Vocal Minority

Gas Prices Hurting Obama in ... Blue Jersey?

I've been disturbed, but not surprised, by the Obamedia's coverage of gas prices. The same media who blasted George W. Bush on a seemingly hourly basis for the gas prices of the time -- which was a fraction of what they are now! -- are providing cover for their messiah on fuel costs and are doing virtually nothing to challenge his most inane excuses for them.

Last night, unable to sleep and not interested in anything on the tube, I turned on the local NJ talk station and sure host Ray Rossi was discussing the skyrocketing gas prices. When he announced on the website was a poll asking whether these prices would affect Obama's reelection chances, I went to check it out: 

Gas Giving You Agita? – Is Obama O’Bummed Out? [POLL]
By: Ray Rossi  |  3/28/12

My gas station just went up 10 cents a gallon in one day!

Things aren’t good, expecially since prices nationwide are closing in on $4 a gallon, according to a AAA survey out today.

Why is that?

Well, there are any number of reasons.

Seems as though every time we turn around, there’s a new reason given.

A few weeks back, Lou Dobbs told Bill O’Reilly that it had to do with the global market, and the fact that even though we drill as much as we do, we still export the refined product overseas to other emerging economies.

Now we hear from Tom Kloza, who’s the chief analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall Township saying…. it has everything to do with April 1st and some terminals switching from winter gasoline which is a lot cheaper than summer grade fuel” .

He also goes on to say that “oil got up to close $130 a barrel and now it is coming down a bit now that countries are making contingency plans for dealing with tensions in Iran…all leading to the crude market internationally is calming down a bit.

Ok, I won’t hold my breath for that.

Here came the poll:

But with all that, do you feel this will not only hurt at the pump, but hurt the President’s chances of reelection.

What say you?

The Posse wants to know.

Will rising gas prices hurt President Obama's chances of reelection in the fall?

Now, before voting (in the affirmative), I was expecting to see results in the 50/50 area. After all, NJ is a blue state and at least half our residents are still in love with modern history's most failed president. Needless to say, I was surprised by the results (clipped the morning after at 8:00 AM):

It should be noted that this, of course, is an unscientific poll. It's also extremely important to note that one was allowed to vote more than once, and that non-NJ residents were able to vote. So, for all I know, someone who really dislikes Obama and doesn't even live in the Garden State hit the top choice several times. But ... the callers to last night's show were primarily NJ residents and critics of Obama outnumbered supporters by about 2-1.

What do you think?

 

Vid of the Day: Rick Santorum Smacks Down NYT "Reporter" Jeff Zeleny

Yesterday in Wisconsin, NY Slimes "reporter" Jeff Zeleny got a much-deserved smackdown by Rick Santorum [h/t Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters]:

ZELENY: “You said that Mitt Romney was the worst Republican in the country – is that true?"

SANTORUM: “What speech did you listen to? Stop lying! ... I said he was the worst Republican to run on the issue of ObamaCare, and that’s what I was talking about. I have said uniquely, for every speech I give, he is uniquely disqualified to run against Barack Obama on the issue of health care. ... Would you guys quit distorting what I’m saying?” 

ZELENY: “Do you think he is the worst Republican?”

SANTORUM: To run against Barack Obama on the issue of health care, because he fashioned the blueprint. I've been saying it in every speech. Quit distorting our words. If I see it, it's bulls—t. C'mon man, what are you doing?"

ZELENY: “Who’s distorting your words?”

SANTORUM: “You did by asking me that question.”

ZELENY: “You sound upset about something, Senator.”

SANTORUM: “I’m upset when the media distorts what I say. Yeah, I am. I do get upset. ... Because you knew exactly what I was saying, and you misrepresented it. ... Are you guys in the business of reporting the truth, or are you here to try to spin and make news? Stop it. ... You know, you guys don’t care about the truth at all, do you? You really don’t. Asking that question shows me you don’t care at all about the truth.”

Of coure, because the lib media can't take a less-than-subtle hint, all that's going to be recorded in this exchange is that (1) Santorum used a curse word and (2) Santorum's flared temper makes him unworthy for the presidency.

What will (deliberately) get lost in the story is that Santorum was 1000% correct: Zeleny and his Obamedia sycophants don't report news; they spin new and make news. They report news that benefits Democrats and that hurts Republicans. Period. Rick Santorum pwned Jeff Zeleny last night and good for him!

Liberal Media Bias: NY Slimes Gives Opinion Space to ... [UPDATED 3/24]

Bill Maher?

It seems the perpetual offender is not edgy enough to be given space on the Opinion page to challenge the demand that "offenders" need to apologize.

I will say that Maher is right in general: People need to stop being offended, and the so-called offenders should not worry about apologizing.

