Fire Fifty

Fire Fifty goes all in with the Republicans – For Now

motionview — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:55:07 +0000

FireFifty was founded in the summer of 2009 as a Tea Party organization dedicated to one objective: “Fire Fifty members of Congress in 2010 and take control of the House away from the Democrats – and the Republicans”. Our goal was to support Independent Conservatives in the North and East where we felt Republicans could not win. It is clear that I was wrong; Republicans can win anywhere, and this Democratic Congress under Nancy Pelosi is so destructive that we cannot risk splitting the non-socialist vote. Republicans, Tea Partiers, Libertarians; we need to unite behind the candidates most likely to beat Democrats. Objectively, right now, that means supporting Republicans across the board. As true-blue, independent-to-the-core Tea Partiers, we call on all non-Republican right leaning candidates to stop their campaigns, and throw their support to the Republican candidate. Republicans, you have at best six months from Nov 2 to show us that it will not be business as usual. 23 Aug 2010.

Save the Republic. Vote Republican. Fire Fifty

Who drove that bus into the ditch? Dems needs to look in the mirror

motionview — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:28:01 +0000

Who drove that bus into the ditch?

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama have coalesced around the Progressive Hail Mary for 2010: The economy is terrible because for the past 10 years the Republicans didn’t regulate their fat cat friends on Wall Street and in Big Oil. Republicans drove the economy into a ditch for ten years. It is a Big Lie that is not being effectively countered.

Our core economic problem goes back about 4 years, to November 2006. Then the economy was humming along fine. The liar loans, enabled by the Dems through Fannie and Freddie, were out there, bundled and destined to cause a lot of trouble eventually. Adults could have handled that problem. Everything else was basically OK, though not great. Though the Bush Administration was spent and the Hastert House was spendthrift, the S&P 500 was at 1300 on 3 years of positive growth; the annual deficit was 2% of GDP and decreasing for the previous 3 years, and unemployment was at 4.9%, and had not been above 6% since the last time Democrats controlled the House in 1994. But there was a lot of Bush fatigue on all sides, and of course Mark Foley was successfully gay-baited form the left. That fall Barack Obama, having been elected in 2004, welcomed new Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with Nancy Pelosi preparing to take over as Speaker of the House. After being elected as a Senator from Illinois, lesser mortals might have felt some responsibility to help “steer the bus”, work on the economy, but such mundane tasks were not for our Senator Obama. He chose to leave us and his Senatorial responsibilities “on the bus” and took off in his campaign Prius.

So Pelosi, Reid, and Obama (when other demands are not more pressing) take control of the government spending machine, with unemployment at 5.0% and the deficit at 2% of GPD. Over the next 4 years of Democrat Congressional rule, the budget deficit soars to more than 10% of GDP and unemployment goes above 10%. People may like to think that all rich people are kind of clueless, bumbling, lucky people, and some of them are. But there are many more very smart people out there with lots of money, and they know elections have consequences. World markets started to take a deeper look at their US exposure and were not liking what they were seeing. The first real trouble showed up in the bundled mortgage/CDS markets – it was the weakest link.

By Fall 2007 it is pretty abundantly clear that Dems would win big in 2008, with a fat majority in the House, maybe 60 in the Senate, and Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (long shot but still more likely than any Republican) in the White House. Hillary was always much more Progressive than Bill, and as they had tremendous experience they probably would be very effective in advancing the Progressive agenda. Barack would be less effective but if anything was even more Leftist than Hillary. As an investor in 2007, you ask yourself “What will Democrats, Progressive Democrats, do when they control everything?”. Even as you phrase the question you begin to limit your American exposure. Because the answer is exactly what the Democrats have done: spend, borrow, tax, regulate, promote unions, demonize business, introduce massive amounts of fear, uncertainty, and doubt into the market. Not an environment in which you want to lend money, and the credit markets began their deterioration. Nothing to do with lax regulation, Bush tax cuts, Darth Cheney, evil Republican greed unicorns, whatever. This is a “correct” market response to Democrat governance; a crisis of confidence in our ability to tax our descendents to pay all of our debts, in order to redistribute wealth from America at large to Democrat interest groups, particularly unions..

The economy began to tank when Congress was controlled by Democrats, on Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s watch, and began to really free-fall whan it was clear Obama would be President. The economy is terrible because the world markets correctly anticipated complete Democratic governance. You want the economy back? Restore confidence. Present a plan to go from deficit to surplus and pay off our debt, and then start to execute that plan.

