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Ron Paul Won Louisiana Caucuses
Lousiana GOP Lies and Steals the Win
by Jim Davidson
planetaryjim@yahoo.com

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

The story continues in this corrupt state of parishes, poor drainage, and careless politicians. Three complaints have been filed by the Ron Paul campaign with the Louisiana Republican party (LA GOP). These three complaints might change the official outcome of the caucuses in time for the state convention on 16 February, or they may become the basis for a lawsuit, including potentially a restraining order to prevent the party from holding the state convention without following its own rules.

To gain further insight into this situation and process, I spent some time with newspaper articles and web sites. Coverage has been spotty, with the Louisiana State University Reveille student paper being one of the few places you can get much of this story.

Indeed, if you go to the LA GOP web site, you'll see the official results being described as follows. "Approximately two-thirds of the individuals who cast provisional ballots have been identified by their respective Registrar of Voters as registered Democrats or Independents as of the November 30 deadline. Their ballots, of course, will not be counted nor added to the totals of any district." http://www.lagop.com/

So, I contacted Andrew Axsom, the state coordinator for Louisiana for the Ron Paul campaign. He said, "I believe that statement to be totally false." Indeed, the Ron Paul campaign believes that some 95% of the 650 provisional ballots cast were cast by Ron Paul supporters, and that they were all registered Republicans at the time of the party deadline, November 30th.

It is sort of odd that the LA GOP makes this false claim, because when the state party apparatchiks reviewed the Ron Paul slates on 9 January 2008, they did so comparing the proposed delegates to a list of registered Republicans from May 2007—six months before the deadline for changing party affiliation. Andrew says that he questioned them about this matter, and was told they expected to be able to get lists updated through the end of October.

Three Complaints

Now let us look at the three specific complaints. First, the Ron Paul campaign says that the LA GOP rules require that two months notice be given of a planned party caucus. The purpose of that two months advance notice is so that people may change their registration in a timely way.

Although the deadline for registration as a Republican was set to 30 November by the LA GOP, they did not announce the caucuses until 17 December. Since the caucuses were held on 22 January, clearly they did not give two months advance notice.

Obviously, doing so violated the rules, left supporters of Ron Paul somewhat in the dark, and creates a clear problem with the LA GOP refusing the registrations of Republicans seeking to be delegates or cast ballots in the caucus process. If the LA GOP cannot be bothered to adhere to its own rules, they are clearly untrustworthy. I believe they are untrustworthy, and, therefore, unfit to govern a free people.

I should mention that these three complaints are internal to the LA GOP itself, and are the opportunity for the LA GOP to surprise everyone by doing the right thing. Since evil never does the right thing willingly, the possibility of the same complaints showing up in a lawsuit with a temporary restraining order seems like an important option to mention.

The second complaint is that the rules of the LA GOP set forth a deadline for candidates to be delegates at the state convention. That deadline was set by the state convention to be 10 January 2008. The procedure for amending the rules would require a meeting of either the state convention (scheduled for 16 February 2008) or of the state central committee. Guess what? Neither met.

The last time the state central committee met was during the last quarter of 2007. They did not update the deadline. And, it is not like a secret cabal of just five or ten or twenty. There are over 200 members of the state central committee. Many of them have been contacted, and have made it clear that no meeting was held.

Now, what is interesting about this complaint is that all the Ron Paul delegates were submitted by Andrew on 8 January 2008. Moreover, he submitted complete slates of delegates in EVERY DISTRICT. Yes, the Ron Paul campaign is well organized and well run in Louisiana.

Hours after turning in a full slate of delegates, on 8 January, LA GOP chair Roger Villere pushed back the deadline by two days. Villere had no authority to extend the deadline. He just did it, on his own, without authority, violating the state party rules, as a liar, to benefit the other candidates in the race. Such arbitrary and capricious behavior is consistent with tyranny, not with the government of a free people.

In their complaint, the Ron Paul campaign is demanding that all delegates filed with the LA GOP after the original 10 January deadline be disqualified. I think this demand is very reasonable.

Perhaps the LA GOP chair should be forced to crawl on his hands and knees through broken glass to every one of those disqualified delegates' homes and apologize in person for falsely misleading them into believing that Villere had authority to arbitrarily extend the deadline. I don't personally regard such a requirement for holding high office with a political party to be too much—he could always choose to resign in disgrace.

The third complaint from the Ron Paul campaign is that the caucuses were held in a deliberately false and misleading manner by using voter registration lists from dates prior to the official deadline of 30 November. I believe this complaint extends to declaring the official statement by the LA GOP on their web site that about two thirds of provisional ballots were cast by people registered as Democrats or Independents on 30 November to be false.

There are two things to take from this third complaint. First, there is the issue of integrity. If the LA GOP violates the rules they themselves set, then they are a bunch of filthy lying thieving swine, and unfit to govern a free people. Second, if they are so completely incompetent that they set one deadline for voter registration as a Republican and then fail to get lists of registered Republicans from that date, they are showcasing their talent for idiocy. And, fools should not be allowed to govern. Personally, I don't regard these two things to be at odds. It is possible for the LA GOP to be both incompetent and evil.

What evidence do we have that the LA GOP used the wrong lists? First, there is the conversation of 9 January when Andrew was told that 78 of the delegates on his slates were ineligible due to not being registered Republicans. So, he asked what the date of the list of registered Republicans they were using for comparison, and was told that it was dated May 2007. Duh.

There is some evidence that lists as recent as 1 November were not used, either. Some of the caucus participants who changed their registration on 30 October did not show up on the list of registered Republicans used by the LA GOP. So, even being a full month before the deadline was not good enough.

