Open Threads
HillBuzz Open Thread: Wednesday February 22nd, 2012
We’re still having technical and computer problems related to the move to our new servers. Over the next few days, you’ll notice minor changes and tweaks here and there as we continue to look for ways to make the site load faster while keeping it safe from hacks and other problems. A lot of it is a trial and error effort — so be patient.
As usual, it’s the comment feature that causes the most problems. There’s always someone trying to sneak links onto the site that lead somewhere malicious — particularly to these Asian sites that advertise for Cialis or Viagra. If you’re someone who tends to complain about a comment you made not posting — and you’re putting links in your comments to sites that are not official media sites (anything that has a .blogspot or .wordpress as part of its URL is a non-official media site for sure) — this is one of the biggest reasons why it’s not posting, because the spam filter thinks you are trying to do something bad. I’ve been doing this for four years now, and — still — the thing that makes this most difficult to do every day is not the computer or technical stuff, it’s the endless complaining about comments not posting. It’s just soul-crushing sometimes, and at this point comes off like that Wah-wah-wah-wah sound the teachers made in the Charlie Brown cartoons.
I hope things are back to normal later today or tomorrow. You have no idea how fantastic it is to now be dealing with a professional host company, so trust me the inconvenience of working these bugs out is vastly outweighed by the peace of mind generated by working with nice, normal, dependable people now.
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What else is on your mind today?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Monday February 20th, 2012
The image above is Norman Rockwell’s “Election Day” (1944).
Below, you’ll find the zombified cover of “Pride & Prejudice”.
I’m sick to death of dead people voting in every US election.
I want to do something about it.
I want to start a nationwide, clarion call where people stand up and shout, “I STOP DEAD PEOPLE FROM VOTING!”.
To do that, I want to create an image that zombifies the Norman Rockwell image the way the Jane Austen cover was zombified…while communicating the sense that it’s up to each of us to STOP DEAD PEOPLE FROM VOTING.
Please brainstorm thoughts on how to do this in this thread. This is one of those situations where I have an idea, and in my head I can see where I want it to go, but I like getting feedback and brainstorming from the creative types out there to bring it into reality.
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What else is on your minds today?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
How are YOU going to stop dead people from voting today?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Sunday February 19th, 2012
Yesterday, Whitney Houston’s funeral was held in Newark, New Jersey and today her family will bury her — not as a pop princess or music superstar who belonged to the public, but as a beloved daughter, mother, and friend.
I watched her funeral online yesterday, which was designed as a joyful “homegoing” instead of a mournful affair. Dionne Warwick MC-ed the program, introducing various people like Tyler Perry, Kim Burrell, the Winans, Kevin Costner, and Newark Mayor Corey Booker to talk about the Whitney they knew — a woman who grew up in the Baptist church, loved God, was excited to see Jesus one day, and never understood just how spectacular a singer she really was.
Bishop T.D. Jakes spoke — and delivered perhaps the best homily I’ve ever heard at any funeral service, with his “Death Has Not Won” assertion that love conquers all in the end. This is so powerful a message, I want to make sure those of you who didn’t watch the service know a little about what he said — because there are times when grief is so strong and all seems lost that it seems like forces like Death or Destruction have won. Jakes set the scene as a wrestling match or a bout between gladiators in an arena. There’s Death (or Doom…or Depression…or Vice…or whatever’s bedeviling you) all cloaked in black, conceited and full of itself, thinking it always wins since no matter how smart, talented, strong, popular, respected, or accomplished a person is — Death always wrestles the person to the ground and puts them in a coffin in the end. But Death does not win. The body’s in a box, but the spirit of that person soars high above — far away on wings of Love. Love conquers Death, beats it in the end, and keeps the people important to you alive forever in your memory and the knowledge that they’ve moved on to a favored place in paradise reserved for them.
Death does not win. Doom does not win. Depression does not win. No matter how good a game they play…no matter what they throw at you…they do not win.
