Dave Nalle on the RNC's Proposed Rules 12 and 15

Dave Nalle, head of the Republican Liberty Caucus, released this memo claiming that the Republican establishment is attempting to refashion the party's procedures to exclude the influence of Tea Party elements from the GOP. 

Fellow Texas Republican:

You may have thought that the story out of Tampa this week was going to be a celebration of the Romney-Ryan nomination, maybe spiced up with a bit of contention from the liberty wing of the party, but ultimately a celebration of party unity moving forward to defeat Obama in November.  That's what we all expected and that should have been the story.

But for grassroots Republicans the story out of Tampa is becoming something very, very different.  The presidential nomination, which was supposed to be the focus, is taking a backseat to a growing controversy over an attempt by a small group of elite party insiders and the Romney campaign to fundamentally change the rules and structure of the party to disenfranchise grassroots Republicans activists and turn the GOP from a party of the people into a party of top-down governance from a select class of professional political organizers.

One of the cornerstones of the Grand Old Party is a belief in republicanism and the idea that power is distributed and limited by checks and balances.  Those values are embodied in our Constitution and they were the basis of the Republican Party when it was founded and for most of its history.  Historically this has meant that most of the power in the Republican Party has rested with the party members in the states, working as delegates through their local and state caucuses and conventions to generate policy for the party in a unique collaborative process where the voice of the people could be heard strongly.

Now there are those in Tampa who seek to overturn this traditional structure of the party, set restrictions on the free choice of party members and introduce a new and alien process which would minimize the input of the party's rank and file and put power in the hands of party leaders and wealthy special interests who can buy the loyalty of the mob.  They have borrowed the organizing structure of the Democrats and authored rules which would cause our delegates to be bound by the votes of primary voters who may not be Republicans or share our values, and they have further proposed the removal of control over the rule making process from the state parties to a small elite within the national committee of the party who can change the rules under which the party operates at any time.  Without fixed rules arrived at by the consent of the rank and file of the party we become pawns rather than participants in the political process..

These proposals which have come out of the Rules Committee in Tampa are contrary to the basic character of the party and they are opposed by many delegates who were not part of the handpicked group of insiders which dominated the committee.  Delegates from many states are speaking out in opposition and members of the committee who believe in a bottom-up party structure have issued a minority report to challenge what amounts to a powergrab by elite insiders and the Romney campaign.

I hope that the Texas delegation in Tampa will take the lead in opposing this coup within the party.  If you are a delegate, please join other Texans in supporting the minority report and opposing these changes.  If you are here at home, please reach out to any delegates you know and encourage them to stand up for the right of the state parties and the many dedicated Republicans who took part in the grassroots process which makes our party unique and protects the rights of all of its members.
I have attached copies of the proposed rules 12 and 15 which make these changes.  Please read them for yourself and see if they represent the kind of party governance you want to be under.  If you agree with me that they disenfranchise our party members and empower people who do not have the best interests of the party at heart, please join me in taking action to raise opposition before this issue is raised on the convention floor in Tampa on Monday.
Dave Nalle
Travis County Precinct 105 Chairman

Proposed Rules 12 and 15
"12: The Republican National Committee may, by three fourths (3/4) vote of its entire membership, amend Rules 1-11 and 13-24. Any such amendment shall be considered by the Republican National Committee only if it was passed by by a majority vote of the Standing Committee on Rules after having been submitted in writing at least ten (10) days in advance of its consideration by the Republican National Committee and shall take effect thirty (30) days after adoption. No such amendment shall be adopted after September 30, 2014."
"15(a)(1) Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in a primary, caucus, or state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state's delegation to the National Convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner, except for delegates and alternate delegates who appear on a ballot in a statewide election and are elected directly by primary voters."
"15(a)(2) For any manner of binding or allocating delegates permitted by these Rules, no delegate or alternate who is bound or allocated to a particular presidential candidate may be certified under Rule 19 if the presidential candidate to whom the delegate or alternate delegate is bound or allocated has, in consultation with the State Party, disavowed the delegate or alternate delegate."
"15(e)(3) The Republican National Committee may grant a waiver to a state Republican Party from the provisions of 15(a) and (b) where compliance is impossible, and the Republican National Committee determines that granting such a waiver is in the best interests of the Republican Party."

