Establishment Media Slinks Away From Reporting On Wisconsin (and California)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker scored more than a personal victory in Tuesday's state recall vote. He delivered a psychological boost for the Republicans and a blow to Democrats that could linger until the November 6 U.S. presidential election. Image Credit: Breitbart

Establishment Media Slinks Away From Reporting On Wisconsin (and California)

Funny how the old line forms of media choose to cover the massive rejection of the POWER and PRIVILEGE of Public Sector Unions over the citizenry in Wisconsin and other cities around the country.
The focus of most of the analysis centers around the amount of money used to defend the Democratic attempt to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and not show that the same amount of money was spent by the Public Unions to wage this political war on fiscal responsibility and smaller Conservative principled management of Government.

This review excerpted and edited from Breitbart -

Mainstream Media Escapes From Wisconsin
by Joel B. Pollak

Today’s New York Times is covering the Wisconsin recall election…on page 11. Not even the editorial page could be bothered–only op-ed columnists Joe Nocera and David Brooks weigh in. (Nocera laments the decline of unions; Brooks can’t quite bring himself to defend Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, calling his methods “obnoxious.”) A cause that fueled front-page headlines and editorial exhortations has been quietly abandoned.

As to the coverage itself, the Times focuses on the fatigue of the voters. “I hope this all stops,” says the first person quoted in the article on the recall election. Halfway through, the Times reminds voters that the vote has something to do with unions and collective bargaining. It meekly offers a suggestion that Democrats could actually win, and cites “some” who “wonder” if the recall election could be close enough to force a recount.

The ostensibly more conservative Chicago Tribune does even worse, pulling a bait-and-switch on its readers. The front page refers to an article about the Walker recall on page 9–which turns out to be a mere two-paragraph sidebar that mentions the most favorable poll for Milwaukee mayor and Democrat challenger Tom Barrett, putting him only three percent behind the incumbent. A photo of former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama at a fundraiser in New York City leads the paper’s national news section.

The lead editorial celebrates the “spirit of revolution”–in Egypt, where the radicals of the Muslim Brotherhood have seized the moment. Nationally syndicated columnist George Will takes up the Wisconsin issue, opposite a column by local writer Dennis Byrne who laments the failure of Illinois politicians to tackle pension reform–and does not spare the state’s Republicans for failing to heed Scott Walker’s example. At least someone gets it.
(Reference Here)

Then there is this reported item from the exit polls that is getting a bunch of play as well from all of the establishment media on why this vote in a “BLUE” state is not a 100% rejection of their progressive agenda and point of view.

This exerpted and edited from National Review Online –

David Axelrod Reaches New Depth of Desperation in Spin
By Jim Geraghty – June 5, 2012 11:45 P.M.

David Axelrod just Tweeted: “Bad night in Boston…WI raises big questions for Mitt.”

He points to this article: “According to early, partial exit poll results, voters on Tuesday said by 51 percent to 45 percent that they would vote for Obama if the presidential election were being held today.”

So, he’s pointing to exit polls that had it “too close to call”; at this hour, Walker is ahead by nine percentage points.
(Reference Here)

The article referenced goes on to point out that all of these Wisconsin voters in exit polls have them favoring the re-election of President Barack Obama in 2012 over Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 7%.

Remember, this is a state that Obama won by 14 percentage points in 2008 – that, in itself, is a 50% degradation of support if true.

Again, these are the same exit polls that told the establishment media that this contest was going to be won by a razor thin margin which ended up at near 8% (with establishment outlets stating in an unchallenged manner this final result as a firm 7%).

Mitt Romney should be dogging Barack Obama as the President travels to California today for 5 campaign rally events with Hollywood.

Mitt should do what he can to challenge Obama and his agenda where ever the President shows up to have the news cover the message that just came out of Wisconsin … and California (San Diego and San Jose  just voted by over 60% majorities to restrict Public Union power and benefits from attacking their civic budgets).

