Announcing Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Rally on April 15th Palatine, Illinois

(Palatine, Illinois) – March 1, 2010 – A group of taxpaying citizens dissatisfied with government spending and expansion are planning a Taxed Enough Already (TEA) rally to be held on April 15th in Palatine, Illinois. This peaceful rally is part of a national movement to increase public awareness of the spending of trillions of dollars which will leave our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren a devastating and ruinous debt they must re-pay.

This family-friendly rally encourages all citizens throughout the suburban area who want lower taxes and less government to participate by bringing their American flags, patriotic attire, and signs to display the spirit of the Colonial Patriots of the 1775 Boston Tea Party, which lead to American Independence July 4th, 1776. Re-affirm your commitment to our Constitution and our freedoms by being part of this energizing event on Thursday, April 15th, 3:00pm to 6:30pm, at Volunteer Plaza in Palatine at the intersection of N. Northwest Hwy (Route 14) and N. Hicks Road.
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Announcing Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Rally on April 15th Palatine, Illinois”


Using the System FOR Us: The Freedom Force Strategy

The National Precinct Alliance is an effort to give tea party folks the guidance to make a difference at home, within their own local political system. This is the only way that we conservatives can influence what is happening in our state government and what is happening in Washington. All our tea party protests are great, but if they aren’t followed up with real political activism — as opposed to mere bombast and carping — we will find that politics will move on without incorporating our ideas, we will stay marginal in the actual power plays in our governments.

So, with that said, here is some info from the National Precinct Alliance:

The Freedom Force Strategy

The American people find themselves in the very difficult position of having to reform their government from the bottom up, after decades of public neglect which allowed politicians from both political parties to behave as though the U.S. Constitution doesn’t exist any longer.

State legislatures have been forced by over-reaching federal policies, to restate, reclaim and reassert Tenth Amendment rights just to defend the citizens of their states from oppressive policies coming out of Washington DC.
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Using the System FOR Us: The Freedom Force Strategy”


Now The Brits are Having Tea Parties!

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s just plain odd, but funny and telling all at the same time. Apparently the Brits are going to have their own tea party to protest their own plight of over taxation.

Accordingly, Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan is sponsoring a Brighton Tea Party to be held on February 27.

Hannan thinks that Brits have had enough of being raked over the coals as their government wastes tax money at a rate even higher than that of America’s profligate government.

The Tea Party Movement in the USA has demonstrated the huge scale of public opposition to excessive taxation. In the UK, tax is much higher and, in addition, British membership of the democratically unaccountable EU raises the issue of “no taxation without representation”. From the Boston Tea Party to the Brighton Tea Party, it’s time to demonstrate our opposition to excessive taxation.

Perhaps you’ll recall Daniel Hannan giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown the what fer last year? You might also remember that he became an instant celebrity with American conservatives, too!

One of my favorite lines…
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Now The Brits are Having Tea Parties!”


Our Kids Will Pay For It

-By Vince Johnson

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
The Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232 U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

This will convey the suggestion that you stand before a high school student body in the state of Oregon and explain how it is constitutional and ethical to borrow several trillion dollars from their future without their knowledge or consent. The phrase “without their knowledge” is defined as: “Without any serious effort to explain how this huge amount of debt will create a tax burden far greater than any previous generation in our nation’s history has ever faced.”
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Our Kids Will Pay For It”


The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.

Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion I do not think the letter works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.
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The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor”


IRS Plane Attacker Part of ‘Right Wing,’ Christmas Bomber Just a ‘Lone Wolf’

-By Warner Todd Huston

No clearer difference can be seen in how the Old Media and its left-wing compatriots treat mass killers, terrorists and nutjobs than the way Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab and Joe Stack have been portrayed by the Old Media and the left. Abdulmutallab, the jihadi Christmas Bomber, was treated as an aberration unconnected with any larger group — despite that he trained with al Qaeda — and Joe Stack, who flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, has been held up as the epitome of the “teabaggers” and the “anti-government right” despite that not a single tie to those folks has been yet discovered.

Immediately after Abdulmutallab tried to blow himself and a plane full of passengers into martyrdom on Christmas Day 2009, President Obama’s administration declared this guy an “isolated extremist” and said he had no connection to our Islamofascist enemies. Obama was helped along in this by many Old Media news sources.

