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Samuel Adams

American Patriot & Politician

1722 - 1803

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
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Hot Issues From Linn County Iowa
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
The Keystone Fanpage

 

In this chaotic world it is nice to know there is some consistency


If I happen to be paused on what to write in my nightly blog address

.

I can always go to the Linn County GOP Political Organizaton  Fanpage 

 

I am not quite sure if it is put together so that it looks like the incompetent efforts of rank amateurs on purpose

 

Or do they just lack the resources to do it right? 

 

You can see for yourselves HERE 

 

The Format seems to be based on the principle of

 

We are not certain you will see a Post

 

So let's just put up multiple posts of the same thing so you won't miss them?

 

At least right now we are given double posts in the past we have had to wade through 4 of each one.

 

I don't know how the Fanpage ends up with all those duplicate posts, nor do I know how to prevent it.

 

That would be the author of this pathetic unprofessional mess.

 

I know how to correct the problem.

 

Facebook allows Admins to DELETE  Posts,

 

All that is needed is for someone with Admin privileges to go through and delete the extra posts.

 

This is NOT rocket science any reasonably bright grade school child could IMO be taught how to do this

 

It does however appear to be beyond the capabilities of those who are in control  the LCRCC Social Media.

 

We can tell on the Facebook Group Page  that there we have 4 Admins , the Chair Cindy Golding, the Co Chair Brett Mason and the Webmaster James Knox

 

That is only 3 you say?

 

True for some reason Mr Knox is listed twice as Admin accounting for the 4 Admins posted.

 

If they cannot keep the Officlal Linn County GOP Facebook Fanpage tidied up why not appoint MORE ADMINS?

 

Like pershaps AT LEAST

 

the Team Leader of the Marketing & PR Team 

 

–which is responsible for  Public relation

 

communications, internal and external messaging. 

 

We MIGHT even give him the power to appoint other Admins from their Team

 

Of course they would need to make sure that person was capable of looking at duplicate posts

 

And thinking

 

There are TWO of them

 

I will click DELETE on ONE of them DUH 

 

That would be important because we do not seem to have anyone either capable or willing to do that at present. 

 


 

 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 3:00 AM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, 1 July 2015 3:24 AM CDT
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Tuesday, 30 June 2015
The Price Of Early

 

 

They say the Early Bird gets the Worm

But sometimes being Early can result in Complications

 


 

 I and a friend went to the State Capital this last Saturday to watch the GOP State Central Committee in Action

One of the things they dealt with was the new Rule about Binding Delegates at the Caucus.

 One issue that was explored was what to do if after the Caucuses a Candidate who had acquired enough votes to be allocated delegates dropped out

One of the members stated that it might look silly to stand up at the National Convention and cast votes for someone who was no longer running,

There is some truth to that

The RPI had submitted a plan to the RNC which addressed that.

The idea was to allocate the voters among the remaining candidates still running

At first glimpse that seems to have the appearance of Fairness

However the RNC returned that even if a candidate dropped out of a race their votes should still be bound and entered on the First Ballot. 

I believe they are correct.

It does not matter if it looks silly to cast votes for someone who has withdrawn from a race,

Those ARE the ballots cast by the Voters.

There is a profound Matter of Ethics involved here

While on the surface it might appear fair to allocate the voters among those candidates that remain in the Race,

The Reality is NO ONE has the Right to decide who a voter would have voted for if their choices had been different.

In this respect the concept of "fairness" is wrong.

We have no way of knowing if the Voters would have spread evenly among the remaining candidates.

They might very well ALL or MOST have moved to ONE Candidate they felt was closest to their origninal choice,

That CAN be the Price of Early

Just like someone who fills out an Absentee Ballot as soon as possible

If their candidate drops out before the Election, a Primary say.

Who They voted for is  who they voted for

There is no way to determine how they would have voted if they had to choose between those left in the Race,

So it is for Iowa 

If  the possiblity of a large number of Caucus Votes going to candidates who drop out before the Convention is a matter of Great Concern?

