I don't know where to start.
How is it that out of touch politicians can call other politicians out of touch? Is it because it takes one to know one? The only audacious thing about Obama is that he has the guts to sell socialism and a forced national collectivism on the American people in a way that they buy into it.
This cornucopia of feel good ideas about free health care, secure tuition, high-paying jobs for all, and welfare for all must be paid by somebody. The somebody that pays for all of these noble goals are the hard-working Americans that are trying to scrap by each and every day, but can never get ahead because they are taxed into oblivon because the bureaucracy (you know, those guaranteed jobs) must feed itself.
Punishing entreprenuers by raising their taxes and regulating their industry leads to jobs going over seas. Why is it that the government is more "profitable" every year than the largest corporations in America? If those individuals that work hard to create jobs keep getting punished by our regressive tax code, there will no longer be an incentive to produce new technology and innovation.
All of Obama's feel good goals are impossible to accomplish as long as bureaucracies are not held accountable and cut off at the knees to limit government power and spending. I fear Obama will continue to prop up failing bureaucracies and create new bureaucracies to achieve his goals.
The progressivism and guaranteed earnings and fairness that I continue to hear from the Democrat Party remind me of Lenin and Stalin and their feel good ideas. Eighty years of liberalism and big government solutions are the reason we have high inflation, high tuition, adults who cannot read, high gas prices, and slow moving bureaucracies that will not get the job done.
Obama raises many great points about individual responsibility in raising our children and being stewards of our neighborhoods and communities. This point is very important in a day and age when many people look to serving themselves at whatever the cost to their families and friends. True Biblical service is a missing link in our society.
Obama has said more one thing I do agree with. It is time for change on November 4. It is time to turn over Queen Nancy and her Democrat servants in Congress. Only by removing the road blocks of the liberals in elected office can our country achieve true greatness.
Peace and unity for all come at a price for all. Are you prepared to pay the price that Barack Obama is asking? Are you prepared to sacrifice your freedom, your hard earned money through high taxes, and even your national sovereignty just to have this concept of peace and unity achieved?
Texas Railroad Commissioner, Elizabeth Ames Jones, just gave a compelling speech on energy. Her closing remarks were not a focus on energy, instead it was a not-so-gentle prodding of her own party.
This is not a direct quote. I did not write it down as she was speaking. To paraphrase, the people perceive the Republican Party as driving us towards socialism, just not quite as quick as the Democrat Party. The lessons from 2006 is a rejection of big government and a progression towards socialism, not a rejection of Republicans. But, as long as the Republican Party is incrementally moving us towards the center, we will continue to lose. Our Party leaders and our elected officials need to realize that moving towards the middle will cost us this year's election, too. If we do not realize this fast enough and correct our mistakes on our message, our platform, and re-energize our grassroots, we will lose again in 2008.
Day 2 of the Defending the Dream Summit is underway. It's 9:10 AM. This morning we're all in a general session awaiting the speakers, who will be:
Michael Steel, Chairman of GOPAC and former Maryland Lt. Gov.
Hon. John Carter, U.S. Congressman - 31st District of Texas
Grover Norquist - President of Americans for Tax Reform
John Fund - Editorial Writer for the The Wall Street Journal
Steve Moore - The Wall Street Journal
Hon. Michael Williams - Texas Railroad Commission Chairman
Hon. Elizabeth Ames Jones - Texas Railroad Commission Member
Marrie Spaeth - Spaeth Communications, Swift Veterans for Truth
Erik Erickson - RedState.com
Hon. Steve Lonegan - State Director, American for Prosperity Foundation New Jersey
Peggy Venable - State Director, American for Prosperity Foundation - Texas
Tim Phillips - President, American for Prosperity Foundation
Tim Phillips opens with a pep talk to the attendees. He says that it is time for conservatives to not just be online but to take on the liberals online. We are establishing our own netroots.
Cap and Trade really ought to be called "duck and cover". The Cap and Trade legislation killed recently in Congress would increase our taxes by 1.2 trillion dollars at the Federal level. Al Gore and company "need" 32 such bills. Cap and Trade would mean a loss of 1.2 million jobs across the economy. State legislation would drain more on top of that out of our economy. Incandescent light bulbs will be banned starting in 2012 and the alternative bulbs are hazardous substances if they are broken (they can't be disposed of in the trash like regular bulbs). Lifestyle changes that Al Gore and company want are changes that government will decide for us on our behalf (how sweet). It means giving away the freedom to determine our own destiny.
