College Republicans

CPAC Day 1: Meeting and greeting

This is by far the largest conference I've ever attended. I'm in a sort of culture shock having not seen D.C. before and then joining he throngs of conservatives at the Omni Shoreham... it's a joyful culture shock, though, considering how much fun our CRs are having.

While our trip was longer than anticipated, we made it to the hotel and got registered without any major incidents (thank God!). Most of the sessions we wanted to see today were over by the time we got there, sadly, and the one we had wanted to attend was totally filled up. Rather uneventfully, we finally made our way to grab our first meal of the day at around 2 p.m.

Refueling was a great idea, because once we returned to the Omni, we hit the sponsor booths! I love that there are so many people here with so many organizations dedicated to maintaining conservatism in America. Not only that, but they love young people and college students (and they have inordinate amounts of free stuff!).

We split our group and wandered from booth to booth, and Mike and I found what they call "Bloggers' Corner." Basically it's a row of tables in the back of this convention-style room where folks can plug in their computers and jam away at the keyboards to post about the event. An awesome idea, if I do say so myself. I looked up and there was Michelle Malkin!

How exciting it is to meet someone whose blog you read everyday!

I also got to meet some other big-name conservative bloggers like Mary Katherine Ham (who fills in on Michelle's blog sometimes) and some folks from townhall.com.

Hopefully after a good night's sleep and an early start we'll be ready to tear into what CPAC has to offer us! It's already been a grand time, and we've only just begun to see what all there is available to do and see!

Senators Supporting Senators

It's no surprise that there are some other U.S. Senators really pulling for Rick Santorum. It is a surprise, however, that one is so serious about keeping Rick in the Senate that he would travel to Pennsylvania from his home state of South Carolina for the purpose of rallying energy around the campaign.

Jim DeMint (R-SC) came to the Victory Center in downtown Greensburg this morning for a breakfast with campaign volunteers. It was a great turn out--the room was filled with people in support of Rick!

DeMint told the crowd that he did, in fact, feel very strongly about keeping Rick in the Senate. He said, "If I didn't think this was a race worth winning, I would have stayed home... probably just on the beach somewhere." The crowd laughed, since it was all of 40� this morning.

Senator DeMint enforced that showing support doesn't mean just walking up to people and saying "I support Rick Santorum, and you should, too." Putting a bumper or window sticker on your car, putting a sign in your yard, being active with the campaign and not hiding it--all of these things, DeMint said, will influence the people that aren't maybe as active as you are.

He said that chances are that some people are going to wait until a few days before the election to begin thinking about who they'll vote for. But if they know that you're active and "in the know" more than they are, they might trust that you know the issues and the candidates. They might vote for who's on your bumper sticker, if the name is out there.

I think that it is really exciting to know that another senator--one of Rick's colleagues--feels so strongly about the Pennsylvania Senate race that he would come up here to show his support. That really says something to me.

(Plus, as a side note, it's really awesome that the SHU CRs have had the opportunity to meet and talk with two U.S. Senators in just one week! The picture below is from the RSite website launch on 10/7/06.)

{This blog also posted on ricksantorum.com.)

Rick Santorum on Immigration

Last Wednesday's event about immigration reform was hugely successful. All seats were filled in the Monroeville fire hall, and the banner displaying the words "Border Security First" really set the stage for the question-and-answer session with Senator Rick Santorum.

The Senator first stated his position on the bill that recently passed in the U.S. Senate, and then moved in to discussion of the amendment that he co-sponsored. Santorum also discussed the Border Security First Act.

The Senator gracefully fielded questions both written and spoken by audience members. It was really inspiring to hear the concerns of other Pennsylvanians. Immigration--specifically illegal immigration--is a huge issue for any American citizen, or at least it ought to be... especially since Casey thinks that Pennsylvanians don't care about immigration, or that Senator Santorum votes for active measures to prevent amnesty and secure our borders.

Oh, but we do care, Mr. Casey. And thinking that we don't really isn't helping your cause, now is it?

