“We think we can do what the tea party did,” Jones said in an interview with The Fix. “They stepped forward under a common banner, and everybody took them seriously. Polls suggest there are more people out there who have a different view of the economy, but who have not stepped forward yet under a common banner.”

“There’s a lot of organizational muscle behind the initiative, and Van is one of the most inspiring figures in the progressive movement, so I’m looking forward to these efforts, and they certainly come at a time when Republican overreach has primed progressives to take action” said Markos Moulitas, the founder of the liberal blog network Daily Kos.

Jones launched his group last night with a one and a half hour long event live streamed from NY.  He called the the fact that the US has a major debt and deficit problem “a dangerous lie” and led the crowd in chants of “America is not broke!”

Somebody should tell that to the CBO, who reported this week that our long term debt is going to doom the economy.

Without providing any facts, Jones compared fiscal conservatives to al Qaeda,

“Paul Ryan’s budget would knock out more critical American infrastructure than our sworn enemies ever dreamed of knocking out.

Most of his speech was the same old progressive schpeil, the rich don’t pay their fair share, unions built middle-class America, people do not make enough money, yada, yada, yada. He even used the SHMOTUS’ line about paying taxes being patriotic.

Jones’ project demonstrates how little the progressives learned from the tea party movement.  The tea party movement is all about empowering the individual, it would not have had the same passion and staying power if the organization and the message came down from a central organization.  To this day there is not one united tea party group and the national organizations that do exist are more bottom up than top down.

Part of the reason the tea party movement grew is that voters were sick and tired of being lied to by their representatives and other politicians. Starting with an obvious lie, that the US is not being strangled by its debt, will not win them many supporters.

Despite what Van Jones and the progressive movement believes, Americans are not stupid.  Sure The American Dream Movement may pick up some support at the beginning, but it wont take long to realize that the Van Jones-led group is to the tea party movement, what Milli Vanilli was to music. And in the end, Americans do not like fakers.

Inspired by opportunistic Bay Area politicians who have sought to boycott and demonize the state of Arizona, the May Day marchers screamed profanities, made obscene gestures and attempted to storm a police barricade.  Unlike allegations of similar behavior made by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, all of this vile behavior is caught on video.

Pro-Illegal Immigration Protesters with Che Guevara Sign

Pro-Illegal Immigration Protesters with Communist Flag

Sign depicting AZ Gov. Jan Brewer as Hitler

“Racist” and “Hate-Filled” sign from Tea Party Protester

This man was called a “racist” for supporting the AZ law.

The Latino man on the left tries to convince the Caucasian man on the right that the Tea Party Protesters are not racist.  He was unsuccessful.

When Rep. Carson gathered reporters around him to spread the myth of racial slurs being hurled “fifteen times” he painted the protesters not just as racists, but as a terrorist threat.  We know this, because Kerry Picket of the Washington Times recorded Rep. Carson as he explained it all to eager reporters.

KERRY PICKET (Wash. Times): Do you think the people outside are generally dangerous or no?

REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely. I worked in homeland security. I’m from intelligence, and I’ll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security…I mean terrorism has an Islamic face, but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. (inaudible) Its the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for].

PICKET: From groups like this?

REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely.

And we can now see this two pronged message continuing in the narrative from Democratic politicians and the media:  The Tea Party protests are really about white rage and they are sowing the seeds for domestic terrorism.  This was the message delivered by Rep. Carson that afternoon and that is the message the media has run with.

Only problem is, we can’t find any proof to back up Rep. Carson’s story.  And when challenged, he hides behind the legend and stature of Rep. Lewis.  The constant challenge of “Are you calling Rep. John Lewis a liar?” must now be answered with “Are you calling Rep. Andre Carson beyond reproach?”.

Only problem is:  Rep. Cleaver wasn’t there.  He didn’t walk behind Rep. Lewis coming down the steps of Cannon on the way to the Capitol.  He walked behind Rep. Lewis coming UP the steps of Cannon on the way BACK from the Capitol.

Of course, Rep. Cleaver and Rep. Carson could claim that racial slurs were screamed both times by the Tea Party protesters.  If that’s the case, then they have contradicted their own narrative from two weeks ago when the AP ran a story with the headline:

Wrong video of health protest spurs N-word feud

The entire thesis of that story was that the dumb, right-wing wackos were looking at the wrong video at the wrong time to show that racial slurs didn’t happen.  We’d been looking at a video showing the Congressional Black Caucus walking up the steps of Cannon returning from the Capitol.  But, it is now claimed, the racial slurs were shouted earlier in the day while Rep. Carson and Rep. Lewis were walking to the Capitol.

