Open Threads
HillBuzz Open Thread: Sunday March 4th, 2012
Today’s now the fourth day of a world without Andrew Breitbart in it.
I woke up early so I could go to mass today. I’m even dressing up, which is something I hate doing…and I am going to light every candle in the place in memory of Andrew and what he accomplished in his life.
Last night, I did a long interview with Sharon Meroni of Defend the Vote — who’s someone else who had regular contact with Andrew because of various projects she’s engaged in. It’s funny, but over the last few days since Andrew’s death I’ve spoken to quite a few friends in the political world who keep saying the same exact thing — “With Andrew Breitbart gone, we all need to step up our game and be a little more ‘Breitbart’ ourselves”.
If you notice, I created a new page at the top under the HillBuzz banner that says “Be Breitbart Baby”. I’d love for you to chime in below with ideas on what you think we should do on this page. I’m going to write a quick bio of Andrew Breitbart up there, with some words on his death and what he meant to us in life — but the goal for that page will be to collect ongoing projects that Breitbart would have done himself if he’d lived to have the chance.
I’d like to see us put out something every day that would take about 15-30 minutes to complete that would be in the “Be Breibart, Baby” spirit. I’m torn on whether to call this “Be Breitbart Baby” or “Andrew Breitbart Sent Me” — as in, when talking to someone while doing something Breitbart-esque, you could drop the line “Andrew Breitbart sent me” and they’ll know exactly what you are up to. I’d love it if millions of people started seeing themselves as Breitbart’s proxies coast to coast…as if in death his spirit multiplied and now the Tolerant Left and Cocktail Party Establishment alike have legions of Breitbarts to contend with instead of just the one.
In a few weeks the shock of his death will wear off and the eulogies and tributes will stop — but I intend to make “Be Breitbart, Baby” a permanent part of this site…which I intend to keep running strong for the rest of my life.
Every day Andrew Breitbart did something important that drove the Tolerant Left, Cocktail Party Establishment, and Elite Media absolutely nuts. It will take hard work and creativity, but I bet if we put our minds to it we could find SOMETHING to do every day for 15-30 minutes that could also drive these same adversaries bonkers — as if a part of Andrew Breitbart was still with us.
I’m going to pray on this today, and continue to strategize and brainstorm with others who shared Breitbart’s zeal…but we really need YOUR input too.
Be Breitbart, baby…and chime in below.
HillBuzz Open Thread: Saturday March 3rd, 2012
[ Click above to embiggen: Failed NYC theater actor Bruch Reed and other Tolerant Leftists celebrate the death of Andrew Breitbart some more on Facebook ]
What would Andrew Breitbart do today if he was still alive and had Saturday March 3rd, 2012 to fill with some activity that would drive the Tolerant Left, the Cocktail Party GOP establishment, and the Elite Media absolutely BONKERS?
I’ve actually gone to the trouble of writing “What would Andrew Breitbart do today?” on a notecard that I’ve taped to my bathroom mirror. I highly encourage you to do the same — because it’s a marvelous reminder that every day is precious and that the gift you’ve been given of waking up today and having the opportunity to do something interesting, exciting, and/or important with it is a gift you should not squander.
I’d like to ask you for a personal favor today — and it’s something that I’m personally very bad at so if it’s a struggle for you, too, don’t feel bad because I’m right there with you. Sometime today, though, I’d like you to think of a friend who you know is very interested in politics…but someone you might not speak to often or get together with all that regularly. I’d love it more than anything if you gave that person a call and had a chat today — about what Andrew Breitbart’s life work meant to you. At some point, introduce the idea to your friend that perhaps the two of you could carry a little bit of Breitbart’s spirit forward, by finding ways to be a little “Breitbart” yourselves…and to maybe become involved somehow in the Resistance efforts that General Breitbart very much lead — which continue after his passing.
Have you ever seen people who go to the gym together and spot each other during workouts…or who meetup at the mall to walk together for exercise…or who help each other out by being in the same carpool group or whatever?
