Breitbart Rule 8: Don't pretend to know more than you do

After giving us a few tips on owning the narrative, Andrew Breitbart also gave us a few tips on how to keep the narrative. Here is Rule 8 in his Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries.

8.) Don't pretend to know more than you do: This one trips up conservatives all the time. We want to argue policy because when we know policy, there's no way they can beat us, because all they have is their lexicon of name-calling and societal expulsion. We have reason on our side.

But just because we have reason on our side doesn't mean that everyone is quipped to be Charles Krauthammer or Michael Barone, policy wonks who can pull facts from the Office of Management and Budget out of every orifice. Most of us aren't experts on the latest budget package or stem-cell line regulation, but that doesn't mean we're powerless - it means we get to play Socrates, asking pointed questions rather than citing facts we may not be sure of.

One of the low points of my media life was getting a call after the nomination of John Roberts for the United States Supreme Court. A producer from CNN's now-cancelled Aaron Brown Show asked me to go on TV and discuss the wisdom of President Bush's choice. I remember taking a Civil Liberties course at Tulane in summer school. As I recall there was a case called Mapp v. Ohio. That was the extent of my then-qualifications to pontificate on such legal matters. I am not sure what demoralized me more: that I was asked to do so by a leading cable news network, or that I readily accepted. Had Wikipedia not been invented, I would have had nothing to say. But I did, and I survived. My takeaway from the revealing moment about the low standards for TV punditry was that if I valued my career, I would only accept media invites where I could dictate the terms of engagement (i.e., bring my own stories, my own perspectives, etc.) or where I could change the subject to war footing.

By avoiding talking about that which I do not know, perhaps I limit my ability to appear on more shows. But I definitely limit my ability to screw up.

Put another way: don't be the guy with a knife at a gunfight. It rarely ends well.

Now this is VERY important in the arena of social media as we look at Facebook, Twitter, and the various message boards and sites that we visit. There are many people out there who claim that they know it all and that their way is the best, but is it really? Now I will get more into that in next week’s editorial but one thing I will say about it is that we might not know everything, but we need to not pretend or give others the false impression that we do.

This is where research comes in. Many out there do not take the time to go into the research and actually back up what they talk about with facts or they do but get it all jumbled up. We need to do our research every time we find an idea or a narrative that people are putting out as false and then disprove it with what we had researched. Then and only then can we beat the progressives and the Alinskyites at their own game.

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Breitbart Rule 7: Engage in the social arena

One of the best things I like about Andrew Breitbart in the short time I had followed him on Twitter prior to his untimely death is how engaged he was on Twitter. And with that in mind, he made Twitter (and indeed Social Media as a whole) one of the key points and rules in his Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries.

7.) Engage in the social arena: My first instinct about Facebook was my first instinct about Twitter was my first instinct about MySpace. I was right about MySpace - it sucks. I was definitely wrong about Facebook and Twitter.

Using my "ubiquity" rule, the citizen journalist isn't always reporting in the ledes, headlines, and paragraphs form. Sometimes a tweet or a re-tweet can grant an idea more legs. Sometimes a status update can lead to the mother lode. Yes, there are slick advisers falsely promising a social networking Gold Rush, but well-socially-networked person can soon carry more weight than a household-name columnist at your local news daily.

Building a movement used to take time, but now it can be done in a few hours with with the right connections and the right posts on a few websites. Take, for example, flash mobs. These are gatherings spawned over the Internet on hours' notice, and they gather thousands of people, whether it's for snowball fights or for rioting in the streets of Philadelphia.

The Tea Parties have used the power of social media to get their message out there in a new and incredible way. There are no leaders to the Tea Party, which is a great thing, and there's no formal program to the Tea Party - it's truly a party of the people, and originally, it was based on conservative people partying. If any liberal attended a Tea Party event, they'd be shocked to see that it isn't a KKK rally; it's a social gathering of thousands of like-minded people of all races and ages, people looking for others who believe in the same values.

It's also particularly true in Hollywood, where socializing is the basis of business. That's why I've tried to put people in Hollywood together, and it's already spawning actual creative projects. Seek out other people and build an army.

If you think on it, this rule is a culmination of the three prior rules. After all, Andrew’s fourth rule was about not letting the Complex use their PC lexicon to characterize you and shape the narrative, which is what the Left has been known to do on Social Media. His fifth rule was about us controlling our own story and not letting the Complex do it, which is all about owning the narrative. And to wrap up the trifecta, his sixth rule was all about ubiquity being the key to keeping the narrative. Now, what is one way to do all of this? The best way I can think of is by using the power of Social Media to defeat the Left and own and keep the narrative.