Radio Wars Of Limbaugh And Huckabee - The Pro Vs. The Opportunist

1956 Zenith AM-FM radio, model Y724. The Y724 differs from the Y723 in that it has a handle, metal tuning graph and a tone control on the left. The radio has great sound on it's built in antennas for AM and FM reception. Image Credit: blogabillyboogie

Radio Wars Of Limbaugh And Huckabee - The Pro Vs. The Opportunist

Rush Limbaugh has been getting a lot of attention lately, but the attention he has been getting from his envious detractors and critics play this card over the top.

Rush is the first to point out that he was wrong to utilize the tactics normally used by the left when he decided to point the absurd proposition that taxpayers should basically pay for non-health supports when he used the absurd tactic of name calling toward a person who was hand-picked by the Democrat Political Party and placed in a press conference to complain about the policies of a College she had freely chosen to attend.

For 25 years, Rush's most entertaining moments happen when he takes absurdity to point out the absurd, for example, last week he said that "Democrats love to pour gas on a fire, which is absurd ... have you seen the price of gas lately?"

That, right there, that's funny!

Rush deftly points out the chaos the Democrat Political Party, led by President Barack Obama and the Senate's Harry Reid, has created with their waste of taxpayer money "Green Economy" fiasco which has led to a 100% increase in gas prices at the pump, costing Americans a decrease in their economic freedom and ability to get jobs.

The issue here with Rush Limbaugh and the left's effort to bring him down is more about silencing an effective voice to the opposition of political "control freaks" who own our media, educational systems, and (currently) the bureaucracy of Government through the Executive branch and the control of the Senate.

To this end, columnist David Frum posits that the entrance of former Arkansas Governor, 2008 Presidential candidate nominee contestant, and FOX News, once a week, weekend program host to the same national radio syndication timeslot just may topple and silence this hallmark of daily conservative thought.

Huckabee, who hasn't even launched his radio program yet, the man who gave us all John McCain as the Republican nominee for President in 2008 and thereby, President Barack Obama and a 60 vote majority in the Senate, is going to unseat and silence Rush Limbaugh? ... now THAT, right there, that's absurd!

This excerpted and edited from The Daily Beast -

Mike Huckabee Brings on Rush Limbaugh's Decline
Huckabee’s about to take the mike. Can he push Limbaugh off the talk-radio throne?
by David Frum Mar 12, 2012 1:00 AM EDT

Over 25 years in radio, Rush Limbaugh’s dominance of the AM dial has become a fact of American life.

Until, maybe, now.

Yes, Limbaugh’s tirade against law student Sandra Fluke has been a problem, inspiring more than 30 advertisers to flee his radio program in the past two weeks. But on April 2, Limbaugh will face a more-serious challenge. That’s when the new Mike Huckabee show launches on 100 stations in Limbaugh’s very own noon-to-3 time slot.

Huckabee’s competition threatens Limbaugh not only because Huckabee has already proven himself an attractive and popular TV broadcaster, but also because Huckabee is arriving on the scene at a time when Limbaugh’s business model is crashing around him.

To understand the power of Huckabee’s challenge to Limbaugh, you have to understand the strange economics of talk radio. Most talk-radio programs offer radio stations this deal: we’ll give you three hours of content for free. (Some programs—cough, Glenn, cough, Beck—actually pay radio stations to accept their content.) Those three hours will include 54 minutes of ad time. That ad time is split between the radio station and the show: each gets 27 minutes to sell.

In this world, Limbaugh is unique. He actually charges radio stations for his content: up to $1 million a year in a major market. Plus, he charges the highest ad rates in the business. Those two revenue streams—multiplied by more radio outlets than anybody else in the industry has—have made Limbaugh a very rich man. But those revenue streams always depended on Limbaugh upholding his end of the bargain: delivering the audiences. And on that count, Limbaugh has been notably failing.

As The Daily Beast’s John Avlon reported last week, the audience for right-wing talk has been shrinking since 2009. In some urban markets, Limbaugh’s audience has dropped by as much as half over the past three years. Limbaugh and other right-wing talkers have responded to this economic squeeze by a strategy familiar to Republican politicians: they have played to the base.

