I’ve been asked to attend a meet the candidates forum sponsored by the N.A.A.C.P. and the Peoria Christian Leadership Council. I’ll have 3 minutes for an introduction, then will answer questions from the floor.

Here is a draft of the speech I intend to give for my opening remarks.

Hello and thank you for inviting me.

My name is Brian Hibbert and I live in East Peoria. I’m running for the Board of Trustees of Illinois Central College because ICC is important to me and to my family. I was a student there starting in 1979 when I enrolled in the Industrial Electronics Technology program after graduating from Brimfield High School. I have also participated in Adult Continuing Education over the years and I am currently finishing an Associates in Computer Programming and Database Management. I have a daughter who is a graduate of ICC, a son who is also currently a student and another son who has taken some of his college classes there. I’m also a tax payer in the district and a nearby neighbor of the main campus.

While this is a nonpartisan election, I think it’s important that you know what my beliefs and those of the other candidates are before you make your election decisions. I’m a Republican and a conservative. This means that I believe in a small and efficient government that meets the needs of the people, not an overwhelming bureaucracy that tells free people what they must or can’t do. This means I have the confidence in the ability of people to make wise decisions in their own lives. This means that I believe in teaching people how to become self sufficient rather than relying on the whims of the government to provide for what they think people need. This mean that I believe in treating people as individuals based on their character and not lumping people into groups based on their race or religion or some other arbitrary grouping.

I believe ICC is a tool for helping to develop the character of individuals. It is a tool that will allow people to improve their own lives. It is a tool that will allow people to get a high quality education at a very low cost.

And low cost is one of the things that make ICC such a valuable resource to this area. No where else can you get an associates degree for about $6000 tuition. Most colleges charge that much or more for a single semester. I want to keep that cost low. It’s the low cost that allows so many people from our area to improve their lives.

ICC has several core missions that are closely related. It’s most obvious mission is to provide the first 2 years of post secondary education, its Associates Degree programs. But it also has some other tasks. It provides General Education Degree programs for those who (for whatever reason) didn’t finish high school. It provides vocational education programs for those who aren’t interested in advanced degrees, but need training in a career field where they can find good employment. And it provides adult continuing education programs for people who need to keep current in their field, learn a little about another field, or who just want to expand their horizons.

My goal on the board is to be able to ask 2 questions for each and every expenditure of the college. Does this expenditure help us meet our core goals? And is there a better way to meet those same goals? I believe that by keeping the college focused on its primary tasks, we can keep the cost of a college education low and help make it available to more people who otherwise would never be able to attend college.

I appreciate whatever input you may have.

Oh? You thought that victory in this election was our goal? Wrong! That was just the preliminary round. Consider it practice for the real work that needs to be done. We won a great victory and have temporarily staved off the socialist threat to our nation, but this is just a skirmish. This is a LONG term project and YOU are a key player.

So what do you need to do? Well short term, there’s the next election to consider. In Illinois there are spring elections for Municipal Offices such as Mayor, City Council, Treasurer, Alderman, Trustee, etc. These are the people who will be running your local city and will affect your property and sales tax. They are the people who will be creating local ordinances and directing policy. The School Boards, Township Boards, Park Districts, Library Districts, Community College Districts, etc are also local taxing bodies that are holding elections. The full lists of offices in Illinois are in the Illinois 2011 Candidate’s Guide.

These are the critical offices which can direct how well your local government works. They are also the training grounds for higher political offices. It’s important that we fill these positions with good conservative minded people.

It is your job to find good candidates for these offices or run for them yourself. If you live in Illinois, pick an office that you or someone you know can make a difference in and make an effort to win! I’m running for the Board of Trustees for Illinois Central College and will be helping others that are running for some local city council slots.

But you can’t wait! Now is the time to gather signatures for nomination petitions (it’s usually not a restrictive number for local offices, I had to get 50). The papers for partisan elections and offices with a primary must be filed between Nov 15th and 22nd. Yes, that’s only 2 weeks from now! The papers for non-partisan elections must be filed in the appropriate offices December 13th to 20th. You don’t have time to sit around and debate, get moving! Find out who has already expressed interest in various local offices and help them out as well. They’ll need to get signatures too.

