LIbertarian VP Candidate Judge Jim Gray at Texas Regional NORML Conference

My friend Shaun McAlister and the DFW/NORML tribe have put together a great lineup for their Texas conference.  Documentaries, speakers, How-To workshops and, of course, some rants.  Hit this link. 

My rant is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. June 8th, AND I GET TO INTRODUCE JUDGE JIM GRAY!!!  Yes, that Jim Gray.  The 2012 Libertarian Party VP nominee.    Norris Conference Center.  Downtown Fort Worth.  Hope to meet some of you good folks there.

Also, check out the 2:30 Saturday afternoon speaker.  Adrian Murray, Fort Worth Tea Party and 9-12 Activist.  If Adrian Murray is on board with ending prohibition then we've won half the battle.

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Conference Agenda

This is the current agenda for the Texas Regional NORML Conference. All speakers are confirmed unless otherwise noted. Times are subject to change so check this page for the most up to date version.

Day 1 – Friday June 7, 2013
4:00 pm	Live Art and Music Reception at Froggy’s Boat House4400 White Settlement RoadFort Worth, Texas 76114$5 Cover or Free with 3 Day Pass. 18+ Welcome.

Day 2 – Saturday June 8, 2013
9:00 am	Introductions by Shaun McAlister, Executive Director of DFW NORML
9:15 am	Cheyanne Weldon of Texas NORML
9:30 am	Keith Stroup, Legal Counsel and Founder of NORML
10:00 am	Russ Belville, Executive Director of 420Radio.org
10:15 am	Terry Nelson, Executive Board Member at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), former Border Patrol agent and Homeland Security Supervisor
10:30 am	Allen Patterson, Chairman of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party
10:45 am	Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: Judge Jim Gray - 2012 Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate and Retired Superior Court Judge
11:15 am	Meet and Greet with Judge Jim Gray, Keith Stroup and Russ Belville
11:30 am	Break for Lunch
12:30 pm	Film Screening: American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny
2:00 pm	Mike Hyde, father of Cash Hyde and Founder of the Cash Hyde Foundation
2:30 pm	Adrian Murray, Founding member of the 912 Project Fort Worth
2:45 pm	Joy Strickland, Founder of Mothers Against Teen Violence
3:00 pm	Using Drugs Religiously: Dr. Russell Elleven, Unitarian Minister
3:30 pm	Family Law Attorney Leslie Burgoyne
3:45 pm	Workshop: Cultivating Quality Medicine Forest Scott and Nicole Pisut of Tinctura Coltivare
4:20 pm	Closing
5:00 pm	After Party #1 at Red Goose Saloon 306 Houston Street Fort Worth, Texas 76102 $5 Cover or Free with 3 Day Pass. 18+ Welcome.

Day 3 – Sunday June 9, 2013
9:00 am	Introductions by Erik Altieri, Communications Director for National NORML
9:15 am	Stephen Betzen, Founder of the Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care
9:30 am	Workshop: Medicinal Alternatives to Smoking Marijuana Toni Ann Haskett-Mills, Patient Advocate for Medical Cannabis Patients with 28 yrs experience in Direct Patient Care
10:00 am	Larry Talley, Strategist for DFW NORML, speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and retired US Navy
10:15 am	Clif Deuvall, Co-chair of Texas at US Marijuana Party of Texas, Chairman at Texas Cannabis Party and Founder Norml of Waco Inc. at NORML
10:30 am	Jamie Balagia, Public Information Officer and Attorney at San Antonio NORML
10:45 am	Russ Belville, Executive Director of 420Radio.org
11:00 am	Hemp Fashion Show
11:45 am	Break for Lunch
1:30 pm	Workshop: Creating Concentrates Forest Scott and Nicole Pisut of Tinctura Coltivare
2:00 pm	Derek Cross, Author of Hemp Healthy Today
2:15 pm	Workshop: Cooking with Hemp Derek Cross, Author of Hemp Healthy Today
2:30 pm	Rob Kampia, Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project (UNCONFIRMED)
3:00 pm	Margarita McAuliffe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Texas Moms United
3:30 pm	Russ Buss Belville, Executive Director of 420Radio.org
3:45 pm	Tristan Tucker, Executive Director of UNT NORML
4:00 pm	Shaun McAlister, Executive Director of DFW NORML
4:20 pm	Closing
5:00 pm	After Party #2 at the Whiskey Girl Saloon2413 Ellis Ave.Fort Worth, Texas 76164$5 Cover or Free with 3 Day Pass. 18+ Welcome.

Adrian Murray on Immigration

My friend Adrian Murray....

Tea Party Patriot....

9-12 leader....

and great, great guy....,

keeps knocking them out of the park, but only on Facebook.  That's why I can't just link to his stuff. 

Here he goes with something on immigration:

Line up a dozen Republican politicians seeking public office, ask them what their answer is to the 12 million or more illegal immigrants in America and in remarkable display of political courage, they’ll dodge the question. The answer is usually something along the lines of: “We can’t address that issue until we fix the border. Once the border is fixed/sealed/guarded/mined/booby-trapped we can work on solutions to those already here.” You may even be treated to the phrase, “Path to citizenship.”

We’ve been hearing this for fifty years. Likely, we’ll hear it for another fifty. Like so many issues, if we didn’t have an illegal immigrant problem, politicians would have to invent one. (This piece is not meant to unfairly single out Republicans. It’s just that the Democrats would gladly apologize to Gaia and hand the country back to the Seminoles and the Apaches, so there’s just no point in dragging their ideas into the mix.)