On today’s show, I will be having a panel on this very topic. On it will be the following:

• John LaRosa – Partner of Four Tier Strategies, LLC ( http://www.fourtierstrategies.com/)
• Stephen Maloney - Admin of a few Marco Rubio groups, former Romney supporter, Social Media advocate
• Miryam Shabak - Admin of the Facebook Group Help GOP Master New Media 4 Victory
• Diane Sori - Purveyor of The Patriot Factor (http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/)

If you want to engage the conversation, there are three ways you can do so:

• Call 832-699-0449
• Contact OTNNetwork on Skype
• If you are on Twitter, use the hashtags #RedRightBlue and  #OTNN 

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Breitbart Rule 6: Ubiquity is key

It is one thing to own the narrative. It is another to KEEP the narrative going. And for that you might need a little help. Hence, Rule 6 in Andrew Breitbart’s Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries.

6.) Ubiquity is key: As a capitalist and as a web publisher, pageviews are a desired commodity. But when playing for political or cultural keeps, impact matters most. And, when ABCNBCCBSCNNMSNBC and the dailies are working against you and ignoring you, ubiquity is a key weapon That means developing relationships with like-minded allies or even enemies and news junkies and allowing them to share in the good fortune of a good scoop.

While the crux of a story can be weaponized and launched on one of my websites, there are often peripheral angles that can be developed elsewhere with a separate but related media life of their own. For instance, the acorn story was unbelievably complex. A key component of exposing the scandal was a detailed analysis of ACORN's structure and its past scandals. I knew legal minds were needed to weigh in on these aspects. Patrick Frey, who runs the indispensable Patterico website, created a parallel line of attack, not just against ACORN, but against its myriad defenders, who lied and misdirected to try to kill the story. The ACORN story couldn't have been the success it was without others - talk radio and alternative news outlets that were invested in the story and could deliver scoops of their own. So I planted scoops with what business school types would call my "competitors," and I watched the story explode, my pageviews would go through the roof, and my brand flourish. Sometimes the best ideas are counterintuitive.

I love living in Los Angeles and not DC, because in DC there are too many fighting over too little ground for their own fifteen minutes. The scarcity mentality is strangling the growth of the conservative movement. From outside DC, I can see that ubiquity is about growing the pie for everyone, spreading the stories, the channels of distribution, the resources around so that the entire movement can benefit, because our chunk of the public square gets bigger and bigger each time we break something huge.

While we all have different viewpoints or perspectives as to what conservatism is, one thing to remember is that we are all in the same fight. That is what the Left does, and they succeed by coming together for a common purpose. The problem is that conservatives are so divided that it gives the Left a chance to gain the edge on the narrative. Note what Andrew had said: “developing relationships with like-minded allies or even enemies and news junkies and allowing them to share in the good fortune of a good scoop.” That means spread it around. If you find something newsworthy, it does not help to keep it to yourself. Rather, post it on your social media tools and get the word out there. In next week’s editorial I will go more into how to engage in social media as Andrew has it as his Rule 7, but developing relationships with like-minded people who are also news junkies can allow them to share in the fortune of a good scoop is key.

One of my good friends who likes to share in the fortune of a good story is Patricia Baber, who used to be my co-host on this very show. She is one who hunts down stories on relatively unknown sites and put them out on Twitter, then it gets picked up by her followers and spreads to others. I even do the same thing when I do my news aggregates on my rant blog. But on that I do not take all the credit for it but rather give credit to Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain who has a blog entry entitled "How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog.” In fact, Stacy has Rule 2 which he calls the “Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around" where he says:

Reciprocal linkage is the essential lubricant that makes the blogosphere purr with contentment. If somebody's throwing you traffic, you should either (a) give them a link-back update, or at a minimum (b) keep them in mind for future linkage. Because you don't want to end up on the wrong end of a kharmic unbalance in the 'sphere, where you're always taking and never giving.

The Other McCain has a whole plethora of articles and the like to link to on your own blogs and also on Social Media outlets. I know I usually do it, but the past couple weeks I had slacked off because of certain things away from the computer. However, I am making a concerted effort to go back to doing it. The key is, will you be ubiquitous or will you be a loner in this war?

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Rule 5: Control your own story – don’t let the Complex do it

Just as Andrew Breitbart did not let the Complex use its PC Lexicon to control him and shape the narrative, he then went one step further and did not let the Complex control whatever story he had. I present to you, Rule 5 in his Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries.

5.) Control your own story - don't let the Complex do it: A one-and-done story isn't worth anything. One fact can be posted on the Internet and flushed down the memory hole faster than anyone can imagine. How many incredible pieces of journalistic revelation have been lost because they weren't properly presented to the public?

Serialization is good. Van Jones was taken down by Glenn Beck because Beck had the goods - and because he revealed them piece by piece. He got Jones and his defenders to come out of the closet and attack him. Then he calmly laid his cards on the table, one by one.

