California Conservative

I just got an email from Gabriela at the Sunlight Foundation. She’s proud to announce that, thanks to the Sunlight Foundation’s supporters, congresscritters are now free to use blogs, Twitter and YouTube. Here’s the text of the email:

Dear Sunlighters,

Good news! Thanks to your help, the House and Senate recently updated the guidelines that govern how members of Congress can use the Internet to communicate with us about their work.

The new rules now allow members of Congress to interact with us on sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Sunlight advocated for these rules changes through our bipartisan collaborative effort; the Open House Project, http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/, and through our popular Let Our Congress Tweet campaign, the first Twitter-based petition to Congress. Thanks to the hundreds of you who joined our call for change!

To show our gratitude, we’ve created Capitol Tweets at http://sunlightfoundation.com/CAPITOLTWEETS/. This widget, which you can embed on your site, lets you follow the latest tweets from members of Congress who use Twitter.

Get the code to embed the Capitol Tweets widget here:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/capitoltweets/

While you’re at it, be sure to check out PC Magazine’s list of the “5 sites That Will Boost your Political Knowledge”

http://tinyurl.com/pcworld5sites

You might recognize a few Sunlight friends such OpenSecrets.org, OpenCongress.org and FedSpending.org, who do great work to bring more transparency to work of our federal government.

Thanks again for your support,

Gabriela Schneider & the Sunlight team

Anytime that We The People win another battle for disinfectant of transparency is a good day. Our work must continue, though, because politicians, by nature, are resistant to transparency. This victory is sweet but the fight continues.

Congratulations to the vigilant efforts of the Sunlight Foundation.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Twitter, YouTube, Sunlight Foundation, Flickr, Transparency

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

I get studies from the Heritage Foundation on a fairly regular basis. Friday afternoon’s email caught my attention more than most, though. This study is why:

Recent projections by the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office reveal that the highway trust fund will run out of money during FY 2009. Unless the fund is replenished soon, federal spending on highways could decline significantly as the fund reverts to a spend-as-you-earn basis until a permanent remedy is enacted. Until then, one solution is to re-concentrate the fund’s focus on highway investment and safety by abandoning the many low priority and non-transportation diversions that now encumber the federal program.[1]

The Democratic majority will instantly demand passage of Jim Oberstar’s gas tax increase. I doubt it’ll make it that far (Senate Republicans would likely filibuster it) but if it gets to President Bush’s desk, he’ll certainly veto the bill.

As with most things, it isn’t that there isn’t enough revennue. It’s that there isn’t any spending discipline. It’s apparent, too, that Congress hasn’t prioritized their spending. They’ve focused their spending on earmarks, aka corruption magnets, aka re-election slush funds, rather than focusing spending on high priority items. If, and hopefully when, a McCain-Palin administration starts, rest assured that they’ll quickly restore order. (more…)

Many in the Right Blogosphere have brought up the inexperience subject. To be fair, they’ve done so in a thoughtful manner. Two such people are Kevin at Pundit Review and Allahpundit at HotAir.

Here are a couple of concerns Kevin raises:

McCain turns 72 years old today. When thinking about a VP, I believe voters look at them and think, “can I imagine this person as president”. For all his flaws, Joe Biden passes that test. Will Sarah Palin? I don’t know?

Can she hold her own against a hostile press corps? How about against Joe Biden for that matter? The only honest answer is that nobody knows. I saw her about a month ago on Larry Kudlow’s TV show and I thought she did ok, not great, just ok. If that was my impression watching her in friendly territory, how will she do when really pressed?

With all due respect to Kevin, Joe Biden only passes the test stylistically. That isn’t nearly good enough for me. It’s why I ignored statements like this or that candidate “looks presidential.” When Sen. Obama took his overseas trip, especially after his meetings with President Sarkozy and PM Brown and in his ‘Citizen of the World’ speech in Berlin, the press practically wet their pants in talking about how presidential he looked. (more…)

Pundits all across the country are buzzing about Sarah Palin and the impact she’s having on the Obama-McCain matchup. This represents typical inside-the-box thinking. I think it’s also out of step with a new matchup that’s taking center stage: the Palin-Obama matchup.

