survives and sustains itself on the next generation, and education and inculcation of our values is essential for our survival. In ideological terms, conservatives are fighting an uphill battle trying to re-educate adults who have been mis-educated into liberalism as students on campus and in our schools. We are at any time, twenty years from losing control of the destiny of our society.

SD-14 Convention - Open Thread

Open comment thread for thoughts on the convention ... what do you think?

SD-14 Convention - live blog

10:30am Delco center, where we are having the Senate District 14 Republican convention, has Wifi. Cool ...

I spent almost an hour waiting in line to register. There is a big turnout, and looks like Ron Paul supporters are out in force. Rob Morrow has a minority report to change allocation of delegates to state.

10:40am - Convention chair Pojman announces that twice the attendance from previous convention, over 800 people.

Dan MacDonald on Credentials. 1400 delegates. 1943 voting strength. Some folks trying to become delegates who voted in Democratic primary (oooh). ... Credentials report adopted by voice vote.

11:00am - Rules Committee - Travis Brewer speaking. Unanamous consent on all of rules, except for allocation of delegates. Precinct caucusing was put in 2 years ago; "it is a good process and departure from the past"; more precincts than before but fewer delegates to state. "You can trust the report." Approach taken by rules (4-1 vote, Morrow has minority report): 80% through the precinct caucus process, and 20% through the nominating process. "Process and product were fair."

Due to lower Perry vote in 2006, number of delegates were lowered significantly, to 164. Under party rules, the divisor is 300 Perry votes per delegate to state. Lots of questions.

12:15pm Rob Morrow has given minority report and lots of questions. Over an hour and counting on the issue of how to allocate the remaining 'at-large' 20% of delegates. Lots more questions and some misunderstanding. Morrow got a big whoop when he blasted those 'running the convention' for talking about a 'renegade group' of Ron Paul supporters; his answer "we worked our butts off."

Overby: "This is a test vote" and "We need to get on the business of the convention."

Mallory: Mentions she is "Active on Ron Paul campaign." speaks out in favor. Zimmerman in favor, with the main 'pro' argument being about getting the 'new voters' in smaller precincts to go.

Several pro and con speakers, then Overby calls the question. Attempt to divide the question fails. On to vote on the minority report.

1:08pm - Roll call on Morrow's minority report is ongoing. In the 100s, yeas are winning.

1:26pm - 200s are more balanced. Several split precincts. Pct 253 - 1 nay, with voting strength 25. 256, 258, running against. Smaller precincts running for it; larger precincts against. 260 has 2 for, pct 262 has 7 against. If 300s run against it like the larger 200s, it will be voted down by about 60% against. NB voting strength is different from body count on the floor, working against the minority report.

1:50pm - 300s mostly against, but not uniformly ... our precinct 3 to 1 against. 400s ran strongly for the minority report, many small precincts 100% for minority report.
Despite this, it looks to fail on the basis of opposition from many of the large 300s precincts.

New TCRP chair Rosemary Edwards, Judge David Puryear, NRC Committeeman Bill Crocker, Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, spoke while they did the vote tally.

2:30pm - yeas - 801.61, nays - 1065.0, motion to adopt minority report fails.

2:40pm - after some tussling over motions, they fail as well, and Rules Committee majority report passes.

Donna Keel is up after the vote. Good speech, hits at Valinda Bolton's liberalism and stands up for fiscal responsibility.

Credentials up. Nominations and resolutions will meet up conclusion of caucusing by precinct.

2:50pm - Precinct conventions. In 36, we had 2 slots, and filled them, with 2 alternates as well.

4:20pm - Permanent committees are meeting. We are running way late, with resolutions and nominations going on.

Justice Wainright spoke. He is running for re-election on Texas Supreme court. He spoke about his parents and their values. He put in a good word for God, family, and the red, white and blue.

Abbott sent a video: Speaking on uncovering waste and fraud in Medicare/Medicaid, legal action on right-to-work, protecting private property rights, collections of child support of over $10 billion which saved $7 billion in taxpayer funds.

Jim Hasik, candidate for HD-49. Describes the 49 district as Democrat-heavy. Speaks about the "God Bless Texas" as Bob Bullock statement. For us to succeed, we espouse a wide range of view founded on conservative principles. "March to the sound of the guns." Vision of Government is limited but pro-active. Mentions his website http://jimhasik2008.org.

Waiting on report of permanent nominations committee. Recommendation passes without incident (phew, 3 hour diversion saved).

4:40pm - McCaul is up next. Message is unity. Starts off with a strong anti-earmarks position. Mentions/praises Ron Paul as a friend and colleague, but is also hammering "support the troops" theme.

4:55pm - An old Ronald Reagan "Victory Squad" video running. This convention managed to take longer than any other one I've been to. Running way late and we are in the boredom stage waiting for Resolutions and Nominations reports. Time to go home.

7:05pm - Checked with a friend on Resolutions Committee. Still haven't reported out, nor has nominations.

Meanwhile, we heard that across town the Ron Paulites took over the SD-25 convention, overturned the convention chair and committee assignments and put new ones in.