The other 49 (or is it 57?) states have similar local and municipal elections coming up. The offices and dates will vary considerably from state to state, but you have to start on a campaign long before anyone else is even thinking about the office. Contact your local party officials or look at your state election web sites to find out what offices are up for the next election, what the filing dates are, what the signature requirements are, and get to work!

Longer term, we are still the evangelists for Freedom, small government, and individual responsibility. We MUST keep preaching the message or the socialists will creep back into power and ruin the strides we’ve made this year. We’ve only stopped their advance, we haven’t started rolling back their ideology yet. Keep talking to your friends and neighbors. Nudge (don’t push) them towards conservatism when you talk. Write letters to the editor on important issues. Monitor the message boards of your local papers and give reasoned debate to the insanity that the progressives spew.

Above all, keep working!

P.S. I know people get burned out on politics. If you’re getting to that stage, take a short rest, then jump back in. We need every one of our people battling for freedom, so make sure you are fit for duty. Just don’t miss a ballot deadline because of taking a short rest. If you are in Illinois, you don’t have the luxury of more than a day or 2 off. In other states you may have more time, but check before you take off.

After hearing the stump speeches of some of our local candidates (good people, one and all), we heard from a man who has been a precinct committeeman in our county since the days of Goldwater. In fact, the way he described his entry into politics as an enthusiastic Goldwater supporter reminded me of the way many Tea Party activists are getting involved today. It seems he was part of a group of political neophytes who didn’t think Goldwater was getting enough support, so they started supporting him themselves. They even opened a local campaign office for Goldwater on their own. The really telling part was that he said many of the old guard came around wondering who these guys were and were worrying that they were going to take over the party (sound familiar?). Anyway, enough of the history and on to the lessons…..

The big secret to winning elections and being a GREAT precinct committeeman is…

Wait for it…….

Knock on doors and talk to your neighbors.

That’s it. It’s the single most effective way to win elections. A person from the neighborhood having a one on one discussion with his neighbors is going to get more people to vote and get more people to vote for the candidates you promote. That’s a simple fact and the best way to build support.

Some of the other items he suggested:

The best time to knock on doors is on Halloween. People are already expecting to have visitors and are more receptive to being interrupted by a knock on the door. It’s also only 2 days before the election so the visit will be fresh on election day.

Have a packet of campaign flyers to hand the person and/or write your own letter explaining why you support the particular candidates. I just spent about 2 weeks stuffing envelopes for a mailing to 46,000 people with the flyers, so I’ll probably write a short letter of support instead.

Be HONEST. Don’t sugar coat things or lie about the opposition. Tell them legitimate reasons WHY your candidate is better. For example: our candidate for 10th Judicial Circuit Judge, John Vespa, has experience with both criminal and civil cases and was a police officer before becoming a lawyer, the Democrat is a very good lawyer that specializes in JUST Insurance law. A circuit judge needs to be experienced in both types of law.

If you are honest, people will trust your opinion for future elections (Oh, didn’t I tell you? Being Precinct Committeeman is a long term plan to move this country back to the right and get honest people elected to public office.)

Plan your list ahead of time. You can get walking lists from Voter Vault or from your county clerk that identify the hard R’s and independents. Knocking on the door of a hard D may be counter productive, he said you don’t want to stir them up and remind THEM to vote, but we DO want to get the R’s and R leaners out. (I think we should be reaching out to the D’s, but this close to the election, he’s probably right.) Contact your county headquarters if you don’t know how to get either of these.

Be a poll watcher. Get an alphabetical list of voters in your area and check them off as they come in to vote. Towards the end of the day, about an hour before the polls close, start calling the hard R’s that you haven’t seen yet. Many of them intended to vote, but just forgot and will hurry to the polls. He said he’s had many close races over the years decided by a margin of votes that is less than the number of calls he made at the end of the day. If EVERYONE in EVERY PRECINCT did this, we’d never lose an election.

There’s probably a few pointers I forgot. If so, I hope MRiggio can fill in the gaps.