Then we should abstain from being First in the Nation,

If we wish to be First in the Nation

Then we must accept

The Price of Early 

 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 2:08 AM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, 30 June 2015 8:05 AM CDT
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Monday, 29 June 2015
Those Who Forget

They say those who forget the Past are doomed to repeat it.

Recently I got to thinking about one of the First Hate Mail Letters I recieved and a portion of it came to mind.

My reaction was

That's not right.

here it is. 

 

This blogger is reminiscing about the past ten years of the Linn County Republican Central Committee. But where is his reality ... lost in the night sky? Buried under a rock? Fell into the toilet? He revels in the past performance of the LCRCC. Interesting because his memory is delusional, they didn't elect a single Republican.  

That is certainly an extreme statement.

At First glance one might assume it is true, because after all it would be a matter of public record would it not? 
 

Of course it is and the record of the sucess or failures of the Linn County Republican Party can be found

Here in 

Election Results 2000-2015

 And when we look there we can find that what the person who on that letters return address calls themself A Real Republican claims i

Dead Wrong 

 For example just a little over 10 years ago we had this result in the 2004 Election 

 

ROGER GROBSTICH DEM 8360 48.33%

KRAIG PAULSEN REP 8928 51.61%

Write-in Votes 11 0.06% 

 Yes our own Kraig Paulson who is now Speaker of the House was Elected.

As well as 9 other Republcans in Local Elections one of them being Mary Lundby. 

 

In latter years other Republcans also got elected and of course Mr Paulsen continued to be re elected.

Now the question before us seems to be

Is Mr Real Republican

Forgetful

Ignorant

Has their own unique definition  of the phrase "

they didn't elect a single Republican.  

which would mean that they also have their own unique definition of

 delusional

Or is Mr Real Republican simply Lying to create the Illution of a Truth that does not exist because they believe we are too STUPID to look up the Public Record? 

It is not like the members of the LCRCC have not had that happen to them in the not so distant past. 

 

Still I have a hard time understanding the thinking of someone who Lies about something that is in the Public Record

I mean this IS the 21st Century you can with a few clicks of your mouse pull up the Recordon your Monitor

Then I recall Mr Real Republican DID send this to me via an envelope with a Stamp on it

So maybe they are stuck in the Past

But it does seem to be a Past of their own Creation and not the one the Restof the World shares. 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:52 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, 29 June 2015 1:16 AM CDT
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Thursday, 25 June 2015
We Must Destroy The Committee In Order To Save It

 

There once was a Central Committee that had risen from the ashes.

 

 

 


 

 

 

It had declined to the point it had to take up a collection each meeting to pay for the room.

This was required because the bank account had run dry,

Attendence had fallen drastically, Events were non productive.

And then it got NEW LEADERSHIP

Leadership that vowed to work WITH the Committee as a Partner.

Promising to always keep in mind that the Contitution put the power of decision in the hands of the Committee and not the Executives, 

And it came to pass the Committee Flourished

 Attendence rose some meetings had 200 or more.

There was no problem affording anything it got done,  

Events were overflowing with attendence

 And it was Good 

And then again New Leadership arose

And he Body thought it would be a continuation of what had worked so well

But instead the Leadership followed the path that had led to empty meeting rooms and emptier bank accounts

They proclaimed that ALL decision power was vested in THEM

The Committee had given birth to sundry Sub Committees and had worked hard over a period of Years to Build them up and give them charters.

They were well attended and healthy

The New Leaders Destroyed the Work of Years

To replace them with something called Teams of their own making and controled by people of their own choosing.

 

As all this happened attendence plummeted the treasury declined,

The Committee was in dissarray, a large portion of it felt disenfranchised. 

In a very short time everything was back to where it had been BEFORE the Golden Era of Growth 

None of this happened by Accident

A Great Deal of Effort was expended to accomplish these things

What I have not been able to figure out is

                                               

                                             WHY? 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 11:05 PM CDT
Updated: Friday, 26 June 2015 3:06 AM CDT
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The Tax Revenue Shell Game

Recently the Iowa Conservative Union had a post on an increase of Marion's Garbage and Water Run Off Levy

 

 

Mike Tope's photo.

This guy , wow... Last month I informed you all of the fee increases to garbage and water run off.. No explanation why ,just pay up.... At last nights work sess...

