I’ve lead teams and managed folks since I could walk.  But professionally since I was 19.  It’s a gift and a burden — nothing I’ve earned, but an honor nonetheless.  I’ve also been publishing content now for years.  I’ve passed up on stories and tips but never had to invest time, resources, and people into a story just to end up doing what I did tonight.

A trusted source, a credible person called me with a tip a week ago.  I sat on it for three days before casually bringing it up with my top editors at ViralRead.com.  They jumped at the chance to publish this clearly newsworthy item.

It was greenlighted and several of our top writers began working and researching the tip.

It’s scandal.  It has all the juicy stuff.  There’s a big tea party organization, salacious allegations, a pay off and further corruption.

We talked to a half dozen sources familiar with the characters caught up in this drama.

Many good folks around the country know that I was pivotal in the beginning of the tea party movement.  I helped organize the main hub which assisted in 81 cities organizing, with over 1.5 million Americans participating.  It is America’s most successful protest by any objective measurement.  I’m also a huge advocate for transparency. I say all this to say, I want to publish the story.  My heart says I have a moral obligation to throw this grenade and see where it lands.

Alas, that is not the relevant role here.  I’m the Publisher of ViralRead.  I owe something to the public.  A named source, documentation, something… more.

My head says being a leader has tests such as this.  I will rise to the occasion. Disgusted and a little demoralized, I’ll keep keeping on.

We rewrote the story three times.  Dozens of edits.  It just never got to a point where I said, “this is a fine piece of journalism.”  I sought counsel from wiser men than I.  I got advice, rewrote the lede, restructured the article.

Then the glow of my 27” iMac and the approaching midnight hour hit me.  I’m not ready.  I cannot authorize the publication of this story.

ViralRead won’t belong to either political party or subscribe to an ideology.  We want to do news in a fun, snarky, and timely way.  Occasionally, we want to do real fine works of journalism.  The team of more than 30 writers, editors, and managers I’ve assembled will keep doing what they are now, innovative content creation.

If that something more steps forward, we’ll begin doing what ViralRead is being built to do… news.

For now, the story has been deleted.  I have a copy and a few other trusted colleagues.

A few days after the election I began calling friends all across the peach state, a state I used to call home. Knowing that the 2014 midterms would favor Republicans, spawning all sorts of tea party primaries (chief among them South Carolina pre the shuffle), I knew I had to organize a coalition quickly. If we could get the grassroots aware of this inside-baseball Senator, gin up enough dissatisfaction where the press was covering it, we could get more candidates considering. And that, I knew we could turn into something. You can break the house of cards with pressure in politics, but it’s all about timing.

There were already enough good Georgians familiar with Saxby’s record. Quick to cave, slow to lead in a conservative way.

I fired the first shot with my post, Georgia On My Mind: Saxby’s Term Is Up. A week later, I was glad to see Redstate’s Erick Erickson jump in too.

Our ball was rolling.

Allies rallied around the cause. Amy Kremer, Jason Pye, Andrew O’Shea, Tori Wester, Grover Norquist, FreedomWorks, county and district chairs, state legislators, and other activists across the country — all of us began plotting a primary challenge that would knock Saxby out. You see, in the south we have run-offs and we love them. (I better include, Robert Stacy McCain helped.)

It didn’t help that Saxby dug in with liberals and then lied to grassroots party members.

Your tweets, your public pressure, your calling his office all helped. We just ran the cheapest race of the cycle… and won! Thank you. Georgia, thanks you.

I hope Tom Price throws his hat into the race. That’s a man I would take off time to help. That’s a representative Georgians deserve.

Suggested tweet: “I’m with @ali. @TomPriceMD run for #GAsen!”

One of the byproducts to innovation, is failure. Talking about failure is one of the necessary changes in Party culture that we must make if we’re going to succeed. I plan on bragging on both my successes and failures this year as openly as possible.

In my early December post, Republicans Lost in November, Could Fail Now, I said “I cannot overstate how critical this time is. We have to start building, testing, and even failing or it will be too late,” and went on to expand, “Fund–build–fail until we have a winning product; and on multiple fronts.” While I was namely talking about building a technical infrastructure, the same can be applied to voter education and organizing campaigns.

It was true then and remains true now.

