Ken Cuccinelli on Federalism

Ken Cuccinelli speaking to Virginia's Tea Party Convention on Federalism and the Obamacare Lawsuit. 

Sounds from Virginia's Tea Party Convention

Bishop EW Jackson




Congressman King and Senator Allen





Dick Morris




Lou Dobbs



Rick Santorum

More Sights from Virginia's Tea Party Convention

Build It and They Will Come - Tea Party Convention

One of the amazing things about the Virginia Tea Party convention is the fact that the efforts were 100% volunteer.  Not one person involved got paid a single dime.  I have been to quite a few conventions in my day, and this one went off without any noticeable problems.  I am sure that behind the scenes things were crazy at moments over the two days, but the attendees didn't notice them.  That is quite an accomplishment.

This convention had world wide eyes watching it.  There was international press there from several countries, am I not sure exactly how many, but it was at least three countries; Finland, of all places being, one.  The pressure to make everything go smoothly must have been enormous for the Tea Party Confederation.  Virginia has a good organization of the different tea parties around the state.  They have conference calls regularly and keep everyone else informed on the events that are going on around the state. 

One of the things that I found very amusing at the convention was how many people I knew or at least recognized.  I hung out briefly with a woman that I was sitting with at the 9.12 rally.  She was unable to attend the conference due to work constraints but did come out for the party Friday night.

My point being, don't be afraid to help the tea parties in your state to stay connected with one another, even if you are working some different issues.  We are never going to agree on everything and the autonomy of the different groups is a good thing, not a bad thing.  The issues in your local communities are going to differ and the local groups can deal with the issues that are important to that specific area.  There is so much to do that individual groups working on different issues is a plus not a negative.  We will get much more accomplished if stay tuned into our local issues first. 

The Virginia Tea Party Convention can be used as a building block for other states.  Help your state organize your own convention, it will be easier now that the Virginia one is now over and has been successful.  We were able to get the speakers to help draw the patriots.  Our local politicians came and spoke on the issues that we care about, and it wasn't all love and roses.  Our Governor was asked some difficult questions about our budget and spending.  I am sure that our coordinators will be happy to give some tips. 

Don't be afraid, get out there and help organize.  Don't think that your neighbors are not interested in direction of the country.  If you don't have a local tea party in your area, build one.  It can be as simple as putting up some flyer's around your town announcing a date and time and get together to discuss your concerns.  You will be amazed at how many will show up.  I remember thinking the first time I went to an event that not too many people would be there, as I live in not just a liberal area, but a progressive area.  We had a house full and it has just grown.  We had about 2,000 people show up over the weekend from all over the state.  I personally know many that were not able to make it for a variety of reasons, some of which were that they needed to go out and canvass for upcoming election.  I also met two people that didn't even live in Virginia but came because of their concerns and didn't have much going on in their own states. 

Virginia Tea Party State Legislative Issues

Virginia Tea Party Convention Part 2

I have made my way back from Richmond and I am feeling very energized by the two day convention.  It was a great deal of fun to have such a amazing conference so close to election day to keep all of us so energized.  Not that we are not already, but these two days gave us some very practical advice.

One of the breakout sessions was about conservatism in the black community.  One of the speakers is very involved in the Richmond Tea Party and has come into her own about her belief system in the conservative movement.  She and three others did an amazing job explaining to the people who may be a little frustrated about how we do outreach to a community that has many ties to conservatism, but just may not be aware of what we stand for.  One of the examples that really hit home for me was the use of Hollywood generally and how Tyler Perry is considered an outsider in the Hollywood community.  One of the reasons is that Perry shows the black family as it really exists; they pray and are very involved in the churches in their communities. 

This is something that I was only aware of in a more peripheral sense, but they really made that hit home for me.  Now, I don't what Perry's politics are; he may very well be more liberal leaning, but the point was that it shows the social conservatism that exists within the families in the black community.  This is the way that the tea party can make inroads into the community to get our message out to them.  A perfect example of what I am talking about is the band that played for the convention party.  I flat asked the band members if we "tea party" people were what they expected.  One of the singers told me no, and he honestly didn't expect to see us up and dancing.  He had heard the constant left leaning meme that we are old white people.  They saw for themselves that we are just people and we, like everyone else, likes to unwind and have a good time at a party.  The band was very talented and did a great deal of 70's funk music and it was a great time. We let our hair down and danced the night away. 

Another great part of the convention was the forum that we had with Sen. Rick Santorum. , Sen. George Allen (you may remember him; he made the Maccaca comment and lost his senate seat), Congressman Steve King, and Virginia's Tea Party Rock star AG Ken Cuccinelli.  Cuccinelli has labeled himself a "tea party groupie", he understands that the many in the tea party don't want to align themselves to closely to politicians.  So he doesn't consider himself a member, he just loves us as much as we love him.  If you are unaware, Cuccinelli was the first one to file suit against Obamacare.  Virginia has the advantage of a law in place that the mandate to purchase health care is illegal in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  He gave us the update on the suit; all the filings are complete and arguments will be happening next month.  This is certain to get to the supreme court and he does believe that it is fast-tracked as there is no testimony needed. 

