Ron Paul Truckstop

The Ron Paul Truck Stop is Coming This Weekend!
Updates from Earnest Hancock about the new truck stop.

by Ernest Hancock
http://www.ernesthancock.com

A month ago Jeff Cullen made a very generous offer after being greatly inspired by the Ron Paul Revolution. Jeff is a constitutionalist and understood immediately the effectiveness of the RPR logo and how it represented his emotions in this campaign cycle. As a long time supporter of Ron Paul's efforts Jeff has provided us with a very unique opportunity with very few conditions that are more than reasonable.

Almost 10 years ago Jeff bought an abandoned Stuckey's Truck Stop on the I-15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles that is run by his brother and sister-in-law. They have been steadily restoring this property that runs for almost a mile along the interstate. The high angled roof is clearly visible from both directions of traffic and Jeff has asked that we paint a Ron Paul Revolution across the entire roof.

Jeff also has two very large 45' high billboards on the property to be painted as well, but there's more. Three semi trailers are on the property and can be placed so that 3 sides are able to be used for messages and short Ron Paul quotes.. In all, there are over a dozen large sign areas that are seen from both directions of traffic.

This stretch of interstate is one of the busiest in the entire nation with this highway being feed from the Los Angeles harbors that supply Las Vegas and communities eastward. We arrived on a Sunday and in the afternoon we were astounded by the traffic jam that stretched from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. We were told that the weekend traffic between the two cities encourage the truckers to travel the route at other times so the interstate is constantly busy. I was told that over 7 million vehicles pass this location a month and this opportunity is eagerly being taken advantage of, (heck, that's a lot more vehicles than there are people in the entire state of Arizona).

Jeff has also provided us with an entire wall of the general store for the display of Ron Paul Revolution material to be sold and given away to motorist.

When I and another Ron Paul Revolutionary drove the 6 hours to the Truck Stop to meet with the owner we also met the founder of www.Truckers4RonPaul.org to make plans. There are many truckers in support of Ron Paul and the r3VOLution and truckers have special needs (like very large magnetic signs)

Over the last few weeks we have been planning and preparing for this effort and a talented and skilled team has gotten time off from work and set aside other duties for the 4 day workfest to accomplish the tasks. Many printed materials and clothing items have arrived and are on their way to stock the facility.

Late Thursday night on the 4th of October the team will arrive to set up. The restaurant portion of the building is under construction so it has been offered as a sheltered sleeping area but most of us are planning on camping and cooking out. We do not plan to be leaving the work site until Monday afternoon on the 8th of October.

Two large trailers will accompany us and have as much equipment as we think we will need. Supplies and large rental equipment will come from Las Vegas and Barstow.

Ron Paul Revolutionaries in Las Vegas and Los Angeles have been preparing as well to meet with Phoenix Revolutionaries to make certain that this effort is a success. We waited until now to share this information more publicly so that there would not be any interference with the effort. Those that wish to help us with this effort are welcome and needed. But the curious would only be a distraction and we have a great deal to do in the allotted time available.

Saturday and Sunday will be the days that will require the most labor and we hope that those willing to be a small part of the effort will choose those days to come by early and help.

Please plan on bringing your own food and drink since we have not made any plans for anything but the basics for ourselves. If you were to contact me by phone 602 717 5900 on your way in then we will be able to ask you to stop for supplies that we need and didn't anticipate. The General store phone number to reach the Truck Stop and Jeff's brother Jim Cullen is 949-422-1856. We are very far from anywhere (40 miles closest).

We will have camping gear, ladders, projectors, computers, welders, canopies, work tables, power tools, plasma cutters, cutting torches, table saw, shelving etc. We are certain to need ¾ inch plywood, Bear Outdoor High Gloss Black, Yellow, White and Red paint (owner's request) and various hardware and other colors of paint. This effort is very expensive and we can use every sort of help that does not distract from the work. Those planning on adding to the workforce should plan on being as self sustaining as possible. If you have a strong back and no tools, cool. If you wish to supply meals and refreshment, great. If you desire conversation then another time would be much more welcome.