Finally, if you aren’t a precinct committeeman yet…. GET OFF YOUR DUFF and DO SOMETHING! All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to stand by and do nothing. You’re all good people so DO SOMETHING.

Go to the Precinct Project and the Concord Project for information or just call your local county GOP and ask how YOU can be a Precinct Committeeman too.

Sometimes overtly, sometimes not, they hate people. Not “the people” as a whole, they’re all for “the people”, but they hate individual people. You see individuals just don’t behave in a manner that is good for “the people”. Individuals don’t behave in a way that allows central planners (lead by progressives) to manage how people behave and what they use resources for.

Individuals want to do things like:
1. Deciding how to spend their own money. Progressives hate that….. People who spend their own money might decide to spend it on something other than free range chickens or carbon neutral milk. They might even decide to spend their own money on that ultimate evil… charity! (I kid you not, a local sociology professor recently lamented the fact that people gave money to cancer research instead of “understanding each other, debunking mystical religions and getting rid of political boundaries.”)

2. Deciding what medical insurance (if any) they should have. You see individuals can’t be trusted to do what’s in their own best interest so it must be mandated what coverage they have.

3. Deciding what food to eat. Individuals might decide to eat french fries produced by an evil corporate empire like McDonald’s! Heaven forbid (oooppps can’t use the word heaven, that religion thing you know) that they should actually LIKE the taste of potatoes cooked in beef tallow (outlawed years ago) or in trans-fatty oils (gone recently), progressives won’t be satisfied until McDonald’s fried are nothing more than a tasteless mash (they’re getting close now). Of course putting SALT! on the things just compounds the error of the individual.

4. Deciding to start a business selling something or other. This is pretty much shutdown by excessive permitting processes and regulations, but it’s a danger to progressive ideology none the less.

5. Take care of themselves and their families without government assistance. Horror of horrors!!!!! The very idea of individuals who can take care of themselves, advance their income, improve their lives … without the government doing it for them….. well put yourself in a progressive’s place….

6. Take care of their own retirement savings. If people only knew that they could save considerably more money for retirement without Social Security and had a choice, no one would contribute to it! The whole thing would collapse even faster than it is now! Not only that, but a significant portion of the population that is dependent upon SS would no longer have to look to the government to make it to the next month.

You have probably gotten the point by now. Being against individual freedom is hating people. So next time you get a progressive telling you how the government MUST MANDATE something that individuals are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves. Just ask them
“Why do you hate people? Why don’t you LOVE people enough to trust them?”

Precinct Committeemen get to pick the candidates!

This week, mriggio and I will get together with the other Precinct Committeemen in District 3 at the public library in Washington, IL and will select a replacement candidate for the Tazewell county board.

The person who had been running for this seat has formally withdrawn from the race and the procedure to replace him requires that the Precinct Committeemen in the district caucus to select a replacement.

In this district, it is likely that the Republican candidate will be elected to the county board, so in effect, the Precinct Committeemen will be selecting the person to serve on the board. That’s a HUGE responsibility and a great deal of power from a job that only takes 10 petition signatures or an appointment by the county chairman.

In case you haven’t gotten the message yet…. if you want to have a say in the direction of this party and of the country, become a precinct commiteeman!

But apparently this concept was a bit much for those who report on the housing market to understand. For some reason this drop was a surprise to them. Could this really have been unexpected?

Obama’s HUD administration chose a poor time to release this gem. It’s a report bragging about how effective his housing stimulus program was. Unfortunately, the data is a bit out of date and doesn’t include the drop in May. Nor does it include the continued drops we can expect for the next couple of months as after effects of the credit expiring.

It is very rare for good to come from the government meddling in markets.

Yes folks, the Tremont Turkey Festival Parade is this afternoon and yours truly gets to march in it as part of the Tazewell County GOP delegation. I’m not certain what job I’ll get today. My county chairman said it depends how many people show up. I might hold the GOP banner, ride on the fire truck, or help Mary Burress hand out candy to support her campaign for county treasurer.

Whatever I do, I expect to have FUN!!! doing it.

