Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

BOOM! SARAH PALIN ENDORCES HOFFMAN!

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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You don’t get much bigger than this:

The votes of every member of Congress affect every American, so it’s important for all of us to pay attention to this important Congressional campaign in upstate New York. I am very pleased to announce my support for Doug Hoffman in his fight to be the next Representative from New York’s 23rd Congressional district. It’s my honor to endorse Doug and to do what I can to help him win, including having my political action committee, SarahPAC, donate to his campaign the maximum contribution allowed by law.

Via The Other McCain more from the endorsement:

The federal government borrows, spends, and prints too much money, while our national debt hits a record high. Government is growing while the private sector is shrinking, and unemployment is on the rise. Doug Hoffman is committed to ending the reckless spending in Washington, D.C. and the massive increase in the size and scope of the federal government. He is also fully committed to supporting our men and women in uniform as they seek to honorably complete their missions overseas.

And best of all, Doug Hoffman has not been anointed by any political machine.

Doug Hoffman stands for the principles that all Republicans should share: smaller government, lower taxes, strong national defense, and a commitment to individual liberty.

Political parties must stand for something. When Republicans were in the wilderness in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan knew that the doctrine of “blurring the lines” between parties was not an appropriate way to win elections. Unfortunately, the Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate who more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. This is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party’s ticket.

Republicans and conservatives around the country are sending an important message to the Republican establishment in their outstanding grassroots support for Doug Hoffman: no more politics as usual.

Hot Air comments:

One note of warning: Although its congressional seat has traditionally been solid Republican, NY-23 did break for Obama last year. There is a Democratic presence there, which means there’s a risk that conservatives won’t be the only party base galvanized by her entrance into the campaign. For better or worse, some of her clout’s on the line here too, especially now that The One’s thrown in for the Democrat. Good luck, Palinistas.

The confirms the report earlier today. She has crossed the Rubicon now this does several things.

Media coverage of the race will increase.

The other 2012 contenders will have to take a stand.

The NRCC now has to make a choice to fight her or support her.

The left will pour everything they can in this race in the hopes of defeating “her”.

If Hoffman wins it will be a Palin win, if he loses then they will paint her as a “loser”.

If you want to lead you have to be willing to get up front, she is!

I wish I was in Robert Stacy’s shoes right now!

Update: How much do you want to bet that Glenn Beck is kicking himself for not having Hoffman on today as scheduled?

Update 2: Can someone explain to me why Robert Stacy’s post isn’t the lead one on Memorandum since he beat the standard by at least 20 min? I should have checked the time stamps rather than the 10 min ago on memorandum my bad!

Update 3: A John Adams moment:

Update 4: Why does the Dump Dede site have this news with a question mark?

The only person more depressed tonight than Dede Scozzafva has to be Newt Gingrich.

Update 5: I guess this beats my breaking news about conference in Egypt doesn’t it?

Update 6: Anyone what to make book that tomorrow on Morning Joe the panel will go on and on how this hurts the republican party and will emasculate Palin if Hoffman loses?

Sarah Palin and the NY-23

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Yesterday I wrote the following:

With Rush also mentioning the race I suspect that the question is fast becoming not if people can bring Hoffman over the top but will republicans be wise enough to get ahead of the curve to support the winner.

Followed by this:

Perhaps those who will be looking for the Grassroots support in 2012 might want to get in front while they can still take some credit?

and preceded by this:

if Palin is interested in making trouble for Romney and Paulenty she can come out for Hoffman. That will put them in the uncomfortable position of either joining her (and having them appear as followers) or supporting Dede (and making particularly Paulenty unacceptable to conservatives, Romney is already iffy) or not being willing to stand up for anything.

The party make a bad investment in NY and their stock is crashing. Apparently they’d rather lose their stake then re-invest in Doug Hoffman. What fools.

Today Jim Geraghty says this:

Is Somebody About to Make Doug Hoffman’s Day?

Don’t take this to the bank, at least not yet. But somebody who seems to be in a position to know what’s coming down the pike in New York’s special election tells me that he’s hearing Sarah Palin will publicly endorse Conservative Doug Hoffman over Republican Dede Scozzafava.

If this happens it will be a seismic shift and will change the dynamics of the race (and piss off David Frum but that’s an added bonus, I really shouldn’t say that he’s wrong lately but likely not a bad guy). It also puts the NRCC in a bad spot because they will need Palin in 2010 BADLY!

If it turns out to be true it’s a shame that there isn’t a shoe leather reporter/blogger on the scene to cover it. Oh Wait.

I guess I was wrong at first concerning holding back. Just goes to show you the difference a few days makes.

Vote Hoffman.

In order to aid he who peace is upon on the value of a balanced debate, lets link to a dissenting view by Elizabeth Payne.

Update: Speaking of reporting from the place where the news is being made:

While Scozzafava has the endorsement of Armey’s former congressional colleague Newt Gingrich and the support of the national GOP, grassroots volunteers from the Tea Party movement have bouyed the campaign of Hoffman, running on the Conservative Party line.

“The Republican candidate can’t win,” Armey declared, saying that Gingrich “made the wrong choice” in backing Scozzafava, a New York state assemblywoman whose record puts her to the left of most Democrats here in this largely rural district, where Republican Rep. John McHugh routinely won re-election with 2-to-1 margins.

In the words of Jimmie expect more exclusive reporting

LGF2 on NY-23: Updated with free speech lesson!

