your suborn it will call you only because of their own sense of duty for your coercive power. the most effective the unit historic plea have been those led by leaders of positive character. -- historic leaders that lead with positive character. does this inspire confidence? is he a leader we can choose in a crisis? the answers are painfully obvious. we must be like the man from pennsylvania. we must use the power to communicate and hold our leaders accountable. we must educate america. we must take america back.

thank you very much. . . >> after the 2008 election, our friends on the left had some helpful advice for us. move to the left. it was similar to the advice

after goldwater lost, after clinton won in 1992. the other team cheerfully advises us to stop talking about taxes, nobody cares about taxes and more. that reminds me of the scene late in committee were the bad guys as to the heroine, put down a gun and we will talk. [laughter] and that the hair -- and if the hero is a foolish, the movie goes on for 45 more minutes. [unintelligible] our coalition holds together because everybody here and everybody in washington, who becomes a tea party activists, are there around the table, for different reasons but they are

all there because on the issue that news there but and that brings them to politics, they want one thing from the federal government, they want to be left alone. [applause] taxpayers, don't raise my taxes. businessmen and women, don't regulate my job in business out of existence. i serve on the board of the national rifle association. [applause] gun owners the vote on the gun issues simply wish to be left alone. they do not go knocking on doors, insisting that everyone else be a hunter. they do not ask for gun stamps. [laughter] they don't require that every fourth grade child be read books entitled "at her has to

hunters -- " heather has two hunters." [applause] on schoolers want to be left alone to educate their children at home. all of the various communities of faith that do not agree on who gets back many things, but they want to be left alone to practice their faith. we can be ecumenical. we have conservative catholics and orthodox jews, muslims, and mormons who don't agree on things. and we do not agree on everything. a guy who was to make money all day it looks across the deck i it was to go to church all day. that is not how i spend my time did they both look at a guy who was funneling his gum. -- the land -- fondling his

gun. we simply want to be freed. we both of a dying in the middle of the table this says he will leave all of this solemn, your taxes alone. i will leave you alone. and being left alone it means a reasonable police force and a military straw up to keep the canadiens off our back. -- strong enough to keep canadians of the bar back. [applause] we are up against the other team. this is a coalition around hillary's table, recently stolen by obama. [laughter] they want the government to steal stuff from other people and give it to them. trial lawyers, led a step into the middle of every contract and sue people for money. the big city political machines,

chicago, which runs washington, d.c.. people walked into welfare dependency and doesn't make $90,000 a year managing the dependence of others, making sure that nobody gets a job and becomes a republican. [laughter] [applause] we have the government workers unions. we have the various coercive utopia. they want to use the power of the state to make the rest of us perfect in their eyes. the radical entered vilnius -- intervenists the want to put your family in a car too smart to hold them. and the people -- the recycling priests. they have a whole list of things that they want the government to

enforce. their long -- their list is longer and slightly more tedious than leviticus. and what the government to enforce it. there are fines and and things behind their "to do" list. people can work together as long as we are stupid enough to keep putting tax money in the center of the table. if we keep putting tax dollars into the center of the table, they can get along. one for you, one for you, one for you. if, however, we say no more tax increases, no more ridiculous spending, and make it stick, and the amount of money in the center of that table begins to dwindle, and everyone around the left began still looking to each other, all little bit like those white but movies. -- lifeboat movies, trying to

decide who to eat and had to throw overboard. the left is not made up of friends and cheerful allies. it is made up of competing parasites. [applause] if we do not let them gnaw on us, they would justice cheerfully gnaw on the guy sitting next to them. our job is to say no to new taxes and new spending, so that when we meet the left two years and four years later, there are fewer of them. that is what the stimulus package was all about. $787 billion in the middle of the table said that they could be up among their friends. that theory that they gave us

was falls dollars that would let the government take a dollar from the economy and to that from people who earned it and give it to politically connected people over here. we all get rich and have jobs. imagine if obama, reid, and pelosi stood on one side of the late and they had buckets. they took water from one side, went to the other side, and in front of the cameras poured water into lake and said they were stimulating the light. -- stimulating the lake. if you think it would be stimulated have more water than before, you will expect the stimulus package to work in

terms of creating jobs. if you think that there is the same amount of water in the lake as before, minas whatever was stolen all or spilled, and you expect that unemployment would continue to grow after the stimulus package was spent. but the stimulus package is a great success for all the parasite's around the table. it is just not very good for the united states of america. [applause] our friends on the left are a little frustrated as they see the country getting organized against them. they tell themselves and told us, we read in newspapers about how they had this wonderful social organization going on. there were great on the web and organizing things. they say that contacts in congress, letters, calls comic e-mail are running 15-1 against

the government taking over health care. we have a secret weapon in our team. it is a computer the organizer named barack obama. by threatening to double every body's energy costs and raising your taxes and taking over your health care, and ration health care, and tax your health care, has organized a majority of country against the democratic party, against barack obama, and the others. they do not have an organizer like that on their team. [laughter] [applause] we dodged one bullet when we did not get depressed and go home. that is what they wanted us to

do. we said we were not doing that. we got organized. the tea party, april 15, july 4, the august revolt. everyday they ride on the national newspapers, something interesting happening in august. they never predict what it is. this is what happened. we happened. [applause] there is another mistake that we have avoided and that is, we have avoided the mistake that we made in 1996-1998, when we spoke as too much on bill clinton and his personal failings. bill clinton was a threat to the country because of the taxes and spending in the regulations and a left-wing agenda that he supported dan and he more clearly supports now. his personal challenges and personal failings were sad and sad for his family, but to many got up and talk about bill

clinton. we ran ads in 1998, bill clinton is a bad person. people said, yeah, but that was not a reason to vote against the democrats in congress implementing his agenda. we are now focused on pelosi and reid, and yes, obama is the guy who signs the bills at the end of the day. he is almost irrelevant. the damage is done by pelosi and ried and the democrats in house and senate. big government. in big government -- is big government was a martini, barack obama is just the vermouth. [laughter] we need to focus on the damage

that congress is doing to our lives, the future of this country, and health care for ourselves and our kids. guys, we're winning. [applause] >> our next speaker is a fox news contributor and a former domestic policy aide to reagan. >> thank you all very much and thanks most of bussed to americans for prosperity for pulling this together barry and -- for pulling this together. my mother is watching this on c- span said she is very proud of all of us.

backstage, kroger said the name, and jim, what job do you tell at the beginning of a speech said that i can steal it? i said, i tell lead judge that i began my top by answering two questions. number one, 6 foot nine. and number two, no, i do not like basketball. brokers said, well, what ought to keep that one. -- why don't you keep that one. [applause] but this is a serious time in our country and that's why you took time away from your jobs to be here. i sit say that for 13 years now it has been my enormous privilege to work at fox news. [applause] although i am a part -- i am

proud of the work i am a part of, as eric erickson said you of all been watching the average to boycott glenn beck. that's a small part of the efforts you're going to be seeing against fox. what barack obama said was its biggest source of pain in the media, was fox. i also want to talk a little bit about top box can work together but the online community -- about how fox and work together with the online community. the power of the dense, of television, of news, that we've seen very dramatically in this town hall meetings this summer. it has had a huge effect, frankly, something about that from -- the trauma -- drama of

ordinary americans speaking up to congress people, a colossal effect on the politics of this. and this is been very much a television struggle. roger ailes always said, people say that box is conservative. fox is not conservative. it just looks conservative compared to the rest of the media. [applause] and i think that is that good case in point. for example, when lynne sweet stood up and ask a question about professor gates, that made her look like the conservative. all the other puppy dogs and the press corner, she asked a tough question. when jake tapper does the same thing and stands up robbery of,

they say that he is a conservative. and recently we are following the news about major garrett. you're all plugged in. this is a major story, folks. it will be interesting to see how much pick up tickets in the mainstream media. but it will be all of you that makes that story turning to what it should be. that is the dead news announcer reported. balks at a poll yesterday that by a 49-34 margin, people are opposing health-care bill. [applause] by contrast, in september 1993, the block -- the closest whole -- poll as bill and hillary were pushing hillary care, it was a 51-31 in favor of it.

we're 15 points ahead now and if we keep up we will win. so let me close with some thoughts on how the online community and activists can work with the rest of the conservative movement and make their own contribution. you do not have television networks although a lot of you are on youtube. back in 2004, as you remember, when dan rather, but up the report on those funny memos about president bush, it was the blogger community, read state and all the others, who took apart those memos and prove them balls. -- and proved them false. we may yet be this health care bill.

look, remember, they always have a fallback position on this. they may not be abbas ellison s. but that will not give up. they might get something through. for example, they have already gotten through the stimulus package, there is a $20 billion proposal for health i.t., health information technology. $20 billion to software vendors. newt gingrich says that this is a good idea. but i am telling you, that money is going to get spent to advance health care at no matter what. -- a challenge to us is to develop the capacity to analyze this and talk it through. this article, writing in the august issue of "washington monthly," talks about where this $20 billion is going to.

bill is a smart guy. he is kind of a liberal. everyone who cares about their own health -- i feel so strongly about this that i started a blog about this about serious strategy. even though the health care bill may rise or fall, there is plenty of stuff in the stimulus package and elsewhere in the government that is changing our lives and it is up to us to get into the weeds of the details and i guarantee more people in this room have read the $1,000 page -- the 1000 page health care bill and members of congress. and that is the power that comes to us. it is our challenge and this is what we can do online at home, while fox is on your television set. on your computer screen, i hope that you are working on this because that is the challenge ahead. thank you very much.