Fortunately for most of us, our ancestors came to America long before numbskulls ruled the roost. Can you imagine what it would have been like 100 or 150 years ago if the solutions to immigration being talked about now were official policy then? For much of America’s first century the borders were wide open. No one had identification or passports or had to undergo retina scans and full body cavity searches to get into the country. They either walked across the border or down a gangplank. Voila. New Americans.

But what if, when the great waves of migration began from Europe in the 19th century, the existing American population, descendant mainly from English and German stock, had the same mentality we have today? Would calls have gone out to seal the ports to protect American sovereignty? Would politicians demand that a navy be built to intercept passenger ships on the high seas and turn them back to their country of origin? Would candidates for office run on platforms of rounding up the new arrivals and shipping them back to Europe? “Just look at them, these wretches who inhabit the filthy tenements of Manhattan, with their strange languages and even stranger customs. They won’t even assimilate, choosing instead to stay with their own kind creating their own communities like Chinatown, Greek Town, Little Italy. Look at them: there are Poles and Slavs and Gypsies and Italians and Jews. Jews! They’re not even Christians, for the love of Pete. And have you seen what the filthy Irish have done to Boston? Completely overrun it they have, with their pale little redheaded children and their Catholic priests and nuns. But we can’t deal with the ones that are here until we find a way to seal off the Atlantic coast.”

Ah, to transport 21st century politicians back to 1880. And leave them there.

Of course, we do not have to guess what our forebears did in regards to new immigrants to America. It’s part of America’s history. To put it succinctly, they welcomed them. They embraced them. They made them citizens. By 1892 the waves of immigrants grew so intense the federal government opened Ellis Island in New York to process the new arrivals. Over the next 62 years, some 12 million new Americans passed through its doors and went on to build the greatest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world.

So what’s the problem today?

Answer that question by asking another one: Since the great migration today is by land from the south rather than by sea from the east, where is the Ellis Island of the southern border? Are these people welcome or not?

Wrap your mind around that for a while and you’ll see that we do not have a serious immigration policy in this country. We have a political football which both sides like to kick back and forth because it allows them to play their political bases like human yoyos. The problem will never get resolved until we cultivate politicians with some spine.

There’s a certain word that begins with “A” which no politician would dare propose concerning the millions of undocumented immigrants already here, even though it is precisely the same prescription used by our forebears who, when faced with a similar issue, used their heads and did what was right, not what was politically expedient.

They welcomed the new arrivals and created the means for them to become citizens.
 
(Go here to get a copy of Adrian's book "Common Ground America", and check out the political program he's trying to establish.  He's also got some good ideas about spreading the Texas holiday "Juneteenth" to the rest of the nation.)
 
For better or worse, Obama has almost made illegal immigration a non-issue.  Keeping illegal immigrants out of the United States is now about as difficult as keeping illegal immigrants out of North Korea.   
 

Adrian Murray on losing our souls

I've recently had three frustrating conversations lately with three different friends about our overseas military adventures.  One friend is a Republican, one is a Democrat, and the other, as best I can tell, is indifferent. 

When the subject comes up, I try to point out that if the Chinese had military checkpoints between our homes and our jobs, we'd resent them.  Just a little bit.  Then I question how much we should continue to pay to defend South Korea, Japan, and Germany.  A few times I've offered to take donations for defending Germany's borders.  Nobody contributes.  Regular readers of this blog already are sick of me beating these dead horses with the same old sticks. 

There's also the old standby...."We've got 6% of the world's population, but we're responsible for 45% of the world's military spending."  My friends don't think this is odd or unnecessary, despite Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Germany having relatively small military forces and they seem to do just fine.  In fact, since they don't have to supply funding to an obscenely expensive army and Hillary Clinton's air miles, some of their manufacturers are doing great. 

These discussions with these three unrelated friends came down to one final point....But this is my job !! My job at Lockheed/Bell Helicopter/Carswell Air Force Base/Owen Oil Tools depends on a huge military.  Think of what it would do the economy if we were to reduce our military.  One of them even said "Whited, you realize this stuff you're doing in politics isn't a game, right?  There are hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake." 

Does it really come down to that?  Are we going to keep blowing up children just to ensure that unemployment doesn't go above 9% ???

My friend Adrian Murray is one of the bad guys that the Lamestream Media often warns us about.  Adrian has been associated with the Tea Party and Glenn Beck's 9-12 group.  He's also an evil capitalist of the worst sort, providing wiring harnesses for cars and trucks, and creating jobs for immigrants, all in exchange for a profit.  Adrian has apparently been thinking a lot about this topic.  Here's something he threw down on Facebook a few days ago: 

 Immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001, pundits and others in the media said it was a day which would change America forever. We had lost our innocence, they told us. We had lost our sense of security. We had lost our trust of our fellow man.


But no one told us we would lose our soul.

For a brief moment after 9/11, Americans of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages and creeds, came together as one. For that brief moment, forever now lost in the narrow corridors of memory, we were kind to one another. The America that we always sensed, always believed in, was there for that brief shining moment. It is gone now. Gone forever, perhaps.

What happened to us that we find ourselves where we are today, tearing ourselves apart in fits of anger and fear and boiling rage? We are a nation being pulled asunder, a nation on the precipice of losing not just our country, but our entire identity as well. We had better understand what is happening to us if we are ever to find ourselves again.

We all have differing memories, different experiences and not all of us came to the same place by the same route at the same time. For me, the unease began in June 2002, when President Bush delivered a speech to the graduating class at West Point:

“Yet the war on terror will not be won on the defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge. In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will act……And our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.”

We had just completed (or so we thought) a successful military campaign in Afghanistan where we had routed the Taliban and established a seventh century version of a Democratic government in a country permanently locked in the middle ages. We still bore the wounds of 9/11 and while we vowed never to forget, we were beginning to heal.

