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The death of Rep. John Murtha will require a special election to replace him before November, according to Pennsylvania Law.

The mainstream media (MSM) spent the last year treating the Tea Party movement as if it were a cancer on the body politic, not an organic outcry from a citizenry that had enough. That was before the movement helped elect three GOP candidates -- particularly Scott Brown's stunning takeover of the so-called Ted Kennedy seat in Massachusetts.

A new Web site targeting the tea parties is a part of a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions and trickling slowly into political slush funds for Democratic activists.

Tea party-backed candidate Debra Medina is closing on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in Texas’s Republican gubernatorial primary, increasing the odds the race led by Gov. Rick Perry will be thrown into a runoff. According to a survey out Tuesday by Public Policy Polling, Medina, a nurse who’s now a businesswoman, had the support of 24 percent of likely Republican primary voters, trailing the three-term senator by only 4 percentage points. Perry, who leads Hutchison by double-digits in several polls, got 39 percent in the latest survey. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the March...

Medina now leads Hutchison among conservatives WHARTON, TX – In the latest poll of likely Republican primary voters from February 4th to 7th, the North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling (PPP) report shows Debra Medina is coming on strong. According to the PPP report, although Perry is at 39% to 28% for Kay Bailey Hutchison, Debra Medina is now at a whopping 24%! There are major splits within the race along ideological lines according to the poll results. Perry is at 42% with conservatives, and Medina is now outpolling Hutchison with conservatives by a 25-23 margin.

Nobody -- well, hardly anybody outside perhaps the Medina household -- expects the small business owner and anti-Washington crusader to be the next governor of Texas. Heck, until recently she wasn’t even much of a factor in the shoot-'em-up between the two leviathans of Lone Star politics, Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Then again, up until a couple of weeks out, nobody thought Brown -- a little-known state senator and ex-Cosmo model -- stood much chance of swiping the Massachusetts Senate seat held for almost a quarter century by the late Edward M. Kennedy. That said, a...

I’m not writing her off. No matter how many gaffes she makes, no matter what she writes on her palm, she is not going away. In fact, she may very well be the Republican nominee in 2012, and if the economy hasn’t recovered by then, there’s an outside chance she could win the White House. She is already the favorite among Republicans. A Newsmax-Zogby poll of January 28 had her garnering 22.2 percent of Republican voters, compared to Romney’s 19.4 percent, Gingrich’s 12 percent, Huckabee’s 11 percent, and David Petraeus’s 5.4 percent. She was greeted as royalty at the Tea...

Smug sages of mainstream politics shouldn't underestimate her ### "No new ideas." That was the most prominent of the criticisms of Sarah Palin's speech at MSNBC's too-cool-for-school "Morning Joe" on Monday. The more general critique of former Gov. Palin's future was that while she certainly had star power, she could never speak to more than a fraction of even Republicans. The proof of the latter point was made with the evidence that many important Washington Republicans could never support her for more than cheerleader to her marginal people. They also pointed out that she had kept out of races in...

Palin Delivers Sparkle, Warmth Tony BlankleyWednesday, February 10, 2010"No new ideas." That was the most prominent of the criticisms of Sarah Palin's speech at MSNBC's too-cool-for-school "Morning Joe" on Monday. The more general critique of former Gov. Palin's future was that while she certainly had star power, she could never speak to more than a fraction of even Republicans. The proof of the latter point was made with the evidence that many important Washington Republicans could never support her for more than cheerleader to her marginal people. They also pointed out that she had kept out of races in Massachusetts...

Cannot be posted due to copyright issues: Link only http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/sarah-palins-side-trip/

With 96 percent of districts reporting in the special election for the 89th State Assembly seat along Westchester County eastern corridor, Republican Bob Castelli has received a landslide 56-44% landslide victory against Democrat Peter Harckham. For New York, for Westchester, for Republicans and for taxpayers exasperated with business as usual in Albany -- tonight was the game changer. "It's a shot across the bow to people like Sheldon Silver and entrenched bosses," said Castelli in his victory speech. Joining Castelli as a big winner tonight is Westchester County Republican Chairman Doug Colety, whose winning streak in this former Democratic bastion...

