Chelsea Clinton to Deliver #SXSW Keynote, because...ummm...?

Jim Geraghty at National Review reports that Austin's famous annual South by Southwest Conference, a several week long "music, film, and interactive festival" has selected as the keynote speaker for this year none other than Chelsea Clinton:

Slate writer who admits she's poorly educated says you're a bad person if you want good schools for your kids

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Dumbest Thing You'll Read Today™...

Slate | If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person

Here's the first paragraph:

You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So, pretty bad.

How dare you want what's best for your child! At least the author is nice enough to clarify that pursuing educational opportunities for your kids is not quite as evil as murdering another person. Very generous of her.

To the Creep Who Threatened Me on Facebook Last Night

I knew when I started blogging about politics a few years ago that I would likely ruffle some feathers from time to time. That's fine. Politics ain't beanbag, or however the saying goes.

I've had angry comments left by grammatically-challenged trolls, been threatened with lawsuits a few times, and actually had to defend myself against several complaints  filed against me with the Florida Bar and Florida Division of Elections (all of which were found to be without merit and dismissed entirely, with no finding of any wrongdoing on my part). That was some annoying paperwork and took a few months to clear up, but not too bad.

Then, yesterday, I got a message on Facebook from someone unhappy with an old blog post of mine. Someone who thought it was OK to threaten me. 

I Smite Thee, in the Name of Andrew!

We miss you, happy warrior.

We lost Andrew Breitbart just over a year ago. 

Since then, there have been endless discussions about how best to honor his memory, pondering over whether anyone could possibly fill his shoes.

As I look back over the past year, I'm sad to admit that I think we as a conservative movement are doing a very poor job of carrying on Andrew's legacy.

CNN Fail: Where's the #filibuster news?

It's now 12:30 am ET after over twelve hours of Senator Rand Paul's historic filibuster, and this is the front page of CNN:

Next time someone says "That's impossible"...

...show them this.

Someone did a mashup of "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails, and "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.

It's one of the more bizarre things I've heard in awhile, but the songs actually fit together shockingly well.

Seriously. Listen for yourself:

Just who do you think you are?

John Hawkins at Right Wing News occasionally sends out email polls to a group of conservative bloggers, and his latest one was a simple two questions about the presidential race. We were asked (1) who do we thought would win the election, and (2) for whom we were voting. 

I didn't think much of it when I sent in my response (Romney for both questions, duh), but when John emailed out the results last night, I saw red.

WTF, NYC?

Absolutely unacceptable. 

As the New York Post reported this morning, the New York Marathon was cancelled days ago, but the generators, food, water, and other supplies still sit unused and inaccessible to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy:

Unbelievable: @AmbassadorRice's Actual Twitter Account

I was scrolling through Twitter earlier tonight, and came across a tweet by @SooperMexican that I thought had to be a parody:

You're a joke. RT @ambassadorrice: So proud to defend #humanrights and ensure #LGBT voices are heard at the #UN. @global_equality
— el SOOPer (@SooperMexican) October 11, 2012

Obama 2012: Keeping It Classy

The Obama campaign has a Tumblr blog at barackobama.tumblr.com, and a recent image posted there should raise some eyebrows:

A quick note regarding Todd Akin's consultants

Politico posted an article this morning discussing Rex Elsass and Strategy Group for Media, the consultants managing Todd Akin's hot mess of a Senate campaign in Missouri. There's one quote near the beginning, about how SGM's response to the backlash against Akin's ridiculous "legitimate rape" comments was to have the candidate film a TV ad apologizing:

Steve Oelrich changes his story again, explanation still lacking

Say what?

Third time apparently isn't the charm for Steve Oelrich. His third attempt to explain his military eligibility has left us with just as many unanswered questions as the first two.

As I wrote last week, the Oelrich campaign issued a press release claiming that an injury he received in the line of duty as a police officer was the reason he was ineligible for the draft, but publicly available documents show that the eligibility-ending injury actually happened years before his law enforcement career began. 

The story got even stranger when the campaign reacted by deleting the press release and replacing it with a new one (back-dated to the date of the original release) as if nothing had ever happened. 

Then, last weekend, the Florida Times-Union ran a story about the controversy, and Oelrich's response raises even more questions:

My name is Sarah, and I'm a lightbulb hoarder

The ban on incandescent bulbs is one of those egregious abuses of Congressional authority that just illustrates everything that's wrong with our federal government.

