Conservatives

Adam Kinzinger - Congress - Conservatives - Energy - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Kane County - Nuclear Power - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

11th District: Kinzinger Says Nuclear Power the Answer

June 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have been saying this for years, and now so is GOP candidate for the Illinois 11th District Congressional seat, Adam Kinzinger. In a recent Morris Daily Herald article Kinzinger said that the nation should prioritize nuclear power as one of the solutions to our energy woes.

Kinzinger told the *Morris Daily Herald that he would support building more nuclear power plants, he wants the country to further explore reprocessing spent fuel and supports developing a national long-term nuclear waste storage facility.

Essentially, the program would increase the nation’s number of nuclear stations and establish a long-term repository for storing nuclear waste. Also, the plan would follow Europe’s lead in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel for reuse, reducing the amount of waste in storage.

“I think the powerhouse, when it comes to nuclear energy, is to be able to go out and say, ‘Hey, look, we have three nuclear plants in our district, people in our district are employed, it’s safe, they are supportive, and it produces a lot of electricity,” he said in response to questions by the news media.

After all, here we are in the United States claiming that we are in the middle of an energy crisis yet Democrats, liberals and enviro-Nazis have put up roadblock after roadblock to stop the pursuit of energy independence in the form of nuclear power.
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11th District: Kinzinger Says Nuclear Power the Answer”

Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Republicans - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

Ill. Senate Race: Accusations Fly About Niecestro’s Republican ‘Flake’

June 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

(New info updated at the end of the post)

Doug Ibendahl of RepublicanNewsWatch has named the “flake” operative that Senate candidate wannabe Mike Niecestro claimed screwed him out of enough signatures to file his independent candidacy papers this week. Ibendahl claims it was none other than former comptroller candidate William Kelly. I spoke to Kelly today about the accusations.

Mr. Kelly says that Niecestro’s claims that his whole independent bid fell apart because of Kelly’s failure to come through with the promised signatures is puzzling. “He didn’t even give me the final go ahead to do it until five days before the filing date,” Kelly told me.

Five days to get 25,000 signatures is not feasible, for sure.
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Ill. Senate Race: Accusations Fly About Niecestro’s Republican ‘Flake’”

Alexi Giannoulias - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Mark Kirk - Republicans - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

(Ill. Senate Race) Niecestro Says ‘Flake’ Denied Him Petition Signatures

June 23, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Conservative businessman Mike Niecestro has been making noise about running for the U.S. Senate against GOP candidate Mark Kirk for at least a year. Even just a few weeks ago he amped up his noise machine to say that he had the ballot petition signatures needed to make a run for the office as an independent.

But yesterday the filing time came and no Niecestro papers were to be seen. He told reporters that one of the operatives that promised him thousands of signatures didn’t even get him a single one. ABC’s Charles Thomas reports that Niecestro said the politician in question is “known as a ‘flake’ in GOP circles.”

This quote raises major concerns about the seriousness of a Niecestro campaign. If Niecestro knew the guy he was relying on to put him over the top in petition signatures was a well-known “flake,” then why did Niecestro rely on him in the first place? If Niecestro was putting all his eggs in a “flake’s” basket, this seriously calls into doubt Niecestro’s planning capabilities, doesn’t it?
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(Ill. Senate Race) Niecestro Says ‘Flake’ Denied Him Petition Signatures”

Anti-Americanism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Federalism - Founders - GOP - Government - History - Liberals - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Despite Misconception, We Conservatives DO Want Some Government

June 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Leftists love to purposefully misconstrue what sort of government conservatives want. Certainly whenever some new big government boondoggle erupts in the typical corruption and waste that is government, conservatives rail against the misappropriation of powers that such boondoggles invariably mean. But when government isn’t doing something they want it to do and conservatives kvetch with equal vitriol, the first attack left-wingers charge them with is hypocrisy. The left’s taunt, however, is a willful misread of what it is that conservatives are saying in their critique of government.