Sarah Palin and The Tea Party movement are making many headlines these days as they fortify their position as the key opposition against President Barack Obama. Make no mistake about it. Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012. And, the millions of morons who follow her with every beck and call will vote for her. She'll get a lot of votes. And, she very well could unseat President Obama in 2012. Sarah Palin has now captivated the hearts and minds of conservatives across the country by being the face of the divisive Tea Party movement. She spoke...

Republican candidates lead Democrats by eight points in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot, marking little change since the first of the year. Republicans started the year ahead by nine points -- their largest lead in several years -- while support for Democrats fell to its lowest level in years. Republicans have held the lead on the Generic Ballot for several months now. But in a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat earns 36% support. The GOP candidate comes in second with 25% of the vote, and the Tea Party candidate...

The tea-party movement has no leader. But it does have a face: William Temple of Brunswick, Ga. For months, the amiable middle-aged activist has been criss-crossing America, appearing at tea-party events dressed in his trademark three-cornered hat and Revolutionary garb. When journalists interview him (which is often—his outfit draws them in like a magnet), he presents himself as a human bridge between the founders' era and our own. "We fought the British over a 3 percent tea tax. We might as well bring the British back," he told NPR during a recent protest outside the Capitol. It's a charming act,...

[Ungawa! The Tea Party natives are restless, sparking alarm among the civilized panjandrums of the coastal media Raj. Who are these mysterious Fly-Over savages? What do they want? Conjectures abound, but only a few brave souls have dared strap on the pith helmet and safari into the belly of the beast. In order to sort out the answers I dug up this 2005 bit from the Iowahawk archives, prompted by a gripping gorillas-in-the-Midwest-mist travel adventure by Washington Post explorer David Von Drehle.] DAY ONE: BASE CAMP, IOWA CITY Mission: bring back Von Drehle.Continued

A new Web site targeting the tea parties is a part of a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions and trickling slowly into political slush funds for Democratic activists.....

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement “both have far less support in the country at large than a gullible Old Media seems to understand or suggest,” Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin asserted on “The Page” while colleague Joe Klein, on Time’s “Swampland” blog, showed fear of the supposedly impotent coalition as he denigrated her Saturday night convention speech as “anti-intellectual drivel,” scolding as “anti-American” those dumb enough to like her: Those who celebrate Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge as a form of “authenticity” superior to Barack Obama's gloriously American mongrel ethnicity and self-made intellectuality are representatives of...

Marvel Comic’s Captain America is the mightiest soldier with the super powerful secret soldier formula that makes him a super man. Sadly, this muscle bound hero that took on the whole Nazi army during WWII seems to be afraid of those American people who’ve joined the Tea Party movement. Not only is Cappy quaking in his little red booties, but he’s sure that the Tea Party folks are dangerous racists, too. Isn’t it wonderful that a decades old American comic book hero is now being used to turn readers against our very political system, being used to slander folks that...

"I think most of them don't follow what's really happening, but they're upset, they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, and Sarah Palin's one that appeals to them."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs flashed a left palm with notes written on it at the news briefing Tuesday, an apparent mocking reference to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's use of her hand as notepad during the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. The words "hope" and "change" were written on Gibbs's hand where Palin had written "energy," "tax" and "lift American spirits" on hers, the AP reports.(continued)

Democratic leaders are pushing a sweeping jobs bill to the Senate floor, but they have yet to forge a bipartisan deal on the Obama administration's new top priority. A draft of the roughly $80 billion bill, obtained by POLITICO, has a wide range of tax credits and job creation ideas, but it also includes provisions unrelated to jobs, including a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, infusion of new money to the Highway Trust Fund, and extension of the so-called “doc fix.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said drafting of the bill had been completed Tuesday afternoon, and he threatened to...

Angela McGlawon is a big friggin GUN GRABBER!!!! Listen to Angela, in her own words - youtube

Below is the entirety [VIDEO] of Andrew Breitbart’s remarks during his Keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville last weekend. During Breitbart’s 33 minute long address, he threatens to upend the entire media establishment, calling them out on their hypocrisy while demanding they change their ways, or else.

