Some Quick Thoughts On The Tax Day Tea Parties

I've been looking at the news and comparing the ways each network covered the Tax Day Tea Parties. Of course, left-leaning news outlets said every possible negative thing they could have said about the demonstrations, even things that were not true. It is those untrue items I wish to discuss here.

Item #1: The claim that Fox News orchestrated the 800 or so Tea Party events around the nation for a ratings boost.

The truth: Fox News simply covered the events, they did not orchestrate them. They presented the story in a fair, objective manner and were about the only network to do so. ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN all parroted the same lines over and over as if they were reading some talking points that someone handed to them.



Item #2: The claim that Rush Limbaugh orchestrated the 800 or so Tea Party events arouind the nation.

The truth: Rush may be the most popular talk radio host in the world right now, but I do not remember him ever putting forth one single idea or plan one little detail of any of those demonstrations. In fact, I don't even recall his name being mentioned at any of the 800 events.



Item #3: The claim that the rich orchestrated these Tea Parties in an effort to justify their own greed.

The truth: Well, I don't remember seeing very many rich people on the television or Internet news coverage of the Tea Parties. In fact, I saw mainstream Joe and Jane Average Americans. I saw parents with children. I saw small business owners. If there were any rich people in those crowds, they blended in quite nicely.



So, why am I bringing all of this up? Because these Tea Parties are not the end. There will be more demonstrations against the excesses of the current leftist-controlled federal government as time goes on. As Congress passes more "intolerable acts" and Barack Obama signs them into law, people will become more and more angry and demand that the government finally listen to them.

Now, far from trying to correct the above misconceptions, I actually want to see Old Media and groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org coninue to spread those lies. Why? Because it is a major advantage for our side if they do so.

As long as Old Media is assigning responsibility to the wrong crowd, the people who really did organize and mobilize these Tea Parties will be free to continue their planning and organizing unhindered and unfettered by distractions. They will be free to plan and organize new Freedom demonstrations for the coming 4th of July. Further, the more that the left attacks Fox, Rush and others, the more that the organizers and planners will know how big of an impact they really made.

So, to all the hate-mongers over on the left, please, continue shouting that Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Neal Boortz put these things together. The more you convince yourselves of that, the more you will leave the real planners and organizers alone to plan and organize more. It is the best thing you can do for our side.

84rules

Video: Obama Supporters Interviewed, Show Extremely Limited Knowledge Of Their Candidate

The liberals are not happy about John Ziegler's video and what is being portrayed on it. Twelve Obama supporters were interviewed right after they voted in order to see how Old Media influenced their vote and whether or not they had gotten the full and correct story. It does not paint the libs in a very good light at all.

But that isn't the full story. An even bigger part of the story is the telephone poll conducted by Zogby which showed how voters knew almost nothing about the Obama/Biden ticket but were more often able to answer correctly the questions about the McCain/Palin ticket, specifically questions which dealt with those stories that Old Media pushed out about the Republicans. the questions that the Obama supporters were not able to answer dealt with issues that Old Media deliberately held back. Things like William Ayers and such.

Here are the results of that poll:

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points 97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions 57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing) 71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing) 82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing) 88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing) 56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing). And yet..... Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And to show exactly how badly Old Media screwed the pooch in trying to get Obama elected:

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house."

Sarah Palin never said that. Tina Fey said it on Saturday Night Live, but Old Media, either because they were so in the tank for Obama or because they are incompetant and don't know how to do proper research, simply allowed the story to go without trying to correct it.

And here is John Ziegler's interview on Fox News with some elements of his video as portrayed on Hannity & Colmes:

How The Media Helped Obama Get Elected
Fox News
November 19, 2008

Media Malpractice. How Obama Supporters Knew Very Little About The Election
Fox News
November 17, 2008

Sean Hannity is absolutely correct. The year 2008 will go down in history as the year in which journalistic integrity died.

