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About Beregond

Beregond has been a member since June 17th 2010, and has created 48 posts from scratch.

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How Obama Got His Groove Back

published Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 4:19 pm by Beregond

President Obama just finished his Labor Day speech in Milwaukee. I haven’t found any transcripts yet, and I’m not part of the elite media that gets advance copies that are embargoed. But the content I saw on TV was no surprise.

Thumbnail sketch: If you thought he was engaged in class warfare before, grab your socks because he’s going to double down. Everything he did was great. Never mind that taxing, borrowing, and spending money that we don’t have didn’t work. We’re going to do more of it. But watch out, cuz there are nasty people from another party that keep trying to stop Barack.

We got to hear about “targeted” tax cuts again. “Targeted tax cuts” is code for government picking winners and losers. Do what we want, we’ll let you keep a little of your own money. Don’t play ball and we’ll paint a target on your back.

The class warfare rhetoric was expected. The 50 billion dollars of pork spending for incumbents to take home and show off was in the papers this morning. It seems pretty tone deaf when people are upset about spending and no real job creation, but that’s the president’s tactical decision to make. The same old bit about the car being in the ditch was expected. The half truths to smear Republicans was expected.

But one thing did strike me: Barack Obama found the passion and rhetorical skill that was missing last week.

The president can muster passion and the rhetorical skills he became famous for during his campaign for class warfare. Too bad he couldn’t find them for real warriors.

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Posted in Obama, Politics | No Comments »

First Impressions of Obama’s Speech

published Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 10:33 pm by Beregond

President Obama gave a short prime time speech this evening to mark the end of combat operations in Iraq. What remains are 50,000 troops to provide support, training and backup. Seems an artificial distinction to me, as the “advisors” who died in Viet Nam in 1962 were just as dead as the combat troops in 1969, but I’m hardly an expert on the subject.

You do have to give the president’s team props for using the Internet. Instead of a dead piece of text going live on the White House web site, the speech streamed live, followed by a streaming Q&A session where flacks cherry picked questions that people submitted and answered live. This gave them a chance to immediately spin anything that the President failed to sell.

The quotes from the speech that appear below were taken from the text posted by NPR.

The president said the obligatory things about the troops. But they came across that way, as obligatory remarks. The president may have meant them, but the skill and the soaring rhetoric he has proven in the past he can master was missing. If there ever was a time to break out those skills and the passion that animated them, this was it. But they were missing in action.

A little more animation for the next couple of paragraphs. “Look! I kept a campaign promise!” (Please quit attacking me from the left.) Then an outline of what the remaining 50,000 troops will be doing. “See! They aren’t combat troops! Really!” (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!)

It almost sounded like the President was going to say something nice about W, but it was actually a set up for what came later:

As we do, I am mindful that the Iraq War has been a contentious issue at home. Here, too, it’s time to turn the page. This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush. It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security. As I have said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hope for Iraq’s future.

This particular bit of fence straddling is important. It almost looks as if Obama is saying something nice about Bush, but the reminder that Bush started the war and that Obama opposed it is a setup for what comes a bit later. He’s being sly again, like when he scratches with his middle finger.

Lots of stuff about how Afghanistan is the Good War, and  how we can be a good influence abroad. Then he slips in the knife:

That effort must begin within our own borders. Throughout our history, America has been willing to bear the burden of promoting liberty and human dignity overseas, understanding its link to our own liberty and security. But we have also understood that our nation’s strength and influence abroad must be firmly anchored in our prosperity at home. And the bedrock of that prosperity must be a growing middle class.

Unfortunately, over the last decade, we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits. For too long, we have put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform. As a result, too many middle class families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation’s long-term competitiveness is put at risk.

You KNOW it had to be in there somewhere. “Blame Bush” in disguise. And since Obama is unwilling to blame Bush for anything good that may have come from the war in Iraq, blaming Bush and his war for the economic mess is all he could managed tonight in one short speech. But just in case anyone missed the point, he spells it out:

Our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work. To strengthen our middle class, we must give all our children the education they deserve, and all our workers the skills that they need to compete in a global economy. We must jumpstart industries that create jobs, and end our dependence on foreign oil. We must unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs. This will be difficult. But in the days to come, it must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.