In November I quietly started assembling a talented team that would be able to produce a conference geared toward being the largest gathering of free market/conservative African-Americans. We put together proposals, a communications plan, created some buzz and had reporters — liberal reporters (our target audience) — asking for credentials. All this before we even put up a website! I talked to a few Party leaders I go to from time to time for advice and became encouraged by their recognition of the very same need I was seeing.

That being said, all good things don’t always end well. I’m no stranger to internal politics. Information and secrecy is a rich currency in my line of work. As I began kissing the right asses in the community, I too began realizing what I already knew deep down; that there are many groups that claim to speak for conservatives African-Americans, for Blacks, but there are few if any that actually do. Many groups that solicit funds under this banner are basic schemes. They pay for one gentlemen or lady to go around with a title partying at conferences. They do not do any real outreach, they don’t work with other Black groups, they don’t do anything meaningful.

Still, this isn’t my first-rodeo. I made list — checked it twice, sought the counsel of most of these groups and received their blessing. The process was grueling, time consuming, and taxing on the soul.

Then South Carolina Republican National Committeeman, Glenn McCall, in defending Chairman Reince Priebus’ record said Republicans were doing an “outstanding” job in our outreach efforts to minority communities. Totally void of reality. Couple this with former Democratic Congressman turned Republican poster-boy Artur Davis’ equally idiotic comments and you begin to see that only plan anyone intends to implement is no plan at all. McCall then was appointed to a special committee that is tasked with doing the autopsy of the 2012 election and finding new ways to reach minority voters. This is failing, in a God-awful way.

Right now, I cannot tell you that the Republican Party cares about reaching out to new Black voters. Should the evidence ever arise, I would be amongst it’s first champions.

I gave the staff a break to deal with normal holiday goings. Sitting the issue down, my life was suddenly less stressful. At the end of carefully weighing whether I would indefinitely postpone the conference or not, the relief from unneeded stress was the greatest motivating factor. I had lobbied the right personalities and egos, I had put together a killer staff, buzz was building amongst the press, and the sponsorship money needed to pull off something like this was there; but still I needed a peace of mind. The Black Conference wasn’t worth throwing if I had to drag my Party kicking and screaming to it while it cut into my business, throwing my annual Blog Bash event, and other startup projects I’m trying to get off the ground.

I’ve worked for years as a professional — trying very hard not to become that “token Black Republican” or another news talking head. I have actual skill-sets that are valuable. Throwing this conference was my contribution the Party, the conservative movement, to the Black community — something that risked boxing me into a talking head or fundraising gimmick.

It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. If I succeeded in fulfilling our team’s vision, we’d make history and the country would be better for it. Blacks don’t deserve to be boxed into one Party, one political philosophy. Their votes deserve to be viciously fought over unlike the current fear-mongering campaign that goes on from one Party and the ignoring from the other.

As an aside, there were two things that caused me the most stress was making the decision (amongst a divided staff) to move the date from February to April, and trying to get young Black conservatives to call me back–after they expressed an interest in participating in the organizing. These folks are trying to build themselves as national pundits while unprofessionally blowing off the wrong people. It echoed a problem that knows no color. We have the wrong people and we need to do a better job of creating and recruiting better ones.

I hope this failure will teach and warn others. There’s someone out there who can do this better than me. This is the approach all conservative organizers and Republicans should take as we seek to find our bearings. Failure is both necessary and productive. And if you cannot be good, if you cannot win, be productive.

We have a problem and it troubles me to write, we have no solution. I hope this is solved one day, God-willing soon. I hope I can be a part of the solution. However, right now… this Black is sitting this issue out.

Failure one and counting… but don’t count me out of any fights.

The key takeaway is this simple; “just 38 percent of Republican primary voters want Chambliss to win the GOP nomination.”

Poll respondents were given hypothetical These numbers mean nothing outside of measuring name-id. Well, not nothing, but they are very raw indicators. I’ve bolded the prospective challengers considering a run with a serious chance of getting in.

• Herman Cain bests Chambliss, 50-36
• Chambliss bests Atlanta Native, Florida Congressman Allen West 47-26
• Chambliss bests 6th District Congressman Tom Price 50-22
• Chambliss bests Commentator Erick Erickson 51-22
• Chambliss bests Former Secretary of State Karen Handel 52-23
• Chambliss bests 10th District Congressman Paul Broun 57-14

Herman’s numbers, as a challenger to a sitting Senator in a state ran by an establishment, are huge. If he got into the race, he’d be the next Senator from Georgia. Don’t look for Herman on the ballot though. With a new radio contract and other ventures in his wheelhouse, he’s fine just where he is.

