At the recent Sammies awards presented by the Sam Adams Alliance, a video titled The ABC’s of Virginia Alcohol Law received an award.
It’s a funny video. It’s not the most important issue in the world, but it shows us another example of the ways that government get so twisted up in a knot (of its own making) that it doesn’t make sense anymore.
Caleb O. Brown (his blog is catallaxy.net) and Austin Bragg created the video and won the award.
George Soros: Media Mogul. Dan Gainor and Iris Somberg of the Business and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center, have produced a report on the media-related activities of liberal financier George Soros. In the executive summary, Gainor and Somberg report: “George Soros is arguably the most influential liberal financier in the United States, donating more than $8 billion just to his Open Society Foundations. In 2004, he spent more than $27 million to defeat President George W. Bush and has given away millions more since to promote the left-wing agenda. But what goes almost without notice is Soros’ extensive influence on and involvement with the media.
His media funding has helped create a liberal ‘echo chamber,’ in the words of one group he backs, ‘in which a message pushes the larger public or the mainstream media to acknowledge, respond, and give airtime to progressive ideas because it is repeated many times.’” The liberal echo chamber is quite effective, with stories spreading rapidly across a network of media outlets. Liberal politicians — even President Obama — pick up on and repeat the echoes. The executive summary of the report is at George Soros: Media Mogul — Lefty Businessman Spends Millions Funding Journalism. That page contains a link to the full report and additional material.
You’ll also want to be aware of how George Soros was convicted for insider trading. The New York Times reports in Insider trading conviction of Soros is upheld: “The highest court in France on Wednesday rejected a bid by George Soros, the billionaire investor, to overturn a conviction for insider trading in a case dating back nearly 20 years, leaving the first blemish on his five-decade investing career”
Or, in French court upholds Soros conviction the Times reported: “The conviction of George Soros, the billionaire investor and former fund manager, on insider trading charges was upheld on Thursday by a French appeals court, which rejected his argument that his investment in a French bank in 1988 was not based on confidential information. Soros, 74, now retired from money management but active as a philanthropist and author, was ordered to pay a fine of €2.2 million, or $2.9 million, representing the money made by funds he managed from an investment in Société Générale.”
Another source of critical information about Soros is the Conservapedia article on George Soros.
For those not familiar with the name, Soros is a wealthy currency speculator who funds many leftist organizations. The term “astroturfing” — lately used to discredit the authenticity of the recent tea parties — describes Soros’ efforts to a tea, if I may say so.
Saturday in Northbrook, Illinois, about 300 people gathered to attend an awards ceremony presented by the Sam Adams Alliance.
One of the presenters was Michelle Malkin, who has been at the forefront of blogging for a long time. She’s also been involved in the recent tea party movement.
In her remarks (introducing my friend Chad Everson as winner of the best state blogger award), she talked about the differences between traditional news media and blogging.
“I have watched as the dinosaur media strains and groans in the face of competition from citizen journalists and citizen bloggers,” she said.
Often these citizens have outworked the legacy media. The professional media hasn’t welcomed citizen journalists– in fact they’ve been bitter.
She mentioned Jonathan Klein, former executive vice president of CBS News, who said “You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances [at 60 Minutes] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.” This was at the time that Dan Rather of CBS was promoting a fraudulent story that was uncovered by bloggers.
She mentioned Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, who described bloggers as “salivating morons who make up the lynch mob.”
Malkin said that bloggers are often described as snarky and profane. “Anyone who has tuned into CNN and MSNBC over the last week and heard untold vulgar sexual innuendos about teabagging can tell you who has been the salivating lynch mob, and who has been vulgar and profane.”
Yesterday several thousand Wichitans and folks from all over Kansas met on a windswept field to register their discontent with Washington policies.
The crowd heard from some great speakers, some of which you can see at the WichitaLiberty YouTube channel.
Citizens had opinions, too. Common themes of frustration included too much spending, pork-barrel spending, and too much taxes.
Critics of the tea parties wonder why people are protesting against taxes now, just as President Obama is cutting taxes for the middle class. I think that people realize the tax cut is just an illusion. As long as the government keeps spending and creating huge deficits, someone has to pay that bill later on.
As pointed out in the Wall Street Journal article The 2% Illusion: Take everything they earn, and it still won’t be enough, taking all income from the nation’s most successful people won’t be enough to pay for Obama’s spending.
Plus, I believe protesters are worried about all taxes and their effect on the economy, no matter who has to pay them. It’s more than just worrying about one’s own self.
Critics also level charges of “astroturfing” at the tea parties. Astroturf, being fake grass, symbolizes what those on the left think happened: events driven from the top-down instead of the bottom up. Leftist think the tea party protesters are deluded and being used.
I didn’t get that feeling from anyone. Protesters were there with a wide range of opinions. An informal poll by a television reporter reveled that less than half the attendees were Republicans. It’s true that Americans For Prosperity played a large role in organizing the event in Wichita. I’m glad for that, as organizing an event like this takes time and skill.
The crowd was well behaved, but not shy in expressing their displeasure. Rumors that people might attend in order to disrupt or confuse the message didn’t materialize.
When the event ended, someone remarked “This is amazing. People automatically picked up trash and took back their folding chairs.”
More coverage is available at the Voice For Liberty in Wichita.
