by Smitty
The quest of for a memorable tag that, ahem, sticks to the propaganda media may have climaxed:
To Go With The ‘Barbi Cam’
by Smitty
The news of McCain’s taste for front-end venison is of course well known. Slightly less notorious is the ‘Barbie Cam’, a scarred-yet-miraculously-functional bubble gum pink affair similar to this:
The Barbie Cam is rumored to have criss-crossed Europe before falling out of Skippy’s luggage:
That lonely Barbie Cam may soon be joined by an equally snazzy go-kartchariot, tip jar willing:
Stacy is on record as saying that no interviewee can resist the Barbie Cam. The question will then move to whether any interviewee’s composure can resist Stacy pulling up to the interview site in a Hello Kitty Car. In defense of Stacy, more traditional ice breakers are unsuitable for land use.
Bill Whittle’s ‘Firewall’ As Self-Reflection
by Smitty
You’ve probably seen Whittle’s concise, eloquent, simple clips. They’re getting linked and liked all over the blogs:
- What We Believe Part 1: Small Government and Free Enterprise
- What We Believe Part 2: The Problem With Elitism
- What We Believe Part 3: Wealth Creation
These ideas are not terribly new with Whittle, but he brings at least two crucial ingredients to these timeless questions of societal organization, one relatively obvious, one less so.
1. Bill is an excellent communicator. He has acquired knowledge and broadcasts it smoothly. He’s spent enough time doing media work that he knows well what not to do. Over on PJTV, he did an obituary for someone you’ve likely never heard of, and made it interesting for a solid 10 minutes. Granted, the subject was interesting, but the skill in play held the audience all the way to the conclusion. That ain’t beanbag.
2. More important than Bill’s communications skill is the vision involved. Unlike the vast sea of people yelling at their televisions over what is wrong with modern culture, more than those doing the important work of writing blogs and supporting useful candidates for office, Bill’s Declaration Entertainment is going to have a lasting impact on the culture.
The reason for the last sentence is that the notion of aggregating the audience beforehand to break the grip of the Left on the movie making business is as brilliant as the mind behind these Firewall essays. The market for new movie production is relatively sewn up, and the movies being made are such dreck that the silent majority steers clear of the stream of filth. Leveraging the internet to break into the market with fresh ideas seems, in retrospect, obvious. Yet there is Bill with the timing and location to pull it off. Building the budget for professional movie productions one small nibble at a time overcomes the otherwise daunting funding challenge.
Whether Declaration Entertainment is a reflection of the genius behind the Firewall (and older Afterburner) essays, or the reverse doesn’t matter much. What does matter is that liberty be preserved.
Thus, whenever you’re linking or reviewing a Firewall essay, consider plugging the bigger idea of Declaration Entertainment that they are driving. Also, consider subscribing to DE. Once it reaches critical mass, and has a few releases under its belt, the care and feeding won’t be as crucial as they are now.
Still, all participants can know that each drop of blog post adds to the tsunami that is going to wash the Progressive deadwood off the beach, lead to a renewed American vigor in human history, and dismay for authoritarian clowns the world over. Screw those clowns. Go, DE!
Beware of Polls!
I get tired of saying this, but we can’t let polls do our thinking for us. A Los Angeles Times poll appears to have oversampled Democrats, as Professor Donald Douglas explains at American Power.
Disinformation is the new objectivity.
Have We Had A Bellyfull Of Voter Fraud Yet?
by Smitty
Just reading this post by Gateway Pundit about allegations in AZ and CO. There have been startling developments in Texas, as well as the infamous DOJ New Black Panther dismissal.
The sanctity of elections is as crucial as the dollar remaining the currency of the land. The country very literally cannot function in its current form if our elections are as queered as those of countries we grew up silently thankful that the Almighty had not chosen to place us within.
Reforming our voter registration processes has got to be among the top 10 priorities of the next Congress. It may not be the absolute #1 priority, but, in the long run, it is way up there. The currently reported shenanigans invite questions about other recent elections that could evolve into unhelpful distractions.
Keynesian Economy: Some Assembly Required
Rule 5 Sunday
by Smitty
Rule 5 Sunday has an unusual burst of first-timers this week, plus the usual cast of characters. Must be getting ready for something beautiful a week from Tuesday.
- Maggie’s Notebook:
- American Perspective:
- The Pirate’s Cove:
- Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup, Elvira edition?
- Anna Chapman
- Smash Mouth Politics:
- Mind Numbed Robot:
- Left Coast Rebel:
- The Camp of the Saints:
- Fausta:
- Divided We Stand, United We Fall:
- Serr8d:
- The Classic Liberal:
- Elizabeth Hurley and internet fascism.
- Marisa Miller and killing the American Dream to revive it.
- Washington Rebel:
- GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD:
- TrogloPundit:
- TrogloDaughter’s prom dress affected by bad economy.
