Archive for the ‘Media Watch’ Category

LinkSwarm for May 27, 2012

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Woke up entirely too early this morning, so here’s a big old bag of randomness:

  • Wisconsin Democratic recall candidate Tom Barrett manicuplated crime figures as Mayor of Milwaukee. (Hat tip: Jim Geraghty.) Shades of Tom Leppert. Or Tommy Carcetti.
  • I wonder if the “Choom Gang” VW Microbus our 44th President and his friends used to habitually smoke pot in also had tools and rakes and implements of destruction in it.
  • The UAW is broke.
  • America is defying the demographic doom befalling other nations.
  • “Non-Partisan” redistricting commissions aren’t.
  • Do liberals actually expect this patronizing, passive-aggressive condescension toward Judge Roberts to work? I’d like to believe that treating the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America as though he’s as easy to manipulate as an insecure teenage girl would be counterproductive if it weren’t so transparently laughable.
  • Huge land swindle/ponzi scam out near Manor. And where was the Statesman for this huge story in its own backyard? “No results found for “Natalia Wolf” site:statesman.com.”
  • Today’s amusing hashtag #MovieswithObama.
  • Remember when every car bomb in Lebanon was front page news? Now a bomb that kills 100 isn’t.
  • Major Democratic Donor Larry Flynt Pornographies Conservative Commentator S. E. Cupp

    Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

    I wonder if the founding fathers’ conception of the First Amendment right of free speech ever extended to faking pictures of a penis in a woman’s mouth. Which is what Obama supporter and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt just did to conservative commentator S. E. Cupp. I tend to doubt this thought crossed the mind of anyone attending the Constitutional Convention in 1787, not least because photography hadn’t been invented yet, and our founding fathers weren’t total pervs.

    Remember all those liberals crowing over the need for civility? Whatever happened to them?

    Expect some proforma sniffing from the left, to be followed by a quick flick into the memory hole, mainly because Flynt has been a serious contributor to Democrats and liberal causes over the years:

    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 HUSTLER MAGAZINE 8/19/96 $10,000 Clinton, Bill (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FMG INC 10/20/04 $2,500 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 LFP – SELF-EMPLOYED/PUBLISHER/CHAIR 12/29/03 $2,000 Kucinich, Dennis J (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90210 L F P INC 8/30/93 $1,000 National Republican Senatorial Cmte
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FMG INC./PRESIDENT 7/22/06 $1,000 Studebaker, Stephanie (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY LOS ANGELES,CA 90069 PUBLISHER 7/7/04 $1,000 DNC Services Corp (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FMG INC 5/10/05 $500 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY LOS ANGELES,CA 90069 HUSTLER 5/18/98 $500 California Voter Registration Project
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90210 L F P INC 8/30/93 $275 National Republican Senatorial Cmte
    FLYNT, LARRY LOS ANGELES,CA 90069 1/9/97 $-1,000 Clinton, Bill (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY LOS ANGELES,CA 90069 8/24/96 $-9,000 Clinton, Bill (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 LFP INC./CEO 9/28/06 $10,000 Democratic Party of Nevada (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 LARRY FLYNT PUBLICATIONS/EXECUTIVE 8/27/06 $10,000 Democratic Party of Washoe County (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FLYNT MANAGEMENT GROUP/PRESIDENT 12/30/05 $2,100 Carter, John William (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FLYNT MANAGEMENT GROUP/PRESIDENT 12/30/05 $2,100 Carter, John William (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FMG INC 7/19/05 $1,500 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FMG INC 7/18/05 $1,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C LOS ANGELES,CA 90069 FMG, INC./PUBLISHER 8/25/05 $1,000 Clinton, Hillary (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 6/30/05 $-500 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C LOS ANGELES,CA 90069 9/22/05 $-1,000 Clinton, Hillary (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 8/10/05 $-2,500 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 10/21/04 $-2,500 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 SELF/PUBLISHER 2/15/08 $2,300 Kucinich, Dennis J (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 SELF/PUBLISHER 8/4/08 $1,000 Kucinich, Dennis J (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FMG INC/PRESIDENT 5/10/07 $2,300 Kucinich, Dennis J (D)
    FLYNT, LARRY C BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211 FLYNT PUBLICATIONS/CEO 9/26/11 $2,000 Hall, Isadore (D)

    Of course, the donations to Bill Clinton (a man after his own heart) should surprise no one. The big mystery is those two donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Maybe he did it just to see if they would notice.

    That’s an awful lot of money for Dennis Kucinich for a guy in California. I wonder what Flynt’s interest is….

    Celebrating #Julia’s Circle of Life

    Saturday, May 5th, 2012

    You may have heard of the Obama campaign’s attempt to use an imaginary woman named Julia to convince women to embrace a cradle-to-grave welfare state. (And looking at European demographics, we can only assume that’s more grave than cradle.)

