I can think of a lot of rough jobs for a cameraman. Despite being the dream job of every adolescent boy, I imagine that working on an adult film can get quite tedious, (and often disgusting).  Working for C-SPAN has to be difficult, fighting to stay awake during long Congressional procedures. On the other hand, if I had to shoot an episode of the new NBC comedy “Outsourced,” I would envy the cameraman working for C-SPAN, if only for his job security. But I think the roughest camera job of last weekend had to be working behind the lens at the “Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear.”

I can only imagine some of the screaming that was going on in the wireless earpieces from the directors van: “You idiot, that’s Sarah Palin in a Hitler costume, find something else!” or: “Pull it  in, you’re showing too much green space!” and the inevitable: “Find another black person, we’ve shown her three times already!”

This was probably the roughest order. Finding diversity at the rally, was like looking to for clams in the chowder at a discount seafood buffet: nothing but potatoes, cream, and crackers. I kept wondering when the director would slip backstage, and ask some of the musicians to wander out into the crowd, so they could get a couple shots.

Because the lack of color did not go unnoticed. During the Rally, John Stewart even said, “if you have too many white people at a rally, your cause is racist.” Who was he referring to?  I’ve known many hard-core Stewart fans, and they all point to the monochromatic nature of the the Tea Party as proof of the underlying racism. Stewart himself once referred to the Tea Party as being “Thousands of disgruntled people of non-color taking to the streets.” (Yet polls demonstrate that the tea party is only around 79% white.)

The truth is, that if the people at the rally were to see pictures of it, and be told that they are looking at the Beck rally, they would say, “look at all the white people!” It’s not unlike the phenomenon of parakeets looking in a mirror, and seeing another animal. Daily Show fans have a problem recognizing themselves, they think they are younger, more diverse, and smarter than they really are. 

White-a-Palooza

A recent Hollywood Reporter article points out that it’s not just the audience of Jon Stewart who are lacking in melanin. Apparently their guests are as well The Daily Show ranked dead last in a survey of Late-Night guest diversity. Perhaps it has something to do with the writing. The staff of the show is mostly male, and except for Wyatt Cenac, they are as white as the front row of a Justin Beiber concert. Fox News has more diverse shows.

CBS News is now putting attendance at 215,000 (compared to their estimate of 83,000 at the Beck Rally. –strange, because people on our side tend to invert those numbers). This might seem like a disappointing success, but you have to remember their advantage: Not only did Oprah and Arianna drop a few van-loads of kids off at the concert, there were people who work for Viacom bussed in from New York as well. As my buddy Mike Wilson pointed out: You probably noticed them, they were to ones in the special VIP section, pretending to have a good time.

Also, a lot of the people at the rally live and work in DC. Since Obama took over, the only people who have jobs and free weekends are government workers. Beck’s rally was attended by people who had to drive hundreds of miles to get there. 

Since their back-up excuse of, “We don’t care if our numbers were low, it was a just comedy show” was negated by the startling lack of comedy; the numbers had to be inflated. The final skit with John Oliver in a Peter Pan costume was embarrassingly unfunny. The applause at its conclusion was more from relief than a compliment.

The whole crowd seemed to be there by out of duty, rather than genuine enthusiasm. (In the case of the Viacom employees, they had to feign both). If this is any indication of how people will vote on Tuesday, the Democrats should start packing right now.

Patrick Courrielche’s kickoff article exposing major university faculty and graduate students’ Cry Wolf Project is alarming. Each installment in the series has only made it more so.

CWP’s solicitation for policy briefs designed to construct politically driven narratives is a confession of academic malpractice. As Kurt Schlichter has pointed out, its participants’ intentions are unethical, insubordinate, and potentially illegal.

The CWP email shows its players to be intolerant of varying viewpoints in the pursuit of their ideological ends. The fact that they are offering colleagues and grad students money to predetermine outcomes proves their intent: to tell partisan political stories:

Drier-Email –

What are they afraid of?

We pay the bills. We want our children to receive comprehensive, legitimate educations as advertised by the schools we choose; educations in which multiple viewpoints of issues are honestly presented, empirically considered, and respected by professors. We do not want our schools to act as political parties and centers for ideological indoctrination.

But, the Cry Wolf Project is in violation of joint policies adopted by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU). From the Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure:

As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.

From the Statement on Professional Ethics:

Professors, guided by a deep conviction of the worth and dignity of the advancement of knowledge, recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them. Their primary responsibility to their subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To this end professors devote their energies to developing and improving their scholarly competence. They accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. They practice intellectual honesty.

In soliciting the creation of political propaganda through their schools and the facilitating organizations that receive public funding, CWP scholars abandon their ethical principles.

Nationwide university regulations, education codes and tax law strictly prohibit the unauthorized use of school resources for partisan political purposes. There are formal complaint procedures that can and should be initiated immediately against the Cry Wolf Project.

The project’s Request for Proposals was sent from Professor Dreier’s Occidental email address, and presumably communicated to and from the other schools’ servers. This creates the impression that Occidental, UCSB, Harvard, Yale, et al. endorse the plan by which Dreier & Co. intend to carry out the project. How prevalent is it that our tuition and tax dollars fund similar activities?

The Zinn Education Project is a notorious example. Its ‘guerilla-warrior’-in-chief, the late professor Howard Zinn, publicly instructed participants to violate education codes as he channeled Saul Alinsky:

Don’t obey the rules. You have to play a kind of guerrilla warfare with the establishment in which you try not to be fired. You have to depart from the curriculum… outside the lines that are set for us by the school administration, or the politicians.

With the high cost of tuition, people must practice due diligence in choosing schools. Universities not only promise an excellent education, but also the practice of good, legitimate intellectual values and principles we want to instill in our students’ young minds so that they can be successful, productive citizens in our American civil society.

