A good friend of mine recently quipped, “We have to hold government accountable. But if we don’t know what they’re doing in the government, how can we hold them accountable?” This is certainly true in Washington with bills that go unread, negotiations and deals being struck behind closed doors, and legislation being “deemed as passed.”  But it’s equally true of local government.  Enter the recent report by Oklahomans for Responsible Government that exposes the lack of openness and accountability in Oklahoma’s municipal websites.

In their report OFRG details the hits and misses of websites for the 75 largest municipalities in the state.  There are some startling revelations.  In this 21st century, some cities have no website at all while others borrow space on the sites of local civic organizations.  And of the ten criteria for evaluating the sites, open records, lobbying, and taxation posted the worst ratings.  Only fifteen of the 75 cities successfully met six or more of the ten criteria for an open and accountable website.

It should be noted that in this evaluation, only the websites for towns and cities were included.  School boards and counties were not included in the study.  I’m willing to wager that, had they been included, the results would be stupefying.  It comes then as no surprise to learn of the recent scandal in which a small school district paid over half a million dollars to a contractor for janitorial supplies, in many cases paying four times the prevailing market price for some items.

All the more reason for American Majority’s recent successes in Oklahoma school board elections wherein 19 of 25 AM-trained candidates won their races.  And we’re just getting started…

There are only a few movies I really, really enjoy watching.  Among them is Amistad.  After all, I’m a history buff (particularly of antiquity and of the American founding era) as well as a political junky.  So it comes as no surprise that I see all sorts of political metaphors on the silver screen.  And Amistad does not disappoint.

In case you missed the epic story circa 1997, it tells of the struggle of a group of mutinous slaves who steer their way to the coast of New England to find themselves embroiled in a legal battle for their very lives.  The 1841 Supreme Court case quickly becomes the catalyst for the brewing fisticuff between the northern and southern states that eventually erupted into full scale Civil War, costing more than 600,000 American lives.

We tend to look upon that tragic chapter in our nation’s history as a necessary evil, one that resulted in the end to slavery in America.  Never again would a class of people have absolute control over the labor and fruits thereto of another class.  Or so we’ve thought…

The panoply of costly legislative dicta currently on parade in Washington — replete with promises of reform, justice, and equity — obscure the fundamental question at hand, to which more than a few members of our elite Senate have failed miserably to muster a cogent answer.  The question is presupposed, after all, in one of James Madison’s better-known declarations: “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

Not unlike the taxation without representation that sparked the Revolution, we are besieged by a political class in Washington hell-bent on taxing us despite our representation.  It is a class beholden to anything but the Constitution.  And when this class lays claim, a priori, both to the means and fruit of the American people’s labor for its own redistributionary schemes, what else shall we call it but slavery?

And so we find ourselves once again embroiled in a civil war.  Though not on the battlefield and without weapons, we are faced with the same struggle.  Will we throw off the chains of our oppressors with the very constitutional means which our Framers afforded us, or will we rest idly bye whilst our chains get heavier still?

For his portrayal of John Quincy Adams in Amistad, Anthony Hopkins received an Academy Award nomination.  To be sure, one of his greatest movie lines is one we must heed now more than ever: “James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington… John Adams. We’ve long resisted asking you for guidance. Perhaps we have feared in doing so we might acknowledge that our individuality which we so, so revere is not entirely our own. Perhaps we’ve feared an appeal to you might be taken for weakness. But, we’ve come to understand, finally, that this is not so. We understand now, we’ve been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding… that who we are IS who we were.”

Ralph Benko, Washington Examiner Op-Ed Contributor and author of the book The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World, talked about his efforts to increase on-line activism with conservatives.

He makes some very interesting points about changing Rule 20 and returning representation to the states. What do you think? Is this a good idea?

We will never control our government until we control the federal tax system.

It is corrupted and unfair and feeds unchecked government growth with our money. It has made the federal government far more powerful than what was supposed to be its equal—our state governments. The income tax hides the cost of the government from plain sight and provides endless amounts of our money for the advancement of politician’s personal ambitions. It is very good for those in Washington and very destructive for the rest of us.