See More

Unlike · Comment · 

 

Not exactlly riveting but the REASON for the increase I found interesting. 

It would appear that First the Marion Father took a large amount of funding from that Dept and spent it on somehing else

 THEN they appeared before the Public with tears that would shame a Crocodile exclaiming

Oh My God we do not have the Money for the Garbage and Water Run Off Dept

ALAS we are going to be FORCED to Raise Taxes! 

 It IS rather clever

Rahm Emanuel once said, "Never let a Good Crisis go to waste,"

The Marion City Fathers said

"First Create Crisis, then Reap Opportunity." 

 

Patter for the Shell Game


A little fun, just now and then,
Is relished by the best of men.
If you have nerve, you may have plenty;
Five draws you ten, and ten draws twenty.
Attention given, I'll show to you,
How 'Umbrella' hides the peek-a-boo.
Select your shell, the one you choose;
If right, you win; if not, you lose;
The game itself is lots of fun,
Jim's chances, though, are two to one;
And I tell you your chance is slim
To win a prize from Umbrella Jim.

--"Umbrella Jim" Miner 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 6:35 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, 25 June 2015 6:46 AM CDT
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Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Bound To The Phone Bank

 

 

For most of history and prehistory a large portion of the human race was

 

Bound to the Land a form of Involuntary Servitude not a whole lot different from Slavery

Attitudes from those days linger in some who have positions which give them power over others,.

Even in Volunteer Association their actions seem to be tainted by an unspoken atttitude that the volunteers are "bound" to the Task set them,

 

In my last post I discussed how the LCRCC MAY be getting ready to institute proportinal respresentation which will make more ( how many more is under distpute) of our members FULL members.

When you give people New Rights there is often a positive reaction.

HOWEVER I understand there may also be a move to eliminate or curtail the rights of the  Assistant Committee Persons that are listed in our By Laws

 

II. ASSISTANT COMMITTEE PERSONS The County Central Committee shall have the power to designate and select additional members from each precinct to assist the Committee persons. They shall have the right to attend meetings and to be heard. They shall not have the right to vote, except in the absence of a Committee person form their own precinct.  


 They constitute about 25 percent of the members attending meetings and IMO are among the more active members doing volunteer work

It is not uncommon for someone in the Excitement of Caucus to Stand for the position of Committee Person.

Then make one or two meetings and never be heard from again.

But someone who stands before the Body in the two years between Caucuses and says "Yes I want to Join this Body and take part in its activiities"

They usually stick around and come back month after month and become involved in the SubCommittee (Team Now) activities that occur between the meetings

So if we are planning to disenfranchise almost 25% of our Body we need to be pretty sure that they do not leave as a result.

I have been led to understand that while they may no longer be allowed to vote in the meeting of the Full Body, they could still participate and vote in the Sub Committees (Teams Now)

 

OH DARN I just remembered that may not happen either

The Executive Board has ALREADY decided which few members are going to be allowed to vote in the teams

SORRY

 

But the disenfranchised former Asssistand Members will STILL be allowed to do the work

 

 


 

 

 


 

And THIS is how you motivate and keep a volunteer force?

I hope I am wrong about what is going to  be presented to the Body

Because if what I described is what they push through by say

one of those tight 25 to 21 votes like the did other things?

They may end up with meetings of no more than 25 members

On the Bright side however they will have NO problem adjourning by

8:30 

 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 5:18 AM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, 24 June 2015 7:02 AM CDT
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Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Power To The People

 

As the last half of the 20th Century got under way the was a drive to awaken the political consciousness of the masses.

To in a few words give

Power to the People.

There also seemed oddly enough an unspokne assumption that in turn for this boon the masses would

Do what their betters told them to do,.

After all the masses NEEDED the intelligentsia, to Guide them

It was a great shock to our self proclaimed leaders when many of the masses decided to think for themselves and make their own choices.

That lapse of appreciation by the masses has been the impetus for attempts at corrective action for the 50 or 60 years since then.

 

There are continual attempts to fine tune how things are done so that decisions are made by the "right" people.

The Linn County Central Committee is a csse in point.

