I found an interesting link to a fairly extensive blog network promoting Fred Thompson. This is kind of a unique approach.
Let the Real Sporer know what you all think of this website. Do the other campaigns have something similar? If so, please send them in and we'll get them up on the links below.
26 comments:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2007/03/14/coulter/?source=whitelist
excerpt from Camille Paglia's column at Salon.com. Salon would consider themselves to be liberal.
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Many Democrats like me who are leaning toward Edwards have to be dissatisfied with his marginalization by the mainstream media as well as with his recessiveness during the mastodon-on-mastodon tango between Hillary and Obama. At first I thought Edwards was shrewd to hold fire and pace himself to come on strong later, but this delay is starting to look like uncertainty.
Hence my unhappy surprise when Edwards, who has an attractively comprehensive social policy and strong oratorical skills, was the first to pull out of the scheduled August debate moderated by Fox News. What is this morbid obsession that liberals have with Fox? It's as if Democrats, pampered and spoiled by so many decades of the mainstream media trumpeting the liberal agenda, are so shaky in their convictions that they cannot risk an encounter with opposing views. Democrats have ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, the New York Times, Newsweek, Time and 98 percent of American humanities professors to do their bidding. But no, that's not enough -- every spark of dissent has to be extinguished with buckets of bile.
...more from camille. this is how republicans assess it too. if you are afraid of fox, how are you going to stand up to the french?
...Yet for Democratic presidential candidates, who will be assessed by voters for their ability to stand up to China, North Korea or al-Qaida, to run squealing from a Fox moderator as if he or she were a boogeyman with blood-dripping fangs makes the whole pack of them look like simpering wusses. Dennis Kucinich was quite right to express his scorn and offer to debate anyone anywhere and under any sponsorship. Nice job of skewering the sacred cow!
And...did Dennis Kucinich show the most testicular fortitude of the bunch?
DENNIS KUCINICH??????
Here's the libs view of Hillary's recent speech in Selma. I saw it live and it was quite something to listen to her newly acquired accent. It reminded me of Detroit born Madonna and her newly acquired hauty english manor home accent.
....Hillary didn't help herself with her over-the-top sermon at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Ala., two weeks ago. Her aping of a black Southern accent from the pulpit was so inept and patronizing that it should get a Razzie Award for Worst Performance of the Year.
At times, it approached the Southern Gothic burlesque of Bette Davis chewing up the scenery in "Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Does Hillary Clinton have a stable or coherent sense of self? Or is everything factitious, mimed and scripted (like her flipping butch and femme masks) for expediency?
Of course, any Salon readers who still follow the mainstream media out of numbed habit will never have heard Hillary's most extreme flights of faux gemutlichkeit. All that Sunday, network radio news, for example, betrayed its liberal bias by running clips of only her noblest phrases. Heaven help any Republican who had made so lurid a gaffe!
Fortunately, alternative media now exist: On his radio show that night, Matt Drudge ran huge, hilarious swatches of prophesyin' Hillary camping it up.
More from camille paglia of Salon regarding fox news.
Fox News has its share of solid political features. For example, a week ago, I saw Sen. Dianne Feinstein being interviewed at length on Fox about foreign policy. Though I've never resided in California, I'm a longtime admirer of Feinstein and have sent small sums to her campaigns.
Watching her field tough questions about North Korea, I was impressed anew with her analytic mind and her steadiness of character. She has that rarity among women politicians -- true gravitas.
Dianne Feinstein is far more presidential than Hillary Clinton, who alternates between smugness and defensiveness before pulling out that tiresome middle-aged mom card.
Feinstein, even when maneuvering strategically, always seems genuinely focused on the idea at hand, while Hillary isn't really there -- she's just riffling mentally through her team's cue cards. All politicians are actors, but Hillary's a bad one. No audience wants to see with such crystal clarity how it's being massaged.
the fred thompson links are interesting. I've not run across one like that before. I like it. This is going to be the internet election. Even more so than last time. The grassroots aspect of the internet has exploded. The republicans have caught up to the nutroot dems in technology and are connecting to each other all over the country.
