This morning former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer sent out an e-mail announcing he was suspending his presidential campaign. Below is his statement:

After 17 months of a wonderful campaign, the lack of ballot access in all 50 states makes the quest impossible for now.

I want to thank my family, particularly my wife Scarlett, and my three children Caroline, Chas, and Dakota. I?d also like to thank my three sisters, Margaret, Melinda, Melanie, and my brother Danny for all of their efforts.

I could not have done this without the guidance and brilliance of my campaign manager, Carlos Sierra of El Paso, and without the new media expertise of Jill Sherman and Morgan Martinez, the volunteer efforts of Joshua Chavers, the start-up assistance of a great leader, Skardon Baker of Los Angeles, the courage of my New England director, Jim Knowlton of Worchester, and the scheduling patience of William Pierce of Rhode Island.

A special thank you to Bill Klotz of Louisiana who never faltered? not once. My kitchen cabinet included Taunton Melville of Louisiana, Len Sanderson of DC, Larry Lessig of Massachusetts, Dennis Stine of Louisiana, Brian Silver of California, and Mark McKinnon of Texas.

And to the thousands of volunteers from Alaska to Florida, from Puerto Rico to California, from New Hampshire to Texas: you made the journey worthwhile, particularly since you gave so generously of your time and energy.

We ran like we would serve ? Free to Lead. To protect that freedom, we fully disclosed every contribution. We accepted no contributions above $100. We accepted no PAC money, no Super PAC money, no corporate money, and no lobbyist money.

We assumed no debt and we end this campaign with money in the bank. Once again, we ran like we intended to serve. We received contributions averaging less than $50 each from thousands and thousands of Democrats, Republicans and Independents in all 50 states. 

We were not included in a single one of the 23 nationally televised GOP debates, and yet received 7% of the popular vote in a national poll conducted just a few weeks ago. My team was amazing and I thank you.

America is a nation at risk. Job prospects are inadequate. Trade is neither smart nor fair. The tax code is unreadable and, I say, un-American. The budget is unsustainable. Small business must be re-vitalized. Energy has no strategy. Healthcare is not healthy. Banks are still too big to fail, and comprehensive immigration reform is a fantasy.

We can turn all these problems into opportunities, but we must begin our battle with the special interests who are content with the status quo. They don?t want change. They spend billions to keep their control. They own our political system. They bought it with their fundraisers for incumbents, and with jobs for the already powerful. They bought it with special favors and inside information for those who can return the gesture in amendments and legislation and earmarks. They finance the elections. They hire the politicians upon their retirement. And they own the two major political parties. It?s un-democratic and it?s simply un-American.

Look at the facts. 98% of the electorate does not give a penny to presidential or congressional campaigns. The money comes from Wall Street banks, corporate PACs, the labor union coffers, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Big Oil, military defense contractors, miscellaneous PACs, Super PACs and the lobbyists. The money comes from all of these special interests, and what do they get in return? ?Too big to fail? and the death of Glass-Steagall, insurance monopolies, pharmaceutical profit protection, no-bid contracts, $675 hammers for the military, earmarks, $5.1 billion in profits and pay no federal income taxes, subsidies for the wealthiest corporations, and all of the big givers first in line for any perks or favors.

The special interests give the money and they get a stacked deck in return. And what do we get? We get gridlock, corruption, a do-nothing Washington, and a Congress almost certain to be re-elected year after year.

Although there is a cry for action on many critical issues, we have to start with the issue that deals with the control of the system: campaign finance reform. If we are to become a practicing republic again, we must end the addiction to special interest money.

Reform must be the first issue.

As I am no longer a candidate for president, I am free to pledge a good portion of the rest of my life to enacting campaign reform in the halls of Congress and the corridors of the White House. Instead of using my right to the floor of Congress to lobby for corporate clients, I will lobby for the American people who want reform.

It might require a new organization to get this done, but regardless, we will highlight corruption and its effects on policy and public perception, suggest solutions, build coalitions, and support the advocates of our ideas or those who have better ones.

