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**UPDATED MONDAY MORNING**
THE BALDWIN/McCULLOUGH PODCAST:
Baldwin/McCullough *LIVE* – Hr 1/Hr 2

Where can you find the radio station nearest you to hear Baldwin/McCullough? Simple enough… Click here! Where can you go to see it on television? Check your local listings, or on-screen guide:

And tonight, watch right here:

ON THE BALDWIN/McCULLOUGH MegaCast:
1. Whitney Houston DEAD at 48. What is the measure of a life well lived? Two very personal WWII vets gone in the past two weeks that had immeasurable impact on KMC’s life can be contrasted by comparison… Plus breaking developments. 800.345.9622.

2. How do you feel about the fact that President Obama tried to force his view of contraception on people of religious convictions. Thoughts: 800.345.9622.

ALSO: We’re BACK! CPAC 2012… we report…!

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Baldwin/McCullough Resources:

KMC’s BRAND NEW BOOK is now available:

The Kind of Man Every Man Should Be .
MuscleHead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking .
The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips
The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the new Hardcore Movement of Faith .

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Where can you find the radio station nearest you to hear Baldwin/McCullough? Simple enough… Click here! Where can you go to see it on television? Check your local listings, or on-screen guide. The fun is just kicking off for our television simulcast this week number 1 of the new Baldwin/McCullough MegaCast:

Download our new ConnectionPlus tool AND get a one year complimentary membership to all XtreMIUM Membership at Baldwin/McCullough.

ON THE BALDWIN/McCULLOUGH MegaCast:
1. Mila Kunis, from the good news files, IS going to the Marine Corps Ball with the young man who asked her via YouTube from Afghanistan. But she also finds her self advocating against something her recent film with Justin Timberlake, sets out to attempt to certify. “Men and Women” can have detached sex, and no one is harmed. The kids at THE FIVE took this on, but what about you? Your calls: 877.572.8446.

2. Why are hateful activists so intolerant of others when all they preach all day long is tolerance. They’re preventing families from helping get needed supplies to AIDS orphans in Africa, they are trying to keep men from getting help–even when they are asking for it, and they’re attempting to keep the poor from being fed. All of this simply because they have an idealogical difference with the organizations doing the good work.  877.572.8446!

BONUS: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, one more step towards getting in? Wifey says, “yes!”

Baldwin/McCullough Resources:

KMC’s BRAND NEW BOOK is now available:

The Kind of Man Every Man Should Be .
MuscleHead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking .
The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips
The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the new Hardcore Movement of Faith .

Please be respectful of her and if you have any questions for her or me, leave them in the comments.

Sarjex’s review:

Last night I took TLG with me to Orange County to watch The Undefeated.

Disclaimer: I am an unabashed Sarah Palin fan…TLG I’m not exactly sure what she thinks about The Hockey Mom from Wasilla. I have taken TLG with me to see a few openly conservative flicks…from the dreadful An American Carol to the poorly paced and no character arcs whatsoever but looked like a million bucks Atlas Shrugged. I like taking TLG with me to these because knowing that someone who tilts left is sitting right by me helps me view them with a bit more of a critical eye.

I know Palin’s story pretty well. I’ve read her book, watched her speeches and I’ve caused family upsets because I refused to allow a family member to get away with a “she’s so dumb AND she’s a QUITTER” comment. I didn’t think this movie would change TLGs political ideology but I hoped it would help sell to her why I admired Palin so much.

The crowd was polite and anticipation buzzed. I’d say it skewed a little older but it’s hard for me to say…pretty much the only thing I see in theaters anymore is animated so I’m used to a much younger set. A man handed TLG a slip of paper as we walked in promoting Organizers for Palin. She didn’t even glance at it as she handed it to me. I didn’t tell her I had already been to their website.

Up and down the conservative blogosphere, the reviews have been effusive with one sole exception and it was an opinion I really valued. The lights dimmed, the trailers played and then the movie began. “Please be good!” I thought. “Please, please, please be really GOOD.”

The beginning of the movie is well known… Politicos, Hollywood and Media elites snarking on Palin calling her everything from a well trained parrot to images of detractors wearing shirts proclaiming Palin is a C***. The hatred and ruthlessness has been well documented but a feeling of trepidation filled me as the movie advanced.

As the celebrities talked a music track played underneath I guess to help sell the emotion of the vitriol… but I found it distracting and unnecessary. You don’t need to force the idea on the audience! I thought. Let their own words convict them.

The movie is LOUD. Not just LOUD but it’s completely unbalanced. Every bit of audio…the dialogue, the music, any sound effects have all been given the same level of importance, ratcheting the sound up as high as it will go to the point that it is meaningless. Shortly into the movie TLG leaned over and handed me some bits of Kleenex so we could stuff some into our ears and help dull the pain.

It wasn’t just the ear splitting wall of sound, it was the obnoxious quick cut, jump here, jump there editing. It works well for a fast paced 30-90 second political ad, but even 5 minutes of it is exhausting.

I hoped things would slow down and the filmmakers would let this story breathe after the high energy opener but my heart sank as the movie finished the prologue and went into the first segment and continued its breakneck pace.

What’s so frustrating for me is amid all of the jump cutting and audio extremism, lies a kernel of a GREAT story. Palin’s story is remarkable… from the PTA to Mayor of Wasilla which she helped turned from an economically depressed little bit of podunk to Alaska’s boomtown. There is time spent on the corruption of Anchorage and the “Corrupt Bastards Club” and her time spent fighting her own party in the primary to get the nomination for Governor and the mind bogglingly transformative first 20 months of her Governorship.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any sense of pacing in The Undefeated. Each segment is treated as if it is The. Most. Important. Segment. Ever. The music is intrusive and distracting, some of the imagery, while fine for a political commercial seemed a bit jarring and out of place for a serious documentary (seriously? Lions taking out a zebra? Knights on horseback? Shadowy figures in smoke filled rooms?) The editing is exhausting so by the time the film reaches what SHOULD be the climax with RNC speech and later the Tea Parties there is no sense of the journey…it feels like more of the same.

I was glad they spent time on her Governorship after returning home from the McCain campaign and clearly outlined the harassment hit job jihad against her but again, found myself frustrated. It’s one thing to have talking heads talk about all of the frivolous ethics lawsuits…but at least TELL us what some of them were! You can’t just tell the audience that they were silly and they were all dismissed (they were) but not detail out some of the more the ludicrous charges.

There are definitely cheer worthy points in the movie…and my sold out audience did. When the movie decides to settle down and just let people talk it works well. It’s very unsubtle pointing out the similarities between Palin and Reagan (who elicited some wistful awwws when he appeared on screen) and Mark Levin does a masterful job at sweeping away the poorly constructed revised history of the Reagan revolution pointing out that just like Palin, the Republican establishment despised him.

There’s so much that’s good about this documentary, showing what a remarkable executive she was in Alaska, how electrifying she is in person and her Gipper like ability to connect with `plain ol’ regular Americans’ but it’s lost in the obnoxious editing and wall of sound.

Is it worth seeing? Yes, but bring earplugs. Can she be elected? Is she even running? I don’t know but I don’t think this is the vehicle to change perceptions. You’ll have to ask TLG.

TLG’s Review:

When Sarjex told me that she wanted to see a movie, I could tell by the little smile that she wasn’t talking about Harry Potter. “Would you like to go with me?” I always try to be open minded and have ventured with her to see several “conservative” leaning movies, so yes, I’d go see Undefeated with her.

I really enjoyed all the previews, and leaned over to whisper my interest in seeing a few of them. Then the movie started. They showed numerous examples of Palin being bashed and slandered. While the examples were all valid, I couldn’t help but think that there is just as much evil spewing, and “Us vs. Them” from both sides. I’m sure a movie about Obama could have at least as many horrible examples of people calling for violence and spitting venom.

The movie is put together in 3 main “acts” and started out with “The Seed” explaining how she had her first sparks of political interest when the Exxon Valdez impacted Alaska. The acts followed her progression from PTA hockey mom, to Mayor, Governor and VP candidate, and the aftermath.

As Sarjex has said, they certainly “pumped the volume” in the theater. I started off plugging one ear and quickly realized the volume wasn’t decreasing as the plot line moved along. I fashioned ear plugs from kleenex and shared with Sarjex. (I want her to be able to hear me in our old age.) The ear plugs definitely let me be able to pay attention to the movie without being needlessly worried about my hearing. I agree completely with Sarjex’s note about the music not pushing emotion and just flowing through everything.

My next complaint was about the people they had who were telling the story. Each person had their name and who they were flashed on screen the first time the spoke. This happened for anywhere from half a second to two seconds. If you were not paying attention because you were, say for example digging in your bag for Kleenex, then you had no idea who the person was who was talking.