>> please direct your attention to the television screen from minnesota congress onwoman and michelle bodman. >> i am from the sixth district of minnesota. i want to thank each and everyone of you for taking a few days to come to pittsburgh to learn about some of the conservative movement's, best and brightest. having had the pleasure of working with them on such hot topics as pork-barrel spending, capping tax policies, and health care reform, i can tell you that the american for prosperity's foundation is second to none when it comes to organizing our loyal opposition. i am confident that once dissident wraps up on saturday evening, you will be armed with the knowledge necessary to counter the left and make that difference online and in your

communities. day after day here in washington, we are seeing the not so gradual shift away from free market principles and toward socialism, big government, all school tax-and- spend policies that we know will be destructive for the long-term health of our economy. this is not conjecture because we have been there and we have already done that. we have seen what the brand of liberalism means for our country and for our freedom. and we still live with the consequences of those actions. go back in time with me for a minute. lyndon johnson taught us mired in to the welfare state of the great society. jimmy carter's mideast policies helped write -- rise to the terrorists states of iran. bill clinton and his attempt to block the exploration of american resources played a major role in last summer's energy crisis in the continuing inability of our country to

achieve energy independence, something that is completely possible. a list goes on and on. that is why it is no important that each one of you here in pittsburgh as we can get together and understand that events like this are absolutely vital. if we have to affect -- effectively deliver our messages, and our great policy objectives directly to the people without the filter of the media. i am so grateful that you are here doing what you need to do to make that happen. our new political battleground is online. you are hit. you are the front-line. you are the leaders that will advance our conservative principles and the critical fight ahead in four years to come. i want to thank you very sincerely, so much, for all that you are doing to the advance our cause of liberty and freedom. enjoy the rest of your

conference. [applause] >> our next speaker is a columnist at fox news online, and he is our policy director at americans for prosperity foundation. please give a warm welcome for phil kerpen. >> thank you so much for being here. all the numbers are out, netroots nations are down. next year we will be bigger than they are. we have all the momentum on our side. let me ask you, how many of you were angry before americans for prosperity told you to be angry?

everyone here. we did not manufacture any of this anchor. how will tell you what was manufactured, this talking point that you are fake. where did that come from? george soros funds a group call the center for american progress. they got a memo that they called it secret. they posted it on someone's website. not a member of any of the organizations i know of. they said that all of you were following this memo, that you were fake and manufactured. they put this out. as senate that put it out, the dnc picked it up and said it all around town in a press release. the senate to every career. by the following monday, the new york times was reporting it, every democrat was talking about it. that was manufacturing talking points and anchor? they are using george soros' money to manufacture this entire story.

you are real people. they are shipping and union people on buses because they are desperate. why would they do this if the policies they are practicing -- producing for good? they are doing it because their huge -- there are huge political dividends in it for them. anything to increase the flow of money to unions backing go back into politics, to create a government run health care system that will have a new bureaucracy that would be unionized. so that they can have cap-and- trade and control every aspect of our life through energy and take all the money from those taxes and use it to subsidize the people that want to subsidize and punish the people that want to punish. the stimulus bill, why has the most of the money not gone out? everything will be political. this is straight out of the fbr playbook. they call it really find them very backup recovery funds now but it is the same idea.

-- they call that relief funds then. what you are doing is really critical and essential. it is telling that our numbers are up and there's are down. i think that we're doing a fantastic job attacking the public option on health care. how many of us think that public option is just the way to get the single payer? everyone is paying attention to it. i am scared that they will take a public action -- option out of this bill and we will be caught off guard of we're not ready. without the public option, it is not socialism anymore. but it is close that fascism. it is a corporatist kind of thing. that will mandate by a lot for every individual and massively subsidize it with taxpayers, but will regulated every single way. they will micromanaging big profits will go to private companies and the government

will be completely control. don't just focus on a public option. we have to kill this whole plan. no mandate for health care. we have to tell bohol plan. it is absolutely essential. [applause] i'll talk a little bit about cap-and-trade because i think we're winning. some good news there. four senate democrats say they don't have a but this year because up -- it's all the push back after a house vote. nine senate democrats say they will not support a bill unless it keeps banks from getting rich on it. that is one of the chief attractions of the bill for many. the gatt and senate democrats who will not do it unless there is a huge part of the bill that would reverse something from the 1990's. they were attracted the wake of a house vote. they were 30 votes short on of

friday. they told nancy pelosi to sit in a corner. that would do some intense lobbying efforts and a sweat this thread. 44 democrats voted no. when that pressure comes from the white house, when they say it is a party loyalty vote, it's important we get you, we need to have done our were putting enough grassroots pressure and so that they know where we stand, and it is a sorry, mr. president. i cannot do that to the members of my state. keep the pressure on that issue because that might not be done because of that potential. we have all been accused of being up front for the insurance industry and health-care japan, and the end gigi industry. the industries are not fighting this fight. the industries, they had said -- they can live with cap-and- trade. write the bill so that we get rich. peter orszag said in march, if

they get wet deck cap-and-trade allowances for free, this will be the biggest corporate welfare program in u.s. history. that is the white house budget director. they gave away 85% and the bill. this is the biggest corporate welfare program in u.s. history. why would they be finding our effort to stop it? they are for it. the same thing with the health insurance industry. they know that the public option will come out, and once it is out, they are going to get government guaranteed profit for life. we will be forced by law to buy their product. and it will be subsidized with our tax dollars. why would they fight back? so are the pharmaceutical companies. they are supporting it. if you watch msnbc, it is like you are in never never land. every commercial break, their

commercials saying that they need reform. they do not watch their own commercials. why would they be against it? it does not make any sense. we need to make sure that when public come -- that went public option comes out, they do not get away with it. i want to talk about another issue, the issue of internet regulation. there are a ton of economic issues going on right now. we did not even talk about carjacked. but as long as we have a free internet, we can organize. that is the difference between the 1930's and today. weaken in the data around the media. we can connect with each other anyway and use the internet. we've got the czar, the regulatory czar, the u.s. proposed the idea at that if

something isn't true on the internet, bacon reported to the government, and then they will require you to take it down. they're talking about censorship of the internet. i don't think that they will get their right away. they have introduced a bill that did not get a lot of attention. the new version of something they call network neutrality. h.r. 3458, the great congressman markee strikes again. they said that the government can step in and we can just run it like highway. let's think about this. that does a better job for the people who run and now for the government when they run the highway? you can imagine how this will pay into this. we've got to protect our freedom on the internet to continue to organize. hold strong against health care even when the public option comes out.

keep up the fight against cap- and-trade. we will take back this country. thank you very much. >> our next speaker is a well- known parenting expert. she blogs for anderson cooper 360. you may remember as a cast member for the real world, sent francisco. please welcome, rachel campos- duffy. >> thank you for coming. thank you for the invitation. i will keep my remarks brief because i understand we are running behind.

i had been sitting through the sessions that we had. i went through blogging one-on- one with so many of you here today. the sessions have been great, there is a lot to learn. i wanted to come here to encourage you and share with you. so many of you have blogs and are thinking about starting a blog. i want to tell you that it is important. it is the best and quickest, fastest, most effective way of getting our message out. i want to encourage you to not limit yourself to political blogs. ipod for a a well -- i blog for aol, but it is tough to talk about parenting issues without politics being part of that. it is a very interesting way to get our message out, not always be preaching to the choir, but instead, to reach out to avenues

that might not necessarily hear a conservative voice, and might hear what conservatives think through a liberal point of view. i feel like blogs better nine traditionally -- let me give you an example. when you break down the demographics that aol, it tends to be liberal mom's there. so it is nice that have all home for conservative mom. i can also get my message out and win a few other moms over. the same thing with anderson cooper, they have been great at cnn allowing me to post whenever i have time. i have five children. [applause] the other thing is through my involvement with cnn, i am involved with cnn.com. they will call me in the morning once or twice a week and say,

which like to come on the blogger panel? i can listen to what they say. if the topic something i can contribute to, i laid my pajama bottoms on, i sit down and i taught. i do it right from my home. a lot of the barriers that were up before are down. i think technology has caught up with my lifestyle. i don't have to run to the studio. i have done shows from rents and says rick -- i have done shows for rick sanchez, right there on my computer. if you do not what the structure on blog, and this is for people watching out in tv land, there is a way to contribute without starting your own blog. that is by commenting on other people's blogs.

he can be very discouraging as a blocker to reach your comments. very demoralizing. it is always encouraging when you reach your comments and you find people on their his support you, agree with you, and gives it the courage and strength to keep going. again, i want to tell you how great it has been here at this conference. thank you all for coming and for being part of the sessions and getting involved and wanting to get involved on a grassroots level, because you are making a difference. we are changing public opinion right from our living room, right in our pajamas and are slivers, with their kids around. being a mom or what ever you are doing, that is no longer a barrier to making a difference. thank you for having me. [applause]

>> please welcome right ear and contributor, matt lewis. >> i like that music. i think ask for metallica. that is ok. thank you for being here. this is awesome and very cool. it is good to be here. i said this yesterday and charlie minute. you guys are not bloggers, york 21st century online community organizers. and i think that is actually important. you are out there changing the world, making america a better place. they gave me seven minutes and i had seven points to quickly talk about. i think that conservatives can

do this to actually make a big difference. the first point is adopt a win psychology. i believe that miss lombardi said that winning is contagious, but so is losing. i think that a century. for the last two years, conservatives have been demoralized by a left. i think the times are changing. and guess what, conservatives are winning today. i do blogging head tv, lee in a liberal, it is on the web and we talk about what is happening in politics on the blogosphere. and they are worried. i checked in with one of my liberal says it's the other day to get a feel for what is happening apple netroots nation.