    Naturally, conservatives have had fun on Twitter with #Julia, including the observation that her male counterpart would naturally be named “Winston.” Also: “#Julia died at age 78. She voted Democrat until age 92.”

    But, as usual, IowaHawk nails it.

    Some other Julia tidbits:

  • What was left out of Julia’s story: She’s not a taxpayer, she’s not married, and she’s not religious.
  • The Heritage Foundation reimagines her life.
  • Paul Ryan calls it creepy and demeaning.
  • Ad “Twitter” to the list of things The New York Times doesn’t understand. (I know, it’s a long list.) Hey NYT, it isn’t the “Republican Response Machine,” it’s the swarm. The reason I named this blog “BattleSwarm” was after the Rand Corporation’s Swarming and the Future of Conflict: Dispersed, autonomous units come together at a point to concentrate their firepower. It’s the army of Davids. It’s the future of media. It means that the MSM has lost control of the narrative and there’s nothing you can do to get it back.
  • LinkSwarm for May 4, 2012

    Friday, May 4th, 2012

    Just because I endorsed Ted Cruz doesn’t mean I’ve given up doing Texas Senate Race Updates, it’s just that I have other fish to fry this week.

  • In Ft. Worth, a Democratic precinct chair candidate is indicted for vote fraud.
  • Also, former Democratic state Rep. Jim Solis has been debarred for professional misconduct. “Solis pleaded guilty in April 2011 after admitting to involvement in the extortion scheme of former state District Judge Abel C. Limas, who pleaded guilty to racketeering in March. Solis’ sentencing is scheduled for August.”
  • CNN ratings hit ten year low.
  • The “most open Administration ever” has abolished press conferences.
  • Charles Krauthammer on our divider-in-chief.
  • I may have posted this before, but it bears repeating: the “Texas only creates low-paying jobs” myth debunked. “It turns out that the opposite is true. Since the recession started hourly wages in Texas have increased at a 6th fastest pace in the nation.”
  • Elizabeth Warren and the tragedy of modern liberalism:

    Warren is playing an important role in our political discourse: she is the ghost of liberalism future. Warren’s alleged use of affirmative action, if true, would have to be the most egregious abuse of the system at the expense of minorities we’ve seen yet. Elizabeth Warren is, as a white woman, statistically speaking very much a member of this country’s majority. The only category in which she is a true minority is wealth: Elizabeth Warren is very, very rich… If Warren, a rich, white, Harvard professor, is a victim, everyone is.

    Why does this matter? Because it reveals that the left thinks affirmative action is a joke, another cudgel with which to attack political opponents at the expense of minorities who might, thanks to liberalism’s insistence on keeping students in failed school districts, actually put the policy to some good use. And because if Elizabeth Warren is unable to advance coherent liberal policy arguments, then there may be none to advance.

  • Blue Dot blues takes a look at Parent PAC.
  • There’s a Tea Party Express event in Austin on the south Capitol steps at 2 PM Sunday, May 6th, with Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, and Rep. Ron Paul. I will try to attend if my busy schedule permits.
  • Today’s amusing Twitter mem de jour: #progressivestarwars.
  • Texas Senate Candidate Forum Tonight at 7 PM

    Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

    You can watch it here, or live on-air at various PBS stations around the state. From the poll found here, I’m assuming the candidates will be Ted Cruz, David Dewhurst, Tom Leppert, Craig James, Paul Sadler and Sean Hubbard.

    I might watch if I get some other stuff done, but I won’t be liveblogging it.

    I Now Have a Twitter Account for BattleSwarm

    Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

    Go to https://twitter.com/#!/BattleSwarmBlog if you want to follow me there. Expect a lot of #txsen posts. I’ll probably also tweet more stuff that’s not worthy of an entire post…

    Mark Steyn Dogs Obama

    Saturday, April 28th, 2012

    The whole “Obama Eats Dog” Kerfuffle was notable only for the amazing speed liberal pundits shut their lips instead of continuing to mouth off about a 1983 Romney family vacation. But we can be thankful the episode allows us to enjoy Mark Steyn operating in rare form:

    There followed an Internet storm of “I Ate a Dog (and I Liked It)” gags. Axelrod, an early tweeter of Romney doggie digs, has now figured out that the subject is no longer profitable for his boss. The dogs he let slip aren’t quite that savvy. Jeremy Funk, communications director of “Americans United for Change,” is still bulk-e-mailing links to the dogsagainstromney.com video “Should We Have a President Who Isn’t Even Qualified to Adopt a Pet?” Confronted by the revelation that his preferred candidate only swings by the Humane Society for the all-you-can-eat buffet, he huffs that this is “false equivalence.”

