Thursday, February 26, 2009

MSNBC TV Scheduled to Interview Me Tomorrow 9:30 AM EST About the Nationwide Chicago Tea Party Taking Place at Noon Tomorrow in 45 Cities !

In the category of.... when it rains, it pours.... comes this.

Just finished watching Neil Cavuto's great interview with the organizer of the New York City Tea Party, then jumped on the RNC Grassroots Conference call run so well by internet genius David All.

When the cell phone rang (well, buzzed actually) and showed a 212 area code, I thought David wouldn't mind if I left the call to answer.

Good move.

Turns out it was a very nice producer from MSNBC confirming a live interview at 9:30 am EST tomorrow to talk about tomorrow's Nationwide Chicago Tea Party.

Tune in and let me know how you think it goes!

At the very least, more publicity for the now 50 and growing tea parties scheduled to take place around the country.

Our theme ?

Our message to Congress is simple: Repeal the Pork or Retire !

How to Create a "Plan B" Tea Party

If you live in a city where an organized local tea party as part of tomorrow's www.nationwidechicagoteaparty is not currently planned, you still have time to organize a local "Plan B" Tea Party and be an important part of this national event. Here's what you do.

1. Appoint yourself as the local "Plan B" Tea Party organizer.

2. Reserve a table or private room at your favorite local restaurant. Preferably one with a WIFI connection.

3. Create a Facebook Event announcing your "Plan B" Tea Party. Try and have the time as close to noon EST Friday February 27 as possible.

4. Send me the link to your event in a comment here. Also, go to www.nationwidechicagoteaparty and follow the link to the main Facebook event we have created. "Attend" that event as a Maybe. Then POST your link to the Facebook Wall of that event. We will move it up to the main page for you.

5. Invite half a dozen or a dozen of your friends to the restaurant.

6. Tell everyone to bring their digital cameras, cell phones and laptops.

7. Join our Conference Call at 5 pm CST tonight. You can get the call in # by joining this ning group: http://tcotprojects.ning.com . Search today's events for the call in #.

8. Issue a Press Release to the local media.

9. Tomorrow, at the restaurant, follow the events of the day on Twitter using the #teaparty hashtag. Send live tweets. Send pics of your event. Call in our audio lines.

10. Send a message to @TCOTTV on Twitter. Ask to get the YouTube announcement. Retweet that announcement.

Friday, February 20, 2009

#TCOT and online Conservatives Launch Nationwide Chicago Tea Party Friday February 27 at noon

Online conservative activists have rallied to CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s call yesterday, backed by mortgage traders, for a “Nationwide Chicago Tea Party” to protest the Obama Administration’s bailout plan.

Moving quickly, Top Conservatives on Twitter , Smart Girl Politics, the #Dontgo movement, Americans for Tax Reform, the Heartland Institute, and American Spectator Magazine joined forces to announce a “Nationwide Chicago Tea Party”, to be held on Friday, February 27 at noon EST.

The tea party will be held simultaneously in Chicago, Washington, DC, at dozens of locations around the US, and on Twitter, using the #teaparty hashtag.

Santelli’s criticism of the Obma mortgage plan is that it rewards the irresponsible, while penalizing the responsible.

As co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter, I believe it is very important that all conservatives move quickly and in collaboration to hold this event. In today’s world, the life cycle of political events moves very rapidly. There’s momentum out there surrounding Santelli’s call to protest yet another ill-advised bail-out of yet another group that has made bad decisions. Anyone who wants to join this event is invited to visit www.officialchicagoteaparty.com.

RedState and Bloggers Track Bart Gordon's European Vacation

RedState, the nationally recognized conservative online publication, started tracking Bart Gordon's taxpayer funded European vacation yesterday.

The blogosphere seems equally interested in the liberal Democrat Congressman from Tennessee's excellent adventure:

Truman's Take , Voluntarily Conservative , RightyBlogs , Wikio ,Navy Wings , Red County , Green Change , But as for me , Conservative Ramblings , John Scott and The Washington Post are all following Bart Gordon's misadventures around Europe now.