Have you ever considered finding a “buddy” like this — focused specifically on the political world? Think about how fun it would be to have a go-to person who you could always call up on short notice and ask, “Hey, there’s a speaker I want to hear so would you like to go with me?” or “Would you want to head down to the Board of Elections meeting and demand to know why they still let dead people vote in this state?”.
I think one of the things that’s kept you from becoming a political mystery-solving, corruption-busting, gadfly like Andrew Breitbart is the simple fact that you’ve lacked a Scarecrow to your Mrs. King, a Cagney to your Lacy, or a David Addison to your Maddie Hayes. Feel free to insert whatever sort of “buddy” you’ve always felt lacking in the above…and then think of a friend who could fill that role.
The greatest thing about Andrew Breitbart was that he had no superpowers…and that he was an ordinary guy at heart. He had not fancy degrees. He did not come from great wealth. He didn’t have anyone running cover for him or handing him things on platters. He just had smarts, creativity, a sterling work ethic, and great, personal drive to seek the truth and instill absolute holy terror into the Tolerant Left, the Cocktail Party Establishment, and the Elite Media.
You might not think about this every day, but you are, like Andrew, one of God’s great creations. You’re alive today because your parents, and your grandparents, and all their parents and grandparents before them had something special enough to ultimately produce YOU…and God selected you to be alive TODAY because he put inside you something special…just like he did with Andrew. You might not be as bombastic as he was, or as adept at utilizing the Interwebs, or as much of a prodigy in terms of driving Leftists insane…but you are here today — reading a political website on a Saturday for crying out loud — because YOU were chosen to be here when America needed you the most.
You also just so happen to be in the possession of like-minded friends who share everything above with you.
You just haven’t connected the dots yet to see that YOU are America’s secret weapon against the Left…and that YOU and your friends are what the nation’s counting on to turn the tide between now and election day.
There have been so many times when I’ve thought of closing down this site and attempting to get my old life back: it’s a huge expense, it makes me a nonstop target for crazy people who want to silence me, and it takes at least 10 hours a day to research, write, edit, and maintain. Every time I’ve ever wanted to quit, however, I sit down and pray about it and the same exact thought comes into my head…that what if I stopped doing this and the site went dark for good and the day afterwards was the day that someone out there would have read something on the site that inspired that person to get off the couch, put down the Pepsi, and DO SOMETHING very Breitbart-like that would have initiated a chain of events that would have defeated Barack Obama and brought down both the Democrats and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment?
I really see my role in all of this as the guy at the modern equivalent of a Morse Code machine…tapping out a message to someone out there, wholly unknown to me…in the firm belief that it’s a message that person needs to hear.
I have never understood why other conservative sites don’t do this — and I don’t know why they spend all their time bloviating and opining and often squabbling over this that or the other…instead of DOING SOMETHING or encouraging their readers to DO SOMETHING. You know, the way Andrew Breitbart did about a dozen and a half interesting and important things every day before lunch — with a Round Two before dinner no doubt. Andrew’s earned himself a place in the history books as one of the Tea Party Americans who became a General in the American Resistance. It’s my hope that someone reading this not only takes Andrew’s place someday, but exceeds him in every way, finding a way to do triple the damage he ever did to the Left.
I think you have what it takes to be that person…it’s just a matter of tapping into that. So, I’ll keep tapping away at this keyboard until you find the gifts God gave you and figure out how to use them. In the meantime, I’ll keep throwing every idea I can think of out there to inspire you…and I will rope in absolutely everyone I know to help in that (whether they like it or not sometimes). Maybe you can start roping in your friends and family too, and start seeing every day you’re gifted with as a chance to drive the Tolerant Left crazy and rattle the Cocktail Party like nobody’s business.
It’s not fair, but this is your watch, folks. It was God’s plan that you’d be here in 2012 when America needed you most. Some kind of strange chain of events led you to be here today, reading these words, typed out with the hope that you think on them today and figure out what you’re going to do this week to be a little bit “Breitbart” in your own way.