Sarah Palin will be in Orlando March 12 for a special speech. This is the date when the 2010 campaigns will begin in earnest, so it will be great, and a very big deal. Am arranging a special section for FReepers. A special two night discounted hotel package will be avaiable for FReepers only on that weekend. Remember, it's warm and no snow in Orlando. Watch FR for details and discounted hotel/travel/tickets.

A word in the hand is better than two in the teleprompter. Are we really talking about this? Instead of covering the rift between America and our leaders, journalists are out making silly and often bitter (see the SFGate’s blog Sarah Palin Gives Hand Job to the Tea Party Movement) comments about 3-4 words written on a palm. The take from the liberal media seems to be that Sarah Palin used some hand scribbles in a speech in which she criticized Obama for using a teleprompter. I prefer to look at the event as an underdog, low-funded, grassroots movement using...

Less than a day after the state-run media engaged in a campaign of mockery against Sarah Palin for using 'palm-notes' during her appearance at the National Tea Party Convention, the White House has now joined in the Palin-mockery. According to breaking news from Breitbart: "Even the White House's top spokesman is getting in on the act of mocking former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for looking to talking points written on her palm during a speech to "tea party" activists. Robert Gibbs showed the words "hope" and "change" on his hand as he started his daily briefing with reporters...

The emerging groundswell of what Robert Reich recently referred to as the “mad-as-hell” political party reached a tipping point last week in its inaugural national convention in Nashville. Coalescing from a fractious and haphazard collection of right wing tax haters, the rapidly evolving Tea Party now includes big business hating Democrats and the increasingly powerful independents who are suffering from a significant case of buyer’s remorse.

I hate to pick on Nate Silver, although I don’t hate it that much, but every once in awhile someone writes a piece that is so steeped in everything wrong with “smart” conventional thinking, it simply has to be used as an object lesson. Silver has a reputation as a very smart guy, mainly because of his ability to analyze statistics and use them to correctly predict the outcomes of elections, among other things. This is all well and good, but as a political commentator, it appears that Silver non-critically follows the presumptions of most other political commentators. And that...

February 9, 2010 The Potent Tea Party The Left was counting on the tea-party movement to divide the GOP, but it just isn’t happening. Rich Lowry No one has vested more hope in the tea-party movement than the Democrats. For all the scorn and abuse they’ve heaped on the tea-partiers, they’ve counted on them for salvation. The tea-partiers would push the GOP out of the mainstream. They would tar the party with their bumptious extremism. They would stoke a Republican civil war. The tea-partiers would, in short, redeem the Obama administration’s political fortunes, no matter what. This was the oft-repeated...

Sen. John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain, who has crafted an image for herself as a voice for young Republicans, took on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement on ABC's "The View" on Monday. --snip-- McCain also took a shot at the Tea Party convention, where Palin was the keynote speaker last weekend. The convention also featured former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who said in his speech, "People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House -- name is Barack Hussein Obama." Tancredo added, "Thank God John...

Can her fans really relate to quitting job, making millions? It was nearly a year ago when I first saw "How's that Hope and Change Working Out For You?" on a bumper sticker. As I said at the time, that's maybe the most cynical slogan of the century. Of course it's legit to criticize President Obama and his policies, but there's something so snarky about that phrase -- as if to say, "You don't have a job? You're still without health care? Obama wasn't able to heal the sick, change water into wine, bring peace and harmony to the world?...

EXCERPT Democrats should also give Republicans plenty of room to do themselves in. By openly declaring themselves for sale to Wall Street, Republicans are displaying the kind of crony capitalism that drives Americans to form Tea Parties. Ironically, this doesn't seem to bother Sarah Palin. Faced with a choice between subsidizing the banks and poor kids, she went with the banks, warning the Tea Party activists that the Obama administration is "taking over" everything, including "health care, student loans." With views like that, she won't have any trouble getting speaking gigs at $100,000 a shot. (The writer is editor of...

