Friday, April 22, 2005
RedState.org Spread's the Good Word
RedState.org has been a leader in the fight to stop expose the Federal Election Commission’s true intention to regulate the Internet. After Commissioner Brad Smith blew the initial whistle exposing the potential danger, much of the Internet was lulled to sleep by Trevor Potter, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, and the usual campaign finance suspects, Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold, along with Representatives Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan.
They said Smith was an alarmist, and that they had no designs on the Net. Besides, a judge was requiring them to come up with some kind of regulation, but we shouldn’t expect it to be bad.
RedState founder Mike Krempasky, who was a guest on my radio show last Sunday, didn’t buy it. And, for his tenacity, he was rewarded by becoming the recipient of a leak of an earlier draft of the regulations. It proved the aforementioned gang were liars -- the draft regs were simply draconian.
Well, now, RedState.org is leading the blogging community in the charge to pass the one-sentence long (mistitled), “the Online Freedom of Speech Act” (it should be the Online Freedom of Press Act, but I quibble). And they have helped the cause by pointing to my DownsizeDC.org campaign to lobby Congress for the Online Free Speech (Press) Act. As of 1:15 PM Eastern time this good Friday morning, about 2,650 letters have been sent to Congress via DownsizeDC.org.
Thanks Mike and RedState.org. (Mike's article was plugged on the mammoth Glenn Reynold's Instapundit blog).
RedState.org has been a leader in the fight to stop expose the Federal Election Commission’s true intention to regulate the Internet. After Commissioner Brad Smith blew the initial whistle exposing the potential danger, much of the Internet was lulled to sleep by Trevor Potter, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, and the usual campaign finance suspects, Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold, along with Representatives Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan.
They said Smith was an alarmist, and that they had no designs on the Net. Besides, a judge was requiring them to come up with some kind of regulation, but we shouldn’t expect it to be bad.
RedState founder Mike Krempasky, who was a guest on my radio show last Sunday, didn’t buy it. And, for his tenacity, he was rewarded by becoming the recipient of a leak of an earlier draft of the regulations. It proved the aforementioned gang were liars -- the draft regs were simply draconian.
Well, now, RedState.org is leading the blogging community in the charge to pass the one-sentence long (mistitled), “the Online Freedom of Speech Act” (it should be the Online Freedom of Press Act, but I quibble). And they have helped the cause by pointing to my DownsizeDC.org campaign to lobby Congress for the Online Free Speech (Press) Act. As of 1:15 PM Eastern time this good Friday morning, about 2,650 letters have been sent to Congress via DownsizeDC.org.
Thanks Mike and RedState.org. (Mike's article was plugged on the mammoth Glenn Reynold's Instapundit blog).
Flight of the Phoenix
Sue and I watched “Flight of the Phoenix” last night. The film stars Dennis Quaid and Giovanni Ribisi. There are no memorable performances – even with a character with as much potential to shine as Ribisi’s “Elliot.” This movie is a remake of a 1965 version of the film.
I’ve never seen the ’65 version, but I’d be willing to wager that the special effects of the 2004 version were much better, but the acting probably wasn’t. The ’65 version included: Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Ernest Borgnine, and George Kennedy.
Overall, the film deserves about a 6 on a scale of 10. It keeps your attention and is entertaining, but it not even close to believable. It is also quite predictable to the point of being trite.
Least favorite moment in the movie (for me)… when Rady responds to a surprised Sammi who says, “I thought you weren’t religious,” to which Rady replies “Religion divides; spirituality unites.” How very post-modern and chic.
Sue and I watched “Flight of the Phoenix” last night. The film stars Dennis Quaid and Giovanni Ribisi. There are no memorable performances – even with a character with as much potential to shine as Ribisi’s “Elliot.” This movie is a remake of a 1965 version of the film.
I’ve never seen the ’65 version, but I’d be willing to wager that the special effects of the 2004 version were much better, but the acting probably wasn’t. The ’65 version included: Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Ernest Borgnine, and George Kennedy.
Overall, the film deserves about a 6 on a scale of 10. It keeps your attention and is entertaining, but it not even close to believable. It is also quite predictable to the point of being trite.
Least favorite moment in the movie (for me)… when Rady responds to a surprised Sammi who says, “I thought you weren’t religious,” to which Rady replies “Religion divides; spirituality unites.” How very post-modern and chic.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
My March 22 Posting
I owe you an apology. My March 22 posting (UPDATE: which has since been removed from this blog, but was about a neurologist who allegedly examined Teri Schiavo and said he could cure her if given the chance) should never have seen the light of day. I was duped. I'm sorry.