If anyone is in the central Illinois area this afternoon, stop in and say HI! Or better yet, join the parade!

If you’re not in the area, contact your local candidates and see what fun events you can attend or help run. They’ll be glad to have your help!

This is wonderful news for those of us who want a return to honest government in the state. The MOE on the survey is pretty high at 4.5% which means that Quinn COULD actually be within 2 points of Brady, however the lead is a trend that has been steady since Brady won the GOP primary in March.

The news will only get better as Quinn’s former boss and running mate stands trial. Blago’s trial is getting interesting as his former aides have started to testify to the level of corruption that existed in that administration. Quinn has been trying hos best to distance himself from Blago, but that’s not going to fly. Not even in Illinois.

While I really think that Brady is going to win this election, as you all know, campaigns take money. Lots of money. And this is Illinois so it takes even more money for a Republican to win, even when he’s 11 points ahead. So please take a moment to visit his website and give a little cash to help us out.

Brady Campaign Commercial from Bill Brady on Vimeo.

Now, anyone who’s seen any of my postings on the Illinois Governor’s race would know I’m a rabid Brady supporter. But this commercial doesn’t impress me. I’d like to know everyone else’s opinion or impressions of the commercial. Constructive criticism appreciated. I want to know what “message” you hear from Brady in this.

Maybe it’s just me and I didn’t have enough coffee yet.

I was a Bill Brady supporter during the primary election and am still a Bill Brady supporter. Adam Andrzejewski was my second choice. Both candidates were saying similar things, but Brady has a plan that can actually be implemented to fix this state (it has shades of Art Chance’s ideas in it). Adam’s ideas were less specific and less likely to actually get done (running the state by executive order may sound good, but wouldn’t work).

That said I am thrilled that Adam Andrzejewski endorsed Bill Brady for governor of the state of Illinois. Thanks to the folks at Illinois Review for pointing me to this video.

The article doesn’t list much of his policy discussion, I guess actual policy is too boring for your average news reader these days, but he did spend a bit of time answering some very good questions by the local TV reporter (most of which ended up on the cutting room floor).

His main talking points are related to bringing jobs back to Illinois. He wants to hold or reduce tax rates to attract employers to the state rather than raising taxes by 50% and driving people away.

When asked about cutting the State budget he explained his plan to cut 10% across the board in State Agencies. He also talked about restructuring state agencies which I think would be the longer term fix for spending. This state has become top heavy in most agencies and has a number of “kingdoms” built up. Art Chance’s guide to fixing a state government would do wonders in Illinois.

He also talked about something that Pat Quinn has been avoiding, fixing our state pension system. One of the key elements here is to move new employees from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. The state’s plan is currently estimated to be $80 Billion underfunded, mostly due to the last several administrations using the pension fund as a piggy bank. That’s a liability that has to be gotten under control.

When asked about Quinn’s charges that he’s too conservative, he gave the appropriate answer, he’s not focussed on ideology, he’s focussed on fixing the state and bringing jobs back to Illinois.

Bill Brady likely to take back Illinois.

Now many people say that the close primary election suggests that Brady doesn’t have much support, but a friend of mine posted this map on Facebook.

The counties that Brady won are shaded purple. As you can see, the vast majority of the state went for Brady. Most of the other counties went either for Adam Andrezejewski or Kirk Dillard who would be the closest to Brady in ideology. In my unscientific polling, the people I spoke with prior to the primary had Brady as their second choice if they weren’t going to vote for him, especially among Andrezejewski supporters. Kirk Dillard stated that he will be throwing his support behind Brady and will work hard to get him elected.

Bill Brady is leading Pat Quinn by 10 points in the first Rasmussen poll of the election season. (HT redneck_hippie for the link).

Probably the most critical point from that survey is

Forty-three percent (43%) of Illinois voters approve of the job Quinn is doing as governor, while 56% disapprove.

It’s VERY hard to win an election if more than half of the population disapproves of the job you’re doing. And Quinn’s likely to drop even farther as he flies around the state spreading pain and suffering by cutting essential services while ignoring a top heavy administration. He’s pushing for a 50% tax increase and seems to be trying to scare people into supporting it. I don’t think that’ll work to his advantage.

