In fact, many argue (rightfully so) that much of what happened during the DontGo effort laid part of the foundation the modern day tea party movement was built on. Case in point, we published this video (below) cut of Rick Santelli’s infamous rant to Youtube on February 9th, 2009. We then sent it to the 10,000 or so subscribers of the “DontGo Movement” with the title of the email being “Chicago Tea Party… count us in!”

The day we published that video we had no idea what we were doing would change everything in politics. We had no idea we were setting in motion a movement that would literally stop the bankrupt leftist agenda dead in its tracks (provided we win in 2012). All we knew is that we were angry, frustrated and felt like we weren’t being represented.

So here we are... three years later and around the corner from a Presidential election that will make or break our future liberty. We as a movement have tough decisions to make, and a lot of work to do.

We have a powerful media machine, partnered with a corrupt, powerful political machine in Washington, that is hell bent on keeping Obama in power. That same machine is also keen on keeping the tea party movement down and out of the general election. They know full well that if another “moderate” Republican is nominated, the same portion of voters who couldn’t get energized for John McCain will again fall short.

We can’t let that happen. It’s time to choose.

It seems that every day I’m asked who I’m supporting for President. Yesterday it was in a comment on Facebook, this morning I got an email asking if I’ll support Sarah Palin, and this afternoon my dad texted me about Herman Cain.

To be 100% honest, until today I really didn’t know which direction to go in. I’ve found myself bouncing around between various candidates for a plethora of reasons. But every time I started to like a candidate I quickly got reminded of why I won’t fully go “all in” for him/her. This morning I had to step back and look at the full range of candidates and eliminate those I wouldn’t select as my #1 option.

Only one candidate was left, and that candidate is Herman Cain.

I interviewed Herman Cain a couple weeks ago. See the interview below.

While that interview didn’t really get into the guts of what Herman Cain is all about due to time constraints (Cain was up to speak next at the rally), the narrative was reinforced that Herman Cain isn’t a part of the machine in Washington and never has been. This is key in my decision to support Herman Cain, and I’ve only just began to embrace its significance.

We as a movement constantly preach that we need a new direction. We constantly say we need “Washington outsiders” to come in and clean house, yet every single candidate accept Herman Cain is a part of that machine. Granted, we do have Michele Bachmann, who I believe is an outsider over all, but Herman Cain brings a whole other level to this. Herman Cain IS the shining example of an answer to our demands.

Further more, Herman Cain knows how to run a very large, very successful business that provides jobs and fuels the economy. He may not be a professional when it comes to gripping and grinning with lobbyists and special interests, but isn’t that what we want? We want real world, free-market experience, not experience on how to play the game and dupe the nation while playing it.

Also, Herman Cain openly admires much needed tax reform. He openly applauds efforts such as the Fair Tax, and he’s the only candidate who aggressively puts forth a coherent plan to change the entire system. Even Ron Paul falls short when it comes to actually having a real plan with real goals and agendas.

Now I know some of my Ron Paul supporting friends are going to blow a gasket over the “he worked at the federal reserve” non-story. Don’t worry, a member of the Patriot Action Network already put that nonsense to sleep. It’s a non-starter and there is no reason to bring it up.

Outside of the fed non-story and a couple instances where Cain’s words have been taken out of context, I can’t find any reason anyone would have any issue with Herman Cain as President.

Can Herman Cain win a general election? Of course he can. In fact, I think Herman Cain would be the BEST candidate against Barack Obama. Can you imagine Obama being forced to debate a smart businessman with no ties to lobbyists and special interests? I mean, we all know Mitt Romney will have a tough time. Newt Gingrich does have enough contrast on issues such as global warming, and Rick Perry would end up embarrassing himself half the time.

Herman Cain has smooth delivery, he’s funny, he’s got a good plan and he’s good people.

I would be honored and pleased to have him in the White House protecting my rights, my money and my shot at prosperity.

I’m on board the Cain Train. There’s plenty of room so feel free to join us!

Please consider a donation to help Herman Cain move beyond the Republican Primary and defeat Barack Obama.

-Eric Odom

P.S. This is a PERSONAL endorsement and does not reflect on the opinion of my employer, the Liberty News Network or any other organization I may be involved in now or in the future.

