Ohio Electoral College reports

cartoon credit: Margulies [okay, so it's 4 years old!]

Gateway Pundit posted this report on the Electoral College vote on Monday in Columbus:

Ohio GOP Delegate Casts Vote for TRUMP – Then Torches All of His DNC Troll Letters in Yard Pit

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones received HUNDREDS of harassing letters from Hillary trolls begging him [to] reject Donald Trump.

Sheriff Jones ignored the letters, emails and phone calls and voted for Donald J. Trump for President on Monday in Columbus, Ohio.

Then he went home and dumped his pile of letters into a yard pit. Poured lighter fluid on the pile. … And torched them all.

Sheriff Jones posted the videos on Twitter . . . [scroll down on GP website here]

And in the comments section, we find some photos of the Sheriff and Cleveland Tea Party’s own Ralph King, who also served as a member of the Electoral College and cast his vote on Monday for Donald J. Trump:

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#BlackLivesMatter Protests Set for Friday

photo credit: insider.foxnews.com

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit reports:

WARNING: DAY OF RAGE #BlackLivesMatter Protests Set for Friday in 37 US Cities

The Left is Planning Day of Rage Protests for July 15th in Dozens of American Cities.  Anonymous released this message on Saturday. [Warning: graphic video]

. . .

No matter how great your empathy might be for those who have unjustly lost their lives, these protests are not safe places to be.

. . .

Cleveland is on the list of cities where Day of Rage Protests will take place on July 15: 7:00pm at Cleveland Public Library / 325 Superior Ave E, downtown.

Plan to be elsewhere.

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After Dallas: More security needed during RNC week

photo credit: pinterest.com

The Dallas shootings were horrific. How many citizens are aware that the murders of 5 cops were in part fueled by a false narrative of the Minnesota shooting that was promoted in the media. The misreporting of those circumstances  amounts to yet another instance of media malpractice.  The media has blood on its hands. 

And now there is more bad news from St. Paul (Black Lives Matter violence) and San Antonio (police under attack). What are the prospects for a violence-free RNC week in Cleveland? Not looking good.

On June 30, the convention committee published a news release that lists the various law enforcement and public safety agencies working on the RNC week. The good news: I am relieved to see that among the participating partners is The Ohio National Guard. I did not see any out-of-state National Guard units on the list, so that remains a question. Nor did I see that Mayor Jackson requested that Gov. Kasich actually activate the Ohio National Guard so they can be in place if/when needed. No good if it takes over 24 hours after the rioting begins to transport and put them where they were needed.

Thus far, I can find no report that the Ohio National Guard has been activated in advance. There is ample precedence for activating National Guard troops in advance for emergency preparations (e.g., here and here). It's my question for Tuesday's meeting at the Convention Center with, among others, CPD.

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Democrat Party budgets $800,000 to Disrupt RNC

photo from the San Jose Trump rally egg-throwing via YouTube

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit reports on the rent-a-mobs and paid activists’ plans to disrupt the upcoming Republican National Committee at Cleveland’s Quicken Arena, and they will be getting an early start. The protesters will start setting up operations next week on July 11. Hoft’s report reproduces a budget (click here) prepared by the Democrat Party that was hacked by Guccifer, and line items include a “wrapped bus for Bus Tour and Mobile Visibility” and billboards; they are obviously going for maximum media coverage in addition to attempts to interfere with the actual convention proceedings, meetings, etc. Hoft links to The Smoking Gun report with specific plans:

A copy of the plan was obtained by the hacker “Guccifer 2.0,” who breached party servers and made off with DNC financial records, e-mails, research reports, and other documents. In e-mails to TSG, “Guccifer 2.0” has claimed to be a Romanian “hacktivist,” though security researchers who have examined the DNC breach have said that the infiltration appears to be the work of a Russian espionage unit.

The DNC plan notes that the party’s efforts in Cleveland will cost in excess of $800,000. In addition to 16 staffers on the ground, the party will have numerous surrogates available for media interviews and an RV to “serve as a mobile billboard” and green room. The plan was honed when the GOP field narrowed to Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich. Subsequent updates focused primarily on “gimmicks” to ridicule Trump.

. . .

DNC officials also plan to “infiltrate friendly union hotels and properties around the convention that Republicans will be patronizing to distribute ‘care’ packages” to those who will be sickened by Trump’s nomination.

. . .

The production of an eight-page “Trump Tabloid” designed to look like the New York Post. The paper--“ideal for dumping oppo” research on the developer--would include a Trump-penned advice column entitled “How to Talk to Women.”

. . .

Producing milk cartons with the photos of the many GOP leaders who are skipping the convention.