Who's not reporting about Bart Gordon's taxpayer funded European vacation?

Bart Gordon's Office

All local Tennessee media

Bart Gordon's office continues to stonewall questions posed about his whereabouts. Numberous bloggers and constituents have phoned to confirm that he's currently on this European junket, but staffers continue to "neither confirm nor deny."

Geesh ! Sounds like Fifth Ammendment time a bit, doesn't it ?

As for the local Tennessee media, it seems rather odd to me that such an intriguing story -- "Local Congressman takes taxpayer funded junket to Europe, office refuses to confirm or deny his participation" -- has received zero attention.

Any readers of this blog have any ideas what the locals might need to pay attention to such a story ?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Curious Case of Bart Gordon



Bart Gordon, a liberal Democrat, has represented the Sixth Congressional District of Tennessee since 1985, when Al Gore moved up from representing this district in Congress to representing the entire state of Tennessee in the United States Senate.

In the subsequent 24 years, Gordon has distinguished himself primarily as the fastest man in Congress. And Gordon literally IS the fastest man in Congress, having won the Congressional three mile road race for a record 18 consecutive years. Each year his time has been under 6 minutes a mile, which is nothing to sneeze at, when you consider Gordon is now almost 60 years old.

Beyond that one accomplishment, and the fact that he routinely wins with no opposition in a largely Republican district, Gordon has accomplished very little other than support the traditional left wing liberal agenda in Congress.

Perhaps because his seat has been perceived as so safe, Mr. Gordon has been able to hone his running skills, and focus on other aspects of his life besides politics. Now comes Dave Evans, a resident of the Sixth Congressional District, and a Major General in the Army Reserve with a distinguished record of service, and a man who intends to secure the Republican nomination and give Gordon his first serious challenge in 2010 since Steve Gill almost knocked him off in 1994.

Call it hubris or overconfidence, Gordon has apparently given Evans a gift wrapped issue on which to run.

Though he serves on no Congressional Committee that has anything to do with Europe, Gordon has apparently joined his Tennessee Democrat pal John Tanner on a 9 day jaunt through Europe, from the 14th of this month to the 22nd. Arguably Tanner has reason to make this trip--He's President of the NATO Assembly of Parliamentarians, an organization that does appear to have some official function, however minimal. Gordon, however, is another matter.


Evans has jumped on this European junket issue, and so far, Gordon has failed to give an explanation as to why the taxpayers should be paying for his trip.

To be accurate, no one really has been able to confirm whether or not Gordon actually went on the trip. The Washington Post reported on February 12 that he was scheduled to attend, and a February 16 press release from the Tennessee State Republican Party criticized Gordon for being on the trip, but, curiously, Gordon's office refuses to confirm or deny whether he actually is in Europe now.

A series of volunteers have phoned Bart Gordon's Washington D.C. office asking for simple confirmation of Gordon's participation of the trip, and the hapless staffers responding to the questions have stonewalled their responses, saying they are not authorized to disclose where he is.

Such stonewalling, of course, plays right into Evans' game plan of criticizing Gordon for being aloof and out of touch. Plus, we might add, there is probably some sort of Congressional or Federal rule, law, or regulation which requires a Congressman's office to publicly disclose where he or she is when conducting official business at taxpayers' expense.

Gordon's website happily touts every speech or public appearance he makes in the district that promotes his own visibility. Oddly, no public statement has been forthcoming to date from his office even confirming whether he is or is not currently in Europe on "taxpayer funded business."

Evans is playing it smart by asking for a public statement from Gordon that addresses two issues:

1. Is he travelling to Europe now at taxpayers' expense ?

2. If he is in Europe, what possible justification does he have for wasting taxpayers' money to fly him over there and pay for his meals and lodging ?

You would think that, given the current economic "crisis" and the urgency with which the Democrats rushed through the monstrous $787 billion "stimulus" bill, that some local Tennessee newspapers, radio stations, or television stations might do a little investigative journalism and simply ask Bart Gordon if he actually is in Europe, and if he is, why is he in Europe ?