Author Kurt Andersen came out swinging this week in New York Magazine against democracy in action! He hates the Tea Party Movement in particular. Andersen, a novelist who at one time was New York Magazine’s chief editor, prefers when “a calm club of like-minded wise men (and women) in Washington” is calling the shots, not the people. Andersen agrees with Elitist-in-Chief President Barack Obama who believes the opponents of his far-left policies should just sit down and shut up. Andersen liked the good old days when: the elite media really did control the national political discourse…Until fifteen years ago, presidents...

Democratic Senator, Ted Kauffman, went on record Tuesday morning in Philadelphia stating that most backers of Sarah Palin are really uninformed about the issues and she, herself was simplistic with her solutions. Fox 29 News in Philadelphia, 2/08/2010: "There are folks that are out there that are very, very upset at what's going on, I think most of them don't follow what's really happening, but they're upset, they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, and Sarah Palin's one that appeals to them." Continuing in reference to her Tea Party speech: "Frankly, most Americans I talk to...

Here is a video clip of Politico's Jim VandeHei on The O'Reilly Factor last night, where he actually tried to defend the Mainstream Media's treatment of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement. O'Reilly was making the case that the Mainstream Media hate Palin and the Tea Party Movement. VandeHei criticized Fox News' Bill Sammon for having made that same assertion. VandeHei actually said there is no real evidence to support the bias against Palin and the Tea Party Movement! O'Reilly said "we have eyes!" Anyone who wants to see the truth knows that VandeHei was completely wrong. . ....

The best stock market rally in 74 years may have ended on Jan. 19, the same day Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat held by Democrats for 57 years. We don't know yet whether the alarming move down in stocks since then is simply a correction or something more serious. But the coincidence of these two history-making events raises troubling questions—especially since a Republican resurgence, on the face of it, would seem to be good for business and good for stocks. [snip]Just 24 hours after Mr. Brown's upset win, the White House let it be known that...

Mindi Davidson was "quite nervous" at the thought of meeting Sarah Palin on Friday night, but she wasn't daunted long. "Once you start talking to her, it's like talking to someone that you've known forever," Davidson said. Sharing the head table at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, Davidson found she has a lot in common with Palin, despite her being a national Republican icon, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate. Before Palin took command of the packed Salina Bicentennial Center arena -- with about 6,000 in attendance -- she engaged in "mainly just family" talk...

TRENTON -- Conservative activists affiliated with the national Tea Party movement are hoping to unseat U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). The group, called the Committee to Recall Senator Robert Menendez, is going to court after its petition to recall the senator was denied by former Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells last month. The Tea Partiers, part of a Sussex County group supporting limited government and opposed to Menendez’s stance on healthcare reform, are contesting the decision in a state appeals court. Dan Silberstein, a lawyer for the group, said the legal battle is over which constitution — the U.S....

Judging by recent Washington Times coverage, the Republican National Committee is a hotbed of dissension — even after big GOP wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and most recently Massachusetts. But at the RNC winter meeting in Honolulu, in a series of key RNC ballots on party fundraising and candidate selection, there was not a single dissenting vote. Read more: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/washington-times-trolls-gutter-for-rnc-critics/

National columnist and founder of the popular blog Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller, appeared on 'The View's' Joy Behar's new show on Monday to discuss Sarah Palin. As expected, the Behar take on Palin is, as usual, disrespectful and vitriolic. The entire portion of the show featuring Behar's Palin-bash and Geller's response can be viewed on video. It is interesting that Leftwing Hollywood types such as Behar will quickly harp on Palin's 'prompt-words' written on her hand while totally ignoring Barack Obama's constant reliance on the teleprompter, even when addressing elementary school children. For going on 36 hours now, following Palin's...

Several hundred area residents attended a Saturday Burleson Tea Party rally held at Forrest Auto Group in Cleburne. Republican candidates competing in local, state and congressional races shared the stage with other conservative speakers. Signs critical of President Obama’s administration and the Democratic agenda dotted the crowd, although two women displayed signs denouncing Republicans and the Tea Party movement. Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina promised to fight to eliminate property tax and fight eminent domain abuses if elected. “Private property and gun ownership are essential elements of freedom,” Medina said. “If the national government or state takes from people what...