The actions of the Cry Wolf committee and the schools associated with its participants should cause parents and taxpayers to reassess their very dear investments in these institutions.

President Obama, touted as one who “embodies diversity,” attended three CWP schools: Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard, where he was recalled as being an “even-handed leader.”

I got into politics at Occidental. I made a conscious decision to become involved in public policy.

That decision would lead him to Columbia University and his first exposure to community organizing, “I really wanted to see New York and become more involved in politics.”

Obama of course later enjoyed his own teaching stint as a University of Chicago law lecturer; the same university’s alumni association once awarded CWP coordinator Peter Dreier a distinguished Public Service Award.

In his Hampton College commencement address last month, President Obama stated:

[So that] all those checks you or your parents wrote to Hampton will pay off… now that your minds have been opened, it’s up to you to keep them that way. It will be up to you to open minds that remain closed that you meet along the way. That, after all, is the elemental test of any democracy: whether people with differing points of view can learn from each other, and work with each other, and find a way forward together.

Mr. President, as an even-handed leader who embodies diversity, do you believe the Cry Wolf Project meets your elemental test of democracy? Or is it “just words? Just speeches?”

“Intellect loses its virtue when it ceases to seek truth and turns to the pursuit of political ends.” – Robert H. Bork

I got “unfriended” on Facebook a few months ago by comedienne Elayne Boosler. Out here in the real world I wasn’t really “friends” with Ms. Boosler. We had met a few times and I think we may have shared a stage or two somewhere along the way but that was it. Our Facebook friendship was almost as brief. When I disagreed with one of her political postings I was soon scratched from her “friend” roster. It seems that Ms. Boosler does not like to have her opinions challenged. She is one of many “progressives” who believe in diversity of appearance but not of thought. Fair enough.  You want to be narrow minded and intellectually lazy so you don’t have to defend your opinions, that is your right as an American. Second in my mind only to the right to be as stupid as you want to be is the right to put your fingers in your ear when someone who disagrees with you is so rude as to start throwing facts at you.

A little more hurtful was another “progressive” friend who electronically dumped me last week. For many years when I lived in California I had supported this person artistically because I thought she was talented, and I still do. I helped her find gigs and talked her up to bookers and agents when I could.

I got a terse message from this now former Facebook friend: “Go f#*@ yourself!” The reason for this dismissal: I expressed a conservative viewpoint in a comment to something she had posted. She had posted a negative message about Sean Hannity insulting Elena Kagan’s appearance. I posted back that I agreed that personal appearance attacks are lowbrow and said I hoped she was as vocal about her distaste for personal attacks when the left was doing it to Sarah Palin. My ex-friend said that there had never been an appearance based attacks on Ms. Palin (I know, I know) and asked if I could supply some links to back up my position. I did with a link to the Letterman “slutty airline attendant” line. She posted back that that was just one example and when I when I took the discussion off the public board and sent her a personal message with several more links I got the GFY brush off.

This whole episode got me to thinking about the bigger question; what is the cost of being openly conservative in show business? A few years ago another friend who is a television producer told me about going to a meeting at a studio where a major “suit” went on for fifteen minutes during a creative meeting about Rush Limbaugh and how they would never hire anyone who listened to “that moron.”  My friend is a closeted conservative and since he was in the middle of trying to make a deal at that studio, he kept his mouth shut. Another friend has a job as a casting director on a show and is very careful never to express a political opinion even though many lunch discussions are strongly anti-conservative.

I look at folks like Dennis Miller, a guy who I have admired for years, and Drew Carey, and wonder what their brash conservatism has cost them. There used to be a cost if you were a drug addict or gay in Hollywood. Now those things are career boosters. A few years back when I was still in Hollywood, some people would attend recovery group meeting to “network” with those there for help. Being seen at AA or CA was a career move. Does anyone think Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out has hurt her? I may not remember correctly but I seem to remember her sitcom was on life support until she came out on the show and on Oprah. I wouldn’t doubt it if there were a few “ersatz” gays in Hollywood these days. Meanwhile, if you are conservative or Republican in show business, you better have a two bedroom closet because you are going to be there for awhile.

If you want to join my Facebook group for those dumped online for being too right, follow this link and post your story.

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..with you

“Reagan” is a one-man play that doesn’t portray the 40th president as a fascist. It’s by Lionel Chetwynd, whose scripts for television and film include “The Hanoi Hilton,” “Color of Justice,” “Kissinger and Nixon” and “DC 9/11: Time of Crisis.” ….  Chetwynd declined to comment on “Reagan,” except to say with a laugh, “It will change lives and the course of history.” A copy of an early script portrays Reagan as thoughtful, determined, sly (when necessary) and winning. Talking to the audience from the main room of his California ranch, Reagan explains his journey from FDR Democrat to conservative Republican. Along the way, he offers a spirited defense of conservative principles. At least three top directors have passed on the play because, says a source, “They can’t stand Ronald Reagan.”

The other play cited is “Girls in Trouble (Formerly Three Abortions)” by Jonathan Reynolds.

In “Girls in Trouble,” Reynolds presents a balanced view of pro-lifers while taking some swipes at the NPR crowd. The play ends with a harrowing confrontation between two women — one pro-life, the other pro-choice — that’s not for the squeamish. “Thus far, its claim to fame is that it’s been turned down by all the theaters in New York,” Reynolds says of his play. “It was commissioned by the Long Wharf, but they wouldn’t put it on. There was a theater in the suburbs of Washington, DC, that said they wanted to present the ‘other side’ of the abortion debate. But when they read it, they said it would “infuriate our audience.” Oskar Eustis, the head of the Public Theater, told Reynolds that his staff “didn’t go for it,” but that he would take a look at it himself.