You can access the complete web entry on-line here:

How Obama Got Elected
John Ziegler

Some Interesting Quotes From Last Night's RNC Activities

Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Like him or hate him, he made a very profound comment to Alan Colmes on Hannity & Colmes last night. I am certain that the left-leaning media is going to completely ignore it or at best white-wash it so that no one recognizes it, but I caught it and I am going to pass it along to you.

When Alan Colmes asked Mayor Guiliani about what achievements Sarah Palin had as Governor of Alaska, the Mayor responded that Gov. Palin stood up to corruption in her own party and further went on to note that she has no counterpart in the Democrat Party. Not satisfied with that answer, Mayor Giuliani also noted how Barack Obama came from Chicago and yet made no effort to clean up the corruption there which meant either Obama was blind or there was no corruption in Chicago at all. Most rationally thinking people who know something about the politics in that region of Illinois can see that Obama must be blind.

Sean Hannity himself noted a few other things that were very important in helping us understand how Old Media has marginalized itself. He noted that many aggressive and belligerent questions have been thrown at Gov. Palin concerning the pregnancy of her teenaged daughter, but not one major media outlet has ever questioned Barack Obama on his relationship with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Such is a prime example of the irresponsibility of Old Media.

But, I would like to have a look at Sen. Fred Thompson's speech. Certain items stood out either because they were humorous, humorously true or just plain truth. Let's look at a few of them.

On Gov. Sarah Palin:

Now, she’s from a small town with small-town values, but apparently that’s not good enough for some of the folks who are out there now attacking her and her family. Some Washington pundits and media big-shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. I say give me a tough Alaskan governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state of the union and won over the Beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week. But it’s pretty clear the selection of Governor Palin has got the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. And no wonder: She’s a courageous, successful, reformer who’s not afraid to take on the establishment. She has run a municipality, and she’s run a state. And I think I can say without fear of contradiction she’s the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose ... with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt. OK.

And as Mayor Giuliani noted, Gov. Palin does not have a corruption-fighting counterpart in the Democrats.

Sen. Thompson also said something that the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, William Jefferson and many other corrupt members of Congress should be terrified of:

When she and John McCain get to Washington, they’re not going to care how much the alligators get irritated. They’re going to drain that swamp.

We all know about Nancy Pelosi's deal with T. Boone Pickens and how she has direct influence on legislation that could funnel money in the form of Federal subsidies to the North Texas Wind Farms. Something like that is exactly what the McCain/Palin Administration would go after. If Pelosi were smart, she would be afraid ... very afraid.

On Sen. McCain:

Strength, courage, humility, wisdom, duty, honor. It’s pretty clear there are two questions that we’ll never have to ask ourselves: Who is this man? And can we trust this man with the presidency? He’s been to — he’s been to Iraq eight times since 2003. He went seeking truth, not publicity. When he travels abroad, he prefers quietly speaking to the troops amidst the heat and hardships of their daily lives. And the same character that marked John McCain’s military career has also marked his political career. This man, John McCain, is not intimidated by what the polls say or by what is politically safe or popular. At a point in time when the war in Iraq was going badly and the public lost confidence, John stood up and called for more troops. And now we’re winning. ... For years, members of Congress, Republican and Democrat alike, have gouged the taxpayer with secret earmark spending. Well, he has never sought an earmark.

When Barack Obama was taking criticism for not visiting the troops, he finally went to Iraq, but only to those places where the cameras were rolling for him. When he discovered that reporters and cameras would not be allowed into the hospital, he cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Just not enough attention for him there.

And we see a comment about Fiscal Conservatism. That is a major issue for us Republicans. We will finally get someone in the White House who will truly fight for economic sanity.

This is key too:

Now, our opponents tell us not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they’re not going to tax your family. No, they’re just going to tax businesses. So unless you buy something from a business, like groceries or clothes or gasoline, or unless you get a paycheck from a business, a big business or a small business, don’t worry, it’s not going to affect you. They say they’re not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the other side of the bucket.