On Dec. 26,for instance, CBS reported that Abdulmutallab was a loner. “As of now, he appears to be a lone actor with no conspirators. A report the following day said of the jihadist bomber, “’We’re not aware of anybody else,’ one official told Orr. No further arrests are imminent.”
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IRS Plane Attacker Part of ‘Right Wing,’ Christmas Bomber Just a ‘Lone Wolf’”


NYT Article: Tea Partying in Chicago

-By Warner Todd Huston

The NYT had a nice write up on Chicago’s own American Liberty Alliance and its leader Eric Odom. This piece also discusses several other conservative efforts in and around Chicago. Groups like Hartland Institute, the Sam Adams Alliance, and Ed Lasky’s American Thinker also based out of Chicago.

It is interesting to note that some very strong conservative ideas are coming out of this bluest of blue states where politics is rough and disassociated from any control by voters. Odom makes that point, too, when discussing his move here from Nevada.

“You come from Nevada, where you have the entire Legislature on your cellphone,” Mr. Odom said. “It is a small government compared to here, where it is all union-run and it is a huge bureaucracy, and there is no way you’re going to get meetings with anybody.”

But there is hope, folks. With people like Ed Laskey, Odom and groups like the ALA, Sam Adams Alliance, Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois Alliance for Growth, and The Heartland Institute, as well as the local chapter of Americans for Growth we do have a fighting chance.
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NYT Article: Tea Partying in Chicago”


Captain America’s Tarnished Shield Rolls On

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, looks like this Captain America business is still rolling ever onward. I have been quite amazed at the wide reach this article of mine has found. When I hit the enter key to post my analysis of Captain America #602 I never imagined that I’d be on The Keith Oblermann show (even though few saw it as he only has about 20 viewers!), in the New York Times, the Washington Times, and a million webpages across this great land.

My piece was picked up by the whole of the U.S. Old Media and has forced Marvel Comics to apologize to the Tea Party movement and promise to delete the offending references in later editions.

Well, today’s development. Apparently Carla Hoffman, known in comics circles as a reviewer and commentator on the comics scene, has penned an “open letter” to me hosted on The Comic Book Resources website.

Little Miss Hoffman tried for a hip snarkiness in her open letter to me but her efforts led to failure because she violated the main journalist’s rule: at least TRY to contact your subject. She made the fatal assumption that I had no connection to comics, that I’d never read a single book in my life (perhaps excluding a child’s fascination with them).
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Captain America’s Tarnished Shield Rolls On”


PuffyPost Shows Political Ignorance Once Again: Joe Walsh ‘The Party Candidate’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, the Puffington Post has once again shown that it is wholly un-credible as a source for serious political analysis. This time it’s the “work” of HuffPuffer Will Guzzardi who doesn’t seem to know what a primary is or what it does, at least if his headline can be used as an example.

In his titled “Joe Walsh, First Tea Party Candidate To Win Election, Starts Attracting Attention,” Willie Guzzardi attempts to regale us on his deep knowledge of what occurred in the late Illinois primary. Unfortunately, we can doubt that pretension of depth without getting any further than his header. After all, Joe Walsh was not elected to anything as the headline claims. He did win the nomination of his party in order to run for election, but he didn’t get elected.

Additionally, we can easily take issue with Guzzie’s claim that Walsh is “the tea party candidate.” Yes, Mr. Walsh ran as “the tea party candidate” but previous to December 2009 Mr. Joe Walsh had never once BEEN to a tea party event in his life. And to this he admits openly. His running as “the tea party candidate” was a campaign strategy, not a grass roots reality.

Now, just before the primary on Feb. 2, Walsh did get the endorsement of a local tea party group. So, though belatedly, he did become a “tea party candidate.”
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PuffyPost Shows Political Ignorance Once Again: Joe Walsh ‘The Party Candidate’”


Some Letters Beating Me Up Over My Tea Party Articles

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well I’ve now written six — this makes seven — articles criticizing certain failures of the Tea Party movement thus far. They are all meant to be constructive criticisms, though, not dismissive nor derogatory of them. It’s measured introspection I employ in each of these articles. No name calling, no laughing, no hate. There is just no logical way to construe what I’ve written thus far as hate against the Tea Party movement. But this whole Tea Party thing reveals several things to me. First of all it shows that there is still a lot of passion for them and that is a very good thing. I want the Tea Party groups to succeed and I want them to become a force that can teach the GOP a lesson. The other main thing it shows me is that too many people can’t read for comprehension these days.

