If the Tea Party in interested in primary challenges for Republicans in the next Congress, here are the 7 who voted NO on defunding Planned Parenthood (also known as Margaret Sangers “Negro Project”).

Charlie Bass (NH),

Judy Biggert (IL),

Mary Bono Mack (CA),

Charlie Dent (PA),

Robert Dold (IL),

Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ),

Richard Hanna (NY).

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) voted present.

Ron Robinson asked: “…what was it about you that got you so quickly selected as a state delegate in so many different states?”  The people who run the GOP DO NOT WANT YOU the Conservative-noun/TEA Party or Pro-Life Activist to just SHOW UP! They have the County Meetings and all Conventions planned out. Who they will elect for which position, what planks they will have in the Platform, which Rules they will operate under, EVERYTHING! They do not want “bomb-throwers” SHOWING UP to well…to..to…to throw bombs into the works. And believe me, the BIGGEST BOMB you can throw is a Pro-Life plank for the Platform. If your new, it will smoke out your friends and the RINO’s. That is why you need to bring your friends and family and get them to be Precinct Committeemen or Delegates as well. And believe me, you will NEED like minded Conservative-noun friends there to back each other up!

In MI and TX I was young and there were not enough people running. If your the only candidate on the ballot….baby, your elected as the PC! Then SHOW UP at the monthly County meetings. If you don’t SHOW UP you wont get elected to District or State. You don’t go to District or State, you won’t go to the National Convention and have a voice in WHO the GOP nominee for President will be! Unless of course you have friends in VERY HIGH PLACES who can get you one of the very few AT-Large Delegate positions. In 1976 This is how I got to go as a voting Delegate to the GOP National Convention in Kansas City.  That year, Texas had Four out of a Hundred Delegates as, At-Large, it included The only sitting GOP Senator from Texas, John Tower, who although a Ford supporter, had to vote the first two ballots for Reagan! Otherwise NO Delegate slot!

The State delegates vote on who your National Committeman/woman and State Chair will be. These are the folks who in the next few week will vote for National GOP Chairman!

In CO the RINO’s running the County Party (the State Rep and County Party Chair eventually switched to Dem ) did not want a Pro-Lifer going to the District. There were enough people willing to be Delegates but not Alternates, so I got an Alternate slot and SHOWED UP at District were again not enough Delegates SHOWED UP so I got a Delegate Slot and from there meet enough like minded pro-lifers to get a Delegate slot at the State Convention. All because I SHOWED UP! The next two State Conventions were a lot easier because I and like minded PC’s SHOWED UP at EVERY monthly County meeting and elected ourselve to the Executive Committee.

Don’t like the Rules? Get elected to the Rules Committee!
Don’t like the Platform? get elected to the Platform Committee!
Don’t like the Candidates your putting up? get elected to the Candidate Selection Committee! in some (smaller?) Counties this may also be the Executive Committee.

But You can’t do anything about it if you don’t SHOW UP!

In 1972, when I was 18, I registered as a candidate for Precinct Delegate and won the election in the March MI primary and went to the Genessee County MI Convention. From there I was elected as a delegate to the District and MI State Convention.  At the State Convention I had my first taste of Affirmative Action.  It was decided by the Romney Republicans I was young enough, but too white, to be a National Delegate to the Convention in Miami, so a Delegate with different skin tone was sent.  Oh well, I was committed to Nixon, so maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing .

In 1976 I was living in the Washtenaw County MI precinct of the Republican National Committeeman, Peter Fletcher, attending University, and doing advance work for the Reagan campaign in the Midwest.  I ran against Peter in the MI primary election for Precinct Delegate, and lost by 6 votes.  I thought it would be impossible to be a Reagan delegate in ’76….alas.  Michigan had proportional representation in ’76, you get 10% of the primary vote, you get 10% of the delegates to the National Convention.  Reagan got 35% of the primary vote and was allocated 35% of the delegates to the National Convention.  That came to 29 delegates. Since only 19 committed Reagan Delegates won in the primary elections, MI had 10 At-Large Delegate positions to fill for the National Convention who would be committed to Reagan for the first two votes. I still remember the day Ronald Reagan called and asked if I would be one of those 10 At-Large Delegates (and help on the Wednesday night Reagan floor demonstration at the National Convention, which is another story and how I moved to Texas). The Milikin/Ford (RINO) Republicans said they would challenge me as a Delegate because I dared run in the primary against the GOP Committeeman from MI. The MI Reagan Chairman, State Senator Jack Wellborn, placed me as the First Reagan voting Delegate and himself second, so that they would have to challenge every other Reagan Delegate to get to me. They didn’t challenge, and I was proud to cast the first vote from Gerry Ford’s home State for Ronald Wilson Reagan in Kansas City!

In ‘78 ran as a Tarrant County Texas Precinct Delegate and won and went to the District and State Conventions and served on the Executive Committee of the Texas Young Republicans.

In Colorado, I went to the January, 1996 Summit County GOP Convention. The convention voted on delegates from the precincts and I became a Delegate because we had too many delegate slots and not enough delegates. Went to the District and State Convention (held on the same weekend) as an Alternate Delegate, and again, not enough Delegates showed up at the District or State Conventions, so got to vote as a Delegate at both.

While living in Summit County CO, I went to every County GOP monthly meeting for almost 5 years  Went to 2 more State Conventions as a Delegate. There were about 3 or 4 committed Conservative-nouns on the County Executive Committee. The rest were pretty RINO, but we Conservative-nouns, were able to make a difference in County Candidate Selection, Rules and other Party business.

Woody Allen said 90% of life is just ‘Showing Up”. Well folks, 90% of political life is just showing up as a voting delegate at your monthly County GOP meeting. Take your like minded Conservative-noun friends and family.  Vote for each other for Executive Committee, Rules Committe and if the Executive Committee in your County doesn’t have the responsibility for Candidate Selection, get on that one too. Vote for each other to go to the District, State and National Conventions. You CAN make a difference. especially if you or a like minded Conservative-noun get elected as National Committeeman or Committeewoman or State Party Chair. You CAN effect who runs the Party!

My First Diary Entry!

The US Manucturing Base is far from dead. Looking at some historical numbers we see:

Hat tip for this chart from Curious Cat Investment and Economics Blog at curiouscat.com where you can seek further detail on numbers. Chart Based on the latest UN Data, for global manufacturing, in billions of current US dollars. 

This chart gives an overview on the scale of US manufacturing compared to other of the worlds industrialized economies. The sheer magnitude of U.S. manufacturing prowess is good to keep in mind when we start whining about how the US industrial base has disappeared offshore; is shrinking so fast that we will soon be overtaken by China, Brazil and India; or that unions are destroying same.

If you were to look at the 2008 manufacturing  numbers per capita an even starker picture of how much each individual American produces emerges. From the World Fact Book 2008 we see:

USA Population estimate 2008: 301,139,967

China population estimate 2008: 1,321,851,888

Brazil population estimate 2008: 190,010,647

India population estimate 2008: 1,129,866,154

Lets round the population number to the nearest million and then look at manufacturing per capita, if I did my math correctly……we see:

USA per capita manufacturing dollar value: $6,083

China per capita manufacturing dollar value: $1,058

Brazil per capita manufacturing dollar value: $989

India per capita manufacturing dollar value: $210

The United States Manufacturing base is the largest in the world by any measure and American workers are the still the most productive in the world, and should remain so for a long time to come! Let’s us keep these numbers in mind, and in proper perspective, when we whine about losing all those jobs to offshore manufacturing or unions, which in 2006 were only 11.6% of the manufacturing workforce, destroying our manufacturing base, or that ANY other country will overtake the US in manufacturing per capita anytime soon.