It's the same strategy I saw Arianna pursue during the Larry Lawrence scandal. People came out of the woodwork to attack her as a scurrilous human being slandering a dead war hero. And she smiled and let them come at her. Then she put her evidence into the public eye bit by bit, keeping the story alive. Feeding the media is like training a dog - you can't throw an entire steak to a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over and over again until it learns its lesson. That's what Arianna did.

It's the same thing Drudge did with Lewinsky. He broke the story in pieces rather than in a long essay laying out all the facts, and he didn't let the media's cries for him to reveal all his information control his decision-making process. Instead, he controlled the media.

The important thing to remember here is that the media are like a leech hanging on the back of the news makers, and the news makers have every right and ability to feed that leech little by little instead of letting it suck them dry all at once. Keep your story alive by planning its release down to the minutest level.

The main thing to remember is this: we need to OWN THE NARRATIVE at every single opportunity. I am of the belief that owning the narrative is not just a fancy saying or something that can be focused on for an hour or so a day or even a week. Rather, owning the narrative is a way of life, one that lives with us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Owning the narrative has been a part of my life ever since Andrew died, and it will remain in me until I take that eternal celestial dirt nap.

During the 2012 election I had dealt with the third party supporters, as I had mentioned last week, and every time they said something which mentioned Romney and Obama being the same I just calmly said they are not and showed them links a little at a time. In fact, one person even called me Rick “The Narrative” Bulow because when he would ask me what I am doing, I told him that I am calmly owning the narrative.

When Marco Rubio was mentioned on Romney’s VP short list and the birthers came out of the woodwork saying he is not eligible, I had calmly said that he is, and debunked their articles a little at a time with certain links of my own. And in fact just recently I had seen a thread on a site which mentioned a paper from the Congressional Research Service on natural born citizenship and presidential eligibility. Now what is funny about it is that I had brought up that paper in another thread on the same site and got bashed for it. So I had waded in and mentioned a couple of things about eligibility, and wound up getting banned from the entire site. Am I upset about it? Yes I am; however, one thing I did not do when I commented was let them own and control the narrative. The only way the Complex can own and control the narrative after being confronted with facts is to shut you up. And online, apparently that means banning someone from sites.

If we want to win in 2014 and then in 2016, we have to own the narrative, whatever it may be, at all costs. Remember that owning the narrative is not just a fancy saying but a way of life.

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Breitbart Rule 3: Be open about your secrets

One of the things that Andrew had mentioned in his Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries is to put everything out in the open. In fact, that is his third rule

3.) Be open about your secrets: If you're going to go out in public, be absolutely open about what you've done in the past. Take a page from Barack Obama, who revealed in his probably Ayers-ghostwritten autobiography that he had done a lot of blow, and hung out with commies and assorted lowlifes. Once it was out there, there wasn't much that the right could do with it - he'd already admitted it.

By way of contrast, take a look at Mark Foley. If he'd admitted he was gay right off the bat, the left wouldn't have had much to pillory him with. The left never gets cited for hypocrisy (see Clinton, Bill), but the right is cited with it all the time because we actually have standards. That means we have to out ourselves before the left does it for us. In this book, I've already admitted to libertine sensibilities that were taken to absurd heights during my collegiate stint in New Orleans. I am not a puritan. Frankly, John Waters's movies and Johnny Knoxville's Jackass series are more up my alley than Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. The days of the left forcing us into a small, monolithic, and monochromatic box are over, and we have to fight their caricature of us.

Actually, George W. Bush did the same thing during the 2000 election. "When I was young and stupid, I was young and stupid," he said. Once he had come clean, the Left was stuck - they couldn't do anything.

Hypocrisy is such a powerful argument for the left because it appeals directly to the emotional heart of politics: one standard for you, another for me. It's no wonder Alinsky relied heavily on his rule 4: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. We have more rules than they do with regard for morality, which means we have to live up to them more often. But mistakes in the past don't need to be skeletons waiting to come out of the closet. If you've made mistakes, reveal them at the first available opportunity. Embrace those mistakes. Don't talk about how you regret them - talk about how you lived through them and how they made you who you are today. Embracing your mistakes makes you invulnerable to their slings.

Just don't screw up badly now.

One thing to remember is that we are all human and we all make mistakes. What we do not do is embrace and move on from them. The liberals have concealed their mistakes and moved on from them, though if it were a conservative or a Republican that committed those same mistakes, they would be strung up by their shorthairs over it. THAT is the main difference between them and us. What they do is lie about it and cover it up then when they do come up a year or a decade later they always deny it OR they pull a Hillary and say “What difference does it make NOW?” What we should do is embrace the mistakes and put them out there in the open and say “yes I did this. However, I learned from it and grew into a better person because of it.” Liberals are kind of like the bully who picks on others in school because they are insecure in themselves OR they feel that if they cannot be happy then none else can be happy. Conservatives are kind of like that child who got straight A’s but if there is one blemish on their record they admit it and then move on from it. The slings and the barbs from the bully liberals will be rendered useless once we embrace our blemishes and move on to better ourselves.

