Tea Party - From being ridiculed in the news, to watching ridiculous News nightly, in 5 years flat.

Five years ago the Tea Party kicked off in St. Louis. Much of what we warned America about then, and were ridiculed for, is the horrifyingly ridiculous stuff of the daily news today. I won't go through the laundry list - I don't have the time at the moment, we're still getting settled back into our house (thanks Tornado's!), so continuing my posts on what differentiates Progress from ProRegress will have to wait yet another week - but to mark this date, I'll just note what left leaning, Obama supporter, Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., warned Congress of this week:

Dana Loesch kickoff of St. Louis Tea Party

"“My view [is] that the president, has in fact, exceeded his authority in a way that is creating a destabilizing influence in a three branch system,” Turley said. “I want to emphasize, of course, this problem didn’t begin with President Obama, I was critical of his predecessor President Bush as well, but the rate at which executive power has been concentrated in our system is accelerating. And frankly, I am very alarmed by the implications of that aggregation of power.”

“What also alarms me, however, is that the two other branches appear not just simply passive, but inert in the face of this concentration of authority,” he added."

Whatever good intentions have motivated the Left, and many elements of the Right, to put us on this path, it leads, and can only lead, in relation to Liberty and the Rule of Law, down a progressively regressive path.

The link in my sidebar "To be a house slave... or to be an American - That is the question" is not becoming any less relevant to our futures... but our futures are.

Just do me a favor, when someone tells you that the policy they're promoting will help make progress - ask them to explain what they mean by that, and how it relates to your ability to live your own life. Your ability to live your own life depends upon it.

(Similar comments from Prof. Turley in a debate from November 2013)

Has the Tea Party gone away? Ask Sen. Lugar or FreedomWorks.

The state of the Tea Party came up in a short discussion the other night with some friends, as one of them wondered aloud about 'why the Tea Party failed', to which I had an immediate, and somewhat loud, response. This was by no means a hostile crowd, these were conservatives and libertarians, people who are very sympathetic to the Tea Party in general, and so I was more than a little startled by the statement, and it’s a view I'd like to scotch quick.

On the more obvious end, it's baseless, and not any different than asking the week after Super Bowl, where all the football fans have gone, “I don’t see crowds of 50,000 or people with their face painted up at the stadiums anymore, where’d they go?”, well, the answer is nowhere. They’re still there, but there aren’t any games to congregate at, at the moment. But that doesn’t mean that they are any less passionate about football.

A Tea Party Crew
Dana Loesch(in perpetually illness burka), Me, Patch Adams, Chris Loesch

Has the Tea Party gone away?
Ask (soon to be former) Sen. Lugar, who flaunted his establishment RINO mindset and behavior and derided the Tea Party for their 'unrealistic' ideas… as this 'powerful' 36 year incumbent lost to Richard Mourdock

“By trying to make deals with the Democrats, we’ve only lost ground. [Democrat Majority Leader] Reid has demonstrated he’s not going to make deals, he’s not going to abolish ObamaCare or repeal Dodd-Frank. The idea that somehow we have these experienced statesmen that are going to negotiate this truce with the Democrats is just not true. I want to make the arguments to the unfriendly crowds because we’re going to make some converts. I want people to know we have an option; it’s called conservatism and yeah, it works. So, bring it, bring it. I’m ready--we’re ready.”

Do Nat'l organizations, such as Tea Party Express & FreedomWorks speak for the Tea Party? Ask former senatorial candidate for Nebraska, Jon Bruning, who was endorsed by them as the 'Tea Party Candidate!'. And who lost to Grassroots favorite, and Sarah Palin endorsed, Deb Fischer.

"But wait!", some people are saying, "The Tea Party candidate lost in Nebraska!", to which I'll answer, Who did? Don't forget - the Tea Party is not an actual organization and it’s not a Nat'l organization, never has been and never will be. How do I know? Partly from direct experience, and partly from seeing the obvious - the people who are the Tea Party, have lives – and political organizations are what they are tick'd off at, and not what they want to become.

Just because some organization formed itself up and called itself the 'Tea Party' & endorsed a candidate, did not, and does not, mean that they actually speak for the residents of Nebraska who ARE the people who make up the real Tea Party there. If a Nat'l org wants to ride around in a bus and try and promote issues and candidates that its members feel are 'Tea Party' worthy, that's fine and all, I wish 'em luck, but if the people who ARE the Tea Party, are less than impressed with who the 'sound byte, photo bomber Tea Party' people WISH they supported... they're going to have egg on their faces.

A lot.

Steeping the TEA
And that gets to the more meaningful aspect of what’s wrong with the comment of ‘What happened to the Tea Party?’, and that is the assumption that the Tea Party was ever a Party, as in an organized political entity, as if it were ever a monolitic organization which had tried to accomplish political goals that fizzled and then faded away, as Ross Perot's organization did in the 1990's.

I think that is entirely wrong-headed.

For one thing I don't think that the people who came out on the streets in 2010, ever, EVER saw themselves as a Political Party, EVER saw themselves as wanting to elect a slate of ITS candidates, or EVER became a fixed organization of any type, more to the point, they simply saw themselves as being angry that they had to be out on the streets in the first place.

There are organizations that have tried to present themselves as representing the Tea Party nationally, Tea Party Express, FreedomWorks, etc, but never credibly. They may have been driven by people, some of whom came from the Tea Party, and many, most or perhaps even all, who thought that trying to form actual national organizations would enable them to be capable of fielding candidates or pushing issues... but intentions and realities are not nearly the same thing.

These organizations are NOT the Tea Party, never have been, never will be - or so I fervently hope. FreedomWorks has done some good things, helped facilitate quite a lot of people getting together and passing the word, but THEY DON'T determine what the word being passed is, and frankly, some of their choices - promoting common core curriculum & its 'charter schools' because they have the patina of ‘choice’ associated with them, shows me that the depth of their understanding and judgment of what the Tea Party is, and is motivated by, is highly questionable.

Their endorsement of establishment favorites in Missouri and in Nebraska, says that even louder.

