Chloe Kathrine Odom

Normally I don’t get emotional over anything. Usually I’m pretty strong mentally, but when it comes to family, I sometimes get a little mushy. Especially when it involves a brand new life.

That said, I would like to be the first to, via the web, welcome my new niece, Chloe Kathrine Odom into the world.

Congratulations to my brother and his wife on the birth of little Chloe! These pictures were sent via cell phone a few minutes ago.

The little glow worm is now a oxygen breathing American!

Congrats to Justin and Kayla!!!

Thanks to Palin

For the first time this entire campaign season, I can proudly say that I will indeed vote for John McCain. And for the record, this wasn’t an easy decision. Being a Libertarian who planned on voting for Bob Barr and cannot stand John McCain’s anti-freedom politics (McCain/Feingold attack on free speech, for example), I figured McCain would hand us a plate full of the same old shit when choosing a vice president candidate to join him on the GOP ticket.

Instead, he shocked me, among MANY other free-market political activists with the choice of reformer Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska.

I’ve been a big fan of Palin for some time now. I remember blogging about her back in December, and I’ve always loved her true maverick spirit. She’s not afraid to tell it like it is, she’s not afraid to go against the flow, and her 16 years of experience in politics proves it.

Indeed, Sarah Palin is the single reason that I will now cast my vote for John McCain. She is also the reason that I will be launching ThankstoPalin.com this week.

ThankstoPalin.com
Thanks to Palin is a website myself and a few other young activists are developing to talk about the facts, create an information portal for Palin, and explain why she is reason enough for those sitting on the fence to join the McCain/Palin support train.

Keep an eye out for announcements. This website should be a lot of fun!

-Eric Odom

Did Rush Signal Palin Pick?

My take on Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech

Yesterday was an exciting day for us political junkies. We love it when every major media outlet and virtually every corner of the internet is bubbling with political chatter, and we thrive on following as much of it as possible.

During the two major party conventions, political consultants, organization staffers, pollsters, campaigners, strategists, and tens of thousands of activists slam social media realms to pitch their view of what they see happening.

Which is why I feel the center-right realm might have missed the point of Michelle Obama’s DNC speech last night. You see, as soon as the speech ended, most of those on the right instantly began saying things like “it was too scripted”, “it did nothing for me”, “the satellite moment was awkward”, etc.

I agree with all of these comments. In fact, I thought the entire speech was a set up. But here is what we’re missing, the speech was not developed for center-right political junkies.

Do you think the Obama campaign put Michelle in a soft tone blue dress, a new salon hair style, and a series of super smiles to impress center-right bloggers and politico’s? Do you think the people calling the shots for Team Obama put on the family skit so that people like me would suddenly have an “oh, I can vote for him now” moment?

Of course not!

The Michelle Obama speech was designed to reach into the emotional side of millions of Americans who want to know who Barack Obama is. These people, many of whom are undecided, want to see what his family is all about, where he came from, how he got started, etc. This chunk of the electorate can be moved, and can become supporters.

The intention of the Michelle Obama speech was to set aside the anti-American remarks that Michelle has been known to make, and show her for a real, every day woman with a real American story to share.

To kick things off, they brought out Michelle Obama’s brother, a good looking, well spoken family man who coaches basketball for Oregon State. The guy was quite authentic, and lends credit to the idea that Michelle Obama is just an average family woman caught up in an extraordinary scenario.

Then comes Michelle Obama, talking about her parents and how well she and siblings were brought up. She went on to talk about how the American dream was achieved through hard work, family values and public service, and she takes every chance to plug the idea of the ability to succeed for each and every American.

It was very emotional, and while we political junkies sat behind the scenes knowing full well the entire event was plotted, those in the audience and watching on TV were in tears.

To follow it up, the kids joined Michelle on the stage and Barack Obama was piped in via satellite to say high and help ensure the family was portrayed across the convention stage, and in turn, the entire country.