Perhaps it's ennui or just plain ol laziness, but to date, none of these intrepid muckrakers have risen to the occasion.

Given Newschannel 5's functioning of late as a virtual extension of the Barack Obama Communications Department, that's not much of a surprise. Perhaps some adventurous small local newspaper will hop on the story. More likely, it's a challenge that the inquisitive bloggers of Tennessee will take up.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

My brother, Tom Leahy, says Lincoln would not be happy with the bailout


My brother, Tom Leahy, teaches fourth grade in Kansas. A few weeks ago, he was invited to address the Kansas State Senate.

Here's the full article with his comments at that event.

I was particularly impressed with his comments about what he thought Lincoln might say about some current political issues.

The Topeka newspaper reported his comments as follows:

He also said the nation's 16th president probably wouldn't be enthusiastic about federal bailout legislation endorsed by Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama. Lincoln, who had 18 months of formal education, emerged from personal and professional disaster without handouts, he said.

"He bailed himself out many times," Leahy said. "He would not be happy."

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Darwin, and Great-Great Grandpa Andrew Leahy

February 12, 1809.

Three men of great importance to me were born on this day.

Abraham Lincoln was born in a lean to cabin in rural Kentucky.

Charles Darwin was born on an estate in England.

And my great-great grandfather, Andrew Leahy, was born in modest circumstances somewhere in the south of Ireland. I used to think it was County Kerry, but now I think it may have been County Cork or Tipperary.

Well, almost.

The Lincoln and Darwin birthdates are confirmed.

The Andrew Leahy birth date is possible, but uncertain. He was born between February 22, 1808 and February 21, 1809. I like to think it was February 12, 1809.

Senator Patrick Leahy and I are both great-great grandsons of Andrew Leahy.

Given our divergent political philosophies, there's a clever comment to be made here, but it's late and I've used up my clever quips for the day.

Perhaps the regular readers of this blog could offer clever quips in the comments section.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

#TCOT Continues to Dominate Twitter Hashtags

A brief review of www.hashtags.org data for February month to date statistics of hashtag usage on Twitter shows that the conservative hashtag #TCOT (used by the Top Conservatives on Twitter community for online dialogues) continues to dominate the Twitter conversation.

For the 10 day period covering February 1 to February 10, the Top 3 hashtags (counting total number of 140 character Twitter updates or "tweets" using that hashtag) are as follows:

1. #TCOT with 16,500

2. #uksnow with 9,500

3. #Superbowl with 8,500

#TCOT is almost twice as often used in identifying a tweet as the second most used hashtag on all of Twitter!

Someone might want to let the folks at Twitter Headquarters in San Francisco in on this relevant piece of factual information.

Since about January 22, the #TCOT hashtag has been removed from the top ten "trending topics" lists that shows up on Twitter when you go to http://search.twitter.com

Some have argued that this list only shows percentage change in usage over a one hour or 24 hour period of time, and that explains the absence of #TCOT from the list.

Perhaps.

How then, can the failure to include #TCOT from the list on February 6, when #TCOT hashtag usage jumped to 2,402 from the previous day's 1,982? That's a daily increase of 420 !

An analysis of any given day's Twitter "trending list" shows that some hashtags on the list fail to reach 420 TOTAL during the entire day.

I wonder what's going on at Twitter Headquarters, and why #TCOT has been banned from the Twitter "trending list" ?

Monday, February 09, 2009

"As Maine Goes, So Goes PORKULUS"

Since the 1840's Maine has been considered a bellweather state.

Until the mid-twentieth century, the state of Maine held elections for state-wide offices in September. Often, these results were considered an indication of where the country would go in the November elections.

After Maine went for Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1888, giving him an electoral college victory over Grover Cleveland despite losing the popular vote, an unknown journalist coined the famous phrase.

"As Maine goes, so goes the nation."