I Resign from Republican Liberty Caucus

I have concluded that the Republican Liberty Caucus is but one more corrupt Republican organization. In a state where the Republican Party is generally corrupt this does not come as a surprise.

I have not heard a single RLC member or candidate come up with a coherent scheme to reduce government in New York. Carl Svensson personally told me that he did not believe that it was possible for a viable candidate in New York to run on a platform of budget cutting because of the opposition of public unions. In a year when the public has become energized via the Tea Parties, New York's RLC has contributed nothing, zero, to the Tea Party movement. When I proposed that the RLC back a candidate who offers $10 million to run on a platform of budget cutting, the RLC cannot figure out how to support such a candidate.

Rather, members indicate that supporting a budget cutting candidate will hurt their own chances for miniscule public offices, and that is more important to them than reducing government in New York.

I have not heard of a single RLC candidate to run on a budget cutting platform whereby he or she has advocated a 20% or greater budget cut. When a candidate appears who says that he favors a 20% budget cut, the RLC refuses to endorse him.

I think we can we conclude that the RLC is not an organization that has a thing to contribute to reducing the size and corruption in government in New York.

Please count me out. New York's RLC is a joke.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert

Crazy Cop Tickets Councilman Halloran

New York City Councilman Daniel J. Halloran of Queens is a member of the Republican Liberty Cacucus.  Pinni Bohm, my former student graduating from Cardozo Law School and soon to start NYU's Master in Taxation program, forwarded this news story about Halloran's encounter with a crazy traffic cop in Queens.

RLC Has a Mission

I just submitted the following to the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) blog.

RLC Has a Mission

In his historical tour de force, On Power, Bertrand de Jouvenal traces the process of centralization of power in Europe from the fall of Rome. He paints a picture of an unstoppable centripetal force, power, whose ever tightening grip on humanity was hastened first by the increasing power of monarchs and then by the rise of democracy. Prior to mass rule that began with the French revolution and Napoleon, war was limited by the resources of local feudal rulers. Total war became possible with the rise of democracy and nationalistic centralization. The great wars of the twentieth century which saw unprecedented numbers killed were the product of nationalism, mass rule and socialism, indeed, of national socialism and socialism in one country. These last are the ideologies of both the Democratic and Republican parties today.

For a century the United States showed that in the absence of centralization economic progress would come quicker, the public made better off, and war limited to local expansionism. But the Civil War began a process of Progressive centralization, and elite Americans of the Gilded Age after the Civil War, envious of the status of German universities, sent their sons to graduate school in Germany and were surprised when they returned advocating ideas that would forestall freedom and progress. Not having access to the ideas of von Mises, Hayek and Schumpeter, elite Americans adopted German historicism, according to which they, as an expert elite, deserved power and that power ought to be centralized to that end. They chose to remake America in Germany’s image fifty years before the rise of Hitler.

We live with the heritage of their nationalist and now internationalist Progressivism. Progress has slowed; retirement savings are insufficient to cover the needs of the largest cohort of retirees in the history of the world; the Progressive health care system has faltered and been redesigned to restrict care; and for the past forty years Americans have seen the”promise of American life”, an ever increasing standard of living, betrayed and slowed to a halt as the Federal Reserve Bank and the federal government have transferred ever more resources to banks and speculators.

De Jouvenal saw the rise of Franklin D. Roosevelt as the ultimate success of “power” in the United States. But the process has taken longer and become more intense as the centralizers’ ideas, one after the next, have failed and destroyed sections of America’s freedom and affluence. The nation retains its preeminent role because of the nineteenth century’s gains and because its diminishing sphere of private initiative remains larger than under the rigid socialism that dominates Europe and the rest of the world.

No one can calculate the damage that power has done to the nation. It is probable that, based on the absence of real wage growth since the gold standard was abolished in 1971 and the 2% compounded growth of real wages between 1800 and 1971, the real hourly wage today is but 40% of what it might have been without the depredations of the federal and state governments. But Americans are relatively worse off than that because of increases in taxes at the state and federal levels.