The liberal media instantly began huffing and puffing “was day one of the DNC a waste?”. It appears liberal MSM wanted to see a fight, and they wanted Dems to take the gloves off. It didn’t happen.

Much of the center-right realm began claiming it wasn’t enough and won’t do much.

I disagree. I think it was exactly what the Obama camp wanted. I believe they were able to tug at the hearts and minds of their base, as well as many who might have been on the fence because of a lack of understanding for the Obama family.

Well played, team Obama. Well played.

Is Jaiku finally getting some attention?

This morning I logged on and found that Jaiku was apparently down all weekend for “server Maintenance”. That struck me as a bit odd, as Jaiku is now owned by Google, and to be down for several days is some serious “maintenance”.

Is it possible that Google is preparing to finally do something serious with Jaiku? I mean, many of us in social media realms have speculated for some time now. Google is a giant company with enough funding to do virtually anything it wants, so having its weight behind Jaiku is, in my opinion, a very good thing.

I like Jaiku. I like the layout, the interface, the reliability, etc. The only problem for me so far is that it offers nothing new to the social media realm. Between Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed and Facebook, I just haven’t had much of a need for a tool like Jaiku. But, I always felt that Google would come in and tie it into their network, making it the social part of their apps engine and user suite.

THAT would make it useful and quite cool.

So, is the fact that the site has been down for a few days an indication that something big might be happening? It’s possible. With Google, anything is possible.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Obama is VERY dangerous for America

Most who know me know that I am in no way a supporter of John McCain for President. There are a variety of mistakes he’s made that I will never be able to get over… mainly the McCain/Fiengold war on free speech.

But, the only reason I’m comfortable voting for a third party (Bob Barr), is because I live in Illinois, a state where John McCain doesn’t have a chance in hell anyway. If I were in a battleground state, I would, even as a Libertarian, pull the lever for McCain as a vote against Barack Obama.

Here is why…

Barack Obama is an elitist, left wing, socialist minded, big government branded attorney from one of the most corrupt districts in the Nation… Illinois. He accepts big money political contributions (investments in taxpayer money kick back) and returns them in amounts that equal many times more than the original contribution.

Just look at the recent pork/political scam of the Adler Planetarium here in Chicago for example.

Although earmarking large sums of money to top supporters and fundraisers is a popular practice in both houses of Congress, not many people would expect such questionable activity from a shining star of liberalism and reform like Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Sadly, he is following a pattern of conspicuous allocations of federal funds. Just as he handed a million dollar earmark to his wife’s employers in 2006 (immediately after which her pay shot up from $121,910 a year to $316,962), Sen. Obama is now drastically increasing earmarks that go to his biggest supporters.

In 2006, Sen. Obama requested an earmark $300,000 to replace and update the projector system at the Adler Planetarium. In 2008, he requested $3,000,000 for replacement of the projector system and other equipment in the Sky Theater. For reference, this is three times the amount he earmarked for the HIV/AIDS Policy and Research Institute at Chicago State University.

While the Adler Planetarium earmarks look normal on the surface, there is a catch. The Chairman and two of the Vice Chairman of the Adler Planetarium Board of Trustees raised a total of almost $250,000 for Sen. Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign. The Adler Planetarium was probably pleasantly surprised when they found that their earmark increased by $2.7 million dollars, in other words, by a factor of ten.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Frank Clark, stands out amongst Obama supporters. On Sen. Obama’s website, Mr. Clark is listed as a bundler who raised in excess of $200,000 for the Senator’s Presidential campaign. In 2004, Mr. Clark donated $5,000 to the then State Senator Obama’s U.S. Senate bid. In 2005, Mr. Clark became the Chairman of the Board at Adler Planetarium, and in 2006 Sen. Obama earmarked $300,000 to the Planetarium. Then, in the same year that Mr. Clark’s involvement in the Obama campaign skyrocketed to raising an excess of $200,000, Sen. Obama’s earmark for the Adler Planetarium increased tenfold to $3,000,000.