I predict we will rule the "talk" on the internet like we do with talk radio.
It's a hopeful sign.
I agree on the issue of D pres hopefuls and Fox. Completely ridiculous. Good for Kucinich.
Going beyond the debate issue, I would like to point out the flip side of this discussion. When you look at the tendencies, I think you can convincingly argue that conservatives are also actively avoiding opposing viewpoints. And I’m not just talking about this administration. You are unhappy with the existing capitalistic, profit-seeking networks, so you mold a network more to your liking. You don’t like the supposedly liberal satire on Daily Show, so you start your own show. I just heard on the radio yesterday how Wikipedia is now too liberal for some, so they’ve started their own www.conservapedia.com It seems like conservatives don’t like anything mainstream American. But in many ways there is nothing wrong with this. Good for conservatives for coming up with their own stuff and supporting them. But then to say that D’s/liberals are the only ones avoiding real debate and opposing viewpoints is somewhat ridiculous. Both sides are doing this. It is a sad state of affairs when we start living in our separate realities and not even engaging with the other side.
Yesterday Clinton reprised the "vast right-wing conspiracy" line that she originally used to describe efforts against her husband during the Lewinsky scandal.
Elsewhere, Ben Smith at the Politico reports that a Democratic AIPAC member has asked Sen. Barack Obama to clarify his claim that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that he was open to the idea of loosening restrictions on direct aid to the Palestinians.
Oops. I meant read the thread from yesterday where this Iowa democrat's letter to obama was posted. The above report was on the real clear politics blog roll today.
Former U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. is going to work for Fox News Channel as a political commentator, the network announced this morning.
Now heading the Democratic Leadership Council and working for Merrill Lynch, the former Congressman from Memphis was bested by Republican Bob Corker in the November election.
By JEFF ECKHOFF
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Copyright 2007, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company
March 14, 2007
29 Comments
State Sen. Matt McCoy was indicted today on a federal charge that involves the alleged extortion of a former business partner who purportedly balked at paying McCoy for consulting work.
The Democrat, who has represented part of Des Moines' south and west sides since 1996, said he has done nothing illegal.
So, this is how the corrupt politicians use insider information to make profits for themselves. This is the recipe.
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McCoy said Vasquez first approached him in July 2005 to seek help in promoting ADT QuietCare, a computerized system of motion sensors that allows distant caretakers to monitor frail elderly people via the Internet.
The two quickly formed a two-pronged plan, according to McCoy:
McCoy, as a private individual, would work with Vasquez and Schultz to pump up sales of ADT QuietCare.
At the same time, McCoy would take steps behind the scenes to obtain his own ADT dealership, where Vasquez would eventually work, McCoy states.
The senator's timeline and state records agree that he, Vasquez and Schultz met with Iowa Department of Human Services officials beginning in August 2005 to seek Medicaid approval for ADT QuietCare. According to McCoy, that approval was obtained in late November 2005.
The state, through Medicaid, eventually bought systems for at least 18 Iowans from ADT Quietcare at a cost of $400 to $500 each. The state also paid ADT a monthly service fee to monitor the systems.
Matt McCoy's committees involve spending state tax money.
Appropriations and Ways and Means.
The Des Moines Business Record has an interesting piece on the efforts to increse the central Iowa sales tax rate to 7%. They need to get over 9,000 people to sign up to get it on the ballot. Apparently the grass roots need a little fertilizer:
The Greater Des Moines Partnership last week extended an offer of T-shirts, drawings for concert tickets and even a chance to throw out the first ball at an Iowa Cubs game to encourage its members to gather signatures prior to the March 27 deadline. More than 9,200 signatures from Dallas, Polk and Warren county residents are needed to get the proposed 1 percent local option sales tax on those counties' ballots for a July 10 special election.