Both parties, Republican and Democratic, have participated in the relentless expansion of power. The Republican is the more likely of the two to be transformed from a socialistic, elitist party, to one that represents freedom and decentralization. Hence, there is no more important task in politics today than that which the Republican Liberty Caucus has set before itself: to reform the GOP and transform it into a party of freedom and decentralization; to overturn the process of centralization of power; and to reestablish America as a land of freedom.

Given the low quality of public debate and the domination of the public media, this is a difficult task. Struggle we must.

My Interview with Governor Gary E. Johnson

My interview with Governor Gary E. Johnson is up on the Republican Liberty Caucus site at http://www.rlc.org/2010/01/19/interview-with-governor-gary-earl-johnson/.

How Dan Halloran Ran: An Interview with Phil Orenstein

My interview with Phil Orenstein on Dan Halloran's successful political campaign for the New York City Council (Queens) appears on the Republican Liberty Caucus's blog http://www.rlc.org/2009/12/09/how-dan-halloran-ran/

Attorney General Elect Ken Cuccinelli (VA) Describes Democratic Party Looting

In the above video, then State Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) describes how he has had to fight Democratic Party officials' lying and manipulation to try to hold the line on government waste and mismanagement.

Aaron Biterman recaps some of the victories of the Republican Liberty Caucus on the RLC site. He writes:

>Another election gone by, and it turned out quite well for the Republican Party overall and the Republican Liberty Caucus in specific.

Republicans elected new Governors in New Jersey and Virginia. Neither of the candidates, Chris Christie or Bob McDonnell, was endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus, but we believe they will provide a better vision for their states than their respective opponents.

In Virginia, voters elected State Senator Ken Cuccinelli to the post of Attorney General. Cuccinelli is a social and fiscal conservative, and some RLC members have been offended by his social conservatism. Still, he seems to be one of the few politicians in the state that understands the concept of limited government, and has a voting record consistent with the RLC’s goals. His new position elevates Cuccinelli to one of the most high-level advocates of limited government in the country.

RLC members in Virginia worked hard to help Cuccinelli win the nomination for Attorney General, and many contributed to his campaign directly. Cuccinelli has said that he will not enforce laws he deems unconstitutional. In 2007, Cuccinelli took the time to drive several hours to address a small group of RLC members. View his speech to RLC members at YouTube.

In the RLC’s biggest victory of the night, RLC National Committeeman Dan Halloran was elected to the New York City Council in a Queens district that leans heavily Democrat. Halloran is also the state Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus in New York. He worked tirelessly to become elected and will join just four other Republicans on the 51-member City Council.

The RLC also had some other significant victories in New Jersey and New Hampshire. Incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll, who the RLC discovered earlier in the year, was re-elected to his New Jersey House seat. Perhaps the most successful liberty-oriented politician in the state, Michael Doherty, was elected to an open seat in the New Jersey State Senate. The RLC profiled Doherty in an earlier edition of our newsletter.

In the Granite State, Jim Forsythe led a team of liberty-loving Republicans that successfully helped three candidates obtain victory. Political newcomer Lynne Blankenbeker was elected in a special election to the New Hampshire House, and RLC members Phil Greazzo and Cameron DeJong were elected to Alderman and Selectman positions in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Several non-endorsed candidates with strong libertarian leanings were also successful on Election night, including Kim Rafferty, who was elected to the Birmingham City Council in Alabama, and Shaun Kenney, who was elected to a County Supervisor in Fluvanna County, Virginia. Additionally, Lisa Marie Coppoletta has advanced to a run-off in a race for San Marcos City Council in Texas.

Unfortunately, TABOR ballot initiatives — which would tie revenue increases to population and inflation growth to keep spending in check — were defeated by voters in Washington state and Maine. The gay marriage ballot initiative in Maine passed, overturning gay marriage in the state, while voters in Washington state chose to extend rights for gays and lesbians.

The nine victories for RLC-endorsed candidates this fall combined with the five spring victories (in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas) have resulted in a very successful off-year election for liberty-focused Republicans.

Congratulations are extended to all of the above candidates, our other endorsed candidates, our supporters, and the folks that helped our endorsed candidates succeed

Carl Svensson Congratulates Dan Halloran

>On behalf of the gang, I would like to thank you and your Queens allies for a job well done; we know that it took a lot of effort, time, and money.