To Whom it May Concern,

I write this letter openly to you, my fellow Americans, who have come into extraordinary wealth via the Capitalist/Free-Market system that once flourished in our great nation. Many of you hold millions of dollars, many hold tens of millions, many hold many billions.

You might have acquired this wealth through genuine hard work, blood and sweat. You might have spent many a sleepless night fine-tuning your idea until it could be sold or manufactured. You might have concocted a string of computer code that simplified life for millions of Americans. You might have simply inherited your wealth from a family member.

Regardless of how you came into wealth, I personally wish to congratulate you. While I myself have not yet been so fortunate, I don’t in any way envy you and I’m proud to say I live in a nation where such wealth can be attained.

That said, I must admit I find myself starting to become frustrated with “most” of you on a very personal level. I know there are many wealthy Americans who refuse to prop up corrupt politicians and fund the political machine that strips our nation of its liberty. I know there are still millionaires and billionaires who won’t take part in creating the monster that now consumes all of our productivity for political gain.

Most of you, however, are taking the fruits grown through liberty and using them to feed a great beast that opposes freedom. This beast is hell-bent on destroying my right/ability to try and one day join you in financial prosperity.

I would like to share with you a few paragraphs recently quoted from the Czech Republic Observer.

The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the Presidency.

It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama Presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their President.

The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America.

Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.

The Republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their President.

While the above words are somewhat specific to the general electorate of America, there is a greater disregard for responsibility happening within the wealthier class of Americans. Yes, the American electorate is being duped. Yes, the American electorate is being dumbed down, lied to and sold marketing campaigns instead of principled leadership.

Yes, it is the responsibility of the voters to make informed, coherent and logical decisions at the ballot box.

But, it’s YOUR money that is being used to sell the lies. It’s YOUR money that is selling the astro-turf marketing campaigns. YOU pay for the TV ads, the political mailers and the radio spots.

I get that it makes sense financially for you to continue doing so. What I don’t get is how you’ve become so short-sighted as to believe that temporary financial gain is more important than long-term solvency as a nation. Are you so greedy that you’ll throw away the future of your children and your grandchildren so that you can enjoy untold wealth for a season?

Not only are most of you playing the game, buying power and supporting criminals in Washington, you’re also refusing to tell your fellow Americans what is really going on. You sit at your mahogany desks writing checks to incumbents, knowing full well why the economy is tanking, and you completely refuse to write columns exposing the madness. You refuse to appear in public, explaining to the electorate why we’re all losing our liberty.

I know… the stock holders. I know, you have boards and committee’s to report to. I know, you have investors who want you to tell them they’re all wealthier now. I get that and I actually like that being the case. I mean, if it weren’t for the drive of profit many more millions of Americans would be unemployed. Products wouldn’t be so affordable, medications wouldn’t be available and the great American economic engine wouldn’t be as strong.

The problem occurs when you make decisions that have an effect on my rights. The problem comes into play when you fund politicians that will kill off my chance at becoming wealthy. You see, that’s when your decisions become downright malicious against the rest of us. That’s when your actions become a direct assault on the ability for anyone to prosper.

The leftists have it all wrong. They chant and rant against the “rich” for reasons that aren’t logical. They protest you because they envy you. They don’t understand that YOU create jobs and innovate in ways that drive economic success. They protest you with signs made of material YOU manufactured. They protest you wearing shoes YOU designed. They drive cars YOU built to join others in protesting you.

That doesn’t make sense and it’s why most Americans won’t join them.

That said, many of us are starting to get frustrated with you because your actions are turning you against the rest of us. I’m talking about those of us who support you and defend you in the public arena of ideas. You know, those of us who know full well you pay FAR more than your “fair share” in taxes.

We’re in your corner, but only when you’re also in ours. The moment you move over to your own corner is the moment we’re all going to start looking at you in a different light. Yes, you need to profit and prosper. I personally have great respect for profit and will never discourage it.

But don’t you dare seek it at the expense of the Constitution, my rights, our liberty and the ability for all Americans to seek financial success.

This letter isn’t about rich vs not rich, this letter is about Americans vs Americans. It’s not about class warfare, it’s about our collaborative fight to keep freedom alive.

Please, speak out about what’s really going on. Let authentic principles drive your decisions and follow that up with methods that lead to profit. Tell the American people what you see and don’t do it through a filter. Stop funding campaigns that produce corrupt politicians who work to oppose liberty.

