Category: Da Tech Guy

You Must Be Having Me On. Oh, Wait: We’re Talking About The Left

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by Smitty

Via Da Tech Guy, the DC Examiner reports that the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive is really more about the latter than the former.
Now, I have better things to do that waste my time on Commode-y Central’s sad little gathering of paid stooges. For an example of filming at a legitimate gathering of ‘just folks’ paying to get themselves to an event, consider this clip from about midway back at the Reflecting Pool at 8/28:

You sort of know that Frick & Frack’s cheesy little gathering will have neither the attendance nor the legitimate enthusiasm. Bogus crowd estimates and carefully crafted river of soundbites will surely follow.
Indeed, Stewart and Colbert are two salmon seeking to spawn, desperately swimming against the current of common sense and public opinion, straining to work their way upstream in the River of Progress, and arriving at its origin, to discover a sewage treatment plant.

Update: American Power has a worthy photo roundup. Cat Stevens and Ozzy? Whatever.

Forget Client #9 And Whatshername: Give Me Da Tech Guy And William Jacobson

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by Smitty

Somebody whose blog-fu exceeds mine handily is Da Tech Guy. While out galavanting with RSM, he paid a visit to William Jacoboson of Legal Insurrection, another premier blogger.

The big question here is why these two don’t have a talk show. Unlike so much of the swill sloshing about on the cable networks, here are two chaps who would (a) have an audience and (b) dare to edify it.
It’s interesting that the short interview should mention Joe Miller, who, like Patrick Murray, is a professional patriot beset by a Ruling Class tool, and completely deserving of all available support:

The ‘Shipping Jobs Overseas’ Smear

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When I came home from my recent nine-day road trip, I found this piece of mail on the dining room table:

So I picked up the telephone, interviewed Neil Parrott and filed my latest American Spectator column:

HAGERSTOWN, Maryland — Neil Parrott admits he was “very surprised” to find himself accused of supporting “tax breaks for corporations that send jobs overseas.” The attack, he says, “came out of nowhere.”
Although the shipping-jobs-overseas accusation has become a standard-issue smear against Republican congressional candidates this year, its application in this case is particularly surprising, because Parrott isn’t a candidate for Congress. He’s a local businessman running for a seat in the Maryland state legislature, and utterly mystified by the claim his Democratic opponent makes in a slick four-color mailing sent to thousands of Washington County homes last week. The mailing depicts Parrott in front of a map of Mexico and urges voters, “Vote NO on Neil Parrot — BAD for JOBS, BAD for US.” Adding to the xenophobic tone, the Democrat’s mailer calls Parrott an “outsider” and says he “isn’t from Washington County,” although the Republican is a lifelong Maryland resident who lives in Hagerstown — which is in Washington County — where he owns a highway engineering company.
Never mind the facts. It’s an election year, and Democrats desperate to distract voters from their own party’s policy failures aren’t going to let truth stand in their way, so that a small business owner running for a state legislature seat is portrayed as an “outsider” pursuing a hidden agenda behalf of a “Washington D.C. special interest.” . . .

Please read the whole thing. Democrats are engaged in peddling economic ignorance, and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

UPDATE: Da Tech Guy recounts his rules for road trips with me. I’m currently planning my final road trip of the campaign season — to Florida, where I hope to catch up with Marco Rubio (on whose behalf we waged the “Not One Red Cent” rebellion) and Allen West, whom I first interviewed in June 2008, back when the NRCC wouldn’t give him the time of day. Continue reading The ‘Shipping Jobs Overseas’ Smear →

The Point at Which It Was Decided That I Should Probably Let Da Tech Guy Drive

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Back home today after a nine-day campaign swing to Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, which ended with a 46-hour road trip with Pete Da Tech Guy. He rented a car for the trip. Given my hillbilly/NASCAR hereditary prowess at high-speed driving, I drove most of the way. And then, traveling through western New York, we saw the sign that warned it was time for Pete to take the wheel. Continue reading The Point at Which It Was Decided That I Should Probably Let Da Tech Guy Drive →

‘A Road Man for the Lords of Karma’

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DeWITT, N.Y. — I’m blogging tonight from the home of The Lonely Conservative and her lucky husband, Dave. We just left a meet-and-greet with Ann Marie Buerkle in the village of Clyde.

While I had planned to be on the road to Pennsylvania already, but Buerkle’s having a Monday morning press conference near Syracuse, and I figured I needed to stay for that. I’ve got a deadline tonight for The American Spectator and there was no time to check into a hotel, so Mr. and Mrs. Lonely Conservative declared that Pete Da Tech Guy and I should enjoy their hospitality.

There are three key congressional races in this part of New York, and all of these candidates need your help:

I’ve got photos and video and notes and stuff, but deadline is looming, so I’ll try to update after midnight. The title quote is courtesy of Bob Belvedere at the Camp of the Saints.

Karma’s gonna come down heavy here Nov. 2. Do all you can.

UPDATE: Professor William Jacobson wonders how long the MSM will ignore Rep. Maurice Hinchey’s assault on a reporter. Speaking of assaults . . .