I'll leave you with a couple statistics that really floored me.

Donuts with Diana Irey

This past Saturday graduates from Seton Hill University listened to a commencement address by Congressman John Murtha (D). Murtha is up for re-election this year, and his challenger, Diana Irey (R), is not one to let an opportunity pass her by.

Irey spoke at a breakfast held in downtown Greensburg. The breakfast was a social event in honor of the recent graduates, and to offer a different viewpoint than the one that Murtha would be presenting at commencement later that Saturday.

I was asked to introduce Diana, as the representative of the CRs. In addition to providing a little bit of biographical background on the candidate, I was to provide my explanation of why we were having Diana give us her take on things. I said something to the effect of needing an alternative viewpoint to the biased, negative perspective for which Murtha is known.

Irey had many positive things to say. She wasn't there to merely oppose Murtha, but to promote the good that she represents. Yes, Irey brought to the table a number of things that Murtha has said or done, many of which should be considered detriment to his position; however, Irey never stooped to a simple "bashing" of her opponent. Bringing to light what is considered public record of a politician is no crime, and Irey used this to move her own ideas forward with passion.

Above all, Irey brought with her the passion that I feel is necessary to take out this incumbent. Those that attended the breakfast welcomed Irey and her energy with enthusiasm of their own.

Borowitz Report: so liberal a campus

I attended the Andy Borowitz event on Thursday night in Cecilian Hall, and I'm still trying to decide whether I was really glad to be there or whether I wish I hadn't gone at all. My fellow CRs, I'm glad none of you were there to experience this, though. It would have only brought your blood to a boil, and trust me, I hate dialing 911.

Mr. Borowitz began the evening with a cute sideways look at his performance at Seton Hill. He said that in the world of comedy, there's Caesar's Palace and then there's Seton Hill. This collected some laughter, so he pushed a little further. Apparently he eats breakfast on most Sundays with Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. When they discussed upcoming gigs this past Sunday, Seinfeld said he was headed to L.A., Stewart said he was doing Leno since he just did the Oscars, and Borowitz said when it was his turn to say he said he had two options: brag about doing Seton Hill or play it low. He decided to play it low and said he just had a gig in Pennsylvania. Then he said, Seinfeld was like 'You're doing Seton Hill aren't you?' Okay, that's cute, haha.

Borowitz is from Cleveland originally, went to Harvard, and now lives in New York. He's a writer, actor, and humorist. He was the creator of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and also produced the film Pleasantville. He writes a daily internet column called The Borowitz Report and also contributes to CNN's American Morning and NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. He has written the bestselling book Who Moved My Soap? The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison. He's everywhere in the media, basically. That says a lot about him without having been at the lecture, trust me.

Once the niceties were over, he delved into political issues, which is what he's known for. Borowitz said that when he needs to laugh he watched FOXNews, citing that they use different language on CNN. When we say bad economy on CNN, they're saying good on FOX. When we say Iraqi insurgents on CNN they're saying terrorists on FOX.

Of course, sooner or later the discussion would move to our President. Borowitz said he liked three things about President Bush. (Now I do admit that I thought the first one was pretty funny.)

1) The War on Terror - Borowitz said he liked Bush's ambition in the War on Terror because the President wasn't declaring war on "terrorism" or "terrorists," but instead, a human emotion. He continued by asking what was next: shyness? Oh, shyness is going down. It won't last for long. (This is the one I laughed at.)

2) The Victims' Apology Act - Naturally, the shooting incident with Vice President Dick Cheney isn't going to rest in peace any time soon. Borowitz brought us the fact that it was the person who got shot that was doing the most apologizing. Those victims have been getting away with this too long, Borowitz said.

3) No Child Left Behind - Borowitz gave his brief understanding of how he sees this act working in schools in America: more standardized testing, fewer unmerited promotions to the next grade, frustrated teachers. He said he thought this was good though, because if it would have been in place about fifty years ago where would Bush be then? ...

