Monday, March 31, 2008

Voting Precinct Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer Duties

Voting Precinct Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer Duties
(Subject to County Leadership)

1. The Precinct Chair shall:
  • Direct Party affairs within their respective Precincts.
  • Organize and preside over their Precinct Caucus.
  • Assist the campaigns of Republican nominees’ (candidates unopposed by other Republican candidates) campaigns. Distribute election related materials within the precinct on behalf of the Republican Party and its nominees at the request of the County Chairman.
  • Assist the County Chairman in the recruitment of poll-watchers, election judges and volunteers for other county events.
  • Organize and direct Get-out-the-vote (GOTV) programs.
  • Attend County Central Committee meetings.
  • Direct County fundraising programs in the Precinct and, together with the Precinct Treasurer, be responsible for all funds collected from precinct members.
  • Serve the Party generally, when needed, with events and general operations, at the request of the County Chairman.
  • Participate in the governance of the County Party by faithfully attending meetings of which each Precinct Chair is a member. When unable to attend an official meeting, it is expected that the precinct chairman will notify the county chairman or secretary in advance.
  • Serve a 2 year term (from the date elected to the adjournment of the precinct caucus in which a new chair is elected).
2. The Precinct Vice-Chair shall preside and direct the Voter Precinct caucus, and other precinct meetings, in the absence of their chair, and shall attend Central Committee meetings.

3. The Precinct Secretaries shall provide notice of precinct meetings to members, prepare agendas, record minutes of meetings at which the Chair presides, and shall maintain historical documents.

4. The Precinct Treasurer shall receive, account for, and turn in collected monies to the appropriate organization as directed and shall submit a financial report at each meeting of the precinct.

5. The powers and responsibilities of the other Legislative and Senate District chairs and Precinct Officers are as delegated by their county leadership and respective chairs.

This text should assist the members of the precinct in holding the Precinct Officers responsible for the discharge of their duty. Please feel free to contact these officers and make sure we’re doing our duties.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

My Conversation with Chris Cannon

Today, Alvin and I were able to spend two-and-a-half hours with Chris Cannon and a few other Precinct Chairs. He welcomed us into his home and it was great to listen to what he had to say, and to hear others stand up and talk about how impressed they've been with Chris and his time served in the Congress.

I have been a staunch supporter of Chris for many years. To learn of my experiences with Chris over the eleven years he has served as my congressman, read what I wrote on my personal blog: "Become a Partner With Chris Cannon."

Today I learned that one of his opponents has chosen to hammer him for not being present for various votes which needed to be cast by him. Chris is a hard-working congressman who fights for his constituents, the Constitution and this nation every minute, of every day, of every week, of every month and year. Today, one of his staff outlined for us what was going on in Chris' life when he missed those votes.

The first time his wife, Claudia, was having a baby. (She chimed in that she was old when this occurred and she needed Chris by her side.) Really, his opponent has a problem with Chris being by his wife's side when she gave birth to one of their children? That's not a man I'd want to vote for.

The second time was when his daughter, Rachel, was sick, so was the third time as she was reacting violently due to the medications she was being given. The fourth time he missed the vote was when his sweet daughter died. What kind of man would attack our congressman over these missed votes?

There was indeed one time when Chris missed a vote because he was working hard on some legislation and heard the buzzer too late to get the floor and cast his vote. He did say he felt pretty bad about that one.

Chris does not rush to the floor to vote on bills renaming post offices or roads, or other nonsensical matters which I am floored to find Congress dabbling in . . . but there you have it. Our Congressman was busy dealing with the bills he was writing, co-sponsoring or submitting in order to protect our rights and our lands here in Utah.

Again I ask . . . what opponent would challenge him on this?

So I brought up my concerns. I asked what was being done about our dependence on foreign oil. I knew this was a hot issue for him. He asked me if I knew how much was being sent out of the country? I nodded and replied, "$450 billion . . ." I was wrong. It is now $550 billion! Chris has been pushing hard to end of our reliance on foreign oil. He told us about reports stating we have five times the amount of shale oil in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah as they do in the Middle East. He explained the technology was in place, a company had purchased the rights to the technology and is prepared to begin drilling in the fall. They only have 47 government agencies which have to sign off on it. He feels pretty optimistic that it will come to pass. Until it does, he'll keep fighting for it.

In the meantime, the Democrats are fighting the Republicans tooth and nail. They want us to continue being reliant on foreign energy sources. The only answer to the myriad of problems we face in America is the taking back of the Senate and the House. Some say it can't be done. I say it will be deadly if it is not.

