The Conservative Revolution

Representative Paul Broun (R-GA) will be introducing the Sanctity of Human Life Act in the House of Representatives this week. The bill would define life as “beginning with fertilization.”

Broun writes, “I believe in the sanctity of human life. Human life begins with fertilization, and we have a moral and constitutional obligation to protect and defend every precious soul that comes into existence.”

Rep. Broun is looking for co-sponsors for the bill, so call your Representative and ask him or her to sign on to the bill!

Find out who represents you by visiting http://www.house.gov

Hat tip to Foreign Policy Magazine’s Passport for this choice Che Guevara quote.

Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become..

Thanks to Mike Boyer for pointing out that Che was nothing more than a killer. Here is the best paragraph of his post.

Today, we seem intent on remembering Che as a liberator in the Bolivarian vein, a freedom fighter. He was not. As Paul Berman has elegantly documented, Che inspired many middle-class Latin Americans to take up arms in insurgent campaigns that did nothing more than set the cause of Latin American democracy back decades.

So why does the left love this guy? It really begs the question…

FreedomWorks has a new campaign against HillaryCare 2.0

WATCH our advertisement.
We defeated it once before, and now it looks like it will be up to us to defeat it again in 2008.

http://www.freedomworks.org/stophillarycare

This is one of the more disgusting comments that I’ve heard from a left-wing wacko.

WATCH THE VIDEO.

“But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.”

I am currently in the Nugget hotel in Reno, Nevada, taking some time to relax. I am attending the Conservative Leadership Conference hosted by Chuck Muth and Eric Odom. It has been a fun time, and I’ve met some fired up activists and bloggers. FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey gave a great speech this morning on the nature of politics today, and his views of how bloggers and activists should hold politicians accountable.

He was interviewed by a reporter from the Reno Gazette-Journal, and made national news (Drudge Report) by saying he thinks Hillary Clinton will be the next president. Bloggers have responded to his remarks at Red State and Granite Grok.

I happen to agree with Armey and after seeing Governor Mitt Romney live today I was not that impressed, just as I was not with Fred Thompson. Romney is a better speaker than Thompson and was good talking to people one on one, whereas Thompson avoided the bloggers at the Defending the Dream Summit in D.C. When asked, Romney didn’t come out in support of fundamental tax reform, and failed to mention anything about entitlement reform.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, Ambassador Alan Keyes and Congressman Bob Barr also attended the event this weekend. The folks here in Reno are really excited to have a conference in their home town, and I’ve invited a bunch of them to join FreedomWorks at our Liberty Summit in November.
Congrats to Chuck and Eric for putting on a great conference!

This article by two professors at Washington State University claims that conservatives are racists trying to “corporatize” college campuses. It mentions yours truly, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Collegiate Network as people responsible for the conservative revolution on college campuses.

Political theater has proven as important to advancing conservative ideologies as more serious venues like newspapers. In keeping with broader trends to disclaim racism under the cover of humor and satire, conservative student groups embrace the power of play to advance their agendas, which mix politics and pleasure in unexpected ways. Indeed, in describing the rationale of affirmative-action bake sales, one of their creators, Brendan Steinhauser, former executive director of the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas at Austin, remarked, “The idea was to parody the actual policies that some colleges had enacted, which gave points to members of certain ethnic groups while at the same time punishing those from other ethnic groups.”

The whole article is worth reading. It’s a pity they didn’t contact me for an explanation of our goals on college campuses. It is not about promoting one race over another, but rather, about moving toward a society where race is a non-issue. I really don’t think these two professors understand our opposition against political correctness and multiculturalism. I’d be more than happy to come to Washington State and discuss it with them at a forum or over coffee.

If they don’t believe that conservatives face hostility on college campuses, they should check out Indoctrinate U, a film that documents such situations quite well.

I called the office of student affairs at Texas State University today and they told me that they were not attempting to stifle the free speech of one of their students, Jessica Irwin. The person I talked to said that the university received a letter from the ADC about the possibility of an event called Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. The official said that the university then contacted the David Horowitz Freedom Center and asked who the TSU contact for the Terrorism Awareness Project was. According to the school official, the Horowitz Freedom Center gave them Jessica’s name. I have not heard back from the center about how they got her name and contact information.
The university then told Jessica to come to a meeting, and at the meeting proceeded to ask her whether she was planning an Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. The official told me that the reason for this meeting was to “make sure the students would be safe” in case the event were to occur on campus. But when the university found out that Jessica was not organizing such an event, the official claims they let the matter drop.

