Regarding the dubious signatures, Gingrich has been quoted as saying, “we turned in 11,100 — we needed 10,000 — 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud.”

The latest email from Richardson’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination:

So it’s business as usual in the Granite State, with only one candidate in the Democratic running. Or maybe not quite so usual — because that one candidate isn’t President Barack Obama.

Wait… what?

Section 655:51 of the New Hampshire Election Code required candidates for their party’s presidential nomination to submit slates of national convention delegates to the Secretary of State no later than November 18th, 2011. Only two Democrats did so, and one — Aldous C. Tyler — has since dropped out and endorsed the other, author and political historian Darcy Richardson.

At first blush, that means Obama appears to have surrendered New Hampshire’s national convention votes for his re-nomination.

Unlike the incumbent Democrat, fifteen of the thirty candidates running in New Hampshire’s crowded Republican primary on Tuesday, including all of the major GOP candidates, filed full or nearly complete slates of delegates and alternate delegates.

“I’m sure this was merely an oversight by President Obama’s re-election team,” says Richardson. “Like a bloated bureaucracy, in a billion-dollar campaign like President Obama’s — one that’s literally drenched in Wall Street money — it’s easy to imagine that the left hand doesn’t always know what the right hand is doing.”

Not that he’s complaining, mind you. Richardson, 56, of Jacksonville, Florida, launched his anti-war, anti-Wall-Street, pro-Occupy campaign last fall after his pleas to more well-known progressives to run — former Labor Secretary Robert Reich topped his list — fell on deaf ears.

“The President has very obviously forgotten what the Democratic Party stands for,” he says. “So I can’t say I’m really surprised that he forgot he needs the help of real flesh-and-blood Democrats to get re-elected as well. I haven’t.”

Richardson is on the Democratic primary ballot in several other states, including Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas and will be launching a petition drive for a spot on the Wisconsin ballot tomorrow. “I’m happy to take all the delegates he wants to leave on the table,” says the long-shot challenger. “We’ll be waiting to have a talk with him when he gets to Charlotte next September.”

The Virginia Republican primary race is now a two-man competition between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, after all other GOP hopefuls failed to meet requirements to get on the state ballot.

Read more…

HT: Lew Rockwell

We have some exciting news this morning!

Presidential candidate Aldous Tyler of Wisconsin has announced as of today on Fire Dog Lake that he will be ending his bid for the Democratic nomination and is now endorsing Darcy Richardson.

“I am officially endorsing Darcy Richardson for the Democratic Primary and Caucus season of 2012,” said Tyler in his statement. “He is carrying on the fight far futher than I was capable of doing, and he deserves our support.”

Tyler’s name will remain on the ballot in New Hampshire, as it is past the deadline for the Secretary of State to remove it.

“I am honored to have Mr. Tyler’s support,” said Darcy Richardson.  “My friend Aldous took on the difficult and often unenviable task of challenging the President within his own party when a number of better-known progressive Democrats refused to answer the call.  Aldous stood for the party’s better self, articulating the kind of forward-looking future that millions of progressives thought they were voting for in 2008.  I’m proud of the effort he made and I wholeheartedly welcome his support.”

FWIW, I qualified for the February 7th Democratic presidential primary in
Missouri yesterday. An “illegal immigrant” — I detest that term — from Iowa
traveled to Jefferson City to pick up my receipt for the qualifying fee from
the Democratic State Committee’s headquarters and delivered it to the
Secretary of State’s office! How cool is that?

By the way, it looks like anti-abortion activist Randall Terry also filed
for the primary.

Hope all is well.

With best wishes,

Darcy

*Because of Darcy’s past association with IPR and because of his status as one of the premier chroniclers of third party history, there is general agreement among IPR writers that we should cover Darcy’s primary challenge of Obama. I would like to do so in the future without always having to use this disclaimer. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Zak Carter, the main promoter who has been organizing the tour, said at the San Francisco show tonight, the fourth of the tour, that he has plunged into this project with little experience. “This was my fourth show ever”, he said.

