We can't be politically ADD anymore

Chad's been hammering the point, and it's a valid one.  We get pissed off at the Democrats and Vichy Republicans, and we vent and phone in and write letters for a few days...then we go away.  Real Life^TM and the daily grind of life distract us, and we let things go, or in the case of the Vichy Republicans, we all too often rationalize and accept their incompetence/betrayals. 

It isn't enough just to quit donating to the GOP, or re-register as an Indy or LP or whatever else is out there, we have to boost worthy people, donate or volunteer for individual candidates worth supporting.  Don't just tell the GOP and RNC what it is you're doing, but why you're doing it, and keep telling them.  Even a quick note along the lines of, "Don't think I forgot about this sellout on Crap &Trade/Porkulus/Amnesty/pretty much everything, dickheads!  Now, if you were to do this, this and this, I may change what I'm doing, till then, I'll be doing things the way I am now." now and then, even after things have cooled down, will have an effect.  The left is playing to win, and we're going to lose hard if we don't make the effort to stop them.

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Another Reason To Support The Iranian People

Their women are so hot, even Jewstin and Rosetta want them. And they love to party.

The rest of the article was about Twitter and all that, but this bit is all that matters to me at this point.

But at night, and in private, the shawls were off. The same girls – with their brothers and cousins – joined me in underground raves, fuelled by smuggled alcohol and copious amounts of cannabis.

Here is an image from the article. Folks, this definitely is worth fighting for:

Marginally related, but this tweet is great.

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This can and does work

If people will commit to it.  Hugh Hewitt is advocating a boycott of GM and Chrysler as long as they are government owned operations.  He correctly notes that government run, formerly privately owned auto companies don't succeed anyway, but we're also going to end up subsidizing this disaster for as long as it is around as a government run institution. 

Boycotts work, and I'm going to go back to examples of Second Amendment activist success to show that this works.  During the 90's, one of the things the Democrats were going to do to try and destroy the Second in the US was team up with cities and individuals to file suit against firearms manufacturers.  Unless those manufacturers agreed to a bunch of abusive limitations, nanny restrictions and and other Orwellian obscenities, individuals and cities, backed by the Feds would sue manufacturers into oblivion.

The industry agreed as a whole to tell the Administration to get bent, and they'd fight the extortion tooth and nail.  Except Smith & Wesson, then owned by a British firm (and as we all know, the Brits are unwilling to stand up to authoritarians), they caved and signed the agreement in 2000, what is known as S&W's Deal With The Devil. 

Consumers and activists were furious, and almost immediately demand for S&Ws collapsed and the market was flooded with used ones.  In about a year, S&W was sold to a US firm at a huge loss, the US firm immediately rejected the Deal With The Devil, and S&W has since recovered quite nicely, though it took years to regain consumer trust.

The good news is that Bush signed legislature passed by Congress afterwards to try and prevent that sort of extortion scheme from being enacted again.  The Democrats are afraid to try and roll that back too, because they know they lose elections when they piss off the NRA and activists. 

If we stand firm, and make it known that what is happening is unacceptable to us, and we do refuse to buy new GM and Chryslers, or even go so far as to sell our current ones in protest, a strong message will be sent, and they will have to listen. 

I can assure you, my next vehicle won't be a GM or Chrysler. 

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Quit apologizing already

The Black Sphere has some tips for the next generation of up-and-coming GOPers.

Stupid Liberal Democrat Media: "I see in your divorce agreement you only get the kids every other weekend, Conservative Candidate."

Conservative Candidate: "Yes. That's more time that you spend with yours, and you have yours all the time. Next question."

 Kevin has a good handle on "FY,NQ" without the FY part of it. Which is probably good, as I can't see anyone other than Fred Thompson or John Bolton's 'stache actually being able to get away with saying that to a reporter.

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On the Patterico/PW fight

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with Eddie on the PW/Patterico fight. As Veeshir says, we've got to get our collective shit together before we can defeat the leftists and statists once and for all, and what Patterico and Jeff are arguing is a critical issue. 

I happen to agree with Jeff that going forward, we can no longer cede the meaning of our own words to the left, which is what most of the GOP leadership has done with Rush and us as conservatives(except Jindal!).  The problem with this is that unlike Rush, we don't have the ability to bring the wrath of millions of activists to bear when our words get twisted, and even then, even Rush himself can't stop the left and media from doing so anyway.  We've ceded language to the left too often already, and have paid a dear price for it.  The fatal flaw in Patterico's criticism of Jeff's arguments over the Four Words is that Patterico is arguing from a place of tactics, not strategy.  Tactics don't win wars, strategies do.  Even if it makes tactical sense to throw Rush under the bus, it makes zero strategic sense, which is the key, Jeff and most of us understand that, Patterico and most of the GOP leadership don't.