You now find yourself in a unique situation having won with the support of the broad coalition that is necessary for pro-freedom forces to be able to contest elections successfully in cities throughout New York State. It appears, for example, that you are the highest elected official who ran on the Libertarian line in the US, and their are accolades that they are showing upon you (via their various e-lists) are well deserved. I hope that you can work with themselves to re-evaluate their strategic and tactical guidelines which are self-destructive and a detriment to putting forth a winning coalition of parties.

The Conservatives and Republicans, especially in the Bronx and in Kings,too often refuse to work together. Hopefully, you can help resolve that situtation in time too.

Best Wishes,

Carl

I sent this e-mail to GOP national Chair Michael Steele at Chairman@gop.com:

>I just received this e-mail from my Republican Liberty Caucus group in New York. Is it true that Florida Republicans have ousted party officials who oppose the Roosevelt-Rockefeller Progressivism that has come to dominate the Republican Party? The last election, in which John McCain lept like a Federalist to support President Bush's bailout concept, loved by every economist on Wall Street's payroll, was a key reason the Republicans lost the election. Now, there seems to be an interest in driving out every Republican who does not agree with reactionary Progressivism. Guess what will happen in 2012 if the Republicans don't wake up?

>>Friend of Liberty,

Last Friday, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF)Grievance Committee notified Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida Chairman Will G. Pitts of Jacksonville and four other Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) members - including Northeast Florida RLC Chair John Stevens - that they have been REMOVED from positions within the RPOF or are prohibited from serving in any official RPOF capacity for varying lengths of time, from six months to more than six years.

"The reasons for this `Party Purge´ are that we have collectively and individually called for a complete audit of the Republican Party of Florida finances, advocated for candidates not favored by party leaders, and that we are members of the Republican Liberty Caucus," said activist and RLC member Doug Guetzloe of Orlando, one of the `purged´ members. Guetzloe has served as Chairman of "Axe the
Tax" and a member of the Orange County (Orlando)GOP Executive Committee since 1980!

This Florida situation is a sad example of a party `leadership´ that is out of control and totally obsessed with power. Jim Greer, the RPOF Chair, was recently elected the Rules Committee Chair of the Republican National Committee despite his disregard for decency and his actions against fellow Florida Republicans.

Greer is totally committed to helping centrist Governor Charlie Crist become the next Florida U.S. Senator - and, probably, U.S. President. In his steadfast commitment, he has `purged´ Republican Liberty Caucus members and others who vocally oppose Crist´s policies (such as support for Obama´s bailout) from the party. All of the purged members were supporting an alternative Republican candidate for Governor and Senate.

Despite this setback, the purge by Greer is evidence of how effective (and much-needed) our Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida is. The first rule of politics is that when you make political enemies as significant as the party chairman - you´re doing something right. Otherwise he would not
be wasting his time on the `lil `ole RLC.

But he is. The Florida RLC is tremendously effective - it´s able to mobilize grassroots activists across the state and lobby at the State Capitol - all while clinging to the principles we hold so dear.

Otis Jennings for Syracuse Mayor

I received this message from the New York State Republican Liberty Caucus:

Corey Mitchell sent a message to the members of Otis Jennings For Mayor of Syracuse.

--------------------
Subject: Urgent requset for massive volunteer outreach

To All Volunteers & Otis for Mayor2009 Supporters:

Thanks to the encouragement that many of you provided, Otis is on his way towards being elected Mayor of Syracuse. It has been a long, hard road, but we are making progress! We need your assistance again to ensure that this becomes a reality!

Otis is going door to door to drop off literature & meet the community in designated neighborhoods. We need a team to go out and distrubute literature packets for Otis every day this week and the weeks coming up prior to Otis going door to door so the people will have it before he gets there. It is fine if you want to volunteer for specific days or whatever. Please let us know when you are available. We really need you and are counting on you all to help.

We need to have at least 2 people go out with Otis in the evenings from like 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m when he goes knocking on doors in the specific neighborhoods. Please email or call us as soon as you can as this will be a very intense effort prior to the Primary date in September!