Don’t put another penny into the beast that is destroying our nation. If you want to prosper, then make sure your targeted market is prospering as well. If you want profit, make sure I can purchase your product, and that in turn I can create a product to sell to you.

That’s what America is all about. That is the America that elevated you to financial prosperity.

Fight for it. Please?

Sincerely,

-Eric Odom

In fact, I had a Red Bull with breakfast this morning!

That’s all about to change, however, due to a company Red Bull pays for markting purposes. That company is Starving Eyes and their offense is a hate-filled, politically motivated video game called Tea Party Zombies Must Die.

As a libertarian minded tea partier I find myself in a difficult situation. Unlike big-government advocates like Bill O’Reilly and a lot of Republicans, I don’t believe government should be called up to address a hate-filled game such as this. I do, however, believe my right to choose where my money goes will stop my money from flowing into Red Bull’s bank accounts, and then into those of Starving Eyes.

Companies have a responsibility to be selective in who they choose to work with. No company should be sending money to another company that advocates slaughter of political opponents through video games.

Sorry Red Bull, but until I can confirm you’ll never work with Starving Eyes again, you won’t be getting any more of my money.

-Eric Odom

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I published a post over at LibertyNews.com that points to some recent news about Sarah Palin. From Palin’s rally in Iowa, to the controversy over Christine O’Donnell, to her appearance with the Tea Party Express in New Hampshire, there is a ton of news/buzz flowing and it’s hard to determine what to make of it all.

That said, I’m going to step out on a limb and answer the question so many friends and followers have asked, which is “what do you think Sarah Palin will do?

As far as predictions go, I’m at 100% so far. I predicted Mike Huckabee wouldn’t run about a month before his announcement. I don’t think I ever believed Donald Trump would run. I was saying Rick Perry would run a few weeks before he did and I called it on Bachmann long before she made the announcement.

To be fair, it didn’t require a rocket scientist to make those predictions, but at least I’m part of the small crowd that was right on all of them. Will my prediction record end with Sarah Palin? And what is my prediction?

My prediction with Sarah Palin is that she does not run and endorses Rick Perry. There are multiple reasons for this, none of which have not already been covered by others, but all of which play a role in me throwing my opinion of the scenario out there in the form of a prediction.

1) The RGA Relationship With Rick Perry – Governor Palin, through the Republican Governor’s Association, has a relationship with Rick Perry. I can’t find any big evidence suggesting they’re “good” friends, but it’s clear they know each other and have never really been at odds. In fact, all evidence (and there isn’t a lot of it) suggests they strongly support each other and always have.

2) Palin Endorsed Rick Perry’s Re-Election Campaign – Rick Perry faced a fairly tough primary challenge last time around. For a while it looked as if he might have actually been toppled by the more libertarian candidate in the primary. After a comment about “trutherism” on the Glenn Beck show knocked that candidate out, Perry pulled out ahead and won.

That victory didn’t come without the help of Sarah Palin. In fact, Pain endorsed Rick Perry and hit the campaign trail for his re-election efforts. Now this doesn’t mean she can’t now oppose him, but doing so would be much tougher and call into question her own decision making in candidates she supports.

3) The Tea Party Showdown – I keep asking myself “does Sarah Palin really want to go to political war with Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul and Rick Perry?” You have to keep in mind that all of these candidates have tea party support. Tea partiers have contributed to and volunteered for these campaigns, and running against them would mean running against factions of the movement.

I could be wrong, but I just don’t think Palin wants to engage in that war.

4) Campaign Infrastructure – I know Palin likes to “go rogue” in the way she does things, but even as a rogue candidate you have to have infrastructure of some sort. Media is great, but media alone does not turn out voters.

Palin has almost ZERO campaign infrastructure in place in battleground states. Furthermore, there aren’t many folks with experience left and hiring a competent team this late in the game would be very difficult.

5) Filing Deadlines – While no state ballot deadline has been crossed as of yet, there are a few on the horizon and Palin has to announce either way within the next few weeks.

6) Continued Relevance – This one is vital. Palin is a media machine and few in politics are able to drive narratives like she can. Plus, Palin is a MAJOR figure in the modern day tea party movement. If Palin isn’t going to run, she’ll have to do something big to remain relevant. She’ll also need to do something with her active and eager support base.

