Category: Right Online

Disorderly Conduct at Right Online?

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Well, maybe we got a little rowdy at happy hour, but I didn’t think anyone did anything worth getting arrested for, so you can imagine my surprise at this headline today:

GOP blogger arrested at Netroots Nation
for allegedly harassing two female bloggers
for wearing Muslim head scarves in public.

What was that about? Minnesota Public Radio:

A St. Paul blogger faces misdemeanor charges after he allegedly harassed two Muslim women last week in downtown Minneapolis.
Minneapolis police say John Hugh Gilmore, 52, who writes a blog called Minnesota Conservatives, caused a scene Thursday night on Nicollet Mall. Sgt. Bill Palmer, a police spokesman, said Gilmore appeared to be drunk when he confronted the two women wearing the Muslim headscarf known as the hijab.
“Mr. Gilmore made some comments that he didn’t believe the women should be in the United States, and that he thought that they were ruining America,” Palmer said.

I have never met Gilmore and, until I saw this story, had never heard of him or his blog. The “hijab flash mob” appears to have been a provocative stunt by the Left — at one point, these women came to Right Online trying to waylay Herman Cain — and I regret that any conservative would allow himself to be provoked, which served only the purposes of the provocateurs. Here is Tony Katz of PJTV covering this publicity stunt:

Since the Left is so intent on accusing the Right of bigoted insensitivity, I’ve got an idea: Next year, I’ll ask a couple dozen of my buddies from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to show up at Netroots Nation in authentic rebel uniforms, flying the Confederate battle flag, and see if we can get any “progressives” arrested for disorderly conduct.

After all, if the Left wants to demand that multiculturalism requires us to enthusiastically embrace the devotees of a 7th-century Arab fanatic like Mohammed, I don’t see how they could deny such tolerance to the admirers of Jefferson Davis.

Deo Vindice!

UPDATE: Related news:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Organizers of the liberal Netroots Nation conference to be held in Providence in summer 2012 have taken steps to keep a traditional conservative counter-event at a distance.
The conservative conference RightOnline, a project of the Virginia-based group Americans for Prosperity, has staged its convention in the same city around the same time as Netroots Nation since 2008.
Raven Brooks, Netroots Nation’s executive director, said Tuesday the group had a noncompete clause in its contracts with the Rhode Island Convention Center and two Providence hotels.
“Good luck finding a venue in 2012,” he tweeted over the weekend, in reference to RightOnline. “Two words, non-compete clause. Hugs and kisses.”
Erik Telford, executive director of RightOnline, said his group has made “no firm decisions” on where to hold its 2012 conference. Providence is a top contender, but locations on the West Coast, among others, are also under consideration.

Permit me to say that many bloggers at this year’s Right Online kept saying, “Minneapolis? Why the hell are we in Minneapolis?” The 2010 conference in Las Vegas was awesome, and many Right Online attendees suggest that we stop following around Netroots Nation and instead establish Vegas as the permanent location. I’ll leave it up to Erik Telford and the AFP brain trust to decide, but I’d personally prefer a genuine resort location — Miami, San Diego, or any place with sun, sand and palm trees — to Providence, Rhode Island.

Fear and Loathing at Right Online

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MINNEAPOLIS
Three obese women are sitting on the other side of the cocktail table in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel where I’m writing this. They are not only obese, they also have iPhones, and are checking their messages while chatting about nonsense of no relevance to the serious political events that have transpired during the last three days at the fourth annual Right Online conference.

It’s the iPhones that annoy me most. My cheap Samsung cell phone died yesterday. I’m a professional journalist who, by all rights, ought to have the latest 4G mobile communications technology. Instead, I’ve got nothing, while this trio of fat women, just arrived in Minneapolis for a conference of government employees, can afford top-of-the-line stuff. It’s a whole different kind of “social justice” issue, you see: Those who feast on taxpayer largesse have wealth and leisure — to say nothing of ample grocery budgets, as is so apparent — while those in the private sector are lean and hungry, with no time to lounge around hotel lobbies exchanging idle gossip.

But there’s no time thinking about that stuff now because, as usual, I’m short on time. In 30 minutes, Erik Telford’s going to have a taxi at the front door to get us to the airport for the flight home and I’ve got to have this post finished by then, with my laptop packed and ready to go. No time to distill the Final Wisdom of the past three days. Just to quickly note:

I’ve got no time to upload video, nor time to write captions for all these photos I took. Just enough time to say, “Hit the freaking tip jar” and then — whoosh! — off to the airport I go. It might be nice to have a government job so I could get fat and carry an iPhone, but that ain’t my life, and it can’t be helped.












Right Online: Herman Cain Gets Candid

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MINNEAPOLIS — About 15 bloggers got a rare glimpse at an angry Herman Cain, when the Republican presidential candidate’s temper flared briefly during an informal press conference Saturday.

