Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

Here is a great measure for the “competing” rallies in Washington this weekend

Posted: August 28, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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I’ll never forget an event I covered where a crowd was padded by union members ordered there by their steward. I remember the man scanning the crowd to make sure the people he ordered to be there showed up.

I’m very curious how many of Sharpton’s attendees will be “ordered” and bussed to Washington. I also wonder how many are professional paid protesters after all it was a year ago this month that we had this moment:

This clinic is adjacent to Denver’s day laborer pickup street, Park Avenue. Being fluent in Spanish, El Marco asked these guys “¿hablan ingles?” “casi nada” was the reply from our amigo on the left. I asked him if he could tell me what the signs said. “¿Quien sabe?” (who knows?) was all he said to me, with a big grin. I’m kicking myself for not asking them how much they were getting paid to support the grassroots.

The base post is here

I can’t help but remember the Cuba scene from Godfather II

Like in Denver I suspect we will have a set of protesters who are paid to be there (Sharpton’s) vs those who are coming of their own accord (Beck’s). Make sure you take a look at the photos that are run. You won’t see as many wide shots of Sharpton’s crew, particularly not as compared to Becks. The media will present them as equal and opposite. One voice here one voice there. In all things visual you won’t be able to tell the relative sizes of the groups.

Last year’s unbelievably huge 9/12 crowd defied attempts to lowball it:

This year the plan will be to over-count Sharpton & co. I wonder which crowd will leave a cleaner area.

One caveat here, For many in the tea party movement two trips to Washington within two weeks is prohibitively expensive. Don’t be surprised that this march is smaller than the 9/12 one since many tea party groups are going to Washington on 9/12. And the reverse is of course true. In that sense Beck’s Restoring Honor rally is about the power of Beck.

Update: The NYT reports on “parallel rallies” even though the Washington post reports live from the Sharpton event that he has drawn “hundreds”

As town hall says:

There is no equivalence between these two rallies. That won’t stop the MSM from trying to portray them as ‘competing’ gatherings, though.

Guess which narrative the MSM will use?

memeorandum thread here.

Voices of the Candidates: Chris Resmini

Posted: August 25, 2010 by datechguy in elections, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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I talked to Chris Resmini at the Charlie Baker event on Monday:

If we are going to change Massachusetts we need to support these first time candidates when they emerge. You will also note from his facebook page that Chris has been active in attending events and supporting his fellow republican candidates.

More please

Accentuate the positive (Alaska) vs the negative (AZ)

Posted: August 25, 2010 by datechguy in congress, elections, internet/free speech, media, opinion/news, tea parties
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Well Arizona voters decided that John McCain deserves another terms in the senate and took Quayle the younger over the superior Vernon Parker.

Like Barbara Espinosa (Have you caught her blog talk radio show BTW) I preferred both Hayworth and Parker but the voters have spoken and it’s up to us to keep both of those seats in the R column.

In once sense it is not a surprise as if the Senate could flip the state might have wanted to keep the seniority that McCain brings, but if you see an amnesty bill next year, be assured that John McCain will be on board bigtime.

Meanwhile in Alaska Stacy McCain reports the MSM is still in full denial mode concerning Joe Miller:

Traditional media, however, continued to hold out hope for Murkowski, a pro-choice Republican who voted for the unpopular TARP bailout and had been labeled one of the ”Top 10 Senate RINOs” (Republican In Name Only) by Human Events.

In its headline, Roll Call described Murkowski as merely “imperiled,” and an Anchorage Daily News reporter named “Sean” said the incumbent was “battling for her political life.” The New York Times said she was “in a surprisingly tight race.” But Republican sources in Anchorage were more blunt, declaring Murkowski “toast” and employing obscene terms to describe just how completely she had been defeated.

Even funnier is this bit from MSNBC’s first read:

If 2008 was about “hope,” then 2010 might be about “fear” — with Republicans running on fear of Obama/Dems, while Dems will be running on fear of returning to Bush/GOP policies.

*** Why McCain won and Murkowski is in trouble: In fact, this explains why someone like John McCain cruised to victory last night in Arizona and Murkowski didn’t. McCain

Oh conservatives won because of fear. No media bigotry there. Gee what else could they have in common? I’ll give you a clue, it’s someone who sells books, is hated and ridiculed by the media and has odd shaped hips.

Robert Stacy also credits WooHooYoo and people like her for getting him involved and the hard work that made things happen.

Miss Sharon — her Twitter name is WooHooYoo – isn’t famous or influential. She’s just someone who has stopped asking, “What can I do?” and started doing what she can. (Good advice.)

I am looking forward to being able to say the same in November when talking about Bill Gunn here in MA-01.

Maybe by then the media will call the race for Miller.

Pure Goldberg

Posted: August 25, 2010 by datechguy in culture, media, opinion/news
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Jonah Goldberg writes a column in the LA times the once and for all proves that there are lies, damn lies and statistics:

According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600% in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the increase is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on Sept. 11.

Now, that was a hate crime.

Roll that number around your head. There are 300+ Million people in the US and 50 states in the country and in 2001 “hate crimes” a population out for revenge doesn’t even hit one a month per state?

Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. The following year, the number of anti-Islamic hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. And the number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since.

Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like a anti-Muslim backlash to you?

So we are talking vandalism and nasty words? Lets look at the post 2002 numbers for a sec, The fabulously intolerant Americans that Andrea Mitchell is lecturing concerning sensitivity managed less than one “incident” per season per state since 9/11? And these “incidents” are apparently vandalism and nasty words? This again in a population of 300+ million?

Read the whole thing including that the number of anti Jewish incidents are 6 times higher and anti-islamic ones in the US over the same period.

Maybe if the MSM wants to find bigotry it should look in the mirror and ask themselves why they think the American people are a bunch of hate mongers. Then perhaps their ratings wouldn’t be in the toilet

And finally lets drop this whole “hate” crimes nonsense anyway. It criminalizes thought. Prosecute a rock through a window because it’s a rock through somebody’s window. Justice and law should be color blind.

memeorandum thread here

Update: I would have given a parody example of the MSM’s way of thinking but I couldn’t do better than Alex Pareene’s actual column for salon today. It is almost impossible to parody the left wing media.

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