Yes Virginia The Internet Does NOT Replace Old Fashioned Politics

-By Warner Todd Huston

When Howard Dean became a surprise front runner in the Democrat primary of 2004 doing so on the basis of a strong Internet-based campaign effort, tongues began to wag that the Internet might replace old fashioned retail politics. This time ’round Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich served to get people to question the old way of organizing a campaign.

But this week we’ve seen in Virginia why these airy claims of the Internet’s new dominance is a bit chimerical. We see that old fashioned, boots on the ground politics is still the best method to election.

By all methods of measure, Texas Governor Rick Perry is still a strong candidate in the 2012 GOP Primary race. He sometimes comes in second, third or fourth in polls, but is still considered a top contender for the nomination. Yet as the time came to file his petition signatures in Virginia, it turned out his campaign could not collect enough to get his name on the ballot. So, a reputed front running candidate for the nomination, Rick Perry, will not even appear on the Virginia primary ballot.
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Yes Virginia The Internet Does NOT Replace Old Fashioned Politics”


Now 91 Congressmen Have ‘No Confidence’ In AG Holder

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fully 91 members of Congress have signed onto a resolution of no confidence in U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the man that bears the most responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious — an Obama administration policy that allowed thousands of American guns to get into the hands of Mexican narco-terrorists, guns that were later used to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens and several American law enforcement officials.

As Matthew Boyle reports, “it’s not directly a call for Holder to step down, the resolution alleges that the nation’s top law enforcement official’s actions have proven he is not ‘competent, trustworthy and beyond reproach,’ and that he has sought to ‘cover up’ mistakes rather than cooperate with Congress ‘in disclosing the events and circumstances and transparently addressing the issues.'”

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Ron Paul’s Dissembling About His Newsletters

-By Warner Todd Huston

Famed opposition researcher Andrew Kaczynksi has dug up the ultimate video proof that Ron Paul is a liar with his current claims that he had no knowledge about those racist newsletters that carried his name for so many decades.

Ron Paul has lately claimed that he had no idea that his newsletters were filled with anti-Jew, anti-black, even anti-Asian sentiment, not to mention more conspiracy theories than a season of a TV series hosted by Jesse Ventura. He has explained that he just never had much to do with those newsletters, he didn’t write them, and he doesn’t know who did so no one should hold the contents of them against him. He’s even getting testy over this issue as is evident from his storming off an interview with CNN just yesterday.

Yet in 1995 he was happily hawking his newsletters to C-SPAN audiences (at about 1:50 into video):

But along with that, I also put out a political type of business investment newsletter that sort of covered all these areas. And it covered a lot about what was going on in Washington, and financial events, and especially some of the monetary events. Since I had been especially interested in monetary policy, had been on the banking committee, and still very interested in, in that subject, that this newsletter dealt with it. This had to do with the value of the dollar, the pros and cons of the gold standard, and of course the disadvantages of all the high taxes and spending that our government seems to continue to do.

Are we expected to believe Ron Paul when he claims he never paid much mind to these newsletters, even after we see him hawking them on C-SPAN in 1995? Are we expected to believe that the millions of dollars he made from these newsletters deposited into his coffers came without his slightest interest in where it was all coming from?
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Ron Paul’s Dissembling About His Newsletters”


Just Who The Heck IS A Ron Paul Voter?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Aaron Blake made a great comment on Twitter about Ron Paul’s support. Blake noted that Ron Paul has a big percentage of younger voters in Iowa, but a paltry number of those over 45.

Ron Paul wins more than 50 percent of 18-29 and 30-44 year olds, but less than 12% of 45-64 and 65+.

This age breakdown of Iowa supporters for Paul causes Paul’s opponents to doubt that this young demographic will bother to turn out at the Iowa caucuses when push comes to shove….

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Palestinians: Did Gingrich Get it Right?

-By Rev Michael Bresciani

Both the mainstream media and Mitt Romney have been painting a picture of Newt Gingrich as a loose cannon largely because he has been articulating that the Palestinians were not ever a nation or a people prior to 1947. Is he right?

In fact, in spite of the common wisdom of the day, this is the rap everywhere, from Ivy League classrooms to the mainstream media. Are Palestinians getting shunned, oppressed and just treated badly by Israel?

