Monday, July 30, 2012

Louisiana GOP certifies convention delegation, sans Ron Paul supporters

On the eve of Saturday’s deadline, the Louisiana Republican Party Friday afternoon certified with the Republican National Committee its slate of delegates to the party’s national convention in Tampa, filling slots that backers of Ron Paul won in the caucuses with supporters of Mitt Romney. Ron Paul’s Louisiana campaign filed their own delegate slate with the RNC after the party’s state convention in Shreveport devolved into two separate conventions, with the Paul forces electing a delegation with a Paul majority, and the state party choosing a slate that left vacant 13 spaces for Paul delegates chosen in the caucus if an agreement could be worked out with supporters of the Texas congressman.

It is up to the Republican National Committee - and if its decision is appealed to the convention’s credentials committee - to decide which slate to seat, and there seems little doubt that they would side with the state party. Neither the RNC nor the Romney campaign has much interest in seating a delegation controlled by Paul forces.

“We have a very conservative and enthusiastic delegation,” said Chairman Roger Villere, Jr. “The Louisiana delegation is composed of Republican leaders, supporters and activists who are committed to uniting the party and defeating Barack Obama in November.”

The 46-member delegation will have one Ron Paul supporter in Lucas Wallace, a member of the state party’s central committee, who agreed to play by the rules established by the state party in advance of the convention, rules the leadership of Paul’s campaign in the state felt were illegitimate and intended to thwart them.

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Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law

In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.

Other places around the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

Health experts, including many who support the law, say there is little that the government or the medical profession will be able to do to close the gap by 2014, when the law begins extending coverage to about 30 million Americans. It typically takes a decade to train a doctor.

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Ron Paul delegate slate challenged, showing bitterness lingers from chaotic state convention

A pro-Ron Paul slate of delegates from Maine to the Republican National Convention is being challenged, reflecting lingering bitterness over a chaotic state convention that saw Paul supporters take over the delegate-selection process.

Peter Cianchette and Janet Martens Staples, a Maine representative on the Republican National Committee, filed the challenge to 14 pro-Paul delegates and alternates on Saturday, the last day challenges could be lodged. The challenge contends that the delegates were elected at the state convention in May when there was no quorum, that lax credentialing and security on the convention floor meant illegal votes were cast and that party and parliamentary rules were broken.

“I have a special obligation to understand, respect and follow those rules, and it is my sincere belief that we did not — in an egregious manner,” said Staples, who serves on the RNC’s rules committee. “This is about the integrity of the process.”

But to Matt McDonald, one of the challenged delegates, the action is “utter foolishness,” an “act of betrayal” and a weapon for Democrats to use to bludgeon Republicans with independent voters.

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Austerity At The Olympics: Each “Gold” Medal Contains 1.34% Gold

As every Olympic athlete knows, size matters. The London 2012 medals are the largest ever in terms of both weight and diameter - almost double the medals from Beijing. However, just as equally well-known is that quality beats quantity and that is where the current global austerity, coin-clipping, devaluation-fest begins. The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and… 1.34 percent gold, with IOC rules specifying that it must contain 550 grams of high-quality silver and a whopping 6 grams of gold. The resulting medallion is worth about $500. For the silver medal, the gold is replaced with more copper, for a $260 bill of materials. The bronze medal is 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. Valued at about $3, you might be able to trade one for a bag of chips in Olympic park if you skip the fish.

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Ron Paul delegates fight GOP on ouster

Sixteen Republicans elected to represent Massachusetts at the national convention in Tampa next month have filed a formal challenge with the Republican National Committee, saying they were unfairly disqualified based on state GOP leaders’ concerns about their fealty to presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

The group of delegates — originally supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul — were elected in April caucuses at which they unexpectedly defeated many of Romney’s chosen delegates, but they have been since disqualified by state party officials.

“In short, the Massachusetts Republican Party changed the rules,” the delegates wrote in a letter to the national committee.

The filing sets off a formal but uphill process for the would-be delegates, who hope to convince national party officials that they are being unfairly excluded from the Republican National Convention, to be held Aug. 27-30 in Tampa. An RNC committee is expected to consider the challenge by mid-August, but the party is not expected to make a decision until the week before the convention.

Any appeal to that decision could be considered by the convention’s credentials committee when the event begins.

Friday and a committee spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Republican Party referred calls to the RNC.

“This matter is currently before the RNC and we await their decision,” spokesman Tim Buckley said.

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