Unfortunately, many conservatives make this taunt all the easier to level because it seems that they are a bit hazy themselves on just what they should think about the role of government.

Conservatives come by this problem honestly, though. What conservative worth his salt is unaware of Ronald Reagan’s famous small government quote: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” (Reagan’s first inaugural address)
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Despite Misconception, We Conservatives DO Want Some Government”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Freedom - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

The Danger Of A Government With Unlimited Power

June 15, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The Obama administration continues the nation’s travels, since Franklin Roosevelt’s socialist New Deal in the 1930s, along what Friedrich von Hayek called The Road To Serfdom.

The fundamental thrust of liberal-progressive-socialist governments such as that of President Obama is to abrogate the rights of private property, aiming at the holy grail of their secular religion: redistribution of income and wealth to reduce everyone to an equally low state of economic equality.

But people don’t readily abandon what they have labored to earn and save. As Lenin purportedly said, “Socialism emanates from the business end of a gun barrel.” Hence the relentless push of liberal-progressives to expand the power of collectivized government in Washington.
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The Danger Of A Government With Unlimited Power”

Budget - Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

New Entrant into Ill. Race for U.S. Senate?

June 12, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Hinz of Crain’s is reporting that there’s a new candidate about to enter the race for Barack Obama’s old senate seat and he says he’s already got both the petition signatures and $1 million to spend on the race. He is west side mortgage broker Mike Niecestro.

The self-funded, self-proclaimed “disgusted Republican” and conservative says that there isn’t any difference between the two current candidates.

“There is no difference between Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias,” Mr. Niecestro said in an e-mail. “Mark Kirk would not support the Arizona (immigration) law. I will. Mark Kirk voted for cap and trade. …I am a disgusted Republican who has had it with the people the party throws at us.”

Well, there’s no real way to dispute Mr. Niecestro’s characterization of Mr. Kirk. I have always called him a 45 percenter. Kirk votes with Republicans only 45 percent of the time on the major issues. He leans center left, not center right.

Nicestro is running as an independent but he is also running as a conservative. In fact, his slogan on the main page of his website is, “a conservative voice who will put government back in the hands of people like you…”

http://niecestroforsenate.com/index.php/home
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New Entrant into Ill. Race for U.S. Senate?”

Congress - Conservatives - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Green Party - House of Representatives - Liberals - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

We Need Less Partisanship? Bah, We Need MORE of it!

June 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last weekend I attended a townhall meeting held by my congressman. During the question and answer period one theme came to the fore that is all too common in America today. That theme was that we need less “partisanship” in Washington D.C., there is too much choosing of sides, too much party politics. Blah, blah, blah. Cry me a river.

What tosh. We don’t need less partisanship in our politics, we need more of it. At least the more honest kind, the kind based on real principles.

One thing was clear from those whining about partisanship, too. They were all the left-wingers in the audience guided there by MoveOn.org’s email blasts. Now the reason the lefties were piteously whining like this is because this particular congressman is one of the more conservative members of the House. (I am not naming him because this is not his opinion and I don’t want anyone to associate this op ed with him) So, their ideas were the ones on the losing end of this congressman’s votes, to be sure.

Of course, if this congressman were to be like most Illinois congressmen — a lefty — these lefty audience members would not be whining about partisanship at all. They’d be happy as clams with a left-winger’s votes and would find the whining about partisanship quixotic.
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We Need Less Partisanship? Bah, We Need MORE of it!”

Budget - Chicago - Conservatives - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Senate - State Government - Steve Rauschenberger - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Steve Rauschenberger Officially Launches Bid for 22nd District State Senate Seat

June 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steve Rauschengerger held the State Senate seat of the 22nd District for many years until he bowed out to make a run for Governor in 2006. Since that time Rauschenberger imagined that he had hung up his political hat, never to run again. That was until the current General Assembly retired for the Summer without a final budget. It was then that he knew he had to run again.

