Riehl World View

Sarah Palin: The Tea Party is real winner of the debate

"I was very pleased with this debate, and, you know, very excited about the validation of the Tea Party movement," Sarah Palin told Greta Van Susteren last night in a meaty analysis of the CNN/TeaPartyExpress debate that echoed our own take and set our woman-up, fight-like-a-girl heart on fire. Listen to full interview here.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

While some of our favorite bloggers and columnists and talking heads debated the winners and losers of last night's CNN/TeaPartyExpress GOP primary debate, a shoot-to-where-it's-going, not-to-where-it's-been Sarah Palin disintermediated the usual premise of judging these contests. As she explained to Greta Van Susteren in a landmark "On the record" post-debate interview last night …

Click here for full post.

Rick Perry: "Galileo got outvoted for a spell"

 

As a Palinista from day one, we're still "undecided," but we loved this from Texas Governor Rick Perry (above) at last night's GOP primary debate: "Galileo got outvoted for a spell … Find out what the science truly is before you start putting the American economy in jeapordy." This morning irony-challenged MSNBC talking heads joked about whether Perry saw himself as Galileo, unaware that it is they themselves, our friends on the left side of the aisle, who are the Roman Inquisitors of our day.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"You yourself have said the party is in danger of becoming anti-science. Who on this stage is anti-science?" MSNBC whatshisname taunted flat-earther Jon Huntsman at last night's Republican primary debate. Darwinian libertarian that we are, we've been horrified for some time at the left's conflation of the science of evolution that we embrace with the mumbo-jumbo secular religion of anthropogenic global warming/climate change. We've been on the left's AGW case for two decades, at least, since Andrea Mitchell (God bless her now in her time of genuine sorrow) acknowledged her lack of objectivity way back when …

Read full post here.

Anti-Palin tempest in a teapot? "Fog of war describes Twitter in a nutshell"

"This has been a long tease with Sarah Palin, and at some point that tease has just got to go away. What's going to happen next," snickered Laura Ingraham (above left) to guest Ann Coulter last night as the two blonde bombshells shared what struck us as a covenly caterwaul over the Mama Grizzly's disintermediating GOP primary tactics. Twitter buddy Charles @repub9989 thinks it's a jealous-woman thing, but then there's Red State's Erick Erickson's complaint. See below for more, and click here for The Right Scoop's video.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"Fog of war describes Twitter in a nutshell," twittered Moe Lane this afternoon in response to our attempt to defuse a friendly-fire incident over our blogfriend's preference for announced Lone-Star candidate Rick Perry vs our own first love, unannounced shoot-to-where-it's-going Sarah Palin:

Oh. Didn't realize you were a Perry supporter. Just retweeting a tweet that made sense to me. Reminds me of the fog of war.

We were but two hand-to-hand combatants in an army of cyberwarriors locked in a fiery internecine battle that erupted this morning between Palinistas and everyone else on our side of the aisle in the wake of a dishy catfest last night between mischief-maker Ann Coulter and host Laura Ingraham, subbing for O'Reilly …

Read full post here.

"First Responders and Clergyfolk are not very important to the powerful and the enlightened"

"Join us and thousands of patriots at the AFDI/SIOA 911 Freedom Rally at Ground Zero on the afternoon of September 11th. We will have a priest and a rabbi for the invocation as part of our program (just as we did last year). Be there," writes our sister grizzly in arms Pamela Geller from the front lines of the battle to retake the Shining City. Above, our own photo of The Divine Miss G at Joe Lieberman's victory party back in November of 2006.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"Sissy Willis, are you trying to start a revolt? :-)" twitters Elizabeth Scalia aka The Anchoress in reponse to our response to her fightin' words this evening regarding NYC Mayor Bloomberg's smug pronouncement that no first responders nor religious are welcome at the Big Apple's 10th-anniversary observance of 9/11. Quoting one of her commenters, we twittered:

I say that the people who MATTER should organize a memorial of their own. Just show up.

It turns out our old friend Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs is way ahead of the curve (see caption above). To get ourselves and our readers up to speed on the issues, a few excerpts from Scalia's transcendent must-read rant, some more telling comments from her commenters and finally our own take. Here's Elizabeth …

Read full post here.

Whither goest thou? "Only a living thing can go against the stream"

 "Against the Tide" by Rob Colvin.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"Shorter NYT: Tea party is out of the mainstream because members are white, religious and socially conservative," twitter buddy Hale Razor writes re Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell's inadvertently self-revelatory New York Times op ed, "Crashing the Tea Party," a fact-challenged, politically correct dismissal of us and our fellow constitutional conservatives as "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'" A couple of paragraphs, and then some analysis:

GIVEN how much sway the Tea Party has among Republicans in Congress and those seeking the Republican presidential nomination, one might think the Tea Party is redefining mainstream American politics.

But in fact the Tea Party is increasingly swimming against the tide of public opinion: among most Americans, even before the furor over the debt limit, its brand was becoming toxic … Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right. 

Swimming against the tide, indeed. Redefining mainstream American politics is what the tea party has always been about, gentlemen, notwithstanding the last-gasp efforts of the powers that be like you and your fellow travelers in Sarah Palin's "lamestream media" to demonize us into oblivion …

Read full post here.