While some of the biggest companies in Des Moines are on board for higher sales taxes, it remains to be seen if anybody else is. It didn't seem popular at a Des Moines forum yesterday.
A 7% rate would put give us one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation, to go with the highest corporate income tax rate and the fifth-highest personal income tax rate.
The proposed 1-cent sales tax increase, known as "Yes to Destiny," is primarily the work of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. The business development group says the sales tax increase would generate an estimated $750 million over 10 years to help lower property taxes and finance cultural efforts.
1/3 of the money goes to property tax relief. Who benefits most from property tax relief? Big Businesses that own the most property.
1/3 of the money is decided upon by a board to be named later without input from the taxpaying public.
1/3 of the money is decided upon by city councils as they see fit.
All of that is paid for by people buying food, groceries and clothes for their kids.
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Scheduled for today is the second of four public hearings to discuss how Des Moines would spend its portion of a proposed 1 percent sales tax.
The plan is known as Project Destiny; it is expected to be on the ballot for a July 10 special election and would allocate
one-third of the sales tax proceeds for property tax relief,
one-third for distribution by a newly created regional authority,
and one-third for "additional local property tax relief" as determined by local city councils.
Meetings to determine what that additional relief might entail in Des Moines are scheduled for:
- Today, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Southridge Mall, 1111 E. Army Post Road.
- Thursday, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Northwest Community Center, 5110 Franklin Ave.
- Thursday, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church, Waveland Hall, 4126 Ingersoll Ave.
KCCI just announced that now that the school systems have the 1% permanent sales tax for schools, that the first order of business is to create a $1 million dollar playground for the downtown school.
Just what we need most. A one MILLION dollar playground. How is that even possible?
When the local option tax was passed in the Des Moines area, the West Des Moines School board decided to create an $8 MILLION dollar football field.
Then, they came back and felt they STILL DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY for textbooks.
Now, they still believe that their teachers and administrators are not paid enough. BUT, we have a WORLD CLASS football field.
and they complain about not being able to comply with No Child Left Behind because they claim to have no money to NOT LEAVE THEM BEHIND. That is not important to fund, but that $8 million dollar football field and $1 million dollar playground are big priorities.
why bother with a playground? schools don't let kids play anymore anyway. No tag, no hide and seek, no jungle gym, no twirling bars, no dodge ball, NO FUN at all.
Someone might fall down and get a boo boo.
More points of agreement. Not too keen on the sales tax increase. A million dollar playground and 8 million dollar high school stadium are way over the top. But I just don’t know if you can blame all this stuff on D’s. I don’t believe the Greater Des Moines Partnership is a huge liberal D bastion, and I doubt D’s dominate the machinery in WDM either.
not blaming it on d's specifically, but d's dominate the school boards, the city councils and the county supervisors. many of the school board memebers are teachers, former teachers, union stewards or former union officials. or, they belong to another union, like afscme. Check out the composition of the Des Moines school board for example.
It's a criticism of taxing and taxing and taxing and taxing. Is there no limit?
Then, they spend it on stuff like $8 million dollar stadiums and $1 million dollar playgrounds. Or, illegally excessive salaries at CIETC, or to unaccountable non-profits who get tax money with the only criteria for getting it is to promise to "help" people.
Then, they pass $1 a pack on cigs for the alledged purpose of spending it on smoking programs, but then, just put it in the general fund. Not content, they keep adding gambling venues hoping against hope that their fine citizens lose all their money at the casino so that they can use the tax money to give a tax break to a new casino to get more money from the citizenry in losses so they can add more social programs to fix their addiction.
Then, they want a $50 million dollar rainforest, then millions to improve the botanical center that no one goes to see, now the zoo, yet they are closing schools....you get the picture.
ENOUGH!
Again a feisty anon! Can't help but like that.
I do get the picture, and you have a very good point. Obviously now in Iowa, and Central Iowa in particular, D's have more political power. Thus, one can argue that it's fair to focus more on D's. To be honest, I have no clue where the WDM school board is politically. But I suspect the voters lean more R than D. DM board is surely more of a D dominated place.