But while lack of promotion experience and sufficient advance notice may have dampened turnout — a few dozen people showed up for the event at night spot Kelly’s Mission Rock Cafe on the city’s waterfront — it did not dampen the enthusiasm of attendees or the performers.

One musician, Aaron Greenz, said he was looking forward to the rest of the tour and thought that the tour acts would eventually be traveling together from venue to venue. As of right now, performers are making independent travel arrangements. Carter himself said he was crashing at a friend’s place while in the city.

Greenz and another tour participant reacted positively to the suggestion that instead of booking venues, they just go and set up at Occupy camps in different cities and play free shows there, saying that idea has already come up in group discussions.

The “Rock the rEVOLution” tour features a changing lineup of groups, with at least one well-known artist, rapper KRS-1, appearing at some venues. KRS-1 has reportedly come out publicly for Ron Paul. Performers at the SF show included the following acts:

Soul Mystic

http://www.soulmysticmusic.com/

Avenue Saints

http://www.facebook.com/avenuesaints

Per capita

http://www.reverbnation.com/percapitamusic

Rise, Consise & Krookid

Europa

http://www.myspace.com/europa

Frequently Faded

Killjoy

http://www.myspace.com/killjoysucks

Voice Of Independence

http://www.reverbnation.com/voiceofindependence

Next stop for “Rock The rEVOLution”, which began October 15 in Washington State and has been headed south, is the Central Social Aid and Pleasure Club in Santa Monica (who needs big government when you’ve got the Central Social Aid and Pleasure club?). KRS-1 is slated to appear at this show.

For more tour dates and details, visit the tour’s website, http://www.rocktherevolutiontour.com/ .

The site is worth a visit just for the hip-hop “gangsta” style photo of Ron Paul, which one can imagine represents the congressman as he appears in Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke nightmares.

One flier I picked up was of particular interest. Headed “OCCUPY San Francisco” and listing the websites www.OccupySF.com and Facebook site www.Facebook.com/OccupySF, it was probably about as “official” a handbill as one would be likely to find at such an event.

Under the title described above, the 5.5″ by 8.5″ flier was mainly composed of a “tag cloud” under the heading, “I asked 200 people from OccupySF and this is what they said (Size of text reflects the frequency of the response)”.

I’ve copied here the terms listed in that tag cloud, grouping them by font size/color (a few of the larger terms were in red ink, the rest in black), putting a (+) beside the terms that seem likely to reflect a pro-freedom concern, and a (-) next to those that seem likely to reflect an anti-freedom concern (many terms like “love”, “economics”, “education”, etc., I did not mark as either pro-freedom or anti-freedom):

1st biggest type size (red ink)
—————————————
(+) end the federal reserve
(-) equality

2nd biggest type size (red ink)
—————————–
(+) anarchy
(+) end corporate personhood
(+) police brutality

2nd biggest type size (black ink)
——————————————-
(-) economic inequality
(+) end the drug war
love
(+) gold standard
(-) social security
solidarity

3rd biggest type size (black ink)
——————————————
(-) 1% lies
(+) anti monopoly
(+) bart police
change
(-) class warfare
direct action
economics
(+) fractional reserve banking
justice
keep it leaderless
killing children
(+) medical marijuana
(-) medicare
mobilizing people
(+) stop the war in afghanistan
(-) tax the rich
unity
(+) we are anonymous

4th biggest type size (black ink)
——————————————
american autumn
(+) arab spring
comfort
consciousness
consensus
education
democracy
dollar
(+) empire
(+) end tax slavery
global harmony
(+) liberty
(+) military industrial complex
nipples [evidently someone being funny!]
organic food
organized protest
political awakening
recovery
(-) redistribution of wealth
restore the commons
revolution
sustainability
(+) true freedom
truth

Of course there’s no way of knowing how representative these responses are of all Occupy protests taking place in cities across the country and in Canada (and elsewhere?), but I believe this constitutes is strong evidence that this is not just a left-wing movement, but one with a significant libertarian streak.

Even assuming that the terms “social security” and “medicare” reflect statist concerns (not necessarily the case, especially with the former), the terms that suggest a pro-libertarian perspective outnumber those that suggest an anti-libertarian perspective by more than two to one.