I remember the unease I felt when I heard those words above. Preemptive action? Were we about to attack somebody? Someday someone may astutely observe that that was the moment America began her slow slide into chaos.

Wars are alternately galvanizing and divisive events. One, of course, wants the home team to do well, to fight with honor and to come home safely. To do that, other people must die, many of them innocents. Many, sadly, are children. But they’re not our children so our grief is not long lasting. We move on to other things - celebrity weddings and all of that.

It became popular during the Iraq war to show one’s support for the troops with yellow ribbon stickers on trunk lids and rear windows. It was, we felt, fitting to show our support for the soldiers while not tacitly endorsing what was being done in our name and on our behalf.

No one at the time believed we would be supporting those troops in Iraq for nearly a decade. The Pentagon went in thinking they’d be out in six months. As 2003 turned into 2004 and 2005 turned into 2006 and the brutality and horror of what was happening in Iraq was too shocking for most Americans to behold. Major news networks, in order to protect American sensibilities, shielded us from the true nature of the carnage, showing just enough to provide a hint that there indeed was carnage, but never going so far as to actually show the beatings, the tortures, the slaughter of children and women, the destruction of homes and property, the random, senseless killing. We knew it was there, we all did, yet many turned away or changed the channel. America is a shining light in the world and we can do no wrong.

The slaughters then in Iraq and Afghanistan and now in Pakistan and Yemen, are remote to us. They come to u in thirty second bites on the evening news or as crawls at the bottom of the screen. We talk about bombings and air strikes and killing as casually as we discuss the weather, as if what is being done in our name is of no consequence to us, as if other life has no meaning. We weep for the baby in a well but close our eyes to the babies in hell.

I watched a video the other day, one that in one moment I wish I hadn’t watched and then in another I am glad I did. It was raw footage, purportedly from Libya , but I have no way of knowing, of bombs dropping near villages, bombs with huge fire and mushroom clouds hundreds of feet in the air, footage of screaming, terrified children in the streets, running in search of shelter or loving arms, footage of living children with their jaws blown off, shrapnel wounds the size of grapefruit in the back or limbs, dead children by the roadside, blown apart and I thought to myself, my dear God, what have we become?

My God, what if they were our children?

I don’t mean to be harsh towards those I do not know and they are many, I am sure, who came to this revelation long ago. But, America, out of our horror and our sadness and our anger from the events of 9/11, we have become a cold and a brutal people, content to inflict misery on others in order to prevent it from being inflicted upon us. We are like the citizens in the Capitol of Panem , cheering on children killing each other in order to be spared some personal discomfort. That may be fine for now and it may buy us some time and some leisure, but one day we are going to have to answer for all this, in this world or in the next.

Have we lost our soul?

Today it was reported by the Washington Post that President Obama has authorized the CIA and the military to expand the drone bombing campaign in Yemen. There was a time I would have read that and not given it a second thought. So what? I would have thought. Doesn’t impact me. Kill the bastards.

But then I thought of who we were and what we have become. The article in the Post contains this statement: “The expanded authority will allow the CIA and JSOC to fire on targets based solely on their intelligence ‘signatures’ — patterns of behavior that are detected through signals intercepts, human sources and aerial surveillance, and that indicate the presence of an important operative or a plot against U.S. interests. Until now, the administration had allowed strikes only against known terrorist leaders who appear on secret CIA and JSOC target lists and whose location can be confirmed.”

So now, just because we can, we kill people without discrimination or identification based on patterns of behavior. Just who authorized this in Yemeni government, or is the only sovereignty we respect our own?

The image of young military personnel lined up at computer screens deep in a mountain side in Colorado, joystick in hand, dropping bombs on people they don’t even know and can’t really even see thousands of miles away on the other side of the world based on “patterns of behavior” is not my image of America. It is not what I conjure up when I think of the home of the brave. It is most definitely not what John Winthrop envisioned when he told his fellow settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.”

The eyes of all people are indeed upon us, but they no longer see that shining beacon of light and liberty. They see a nation fearful of liberty. They see a nation seeking the security of bondage. They see a nation that has lost its soul.

For our own sake and for the sake of our children and for the sake of children halfway around the world living in ramshackle villages sewers flowing in the streets, we must regain our sense of who we are or at least of who we were before we became who we are. We need to rediscover ourselves - and quickly. The time is running out. The choices before us are stark. We can either continue closing our eyes to the horrors around us, continue sinning the sins of the weak and the fearful, or we can shed the shackles of fear and restore America to her ideals.

There’s only one man left running for President who understands that. It took me much longer to come to that conclusion that it should have. If you’re on the edge, get off it. It’s an exhilarating discovery to realize Ron Paul has been there all along. Take the plunge.

It’s for America’s soul. 
 

 
Great essay, there, Mr. Murray. 
And just in case Ron Paul drops out of the race or doesn't get anywhere at the Republican convention, there's going to be a Libertarian candidate on the ballot who believes in the exact...same...things. 
 
Go Gary Johnson !  Or Lee Wrights !  Or anybody but one of the Obamneys !!! 

Adrian Murray and Ron Paul

A friend of mine from the Conservative/Republican side of the spectrum was at the Ron Paul event at the Will Rogers auditorium in Fort Worth last night.  Adrian Murray is one of my Hometown Heroes, and I was delighted to see him at that event. 

Here's Adrian Murray, writing on Facebook about his experience there:

COULD I BE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE?

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
Some of us are guards

Bob Dylan

Having lost my preferred choice for a presidential candidate on Tuesday, I determined that after a suitable period of mourning and reflection the only viable option was to shake it off and begin the search anew, the presumptive, media-anointed frontrunner not being desirable or acceptable.