People across America still understand that the presidential matchup is still McCain-Obama but they’re starting to notice that, when it comes to reform, it’s really a Palin-Obama matchup.

Prior to Gov. Palin’s entry into the mix, people generally thought of Sen. Obama as a change agent, a reformer. Now that people are finding out how Sarah Palin took on the powers-that-be within the Republican Party of Alaska and how she ran out the Republican Attorney General before thrashing the sitting Republican governor in a GOP primary, people are taking a second look at Sen. Obama’s reformer’s credentials.

The closer the scrutiny, I predict, the less impressed voters will be with Sen. Obama. The reason for that is because his reformer’s credentials are largely nonexistent. While he made his way up the food chain in Chicago’s crony-laden political system, Sen. Obama didn’t utter a peep about the corruption that dotted Chicago’s political landscape.

Instead, he picked friends like Jeremiah Wright, a racist, and William Ayers, a terrorist. While those relationships with radicals prove that Obama isn’t an inside-the-box politician, those relationships don’t prove that he’s got an ambition to change the status quo when the status quo is corrupt.

In fact, what it really proves is that, putting it charitably, Sen. Obama’s judgment on personal matters is suspect. It also calls into question Sen. Obama’s priorities. Based on this information, it’s difficult to prove that reforming Washington is a priority. (more…)

This morning, Kimberly Strassel’s column is the most laughable. The topic of Ms. Strassel’s column: Democrats dreaming of a 60-seat majority in the Senate. Serious people who’ve done their due diligence know that that isn’t going to happen. At best, they’ll wind up 3-5 seats short.

A quick recap of the numbers: Republicans must defend 23 seats, compared to 12 for the Democrats. Of those GOP slots, 10 are at potential risk: Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Alaska, Mississippi, Maine and North Carolina. The Democrats claim only one vulnerable senator this year, Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. Depending on how big a day the party has in November, it is at least conceivable Democrats could get the nine seats they need to hit the magic 60.

Let’s start by taking Minnesota’s seat off the table. Al Franken could lose by 20 points this year because his party’s rank-and-file find him detestable. Testimony of that came at a recent event here in St. Cloud. One person showed up for the event even though the event was properly publicized. Next, take North Carolina and Maine off the map. Sen. Dole and Sen. Collins will be re-elected. (more…)

Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic brethren adjourned the House for the next 5 weeks. The bad news for them is that Republicans refused to leave, causing a major media opportunity to highlight Ms. Pelosi’s Politburo mentality. Here’s Rep. John Shadegg’s quote on Ms. Pelosi’s strongarm tactics:

“The speaker wouldn’t let us have the five-minute speeches because she didn’t want the day dominated on the floor by speeches pointing out she has not allowed a vote on a single measure to permit greater oil exploration for the past two months. This is our answer to the Orange Revolution and our modern day Boston tea party.”

Ms. Pelosi obviously underestimated the Republicans. It’s equally obvious that Ms. Pelosi attitude’s is that of a dictator. In fact, here’s what the Politico is quoting Rep. Thaddeus McCotter as saying:

“This is the people’s House,” said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.). “This is not Pelosi’s politiburo.”

Ms. Pelosi has ruled the 110th Congress with an iron fist. Now that style has returned to bite her. She’s a little tyrant.

I’ll be mightily surprised if this isn’t THE NEWS STORY of the night. Here’s a great Mike Pence quote:

While Democrats have privately decried the breakdown in order, Republicans defended the protest. “You are not witnessing a revolt,” said Rep. Mike Pence. “You are witnessing democracy in action.”