The, for want of a better term, 'authentic', grassroots groups who have formed and provided some direction to the movement known as the Tea Party, such as several in and around the St. Louis area, and hundreds, if not thousands, of other groups nationwide, are not organizations in the sense that pundits typically think of them being. There are usually a few particularly active individuals (whose numbers fluctuate), who step up on one issue or another, and help in passing the word on various issues that they feel are important; they help coordinate demonstrations, try to keep some sort of regular get-togethers between die-hards for brainstorming, organize educational or social events, register conservative voters, and get messages moving out to the broader population when needed.

These are the people who ARE of the Tea Party, and though there are some people who have become nationally recognized as being with the Tea Party, personalities & pundits such as Dana Loesch & Gina Loudon, or news sources such as Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit, or even videographers such as Adam Sharp of SharpElbows & 'Patch Adams' of Po'ed Patriot, whose videos you've seen be instrumental in bringing down politicians with slips of their lips, or exposing thugrofessors in our university systems, they did, and do, have lives and careers outside of their Tea Party activities - they weren't paid for their time and efforts to begin with, and for the most part neither the individuals, or their groups they'd been part of had formed any formal organizations, except here and there as technical matters or for tax purposes.

What is known as the Tea Party, have been those amongst us who, in a phrase that I've heard more times than can be counted, 'Couldn't sit by and do nothing any longer'... have they gone anywhere?

To figure out where they've gone, it would be best to ask where they came from to begin with.

They became so extremely visible because there were issues that had 'fixed targets', so to speak, that people could converge upon, Healthcare forums, making themselves heard on Voting issues and candidates who were speaking out against them, Representatives forums, Bills & Initiatives that drew fire - those were visible issues we could come together at and be heard upon, and we did so in order to try and influence important issues that were being decided upon at the time.

After the Healthcontrol bill was pushed through, many of the fixed targets for rallying against disappeared, which meant that there weren't obvious events with high visibility that we could be seen at. Do you really think that these people, who never wanted to take time away from their lives in the first place, are less or MORE fired up now? Does anyone really think that these people must have figured that since the limelight's gone, they might as well go back and turn on the TV & relax?.

If you think so, I think you're dreaming some very big and silly dreams.

The lack of events to rally at, in no way means that the Tea Party has gone anywhere. Events which we felt could be effective in furthering our voice, may have disappeared for the moment, but WE haven't.

Dick Lugar could offer a few comments on that... if he had a campaign any more... which... he doesn't... thanks to the Tea Party that's 'gone away'.

We, who surged out into the streets in 2010 & 2011, have not cooled off, we have not gone away, we have not lost touch with each other or with what is happening in the political world.

We're here. John Nolte, of BigJournalism pegged it well, regarding the upset victory in Nebraska a few nights ago.

“Wisely, the Tea Party remains leaderless. This makes it impossible for the MSM to do what it wants to do more than anything, and that's destroy the movement by destroying its leader.

Instead, under the radar, one battle at a time, the Tea Party keeps on keeping on -- winning many more elections than it loses and forever making fools of its primary enemy, the MSM.”

Where has the Tea Party gone? Where do you think millions of people nationwide have 'gone to'? Where has the Tea Party gone? Nowhere. And everywhere. The fact that you don't see us everywhere, doesn't mean that we can't make ourselves felt just about anywhere and at any time.

The more important point is that you shouldn’t allow your ideas to be corralled by the MSM, don’t be fooled into thinking of We The People as being ‘Grassroots’ or as being ‘Tea Party’, because we are neither! We are simply people who have been roused by wrongs, and we aren’t going anywhere before those wrongs are righted, and yes, most of us realize that that may not be accomplished for a very long time.

I've been to several meetings in recent weeks, met and talked with many people who are just as fired up, if not more so than a year or two ago, but are more focused on practical actions and long term goals, than on venting with signs on street corners.

The true source of my loudness at hearing that question from my friends the other night, was pure Guffaw-Ha! Surprise… because sitting at the table with me was no less than four people, ‘ordinary’ had-enough work-a-day folks, who had just become candidates for local offices; a couple others who were very active in rousing and informing their neighbors and pestering their elected officials, and a few others who were active in educating as many people as possible about the ideas that America IS.

Tea Party minded people - those who are the Roused - are extremely active & busy in unobtrusive areas, in politics and out; those who feel they can reform the GOP by replacing the current members of the GOP, are taking it over from the ground up, swamping the Grassroots level Committee Men (MOPP ), melting the phones when legislators are considering wrong steps, teaching their fellows on constitutional issues... we are virtually everywhere (via Twitter & other social media), and actually everywhere, working your neighborhoods and running for offices that you’ve probably never heard of.

Just because we aren't visible, sometimes even to ourselves, doesn't mean we've gone anywhere, it only means we aren't easily seen.

Ask the British Red Coats dying in retreat from Lexington & Concord, how comfortable or safe it is to have unseen Patriots with their eyes on you.

#WAR!

Political Caucuses Tilting at Free Will

The St. Charles Caucus made the news last week, but it was hardly the only one to go bad in Missouri. Personally, I despise everything about a caucus, it is blatantly open to manipulation - it's entire purpose is to manipulate caucus goers into aligning themselves for one candidate or another.  A caucus banishes the possibility of what the privacy of the ballot box guarantees - the ability to cast your vote as you choose.

The political expression of, and protection of, individual Free Will, which our society is then moved and formed by. Far too little is said of that astounding concept.

And it is trampled, in public, by the very structure of a caucus. I did not go to the St. Charles 'Raucus Caucus', because I have no intention of standing up for whichever politician I manage to convince myself that I dislike least, which of course has the adverse affect of strengthening the position of those I like even less.

A caucus is a way of manipulating the actions of voters to reflect the will of those who are best at manipulation. And this post on the Jefferson County Tea Party site, by someone going by the moniker of WrongOnRed, "Central Committee Hijack- Contrary Caucus View" gives an excellent description of similar goings on in the Jefferson County caucus, and videos as well, of people engaged in, with the best of intentions, I'm sure, of manipulating political power to impose their will, unseen (they hoped) upon their fellows - for the greater good, no doubt.

But even better than the political blow-by-blow, he goes deeper towards the true issues involved, including this passage,

I say all this to lay a foundation for what I am about to say. I have always been intrigued and drawn to the concept of  “Free Will” in Christian Scholarship and Theology, but only in the last 2 years, have I come to realize and internalize that  “Free Will” of which St. Thomas wrote and “Liberty” of which Dr. Paul writes and speaks are actually the same thing."