they are scared to death about you guys. [applause] the conversations go like this. what happened? i thought we had these people and their place. i thought we figured these people out. i thought they were going away forever. and now they are, it is radio, blogs, on think of it. they got their butt kicked for a long time and they do not want to go back to that. they're going to ratchet things up. it is going to get quite interesting, but guess what? there is an opportunity to turn around that win psychology . 2009 we have races in virginia and new jersey. 2010 is going to be huge, too. i encourage you -- by the way, all thing about demoralizing your opponent is not a coincidence. solaced he teaches -- saul alinsky says that one of the

most important things is to mark your opponents. that is why they hate rush limbaugh, he makes fun of the left. daily kos is good about beating and conservatives. most of you do not live in washington, d.c. or new york. you live somewhere else and so you don't have to cut it as cocktail parties and be beaten down all the time. the second thing i encourage you to do is to get the tools. there is no excuse for not having the tools. get the training. it's not enough to come to one conference and think that you now know everything that there is. it is a constant learning process. i am always striving to be a better writer. go read books. i would encourage you to get the logistical tools, whether a black bearing ore and i found allies you to videotape things -- you know, like town hall meetings? a video camera might come in handy at those events.

tweet from your hand-held device. everyone should be doing that. you should all be on twitter. no. 3 is, to get network. there are a lot people in this room that you need to know. get to know them. this is a non-partisan think so there are libertarian groups. but a couple of people from the nrc see are here today, get to know them. it are republican, they can plug you into what is happening. state principled, bad as my next point. too often loggers have just cited with the bush administration whether medicare are no child left behind. it is important that conservative blogger adds state principle. if you agree with the republicans on something, say it. but don't become just a part of the system. but with a conservative blogger it's become more effective activists is to be an

independent voice to calls that like we see them and shoot straight with the american people. do not be upon. -- a pawn. you have had credibility -- you have to have credibility. the next point is, get the facts. there is no excuse for being sloppy. the left would love nothing more than to find -- going off half cocked and writing something that is not true or posting a falsehood. get the facts. one of the great things about the blogosphere is that we keep the mainstream media honest. bloggers are the people who back check things. in houston, the of what houston chronicle" talked about a woman who is a pediatric surgeon. all blogger are found out that she led jackson lee -- that she was not a pediatric surgeon.

get your facts straight. stay aggressive. be on the offense. we are winners here. keep that win psychology. and my last point is to thank you for being here and to think americans for prosperity and their foundation, the activists out there making a difference. i think it is working. keep up the work, keep up the fight, thank you, god bless you. [applause] >> harnden speaker is the senior political adviser of americans for prosperity foundation in new jersey. please welcome steve lonagaegan. >> thank you, everybody. yet as a placid at here from new

jersey. and all of you who came with me. my background, we have had some really outstanding speakers. i come from a basic background, i was at capt. maker for 20 years. i started my business in 1980. if you remember that year, coming off of jimmy carter, unemployment was around 9%, the economy was in the tank, it seemed hopeless for america, we seem to be losing our position in the world. but we had this to president named ronald reagan. he came into office with the remarkable idea. what we need to do is cut the size of government, cut taxes, and put money back and hands of individuals because they know better how to invest in our own future, right? kind of remarkably different from the s mind set of this administration that things exactly the opposite. and in those top years, when

reaganomics rolled out, i saw my business grow and me and my family and those around prosper. and then i got into the 1980's, governments seem to be getting more interested. more invasive on the state level, on the federal level, there seem to be more inspectors walking into my manufacturing plant with their badges and their clipboards and they're testing devices, coming up with more rules and more regulations and it became more and more difficult, and i began to see far more competition from foreign manufacturers that seem to be able to come in and trade more effectively. you've heard all of that. we're losing our manufacturing base. and i started to wonder what is going on with government. i decided to get involved. i started to learn and to study and to read and began to understand, truly, what the differences are between a liberal and conservative. we hear this all day long.

the liberals, and we represent the conservatives. simply put, the difference between a liberal and conservative is that the conservative believes in the spirit and value of the individual, the individuals to rise to their best possible potential, free of the shackles of big government, to achieve their very best potential and elevates everyone around them, and that is america. that is america. overall on the other hand sacrifices the value of the individual for what they call the common good, for the state, with a collectivist good in their mind. and they truly believe that they can plan better for us than we can. that we as individuals are not smart enough to make those millions of decisions every day and what is best for us and our consumption, our health care, and our families. they can do a better job.

they can plan better for every contingency, from birth through midlife for death, for health care. and we see there right now and as massive radical legislation, probably the most sweeping radical legislation in decades if not in the history of the country, that that alter the course of america's future. and you've heard about the health care bill on cap-and- trade, the biggest sweeping changes. those collected this believe that they can sit and plan mary carefully every possible contingency to your health care, for your mom and dad's health care, for your children. they know what all better than we can. it took a lot of work for them to do that to come up with a plan. one single plan for everyone of us. i want to show you that plan. the most popular bill, h.r. 3200, i watch it a sheet that. this is the bill. that is the health care bill.

right? oliver 1000 pages, and within this document is the entire blueprint for the future of your health care. that is what the planners gave us. we know that we're going to have to stop this bill that is a critical attack on everything and could alter the course of the future. but they don't just stop here. they can plan everything. bake conjured up as crisis called climate change. they are going to determine the future of our lives. they are going to plan even more. they came up with the infamous cap-and-trade bill. you have heard all about it. the planners believe in planning. the more they plan, the more they can come up with. and what is important? but more important the issue, the more that they plan. this is the cap-and-trade bill. almost 1500 pages. within this document, and i want

to compare the two, i hope that you can all see it, what is more important to the liberal left? health care down here, or cap- and-trade up here? right? that is where their values are. they will put more time and more planning and to preserving their so-called and firemen and polar bears than your very health care. and within this cap-and-trade bill are some of the most in -- the most dangerous assaults on american prosperity we have ever seen. we're going cat consumption of energy and trade our jobs, that is what we will trade, to the four corners of the world. we're going to cap energy emissions and trade those carbon offset differences. but think of this. in the free market when they create this mechanism to trade these carbon taxes, the offsets producers and energy consumers,

and this will never happen, by the way, credits being sold on the open market. but there are only a limited number of carbon offsets that can be sold. in a global marketplace. american businesses will have to buy more should they want to expand. if the russians and chinese and the arabs determined that they can control the marketplace by driving up the cost of those carbon obsessed by purchasing them, they can drive american prosperity to the ground. by driving up the cost and cornering the market, and you sit in these markets all the time, stock prices driven up, the enemies of prosperity can determine america's economic development and economic future. and that happens in the marketplace. they can drive up the cost of those offsets said that people cannot buy them and we drive

more jobs overseas. and conversely when not -- in the marketplace bubbles burst. companies invest millions of dollars into meeting emissions standards, that would've been better off waiting for the market dropping. the question is, what is really behind this mass of legislation? is that our climate? is that our help? the spokesperson for friends of the earth put it simply. any climate control regulation must be significant income redistribution from opponents. that is the redistribution of your wealth, from america are around the world at our expense. that is the core of what you see here. can you imagine how many trees they had to kill off adjustive -- just to print this? we're here today to energize you

to go out and fight for freedom like never before. we can and must win on these issues. losing is not an option. i hope that you have the tools that we gave you. e-mail is the musket of today's revelation. this is a revolution of ideas and we're going to win this one. we have to. i hope that we take that tack -- i hope you take the technology that we have trained you in, twitter blogging, and use them each and every day. but the challenges ahead of us, it is up to each and everyone of us to get up and say what are we going to do today to defend freedom and liberty against the big government collected? -- collected? this is not a new battle. this has been going on for 2000 years, the battle between the individual and big government, collectivism. authoritarianism disguised as a

benevolent bureaucracy will inevitably deteriorate into totalitarianism. history has proven that again and again. we hope that you are prepared to go out and use the tools that we have given you and stand up for freedom and liberty. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage former pennsylvania congressman john peterson. ♪ >> good morning.

energy -- do we have energy here this morning? nobody is talking about energy. energy is the mother's milk of the economic future of this country. affordable, available energy. i come from 110 miles north, western pennsylvania, and i grew up 1 mile away from the first oil well in this country. energy, available, affordable, energy is a must. every recession we have had, every time we have proceeded with high energy prices. the recession today is not just housing. it was energy prices, $142 oil sucked the life out of many businesses. they used a lot of energy. as a country, we've had three

presidents in a row who did not highly value energy. it was just not a major issue. we had 14 congress is in a rut that have not had a priority for energy until the end of the last congress. why? it was cheap. despite, it would settle back down, we would get a spike, it would settle back down. and we had a spike last year, one under $42 oil but cripple the economy. a decade ago, when i found out in the interior bill that would put a moratorium on continental shelf exploration, i made them both on and every year. they're getting closer and closer and closer. last year we had the votes to win, so they pulled the bill. the budget that they passed in february of this year was because they could not pass it

last year. they pulled the interior bill. they ran the hhs bill. we amended that and maple bed. the only thing that passed was defense and homeland security. they'll let it go away. the president bush -- two moratoriums' that prevented us from voting on energy parade here is our energy mix today. renewals, 6.7%. how do we use it? businesses 10 points expand. transportation 28.3%, and electricity production, 40%. this is history, this is the predicted future. they are going to tell us that we are going to take wind and solar that don't even make a line up here, they don't even make a line. that is going to replace this. i am serious.