But let's make no mistake here: The very culprits in creating a culture of the perpetually offended ARE the very people who write for the NY Slimes! I.e., the politically correct illiberal left! 

It's the illiberal left that has created the free-speech-eroding culture of political correctness, supported "hate crime" legislation, cheered on campus "speech codes," and welcomed "The New Civility."

And now the NY Slimes, the media mecca of illiberal leftism is giving a forum to an illiberal leftist to decry such practices? Who the hell do they think they're fooling? You think the Slimes writers are even going to follow Maher's advice?

But here's the kicker. In the middle of the op-ed Maher writes:

The right side of America is mad at President Obama because he hugged the late Derrick Bell, a law professor who believed we live in a racist country, 22 years ago; the left side of America is mad at Rush Limbaugh for seemingly proving him right.

Hey Maher, go f**k yourself. 

And for that I will not apologize.

UPDATE 3/24:

At least the NYT was intellectually honest enough to post this response by two Democrat women to Maher's inane piece:

We’re both women who have worked in Democratic politics and the media for decades and find Bill Maher’s misogynist treatment of women candidates deeply disturbing. Coincidentally we both hail from Alaska — where women are treated as equals — so perhaps our threshold for this kind of behavior is less than here in the Lower 48.

Mr. Maher has implicitly attempted to tie his own demeaning attacks on women to the unrelated issue of partisan-motivated fake outrage, which we agree is tiring. While others have been held to account for their sexism, Mr. Maher remains unrepentant for his attacks on women in public life.

How can we expect women to run for office when they are essentially told to “lighten up about” and accept misogynist attacks? The Women’s Media Center has found that such attacks on women candidates have a measurable negative effect on how voters view them.

Our message to Mr. Maher and his ilk is: Please start apologizing.

PENNY LEE
KIRSTEN POWERS
Washington, March 23, 2012

You go, girls.

Conversation with a Latino Independent

This morning I had a conversation with an acquaintance from work. Having immigrated here from Costa Rica in the 70's while still in his teens, "Rosario" is the head custodian. While talking politics, he shared some comments on politics and current issues that were contradictory with themselves-- at least to me.

Rosario is the consummate independent. He is extremely opinionated; he's just never hitched his wagon to any political party and looks at each politician and issue in isolation. (For this reason I describe him as an "independent" rather than "moderate" because, as I see it, a moderate is someone who's too uninformed, uncommitted, or indifferent to pick a side of an issue and ultimately jumps on the popular bandwagon.) 

He's voted for George W. Bush, but he also voted for Barack Obama. Understandably, he leans toward candidates whose policies are favorable to Latinos. For whatever reason, he believed the Republican fit that description in 2004, the Democrat in 2008. I can respect that.

If at this point you'd accuse Rosario of being a political chameleon, here's where it get really interesting.

First and foremost, he emphasized he came to the U.S. legally and proudly considers himself an American. He and his wife both work hard, pay their bills on time, and expect not one red cent of welfare from the government. He loathes those who come over here for nothing other than to collect welfare checks, commit crimes, and feed off the system while never integrating themselves or their families in the American system. He speaks fluent English, although with a strong accent, and his young son, who I've met, speaks perfect English as well.

Based on all this, one would think -- as I did -- that Rosario is the type of Latino-American who despises illegal immigrants, supports the efforts of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and admires politicians like Cuban American Senator Marco Rubio.

Wrong!

Rosario is a strong proponent of the DREAM Act and is disgusted with any politician who opposes it -- especially Marco Rubio. He argued that Rubio doesn't represent him or many Hispanics.

He considers Joe Arpaio an abusive thug and even told me about an instance when he handcuffed a Hispanic woman to her hospital bed while in labor (an incident I couldn't believe happened but it apparently did). 

The last thing Rosario said is the most discouraging of all: While he believes the U.S. is the most humane and civil nation in the world, he believes that whites in America have and still do suffer from a sense of superiority over non-whites. He sees it where he lives; he's the only non-white in his community and senses his white neighbors look at him and his family with suspicion.

So here is a man who is living the American dream for himself and his family. He has the diligence and integrity to come to the U.S. legally, to pull himself up from his bootstraps without taking a dime from the government, and presumably teaching his child the same work ethic. These are Republican ethics. (That's not, of course, to say that Democrats don't behave this way, but it's sure not the way Democrat politicians look for in their electorate).

Yet his recent voting patten and positions on issues are blatantly Democrat.

This isn't the first minority American to exhibit this split personality -- hell, look at many blacks and my fellow American Jews. 

My friend Rosario should be a Republican; he's the type of immigrant that makes America work. But as long as he sees America as a place of "white superiority" and sees opposition to the DREAM Act as inhumane, it seems he's not going to be voting that way for a while.

What could Republicans do to reach out to hard-working proud minority Americans like Rosario?