- Brett Favre, something about cel tying sack. I didn’t want to get too close.
- Blond Twins must not be allowed to crowd Danica.
- His Life is a Football, or something.
- Single Guy News
- Sing Girl News, including Russell Brand.
I thought Brand looked like Tim Minchin:
- iOwnTheWorld:
- American Power:
- Cute French Student, protesting the posing requirments, of course.
- Bikini Monday
- Faith Hill
- American Culture on the Skids
- What is Sexy
- Paulina Porizkova
- Alana Blanchard
- Lilac Sunday:
- Russell Crowe not running for office, but helping Democrats run from office. Crucial distinction.
- “Bone sucking is romantical.” Likely there is some allowance for who actually is doing what, but let’s leave those implementation details to the audience.
- SI VIS PACEM:
- Yankee Phil:
- Rice Meets POTUS
- Marilyn Monroe
- Marisa Miller, in an apparent scoop of Donald Douglas.
- Red Army Turns Pink
- Audrey Hepburn
- Jane Seymour
- Katy Perry
- The Real United States:
- Ed Driscoll:
- Bunny Interview, this time with anchor tag. (Duh).
- Power and Control:
- Roger Stone and something from Planet Claire, if Xenobiology serves.
- House of Eratosthenes:
- Girl in a Hotel Bar. No word on how Levi Johnston handled the sitation on the eighth floor.
- Recumbent Bicycles
- Piece of Work in Progress:
- Theo Spark:
- Bedtime Totty
- Red Friday Totty
- What’s The Rifle?
- Bedtime Totty
- Thursday Totty
- Miss Pole Dance Australia
- Looks Like An FN Something
- Veronika London
- Golf Totty, though the photo doesn’t seem set around that sort of club.
- Soft Drink
- Wednesday Wenches
- Bedtime Totty
- Tuesday Totty
- Bedtime Totty
- Bonus Bum
- Monday Mopsies
- Canada’s Got Talent
- Bath Night
- Paco Enterprises:
- Little Miss Attila:
- Proof Positive:
- Dustbury:
- The Last Tradition:
- Three Beers Later:
- Daily Cutie:
- Eye of Polyphemus:
- Right, Wing Nut!
- Kristen Davis for Governor
Stay energized, stay lovely. Hug a hippie; leave the punching to the Lefty twerps.
Obama Cut Your Taxes, and Other Lies Frank Rich Wants You to Believe In
You’ve got to marvel at the effrontery of the man:
President Obama, the Rodney Dangerfield of 2010, gets no respect for averting another Great Depression, for saving 3.3 million jobs with stimulus spending, or for salvaging GM and Chrysler from the junkyard. And none of these good deeds, no matter how substantial, will go unpunished if the projected Democratic bloodbath materializes on Election Day. Some are even going unremembered. For Obama, the ultimate indignity is the Times/CBS News poll in September showing that only 8 percent of Americans know that he gave 95 percent of American taxpayers a tax cut.
This is, evidently, the Great Democrat Myth of 2010, a sequel to “We Didn’t Get Our Message Out” (2004) and “Bush Stole the Election” (2000). Whenever Democrats lose an election, their craving for self-esteem requires that they manufacture a myth to explain it to themselves and to the world. This year, they’re planning ahead!
What was included in the February 2009 stimulus package was not a “tax cut.” No one’s tax rates were reduced. Instead, there was a temporary two-year tax credit that reduced payroll witholding by — brace yourself — a whopping $8 a week:
A refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns. This tax credit will be calculated at a rate of 6.2 percent of earned income and will phase out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income in excess of $75,000, or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly.
And this $8 a week (a temporary credit, which is not the same as a “tax cut”) is the benevolence for which Frank Rich says you should be so grateful to President Obama.
Oh, yeah: And also “averting another Great Depression,” which is a pretty neat trick with $8 a week.
The problem is that Frank Rich doesn’t understand economics any better than the president does. Neither being a film critic nor attending Harvard Law requires any knowledge of economics. For reasons of pure partisan politics, Democrats have spent nearly a decade screaming “tax cuts for the rich” as an indictment of the Bush policy, without once bothering to ask themselves whether “tax cuts for the rich” was actually a bad idea, in macroeconomic terms.
What matters to Frank Rich and Obama is not whether the policies they advocate lead to economic growth, but rather whether their rhetoric helps convince people to vote Democrat. And in this they share the bias expressed by Stanley Greenberg and James Carville, who have issued a strategic memo for the Democratic Party via the New York Times declaring that in their polling “a Democratic message focused on the middle class and American jobs won out over a Republican message of deficit reduction and wasteful spending.”
See? It’s just a matter of having the right “message.” And never mind whether the policies actually work, or whether your “message” is actually true.
Update (Smitty): Welcome, Instapundit readers!