that is their plan. it doesn't make any sense. the obama administration has been very busy. it has not been reported. they delayed the five-year plan for 180 days. but we believe that they are not going to open up any farrakhan in a shell. huge reserves of oil and gas out there. they've chosen to lock up oil in the west, shale oil last year, shell did a study in conjunction with the federal government, $60 will work. we know how to do it. we think of the tar sands in canada and get oil out of there. the table by the secretary. the biggest oilfield in

colorado, seven years of prep work to lee said, they tipped off the table. they canceled leases that bush had issued in utah. they canceled future leases and alaska. did you read about it in the paper? no, but those are done. . some of it is pretty difficult

to get. they are going depend a 13% tax on the gulf of mexico. that is 47% of our own personal energy. they are good to put a 13% tax on a. they hate to big oil. 87% of our energy is produced by the oil. they have legislation to give epa control of hydro-crafting. it is a safe way to produce energy. it allows the gas to come out. 19 years at the state government, 12 years in washington, the average businessman cannot do with the epa. if the epa controls hydro- crafting it will stop. gas is one of our good stores.

carbon tax, give away our jobs. that is what the carbon tax is. there is another thing in the bill that gives citizens the right to sue if they think they have been harmed -- i read the night before last. 25% has to come from renewable or repay fine. low carbon fuel standards it will eliminate canadian parts and oil and heavy oil from mexico. the future of america is in jeopardy. we do not have an energy policy. china and india are pressed to take the rest of our jobs. their energy policies will handle this because we will not compete. available, affordable, energy.

that is the future of this country. we will never have the resources to pay down the debt if we do not have a piper economy. but we do not grill, -- drill, opec will. >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome national logger -- blogger. >> good morning. i hope you are enjoying a great lineup. what a great conference we are having, right? absolutely. i am thinking to myself, americans for prosperity some of you may remember a time when

that would have been considered a redundancy, americans for prosperity. that is like say slimmers for getting wet. -- saying swimmers for guessing what. america was built for prosperity. american prosperity was an accident of history and geography. we did happen to land on a continent with a lot of natural resources. you just have to know how to use them. we happen to build a mighty arsenal of the market sea around the world for almost a century. -- market around the world for almost a century. the people who built this country were pretty smart people. they talk about rights. i want to get back to this bis. one hair raising experience --

the year to flee speaking of course -- figuratively speaking of course -- and you hear this from the left -- you talk about healthcare as a right. it sounds good. nobody wants to see people denied health care. you do not want to see people go to a doctor and get turned away. it is a fundamentally flawed argument against what actually says. let me explain this. if you take a look of the founding document of the nation. the first one is the declaration of independence. in that document, they talk about on alienable rights. the list four, live, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to change the government that infringes on those. those are the four founding rights of this country. notice that those rights did not say i can take this from somebody else because it was a cool idea to do so. this was all about lifting the

individual above the state is not the state above the individual. about 13 years after they signed that document -- and by the way, if it does say unalienable. i always said inalienable. eroded today, we would probably say inalienable, but to also be a hundred pages and nobody would read it. that was petty, but i have to have fun. 13 years later, things were not working. they went back. they wrote the constitution. can anybody tell me what the first mention of a right is in the constitution? what was the first thing that the founders wrote as a right? does anybody knew? kn-- know? it actually is not speech. that is the second thing.

the first right is actually in article one, section eight. it is the right of riders and inventors to control their own property rights. property rights with the foundation of liberty in this country. property rights is what built this country as a prosperous nation. that was the first thing that the founders of this nation when they wrote the constitution that was on there. that is what gives and limits the power of congress. that is an enumerated right. they told congress you have the power and you will protect property rights. the next -- a speech -- in the bill of rights, there are other rights in there too. you can bear arms. you can petition your government

for grievance see, even though nancy pelosi and steny hoyer feel that is un-american. if you want to send the first amendment to nancy pelosi and steny hoyer, maybe they will catch up with this. notice what used rights are, freedom of assembly, speech, assembly, petition. none of those rights confiscate something from somebody else. they are in a right of freeing men and women. you have the right to see each. you have the right to speech. you do not have the right to demand your newspaper reprint the speech or demand air time. you to the have right to confiscate somebody else's property. those are all rights that are in eight to the individual. when you hear people talking about the right to health care. it sounds good because we are all compassionate people. all of us are.

no one was to see somebody go without medical attention when they need. the actual right here is the right of the provider to profit from its goods and services in the marketplace. that is the right that has to be protected. [applause] i am not saying that because i have a love for doctors, although i think they do great work in this country predict we have the best medical system in the world. people come from all over to get treated here. that is for a reason, too. i am saying is because that same impulse can be used to take away and confiscated goods and i

take somebody else's food without their permission. that has built america as a prosperous nation. that is what it builds the market place. that is what creates opportunity. that is what creates the great health-care system that we have. that is what creates the greek economy that we had. if we lose that by saying the people have rights to our goods and services the government confiscation, which is exactly what this reform plan is all about, then we are point to lose something very special. we are going to lose their reason why we were prosperous in the first place. that will be no accident. i want to thank you very much for your time. it has been a pleasure. thank you again for the americans for prosperity foundation. [applause]

>> please welcome, the chief washington correspondent for news max -- newsmax.com and author of "in the presence secret service." robert kessler. >> thank you. it is great to be here. dan rather recently called for a presidentially appointed commission to study the news media and what has gone wrong. this is the same dan rather who presided over one of the most egregious journalistic fiascos in the history of the free press. his producers were warned into is fully informed and involved before they ran in these

damaging documents about george bush's national guard service, claiming that he got preferential treatment they were warned before they aired that they were probably fake, and back. they said the proportional facing in the documents did not exist when these documents were supposedly produced in 1972 the superscript not exist. they warned force believe that they probably were manufactured. nevertheless, dan rather -- after they ran, and a blo

gger pointed out these very obvious signs of these documents being fake. what did dan rather do? did he apologize? did he come clean? was he honest? no, he said this is probably one of the best supported stories in our history. [laughter] stonewalling. that summarizes and many ways what you see in the media today. i began my journalism career as a wall street journal reporter back in the '70s and '80s. i can assure you, this is during watergate, that if we had done the kind of stories we have done today in many quarters, we would have been fired. there is no question. there was a lot of pressure to be fair, honest, and to get it right.

the good news is that the marketplace is working. the market place is promoting the internet and on the other hand is putting a lot of these outlets out of business. the new york times with its liberal agenda has seen the circulation declines. part of it is that people do not trust it. people and general said they do not trust journalism. if you cannot trust what you are reading, why read it? even liberals want to get in on this story in most cases. -- story in most cases. this will shock you, the washington post has a fair newspaper, not only in my view but the chairman of the american conservative union -- ever since

catherine wang became publisher about a year ago it really is remarkable. along with the washington po tht work. along with the washington post" leveling off. into this mix is the largest conservative website. it runs every single day stories that are critical of republicans and conservatives but a new stories that reported grievances and scandalous behavior. it does emphasize conservative opinion and concerted stories

and you do not see in the mainstream media. one example is, i began doing stories in january of 20008 reporting on rev. right and his connection with barack obama. until that time, the media had ignored the fact that the 20 years that barack obama was in reverent wright's pusey considered him a mentor -- pews and considered him a mentor. sean canty talked about the black body system which basically says that in the way many blacks who achieved economic success are being bought off by the capitalist system to be shunned. and my stores, reported for the first time on rev. wright's sermons, saying the government

created aids to kill of blacks, that israel is a racist country, that the government created a killer to kill off minorities throughout the world, etc., etc. and also that the same reverence wright gave an award fairocon to lifetime achievement. i wrote that story for two months. who picked it up? nobody. nobody tested in the i mentioned the story to a cnn reporter who i know at a party. he had not seen the store. she said that was amazing. i could never run a story like that, i would be accused of being biased against barack obama.

finally, after sending this story to friends i know in mainstream media both television networks and newspapers, after about two months, i did in wall street journal --about the same time abc and fox started running clips of the sermons that he was giving. about that time, the whole political landscape started to change. hillary started winning in the primaries. partly because of the realization that barack obama had been so closely tied to rev. wright and what that says to what barack obama really believes. by that time it was too late. by that time, barack obama was ahead. if the mainstream media had done its job, like the amendment was drafted to encourage, very possibly, he would not the president today.