Articles: The Left's Schadenfreude Fraud

Articles: The Left's Schadenfreude Fraud.

Some New Vids: The Great One and a Great American

Everyone should watch this video taken at the Reagan Library last Friday. It is Mark Levin at last Friday's book signing -- Levin's last for his latest book "Ameritopia."

There is also this young up-and-coming great American by the name of Kira Davis. She's the one whose "Apology" video went viral last month. Here she is again doing a "Smart Phone Smart Minute". Go get 'em, Kira!

Sensible Liberal: Bill Maher (Well, Sorta) and Kirsten Powers

I'm just letting you I still think Bill Maher is an un-funny foul-mouthed G~d-hating dimwit and he's probably just covering his own rear end. But he does deserve props for devoting time on his Friday show to defend Rush Limbaugh's free speech and call on offended liberals to chillax:

“I got crap from both the left and the right this week because — OK, let me address the left first, because I found this more disheartening,” Maher said. “They were very mad at me because I tweeted that people like Rush Limbaugh — who I absolutely disagree with, I’ve never said a good word about him, I did a whole monologue about what an asshole he was only a week ago — but I said I don’t like it that people are made to disappear when they say something or people try to make them disappear when they say something you don’t like. That’s America. Sometimes you’re made to feel uncomfortable, OK?” ...

“Can we put this in perspective?” Maher said. “No one died. A guy made a bad joke, a bad joke because a — it was a disgusting sentiment that he was evoking and also because it wasn’t even a joke. It’s a stupid fat fuck who is not funny and it annoys me that people who cannot keep two disparate thoughts in their own mind lump me in together with him and say I’m defending him. I’m not defending him. I’m defending living in a country where people don’t have to be afraid that they might go out of the bounds for one minute. Do we all want to be talking like White House spokesmen?” ...

“Let me give you a quote from the ACLU, liberals,” he said. “[T]he ACLU — what more liberal bastion is there than that? ‘It is easy to defend freedom of speech when the message is something that many find reasonable, but the defense of freedom of speech is more critical when the message is something that most people find repulsive.’ We’re looking at you, Rush Limbaugh. But you know what? I would rather put up with Rush Limbaugh and live in a country where we all do have freedom of speech. And the people who I’ve heard say, when they put pressure on his sponsors, the system is working. No it’s not. That’s the system being manipulated. I lived through that 10 years ago.” ...

Maher also reasoned that neither he nor Rush were "misogynist," but merely "potty-mouths." He then offered a cool apology for making statements about Sarah Palin that were construed as anti-woman.

Liberal Democrat Kirsten Powers also wrote an op-ed, not to defend Rush, but to point out there are plenty of liberal men who also owe women apologies for their remarks.

But even though Powers was right not to exonerate liberals, I think Maher is right in that neither he nor Rush were misogynistic, just foul mouths.

Let's be honest though: Maher uses more foul language in one hour than Rush in a year.

P.S. For the record, at 6:43 PM on Saturday, March 10, Rush has 1,042,063 Facebook fans.

Stocks of Companies That Withdrew From Rush Start to Fall [UPDATE]

The stock price of Carbonite, AOL, Citrix, and Select Comfort all fell after they withdrew advertising from El Rushbo's show. Story at AcuteMedia.

That's what happens when you cave to leftist bullies.

UPDATE: 3/6 - Carbonite plummets even further.

An Observation About the Rush/Fluke Controversy [w/ UPDATES]

I'm not here to rehash what others, both left and right, have said about this controversy with El Rushbo calling radical feminist activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute." I only want to predict that the backlash against Rush by the Democrat-media complex is going to backfire. On the contrary, I think this hitjob on Rush is going to make him even more popular.

How do I know?

Call me crazy, but when I watch the Ditto Cam or catch up on audio rewinds on-line, I like to watch the Facebook "Like" gauge tick up. Though I hadn't been writing any of the numbers down, I would say that Rush's website was getting 150-200 new likes over the course of a 24 hour period (no small number to be sure).

Last Thursday, around the time the Fluke fit hit the shan, Rush had 1,034,000 likes. Ever since then, I noticed his Facebook fan base was increasing 150-200 in just a few hours.

When I started writing this post at 9:25 PM Rush had 1,039,233 likes. That is an average of 1,000 new Facebook fans per day over the past five days. 

And these are just Facebook fans. One can only imagine how many new non-Facebook listeners he has gotten since late last week. 

UPDATE: 9:40PM, merely 15 minutes later, Rush has 30 more Facebook fans. Again, I didn't keep record before, but I am certain this rate is several times higher than before the Sandra Fluke "slut" backlash.

The American people are seeing through the Democrat bullsh!t.

At least that's my hunch.

I'll update this post in about 12 hours and see how many more he gets.

UPDATE: March 7 @8:10 AM

That's another 350 Facebook fans in 10 1/2 hours -- and it was the wee hours in the U.S. too.