Leaving aside the Ron Paul issue for the moment, Free Will is more than liberty, liberty is the political condition that is conducive to exercising your Free Will, without impeding others from doing the same. But Free Will is much more than that, Free Will is the seat of You in life, it is how you are able to live as a human being, human life, rationality, reason, love, morality, Right & Wrong, would vanish without Free Will - or the ability to exercise it.

We perceive reality, we see what is and in so doing we have our first choice to make - to acknowledge and respect reality, conforming our will to what is true 'Nature to be commanded must be obeyed'; or to deny it, choosing to attempt to impose our will upon it, freely choosing to lie to ourselves and everyone else. Every child at some point chooses to use the magical power of words to lie about reality in order to get what they want, some never learn how harmful that is, to choose to pursue Power instead of Truth.

Every person in exercising their Free Will has a central choice to make, whether to choose based upon reality and truth, or upon what we wish were true. The first is the path of truth, virtue, morality, and that is the path upon which you can choose to pursue happiness.

The other choice is to reject reality where it conflicts with what you wish it were, in order to make your will more real than reality, that is the path of power and it knows and can know nothing of truth, virtue or morality, and it pursues nothing, it is in perpetual flight from reality, and it will never, ever, know happiness.

A life where you were not free to exercise your Free Will, would be inhuman. Those points in your life where you must make a decision, nearly every second (pay attention some time, count 'em), are those moments where your life is you in action - you are never as much actively in your life as at those moments when you choose, and what follows from your choices is a life created by you - one worth living because by your nature you created it.

When someone prevents you from making your own choices for your own life, they do much more than perhaps violate laws, they forcibly remove you from those points in your life where life is lived, and insert themselves in your place in your own life - they are hijacking your life... forcing you into the passenger seat of your own life, bound & gagged, unable to steer your own course, no longer free to live your own life, staring out the windows with no idea or clue as to where you are going.

There's an evil there that makes zombie movies look cute.

A 'human being' without Free Will, would be nothing but a robot bouncing off of obstacles in a pin ball machine. The secret to the Left is that, beginning with Rousseau, that is what they believe, that you do not have Free Will, that your actions are not chosen by you within your life, but are necessarily determined by outside events. In modern philosophy, which is to say Leftism, you simply react to outside events, and 'happiness' is nothing more than a pleasing arrangement of bumpers and with flippers padded to make the least jarring impact to the robots zooming around within the game. The entire purpose of the Leftist State is to replace those moments where you would exercise your Free Will, with their state imposed bumpers and flippers, directing your life from without.

Tilt.

But there is a danger in exercising your Free Will that no one ever escapes, left, right or center, the left simply is more explicitly in favor of it than the rest, and that is separating yourself from reality by saying that 'the ends justify the means', that it is OK to exert your power over others, because in the end, it'll all work out for the best.

If you read or watched The Lord of the Rings, Sauron's ring, the Ring of Power, doesn't force itself upon people, it lures them, lures them with promises of being able to bring about the Good they seek to do, what they know would be best for all concerned. Gandalf and Galadriel see the temptation and turn away from it, knowing that True power comes from making choices, not imposing them... Boromir didn't, and he sucummed to it, even though he never wore Sauron's One Ring.

What "WrongOnRed" didn't mention, in his support of the Ron Paul people, is that they did the very same thing, he is so upset that Bryan Spencer did, as this from Brent Stafford, the person at the center of the St. Charles fiasco, makes clear:

Let me digress a moment. We had prepared very well ahead of time. I won't get into all of the details, but the Mitt Romney people agreed to support me for Chairman. This was an incredible vote of confidence in my ability to chair and to convene a fair process. I had also hire the President of the Missouri Association of Parliamentarians who I intended to appoint for that role. I never got that chance.
Eugene Dokes appointed the Creditials Committee, Rules Committee, and Parliamentarian. These are all appointments made by the elected Chairman, not the temporary Chair which is what Eugene Dokes was acting as. The body loudly booed and started making all kinds of points of order and other declarations of disgust at the blatant disregard for the proper process."

Power. It always looks good to those who seek it 'for the best of intentions'.

There are two videos in the post which show people, doubtlessly good, well intentioned people, seeking power over others, with the best of intentions.

Tilt.

'Tea Party Express' - more like a boil, than on the boil

The national political action committee known as the 'Tea Party Express' is rolling into St. Louis today to tell us locals that they've determined who the best grassroots 'Tea Party' candidate is for Missouri's U.S. Senate race, and we should all be good little folks and rally around them.

There are a number of problems with this, not the least of which is the fact that the official filing period for those who'd like to run for the senate hasn't closed yet, so there is a possibility that we, here in the actual grassroots, haven't even seen all of the potential candidates yet.

Another is that the primary has barely begun, we've barely heard from any of the candidates, let alone heard enough to determine who would be the best candidate to support.

But the part which disturbs me most has to do with what the Tea Party is, and what it is not - I hope.

The Tea Party has from the beginning, been the result of local citizens whose outrage at government gone wild got them up off their sofa's to come out and tell their representatives 'No more!', and in doing so, they looked around and noticed that they were not only not alone, but a force to be reckoned with.

Some individuals rose to the top of these groups, either by being the first to publicly say 'No!', which others heard and rallied to, or because they were willing to put in the time and effort to keep in touch with their new found fellows, and continued to let them know when and where they could best meet again to question their representatives and communicate to them that enough was enough, to communicate a message that might be summed up as:

"We are Americans, and we have Rights that are ours by our nature as men, they are not given to us as gifts from our government, and we have a constitution that was designed to make that relationship clear, and to constrain our government from thinking otherwise; We have a Constitution, it is time to follow it!".

Some of these people have followed where their new paths led, into political campaigning, media or simply sustaining their local rallying points, supplying their fellows with important information and ideas on how to keep the pressure on... but what pressure exactly was that, and for what?

The pressure has always been in the form of one person communicating questions, information and ideas for action, from one to another, occasionally meeting together again at a protest or rally, or a politicians appearance, or at the capitol rotunda, or the ballot box, but whatever the case, it has always been a movement that originated from the ground up, a true grassroots movement.

In this context grassroots has a particular meaning: it began, and continues to be, individual citizens communicating with each other, whether through email, blogs, rallies and/or other media, it's substance and momentum has come from We The People.