On behalf of Otis Jennings and his team, we thank you all in advance for your assistance in these very important matters.

Sincerely
Corey Mitchell
Office Manager
Otis Jennings foir Mayor 2009
218-5664
cmitche5@twcny.http://www.facebook.com/l/;rr.com

Connie Collins
Volunteers Coordinator
Otis Jennings for Mayor 2009
phone: Home: 849-4290
Work phone: 446-3403

Libertarians, The New York Times and Saul Alinsky

My blog on the irrelevance of the New York Times appears on the Republican Liberty Caucus site:

Libertarians, The New York Times and Saul Alinsky

>The small but growing New York State chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus recently had a spirited debate on our Yahoo! group site as to the best way to respond to the New York Times and its writers. My claim is that it is malevolent neglect. Don’t talk about them. Laugh when they are quoted. Several other New Yorkers argue that a rational response is necessary.

Those who favor free minds and free markets gravitate toward reason and tend to assume that it is through reasonable debate that minds are changed. Ayn Rand argued for reason as the cornerstone of morality and claimed that man is the “rational” as opposed to the “political” animal. But Aristotle considered both to be critical, and was concerned with the inculcation of moral as well as intellectual virtue in the minds of his students. Whether he was successful or not can be judged from the success of his most famous graduate: Alexander the Great.

Putting aside Oscar Wilde’s observation that “man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason”, human rationality is a useful philosophical concept (and one on which the subject of economics thrives) but has limited practical use. In the long run the rational survive and prosper, but in the short run psychological, political and symbolic behavior prevail. The institutionalist economist Thorstein Veblen noted both conspicuous consumption and academic caps and gowns as symbolic phenomena that flourish in their respective arenas, even as we who are rational prefer to drive Hyundais and wear jeans.

The Federalist Papers and the debate about the Constitution reflected the highest degree of reason. But we too often forget that in the late eighteenth century only a propertied minority was allowed to vote. Even so, the Founding Fathers put little stock in the voter’s rationality. The Senate was to be elected by state legislatures and the President was to be elected by the Electoral College. Only Congress was to be directly elected.

There were three steps to the expansion of democracy. The first was the granting of universal white male suffrage in the Age of Jackson. The second was the Progressives’ institution of direct election of Senators and, in some states, referenda, recalls and initiatives, along with female suffrage. The third was the fulfillment of the 15th Amendment in the 1960s, giving African Americans more equal ballot access.

By the time of the second extension of democracy in the Progressive era, Progressives were noticing public opinion’s malleability. John Dewey argued that the public needed to be provided with simplified pictures of public issues and this was to be the responsibility of the press. Walter Lippmann, the most conservative of the three founders of the New Republic magazine (the other two were Herbert Croly and Walter Weyl), was pessimistic about the ability of the public to make rational decisions. Lippmann was critical of the press as well. By the 1950s, left wing sociologists like C. Wright Mill were arguing that the centralization of mass media enabled a power elite to dominate public opinion.

The history of Athens reminds us that public emotion and demagoguery threaten democracy. In part because the Founding Fathers were concerned with classical history, they favored republicanism as opposed to direct democracy. After a century of democratized republicanism, it is safe to say that the broad extension of democracy has dimmed the expression of public will. The majority is easily misled and manipulated, and finds itself supporting policies whose results are opposite of what it expects. The symbolism of the New Deal and the Great Society is sufficient to generate public support for these policies even as they have caused diminishing real hourly real wages since 1970.



Read the whole thing at:

http://www.rlc.org/2009/07/12/libertarians-the-new-york-times-and-saul-alinsky/

The Man Behind the Curtain Is...Barack Obama

My blog "The Man Behind the Curtain Is...Barack Obama" appears on the Republican Liberty Caucus Blog.

>We all remember the scene in the movie version of Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls the curtain aside and the Wizard turns out to be none other than the snake oil salesman from Kansas. In William Leach’s wonderful history of consumerism, Land of Desire*, Leach points out that Baum was one of the earliest store window designers for Wannamaker’s Department Store in Philadelphia and that Baum’s American fairy tale was an allegory for the concept of consumerism. The snake oil salesman was the Wizard of consumerism who could grant everyone their dreams.