After that point, Borowitz explained that he was very good at predicting the future. We were instructed as an audience to ask questions to which he would respond with his projected outcome. This is when things got really ugly, in my opinion. It made me realize exactly what the climate of the room was and that I was an anomaly in the crowd.*(This is very uncomfortable; I'll get back to this at the end.)

Questions ranged from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' "silent birth" to the situation in Iran. I don't recall all of the questions, but I do recall not laughing very much (which to me means that the weight was on the left foot, if you know what I mean).

I do appreciate that he showed some censure when someone asked a question about the Duke lacrosse team. Borowitz said that he did not think that the situation was funny nor should it be made fun of; he said he would made light of any questions that didn't involve rape. Thank you for some boundaries.

A couple of the last jokes he made were okay. About how there are too many Law & Order shows--that on one recent episode (he was making this up, of course) the show started with a murder and when the characters of that particular L&O show arrived at the scene there were characters from another L&O show already there. Haha.

All right, now let's analyze this. Here's what I promised about being the odd-one-out in the crowd. This fall, we were graced with the presence of Mr. Morgan Spurlock. He's not quite as openly liberal in his politics, but the influence is undeniably there. A liberal.

Now, Mr. Andy Borowitz: blatantly liberal. There's no denying this, not even if the guy tried (and he doesn't).

How is this a fair representation to the Seton Hill community? If the school wants to be diverse and encourage the cultural discussion that it so frequently lays out for students, why not include more political views than those that already run the campus? Sure, let's be racially diverse, religiously diverse (even though we can't properly observe Easter), linguistically diverse, etc. etc. But when it comes to any sort of diversity on the political spectrum there is but one shade that I see at our university.

Encouraging diversity has to be diversity in every aspect of life in order to be diverse. There can be no exceptions. Not even with politics. I stand behind the idea of diversity in our university and I think that I have learned a great deal from the experiences that I've had (including this one, with Mr. Borowitz)--but not so directly to say that I learned and accept what is given to me. If I swallowed everything that was presented to me here I wouldn't be a conservative. I couldn't possibly have Republican ideals. I wouldn't be me anymore, but rather, a smattering of what my university gives me to ingest.

I get tired of feeling like I have to hide the fact that I'm Republican, that I am a board member of the College Republicans, that I am going to intern for our Senator Rick Santorum, that I have conservative ideals and like them. Isn't college supposed to be about finding yourself and being that person? Well, I've found myself and I'm apprehensive to be that person because I feel like my viewpoints are shadowed and unwelcome.

I shouldn't have to feel this way. And I shouldn't have to see an entire lecture series at my university be overrun with liberal politics. Where's a conservative representative, please? Show me and I'll shut up. This may be a new crusade (like that petition wasn't enough?).

Diversity is good. But hypocrisy is bad. If you want to be fully diverse, people, that includes politics. Thank goodness next year's lecture series is musical...

Two CRs Attend Women's Breakfast with Rick!

Wednesday morning I was up and driving to Pittsburgh by six o'clock. Diana and I met Elizabeth Yorio in Holiday Park and we carpooled downtown to the Omni William Penn Hotel. Elizabeth had invited Diana and I to attend recently, and we were honored to be guests at an event strictly for women.

(Also see the blog I wrote for RickSantorum.com!)

The room on the 17th floor was filled with women for this Breakfast with RIck. We sat down at a table in the back so we could get good pictures of the stage area, and we met some very nice ladies. (And I'm not joking when I say that no matter where I go I meet someone with ties to Seton Hill. One woman's husband apparently does lobbying or something for the school, so when we mentioned we were from she acted like we were old friends.) So the company was nice and the food was great.

We moved from our table in the back, though, when Elizabeth scored some seats right next to the stage! (This was a positive thing on many levels since my digital camera decided to bite the dust on a very important day, leaving me with my cell phone's tiny camera alone.) U.S. Congresswoman Melissa Hart, of the 4th District of Pennsylvania, introduced Senator Santorum. When he walked towards the stage through our cheering, I stuck my hand out to greet him and I got to shake the Senator's hand. (This is great for me, since I already got to shake Swann's hand...)

