Immigration Ain't That Easy

I've got a window full of tabbed articles I will never have the time to write about. So you're going to get them in linked bullet points.

• First, a little bit of classic Mark Steyn. From 2003. His characterization of Democrats resonates and truly today as it did back then.

• This blogger's favorite columnist, Bret Stephens, had a piece in the latest Foreign Affairs magazine about President Obama's Middle East policy. It is fantastic, natch.

• Stephens also wrote a column about the importance of truthful history. As you can imagine, this one resonates with me.

• Public intellectual, Rush Limbaugh, wrote a piece for the WSJ wherein he defended the Tea Party movement against their media antagonists. Given liberal hysteria and hyperbole in response to AZ immigration law, this one is timely. (Mind you, I'm not saying I agree with AZ policy, just pointing out liberal hypocrisy.)

• Daniel Henninger documents the massive shift in public opinion away from Obama's vision of America and towards a more limited vision of the role of government. This shift has occurred in a very short period of time. Like, a year.

• This is the Bret Stephens show. This time he takes aim at the idea of "peace processes" which are, of course, a friggin' joke. Stephens (I think rightly) calls those who derive benefit therefrom "wicked."

• When it comes to immigration, I tend toward the WSJ line rather than the National Review one. Looks like Jonah Goldberg agrees. Also, Byron York does some good political reportage on the Arizona law particulars.

• Thomas Sowell, another favorite, on the misuse and abuse of history to serve political ends--in this instance, race and slavery.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Checking In With Mitt Romney

Byron York met with Mitt Romney at the recent Value Voters summit in DC and reported on his (Mitt's) latest.

Mitt Romney has the look of a man who's running for president. And if you're running for president, three years before your party's nominating convention, it's absolutely essential to say that it's way too early to think about running for president. So the former Massachusetts governor demurs when asked his intentions.

Yes, I still like Mitt Romney.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Obama: Generous With Other People's Money

[ed. note: in case you missed this because I ran it in the middle of the day on a Saturday]

Remember how I asserted that conservatives--especially the religious type--were more generous than their liberal progressive counterparts? I pointed out the obvious fact that liberals would rather be generous with government handouts than they would with their own money to the guy on the street.

Yeah, this has been empirically proven.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this data--specifically, the liberal-progressive readers of this blog. I'm sure they're very generous with their money.

But this isn't just true empirically, there's also anecdotal evidence very close to home, as it were, in the person of Joe Biden.

Joe pays practically nothing in charity. Just read Byron York:

In nine out of the ten years for which tax returns were released, the Bidens gave less than $400 to charity; in the tenth year, 2007, when Biden was running for president, they gave $995 out of an adjusted gross income of $319,853.

And these guys, Joe & Barack, have the gall to call Americans who want to pay fewer taxes, "selfish."

As reader Branden B. points out, this latest "progressive critique of the capitalist system" is, well, pure socialism.

It's worse than I thought. He isn't a liberal with socialist tendencies. He is the "socialism" Wikipedia entry himself.

Give your money to Barack & Joe and they will spread it around "fairly" and "equally," as they see fit.

Another reader, reminds me of some great literature. Their comments in full:

Jake, interestingly enough after sending you that article I went into the library and picked up my old copy of Ayn Rand's "The Virtue of Selfishness" and this is the first thing I read which I highlighted 5 years ago:

"Socialism is not a movement of the people. It is a movement of the intellectuals, originated, led and controlled by the intellectuals, carried by them out of their stuffy ivory towers into those bloody fields of practice where they unite with their allies and executors: the thugs."

Who would you categorize as the two separate and distinct demographic groups that are voting (read fanatical) for Obama?

Let me continue with Ms. Rand and you will see an errily similar motive and comparison with one of our presidential candidates......

