VOLuntarilyConservative

(My apologies for not posting this sooner, but waking at 5:00 A.M. to write these lengthy posts on only a couple hours of sleep has started to catch up with me.)

Tuesday was slated to be the busiest day of the Republican National Convention for Angela and I due to our participation in several non-convention forums throughout the Twin-Cities. The Tennessee Republican Party started our day on the right foot by bringing California Congressman David Dreier, Colonel Tom Moe (former POW with John McCain), and Joe McCain, the feisty brother of Senator John McCain. I personally found Moe's testimony enlightening, as it supplemented what I knew about the Vietnamese prisons (particularly "the Hanoi Hilton") from my former co-worker, Jim Warner, who was also with McCain and Moe as a POW, enduring torture at the hands of their captors. It was great to speak with Moe and with Joe McCain, who both graciously provided time after their speeches to talk with me. Mr. McCain eagerly shared John McCain's flight jacket, pictured above, which was hanging in his locker when he was shot down in the skies of Vietnam.

From the breakfast, Angela and I traveled by light rail from the Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis for an event focusing on education. One of Angela's pet issues is education, her mother being a school teacher in the Kentucky school system. This event, called "Time to Choose: Children or the Bureaucracy?," was hosted by several education groups, chief amongst them American Solutions, Ed in '08, Education Reform Now, and the Education Equality Project. Several speakers were on the agenda, but most noteworthy were Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (whose state has the best schools in the nation by most indexes) and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Pawlenty spoke of the need to eliminate seniority in the school systems, saying that teachers were the only profession with such a protected slotting of salaries and tenure, and that compensation should be connected to results in the classroom. He believes that this, as well as his desire to have pay connected to demand (where physics teachers get paid more than physical education teachers due to there being fewer high school physics teachers) can be accomplished by working with the labor unions. Pawlenty warned that not acting on this soon and in a cooperative fashion would see the deaths of us all before reform occurs.

Then there was Al Sharpton. I didn't expect actual content or sense to come from Reverend Sharpton. I was amazed at what I heard. I heard what could have been conservative talking points coming from Sharpton - the need for parents to be challenged and engaged with their children, the realization that government cannot be charged with the children if parents are not taking time or making the sincere effort at home to have their children educated, individual accountability on all people but especially teachers and their labor unions. Sharpton called for comprehensive reform, saying that there are no sacred cows in the room and that reform could only be achieved if all parties are willingly at the table. He closed with the following: "Who will care what party we were a member of when we are all dead and gone if we do not stop the downward spiral of educational achievement?"

Folks, Al Sharpton got no less than 3 standing ovations from a packed room of nearly 600 Republicans. His ended up being the second best speech I heard all day. It really caused me to remark that if we all agreed on the problems and that solutions were apparent, what exactly are we - as Republicans and Democrats - arguing about?

Angela and I next zipped over to St. Paul for a panel discussion entitled, "Politics & the Media: Bridging the Political Divide in the 2008 Election." Hosted by POLITICO and the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication, the panelists included Roger Simon (chief political columnist for POLITICO), Nina Easton (Washington editor of FORTUNE and Fox News on-air contributor), Catalina Camia (political editor of USA TODAY), Mark McKinnon (former chief media advisor for the Bush and McCain campaigns), and Jim VandeHei (executive editor of POLITICO). Admittedly, this event was for my interests, and it delivered. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit would have loved it. There was much talk about the change in media due to technological advances, but McKinnon also hit heavily on how technology has changed campaigns and how information is distributed. Blogs were not demonized (as has been the latest trend by many outlets), although the need for some standard of proof in reporting was emphasized. Genuine disbelief was exhibited by Roger Simon in regards to the reported vetting of Alaska Governor Sarah Palen, and that sentiment was backed up by sources of Nina Easton. According to Easton, the McCain campaign had gone by an old rule - to let the media successfully vet the candidate on political terms - that has passed us by. I could go on about other topics discussed, but I think I should probably save them for another day.

Angela and I then made our way over to a Salute to Veterans event just down the street. The event was sponsored by the Circle of Friends for American Veterans, a bipartisan group that tries to pass various measures in support of our military veterans. We didn't stay long, but we did manage to speak with Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, who has been everywhere during this convention. I never knew he was so outspoken about his belief in his country and interest in politics. One thing is certain - Voight is not shy in expressing his belief that Barrack Obama would lay waste to America's economic strength with his flawed economic plan that includes tax hikes and pie-in-the-sky industrial expansion. I gained a new respect for Voight, that is to be sure.

By the evening, we had finally arrived at the convention site for business. Several recognized conservatives were on the floor, including Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (pictured above), former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

This day's events will be concluded in a second post.

Labels: 2008 Republican National Convention, Education, Media

You've just hosted the Democratic National Convention? So what are you going to do next? Nope, not a trip to DisneyWorld. How about a trip to federal district court, where you will face a suit for millions of dollars for unquestionably violating the civil rights of a member of the mainstream media?!

I'm not one to defend the media on most cases, which may seem a bit odd since that used to be my gig. However, this video borders on the absurd.



All of that for taking pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic money men and elected officials?

I hope St. Paul treats media better, otherwise my laptop might ought to stay home and I'll just write a pictureless book on dead wood.