Last night, as part of this Quixote-like quest, I ventured into the heretofore unexplored dimension of a Ron Paul rally and was witness to something that can only be described as all parts exhilarating, befuddling, encouraging, depressing, moving, maddening and, ultimately, inspiring. More on all that later.

Over the years I have been to more political rallies, events, forums, roundtables, discussion groups, debates and whatever than I care to remember. While a whole range of adjectives from boring to thrilling could be used to describe these events, I have never before been moved to use contradictory metaphors for the same event. Attending a Ron Paul campaign rally is a singularly unique experience. I have never seen anything like it before. Perhaps phenomenal is the word that comes closest in accuracy, not in the ordinary “awesome” sense, but in the other-worldly, spatiotemporal sense.

A little truth in advertising first: I come from an old school of conservatism, a hodgepodge of Strauss, Kirk, Buckley, Reagan and a smattering of other modern day conservative thinkers who shaped my thinking while coming of age in the midst of a persistent nuclear threat during the so-called Cold War, replete with duck and cover, fallout shelters and a young girl sitting in a meadow picking the petals off a daisy. One is shaped by the world one is raised in and then, if playing the game right, uses those experiences to shape the world for those who will inherit it.

The purpose of this piece is not to analyze Mr. Paul’s specific policies, although my worldview does not coalesce with his on many fronts. I do not write this piece from the point of view of a longtime Paul devotee, many of whom (and you know who you are) I have exasperatingly debated over the fallacies I see in some (not all) of his positions. Over the years, though, I have learned (much to my surprise and dismay) that not everyone will agree with my positions on all things and I often frustratingly find myself having internal disagreements with my own stated beliefs. Such is the nature of evolving thought.

I have spoken before a lot of groups in the last several years as we have all grappled with the seeming dissolution of our country. I have half-jokingly said on many of these occasions that the other side doesn’t really have to defeat us politically, they just have to wait for us all to die off so they can implement their plans. My point has been that the greatest issue facing the conservative cause is a demographical one, a lack of diversity that will shortly render the conservative message irrelevant. Where are the youth? I and others have asked. Where are the people of color? Why doesn’t the conservative message resonate?

The answer to where they are could be found last night at the Will Rogers Auditorium. Often at political events there is a sense of excitement, anticipation, a certain buzz in the audience while waiting for the main event. Excitement, anticipation and buzz are weak and inadequate words to describe the pre-rally crowd last night. Energy is even inadequate. What undulated through the thousands who thronged outside before the doors opened last night was a kinetic power, the power of hope, the power of liberation, the power of anger at a system turned upside down, the power of liberation and, yes, the ultimate and emancipating power of freedom. You had to be there to understand it.

Once inside, for the only time in my politically active life, I was transported to a world I had not seen before. There was enough energy in that room to power a skyscraper. Teenagers, college students, whites, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, middle-aged, elderly, every racial, ethnic, socio-economic, cross cultural ingredient of the American melting pot was there. The auditorium was a cauldron of American citizens who understand and have grasped the true nature of the tyranny which has befallen this nation, a conflagration, if you will, of passion and anger and joy and determination. This is where the fire starts this time. The eruption when Mr. Paul took the stage was deafening.

While I didn’t find much to cheer about on the foreign policy portion of his speech, it is on domestic policy that I find much agreement with Ron Paul. In fact, he could have lifted whole tracks of his speech from my book, Common Ground America. Foreign policy, while a crucial element of any president’s agenda, has slowly shifted from my center of attention to domestic policy, I having long come to the conclusion that the greatest threat to American freedom comes not from foreign governments, but from our own. Sadly, America has become one of the least free nations on earth. Increasingly, everything in our lives is being regulated by a faceless bureaucracy, to a degree that neither Orwell nor Huxley could have imagined. Want to add a room onto your house? Get permission. Want to get married? Get permission. Want to open a business? Get permission. Want to fly a flag in your front yard? Get permission. Want to own a gun? Get permission. Want to open a lemonade stand? Get permission. Want to play Frisbee on the beach? Get fined. Want to preach politics from the pulpit? Get fined. Want to protest your government without permission? Get arrested.

We have become a nation of regulations and licenses and permits, fines and punishment and intimidation by a remorseless, uncaring government. We have become, as Dylan sang in 1971, “One big prison yard”, in which our guards are always watching, always monitoring, always snooping, always threatening, always ready to swoop in with a fine or a cuff or a taser or a bullet should we wander outside the boundaries of what is allowed. The IRS can now revoke your passport should you owe too much on your taxes, making you not just a literal prisoner but a figurative one as well. It has been so long since we were truly free that we don’t even recognize it anymore. Freedom is slowly being snuffed out in American.

Obamacare is only the latest affront to freedom. While lawyers and pundits debate the constitutionality of this provision or that, what goes unstated is the insidious evil of the bill itself. Your very body, your existence, you own life will now belong to the state should Obamacare stand. If your physical body belongs to the state, how then is American freedom defined?

What exactly is our national security securing? Certainly not our liberty. We have been sacrificing ever larger chucks of our liberty to the gods of security for decades now and in the interests of securing our liberty have given it all away. Go to an airport if you want to witness the loss of liberty in all its glorious humiliation. One wonders if we actually were taken over by another power and our Constitution dismantled what exactly could they do to restrict our movements, monitor our activities and control our actions that would be any worse or oppressive than what our own government is doing right now?

This part of Mr. Paul’s message, if I have interpreted it correctly, is what resonates with me. All the other things pale in contrast to our becoming a nation of slaves.