On the Frontlines

Michael Yon phones home

John McCain hates war

UPDATE 3/30: After American and Iraqi military hammers Mahdi Army, al-Sadr calls for end to fighting:

Sadr has sent a message to his loyalists urging them to end all armed activities ... Sadr’s call for an end to fighting by his followers comes as his Mahdi Army has taken high casualties over the past six days. Since the fighting began on Tuesday 358 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 531 were wounded, 343 were captured, and 30 surrendered. The US and Iraqi security forces have killed 125 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad alone, while Iraqi security forces have killed 140 Mahdi fighters in Basra.

Accused Saddam Agent Met With Hillary

Accused Saddam Agent Says He Met With Hillary at White House: "A Michigan man facing federal criminal charges of illegally working for Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Intelligence Service says he met with Hillary Clinton at the White House in May 1996." And Hillary then pushed 'oil-for-food' program on the State Dept. This same guy arranged and paid for the junket for 3 Congresscritters to go to Baghdad and pow-wow with Saddam Hussein in 2002. Nice "Sleeping with the Enemy" guys.

Bloggers for Cornyn

Latest News from Cornyn. Cornyn had a conference call with bloggers this week and will have more. We will try to get connected to future calls and report back.

Testing the Left's Double Standard

The left sure is funny - all bent out of shape about Cornyn and Hagee, yet willing to forgive and forget Obama and Wright.

Obama sat in a Black Liberation afro-centrist ‘church’ for 20 years, gave money to a nutjob Rev Wright who in turn preached about hating America and called Africa the homeland, gave awards to another hater Louis Farrakhan. Obama insists Wright is “a brilliant man who was still stuck in a time warp.” Wrong, Obama. Wright is a hate-mongerer who would be JUST AS WRONG if we were to go back 20 or 30 years and hear him say “God D**n America”. Obama’s behavior on this is absolutely and totally inexcusable. Obama has endorsed by his 20 years of association with this church that preaches alienation from America. Such connections are far closer than those between a politician and an endorser.

Pot, Kettle ... er, African-American?

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus says "Obama's very first service at Wright's church was ... controversial." Mentions Obama's autobiography describes the sermon - "the Reverend Wright spoke of Sharpesville and Hiroshima, the callousness of policy makers in the White House and in the State House." And mentions that "Obama isn't disapproving of this sermon. In the book he weeps at the end of it;" The Rev Wright sermon that Obama loved. Kaus' point - Wright's alienation-based sermons didn't drive Obama away, they attracted him to the church.

Kaus also talks of "He's a wuss!" and "He's arrogant!" as the 'underdeveloped memes' on Obama.

UPDATE2: ABC reviews the Wright sermonology:

An ABC News review of dozens of Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the United States based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

In addition to damning America, Wright told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001, that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.

UPDATE3: Nice catch: Dean left the church over a bike path.

Tools of The Week

Great concept. Texas Hold 'Em blogger gives their 'tool of the Week' award to: "the three Democrat House members who took a trip to Iraq in 2003 paid for by Saddam Hussein." Way to go, Reps. McDermott (D-WA), Bonior (D-MI), and Thompson (D-CA).

Update on Electricity Market in Texas

The Texas Policycast for March 27th: Checking Texas' electricity marketplace (MP3): Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom, shares his findings on the health and vitality of the Texas competitive electric market. Key quotes: "Since we have gone to full deregulation, electricity prices have declined. Compared to rest of country, we have improved slightly since 2001. ... In real dollars, electricity prices are about where they were before deregulation, which is great considering other energy costs have gone up. ... Number of consumers picking new competitive rate plans are going up. ... Competition is working and consumers are choosing."

Bottom-line: Electricity deregulation, which was threatened with a roll-back in 2007, is working.

UPDATE, 4/2: Link to "Texas Consumers Benefit from Competitive Electricity Market", by Bill Peacock.

Cut the payroll tax

Bob Novak says:

"Cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security, is not easy but offers a rich economic prize in this lean Republican year. Republicans have been wary of touching the Social Security third rail of politics, ever since a re-elected President George W. Bush abandoned his reform under withering Democratic fire. Moreover, Republicans talk about offsetting payroll tax revenue loss by cutting future Social Security benefits, which contains seeds of electoral catastrophe.

Neither McCain nor his advisers seem to realize the value of the political prize that they can grasp. The regressive payroll tax oppresses most Americans, especially young men and women, and burdens small businesses that must match the tax that their employees pay. With dogma-bound Democrats unable to remedy this, the GOP has an opportunity to reach out beyond top-bracket taxpayers, big business and high finance. "

How to grasp the prize of tax cuts 'for the rest of us'? With the 15% Solution. This plan cuts payroll taxes from 15% to 10% across the board and makes the system much less regressive.

Hype meltdown over ice sheet

Media meltdown over Wilkins Ice Shelf collapse is over 0.01% of Antartica's ice sheet breaks off, while Antarctic ice mass has been increasing overall.