that is a pretty shocking commentary on where we stand on the world of journalism. newsmax has 4 million unique visitors a month. it also has a monthly magazine which is a readership of 600,000 and is growing considerably despite the decline of other print medium. it is started by chris ruddy in 1998 who had been previously a "new york post" reporter. he noticed that a lot of the stores were being picked up by these websites called mattandhollywood. he decided to look it up and find out what it was about. in london being a -- it dawned of being a clerk who is working

in the cbs get schottische -- it wound up being a clerk was working at the cbs gift shop. he got a nifty idea. it was a way to get out stories that the mainstream media was the picking up. he got $25,000 investment from the family of bill casey who he knew and slowly but surely he created this newsmax.com. my book goes into the character presidents. i think that is good to know. it portrays jimmy carter as being the phonies president of all. [applause] he would come into the oval office at 546 in the morning and tell the press office to tell the press who is working hard

for the american people and then he would sleep on the sofa. he would pretend to carry his own luggage and yet the luggage was empty according to agents or he would give it to someone until the cameras were off. i will be signing the book outside. i think there is hope. i think the marketplace is working. i think we are all going to hopefully do our job to create a more honest media. thank you. [applause] >> our next speaker is "wall street journal" editorialist, fox and news contributor,

stephen more. >> it is a great pleasure to be here. you are fellow patriots. i am honored to speak to what you have done to bring the obama administration to a halt. thank you for what you do. i do not know how many of you -- how many of you read the "all street journal" editorial page? thank you for that. how many you are regular viewers of fox news? what do we do without those two? every once in awhile, i do speak for rival networks. earlier this week that i was on the air with chris matthews on hardball -- [boos]

i do not know how many you watched this. most of you to know what the show. it was an amazing thing. i was on with chris matthews and the governor of pennsylvania. [boos] i made the case against the obama character. i said that the reason people are turning out to these town halls -- how many have you been to town hall meetings? i said the reason that people are attending these, this is something that has really been pent up from the first day of the obama administration with the absurd economic stimulus plan in the bailouts and the debt bombs and the healthcare and cap and trade -- i said, that is what is going on. ordinary americans are just fed up to here with what is going on in washington. chris matthews turned to me and said this on the air, he said,

the reason i think these people are going to the town hall meetings and that they do not want a black president. [boos] that was one the most insulting, offensive things i've ever heard. this is what the left think of us. that we are racist, that we were swastikas. i think it is m. borden for americans to really see americans to the face of the opposition movement. we are really the david vs. the goliaths. one of the critiques of our movement is that it is being funded by corporate america. how of certification is that? turn on the tv. every time you see a television ad in favor of obama, is paid for by the lobbyists. we are the ones who are the real grass-roots movement. what i told chris matthews when he said this, i said, wait a minute, joe biden is white and i

think he is an even bigger dingbat than obama. [applause] there was a great political or tuna, folk cartoon, folks. it was delighting getting carried around by wood. he walks up to the government window that the cash for clunkers. i just love that. -- it was a cartoon of obama carrying a joe biden around like a piece of wood. he walks of to the government window that says cash for clunkers. i just love that. i want to talk about the three pillars of evil and washington. the legislative agenda that we have to see. i am going to talk for a few minutes about each one. first i want to talk about what i think is the greatest hoax of

the last 100 years. that is global warning. this is something -- this climate change addagenda is evil and contrary to the free- market system. many americans who agree the respecting global warming is happening. many view making climate change is a big problem. no matter how big a problem you think --the cap and trade bill that passed the house the percentages will have zero impact on the global climate. you on this for -- we have a big

debate on this. yet the debate about what is the greater threat to freedom, the health care bill or the cap and trade bill. i come down on the side of cap and trade being even more rain to our liberties and the health care bill. this would regulate and tax every activity of our free market system. you know what will happen if this thing passes. it will not have an impact on global change. what it will is that factories and plants and facilities and so many of the things that term manufactured will move up from the united states and they will move to china and they will move to india and they will move to indonesia. i followed very closely these global climate paths and conventions that have. when you go to these things, there is only one thing the rest

of the world can agree on -- you know what that is? they want the united states to go first. they want us to jump off the cliff first. the day that the u.s. house represents a pass that happen trade bill, they had parade in the street in india and china. they know what this means for their economy. i hope nobody in this room really believes that the world is running out a polar bears. i have done an editorial on this where i talked the people. posin 1950, there were 25,000 polar phillips on this earth for the incoming are today? the 5000. -- on this earth. today there are 50,000. i watched from and about what is going on with their fiscal policy. the amount of debt that has been

taken on in this administration is its fiscal obscenity. i call a financial child abuse. i would make the case that so many of you are here today. you care about our children. we have taken on more debt and the last six months in the u.s. government did in the last 20 years. to try to combat this crisis -- this started under george w. bush -- if you add it all up, it comes to a $3 trillion tried to rescue the economy we still have a 9.5% unemployment rate. with $3 trillion we could have completely eliminated the personal and corporate income tax for an entire year. if we had eliminated the income tax until every business and every worker -- imagine that --

he does have to pay income tax and more -- can you imagine what kind of rocket fuel the would of been for our economy? what have we done? we are pretty more solar paneling on libraries. it is amazing, because in washington, i always say that this is a sad thing -- one trillion is the new billion. when i first came to washington, we talked about the budget in the billions of dollars. people who are old enough to remember the '60s it was the millions. we have gone to millions to billions to trillions. one of the problems we face as fiscal conservatives that the numbers are so big right now that people cannot relate. here is something that you can relate. the other day, my son who is 8 years old was asking me how much a trillion dollars was.

there are 12 zeros in a tree. this is what it will my son. who's the best best ballplayer in the world that he said lebron -- in the world. he said lebron james. i said lebron james makes $40 million a year. that is a lot of money. i do not begrudge him that. here is a question, think about this but a how many years and yet to play basketball to make a trillion dollars? in what the answer is? 25,000 seasons. that is the kind of money that we are miss spending in washington. we have to do something about pulling back. it is about the budget. it is about the cap and trade. in the last minute, it is about

health care. this is a huge threat. you have heard about all the problems on the health care side. how are they going to pay for this? i do not know how many of you paid attention to what is going on on the bill that passed the house ways and means committee. it is an amazing document. there is a bill that passed the committee. one imposes a 10% payroll tax on every worker that works for a small business that does not provide health care. a 10% payroll tax. this is insanity. we have a 15 million americans who are unemployed in this country. what are we doing raising taxes on our small businesses? how many of you -- please raise your hand if you are a small- business owner? can you afford to pay a 10% payroll tax on your workers? what a you going to do?

you are going to have to lay off workers. this is the economic common sense that does not penetrate this people in washington who do not have their trade tables in the upright and locked position. one of the biggest problems in washington is the vast majority of them have never run a business. the vast majority of them have never met a payroll. they have no idea what it means to impose these costs. it also puts a new 5% income- tax on the "rich." people like warren buffett and lebron james and tiger woods and hannah montana. here is the amazing thing. those people in the top income category will pay this higher tax -- 2/3 of those are small business owners and operators. how are you going to get more jobs of any tax that employers

that create the jobs? one last thing. i use my time but this is important. we have to overcome this class warfare rhetoric. the idea that the rich are evil is a cancer cell in our public dialogue bi. if we do the income-tax increase for the health care and then we do -- a unit of president obama want to move back to the old tax rates? [unintelligible] we are talking about a tax system in the united states for over half of america's high income will be taxed by the government.

we are right back in the 1970's. how many of you remember when we had double digit inflation? what about 20% mortgage interest rates? what about gasoline lines? the next eight weeks or maybe the most critical times for our country in the last 50 years. i mean that. we have to say no to bailout. we have to say no to obama care and no to cap and trade. if you can help achieve that comic you will have done more for this country than any generation. thank you so much. [applause] >> please direct your attention to the television screen for a

special presentation by the president of the committee. " i represent the sixth district of georgia. we had the addressing the conservatives. thank you for travel to pittsburgh. it is conventions like this where ideas and discussions will come together to create an atmosphere where a 21st century conservative movement can take hold. this is the time to come together and lay a foundation for a better tomorrow. our principles of the them -- of freedom are under attack. pelosi and democrats are jeopardize in our future in a dangerous experiment of liberalism gone wild. the stimulus plan has done nothing in create 2 million more unemployed americans and a $2 trillion increase in our deficit. it will place a job killing

burden on all business in a time of economic distress. their government takeover of health care will destroy it that personal quality care which all of us rely upon. these policies are destined for failure. after six months of obama nation, the american people are beginning to realize that these are not the solutions that they desire. this is not the change they want to keep the of every week i get hundreds of phone calls from citizens across this country expressing their concerns about the direction in which we are headed. they are not just upset. they are angry. people are starting to say they have had enough. most importantly, what can i do? that is why what you are doing is so important. no matter what corner of this nation you call home, you are proving that all americans could have an impact on our public

debate. we are working to get our message out to millions of people who may never have done this before. we have found great success in making a youtube of videos that shine the light on what is irresponsible majority is up to with your tax dollars. every greek revival begins at the grass-roots level. leaders, provided that far. i promise you that these battles can be 01. i promise you we will fight on your behalf in washington. remember that wonderful quote from one of our founders, sam adams when he said that it does not take a majority to prevail but an irate entire list minority teen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of a man. keep up the good fight. we will find our way back to greet this as a nation when we restore the principles that made as great.

thank you. god bless you. [applause] >> our next speaker was last year's rightonine blogger of the year recipient. please welcome, maggie thurber. >> this morning. it is so fantastic to be in a room of like-minded individuals. jodie, and i are both from toledo. -- doe the plumber and i are both from toledo. -- joe the plumber and are both from toledo. it is an honor to make this introduction. there are an awful lot of things that have been said about our next speaker. in 2007, she was called racist,

crude, and a hate monger. they said her blog was a hate site full of ignorant diatribes. last year they said she had too much time on her hands she was the flavor of the month among conservatives. they even said to probably not be where she was today if she were a blonde haired, blue-eyed standard issued conservative. being a brunette, i took exception to that. that is what the experts said. just as we are seeing with healthcare, the american people have a much different perspective. john said she is wonderful if you are tired of the press releases given by the mainstream media i do not know how or where she finds the time to pull together all this information. she backs every posting up with integrity. she will shock you, through you, and educate you to real news you

will not get anywhere else. vincent said as an independent voter, i am glad there people like her out there telling it like it is. as proof of these opinions, technology ranks her blog among the top 100 of all categories. her books hit the best-seller list and nine days. the american public is not wrong. today she has appeared to tell us like it is. please join me in welcoming commentator, blogger and best- selling author michelle malcolm. [applause] -- miche malkin. -- michelle malkin. [applause] scoy >> thank you. thank you. hello my fellow evil mongers.