Here are directions and some requested information from the owner Jeff.

from southern california...no matter what freeway (s) you use...get to the interstate-15 northbound to las vegas...keep going through barstow, california...keep going about another 40 miles on the interstate 15 northbound ...you will exit at "AFTON ROAD"...turn left accross the freeway and we are the only building located in the area...easy to find...

from anywhere on the interstate 40...go westbound until you reach the interstate 15 and then go 40 miles northbound to "AFTON ROAD"...
(please note that there are shortcuts to take from the 40 to the 15 ...but i am only giving directions that are fool proof...

from anywhere north of our location on the interstate 15...go southbound through las vegas...past stateline...and past baker...to "AFTON ROAD"....

we are in the middle of "nowhere"...but we like to say "we are halfway to everywhere!!!!!!!!!!"

equipment rentals are best using the las vegas resource...many more companies to select from...barstow does have rental companies...but if the equipment is "down" or already rented ...this could be a problem...barstow now has a new "HOME DEPOT" ...

we have 110 and 220 power...

our building is very big and can handle very many people who want to "camp" inside the large area where the pool table is ...using cots...and /or sleeping bags...etc...that way the folks can use the indoor bathrooms during the night...much better...plus we have an outdoor shower where the picnic tables are...a person would need to maintain shorts on...but can indeed shower and clean up...etc...

anyone wanting to use a motel...tell them to look up "yermo" and there is a nice motel there...this time of year they will have not much problem getting a room...the motel is about 3 years old...so it's in great condition...an important part of the location of the motel is that it is between our ranch and barstow...so travel to barstow the next morning to get stuff might be made from the motel location ....making the motel use more plausible because then there would not be any waste of gas...just a thought...

i think moving the big trailers is going to need a big rig tractor...so i do not know how you plan to do that unless you have a trucker willing to help...

we use our bar-b-ques most every day...so the cooking is easy...if you have other ways to cook...great...

your plan sounds great...please know that you are welcome to stay at the ranch while the project goes on....and most of all know that you and all your team will always be welcome to return...

ron is really doing great and i know we can win....jeff.

let freedom ring!!!!!!!!!!!!


Here are some owner approved slogans and messages for some of the signs...

No PATRIOT Act

Health Freedom

Bring the Troops Home

Precious Metals = Sound Money

THE CONSTITUTION IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008...IN THE NAME OF RON PAUL!!!!

FREEDUMB vs.FREEDOM
vote Ron Paul President 2008

LET US PREY (NEW WORLD ORDER)
vs.
LET US PRAY (IN GOD WE TRUST)

Ron Paul
"Constitutional"
R3VOLUTION

These are just some of the ideas that have Jeff has shared with us but he is very tolerant and is looking for your creativity and a Ron Paul r3VOLution theme. There is plenty of message space available, do you have something to say?


Please contact me if you wish to be part of the effort and know when you will be arriving so we can schedule the work around the number of available workers (some things like the painting and erecting of the billboards will take quite a few hands).

We are already planning the next 3 BIG Ron Paul Revolution Projects, so stay tuned.

We hope many of you can join in the fun,

Ernie

Cops Gone Wild - Follow up to "I could name 9 things..."

Since I posted the article on the young man who video taped an officer threatening to lock him up on bogus charges, some new information has come out.

First of all, before the incident, other officers had made death threats on him in an online message board. If young Darrow was afraid for his life during the traffic stop, it was with good reason. His life was threatened by police officers on an online forum! Here is the threat from the message board from a forum user calling himself "STL_FINEST", presented unedited:

in reply to "Who is this terd?"
I hope this little POS punk bastard tries his little video stunt with me when I pull him over alone- and I WILL pull him over - because I will see "his gun" and place a hunk of hot lead right where it belongs.

You can check out the story here

In case you missed it... the St. Louis COP is suggesting that he will kill Darrow in cold blood and later claim that he saw Darrow with a gun.
TheNewspaper.com verified the existence of the post which, until some time around July, was publicly available. It has since been deleted. The administrator of the CopTalk has the ability to confirm the identity of the poster who made the death threat and to verify his status as a law enforcement officer, but so far has not done so. When contacted by TheNewspaper this week, the forum owner had no comment beyond, "Sorry, the posting log I have access to only contains the most recent 300 messages, and that particular message cycled off some time ago."

Why are these officers above the law? Why aren't they treated like any other terrorist who makes death threats against citizens?

-----

In another follow up article, there is new video footage of police staking out Darrow's home and then speeding away trying (unsuccessfully)to avoid being video taped. To view the video and read the story go to:

Missouri: Police Stake Out Brett Darrow Home -


Now whoever believed that this was an isolated incident, should think again. Whoever still believes that the law treats all people equally, should think again. There are dozens of videos on YouTube showing police brutality, police shootings, and abuses of power. In a related story, a young girl in Palmdale had her wrist broken this week and was called "nappy head" by a security guard for not cleaning up her cake quick enough. They later arrested the girl AND a student who video taped the incident!

They are not investigating the bad cops behavior... instead, they are looking for revenge and lamenting that the footage was so damning that they had no choice but to fire the cop. In addition, you have an online message board administrator who seems to be protecting at least one cop who made a death threat against Darrow. Hmmm, very curious.