Forgive me for not jumping up and doing a victory dance quite yet… It has always seemed a no-brainer to me that a positive telling of the Ronald Reagan story would be a hugely popular hit.  Not only is his story compelling, inspiring and quintessentially American, but he was and continues to be incredibly popular.  The drama contained within the pages of Peggy Noonan’s “When Character Was King” screams for a stage adaptation.  I hope Chetwynd’s work does Duke justice… the fact that many directors have turned down the piece is a sign that it does.

But, to me the real story in this article is less about the plays that are being shopped as it is a story about the doors that are shut to plays that have this kind of content.  My favorite passage is Oskar Eustis at the fledgling Public Theater.  The staff of the Public “didn’t go for it.”  Hm.  The staff of the Public has succeeded in running the once thriving non-profit to the brink of bankruptcy in recent years.  Maybe we, the theatre-going public don’t go for your staff, Mr. Eustis.  And what a weak-kneed response, too.  Can anyone imagine the original founder of The Public Theater… that titan of New York non-profit theatre Joe Papp, saying that his organization would not produce a play because “his staff didn’t go for it”?  No, Papp would be a man and take the responsibility himself.

I think it would be instructive to take a look at what Eustis’ staff DID “go for” in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.  Perusing their website you will see that these seasons’ plays are chuck full of diversity.  You can’t GET any more diverse than the Public Theater right now.  Black, White, Native American, straight, gay, male, female, Latino, Asian… diversity, thy name is Eustis.  So, what is missing?  How about diversity of THOUGHT AND OPINION?

The diversity that is being celebrated at the Public Theater is the laziest kind of diversity.  Diversity of appearance.  Big deal.  It’s like Eustis is at a dinner party and he makes himself feel good by saying “Some of my best plays are black.”  I thought the over-educated, uber-intellectual, non-profit theatre staffs were a little more interested in being challenged with new ideas.  I thought they are in favor of “speaking truth to power.”  I thought maybe the staffs at non-profit theatres, fresh from Yale Drama School and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, were originally drawn to the non-profit theatre world so through their art they could give voice to the voiceless and speak for those who do not have an outlet to speak for themselves.  Instead, Mr. Eustis’ staff give us “Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them” and “The Good Negro.”  Yes staff, those plays will truly be intellectually challenging to your well-educated, upper-class, liberal, New York audience.  Truth to power, my brothers and sisters!  Pat yourselves on the backs; you should be so proud.

Is it cool that there are a couple of playwrights getting attention for shopping conservative-themed plays in New York?  Yes.  Is it really cool that the New York Post wrote an article which pretty much ridicules the New York intelligencia for not having enough room in their club for even one play every few years that doesn’t preach to the secular choir?  Yes.  Is it enough that these plays have been written and are talked about even if they never get produced?  Hell no.  Let’s not let this story end here.  Apply the pressure to Mr. Eustis and his staff now.  If there is room in the budget for “Tales of an Urban Indian” then there should be room for a positive play about Reagan or a play which dares to suggest that maybe abortion is wrong.

“At this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.” – NY Times columnist Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman

Really sucks to be a conservative these days. I feel like I’m walking around with a big bulls-eye on my back. I know many of the Left, especially Keith Olbermann, Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, the New York Times editorial staff and all the pundits at HuffPo and KOS would find that statement hilariously ironic, given the recent shooting deaths of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas and security guard Steven T. Johns at the Holocaust Museum. Then again, they’re not the ones being branded en masse as co-conspirators in those murders. Conservatives are.

As a bonus, the recent arrest of Jason Bush, a national executive director of the Minuteman anti-illegal immigration group, for brutal murders committed during a home invasion, is also fueling the fire of portraying Righties as inherently violent extremists-in-waiting. Yet Cambodians and other ethnic gangs pull violent home invasions against the vulnerable in their enclaves, which have included brutal murders, on a regular basis. No one’s calling them a threat to the Republic, or branding all Cambodians as inherently violent. They are, in fact, its greatest victims.

Curiously absent in the above blanket indictments of conservatives were the facts that the Holocaust Museum shooter, James von Brunn, was a radical anti-Semite and anti-conservative with a long history of attacking the Right, even going so far as attempting to kidnap President Reagan’s entire Federal Reserve Board back in the 1980s. He was also an ardent proponent of the ‘9/11 was an inside job’ tinfoil conspiracy theory. In that respect, he has a lot more in common with Dylan Avery and Rosie O’Donnell than Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck.

Also curiously absent was the recent shooting death of Pvt. William Long and wounding of another soldier outside a Little Rock recruiting center by an anti-military Islamic convert. Again, that kind of hatred and violence toward the military has far more in common with Code Pink than FOX News. It was not radical conservatives who poured concrete on military rail lines in Olympia, Washington, nothing less than an act of sabotage during wartime. Nor was it a right wing extremist who set off a bomb in front of a Times Square Army recruiting office.

Yet I do not hold all the aforementioned esteemed MSM mouthpieces, or the Left as a whole, responsible for those violent and destructive acts. Nor do I hold the entire American Left responsible for FBI Most Wanted Terrorist Daniel Andreas San Diego’s bombings in San Francisco. Or the violent acts of other eco-terrorists, like the firebombings of scientists’ homes while they and their families were still inside, or the burning down of research labs, car dealerships and housing developments which have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage. Or the highly destructive acts of the ‘elves’ of the Earth Liberation Front.

I also do not hold all left-leaning gay rights advocates responsible for the white powder mailings to Mormon churches by gay radicals. I do not hold the Left responsible for any those singular acts of violent left-wing extremist groups and individuals because of one simple fact: they all didn’t do it.

Fact is, America has always been a land overflowing with nutjobs of all stripes. Sales of the Anarchist Cookbook rival Betty Crocker’s. Some lone psychos have done incredible damage in all sorts of brutal and heinous ways. Lee Harvey Oswald. James Earl Ray. Timothy McVeigh. Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomer. David Koresh. Andrew Cunanin. Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. John Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo. Michael McDermott. Daniel Andreas San Diego. And that’s not even counting serial killers like Ted Bundy, John Wanye Gacy and Henry Lee Lucas.