You know what signal this sends? It says, "Hey, we're the LA GOP leadership. You young people? Screw off. You people who want to join our party are not welcome. We'll shut you out. We'll use tricks, lies, deceit, to steal your voice, to take away your representation at the caucuses. And we'll do the same thing in every election we run. We're evil, and until we die, there isn't room for anyone new in the LA GOP." Which, on the whole, seems like an odd message to send. It is sort of in contrast to the statement Villere made congratulating the Ron Paul supporters for having "dash." Which is probably the only word he could think of meaning spirit or elan.

You know, because he's evil, and a fool.

What's even worse in this story of perfidy is the response to diligent Ron Paul supporters. They were expecting to be met with resistance, so they each got a print out from the registrar of voters in their parish indicating that they had properly registered as Republicans before the 30 November 2007 deadline. Can you believe it? Many of them were still required by the LA GOP (evil) party apparatchiks to file provisional ballots—which are now being utterly discounted.

By the way, several people asked me about this word "nomenklatura" which appeared in my last article in these pages. It is a term from the old Soviet Union, referring to people in positions of privilege, especially political privilege. You can look it up on Wikipedia. The term is synonymous with "ruling class." It means those filthy scum who arbitrarily break the rules to benefit whomever they please. These are the nomenklatura, the LA GOP leadership. In a truly just and decent society, were such people to rise to power, and do the things they have done in this case, the just and decent people would kill them, eviscerate them, and string them from lampposts and freeway overpasses by their intestines. It seems important to note that Louisiana is not a just, nor decent, society.

I mention this point now, because I have taken to using another word from the old Soviet Union, apparatchik, to describe party functionaries of the LA GOP. Why would I do so? I am pointing out that ballot access for third parties, such as the Libertarian Party, has often been denied by the nomenklatura and apparatchiki of the Democrat and Republican parties. I am pointing out that the much-vaunted "two party system" of the USA is no better than, no less deadly to individual liberty, than the one party system of communist rule in the old Soviet Union. Lest anyone have any doubts, I am saying that the Soviet Union was run by mass murdering thugs who slaughtered nearly a hundred million people. And I'm saying that the same sort of thugs run things in the USA, and if they are guilty of somewhat fewer mass murders, they are better only marginally, and by degree, rather than essentially or by kind.

In my last article, I suggested that the Ron Paul campaign was spending $5,000 to get the voter registration lists. However, I am now told, by Andrew, that these lists available from the Secretary of State do not indicate the date of recent party registration. So, a list current as of 29 January does not prove conclusively that the person was registered Republican on 30 November.

However, I have suggested that the list be obtained, anyway. For one thing, it may be that the Secretary of State's office is lying about what information they have. For another, it suggests diligence in pursuing the truth, something the LA GOP has not done.

The Ron Paul campaign has the list of 650 people who cast provisional ballots in the caucuses. However, the LA GOP refused to provide their addresses. Why? Obviously, to make it hard to establish that these people were registered to vote, and to contact them about getting evidence, such as those print outs of the dated registration, and the dated voter registration cards sent as a result.

Clearly, the LA GOP has something to hide—its own evil. Otherwise, it would publish the list of provisional ballot caucus goers on its own web site, complete with addresses, so that those people could come forward and prove their eligibility. The LA GOP has not done so because it does not want those people to demonstrate their eligibility. The LA GOP does not want to count their votes. If it did want those voters to participate, it would have brought current voter registration lists to the caucuses on 22 January.

There is to be a preferential primary on 9 February in Louisiana. That primary allows voters to guide the at large delegates to the national convention from Louisiana. A majority would presumably bind those delegates for one or two ballots. In a four-way race (presuming Giuliani steps down and endorses McCain as he has suggested he would) there is a possibility of no majority.

Other delegates would be chosen at the state convention on 16 February. I would like to see the LA GOP leadership do the right thing before then. But, I would also like to see a lawsuit filed over these many valid complaints, and a restraining order issued preventing the party from holding its convention until these complaints are upheld.

Well, you say, you don't live in Louisiana, so why should you care? I think you should care, because things in your state are just the same. The people you trust are lying—judging by the recount in New Hampshire, they are falsifying records—they are stealing your voice. They are denying you representation. They only want to pretend you were involved in picking the president, so they can claim a "mandate from the people" if their candidate wins. They do not want you to have a real voice, and they don't want the candidate you prefer to be engaged in a legitimate contest for the nomination.

I believe that this tale of corruption and perfidy extends to every election at every level. The liars in the Democrat and Republican parties have stolen every election. They lack the evidence to prove otherwise. I say they are indicted by overwhelming evidence of fraud and corruption.

Which means that you are a slave. You pay taxes without representation. You are denied your individual liberty by people who were chosen in a process that silenced your voice through fraud.

If you were an adult, sovereign, self-responsible individual, you would refuse your consent to be governed by such slime. So, I ask you, what is the content of your character?

It is not only appropriate to consider the character of the men and women of the LA GOP. Your character should be evaluated. Look into your soul. Choose how you should best be governed.

I don't know about you, but after looking closely at this process, I am agreeable to govern myself.

Jim Davidson is a sovereign individual who writes extensively on topics ranging from individual liberty to nanotechnology. He is an entrepreneur with extensive experience in space tourism, online sales, medical practice management, real estate, port development, toll road development, and education. He is currently working on an initial public offering for a computer company and a massively multiplayer online gaming project. He also markets gold and silver to individual seeking to hedge against inflation.

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