WMD at We the People Convention – Day Two

Having attended morning sessions on the impact of illegal immigration on national security and the effects of administration environmental policy on energy production, I am even more convinced that this president has deliberately accelerated us down the path towards the destruction of the very fabric of American life and culture.

Mark Lucas made a very compelling argument that the unchecked illegal immigration to this country has been subsidized by the federal government; and that our enemies, both foreign and domestic, are using our good nature and generosity against us. As frequent and loyal WMD readers know, I support a safety net for those citizens who truly need a hand up, but the welfare state we find ourselves supporting has been exploited to such a degree that our economy has become unsustainable.

Mike Carey of the Ohio Coal Association presented some information that proves that the administration is deliberately driving up the cost of energy and the truly horrific part of that is who is hardest hit: the poorest of Americans will be using over 75 percent of their post-tax income on energy expenses if all of the administration’s energy policies and regulations are enacted. There is no chance for these folks to prosper under such a crushing cost of living. Of course, the “solution” to this situation well be yet another social spending program utilizing even more taxpayer dollars that we don’t have…

I am reminded that conservatives must get better at telling this story and constructing an emotional and personal narrative that puts these issues in perspective and exposes the agenda of “spreading the misery” under the Orwellian disguise of “progress.”

Meanwhile, in the Ohio Senate, two Democrats have introduced a bill to give the “children” of illegal immigrants in-state tuition at our universities. Ohio can’t afford this stuff. I wish I could say that I think the bill is “Dead on Arrival” but with Tom “I retroactively raised your income taxes without your consent” Niehaus running that chamber as a supposed Republican, I just can’t say that it won’t go down in flames. These people can not be trusted.

UPDATE: Back home now. All in all, it was a great convention. It was great to see some old friends and make a few new ones. As Seth Morgan said at the lunch today, "It's the liberty, stupid!"

WMD at We the People - Day One

The morning sessions are now over, but an amazing day so far. I spent the early morning session with our friends at the Franklin Center learning about opposition research and vetting processes. It was a fascinating topic and every time I attend one of these sessions (including the session later today with Trent Siebert) I learn about some new (to me) resource that will make my job as a blogger easier and better.

The mid morning session, I spent learning about messaging from Ted Stevenot and Chris Littleton and our friends from American Majority. Once again, I am surprised that even in a session geared towards potential candidates, there is something that an old school blogger can pick up to help make WMD even better.

The lunch session with Dick Armey, Matt Kibbe, and John Fund was outstanding. Listening to great speakers and leaders on the conservative movement is always an inspiration.

I have decided to take the 1:00 hour to write about our experiences thus far and update all of the social media sites...so the next thing on my agenda for the day is at 2:25pm when I will attend the Matt Meyer session on Lessons from SB5 Debacle. After that, I'll be attending the session with Trent Siebert on Investigative Reporting for Citizen Journalists (NEVER miss a chance to see Trent, I'll attend tomorrow's session as well)

It has been a LOT of fun running in to folks from Facebook and people who remember our blogging panel from last year's convention. If you are here, stop by and say hello! Whenever I am not in a session, I'm hanging out in the Media Room.

Okay...that's all I got for now. More later...

UPDATE 1: Just got out of a session with Matt Meyer on the SB5 Debacle...and I have to say that while I agree with his analysis of the nuts and bolts, the one thing that he didn't mention that Chris and Ted mentioned in the Messaging session this morning is that we lost on the emotional vs. logical level as well. We have to get better at these things...

UPDATE 2: Tom Blumer has a WTPCon post up over at PJ Media's Tatler blog that you can check out here. Rumor has it he will have a Bizzyblog post up shortly as well.

Congressman Jordan, Senate Candidate Mandel Featured Speakers at Tea Party Convention

Release:

Columbus, Ohio – The We the People Convention announced today that Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan and Ohio Treasurer, and Senate Candidate, Josh Mandel will be the featured speakers at the We the People Convention dinner on Friday night, June 29, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. at the Ohio Expo Center. In making the announcement, We the People Convention President, Tom Zawistowski said, “We are honored to have Congressman Jim Jordan and Senate Candidate Josh Mandel attend the Convention and speak to our attendees. Both men represent the conservative views and values of our movement. Our attendees will be anxious to hear from them what we can to do together to get our nation back on track economically.”

Congressman Jordan said “Our nation is at a crossroads, with an important election on the horizon. I look forward to the opportunity to speak to folks who have been fighting to protect our freedoms and will be on the front lines this fall.”

