September 20, 2010

Dee Adcock's Star Rises to "Contender"

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has released a statement elevating Dee Adcock, in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District race against the East Coast version of Nancy Pelosi, Allyson Schwartz, to "contender" status.

I wonder if the author of Obamacare, sponsor of the soda "fat tax", and darling of the trail lawyers lobby - over $1.7 million dollars in campagin contributions - ever thought her seat would be targeted?


September 17, 2010

Abington Schools, No Place for the Constitution

Yesterday I had a face-to-face meeting with the Assistant Superintendent of the Abington School district. The purpose of the meeting was to share a pocket Constitution with the administration so they could determine whether it was worthy of distribution to the students to celebrate today, Constitution Day.

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day were signed into law in 2004 by President Bush. Any school receiving federal funds is required by law to educate students about the importance of our founding document on this day.

Now, technically, it seems as though the Abington School District is following the letter of the law by, according to them, encouraging the individual schools and teachers to include the Constitution in their lesson plans today.

However, there is no district-wide effort to specifically focus the curriculum toward the greatest single document to guarantee liberty in human history.

The meeting was scheduled because I was interested in distributing these pocket Constitutions (with a copy of the Declaration of Independence) outside the High School this morning.

According to the District,
If you have pocket Constitutions that are printed without any affiliation to any political, commercial, or religious organization, we would be happy to review the document. If it conforms with Board policy, we would provide it to the schools for the students.
Problem. The pamphlets I was interested in distributing were produced by the Heritage Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan conservative think tank. As far as I'm aware, they do not contribute to political campaigns, they do not endorse candidates, they simply research policy.

The School District informed me yesterday afternoon, pieces produced by Heritage violate the above-referenced policy.

So, the very school district who (24 hours prior to the event) reversed a long-standing board policy restricting politicking on school property to allow Michele Obama (Spring 2008) and then-candidate Senator Obama (Fall of '08) to hold rallies at Abington High School, do not think those events cross the threshold of allowable political affiliation.

However, a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, produced by the Heritage Foundation, somehow does?

September 15, 2010

Tea Party and the "Palin Factor"

Aaron Proctor, in the Philadelphia Examiner, has an interesting take on the Palin effect in yesterday's victory by Christine O'Donnell in Delaware's Senatorial primary over Mike Castle.

GOP Senate primary 2010 winner
Christine O'Donnell
photo courtesy CBS News
While I agree, Sarah and Christine better be careful about any attempts to become the face of the Tea Party movement, I don't think either are the leaders of the movement, but examples of the influence the Tea Party concept with voters.  You can't say the endorsement of any singular entity pushed O'Donnell over the top, and Chris Christie (a Tea Party favorite) was on the other side in this battle.  It was all about voter dissatisfaction with the GOP's moderate, mainstream republican wing.

Readers know I'm a fan of the former Alaskan governor, but as a local coordinator for a Tea Party group, I want to be clear about Sarah's role in our movement - it's entirely overstated. While I like most everything about her, she's barely among the top 5 candidates I want to win the primary in 2012.  I doubt she's actually aiming for the title, but I can understand the thought process of those who do.

There are several organizations who would also like to be the face - Tea Party Express and Tea Party Nation to name a few - aggressively advertising themselves and enthusiastically endorsing candidates.  But they fail to understand one basic fundamental truth about our movement; a role I hope neither Palin nor O'Donnell are pursuing.

While they, and the has-been media, may want her to be the face of the Tea Party. As a natural course in real grassroots Tea Party organizations, once you establish yourself as the face of the movement, you no longer can be.

It's not about you, it's about us.

September 10, 2010

September 11th, a Tribute

page13news will never forget




...and will spend the weekend in Washington, reclaiming the brotherhood of spirit we all felt on 9-12.  The nation we can be again.

September 9, 2010

Obama Removal Kit

...and if you order now, I'll throw in 2 pocket Constitutions absolutley free. 



Works great on Astroturf Speakers of Da House too!!