This would seem to suggest an overlap of common ground between the Freedom movement and the Occupy movement that’s about as significant as the overlap between the Freedom movement and the TEA Party. Libertarians would do well to work with both groups.

There is a new article up at American Spectator that suggests that Obama won’t have a primary challenger.

Expect the talk of a primary challenge to Obama only to get louder. Pundits salivate at the prospect of an unusual twist, turning the foregone conclusion of Obama’s nomination into a story. The problem is: A challenge won’t happen.

The article is more of a pragmatic technical explanation for why a primary challenge won’t happen. It is not an ideological treatise. But oddly, he fails to mention Nader as a main driver of the primary challenger talk. I think this article is more of an explanation for why there is unlikely to be a “big name” primary challenger. I still suspect there will be a challenger of some standing.

I recognize my comments above are editorializing a bit, but I included them in the post since the comments are down. Once the comments get fixed I’ll move them to the comments section.

Email from Kimberly Wilder:

This site – coming tonight at 8pm – was announced in the Guardian UK. I wonder if this is partly in response to the fact that the Global Revolution channel is a separate entity, and so highly moderated.

livestream.com/occupywallstnyc

Peace,
Kimberly

IPR posts to date on the growing Occupy movement:

Peace and Freedom Party: Occupy Wall Street!

Working Families Party Will Help Bolster Protest on Wall Street

IPR’s Ross Levin arrested at Occupy Wall Street protest

Workers World Party: Youths occupy Wall Street

Socialist Party USA: Shut Down Wall St.!

Third Party talk at Occupy Wall Street protest

Rev. Billy occupies Wall Street

IPR is currently using an automated spam filtering system known as akismet. This system works most of the time, but every once in a while it tags a legitimate comment as spam or lets a spam comment through.

The rate of spam being sent to IPR has increased recently.

Our all time ratio since May 2008: 646,412 total spam to 137,805 non-spam comments
In the past year: 456,056 total spam to 37,129 non-spam comments
In the past 6 months: 391,324 total spam to 14,041 non-spam comments
In the past 60 days: 209,678 total spam to 4,695 non-spam comments
In September: 130,281 spam to 2,541 non-spam comments
So far in October: 22,785 spam, 604 non-spam
There have been several days when we got over 8,000 spam comments per day.

In the past, at least some of the time when I was not busy, I was able to keep up with looking through a couple of hundred spam comments a day and seeing if and when the system ensnared legitimate comments by mistake.

Now, with thousands of spam comments a day, that is simply not possible for myself or anyone else at IPR to do.

Thus, the only way we will know if you have a legitimate comment get mistakenly spam filtered is if you write us at contact.ipr@gmail.com and let us know.

If you do that, there is a chance that someone at IPR will retrieve your comment (I do when I’m around; other people may or may not).

If you sign up to write for IPR you will be able to get your own comments out of spam without having to ask anyone to do it for you. You will also be able to edit your comments after you post them, another feature people have been asking for. And you will be able to post images and videos in the comments.

The only other alternative that I know of is to bring back the system whereby people had to register to post comments at IPR, which we had in 2008.

2009-01 1,807 spam vs 3,408 non-spam (first month we turned off comment registration)
2008-12 4 spam vs 6,099 non-spam
2008-11 49 spam vs 5,397 non-spam
2008-10 12 spam vs 3,999 non-spam
2008-09 12 spam vs 6,518 non-spam
2008-08 24 spam vs 3,391 non-spam
2008-07 16 spam vs 1,041 non-spam

One problem with comment registration was that sometimes people had difficulty registering (I had to try it several times myself before it worked).

If you have any ideas for improving our spam policies feel free to share them in the comments.

-paulie

As I mentioned in the last update, IPR’s facebook group was for a while also given over to a feed of all IPR stories, but that ended when I upgraded the group at facebook’s suggestion so that it would not be deleted. At the moment, it’s an open discussion group where those who join the group can post and comment on other people’s postings. Should the automated story feed be restored? If so, how do we do it?

As I also mentioned last time, social network icons at the bottom of each post can be used to share IPR stories on facebook, twitter, and a number of other networks. I hope our readers will take more advantage of this feature.

