No Runny Eggs

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.

Yes, I know, CPAC is closing the same day, Saturday, February 9, but DAD-Wisconsin is a lot cheaper ($29 for general admission, $15 for students) and closer (Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee), and we have some rock stars in our own right (including a pair of guest-bloggers here):

Confirmed speakers include:

Paul Ryan,
U.S. Congressman

J.B. Van Hollen,
Attorney General

Scott Walker,
Milwaukee County Executive

David Clarke,
Milwaukee County Sheriff

Mike Gableman,
Judge, Candidate for Supreme Court

Scott Fitzgerald,
State Senate Minority Leadert

Leah Vukmir,
State Representative

Steve Moore,
Wall Street Journal

Dan Schnur,
President, Command Focus

Vicki McKenna,
WISN & WIBA Radio

Todd Berry,
President, Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance

Patrick McIllheran,
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Leslie Graves,
President, Lucy Burns Institute

Owen Robinson,
Boots and Sabers

Fred Dooley,
Real Debate Wisconsin

So, register already. I’ll be there with the laptop, camera and digital voice recorder, and unlike the DC version in October, I know what settings to have that DVR at to get somewhat-decent audio.

I believe I mentioned this before, but since it dropped off the front page, I’ll mention it again.

Americans for Prosperity is holding the Defending the American Dream Summit – Wisconsin at the Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee, WI on Saturday, February 9, 2008. Full details and registration ($29 for general/$15 for students) are available at the link. Trust me, you will want to sign up. I was at the national DAD summit, and that was a crowded (1,600 strong while AFP had originally anticipated about 600), fun couple of days. Even if we don’t get any of the invited Presidential candidates, they have a rather strong lineup.

So, if you haven’t already signed up, I have but one question, why are you still here and not there signing up?

First things first, my many thanks to Mark Block, Fred Dooley, Erik Telford, and Americans for Prosperity for this opportunity. I can now tick off a couple more items on my “must do” list. Now that I’ve done that, and gathered as much reax as I could find, it’s time to try to put my thoughts in some semblance of order, and take the long view.

It is a big shame that Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson didn’t make themselves available to the bloggers and the press, and not just because we never got sound up on Bloggers’/Press Row. I wanted to see those two, especially Thompson, operate outside the safety net of a prepared speech and expected questions. To a lesser extent, I have the same complaint about Mitt Romney, though by that time, all the “real” media and almost all the bloggers had departed the Row. While Steve (no, NOT me), Fred and Leslie would’ve put up good questions, I know I wouldn’t have. While John McCain also was not available to the bloggers/media, that was more of a question of logistics (there was no place for Bloggers’/Media Row in the Hart Building).

Speaking of those questions, while the press dominated the Q&As with Ron Paul, Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee, the bloggers brave enough to ask questions (see above) did come up with some land mines. Paul definitely detonated one with Fred’s question (the 9th and last one).

The biggest limitation was that lack of audio up in Bloggers’ Row. Part of it was the fact that we had radio shows broadcasting live from the room all day (that’s the source of all the extraneous noise on my audio from Paul, Brownback and Huckabee), though it was never fixed or fixable. About the time I would catch up on blogging, I found myself too late for the afternoon session going on at that point. I made it worse by perpetuating the vicious cycle because the Wi-Fi didn’t make it all the way up to the room and the Mayflower charges an arm and a leg for wired access.

I mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again; if anybody has extended audio/video from the main hall or the afternoon sessions (yes, I know all about the Defending the Dream YouTube channel), I would like it.

Enough gripes; on to the candidates. Giuliani does indeed know his audience, and knows how to destroy the clock (I’ll get back to that). Paul is a 69-percenter (and that’s on the college 70%-to-pass scale); there’s a lot that I can relate to, yet the big negatives are completely insurmountable. Brownback doesn’t quite light my fire, though his prop of choice was great. Huckabee doesn’t know the first thing about federalism, and he’s too wedded to a national sales tax. Thompson would be a runaway in an earlier time (say, 1988 or perhaps as late as 1992), but he has some baggage. If I could ignore Romney’s past (especially on health care), I could warm up to him; unfortunately, I can’t.

On to the BIG controversy, at least for the Paul-nuts – the “silencing” of their man. That’s one of the reasons why I want the extended audio/video; I want to accurately time how long everybody got. I do know that all of the candidates ran over, and that Giuliani, who went first, went over the longest.