The last four years have been monstrous for many people — with privation and grief and fear. We worry about the future of little children who’ll inherit crushing debt and other ills incurred during Barack Obama’s “Golden Age of Hope and Change”. The forces aligned against America and hellbent on ending our exceptionalism are as organized, methodical, and determined as Death — and just as conceited too, since they’re sure of themselves that they can’t help but win, that this country’s in decline, and soon they’ll win the great wrestling match.
But, they will not win.
Largely, because I know that YOU will not let them.
You have a talent inside you — and I don’t know what it is, only you know that — that God put there for a purpose…so that you may play a role in this election to turn the tide against the manifestation of Death, Doom, and Despair that plagues our country at this moment in time. Every creative idea you have to thwart the Tolerant Left, the Cocktail Party establishment, and the Elite Agenda-Driven media is a shiny glass marble you toss onto the ground during the great wrestling match — which will cause Death to slip and stumble and give the forces of good an opening to win the match.
You, too, have an amazing and powerful voice — though you might not be a singer. You have a voice to speak out about what you see that’s wrong, and what’s happening around you. What you do with that voice is your choice however. We sadly saw yesterday the result of someone so spectacularly gifted wasting those gifts and choosing to leave the right path and get sucked into negative, destructive things that did her wrong. Any time you allow yourself to be ruled by pessimism, bitterness, envy, or hatred you’re as bad as those who lose their way to drugs or alcohol or other destructiveness. I’ve seen a lot of people sit in judgment of Whitney Houston this past week — while conveniently forgetting how often they squander their own gifts by either keeping them permanently locked under bushels or by spending their days sniping, maligning, and berating others instead of finding something positive, active, and creative to do with their time on this earth.
And it is a very, very limited amount of time — please remember that.
I love the fact that yesterday Drudge Report ran a big picture of Times Square in NYC with the jumbotrons tuned into Whitney’s funeral — and the headline was “Nation Goes to Church”, because her family made the decision to not have a memorial for her inside a giant stadium with a big concert for her fans…but instead forced the networks to cover a livestream of a Baptist church service where Bishop Jakes’ “Death Has Not Won” message was heard by millions of people who quite possibly hadn’t set foot in a church in years.
I love that today I feel inspired to seek out ways to better use the gifts that God gave me and apply them to the causes I hold dear. Whether you liked her music or not…and whether or not you were aware of all the good she did in the world before she lost her way to drugs and alcohol…I hope you can see that through Whitney, and her passing, a powerful message had the opportunity to go out to millions of people who never would have heard it otherwise.
Today’s an opportunity for you to let a little of that sink into your own life.
How will YOU use the talents you were given to do something good for your country?
What will YOU start doing to take things to the next level and ensure the wonder God created in YOU impacts those around you?
The Tolerant Left will not win. The Cocktail Party establishment will not win. The Elite Agenda-Driven Media will not win.
Because I know YOU will not let them.
February 17th, 2012 — THANK YOU on Our Four Year Site Anniversary
Four years ago today — on February 17th, 2008 — in the middle of the bitterly contested Democrat primaries, a group of my friends and I on Hillary’s presidential campaign started a little website on Blogspot.com for Chicago area Clinton volunteers. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and had never in my life thought of having anything to do with a website, but had been churning out daily email blasts challenging point-by-point the apocryphal memes and outright lies pushed by Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, and Keith Olbermann designed to push Hillary Clinton out of the race and hand the nomination to Barack Obama. This was needed because the elite, agenda-driven media’s war against Hillary was demoralizing her volunteers, making people abandon their posts, and breeding scores of pessimistic, raincloud bedraggled, Eeyores who fell right into the trap set by the permanent political class that wanted Obama to triumph and America to be “transformed”.