for the second time in my adult life i am so proud to join all of you mobsters at an afp event. i would like to think the organizers and bloggers here. i will not take calls on my iphone during our conversation. [cheers] in defiance of the adequate -- etiquette czats at the white house, you are free to shout without fear of being labeled a political terrorist. when we met last year in texas, we were spending of attacks from obama general wesley clark.

he was saying conservatives bloggers were a "whitright wing freak machines." we have come a long way, baby. it is true that the left wing machine is now in full overdrive from the white house to the dmc to the net groups gathered. it is true that they are waging war on all of the watch dog >>, loggers, talk radio, fox news, inspector general's. it is true that they are attempting to redefine vigorous

civic participation as a " description." it is true they are attempting to redefine our mayor existence as an incitement to violence. they are attempting to redefine its descent as hatred, when in fact our descent is rooted in the love of liberty and prosperity for all. [applause] they are doing all of these things. they have unlimited resources to do it including our own tax dollars. all of that mudslinging cannot mask an inconvenient truth. the era of hope and change is dead. it only took six months in office for them to kill it. [cheers]

do not take my word for it. listen to some of these assessments. "obama it is a master orator and politician who mainly focuses on his own political victory." no. [laughter] "i think he wants to believe the change he will bring about, but he is disappointing." yes. >> i do not feel any change. there is no transparency in government. this is not what they voted for. i have been duped!" "i suspect there are legions of voters who feel as though they've punked." i wish they would a figure this out before they cast their vote. the signs are numerous and abundant. here is the great part. this did not come from conservatives blogs or my blog.

this is not right-wing extremists. these comments are from a 700 plus comment thread on the new york times website posted in response last week to liberal columnist titled "is obama plunking us?" as many of you know, when my book launched, one of the appearances i did was on a "the view." [boos] thank you. by brave did the lion's den and came prepared it is quite fastening. you can see the clip on youtube. i was stunned by how ill-armed

and ill prepared whoopi and joy were in response to the book. as i noted afterward, you know you have won the argument when all you can do is quibble about how corrupt barack obama is and not wweather. obama was deified by repeating that "washington is broken." yet under president obama, the business as usual in washington is booming. the collapse of the era of hope and change demonstrates the first and last lot of political physics as government grows, corruption flows. this is true whether a democrat or republican is an office.

new federal spending plus tens of thousands of pages of new regulations and no one has read plus unprecedented new powers over taxpayers and the economy equals limitless new opportunities for favored trading, deal cutting, and influence-peddling. the dwindling numbers of faithful may still cling to the belief that he can work miracles. no one, not even barack obama can drain a swamp by flooding it. [laughter] -- [applause] just weeks ago, the prognosticators pronounced the tea party movement "dead." [laughter] never mind that hundreds of thousands of newcomers of politics have taken to the

streets since february. the numbers continue to grow. [applause] they wanted you gone. they wanted you silent and out of sight. they wanted you marginalized, demonized, and in the more allies. but you prevailed. you have shown the resilience of has been lacking among too many of our and republican leaders in washington. now you, the tiny minority, online and on the streets had seized control of the domestic policy debate in this country.

that is an amazing development. do not worry about tallying up how many people are attending the net routes conference vs. this conference. that is not the magic of the metric is, what is the white house worried about right now? are they worried about the net roots? here they tried to silence, them or you? you have seized control. you have claimed the upper hand but you are holding democrats and republicans accountable for disguising a massive energy tax. on the white house called cave -- health-care takeover plan, you have the majority scared. contemplate this. democrat lawmakers are hiding

from their constituents in offices. they are taking sanctuary -- in seiu offices. they are taking sanctuary in the children's hospitals. they are phoning it in in teleconference calls instead of face-to-face meetings. [boos] they are charging voters $25 to attend town hall events for the privilege of hearing obama care talking point recitations. they are stacking their audiences with fake doctors -- [boos] thank you to be blogger who helped reveal this. [applause]

as well a>> [unintelligible] >> the role of truth bonafide bloggers and tweeters and podcasters in this shift is invaluable. the idea that the town of protests and tea party movements that from that before we called it the tea party movement, the idea that all this was directed from the top down is absolutely laughable. the beltway gop only wishes that it could have been as competent and insightful -- [applause] [cheers [

accusing grass roots conservatives as astro t turfing --that is what is going that is why i appreciate what you do so much. the come here and i hear from many of you who i have never met in person. it is a miracle that all of us have in the shared experience in shared passion to exercise our first amendment rights. we are so under threat by this white house. we have so much in common. we live our lives. we are raising our kids.

we want to ensure prosperity and freedom for them and future generations. day after day, we are disparage. we are mocked. we are threatened. we get up again and again and again. in the end, we are happy warriors. there is a lot of depression and a gaping in the beltway after this last election. we were told that what we needed to do was rebrand or get away from what defines the republican party. we have been told over and over the we do not understand the internet. we are not using it enough. yet your videos on youtube are playing all over cable tv every day now. [applause]

i think that there is an inextricable link between the rise of the grass roots insurgency in this country and the fact that you have so many conservative books on the best- seller list that reduce -- in the papers that refuse to print them. it has been an amazing experience on the book tour watching the success of this book and at the same time seeing so many people understand and practice their whole life that sunlight is the best disinfectant and that knowledge is power.

i have spent an entire career in print and online journalism. i have been in the business a long time. and led the c-span callers to call me "young lady." i have been in this business for 17 years now. i have watched the civility police in the newsrooms that i worked for and strategists in washington on both sides of the aisle council me and folks like you to tone it down. to conduct ourselves in the dulcet tones. we cannot afford moderation. preeti moderation when the business of protecting our home lies from intrusion and homeland from foreign invasion and

protecting our commerce and our livelihoods from necklace the government restriction. this is not the time to bend our spines or about our heads. the founding fathers did not intend for us to completely implore freedom like oliver twist, begging for more growth. only extreme vigilance, aggressive unyielding vigilance can save our inalienable rights and we have nothing to apologize for. [cheers] thank you.

>> and now, please welcome the executive director of rightoninline. ♪ >> thank you for joining us again today. as we conclude, i want to recognize to people who exemplify the mission of what we hope to see achieve when you leave here today. we hope you will remain here for the rest of the program that we had this afternoon.

the real work begins when you get home and work to rebuild our movement. we are so excited for the enthusiasm that we have seen. we afford to the great difference we can make going forward. i would like to have on stage with metwo people that deserve recognition. last year in austin, she first learned twitter. she has become a nationally prominent person using this tool to organize and mobilize and get our message out there. we want to recognize her for the great work that she has done and the efforts that she has done to help our movement in general. i would like for her to come up here right now. we have to give credit where credit is due to our -- [applause] thank you. we also have to give credit to

our opponents on the left for recognizing the advantage they hold,. al gore did not invent the internet. [laughter] we would like to recognize millis said today with the al gore award for excellence. [cheers] thank you, melissa, for all that you do. i hope you'll go home with the same compassion and melissa has taken to leverage these tools and advanced armaments. it is important. we all need to find ways. . .

and we want to tinker with our activist of the year award. -- to shanker -- to shanker -- thank her. just a few announcements. they have to reset our room, so we have to get out here. we would like to thank our sponsors and exhibitors, so please stop by their booths. in the admiral room, michelle

malkin, joe the plumber, and ronald kessler will be doing a book signing. there will be a bus out in the parking lot. panels will reconvene, and please come back and join us. thank you also much for being here. we appreciate it, and we look forward to the work you will be doing going home. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> in a few moments, president obama and egyptian president mubarak.

then, secretary of state clinton meets with reporters since her trip to africa. after that, in a pentagon briefing for afghanistan's presidential election. and later, hhs secretary kathleen sebelius on combating medicare fraud. on "washington journal," tomorrow, the director of the group will talk. then, andrew napolitani and his book. then, we will talk about how the recession is affecting adults who have not graduated high school with david hardy, the president and ceo of pro literacy -- david harvey. and then, dana kalkstein.

"washington journal" is live on c-span every day -- dana goldstein. >> this fall, and to the highest court. -- enter the highest court. the supreme court's, on c-span. >> president obama today praised israel for helping new settlement construction and loosening checkpoints on the west bank. he spoke with reporters after meeting with egyptian president mubarak at the white house. this is a little less than one- half hour. ozóéñu+)uagpçvzdt >> i want to publicly thank

president mubarak. there was my speech at the cairo university. it was an extraordinary visit. not only because of the great welcome that i received from the president and the college students who were in attendance but also have an opportunity to visit the pyramids was a once- in-a-lifetime experience for me. the united states and egypt have worked together closely for many years, and for many of these years, president mubarak has been a leader and a counselor and a friend to the united states. we, obviously, have a lot of a great challenges that have to be dealt with, and we are continuing to work together to find those areas where we can

find common ground and to work in concert to bring peace and security to the region. the arab-israeli situation is something that has been of ongoing interest, and we had an extensive conversation about how we could help to jump-start effective process on all sides to move away from a status quo that is not working for the israeli people or, i think, the region as a whole. we discussed our common concerns about the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region, including the development of nuclear weapons by iran and how we could work together on those fronts. we discussed iraq, and i want to thank the government of egypt

for being an arab country that has moved forward to try to strengthen iraq as it emerges from a wartime footing and transition to a more stable democracy, and we continue to talk about how we can work together on economic development issues, education issues, health issues that can promote the interests of both the american people as well as the egyptian people. just to take one example, we have agreed to work together with the organization for the states to eradicate polio, something that we have been able to successfully deal with here in the united states but still has an impact on populations throughout the muslim communities around the world, so these are the kind of partnerships that we want to continue to build. there are some areas where we

still have disagreements, and where we do have disagreements, we have a frank and honest exchange, so i just want to say once again that i am grateful to president ma barack's for his visit -- president mubarak for his visit and for the interests of peace and prosperity around the world. thank you. >> [speaking foreign language]

