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The Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet held their annual Politics Online conference this week and awarded several Golden Dot awards to "recognize outstanding achievement in the use of the Internet to influence the political process"

And the winner for best video blog is...

Townhall.com's Mary Katharine Ham for her HamNation video blog series.

Congrats MK. 

Here is a little more feedback on what is being said about the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights:

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey:
"We are proud of the work RSC members are doing to protect taxpayers, promote economic growth, and curtail government spending…American taxpayers would be better off if more congressional members followed in their lead." More

Patrick O’Connor from the Politico in an entertaining write up about our press conference yesterday: 
"Rep. Tom Feeney, the always eloquent Florida Republican, followed up that zinger by quoting the 18th Century French philosopher and satirist Voltaire in his own mini-discourse on the fundamental injustice of the Democrats’ fiscal policy."

Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) and I both made posts about the proposal on the Hill’s Blog:

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia:
"I think it’s important for us to appreciate that it is time for us to stop finding ways to fund larger government."

My Post
"Known as the 'American Taxpayer Bill of Rights' this proposal will lay the foundation for resolving the fiscal nightmare that is our current budgetary and spending process."

Now, its time to discuss one of those major issues of the week (well at least if you are a sports fan).  I am ready to announce my Final Four picks. And just so that you know I am objective, I have to confess I left off my two alma matters UCLA (Bachelors in Economics) and USC (Masters in Taxation). I would love to see them make it all the way, but I just don't think they will. Just a warning, my knowledge of college hoops is not at the level of my knowledge of fiscal matters. Anyway here are my picks:

Kansas
Georgetown
Florida
Memphis

Saturday, March 17, a bunch of pro-troops, patriotic Americans are converging on the Capitol to counter the moonbats who have decided to use Saturday as a day to be led by Cindy Sheehan in their call for the impeachment of Bush, the ouster of the Bush regime, and the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq without regard to the fates of Iraqi citizens or American national security.

The Gathering of Eagles details are, here, so join us if you can, and sign the petition to let them know you're on your way.

Here's where we're meeting up.

Need a ride? Hop on a GOE charter bus! Some seats still available. 

Jawa reports that the Eagles are gathering steam, but are lagging in numbers to confront the moonbat hordes. We need all the help we can get to keep the friendly anarchists from spray-painting public property and defacing war memorials, so get on board.

Need convincing? Michelle Malkin wants you to be there.

Hope to see you guys there.

Also, some good advice for dealing with moonbats once you get here (rough language alert).

Townhall's Chuck DeFeo and Patrick Ruffini are on stage right now with the NBC's Chuck Todd, MyDD's Jerome Armstrong, and former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi (sitting to Chuck's right), at the Politics Online Conference.  For more info on the speeches and panel discussions, Josue Sierra is covering some of the sessions at his Townhall blog.  PrezVid blogged it, too.

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Democrats, it would seem.

In addition to legitimate top-rated cable news networks, they're now spurning left-leaning top-rated comedy shows. The P.R. genius of the Democratic Party, my friends.

From today's David Broder column:

Newt Gingrich's attempted phoenix-like rise from his own political ashes to a presidential candidacy will run next week into a harsh assessment by his former House Republican colleague Tom DeLay. The former majority leader's forthcoming memoir assails Gingrich as an "ineffective" House speaker with a flawed moral compass.

Hugh's post this morning (about the Dems micro-managing the war) was spot-on.

The Senate Joint Resolution on Iraq is the latest version of the Democrats' slow-bleed strategy.  Sadly, this slow-bleed strategy  is a product of consultant-driven campaign strategy  and posturing -- not military doctrine.

Perennial loser/political consultant Bob Shrum recently admitted that he was wrong to advice John Edwards to vote to authorize going into Iraq. Of course, this begs the question: If Democrats are taking their marching orders from consultants -- and those orders are based on what is politically expedient -- what is to say that they aren't making a mistake this time?

He confessed to 31 plots at a Gitmo tribunal:

The gruesome attacks range from the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 — which killed nearly 3,000 — to a 2002 shooting on an island off Kuwait that killed a U.S. Marine.

Manyplots, including a previously undisclosed plan to kill several formerU.S. presidents, were never carried out or were foiled by internationalcounterterror authorities.

"I was responsible forthe 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement readSaturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S.detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed's confession wasread by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personalrepresentative.

He claimed to have been "responsible" for the 1993 attack on theWorld Trade Center, Richard Reid's attempt to ignite a shoe bomb on anairliner over the Atlantic Ocean in December 2001, and the October 2002bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia.

Mohammed also said heplotted to assassinate several former presidents, including JimmyCarter, a scheme not previously revealed.

Mohammed described several other plots that never came about, such asattacks on buildings in California, Chicago and Washington state, andon the New York Stock Exchange.

But this "freedom fighter" is not entirely without heart, not to mention access to the Michael Moore talking points (also from the WaPo):

"Because war, for sure, there will be victims," he said. "When Isaid I'm not happy that 3,000 been killed in America. I feel sorryeven. I don't like to kill children and the kids."

Mohammedlikened al-Qaeda's quest to Colonial America's struggles in the ofAmerica's Revolutionary War, drawing parallels between Laden and GeorgeWashington.

"So when we made any war against America, we arejackals fighting in the nights," he said, adding later that hadWashington been arrested by the British, he, too, would have beenconsidered an enemy combatant.

Mmmm-hmmm.