I wonder what would happen to me if I allowed people to post death threats against cops on my site. How long do you think it would take to get a court order to break into my home, slam me to the floor, terrify my kids, steal my computers, trash my home, and force me to turn over records of who made those threats? Why aren't the police or the FBI investigating those officers? Why are the REAL CRIMINALS in that case being treated differently? You know why. Because they are a part of the justice system and they have to protect their own at all cost. Darrow is a nobody. He is just a lowly civilian... expendable to protect the St. Louis PD reputation. Never mind the fact that they have bad cops in the department. That's not where the focus is. The focus continues to be on intimidating Darrow and eliminating him. What is incomprehensible to me is how they think this will help their reputation??? Don't these cops realize that it is a crime to make a death threat?

I find this entire event disturbing and disgusting. These new articles just reinforce the beliefs in my earlier post. Anyone who doubted that we have a police state and that the police have adopted an US vs THEM mentality, should need no further proof than this case and the events that have followed it.

---------
In other online forums, cops continue to make threats:
Click to open enlarged in new window.

Become a Dangerous Old Man

A friend recently forwarded me this message, and I felt it was important enought to post here for all to see. I realize that it isn't Father's Day, but this message is one that is valuable any time of the year.
From: http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/

Happy Father's Day:

It hasn't been a great one here; but that is part of fatherhood, too.

Dad29 links to a unpopular speaker, quoting another -- apparently the only person ever thrown off the Oprah show. Here's what he said:

There is only one force in this world that is capable of controlling a teenage male: his father. Women, you can either let black men rule their households as husbands and fathers or hide in your homes with doors locked as they rule the streets in roving gangs.

OK, that's explosive. It manages to link the two most dangerous topics in America -- race and sex -- in a way that both endorses an unpopular viewpoint, and asserts that there is no other good alternative.

Let me repost, in honor of Father's Day and in the hope of relocating the discussion to firmer ground, an old post called "Social Harmony."

I was reading an article the other day, in the local newspaper, about an elderly Korean gentleman who has moved into town and opened a martial arts studio. He chastened the reporter who had come to interview him not to suggest that the martial arts were 'all about fighting.' "No!" he said. "The purpose is social harmony."

That is exactly right. The secret of social harmony is simple: Old men must be dangerous.

Very nearly all the violence that plagues, rather than protects, society is the work of young males between the ages of fourteen and thirty. A substantial amount of the violence that protects rather than plagues society is performed by other members of the same group. The reasons for this predisposition are generally rooted in biology, which is to say that they are not going anywhere, in spite of the current fashion that suggests doping half the young with Ritalin.

The question is how to move these young men from the first group (violent and predatory) into the second (violent, but protective). This is to ask: what is the difference between a street gang and the Marine Corps, or a thug and a policeman? In every case, we see that the good youths are guided and disciplined by old men. This is half the answer to the problem.

But do we not try to discipline and guide the others? If we catch them at their menace, don't we put them into prisons or programs where they are monitored, disciplined, and exposed to "rehabilitation"? The rates of recidivism are such that we can't say that these programs are successful at all, unless the person being "rehabilitated" wants and chooses to be. And this is the other half of the answer: the discipline and guidance must be voluntarily accepted. The Marine enlists; the criminal must likewise choose to accept what is offered.

The Eastern martial arts provide an experience very much like that of Boot Camp. The Master, like the Drill Instructor, is a disciplined man of great personal prowess. He is an exemplar. He asks nothing of you he can't, or won't, do himself--and there are very many things he can and will do that are beyond you, though you have all the help of youth and strength. It is on this ground that acceptance of discipline is won. It is the ground of admiration, and what wins the admiration of these young men is martial prowess.

Everyone who was once a young man will understand what I mean. Who could look forward, at the age of sixteen or eighteen, to a life of obedience, dressed in suits or uniforms, sitting or standing behind a desk? How were you to respect or care about the laws, or the wishes, of men who had accepted such a life? The difficulty is compounded in poor communities, where the jobs undertaken are often menial. How can you respect your father if your father is a servant? Would you not be accepting a place twice as low as his? Would you not rather take up the sword, and cut yourself a new place? Meekness in the old men of the community unmakes the social order: it encourages rebellion from the young.
The traditional martial arts tend to teach young men to undertake flashy and impressive, but not terribly effective, fighting techniques. Only as you grow older do the masters of the art teach you the real secrets--the subtle, quick, physically simple ways in which the human body can be destroyed. In this way, the old retain their power over the young--although they lack the speed and strength, they have in discipline in training more than enough to maintain the order. Social harmony is maintained in the dojo: the young revere the old, and seek to emulate them. Your father may be a servant, but he is still a warrior--and a more dangerous one than you. The father, being past that age in which biology makes us vicious, guides the son or neighbor to protect society rather than to rend it. It is not particularly different in the military.