The sad thing is that these days even the slightest criticism of a thing is seen by too many as outright hostility. Everyone is so hypersensitive that even a mild criticism meant as an exercise in introspection is seen as an over-the-top attack. It doesn’t just happen on the right, either. Look at what happened to all those Hillary Clinton supporters during the run up to the 2008 presidential elections. The constructive criticism that Hillary fans offered the Democrats was pounded down so hard by the left that many Hillary supporters found themselves aligned — and some permanently — with the side they thought they opposed; the Republicans.

Naturally there’s the name callers and nay sayers always floating around out there. I had one guy, for instance, say, “who asked you for your opinion” of the Tea Parties? This same guy then went on to give me HIS opinion of them evoking the obvious rejoinder of just who the hell asked him for his opinion, anyway? Obviously he wasn’t bright enough to “get” that concept!
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Some Letters Beating Me Up Over My Tea Party Articles”


Marvel Comics: Captain America Says Tea Parties Are Dangerous and Racist

-By Warner Todd Huston

** UPDATE ** BELOW Marvel Apologizes

Marvel Comic’s Captain America is the mightiest soldier with the super powerful secret soldier formula that makes him a super man. Sadly, this muscle bound hero that took on the whole Nazi army during WWII seems to be afraid of those American people who’ve joined the Tea Party movement. Not only is Cappy quaking in his little red booties, but he’s sure that the Tea Party folks are dangerous racists, too.

Isn’t it wonderful that a decades old American comic book hero is now being used to turn readers against our very political system, being used to slander folks that are standing up for real American principles in real life — and one called “Captain America” at that?

In issue number 602 of Captain America, a new story line has begun called “Two Americas.” In it the current Captain (there have been a few of them, apparently) is on the trail of a faux Captain America that is mentally deranged and getting chummy with some white supremacist, anti-government, survivalists types going by the name of “the Watchdogs.” While investigating this subversive group, Captain America and his partner The Falcon — a black super hero — have decided to try and infiltrate the secretive organization.

In preparation for the infiltration, Marvel Comics depicts the two super heroes out of costume and observing from a rooftop a street filled with what can only be described as a Tea Party protest. The scene shows crowds of people in city streets carrying signs that say, “stop the socialists,” “tea bag libs before they tea bag you,” and “no to new taxes.” Naturally, the people in these crowds are depicted as being filled with nothing but white folks.
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Marvel Comics: Captain America Says Tea Parties Are Dangerous and Racist”


HuffPost Makes Sarah Seem Like a Genius

-By Warner Todd Huston

Being a liberal is like being Hitler, murderer of over six million human beings, were he to have tsk tsked Pol Pot for being so evil as to have murdered three million Cambodians. There is no sense of shame with a liberal. They have no sense whatsoever that anything they’ve ever done should temper their reactions to the actions of others. They have no understanding of the old saw of throwing stones in glass houses.

Take the latest Huff-n-puff screed by Stefan Sirucek, for instance. Our pal Steffie is all up in arms over the fact that Sarah Palin had a few crib notes scribbled on the palm of her hand during her Tea Party appearance.

To young Steffie this is proof that Palin isn’t ready for prime time, proof that she “still couldn’t answer the previously agreed-upon questions without a little extra help.”

Thankfully his post is short. After all, he doesn’t have anything much to say except to guffaw that Palin had scribbled a few notes on her hand and that he thinks this is proof that she’s stupid.

OK, let’s take just a minute to go with that concept. Let’s say that anyone that has to have notes for every single appearance is an idiot that cannot remember to draw a breath unless he has a note to remind him to do it.

If that is a solid point to make, we have but one word that can put little Steffie in his place, make Sarah seem like a genius, and diss his messiah all at once. That word…
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HuffPost Makes Sarah Seem Like a Genius”


John Boehner is Kidding Himself

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday our Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives proved that he still isn’t seeing the problem with the GOP. He’s living in denial, at least he is if we can take his words at face value.

On the Mike Gallagher radio show yesterday, leader Boehner insisted that there is no substantive ideological differences between the Tea Party folks and the Republican Party.

