We have a clear, stark choice ahead of us

To all delegates to the Libertarian Party of Texas State Convention:

We have a clear, stark choice ahead of us. 

We've had these words, or similar verbiage, in our national and state platforms since the mid-1970's. 

The Tarrant County (Fort Worth/Arlington) Libertarian Party recently participated in the Fort Worth Gay Pride parade, after taking part in the larger Dallas equivalent for almost a decade. 

We were very well-received.  You can't imagine the looks of undiluted joy in the faces of the crowd when we pulled this rig through Downtown Cowtown !

We actually won the trophy for Best Non-Profit Entry. 

Contrast that greatness with this, from the new Vice-Chair of the Harris County (Houston) Libertarian Party.  Yes, this is coming from an official rep of the LP.....

The stats in this thing have been discredited more times than "The Hitler Diaries". 

Pick a side folks.  Pick a side. 

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party goes to the Fort Worth Gay Pride Parade AND WINS !!

Howdy. 

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party has long advocated something that I call the Spivey Doctrine.  My friend, and predecessor as county chair, John Spivey, believes that we should go after some of society's sub-groups called "The Four G's".  They would be the Gold, Grass, Guns, and Gays.  (Federal Reserve enemies, marijuana legalizers, 2nd Amendment devotees and Gays/Lesbians.)

I prefer "The 5 B's" - Stay away from my bed, beer, bourbon, babies, bullets and bongs.  But that's quibbling. 

About two months ago, we decided to participate in the Fort Worth Gay Pride parade, to help improve our relationship with that fourth G.  We've been in the Dallas equivalent for years, and thought it time to bring it home.  (Hit this link and this link for some of our better experiences.) 

We worked really hard on this thing, within the constraints of a relatively small budget, of course. 

And we won.  We won Best Not-For-Profit entry.

 Lockheed-Martin, the military contractor, won for Best Business/For-Profit entry.  They had a float with little jets that looked like they were hand made by Obama's Drone-Makers. 

It was an amazing day for us.  We pushed the envelope just a bit by having Dez Lehman, a Dallas Libertarian and cabaret singer/performer, entertain from the top of our float.  That guy worked that crowd like you cannot imagine.  Dez owned that parade. 

In case you're wondering, I'm the guy on the left.  I don't look good in feathers. 

 

Here's Dez with long-time Libertarian and Gary Johnson Texas campaign manager, Elizabeth Miller.  

Here's what we did with the front of Richard Forscythe's pickup.  Two brides and two marriage equality signs. 

Ken Stanford, flying the colors. 

That's one big fat honking Marriage Equality sign. 

 

And we're off.  You really don't get the flavor of this thing without hearing all the attendees screaming "LIBERTARIANS!  HELL YEAH!!!" and "THE LIBERTARIAN ARE HERE!  HOLY F**K!!" 

Plus Dez singing like the world was gonna end.  We had the only genuine music system in the parade.  That always helps.  That's Mike and Shayna Coyne walking beside the float. 

We had kids, politicians, moms, you name it.  All on the float, and dancing. 

 

More than one obsessive-compulsive person commented that our letters weren't "straight".  I just told them that it was a gay parade. 

That's the lovely Teresa Rushing, Tarrant LP Exec Committee Member-at-large. 

You cannot imagine the sheer, undiluted joy that this contraption brought to the crowd in downtown Cowtown.  I wish I could do this again today. 

 

Here's what the Democrat Party had to offer.  Gays and Lesbians, I think someone is taking your loyalty for granted....

 

Here are the Stonewall Democrats. 

Here's John Spivey with Dez.  Both of 'em looking good, don't you think?

We're definitely doing this again next year, and we'll have the float led and followed by our candidates with campaign signs. 

 

Lord have mercy, this was a fun day. 

 

On "discriminatory, inflammatory, lewd, and racial remarks in public"

For the first time ever, the Tarrant County Libertarian Party is going to participate in the Fort Worth Gay Pride Week parade. 
It's going to be a good time at a great event.  Go here to see our Meetup page about building the float, parade details, and the like. 

Last night, my friend Ken Stanford and I went to the gay/lesbian church where they held the organizational meeting.  (I believe that one lady thought we were romantic partners....not that there's anything wrong with that.)  It was a good group of people. 