The assertion that the economy is in trouble because of the money spent in Iraq and now that we’re out we can spend that money someplace else has three major problems:

  • According to the Congressional Budget Office the stimulus bill cost more than all 8 years of Iraq combined, so there is an implicit lie in the assertion.
  • Innovation is stifled in part because few are willing to risk money in an environment where the costs that government will impose are growing and uncertain. The only certainty seems to be that next week or next month will bring another regulation that makes life more difficult for most businesses.
  • We don’t have the money. We’re in debt. Ignoring paying off the debt for the moment, just the deficit (the amount we fall further behind) increases each year.

Obama wrapped up with more nice words about the troops, but he mailed it in. And hidden among the nice words about the troops was this little road apple:

In an age without surrender ceremonies, we must earn victory through the success of our partners and the strength of our own nation.

Yup. Second to the last paragraph the word “victory” finally appears. But is he claiming victory for our troops? No, instead Obama says that victory is defined by how much people like us, and how strong we are. How strong we are sounds good until you realize that it’s a callback to his “Blame Bush” moment when he says “we have also understood that our nation’s strength and influence abroad must be firmly anchored in our prosperity at home.”

All in all, nothing he couldn’t have said while talking to soldiers at Fort Bliss this afternoon. I guess the teleprompter he leaves behind in the Oval Office got lonely and needed some attention.

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Posted in Obama, Politics | 2 Comments »

A Class Act, Even in Defeat

published Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 8:08 pm by Beregond

Tom LaDuke, Director of Programming at FTRRadio.com, in talking about his meeting Pamela Gorman at Right Online this year said he hadn’t paid much attention to her during the day once he determined that she was another politician there to meet online movers and shakers. Right Online is, after all, about the people online more than about the individual politicians. LaDuke isn’t terribly impressed by politicians anyway. But that night he was at a party in a suite that was just bloggers. (Duke blogs at Duke Over America in addition to his FTR Radio gig.)

He saw Pamela Gorman leaning against a wall having a drink. She was the only politician present. “What are you doing here?” he asked. She smiled, raised her bottle, and said “I heard there would be beer” according to his account. What he found instead of a politician was a regular person who happened to be doing political stuff because she thought it needed doing. That was the key to winning his support. When LaDuke and the other FTR board members who had gone to Right Online got home they told me about Gorman. I had already seen the Gorman commercial shot at a range at various gun related sites and read a bit about her, so I was an easy sell. FTR Radio (which is NOT a non-profit, just unprofitable) planned an entire day of Pamela Gorman coverage, with many of the interviews being repeated later in part or in whole.

Last night Pamela Gorman lost her bid for the nomination to be the congressional representative from Arizona’s third district. It was a ten way race, and the Quayle name recognition, money, and connection to the party machinery was impossible to overcome in such a crowded field. But even in defeat Gorman remains a class act, as can be seen from the statement on her Facebook page:

As you all probably have heard, I was not victorious in my bid for the Republican nomination in AZ03. It has been a wild ride and I am at peace knowing we gave it our all. I am looking forward to continuing to work alongside you all to take America back and am excited to see what the future brings for me personally. Please keep the faith and keep up the intensity… November will come quickly!

No whining, no third party threats. Just looking forward to the future, and a reminder that we have a common cause which is greater than any single loss, even hers. I expect to see more of Pamela Gorman in the future, and continue to like what I see.


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Posted in Blogging, FTR Radio, Guns, Internet, Politics | No Comments »

Tucker Carlson’s Retro-Cranial Inversion Paints a Tax Bullseye on Bloggers

published Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 9:16 pm by Beregond

The Daily Caller has posted a story that accuses half of the conservative blogosphere of taking money from partisan sources for blogging. It’s a particularly bad time to imply that bloggers have lots of money as Philadelphia has decided that bloggers in that city must pay a $300 tax. Instead of defending the freedom of speech of bloggers, the Daily Caller decided to ring the dinner bell for tax hungry local and regional governments.

I was strongly tempted to not link to it because the nature of the story smacks of link whoring, but ultimately I’m not telling the whole story without providing that context.

“It’s standard operating procedure” to pay bloggers for favorable coverage, says one Republican campaign operative. A GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that “at least half the bloggers that are out there” on the Republican side “are getting remuneration in some way beyond ad sales.”

