Who Are The Tea Party Activists?
•A large number are politically involved for the first time. 47 percent of activists surveyed said that they were “uninvolved” or “rarely involved” in politics before their participation in Tea Party groups.
•When asked which issues were “very important” to them, 92 percent said “budget,” 85 percent said “economy,” and 80 percent said “defense.”
•No respondents listed social issues as an “important direction” for the movement.
•86 percent oppose the formation of a third-party.
•90 percent cited “to stand up for my beliefs” when characterizing their initial reason for involvement.
•62 percent identified as Republicans, 28 percent as Independents, 10 percent as “Tea Party”
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The Early Adopters includes a survey of Tea Party activists from around the country, and an analysis of Tea Party leaders’ business cards to examine their use of color, word-choice, and self-described role. Watch the video, read the findings, and see what you can learn about these activists.
Click Here To See the Full Report
Wanted – Republican College Student in need of a $500 Scholarship
Do you know a student who could benefit from a $500 scholarship.
?
Apply for our Anne Roberts Memorial Scholarship to be presented in May 2010.
Deadline to return the application is May 1 .
The scholarship is available for Palm Beach County Republican undergraduate or graduate students with minimum of 3.0 GPA.
Click here to see the application. Instructions appear at the bottom of the application.
RCPB members celebrate the 1 yr anniversary of South Florida 912
Several members of our club also are members of the South Florida 912 Project. Last Sunday, the group celebrated its one-year anniversary with a return visit to McKenna’s in Greenacres. Carol Hurst did volunteer duty at the sign-in tables and also got the names of political candidates who wanted to speak. Melissa Andrews brought flyers about our Right Night at the Movies showing of the Tea Party: The Documentary Film. Delia Garcia took photos and the one shown here was a group photo of RCPB members attending. We got to hear from several of the candidates and a good time was had by all.
GOP Leader Michael Steele Debuts Commericial in WPB
GOP Chairman, Michael Steele, hosted a Press Conference this morning in West Palm Beach and launched a 5 city advertising fundraising campaign. The guests included five RCPB members. Click Here for the Palm Beach Post article
Political Parties of Florida
The following table lists the “minor” political parties (SOE terminology, not mine) that are registered with the Supervisor of Elections. Some have websites and can be found to obviously lean left or right. Others are harder to discern. This will be useful information as we engage the voters on behalf of our candidates as call sheets typically identify a person’s party identification.
If anyone has knowledge about these parties and what they stand for, please comment.
Abbreviation | Party Name | Leans |
---|---|---|
AFP | America First Party of Florida | |
AIP | America’s Independent Party of Florida | Right |
APF | American Party of Florida | Right |
AMP | American Patriot Party | |
ARP | American Reform Party of Florida | Right |
BRS | British Reformed Sectarian Party | Right |
CHR | The Christian Party | |
CPF | Constitution Party of Florida | Right |
ECO | Ecology Party of Florida | Left |
FAP | Faith & Patience Inc. N.P.G.G. | |
FVP | Family Values Party | |
FWP | Florida Whig Party | Right |
GRE | Green Party of Florida, Inc. | Left |
IDF | Independent Democrats of Florida | |
IDP | Independence Party of Florida | Right |
INT | Independent Party of Florida | |
LIB | Libertarian Party of Florida | Right |
MOD | The Moderate Party | |
OBJ | Objectivist Party of Florida | |
POS | Possibility Party | |
PRL | Progressive Libertarian Party | Right |
PRO | Prohibition Party | |
PSL | Party for Socialism and Liberation – Florida | Left |
REF | Reform Party | Right |
RFP | Real Food Party of the United States of America | |
SPA | Surfers Party of America | |
SPF | Socialist Party of Florida | |
SWP | Florida Socialist Workers Party | |
TEA | Tea Party | |
TLP | Term Limits for the United States Congress Party | |
TVP | Twelve Visions Party of Florida | |
UNI | Unity08 | |
VET | Veterans Party of America |
Volunteer Poll Watchers Needed on 4/13
The Ed Lynch campaign is asking for volunteers to be poll watchers around the district on election day, 4/13/10. Poll watchers of both political parties provide a valuable service by insuring integrity of our elections. They observe what occurs inside the polling places and bring any discrepancies to the attention of the poll clerk and/or Supervisor of Elections. This is a way to participate in democracy.