But even more than the total size of the audience, radio advertisers care about a measure called TSL: time spent listening. The people who listen longest are of course the most ideologically intense.
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The difference this time is that Limbaugh’s advertisers and his stations had already begun to feel ripped off. To quote my station-manager friend again: “I don’t mind paying for content. But I do mind paying for trouble.” So advertisers revolted against the TSL strategy, with Sears, JCPenney, and many other sponsors dropping the show. Many of the local advertisers who buy their ads from the local stations rather than from the syndicators have been ordering that their purchased minutes be placed on some less-controversial program.

Limbaugh, it’s true, remains a big talk-radio star. He’s seen trouble before and rarely apologized for it. He could assume that even if Sears had departed forever, core talk-radio advertisers—LegalZoom, Stamps.com, Sleep Number beds—must sooner or later return to the No. 1 show in talk radio.

However, Limbaugh’s calculation that his core advertisers must return always rested on the assumption that there was nowhere else to go. Suddenly, in the worst month of Limbaugh’s career, somewhere else has appeared: a lower-priced alternative, with big audience reach and a host an advertiser can trust never, ever to abuse a student as a “slut” and “prostitute.”

The new Huckabee show’s slogan is “more conversation; less confrontation.” “I don’t want it to be a show that every day, every hour, pushes everyone’s buttons to raise their blood pressure,” Huckabee says. “I figure the cost of high blood pressure is enough already.”

Huckabee’s politics are emphatically conservative of course, both on social and economic issues. Yet his politics differ in important ways from those of the Limbaugh-influenced Republican electorate. “I don’t see a pathway for a person of my point of view getting through the land mine of the Republican primary. If that were to change in four years, if the Republicans were to get more serious about governing, not just campaigning—if we focused on what we were for and not just what we were against—then I might be a viable candidate.”

The less-strident Huckabee approach arises both from his experience as a long-serving governor in a Democratic-leaning state and from Huckabee’s famously genial temperament. “I have to believe that there are people who are highly opinionated but who actually find it informative and engaging to find out what the other side is thinking,” he says. “And not through a shouting match, but through an adult-level, civil conversation.”
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Huckabee explains his appeal as driven by his choice of topic. “I want to do a show that has politics. But I don’t want a 100 percent political show.” It’s also a matter of tone and style. Limbaugh’s lascivious “joke” about wishing to see a Sandra Fluke sex tape was only the latest in a career of demeaning and prurient remarks. Only a few days beforehand, Huckabee was sitting down with Meryl Streep for a warm and easy talk before a studio audience.

Rush Limbaugh won’t vanish from the radio of course. But the overpriced Limbaugh program is highly vulnerable to economic shocks. “If just one station in a top-20 market replaces Limbaugh with Huckabee, it’ll be an earthquake,” remarks a veteran of the radio business.

And you can already hear the first tremors.
[Reference Here]

David Frum and his "establishment media" friends have it all wishfully wrong - Huckabee will end up a lot like a Geraldo Rivera (UN-listenable), in that, he will pose to be an alternative in the arena of Conservative talk radio, but to be frank, these folks care for opinion that has red meat on the bone, where Huckabee has already admitted to a path of failure through its slogan “more conversation; less confrontation.”

Prediction: Huckabee's milktoast Moderate political policy approach will, by default, increase Rush Limbaugh's (strong Conservative analysis approach) TSL: time spent listening.


** Article first published as Radio Wars Of Limbaugh And Huckabee - The Pro Vs. The Opportunist on Technorati **

Steele Up ... And Rebuild For Conservative Principles

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. and newly elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Michael Steele has stated that marriage is a covenant between one man, one woman and God. Image Credit: Chris Gardner/AP

Steele Up ... And Rebuild For Conservative Principles

Conservative thinking voters need to rebuild the Republican Party. If one wants to vote and have that voice heard ... it's the only option.

The Democrat Political will never side on the issue of personal freedom over the right of Government to dictate the nature of the arena and manner your life is lived.