Even when there were national coordination’s, it was between those who had found themselves as... leaders isn't quite the right word, in fact it easily leads into the opposite of what they truly were and still are, they were people who organically found themselves at a focal point, the confluence of their fellows concerns, and coordinated ideas and actions with others who found themselves in similar positions, around the nation.

There were no elections, there were people who stood up, and who found that their fellows agreed with them, and urged them on. The people at those focal points have shifted and changed over the last few years, some still there, others tiring of the strain, slowed or stepped aside and another took their place.

These were not elections. They were not representatives. This was not a political party. They were not a form of government. They were people who were moved to action and found that they were not alone. They did not set the agenda, they simply expressed best what their fellow citizens were trying to say.

That is not the case with the so-called "Tea Party Express".  This organization is a political action committee, funded by donors, perhaps sprung from the same original issues that the local Tea Parties were, but it is another animal entirely. By it's very nature it is NOT 'grassroots', it has it's own agenda, and while it may have had the same origins, it purposefully pulled itself out by the roots and transplanted its original growth into a tended planter, watered and cared for by financial contributors and beholden to others concerns.

Whether or not they still promote the same ideas is not the issue. They are NOT representative of the Tea Party, because they are NOT what the Tea Party IS. They've, on their own, without connection or even consultation with local citizenry, selected and decided to promote one candidate in our Senatorial primary, over the others. Why? Because they feel that that candidate is 'electable'.

If that's not the mating call of the entrenched establishment, I don't know what is.

And the fact that they expect to simply roll into town and tell us what we think or should think... makes my blood boil at a far higher temperature than any tea pot has ever whistled on the fire before.

Their endorsement of any candidate in our local elections, is foolish, futile, infuriating... and doomed to failure, because they have no roots here... or at least not amongst the local grass. Weeds perhaps. But no grassroots in sight.

The Tea Pot Boils Over....

By now it's likely that you heard of a schism in the St. Louis Tea Party.

People I know and trust on both sides of an issue have come to deep disagreement over events arising out of a primary, in my district btw, dividing (amongst those who have divided) roughly along the lines of the primary founders of the St. Louis Tea Party, several siding with Dana Loesch on one side, and several with Bill Hennessy on the other; aligning along differing inclinations over how best to apply their shared principles, each thinks the other has behaved inappropriately. I have no way of knowing the details , and so I won't venture a comment on them, but the situation has left the rest of us who haven't chosen sides - Adam Sharp of SharpElbows, Patch Adams of Po'ed Patriot, myself, and others, shaking our heads, blinking and looking at each other muttering

"WTF just happened?!"

I want to say that I believe the best of both sides and think each sides worst suspicions about the other are probably wide of the mark, misinterpretations or flat out wrong. If I'm a fool for thinking that... which part is the most foolish? And... if I'm a fool to believe one, why am I not a fool to believe the other? If it's foolish to deny the one, why isn't it foolish to deny the other?

I'm pretty sure that the others standing around with me in the aftermath are thinking much the same thing. I also couldn't help thinking of this, my first lunch with radicals (wish I had a picture of that afternoon!)

But whatever the facts actually are (and I'm not all that convinced that those involved actually know them either, but seriously, now that it's too late to matter, I'd just assume not hear the details), I suspect that the real issue is that an actual organization was formed where none should have been, and because it was, trouble followed.

At heart the Tea Party is fundamentally opposed to unconstitutional, expansive government and the abuse of power, and for the rule of law which preserves and upholds individual rights & property rights, through adherence to our Constitution.

Perhaps it should have been left there. Forming a political organization ultimately demands positions be taken for one candidate or another... and that has to, at some point, turn the organization, via the unavoidably differing opinions of it's members, against itself. IOW this was coming for some time, and if not on this issue, certainly another one would have presented itself.

There are other's, such as the proregressive conservative (said with a wink), Patrick Tuohey, of The Missouri Record who thinks,

"So why haven't they taken up his cause? If the Tea Party movement doesn't rally around candidates like Martin, what has been the point of the last three years? If the St. Louis activists staked a claim in party politics in New York's 23rd, why not in Missouri's 2nd?"

, leaving aside his question about the 23rd - action wasn't taken for what'shisname, but was directed against the proregressive rino 'republican' promoted by Newt Gingrich.

And that, off the top of my head, at this moment in time, is what I think the point is - the Tea Party, to the extent that it acts as a group, should be about drawing attention to problems, promoting relevant information, and educating people about our history and important ideas.

Campaigns and campaigning, should, IMHO, be left to individuals to promote those they feel strongly about, as individuals supporting Tea Party ideals, but NOT as members of 'THE Tea Party'.

Ok, enough.

So Now What?
Well... some pondering needs to take place. One starting point might be where we began, such as what I said back as the Tea Party was taking shape: don't waste time trying to plan and organize for a candidate, inform, publicize and where appropriate, criticize - loudly, far and wide - do that and those worthy of support, will gain support from those inclined to support them based upon what they've learned about them

When I was saying something similar to this:

"...maybe it’s best left in its natural decentralized structures as they are now, each ‘chapter’ communicating, debating, but putting their own public pressure on their local pol’s… kind of a new situation we need to give some thought to.

We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that we have had many, many political parties, and presidents elected under them… Whigs, Federalists, Democratic-Republican, Know Nothings (!)… but in this current political climate, I just can’t see it being helpful or successful – better to have people who are united on principles, though not necessarily on their application (remember Madison & Hamilton agreed on principles, but violently disagreed on applying them), finding, screening and nailing or promoting, candidates through the existing parties..."

, and down in the comments, an idea I like a lot, but haven't had the time to develop,

"My current, though not thoroughly thought out sense is, that there needs to be something along the lines of a "Consumer Reports' organization, vocally educating and agitating for, particular measures - some activities and measures that cannot be tolerated - and some which must be enacted - and which will support or fight against any politician as they align for or against those measures."

.. though... obviously... that last turns out to be rather problematic.

If you've got any ideas on the subject... I'd love to hear them.

But Adam Sharp of SharpElbows had an interesting idea earlier today:

!'m starting my own Tea Party.
It's called "the If you mention a primary or primary candidate in my presence I'll punch you in the F**king face TEA PARTY"

Who's with me?

I think most of us are Adam.

;-)

Patch Adams of Po'ed Patriot has another:

Taking a long break...