Training will be provided in a class by Mark Hoch of the Republican Party of Palm Beach.
You must have official credentials from the Supervisor of Elections to be a poll watcher and the deadline to get your application in is March 29.
For more information, please contact:
Steven Rosenblum
Senior Advisor/National Media Liaison/
Internet Campaign Coordinator
Lynch for Congress-FL District 19
steve@electlynch.com
Letter To Editor: Term Limits
Published: Palm Beach Post
Term Limits continues to be debated, even after an overwhelming public support with our County Commission and WPB Mayor by public vote.
Term limits have been placed on 15 state legislatures, eight of the ten largest cities in America adopted term limits for their city councils and/or mayor, and 37 states place term limits on their constitutional officers.
American politicians, special interests and lobbyists continue to combat term limits, as they know term limits force out career politicians who are more concerned with their own gain than the interests of the American people.
I want to keep the pressure on the movement to preserve West Palm Beach Term Limits. Charter review, sure… Term Limit modification – no thanks!
The Florida Legislature is in Session. Research bills yourself!
The Florida Legislature is in session. See session dates here.
The House and Senate websites both have good search features to allow you to find bills by number, but the Senate website is a little more cluttered – so I’ll use the House website for a short primer:
Let’s say you want to find all bills with the word ‘immigration’ in them. On the House website cover page, click on Search Bill Text tab at the top, leave the chamber as House, and type in the word immigration and click on ‘GO’. The site will bring up all the bills in the House containing the word and the latest status of the bill, the sponsor, the bill number, etc. You can click on the bill title for more information. From that same page you can select House, Senate or Both to get all bills with the text you wish to find. You can also find all bills by number, type, sponsor and some other criteria.
You don’t have to rely on the Palm Beach Post or the Sun-Sentinel to follow what’s going on. Do your own research on the topics that you’re interested in!
Feel free to comment with questions if you need help in finding something.
A New Contract With America
UNCOMMON COMMON SENSE
For People Who think
FREEDOM
A NEW CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
There is the seed of freedom that exists in every individual. It was inevitable that one day someone would eventually make use of this truth. They were our nation’s founders and with the help of God, came up with the most perfect Constitution. But in Man’s subconscious never ending desire for power, politicians have been trying to change it ever since.
The seed of freedom lies dormant most of the time within the subconscious of Man as long as he thinks that there is no danger of him loosing his freedom. He may not notice it at first as it begins to slip away, but when it finally begins to look like its loss might soon affect him directly, slowly but surely that fear of his loss of freedom begins to stir. Man must make that discovery for himself and hopefully he does so before it’s too late for him to take action, as the inherent nature of self is forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom or power.
The TEA PARTIES have demonstrated that the FEAR of the potential loss of freedom has been awakened and only requires some leadership to channel Man’s fear into constructive action. Show him a way how he can hang onto his freedom and his way of life and the Tsunami created will be unstoppable.
NOW is the time to channel this desire for freedom before it’s too late to stop the Fascist Tidal Wave that is cresting upon us – at the ballot box and without the necessity of taking up arms. But by 2012, if we the march towards Fascism is not reversed it will be too late.
WE MUST STOP THIS TIDAL WAVE OF FASCISM NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE TO BE REVERSED WITHOUT THE USE OF GUNS.
CONTRACT WITH AMERICA: 2010 & 2012
The Corner Stones of this new platform must rest upon a foundation of Capitalism and universal, non-controversial truths that all Americans can embrace.