Unbelievable

So, I've been working on a long list of really great posts, and you'll see them over the next few days, but I got tied up with an unbelievably weird problem today...

Someone stole my name. Seriously. 

An out-of-state campaign consultant who worked briefly with me on a campaign last year put up a website for his alleged consulting company (I say "alleged company" because I cannot find record of it actually being incorporated) and listed my name as being an election law attorney with his company. He also stole the name of another consultant friend of mine, and the vast majority of his "past client" list belonged to us, not him.

Keith Olbermann calls me "improbable"...huh?!

Just when I think liberal media bias has reached the apex of insanity, I find something like this...

Keith Olbermann, who was too ridiculous for even MSNBC to tolerate, recently landed at Al Gore's internet television venture "Current TV." As expected, the move to an online audience hasn't toned down Olby's foaming-at-the-mouth liberal ranting.

This weekend, I got a tip on Twitter (thank you, @aipolitics) that Olbermann had mentioned me last week as part of his tiresome segment naming various people conservatives as "The Worst Person in the World." Unlike Olbermann, I know how to use Google (more on that in a minute), and easily found the video (relevant section starts at about the two-minute mark):

Ed Schultz Calls Rubio "Stupid" - Seriously?!

Just in case there was any doubt that liberal and conservative brains are different, here comes MSNBC's Ed Schultz to remind you.

As you may have heard, my Senator, Marco Rubio, gave an incredibly moving speech at the Reagan Library about a week and a half ago. (If you haven't seen it yet, click here.) Normal people and journalists watched that speech and felt that it was an excellent followup to his maiden speech on the Senate Floor, and the speculation about Rubio being the GOP's Vice Presidential nominee became nearly deafening.

Well, Ed Schultz watched the same speech that you and I did, but had a much different reaction. Here's a two-part YouTube video where Schultz calls Rubio "stupid," "offensive," and "psycho talk", among other pleasantries:

[Video and discussion after the jump]

At least with Watergate nobody died

At least he didn't kill anyone.

For almost forty years, Watergate has been the standard by which all scandals are judged, even lending its name to a seemingly endless number of incidents. Monicagate, Rathergate, Weinergate...the list goes on and on.

They told us Barack Obama would be a history-making President. Unfortunately for America, it seems that his promised legacy of being the "post-racial" president who would unite our country is going to be overshadows by the record levels of debt and now a new scandal that I predict will put Watergate to shame: Operation Fast and Furious.

Pioneers battling space mosquitoes! Huh?

Here's an unintentionally-funny-and-a-little-bit-infuriating video of an interview with Senator Bill Nelson on the day of the final space shuttle launch:


YouTube | SenBillNelson | Nelson on space industry in Florida

First, the "infuriating" part: I'll admit I am far from unbiased, but is anyone else bothered by how calmly and glibly Nelson rattles off the thousands of lost space industry jobs (starting about the 1:30 mark)? Apparently everyone who lost their job just needs to sit tight and wait for that "new rocket to Mars" contraption to get built. Anyone want to take bets on how many years that will take? There isn't even a design for the capsule yet.

Look, I am in favor of having more participation from private industry in space travel. From what I understand, several of the private companies have made great strides towards being able to launch vehicles capable of orbiting the earth, reaching the international space station, and other functions performed by the space shuttle. However, they're not ready yet, and I am very uncomfortable with the idea that we have cancelled both the shuttle program and the Constellation program before we had a viable replacement.

We have risked our security and our sovereignty by ceding complete control of space to Russia and China for years to come. If we had to describe our relationship with those countries on Facebook, the best we could hope for is "It's Complicated." The Cold War may be over, but tensions with Russia remain over numerous other issues, such as Iran's continued nuclear ambitions. And let's not forget the mind-boggling amount of money we owe China. Do we really want the lives of our astronauts and millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of our technology to be susceptible to being used as leverage against us in an already complicated world of international diplomacy?

Next, the "unintentionally hilarious" part: at about the two minute mark, Smith mentions how the Brevard County area feels like "a step back in time" and retains much of its "Old Florida" charm, and Nelson starts rambling about pioneers and mosquitoes.

And the pioneers are the ones who really made it possible, back when there were rattlesnakes and alligators and mosquitoes. Do you remember the mosquitoes? And they forged out of this wilderness a space port that has taken us to extraordinary heights and is now going to take us to Mars.