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Breitbart Rule 2: Expose the left for who they are - in their own words

Continuing with Andrew Breitbart’s Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries, here is his explanation for Rule #2:

2.) Expose the left for who they are - in their own words: It's easy to label the left, to analyze them, to take them apart using your rationality - their program fails every time it's tried, and their lexicon, once you know it, is as predictable as the sun rising in the east. What's much harder than understanding the left is exposing it.

That's where citizen journalists come in. Drudge was a citizen journalist, and he took on a president. Today, we all have the power to be citizen journalists via the internet - there's no Complex gatekeeper to stop us from posting the truth about enemies of freedom and liberty in this country. In the past few years alone, citizen journalists have deposed Dan Rather for his scurrilous and baseless attacks on George W. Bush; exposed John Kerry's true war record during the 2004 election cycle; debunked Reuters' photography fraud in the Middle East; raised the question whether Barack Obama's autobiography, Dreams from My Father, was ghostwritten by domestic terrorist Bill Ayers; gotten rid of communist Van Jones; and the list goes on. The Internet has become the shining beacon of journalistic freedom, tearing apart congressional bills piece by piece for the benefit of the public, even when our own legislators won't read them.

The key to the success of the New Media, though, is making news by breaking news. And that means that conservatives need to use their new best technological friends: the MP3 recorder, the phone camera, and the blogosphere. It's one thing to say that the left likes socialism, but it's a real story to get Barack Obama to admit it on camera, as he did to Joe the Plumber during the 2008 election cycle. Video journalism is the most potent kind of journalism. We live in an age of sound and light, not text, and we have to adapt to that age.

You are the soldiers in this war against the Institutional Left. You have been issued your weapons. Go out and use them. Make it impossible for the Complex to ignore you.

I find it a little bit ironic but mayhap led by Andrew himself that this rule is being written during CPAC 2013 for the simple reason that the speakers and panelists are empowering us with the skills and tactics to go up against the Left. The war is the Mainstream Media (who employ Alinsky tactics) v. the Citizen Journalist (who employ Breitbart tactics) first and foremost. And judging by the speakers Thursday, yesterday and today I personally have never felt more empowered to take on the Mainstream Media and hold them accountable for putting the politicians’ feet to the fire.

Even though I was not able to attend CPAC in person, I had followed the proceedings on Twitter (with the hashtag #CPAC2013) and also in a chatroom from Right Scoop’s Live Feed of CPAC 2013, and I dare say that all of the speeches were wonderful. The speakers I had heard definitely fired me up and inspired me to continue this fight through my blogs and this radio show as well as my New Media venture.

I will go more into the speakers later in the show, but all I have to say is after listening to the speakers over the past three days, the liberals had better be very afraid. We will never EVER forget what happened on November 6. In fact, that only served to embolden many of us to do all we can to call out the liberals and any on our own side who support Obama’s policies. I know I am emboldened to do my part. Who will stand with me in that bunker defending those who spoke and in a sense are on that wall defending our freedom?

Breitbart Rule 1: Bring the fight to your enemy

The first rule Andrew had written in his Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries is to not be afraid to go into enemy territory, saying the following:

1.) Don't be afraid to go into enemy territory: This is the most important rule you'll read in this book, and the one most likely to be ignored by the Republican Party and the Old Guard in the conservative movement. They would say I shouldn't have appeared on Maher, because it was an audience stacked against me. But that's the same mentality that led toe right to abandon Hollywood, academia, and the media - and the effects have been disastrous. The right figures that talk radio, Fox News, and some independent Internet sites will allow us to distribute our ideas to the masses. There's one problem: those outlets are exponentially outnumbered and outgunned by the Complex. They're Alinsky-ed by the activist left, which is insists Fox News is Faux News and talk radio is hate radio. Obama is leading the charge, targeting specific hosts and specific outlets. Remember Rush Limbaugh? Or their insistence that Fox News isn't a real news outlet like CNN or MSNBC?

The problem is that it works with the vast majority of apolitical voters in America. In my neighborhood, our strategy of disengagement isn't working too well. People who don't watch Fox News or listen to Rush have strong, defiant, negative opinions about those outlets, just like I did when I was a liberal. I'd never listened to Rush in my life, but I knew - I knew! - that Rush was the epitome of evil. I knew, just as the Complex wanted me to know, that Rush was a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot that only KKKers listened to while driving their broken down pickups and drinking moonshine.