This Wednesday, citizens across the country will attend tax day tea party protests across the country.
Why should you attend a tax day tea party protest in your town? After all, it seems a little counter-intuitive. Isn’t the stimulus for our own good?
Some have pointed out that President Obama has promised a tax cut for middle-class Americans. So in effect, we’re protesting against something that benefits us — at least the middle-class protesters. This only serves to illustrate the greed and selfishness of the left.
Instead, tea party protesters are concerned about the future of our country for everyone — rich, poor, and middle-class. They see that the present path of bailouts and huge federal spending increases are not in the best interest of America.
Tea party protesters recognize that in order to stimulate the economy, someone has to pay for the stimulus spending. Extracting that payment — be it through higher taxes now, or through higher taxes later to repay borrowed funds, or by cranking up the printing presses to create new money that destroys the value of savings — causes more harm than the stimulus spending creates good.
They recognize that the stimulus spending creates new dependent constituencies that will be difficult to shed once the need for stimulus has passed — if indeed it ever does.
They see lobbyists lining up to make sure their clients get something — even if that spending doesn’t produce stimulus for America.
They recognize that increasing government takeover of industry means more power for politicians and less for consumers. Soon, we may all be driving cars designed by congressional committee.
They recognize that a government takeover of health care means government will seek to control more of our personal behaviors. After all, they’re paying the bill.
We’re on the verge of a tipping point. Once past it, once more and more Americans pay no income tax and become dependent on government, it will be difficult for freedom-loving Americans to reverse the course.
That’s why it’s important to get our message out now.
Join a tea party protest in your town.
Across the nation, people are planning tea party protests next Wednesday April 15. These protests are sure to attract many people and garner media coverage. At the Wichita tea party we expect hundreds to attend.
That’s fine for that one day. But to create change in our country, there must be sustained activism. That’s hard to do. It requires a variety of things, one of which is knowing what to do.
That’s where groups like American Majority can help. This group — national in scope with a strong and active presence in Kansas — provides training for candidates and activists. I’ve been to some of their training events, and they do a great job.
American Majority has started a web site specifically for after-tea party outreach. At this site, you can sign up and indicate your areas of interest. This will get you involved with a group that can help build on the enthusiasm generated by events like the tea party protests.
American Majority’s site is AfterTheTeaParty.com.
Candidate recruitment and campaign training is vitally important. In Wichita, we just had a disastrous election for both city and school board offices. There were a few good candidates. But we need more good people who understand the blessings of liberty, free markets, and limited government to run for office. We need to learn how to run effective campaigns to support these people. These are a few of the very important things we need to do to bring about change.
Don’t let the enthusiasm generated by the tea parties die out. Make sure you sign up for AfterTheTeaParty.com or another group. I’ll report on other worthwhile groups soon.
“Wichita businessman and Republican leader Mike Pompeo has officially filed papers with the Federal Election Commission enabling him to begin raising funds for a campaign to represent the people of Kansas’ Fourth Congressional District.”
The full news release is below.
Pompeo will speak this Friday, April 10, at a meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club. The event is open to everyone, and it’s a great opportunity to meet candidates and ask them questions. More information about the Pachyderm event is at Pompeo to speak at Pachyderm.
Candidate for the fourth district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Pompeo will speak to the Wichita Pachyderm Club this Friday.
All are welcome to attend. Lunch is $10, or you may attend the meeting only for $3.
At Pachyderm meetings, there’s usually plenty of time for the speaker to take questions from the audience.
The meeting starts at noon, although those wishing to order lunch are encouraged to arrive by 11:45. The location is Whiskey Creek Steakhouse at 233 N. Mosely in Old Town. You can view a map by clicking on Google map of 233 N. Mosely.
In Theft In Name Of Stimulus Is Still Theft, economist Walter E. Williams makes a powerful argument for something that those who love liberty know: self-ownership is the foundation.
“If we accept the idea of self-ownership, then certain acts are readily revealed as moral or immoral. Acts such as rape and murder are immoral because they violate one’s private property rights. Theft of the physical things that we own, such as cars, jewelry and money, also violates our ownership rights.”
Why aren’t some people able to accept this?
The reason why your college professor, politician or minister cannot give a simple yes or no answer to the question of whether one person should be used to serve the purposes of another is because they are sly enough to know that either answer would be troublesome for their agenda.
A yes answer would put them firmly in the position of supporting some of mankind’s most horrible injustices such as slavery. After all, what is slavery but the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another?
A no answer would put them on the spot as well because that would mean they would have to come out against taking the earnings of one American to give to another in the forms of farm and business handouts, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and thousands of similar programs that account for more than two-thirds of the federal budget. There is neither moral justification nor constitutional authority for what amounts to legalized theft.
That’s it right there. It’s really very simple.
I recently experienced how even some religious leaders don’t understand this when I wrote about Kansas Interfaith Power and Light. This organization has a plan, outlined in a Wichita Eagle op-ed written by Moti Rieber and Connie Pace-Adair, to provide programmable thermostats and weatherization rebates to people. How will these things be paid for?
The op-ed doesn’t say so, but how can government give something to one person if it does not take something away from another?
For making this argument, I was told by Rieber that my “philosophy is bankrupt, literally and figuratively.”
(On Williams’ page at George Mason University, the article is titled Our Problem Is Immorality.)