If you’re so inclined, I’d love to hear some ideas on just what, exactly, you could do in that spirit. If you’re too shy to chime in, that’s okay. Say a prayer for Andrew this weekend at some point, and include your thoughts in that so maybe he’ll hear them up there too. I bet it would make him feel great to know that not only is he missed like crazy but that YOU have decided to pick up a few flames from his torch and carry those forward for him.
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What else is on your mind this weekend?
What are people talking about in YOUR part of the country?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Thursday March 1st, 2012
When I was growing up, I paid the most attention in religion class when the nuns would talk about the kickass saints like Joan of Arc…or tell the stories of Jesus in the Temple turning over the gambling tables and ridiculing the Pharisees for their corruption, incompetence, and reckless indulgence. As I got older, I always seemed to gravitate towards stories where regular people tired of the nonsense around them and decided to do something about it — no matter how daunting it was to stand up to The Powers That Be. I was a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan in the 90s because I enjoyed watching that one girl in her generation rise to the challenge and accept her fate as the champion who could — and would — do what needed to be done, no matter how scary her adversaries.
The best thing about Buffy was her Scoobies — the friends who helped her fulfill her destiny. None of these friends had superpowers (at least at first), but they were resourceful, had a lot of smarts, and knew they needed to step in and help their friend save the world. A lot.
I never thought this would happen, but I’ve honest-to-goodness found someone here in Chicago that could have been a vampire slayer in another lifetime. Her name is Sharon Meroni and I’m going to be talking about her an awful lot because I want to do everything I can to support her mission to Defend the Vote here in Illinois. I will gladly play Xander to her Buffy and help form a group of Scoobies to make sure Sharon’s mission to take on voter fraud in the most corrupt state in the union is a success. The biggest hurdle to mount is the simple fact that voter fraud is so tough for many people to understand — which hands a massive advantage to the perpetrators of voter fraud, since the general public just won’t invest the time and energy to wrap their heads around what’s going on.
I am sick to death of the Tolerant Left and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment doing nothing about this. It reminds me of the fools in Sunnydale’s city government who enjoyed pretending to be completely oblivious to the vampire activity plaguing their town…which left matters up to Buffy and her ragtag band of Scoobies to tackle (with limited resources, mustering whatever forces they could in a bind).
Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to eliminate voter fraud — because each party’s establishment elite enjoys reserving the ability to game elections “just in case (they) need it someday”.
If elections in this country are ever to be secured, it’s going to take regular, average people on the ground to do something about it.
If you are a Buffy fan, you’ll remember how in the last episode of the series the Scoobies concocted a magic spell that activated every potential vampire slayer on the face of the planet…so scores of new fighters were called into battle when they were needed the most. They turned the tide, and the massive Hellmouth below the town of Sunnydale was sealed for good before the end credits rolled.
George Soros and other villains in our world have engineered and encouraged voter fraud for many years now — and entities like ACORN, the SEIU, the Black Panthers, and organizations affiliated with BOTH Democrats and Republicans have served as goon squads facilitating voter fraud in election after election after election.
How many times have you heard people say, “Someone needs to do something about this!”. How often have you said it too?
Has it ever occurred to you that YOU are indeed “someone”?
I think you are reading this note today because it’s your destiny to defeat the facilitators of voter fraud by becoming a “Vote Defender” — think of that as the “Vampire Slayer” of the political world. God gave you strength, smarts, talent, and passion for a reason and arranged his scheduled so that you’d be alive and politically aware at THIS VERY MOMENT IN TIME when YOU are needed the most. That is not a coincidence — it’s YOUR calling.
My job is to make stopping voter fraud interesting and fun enough to hold the attention of those out there who (for some reason) don’t relish the thought of reading documents like The Vulnerability Assessment and Security Audit of Election Day Polling Place Procedures for the April 5, 2011 Municipal Elections in Chicago, Illinois.