Here's a transcript of the proceedings. Allah points out the highlights:

The list of plots starts on page 17; his apologia — one man’sterrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, we’re just as bad as theyare, he doesn’t like to kill people but what can he do when we’reoppressing yadda yadda — begins on page 20. Note the passage at thebottom of page 24 where he tries to justify attacking “economical”targets vis-a-vis U.S. bombing raids on Ayman al-Zawahiri’s house.

Daniel Pearl is mentioned on that page too but Mohammed speaks inbroken English so it’s hard to figure out what he means. He seems to beaccusing him of having worked for Mossad.

The Daniel Pearl confession is also in there:

And he confessed to thebeheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a section ofthe statement that was excised from the public document, The AssociatedPress has learned. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Pakistan whileresearching a story on Islamic militancy. Mohammed has long been asuspect in the slaying, which was captured on video.

Many callers to my radio show are constantly asking, "What is wrong with Republicans?   Why are so many of them afraid to stand up to the Demcrats and fight?"

I wish I knew the answer to that question.  The Alberto Gonzales "controversy" is a perfect example of weak-kneed Republicans who are cowering and bowing and scraping over this total non-issue of the legitimate dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.

Forget going through the obvious hypocricy of Democrats who seem to forget the political firings that Bill Clinton engaged in during the 1993 purge of 92 U.S. attorneys.  How about Republicans like John Sununu who are joining the liberal pack and calling for Gonzales' head on a platter?

I don't get Republicans like Sununu and John Cornyn and others who are piling on over this concocted, contrived story.

Is Gonzales becoming a liability to the Bush Administration?  Sure he is.  But only because he won't fight back and a few Republicans are bailing.

And the media's role?  Appalling as usual.   Try to stomach George Stephanopoulos of ABC grilling Gonzales on TV while apparently forgetting to mention that Georgie boy was Bill Clinton's right hand man in 1993 while he was firing 92 U.S. attorneys.  Or seeing other network anchors interviewing Madame Hillary, giving her all the opportunity in the world to rail against "political firings", and not bothering to ask her about her husband's decision to clean house in 1993, doing the same thing President Bush is doing, only more than ten times over!

C'mon, Republicans.  Get your sea legs back.  Stop acting so shell-shocked over the midterm elections.  Grow up and fight back.  Don't let the schoolyard bullies of the Democratic Party and the mainstream press get away with this garbage...

When it comes to endorsements, the jury’s out on how important they are. But one thing’s for sure; it doesn’t do a campaign any good to get an endorsement, and then lose it. In the past, Mitt Romney’s campaign has had some problems holding onto endorsements. For example, in Michigan there were a few instances of attrition. FOX News reported last month that:

“The group of state lawmakers, which had pledged to support Romney in 2008, will announce at a press conference in Lansing that they've switched their support from Romney to McCain.”

"Three-term state Rep. Judy Emmons said she backed Romney on the word of former House Speaker Craig DeRochem, who will be introducing Romney at the Dearborn event. But Emmons told FOX News on Monday that after researching the candidates on her own, she came to view McCain as the better choice."

Of course, when you are dealing with numerous endorsements, it is understandable that there would be some attrition. More concerning to me, however, are the Michigan folks who are listed as Romney supporters on his website, but told me they have not officially endorsed Romney:

Jack Waldvogel (who is listed on Romney’s website under the label: Michigan Republican County Chairs Endorsing Governor Romney) told me:

“I like Mitt Romney, but I did not authorize them to use my name in an endorsement … they did use my name in an endorsement ad. I had not authorized that ... "

He later added:

"I hope that somebody just picked up the wrong list and assumed that it was an endorsement list.”

Another Michigan Chairman, Joel Westrom, emailed me:

“My name should not have been listed. I’ve been working with the Romney team and the First District and there was a misunderstanding about my support. As Chairman for the District, I’m neutral in the Presidential race.”

I asked Romney’s Michigan Grassroots Chairman Gerry Mason about this. According to Mason:

“We do not want anybody on our list who is not supporting Mitt. Anyone on that list has been contacted two or three times. At this point in the game, the last thing we need to do is to list somebody by accident.”

Mason also noted that there recently was a contentious convention fight, and that several of the folks who previously came out for Romney are now being pressured to stay out of the race.

Regardless of whether Romney's team is exaggerating supporters, mistakenly including non-supporters on his website, or losing endorsements due to pressure from opposing campaigns – it is clear that Michigan will be a battleground for the GOP nomination.

Last night, I wrote a post showing how the Democrats have thrown over $20 billion in unrelated spending and special handouts to the upcoming war supplemental. Today, I found some more striking information within this 172 page bill that the mainstream media is largely choosing to ignore, but needs to see the light of day.

As you may recall, last January during the Democrats "100 Hour Agenda" they passed a minimum wage increase. Since that time, they have been unable to work with the Senate to get a bill to the President, and it has stalled. So, facing the prospects that this legislation may not go anywhere the Democrats have up and decided to add it to the supplemental. This is nuts. Basically, since the Dems can't get their policy to pass on its face they have resorted to forcing it through in this must-pass legislation. Nevermind the fact that the supplemental is only supposed to be for emergency war spending.

Nancy Pelosi vowed following last fall's election to make "this the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history." After seeing repeated examples of stuff like this, I would have to disagree. Normal expenditures or policy debates should not be arbitrarily designated as emergencies.

I was pleased to see in the papers this morning that Rob Portman, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, has expressed his opposition to the extra spending included in the war supplemental. He was quoted in Congessional Quarterly as saying "the war supplemental should be focused on combating terrorism and supporting our troops, and not held hostage to unrelated, domestic spending that can be addressed through the normal appropriations process." I hope he carries on this message to the President, and urges a veto if the bill is not clean.