Blue Collar Muse

One has to wonder what is going through the President’s mind when he is developing his policies. Certainly he has given the course he is charting for the nation some thought. The question is, what result is the process intended to produce? The direction he has taken with Health Care, Cap and Trade and a host of fiscal issues is not merely different from what the majority of Americans think is the right course – it is a direction clearly demonstrated to be vastly more expensive than he promised while economically damaging the nation in ways it may take decades to fix.

Yet his social meddling may be the place that costs him the most in the short term. His administration’s refusal to deal with the challenges of Islamic extremism, along with its denial of the connection between attacks and terrorism has resulted in more low level attacks on our nation than at any other era I can remember. The underwear bomber, the Fort Hood massacre, the Times Square bombing and more are evidence of terrorist’s boldness in the face of American vacillation and weakness. His Party’s willingness to engage in Immigration Policy as a tool to acquire political power is well documented in the recent discussion of Puerto Rican statehood.

It is impossible to contain such disastrous policies to our own nation’s internal workings. What we do at home cannot help but creep into foreign policy and exert influence on America’s international reputation. Indeed, that remains a foundational element in President Obama’s litany of the things that were wrong with the Bush Administration. To correct what he alleged was a poor representation of America’s character around the world, Obama has taken small, but significant, steps abroad; apologizing for America to the world while insulting our allies in the next breath.

The examples here are merely low hanging fruit from Google searches on the President’s performance since taking office less than 2 years ago. The closer one looks at the empty suit in the Oval Office the more one comes to the conclusion that, despite the early predictions of a new era of adulation for America from her citizens and the world, history will record quite a different tale. The latest gaffe, and with each new one it gets more difficult to argue that these are just passing comments or misquotes, is reported by Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air.

During the Administration’s recent visit to China, in the context of discussing ” freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination,” America was thrown under the bus yet again by this administration. Specifically concerning Arizona’s recent immigration law, the administration brought up the subject to the Chinese as an example of our bad behavior.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person’s immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

…

QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.

At what point does one begin to ask, regardless of how one feels about the War on Terror, “If defending our nation against an unprovoked attack results in a reduction of prestige and respect for America around the world, what result might we expect if we openly trash our own nation and are, ourselves, the ones mounting an unprovoked attack against ourselves?”

Popularity: 26% [?]

A friend notified me the other day that some daring, bold, fearless and undaunted champion of Progressive thought had chosen to blog about Ron Ramsey’s new television ads. The author is Sam Jones and his blog post is titled “Ron Ramsey Commercial Represents Racist, Neo-Nazi Slogan”.

Ramsey’s ads feature the tag line, “If Washington doesn’t like it, we’ll give them the boot!” Sam’s premise is, you don’t really know what “give them the boot” means. While most understand it to mean “dismissal from employment or from a place that one is in” as, indeed, it is defined in the “Idiom” section of The Free Dictionary, Mr. Jones prefers a different understanding.

According to Sam, at some time and somewhere (he doesn’t say or link when or where) Neo-Nazis and Skinheads used the phrase to indicate how they treat people they don’t like. Rather than actually citing racists using the term, Mr. Jones references his personal response to a single scene from the film American History X as proof the phrase is filled with racist overtones. Next Sam applies the universally known, understood and accepted rule for understanding what people mean when they talk known as “polysemous interpretation.”

“Polysemous” is a term used by media critics in the academic field of communication studies to express “diversity of meanings.” When a mediated representation is not clearly defined, such as the rhetoric used in the Ron Ramsey campaign ad, it allows for and basically represents all of the possible diversities of meaning. And, therein lies the problem.

Ron Ramsey’s message resonates with racists, Neo Nazis, and Skinheads who hate Barack Obama (read, “Washington”) because he is Black, and Ron Ramsey’s message resonates with racists, Neo Nazis, and Skinheads because it literally copies a popular Skinhead and Neo Nazi Slogan (read, “Give them the boot”).

Sam concludes, “The case can easily be made (and the fact that it can easily be made is problematic) that Ron Ramsey’s political consultants have scripted him to represent racist, Neo Nazi rhetoric in his campaign ad.”

Being the only non-racist Conservative in existence and the only person on the planet unaware of the latent racism in common American idiom I decided to do a little research of my own. One can never be too sure. After all, you know how clever those Neo-Nazis and Skinheads can be! I Googled the phrase “give them the boot” and braced for my laptop to overload its capacity to filter out the hate and bile. This is what I found.