Forty eight years later, in 1936, only Maine and Vermont voted for Republican Alf Landon in the FDR landslide. This prompted FDR Campaign Manager James Farley to revis the old saying. His version went as follows:

"As Maine goes, so goes Vermont."

Fast forward now to 2009. 38 Republican Senators plan to vote no on PORKULUS. 3 -- Specter of PA, & Snowe and Collins of Maine -- have publicly stated they will vote yes on PORKULUS.

As only 40 votes are needed for the Republicans to maintain a filibuster and keep PORKULUS from coming to a final vote in the Senate, the math is clear. If Snowe and Collins of Maine join their Republican colleagues, PORKULUS can be successfully stopped with a filibuster.

The vote is currently planned for Tuesday.

This prompts me to revise the old saying about Maine as follows:

"As Maine goes, so goes PORKULUS."

If you would like to encourage Senators Collins and Snowe to do the right thing and VOTE NO on PORKULUS, please do the following 2 things today.

1. Take the #TCOT Challenge now. The #TCOT Challenge is simple. Will the personal economies of residents of Maine be better off if all income taxes in 2009 are cut in half, or if the wasteful PORKULUS bill passes?

2. Call Senators Collins and Snowe and report the results of the #TCOT Challenge. Cutting taxes will create jobs in Maine now. Porkulus will do very little now, and increase interest and debt payments dramatically in future years.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

How a South Dakota Family Would Spend the Taxes Saved Under the #TCOT Plan

1) Our family would use the extra money from the reduced with holdings to help pay for our oldest child's college tuition and to do some projects around our house including installing a fireplace in our living room and finishing the kitchenette / bar in our rec. room

There is no doubt this plan would improve the economy beyond measure. People, including my husband and I, are holding onto our money because of the level of uncertainty being created in this current atmosphere. Because it appears the Democratically controlled Congress & White House plan to push through all kinds of programs and regulations that will hurt the economy and not help it AND we're printing and borrowing money like there is literally no tomorrow, we're afraid our dollar will be so devalued we will have to make some serious cuts. We're concerned about a looming threat to our totally reliable health insurance if there is a push for Universal Healthcare, and finally we are expecting a serious cut in our income because there is no pledge to make those tax cuts from 2003 permanent. We will jump to 28%.
More than anything, the uncertainty is freezing this economy.

2. In order to pay for the proposed plan and deal with our already crushing debt, we need to cut spending ACROSS THE BOARD!

The Federal government is far too large, intrusive, and bloated. That is a relevant question, despite what we've been told.

In addition to the TCOT plan proposed I must add that tax cuts and spending cuts across the board are not enough.
If government regulation of the private sector is not examined in a serious way and reformed, underlying problems that stifle growth will continue to plague us.
In some areas, there is far too much regulation - i.e. energy exploration and extraction and one of the primary causes of the current "crisis", mortgage lending.
In other areas, there is not the right kind of regulation - SEC.

Friday, February 06, 2009

How one member of #TCOT would use the tax savings in the #TCOT Plan to boost the economy personally !

1. How would you use the extra cash you received under this plan during 2009, and would it, in your opinion, improve the economy more than PORKULUS ?

1) Eliminate small amount of non-mortgage debt, then would probably buy new Ford Flex; invest in low risk short term funds for son’s college in 5 years from now; additional savings and investment via dollar cost averaging; possibly take second traditional mortgage for 2nd home/future retirement home.

2) My small business (professional services corporation) would like hire a new associate (physician) . Our medical center would likely lift hiring freeze, raise health care worker salaries, accelerate $100M/5 yr capital plan.

3) The owner of our for-profit hospital system would likely lift hiring freezes, increase pay, improve facilities in the system that now employs 90,000 people.


2. What would be the best way to deal with the increased federal deficit envisioned under this plan ?


a. Cut spending across the board

A #TCOT member from Spokane, Washington

The #TCOT Plan : Cut All Personal and Corporate Income Taxes in Half Immediately for 12 months of 2009

Both the Congressional Budget Office and the Heritage Foundation have recently documented how ineffective President Obama's proposed $900 billion and growing "Porkulus" political spoils spending bill will be at improving the economy. In a column today, Charles Krauthammer provided the "coup de grace" by decimating the fear promoting "urgency for pork now" arguments of the President.



