For distribution, from Ms. Keaton:
Comrades:
After my first night of more than four hours of sleep, I have a little, a wee little, clarity. I’m also more objective now that I have a little distance and some protein. In the meantime, I have agreed to nothing but to listen and contemplate the advice of others.
That said, I have much fondness and appreciation for all of you. Each of you should do what is best for your activism. You were included on this thread because you are champions of anything peaceful. I will be fine. We should be laughing. Our detractors are clowns. As I am fond of saying, getting kicked out of the LP is like fired from a titty bar. It doesn’t go on your permanent record. No one in the outside world cares.
Mush over, now back to matters at hand:
Everyone needs to take a step back and evaluate the whys as much as the what. We are in an ideological and structural meltdown. While it is fun to speculate which mommy issues M Carling might be laboring under or what went so wrong in Aaron Starr’s potty training, this is about whether we are part of the libertarian movement or merely an adjunct to the GOP death machine.
We will never have peace from those who wage war. When my support is coming from unexpected places like Admiral Colley who said he wanted a resolution like Hogarth’s since Atlanta, we need to be reminded what is at stake. Among my high crimes is my refusal to raise money for a ticket which includes a mildly repentant war monger, initials Wayne Root.
As to the events of yesterday:
Have not been able to keep up with volume of emails and blog post generated by the LNC meeting. Everyone has a version of events, usually self interested or representing a collective concern. Particularly among those who are now eyeing what may be empty seats on the LNC. No plans to respond to every claim of “factual error” since the level of posturing and feigning “fairness” is getting silly even with my taste for the absurd. People can see that for what it is. Further, I was not allowed to see the last set of proceedings so I have nothing to go on but my impressions of the credibility of those reporting. Still quite unclear about much of it.
After the meeting adjourned, agreed to listen to Ruwart, Hawkridge, Wrights and Fox in a private lunch yesterday. They have certain concerns, not the least of which is losing my vote on the LNC. This is serious since Haugh (who has been very fair to me) pointed out that if I leave, Mattson is likely my replacement. That weighs heavily on me. Mattson is a conservative with all the baggage that term carries as suggested by Rockwell’s brilliant speech at the Rally for the Republic. (I’m dropping the term “Christian Right.” It’s offensive to our many libertarian Christian brethren.)
While this is not confirmed, Mattson is the sixth place finisher and I am the “weak link.” It would be nearly impossible to knock Ruwart off the LNC without a mass exodus from the LP. If I’m gone, they have gotten rid of one pesky anarchist without alienating authentic libertarians who will hold their noses and vote for the ticket.
Now, I will only be allowed to stay if I tender an apology on the narrow action of writing about Carling and Redpath’s statements during the executive session with a promise that I never reveal anything said in executive session again. I violated a rule that I think is unjust. I don’t know how sincere I can be but if Wrights, Ruwart and Hawkridge need me in a plan to return the party to the movement, I will consider taking one for the “libertarian wing of the Libertarian Party.” Besides, as party stalwarts like Gene Hawkridge and Ernie Hancock have said, the best one can do is object to executive session before the session and on the record.
Also, Hawkridge asked that I write a detailed but non inflammatory statement about the various forms of harassment sexual and bullying from Carling and Starr. Need to run this by Doherty, my mother and our lawyer first.
Now for the “shocker.” Cory has a very different version of his conversation with Carling as well as his take on charges by Starr and Carling that Cory and the Barr campaign have not cooperated with the LP. There is a dispute between what is the former Root campaign and the Barr camp over donor lists and access. I’m merely a prop in this drama. Very likely, Cory and I will speak man to man this week in DC. If he did not make those statements to Carling, Cory is the one who deserves the apology from me for not extending the courtesy of at least asking him whether he made such statements.
Meanwhile, don’t let the minor differences amongst us to divide us. Sullentrup has not only slandered Knapp repeatedly but is actively encouraging a schism. Don’t allow such a little man a great victory.
Peace,
Keaton
15 responses so far ↓
1 John P Slevin // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Who actually gives a damn?
No actual functioning, active libertarians gets any support from the LNC so why should anyone care what happens to you?
You want a title. You feel bad cause some people are trying to strip you of that title. Tough titties.
Do something constructive, or, go to Redpath’s home to cry. No decent person wants to shoulder your tears.
It really comes down to that.
The LNC never, NEVER, has accomplished anything. You ran for it cause it was there, easily attainable…or, did you expend significant effort and money in getting it? (no, you DID NOT).
It is worth nothing except to scamsters, like Redpath, who milk contributors into thinking the LNC stands for some kind of principles we each cherish.
Get off it. You crawled into bed with real slime and you got slimed.
\
Surprised?
2 wesbenedict // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Hi Angela. I am having so much fun reading about all of this.
I think it’s wrong to demand an apology.