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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After touching on the WSJ piece they take the exact opposite view of Morning Joe concerning republicans:

Republicans just opened up their widest lead since 1994 on the generic Congressional ballot poll. Obama is in negative double-digits pretty consistently on Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll of political polarity. Only 43% say they’d vote to re-elect Obama. And – perhaps mosting damning of all for the Democrats – for the first time that I can ever remember at least, the GOP leads the Dems in ALL TEN of the “voters trust” issues – including “Democrat friendly” issues like health care, social security, and education. Also note, the GOP has a sizable trust advantage on abortion – so don’t tell me that social issues are a loser for the GOP. I’m not buying it.

If present trends hold, Republicans look set to take back Senate seats in Pennsylvania and Delaware (two bluish Northeastern states), and conservatives look like they’re going to be sweeping the big three races in Virginia handily (showing that conservative Republicans can definitely win in purple states). The Iowa governourship appears set to revert to conservative Republican hands (another purplish state), and in Ohio (another purple state), a relatively unknown Rob Portman has caught up with and is now virtually tied with each of the better-known, statewide Democrat elected officials that he is matched up against for the open Senate seat. How are Democrats faring in red states? Not good at all – if the news that Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas’s incumbent moderate Democrat Senator trails all four of her potential Republican opponents is any indication.

So please, don’t try to feed me this blithering nonsense about how the GOP needs to run to the centre to win, and is currently perceived as too right-wing to be viable. Quite the opposite is in fact true. The GOP is viewed by its own base as being full of squishes, and is viewed by independents as incapable of providing the leadership on the issues that they want. If that were to change, the GOP would win elections solidly, even in purplish and northeastern districts like NY-23. The reasonably conservative Jim Tedisco lost the special election in NY-20 by only a few hundred votes – and that is a district where the Dems had won handily in both the previous elections, and which Obama easily carried. If that special election were being held today, Tedisco would probably win it.

The question becomes what do they actually want? I’ve actually already answered that here:

If your primary interest as a feudal lord is getting back on the gravy train with the king you certainly don’t want to have the peasants revolt against that largess.

If people who actually plan on acting get elected they will try to act, that might spill the gravy train.

Unfortunately for the GOP establishment there is now too much attention to play the game they way they want.

Now we will see who is who and what is what.

Vote Hoffman!

Update: Dan Riehl makes an interesting point

If grassroots conservatives have dropped the ball in some way, especially in the Northeast, it is that we haven’t done the hard work to take back the Republican Party from the ground up. To truly prevail we must do that.

It disappointed me to hear the Club for Growth’s Andy Roth blame RNC Chairman Michael Steele and the D.C. Republicans for giving us a Dede Scozzafava. He knows better than that, and he shouldn’t play that game simply to get his message across. Scozzafava got the nod based upon a state and local decision. It’s important for conservatives to understand how that came about.

It is not the D.C. GOP’s job to stab a state or local organization in the back, no matter what you may think. Money and support flow up and flow back down. A national political organization capable of winning elections can not afford to function any other way. Let’s stop playing games.

His point about getting involved is well made but that doesn’t change the fact the Scozzafava is a lousy candidate and the national party should have been circumspect about offending the grass roots movement that is making the difference in their support nationally.

Oh and note to Charles Johnson (peace be upon him) this is how you respectfully disagree with someone on a subject without offense, particularly if you agree on so many other subjects and in that spirit let me remind you that there is still space of the statement of common principles for anyone who wants to sign.

Penn Gilette banned from lgf next?

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Penn Gilette found out yesterday that one of his heroes has feet of clay:

I’m surprised, frankly, that GB hasn’t had him on the show yet to talk about it. Or maybe he has and I’m out of the loop?

As with most of PJ’s monologues, there’s a sprinkling of profanity, so please observe your official content warning.

The Libertarian Popinjay (who has spiced up his site) explains the pain:

Now, I’m generally a compassionate person, so I can’t be too hard on Penn here. You can see with his dramatic pauses that he’s coming to grips with the fact that his idol is an intolerant jerk. He tries to rationize it because in his heart, Tommy Smothers – his hero, who he’s placed on a high pedestal – must be right. Penn knows the truth, however. You can see it in his eyes.

It exposes one of the biggest lies in pop and political culture: that liberals are tolerant and compassionate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are vile, mean-spirited individuals who want their point of view forced on everyone around them. Anyone who disagrees them is beyond contempt. There is no “agree to disagree” for liberals, progressives, or whatever they want to call themselves. Penn knows this, but it will take him a while to come to gripes with it.

Now you might remember that a certain audience losing petulant blogger, who in the opinion of a plurality of those polled here has a new employer, used to link approvingly to him on occasion but hasn’t since August, just a little bit before I was banned and Robert Stacy was converted from reporter and Pajamas Media writer to untouchable.

I guess once you appear on Glen Beck other position matters.

I disagree with Penn on a lot of issues, particularly the Catholic Church but he is usually wrong honest, sort of like Hitchens. It likely isn’t official but if he is banned by lgf like the rest of us, I suggest he should consider himself proudly banned.

Oh and the poll in question lets put it here in case you haven’t voted:

Update: The Anchoress has the same opinion of Penn as me:

Before I get 100 emails telling me that Penn & Teller have sullied the name of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta: Yes, I’m aware. Teresa can more than take care of herself, I think. No one gets everything just right, do they? It drives me nuts when a Christian writes to me saying “this person did this and that, and so they have no credibility…” because it flies in the face of what we believe about mercy, and the potential within all of us for change. Jillette strikes me as a guy who is seeking. He’s going to have blind spots like everyone else, particularly in those areas where he thinks he’s got it all figured out (again, like everyone else.) But it would not surprise me to read someday that he’s gone and spent some time with the Missionaries of Charity, to see what they do. God is not done with any of us, yet.

We may not know what God is doing but God does. As a rule if someone is seeking truth they are on the right path.

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