A third political party will never reach the critical mass to win elections even though many of the specific issues third parties are formed upon have merit.

We, at MAXINE, think it is time to consider making the "Grand Old Party" mechanism work and rebuild the party to make it new and useful based upon the core first values the Republican Party are most noted for.

WE, conservative thinking voters, can all do this behind the leadership of the first African-American chairman of the Republican Party (RNC) - Michael Steele.

This excerpted and edited from the new website ... Rebuild The Party -

Rebuild The Party
Join The New Media Coalition - A 10-point action plan to strengthen and modernize the Republican Party

As Republicans, we face a choice.

Either we can spend the next several months -- or years -- trying to figure out what just happened, excusing our defeat away as a temporary blip or the result of a poor environment, and waiting for Barack Obama to trip up. Or we can refuse to take this defeat lying down, and start building the future of our party now.

2008 made one thing clear: if allowed to go unchecked, the Democrats' structural advantages, including their use of the Internet, their more than 2-to-1 advantage with young voters, their discovery of a better grassroots model -- will be as big a threat to the future of the GOP as the toxic political environment we have faced the last few years.

The time is now to set in motion the changes needed to rebuild our party from the grassroots up, modernize the way we run campaigns, and attract different, energetic, and younger candidates at all levels.

We must be conservative in philosophy -- but bold in our approach. We don't need a slight tweak here or there. We need transformation. We can't keep fighting a 21st century war with 20th century weapons.
----
Obama's victory could be a blessing in disguise for conservatives. Why? Because Obama's winning strategy was built on the back of an inherently conservative idea: that we the people, acting together outside of government, can accomplish great things. Or, in the words of the overused slogan, "Yes We Can."

The irony here is that Obama as President would act in ways that contradict the bottom-up culture that fueled his campaign. In the campaign, it was "Yes We Can." In the White House, it will be "Yes, Government Can." Obama's top-down government control of the health care and the economy will give conservatives an opening to once again recapture the mantle of distributed citizen activism.

Obama campaigned against the establishment, and now he is the establishment.

Consider these contrasts. Like the Internet, free markets are distributed and allow good ideas to rise from the bottom up. The bureaucracies that Obama prefers are inherently top-down and stifling.
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And yet Democrats have been allowed to get away with the notion that their success online is fueled by a "bottom-up" culture while Republicans are "top-down." Ironic -- given that Democrats want top-down government control of your life, while Republicans believe in dynamic markets and a strong civil society.

Some people believe our problems are mostly strategic and tactical. Others believe they are policy driven. It strikes us that there is a unifying solution to both, and that is to empower the individual, trust the people.

Just as Republicans must trust individuals and families with their own money, we must trust the volunteers who walk into our headquarters and train them to take responsibility for entire neighborhoods. We must trust the online grassroots who want to take action on our behalf, and who need a decentralized, peer-to-peer volunteer community supported by our campaigns to really be successful. That will require giving up some control -- more control than our traditional institutions are used to giving up -- in exchange for an exponentially larger and more effective volunteer/donor/activist ecosystem.

Obama tapped the Internet successfully because he made it about "you" and "us" not "me" and "I." You were invited in. You were a key part of his campaign/movement. Your help was truly appreciated. Republican candidates need to grow more comfortable talking in these terms and focus less on being inaccessible objects of hero worship (the "me/I" strategy).

Because of the Internet, "us" becomes a force more powerful than any in politics. The ability to donate or volunteer instantaneously online gives the millions of "us" more leverage than even the most connected group of insiders. Only "us" will be powerful enough to fund the first $1 billion Presidential candidate. By embracing the Politics of Us, the Republican Party can rediscover its roots as the party of individual liberty and build a truly modern political army.
Reference Here>>

Stand up, unite, make your conservative political voice heard, for at this moment ... according to the latest Rasmussen Report ... your voice is NOT heard.

Paul Weyrich, Founder Of The Heritage Foundation, Dies

Image Credit: weyrichdinner.org

Paul Weyrich, Founder Of The Heritage Foundation, Dies

Sad that the Conservative movement has lost its rudder - REALLY – May God bless Paul Weyrich and receive him now into his reward.