What a great convention, and it got national coverage on the three major cable news networks. The Tea Parties have moved one step closer to bringing their desired effect in November to fruition. Sarah Palin did a masterful job in her forty five minute inspiring keynote speech. Her call for a voter revolution, "a ground-up call to action", defined the Tea Parties intent. Palin suggested that the party should remain leaderless and cautioned against allowing the movement to be defined by any one person. Had she added the movement should also not be defined by any specific political party it...

Andrew Sullivan, the journalist and blogger, who flirted for many years with conservatism and the Republican party, has become the most reliable chronicler of the hyperbolic comings and goings of Sarah Palin. Sullivan is one of the few journalists who, almost from the beginning, has taken Palin seriously and kept up a warning drumbeat about a political phenomenon that has already turned her into the leader of the American opposition party. His minute-by-minute catalogue of Palin’s $100,000 speech the other day to the Tea Party conventioneers—of whom, Sullivan rightly points out, she is the de facto head—is a horrifying and...

Synopsis of podcast available at link: As the National Tea Party Convention convened in Nashville, pundits out of touch with the movement wondered whether it will become a third party and negatively affect the GOP. Absent in such pondering is an acknowledgment of the people's capacity for critical thought. While it is certainly true many have given politicians and parties too much benefit of too little doubt, times have shifted. The outcomes of the 2010 elections promise to be determined, at least in part, by an unprecedented application of non-partisan thoughtful deliberation.

I'm fully aware that posting or linking directly to the DUmp for the rantings of DUmmies is prohibited and rightly so. We all get a kick out of PJ's and Charles braving the world of the left for humorous topics in their DUmmie FUnnies. I'm always curious to know how my enemy, yes even the small amount represented there, thinks. Every now and again you can spot a trend that you just know is going to gather steam and possibly create a talking point or be added to the left's lexicon of deception. Today I present to you the new...

Things can get awkward when protesters have to put down their placards and tackle the business of building an organization — networking online and recruiting reliable volunteers, precinct captains and even candidates. The transition is even more uncomfortable when undertaken in the glare of the national media spotlight, as the national tea-party movement attempted to do at its first convention, held in Tennessee over the weekend. As with any protest movement, consensus proved elusive in two days of debate, but they seemed to agree on five key points: 1. Don't Tread on Me The tea-party folks are innately suspicious of...

Lincoln’s first political party dissolved, and so could today’s RepublicansScott Brown’s improbable win in the Massachusetts Senate election is the latest and most dramatic evidence of the Republicans’ greatly improved electoral outlook. As polls have shown dissatisfaction with President Obama rising and Democratic leads in congressional generic-ballot polls shrinking or gone, GOP operatives have started 2010 with visions of 1994 dancing in their heads. But a closer look at the data rings alarm bells. Recent polls also show that voters’ ratings of the Republican party and Republican members of Congress have barely budged and remain sharply negative: Greater support for...

Energy The administration asked for public comments on a plan to expand offshore drilling. When they came in 2-to-1 in favor, the Interior Department sat on the news. Time for a "Texas tea" party? When you ask for public comment on a major policy issue, at some point you should make the results public, not hide them until you can figure out a way to spin the public reaction to support a conclusion you've already drawn. On its last business day in office, the Bush administration published a proposed draft of a five-year plan to lease areas in the Atlantic...

"Sarah Palin is the honorary Queen Bee of the Tea Party convention. The Tea Party convention held this past weekend in Nashville wasn't the biggest such gathering (600 people) or the most representative (the ticket price was more than $500) but it did give the national media a pretty good angle on the views and direction of this disparate movement. First, it's clear the group has no leader, although Sarah Palin is certainly the honorary Queen Bee in the eyes of many attendees. Her Saturday night speech was given rapturous applause. Second, the Tea Partiers are unlikely to succumb to...

(CNN) – Sen. John McCain's daughter called into question the political stature of the Tea Party movement Monday and sharply criticized a former congressman for his controversial comments at a recent major gathering of these conservative activists. Former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, slammed President Obama on the first night of the Tea Party convention last week in Nashville. Tancredo, known for his outspoken views on illegal immigration and his disdain for Sen. McCain, charged during his speech that "People who could not even spell the word 'vote', or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White...