Vote!!!

Just wanted remind everyone to get out and vote today! I voted this morning for Tim Nank for Delegate, Bob McDonnell (had to think about it, but I did) for Governor, Bill Bolling for Lt. Governor, and Ken Cuccinelli for Attorney General. (Woohoo!) I'd ask everyone to vote for these statewide candidates. We need to take this republic back from the left, and it starts today here in Virginia.

The Democrats show their true colors...

...supporting punk-level vandalism of campaign signs. Not that I'm a big fan of Bob McDonnell, but I think he's going to hold off Deeds.

Nice job, guys, what's next, throwing that fake blood at campaign offices again. Winners, I tell ya.

Sarkozy lays it out on Obama's "no nukes" crusade

I don't agree with him all the time, but this guy may be the linchpin of Western leaders against the Islamic threat right now.

Well done, President Sarkozy.

Yet more evidence of why the 'stimulus package" hasn't worked

Mark Steyn destroys the porkulus.

McConnell Must Go

To follow up on what Mason Conservative had to say earlier, McConnell is terrible. He's a former conservative who's just in there to go along to get along these days. He should not be the Minority Leader. How he treated Jim Bunning, a REAL conservative is unconscionable, and I admire Bunning for calling him out on it Monday. Jim Bunning has been a better Senator than McConnell ever has been. Maybe he didn't run a great race six years ago, but he fights for the ideals he supposedly believes in, in contrast to McConnell, who's done little of interest to conservatives since he fought "campaign finance reform" lo, these many years ago.

McConnell, of course, refused to own up to crippling Bunning's fundraising ability over the last year or so. H even recruited his minion Trey Grayson to run against Bunning in the primary. With Bunning out, Rand Paul is the man that needs to win that seat. Every good conservative and libertarian needs to ensure he wins.

Tim Nank For Delegate

Tim Nank came by our house with some literature the other day, so I took the opportunity to have a look at his website. Excellent candidate, and those of us here in the Groveton/Kingstowne area who appreciate individual liberty and spending restraint sure won't be sad to see the back of Mark Sickles. This is an easy endorsement. It's good to see strong candidates playing offense against seats the Dems think they own.

Tim Nank for Delegate, 43rd District.

Obama and his "Health Reform" road show

The GOP and/or the conservative movement needs to dog Obama at every stop on his tour. Remember what the Dems did to Bush when he tried to reform Social Security? They followed him to every stop. The socialized medicine plan is in some trouble, now that it's slipped out that the House bill eliminates any new private plans after a certain date. They need to be stopped. No compromise.

McDonnell still leads in cash race, but...

...Deeds is catching up. Our erstwhile attorney general needs to do better, considering how he once remarked he spends "75% of his time fundraising."

As most of my readers know, I'm not sold on Bob McDonnell. Not even a little. I'll likely support him, but given his stances on taxes and guns, and the way he started running for governor the moment he eked out a win over Deeds for the AG slot, I'll have to think about it first. He'll finish behind Cuccinelli and Bolling in terms of votes on our ticket.

We could have done better.

Happy Independence Day

... enough said. I attended the March For Liberty earlier, and am headed out in a while to catch the fireworks. Enjoy, everyone.

Heritage and the CBO on "cap and trade"

Heritage's view of the "cap and trade" national energy tax scheme is proven right by the Congressional Budget Office.

The Senate has GOT to stop this blatant power grab by the greens and the left, it's despicable.

Ken Cuccinelli in National Review

This is what we need, national exposure for a guy who actually gets what the conservative movement is supposed to be about.

Money quote:

Shannon currently leads in fundraising. But Cuccinelli insists that victory is just a means, not the end. “The point is to accomplish the agenda,” he says. What is the agenda? “I’m running to advance a more limited-government, pro-family agenda. The founding fathers would approve.”

THIS is why he's going to get the most votes of anyone on our statewide ticket this fall.

HR 2454 passed... what now?

... I'll tell you what, keep fighting. We have an excellent chance to keep this piece of unconstitutional social engineering garbage from passing the Senate.

A bit of a rundown on just HOW bad it is...

Firstly, there is no version of the bill that was passed (yet)... and it contains placeholder provisions, which are categorically unconstitutional.

Secondly, it won't have the purported effect on the economy. Not even close.

Thirdly, despite the administration's sticking its fingers in its ears and screaming "I can't hear you!!!", it won't create any jobs. That has been tried elsewhere.