Can Mr. Paul become the next president of the United States? At the risk of inflaming his supporters, I must say I doubt it. The media’s message is that he no longer exists, the question is settled and Mr. Romney is the Republican nominee. It is true Mr. Paul’s most ardent supporters are strenuously working at the precinct level to tilt the delegate count at the Republican convention in his favor. Do they have the numbers to pull that off? I don’t know. But knowing the ones involved locally I would guess their chances are better than 50/50. Will that type of organized effort be successful in enough states nationwide to put Mr. Paul over the top? Your guess is as good as mine. I’m not even going there.

So what did I come away with last night? It can be captured in one picture. Before Mr. Paul was introduced, part of his family took the stage: his wife, one of his sons, a smattering of cousins, nieces and nephews. That picture tells us all we need to know. They are us. They weren’t pulled from central casting, exquisitely coifed and finely tailored, prepped and ready for the cameras. No. They are a family. They are us.

Where personally do I go now? As I said, I have more internal debates than an outwardly sane person should admit. For over three years now I have been looking for an army - an army to take on the anti-Americans, the Communists, the statists, the outright criminals running our government. An army of citizens fiercely devoted to liberty and the founding principles of America. One rose up three years ago but slowly faded away. As I looked around the room last night, I saw a lot of faces I recognized from the past, from the ghost army that either became dispirited or no longer believed in the message. So this is where you all went….

The flame of liberty’s torch is no longer just slowly being extinguished. Each day brings new Executive Orders, new laws, new regulations, each more ominous than the last. Corruption in our government and our financial markets is rampant. The disease of dependency is infecting every layer of society. America is dying. We need an army of citizens, motivated and committed, to restore liberty in America, to breathe new life, new vibrancy into a nation on life support. We will not return our nation’s vitality with lawyers. We will not be prescribed the cures for our ailments by opportunistic politicians pedaling the latest edition of What Will It Take to Buy Your Vote. We simply will not. America is on the brink of flatlining.

Which logically only leads to one question:

Is there a doctor in the house?

Which logically only leads to one answer:

Ron Paul 2012

Adrian Murry has now been exposed to The Gateway Drug.  We all know what the next step is for him, don't we?  The man is too well-read and too smart to be in any party except.....

Wake Up America / Tea Party Rally - Tarrant County Convention Center - Adrian Murray,

I'm trying to liveblog a Tea Party.  Go to the bottom of this post and hit "Next" or "Previous" to give this stuff some context. 

My friend Adrian Murray is now giving his speech.  I love this guy.  He's an immigrant, he's a succesful entrepreneur, and he should be the #1 Google search result for "Jobs Created Or Saved", not the insane government programs put forth by Pelosi, Reid, or The Teleprompter Jesus. 

The main quote that Adrian is working with comes from Sam Adams:

The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath'd to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. — Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom." It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.

Adrian hasn't done anything yet with the fact that "millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event", but lordy, that would be a fertile line to go off on.  Think of the millions and millions of unborn American kids who will have diminished lives because of the debts run up by this generation. 

Adrian Murray knows how to work a crowd.  He's going through a roll call of what all the "false and designing men" have done in the last few years, getting a crescendo going that's rolling around the convention center.  He runs a company that manufactures automobile wiring harnesses, but he's a better speaker than all of the professional speakers who came before him on the program.  He owns this crowd. 

I can almost forgive him his lines about wanting to bring the gods back into the public schools. 

Hit "previous post" or "next post" to read more about the Wake Up Ameria Tea Party rally. 

The Wake Up America Tea Party ! Part 3 ! Kathie Glass vs Larry Kilgore

I'm frantically pounding all this into my laptop from the Wake Up America Tea Party in Fort Worth. 

During Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Kathie Glass's speech, someone rushed the stage.  I couldn't tell what was going on, but the police quickly got him out of the building. 
It turns out that he was trying to do something to the U.S. flag. 

Flash back a couple of months to our Libertarian meetup welcoming Kathie to Fort Worth.  A guy named Larry Kilgore got into a yelling match with Kathie about the option of seceding from the United States.....

Here's a video of Larry Kilgore expressing his worldview.....



That first 15 seconds gets you, doesn't it?
Kilgore is supposedly a military veteran. But he hates the U.S. flag, and the fact that it flies anywhere over Texas.
Why he picks Kathie Glass speeches as a backdrop for his protests is a mystery. 

I'll tell you this much....put Larry Kilgore in a steel cage deathmatch with Kathie Glass?  My money is on Kathie.
This could be an interesting feud. 

Hit "Next Post" to read about Adrian Murray's speech.  Hit "Previous Post" to see what preceded all this.

Wake Up America / Tea Party Rally - Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth TX, September 18, 2010

, I'm writing this from the Wake Up America / Tea Party rally.  To see pics from the concourse, go to the bottom of this and hit "Previous Post". 
I heard Barack Obama in Dallas during the 2008 campaign, when he was at the peak of his popularity.  That was nothing like this.  There are some hacked off people in this country. 
 But if we're not careful, we're going to Demoblicans with Republicrats.  We'll see. 

The first speaker I got to hear was Dr. Suzanna Hupp, whose parents were killed by a deranged gunman at a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen TX.  According to Dr. Hupp, the only missing element in the scenario was a good guy with a gun. 
She had left her pistol in her car.  Had she been able to bring it into the restuarant, her parents would probably be alive today. 
An armed society is a polite society. 

She went through a litany of every mass shooting we've had in America.  Every one of them was in a "Gun Free Zone".  INCLUDING THE ONE ON AN ARMY BASE. 
You could feel the withering contempt in Dr. Hupp's voice, as she patiently explained how gun control laws are some of the most racist ones on the books. 
The best summary I've found of her experience and her current goals is on.....Ted Nugent's website.  You've gotta love Uncle Ted. 

The next speaker is Brigitte Gabriel.  She doesn't like Islam very much.  Go here to have a look at her website. 
I'm getting ready to hear something about the Ground Zero Mosque....but it hasn't happened yet. 
She's concerned about terrorist organizations working across the Mexican border.  (Any mention of the Mexican border is going to be a hit , I think.)

