IOWA POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS DISGRACE THEMSELVES (RON PAUL RELATED)
Ron Paul's campaign website is reporting today that the organization Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowan Christian Alliance have decided not to invite Ron Paul to their presidential candidates forum to be held June 30 in Des Moines, Iowa.
See: Iowa Political Organizations Disgrace Themselves
Disgraceful. And outrageous.
As a one-time Iowan with a long-time love of the state and its people, I was very disheartened to read of this. I am sending an email to the people organizing the event to see if they can provide an explanation that is not offensive. I'm not optimistic.
Come on, Iowans. Do what's right. Do what's just.
Try to live up to the words on your state flag.
Seriously.
Labels: Iowan Christian Alliance, Iowans for Tax Relief, Ron Paul
posted by garrett @ 5:01 PM
8 Comments:
Here are Ron Paul's scores from the National Taxpayers Union. Reference them in your calls and emails:
Grade Score Rank
2006 A 84% 3
2005 A 84% 2
2004 A 90% 2
2003 A 89% 2
2002 A 88% 1
2001 A 88% 1
2000 A 91% 1
1999 A 89% 1
1998 A 88% 2
1997 A 78% 8
Source: http://www.ntu.org/main/components/ratescongress/details_all_years.php3?house_id=637
None of the other candidates invited to speak at this forum have grades as good as Ron Paul's.
I just sent them my letter, but before doing so, I read this on their web site
"Iowans for Tax Relief lobbies for reduced state government spending and lower taxes for all Iowans. Lower state taxes bring better jobs and population growth. More people mean a broader tax base and enough money for government to provide services."
I find the first and the third sentences to be somewhat contradictory. It seems they are for big government. They just want more people to move to Iowa so they don't have to pay for it all by themselves.
This might explain their bias against Dr. Paul.
Hi John:
Thanks for stopping by. How did you find this post so fast? I love the internet!
Anyway, the text of the email I sent Mr. Scheffler and Mr. Failor is below:
Hi Mr. Scheffler and Mr. Failor:
I was educated in Iowa (high school and college - U.N.I., 1994) but have been living out of the state for several years. I am going to be in Iowa at my wife's family's house outside Des Moines next week and was hoping to come to the Presidential Candidates Forum your organizations are sponsoring.
However, I just saw a report on Ron Paul's website that he is not invited to your event. Is that correct? If so, why is he not invited? And could you please let me know which candidates are invited (I couldn't tell for sure from your websites). Please let me know as soon as you can; it would be very helpful to me in planning my schedule.
And best of luck with your event.
I hope it is well attended and enormously successful.
Yours,
Garrett
I agree that Dr. Paul being left out is very poor. I heard Ed Failor (i think, it could have been Scheffler) being grilled about it on the radio this morning, only to give a very lame answer (something about "viability", which didn't distinguish Paul from 6-7 other candidates).
I too hope Dr. Paul is included in these debates.
Garrett, if you do indeed go to this forum, save me a seat. If you don't, can we at least meet for a couple of cocktails (my treat)?
I disappear for (another) six months, and you've gone all ron paul! enjoying your posts.
hope you're well.
Chris:
I just listened to that interview on WHO with Ed Failor. It was interesting, but I must confess I was disappointed in how it went. I thought none of the participants behaved nobly by any means. There was also behaviour that was less than professional.
The host of the show acquitted himself the best of the lot in terms of coming off like a decent, grounded human being and he was being borderline glib.
Frankly, the whole experience of listening to the exchange left a bad taste in my mouth.
What did you think of it?
ICA President Steve Sheffler's response. I maintain that it's their perogative to invite whomever they chose, but it's silly not to invite Paul.
--------
RON PAUL HAS BEEN EXCLUDED FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL FORUM
Some of you faithful supporters of Iowa Christian Alliance might be aware of the fact that Ron Paul followers are angry that Iowans for Tax Relief (ITR) and Iowa Christian Alliance (ICA) have not invited Ron Paul to be part of the June 30th Presidential Forum. Several of you have asked us why he was excluded and an explanation should be given to our supporters.
The invitation to participate in the forum was extended to about 17 candidates for the President of the United States -- both Democrats and Republicans. No Democrat accepted the invitation, and six Republicans did. We did not exclude people based on my personal political views or those of our supporters. We had two tests that had to be met before such candidates could be invited:
(A) Candidates that were considered viable.
(B) Candidates that had shown some visible signs that they were putting together a serious effort to participate in the January 2008 Iowa Caucuses.
Ron Paul did not fall into either of these categories when those invitations were sent out in April, 2007.
No objection had been made to the exclusion of Ron Paul until ten days ago. The Ron Paul people had made no contact with ITR or ICA at any time before that, notwithstanding the fact that we tried to contact them (see below).
Now, as we look back over the past several days, are are affirmed in our decision, by the actions of many of the followers of Ron Paul. The followers have been putting on a childish temper tantrum. We cannot give candy to children who act that way. Here are some of the things that the followers of Ron Paul have been doing to me personally and to our organization over the last several days.
(1) I was on vacation in Colorado a week ago, and so many Ron Paul followers called me on my cell phone while I was on vacation that I had to turn off my cell phone
(2) In the last 10 days, such followers have sent more than 40,000 e-mails to ICA, some of them polite and many of them angry, threatening and obscene.
(3) Thousands of telephone calls have come to our office and on my cell phone.
(4) Of the approximately 500 e-mails that I have opened, many have been harassing in nature, and many have used sexual and obscene words.
(5) Many of the messages sent to us have been threatening in nature.
(6) Many officers and staff of ICA and the officers of ITR have also received the same kind of telephone calls, e-mails and cell phone messages.
(7) Our new offices have been plastered with Ron Paul signs done in a harassing way.
Although we did not invite Ron Paul to be part of our Presidential Forum, we have tried to contact him in others ways and have never had any answer to any or our inquiries of him and his campaign:
(a) An invitation was extended to Ron Paul to be present or send a representative to our large Orange City house Party on May 24th and to have a literature table there. He was the only Republican candidate who refused to participate in this event.
(b) A 2007 Iowa Christian Alliance Issues Survey for Presidential Candidates was sent to Ron Paul, along with all of the other candidates. We are still waiting for his survey to be returned.
Sincerely,
Steve Scheffler, President, Iowa Christian Alliance
I must have been watching a different Republican debate than you. I thought Ron Paul looked and sounded like an idiot. No wonder he was not invited to the Iowa Presidential forum.
On another note, is it true Lew Rockwell believes the U S Gov't is the enemy of the American people and their values? If so, I would like to invite him to move to the Gaza Strip to get a true perspective of the Hamas gov't who truly is an enemy of their people.
The Boss
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