RedState has a bunch more, as does Instapundit (here and here).

Labels: 2008 Democratic National Convention, First Amendment, Media

Nice eyewitness account from NRO's Mark Hemmingway regarding how unbiased the morons media are towards Barrack Obama.

I'm usually not one to resort to name-calling, but my position is that the media started it. They have to believe that Americans are fools to take the garbage they spew packaged as "news" and then accept their expressions of shock and insult when we question their impartiality.

It's going to take a great deal of restraint for me not to go off on any liberal who claims that the media are being too hard on Obama. (By the way, the last time I heard this from a liberal - 3:15 this afternoon.) I appreciate helping out good, decent media sources like NRO, fellow bloggers, and the like, but I doubt I have it in me to provide too much assistance to media types as reports such as Mark's continue to leak out of Denver.

Labels: 2008 Democratic National Convention, Media

Earlier this morning, the AP cited anonymous sources in a story that laid out how Hillary Clinton was to drop out of the race tonight. This while the polls were open in the last two primaries for this presidential campaign.

As the Clinton campaign denied the reports, the AP apparently needed a new way to depress Clinton voter turnout today. They needed to reach into their bag of tricks, ala Florida in 2000.

Viola - the race is over, and Obama won.

Go home, South Dakota and Montana residents. No need to vote today.

Where did the 30 delegates come from that Obama needed to reach the magic number for the nomination? Who knows? The AP is made up of geniuses who took the path of least resistance to a college degree - ask them.

MORE: Yes, I'm steamed. No, I'm not directly hurt by this because I'm not a Democrat. I just hate it when anything - especially a biased media - inserts itself in a manner that undercuts the right to vote. That position knows no party.

Labels: 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, Media

It's amazing how many people have complained to me over the past week on how the news has become nothing more than tabloid entertainment. Most of these remarks have been centered around the Paris Hilton arrests, but that's just the flavor of the week. I'm sure it will be some other sensationalized story next week.

In any case, it made me think of this great video from the guys at JibJab. Enjoy!

Labels: Media, Videos

Bill Newsome has created a new Tennessee news source, Newsome News. If you check it out (and you should), you'll notice some striking stylistic similarities to the Drudge Report.

It will be interesting to see if Newsome News takes off the way that Drudge did. There are certainly some media holes in this state - particularly in Middle and East Tennessee outside of Knoxville and Chattanooga - that could use more exposure to media in the rest of Tennessee.

Good luck to Bill in this new venture. It could certainly help with the dissemination of news across the state.

Labels: Blogging, Media

Patrick Buchanan has an interesting wrap-up of the Virginia Tech massacre, dealing with the shooter, the media, and how our colleges have no more sense of community than our country does these days.

Well worth the read, in my opinion.

Labels: Media, Second Amendment

Why do I even bother with the Knoxville News-Sentinel's Saturday edition? It's the second-most irritating reading of the week, behind the Sunday paper that should be published in communist red.

Here are just some of the headlines that raised my blood pressure this weekend from the "Local" section:

"Foreign dependents have rights to to workers' comp aid" - Gee, thanks, liberal Tennessee Supreme Court. Is it even worth the General Assembly attempting to fight illegal immigration when the Executive Branch does nothing to solve the problem and the Judicial Branch grants rights to nationals of other countries? Also, I could have guessed that Justice Connie Clark wrote this opinion. She's Bredesen's 2005 pick to the Supreme Court who was probably picked for the High Court due to her longstanding service on the Tennessee Democratic Party's Executive Committee. Expect more of the same as Bredesen continues to appoint Democrats to all open judicial slots.

"Ford says that he can't afford lawyer" - As many of you know, I work in the state courts of East Tennessee. Most of my clients are indigent, and I represent them through appointments by the courts. To receive indigent counsel (either in the form of the Public Defender's Office or a private attorney), a defendant has to first qualify by filing an Affidavit that lists one's assets, debts, employment, etc. This story states that former Senator Ford earned nearly $100,000 last year. I have personally witnessed Tennesseans denied court-appointed attorneys who earn 1/5 of Ford's take from 2006, much less his $207,285 in reported income (and God knows how much unreported income is there regarding the alleged bribes and kickbacks). He doesn't deserve an appointed lawyer, and the Court is making a grave and wasteful decision if it allows him one. Heck, let Harold Ford, Jr. defend him. He says he's a lawyer, after all...

"Berrong takes issue with citizen's complaints" - Am I the only one who wonders why the Blount County Sheriff's Department thinks that it has to replace police cars every 100,000 miles? I surely can't replace my car every 100,000 miles. Why is the government any different?

"Wilder still gets free plane parking" - OK, why did he ever get free parking?

Labels: Law, Media

The headline should read: "Ramsey Followed Law; AP Thinks That Just Sucks."

The Associated Press really outdid itself this time. Their "study" showed that Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey's PAC made completely legal contributions to 1) Republican candidates and 2) other Republican PACs. But - and here's the kicker - ALL OF THIS WAS DONE LEGALLY! Gasp! The horror!

Bill Hobbs has an excellent accounting of the "story."

I guess the unearthing of nothing is still newsworthy in the eyes of the mainstream media.

Labels: General Assembly, Media