I agree with Sarjex that they didn’t cover the ethics violations questions especially well. There were a few things I had heard about and for them to simply say that there were 14 ethics lawsuits which were all dismissed didn’t fully cover it. I found myself wondering if some of the things I’d heard were the lawsuits or if they were other side notes that weren’t ever “lawsuits”.

Overall I’d say the movie did leave me with more positive views of Palin. I could truly see that she got into politics to make Alaska better for ALASKANS and not for her own glory. She really did some great things in Alaska, and I wish that more politicians would work with big oil to benefit their states instead of just selling out or profiting personally. I’m not sure that I’d vote for her, but you’d never see me wearing a shirt calling her a c***.

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Where can you find the radio station nearest you to hear Baldwin/McCullough? Simple enough… Click here! Where can you go to see it on television? Check your local listings, or on-screen guide. The fun is just kicking off for the Baldwin/McCullough MegaCast:

Have you heard about the Cares Project? It is our PERSONAL endeavor to bring health care improvements to you that the Government can’t control, the Drug Companies can’t rebuff, and the dollars that are saved are YOURS!!!.

ON THE BALDWIN/McCULLOUGH MegaCast:
1. Debt limit increase… good? Charlie Rangel has taken to asking the all-important question, “What would Jesus do?” (As to whether or not to increase the debt that the nation is accessing to keep digging itself into a deeper hole.) And while his question is an absolutely stupid one, the principal is a very important one. What IS the morality of continuing the extension of being unable to pay bills. Do ANY of us get to live that way? Your calls: 877.572.8446.

2. Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez are hot to trot and have both removed their chastity rings. (Tru love waits, virgin till marriage, or whatever else you wanna call it.) Now the entertainment sites (that are pretty salacious and purposefully inflammatory) have taken to polling their readers as to whether “Julena Beimez” are too hot and heavy. (They’re both underage btw…) 877.572.8446!


Baldwin/McCullough Resources:

KMC’s BRAND NEW BOOK is now available:

The Kind of Man Every Man Should Be .
MuscleHead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking .
The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips
The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the new Hardcore Movement of Faith .

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Where can you find the radio station nearest you to hear Baldwin/McCullough? Simple enough… Click here! Where can you go to see it on television? Check your local listings, or on-screen guide. The fun is just kicking off for our television simulcast this week number 1 of the new Baldwin/McCullough MegaCast:

ON THE BALDWIN/McCULLOUGH MegaCast:
1. Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have caught a huge break in the case against him. Though ironically with all the evidence that has come out against his accuser this week, they still have not dropped the charges as of yet. But Stephen Baldwin wants to know which is worse being judged by a trial overseen by the American press, or living the kind of double standard life that makes you suspect to treatment exactly as the former IMF president is now facing? Your calls: 877.572.8446.

2. When XtreMEDIA this week produced the newest promotional spot for the best-selling “No He Can’t: How Barack Obama is dismantling Hope and Change” it was met with strong criticism by some online. People of faith were saying, “Praying for your leaders is what we should be doing.” So Kevin McCullough wants to know from those who do criticize his new book on such grounds, is it even fair to point out a person’s record? 877.572.8446!

BONUS: Why KMC blames Breitbart for the leak of Weiner’s X-Rated Revelation.

Baldwin/McCullough Resources:

KMC’s BRAND NEW BOOK is now available:

The Kind of Man Every Man Should Be .
MuscleHead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking .
The Death and Life of Gabriel Phillips
The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the new Hardcore Movement of Faith .

However, there are several other companies and individuals who continue to file applications in an attempt to trademark SEAL Team 6 and other variations of the name.  In examining the USPTO database, such companies and individuals filing applications include Metrogames, Justice is Done, AAAA World Inc., RESCO Instruments, The Outdoor Recreation Group (and this one), John Brokaw, and Jon Narmi–even a German company is trying to cash in.  There are others as well, but you get the picture.

It is not coincidental that all of the application file dates range from early May 2011 until present–obviously a direct link.  Additionally, Disney was met with public scorn and the Navy did strong arm Disney to protect its rights:

Navy spokeswoman Amanda Greenberg said the Navy already had rights to the SEAL trademark but recently submitted two new applications for trademarks of “Navy SEALs” and “SEAL Team.”

“The Navy is fully committed to protecting its trademark rights as it pertains to this matter and is currently examining all legal options,” she said.

Disney/ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said the company pulled the plug on its bid “in deference to the Navy’s application.”

It is fair to ask, in light of the outcome with Disney, how will the Navy handle these companies and individuals who continue to file trademark apps using Navy SEAL Team 6 and will the public rebuke these companies and individuals by boycotting these products that display the TEAM 6 name?

“Barefoot Contessa” Ina Garten has a new nickname — “Heartless Contessa” — in the wake of news that she repeatedly refused to meet with a 6-year-old boy named Enzo who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

According to the reports:

The boy, who would watch Garten from his sick bed, told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to meet the Food Network celebrity. When told that her schedule was too busy, Enzo opted to wait. When the request was made once more, Garten’s representatives replied with a “definite no,” according to the online blog that the family kept about the boy’s illness.

Now, I have been a fan of Garten’s for a while now; I like the way her show is produced and frankly, her recipes are good (minus all the butter).  I can understand that her schedule is demanding; however, I also know that celebrities will go out of their way for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  So who dropped the ball on Garten’s part?  And an even better question is:  why hasn’t she publicly denounced or fired the person(s).

Additionally, as the article states, Garten’s rep and Make-A-Wish noted:

In response to the controversy, Make-A-Wish stressed to TMZthat Garten is a “good friend” of the foundation. A representative for Garten told the site: “Despite her demanding schedule, [Ina] participates and helps as many organizations as she can throughout the year, helping children and adults like Enzo with life threatening and compromising illnesses. … Unfortunately, as much as she would like to, it’s absolutely impossible for her to grant every request she receives.”

However, the Make-A-Wish website (link above) doesn’t include Garten in the list.  Addtionally, the Look to the Stars website documents very well celebrities an their affiliated charities.  Garten doesn’t even come up in the search.  Searches Garten does come up in–which she donates her valuable time–include, hosting a political fund-raiser and the 16th Annual Hudson Peconic benefit for Planned Parenthood.

Futhermore, you are probably asking why I mention The Home Depot.  I’ll tell you.  I reached out to them this week and not only did the entire local store management team coordinate an effort for me, they offered to provide all of the design services, supplies, and labor–for FREE.  An entire team.  No charge.  Above and beyond what I originally asked.  Garten should take note as to what charity looks like and follow the lead of The Home Depot team.

So, brava, Ina.  As The Home Depot staff recognizes, sometimes it really is for the sake of the children and bringing a simple smile to someone suffering.  Couldn’t you have just made some homemade mac-n-cheese with little Enzo and saved yourself the public’s scorn?

Update:  ABC is reporting that Garten will cook with Enzo after all:

The “Barefoot Contessa” has time to star in her Food Network show, pen cookbooks, and cook at charity luncheons for her well-to-do fans. But apparently, her schedule was too packed to meet a 6-year-old boy stricken with leukemia who requested a cooking session with her through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She turned him down, twice.

Now, after multiple blogs and news outlets criticized her decision, Garten is inviting Enzo Pereda to the set of “The Barefoot Contessa.”

“Ina became aware of Enzo’s story this weekend and will be calling him today,” a spokesperson for Garten said in a statement to ABCNews.com. “She looks forward to inviting him to spend some time with her at the Food Network studios.”

I was hoping that would be the outcome. I can only hope that Garten holds her reps accountable for how they handled this. I also understand she is busy and her time is her own–I get it.   While there were some feverish comments, which I always expect (and love about HA readers), for the record, I never suggested a boycott of her show, her books, or her sponsors.  I like her show and recipes and, frankly, I think the Ina-Enzo episode (if produced) would/will have record ratings for her.

They’ve taken a huge gamble, producing this ambitious film under a tight deadline and on a tight budget.

During the CPAC blogger bash at FreedomWorks, they previewed four scenes from the movie. Clearly, they’re hoping to generate major buzz before the film’s theatrical release on April 15.

Yeah: Tax Day. Pretty clever.

Learn more at the official Atlas Shrugged Movie site.

(Cross-posted at The Other McCain.)

As some of you are aware, earlier this week I published a post that was chockerblock full of pictures documenting my adventures at CPAC. Well, included in that post were pictures of myself with the hilarious Red Eye guys, the hysterical Stephen Kruiser (who is a frequent guest on Red Eye, as well as the host of the Kruiser Kabana), and the lovely blogger Sarah Rumpf. (See the pictures below.)

[Above is a picture with me and Greg Gutfeld, the host of the Fox show Red Eye.]

[Above is a picture of me with Stephen Kruiser (in a purple shirt to my immediate right), and Bill Schulz (to my left) and Andy Levy of Red Eye fame.]

[The above picture is of me and the beautiful Sarah Rumpf, who is the proprietor of the blog Sunshine State Sarah.]