I understand that there is a adhoc committee looking at redoing the By Laws to allow proportional representation based on the last major elections.

Johnson County has such a system.

But for some reason there is resistance to using their method

It seems that it might allow too many people to become members of the LCRCC?

That's a Problem?

Why do we have membership drives then?

The rationale is because we have contention  with the small amount of members attending meetings now and they are afraid that more members, I heard a potential fo 350 or so would make this worse.

What we are seeing is what I consider faux logic based on faulty assumptions,

Yes we have right now about 40 or so voting members at meetings.

Yes we have contenion

Yes we have seen contention before.

No when we have seen contention before it was not a result of large numbers at the meetings

A few years back we had sometimes 200 + attending,.

We have 86 precincts a maxium of 172 committee persona plus assistants.

The meetings went smoothly, we had no problem paying for anything, our funtions were roaring sucesses.

What has made the difference?

Whenc might the contention come from?

Well the Committee is pretty much the same but the Leadership has changed.

You tell me.

If we go to REAL proportional representation it might be a little bit harder for those who want to control every single aspect of the LCRCC to be sucessful.

They would be smaller fish in a bigger pool

What is wrong with that? 

 

 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 3:16 AM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, 23 June 2015 3:29 AM CDT
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Monday, 22 June 2015
Crawling Chaos

 

 

I had thought about making the title of this post

 Personal Responsibility

  


 That being what Republicans have always said they stand for, but in the LCRCC we have some many more willing to

Talk the Talk

than we have willing tp

Walk the Walk

That I decided to make the title more fitting to the character of the Linn County Cental Commitee these days and call it

 

Crawling Chaos 

 

Now Crawling Chaos or Nyarlathotep may be one of\

the malign deities from the Lovecraftian Pantheon but it is

a good description of the Reality of the LCRCC 


Let us take one example in order to prevent this post from being too lengthy.

Voting

I dare say if you ask Any Republican where they stand on Voting

You will get an oration on how important it is to protect the sanctity of the ballot box

How EVERY Decent Republican would do anything they can  to prevent Illegal Voting

And ensure that everyone who does vote is legally entitled to

Unless they are members of the Linn County Central Committee 

Now there WAS a time we did stand up for such things

And we insisted on Personal Responisibility if they were violated

Some of us recall a member being removed from the Body for Voting Violations,.

Not any more

 

A while back ballots were being passed out

Now everyone who has been attending for any length of time knows those who are credentialed to vote have a big plastic  sleeve on a lanyard in which a BRIGHT LIME GREEN Credential Card is placed. 

 

So when one of the members of the Membership and Meeting Setup Team spotted someone NOT wearing credentials sneaking a ballot under the table and hiding it,

They told another member to watch that person and if they did try to vote stop them

Which is what happened

and the consequences were

                NOTHING 

 During May's Meeting a Credentialed Voter left the room and also left his Credentials on his table

Which they were not supposed to do.

If you leave the room the Credentials are to be turned in.

While they were gone there was a vote

And someone sitting at their table

Held up both their own credentials and the ones left on the table

First you do not get to vote for others and

Second you do not get to vote twice

They were caught Red Handed or maybe more appropriately

Bight Lime Green Handed

And the Consequences were

 

                       NOTHING 

 

I am sorry but it does seem ridiculous for any of us to talk about how much we care about the sanctity of the ballot box while at the same time turning blind eyes to voter fraud in our own midst. 

If there should be a third event?

I am for a Motion AT THAT MOMENT to remove the person for Voter Fraud

And if ANYONE should bring up the FACT that these two did the same without any consequences

Reply that point is well taken I wish to amend my motion to include Mr James Knox and Mr Mike Dupree

And if they have some Valid defense they can present it to the Body


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 2:08 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, 22 June 2015 2:32 AM CDT
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Friday, 19 June 2015
Curse Of The Were Pumpkins

 

 

On the Third Tuesday of each month at a place called the Longbranch

 

If you are sufficiently sensitive you might be able to detect the silent psychic screams of the Were Pumpkin.

