Hellacious Journalistic Fail – UPDATED

MURKOWSKI CONCEDES ALASKA PRIMARY RACE

Seems Alexandra Gutierrez missed the goal post by a mile when she cheerily predicted a landslide win for Murkowski over the Palin backed candidate, Joe Miller.

UNALASKA, Alaska—On Tuesday, in her home state, Sarah Palin’s favorite will probably get trounced. Joe Miller is widely expected to lose by a large margin to incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary—an embarrassing defeat for the former governor, who has endorsed Miller, but also to Miller’s other major backer, the Tea Party Express.

Gee, I hope she didn’t have any money riding on a Murkowski win. Anchorage Daily News (ADN) reports:

With 429 of 438 precincts counted this morning,, Miller had 45,909 votes (51 percent) to 43,949 (49 percent) for Murkowski.

Miller credited the support of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his lead.

“I’m absolutely certain that was pivotal,” he said.

Karma – don’t mess with her.

Oh, I’m not holding out for a mea culpa from Alexandra on this epic fail any time soon.

The Obama Wrecking Ball in Iraq

4,000 men and women died in vain? I hope not.

John Bolton, former ambassador to the UN, sees Obama’s hasty withdraw of troops as a lose-lose situation for America.

Then again, he never was committed to lasting victory in the region:

We Too Shall Overcome – Restoring Honor, Washington DC

MLK March August 28th, 1963

Restoring Honor, August 28, 2010

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, would be proud of the Americans gathered for Restoring Honor, keeping his dream alive.  His niece, Alveda King spoke to the 100,000 gathered on the anniversary of MLK’s speech.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the organizers at Independence Tea Party Association for organizing buses to this event. They filled 28 buses for this rally! They deserve a huge round of applause for this herculean effort.

This was a curious event for my to cover, as I’m not overtly religious and try not to mix politics with my faith. As most of the speeches were televised on CSPAN, I decided to take a closer look at the attendees. The crowds near the jumbotrons and the stage were nearly impossible to push through, so I wandered through the crowds between the WW2 Memorial and the far edge of the reflecting pool. Media of all description were interviewing attendees and I stopped to listen to some of the interviews. I even taped a snippet of one as well. Please note that you will have to turn your volume up to hear the interview; more importantly the focus of the interview was health care, not religion.  Every attendee interview that I encountered appeared well versed in the subject matter of the questions directed to them. The best interview I witnessed was one conducted by a French news agency with two counter protesters. The ‘man’ dressed as Sarah Palin, when asked by the reporter, admitted he felt safe to don his costume in this crowd. How ironic is it that another ‘man’ with the same political outlook as this tool feel free enough to assault me at a Sheepdog rally in 2008. It gives you a real clear idea of where todays political climate of hate and violence really stem from.

My good blogging buddy, Andrew Ian Dodge, has stated in his review of an event he did not witness:

As a result of this event ( Ed. Note: Restoring Honor), Republicans will not win the Senate and it may also hurt their chances to win the House.

I have to vehemently disagree with Andrew on this. What I found at this rally were American patriots from all walks of life who are concerned with this administration’s fiscal instability, over-reaching government intrusion in private industry, and the Obamacare disaster. Oh, they just happen to be openly religious and vote. So what. I’m not intimidated by their religiosity. Somehow, Andrew Ian Dodge finds that condemnation enough.

This gathering of  primarily evangelical Christians, most well informed on the issues, clearly and politely made their case to the lurking main stream media at this event.  I even spied GOProud stickers at this event and missed the opportunity to photograph the stickers as I’m damn sure the MSM ignored it.

What happened at this rally was one not-so-religious blogger found common ground with with the overtly religious.  No, no one tried to convert me (Thank you very much!), but common ground was found in fiscal responsibility, limited government intrusion in our personal lives and in replacing Obamacare.  Even from differing religious perspectives, the uplifting principle of Americans free to build their dreams and creating a better nation for all was clearly communicated at this rally. It is truly the resurgence of the American Dream.

That is the take home message from this rally. Martin Luther King, Jr would be proud of this day and proud of our nation.

I look forward to  November.

FYI: As always, the rally area was left cleaner than it was that morning and safer than normal. I had a great opportunity to remind folks of this at the rally. While walking to the rally, a woman a several feet in front of me unknowingly dropped a considerable amount of cash on the ground. A man behind me quickly alerted her and I could not resist in reminding the crowd around us that if that had happened at an anti war rally, her money would have been history. Quite a few chuckled in agreement, including the lady who recovered her funds.

UPDATES:

Doctor Zero at Hot Air claims 300,000 in attendance. I can’t argue that figure.

Voting Female – Professional race baiter’s are P’Oed.

American Power – Leftists Desperately Seeking Racists

Marooned In Marin has more photos and video of leftist infiltrators

Glenn Beck – Restoring Honor Rally

Pure awesomeness at this rally.  Lot’s of stores to tell. I’ll have a more detailed post for tomorrow, in the meantime, I’d like to share some photos  of the day’s events:

Ed Driscoll catches CNN in an epic fail regarding their coverage of the event.

Mayor Nutter Signals No Confidence In Disgraced Housing Authority Chief

In the most delicate and democratic way:

“The kind of allegations that we are talking about, and they are allegations, but they are serious allegations, they must be addressed, the management of PHA the board of PHA must address these issues, hopefully they are conducting some level of investigation but there must be zero tolerance for that kind of alleged activity.”

Meanwhile, 3 sexual harassment claims against Carl Green have been settled financially, and a fourth suit costing PHA insurance $250,000 was settled on Friday. Yep, nothing to see here folks, just keep moving along.