This past week, Stephen was kind enough to pass along the two pictures that my husband took of me with the Red Eye guys–and some pictures of Sarah taken with the Red Eye guys–to the Red Eye producers. Well, on Friday night, multiple pictures of Sarah and me posing with the Red Eye cast appeared in a photo collage on Red Eye! (Go to approximately five minutes into the video embedded below to see multiple pictures of Sarah and me posing with the Red Eye cast members.)

As I previously stated in my prior post, always bring a camera with you everywhere you go at CPAC.

Oh, and thanks for letting me brag a bit. I can’t wait to see you all again next year!

PS–Robert Stacy McCain was kind enough to write a cool post about Sarah’s and my “brush with fame”.

PPS–Thanks so much to Brian Henchey, host of The New England Job Show (who is pictured in my earlier post), for alerting me–via Facebook–to the fact that my pictures were featured on Red Eye.

This column is cross-posted from Parcbench, and it is also posted at Right Wing News, The Minority Report and Hillbillypolitics.

[A big thank you to Richard Hornsby for the photo]

This past Wednesday through Saturday, The American Conservative Union sponsored the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. CPAC was open to all conservative activists who wanted to attend. This year, I had the honor of being a credentialed blogger for CPAC, and, thus, was able to sit in the bloggers’ lounge that was sponsored by Freedom Works. Tabitha Hale, the brains behind the bloggers’ row who put the whole thing together, really outdid herself. (All attendees should participate in a quiet “golf clap” for Tabitha.)

Folks, I had a blast this past week. Seriously, if any of you ever get the opportunity to attend CPAC, I highly suggest going. In fact, there are three very good reasons to attend CPAC next year (or any similar national conservative activist conference in the future). So, without much fanfare and ado, let’s get right to it.

1.) CPAC is a great place to hear some awesome political speeches, and meet many famous conservative political activists and politicians.

This year at CPAC, participants had the opportunity to listen to many famous pundits and politicians speak. Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry, Haley Barbour, Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, David Horowitz and Andrew Breitbart were some of the many famous speakers that were there. However, there were three speakers in particular that I, personally, thought brought down the house.

Herman Cain (who is a radio talk show host and the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza) gave a speech that greatly exceeded the expectations of many people in the political class. Ed Morrissey–who wrote that Cain “stole the show” on Friday afternoon–has done a good job of collecting many of the highlights of Cain’s speech (the embed is below):

Cain said that the American Dream is being attacked by what he calls “the -ations” — legislation, regulation, and taxation. He continued that Republicans need to repeal and replace health care reform, and also “throw out” the “messed up tax code” and replace it with a new system.

The “objective of the liberals is to destroy America,” he Cain continued, but “if you can get a liberal to engage in an intelligent in the first place, ask them to strip away labels.”

Like, for example, Cain said, when liberals call anyone who disagrees with Obama a “racist.”

“They call me racist too just because I disagree with a President who happens to be black,” he continued. He told the crowd: “You are not racists — you are patriots.”

However, my favorite part of Herman Cain’s speech came when he said the following at around 8:10-8:20:

“Stupid people are ruining America.”

My husband and I nearly fell off of our chairs laughing when we heard that.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, Ann Coulter gave an excellent speech that had many good moments in it (particularly, from 4:40-5:15, 5:40-6:30, 7:40-8:20 and 12:50-13:45). (Oh, and Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses was a cool choice for an entrance song).

However, Coulter was absolutely on fire during the Q&A that followed her speech (Q&A is her forte’). I would say that the best moment of her Q&A session with the crowd was when someone asked her, “Who is your least favorite Democrat?” (at 10:48-11:30 in the embed below), because Coulter responded by giving the following answer:

“That’s like asking me my least favorite disease. I can’t do my least favorite, I’m sorry”.

Then, she quickly quipped, “Cancer”. Again, my husband and I almost fell over laughing.

Now, immediately following Ann Coulter came Representative Allen West, the keynote speaker of CPAC. Before starting his speech, though, Congressman West was kind enough to visit the bloggers’ lounge and take questions from the bloggers there.

Oh, and Colonel West was gracious enough to take a picture with me as well.

[Thanks again to Richard Hornsby for the picture.]

And finally, Congressman West gave an incredible stem-winder that finished up CPAC with a bang. He was introduced below by Sargent Jason Auburn who guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As Congressman West walked onto the stage, you could hear Right Now by Van Halen playing. All I have to say is Dammit, you know that you’re at CPAC when you see a colonel–introduced by sergeant who guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier–walk on the stage while Van Halen is playing. (None of that wussified“Yes We Can” foolishness over here. And yes, wussified is indeed a word–look it up.)

Now, onto the second reason why CPAC is a must for any aspiring conservative activist.

2.) CPAC is a great place to meet people and network, network, network.

First of all, I obviously can’t stress the whole networking part enough. It is one thing to converse with your fellow bloggers/activists online or via email–it is a whole ‘nother ball of wax to meet them face to face. When you meet someone in person, you can get a much better feel for who they really are by their body language or facial expressions–which are things that cannot possibly be conveyed by simply communicating with someone online. Furthermore, if you form a personal bond with someone at a conference like CPAC–even if you only talk to the person for, say, fifteen minutes–given the choice, they are much more likely to link to, or pimp, your stuff than someone that they think is a total douche (no matter how good of a writer the douche in question might be). (Hey, I don’t make the rules–those are just the facts. You have to accept the world how it is, not how you want it to be.)

Moreover, at CPAC, I had the unique privilege of meeting some of the most iconic bloggers/writers online. It was a phenomenal experience. I mean, it is so totally cool to actually meet people that you’ve been reading or conversing with for years online. (See the photos below that my husband took in and around the bloggers’ lounge).

The above picture is of Daily Caller reporter, and CNN contributor Matt Lewis on my left and Garrett Quinn of The Boston Globe (or Boston.com) on my right. Both of these gentlemen are extremely knowledgeable about politics, and Matt Lewis told me interesting stories about his experiences covering the NH primary. I highly suggest picking their brains if you ever get the chance.

Above is a photo of me and Caleb Howe, a man who needs no introduction. He is the assistant editor of Redstate.com, and is a legend in the blogging community. The dude is just too cool for color TV, and he makes any party that he attends teh awesome.

Above is a picture of me with the totally cool editor of the highly influential Right Wing News, John Hawkins (where I am also a contributor).

Above is a photo of me and my husband (Chris Fleetwood) that was taken right after Herman Cain spoke on Friday afternoon.

Above is a picture of myself with the awesome, iconic Ed Morrissey of Hot Air. He is the driving force behind what becomes newsworthy in the conservative blogosphere. A link by him is huge–nay, monumental. Enough said.

Above is a picture of myself with Fingers Malloy of FTR Radio and Parcbench (where I am also a contributor). Fingers is an intimidating looking guy, but don’t let the mohawk fool you–he’s a real sweetheart.

Above is a picture of Jeff Dunetz who is the proprietor of Yid With The Lid. Jeff is a great blogger who blogs at all of the “Big” sites.

Above is a picture of Doug Welch, otherwise known as the popular blogger Stix 1972. (Doug also blogs with me over at The Minority Report, and can fix any technical issues that you might have.)

The above photo is of lovely Adrienne Royer (proprietor of the awesome blog Cosmopolitan Conservative) on my left and talented writer Warner Todd Houston on my right.

Above is a picture of me with the great Jimmie Bise Jr–who is the proprietor of The Sundries Shack, and who also blogs with me in The Green Room.

Above is a picture of Oregon Tea Party head (and former congressional candidate) John Kuzmanich on my right, and a blogger from Red County named Jeff Reynolds on my left.

Above is a picture of me with two adorable, talented, young bloggers who make me feel old–Amy Miller of Pundit League and Alex Knepper.

Above is a photo of me with the adorable Tabitha Hale who was the brains and the force behind the bloggers’ lounge at CPAC (and who is also a contributor to Redstate.com). Again, she deserves a round of applause for her outstanding organizational abilities.

The above picture is of me and Nice Deb who owns the excellent blog Nice Deb. My husband and I had dinner with her and John Hawkins later in the evening, and she was very….well, nice. She just exudes this whole Midwestern class/politeness from every pore. Her blog is quite aptly named.

And, here is another photo of my buddy, the awesomely, awesome John Hawkins (with a myriad of boggers scurrying around in the background).

And finally, here he is ladies and gentlemen. The man, the myth, the legend who made the fedora cool–it’s the one and only Robert Stacy McCain (with me) in the above picture. This guy is only the coolest cat in the conservative blogosphere. Getting linked on his blog means that you’ve finally arrived. Enough said.