Warning – small children, Christians, ladies, Progressives, Democrats and others easily offended by graphic scenes of racial hatred and violence should not, under ANY circumstances click through to the following sites. I did, taking one for the team in the name of journalistic and personal integrity. I had to put in an after-hours, emergency call to my therapist. The first 10 pages of Google results revealed the following partial list of polysemous Internet racists.

Salon author Glenn Greenwald encourages Progressive Democrats to give “Blue Dog” Dems the boot. Check out the actual URL. It reads “blue-dogs-die”;

The UK Daily Mail reporting staff, at least those interested in sunglasses;

Snobby beer drinkers (and probably the women who love them);

GQ Magazine contributor Jonathan Heaf;

The staff at KOMO News in Seattle, WA – because there’s no more racist and Conservative city than Seattle;

People who don’t like Bank of America;

Punk Rockers;

The San Francisco media – who don’t just want to boot their enemies, they want them immobilized first;

Hip people who like “Fashion. Nightlife. Art. Music. Food. Charity.”;

BNET, a CBS Interactive Site – TWICE!! (see the last entry on the page – about Rugby);

The New York Daily News reports an NFL player harbors self-loathing racist sentiments against himself. Just check out the URL on this story;

Anyone working in the field of Customer Service;

America OnLine, and finally;

Global Warming proponents.

Needless to say, after Sam’s reporting and my own research, I’m convinced.

I’m convinced we give Progressives WAY too much credit for intelligent, rational thought.

SEE ALSO:

Making Stuff Up by Kate @ An Ol’ Broad’s Rambling

Popularity: 27% [?]

I know it is standard Democratic practice to take the money and liberty of others to line their own pockets. I wasn’t aware that practice extended to web design. However, if you have no problem with the first step, the second would seem to follow easily.  What am I talking about?  Seems Representative Davis’ campaign couldn’t find a good enough theme for his website or a design firm good enough to build one for him.  So he took one from someone else. No word on whether his actions will be called a “technological crisis communication enhancement initiative” or not …

Popularity: 60% [?]

Yesterday, NewsComa broke a story about a GOP staffer who Forwarded an email containing a picture which she found racist and offensive. She broke the story at 10AM and, according to the timeline posted over at Silence Isn’t Golden, with a little help from the Lefty blogosphere, “in the span of about six to six and a half hours, everyone knows just how much racism exists within the TNGOP.” Big press from the Left on Right wing racism!

At the same time that story was breaking, in what can only be seen as a historic case of irony, a Democratic staffer sent an email that was even worse.

Titled “Smiles for Monday”, this email made fun of Racism:

Child Abuse:

The Elderly and Aging:

and the Mentally Handicapped.

There’s more, of course, with vulgar language (including a couple of **F** bombs), quasi-nudity, and the Left’s puzzling fascination with Nazis.

What remains to be seen is whether the Left in Tennessee, and nationally, is willing to take a stand against Racism in Principle or show themselves merely interested in exploiting Racism by Party.

Will Lefty bloggers condemn this Democrat and call for his firing? Will the Media cover this on the news like they did the story of the GOP staffer? Will the Left police their own? Will this be written up and front paged at Daily Kos, Wonkette, and Think Progress? And what will the TNDP do? Will Chip Forrester lead the way and not merely call for the firing of this staffer but fire first and comment later?

I’d like to think there would be an identical response from the Left to this event. But I’m a realist. I have no doubt those on the Left with integrity and character will come out against this Democrat just as they did against the Republican. But I hold no hope anything approaching the howling multitudes on the Left calling for the head of a GOP employee will bother to clean up their own stable and remove the beam from their own eye. I guess the next six and a half hours will show us just how much Racism exists in the TNDP, won’t it?

Blue Collar Muse

UPDATE:  It’s 11:00 AM – emails sent out to several other Right of Center bloggers in Tennessee.

UPDATE: It’s a little after 11AM.  Other bloggers start posting it up.  Most of them get the point of my post.  What is the Left and the TNDP going to do about this?  Is their outrage partisan or principled? See comments for the initial responses.

UPDATE: It’s around Noon and the first confirmation of the email is coming out.  Southern Beale, a popular Left wing blogger, admits she received the email in question.  And Post Politics picks up the story.

