Tag Archives: Tea Party

More Damning Info

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The sickness of some in our government gets more obvious every day. It is not enough to fight your opposition; the Obama people seek to obliterate them.

Of course, that means us – Republicans, conservatives, Tea Party members, Christians, libertarians. There is no room for us in their world. Obama has surrounded himself with such people and with a press that refuses to vet any of Obama’s picks, you get people like Lois Lerner of IRS fame.

We recently found out that this director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the Internal Revenue Service worked for the Federal Election Commission. While there, she sued the Christian Coalition and did everything she could to disparage and discourage them. Now it comes out that she’s been busy at other things, too.

USofArn reports:

In 1996 Lois Lerner was head of the enforcement division of the Federal Elections Commission(FEC). That year Al Salvi was the Republican nominee for the US Senate from Illinois, his Democrat opponent was then congressman Dick Durbin.

During the final weeks of the campaign Salvi loaned himself over a million dollars to buy ads in the Chicago media market. This in turn prompted the Democrat party’s campaign arms to file complaints with the FEC and in kind the FEC, specifically Lois Lerner, filed charges against Al Salvi.

That is when Mr. Salvi contends Lois Lerner made him the following offer, “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.”

Al Salvi refused that offer and would fight the FEC complaint against him for several more years before a Judge tossed out the complaint.

The Illinois Review has more on Lerner:

Soon after the IRS story broke, Al Salvi told Illinois Review that it was IRS official Lois Lerner who represented the FEC in a Democrat complaint against him. According to Salvi, Lerner was, without question, politically motivated, and went so far as to make him an offer: “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.”

Salvi declined her offer, and ran for Illinois Secretary of State in 1998.

But when he saw Lerner plead the Fifth Amendment before Congress last week, he recognized her. “That’s the woman,” Salvi said. “And I didn’t plead the Fifth like she did.”

Just think, people like her will be in charge of who gets health care. Feel confident that you will get what you need in a crisis? Hardly.

About That Obama Victory…

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The tsunami of information being released from the IRS scandal puts a lot of things in perspective.

First, it explains what happened to the Tea Party. They had been so dynamic in the 2010 elections and then 2012 comes along and nothing was brewing. Many of us assumed it was disillusionment with politicians or the decision to stay home and not get involved because the candidates didn’t appeal.

Now it appears that the Obama machine had to find a way to stop them and the easiest was to cut off their money. They, through the IRS, put a tourniquet around that body politic and vital blood never got to its members, if you will. Can’t you just hear Obama and Axelrod chuckling over this ploy?

It worked. Boy, did it work!

That wasn’t the only trick they had. After the election we heard about the vaunted Obama data mining system. How they had used facebook information, sent out questionnaires, networked among liberal groups and rounded up every possible Obama voter. By contrast, the Republicans did not use technology well. Romney’s vaunted Orca voter contact system fell apart (or was it sabotaged?) when it wouldn’t work on election day. The GOP looked like we were unprepared, naive and – horrors – technically Stone Age.

These new scandal revelations put that in doubt now.

Looks to me like the Obama operation knew they had the vast resources of the government at their disposal to find voters. Why not use it? Certainly employees of the government could be made to go digging and find these things out. Looks like O’s victory was not because of some dedicated souls hunched over laptops in their parents’ basement who found contacts. OK, maybe there were a few shills who liked to think themselves indispensable who did some of it, but they didn’t do the majority of it. All they had to do was tap into the files of the IRS and other offices and you had victory.

If this seems unlikely, take a look back at 2004. Remember how Jack Ryan was a popular candidate for the Senate from Illinois? Then Barack Obama got the Democrat nomination and suddenly, Ryan’s court sealed divorce papers saw the light of day. After that he was finished as a candidate and B.O. sailed into the Senate and then into the White House.

Somebody in Chicago worked to get those documents. With Obama already in control of most government agencies via appointments, this effort was a piece of cake served up with some cold tea.

Common Ground Summit

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Tomorrow night, Tuesday, May 14, liberty minded groups in the Memphis area are invited to a Common Grounds Summit.

Libertarians, Republicans, Tea Party members, Campaign for Liberty people and others are asked to come to Jason’s Deli 3473 Poplar, to discuss ways we can work together to achieve our common goals.

It starts at 6:30, but you can come early and order dinner. The meeting will be held in a room at the back of the restaurant and should be over by 8:30.

It sounds like a great beginning to a successful 2014 election year!

Just Sayin’

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If you are surprised that the Obama administration has sicced the IRS on conservatives, Republican donors and Tea Party supporters, wake up. It’s happening everywhere and very easily for them, too.

On her facebook page, former candidate for the House Charlotte Bergman said she wondered why she has been bothered by the IRS ever since her 2010 campaign. Could it be that she is conservative, a woman and, worst of all to the Obama people, black? Was this a coincidence? Hah!