Oh, and I almost forgot to give you all one final piece of advice before we move on to point number three. ALWAYS BRING A CAMERA EVERYWHERE YOU GO AT CPAC. Why? Because you never know who you are going to run into there. For instance, when I went downstairs to get a sandwich I ran into Johnathan Martin of Politico. He was an extremely nice guy and we talked for a good ten minutes, but I had forgotten my camera upstairs. I never made that mistake again. So the next day, when we went to McDonald’s, I took my camera with me and look who I ran into:

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, that would be Alfonzo Rachel of PJTV who is famous for his “ZoBama” impersonations–and, who was personally attacked by Charles Blow for being part of a “minstrel show” (because liberals are all “tolerant” and stuff).

And then, when we returned to the hotel lobby, I ran into Jim Hoft–otherwise known as Gateway Pundit. He is pretty famous in blogging world and was mentioned by William Kristol on Fox News Sunday for breaking open the Van Jones story. (Oh, and he’s a very nice guy as well.)

Now, onto the third reason why CPAC is the bomb for all budding conservative activists.

3.) You get to party like a rockstar in the Kruiser Cabana with the Red Eye guys and various other conservative celebrities.

During every major conservative convention, like BlogCon or CPAC, Stephen Kruiser of PJTV is kind enough to host awesome parties in his room–or, turn his room into the “Kruiser Cabana”. Stephen is just a stitch (as we say down south). And, besides working for PJTV, he is also a stand up comic and is a frequent guest on Fox’s Red Eye. Therefore, Kruiser tends to get a lot of high profile guests to come to his parties (like, for instance, the guys from Red Eye). In fact, the Kruiser Cabana was so kickin’ this year, that Stephen Kruiser was named CPAC’s Miss Congeniality.

[Below are some pictures that we took in the Kruiser Cabana, as well as at other CPAC hot spots.]

Above is a picture of me with Stephen Kruiser (in a purple shirt to my immediate right), and Bill Schulz (to my left) and Andy Levy of Red Eye fame.

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Above is a picture of Red Eye host Greg Gutfeld and me. How cool is that? (Gee, I sound like highschooler.)

Oh, and here is a little bipartisan love for everyone. On my right is conservative writer Philip Klein of American Spectator and Politico, and on my left is liberal writer Tommy Christopher of Mediate. (They both know a lot about politics and are awesome to hang out with, by the way.)

Above is a picture of the lovely Pamela Geller who became quite famous when she discussed her opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque on 60 Minutes.

And, above is a picture myself with the lovely Kristina Ribali and the lovely Pamela Geller. Did I mention that they were lovely?

Above is a picture of Stephen Kruiser and my husband. I think that they are both cuties, but I’m probably a little biased. (I’m married to one, and I had a blast at the other one’s parties.)

And, above is a picture of the awesome Ben Howe of Redstate.com (brother of Caleb Howe–awesomeness runs in their family) standing next to my adorable hubby.

Now, that handsome man in the tri-corner hat above is frequent Fox News Business panelist Paul Erickson. He threw a killer party earlier that evening. (Yes, there is life outside the Kruiser Cabana at CPAC. But hey, Stephen, you’re still Miss Congeniality and no one can take that away from you.)

And, above is my good friend Amy Miller posing with me at Mr. Erickson’s party. (She’s so cute isn’t she?)

Above is the always awesome Robert Stacy McCain and the very gracious Paul Erickson. (Hmmm….I don’t know what I like better, the fedora or the tri-corner hat.)

Pictured above is me with the always adorable Alexa Moutevalis and the always awesome Caleb Howe. (Remember, awesomeness runs in the Howe family.)

The above picture is of myself with Steve Eggleston (proprietor of the great blog No Runny Eggs) and the always awesome Ben Howe.

The five cute guys in the above photo are as follows (from left to right): Kevin Eder (who runs the Facebook and Twitter pages for the Media Research Center and Newsbusters), Stephen Gutowski of Human Events and Eyeblast TV, Fingers Malloy, Chris Fleetwood and Steve Eggleston.

And, here we have the iconic Robert Stacy McCain on my right and John Howting on my left, who is president of Miami Universities ISI Chapter. (Man, those college Republicans are just so darn cute, aren’t they?)

Oh, and here is another picture of the beautiful Kristina Ribali. I’m sure all of you gentlemen reading this just hate seeing her again.

Above is a shot of me talking to Da Tech Guy, who is one of my all time favorite bloggers–and favorite people–in the conservative blogosphere. (Oh, and check out his cool fedora!)

Above is a photo of me talking to the always charming Christopher Renner. (Hmmm….what’s better, the fedora, the tri-corner hat, or the cowboy hat? Decisions, decisions.)

The above picture is of me and the lovely Sarah Rumpf, who is the proprietor of the blog Sunshine State Sarah. This was my first time meeting Sarah, but she struck me as a, well….very sunny person–not to mention, she was a heck of a lot of fun to hang out with.

In the above picture (starting from left to right), you’ve got the adorable Jenny Erickson whispering to the uber-cool and super hilarious Larry O’Connor from Breitbart TV. And next to them, is Dr. Gina Loudon (in the grey) whispering to Meredith Dake, Mr. O’Connor’s very pretty producer.

And, in this picture, I am posing with the lovely Dr. Gina Loudon on my right (yes, that Dr. Gina Loudon who smacked down sleazy VF columnist Michael Gross), and the lovely and talented Jenny Erickson on my left.

Above is a photo of John Hawkins and Nice Deb at a killer Thai restaurant called The Thai Kitchen (they have great red chicken curry). John, Deb, my husband and I ventured over there after CPAC on Saturday night prior to heading over to the Kruiser Cabana.

The above picture is of me and charming, polite Glen Asbury, who is the proprietor of the popular blog Ramblings.

Above is a picture of a gentlemen by the name of Brian Henchey who is the host of The New England Job Show. I just met Brian late that evening in the Kruiser Cabana when I blurted out to him that he “had great hair”, and then asked to take a picture with him. He laughed, thanked me for the compliment, and then politely complied with my request. However, Brian turned out to be a great conversationalist and an all around funny dude; therefore, I really hope to see him again at CPAC next year.

And finally, rounding out my collection of party pics is this final parting shot of me and Stephen Kruiser. (Oh, how I will miss the Kruiser Cabana). One more thing. That button on my hat says, “Dale Peterson for President”.

So, in conclusion, I think that I’ve concisely summed up why CPAC is a must for any and every aspiring conservative activist–not to mention, why it’s truly a “can’t miss” event if you want to meet the who’s who of the conservative blogging/activist world.

However, I just have one more thing to add before I leave you all. I think that next year’s theme song for CPAC’s keynote speaker should be Dreams by Van Halen, because it’s got a very patriotic video that mainly consists of incredible footage of The Blue Angels flying and performing stunts. Since we had one Van Halen song this year, why not have another one next year?

And on that note, I say that I truly can’t wait to see you all again next year!

PS–I took those hats home with me that I was wearing in those photos. (You can clearly see them poking out of my tote-bags in the above picture taken outside of Reagan International Airport on Sunday afternoon.)

PPS–I see you over there doing air guitar at your computer.

This column is cross-posted from Parcbench, and it is also posted at The Minority Report, Right Wing News and Hillbillypolitics.

Ted Williams was all the rage these last couple of days in the blogosphere and on cable news. In case you happen to be living under a rock this past week, Ted Williams is the homeless man who was a former radio announcer with a “golden voice” who fell into trouble with drugs and alcohol. Williams lost everything in 1993 and became homeless, only to have his life change this week when a video of him demonstrating his God given talent on the side of a Columbus, Ohio highway went viral.

Well, within a couple of days of the above video getting national exposure, Mr. Williams was offered a job as an announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and was even invited on The Today Show and asked to do the opening voice-over for the show.

So, why has America fallen in love with Ted Williams? Simple. Americans love the story of an underdog making good–and, we are all about giving people second chances. (See the hit movies Rocky, Braveheart, Invincible, The Pursuit of Happyness and Rudy as examples of American’s love of second chances and redemption.) In fact, America, was, literally, built by tired, huddled masses of people coming to a new land in order to get a second chance. I think that the movie Kingdom of Heaven sums up the American spirit–with regard to second chances–best (even though the film takes place in Medieval Europe/Jerusalem) when Balian’s father (Liam Neeson) tells Balian (Orlando Bloom) that, even though he’s been charged with a crime and his wife has committed suicide, he can redeem himself by going to Jerusalem to fight the Crusade. To be specific, Balian’s father said the following about Jerusalem:

“There, you are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.”

Yes, and in America, you are not what you were born–or what you might have been–but what what you have it in yourself to be. Ted Williams might have been a former drug addict and petty criminal who was cheerfully panhandling by the highway hoping to get a second chance at life (and not blaming anyone for his mistakes but himself), but today, he is a national celebrity known for his “golden voice”. He is the quintessential Prodigal Son.