Josh Mandel, Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate, said “I’m thankful for the opportunity to speak to the We the People Convention, and I’m going to tell the activists gathered there the same thing I’m telling hardworking folks all across Ohio, that in order to change Washington we must change the people we send there.” He continued by adding, “There are big fundamental differences between me and my opponent in this election on almost every issue, and I look forward to discussing the bold solutions it will take to get our great Republic back on track.”

Franklin Center Announces Sponsorship of We the People Convention

Release:

Columbus – The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalism organization, is pleased to announce its sponsorship of the “We the People Convention” on June 29-30 in Columbus, Ohio- where hundreds of Ohioans will hear from James O’Keefe, citizen journalist and founder of Project Veritas.

O’Keefe, guest of the Franklin Center, will be speaking on Friday afternoon about "How Online Video is Changing the Political Landscape,” and tell the story of how his videos exposed and defunded the Association for Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN).

O’Keefe will be joined by award-winning journalist Trent Seibert, founder and editor of Texas Watchdog, who will present on investigative reporting techniques, and also Mary Ellen Beatty, Director of Citizen Outreach at the Franklin Center. These training sessions are part of the Franklin Center’s Citizen Watchdog program designed to teach citizens the tools and skills necessary to better hold their local governments accountable.

“At the Franklin Center, we are dedicated to preserving democracy through government transparency and accountability,” said Mary Ellen Beatty, Director of Citizen Outreach at the Franklin Center. “We are excited to be joining the We the People Convention this year to train concerned citizens to report waste, fraud, and abuse in their local Ohio communities.”

We the People Convention President, Tom Zawistowski, said “The addition of the Franklin Center as a sponsor of the We the People Convention this year provides a significant improvement in our content. Attendees will be able to get education and training in the areas of social media and new media that are defining our movement and how we communicate with each other and with our elected officials. Our attendees will flock to the investigative reporting and opposition research breakouts, as well as the online video and social media training.”

On Boehner, the Tea Party, and the Debt Ceiling

It is good to see that my friend Tom Blumer of BizzyBlog.com is finally getting around to seeing that House Speaker, my congressman and a Great American -- John Boehner -- is deserving of some credit for sticking to principles that he has held his entire time in Congress...but that's not why you came here.

One of the things that really irks me about the Tea Party is that they never admit that they are wrong about people who serve us in government when they do stick to the principles that the Tea Party support. Boehner has been a long-time advocate of smaller government, lower taxes, and less spending. We can quibble about his record and a vote here or there, but on the whole, Boehner has been with us far more than he has been against us. But to listen to our friends in the Tea Party movement, Boehner is as much the enemy as President Obama and the other socialists in the Democratic Party in Washington.

Every time an issue comes up, and it is getting to the point where it really doesn't matter what the issue is, the Tea Party "leaders" fire up their troops in to a frenzy of Boehner Hatin' and then forget to issue any statement of support for the principles by which he makes his decisions.

As much as the Tea Party's irrational outbursts disturb me, I am even more upset with intellectual giants like Joe Hallett who can't seem to understand that We the People can spend our money better than government. it is absolutely no wonder that the Tea Party folks are so ticked off at Republicans, most people still get their news and views from mental midgets like Hallett and his co-conspirators in the 527 Media.

The conclusion of the exercise in stupidity betrays the level of understanding Hallett has of what the Tea Party is all about:

The tea party has done the nation a tremendous service by insisting that it come to grips with unsustainable government spending. Its influence on the federal debt-ceiling debate has been undeniable.

Yet, tea partiers' opposition to raising tax revenue as part of any long-term deal to put the nation on a sound financial footing has stymied progress. House Republicans are so scared of the tea party's outsized influence in GOP primary elections that their leaders virtually are precluded from compromise.

"People elected this past November have been told that if you do certain things you said you weren't going to do (raise taxes), you're done," Zawistowski said. "We're going to take you out. We put you in, and we'll take you out."

Such chest-thumping is belied by Zawistowski's insistence that the tea party is not against taxes: "We want to pay taxes, but we just feel that it's gotten out of control. In our world, we understand that we have only so much money. In (politicians') world, if you don't spend it, you don't get it next year."

Federal tax collections are at their lowest level as a percentage of the economy in 60 years. After a 21 percent income-tax reduction, the state is collecting $2 billion less a year than it did in 2005. Eventually, "only so much money" becomes not enough to pull the country out of debt and provide services even tea partiers say they want.

This movement - political or cultural - still confuses me.

That's right, Joe, those wacky Tea Partiers aren't totally anti-tax...they just realize that we have been Taxed Enough Already.