What happened to the idea of change? Is this the change that liberals think they are getting by supporting Barack Obama?

This is just the beginning, however. Barack Obama also has deep ties with some of the most corrupt, vile, fraudulent left wing organizations in the country. And not only is he friendly with these groups, he actively seeks to inject taxpayer dollars into their hands.

Take ACORN for example… we recently started following ACORN voter fraud and corruption on The Union Label Blog, a site I own and maintain to help keep tabs on the modern Union scam. As it turns out, Barack Obama has likely put ACORN or ACORN spin-offs on the payroll.

This from a more recent post exposing the Obama/ACORN connection.

Indeed Obama has a long history of working with ACORN in his community organizing days in Chicago. A subsidiary of ACORN, Citizens Services Inc (CSI), is part of what John Fund of the Wall Street Journal calls “Obama’s Liberal Shock Troops”.

For example, a search for ACORN at the 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue address in New Orleans uncovers at least 70 different organizations operating out of that front. One of these, Citizens Services Inc, has received almost $1 million dollars from Barack Obama’s campaign in the last five months.

Citizens Services Inc seems to run under the radar and they do not advertise their services. In response to one of their board members, someone named Sunday Alibi, we were told that this work is done by ACORN, not Citizens Services. Citizens Services has worked on the Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) efforts for campaigns in at least two states, Maryland and Ohio.

First, they were involved in the Maryland Congressional race of 2006, which brought about an FCC complaint this year involving Representatives Al Wynn and challenger Donna Edwards, Wynn vs. Edwards. At the center of the complaint is Citizens’ Services Inc and several other ACORN entities. According to the Louisiana Secretary of State all three of these businesses work out of 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, ACORN’s business address.

According Lori Sherwood, Wynn’s campaign manager, Edwards made three payments of $76,866.80 to Citizens Services Inc, for a door-to-door get-out-the-vote effort. It seems CSI listed as their business address, 11 Chase Street, Baltimore. When Ms. Sherwood checked the address she found no CSI/ACORN. Upon further examination by Ms. Sherwood, CSI was listed as a foreign company, which was false. Finally Ms. Wynn discovered that the company had forfeited their license to do business in Maryland two months after the 2006 primary race.

Secondly, I looked for CSI/ACORN “campaign consulting” fees in Ohio. I called the Secretary of State of Ohio to find out if they were listed as an active business and they were not. I did find the following businesses operating in Ohio, ACORN LLC, ZACORN (active fictitious name) and acorn.net. As there was no permit for CSI to do business in Ohio, clearly any GOTV activities were operating illegally in that state as well.After placing my call to the Secretary of State in Ohio, I found the following advertisement seeking workers for the Obama campaign, dated February 21, 2008. These are positions paid for by the Obama for America campaign. The full body of the help wanted ad can be found here: Obama Seeks Canvassers

And do we even need to go into the details on how ACORN actively works to block free speech?

Didn’t think so…

I could go on and on about Obama and his far left wing allegiance, but you know what Google is and how to use it. I encourage my Libertarian and Independent friends to take a very close look at the background of Barack Obama, and think long and hard about what an Obama Presidency would mean for this great country.

In other words… vote responsibly.

-Eric Odom

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted!

Bill Collier
The American Communicator

There is a revolution underway, building slowly and steadily, growing in power and determination, against the “liberals” (translates: Socialists) in the House who populate both parties! This is a SERIOUS challenge to the status quo, to the power structure of liberal lawmakers, their rich patrons (Soros comes to mind) and the running dog Pravda Media who support them but YOU probably don’t even know about it!

One of the key leaders of this revolution, which is being covered on Twitter, is Rep. John Culberson from Texas, who is using Twitter and Qik to keep us updated on the goings on.

Culberson is not only challenging the liberal orthodoxy that prevails on Capital Hill in the unholy alliance between politicians, rich patrons, and the Pravda media, but he is spearheading a new drive to create a New Media alternative that will bury the “old media.”