The Republicans understand that it is the consumer who ultimately pays taxes. The Democrats think that money is magically created by businesses and therefore can be confiscated at any time for any reason.

It was a fantastic speech by an exceptional man. Feel free to read the entire transcript on-line here:

RAW DATA: Fred Thompson’s Remarks At GOP Convention
FoxNews.com
September 2, 2008

La Raza And The Anti-Defamation League Push For Censorship

It always amazes me how leftist groups claim to be fanatically committed to freedom (e.g. the ACLU) and yet they actively engage in activities specifically designed to curtail the freedom of others. We already know how the ACLU has been on an anti-Christian Crusade for the past several years and we know how that same ACLU works to silence the Boy Scouts while trying to give terrorists a louder voice.

But they are not alone.

The radical Hispanic group La Raza along with the Anti-Defamation League have been on a massive campaign to silence anyone who speaks out against illegal immigration. According to Roy Beck at NumbersUSA:

Led by the National Council of La Raza and the Anti-Defamation League, the open-borders groups have started a concerted campaign to persuade Cable TV executives to either bar me and our Director of Government Relations Rosemary Jenks from their shows, or to always introduce us as representing an "extremist" organization with ties to hate and racist groups. Their characterization of NumbersUSA and our members is without any connection to reality, facts or even common decency. But if all of us remain silent in the face of this campaign of character assassination, we might indeed be silenced on TV and beyond.

And more specific targets include Lou Dobbs of CNN, Pat Buchanan of MSNBC, Glenn Beck of Headline News and Sean Hannity of Fox.

You can access an Associated Press article about it here:

Group: Immigration Talks Rouse Hate
Associated Press via USA Today
February 1, 2008

Knowing how left-leaning most news networks are, it is not a question of if they will cave in but a question of when.

So, what can we do? We can notify the heads of the various networks that we will not be pleased if they give in to the propaganda of groups such as La Raza and ADL. You can contact them thus:

CNN Jim Walton President CNN Worldwide Atlanta, GA Email: jim.walton@turner.com Jonathan Klein President CNN U.S. New York, NY Email: jonathan.klein@cnn.com Richard Davis Executive Vice President of News Standards and Practices Atlanta, GA Email rick.davis@turner.com Viewer Response Line/Comments Call 212-275-7800 ask for Viewer Response Line FOX NEWS Roger Ailes Chairman and CEO New York, NY Email roger.ailes@foxnews.com Bill Shine Senior Vice President Programming New York, NY Email bill.shine@foxnews.com Brian Lewis Executive Vice President Corporate Communications New York, NY Email brian.lewis@foxnews.com Public Feedback Yourcomments@foxnews.com MSNBC Phil Griffin Senior Vice President of News New York, NY Email phil.griffin@nbc.com

And Roy Beck reminds us:

Please remember that these executives are not our enemies. Although we may not always agree with their balance in covering immigration, these three cables have been far more open than broadcast TV and the nation's newspapers to allowing the majority of Americans' concerns about immigration to be expressed. The La Raza Censorship Campaign is telling these executives that if they allow leaders from FAIR, the Minutemen, ALIPAC, or if they allow Rosemary and me, to continue to express our views on TV, the executives will be inculcating "good people" to hate all immigrants. The La Raza website says it goes beyond the bounds of free speech to say that our nation's immigration policies threaten our communities and our values. I say that statement itself threatens the values of our nation. Let these executives know that you know about the effort at censorship and that you back them 100% in keeping the immigration forum open to all sides -- including the open-borders people who want to censor us.