Like everyone else we talk about, he needs money to get the message to the voters and win this election. If you care about turning a blue state red, please contribute to Bill Brady so we can take Illinois back!

I don’t blame the people. I’ve been actively trying to learn for many years and I still don’t understand all the rules and intricacies of the electoral process. It’s true that some of the details are purposely obscure to make it difficult for any but the party insiders to get elected. Other rules are to make sure that ballots aren’t flooded with people with no support and no idea what they’re doing which takes away from serious candidates. Either way, if you want to make serious changes, you can’t do it with just a fuzzy high level picture. You have to understand the game to win it. The left has learned this lesson and managed to give us Obama for a President.

So we the RedState Community need to start educating people. We need to be going to political gatherings of all types and talking to people. We need to explain our positions and let people know what the ideology currently defined as conservatism is. The labels and stereotypes don’t help. There is so much misinformation and outright propaganda out there that it’s going to be an uphill battle. But when you’re battling, please remember to be kind to your audience. It will do nothing to dispel the myths about conservatives if you get angry when people have misconceptions about you. Remember, they were told lies about you by other parties. It’s better to laugh at the “racists” “Nazi” ,etc. labels and calmly explain what you really believe.

I’ve found that most people who currently label themselves Democrats, moderates or even liberals are really fairly conservative in their own beliefs. When they start to understand that they share our ideals rather than those of the other party, they can be won over to our side for life.

So why you? Why can’t someone else do the educating? Isn’t that what schools are for? etc… Well, frankly no one else is going to do it, so it’s left to you. Or rather it’s left to us, because I am not excluding myself from this project. A wise man here once said “We are the cavalry”. (Sorry Moe, but I can’t find the link to your original posting of that phrase).

But you don’t know enough to educate others you say? Well fortunately, Penguin2 has been kind enough to write about RedState University just when I had the idea to write about this. Consider it your library of conservative thought. If there is a topic that you don’t feel comfortable talking about, look there first. By the way, if someone asks you about a topic that you don’t know about, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” or similar phrase. Most people would rather have you find a correct answer for them than have you blow smoke up their… well you get the point.

This is a call to action! You must do this because it needs done and no one else is going to do it! If not you, then who? We are the cavalry!

A few weeks ago we had a guest speaker at my church. He is the head of Asian operations for a missionary organization and spent a great deal of his own field time in Indonesia. Some of the things he talked about, while not intended to do so, illustrated the differences between free market capitalism and state run services (“people who don’t exist”). But that’s not the part of his presentation that applies here…

He and his disciples deal with Al Queda (or rather their surrogates in Indonesia, Jemaah Islamiyah). Directly. As their targets.

He spoke of the group’s stated goal of ethnic cleansing certain areas. They will target an island or a province and purge it of all non-Muslim people. They’ve been successful at the task on at least 2 islands already. One of the next targets for cleansing is an island that I believe he called Manokwari. This is an island that is rich in resources, but sparsely populated. The people there are mostly Christian with some Muslim people, but since they have been targeted for cleansing there are more Muslim people moving in. They are worried and asked for his advice on how to deal with this problem. He told them they have 3 choices:
1. They can fight the Muslims. This is a losing proposition. The Al Queda groups are better armed and better financed and the government would be more likely to back them than the Christians. And even if they did win a few battles, the fight would never end and the Muslims FAR outnumber the Christians in Indonesia.
2. The can hide in the hills. This was the island people’s usual method of defense against a stronger enemy. It worked when the Japanese invaded in WWII. It’s worked for centuries. It won’t work now. Did I mention the island was rich in resources? The resources are located in the hills and nothing will stop immigration to exploit the resources.
3. They can become friends with the Muslims and show them what Christians are really like. If a Muslim moves in next door, become his friend. Don’t invite him to church (he won’t come), but invite him to dinner. He won’t eat your pork, but he will eat your fruit. If he needs help finding out where to get food, electricity, water, etc. take him to the places. If he is moving furniture, help him lift it.

