Archive for January, 2011

Tonight on DaTechGuy on DaRadio we have just about the biggest guest you can have in the blog world.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit the blogfather himself joins us for the hour. We will talk about his place in the blogging world. His book An Army of Davids, his Wall Street Journal piece of the week and just how he manages to get 62 posts up in a single day like Thursday.

As always you can listen to the live stream at the WCRN web site and we welcome your phone (508-438-0965 and e-mail comments.

And don’t forget John Weston and Mike Wade with conservatively speaking from 7-9 featuring this week the head of the GOP delegation at the statehouse and the first of 3 WCRN specials from 10-11 right after me for the next three weeks. This evening John Weston talks to Rod Murphy author of Stopping Abortion at death’s door.

Radio or online you’ll want to keep it tuned to WCRN for the best Saturday talk there is!

Update: That was an awful lot of fun and the phones didn’t stop ringing. A note to national pols and groups. If 50,000 watts reaching all of New England (and New Hampshire before the primary) is not enough to persuade you to advertise with DaTechGuy on DaRadio how about a show that is listed to and called by national bloggers all across the country?

Our Ad rates are here. If you wish more info simply leave a comment on this post and I will contact you or e-mail me directly and we’ll talk.

I feel bad for the people who were killed and wounded in Arizona, I really do, but the idea that a person who was shot, who never knew the shooter, who didn’t hear the shooter make any declaration knows what drove him is pretty loose.

I gave a pass to some of the friends of the victims on the day of the shooting. Their friends and/or family had been shot and/or killed and emotions were high, but as the evidence continues to show the shooter had absolutely no connection to anything remote resembling the tea party, Sarah Palin or the like, the media’s attempt to continue to assert this is frankly libelous. Then again this is from the actual day of the shooting when facts were not in evidence.

Of course as Aaron Worthing of Patterico’s Pontifications points out:

notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say he presently blames Palin, Beck, and so on for the attack. He is saying he did Saturday night. And of course that was the same night that Sheriff Nifong Dupnick was making his own intemperate remarks. So is it reasonable for the Mr. Fuller to have believed law enforcement on that issue on that night? Of course it is.

But you never hear them ask the obvious follow up question: do you still feel this way? And if you look at the rest of the report, created today, it is obvious that these people are completely dishonest. They have deliberately skewed every other piece of evidence to indict the right wing, leaving out every piece of evidence that might exonerate their targets. Why should we think they presented this man’s entire statement?

The use of “Democracy Now” (or as I like to call them ANSWER tv) as a primary source is always dubious to begin with but I guarantee you that will not stop the MSM for playing this for all its worth. This nearly guarantees that Morning Joe will be unwatchable for next week as politico is running with it and David Frum is already trying to weld it as a club. Way to go Dave, stand bravely cowering behind a man with a hole shot in him. Pretty low stuff.

The game is of course to play the Cindy Sheehan “Absolute moral authority” game. The left made Sheehan a national figure until she became a liability at which she was abandoned as a crazy. The goal of course is to bait us on the right to bait the right to hit the poor old fellow.

Bill Jacobson (who will be my guest on DaTechGuy on DaRadio on Feb 19th) gets it:

I wish you a speedy recovery, but you are wrong for all the reasons most of the rest of the world has come to understand in the last few days.

P.S., yes, you will be used by those who will hide behind your victim-status since they have no facts to support their theories

I feel really sorry for the man, the shooter used his blood to make himself famous and now the left and the media will use to try to salvage a meme they can’t support with facts. Disgraceful.

Meanwhile Stacy McCain, not taking the “attack the victim” bait, takes the trouble to use the shooters own words to make the case against:

  1. Jared Lee Loughner didn’t like ”illegal wars,” which are “unconstitutional,” an opinion you might have heard a lot circa 2002-2006 if you were hanging out with smelly peaceniks at International A.N.S.W.E.R. marches or Ned Lamont rallies.
  2. Jared Lee Loughner habitually used the term “genocide” to describe anything he was against – “Mom, this broccoli-and-cheese casserole tastes like genocide!” — just like every Chomsky-spouting punk who ever protested an Ann Coulter speech on a college campus.
  3. Jared Lee Loughner’s interpretation of the Constitution is nearly as crazy as the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas.
  4. Jared Lee Loughner hates cops, considers grammar a form of “mind control,” and felt that getting a “B” in class was a violation of his First Amendment rights. If he hadn’t become a mass murderer, he might have had a promising future as an ACLU lawyer.