Peggy "the Invincible" Venable (dubbed that by Robert Novak last night) is now at the podium. Lone Star Times is the most visited political website in Texas. When we say we are behind online we only mean we are behind where we want to be. Texas Public Policy Foundations has built a web site where citizens can investigate the spending of local government entities.
David Hartman just introduced Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal who told a joke on himself about how he is so bad at shooting a gun that his fellow skeet shooter told him he must be from the New York Times. See The Nanny-State Diaries.
The top 1 % of income earners pay 40% of the income taxes collected. Those who make above the marginal income level in this country pay 97% of the taxes. Obama's sweet spot is a 53% marginal tax rate. Twenty-three countries in Eastern Europe have a flat tax, some as low as 10%. Ireland has the most robust economy in Europe after cutting the marginal tax rate from 48% to 12% fifteen years ago.
Moore says that the death tax goes to zero in 2010 (I believe that was the year he said) and back up the next near. Dr. Kevorkian will be very busy in 2010 offing grandmas for their heirs' sake, he jokes.
Cap and trade should be called Cap and Kill because it is going to kill our economy.
Grover Norquist is up. He talks about how Republican's in Washington have kept their promise not to raise taxes and to cut taxes (8 times), about the importance of freedom, and about keeping government out of our lives. This is the "Leave Us Alone Coalition". The left's list of what they want to make us do is "slightly longer than Leviticus" (and much less beneficial, I might add). "The left is made up of competing parasites." "Republican's who vote for tax increases are like rat heads in Coke bottles. They destroy the Republican brand." Grover talks about the dangers of increasing capital gains and dividend taxes and recommends www.congressionaleffect.com, which is a mutual fund that invests in the market only when Congress is out of session.
Marrie Spaeth - Spaeth Communications, Swift Veterans for Truth is up now talking about the power of negative words. Negative words are more memorable. Her role today is to introduce the Hon. Michael Williams - Texas Railroad Commission Chairman.
Michael Williams breaks into the middle of Marrie's intro of him. He graciously thanks the Texans in the crowd for giving him the opportunities he has had to serve them and the rest of the citizens of Texas. We are going to take over the online community from the left. Regarding energy he says increased supply is a good thing. We have resources in America that we can use to meet our needs. We don't need to sue OPEC, as some have suggested. We need to use the full plate of energy sources. In Texas we have a 200 year supply of coal. People are worried about that black stuff. "I'm partial to black stuff" (lots of laughter from the crowd). But we need to use coal in a clean way and we have the technology to do that. We need to use nuclear power. We need to innovate in energy. This summer Micheal is sponsoring two workshops for kids to create video games that are energy related. We want to make sure that liberty is protected and opportunity is expanded.
Alan Sager is at the podium to introduce John Fund - Editorial Writer for the The Wall Street Journal.
John thanks all the Wall Street Journal subscribers in the room - "they help pay my salary". There are several reason things will turn around for us in this election. The news we get is filtered. Reagan followed the people who bought the theater tickets rather than the pundits. The "lamestream media" are following their candidate around rather than reporting because they know that mainstream America is not with them. This is a center right country. They (the left) are using psychological warfare. They fear the fall campaigns. Eight out of 10 times Democrats have been ahead in the July poles. Only 3 times did they actually win. Since 1944 only one Democrat has run for President and got a majority of the vote. This election matters. Republicans can't afford to sit it out. If Democrats win we will have "card check for unions," same day registration for voters, and no excuse absentee voting. They will change the rules and consolidate their power for a generation. "If we we flight we win, if we flinch we loose."
Peggy introduces Hon. Elizabeth Ames Jones - Texas Railroad Commission Member. Texas develops 30% of the natural gas and about 20% of the oil used in America. Don't listen to the naysayers about our country's energy supplies. We are developing and will develop natural resources in a responsible way. For example, Barnett shale contributes about 6% of the natural gas used in our country. Texas is again playing our part to supply secure energy sources for the future. We need to develop nuclear energy. Wind, solar, and bio fuels cannot meet the demand alone. Texans and Texas companies have found and created these energy sources, not the Texas Railroad Commission or any other government entity or program.