Obviously all this only scratches the surface, the worst of it is the sheer hubris of its supporters to think they can ignore the Constitution on an even greater scale than the federal government already does, and how they label skeptics as "deniers", as if this was akin to denying the Holocaust.

These people are going to do their worst to force us all to live how they want, where they want, the way they want. This is only the beginning. Health care, right to work, all sorts of things are in their cross hairs. I just wish conservatives could move half as fast as the liberals have since Obama was sworn in. You have to almost admire them on that level. Having said that, this is war, and we libertarians and conservatives have to win.

Call your Congressmen & Senators...

and demand that they vote against HR 2454, better known as the "Cap & Trade" national energy tax bill. It's based on alarmist "global warming" junk science pushed by leftists with a vested interest in reaching certain scientific conclusions. Absolute rubbish. This is just another piece of social engineering manufactured by socialist wackos. Stop it in its tracks.

And...

...in other news, yes, I live. I'd abandoned my post here due to a combination of being dispirited and just being busy. I'll rededicate myself, as things are just too bad on all fronts politically.

On the plus side, how exciting was it to see Foster and Brownlee come out to make a motion for acclimation at the RPV convention? Ken Cuccinelli is the best things happening in politics right now. Our gubernatorial nominee is mediocre, and started running for governor the moment he became attorney general by a razor-thin margin, but Ken will motivate me to get out to support our ticket this year. We NEED to win all three statewides and gain seats in the House.

Seriously, what is going on with high profile Republicans...

...and cheating on their wives?

First John Ensign, which was bad enough, and now the guy who I was behind for President in 2012, Mark Sanford. Unbelievable. I will now, needless to say, NOT be supporting him in the primaries, as the hypocrisy here, with him being a big social issues guy, is unbearable. Just crazy. I'm becoming convinced that Obama is going to have his way because the GOP is too busy either destroying itself with stuff like this, or too timid to really take on Obama on his leftist collectivist agenda.

Tom Tancredo coming to GMU this evening!

Found out about this thanks to BVBL.

Tom Tancredo is being hosted by the Mason chapter of YAF at the Johnson Center tonight at 7:00, Meeting Room E. I will be there to show my support, hear what he has to say about patriotism and assimilation, and show my Patriot pride. Rep. Tancredo has been an absolute hero on immigration issues. He founded the House Immigration Reform Caucus, and played a huge role in stopping John McCain and George W. Bush's collaboration with the left in 2006 and again in 2007 to ram through amnesty bills. I have met the man twice and both times he was extremely personable, very unlike the rhetoric you hear about him from the left. I would encourage all of you to come out and attend.

I have also heard that our "friends" at certain racial student groups and leftist organizations are going to try and disrupt the event. So let's get a ridiculous turnout and show them they have no chance, not now, not ever. I will make it a point to... express my appreciation to these moonbats and race-baiting charlatans should they put in an appearance.

See you all there.

Afterward, I'm going to either the Damon's in SUB 1 or Brion's to catch the end of GMU finally notching a win down at Trask.

The Utter Folly of Keynesianism

Over at Crystal Clear Conservative, my far more eloquent colleague once again rips Keynesian theory wide open. While I can't match her in detail, I feel the need to take the Congress and the economic "chattering classes" to task in the wake of Obama's signing of the socialist porkulus today.

How do these people not get that THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T HELP THE ECONOMY, IT CAN ONLY HURT IT?? It's intrinsically obvious to any serious student of history. From the Peloponessian War to World War II, wars have rescued stagnant economies where government tinkering failed. Is that what we're going to need this time once the Keynesians exacerbate the recession into a depression? We need to rid ourselves of the Federal Reserve and go back to a tight, sound currency backed by gold or other precious metals. You can't print money, it devalues the currency to Weimar Republic levels. That's where these people will take us. Just wait. THIS may be the single biggest reason I could never be a Democrat. Socialism... Er, Keynesianism.

Free markets and capitalism WORK. If the government can just manage to keep its grubby little hands off.

Stop the sales tax hike!!!

It's all up to McDonnell and/or Howell to stop this thing now. Frederick appears to be doing his part. Contact your Senator and tell them to oppose any bill containing pre-payment of sales taxes, including the current one. (Hat tip: RWL)

The Frederick/Griffith/Northam brouhaha

I won't blame Jeff Frederick for this since he was given leave by Griffith and other GOP Senators, but to the whole group... how about we just keep quiet about such things until we can make them actually happen next time, mmmkay? I would have loved to have seen Kaine and Saslaw make excuses for that. Now that won't happen, at least until they drive Northam off again.