American law enforcement has their hands full. Always have. Sometimes they are successful in stopping extremists from attacking, as was the case with the Fort Dix Six and Bronx synagogue bombing plotters, who also planned to shoot down military aircraft with Stinger missiles. In other not-so-fortunate circumstances law enforcement was left to deal with the violent aftermath, as was the case recently with the aforementioned Tiller, Holocaust Museum and Little Rock shootings.

There is, however, a distinct difference in America today regarding these lone nutjob killers that have plagued us throughout our history. They are now being politicized by the Left in much the same way Hitler manipulated the Reichstag Fire: to brand the entire mainstream conservative movement in the country as extremist threats to the Republic, requiring strong government intervention.

In other words, today we are all extremists.

Just ask Paul Krugman. Or Frank Rich. Or rest of the New York Times editorial staff in their ‘Hate Crimes and Extremist Politics’ oped. Want to see some real hate speech? Check out the comments sections of those Times posts. Those comments, as well as many other recent posts on left-wing blogs, reveal a stunning turnaround on the Left regarding political profiling, censorship, tapping phones and blanket monitoring of the Internet. I guess it all depends who’s being targeted. How quickly things change when it’s the Left running the show.

But all this is really nothing new. President Bill Clinton implied that Rush Limbaugh shared some culpability in the Oklahoma City bombings way back in 1995. Yet the degree to which the Mainstream Media and the Left is attacking the Right over these recent murders goes way beyond just implying. Those bloody corpses are being tossed right on the doorsteps of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and any other conservative pundit they can think of, as well as blanket condemnation and guilt by association of all their millions of listeners.

Noticeably absent also from this discussion of political extremism was the KILL BUSH death cult on the Left that screamed for the President’s blood and brutal murder for years. Or that most Lefties falsely accused President Bush of staging the worst terror attack in American history against his own citizens. I believe the subsequent bombings by Al Qaeda of London, Madrid, Bali, Iraq, Jordan, or any of the other 13,000-plus Islamist acts of terror since 9/11, put that subject to rest with all but the most dedicated conspiracy theorists. That is clearly Al Qaeda’s modus operandi, as it was way back in 1993 during the first attack on the WTC when Bill Clinton was President.

Also no mention of the Left’s David Dukes, the black supremacist, hate-mongering Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the bloodstained, racebaiting and mayhem-inciting Rev. Al Sharpton. Or the Left’s unrepentant Timothy McVeighs, domestic terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, now Leftie icons. You want to talk hateful, extremist, violence-inciting behavior and speech from the other side of the political spectrum? I guess not, huh, Paul? Rich? Keith? HuffPo? KOS?

See how it works? One eye open, one eye closed. Guess which eye is conveniently sewn shut.

Nothing new there, either. For decades the radical Left has engaged in, equivocated or looked the other way on egregious political behavior while at the same time painting all conservatives as extremists by, ironically, adopting extremist positions themselves. This political demonization of the conservative opposition has been flourishing on the Left under the Obama administration. Worse, that demonization has even been given credence and official sanction by such top government officials as David Axelrod and Janet Napolitano.

Now, as much as the Left howled about the Bushitler regime during the past eight years, when did Bush, Karl Rove or anyone else declare all Lefties a clear and present danger to the Republic, even when assassinating the President became a cultural fad in Leftie plays, books, movies, merchandising and art exhibits, egged on even by Air America’s Randy Rhodes simulation of President Bush’s assassination on the air?

Never mind how much the Left is freaking out now over James von Brunn. Can you imagine if the far right made a popular subculture out of assassinating President Obama to the degree Lefties did under President Bush? Or if Glenn Beck simulated the President’s assassination on the air, like Randy Rhodes did at Air America? They’d all be screaming for martial law and internment camps!

I can’t help but wonder. Now that the Left controls the media and all branches of government, do they see their golden opportunity to shut down the hated Right once and for all in this country? Perhaps only now we are finding out the Left’s true definition of unity: singularity of political thought and opinion, and the silencing of all the annoying competing ideologies. What should be vigorous and thoughtful political debate on important issues that concern us all is fast becoming an ideological pogrom. Dissenting views are no longer opposing opinions. They are now thoughtcrime.

This is not right wing extremist paranoia. The track record speaks for itself.

Example. I don’t dislike President Obama because he’s a Socialist raiding the Treasury and nationalizing private industry faster than Hugo Chavez. Or for firing an Inspector-General without notifying Congress, in violation in a law he himself signed off on. Or that his Justice Department under Eric Holder just gave the baton-wielding “you will soon be ruled by the black man, cracker” Black Panther ‘poll monitor’ thugs a total pass, despite a default conviction and the assessment by Mr. Bartle Bull, a former Robert Kennedy campaign manager and prominent election observer of the Civil Rights era calling it “the worst voter intimidation I’ve ever seen.”

And he monitored elections in the South during the Jim Crow era. How bad is that?

No, I don’t dislike the President for any of that. I hate him just because he’s black. In fact, if you’re a conservative these days, you have no valid reason to oppose anything other than mindless right wing hate and bigotry. You have no valid reason to protest President Obama’s spending us into financial oblivion. You are a redneck racist teabagger, and most likely a rabble-rousing neo-Nazi or white supremacist, according to a memo passed around by liberal Democrats in Congress.

You have no valid moral, social or religious reasons to oppose gay marriage. You’re a Nazi and a homophobe. Or Nouveau Jim Crow KKK crackers, as the Boston Phoenix termed those opposing gay marriage. You have no valid reason to oppose Sonia Sotomayer. If you do, you’re a sexist and a racist, and you’d best tread carefully around her. Never mind anything she’s ever said or done, like upholding the blatantly discriminatory Ricci decision now before the US Supreme Court.