Hon. Steve Lonegan - State Director, American for Prosperity Foundation New Jersey is now speaking. He is telling his personal story about dealing with Retinitis pigmentosa and how he rejected all the social programs set up to keep him hitched to his disability. He got an MBA. As his eyesight deteriorated, he found that no one would hire him but did not give up. He got a job selling kitchen cabinets and the company he was working for went out of business. So, he bought the business after getting some financing from "the bank of mom". That was 1981, after Reagan took office. His business prospered and he then got elected as the mayor in a Democrat town. His first act was to call together city departments and ask them to cut their budgets by 5%. He stayed mayor for 12 years and made that city the envy of New Jersey in terms of fiscal responsibility.
Up now is The Hon. John Carter, U.S. Congressman - 31st District of Texas. "Judge Carter" just got back from the "Devil's town (DC). He's glad to be back in "God's country". The Supreme court ruled on the Second Amendment and, "you live in Travis County. You really need the right to bare arms here." The Democrats want to take over production of oil and gas. They say that if energy prices get high enough they can get their Energy policy enacted, which is to tax exploration and to get away from oil. Just a few words by President Bush about expanding oil exploration/production and the price drops $11. The Democrats are wrong on oil.
Erik Erickson - RedState.com opens by saying "it is nice to be Travis County and not indited by Ronnie Earle." You can get online on Redstate.com and tell your story about what is going on in your town, in your state.
Michael Steel, Chairman of GOPAC and former Maryland Lt. Gov. is up. "You can't please everyone, but you can tick them all off at the same time." That's what happened in 1996...."We don't create wealth by robbing Peter to pay Paul and then robbing Paul," but that is what liberals do....Reagan made it cool to be Conservative. Now we've "lost our mojo." The issues that motivated voters in the days of Reagan still motivate people in America today...We need to be colorblind and reject the ideology that looks at people as members of hyphenated classes...Individuals transform a nation....There is a socialist-Marxist trend in America...The great opportunities in American rest in the hands of individuals...Tell the story of our cause, of why we link arms as conservatives...
Lunch with Michelle Malkin
Michelle starts off by telling how across the city the net roots are calling us freaks and our candidate not fit for leadership. She did a comparison of Obama and McCain's leadership credentials and asked in Sesame Street style "which one of these is not like the other." She said a lot more but I'm about brain dead by now...
Panel Sessions
(1:45 PM - 2:45 PM)
I'm sitting in on a session titled Map to Victory: How the Right Can Win Online. Panel members include,
Ken Emanuelson, FredHead.com; Blogger; ReaganCoalition.org
Ryan Gravatt, RedState.com
David Kralik, Director of Internet Strategy - American Solutions for Winning the Future
Maggie Thurber, Ohio Blogger
Get the substance down first, then the form. Put links high up in your emails. In emails the Subject line is very important. Remember that we have the conservative message and that people want to hear it. We do not tout something that the Party tells us to tout like the Netroots do. We are more independent....User generated content...Book Recommendation: Wisdom of the Crowds...Take your online energy into a brick and mortar world. Build a conservative group. Raise money...(a lot more was said than reported here).
Time for a 15 minute break.
(3:00 PM - 4:00 PM)
This is a session titled Old Media vs. New Media. Panel members include,
Dan Gainer, Vice President - Business & Media Institute; T. Boone Pickens Fellow
Douglas Kirk, Editor of the Bulverde Standard
Sherry Sylvester, Sherry Sylvester Communications
Sylvester: Gave an impassioned intro about which I did not write down anything. She did say that the small town papers are the real place where journalism is vibrant and growing, while the old regional papers are struggling.
Gainer: Traditional journalists have switched from print/TV media to the Internet. They are competing with us, the bloggers. They are doing this because we are putting out unedited content that they cannot control. Your credibility matters quite a lot. If you make a mistake your credibility is on the line. Ask fellow bloggers to edit your work. You can do creative things. Keep files on the reporters and others you blog about. Responding to a question he said there are two models that will keep local papers alive - non-profit, supported by a benefactor, and for profit supported by traditional advertising.