IPR’s blogtalk has not been used lately, but remains open for use by IPR contributors. Blogtalk has limited the maximum times and times allowed for each show unless we pay them (I’m not sure how much).

contact.ipr@gmail.com automatically forwards news tips to several IPR writers (the ones who have been signed up the longest). It can be used by anyone. Newer IPR writers are subscribed to a different group, which does not accept email from non-members. I try to forward all non-spam messages from the first group to the second whenever I can. Together, these two groups serve as our internal discussion forum for IPR writers. Our Open Threads are another way of sharing new stories we should be covering, as well as having conversations that do not fit into any existing discussion.

We could use more people to post articles at IPR. If you are interested in posting articles about alternative parties and independent candidates please write us at the above email address. We ask that our writers not post their own editorials as articles, although they may submit them for other IPR writers to post. Publishing editorials by other people that is relevant to our subject matter is OK.

What other social networks should IPR use? How can we better use the ones we already have? Ideas welcome in the comment section.

-paulie

The National Popular Vote Plan organization is among the dozens of non-profit organizations whose funds may have been depleted by the apparent embezzlement of Kinde Durkee. See this story, which says that Durkee was accountant and treasurer for the organization. Most of the publicity about her has focused on the impact Durkee has had on U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s campaign funds.

Text follow I_P_R to your carrier’s shortcode (40404 in the US, see the link twitter page linked above for other countries).

IPR’s facebook group is now more conversational. While the ability to post and discuss other members’ comments was there all along, for several months it was mainly a twitter-like posting of IPR articles. More recently, facebook said that groups that did not update would be shut down, so I clicked on “update.” However, at this point IPR articles stopped automatically posting to the facebook group.

IPR articles can still be easily shared on facebook and a number of other social networking sites by using the icons at the bottom of each post.

Wired has this story about Righthaven, the company that contracted with various newspapers to seek out blogs that re-print newspaper stories in full, and then sue those blogs. For example, Righthaven sued Independent Political Report, and IPR had to pay several thousand dollars so that Righthaven would drop the lawsuit.

As the Wired story explains, one blogger fought back in federal court, and won a ruling that it had not violated copyright, and won $34,000 in attorneys fees against Righthaven. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.

ACTIVISM. MUSIC. PEOPLE.
great speakers, local musicians,
grassroots activism for liberty.
ATT Tower Penthouse. 4pm-LATE.

–Event Overview
–Room 1, Speakers
–Room 2, Music, Art, Entertainment
–Dinner and Drinks
–Location, Directions, Pictures
–Tickets (FREE for students)
–Schedule

OVERVIEW

The “peace president” bombs. The TSA gropes and scans. The drug war rages on. The fed prints and prints….and prints. Mandates and bailouts never seem to end.

What do we do about it?

Thomas Jefferson gave us the answer in 1798 in defense of free speech – “whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers….a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.”

Through historical writings, case studies, and speeches by the Founding Fathers, more than 10 speakers will give you a logical, moral, and constitutionally sound case for nullification, revealing:

What IS nullification? Clue – it’s not what the pundits of the politicians have been telling you.
How nullification has been used in defense of free speech, as resistance to slavery and conscription, and how it’s being used in modern times, right here in California
How we can address the TSA, foreign policy, marijuana, water rights, and other issues through state-based activity
How we can roll back unconstitutional expansions of federal power through nullification
Why the Founding Fathers believed that nullification was the “moderate middle ground”
Why the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution gives the states the power to nullify unconstitutional laws
Why states – not the Supreme Court – should arbitrate disputes between the states and the federal government over the constitutionality of the federal government’s actions.
^back to top

SPEAKERS
–Thomas E. Woods, Jr – Author of Nullification, Meltdown, Politically Incorrect Guide to American History
–John Dennis – Republican Liberty Caucus. Challenged Nancy Pelosi in 2010
–Scott Horton – Antiwar Radio, KPFK
–Anthony Gregory – Campaign for Liberty, Independent Institute
–Art Thompson – JBS
–Nick Hankoff – We Won’t Fly, YAL
–Michael Boldin, Bryce Shonka – Tenth Amendment Center
–Jason Rink – Foundation for a Free Society
Special Guest MC: Chelene Nightingale
^back to top

MUSIC
Jordan Page – first Los Angeles performance! New Album, Liberty
Jordan is a young Singer/Songwriter and itinerant musician seeking to mobilize a new generation to stand up for their country and the rights of the individual. Jordan uses his talents to promote a message of peace while educating and mobilizing resistance to tyranny and the erosion of American civil rights.

