RedState on the radio

Wake up to Erick:

Today from 6:00 am ET to 9:00 am ET, I'm launching RedState Radio.

Surprise.

My friend Chris Krok left WMAC-AM in Macon, GA for Dallas, TX. I have filled in for him on occasion in the past and . . . well . . . today Cumulus is turning the reins over to me full time, at least for a little while.

It's a 50,000 watt station and it broadcasts Rush Limbaugh. I'm excited, but getting up at 4:30 in the morning regularly is gonna suck.

I won't be there for a long time. They'll get a permanent host. But in the meantime, you can listen to me live every day by clicking here or going to http://www.wmac-am.com/.

The call in number is 478-742-0940.

As Dr. Seuss said, "Oh, the places you'll go...."

Obama's "Lies of the Union" address

Unbelievable, pull-your-hair-out words came out of the mouth of Barack Obama during his "Lies of the Union" address before the American people Wednesday night.

Erick Erickson at RedState nailed him:

Tonight, Barack Obama said, "To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.

"That's what I came to Washington to do. That's why - for the first time in history - my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that's why we've excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions."

Maybe this explains why his national security policies are so weak. He put William Lynn in the Pentagon as Deputy Defense Secretary. Mr. Lynn was a lobbyist for Defense Contractor Ratheon. I guess the Deputy Defense Secretary is not a policy-making job.

Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed].

Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association.

William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive.

William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use.

David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.

Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs.

Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.

Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003.

Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.

Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president's assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005.

The mainstream media are criminally negligent, in my opinion, in not doing their jobs. No wonder there is a continuing rise in the conservative blogosphere ... but I keep holding out for a few journalists who will actually be concerned for their country and do the right thing by beginning to bring the discrepancies to light.

Meanwhile, Fox News continues to lead in truthful reporting as millions flock to them for fair and balanced news coverage.

Thank goodness for top-rated Glenn Beck, #1 talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, #2 radio host Sean Hannity, Red State and all the other conservative internet outlets ... and of course the top-rated Fox News Channel.

Our work has just begun.

Petition: Protest NYC civilian trial for terrorist

From Erick Erickson at RedState....

Stop what you are doing. I need your help real quick.

Go here and sign this petition.

It is to protest the civilian trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City. Human Events put it together and I'm glad to put my name on it. We're going to deliver this petition to the government and protest this senseless act by Barack Obama.

I don't know how many people are going to get killed because Obama would rather lawyer up than soldier up, but we need to make sure the government knows the American people think this KSM trial is nuts.

Please sign the petition. If you want more info, please read Jed Babbin's fantastic column today on the KSM trial.

RedState's Erickson on Fox News' "Sean Hannity" tonight

RedState's Erick Erickson will be a guest panelist on Sean Hannity's "Great American Panel" ... tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Many have filled out the three-person panel the past months including Virginia's former Gov. George Allen and former RPV Chairman Kate Obenshain. Tune in to hear a blogger's perspective.

Neither snow nor rain ~ nor flu ~ will keep RedState from its daily update

I laughed as I read Erick Erickson's post today cataloging the events that led up to his morning updates from RedState along with the hurdles he had overcome the past year ... and it reminded me of the unofficial post office motto:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

The post office backs away from that creed ... but not Erick.

I silently thanked him.

RedState updates start my mornings with information, news, insight, and opinion. It takes dedication to be that consistent, as demonstrated by the fact they are right there in my inbox on a regular basis. As Erick wrote:

For the past year, I have churned out the Morning Briefing every single week day except Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and now this week, New Years Eve and New Years Day.

Over the past year I’ve had the flu, taken a vacation, had a nasty stomach bug, and still before bed each night I’ve put the Morning Briefing together and then gotten up at four o’clock each morning to put the final touches on it, update it as needed, and get it off to be of use to conservatives across the country. Through rain, shine, sleet, snow, the occasional technical outage, stomach bugs, summer, fall, winter, and spring the Morning Briefing gets out the door every morning before 5:00 a.m.

It has been a real joy to get up each morning knowing I am having a measurable impact and offering real help to conservatives. I’d like to give a special thanks to the sponsors who now help cover the costs of a growing email. I couldn’t do it without them.

And I would not do it without all of you who read it. God bless you all. Have a happy and safe new year. The Morning Briefing will be in your inbox bright and early Monday morning, January 4th. I promise.

I believe it. Thanks, Erick.

Fighting back

"The point which strikes me most strongly is SusanAnne's emphasis on the courage to fight, which requires the willingness to become a target. Americans love a fighter." --Robert Stacey McCain (The Other McCain)

Mr. McCain takes a look at a post on RedState by SusanAnne who researches and fills in the blanks that are overlooked or ignored by others, and she specifically slaps Michael Barone on the wrist for not following through. For example, she takes Mr. Barone to task for not fully explaining the Al Franken win in Minnesota:

In analyzing the Franken-Coleman senatorial race, it doesn’t simply come down to ‘if only 157 Franken voters would have voted for Coleman, then Coleman would have won’ mentality. When, in fact, on election night:

Mr. Franken trailed Mr. Coleman by 725 votes after the initial count on election night, and 215 after the first canvass.