If Palin endorses Perry, it would seal the deal on giving Perry an almost overwhelming amount of tea party support. It would also keep Palin in a key position as an important player in the POTUS race. Palin would essentially become a king-maker in some ways, and would still be just as valuable int he eyes of the media.

7) The Romney Death Blow – A few months back Sarah Palin turned up in New Hampshire on the same day as Romney and robbed him of headlines across the nation. Palin knows New Hampshire is Romney’s ticket and she needs to hammer him down regardless of whether or not she runs.

If Palin were to endorse Rick Perry at a tea party event in New Hampshire, she would essentially deliver a death blow to Romney in his strongest state. Palin keeps her title as being the tea party fighter, she gets millions and millions of earned media, she knocks Romney out with an uppercut, she remains a critical figure in the 2012 election and she doesn’t have to initiate a campaign of her own. Nor would she have to go to the mat with Bachmann, Paul, Perry and Cain.

I could most certainly be wrong on this, but would be shocked if that turns out to be the case. At the very least she doesn’t run, and if she doesn’t run an endorsement would seem the next logical step.

So there you have it…

-Eric Odom

I have a LOT to tell you about this project, but first some thanks are in order for a few key people/groups. Without these people/groups, this project would not have been possible.

1) The Open Source Community

Patriot Action Network 2.0 and its 100,000 members were moved out of Ning and into Buddypress. I can now proudly say the entire network is built on open source software. There are three distinct groups we have to thank for this.

• WordPress – Thank you to the WordPress dev community!
• Buddypress – Thank you to the Buddypress dev community!
• OpenX Ad Server – While OpenX is no longer totally an open source platform, we started using the code back before it was purchased and there is a solid community to thank for the core. Thank you to the original OpenX dev community!

2) The Grassfire.com Team

It’s rare in politics (especially conservative politics) to find a team so willing to allow innovation to occur at the level we’ve worked through it at Grassfire.com. The folks behind Grassfire.com (our parent) have been incredibly supportive in allowing the freedom to build the foundation that will soon become a major new player in the political social networking world.

3) The PAN Team

Darla Dawald is second to none in running a social network of this size. No, we’re no Facebook or Myspace, but 100,000 members is a good size to start with and it’s not easy to manage a community of this size under any circumstances. Darla and her team have worked countless hours in setting up the states, resources and mod training program to pave the way for a full transition from Ning to Budddypress.

4) The Dev Team

I’m convinced we have one of THE best Buddypress/Wordpress devs we could have found. Mike Van Winkle is a magician when it comes to being “under-the-hood” on this thing and we simply could not have gotten to where we are without him.

Also we want to thank Ray Barnes out of Jacksonville for the help in getting the servers set up and working the way they should be working. It’s going to be a bumpy road figuring out the best way to deal with our server set-up moving forward, but we at least now have the core framework in place and it’s all very scalable.

NOW LET”S GET INTO THE GUTS OF THIS THING!

Patriot Action Network is, without question, one of the best examples of the power of open source software to date. Yes, we still have a LONG way to go to get this thing where we want it to be, but considering the fact that four months ago everything was trapped on Ning servers and we started from scratch… I’d say we’re moving right along.

First, let’s take a look at the key functionality we built into the system.

1) WordPressMS (MultiSites)

We took full advantage of WordPressMS. We didn’t just build a social network, we built in a “News Network” to run alongside it and tied the two together.

The very blog you’re reading is built into Patriot Action Network. For example, while ActivistsandAirplanes.com will get you here… you can also get here by typing in EricOdom.PatriotActionNetwork.com. This goes for CampaignTrailReport.com, LibertyNews.com, TheUnionLabelBlog.com, IronicSurrealism.com and several others.

The beauty of this is that the content of the news sites is fed into the social activity stream on the social network side. Then, in turn, users do not have to login or fill out fields when commenting or interacting with the news sites. In other words, both the social network as well as the news hubs all run on the same dashboard!

It’s kind of like marrying Google News to Facebook I guess? Well not really but you get the point…

Also, as a result of WordPressMS, we expanded the 50 state groups on the social side to give them full scale websites. For an example of this see Arizona.PatriotActionNetwork.com.

On the old Ning site you had to cram discussions, networking, information, feeds, blog posts and group information into a single URL. This caused a lot of clutter and left new visitors scrambling for another browser (very high bounce rates).

With WordPress MS we now have a website for all 50 states that are married to a group on the social side for social interactions such as discussions, networking, activity and basic information. See the social group for Arizona here.