The organizers spent a lot of time explaining how we should all behave.  There have been some Baptist preacher-types protesting at past events.  One of these Witch Doctors even went so far as to stick a bullhorn in the face of the mayor of Fort Worth.  They try to get a negative reaction from the gays and lesbians so they can post the pics and videos online and show their congregations how they're defending All Things Holy from the gay folks.  A few arrests were made, and some of the protesters did jail time, which they probably see as a badge of honor. 

Joel Burns, one of our City Councilmen, happens to be of the gay persuasion, and Joel usually rides in this parade.  After the bad incidents with the preachers a few years ago, Joel and the mayor (and I'm probably getting a few of the details wrong here) introduced a Zero Tolerance Ordinance that includes "protection from discriminatory, inflammatory, lewd, and racial remarks in public."  Also, "the use of bullhorns will not be permitted in the downtown area".  The Thought Police police department will be enforcing all of these regulations on the day of the parade.  (All of that is from the parade organizer info.) 

Dammit, I've got two bullhorns. 

I was planning on making good use of them to support the Marriage Equality cause.  Now I can't. 

IMHO, this is what usually happens when you try to protect people from opinions.  Dissent gets stifled. 
Yeah, I cannot stand fundamentalist nimrods who try to force everyone to live by the rules in their magic books. 
No, people shouldn't be allowed to stick bullhorns in your face, violate your space, or physically threaten you. 
But asking government to protect you from opposing points of view, like "discriminatory remarks" doesn't help your cause.  Never, ever, ever. 

If you've read this far and disagree, do you think I should have the right to call some people "fundamentalist nimrods", like I did a few sentences ago?  If you think that Barack Obama isn't very smart, should you be allowed to say so?  What about Rick Perry?  Where does it end? 

Anyway, we're going to have a good time at this thing.  Anybody who wants to marry another adult should be allowed to do so, and I really don't care if I've offended you with that statement, or if you think it's inflammatory. 

 Saturday, October 5th.  Hit this link if you want to help out. 

 

John Spivey on the Alan Ross Gay/Lesbian Pride Parade

My friend John Spivey, chair of the Tarrant County Libertarian Party, posted story on Facebook today.  I've written about participating in the Alan Ross Gay/Lesbian parade before, and if you've got the time I hope you'll hit this link just to look at the pictures.  Here's my first paragraph:

Since I didn't think our transvestite could walk the entire parade route, I agreed to walk beside the Alamo, which was a good thing, because two different people handed me Jello Shots while I was handing out flyers and freebies, and I couldn't hear myself think because our DJ's on top of the Alamo had AC/DC techno-mixes cranked up to ELEVEN, and most of the crowd was screaming and clapping and shouting, and it was sometimes hard to stay in line behind the gay choir and the bicyclists with Aids.

It was a fun, fun day. 

Rather than repost the same pictures, I'm gonna throw in some other protest pics that I've been saving for an occasion like this. 
Here's Big Daddy John Spivey on that event.  Enjoy ! 

So - Allen Patterson, Michelle, Richard Forsythe and a bunch of Tarrant County Libertarians helped out the Dallas County LP with their float in the Alan Ross Pride Parade - a huge gay event in Dallas. It's a big event each year - and we think it's a pretty good 'recruiting spot' for us as many, many gay folk are fiscally conservative and obviously, socially tolerant. To paint a picture for you...


We're in a float that is shaped like the Alamo, with a sign that says "Remember the Rainbow" (the Rainbow Lounge raid was big news then).

We had Jeff Daiell, an LP Gubernatorial Candidate on board with his wife. He's wearing a nice suit, she's in a conservative outfit. They're just wonderful folks. We also had an awesome DJ on board John John John-Ra Weidenfeller who was playing some AWESOME music. I particularly enjoyed the 'techno version of Strawberry Fields Forever'. We even had our own transvestite!

Well, we had a GREAT time in the parade, as we were behind a giant float with a jungle theme, which featured mean dressed as women dressed as animals. In bikinis. - We gave (threw) pens, candy and other LP logo'ed items.