This struggle will not be easy. The enemies of reform are powerful and entrenched, but this is a struggle that America must win. The key is to realize that I cannot beat them alone. This will take a team effort. We must work together, setting aside inevitable differences on other issues in order to build a reform team. We must dare to look at a total reform package including contribution reform, reapportionment reform, and term-limit reform. I cannot do this alone. True and thorough reform will not occur solely as a ?me? effort. This must be a ?we? effort.

We must have the spirit to ask all political parties to join with us in this effort. To be successful, this endeavor must cross party lines. In truth, the two major parties are addicted to special interests and corporate money. I have said it many times: they are joined at the billfold. The two parties have been graveyards of reform too often in the past. They don?t want reform. They only want victory and reelection.

You already know this to be true. The latest national polling shows that 42% of the electorate now classify themselves as ?independent,? with both major parties shrinking in size, scope, and power.

Join with us. Be unafraid. We?ll put a new organization together and will use the power of the people and new media unlike any organization has ever done with a political goal. We will ask other organizations and associations to join with us in building this team of reformers. We will re-energize our republic.

Again, thank you for standing with me. Don?t give up. Don?t lose hope. Together, we will continue to reform our country and make America great once again. We are just getting started.

Roemer initially sought the Republican presidential nomination until earlier this year when he switched to the Reform Party. Since November, he was a candidate for the Americans Elect nomination and led the organization in supporters until it decided to not field a candidate earlier this month.

This is a fund raising appeal, but it contains a lot of information on the Georgia ballot access lawsuit:

Many of our faithful supporters over the years know the problem of Georgia election law and ballot access for our candidates. New supporters, know this: only “major” political parties in Georgia (Republicans and Democrats) get automatic ballot access, state-subsidized primary elections, etc. Candidates from other political parties are restricted in their access to the ballot. The CP-Ga has to circulate petitions to have registered voters request that our candidate or slate of state-wide candidates be added to that election’s ballot, and the process is costly. But recent events have opened an opportunity to place our presidential candidate on Georgia’s 2012 general election ballot and you can help!

Recent ballot access lawsuits have forced the states of Ohio and Tennessee to include presidential candidates from the Constitution Party and other parties on the ballot for 2012. Federal courts found that the restrictive ballot access laws in those states are unconstitutional. Because Georgia’s election laws are even more restrictive, we have the opportunity to obtain ballot access for our presidential candidate this year.

CP-Ga Elections Director Garland Favorito and others have discovered that Georgia’s ballot access laws abrogate five areas of the U.S. Constitution. If the court agrees with us on any one of these five areas of our complaint as they already have in other states, the Constitution Party presidential candidate will be on the ballot in 2012! This would be a first in the history of the state party!

At a time where discontent for both the Republican and Democrat

parties’ presidential candidates is at an all-time high and these parties’ rank-and-file activists are losing faith, this opportunity is advantageous to the advance of our party’s principles. If our presidential candidate gets just 2% of the vote in Georgia, then the CP-Ga will be able to run a full slate of statewide candidates in 2014!

Attorney Mike Raffauf is representing our party and the Green Party of Georgia (which is in the same position regarding ballot access) in the lawsuit for a very reasonable fee. He is joined by Garland Favorito (in his official capacity as Executive Director of VOTER-Ga), Richard Winger (the foremost ballot access advocate in the nation), the attorney who assisted in the Tennessee case, and others. Because of their efforts and the donations of friends a lawsuit similar to the ones successful in Tennessee and Ohio was filed this past Friday!

We need your help!

The CP-Ga must raise five thousand dollars by July 31 to complete the legal work and see this case all the way through to a ruling by the court this summer. Your tax-deductible donation to VOTER-Ga, an all-volunteer educational and research organization assisting in the legal effort, can help us reach the goal and obtain ballot access for our party in 2012! 100% of your tax-deductible donation will be used toward the legal expenses incurred in the struggle to obtain ballot access for Constitution Party in Georgia.

You can give online by clicking www.voterga.org. On the Donate page, click the “Make a Donation” button; Paypal is used for the secure transaction. When making the donation fill out the amount of your donation on the left side of the page in the Item Price field, then click the Update link below the field. On the right side of the page choose how you want to pay.

To mail your donation, make check payable to “VOTER-Ga” with “2012 Ballot Access” in the memo line and mail it to VOTER-Ga, 220 Tallow Box Drive, Roswell, GA 30076.