The final piece that Ning could NEVER have provided is user blogs with custom/personal sub-domains. One of the problems with Ning is that the contrast between blogs and discussions is not at all wide. In fact there really is no difference between the two other than the way they’re indexed on a Ning network.

In Patriot Action Network, thanks to WordPressMS, users now have full scale WordPress blogs that they can create custom headers for, move around widgets and control their own sidebar, and choose a personal sub-domain. Plus… their blog is now WORDPRESS!

So for users who like to upload images, videos, files, etc… they now have a full website to do it in.

2) Buddypress

Now let’s have a look at what we did with all the Buddypress files.

• Main Page
• Members
• Groups
• User Profile (Mine!)
• Group Page
• Page

Again, there is still a lot of work to do, but it’s all coming along nicely and we’re pretty pleased with the progress thus far.

Some closing thoughts…

While Buddypress is the logical step for anyone wanting more control over their network than Ning allows, DO NOT assume or let anyone tell you that Buddypress can replicate Ning out of the box. It can’t.

You’ll run into problems and shortfalls across the board… especially if your network is larger than 5,000 members.

I could go on for a whole post on this alone, but to sum it up with the biggest headaches… visually rich editing of discussions and groups is a nightmare. Yes, there are some early stage plugins being developed, but they’re too early to be of any live use. Also, the “share” functions on Ning are a powerful way to drive traffic. In Buddypress you lose the “internal” server and list management, so you also lose the built in capability to mass share content and manage newsletter or “message broadcast” functions from within dashboard. There are some plugins that do message broadcast, but only for 5,000 users or less.

We have groups that have more than 5,000 users, so those plugins are useless to us.

Last but not least, don’t get into a site of this size without someone who knows servers. Yes, you can set up a shared hosting account and throw WordPressMS/Buddypress om it (if wildcard domains are permissable), but don’t expect that machine to tolerate more than MAYBE 1,500 unique IP logins per day.

When you get into the area of dealing with some 20,000 users interacting with the databases every day, you’re asking the server/s to deal with more than 100,000 interactions per day. Posting comments, uploading stuff, changing avatars, saving posts, etc… all of that is intense on the servers and it changes the game.

I miss the days when all you had to worry about was coping with the traffic that just “reads” content!

Anyway, this move has been a thrilling, frustrating and exhilarating experience. Now on to improving PAN 2.0!

-Eric Odom

Not only is the “deal” Boehner cut with Obama’s ilk in the Senate an economy damaging, tax hiking, debt increasing, job killing piece of legislation, it’s also a huge violation of a campaign promise made by most Republicans who voted in favor of it. Remember that 2010 Pledge to America many thought the GOP would keep once elected? Yeah… so much for that.

When the House of Representatives voted this evening on legislation to increase the limit on the federal debt by as much as $2.4 trillion, House Republicans broke a promise included in their 2010Pledge to America to post the text of bills online “for at least three days” before bringing them up for a vote.

“We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives,” said the Pledge to America. “No more hiding legislative language from the minority party, opponents, and the public. Legislation should be understood by all interested parties before it is voted on.”

Of course, under Boehner’s “leadership” the GOP has tried to redefine the meaning of the pledge they took during the last campaign cycle.

Curiously, a summary of how the Republican Congress has fulfilled thePledge that is included on the House Republican Conference’s Web sitequalifies the language of the promise to post legislation online three days before voting on it. This summary headlines the Pledge’s section on the three-day rule: “A Three Day Waiting Period on all Non-Emergency Legislation.”

The words “non-emergency” or “emergency” do not appear anywhere in the text of the original Pledge for America as published by the House Republicans, and as still available in full-text form on the Republican Conference’s Web site.

However, it might be problematic for House Republicans to call the debt-limit bill a piece of “emergency” legislation. The House has been aiming to pass debt-limit legislation by an Aug. 2 deadline ever since May 16, when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Treasury had bumped up against the statutory debt limit and that the accounting measures legally available to the Treasury in such a situation could keep the debt below that limit only until Aug. 2.

The language of the Pledge to America can be found in a PDF here.

This isn’t the first time Boehner’s house has run into problems with his own promises. Back in March the House voted on a bill to defund NPR and pulled the same scenario. While I support any effort to defund NPR, I support it in a transparent way… ya know… the way Boehner promised in 2010.