Joe, let me try to explain this to you with an analogy you might understand. Our economy is a pie. You like pie, right? People like you, think our one little pie is all that there is. TEA Party people recognize that there are ways of increasing the amount of pie available to be consumed. President Bush, when he was a candidate for POTUS, once said, "Make the pie higher." And that is one way... You could add a layer to the pie. One could maximize the performance of the economy through greater efficiency and productivity using the same pan to bake the pie. Another idea is to make the pie bigger. This requires using a bigger pan, we'll call this expanding small business and entrepreneurship. Either way, government bureaucrats sticking their hands out demanding more and more of our hard earned dollars is actually getting in the way of the baker who just wants to make a pie.

Basically, Joe, all you have to do to understand this is shut your pie-hole and open your mind to the reality that it is only throw growing our economy that we will reach a sustainable recovery. We can't spend our way out of a recession. excessive spending is what got us here in the first place.

UPDATE: Allow me to extend my remarks and add that it is very telling that the local TEA Party groups in Boehner's district tend to support him. Overwhelmingly. I was reminded of the "national" TEA Party yahoos who claim to want to primary Boehner. Which is completely ridiculous and betraying their inexperience and arrogance. Boehner represents this district VERY well and any challenger would find it virtually impossible to defeat him. Sheriff Spotlight, a TEA Party charlatan, keeps talking trash; but you'll notice he runs away like a little girl when the rubber meets the road...just saying.

We the People: Blogger Panel

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Part Two:






Part Three:



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Mark's We the People Convention Experience

Well, let me say first that the logistics department at WMD and TIB were asleep on the job. Despite some warnings from myself(who has had extensive experience with the Columbus Convention Center) to find out which area of the Center we were going to be in, no info was gathered and we parked on the other side of the world from the convention area. This led to some wear and tear on Matt and myself, but I warned people.

On the whole, it was a nice first effort by Tom Z and the folks who made up this convention, although I would not, I repeat would not, have invited the John Birch Society. Their reps were almost as arrogant and entitled as Ron Paul's campaign reps were (more on that later). However, overall, it was a great first effort that garnered some headlines with the appearance of Mr. Herman Cain, candidate for President, as well as strategy sessions with Dick Morris and John Fund. Turnout was pretty good for a holiday weekend with lots to do and lots of other conventions in the area. On the whole, after further consideration, I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

Problems: If you are going to have a media area, you cannot expect the media to pay for their own internet, especially if you are going to invite bloggers. Wifi was very expensive at the convention area, and it was costly battery wise to operate from our smart phones. Despite numerous entreaties to get some wifi, the convention people never could get that done. This is a must in the future, especially if you want the media to pay attention and hang around. Also, I noticed many times that Tom Z, the grand poobah of this deal, was hard to find. I heard many times "where is Tom?" Communication needed to be better internally. Also, if you are going to have guests, make sure they have water. I have some experience in this area as well. There needs to be some type of instant communication with those in charge, and at times this was lacking. However, the staff was helpful and did well, especially when it came to screening people to make sure we didn't have many trolls.

Breakouts: The breakouts I attended were excellent. The roster of speakers was quite well done overall, with some folks being a bit constrained or not ready for the one hour or so format. I thought Dr. Matthew Spaulding of Heritage was excellent in his presentation about "We Still Hold These Truths" about founding principles. I also thought the gentleman from Heritage who did the overregulation and criminalization presentation were spot on. The folks fhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrom Americans for Prosperity were awesome, and kudos to Rebecca Heimlich and Seth Morgan for their excellent presentation skills as well as their organization. They kept things flowing lively and in an orderly fashion. I also thank them for allowing me to kind of join the panel without joining it when it came time for the blogging panel that Tom Blumer of Bizzyblog and Matt Hurley (of WMD)so wonderfully led. Those two did a lot to bring blogging to the people and disspell a lot of the esoteric b.s. of some other presenters who tried to make it sound like you had to do what they did to be successful, or that you couldn't cover national events because malkin already does. Kudos to those two for excellent work...oh yeah, and I helped!

There were two issues with panels. One, there were some folks from certain Ohio thinktanks that did not get to the issues of their seminars, and instead wandered about on related and important, but less focused issues. The other issue was with people trying too hard to show their intelligence in the Q and A instead of asking real questions to get help. People, if you have to disrupt a q and a with Dr. Spaulding for 15 minutes trying to argue about this perspective or that perspective, you aren't intelligent. You are just plain rude.

