Saturday, March 9, 2013
Breitbart Rule 1: Bring the fight to your enemy
"(from "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World" by Andrew Breitbart: Chapter 7, "Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries" - pp 147-160)"
"The army of the emboldened and gleefully ill-informed is growing. Groupthink happens, and we have to take it head-on. We can't win the political war until we win the cultural war. The Frankfurt School knew that - that's why they won the cultural war and then, on it's back, the political war. We can do the same, but we have to be willing to enter the arena. By neglecting The View or, worse, by ignoring Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Maher, and David Letterman - we allow them to distort and demean us as they romanticize and elevate themselves. It's harder to attack people to their faces than behind their backs. and we have to confront them face-to-face. Young people suckle at the teat of pop culture - but by refusing to fight for their attention, we lose by default."
Video: Andrew Breitbart doing what he does best in exposing Occupy Wall Street for the
troublemakers they are.
"The key to the conversation was that I didn't start defending myself against his baseless charge of racism. I dismissed it out of hand as ridiculous because it was ridiculous. He was a punk for leveling that kind of charge without any basis whatsoever. I don't let my enemies characterize me without any evidence, and you shouldn't let them characterize you. Name-calling is their best strategy, and if you don't lend it credence, and instead force them to back up their charges with specifics, you win. Revel in the name calling - it means you've got them reduced to their lowest, basest tactic, and the one that carries the least weight if you refuse to abide by their definition of you."
....
"Most of us aren't experts on the latest budget package or stem-cell line regulation, but that doesn't mean we're powerless - it means we get to play Socrates, asking pointed questions rather than citing facts we may not be sure of."
“If you’re not for this candidate, more than shame on you; you’re on the other
side” In fact, take a listen to his words for yourself:
...."Don't let them pretend to know more than they do: This is really the converse of the last rule. Your opponents will pretend to be experts if you don't, but that's okay, because you can always puncture their balloon with one word: why. Asking them to provide evidence for their assertions is always fun, and it's even more fun asking them to provide the sources for that evidence. Attacking the fundamental basis of their arguments if fun, too - if they tell you health care is a right, ask why. Liberals don't have a why, other than their own utopianism and their dyspeptic view of the status quo and America. Reason is not their strong suit - emotion is." Read more.
Hat tip to Rick Bulow for this most excellent counsel and for the links in this post. Below are links to all Andrew Breitbart's blogs:
Dialogue between TD and two who took issue with a recent post
The TW posted this article in Facebook on Wednesday, March 6th:
"This little incident, which in itself ranks up there on the sanity scale with Maxine Waters' warning of 170,000,000 Americans losing their jobs due to the sequester, is nevertheless a timely reminder of just how power-mad progressives really are, and how thoroughly their power-madness obliterates any notions of conscience or decency."
The following is a dialogue TD had with two people who made Facebook comments on this post:
J----; Or is it that culture in America is influencing politics? Creative minds tend to be liberal. Creative minds are required in the media. The media reflects the ideology of those that create it.
G-----; I like how every right-wing news source that I listen to mentions the MSM being liberal every 30 minutes or so. It's a brainwashing program that's working wonders on people. You literally cannot watch Fox News for 30 minutes without hearing how the liberal media is doing (or not doing) this or that. Why would Fox want to turn their viewers staunchly against other sources of media? Hmmm.. I'd say that they have a vested interest in doing so. Luckily for them, their viewers buy every word of it. I'm not saying that the media doesn't lean left, but what Fox news and other right-wing sources are doing is insuring that their viewers/listeners don't hear any side of the story other than what they provide them.
TD; And MSNBC...?
G-----; MSNBC = left-wing FOX. I don't understand why that's even at question. I always love to see Hannity do his media mash and then use MSNBC as an example of left-wing bias. MSNBC = Left, FOX = Right. I thought we all understood that.
"George W. Bush wins the 2000 Presidential Election by (in essence) 537 votes; Fo...x News goes to #1 in the cable news race a few months later. Bush narrowly beats John Kerry in 2004. Not surprisingly, Fox is still #1, and by a wider margin. Barack Obama soundly defeats John McCain in 2008; Fox is stil...See More"
G-----; That's great, B---, but I'm not sure what your point is. I don't watch MSNBC nearly as much as I watch Fox News. MSNBC is pretty boring to me because a lot of it is in line with things I already know. Fox is interesting to me because it challenges me to see different views and ideas. "Conservatives" who watch Fox news are watching it for comfort because Fox does all they can to reassure those people that they're right. The same goes for liberals who watch MSNBC. I happen to favor programming that's going to make me think, rather than programming that tells me what I should think.
J-----; The only 'news' I watch is in the morning to see what the traffic and weather is going to be. I never tune into those stations for political updates. And neither should anyone else.