(See? That's the back of my head to the bottom left by the balloons; Diana is on the right, two people over from me!)

The Senator's words Wednesday morning were uplifting, but honest. He discussed the war in Iraq saying that he knows it might not always be popular to support the war. He said not to let what they are doing defeat us. Additionally, Rick brought up a number of topics I hadn't yet heard him discuss at length. I was enlightened to know his thoughts on HIV in Africa, the "sandwich generation," malpractice in Pennsylvania, Iran, autism, and illegal immigration. (I took notes, if anyone would like to see them.)

When the Senator took questions and comments from the audience, there were a few touching moments when individuals shared personal stories. Rick reacted with such sincerity, and this made me realize all the more what a genuine person Rick really is. He's a great blend of an authentic family man with intrinsic ideals and a smart politician with his values on the surface.

Overall, my experience at the women's breakfast reinforced my convictions and strong support for Rick. I've got a lot to look forward to in not only reading his book that I just got, but also being an intern this summer!

Elizabeth is an awesome driver, by the way. Just in case anyone wondered, she has skills.

Thank you to Stan Olshefski for the pictures seen here, since my camera is no longer with us.

(I know this is a little late, but this has been an incredibly busy week, so better late than never!)

Dinner with the RNC Chairman

Members of the Seton Hill College Republicans had the unique opportunity to meet, and eat dinner with, the chairman of the Republican National Party yesterday. Chairman Ken Mehlman was in town to rally the volunteers for one of the most important races in the country: Sen. Rick Santorum's re-election.

Five of the CR's (pictured) were able to shake hands with and speak to Ken while working at the Victory Center in downtown Greensburg. We were there volunteering at the phone bank when Ken arrived to thank all of the workers for their continuing efforts. It was a real honor to meet the man who has done so much for the Republican party (and for the President, as head campaign director in 2004).

Later that evening, ten CR's attended a dinner presented by the Westmoreland County Republicans at the Greensburg Country Club. Ken Mehlman, along with US Congressman Tim Murphy, spoke at the event. The dinner allowed the SHU College Republicans to meet many of the directors, coordinators, and volunteers for a number of the campaigns they will be working with.

To read more about Mehlman's remarks at the dinner, check out the blog entry that I wrote for the Rick Santorum website.

The CR's would like to thank Perry Christopher, Chairman of the Westmoreland County Republicans, for inviting us to the dinner.

Convention Report: Academic Bill of Rights

Academic freedom is a hot issue on campuses today. With students speaking out against politically indoctrinating professors, an unbiased education is coming to a campus near you.

This concept mostly applies to state schools, since they are funded by the government. All colleges have rules that say professors may not discriminate based on ideas. If a student brings an issue forward and the school in question isn�t following its own principles, a hearing is held to determine if the school is in violation of the Academic Bill of Rights.

Representative Gib Armstrong (Lancaster, PA � R) works with David Horowitz, author of The Campaign for Academic Freedom, as an advocate for students at campuses with professors preaching instead of teaching. "This isn�t about beating liberals with the right wing agenda, it�s about leveling the playing field,� said Armstrong.

Resolution 177 is the Academic Freedom Resolution, which is aimed at keeping teachers� biases out of the classroom. There is a lack of accountability in higher education, said Armstrong.

Recently at Temple University, a hearing was held to discuss the economics department. Armstrong informed our group about the hearing. He said that Karl Marx is taught, but not Adam Smith or Milton Friedman. �Nothing about the free market,� Armstrong said.

He said administrators say that if teachers wants to teach Smith, etc., that they are free to do so.

�They are teaching a failed economic system,� said Armstrong. �We go to college not to learn what to think, but how to think for ourselves.�

�Universities promote every kind of diversity imaginable, except the diversity of thought,� said Logan Fisher, a senior at Temple University.