I’ve kept this site running for just over four years now…always hoping it would reach its potential to do something REALLY different in American politics. There are plenty of sites I like to read for news, from The Drudge Report to HotAir.com to all of Andrew Breitbart’s “Big” sites. Then there are other places I like to go for fun, or to see humorous tweaks of big stories. But, when we created the new HB banner last year and I chose “Political Analysis, Action and Adventure” as our tagline, I deliberately made ACTION the heart…because investing so much of my time and resources (and that of just about all of my friends, too) only made sense if ultimately we’d find a way to activate people coast to coast and turn them into political ACTION takers and ADVENTURERS.
Next week, we’re going to roll out something that’s been four years’ in the making — where we’ll focus everything we have on efforts like the prevention of voter fraud and the activation of Vote Defenders coast to coast. We’ll also focus on absolutely ruining the Tolerant Left’s day in some way, every day, to throw those Marxists off their game…while simultaneously shaking the Cocktail Party GOP establishment to its core as well. I have long seen America’s greatest struggle to be a battle on three fronts: Americans versus the Tolerant Left, the Cocktail Party establishment, and the Elite Media.
All three groups allow and encourage voter fraud.
All three groups facilitate the indoctrination of children with anti-American thought.
All three groups jeopardize our future by denigrating everything that makes this country special.
I’m tired of it. My friends are tired of it. And if you’re tired of it too, I hope you start thinking about the talents YOU have that can be put to use between now and the November election to give the country you love the fighting chance it needs to survive whatever horrors the Tolerant Left, Cocktail Party, and Elite Media have planned for it.
I’m very excited, and exhilarated, to launch the biggest push I’ve ever made for political ACTION. I’ve roped my boyfriend Justin into it — and have tapped into his skills with Photoshop and video editing. I’ve convinced friends like Megan Fox, Bridgit Casey, Penny, Esther, and the incomparable “The Tamminator” to lend their unique skill sets. I will continue to work my networks to get absolutely everyone I know and love involved in their own individual way to throw as many wrenches into George Soros’ master plan as possible.
Keep your eyes peeled on DEFENDtheVOTE.com. It’s the little engine that’s going to take down voter fraud operations in Illinois and absolutely obliterate one of George Soros’ election-rigging command centers. Stay tuned for a revamped HillBuzz.org in the days ahead that takes us to the next level as well — and finally gets to where I’ve always wanted it to be, a place where we break down the ACTION required to take down America’s adversaries into simple, easy-to-do, 15-to-30-minutes-a-day ACTION ITEMS.
I hope you’ll enjoy what we have in store between next Monday and Election Day…and that along the way you decide to make the (in some cases) scary leap from being a reader and observer of politics into becoming one of the Scoobies who lend people like Sharon Meroni the support they need to take on monsters like “Voter Fraud”. I hope all of you reading this realize the God-given potential inside YOU to become Vote Defenders in your own right, and that you encourage the people you’re closest to wherever you live to do likewise.
Don’t believe anything the Elite Media tells you, because it’s all lies and propaganda. America will triumph over those who seek to destroy it because this country we love so much has a secret weapon that the Tolerant Left, the Cocktail Party Establishment, and the Elite Media never counted on….and that’s YOU!
I just hope in our small way this little political analysis, action, and adventure site can nudge you towards that potential…because this is YOUR watch…whether you realize that (yet) or not.
HillBuzz Open Thread: Wednesday February 29th, 2012
Happy Leap Day everyone!
Kevin has been dealing with some computer problems lately, so I’ll be posting the open threads until he’s back. He may be needing to buy a new machine. But rest assured, he is working on some fun and exciting initiatives that I’m sure he’ll reveal to all of us soon!
So Mitt Romney pulled out a victory in Michigan and Arizona last night. The current delegate count is:
- Romney: 163
- Santorum: 83
- Gingrich: 32
- Paul: 19
Hunstman also technically has 2 delegates if anyone cares.
Up next is a Caucus in Washington State on March 3rd, and then Super Tuesday on the 6th.
