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Sam Adams Alliance

Live Blogging the Sammies

April 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Tod Huston


Milwaukee talk show host Vicki McKenna was next to give awards to those involved in wiki efforts. Winners were Seth Cooper for Ballotpedia, Fred Baldwin for Judgepedia, and John Wynne for the Sunshine Review.

Wikis are, of course, a similar sort of effort like Wikipedia. But these gather policy information, judges, and ballot initiatives. This is a new sort of internet effort that helps citizens learn about their local issues.

The room is quite full, I’d estimate that at least 300 some guests in attendance.

Visit Sam Adam’s Alliance

Sam Adams Alliance

Sammies Awards Begins…

April 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Tod HustonOur first award went to Melissa Coulthier as Microblogger of the year. Presented by Sam Adams COO John Tsarpalas.

John Fund presenting the Voter Watchdog Award to Ruth Bendl.

In his remarks, John says he is encouraged about the conservative message today. After all, during the Carter and Clinton years we felt we were in the wilderness but we soon found success again at the polls.

Fund recalls that Reagan was sure that Carter would lead from the far left even as he ran as a moderate. Fund says that Reagan was right, Carter made a hash of things and that left the door open for Reagan to sweep into office.

As Clinton was coming to office, Fund says that Reagan repeated his observation, and “sure enough we had the biggest tax increase in history.” And Clinton’s leftism led to the 1994 Republican revolution. “Stick to conservatism and you will win again,” said Reagan then.

Fund told us that we have the power to reverse Obama’s current power.

Ruth Bendl accepted the award for Voter Watchdog. A world traveler, Bendl is a tireless activist against vote fraud. Ruth says they discovered that 80,000 illegal immigrants came to the state of Oregon to get IDs because of the lax ID laws in that state.

Ruth said that her state officers aren’t too fond of her because she has found that quite a few energetic corpses are still voting there. Ruth is an acticist for proper ID requirements to be included on the voter roles. Ruth also is adamant that lax voter roles is a homeland security issue. The easy by which illegals get IDs is criminal.

Visit Sam Adam’s Alliance

Sam Adams Alliance

Live Blogging the Sammies

April 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Tod Huston

Tonight, April 18, I am sitting on blogger’s row for the 2nd Annual Sammies sponsored by the Sam Adam’s Alliance.

Held north of Chicago in Northbrook, Illinois at the beautiful Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel, the 2nd Annual Sammies looks to be a fun event. Speakers include Michelle Malkin, Joe the Plumber, “the capitalist pig” Jonathan Hoenig, Mary Katherine Ham, The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund, Stephen Moore, and others all hosted by Radio host Guy Benson.

The festivities kick off at 7PM Central time.

Our host for the evening is local talk show host Guy Benson. Benson has a weekend show on WIND in Chicago and also appears weekly on the Hugh Hewitt show during the “young guns” segment with Mary Catherine Ham.

… and now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to get a cocktail before it’s too late!

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - News - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Heritage Foundation - Unions

Workers Deserve Better Than a Big Labor Lackey

January 9, 2009 by

The Heritage Foundation

Today may well turn out to be a major turning point in the history of the labor movement, and not because Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) will face questions at her Secretary of Labor confirmation hearings in the Senate. No, the bigger story is the voice vote conference call Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern has scheduled for 2 pm today. If things go the way Stern plans, the SEIU board will approve the forced break up of the third largest SEIU affiliate in the country, SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW). The UHW’s sin? Their leader, Sal Rosselli, has been a big critic of Stern’s leadership. The Los Angeles Times reports:

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - The Heritage Foundation

The Most Fraudulent Election Ever

November 4, 2008 by

-By The Heritage Foundation

According to federal election law, any presidential campaign that participates in public financing is automatically audited after an election. When Barack Obama broke his promise to the American people by forgoing the public financing system, his campaign became the first since public financing became law to have a chance of not being audited. Federal law does still allow the Federal Election Commission to audit a presidential campaign that doesn’t participate in public financing, but at least four of the six FEC commissioners must first vote to pursue an investigation “for cause.” No doubt there is great “cause” to be concerned about Obama’s fundraising efforts.

