Saturday, June 11, 2011

David Mamet on the Left and their Palin-phobia

David Mamet speaks to Hugh Hewitt and proves that some Hollywood writers can still think:


DM: Yeah, the left of today is not the left of my father’s day when it was made up of workers and factory workers and housewives, and veterans of World War II, and people who fix the lawnmowers, and the Republicans were the guys in the plaid pants who didn’t let the Jews in. The left of today is, it’s very much the cheese and white wine guy sitting around and talking about the greed, how greedy the world is, and how the dumb Americans have ruined this beautiful, beautiful world. And it’s kind of Malthusian. It’s saying don’t those people realize there are just too many folks on the highway, in the national forest, and they’re getting in my way? That would be, now tell me the question again. I got carried away with my own rhetoric.

HH: Sarah Palin, how Sarah Palin fits into that.

DM: Oh, sure. So Sarah Palin is a threat for several reasons. One is she’s a woman, and as I wrote an article in Misogyny, the left, if you look at it, really doesn’t like women. How do I know? Well, let’s look at Monica Lewinsky and Broadbent, and Mary Jo Kopechne, and all of these people who were in various ways vastly abused, and in one place, killed by liberal men and the left said nothing about it. They never mentioned it.

HH: Right.

DM: …because they weren’t, because as much as they’re “feminists,” it was more important to be a member of…is attacked as a woman, as attacked as an attractive woman, freed succubus, and attacked because she’s an actual worker, and because her story is part of the American myth.

HH: Yeah, she was a commercial fisherman, and like Harry Truman, actually knew of which she speaks when she talks about hard work.
DM: Sure, and also it’s part of our myth of Hollywood, you know, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, or The Farmer’s Daughter, The Candidate, Bulworth, The Contender. The myth is played out over and over and over again, Dave, the normal person who says well heck, I can do that, and in effect, can do it and rises to the highest office in the land. So when the left sees that in real life, of someone who is not on their side but on the other side, someone who has not been indoctrinated, someone who expresses herself well and is unusual and attractive and funny, it scares the hell out of them. So they say oh, you know, she’s stupid. I say I don’t get the joke. I don’t see what she’s stupid about. She seems to have succeeded wildly at everything that she ever did. All right, she’s just the governor of Alaska. Well hell, I’m not the governor of Alaska, and you aren’t. I doubt that either of us could be starting from zero. Well, it’s a small state. It just has a few people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the left knows not why it hates Sarah Palin, but they’re still talking about her.

Got Jobs?

The market recently fell out of bed this past week on the news of a disappointing May 2011 jobs report and other signs the 'recovery' is sputtering. The big picture is that recovery has not recovered most of the 7 million jobs lost in the recent recession. Here's a chart that says it all:


Even with the half a million new jobs so far this year, we still have five million fewer jobs than when Obama became President. With Q1 2011 at only 1.8%, it's a tepid recovery and economic growth has been inadequate. The economy is moving forward, but too slowly, and the reason it doesn't feel like a recovery is because we don't have the growth and jobs to truly get us out of this hole. Uncertainty created by Obama policies is the #1 reason this recovery is weaker than it should be.


We need real pro-growth and pro-jobs policies to get this country moving again. Got jobs? Got recovery? Not yet!

Friday, June 10, 2011

The Subtleties of Media Bias: Jason Embry's Collection of Anti-Christians

Jason Embry over at the Austin American MisStatesman puts out a daily recap of news around the Capitol. Lobbyists I know typically read his stuff and then wow their clients with their supposed knowledge of inside baseball around the Capitol. I guess reading Embry beats doing any work on their own. Good work if you can get it.

The other day Embry took aim at Texas Governor Rick Perry by noting his apparent co-hosting of an event with the American Family Association in Houston, noting that the Anti-Defamation League, The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations were protesting Perry's participation with a Christian group that takes very stern heaven-hell type views on homosexuals.  You know, the same views that the Muslim extremists in Iran and other Muslim countries take, except no one at the AFA wants to hang homosexuals, the way the Muslims in Iran do.

But that's not the point.

The point is that the ADL, SPLC, CAIR and a fourth group, the People for the American Way (which is quoted in the story), are all very left-of-center organizations. They are way out there. Of the four, only People for the American Way is identified by Embry as a "liberal watchdog group." They could also be categorized as anti-Christian. Embry wouldn''t dare do that.

The governor's spokesperson is given some ink to say the governor has been thinking of the event for some time, but that's different from supporting the ideological positions of AFA, or even supporting the main focus of the event, which is day of fast and prayer for governors who decide to attend. In case you inferred otherwise from the liberal activist groups criticisms, the event is not to discuss homosexuals and their prospects for Heaven and Hell. That apparently is the job of the Muslims in Iran, who take a very active stance in their speeding Allah's decision making process for the homosexuals.  

