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"Arrangement in Gray and Black Fur," popularly known as "Little Kitteh" by Sissy Willis. Digital image. Click here for full size.
"Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1," popularly known as "Whistler's Mother" by James McNeill Whistler. Oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Once again the people sitting in their living rooms in their pajamas are way ahead of the lamestream media, who appear to prefer peddling their tired racist narratives to getting the facts, ma'am, just the facts.
"On Reliable at 11, Derek McGinty, Lauren Ashburn, Eric Deggans on media's astonishing slowness on Trayvon Martin killing & Sharpton's role," Howard Kurtz twittered the lineup for his Sunday show "Reliable Sources" this morning. We appreciate his candor but couldn't resist a little snark in our reply:
Astonishing? I saw it right away. It's why the bloggers and tweeters are leaving Palin's "lamestream" in the dust. :)
Breitbart's Ben Shapiro was on top of it from the start:
We will not stop vetting the media, including Al Sharpton! Persist we much!
Bill Hobbs cut through all the speculation and irresponsible "reportage" [rhymes with garbage] that had whipped up some of our more suggestible fellow Americans into a frenzy:
I have no idea what REALLY happened in Trayvon case, & neither do you. Nor does Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton.
As we've been twittering ourselves the last couple of days:
Sensed in my BONES, from the moment it entered my consciousness that Sharpton was involved, it was laced w lies.
SHARPTON'S INTEREST TOLD ME IT SMELLED: Zimmerman was on ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin.
Now that our "mainstream" betters are starting to ask the questions they should have asked two weeks ago, how will they handle the poison and vitriol of the virtual lynch mob being fomented by members of the New Black Panther Party and other spawn of President Obama's old Harvard Law mentor Derrick Bell's Critical Race Theory?
#LynchMob: RT @dangainor: Terrorists: #NewBlackPanthers offer $10,000 bounty 4 capture of shooter Zimmerman http://bit.ly/GOZ0Gr #Trayvon
Our buddy Pete DaTechGuy isn't holding his breath:
Martin Killing #msm outrage; Black Panther bounty, Black youth killed in cities by other blacks #iseenothing
What's it going to be, Howard Kurtz?
Update: Soros-backed MoveOn is gloating:
The Department of Justice has announced that its Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will investigate Trayvon Martin's death. This is a positive step.
However, the Sanford Police Department has a history of failing to successfully prosecute crimes when the victim is African-American and the alleged assailant is not. Sign the petition to the Department of Justice telling them to launch an investigation of the Sanford Police Department.
Crossposted at Riehl World View.
Rick Santorum talked to supporters at a rally (above) in Moline, Illinois yesterday on the eve of Tuesday's primary, which he's projected to lose to Mitt Romney. Tonight Santorum is in the "next must-win state, Pennsylvantia," where he gave "his own Gettysburg address," following Romney's victory speech, which picked up on Santorum's signature theme. More on that below. (Charlie Riedel / AP Photo)
"The issue in the presidential race is not the economy," but an oppressive government that's taking away people's freedom, Rick Santorum told a Rockford, Illinois rally yesterday on the eve of tonight's primary, even as "polls show the economy is the foremost issue for American voters." But polls, like interviews, are only as good as the questions asked, and we think the WSJ's William McGurn is onto something when he speaks of a candidate "disdained by a media [pollsters included] that literally cannot comprehend what he is saying." Counting himself "among the conflicted," McGurn weighs the pros and cons of "The Improbable Mr. Santorum":
That he is where he is, despite his baggage is more than the latest manifestation of Anyone But Romney. It suggests that a sizable part of America hungers for a leader willing to address the connection between human freedom and larger truths, difficult as that can be.
The press would have us believe that these are zealots itching to make contraception illegal. In reality, they are folks who understand that the combination of expanding government and a permissive society is, in the long run, as lethal to the American Dream as bad economic policy …
Outgunned in both staff and money, disdained by a media that literally cannot comprehend what he is saying, disliked by many in his own party and loathed by the opposition for the same thing — his beliefs — well, there is something admirable about a man who takes it all and refuses to be silenced.
The media may not get it, but it looks like Romney himself is paying attention, as Fox News analyst Dana Perino noted moments ago, dissecting the frontrunner's victory speech:
There's a new theme that he's starting to use: Economic freedom.
Sounds like Romney's channeling Rick Santorum's "connection between human freedom and larger truths," as Santorum himself reiterated just now in his own after-primary speech following Romney's (rough transcription):
The foundational issue in this race, the one that is the cause of the other maladies we are feeling, all boils down to one word, and that's the word freedom.