We’re being treated as if our only value as citizens is how much more money we can be made to give up out of our paychecks. When it comes to more and more spending and more and more taxes, it is a one-way conversation. I’m ready to talk back and I don’t think I’m alone. That’s why I’m calling on every patriot to join me in a tax revolt march on Washington , D.C.

I’m leading a Tea Party Patriot team in a growing on-line tax revolt which arrives in Washington , D.C. on April 15th to merge with huge physical rallies. It’s a new technology that allows people to choose a graphic “avatar” to digitally march on-line to Washington with hundreds of thousands of other Americans. Even the homebound, recovering veterans and the elderly can add their voice to this new American chorus.

I’m seeing a lot of people remembering that politicians are supposed to follow the will of the people—not trample it. Like Boston Harbor , this is where we again make our stand.

First you choose an avatar at: www.onlinetaxrevolt.com. Then you choose a team. Michael Reagan has a team, Neal Boortz has a team, Ken Hoagland of FairTax.org has a team and I have a team, among a growing number of others. Every day after you join the march, you can check your progress toward Washington , D.C. on a Google Earth map of the United States . You can see other marchers from your hometown, read blogs from the leaders and count the growing number of citizens willing to make a stand.

The on-line tax revolt is open to all whether they favor the Flat Tax, the FairTax or the kind of simplification that President Reagan won. What this march is really about is shifting public policy back to favor the public instead of the political elite. Right now, the on-line revolt has 100,000 marchers and is growing by 1,000 people per hour. It’s wake up call to those in the halls of power.

This nation began in a tax protest against the rule of royalty, indifference to what were once loyal citizens of the crown and the arrogance of power. A brand new form of government began here that held that government power could only be granted with the consent of the governed. Well guess what? The aristocrats are back, the arrogance of power is back and even taxation without representation is back as our government pledges the earnings of future, unborn, generations of American citizens to secure mind-numbing levels of national debt today. It will ruin the country if we don’t stop it.

This is not the government we learned about in our civics class and not the liberty for which our forefathers shed blood. It’s time for the next great American tax revolt and I hope you join me.

(This article was also cross-posted at BigGovernment.com)

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Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher was thrust into the national spotlight when he asked Barrack Obama why it was fair to take his earnings and give it to others. Joe has kept asking hard questions of government leaders ever since. Joe leads the Tea Party Patriot Team at www.onlinetaxrevolt.com.

On the morning of March 1, 1788, James Madison published his now-famous article in New York’s Independent Journal, the 63rd in a series of 85 such newspaper articles that came to be The Federalist Papers.  In it he relayed why extreme deliberation was needed in a large republic, as proposed by the Philadelphia Convention in the Autumn previous.

Madison warned: “[T]here are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn.”

I was reminded of this tome by the “Father of the Constitution” one day last week whence it was brought to my attention that the Left has christened this new year with its answer to the Tea Party movement.  The unwitting followers of the so-called Coffee Party (no this isn’t an Onion spoof, much to my surprise) have weighed in on the conservative-led gridlock in Washington.

Of course, one wonders why they couldn’t at least pine for corporate benevolence from Starbucks with a Via Party moniker, but I digress.

On the front page of the website they invoke the gods of Big Brother Bi-partisanship and imbibe leftover spirits from the French Revolution with peculiar and empty phrases like “cooperation in government” and “expression of our collective will” and “positive solutions,” inveighing against those “who obstruct them.”

Rather belated and nonsensical as their retort is – a dead horse comes to mind – it shouldn’t be of any surprise that civic action and reaction in a republic caught them so off-guard.  The Left is oft-quick to regurgitate revolution-era platitudes to justify their own revolution against the very institutions which the Revolution was fought to protect.  Whilst the real meaning of it all escapes them still.

Despite the legerdemain of these coffee partiers and their elitist ne’er-do-wells in Congress, Madison’s wisdom shines through the whole affair in Washington.

Where these java-heads see obstruction of the collective will, Madison foresaw the “salutary interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind.”