“This is the worst situation in Springfield I can ever imagine,” Rauschenberger said after his kickoff address to a crowd of about 75 people in his Elgin campaign office on Douglas Avenue. The Chicago-based leadership “felt politics were more important” than coming up with a balanced budget, Rauschenberger said.

“There are 48 other states that have a balanced budget,” Rauschenberger said, noting that the only other state in as dire a situation as Illinois is California, which has a $16 billion budget deficit.

Good luck to Mr. Rauschenberger.
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Steve Rauschenberger Officially Launches Bid for 22nd District State Senate Seat”

Barack Obama - Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Cook County - DuPage County - Government - House of Representatives - Peter Roskam - President - Republicans - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Peter Roskam’s Townhall (IL 6th District)

June 7, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. Representative Peter Roskam held a townhall back home in his 6th Congressional District in Illinois this weekend in Roselle, Illinois. This was a sort of dual purpose event, part one meant to advertise the GOP leadership’s new website project AmericaSpeakingOut, and part two being an open forum for anyone to ask the congressman a question.

I must say, it was refreshing to see a townhall where both left and right leaning questioners were able to interact with a congressman without yelling and screaming. The left was well represented in this right-leaning district by an email blast from MoveOn.org that alerted the lefties in the area to attend. It seemed that about 1/3 of the questions were from the left perspective.

First up Roskam discussed AmericaSpeakingOut.com.
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Rep. Peter Roskam’s Townhall (IL 6th District)”

Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Elections - GOP - House of Representatives - James Simpson - Kentucky - Republicans - Taxes - Tea Party

Rand Paul’s Inadvertent Warning to Tea Partiers and Conservatives

May 30, 2010 by

-By James Simpson

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media and America’s Survival has a post at News With Views about Rand Paul’s now infamous gaffes on the Rachel Maddow Show. In it he warns that some of Rand’s libertarian views could put him at odds with conservatives on a variety of issues and open him to criticism from all sides.

According to Kincaid, “The libertarian movement was the product of seminars held by the far-left Institute for Policy Studies back in the 1960s and 70s.” And while libertarians are good on fiscal matters, because they believe in limited government, their isolationist positions on national defense, if adopted, would provide opportunities for our enemies to flourish and grow in the vacuum created by our absence.
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Rand Paul’s Inadvertent Warning to Tea Partiers and Conservatives”

Conservatives - Government - Tea Party - TeaPartyHD - Tennessee - Warner Todd Huston

Free Web Broadcast of Ann Coulter LIVE, Tonight at 5:30 Central

May 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

TeaPartyHD.com has now gone live and to celebrate its inauguration on the Web as THE place to go for conservative information and content, TeaPartyHD.com is presenting “An Evening With Ann Coulter” streaming live from Nashville this evening, May 29 at 5:30 PM central time.

The broadcast will begin with interviews and news about primary candidates in Tennessee, as the Volunteer State is hosting the Coulter event, followed by a salute honoring our men and women in our armed forces past and present. Then comes Ann Coulter, the always lively and loquacious speaker whose biting humor and straight talk is sure to please.

But after the Coulter program be sure and bookmark TeaPartyHD.com because much, much more will be happening at the site over the ensuing weeks. This is an ambitious project instituted in the hopes of establishing an online network that is visitor sourced and powered. YOU are the content, YOUR local tea party information is welcome and encouraged. TeaPartyHD.com‘s slogans are “Real News. Real Raw. Real Time” and “Your Voice. Your Values. Your Vote,” so they want this site to reflect your needs, desires, and goals.
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Free Web Broadcast of Ann Coulter LIVE, Tonight at 5:30 Central”

Budget - Capitalism - Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Earmarks - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - GOP - Government - John Boehner - Liberals - Peter Roskam - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

GOP Will Repeal Obamacare if They Take Control of House

May 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) told reporters that the Republicans are “committed to repealing the health care law” if they take back control of the House or Representatives in November.