Barack Obama did not inherit a bad economy; he was “off the bus” on the campaign Prius when the bad economy got started by his Brain Trust, Pelosi & Reid, anticipating his arrival.

Barack Obama did not inherit a bad economy, the economy saw him coming and got sick. When he arrived and prescribed more leeches, the deterioration accelerated.

Barack Obama did not inherit a bad economy, Barack Obama’s left-wing ideology is the root cause of our economic problems.

P.S. Those were not Bill Clinton’s surpluses, they were Newt Gingrich’s.

Bonus P.S. The DCCC Chair said last Sunday that 600K jobs were lost during the Bush presidency. Two much more informative numbers: 20.7 million new jobs were created during Republican control of the House; the Democrats have lost 6.6 Million jobs so far since they took power in Jan 2007.

Notes:
Unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total non-farm employment, 1994 – 2010, http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet, using CES0000000001, 1994 – 2010
116,378,000 employed Jan 1995, 137,067,000 employed Jan 2007 = 20,689,000 jobs gained during Republican House years
137,067,000 employed Jan 2007, 130,470,000 current employed = 6,597,000 jobs lost during Democrat House years

GDP numbers from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html

This is the Democrat’s recession

motionview — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:37:38 +0000

1 Bill Clinton elected as a Centrist Democrat. National consensus to balance the budget.
2 Clinton goes left, 1st attempt at health care nationalization fails
3 Democrats lose the House for the first time in 40 years.
4 Republican House reins in spending.
5 1st balanced budgets since 1969 (98-01)
6 “Compassionate conservatism”
7 9-11

8 The False Prosperity of the early stage of the Fed/Fannie/Freddie Ponzi Scheme
9 Democrats take the House
10 Conventional political wisdom turns financial – Democrats will take the Presidency, House, Senate.
11 Charles Schumer, chair Democrat Senate Campaign Committee, accidentally starts a huge bank run :-|
12 Money market meltdown
13 Governance by hemorraging IOU’s
14 Porkulus
15 9,000 Earmark budget
16 Cap and Tax
17 2nd attempt at Health Care Nationalization in play.

“Progressive” meme: Our economic difficulties were caused by Republican Fat-Cat-ism.
Solution: Spend more, tax the rich, we’ll take care of everything.

Reality: Our economic difficulties are due to the Government always spending more than it takes in.
Solution: Spend less, borrow less, eventually spend less than we take in, pay our debt.

Running under the Tea Party brand

motionview — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:15:39 +0000

Rasmussen reports today that “Running under the Tea Party brand may be better in congressional races than being a Republican” . That is particularly true in the districts we have been targeting.

California tax dollars used to help illegal aliens cross border

motionview — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:46:11 +0000

Researchers at CALIT2, a state and federally funded collaboration between University of California at Irvine and UC San Diego have engineered a device to help illegal aliens cross the border, with our tax dollars. Boing Boing has an article congratulating the researcher for developing this system to violate Federal immigration law. We are laying off fire fighters yet have the resources for this? In my opinion it is a clear violation of Federal law and a ridiculous waste of money.

Jim Costa (D) CA-20: Not on our list yet, care to join?

motionview — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:45:55 +0000

All you have to do is vote in favor of the Health Care bill that San Fran Nan is pushing on Saturday. You may have won big in 2008 but remember that you’re district is only Cook D+5, and your party has shut off the water to your constituents. Arnold won your district. Being infected by Bay Area “Progressivism” may keep your constituents from voting for a Republican, but if you vote for this Health Care fiasco we will run a conservative Independent against you and we will crush you.

Aren’t you the chairman of a Natural Resources Sub-Committee? How come you’ve let them cut off the water to your district? To save a 1/2 inch long fish? What’s the unemployment rate in your district, 15%? Worse? You should do the right thing Saturday or you should start looking for “new opportunities”.

Update: Apparently all of the favors Jim Costa has done for lobbyists over the years are going to be called in. Jim sacrificed himself for Nancy Pelosi and the “Progressives” by voting for the health care travesty. We’re going to fire you now Jim.

Our thanks to an honorable woman

motionview — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:28:58 +0000

Dede Scozzafava, for suspending her campaign. We hope she will work this weekend to send her supporters to Doug Hoffman and we wish her the best in her future endeavours. Update 1 Nov. Scozzafava endorses Owens.