Kirk: Been in the newspaper business for 40 years. First newspaper called the Anti-P.U.D. (Passive, Uninvolved and Docile) Express was an underground paper he published underground in Holland (see Opinions Make A Difference), because the school paper would not publish his letters. Now as a newspaper editor ( of the Bulverde Standard) he publishes every letter to the editor sent to him. The objective of both old and new media is mass communication. He gets 6000 man hours of impact per publishing day. Both new and old have a target audience. New media comes out immediately. Newspapers are comparatively slow in distribution and are permanent, tending to get archived. Google has now put smalltown newspapers (smalltownpapers.com) online in a searchable format. Small town politics are by definition localized. Old media publishers and editors will let their bias block certain content. The new media, by contrast, has too much freedom, but that is turning around a bit.
Time for another 15 minute break.
(4:15 PM - 5:15 PM)
This is a session titled Global Warming: The Cost of Climate Change Hysteria. Panel members include,
Cathie Adams, President - Texas Eagle Forum
Sterling Burnett, National Center for Policy Analysis
Phil Kerpen, Policy Director - American for Prosperity Foundation
Iain Murray - Competitive Enterprise Institute
The biggest threat today to freedom and prosperity in our country.
Adams: Was at Kyoto. It was all about politics. Global Warming is a "moral challenge" - All Gore. The only place Global Warming is known to occur is in computer models. "This conference has nothing to do about science and everything to do about the [world] economy." - a delegate at Kyoto. 17,000 scientist who know say there is "no convincing evidence for global warming". In Bali All Gore said "My country is obstructing progress in Bali, but in two years it is [not going to be the same]." Does he mean when his country becomes the Obamanation. Congress is appropriating more and more to subsidize green energy. Wind and solar creates less than 1% of the electricity in this country. Windfall profits tax on oil has taken us for 20% to 8o% dependency on foreign oil. We must drill in Anwar. Drill here, drill now, and pay less. Global warming is a hoax.
Murray: UK is looking into carbon rationing. The fight against Global Warming is following the same game plan as that used to ban DDT in the 1960s and as a result 50,000,000 people (mainly in Africa) have died of Malaria. The Global Warming hoax could kill more than that. When people give "evidence" of global warming they usually don't give the whole story. The subsidies needed to "go renewable" is $88 billion dollars per year and will cost twice as much for the energy consumer. Since 1997 European (Kyoto) nations have had larger increases in emissions than the US has had. In terms of emissions during that period Kyoto nations have increased their emissions 4 times more than the US has (US=5%; Kyoto compliant nations in Europe - 20%). Gore's plan would increase the cost to the world by $44 trillion. See Senate Bill S3036.
Resources on The Global Warming Hoax:
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/
http://www.globalwarming.org/
http://icecap.us/
http://www.noclimatetax.com/
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
http://www.regulations.gov/
http://www.cornwallalliance.org/
http://cei.org/
http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/
http://www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.com/
http://www.acton.org/
http://thechillingeffect.org/
http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/
http://www.mineyourownbusiness.org/
http://www.hartland.edu/cms/
Book: Unstoppable Global Warming
Film: The Great Global Warming Swindle
Bob Barr, the Presidential Spoiler Wannabe
I'm home now but spending a little time cleaning up my live blog posts. The last "event" I attended at the Summit was a speech by the Libertarian candidate for President, Bob Barr. He talked about his involvement in the impeachment of Clinton and other good things he had done for our Freedom and Civil Liberties. I genuinely appreciate what he has done.
However, the degree of success he has in his campaign for the Presidency could be the degree that McCain will lose to Obama. Barr is setting himself up to draw votes away from McCain, and with the shaky relationship between the base of the Republican Party and McCain, that could spell disaster for our Republic. That's because Obama will be the prime beneficiary of Barr's campaign success, and if Obama wins the election we won't be saying "God Bless America," but we'll be crying out "God have mercy on America." Based on Novak's comments last night, he does not consider a 3rd Party Candidate a viable option for conservatives. Neither do I.
I suppose Barr thinks he can have it both ways. He thinks he will draw from the left and the right. Why he even showed up at the Netroots Nation event across town:
A surprise visit by Bob Barr
The Washington Post notes that Bob Barr made a surprise stop by the Netroots Nation 2008 conference in Austin, Texas:
A second surprise guest at Netroots Nation 2008 is generating hallway buzz: Bob Barr. Yep — that Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential ...Read about it here in his own words., so to speak
All I have to say about that is "Give me a break."