The normally genial Atlanta businessman became angry when Evan McMorris-Santoro, a writer for the liberal blog Talking Points Memo, asked whether Cain would apply “special precautions” in hiring Muslims.

“If you’re trying to make me lose my cool, you’re almost succeeding,” Cain said, after McMorris-Santoro raised the question — one Cain had addressed at some length to begin the press conference — and when the TMP writer attempted to reiterate the question, Cain roared back: “I never said I would use any special precautions!”

Cain then apologized for having raised his voice. The exchange between Cain and McMorris-Santoro comes at the 13:15 mark of this video provided by conservative blogger Nice Deb:

For three months, liberals have criticized Cain for remarks he made at a March event in Iowa in response to a question from Scott Keyes of the Think Progress blog:

KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?
CAIN: No, I will not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.
The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.

The question about Muslims was one of three points that Cain sought to clarify in his remarks at the beginning of his press conference. He also explained why he had been unwilling to sign a pledge offered by a pro-life group, saying that he is strongly pro-life, but had issues with the wording of the pledge; and he repeated his strong support for gun rights, which had been questioned by some Second Amendment activists. Taking questions from bloggers, Cain also discussed his disagreements with another 2012 GOP candidate, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, about the Federal Reserve system.

The press conference — with the candidate in shirtsleeves, sitting on a chair turned backward — followed Cain’s well-received speech at the fourth annual Right Online conference, hosted by Americans for Prosperity.

America is suffering “a severe deficiency of leaderships,” Cain said during the speech, which was interrupted several times by standing ovations.

“Small businesses . . . are hanging on for dear life,” Cain told the RightOnline crowd, assuring those struggling with the current recession: “Hold on . . . help is on the way.”


VIDEO: Stephen Bannon, Director of Palin Documentary ‘The Undefeated’

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MINNEAPOLIS
By now, you’ve heard the amazing buzz about The Undefeated, the new documentary about Sarah Palin. There was a special screen last night at the Right Online conference. Trust me, this is going to be a must-see blockbuster, a film that will change the way you think about Palin. Here is my interview with the movie’s director, Stephen K. Bannon:

Thanks to Melissa Clouthier for arranging the interview.

‘Was That a Denial, Governor?’

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MINNEAPOLIS
“We are not having this phone conversation.” The phone call woke me up from a well-deserved nap here at the Hilton, site of the Right Online conference. Before I’d laid down for my nap, I’d posted a brief item at The American Spectator blog:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is expected within a week to make a decision on whether to enter the 2012 presidential campaign, according to one Republican source.
Vendors of campaign services who hope to work for Team Palin have been told that Palin, the 2008 GOP vice-presidential candidate, will decide soon one way or another on mounting a 2012 campaign.

That’s what my source said. And here’s what Sarah Palin said:

To which I replied:

See what I’m saying? My source hears something, my source tells me, and I report it: a mere two sentences. Next thing you know, the governor herself is Tweeting a statement — which, I repeat, does not look exactly like a denial — and, I am told, both my post and Palin’s response are discussed on the radio by Rush Limbaugh. And then my nap gets interrupted by a phone call that’s so off-the-record I’m not even supposed to say I got a phone call.

Sigh. My apologies to all those reporters at the NYT, the WaPo and other mainstream media who are trying to chase down this story. Good luck. I’m going to try to finish my nap now.

UPDATE: Nap delayed again, because there’s a Memeorandum thread now, and I see that CNN’s Alison Harding takes Palin’s Tweet as a denial. But is it?

Did the governor say, “No, I’m not planning to make a decision next week”? Or, better yet, did she deny that her team have informed interested parties to expect a decision in that time frame?

Jim Geraghty at NRO has some helpful thoughts on exactly how long Palin could wait, noting that “the ranks of the unaffiliated staffers and volunteers grows thinner week by week.”

Geraghty also spots the key phrase in my AmSpec report: “vendors of campaign services who hope to work for Team Palin.” These are businesses. They can’t operate on the basis of maybe getting contracts from a potential campaign that may or may not happen. So it would obviously be in their interest to ask, “How soon will we know? When will a decision be made?”

BTW, I’ve talked to my original source twice since this story broke. And I’m standing by the story.

UPDATE II: Allahpundit also examines the timetable of a Palin campaign rollout (or not). But Allahpundit talks about an “announcement” and my source didn’t say anything about an announcement. No, my source was talking about a decision. An announcement and a decision are two different things.

UPDATE III: It is interesting to see some idiots try to depict me as being anti-Palin. Just FYI:

So, memo to Palin fans: Just because I’m a reporter doesn’t mean I’m the enemy.

UPDATE IV: Thanks, Rush!


VIDEO: Breitbart Talks WeinerGate

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MINNEAPOLIS
Everybody I saw downstairs this morning at the Right Online conference kept telling me, “You look rough.” As well I should.