Governmor Romney is now adopting that theme in his speech tonight, but I've been focussed on this theme in town halls and gatherings across the nation for months. And I know the anxiety people have about an ever-expanding government that is trying to trample our freedoms, whether economic or religious, building a dependency, and if Obamacare is implemented, every single citizen will depend upon the government.
The people I've talked to want someone to stand and fight, not because it's what some pollster tells them to say or because it's on a teleprompter. They want someone who's going to take that power in Washington and give it back to the people
Santorum wrapped things up by referring to some of his rivals' flip-flops, including Gingrich's infamous climate-change endorsement sitting on a couch in front of the Capitol with Nancy Pelosi, then closed the deal with this zinger:
I'm not going to change with the climate.
Update: Speaking for the talking-head community Wednesday morning, WaPo token "conservative" Jennifer Rubin pegs us:
Sure, there are bitter dead-enders who insist Santorum is still in the fight and who are certain if the voters only understood that Romneycare has an individual mandate Romney’s support would crumble. But these will, if they haven’t already, be seen as cranks.
Crossposted at Riehl World View.
"There is hope for our Nation again / Maybe for the First time Since we Had Ronald Reagan," home-schooled Tulsa, Oklahoma sisters Camille and Haley Harris of First Love Band (above) sing their hearts out in a foot-tapping, All-American video that's gone viral: "Yes I believe Rick Santorum is our man! / Game ON! He's got the Plan / Lower Taxes, Raise Morale, To Put the Power in our Hands."
"This race is coming down to the economy, the deficit and control of your life, which is ObamaCare," an upbeat Daniel Henninger quoted Rick Santorum on the campaign trail Super Tuesday Eve in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, noting parenthetically that "there was no mention of contraception, gays or the role of women."
In August, no one thought this guy would be toe-to-toe with the Romney machine in March. What happened?
I went to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Monday to find out. Out of 1,189,530 votes cast the next day in bellwether Ohio, Mr. Santorum lost to Mitt Romney by only 10,288, at last count. He's doing something right, and what one learned in Cuyahoga Falls, an Akron suburb, is that it doesn't have much to do with the famous Santorum controversies over social issues. It's about ObamaCare. And it's about the idea of freedom.
A mind-focussing, dueling-videos embodiment of the cultural-wars divide: This season's wholesome Heartland hotties' First Love Band Santorum video (top of post) vs the steamy "viral video of 2007," Obama Girl's "Crush on Obama (above) that includes raunchy double-entendre subtitles like "Universal health care reform / it makes me warm … Up in the Oval Office you'll get your head of state … I like it when you get hard on Hillary in debate." Take your pick.
While mainstream media types were obsessing all week over an Obama-friendly, manufactured crisis — Don't ever let one go to waste! — that the White House and its fellow travelers were frantically trying to spin as a Republican "War on Women," Rick Santorum was quietly going about his rounds under the radar in towns like Cuyahoga Falls. Henninger explains:
In any other election, complaining about the size of government might be GOP boilerplate. Not now. Mr. Santorum put the current moment's elevated concern about government in broader context. Of regulation, he said: "There's been this huge explosion of the federal government … I've talked to so many business people who say, 'I could live with Clinton, Bush, it was a little better, but I'm spending all my time trying to figure out what this president is doing next to me.'"
Henninger nails it this morning on Fox:
The deficit, the economy and the right to run your life … I think Santorum has tapped into something that none of us had recognized.
I think he's finally found his way to an idea that resonates. Under Obama, government has gottten bigger and bigger. It's gotten too big. Obama is impinging on their space.
The day Santorum's status rose is the day he turned to Mitt Romney and took apart RomneyCare piece by piece. It is that word, the mandate, the forcing mechanism that resonates.
"Something that none of us had recognized." Ties in nicely with the Twitter hashtags of the week, #VetThePrez and #VetThePress as the late Andrew Brietbart's re-enspirited Breitbart.com and Michelle Malkin's new curator-rich Twitchy.com flood the social media space with the facts, ma'am, just the facts.
We know it's unfair, but compare this image of First Love Band's littlest player (above) with the sluttish Obama Girl of half a decade ago. :)
This just in on Fox as we go to press:
A good day for Rick Santorum. He swept Kansas caucuses with 57% of the vote.
"This election is about big things … We have to have a nominee who can get up there and draw a clear contrast with the President of the United States."
Crossposted at Riehl World View.