Me? Got some reading to do. But I've been doing that here for about six years... so... more of the same, I guess.

One last thought for the night
Interestingly, I've been watching some other conservative oriented groups forming what each accuses the other of, 'forming a circular firing squad', and I couldn't help thinking of a couple lines from a Harry Potter movie (hey, sometimes you get Aeschylus from me, sometimes J.K. Rowling - deal with it), from a scene when Harry has been feeling wronged and was withdrawing from his friends:

Luna Lovegood: [about her father] We believe you, by the way. That He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back, and you fought him, and the Ministry and the Prophet are conspiring against you and Dumbledore.
Harry Potter: Thanks. Seems you're about the only ones that do.
Luna Lovegood: I don't think that's true. But I suppose that's how he wants you to feel.
Harry Potter: What do you mean?
Luna Lovegood: Well if I were You-Know-Who, I'd want you to feel cut off from everyone else. Because if it's just you alone you're not as much of a threat.

Take a short breather folks, reflect, but remember, in one form or another, we must regroup around the ideas that we are for, if for no other reason than for the fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named doesn't want us to.

The After Party #3 – Occupy your own world the old fashioned way – by living in it!

Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday evening for the third St. Louis Tea Party, After Party.

We had an easy 100+ people turn out, this time at The Sky Music Lounge. In addition to STLTP regulars Bill Hennessy, Dana Loesch, Michelle Moore, Adam Sharp, Jen E., Brian Bollmann, Darin M, Adam Bohn, we also had Frieda Keogh on hand to give a brief talk on the MOPP project, Missouri Precinct Project, which is working to mop up politics in Missouri, in general by, Signing up more voters  Increasing voter turn out Educating people on their local government issues for – city, fire dist, school board, etc , and more specifically by rebuilding the GOP from the ground up, replacing political machinists with constitutionally minded conservatives. Through your efforts in the Precinct project, we can begin making our presence felt at the smallest division of local government, the Precinct captain. Most of these positions are unfilled, but they play an important part in deciding who is appointed for local, state and even federal offices… fill them with constitutional conservatives. Take a look at MOPP, and if you aren’t in Missouri, there are links that can help you with finding, or starting your own precinct project in your area... and you do want to do that, because I'm betting that your area doesn't look much different than our area, at least in this aspect: "Did you know in the 2010 election, which was supposed to be an important election, 1.8 million Missourians voted out of a total registered voting population of 4.1 million, or 44%. Don’t you think we can do better than that. We don’t know the percentage of registered voters that are Republicans but without a doubt we should be able to increase voter turnout by 10-15% from conservative voters that support conservative principals. One of the other goals of MOPP is to have conservative individuals running for Committemen and women in their respective Townships across the state. These are the individuals that form the party structure that determines the candidates for local and statewide offices. It is imperative that all of these positions are filled with constitutional conservatives to start turning our country back to a Jeffersonian Republic."
		Michelle Moore MC'ing
		Frieda Keogh MOPP'ing up
		The After Party after party munchies with Me, Rick T., Shadowy Burns, Bill Hennessy, Chris Loesch, Dana Loesch & Adam Bohn

Why Bother?
Look at the news, we’ve got anarchists, communists & thugs occupying parks and city centers around the nation.

Why? Because they’re idiots. Figuratively speaking.

They believe in central planning, using the force of government to force your compliance with their desires. The effect of that, is the exact opposite of the Free Market, instead of enabling millions of individuals to live their own lives, make their own decisions, produce their own wealth and take advantage of the productive decisions taken by every other person who is personally involved in their lives and businesses... they instead insist that the decisions of a select, bureaucratic few, be followed by all, effectively removing the intelligence of millions of individuals from the market, and forcing them all to live on the little wealth that can be produced by the distant and disconnected decisions of a few bureaucrats.

Like I said. Idiots.

Are you really going to let idiots occupy your world? Your neighborhood? Your life?

What is the ultimate message of the Tea Party and of MOPP?

Occupy your world. You can do that by occupying the political system which controls the world. Do that by occupying the means by which your neighborhood is represented within it, by meeting and involving your neighbors in your own neighborhood. Do that, so that you can again occupy your own life.

Isn't it worth it?

For Veterans Day - The Harder Right

For Veterans Day, a clip that doesn't at first appear to have anything to do with Veterans or Veterans Day. It's the climactic scene of a movie that's really grown on me over the years, The Emperor's Club. In this, the point of not only an Education, but of a life well lived - or squandered - is conveyed in just a few moments.

The now aging Mr. Hundert, a Classics Professor, is found in the restroom after a debate competition, by his former student, Sedgewick Bell, who is now grown and launching a campaign for the Senate. Bell was a student he'd tried far more than he should have to help, and Hundert has realized that Sedgewick has yet again cheated in the "Mr. Julius Caesar" debate, which Mr. Hundert was moderating.

He lets his former student know that he knows he tried to cheat, again...

Mr. Hundert:"I'm a teacher Sedgwick, and I failed you. But I'll give you one last lecture, if I may. All of us, at some point, are forced to look at ourselves in the mirror, and see who we really are, and when that day comes for Sedgewick, you'll be confronted with a life lived without virtue, without principle - for that I pity you. End of lesson."

Sedgewick Bell:"What can I say Mr. Hundert? Who gives a shit. Honestly, who out there gives a shit about your principles and your virtues. I mean, look at you, what do you have to show for yourself? I live in the real world, where people do what they need to do to get what they want, and if that means lying, and cheating... then so be it.
So I am going to go out there, and I am going to win that election Mr. Hundert, and you will see me EVERYwhere! And I'll worry about my 'contribution' later.
(Sound of a toilet flushing, stall opens, Sedgewick's little boy comes out, stares at his dad in disgust)
Sedgewick Bell:"Robert? Robert...."
(Robert turns and leaves)
Sedgewick stares after him, stares down, glances at Mr. Hundert, and leaves.

What Mr. Hundert has, he has without need of power, position or wealth... what Cedric threw away, he can't replace through any amount of power, position or wealth.

The best things in life are free... but you've got to earn them, and sometimes fight for them; and some worthy few even choose to risk their lives for your chance to enjoy them.

Thank you to all those who chose the harder right, and especially the Veterans who agreed to risk their lives for it, if need be.