I am in need of a good night sleep so I will give the final round up tomorrow along with the videos I made. 

The Tea Party Has Wrapped Up Its Convention

Virginia Tea Partiers are all departing the convention center after a very good two days of events.

We had a great deal of quality speakers as well as some good candidate forums and some much needed Q&A with sitting legislators. 

I will tell you Ken Cuccinelli has become a rock star.  I have some great video of him to come.  He gave a speech to huge applause.

Lou Dobbs was our final speaker of the event and he took the stage to a round of thunderous applause and loud shouts of LOU. 

He gave a rip roaring speech to great appreication as Lou was the first named person to accept the invite to attend our convention.  Due to his acceptance the people who put together our conference were able to draw other big names. 

We had a very good and productive weekend.  We are fired up to get our "Get Out The Vote" efforts starting tomorrow. 

I will post some additional photos and videos when I get home in a few hours.  I have about a 100 mile drive.

Greetings From Richmond

The internet access inside the main hall in the convention center has been hit or miss so I have not had the opportunity to post until now. 

Herman Cain was the morning Keynote speaker and got the crowd all fired up.  Not that this crowd needs to get fired up.  Election day is so close and WE CAN NOVEMBER FROM OUR HOUSES!!

Right now their is a candidate forum for congressional races across Virginia.  The candidate running in district was unable to attend, but he seems to be in favor of the tea party.  Most importantly right now, it looks like he is going to win, and we finally be able to kick Connolly to the curb. 

As always I have met some great people and I had a very nice conversation with the director of the movie "Fire from the Heartland".  He and I discussed doing a showing for my tea party and he said that he could talk Congresswoman Bachmann to come and have a Q&A afterwards.  That would be awesome, and let me tell you, if I can get Bachmann to show up at one of our local events, I think I will be the most popular member of the tea party!!  After all, we all LOVE her, and what's not to love?

I need to get ready for the next round of speakers.   I will let you know how it goes with Ron Paul, he has many fans here today. 

More From Tea Party Convention

Richmond is all filled up with tea party patriots this weekend and I will tell you, we know how to party.  Tonight they had a party called the Freedom Lovers Extravaganza. 

There was a 70's type funk band Mo' Sol.  The band was excellant and got most everybody up off their feet and dancing.  John Fund and Congressman King joined in on the fun. 

During one of the breaks I asked a few of the band members if they were tea partiers and they said no.  I also asked if they thought that the Tea Party Patriots would get down with them, and he said "honestly, no I didn't".  I told him that he needed to go home to Atlanta and tell his friends that the tea party is not what the media has portayed us to be.  Because I will tell you, there was some bumping and grinding happening on that dance floor. 

I got a chance to have a talk with Congressman King and told him my story of what is going to happen with my medical insurance at the end of this year.  My plan is not "obamacare" approved and in order to make it fit the requirements it will become too expensive and the insurance company will no longer be carrying the plan.  So, I have to change plans that will increase my costs by about 25%.  He told me that they have a plan to get it repealed, although he didn't go into detail.  So we will see if they can get that done before they completely destroy the insurance industry. 

I was able to worm my way onto bloggers row tomorrow so I will be doing some live blogging to keep you informed.  The speakers tomorrow should be great. 

Rick Santorum
Herman Caine
George Allen
Lou Dobbs
Ron Paul
Steve King
Ken Cuccinelli

So I should have a really good time blogging and trying to keep you informed of what is going on.  You also can follow on twitter with the hash tag #VTPP

Have a good night all.  I need to get some sleep. 

Check in tomorrow and also head on over to The Other McCain as Smitty is live blogging as well. 

Conservative Girl Adventure - Virginia Tea Party Convention

I made it to Richmond to attend the Virginia Tea Party Convention.  It is the largest such convention of tea party patriots held to date. 

We had some very good speakers today and great deal of networking and exchange of ideas.  I am not going to post too much at the moment as I need to get ready for The Freedom Express blowout tonight.  We had a very good Q&A with Governor McDonnell.  I have been known to say that I am not 100% thrilled with everything McDonnell has done, but I still hold out hope that over the next four years he can get our budget under control and bring more jobs to the area. 

I did meet some very nice people today from all over the state and I had quite a nice conversation with Griff Jenkins of Fox News, and I met Dick Morris before his speech.  I also had the honor of meeting Smitty from The Other McCain as he is doing some live blogging from the event.  As always, Stacy and Smitty are right in the thick of things. 

I will post some videos and pictures a little later and will let you know about our slate of speakers for tomorrow.  Herman Caine being one!!  LOVE HIM.  So I am really looking forward to seeing him and will fill you in on the breakout sessions from today.  They are giving us some very good information about what comes next.  Our job is far from over, November 3rd is the beginning.  Once we get these new people elected, we have to hold their feet to the fire.