Super Tuesday should be interesting. The two biggest wins – Georgia and Ohio – are currently trending heavily in favor of Gingrich and Santorum, respectively. That was yesterday’s polling, before Romney won Michigan and Arizona, but Romney trailed by 10+ in both states. Tennessee also has a lot of delegates up for grabs, and Santorum currently leads that state by around 20 points. Oklahoma is also trending pretty solidly in Santorum’s favor at the moment.
I have no idea about Newt’s plans, but Super Tuesday is going to be a big loss for Gingrich unless he is able to make a serious turnaround in the next week. As of right now, it looks like the GOP nomination is shaping up to be a two man race between Romney – who will probably come out of Super Tuesday with a slight edge overall – and Santorum, who is currently positioned to have a big night come March 6th.
Of course, the political winds blow hard and change quickly. What do you all think?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Tuesday February 28th, 2012
59 Delegates are up for grabs in today’s Arizona and Michigan Primaries. The media, in its never ending quest to demand our attention, is claiming Michigan to be a “must win” for Romney. Santorum certainly has a shot at Michigan. He’s polling in essentially a dead heat with Romney leading up to the Primary, and most of the polls I’ve seen show him with a slight edge (still inside the margin of error). Yet something tells me that if Romney loses, he’s not exactly going to pack up his tent and go home. What say you?
The latest Rasmussen polling is fairly positive for the GOP field, other than Newt. Rasmussen shows Romney, Santorum, and Paul all within the margin of error from Obama among likely voters. A Gallup poll revealed the same for Romney and Santorum, and even had Santorum up over Obama by 3 points among registered voters.
Newt is currently bringing up the rear in this statistic with Obama holding a 10 point lead over Gingrich in most major polls. I know there are a number of Newt supporters here. What do you think about this?
Personally, although I follow politics closely and have watched all the debates and researched the candidates fairly well, I can’t say that any of them are “my guy”. There are things I like and things I dislike about each of them. I don’t really care what the media says about “electability” (or, really, what the media says about anything) because the entire game is going to change once the GOP picks a candidate and that person goes head to head with Obama.
I know there are strong opinions here about the candidates. I’d love to hear your thoughts today!
What else is on your minds?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Sunday February 26th, 2012
You might not have realized it (yet), but Mannequin is one of the greatest movies ever made — if for no other reason than it’s a classic example of how fun the 80s “try on clothes to dance music and race around doing crazy things” montages could be. Whenever I need a little pep, I watch this clip on YouTube of Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall in their youth being all kinds of zany — at that part in the movie where the tide turns and things start looking up for our protagonists.
The weather’s breaking here in Chicago, with the sun shining brightly this Sunday morning (and lingering longer into the evenings). Winter will no doubt rear its head a time or two more in 2012, but the worst of its cold is over for another year. I can feel spring coming…we have indeed endured…the dark and cold did not win.
I’ve been on an 80s nostalgia kick the last few weeks, since the passing of Whitney Houston made me think back to how she was before she allowed drugs and booze (and bad associations) to ruin her life and talent. I went to two Whitney concerts in the late-80s and mid-90s — back when the “Whitney” brand was something special and saying you were going to a “Whitney Houston concert” made you the envy of all your friends (but without making your parents worried you’d be in bad company once you got to the Coliseum).
I watched Whitney’s “home going” last week and am still struck by what Bishop T.D. Jakes of Dallas said about Death never winning. no matter how looming or imposing it ever was. I lump the forces of Darkness, Depression, and Despair in there too, since they’re cut from the same shroud and bedevil us more often than Death itself. This negative energy is louder and seemingly stronger than the side of light and all things positive and good — but Jakes kept reiterating that Death does not win. “Death is certain”, he said, “but love is stronger than death”.