Another Memphis blogger who is a Republican recently lost his domain much to his surprise. Not connected? When the government can put its fingers into your house to tell you what light bulb to use, of course they can do much else.

My own website has been attacked. A group or organization tried 1200 times overnight to get in and insert a virus. Bad luck on my part? You be the judge.

Nanny Has His Eye on You

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While many of us view Nanny Bloomberg as a New York City problem, that is unfortunately not true.

Bloomberg isn’t content with just reining in freedoms for New Yorkers. He has decided to use his Daddy Warbucks reserves to change things around the nation. He has singled out gun control as an issue he wants to influence and has started funneling money for ads to this effect.

But that’s not all he’s interested in. He’s meddling in state politics as well. For example, Illinois yesterday. Legalinsurrection blog reports: “Machine candidate Robin Kelly defeated conservative Paul McKinley in the special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., in Congress that was held yesterday in Illinois’ Second District.”

Kelly is a black Democrat and McKinley is a black Republican. No shock that Kelly won, but he got a lot of help from Mayor Bloomberg. Bloomy gave him about $2.2 million to McKinley’s war chest of $10,000 and ads sponsored by the Tea Party.

Why would Bloomberg bother in this election? Maybe because he wants to squash the Tea Party. Kelly promised “Watch us take on the NRA, the Tea Party, and anyone else standing in the way of our safety. Watch us mobilize families and turn grief into action just like the families of victims of gun violence have done in powering this campaign each and every day.”

It’s music to Bloomberg’s ears.

Maybe he also fears a coming GOP backlash to the Obama schemes. Legalinsurrection says,

Nevertheless McKinley, who heralded last night as the beginning of a movement, has brushed the local media’s Machine-covering and the festering Illinois Republican Party’s lack of support of his race off his shoulder. While the Republican establishment may not be interested in supporting minority candidates with conservative principles, his supporters, who crowded into the second floor of a local church community center to celebrate this Republican’s challenge of the Machine, are undaunted.

I spoke with several of the people who had gathered there who said to me that, as inner-city black Republicans, they’re used to being ignored by the party and by the media, but they are ready for revolution in their community. One man told he had been so inspired by McKinley that he flew in for Election Night from Georgia. Because of McKinley’s example, he sought out his first Tea Party meeting. To his surprise, he said, “they weren’t racist!”–and he has been attending ever since. He now plans to mount a similar campaign of his own in a Democrat stronghold in Georgia.

Bloomberg has indicated he’s all in on elections across the country. A bite out of the Big Apple is not curbing his increasing appetite for power.

News from the Republican Insider

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It comes via D.W. Ulsterman. He says “we have a war going on up here right now.” Always interesting:

REPUBLICAN INSIDER- “Democrats Trying To Use Guns To Kill The Tea Party And Win 2014″

by Ulsterman on April 8, 2013

As a flurry of activity takes over the corridors of power in Washington D.C., a Republican Insider sends a quick message on how Democrats and the Obama White House will use the gun issue to try and “kill the Tea Party and take back the House in 2014″.

RI: I received all your messages but just haven’t had any time to respond. Things are getting pretty crazy up here. I’ll try to keep this brief but still give you some idea on what is going on right now.

First we have the Toomey Office drama. Our people are screaming back at their people. They think something is going to be passed regardless so why not try to get input into a compromise. That is their position and they refuse to budge on it. We are telling them it’s a trap. They don’t care. I am so sick and tired of these idiotic Republicans who refuse to see what is right in front of them.

The trap is that the Senate wants to send something to the House and then have it stall there and spin that in the 24/7 news cycle about how out of touch and dysfunctional House Republicans are. That sets up 2014. Obama, the First Lady, and Biden are all scheduled to do a major media push at the same time. We are telling the Toomey office all of this but they don’t care. Or they think we are totally wrong. I don’t know.

Then we get word Senator Paul’s office was told by Republican leadership that basically he either shuts up or faces a primary challenge and possibly other repercussions. Think it was from someone over at the RNC but haven’t followed that up to confirm who it was yet. Don’t know if Cruz has received a similar threat but would assume he has.

I also was given a heads up that the McCain office has been in direct contact with the Obama operation on this issue. For weeks. McCain apparently indicated his full support of a “compromise bill” between Senate Republicans and Democrats on gun control and even worse, he apparently is aware of what is being attempted with the issue against House Republicans and he is fine with that. He can’t stand the Tea Party wing of the party and wants it gone. For good.

One of my most trusted colleagues up here put it this way. “The Democrats are trying to use guns to kill the Tea Party and win 2014.” This was after a brief meeting she had with someone from the Manchin office. You might have already seen reports of Senator Manchin and Senator Toomey working together on the gun control compromise. The Democrats really think they have Republicans cornered on this one not so much because of the issue itself, but because they are thinking they can exploit the current division between the old Republican leadership and the new voices of the party.