Rush Limbaugh's video tribute to Paul Weyrich, and the trans-formative impact he had on Rush's career, HERE!

"Without Paul Weyrich, there would likely have been no conservative movement ... and no Ronald Reagan presidency." - Morton Blackwell (found on Twitter)

This found at National Review Online -

The Corner
re: Paul
[Grover Norquist, December 18, 2008]

Ideas alone do not have consequences. Ideas, even — or especially — powerful ideas are like seeds. If they land in fertile soil and are cultivated they can grow. On rock or sand or ignored or tended by incompetents they die.

The idea of individual liberty and a limited constitutional government has been around a long time. Liberty doesn’t need new ideas to advance, but institutions to give muscle and skeletal structure to a political movement for liberty. That is how Paul Weyrich changed the world for the better.

Paul Weyrich created institutions and networks that incubated new and old powerful policies and strategies to advance liberty. The Heritage Foundation. ALEC. The Free Congress Foundation. The Kingston meeting. Many of the structures of the “religious right.” He understood that only freedom could successfully promote traditional values. He brought leaders of various freedom impulses together. Most of the successes of the Conservative movement since the 1970s flowed from structures, organizations, and coalitions he started, created or nurtured.

Paul also lived a balanced life with work, family and his faith.

We will miss his puns and wisdom and hard work.
Reference Here>>

Virgin Overload In Yemen

Image Credit: Telegraph (UK)

Virgin Overload In Yemen

Today, we were all met with the news that the United States Embassy in Yemen was attacked with a bomb blast. Sixteen total victims were taken out by the blast … six of the sixteen victims were the terrorist themselves.

A half a dozen members of the Islamic Jihad in Yemen terrorist group wore police uniforms to try to get through the embassy's perimeter security during a morning shift change.

The embassy itself was not damaged because the bomb went off some distance away at a perimeter checkpoint.

Image Credit: Telegraph (UK)

So, at 72 “Virgins” per terrorist, the pay-off for these fools ends up being 432 rewards for accomplishing little else than killing ten innocent people.

One wishes, sometimes, that these folks would short circuit the process and just find a van, fill it with six members of the Islamic Jihad in Yemen (or any other random Islamic Jihadist group), drive it out into the desert, and blow it up there.

The ending of terrorist lives, so that they could reach their reward, would be carried out in a cheaper by the half-dozen process, and no one else would have to suffer … that is except the 432 Virgins that are supposed to greet these people!

This excerpted and edited from the Telegraph -

US embassy blast: 10 die in car bomb attack in Yemen
Islamist militants attacked the heavily-guarded US embassy in Yemen with a car bomb and rockets, killing at least ten people.
By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent - Last Updated: 12:54PM BST 17 Sep 2008

The car exploded some distance from the embassy in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, at a checkpoint manned by security personnel, before gunmen in another car started firing.
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Four civilians and six members of the police died in the attack, a spokesman for the Yemeni security forces said. The six attackers - one wearing an explosives belt, also died. There were no casualties among US diplomatic staff.

Trevor Mason, a British eye-witness who lives in an apartment block close to the US embassy compound, said the attack began around 8.30 am local time.

"We heard the sounds of a heavy gun battle going on,'' he said.

"I looked out my window, and we saw the first explosion going off -- a massive fireball very close to the US embassy.

"The gun battle went on for a further 10 to 15 minutes, followed by two further loud explosions.
----
Three days ago it issued a warning it was preparing to attack targets in Yemen including the British and US embassies.

The Yemeni regime's close links to the West - allowing US soldiers to train its security forces - has prompted numerous recriminatory attacks from the militant groups that enjoy strong support from the country's deeply conservative, tribal population.

Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, but his father was born in Yemen and the bin Laden clan still has deep roots in the country's arid, lawless hinterland.

The British embassy was attacked with grenades so many times in the 1990s it was moved to a more secure location on a hillside overlooking Sanaa after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Reference Here>>