Archive for June, 2011
Friday Open Thread: June 3rd, 2011
Today in History: June 3rd
1965 – Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performs the first American spacewalk
1989 – The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
2006 – The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro’s formal declaration of independence.
So…what’s on your minds this Friday?
What are people talking about in your part of the world?
Media Bias Lesson: How To Marginalize a Popular Candidate
H/T RonPaul.com
A recent Gallup poll identified Ron Paul as the #2 choice among declared candidates for the GOP nomination. Frontrunner status makes any GOP, Tea Party or libertarian candidate a target for marginalization.
It’s our mission at Hillbuzz to help you recognize the tactics that Leftists and the Lamestream media (and, unfortunately, the Cocktail Party GOP) rely on to manipulate the GOP primary process, to give us cucumber and mayo, beatable candidates like Bob Dole and John McCain.
Today I came across a perfect example, in the form of a link from the Drudge Report. It caught my eye because I’ve been following Ron Paul’s politics for years, and raised money for his 2008 campaign. I’m extremely familiar with his positions and record. So this comment seemed over-the-top:
“Ron Paul warns of ‘dictatorship in Washington’…
Wow! Sounds pretty alarming.
So if you’re a low-information voter, and don’t know much about Ron Paul, and were already predisposed (by LSM coverage and/or Cocktail Party Establishment Republican Conventional Wisdom) to think Ron’s a nut, this headline is designed to help you dismiss him (and by extension, his policies) out of hand. Ideally, you’ll never click on the link to read the whole story, and the meme that “Ron Paul Is An Alarmist” will go straight into your head, unexamined.
This link takes you to a story from The Hill, where you discover what Ron Paul actually said:
GOP Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Tuesday warned of too much “dictatorship in Washington D.C.” while on a campaign stop in Mason City, Iowa.
“We’re not on the verge of having a king, but we are on the verge of having way too much dictatorship in Washington, D.C.,” Paul said, comparing the U.S.’s current situation to a Biblical tale in which the ancient Israelites demanded, against their own good, that a king rule their land instead of God. [emphasis added]
So, in other words, Ron Paul said the same thing that every real conservative or libertarian or Tea Party voter thinks. Washington is too big, too powerful, and meddles too much in our lives. Not very newsy.
The story continues,
“Our rights come from our creator, not our government,” added Paul according to the The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
What a radical!
(Of course, Hillbuzzers are smart enough to know that Ron Paul gets this wacky idea from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”)
Paul, who announced last month that he will run for president for the third time, faces an uphill battle as many Americans consider his positions to be on the far fringe of the right-wing. [emphasis added]
The second half of this sentence is pure opinion disguised as objective reporting. A week after declaring his candidacy, he’s polling #2 among declared candidates! How is that an “uphill battle?”
And who are the “many Americans” who consider his political positions (which are all based on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights) to be on the “far fringe” of the “right-wing?”
The implication is that if you think Constitutional government is a good goal, you are on the far fringe of the right wing.
Ron Paul supporters launched the Tea Party movement in 2008, in an effort to reign in the imperial federal government and return it to its Constitutional size. This comment may be intended to drive a wedge between conservatives and libertarians, to break up the GOP/libertarian/Tea Party/conservative coalition that can beat Obama if it stays together.
Paul, however, noted that he had recently observed a seismic shift in American politics.
“The mainstream is changing,” said Paul. “The mainstream wants balanced budgets, sound government and personal liberties — that is mainstream.”
“The shift is in our direction — obeying the Constitution for a change,” he said.
Hhhhmmmmm…when you read his comments in context…they don’t seem radical or fringy or even unusual at all. They sound entirely mainstream.
Here’s a breakdown of the manipulation.
“Ron Paul Supports The Constitution” is not news. He’s done that throughout his career. So what was the point of the story? It was to plant (or reinforce) the idea that Ron Paul is a “fringe” candidate, and that if you support him, you’re on the edge of the “right-wing” fringe yourself.
In other words, the point of this story is to breed Eeyores (“But Ron Paul is a fringe candidate!”) and throw bones to the Concern Trolls (“I’m concerned that The Hill says he’s fighting an uphill battle…”) and make you think that Ron Paul probably can’t win anyway, and you want everyone to like you, and no one likes anybody on the fringe, and wouldn’t you feel better about yourself if you supported someone “safe” and “electable” and “mainstream” like Mittens Romney?
Just to clarify, I’m not asking you to support Ron Paul. I’m asking you to critically examine media coverage of GOP candidates so you can recognize media attempts to manipulate you and demoralize you.
Thanks to The Hill for providing us with a teachable moment today.
Hillbuzz Blue Team Action Alert: GOP Comparison Chart
Over the weekend I found a helpful head-to-head comparison of Mitt Romney and Herman Cain on the Free Republic’s website. The article discusses their family background, education, work experience, writings, government experience, business experience, etc.
We want to create a tool that we can all use to evaluate all the candidates. So, Blue Team: Activate!