Just harmless pranks and publicity stunts?  Cleveland Police Department and Secret Service personnel in Cleveland have been training to contain riots, prevent vandalism, assault, and other fine behavior we’ve seen at Trump rallies -- all committed by anti-Trumpers and paid protesters. I doubt that the DNC is budgeting at least $800,000 just to pull some Halloween pranks.

For another report on what can go wrong, see the report on Radical Democrats Target RNC Convention With Planned Riots, Cleveland Unprepared posted by NavyJack at Ammoland here.

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Dennis Miller's advice to Tea Party conservatives

photo credit: quotationof.com

Most of us have been aghast at the rent-a-mob violence in e.g., San Diego and San Jose. The violence, whether organized by BLM, La Raza, or other Move.on mobs, is probably a preview of the RNC week in Cleveland in July. Dennis Miller’s FB message is making the rounds (h/t Gateway Pundit); if you will be taking part in any of the RNC proceedings in July, best save this for future reference:

Dennis Miller: If you’re going to a Trump event, attend in groups of five or six and make sure there’s a designated Go-Pro Camera Operator. When the peaceful NeverTrump faction starts threatening, spitting, throwing objects, tackling and punching you, someone must record it or journalists like David Brooks and politicians like the San Jose Mayor are going to insinuate your presence incited the violence. Hopefully, like cops wearing cameras, the visual evidence will clear you of the charge of causing the ass-beating you just received from the pacifists. Remember this the next time you go to a conservative event. Democratic leaders and #NeverTrumpers declared war on innocent conservative Americans. Be prepared and on alert.

And here’s Fauxcahontas herself endorsing the radical violence (via Conservative Treehouse). (Warning: after about three minutes of it, I had to turn it off.)

UPDATE: The video may be agitprop. Go to Treehouse to look at all the video contestants for Elizabeth Warren's Tweets.

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Paid protests coming to Cleveland?

Conservative Treehouse posted this Astroturf flyer that recruited protesters to disrupt the Albequerque Trump rally yesterday. Gateway Pundit has a report of the violence with photos here and video here. Ugly.

A scary preview of the RNC in Cleveland in late July...

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Ted Cruz Supporters Attempt Coup At Eagle Forum

conservativefifty.com

It just keeps coming. This report is via Gateway Pundit:

Cruz Supporters Stage Coup – 

Try to Dump Phyllis Schlafly After Trump Endorsement

Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972 when she led the fight to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment.

Phyllis Schlafly is 91 years-old.

On March 11, 2016 conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump for President at his St. Louis rally.

But not everyone in her organization, Eagle Forum – or her family – agreed with Phyllis Schlafly’s decision.

Last week Phyllis Schlafly released several board members for disloyalty to the organization.
The group was planning to hold rogue board meeting to take over the Eagle Forum.

Today the rogue Cruz supporters attempted a coup.

They held a non-sanctioned meeting and blocked Phyllis Schlafly from their conference call.

This email was sent out Monday afternoon.

St. Louis, Missouri:

“At 2pm today, 6 directors of Eagle Forum met in an improper, unprecedented telephone meeting. I objected to the meeting and at 2:11pm, I was muted from the call. The meeting was invalid under the Bylaws but the attendees purported to pass several motions to wrest control of the organization from me. They are attempting to seize access to our bank accounts, to terminate employees, and to install members of their own Gang of 6 to control the bank accounts and all of Eagle Forum.

“The members of their group are: Eunie Smith of Alabama, Anne Cori of Missouri, Cathie Adams of Texas, Rosina Kovar of Colorado, Shirley Curry of Tennessee, and Carolyn McLarty of Oklahoma.

“This kind of conduct will not stand and I will fight for Eagle Forum and I ask all men and women of good will to join me in this fight.”

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Diana West calls out Brent Bozell on his double standards

art credit: mediacriminaljustice.blogspot.com

I used to like Brent Bozell. I always looked forward to his guest spot on Thursdays with Sean Hannity. He’s spoken at Tea Party events. I thought he was a good guy.

Diana West just published an open letter to him on his support of networks banning Roger Stone (h/t Breitbart Big Journalism; see Ralph's earlier CTPP blog on Stone here).  And in light of the just-in reports of Cruz’s very dirty tricks in the Colorado GOP delegate selection process (see here and here), I thought I would share her article in full (WARNING: X-rated Bad language alert):  

The PCE, Pt. 16: Brent Bozell and the Stone Standard

Written by: Diana West 

Friday, April 08, 2016 6:11 AM  

To: Brent Bozell

I read the statement you made as president of the Media Research Center, applauding CNN and MSNBC for banning Trump supporter Roger Stone from their presidential election coverage.

