No Runny Eggs

The beautiful and talented Michigan contingent

The Capitol building

The entrance to Paul Ryan’s office (dummy me didn’t take pics inside, but the decorations, such as they are, are Wisconsin products and knick-knacks)

Just another reason why gubmint is so damned expensive; the Supreme Court has its own police force

Home of the Lawgivers-In-Black, aka Supreme Court

John Thune opening up last night’s session

John McCain hammering home the need for no pork

Jim DeMint concluding the theme of the night

The Washington Monument (from the Capitol end of Pennsylvania Avenue)

Vicki McKenna interviews Mark Block in Bloggers’ Row

Mary Katharine Ham blogging away

Leah Vukmir and Jo Egelhoff talk

Al Parinello of Old Tappan, New Jersey is standing across from me. He’s been blogging at Preserve the American Dream since March 2007.   He’s already done over 40 radio interviews because of his blog.   It must be the  controversial nature of his subject: rich people as a despised minority.

ME: Al, what’s the story behind your blog?

AL: Very simple. I went out to acquire the American dream, I worked hard, I did it and I became rich. And then I became the enemy. That doesn’t make any sense to me. So, I started fighting back.

ME: When you say fighting back, can you elaborate?

AL: The concept of the website was born after paying close to $2 million in taxes on a business I sold. The state of New Jersey requested another payment. This time they wanted twenty cents more. But, they also wanted close to a thousand dollars in interest on that twenty cents. I realized there is a dual system of taxation. Those who earn large sums of money automatically become demonized. That’s how I got started.

ME: What’s the most fun you’ve had with your blog?

AL: Being invited on Neil Cavuto’s show. We received over 25,000 hits to the blog in one night.

ME: Should other folks start blogs or…. just read yours?

AL: You should only start a blog if you have NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING. If you know too much, you are sure to fail.

Thank you, Al.

I should say that Al and his great wealth are not typical of the attendees at this summit. The typical person here is someone like Jason Moore of Citizen Watchdogs in Odessa, Texas.

That’s all, folks, at least from Bloggers’ Row. I might be able to get some more stuff up later this afternoon, but it’s networking time.

DAMMIT!

He will be doing the Virginia luncheon, but not Bloggers’ Row.

Sean, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Still can’t get the audio on the main Bloggers’ Row, but he’s there. Hopefully he won’t pull a Rudy and avoid us.

Bad news – We’re missing John Stossel. He just showed a Trabant, the embarrassment of (East) German engineering.

Good news – Food has just arrived in Bloggers’ Row.

Blogger Concrete Bob, who also writes the DC Protest Blog is sitting next to me. I’d ask him a question except that Vicki McKenna is doing a riff for her WISN 1130 talk show that commands attention.

The microphone on the recorder appears to be too sensitive; I MIGHT be able to clean up the audio, but from an initial listen on the inferior speaker, it’s pretty much hopeless.

Something I didn’t mention before; I did help out Geharty to get the Wi-Fi here before he retreated to the China Room

Brownback: “Iraq has been a heavy weight on this party.”

Pushing a consumption tax (note; he does not call it FairTax).

Q 1 – Are you disappointed in fundraising? – Nope.

Q 2 – What about Obama not wearing the flag pin? – Fashion is not the statement.

Q 3 – Are you concerned about government privatizing war? – We could outsource peeling potatoes, but we really shouldn’t outsource combat. We’re only spending 3.8% GDP now, we were at 6% under Reagan. We’re at 17% for health care.

Q 4 – Another fundraising question – We have as much money in the bank as some of the guys who raised $10 million. NASCAR reference (the tape will catch that).

Q 5 – Do you think you can break through with the Reagan Democrats? – I’ve done it before in Arkansas (62/38 Dem).

Q 6 from Leslie – (missed it as well)

Q 7 from the Row – How can you reconcile federalism with smoking bans, and another part on health care? – It’s a federalism issue, and I supported it as a workplace issue because the science has ended, and “you can’t spit out what you chew”.

Ron Paul just addressed a crowd of regular reporters and the bloggers on blog roll in the Senate Room.

Comparing his upswelling of online advocates to those of the leading contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, Paul noted that his 950 meet-up groups and network of Ron Paul bloggers came about spontaneously and without the help of hired online political operatives.

Paul is an opponent of NCLB (“No Child Left Behind”). He wants to return “responsibility to the schools, and hopefully more people would be able to opt out of the schools through vouchers or tax credits. Sending education money to Washington and then returning it with strings attached to school districts is not a good idea.”

Law of the Sea treaty? “No, I wouldn’t be interested in that. I’m interested in national sovereignty. I’m not looking for another level of government and when I see some of these treaties and international agreements it’s just another level of government. I’m not much interested in those.”

A blogger asks, “Why would a pro-Iraq war conservative support you?

Paul: “For fiscal reasons, if he can’t be persuaded that that [presumably, staying out of foreign entanglements] was our traditional conservative position. [The war] is flat out is going to break us. All great nations that spread themselves too thinly around the world go bankrupt. This is what happened to the Soviet empire.”

The professional journalists here tend to ask horse-race questions. One of them says, “Does Giuliani think he has this thing won?”

Paul: “There are signs of that.”

Up next: Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee.

Quickly reviewing his speech (thank you, Senator, even if nobody told you we didn’t have audio). He brought in the 2 1/2-foot-high handcart with the tax code.

Q 1 – (Sorry, missed it while I took pics of the tax code cart).

