Archive for August, 2008

Influence and ABC

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

ABC News-yeah, the same one that many conservatives have taken to calling the All Barack Channel-has some very interesting investigative journalism going on right now in the environs of the DNC. Yesterday an ABC News producer was arrested on the street in front of a hotel where big money lobbyists were wooing Democrat politicians. I guess somebody in the hotel didn’t want the TV crew taking photos of who was there with whom. Cameras were rolling when a police officer from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department ordered Asa Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. When Eslocker didn’t leave quickly enough, the officer pushes him out to the street and then tells him he’s blocking traffic! Two hours later he was arrested by a cigar chomping sergeant from the Denver Police Department. One of the officers is seen grabbing him by the throat just before they cuff him and stuff him into a police car. The link has video of this trampling of the freedom of the press. It appears that Brian Ross and the ABC News Investigative Team has been doing a little digging around during the DNC and some of the politicos don’t like that a bit!

A check of the webpage linked to above will show many more items of interest, as well. It also appears that the recording industry tradegroup, the RIAA, has decided to pamper the Democrat politicians with their very own free Kanye West concert! Tickets that can go for as much as $1000 were provided gratis to the visiting Dems (the Senate ethics committee had no problem with this but the House ethics committee required a $90 payment). Why does the music industry give away millions every year to Congress? Influence, why else? The recording industry is begging for Congress to pass even more stringent and punishing legislation against music downloading and copyright infringement. They figure some free tix to a hot hip-hop concert will help. Man, I sure hope none of those congresscritters has a tape recorder or a video camera in there!  The house has already passed one of these bills and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate. That’s the same Leahy who was given a small speaking role recently in the blockbuster film, The Dark Knight…Oh, it’s OK, he donated his pay from Warner Brothers to charity. According to ABC News, the West concert capped a week of lavish parties and entertainment put on by corporate lobbyists who push legislation and regulatory issues in Washington.

The fact that ABC News is reporting this, especially as damaging as it is to the Democratic Party, whose nominee for President has pinned a lot of his appeal on a reputation for honesty and a promise to end lobbying and reliance on PAC money, really is astonishing. They even have a piece about Charles Schumer’s (D-NY) creation “The Legacy Circle“. This is an elite group of donors, designed to finance the campaigns of Democrat senatorial candidates. “Membership requires that individuals – or couples – give the legal maximum (which is adjusted for inflation) to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) five years in a row or have donated $500,000 over a life time.” There are about 60 couples or 120 people in the group, so far. Member benefits include invitations to special events throughout the year.

Bravo to the one television news organization that seems to be interested in real reporting! Go ABC!

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A Tale of Two Speakers

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

A few months ago, Newt Gingrich started something that made perfect sense. The former Speaker of the House, reviled by the Left because of the admittedly partisan rancor during the clash between the Republican Revolution and Clinton’s various zippergates, had started a discussion a year or so ago with his creation of a non-partisan political action platform and organization, American Solutions. A few short months ago he announced a new campaign and petition, entitled, “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” This campaign and the petition hit a nerve and has been wildly successful. Over 1,250,000 people have signed onto the effort, so far! The campaign is successful because it makes good sense. Most people recognize that supply and demand fuels economic changes and more oil will drop prices. The fact that there’s abundant oil in our own country makes this approach even more popular.

The Republicans in Congress have been as much asleep on this issue as the Democrats (though, they have not been so intent on destroying the economy for shaky environmental reasons as, for instance Nancy Pelosi) but they saw the nerve this issue twanged with the public and jumped on it fairly quickly. To placate their global warming obsessed base, the Democrats responded to this campaign with a resounding, “No”. The main response was a (sounding ever so reasonable, like a parent explaining to child why they really can’t have a pony), “Tsk, tsk tsk. You can’t drill your way out of this mess”! Some, predictably, tried to blame the energy crisis on Bush and his “failed policies”. Many blamed it on “oil speculators”, who are profiting off the fears of the American people. A funny thing happened, though, when President Bush finally caught ahold of the issue. On the very day he announced the lift of the Executive moratorium on off shore drilling, oil prices plummeted more than 5$ a barrel! See, even the possibility of future oil supply being increased caused the supply and demand engine to move! That’s what speculation does to prices and it’s a good thing.

Yesterday, in the House of Representatives, a pretty interesting thing happened. A check of the news will probably not yield any mention of it. On Google News, the only congressional-related “news” worthy of their front page, was an AP article heralding the Democrats for trying to overcome years of Republican neglect in relation to…you guessed it, the children! A check of other news sites yielded much the same non-reportage. This is unfortunate because the actions of a few Republican Representatives, in response to the reprehensible behavior of the Democrat leadership of the House, was inspiring, to say the least.

Nancy Pelosi, who has stated that she is “trying to save the planet” (to some liberal applause, it seems), has stubbornly refused to allow a vote on any bill that would decide-up or down- whether to lift the ban on off-shore drilling or indeed to promote more drilling anywhere in the U.S. This is itself a despicable assault on free speech and honest debate in Congress, especially from one who claimed, as the first female Speaker of history, that she would pledge “to make this Congress the most honest and open in history”. How open is a debate where, while your opponent is speaking you gavel him down and turn the microphones off, as well as the lights?

Former Speaker Gingrich started this debate. He is a credentialed intellectual, a college history professor, a prolific author and a political consultant. The man has bona fides, gravitas. He is a student and teacher of history. When he speaks, one knows he is listening to a man of intellect and character. Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, seems more interested in lead paint in toys (admittedly important but certainly there are very few provable casualties of this latest public health “disaster” than, say, people who drown in buckets of water…) than financial and energy freedom for Americans. This Speaker is more interested in the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, fast friend of Fidel Castro, than in the history we need to know in order to avoid repeating. She is more interested in scoring points against the Bush White House and Republicans (and both, as in McCain = Third Bush term) than in the cause of bipartisanship she loudly proclaimed at becoming Speaker.  She is a disgrace. And she proved it yesterday in the House.

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