Today was dedicated to exercise and fiction, so here’s a quick LinkSwarm:
LinkSwarm for October 8, 2012
October 8th, 2012New Pro-Romney Ad: “The Dinner Table”
October 7th, 2012Take a gander at the latest ad from American’s for Prosperity:
Not only does it work for me, it has a subtle, minimalist brilliance that not only makes it stick in the mind, but makes it hard to fight. What are liberals going to say? “No, unemployment isn’t high?” “No, middle class families aren’t suffering?” “No, it’s all Bush’s fault?” “No, let’s keep doing the same thing?” The very lack of dialog all but eliminates attack vectors against it, and any attacks against it will only make more people watch it.
I got this via Ace of Spades who, strangely enough, doesn’t like it. A commentator suggests that it’s because it stresses feelings over facts. But if facts and figure by themselves swayed the majority of voters, Obama would never have been elected President, and would stand no chance now.
If you have liberal friends on Facebook, chances are that they’re not forwarding links that show how objectively great a job Obama is doing. No, what they’re doing is forwarding links designed inflame fellow liberals with what horrible people Republicans are by focusing on the stupid things said by a few Republican office-holders. (Todd Aiken before, Paul Broun this week.) It’s meant to distract from Obama’s manifest failures by making the opposition evil incarnate. Political ads play on emotions because playing on emotions works.
Which isn’t to say it’s the only advertising you should be doing. But as part of a larger advertising strategy I think this particular ad is very effective.
You know what they could do to make liberals really crawl of their skin? Do the exact same ad with a black family.
Pictures from Tony Dale’s Fundraising Luncheon
October 5th, 2012I attended Tony Dale‘s fundraising luncheon, and snapped a few pictures of the swells assembled there. Click to embiggen.
First, the lovely and talented Holly Hansen of Williamson County Conservative, who I finally got to meet in person! We’ve only been trading blog links for two years. Next to her is Cedar Park Mayor Matt Powell.
Congressman John Carter and Williamson County Commissioner Lisa Birkman.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Abbott next to Your Humble Blogger and his freakishly long torso.
And naturally, since this was a luncheon for Tony Dale, none of the pictures I got of him came out. Go figure. But don’t let that stop you from voting for him…
Edited to Add: Tony Dale was kind enough to send this picture along:
Romney-Obama Debate Roundup Part 3
October 4th, 2012More Romney-Obama Denver debate fallout:
(Hat tips: Ace of Spades, Moe Lane, Instapundit, others.)
Romney-Obama Debate Roundup Part 2
October 4th, 2012More Romney-Obama debate reactions:
Romney Sweeps the Floor With Obama in First Debate: Roundup and Reactions
October 3rd, 2012We now have a whole new Presidential race.
I didn’t see the entirety of the debate, but in the parts I did see, Romney firmly trounced Obama. Romney looked sharp, engaged, lively and presidential. Obama looked like he was looking at his Blackberry when he wasn’t speaking.
Nor am I alone in my judgment, as even the Obama-friendly press and liberal pundits said Romney won (some in NSFW language):
If Romney had debated and campaigned this well in 2008, he’d probably be President right now.
More tomorrow.
Cruz-Sadler Debate Goes About the Way You Would Expect
October 3rd, 2012Ted Cruz pretty much wiped the floor with him, if the reports of our Demophilic media are to believed.
Visibly angry, [Sadler] repeatedly accused Cruz of lying. The Republican largely kept his cool and cast his little-known Democratic rival as “unapologetically liberal” and a big supporter of gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Even Paul Burka wasn’t impressed with Sadler. “Sadler was unrestrained. He called Cruz a liar, repeatedly.”
Here’s the full debate if you want to judge for yourself:
Texas vs. California Roundup: October 2, 2012
October 2nd, 2012Time for another Texas vs. California roundup. First up: The man who moved from one to the other:
(Hat tip: Willisms, City Journal, others.)
Help Me, Elspeth Reeve, You’re My Only Hope!
October 1st, 2012Let’s talk about the ObamaPhone video, shall we?
The video is both funny (the woman is an idiot with a comical voice) and politically useful (displaying, as it does, a sense of entitlement to government handouts).