As many have pointed out, a single anonymous ”Republican campaign operative,” one former blogger who got fired, and one blog allegedly getting unreasonably large ad rates don’t make a big conspiracy, even if you add in the smear against Dan Riehl. But it sure sounds big at the start, but as Instapundit said “Yeah, I thought it was a big story at first, too. Then I read it.”

Dan Riehl responds at length to being fraudulently dragged in the story to try to create the impression that he’s corrupt You should read the whole thing. I could go on citing and quoting conservative and libertarian bloggers for a few thousand words without breaking anything worse than the forefinger of my mouse hand. But let’s let Jimmie Bise stand for all of them:

Did you see that “many” right there? Strong never does support that assertion. He doesn’t even cite “many” bloggers in his article — I roughly counted five or six that he mentioned or quoted and only one more he tried ineffectively to finger paint with the blogola charge. So where are these “many bloggers” who are sucking down the GOP-geld. Mr. Strong does not say. Heck, he doesn’t even try to say.

I will tell you folks this right now. Jonathan Strong’s anonymous sources are full of crapola. I have been blogging for over six years. I know several people who have worked, and still work, for Republican candidates, prominent members of both the House and Senate, and the Republican party itself. None of them have ever offered me so much as a penny for any coverage, whether pro-GOP or anti-Democrat. It has never happened. Now, I admit I don’t have traffic numbers that make people drool, but I’ve been around. I have a pretty healthy network. If there was some filthy, filthy partisan cash floating around, I would have been touched by at least a little bit of it. But no, it is not at all “standard operating procedure”.

It’s fairly clear to me that either the source was lying, or knows so little of the depth and breadth of the right side of the blogosphere that he thinks a couple of cases and maybe rumors of a few more constitutes half. Handlers may bring politicians into the blogger’s lounge at CPAC, but not all of them are in their comfort zone. It was no accident that when political handlers in the blogger’s lounge this year saw that RFC Radio (since acquired by FTR Radio) they made a beeline for us. Radio they understood, even if it was Internet radio. Bloggers are outside of the comfort zone of many.

Having brought up FTRRadio.com, I should mention that I am on the board. I don’t appear on the air, I’m one of the geeks behind the scenes. I don’t make any money from it. Anything we take in goes right back out to cover expenses.  The difference between income and outgo comes out of people’s pockets. Our little grassroots conservative Internet radio station is not something that brings in a boatload of money. (That’s no a paid ad in the top right corner, I just put it there. You’ll find the same sort of thing on the blogs of other people involved in FTR.) We bought RFC Radio, an earlier grassroots conservative station, for $20 to give you an idea of how lucrative the process of starting up an Internet radio station without big bucks can be.)

But another board member, my buddy Fingers Malloy, FTR Radio board member, personality, and blogger at The Snark Factor became serious today for three whole paragraphs, which is some kind of record for him:

Look I am not going to pretend that I draw the type of numbers on this site that the big boys (and girls) see on their blogs. Nobody would be throwing big money at me to do anything (except maybe to go away).

For the record, I nor anyone at FTR Radio got a dime in exchange for our support for Pamela Gorman–but thanks to this Daily Caller piece, it raises an unnecessary cloud of suspicion on any blogger that shows enthusiastic support for any candidate in a particular race. Thanks Tucker! (asshat)

Anyone that has done this blogging thing for a while realizes that you aren’t doing it for the money. I can see why Republicans would want help from bloggers–but in a lot of ways they still treat new media like a teenager holding an infant for the first time–awkwardly (yes they are getting better).

For the record, I repeat and endorse the entire second paragraph of the quote, including the “asshat.” I resent that a stuffed shirt from inside the beltway (Carlson, to be clear) makes such a statement necessary from me, from my friends, and from so many that I like and respect. Charging Tucker Carlson with retro-cranial inversion barely touches on the strength of my feelings.

The Daily Caller deciding to take their turn in setting up a circular firing squad was a poor choice. But the timing of other news that the Daily Caller barely touches on makes it particularly bad.