And in the memory of Madison, we members of this American Majority, the Tea Party – the Post-Party movement for the republic – rekindle the spirit of the Framers in working to bring to a screeching halt the irregular passion of interested men keen on hurling this experiment in liberty into the abyss of despotism.

So with our fellow temperate and respectable citizens, we say “obstruct…obstruct away.”  After all, the Framers much preferred tea over coffee … and as for me and my house, we’ll have a Venti Sugar-free Breve Vanilla Earl Grey Latte.

We like to say “all politics is local” and “national change truly begins at the local level”.  If this is true and if we as conservatives deign to make a national impact to change the current course of this country, we must acknowledge that it is imperative to win locally.

I can’t emphasize enough that in addition to promoting good-government, we must establish it as well.  This is why it is extremely important for everyday conservatives to become politically active at their local and municipal levels of government.
City Councils and School Boards oversee and spend millions of American taxpayer dollars. Members of these governing bodies play a critical role in local governments, and it’s time we start treating them that way by ensuring there are viable conservative voices at the tables of local government.

As citizens, our local government is the level of government we have the closest contact with and over which we should have the most direct control.

Oftentimes, however, local governments are paid the least amount of attention by voters, are the least transparent, and therefore are the least fiscally responsible.  Sadly, this trend is not an exception, it has become the norm: funding at the local levels and in school districts continues to increase and yet government waste is at an all time high as we continue to see test scores drop.
Evidently, real change is needed. We need more people dedicated to seeing the system work, and American Majority is ready to help get those dedicated people elected.

American Majority seeks to provide professional political training to commonsense conservatives interested in running (and winning) elections for local/municipal office.

If you have ever considered running for School Board or City Council in order to bring some commonsense to your local government (or know someone who would make a great candidate) please CLICK HERE. Fill out the form so American Majority can help you in this important endeavor by giving you the political training you can use to win!

In our trainings we emphasize that “small steps go far!” … well, it’s high time we begin that political march to Washington, and there’s no better place to take our first steps than from home.

The D.C. area is an interesting place to live indeed. Recently, we received over 30” of snow. The record snow fall has crippled much of the federal government, including the post office. So it was no surprise Monday when the federal government announced it would remain closed all day. Now imagine my surprise when I see a Domino’s Pizza delivery boy at my neighbor’s door. Apparently on time, pizza piping hot, the delivery boy was whistling and even sporting a short sleeve t-shirt. So, while the highest offices in the land can’t seem to make it in, a 16 yr. old pizza delivery boy somehow manages to bounce around town delivering pizzas and blasting his radio a little too loud. Imagine that.

This got me thinking. Comparing government to the private sector, who does things better? Rather than write a long, bloated post about my opinion, I wanted to hear what you have to say. Have you worked in both? Do you know someone who has moved from one to the other? I am interested in hearing your opinions on this one.

The Heritage Foundation today has a good good piece on the attempt for a second stimulus and the extreme growth of government taking place. Rather than recreate a similar article, I thought I would share some highlights:

Anticipating this bleak job news, the President announced in his State of the Union address last week: “That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.” It is understandable why the President wants to call this new legislation a “jobs bill” instead of what it really is: his second stimulus. But that would mean admitting that his first stimulus completely failed, which both the objective evidence and the opinion of the American people show it has. …

There is one sector of the economy that is thriving under President Barack Obama: government. This week, the Obama administration announced that the number of government employees will grow to 2.15 million this year, topping two million for the first time since President Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over.” And today, USA Today reports “the lobbying industry is humming along in the nation’s capital” as the top 20 trade associations and companies increased their lobbying expenses by 20% in 2009. ConocoPhillips spent $18.1 million dollars lobbying Congress in 2009, up from $8.5 million the year before, while it also laid off 1,300 people.

This is a perfect example of what happens to an economy when government becomes “the focus” of job creation. Jonathan Rauch explains: “Economic thinkers have recognized for generations that every person has two ways to become wealthier. One is to produce more, the other is to capture more of what others produce. … Washington looks increasingly like a public-works jobs program for lawyers and lobbyists, a profit center for professionals who are in business for themselves.”