UPDATE: And, as promised, here's 9:40 AM, 12 hours from last night's last post:

So, in 12 hours (most of those being overnight), Rush got 436 new likes. Assuming he'll get a little more during the next, mostly daylight 12 hours, he'll still be averaging 1,000 new likes per day.

Way to go, Rush!

Profiles in Liberal Ignorance, Hate, and Intolerance: 20 Examples

From John Hawkins at Townhall:

Andrew Breitbart was a giant in his field who accomplished more than most men could in ten lifetimes in his all too short forty-three years and he has deserved every kind thing that has been written about him since. But rather than being just one more person saying nice things about a great man, it seems more appropriate to pay respect to Breitbart by continuing his work. Breitbart loved nothing better than exposing the festering anger and hatred at the heart of modern liberalism. That's why he retweeted the sick and demented things that liberals said about him on Twitter and it's why, in honor of Andrew Breitbart, here are 20 examples of liberal hatred on display.

 

Sad News: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) [w/ UPDATES]

I'm still in shock as I type this news that just started flying across cyberspace. Andrew Breitbart was a true warrior for conservativism, justice, and American exceptionalism and prosperity.

How does a 43 year-old die suddenly of "natural causes"? I suppose we'll find out in the days to come.

A Facebook friend posted that liberals will surely be happy. That's a pretty cruel accusation ... but I can't help to think it to be true. Liberals sanctimoniously have wasted air time and newspaper ink lecturing us on how improper it is for people to rejoice over a human's death -- when that "human" is Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, or Kim Jong Il. But I can't help but think that in the days -- nay, hours -- to come, we are about to see liberals dancing in the streets like Palestinians on 9/11/01 over the death of this sworn ideological opponent.

Here's Breitbart just a few weeks ago at CPAC.

I will admit the man was becoming a little unhinged. Maybe he did this to himself. Who knows (right now anyway)?

Care to bet me on that?

RIP, Andrew. You were an inspiration and because of the dedication of conservative warriors like you, I for one will keep fighting the good fight.

UPDATE (3/1, 10:55): While many Huffington Post commenters were respectful, other "tolerant" liberals elsewhere were not.  Malkin (h/t the PJ Tatler) is keeping record. And I was right. People who I would imagine cautioned against rejoicing at the death of actual human scum like Saddam or bin Laden are reveling in the untimely death of their ideological opponent, and even asking why Malkin or Ann Coulter couldn't have croaked instead. 

As Expected, the Anti-Bully Crowd Have Become the Bulliers

When Big Education's anti-"bullying" campaign began a couple years ago I suspect two things would happen: (1) The tiniest expression of opposition toward any P.C. liberal-approved position will be labeled as "bullying" as a method of shutting  up opposition -- even if that means actually suspending a child for the alleged infraction. (2) The self-appointed intelligenti of the liberal left -- and that means in particular union teachers and their leaders -- will be the ones who actually bully and intimidate people. And they will do it with impunity and sanctimony.

Sure enough, that's what's happened, as Kyle Olson at Big Government reports: 

As an aside, I am troubled by the recent focus on bullying.  Bullying is a problem – yes.  But the threshold of “bullying” has dropped significantly to the point where virtually any disagreement or conflict in personal or religious beliefs constitutes “bullying.” ...

A classic case occurred in Michigan.  A Howell High School teacher wore “a purple shirt in solidarity with bullies LGBT youth.”  When a student objected to homosexuality on religious grounds – without ever intimidating or “bullying” anyone – the teacher argued with the student and ended up getting him suspended.

But what happens when the anti-bullying activists become the bullies?  Will they live by their own standards? Naturally, the answer is no.

Education Action Group recently reported on two different cases of intimidation – dare I say bullying, by the union’s definition – involving teachers. ...

Yes, these are the very same people that have the gall to lecture America about bullying.  The reality is they are the ones to use bullying and intimidation to get their way at the bargaining table.  They are the ones who dismiss any difference of opinion – be it personal, political, religious or otherwise – as bullying by the opposing view.

Bullying will become the new racism in that it will be the hand grenade tossed into the crowd that makes debate and civil disagreement more difficult to embrace.  It will be another mechanism by which to force the surrender of anyone disagreeing with their agenda, for fear of being labeled a “bully.”

It's the typical liberal prescription: Pick some crime against humanity, necessarily blow it out of proportion, and then clear the playing field so that you and you alone can engage in that crime unhindered. There's no level of behavior, even criminal behavior, that is out of bounds when a liberal seeks to have her way over you. But the second you have the nerve to express your opinion, they're the first to shout "Bully!" from the rooftops. It's quite Orwellian.

END THE OCCUPATION! LIBERALS OUT OF THE SCHOOLS NOW!!!