As co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter, I am today proposing "The #TCOT Plan" as a far superior plan that will immediately revive the economy. I am laying out the key component of the plan here, and am asking members of #TCOT to provide their input on additional components of the plan in comments here on this blog and at The TCOT Report.

The plan is simple:

1. Immediately cut all personal and corporate income taxes in half for all 12 months of 2009.

This plan could be implemented immediately as follows:

1. All employers would be instructed to immediately cut the amount of Federal Income Tax withholdings in half, beginning in next pay cycle beginning March 1.
2. Corporations that pay income taxes quarterly would pay half their corporate taxes in their next quarterly filing, for the period ending March 31.

Lost revenue over the 2009 Calendar year would be approximately $800 billion (A full $900 billion less than the current version of PORKULUS floating through the Senate). This is based on 2007 Federal personal income tax receipts of approximately 1.2 trillion, and Corporate income tax receipts of approximately $345 billion.

The estimated $1.6 trillion of personal and corporate income tax receipts for 2009 under this plan would, on initial review, be cut to $800 billion. However, given the economic stimulative effect that tax reductions would have on the economy (as the famous Laffer Curve demonstrated), actual receipts under this plan would probably exceed $800 billion, though by how much we'll leave for Dr. Laffer and his colleagues to calculate.



Assuming about $3 trillion in actual Federal spending for 2009, set against about $2.7 trillion in projected receipts, we could anticipate the federal deficit under this plan would increase from about $300 billion to something less than $1.1 trillion.

The questions for #TCOT members to comment on are as follows:

1. How would you use the extra cash you received under this plan during 2009, and would it, in your opinion, improve the economy more than PORKULUS ?

2. What would be the best way to deal with the increased federal deficit envisioned under this plan ?

a. Cut spending across the board
b. Borrow the difference, just as President Obama would have us do with PORKULUS
c. Cut spending some, and borrow some

Please comment here directly. All comments will be posted in the comment section at The TCOT Report

I would also ask that you send a link with this plan to every Economist, Radio Talk Show Host, and member of Congress you know, and ask them the same, simple question:

Which plan will help the economy more ?

1. Porkulus



or

2. The #TCOT Plan

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

#TCOT to Senate Republicans: NO to Porkulus, NO to Compromise, NO to Turncoats


Led by Top Conservatives on Twitter (#TCOT) Project Servant-Leader Wendy Herman, a work-at-home mom from Corpus Christi, Texas, #TCOT's MOVE OVER MoveOn.org project focused today on defeating the "Porkulus" Bill in the Senate (S.1), in any form.

#TCOT intends to communicate that message to all 41 Republican Senators in the most direct way today and through the rest of the week. We know that Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid is trying to ram this bad bill through the Senate without a sufficient discussion of all the truly wasteful mini bail-outs to the Democrat Party's political allies it contains.

Read the rest of the story here at the TCOT Report

Monday, February 02, 2009

UK's Telegraph Reports on #TCOT -- Conservatives on Twitter -- But Gets It Wrong

As if we didn't have enough problems with the American Mainstream Media covering the conservative netroots movement properly.

Now comes an article from Britain's Telegraph claiming that despite the success of Top Conservatives on Twitter (#TCOT) liberals still dominate Twitter

Au contraire.

#TCOT now dominates the world of Twitter hashtags.

Want evidence ?

Try this out for size.

In January, 2009, www.hashtags.org reports that the #1 used hashtag on Twitter for the month was #TCOT.

18,000 tweets using #TCOT were sent out in the 31 days of January. But hashtags.org actually failed to count #TCOT tweets on 9 of those 31 days !

Second place in use of hashtags ?

The second place finisher had fewer than #6,000 tweets.

I would call that conservative domination of the Twitter conversation for the month of January, 2009, wouldn't you ?