No to CISPA!

Another important action item from our friends at RLC:

Despite having been decisively rejected by the people and Congress, the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is back in the House of Representatives, once again up for a vote with supporters hoping that the people are no longer paying attention.

Now is the time to take action to let them know you don’t want the government and big businesses accessing and sharing your email and personal data without any kind of warrant or due process of law.

CISPA (HR624) would massively reduce the privacy and security of your online communications and personal data. It would give government agencies and many private companies access to your personal communications and financial information and would allow government security agencies like the National Security Agency unprecedented power to access your data including medical records, private emails and financial information – all without a warrant, oversight by any court or due process of law. It is supported by government security agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and also by big online data companies like Google and Facebook which want to use your data for marketing with fewer restrictions.

This access to your records would require no misbehavior on your part, not even an accusation of terrorism or criminal activity and it would take place without your knowledge or permission or any opportunity to protect your information or your privacy interests. That information could then be passed on to private companies or other agencies or used against you with no real rules or restrictions on who could access it or what hands it would end up in.

The Republican Liberty Caucus joins with other concerned groups like the Liberty Coalition and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU in opposition to CISPA in any form or under any name. We stopped CISPA, SOPA and PIPA last Congress and now we have to fight that battle again.

We urge you to email your representative in Congress and tell them to oppose CISPA and keep government agencies out of our private online data and communications and to stand up and overturn CISPA if it is introduced by executive order. You need to take information now. The vote is scheduled for Thursday April 18th.

You can start with an email to your representatives using the form below. Customize the text to express your personal outrage.

Voice your displeasure to this federal incursion to your congress-critters at the following:

 

 

No to Secret Service Expansion in Colorado!

(Shamelessly cribbed from the RLC)

Colorado Senate Bill 13-013, working its way through the state legislature would give the United States Secret Service “Peace Officer” authority in the state. More than being a solution in search of a problem, this bill is a terrible intrusion of Federal power into local law enforcement by an agency with expanding powers and a track record of abusing free speech rights of Americans. This bill will come before the Colorado house this week prior to a final stop for the Governor’s signature. The Republican Liberty Caucus of Colorado urges you to contact your state representative and tell them to vote “NO on SB-13”. More at www.rlccolorado.com

Voice your displeasure to this federal incursion to your congress-critters at the following:

 


 

2013 State Central Committee Meeting

ColoGOP has posted this Meeting Schedule for the upcoming State Central Committee meeting:

7:00 AM – Credentialing & Registration Begins
9:00 AM – State Central Committee Meeting Convenes
12:00 PM – State Central Committee Meeting Concludes
Lunch Break
1:00 – 1:45 PM – Congressional District Organizational Meetings Convene
(45 Minutes)
1:50- 2:35 PM – State House District Organizational Meetings Convene
(45 Minutes)
2:40 – 3:15 PM – Judicial District Organizational Meetings Convene
(45 Minutes)
3:20 – 4:05 PM – State Senate District Organizational Meetings Convene
(45 Minutes)

To read the Official SCC Call: CLICK HERE

The big election is over – here come the important elections!

By the bylaws of the Colorado State Republican Central Committee — essentially the state organ of the GOP — hereafter referred to as the SCC, there is to be an organizational meeting in late February or March of odd-numbered years. The purpose of this meeting is first and foremost to elect officers of the SCC, who will fill these seats for the next two years.

This meeting is preceded by a meeting of each county’s Central Committee, for the same express purpose, on the first half of February.

Interestingly, the people voted in at their county CC meetings (officers and ‘bonus members’) will compose the majority of the people on the SCC, voting on state level issues, when the SCC organizational meeting rolls around.

With that as background, I have been part of an initiative to get members of the liberty wing of the GOP elected to county offices and bonus seats.

In a parallel Facebook conversation, I received a message that led me to believe that some do not share my optimism for this avenue of effecting change.

The following was my reply:

Well, [redacted], I guess we’ll have to disagree. I’ve been packing liberty people into PCP and DC seats for some time now. As have others in other areas of the state. But we need to coordinate on a final push. We are reaching the time when we need to broaden our focus from our counties to a statewide initiative. That is what I am trying to get done here.

There are conservatives on the county Central Committees, but I see that there is little coordination among them. We have pockets of power and pockets of knowledge. However, if this is not tied together in a framework of planning, we will accomplish so much less than we could.

To pile on to your analogy, the cards are useless unless they are played properly. And we hold quite a few cards.

