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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Blagojevich to name Roland Burris to Obama's Senate seat

Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 12:57 PM

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Gov. Blagojevich today is expected to name former state Comptroller and Attorney General Roland Burris to Illinois' vacant U.S. Senate seat, a knowledgeable source said this morning.
A news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris, 71, had lobbied the governor for the position in recent weeks.
Burris made a previous attempt at the Senate seat in the past -- unsuccessfully. In 1984, he was beat out for the Democratic nomination by Paul Simon.

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

PUTTING PAIN IN CONTEXT

Posted by: Michael Medved at 12:45 AM

The best remedy for the prevailing hysteria about the current situation with the U.S. economy is a sense of historical perspective. Yes, we’re suffering a painful downturn but it’s hardly unprecedented and nowhere near the worst crisis since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate has risen to 6.7% but when Ronald Reagan took over the presidency from the hapless Jimmy Carter in 1981, it was sharply higher—at 7.5%. Fighting inflation, Reagan drove unemployment even higher, peaking at an unimaginably dire 10.8% two years into his presidency. It took six full years of Reaganomics before the jobless rate finally fell below 6.7% --its level in the current crisis—and yet we rightly remember Reagan as a great and successful president. The numbers and graphs that alarm the public today only mislead us when they’re deprived of context.

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Monday, December 29, 2008

RNC Member Tries to Sidestep GOP Activists

Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 7:18 AM

At least one member of the Republican National Committee doesn't want to hear from the grassroots. And, he only needs 16 more to shut them out.

North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Gary Emineth is circulating a petition among Republican National Committee members to hold an emergency meeting before a debate for RNC Chair candidates held by Americans for Tax Reform.

The purpose of the meeting appears to exclude grassroots activists from becoming involved in the race.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the public thinks; it matters what 168 of us think," the Emineth told The Hill newspaper. Technically speaking, he is correct. Only RNC party members vote for chairman.

That vote is scheduled to occur during the RNC's Winter Meeting in late January. According to party rules Emineth needed 15 different members from 16 different states to trigger the emergency meeting. He got the other signers and a meeting has been scheduled for January 7, two days after ATR's debate.

The petition has insulted many activists who have been closely watching the race. There are feeds on Twitter devoted to RNC Chair chatter, conservative blogs like Townhall have been very interested and ATR even set up a website to submit and vote on questions to ask the candidates during ATR's event.

And full disclosure, I have been directly involved in the creation of the site www. chooseyourchairman.com that allows activsts to vote and comment on a candidate as well as send an email directly to their RNC representative to lobby them for their vote.I'm proud of it, too. With no marketing whatsoever well over 1,000 people have voted and communicated with their RNC member. (I, however, am not supporting or endorsing any candidate. I was just interested in giving people a platform to communicate with their members.) This move by Emineth, however, seems to want to kill that entire spirit.

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Monday, December 29, 2008

WOULD ADVOCATES FOR GAY MARRIAGE REALLY ACCEPT RELIGIOUS DISSENT?

Posted by: Michael Medved at 1:05 AM

Advocates for same sex marriage regularly insist that they would never interfere with free exercise of religion and will do nothing to force unwilling churches to perform gay weddings. This position counts as hypocritical and misleading, and the current controversy over Pastor Rick Warren’s role in the Obama inauguration reveals the underlying intolerance in the gay agenda. Leading activists and politically correct commentators want Warren disqualified from giving the invocation because he opposes gay marriage, subjecting him to the sort of angry attack that will ultimately greet any clergyman who declines to sanction same-sex unions. Conservatives have never attempted to marginalize or humiliate pastors who support gay marriage, but the editorial and media attacks on Rick Warren give the lie to leftist claims that they’re ready to respect differences of opinion on this issue.

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Ann Coulter Free

Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 7:36 PM

In case you haven't noticed the graphic at the top of this page, Ann Coulter's new book comes out on January 6th. For a limited time, Townhall Magazine will give a copy of Ann Coulter's new book to new subscribers.

Click here to subscribe to Townhall Magazine and get Ann Coulter's Guilty for Free.

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Is Over, So Is The Redskins' Season

Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 7:19 PM

Time to put away the Christmas lights and get back to business. ?Obama becomes the 44th President in twenty-three days.

At least the Cowboys lost too.

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Stalin?

Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 5:53 PM

Stalin voted third-greatest Russian:

Television viewers have voted Soviet dictator Josef Stalin _ who sent millions to their deaths in the Great Purge of the 1930s _ Russia's third-greatest historical figure.
Rights activists have blasted Stalin's inclusion in the 90-day, nationwide project by the state-run Rossiya channel. They say authorities are trying to gloss over Stalin's atrocities and glorify his tyranny.
The project, called "The Name of Russia," culminated with the announcement Sunday night that Russian medieval leader Alexander Nevsky had been voted the greatest Russian, with more than 524,000 Internet and SMS votes. Stalin garnered more than 519,000 votes, and even led in early voting.

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Larry Craig News You Didn't Need To Know

Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 4:30 PM

AP:

The men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport where Republican Sen. Larry Craig was arrested in a sex sting is losing it appeal as a tourist stop, an official said.

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Limits Of Power

Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 10:10 AM

Poor Barack.

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

An Announcement...

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 8:30 AM

After two terrific years, the time has come to announce I will be leaving my full-time position at Townhall at the end of the year (I may still do some writing here -- that's still being fleshed out).