Boehner was touting the GOP effort AmericaSpeakingOut.com. Earlier today Representative Peter Roskam debuted his op ed about the effort here on the blog.

Please do take advantage of this opportunity to make your voice heard by our GOP leaders.
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GOP Will Repeal Obamacare if They Take Control of House”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Christianity - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Nancy Pelosi - President - Religion - Republicans - Ronald Reagan - Scott Lee Cohen - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Report: May 12, 2010 Sarah Palin In Chicago

May 13, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the deep blue sea of the People’s Republic of Chicagoland, Sarah Palin shined like a light of liberty among the darkness of Mayor Richard “King” Daley’s perverse domain. Palin brought hope into the home of President Obama’s cynical “Chicago Way” style of politics, and I was there to witness the May 12 show.

Sarah Palin was her usual effervescent self, upbeat and positive about this great country and happy to appear before us. She reveled in her “aw shucks” persona built from regular Americana, a style that has made her dear to the hearts of so many Americans from coast to coast.

The show started with a little patter between Big John Howell and Amy Jacobson, the morning radio talkers from Chicago’s WIND AM. One of John Howell’s musician buddies performed a few songs for us and I have to say he was pleasant to listen to. Finally, just before the Governor addressed us, the ever avuncular and impressive Guy Benson — who has a Sunday evening show on WIND — entertained us with some political humor.

Then, when the giant curtains parted to reveal the governor, the applause was almost deafening so the evening started with an electric jolt. She immediately asked all U.S. military veterans to stand for recognition to a huge round of applause for her recognition and for ours of our vets.

One of the early things that Governor Palin brought up was this idiotic business of Highland Park High School whose administrators suddenly canceled its girls basketball team trip to Arizona. The team had won the right to play in a tournament for the first time in 26 years. Why was it canceled? Only because the tournament is in Arizona and school administrators are mad at the state. Disgustingly, these school chiefs are using these girls to advance their own political agenda. Palin was amazed that this school was ignorant enough to say Arizona is not a worthy place for their girls to visit yet the school is still sponsoring a trip to China! “Do you know how girls are treated in China,” Palin asked. Then to great applause she suggested that those girls might have to “go rogue.”
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Report: May 12, 2010 Sarah Palin In Chicago”

Chicago - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Republicans - SB600 - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

SB600: Let Illinois GOP Voters Control Their Own Party, Not the Insiders and Bigwigs

May 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve talked about SB600 many, many times here on the blog and with the end of the legislative session in our Springfield-based Capitol coming to an end, we need to make another push for this worthy bill.

SB600 would return to Illinois’ Republican voters the responsibility to again vote for their own members of the state central committee, a vote that was taken away from us by the good old boy network of the Illinois GOP powermen in the 1980s. As it stands today only GOP committeemen may vote for the members of the state central committee, the group that controls the agenda for the state party. This insider’s control of the central committee has taken away from the voters the right to affect what their own party does. SB600 would cancel this backroom dealing and again see state central committee members go before the voters to gain their positions.
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SB600: Let Illinois GOP Voters Control Their Own Party, Not the Insiders and Bigwigs”

Conservatives - Entertainment - Hollywood - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Ronald Reagan - TV - Warner Todd Huston

How Hollywood Maligns The Right

May 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know of the great slights that Hollywood deals out to the American right. We see them all the time. From the TV shows that casts Republicans as villains, the movies that make Christians out to be hypocrites or even outright evil. Traditional motherhood and fatherhood also find constant ridicule at the hands of Hollywood. The overt examples are everywhere, of course. But the grand swipe isn’t all that Hollywood indulges. There are also these ubiquitous, small, quick, too fast to notice swipes against the right perpetrated by Hollywood. A fine example of the side-swipe approach to denigrating the right came in the April 29 episode of The Mentalist, a CBS detective show starring Australian actor Simon Baker.