Mitigating that is the fact that the “minor” 3 all spent time with us bloggers and the media, while the “big” 4 (including McCain) did not. Even before one adds in the 3 stations that Paul did interviews on, he got better than 20 minutes of microphone time. I wish I had been better with the mike, but I’m still learning with that new piece of equipment as I picked it up earlier in the week and didn’t have a chance to find out its limitations.

Even with the problems in Bloggers’ Row, that was a blast. I got to meet a bunch of great people, some all-too-briefly, see some pros at work (no, I’m not talking about the press in the center of the room), and find out how at least some of the candidates handle less-than-scripted questions. If I weren’t so quiet,….

Other than missing the “working” sessions (note to self; pay for the ‘Net in the room next time so you don’t burn the “working” sessions catching up on blogging), it was simply an awesome time. Fred and I even got in some sightseeing on a foggy Saturday. Saturday, though he headed back to the hotel early. I will say that 1 hour in the Air and Space Museum is not nearly enough. Those pics will be up tomorrow.

I’m back home in south suburban Milwaukee, where it is just as hot and humid as it was in DC, but where it gets lighter earlier, and the beer is less-expensive. The laptop is back on charge after offloading all the pics and audio to the desktop, so it’s time to dig up some reax from the rest of Bloggers’ Row (and probably others in my quick search for reax) before I have my own:

– Let’s start off with my roomie Fred (Dooley, not Thompson). There’s too many posts there to link to them all, so just start reading. Oh, and the Unreal One is VERY lucky that The Hammer is a good sport.

– Mary Katharine Ham had a bunch of reax. First, she wasn’t exactly impressed by Thompson (tempered a bit later in the HotAir thread on that). Next, she raised the ire of the Paulnuts by pointing out that while Ron Paul got Gong-showed off the stage after 10 minutes, he spent forever and a half on Bloggers’/Media Row. Finally, she highlights Mike Huckabee’s defense of a smoking ban in Bloggers’/Media Row.

– Jim Geraghty, who had the benefit of being in the “overflow” section and thus had audio, panned Sam Brownback and got the quote of the day from Michael Steele, ripped Huckabee for the FairTax, and was impressed by Thompson both on the main stage and in front of the Virginia contingent, with plenty of quotes from both appearances (hmmm, one would think that he’s a FredHead ;-)

– Steve from Dry Fly Politics ran with a massive live-blog, including getting Mark Block in a cheesehead. He got questions in on the Row, so he wins the “Questioner of the Day” award. He’s officially a Romney man, so it’s no surprise that his take of the Romney speech reflects that.

– Jo Egelhoff wisely left her perch immediately to my right when she found out that audio from the main stage would not be forthcoming and picked up several snippets, including a focus on Vicki McKenna.

– Bruce from Gay Patriot, who got the almost-ultimate seat between the Hammer and Fausta Wertz, started off hustling between the Row and the main room, came back in time to take some stills of Paul and Brownback on the Row, and poor-audio-quality video of Huckabee (I will point out that the room was VERY noisy at that point; so noisy that most of MKH’s video appears to not be of good-enough quality for public consumption). He wraps it up with a wrap-up, which includes an ironic group that was up the hall from us.

– Matt Lewis had the view from the Green Room, and didn’t like Thompson. Scary thing is, he linked to the TownHall version of NRE, and since I pulled SiteMeter (TH’s counter of choice), and I deep-linked to my audio files, I don’t know how many went there from him.

– Matthew of Right Angle Blog noted Rudy Giuliani was channeling French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and lamented the fact that Paul always manages to piss him off while taking a shot at the presstitutes (Matthew had a better angle to see their nose-picking ways).

– Brendan Steinhauser, who will eventually have video up, noted that there was a lot of energy, and Thompson didn’t match it.

– Fausta Wertz (how I missed meeting her I’ll never know, or is it just my memory failing me?) takes some serious whacks at Paul Krugman with the rest of us at the summit as the bats.

– David Weigel found that the most-positive people in the crowd, at least in the day session, were Paul-nuts.

– SWAC Girl made a long drive, but got there in time to cover the White House briefing (Fred was scheduled, but due to a delay in check-in, he was unable to make it). She was impressed by Giuliani and Romney, and less-than-thrilled with Thompson.

– Rob Port grabbed his camera and had the pic of the day (you can go and click for it; I won’t spoil the surprise), and noted that McCain was a bit tired. He put up so many posts about Day 2 that I’ll just say look for the stuff with the “Defending the American Dream Summit” title.

– Added 7:45 am 10/7/2007 –

– Jawa Ragnar Danneskjold was somewhere in the fold, and was happy with Giuliani and Thopmson, as well as most of the fiscal portion of Paul’s speech, and was less-than-impressed with Brownback and Huckabee.