York does not mention this fact as well as the main factor in overturning the election results was the strategy to challenge the rules to secure a victory with a proven technique.

The Democrat’s strategy from the start was to manipulate the recount in a way that would discover votes that could add to his total. The Franken legal team swarmed the recount, aggressively demanding that votes that had been disqualified be added to his count, while others be denied for Mr. Coleman.

So to simply say that ‘if only voters voted for Coleman, then’….one cannot do.

Mr. Barone does a good job in his analysis and I agree with him ... but SusanAnne makes an extremely important point. Too often Republicans let the press define their issues and frame the story without rebutting. An example is Hurricane Katrina, which she also addresses:

Katrina, although a state and local issue, in addition to a personal responsibility issue as the residents did have mandatory evacuation orders, the GOP and Bush administration took the fall, rather than the irresponsible residents who violated the mandatory evacuation order and mismanagement by Democrat mayor and Democrat governor of Lousiana.

It continues to this day as the MSM give Barack Obama a pass on issues they would have excoriated President Bush about. Currently the Obamas are in Hawaii on Christmas vacation even though a terrorist attack took place in Detroit on Christmas Day. There have been no howls of protest from the MSM about Obama being away from Washington, and nothing about his silence for two days after the foiled attack.

After Katrina, the MSM took the opportunity to turn on President Bush:

... it was at this time that the MSM started its ground assault of the Bush administration and mauling of the GOP. And the GOP never fought back. Bush never fought back.

With this defeatist attitude, the MSM reshaped conservative thought to hate Bush, creating apathy and division in the Republican party, and ultimately causing Republicans to vote Democrat or stay home on election day in 2008.

I do not believe it was a "defeatist" attitude that kept the Bush administration silent but, instead, it may have been their desire not to get into a mud battle with the media. In retrospect that may have been a miscalculation but we all would like to have 20/20 hindsight especially in politics.

SusanAnne go on to add:

In reality, the American people crave a party to take on the media, Democrats, and corruption. Just look at Joe Wilson, Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart, Rush, Hannity, Beck, Tea Partiers, and our own Erick Erickson. Look at Fox’s sky-high ratings. All signs of the American people’s thirst for knowledge and someone–anyone–to stand up against Obama, Congress, the media, and the left. And those who do get major support from the GOP base.

Mr. McCain noted that Americans love a fighter, and that definitely applies to Virginians. We are, after all, the home state of Patrick "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" Henry.

"Cash for Clunkers" is a failed clunker

Remember when the mainstream media were singing the praises of the wonderful "Cash for Clunkers" program? Where are they now when car dealerships are not receiving payment from the government, when reportedly only 2% have been reimbursed, and everything is bogged down in paper work and red tape?

RedState has it right: Cash for Clunkers is an epic failure.

And this is what the Democrats want to do to America's health care?

How much to buy out a traitor?

"Judas only needed 30 pieces of silver to sell out Christ. How much did these four need to sell out their country?"

So wrote Erik Erickson at RedState of the four Democrat Blue Dogs who sold out on ObamaCare. He has names and phone numbers of those "conservative" Democrats who caved.

Background on Sarah Palin bashing ...

Glenn Beck talked with Erick Erickson from RedState a week ago about what was happening with Sarah Palin. I missed this interview earlier but it is enlightening and worth reading.

RedState: "NBC backs down on Freedom's Watch ads"

RedState's latest post on the Freedom's Watch ads that were banned by NBC:

Scott at Power Line reports that NBC has backed down (or "has decided to amend its standards and practices") from its refusal to air the Freedom's Watch holiday ads thanking the troops.

Good news, indeed! Read the entire post here.

NBC lawyer who nixed troop ad is a dem donor

H/T to Jerry at From On High for calling attention to RedState's post about the NBC lawyer who was part of the decision for NBC's refusal to air the Freedom's Watch ads thanking American troops during the holidays.

NBC Lawyer who nixed troop ad gives generously to Congressional Democrats (from redstate.com):

According to a Fox News report, Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC/Universal, was one of two network officials who decided not to sell ad time to Freedom’s Watch, which describes itself as “a nonpartisan movement dedicated to preserving, protecting, and defending conservative principles and promoting a conservative agenda.”

According to FEC records, Cotton has been a generous donor to Democrat campaigns and liberal causes. Earlier this year, he donated $1,000 to the political action committee (PAC) of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and last year gave the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) $7,000.

Over the past decade, Cotton has contributed at least $45,000 to Congressional Democrats, including $2,000 each to Clinton and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). (link)

As Jerry said, "Are we surprised?"