Please help us create a dossier that lists all the declared presidential candidates, similar to the article on Free Republic. Please pick a candidate, and a subject, (such as Ron Paul’s writings, or Tim Pawlenty’s government experience) and post the results of your research in the Comments section. I would also like to include the candidate’s stands on specific issues like the 2nd Amendment, the 10th Amendment, the National Debt, farm subsidies, foreign aid, etc.. If you think of other metrics we should include, just go ahead and include them. Check the comments section before you do the research to be sure it hasn’t already been done.
We’re not looking for opinion or conclusions at this point (unlike the LSM). Just the facts, ma’am (unlike the LSM). And be sure to link to the source(s) for your information, so we can verify each other’s work. Unlike the LSM.
Hillbuzz Open Thread: Thursday, June 2, 2011
One of the funniest interviews ever. Mainly because Bret Baier looks like he’s about to guffaw at any moment.
The best part is that Democrat Anthony Weiner never definitively says that the photo in question isn’t a photo of his “bidness.”
Ah…Democrat Anthony “Twitter Tony” Weiner. The gift that keeps on giving.
So, what’s going on in your neck of the woods? What should we be reading?
Sarah Palin and The Donald Have Pizza; Lamestream Media Has Conniption
Sarah Palin and Donald Trump in NYC
As Andrew Malcolm reported in the LA Times,
“Would Trump, who recently announced that he would not seek the GOP nomination, give his support to Palin if she ran?
“She’s a great woman, a terrific woman and a terrific friend. I’d love her to run,” Trump said.
Michelle Malkin points out that our Sarah is like Trump in a number of ways:
What makes Sarah stand out in the national GOP field is that she is beholden to no one and controls her own destiny. She doesn’t need media kingmakers to make her. They need her. She doesn’t need newspaper or TV producers to drive her story. She drives them. Crazy.
The unhinged reaction of the Palin-hating convoy reveals what its attendants fear most: a politician who doesn’t fear them.
Bring. It. On.
Free Sarah Palin Posters
Sarah Palin Poster from EssexAndOrange1773.com
Friends of Hillbuzz Ray and Susan have put together a great selection of Sarah Palin posters that are available as free downloads. Just download to your computer and print out on your own paper.
Great for annoying Leftist co-workers, posting on construction sites in sanctuary cities, and affixing to telephone poles outside of head shops near Lefty liberal arts colleges.
LSM: Sarah Palin’s Bus Violates Federal Law; War Powers Act “Just A Suggestion” and Totally Okay for Obama Regime to “Skip”
MSNBC Leftist JournOList Martin Bashir is beside himself over private citizen Sarah Palin’s bus tour. He went on a 371-word, insulting, class-warfare-drenched rant in which he accuses Sarah Palin of violating Federal law because she has an American flag painted on the side of her private vehicle.
I am not making this up.
“…Sarah Palin specializes in checkbook journalism. That is, she only gives interviews to a network that pays her in excess of $1 million a year….The media are ever-present, catching her every handshake and every book signing…. And yet, even in her paid-for interview, she seems coy and almost confused about what she’s doing. “This is not a campaign bus,” she said on Fox News….In fact, the [American flag on the bus] could be in breach of a federal law because the United States Flag Code establishes important rules for the use and display of the stars and stripes, the flag of the United States. Under standards of respect and etiquette, it’s made clear that the flag of the United States should never be used for any advertising purpose whatsoever. Yet that’s precisely what Sarah Palin is doing. She’s using the flag of the United States for her own financial purposes. She drapes herself in the stars and stripes and makes millions of dollars in the process.”
If only the good folks over at the Associated Press could get as righteously worked up over Barack Hussein Obama’s purposeful and “in-your-face, America!” violation of the 1973 War Powers Act.
The Act requires the president to get approval from Congress for any military action in a foreign country within 60 days after the uniformed troops hit the ground. If Congress doesn’t grant approval (as they did for George H.W. Bush in Kuwait and George W. Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan) then the Act requires that military action stop immediately.
The 60 days expired on May 27, 2011. The AP’s headline? “White House Skips Legal Deadline on Libya.”
The AP only needed 110 words to carry the water of Barack Hussein Obama, who is not a Muslim, because “everybody’s doing it” and “he’s kind of like a god” and “Congress didn’t, like, say they were mad about it.”
It’s National Tweet Your Weiner Day!
Democrat Anthony Weiner Wishes He Was "This Big" of a Deal
Remember, June 1st is National Tweet Your Weiner Day!
What did you do to celebrate?
The rest of this post is blank, because, seriously, the jokes write themselves, and the punch line to all of them is “Democrat ‘Twitter Tony’ Weiner.”
H/T to Moonbattery for the photo.
Hillbuzz Open Thread: Wednesday June 1, 2011
Thanks to ThePeoplesCube.com
Dontcha just love watching the media frenzy surrounding our next president, Sarah Palin? Isn’t it fun watching Lefty JournOList heads explode?
You betcha!