Now, at the top here I want to say that The Mentalist is generally an inoffensive, amusing little show fashioned in the Sherlock Holmes mode featuring a detective that sees every little clue and can with ease assemble these disparate facts to solve the crime. Baker turns in a funny performance with just enough underlying darkness to make his character interesting.

But, despite that it is generally a diverting entertainment, the show is just as disposed to slam anything from the right as any other and the April 29 episode gives us a prime example of that.
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How Hollywood Maligns The Right”

Congress - Conservatives - GOP - Government - Judges - Liberals - New Jersey - Republicans - Supreme Court - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Gov Christie to NJ Supreme Court Justice: You’re Fired!

May 4, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

My favorite sentiment about the U.S. Supreme Court is from that rascal President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Worcester v. Georgia that Old Hickory wasn’t too happy with. In reply he is famous for the sentiment that the Court made its decision and proposed that “now let them enforce it.”*

Would that we had more Andrew Jacksons.

Well, perhaps we do have at least one. I nominate Governor Chris Christie for the Andrew Jackson award for 2010 because Christie is taking an extremely unusual measure for this day and age. He’s firing one of New Jersey’s Supreme Court Justices and appointing one of his own, one that will closer follow a more conservative path.

We need to see legislators exhibit a more adversarial relationship with the courts. You see, it wasn’t supposed to be that the courts ruled all they surveyed. Our system has been warped into imagining that the courts are the final word on everything. This was not supposed to be the way it worked. Courts were merely meant to read the law and adjudicate cases accordingly. And if a court ruled something un-constitutional, then it was then back in the legislature’s court to write a law that is Constitutional. Unfortunately, we’ve lost the idea that the legislatures and executives of our political system are supposed to fulfill their own roles as leaders and lawmakers. Unfortunately, they’ve all too often abdicated roles to the often unelected and unaccountable courts.
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Gov Christie to NJ Supreme Court Justice: You’re Fired!”

Campaign Finance - Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Cook County - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Joe Walsh - Liberals - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Fox Attacks 8th District Candidate Joe Walsh

April 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fox News Chicago ran a piece on 8th Congressional District Republican candidate Joe Walsh who topped a field of five candidates in the primary. They found that Walsh’s campaign never filed his financial disclosure forms as required by federal election law. The Fox correspondent pointedly asked Walsh, “how come you didn’t file your personal financial disclosure forms as obligated by federal election laws?”

Fox News also found a couple of local pols that said they would ask Walsh to resign his primary win if these things were not figured out. Of course, neither of the guys they found supported Walsh during the primary, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they’d immediately jump to calling for Walsh to quit the race.

But my biggest problem with these stories about Walsh’s financial troubles is that they never came before the primary. They’ve all come after the primary. Even I wrote about Walsh’s financial troubles before the primary and I don’t have the investigative tools that TV and newspapers do! Yet all these high falutin’ Old Media outlets in Chicago ignored the issue until Walsh won the primary.

It is hard not to imagine that the Chicago media waited to “report” these matters until after the primary specifically so that they could hurt the Republican pickup of this seat.

Walsh’s campaign did file the disclosure forms and paid a $200 fine after Fox News brought it to their attention. Walsh says it was but an oversight. Here I’ll make no judgment, you decide.
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Chicago Fox Attacks 8th District Candidate Joe Walsh”

Anti-Americanism - Anti-War - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - GOP - Government - History - Liberals - Republicans - Socialism - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Anatomy of Leftist Unreason

April 12, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

I found a reply on my ChicagoNow blog that is so emblematic of the essential anti-Americanness of the left in our country that I thought I’d explore it in a full post instead of just replying to it on the original page on which it appeared.