If last month’s narrative was that there were no racial slurs shouted on the way up the steps of Cannon, then how did Rep. Cleaver hear a chorus of the ‘N-word’?

It seems there’s only one question left to ask:  Who’s lying, Rep. Carson or Rep. Cleaver?  Or… both?

We have noticed that there is a mystery man positioned at the bottom of the steps of the Cannon Building with a video camera.  He is in the exact position to capture the moment that Rep. Carson later described to reporters.  He is dressed in a dark suit and he is wearing some kind of credential on his jacket.

Who is this guy?

Congressional approval ratings are at historic lows at around 14% (an acquaintance joked that during the American Revolution, the British Crown had double that approval rating, with roughly a third of colonists supporting the Crown and Parliament). Rasmussen recently reported that only 21% of Americans believe our government has the consent of the governed, and CNN reports that 56% of Americans believe that our government poses an immediate threat to American citizens’ rights and freedoms . . . well you get the idea.

The American people are making it clear where they stand, and in an unmistakable manner. Next week, on April 15th, more than one million people will be at more than 1,000 Tea Party protests across the country as more and more Americans come out to protest where elected officials are taking this country.

These events, though, are more than simply about venting and having their voices heard. They serve to connect people and communities and grassroots organizations. They also allow us to celebrate and remind the rest of our fellow citizens about our Nation’s founding principles: free men, free markets, and the rule of law, which so many in Washington and in state capitols seem to have forgotten.

But we must not allow all of our efforts and energy on April 15th to dissipate on the 16th. If our voices are truly to be heard, we need to build on our protests and begin implementing. A return to our founding principles as a way of life will only occur if those in the Tea Party and 9-12 movement dig into their local communities, hard-wire their electoral precincts, identify and get people trained to run for state and local office, build muscular grassroots coalitions to keep their elected officials accountable, and create greater transparency in local government. Only thenwill we begin to see real change.

That’s why American Majority, Smart Girl Politics, the John Hancock Committee for the States and RedState.com are joining together to conduct the Post-Party Summits: Organizing for a Free America. The time for the Tea Partiers and 9.12ers to organize in a concerted fashion has come.

The Post-Party Summits will not be about firing people up with motivational speakers, though we’ve got some great talent coming in to do just that. It will not be about whipping up emotions and telling people, “We need to fight. We need to have our voices heard,” and then sending those people home with no mission or goals or tools to achieve them. No, the Summits are about empowering people. They are about giving people the useful tools for making the necessary and great changes needed to turn this country around. Each Summit will have 15 workshops with topics ranging from how to hardwire your precincts, to running for office at the state and local level, to conducting voter registration drives, to learning how to become an investigative journalist. The Summits are about organizing, networking, and more importantly, about winning. After all, the people who get to create policy are those who make it across the finish line on Election Day.

Let me explain why they are called Post-Party Summits. It mostly has to do with the fact that they are in the weeks following April 15th. However, it is also about the idea that freedom-loving conservatives must take it upon themselves and move past a reliance on traditional political parties. The country will not be saved by political parties. A party for party’s sake isn’t going to get us very far.Do we really think that simply electing Republicans in the fall solves our problems? We’ve been there, done that. We do need a change of leadership in Washington and elsewhere, but America will only be truly saved by those Americans who take it upon themselves to do the hard work necessary to turn this country around.

Our summit is all about reinvigorating American Exceptionalism: the ideal that it is the individual – not the government – who is capable of rising to the great tasks and accomplishing great things. I challenge people when I speak that they should not assume that the person standing to their right or left will do anything to save this great country; they, themselves, must act. For too long we’ve assumed that the right things would be done by our elected officials; as a result we as a country are in something of a political depression, lost in those wrong assumptions.

No more.

We have awakened and we know the tasks before us: we must have new political leadership that puts into policy the great ideals of our Founding: limited government, free enterprise and individual freedom. We must have new leadership that reflects the values and interests of the American people, not the interests of the political class or those I call the patronage system cronies. We must have responsive government that respects the American people. We must have the American people engaged and demanding greater accountability and transparency from its government and leaders, and that accountability must be ongoing, irrespective of who is elected to office. The time for that change is now.