Just like the pioneers battled!

Huh? Ummm, Senator? Last time I checked, we still have rattlesnakes, alligators, and mosquitoes in Florida. I've seen native alligators with my own eyes several times at Lake Alice, Payne's Prairie, and other state parks too many times to count, and I am currently sporting three itchy spots of evidence from this weekend that prove Florida currently has mosquitoes!

I'll let you decide what the heck Nelson meant when he said that the pioneers built a space port.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Shame on You

[Cross-posted at The Minority Report]

Since starting this blog, I've regularly engaged in research of online videos regarding Florida politicians and political topics. It's been an easy way to stay on top of the latest current events, very educational...and occasionally eye-opening.

It takes only a short amount of time watching videos before themes start to appear. 

We all know that Marco Rubio and Allen West are great, passionate speakers, but I've also learned a lot watching Cliff Stearns lead oversight committee hearings and give interviews regarding fiscal issues. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is heavily involved in South Florida community activities, as well as being a strong and courageous advocate on national security issues.

Then - sigh - there's Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 

Wasserman Schultz is well-known for her opinionated nature, and a personality that her supporters probably view as tough and feisty, but I honestly often find to be shrill and annoying. (See, for example, her whining in February that Republicans needed to stop using the term "ObamaCare.")

Well, during the last few months, I've noticed a theme in Wasserman Schultz's videos. When she's not tossing childish insults at Republicans, she loves to talk about her friends - correction, Wasserman Schultz loves to talk about one of her friends - Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who, as you know, is recovering from a gunshot wound to her head from the Tucson shooting.

Immediately after the horrifying events of January 8th, many members of Congress gave interviews where they shared stories about Giffords, how much they enjoyed working with her, how very well-liked she is, how they were praying for her recovery, etc.

Giffords' continued improvement is nothing short of miraculous. For the most part, the media has backed off and left her and her family in peace to focus on her treatment. In the past few months, I've pretty much only seen stories about Giffords when the family has officially released a statement. 

However, for some reason, Debbie Wasserman Schultz cannot seem to help hurling herself in front of a camera to talk about Giffords. Google for yourself and see how many interviews she has given on the subject. In my opinion, the frequency with which Wasserman Schultz continues to talk about Giffords seems odd and inappropriate, if not downright creepy. I can't help but get the sinking feeling that Wasserman Schultz is showing something bordering on enthusiasm in discussing her injured friend.

This video, posted on March 18th, is the one that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me:

YouTube | Video Update on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

This video is labeled as a "video update" on Giffords but it's really a campaign fundraiser. Yes, a fundraiser: the link requests contributions to Giffords' reelection campaign account and also to a fund that supports other Democrat Congressional candidates. I can't be the only one who finds this in horribly poor taste.

To draw in sympathetic viewers who are concerned about Giffords' recovery, and then ask for campaign contributions...well, that just seems sick.

I don't know any of these people personally, and I'm not going to question the authenticity of the claimed friendship, but for crying out loud, I can't ever imagine using a friend's injury as a conversation starter to ask for a campaign donation!

Remember, they are not asking for contributions for medical care for Giffords, or anyone else injured on January 8th. They are not asking you to help other victims of violent crime, orphaned children in war-torn countries. They are not asking you to donate to save the rainforest or abandoned puppies. They are asking for money for political campaigns. WTF.

Ignoring for the moment the completely disgusting effort to use Giffords' injury to elicit donations for other candidates, if I analyze this situation as a political consultant, I just cannot see how there is any urgency to fundraise for Giffords' campaign at this point. There are many more risks in looking crass and attempting to profit from tragedy, as well as being unable to satisfy worries that Giffords may not be up to running for office again yet.

Whether or not Giffords runs for reelection is not a question that needs to be answered right now, and it shouldn't be. She has many months to go before that decision must be made, and I am sure that if she reaches the point in her recovery where she does want to run for reelection, the announcement will be national news and contributions will pour in from all over the country. Giffords' 2012 campaign, if it happens, will be easily and quickly funded.