As Washington flourishes on the backs of the little man, I have to ask, “Where are the tea parties? Where are the 912 groups and the individuals outraged at both the lobbying increase and government expansion?” I have yet to hear a grassroots response to open floodgates in Washington, but I hold out hope that the people are listening, discussing, and preparing for 2010.

WATCH THE TRAINING HIGHLIGHT REEL FROM THE RAZ ‘N REBA TOUR

One of the downsides to a widespread, national organization can be lack of “unit cohesion.” At American Majority we work to foster friendships and camaraderie among our staff through a variety of channels but my new favorite is the inter-state training tour.

Last week, Beka “Reba” Romm and I traveled from our respective states of Kansas and Texas to Charlotte, NC. There we teamed up with Douglas Price to begin “Raz & Reba’s Excellent Adventure.” This was no simple training tour, my friends...It was history in the making.

Through our five day, four training tour, we equipped nearly 140 conservative activists with the tools necessary to make a difference in their community. Our goal was to fan brushfires of freedom across the Carolinas and that’s exactly what we did.

Day 1: Douglas Price picked Reba and I up at the airport, uniting our cohort. After being served dinner by a waitress that looked remarkably like a taller Monica Lewinsky, we sallied on to Doug’s house to watch the State of The Union. This event resulted in voracious tweeting and severe heartburn for all involved.

Day 2: Summerville, SC was the location of our first training so after picking up the rental car and Reba from the hotel, our crew headed south. At Reba’s request we’d built enough time into our travel so that we could make it down to the shore for a few minutes before our training. It was absolutely beautiful and only my second time to the Atlantic shore.

That evening we kicked off the training portion of our tour with an energetic group of 45 Summerville conservatives. We couldn’t have asked for a better crowd to start the training. These folks were fired up and ready to learn. Reba and I hit our stride early and discovered that we work really well as a team!

Day 3: We awoke to dire weather reports forecasting freezing rain, snow and apocalypse on our trip to Greenville but refused to be cowed by such prognostication. We made record time during our trip for our Day Three training in Myrtle Beach, SC and lamented the fact that we didn’t bring our golf clubs along for the ride.

That afternoon we trained in a historic train depot which has been curated in Myrtle Beach as a type of community center. The crowd was dynamic and their passion for liberty was clear. I can’t wait to hear more great things about their accomplishments!

Following the training we headed up to Greenville, SC for the evening. Along the way we decided that considering the weather forecast that we would push back the start time of our training in order to allow people more time in transit, for safety. The evening rounded out with some hang-out time back at the hotel.

Day 4: We knew that the weather would have a negative impact on turnout for the training but had no idea how many people would stay at home. As it turned out, the Greenvillians surprised us with remarkable fortitude. We had a nice turnout and I think that it was personally my best training experience of the trip.

Following the training, Doug and I chipped an inch thick sheet of ice off of the rental car and we began the trek north to Charlotte. Somehow, Doug managed to keep us on the road and safe in spite of the obstacles which were presented.

Upon arrival in Charlotte it became apparent that the city shuts down when ice or snow are encountered. Reba and I tried to eat at several different restaurants only to find them closed down. We were, however, able to finally secure sustenance.

Day 5: All good things must come to an end and our tour was no exception. We wrapped things up with a bang at the training in Charlotte. Not only did we have a packed house but the local Fox TV affiliate came out to do interviews and record some of the training. You can see the clip they aired below! As it turned out, we were actually also covered on Fox & Friends the next morning as well!

Raz & Reba’s Excellent adventure was on the whole a huge success: We trained a fantastic corp of conservatives, braved storms, and tightened relationships between the three American Majority offices represented. I look forward to getting to train with Doug and Reba in the very near future. Watch out America, there’s no telling where we’ll go next!