TD; Perhaps our difference is that with Fox I associate Brit Hume, Charles Krauthammer and Chris Wallace; with MSNBC I think of Al Sharpton, Chris Matthews and Toure' and that is a big wall I feel the left has to climb for me.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Krauthammer; Why we give foreign aid (Cartoon update)
A well-thought-out counterpoint to my own snarky remark in the next post down, where I was chafing at the tanks Egypt is getting from us as well as the money. Krauthammer makes a good point about the money, but I still have to ask: who would Egypt use tanks against?
Do the math yourself.
Charles Krauthammer "Nonetheless, we should not cut off aid to Egypt. It’s not that we must blindly support unfriendly regimes. It is perfectly reasonable to cut off aid to governments that are intrinsically hostile and beyond our influence. Subsidizing enemies is merely stupid.
"But Egypt is not an enemy, certainly not yet. It may no longer be our strongest Arab ally, but it is still in play. The Brotherhood aims to establish an Islamist dictatorship. Yet it remains a considerable distance from having done so.
Precisely why we should remain engaged. And engagement means using our economic leverage. "
Do the math yourself.
Charles Krauthammer "Nonetheless, we should not cut off aid to Egypt. It’s not that we must blindly support unfriendly regimes. It is perfectly reasonable to cut off aid to governments that are intrinsically hostile and beyond our influence. Subsidizing enemies is merely stupid.
"But Egypt is not an enemy, certainly not yet. It may no longer be our strongest Arab ally, but it is still in play. The Brotherhood aims to establish an Islamist dictatorship. Yet it remains a considerable distance from having done so.
Precisely why we should remain engaged. And engagement means using our economic leverage. "
Reading list of late posts
NT Times; Amid Cuts, Does a President Dare Tee Off?
" “Canceling White House tours is childish and dishonest,” Mr. Gingrich said on Twitter, citing a recent golf vacation the president took to the Floridian Yacht and Golf Club resort with a handful of friends and his Secret Service entourage. “The golf weekend in Florida cost enough to keep the White House open for months.” "
....
JustOneMinute quotes Ari Fleischer (of Bush fame), who pointed out that the Pentagon’s leaders have warned that the budget cuts will have a serious impact on the readiness of the nation’s military. “What does it say about a sequester if a military golf course can stay open during it?” he said."
Sarah Palin was right: Obama care or any type of socialized rationing plan results in death panels In this chilling video, physician Manny Alverez discusses the subtle way "death panels" will occur, "by changing standards of practice, putting them with age and general health of the patient with the end result in eating Soylent Green as a probable outcome."
" “Canceling White House tours is childish and dishonest,” Mr. Gingrich said on Twitter, citing a recent golf vacation the president took to the Floridian Yacht and Golf Club resort with a handful of friends and his Secret Service entourage. “The golf weekend in Florida cost enough to keep the White House open for months.” "
....
JustOneMinute quotes Ari Fleischer (of Bush fame), who pointed out that the Pentagon’s leaders have warned that the budget cuts will have a serious impact on the readiness of the nation’s military. “What does it say about a sequester if a military golf course can stay open during it?” he said."
The Tour Nazi (WND)
Make room for new mavericks; Time for Old Soldier McCain to Fade Away "Paul continued by saying he respects both McCain’s military service and his legislative record, but stressed that McCain’s experience does not mean he is always right: “I treat Senator McCain with respect. I don’t think I always get the same in return.”
"Americans on both sides of the aisle honor McCain for his service. However, McCain must realize that it is time to pass the torch of leadership to a new generation of Conservative leaders demonstrably capable of filling his seemingly vacated role as maverick while leading Republicans to electoral victory."
Above two photos from Facebook, but I cannot find the source.
But this next one is from Weasel Zippers:
Allow me to be simplistic for a moment, will you? May I please ask:
Hat tip to Barbara Haney
The Big Pharaoh raises an interesting question:
The Big Pharaoh @TheBigPharaoh
State department decided not to award Samira Ibrahim after revealing anti-Jews tweets. Well, what did she say different than Morsi?
And Morsi still got his mega-bucks with tanks and jets to follow
Will anyone police this White House?
Jennifer Rubin "The White House’s behavior throughout the sequester process has been baffling to some. Until Friday’s news conference mainstream media never showed much skepticism about the reams of scare stories being passed around. And if not for Bob Woodward, not a single news outlet would have reported the origin of the sequester. (Think about the level of negligence involved on that point alone.) Whether on account of bias or ineptitude, media haven’t been very good at extracting the truth until quite recently.
..."What flows from all of this? On the media side, any conscientious news outlet would do some soul searching and internal review. Why has it missed or ignored huge stories? How can it break free from group-think reporting? Why has it been so gullible? To what degree has White House intimidation affected its reporting? Do media need to offer retractions and apologies to their readers and viewers?."