"What, then, is the motive of such intellectuals? Power-lust. Power-lust--as a manifestation of helplessness, of self-loathing and of the desire for the unearned. The desire for the unearned has two aspects: the unearned in matter and the unearned in spirit. These two aspects are necessarily inter-related, but a man's desire may be focused predominantly on one or the other. The desire for the unearned in spirit is the more destructive for the two and the more corrupt. It is a desire for unearned greatness; it is expressed (but not defined) by the foggy murk of the term "prestige."

Compare and contrast the earned greatness of a man like John McCain v the unearned prestige of Obama.

(emphasis in original)

Can we make it more plain than that?

Obama bribes the poor with the rich's money, using the "intellectuals" in the ivory tower for legitimacy (believe me, I see it every day) and the thugs in the street to try to get himself elected.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Obama: Generous With Other People's Money

Remember how I asserted that conservatives--especially the religious type--were more generous than their liberal progressive counterparts? I pointed out the obvious fact that liberals would rather be generous with government handouts than they would with their own money to the guy on the street.

Yeah, this has been empirically proven.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this data--specifically, the liberal-progressive readers of this blog. I'm sure they're very generous with their money.

But this isn't just true empirically, there's also anecdotal evidence very close to home, as it were, in the person of Joe Biden.

Joe pays practically nothing in charity. Just read Byron York:

In nine out of the ten years for which tax returns were released, the Bidens gave less than $400 to charity; in the tenth year, 2007, when Biden was running for president, they gave $995 out of an adjusted gross income of $319,853.

And these guys, Joe & Barack, have the gall to call Americans who want to pay fewer taxes, "selfish."

As reader Branden B. points out, this latest "progressive critique of the capitalist system" is, well, pure socialism.

It's worse than I thought. He isn't a liberal with socialist tendencies. He is the "socialism" Wikipedia entry himself.

Give your money to Barack & Joe and they will spread it around "fairly" and "equally," as they see fit.

Another reader, reminds me of some great literature. Their comments in full:

Jake, interestingly enough after sending you that article I went into the library and picked up my old copy of Ayn Rand's "The Virtue of Selfishness" and this is the first thing I read which I highlighted 5 years ago:

"Socialism is not a movement of the people. It is a movement of the intellectuals, originated, led and controlled by the intellectuals, carried by them out of their stuffy ivory towers into those bloody fields of practice where they unite with their allies and executors: the thugs."

Who would you categorize as the two separate and distinct demographic groups that are voting (read fanatical) for Obama?

Let me continue with Ms. Rand and you will see an errily similar motive and comparison with one of our presidential candidates......

"What, then, is the motive of such intellectuals? Power-lust. Power-lust--as a manifestation of helplessness, of self-loathing and of the desire for the unearned. The desire for the unearned has two aspects: the unearned in matter and the unearned in spirit. These two aspects are necessarily inter-related, but a man's desire may be focused predominantly on one or the other. The desire for the unearned in spirit is the more destructive for the two and the more corrupt. It is a desire for unearned greatness; it is expressed (but not defined) by the foggy murk of the term "prestige."

Compare and contrast the earned greatness of a man like John McCain v the unearned prestige of Obama.

(emphasis in original)

Can we make it more plain than that?

Obama bribes the poor with the rich's money, using the "intellectuals" in the ivory tower for legitimacy (believe me, I see it every day) and the thugs in the street to try to get himself elected.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

"Some Things Are More Important Than The Economy"

Many soldiers who have fought in Iraq and many parents of soldiers who have died in Iraq fear that if Obama is elected, he will follow through on repeated campaign promises to immediately exit Iraq, leaving it to al Qaeda , whom we've already beaten, and making the loss of so many American lives worth nothing.

Byron York reports on meeting a person from each of these groups--a soldier and a parent of a fallen Marine.

Warning: This article is powerful and compelling. You must read it.

