Señor Jehuda, aka "El Blogo de Conservo", is an attorney and media professional with a background in TV marketing and production, copywriting, independent filmmaking, and spontaneously speaking perfect Spanish. A proud Texan who recently escaped from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, he spends far too much time thinking about movies - especially since his job requires it. Jehuda is also a contributor at YesButHowever.com and PJ Lifestyle.
What news item of recent days will be remembered as the biggest outrage of the Spring season?
Not that the DHS wants to target veterans as a national security risk, but that a Miss USA contestant dared to express her belief in the traditional definition of marriage.
WSJ: Computer spies breach fighter jet project.
Lame!
Ha! Because 100 million dollars is not real money in Washington terms.
(Via Instapundit)
By the way, how long till now-defunct New Line Cinema’s parent Warner Bros. issues a take down notice to YouTube for that little video? Warner Bros. is CNN’s sister company, you know…
UPDATE: Some background from none other than the AP: Obama’s latest budget-tightening effort hardly makes a dime’s worth of difference. And check out this graph at Instapundit.
Plus, amazing video of journalists actually doing their job! Don’t miss it! Such sights are a rarity these days…
Legal Insurrection: How about also telling us which plots were stopped and how many lives were saved?
Or with the political elite? Rasmussen: 51% View Tea Parties Favorably, Political Class Strongly Disagrees.
Siding with the elite doesn’t sound very liberal now, does it? Or democratic, in the generic sense of the word. However, according to Rasmussen “a majority (54%) of Mainstream Democrats had a favorable opinion of the tea parties”.
Looks you are going to need a bigger Sorosphere, Lefties…
Chris Stigall: A Devastating Week for Elitism.
Via Instapundit: At Gay Patriot, some comment on one of the strategies of the Tea Party Attack Poodles. It’s the hypocrisy canard: “Reminding us of the spendthrift ways of President Bush and the Republican Congresses of the early 2000s, Democratic officials and liberal bloggers attempt to deny the sincerity of Tea Party protesters.”
Don’t fall into this trap, guys. Hypocrisy has nothing to do with the Left’s gripe about the Tea Parties. (More …)
THR, Esq.: Grey’s Anatomy
STRATFOR: When the Mexican Drug Trade Hits the Border.
Andrew Breitbart: Question Democratic authority? Not!
Steven Hurst: “President Barack Obama has gone abroad and gored an ox — the deeply held belief that the United States does not make mistakes in dealings with either friends or foes.”
That’s a long list of questionable foreign policy moves which Hurst outlines. And Obama hasn’t even been in office 100 days. Whew.
Ralph Peters: Obama’s Foreign Follies.
UPDATE: Michael Barone: Obama’s foreign policy priorities for the future are backward-looking.
FT: U.S. to put conditions on TARP repayment.
Related content at Legal Insurrection and the NYT:
In a significant shift, White House and Treasury Department officials now say they can stretch what is left of the $700 billion financial bailout fund further than they had expected a few months ago, simply by converting the government’s existing loans to the nation’s 19 biggest banks into common stock.
Converting those loans to common shares would turn the federal aid into available capital for a bank — and give the government a large ownership stake in return.
I remember reading a few days back a rumor about some member of Congress caught on tape talking to a foreign target of an NSA wiretap, but I don’t remember where I read that.
Now key details of the story have finally been unveiled by Congressional Quarterly: sources say it was U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (Democrat – CA) on the phone, trying to arrange a quid pro quo of some sort with “a suspected Israeli” back in 2005.
Allegedly, the whole thing then got covered up by the Bush administration, a favor Harman was – allegedly, again – glad to repay with political support for the NSA domestic surveillance program as it existed back then. (More …)
Robert Bryce: the White House is making reckless decisions on the environment based on shoddy science.
Well, shoddy science is par the course in environmental policy, unfortunately…
Teen fare is #1 again, with 17 Again at the top of the weekend box office estimates.
Nikki Finke has the figures and analysis.
The video equivalent of quoting out of context: Misleading editing at The Daily Show.
Are Stewart and his writers so hard up for material that they need to do this? Maybe if they focused more on making fun of the Obama administration, like they did with the previous one, they wouldn’t have to resort to such extreme editorial discretion.
Either that or they have one lazy producer and even lazier supervising producers.
Via Big Hollywood.
At Legal Insurrection, Professor Jacobson seeths over bias at the not-yet-defunct NY Times. I join him in that sentiment.
Patterico: CNN attempting to whitewash coverage of their Tea Party coverage?