How about your county? Do you know how many offices are in play? County bonus members? CD bonus members? Do you know exactly who to nominate for each of those seats? Do you know exactly what liberty minded DCs and PCPs will be at your county CC? As in actually committed to show up? How about establishment candidates? Who are they? What establishment PCPs will be there to oppose your candidates?

If you know all this, then great – you are ahead of a lot of other counties. If not, then how are you going to learn this information?

These are the lists that I am building for BoCo. Further, I recognize that I may have holes in my planning. That is why I reach out on RLC’s FB page. Perhaps others have learned more of the process than I have. If not, perhaps there are others that will get hit with the sudden realization that they have scant weeks to build these same lists.

I hope I’ve not been too blunt here. I don’t mean to inflame. But please recognize that some of us have been in the trenches for four years, and we see an opportunity for a breakthrough.

And the original message I was replying to for context:

I’m not sure what an organizational meeting this late would do. If Conservatives don’t have their act together now for next months organizational meetings were cooked. It needed to have begun last year at precinct caucus and if they aren’t set to play the hand they’ve got it’s a little late to draw more cards. Hopefully we’ve got enough conservatives on the Central Committies and hopefully they know to have lists of who they are going to vote for before they walk in the door for the meetings.

I guess the message is that there is no “hopefully”. In the immortal words of Yoda:

“Do. Or do Not. There is no try.”

I choose to do. All that I can do. Please think about doing the same.

A letter to the Colorado state Chair of the GOP

<<as sent earlier today>>

Hello, Ryan -

Thank you for your call today. It was good to get a chance to speak with you. I apologize for having to terminate our conversation – but unless Boulder County Republicans wants to up my salary by a considerable measure, I must continue to abide by the schedule foisted upon me by my day gig. :)

Near the end of our conversation, we were starting to explore ways to avoid having party activists — who may not hew strictly to the inner power structure’s priorities — abandoning the fold.

I have no easy answers on this. The one piece of low-hanging fruit I see here is to not make these dedicated people feel unwelcome. The GOP can talk all it wants about a ‘big tent’. However, just like the transparent fallacy of ‘being the party of smaller government’, this is a bald-faced lie. Perhaps many even believe this mantra. I would call those people delusional.

What end was served by passing a series of rule changes at the RNC, effectively dismissing (in the case of Maine and others, literally so) the opinions of a small but mighty contingent? Would it have affected the ultimate outcome of the nomination process? No.

Multiple events at the RNC served as nothing more than a slap in the face to many dedicated people. If not for these actions, a significant number would have held their noses, and kept working for our top of the ticket. Instead, I lost two DCs, at least a commensurate number of PCPs, and the dedicated effort of so many more other activists.

As just one incident: perhaps — as you say — there is a plausible story behind the teleprompter script at Boehner’s presiding over the rule change vote. Perhaps. But even if so, there were obviously ignored calls for division. Understanding that there may have been rules in effect that make calls for division out of order. But if so, that is a problem in and of itself. This needs to be changed. I understand the desire for the RNC to be a coronation spectacle, but  to prefer this over real deliberation at the party’s most meaningful meeting is a travesty unto itself. And no call for division would have been necessary, had Boehner not willfully ignored all the calls for reconsideration so clearly made during his perfunctory entertainment of just such an action. Further, even this call for reconsideration would not have been necessary, had Boehner not avoided the responsibility of presiding over a standing vote, after the voice vote tendered was obviously inconclusive. In other words, had he fairly adjudicated the solemn responsibility with which he had been vested.

I could go on about the means employed to stifle dissent on the content of the rule changes themselves — but this is about as far I can describe the situation to even an interested party before their eyes glaze over.

And this is just one slight amongst many.

I know more about these issues than your average Republican voter, as most can’t be bothered to scrutinize the actions of their leadership. Even yet, there are a growing number who recognize how vindictive and wrongheaded the actions taken at this cycle’s RNC were.

And as I said, there are a significant number — perhaps enough to have turned the tide of the election — that have checked out because of it.

The bottom line is that the central power structure of our party is trying to usurp control from the grassroots in a manner befitting historical despots. It is undeniable that the new rule changes diminish the influence of the grassroots, substituting instead the flawed reasoning of the central power structure.