This is not what Jessica told me. Jessica said that she was asked to prepare a written statement indicating that she was not taking part in the project, nor was her chapter of College Republicans. Jessica also added that the university grilled her about whether her group was planning to protest illegal immigration. Jessica was “strongly urged” not to hold a Catch an “Illegal Immigrant” event.
When Jessica tried to submit her statement to the University Star, the student newspaper, the editor did not run it. On top of that, various reporters have been calling her and CR chairman Traci Adams, asking them about the event, even though Jessica told them that CR had never planned to hold such an event. Jessica has sent the statement to the newspaper and the university, but it has not been published.
Something is rotten in the state of Texas. There seems to be a pattern of university officials and student journalists refusing to leave Jessica and Traci alone. The two might even have to face a panel of administrators or the board of regents to “talk about” the plans they have for various events.

I am not sure what direction this story will go next, but the president of Texas State University and the student affairs office are on notice.

Any violation of freedom of expression or intimidation tactics waged against the College Republicans will be met by a public outcry from concerned friends, alumni and donors of TSU. If the university decides to shut down an event because they don’t like the message, they will encounter a public relations nightmare from groups that are dedicated to protecting students’ free speech rights.

I strongly urge the university to refrain from harassing, intimidating or singling out the CR’s in any way in order to prevent them from holding an event on campus that is within the bounds of political and intellectual discourse.

If you’d like to help Jessica and Traci, please leave a comment and I’ll let you know how you can do so. I will post an update next week on this story as it unfolds.

I am at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown D.C. today, liveblogging the AFP Defending the Dream Summit. The presidential candidates will be giving speeches and mingling with conservative activists this weekend, and there will also be speakers from all ends of the conservative movement.

I will also be taking some video and posting it on YouTube (eventually.) I hope to get some good interviews and video from activists, speakers and other attendees.

I’ll be posting updates throughout the day.

Update: I just watched Fred Thompson speak to the Virginia delegation. I have to say, as much as I like Fred, his performance was simply lackluster. He spoke for only a few minutes and painted very broad strokes. Didn’t his advisers tell him that this crowd is the type of group that he needs to reach in order to get the nomination? I don’t know.

I also spoke to some friends from Austin, including members of The Young Conservatives of Texas and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. It was good to see some friendly faces.

The event is pretty big. There is lots of energy among the activists and bloggers. I am about to go out an interview some of the folks who are supporting various presidential candidates. I’ll eventually be posting the video on YouTube and linking it on the Freedom Talks Blog.

Former FreedomWorks intern Jessica Irwin has been dragged in front of Texas State administrators who received a letter from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) telling TSU not to allow an event called “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” to take place at TSU.

Turns out that Jessica never planned the event and had no idea what the ADC or the TSU president were talking about. No matter. When she denied that she was planning to host Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at TSU, the administration didn’t believe her. They asked her to submit a written statement and to contact the David Horowitz Freedom Center to have her group’s name removed from the list of participants. When Jessica agreed to submit such a statement to the university newspaper, the editors failed to print it. The result? Continuous calls and emails from anonymous persons asking her why she was hosting such an “offensive” event and demands not to continue the planning.

Jessica has repeatedly contacted university officials and reporters at the newspaper, but has not been able to put an end to the constant questioning and intimidation tactics. The university, which was apparently frightened by the ADC’s letter, might just be looking for a scapegoat so they can appease the Saudi-funded ADC and avoid criticism of the university. TSU is making sure the community knows that it does not support the event, but is doing nothing to reassure the ADC or the campus community that Jessica is not planning the event in question.

Jessica told me that the tone and nature of the administration’s questions were accusatory and clearly intended to make sure she didn’t even think about holding such an event. Even if Jessica’s group decided to do such an event (which I personally support) the university should not infringe upon the right of campus groups to express their opinions on Islam or terrorism. Instead of bowing to a pressure group that has expressed sympathy for suicide bombers, TSU should stand up for the rights of its campus leaders. If you’d like to send an email to the president of TSU, Denise Trauth, here is her email address: president@txstate.edu Ask her why she is bullying a student group that hasn’t done anything wrong. And ask her what is wrong with showing films or hosting lectures that talk about the worldwide threat of Islamist terrorism.

I will be posting updates on this story as I get more information. In the mean time, you can find out more about Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week by visiting http://www.terrorismawareness.org/

Reports from Burma indicate that there has been a huge, and extremely bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters in Burma.

The ineffective United Nations, and regional organizations have talked and issued press releases condemning the assault on the Burmese people, but have done nothing substantial to try and stop the violence. Our own government hasn’t done much of anything, either, other than issue statements.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I don’t necessarily think military force is wise in this case, although it could be, but the world should unite to enforce harsh sanctions on the criminal Myanmar regime and put pressure on China to intervene.

In the mean time, thousands of Burmese monks are reported beaten, missing or dead.