CNN, Politico reports, banned Stone in February over his tweets about Jeb Bush supporter and CNN analyst Ana Navarro (Stone called her “Entitled Diva Bitch,” “Borderline retarded,” and “dumber than dog s---” [stet]). The MSNBC ban follows Stone's recent radio discussion of his planned Stop the Steal movement at the upcoming GOP convention in Cleveland, in which, as Breitbart reports, he said there would be protests, demonstrations and that

we will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal. If you’re from Pennsylvania, we’ll tell you who the culprits are.

We urge you to visit their hotel and find them. You have a right to discuss this, if you voted in the Pennsylvania primary, for example, and your votes are being disallowed.

You then wrote that such threats

and his [Stone's] long history of incendiary and offensive rhetoric add no value to the national discourse. ... Stone is a thug who relishes personal insults, character assassination, and offensive gestapo-like tactics that should be unequivocally dismissed by civil society, most especially those who might give him a platform from which to spew his hatred.

The news media have for far too long ignored Stone’s inflammatory words. I hope all media outlets that lament the debasement of political dialogue and the gutter politics for which Stone is infamous follow the lead of CNN and MSNBC. The media should shun him. He is the David Duke of politics. Those with whom he is affiliated should denounce him in no uncertain terms.

Having seized these non-partisan heights of rhetorical-cleansing -- which has nothing to do with your visceral opposition to Donald Trump (whom Stone supports) -- I will assume this is only your first step.

That is, Stone Standard in hand, you must be now turning your cleansing energies toward the rest of the Right, where public rhetoric of crudity and intimidation very often exceeds that of former CNN and MSNBC commentator Roger Stone, Hated One.

No? Not yet? You're not aware? Allow me to be of help. I have been creating what I call the Right's Anti-Trump Lexicon by logging the vile, the vicious, the violent, the demonizing, the patronizing, the vexed, the childish, the angry, the dehumanizing language used by GOP and conservative commentators and professionals to revile Trump and millions of Trump voters.

As an example, I can offer you two excellent candidates for your consideration, according to your own Stone Standard.  

The first is Rick Wilson, top GOP strategist, Rubio supporter and, reportedly, speech-writer of Mitt "Family Values" Romney's CPAC denunciation of Donald Trump.

Exhibit A.

With this one vicious, deviant tweet, well-known GOP professional Wilson has hit virtually every lowest marker of the Stone Standard -- "incendiary and offensive rhetoric," "personal insults," "character assassination," etc. -- instantly resulting in "the debasement of politicial dialogue." Indeed, the public square is forever rancid.

There's more.

Wilson uses irresponsibly violent language to discuss the Trump candidacy, actually invoking the assassination of Donald Trump and the summary execution of his supporters. 

For example: The donor class "are still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump. And that’s a fact,” Wilson said on MSNBC.

A "bullet"? I'm sure you find this not only "incendiary and offensive," but also dangerously "inflammatory."

Wilson, among others, has further corrupted our democratic discourse with bizarre revenge scenarios. Trump supporters, Wilson has tweeted, are no better than "collaborators" "Vichy Republicans," who may face "epuration sauvage" (summary executions) "up against a wall."   

Where Roger Stone denigrated the intelligence of his CNN colleagues, Rick Wilson does the exact same thing to Trump supporters, dismissing them all as "low-information voters." Further: "Most of them [Trump supporters]," Wilson stated on MSNBC, "are childless single men who masturbate to anime."

Is there not something wrong with political "analysis" that makes a viewer want to take a bath?

A second candidate for your consideration is National Review's Kevin Williamson, a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. Like Wilson, Williamson is another one who has exceeded the Stone Standard, and with similar sicko touches. "The gross thing is, you can kind of imagine a Trump sex tape," he wrote in National Review.

Since you took exception to Roger Stone tweeting that his CNN colleague was a "bitch," I am sure you will be similarly outraged by Williamson tweeting that Donald Trump was a "bitch." And not just any kind of a "bitch."

 

Such talk -- and there is much more -- from the director of the "William F. Buckley fellowship in political journalism" debases more than political dialogue, no? 

In an essay originally titled "Father-Fuhrer" (Trump -- get it??), Williamson expresses more group-rancor, more group-hatred than I've seen from any other "thought leader" -- outside Black Lives Matter or the Cultural Revolution, that is -- asserting that white working class communities, where support for Trump is strong,  "deserve to die."