Don’t know if I’m explaining it well enough for you but I’ll try to put it in very simple language. The gun compromise is actually an attempt by both Obama Democrats and the Republican leadership to deliver a very forceful “bitch slap” against people like Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz, and others.

Basically we have a war going on up here right now.

You know what side I’m on.

I say we end run this issue. The Democrats really have no idea how upset people are getting over this gun grab stuff. And neither do the Republican leadership. Going to use that anger against them. All of them.

Reading the Tea Leaves

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Is the Tea Party dead? It doesn’t seem so.

From the Blaze:

A recent Harvard study entitled, “Do Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement,” examined the effect that protest has on political change. The study found that, “Protests can build political movements that ultimately affect policymaking, and that these effects arise from influencing political views rather than solely through the revelation of existing political preferences.” The study was conducted by a team of researchers from around the world.

For all the talk on the left about how the Tea Party has splintered conservatives and been a drag on the Republican brand, the Harvard researchers discovered the opposite.

Amongst the conclusions derived from the exhaustive study, the report found that the Tea Party protests in 2009, “Increased turnout in favor of the Republican Party in the subsequent congressional elections and increased the likelihood that incumbent Democratic representatives decided to retire prior to the elections.”

The study continued, “Incumbent policymaking was also affected, as representatives responded to large protests in their district by voting more conservatively in Congress. In addition, we provide evidence that these effects were driven by a persistent increase in the movement’s strength.”

Most stunning, Harvard found that the Tea Party protests had a significant multiplier effects: for every protester, Republican votes increased by seven to fourteen votes.

It’s easy to get discouraged when you work in politics. Writers, politicians, organizers- ask them and if they’re being truthful they will tell you that while most of the time they get out of bed, encouraged by the prospects of a new day, sometimes it can be tough to see one piece of bad news after another scrawled out on the web or in the morning newspaper.

We often feel the same way. It can demoralize for a moment; but after a brief sigh, I think back on the ground the Tea Party and our push for conservative principles has covered.

The Tea Party Movement has matured. It began, as the original Tea Party in the Boston harbor did, with an idea- a collusion of patriots voicing their contempt for a government that no longer seems to listen to the people. We waved flags and we spoke of concepts that were important to us but, shamefully, punch-lines to the liberal elite who found our admiration for concepts such as “freedom,” “liberty,” “independence,” and “self-reliance” archaic and obsolete.

We kept on and that unsubtle eye-rolling and jest from the left turned to legitimate fear and as our movement took hold in Congress and in state governments, the smirks and laughter stopped. The smears began. In liberals’ eyes, our movement had graduated from a minor annoyance to a dangerous purveyor of a counter to their leftist narrative that big government was the answer.

The Harvard study now confirms that their fear was well-founded.

We do not, necessarily, identify with the Republican Party; we advance conservative ideas and it happens that conservatives are more likely to be found within the Republican Party rather than the Democratic Party.

The study offered the conclusion that it is not merely the spreading of relevant information at rallies that increases the effect on policymaking, but that the network of interactions can spur on a feeling of political efficacy.

In short: getting together with fellow patriots to demand change can provide a realization that despite what the leftist media might say, we are not alone in our beliefs that government has gotten too big and too unaccountable to the citizens.

The release of this study comes at around the same time as the release of a poll recently conducted by NSON that found that out of 500 American respondents, 47.8% identified with Tea Party principles while only 20.6% identified with progressive principles and 22.8% identified “neither.”

When we examine the apparent popularity of our message mixed with the effectiveness of our protests, it appears that the relentless smear campaign and cheap-shots aimed at the Tea Party from the left serve to try and undermine a very real threat to the left’s social and economic agendas.

We all get discouraged from time to time; but it is the relentless pursuit of government that respects the rights of the people that keeps us going. With strength in numbers and the knowledge that our calls for freedom are having an effect, we are taking back America piece by piece.

The Path Forward

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Timothy Philen at the Daily Caller has some advice for Republicans. Seems like good, common sense and easily doable.

“We conservatives love to quote Will Rogers’ line that he didn’t belong to any organized political party — he was a Democrat.

Well, here’s a quote from Ralph Kramden: “Hardee-har-har-har!”

The unfunny truth is, today’s Democrats are as doctrinally disciplined as any party has ever been. Other than the occasional dust-up over the Deity or the timetable for Afghanistan withdrawal, they’ve been in virtual lock-step since the end of Vietnam on most every major issue.

And Jack Kennedy and Dr. King — as much as we enjoy reciting conservative-sounding excerpts from their speeches — would most certainly have evolved seamlessly into the collectivist ideology, and the decadent social issue mindset, of the 2013 Democratic Party.