Want to present your friends and family an alternative to Obama and Romney?

Want to give Ron Paul supporters in Georgia the option of voting for a candidate who will defend the Constitution and our God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Want to help the Tea Party activist who realizes that the only meaningful pain they can inflict upon the political party that has betrayed them is to vote for another candidate that stands for what they believe?

Our presidential candidate Virgil Goode and our vice-presidential candidate Jim Clymer have each donated $500 toward this goal. Let’s help them get on the ballot in Georgia by clicking www.voterga.org or mailing your donation today!

For the restoration of the Republic,

Ricardo Davis
State Chairman

P.S. For me the ability to give a tax-deductible donation to VOTER-Ga, a non-partisan, 501(c)3 organization, to support ballot access for the party was providential. I sent my check for $250 last week because the outcome of this legislation will affect future elections. Join me by giving your most generous donation today!

Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson’s campaign has announced the following process for candidate endorsements.

1) “The Governor will only endorse those candidates who are a) NOT running against another Libertarian and who b) do not have the possibility of running against another Libertarian — e.g.  having another Libertarian enter the race).”

2) “The process begins with a recommendation from the Gary Johnson Campaign State Director for the state where the candidate is running for office. (Contact information for State Directors is available under the “GET INVOLVED” tab, and then “Find Your State Director” link at www.garyjohnson2012.com.”

3) “Alternatively, candidates, campaign managers or others may request the one-page nomination form by email from endorse@garyjohnson2012.com. Completed forms can then be returned to the endorse@garyjohnson2012.com email address where they will be forwarded to the appropriate State Director for review.”

The official list of candidates who have been endorsed by Governor Johnson and/or Judge Gray will be made available, with links to their campaign websites, on a page (not yet available) at www.garyjohnson2012.com.

Any questions about endorsements can be emailed to endorse@garyjohnson2012.com.

The campaign expects to announce its first endorsements within the next few days.

Freelance writer Peter Gemma (cf. http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_22_3/tsc_22_3_gemma.shtml and http://www.quarterly-review.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/QRGemma.pdf) talked policy and politics with Virgil Goode, the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party. Goode, who received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, served in the Virginia Army National Guard (1969-1975), as a member of the Virginia Senate (1973-1997), and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1996-2008). Gemma was acting a special corespondent for Independent Political Report.

 

IPR: Thanks Congressman for taking time off the campaign trail to talk with the Independent Political Report. What?s the latest news from the front lines?

Goode: We just got back from gathering signatures in Delaware for ballot qualification. It?s a small number in total that we need; about 600. However, those who wish to see our name on the ballot must change their registration. Believe it or not, the county registrar of voters actually calls people to say ?are you sure you want to change party your affiliation?? We have to be triple sure petition signers understand the process.

IPR: What?s next on the roll call of states that you are targeting for ballot access?

Goode: Well, of course I?m working hard here in Virginia to get the Constitution Party on the ballot. Even this far from November and without any serious campaigning, political surveys show that we?re pulling five percent of the vote. We need 10,000 names on our petitions, which means we?re working overtime to get 18,000-20,000 signatures to be sure we cover the usual disqualification ratio.

New York is a big challenge: we must have 15,000 signatures?that means securing 25,000-30,000 names. That?s quite a hurdle, but the good news is that although there is a small minimum number needed in each county, the preponderance of the names can be collected anywhere?in other words in areas where we have the most volunteers.

We?ve also set our sights on California where the American Independent Party, which is not affiliated with the Constitution Party, already has a line on the ballot. Their state convention is slated for August and I will be there for a few days talking with party leaders and grassroots activists about having the AIP endorse the Virgil Goode-Jim Clymer ticket. California is among several states we?ll be visiting on a tour of the West including Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada.

Overall, I?m, hoping the Constitution Party ticket will be an option for voters in 40 states, even if in some cases Goode-Clymer are listed as Independents because party qualification is so difficult. But let me add this as a disclaimer: we have or plan to have lawsuits challenging unfair rules for 3^rd parties in several states. Georgia is in the works right now.

