Thursday morning music goes out to Joe the Plumber:

Even a socialist is right twice a day?

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/…

Mr. Warner, 80, who hails from a Virginia farm, told a story about traveling to Bayonne, N.J., in 1945 to board a ship bound for Japan, only to be turned around when news came that the war ended. He spoke into a wall of more than 20 signs for Mr. Paul, held aloft by the Texas congressman’s dozens of vociferous supporters.

“New Jersey is the industrial heart of America, and you served us in that time of crisis like no other,” he said.

In a straw vote taken on two electronic voting machines after the forum Mr. Paul won handily, capturing 52 of 120 votes cast. Mr. McCain got 40 votes, Mitt Romney scored 27 and Mike Huckabee got a single vote, claimed by Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz, a librarian and Republican activist who gave a stump speech for Mr. Huckabee.

“I like Mike!” he bellowed when Mr. Huckabee’s single vote was announced.

The dress of the more than 150 people at the event ranged from a long-haired man in a tie-dye shirt and flip-flops wearing a Ron Paul sticker, to 10 men in suits and ties, five sporting McCain stickers and five sporting Romney stickers. An infant wore a bib that read, “Mac is Back!”

Many in attendance were impressed by Mr. Warner’s appearance. Gary Berner, 55, the municipal chair of Lyndhurst, said that the senator’s appearance “enlivened the party in the county.”

Mr. Berner, who supported Rudolph W. Giuliani until the former mayor dropped out of the race, said he was persuaded by Mr. Giuiliani’s endorsement of Mr. McCain.

bile, 27, a Fort Lee resident with a Ron Paul sticker affixed to his black T-shirt with a yellow skull that read, “Don’t Tread On Me,” said that he believes the McCain campaign sent Mr. Warner to New Jersey because, “he was probably free and able to do it and they don’t have anyone in the area well known enough.”

It was still Mr. Paul and his supporters who some viewed as the biggest pariahs, despite Mr. Warner’s praise of everyone in the room who took part in the straw poll, which he called a “grassroots effort that lays the foundation block for America’s political system.”

Clara Nibot, 62, who supports Mr. Romney, said she felt Mr. Paul’s supporters poisoned that grass.

“This is a sabotage of the straw poll,” she huffed after the forum, “Because of Ron Paul’s organized, grassroots effort.”

I did effectively say that… but what else are you going to say when someone asks: “Why do you think the McCain camp sent up a southern Senator?” I mean really… plenty of NJ pols have endorsed McCain I’m sure so why Warner? I doubt the fact he was shipped out of Bayonne had anything to do with it… that’s fairly obscure.

That last quote is great though. As I said… many of the people there weren’t happy that we were so organized. Sure Paul won’t win NJ… I know that… but it’s good to get out there and show them we mean business and we won’t be going away quietly. We may be polling 4th of 4 at 5%-8% but that’s enough to get things done. Especially at the local level.

• 10:00AM Sharon Harris from Advocates for Self-Government gave the opening speech this morning. She talked about how the liberty movement needs to start working toward honing our delivery of the freedom message. Libertarians, especially those who are active in the movement, tend to be more abstract thinkers. More logical progression of ideas whereas the majority of people are more emotional “think with the heart” types. We talk about abstract rights and wrongs and less practical examples but we need practical real world examples for those who aren’t generally like us.
• Chris Lawless informs us the hotel doesn’t want us to open carry.
• We ran into Glen Jacobs very briefly. He is better known as Kane from the WWE. He’s fairly well known as a libertarian and recently publicly supported Ron Paul for President. I believe he is also a member of the FSP. We unfortunately didn’t get an opportunity to get a photo with him but if he’s still around tomorrow or Sunday we surely will.
• 12PMish xyz and I checkin to the hotel and while walking out to the car we see the John McCain’s campaign bus. While walking in we discuss stopping Mr. McCain and telling him that after his argument with Romney over whether or not water boarding is torture we decided to try it out ourselves and agreed with him that it indeed torture. As we walk through the automatic doors into the lobby and are talking about this I nearly run into McCain as my head is turned talking to xyz behind me. I got out of the way in time however and diverted my knocking over of a 72y/o presidential candidate which would have been picked up on the camera which was following him.
• 1:00PM xyz and myself attend Gardner Goldsmith’s presentation on immigration. I listen to his radio show so little was new but it’s very enjoyable to interact with fellow Liberty Forum attendees in asking questions and whatnot. Robert Schulz of We the People Foundation also gave a very good lecture I heard. xyz and I did however get a chance to talk with him while waiting in line for dinner.
• 2:30PM I attended Don Gorman’s lecture on Becoming an Effective Activist but it effectively was a sales pitch for the FSP and how easy it is to participate in politics and protest in NH. xyz attended Peter Bagge’s presentation on his work for Reason Magazine and his art in general.
• 4:00PM Thomas Eddlem gave a lecture on how the current administration has been disobeying the Constitution. Particularly the 4th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. He however blew things out of proportion a bit in describing how it could be used against the average citizen. While it’s certainly an issue to say that it’s just as probable that I would be locked up and the key thrown away without trial is the same as some guy picked up who has the same name as a known terrorist and himself has a criminal record is ridiculous.
• Chatted with another Libertarian Party presidential candidate: Michael P. Jingozian. Reminded him that I believe he was invited to the Manhattan LP’s Annual Convention. He said he forgot to look into whether he could attend and took some contact info. We’ll see.
• Nearly had dinner with Gardner but it turned out the table we picked already was filled besides the two chairs we picked. However, those who had reserved those seats were people we had previously had discussions with during the cocktail hour. Including Ed Hudgins from The Atlas Society. Talked about hard money.
  
• The keynote speaker for the evening was Bernard von NotHaus of the Liberty Dollar. He came out dressed as the ghost of a Revolutionary solder, Capt. Roughseas, who was sent by the Founding fathers informing us to take care of this fiat money system that’s corrupted the US. Complete with sabre. It was a bit odd but generally entertaining. Nothing that probably more than half of them in attendance hadn’t heard before.

Dave Ridley’s Ridley Reports from the first night: