Then, in February, we sent out an email to our list from the DontGo Movement almost within hours of Rick Santelli’s original call for a Chicago Tea Party. That email brought in an immediate 10,000 or so visits, and combined with efforts of other grassroots groups, a new movement was born.

The modern day liberty movement, consisting of tea party activists, 9/12 organizers, and independent grassroots groups, is growing faster than anyone imagined. Media writes it off as fringe, politicians claim it to be irrelevant, and beltway organizations try to harness it as their own but ultimately fail.

The movement is strong, but through this strength also comes growing pains. Many have been pointing out the flaws and shortfalls of the movement. While these people conveniently leave out the strengths of the movement, they do have a point to an extent.

There is currently a group of organizations and activists discussing and working together to address these flaws, and we’re close to announcing a completely fresh direction for both the movement as well as the American Liberty Alliance.

Remember these three words and keep them fresh on your mind through the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Regroup. Rebuild. Reclaim.

We’ll have a fairly sizable announcement that goes out in early December. Enjoy this week, and watch for the news the following.

For Liberty,
-Eric Odom

She continues her explanation with, “It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support.” Nowhere does she address the reasons for her lack of money or the pressure on her supporters. All of this is understandable. In the pressure of the moment, it’s hard to be either precise or circumspect enough to satisfy everyone. There is, however, one specific thing it is incumbent upon a candidate to do in such a situation. They must tell their supporters what to do next.

At the end of a primary, losing candidates all pledge to rally behind the person who won their Party’s nomination. Hillary Clinton sounded positively Republican in telling the nation how bad a President Barack Obama would be. But when he was the Democrat’s nominee, she supported him and encouraged her followers to do so as well. OK, maybe the PUMA people are evidence she didn’t really do that but you get the idea. The Hoffman challenge of Scozzafava in NY-23 was a primary of sorts. It was a fight to see what values and principles the Right of Center voters in NY-23 would rally behind. The voters chose Hoffman’s and that didn’t sit well with Dede.

What Scozzafava did next was unconscionable. She “[released] those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so.”

This is key because in her official statement, her very next words were, “I am and have always been a proud Republican.” What a slap in the face to the NRCC and RNC which spent $900,000 in support of her campaign. When the NRCC recently withdrew from the NY-23 race, it made overtures to Hoffman. Scozzafava knows Hoffman is the obvious candidate to support if she gets out. But she couldn’t make herself do it. It is a slap in the face to all the GOP supporters across the country who supported her because they understand the importance of keeping the seat in the GOP. It is a slap in the face to all the people in NY-23 who want Republican representation in DC. With proud Republicans like Scozzafava, the GOP doesn’t need Democrats to worry about. And that’s been the point of Hoffman’s candidacy all along.

Some will rightly argue Hoffman isn’t running as a Republican, he’s the Constitution Party candidate, and so there will be no GOP representation even if Hoffman wins. But Scozzafava herself was running as both the GOP candidate AND the Independence Party candidate. Hoffman would have run on the GOP ticket had he been allowed to. Since there was no primary he had no choice except to run as another Party’s representative. Scozzafava’s refusal to specifically tell her supporters she was supporting Doug Hoffman; that they should support Doug Hoffman, too; and that even though her name was on the ballot, she was requesting her supporters NOT to vote for her but to vote for Hoffman instead can be spun as defending the Republican brand. More likely it will be seen for what it is – what happens when RINOs go on a murderous rampage.

Of course, all this is what you’d expect if Scozzafava’s opponents were correct and folks like Newt Gingrich and the NRCC were wrong. If Scozzafava were the Conservative Republican they said she was, she would have fought hard, been gracious in defeat and supported the candidate with the most Conservative principles moving ahead to Tuesday’s election. Instead she proved herself to be the Liberal RINO she was charged with being and has outed herself as the petty, vindictive and mean-spirited Republican that your Democratic friends are always telling you about. You know the ones. The Democrats in Republican clothing.

Now that this is done, it’s time to focus on Tuesday. We have an election to win!

The Times reported the drop in Consumer spending was “tied to the end of the government’s cash-for-clunkers program, which gave car buyers thousands of dollars in vouchers for the purchase of new vehicles.” I would add to that the end of the Government’s program to give money to home buyers. I call it cash-for-condos.

It’s hard not to note this is what Administration critics predicted. Stimulus plans costing taxpayer billions have not produced a recovery. There are only blips here and there as people take advantage of “free government money” (read “tax dollars taken from someone else and given to them”, remember Joe the Plumber?). After Cash for Clunkers and Cash for Condos produced their false positives the Economy retreated to a more accurate picture of consumer confidence.

The Times also noted “The drops were led by stocks in banks and financial firms …” Yet just just a month ago this Economic sector was posting record profits. The Times failed to remind readers what the Government did in that sector. President Obama told some in the financial sector they could no longer pay their employees as they saw fit and called for a maximum wage when it comes to CEOs. Administration members ominously said they hoped the rest of the industry would voluntarily comply with the new wage structure.

Investors took one look at the President’s plan and bolted with their cash. Investors put cash in firms headed by those making millions seeking a good ROI from the plans and minds worth that sort of money. Investors rightly understand their return is jeopardized in the hands and minds of lesser corporate leaders. People who understand Economics told the President this would happen. They were ignored and, for their trouble, they were pilloried as racists.

The Times reports the most important facts in two separate paragraphs. They note “The revival of the consumer sector is considered paramount in turning the United States economy around, since purchases by consumers make up about two-thirds of the nation’s spending” shortly after revealing “Consumer spending in September dropped by the largest amount in nine months …” When the false positives of Cash for Clunkers and Cash for Condos are stripped away, consumer spending is getting worse, not better. What’s more, the rate of decline is escalating. After 9 months of Stimulus, consumer spending had its worst month in September.

The only question now is how long the administration will pimp failed New Deal era policies to solve the economic problems of another century. Perhaps if Barack Obama took time from date nights, golf games, begging for the Olympics and disrespecting Constitution and Liberty loving Americans to pay serious attention to the Economy he’d realize the only “economic boom” he’s likely to experience will come from the Economy imploding on his watch.

For Liberty!

Ken

In arguing for a Public Option in any health care reform she could vote for, Rep. Pingree laments the current lack of competition in Maine to benefit consumers. She actually says, on camera, in an interview with FOX’s Neil Cavuto, that in Maine, “We’re down to just about 1 insurance company.” What?? ONE insurance company? Wikipedia has an admittedly incomplete list of health insurance companies showing only those with a “strong national or regional presence.” That list has 27 entries.

Why is only one of these companies doing business in Maine? I thought the insurance industry was filled with nothing but money-grubbing, profit-seeking, expletive-deleteds. I thought all they cared about was their fatcat CEO and bigwig salaries. Per Rep. Pingree’s own admission, insurance costs are high in Maine. Why aren’t more companies out to get a piece of that pie? Or is it, perhaps, more than slightly disingenuous of the good Congressman to claim there is a lack of competition in Maine which only Government intervention can help. She claims the Maine legislature “…has tried every possible kind of insurance reform, a lot of the things that are being talked about …” But their costs are still out of control and only one insurance company wants any of the profit to be made in Maine.

Curious. One has to ask, if Maine really did do all they could to address insurance reform, doesn’t that mean Maine had a lot of screwed up insurance regulation to begin with? When did all this regulatory correction happen? It seems reasonable that if Maine had passed tough tort reform laws and taken the shackles off of their insurance industry so as to permit real competition and truly done everything possible to reform the problems with insurance someone other than Rep. Pingree would know about it. Either the Right would be screaming about the success or the Left would be screaming that they tried it the Conservative way and it failed.

Rep. Pingree finally tosses out her real reason for wanting a public option when she laments that all of the state’s effort at insurance reform “…still hasn’t been what we needed to make sure everybody in our state was covered.” The clatter of the other shoe dropping is enough to pull me back to reality.

I remember Rep. Pingree is a Democrat. I remember Maine’s federal delegation also contains Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. I recall Rep. Pingree proudly notes her own daughter is Speaker of the House in Maine. And I can’t help but think perhaps the good Congressman is exaggerating when she claims Maine did everything it could to enact insurance reform significant enough to bring about the kind of change Americans are really hoping for. If they had, the market would have spoken and Rep. Pingree wouldn’t have to. She’s right. Maine needs competition because real competition increases quality and drives down prices. If Maine had been serious about promoting competition, they wouldn’t have the situation they are currently lamenting. If the Maine legislature was serious about insurance reform, the proof would have been a lot more than a lone player in the Maine market.