IPR: It?s likely Ron Paul will not be endorsing 3^rd party candidates this year as he has done in the past. His campaign has flatly ruled out any support for the Libertarian party nominee, and many political observers see Congressman Paul?s ultimate goal as building a Republican base for his son, Senator Rand Paul, to run a national campaign in 2016. In the meantime, millions of Ron Paul supporters are up for grabs come November. What will you do to reach out to them?

Goode: Ron Paul has been a friend from my first days in Congress. I learned a lot as a member of his Liberty Caucus in the House. I understand his interests in his son?s viability as a presidential candidate, but I?m always an optimist: I?d welcome Ron?s support. However, you?re right Peter?we should plan to face reality and capture the Ron Paul constituency on our own. Just look at the issues Ron has run on: audit the Fed, the gold standard, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. That?s our platform! Campaigning on the issues that matter most to those who believe in the Constitution will resonate with Ron Paul supporters. I think we might just pay a visit to Tampa during the Republican Party convention and talk with some of Ron Paul?s best organizers and grass roots leaders. When the Republicans crown Mitt Romney, we?ll be right there recruiting constitutionalists to our banner.

IPR: Let?s talk about some issues that would appeal to Ron Paul voters, starting with what you?ve just mentioned.

Goode: It?s clear we must reverse the Nixon administration?s decision of taking our currency off the gold standard. Just think of how reliable the dollar would be today if it were backed by gold, protecting citizens from hyperinflation and other economic catastrophes caused by government manipulations.

Regarding the Federal Reserve, they have put us trillions in debt because of bailouts and loans here and abroad. That?s with help from their allies in Congress and the U.S. Treasury of course. The Fed refuses to disclose the details of its so-called ?emergency? lending. This kind of secrecy must stop. I fully support the Constitution Party?s language addressing this issue. We specifically call for a monetary system as spelled out in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. The voluntary choice of using of silver and/or gold in individual states, such as legislation just considered in Virginia, is something I think should be part of our new emphasis on states rights.

As far as a non-interventionist foreign policy goes, let me say this to begin with: I?ve learned a lot in my years as a member of the Executive Committee of the Constitution Party. Some votes I cast in Congress were not well matched with Constitutional principles. I oppose the Patriot Act provisions and the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] that trample on the Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. I do not believe we should be involved in wars that have not been declared by Congress as specifically provided in the U.S. Constitution, so we must come home from Afghanistan. And I don?t think we can afford?nor is it strategically necessary?to have military bases all over the world. We owe too much money to underwrite the stationing of so many troops all around the world. Finally, I am against placing our armed forces under United Nations command.

IPR: Can you address some domestic issues?

Goode: Let me just add one thing about the military. Of course I want the U.S. military to be the strongest and have the cutting edge weaponry necessary to keep us number one in the world. That does not mean however, that the Defense Department automatically gets all the monies it wants?which is always more than its budget the previous year. America is broke. We must balance the budget immediately which means every aspect of government spending must be assessed, cut back, or cut out. In the Goode administration, the Defense Department is on that list.

The children of illegal aliens are now granted automatic citizenship. That?s wrong and must be addressed right away. This is central to my opposition to granting amnesty for any and all illegal aliens. And I go a step further: legal immigration must be cut back too?Americans with talent and experience must be put to work first before we import foreign job takers.

When I was in the Virginia Senate, I co-sponsored a bill urging our congressional delegation to vote against NAFTA. It?s bad for business and a challenge to America?s sovereignty. Our trade surplus with Mexico is now a trade deficit. When I was in Congress, I co-sponsored legislation to repeal NAFTA. These free trade treaties are exporting U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas. In my area of Virginia we were once known as the sweatshirt capital of the world but not now?the textile industry all across America is suffering because of NAFTA and similar treaties.

I was the co-chair of the Second Amendment Caucus during part of my tenure in Congress and received ?A? ratings from National Right to Life, the NRA, Gun Owners of America, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), as well as the Christian Coalition on family issues.

IPR: Finally, why didn?t you run for re-election to Congress? You always had a strong support base?elected and re-elected as a Democrat, Independent, and Republican?and you lost by just a few hundred votes as part of the Obama landslide in your area of Virginia.