Though a source tells me that isn’t stopping him from making a few calls. These numbers deserved to be bragged about so he can’t be blamed and strategist Mark Block wouldn’t mind another go at it.

Eyes are on Price right now. His move will dictate the shape of this race and he’s the opposition’s favorite. Price has everything going for him with a capable fundraising apparatus, he has a geographical base, not just a conservative voting record, but has lead many efforts including the repeal and replace effort against Obamacare, and metro Atlanta knows his name.

Of all races with Republican Senators facing potential primary bids supported by the base, Price has the greatest electoral chances of besting the incumbent. Price is known as a principled, but play-it-safe player; will he watch this opportunity fade?

Broun is the weakest opposition candidate. While no Democrat has a prayers chance of winning this race, Broun would provide some fodder for liberals and their fundraising efforts.

Ninth District Congressman Tom Graves really ought to consider mounting a bid if Price passes.

Let’s not forget Georgia’s run-off rules. A three-way primary, assuming the opposition candidates come from different parts of the state, would hurt Saxby. While it’s unlikely Saxby can survive a primary challenge, there’s no surviving a Republican run-off should he be caught in one.

As the race shapes up with members of the Congressional delegation looking at the race, veteran peach state blogger, Jason Pye has it right.

The word I’m hearing from many activists in Georgia and elsewhere is that they prefer Price and are ready to dump resources in the Peach State to help him win. They respect Broun, but feel that he can’t beat Chambliss.

Why does Saxby hate math? Because math hates him.

* * *

How about knowing that we are nearly one month from our loss, 23 months from midterm elections that’ll determine whether or not Republicans are a minority party and not a single lesson has been learned. Let that sink in. We haven’t even learned. Forget even fixing things — there is no great study for us to lean on, no consensus on why we lost, let alone how we go forward — nothing.

We do not even have the little things.

If we refuse to survey the damage now; if we fall into talking about the political tug-of-war surrounding the Fiscal Cliff, then Inauguration, then President Obama’s immigration bill, we will quite literally be past the time in which we can stop the death spin the Republican party is caught in.

I’m ringing the bell as loud as I can. The house is about to burn down.

I cannot overstate how critical this time is. We have to start building, testing, and even failing or it will be too late. Policy positions, legislative proposals, messaging, choosing the right candidate can all wait. Understand this much: building a scalable technical infastructure cannot. Worse: we may not even have the people to do the job.

We have to assess the totality of the loss, consult smart minds, recruit talent, form multiple teams, fund and build. Fund–build–fail until we have a winning product; and on multiple fronts. Volunteer management, GOTV — not just apps, but the entire program itself — all of field, must be rebuilt. We have been running a failing 20th century campaign!

I’ve talked with people who directed tens of millions of dollars in political spending, chatted with Romney-Ryan alumni, consultants of every stripe… I’ve even picked the brains of smart men and women from a coal executive to an angel investor who were sympathetic to our cause. I’ve been relentlessly studying. And I have discovered one thing:

There are a ton of bad ideas out there. Really bad ones.

The folks you want to follow are people like digital strategist Patrick Ruffini who is asking questions and studying so he can hunt out the really good ideas.

To all the GOPers who read my tweets and said “OMG we need to do something,” what are you committing to do?

— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) December 2, 2012

Ruffini is correct. Bloggers opining and rants from the base are equally as awful as the DC-based consultants who want you to reason away this epic fail disguised as a loss or claim to be selling the next best solution.

I had an epic rant (forgive the misspellings, I was boiling angry) that I hope contained a few gold nuggets. But more than that, I’m putting my reputation, my time, and my money at risk to throw a conference for African Americans and their allies with the goal of reaching them with the message of economic and individual freedom. Blacks and the GOP. We consultants whisper, hell — everyone does — at the impossible task. I also started a call-to-action list to push back against the President’s second term agenda.

Everyone needs to be daring to do the improbable. We need to hit on all fronts where we are weak so we then know how to measure efforts and where to maximize votes come election time.