At John McCain’s rallies these days, the talk is of taxes and Joe the Plumber and the financial crisis and mortgage relief and an end to wasteful federal spending. Those are all perfectly fine things for a campaign to emphasize; polls show voters of all stripes are overwhelmingly concerned about the economy. But at McCain’s events, you’ll also find people who’ve come for another reason, one that is slipping in the polls of voters’ concerns but is deeply personal to them: the war in Iraq.

“I just gave John McCain my Purple Heart,” Marine Sgt. Jack Eubanks told me a few minutes after McCain finished a speech at a campaign rally in Woodbridge, Virginia Saturday. “I said, ‘I want to give this to you, sir, as a reminder that we want you to keep your promise to bring us home in victory and honor, so it will mean something.’"

“We fought over there, and we want it to mean something,” Eubanks continued. “We don’t want to come back and it just be all for nothing.”

Eubanks, 22 years old, knows as much about the war as anyone. On October 3, 2005, he was in a Humvee on patrol near the Syrian border when an IED went off. “I was thrown from the vehicle, took some shrapnel, landed on my spine and mashed it up a little bit,” Eubanks told me in a remarkably good-humored way. He was injured much more than just a little; it took him eleven months to recover. And then — then he volunteered to go back. In August 2007, he was hurt again in a strangely similar way. “Hit by a mortar, thrown from a vehicle — the same situation,” Eubanks told me. Now, he’s teaching recruits at Marine Corps Base Quantico — and walking with a cane.

These days, as he ponders the war and the meaning it has for him — he says he saw remarkable progress in Iraq between his 2005 and 2007 tours — Eubanks’s overwhelming fear is that it might all be for naught. “I think Obama’s just going to pull everyone home as soon as he can, despite what’s going on over there,” he told me. “I just don’t want it to turn into another Vietnam or worse where everything we fought for, and all my buddies who died over there, it was just for nothing.” Eubanks believes McCain — he called McCain “so inspiring” and said he was in awe of the senator during their brief meeting — will prevent that from happening.

As I talked to Eubanks, just a few feet away a conversation — well, a pretty loud exchange of views — was wrapping up. It involved the now-famous Tito the Builder, who I wrote about a few days ago, and reporters who questioned Tito’s fervent support for McCain. Near the end of the conversation, a tall man joined in. “Obama’s not interested in change for the United States,” the man said. “He’s interested in himself.”

The subject of Iraq came up. “We are winning!” said Tito. “We are winning!”

“My son was over there,” the man added. “And all these guys came back and said the media was causing the hype that we were losing that war, and that was not true.” More debate followed.

Finally, the talk wound down, and the tall man walked away. I walked over and asked his name. He was Greg Medina, and he lived nearby in Woodbridge. His son had been to Iraq? “He was with 1/3,” Medina said, referring to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

“We buried him two years to the day after he graduated from boot camp.”

Medina told me the story of his son, Brian, who was killed after being in Iraq less than two months, shot to death on November 12, 2004 in fierce house-to-house fighting in Fallujah. The day it happened, Greg had slept badly and had a vague and awful premonition in the hours before Marine officers knocked on his door to deliver the news. Brian was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Now, Medina, who himself served 20 years in the Navy, is filled with the dread that his son’s death will have no meaning. “My fear is that if Obama gets elected, everybody who went over there and died, died in vain because he’s just going to drag this country through the mud,” Medina told me. He knew that sounded a little harsh, so he added, “That’s my opinion.” And then he said: “Whoever wins, I wish them luck, obviously, because I live in this country, and I don’t want to see anything bad happen.”

Talking to Medina brought back a conversation I had with McCain back in October 2007 as we rode around Iowa in a campaign van. McCain was talking about how badly the Bush administration had mismanaged the war. “The thing that makes you almost cry is that one of the battles that will rank among the most courageous the Marines have ever fought is the battle of Fallujah,” McCain told me. “They lost 86 guys and several hundred wounded in the most bitter kind of house-to-house fighting. And you know what happened then? They left. They left. After sacrificing 86 of those brave young 19- and 20-year-olds, they left. I mean, it’s unconscionable.”

