Hennessy's View

Sorry for the interruption, but we’ve worked out the kinks.

Do you want to show the world your colors? 

Do you want to say, “I’m a tea partier?”

Do you want your style to shout, “FREEDOM!”

Then get to the official St. Louis Tea Party store and stock up.  We’ve added T.E.A. ball caps to go with the T.E.A Special Forces t-shirts (our best seller). 

You’ll look terrific reading Zen Conservatism in your Tea Party Hoodie!

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You Can Order My Book Online Today
Zen Conservatism is now available in paperback. 

I began this book in December 2008, just after the election.  My goal was to produce a book that would inspire people to restore our republic.  At the time, conservatives were disheartened, dismayed, and distracted. 

Then the Tea Party movement began, and I had to put my book project on hold.
But thanks to your work, I’ve been able to return to my project.  I’ve updated the original work with things I’ve learned in the Tea Party movement, but the basic idea remains the same:  focus on the most important things and be happy while you do it. 

I hope this book helps you (and all of us) reclaim our freedom without losing our souls
If you would like the book, you can order online here ($1 from each purchase goes to St. Louis Tea Party)  or from Amazon.com.  I’d be more than happy to sign it at the next event.  I hope to have a book signing in January.

The book will be available in bookstores every in January, but why wait?  You can get it now for just $14.95 (plus shipping and handling).  

Fulfillment by Amazon
Are you an Amazon member?  You can order today from Amazon.com.  This option gives you all the advantages of Amazon, including the free shipping program if you qualify. 

Kindle Edition
Have a Kindle?  Get Zen Conservatism for Kindle from Amazon.

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The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is back as an online newspaper.  That’s good news for all of us, regardless of their editorial positions.  The other paper in St. Louis has fallen without competition.  People have found alternatives. 

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Usually, I’m against any government adding anything to its list of functions. But our friend Carl Bearden points out a novel and needed commission proposed by Missouri State Senator Gary Nodler.  If enacted, Senate Bill No. 587 would require Missouri to establish a 10th Amendment Commission.

Here’s language directly from the proposed bill:

The commission shall examine actions of the federal government toward the state, and refer cases to the attorney general when the federal government takes steps that require the state or a state officer to enact or enforce a provision of federal law that lies outside Congress’s enumerated powers and intrudes on the sovereignty reserved to the states by the tenth amendment to the United States Constitution. The attorney general is authorized to seek appropriate relief to preserve the state’s sovereignty.

I say the St. Louis Tea Party should champion this legislation right through to election day on August 10, 2010.

I can’t think of a better use for an Attorney-General than to protect Missouri (or any other state) from the criminally expansive federal government.  For the past century, the people and the states watch Washington bureaucrats and politicians steal power for their own use—power given by God and guaranteed by the Constitution.

This should be just one prong in multi-faceted State Sovereignty campaign.  There’s no shortage of attacks on our freedoms; we might as well throw the kitchen sink at them, too.

I’ll try to contact Tea Party and other conservative groups in KC, Springfield, Cape, and other cities. 

Who’s with me?  Please share your thoughts below.

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John is a Vietnam veteran and retired business executive.  He loves America and hates to see what’s happened in Washington the past few years.  He believes in liberty and Constitutional limitations on government growth. 

He called the Tea Party just to vent and to see if it’s just him.

Recently, John had called Senator Kit Bond’s (R-MO) office in Washington.  He wanted to know whether stories that Bond had signed off a $659 million earmark for soy bean farmers were true. 

According to John, the Bond staffer who answered the phone was terse, rude, and argumentative.  She balked at being called a “lady,” though she couldn’t think of an acceptable alternative. She hung up on the constituent and veteran twice.  She threatened to call the police if he called back.

John’s offense?  He had the audacity to ask about the earmark and state his view that Bond and his staff are our employees. 

I was not able to speak to anyone at Bond’s office to confirm, but John’s story wasn’t the first like it.  Senator Bond, one of the biggest porkers in Congress, has a reputation for being rude to constituents . . . unless, of course, they come bearing campaign contributions.  Now that he’s retiring from the Senate, even donors are in trouble.

Bond’s local office was more polite to John, but they still argued with him, claiming John’s assessment of Bond’s political career was unfair. 

John contrasted for me his treatment with Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) office staff.  McCaskill’s people were not only polite, they were polite while arguing policy with John.  While John admits he can be short and direct, he felt that never went there with McCaskill’s polite, professional, and enthusiastic staff.

Now, I agree with Sen. Bond on most issues and I disagree with McCaskill on just about everything.  (Same for Tea Partier John.)  Where John and I have more in common with Claire than with Bond is on the point of customer service.  Claire understands how to treat constituents on the phone; Bond simply does not.

Want to know why the Tea Party is viewed more favorably than the Republican Party?  This story tells it all. 

Wake up, GOP.  You’re on the road to losing seats in 2010 rather than gaining them.

And don’t forget to check out my new ebook, Zen Conservatism!  The price goes up $3 on Monday, December 14.

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