It is no secret that Palestinians lob deadly rockets into Israel almost daily. They indiscriminately target homes, schools, hospitals and public places without warning. Less than a month ago a rocket did land at a kindergarten, but most western media, said little about that attack.

It is also well known (to anyone taking the time to find out) that after a suspected terrorist hideout or center of operations is discovered by Israel, they spend three days dropping leaflets to announce that they are going to strike that center. The IDF may be the most compassionate army on earth, but that is never mentioned by left leaning news outlets anywhere in the world.
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Palestinians: Did Gingrich Get it Right?”


Ron Paul: Conspiracy Nut, Anti-Semite

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last year Ron Paul said that the CIA perpetrated a coup over the United States. “There’s been a coup, have you heard? It’s the CIA coup. They’re in businesses, in drug businesses.” That fits in as just another part of the wacky world of Ron Paul that has spanned decades of denigrating blacks, assigning all sorts of crazy conspiracies to the US government, and above all hatred for Israel. It is a disgusting sin that this man is a political candidate for anything much less for the GOP nomination for President of the United States.

A lot of the credit for exposing the worst of Paul’s outrages belongs to James Kirchick who in 2008 wrote a short piece for The New Republic detailing what he found in an archive of Ron Paul’s racist newsletters.

Also back in 2008, then Fox News host John Gibson had a must hear interview with Kirchick asking why so many white supremacists and racists were in such slavish support of Ron Paul when he ran for president in 2008.

Aside from his racist newsletters, Kirchick notes that in 1994, Paul predicted a “holocaust” against South African whites and then advocated for a separate white state in South Africa. Kirchick also says Paul seemed to support the same thing in America.
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Ron Paul: Conspiracy Nut, Anti-Semite”


Eating Our Own & Providing Strategy

-By Frank Salvato

One cannot turn on the television or radio without some talking head or so-called political analyst pontificating about how Newt Gingrich is grandiose, how Mitt Romney isn’t really a Conservative – and how they both have flipped on several issues – or how Ron Paul’s foreign policy is isolationist. Glenn Beck, to many people’s extreme disappointment, even went so far as to call Speaker Gingrich a Progressive (I guess ratings are down as GBTV). It makes for good news show content, to be sure. In certain respects there is truth to the critiques. But this hyper-critiquing and self-immolation also does two things that Conservatives and Republicans fall prey to each and every time the General Election cycle comes calling: It deflects from addressing the differences between the GOP field and the opposition; and it provides the opposition with talking points, opponent research and the luxury of hiatus.

Make no mistake, the primaries are where each party – when not in incumbency – needs to critique and evaluate their prospective candidates. A hard-fought primary, when devoid of “it’s my turn” establishment national party politics, usually results in the fielding of the best candidate, and a candidate who is sufficiently prepped to engage in the “main event.” But there is a difference between an intellectual meeting of the minds, where policy differences and a juxtaposition of experiences are proposed, examined and debated, and the childish, nonsensical “braggateering” (to coin a word); of trading insignificant insults; of executing a campaign of personality-based mudslinging.

As we approach the actual start of the primary cycle – yes, we haven’t begun the cycle just yet – this act of political stupidity is coming into play, yet again, among the front runners for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination.

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Eating Our Own & Providing Strategy”


Salon’s Joan Walsh: Reagan Dems Voted GOP in 1980 Because They Were Raaaaacists

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did you know that the only reason those famed “Reagan Democrats” voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 was because they were… uh… racists? Well on the little watched Ed Show on MSNBC, Salon’s Joan Walsh assured the nation — or at least the 20 people watching — that this was the truth.

Sometimes a talking head on TV will say something so stupid that jaws drop nationwide as a result. Often that stupidity becomes the talk of the news cycle, too. But usually that only happens when there are actually viewers for the show upon which the stupidity is uttered. In this case, Joan Walsh of Salon uttered the stupidity, but since no one watches MSNBC — most especially the Ed Show — I thought I’d help pass around her comments to make her stupidity the talk of the day. It’s just a service from us here to you in the Internet tubes.

The rotund Ed Schultz was disparaging the Reagan Democrats as “dead” (both figuratively and literally) and was saying that Reagan Democrats could not possibly be a factor in 2012. Whatever merits of that claim, when Schultz turned to Salon’s Joan Walsh he got one of the most absurd comments about Reagan Democrats evah!