Before proceeding, let me point out one crucial salient fact: The demographics of the advanced countries, such as all of the 31 states of Europe including England, Russia, Canada and especially Japan are such that their birth rates cannot sustain their country and especially their culture. The USA has been exempt thus far because of our huge immigration (legal or otherwise). The average birthrate necessary to sustain a country is 2.1 children per family. The average in all the countries mentioned above ranges between 0.9 in Japan and 1.8 in France. The birthrate of Moslems is over 8. There are over 50 million Moslems in Europe and by 2030-50, all of Europe, Russia and Canada will be Moslem countries under Sharia Law, without firing a shot. To date, only the USA is exempt from this threat because of Hispanic immigration.
Hispanics, unlike Moslems, do not want to overthrow the American Government or it’s culture. They all come here to become Americans just like every other massive wave of immigrants who have come before them. Take notice that by far the great majority of Hispanics are Religious Christians and inherently Conservatives who believe in the Christian work ethic. They are the fastest growing community in the USA and will soon become the largest of all communities. If we drive the Hispanics into the arms of the Democrats, the Republican party is not only doomed, but it will die out completely as fringe, independent Conservative groups spread out to take their place with no chance of gaining any more political power than the Libertarians have now. With these facts in mind, let’s see if we can come up with a platform that can pull off a Reagan and Gingrich like sweep in 2010 and 2012
IMMIGRATION & ENGLISH
It can continue to be the Republican and Conservative’s Achilles Heal or we can make it our greatest ASSET. All we have to do is face the facts and get realistic. If there is one thing in this world that does not need protection from, it is the English language. Every Chinese child must learn English as a second language. Only in the USA is a second language not mandatory. English is the universal language of Science and Business and does not need protection. Like every other mass immigrant culture, by the second or third generation at the latest, they all learn English and speak it predominately and take their rightful place in America as AMERICANS. They are not plotting to change our Laws or overturn our culture.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
We can’t even water-board a known Terrorist and they must be Morandized, so there is no way that the USA can hunt down, arrest and deport 20 million people. Take that inflammatory kind of talk off the table. But that does not mean that there is nothing that should and can be done.
#1 We must tighten security at all our borders so that we know and control who comes into our country. First and foremost this is necessary for National security purposes. This is a stand that would resonate with the whole country including Hispanics, most of whom are already citizens and are paying more than their share for supporting illegal immigration.
#2 Draw up a 5 to 7 year program towards citizenship that includes learning English, learning and passing a test about our Constitution and system of Government (Civics) and swearing allegiance to our Country, Culture of Individual Freedom and our Flag.
#3 Quadruple (or more) the size of our Immigration and Naturalization Service so that the legal Immigration as well as the Deportation Process can be accelerated and thus reduce the need for illegal immigration. With a birthrate of only 1.8, we need immigration in order to survive and support our country, culture and ever increasing numbers of seniors. Of equal importance, we must monitor all foreign students so that we know where they live, what schools they are attending and the grades they achieve. We could have stopped the 9/11 bombers had we been making sure students were really students.
#4 Only American Citizens are entitled to the full protection of our Constitution and Courts. Terrorists and all illegal aliens have no constitutional rights except for those that we decide to grant them. We need strict enforcement of our laws so that if any non-American with less than 10 years residency is convicted of a felony, they are automatically deported. All non-citizen gang members wearing their gang tattoos is sufficient evidence of criminal intent and enough reason for deportation. Three strikes and you’re out – If you are a non-legal resident and you are convicted of 3 crimes, you are deported. It is ridiculous to spend $75,000/year keeping non-citizens in our jail and who knows how much money hunting them down, arresting and trying them over and over again, while providing them with free legal representation.