9:00 AM - Opening panel
David Ali
David Almacy
Rob Bluey
Matt Sheffield
About 60 folks are crammed into the San Antonio Room at the Renaissance Hotel in north Austin listening to a panel of geeks talk about the use of the net to promote our conservative agenda.
Here in this slide we see Barnie, the first dog, running around with a camera attached to his head. (Oh what Nixon would have done with that...)
That was in the early days.
They've (the Whitehouse geeks) now graduated to RSS feeds & iTunes and more relevant subject matter. It's now all about platform and content sharing.
Now published on Twitter / Twitterfeed by a private individual.
The future is video.
Now David Almacy, VP of Digital Strategies, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide is talking about an early use of Youtube to connect constituents directly with their Representatives in Congress. He told about how a member of Congress got a question sent to him via Youtube and responded directly back to the constituent via Youtube.
Slatecard.com provides a platform for you to build your on slate of candidates which you can promote and give money to. It de-localizes support. Allows you to support candidates that believe like you do no matter where you, or they live.
David is talking about how John Cornyn's "Big John" video which was shown at the RPT 2008 State Convention and now is on YouTube getting many more 1000s of views than it did at the Convention.
David has moved on the talking about how Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams is in 11 social networks online. No one is inspiring the youth and yet 70% want to be entrepreneurs Michael is hosting two camps teaching kids about how to create energy related video games. Why the Internet? "There is only one of me and I can't be everywhere...We are in a brand new day and we need to learn to communicate..." - Michael Williamson
Now we're in Q&A
Check out NewsBusters.org
A participant asked for the panel to knock the assertion that people who are plugged into the Internet and producing content are not willing to knock on doors, give to candidates, or even vote. Members of the panel basically responded that candidates cannot afford to ignore the net resources.
That's a wrap and it is now 10:00 AM.
Heritage Foundation Online Research Training (Invitation Only)
I decided to crash the Heritage Foundation training for at least a little while. It's now 10:20 AM.
So far about 9 people have introduced themselves as being from the Austin American Statesman. I feel a little out of place. The balance of the room is made up of people of various other stripes, including Don Zimmerman, our Anti-tax Collector Assessor candidate for Travis County.
I think I'll listen some now and leave the blog for a while.
11:20 AM - Going a bit slow as the instructor teaches the students (remember there are 9 AAS reporters/etc in the room) the most basic Excel spreadsheet instructions...a real snoozer for an Excel literate engineer like me.... I wonder what I'm missing from the AFP-Texas Activists and Organization tracks?
1:00 PM Sessions
I decided to try the Activist track. Matt Sheffield is the speaker.
In the intro, Matt talks about how he and others exposed (took down) Dan Rather using the net. An activist starts off by saying "somebody ought to..." That's the beginning of activism but it is important to know what it is you are trying to do. Everybody wants to do their own thing. The left work together. They collaborate. We need to do the same.
Be original. "Those who report the story control the debate."
Be original. Original...
...Stories
...Analysis (roundups / link dumps)
...Pictures
...Video
...Interviews
Reporters are basically lazy and want easy stories, so send them stuff. May want to leave some holes in the story. Also, look for holes to plug in reporters' stories and plug the holes if you have the missing information.
Must be accurate in your reporting.
70% of online users watch viral (spreads like a virus) video.
Write/post to for as many blogs as you can. Use wikipedia and link to your blog / website (adopt-a-page).
Organize->Connect->Report->Market
You want to be able to fit your activism into your lifestyle rather than vice versa.
To increase traffic, cross-post to the big bloggers. Post original, reasoned, accurate reports. Team up with other people.
That's a wrap for the first lecture of this session. Sorry about the spotty reporting...it's 2:10 PM.
It's now 3:20 PM. I took a little diversion into some Formosa Association for Public Affairs "business" as I sat in on the last part of the application of the Heritage Foundation training session that involved a case study that utilized the Excel training I has boohooed this morning. The students were doing a case study and were reporting the results in groups. The data indicated that the Mayor of the city of the case study was extremely dishonest in her reporting of the compensation of city employees. The AAS guy behind me who was the spokesman for his group of reporters was gleeful in his reporting of the mayor's extreme favoritism of the "whitie" employees in the case study.