Separately, I bet people (maybe even me) could find lots of other breaches of Executive Session by other LNC members in the past. It’s time to expand the witch hunt.
3 John P Slevin // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Not once since the LP became a party has there been an LNC constituted, in the majority, by decent humans.
The LNC, by definition, exists of, by and for state and federal election law(s)…It is a creature of the state and ALWAYS attracts those who are unworthy.
Like moths to a flame.
There is no way any constructive person gives a damn what those morons do.
You must be a moron to run for the LNC…or, a crook (or, just a sadly misguided person…like I think Ms. Keaton was).
Or, perhaps she can explain what it is she could do for the cause of liberty while sitting atop a committee which exists SOLELY because of State law, the VERY law the LP supposedly exists to extinguish from our lives?
Oh, that would be too deep for the likes of Angela, she hasn’t got there yet…here’s hoping she does.
4 Thomas M. Sipos // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:54 pm
John: “There is no way any constructive person gives a damn what those morons do.”
You seem to care a great deal. Your posts are very long on the matter.
Careful you don’t burst a blood vessel.
5 John P Slevin // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:58 pm
oh yeah, I care.
I’m not, like Angela, and EVERY current member of the LNC someone who got involved simply off a discussion list.
Sorry, Angela, that is your WHOLE history (or, did I somehow miss you in the fights of yesterday?)
The LP exists, like ALL political parties, as a creature of the state.
I am an LP member. I vote. I don’t mistake internal LP politics for the actual practice of doing something. Many do. Including, unfortunately, all those who thieve at the Watergate trough.
Angela, by joining WITH the LNC didn’t do anything to clean it up, she mucked it up.
You don’t clean it up by tolerating it…you ABOLSISH IT.
SINCE the LNC exists SOLELY because of unjust election laws we NEVER should give it ANY worth.
It’s very, very obvious.
And, it’s very, very sad that so many don’t see that obvious truth.
6 Jdfamularo // Sep 8, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Angela, for heavens sake don’t apologize for anything or accept a diminished role. If you do your position as an LNC board member would be meaningless. If you want to stay on the LNC to improve things (as you see it), then make a legal fight over it. As I see it you have the legal edge, the moral edge, and the support of the general membership.
7 brooksbots // Sep 8, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Hey moron,
Angela has been promoting libertarian ideals for the 10+ years I’ve know her thru her shows and blogs. Some of us realize being a mouthpiece for those ideals is a thankless task.
On the issue of reporting an executive session, consider this, most of our country’s problems are the results of those with the strangle hold on power making deals behind closed doors with those in other countries that have their boot heels on their populations throat. How about we run a government where ALL meetings are recorded and broadcast live so that everyone can see what the hell is going on so if our leaders try to screw some little powerless country out of their oil and those powerless people fly some planes into our buildings we can’t hide behind the claims of ignorance.
8 John P Slevin // Sep 8, 2008 at 8:53 pm
No one, NO ONE ever has effectively promoted liberty thru the LNC.
Angela is no exception
9 Ernest Hancock // Sep 8, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Why sooo much secrecy? I can understand why an ongoing litigation might require some discretion in conversations with attorneys, but…
I would very much like to argue that the type of libertarian behavior we should be supportive of doesn’t include secret plans for the resources of the Libertarian Party membership.
I was very encouraged by Angela’s willingness to bring light to the behind the doors dealings,… I was also sure of how her efforts would be countered.
I have to admit that I rarely pay any attention to the efforts of the LNC (individual actions are what keep my attention) but I am curious as to how things are going.
ernesthancock – at – cox.net is where someone could send me a 500 word or less summary of what has been going on. If they wish it to be an article on FreedomsPhoenix, then please keep it factual. I don’t mind informed opinion but individual names are of little interest since I am certain they have a line formed for their replacements.
10 John P Slevin // Sep 8, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Ernest, as per your request that people contact you with the “goodies”. Why?
There is not now nor has there ever been anything happening at the LNC.
Your suggestion that someone tell you what is going on “behind the scenes” is idiotic.
The LNC stands for NOTHING. Look at the personnel.
Look at the people and just look at the kind of drooling spastic nonsensense spouted in this latest confab. People, with great venom, spitting at one another because some candidate (Barr) doesn’t mention the word “libertarian” enough to suit their foul tastes.
People like Angela who insist it all is about them, about what they have lost, about what someone has deprived them of achieving.
People like David Nolan, who never did and probably never will know his butt from a hole in the wall and who keeps really strange company, at ALL times.
And, of course, there is still that simple point. Why, WHY give a hoot in hell about the LNC?
No decent believer in liberty, NO libertarian, NO Libertarian EVER could give one bit of interest in ANYTHING any IDIOT LNC member said, did or schemed to do.
It simply NEVER has had any consequence.