Speaking of meltdown, the IPCC is getting frantic over lack of actual warming and lack of ocean heating. A cold 2007 and 2008 is making trends look much less ominous than the hype predicted.

Global warming hot air is running up against cold, hard facts. Expect a storm front when the two finally clash in full.

Railroad Commish Michael Williams on Nuclear Energy

Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams gives his support for nuclear energy (video). He asks what we think. I think nuclear energy is good energy. Nuclear Energy is as renewable and just as good an energy source as wind, solar, biomass, etc. and should be treated as such by the policy-makers. Texas needs nuclear energy as part of our energy future, and Austin can meet CO2 reduction goals by moving to nuclear, at lower cost than any other CO2 mitigation method. That's what I think.

The Railroad Commissioner website has a few key facts on nuclear energy in Texas:

Texas has 4 nuclear units that produce 8.8% of the state's electricity. The U.S. has 103 nuclear units - the most for any country in the world - that generate 20% of the nation's electricity. This is ahead of the world average of 16%. ...
At 4,768 MW, Texas generates the 7th largest amount of nuclear powered electricity (XLS) in the country.

Due to consolidation within the nuclear power industry, streamlined federal relicensing procedures and improved operating efficiency, operating costs have fallen from 3.31 cents per kilowatt-hour in 1988 to 1.7 cents, which is slightly lower than coal and much lower than the 3 to 5 cents per Kwh cost for natural gas-fired plants.

Michael Williams is running for re-election as Railroad Commissioner and has more videos on YouTube and Blip.tv.

Obama's Extremist Friends

No, it's not just Reverend "God D*** America" Wright and his Black Liberation Theology church, pushing the Hamas manifesto and Giving awards to Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan (Farrakhan by the way endorsed Obama). After all, the Liberals have praised Obama for "standing by his man" Rev Wright.

But wait, there is more. There is Rep Chaka Fattah:

Obama went out of his way to endorse a pan-Islamist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bigot and one of the most radical Members of Congress--Congressman Chaka Fattah ... Fattah, for example, was one of 62 Democrats voting against a House resolution in favor of Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism and also build a border fence to keep terrorists out.

It is also General Tony McPeak, the aide who blamed 'NY, Miami' for failed peace talks. So Jewish voters in America are to blame for the lack of progress in Mid-East peace? How? By not supporting 'great ideas' like handing Jewish settlements over to Hamas? Oh, the stinkers.

Thomas Sowell notes that:

Barack Obama's own account of his life shows that he consciously sought out people on the far left fringe. In college, "I chose my friends carefully," he said in his first book, "Dreams From My Father."

These friends included "Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk rock performance poets" -- in Obama's own words -- as well as the "more politically active black students." He later visited a former member of the terrorist Weatherman underground, who endorsed him when he ran for state senator.

Obama employed and continues to employ several Farrakhan acolytes in high positions on his Illinois and U.S. Senate campaign and office staffs. His aides are suspect. His friends are extremists. As one comment Schussel.com puts it: If he is such an advocate of Israel, why did he pick at least 4 rabid anti-Israel foreign policy advisers? Samantha Power, Robert Malley, Susan Lake, and Zbig Brzinski? Obama seems to be surrounded by people who often say the wrong things, which Obama then promises he disagrees with. What is the proof that he really does though, when he has a history of the opposite?

UPDATE: Obama and Kenyan socialist pal/cousin Raila Odinga. "Odinga was educated in Former Soviet controlled East Germany and maintains a strong loyalty to the vision of his ‘Educators’ and has allied with Islamist in order to gain their political support." Obama endorsed Odinga for the Kenyan Presidency.

The Hamas caandidate Obama is supported by Gaza Palestinians.

Obama Profile.
Wright & 9/11.

Supreme Court Upholds Texas Sovereignty

Supreme Court sides with Texas, in a dispute where the World Court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country's consular officials. The Bush administration was seeking to get the courts to go along with this ruling.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the international court decision cannot be forced upon the states. SCOTUSblog via Michelle Malkin says:

"The Supreme Court, in a sweeping rejection of claims of power in the presidency, ruled 6-3 on Tuesday that the President does not have the authority to order states to relax their criminal procedures to obey a ruling of the World Court. The decision came in the case of Medellin v. Texas (06-984). Neither a World Court decision requiring U.S. states to provide new review of criminal cases involving foreign nationals, nor a memo by President Bush seeking to enforce the World Court ruling, preempts state law restrictions on challenges to convictions, the Court said in a ruling written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.

The decision, aside from its rebuff of presidential power, also treats the World Court ruling itself as not binding on U.S. states, when it contradicts those states’ criminal procedure rules. The international treaty at issue in this dispute — the Vienna Convention that gives foreign nationals accused of crime a right to meet with diplomats from their home country — is not enforceable as a matter of U.S. law, the Roberts opinion said. "

This is a good day for Texas and American sovereignty and for keeping American law unfettered by the internationalist busybodies.

PS. Those seeking an appeal for Medellin are asking for another chance for a brutal murderer (warning: graphic).