Paul Revere and the Mechanics sounds like an alternative rock band, but they were really a Revolutionary-War-era organization that resisted British authority. In fact, it was as a Mechanic that Revere made his famous ride.

Last year, the American Majority--a group affiliated with the Tea Party--adopted the name for its mission of training ordinary people into politically-savvy activists.

On Saturday, the group sponsored a training event in Camarillo. Attendees studied how to build a coalition of volunteers, focus on influencing politics precinct by precinct, and use blogs, Wikis, and other social networking tools to spread information.

Most importantly, they studied "The System" itself, how we got here, and strategies for changing it.

Speaking of strategies, the Tea Party Patriots are convening in Phoenix later his month for the American Policy Summit--a forty-year political plan.

I don't think this Tea Party thing is a passing fad...

One last point about education. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents....

Now, I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration. And I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows. 

"What do we do with the 20 million (undocumented workers) that are here already and are taking American jobs?"

Obama also made the case that children of undocumented workers should be allowed to attend school in this country. 

Politico reports that the first presidential primary debate of the 2012 election cycle will be held on Monday, May 2^nd, and it will be moderated by the website's editor-in-chief and NBC's Brian Williams.

"We have established a wonderful tradition - of which I know Ronnie would be so proud - of using the library as a first-in-the-nation forum for candidates to introduce themselves and their visions for America to a national audience," former First Lady Nancy Reagan said.

The upcoming debate will likely take place shortly after the first round of GOP presidential contenders announce their intentions to run - though some, including former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee, have pledged to wait until later in the year.

Whenever something of this magnitude happens at the Reagan Library, I try to think how lucky Ventura County Republicans are that not only do we live near a presidential library, but we live near the Ronald Reagan presidential library. I mean, what if we lived near the Jimmy Carter library, or the paid-with-dirty-money Clinton library?

The Reagan name draws many high-profile events--including the 100^th birthday of the late president.  That celebration will start next weekend and can be viewed live here.

An article in the Star noted that prices posted outside gas stations are up, with the average Ventura County price at $3.336 per gallon. What could be the cause? The article quoted a government official who said that demand for oil is up as the world's economy grows.  Perhaps the Chilean earthquake, cold weather in Europe, or floods in Australia are to blame, he suggests.

Mm hmm. I don't expect someone who gets their paycheck from the government to criticize it, so allow me.

High gas prices are caused by inflation, a direct consequence of the federal government's attempt to ease the crushing burden of debt by devaluing the dollar. The Obama Administration certainly doesn't want to cut spending on social programs.

Instead, they attempt to devalue the dollar by "printing" more money, either digitally or with the printing press. More dollars in circulation mean that each dollar is worth less than if fewer dollars were in circulation.

If dollars are worth less, it takes more of them to buy something--in this case, oil. Therefore, the "price" of oil went up. That's a misleading way to put it, because it suggests to the reader that oil is driving the cost. Oil need not change for its price to go up--a devalued dollar can do that all by itself.

It's remarkable that an article on the topic of gas prices doesn't mention inflation as even a remote possibility.

R. Lee Ermey doesn't pull any punches.

The most famous Marine in the country took on the Obama Administration at a recent charity event for toddlers--not exactly the venue one would expect for a rant on the perils of socialism, but you may have noticed he's rather outspoken.

Ermey carved out a nice little acting niche for himself as a tough military man after his masterful appearance as a colorful drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. He hosted the History Channel's Mail Call, a successful series on military equipment, provides the voice of the lead army man in Toy Story, and most recently is all over the TV in GEICO commercials as a verbally and physically abusive psychologist.

Apparently ,he doesn't think too highly of the Obama Administration.

"The economy really sucks," Ermey said from the stage of a Toys for Tots event, lamenting the decline in donations to the organization. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. The way I see it, they're not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees, so I think we should all rise up and stop this administration from what they are doing because they are destroying this country. They are driving us into bankruptcy so they can impose socialism on us."

Ermey later apologized, saying he was just trying to be entertaining. After watching the video, for some reason I don't think his words were insincere.

I saw the headline in the Star that Cal Lutheran University named its first peace prize recipient, and I thought to myself, "I'm not going to like what I'm about to read about my alma mater."

About 10 paragraphs later, my suspicions were confirmed.

Salvatierra, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is being honored for her work with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

Economic justice, as every good conservative knows, is liberal slang for wealth redistribution. It's unjust that some people are rich and some people are not, so economic justice advocates call for that wealth to be moved from one person's pockets to another's. It's a sibling of social justice, which just a euphemism for Progressivism, itself a euphemism for socialism.

I continued to read.

Salvatierra, who lives in Los Angeles, serves as executive director of the statewide faith-based movement for social justice that helps low-income workers fight for living wages and fair working conditions.

Eww, there it is, social justice. Alarm bells are going off. Here's a way of putting this succinctly--Social Justice is Just Socialism. What is CLU doing? There are other little lefty code words hidden in that paragraph. "Low-income workers"--really, are they all working? Or are they not working and getting financial assistance from the government? "Living wages"--I think in America the Left think that you don't have a living wage until you can afford an iPad.

The group is also a coordinating agency of the New Sanctuary Movement, which supports immigrant workers and their families facing deportation.

Ah, my favorite Leftist euphemism for illegal aliens. "Immigrants." We were all immigrants at some point, weren't we? Yes, but only some of our immigrants came here illegally. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ones facing deportation fall into that category.  I'm also going to assume that "sanctuary" means that CLU supports the harboring of illegal immigrants and hiding them from the authorities.

All the warning signs are there. Economic Justice. Social Justice. Sanctuary. CLU is entering the waters of the loony Left, and seems to be trying very hard to be the religious equivalent of Berkeley.