Ms. Pelosi has been a picture in desperation, if not abject failure. She’s tried blocking the GOP’s legislation that would increase oil exploration and production. The overwhelming majority of people polled agree with the GOP on this issue. (BTW, if Republicans want to reach out to moderates and independents without abandoning their principles, this is the vehicle.) (more…)

The Sierra Club’s Athan Manuel is quoted in a CNNMoney article offering one of the lamest rationalizations as to why we shouldn’t open up the OCS. Here’s that quote:

“We don’t think it’s good to couple a bad idea, like offshore drilling, with a good idea,” said Athan Manuel, director of lands protection for the Sierra Club, an environmental group. “We don’t think it’s worth risking our coastlines, our beaches, our tourism industry and some of our most special places for oil and gas that will not solve our energy problem.”

When Mr. Manuel says that we shouldn’t drill offshore because it’d hurt tourism, he’s assuming that tourism-related industries are flourishing right now. It isn’t likely that they’re flourishing because high gas prices are limiting that type of activity.

Environmental groups are latching onto this information as justification for not drilling on the OCS: (more…)

Anyone who’s read this website knows that my first choice for president was Fred Thompson. Since that didn’t work out the way I’d hoped, I’m thankful that he didn’t just disappear back to Hollywood. We need Fred to continue advocating conservatism’s core principles. That’s precisely what he did in this column.

We’ve heard alot recently that we’d have to remake the GOP brand, whatever that’s supposed to be. I suspect the people saying it really mean that conservatives need to abandon conservatism. I’ve rejected that as utter nonsense. I’m not alone in the Right Blogosphere, either. The best news is that Fred Thompson thinks it’s BS, too:

We know that we were given a country based upon certain eternal truths, the wisdom of the scriptures and the wisdom of the ages, the fact that there is such a thing as human nature that has to be taken into account when governing, and most fundamentally, based upon the fact that people are meant to be free. Our founders derived from these principles a government that had its powers separated, checked and balanced because they knew that power tended to corrupt. In keeping with that they incorporated in our Constitution a system of Federalism to make sure that there was not too much power concentrated in the central government, which was given delineated powers and no others.

When we see government burdening us with unnecessary regulations, it’s imperative that we fight against it. When we see government attempting to burden us with trillion dollar tax increases, we must fight against it. (more…)

Scott McLellan’s book is getting alot of buzz this morning, mostly on the basis that it sounds like it’s written by the Daily Kos. I’ll reserve judgment on whether the snippets now being discussed are reflective of the book until I read the book but I don’t need to wait to pass judgment on this quote in the AJC’s article:

“President Bush has always been an instinctive leader more than an intellectual leader. He is not one to delve into all the possible policy options, including sitting around engaging in extended debate about them, before making a choice,” McClellan wrote. “Rather, he chooses based on his gut and his most deeply held convictions. Such was the case with Iraq.”

Based on what Bob Woodward wrote in “Bush at War”, McLellan’s take simply doesn’t hold water. Woodward wrote about how President Bush would toss out a subject with his national security team and let them argue about their positions to get the benefit of multiple perspectives. (more…)

The Republican Party isn’t the majority party here in Minnesota nor in our nation’s capital for a variety of reasons. I’d submit that the biggest reason why we aren’t the majority party is because we stopped being the party of ideas. Here in Minnesota, though, we’re taking corrective action, action that doesn’t rely on the state party.

Instead, what a group of activists have done is turned the MOB (Minnesota Organization of Bloggers) into the Activists’ News Network. Many of our state legislators stay in touch with what’s important to working class people by reading blogs like True North, Powerline, MDE, SCSUScholars, Let Freedom Ring, Ladies Logic and Shot In The Dark. Our House GOP leadership reads the blogs on a daily basis, as do their staff.

The House GOP Caucus has used this to stay in touch with what’s important with activists. That’s important because the activists/citizen journalists stay in touch with their neighbors, co-workers and friends. I can’t emphasize this point enough. If the GOP wants to return to majority status anytime soon, it has to start with listening to what the people are saying.

It’s my contention that the reason why earmarks have proliferated at the rate they have is in direct proportion to the RNC and other Beltway ‘alphabets’ not having a coherent or appealing agenda. To get an appealing agenda, the RNC must listen to the people living in the Heartland because what’s importatnt in the Heartland is dramatically different than what’s important to the Beltway’s opinion shapers. (more…)