The story that Philadelphia is trying to shake down bloggers for $300 each for a business license is an important one. Even if, as has been suggested, taxes for blogging income under $100,000 is waived, $300 is a lot to spend just starting out on something you might find you don’t like, or don’t have the time for, or that causes friction at home. If Philly can get away with taxing bloggers, other money hungry local and regional governments will be all over bloggers everywhere.

The blogger shakedown has a double impact. It’s not just the financial impact that will stifle free speech, it’s the implicit threat. “We know who you are. We know where you live. And we’re making that public record so that any nut case who disagrees with you can get drunk and pound on your door at 2 am, screaming obscenities. Oh yeah, and union thugs that carry baseball bats can find you, too. Welcome to the Big Leagues.”

We admired those who published and distributed Samizdat in the Soviet Union. Why is not every patriot of any political persuasion up in arms about this step along the slippery slope that led to the need for Samizdat?

The Daily Caller and Tucker Carlson owe bloggers an apology not just for smearing us, but for painting a target on our backs for the tax farmers.

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Posted in Blogging, FTR Radio, Internet, Media, Personal, Politics | 1 Comment »

Will Muslims Permit Jews to Pray in the Dome of the Rock?

published Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 7:32 pm by Beregond

It appears that Muslims want Christians to share their holy places.  It sounds so warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? Why can’t we all just get along? From Christianity Today:

Mansur Escudero, who is leading the push for Muslims to pray at the Cathedral, said the issue is not only important for Muslims but for humankind.

The Spanish convert to Islam told CNN recently that the sharing of Cordoba Cathedral would be “a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture”.

“We want it to be a place where anyone – whether Muslim, Christian or Jew – can do his meditation or his internal way of worshipping, or praying or whatever he wants to call it,” he added.

Neat! But let’s start with a much older religious site where people can’t pray, just to set a good example, shall we? How about we start by letting Jews pray at the holiest site in their religion, on Temple Mount?

From Cubachi we learn today that the effort to reverse the Reconquista goes on. Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula, forcing conversion of much of the population of Spain and Portugal to Islam. Various European Christian powers spent the next 800 years getting it back. (I have touched on this history before in “The Right to Feel Offended.”) During the time that Islam was the local religion there were many mosques built, but the last great mosque in Spain was in Cordoba, once capitol of al-Andalus, and the capitol of the last area under Muslim control, the Emirate of Grenada.

Cubachi’s piece is about Muslims in Spain who want the right to worship in Spain’s Cordoba Cathedral. Her first paragraph is a great summary:

Hat tip to Raymond Arroyo on twitter. This is utterly insane, and an affront to Christianity. Muslims should leave Christian churches alone. They have their mosques and Christian have their churches. But this is more of a conquer issue. The Cordoba Cathedral is now being used as a political football by Muslims in Spain. They are pushing Catholic leaders to allow them to worship in this specific Catholic church.

The key to the Muslim argument seems to be that it was a mosque first. This ignores the fact that that the original structure was the Church of Saint Vincent. With the Visigothic Kingdom eliminated it was a simple matter for the Emir to arrange to buy the church. The monastery was closed and the site was reworked over the next couple of centuries into a mosque.

So if Christians should share this church turned mosque turned church again, shouldn’t the Muslims be willing to share their Temple turned mosque turned church turned mosque again? Most believe that the Dome of the Rock sits where the Second Temple (aka Herod’s Temple) stood, though there are other suggested locations on Temple Mount. Surely allowing Jews and Christians to worship within the Dome of the Rock would be ”a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture” as the earlier advocate of sharing the cathedral in Cordoba put it.

Gosh, such NICE words. Let’s start with sharing the Dome of the Rock. Even if you believe the alternate theories about where the Second Temple stood both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque would have been within the temple complex. Tradition places the Hall of Solomon at the current location of the Al-Asqa mosque. And Justinian once built a church on the site too, so Christians should be able to share the Al-Aqsa Mosque too.

Tolerance is a two way street, or it is nothing more than a demand that you get your own way. If you want to build bridges that are functional the bridge must be anchored on both banks, or else the bridge collapses.

Try making these words fit the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque and we’ll know you’re sincere:

“We want it to be a place where anyone – whether Muslim, Christian or Jew – can do his meditation or his internal way of worshipping, or praying or whatever he wants to call it,” he added.

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Posted in Culture, History, Politics | 3 Comments »