"If there's one particular issue that breaks the camel's back with respect to this election, that is the issue of Obamacare," says Oklahoma primary winner Rick Santorum this evening, addressing supporters in his neck-and-neck Ohio victory speech. "Once the government has control of your life, then they've got you." (Getty images)
"You lucked out," joshed Sarah Palin moments ago as she granted a spur-of-the-moment mini-interview to an ecstatic CNN reporter lurking on the fringes of the Wasilla polling place where Sarah and Todd were exercising their franchise this evening. Flashing only a metaphorical ankle in response to the reporter's question, the Mama Grizzly taunted:
"As I said, anything is possible and I don’t close any doors that would be open out there" …
Asked to list what she sees as the top campaign issues, Palin said it is a “combination of the economy and military needs” …
"Things are up in the air. I don't know. Anybody but Obama."
The boys and girls back at CNN headquarters were giddy — pardon our wordplay — peeing in their pants at the thrill of it all. One of them, possibly Anderson Cooper, seemed surprised at how alert Governor Palin was, articulate and up on current events, nothing like the clueless caricature spun out of thin air in the wake of Katie Curic's gotcha interview back in the fall of 2008. For those attuned to her dog whistle, Palin's vision of the Shining City has been out there all along. Bored with their own tired narratives, is the lamestream media ready for a fresh look?
As we go to press:
Rick Santorum has won the Republican primary in Oklahoma, according to exit polls, his second victory of the night after Tennessee.
Oklahoma is a key win over well-funded rival Mitt Romney, signaling that the GOP race is likely to extend long beyond this Super Tuesday.
Update: Newt's the one, Sarah tells Neil Cavuto on Fox Business News:
It is tough for me to spin out of a question like that when it comes from a Fox reporter. If it comes from another reporter, I can spin out of it. Since it came from you, I will tell you, I won’t sound like a politician and I will tell you who I voted for tonight … My preference tonight was for the cheerful one.
Crossposted at Riehl World View.
"She just paints whoever inspires her," twittered Mandy Nagy — aka Liberty Chick — last summer, referring to her mother's expressionistic portrait of Andrew Breitbart (detail above). "This is my war cry for 2012. You need to join me in my war against the institutional left. This is not your mother's Democratic party. Duh!" the social-media provocateur extraordinaire told a CPAC12 audience recently.
"We've lost our Samuel Adams," twittered Mark Tapscott midmorning. "Thoughtful, passionate, complicated. Actually challenged liberals to be better at arguing for what we believe in" said liberal FoxNews contributor Sally Kohn. "Back to blogging!" admonished comrade-in-arms Susie, aka Stoutcat, adding her tears to the torrent of heartbreak, fond memories and renewed resolve that drowned out all else in our twitterstream and on Fox as word emerged, disbelieving tweet by tweet, of Andrew Breitbart's untimely death at age 43 from natural causes. Susie's hashtag, a play on Glenn Reynolds's Army of Davids, resonates:
An Army of Andrews [#armyofandrews]
Like the conspiratorial "dog whistle" of our statist adversaries' nightmares, Breitbart's passing was a call-to-arms for the freedom fighters to ratchet up our defense of the Shining City. "In his honor, I'll fight harder," vowed Lori Ziganto, aka Snark and Boobs, and from our twitterfriend Rachelle Friberg, gratitude and sorrow:
"Thank you, Andrew Breitbart, for inspiring young blogging journalists like me. You will really be missed :(
"I am Andrew Bretbart right now, and if you are a blogger on the right, so are all of you," declared Peter of DaTechguyBlog:
On the left there are plenty of people celebrating (literally on twitter right now) but the line from Spartacus was never more true than today: He'll be back and he'll be millions.
I know because I'm one of those millions, and if you are a blogger or radio host on the right who has gotten involved in the last few years, so are you …
He understood better than almost anyone else that it was the stories the media refused to cover, more than what they actually said, that really was the lifesblood and power of the MSM leftist bias
To your stations, bloggers, and disintermediate at will!
Update: "God bless you, Andrew. Rest in peace, friend. We will continue the fight," promises that other tireless disintermediator of the powers that be, Sarah Palin:
For me, just one of those memories was in Pella, Iowa, last year after the premiere of “The Undefeated.” Andrew held court in the restaurant at the local hotel talking about his favorite topic: how “culture is upstream of politics” and how conservatives must be unafraid to fight the leftwing media, cultural, and political establishments. The loss of his voice in this fight will be deeply felt, but thankfully his work lives on at his “Bigs,” and thank God for his inspiration and leadership.
Update II: Professor Reynolds links. Be sure to check out related links, including this from that other professor, at Legal Insurrection:
I've often wondered where to go with this blog. I now know.
Crossposted at Riehl World View.
Garrett Dash Nelson
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Dem Apples doesn’t have to be a mere repository of apostrophic debates about liberalism and ironically amusing comments by slightly off-kilter cat women
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One more nose-bite to you, Blogmother.
Pat Santy
Dr. Sanity
Sissy Willis at sisu puts on her psychological hat in this excellent post.
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