Walsh said:
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Salon’s Joan Walsh: Reagan Dems Voted GOP in 1980 Because They Were Raaaaacists”


Newt’s New Iowa Political Director Off Campaign For Calling Mormonism A Cult

-By Warner Todd Huston

Controversial comments about Mormonism being a “cult” have resulted in Newt Gingrich’s new Iowa political director being dumped form the campaign. Craig Bergman made the comments at a Wednesday media focus group and only hours later it was announced that he was off the campaign.

At the Iowa meeting of several Iowa media outlets, Bergman said that he thought that, “A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon,” He went on to say, “There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that.”

Gingrich, of course, has made it a point that he intends his campaign to be a positive one and has said that personal attacks on his opponents will not be allowed. If this quick elimination of Bergman is any indication, Gingrich is serious with this proscription against negative campaigning.

Only hours after Bergman uttered his claim that Mormonism is a cult Team Newt’s campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, released the following email:
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Newt’s New Iowa Political Director Off Campaign For Calling Mormonism A Cult”


Rick Santorum: Obama Is a Terrorist Appeaser

-By Warner Todd Huston

We haven’t talked much about Rick Santorum here on the blog — actually, few people have so we aren’t too different in that, unfortunately — but he had a nice little spot on CNN in an exchange with Candy Crowley on whether or not Obama is an appeaser of foreign terrorists and tyrants.

Obama, of course, has been portraying himself as the ultimate anti-terrorist because he “got” Osamma bin Ladden, not to mention how he has severely damaged al Qaeda. But is that all there is to his record? Does that make him the perfect anti-terrorist? Santorum says no.

Rick is exactly right, here. Killing a few terrorists is not necessarily being tough on either terror or the dictators that push terror as a tool of the state….

See the video and read the rest at RightPundits.com.


My Video At Heart of Controversy in Florida House Race

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently, a video I made in Denver is at the heart of a controversy in a race for the House of Representatives in Florida.

While at Blogcon 2011 I had the opportunity to interview Karen Harrington, a Republican candidate for the 20th District House seat now held by Debbie Wasserman Schultz — who is also the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee. I made a video of that short interview as I have so many other candidates.

In our interview Harrington, recently endorsed by GOP Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, went through some of the points she’s been campaigning on and since the 20th District has a large and active Jewish community, the issue of Israel naturally came up. It was during that segment of our little video that she said a few things that the media are attacking her over.

What got Harrington some special focus was her reply to my question about Israel:

Debbie’s latest thing as well as her lack of support for Israel — is ’cause she has to stand by this president — she also has blamed the Republicans for the creation of Hamas — that’s been her latest thing. This president asked them to stop building in the settlements, asked them to return to the ’67 borders and just the other day was caught with (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy saying negative things about Israel. This is a country and a nation that needs to stand by Israel as our history has shown us to. And Debbie supports this president and his policies, and you are right — Israel has become more endangered over there because of our approach and lack of strong support of Israel.

The St. Petersburg Times took issue with various parts of Harrington’s statement but the paper’s main problem was with the claim that Wasserman Schultz has blamed Republicans for the creation of Hamas. Of that they rated Harrington’s claim “false.”
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My Video At Heart of Controversy in Florida House Race”


The Top 50 Examples of Liberal Media Bias

-By Warner Todd Huston

Let’s face it, liberal media bias has been around since there have been liberals to do the “reporting” of the news. But this fact should surprise no one. After all, the news media has always been filled with bias of one type or another. In fact, there was a time when American customers of the news knew exactly which newspapers sported which point of view. It was taken for granted that one newspaper supported one side and another newspaper a different side.

But in the late 1950s and early 1960s that all changed. Suddenly the folks in the news media began to present themselves as unbiased pursuers of “the truth.” Gone was the out-in-front bias and instead the media cloaked itself in a new air of detachment, a new just-the-facts mien.

This new era in media conceit coincided with the advent of a liberal mindset that took on the weight of the world, a new era in which liberals felt that their ideals rose above God, tradition and country….

Read the rest at The Western Center for Journalism.


FULL VIDEO: Rep. Walsh Picks 8th District for 2nd Run

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Thursday night I attended the Chicago Tea Party meeting which featured a jazzed up first term Congressman Joe Walsh who came to announce in which District he’d take a crack at running to affect his reelection to Congress. Without stringing you along, Walsh chose the newly redistricted 8th for his run.