Now we are learning how to navigate OpenSecrets.org. That's where, among thousands of other pieces of information you can see just how much money George Soros (and other 527s) is throwing in support of the far left. There you can also find who the Top Revolving Door Members are and the Top Congressional Travelers.....etc.
I think I've gotten all I can out of the Heritage Foundation "training" and in the processed have missed much of the other AFP-Texas Summit sessions of interest to me. It's 4:10 PM.
I shifted over to the Organizational track's session called "Total Reputation Management: Protecting Your Online Identity". The speaker William Beutler is with New Media Strategies. He has been talking about Wikipedia and the wiki entry he created for his company, how to get your organizational's name to appear high in a Google search, how to get your blog listed on aggregate blogs like Memeorandum.com, how to use RSS feeds, and the importance of taking ownership of your name on the Internet.
And that is the end of today's Live blog. It's now 5:00 PM.
http://lonestarreport.blogspot.com/
Lonestar Report is covering the Democrat Party State Convention this weekend via live blog. They will do the same next weekend for the Republican Party State Convention.
Tony Dale is the Grassroots Organization Director for the Williamson County Republican Party. Tony gave us information on how to be a Precinct Chair, how to be State Delegate, and a National Delegate. We need conservatives involved in our county Republican parties.
There are numerous get out the vote techniques that can be used. The identification and use of Precinct Captains is one of the most effective.
Steve Koebele, Principle of Texas Counsel, gave us a run-down on down ballot contested Republican State Legislative races. Those in danger in the State Senate are Kim Brimer and Mike Jackson. Also, Senator Kyle Janek has announded in retirement in Houston.
In the Texas House, there are a few State Representatives in danger in their primary. These are Phil King, Nathan Macias, and Betty Brown. These Reps have challengers funded by gambling interests. Bill Zedler is also in trouble in Arlington. In the open House seats, Mike Pearce, Randy Dunning, and Bryan Daniel are the conservatives.
The Speaker's Race is very important in the State House races. There are many well funded candidates that are consulted by Kelly Fero. Craddick is in trouble.
We need Bill Keffer back! There is consensus!
We just heard from Rod Martin, the President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies about getting involved in your local Republican Party.
Kelly Shackleford is speaking off the record at this point.
What happens when winning becomes the only principle? We lose our core values and principles and continue to elect un-pricinpled politicians. This is a problem. When winning is the only principle, we lose all of our other principles. Principles are more important than winning, and those elected officials that are principled need grassroots support to win their races. Kelly started the Texans for Conservitive Principles PAC recently to evaluate what our principles are and to prioritize them.
Most Republican elected officials will never have to make decisions on right-to-life. But all will face economic decisions. We must demand fiscal responsibility in conjuction with pro-life principles. Republican Texans are anxious to make a decision in the Presidential race.
Kelly is now speaking about the Free Market Foundation and its goals.
The Free Market Foundation is a non-partisan organization to promote issues and to give the citizens of Texas how their elected officials and candidates view the issues that are important to the voters. The best way to do this is through their Voter Guide which asks questions, based on the party platforms, to determine which candidate upholds the platform.
The Free Market Foundation also lobbies the Texas Legislature on particular issues that relate to their pro-family ideology. The Free Market Foundation worked to pass the religious liberties legislation in the Texas Legislature in 2007, on the last day of Session.
Liberty Legal works for securing individual liberties and religious liberties throughout Texas. They have worked many cases and lawsuits to allow for religious liberties, specifically Christian liberties.
Cynthhia Dunbar, a State Board of Education Member, is running for Congress in CD 22. CD 22 is Tom DeLay's former seat in SW Houston and Fort Bend County.
Mrs. Dunbar is giving a tremendous speech on judical activism, Constitutional Law, and the direction of the Republican Party with respect to activist judges. I decided not to write much on this topic as she is facsinating to listen to and I did not want to distract myself.
She also mentioned some of the battles of the State Board of Education with textbook cirriculum. What the children of the present learn today, they will become later in life. Because the children are learning entitlements, big government, and poor skills to achieve success, we will turn out a generation that looks to the government to solve all of our problems.
I encourage all to talk to Cynthia Dunbar about Constitutional Law and judicial activism. She is fantastic!