The shape of the 22nd District is an assault on common sense. Matt Hudson, campaign manager for Hinchey’s Republican opponent George Phillips, with the map of the 22nd District, which stretches nearly 200 miles, from Ithaca on the west to Poughkeepsie on the east. Hudson is pointing to Broome County, which is Phillips’s stronghold of support.

The sign in front of Phillips HQ in Endicott. The slogan — “Had Enough?” — pretty much sums up the attitude of 22nd District residents fed up with 18-year incumbent Hinchey.

UPDATE II: “Man on the street” interview in NY-25:

NY-25 Prediction: Ann Marie Buerkle Will Score Landslide Victory Over Dan Maffei

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HANCOCK, N.Y. — Pete Da Tech Guy and I were driving up Highway 17 toward Binghamton when we got the call from the Lonely Conservative, informing us that Ann Marie Buerkle’s victory is now a near-certainty. However, that’s not the headline in the Syracuse Post Standard:

Dan Maffei leads Anne Marie Buerkle
by 12 points in new poll

Why is this poll such a certain indicator of a Buerkle victory Nov. 2? Because the poll was conducted by Sienna College.

On Sept. 23 — the day before the New York primary — a Sienna poll showed Rick Lazio was leading Carl Paladino by a 57%-24% margin. The very next day, Paladino stomped Lazio 62%-38%. (SEE CORRECTION BELOW)

So the Sienna poll had a margin of error of . . . oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of umpteen gazillion. You could better predict an election by drawing numbers out of a hat.

Less than two weeks ago, a GOP-commissioned poll showed a dead heat in the 25th District, and if Sienna says Maffei’s leading, that can only mean Maffei’s going to be squished flat on Election Day.

Go give Buerkle $20. Pete and I just ate at McDonald’s and now we’re ready to get back on the road again.

UPDATE: The Lonely Conservative notes some suspicious anomalies in the Sienna poll. We have no demographic breakdown of the sample, and the same poll shows Mario Cuomo leading Paladino by 34 points in this district, which was represented by Republicans until 2008.

UPDATE II: Just realized I completely misread the Sienna poll of Sept. 23. But the point about Sienna’s inaccuracy is only slightly weaker. In August, Sienna had shown Lazio leading Paladino by 13 points — 37 points off the September result, where Paladino won by 24 points.

ANN MARIE BUERKLE for U.S. CONGRESS

At Bielat HQ, Ready for the Road Trip

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NEWTON, Mass. — Here at Sean Bielat campaign headquarters on a Saturday afternoon, Ace of Spades and several of his readers are running the phone banks: “Hey, my name’s Ace. Would you like Sean Bielat to build you a robot?”

The big news today is that Sean Bielat is the top fundraiser in Massachusetts:

In a sign that he has caught the attention of Republicans in Massachusetts and beyond, GOP congressional hopeful Sean Bielat outraised every congressional candidate in the state in the latest reporting period — including his opponent, longtime US Representative Barney Frank — according to newly released campaign finance filings in most races.
Buoyed by repeated appearances on national television and conservative talk radio, Bielat, of Brookline, raised $379,000 between Aug. 25 and the end of September, exceeding the $317,000 raised by Frank, a 15-term incumbent, Federal Election Commission records show. . . .

Which goes to show the power of conservative New Media. It wasn’t the GOP Establishment or “secret foreign donors” who turned the Bielat campaign into a nationwide crusade. It was bloggers and their readers who struck the spark, and the excitement is now a wildfire.

Now it’s time to spread the fire. Pete Da Tech Guy and I are leaving this evening for a road trip across New York state and Pennsylvania down to Maryland. We’ll be stopping along the way to cover several congressional campaigns. Pete’s still about $250 short of his fundraising goal for the trip, so please go hit Da Tip Jar.

Pete was just downtown for President Obama’s rally with Deval Patrick, and I just got word that the streets of downtown Newton have been blocked off by police, which means Obama is coming here.

UPDATE: Obama is having a private fundraiser at the West Newton home of Ralph de la Torre. Da Tech Guy tells me Obama drew about 8,000 in downtown Boston, which is substantially less than the average crowd for Sarah Palin.

UPDATE II: There was a rally for Sean Bielat with Howie Carr today in Foxboro:

UPDATE III: OK, I’ve mapped out the first day of our trip. We’ll be in NY-22 Sunday morning for a pancake breakfast with George Phillips, then swing by Phillips HQ near Binghamton before making a trip up to the vicinity of Syracuse for an evening event with NY-25 candidate Ann Marie Buerkle. After that, we’ll hit the road three hours south to Pennsylvania.

Now we’re about to hit the road. Pete insists we must stop by his house in Fitchburg to enjoy some traditional Sicilian cuisine. Good-bye from Boston. If you can’t hit Pete’s tip-jar, feel free to hit mine.

UPDATE IV: Last update from Boston, where Obama spoke today:

“The reason I came today isn’t just because Deval has been there for me as a friend, but because he continues to inspire me as a leader at a time when too many folks bow to the politics of the moment,” Obama said at a campaign rally for Patrick in Boston. “He represents the politics of conscience and conviction in an age of too much cynicism.”
Obama admitted that he’s sometimes on his Blackberry backstage when he attends events for candidates, but “when Deval speaks, I listen.”

Obviously, Deval has been telling Obama to destroy the American Dream — and Obama listened!