You can find the video here.

The irony of course is the wars and genocide stuff would fit perfectly within the program schedule of Democracy Now.

Funny old world isn’t it?

Update: Apparently he isn’t being used, he is apparently out there bigtime:

Toward the end of the town hall meeting Saturday morning, one of the shooting victims, J. Eric Fuller, took exception to comments by two of the speakers: Ariz. state Rep. Terri Proud, a Dist. 26 Republican, and Tucson Tea Party spokesman Trent Humphries.

According to sheriff’s deputies at the scene, Fuller took a photo of Humphries and said, “You’re Dead.”

Deputies immediately escorted Fuller from the room.

Pima County Sheriff’s spokesman Jason Ogan said later Saturday that Fuller has been charged with threats and intimidation and he also will be charged with disorderly conduct.

I think the left’s script for Monday has just changed.

Update 2: Stacy Reports that the left is playing the “Post Traumatic” card. In terms of my personal feelings, I’m willing to give him more of a break in culpability, but in terms of the law, that pity is irrelevant you can’t just let stuff like that go. Or as Spock once said: “I do not approve, I understand.”

I didn’t have a horse in this race myself. I heard good things about Ann Wagner and people I respect supported her (big tea party favorite). Other people I respect as well supported Michael Steele (on the he was in charge when we won theory).

The problem? The RNC is having is grass-roots fundraising problem. The conservative grass-roots does not like the idea of hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on, shall we say, less that loyal conservatives/republicans (read Dede Scozzafava, Charlie Crist). Combine this with the internet and the ability of individuals to give cash directly to candidates the actually like, and poof the RNC becomes irrelevant.

Establishment republicans who really don’t like the rise of the tea party (because they understand a true anti-spending movement decreases the perks and the power that are the rewards of office) wanted to keep their favorite out of the chair. Those big donors are looking for a return on their investment. The tax payer spigot being turned off is the last thing they want.

The winner Reince Priebus as a former Steele is likely a safe choice who can hopefully navigate the shoal between those rocks that Steele didn’t.

The thing about being a party chairman is that by definition you have to support any person with a (R) next to their name. If the leaders were really devious they could have supported Wagner and then hit her if she didn’t give moderates the time of day.

The real smart move would be to build a structure to advance republican thought. Such a move would create republicans. The National party could rather than funding candidates, steer funds to groups closer to the ground while allowing the sub groups such as the tea party to give to specific candidates perhaps using funding in an emergency manner to push a close or promising candidate over the top.

It’s a tough job but if we win, there will be plenty of kudos to go around. It all depends of if the idea is to advance a philosophy or to get a meal ticket. The choices made by the party will tell us which goal really counts.

In his examiner column today Glenn Reynolds (tomorrow’s guest BTW) talks about how the rules concerning “patriotic dissent” apparently change as desired by the holders of the meme:

“Protest is patriotic!” “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!”
These battle-cries were heard often, in a simpler America of long ago — that is, before last November. Back then, protests — even if they were organized by the usual leftist apparatchik-groups like ANSWER or ACORN — were seen – at least in the media – as proof of popular discontent.

Yes we remember those halcyon days of yesteryear, when one could call for the murder of a president and yet simply be expressing dissent, exercising the rights guaranteed under the constitution. Who cares if some group might have fronted it. However now that the tea party has become a source of such protest…

Funny how fast the worm — or maybe it’s the pitchfork — has turned. Now that we’re seeing genuine expressions of populist discontent, not put together by establishment packagers on behalf of an Officially Sanctioned Aggrieved Group, we’re suddenly hearing complaints of “mob rule” and demands for civility.

Civility is fine, but those who demand it should show it. The Obama administration — and its corps of willing supporters in the press and the punditry — has set the tone, and they are now in a poor position to complain.

That’s why a “living breathing Constitution” is in my opinion BS. That allows people to decide it says what they want it to say rather than what it actually says (a contract).

I guarantee we will be talking about this tomorrow.