(As reported by The Hill)

“There really is no difference between what Republicans believe in and what the tea party activists believe in,” Boehner said during an appearance on the conservative Mike Gallagher’s radio show.

Boehner went on to say that the GOP has a job ahead of it to, “prove it to the tea party activists that we really are who we say we are.”

I can only shake my head at Mr. Boehner’s blather. Granted it might be mere bombast and hopeful talk from a man hoping to convince voters to buy his product. He may know he’s blowing smoke in part. But let’s assume he’s dead serious.
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John Boehner is Kidding Himself”


Illinois Shows Limitations of Tea Party Movement

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Tea Party folks keep getting mad at me for saying that in the end they might prove ineffective in races at levels higher than local because they aren’t organized enough. They puff up their chests proudly proclaiming that they intend to resist being organized and they claim that being organized is precisely what they are fighting against. I understand the feeling, even sympathize quite a lot, but there is a problem with this obstinacy. It means they won’t win on a statewide ballot very often. The Illinois primary just proved me correct, too.

Let’s take the race for Senate in Illinois as exhibit “A.” Of course the good old boys in the state party went with Mark Kirk, the center left candidate from a northern suburb of Chicago. He was the he-can-win candidate and the establishment choice. Not one Tea Party group, though, wants Kirk and for good reason — and I heartily concur with them, as it happens. So who was the “Tea Party candidate,” the one meant to beat out Kirk, the one backed by the newly found power of the Tea Party movement? There wasn’t one. There was three.

Sadly, the Tea Partiers in Illinois split their vote all up. Some Tea Party Groups went with Don Lowery and some went with Patrick Hughes. A few even went with John Arrington. Hughes, of course, was the only one that had even a remote chance as far as voter polls were concerned. Hughes at least registered in the polls, Lowery and Arrington barely showed up at all.
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Illinois Shows Limitations of Tea Party Movement”


A Tea Party Patriot Responds to a Ruling Party Pundit

-By Norvell S. Rose

It wasn’t until the election of Barack Obama that I ever really considered myself a party person. Okay, I was a registered Republican, and I tended to vote for (R) candidates. Not because I truly believed in any set of guiding GOP principles, and especially not in recent years. But more because of a general feeling that Democrat contenders were, like termites, almost always more likely to eat away the foundations of the America I love.

Now, though, it’s different. The termites are swarming. They are more voracious than ever. And because we must engage in serious pest control, I passionately proclaim, “Party on!” Now that Obama defiantly pursues his relentless assault on liberty in order to fundamentally transform the United States of America, I am a party animal. A Tea Party Patriot and proud of it!

Thus, when her highness of highbrow punditry, Eleanor Clift, pens another of her catty columns for Newsweek, I accept her invitation to party. Entitled “Weak Tea (Party)” (www.newsweek.com/id/232794), Ms Clift’s commentary provides an ideal opportunity to clarify just what the Tea Party movement is all about. Here, thanks to the blinding hubris of the ruling class, Eleanor unwittingly offers an incredible party favor – the chance to blunt and even bury a number of key points the liberal media elite use to try to define who the Tea Party is.
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A Tea Party Patriot Responds to a Ruling Party Pundit”


The Tea Party Movement, The GOP & Making It Work

-By Frank Salvato

Only the most partisan and/or politically ignorant among us would fail to recognize the magnitude, importance and the consequences of the Tea Party Movement. To be certain, it is a force to be reckoned with. But, as with the science of storms, there is a danger when two forces compete to occupy the same space. We of the Right side of the aisle must recognize this danger and insist that actions are taken, definitions are designated and roles are recognized, lest we turn an important moment in time into catastrophic history.

The Tea Party Movement

The first thing we have to do is to recognize and understand exactly what the Tea Party Movement is, where it came from and why.

Many in the political world have erroneously identified the Tea Party Movement as a political group not unlike the Democrats, Libertarians or Republicans. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Proof to this reality is in the fact that people who have embraced the Tea Party Movement come from every flavor of politics. When over a million people descended on Washington in the name of the Tea Party Movement last Fall, the crowd was comprised of people from every political party – sans the Progressives, every social background, every religion and every race. To say that it is dominated by any one political party is to make a huge mistake.