Muslims in Indonesia have been taught that Christians are evil incarnate. They don’t know many Christians so there is nothing to disprove it. When they see that Christians treat people with love and kindness, they will begin to question their teachings. When Jemaah Islamiyah comes calling, their Muslim neighbors will not join in the slaughter. They will instead help protect the Christians.

You may think it’s PollyAnna thinking, but he’s seen the concept work in other areas of Indonesia. When the Christians are known in the neighborhood as good people doing good work, the local Muslim populations have successfully resisted Jemaah Islamiyah’s attacks on them and demanded that they be left alone. Some of them will even convert (though that’s rare as it’s a deadly decision).

Last week, I heard Glen Beck giving a similar account of how liberals react to conservatives. He said he has liberal friends and colleagues who at first were wary of him. They believed the attacks and labels applied to him. You see, similar to Indonesian Muslim teachings about Christians, the liberals are taught that conservatives are evil incarnate by lefty indoctrination. He doesn’t argue politics with them unless they ask him to. Instead he just lives his life and treats them the same way he treats his conservative friends. After a while (usually a short while) they see that they’ve been told lies about him. Then they start to listen to what he’s saying and start to wonder what other lies the lefties have told them. That’s when he has won a convert.

So I’m proposing that we try to do the same. When you meet a lefty or a moderate (here or in real life), be kind to them. Treat them as if they’re your best friend. Don’t attack them, love them. If they are stating things that aren’t true, correct them gently. If they argue points and spout “known facts”, ask them for sources in a kind way. If they can’t provide sources, give some of your own that show the truth. If they argue ideology with lefty “logic”, give them a reasoned debate with real logic. If they are hopeless trolls who won’t back up their ideas or repeatedly ignore evidence that proves them wrong, apply the Hinz rule and ignore them. They’ll stop talking and start listening, leave on their own, or they’ll become such a pain that they get banned. My hope is that they’ll start listening. If they do, we’ll have a convert.

Note, I’m not suggesting that we should allow incorrect information to stand without challenge. That could be construed as agreement with whatever was posted and could cause more harm than good. Argue the facts, but leave the personal attacks out.

Another thing to remember; there’s another audience. For every person who posts here, there are hundreds (thousands?) who stop by to read, but never post anything. They also see how the 2 sides treat issues and how we treat each other. When you’re in public, there are people who see and hear how you and the liberal interact. I’d also like to win over this crowd. Lefties behaving badly don’t appeal to anyone. I don’t want the lurkers to say “a pox on both your houses”. I want them on OUR side.

As I get older, I’m finding more and more that God’s advice on life and relationships is the correct way to make everything work better. Love your enemy is a tough rule to follow, but it is the correct rule.

Karl Rove will be the featured speaker at the Tazewell County Republican Party’s 43rd Annual Lincoln Day Event. It’s being called the Lincoln Day Event instead of Dinner this year for a reason. It’s a breakfast!

According to my county chairman, scheduling Mr. Rove was a difficult task. We couldn’t get him for an evening, but we could get him for a breakfast. The choice was get someone else or be a little flexible on our end. Our county chairman chose wisely.

Now for the details:
What: Tazewell County Republican Party’s 43rd Annual Lincoln Day Event, featuring Karl Rove
When: March 20th at 9:00AM
Where: The Embassy Suites Ballroom in East Peoria,IL
Tickets are now on sale for $55.00. To get yours, call (309) 353-8467.

The number above is for our county party headquarters. Leave a message. Mention that you heard it from me (I’d like to get a table closer to the front, with brownie points that might happen, otherwise I’ll be in the left rear corner again).

There’s so many things wrong with that statement that it makes my head hurt.

First is the very problem with the people who think there should be an elitist class that rules us. Sorry, that one goes against the very fiber of my being. This country was founded upon the principle that all people were created equal and that each person should rule himself. When he gets cheers to a statement like that it makes me weep for the soul of this country. What is wrong with those people! Don’t they know what they’re cheering for! “Yes! Yes! A king, we need a king!”*

I really can’t get past that one. I was going to go on about how Obama isn’t really smarter than the rest of us, but that’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if Obama’s smarter than the average bear or dumb as a rock. He was elected president, not king. It seems that’s the heart of the difference between leftist ideologies and conservatism. Leftist seem to think that there are people who are better than themselves (or more commonly that they are part of the elite) who can decide what is best for those who are too stupid to be part of the elite. Conservatives think that people are best left to decide their own lives and paths for themselves.

