Ian Freeman
Blogger, FreeKeene.com



Among the points Viguerie made were:

   1) The Tea Party movement should avoid the temptation of forming a third party. It would be a disaster for the cause of freedom and limited government.

   2) Tea Party leaders should work to be a third force in politics in order to push Republican and Democratic politicians to the right.

   3) For now, all Tea Party activities should be focused on the 2010 primaries challenging every establishment Republican Democrat.

   Other topics in the Webcast conference include community organizing, dealing with the media, defeating powerful political machines, and protecting members and groups from legal pitfalls.

     Nationally renowned presenters include American Liberty Alliance founder Eric Odom; Zen Conservatism author and co-founder of the St. Louis Tea Party Bill Hennessy; attorney Mark Fitzgibbons; Dallas Tea Party leader Lorie Medina; and St. Louis-based radio talk show host Dana Loesch.

    The Webcast will be hosted live by Nationwide Tea Party Coalition co-founder Michael Patrick Leahy, author of Rules for Conservative Radicals.  Leahy will be joined by other presenters to respond on camera during the Webcast to viewers' emailed questions.  

     Registration is $19.95 for the live event.  A complete schedule of the February 13 Webcast and registration information is online at www.vmionline.com .

by Jeff Gates, Staff Writer

"Agent Butler paid rent and cashed checks for the two hijackers while they were being advised by Al-Awlaki. What did Butler want to know? Was Ghazal funding Mel Rockefeller with whom he had traveled to Iraq in 1997. While in Baghdad they confirmed that Saddam Hussein had mothballed his WMD program after the 1991 Gulf War and that he was prepared to negotiate his departure-without this war. The FBI has yet to speak with Mel Rockefeller."

The Christmas Day "underwear bomber" is the latest ruse to create support for The Clash of Civilizations and for more spending on "the war on terrorism." The story does not hold together. Not even a little bit.

How did a young Nigerian Muslim without a passport "slip through" security at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport? Not only did his itinerary feature an illogical travel route, he bought a high-priced last-minute ticket paying cash and traveled without checked baggage. It gets better..
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Today's Featured Stories...

CEI's Vice President of Strategy, Iain Murray, in National Review Online, called out the founder of DeSmogBlog for foul play in his attempt to blame organizations, like CEI, for confusing the American public and the "collapse" of the global warming consensus. Murray instead proves that this blogger is the one guilty of muddying the water. Read the article here.

>>Shaping the Debate

Sen. Durbin Prods Tech Giants to Back Google's China Stance

Ryan Radia's quote in E-Commerce Times

(Climate) Information Wants to Be Free
Chistopher Horner's quote in the New York Times' Dot Earth Blog

Obama can Aid Small Businesses by Providing Regulatory Reform

John Berlau's op-ed in the Daily Caller

>>Best of the Blogs 

Who Dat Claiming They Own "Who Dat"

by Fran Smith

It’s hardly news that the New Orleans’ Saints are going to the Super Bowl, and their ecstatic fans are busy buying up T-shirts and other paraphernalia emblazoned with the Saints’ rallying cry, “Who Dat.”  That slogan is from their widely popular chant: “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints.” But the National Football League claimed it owns the trademark and warned vendors to cease and desist selling non-NFL merchandise that links the Saints and “Who Dat.”

Government Unions up, Private Sector Unions down but not out

by Ivan Osorio

The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of the crucial shift in union membership that reached a tipping point last week: More union members now work for government entities than for private businesses. Indeed, today public sector unions constitute a permanent, organized, well-funded lobby for bigger government. However, that doesn’t mean that organized labor is giving up unionizing private sector workers.

No, two stimulus plans are enough!

by Michael Fumento

In rolling out his (Cough, cough!) $3.8 trillion budget proposal even as we’re facing a historic national debt, Pres. Obama has included $100 million for a third stimulus package. (A lot of people forget that we had one under Pres. Bush.) True, the Obama administration has made great claims about what an incredible success his first stimulus was, but the claims haven’t withstood the facts. You don’t need 20 economists to crunch a million numbers to see that. 

>>LibertyWeek Podcast

Episode 79: Where are the Jobs?

Richard Morrison, Marc Scribner and Josh Barro join forces to being you episode 79. We take on the secret to job creation, anti-capitalist murmurs in Davos, the iPad’s unapproved technology, laws against motorized texting and why it’s all or nothing in the healthcare debate. 

 >>Support CEI

Like what you read?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s 25-year record of success is made possible by our over 3,000 supporters. Make sure to stop by www.cei.org/support and make a donation to continue your support or become a supporter.

Washington- The economy just took another hit with this morning’s announcement from the Labor Department that America is stuck in a jobless recovery, but Democrats like Carol Shea-Porter continue to push forward with an agenda that spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. With party leaders continuing to favor their partisan spending spree at the expense of economic recovery, Democrats voted yesterday to take on nearly $1.9 trillion more in debt in order to clear the way for more runaway government spending. Despite White House promises that unemployment would be curbed at 8 percent, it’s clear that Shea-Porter's failure to rein in spending and slow the growth of government continues to undercut potential job growth:

“A sharp increase in the number of people giving up looking for work helped to depress the jobless rate. The number of 'discouraged job seekers' rose to 1.1 million in January from 734,000 a year ago.” (“Payrolls Fall in January, Jobless Rate at 5-Month Low,” Reuters, 2/5/10)

As Democrats kick around the idea of another ‘stimulus’ spending bill, Americans have overwhelmingly stated that their first stimulus was a failure:

“Only one-quarter of Americans think the federal stimulus plan has helped the middle class, while a majority say it has helped bankers and investors, according to a new national poll.