I missed Robin Armstrong's speech as I needed a bathroom break. He is always very good as a speaker and as an advocate for Republican values. I am proud that he is the Vice President of the Republican Party of Texas.
Peggy Venable, the Texas Director for Americans for Prosperity is now speaking.
Peggy is a leading taxpayer advocate in Texas. She is speaking on the TaxPayers Bill Of Rights (TABOR). Taxpayers need transparency and accountability among our elected officials. Government entities are spending lots of money with no restraint.
County governments are spending money on lobbyists, through the Texas Association of Counties and the Texas Municipal League, to lobby the Legislature for additional money. Taxpayer funded lobbyists is a major problem in that the money that is spent on lobbyists is usually going to advocate for additional tax money wasted by our government entities. This is a blatant violation of the Texas local government code. Peggy Venable has sued Williamson County for spending money on the Texas Association of Counties to illegally lobby for additional funding. Peggy Venable won the lawsuit, but Williamson County has not pulled out of the Texas Association of Counties.
We need elected officials to stand up for spending constraints at the state and local government level. Over the past 30 years, local government spending has risen 4 times from what is was in the early 1980's. The debt of local governments has increased 5 times from the early 1980's. The total amount of interest on debt that local government pays statewide, as of 2007, is greater than the amount of money that local governments spend on fire and police departments statewide. More money is spent on interest payments than on the necessary functions of local governments.
The government is run by those who show up. Inform yourselves and get active in lobbying your elected officials for spending restraints, appraisal caps, and transparency in government. Only through a grassroots efforts can we lower spending and limit the growth of government spending.
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson led off the Texas Conservative Conference today in Austin, TX. As always, Commissioner Patterson is full of jokes. Today, he told the Republican Assembly members from outside of Austin to watch out for Leslie, the infamous Austinine transvestite who has run for Mayor.
Jerry Patterson mentioned that he is still very proud of authoring and passing the concealed carry law in 1995 while he was a State Senator. We have not had mass shootouts like at the OK Corral because of law abiding citizens having a concealed handgun. In fact, the concealed carry law has given us additional protection to preserve our most precious right...life.
On a personal note, we need to extend this law to universities and government offices to allow law abiding college students and government employees to defend themselves. In seeing the horrible tragedies on our college campuses recently, the concealed carry law needs to extend to all of our law abiding citizens as a means to protect themselves.
Today, Feb 16, is the Texas Conservative Conference, hosted by the Texas Republican Assembly in Austin, TX. This is the 2nd Annual Texas Conservative Conference which is highlighting grassroots efforts within the Republican Party.
I discovered that I have wireless here at the hotel in Austin, so, as long as the wireless connection holds up, I plan on live blogging the convention.
A little background on the Republican Assembly. The National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) has chapters in nearly 30 states. The Republican Assembly is a grassroots efforts to put conservatives in place in the Republican Party, conservatives that uphold and believe in the GOP platform. The goal is to place conservative leaders in place all the way from Precinct Chair to County Republican Chairman to National Committee Person to RNC Chairman.
The Texas Republican Assembly is led by Mike McNamara from Austin. The Central Texas Republican Assembly is led by Tim Bradberry and consists of Travis, Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop Counties.
Currently, there is a National Board Meeting going on. The first speaker is on stage at 10AM. I'll be back then, wireless and weather permitting.
The schedule of events for today:
Master of Ceremonies: Texas National Committeeman Bill Crocker
10 AM: Jerry Patterson: Texas Land Commissioner and Founder of the Texas Republican Assembly
10:15 AM: Dr. Robin Armstrong, Republican Party of Texas Vice Chairman
10:45 AM: Peggy Venable: Texas Director at Americans for Prosperity
11:15 AM: Cynthia Dunbar: Texas State Board of Education Member
12:00 Noon: Lunch with Congressman Michael McCall (R-TX, Dist 10)
2:00 PM: Congressman John Carter (R-TX, Dist 31)
2:30 PM: Rod Martin: NFRA President
3:00 PM: Kelly Shackleford: Texas Free Market Foundation
3:30 PM: Steve Koebele: Texas Counsel
4:00 PM: Tony Dale: Williamson County Republican Party Organization Director
6:00 PM: Dinner with Ambassador Alan Keyes and the Honorable Tom DeLay
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