The army of the emboldened and gleefully ill-informed is growing. Groupthink happens, and we have to take it head-on. We can't win the political war until we win the cultural war. The Frankfurt School knew that - that's why they won the cultural war and then, on it's back, the political war. We can do the same, but we have to be willing to enter the arena. By neglecting The View or, worse, by ignoring Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Maher, and David Letterman - we allow them to distort and demean us as they romanticize and elevate themselves. It's harder to attack people to their faces than behind their backs. and we have to confront them face-to-face. Young people suckle at the teat of pop culture - but by refusing to fight for their attention, we lose by default.

Our most articulate voices, likable faces, and best idea-makers need to go into hostile territory and plant the seeds of doubt in our ideological enemy and the apolitical masses who simply go with the media flow. Our babysitter has an Obama bumper sticker on her car, but admits she knows nothing about politics. How did that happen? It's what the complex tells her to do to be cool. We have to use their media control against them by walking into the lion's den, heads held high, proud of who we are and what we stand for.

There's no time to continue backing away. If we're standing still we're moving backward. Get in the game. Get in the fight.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, I had seen posts on Facebook and Twitter bemoaning the fact that New Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, and other Republicans and conservatives had given interviews on CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, ABC News, and other liberal stations and talk show hosts. Rather than bemoaning them, we should have celebrated them for doing so. As I had mentioned last week, the liberals won the cultural war and then the political war. We need to take back the cultural war, and we cannot do that if we remain in our small sphere and not engage the liberals on their battlefield.

Back in 1994 or so I had read a book by InterVarsity Press (a part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) entitled Out of the Saltshaker & into the World by Rebecca Manley Pippert. The book deals with evangelism. However, after reading Andrew’s Pragmatic Primer Rule 1, I also thought of this because just as Get out of the Saltshaker dealt with getting out of the church and into the world, what Andrew is saying is our best and brightest conservative minds need to get off of Fox News and conservative talk shows and go on shows like Piers Morgan, Hardball, Meet the Press with David Gregory, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Real Time with Bill Maher, The View, and others to get our word out there. While most of us are not of the caliber to go on those shows, there is one way we can do it. We need to actually go and engage the culture in the malls, the parks, anywhere we can.

When I was involved in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship back in 1993 and 1994, one person would always point to the door before he left the meeting and say “The mission field is right out that door there.” His basis for that was from the Bible where in Isaiah 6:8 God asked “Whom will I send, and who will go for us?” and Isaiah said “Here am I. Send me.” I am here to say that the battlefield for the hearts and minds of Americans, nay, the WORLD, is the Internet as well as right in our own backyards. The question is will you stand on the sidelines and retreat to the safety of Fox News and conservative talk shows, or will you get out there and join in the fight?

Remembering Andrew Breitbart

On March 7, 2012, I had written this blog entry paying tribute to Andrew Breitbart.

I know we are only 65 days into the year, and we lost a great Conservative Patriot 6 days ago, but this has to be said. If there is anything we will take away from this year, it is the tag of #IAmBreitbart, just like 2011 was the year of #IAmJohnGalt in memory of the movie “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1” which opened on April 15, 2011.

I might not have met Andrew Breitbart, but had seen him on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld and also in a few YouTube videos where he confronted the Occupy Wall street people as well as some who opposed the Tea Party. Through those incidents I feel as if I had known Andrew Breitbart, and will uphold his legacy of citizen journalism and blow the whistle on those who seek to cause harm to the country.

Andrew Breitbart at CPAC 2012

Andrew Breitbart doing what he does best in exposing Occupy Wall Street for the troublemakers they are.

And this wonderful pic (h/t Sarah Rumpf of Sunshine State Sarah) of Dana Loesch and Company. (pic taken by Chris Loesch) with the tweet posted here.

#war instagr.am/p/H2w-c8r5KM/

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 7, 2012

It has been a year ago today that he had died, and those words ring true today as they did back then. Andrew Breitbart was a happy warrior, one who knew that in order to win the political war you first have to conquer and win the cultural war.

Last month, I had written the blog entry Alinsky vs. Breitbart and based on what I had seen over the past year from those on the Left and even from those on the Right, it just goes to show that I was right. This battle is not conservative v. liberal or even Republican v. Democrat. Rather, it is Saul Alinsky v. Andrew Breitbart. Barack Obama has been so successful in using Alinsky tactics to further divide and tear this country apart that at times it seems like nobody will be able to stand up to him. Well Andrew Breitbart had provided the tools to stand up to Obama and push back against the false narratives in his book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World for us to use. We just have to actually go out there and DO it and not be afraid of whatever the consequences might be. The question is: Will you be willing to stand with me in using those tactics to fight the Alinsky tactics, or are you against me? Like Andrew said at CPAC last year, “If you’re not in that bunker because you’re not satisfied with a certain candidate, more than shame on you! You’re on the other side!” While there is no nominee to stand behind now, the fight still wages on. Andrew said this is a #WAR; I say #ThisMeansWAR. The internet is our battleground; our keyboards, cell phones, webcams, digital cameras, and iPods are the weapons we use. Andrew paved the way for us, now let’s go out there and make him proud of his work.