Armstrong encouraged students to go to their �higher-ups� in their college�s hierarchy to achieve better results from reporting incidents of indoctrination in the classroom. For the left, liberalism is a religion, he said. The left doesn�t recognize two sides to the issue. They live in a relative world. �[With] relativism,� Armstrong said, �there is no absolute truth.�

Convention Report: John Pippy and the Truth About Iraq

The biggest event of the morning was the Support Our Troops Rally featuring PA State Senator John Pippy, who is both a politician and on active duty with the Army. He was a dynamic, engaging and often humorous speaker who not only shed like on the reasons for going to war, but also spoke about the misrepresentation of the war and the progress made thus far.

John Pippy served for 11 months as an engineer in Iraq, working on rebuilding the infrastructure from the Euphrates to Kuwait. During his time there, he was able to study the culture and learn about the Middle East.

One of the interesting things the Senator explained was the reason why most suicide bombers are from Saudi Arabia (a supposed American ally.) Because of the class system in Arabia, there is a disproportionate gap between the wealthy and the poor. So much so, that the poor families, losing all sense of opportunity, rely on payment from suicide bombings so that they can move out of their class system.

But despite the occasional bombing in Iraq, Pippy did say that they are making tremendous progress. �The media is telling the truth,� he said, �but they are only telling you 5% of the truth.� He went on to elaborate, saying that wars are not found in thirty second sound bites and in commercials on CNN. The Senator said that 75% of the country will be under Iraqi control by this summer.

When posed with the question as to why America�s invasion of Iraq is important in the war on terror, Senator Pippy listed three main reasons: Firstly, the humanitarian/democratic effort, which has saved countless lives after liberating the Iraqi people from a ruthless totalitarian regime. Secondly, the need to stop Saddam from pursuing nuclear weapons and using the chemical/biological weapons that he may have had (Pippy confirmed that there is a growing suspicion that Saddam shipped them into Syria). And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a free, democratic Iraq will be a springboard to peace in the Middle East, and create a good ally in the American effort to promote democracy in the region.

�We need to win the fight,� Senator Pippy said. �And win the hearts and minds of the people out there.�

Convention Report: Federation Meeting and Election

This morning, the Federation Committee re-elected every one of their standing members to the executive board. The most touching moment during the formal voting session was the message from the current, and now re-elected, Chairman Nick Miccarelli, who is currently deployed in Iraq.

Nick recorded a minute-long message, which was accompanied by a slide show of him on duty, thanking the CR�s for their hard work in the state. He also talked briefly about the success in Iraq and all the great things our servicemen are doing over there. This positive message about the truth in the war would continue with Senator John Pippy.

Convention Report: Hispanics for the Right

We're presently in Lancaster, PA for the State College Republican Convention. Tonight kicked off the spring event, and a number of speakers got our group excited to be here.

During the welcoming, the Chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Republican Hispanic Assembly, Balbina Caldwell, spoke about her involvement in the Republican party, which began shortly after she moved to the US from Mexico. She attended college in Mississippi, where she became involved with the College Republicans on her campus. "Who thought there were Hispanics in Mississippi?" Caldwell said with a smile.

Involved in a number of Republican activities since her beginnings in the CRs, Caldwell also has started her own businesses. Entrepreneurship and Republican ideals hand-in-hand, Caldwell is an inspiration.

Caldwell encouraged our group to seek out Hispanics as good members of the party. Why? And specifically, why would Hispanics fit better in the Republican party instead of the Democratic party?

Caldwell said that Hispanics identify with the focus on family and religious values. She said that this is because Hispanics typically find similar ideals in their homes and probably experienced strength in those areas in their native countries. She also said that Hispanics tend to value freedom and patriotism a great deal, and that that is a driving force behind them joining the armed forces.

It was a pleasure to hear from Valvina. Her earlier comment about finding Hispanics in Mississippi lead her to close with a similar comment regarding Pennsylvania. She said that PA should be a place where we approach Hispanics with open minds and our Republican ideals ready to present, ready to gain active and dedicated members of our party; something they can stand for and we can appreciate.

*EDIT: Thank you for the correction via the comment, A.J.; her name spelled properly is "Balbina."