The comment was oozed out by some extremist named Tom Degan, a blogger whom I’d never heard of before. Apparently he has his own blog on the Google-owned Blogspot system. (No link love for Tommy, look for his blog yourself) He is himself utterly inconsequential, of course, but his reply on my blog was a prosaic leftist rant, devoid of inventiveness, that was quite typical of the unhinged left. It really a sort of non-sequitur to the post on which it appeared, and its content was pretty much just your average, every day, simple-minded, left-wing boilerplate, but it is what passes for “thinking” on the left, so it stands as a good example of the left’s folly.

Mr. Degan started with this paragraph:
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Anatomy of Leftist Unreason”

Bill Brady - Budget - Chicago - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Republicans - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Bill Brady Still Leading in Polls

April 10, 2010 by

GOP Gubernatorial Bill Brady is still leading Gov. Pat Quinn 45 to 38 percent even as all the media wags keep claiming that Brady is “too conservative” to win in Illinois.

Brady appeared on Fox News Sunday…

As to the so-called “Mr. Republican,” former Governor Jim Edgar, this man is no Republican and never was. He’s the supreme RINO that should simply go away. He hasn’t held office for over a decade at this point and his left-wing counsel is not wanted.

Conservatives - Heritage Foundation - Warner Todd Huston

Heritage Foundation Launches New Grassroots Effort

April 10, 2010 by

The Heritage Foundation is undertaking a new effort to spread the conservative word through grassroots organizing with its new Action for America.

I know that Heritage has some 600,000 members world wide these days and it is good to see them trying to take the next step toward the promulgation of conservatism.

From the website:

For nearly four decades, The Heritage Foundation has provided conservative leadership for America. What began as a visionary startup policy shop has blossomed into the most influential think tank in the nation. Along the way, Heritage adapted to market pressures to maintain its position as the world’s most cutting-edge and influential research institution.
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Heritage Foundation Launches New Grassroots Effort”

Banks - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Illinois - Joe Walsh - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Walsh Will Put District’s Interests Ahead of Party Interests to ‘Repeal, Reform and Replace’

April 2, 2010 by

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

This week, Investor’s Business Daily asked, “Are Republican leaders getting rubbery-legged about repealing the massive new multitrillion-dollar entitlement program the president and Congress just passed into law?”

Certainly, many are not including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) who has already introduced legislation to repeal Obamacare.
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Walsh Will Put District’s Interests Ahead of Party Interests to ‘Repeal, Reform and Replace’”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Matthew J. O'Connor - Ronald Reagan - Taxes

Defending Reagan Against Bloomberg.com

March 28, 2010 by

-By Matthew J. O’Connor

Below are the first several paragraphs of a 3/24/10 article written by Brian Faler, a Bloomberg.com staff reporter, wherein Mr. Faler attempts to link the former Reagan Administration’s budgetary usage of the “reconciliation rule” with the Obamacare travesty just signed into law by President Obama. Also below is my letter responding to Mr. Faler.

In his article, written under the provocative title, Democrats Owe Thanks to Reagan for Health-Care Vote Procedure, Mr. Faler attempts to arrange through several references and quotes from former Reagan Administration budget officials and a past senate parliamentarian direct linkage between the title of his article and now enacted, Obamacare. While it is true the Reagan and Bush Administrations employed the usage of the reconciliation rule, it was only employed in the reduction of spending and taxes and was never used to advance landmark entitlement legislation.

The above key distinction was left out altogether by Mr.Faler, leaving the reader with an imbalance of information and thus a conclusion, inconclusive of the facts. Facts can have a way of ruining a piece of journalism, especially when they may serve to destroy the entire thesis of a story. [See Mr. Faler’s excerpted story immediately below and my following letter of response]
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Defending Reagan Against Bloomberg.com”

Blogging - Computers - Conservatives - Inernet - Warner Todd Huston

Publius Forum at 106 in DBKP Top Conservative Blogs

March 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, I was gratified and a bit shocked that Publius Forum almost made it into the DBKP Top 100 Conservative Blogs this year.