>this is the third time i met with president obama. it was a very strong address, and it removed all doubt about the united states. >> [speaking foreign language] >> the importance of the cairo visit was very appreciated by the muslim and islamic world because the islamic world -- it has removed all of those doubts. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> the first time or second time that we met was in eagerly during the summit. we did not have much time to go in depth into discussion, but we did have some quick discussion. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> the third time i met with president obama is today at the white house. we have discussed an array of issues from our bilateral relations to the issues of the middle east, the region, to the palestinian issue, to the issue of iran, somalia, and africa. also, several other issues. even we discussed the issue of reform inside egypt, and i told to president obama very frankly

and very friendly that i entered into the elections based on the platform that included reforms, and, therefore, we have started to implement some of it, and we still have two more years to implement it. >> [speaking foreign language] >> our relations between us and the united states are very good relations and strategic relations, and besides some of those that we had with previous administrations, this has not changed the nature of our bilateral relations. >> [speaking foreign language] >> we have, perhaps, focused greatly on the palestinian

issue because it is the issue. >> [speaking foreign language] i>> and the palestinian issue hs impact on the world, the region, whether for the rest or also for the united states -- for the west or also for the united states. >> [speaking foreign language] >> we have also discussed the issue of iran and the issue of nuclear iran, and we talked about this issue very frankly.

>> and in conclusion of my remarks, i would like to thank president obama for his work to meet me here at the white house, and i also salute him. i also salute president obama hawpe for all its efforts with regard to the palestinian issue. since its first day at the white house, he started working on this. >> [speaking foreign language] >> and i assure him that we will cooperate with him, and we will be very strong in these efforts, whether in regard to the palestinian issue or the other regional issues. and i thank him again. >> ok, we have got one question each. >> both presidents, if i may. reports from jerusalem today that the israeli government has not given permission for any new

settlements to be built, all the ones that were in process are still in process. and i am wondering if you have talked about that issue and if this goes a least partly to me what you're asking the israelis to do, and all settlements in the west bank, in jerusalem. >> there has been movement in the right direction, and i came in from the start saying that all parties concerned had to take some concrete steps to restart serious negotiations to resolve what has been a longstanding conflict that is not good for the israeli people and is not good for its neighbors.

and i think that the israeli government has taken discussions with us very seriously. george mitchell has been back and forth repeatedly. he will be heading back out there next week, and my hope is that we are going to see not just a movement from the israelis but also from the palestinians around issues of incitement and security, from arab states that showed their willingness to engage israel. if all sides are willing to move off of the rut that we are in currently, and then i think there is an extraordinary opportunity to make real progress, but we are not there yet. i am encouraged by some of the things i am seeing on the

ground. we have been seen reports, in the west bank in particular, that checkpoints have been removed in some situations, the security forces of the palestinian authority have greatly improved and have been able to deal with the security situation on the west bank that in a way that has inspired not just confidence among the israeli people but also among the palestinian people. there has been some increase economic activity on the west bank. all of this is creating a climate in which it is possible for us to see some positive steps and to, hopefully, negotiate towards a final resolution of these longstanding issues, but everybody is going to have to take steps. everybody is going to have to take risks. it will require a lot of work,

in the united states is committed to being a partner in this process -- and the united states is committed to being a partner in this process, and egypt would be as important as any party in being able to move the process forward because egypt is uniquely positioned in some ways, having very strong relationships with israel, with the palestinians, and with other arab states, and president mubarak has as much experience in the region as anybody. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> i would like to add on what

president obama has just said, and it is a strong and worthy goal to bring the two parties together and to get something from the israelis and to get something from the palestinians. if we perhaps can get them to sit together, we will help, and, also, i have contacts with the israeli party. i have had contacts with the prime minister of israel, with the head of state, and also with another. we are speaking in a good manners, and we are moving into the right direction, but the two parties need to sit together, and this that will give hope of the possibility of finding a solution to the palestinian issue, because it has been ongoing since 60 years, and with this issue on going, we lose a lot, and, also, this will increase violence, so we support the efforts of the united states to move towards finding a solution. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> is this is the issue of jerusalem that you're asking about, i tell you, this is a complicated issue. a long time ago with former president clinton, we were to years to find an equation to find a solution for this issue, but afterwards, there was nothing, and this issue moved very slowly. however, if we can find some solution to this, it would be helpful. >> ok.

>> president ma barack, -- president ma barracked -- mu barak -- [inaudible] >> [speaking foreign language]

>> as i said before, this is a complicated issue. i have worked along time ago, when i was in the army, this issue has been ongoing 16 years, and we cannot afford to waste any more time because of violence increases, and the level of violence has increased three of the level of violence is now much more than it was 10 years ago therefore, we need to find a solution, and i have contacted the israelis, and they said, perhaps, you can talk about a temporary solution or a final status, but i told them, no, forget about the temporary solution, and forget about temporary borders. this is why i could not wait to talk to president obama ntsc if he is with this issue, it will

give more hope and confidence to the people on this issue. -- to which dr. president obama to see if he is with this issue. -- to see if president obama is with this issue. >> [speaking foreign language] >> this is about the refugees and the borders, but i believe that the cooperation with the united states and with our relationship with israel, i believe we can reach a solution because the arab people want peace and want a better life, and the israeli people also want peace and stability in the life. >> i think president mubarak

said it well. i do believe that what may have changed, and this is what we have to -- is a growing part on the palestinians that israel is not going anywhere and is a fact, a reality that has to be dealt with, and a recognition on the part of the israelis that their long-term security interests require finding an accommodation with the palestinians and, ultimately, with their arab neighbors, so the interests on both sides are towards peace. now, one of the things that you discover in studying history and being a part of politics is just because something makes sense does not mean it happens, and we

are going to have to work very hard, and, ultimately, there is going to have to be some courageous leadership, not only for the palestinians and the israelis but also from the other states to support this effort, and the united states is going to devote time and energy and resources to try to make this happen, and what i can say is different from the united states' perspective is that even in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the great depression, we started dealing with this issue on day one. we did not wait until years six or your seven after i had been reelected before we started taking this on -- or your 7. we started taking this issue on immediately, -- or year 7. sometimes it proceeds in fits and starts, but with the partnership of countries like

egypt, we think we can make progress. ok, thank you, everybody. >> [speaking foreign language] xd >> i believe that president obama is talking about support

for the arab states. i would say that if negotiations start, this would believe it to the arab states to support this peace process and to move it forward, because i can tell you that the arab people are fed up with the length of time this issue has taken and the issue of displaced people, so i believe that if the two parties sit down, it will lead to have the arab states to support having them move forward. >> thank you, everybody. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, guys. >> also in washington tuesday, secretary of state clinton held her first news conference since returning from africa. she spoke with reporters after meeting with foreign minister of columbia. this is a little more than 20 minutes.

>> well, that afternoon, and it is a pleasure for me to welcome the former minister of columbia to the state department. i have had the opportunity of meeting with them before on several different occasions, but it is always an important time when we are able to discuss the many issues between us. colombia is an important ally of the united states, and our relationship is a partnership that enhances the security and prosperity of the people of our country. today, the foreign minister and i had a very productive discussion about how we will strengthen in deep in that partnership. we discussed a wide range of comments, concerns. i asked that we have a chance to really explore are many

different agenda items, and i think the foreign minister for colombia's leadership, including in afghanistan where colombian troops will soon be helping the people of afghanistan build a more peaceful and stable country. we're very grateful for their service and sacrifice, and we also greatly appreciate the role of the colombian police that they are playing in haiti and their efforts to trade security forces in the region, particularly in the dominican republic and guatemala. we discussed the ongoing situation in honduras. the united states supports the peaceful restoration of democratic and constitutional order in honduras with president zelias' return. we believe in a negotiated solution, and we believe that president arias' plan was an

excellent one, so, once again, we call on the parties to avoid steps that avoided division and polarization in honduras and needlessly place people at risk. the foreign minister and i also discussed the bilateral defense cooperation agreement that our government hoped to sign in the near future. this agreement ensures that appropriate protections are in place for our service members. it will allow us to continue working together to meet the challenges posed by narco traffickers, terrorists, and other illegally armed groups in colombia. these groups are real, and the united states is supporting them in their efforts to provide security for all of their citizens. i want to be clear about what this agreement does and does not do. first, the agreement does not create u.s. bases in colombia.

it does provide united states access to colombian bases, but command and control, administration, and security will be the responsibility of colombia, and any activity would have to be mutually agreed upon in advance. the united states does not have and does not seek bases inside colombia. second, there will be no significant, permanent increase in the u.s. military presence in colombia. the congressional in mandated cap on the number of u.s. service members and contractors will remain and will be respected. and third, this agreement does not pertain to other countries. this is about the bilateral cooperation between the united states and colombia, regarding security matters within colombia.

our hemisphere faces a number of pressing challenges, from the economic crisis to the climate crisis to public health concerns, such as h1n1 viagra's, to narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime. these all deserve our attention and collaboration, so the united states and colombia -- such as the h1n1 virus, to narcotics trafficking. once again, i want to thank the foreign minister for his visit and invite him to say a few words. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> i want to say good afternoon to everyone, and, first of all, i want to thank the secretary of state for hosting meet here today along with my delegation.