Apologize for WHAT?

Yesterday would have been Andrew Breitbart’s 44th birthdate. I admit I had not followed him all that much before watching his speech at CPAC last year, and I am kicking myself for that. However, in the 11 months since his unexpected death, I had been looking at all the videos and articles I could find on him, and even requested (and gotten) his book “Righteous Indignation” for Christmas.

In “Righteous Indignation”, he had written a “Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries” where he lays out the rules which ever conservative activist needs to do in order to fight the left and also even those on our own side now. I mention those on our own side because of what happened during the last election cycle where many did not vote for Romney because of one reason or another. As Andrew said at CPAC last year (which had been my motto throughout the 2012 election season), “If you’re not for this candidate, more than shame on you; you’re on the other side” In fact, take a listen to his words for yourself:

Andrew Breitbart at CPAC 2011

Over the next 14 shows or so I am going to go through Andrew’s Pragmatic Primer and say just what we could do in order to take back the Senate in 2014 and also possibly the White House in 2016. We had lost those two battles in 2012 but with enough inspiration and know-how we will win the #WAR in the future. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. I say to the left and even to those on our side who cost us the 2012 election, “#ThisMeansWAR!” After all, I think this is what that Andrew Breitbart, that happy warrior, that fearless warrior, would have wanted. This is how I will celebrate his 44th birthdate.

End of the Year Retrospective

Well, 2012 is fast coming to an end believe it or not. So much had happened that it is hard to fit into a blog, both event-wise as well as the friends I had made online. I would like to say to everyone first, thank you for being an inspiration to me this year. Each of you had brought much joy and passion into my life in 2012. Some of you more than others and I will get into that later. One main thing is though we had not met face to face (and for 80% of you I would like to just because you mean a lot to me) you had treated me not as one with a handicap like many I had met in my real life have done. Rather, you welcomed me into your online world as a “normal” person.
Now granted there might be some things we disagree on, and for a few we even came down to verbal blows to the point I wished I would have climbed through the computer monitor and throttle you, but at least for the most part we have been civil to each other and handled our disagreements like gentlemen and not like animals. There are still a couple of issues we disagree on and in 2013 I will get into why I believe the way I do a little more. However, I also realize we are all on the same page and have the same goal in mind – the betterment of America.
There are certain people I would like to thank personally. I had done so in my blog entry on Christmas Day, but will say it here once more.
To Michael B. Smith - we have been through thick and thin from our days on the Herman Cain Dashboard back in the Summer of 2011. While we might have parted ways back in late December 2011 to early January 2012 due to you supporting Santorum when I supported Mr. Newt, I am ever thankful to you for allowing me 2 hours every Saturday to vent and let my crazed mind roam on Conservative Nation Radio.
To Harriet Baldwin and Patricia Baber - Thank you both for being former co-hosts with me on Red, Right, and Blue. No matter what, I still consider you a part of the Red, Right, and Blue family as well as a part of the Conservative Nation Radio family.
To Billie Cotter - Thank you for stepping up and being my co-host on Red, Right, and Blue. We might disagree on a couple of things, but no matter what we always make the show as interesting and intriguing as can be.
To Becca Lower - You have come a long way in the year or so since we had met. I am thankful you had stepped in for Patricia that one time on Red, Right, and Blue and that catapulted you into making your own blog and now your own website at Lowering the Boom. Keep up the good work.
I know there are others I might be forgetting, but as I said at the outset you all have been an inspiration to me over the past year. I would like to wish you all a very happy New Year. Here’s to good friends and good times now and in the year to come!

Approaching the Fiscal Cliff

Let me start out by playing this video

As I had mentioned during the Debt Ceiling Debacle in my 20th Rant last year, this clip from Jerry Maguire where Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) tells Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) to show him the money is quite fitting of what the American people (mostly from the Tea Party) are trying to tell the Democrats and Obama. Now, with it being 10 days, 10 hours, and 25 minutes until the new year, we are barreling toward the fiscal cliff and about to go over. Therefore, the American people are not only telling the Democrats but also the Republicans to do something to prevent us from going over the edge. On December 9, President Obama had met with House Speaker John Boehner (Republican from the 8th Congressional District in Ohio and also Schmuck of the Week on this very show for December 8, 2012) for the first time since the election to speak on a way to prevent us going over the fiscal cliff. You can find a good piece about the fiscal cliff from Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain.
We have not had a national budget in almost 1400 days, and every budget Obama had posited before Congress had not had a positive vote in the Senate, with even the Democrats opposing the Obama budget. When asked when the Senate would put forth their own budget. Max Baucus (Democrat from Montana who is Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee) and Harry Reid (Democrat from Nevada who is the Senate Majority Leader) both said that they are not required to put out a budget. These two are the main reasons why the Congress is in total disarray. The House had already passed a budget (thanks to Budget Chairman and 2012 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan of Wisconsin’s 1^st Congressional District) for the past three years and sent it on to the Senate, but Reid would not bring it to the floor for a vote.
Day after day we are inching closer not only to the fiscal cliff but also toward socialism. There is a saying that elections have consequences, and we are seeing it happening every second with Obama just sitting around fiddling. The last time a leader fiddled while his country was collapsing was Nero back in AD 64 when Rome was burning. The words of Alexander Tytler are ringing true.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.  These nations have progressed through this sequence:
"From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."