..."What flows from all of this? On the media side, any conscientious news outlet would do some soul searching and internal review. Why has it missed or ignored huge stories? How can it break free from group-think reporting? Why has it been so gullible? To what degree has White House intimidation affected its reporting? Do media need to offer retractions and apologies to their readers and viewers?."
Osama's son-in-law brought to US for trial. First reports
First Google search results support trying Osama son-in-law in US court.
CNN Says: Trying Osama's son-in-law in New York makes sense "But these are the words of a blowhard, not a man of action -- something that is underlined in the indictment against Abu Ghaith that was unsealed on Thursday. It charges him with conspiring to help al Qaeda by making speeches and persuading others to join the group but makes no allegations whatsoever of involvement in any actual terror plots." Oh, well then...
Why Republicans want a military trial for Osama bin Laden's son in law
"But Republicans don't want foreign terrorists tried on US soil. They say the legal precedent has been set for "enemy combatants" to be tried at Guantanamo Bay. They are concerned that giving Abu Ghaith a civilian trial will result in lost intelligence."
Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law captured, turned over to U.S.
Reuters - Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who served as al-Qaeda's spokesman, has been arrested and detained in Jordan in an operation led by Jordanian authorities and the FBI, U.S. government sources said.
CNN Says: Trying Osama's son-in-law in New York makes sense "But these are the words of a blowhard, not a man of action -- something that is underlined in the indictment against Abu Ghaith that was unsealed on Thursday. It charges him with conspiring to help al Qaeda by making speeches and persuading others to join the group but makes no allegations whatsoever of involvement in any actual terror plots." Oh, well then...
Why Republicans want a military trial for Osama bin Laden's son in law
"But Republicans don't want foreign terrorists tried on US soil. They say the legal precedent has been set for "enemy combatants" to be tried at Guantanamo Bay. They are concerned that giving Abu Ghaith a civilian trial will result in lost intelligence."
Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law captured, turned over to U.S.
Reuters - Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who served as al-Qaeda's spokesman, has been arrested and detained in Jordan in an operation led by Jordanian authorities and the FBI, U.S. government sources said.
A former spokesman for al-Qaeda and son-in-law of its founder, Osama bin Laden, has been captured overseas and is being brought to the United States, where he is expected to face trial in New York, U.S. officials announced Thursday.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was initially detained in Turkey but was taken into U.S. custody in Jordan while he was in the process of being deported to Kuwait, according to U.S. officials.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was initially detained in Turkey but was taken into U.S. custody in Jordan while he was in the process of being deported to Kuwait, according to U.S. officials.
Media Waved Pom-Poms for Obama on Sequester, Now 'Sad' That Doom-and-Gloom Predictions Failed to Pan Out
Newsbusters "The liberal media should have reported President Obama's Chicken Little sky-is-falling claims about the sequester, but "with clear skepticism" instead of mindlessly parroting them, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity on the March 7 edition of his eponymous program. "They should have gone to the American people and in effect said, this man is lying," but instead, "they did the exact opposite. They waved the pom-poms for him," the Media Research Center (MRC) founder argued."
"Diane Sawyer and the other reporter don’t come right out and say that of course, but it certainly is implied that canceling White House tours is a childish move intended to make the sequester as visibly painful as possible while “saving” very little:"
Ramirez nails it here...
“The president will do what he did during the campaign, which is communicate to his grassroots supporters and ask for their help,” Messina said.
Paul vs. the RINOs
147 Degrees West ; Filibustered Drones and Filleted Honor
Obama’s GOP Dinner Companions Defend Sit-Down with President
Obama will cheer anything that divides the GOP.
John McCain, American ‘Hero’ "John S. McCain III, the disastrous Republican 2008 candidate who suspended his presidential campaign and refused to take the fight to Barack Obama when he had the chance to actually do something for his country, has beclowned himself yet again:"...
How sad, because McCain is many times the man that Biden or Obama are. I'd say combined.
Old guard GOP in lock-step with Obama regime "But right on cue, and even before the filibuster story could gain any media traction, old guard GOP leaders Senator John McCain and Lindsay Graham stepped up to do Obama's bidding by trying to discredit Senator Paul's attempt to expose Obama's lawless regime."
Rand’s Stand Shakes Up the 2016 Landscape "Even if Paul’s meteoric 13-hour rise doesn’t materialize into a presidential run next time out, it could shape the dynamics of the race with sharpened expectations of a candidate to have the kind of chutzpah and conviction that attract a similar swath of cheering filibuster followers."
"Did they not see that this was a set up to discredit them? To me, this is a special kind of stupid. There is no such thing as a free lunch; and there is never a free dinner. They should have known better. Now the Senate Republicans are so split they cannot even look at each other in an elevator.