King or kingmaker, Sarah Palin's heart and mind will energize seekers of wisdom and truth

Sarah Palin and Herman Cain embrace at Iowa State Fair. "Have heard Herman Cain is warm and energizing in person. I fell for him way back when, used a quote in Tea Party sign," we twittered Ginny aka ginthegin this afternoon, quoting the man with a plan: "Stay inspired: We the people are still in charge." 

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"King or kingmaker, her heart and mind will energize seekers of wisdom and truth," we twittered libertarian twitter friend Doug Mataconis this afternoon in response to his smiley-snarky challenge to our abiding faith in the Mama Grizzly who beckons us to "woman up" and "fight like a girl":

If you think Palin has any chance in a General Election, I want some of whatever drug you're trippin' on :)."

Even as Texas Governor Rick Perry upstaged the usual Iowa Straw Poll suspects with a rousing call to arms this afternoon — throwing his hat in the ring at the Red State Gathering of bloggers [!] in South Carolina and putting the democrat smear-mongers on high alert — Sarah Palin was playing hard to get …

Read full post here.

John Kerry vs Tea Party: It's the Rubber Duckie, stupid

"I have to tell ya. I say this to you politely," John Kerry said impolitely to MSNBC's Morning Joe audience the other day, parrotting the Journolist talking-points meme of the day, Tea Party as illegitimate "hostage taker" of the nation's political debate over the debt deal. "Balanced approach" and "compromise" were the plebe-polled words of choice, but a number of the Tea Party freshmen weren't buying. "It doesn't deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do," pontificated the "seared, seared" Senator Kerry. We guess it depends upon what your definition of "legitimate" is.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

So much blog fodder, so little time. Two items. First, this from our reality-challenged friends on the left side of the twittersphere:

The only thing keeping the GOP in charge of this country is the corrupted media. Take that away, and these jerks are done.

Who knew the GOP — with the White House and half the Congress held by the opposition and the MSM in their pocket — was in charge? Must be those terrorist Tea Party types holding John Kerry & Company hostage. 'Course we couldn't agree more about "the corrupted media," but just who are "these jerks" they refer to? In our parallel universe it's always been the media's fellow travelers on the left side of the aisle that weight the scales in favor of the progressive narrative. Which leads us to our second item, an eureka moment of what is wrong with the Gramscian project. See below …

Read full post here.

From violent, racist "teabaggers" to debate changers with a seat at the table

"If a good political compromise is one that has something for everyone to hate, then last night's bipartisan debt-ceiling deal is a triumph," says the WSJ this morning: "The big picture is that the deal is a victory for the cause of smaller government, arguably the biggest since welfare reform in 1996." Enough of a "balanced approach" for you, Mr. President? It's the momentum, stupid (see below). Above, image of Kitty Hawk Class aircraft carrier.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"I'm with you on this," twitters Mary Katharine Ham as others out here in the twittersphere and blogosphere with whom we usually agree are scoffing at debt-ceiling-deal headlines this morning like the Wall Street Journal's "A Tea Party Triumph" or Mark Thiessen's piece in the WaPo, "How the Tea Party 'hobbits' won the debt fight." Here's MK:

Is it a giant victory for American people? No, but by pathetic Congressional measures, it's a step forward.

We agree. As we twittered back to our protesting friends:

Metaphor that works for me: Changing direction of aircraft carrier. Slow it down, keeps going in same direction awhile.

Consider, too, turnaround of Tea Party in MSM narrative. From violent, racist "teabaggers" to debate changers with a seat at the table.

Not to mention the lame Tea Partier as terrorist meme the President and his crew were desperately trying to sell the American public last week. Their attempts at demonizing us are being overtaken by events …

Read full post here.

Jack Dorsey's Twitter Town Hall: By Obama, for Obama

"The first-ever presidential forum on Twitter was undercut by the commander-in-chief himself, as President Obama answered questions from average Americans with a tide of talking points that went uninterrupted and unchallenged, short-circuiting the event’s populist potential," summarizes the Boston Herald's Jessica Van Sack, who watched Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey's "Twitter Town Hall" so we didn't have to. Above, a comely attendee lifts her iPad beside the East Room door at what one critic who blogs at Harvard Business Review is calling "a Meaningless Marketing Stunt." (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) 

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"How can we make Twitter Town Halls better in the future? And not just for the US government, but any government," twittered Twitter co-founder and enthusiastic Obama supporter Jack Dorsey following yesterday's predictably stilted, "first-ever presidential forum on Twitter," unwittingly revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of American Exceptionalism and the Shining City …

How to make future Twitter Town Halls better? As we twittered in response,

Try to remember that here in the USA town halls are not for the GOVT but for the PEOPLE.

Read full post here.

Jedediah Bila: "Elitism is what's eating away at our country"

Like many of her admirers, we first came upon leg-chair lovely Jedediah Bila early one morning in the "take-no-prisoners" parry and thrust of Greg Gutfeld's "Red Eye" on Fox.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"I always have thought that elitism — on the left and the right — is what's eating away at our country," writes "Hot Conservative American" columnist and commentator Jedediah Bila in her new book, Outnumbered: Chronicles of a Manhattan Conservative, an album of anecdotal moments in the making of a "conservative girl with a twist" …

Read full post here.