The way immigration is handled is a major problem, but if handled properly, it can be one of our major solutions. Similar to the advantage that adoption has over birthing your own children, you can choose who you adopt. We can choose who we let into our country. After all, it is our country and there are more willing applicants than we can possibly accept. We Choose, Not Them. We also establish fair quotas and requirements that would be beyond reproach, especially by Hispanics. European immigration is not a solution to our birth rate problem.
TERM LIMITS
POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTLY.
No better proof of that is watching our Congress in action. Ninety-eight percent get re-elected, even though as a group they have an approval rating that is 1/3 of what Bush’s was at his worst, tells us that the Elections are not acting as term limits. Once in office, they build power bases and fiefdoms that breed corruption. They in turn allow power bases to grow within the Government’s bureaucracy that result in laws being made by non-elected fringe extremist groups. (EPA)
In 1994, Term Limits was Gingrich’s centerpiece of his Contract with America and it should be ours as well, especially since its popularity has been handed to us on a platter by the arrogance and complete disregard for the will of the people. This is demonstrated by the out of control, reckless spending of our current Congress and President, as well as by the Immigration Policy that we, the people, had to defeat.
We must eliminate the 3 rules of Government: “Get Re-elected, Get Re-elected, Get Re-elected.” Then and only then can we expect our legislators to vote their own conscience since they would no longer have to act against their own “best self interest”. It is the only way to drastically reduce the money going into politics. Why? Because since there would be no chance for re-election, money donors would have no hold over one term elected or appointed officials (like Bernanke).
NOTE: Under Term Limits, not one cent would or could be raised while in office.
EDUCATION
Education is part of every political party’s platform: But the results never change – our education system just keeps getting bigger and worse.
Our platform will be different. It will truly be focused on children by centering it on radical change. The simple truth being that you cannot fix a system (Socialist, Centrally Planned and Controlled) that is designed to fail from the outset. The USA spends about 50% more per student than the rest of the developed countries and yet we have the worst system.
The new system would be centered on VOUCHERS, a free market capitalist solution, which will not cost one cent more than we are now spending. It begins with the elimination of 95% of the Federal Department of Education. All the money now controlled by them would be allocated in the form of vouchers to the Parents, to be paid to the school of their choice (public, private or home schooled) with one proviso: Should the student fail, the money will be forfeited back to the parent in the form of a voucher, to be used only for remedial summer education. This would be a cause that every parent (Black and Hispanics in particular), whose kids go to a failing school, would get behind. Without 95%+ of the Black and Hispanic votes, the Democrats would be doomed to defeat. But more importantly, a competitive system based on capitalistic principles of profit, competition and free choice would work. Our freedom and country’s best protection is an educated populace – we are in a world wide competition.
Let the public schools lose a few million or so students and see how fast they improve and start to compete with the private schools. After all, they have the advantage of a huge infrastructure and State Government money. Let those capitalistic competition juices start to flow and we all know what will happen. The teachers are not stupid, give them a choice and it won’t be long before they get rid of or change the structure of their Unions and eliminate all the incompetent teachers and stupid work rules that the Unions now protect. Their jobs would be at stake. The 5% left of our Federal Education Department would be used to monitor the final exams, which would determine whether or not the schools get to keep the voucher money. We can get around the no money for Religious Institutions by giving the money directly to the people who, in turn, can then choose the school of their choice.
A UNIVERSAL SUNSHINE LAW
To control spending and reduce the size of government, every perpetual spending Bill must be reviewed to make sure it’s meeting its intended goals and objectives. Each program will require a 51% vote of approval by the House and a 60% vote of approval by the Senate in order for funding to continue. That is the only way to get rid of billions in wasteful spending and more importantly, to make sure we are getting our money’s worth. Instead of just talking about Waste, Fraud and Abuse, we will actually have a concrete plan to do something about it.
NOTE: Congress will be so busy reviewing existing laws they won’t have time to create more damage.