“A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday morning indicates that 25 percent of the public thinks the stimulus has benefited the middle class.” (Paul Steinhauser, “Poll: Most say stimulus has not helped middle class,” CNN, 1/27/10)

Even some Democrats know that it will take more than lip service to turn the economy around, but Shea-Porter and her party leaders continue to pile it on:

“’Other moderate Democrats are simply skeptical that a jobs bill can be effective regardless of how it’s funded. Alyson Heyrend, spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), another Blue Dog, said the congresssman ‘has concerns about just how much the federal government can do to create job growth.’ Although Matheson voted in favor of the Democrats’ $787 billion stimulus bill a year ago, he opposed December’s jobs bill. ‘It’s that balancing act,’ Heyrend said, referring to the need for job creation versus the push to rein in spending. ‘The devil’s always in the details.’” (Mike Lillis, “The Democrats’ Jobs Pickle,” Washington Independent, 2/4/10)

“Economic recovery is still struggling, but Carol Shea-Porter and her party leaders continue to pile on an agenda that spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Despite the obvious red flags, Shea-Porter and her party leaders can’t seem to stop sinking the economy further into the red. Thanks to Shea-Porter’s failed economic policies, recovery continues to stall and the deficit is about to reach its highest point in history while Americans are still asking: Where are the jobs?”

As it becomes exceedingly clear that wasting trillions of taxpayer dollars on a partisan spending agenda does little to revive a slumping economy, how many more jobs will be lost before Shea-Porter finally rejects a job-killing agenda that spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much?



The Front



But each of the 4 candidates have a long time before their state's primaries, and none are doomed. After all, it's not the first time an NRSC-favored candidate has faced a challenge; Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) had to go through atty Patrick Hughes (R) before he secured the IL GOP nomination for Sen. Roland Burris's (D) seat. Earlier this week, Kirk beat Hughes by a 57%-19% margin.

You might have noticed, for instance, that Senate Democrats just voted to raise the federal “debt ceiling” - the maximum amount Washington politicians can borrow on the backs of our children and grandchildren - by an eye-popping $1.9 Trillion.  Let's just hope and pray that  Obama does not know what comes after a trillion. 

That’s the largest national debt increase in American history - and it paves the way for yet another wild Washington spending spree our kids and grandkids will have to pay for.

Our friend Steve Moore, a FOX News contributor and Wall Street Journal editorialist, recently pointed out that at his current rate of spending, President Obama will pile up more national debt in just his first 3 years than every other president combined.

You and I know that this massive big government spending threatens our prosperity and kills innovation and private sector job creation.  In future years, my four children and yours will see their taxes used to pay for this big spending. 

Sadly, it's already here.  This past December, the interest alone on our current national debt cost $100 billion.  Here's the point.  We know the threat of this massive spending, but many of our fellow Americans do not.  We've got to educate them on the dangers of the Obama spend-a-thon.  We've got to tell them about the proposed $3.8-trillion Obama budget filled with a deficit of at least $1.6 trillion.  We've got to get more of our fellow Americans involved in the fight for America's future. 

It’s critical that Americans for Prosperity keeps up our aggressive efforts to get these facts out and tell Americans the truth about the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda - and that we keep giving common-sense Americans a way to fight back and make a difference.

So, I'm asking you to contribute financially today to our Obama Debt Watch effort - an aggressive, integrated online and grassroots tool to get the facts out to our fellow Americans. CLICK HERE

We've got to make sure every American knows and understands why all the spending in Washington - and all the debt being piled up right now - is such a dangerous threat to our economic freedoms.  While continuing to make sure they don't bring back the health care takeover, and while launching another aggressive effort in 2010 to stop the radical environmental agenda, AFP must take the fight to the big-government side on their massive spending spree. The debt they are piling up will kill our economy in years to come. 

But, we need your help to launch this new Obama Debt Watch effort.   

Tim Phillips

P.S. Last week I was in California talking to folks, and an amazing 81-year-old self-made entrepreneur told me he was proud of AFP's tireless grassroots efforts to stop the health care takeover and the cap-and-trade energy tax. But, he said, we have to do more to explain how the debt quietly being piled up by these Washington politicians will simply kill our prosperity in the next 10 to 20 years. 

He's right.  At AFP, we've got to step up the effort to educate Americans on what these deficits and the bigger government they put in place mean to our future.  That's exactly what we're going to do, but we need your help.  CLICK HERE to give

Will you consider making an investment in the work of Americans for Prosperity today?  In just a few moments, you can help strengthen our ability to fight the Left’s plans - click here.

Any amount will make a difference, and your investment will go directly to fighting a government health care takeover, the cap-and-trade energy tax, and the rest of the dangerous Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda.

Americans for Prosperity is powered by members like you, nearly a million of us all across the nation.  Your contribution today, when combined with those of the more than 60,000 other Americans who’ve donated to the cause, will have a direct impact on the public policy debate in America.

Thank you for all you do - together we’re going to make 2010 a watershed year for our shared values.

by Michael Leon, Staff Writer

Evangelical Christians are at it again. The proselytizing only-through-Christ bunch have now taken up desecration of non-Christian religious sites: Not Jews this time but Wiccans. What the hell goes through the minds of these evangelicals who think they can tell other religions-at a military academy no less-what to believe? At their core, evangelicals who despise pluralism are infantile.
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Today's Featured Stories...

Foreign Policy Briefing 2/5/10