Brian Medina was one of those 20-year-olds killed in that fighting. Less than a year later, Jack Eubanks was blown out of his Humvee. Now, Eubanks and Greg Medina are counting on John McCain to keep his promise, should he become commander-in-chief. Some things are more important than the economy.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Dateline: Xcel Center, RNC Final Day

UPDATE 5 Sept. 3:05am CDT: On Fox News just now, Karl Rove pointed out something that didn't necessarily surprise me, though it was something I did not know. In 2004, when you combine the money spent by the Kerry-Edwards campaign, the DNC and Democratic 527s and compare it to the same money raised by corresponding sources on the Republican side, Democrats outspent Republicans by $121 million.

UPDATE 5 Sept. 2:52am CDT: My wrap-up tonight focuses on McCain's speech. Going into this convention, many people--including me--wondered how McCain would broach the autobiographical topic. Unlike his memoir-loving opponent, McCain typically doesn't like to talk about himself. Yet, if he is to become President, it is imperative that people get to know him. So, how did he do it? How did he talk about his time as a POW? He talked about it in terms of a personal transformation. He described a young man--himself--as a person focused on self (despite the fact that he was serving his country). He described, in very humble terms, how being incapacitated and forced to rely on the benevolence of his fellow American POWs taught him about life and sacrifice and service. This was powerful. People were quiet. No doubt some shed tears (I think you could see this on TV). And I think we collectively said to ourselves: this man has experience.

- At one point, McCain attacked his own party. No doubt the left was gloating. And to be honest, the audience was taken aback. I didn't disagree with him and have often expressed my frustration with my party regarding their spendthrift and sometimes corrupt ways. I don't believe they have been materially different to Democrats on either of these fronts, it's just that Republicans are supposed to be the party of fiscal discipline and reform.

Of course, much, if not most, of this speech was directed not to the people in the Xcel Center, but to the wider American audience. And in that sense, I think it was successful. John McCain presented himself as a principled man who puts country before party and personal interests. And the great thing is, he can point to bill after bill in which he has acted in accordance with what he believed was best for the country. Obama cannot say the same because he has not authored any major legislation and when he did become involved in ethics reform, he rejected the opportunity to join McCain in a bipartisan effort, opting instead for a partisan bill.

UPDATE 8:19pm CDT: Feel free to join my colleagues and the rest of the NB community in a our live RNC chat.

UPDATE 7:58pm CDT: I wanted to take a step back, withdraw a bit from the immediate, emotional response to Palin's speech last night, and examine what it did, what it added, and why it worked so incredibly well. My analysis can be boiled down to two easy points:

1. She completely deconstructed Obama and the Obama campaign's liberal talking points in a humorous and easy-to-understand way. "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities."
   
2. She clearly articulated core, conservative principles in a way that appealed to listeners on an emotional and intellectual level. "They love their country, in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America."
   

What is also impressive about this speech was her ability to go above and past the media gatekeepers in a way that probably has not been done since Ronald Reagan. As a result of the non-stop attacks by the nutroots and the Obama campaign and the MSM (but I repeat myself), 37 million Americans tuned in to see what this woman was about.

The attack dogs helped to give her a large audience and Sarah Palin took care of the rest.

UPDATE 7:54pm CDT: One Cosmos on his experience watching the Palin speech. I think I'll just go ahead and start referring to it as The Speech.

Naturally, I watched it on MSDNC in order to see what the reaction would be over there. The first thing out of Olbermann's piehole was that the speech was snide and sarcastic. Ho! Can he really be so mentally ill that he cannot see a projection so transparent? Yes. He is a sick man. Truly psychospiritually toxic. That liberals find his toxins nourishing tells you all you need to know about them.

UPDATE 7:40pm CDT: In honor of Captain Morgan, the company sponsoring the press corps open bar, and providing me with my steady diet of Coke-Zero and chips & dip, I thought I'd post the comments of my friend Morgan.