But when you look at areas where R's are or have been in power, there is an awful lot of waste going on as well. From what we hear, billions of federal cash being wasted in Iraq & Gulf Coast. When a left-leaning (supposedly nonpartisan, but I don't even try to make that claim) group points out $60 billion per year Pentagon spending on Cold War era weapons systems that have no use today, those reports (produced by real military experts) are completely dismissed. Could we at least spend the $60 billion on useful military stuff or use it to cover the WOT costs? I didn't know we have TENS OF BILLIONS to squander. And of course, we all know how our fiscally conservative Grassley was the 50 million dollar rain(forest) man.
I do get the picture you are painting, and I don't like it either. But what I want more than anything else (well, almost as much as something else, but that's besides the point) is intellectual honesty on both sides of the aisle.
Dear Senator Thompson;
I am 44 years old. Originally from Maryland, I was a Veteran of the U.S. Navy from 1985-1991. I was a career Firefighter and Paramedic in Texas, Chicago, and Maryland. I am a single father of twin 6 year olds and a 22 year old daughter that is graduating from George Mason University in the spring with Majors in International Religion and Political Science, with the Arabic language as her minor study. She is hoping to intern with the State Department in the Middle East this summer. She had interned last summer for We Care America. She will probably be starting Law school in the fall.
I am a Christian and the leader of the Men’s group in my Church. I am very active in my community. I also volunteer at a local soup kitchen and am a supporter of the Pregnancy Care Center. I am a technician with Verizon. I have a deep love for my country and a passion to minister to the men and families in my community. My ministry is to help the men in my community become the men that they want their sons to be and the type of man that they would want their daughters to marry. I have been mildly active in local and national politics, and am a supporter of most of the causes that the Center for Law and Justice fight for. I apologize for the lengthy personal history. I only state it as testimony that I am just a typical God fearing family man that loves his country and is passionately concerned about the future of American politics, but more importantly the future of the country that I fought to protect.
I have been a tremendous admirer of yours for about as long as I can remember. I hesitate to use the word FAN, as I don’t want to be misunderstood as to nature of my admiration. Although I have always liked and enjoyed your theatrical works, it is your public service that has me truly excited about your consideration of the Presidency.
For many Americans this election will be about the decision between the lesser evils. Their votes will be cast not necessarily FOR someone but AGAINST someone else. This I believe, holds true for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Although this may have been true in the past for many, I believe that this indifference or apathy has reached an epidemic level. It saddens many an Americans heart to think that a man or woman of integrity to lead this country is not to be found.
Mr. Senator, I have studied you and vetted you to the best of my ability. I know of your voting record, I know of your character as much as a person on the outside can. I was so pleased and relieved when you were chosen as the Sherpa for Chief Justice Roberts. You are respected and know as a man of integrity and honor from members of both sides of the political spectrum. Senator Charles Schuler, D-N.Y., has hailed you as " the kind of person who can bring people together…’.
I can and will, recruit and energize people of character and integrity in this area to become active participants for the quest to bring a man of your caliber to the helm of this great country. All we ask is that you give us the opportunity to make a difference. We believe the United States is the true beacon of freedom for the world. We also believe that it takes exceptional character and integrity to make the tough decisions, and that the decisions should not be made according to the latest opinion polls. We believe that you are THE man for the time.
We ask for your leadership.
We ask that you enter into the Presidential race.
Not as a lesser of other evils, but as a candidate that has the right combination of character and integrity to guide this great country of ours in these difficult times.
I, and untold thousands of others, humbly offer our services to you. We hope and pray that you will hear the calling for you to be the next PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
At your service. firemn131@netzero.net
US President Tim Kalemkarian, US House Tim Kalemkarian, US Senate Tim Kalemkarian: best major candidate.
usaforfredthompson.blogspot.com is a must see for anyone who is blogging for Fred...
-C
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