Since then, HillBuzz.org has been a record of everything that’s happened in the “Golden Age of Hope and Change” that’s been the Obama administration — as well as an archival documentation of my personal transformation from a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat to a Republican who’s determined to see the Cocktail Party GOP establishment toppled and replaced by conservatives with Tea Party spirit. Along the way, the Democrat Party left me by veering recklessly Left and the political world went through a rollercoaster of upheavals that brought us to a point where it’s clear as day that the entrenched, permanent political class on both sides of the aisle are a great threat to our country that must be monitored and actively defied by all Americans.
At times, it’s been a crushing challenge to do this everyday. Four years is the amount of time I spent in high school, and thinking about this anniversary I see how I’ve graduated in my opinion of running the site. No one, and nothing, prepares you for doing something like this — if they had, I’m afraid to say I might not have taken the bait or accepted the challenge to do it in the first place. It’s incredible the amount of Alinsky-stoked bile aimed your way for expressing any political opinion at odds with what the “Tolerant Left” dictates. I’ve lost a lot of friends, colleagues, and opportunities by being candid and active on this site — but I truly don’t regret being involved because HB is still here, after weathering so many storms, and is an example to others out there that the Tolerant Left can only destroy you if you let them (and that the Cocktail Party GOP establishment may often be in cahoots with these people, but they’re not any smarter or more effective).
From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of everyone behind the scenes here on the HB team, I want to thank everyone who has supported us these four years. I especially want to thank all the incredibly kind people who’ve been praying for our success, for my health, and for various people and things important to me that needed boosts of goodwill and great cheer.
It’s funny, but four years later, the political energy and media antics that precipitated this site feels very similar. The elite, agenda-driven, operatives of the Tolerant Left are at it again, trying their best to game the nominating process in a presidential election — though this time they’re trying to install Willard “Mittens” Romney as the Republican nominee instead of Barack Obama on the Democrat side. People feel hopeless, and helpless, to stop the media’s nonstop propaganda efforts…and another “it’s his turn to lose!” Cocktail Party darling’s being positioned to lose to the Democrat, just like John McCain back in 2008. Once again, I know in my bones this is the most important election in my lifetime to date and the fate of the country rests on being able to counter not just the machinations of the permanent political class but its media enablers.
My biggest goal in keeping this site alive and humming every day is the hope I have that someone out there reading what I type is prompted to get off the couch, put down the delicious Pepsi, and get out into her or his community and DO SOMETHING to put the establishment and the media on the defense. The biggest secret these would-be aristocrats keep is the simple fact that the vast majority of Americans do not agree with a single thing they are doing — and that these Cocktail Partiers and their colleagues on the Tolerant Left only succeed because Americans have been conditioned into isolation that makes people afraid to speak out publicly about what they believe, for fear of Alinsky retribution or ostracism for going against the purported grain.
Though you may take some lumps, and if you’re effective the permanent political class will sometimes come after you if you are effective at what you’re doing, you will be strengthened by the trials by fire that come with standing your ground and refusing to be shouted down. And along the way, you’ll meet more incredible, amazing, and patriotic people than you ever imagined possible. You will have an absolute adventure being part of the ever-growing American Resistance that will in time topple those who seek to undermine the things that make this country great.
EVERYONE out there has a talent. EVERYONE out there was given a great gift by God that is JUST WHAT’S NEEDED at this place, at this time, to bring down the Cocktail Party, the Tolerant Left, and the Elite Agenda-Driven Media (the Axis of Villains that bedevils our country). EVERYONE has something to contribute, in her or his own way, because this country was built by a ragtag, ad hoc, band of freedom lovers who refused to be intimidated into silence and inaction by the supposed Powers that Be.
YOU are the thing America’s adversaries fear the most, because YOU getting up off the couch and headed out into your community to stir up debate and action against the permanent political class and its propaganda squads is an absolute nightmare for the establishment aristocrats.