UPDATE - Pictures from the St. Louis Veterans Day Parade
Special thanks to Dana Loesh for inviting us to march with her crew in the parade, my daughter & I were honored to show our support.

Dana Loesh (in a strep throat burqa), Me, Patch Adams and Chris Loesch , ready to roll	... coming around the corner... (pic swiped from Patch Adams)
Parading past Soldiers Memorial	The best message of all!

Patch posted a video that should be an alarming shame in contrasts to all. For those who did turn out for the parade yesterday, thank you, your quality isn't questioned, but for the quantities of others who couldn't be bothered, shame on you.

The Never Ending Boston Tea Party

What a pair of book ends, December 15th & 16th are. Yesterday, was the 219th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, and today, December 16, 1773, is the 237th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the event that marked the beginning of the revolution which the Bill of Rights secured. (SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM)

What was the Boston Tea Party about? Why did they do what they did? Or for that matter, what is the modern Tea Party movement about, and why do we do what we do?

Some supposed leaders, and MSM press, think we're in it to gain political power, even to start a third party (wouldn't the establishment love that)... really? Do we really want a Tea Party Party? Look at any picture of a Tea Party gathering, look at the Mom's & Dad's, kids and Grand parents... do they really look like they want to ditch their lives in order to operate the machinery of a political party?

WE DON'T EVEN WANT TO BOTHER ORGANIZING A DEMONSTRATION!!! Do you have any idea the time and effort involved in putting one of these things on?!!!

We don't want to start a political party, and in fact I, and most others, think such a thing would be exceedingly counter-productive, we have all the influence we need through affecting the people and doings of the existing parties, or seeing them sacked and replaced.

We don't want power, we simply want justice done. We want to be heard, and we want our Rights and Property respected.

Period.

There's far more in there that ties us to our forefathers 237 years ago, than separates us from them, and whatever it is that divides us, there's one thing you can be sure about - real progress had little to do with it.

I submit that what we want today, are the same things as was desired 237 years ago during the original Boston Tea Party.

• Respect for Private Property,
• Respect for Individual Rights
• No Taxation without representation.

237 years ago the Sons of Liberty were slow roasted into taking action... I'm hoping against hope that history doesn't need to repeat itself... or even need to rhyme.
One site, boasting the logo "It's all about the tax, stupid!" states "But it was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.", while that may have been the last straw, if they think that was the motivation - and that's pretty much what is taught in school today - they couldn't be more wrong.

Then, or now.

One of the dull barbs tossed at the Sons of Liberty, is that "for a group which claimed to care so much about property rights, they demonstrated zero regard for the property of the ships and that of the East India Co., by destroying that tea!"... but such a comment is typical of one made by someone who has no grasp of the principle of private property, the principle of force, and the necessity of context - IOW: someone 'educated' today.

The Never Ending Tea Party

For one thing, the Sons of Liberty showed a great deal of respect for the ships, and their property, their locks, etc. Take note of this, from "Hawkes, James A, Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party, with a Memoir of George R. T. Hewes... (1834)", for a bunch of supposed hooligans, rioters and revolutionaries, they took remarkable care to know what they were about, and to go about their task in a respectful and orderly manner:

"When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew. We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship, appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging. We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water.
In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.
...The next morning, after we had cleared the ships of the tea, it was discovered that very considerable quantities of it were floating upon the surface of the water; and to prevent the possibility of any of its being saved for use, a number of small boats were manned by sailors and citizens, who rowed them into those parts of the harbor wherever the tea was visible, and by beating it with oars and paddles so thoroughly drenched it as to render its entire destruction inevitable."

And for people with supposedly hypocritical or even no respect for the private property of others, they showed an unusual concern that no one should profit from their actions, and showed a great deal of respect for the true private property of the crewmen, as from "Patriots" by A.J. Langguth, pg. 184 (which I recommend), where he notes:

"...The account that Paul Revere carried south had been correct, Boston's Tories did admit that the whole affair had been conducted as correctly as a crime could be. Anonymous Mohawks even sent a lock the next day to one of the ship captains as a replacement for one they had broken. It was also true that the more moderate Whigs seemed to endorse the dumping. John Adams, who had denounced the Boston mob so eloquently, wrote in is diary, "There is a dignity, a majesty, a sublimity, in this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire..."

, and their insistence that none of the Sons of Liberty should in any way seek to enrich themselves through the contraband,

""One Captain O'Connor, whom I well knew, came on board for that purpose, and when he supposed he was not noticed, filled his pockets, and also the lining of his coat. But I had detected him and gave information to the captain of what he was doing. We were ordered to take him into custody, and just as he was stepping from the vessel, I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and in attempting to pull him back, I tore it off; but, springing forward, by a rapid effort he made his escape. He had, however, to run a gauntlet through the crowd upon the wharf nine each one, as he passed, giving him a kick or a stroke.
Another attempt was made to save a little tea from the ruins of the cargo by a tall, aged man who wore a large cocked hat and white wig, which was fashionable at that time. He had sleightly slipped a little into his pocket, but being detected, they seized him and, taking his hat and wig from his head, threw them, together with the tea, of which they had emptied his pockets, into the water. In consideration of his advanced age, he was permitted to escape, with now and then a slight kick. "
"

For all the MSM's complaints about "Tea Party Mobs!", ask any of those tasked with 'cleaning up' after a Tea Party event, even where thousands or tens of thousands of people were involved... I think you'll unanimously hear that it was left cleaner than before they arrived. And for all the supposed violent tendencies, there have been zero violet incidents at Tea Parties, whereas at any leftist event (WTO protests, etc) the grounds are trashed, rioting often occurs, shop windows are smashed and police are assaulted.
The reason for this is that Private Property is greatly respected by members of the Tea Party, a sentiment that is common with what John Adams said, which I've noted often before, and will often again, from his "Defence of the Constitutions", in Vol III he considered what must most likely happen in a society once property rights were allowed to lose the status and support of law,

"...Property is surely a right of mankind as really as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors. Debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on the others; and at last a downright equal division of every thing be demanded, and voted. What would be the consequence of this? The idle, the vicious, the intemperate, would rush into the utmost extravagance of debauchery, sell and spend all their share, and then demand a new division of those who purchased from them. The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.""