The press bar, btw, is hopping--it is definitely the place to be (this side of the floor of the Xcel Center).

Morgan is a casual observer of politics who calls things like he sees 'em.

Here is what I find most surprising/amusing about the Palin pick. I am shocked at how much energy and emotion is being spent on discrediting her when she is the VP candidate as opposed to the Presidential candidate. Liberals seem to be really, really worked up about this. [...] Every time I hear or read somebody work themselves into a frenzy discussing her I am tempted to say "why so serious?"

UPDATE 7:04pm CDT: Last night I wrote in my wrap-up about why the left--the MSM, etc.--hates Sarah Palin. Johnathan Last lists a few more.

UPDATE 6:43pm CDT: Obama is going to be on O'Reilly tonight. I already wrote about the shady circumstances surrounding the Obama/Ailes/Fox News meeting earlier this summer. Obama is prepared to admit the success of the surge. Seriously? The Surge worked? Most galling is this comment:

"I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated," Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

There are at least two people who thought it would work. I'll give you a hint. One of them is the Republican nominee for President. The other one? He lives in a big White House.

UPDATE 6:15pm CDT: Pre-released excerpts from McCain's speech to be aired later tonight:

On running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:

"I’m very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming."

On solving problems in Washington:

"The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom. It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you.

Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not."

On love of country:

"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s."

UPDATE 5:41pm CDT: Just posted my piece about the media's ongoing aversion to identifying the party association of scandal ridden Democrats--Democrats like Kwame Kilpatrick.

UPDATE 5:30pm CDT: Last night Sarah Palin attracted some 37.2 million viewers, 1.1 million off Obama's overhyped draw at Invesco last week. There's one detail missing from these numbers and I don't think it can be overstated: Palin's speech was only broadcast on 6 stations as compared to 10 for Obama. (h/t: RedState)

UPDATE 5:22pm CDT: RNC Night 4 Sched:

7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Speaker: Joe Watkins
- Speaker: U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.)
- Speaker: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (Minn.)
- Speaker with Video: Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.)
- Speaker: Lt. Gen. Carol Mutter, USMC (Ret.)
- Speaker: U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.)
- Speaker: U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin (Okla.)
- Video: "World Stood Still"

8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Speaker: U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.)
- Video: "Vice Presidential Nominee Governor Sarah Palin"
- Speaker: Former Gov. Tom Ridge (Penn.)
- Video: "America’s Place in the World"
- Speaker: Mrs. Cindy McCain

9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Video: "Senator John McCain"
- Speaker: Presidential Nominee John McCain

10 p.m. to Conclusion
- Floor Demonstration, Balloon Drop, McCain and Palin Families on Stage
- Introduction of Presiding Officer: U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio)
- Benediction: Pastor Dan Yeary
- Introduction of Delegate for Motion, Adoption and Adjournment: U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio)

UPDATE 4:09pm CDT: A friend writes:

The backdrop of RNC is just not as flashy as the DNC backdrop.

I don't think I could sum up the difference between the Republicans and Democrats better myself. What's better, the comment was not meant as a compliment.

UPDATE 4:05pm CDT: And today we talked to Mitch McConnell in an extended interview and Tom DeLay, briefly. We liked "the Hammer" because as soon as we told him we were with NewsBusters, he said, "oh, I love you guys." We love you too, Tom.

UPDATE 12:44pm CDT: Finally back at home in the Press Filing Center. Everybody here at the Xcel center is talking about The News from last night. No, not the fact that the speech was knocked-out-of-the-park good. The fact that Palin (and Rudy) had teleprompter issues forcing both of them to do their best from memory. And doing their best from memory is no mean feat. These speeches go through changes right up until the last moment.

Well done, Sarah and Rudy.

