If you happen to be in the DC area this weekend don't miss the FRC Washington Briefing, the largest gathering of values voters under one roof. It starts this Friday, October 19th.

All of the big boys will be there: Rudy, Thompson, McCain and of course our man Mitt! Here's the full three-day agenda.

Justin will be live blogging the event and as a special incentive we can offer you the student rate of $50, even if you aren't a student!

Labels: event, events

Today I'm attending the Heritage foundation's New Media Strategies forum. There are a gambit of new media folk here including Robert Bluey, Soren Dayton, Patrick Ruffini, David All and more.

Essentially, this is a workshop to discuss how new media efforts can help the conservative movement. Google is co-sponsoring the event from their local Public Policy blog.

I'll be blogging throughout the day on the event.

Labels: blogs, event

Below are Governor Romney's excellent remarks at the National Right To Life Convention. (In other new, who is the one candidate to not make an appearance at this event?)

This speech is a powerful defense of the life movement.

"Thank you Carol. We appreciate your many years of dedicated service to the cause of life.

"I was honored to accept your invitation to address the National Right to Life convention.

"I am humbled to be standing among the many who have toiled for the pro-life movement for so long, when I arrived at this place of principle only a few years ago.

"I appreciate the decades of dedication and the effective advocacy of people like Jim Bopp, the Special Adviser to my campaign on life issues.

"I know that it is not time but conviction that unites us.

"I proudly follow a long line of converts – George Herbert Walker Bush, Henry Hyde, and Ronald Reagan to name a few.

"I am evidence that your work, that your relentless campaign to promote the sanctity of human life, bears fruit.

"Consider the double standard at work here, by the way. When a pro-life figure changes to pro-abortion, they get praised for their courage. But when someone becomes pro-life, the pundits go into high dudgeon.

"And so, I am humbled but also grateful to be welcomed so warmly by so many with whom I share a common dedication.

"Anyone here from the pro-life community in Massachusetts knows they were always welcome in my office when I was Governor. Together we worked arm in arm.

"I can promise you this – you will be welcomed, and we will work together, if I'm fortunate enough to be elected President.

"People often ask me how a conservative Republican such as myself could have been elected in Massachusetts. I tell them that there were three things that helped account for my improbable victory.

"First, the state was in a fiscal crisis. A meltdown, of sorts. State government couldn't get budgets done on time. Another big tax hike looked like it was on the way. I promised to balance the budget without raising taxes. And together with the legislature, that's what we did. We eliminated a $3 billion shortfall. And by the time I left, my surpluses had replenished the rainy-day fund to over $2 billion.

"Second, we were in an economic crisis. Massachusetts was losing jobs every month and our citizens were afraid of losing more. I went to work to bring employers back to our state. By the end of the recession, we added 60,000 new jobs. We got our economic development act together – which explains much of the economic growth that the Commonwealth continues to experience even today.

"And third, we were in the beginnings of a cultural crisis. Social values also played a role in my campaign success. My opponent said she would sign a bill that would sanction same sex marriage. I said that I would oppose gay marriage and civil unions. My opponent favored bilingual education. I did not. I said that to be successful in America, children need to speak the language of America. And my opponent wanted to lower the age of consent for an abortion from 18 to 16 – and I did not.

"And so, social conservatives, many of them Democrats and Independents, joined fiscal conservatives to elect a Republican.

"That being said, I had no inkling that I would find myself in the center of the battlefield on virtually every major social question of our time.

"The first battle came when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, by a one vote majority, found a right to same sex marriage in our constitution. John Adams wrote that constitution. I'm sure he'd be surprised.

"The Court said that traditional marriage – the natural union of one man and one woman – 'is rooted in persistent prejudices' and 'works a deep and scarring hardship … for no rational reason.'

"No rational reason? How about children? Isn't it clear that marriage provides the best environment for the development and nurturing of children? And isn't a child's development enhanced by having both a mother and a father?

"I believe that the Court got it wrong because it focused on the desires and perceived rights of adults.

"The Court should have focused on the needs of children. The ideal setting for the raising of a child is a home built on a marriage between a loving mother and father.

"Then came the 'slippery slope' – not the argument but the reality.