Every day we are sinking back again into bondage. Right now we are in the selfishness to apathy or the apathy to dependence stage. We need to tell Obama, Boehner, Reid, and the other politicians to batten down and do something to fix this nation’s debt and prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff, or their time in charge will end in 2014 (all 435 House members including Boehner and 33 senate seats including 20 held by Democrats) and we the people will elect Congressmen and Senators who will actually know how to fix the economy.

Rundown for December 22, 2012

Join Rick Bulow and Billie Cotter (host of Nobamanation every Thursday at 8 PM on Conservative Nation Radio) as they bring you the week in news. This week, a few days before Christmas they will be plugging the 1st Annual Christmas Eve Program this Monday. Also, Obama and Boehner could be on the way to avoiding the Fiscal Cliff. Or are they? And John Kerry is now the nominee for Secretary of State and Tim Scott was named to replace Jim DeMint in the Senate. How will both announcements play out? All that and more including your calls and the ever-popular Schmuck of the Week today.
Come join the fun and frivolity that is Red, Right, and Blue today at 1:30 PM Eastern. The chatroom at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservativennationradio/2012/12/22/red-right-and-blue will be open 30 minutes early so Billie and I can do some last minute show prep and also so the audience can have a little meet and greet with the hosts. If you want to join in the fun, there are three ways to do so.

1. Call 718-305-7176 about 5 minutes before the show starts if you want to get in the call queue early or you can call in throughout the show.
2. Call in using Skype. As soon as the show starts there is a little Skype button (or as my good friend The Reactionariez calls it the Skipity Skype button) which will display next to the phone number at the top of the page. As soon as you press it just follow the instructions of the English Lady at the other end and you will be in the call queue
3. If you are unable to log into the chat, there is another way for you to engage the conversation if you use Twitter. Just tweet your comments or questions using the hashtag #RedRightBlue.

Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Hell, tell a Liberal. Though the weather outside is frightful, things on Red, Right, and Blue are always delightful.

My thoughts on the horrific shooting in Connecticut

Words cannot describe the feelings and emotions I am going through right now over this shooting. Luckily there have been others like Robert Stacy McCain and Becca Lower for their wonderful pieces (which I will link to toward the end of this entry) on this situation. One thing I have to say -- and I had said it after the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, earlier this year and after other shootings -- is that guns don’t kill people; gun LAWS kill people. This can be seen in other parts of the world where strict gun laws were in effect throughout history, notably in Cambodia under Pol Pot, Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, Russia (the old Soviet Union) under Stalin, and other places. Strict gun laws, where the government says that citizens cannot have firearms, lead to the government taking over every aspect of the citizens’ lives to the point that it becomes a totalitarian society.

And regardless of what we all think of Obama’s policies, I think he spoke right from the heart when he addressed the nation at 3:15 PM Eastern. In my mind, this was ALMOST like his speech after the Aurora shooting earlier this year and also the heinous shooting in Arizona which took the lives of 6 people and severely wounded then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) where he spoke truly from the heart. Do I believe him? Mayhap not, but then too now is not the time for politics but rather for prayers and healing. If he were to speak this way all the time, then who knows? After all, there is a saying I hear often (do not know how it originated) which goes “A broken clock is right twice a day.”  Mayhap this is the time in which Obama got it right. Now tomorrow he might say something which might make me despise his policies as normal, but today he spoke not as a President but rather as a father.

 

LINKS COVERING CONNECTICUT SHOOTING

• Robert Stacy McCain’s updates on the Connecticut shooting (The Other McCain)
• Becca Lower's story on the Connecticut shooting (Lowering The Boom)
• The Lonely Conservative's article on the Connecticut shooting
• The Victory Girls' article on the Connecticut shooting (with video)
• Liberals immediately make the shooting about politics (via Breitbart)
• CBS News’ Mark Knoller with the transcript of Obama’s speech
• Diane Sori's Op-Ed on the Connecticut Shooting in the Patriot Factor
• Craig Andersen's piece on what we need more after this crisis in the National Patriot
• Judson Phillips on who is really responsible for this tragedy on Tea Party Nation
• Chip Murray's blog entry on the same old story in a Newtown on Big Dawg Music Mafia
• Doug Giles on a new rule that should be implemented after the Connecticut shooting on ClashDaily

Will add more entries as I see them pop up.