UPDATE: The story hits Nashville is Talking!  Christian Grantham correctly reports the email came from a staffer from Karen Camper’s (D – Memphis) office.  Since we’re than close, let’s jump the timeline and report that the staffer in question is Blake P Graves.

UPDATE: Graves, too, realized his email may have been a bad idea.  Shortly after he sent it, he sent the distribution list the following under the Subject “So sorry about that last email”, “Everyone, please excuse that e-mail I sent, I totally missed the words used in it. So please accept my apologies for that e-mail. Nonetheless, have a great Monday!”  Since the entire email was just pictures, one can conclude that Graves was unconcerned with the message communicated by the pictures he sent, but was concerned only that the language included in the text on the pictures might be found offensive to some.  He says he “totally missed the words used” in the pictures?  Excuse me?  How is that even possible, let alone a valid defense.  That sounds like “I didn’t read the bill but I voted for it anyway!”  Good heavens!!

UPDATE @ 14:31 – Buzz in the blogosphere is that Graves is “just an intern”.  The point presumably being that Interns should not be taken seriously or held accountable or that things done by lower level functionaries, you know – like 20 year secretaries,  aren’t actionable.  Obviously most of those calling for the head of the GOP staffer believe only that GOP missteps should lead to tumbles.  They are wrong.  Beyond that, they seem also wrong about Graves’ status at the General Assembly.  His title is “Temporary Legislative Assistant”.  According to my sources, all interns ceased to be active on the Hill a month or so ago.  Only full time state employees remain.  Roger Abramson and Left Wing Cracker are wrong.  The “Temporary” in his title does not refer to a “Temp” as in a Temp Employment Service.  It means he does not yet have a permanent location.  He is filling in “temporarily” at Rep. Camper’s office covering a vacation or an illness or something of the sort.  But his title of “Temporary Legislative Assistant” makes him a full time state employee.  As to his politics, you decide.  At his FaceBook page, he lists himself as Politcally Liberal.

SEE ALSO:

Yet another email controversy from the General Assembly by Michael Silence @ No Silence Here;

I am ready for my close up Mr. Demille by The Rep @ Camp4U;

Popularity: 54% [?]

Holy SMOKES, you guys are on this one!  Fantastic linky-love for Tea Parties in Tennessee!  Keep checking back for more as there are some bloggers out there who are writing as we speak and have not yet hit “Publish”!

On the Whole Tea Party Thing by Nathan Moore @ Moore Thoughts;

I Wanted My Daughter to See by Jeremy Dunlap @ Blue Jean Politics;

Murfreesboro Tax Day Tea Party by Jay Period @ Ideally Conservative;

Nashville Tea Party by Kate @ An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings;

“Know us by Our Bumper Stickers” and “Nashville Tea Party Serves it Hot!” by Webutante @ Webutante;

The People Have Turned to Themselves for Leadership by Bob Krumm @ Bob Krumm;

A Report from the Nashville Tea Party by Rod Williams @ A Disgruntled Republican;

Nashville Tea Party by Toni @ Bear Creek Ledger;

Tea Party Blogging Day @ Blue Collar Republican;

Methinks Thou Dost Protest Too Much by Bob Krumm @ Bob Krumm;

Tea Party Nashville and Tea Party x2 by The Rep @ Camp4U;

Knoxville Tea Party Pictures by Chris F @ Chris for Liberty;

Tea Parties Sweep America by Statesman @ Conservative Statesman;

Lefty Tea Party Love and Right Wing Hate by A.C. McCloud @ Fore Left;

Some Tax Day and Tea Party Thoughts and Knoxville Tea Party Wrap Up from Scott Adcox @ Hear It From Us;

Right Wing Extremists by StephC @ HillBilly Politics ;

Tea Party Report by Kay Brooks @ Kay Brooks;

The Good and the Bad on Tea Parties by Rob @ Leaning Right;

Tea Party Sign Slogans and  Tullahoma Tea Party Turnout by Lynn Sebourn @ Lynn Sebourn;

The Tax Day Tea Party is Upon Us and  Nashville Tea Party: A Reflection by Matthew Hurtt @ Matthew Hurtt;

Not Quite 10,000 by Michael at Michael Not Mike;

To Those Mocking or Condemning Tea Parties … by Sarah Moore @ Moore Thoughts;