Plus Local Musical Acts and Bands:
Jonny Leroy, Vayden, Lugenbuhl, My Own Holiday, Starveya
^back to top

DINNER, DRINKS
Los Angeles Icon, Patina Group, will be on hand to provide a full cash bar from 4pm-close. Their “Market Cafe” will also be open for our scheduled dinner break and for a short while after.

Market Café at AT+T Center offers seasonal, freshly made items. Enjoy their “chop & toss” fresh produce bar, artisan sandwiches, homemade soups and chef’s daily entrée specials. Pre-packaged sandwiches, salads and sides are also available for a price-conscious quick meal on the go.
^back to top

VENUE INFORMATION
The 30th Floor Penthouse of the AT&T Center is a breathtaking space. 25 foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and a nearly 360 degree view of the city is something not to be missed.

The space boasts 2 separate rooms. One will be for speakers and the other will house entertainment – music, art, sponsors and vendors. Plus our full bar from the Patina group.

So, while the message is important and the education is essential – we believe that it’s still ok to have fun while standing up in support of the Constitution and liberty. Click the image to the left to see a few more pictures of the space.

AT&T Center, 30th Floor:
1150 South Olive St, floor 30
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Driving – Get directions
Transit, Blue Line – Pico Station
^back to top

TICKETS
Students – FREE
General Admission – $10
Rows 4-5 – $25
Rows 2-3 – $40
Front Row – $75

Tickets: Each ticketing price level will allow you to sit in a specified section in unassigned seats, first-come first-serve.

Get Tickets online at http://www.showclix.com/event/nullifynowlosangeles/ or by calling 888-71-TICKETS
^back to top

EVENT SCHEDULE (tentative)
4:00pm, doors open. Arrive early!
4:00-5:00 LOCAL MUSICIANS
5:05 – Jason Rink, Intro to the Principles of ’98/Nullification
5:20 – Bryce Shonka – nullification around the country today
5:40 – Nick Hankoff – nullifying the TSA
5:50 – Eddie Allen – Constitutional Tender

6:00 – DINNER and 2 local Musical Guests
(meals available for purchase on site)

7:00 – Art Thompson on effective grassroots activism
7:25 – Stewart Rhodes – How Nullification should have resisted Internment
7:50 – John Dennis – RLC
8:15 – Michael Boldin – Tenth Amendment Center
8:30 – MUSIC
9:00 – Scott Horton – Foreign Policy, the National Guard and Nullification
9:30 – Anthony Gregory – Addressing the drug war, patriot act and more through nullification
10:00 – Thomas E. Woods – Author of Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century

11:00 – LATE – more local musicians, DJ’s in our penthouse lounge. Relax, drink, dance, mingle – and network – with like minded people.

Liberty CAN be fun!

National Supporters…

Connect with us..

NullifyNow.com on Facebook

IPR has survived the terrible twos, albeit somewhat worse for wear. The site has been up for sale for several months with no success, and has lost its google news ranking. Our owners settled one lawsuit (for copyright infringement) and have been threatened with more than one other (for defamation).

Other sites have sprung up to cover some of the same subject matter as IPR, including ThirdPartyPolitics.US and Third Party and Independent Daily among others. So far, to my knowledge, none has the site traffic and active back and forth comment “community” that IPR has, except to some extent Ballot Access News, which has substantial but not complete overlap with our subject matter.

A year ago today, we “had over 1.1 million visitors with over 3.1 million pageviews, and close to 89,000 comments on almost 5,500 posts.” Those numbers now are over 1.6 million visitors with close to 4.6 million pageviews, close to 130,000 comments and over 8,200 posts. Admittedly, we’ve slowed down somewhat in the last two months since I have been busy working, but that has happened a number of times before. And speaking of me, myself and I (Paulie), I’m also turning three today…for the thirteenth time…or is that thirteen for the third time? Take your pick….