Naturally, all of this talk of second chances makes one think of Michael Vick. Michael Vick was the man with with not only a golden arm, but golden legs as well (which is unusual for a quarterback). However, when he played football for the Atlanta Falcons (prior to going to prison for dog fighting), he was not exactly a model player. Vick was known as a slacker who was frequently late for practice, he was busted for pot possession at the airport, and he was even fined for flipping off the Atlanta Falcons fans. So, when Vick’s dog fighting scandal broke, it was especially shocking–particularly because he had been given so much and so many chances before. As it says in the book of Luke:

“To whom much is given, of him much will be required.”

And, Michael Vick was given a lot–a whole lot. He is gifted with an incredible talent, and was given millions of dollars in contracts and endorsements. And how did he pay back his fellow Americans who made him rich and famous by buying tickets to his games? Vick paid them back not by, say, volunteering in a homeless shelter, but by fighting, torturing and murdering dogs (i.e., man’s best friend). To quote the LA Examiner (H/T Adrienne’s Corner):

According to the prosecutor’s statement of facts in the case, between 2002 and 2007 Michael Vick and his co-conspirators Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor killed thirteen dogs by various methods including wetting one dog down and electrocuting her, hanging, drowning and shooting others and, in at least one case, by slamming a dog’s body to the ground.

Michael Vick didn’t make a mistake. He didn’t “make a bad choice.” Over a period of five years he forced dogs into deadly fights, and he personally killed, or conspired to kill, thirteen dogs. He didn’t pick a quick, painless method of killing, but instead chose a variety of means that qualify as torture. Pit Bulls are powerful dogs. Imagine how hard you would have to work to kill a Pit Bull by forcibly drowning him.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reports, “Sometimes [the dogs] were starved to make them more vicious in the pit.”

And Michael Vick didn’t confine the abuse and killing to his own Pit Bulls.

According to a November 2008 ESPN.com news story, a report prepared by the USDA’s inspector general-investigations division revealed that Vick, Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor also put family pet dogs into the ring with trained pit bulls.

The report, dated Aug. 28, 2008, says, “Vick, Peace and Phillips thought it was funny to watch the pit bull dogs belonging to [Vick’s] Bad Newz Kennels injure or kill the other dogs.”

[Adrienne has some pictures of Michael Vick's extracurricular activities--warning, the photos are gruesome.]

On a personal note, when this story about Michael Vick’s atrocities exploded, it hit me particularly hard. My dog Molly (who was a rescue dog) had recently been diagnosed with a fibrosarcoma of her lower jaw and had to have part of her lower jaw surgically removed. Well, a few months later her cancer came back and she was given just months to live–even with chemotherapy. However, being the fighter that she was, she held on for almost two years and passed away a little over a year ago. So, when I heard about Michael Vick–a man who had been given so much–torturing and murdering healthy dogs while my dog was fighting for her life…well, let’s just say that I had very strong feelings of dislike for Mr. Vick. (Below are some pictures of Molly.)

So, when President Obama called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles (Mr. Vick’s current team) to praise him for “giving Michael Vick a second chance”, it kind of stuck in my craw a bit (just like it did with a lot of people). I mean, Michael Vick is not exactly your average felon–i.e., someone from the wrong side of the tracks who never got a break in life or got addicted to drugs, etc. On the contrary, he’s gotten plenty of breaks in life. To quote Richard Cohen:

“Vick got a second chance not because he deserves it but because he can play football. This is the lesson we can all take from this sorry episode. It’s one thing to be sorry. It’s much better to hit your man in the end zone”.

However, the good news is that not all athletes feel the same sense of entitlement that Michael Vick seemed to feel. Some actually get the whole, “To whom much is given, much is expected” thingy. Meet Rudy Favard. Allahpundit wrote about him a couple of days ago. He is just a senior in high school and the captain of his high school football team, but already, he understands just how lucky he is to have a healthy, strong body–so he helps out a family with a disabled son by carrying him up the stairs every night, because the father is too weak from heart surgery. (Drats–why is there water on my keyboard?)

So, in conclusion, Michael Vick might not “deserve” a second chance, but this is America and he’s got a lot of talent, so he gets one anyway. But you know what, I’m not that upset that he’s getting a second chance. Heck, it might turn out quite well in the long run. Just like Balian in Kingdom of Heaven who went from a criminal to a valiant knight/defender of Jerusalem, Michael Vick might go from an animal abuser to a very strong spokesman against cruelty to animals. Maybe his redemption is sincere–that’s for God to say, not for any of us to judge. After all, as Alex Knepper recently pointed out, Chris Brown (who beat up his girlfriend Rhianna last year) already seems to be blowing his second chance by taunting victims of sexual abuse on Twitter. Hey, at least Michael Vick appears to be doing all of the right things and showing public remorse for his crimes.

So I will take a deep breath and give Michael Vick his second chance–and I will hope that he has truly seen the error of his ways. However, please don’t ask me to forgive him just yet (I hope to eventually–forgiveness is good for the soul), and please, for the love of God, don’t ask me to celebrate him. No, right now, I prefer to celebrate Ted Williams and Rudy Favard. Hearing about their stories makes me feel good. With regard to Michael Vick, I will just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

This column is cross-posted from Parcbench, and it is also posted at The Minority Report, Right Wing News and Hillbillypolitics.

A week after Countdown host Keith Olbermann and guest Michael Moore sparked a Twitter protest over their dismissive treatment of rape allegations against Wikileaks founderJulian Assange, Moore made an appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show in which he failed to address the protest directly, but made their imprint obvious in his transformed rhetoric on rape accusations. In a crowning irony, the man whose zeal for transparency-God Julian Assange started this protest finally made direct acknowledgement of it…in a private Twitter message to #MooreAndMe creator Sady Doyle.

Moore’s clarification on The Rachel Maddow Show went like this:

Every woman who claims to have been sexually assaulted or raped has to be, must be, taken seriously. Those charges have to be investigated to the fullest extent possible. For too long, and too many women have been abused in our society, because they were not listened to, and they just got shoved aside… The older people here remember how it used to be. It’s not that much better now, it got a little better, because of the women’s movement made that happen.

His statements must be cleansing to his soul and address Doyle, but the timing does appear that they are also in response to the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network’s (RAINN) statement and other mainstream outrage:

Yana Walton of the Women’s Media Center told The Daily Caller that progressive activists such as Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann, in their treatment and coverage of the charges against Assange, have made light of rape allegations and put blame on the alleged victims.

“When sexual violence and rape is such a huge part of women’s lives internationally I don’t think it is ever helpful to legitimize it. Rape is rape is rape is rape, and should be prosecuted as such,” Walton said.

It is not, however, just the left that has caused harm to women with the coverage of this case, Walton says. According to Walton, it is anti-female to care about rape only when there are other factors at play — in this case, the leakage of highly sensitive documents.

“Rape should be taken seriously regardless of the situation. And to sort of pick and chose when you deploy gender and care for women and sexual violence against women is doing just as much of a disservice to women,” Walton said.

For Moore, I’m sure this was hard as it took him a week to make it right and walk back his insensitive comments.  As cleansing this is to the soul, Moore needs to do, er, more.  He has no problem donating his cash to politicians and alleged rapists, so I’m going to take it one step further and ask him to really show some compassion for victims of sexual abuse by donating the same amount he gave Assange for bail–$20,000–to RAINN.  RAINN was co-founded by singer and rape survivor Tori Amos and Moore could truly show his Hollywood pals, some of whom are survivors of rape and sexual abuse, and women everywhere that he really is sorry.  As for Keith Olbermann, well you could toss in a few bucks, too.

I know the people at RAINN.  They work tirelessly to provide counseling to rape and sexual abuse victims–especially with the new online hotline–which I helped raise the primary funding for along with their team a couple of years ago.  I have friends who are surviviors and I’m sure you do too.  Moore has the opportunity to really make a difference now and walk the talk.  With money tight for so many donors in this brutal economy, donations to charities are down, but with Moore’s movies grossing over $187 million, I’m sure he doesn’t need the money as one of his favorite political organizations, MoveOn, tells us.  So, Mr. Moore just how compassionate to rape victims are you?  Will you click and donate?  Donations are tax-deductible, if that helps.

For some odd reason, Sarah Palin causes liberal elites to rabidly foam at the mouth. Professor William Jacobson of the blog Legal Insurrection wrote an insightful piece about how conservatives seem to reflexively defend Palin, because liberals seem to be perpetually attacking her. Furthermore, not only do liberals seem to revel in finding weird reasons to attack Sarah Palin, but they also seem to only be happy when they are attacking her family as well (probably because they see them as little “spawns of Sarah”). Now, why is this? I haven’t a clue. However, I can state beyond a reasonable doubt that it’s not helping them.

For example, a couple of days ago, comediennes Kathy Griffin and Margret Cho both attacked Bristol Palin as “fat”–although Cho was a little more subtle about it than Griffin was. (Robert Stacy McCain wrote an excellent piece about both incidents here.) In fact, Griffin was dumb enough to trash Bristol Palin and refer to her as “the white Precious” in front of a group of servicemen who promptly booed her.