People: It was excellent to meet up with fellow SOBers who get it. Maggie Cook of Madison Project and her co-hort Amy were dynamos with their TV cameras and getting scoop worthy interviews, including one with Herman Cain. We also met up with Ralph King, an ardent Tea Partier and one of the mainstays of SOB. We also met up with Justin Higgins, who was stumping for Tim Pawlenty. We also met several other people and exchanged some great information and established some new relationships.

The only criticism of the breakouts was that perhaps they were a little too ambitious in their offerings. There were so many different choices in so little time. You could have even halved the number of presentations and lengthened their timeslots and still done well. However, all in all, not bad at all.

A big thank you to all the people who came up and had questions or comments about blogging, twitter, facebook, etc. I was honored and gratified that lil ol' me could help you and chat with you for a bit. Now get out there and let the blogging and tweeting begin.

However, one group I will not be establishing a relationship was the Ron Paul campaign. The people who worked that booth were uninformed, arrogant, and snobbish. They had no answers for legitimate questions that people had. They refused to debate any issue. It seemed to me that they were a bunch of college kids who just liked the reverse love logo in Paul's revolution banner and were interested in his legalizing pot. Other than that, they were self important and refused to engage. They even threatened to have Maggi of the Madison Project thrown out. Her crime? Asking policy and position questions. You would think they would read their own literature while they are waiting to get their snack on to satisfy their munchies during lunch break. If these are the best and brightest Ron Paul has to offer, then it is good he is not a real threat. They were pathetic.

I didn't attend many of the huge gatherings, like when Fund or Cain gave their speeches, but I was told they were outstanding.

All in all, I would say this event was a huge success for a first try, and I hope it is the first of many. The couple thousand or so who showed up during the two days got a lot of information, a little bit of inspiration, and a whole lot of new resources. Now let's go out and fight the good fight. Kudos to Tom Z, and with a little more improvement, this could be one of the top flight Tea party/conservative events in the country.

We the People Convention Day Two Liveblog

We the People Convention Day One Liveblog

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We the People Convention: Pre-Game Update

Decided to take a short break from disassembling and packing the studio to check some email and saw a message from Tom Z regarding tickets...

Tickets are still available...including the dinner on Saturday with Hermann Cain.  A recent development is that Cain will be on-site the bulk of the day on Saturday and probably participating in some of the breakout sessions as well.

For more information and to order tickets, click here.

VIDEO: Interview with We the People Convention President Tom Zawistowsky

Our good friend Maggi Cook of the Madison Project scored this interview with Tom awhile back.  We had him on the TIB All-Stars Show a few weeks ago and are looking forward to covering both days of the convention.  Tom Blumer and I will be joining a panel during the RightOnline session on Saturday.  We hope to see you there!

We the People Convention: Announcing Herman Cain to Speak July 2

Release:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – June 14, 2011 – We the People Convention, Inc., a 501 (c) 4 non-profit organization today announced that Hermann Cain, one of the GOP presidential candidates, will be a featured speaker at the Saturday night Ohio Citizens PAC dinner at the “We the People Convention”  being held on July 1-2, 2011, at the Columbus Convention Center. (www.WethePeopleConvention.org). 

Cain is an American businessman, columnist, minister, and radio host from Georgia. He is best known as the former chairman and CEOGodfather's Pizza.  His poll numbers have been climbing ever since the first debate in South Carolina.  of

    “I am very pleased and excited that Hermann Cain has agreed to reach out to Ohioans by speaking at the We the People Convention,” said Tom Zawistowski, convention president. “He has excited conservative voters with his performance in recent debates and his common sense approach to solving problems. Our Ohio Citizens PAC dinner is not a black-tie high roller event reserved only for the state’s elite political class.  It a chance for common citizens to hear Mr. Cain with their own ears and see him with their own eyes and have a chance to look him in the eye and shake his hand. These are the citizen activists that will decide who wins Ohio in 2012.”

    Many political analysts have projected the successful GOP candidate will need to win the state of Ohio if he or she expects to capture the White House in the 2012 presidential election. Historically, Ohio has been critical in deciding the outcome of the presidential election. Rarely has a presidential candidate won the presidency without the backing of Ohio.

    Cain participated in Monday night’s GOP presidential debate, sparring with the other seven political figures who have declared their intentions to fight for the GOP presidential nomination including Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. 

    In addition to Cain’s appearance, “We the People Convention” will be hosting notable figures such as Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund; Political Analyst Dick Morris; TEA Party Patriots Co-Founder Jenny Beth Martin, Matthew Spalding, Vice President for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation; Rebecca Hemleich of Americans for Prosperity; and ACORN whistleblower Anita Moncrief.