For most of the month they appear much as the rest of us,

But if they do not leave and find shelter on the Third Tuesday of Each Month before

 

 

 They Metamorphise into hideous Orange Monstrosities

 

 


 

Which accounts for the desperate need to leave the Linn County Central Committee Meeting

Now if they were content to just leave it would be understandable.

I mean who would want to be seen in public like that?

 It is their insistance that everyone leave that is the problem. 

But as Robert Heinlein said

 


Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.


If they have to leave

EVERYONE has to leave 

 

The Problem is it seems to always leave things not done.

So I have a couple of sugesttions for future meetings

First  We could AMEND the Agenda

That only takes a majority vote, changing the Agenda to say put off adjourning til after 8:30 takes a Two thirds vote

So a tad more than one third of those attending can at that time force everyone to leave for the night,

Another thing we could do is

Follow our By Laws.

Which state

Robert's Rules of Order Revised shall prevail unless modified by these by-laws 

 Now it is true unlike some of the LCRCC membership Robert's Rules of Order seem to assume everyone is there to actually get the work of the Committee done.

 

Instead of Rushing out at a specific time

But it does say what to do if a meeting adjourns before all business is completed. 

 

The Effect upon Unfinished Business of an adjournment, unless the assembly has adopted rules to the contrary, is as follows:

(a) When the adjournment does not close the session [63], the business interrupted by it is the first in order after the reading of the minutes at the next meeting, and is treated the same as if there had been no adjournment, an adjourned meeting being legally the continuation of the meeting of which it is an adjournment. 

 

 

 

 Here is June's Agenda

 

Welcome / New LCRCC Members Vote

Old Business/ New Business 

 

SO at July's meeting after we  have the reading of the minutes

We need to DO these items

I mean it is REQUIRED by our By Laws 

 

But it would be nice if the FOUR people who expressed an intereedto join during the June

meeting return. 

 

At another time the Body might want to address the habit of not adopting the minutes until after One Third of the Meeting is over

That does seem Odd 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 3:49 AM CDT
Updated: Friday, 19 June 2015 9:31 AM CDT
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Thursday, 18 June 2015
A Matter of Jurisdiction

 

At the June meeting of the LCRCC there was some confusion at least on the part of one of our members over a ruiing on the minutes

It seems that in the past the Body has Voted and Ruled that No Attendence List of the Members should be included in the Minutes put online by the Secretary

That should on the face be simple enough to do.,

Just don't put a list of those who attend a meeting in the version of the Minutes put online,

But with our Exective Committee simple things can become complex

We have been told that it does not matter because the information is public record.

True but that does not replace the fact that the Secretary is REQUIRED by the County Constitution to follow the orders of the Body,.

The Chair made the claim that all motions passed were voided by the last Executive Officers Election

We know that is not true

We also know that James Knox asked that very same question of the Robert's Rules of Order Online Discussion Forum

And was told that unless the a motion has a sunset clause it stays in efferct until the Body votes otherwise

They even gave Mr Knox the page number  of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised 11th edition where that is stated Page 111 footnote ***

We also know that Ms Althea Cole READ that footnote off that page in that edition during the meeting to the Chair

Who ignored it 

So the question, Constutionally, as to what the Secretary is supposed to do is quite evident

That our Executive Board ignores such things is also  quite evident.

 At the end of all this one of our more informationally challenged members Huffily brought up the issue of a recording of the meeting being placed on line.

 

If my readers will recall the requirement was

That the Secretary of the Linn County Central Committee refrain from putting an Attendence List of the Meetings in the Online Minutes 

 

This is our Secretary Gary Ellis

 


 

This is the Secretary when the Motion was originally passed Mary Ernzen

 


 

 This is Me Dan Kauffman

 

 


 

 

We are not the same people. It would be really hard to confuse me with one of the two people above that are required to follow that rule.

To clear up any further confusion that may remain let me state for the record that what you are reading now is NOT

The Linn County Central Committee Minutes

And while I retain my right, if I so chooae, to post audio files of our Montly Meetings

So that the Country Republican Community may hear for themselves the Violations of our Contitutiion and Rules of Order are quite common during them

I will promise NOT to post an Attendence List of any kind 

 

 

 


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 3:16 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, 18 June 2015 3:41 AM CDT
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