By the way . . . shale oil produces diesel and will drastically drop the diesel costs here in Utah. I'm guessing we will all want to start looking at diesel engines eventually. Just keep your eye on the news.

We also talked about immigration and how he and the other committee members drove along our southern border checking the fence which has been built. He talked about erroneous numbers coming out of Homeland Security, there's a surprise, and shared with us what he'd actually experienced.

He favors a worker ID program for the following reasons:

1. We don't know who is illegal in the U.S. and who is not. Finding out will cost a fortune.
2. We don't have the manpower to round them up and it will cost a fortune to hire all the policemen and agents needed to accomplish this monumental task.
3. He believes a worker ID program will restrict them being able to use our Emergency Rooms for their free medical visits and end their reliance on our welfare programs.
4. And finally he said we need to increase the number of citizenship spots available

I don't know if Chris is right, but I sure haven't heard a better plan. Yes, we need to close the borders. Fight with us to take the majority of the Senate and the House back and get the job done. It won't get done with the Democrats. Yes, we need to rectify the illegal immigration problem, this definitely won't get done with the Democrats. In other words, work with us to bring Conservative Republicans, like Chris, back into power so that we can get America back on the right track.

We spoke about universal health care. He's not a fan of it. Neither am I.

We spoke about the War on Terror. He thinks our efforts can be logistically improved, but that pulling out now would be the worst mistake we could make. I agree.

We spoke of honor, integrity, the courage to stand for the issues as well as the values and needs of Utahns despite all obstacles. He has done this.

I have spoken with Chris often over the last few years, as I outlined in the article on my personal blog linked at the top of this article, and he has always answered me. Whether by email, letter or phone call, Chris has been my support, in the congressional sense, when I stood helpless against issues only my congressman could fix. And he fixed them. He has never let me down. Ever.

You can go to Chris' website and learn where he stands and what he's done on the issues facing America today. You can check his record in Congress and see for yourself what he has done for the State of Utah and the constituents of the 3rd Congressional District.

In other words, it behooves you to investigate the claims made by the other candidates and learn for yourself why I stand behind Chris Cannon in his bid for the 3rd Congressional seat. The websites links of each of the candidates are available to the left of this article.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Responsibilities of a State Delegate

Kim Meacham, the Precinct Chair over at Orem 27 added this information on their precinct blog. I thought it was a great idea, so here you go:

2008-2010 STATE DELEGATE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Congratulations on being elected a State Delegate! Your willingness to participate in the Party and the political process is greatly appreciated. This sheet will hopefully provide a few details of your new responsibilities and what is expected.

First, remember that each State Delegate must be a registered affiliated Republican. To be seated the Utah Republican Party must have on file your name, telephone number and mailing address. The name you use should be the exact name you used to register to vote.

The term of service for all delegates is two years. Should you move or change addresses during that time, please inform your County Chair.

For the near future, your biggest responsibility is to attend and participate in the 2008 Utah Republican Party State Convention. It will be held on Saturday, May 10 in the David 0 McKay Center on the UVSC Campus in Orem. The official Call to Convention with credentials and instructions will be mailed to you. At the convention, state delegates, by casting ballots, will choose the Party’s nominees for elected office. The offices you will be voting for include Governor, Attorney General, State Auditor, State Treasurer and the U.S. House of Representatives. Some of you will also be voting in multi-county State Legislative races. In addition, all state delegates will vote for National Delegates and Alternates, Presidential Electors, and a National Committeeman and Committeewoman (the filing deadline for Presidential Elector, National Delegate, and National Committee member is 5:00 p.m. Thursday, April 10 at State GOP Headquarters). It is your responsibility to educate yourself about all the candidates. You will also have the chance to debate and vote on any changes to the State Party Constitution, Bylaws, Platform, Rules of the Convention, and possibly Resolutions.

You should also plan on attending the 2009 State Organizing Convention next year where the State Party Officers will be selected by the State Delegates. You are also encouraged to stay as involved as you can in your County Party.

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call the State Party Office at 801-533-9777 or 1-800-230-UTAH or visit us at www.utgop.org . And again, thank you for your willingness to serve.

This text should assist the members of the precinct in holding the State Delegates responsible for the discharge of their duty.

As the delegates (of which I am one of three) are responsible “to educate [ourselves] about all the candidates” I am working to arrange meetings with the candidates in conjunction with other Republican precincts in LEG60, and will publish more on this as the meeting plans solidify.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Obama's Anger

by Ed Kaitz

This is a helpful article in helping Americans to gain some small understanding to the commotion surrounding Barack Obama, his former preacher/mentor and the angry rhetoric filling the airwaves and pulpits across the nation. Simply an FYI.