Goode: I?d be a very lonely voice in the wilderness, and the establishment parties wouldn?t give me much leeway to pursue a constitutionalist agenda. Here?s an example of how things work in Congress. Along with Walter Jones [R-NC] I was among a very few Republicans opposed to a free trade treaty?the House Republican leadership really put the pressure on us to change positions but we refused to go along. Now you know that every Congressman gets certain monies allotted to their districts from the federal gas tax to be used for road and transportation projects. The funding recommendations go through the House leadership. I suppose it was just a coincidence, but that year the districts Walter and I represented received half of the anticipated allocation. I had several such coincidences when I was in Congress.

I want to take our Constitution Party message across the nation?more people are ready to listen to it than ever before. The Ron Paul supporters, the Tea Party movement, home schoolers, and so many constituencies will vote for the Constitution Party if we give them the chance. That?s why we?re working hard to get ballot access. Jim Clymer did so well in Pennsylvania running for U.S. Senator in 2004: he received over 200,000 votes! Now he?s organizing people to get us on the ballot for the 2012 presidential campaign. Of course we are already on the ballot in many states, like yours in Florida. That?s our starting point, but we?ve got quite a challenge ahead. My work with the leadership and the grass roots activists of the Constitution Party has convinced me that only with an issues-oriented campaign?as opposed to the slick establishment candidates?we will make history.

IPR: I appreciate your time Congressman.

Goode: Thank you Peter and the Independent Political Report for the opportunity to say what?s on my mind.

 

 

Excerpt from a column at Town Hall by Wayne Root entitled Why Obama Will Lose in a Landslide, forwarded by Joe Hassen to Comstock Libertarians on facebook:

Most political predictions are made by biased pollsters, pundits, or prognosticators who are either rooting for Republicans or Democrats. I am neither. I am a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, and a well-known Vegas oddsmaker with one of the most accurate records of predicting political races.

Neither Obama nor Romney are my horses in the race. I believe both Republicans and Democrats have destroyed the U.S. economy and brought us to the edge of economic disaster. My vote will go to Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson in November, whom I believe has the most fiscally conservative track record of any Governor in modern U.S. political history. Without the bold spending cuts of a Gary Johnson or Ron Paul, I don?t believe it?s possible to turnaround America.

But as an oddsmaker with a pretty remarkable track record of picking political races, I play no favorites. I simply use common sense to call them as I see them.

Read more…

Wayne Root is currently an At Large member of the LNC and Chair of the LNCC. His remarks last month were interpreted by some readers/listeners to mean that he was endorsing Romney.

The latest Gary Johnson youtube ad:

The blurb accompanying the ad:

The Federal Reserve has destroyed the buying power of the U.S. dollar and weakened our economic position in the world. It’s time to audit the Fed, kick out the bad actors, reform and restore the strength of our currency. Gary Johnson gets it. He’ll end the Fed’s funny money scam. Help him. Gary Johnson for President 2012

In other Johnson news:

Johnson has raised a dollar for every foot of Mt. Everest, which he climbed 9 years ago today with a broken leg, and is trying to raise an equal amount of money by Monday “to get him back down off the summit.”

We Made the Summit, but the challenge isn’t over! Thanks to more than 200 great supporters, we not only reached our goal of raising a dollar for every foot Gov. Johnson climbed to reach the top of Mt. Everest nine years ago today, but we exceeded it. Thank You!

But reaching the summit is only half the challenge. Just as Gov. Johnson had to make his way back down Mt. Everest, we are continuing our challenge with a goal of raising another $29,035 by Monday, June 4.

Go to www.garyjohnson2012.com and make sure we get there!

Below is a press release from Garland Favorito at VoterGA.

ATLANTA, GA ? The Green Party and Constitution Party of Georgia filed a federal lawsuit on Friday attempting to force Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, to list their Presidential candidates on the 2012 ballot. The lawsuit is similar to recent suits that were successful in Ohio and Tennessee. [Click for Lawsuit]

The parties? Presidential candidates have been listed in more than 40 states during some previous elections but have never appeared on the ballot in Georgia. For Georgia elections the candidate names must be written in on the ballot. Questions have arisen in the past as to whether the state has counted these write-in votes correctly and completely as required.