" No one can blame the younger Senators for what they did, for it was a noble thing. Senators McCain and Lindsay, being two faced and engaging in secret negotiations with an evil, corrupt President? What was your noble thing in this matter?"
" No one can blame the younger Senators for what they did, for it was a noble thing. Senators McCain and Lindsay, being two faced and engaging in secret negotiations with an evil, corrupt President? What was your noble thing in this matter?"
Lindsey Graham’s very bad day on Twitter "The episode was already not looking great for Graham before he rebutted Paul on Thursday. Graham and McCain were dining at the White House with Obama while Paul was filibustering, a contrast picked up early and often by many online."
h/t to Danny Shouse on Facebook
h/t to Danny Shouse on Facebook
Angry McCain ups ante, calls Paul, Cruz 'wacko birds'. He also said in 2008 that we had nothing to fear from an Obama presidency. Feinstein agrees Republicans should heed her advice on how to win elections.
Obama will cheer anything that divides the GOP.
John McCain, American ‘Hero’ "John S. McCain III, the disastrous Republican 2008 candidate who suspended his presidential campaign and refused to take the fight to Barack Obama when he had the chance to actually do something for his country, has beclowned himself yet again:"...
How sad, because McCain is many times the man that Biden or Obama are. I'd say combined.
Rand’s Stand Shakes Up the 2016 Landscape "Even if Paul’s meteoric 13-hour rise doesn’t materialize into a presidential run next time out, it could shape the dynamics of the race with sharpened expectations of a candidate to have the kind of chutzpah and conviction that attract a similar swath of cheering filibuster followers."
Jumping the shark? Thoughts on some sequester cuts as handled by a petulant, juvenile president
First define our terms; what does "jump the shark" mean?
Hopen'Change
"Yes, even though the president claims that there is no longer enough money for the government to staff the TSA, keep Navy vessels at sea, inspect meat for school lunches, forecast death-dealing weather events, pay to sweep the BS off the floors of Congress, or keep dangerous foreign felons in jail, Secret Service staffers are already booking accommodations and tee times for Mr. Obama's wildly expensive annual trip to Martha's Vineyard."
US News; Obama's Vineyard Vacation Will Cost Taxpayers Millions
Our Petty, Country-Be-Damned President "Sometimes, the smallest things can be the most revealing.
"On Tuesday, the nation — or at least the part that’s still paying attention — learned that President Barack Obama’s administration, in what can only be seen as an incredibly petty and virulently vindictive response to spending “cuts” imposed by sequestration... decided to cancel all tours of the White House... This and others from Lucianne; always a good source.
Strassel: Jumping the Sequester "The phrase "jumping the shark" describes that gimmicky moment when something
once considered significant is exposed as ludicrous. This is the week the White
House jumped the sequester."
Obama's LOL sequester cuts: White House tours, then 60,000 border security agents "So, in true petulant Chicago style the first thing the Obama administration cut was White House tours."....
"Late this week as a clever PR warning of how awful sequester is, Obama administration officials ostentatiously sent out notices of possible April furloughs, not for the White House's extra chefs, groundskeepers, the guy who walks Bo the dog or other federal non-essentials. They sent them out to 60,000 border security personnel." Andrew Malcolm at IBD
Krauthammer: Obama's Golf With Tiger Travel Expenses Would Pay for a Year of White House Tours
Hopen'Change
US News; Obama's Vineyard Vacation Will Cost Taxpayers Millions
Our Petty, Country-Be-Damned President "Sometimes, the smallest things can be the most revealing.
"On Tuesday, the nation — or at least the part that’s still paying attention — learned that President Barack Obama’s administration, in what can only be seen as an incredibly petty and virulently vindictive response to spending “cuts” imposed by sequestration... decided to cancel all tours of the White House... This and others from Lucianne; always a good source.
We've learned that the White House employs three calligraphers, who cumulatively earn $277,000 a year. The Environmental Protection Agency gave $141,000 to fund a Chinese study on swine manure. Part of a $325,000 National Science Foundation outlay went to building a robotic squirrel.
"Late this week as a clever PR warning of how awful sequester is, Obama administration officials ostentatiously sent out notices of possible April furloughs, not for the White House's extra chefs, groundskeepers, the guy who walks Bo the dog or other federal non-essentials. They sent them out to 60,000 border security personnel." Andrew Malcolm at IBD
Krauthammer: Obama's Golf With Tiger Travel Expenses Would Pay for a Year of White House Tours
Living Large in the Obama White House "....The current annual cost of the White House — just in household expenses, not the policy operations for which it exists — is $1.4 billion:....the first family’s yearly health-care costs are $7 million; more than $6 million is spent on the White House grounds each year. Transporting the president cost $346 million last year. But as Michelle Obama might say, America is basically a downright mean sort of place, so the tours will just have to go."
Thursday, March 7, 2013
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