As you follow the argument, you'll notice that Patterico has offered up all kinds of different scenarios and arguments in an effort to try to make a dent in Jeff's arguments regarding language, to no avail.  Jeff hasn't had to make any adjustments in his argument, just simply applying his argument to the various scenarios laid out by Patterico (until it became an exercise in futility).  That isn't to say we don't need good tacticians, we need both, but the overall strategy has to take precedent.

As for the whole "threat" thing, silly crap, and I'm dismissing it as such.  I won't go so far as to attribute it to Patterico acting desperate as a result of losing the argument, but I think it is silly.

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Some Perspective...

Machinist over at TSW nails what has been going on in the dextrosphere the last few weeks, vis a vis what we face as a whole.

When two kids get into a fight at a kids’ game, that reflects badly on today’s standards of sportsmanship.

When the parents turn it into a riot, that reflects so sadly on our culture and our standards of parenting.

To see two prominent bloggers get into a disagreement and carry it way past the point where either was thinking with the big head is sad. They both lost credibility and dignity in this.

Their true friends would have tried to part them or calm things down until the hosts cooled off enough to part ways and make their cases to those who came to their sites to learn, leaving the other to do the same. Some regulars tried to do just that, to their credit. But too many preferred to join with the trolls from both sites in stirring up a riot and making any reasonable outcome impossible. The original issue is not even discussed seriously now. Each day I go to mourn the losses on both sides and I find the delinquents are still at it, trying to stir up a rumble for their own purposes or entertainment.

The enemy is laughing, a pox on both their houses.

I missed much of the PW/Patterico war, but it has turned very ugly and VERY personal. Maybe we should realize our common enemy. That's all I'm sayin'.*

*Yeah, I know. I have attacked Allah (and Ace for defending and protecting Allah), but a link whore who goes out of his way to antagonize 95% of his readership and fellow travelers just for a hit count uptick is different from a nasty, vitriolic feud between two guys who openly admit they share the common foe that leads to what has developed over the last few days.

And besides, if anybody should be acutely aware of menacing comments left at another blog that could be misconstrued as threatening, it's Goldstein.

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Photos from the Cincinnati demonstration

Pretty big crowd considering these sorts of marches are not really our kind of thing, and big cities aren't really known as conservative strongholds. 

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What Is The Last Straw For You?

Mare mentioned something at H2 today that got me wondering.

Here is an excerpt:

In other words, what is the last straw for you guys?

Let me be clear: I favor democratic change at the ballot box, not violence. Voting the bums out? Yes. Protest? Yes. Paper Maiche Heads? Yes. Violence on any level*? Absofuckinlutely not.

But, it is a good point. What is the tipping point for most of us? Or, are we already there, and just need to bring the unwashed with us?

*Again, let me reiterate (especially since I will soon be working for Uncle Sam), I support only legal means of dealing with the political class. The ballot box and free speech is as far as I'll go, and anybody who goes beyond that is dead to me.

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Initial Reports From St. Louis Tea Party

My wife and daughter went down to the Archgrounds today to participate in the local "Tea Party", along with my wife's twin sister and her two sons. It was cold and dreary, but a lot of people showed up.

Hell, it must have been a success if even the liberal local media mentioned the larger than expected attendees.

Louanne Patterson calls the cure worse than the disease.

   "Our children, my son, my grandson's future -- they're mortgaging it,"  she complained as fellow protestors nodded in agreement.  "They say we're going to get back $400, $800 on our taxes but with the deflation (the stimulus package) is going to cause, that's going to be worth nothing."

   Organizers were stunned by their own success -- they expected 50 to 100 people to come out on a chilly workday but the crowd swelled to 1,000 or more.

Sadly, my family members didn't stay the whole time because the little ones were getting cold and cranky. Instead, they went up the arch.

UPDATE! Here is a video from a local TV Network.

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Can We Revive And Retool Project Leper?

While I am not shocked that Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe are the two leading "moderates" who appear willing to side with the pro-Spendulus crowd (and Collins seems to holding out for some sort of payola for her vote), one thing came to mind.

Arlen Specter has to run in 2010 in a primary for his Senate seat. Why not revive and retool Project Leper? This time, any politician who endorses Specter over a viable primary challenger (Please run again, Toomey!) should be shunned and lose funding. Same goes for any staffer/paid hack who offers to work on the Specter Primary Team. And why not do the same for any other "moderate" who joins with the pro-Spendulus crowd?

If this were the only example of Specter, Snowe, Collins, et al. stabbing us in the back, that would be one thing. But this has been going on for decades with these tools, and enough is enough. I no longer buy the argument that we need Arlen Specter in the Senate because he is an "R". Fuck that! He has never worked with us, and never will.

