"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." – Ronald Reagan

G’morning, friends. I apologize for the late start, but there’s a lot to go over!

First and foremost, you can check out my inaugural post to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism right here.

Excellent evaluation of Obama fundraising by TPCarney (Washington Examiner)
Academia wants to take your fat kid from you (ABC News)
VA girl found trying to eat herself in a cage (NY Daily News)
Speaking of eating, “manorexia” (UK Daily Mail)
House Dems won’t support balanced budget amendment (The Hill)
Sen. McCaskill calls GOP a “hot, sloppy mess” (The Hill)
Something about Mitt Romney (Politico)
Moody’s puts debt rating on review (Politico)
GOP lacks coherent message, messenger in debt talks (Politico)

Blogs:

Media Matters coverage of the Frank Luntz focus group I was in last night (Fox News)
Obama warns Cantor in debt debate (Huffington Post)
Erickson pens letter to Speaker Boehner (Erick Erickson | RedState)
Weigel offers a snarky title for so-called “exposure” of conservative policy org (Weigel | Slate)
McConnell plan institutionalizes gridlock (BlueCollarMuse)

Local:

Herman Cain comes to Murfreesboro (DNJ)
Murfreesboro rezoning issue (DNJ)
Clarksville woman charged for airport disturbance (Tennessean)

The irony is dripping off this one. A couple days ago, I wrote about the House Republicans’ effort to repeal the phase out of production of the incandescent light bulb.

I argued – essentially – that Republicans were right to repeal the 2007 law, but they went two steps too far by then federalizing light bulb production. Curiously enough, I was tipped off to the news by this post, which lambasted Tennessee Republicans for co-sponsoring the repeal-plus-federalization.

From the post:

The Republicans are the conservatives right?
The Republicans are the good guys, right?
The Republicans obey the Constitution, right?

HA! That’s what you thought.

On Monday 7/11 the Republicans in Congress will vote to federalize
lightbulbs!
And EVERY Tennessee Republican in Congress is cosponsoring this bill!
Here is a list of all of the cosponsors.

The bill (HR2417) known as The BULBS Act is being sold to the people by saying that it will repeal the coming ban on all incandescent bulbs, but in reality it usurps state and local powers and does an end-run around the 9th and 10th Amendment. You can read the text of the legislation
here.

In effect this bill will say that all regulations and laws about consumer types of lightbulbs will now be handled at the federal level. The 10th AmendmentCLEARLY says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

WHY are the Tennessee Republicans supporting this bill? Why not support the other bill that repeals the incandescent lightbulb ban WITHOUT trampling the Constitution in the process? It already exists, has lots of cosponsors, and is listed here.

Can these elected officials not read the Constitution? Why do they want to federalize all laws about lightbulbs and take power from the states? Why are they expanding the reach and size of the federal government?

Maybe you should contact your Congresscritter and let them know what you think about this and tell them you are NOT going to fall for their deceit and unconstitutional antics.

While the by-line is anonymous (TN Sons of Liberty is hardly a real person), it’s pretty obvious it was written by a Ron Paul supporter.

Well… heh heh heh… The House voted last night at 6:45 on the BULBs Act, and who do we have here…

Both Texas Congressman Ron Paul and his protégé Michigan Congressman Justin Amash voted in favor of federalizing light bulb production and taking the authority out of the hands of the states.

The bill ultimately failed, but it makes me wonder: Why does Ron Paul hate the 10th Amendment and the U.S. Constitution?

Essentially, I’ve employed one of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules” here – Make the enemy live up to his own book of rules.

Ron Paul and his supporters are certainly not enemies, but I’ve put them in an impossible position to defend. Calling the Tennessee Republican delegation out for supporting the bill means calling Ron Paul and Justin Amash out. Hmmm.

Just sayin’…

This hit my inbox just now:

Friend –

We’re filing this campaign’s first financial report with the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

You own this campaign, so you deserve to get this news first.

And thanks to you and other supporters all over the country, there’s a lot of good news to share.

I’m not going to steal my own thunder here in the email — you’ve got to watch the video to get the news about what we’ve raised, how we’re spending it, and what’s next:

The Washington chatter around the report we’re releasing has focused on one number: the sum total we’ve raised.

But other numbers that the pundits often ignore — like how many field offices we and the DNC have open, how many one-on-one conversations we’ve had with potential supporters, and how many people have already decided to own a piece of this campaign — tell the real story of our campaign.

All those numbers are in the video, and they’re the ones you should be proud of today. Watch it now:

http://my.barackobama.com/July-Report

One more thing: It’s a fact that our opponents won’t have hundreds of thousands of people giving whatever they can afford — so they’ll be relying heavily on money from two sources to fund an unprecedented barrage:

1. Washington lobbyists and special interests whose explicit aim is to influence the federal government in any way they can.

2. Outside groups that don’t have to disclose a word about what they’ve raised or who they’ve raised it from, like one of Karl Rove’s political organizations. His groups have set an astounding $120 million fundraising goal in their campaign to tear down President Obama.

The threat to our success from these determined groups — acting solely in their own interest, not the public interest — is real, and it’s growing. And it’s going to take serious commitment and vigilance from all of us to withstand their attacks while still building the grassroots campaign we’ll need to win.

We’re off to a solid start. But this is just the beginning.

So now, back to work.

Thanks,

Messina

Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

I wrote earlier about Congressman Jim Moran’s budget workshop on Monday night.

Tomorrow, the Washington Examiner will run my letter to the editor about the event:

Even liberals in Arlington want to balance the budget

I attended Rep. Jim Moran’s budget workshop Monday night in Ballston and was stunned by the number of concerned Northern Virginians who were committed to cutting billions of dollars in government spending in an effort to balance the budget and reduce the national debt.

Northern Virginia — and Arlington in particular — is very liberal, but on nearly every major spending issue presented by the nonpartisan Concord Coalition, attendees overwhelmingly supported dramatic cuts. One person in my group said: “We can’t keep spending. Everything must be on the table.”

My group alone cut over $2.2 trillion from the federal budget over 10 years. Congressman Moran, who’s certainly not known for his fiscal prudence, would do well to listen to his constituents — both liberal and conservative. There seems to be bipartisan consensus on cutting the size and scope of government.

Matthew Hurtt
Arlington