 At the end of the parade, we were instructed to 'move along - not clog up the ending spot of the parade - and find a clear area to park.

 As I mentioned this is a huge event, so we had to drive around to find a spot. So, Allen and I were up on the rolling Alamo with Daiell and his wife - and John-Ra was still spinning tunes with an awesome (and loud) PA system. Well, we couldn't find a spot so we started driving down Cedar Springs.

We pulled into a Starbucks Parking lot where a REALLY drunk - and flambloyant - gay dude quickly climbed up onto the float and screamed, "Oh MY GOD - I LOVE LIBERTARIANS!!" And started to dance to the music.

He is introduced to Mr. Daiell and began - er, 'overhugging' him. Jeff is a great person and was very nice as this guy attached himself to him.

We had to move from this spot - and our stow-away got trapped on the float with us as we drove around a Tom Thumb parking lot - and as we were dodging low hanging tree limbs, on a giant Alamo, with a overhugging, techno dancing, drunken and very noisy gay guy, "120 BPM 'Strawberry Fields' blaring - - Allen Patterson looks at me and says as deadpan as can be, "You know, this kind of thing happens to me every day."

I've never taken LSD - but I now feel I don't have to. I had a completely sober psychedelic experience.
 
Seriously, you've got to hit this link and look at the parade pics.  It was a fun, fun day.
Here's a pic of me on parade day with some Spokesmodels for a product that doesn't really matter.
 

 

The Los Angeles May Day rally, featuring the SEIU and Communist Party

Let's look in on our Commander In Chief's buddies at the Service Employees International Union, shall we?

The SEIU is the union outfit that gave Obama lots of help in the ObamaCare battle.  Their president, Any Stern, has made more White House visits than any other non-government employee.   

All pics below came from this site, and were chosen by a Mr. Zombie.  (I don't know if his name is an intentional reference to what our Commander In Chief has done to our economy.)
Here's a sampling of Mr. Zombie's fine work:

A May Day rally in Los Angeles, co-sponsored by the SEIU and various communist groups, as well as other unions, reflected yet another step in the normalization of self-identified communist and socialist ideologies in the Obama era. Not only did the SEIU help to organize the rally in conjunction with communists, they marched side-by-side with communists, while union members carried communist flags, communists carried union signs, and altogether there was no real way to tell the two apart.

I'm currently reading a massive tome called "The Black Book Of Communism".  The authors of this massive black doorstop attempt to outline all the deaths, destruction, and misery caused by that godawful doctrine.  Their estimate is that the communists, those wanting to "spread the wealth around"  (to quote our Commander In Chief once again) by means of force, killed more than 94 million people. 

The Nazis were amateurs.  To really do some damage, you need to display a concern for fairness and equality.  At gunpoint, with gulags and re-education centers if necessary. 

Here's a useful idiot with her red commie flag, and her worse-than-Nazi sentiments.  God, I don't understand this mindset.  Have these people never read a book ????

Here's the breakdown of the body count, according to The Black Book Of Communism:

65 million in the People's Republic of China

20 million in the Soviet Union
2 million in Cambodia
2 million in North Korea
1.7 million in Africa
1.5 million in Afghanistan
1 million in the Communist states of Eastern Europe
1 million in Vietnam
150,000 in Latin America
10,000 deaths "resulting from actions of the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power."

The Black Book is documented to the point of being ridiculous.  Communism is the worst thing to ever happen to this planet, and I bet half the U.S. population couldn't tell you anything about the tragedy outlined above.  That estimate probably includes this booger-eater. 

And here they are, your government's employees, putting on their purple SEIU shirts and proudly carrying their red Chairman Mao flags. 
I have friends in China whose parents were sent out to the countryside to be "re-educated" during the Cultural Revolution by these socialist assholes.  Some of the parents didn't make it back. 

Just out of curiosity, are the Marxists/Communists/Socialists supposed to be better than Nazis because their intentions were mistaken for "just" and "noble"?  Is bending everyone to the will of the state supposed to be a good thing?   

According to Zombie, the SEIU employees are the ones in purple.  The Communist Party members are all in red.  And "Obama is closely linked with the SEIU.  The SEIU is closely linked with communists."