And the people forementioned (people like Nolan) persist in the notion it did.
Nolan used to be one of the real nasty slimers. Used to like going after decent people, smearing them, making them out to be “bad”. Still does.
That is what you are doing by asking people to get you the info.
Stop it. Do something constructive or do nothing. But IF you insist on doing something relative to the LNC,at LEAST look at some facts.
11 brooksbots // Sep 9, 2008 at 12:34 am
John,
since you seem to care more than anyone and appairently have no life otherwise, what is YOUR solution? You call yourself a political consultant (been banned from most of the sites I googled about you) but I suspect you are one of those people who just likes the sound of his own voice in his parents basement and thinks his opinions matter. So whats it going to be?….put up or shut up.
12 Ernest Hancock // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:04 am
Let me guess.
The spending of other people’s money hasn’t resulted in enough return revenue to cover the spending of other people’s money.
This has been repeated enough times (using several methods, tactics and pleas) that there isn’t enough money to pay bills.
Keeping this a secret is important to those responsible. The expected windfall of cash for having the “dream ticket” didn’t materialize as promised and blame must be affixed.
Abandonment of libertarian principles will never be considered a source of the LPUS’ problems if it were up to many on the LNC.
No matter what happens this week at Ron Paul’s news conference (nice things said,… even an endorsement) there is nothing that will take the place of a consistent libertarian message. The last 18 months has demonstrated a willingness to support a message without the illusion of a political victory determined by vote totals.
Ron Paul’s endorsement of a Money Bomb for selected and endorsed congressional candidates was a bust and raised less than $30,000, the last I heard, for a combined total for many candidates.
Barry Hess and I had an opportunity to explain to Bob Barr what was clearly going to happen in our minds and why. This conversation took place on the patio of the Denver hotel later in the evening after the nomination was done. With a few dozen in attendance as witnesses, it was made very clear what was the only chance Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party had to get even a glimmer of support from the rEVOLution (a bunch of that no-compromise libertarian stuff).
It is soooo obvious to so many activists what was to happen to the Libertarian Party brand that we had little else we could do but to do our best to explain “why” before it happened and hope for a little understanding and a better informed membership.
There is a libertarian revolution already underway that the Libertarian Party has yet to join. But since it can only be served and not controlled, there is little interest by those now in control of the LNC.
If I thought that the efforts, or even the existence, of the LNC/LPUS were the determining factor in my family’s future of living free then I would be more attentive to the inner workings. But I know that freedom always comes from individual desire that can be sparked in many ways.
One of the greatest buzz kills for a vibrant freedom movement are the expected efforts to control and manage it.
There will come a time (likely out of desperation and/or apathy) when the activists will free the libertarian minds left hanging around the Libertarian Party’s water cooler. The realization that the LPUS nothing more than a tool that is used to achieve the goal of freeing individual minds. The idea that “the goal” is the “success” of the Libertarian Party as defined by the corrupt political/media establishment exposes the lack of self-esteem collectively held by those with majority control of the actions/inactions of the LNC.
In two years I’ll be back running for National Chair again. I wouldn’t expect my enthusiasm for the position to exceed the desire of the membership to join the American Revolution now underway. But I know that there is a desire for libertarian philosophy to be advocated (I give you the last 18 months as an example).
Soooo, I suspect that the LPUS/LNC is nearing the end of their experiment with “mainstream” campaigns. But I was looking for a brief bit of confirmation or correction.
After this election cycle is over there will be an accounting at many levels. And having an LNC member that can not be intimidated out of making sure the LPUS membership knows what happened, by whom and why is very frightening to those with little or no defense to justify their decisions.
Ironically, many of us loyal (to principle) critics are pleased that the “dream package” was available to fully test the long sought attempt to “be just like them,… with a twist”. If ever there was a year for such a test, this was it.
Sadly, it was also one of the best opportunities for the LPUS to take advantage of a great opportunity to become the most effective tool in the fight for individual freedom in the history of the LP.
I agree that the LPUS isn’t the best option for fighting for individual liberty,… but it could be in a very short time.
13 brooksbots // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:26 am
Ernest, well put. No experiment is a total failure unless the methods or results are discarded. With Angela’s help in reporting, we have discovered one more way not to do it.
14 G.E. // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:48 am
As eloquent as it is true.
Shame on the Denver delegates for not electing Mr. Hancock as Chair!
15 Thomas M. Sipos // Sep 9, 2008 at 9:57 am
John, I get that you don’t think the LNC ever accomplished anything.
But all you’re doing is repeating yourself, in paragraph after paragraph, in post after post.
I’m no fan of the current LNC, but your argument is no more persuasive merely because you repeat yourself, and use CAPS.
Kudos to Angela for her over a decade-long fight for liberty, and for trying to reform the LNC by holding them to public scrutiny.
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