So, naturally, some liberals are crying racism. Here the general case of “some liberals” is best exemplified by Elspeth Reeve. If that name rings a vague bell at the back of your mind, its probably because she’s most famous for violating journalistic standards by improperly fact-checking the articles by her husband, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, when he was smearing American troops in Iraq in a series in The New Republic.
Reeve has certified the ObamaPhone video as 100% racist:
The racism comes in when Drudge, Rush, the people who giddily retweeted the link, do a mental calculation that if enough people would just see this video they would support Romney, because it plays on the same racist stereotypes that are usually trotted out this time of the election cycle. The video posted on Drudge and played on Limbaugh was a black lady who has all the standard visual cues of being poor — messed-up teeth and skin, her waistline, her yelling. Oh, and if cues aren’t enough, she talks in racial terms: “Everybody in Cleveland, all the minorities got a phone. Keep Obama president, you know, he gave us a phone, he’ll give us more.”
Let’s dissect that a little. When Reeve says “do a mental calculation…because it plays on the same racist stereotypes ” what she’s saying is that she can read people’s minds, and she knows their intent is racist. And then she admits that the subject of the video talks in racial terms. So instead of putting the onus for bringing race into the discussion on the subject of the video herself who brings it up, she puts it on conservatives she can tell are committing thoughtcrimes because of her amazing telepathic powers.
Unfortunately, those of us without Elspeth Reeve’s extra-sensory perception are left at a loss to figure which amusing videos, at least those whose subjects happen to be black, are in fact racist. Given that I happen to be a white conservative living in Texas (and therefore someone already with a -5 on saving throws against liberal accusations of racism), obviously I need help in determining such things.
So where else can I go except the source itself? Help me, Elspeth Reeve, your psychic powers are the only hope I have for determining whether an amusing video that involves black people is racist or not!
Help me out here, Elspeth: Is Afro-Ninja racist?
How about this black woman saying Obama is going to pay her mortgage? Is that racist?
How about Obama stumbling around while answering a question? Is that racist?
How about Obama talking about visiting all 57 states? Is that racist?
How about black comedians dealing with racial issues. Is that racist? (NSFW warning applies to the language in the next few videos.) Is Dave Chappelle playing black white supremacist Clayton Bigsby racist?
How about Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase’s word association test?
How about Clevon Little in the famous sheriff-welcoming scene from Blazing Saddles?
Help me out here, Elspeth. Put your psychic powers to work. Which of these are racist, and which are merely funny?
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Dear California: You Know That Money Will Be Wasted, and You Know Those Tax Hikes Will Be Permanent
September 28th, 2012I’ve got another Texas vs. California piece coming around on the guitar, but I thought there was
Hold on to your hats, but it seems that California voters might, just might, be catching on that the Democrats who run California’s state government are wasting their money.
I will now wait for the indignant shouts of incredulous outrage to die down.
Support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for billions of dollars in tax hikes on the November ballot is slipping amid public anxiety about how politicians spend money, but voters still favor the proposal, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
Well, I did say “might.”
The findings suggest that voters are leery of sending more cash to Sacramento in the wake of a financial scandal at the parks department, spiraling costs for a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project to connect Northern and Southern California and ill-timed legislative pay raises.
If voters aren’t willing to stop spending for a $100 billion train to nowhere that everyone know will never be completed, and which would lose even more money every year if it was, when will they?
Brown’s measure would temporarily raise income tax rates on high earners for seven years and boost the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years in a bid to avoid steep cuts in funds for schools and other programs.
Note that word: “temporary.”
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the way politics actually works knows that there’s no such thing as a “temporary” tax hike. The only thing that prevents Democrats (and establishment Republicans) from spending every cent of every tax collected and more is booting them out of office. Raising taxes simply ensures that they’ll spend all the new revenue and additional money they don’t have on top of that. And with the fiscal tsunami California is facing from bloated government, spiraling debt, and gold-plated public employee union pensions that will bankrupt the state, those “temporary” taxes will never be repealed. Ever.
And two or four years down the line, the next Democratic governor will be asking the voters to approve another “temporary” tax hike…