Late last month, the venerable and independent National Journal tested reports that the Obama campaign’s online fundraising system was built to facilitate fraud. Veteran journalist Neil Munro bought two pre-paid American Express gift cards worth $25 each to donate to the Obama and McCain campaigns online. Munro purchased the cards with cash and then accessed the Obama and McCain campaign websites from a public library in Fairfax, Va. The Obama campaign’s site accepted the $25 donation, but the McCain campaign’s site rejected it . Contacted by National Journal, the McCain campaign explained its system rejected the donation because American Express could not verify that the donor lived at the address given with the online contribution.
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00Publius Contributor - Inernet - Media Bias - News - The Heritage Foundation - The Law

Important FEC Ruling for Blogger Freedom…

August 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently the FEC just made a good ruling for our side. The Heritage Foundation has the report…

Blogger Freedom Reaffirmed

Bloggers and web site operators may support, oppose, link to, and work cooperatively with federal political candidates. This freedom was reaffirmed when the newly re-constituted Federal Election Commission released its first two enforcement cases August 12.

The Commission’s refusal to regulate blogging and internet sites is not new, but it is notable is that the pro-blogger decision was made within a week or two of the new Commission taking office. Of the scores of items on its docket, the new Commission chose to address this one first: quite likely because they wanted to send a signal to that bloggers are free to engage in politics

Specifically, the Commission said that Gordon Fischer, a former state political party chairman, did not violate election law when he maintained a web site and blog (Iowa True Blue) promoting Barack Obama and criticizing Hillary Clinton. (Our friends at CCP note that the complaint was filed by a Clinton supporter: observing that all too many FEC complaints are filed for political harassment
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Heritage Foundation

The Silence Is Deafening

June 21, 2008 by

-By The Heritage Foundation

The year 2008 is not just an election year. It is also the year that marks the beginning of a demographic transformation that threatens the fiscal stability of this country. Already, Social Security, . But this year, the first of the nearly 80 million baby boomers begin to draw out, instead of contribute to, our entitlement programs. The consequences of this shift will come quickly and will be staggering.

Already Medicare spends more each year than it takes in. In just six years, Medicare will draw more than 45% of its budget from general revenues. Already Social Security and Medicare consume 7.5% of our GDP. Unless changes are made, that figure will jump to 13% by 2030. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the increased deficits or taxation required to cover this explosion in spending would cripple the U.S. economy. A diverse coalition of 16 budget experts from seven think tanks (including American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Concord Coalition, The Heritage Foundation, New America Foundation, Progressive Policy Institute and Urban Institute) met for more than a year before producing a paper calling for honest political leadership on the issue. Now at least one congressman has come forward with an honest proposal.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - The Heritage Foundation

The Bear Truth (Polar, that is)

May 5, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By The Heritage Foundation

Environmentalists are in their normal state of righteous frenzy over the Department of Interior’s continued deliberations on whether or not to list the polar bear as “endangered” pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Responding to a California judge’s decision ordering Interior to make their decision by May 15, Natural Resources Defense Council’s Andrew Wetzler said, “The science is absolutely unambiguous that the polar bear deserves protection.” The Center for Biological Diversity’s Kassie Siegel added: “The science is perfectly clear. There’s no dispute. The polar bear is an endangered species.” This rhetoric is 100% typical of the environmental movement. All scientists agree with us. There is no debate. Politicians need to conform to our agenda or we’ll all soon die. The problem in this case is that someone forgot to tell the Canadians.

An independent committee of scientists told the Canadian government last Friday that the polar bears are not, in fact, threatened or endangered. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada did give the bears a “special concern” status, though, Canada’s weakest classification. Chairman Jeffrey Hutchings announced: “Based on the best available information at hand, there was insufficient reason to think that the polar bear was at imminent risk of extinction.” Hutchings went on to explain that the polar bears were facing threats from over-hunting and oil and gas development, but that the current modeling is not reliable enough to determine exactly what impact global warming is having on the bear.

Canadian scientists are not the only ones who do not believe the polar bears are becoming extinct. The native Inuit Indians, a society that has depended on the polar bears for its livelihood for generations, also is against listing the polar bear as endangered. The Inuit no longer trust scientists after researchers drastically underestimated bowhead whale populations in the Arctic. Jayko Alooloo told The Canadian Press: “We don’t believe the scientists’ information any more. (Hunters) will ignore new quotas.”
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