Sarah Palin, for her willingnesss to lead from the front, to put her conservative principles ahead of party, and to help the Tea Party Movement change what people think is possible.

Three days to go, we need to Get Out The Vote for Doug Hoffman!

They don’t just cheat; the game is rigged

motionview — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:48:58 +0000

This monstrosity is Illinois Congressional District 4. The incumbents in Illinois of both Parties created this perversion as part of an overall plan to save their seats. Congressional districts are routinely carved up by state political Machines to protect incumbents. In this particular case, the district is a two-fer: protect an incumbent and create a district based on race. The result is a district that has a Cook partisan index of Democrat +32. Democracy has been take off the table before the election even begins.

We tried to do something about this in California with Ahnuld to no avail. Is it really too complicated? Can no-one get fired up about this?

You can’t beat people in these districts; fortunately the real extreme, radical leftists that the Party leadership tries to keep locked in the attic hold these seats. It’s best to leave them in place as the face of the “Progressives”/Democrats and focus our efforts on the weak middle – suburban/rural Dems, North and East, who are more liberal then their districts and where the Republicans are ineffective.

We support conservatives not parties

gerrymanderthis — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:35:34 +0000

Many people are worried that if the Tea Party Movement supports anyone but Republicans we will help elect Democrats. We want to address this directly.

Strategically there is a very simple solution: win big. A necessary condition for winning is having a plan to win, and we plan to win. We have a clean, limited, conservative platform based on ethics and common sense American civics. We are focused, in district selection and on issues, and we have one goal: Victory in at least 50 districts from AZ-7 to WI-8. Winning congressional races is basic political blocking and tackling: people, money, and determination to win. The Tea Party Movement brings all of these to Fire Fifty Independents.

We have selected districts where Republicans have not presented a credible alternative to the “Progressive” running as a Democrat. By running as Independents, we are not saddled with the baggage of the Republican brand, and can run in New England, the Rust Belt and rural and suburban districts around the country. These districts are now represented by Democrats that are much more liberal than their constituents; they are vulnerable to a Tea Party Independent.

Philosophically, we start by telling people what we believe. We are Americans, American Revolutionaries, who believe in our founding Constitutional principles as a democratic republic: the rule of law, individual rights, checks and balances, equality before the law, fairness, open debate, free markets, free minds. We also believe in a strong smart defense, shouldering our burdens and not loading our children with debt. We don’t want to be led into a bright, shiny future; we don’t want to be led anywhere. We want to be left alone to live our lives as free human beings, and our individual work will lead to a better tomorrow for all of us.

We are not Republican or Democrats. We are conservatives! Although I have voted for a Republican in every Presidential election since I was old enough to vote I no longer recognize the party I once identified with. Most of today’s Republicans are fiscally indistinguishable from the Democrats across the aisle. The Republicans had the House from 1994 – 2006. After the Bush Administration came in with “compassionate conservatism” they gave us:

A New Medicare drug benefit that was the largest expansion of the welfare state in 40 years
Federal spending on schools up 79.9% without any changes in how the Big City Machines / Teachers Unions operate, as if throwing more money at a failed approach would educate our children
Failure on Social Security / Retirement modernization
Out of control spending that took the budget from a surplus to a $1.2 Trillion deficit
Bailouts of everyone (except the dwindling 53% of us who pay all the income taxes)
Federal government control of political speech via Mc_Cain-Feingold, signed by Bush
The bipartisan $700 billion Wall Street bailout
The 2009 Budget bill; 40% of the 9000 earmarks were from Republicans.
George W. Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress increased discretionary spending at twice the rate that prevailed under Bill Clinton.

If you think of yourself as a Conservative, why are you supporting Republicans? Because they are better than the Democrats? I’m tired of electing Republicans because “at least they’re better than the other guy”. They are the “other guy”. We are going to elect ethical, fiscally conservative individuals who support a strong, smart defense, school choice, individual rights, and the rule of law. We are here to work for the American people, not the Republican Party.

Gov Palin endorses Hoffman in NY23!

motionview — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:37:55 +0000

Sarah Palin endorses Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman in the special election for NY-23. Congratulations to Governor Palin on a brilliant decision, and to Doug Hoffman for the national attention this endorsement will bring his campaign. A dollar to Doug Hoffman today is = $10,000 to the RNC a year from now (Sorry, that Obamath is catching). Please donate

Update: Former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey endorsed Doug today too!