We seriously need a Commission on Failing (dear rich GOP donor, if you really want to win, fund this). It needs to be made up of consultants who weren’t paid by the RNC nor the Romney campaign, focus groups, and apolitical nerds.

No one is paying Ruffini to study what Democratic nerds did correctly. No one is paying me to write this blog (although you can hit the tip jar above) or to pour over demographic data I’m privately studying. No one paid some of my friends to propose a white-paper on GOP-Hispanic outreach — to which the RNC was silent.

While I’ve tried to channel my efforts into finding solutions and away from the blame game, it is worth noting that every person responsible for our loss is gainfully employed. If the decision-makers stay the same or if they make the same decisions to hire the same consultants — the GOP will lose.

* * *

Let me paint for you, a picture. Imagine Nate Silver’s dataset was wrong. Now imagine that Obama’s campaign underperformed their expectations. Imagine early voting went worse for Democrats than it has gone in decades. If you’re a Republican… you’re probably smirking at what you think is a fantasy.

Now hear this; That’s EXACTLY what happened and WE STILL LOST. Are you beginning to understand the panic? Smart people are very scared right now. We left “nervous” when North Carolina was looking close early election evening.

All of that went wrong for the Democrats and we still couldn’t pull off a win. Forget the economy stupid, we are the problem. We were not just out-executed and we did not just under-perform… both of these happened and we found out nothing worked. Nothing. Not our theories, not our programs, not field, not our apps, not our math, not our models, not our gurus. Nothing.

All of our toys are broken and people are about to get rich selling those same toys to us again.

If you’re convinced that a better messenger will get us the White House, or someone more conservative, that we need starker TV ads, or to penetrate ”culture,” that we just needed ORCA to work, that we just have a demographic problem — then you’re buying into hope and it will not work. Don’t be a fool. The pundit-class, my conservative colleagues, the political-class and DC consultants — they’re all wrong.

We cannot win right now. We just cannot.

Not unless we plan and we build, starting today.

Saxby apparently thinks too little of his good constituents to be brave and own up to his own position, instead choosing to blatantly lie to them. Why being a lying liar who lies? Well, he wanted to cover his comments up from last week when he, Senator Saxby Chambliss, said he would raise taxes on Georgians.

I know many good folks in Cobb county, so you can bet this is going around today. Southern politics at its best.

Now, it’s easy to get lost in some of these terms and that is exactly what Taxby was counting on. Little did he know that some people follow this stuff just as closely as he does and we have the Internet.

Taxby stated that he is not “supporting an increase in tax rates,” knowing full well that his cushy “Gang of Six” has not only put them on the table (this year and last year), but it’ll likely be a part of any deal that is in fact voted on at the end of the day. There is no longer a coalition to protect top rate payers from higher taxes.

The Senator, talking down to the people he considers little, went on to excuse the fury around his comments last week attributing it to being the “slowest news-day of the year” and all this fuss about him being willing to break his pledge was much ado about nothing.

The story should end there right? He cleared the air after all. Nope. He went on to belittle and purposefully misguide Republican voters about the Reagan-endorsed Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed. You know, the one addressed to them — the voters!

Feeling the wind at his back, he got interactive with the crowd. This is common in southern politics. In retail politics, relating is paramount to winning.

Here’s what the Marietta Daily Journal reported went on during his give and take with the county GOP:

The senator then asked attendees if they support ending $6 billion annual tax credits for ethanol, and nearly everyone in attendance raised his or her hand.

“Well guess what?” Chambliss said. “You just said you would violate the pledge that I signed, because, with the elimination of a tax credit, if you don’t take that money and reduce rates, that’s a violation of that pledge.”

Another stunning lie. The keepers of the pledge, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), are opposed to the ethanol mandate and tax credit. And if they weren’t, if it was offset by cuts or reductions in spending — it wouldn’t be a tax increase at all. Taxby knows this because this was a conversation last year during the debt cieling talks when he and others mischaracterized conservative groups’ position on the awful subsidy.

Taxby, hoping that Georgians didn’t catch the 2011 drama, casually left out two points incriminating his argument: 1) ATR is against a net increase in taxes, as in… cut the spending, and 2) Grover Norquist, ATR’s President and the most feared man on the issue of taxes (aside from the voter), was the first one to relieve pressure on the GOP last year allowing a deal to ultimately be made.