The Chicago Tea Party event was held at Chicago’s famous Cubby Bear restaurant right across the street from The Cub’s Wrigley field stadium.

With the Democrats in control of how Illinois’ electoral map was redrawn — due to the fact that the Illinois GOP has practically no power at all in the state — Walsh became the chief target that Democrats wanted to eliminate for 2012. Walsh’s home is currently in his 8th District, but redistricting casts his home into the 14th District, a district that is already represented by Randy Hultgren, also a solid Republican (and also a freshman congressman To boot).


A full House for Joe’s announcement at Chicago’s favorite Cubby Bear Pub

Initially Walsh announced plans to primary Hultgren and run in the newly jiggered 14th District. But as the weeks rolled on that prospect seemed an increasingly dismal idea. To primary another Republican would have meant a very, very bloody primary fight, one that would do neither Hultgren nor Walsh — nor Republicans for that matter — any good at all regardless of who won the primary.

This led Walsh to a hard decision and that is what brought him to the Cubby Bear that night.
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FULL VIDEO: Rep. Walsh Picks 8th District for 2nd Run”


Where Your Rights End and Mine Begin

-By Nancy Salvato

As a child, I used to play with the neighbors across the street in one of the coolest sandboxes one could imagine. It was built into the landscape, with giant boulders lining the back and sides. Five kids could easily play in it, building sandcastles and manipulating bulldozers and dump trucks to their hearts content. Hours could go by before being called home to dinner. There was only one problem… neighborhood cats considered that magical place as their personal giant sized litter box. We were often told, sadly, that we could not play in it because of this ongoing problem.

These past few months, renting a home in a beach community has allowed my dog and I the opportunity to take a daily walk along the shore, where I hunt for shells, watch for porpoise, and occasionally exchange niceties with the fisherman who set up their poles in the sand, and with the locals who are also enjoying their surroundings. Every day, I thank my blessings that I’ve been given this chance to live in such surroundings but my happiness is often interrupted by dogs roaming the beach, unleashed, in violation of the rules which are clearly posted at each entrance. Not only do these dogs defecate on the sand but often they are not well behaved, running at leashed dogs, children, solitary walkers, and anyone within their proximity.
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Where Your Rights End and Mine Begin”


VIDEO, Romney’s New Hampshire Ad: I am a Steady Leader

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mitt Romney’s new ad being aired in New Hampshire is a not so subtle slap at Newt Gingrich for Newt’s several marriages.

I have to say, when I think of Mitt Romney, “steadiness” is not the first word that comes to mind. Oh, sure he may be a faithful husband, but he’s hardly been a steady leader in politics. With his million flip flops he’s been on every side of every issue. That isn’t very “steady” if you ask me.
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VIDEO, Romney’s New Hampshire Ad: I am a Steady Leader”


Romney, Newt, Bachtorum, Ron Puntsman: Who Cares?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like nearly every conservative in America today I am unimpressed by the current crop of GOP nominees for president and feel they all have major flaws — especially the two frontrunners Newt and Romney, both of whom have major deficits as far as staunch conservatives are concerned. But at this point I’ve come to realize that I don’t think I care which one of them is nominated. In fact, I think the White House is not where we should be focusing our intensity in 2012.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we shouldn’t vote for whichever GOP nominee wins the game show plaudits. We should absolutely pick one of them and then we all, conservatives and Republicans alike, should vote for him (or her).

So, what am I saying? I am saying that the White House is less important than people are saying it is. Instead, we need a two-point focus for 2012 that doesn’t include the White House. We don’t need 999 points. Just two. 1). Gaining control of Congress and 2). turning Obama out. The identity and purity of our presidential nominee is the last thing we should be worried about at this point. It is a bit late for that anyway.

Let me assure you that I don’t have a favorite in this GOP race. And I have three real dislikes: Romney, Huntsman, and Ron Paul. This article is no stealth shilling for any particular candidate. I really do have big problems with all of them. But, again, I don’t think it matters which of them we pick if we focus on the two points I note above.

First of all, any of the GOP candidates (yes even the cranky uncle of the GOP, Ron Paul) would be better than Obama. But that goes without saying because I am a conservative that votes Republican. No surprise there, really.