Main: I'm still at my hotel in Eagan and watching the coverage of Sarah Palin's speech from last night on the various cable news channels. After reviewing the text and footage of Governor Palin's speech, I agree with Byron York, the most devastating line was this one:

And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they are always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely.

There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death ... and that man is John McCain.

It's true. What can anyone say about this?

For me, the election can be summed up in one point: John McCain's decision to support and champion the surge, demonstrated clearly when he famously said, (and when saying it wasn't as popular as it is now), that he would rather lose an election, than lose the war. Joe Biden and Barack Obama have never taken similarly difficult & unpopular stands.

At the end of the day, when it matters most, I know I can count on John McCain to put country ahead of personal political gain.

Can anyone say--with any conviction--the same of Barack Obama?


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Dateline: Xcel Center, RNC Day 2

UPDATE 2:43am CDT: Last update before I sign off for the night. I watched this exchange--between Gingrich & an MSNBC reporter--from the concourse and thought, I wonder what they're talking about. My colleague at NewsBusters, Noel Sheppard found the video and it's fantastic. Click here, to see Noel's post. I repeat something I've written before. We are more than happy to have a dialogue about Palin and debate the relative merits of her experience versus Obama's.

It's important to understand that debating our #2 vs. their #1 concedes that Obama isn't even in McCain's orbit.

UPDATE 2:41am CDT: One other point I forgot to mention regarding our interview with Jon Voight. We asked him about other conservatives in Hollywood and if he had any advice to give to them or young conservatives. The long and short of his answer was similar to what I have observed in academia. If you want work, keep your mouth shut about your conservative politics. At this point in his career (though it has been known about Voight for some time), he can say what he wants because he doesn't really need the work and he is a big enough name that he can get work despite his politics. For younger actors/writers/directors, this is not the case.

UPDATE: 2:31am CDT: My days are divided by sleep periods rather than by calendar days. While waiting to interview Jon Voight, we joked around with Kevin Farley, the younger brother of one of my favorite comedians, the late Chris Farley. Seeing Kevin was, to use an overused word, surreal--not because I or anyone else was particularly impressed to meet Kevin (though he is a nice guy), but because he looks just like his brother. At first glance, I had to do a double take because I was sure I had seen a ghost.

UPDATE: 10:56pm CDT: The posts below now contain links to the video of our interviews with Mort Kondracke and Laura Ingraham.

UPDATE: 10:45pm CDT: We just finished interviewing Jon Voight regarding his role in An American Carol, the right's response to endless parade of conservative-lampooning films. If you judge a person by the company or celebrities he keeps, John McCain comes out looking great. Compare and contrast Jon Voight with Kanye West. West's songs, though catchy, are full of hateful, racist lyrics. And Jon Voight is just awesome. Ditto Five for Fighting's Jon Ondrasik, who was with Jon Voight. (making them the h-less Jon's)

UPDATE: 8:48pm CDT: Just got back from interviewing Mort Kondracke of Fox's "Beltway Boys," Gary Bauer, former POTUS candidate, and Laura Ingraham. Mort is shorter than his fellow "Boy" Fred Barnes, but is just as congenial. Like just about everyone else, they took the time, even though they were in a hurry, to speak with us.

Laura Ingraham said "the media hates Sarah Palin because she's pro-life. End of story." I think there's a lot of truth to that.

Mort Kondracke played the role of media apologist at first, saying that it was important that they go hard after Palin because of the short period of time to "vet" her. After being asked, pointedly, if the media were treating Palin the way they had treated Obama--especially as it relates to Rezko, Ayers, Wright, etc.--Kondracke admitted that it was not equal treatment.

Gary Bauer's comments were on point and in touch with the religious wing of the Republican party. He pointed out the hypocrisy of the left in criticizing Palin for her daughter becoming a pregnant--something they usually treat as a non-issue. He noted the many christian-crisis centers across the centers designed to help young women in a similar situation. As he said, social conservatives embrace and aid those who make mistakes and need help.

