Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

I purchased my tickets for CPAC yesterday

Posted: December 29, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, special events
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I’m going to be flying down on the day before and flying out on the day after.

I can’t even think of affording to stay at the CPAC hotel so I’ll be staying farther out and Metroing back and forth to the conference.

My plan is to broadcast live from the conference (although technically it will be over by the time the show is on) but I’m sure there will be no shortage of national bloggers available to talk when things are all done.

Because I’ve been so involved in the show I missed the debate over GOPproud at CPAC.

I actually think both sides have a point here, if the agenda of GOP Proud is antithetical to a group it certainly can oppose its inclusion, but once it has been included the question becomes do I access this group of potential conservative voters or don’t I.

I submit it is very hard to make your case to a voter if you don’t show up, why cede the ground to ones opponent? Additionally when you have a good case on the merits as Thomas Peters et/al do one should move forward without fear into the breach directly.

All that being said right now conservatives are celebrating one of their biggest victories in history and when it comes time to stop the Obama agenda and repeal Obamacase I’d just as soon have gay republicans and conservatives voting with me on those issues.

In the last Election Bill Gunn opposed the war in Afghanistan. I absolutely disagreed with him but had no problem supporting him. Andrea Shea King is iffy on Obama’s birth place, but we agree on most issues and I will never forget her kindness toward me. On Gay Marriage Cynthia Yockey and I couldn’t be farther apart, but she is a delightful lady and a friend and one issue does not a friendship break.

Rather than boycotting, lets celebrate our common victories while unapologetically clashing when we disagree.

BTW feel free to help defer the cost of CPAC by hitting DaTipJar. It is much appreciated.

This is a good thing

Posted: December 28, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech
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Will it make a difference? Who knows, but if the Hollywood types want to protest something is a nice change for them to protest an actual tyranny:

Academy Award winners Paul Haggis and Sean Penn, along with film producer and movie studio chairman Harvey Weinstein, have joined forces with British-Iranian actress and Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) spokesperson Nazanin Boniadi to condemn the harsh sentence imposed on distinguished Iranian film director Jafar Panahi.

Both Panahi and his artistic collaborator, Mohammad Rasoulof, have been given six-year prison sentences after being convicted of “propaganda against the state.” Panahi was also sentenced with a twenty-year total ban on artistic activities. The Hollywood greats have signed a petition that Boniadi initiated with AIUSA to urge Iranian authorities to overturn Panahi’s sentence and encouraged others to go to http://www.amnestyusa.org to do the same.

“As someone who has often gotten in trouble for opening his mouth, it is hard to fathom the idea of being incarcerated for six years simply for speaking my mind, or to be banned from making films for 20 years,” said Haggis, who is best known for becoming the first screenwriter to write two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back: “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash.”

There is not a lot of support in comments for these guys over this move but lets face it, even if it is just talk, it is talk in a good cause for a change. When these guys actually fall on the side of the angels I say good!

If you want to know how far left the panel is on Morning Joe

Posted: December 23, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media
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When Joe Scarborough quoted this Victor Davis Hanson piece today a panelist (Jeffrey Sachs) pooh poohed him as an “extremist” and nobody on that panel challenged him. He maintained Victor Davis Hanson is an extremist who has gotten us into a bunch of wars.

Yes this writer and grape grower who pens books on military history is the cause of all evil.

When you don’t have the intellectual power to match a Hanson then all you can do is attack.

Update: Ron Radosh notes that the idea of “No Labels” and civility doesn’t seem to apply to conservative thinkers:

And what did Joe “Mr. No Labels” movement Scarborough, who talks every day about the need for civility, camaraderie and dialogue between folks of different opinions, have to say to Jeffrey Sachs after this most vile outburst?

The answer: absolutely nothing, but move on to the next point as if Sachs had never spoken these words. Sachs has accused the estimable historian of causing us to get into more wars than anybody else in America, and of being an extremist, and all Scarborough could come up with is a lame joke about Hanson not being on his Christmas card list.

All labels are bad, but some labels are more equal than others apparently.

The only thing wrong with Lisa Graas column at newsreal today…

Posted: December 22, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Is that it answers Max Blumenthal who frankly deserves no answer only scorn.

With all due respect (very little is actually due here) one wonders if Blumenthal is off his proverbial rocker. This claim of anti-Muslim “hysteria”, without which his conspiracy theory unravels, is insanely false. One might even say it’s spastic. More accurately, it’s just another “astonishing act of left-handed legerdemain” of the sort that Blumenthal routinely engages in as he touts the very same falsehoods we are used to seeing from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The latest statistics from the FBI tell quite a different story.

Max makes his living the way he makes his living, he frankly isn’t worth the attention but enough well-financed left leaning outlets promote him that it becomes necessary to make sure that voices of sanity are not crowded out by the dollars of the left.

Pay particular attention to the chart on page two, of the piece, it speaks volumes.

Meanwhile there is no comment about this poster from a banned Islamic group concerning the evils of Christmas out of England. I’m sure Max will get around to condemning it as soon as someone pays him a higher wage to do so.

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