AFP Summit Morning session

Have had trouble getting access to internet, but am okay -- for now.  I'll try to catch up later.

Right now, we're listening to Herman Cain tell us how his dad worked all his life to obtain his American Dream -- to be worth a million dollars.  He achieved the dream to take care of his mother who had MS for 20 years.

Parting words, " Hold fast to your dreams in the greatest country in the world!"

Next, Steve Moore -- who appeared on Bill Mahar's show last night in LA.  One thing they said, "I believe in American exceptionalism?"  And I said "Hell yes, I believe in American exceptionalism, that's why I'm here!"

Confronted Congressman Maxine Waters with her denial of Freddie Mac And Fannie Mae.  "I noticed you received campaign $$ from Fannie and Freddie PAC?"  She flat out lied and said she didn't take money from them.  Challenged the attendees to push for all campaign $$ to go back to the taxpayers.

Time is being given from each state with an AFP chapter . . . Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, our own Illinois (Joe Calomino, President to the right), Louisiana, Kansas, Michigan, my native "Show Me" Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina "Pork is for eating, not for spending!", Ohio, Oklahoma (home of "Dr. No" and Congressman Inhofe and #1 ranked college football team), Oregon (where citizens are forced back to the Stone Age for the sake of the environment) and brought 33 AFP members all the way),  Texas (which has a $14 billion surplus -- no state income tax -- leading the state in transparency, fighting the liberal Daily Kos), Virginia, Wisconsin (defeated "Healthy Wisconsin," are under assault by MoveOn.org and the teachers' unions).

Grover Norquist -- the reason why people like us get involved in politics is because they "just want to be left alone" -- my children, my faith, my guns. Trial lawyers, labor unions, two wings of the dependency movement, coercive utopians, whole series of rules for the rest of us and get government funds to enforce.

Said that Republicans who vote for tax increases are ruining the GOP branding and should be exposed as thus.  Compared increasing taxes to spend on education as offering funding sacrfices to the gods of education.

John Fund spoke about ACORN and voter fraud -- 20% of the profits of the bailout fund could have gone to ACORN.  ACORN - related investigations in a dozen states on possible voter registration fraud.  This week, Las Vegas ACORN office was raided by the Secretary of State's office. ACORN called the raid a stunt. 

ACORN has received $800k from the Obama campaign this year.  Obama was a trainer and then ACORN's attorney who defended the motor voter registration act before a federal judge.

"if this election is very close as it was in 2000, with rogue lawyers filing lawsuits.  Today the situation is grave -- not the time for another election with accusations of voter fraud.  The next president must take office with full legitimacy.  If ACORN is able to take the election results, we will suffer as a nation.  We must stand against voter fraud.  We must stand up for the civil right to have our votes counted and not be disqualified by fraud."

AFP's New Media director Erik Telford (thanks for the invite, Erik!) presented this year's AFP Blogger of the Year award to Maggie Thurber of Ohio. 

Erik Erickson at RedState.org has a project of putting items on the internet about the good guys to counter the anti-conservative project of writing negative things against the good guys to try to keep them from progressing up the political ladder.

John Stossel is telling us that crisis is the friend of the state.  "The private sector always solves problems better," Stossel said.  "For instance, what's the best the government can do to design a car?  The Trabant. " 

"We need government to keep us safe and to preserve the rule of law, but beyond that, how much more should we demand from the government?" he asked.

Comments

[Will from NYC]

In some states it is illegal for organizations like Acorn to throw out any registration. Even if they could pre-screen the registrations and toss the bogus one they would be in violation of State laws...... the state's job is to look through the registrations for bogus or incomplete applications...

This is all smoke and mirrors to get people focused away from GOP efforts to disenfranchise voters throughout the country.

Like not letting vets who are home vote because they appear on a 2 year old deployment list....

[Fran]

Explain then why a Democrat Secretary of State in Nevada is so angry about what's happened there with ACORN.

[Me]

Explain why in Marion County, Indianapolis, there is more register voters than people who are over 18 adults that live there.

Acorn is, I believe to be engaged in systemic vote fraud on a scale never seen before. Answer that. The Acorn bomb is ticking and it's in Obama's back yard.

[Me]

Getting Votes, the ACORN WAY...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10102008/news/politics/1_voter__72_registrations_132965.htm

[David P. Graf]

I recall how liberalism was rejected as a viable alternative by the general public with Reagan's election. And now, I think the cycle has ended and conservatism will be on the outside looking in for the next few decades. From that perspective, these gatherings are like the dying embers of a campfire. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong about something.

[Bruno]

David wrote: these gatherings are like the dying embers of a campfire.

____

Very well put. Maybe if they were out knocking on doors and talking about issues people cared about they might not be so powerless. But hey, the cocktails and conversation are so scintillating!!

IMO, it won't be a few decades, but one or two election cycles. That is, if the idiots running the Republican Party can get out of their own way.

[Bruno]

Fran,

Is that a weird filter, or are conservatives that "blue" this year.

[Fran]

Sheesh, Bruno...
There's certainly a cloud over the summit, a concern about what lies ahead, but I took the photos off the screen provided in the bloggers row because I was too lazy to jog down to the other side of the hotel to grab shot of each of the speakers.
Thus, they appear "blue."

[Fran]

Guys
Was re-reading your comments about conservatism, and felt compelled to respond.

There are cycles of governing, no doubt, but the idea that conservatism is on its way out is ridiculous. Conservatism is what our nation was built upon. Are you serious that liberalism is the foundation America was built upon? Overbearing government and excessive taxation is why America asserted its independence. Americans are independent and freethinkers at their core. Total dependence on bureaucracy and handouts is against our roots.
You both are kidding, right?

[David P. Graf]

Fran,

Conservatism which defines the government as "the problem" and rejects any kind of government regulation and rips up the social safety net and thinks that free markets and cutting taxes is the answer for every problem is on the way out. People are scared that they could wind up on the streets without a job or a future and they blame that rightly or wrongly on conservatism given the current economic debacle. One can think of the economic crisis as the final straw that broke the public's faith in conservatism, but the woeful response by FEMA after Katrina and the rejection of "staying the course" in Iraq played a part as well. Plus, conservatives tied their wagon (wrongly in my opinion and I said so at the time) to Bush's wagon and so his problems like the incredible deficits have become ours as well.

I know that I am not considered a conservative by the very many in this forum. However, I'm hoping that the coming stay in the political wilderness can help conservatives rethink their positions. We need to once again distinguish conservatism from libertarianism. We need to acknowledge the negative consequences of free markets and come up with a better way of addressing them. We have to stop confusing slogans with solutions and start giving practical answers to the concerns and questions held by ordinary people. Plus, we have to rediscover optimism and give people a reason to vote for us instead of voting against someone else. It can be "morning again" in America, but not with how we present ourselves today to the public.