– enamored by Giuliani, and not so much by Thompson.

– Chief of Freedom Dogs got a connection in the main room and live-blogged from there.

If I missed anybody, pipe up, please. I’m especially looking for “independent” audio/video from the main room for the day sessions (they never did get the audio into Bloggers’ Row).

Thanks, Steve, for letting me liveblog the Americans for Prosperity “Defending the Dream” conference with you here on NRE.

It was great to meet you, Fred from Real Debate Wisconsin, Jo from Fox Politics, Jim from NRO’s Campaign Spot, Bruce from The Gay Patriot, Jason from Citizen Watchdogs, and many more.

If you–or any other Wisconsin bloggers, of any political persuasion–would like to drop by our office in Madison and get some hand’s on coaching on how to file an open records request, just shoot us an email.

I’m on one of the “rented” laptops since mine is upstairs, so I won’t have audio for you until probably tomorrow, and long after AFP has it up on their YouTube channel, but Fred (Dooley, not Thompson) had the same reaction. Still can’t necessarily say I would vote for him, but his stock definitely went up in my book.

Revisions/extensions (6:22 pm 10/6/2007) – My crappy audio (from the far corner of the room, which made my decision to not try to shoot video a good one) is here, while AFP’s video has long since been up (part 1/part 2).

My friend Paul Jacob is here at the AFP Summit, doing interviews with reporters. The Free Paul Jacob website is central intelligence on this story–it’ll be around for a year or more as Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson tries to put Paul behind bars for 10 years.

See also Free Paul Jacob on Ballotpedia, and an article about the Oklahoma 3.

Wisconsin doesn’t have the right of citizen initiative as a state (although we do have the right of recall), but it is the source of the Frami v Ponto decision from federal judge Barbara Crabb in 2003, where she ruled against an attempt by Wisconsin election officials to kick a candidate off the ballot because some of his signatures were collected by out-of-state petitioners. She said the law was an unconstitutional abridgement of the free speech rights of both the petition circulator and the candidate.

AFP has their channel up, and Mary Katharine crashed Fred’s appearance before the Virginia delegation. There will almost certainly be more out there.

The Bloggers’ Row quality is not particularily good because there was simply so much noise. With that bit of warning, here’s some audio:

– John McCain’s speech Thursday night
– Jim DeMint’s speech Thursday night
– Ron Paul’s appearance before Bloggers’/Media Row
– Sam Brownback’s and Mike Huckabee’s appearances before Bloggers’/Media Row (sorry about the combining, Huckabee came up right after Brownback, so I didn’t have time to stop recording.

Just got back from listening to John Fund, and he’s very good. Stupid me didn’t take the recorder down, so I don’t have any juicy quotes of red meat for you. I’m sure somebody else will have them.

Now, do I go to the entertainment industry seminar or the impact leggies one? The latter features Leah Vukmir from Wauwatosa. There’s also the Students for Prosperty run by Mark Block, but since I’m a bit beyond college years,….

I’m sitting here with “Captain Watchdog”, Jason Moore, a bricklayer and political activist from Odessa, Texas. Let’s hear what Jason has to say about citizen engagement and Americans for Prosperity.

ME: Jason, why are you here?

JASON: It’s time that big government politicians hear from normal people, not government trough junkies.

ME: Tell me a little bit about what you do back in Odessa?

JASON: I mostly watch taxing entities (city councils, school districts, county government) in the Permian Basin–the Odessa/Midland area of west Texas. Our motto is, “We Bark of Behalf on the Taxpayer”. We do a weekly radio show and post regular updates on the Citizen Watchdogs website.

ME: Tell me about your relationship with Americans for Prosperity.

JASON: I could not do what I do without AFP. They introduced me into the political system back when I didn’t know anything or anybody. They showed me by example and helped me find effective ways to communicate with my legislators.

ME: What goals do you have in the coming year?

JASON: To continue to change the language government officials use to communicate with taxpayers. It needs to be more straightforward and simple. Secondly, to educate taxpayers about what the proper role of government is. One of the things I always say is, you can’t demand government do more and more, and expect to pay less and less in taxes.

ME: What’s the most interesting event you’ve attended here at the Summit?

JASON: The rally yesterday on the Capitol Steps was powerful. It put a face on regular taxpayers and it put real bodies in Washington to show Washington politicians we mean business. We’re ramping up, and we’re not going to go away. I think before they relied on the meet, greet and retreat strategy. That’s not going to work again. Fiscal conservatives have to stay in the game. It requires daily vigilance.

Thank you, Jason.

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.