Remember this now that we’re in Lent, because Jakes also spoke of Jesus’s death, saying that “Death threw a party…a big WEEKEND PARTY…and partied all Friday and Saturday and into Sunday morning thinking that Death had won”. But then “early Sunday morning, love rolled up his sleeves and said, ‘Hold up, now. You better wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute,’ snatched death and took the sting out of death and the victory out the grave”.
It’s been seven days now, and I can’t get these words out of my head — they are now indelibly a part of me, and who I am now, because of what I heard Bishop Jakes say at Whitney’s homegoing. I don’t know how I missed a lesson like this the first 34 years of my life, but I never came across someone who distilled it all so perfectly like this before. That image of Jesus rolling up his sleeves and saying, essentially, “Oh, Hell to the no” is marvelous — and just how I picture Jesus in my mind and in my heart…the knocking the tables over in the Temple Jesus while standing up to the bullies and assorted bad guys he encountered. And just when Death and all the powers of Darkness and Despair thought they’d won and were reveling in their big weekend party, the light broke through the clouds and Love roared back at the turn of the tide.
I’ve been so touched and empowered by this imagery that I sent Bishop Jakes a thank-you letter this week — for a sermon that I just can’t forget.
I mention all of this because I really hope you can find a little of this positivity in your own lives — and also for the future of our country. Everyone I know is struggling, and the forces of Darkness and Despair and Death seem so large and in charge right now. America has never been so bedeviled and all of her enemies at home and abroad have been having a giant cake-party and yucking it up, thinking they’ve all won. But I just know that the tide is about to turn…and that YOU are going to be part of that turning. The bad guys will not win, no matter how many financial and logistical advantages they think they have…or how much they believe the elite, agenda-driven media will carry them to victory. They can eat all the cake they want at their little party…but a great many people are rolling up their sleeves and there will be quite a few surprises to come.
I’m really looking forward to this new week ahead of us — and using every day to its fullest to do what I can to make sure the good guys have that victory in the end.
How about you?
What do you think YOU can do this coming week to trip up the Tolerant Left or thwart the designs of the Cocktail Party establishment so that the forces of good and the Tea Party spirit triumphs in November?
HillBuzz Open Thread: Saturday February 25th, 2012
It’s been a very chaotic week backstage here at Buzzquarters — but I can’t even tell you how exciting it is to have almost 80% of the computer problems that we’ve experienced for quite some time solved and the site moved to a new server that is both exponentially more reliable and run by people I legitimately like and trust. That’s such a weight that’s been lifted, it’s miraculous. We are so blessed to finally be free from our cyber-extortionist and the source of what became nonstop emotional terrorism and grief in recent months.
It’s also fun to have something big to announce next week that’s been in the works for a while…something that puts the “Adventure” into the HB tagline…which is something I always wanted to do with this site but never quite knew how to manage. Like a bolt from above, I figured it out in the last two weeks and have been working hard the last few days prepping something that I sincerely hope will drive the Tolerant Left and Cocktail Party GOP establishment absolutely bonkers. I plan to have a lot of fun with it, and hope you do too.
I’ve missed “fun”, actually. “The Golden Age of Hope and Change” has been soul-crushing and depressing in the three years and change since the Tolerant Left took over this country and Obamafied as much of it as possible. It’s been an exhausting challenge to keep our heads above water…and taxing just to find the energy and strength to keep going. The dial that once was set to “thrive” got dialed back to “just try to survice” for a great many of us.
I’m tired of that and want things to change…and think it’s time to rediscover some of the things I used to love doing before I let the miserable state of affairs around me distract, detract, and diminish my spirit. If you’ve been in a morass yourself, or if you’ve been struggling with something seemingly unbearable, how about making a fresh start yourself and rediscovering whatever it is that you’re best at or that makes you happiest. Life is short, and that talent of yours is too precious to waste.
How about finding a little time today to think about what makes you special — and finding a way to engage that talent in concerted ACTION for some tangible good?
What else is on your minds today?
What are people in your town talking about?
What’s something YOU can do to drive either the Tolerant Left or the Cocktail Party GOP establishment bonkers in your own way?