From www.AmericanThinker.com I found the following column written by Ed Kaitz and published on March 20, 2008:


"The anger is real. It is powerful, and to simply wish it away,
to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen
the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."

- Barack Obama

Back in the late 1980s I was on a plane flying out of New Orleans and sitting next to me was a rather interesting and, according to Barack Obama, unusual black man. Friendly, gregarious, and wise beyond his years, we immediately hit it off. I had been working on Vietnamese commercial fishing boats for a few years based in southern Louisiana. The boats were owned by the recent wave of Vietnamese refugees who flooded into the familiar tropical environment after the war. Floating in calm seas out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, I would hear tearful songs and tales from ex-paratroopers about losing brothers, sisters, parents, children, lovers, and beautiful Vietnam itself to the communists.

In Bayou country I lived on boats and in doublewide trailers, and like the rest of the Vietnamese refugees, I shopped at Wal-Mart and ate a lot of rice. When they arrived in Louisiana the refugees had no money (the money that they had was used to bribe their way out of Vietnam and into refugee camps in Thailand), few friends, and a mostly unfriendly and suspicious local population.

They did however have strong families, a strong work ethic, and the "Audacity of Hope." Within a generation, with little or no knowledge of English, the Vietnamese had achieved dominance in the fishing industry there and their children were already achieving the top SAT scores in the state.

While I had been fishing my new black friend had been working as a prison psychologist in Missouri, and he was pursuing a higher degree in psychology. He was interested in my story, and after about an hour getting to know each other I asked him point blank why these Vietnamese refugees, with no money, friends, or knowledge of the language could be, within a generation, so successful. I also asked him why it was so difficult to convince young black men to abandon the streets and take advantage of the same kinds of opportunities that the Vietnamese had recently embraced.

His answer, only a few words, not only floored me but became sort of a razor that has allowed me ever since to slice through all of the rhetoric regarding race relations that Democrats shovel our way during election season:

"We're owed and they aren't."

In short, he concluded, "they're hungry and we think we're owed. It's crushing us, and as long as we think we're owed we're going nowhere."

A good test case for this theory is Katrina. Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and assorted white apologists continue to express anger and outrage over the federal response to the Katrina disaster. But where were the Vietnamese "leaders" expressing their "anger?" The Vietnamese comprise a substantial part of the New Orleans population, and yet are absent was any report claiming that the Vietnamese were "owed" anything. This is not to say that the federal response was an adequate one, but we need to take this as a sign that maybe the problem has very little to do with racism and a lot to with a mindset.

The mindset that one is "owed" something in life has not only affected black mobility in business but black mobility in education as well. Remember Ward Churchill? About fifteen years ago he was my boss. After leaving the fishing boats, I attended graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I managed to get a job on campus teaching expository writing to minority students who had been accepted provisionally into the university on an affirmative action program. And although I never met him, Ward Churchill, in addition to teaching in the ethnic studies department, helped to develop and organize the minority writing program.

The job paid most of my bills, but what I witnessed there was absolutely horrifying. The students were encouraged to write essays attacking the white establishment from every conceivable angle and in addition to defend affirmative action and other government programs. Of the hundreds of papers that I read, there was not one original contribution to the problem of black mobility that strayed from the party line.

The irony of it all however is that the "white establishment" managed to get them into the college and pay their entire tuition. Instead of being encouraged to study international affairs, classical or modern languages, philosophy or art, most of these students became ethnic studies or sociology majors because it allowed them to remain in disciplines whose orientation justified their existence at the university. In short, it became a vicious cycle.

There was a student there I'll never forget. He was plucked out of the projects in Denver and given a free ride to the university. One day in my office he told me that his mother had said the following to him: "M.J., they owe you this. White people at that university owe you this." M.J.'s experience at the university was a glorious fulfillment of his mother's angst.

There were black student organizations and other clubs that "facilitated" the minority student's experience on the majority white and "racist" campus, in addition to a plethora of faculty members, both white and black, who encouraged the same animus toward the white establishment. While adding to their own bona fides as part of the trendy Left, these "facilitators" supplied M.J. with everything he needed to quench his and his mother's anger, but nothing in the way of advice about how to succeed in college. No one, in short, had told M.J. that he needed to study. But since he was "owed" everything, why put out any effort on his own?