In that particular instance Boehner’s staff tried to walk back the promise by claiming the three day pledge meant two nights. Or, rather, if the time lapse happened between 11:59 PM on a Tuesday night and 12:01 AM on Thursday morning… it somehow met the three day obligation. This is nonsense, however, and it’s insulting to us to even try to spin it as truth.

Some might ask just how far John Boehner went personally as far as making the pledge. According to the following videos… pretty darn far.

and… a little History lesson to along with Boehner’s promise…

and…

and…

and…

Maybe 72 hours means something completely different to John Boehner, but to me 72 hours means three full 24 hour periods (days) and I’m guessing most Americans share the same view.

If Boehner lies about something as simple as a 72 hour period to read a bill, why on earth would we trust his word on anything else?

-Eric Odom

It’s 8:48 PM Eastern time and President Obama just held a press conference announcing a “deal” on the debt limit has been reached in the Senate. Details of the deal are still not entirely clear, but from what we do know the “compromise” represents both a win and a loss for America. The win part is marginal and mainly political. The loss part is downright horrendous.

First, the good news. As of right now it appears the deal does not include an tax hikes. This will make it increasingly difficult for Harry Reid to sell to his caucus, but Democrats are likely to pass it and move on in order to avoid their own arbitrary debt doomsday of August 2nd.

Second, the bad news. The bill is horrific news for anyone wanting to actually address the current debt crisis. Both Republicans and Democrats will tonight and tomorrow be trumpeting the notion the bill cuts $2.8 trillion. While this might be true, the bill also gives Obama another $2.8 trillion to spend through an extravagant increase in the debt limit.

In other words, all the cuts that will be paraded this week are cancelled out by a new $2.8 trillion in debt. All we’re doing at this point is allowing a continual expansion of government and spending to occur, with no solutions whatsoever implemented to bring down the amount of money our government currently owes.

Third, the worst news. The House and Senate, if they pass this nonsense, will be at fault when our credit rating is dropped. Now I personally believe we don’t deserve a triple A credit rating anyway (we’re damn near bankrupt), but I realize how devastatingly painful a drop will be. Yes, a potential default is nasty, but we’re stumbling over ourselves to avoid it and in the process we’re going to see a lot more pain when our credit rating plummets.

It’s been made clear we need to coherently prove we’ll cut $4 trillion over a ten year period. Instead of cutting $4 trillion, we’re now positioned to borrow another $2.8 trillion with a promise of $2.8 trillion in cuts.

Fourth, the bombshell news. Our great nation is teetering on bankruptcy. All the programs many Americans have trained themselves to depend on are about to collapse. Don’t believe me? Check this out.

Medicare Part A Trust Fund will be bankrupt by 2016. The Fund is on a completely unsustainable path.

• Average Medicare Part A Trust Fund Recipient Pays In - $130,000
• Average Medicare Part A Trust Fund Recipient Takes Out – $350,000

And this is just ONE government run program. There are MANY in the same situation.

In what world does this type of math make sense? There is no way possible you can put $130,000 into a bank account and later withdraw $350,000. No bank can sustain that kind of return. The government can’t either, but it has made promises that it can and depositors are now demanding their money.

Common sense logic dictates this is a recipe for disaster. And while the tea party movement is the ONLY group out here telling it like it is, mainstream media and leftist hacks in government are trying paint us as nut cases and even “terrorists.”

What in the world is going on here? Friends, I know some of you think the Boehner/Reid/McConnell plan is a “we had to do it” move. I know even our friend Allen West somehow bought the poison and moved on. The truth is, we’ll be lucky to make it through election day with any sort of functional economy.

If you think $4.00 gas, 9.2% unemployment, $3.50 milk and $9.00 coffee is bad, wait until you see what happens when our nation’s credit rating is downgraded!

Don’t be fooled, America. This “debt deal” is NOTHING short of politicians kicking the can down the road. I for one will not, under any circumstance, support a single member of the House or Senate who champions these sham “solutions” as the right decision for our nation.

The new debt deal is a disaster. Period.

-Eric Odom

UPDATE: By the way… for those asking about the credit rating trouble we’re in regardless of what happens on these pointless “deals,” here’s an explanation of that.

In trying to understand the underlying intentions of the President’s position on the debt ceiling, we need to remind ourselves of the general political philosophy he follows. There are two quotes I would like to bring to your attention… both are from radical leftist community organizer Saul Alinsky.

