RightOnLine - General Session 1

These are my rough notes from the speeches in the General Session - my apologies for any typos.

Tim Phillips - President of AFP Foundation:

* talking about gas prices when Pres. Obama took office compared to today. President blames unrest in the Middle East, though, Phillips says, there's been unrest in the Middle East for decades.

* The Obama administration has systematically refused to allow new drilling, even in spite of a court order.

* Obama's energy secretary: "Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." That's why prices are high.

* Obama's quote when a Senator, referring to gas spike in 20O8: "I think that I would have preferred a more gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing."

* As a candidate, Obama said electricity rates will "necessarily skyrocket."

* This is now part of Liberal ideology to want Americans to pay higher fuel sources - they want this because their favorite sources of energy cannot compete in the marketplace - and they want us to use less energy. But, in order to create jobs, we need cheap, abundant energy - energy that our businesses can use to get moving again.

* Liberals say they want to look out for the poor and disadvantaged, people on fixed income - but the very people they claim to want to help are the ones hurt most by high energy prices.

* AFP has now launched the Running On Empty effort. RunningonEmptyTour.com will highlight how the President's energy policies are driving up the energy prices and hurting Americans.

* The message is that it doesn't have to be this way - there are steps we can take to have affordable, abundant energy.

* switch topic to the fact that when liberals have issues, they are able to motivate their troops, but there aren't really broad-based groups in the states and local areas who advocate for free-market principles. So Americans For Prosperity launched state chapters to provide for a method of coordinating individuals who believe in economic freedom and prosperity. Now have 1.8 million grassroots activists across the United States - urged people to get to know their state directors and join the efforts within their states.