Maybe a Youtube of Ms. Gabriel's speech will be posted sometime.  Giving a summary of her talk is like trying to transcribe a Lebanese auctioneer. 
She just threw down some stuff about making America "Energy Independent", which is a bullshit goal.  As long as the Middle East is "Dollar Dependent", we're in good shape. 
Now she's reading Muslim prayers that they're teaching and making students memorize someplace in the public school system.  I don't believe a word of it. 
I don't think they teach anything in the public school system. 
Gabriel just asked all the veterans to stand and be applauded.  The crowd has gone nuts.  She's asked them to remain standing while she rants.  They remain standing.  They're still standing.  The Korea vets are getting tired and they're sitting down, mid-rant.  Another old guy with Viet Nam patches on his jacket just took a seat.  The Gulf War vets are shuffling impatiently, but they're holding strong.  Ah....you can all be seated now.

Kathie Glass is the next speaker.  She's our Libertarian candidate for Texas governor, and I can't wait to hear what she's going to say about Texas Republican governor Rick Perry in front of this crowd.  This will be a juggling act.

Kathie starts off by mentioning Texas and Ronald Reagan in the same sentence. 

She goes through what she calls The Texas Bullwark Plan....
1) Secure the border using the Texas State Guard.
Kathie outlines the plan, and the Constitutional rationale behind it, and gets some applause !
2) Restore Texas sovereignty
Push back against Obamacare, and make use of nullification ! 
Somebody just rushed the stage, and the cops lead them out.  Probably a lobbyist. 
3) Put our fiscal house in order. 
Eliminate various taxes.  Make use of the line item veto. 
4) Strengthen our private property rights.
She doesn't rip Perry on Eminent Domain and the Trans Texas Corridor. 

"It was the 'experienced' politicians who got us into this mess, and it won't be the 'experienced' politicians who get us out of us." - Kathie Glass
Kathie just threw down a good testicle joke, something about growing a pair, but I didn't catch all of it. 
Kathie did great. 

Next up - Debra Medina.  Gonna catch a bathroom break. 
No I'm not.  Medina just said "We need a Free Texas with two things: Private Property and Guns". 

Will post more later.

The Wake Up America Tea Party ! Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth TX

The first Tea Party event in Fort Worth was a somewhat impromptu happening behind one of my favorirte watering holes, The Cowtown Bar & Grill.  There may have been 150 people there. 

That was then, this is now.  We've moved on to the Fort Worth Convention Center.  I don't think the first Tea Party even had a stage.  There was just a microphone on loan from the country-rock band who started the thing. 
The presentation has gotten more professional, while my photography skills have remained the same:

Here's Tarrant County Libertarian Party chair John Spivey, helping our LP candidate for Texas governor, Kathie Glass, convert a few Tea Partiers.

And we have the usual Temple Courtyard full of T-shirt vendors.  These folks had the best selection, my favorite being "Capitalism" in the Coca-Cola logo. 

This is me with The Statue Of Liberty.

A T-Shirt that gets straight to the point....

Here's Dallas Congressional candidate John Jay Myers, trying to convert Mike Coyne into someone who will purchase a T-shirt (John Jay eventually gave us all a freebie).

This guy, Princeton Benson, is affiliated with GAME CHAINgers (more on them later).  They're an African-American conservative group affiliated with Pastor Stephen Broden.  Everyone at this booth has been working out a lot more than I have. 

And this made me happier than an old hog in new slop.  I had heard this guy, Gregory Parker, on a local radio show a few weeks back.  He's written a book called "Global Warming...Really?" 

It's not every day that one has the opportunity to meet a published skeptic.

  

I now have a signed copy.  Will post about it soon. 

That's all for now.  Gonna go inside the convention center and listen to the rants.  Hit "Next Post" below to learn more about the Wake Up America/Tea Party Rally. 

Lordy, I love these things. 

Well, at least we tried - The Tarrant Regional Water District's "River Of Slush" will keep flowing

Well, at least we tried. 

My friend Adrian Murray was unsuccessful in his bid to get a seat on the Tarrant Regional Water District board yesterday. 

Here's the Startlegram:

The campaign was marked by dramatically different depictions of the water district. Lane and Leonard said the district is a well-run organization that is aggressively seeking other water sources. Murray and Basham criticized the board for high-ticket purchases such as a helicopter and argued that the current leadership was recklessly spending public money and making its decisions in secret.

And here are a few blurbs on the Tarrant Regional Water District's Trinity River Vision Project from the Fort Worth Weekly, a periodical not overseen by the people who will profit from this boondoggle project.  This piece was written back in 2007, and I understand that the spending is now approaching a billion dollars. 
Just for some background, this is what the Trinity looked like before they spent the billion dollars.


View Larger Map

Here's what the Trinity looks like now that they've spent the billion dollars.  I think they've torn down two buildings so far.  If someone has a more recent photo of the non-progress, I'll gladly post it.


View Larger Map

Notice the subtle differences?  I don't either.  There aren't any.
Heck, we coulda dredged out a new river running from Burleson to Abbott for that amount. 
Sorry for the digression.  Here's the Fort Worth Weekly:

....According to records obtained by Fort Worth Weekly under the state open records law, the district will spend about $600,000 this year on outside lobbying firms. DFW Airport, by comparison, will spend $560,000 with two Washington lobbying firms, and DART has budgeted about $310,000. Fort Worth paid its Washington lobby firm $168,000 in 2006, and Dallas spent about $240,000.