“The end is what you want, the means is how you get it.”

“An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth – truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing… To that extent he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations”

I believe Obama, most of his advisors and consultants, and many Democrats in the House and Senate share this ideology. It’s a very dangerous set of ideas when married to socialist political philosophy. Therein lies the problem with the current debt ceiling debate.

Many Republicans approach the “negotiations” table with the mindset that a favorable deal can be reached with those who thrive in the Alinsky way of thinking. This approach is incredibly naive and counter-productive to the movement to restore liberty in America.

When your political opponent believes the end justifies the means, you have to assume the means will not lead you to your own end if it is so vastly different from that of your opponent. Furthermore, Republicans are dealing with political opponents who believe a distortion of reality is required to reach their targeted end.

So here we have an administration that wishes to destroy the free-market fabric of America, believes that lying about reality is a worthy tool and follows the idea that the destruction of traditional American values must be achieved through whatever means necessary.

Why in the world would Republicans go to a negotiation table with such individuals and not stand their ground? Why would it not be the accepted conclusion that Obama and his ilk in Congress are using this entire debate as a political weapon to keep them in power beyond November of 2012?

Poll after poll, survey after survey shows that a majority of Americans do not want tax increases and are demanding serious cuts in spending across the board. When you’re spending tens of millions of dollars to pull a baseball player who used steroids into court and tens of millions to study fatigue in shrimp on treadmills, how can it possibly be logical to require an increase in the debt ceiling to save our economy?

Enough is enough. We’ve had it.

Our patriot movement began back in 2008 when Congress refused to address the energy crises and tried to kick the can down the road (August, 2008 “DontGo Movement” and “Drill Here, Drill Now”). That momentum carried into 2009 with the original February “Chicago Tea Party,” then the Historic April 15th Tax Day Tea Party.

Our movement hasn’t gone away. In fact, we’re now more powerful than ever in American politics. Every media outlet, every politician and virtually every American has heard of our efforts to date. But we MUST step it up a notch. We MUST bring back the momentum of the 2009 tea party and the 2009 recess rallies.

We’re all talking the talk, but we need to join together and walk the walk. Starting Monday, July 25th, we’ll be rolling out a series of specific action items aimed at communicating to Washington that we’re not going to sit this one out. We’re launching a “National Government Spending Addiction Intervention Week” at BeltwayAddicts.com and we need your help to generate some buzz for the campaign.

Please take a moment to complete one or more of the following actions:

1. Sign the Cut, Cap and Balance Petition
2. RSVP for the July 25th Tele-Townhall
3. Join our Facebook page for Beltway Addicts and the related campaign
4. Tweet about the campaign and help us generate some early buzz

Together we can make a Historic stand against Obama and his twisted agenda. Together we can again make it known that we’ve had it and we’re ready to take action.

Don’t let them take us for granted. Don’t let Washington think we’ve moved on and aren’t paying attention.

It’s time.

For Liberty,

-Eric Odom

Today, I introduced a unique bill that goes in a completely different direction than everything else we’ve been hearing out of Washington. It would force politicians to start practicing what they’ve been preaching by lowering the debt ceiling from $14.3 trillion back down to $13 trillion. Admittedly, this is not your run-of-the-mill kind of law, but it would make it imperative for Congress to think outside of the box and come up with ways to pay off a portion of our debt while drastically cutting back spending. Since 1996, the national debt has increased by an inexcusable $8.79 trillion. I firmly believe that this calls for emergency measures to reduce the debt.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are equally responsible for the government’s past fiscal irresponsibility. Sadly, whenever Congress has been given a chance to make a real impact on the budget, our spending habits, and our nation’s livelihood, Democrats and Republicans alike have caved.

Someone please mark a calendar… it appears as though we have a sitting politician willing to seriously address the problem and tell it like it really is. We as a movement should be thanking Broun and supporting his position on the debt ceiling. It’s not often a member of Congress gets it right, so when it happens we should make sure they know we appreciate it.

Thank Broun on Twitter here. Send him a note on Facebook here.

Moving along… over the weekend I suggested to a friend who works with a member of Congress that I would refuse to donate to or volunteer for any member of Congress who folds and gives Obama his 2012 message. In other words, any member of Congress who votes yes on a debt ceiling hike loses my support. That’s not to say he/she won’t get my vote against a leftist Democrat in a general election, be they’ll have to get that far without my help.