Moreover, as much as I smile every time I get called a "Republican operative" or "partisan hack," I think that the Republican Party ought to just let Arizona's 8th Congressional District go...unless Giffords decides not to run for reelection. I'm not going to grant hand-me-down sympathy to an open seat, but if Giffords decides she wants to run for reelection, I don't see any benefit to running someone against her. Frankly, I also can't see any chance of a Republican victory for that seat. It would be a complete waste of money and - fair or not - make the Republican candidate running against Giffords look like a heartless jerk.

As for Wasserman Schultz, I'll be cheering for anyone and everyone running against her. I hope she gets a serious primary challenger, and I hope whoever becomes the Republican nominee just knocks the stuffing out of her at the ballot box. Excuse me and my violent rhetoric, but Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been an embarrassment to my state for a long time, and her shocking behavior attempting to turn the attack on Gabrielle Giffords into political profit ought to be the last straw for South Florida voters.

Priorities, Smiorities

Let's play a game...let's pretend we can wave a wand, and POOF! make you Attorney General for the United States of America. We'll give you Eric Holder's job. You start today. Good luck!

So, if you were Attorney General, what would your priorities be? What do you think are the biggest legal issues facing our country right now? What would you do today?

Maybe you would want to investigate how that Wikileaks jerkface Julian Assange was able to obtain such a mind-boggling amount of U.S. classified documents, again?

Would you start with our illegal immigration problem? Or maybe work on some ideas to reform our legal immigration procedures?

What should be done with the detainees at Guantanamo? (Hmmm, what happened to that January deadline? President Obama seems to have forgotten about his self-imposed deadline...or did reality give him a nasty slap across the face?)

How about how to handle the trials of terrorists? The White House didn't want military tribunals, but the civilian trials aren't going so well.  

And of course, we need to continue to be vigilant in our efforts to protect our country from future acts of terrorism.  How should we investigate terror plots?  What legal protections do American citizens who are suspected terrorists deserve?  What if the suspected terrorists aren't Americans? 

Maybe you would want to look into voter fraud issues?  Looks like New York is a good place to start.

Medicare/Medicaid fraud is an ongoing epidemic that costs us untold billions of dollars every year. That might be worth investigating.

That's a pretty good list. I bet you can think of some others.  Why don't you write them down?

OK, what's on your list?  Is a soccer game anywhere on it?  Yes, I said soccer game.  Soccer is a big national priority, isn't it?  Oh.  Soccer wouldn't be on your list of priorities if you were Attorney General?

Well, guess you can't have the job after all.  Because apparently in the Obama administration, soccer is a really big deal:

Michelle Malkin | Eric Holder Focuses on Important Legal Challenge: The 2022 World Cup

Yes, Eric Holder, our Attorney General, is in Switzerland today, to lobby to bring the World Cup to America in 2022.  

The week that our national security and worldwide diplomatic efforts are endangered by Wikileaks' latest release of documents, just a few weeks after terrorists attempted to send explosives hidden in printer cartridges in cargo planes, in the middle of important debates (and accompanying litigation) regarding the health care bill, immigration, don't-ask-don't-tell, and terrorism trials, Eric Holder is taking a little vacation to Switzerland to chat about a soccer game that is taking place twelve years from now.

Are you @#$% kidding me?!

Now, I've been to Switzerland.  It's lovely.  I mean, it's lovely in a so-pretty-it-almost-makes-your-eyeballs-hurt kind of way.  The people are extremely nice...and the chocolate, oh yes, don't forget the chocolate!  I highly recommend you visit if you get a chance.

It's ridiculously lovely, but does not belong on the Attorney General's to-do list (Image from FreeFoto.com)

With everything that is going on right now, in the United States and around the world, I cannot for the life of me figure out how a soccer game to be played more than a decade from now has a darn thing to do with what our Attorney General should be doing with his time.  

For that matter, why is this a priority for the White House at all?  Is a soccer game twelve years from now going to create jobs?  Give me a break.

Maybe this relates to how Obama is supposed to magically make the world "like" us again.  Most of the planet thinks we're silly for not calling it "football" like they do.  Is Eric Holder telling everyone in Switzerland that Obama will make us start saying football if they give us the World Cup?  Hmmm, the Great and All-Knowing Obama will have to decide what we're supposed to call football, but I'm sure he'll figure something out.

Bottom line: this is just plain ridiculous, a colossal waste of taxpayer money and resources,  sends the message that the White House is not serious about oh, pretty much every issue facing us right now, and is, in my opinion, just one more bit of proof that the Obama Administration is in way over their heads.