Is there any doubt in your mind why our economy is in the tank? 

Once everybody started mingling, the colors helped identify the players. 

Here's some video from the march. Enjoy the brief images of child murderer Che Guevara:




This makes me ill. 

An apology to Savanna, and an attempt to make things right

My friend Michelle pointed out that in an earlier post about the Alan Ross parade in Dallas, I didn't include any pictures of "Savanna the Amazing Liberty and/or Gay Rights Dog".

The editorial staff, photography crew, and event planners apologize as individuals and as a group for this oversight.

Here's a picture of Savanna, taken shortly before we pulled The Alamo into a Starbucks parking lot.

The Alan Ross Gay/Lesbian Pride Parade, Dallas Texas, September 20, 2009

Since I didn't think our transvestite could walk the entire parade route, I agreed to walk beside the Alamo, which was a good thing, because two different people handed me Jello Shots while I was handing out flyers and freebies, and I couldn't hear myself think because our DJ's on top of the Alamo had AC/DC techno-mixes cranked up to ELEVEN, and most of the crowd was screaming and clapping and shouting, and it was sometimes hard to stay in line behind the gay choir and the bicyclists with Aids.

And then it got weird.


Yes, the Tarrant and Dallas County Libertarian Parties had a float in the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, a Gayand Lesbian Pride event.


Why do we do it? Well, look at this kid's "Legalize Gay" T-Shirt. He's different from most of us, and we have a government (with a president) that doesn't think he should have the same rights as everyone else. Therefore we show up.
Go here if you're still not on board with the concept.

One of the first things I saw when I got to the staging area.... I have no idea who these people were, or what they were advocating, but these men were dressed as women dressed as animals on a jungle float. Friendly people, these men dressed as women dressed as animals. They were my first sign that I was no longer in Merigold, Mississippi.


Here's our DJ platform at the front of our Alamo float, with Tim and Sue posing in front of our "Best Political Commentary" trophy from a few years ago.

Richard Forsythe (sp?) pulled the float with his pickup. Like most Libertarians, Richard's vehicle is merely a platform for the bumperstickers. Here's my favorite:

Here's our Alamo, the subject of another post from a week ago. The banner on the end says "Remember The Rainbow Lounge". A couple of months ago, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raided The Rainbow Lounge, a gay nightclub, apparently just for the hell of it. People were injured. Nobody could really explain the purpose of the raid. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agents got fired.

Here are our DJ's, who did a great job considering their equipment was mounted 10 feet above a moving ranch trailer.

These lovely ladies are Divine and Linda. During the regular work week, Divine's name is John. Divine/John added some street cred to the top of our float.

These ladies are Spokesmodels for a fashion line called Oscar Somethingoranother. I don't remember.

These ladies are Spokesmodels for Harley-Davidson.

This is the top of the Turtle Creek Chorale float. The lady on top is riding in a large green shoe. Someone told me that they auctioned off the chance to ride in the shoe during the parade.

Here's the rest of their float:

Here's Channel 33's float, which featured on-air personality Rebecca Miller, a bunch of guys dancing in Speedos, and the song "It's Raining Men". It featured that song for about 3 hours. Rebecca Miller smiled, under those circumstances, for 3 hours. Amazing.

Here's some more (a lot more, if you look carefully) of the jungle float.

And then we got rolling. Every float's sound system was cranked to the max, people were applauding and cheering, and neighborhood kids were going nuts trying to collect all the freebies.

Go to TheBallOfLight.com It's an art project for The Burning Man Festival.

I don't know why we didn't think of this. Large people on an I-beam SeeSaw.

More crowd. I think the parade route was about a mile long.

The parade ended here, where about 100 businesses had booths and giveaway stations set up.

This lady saw me taking pictures, and she insisted on being included. This is provided as a public service.

Here's Robert E. Lee, at the end of the parade route. Yes, this is what The Boys In Gray were fighting for.

This thing was FUN. It took it a while to get rolling, but the wait was worth it. There were probably 15,000 - 20,000 spectators and participants, and I didn't see a single altercation. Dallas PD did a great job. The organizers did a great job. Much thanks to Spivey, Richard, John F., and others who built the float.