Within a few decades of Baum’s publication of Wonderful Wizard of Oz American politics took a particular turn. A snake oil of illusory democracy and equality were sold to the American public by a series of Wizards who managed to transfer increasing quantities of wealth to Wall Street and the banking industry while, at the same time, convincing Americans that they were doing so in the interest of the poor and middle class.

Americans have traveled the Yellow Brick Road for more than seventy years while the snake oil has done its work. During that time, both conservatives and “liberals” have played their part. The conservatives, keying off the social Darwinism of the late 19th century, have claimed that “liberals” are soft on the poor and do not recognize the importance of incentives. They pretend to libertarian views on government, but when push comes to shove conservatives advocate a key role for big government in the form of Soviet-style central planning by the barbaric relic known as the Federal Reserve Bank. The “liberals” say that the conservatives are greedy and indifferent to income inequality. Both sides agree that big government is needed and neither questions the Federal Reserve Bank’s existence.

The faux debate has left open an opportunity for the RLC: a benign libertarianism where freedom works in favor of the poor; government serves to oppress them; and freedom (as opposed to border fences or wealth transfers) provides the opportunity for achievement. This is the authentic American dream that both conservatives like Sean Hannity and “liberals” like Paul Krugman have deserted.

The use of illusion is fundamental to Keynesian economics and its argument for Soviet-style planning by Fed economists. On page 8 of his General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money Keynes writes:

Read the whole thing here.

RLC Has A Great Opportunity: Just Ask Anyone on the NYC Subway

My blog "RLC Has a Great Opportunity: Just Ask Anyone on the NYC Subway" appears in the Republican Liberty Caucus Website here.

"...Increasingly, Brooklynites as well as Americans in general have been asking questions about the Federal Reserve Bank. If one of the parties decides to take this issue by the horns, it will be winnable. This is so in part because the statist media will have trouble responding to it. They can trot up Keynesian economists to argue, but the economists themselves can be made to be part of the issue. They are themselves, after all, on the special interest Fed gravy train."

Read the whole thing here.

My Blog at Republican Liberty Caucus

The Republican Liberty Caucus has set me up to blog on their site, and I will be blogging there a few times a week as well as here. My first RLC blog appeared a day or two ago.

My wife Freda and I had lunch this afternoon with Lee Currie, excecutive director of the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington on Hudson, New York. I heartily recommend this organization for anyone concerned about the economy. FEE has played a historic role in furthering economic ideas. Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley and Ralph Nader (yes, you read right) published early articles in their journal, the Freeman, and FEE was the means by which Ludwig von Mises was able to make a living after fleeing the Nazis in the late 1930s.

Where is America going? Things have not been going well for libertarians and conservatives. Our problem HAS NOT been the election of President Obama. As Shakespeare put it in Julius Ceaser, "the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings". I don't like to think of myself as an "underling" but if the sandal fits, I'll wear it.

The public is unhappy with the bailout, but what have libertarians done to push the issue? We need a new Andrew Jackson who is going to run against Nicholas Biddle Bernanke and John Quincy Obama. Now is the time.

My old friend, Professor Chuck Gengler of Baruch College in New York forwarded this clip from the old movie Network. Let's not take it any more. It is time to start overthrowing the old guard in the Republican Party. We need to get revved up.

Meeting of Republican Liberty Caucus and Libertarians of Mid Hudson Valley

Several members of New York's Republican Liberty Caucus met with about 15 Town of New Paltz and Westchester County Libertarians this evening (Tuesday) at the College Diner in New Paltz, New York. Carl Svensson, founder of the New York Libertarian Caucus organized the meeting, and I felt the meeting was a success. The attendants ranged from college students at SUNY New Paltz who have organized a campus Libertarian Club to a retired math professor and a recent candidate for mayor of Peekskill, New York who lost by only two percent. The meeting focused on strategy rather than ideology and the attendees are thinking of ways to get involved in Republican politics and to potentially run for office in several cases. The dynamic and lovely Raquel Okyay was in attendance. Carl Svensson is doing an excellent job, and we anticipate that the meetings will continue next month. I am on the state board of the RLC. As long as the ideological discussion can be minimized and the focus remain on action toward a few well defined goals, the group can potentially make a dent.