But there are reasons besides blind partisanship that any of the GOP nominees is better than Obama. In fact, it can really be boiled down to but one issue that makes getting rid of Obama imperative: the courts. He has been thoroughly destructive to this country with his judicial picks.
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Romney, Newt, Bachtorum, Ron Puntsman: Who Cares?”


REINing Regs In

-By GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy & Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam

“Please don’t challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington.” That was the plea to President Obama from Rock Katschnig, an Atkinson, Ill.-based soybean farmer and small-businessman at an August town-hall meeting.

While Mr. Katschnig was specifically referencing his opposition to the Administration’s imposed Farm Dust rule, a rule that if implemented would affect America’s 1.8 million farmers, his sentiments have become an all too common refrain from American businesses of all sizes across countless sectors.

Appropriate and responsible regulations are important, helping to keep us safe and our environment clean. Yet Washington has become a red-tape factory stunting job creation with a dizzying amount of federally imposed regulations written by unaccountable bureaucrats with little or no regard for the jobs each will cost.

The sheer amount and breadth of the administration’s proposed regulations make it impossible to address each and every one. Yet we can take action to stop the most excessive and economically-devastating regulations. Right now, the Obama Administration has 4,257 new regulations in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually – 15 percent more than last year. At a time when job creators are fighting to survive in an already tough economy, thousands of additional regulations will only result in significantly fewer jobs – hitting small businesses particularly hard.
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REINing Regs In”


Republican Planning Session: Stay Away From Attacks on Obama in 2012

-By Warner Todd Huston

Employees for Yahoo News were given a call-in number and pass key to a secret planning session conference call held by members of the Republican Party establishment on Tuesday. On the call some highly placed GOP operatives said that they should avoid “heavy attacks” on Obama during this upcoming 2012 campaign.

Apparently the Yahoo folks were given this inside info on accident by an RNC staffer. As Rachel Rose Hartman reported, a member of the well-connected Tarrance Group, a Republican polling firm, said that they aren’t interested in personal attacks on Obama.

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


How the Left Lies its Way to ‘Facts’

-By Warner Todd Huston

There was once a famous liberal congressman from New York who reminded his opponents that they could have their own opinions but not their own facts. This, of course, was Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the few respectable liberals of his or any other day. But, for the most part, the left operates on pushing the lie until it is accepted as “fact” whether it is true or not. And the leftist blog Crooks and Liars pulled a doosie this week.

Apparently the guffaw inducing leftist blog thinks that the Occupy protests have been completely peaceful despite the hundreds of arrests, the rapes, the property destruction, theft, and other various act of lawbreaking! No, they are not joking.

C&L, blogger John Amato centered his risible claim upon the video of the “bedlam” that occurred at a recent college football game that saw the Oklahoma State University Cowboys beat the University of Oklahoma Sooners. As the game ended, OSU fans flooded the field to celebrate. Unfortunately, in their exuberance to tear down the goal posts upwards to twelve fans were hurt.

Amato called this a “riot.”
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How the Left Lies its Way to ‘Facts’”


Rep. Roger Eddy- Total Tax-Paid Compensation of $283,520 Plus

-By Adam Andrzejewski

“IT’S JUST WRONG.”

For 2011, Eddy has a total compensation package funded by Illinois taxpayers of over $283,520 per year. When our Freedom of Information Requests are fulfilled regarding his government health benefits and his accumulated “bank account” of unused sick days, we will update our analysis. We anticipate his annual compensation will exceed $300,000.

For the past 30 years, Roger Eddy has served in public education. Beginning as a teacher and coach, he has lived his new American Dream.

For the past 16 years, Eddy has been the superintendent of rural Hutsonville School District Unit 1. For the past 9 years (2003), Eddy has also been an elected Republican State Representative. The median Hutsonville household income is $32,500. Located four hours south of Chicago, it’s situated in the Wabash River Valley of East-Central Illinois.

Roger Eddy is a poster boy example of Illinois public greed…

Be sure and read the rest of this entry at For The Good Of Illinois.


Contrasting World Views

-By Nancy Salvato

Thomas Jefferson outlined the philosophy of our nation’s government in the Declaration of Independence with the words,

“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Make no mistake; this is the philosophy on which our fundamental law is based. The goals for our government, which are listed in the preamble to our constitution, are intended to secure these unalienable rights.