The parties have historically been unable to gather enough validated petition signatures to be listed on the ballot according to Georgia law. In 1996, nearly 65,000 signatures were collected but ballot access was still denied after the office of the Secretary of State invalidated many of those signatures. In that case, the state contended that a petitioner and a notary must always be different individuals although the petitioning procedures mentioned no such requirement.

Petitioners face increasing identity theft concerns and other problems while trying to collect signatures for a candidate to appear on a ballot. A Green Party petitioner was once arrested in a park while peacefully soliciting signatures. Another petitioner, who is a Constitution Party member, was investigated for forgery last year by the Attorney General?s office even though the Secretary of State?s Inspector General could produce no evidence that he had forged any signature.

Georgia has the most restrictive ballot access laws in the country for certain races according to Ballot Access News. In 2011, Rep. ?Rusty? Kidd introduced H.B. 494 to eliminate petitioning and this year the Election Advisory Council (EAC) for the Secretary of State voted to reduce the requirements. However, Government Affairs Committee Chairman, Mark Hamilton, under direction of Speaker David Ralston, blocked a hearing for H.B. 494 and removed the EAC recommendations from legislation that was eventually passed.

Former Governor Gary Johnson, writing in The Huffington Post, pledges to bring the troops home, and takes Obama and Romney to task for their interventionist policies.

Recent polls show that more than 60 percent of Americans believe we should bring our troops home from Afghanistan — now. They are right. We should bring our young men and women home — and vow to never again fight an 11-year war when our mission was complete in six months.

Many who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 believed he would extract America from Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps be more hesitant to involve us in foreign intervention. I, too, hoped that he might at least get us out of wars we couldn’t afford and for which there was no clear American interest.

We’ve seen how that worked out. It took him three years to bring our troops home from Iraq. And Afghanistan? We’re still there, ten years, too many lives and hundreds of billions of dollars longer than necessary.

And while we were at it, we spent hundreds of millions launching missiles into Libya to topple the leader of a sovereign nation. Gaddafi was not a guy I would want running my country, but we took him out with no clear understanding of what — or who — might follow. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney backed the expensive Libya venture.

And Gary Johnson reminds readers there is a third choice in November @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-johnson/afghanistan-war-end_b_1543964.html

Sorry for being late in posting this, I usually try to do this on the 1st but was without internet the last few days.

This is thread to discuss whatever applies to alt parties and independent candidates, and from time to time other stuff, but is not being discussed in a specific thread. News tips, opinions and links all welcome.

As I write this the Libertarian National convention is going on with many of the IPR writers here as delegates, so naturally we are focusing heavily on that, but we do not intend to ignore the other alt parties and independent candidates.

Anyone wishing to discuss non-LP alt party and independent topics and our other writers are certainly encouraged to post about those.

There will be many more of those stories posted this month as well – but I myself with focus only on the LP convention until it is over, other than this post.

-paulie

On the May 24 post about birther Orly Taitz‘s endorsement of American Independent Party (AIP) presidential candidate Laurie Roth, some IPR readers/contributors wondered about the views of fellow AIP candidate and current Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode on birtherism.

A reader named “just asking”, asked:

Has Rep. Goode staked out a position on British Barry?s usurpation yet?

Trent Hill responded:

Goode hasn?t said anything on the issue of ?birtherism?. I?d guess he won?t.

Paulie then commented:

Birtherism (better known as barferism) was ridiculously tiresome when it began and has grown much more so with time. It even makes other conspiracy theories look worse through association, even though some of them may have merit. Goode will probably be too smart to make it an issue, but for the LP?s sake I hope he does, although I won?t enjoy seeing it creep its ugly head up in articles and comments here more as a result.

After reading these posts, I decided to find out for myself. On May 24, I sent an e-mail to Goode, which read:

The readers at IPR (Independent Political Report) have wanted to know your thoughts on the Obama Birth Certificate controversy. What is your opinion of the “birthers” ?

Today, Goode responded:

I would like to see the original birth certificate of President Obama. I assume that there exists an original file with the physician signed paper.  Until I have the opportunity to see such original material I am reserving further comment.