Why are people so ignorant of history and ignorant of the evils of tyrannical government control over their lives? Why do people think that other men can rule over them and make better decisions about their lives than they can make themselves? I can’t answer those questions. I can only keep asking them. It makes me sad that I have to ask it.

*Biblical reference and paraphrase of 1 Samuel 8. Prior to this time Israel had Judges rather than rulers and as it said in the last line of Judges (NIV) “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” People haven’t changed much since the time of Saul and David have they? God desires that people be free, but many people want to be ruled. Vassar’s equating of socialist ideologies with Lewis’s enemy is making more sense every day.

We’ve all heard Mark Kirk won the Senate race and will be facing Alexi from the mobster party. I wasn’t a big fan of Kirk, but in this election there is no doubt who is the better candidate and I will FULLY support Kirk in the general election.

On the good news front. I got an email from Adam Kinzinger this morning stating that he had a victory at 63%!!!!! Go Adam!!!!! He’s going to need our help to defeat Debbie Halvorson. For those that haven’t seen anything about Adam, I’ve written about him here on RedState a few times.

Our friend Joel Pollak ran unopposed in the IL-9 primary. He’s going to face Jan Schakowsky in the general election and can also use our help. For those of you who were at the RedState gathering in Atlanta, he’s the guy who had the table in the back of the room selling his book. He’s also someone who’s taken on Barney Frank.

On my local races, I did about 50% on my preferred candidates. Not too bad since the people my choices lost to are good folks. I’m happy with the people we’re running in November.

“So what! That’s what Porkulus was intended to do!” you say?

Well, here’s the problem… The school district is going to close that school at the end of this school year, just a couple of months away. The district technology director would rather have the computers and SMART boards installed at a different school. She thinks they would be better where they would get some long term use. Assuming they get them installed quickly, they will have use of them for at most 4 months. More likely they will take some time to get installed.

The technology director, Mary Ward, has been trying to get them installed at one of the other schools, but it’s not going to happen. Once something is run by the government, common sense no longer applies. The bureaucracy won’t let them do it.

The state has told them that if they want the money for the equipment and installation costs it MUST be installed at Woodruff High. There is no reasoning with the monster. Ms. Ward has given up trying. She’s going to have the computers installed “in a mobile fashion” instead of a more permanent manner so they can be moved when the students move. At least she’s trying….

Not to worry though… according to the reporter “Installation costs also are being paid by the stimulus dollars so the district will not have to foot the bill for the time spent.” Except the tax payers will have to foot the bill. And the District will have to pay someone to deinstall and reinstall the equipment. And to move it. And to test it once it’s moved. And hope that things don’t get lost or broken in the move.

Another stimulus success story!!!!

P.S. If you’re wondering about the SMART boards, they’re a white board system that allows the teacher to capture what’s written on the board electronically. There’s one listed on Amazon.com for $1299. There’s a whole suite of software tools that the district could buy for extra costs.

**** This article is based on a report in the Peoria Journal Star, Jan 30, 2010 page A10. For some reason, that story isn’t listed in their online edition as of this morning. http://www.pjstar.com/

Basically, they have no information. Just a brief statement saying the Tea Party Movement is dangerous and they will try to prevent the movement’s ideas from taking root.

Well, they’re right. Our ideas are dangerous to them. People are starting to pay attention. We are starting to notice where our money is going. We are starting to call for cutting off government funding of the leftist groups like ACORN, The Public Policy Committee and anything else that shouldn’t have their hands in the tax payer’s pockets.

You BET we’re dangerous!

You BET our ideas will take hold with anyone who takes the time to realize that our ideas are simple:
1. People should be free to spend their own money the way they like.
2. The government should stay out of our lives as much as possible.
3. Our officials shouldn’t be corrupt thieving bastards.