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The Tea Party Movement, The GOP & Making It Work”


SEIU Hiding Behind Anti-Tea Party Website

-By Warner Todd Huston

Video king Lee Doren has done some great sleuthing to find out who is behind the newest attack on patriotic America by the left. A site called TheTeaPartyIsOver.org has popped up just as the primaries in Illinois get going. Its goal? To destroy the influence that Tea Party groups might have on the political process.

Turns out the biggest contributor to the group that created the site is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of Obama’s biggest supporters and the union that controls a large number of government employees unions.
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SEIU Hiding Behind Anti-Tea Party Website”


What Lesson Did Brown Teach Obama/Democrats? Apparently Pass Bad Stuff Faster

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once Scott Brown took away the Democrat super majority in the Senate by becoming the Republican’s 41st vote based in large part on the fact that Massachusetts voters were unhappy with Obamacare, one would think that President Obama and the Democrat Party would learn a vital lesson. A look at a dozen or so stories across the media over the last few days shows that the Democrats have indeed learned a lesson from Scott Brown’s victory. But is it the right lesson?

Did they learn that they’d better slow down their freight train of extremely left leaning policies? Did they learn that with 58% of Americans standing in opposition to Obamcare they’d better reassess their direction? Have they learned from an entire year of raucous healthcare townhalls, multiple loses at the polls, and tea party protests that brought out over a million people that they might be agitating the American people?

Nope.
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What Lesson Did Brown Teach Obama/Democrats? Apparently Pass Bad Stuff Faster”


Anatomy Of A Tea Party Pooping Endorsement

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have come to the conclusion that the Palatine Tea Party group (www.teapartypalatine.com) made a hasty decision in picking Joe Walsh for its Illinois 8th Congressional District candidate, hasty and perhaps misguided. In fact, this choice of Joe Walsh sort of shows the pitfalls that the Tea Party movement in general can fall into.

The field of candidates in the 8th District is wide, indeed. There are currently six Republicans running to snag the nomination of the Party and the differences between them are not too great when one looks over their issue statements. On the surface it would seem that throwing a dart would be just as legitimate a way as any other to make an endorsement in the 8th. But surface gloss can be deceiving and in this case, I believe that the gloss of Joe Walsh’s current campaign has blinded the good folks of the Palatine Tea Party group to a certain reality.

As I said there are six candidates for the 8th District nomination. Alphabetically they are:

What’s Wrong With the Palatine Endorsement?

From the information that I have been able to ascertain, it seems that one of the reasons that the Palatine Tea Party folks made their late December endorsement is because he won the poll that they hosted on their website. This poll was not scientific nor without controversy, however. The poll had surged overnight at one point with hundreds of votes each for candidates Walsh and rival Dirk Beveridge. This happened because of a technical flaw in the website. Apparently the poll did not record cookies so the same i.p. address could game the poll by hosting repeated votes. It seems that campaign operatives both for Beveridge and Walsh found out about this flaw and flooded the poll with multiple votes for their candidate.
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Anatomy Of A Tea Party Pooping Endorsement”


NBC’s Viera Scolding Scott Brown on Today Show

-By Warner Todd Huston

Meridith Viera seemed a bit annoyed that she was interviewing the newly elected Republican Scott Brown instead of Democrat Martha Coakley now that Massachusetts voters made their choice in the Tuesday special election for the open Senate seat there.

Viera did her level best to phrase the results of the election in an agenda driven way but Scott Brown wasn’t taking the bait. In fact, he proved exactly why he was elected over the bumbling Coakley. He refused to accept Viera’s lefty narrative and restated the day’s events with his own, positive message.

Viera started out trying to get Brown to admit that the only reason he won is because Martha Coakley made so many mistakes in her campaign. This was an effort to make less of Brown’s win by saying that the voters didn’t really vote for him at all. Viera asked, “… do you think that your victory was a result of missteps by your opponent or did you tap into something that the Democrats didn’t get about the voters?”
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NBC’s Viera Scolding Scott Brown on Today Show”


Louisiana Legislature Floating Bill Making Obamacare Illegal in State

-By Warner Todd Huston

Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe (R, Slidell) is introducing a bill for the 2010 legislative session in Baton Rouge that would make Obamacare illegal if it violates state laws, effectively making Obamacare null and void in the Pelican State.

Senator Crowe states that his bill “provides that no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system or health insurance.”