....Trying to find out why the water district needs to spend so much on lobbying is difficult. Neither Trinity River Vision Authority director J.D. Granger — son of the congresswoman — nor water district board president Victor W. Henderson returned calls seeking comment. Board vice president Hal S. Sparks III said it was not “his place” to comment on such contracts and referred all queries to Tarrant water district general manager Jim Oliver.

....Clyde Picht, who lost to Lane in the water district board race last year, said, “This is a local agency that should basically be concentrating on delivering water cheaply and efficiently to the cities in North Texas. Why would they even need any lobbyists in Washington?”



He has recently announced he will seek a new term on Fort Worth City Council — in part to continue his opposition to the Trinity Vision project. “Their spending habits are getting out of hand,” he said. Picht noted that the water district is already spending more than $100,000 a year on J.D. Granger’s salary (remember, that's Congresswoman Kay Granger's boy - TWS), “and I figured maybe part of his deal might be that he has to call his mother every once in awhile. But I guess they have to hire someone in Washington to keep in contact with her.”


Since October 2001, the district has paid Washington lobbying firm Hicks-Richardson $256,653. The company is budgeted for $60,000 this year. Another Washington lobbying firm, Welch Resources, is due to receive $120,000 in fiscal 2007, and has been paid $290,260 since it first started lobbying for the river agency in 2004.

Local politically connected people are also getting big paydays. Political consultant Bryan Eppstein, who has worked on the campaigns of many water district board members as well as those of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, is getting a combined $30,000 a month from the water district and Trinity River Vision Authority for a communications/lobbying firm he will head. Included in the duties, according to the contract, are “the development and implementation of legislative and regulatory strategies.” The total worth of the contract, which runs through 2010, is $1.4 million.

....Former Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis, who handles lobbying in Austin for the Tarrant district, is budgeted to receive $60,000 this year. Since October 2001, Lewis has been paid $283,500 by the water district. Neither Eppstein nor Lewis returned the Weekly’s calls for this story.

....The $120,000 yearly contract with Welch Resources has raised even more questions from critics. Welch is run by former U.S. Rep. Mike Parker of Mississippi, who booked more than $1 million in lobbying contracts last year.

....Steve Hollern, a former Tarrant County GOP chairman, called the TRV a “massive transfer of wealth from private citizens to rich developers.” The lobbying, Hollern said, “is just part of the cost to keep this transfer going. But I have to give the devil his due. They plan and execute behind the scenes in ways that would make Machiavelli take notice.”

Move along, people, nothing to see here.  Please keep moving, please keep moving. 

Pics came from here and here.

A belated review of the 9-12 rally and protest, from Liberty Magazine

The December issue of Liberty magazine had a short piece by Martin Morse Wooster, an Amtrak traveller who happened to be in The Town Of The Cow on September 12 last year. 
I know, I know.  I'll get it out of the way now.... 
What the hell is a libertarian contributor to Liberty magazine doing on Amtrak, when there are so many less expensive, less harmful, less wasteful and less offensive forms of transport available?  Lordy have mercy, he could've brought starving orphans in from Haiti and paid them to pull him around on a rickshaw, and it would've seemed downright egalitarian as compared to freakin' Amtrak.  Hit that link to see where I'm coming from. 
Oh well.  I've had to express contrition for allowing vendors to take me to Cowboy games at the Debt Star.  I've expressed remorse for benefitting from farm subsidies in my wayward youth.  A few times I've even shipped freight on a union-operated LTL carrier.  We all have skeletons in our closets, and all of our Sepulchres could benefit from Whitening.  I trust that Martin Morse Wooster will eventually have a Tiger Woods-style press conference to explain what he was doing on that vile train. 

Here goes:

Big tent — I’ve recently returned from an 11-day train vacation. One thing you learn when on long-distance trains is that whenever Amtrak changes crews, it’s time to get out and look around, in the hope of finding better (or at least different) food than Amtrak offers. So when I had an hour’s layover in Fort Worth, I decided to head for some tents nearby. They looked like a farmer’s market, and I’m always happy to support local farmers.

What I found was the Fort Worth 9/12 demonstration.

There’s been a good deal of press about tea parties, 9/12 rallies, and the like. I’m sure there are “fringy” people at some of these events, but it wouldn’t surprise me if journalists found the three weirdest people at a demonstration and used their remarks to paint a portrait of a frothing right-wing mob.

I didn’t see a mob in Fort Worth. The crowd, which was in the thousands, was civil. I didn’t see any banners comparing President Obama to Hitler or calling for killing anybody. There were many banners mocking the president, but the last I heard, questioning authority wasn’t yet a crime.

Most of the 9/12 people would say they were angry, and I talked to a woman who was proud to be “the angriest person in Stumptown, Texas.” But it’s important to note the difference between anger and rage. I didn’t see any red-faced screamers, or anyone who was about to pop a blood vessel. Most of the people I talked to were having a good time, marching in the rain on a muggy Saturday afternoon.

I didn’t take a count, but it appeared that the protesters were about equally opposed to the healthcare plan, the stimulus, and high taxes and big government in general. Some of the marchers had concerns that seemed a little eccentric to me (I wished I could find out the concerns of the gentleman whose banner read “No Cass Sunstein”), but I agreed with nearly everything the protesters said.

There were booths for several Republican candidates for the Texas state legislature as well as one Libertarian Party booth. But no one was marching to support a political party. All were against specific administration programs and big government in general.
(If you blow up the pic above, there is a Debra Medina sign on the right.  One other thing about that pic.  You can only see one protester's face, and he's in the botom right hand corner.  Note to Keith Olbermann: He ain't white.) 
As I left for the train, the marchers went to hear a speech by Fox News Channel commentator Andrew Napolitano. If his interview in Reason is typical of his thinking, Judge Napolitano seems like a sensible person. I’m sure he gave the marchers good advice.