In a fit of despair after failing most of his classes, M.J. wandered into my office one Friday afternoon in the middle of the semester and asked if I could help him out. I asked M.J. about his plans that evening, and he told me that he usually attended parties on Friday and Saturday nights. I told him that if he agreed to meet me in front of the university library at 6:00pm I would buy him dinner. At 6pm M.J. showed up, and for the next twenty minutes we wandered silently through the stacks, lounges, and study areas of the library. When we arrived back at the entrance I asked M.J. if he noticed anything interesting. As we headed up the hill to a popular burger joint, M.J. turned to me and said:

"They were all Asian. Everyone in there was Asian, and it was Friday night."

Nothing I could do, say, or show him, however, could match the fire power of his support system favoring anger. I was sad to hear of M.J. dropping out of school the following semester.

During my time teaching in the writing program, I watched Asians get transformed via leftist doublespeak from "minorities" to "model minorities" to "they're not minorities" in precise rhythm to their fortunes in business and education. Asians were "minorities" when they were struggling in this country, but they became "model minorities" when they achieved success. Keep in mind "model minority" did not mean what most of us think it means, i.e., something to emulate. "Model minority" meant that Asians had certain cultural advantages, such as a strong family tradition and a culture of scholarship that the black community lacked.

To suggest that intact families and a philosophy of self-reliance could be the ticket to success would have undermined the entire angst establishment. Because of this it was improper to use Asian success as a model. The contortions the left exercised in order to defend this ridiculous thesis helped to pave the way for the elimination of Asians altogether from the status of "minority."

This whole process took only a few years.

Eric Hoffer said:

"...you do not win the weak by sharing your wealth with them; it will but infect them with greed and resentment. You can win the weak only by sharing your pride, hope or hatred with them."

We now know that Barack Obama really has no interest in the "audacity of hope." With his race speech, Obama became a peddler of angst, resentment and despair. Too bad he doesn't direct that angst at the liberal establishment that has sold black people a bill of goods since the 1960s. What Obama seems angry about is America itself and what it stands for; the same America that has provided fabulous opportunities for what my black friend called "hungry" minorities. Strong families, self-reliance, and a spirit of entrepreneurship should be held up as ideals for all races to emulate.

In the end, we should be very suspicious about Obama's anger and the recent frothings of his close friend Reverend Wright. Says Eric Hoffer:

The fact seems to be that we are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Elected Officials for Orem 28 Precinct

We had a small gathering of people join us at the Caucus tonight. Many of our standard families were not there tonight and they were sorely missed. But we had a whole new young group of Republicans move into our precinct and they are real go-getters! We also had some of our faith Republicans who turn out to every caucus and election. They are the backbone of our precinct and it is always so nice to see them.

We're planning on being a much more active precinct this year. We're planning a precinct Barbecue in June -- date to be announced on this blog -- and we're very excited about it! I'll do my best to get some of our candidates to come and mingle, answer questions, etc.

Tonight we elected the new officers for our precinct. Here's who they are and their contact information:

Precinct Officers

Precinct Chair: Candace E. Salima
Vice Chair: Dan Sinema
Secretary/Treasurer: Amy Stone

State Delegates

Dan Glahn
Brett Nielsen

County Delegates

Candace E. Salima
Dan Sinema
Scott Martin
Ronald Gubler
Toni Beard
Jill Nielsen

These are the duly elected officers of Orem 28 Precinct for the 2008-2010 election season.

Republican Party Caucuses Tonight!

Today is the day!

Your neighborhood caucus is your best chance to effect change in the political process at the grass roots level.

Tonight, Republicans across the state of Utah will be gathering in their local caucuses to elect delegates, precinct chairs, precinct vice-chairs and support staff. These people then go on to the county and state Republican conventions where the vast political field is whittled down to a single candidate, for example, Chris Cannon.

If that candidate cannot garner 60% of the vote at convention, then it will go to a primary between the two highest contenders. This is where you as the voter step in and choose one candidate to represent our part in the November elections.

It is an exciting political process our nation is founded on. Through this process, power has passed from American to American without any coups, revolutions or uprisings. This is a privilege that Americans enjoy and should be excited to participate in.

We have been admonished to choose honest and wise men to lead us in government.
Proverbs 29:2 reads: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn."
This is where it starts. The caucuses begin at 7:00 p.m. tonight. Mountain View High School is the place. Walk in and ask where Orem 28 is and they'll direct you right to us. Hire the babysitter, grab your husband and all those who are of voting age in your household and join us!

This is where it all begins!

Tomorrow I will post the new Precinct Leadership.

We are looking for an active precinct this year . . . so tell every one you know who lives North of 400 South, East of I-15, South of Center Street and West of 750 West to join us tonight.