My friends @ Innovate Media asked me to film a promotional clip for them when I was up at ad:tech back in April and sent this link to me today.
Guess I inadvertently became ad:tech’s (unpaid) spokesman for their upcoming Chicago conference…
Can’t remember ever sitting down to read Vanity Fear, but I heard about a “scathing” investigative report on Sarah Palin so I checked it out last night.
A paragraph toward the end really struck me…
“(Palin) has the good fortune to have traction within a political party that is bereft of strong leadership, and whose rank and file often demands qualities other than knowledge, experience, and an understanding that facts are, as John Adams said, stubborn things. It is, at the moment, a party in which the loudest and most singular voices, not burdened by responsibility, wield disproportionate power.”
In other words, Palin is a visible Republican party leader because many in “the base” don’t care about her competence. As long as she votes the right way on guns, God and gays, she’s good enough for them.
I’d be more concerned if I thought she had a legitimate chance to become President. Instead I just mock the Republican party for the pathetic state its in that Palin is influential — the “most powerful woman in the GOP”, according to VF’s poll.
As for the quote from John Adams that was mentioned in the article, here it is in its entirety:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams, December 1770
“Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials”
I was thinking that instead of giving Bernard Madoff 150 years in prison, a more effective sentence would be some sort of public shaming. Force the guy to eat every meal in a public setting such as a country club or synagogue where he’s surrounded by people he screwed. Let these folks share their stories of how his actions have impacted them. Make Madoff where a hat or shirt emblazened with various messages: “Felon”, “Thief”, or “I steal from retirement funds”.
Public humiliation is a vastly underutilized form of punishment!
President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice of the US Supreme Court today, championing her as a compassionate, experienced judge whose against-the-odds life story is in true spirit of the American Dream.
My take is that “Judicial Activism” is in the eye of the beholder. Whether judges vote “For” or “Against” in a certain case, they’re “making” laws one way or another.
If you read about Sotomayor, you see she’s considered highly intelligent and has an incredibly inspirational life story.
The bottom line is that Obama won. And to the victor goes the spoils. POTUS gets to name Supremes – that’s just how it goes. Bush named conservatives like Alito and Roberts, Obama’s going to name left-leaning judges.
The rudderless Republicans, who’ve lost any semblance of credibility on fiscal issues and have moved to such an extreme position on social issues, will probably make a big Federal case out of Sotomayor’s nomination – all for naught, because she’s going to easily win approval – and further alienate Hispanics, who just happen to be the fastest-growing voting bloc. I’m sure Rush, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilley, Larry Kudlow and other angry-sounding Republicans will be out in full force….The more they talk, the stronger they make the Democratic Party.
They just don’t get it.
Obviously, a very active, populist, big-government trend is sweeping the nation. There are many reasons for this, but I think it’s mostly attributable to the fact that Americans felt that the prior administration leading our country was taking us in the wrong direction. You may disagree to the extent of how bad of a President many believe Bush to be, but we are where we are. As I like to say, “People lie. Numbers don’t.”
So even if Republicans are right about various topics such as how involved the government is getting in our lives – and how bad this may be in the long term – the Party is in the penalty box, pure and simple. They are being punished for past transgressions and no one will listen because many believe it’s their governing that got us where we are. I don’t think it’s EXCLUSIVELY the Republicans fault, but I do think that 1) by going to war against the wrong people and 2) essentially believing that lowering taxes for rich people is a complete economic policy, as examples, they dug themselves a pretty deep hole.
To me, that’s what it boils down to….It’s not that everything the Republicans are saying is wrong, it’s just they lost credibility by not speaking out about the role of government and tremendous expansion when their own guy was in charge. Bush presided over the largest expansion of government ever. I heard Newt Gingrich refer to the two parties as “the Republican Party of Big Gov’t” and the “Democratic Party of Big Gov’t”. So Rs got booted out for doing the same thing they’re now complaining the Democrats are doing!
While there are plenty of Democratic Party positions I passionately disagree with, I do think Obama’s leadership, competence and charisma will successfully guide us through a very challenging period in US history.
Google is using a herd of goats to cut the grass instead of traditional lawnmowers.
Isn’t that a bit extreme?
Arlen Specter is switching parties, This has nothing to do with “Conservative” vs. “Liberal”….It’s completely attributable to the Republican party’s shift to the extreme right wing of the political scale. It’s a shining example that their “narrative” appeals to an ever-shrinking number of Americans….
Here you have a multi-term moderate Republican Senator who’s been good for his country and the State of PA who was essentially forced out of the Party because of a right-winger who’s taking him on in the primary. THIS is why Republicans have become a regional, minority party. This is NOT Nancy Pelosi’s, or Harry Reid’s or Barney Frank’s fault – this is their own undoing.
My prediction is that Specter wins BIG in the general election to a guy he may have potentially lost to in the Republican primary.
Ronald Reagan understood that elections are won in the middle…but today’s Republican Party seems to have forgotten. I wonder how long it’s going to take for them to re-lean this.