i think her always for generosity that she shows when we come to visit and for her goodwill in our meetings. the united states and colombia enjoy a very close relationship, just as our personal relationship is a close one, and we hope and pray that this relationship will continue in the future for the benefit of both of our people. we have discussed a very broad and far reaching agenda that includes many topics, like clean energy, the fight against terrorism, the fight against narco trafficking, technology. as you all know, colombia has suffered greatly because of a marker trafficking and terrorism, two issues that, unfortunately, go hand in hand and to a certain degree have become synonymous. this is a very serious threat that we're all facing, and we in colombia at notice caulwell, unfortunately, and also, unfortunately, many times in different parts of the world, countries speak out about atrocities that were committed -- and we and columbia know this

well. not all are willing to lend the same hands the same -- and we in colombia note as well. -- notice as well. -- notice. it is important to be able to carry out efforts like this everywhere -- no this -- know this. it is all it when everyone is cooperating that we will be able to achieve this. colombia once this completely, and we know that the united states will help us towards this goal -- colombia once this -- wants this. regionally and the entire continent and eventually for the entire globe. , columbia just does not ask for cooperation. we ask for cooperation whenever began. as i said, we have suffered, and we have learned as a result of this suffering.

we want to help all of those through global corporate programs, and everywhere where it is possible for us to provide our experience. we're doing this in haiti, which guatemala, with panama, and we are delighted that we will soon be signing agreements with the united states on this very topic, and we hope that we will be able to address these topics in the future. once colombia is free of all of the scourges that we are now suffering, everyone will benefit as a result. i thank you, madam secretary, for this meeting today, for your kind words, and i look forward to working on this very broad agenda. >> madam secretary, on another subject, what have you learned since he returned from north korea about the state of that regime, the health of kim jong il, and his good will to become

a circuit breaker an open door is towards a renewed negotiations? >> well, andrea, the briefing that my husband and those who traveled with them have provided to us is extremely helpful because it gives us a window into what is going on in north korea, but our policy remains the same. our policy is consistent. we continue to offer to the north koreans the opportunity to have a dialogue with indy six- party talks framework within the united states that we think could offer many benefits to the people of north korea, but the choice is up to the north koreans.

we are exploring with our north korean partners and other partners what additional steps can be taken to begin the framework discussions once more, but it is going to be up to the north koreans to determine. >> [inaudible] >> great. that is up for us to determine. whether there are some opportunities and some insights that can be used to try to create this positive atmosphere, but it is really up to the north koreans. >> madam secretary, [inaudible]

weapons from russia and bases on the border. [inaudible] >> well, i think that very clearly described what is and what it is not. i would certainly hope that anyone who is speaking out about the agreement will take the time to understand that this is built on years of agreements between the united states and colombia and there is the commitment that the united states made going back three administrations. if i am not mistaken. to assist colombia in its courageous struggle against the mark a traffickers, -- against the mark of traffickers. we all should be cooperating against one another -- against

the mark the traffickers -- narco traffickers. they are so disruptive and damaging to the fabric of society. the assassinations, the intimidation that goes on is not just a threat to the country in which it occurs, but it is a threat to everyone. so i believe that any fair reading of what it is we are discussing is about our continued commitment to assist columbia. it has nothing to do with other countries -- to assist colombia. i only hope that people actually take the time to understand that. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> [speaking foreign language] >> i just wanted to point out that i want to reiterate what colombia needs is more effective mechanisms of cooperation, and this mechanism, in particular, with the united states is one that we have had for a very long

time already is building on a number of mechanisms that we have been working on, and so the principles contained therein are very clear. the principle of sovereign equality of status, the principle of nonintervention, -- sovereign equality of states. these are very important tenants, and i think it would be extremely good to have more agreements, not just for the united states but with other states in the same vein. >> madam secretary, thank you very much. first of all, about lockerbie, how concerned you were about the fact that the man who was convicted of killing more than 118 americans over lockerbie may be released, and how much pressure are you putting on the scottish authorities to convince them to not release him, and also, briefly, on afghanistan, there is an upsurge about

afghanistan, lots of fraud, and i was wondering where does that leave the legitimacy of the results of that? >> as to the first question, the united states has made its views known over a number of months, and we continue to make the same point that we think it is inappropriate and very much against the wishes of the family members of the victims who suffered such grievous losses of the actions that led to the bombing of the airline. we have made our views known to the libyan government, as well. i take this very personally, because i knew a lot of the family members who were lost because there was a large

contingent from syracuse university, so during the time that i had a great honor of representing new york i knew a lot of these families. i talked to them about the horror they experienced, and i just think it is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been in prison based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime. we are still encouraging the scottish authorities not to do so, and we hope that they will not. with respect to afghanistan, we have made a number of statements over the last several days as supporting electoral process, speaking out about the uptick and violence. i think one way you can view the violence is an effort by the taliban to intimidate people from actually voting to try to

create an atmosphere of violence and fear that will keep people away from the polls. there are problems with this election, as there are with an election, but we still believe that is the right of the people of afghanistan to pick their own leaders, and we are encouraging them to come out and vote, and we have worked very hard over the last months to provide the security with the help of a lot of my staff partners and others, the president of afghanistan, and we are going to hope that the election goes well. >> thank you, good afternoon. madam secretary, the state department has said in different locations and venezuela has not done enough against drugs in the region. some experts believe that is the

reason why president hugo chavez has criticized so much strongly the agreement that your countries are going to sign sooner, so i wonder if you agree with that opinion, and why are the governments of like the brazilian government, for example, also have some concerns about the agreement? >> well, i do not want to speak for any other government. they can certainly express their views, but i do want each person who speaks out about this agreement to understand what it is and to recognize what is not. it is certainly a bilateral agreement with very clear recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty and all of the other key principles that the foreign minister mentioned. so i hope that as more is learned, there is not just an awareness of the relationship that the united states and colombia have had for many,

many years, and our continuing cooperation on what we view as not just a threat to the two of us but a threat to the whole region, but i would also ask that more countries actually help us in this fight. do not just stand in the sidelines. certainly do not contribute to the problems by doing and saying things that undermines the efforts that our governments are taking to try to protect the entire region from the scourge of narco traffickers. i think that people are free to say what they will, but the facts are very clear here. this is a continuation of a partnership that we believe and the colombians believe has worked to make life better for the people of colombia. it is nothing more than that, that we want to make it

possible, as it now is, for people to be free from intimidation and violence in colombia when not so long ago, you could not say that, and i really applaud the colombian government, president your rebate'-- president uribe's leadership about what they have done against a really ruthless enemy. thank you all. what happened to you? what happened to you? i cannot take you anywhere. [laughter]

thank you all. take care. >> in a few moments, a pentagon briefing on security preparations for afghanistan's presidential election. in one hour, hhs secretary

kathleen sebelius on combating medicare fraud. and after that, author richard feldmann on his memoir, "- ricochet." on "washington journal" tomorrow, the director of the website will focus on the health-care debate, brooks jackson. our series with officers continues with judge andrew napolitano on his book "dread scott revenge." we will talk about how the recession have not graduated high school with a ceo of pro literacy, and we will take your calls on the so-called public option in the health-care debate with dana goldstein

"washington journal" is live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. on c-span2 tomorrow morning, a swine flu conference with public health and hospital officials, emergency responders, and industry leaders. live at 9:00 a.m. eastern. >> how is c-span funded? >> the u.s. government. >> private benefactors. >> i do not know. i think some of it is government raised. >> it is not public funding. >> i want to say from me, my tax dollars. >> how is c-span's funded? america's cable companies created c-span as a private business initiative, no government mandate, no government money. >> afghanistan's presidential election is on thursday. next, a pentagon briefing on efforts to protect voters and the status of afghan security forces. this is one hour.

>> now we have got to in the briefing room, good morning to the press corps. good afternoon to our guests in a couple. today, our briefers are a brigadier-general of the australian army and another brigadier-general of the canadian forces. the brigadier-general is the chief of the task force for the international task force, and the other brigadier-general is the spokesman. the general has been the chief of the task force since march of this year, and the general has been the isaf spoke smith for several months. as i mentioned, those -- both of these officers are joining us from kabul -- the general has been the isaf spokesman for several months. we will take questions afterwards, if you like. >> thank you very much.

ladies and gentlemen, i am the brigadier-general with isaf, their spokesperson, and as mentioned, i am also with the other brigadier-general. as you know, earlier today, there was an explosive charge on the busy streets of kabul, claiming the lives of some service members, some civilians, and other employees. this vicious attack included damage to more than 50 civilian afghans. it proves that they have no respect for the afghan population. they are using indiscriminate and on proportion of violence to advance their ideology -- and

unproportionate violence. over the last months, isaf has been involved in numerous security operations all over the country and has worked very closely with its afghan partners, the afghan national police, and the afghan national army to prepare and provide security for the people of afghanistan for the elections. the object of these was to minimize and mitigate the risk to the lowest levels possible. despite the best plans, and they're always be some problems, particularly in places like afghanistan. as you can imagine, conducting this through insurgency makes this elections even more challenging -- these elections even more challenging. on average, about 32 attacks a

day are made, and around 40 it attacks within the last four days a day. -- around 40 attacks within the last four days. 15 million afghan voters have registered for these elections. on the 1% and 6500 potential polling stations -- only 1% of 6500 potential polling stations. the afghans have expressed very clearly there will and their determination to vote, and we will continue to support them so that they can firmly exercise their right to choose their next president and their provincial representatives. it is now for the afghans themselves to determine their future. we are ready for questions. >> all right. courtney? >>