Never mind all that. She’s a wise Latina woman, and better than a white man. Watch your step!

You have no valid reason to oppose the millions of illegals flooding our country without procedure or proper criminal, medical or psychological screenings, as was done on Ellis Island, or support securing our borders as every other nation on earth does. You are a vile racist nationalist, just like that Minuteman killer Jason Bush. If you question the populist science of Global Warming that over 31,000 scientists dispute, or oppose any of the draconian taxes and regulations we are about to get slammed with via the Waxman-Markey bill, you are a heretic on the order of a Holocaust denier.

Never mind all the record low temperatures worldwide, or the discrediting of data presented by GW gurus Hansen and Gore as either defective or outright fraudulent. Or the political power and financial riches ‘green’ proponents like Al Gore and GE’s Jeffrey Immelt stand to gain that would dwarf Big Oil profits. I’m not saying that we should pollute the earth until we all choke from it, as GW True Believers will no doubt accuse me of. I’m just saying. Rational debate of the subject on the Left is nonexistent. As it is with most every political subject under the sun.

Is it really any surprise Michael Savage was banned from Britain for what is essentially thoughtcrime, given that government’s extreme left-wing bent? How soon before he is banned here, along with every other conservative pundit on the radio? But this is the mindset of today’s Left. If you do not agree with their extreme positions on the issues, you are branded as the worst kind of extremist yourself, publicly and repeatedly. Just as we conservatives are being painted right now with the same bloody brush of killers who committed acts 99.99999% of us would never dream of. That is not reasoned debate. It is ideologically driven hate and tyranny of thought.

That mindset makes no distinction between violence of speech, i.e. heated political rhetoric, which is Constitutionally protected, and violence of action and criminal speech, i.e. incitement to violence, which is not. It is that twisted perspective that made the assassinations of President Bush and VP Dick Cheney humorous and chic, yet responds to even the mildest criticism of President Obama by Rush Limbaugh with unbridled rage, petitions in Congress and demands to shut Rush up by hook or by crook, be it the Orwellian Fairness Doctrine or in the name of diversity.

Lefties commit the most egregious of slanders, yet take violent offense at every slight real or imagined. The Left even codifies that double standard by turning the language on its head in Orwellian fashion to make political evils appealing. Tolerance becomes a pretty name for exclusion, diversity a lofty term for bigotry. Censorship in the form of restrictive speech codes on college campuses around the country are enacted in the name of free speech.

But it doesn’t stop at the language. Abuse of authority and political power has become SOP on the Left. Cynthia Dixon was fired from her job as a college human resources director for her contrary Christian opinion on homosexuality, voiced in a local paper’s editorial page in response to a lefty lesbian faculty member’s pro-gay oped in the same.

The lesbian faculty member’s job, however, was never in danger, even after spewing incredibly vile vitriol at Dixon, with included the obligatory ‘racist bigot homophobe!’ Ironically, Cynthia Dixon is African-American. Where’s the EEOC when you need them? Unfortunately. Ms. Dixon is the wrong shade of black, i.e. Christian conservative. For more information on that subject, ref Michael Steele and Clarence Thomas. See, they’re not REAL minorities. They’re all Uncle Toms, don’t you know.

I’m sorry, who are the racists here again?

Harvard president Larry Summers was run out of his job on a rail for repeating a research-supported but politically incorrect scientific opinion on how men’s and women’s brains may work differently. So much for Veritas. But science is not a factor to the Left. Politics and ideology is all. State-employed climatologists were fired in Washington and Oregon for not toeing the Global Warming line. Lord Christopher Monckton, who holds an opposing view to Al Gore’s on Global Warming, was shut out of Congressional hearings the day after he flew over from England to testify.

See, to the egalitarian Left, all opinions are equal. It’s just that some are more equal than others.

The Left’s championing of women’s rights is also a sham. They routinely and publicly degrade women who don’t fit their ideological template. They publish and fall all over themselves laughing at a ‘Top Ten Conservative Women I’d Like To Hate-Fuck’ rape list and slander Sarah Palin without end, even joking about her being gang-raped. Carrie Prejean is derided as a fascist bitch and a cunt for voicing the same opinion on marriage as President Obama and most American citizens.

You see the pattern that’s emerging here? When has anyone on the Left been fired for expressing pro-gay views?  When has Al Gore ever been shut out of speaking, as Lord Monckton was by liberal Democrats in Congress? Or attacked physically, as routinely happens to Ann Coulter and other conservative speakers on college campuses like clockwork?

If you want to talk extremism, left-wing extremists in America have been guilty of some very serious crimes in the last decade, as highlighted above. Again, you won’t find any of those crimes in the New York Times extremist hit list. No, let’s forget about all that left-wing extremist mayhem and hold talk radio and FOX News responsible for the acts of politically twisted or mentally disturbed individuals, as they seek to hold all mainstream conservatives responsible today for every violent act committed by lone psychos.

You want to blame Bill O’Reilly for Dr. Tiller’s death? What if President Bush had been assassinated by some lone leftie nutjob while he was President? Who would have been responsible? The assassin? Or everyone on the Left who encouraged Bush’s assassination with relish and glee? What about the white powder mailings to the Mormon Church by radical gay activists? Should we start FBI surveillance on the Prop H8 crowd because of the extremist acts of a few?

Should we clamp down on all American Muslims because of the violence domestic jihadis plotted or carried out, as with Little Rock, Fort Dix and the recent attempted bombing of a New York synagogue? Why is all the focus on the right side of the political spectrum, and all of the evils of the extreme Left being totally whitewashed or ignored today? Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question.

