References
Internet
RollCallCongress lets you enter your zip code and displays both your state and federal representatives, as well as giving you a means of checking their voting record.
Washington Votes lets you track Washington State legislators’ votes by bill. It’s an extension of the Washington Policy Center, founded by ex-Microsoft Scott Oki. I don’t know much about it but a quick review of their perspective on state-sponsored healthcare shows a distinctly conservative point of view.
Another good tool for finding your Washington State representatives, along with a map showing your district boundaries, is District Finder.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation focuses on Washington State spending. With our Democrat-led congress and Governorship, they provide some good information on bills we should be concerned about.
The EFF’s Citizen Action Network offers free membership, and provides training, tools and resources, and sends alerts to its members about pending Washington State legislation.
The Washington State Tea Party organization’s website lists upcoming events in the Puget Sound area and around the state, as well as offering links to conservative national organizations.
Grassroots organizing is an involved but well-understood process. Stealing a couple of pages from the playbook of the left (in this case organizing an aids-awareness campaign), I’d like to recommend this grassroots organizing kit to the group. Check out pages 17-24 especially.
The Federal Reserve is composed of un-elected policymakers, without congressional oversight, and the Obama administration is now proposing giving the Fed even more authority to regulate American commerce. A good source of action information related to the Federal Reserve is endthefed.
The Ron Paul Campaign has a lot of issues-related stuff.
I don’t know a lot about the Mises Institute, but their goal is “to undermine statism in all forms,” and their website is a great warehouse of information.
Follow the money: Visit the Federal Election Commission. For Washington state disclosure, visit the Public Disclosure Commission.
ICECAP, International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project, is the portal to all things climate for elected officials and staffers, journalists, scientists, educators and the public.
American Issues Project promotes small government, a strong and ready national defense, low taxes, and a government that encourages entrepreneurship and new job creation in America.
American Thinker is a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans. Contributors are accomplished in fields beyond journalism, and animated to write for the general public out of concern for the complex and morally significant questions on the national agenda.
C-SPAN offers gavel to gavel coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. C-SPAN also offers a variety of public affairs programming including congressional hearings, press briefings from the White House, State Department and Pentagon, campaign and election coverage, and international programming.
Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.
Keith Hennessey is a blog with multiple subjects.
Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank promoting public policy research and analysis based on free enterprise, limited government and individual freedom.
For a look at the left, Moveon is a “family of organizations that brings real Americans back into the political process”.
How to Research (added 5-27-2010)
Contributed by Tawnya, this is a document that may help those of you who do research or for the researchers within your groups. It is full of links for various resources and some how to’s.
Books
These are all economically-oriented, mostly from the “Austrian School” of economics, but also go directly to the core of the principles on which our country was founded.
Woods, Thomas E. Meltdown. 2009
Here’s a related lecture by Dr. Woods - interesting and engaging and worth a look
Paul, Ron. 2008. The Revolution: A Manifesto. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Hayek, Friedrich A. 1944. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Extremely good book on the origins and nature of the Federal Reserve:
Rothbard, Murray N. 2000. America’s Great Depression, 5th ed. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Take Action
1. Letters to the editor – Seattle Times & PI, Everett Herald, Tacoma News Tribune, etc.
2. Letters to your state and federal legislators
3. Emails to your state and federal legislators
4. Attend events
Replicate
If we are serious about making real changes in the 2010 election, we need to be a large, vocal and influential movement well in advance of that election, and a very effective way to do that is to replicate exactly what you’re doing here tonight.
Do you have friends of like mind in other parts of the city, region or state? Would they be interested in starting their own living room tea party meetings? If so, TeaPartyWA.org can help them get started, offering organizing tips, training, speakers and even contact information for other interested individuals in their area. Let’s be silent no more! For more information, email Jeff.