Too bad Chuck Hagel is no longer around. Then I might really get angry.

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Some Lessons Learned For The Next Battle

It is now officially the last day of George W Bush's term as President. In mere hours, all of Washington will be run by the Democrat Party, as we on our side begin to rebuild and recalculate how we will someday return to power. As many others have stated, while I disagreed vigorously with many aspects of the Bush Presidency, I will miss him, and I really do feel a bit sad. However, as a (sometimes foolish) optimist, I try not to look back, but forward. I try not to refight the last battle, but look forward to the next one, and how we can win again, using the lessons learned from the past eight years. Here are a few rambling ideas of mine.

more...

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One Idea For Countering The Left

As you may know by now, I am deeply frustrated with the group of defeatist bloggers, opinion makers, and pundits who seem more than happy that Obama won so that they can secure book deal, issue snarky comments in retaliation for their guy not getting picked for something or other reasons known only to them. Well, since this Axis Of Defeatism doesn't even offer a blueprint for victory, instead hoping that hiding under the bedsheets and asking "exit questions", confident that they have enablers and defenders in their corner to fight back any critics, will work in 2016, I guess it falls to others to do so.

In that regard, I may have found a person who does have a plan, and it kinda makes sense: infiltrate Hollywood and Pop Culture as much as possible. And Breitbart makes the case better than I ever could.

OK. But how?

 

The Democratic Party resonates on the Internet because it resonates in pop culture. The Democratic Party resonates in pop culture because it has been committed to dominating it for over a generation.

Democrats are celebrities, rock stars, magazine covers and stadium concerts. Republicans are a small list of famous people who have to make public excuses for their affiliation.

Democrats throw parties, get models to show up, and Red Bull and Stoli pick up the tab. Republicans feature a no-host bar hoping an astronaut from the Mercury mission stops by.

Democrats pull off a star-studded, entertainment-laden Obama acceptance speech at Invesco Field. Republicans get a black dude to wear red, white and blue and perform a 1985-era patriotic rap song dressed as Uncle Sam.

The spectacular Will.I.Am song and video, "Yes We Can," could not be duplicated by Republicans if T. Boone Pickens airdropped his fortune on the RNC headquarters.

 

more...

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a faint light shining in the dark

According to this article in the International Herald Tribune, the Dutch Labor Party is calling for an end to the multicultural view of tolerance.  Labor in the Netherlands is fairly Left so this is a pretty big deal.  Of course, I'll believe it more when Ayaan Hirsi Ali can return home, but at least it's a start.

The most interesting line in the article to me is this from Lilianne Ploumen, the spokeswoman for Labor.  "For Ploumen, talking to the local media, "The street is mine, too. I don't want to walk away if they're standing in my path."

I've been hoping that women, in particular, will get sick of being told that they have to tolerate and understand the misogynistic idiots who thrown up religion as some type of excuse for their actions.  It seems like it may be starting.

Do I believe this will go anywhere?  I hate to say it, but history is on the side of no.  But at least it's a start.  I will admit that I share Mark Steyn's opinion that there's an upcoming clash of civilizations in Europe and that most European countries will revert to form to deal with it.  But it would be nice if that weren't the case.

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Who Needs Prescription Pain Killers?

Not I. Especially when I have the ultimate over the counter pain remedy:


Yup, two days on, and I'm feeling no pain. And I haven't even had to go to a doctor, since the cut is starting to heal on its on, is free of infection (thanks to the Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol and Neosporin I used), and doesn't need stitches.

Oh, and below the jump (for those squeamish folks out there) is what it looked like tonight.

more...

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A Chambliss Update In Between Trips To The Toilet

I have been suffering from a gastrointestinal discomfort since about mid-afternoon today. Ugh.

But here are the results of a poll on the Chambliss runoff race, which show Chambliss +3 (within MOE).

Sadly, Kos is sponsoring the poll, so take the numbers with a grain of salt. Also note that the once conservative Real Clear Politics is all but giving the race to Martin because of a freaking poll sponsored by one of the most dishonest political asshats ever. As a result, the numbers could be good (Chambliss ahead) or bad (Chambliss not ahead by enough to overcome undecideds and the lefty fraud turnout machine, as RCP asserts).

Either way, those who can help need to realize what is going on. If you can't help, please at least hit the Saxby site.

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Notes on the Revolution - Infiltrating the GOP machine

Something I've talked a bit lately about is the importance of infiltrating the GOP power structure.  What I'm talking about here about isn't candidates (though obviously we need good candidates), but rather the RNC, the state and local GOPs and campaigns.  This isn't going to happen overnight either, this is going to take several election cycles, maybe even a decade or more. 