On August 1, 2008 what is now being called “The Texas Tea Party” began with the historic rebellion of Republican Representatives refusing to go home after the socialist leadership (Nancy “Lights Out” Pelosi) abruptly “adjourned” the House at around 11:30 AM.

The Republicans, we would call them “Republicanists” or “Bullmoose Republicans”, stayed and gave rousing speeches, demanding that the Democrats come back to hold a vote on drilling for oil. Men and women who had been in DC for years and who had been relatively “tame” in their opposition to the Socialists suddenly discovered their “inner revolutionary” and gave the most rousing speeches they had ever given.

Two historic events occurred that the world missed, thanks to the Pravda media Blackout: a “rump” session of Congress was held in rebellion AFTER the House was adjourned and the entire affair was covered almost exclusively by the New Media, in this case Twitter (where you give 140 character messages, or “Tweets”) and Qik, a live streaming video service.

This seems small and insignificant, but as with most historic events that occur, very few people either KNOW what happened or, if they do know, it was covered in such a way (Fox News was the only coverage, but it was WEAK coverage) that you may not fully appreciate how dramatic this is.

So-called “conservatives” (we prefer the term Republicanist because our movement transcends the idea of just “conserving” something, we are the only REAL progressives) are fired up, for the first time in a long time, and imbued with new hope that their party is on its way back from its dismal failures over the last 2-3 years.

The liberal/Socialist orthodoxy was challenged by people who are no longer going to limit their opposition to the ways and means of the “establishment” which these brave Representatives are finally realizing will always put them at a disadvantage. This means new, bolder efforts to REBEL from the Socialist orthodoxy will be undertaken and they will not be constrainted by artificial, often self imposed, limitations.

Finally, and significantly, the process of getting the news out and covering this is occurring outside of the Pravda media. Nancy “Lights Out” Pelosi shut the House down, literally turned the lights out, and forced C-Span to turn its cameras off in a desperate bid to silence the truth and deny truth seekers access to information.

While the Pravda Media lavishes coverage on Obama’s “energy plan” on August 4, 2008 they ignore the only REAL plans that will work, they Black Out the House uprising, and they attempt to make the public think that there is only one side in this fight, the Socialist side.

Even so called “conservative” Glenn Beck was duped by the media into covering this sarcastically, focusing on the past failures of the GOP, and belittling this whole effort.

In reality, the #dontgo revolution is galvanizing a small core of people who are determined to go AROUND the Pravda media and the Socialist orthodoxy in Congress, to take matters into their own hands, develop our own networks to get information out, and then motivate the masses to get involved and DEMAND action from their elected leaders.

How can you get involved?

I will make this easy: email me at Upadaria@yahoo,com and I will invite you to join Twitter and also send you links for websites that are covering this with live blogging and streaming video.

The Pravda media and the Socialists in DC are not going to make this easy, we are going to have do this without them, against them, and by going over their heads directly to the American People.

While Obama says “we need to end the age of oil in our time” in his ongoing bid to end the age of America’s greatness, men like Congressmen Culberson are saying “drill now AND develop ALL energy solutions which America, as the greatest nation on the earth, has the power to do!”

What are the possible results of this revolution?

First, the “Republicanists” in the GOP are on the path to take back the party from the Socialists infiltrators (rinos) and are seizing the initiative in terms of the GOP agenda.

Second, the censorship of the Socialists and the bias of the Pravda media are being exposed, people on our side are starting to realize that they must develop their own institutions, that they cannot rely on the socialist establishment.

Third, in line with item 2, our side is starting to realize who the enemy are, all “liberals” which means Socialists and their running dog Pravda media, and their nature, that they do not fight fair and that trying to be “civil” with them and play by THEIR rules is not going to work.

Fourth, and significantly, our side is being inspired by this Pravda media Blackout to quickly organize and create their own alternative media, not just as an alternative, but with the goals of BURYING the old media!

I know where I was when this revolution started, and I am in the thick of it, where are you?