And as often noted, from elsewhere in the same work, it is that respect for property which is the purpose and support for the Laws which makes a Republic possible,

"Others, again, more rationally, define a republic to signify only a government, in which all men, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, officers and people, masters and servants, the first citizen and the last, are equally subject to the laws. This, indeed, appears to be the true and only true definition of a republic. The word res, every one knows, signified in the Roman language wealth, riches, property; the word publicus, quasi populicus, and per syncope pôplicus, signified public, common, belonging to the people; res publica, therefore, was publica res, the wealth, riches, or property of the people.*Res populi, and the original meaning of the word republic could be no other than a government in which the property of the people predominated and governed; and it had more relation to property than liberty. It signified a government, in which the property of the public, or people, and of every one of them, was secured and protected by law. This idea, indeed, implies liberty; because property cannot be secure unless the man be at liberty to acquire, use, or part with it, at his discretion, and unless he have his personal liberty of life and limb, motion and rest, for that purpose. It implies, moreover, that the property and liberty of all men, not merely of a majority, should be safe; for the people, or public, comprehends more than a majority, it comprehends all and every individual; and the property of every citizen is a part of the public property, as each citizen is a part of the public, people, or community. The property, therefore, of every man has a share in government, and is more powerful than any citizen, or party of citizens; it is governed only by the law. "

The Property of the East India Co. was not Private Property, but tools of intimidation
What the Sons of Liberty understood way back when in Boston, well versed in the ideas of Locke and others, was that Property becomes private property through the self initiated labor, mental and physical, of the producer; either directly, as with someone who stakes a claim to unclaimed lands, and works the land to produce a crop; or through delegation and agency, as when someone contracts to have their physical & mental work done by proxy through the agency of others, employees and the like, who sell their time and effort as tools for the use of their employers.

That process is legitimate when the efforts, and agreements to work under the direction of another for compensation, is done by voluntary agreement, and when the raw materials involved which are transformed into property (land, etc), do not themselves belong to another, and they are not used for the purpose of abusing the rights and property of another party.

The East India Co. was not an example of a private business operating free and clear in product, deed and use of private property, it was a government enforced monopoly (the only proper meaning of the term), a 'business' who laid claim to an entire market by dint of the force of arms supplied and directed by the British government to secure it. It involved the abuse of force in it's growing and harvesting of the tea, in it's shipping of the tea, and in its sale of the tea, every step of the way which was upheld and enforced by force, preventing others from entering their market, from competing with their own product, no differently than if Don Corleone's thugs were to tell a business that they were gonna 'make 'em an offer you can't refuse' so that they could only sell his product.

The East India Co.'s materials ceased to have a claim to private property from the moment it was sown, let alone harvested, shipped and placed for exclusive sale, which was to not only include the sale price of the tea, but an additional payment of tax demanded by the thugs for the privilege of being forced to purchase only their product.

The 'property' of the East India co. was not Private Property, it was not only ill-gotten goods, but it was, in and of itself, a tool of force swung at the colonists, every bit as much as is the sack which a clerk is told to fill with money during a bank robbery.

The Sons of Liberty recognized that, recognized that they were not dealing with private property, but stolen goods, tools of force which were used at the behest of the tyrants of the British govt.

The Boston Tea Party was the act of patriotic citizens interrupting a theft. They didn't profit from, or seek to profit from the taking of the thugs materials, they merely took his ill-gotten goods from him, and sent his agents packing.

Far from being a hypocritical abuse of property, it was a supreme defense of Property Rights and a defense of the Individual Rights of all of the colonists.

No Taxation Without Representation
The Sons of Liberty weren't opposed to paying taxes, and neither are we, they were opposed to being taxed without being properly represented in the levying of those taxes, and there are two ways in which that representation is given and established.

Taxes are the means of supporting a legitimate government, one whose purpose is to uphold the rights of its citizens, and without which the mob and anarchy would be the only recourse in disputes, no property could be secure, and no Rights could be enforced.

There can be no right to not support that which makes the security of your rights possible, and to the extent that a govt does that, they are justified in levying taxes, and it is the duty of every good citizen to pay them.

But.

One of the qualifications for those taxes being legitimately levied, is that they must include the consent of the people, given by way of their being represented in that government. A proper govt involves its people in the making of its policies, and necessarily it will involve decisions which some or even many disagree with, but with ensuring that each person is represented in the discussions, a reasonable decision can be made. Even in cases where you might disagree with the decision, you have had your say, or at least in choosing your representative to those discussions; such a govt consists of the consent of the governed, and that is the only way open for civilized men to cooperate in governing.

If such decisions are not made with the representation of the peoples involved, then their consent was never given, then the govt ceases in that aspect to be a legitimate government, and becomes a tyrant instead, one using raw power to work its will upon the people, little different from those actions taken by the Godfather and his thugs shaking down a neighborhood. That was the situation the Sons of Liberty faced, and which Jefferson later authored the Declaration of Independence to put an end to.

Taxation without Representation is a cry this nation was founded upon, burst into action 237 years ago today, and concluded (for a time) 219 years ago yesterday, with the ratification of the Bill of Rights, securing our Rights, and specifically securing those rights which a tyrant cannot come to power without abusing.

The battle cry of the original Sons Of Liberty was "No taxation without representation", not because the taxes being imposed upon them were of such ruinous percentages - they were laughably small compared to what we pay - but because they were imposed upon them without their having any voice in the process; they were not represented in the decision, and so they began to realize that the government ruling over them was not theirs since they were barred from being a part of it - they were not of the body politic which had power over them.

What about the Tea Party of today? Can we really say we have no representation in government? No, we can't say that, as our recent national election attested. But there is a second requirement to Representation, which we are coming dangerously close to losing... and it is important that this defect be remedied soon.

Representation and the consent of the governed isn't secured by voice alone, but by that government respecting the Rights of those being represented to it. Even though our representatives are properly elected today, they are still trampling upon our Rights, robbing us of our consent and of our property and sending the bill not only to us, but to our children and grandchildren.

Worse even than that, they are not content with taking our property alone, but seek to control our lives, deny our right to make our own choices regarding our health care or even the foods we eat, and unless that is put a stop to, it will become very difficult to argue that proper Representation is going on, or that the consent of the governed is being given to those governing us... and that is a very dangerous game to play, to treat free men as if they were serfs. We're slow to boil, but once set to boil, it's difficult to keep us from boiling over.