Organizing for America was advertised as the nucleus of the progressive wave supposedly sweeping America. OFA was to have the capacity to organize, motivate, and deploy liberal drones throughout the country. They would utilize the passion stirred up from the 2008 presidential election, mobilizing campaign volunteers into policy advocates. Yet, everything we have seen is telling us that OFA is fading fast. When you build a system of spoils, there will always be those upset about not receiving their just reward. Support has not turned in to favors.

Obama put together an organizational structure built on the illusion that those at the bottom have the power. Yet, in his book “The Audacity to Win,” David Plouffe makes it very clear that power and decision making ultimately remained with a small group at the top. They worked to build a list, not a movement. This was their achilles heel. Once Plouffe, Axelrod, Obama and others transitioned from campaign mode to White House elitism, they forgot and abandoned those that put them in office: the progressive base promised a new America and  the swing voters promised a new DC. The reality has set in that the people who voted for change were not organized in a new or powerful way. In fact, despite the extraordinary illusion that this campaign embodied the people from the ground up, it appears it was politics as usual:

In the end, the special interests sat first at the table and wrote the playbook, expecting OFA to follow. The top-down structure remained, yet the passion had flamed out. David Plouffe announced back in December of 2008 that more than half a million supporters had responded to an online survey of OFA’s future, with 86% saying they felt it was important to help the Obama administration pass legislation through grassroots support; 68% agreeing that it was important to help elect state and local candidates who share Obama’s vision; and a surprising 10% indicating that they would be interested in running for elected office. The desire to support the movement at a local level was there. People yearned for change in their communities, not just in Washington (sound familiar?). Yet, no actions was taken. Those at the top failed to realize this, focusing instead on demanding grassroots support for policy created behind closed doors and benefiting big corporations and bigger government. Now, after an historic loss in Massachusetts the myth is meeting reality and the American people on both sides of the political spectrum are getting restless. Organizing for America is seeing their passionate base shrink rapidly, interior structure deteriorate, and effectiveness diminish. This is undeniable proof of what architects already know: the world’s tallest buildings were built ground-up.

In a move that resembles MoveOn.org, OFA recently sent out an email asking its members to plan the course for 2010. While the strategy has worked in the past, this appears to fall under “too little too late:”

While progressives scramble to recreate the magic of the 2008 presidential election, a truly organic movement has been brewing in the union. A movement that I argue has done things right.

The tea party movement has been repeatedly attacked by those most afraid of its success, but this snake has no head. There is nobody calling the shots, no Plouffe controlling the message, no list to be bought and sold. This movement has no title, no political affiliation. This is about principle over party, the individual over the state. In this movement, the power rests with the people, and the people are growing restless.

Read a single post from CNN, Washington Post, or Fox News and it becomes clear that the tea party movement is becoming a legitimate force in American politics. Obama’s campaign has shown the people how to organize, what we as individuals can accomplish when passion and inspiration meet opportunity. Poll after poll has shown us that more Americans self-identify as conservative than any other political ideology. So when Obama and his campaign elite MovedOn (pun intended), it set the stage for a dramatic shift. Unlike the progressive nanny structure, our movement is based on the individual, on personal freedom and equality. The tea parties and 912 groups are evidence of this, of individuals banding together and self-organizing in their communities. We represent a true, grassroots movement in America. There are no campaign managers, no Axelrods to lead us and leave us. Because of this, we will be stronger, last longer, and bring more change to the political landscape. An opportunity like this comes along only once in a generation. For years we have chose the lesser of two evils, but for the first time in my lifetime, we as a nation are saying we don’t want whats on the menu, we demand more.

Ironically, both OFA and the new conservative movement can be said to embody the political style for which they fight. OFA shines light on the faulty premise that the state knows best, that an enlightened few knew best for their supporters. When they abandoned the wheel, the ship ran ashore. In contrast, our movement has no leader, at least not one in control of information and strategy. We have all decided the strategy, we have all shared power, and we will all share victory. 2010 will be a record year for the political organizations. We have written on this site before about leaderless organizations and the conservative surge in online media, but history has yet to be written.

We now have two very different political forces on the ground in America. A force from the liberal left of the country struggling to find focus in the shadow of an abandoned leader and a rising force from the conservative right struggling to find cohesion among the pull of individualism. Who will win? What is in store? Only time will tell.