I have to tell you, people. I’m really starting to fear for this country. Left-wing demagogues like Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, the New York Times editorial board, and all the others in the so-called mainstream media, branding all conservatives with the same bloody brushes as lone wolf psychos that have long been a problem in this country and always will be, not to mention all the shutting down of political discourse by inspiring fear, hatred and intimidation against the minority party, are doing a lot more damage to the fabric of this society, and American democracy itself, than a James von Brunn ever could with a .22 rifle.

I’ve got a radical right wing extremist idea. Why don’t we leave the nutjobs to law enforcement, and try to engage in the honored American tradition of healthy and vigorous political discourse without enacting new Nuremburg decrees or shredding the Constitution? Isn’t championing freedom of speech and expression and human rights what the Left is all about? So they say?

It is long past time for the Left to live up that credo. Because if the firings, shutting off of debate, censorship bills now in Congress, and the relentless demonization of the political opposition continues relentlessly and without end, as it has for so many years now, I’m just liable to think the dividing line between mainstream liberalism and the hate-filled totalitarian left-wing crowd has been virtually erased. You got all that, Paul? Frank? Pinchy? Keith? Janet? David? KOS? HuffPo?

GROW UP! I’m sick of dealing with a bunch of full-grown screaming control-freak toddlers! The Right isn’t going anywhere. In fact, our stars are ascending. FOX News and conservative blogs are putting the MSM out of business. And there’s a huge amount of discontent across the political spectrum over liberal Democrat policies since the Left took power.

The 2010 elections are starting to look a lot like 1994’s. And tell the truth, guys. Doesn’t that scare the hell out of you all a lot more than one or two lone shooters? And don’t just call me a right wing extremist. Let’s talk about the issues. I’m a reasonable guy. Don’t even own a gun. But just because I support the Second Amendment doesn’t make me a gun nut. I support it because it’s a Constitutional right. See how easy rational debate works? You all ought to try it sometime.

Last word. I opposed President Obama’s candidacy from the start. I disliked his polices, and I especially disliked his associations with real bomb-throwing extremists like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and racial hatemongers like Rev. Wright. I spoke out on blogs like this for a year against candidate Obama, and everything he and liberal Democrats stood for.

Yet shortly after Obama was elected President in November, I noticed a security vulnerability that fell within my area of expertise and called the Secret Service right away. Fortunately, they knew all about it. See, despite my extreme distaste for President Obama’s policies and associations, the American people spoke loud and clear last November. Barack Obama is now President of the United States.

As such, he represents a hallowed tradition of political stability and continuity of a government and most benevolent political system that I hold sacred, and is the envy of much of the world. I defended that system for six years in uniform, and would defend it again if need be. How ironic I must vigorously defend it today against those who profess to be its greatest champions.

There’s a right wing extremist for you, Lefties. Oh, and by the way, I and other conservatives like David Horowitz have spoken out loudly against the extremists in our ranks. Where was the condemnation of unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers on the day after 9/11, when he said in the New York Times that he hadn’t done enough? Why is he revered instead of reviled? Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question. But it does make me wonder who the real extremists are here.

After all, you don’t see the right glorifying politically-motivated mass murderers. Hmm. Curious.

Blessed Brother Ted Nugent

Ok, you’re back.  This whole “outreach” got me thinking.  It’s actually a good idea.  To tailor policy around making sure people don’t feel alienated and left out.  To change the national agenda in order to protect the sensitivities of people, even if those sensitivities go against what is traditional and accepted thought in our country.  Can I get an “Amen” from the Hippies?  This is what it’s all about, right?

Let me introduce you to another group…another alien culture that I think needs to get a little “outreach” from the government…especially the elites in D.C.  Hollywood, Europe and the academic world could also do a little better when it comes to making these people feel special.  We need more diversity!  More diversity!

Their culture may seem a little strange.  Some may consider it “backwards” but follow me…

These people attend their houses of worship regularly.  There are many different sects, but they are all similar.  The level of devotion varies from individual to individual.  Some are very strict, viewing their holy book as the direct word of God.  Others view it as more of a spiritual relationship.  Some see it as a social thing, attending services only on the highest of holy days.

Their families are close and tight knit.  They don’t like “outsiders” interfering with the education of their children.  They are also none to pleased about the influence of perverse Hollywood “entertainment” on their little ones.  They are frugal and view the taking of their money and property very, very seriously.  It is an “insult” to tax them or take money from them without good reason.  This tradition goes back centuries for them.  Many of their tribal “elders” fought and died over this very issue.

They value education, but don’t think a degree is the only measure of a man or woman.  They value hard, tedious work.  Many of them take pride in their jobs on farms, in factories, and in offices.  This is a tradition and a set of values passed down from generation to generation.

They are particular to foods that many consider “bad” or unhealthy.  Red meat, fast food, fried food.  They actually eat all of them…sometimes at the same time.  They even have a rich history of actually killing the food themselves instead of buying it at Whole Foods!

They like guns.  They like big, mean, nasty V-8 engines.  They like trucks and SUVs.  They like motorcycles.  They like state fairs where you can buy roasted corn on the cobb and ride on a rinky dink Ferris wheel.  They like outdoor sports.  They even have sports that really aren’t sports, like Monster Truck Shows.

To celebrate happy occasions they often times drink alcohol.  Sometimes they drink alcohol when they are depressed.  One of their favorites is beer.  They actually make beer in this country and these people drink it…in cans!  They drink in bars but they call them “taps” and “taverns.”

Some of them enjoy an ancient tradition of burning bits of tobacco and inhaling the fumes.  Some chew this tobacco.

They listen to country music and what is called “butt rock.”  If you want to see one smile just put a dollar in the honky tonk jukebox and pick a song by ZZ Top.  Then watch them sing by following it up with a track from Tim McGraw.

They live all over the country.  Milwaukee, Dallas, Omaha, Bakersfield.  Every city has them.

Proudly, I am one of them.