Hudson Valley Republican Liberty Caucus to Meet on 11-18

I just received this from Carl Svensson:

I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing:

http://rlc.meetup.com/120/calendar/9103419/

When: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:00 PM

Where: College Diner
500 Main St
New Paltz, NY 12561
845-255-5040

If the changes affect your plans to attend, please take a moment to update your RSVP. (You can RSVP "No" or "Maybe" as well as "Yes".)

You can always get in touch with me through the "Contact Organizer" link on Meetup: http://rlc.meetup.com/120/suggestion/

Republican Liberty Caucus Opposes Bailout Plan

I'm on the New York State board of the Republican Liberty Caucus. The national RLC chairman, Bill Westmiller, has issued the following press release opposing the bailout. Despite the Bush administration's creation of this plan, there are many Republican Congressmen who oppose it. The trouble is that John McCain chose to identify himself with it. Bill's press release is excellent, but I would go further. There needs to be a de-nationalization of banking regulation and monetary policy. The current system is an abject failure. The problems go far deeper than the current socialization of banking. The banking system has not been creating value for decades. It depends on the money-creation powers of the Fed. Yet, this irresponsible institution has permitted bankers to extract large salaries. The public subsidization of Wall Street and banking occurs through the Federal Reserve. It is time to end this boondoggle and re-establish a gold standard.

Date: 09/28/2008
Release: Immediate
Contact: Westmiller (805) 493-4332

"NO Bailout for Failure, NO Rescue from Risk," says Republican Group"

Thousand Oaks, CA - A national caucus of Republican activists has urged GOP legislators to stand firm against the "Paulson Bailout" of a corrupt financial regulatory system. "This proposal is a government takeover of the entire U.S. economy," says Republican Liberty Caucus Chairman William Westmiller, "whose only purpose is to rescue those who made risky bets on bad mortgages." The Caucus [www.RLC.org] opposes any taxpayer payoff to rescue those who made bad investments in any sector of the economy. "The problem is not a lack of government control," says Westmiller, "but rather the decades of market distortions imposed by Congress through subsidies, mandates, guarantees, and constraints on free-enterprise mortgage offerings."

The Paulson proposal grants the Secretary of the Treasury total control over all mortgage-related financial instruments, nearly a trillion-dollars in discretionary funds, and the power to nationalize or deputize every financial institution in the nation. "This isn't a rescue plan," says Westmiller, "it is an economic police state."

Over the past five years, Congress has refused - on multiple occasions - to impose standard accounting practices on "Government Sponsored Enterprises", maintained an implicit taxpayer guarantee against all of their losses, and expanded the discretion of federal agencies to allocate new national debt to failed investments and insurance brokers. "This is not free enterprise, nor anything even remotely associated with the American Dream," says Westmiller, "it is pure and simply corporatism, designed by oligarchs, suitable for a Weimar Republic or Soviet Union, not the United States of America."

The RLC favors clear legislation protecting individuals against fraud, misrepresentation, and theft. It opposes any law that benefits one class of Americans at the expense of another, including any form of financial guarantee or subsidy that rewards failure or encourages foolish investments.

"The worst aspect of all the proposals now pending in Congress," says Westmiller, "is the destructive craving to save a system of patronage, political favors, and class benefits that has brought us the current crisis. More of the same is no solution.”

"The 'Pelosi Compromise' is a fruitless exercise of battling against the most extreme Democratic proposals," says Westmiller, "adding new layers of bureaucracy, prolonged studies of alernative interventions, and phased-in destruction of the dollar is not progress, it is more, much more, of the same failed policies." The RLC applauds the stamina and fortitude of multiple Republican Senators and Congressmen who have opposed any corporate bailout, expansions of government fiscal power, new burdens on taxpayers, or any further assaults on the value of the dollar through inflation. The RLC is a political membership organization working within the Republican Party in support of individual rights, limited government, and free enterprise. The Caucus has members in all 50 states and 20 chartered state chapters. The RLC has urged all of its members to communicate to their representatives in Congress their total opposition to any bailout.