"The implications of the marriage decision quickly went well beyond adult marriage. Efforts were made to change birth certificates by removing 'mother' and 'father' and replacing them with 'parent A' and 'parent B.' I said no to that. And parents of a child in second grade were told that their son is required to listen to the reading of a book called the 'King and the King,' about a prince who marries another prince. The school's rationale was since same sex marriage was legal, the education system should advance the idea.

"And then another slide along the slippery slope. The Catholic Church was forced to end its adoption service, which was crucial in helping the state find homes for some of our most difficult to place children. Why? Because the Church favors placements in homes with a mother and a father. Now, even religious freedom was being trumped by the new-found 'right' of gay marriage. I immediately drafted and introduced legislation to grant religious liberty protection, but the legislature wouldn't even take it up.

"When I was Governor, we took every conceivable step within the law to stop, block or slow down this unprecedented court decision.

"Our goal was to take the decision away from the Court and give it back to the people. But yesterday, the Massachusetts state legislature, at the urging of the new Democratic Governor, refused to allow the voice of the people to be heard.

"The fight is not over.

"We need to take this battle to Washington again. We need to explain the far-reaching implications of the push to dramatically change our marriage laws. Now is the time to pass a federal marriage amendment to protect marriage in all 50 states.

"In the midst of that battle, another arose. It involved cloning and embryo farming for purposes of research. I studied the subject in great depth. I have high hopes for stem cell research. But for me, a bright moral line is crossed when we create new life for the sole purpose of experimentation and destruction.

"That's why I fought to keep cloning and embryo farming illegal.

"It was during this battle that I began to focus a good deal more of my thinking on abortion.

"When I first ran for office, while I was always personally opposed to abortion, I considered whether this should be a private decision or whether it should be a societal and government decision. I concluded that I would support the law as it was in place – effectively, the pro-choice position.

"And I was wrong.

"What became clear during the cloning debate is how the harsh logic of an absolute right to abortion had cheapened the value of human life to the point that rational people saw a human embryo as nothing more than mere research material to be used, and then destroyed.

"The slippery slope was taking us to racks and racks of living human embryos, Brave New World-like, awaiting termination.

"What some see as just a clump of cells is actually a human life. Human life has identity. Human life has the capacity to love and be loved. Human life has a profound dignity, undiminished by age or infirmity.

"My experience as Governor taught me firsthand that the threat to our culture is real and those in a position to do so must take action to defend it.

"Times of decision are moments of great clarity. Before I was Governor, the life issue was just that, an issue. But when responsibility for life or ending life was placed in my hands, I made the right decision. I chose life.

"Just like some others in the pro-life movement, a moment of decision became a defining moment.

"And so, every time I faced a decision as Governor that related to life, I came down on the side of life.

"I fought to ban cloning.

"I fought to ban embryo farming.

"I fought to define life as beginning at conception rather than at the time of implantation.

"I fought for abstinence education in our schools.

"And I vetoed a so-called emergency contraception bill that gave young girls abortive drugs without prescription or parental consent.

"That is my record as Governor of Massachusetts.

"Recently, I was attacked by one of my opponents because when I ran for Governor I promised to maintain the status quo with regards to laws relating to abortion in Massachusetts. Of course, I kept that promise. But in Massachusetts, that meant vetoing pro-choice legislation – as I consistently did as Governor. That's why last month I was honored with an award from Massachusetts Citizens for Life in recognition of the actions I took as Governor to protect life.

"The next president, especially if faced with a hostile Congress, will be confronted with many legislative tests, such as challenging the Hyde amendment and advancing cloning. You can be sure that I will be bringing my gubernatorial experience – and my veto pen – with me to Washington.

"The larger problem is there are some people who believe that their pro-choice views must be imposed on everyone. More and more, the vehicle for this imposition is the courts.

"Some say that it is 'OK' for the courts to impose their personal public policy preferences on society. I am not among them.

"Make no mistake: the claimed rights of abortion-on-demand and same-sex marriage are not in the Constitution.

"But the problem of an activist bench goes beyond the issue of abortion and gay marriage that.

"Slowly but surely, the courts have taken it upon themselves to be the final arbiters of our lives. They have forgotten that the essence of democracy is the right to govern ourselves.