"Deserve to die"? Once again, we see the Stone Standard exceeded. Stone, after all, called for Trump voters to "discuss" the possible steal of their votes with delegates who may do the stealing -- fraught and ill-advised enough, to be sure. He has not, however, asserted that anyone -- including delegates breaking trust with primary voters -- "deserve to die."

If this is not beyond the pale, what is?

Williamson, too, castigates Trump supporters, calling these Americans he disagrees with, "bad citizens with defective judgement." Further, he has written in the pages of National Review that they are "engaged in the political version of masturbation: sterile, fruitless self-indulgence." 

What it is with these two men and masturbation is not, Glory Be, our concern; rather, it is their hellish level of discourse. I am wondering whether you will be issuing another righteous statement, as you did regarding Roger Stone, calling for "the media to shun" this noxious pair (and others, as you will see) and "denounce [them] in no uncertain terms"?

Somehow, I doubt it. 

It is similarly sickening to see the primary process corrupted, whether by intimidation, interference, or payoffs, and those we thought were conservative-value commentators have little, if anything to say about that corruption. 

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GOP elites to Republican voters: Drop Dead

cartoon credit: niftyatheist.com

CNBC reports (h/t Gateway Pundit):

Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories.

“The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That’s the conflict here,” Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota [and a Republican convention rules member], told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held.

Haugland is one of 112 Republican delegates who are not required to cast their support for any one candidate because their states and territories don’t hold primaries or caucuses.

Even with Trump’s huge projected delegate haul in four state primaries Tuesday, the odds are increasing the billionaire businessman may not ultimately get the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination before the convention.

This could lead to a brokered convention, in which unbound delegates, like Haugland, could play a significant swing role on the first ballot to choose a nominee.

Most delegates bound by their state’s primary or caucus results are only committed on the first ballot. If subsequent ballots are needed, virtually all of the delegates can vote any way they want, said Gary Emineth, another unbound delegate from North Dakota.

“It could introduce Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, or it could be the other candidates that have already been in the race and are now out of the race [such as] Mike Huckabee [or] Rick Santorum. All those people could eventually become candidates on the floor,” Emineth said.

And at Politico we see that (h/t HotGas)

Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot.

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference here. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

Wading into the GOP nominating battle for the first time since leaving office last fall, Boehner said that "anybody can be nominated" at the convention in Cleveland this summer.

The GOP establishment / elite (GOPe) couldn’t breathe life into the Jeb! campaign. Then they tried to push Marco Rubio as the Jeb! surrogate and that maneuver failed. Gov. Kasich’s job in the race was to deprive any momentum candidate of the 66 Ohio winner-take-all delegates. Kasich succeeded, but otherwise it is now a two-candidate race. Neither Cruz nor Trump is acceptable to the GOPe. So we are seeing the GOPe preparing to force a brokered convention. And it's now out in the open.

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Unresolved: eligibility to run for President

cartoon credit: Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Unresolved: natural born citizenship and eligibility to run for President

The 9th GOP debate was not much fun to watch, nor did we learn anything about the eligibility of two candidates with Hispanic pedigrees (no, not Jeb!, who defined himself as “Hispanic” on his voter registration form), those two being Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Last month, CNN declared that

Cruz was conferred American citizenship at birth because his mother is an American citizen, and legal experts have largely agreed that would qualify him for natural-born citizenship. The Texas Republican was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and also had Canadian citizenship until he renounced it in 2014.

Is that correct? If so, what’s all the fuss about?

Gateway Pundit posted a more detailed and sourced analysis of the controversy over Ted Cruz’s eligibility as a natural born citizen of the U.S.:

Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. a retired colonel with 29 years of experience in the US Army Reserve, argues that Senator Ted Cruz entered the United States illegally as a child in 1974. His parents failed to file a CRBA form which is required by US law. Ted’s parents did not fill out the required form until 1986.

It would be nice if the Cruz camp cleared this up for Republican voters.

Via Family Security Matters:

Exactly how and when did Ted Cruz obtain U.S. citizenship?

The fact that it is still an open question at this stage of the Presidential campaign is a testament either to the galactic ignorance of our political-media elite or their willingness to place political expediency ahead of the Constitution and the law.

There is no third alternative.

Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on December 22, 1970 and remained a Canadian citizen until he officially renounced it on May 14, 2014, eighteen months after taking the oath of office as a U.S. Senator. At the time of his birth, Cruz’s father was a citizen of Canada and his mother was a U.S. citizen.