Picking up where he left off last week, he lobbied hard for a deal, pleaded for “flexibility,” and used the exact same phrase that got him in trouble last week saying times “have changed in 20 years” when he signed his pledge to the voters.

Here’s the pledge, increase Taxby forgot:

I pledge to the taxpayers of my district and to the American people that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

Taxby thinks Georgians are too stupid to catch him in his lies but may have seriously just underestimated the patriots of the 13th colony.

I speak DC-enese too Mr. Chambliss. You’ve been caught red-handed. Comment below if you’re willing to help in a grassroots effort to make sure #Taxby loses a primary.

Want to start a book club with me?

One of the awesome rewards of being in my line of work is that I get to meet some influential authors and writers. One day, I hope to join their ranks. But this day, I start an organized effort to admire their literary works.

I’m going to have my team setup a special section on my website that’s closed to the public. It’ll be for our book club members only. You’ll be able to participate from anywhere around the world! There we will be able to do a couple of things:

• Vote on our reading list on a quarterly basis,
• Have a discussion forum where we can talk about the works,
• Interact with other book worms and folks like me — people who should read more books

I plan on establishing a more dedicated tier as well. The “Pro” tier. For some monthly cost (haven’t researched it enough yet) you’ll get:

• The book we’re on will be sent to your home,
• Votes will be double-weighted while we’re voting on our reading list,
• And lastly, my favorite: we’re going to spend some time with the authors of some of these books. Yes, the authors will join our little book club to spend time answering our pre-submitted questions via video or by audio recording. This will only be available for Pro members. I’m going to give you time networking with some of the best minds in the movement.

That Pro tier will end up somewhere south of thirty dollars a month. Any more and it becomes silly.

Our book picks will largely be political, but I’d like to also cover some culture, philosophy, and maybe, just maybe one fun book a year. Maybe.

Either way, if you have interest in something like this — comment below so I can email you. Maybe this is one of your New Year’s Resolutions? We start January!

Saxby is for raising Georgians taxes and should in fact accept the electoral consequences that causes. After all, we are a Republic of the people, by the people, right?

Saxby is clearly building support for his longtime friend, Speaker John Boehner and the tough position he’s charged with being the highest ranking Republican in the country, tasked with negotiating with liberal Democrats on a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” To be fair, for years I’ve been against the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Sounds whacky doesn’t it? Except for the fact that I believe in real reform. See, the Bush tax cuts have been good for America in the short term but have robbed us of the catalyst that is necessary to having the debate Americans so richly deserve. There’s nothing like a good crisis to cause a little American innovation. Personally, I can be politically sympathetic to Saxby’s whims and wishes — but they are simply outside of the representation that is reflective of the people of Georgia. This is my fundamental argument against Saxby being the Republican nominee in 2014 for U.S. Senate.

In an interview that made headlines across the Hill and the peach state, Saxby went on to attack Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) President Grover Norquist, the man charged with enforcing the pledge by publicly chastising pledge-breakers.

For a moment I wondered if Saxby confused Norquist with a Senator, citing that Norquist “has no plan” but also “his plan says you continue to add to the debate.”

Here’s the pledge Saxby made to the people of Georgia through ATR:

I pledge to the taxpayers of my district and to the American people that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

You know, the pledge he slapped on the front door of his campaign office after making a super-sized copy of it as RedState.com’s Erick Erickson points out on Twitter.

This isn’t sitting too well with other leaders in the conservative movement either. Georgian Amy Kremer, Chairman of the Tea Party Express, has pledged to participate in an effort primary the Senator as well. Other key grassroots figures like Jenny Beth Martin and Debbie Dooley of Tea Party Patriots will play a critical role in determining what the grassroots in the state do. Georgia Conservatives in Action, a network of key activists from across the state lead by Co-Chairs Pat Tippett and Kay Godwin have heard from their supporters that they’d like to see an organized challenge to Saxby in the primary.

A question remains rather the more libertarian forces in the state will be able to work with other grassroot coalitions for a real hopeful attempt at recruiting and promoting an alternative.

“I don’t worry about that,” said Saxby of his bid for reelection being affected by raising taxes on Georgians. There are few cares or worries in retirement. Expect the grassroots of Georgia to be organizing one heck of a retirement party for Saxby over this next year and a half.

#Taxby, we got this.