"Chief Justice John Roberts put it best at his confirmation hearing, when he described the role of a judge. 'Judges and Justices are servants of the law,' he said, 'not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules, they apply them … and I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.'

"Now that's the type of Justice that I would appoint to the Court.

"On the tenth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Ronald Reagan observed that the Court's decision had not yet settled the abortion debate. It had become 'a continuing prod to the conscience of the nation.'

"More than thirty years later, that is still the case. Numerous court decisions have not settled this question, but have further divided the nation. And Roe v. Wade continues to work its destructive logic throughout our society.

"This cannot continue.

"At the heart of American democracy is the principle that the most fundamental decisions should ultimately be decided by the people themselves.

"I certainly believe in treating all people with respect and dignity. You can't be a pro-life Governor in the bluest of blue states without understanding that there are heartfelt and thoughtful arguments on both sides of the question.

"It is our great task to persuade our fellow citizens of the truth of our convictions.

"Strengthening our country and our families, protecting marriage and human life and preserving for our children the true blessings of liberty; these are noble purposes. I am confident we are worthy of them.

"After all, we are a decent people who have a commitment to the worth and dignity of every person. This is ingrained in our hearts and etched in our national purpose.

"Thank you."

Labels: abortion, event, pro-life, speech

Warsaw winters are chilly to saw the least. The bite of the cold was palpable and unforgiving to a suburban boy from the Bay Area. But there I was nonetheless, January 1991, riding a public bus to the Mokotow section of Warsaw after an exhausting Sunday of meetings and knocking doors – the typical life of a Mormon missionary.

My fellow companion noticed the oddity immediately. The bus was packed, awkwardly crowded for a Sunday evening. As we arrived on Spacerowa Street the crowd emptied. My friend was curious and motioned for me to follow him off the bus. As missionaries we were advised to avoid such efforts but we couldn’t resist.

We followed the crowd, watching them disperse into a mass of people gathering up and down the street. Tens of thousands of Poles, gathering for one single purpose – to make a statement with their new found freedoms.

Lech Walesa had been President for only two months but the change in attitudes and opportunities seemed abundant and powerful – Poland was officially a democracy. Earlier that day, January 13, 1991, the Red Guard had taken over the TV Tower and Parliament in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The Gulf War, which would begin operations in just 4 days, provided the perfect media cover as Moscow tried to grasp onto the last of the satellite countries.

At one time, Lithuania and Poland were one country. Czeslaw Milosz, the famous dissident and Polish poet was born there. The people had strong roots together. The Poles would not stand by idly as their neighbors were harangued in a last stand by the Commies.

As we approached the spot of contention that night (the Russian Embassy) we hear the chants of “Wolna Litwa!” (“Free Lithuania”). The crowd was holding candles, shaking the gates, demonstrating their ire and stretching their new democracy-born sea legs. It was thrilling. And it worked. The Red Army eventually relented and “Litwa” was free.

Today, President Bush took part in the unveiling of a memorial in DC dedicated to the victims of Communism. This is a subject close to my heart and it was my privilege to be there. Special thanks to Robert Bluey for the invite!

Labels: event, poland

In two weeks, Thursday June 7th, Mitt will be in DC to host the Young Professionals for Mitt kickoff!

So... how do you get in? Here's the menu:

• $50 - Hill Staffer (with valid ID) - click here
  
• $100 - General Admission - click here
  
• $250 - Event Patron (name appears on event sinage!) - click here
  
• $500 - Co-Host (name appears on event sinage and participation in strategy call) - click here
  
• $1000 - Name appears on event sinage, strategy calls, and you can attend the Leadership Meeting with Mitt on June 7th - click here

You can download the PDF file here to make a donation as well.

As you can see we have a fantastic group of young professionals already involved in our DC chapter.

Thursday June 7, 2007

The Sewall-Belmont House
144 Constitution Avenue NE Washington,DC
(next to the Senate Hart Building)
6:30 PM

Labels: event, events, washington d.c., YP4MITT

Whatcha doing this Tuesday, May 15th. Why on come over to our house for Sign-up America. I'd love to see you here.