“In Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,…”

If the electors and elected officials of our country do not honor our covenant

“We the People…[who] do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America…”

And if they choose not to uphold the blessings of liberty, then

“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government.”

What happens if the electorate and elected officials of our country do not understand the covenant, or what if they choose not to subscribe to the mission? What if the goals of our electorate are not aligned with the fundamental law set down by the Founders and Framers? What if the policy on which our representatives vote and implement is at odds with the philosophy on which our government was founded?

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Contrasting World Views”


Oh, So DOJ DID Lie About Fast & Furious — Plus A New DEA Criminal Program

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday the Department of Justice indulged a favorite Washington practice, one meant to hide the truth from the American people even while submitting the same info to public scrutiny. It is called the Friday evening document dump and this one tends to show that the DOJ did lie about what it knew of Fast and Furious. And in a second story we find that the Drug Enforcement Agency (SEA) appears to have helped Mexican narco-terrorists launder their money in another failed “tracking” program.

… The documents show that several ATF and DOJ operatives were trying hard to hide what they knew, were discussing the process of how to hide it, and were attacking members of Congress as they did so…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


‘Historian’ Gets Mouthy At Congressional Hearing

-By Warner Todd Huston

I meant to get to this last week, but “historian” Douglas Brinkley is so forgettable as a writer that it all slipped my mind. But, it’s a slow news day, so let’s take a look at the temper tantrum this hack threw when he visited the House Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 22, shall we?

Brinkley was there to provide his, uh, “insight” into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, testimony that Alaska Rep. Don Young called “an exercise in futility” because the hearing wasn’t going to be changing anyone’s mind about the subject. I’d have to agree that anything including hack Brinkley truly is an exercise in futility. He’s one of the worst writers of popular history out there.

The fireworks began when Rep. Young accidentally called Brinkley by the wrong last name. This sent the scribbler off into paroxysms of pique and spurred him to interrupt not only Rep. Young, but also Committee Chair Doc Hastings when he tried to restore order.

Rep. Young later told the Washington Post’s Amy Argetsinger that he thought that Brinkley was just trying to get publicity with his outburst.
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‘Historian’ Gets Mouthy At Congressional Hearing”


Illinois Values Voters Forum: Rep. Joe Walsh, State Rep. Morrison, More

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Saturday morning, Dec. 3, I attended an event put on in Carpentersville, Illinois by Allen Skillcorn. The Illinois Value Voters Forum was billed as a forum on social issues, but it was also a great opportunity to have a nice friendly chat with several Illinois politicians on a variety of issues, not just those “values” issues we generally associate with social conservatism.

Results of Straw Poll Below the Fold


The Panel

Panelists included 8th District Congressman Joe Walsh, 54th District State Representative Tom Morrison, former State Rep Penny Pullen (currently of the Life Advocacy Research Project), and Bruno Behrend who was on hand to represent Adam Andrzejewski’s Open The Books Portal Project, a website where you can learn how much your public officials are making off the taxpayers. Along with the panel above, quite a few local officials and candidates in the hunt for the GOP nomination in their district also came out to meet and greet attendees.


Allen Skillcorn introducing Rep. Joe Walsh

Rep. Joe Walsh and Bruno Behrend

The first question posed by moderator Skillcorn was “when does life begin,” a common enough question for the values crowd. Ever the rebel, Congressman Walsh went on a ten-minute discussion on why we need to change Congress to GOP control and why we need to send “the right kind of Republicans” to Washington. But, after the stump speech, he did answer the question: “at conception,” of course.

The rest of the panel generally agreed with that, but I’d like to dwell a bit on Walsh’s stump speech. He reminded us of the fiscal disaster that this nation faces and he said that we should not forget that “the Republican Party helped us get here and we have to say that forcefully and respectfully.”

But Walsh saw a “revolution” stirring with the Tea Party and the 2010 midterm vote, one that has “only just started.”
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Illinois Values Voters Forum: Rep. Joe Walsh, State Rep. Morrison, More”


Remy: Missing You – The Incandescent Light Bulb Song

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ode to the light bulb. You know. The one in its arrogance and un-Constitutional overreach that the creeps in Washington decided we are no longer “allowed” to have? Yeah that one.