There is – in fact – some legal precedent that requires copyright owners to make a Fair Use evaluation before requesting that content they own is removed from the web.
I think CNN here is either acting in bad faith or operating under a double standard. I worked in TV news for a little while and entertainment news for several years. As a result, I was first introduced to the Fair Use Doctrine a little over a decade before the doctrine was formally taught to me during my second year of law school. Why? Because news broadcasting entities will be damned if they won’t invoke the Fair Use doctrine when they want to get “great footage” on air. But, apparently, CNN can’t see a Fair Use case when it involves reporting about their reporters.
Really, sometimes I get the feeling that the media industry thinks only they can invoke Fair Use.
(H/T: Instapundit)
UPDATE: Ed Driscoll links (thanks!) with a take-down notice story of his own.
I’m traveling to the San Fran Bay area today, for a film festival. So I will not be near a computer for much of the trip. I thus will not be blogging much at all until Sunday night, if I blog at all.
The Anti-Party Attack Poodles seem to continue their path down the Klüger-Ross Cycle as Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olbermann may now be entering the Bargaining stage of the Grief Process: last night they acknowledged there is a Tea Party movement, but only as as an exercise in “racism straight up” by “a bunch of [expletive] rednecks”. I guess we’ll have to settle for that, for now…
Anyway, that’s progress. Can’t wait for the Left to reach the Depression stage, hopefully in November 2010.
Being that the Angry Left is, well, angry all the time, it’s probably good that they are moving past the Anger stage. Can you imagine Oliver Willis in the Anger stage? Now that must make for some really out-of-whack commentary…or Soros-vocacy…or whatever it is that happens when Kryptonite and Stupid reach their respective boiling points.
Incidentally, if Willis is Kryptonite to Stupid, does that mean he makes Stupid weak? The only thing that can make Stupid weak has to be stronger Stupidity, though. Now, before you think I’m taking cheap shots at Willis and his acolytes in the Sorosphere, let me state outright that I don’t think Willis is stupid. Not at all. I just don’t think that tagline on his blog makes sense.
But neither do many of his rants, so I guess it’s par for the course.
At Big Hollywood.
THR: “YouTube announced a deal with multiple studios, including Sony and Lionsgate, that will seed the site with full-length, ad-supported library films and TV episodes.”
Imagine if the news had broken the day before yesterday. The Tea Parties would have been even bigger. So Obama fired former GM CEO Rick Wagoner to put guys like Rattner in charge? Lame.
JWF and Ace headlines link. Thanks!
UPDATE: More at the NY Post, via Lawhawk who seems to wonder “where was Eliot Spitzer?” and was kind enough to link to me.
It’ll be interesting to see if those opposed to the Tea Party movement keep following the Kübler-Ross Grief Cycle: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
So far, we’ve seen plenty of Denial coming from the Sorosphere, the MSM, and even the White House. But we now could be seeing some Tea Party opponents entering the Anger stage. Such seems to be the case of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Democrat – Illinois) – who sounds like she feels threatened in more ways than one, what with her husband’s troubles and all – and can reportedly be said of the White House itself, according to some NBC insiders.
There are also some Tea Party critics who don’t fit the model, of course. They are the ones who definitely don’t get it.
UPDATE: Related content from Ed Driscoll.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Driscoll links! Thanks!
MORE: Blue with Anger (via Legal Insurrection)
Sorry, but I have some errands to run this morning. I won’t be near a computer for several hours. In fact, I’m writing these lines on my phone.
Then, in the afternoon, I also have some work to get done which will make it hard to post, but I’ll post. Don’t know how much, but I will.
The next stage? Now that the Tea Party Movement seems a teeny bit more tangible (at least tangible enough to get the attention of the MSM) the attack on Tea Parties is taking on a different shape. Cases in point are established Leftie journalist and academic Marc Cooper – on today’s L.A. Times – and good ol’ “conservative blogger” Andrew Sullivan.
Their take goes something like this: So what! It lacks substance! Empty theatrics! Where are the policy proposals? Protesting for protest’s sake! Hollow!
Note, however, that Marc Cooper knows quite well that it’s possible to go from protest to politics: to go from “creative civil disobedience” to “long-term, strategic and politically effective ways.” Yes. It makes sense. But I guess Cooper’s just not willing to grant to Tea Partiers the same patience and confidence he showed to the World Social Forum, a group that happens to dislike capitalism and neo-liberalism (which is to say “free market economics”), when he wrote the lines I quote above. Chalk it up to bias and plain old missing the point.