My flight out of Dulles yesterday was delayed more than an hour on departure. By the time I arrived, checked into the Hilton and had dinner — bangers and mash at a British-style pub downtown — I was running desperately late on deadline for my column at The American Spectator:

Three weeks ago, Anthony Weiner was a rising star in the Democratic Party, an influential spokesman for the progressive movement and, quite possibly, the next mayor of New York City.
Today, Weiner is a despised figure so thoroughly disgraced, even in the eyes of the most partisan Democrats, that he is unlikely to have any future in politics. In the process of stringing out his bizarre scandal for nearly three weeks — the first 10 days of which were spent telling one implausible lie after another — Weiner damaged himself and his party in a way that would not have happened had he resigned much sooner. By the time Weiner gave his resignation speech Thursday in New York, he was such a pariah that even his political mentor, Sen. Charles Schumer, would not even speak publicly in his defense, instead issuing a brief statement wishing Weiner well. . . .

Please read the whole thing. After I hit deadline, I managed to grab Andrew Breitbart in the hotel lobby for this 4-minute interview about his role in breaking the WeinerGate scandal:

You’ll notice Breitbart had a bottle of red wine handy, and kept waving the cork when he was gesturing. This interview took place at about 2 a.m., after the lobby bar had closed.

‘Moving On’ to Right Online!

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DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
By the time you read this, I’ll be on board a jet preparing to depart for Minneapolis and the 2011 Right Online conference. I’m still recovering (and by “recovering,” I mean sick as hell) from pneumonia, and the strain of Three Weeks of Weiner have probably hindered my recovery.

Both Don Surber and Da Tech Guy called attention to the timeline of my posts I appended to today’s post about Anthony Weiner’s resignation. All credit is due to Andrew Breitbart, as well as to Ace of Spades, Patterico and many other bloggers who helped push this story to its final resolution. If you’ll look at that timeline, you’ll see that I did 15 posts in the first five days of the scandal (May 28-June 1), so I think I contributed my fair share to the team effort.

Remember that, in his first public statements about the scandal, Anthony Weiner urged reporters to “move on.”

Yeah. And now, you see, I’m movin’ on from town to town.

Please hit the tip jar!

Left-Wing Groups Getting Psyched Up for ‘Netroots Nation’ Event in Minneapolis

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Between 1999 and 2005, George Soros donated $535,000 to Alliance for Justice (AFJ), which has also received major donations from liberals like Ted Turner and Barbra Streisand. One of AFJ’s main activities is to help Democrats block the appointment of conservative judges (they supported filibusters of President Bush’s nominees) and to push for the creation of “new rights” as a strategy to advance the progressive agenda.

Because left-wing groups routinely pool their online resources, AFJ’s fundraising e-mails are distributed to millions of people who have signed up to receive updates from groups like MoveOn.org and Democracy for America. That explains why I received the following e-mail today:

Dear Robert,
We’re heading to Minneapolis for Netroots Nation this week! Here’s what we have in store for you at the Netroots Nation 2011 conference, an annual gathering of some of the most influential voices in the progressive online community.
The Roberts Court’s extreme pro-business agenda has been gaining more and more attention this term with cases like Wal-Mart v. Dukes and AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. This Saturday, Alliance for Justice and a panel of experts will tackle the Court’s hard right turn in “The Corporate Court: Your Rights vs. Corporate Interests.”
Our panelists — Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dahlia Lithwick (Slate), Eva Paterson (Equal Justice Society), and Carl Pope (Sierra Club) — will address the growing influence of corporations within the American judicial system, particularly in the Supreme Court on Saturday, June 18 at 10:30 a.m. in room L100 H.
We’ll also be screening excerpts from our award-winning film, Crude Justice, and a Q&A with AFJ Communications Director Kevin Fry as a part of the conference screening series. Join us in room M100 J during the General Showcase I on Thursday, June 16 at 4:30 p.m.
Alliance for Justice president Nan Aron will lead an informal discussion on judges, corporate influence, and the fight for a fair America on Friday, June 17th, at 4:30pm in the exhibit hall’s caucus area.
Don’t forget to stop by our booth (#922) to meet our staff, learn more about AFJ, and talk with our expert about developing hard-hitting social media campaigns without violating the restrictions imposed on nonprofits.

Talk to you soon,
Alliance for Justice
P.S. Tell us what you’re up to at Netroots by tweeting us @afjustice!

Notice I’ve highlighted the fact that this legal advocacy group — which employs dozens of leftist lawyers — is offering expert advice to progressives on “developing hard-hitting social media campaigns without violating the restrictions imposed on nonprofits.” This is what Soros & Co. are paying them to do: Teaching the Left to stretch the limits of the law to push their agenda.

What can you do to help fight back against AFJ and their progressive allies at Netroots Nation? Continue reading Left-Wing Groups Getting Psyched Up for ‘Netroots Nation’ Event in Minneapolis →