UPDATE: 6:52pm CDT: ABC News and Politico separately reported that 'while the hurricane raged, Republicans partied.' This is an unfair and untrue characterization. It's true, the previously planned parties were still held, for the most part. But the partisan celebrations have been replaced by American fundraisers for those in the path of Hurricane Gustav. This has been my experience and after interviewing a number of delegates, it seems to be everyone's experience.

- Seated next to me in the Press Filing Center are a couple of leftist new media types. They are so smug and self satisfied. In hushed tones that aren't so hushed (you know, so everyone around them can hear but they "maintain decorum."), they talk about how things seem "dead" or "like an undertakers conference, " (har, har, har). Compare that take with the critique above, that holds that Republicans are partying too hard in light of the hurricane.

If you're a conservative in this country, you cannot win.

UPDATE: 5:19pm CDT: In early 2007, Jonah Goldberg participated in a debate at the Oxford Union about the following topic: "This House regrets the founding of The United States of America." It was a ridiculous proposition and fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Today, I spoke with Goldberg about that debate, telling him that it was a source of some pride for us Americans who spent time in Oxbridge circles and frequently encountered just the sort of anti-American spirit reflected by that debate topic.

He was, like his colleagues, gracious, and said that were it not for the extreme left of the opposition, they might have lost, owing to the fact that the crowd was decidedly anti-American. Irony of ironies, the Communist was a no show. As Goldberg said, "this is a guy who has spent his life defending lost causes (Stalin, among others) you'd have thought he show up to the debate."

(audio here)

First, links to my latest NewsBusters posts:

How to Cover Pregnancy Controversies, MSM-Style
Hot Air TV: 'Instant Classic'
Another Fake 'Lifelong Republican' Exposed
Celebs for McCain: Yes, Virginia, There Are a Few
Pollster.com Finds 'House Effects,' Not Bias, to Blame for Volatile Polls

- Yesterday was a long day that seemed longer because of a late arrival the night before. Official RNC stuff was limited with the First Lady & Cindy McCain making a brief appearance and appealing for support of the Gulf Coast states--specifically Louisiana--as they deal with Gustav and the latest round of hurricanes.

- Interesting note: the 5 gulf coast state governor are all Republicans. And anyone who followed Katrina can't help but notice the stark contrast between the leadership provided by Bobby Jindal and his predecessor, the spectacularly incompetent Kathleen Blanco. Why didn't Kanye accuse Blanco of hating black people?

- At the National Review reception I spoke with Byron York, Rich Lowry, & Kathryn Jean Lopez. I didn't quite have time to talk to Jonah Goldberg or Mickey Kaus. To the man (and woman) they were all gracious and took the time to chat about politics and education. Special thanks to Ms. Lopez for the invitation. I am only sorry that my first NR party came after Bill Buckley's passing. I would like to have made his acquaintance.
(click the name for a link to their latest stuff)

- At the Lifetime women's party, I tried to get myself cast as the villainous male in the next Lifetime feature film. No dice.

- This morning I attended a blogger brunch hosted by RedState and Google. Fred Thompson was the featured speaker and like Michael Steele yesterday, he railed on the media coverage of this campaign in general, and the shameful Bristol Palin attacks in particular. Fred's a good one.

One interesting point about the co-hosting by RedState and Google: Google is notoriously liberal--they endorse the sort of web-censorship conservatives hate because it is always conservative stuff that gets lifted. So, for months leading up to the convention, no one wanted to partner with Google. This was money for the taking--to put on a party for conservatives, but no one wanted their money.

Just two weeks ahead of the convention, RedState decided they wanted to do a blogger brunch and reached out to the RNC. The RNC mentioned Google. Initially RedState said no, but after speaking with Google, concluded their (Google's) intentions to become more neutral, were honest. So there we were this morning and there we will be tomorrow. Hopefully Google follows through on stopping their censorship of conservatives.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.