For more information click here:
http://signup.mittromney.com/edit/rsvp/127

Labels: event, signup america

On May 15th... the Romney campaign is encouraging people to take action and sign up 24,000 new supporters. To help jump start this effort they have invited fans across the country to host "Sign-up America" parties on the night of the South Carolina debates (May 15th.)

MMM will be hosting events at various homes. For those of you in the DC/VA/MD area here's our local event:
http://signup.mittromney.com/edit/rsvp/127

Labels: debate, event, signup america, south carolina

Here's a brief schedule:

Wednesday, May 9, 2007:
10:00 a.m. Governor Romney Hosts a Caucus Coffee in
Clear Lake, IA


12:40 p.m. Governor Romney Hosts Luncheon in Webster County
Ft. Dodge, IA

4:50 p.m. Governor Romney Holds a Media Availability
Ames, IA

5:15 p.m. Governor Romney Holds an "Ask Mitt Anything" Town Hall
Hickory Hall
300 South 17th Street
Ames, IA

Labels: event, iowa

Well, I figured it was never too late to signup to have friends over for the debate May 15th on Fox News. You can sign up to host a private event or a public event. I opted for the private event at my house. After you sign up, you simply blast out invitation emails to all of your friends and family. The campaign promises to send you materials to make it successful. Or, you can even search for a public event in your area. There are several within reasonable driving distance of my Southern California location. You can sign up as well, here.

NOTE FROM JUSTIN: Virginia Party at Justin's house here

Labels: event

Below are some excerpts from the commencement speech at Regent University today:

"I want to offer my sincere thanks to Doctor Pat Robertson for extending me the honor of addressing you today.

"This university, its students, its alumni and the faculty serve as an example of Dr. Robertson's dedication to strengthening and then nurturing the pillars of this community and our country: education, fellowship, and advancement."

"You know, I don't remember when it was exactly when I went beyond the sandbar. My family had a cottage on the shores of one of the Great Lakes. For the first 40 feet or so, the lake is shallow, warm, and protected from the big waves by a sandbar. That's where I spent most of the hot summer days as a boy. I liked it there. One day, my brother got me up on water skis. Perhaps fearing that a turn would cause me to fall, he drove the boat – and me – straight out into the deep. By the way, the lake is over 100 miles wide. I screamed the whole terrifying ride. But ever after, the deep water is where I wanted to be – body surfing in the breakers, water skiing, diving. Oh yes, the water wasn't as warm and calm, but it was clean and powerful and invigorating. I got out of the shallow water for good.

"Over the years, I have watched a number of people live out their lives in shallow water.

"In the shallows, life is all about yourself – your job, your money, your rights, your needs, your ideas, your comforts.

"In the deeper waters, life is about others – spouse, family, friends, faith, community, country. In the deep waters, there are challenging ideas, opposing opinions, protracted battles of consequence."

"You are, of course, giving a great deal of thought to your career. The economic environment may be more turbulent and competitive than my generation has known. Some of you will be tempted to stay near shore, where there are no big breakers and where you will never make any waves. Others will push beyond the sandbar, pursuing new frontiers, exploring new ideas, driving to achieve, to learn, to influence, to contribute.

"That, of course, is the heritage of this land. The people who came to Jamestown 400 years ago may not have all been saints. But they were all pioneers. They crossed the broadest waters and dreamed the grandest dreams. Their spirit is the American spirit. It is why America surpassed our native England to become the world's most powerful nation. And it is the heart and spirit of the American people that make this country the hope of the world. Great people have made a great nation."

"If there ever was a time for great Americans, great and good Americans, Americans who are willing to cross into the deep waters of life, it is now.

"You cross into the deep waters by marrying and raising good children. There is no work more important to America's future that the work that is done within the four walls of the American home.

"You cross into the deep waters by driving yourself in your education and in your avocation beyond the safe and comfortable, to reach new insights, to make contributions, to serve.

"You cross into the deep waters by serving in your church, in your community, in the military, in government or in volunteer service.

"I am optimistic about the future of America because I have seen the spirit and heart of the American people." …

Labels: event, speech

Don't anyone say we can't mix it up with the best of them. Hats off to Politcal-Buzz.com, we appreciate the opportunity to make the case for Mitt!

Judge for yourself and give us your feedback. :

Labels: event, radio