It’s disgusting. I’m really tired of the guys who are representing allegedly “Christian positions,” such as pro-life spokesmen, lying. (This blog item is too long, so a comprehensive list of liars will not be published today; stay tuned for future installments.)
In fact, it’s getting to the point that you can tell which guys belong to the Christian Right by how much they prevaricate. I want a different name for my faith in Jesus Christ than “Christian,” because “conservative Christians” like Pat Robertson just can’t seem to help themselves. They must stretch the truth or deceive. They must insist on double-standards.
You can simply scroll down and read my March 22 posting. But here’s the interesting point – the neurologist (Dr. William Hammesfahr) is lying about his credentials. And as of this writing, despite exposure, he’s still doing it at his website! But he was NOT nominated for a Nobel Prize.
What’s the significance of this? Virtually everyone working to get Terri’s feeding tube re-inserted was relying on this doctor as their “expert witness” in the court of public opinion. “After all,” they’d say, “a Nobel-prize nominated neurologist who examined Terri says he has revolutionary therapies that could help her lead a nearly normal life.”
If someone lies on their resume, they frequently lose their jobs. You can ask Sandra Baldwin or Ronnie Few what that’s like. Everything a "resume-padder" does from that point forward is called into question; and rightly so.
But even more amazing, Pat Robertson elevated Hammesfahr to Nobel Prize WINNING status. He did it on the 700 Club the night Terri Schiavo died and also on FoxNews.
I caught the opening segment of the 700 Club the night he did it. He was pretty wound up. Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue? But then he did it again on Fox.
So did he intend to lie? Apparently fabrication (I don’t want to say “lying,” because he might sue me like he did former Congressman Pete McCloskey, this being such a popular blog and all) isn’t new for Robertson.
“By their fruits…”
I owe you an apology. My March 22 posting (UPDATE: which has since been removed from this blog, but was about a neurologist who allegedly examined Teri Schiavo and said he could cure her if given the chance) should never have seen the light of day. I was duped. I'm sorry.
It’s disgusting. I’m really tired of the guys who are representing allegedly “Christian positions,” such as pro-life spokesmen, lying. (This blog item is too long, so a comprehensive list of liars will not be published today; stay tuned for future installments.)
In fact, it’s getting to the point that you can tell which guys belong to the Christian Right by how much they prevaricate. I want a different name for my faith in Jesus Christ than “Christian,” because “conservative Christians” like Pat Robertson just can’t seem to help themselves. They must stretch the truth or deceive. They must insist on double-standards.
You can simply scroll down and read my March 22 posting. But here’s the interesting point – the neurologist (Dr. William Hammesfahr) is lying about his credentials. And as of this writing, despite exposure, he’s still doing it at his website! But he was NOT nominated for a Nobel Prize.
What’s the significance of this? Virtually everyone working to get Terri’s feeding tube re-inserted was relying on this doctor as their “expert witness” in the court of public opinion. “After all,” they’d say, “a Nobel-prize nominated neurologist who examined Terri says he has revolutionary therapies that could help her lead a nearly normal life.”
If someone lies on their resume, they frequently lose their jobs. You can ask Sandra Baldwin or Ronnie Few what that’s like. Everything a "resume-padder" does from that point forward is called into question; and rightly so.
But even more amazing, Pat Robertson elevated Hammesfahr to Nobel Prize WINNING status. He did it on the 700 Club the night Terri Schiavo died and also on FoxNews.
I caught the opening segment of the 700 Club the night he did it. He was pretty wound up. Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue? But then he did it again on Fox.
So did he intend to lie? Apparently fabrication (I don’t want to say “lying,” because he might sue me like he did former Congressman Pete McCloskey, this being such a popular blog and all) isn’t new for Robertson.
“By their fruits…”
Monday, April 04, 2005
Debut Performance Goes Smoothly
Wow, that was both easier and harder than I thought. The hardest part of hosting a show is just how fast it goes. The clock winds down fast. Try limiting an intense, interesting phone conversation to 9:30 (my longest segment) and you'll get an idea of what I’m talking about.
My greatest sadness is that my first episode wasn’t recorded. But starting next week, they’ll be archived.
My guests were Larry Klayman, the founder and former General Counsel for Judicial Watch and Ed Brayton, blogger and debate coach who hosts a popular blog “Dispatches from the Culture War.” Our topic was the Terri Schiavo case – specifically its long-term implications.