Some call us “white trash.”  Others use the term “redneck.”  I have a better one.  One that is politically correct.  It’s the one we choose to call ourselves…Americans.  In fact, I would like to officially declare that it is offensive, unacceptable, cause for firing, and “racist” for any person who is not part of the aforementioned group to ever use the term “redneck” or “white trash.”  We of course are free to call each other whatever we want.

So how about it D.C.?  Hollywood?  Europe?  Can we show these people a little more respect?  What about diversity?  Can we think about how our words and new laws and taxes may insult them?  Can Obama come to Biloxi and address the “Redneck” nation?  Can he explain himself on our terms?

Wait, come to think of it, he’ll probably make the speech somewhere in Connecticut.  Oh, well, I gave up on that dude a long time ago…

Yeah-I think I get it? If you’re a media personality of mediocre talent and dubious intelligence like…uh…gee, there’s so many to choose from? Oh, I know, let’s go with Janeane Garofalo now that she’s decided to be a spokesperson for the party of “love, openness and diversity” again. Anyway, apart from proving you’re not smart enough to keep your mouth shut, what happens if you’re a media personality of mediocre talent and dubious intelligence and you openly preach the most vile form of inflammatory hatred towards an entire group/race of people in today’s politically correct climate? 

You get a pass and high-fives from the MSM of course, but why?

The answer is complicated but I did cover one of the reasons in my “Formula for Hate” piece in one sentence: “Politically, it’s ok to hate the white man!” 

Talent is questionable, what is not in question about her and far too many of these so called “artists” is their ability to memorize lines and, quite frankly, how hard is that? That is why I have no problem questioning Garofalo’s much touted intelligence, or was that just Bill O’Reilly doing that? Why some hosts feel the need to pander to these dishonest people is beyond me, just get on with the interview and be done with it! She has offered no proof to back up her statements, unless prepared hate speech rhetoric that goes unchallenged by other geniuses, like Olbermann, is proof of that.

Yeah, she kinda/sorta looks and sounds smart in an MSNBC cool kids on the same block kind of way, but how would she do without the approving nods from the yes men she seeks out who would gladly get on their hands and knees to provide her a soapbox to climb onto from where up high she can preach to the choir? It’s easy to look and “act” smart when you recite your lines in front of like-minded followers knowing full well that no one in the room will question your words! Wow, isn’t it inspiring how courageous these traitors to the truth are? What’s worse: the bold-faced lies they tell or the fact that some of these intellectuals believe this stuff? I know which one is more pathetic but either way, they must be called out on it every single time from now on. There is no statute of limitations on hatred, she does not get a free pass because the moment has passed.

I happen to know a few people who attended those tea parties and without reservation I can say that they are the furthest thing from ignorant redneck extremist racists that I can think of. This Garofalo has made this personal and you don’t get to “move on” as far as I’m concerned. If she’s considered talented, then I have a young tea party attendee and artist friend who is obviously a freaking genius when compared to the likes of her and she can easily wipe the floor with her in a debate about politics, culture and the arts. I think it would be very clear who the ignorant bigot would be in that encounter.

Come to think of it, since you mentioned someone else by name, Janeane, why don’t you step up to the plate and have a one on one with Michelle Malkin without a liberal moderator and a liberal audience stacking the deck and see who is more informed about the Constitution, The Boston Tea party, taxes, immigration, civil rights, politics, racism, history, congress, the law…you name it! No moderator, no time limit, no crib notes and no interrupting the other as they speak. Well, to that end, there would have to be some kind of guideline about give and take considering the provable fact that liberals love to use their weapon of choice-debatus interruptus. They can’t help themselves, they do it constantly and speak longer while saying less knowing full well the conservative penchant for being courteous, even when it’s to their own disadvantage. To that I say, conservative talk show-ups, it’s time to get a pair and stop letting Ann Coulter (thank you) do all the heavy lifting. Your need to look and sound fair is getting in the way of doing what you’re supposed to do, which is get the message out and prove these lemmings to be the uninformed “lying liars” they are, especially when they lie to your face. That’s their job and apparently they deserve a raise while you deserve to be replaced…”you’re fired!” 

LIARS!!! Try it…say it out loud! I am tired of you talking heads going on these television debates just to sit there while these people make you look like fools because you don’t want to appear unkind. ”How’s that working for you?” There is too much to lose and the fact that most self described liberals seem to be unaware of it because they can’t think for themselves is more the reason to state the facts and let the people decide who is telling the truth. After all, it’s easy enough for anyone listening to do some research and find out, but they won’t even know to try if you don’t give them a reason to. Don’t waste those valuable opportunities by trying to be decent to people who couldn’t care less about decency, reason, discourse, the truth or us, the “little guys” they so profess their love and care for! These people are on a mission and they’ve been winning for so long now that they are delusional and don’t care about appearances anymore, especially now that they are in fact in charge of appearances. Right or wrong, their agenda and therefore their message is all that matters to them and you’re on the front lines and close to being the only thing standing between them and the truth. This is not about converting those angry old never worked a day in their lives upper middle class entitled career students/educators/politico’s and their militant left wing strong arm wannabes.

This is about giving an informed “choice” to all the young people who are starting to watch, listen and learn because their lives are being affected by the political going-ons in this country and the rest of the world. Give them the chance to learn and participate, don’t let these cowards of discourse win fourteen out of every fifteen rounds you go with them because you don’t want to come off as unreasonable or worse…”not very nice!” Rope-a-dope tactics clearly aren’t working for you, give it up while there is still more then enough of us to keep this fight alive in this great nation with all the liberties we have enjoyed for over two hundred years. We cannot afford to lose this fight because our elected officials will not stand up to bullies. Do you really want to wake up some day and say, “If only I had…?” 