We just had an historic election this last November, a rebuking of a sitting congress and President by the American People, justly furious that their voices were not being listened to, and the latest legislative acts and budgets of the outgoing congress... are slaps in the face of the entire nation.

To anyone with even a fleeting grasp of our history, that should be an ominous portent. It wasn't long after the Boston Tea Party, that the colonists realized that not only were they no longer considered part of the body politic which controlled them, but that they were thought of by that body as being merely a convenient body to be fed upon by it - and that they didn't like. Not one little bit, and so 237 years ago the Boston Tea Party, which should have shaken the would be tyrants from their stupor, was ignored and led to the confrontation on Lexington Green, and the rest is a hard history.

After this last election, our congress has the gall to seek a budget with billions of dollars for the pet projects of sitting and outgoing legislators, spat directly into the voting booths of We The People... that's not a wise thing to do. Not at all.

In America, the Tea Party is always ready to boil, it's not wise to turn up the heat.

UPDATE

With amazing timing, coming as it did on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Harry Reid has thrown in the towel on his obscenely bloated $1.1 Trillion dollar omnibus spending bill. That prompts just a couple more reflections on the relevant anniversaries involved:

• James Otis lit the fire of the Revolution
• The Boston Tea Party put it into action
• Lexington, Concord and the Declaration of Independence declared our Rights to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness
• The Constitution defined a framework for liberty to prosper under government
• The Bill of Rights secured our Rights and defined those few which no tyrant can hope to rise up in the face of

The time for physical revolt has come and gone, begun 237 years ago, and secured 219 years ago, it's work is done. Those who did have to fight for it, left us a task which in many ways is a far more difficult one. Our task is to rediscover, relearn, and reassert our understanding of our Individual Rights and what it means to live our own lives, in liberty and pursuing our happiness as we see fit.

This will require a lot of effort, made all the more difficult by an educational system which, at best, has failed in its task. But the only power this task before us requires to accomplish it, is that of your mind and heart seeking the truth along with a willingness to speak out to defend it.


The good news is that what we are after, the same thing those patriots of the Sons of Liberty were after at the Boston Tea Party, we already have; we have a nation founded on liberty, we have a written Constitution to govern it by, and a Bill of Rights to secure it all in place.


All we need to do is remember that and spread the word.

9/12 Blow Out at the Arch

Moi

The 9/12 event at the St. Louis Arch started the night before with unloading 10,000 bottles of water, and a lot of prep work by volunteers from here in St. Louis and from across the country... and picked right back up at 7:00 a.m. this morning and continued on non-stop.

10,000 bottle water brigade

I had a great crew of about 40 volunteers, and 6 other committe heads each had about the same... it was a great success from the everyone pitching in end - so many people seeing what needed to be done, & doing it, when we 'leaders' were sidetracked with the minutia needed to keep the process going.

Almost show time

I was moivng too much to take many pictures (see Dana Loesch & Jim Hoft's Gateway Pundit & Sharp Elbows for some really good shots), got to meet David Limbaugh, and others... Dick Morris was there as well, and our local St. Louis Tea Party founders Dana Loesch, Bill Hennessy, Gina Louden and so many more kept the day poppin'.

John Burns & Dana Loesch welcoming the moonbats

Can't fix stupid - but you can make them feel welcome!

And of course there were idiot moonbats exhorting us to 'think outside the fox' (what wit), and a few George Soros flunkies trying to pretend to be Tea Party people - when I asked one 'where our rights came from' and they answered the Supreme Court, it was time to get out the "Stupid is not with us" signs, which we used to welcome so many. Adam Sharpe of "SharpeElbows" was out in force as well - a good time was had by all.

Sounding Fathers Rocked!

BTW, as someone who played "We're not going to take it!" more times than I'd like to remember, back when it was still a top 40 hit, Chris Loesch and the Sounding Father's gave one of the most energized performances of it - band and crowd - that I've ever seen.

Some of the 12,000 Tea Partiers forming the Gateway to November

I'm so beat, sunburned and spent I can barely type... but it was a good day for and easy 12,000 happy folk to get together and send the message to Washington D.C. that, as Jim Hoft said "We can see November from our stage!"

To all the volunteers from St. Louis & around the country who helped pull this off... Thank You!

Tea Party on tax day

Awesome day at the Tea Parties today.

The day began with several hundred in the early afternoon in St. Charles, and while the conservative estimate for the evening St. Louis Tea Party in Clayton was 1,800-2,200, from my vantage point, circulating through the crowd, signing people up for activist training, to be local block party captains, and to help ensure that the Nov. 2nd, 2010 election whacks the socialcrats at the ballot box, I put the number between 2,500-3,000, but no matter, an excellent turnout all the same.

We did have a couple of infiltraitors (correct spelling), but with the welcoming committee of folks like Adam Sharp of SharpElbows (video), they weren't feeling the love and soon skedaddled. Dana Loesch has a similar report with a repeat offender in St. Charles, and Jim Hoft has a post up on Gateway Pundit about other infiltraitors here and around the country... while it's true that you can't fix stupid, you can sure have fun laughing at them!

Jay Stewart	Michelle Moore of A Traditional Life Lived has the full evening online (I've got a few short clips below), including speeches from John Burns, Stephanie Rubach, Adam Sharp, Gina Loudon, Lyda Loudon, Jay Stewart, Jim Hoft, Mo Lt. Govenor Peter Kinder and a pair of particularly rousing efforts from St. Louis Tea Party founders Bill Hennessy & Dana Loesch. (If you're on Facebook, Keyboard Militia has some quality pictures)	MO Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder
Gina Loudon	Stephanie Rubach	John Burns

We got several score of tea partiers to sign up for duty on the front lines, as well as for training classes (check St. Louis Tea Party for upcoming info)... the kettle's on the burner, time to turn up the heat!

Two dad's with son's in bootcamp, myself and Bill Hennessy	Dana Loesch as the Tea Party winds down	Newly discovered New Dad to be, John Burns and myself packing up
	I got to tag along to a local nightery for food and adult beverages, with the Loesch & Loudon families, John, Bill, Jay Stewart, and a few others which my feeble ability to recall names forces me to leave blank, but it was a fun end to a promising day. Even when winding down, there are still points to be made...

Some short video clips of the day:

Peter Kinder	Bill Hennessy
Jay Stewart	Gina Loudon
Dana Loesch