by Art Smith
BlogRush, a free service that provided a means to network out blog postings to other sites with similar topics, has shut down.
John Reese started the service to helps sites like ours get more traffic. Although we certainly did see a small increase in traffic, our interest in the service here at TCR was in providing easy access for our readers to other resources on the internet that spoke to political topics.
While we certainly have other channels that provide access to the world of political debate, we're disappointed to see John shut down BlogRush. He did not make any money at it, and wasn't focused on that as much as providing a quality service. Evidently, the reasons for shutting down the service (found here) were related to issues[...]
by Fersboo
I've spent the last week--this one leading up to the election next week--thinking about what it is about Barack Obama that really bothers me. I mean, he seems a likeable-enough guy, good-looking, even-tempered, well-spoken. I've read Charles Krauthammer's endorsement of John McCain, and of course, the editorials of my favorite conservatives at the Wall Street Journal, namely Daniel Henninger and Kimberly Strassel. But it was while watching the Dennis Miller piece on The O'Reilly Factor Wednesday night that clarified what it is about Obama that terrifies me. Barack Obama clearly doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, and his entire life story illustrates it.
Barry's mother was from Kansas, and in his first campaign advertisements, he talked about how she gave him her "Midwestern values". Really? How do those values compare to two other notable Kansan's--Bob Dole and Dwight Eisenhower? When was the last time[...]
by Art Smith
Early state-by-state voting numbers are available at this link. For Iowa, we have already had nearly 340,000 votes cast this year. In 2004, there were a total of 1,521,966 votes cast, which means we've already seen over 20% of the 2004 total voting in the early polls! That is awesome, and again speaks to the likelihood that the numbers will likely be even higher than 2004 when the dust settles.
Out of the early numbers, registered Democrats make up 48.9% of the votes, and registered Republicans make up 28.5 (the 22.7% are independent). That does NOT mean that Obama has 49% of the vote in the early polls!
There was TV ad put together by some Hollywood heavyweights that, regardless of the political leanings they may espouse, delivers a message we should all support: every vote counts. Don't let yourself be[...]
by Art Smith
...the Sister Toldjah Review of the Barack Obama Infomercial! The best part is, she absolutely nailed it with this:
He lost me at hello.
So what did the big Obama Event have in common with most other 30 minute infomercials?
- They snag you with a promise of something irresistable
- They convince you that it's possible by providing "real people" to either explain it or testify to it's value
- They play soothing music intended to make you feel good about what you're watching
- Oh yeah, best part, they lie
The only big difference between[...]
by Art Smith
As I've been listening to and contemplating the whole discussion around "spreading the wealth", it's occurred to me that when the wealth is being spread, there's more than just wealth that gets spread.
That's right, the poverty gets spread too.
Of course, calling it "spreading the poverty" might seem too severe, but here's the thing: people have poverty, wealth, or something in between. If you spread one, you spread it all.
My preference now is to think of it as "spreading the mediocrity". As we discussed in the past, providing equal access to economic resources ("spreading the wealth", or "wealth redistribution") is going to lead to a society that is motivated to meet the status quo, to do just enough to get by, to even lower itself to ensure that there is just enough work to either[...]
by Art Smith
The Feds managed to spoil a new plot by apparent amateurs who wanted to try and kill Barack Obama.
Repudiating any attempt to take a life is easy. Seeing what this can mean is a little harder.
Strong emotions are clearly evident across the country, and varying degrees of violence are queuing up to be released in very short order. I am watching people on both ends of the spectrum, and even many in the middle, becoming so charged with anger and frustration, and yet often end up misdirecting their fire. I've been on the receiving end of that recently, and[...]