JOB CREATION – THE FREE MARKET CAPITALIST WAY
a) INFRASTRUCTURE: Rebuild our Interstate Highways and Bridges by turning them into TOLL roads and bridges and putting them up for tender. They would get rebuilt in the quickest and least expensive way possible, while not using one nickel of Government money. As a matter of fact, it would bring money into the Government to help pay down its debt by way of the tenders. It would also save money by eliminating the Government’s need for maintaining the roads and bridges, while still keeping control over the tolls. One million plus new jobs would be created, virtually overnight, especially when the states and cities see how well it works without the requirement of Government money, As a matter of fact, they would actually make money from selling the licenses. How many jobs would that create? A Million or More?
NOTE: Auctioning off existing bridges and roads would be a good way of bringing money into the Government (Federal, State and Local) to help pay down their debt.
b) NUCLEAR POWER CONSTRUCTION: Auction off permits to build nuclear facilities on existing and closed Military Bases, thus facilitating their permitting and getting around NIMBY problems. How many construction jobs would that create without any Government money being used? 300,000 to 500,000 to start?
c) Drill, Drill, Drill:
The USA has the world’s largest, untapped reserves along our shores and waters along our northern borders, which are about to be drilled by foreign nations. We have 300 million vehicles on the road and 250,000 service stations and there is no feasible way to replace all of that within 25 years, even if we had the money and all the necessary technology already existed. In the meantime, we can defeat all our major enemies, like Chavez, the mid-eastern tyrants, Putin and most of all, Iran.
If Bush had been able to pass an all out drilling program, we could not have done much about it because all available drilling rigs had already been contracted for. But right now, because of the worldwide Recession and the temporary drop in the demand for oil, we have a golden reprieve. We can now get all the drilling rigs we need to start a massive drilling program so that within 5 to 7 years, we would be pumping a minimum of 5 million additional barrels/day of our own oil. At $70/bbl., that comes to over $120 billion year, year in and year out. That is money that we would no longer be paying to foreigners. What would that do to our Trade Deficit and Balance of Payments Deficit? Plus, how much of that money would be going to our own Government in the form of taxes and royalties not to mention income taxes on all those high paying oil related jobs. And don’t forget corporate income taxes. If that new oil also dropped the price of oil, it would bankrupt Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. What would that do to Iran’s nuclear plans and all terrorist funding? With proper free market incentives, we would then have the time and money to develop alternate sources of energy. Since our energy needs, during a normal expanding economy, grows at 3% per year compounded, we will need all the energy we can get our hands on, especially if we don’t want to live under the threat of continuous brown outs.
NOTE: If we do not start drilling quickly, the window will close and at the first signs of economic recovery we will be back to $140 oil and above. In point of fact, the increases may have already started.
NOTE: China is already attempting to lock up all the oil and gas it can get its hands on all over the world, including Canada and the North Slope. Are we going to just sit and watch our country come under the thumb of China and Russia?
INCOME TAX REFORM
Income Tax Reform is the platform upon which we can build to solve our two main, long term problems of Social Security and Medicare. Trade and Budget Deficits get taken care of without lifting a finger in the normal course of our rejuvenated Free Market Economy.
Institute 20% Consumption Tax based on the Fair Tax Principle that would include a $10,000 per adult and $5,000 per child Negative Income Tax* for everyone earning $75,000 or less (a family of four gets $30,000). Apart from fairness, this is also a prerequisite to permanently solving our Social Security and Healthcare problems as well. In addition, it would go a long way to reducing the size of government by rationalizing a great many welfare programs.
* Negative Income Tax: Since more than 50 million people pay no income tax at all and everyone will now be paying the equivalent of a 20% Sales Tax on all purchases with absolutely NO exemptions or deductions. In the name of fairness and in lieu of creating additional welfare programs, the Government would mail out checks of $10,000 to all adults with social security numbers earning less than $75,000 and $5,000 to children under 18 years old.