Even after four years, it’s something of a dream come true realizing my team and I here get to be a part of that…and have encouraged a few creative and talented people out there to take part in the American Resistance. Every time I meet someone who says “I got off the couch because of something I read on HillBuzz” I realize all the hard work and sacrifice of time and treasure keeping this light burning has been well-worth it…and will continue to be worth it so long as I’m alive. Four years into this, there’s no way I’m ever going to stop now. The Tolerant Left would have to kill me first…but something tells me the tide’s turning and I — and this site they’ve tried to take down so many times — will be around a lot longer than America’s detractors.
Thank you for your readership, but more importantly your friendship, these four years — and thank you for all the ways you can use YOUR talents in YOUR communities to take part in the Resistance.
Friday Open Thread: February 17th, 2012
It’s Friday!
What are your plans for the weekend?
Who are you campaigning for in your neck of the woods?
What’s on your minds today?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Thursday February 16th, 2012
Technical Issues in the Coming Days: Just a notice that we’ve begun the migration to a new server, after experiencing security and other issues with our current (and soon to be former host). If things get wonky, it’s not your computer or Internet connection, but the fact we’re moving to a better protected outfit. Someday we’ll write a book on all the cloak and dagger goings on behind the scenes involved in running this site…but rest assured by the end of this weekend everything will be back to normal if there are any disruptions. Thanks for your patience!
On a related note, we’ve had our spam and troll filters turned up to the most aggressive settings and from time to time get an email from someone who has been blocked by the system automatically for some reason. If you’re someone who has been blocked and doesn’t know why, please shoot us an email and let us know and we’ll look into it. There are only a handful of people out there who have been deliberately banned for cause — and all of those are for using racist, homophobic, or just outright vile language. Unless you’ve been doing things like this, if you are being blocked it’s for technical issues related to your IP somehow registering as a spammer or villain for some reason. If you don’t let us know via email that this is happening, we can’t sort it out behind the scenes.
What else is on your mind today?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
The Best Reason to Do Your Taxes This Week: File Before Your State Runs Out of Refund Money
Employers are required by federal law to postmark W2s by January 31st. Allowing for even the slowest of mail delivery, by today — February 15th — you should have everything you need to do your taxes for 2011 (unless you are someone who is involved in a lot of investments and things that involve a lot of stuff I don’t understand, then maybe you can’t do them yet).
I wanted to take a moment today to encourage you to work on your taxes and file them this week — instead of waiting until April 15th to do them — so that you can get your refunds as quickly as possible. Here in Illinois, if you file your taxes in January or February (or even the beginning weeks of March) you get your state refund relatively quickly — something like two weeks after your filing is accepted by the state.
If you wait to file until April, your refund could take up to six weeks to reach you because the state runs out of money to pay people their refunds…and the delay involved becomes a matter of the state waiting for other revenue to come in before it can pay you what it owes you.
It has been almost five years since Illinois had enough funds to pay some of its big vendors on time, and every year more pressure mounts for them to settle up those accounts. Anecdotally, I’ve found that the longer people here in Illinois wait to file their taxes the longer they have to wait for their returns.
Using my boyfriend Justin as an example, last year he filed his taxes on April 15th — and he didn’t get his refund deposited into his account until the end of June. This year, we filed his taxes in mid-January (the day after he got his w2s) and his refund is already in his account. The same stories are true for other friends here in Illinois who file their taxes early like this.
Please think about this — because I’d like to see you be one of the people who get your refund early instead of someone who has to wait for months while an insolvent state like Illinois scrapes together coins from the sofa cushions to pull together enough for your refund.
Chime in below if you have a different take on this — but I have never seen any advantage to waiting until April 15th to do this when you can have all your taxes done and avoid the refund-waiting or other grief if you just take care of this in February.
I’d love to hear why some people wait so long to do their taxes and if there is a real reason for that — because if you are waiting on W2s to reach you, then your employer is in the wrong for not mailing those to you before January 31st so you can actually report that company to the IRS for these delays.
Thoughts?