I have to confess that I don’t put as much time into advertising Publius Forum as I should and I don’t take any paid for advertising for the site, so we definitely are not a money-making venture here. So, the fact that we’ve gotten to #106 by sheer word of mouth and natural hits is quite an achievement, I think.
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Publius Forum at 106 in DBKP Top Conservative Blogs”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Federalism - Freedom - Gambling - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Law - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Pat Quinn - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - States Rights - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Government Is Not Our Friend

March 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Small-government conservatives have always been suspicious of government. Whether city, county, state or federal all government is looked on as a troublesome but necessary evil that must be tightly controlled and oft times opposed. This anti-government attitude, of course, is a complete mystery to socialist Democrats. They just don’t understand why conservatives mistrust government and why they eye it suspiciously. So, looking for a way to explain in real terms why conservatives loathe government is sometimes not an easy task as the ideas are often very esoteric. Thank God the corrupt governments in Barack Obama’s Illinois are always there to supply a ready example of why government is often the enemy of a free people.

In that mien, here is another perfect example of how government often does not serve the voters, how it does what ever it wants to do despite the voters, and how government often thinks it knows better than the very voters that it is supposed to serve.

In 2009 the Illinois State legislature in its Springfield-based capitol passed a video gambling law that for the first time legalized video poker machines across the state. The progress of this law was very contentious with most Republicans and some Democrats standing in opposition to this immoral legislation and a sop to the opposers was put in the bill as sweetener to assure passage. An “opt out” clause was put in the bill so that those conservative districts that were so opposed to video gambling could exclude themselves from allowing the immoral act of video gambling in their jurisdiction.
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Government Is Not Our Friend”

Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - President - Republicans - Senate - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Secret Back Room Deals is NOT Democracy!

March 22, 2010 by

-By the Illinois Conservatives FaceBook Group

Turns out, yes he can. President Obama has shown the country that yes, he can do the secret backroom deals and kickbacks that he promised to eschew. That yes, he can confuse and complicate a process and fog it over with last-minute “emotional pleas.” Yes, he can force Americans to buy a product. And yes, he can orchestrate a government take-over of 1/6 of the American economy.

While President Obama once campaigned on transparency and bi-partisan cooperation, he and Nancy Pelosi have shown us that not only is it politics as usual with them—but on a bigger, more jaded and oppositional level than we’ve ever seen.
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Secret Back Room Deals is NOT Democracy!”

Conservatives - Elections - GOP - Illinois - Lake County - Republicans - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Conservative Bob Cook Takes Lake Co. GOP Boss Slot

March 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Congratulations goes to Bob Cook of Wauconda for being elected as the new Lake County Republican Party Chairman.

Former chair Dan Venturi withdrew his bid to keep his position after it became clear that he’d likely have lost to Cook. Venturi said withdrawing was an act of unity so that Cook could be elected unanimously.

Some grumbling about Venturi occurred when he backed Maria Rodriguez for Congress in the recent GOP primary. Instead candidate Joe Walsh handily won the 8th District primary. Venturi was considered “out of touch” by some and a pawn of House GOP leader Tom Cross by others.

For his part, though, Cook says that picking candidates in a primary is a mistake that he won’t make. As chairman, Cook says he’ll never endorse candidates in a primary.

The Daily Herald claims that Cook’s elevation to party boss “represents a growing conservative trend among party members.” I am not sure there is any state-wide evidence for that, but it is good to see conservatives finally being represented in the Illinois GOP nonetheless.

So, congratulations to Bob Cook, Lake County GOP Chairman.
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Conservative Bob Cook Takes Lake Co. GOP Boss Slot”

Congress - Conservatives - Cook County - DuPage County - Elections - GOP - House of Representatives - Illinois - Joe Walsh - Republicans - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Weekly Standard on Illinois Rebels

March 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fred Barnes, editor of the Weekly Standard published a piece that 8th District candidate Joe Walsh referenced this week. Barnes didn’t just talking about Walsh, though. Here is the except of what Barnes had to say about several other Illinois Republican “Rebels on the Right.”