Crowe’s proposed Senate Bill (download .pdf file) begins as follows:

HEALTH CARE. Prohibits state or local governmental coercion of any Louisiana employer, health care provider, or individual to compel participation in any health care system or health insurance plan.

Crowe insists that Obamacare violates Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and “is therefore unconstitutional.” He also feels that the president’s plans violates the 10th Amendment among others.
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Louisiana Legislature Floating Bill Making Obamacare Illegal in State”


Old GOP Doesn’t ‘Get’ Tea Parties

-By Warner Todd Huston

Neil Cavuto of Fox News had a visit with former Vice President Dan Qualyle on Jan 13. Ostensibly the interview was about the earthquake in Haiti and the efforts that Quayle was saying needed to be made for the victims there, but Cavuto also asked the former veep about his feelings about the Tea Party movement. Quayle’s reply was revealing in that he proved that he really didn’t know how to think about the Tea Partiers. I think that Quayle is in exactly the same confused state that most of the old guard GOP is. They just don’t get it.

Cavuto asked what Quayle thought of the Tea Party movement and what it portended for the Republican Party and Quayle’s reply was that the GOP had to “co-opt” the Tea Partiers back into the GOP.

Sorry, Dan old pal, but that is wrong, wrong, wrong. The GOP had better understand that it is the Tea Partiers that have the upper hand here and the party also better understand that THEY must be the ones to become “co-opted.” It ain’t the other way ’round, Danny!
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Old GOP Doesn’t ‘Get’ Tea Parties”


Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new book about the Tea Party movement — and a movement it really is — will soon be hitting the shelves. “A New American Tea Party” penned by John M. O’Hara, one of the many folks that helped bring us some of those protests in early 2009, is a book that hopes that the reader will come away understanding and appreciating the Tea Party movement as a truly grassroots happening, a spontaneous outpouring of interest backed by true red, white and blue American ideals.

Author O’Hara, himself an early Tea Party organizer in Washington D.C. and the Chicago area, answers several questions with the book: what sparked the Tea Parties; is the name “Tea Party” itself a proper sobriquet; what do they mean; what does the future hold; and how do you make more?

The first thing one might notice is that O’Hara writes in a crisp, conversational style with short subchapters. This makes it ideal for reading bits at a time. This is not a dense treatment and I think his style makes the book very accessible to people of all ages — without talking down to the young or dumbing it down for the more advanced reader.
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Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?”


Crain’s Chicago: Earring Wearing ‘Journo’ Attacks ‘Tea-Baggers’ and Conservatives

-By Warner Todd Huston

Crain’s Chicago Business has just gotten into the business of indulging in foul, sexually charged name calling, apparently. Yes, you can mark Crain’s Chicago Business as only the latest news outlet to decide it’s funny to call conservatives “tea-baggers.” It’s a name that lefties have been tagging the movement with all winter, one derived from the sexually perverse homosexual practice.

This time it’s the self-assumed humorist and political columnist Greg Hinz who thought it was hilarious to call an Illinois gubernatorial candidate a “Tea-bagger.” In a blog post about candidate for Governor Adam Andrzejewski, Hinz broke out the funny bone and titled his offering, “Tea-bagger Andrzejewski goes for GOP gov’s gold.”

Now, without a doubt Greggie Hinz thinks he’s a laugh riot over at Crain’s Chicago Business. He must. After all, it is a laugh riot when a 60-something-year-old white, bald man wears an earring, isn’t it? (as can be seen in his blog photo) It must serve as his statement of “irony.” It’s his sign to those he meets that says, “Hey, dude, I’m a fun, funny guy.” Of course, it’s not really taken that way, sadly for Greggie. No, instead of being tragically hip, it’s just tragic. Speaking of hips, I hope this elder Crain’s jokester walks carefully on all this Chicago winter ice. We don’t want gramps to fall down and break his. And I hope Greggie walks carefully in those jester’s shoes with the curled up toes with the bells on them. It could be hazardous, ya know?
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Crain’s Chicago: Earring Wearing ‘Journo’ Attacks ‘Tea-Baggers’ and Conservatives”


In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you Tea Party goers in the western U.S. want a specific battle to fight there is none better than ballot measures 66 and 67 in the State of Oregon. The venerable Beaver State is preparing to chase out even more jobs and intends to tax its industry and small businesses to death with these badly timed measures but Oregonians have a chance to stop them by voting “no” on both 66 and 67.