There is no better example of why we need to be tearing down the power of government than this light bulb ban. None. It is totally emblematic of the arrogance of government and proof of how far astray America has gone from her founding principles.
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Remy: Missing You – The Incandescent Light Bulb Song”


The Threat of a Global Financial Collapse

-By Alan Caruba

At present, the amount of the annual Gross Domestic Product, $14 trillion—the value of all the goods and services that generate income—is exceeded by the nation’s debts.

America is presently $15 trillion in debt and it grows daily.

In a November 21 Wall Street Journal interview, Erskine Bowles of the presidential advisory commission on the nation’s debt, said “If you take 100% of the revenue that came into the country last year, every single dime of it was consumed by our mandatory spending and interest on the debt.”

“Mandatory spending in English is basically the entitlement programs, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. That means that every single dollar we spent last year on national defense, homeland security, education, infrastructure, high-value added research—every single dollar was borrowed, and half of it was borrowed from foreign country.”
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The Threat of a Global Financial Collapse”


Herman Cain — A Perspective

-By Gregory Stewart

(Ed note: Mr. Stewart and I had a great conversation in Denver not long ago and the question about why black Americans are not coming to the GOP in larger numbers became a topic of discussion. I asked Gregory to put down some of his thoughts on the matter.)

In a recent conversation I had with a friend about Herman Cain, he stated that race, as an issue, would not be a factor. This rationalization is, of course, flawed. The fact that the media will not use race as a way to divert and parse out differences is simply naive. Case in point, in the recent accusations of sexual harassment of women by Cain, Charles Krauthammer, a Fox News analyst and conservative columnist, asked Herman Cain if race was behind the controversy (video).

CAIN: I believe the answer is yes, but we do not have any evidence to support it. But because I am unconventional candidate running an unconventional campaign and achieving some unexpected unconventional results in terms of my, the poll, we believe that, yes, there are some people who are Democrats, liberals, who do not want to see me win the nomination. And there could be some people on the right who don’t want to see me because I’m not the, quote/unquote, “establishment candidate.” No evidence.

Essentially, race is and will be a factor, whether it is rooted in conservative or liberal rhetoric. To think that race will not be some part of American politics for the near future is to ignore the political polarization that drives corporate and popular interests in this country. Moreover, within the context of this polarization is how the narrative is exceedingly defined, for the most part, by the conservative model–and which factor conservatives wish to attach its brand of populism.
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Herman Cain — A Perspective”


What Is Constitutional Conservatism?

-By Yuval Levin, National Review

(ED: I don’t usually repost an entire article from another site but this article is too important to just excerpt. I apologize to Mr. Levin in advance, but his essay is one of the best definitions of what American conservatism truly is that I’ve seen for a long time. It is also a good explanation on why modern liberalism is as wrong as can be and anti-American to boot. It is a must read for anyone that wants a hint of the character of American conservatism and a good guide on how to think about what conservatives advocate. I just had to post it in it’s entirety, just had to have this chronicled on my site.)

This fall, liberals from the president on down have begun to grasp the scope of the political and intellectual disaster that the past three years have been for the Left. Their various responses to the calamity have tended to have one thing in common: immense frustration. But the different expressions of that frustration have been deeply revealing. They should help Americans better understand this complicated moment in our politics, and, in particular, help conservatives frame their responses.

Liberal frustration has fallen into two general categories that seem at first to flatly contradict each other: denunciations of democracy and appeals to populism. In September, Peter Orszag, President Obama’s former budget director, wrote an essay in The New Republic arguing that “we need less democracy.” To address our country’s daunting problems, Orszag suggested, we need to take some power away from Congress and give it to “automatic policies and depoliticized commissions” that will be shielded from public pressure. “Radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.” Two weeks later, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, made a less sophisticated stab at the same general point, proposing to suspend congressional elections for a few years so members of Congress could make the difficult decisions necessary to get our country out of its deep problems.

Orszag and Perdue both seemed to channel a long and deeply held view of the Left — that the complexity of modern life and the intensity of modern politics should lead us to put more power in the hands of technical experts who have the knowledge to make objective, rational choices on our behalf. Leaving things to the political process will result only in delay and disorder. President Obama has frequently expressed this view himself — wistfully complaining to his aides earlier this year, for instance, that things would sure be easier if he were president of China.
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What Is Constitutional Conservatism?”