You can access the NumbersUSA website here:

NumbersUSA

Decision Time And An Open Letter To McCain's Detractors

It's been almost a week since Mitt Romney bowed out and the vitriol against John McCain that has been coming from the right has steady flowed non-stop, almost to the point of becoming a sort of derangement syndrome. Frankly, the Dems couldn't have asked for a better scenario than that, especially since their contest may actually come down to the Convention and who has control over the superdelegates. Such a situation could tear the Dems apart and seriously hamper their efforts in the final two months before November.

Lt. Col. Oliver North reminds us that the same thing can happen to the GOP and that the voter turnout numbers in the Dem and GOP primaries are not encouraging. From his latest column:

My "colleagues" in the so-called mainstream media gladly roll their cameras and recorders for those who assert that "McCain is not a real conservative" or who say, "I can never support him," and the ones claiming, "I just won't vote this year." It is, for me, a disheartening display because I have, as we say in the Marines, "been there -- done that." After I won the 1994 Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, I naively assumed that all in the GOP would pull together behind my conservative candidacy. I clearly don't know much about politics. If I did, I'd be writing this from my U.S. Senate office instead of my home in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. But at the trade school John McCain and I attended in Annapolis, Md., they did teach me how to count. I lost by a narrow margin in a three-way race. Some of those who were with me then are among those who now say they won't support John McCain.

I remember that race. I couldn't vote in it because I was living in Maryland at the time but I do remember how it turned out. The same thing could very well happen to the GOP if we don't unite.

Lt. Col. North goes on:

Worse still, since this election cycle began last year, the Democrats have raised more money than the GOP, and in the primary balloting that began last month, Democrats have turned out more voters. These numbers matter because they reflect the energy and commitment of the opposing parties in this year's presidential contest.

And this begs a question: Where were all the GOP voters who claim they could only support a Conservative during these past primary elections and on Super Tuesday? It seems as if there are more anti-McCain Republicans than there were people who actually showed up to vote in the primaries! How did that happen?

For some reason, the more Conservative candidates such as Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson had fewer supporters than the more liberal candidates McCain, Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani. Where were these Conservative "values voters" when the voting happened in places like Florida? I can't tell you where those people were when the polls opened, but I can tell you where they were not: voting or campaigning for a Conservative candidate.

Thus, my belief is that it is not one single person or one faction of the GOP that brought us to where we are now. We all share in this responsibility either by commission or by omission. Now, we need to deal with the reality of that collective responsibility.

Lt. Col. North is right: the most logical way to deal with it is to unite.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Decision Time
Lt. Col. Oliver North
GOPUSA.com
February 12, 2008

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And along this line of reasoning, we have an open letter from Jack Kemp to radio personalities Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham and columnist Ann Coulter. Jack writes:

The mistakes he alluded to in his CPAC speech reflect humility going forward that is encouraging to those of us like me, Steve Forbes, Ted Olsen, former Sen. George Allen and other conservatives who wanted to see in him a genuine desire to work with, and listen to, some of the original Reaganites. ... Collectively, you have all pointed out some of his faults (and failures), but overall, McCain is a genuine American hero, an 82.5 percent conservative, according to the American Conservative Union, and a man whose courage and tenacity are well-chronicled. You gave him your best shots and he took it like a man. Now, as he heads toward the nomination, I urge you to continue to be critical, but to do so in measured ways that will not damage his ability to win in November against those who would weaken our nation's defense, wave a white flag to al-Qaida, socialize our health-care system, and promote income redistribution and class warfare instead of economic growth and equality of opportunity. With Supreme Court appointments to be made in the near future and attacks mounting on traditional family values, it's critical to our cause to have a candidate who can appeal to Reagan Democrats and independent voters who share our world view. The stakes are enormous, and I urge you to put the McCain candidacy into historical perspective and recognize that he isn't just a bulldog of the Senate, but that he can become the lion of the 21st century.

We all know what the alternative is. Is anyone seriously willing to risk that?

I'm not.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

An Open Letter To Rush, Sean, Laura, Ann, Mark, et al.
Jack Kemp
TownHall.com
February 11, 2008