It has become increasingly clear to most Americans that the mainstream media is courting the current White House with the intensity of a 17-year-old boy. As I flip through the major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC, it becomes painfully clear that there is an agenda they want to see pushed. When the president does this– elation. When the president does not– criticism. That is not news, that is a drama filled episode of HBO’s Big Love.

Coming from a traditional communications background, I am disappointed and deeply saddened at the loss of objectivity and standards within the news today. As an amateur historian, I am embarassed that the memory of men like Franklin and Jefferson are made a mockery by people like Matthews and Olbermann. Benjamin Franklin, who owned and published a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, once said that “a newspaper in every home” was the “principle support of…morality” in civic life. Unfortunately, the current news structure has become less about education and knowledge and more about persuasion and opinion. In today’s era of big media, there unfortunately is another quote from Franklin that comes to mind, “When truth and error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter.” 50 years ago the media was there to tell the nation what the people thought. Today, the media exists to tell the nation what to think.

Any sane individual can clearly delineate the lines drawn in the sand. Victor Davis Hanson has done an excellent job recapping the media’s treatment of both Bush and Obama in a piece for The Corner. Specifically, Hanson noted the lack of “substantive criticism of Obama’s flips on renditions, military tribunals, wiretaps, intercepts, Iraq..” and the “Obama plan to run up more red ink in a year than Bush did in eight.” Apparently, an objective stance on the growth and over-reach of government is less important than ensuring the masses accept their fate and relinquish decision making in an appropriately jovial fashion.

In addition, Pew Research notes that this Administration has received an extraordinary amount of positive press, almost double that of Bill Clinton and George Bush. Their study has found that positive stories about this Administration have outweighed negative by two-to-one (42% vs. 20%) while 38% of stories have been neutral or mixed.

It seems objectivity is not only lost by those who produce the news, subjectivity is quickly overtaking those who consume it: According to the new poll out by Gallup, nearly half of Democrats (45%) say the media have done an excellent or good job as a watchdog of the Democratic Obama administration, compared with 29% of independents and 30% of Republicans. You can read the whole article here: Click to Read the Full Article

There are many speculating on why the mainstream media favors this Administration and why limited government never gets a fair shake, leave your thoughts in the comments and let me know what your take is. Me: I believe the news is there to inform, not influence. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.” This country was built on the ingenuity of free men and will continue to remain so only with the input of an educated, informed populace.

Regardless of our political affiliation, for now the writing remains on the wall; or in this case, the heart shaped eyes and dropping jaw remain on Chris Matthews:

You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.

WATCH THE FULL CLIP HERE

Times, they are a changing. With the rise of blogs and social media, I hope we will fulfill the wishes of both Franklin and Jefferson in creating an educated, informed populace with the knowledge and know-how to steer this country from the bottom-up. Until then, I’ll take my news with a grain of salt…and a margarita.

So tonight we get to hear the State of the Union, and it will no doubt follow the usual storyline of glossing over the bad, highlighting the good (if there is any?), but in the end not really providing us an honest evaluation of where we stand right now, January 27, 2010. With all that has happened in the past year, I sincerely hope the President will address the nation honestly and openly.

Since January of 2009, we have seen the growth of the government like almost no other period in history: the government takeover of General Motors, government takeover of financial institutions, the massive bailout (that was actually a goody bag for special interests and has done zero for increasing jobs), the explosion in government spending (can someone explain why federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% during the last 18 months? And here I thought there was a recession . . . ), and now government is 40% of GDP, which means since government is bigger, it can insert itself even more into our lives. And I haven’t even mentioned the healthcare bill of 2009, which was a crass grab by our political class to control 1/6th of the American economy.

So what I’d like to see done tonight is just an admission by the President:

“Yes, America, we think the state needs to grow. We think that the increased role of the government in your lives is obviously a great thing (i.e. statism). We think we know better than you.”

Although I do not agree, at least then he would be telling the truth about where the state of our union really lies.

What about you? What would you like to see discussed?