Convention Report: Swann Holds Election Rally

The first night of the College Republican State Convention ended with a highly energetic rally for gubernatorial candidate, Lynn Swann. The auditorium was filled with excited College Republicans from all around the state ready to go to work for the former-Steeler-turned-politician.

Swann spoked passionately about living out the American dream, being just a private citizen who has no interest in "career politics." Swann addressed the fact that he has little to no previous political experience, saying that if we judged candidates by those standards then people like Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan would have never been elected governor. He stressed the issue of giving Rendell a "free ticket" for re-election, just because he's an incumbent.

"We all make mistakes," he said, "and in 2002, Pennsylvania made a mistake by electing Ed Rendell... now we're going to fix that mistake."

Lynn Swann is already the first African American Republican to run for PA governor, and he hopes to be the first candidate to unseat an incumbent in PA.

Convention Report: SHU Mentioned in Presentation

During the speeches on the first night of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans Convention, Seton Hill's College Republican chapter was mentioned during one of the speeches. Mindy Finn, the director of New Media and Technology for the Rick Santorum campaign, mentioned our organization, along with Penn State as two of the schools heading up the Santorum campaign blogs.

Seton Hill's College Republican blog has been noticed by recent campaigns, and has allowed contributors to seek opportunities for political blogging elsewhere. The SHU CR's have been tapped to lead the pack in Santorum's new college student blog diaries.

As exhibited during Mindy's presentation, the Santorum campaign is breaking new ground in electronic campaigning. They are truly embracing the New Media revolution that had just begun to show during the 2004 campaign. The campaign has started a new program allowing volunteers to sign up to be "Rick's Running Mates," which gives people access to a virtual campaign headquarters! From there, volunteers can send letters to the editor of their hometown paper, look for upcoming events, call talk radio stations, and stay up to date on all of the latest issues. It's like nothing I've ever seen before, and promises to give Rick a huge leg-up in the grassroots effort.

Club Fair and First Meeting

The Seton Hill Club Fair is coming up in a week or so, and the SHU College Republicans plan to be represented there in full force. Any current member of the CRs who would like to help man the booth, just leave a comment or contact me. The fair will run from 6-8pm on Monday, Sept 12th on Sullivan Lawn.

Also, the following evening, we will be holding our first event. The SHU CRs were invited to attend the Westmoreland County Republican meeting, which is taking place at the Hampton Inn in Greensburg. The meeting will begin at 7PM. Carmen Marotta has been kind enough to make this trip his Sept. floor plan, so at least he and I will be providing transportation to those who need it. It will be a good way to start the semester off, and let the county know how strong of an asset we can be.

Tim Murphy to Speak on Social Sec.

In case anyone is interested, this Wednesday, March 30 at 7:00PM in the Jeannette Town Hall, Congressman Tim Murphy will be hosting a public forum on Social Security reform. It's an opportunity for people to ask questions, share ideas and talk about options for the future.

It will be interesting to see what is said at this event, and where Mr. Murphy stands on the subject, considering he did not have a stance on the issue just a few weeks ago.

Dick Cheney to Visit LaRoche

Vice President Dick Cheney will be in the area Thursday, March 24th at LaRoche College. The topic of his visit is going to be Social Security reform, which just so happens to be the prime focus of the Seton Hill College Republicans this semester! The doors will be opening at 12:30pm and the event is scheduled to start at 1:30pm.

For ticket information, contact Tim Murphy's office at (412) 344-5583 as soon as possible.

Inauguration 2005

The inauguration of George W. Bush is coming up this month. Thursday, January 20th, to be specific. And you can get tickets to the ceremony by checking out the official website and requesting tickets. There are also Senator and Delegation parties going on that evening--all of which require a tuxedo. While only big donors and elitists will most likely be getting into the Senatorial parties, the delegations--one for each state-- are open to anyone who wants to buy a ticket.

So if you aren't doing anything Thursday, Jan. 20th, head on down to D.C. and support our re-elected president.