Question–does Ms. Griffin not know her audience at all? These are not liberal elites, like Bill Maher, who think that it’s OK to call Bristol Palin a “Hillbilly Heroine”. These are US soldiers who won’t find calling someone’s twenty year old daughter “fat” at all funny.

Moreover, a few weeks ago comedienne Sandra Bernhard called Bristol Palin a “hooker” on Joy Behar’s show because she placed in the finals on Dancing With the Stars. (Ms. Behar seemed very distressed, herself, and said that “Fred and Ginger died last night”.)

Surprising to say, Behar and Bernhard weren’t the only liberals to get so wee-weed up over Bristol Palin making it to the finals on Dancing With the Stars. Washington Post columnist, Sally Quinn, wrote a long piece about how her head was about to explode because Bristol Palin made it to the finals of Dancing With the Stars. Ann Althouse best described Quinn’s disingenuous hyperventilating when she wrote the following:

And this strangely sanctimonious journalist — she’s writing in the always awful “On Faith” section of The Washington Post — condemns Palin voters for “cheating” 7 paragraphs after she confesses to doing something that is at least as much cheating as what the Palin fans are said to be doing.

“Not only that, but I vote. Under the show’s rules, you’re allowed to vote five times on one line. I have six lines at home and my cell, so I vote as many times as I can for my favorite. “

So this lady, this longtime Washington powerbroker, has 6 phone lines, and she maxes each line out, each week, voting 30 times. But that’s the show’s rules. They can’t tell how many individuals vote are voting. They can only see phone numbers. So if your family of 5 watches the show and you — you economic losers — only have one phone, you can make 5 calls. Sally Quinn happens to have 6 phone lines, so she gets 30 votes — under the rules.

“Commenters on the conservative blog Hillbuzz.org said they had figured out how to enter more votes than the rules allow by creating fake e-mail addresses. One person posting on Hillbuzz said “Lord have mercy, I voted for three hours online! I got 300 in.”

What is a “fake e-mail address”? The rules say you are allowed 5 votes from each email address, just as you are allowed 5 votes from each phone number. Some people have multiple phone numbers and some have multiple email addresses. What’s the difference? All I can think of is that you have to spend money to have multiple phone numbers, and you can get multiple email accounts free. It feels so right for rich folk to get more. I love when liberals slip up like that.

Question–hey Lefties, first of all, you have to know that calling Bristol Palin a “fat hooker” is not a good way to win friends and influence people, right? I mean, Bristol Palin probably wears a size six or a size eight–most American women wear a size ten (Marilyn Monroe wore a size twelve). Do you really think that calling the majority of American women “fat” is a winning strategy for you?

Second of all, you guys do realize that this is just a television show and that normal people don’t freak out or want to shoot the TV because Bristol Palin won, right? Full disclosure here–I’ve never seen an episode of Dancing With the Stars (I’ve watched clips on YouTube), but if one of the Obama girls happen to make it to the finals in a few years, I would be quite happy for her (even if she wasn’t that great of a dancer).

Now, having your head explode over Bristol Palin making it to the finals on Dancing With the Stars is not the only symptom of Palin Derangement Syndrome–apparently, Sarah Palin’s Facebook postings are enough to give a lot of liberals the vapors. For instance, Andrew Sullivan recently wrote a piece whining about Sarah Palin mocking Barack Obama’s famous “57 states gaffe”, and accused her of “trashy behavior” (but, he didn’t say what was “trashy” about her behavior).

[Hey Andrew, by "trashy behavior", do you mean spreading internet rumors that a woman's baby is not really her own, and is that of her teenage daughter? Because that would be you Andrew, not Sarah Palin. But, I digress.]

Well, if Sullivan had any sense of humor at all, he would have written that Palin’s Facebook post was funny and admitted that she had a point that the media tends to give Obama a pass on his gaffes, but tends to hammer everyone else on theirs (as even SNL pointed out during the Democratic primary). Normal people like people who can laugh at themselves and respond very well to self-deprecating humor.

However, Sullivan was not only upset by Sarah Palin’s recent Facebook post, but her daughter Willow’s as well (where she gets involved with trash-talk with another teenager when she defends her sister Bristol). First of all, does Sullivan realize that Willow Palin is a sixteen year old girl, and that normal Americans find it to be very strange and distasteful when grown men pick on other people’s children? Even Jon Stewart told liberals to back off and to “stop making me feel sorry for the Palins”.

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Second of all, does Sullivan realize how weird it is to obsess over Sarah Palin and her family’s Facebook postings? I mean, Sarah Palin was only a vice-presidential nominee –she was never even the vice-president. You don’t see us conservatives obsessing over Joe Leiberman’s or John Edward’s Facebook postings, much less their kids Facebook postings. This is very strange behavior. I would suggest that if reading the Palin family’s Facebook postings upsets you so much, then stop reading them.

Finally, speaking of weird behavior, Charles Blow recently wrote a column about how he wasn’t going to talk about Sarah Palin anymore, but then spent the entire column writing about how much Sarah Palin sucks. Hey Charles, I thought that you said that you weren’t going to talk about Sarah Palin anymore? You see, if most people say that they aren’t going to talk about someone anymore, then they just don’t talk about them anymore–they don’t proceed to, then, write an entire column about how terrible the person is.

In fact, this column of Blow’s is almost as weird as Keith Olbermann naming Bristol Palin his “Worst Person in the World”, or Aaron Sorkin comparing Sarah Palin to Michael Vick for hunting a Caribou. (I’m sure that the millions of hunters all across America deeply appreciate that comparison.) Oh, and Keith, really???!! Bristol Palin is your “Worst Person in the World”? Not Kim Jong-Il, not Ahmadinajad, but Bristol Palin for discussing abstinence?! No, that’s not at all strange to most Americans. (Rolls eyes.)

So, in conclusion, this whole Palin Derangement Syndrome definitely hurt the Left during the past mid-term election, and is continuing to hurt them now. Why? Well, for two obvious reasons. First of all, during the last election, it appeared as if liberals were spending way too much time speaking out against the Palins (none of whom were on the ballot), and not enough time explaining why people should vote for Obama’s policies and liberal candidates. Throughout the previous election, PDS proved to be a huge distraction for the Left.

Second of all, constantly attacking someone’s children as “fat, trashy, hookers” seems, well, quite mean to normal, well-adjusted Americans who aren’t weirdos. Most Americans think that mean people suck and don’t want to vote for a party that seems to embrace nastiness. Hey, you can listen to me, or you can continue smacking around Sarah Palin and her kids. The choice is yours. However, I just have one question for you guys. How did that PDS work out for you in the last election?

This column is cross-posted from Parcbench, and it is also posted at Right Wing News, The Minority Report and Hillbillypolitics.

“How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It’s something we’ll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.”

Hastings is perfectly entitled to charge his customers whatever he pleases, and he owes no explanations for the disparity.  But it seems unwise for him to literally add insult to injury.  I find the low regard he has for paying customers like me a bit shocking, and I’ll keep it in mind as I investigate other streaming entertainment options, especially free ones like Hulu and Boxee.  When Hastings’ “self-absorbed” customers complained, he proffered a weak apology, claiming it was a was a bad joke:

“My Big American Foot is in my mouth. Yesterday, I made an awkward joke with a reporter in Toronto about Americans (like me) being self-absorbed relative to Netflix pricing in Canada. I was wrong to have made the joke, and I do not believe that one of the most philanthropically-minded nations in the world (America) is self-absorbed or full of self-absorbed people.”

Hastings’ claim of a joke gone awry is not believable when you read the original comment in context, and even as a joke it lacks enough realism to be amusing.  But it is a view of Americans often stated by liberals.  (Of the $255,450 of Hasting’s political donations, $224,700 has gone to Democrats.)

It’s time that liberals who famously claim to be “the reality-based community” finally learn that their view of what Michelle Obama described as an “uninvolved, uninformed” America is informed by their own insularity and stinginess – not the facts.  Conservatives give more blood, time and money than liberals.  Many liberals, including Reed Hastings, call for higher taxes so that money can be redistributed through the government.  President Obama and Vice-President Biden’s 2008 tax returns show a similar contrast in what they demand of us and what they do – including Obama’s irony-rich demands that we should be our brother’s keeper when he, a millionaire, has an aunt living on the dole and a brother in abject poverty.  I do agree with Mr. Hastings that there are many “self-absorbed” Americans out there, but they don’t represent a majority that would justify his original statement.

Not only are Americans aware of the world around us, we are involved.  The fact is that American private donations to poor countries “dwarf that of other rich nations.” When there is a disaster somewhere in the world, we give generously.  The 2004 tsunami is a perfect example.  In addition to the $900 million worth of services and supplies provided by taxpayers via the government, corporations, non-profits and individual Americans gave an additional $2 billion.  After the earthquake in Haiti, Americans gave generously again.

It is remarkable that private philanthropic donations have been steady in spite of the fact that unemployment has nearly doubled since 2007.

