The Media Cornucopia

It’s a Golden Age of media—but not for long, if the Left has its way.

And speaking of new media, Adam D. Thierer at City Journal brings us this extended article which should be required reading for His Majesty Senator Lott in order to instruct him about the ways in which the media universe has changed. For those individuals in the Washington elite who have become disconnected from the regular people, this article should be very helpful. In it, we learn how the number of media choices has exploded in recent years. Where once there were but a handful of outlets for news and information, now there are more channels of information than anyone could possibly hope to use in a lifetime. Perhaps Senator Lott should start listening to some of them.

The emergence of new media is important because it allows the voice of regular Americans to be heard on an equal playing field with traditional liberal old media. Indeed, new media regularly goes up against old media and wins significant victories, such as when bloggers discovered Dan Rather's attempt to put forth forged documents in the Rathergate memo scandal. Were it not for the Internet and the rest of new media, that story would have been taken at face value and never questioned. But because of the existence of new media, a lie and a fraud put forward by old media was quickly brought to light and CBS was discredited and shown to be offering fabricated news as fact. In the new media age it is far more difficult for old media dinosaurs to put out lies and disinformation without being caught red handed.

Most importantly, new media allows opinion and ideas to reach the public in their pure form, unfiltered by the liberal censors and their agenda. In the past, liberal media could suppress those aspects of a story, or ideas associated with it, in such a way as to spin the news in the direction that they wished. Often what was left out of a story was critical to an objective understanding of it. But today, with the availability of new media, one can get all of the information that is available about a story or issue, bypassing the liberal filters that used to "protect" us from inconvenient information that undermined the leftist world view. The beauty of the new media is that it allows a level of detail that one needs to understand the complexity of issues that we face, and not just the short sound bites that the MSM feeds us to keep us from a full understanding of events.

Becoming an informed citizen has never been easier. You can get up in the morning and still read your (probably liberal) local paper and several national ones—say, the Wall Street Journal (right-of-center editorial page) and USA Today (more or less centrist). Walk to the newsstand and you’ve got political magazines galore, from the Marxist New Left Review to the paleoconservative The American Conservative. On cable and satellite television: CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX News, PBS, local news, the big networks (at least for now), the BBC, C-SPAN, community access shows—all offer a wide variety of news and information options, some around the clock. Turn on the car radio and Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity booms out at you from the right; or maybe you can tune in to Sirius Left on satellite.

The Internet has done more to create the sort of media that scarcity critics claim to desire than any other technology. Every man, woman, and child can have a “newspaper” or broadcast outlet today—it’s called a website, blog, or podcast. It’s hard to imagine how the political blogosphere could be more diverse, ranging from the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post on the left to National Review Online and Power Line on the right to Andrew Sullivan, Instapundit, and Buzz Machine somewhere in between. A political junkie must hustle to keep up with what RealClearPolitics posts on its site every day.

Talk Radio is Running America

And apparently he thinks that is a bad thing

Based on this story from Slate.com, I think we can conclude that Trent Lott deserves to be removed from the senate. The reason should be obvious; he no longer remembers who his rightful employer is. Instead, he thinks he has some sort of right to his job in perpetuity regardless of his job performance, or lack thereof. And like so many in the elites, he has become disconnected from the people who sent him to Washington in the first place.

Of course, talk radio is only one of several new media outlets that allow the voice of the regular people to be heard. And this new media world is, indeed, having an effect on the lives of those who, like Lott, used to be comfortable and complacent in their arrogance and aloof distance from the citizens in fly-over-country. Well, welcome to the new media world Mr. Lott. From now on, your employers will be keeping a much closer eye on you.

The Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who supports the bill, said: "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem."

The Republicans’ Hispanic Delusion

Amnesty is not just wrong in principle, it’s bad politics

Heather Mac Donald brings us this article in City Journal in which she points out that Republicans are operating under a false assumption if they think that a massive new influx of Hispanic immigrants will somehow increase the numbers in the Republican party. The facts are otherwise. As demonstrated in California, there is little evidence to think that Mexican immigrants who are poorly educated and lower class will suddenly discover the wisdom of Rand, Hayek and von Mises when it comes to economics. Nor are they going to start reading The Federalist Papers anytime soon.

Indeed, one can't help but think that there is a false and unspoken assumption here about immigrants generally. Many people around the globe can see that America is a country that is wealthy and successful. And many people want to come here as a result of our economic success. But it is a mistake to believe, as many in the Republican leadership apparently do, that just because you want to come here, that you automatically understand the reasons why America has become the economic powerhouse that it is.

In my own personal experience I have met many Russian immigrants, for example, who when I question them, demonstrate that they have no real clue about the underlying free market principles that have made this country's progress possible. These Russians have instead brought all of their old intellectual baggage with them from their home country and thus do not see the cause and effect relationship between the ideas of liberty and economic freedom on the one hand, and the astounding level of America's economic progress on the other. They know that they are richer here than they were at home, but they have no understanding of the reasons for the difference, or even that there are underlying reasons at all. To them it an inexplicable mystery. As Rand would have said, to them it is as if America's wealth is a fact of nature, not to be explained or even investigated.

Thus, an individual who has been brought up in an atmosphere of soft Socialism or Marxism, which is so prevalent elsewhere around the globe, will be unlikely to develop a sudden interest in free market economics or the philosophy of liberty to which they have not previously been exposed. And this is even more true for those with little or no education. Republicans in the leadership who think otherwise have not spent enough time thinking through the implications of their assumptions or looking at the factual evidence at hand. Had they done so, they would not hold the views on this issue that they do, and they would not be so impatient to inject hordes of uneducated people with socialist sympathies into our system who are unlikely to understand our way of life, or maintain our country's institutions for future generations.