A good model in American history is what the Progressives were able to achieve between 1912-1920. In those eight years, they fundamentally changed American government and the culture. Their “reform” included the 16th Amendment and the income tax, which led to the formation of the Internal Revenue System. The Progressives founded the Federal Reserve, the Food and Drug Administration, and a myriad of other regulatory agencies that have now become overbearing and intrusive into Americans’ lives. Their so-called “progressive” reforms have led to less freedom and liberty for the American people, and an explosion in the growth of government and its spending (the U.S. government’s entire spending was 2.5% of GDP in 1900. That percentage alone would not cover Medicare’s costs in 2010).

But what the Progressives, or as I call them, the Regressives, did a hundred years ago, liberty-minded people can do now: we can bring about the greatest change in American history over the last century. We can stop this slouch towards statism, this growth of government into every nook and cranny of our lives, and return this country once again to the classical liberalism of our Founders.

However, these changes will not come easily: do you really think the Left is going to roll over, or the political class is going to willingly relinquish power? The only way we bring about the changes needed is if we organize in meaningful ways and become the long-term political force that I believe the Tea Party and 9-12 movement can, and must, become. And those of us involved with the Summits are certain that the Post-Party Summits can be important contributors to furthering what our fellow citizens have started.

If you’re interested in organizing for a truly free America, come join us at a Summit.

Come join the new American Revolution.

Let’s re-aquaint ourselves with the Searchlight Four:

This is “The Eggman”

Jesse Walker threw an egg at the Tea Party bus.  He is a member of IBEW Local 357 and he was also instructing Andrew Breitbart on the finer, nuanced points of racial politics in America today:

“The demographics of this country is changing, your way of thinking is dead.”

This is “Eddie”

Edward “Eddie” Gering was in the midst of the egg-throwing and when Breitbart pointed out the atrocious behavior, Eddie smugly taunted him and took pride in the vandalism:

“All right man, glad you approve!  Thanks Man!”

Eddie is the Vice President of IBEW Local 357 and hauls in a six-figure salary on the backs of his union brothers and sisters while their Pension Fund is under-funded.  Union, yes.

This is “The Thug”

Identified elsewhere as Jim Nardi, he stood on the side of the highway in Searchlight lecturing on class warfare and social justice, then thrust his finger at Breitbart and threatened him:

“Get him outta here or I’m going to jail today!”

This is “The Weasel”

Identified elsewhere as Brian Dimarzio, the Field Director for the Nevada State Democratic Party.  He is seen in many of the videos wrangling people, trying to get them in line or trying to keep them from talking to the cameras.  Most importantly, he is seen accusing Breitbart of throwing eggs and saying as much to a law enforcement official:

“They’re throwing eggs and blaming us, it’s ridiculous.”

Last week, Big Government released video footage showing these thugs intimidating, taunting, threatening violence and hurling eggs at Andrew Breitbart and other Tea Party activists in Searchlight Nevada.  Their obnoxious behavior, one presumes, was their way of showing support for their man, Harry Reid.  The men in question were holding Harry Reid signs, wearing Harry Reid shirts and chanting Harry Reid’s name.

Unlike the Tea Party protestors who spontaneously assembled on the mall in Washington the day of the health care vote, these individuals were organized, identified and affiliated with the State Democratic Party and/or IBEW Local 357.  And yet, unlike the calls of condemnation made by the media and politicians to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell for the still-unproven racial slurs allegedly hurled that day in Washington, there have been no such calls for Harry Reid, the Nevada Democratic Party or IBEW Local 357 to condemn or disavow the actions of their supporters and protestors that day in Searchlight.

On Thursday we notified Sam Lieberman and Travis Brock, Chairman and Executive Director of the Nevada Democratic Party.  Even after a follow-up today, we have received no response from them regarding the actions of their employee, Brian Dimarzio.

On Friday, the bus driver who had to deal with the hazard and mess of the eggs, filed a police report with Las Vegas Metro (Event Number 100327-1662).

• The State Party has not made any public comment about the actions of their employee.
• IBEW Local 357 has not made any public comment about the actions of their members.
• Senator Harry Reid has not made any public comment about the actions of his supporters.
• Members of the main stream press have not asked Reid, or the party or union for any comment about the actions of the people in the videos.

In unrelated yet deliciously ironic news, Sen. Harry Reid announced today that he will kick off his re-election campaign with a bus tour of Nevada.   Yes, a bus tour.