    Snip.

    Just for the record, Romney’s father was not a polygamist; Romney’s grandfather was not a polygamist; his great-grandfather was a polygamist. Miles Park Romney died in 1904, so one can see why this would weigh heavy on 86 percent of female voters 108 years later.

    Meanwhile, back in the female-friendly party, Obama’s father was a polygamist; his grandfather was a polygamist; and his great-grandfather was a polygamist who had one more wife (five in total) than Romney’s great-grandfather. It seems President Obama is the first male in his line not to be a polygamist.

    And this:

    Axelrod is right. Obama’s appetite for dogs isn’t as critical as his appetite for spending and statism. But it was part of his cool. “Mitt Romney isn’t cool,” declared Brian Montopoli of CBS News this week in a story headlined “Can Mitt Romney Make Boring Sexy”? For economically beleaguered Americans, the more pertinent question is: “Can Barack Obama Make Cool Affordable”? It’s not just that Obama ate the dog, but that he’s screwing the pooch.

    Plus a bonus reference to Obama’s “big stick.”

    Read the whole thing.

    LinkSwarm for April 27, 2012

    Friday, April 27th, 2012

    Working on a major senate race post, so enjoy another Friday LinkSwarm:

  • Maureen Dowd has a fairly limited range of issues upon which she’s actually worth reading, but the personal scandals of sleazy corrupt politicians (in this case the John Edwards trial) is well within that range.
  • Obama is now as unpopular among independents as Democrats were during the 2010 election.
  • “This Sunday marks exactly three years since the Democratic majority in the Senate last passed a budget, on April 29, 2009.”
  • Hispanics overwhelmingly oppose laws against illegal aliens. And by “overwhelmingly” I mean “within the margin of error.”
  • What various college majors earn.
  • NYT notices that liberals are driving Blue Dogs out of the Democratic party. Though I don’t seem to remember them running articles on how “Redistricting has been bad for the country” back when Democrats were the one with the Gerrymandered majority…
  • The public employee union aristocracy is on the ballot in Wisconsin.
  • The Las Vegas gambling industry just invested a lot of money in Texas House speaker Joe Straus. Err, that is to say, in his family’s business.
  • And remember, to stay Speaker, Straus not only has to fend of his own primary challenger, he also has to help out his committee chairmen.
  • Texas Democratic State Representative Ron Reynolds is charged with barratry, which seems to be “a lawyer being a dick just to get business.” The fact that Reynolds himself voted in favor of the law he’s now charged with is just the cherry on top.
  • More skulduggery on the Round Rock ISD school board.
  • LinkSwarm for April 23, 2012

    Monday, April 23rd, 2012

    I have a few major posts in various stages of gestation, so here’s a LinkSwarm to tide you over in the meantime:

  • Mark Steyn on our heroic Secret Service agents: “It’s not just the entitlements. Everywhere you look in the bloated federal Leviathan, all is waste, all is excess. But the absurd imperial presidency is a good place to start. The next citizen-executive of this republic would be sending a right message were he to halve the motorcade, halve the security detail, halve the hookers.”
  • Does Obama have an $8 billion slush fund to soften the impact of cuts to the Medicare Advantage program until after the election? (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
  • Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti OKs marriage for ten year old girls. Insert your own Aisha joke here.
  • The story of the FBI’s long-running PATCON operation in the 1990s, and how it never managed to result in any serious charges (and missed Timothy McVigh to boot). (Hat tip: Supsy Street.)
  • The former President of the Maldives claims that Obama approved of the Islamist coup that deposed him. I’m not sure that’s the case, since it’s obvious that Obama doesn’t know where the Maldives are located.
  • George Washington kicks Rommel’s ass. (Hat tip: An American Housewife, Formerly in London.)
  • Pew Survey: GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party.” (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
  • Voter fraud in Virginia. (Hat tip: Ace.)
  • An oldie, but still relevant why America hates the media.
  • Cyberattack on Iran’s oil industry?
  • Why did the South lose the Civil War?
  • Borepatch reports on the Dallas Blogshoot. I was too busy and it was a bit too long of a drive for me to make. Which is a shame, since I would have liked to try some of the machine guns, and the .50 cal. Bonus: Ponies!
  • PETA With Suits and Deodorant

    Monday, April 23rd, 2012

    Here’s a superb example of a viral attack ad that accomplishes everything it sets out to do: attract attention, create an impression, make viewers question their previous view on a subject, and provide a few laughs:

    Until I saw this, I had no idea how much the Humane Society had come to resemble PETA. But you start digging down into the information, and not only do you find out that they’re a lousy charity, but that they have indeed signed on to the whole anti-meat/anti-farming PETA agenda.

    (Hat tip: Shall Not be Questioned, who used the same line from the video as the headline.)