The look I got back was one of surprise that it was that serious to me. Yes, it is that serious to me.

Look, it may not be politically comfortable to stand in strong opposition to raising the debt ceiling. The financial industry is putting enormous pressure on Congress and they’re all feeling a seemingly overwhelming urge to just find a way to gasp for air. But that is of no concern to me. I’m an American and I want my rights, my liberty and my own personal financial interests to be considered first and for most. Not that of banks, wall street or government entities.

I recently started a Twitter list of candidates I plan to support and donate to for 2012. You can view/follow that list here.

The list currently consists of:

• Congressman Dan Benishek
• Senator Dean Heller
• Congressman Adam Kinzinger
• Congressman Allen West
• Congressman Joe Walsh
• Congressman Paul Broun

This list will definitely get bigger as 2012 nears. I’ve only just begun to put my support behind candidates hence it being so short. I want to be clear, though, in making sure it’s known that I will remove and withdraw support for any candidate who votes to increase the debt ceiling regardless of the type if “deal” negotiated.

America cannot afford a credit increase. We can’t even afford the limit we currently have. Raising the debt ceiling is an action I view as irresponsible, dangerous  and unAmerican.

Politicians seeking patriot movement support need to do what’s right for Americans. The patriot movement needs to seek politicians who do what’s right for us.

-Eric Odom

Before we jump into this story, let’s take a look at the definition of “kidnapping” via Wikipedia.

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against the person’s will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority.

A story breaking this week about an arrest in NY over a citizen filming a traffic stop from her private yard brings a new level of fear to the table. When I first read the story (Thanks to Drudge Report) I sort of brushed it off, thinking this type of thing is becoming routine and once you’ve seen one video, you’ve seen them all. After seeing the video, though, I feel shaken to my core over how it unfolds.

Watch the video below.

I thought our government was in place to protect our rights, not violate them. I can’t figure out why this sort of thing is tolerated.

Let’s talk about the act of practicing a right itself first. The women was in her private yard, holding a camera and filming a traffic stop. To our knowledge she had committed no crime and was absolutely within her rights to stand in her yard and film the scene as it unfolded.

Next, we hear one officer say he doesn’t feel safe with her behind him. Now, it’s entirely possible that he may not have felt safe with a citizen standing in her yard with a camera. If that is the case I would question his ability to serve as an officer of the law, but that’s beside the point. Even if the officer felt less safe with an American standing in her yard with a camera, this in no way gives him the authority to openly violate her rights and dictate where she must go.

The officer makes the comment that the woman had said something possibly threatening before she turned the camera on and this is why he felt less safe with her standing there. Based on the audio from the footage, I find this very difficult to believe. First, the woman is asking him to tell her what she said, clearly suggesting she has no idea what he’s talking about. Second, as the news source points out, if it is true that she said something potentially threatening before turning the camera on, she should have been immediately confronted on this action in response to the action itself, not as an excuse for demands after the fact.

We should also note there are witnesses present who questioned the officer about his claim of a threat. It’s quite apparent here that the woman likely said nothing threatening and the officer had no intention of backing up his claim.

The act of practicing a right we just described resulted in the woman being charged with “obstructing government administration.”

Based on the evidence we have here, it appears very possibly the officer lied and used his lie as an excuse to abuse his power in harassing the woman. The officer then goes on to make demands that he has NO legal authority to make.

The woman, knowing her rights, does not follow the officer’s demands as she knows he has no authority to make them. She has every right to stand in her yard, presents no danger, is not armed and is no way in danger herself for standing in her yard.

As a result of her exercising her right as an American, she is then physically restrained and pulled off to the officers government vehicle. She is taken against her will, and as a result of absolutely no violation of the law. She is crying, screaming, confused and has not been told why she is being taken away.

This action, by definition, is a kidnapping.

What should be downright frightening for every American is the fact that knowing your rights does nothing to protect you. Having rights does nothing to keep government from violating them. And acting within your rights can result in your arrest.

And as of today, nothing has been done about this kidnapping that took place in New York. The officer appears to be on the job with no punishment in place. From what I can find the absurd charge of “obstructing government administration” has not been dropped.

Welcome to the new America, folks. You have no rights.

-Eric Odom