Grassfire

Well, they just don't want to give up. Once again our "leaders" in the Senate have gone behind closed doors to find a way to jam the amnesty bill down our collective throats. Grassfire has the details. I have made calls this morning to my senators as well as some of the Republicans who need to be reminded of just who is in charge. If you have not yet called to make your views known, now is the time. (HT: Michell Malkin)

I was just informed that the back-room plan is currently underway to bring Bush-Kennedy back and get it quickly passed through the Senate. I call it "amendments for amnesty."

Here's what's happening.

President Bush and the Amnesty Republicans are attempting to convince about a dozen Republicans to support "cloture" on Bush-Kennedy in exchange for a commitment that a set list of amendments will be considered -- thus, "amendments for amnesty."

Also, Bush and the amnesty leaders are strong-arming conservatives into accepting the "amendments for amnesty" deal or face being banished into Senate oblivion.

Amnesty Republicans have already submitted their list of amendments to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Once the "amendments for amnesty" deal is finalized between Reid and the Republicans, the bill will be quickly brought back to the floor. The amendments will be defeated and amnesty passed...

...this is the FOURTH TIME our leaders have gone behind closed doors to work out some secret scheme to get this bill passed. Despite unprecedented and overwhelming grassroots opposition, they think they can still pull off their legislative, slight-of-hand trickery!

+ + Call to Action #1 -- Call these Senators and say you oppose this "Amendments for Amnesty" deal

Sen. Hagel (202) 224-4224
Sen. Nelson (202) 224-6551

Key Senators to call:

McConnell 202/224-2541
Lott 202/224-6253
Kyl 202/224-4521
Brownback 202/224-6521
Burr 202/224-3154
Chambliss 202/224-3521
Cornyn 202/224-2934
Hutchison 202/224-5922
Isakson 202/224-3643
Warner 202/224-2023
Webb 202/224-4024

Pew Poll: Some American Muslims OK With Terrorism

With the issue of the illegal alien amnesty bill jam down taking up so much time and energy of late, I did not get a chance to link to this report from The Pew Research Center. The report is titled in such a way as to make a claim about American Muslims that is designed to assuage concerns about home grown terrorism in the general public. Pew wants us to be docile. But if you look deeper at the numbers in the report a different and disturbing picture emerges. One third of U.S. Muslims are not concerned about the rise of extermism in America, even with the many instances of thwarted terrorist plots that we have seen recently. And even more troubling is the finding that 8 per cent of Muslims consider suicide terrorist bombings to be justified at least some of the time. Based on the studies own numbers, that would be 8 per cent of the 1.5 million adult Muslims in the country. That's a lot of terrorist sympathizers.

You can download the full report in pdf format here.

Squandering a Legacy

President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.

Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal about the ways in which Bush the elder and now Bush the younger have both failed to understand the great legacy of Ronald Reagan. Because of this lack of understanding they have, each in his own way, worked against the conservative base of the Republican party. The result has been needless damage done to the party by the abandonment of the conservative principles that gave the party its victories in the 80s' and early 90s'. The victory of the Clintons, for example, can be tied directly to the failures of the first Bush administration when it broke its pledge not to raise taxes.

The current President presented himself as a conservative in order to win election, but quickly ditched that camouflage as soon as it was convenient to do so. The result has been to put the party in a continuous crisis mode in a time when steady leadership would have been more advisable. Serious times require serious leadership, and preferably without unnecessary distractions. But this President has insisted on following a liberal agenda and hoping that it would set "a new tone" among the beltway elites. The tactic has been less than satisfactory.

Indeed, trying to make friends with the Angry Left is not possible, nor is it even needed in order to run the country, as long as one leads with conservative ideas. Reagan proved this by both word and example. But this President has squandered that legacy, and now the conservatives of the party are going to have to re-build it after the damage that these two Bushes have done. It will be difficult, but it is also unavoidable.

Patterico Says "Deport the Criminals First"

Blogger Patterico is running a series of posts in which he points out the utter folly of not using all of our available resources to deport illegal aliens who are also known criminals. In too many places such illegals are allowed not only to roam free, but to commit crime after crime without being forcibly removed from the country. "Sanctuary cities" prevent their own police from reporting these illegals to the government so that they might be deported. They do so because of a misguided do-gooder mindset and white guilt that prevents them from wanting to enforce the law. The result is that people are dying at the hands of these illegal aliens who would otherwise have been sent back to their home countries.

RNC Fires Phone Solicitors

The Washington Times reports in this story that donations to the RNC are drying up due to the hostile reaction of the party faithful to the amnesty bill being proposed by the President and some Republicans in congress. The result is that at the RNC the people who normally take donations from the regular members out in fly-over-country have lost their jobs since they have nothing to do. The top brass over at party headquarters is making a heroic effort to put the best face on this by claiming that it is due to the need for technical upgrades to their system, but I think we all know that the reality is a bit different.

Getting the message yet guys?

No money for a party that betrays the members who comprise the base. No money for a party that stabs us all in the back after all of our hard work to get you elected. No money for a party that rewards illegal aliens who broke the law to come here. No money for a party that holds the base in contempt.

Figure it out.

"Last year, my solicitations totaled $164,000, and this year the way they were running for the first four months, they would total $100,000 by the end of 2007," said one fired phone bank solicitor who asked not to be identified.

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens.

"Everyone donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," said the former employee.

The RNC spokeswoman denied that the committee has seen any drop-off in contributions.

"Any assertion that overall donations have gone down is patently false," Miss Schmitt said.