But if your goal isn’t competition; if what you really want is universal coverage – your efforts and their success or lack thereof will be evaluated very differently. And therein lies the problem when the Left tries to sound Conservative without a true commitment to Conservative principles. Liberal ideas cannot bring about Conservative solutions.

Universal coverage is a Government imposed mandate on the insurance industry. It’s precisely the sort of regulation that discourages competition, drives up prices and reduces the number of insurance companies willing and able to compete in Maine. Competition is a Market driven choice by consumers based on their own needs and interests. It includes the choice not to have insurance at all. Perhaps Maine would be better served if their Democratic leaders understood what Rep. Pingree calls “… the economics of it …” At least then the good people of Maine would have information they could trust when it comes to making good choices when they are shopping for insurance.

Contact: Eric Odom
E-mail: eric@americanlibertyalliance.com

American Liberty Alliance
http://www.americanlibertyalliance.com

Group behind original Tax Day Tea Party brings “American Liberty Tour” to Sacramento
Tour stop to include activist training and townhall event

(SEPTEMBER 2nd, 2009) Nashville, TN – The American Liberty Alliance, one of the three core groups that started TaxDayTeaParty.com late last February, is kicking off a nationwide 17-city liberty tour in Sacramento, California on September 10. The “American Liberty Tour” (http://americanlibertytour.com) is geared toward activists and every-day Americans who feel frustrated with the lack of representation in government.

Each tour stop will include a full day of activist training provided by co-sponsor American Majority. Depending on schedules, each stop will also include a townhall event and/or a “tea party” style rally.

The Sacramento tour stop on Thursday, September 10th, features California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore at the evening townhall gathering. Also speaking will be Eric Odom, founder of TaxDayTeaParty.com, Boston Tea Party Organizer Corie Whalen, RedState.com’s Caleb Howe, Ned Ryun of American Majority, and Ken Marrero from the American Liberty Alliance.

“A lot of Americans are fed up with government at both the state and federal levels,” said Eric Odom, chief organizer of the American Liberty Tour. “Everyone is looking for ways to be engaged and active within the political process. The American Liberty Tour will help them do exactly that.”

The tour crew will be joined by “Joe the Plumber” in Kansas City, and several other prominent free-market activists are expected to join the team for later stops.

More information is available on the official tour website at http://americanlibertytour.com.

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The follow interview, at a Recess Rally in Georgia, is of Cheryl Prater, a member of the Georgia leadership committee.

Great job, Cheryl!

The organizations and people behind the American Liberty Tour fully support the 9/12 March on Washington and we’re co-sponsoring the event nationwide. It’s highly recommended that any and all Americans who can make it to Washington for 9/12 try and get there and be heard.

That said, we understand that many out west aren’t going to be able to march to Washington. This is why we’re proud to team up with some great patriots in Utah to co-host a Liberty Rally and 9/12 event at the Utah Capitol.

If you’re in Utah or a surrounding state and you wish to attend a mass gathering on 9/12, we want to invite you to join us in Salt Lake City for the Liberty Rally.

More details will be released on our website in the next few days so stay tuned for updates.

For Liberty,

-Eric Odom

NOTE: American Majority will also be providing activist/movement training during the day. you can register for the 9/12 training online by clicking here.

We’ve added an average of over 100 fully registered members per day, and when combined with the DontGo Movement membership, this brings our total membership numbers to about 43,000.

This challenge was simple. Refer as many people as you could, and on August 15th, we would work with RootsHQ 2009 to provide a free flight, free hotel room, and free VIP access to the conference to the person who sent the most members.

The winner, without question, is Jai Blevins of Tulsa Oklahoma.

Not only has Jai been a rockstar in helping folks register with the American Liberty Alliance… as of a few weeks ago, he also became the volunteer state contact for ALA in Oklahoma.

That said, we want to congratulate Jai Blevins and we look forward to seeing him in Nashville next month!