Philanthropy from the United States to developing countries—which includes contributions from foundations, corporations, PVOs, individual volunteers, religious organizations and colleges and universities—held steady at $37.3 billion compared to $36.9 billion in 2007, and exceeded official U.S. aid by more than $10 billion. As with last year, PVOs accounted for the largest portion of U.S. philanthropy going overseas at $11.8 billion.

Hastings was entirely correct in his apology that Americans are not self-absorbed.  What is perplexing is why he said it to begin with, and why so many believe it is true.

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Originally posted at the Washington Examiner.

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Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin’s grandbaby-daddy and the bane of her existence, is pitching his own docu-series in which he will introduce viewers to Alaska.

The news comes just days after Discovery Networks announced that its TLC network would air “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” in which she will introduce us to Alaska.

… Levi’s show, tentatively titled “Levi Johnston’s Final Frontier,” is ” ‘Jersey Shore’ on ice,” Krasnow said.

… Levi and his pals “put jet fuel in their snowmobiles — they trick them out,” the producer said. “They drive Ford pickups. They don’t go on the Internet often. That’s what we’re interested in about him.”

… The aspiring reality TV star and his party-mobile were making stops at various cable networks’ offices to pitch a series that Krasnow hopes will be around eight episodes — just like Palin’s.

Monday afternoon, the Johnston party wagon was parked outside MTV Networks’ offices in Santa Monica.

Krasnow, whose credits include “The Weakest Link,” would not confirm what other, non-MTV, networks were being pitched, other than to say they were all networks that target “younger-skewing networks” — networks that attract “the type [of viewer] that would not watch TLC or Discovery.”

Exact details of Levi’s show were being kept deliberately vague, so the project could be tailor-made to suit the purchasing network.

Mothership MTV network, for instance, might want to focus more on Levi’s first time on the dating scene in Alaska since breaking up with Bristol, whereas MTV’s Spike network might want them to focus on what Krasnow called “the adrenaline activities he has in Alaska with his buddies.”

… “He’s a 19-year-old kid living a life like nobody else’s on the planet and in the culture of Alaska — that interested us. When Sarah Palin made her announcement, we rushed and decided to go out quicker. In a competitive marketplace, it made sense, if Sarah Palin is going to try to own Alaska,” Krasnow snarked.

“She may try to tell us how beautiful an iceberg is. . . . His version might include skinning a bear.”

That said, Krasnow said he’s going to do a show “that’s authentic and real — it’s not trying to just be some anti-Sarah Palin show. That is not our motivation. We’re showing Alaska through somebody else’s eyes — the lives of real people in Alaska — and throwing into the limelight a good guy who is poised and polite; a good kid.”

Yeah — a good, poised, polite guy who impregnates a girl, leaves her, refuses to pay child support, jet-sets between Hollywood and New York trying to become a celebrity, and poses in Playgirl. A “Jersey Shore” style reality show sounds about as classy as he is, and so it sounds perfect for him.

While I guess this would technically be considered a good thing for his son — this would certainly help him with the child support — I still can’t help but think deadbeat dad over and over again when I think of Levi Johnston. Bristol is a teenager, too. She’s got notoriety just as much as Levi does. Yet you don’t see her out there milking it for every penny its worth. Sure, she does a TV appearance here and there, but Levi takes it to a whole other level. He’s walking the red carpet at celebrity parties, posing naked for Playgirl, hiring a manager and a bodyguard, inventing a ridiculous new name for himself, all while Bristol stays home in Alaska and takes care of their son. They aren’t a couple anymore, but he still has a responsibility to be a father to his son. And judging by the content of this reality show — jet fuel in snowmobiles, “lots and lots of women”, as reported by Newser — it seems like being a good father is the last thing on Levi Johnston’s mind. He wants to exploit the publicity he found due to briefly being a part of the Palin family, and now he’s turned his back on them. At least Bristol is taking responsibility for her actions. Levi is exploiting his son and the mother of his child to try to become a celebrity. I somehow doubt Tripp will be particularly proud of his father when he grows up. Levi, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to realize that he’s a Hollywood laughingstock.

As far as the battle between Sarah and Levi, it seems to me that Alaskans will prefer Sarah’s version by far. It looks as if Levi is out to make young Alaskans look like nothing more than idiotic, adrenaline-seeking hicks. Sarah Palin is out to show the beauty and the adventure of Alaska. Which was seems to be a more positive representation? If anything, I’d imagine that Levi’s show will be an embarassment to Alaskans, and especially the community of Wasilla.

Happily, I have no doubt that the real loser in all of this won’t be anyone else but Levi Johnston. If he does do this reality show, then it will do nothing but show him for the low-class piece of trash he is.

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!

Greetings, denialist scum.

Now that we’ve dispensed with the formalities, please allow me to point and laugh at you. Ahem. Ha ha ha! Point point point!

Shut up.

That’s what you’d like me to do. That’s what you’d like all of us to do. Shut our mouths and open our wallets. Did you really think it was going to be so easy?

This doesn’t prove anything.

What doesn’t?

You know.

We both do. I just want to hear you say it.

This Clim… This Climateguh. Guh.

That’s it, almost there.

This Climategate garbage doesn’t mean anything! You science-denying neocon fascist racist warmongering planet-raping… [Goes on like this for a bit]

My goodness. Feel better?

No.

Well, I do. OMG, can you believe Obama changed his mind about going to Copenhagen after all this stuff came out? It’s like sprinting to board your ship at the last minute, and it’s the Titanic.

You’re the Titanic. You are.

Should we do this some other time? You’re making even less sense than usual.

Do you really think you know more than scientists? They’re scientists.

Yes, and science is a wonderful thing. It’s improved our lives in countless ways. It also has nothing to do with what these frauds, and the useful idiots who believed them, have been pulling.

How would you know?

I can read. “Hide the decline” and “Quick, delete these files before somebody catches on” and “HOLY CRAP WHY CAN’T I GET THIS DATA TO SAY WHAT WE NEED IT TO SAY IN ORDER TO KEEP OUR JOBS” aren’t exactly complex scientific concepts.

That just shows what a simpleton you are. You put scientists on a pedestal, so when you see them behaving like regular human beings, you think they’ve done something wrong.

Pedestal? I’m not putting them on a pedestal. You’re the one who’s been taking their every word as gospel and hurling invective at anybody who dares to question them. I’ve been saying all along that they’re fallible and they’re not telling us everything. This Climategate stuff is better proof than I ever could have imagined.

It’s just the normal peer-review process. You wouldn’t understand.

I understand that when they say things like “We need to keep these guys out of peer-reviewed journals” and “Let’s get this editor fired for publishing an article that disagrees with us,” it goes beyond the regular process. It’s thuggery. It’s a disgrace.

The science is settled. You’re a denier. You probably don’t believe in the Holocaust either.

What’s next, are you going to rip off an old Gilbert Gottfried joke and act like you’ve done something clever? Settle down, you’re sweating through your hemp shirt.

Hemp is a miracle plant, man. You can make so many different things out of–

Fascinating, yes. So you’re taking all of this news well, that’s the important thing.

F*** you, denier.

I’ll get right on that, just as soon as I buy an SUV big enough to carry all the incandescent bulbs I’ll need to light my new coal plant.

F*** you, denier.

Okay. Well, have a good one, Chicken Little.

F*** you, denier. F*** you, denier. F*** you, denier. F*** you, denier. [Rocks back and forth in corner, weeping softly, until it's time for Living with Ed]

P.S. “The science is settled… er, at the bottom of that dumpster!“

The story follows the first military campaign launched in the wake of these events, and mainly consists of combat amidst converging stratagems in the contaminated environs of Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. It becomes clear that the only people standing in the way of a global war of annihilation and the end of American democracy are in fact the soldiers and officers of the old US armed forces, originally assigned merely to support the new US Christian forces. Since Peters is, it seems, determined to tell a cautionary tale rather than an entertaining or inspiring one, the good guys, represented by assorted front-line grunts and especially by a crusty old school general, must fail, and fail they do – comprehensively.

That’s not a spoiler: We know from the first few pages that the conniving Christianists direct from left-world central casting, at the head of their own “Military Order of Brothers in Christ,” are going to triumph, to all our woe. The only questions the narrative leaves open are secondary ones: How miserably and explosively the catastrophe will unfold , whether some at least symbolic seeds of hope happen to be planted along the way, and, incidentally, what the rest of the world is doing with itself while the flower of America’s youth and the flower of Islam’s are busy annihilating each other and countless innocents .

Peters has retained the skills he’s honed over the course of writing 23 previous books, including an ability to render character and combat economically and vividly, but I won’t pretend the results held my interest long enough to prevent me from starting to skim – a fact that may have to do with why I missed any explanation, I’m guessing a religious one, of what happened to all the women in American uniform. (This is a nearly 100% all-boy novel.) Eventually, I found myself skipping all the way to the obscenely violent final massacres and dreary epilogue – during which latter, while looking back from twilight years on the main storyline and subsequent horrors, our narrator finally reveals his own decisive role in the unhappy events, and helpfully informs us that “killing a billion people was difficult” (italics in the original). 