This isn't to dismiss the need for a strong, outside presence to apply an endless, relentless pressure on Republican elites to, you know, at least pretend they're Republicans.  Indeed, that's the most important, but having infiltrators working from within is going to make things much, much easier to for that outside force to work.

All it takes is one guy sending the right info to the right people at the right time, and those people getting the message acting to spread word of the latest sellout, or the way to effectively get your message to people in the upper echelons who need to hear it.  With people working for them on the inside, the grassroots will become much more effective at bitchsmacking our own elite back into line.

So how do you do it?  Like any other job, start out in an entry level job (usually volunteering for something, perhaps a local campaign), making connections and gaining experience, and working your way up.  Not everyone is going to take this path, nor should they.  Not everyone is going to advance, but the more people we have working to undermine the RINOs, kleptocrats, and all the other malcontents while helping good, capable conservatives advance within the GOP, the better.

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Notes on the Revolution - What will Rightroots look like?

Jon Henke of The Next Right seems to think it's going to look like the Nutroots,

Will the Right's netroots movement look like that of the Left?  To the extent that the tools, and the social/political dynamics, are similar, I'd say the Right's netroots movement will look a great deal like that of the Left.  The question is not what tools are available, but how they are relevant to the surrounding environment.  The components will not be identica, but the basic concepts they represent should be very much the same.  Or rather, they will be when the Right regains its footing.

I'm not convinced that it will, and I'm not convinced that it should either.  I don't think we can win that way, either.  I'm not even convinced that it will something even remotely comparable to the nutroots political machine.  I'm beginning to think that the blogosphere and the Rightroots are going to be less of a political machine like the nutroots have become, but more like an academy, the evolution of the Limbaugh philosophy of teaching conservatism daily. 

I don't think the Right's political activism will ever be based on the intarwebs, or on talk radio or on wonkish magazines or papers, but will be based on word of mouth, face to face communication, lifestyle and daily life.  Bloggers for the most part aren't going to lead the revolution, they're going to advise it in an indirect fashion, and serve as a weather vane for the for movement conservatives who will work to infiltrate the GOP, both as GOP operatives, as candidates.  It will also be utilized by those working to change the culture.

Consider this, from John Hawkins, talking about the GOP's tin ear,

That's a real shame because had they listened to bloggers, most of the big political snafus of the last four years could have been avoided. However, they pay zero attention to things they're told by bloggers, even on the rare occasions when they ask what we think.

Just to give you an example of what I'm talking about, here's a generic conversation, some variation of which I've had with different congressional aides at least half-a-dozen times over the last four years.

Anonymous Aide: Hawkins, I want to ask your advice.
John Hawkins: Shoot.
Anonymous Aide: We're thinking about doing idea x.
John Hawkins: Are you out of your mind? That's going to be a disaster!
Anonymous Aide: Well, they've already decided to do it. How do we sell it to the bloggers?
John Hawkins: You're asking me whether you should put mayonnaise or mustard on a sh*t sandwich. I can give you some advice, but it's not going to go over well no matter how you spin it.

Inevitably, it doesn't sell -- which cuts to the heart of the problem the GOP has with bloggers: they need to have conversations with bloggers instead of just viewing us as another part of the message machine.

Do they just not think to call or email the big bloggers, or hell, a Rush or Levin, to see how a certain action is going to be taken by the base?   Evidently, and the sad part is that most of them are more clueless than this aide, both as politicians and political operatives. 

This dynamic will change however.  It has to, whether it happens in 2010, or if it takes the GOP getting it's ass handed to it in a few more elections.  Somewhere in the future, GOP candidates will figure this out (and maybe one has already), and campaign volunteers/workers with experience in the blogosphere will be able to guide candidates in how to utilize and use the blogosphere.

I ultimately think that if the right blogosphere is doing the right thing, it isn't going to change that much, it'll mostly just grow larger and broader, and bloggers and right blogs will better utilized by conservatives going out into Real Life^TM to make a better world.  It certainly won't look like the Nutroots.

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Notes on the Revolution

Notes on the Revolution is going to be a place to put our thoughts on the building and progress of the conservative movement, in particular, that of the "Rightroots."  Obviously the guys at The Next Right have been pushing this idea of a Rightroots hard, and a lot of people are latching onto the idea, seeing it as an effective counter against the nutroots, the Moron-in-Chief has weighed in, seeing the Rightroots as a necessary counter. 

John Hawkins has a lot of good stuff on the topic, some of which I'll comment on in later posts.  Hawkins is actually a good person to pay attention to on the topic, given that he's been to some extent trying to bring about a Rightroots-ish movement for a while now, with mixed results.  I've had a lot of thoughts brewing in my mind on this topic, but struggled to find the format to deliver them, but I think I've got my format now.

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