County Convention

Yesterday was the convention for the county of Olmsted County where the precinct delegates go to elect delegates for the State and Congressional District conventions. Those people will then send delegates to the national convention in Florida.

It was a very long day...10hrs. The convention uses Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Proceedings which can make things quite confusing and we had a Parliamentarian there to settle disputes. We were warned before hand that the establishment would try to bypass certain aspects of the convention in order to prevent others from participating. I was prepared for an entire day of corruption!

In the beginning we adopt the rules, which are rules that the convention must then abide by for the rest of the proceedings. This was the important part to watch as changing the rules could mean the rest of us (outsiders) were then just observers. The committee had selected a slate of names as delegates to elect for the next conventions prior to the meeting and put these forward as those that had "served the party" in the past. The rules stated that nominations from the floor would be allowed and someone tried to strike that rule and adopt the preprinted slate. Fortunately that got shot down. The next attempt was on trying to make all floor nominated folks declare their candidate. Also shady practice as it nullifies the secret ballot...and I though Democrats were the only ones for card check! hahaha

All the precincts and townships were grouped into House Districts of which there are 4. Each HD sends people to the next conventions and ours was the biggest sending 20 people. I had received a slate from the Paul people of those who they knew (as it turns out...thought) were supporters to try and get to the next round. My name was not on that list. It turned out that the list was put together haphazardly and some didn't show up and 1 supported another candidate. We broke for lunch before voting on my HD and I was sitting with one of the campaign people and said, "I think I'll just nominate myself in case the others don't show up and at worst I can dilute the vote a little." He thought that was a good idea.

When they took nominations from the floor I got in early (#4 I think) as I remember hearing that the first ones on the list have the best chance. Most people who nominated themselves didn't say anything but their names. Those that did say more usually gave a fairly extensive political resume. I don't have one of those so I gave a short speech about living in Europe, government takeover of healthcare, and the socialization of industry. I tried to keep it short and on track with the main complaints of the party faithful. I finished with a bit of emotion on watching the outcome of the 2008 election and hope for 2012. Much to my surprise, it worked. I am now a delegate for the State and CD conventions.

How people view my job

I'm not sure who put this together, but it's funny!

The Revolution continues...

Last night Dana and I participated in our first ever caucus. Had I not received a short video from the RP2012 campaign I would have been completely confused. We gathered with people from our precinct (basically our zip code) and all together there were about 50 people, which according to our precinct chair, was more than double the number of people since 1996 when he began caucusing. We went through a number of formalities such as electing precinct chair, co-chair, secretary, etc. to start the meeting and then took the presidential straw poll. Dr. Paul won our precinct with 19 votes to Santorum with 15 votes. The other 2 were in single digits. After still more formalities we finally got to the point of electing delegates which was the most important part of the evening for us. Dana nominated me and there were at least 3 other overt Ron Paul people who were also nominated. We were each given a few minutes to speak prior to the election. I was the only one who prepared a speech (which was a bit surprising) and there were only 10 people vying for 8 delegate positions. Fortunately all 4 Paul supporters were elected as delegates to move on to the county caucus in a couple of weeks. We will hopefully be successful there as well!

Here's my speech. I prepared it about an hour before the caucus...still pretty good I think!

In 1770 Alexander Tyler said this about the cycle of democracy:

We move from bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

I ask you friends, in what phase are we? With welfare rolls exploding, foreign owned debt crushing our economy, the legislator knocking down our doors telling us what we are allowed to do under the law instead of how the law will offer us freedom, when patriotism means we can’t question our leaders and liberty is the choice between a body scanner and a pat down. I ask you again my friends, how have we come this far?

We are all here tonight because we believe that America can break free from the bondage of debt, class warfare and dependency offered to us by this administration. Our hope isn’t in the next bailout, but the free market. We believe social justice is about tearing down the walls that separate us, not lifting some over at the expense of others; that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem!; and that the Constitution cannot be interpreted to mean just anything, for it would then have no meaning at all.

I am part of your community, your neighbor, and I’m asking you to allow me to be a part of the biggest turn around in our country’s great history.

My name is **********. Thank you.

Revolution!

Yesterday afternoon Dana was visiting the Ron Paul website to see what was new and found, much to her delight, that ahead of Tuesday's primary Dr. Paul would be making a visit to Rochester. Thankfully it was in the morning allowing both of us to attend.

We got an early start and arrived at the high school he was speaking at about 1.5 hrs early and were able to secure front row seats, which was important not only for visibility reasons but also because following his speech he came down and Dana was able to get his signature on our placard!

The speech and the atmosphere were awesome. Not only is the message true but watching him speak and only need to glance at his (what I assume anyway) bullet notes 3 or 4 times in a 40 min speech speaks to the consistency of the message.

The audience was diverse but had a large number of 30 somethings and under as well as families. It warms the heart to see the pre-teens holding their Ron Paul placards high. It also provides comfort to see the next generation ready to take up the cause of liberty as Dr. Paul it preparing to hand it off.

First snow

A month ago we bought a used snow blower in anticipation of the coming winter. Last night, winter arrived. We received about 4 inches of snow overnight and awoke to what Dana describes as Narnia-esc. As we had to leave for church I put off the snow blowing until the afternoon which I then realized was not a good idea. As the day warmed the snow became wet and heavy and much more difficult to remove. After receiving some advice from Grandpa Joe we commenced the blowing! It left a thin layer which then melted and refroze as ice. I lowered the scraper bar which should help with that, as will snow blowing fresh snow, not slush! I'm hoping to avoid any lawsuits from people slipping on our sidewalk. That will be my measure of success.

Mail treats

About 2 months ago Dana got her first job in the last 4 years. We were both interested to see how it would work since we enjoy the benefits of domestic engineering but with my long hours it was a good opportunity to get out of the house and do something that she enjoyed. The idea of a wine store was pretty exciting. The benefits of working in a wine store haven't been quite what we hoped, but the extra money that is being designated to non-budgeted "fun" items has immediately paid off in my humidor. Dana designated her first check to buying me cigars and for me, cigar gifts can only come from one place...Habana, Cuba. This week I received 15 Montecristo #2 and 10 Partagas Serie P #2. Now if winter would just end so I can smoke them...

Mayo Foundation House

Last night Dana and I attended a dinner at the Foundation house. This was the residence of Dr. William Mayo and was donated to the Mayo Clinic by he and his wife. The house is basically a stone castle which is not open to the public. I was told during my orientation that if I ever get a chance to visit the house, it was an opportunity not to be missed.

The dinner is an annual event held by the cardiac surgery department and this year they invited the perfusionists. The house was 5 stories tall and had a number of rooms including Dr. Mayo's office and a gentleman's game room with a snooker table on the top floor.

The evening was very enjoyable and the multi-course meal was outstanding. We had fillet mignon that was served with a butter knife...not to mention, I had the best looking date in the house!

New projects

Here is another of our recent projects. We (Dana) found this head board at a thrift store in St. Paul. We had a bit of an idea that finally came together.










It has started to get fall-like here. The temp has dropped into the 50's and 60's over the last week. It is nice not to be sweating because of the humidity (sick!) but I'm not really ready to start thinking about winter. Prior to that we had been trying to cook on our new fire bowl. Here we are making a little pizza. We made a Gorgonzola and fig pizza and a salami/pepperoni/gorgonzola with some of our home grown habaneros. Delicious!