Now the central power structure is engaging in public hand-wringning about the Latino vote, or the women’s vote, trying to ‘reach’ them. I’m not a campaign professional, but I don’t think you get these folks’ vote by pandering to them. I think you probably earn them by adhering to the ideals which you publicly espouse. If the party elite only wants these folks for their vote, only to subsequently mistreat them in the same manner as they’ve mistreated the liberty wing of the party, I think any such initiative will likely backfire in the same manner as this election cycle.

I guess I’ve all but impugned the character of the national party leaders. I don’t know them. Heck at this point, I can’t even name them. But I don’t trust them. By their deeds, so shall they be known.

So much for integrity, how about competency? Just a few words…

Right up through midday election day, every national GOP leader seemed to know Romney/Ryan had it in the bag.

Donkeys had polling, we had prognosticators
Donkeys had solid statistics, we had “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I guarantee that…”
Donks had Big Data, we had incoherent, unconnected, informal record keeping
Donks had organized boots on the ground, we had happy social clubs
Donks had well-oiled GOTV, we had an Orca washed up on the beach

While our so-called ‘leaders’ were ‘just resting their eyes’, technology had moved on. Dems capitalized upon this. We were caught flatfooted. To mix metaphors, we brought a knife to a gunfight. And while you are closer to the discussion, out here in the hinterlands I see no evidence that the central cast have learned anything from it.

So after all that, here’s where I am at. The central leadership of the party must be changed. And not with others that believe the the power and decision making ability should be centralized, but with a new team who believes in the wisdom of the grassroots. Not only are the current ‘pretenders to the throne’ philosophically adherent to the fallacy of central planning, but the evidence I see suggests that they are morally bereft, and further that they are unable to adapt to the new campaign realities of the big data era.

Perhaps this letter is a tactical error on my part. After all, county elections precede state. However, I often feel that the biggest problem with politics is that politics are involved. Frankly, I haven’t the patience for it. But I take heart in the fact that I believe there is a large and growing contingent that is also losing patience with the system as its stands. So I will take solace, should I be cast out, in at least knowing that I did not  resort to subterfuge nor misdirection.

So in terms of state elections. I’ve not yet surveyed the field. I am aware of one other candidate for your office, but know little about him. I will tell you this – the way you conducted the State assembly this time around made me proud to be a Republican. Especially after expecting the worst, having participated in two cycles of Dick Wadhams’ tinpot dictatorship. Though I’d still like to further explore our delegation’s abstentions at RNC with you at some point — I have spoken with several of them, and would like to get your perspective on the issue.

If there is a candidate that can show sincere intent for reform at a national level, while not giving ground on the improvements we’ve seen during your tenure (or even improving upon them) at the state level, that is the candidate for Chair that will have my vote.

I wish you luck – I believe it would improve us all.

Joe Breher
Vice Chair,
Boulder County Republicans
http://BoulderCountyGOP.org
Are You Free? http://BFree2.org
http://LongmontGOP.org
Co-Founder, http://ZeroAggressionProject.org

DNC votes just as scripted as RNC’s

Well surprise, surprise! </Gomer Pyle voice>. The Dems’ elite insiders are criminal too!

Just days after the Republican establishment was caught totally ignoring the actual delegate votes at the RNC (see previous post here), the Dems are caught in the exact same chicanery.

Here’s a lovely video comparison:

Note segment at 4:28 showing their chair reading what his verdict of the voice vote is going to be off a teleprompter.

I don’t know whether to be heartened that our team is no more criminal than their team, or to be disgusted that our entire nation is in the control of an elite serving their own interests alone.

No contest – Disgusted dominates

2012 RNC – premeir Boehner’s tele-boner

First up in evidence: a vote.

We’ll look first at the evening news portrayal of the vote. Then we’ll look at it from several angles. Here is what we will learn:

  • The voice vote was clearly too close to call
  • Herr Boehner declared it passed on a voice vote anyway
  • Herr Boehner ignored properly made calls for division

But wait! There’s more!

  • We will look at the teleprompter Boehner was reading from – which clearly shows that the result of the vote was preordained.

That’s right – Boehner declared that they ayes have it merely because he was reading the word on the teleprompter. The vote was determined to pass before the vote was even taken!

Let that sink in a minute.

The results were fait accompli. The floor vote would pass because the cabal had previously declared that it would. There will be no real vote taken. Only the appearance of a deliberative process for the benefit of the corporate news media.

The topic of the vote is pretty interesting as well, but that will be a story for another day.

What? You don’t believe me? Who are you going to believe? You or your own lying eyes?

Ponder that for a bit – I’ll be by in a while with the next article of evidence.