HEALTH CARE REFORM
First and foremost, every healthcare provider must post a Menu of Services outside their door in plain sight, just like restaurants do. It must show a comprehensive cost for all services, which would also include a breakdown of specific services. Consumers could then just walk down the hall of a Medical Building and compare costs and services. The same would hold true for hospitals. We can’t expect an individual, who is sick, to start negotiating with his MD, even if he could get in to see him for that purpose. We would soon see who is cheaper, non-profit or for profit services. All individuals, including foreigners, would now pay the same for all services whether they are insured or not. Many people could now afford to self insure.
To encourage people to shop for services, we would replace our current system with a Medical Savings Account Plan and a very minimal Government paid Catastrophic Insurance plan that has a $15,000 annual deduction per person. The first $15,000 or $40,000 for a family would be paid out of their own pocket; the third party payer problem would then be eliminated. Since the first $15,000 that would be paid would be out of pocket money in their Medical Savings account, not only will the consumer shop around, but he will no longer demand tests and services that are not necessary. Every person would be mandated to contribute $2000/year out of their $10,000 negative income tax into their medical savings account, ($8,000/year for a family of 4 $5000 catastrophic Insurance) that would be invested in 6% zero coupon savings bonds and could be cashed and used for their own and family’s health care only. Upon death, any remaining money would go to their heirs. The plan would naturally by design be portable and each individual could buy private insurance plans, with all the bells and whistles they want to pay for, instead of the Government’s miniscule plan. This would drastically reduce Corporate Employee costs and raise salaries. It would also eliminate any corporate discrimination against older employees since they would no longer cost the company anything for age related benefits. This would drastically shift the Country’s Production Possibility Curve to the right and raise the entire country’s standard of living.
SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM
If an individual, starting at 18, put $1,000 per year out of his $10,000 Negative Income Tax Rebate into an 8% zero coupon savings bond that matures at age 70, that would amount to well over $500,000. Within 50 years, the Government and companies would be completely out of the Pension and Health Care Business. In the process, poverty would be eliminated in America within 50 years as this money would also be passed on to the heirs upon the individual’s death. This is something that the 45 year Socialist War on Poverty and $12 trillion could not do.
By combining the Health Care and Social Security plans, a family of four would contribute $10,000 to their Health Care and Retirement out of a total Negative Income Tax of $30,000. This would leave the family a $20,000 base on which to build, thus eliminating the necessity of most welfare programs (except for special situations), while eliminating poverty in America forever. There are many other benefits, but I don’t want to confuse the issue now.
CORPORATE INCOME TAX REDUCTION
Reduce the Corporate Income Tax Rate to 25%, in conjunction with a 100% write-off on all investments, beginning in January 2010 to last for 7 years. Please consider that 35% of nothing is nothing, but 25% of something ends up being a lot more revenue to the Government. That, in conjunction with the elimination of the burden of healthcare and pensions (see proposals for Income Tax. Healthcare and Social Security reform), would make US companies the most competitive in the world by far. We would become the world’s first country of choice to start new companies and build new plants. This would create an easy 10 million jobs over the next 7 years. Outsourcing would now become something that other countries would have to worry about. We could say goodbye to unemployment and start looking for more qualified immigrants to fill all the millions of jobs that would open up.
That, my friends, is a CAPITALISTIC game plan to rebuild our country and reclaim our rightful place as number ONE in the world.
UNCOMMON COMMON SENSE
Aubie Baltin CFA, CTA. CFP. PhD (Economics)
Post your questions.
Answers will be given at the March 24, noon meeting.
It’s Not About Political Parties. It’s About Liberty
How can a “crazy” Californian and a “conservative” Georgian be friends? It’s simple – through the principles of ’98. In 1798, the John Adams administration signed into law that Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to publish “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the government or its officials. In practice, it was used to quell the freedom of speech in dissent against the sitting administration.
In the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Thomas Jefferson responded:
“the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government”
But wait – that’s not all. Click here for the rest of the story.