During the worst national and state-wide economy since The Great Depression, with Oregon families losing jobs in every corner of the state, with businesses going out of business everywhere, the high-minded, left-wing state government has decided in its inestimable wisdom to launch the largest tax hike on the business community and the so-called rich in Oregon’s history. In 2009 over 1$ billion in permanent tax hikes was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski, the drunken sailor that sits in the State House in Salem.
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In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike”


Tea Party Debate Continued: My Reply to Steve McQueen of BigGovernment.com

-By Warner Todd Huston

In what I suppose is round three, I’d like to take a moment to reply to the criticism of my Tea Party article which was titled “Tea Parties: The Biggest Mistake We Could Make in 2010.” That criticism is penned by my fellow BG contributor, Steve McQueen whose piece titled “For Tea Parties, Bigger Is Not Better” I think missed my point. Worse I feel his piece helps the left to further splinter the right in a small way.

Certainly we on the right need an open and vigorous debate about what the Tea Parties are and how to make the best use of them, but we should have this discussion in the spirit of cooperative debate instead of the sort of isolated attacks employed by McQueen. What I mean is that if Mr. McQueen had some issues with my piece and questions about my meaning, the proper strategy would have been to email me and ask. We could then have had a debate, and perhaps joined together in a piece for BigGovernment.com that would clarify both our positions in the best effort toward harnessing the Tea Party energy to the best effect. Instead he rushed to print without a single attempt to contact me. This, I believe, only helps the left in that it gives the appearance of internal strife instead of a united front. After all, I would guess that Mr. McQueen and I are both after the same end goal of success of conservative principles in government and society alike.

In my piece I spoke of mistakes and this I think is another one of them. Too many of us Internet pundits are talking past each other and are too quick to look for that next “thing” that will get us noticed. Too often we are “Frumming” each other, in other words always attacking each other. Instead of seeking to find common ground so that we can build up our side we are sniping at each other.

Still, I think McQueen makes a few perfectly agreeable points despite that he so badly misconstrued my actual reason for writing my original piece. But like many out there that only read my provocative headline and didn’t bother to actually read the rest of the piece, McQueen assumed I was attacking the Tea Party movement itself. In fact, there is not one stitch of criticism of the actual Tea Parties in my piece. I have no complaints about them except in as much as questioning how we harness their energy going forward.
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Tea Party Debate Continued: My Reply to Steve McQueen of BigGovernment.com”


Stop Mark Kirk Rally, Jan 5th

The Folks at ChampionNews.com are supporting a Stop Kirk effort and a rally will be held Jan. 5th in Woodbine, Illinois. Kirk is wrong for this state for sure, so here is the info for the event…

Call the neighbors and wake the kids, it’s time to Stop Mark Kirk

Here’s a group that gets it. The Will County Tea Party Alliance (Joliet Tea Party & Homer/Lockport Tea Party) is hosting a Stop Mark Kirk Rally on Tuesday, January 5th at 7:30 PM at the Woodbine Country Club in Woodbine, Illinois. Admission is FREE.

You can find all of the details here. Mark Kirk’s leading Republican opponent Patrick Hughes will be there.
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Stop Mark Kirk Rally, Jan 5th”


Tea Parties: The Biggest Mistake We’ll Make in 2010

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s the end of 2009, the “aughts” are over, and we are about to embark on a new year — and what else are they but the “aughts”? Well, besides mostly a horrible and thankfully passed decade. In any case, we are at the end of the year and that means two things: lists about this year and predictions for the next. I’ve chosen the prognosticator’s art for this piece with the subject of what will likely be our biggest failure or mistake in 2010: the Tea Party movement.

We all know that just saying the words “Tea Party” is enough to raise American’s blood pressure. Some will become suspicious or even enraged by imagining I am about to attack the Tea Partiers, some on the left will be filled with disgust even thinking about the Tea Partiers at all, and still others will get their blood up thinking about why the Tea Party movement started in the first place. For 2009 “Tea” and “Party” were two words that raised American’s passions in a myriad of ways, for sure. That won’t change in 2010.

But with the Tea Party movement we are likely headed for a huge mistake in 2010, one that I fear will stretch into 2011 and one that has the potential to hurt us all, right, left and center — but especially right.
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Tea Parties: The Biggest Mistake We’ll Make in 2010″