Andrew Sullivan at least offers what could pass for good advice: “All protests against spending that do not tell us how to reduce it are fatuous pieces of theater, not constructive acts of politics.” However, it’s hard to take words about constructive acts of politics seriously from the leading Trig Truther in America today. I guess Sullivan thinks he remains a credible observer of politics. Perhaps he does. He’s certainly not credible as long as he’s willing to use the term “constructive” when making an argument.
UPDATE: Professor Douglas addresses Cooper’s rant here.
THR, Esq.: Wolverine is only at #4.
Legal Insurrection: Ad banned in the UK due to…politically incorrect content?
Fortunately, here in the States political correctness is not a factor a court would consider when evaluating a legitimate restraint on commercial speech. Some commercials would be very boring otherwise.
Another interesting legal question related to advertising: Can TV stations refuse to carry advertising?
They may not be able to refuse to carry some advertising if the Fairness Doctrine returns…
And Rick Santelli is feeling proud. Can’t wait to hear what Jon Stewart and Colbert have to say. No doubt it will be “funny”.
Snarky commentary is not the only thing to watch out for, though. There’s always the provocateurs and – sadly – Obama’s DHS, which might just conveniently mistake your neighborhood Tea Party for a threat to national security…you know, to keep things nice and quiet.
In the meantime, here’s a huge Tea Party-related round up at Instapundit.
It’s always seemed to me that Glenn Greenwald is more interested in achieving (in his own mind) some sort of moral superiority apotheosis than in speaking on behalf of civil liberties. I’m even more convinced of it after learning of his reactions to the DHS “right-wing extremism” report.
I mean, come on. Blaming it all on people on the right? Reaping what they sow? It wasn’t quite people on the right who are responsible for electing Obama president or having a DHS secretary who renames “terrorist attacks” as “man-caused disasters”. DHS is as much Obama’s show as press conferences in the Rose Garden, so maybe if the Obama White House wasn’t cut from such an authoritarian cloth the “Surveillance State” of Greenwald’s nightmares (and bookselling dreams) would have collapsed on January 20th.
There is no moral equivalence here. And if Greenwald was serious about civil liberties he’d be tearing his hair in outrage right now and taking the Obama White House and DHS to task for rhetorically siccing law enforcement agencies on a particular political faction.
Not quite, but The Rhetorican has been named Blog of the Day at Legal Insurrection.
Thanks for this honor, Professor Jacobson!
WSJ: Stealing cars is big near our southern border.
Drug cartels are behind much of it. In other words, our cars – like our guns (supposedly) – are ending up in the hands of Mexican drug dealers, making it more difficult for Mexico to win its Cartel War. I wonder if we will soon hear calls for restrictions on car sales as a result?
The latest media figure to push the false “Tea Parties-are-astroturfing” meme is MSNBC’s David Shuster, who during the 2008 presidential campaign must have gotten a high-five from Chris Matthews for saying that Hillary was “pimping Chelsea”.
Ironically, David Shuster knows a thing or two about large organizations pushing an agenda behind the curtain, since he’s a Sorosphere instrument (or tool, if you want to be more casual) of sorts: ask Daily Kos or MoveOn. They know.
Hot Air: Obama’s Iraq Photo-op as staged as a Broadway play?
The Sorosphere and the MSM would be crying “scandal!” if a Republican president did this. I take it fake doesn’t bother them so much now. After all, it’s their fake.
Video of Governor Rick Perry drawing his line in the sand.
Hey, that’s what the Constitution is for. Use it or lose it.
Text of the Texas Legislature’s resolution here.
Needless to say, I’m beaming with pride, native Texan that I am (although I’ve lived in California since 1994. Let’s just say I’m really missing Texas now…)
H/T: Smitty (of The Other McCain fame).
Michelle Malkin finds the new Homeland Security assessment of right-wing extremism a little too broad and sloppy. Like, broad and sloppy enough to apply to any conservative organization (yes, that means Tea Partiers).
Way to unite the country squash the opposition, Mr. President. I guess the quickest way to do away with your partisan polarization problem is to repress one of the poles. A chilling effect should be a great start.
UPDATE: Will DHS start investigating Texas Governor Rick Perry any minute now? Or perhaps your average believer in Constitutional provisions?
ANOTHER UPDATE: Targeting Tea Partiers, as I’ve suggested before, could be tricky. It’s a broad coalition. Some of them don’t even mind excessive spending, like the one mentioned here.
ONE MORE: If domestic, call it terrorism. If foreign, call it man-caused disaster.