What are you gonna do then? By that time the fight will seem like it was lost a long, long time ago and my kids will be grown up and living in what will feel like some distant galaxy compared to the beautiful (yes, we have are faults) country I grew up in and all because somewhere along the way Americans forgot where they came from and what made this the greatest nation on earth (ever) and lost it in less time then anyone could have imagined. Whether you are religious or not, something divine happened here when those great men convened and drew up the Constitution of the United States of America and it’s time to fight to preserve it just like they fought and died to make it possible. It is timeless and so dead on that only power hungry bottom feeders would need to reinterpret it because in the real world, they would get their asses kicked every time. These people are incapable of winning on an even playing field, can you say Air America, so they must “CHANGE” the rules and “yes we can” stop them.

What they have learned well is that if they promise enough sheeple that they can have everything everyone else has without the struggle and hard work, they will get their votes and they (Franken) can steal the rest. Then they can change the laws and what the ignorant voters don’t understand is that when their saviors are in charge that nothing (their promises) or no one (people who voted for them) matter any longer. They never did!

Nothing else matters but power, just look at Hugo Chavez, los Castro’s, Kim Jong-il, the puppet masters who pull Mahmoud Ahmadejinad’s strings and their mentors: Hussein, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and numerous others, all of them recent history. Haven’t we learned yet? Instead, today’s mouth pieces spend their time and energy focusing on pointing out the absolute evil that is/was Bush because it works, the uninformed bought it. Did you notice what happened to the “monster” that was Bush? He graciously put aside his plans for world domination and then passed the baton to the opposition in a post election ceremony…hmmm? “Only in America” could that happen. That just proves that this is still the one place on earth where that kind of freedom of speech (so far) is still not only tolerated but defended by all of us who are aware that everyone, no matter how ridiculous, vile, inflammatory or stupid they may sound, should be able to speak their mind. It’s the only safe solution to a serious problem and there are laws on the books for those who cross the line from trash talk to violence.

However, since there seems to be  an argument from the left about who should be allowed to practice free speech, let me say that the freedom to speak your mind doesn’t mean that those who disagree with you should shut up, go away and/or die. Ya wanna be stupid and hateful in public, go ahead, but the days of media whores slipping away afterwards and the double standard where they try to outlaw (Fairness  Doctrine) that freedom from those who disagree with them is over. Although not related directly to the current re-emergence by the democrats to shut down talk radio (for now, who’s next?) through nefarious means, the Dixie Chicks are a good example of what I mean. 

Remember them? The lie that they were “victims” of censorship was laughable considering they loudly complained about their loss of free speech in every major magazine, newspaper, television show, news network, radio station, music venue, awards ceremony, mini-mall and gas station in this country and around the world. All this free publicity came about because in their effort to be liked even more in front of an audience in England, one of them spoke her truth (feelings) and water cooler wisdom on Bush. Fine, that’s her right. In turn, their (up to the moment they got wind of this) fans in the good ‘ole USA responded with their own truth and their pocketbooks and suddenly it was an issue about censorship and they (the Chicks) became victims. Cry me a pop/rock/country song!  I’d also like to say that in all of the interviews they gave I never once heard a single informed remark by these chicks in defense of their views. It would become the “Bush is stupid and I should know” syndrome, which seemed to be the pandemic of the time.

What is happening is that we have the majority of all media virtually in lock step with the democratic party and a republican party that acts like being demonized by the media for speaking their mind is a new weapon. It seems they have not noticed that this modus operandi has been going on for several decades and their pathetically slow reaction has cost them and more significantly, their constituents a lot of ground while the democrats (hypocrites) get away with calling the republicans the control freaks. Oh, and these liberal politicians are so nice about it, aren’t they? Promising to save everyone from those mean old nasty rich (dems are richer) status quo (again, dems) white (ditto) power hungry (yeah, I know) political devils with equal opportunity, freedom of speech, the pursuit of happiness…wait a minute, isn’t that what the Constitution is all about…who needs any of them?

The liberal progressives or “make ‘em do it our way” party is actually promising a utopia in a world that they themselves have painted as full of humans who are incapable of caring for their fellow man because it’s the nature of the beast (no evolution there) and there’s nothing that can be done about that! They say that on one talk show when it’s convenient and then go right next door to another studio and tell everyone there how with them in charge we can all be one big loving family (instant evolution) and live happily ever after. “Yes We Can” and all you have to do is vote for them! I’ll vote for them when one of them can tell me one place and time that anything like socialism, communism, nepotism (ok, that one works), togetherism or any other ‘ism has ever worked out? Just once? The only ‘ism that benefits others is individualism…you can’t help others if you can’t take care of yourself!

Sadly, enough people are falling for this bread and circuses campaign while they go about their busy Dancing with the Stars, American Idol and Obama worship and text messaging days while fearing the latest MSM distraction from the real dangers (the loss of our sovereignty) as they fill up on change, hope and unity ramblings from politicians who have done very little in over two hundred years to truly make a difference. Nothing has ever worked better then allowing people (individuals) the ability to make it on their own terms, to keep their earnings for themselves and their families and to share it with their neighbors as they see fit, not as some government employee sees fit. 

With some obvious exceptions, like the civil rights movement, not a whole lot has changed for the better recently and it’s gotten worse in the last one hundred plus days now. It’s time for those of us who are awake to take this fight anywhere, anytime and “by any (peaceful) means necessary” so long as those who would put their hands on us control themselves. But make no mistake, we will not be intimidated by the ramblings of flavor of the day celebrities or by the fear mongering of those in power. This is our country, not a select fews and we will not go quietly into the night!

This is not only “A Call to Artists” or conservatives, liberals, libertarians, independents, moderates or others who think they already have a dog in the fight but want better then this constant in-fighting, but a call to all of us who love diversity as it already exists in the world and that will surely disappear if anything that reeks of “one world” dogma takes hold and the freedoms already given to us by our founding fathers slip away. It is our duty to pass onto our children what has finally worked and is already ours, not what has failed repeatedly throughout history!