The grass-roots revolt in the Illinois primaries was all the more telling because it was a near-total surprise. Ethan Hastert’s name, rather than an asset, “actually worked against him,” says a Republican official who supported him. The Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times endorsed his opponent, Hultgren—another surprise.

For Hultgren, the key to winning was staying to the right of Hastert. “I believe we need real conservatism in Washington,” he declared. “I’m proud to call myself a real conservative.” He won, 55 percent to 45 percent. He faces Democrat Bill Foster, who won a special election after Hastert’s father resigned, in the general election on November 2.

The success of Dold in the House seat being vacated by Representative Mark Kirk “came out of nowhere,” Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois told me. Schock had endorsed the favorite, Coulson. Dold defeated Coulson, 39 percent to 30 percent, in a multiple candidate race.

Once again, the winner ran against Washington and excessive spending. Dold labeled Coulson “a Springfield insider” as a legislator and one who voted for “tax and spend” bills. As a social moderate, Dold nicely fits the district, which President Obama won with 61 percent of the vote in 2008. Kirk, by the way, won the Republican primary for the Senate seat once held by Obama.

What distinguished Walsh’s victory was the role of tea party activists. Without them, he would have had little chance of winning. After his victory—Walsh got 35 percent in a six-way race—he traveled to Nashville to speak at the National Tea Party Convention. “I ran as a tea party candidate in the primary, and I’m going to run as a tea party candidate in the general,” he said.

When Melissa Bean, the Democratic incumbent, learned that Walsh would be her opponent, she expressed relief, regarding him as the weakest of the Republicans in the primary. Her reaction was reminiscent of how pleased aides of President Carter were in 1980 when Ronald Reagan emerged as his Republican opponent. They were happy to have escaped the awesome juggernaut of a Howard Baker campaign.

Please do go on over to Barnes’ piece and read what he had to say on races in other parts of the country.
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Weekly Standard on Illinois Rebels”

Barack Obama - Budget - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Republicans - Taxes - Tea Party - TV News - Warner Todd Huston

Tea Party ‘Extremists’ Take Center Stage

March 3, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The liberal media’s newest meme is to claim that the tea party movement is made up exclusively of John Birchers, militia types, racists, and “birthers.” Politico, for instance, had an extensive story about how legitimate conservatives are coming to realize that they’ll have to conduct a Buckley styled purge of the extremists if they expect the tea party groups to be taken seriously. Of course, the left has had its extremists for decades, unlike the right has never conducted any such purges, and has also benefited from a news media that has never highlighted the left’s worst nuts.

The whole idea that conservatives have to purge their wackier, more fringe members is something that at one level is obvious but at another is proof that the left and the Old Media are nothing but hypocrites. At still a third level there is part of the attitude exhibited by some of these far right elements that is a root motivation of the tea party movement, fringe or no.

As clownish left-wing commentators such as Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, John Stewart or Stephen Colbert point fingers and guffaw at the fringes of the right and as the New York Times and Politico stroke their chins and look down their noses at the unruly tea party movement, it must be noted that none of these folks ever uttered a cross word against the Code Pink wackos, the communist infiltrators, anti-war hippies, Stalinist apologists, pro-abortion extremists, Euro-trash half-wits, eco-terrorists, and outright anarchists that have filled the left’s ranks since the birth of the new left after WWII.

At every lefty protest representatives of these hatemongering groups abound. They can be found on the campus of every American college and university, as well. But are these dangerous extremists ever discussed in our Old Media outlets when they highlight lefty movements? Never. The left’s extremists are simply never mentioned. It is as if every left-wing group in America is filled with conscientious old grandmothers and idealistic young folks innocently avowing their rights as citizens of the world. Never are the violence prone, the hateful nutcases, or the drugged out losers that fills the American left ever highlighted.
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Tea Party ‘Extremists’ Take Center Stage”