Now, I'm not saying Embry is a wild-eyed liberal. But his news reporting, like that of so many other reporters at the MisStatesman and other newspapers, carries the water for the liberal groups.

He's certainly never carried the water for the AFA and its views on the need for prayer and fasting by the nation's governors. His historical materialist approach to reporting the news does not allow it.  But it does allow for using liberal activist groups to gang up on Christian groups and their views. 

By the way, I've taken to calling the Statesman the MisStatesman because it has a problem getting facts right, even at the most mundane levels of the organization.

My case is this: I made a hole in one, on May 1, at the 17th hole at Falconhead Golf Course, using a 3-hybrid for 194 yards. I filled out a form with this information, at the course, including the names of the witnesses. The pro at Falconhead faxed in the information on May 2. The MisStatesman noted in its paper a week later that my hole in one came on the second hole at Flintrock Falls, using a 3-hyrbid for 147 yards. They did get the name of the witnesses correct. (My golf buddies were laughing that I would have to use a 3-hybrid for 147 yards.)  But really, if somehow they mix up a faxed piece of information about a hole in one, what else are they getting wrong, in places throughout the paper?  

Saturday, June 4, 2011

SD-14 SREC Report from June 3-4th State Meetings - Patterson running for Lt. Gov, TSA "no grope" resolution passed

This weekend's SREC meetings in Austin concluded today after 5 PM.  Here are some notes I made.

Chairman Steve Munisteri announced the party finances being in good shape and a professional audit (by Atchley & Associates) of Texas GOP finances for 2010 being completed; that report was reviewed by SREC members at the meeting.  The Chairman noted the Party has all prior debts paid with about $811 thousand in the bank after his term started a year ago with the Party deeply in debt.  The Party also spent about $25 thousand on the Dan Neil (HD-48) recount and election challenge.  In addition the new 8.25 grassroots club was up to 538 members (these GOP members are contributing $8.25 a month to the state GOP). 

The State GOP is also conducting campaign training for candidates and campaign managers, and enrollment so far is about triple what the Party anticipated.

Near the lunch hour a panel of three state reps (Todd Hunter, Dan Flynn, Jim Keffer) discussed the State budget which was recently passed and warned of false attacks coming against Republicans from the numerous political factions which profit from the current inefficient government school monopoly - at least, that was my take on it.  The panel also stayed for an informative Q&A session; they also confirmed the expectation that the special session would successfully pass a Congressional redistricting map and estimated the session would conclude in late June.

State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson gave a rousing speech and announced his intention to run for Lt. Governor in 2014.  Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz also addressed the SREC.

HD-7 State Representative David Simpson also briefly spoke in the afternoon, urging the SREC to pass a resolution backing HB-1937 (now HB-41 in special session), which is the bill prohibiting TSA from invasive "groping" searches without probable cause.  The resolution later passed easily without debate (the resolution is attached below).

Don Zimmerman
SD-14 SREC Committeeman
-----------------------------------------------


RESOLUTION  on TSA “enhanced pat-down” Opposition, supporting HB-1937 in Special Session

Whereas 82R HB 1937 (now known as HB 41 in the current special session) safeguards basic rights defined under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for persons traveling in Texas;
Whereas “enhanced pat-downs” by the Transportation Safety Administration are administrative policies established by federal bureaucracy and not statutory law enacted by federal government and therefore cannot hold supremacy over the U.S. Constitution or the Texas State Constitution;
Whereas it is unlawful for properly trained law enforcement officers to perform “enhanced pat-downs” as performed by the Transportation Safety Administration;
Whereas HB 1937 received a unanimous recommendation from the House Criminal Jurisprudence committee;
Whereas HB 1937 was unanimously passed by the Texas House of Representatives;
Whereas HB 1937 received a unanimous recommendation from the Texas Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee;
Whereas HB 1937 had oral expressions of support from 30 of 31 Texas State Senators prior to being scheduled for hearing on the Senate floor;
Whereas Senate passage of HB 1937 was halted at the eleventh hour after the U.S. Department of Justice delivered a factually inaccurate letter concerning the effect of HB 1937 and that threatened an immediate injunction which included “canceling a flight or series of flights”
Whereas this level of intimidation establishes grounds for a constitutional crisis;
Whereas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has now recommended HB 1937 for the current special session of the State Legislature;
Be It Resolved that the State Republican Executive Committee urges Governor Rick Perry to call 82R HB 1937--now filed as HB 41--as emergency legislation so that it may be considered by the Texas Legislature in special session.