No Runny Eggs

Now up – Dinesh D’Souza. He made the trek from CPAC here. A bit of humor since he’s the last speaker before lunch, quoting Henry XIII – “I won’t keep you very long.”

The Reagan Revolution has been played out, but the general ideas live on and need a new direction.

He started off by being part of Dartmouth’s conservative paper.

What made Reagan Reagan? He had a euclidian confidence that he was right. He wasn’t “open-minded” in a liberal-arts sense because he knew where he wanted to go.

He was also indifferent to the power of the punditry.

When he was asked to reverse his early monetary policy because his popularity was plunging, he said “Maybe it’s time for me to be shot again.”

I’m just going to have to let the tape to the talking on the Reagan stories. Once again, I can’t do Dinesh justice.

Reagan realized that one can’t change the world in 45 ways; the most one can hope for is to change it in 2 or 3 ways.

Ultimately, Reagan believed in the vitality of the American dream. Sometimes, we activists get tired by fighting battle after battle. The good news is, if we keep the core of the American dream in front of us, then ultimately we will not only endure but prevail.

Tom McMahon’s in the house and found our little corner. Dunno the other guy with the laptop off-hand (haven’t had any time to ask him). Just had a short video with classic Reagan quotes.

Now up, Dan Schnur, president of Command Focus. He’s back home after living the last 20 years not just for Leon’s, but because the Presidential election is that important, and Wisconsin will likely decide it (Fred recognizes him as a McCain 2000 guy).

He started off working for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush (“Bush Classic”).

Question – “Who to people trust?” They don’t trust the media, but they trust each other.

Over the next several months, the parties will spend hundreds of millions on television ads, and because of TiVo, they will be wasted. Those who watch the ads are those that are already committed.

Where do people get reliable information about the campaigns? From each other and “you”. The reason we have a second term for W is because a few people in Ohio used technology to help volunteers to focus directly on swing voters.

This year’s Ohio/Florida is the upper Midwest; Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin.

Now up, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. He is contrasting the Founding Fathers’ view on government with that of government today. For 4 consecutive budgets, he returned money from the sheriff’s budget to the county, unfortunately, the Board didn’t return it to the taxpayers (damn them).

He’s not anti-union, he’s anti-waste, anti-fraud and anti-abuse.

He’s calling for a state paycheck protection act, which would require unions to get permission from their members before spending money on political purposes.

He proposed privatizing the prisoner transport, which would have saved $1.5 million. When the appropriate committee shot it down 7-0, two of the members said that they would not do anything to eliminate union jobs.

Now on the podium, former Lieutenant Governor Margaret Farrow, who is promoting Wisconsin Eye, which is actually a privately-funded vew of government (much like C-SPAN, but unlike CSPAN, it’s not government-controlled). In addition to the legislative sessions, they cover many committee hearings (they were at the FAN bill one I was at a few weeks back), and a bunch of speeches.

Next up, AFP-NJ director Steve Lonegan.

Begins by quoting the Founding Fathers on rights. The elites of the day said the Great American Experiment wouldn’t work; well, it worked.

Then, 50-60 years ago, things started to change. We’ve gone to moving toward the welfare state, and a crushing of the American spirit.

He’s relating a very good and inspiring personal story. I can’t do it justice by excerpting (he’s talking too fast, it’s not the Jersey accent), so the tape will have it.

The vision that created this country didn’t come overnight. It came from Aristotle, and John Locke, and the battle after the Dark Ages. The battle is not over.

We look to the founders for inspiration; George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine (“These are the times that try men’s souls”), Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me death). We can’t look to them to leadership; we are the new leaders.

Quoting the end of the Declaration of the Independence to close.

I’ll continue with the paraphrasing (I missed the very beginning of his remarks, so when I get the audio up, I apologize for joining it in progress). Now up, Burnett County judge, and candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Mike Gableman (who I ran into on my way in; he has a very good memory as he remembered me).

Thanks Mark for taking him through the kitchen as he quoted Reagan.

The reason he’s running – he’s right and Justice Butler is wrong. Butler’s judicial liberalism makes Wisconsin less safe.

Contrasting his long history of working with prosecutors, police and victims of crime with Butler’s working as a defense attorney. Points out that while Butler has been a judge longer, 10 of those years has been as a municipal judge in Milwaukee.

It is the small-business owner that drives the economic security and safety of the state. Once again, he states he will not substitue his personal views for the rule of law, which will be a step up from the current members of the court.

Closes with a pledge to restore the Court to applying the law, not making it. Never give up, stand together.

We have a couple of minutes while a video on AFP is playing. Time to catch up.

Owen, you know me better than to censor. I <expletive deleted> swear like a <expletive deleted> longshoreman.

Back to the live-blog with Mike Gableman.

Before I get to him, Brian just handed me a list of notables in the audience. Once I get some light beyond the laptop, I’ll get that up.

WSJ Editorial Board member Steve Moore begins by asking where Al Gore is. Global Warming is one of the biggest scams in the history of mankind. It is not about climate change, but about shutting down capitalism.

He’s relating a story about an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms party (no, not the federal agency).

The debates at the WSJ editorial board are between the right and the far-right.

He is praising us for killing Healthy (and Depopulated) Wisconsin. He points out the taxes would have been higher than places like Sweden with it.

