EckerNet.Com

The state convention has begun….as usual, very late. It\’s 10:30 and we\’re just now seating alternates. Although being a delegate, not an alternate, I barely care.

While bloggers did get the shaft this year from the GOP we are definitely in attendance. So far I\’ve seen Andy Aplikowski, Derek Brigham, Scott Brooks, Martin Andrade, Jerry Ewing, Chad Elder and Michael Brodkorb. Presumably Andy and Michael will both also be live-blogging.

Ron Paul folks had their rally this morning outside. Ron Paul is still outside shaking babies and kissing hands, because they won\’t let him in the door. His supporters tried a reshuffling of the agenda which was roundly defeated. So either they have very little support here or else unlike most of their other actions it wasn\’t very well organized.

The Minnesota Conservative Team, which I mentioned yesterday, is definitely in attendance. They have their banners and fliers all over the place. From the nature of their letter it appears they are mostly an anti-Ron Paul group. And on all the chairs is lots of anti-Ron Paul literature….although none of it has text identifying the person or group that distributed it. I believe that is a big no-no by the rules….even if not, it is definitely a cheap and underhanded ploy….and I say that as someone that is no fan of Ron Paul.

I\’ll update if anything exciting happens….but more than likely I would expect this spot to be rather silent for
a couple hours. It\’s mostly parlimentary hullabalooh at this point.

UPDATES:

11:38 – A nice rowdy debate happening on the floor now. Basically the delegates are not taking to the State Party\’s collective power grab at the expense of the BPOUs. Ron Carey even got booed at one point when he tried to defend the state party.

12:00 – A motion was just made to have all literature that wasn\’t endorsed collected from the floor….basically all the anti-Ron Paul stuff. It\’s a very good point and very valid. Although I suspect that most of this material had the unofficial approval of the state party.

12:15 – Ok folks are STILL making a shit-storm about the \”illegal material\” on the floor, asking for those that distributed it are removed from the floor. Problem with that is that the reason the material is illegal is nobody knows who distributed it since it\’s not endorsed by anyone.

2:30 – Ok sorry for the gap in time there, but there are no outlets on the floor so I had to recharge my battery. Luckily the fine folks at 1280 AM – The Patriot were kind enough to allow me to plug into one of their outlets and keep an eye on my laptop so I could return to the floor.

Basically things have been rather crazy here on the floor. There has been a great deal of complaining and disagreement. Recently the chair had to go to the mic to remind people that we\’re all supposed to be respectful of each other here…..basically a \”calm down, same team\” speech.

Most of the debate has been on the ability of the Ron Paul people to have their names entered into consideration for nomination as a National Delegate. They\’ve been defeated and turned down at every turn, both from rulings from the chair and votes from the floor. I actually kinda admire their spirit and they have gotten pretty creative with their motions…I thought they even had the chair beat on one motion, but a technicality of Robert\’s Rules got them. I do have to say though that their delay tactics and repeated complaining is not winning hearts and minds here on the floor. In fact it\’s really starting to piss people off.

4:45 – I got sick of the bickering and chaos, so half of my BPOU left to go get a beer (or three) and a bit to eat, as there was no break for lunch. So we did that. If you\’re ever in Rochester, I\’d like to recommend Newt\’s Bar near the corner of 2nd St and 1st St NE. Good burgers, good beer, good atmosphere, good times.

Came back and was met at the door by Chief of Freedom Dogs who let me know that yeah we endorsed Coleman while I was gone but now two delegates are tying things up with a pissing contest about some shenanigans at the CD1 Convention. Why the rest of us care, is beyond me but apparently according to the rules it must be resolved here at the State Convention.

Coleman apparently gave a very impassioned speech and hit on a number of topics. Apparently one of the corner stones of his speech was border enforcement….which is very amusing considered he\’s never voted in favor of border enforcement.

5:00 – SHIT! It just started hailing….marble sized….my vehicle is stuck on the top level of a parking ramp. I sense an insurance claim coming on.

5:05 – 1280 AM The Patriot is on the air…I should give them a plug since they\’ve been charging my laptop for me. On the plus side though, Chief of Freedom Dogs, Andy of Residual Forces and myself have commandeered the TV camera platform….and there are power outlets up here!!!

5:10 – John Kline just spoke….probably the only uncontested portion of the convention so far.

6:00 – Had to go move my vehicle….parking was scarce down here this morning so I got stuck in a garage that was going to be cleaned and had to get my vehicle moved by 6. Personally I think it was just the union\’s way of sticking it to the GOP that the cleaning was rescheduled for this weekend.

6:30 – Yeah! We\’re voting on platform resolutions….is it possible that we may get out of here on time???  I don\’t believe that!