Tea Party Nashville, Tennessee by ZombyWolf @ Pax Parabellum;

Memphis Tea Party, the Day in Pictures and  More Memphis Tea Party Pictures by Rustmeister @ Rustmeister’s Alehouse;

Pictures From the Memphis Tea Party by Jesse @ The Lone Libertarian;

Brownsville Tea Party and  Tax Day Tea Party Reactions by Mike Slater@ Mike Slater;

Tea Party by SayUncle @ SayUncle;

Tax and Tea Party Day is Here by Donald Sensing @ Sense of Events;

Reminder: Tax Day Tea Party and Buy a Gun Day by Preston Taylor Holmes @ Six Meat Buffet;

Tennessee Tax Day Tea Party Protest Photos by Serr8d @ Serr8d’s Cutting Edge;

Tea Party Memphis Style by Tom Guleff @ Joe Citizen;

Tea Parties by John Arra @ Way Out Charlotte Pike;

Tea Thrown Overboard by David Oatney @ The World According to Oatney

Popularity: 22% [?]

The American Princess has a fantastically funny, yet incredibly insightful, post up.  With all the talk about how Southern states are out of step with the rest of the country and how we view things so very differently, perhaps the rest of the country ought to consider adopting our views and not the other way around …

The Princess writes,

So I’ve been visiting friends in Louisiana for the last few days, partly to catch up because I haven’t seen them in forever, and partly because I love Mardi Gras and thanks to a special surprise, I was actually able to go this year and enjoy it. I love everything about the south: the food, the pace of life, the fact that my skin doesn’t get dry and that people walk around with funny hats on for no reason and don’t get self-conscious. But most of all, I love it because of interactions like this:

We were sitting around the kitchen table after Bacchus, when a two year old child came running in brandishing a toy shotgun (with real cocking and smoking action!), aiming and firing at nothing, shortly followed by his mother.

Mother: “Give me that gun!”

Child: “No!”

Mother: “Give ME THAT GUN!”

Child: “No!”

Mother takes the gun.

Child cries.

Father (from Kitchen Table): “Give him back that gun, Nancy Pelosi!”

Another child (also from Kitchen Table) bursts into tears: “Don’t call mama that, Daddy!!!”

I believe the children ARE our future.

Thank God.

Popularity: 18% [?]

It’s amazing what a moment of passion can produce.  I believe it’s one of the reasons blogs are so successful.  Just a day or so ago one of CNBC’s live reporters, Rick Santelli, indulged in one such moment.  That he was tapping into the feelings of everyday Americans was evident by the reaction of those around him who took a moment from their own work to applaud his sentiments and voice their support.

What did he say?  Just that the President’s mortgage bailout plan was ridiculous, wouldn’t work and ought to be opposed by Americans.  He then offered the notion that in July of 2009, people should join him in Chicago for more than just opposition, they should come ready for protest!  He called for a Chicago Tea Party reminiscent of the infamous Boston Tea Party of December 1773 in protest of a small increase in the tax on tea.

That few moments of passion on camera has sparked a phenomenal response literally across the nation!  The video has been shown and reshown on all major networks.  It is being reported in MSM print publications and talked about on radio.  Different clips and cuts of Santelli’s comments have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

But folks are doing more than just watching the video.  They’ve taken Santelli’s comments and are running with them.  CNBC put up a non-scientific poll at their site asking if people would join Santelli in Chicago for his Tea Party.  As of last night, 65,000Americans said “Yes!”.  As of this morning, that number had grown to 190,000!

The idea is growing.  Online activists are sorting out the different responses at Operation Twitter Tea Party with the hashtag #optwtp.   Tennessee activists are not to be outdone.  For those unable to take the time off of work or spend the money to travel so far, know the Memphis Tea Party will be happening this July as well!  The details will be more clear as plans move ahead but you can keep up with them at Memphis Tea Party!  Perhaps we should also do a Nashville and a Knoxville Tea Party.

If anyone is aware of plans to do a Tea Party in your area, please let me know.  We’ll give a go at trying to compile a list of them.  Now go be active …

Popularity: 21% [?]