Brayton, who argued that the outcome of Terri’s case was correct, was well-prepared and forensically strong. I think Mr. Klayman, who was primarily upset with Jeb Bush’s failure to intervene and rescue Terri, is used to shorter interviews because after his four or five-bullet point initial statement he crumbled into almost entirely ad hominem arguments. He called one set of judges morons, his opposing guest an idiot (but then quickly corrected himself, and said he meant to say his ideas were idiocy), and so on. The most interesting moment in the show is when the conservative Republican lawyer said, “I don’t care what Justice Scalia thinks, he’s an intellectual lightweight… one of my least favorite Justices.”
Most of the show focused on the role of the Courts. Klayman tried to dodge a question about state sovereignty and federalism, but ultimately conceded that he has little regard for such things when he insisted on the justification that, “Congress does stuff all the time.”
Brayton handled my two toughest questions for him, but I wasn’t finished with him. There were several things I wanted to ask. He was so confident and forceful he managed to keep Klayman on the defensive the whole time, and I didn’t have enough time to ask him the remaining questions I have.
I still believe starving Terri was nothing short of barbaric. And I would’ve loved to ask Ed if Michael Schiavo’s attorney is mentally ill? After all, he looked at Terri and said she was “peaceful” (a potential statement of fact) and “beautiful.”
Beautiful? Someone is starving, their eyes are dark and sunken, their lips are bleeding, and their skin is flaking from dehydration, and you say they look “beautiful?” Sounds to me like Felos is disgustingly infatuated with death.
Alas, we ran out of time.
You can read Ed Brayton’s opinion of how he thought the show went here. If Larry Klayman ever writes about it, and I find out, I’ll link to that as well. But I’m guessing Larry would prefer to forget.
Wow, that was both easier and harder than I thought. The hardest part of hosting a show is just how fast it goes. The clock winds down fast. Try limiting an intense, interesting phone conversation to 9:30 (my longest segment) and you'll get an idea of what I’m talking about.
My greatest sadness is that my first episode wasn’t recorded. But starting next week, they’ll be archived.
My guests were Larry Klayman, the founder and former General Counsel for Judicial Watch and Ed Brayton, blogger and debate coach who hosts a popular blog “Dispatches from the Culture War.” Our topic was the Terri Schiavo case – specifically its long-term implications.
Brayton, who argued that the outcome of Terri’s case was correct, was well-prepared and forensically strong. I think Mr. Klayman, who was primarily upset with Jeb Bush’s failure to intervene and rescue Terri, is used to shorter interviews because after his four or five-bullet point initial statement he crumbled into almost entirely ad hominem arguments. He called one set of judges morons, his opposing guest an idiot (but then quickly corrected himself, and said he meant to say his ideas were idiocy), and so on. The most interesting moment in the show is when the conservative Republican lawyer said, “I don’t care what Justice Scalia thinks, he’s an intellectual lightweight… one of my least favorite Justices.”
Most of the show focused on the role of the Courts. Klayman tried to dodge a question about state sovereignty and federalism, but ultimately conceded that he has little regard for such things when he insisted on the justification that, “Congress does stuff all the time.”
Brayton handled my two toughest questions for him, but I wasn’t finished with him. There were several things I wanted to ask. He was so confident and forceful he managed to keep Klayman on the defensive the whole time, and I didn’t have enough time to ask him the remaining questions I have.
I still believe starving Terri was nothing short of barbaric. And I would’ve loved to ask Ed if Michael Schiavo’s attorney is mentally ill? After all, he looked at Terri and said she was “peaceful” (a potential statement of fact) and “beautiful.”
Beautiful? Someone is starving, their eyes are dark and sunken, their lips are bleeding, and their skin is flaking from dehydration, and you say they look “beautiful?” Sounds to me like Felos is disgustingly infatuated with death.
Alas, we ran out of time.
You can read Ed Brayton’s opinion of how he thought the show went here. If Larry Klayman ever writes about it, and I find out, I’ll link to that as well. But I’m guessing Larry would prefer to forget.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Jim Babka ON THE AIR
My radio show starts today. And it will be heard each Sunday at 5 PM Eastern (4 PM Central) for at least the next six months on the Genesis Communications Network (www.gcnLive.com – choose channel #1 or #2 to listen for free, and for higher quality streaming, consider the inexpensive subscription plan). I’m on the air on three stations in Kansas City, Knoxville, and Keyser, WV.
My radio show starts today. And it will be heard each Sunday at 5 PM Eastern (4 PM Central) for at least the next six months on the Genesis Communications Network (www.gcnLive.com – choose channel #1 or #2 to listen for free, and for higher quality streaming, consider the inexpensive subscription plan). I’m on the air on three stations in Kansas City, Knoxville, and Keyser, WV.