Update (10:32am ET): Jason Pye, editor of United Liberty makes the Case Against Saxby Chambliss. It’s a compelling read.

For instance, the gender gap allows a Democratic fundraising and messaging edge; Painting Republicans as “anti-immigrant” hinders potential Republican outreach in minority communities, reducing entire sections of states from contention. Liberals caught insulting Bible-believing Christians and Appalachian voters have put millions of voters outside of the Democrats’ reach. Parties must also accept that they are oftentimes bound to, and penalized for, the voiced ideologies of commentators in the pundit-class.

Some of these perceptions carry little intellectual truth, but in politics, perception is reality. This governing motto should be coupled with something I frequently remind my colleagues: voters rule at the end of the day.

Much of what is happening is cultural. That being said, converts and skeptics alike make decisions based off what they perceive.

Republicans must choose a few key demographics and go on the offense. One of those fronts must be Silicon Valley.

Ebay’s Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard’s Carly Fiorina, and former Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner are all from the old guard in Silicon Valley and have stepped up to the plate, donating money, time, and putting their names on the ballot (in the failed state of California). Then there are GOP-friendly donors, also from the old guard, like Michael Dell, Scott McNealy, Tim Armstrong, Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison, and libertarian Peter Thiel. However, Republicans are losing small government minds like TechCrunch.com founder Michael Arrington, again, because of perception.

Businessman Mitt Romney may have done some good in the Valley, but failed Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-Mo.) and the lot of them are weighing the scales against Romney’s venture capital background and Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Ca.) impressive work in the House.

The new guard governs most. It lives on Facebook, Google, and Twitter where mainstream culture is made and destroyed, with their executives and engineers acting as curators or guardians of this sacred melting pot.

Losing this generation of Valley minds would not be just another missed opportunity; it would work as a net negative against the party in its entirety. Republicans would instantly be pinned against entrepreneurs, a group of people generally seen as friendly supporters.

Nerds are kings. The world is governed online, then transmitted offline. Nerds for Obama exists… and it’s cool! The GOP needs blog publishers making the some ridiculous memes and animated GIFs of Democratic gaffes as are made of Republican gaffes. It needs graphic artists on Deviantart.com making idols of Reagan, Coodlidge, and our small government heros. And it needs new ways to organize and mobilize those sympathetic to the message of individual freedom over collective government suffering.

Engineers helped the Obama campaign completely retool its data, volunteer management, GOTV, its — everything effort. And what happened when they got top talent? They built a first-rate machine. They beta-tested, they built, they dared, they dreamed, and they executed. These are methods that only some campaigns are doing far too infrequently. There was no failed ORCA episode with the Democrats. Or denial afterward. Ugh.

Republicans need, and are the right choice for the Valley.

Largely, GOP policy positions are appealing to these young vibrant minds. Republicans are pro-legal immigration, and harbor, more specifically, a strong desire to increase the number of highly skilled workers and experts that are let in, as well as increasing H1B visas.

While the debate over net neutrality wages on, conservatives have a compelling case to keep any new regulations off the Internet, and have successfully prevented legislation that favors large established tech powers (powers which Democrats have been pushing for years, despite a steady chant of doom and gloom accompanied by a message of fear, saying that users’ ISPs will cut them from websites they rely on like Google’s search engine or Netflix).

Republicans are widely accepted as being more small business and entrepreneur friendly, proposing and implementing a series of legal and tax benefits and protections. Intellectual property has been fiercely protected in the United States by both parties; however, a conversation over copyright law has been raging on for decades, and it has been an international one.

Countries like Brazil have a wealth of creativity and content, with few rights protecting the creator, prompting some here to question the paradigm of balance between protecting the inventor and promoting innovation on first-gen material.

Democrats stand with Hollywood over the most stringent of protections, refusing to evolve with more humans sharing more information than in all of history combined.

The conservative-wing of the House Republicans, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), recently published a policy brief encouraging a visit back to the drawing board on copyright laws that might get some online content publishers and innovators happy.

During the editing phase of this piece, the RSC’s Executive Director Paul S. Teller relented and pulled the brief. Did I mention we have a credibility problem? Or that Republicans are seen as the party protecting big business (for example, say Hollywood)?

What a mess. And the mess keeps spreading.