Let me say that it has been an honor and a pleasure to get to know you these last two exciting years!

The 2008 primaries, of course, provided a great deal of excitement in the conservative blogosphere, where I would sometimes get into heated, though respectful, disagreements with smart colleagues like Dean Barnett.

I recall back in March of '07, when I interviewed McCain aboard the Straight Talk Express in New Hampshire, as a highlight, but there were many, many others, including our coverage of the New Hampshire Primary in '08 -- Sarah Palin's announcement -- and the RNC Convention.

Changes, of course (especially in this business), are natural -- and like the "Tucker" cable show that I once appeared on, but is now defunct, it is true that even good things do not last forever.

Though I will keep writing in the conservative space, I am excited to announce that I have signed-on to blog for AOL, where I will continue providing conservative commentary and analysis. (You can read my posts here.)

I also encourage you to keep up with me at MattLewis.org, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Lastly, let me say that getting to work with top-notch writers like Hugh Hewitt, Jonathan Garthwaite, Amanda Carpenter, Mary Katharine Ham, Dean Barnett, Carol Platt Liebau, Fred Thompson, Patrick Ruffini, et al., has been tremendously rewarding and educational.

... But none of it would be necessary if you didn't read us. Thank you for all you do. Let's keep in touch...

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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Saltsman Distributes "Magic Negro" Song to RNC

Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 8:06 AM

Lots of people are raising their eyebrows at a distasteful campaign mailer RNC Chair hopeful Chip Saltsman sent to his fellow Republicans.

Saltsman sent RNC members one of Rush Limbaugh's CD's containing the parody song "Barack the Magic Negro" written by Paul Shanklin. Saltsman said it was a "joke" but some Republicans aren't buying it. Especially those who are active in promoting the race online.

"I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that his [Shanklin's] songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies,” Saltsman told The Hill newspaper.

One GOP activist who goes by the name aureliusmaximus on Twitter wrote, "satire or not it was completely inappropriate for someone running for RNC chair to do - time to drop out Saltsman." (There's more discussion of the controversy on this RNC feed HERE.)

Saltsman's controversial mailer may hurt another RNC Chair hopeful. It reminds many race watchers that South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson has been tagged as racially insensitive for belonging to an all-white country club.

Update: There's been lots of reaction since I posted yeseterday. Current RNC Chairman Mike Duncan and Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis are firmly against the mailer. RNC member Ada Fischer, who is a black woman, wrote a letter urging her colleagues to vote against Saltsman over this, but perhaps most shocking reaction is that of former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. He's defending the mailer. Here is the statement he gave to Politico.

BLACKWELL: "Unfortunately, there is hypersensitivity in the press regarding matters of race. This is in large measure due to President-Elect Obama being the first African-American elected president. I don't think any of the concerns that have been expressed in the media about any of the other candidates for RNC chairman should disqualify them. When looked at in the proper context, these concerns are minimal. All of my competitors for this leadership post are fine people."

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Friday, December 26, 2008

BRUTAL WINTER WEATHER DEFEATS “GLOBAL WARMING” AND BRINGS ON “CLIMATE CHANGE”

Posted by: Michael Medved at 1:35 PM

In Seattle, we’ve just lived through the most brutal winter storm since 1996, and perhaps in the last 30 years. All across the country, Americans shiver through this snowy winter and make jokes about “Global Warming”. The scientists who warn of climate change say that we shouldn’t base opinions on a few seasons of cold, but Al Gore himself called attention to the heat waves of the late ‘90’s as support for his point of view. Meanwhile, it’s increasingly obvious that the simplistic model of the steadily rising temperatures is inadequate to describe the complexities of climate and, as a result, environmental activists have now replaced the old slogans of “Global Warming” with more flexible warnings about “Climate Change”.

Actually, many Americans would welcome a change from the frigid, stormy climate of the last weeks of 2008.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Yeah...That's DEFINITELY a Franken Vote

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:07 PM

If you need anymore proof that the Minnesota recount is a mess, check this out. Note that the ballot shows Norm Coleman's bubble clearly filled in and no marks whatsoever in Al Franken's bubble. That ballot was awarded to Al Franken by Minnesota's Canvassing Board in the recount. It appears that the vote was challenged by the Franken campaign due to possible duplicate ballot issues, which would potentially be a reason for the board to throw out the vote for Coleman, but they didn't throw it out - they counted it as a vote for Franken.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Santa's Coming to Town

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 12:08 PM

Norad tracks Santa...

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

All I Want for Christmas is...

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 11:58 AM

...RealDVD. Unfortunately, nobody can get it for me because the big Hollywood studios are taking legal action to keep it off the market. The program would allow me to legally save my DVDs on my personal computer, which would make my life so much easier - and luckily it has all sorts of built in protections to prevent users from distributing pirated movies. Unfortunately, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has decided that this safe an useful gift must NEVER be found under our Christmas trees, and MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman has decided to play the Grinch.

For some unknown reason, the big movie studios and the MPAA grinches are doing their best to separate me from my preferred Christmas gift, and that makes me mad...because they aren't doing a gosh-darn thing to try to get rid of the plethora currently available (and free) programs that make REAL piracy possible. There's going to be a court hearing on RealDVD in early 2009, so I might be able to get my hands on it then...and maybe I'll write an angry letter to Santa asking for an advance copy.