Arlen Specter...

is an absolute disgrace. AGAIN. Or still. He betrays the party every single chance he gets on close votes, yet Jorge Bushito and his gang came and rescued him from Pat Toomey in 2004. If a credible challenger emerges to Specter in the Senate primary next year, not only will I contribute to that campaign, I will offer my consulting services and otherwise do everything I can to oust that guy. He could have been a hero and stood with every other Republican Senator outside of Maine against the porkulus bill, but instead, he helped provided the losing margin against the American people. I will address Collins and Snowe another time, but let me say at least you know where they are going to stand on just about every issue, and they don't pretend to positions they don't actually hold. Specter plays Republican long enough to get party support and keep his chairmanship/ranking position, and then knifes us in the back again. He must go. Yesterday. He is a big government liberal tool of the trial lawyers and labor unions. He was also one of the primary exponents of amnesty for criminal illegal aliens.

Liveblogging the RebuildTheParty.com/RNC/Google event

Arrived 5:30, and they couldn't find my name on the list. Signed up a second time at the registration desk, with the aid of the two staff people. Very friendly & courteous. Hopefully I won't start getting duplicate emails from Rebuild The Party. We shall see.

5:45. Announcement that the program is about to begin. "Everyone please find your seats." No one is, they're all standing about as I sit here hammering away on the Crackberry. Introduction by Patrick Ruffini and the two other co-founders of Rebuild The Party whose names I don't catch.

5:50. Sharon Day, candidate for RNC Secretary, talks about Twitter and how quickly she got up to speed with it, and how technology helped the Dems win down in Florida. Says she's gotten more Twitter activity than four of the chairman candidates. If she wins, she says we will close the new media gap.

5:55. Several RNC members talk, as do the Rebuild The Party founders.
Guy from Google, Peter Greenberg, sitting right in front of me, comes up, talks about how he wants to invest Google on the right, not just the left. Patrick Ruffini talking about the youth vote and the internet, and not surrendering it. Why did they start RTP? Just two years ago, we were way behind, running an outdated campaign model. Fundraising through bundlers is not scalable in the internet age. Didn't work out, using the old model, whereby sending the most mail and making lots of phone calls, you raise more money. Talks about arguments within campaigns to actually zap online presence as ineffective. Video content, specifically YouTube, offers a huge opportunity. YouTube is not just kids in their basement, it's a very powerful tool.

6:15. Why did we lose, the internet? NO. We were out of touch. Failure to adapt across board. We need to get to work immediately. What did the Dems do? They built a movement first, then got the money. Shows a huge Obama rally early in the game, like summer 2007. There, they got email addresses. Those were used to ask for not just money, but time and support. Simple message of "change." Trusted supporters. Use the two-way web. Flood the zone. Amazing multimedia web and net presence. Committment matched with resources. Huge online disparity. 46.9 million raised off 1700 youtube videos. 500 million total raised online. 13 million email
addresses. 2 million website members. 27k local Obama groups. Much bigger pie than McCain in terms of fundraising. Online made the difference. Obama used that to run more TV than anyone else ever.

6:28. Old playbook is dead. Dean made the blueprint for Obama. GOP didn't learn. Internet and new media needs to bw #1 organizational priority for RNC and state parties and campaigns. Change the way we do things. New generation of candidates. Challenge every house race. Make
it about the supporters, not the candidate or the staff. Always be ready to adapt and reallocate resources. Things will change. Talks about mobile platforms and what Obama did with Google Earth.

6:40. Wrapping up presentation. Talking about smaller effort of email fundraising vs. Old school events. Rearrange priorities around new media. Lost young voters 2-1. Not good. They are reached through new media. Working on board of advisors for rebuild the party, to feature elected officials. Rob Willington is point man for that too. I immediately think of Bob Marshall and Ken Cuccinelli.

And video, food, networking. All in all, reasonably impressive. Bright, dynamic, articulate crew, who just might shake up the party establishment if we have the right people in charge, and they listen. It really is all up to us, the activists to force the old-school types to listen.

Herrity for Chair

It is absolutely, vitally important to keep Sharon Bulova, Connolly's sidekick, out of the county chair. We have a terrific candidate in Pat Herrity, who will put a stop to what Hanley and Connolly have done to the county over the past few years.

Support Pat Herrity