That’s it. Everything else stems from those ideas.

The lefties are frightened by those ideas. It’s time we pump up their level of fear! This movement isn’t going away. It’s growing, it’s getting more organized and more active in ACTUAL political activity. The movement got a Republican elected in Massachusetts even! You bet they’re frightened.

But WHO is “The American Public Policy Committee”? It’s a group organized by a Democrat political consultant, Craig Varoga. He was formerly Tom Vilsack’s campaign manager. He’s also known to raise money for Democrats from organizations like AFSCME and SEIU. Yep, he’s the guy that extracts money out of the pockets of union members to support leftist causes. All of the money used to fund this organization came from other 527 groups founded by Varoga, Patriot Majority and Patriot Majority West.

So this is a 1 man committee funded by a stream of 527′s to hide the source and intended to support Democrat causes.

Yep, they’re fighting back. Do they scare you?

She’ll be at the 5 Points Conference Center and the stated topic for the night is “You don’t need a title to make a difference”.

Tickets are a bit expensive in my opinion, ranging from $75 for balcony seating to $200 for a banquet dinner seat ($1500 for a table of 8). The Banquet seats include a signed copy of “Going Rogue”. I understand total seating is about 1000 (though I haven’t verified this).

I will NOT be going to this event. I currently can’t afford $200/person dinners, but for those who can, this is an opportunity to see Sarah.

P.S. I live about 5 miles from this facility. If any RS regulars are coming to town for this let me know. Maybe we can get together for a beer.

Pat Hughes is pretty good at articulating conservative principles. He’s a young dynamic speaker with a solid business background. And he’s getting a lot of national attention (a big plus when it comes to fund raising). He’s from Hinsdale (a wealthy suburb of Chicago) where he’s a real estate developer (yellow flag).

Don Lowery is a soft spoken retired circuit Judge from southern Illinois (he grew up in central Illinois). He’s running on a platform of stopping outrageous government spending, cutting taxes, support for the 2nd amendment, pro-life, and personal integrity. He’s not as flashy as Hughes, but he’s more genuine. He recently put out a campaign video which gives an idea of his disposition.

I was undecided between the 2 until last night… Last week, after a 9/12 Meet the Candidate forum (the one Hughes left to talk with Mark Levin) I was discussing the event with a group of others who had attended and one noticed a bullet on the Judge’s background info. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics and had won the Wall Street Journal Outstanding Student in Economics Award. We thought, hey this could be a big deal! But there are many people who have economic degrees who are socialists or even communists. I thought I’d better find out what type of economics he believes in, so I emailed him.

The answer I got wasn’t the one I expected. He sent me a message:

Brian, I would be happy to speak with about economic issues. My cell is 618-xxx-xxxx. Just give me a call, if I am in a meeting I will return the call.

Wow! I’m not a reporter. I’m not Erick Erickson or anyone else on the world’s most influential conservatives list. I’m just one of the people. Well I didn’t call him. He’s a busy man and I didn’t want to pester him.

Last night I walked into a precinct committeeman’s meeting and the man standing at the door was Judge Lowery. He was very open and willing to answer any questions I had. He told me that he’s a firm believer in free markets and in the idea that lower taxes mean more jobs and a higher standard of living in the US. He said he thinks there’s some truth to the Laffer curve, but didn’t seem to wholeheartedly believe it as a fixed number (that’s OK because I don’t think there is fixed point where you get maximum revenue).

I suggested that he should mention his economics background in future appearances because the people currently in office don’t seem to understand economics. He agreed and added “Nor do they care”.

Judge Lowery DOES care. He’s running for this office because he’s tired of seeing the waste and corruption in Washington. He’s a lot like most of the people who I met at tea party events. He’s fed up with what he’s seeing with business as usual politicians and he’s wanting to put a stop to it. I hope that you will join me by throwing your support behind Judge Don Lowery for U.S. Senate in Illinois. If you are an Illinois resident, please vote for him on February 2.

We NEED someone in the Senate who understands Economics!