This is way too much baggage for the city administration to sweep under the rug. I cannot see Green holding on to this $306,000/yr position for very long, and wonder if the job comes with courtesy parking in Philly?

Philly Parking Perks

And the hits just keep coming from Philly, the city that loves to tax bloggers. Now the city provides free parking for the political elite or politically blessed in this fair city. Miriam Hill of the Inquirer reports:

When Mayor Nutter took office, he reduced the number of free parking spaces awarded to city employees and to politically connected local VIPs.

But a lucky few got to keep their free spots, even though they don’t work for the city.

Michael Meehan, general counsel for the Republican City Committee, still parks for free in the 1500 block of Market Street.

He did not return a call seeking comment.

Democratic City Committee Chairman and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady nabbed a space, as did Elmer Brun, Charles Bernard, and Lou Farinella, who also work for the local party as aides to Brady.

Through a representative, they also declined comment.

This translates into a savings on average of $3500 to $4500 a year in parking fees the rest of us are required to pay out. I wonder if they are also exempt from business license fees as well? This is another example of political connections benefiting a select few while the majority foots their expense. Again, I remind my local readers, all 17 members of city council are up for reelection next year. To quote Madam Speaker – “It’s time to drain the swamp”.

August 28th – Restoring Honor at Lincoln’s Knee

August 28th: Beck at Lincoln’s Knee… “Restoring Honor.”

Sarah Palin will be attending the 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally in Washington D.C. along with Glenn, Jo Dee Messina, Ted Nugent, Marcus Luttrell and many more at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Big thanks to Jim Brody from Dead Cats and Clippings for compiling this list of buses leaving for this event. There is still time for you to get on the bus (beats being thrown under the bus!) and spending quality time with your fellow Americans:

Blogging in Philly will now cost $300 for a Business Privilege License.

Gotta love Philly – a midnight blue Democrat city that never found a tax it would not implement. So, if you blog in Philly and partake in advertising, Philadelphia department of revenue wants their cut even if you make no money on this endeavor.

Pay up:

Even though small-time bloggers aren’t exactly raking in the dough, the city requires privilege licenses for any business engaged in any “activity for profit,” says tax attorney Michael Mandale of Center City law firm Mandale Kaufmann. This applies “whether or not they earned a profit during the preceding year,” he adds.

So even if your blog collects a handful of hits a day, as long as there’s the potential for it to be lucrative — and, as Mandale points out, most hosting sites set aside space for bloggers to sell advertising — the city thinks you should cut it a check.

Note, I don’t pursue advertising on this blog and never will. Although, I wonder how this applies to bloggers that accept G-Pal or PayPal donations?

UPDATE: Now would be a good time to remind my local readers that all 17 members of Philadelphia City Council are up for reelection next year. Change begins locally and we surely can find 17 more qualified individuals to run and replace the current council.

Ed Morrissey weighs in on this story, he thinks its crass but legit for the city to demand a license fee. I can’t wait till the city starts demanding a business license for children’s lemonade stands and sundry yard sales that can be found in practically every neighborhood. Like the Cordoba mosque, this is a really bad idea.

Blonde Sagacity looks at the finer point of taxing ‘potential profit’.

First In labels Philly as tax capitol of the world!!!

PaWatercooler has several thoughts on this issue.

Aaron Proctor: Philly’s new blogger tax gouges free speech and free thought

Thanks to all of you who have emailed and offered assistance in changing my blog address. Since I don’t earn any income from this blog via advertising or a tip jar,  I’ve nothing to report on my tax form.  Actually, I’m stunned by the absolute absurdity of this issue.

Conservatism Wins in Austraila

A few months back I wrote a post on Flopping Aces about 12 Australian MP’s resigning rather than voting in support of Australia’s version of Cap&Trade called Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).  It signaled a  sign of uneasiness among the political class to take on the hot item of the day – anthropogenic global warming – in light of the damning  ‘Climate Gate’ emails.

The fallout of ETS and Rudd’s administration backing down from their campaign promise of climate change legislation caused a shake up of the Labor party resulting in Rudd’s replacement.

Now Australia has weighed in and voted the Labor party essentially out of power. Oz will have a coalition government, the first in 70 years. The Age notes this is a huge loss for Labor:

THIS devastating result for the Gillard government is a huge indictment of Labor, which has inexplicably squandered the opportunity the Australian people gave it in 2007.

Inexplicably? Absolute power corrupts, see US Democrat Party. I look forward to November 2, 2010

One final thought: WSJ makes a point that conservatives would be wise to take note of  Tony Abbott’s clear explanation of his conservative principles.

RWN Poll – 25 of the Greatest Figures in American History

As a follow up to the scandalous Worst American’s poll which twisted the knickers of some conservative bloggers, John Hawkins posted to RWN the top 25 conservative picks for the greatest figures in American history.

Below is the list I submitted to John.  The bolded items are the ones that concur with John’s compiled list.

Audie Murphy

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Ben Franklin

John Adams

Abigail Adams

Betsy Ross

Ronald Reagan

General David Petraeus

Thomas Edison

Pierre S. duPont

Phylis Schafley

Claire Booth Luce

Michael A. Monsoor

James Armistead Lafayette

Bill Gates

Albert Einstein

Alexander Graham Bell

Bob Hope

Frank Sinatra

Jimmie Stewart

Grace Kelly

What struck me as I thought of this list  was how many great individuals I had to eliminate because they were not American, interestingly, not one was arabic.  Why is that? Certainly food for thought.

What would your list look like? Post it in the comments section for all to see and dissect 🙂