Revealed as a traitor to his own highest values and aspirations, he lives in a world defined by faith but utterly unredeemable – in a word, hopeless. I can’t help but wonder whether, at bottom, Peters sees our own world, and his own place within it, any differently.

cross-posted at Zombie Contentions

Another way of putting it is, when—you know, I’m busy, Nancy’s busy with our mops cleaning up somebody else’s mess. We don’t want somebody sitting back saying, ‘You’re not holding the mop the right way.’ Why don’t you grab a mop? Why don’t you help clean up? ‘You’re not mopping fast enough. That’s a socialist mop.’ Grab a mop. Let’s get to work.

Now here’s the picture:

As far I can divine, that’s not a socialist mop. And the prex is mopping plenty fast.

Mea culpa, Mr. President.

Cross-posted at Zombie Contentions

It’s said that the villian(s) in the remake will be Russians and Chinese, but given the fact that the director has donated money to Obama — as has one of the film’s co-writers — I have a feeling that some additional threats to freedom will be insurance executives who moonlight as racist tea partiers and disrupt the town hall meetings of well-intentioned liberal politicians.

The boom-boom happens at about the :45 second mark — I might be crazy, but I think you can see former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick planting the only copy of his personal finances in the building just before it blows:

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

“As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home.”

Whatever. In any case, the commissions for memorial plaques have already started flying out of the coffers of the NEA.

UPDATE: Oh, no, is there no God in heaven? Oh, the humanity. How can this be? Chi-town bumped in the first round? After the First Lady gave so, so much! I for one am lovin’ it. Meantime, from the Corner:

• Rich Lowry: It’s not a big thing, it might not even move his poll numbers, but in the back of people’s minds it will create the idea that maybe he’s not the silver-tongued convincer-in-chief everyone says he is.
• Jonah Goldberg: Where is the outrage at the IOC’s transparent racism?

Best reaction of the day (so far) is Matt Drudge’s headline “The Ego Has Landed” (h/t Barbara at the Greenroom).

My contender: Leggo My Ego.

Yes, that’s right, as soon as Jackson expired, a visibly upset CNN — as Congress votes to spend the U.S. into further oblivion, a war rages on overseas, Iran is in complete disarray and a mentally ill midget in North Korea threatens to shoot bottle rockets toward Hawaii — asked the obvious question: “Where is Bubbles?”

Don’t worry, CNN tracked down a no-doubt emotionally scarred Bubbles (there’s only so many cruel “Michael Jackson blowing Bubbles” jokes a chimp can be exposed to before losing his frickin’ mind), who is 26 now and probably doesn’t appreciate being reminded of his days in the Neverland circus.

As always, CNN was there:

There is journalistic precedent for this type of hard-hitting reporting, however, because after Tarzan died, Edward R. Murrow did a similar story about the King of the Jungle’s chimp:

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Before the ink even dried on his Cavaliers contract Shaquille O’Neal reportedly contacted B.Manley and challenged him to a $1000 game of H-O-R-S-E. The crew over at TotalProSports suggested Shaq take things one step further by inviting teammate Lebron James and this kid.

A real apology would not have included all that, “you completely misunderstood me” nonsense.  It only takes a few seconds to say, “I was out of line, and I’m sorry for saying that.”  Except, in spite of the fact that Letterman admits “it can’t be defended,” he does try to defend it by saying that the real problem is with our perception. Since he laughingly suggested Bristol, not Willow, Palin might have sex with a stranger in a public place, all should be forgiven?  Nor do I believe he was talking about Bristol.  He checked her age, but somehow wasn’t aware that it was her sister at the game, not her?  News reports just referenced a Palin girl but did not name her?  Sorry, not buying.  I certainly don’t believe he’s sorry or he’d have omitted the excuses which negated the apology.

Non-apology still not accepted, Dave.  I hope sometime soon he’ll really comprehend how wrong he is, and if he ever does, his first request for forgiveness won’t be to the Palins or to his audience.

But in the meantime I’ll drop the issue, because I want him to stay on the air.  Every time I channel surf past his show on my way to Qubo to watch a far more entertaining Jane and the Dragon rerun, I will pity that bitter, bitter man, seething with hate that he now has to contain in order to keep his job.  Because we have that power over him; we can require him to behave decently, and he knows it.  That’s punishment enough.

As you know, the California’s Supreme Court upheld Prop. 8, the same-sex marriage ban, in a 6-1 vote.

The Hollywood left is reacting predictably to the decision, but no more hilariously than alleged comedian Margaret Cho, who Twittered the following after the decision was announced:

The funny part is that I don’t think she’s kidding. Those comedians are always “on” aren’t they?

It didn’t occur to me that Miss California had that kind of power, but I did some digging, and sure enough, here’s an updated photo of the California Supreme Court:

The left is getting Carrie’d away even more than usual on this one.

The Nintendo Wii has positioned itself as the gaming console for everybody. As it turns out, that includes the Queen of England. Well, sort of. It’s not like Her Royal Highness went down to Wal-Mart and bought one with her summer job savings. Rather, she was given a special version by gaming company THQ.

What makes the Queen’s “Royal Wii” different? It’s gold-plated, sucka! None of that lame white plastic for Buckingham Palace — the Queen needs her bling! Gaming blog Joystiq reports that the gaming company is hopeful that the PR stunt “will amuse Queen Elizabeth.”

Yeah, but is the Wii loaded with Obama’s speeches? Maybe it will once Obama’s people have a “chat” with THQ.

Actually, the Queen likes to play Wii bowling (check out this picture). This is strike two for Obama, because, well, you know how he is at bowling.

For Obama’s next trip to England, the president’s going to have to trump this. Maybe a diamond encrusted teleprompter? A shiny new Rhodium-plated sceptre engraved with his inaugural speech?

Hopefully somebody asks the Queen which gift was her favorite. I’m guessing that, for Queen, Wii are the champions. Sorry…

Prejean’s refusal to cave to pressure and apologize for her opinion on gay marriage may have set a dangerous precedent, and made the left regret the question was ever asked.

Because of all the exposure, Prejean’s going to make more money than she ever would have otherwise, especially now that she’s got a gig at Fox News.

Because of this example of how ticking off the PC bunch can translate to big exposure and bigger dollars, here are some responses that we might hear at next year’s Miss USA pageant:

Q: Miss Texas, if you were Miss USA and an attack on our nation occurred, what would you consider your role to be?

A: Well, first I’d pray to my lord and saviour George W. Bush for guidance.

*****
Q: Miss Vermont, what is your life’s dream?

A: To see the death penalty brought back to my state!

*****
Q: Miss Florida, if you’re elected Miss USA, what will you do to promote the cause of animal rights?

A: I’ve been offered a job on a Japanese whaling ship, so I might accept that so I can afford my favorite meal — Rhinovealuga — a beluga sturgeon stuffed in a calf stuffed in a black rhino. I’ll fight for their right… to be in my stomach!

*****
Q: Miss Alaska, where do you see yourself in five years?

A: I think I’d be really good as President Palin’s Chief of Staff. Fingers crossed!

*****
Q: Miss Wisconsin, what is your opinion on the state of health care in America?

A: Has anybody else noticed that this country started its downward spiral around the same time we took the lead out of the paint, the asbestos out of the schools, and wildly over-reacted to the threat of second-hand smoke?

*****
Q: Miss Arizona, should there be a fence along the entire border of the U.S. and Mexico?

A: Absolutely, and it should be constructed from the bodies of people who were shot trying to cross the border illegally.

*****
Q: Miss Montana, how will you give something back to the community if you’re elected Miss USA?

A: If I can raise enough capital, I want to start my own department store chain and use non-unionized labor just like my favorite store Wal-Mart — everybody knows that unions ruin any business. And my company will donate two-percent of all our sales to the effort to keep Gitmo open and to legalize concealed-carry in shopping malls.

*****
Q: Miss Nevada, what are the greatest injustices in this country that have yet to be corrected?

A: Social Security and Roe v. Wade.

*****
Q: Miss Indiana, is there anything that you as Miss USA would do to address the economic crisis?

A: Yes. I’d spend every waking hour trying to make it clear to Americans that Reaganomics is the only way out of this mess and that it was a big mistake to ever elect a black president. As an African-American myself it pains me to say that, but, no offense intended, it’s just how I feel.

*****
Q: Miss Tennessee, as you know, in the past we’ve had issues with contestents posing for racy pictures. If elected Miss USA, can you assure us you’ll maintain the integrety of the pageant?

A: You have my word that the only thing I’ll ever expose is the hoax of global warming. Quick shout-out to Carrie for her stance on gay marriage and for being an inspiration to us all! Go girl!