I’m not a pundit, so I don’t know whether the 9/12 movement will amount to anything. But what I saw in Fort Worth is that there’s a lot of anger against the Obama administration’s relentless efforts to bloat the government. Most of that anger is justified. Administration strategists — and their allies in the press — who dismiss this anger or pre-tend that it doesn’t exist may find themselves looking for work in January 2013. — Martin Morse Wooster

That's the way I saw it.  A lot of concerned people voicing their discontent.  The problems still haven't been dealt with, and these are the only people offering serious objecting to the looting going on in Washington. 
And for those of you who participated....can you imagine being a writer for liberty-oriented periodicals, getting off a train to stretch your legs and find something to eat, and then walking into the middle of that protest?  It must have seemed surreal. 
Good essay from Mr. Wooster.  I've been waiting a long time for it to appear in the Liberty Online edition so I wouldn't have to re-type the whole thing. 
Here's a video they made to promote the event.  That's my friend Adrian Murray, giving them hell at the end. 

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Libertarians, 9-12'ers, and The Tea Party Movement. And John Spivey. And Adrian Murray. (plus Dirty Harry !)

I didn't get a chance to look through the Star-Telegram this a.m.

My friends Adrian Murray and Big Daddy John Spivey were both quoted.

Dallas-Fort Worth conservative activists focus more on Republicans

By AMAN BATHEJA

FORT WORTH — Elected officials — Democrats and Republicans — have been routinely and loudly booed at Tea Party rallies and other conservative events over the past year.
But as area activists try to turn that anger into action, they are setting their sights on fellow Republicans more than Democrats.
Members of several local conservative groups that formed last year are focusing on a handful of Republican primary races in the hope of moving the party in a more conservative direction.
"The Tea Partiers, the 9-12ers and the Libertarians all need to come together and work together," said Adrian Murray, an organizer with the 9-12 Project Fort Worth. "It’s the outcome of those primaries that are going to determine what kind of support the Republican Party gets" in November.
They aren’t endorsing candidates, but the anti-incumbent sentiment at rallies last year was palpable and is playing a role in local races. Several Republican challengers in races for Congress and the state Legislature say their appeal to those protesters fed up with the status quo will lead them to a primary win in March.
"A lot of people think that these are Republican groups, but they’re not. They’re actually as mad at Republicans as they are Democrats," said conservative activist Bill Burch, who is running against former Arlington City Councilwoman Barbara Nash in the Republican primary for the state House seat held by Rep. Paula Pierson, D-Arlington.....

Hit the link up top to read the entire article.

....While the spotlight is on the primary for now, it remains unclear what these grassroots activists will do if a Republican deemed insufficiently conservative wins the party’s nomination.
"I would think it’s a mixed blessing for the Republican Party," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "If [activists] think that the two main party candidates aren’t sufficiently conservative, they’ll mount a party challenge."
He pointed to a special congressional election in New York in November in which grassroots conservatives, unhappy with the Republican candidate, backed a third-party candidate instead. In the end, a Democrat won the district for the first time since the Civil War.

It makes me nuts, totally nuts, when journalists, political scientists, or for that matter, my relatives try to raise that particular objection to 2nd-party candidates. The Democrat in that upstate New York election was funded by the Democratic party. The candidate of the Republican establishment (Dede Scozzafava) would have voted like a Democrat, but would've been funded by the Republican party. It's more efficient when the Democrats fund their own candidates, don't you think?

Representatives from local Tea Party groups and the 9-12 Project Fort Worth say they will remain nonpartisan while encouraging voters to back candidates who support certain principles, including limited government and personal liberty.
"There’s nothing more powerful, we feel, than an informed voter," said Angela Cox, founder of the Burleson Tea Party.
John Spivey, Tarrant County Libertarian Party chairman, said many Tea Party and 9-12 Project members lean Libertarian and predicted that they will support the GOP only if Republican incumbents are replaced in the primary with "true conservatives."
"I’m looking forward to post-primary that we may see some support from them for some of our candidates," Spivey said.
Leaders with the 9-12 Project Fort Worth and the Burleson Tea Party expressed doubt that supporting third-party candidates is a viable option.

And if they can't make that an option, they will be forced to support more guys who brag about their ability to reach across the aisle, and who get pats on the head from the mainstream media for making gracious concession speeches. I went to one of Adrian's meetups tonight, and saw a very positive response to Spivey's presentation on the Libertarian Party. People are ready for a change from the false choice between Republicrats and Demoblicans. We can put aside small differences, and find a way to join together long enough to boot out some of the worst-offending Statists.

(Conservative activist Bill Burch)....predicted that conservative grassroots voters would support the Republican ticket no matter who wins the primary.
"If they make it through the primary, your choice is no longer for the individual," Burch said. "Your choice is . . . freedom or socialism."

Mr. Burch, people felt that way until the last three Republican Presidents came in and spent money like drunk cowboys. Your choice is . . . more of the same or something different. I don't know of any Libertarians who supported TARP, the bailouts, or the Porkulus plan. I can't say that about Republicans.

Come on, hold your nose, and come see what we're about. I think we're going to have an interesting melting pot in November.

Click here for the Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup.

Click here for Fort Worth's 9-12 Meetup.

Click here for the Tea Party Patriots.

Harry Reid is coming to Texas for a fundraiser on Friday, January 15 at 11:00 a.m. He'll be at the Las Colinas Marketing Center at 5221 North O'Conner Boulevard, in Irving. Ask yourself....why is Harry Reid, Senator from Nevada, holding a fund-raiser in Texas?

Click here if you would like to carry some signs outside the convention center and help welcome Dirty Harry to Texas.

I bet we can all agree on that one, can't we?