Q 2 – Why is there dissatisfaction with the front-runners? – It’s the issues…. We have to embrace our policies…. We need to have a political solution on Iraq?

Q 3 from the row –How are we going to have a voluntary flat tax alongside the current code? – It’s adding another option.

Congressman Ron Paul

Question 1 – What is your reaction to raising $5 million in Q3? – It refutes those who said that it’s just a few people who use the Internet…. The average has been $40…. Some have used their own money to prop up their bottom line.

#2 – How would you address poverty? – (It’s a good thing I have the tape recorder going; I can’t type fast enough). Paraphrasing – it’s the destruction of the currency and the trillions going overseas. No difference in the parties as far as out-of-control spending goes.

#3 – Can you compete with the other candidates on $5 million? – They don’t have much left in the bank…. We have more than ($5 million) in the bank…. As we gain credibility, the fundraising increases…. We don’t even know how many volunteers we have…they’ve all gone out independently.

#4 – On disadvantaged youth – It’s not the responsibility of the federal government, except for DC. They spend $13,000/student in DC, and it’s not very good…. You cannot do it by spending money you don’t have….

#5 – Do you think Giuliani is acting like he thinks he’s already won? – There’s signs of that.

#6 from the Row – (Too slow; will have to go back to the tape)

#7 – Would you sign LOST? – NO!

#8 from Fred – Why should a pro-war conservative support you? – For economic reasons. Comparing the Soviet collapse to the current situation.

While we don’t get sound from the main stage (Sam Brownback’s there now), and nobody’s come through yet to the podium (thankfully, I’m just off camera range), we do have some benefits:

– The aforementioned Mary Katharine Ham
– Jeff Kropf’s show. He’s had several people on, and now he’s got John Stossel.

Meanwhile, the mouse/media presenter/laser pointer I picked up ROCKS!!!

Ron Paul’s on stage, and I can hear the catcalls from Bloggers’ Row. Jim Geharty and the others in the China Room, which is now the overflow area, should have some fun.

Meanwhile, 2 chairs to my right is Mary Katharine. There go my knuckles.

In the hour I’ve been here in the Senate Room–headquarters for blogger’s row–I’ve been doing a quick post at my home blog, comparing requests for lover’s emails from New Jersey and Arkansas. E-mails: If you work for the government, don’t send love or sex e-mails on your government equipment. Just don’t.

In that hour, this room has exploded into a frenzy of activity. In one corner, we have radio talk show hosts interviewing a succession of guests, including Sen. Tom Coburn. Along the sides of the room, intent, focused bloggers staring at the screens, typing and occasionally (rarely) coming up for air.

Ron Paul is at the podium now, following an appearance by Giuliani.

Giuliani scored with this crowd with his Hillary humor but most of all when he said that the practice of earmarks is like the graffiti in New York City when he became mayor: Not the worst thing in the city, but proof that the process is broken.

Giuliani pledged that all anonymous earmarks will stop on “Day One” of his administration.

Revisions/corrections (10:15 am CDT – steveegg) – Changed the category to “Defending the American Dream”

Still no sound because Jeff Kropf is live, but we’ve at least got video. Jo’s abandoned us to try to get a listen.

I’m still catching up on missing yesterday.

Update – there’s sound and Wi-Fi in the Chinese Room.

We had some video, and there’s the start. Jeff Kropf started off his show with Sen. Jeff Colburn.

The rest of the folks in the house (will be updated as the room fills)…

American Infidels Company
Dry Fly Politics/The Mitt Report (doing double-duty)
Fox Politics (in fact, the lovely and talented Jo is sitting to my right on Bloggers’ Row)
GayPatriot
Human Events
KSKY (660 AM out of Dallas/Ft. Worth)
Leslie (sitting next to Fred; the second half of the double-barrel is going to be starting up presently)
PajamasMedia
Real Debate Wisconsin (Fred’s on the other table)
Right Angle Blog
The Sam Adams Alliance
Jim Geraghrty from National Review, who got shunted into the China Room (sorry about the misspell; D’OH!!!)
Mary Katharine Ham (the heavy hitters are now in the house)
Too many more to list, but Fred’s got most of them.

Vicki McKenna will be broadcasting the Milwaukee half of her show live from here as well, along with Jeff Kropf, 750 KXL out of Portland, Oregon.

Mini-pool television crew here (CBS/ABC/Fox; NBC and CNN aren’t here, and add Nippon Television Network as well as CNN). XM and MetroNetworks are doing radio coverage. AP’s doing the wire thing.

FINALLY, we’re live from the Mayflower in DC. The flight in was good, the Metro is pretty fouled up (even though Sean and Kevin swear by it), and incredibly, the Mayflower has neither wireless in the rooms nor free Internet.

Very quick summary of yesterday:
– We had a pretty good contingent on Midwest on the way out. It was a grease-job on the landing (about what I’d expect out of AB).
– The hotel wasn’t ready when we finally got in (instead of taking a couple cabs, we decided to try to take the Metro). Needless to say, Fred missed the White House briefing.
– Speaking of the Mayflower, they have neither wireless nor free Internet in the rooms. That explains a lack of posts yesterday.
– Traffic is about as bad as downtown Chicago (which tells you why Sean and Kevin both use the Metro).
– Sen. John McCain had a decent speech, though he hated a bit too much on the economy.
– Sen. Jim DeMint is a great speaker.
– Drinking Right East Coast with Sean and Kevin was a blast. Fred’s got a page full of random quotes, including one about the $7 Heineken at the hotel bar, ready to go.