Hits Jimmy Carter, not only for being the worst President of the 20th Century, but the worst ex-President.

Comparing Clinton and Obama, when asked by friends who he would prefer, he said it’s like choosing between shot at by Bonnie or Clyde.

Onto taxes; “Fair” or Flat, it doesn’t matter. We need one of them. Polling the audience on whether we should do a flat or fair tax; about 50-50. Relates a story about one of the earlier audience polls; two of the guys in back were wildly waving when asked about keeping the current system. Both were tax accountants.

Both Clinton and Obama want taxes to go back to 40% from 35%. This while the rest of the world is adopting the Reagan low-tax model. Even France, which doesn’t have a word for “entrepeneurship”, is cutting taxes.

Obama is even worse than Clinton on taxes. His tax raises would return us to the 1970s.

On to the death tax. Quoting Steve Forbes – “No taxation without respiration.” The current temporary reduction and repeal is the “Throw momma from the train” death tax repeal. The fed death tax, which is slowly being reduced, is gone in 2010 and back in full force in 2011.

The Left talks about bringing us together; meanwhile, they push to separate the classes. Top 1% of the income earners pay 39.6%, bottom 50% pay 3%. Quoting Charles Barkley to one of his TNT co-hosts when pressed on why he would vote for George Bush – “Kenny, you dumb ass, I am rich!”

(More paraphrasing until I get the audio up)

James Klauser introduced Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen. He is glad to be here, and that this got rescheduled so he could make it.

Does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness sound like change? Unfortunately, with the way government is, it is change.

Government has taken away the ability to defend life nowadays. They took the liberty to protect borders away. They changed the pursuit of happiness into (missed it; I will update when I replay the tape).

Even some of those on my side of the aisle (Republican) get caught up in government. We have become so much an entitlement society it is hard to get into government by opposing expansion of entitlements.

When he, as a kid, asked his dad what conservatism means, he answered that it is belief in limited government and self-determination.

The first priority is public safety. Even after he won, he kept his campaign slogan.

At the federal level, the first duty is protect the borders.

Onto the defense of his first year; it may not look conservative, but it is limited government. His vision of the Department of Justice is local control, with some help from the DOJ.

Conservatives do not believe in no government, but in limited government. He has made significant progress on the backlog at the DNA lab.

He will help local governments go after Internet child pornography, has increased the Medicare fraud department, is cooperating with the feds on illegal immigration.

He is contrasting his view on the role of the AG with that of his predecessors; he won’t grow it into a policy-making body, but that it be a law firm (and not a tort law firm either). That is part of restoring integrity.

Change begins with people in the grassroots. We need to change back to the way we were in the first place.

Next up at the podium, AFP-WI director Mark Block. Continuing with the paraphrasing…

Change; everybody’s talking about it, we’re doing something about it. 2 1/2 years ago, AFP-WI didn’t exist. Now, we have 12,000 members.

We have to change the mindset of some legislators who want to make us not just the highest-taxed state in America, but one of the highest-taxed states in the world.

We want to double membership this year. This is the big introduction of the Home Headquarter Kit hinted at back in December.

Closes with a heartfelt appreciation for everybody involved with AFP. Introduces James Klauser.

Assuming my voice recorder is working, I’ll have the audio up. Until then, I’ll paraphrase.. The first speaker is AFP President Tim Phillips. He started with the weather (it’s not that cold, yet, but it is for a southern guy.

He’s onto the taxpayers’ rally. He pointed out that those that opposed us were doing so on the taxpayers’ dime (sounds a bit like the RTA using $495,000 of their $500,000 in rental car taxes to lobby for more taxes).

Onto the ideas that came out of Wisconsin. First, the good; welfare reform. Next, the bad; bloated government.

Onto global warming; he’s onto the propsals that the liberals want; ending the tax deduction of mortgage interest on “larger” homes, the Programmable Communicating Thermostats.

Mad props to Leah Vukmir, who told Tim that if we were bold about promoting freedom, we will change the dynamic of the slouch toward liberalism.

The reason this is called Defending the American Dream summit; each generation dreams the next one has it better. Tim going into a family story, ends it with when he came back home in a coat and tie (after his mom said that he would get a “coat and tie” job), his mom said get the coat and tie off and cout the grass.

I wish I would get to the Reagan Presidential Library; it is a very good place. Tim closing with Reagan’s last letter to America (I hope that the recorder is catching this). For America, there will always be a bright, new dawn ahead.

We started off with a video presentation of Ray Charles singing “America”, presentation of the colors, the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Now, we’re on the growth of AFP.

The bloggers are in the house, and we’re actually right in the thick of it (unlike DC). Pete Fanning is over to my right with his laptop, Fred’s on the left (sans laptop, but he will have DAD Random Quotes), Christian is floating around along with Kathy and Jo. The party will start shortly.

R&E (10:02 pm 2/9/2008) – Brian is also in to give those of us back in the corner some professional tips.

I hope you’ve registered by now (if not, you might still be able to do so here), and if you’ve already left for the Country Springs Hotel, you’ve packed that winter coat; a whole heap of Gorebal “Warming” cold will be filtering in during the day. Kind of appropriate, because one of the sessions is going to be on global warming.

I’ll be there with my laptop, camera, and digital voice recorder, so unlike yesterday, expect a fair amount of posts today.