Unlike Republicans, Democrats don’t suffer from heretical splinter groups. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the views of the Trotsky-Trumka base of the party and that of the Great Triangulator in his current incarnation.

And they’ve also been teaching their children well. And yours too.

For the past 40 years our public schools have been virtual madrasas of progressive and permissive thought, from kindergarten through college. Evidently, the same Richard Dreyfuss alien urge that draws a disproportionate percentage of young liberal students to the mothership of journalism is at work in would-be teachers as well. And it’s paying off handsomely for liberals in seismic cultural shifts, the latest leading to our spanking at the polls November 6th.

I’m not sure we can solve the youth indoctrination problem, but I am sure of one thing: the solution to the current Republican trajectory is not simply shedding a few Tea Party pounds on taxes, or trimming our pro-life platform language, or donning now our gay apparel.

And it’s certainly not — as pundits love to advise — making our tent bigger. Our primary tent held an ideological circus so big and unwieldy, it made the Democrats’ 2008 debate season look like a North Korean parliamentary vote.

No, we need an epiphany. The revelation of a series of resolutions that will make our tent ideologically smaller — and numerically and demographically larger — than ever before.

And here it is:

Choose a handful of classic conservative principles and policy positions that speak to the hearts and minds of the widest possible swath of America, and downplay the rest, beginning with religious issues.

Let’s resolve to concentrate on the life-and-death issue of abortion — not because pro-choice sentiment is, thankfully, at a record-low 41% — but because the murder of more than one million innocent unborn children every year in America remains the defining moral issue of our lifetime. And our voice is their only voice.

Contraception, on the other hand, is largely a Roman Catholic issue that’s only of the narrowest concern even to Roman Catholics. And every time it’s brought up, the liberal media falsely links it to abortion. When contraception is a conscience issue related to Obamacare mandates, fine, but otherwise, let it go.

As for gay marriage, even God himself was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if Abraham could find 10 righteous men. I’m sure the city of San Francisco can do better than that. Hold firm to your beliefs and respectfully explain them when asked, but as for the GOP, let that one go too.

Neo-conservatives, start acting like the Founding Fathers we supposedly admire so much and stop trying to build democratic nations through carpet bombing. Keep the surgical drone strikes on jihadist havens, and respond to threats of genocide fiercely and quickly, but otherwise, beat those swords into shares of Halliburton.

Fiscal conservatives, we’re the single moms cooking fresh vegetables, trying to keep our kids healthy, and being sabotaged every Saturday by the Democratic dad with the open box of chocolates. Let’s tell the truth about spending, deficits and debt, but let’s put a little butter and salt on those veggies — by leading with the benefits of fiscal responsibility — whenever we can.

Libertarians, please take all the drugs you want, channel Hunter S. Thompson, form a third party at the next Burning Man gathering, bury your gold bullion in the ground, guard it with your AR-15, and hang the Creature From Jekyll Island in effigy, but please, leave us — and our chances of being seen as a reasonable alternative to the left — alone!

And Christians, let’s stop letting politics inform our reading of scripture. It leads to inane deductions like “Jesus doesn’t want assault rifles banned.” Remember, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal …”

Also remember that the left’s gun demagoguery will backfire soon enough. As any rational person knows, there’s about as much chance of seeing the next Adam Lanza at a Democratic “gun buyback” as there is of seeing Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Finally, let’s resolve to stop piling on Hispanics with immigrant-bashing. Even the “Sage of the Southwest,” Rick Perry, was right on this one. We like to make a distinction between hard-working legal Hispanics and hard-working illegal Hispanics, but when the illegal is your cousin, you don’t. And you’ll probably punish the politician who does.

If we’re not willing to line up our gardening crew and demand to see their papers, let’s stop bellyaching about people doing jobs we want done, but not by our own sons and daughters. Let’s provide the illegals a penitent’s path to citizenship, and their legal friends and relatives a path to the Republican Party!

That’s the revelation and the resolutions. And what are the chances that this epiphany, if implemented, will lead to victory in 2014 and 2016?

Excellent, I think, even though we’re now pitted against an increasingly disciplined, energized, younger and larger Democratic Party. And they’ve got an army of friends in the news media who control most of the content and tone of American political discourse. The reality is, the “Fourth Estate” has become little more than a bonus room in the White House. And that’s not likely to change anytime soon.

What will change, however, is the take-home pay of the average Democrat. And, little by little, year by year, as Obamacare and a host of other entitlements siphon off more and more of every liberal’s hard-earned pay, another epiphany will begin simultaneously dawning in the minds of millions of resentful Democrats who are just one “Governor Susana Martinez moment” away from realizing ‘we’re Republicans!’”