Oklahoma, known nationwide as the state with the least choice on its ballot, is now poised to make things even more difficult from an election standpoint. The legislature’s failure to coordinate also threatens another elections bill to help military voters, which is likely to be overturned as unconstitutional.

HB1058, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Charles Key, would in its current version reduce the signature collection requirement for forming a new political party to 22,500 signatures. Currently, the requirement is 5% of the total vote cast for Governor in the last election, which in 2012 would result in a requirement of 51,379 signatures. This is more than the 5,000 signatures in Key’s original bill, but would at least eliminate Oklahoma’s poster child status in the electoral dysfunction department.

However, this bill is now stalled in the Senate Rules Committee. This is where the lack of coordination becomes a problem for state legislators. Another bill which would help military service members vote, by moving the primary date from July to June, is now likely to be tossed as unconstitutional by the courts.

The second bill, known as HB1615 or the “Let the Troops Vote Act”, would in the process move the deadline for new political parties from May 1 to March 1 of the election year. Petitioning deadlines that early have been ruled unconstitutional 15 times. Given Oklahoma’s already difficult requirements, without HB1058 to reduce the number of signatures needed, the law stands no chance in court.

“The people of Oklahoma, and the United States, have a right to have their voices heard at the ballot box,” said Micah Gamino of Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform, which supports the bill. “If we won’t support democracy here, how can we claim to be supporting it in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan?”

Free & Equal finds this an apt observation. “State legislators are putting the voting rights of active duty service members in jeopardy, just because they’re getting cold feet about opening up the ballot to competition,” Free & Equal founder and chair Christina Tobin said in a statement. “This is unacceptable.”

Supporters of HB1058 are being asked to contact the members of the Senate Rules Committee as soon as possible, to let them know that HB1058 must pass as it currently stands to restore the right to vote of every Oklahoma voter. Also be sure to contact the Rules Committee Chairman, Senator Rob Johnson, at (405) 521-5592 and Vice-Chairman, Senator Jonathan Nichols, at (405) 521-5535 to urge them to take action on HB1058.

###

Free & Equal is a nonpartisan, non-profit public-policy advocacy organization dedicated to election reform and improving ballot access laws in the United States.

CONTACT:

Christina Tobin, Founder and Chair
Phone: 312-320-4101
Email: christina@freeandequal.org
Web: www.freeandequal.org

Free & Equal, 407 S. Dearborn Street ♦ Suite 1170 ♦ Chicago, IL ♦ 60605.  (312) 320-4101 ♦ FAX (866) 309-7803

V is for Valentines, but it’s also for Victory. And as the folks at PrisonPlanet remind us, resistance is in itself a form of victory:

They’re talking about resistance to the TSA/Homeland Security state. At IPR, we are resisting against the Two Big Parties having complete control of our political system in the US.

V is also for Venom. There’s a lot of vendettas and venom in IPR comments, and a band called Venom did a song called 1,000 days in Sodom:

We have spent 1,000 days resisting the Sodom of the duopoly-dominated political system. Of course, defenders of that system will say that we are the ones turning our backs on the the Sacred Two Party System and the holy ghost of bipatisanship.

Many of us, however, see it more as really just one party with two faces:

Please use our facebook group automated feed to pass along any stories that you like at IPR (including all the old ones), follow and retweet us on twitter, and use the addtoany social networking icons (digg, stumbleupon, reddit etc) that are now included with every post.

Personal note from Paulie: If you like my work here and want to keep me going, I would appreciate any money you can paypal to travellingcircus at gmail.com.If you would prefer to complain about me and tell me and the world what a jerk I am, have at it in the comments on my previous post. You can be vicious, or very kind. Verily, your vote will count either way. As for me, I’m done vacillating for the moment; time for vodka.

Peace!

Our blogtalk radio account will be limited to no more than one 30-minute non prime time show per week starting tomorrow, unless someone would like to upgrade us to a premium account. I haven’t checked to see how much that would actually cost yet.