Just who are these “Life Long Republicans!” complaining to C-SPAN and talk radio from the squalor and desperation 8 years of GWB has reduced them to?  The Rep, Stacey Campfield, wants to know and has some observations on the matter.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Digg.com started as a place to promote stories ordinary people found newsworthy to see if others agreed. That was done by voting a story up or “Digg-ing” it. Another useful site feature if Digg users find duplicate, badly written or inaccurate stories, is “Bury”. A Bury cancels out a Digg.

The potential for abuse is obvious. The practice of such abuse permitted by Digg’s operators is legendary. Left leaning stories are Dugg while Right leaning stories are Buried by aptly named “Bury Brigades” which prowl upcoming stories for anything smelling of Conservatism. Digg did nothing to address complaints of their idea being hijacked and gamed. Along with many others, for exactly that reason, I left Digg years ago.

A similar scenario may be brewing at FaceBook. The Social Media giant approved and accepted an ad from Americans for Prosperity touting their NoStimulus.com site. NoStimulus.com features material supporting Americans who find the Stimulus Package dangerous and harmful. One feature was a petition to the Senate asking members to oppose it. Due to vigorous promotion, despite being hosted across 10 servers, the site was overwhelmed with traffic. Over 400,000 signatures will be delivered to the Senate this week.

Success by organizations standing for Individual Liberty, Free Markets, Limited Government and Low Taxes cannot be unchallenged. CNS News is reporting FaceBook has pulled an ad promoting NoStimulus.com which they had previously approved. Not because ad content changed. That remains same content FaceBook approved. What changed was “public” input.

FaceBook prohibits

– “Political content that exploits political agendas or uses ‘hot button’ political issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda”;
–“Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group”;
– and “Content that advocates against any organization, person, or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office.”

FaceBook cleared AFP’s copy in light of these. So what changed? CNS goes on to report,

But Facebook, which confirmed that it took “NoStimulus.com” down, told CNSNews.com that it did so because of user complaints–and did not mention any violations of Rules 8 or 9.

“At Facebook, we strive to create a trusted environment for our users and advertisers,” Facebook spokeswoman Erin Zietler said in an e-mail. “We encourage users to report any advertisements they find offensive or misleading, and we offer the ability for them to provide immediate feedback on our ads. We have a team dedicated to investigating ads and user complaints.

“In this case, users informed us about misleading offers in many ads with promotions related to the U.S. economic stimulus package,” the spokeswoman said. “We are in the process of removing ads with these types of misleading offers as they are brought to our attention.”

Go to AFP’s site. What is misleading? The ad promoted a petition drive and that’s what people found when they got there. What is misleading is the premise that AFP is somehow less than trustworthy for having run the ad. What is misleading is the suggestion AFP deceived FaceBook. What is misleading is any suggestion that FaceBook is not complicit in this. When can Americans expect the FaceBooks out there to tell busybodies to shut up and sit down? When will they have the spine to state the truth that “offend” is not the moral equivalent of “mislead”? I’m offended that FaceBook did what they did. Does that mean FaceBook will reinstate the ad? As a FaceBook user and AFP supporter, I want to know what was misleading? When different agendas compete, there’s going to be friction. I have no problem with that. When one side actually does “mislead”, I do object to that.

Unfortunately for Americans, whether it’s the Fairness Doctrine, the preponderance of Left leaning thought in Universities and traditional media, paid blockers harassing petitions signature gatherers or any number of other examples, the Left cannot win a fair fight so they don’t fight fair. If they did, they’d get shellacked as Americans generally disagree with their actual views. As my colleague Kevin Jackson at The Black Sphere notes,

… I was raised by my grandparents who were staunch Democrats. I recall as a child watching Reagan give a speech in his unsuccessful run for the presidency. After Reagan finished, I said to my grandparents, “Why are we Democrats, when what we believe is what that guy [Reagan] just said?”

The latest skirmish seems more of the same. They cannot win on content; time to bring the slander, smoke and mirrors, distortions and lies. It’s too soon to tell if FaceBook is actually adopting the Digg.com model for irrelevance. Perhaps they’ll grow a spine and refuse to serve as a tool for the Left. Stay tuned …

Blue

UPDATE:  In the fastest corporate reversal since pulling New Coke off the shelves, FaceBook has done the right thing.

Popularity: 10% [?]

All politicians should have iPhones. You know, for when communication and idea sharing just can’t wait!

Thanks, Tom! I nearly ruined my laptop.

Blue

Popularity: 9% [?]