Legally, Cruz could have obtained US citizenship through his mother consistent with Public Law 414, June 27, 1952, An Act: To revise the laws relating to immigration, naturalization, and nationality and for other purposes [H.R. 5678], Title III Nationality and Naturalization, Chapter 1 – Nationality at Birth and by Collective naturalization; Nationals and citizens of the United States at birth; the relevant section being 301 (a) (7):

“a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at least five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States by such citizen parent may be included in computing the physical presence requirements of this paragraph.”

In that case, Cruz’s mother should have filed a Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America (CRBA) with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate after the birth to document that the child was a U.S. citizen.

According to Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier, Cruz’s mother did register his birth with the U.S. consulate and Cruz received a U.S. passport in 1986 ahead of a high school trip to England.

There are two apparent contradictions regarding how and when Ted Cruz obtained US citizenship.

First, according to the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1946, also referred to as the “Act of 1947,”Canada did not allow dual citizenship in 1970. The parents would have had to choose at that time between U.S. and Canadian citizenship. Ted Cruz did not renounce his Canadian citizenship until 2014. Was that the choice originally made?

Second, no CRBA has been released that would verify that Ted Cruz was registered as a U.S. citizen at birth.

It has been reported that the then nearly four-year-old Ted Cruz flew to the U.S. from Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1974.

Ted Cruz could not have entered the U.S. legally without a CRBA or a U.S. passport, the latter of which was not obtained until 1986.

If Ted Cruz was registered as a U.S. citizen at birth, as his spokeswoman claims, then the CRBA must be released. Otherwise, one could conclude that Cruz came to the U.S. as a Canadian citizen, perhaps on a tourist visa or, possibly, remained in the U.S. as an illegal immigrant.

It is the responsibility of the candidate for the Presidency, not ordinary citizens, to prove that he or she is eligible for the highest office in the land. Voters deserve clarification.

What about Marco Rubio? AOL summarizes: 

The issue at hand -- as Ted Cruz has learned well -- is over whether Rubio can be considered a "natural born citizen."

Rubio's lawyers are in court this week fighting claims he's not eligible because his parents weren't U.S. citizens until four years after his birth. The lawsuit claims that means he is ineligible to run under Article 2 of the Constitution.

Rubio's citizenship has been contested before, when the question popped up in the 2012 election after rumors swirled that Republican candidate Mitt Romney might tap Rubio as a potential running mate.

The argument over what a "natural born citizen" actually means has been going on for years, and the only group who could actually define it, the Supreme Court, has never done so.

The issue has been going on for years. President Obama’s eligibility was never decided in the court. Will Mr. Trump or some of his supporters force the question into court?

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Gateway Pundit previews Occupy the Truth

In the Spirit of Andrew Breitbart Conservatives Will Confront Corrupt Media at “Occupy the Truth” March and Rally

Gateway Pundit previews the Saturday, Aug. 18 Occupy the Truth rally and march here. Highlights on WHY WE ARE MARCHING:

On May 1st, 2012, the FBI announced that members of Occupy Cleveland were arrested for attempting several acts of terrorism, including the detonation of what they thought was an explosive device in an effort to destroy a local bridge, as well as an attack on the Federal Reserve Bank. The FBI arrested 5 #Occupy Cleveland protesters for plotting to blow up the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Bridge The alleged terrorists repeatedly tried to blow up the bridge using C4 and cellphones.

Photos provided by the FBI show five men arrested Monday, April 30, 2012, and accused of plotting to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, Ohio, the FBI announced Tuesday, May 1, 2012. . . . There was no danger to the public because the explosives were inoperable and were controlled by an undercover FBI employee, the agency said Tuesday in announcing the men’s arrests. The target of the plot was a bridge that carries a four-lane state highway over part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in the Brecksville area, about 15 miles south of downtown Cleveland, the FBI said. (AP /FBI)

And yet later when the Democrat-media complex reported on this planned act of domestic terrorism, they whitewashed both the severity of the charges and the open links to Occupy, a movement endorsed by many in the Democrat party. This planned act of violence was parsed by the media for the sake of politics. in fact the main story that came from the AP went out of its way to hide the truth about the motivations and blatant connections of these alleged terrorists. This false narrative was spread to a myriad of publications.

Enough is Enough.

Americans should be able to trust that when their lives are at stake, safety trumps politics. This is yet another example of the media’s shocking politicization and malpractice. This is too important to be pushed aside. We’re not going to let them get away with it any more.

Join us.

On Saturday August 18th conservatives from across the Midwest will converge on Cleveland, Ohio and demand that the media report the truth on the #Occupy terrorists.

Join Michelle Malkin, Big Journalism’s Dana Loesch, Sonnie Johnson, Tony Katz,Jenny Beth Martin, Hating Breitbart director Andrew Marcus and Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit) in Cleveland.

More info here.