Targeting the Valley and its cousins, Austin and Dallas, Texas, Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan, Seattle, Washington, and, New Yor… well, maybe not New York city… the party can start building relationships, and more importantly, a perception about the brand. Earning votes, funding, and friendships must be followed by recruiting and innovating this crucial demographic.

Republicans cannot afford to wait for another Al Gore “I invented the internet” moment. They don’t need to restart or do a system restore, but must aggressively plot a plan and establish a presence in hopes of making strides in Silicon Valley.

I volunteer to go spread the gospel.

In 2010, I helped organize activists in at least twenty-six congressional districts that had the terrible misfortune of being caught in between time-space and seemingly parallel universes — otherwise referred to as a blue dog district. These are districts where children tout more knowledge of civil war history than an adult above the Mason-Dixon line, where the county Sheriff is a Democrat and the Governor a Republican, a place where the electoral votes have gone to the GOP since Reagan but Democrats keep being sent to the U.S. Senate.

This brings me to my point. Caroline May with the Daily Caller reported on Davis’ eager attempt to make another headline. This time, like most Ivy League brats, he had advice for Republicans. He explained that Republicans should abandon all hopes of reaching the African-American community. Forget the fact that Democrats won’t put a African-American on the ballot for President anytime soon, although it is likely Republicans won’t either.

For someone as deep into the Presidential horse-race as I was, Davis’ tone struck me as bizarre. Here was this black “conservative-ish” Alabama Democrat who failed to secure his party’s nomination in a bid to become Governor (should I mention that he underperformed in all of his polling?), who quietly began working with conservative groups, speaking on the issue of voter ID laws. During the cycle, he sought to build a relationship with the Romneys, thrusting himself in the middle of Vice President Joe Biden’s controversial, and racial, “chains” remarks, becoming team Romney’s chief surrogate on the remark. Then he was honored with being selected to be in West Chester, Ohio for Romney’s star-studded Republican rally, where dozens of surrogates lined the stage for a historic presentation in political theater.

The election came and went, Romney lost, and Davis wanted to be first out of the gate to share his unique take on what Romney did so horribly wrong and what the Republican party must do to win in the future. You see, this consistently from blue dogs. It’s not just from time to time — it’s always.

When Davis wins a statewide election as a Democrat, or as a Republican and wins a single primary and goes on to win a general election, we may consider listening to his sage wisdom.

As for me and this house, we’ll continue to take the message to African-Americans that the Republican party is the party of opportunity and economic mobility, the party that desires to give single black mothers control over their funding of their child’s education, and the party that favors Section 8 housing over ghettos and project housing.

I emailed the article to a half dozen black Republican leaders and political operatives I know to see if I was getting angry of “much ado about nothing;” however, it was unanimous. Davis was out of line and not likely to earn our trust. Reckless comments like these hurt the cause many of us have been privately and publicly championing. We need more funding for minority outreach and voter education, specifically for African-Americans. We need a longterm plan. We need to be serious about winning these people. In fact, we need a conference for African-Americans and their allies.

Over 1,000,000 African-Americans voted against President Barack Obama (if my math is correct).

What’s Davis’ angle? He’s looking for an opportunity to run for office in Virginia. “Surprising!” said no one ever. This opportunism is typical blue dogist behavior.

Republicans should and will go after all peoples. Specifically, we have a unique opportunity to present the African-American community with viable conservative policy alternatives against the Democrats’ status quo, especially now that Barack Obama will never grace the ballot again.

The battle won’t be easy, frankly, without making inroads inside of the Democrats’ cobbled together coalition, the Republican party doesn’t stand a long term chance at getting the Oval office or protecting the brand so we can put smart men and women inside of the Senate.

We must remember the true nature of the blue dog. After all, a blue dog is only blue because it was a yellow dog (loyal, blindly voting party-line Democrat) after being choked to death (from bad fiscal policies put forth by liberal Democrats who occupy leadership roles).

Blue dogs are the most dishonest, deceitful, double-tongued, dual promising, politically flexible, always ideologically-pliable, gypsy harlots willing to sell out their district for earmarks or a viewpoint for extra votes. Did I mentioned that they’re Politicians too?

My friend and Alabama native, Robert Stacy McCain is quoted as saying, “Ali hates him some blue dog Democrats like God hates sin.” He’s correct and God hates with a righteous hate.