If we would have a stable society, we must have dangerous old men. This means that, if you are yourself on your way to becoming an old man, you have a duty to society to begin your preparations. The martial arts are not the only road--my own grandfather did it through a simple combination of physical strength, personal discipline, and an accustomed habit of going armed about his business. There was never a more impressive figure--or, at least, there was never a boy more impressed than was I.

The martial virtues are exactly the ones needed. By a happy coincidence, having a society whose members adhere to and encourage those virtues makes us freer as well--we need fewer police, fewer courts, fewer prisons, fewer laws, and fewer lawyers. This is what Aristotle meant when he said that the virtues of the man are reflected in the society. Politics and ethics are naturally joined.

Happy Father's Day.

Disarm the Police - by Gary North

On Lew Rockwell.com, Gary North just presented an excellent theory that coincides with my post below. Please read his article if if you get the opportunity.
Gary North Archives

"I Could Make Up 9 Things to Charge You With..."

This post will upset a lot of you, but I will risk it.
When I first watched this video - the day after it circulated - I was very upset. Upset because I have been stopped when I felt that had to suck up to dishonest cops because I didn't have a camera running or an audio recorder running. When I saw this video, two things went through my mind.

1. If it had been me, I would have baited and antagonized that cop until he either beat me or threw me in jail under false pretenses. It wouldn't have taken much, as he seemed just begging for a reason to club this kid and throw him in jail. I then would have sued the department and the cop for all they were worth. I would see that the video of the violation surfaced on the Internet the day before the trial and I would go for a reward on the scale of the Rodney King case.

2. I wish the hell I had a setup like that in all of my vehicles.

Now, after further reflection and reading dozens of comments on blogs and news sites, I still feel the same way.

Several folks questioned if the kid had an issue with cops...

Well... I have an issue with cops! My issue stems from the fact that I have found most of them to believe that they are above the law, better (or more special/important) than "civilians", and that they are willing to lie/cheat/coerce/or collude with other officers to get a conviction, whether they believe the party in question is guilty or not.

I would love to see a company reduce the cost of these devices as they have done with cellular telephones. Imagine if these devices were available with nothing down and $15 a month....
Imagine every teen, black, woman, college kid, construction worker, constitutionalist, Arab, and Mexican, with one of these installed in their cars. It would serve exactly the same purpose as concealed carry of firearms; It would level the playing field and take the power away from the bullies. No longer would the bully/criminal/cop have an unfair advantage. No longer would the cops' testimony carry more weight than the drivers'. No longer would criminals assume that it was safe to "car jack" someone with no repercussions.
If an armed society is a polite society, then a cop fearful of being recorded would become a decent, law abiding human being again.

I personally would love nothing more than to see bad cops removed from the justice system.
If it is OK for cops to set up stings, road blocks, and the like, why isn't turnabout fair game? Why shouldn't these devices be used to root out the bad eggs on the police forces? Why not entrap cops into engaging in police brutality, sexual harassment, racism, and miscarriages of the law? In my opinion, that would be an excellent use for these devices - perhaps the ONLY way of reversing the current condition.

In most cities today, we are recorded on every street, parking lot, public building, place of business, and traffic stop. Yet, when the facts are in question or where foul play is suspected (think Pentagon 9/11) all the tapes are confiscated and held by a secret agency or law enforcement group. I'm sick of that.
I think that it is high time that the American public fight fire with fire. If the cops record every incident, either make it a law that every person stopped is entitled to a free copy of the video of their stop - on request at the time of their stop for free - or that the case can be dismissed and the incident expunged from their record.

I would like to see more of these cameras in use. I would like to see them as standard issue for all new cars. I would much rather have a camera than the damn "On-star" cellular devices that are currently installed in all new vehicles and used as tracking devices...

I don't want you to think I am anti-cop. I'm not. What I am against are abuses of power, trampling the rights of those not wealthy enough to defend themselves or smart enough to know how. I am against bullies. I am against using law enforcement officers as tax collectors. I am against intimidation by thugs with guns who believe that they are above the law because they have a gun and a badge. The sooner these people are removed from the field of justice, the better (and safer) we will all be. I believe it is also in the best interest of law enforcement agencies to support their removal. By doing so, they may once again restore the concept that the police are the good guys.