Rundown for December 15, 2012

Join Rick Bulow and Billie Cotter (Host of Nobamanation every Thursday at 8 PM on Conservative Nation Radio) as they go through the week in news. Today they will go over the horrific shooting in Connecticut yesterday that left 27 killed (including the shooter) and the media playing Keystone Kops in trying to get the scoop first and also on the name of the shooter. Even the reliable Fox News got involved in the fray.  There was also other news this week (including the Unions being dealt a major loss in Michigan) that they will discuss, but the Connecticut shooting is primary. That and they will also take your phone calls.
Join us today on Red, Right, and Blue at 1:30 PM Eastern, 12:30 Central. The chatroom at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservativennationradio/2012/12/15/red-right-and-blue will open 30 minutes before the show starts for the usual pre-show meet and greet. If you want to interact with the hosts and the callers on air, there are a few ways.

1. First and foremost is to call 718-305-7176. You can call about 5 minutes before the show starts if you want to get into the call queue early.
2. Another way is to use Skype. As soon as the show starts, you can scroll up to the top of the page and hit the S logo next to the phone number. Just follow the instructions of the lovely English lady and you will be in the call queue and on the air as soon as possible.
3. Another way (and one that many who are listening but have no way to get into the chatroom could use) is by using Twitter. When you listen, just tweet out your questions or statements with the hashtag #RedRightBlue.

Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Hell, even tell a Liberal. The weather might be cold in some places, but things are always hot on Red, Right, and Blue.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas–Marine Style

Just saw this in a link in my email Thursday:

Merry Christmas, My Friend

'Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
In a one-bedroom house made of plaster and stone.
I had come down the chimney, with presents to give
and to see just who in this home did live.

As I looked all about, a strange sight I did see,
no tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.
No stocking by the fire, just boots filled with sand.
On the wall hung pictures of a far distant land.

With medals and badges, awards of all kind,
a sobering thought soon came to my mind.
For this house was different, unlike any I’d seen.
This was the home of a U.S. Marine.

I’d heard stories about them, I had to see more,
so I walked down the hall and pushed open the door.
And there he lay sleeping, silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor in his one-bedroom home.

He seemed so gentle, his face so serene,
Not how I pictured a U.S. Marine.
Was this the hero, of whom I’d just read?
Curled up in his poncho, a floor for his bed?

His head was clean-shaven, his weathered face tan.
I soon understood, this was more than a man.
For I realized the families that I saw that night,
owed their lives to these men, who were willing to fight.

Soon around the Nation, the children would play,
And grown-ups would celebrate on a bright Christmas day.

They all enjoyed freedom, each month and all year,
because of Marines like this one lying here.

I couldn’t help wonder how many lay alone,
on a cold Christmas Eve, in a land far from home.
Just the very thought brought a tear to my eye.
I dropped to my knees and I started to cry.

He must have awoken, for I heard a rough voice,
“Santa, don’t cry, this life is my choice
I fight for freedom, I don’t ask for more.
My life is my God, my country, my Corps.”

With that he rolled over, drifted off into sleep,
I couldn’t control it, I continued to weep.

I watched him for hours, so silent and still.
I noticed he shivered from the cold night’s chill.
So I took off my jacket, the one made of red,
and covered this Marine from his toes to his head.
Then I put on his T-shirt of scarlet and gold,
with an eagle, globe and anchor emblazoned so bold.
And although it barely fit me, I began to swell with pride,
and for one shining moment, I was Marine Corps deep inside.

I didn’t want to leave him so quiet in the night,
this guardian of honor so willing to fight.
But half asleep he rolled over, and in a voice clean and pure,
said “Carry on, Santa, it’s Christmas Day, all secure.”
One look at my watch and I knew he was right,

Merry Christmas my friend, Semper Fi and goodnight
Written by Corporal James M. Schmidt

Rundown for December 8, 2012

Join Rick Bulow and Billie Cotter (Host of Nobamanation every Thursday at 8 PM Eastern on the Conservative Radio Network) as they go through the week in news. This week they will throw open the lines and let the callers dictate the show pace, even with a few interesting things that had been happening in the news with the Unemployment dropping and also with DeMint resigning from the Senate to head the Heritage Institute. There is also a verdict passed down on the #BrettKimberlin case which is a blow for the First Amendment and they will discuss that as well. All that plus Schmuck of the Week.
Come and join us today at 1:30 PM Eastern for Red, Right, and Blue! The chatroom at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservativennationradio/2012/12/08/red-right-and-blue will be open 30 minutes early for the usual meet and greet with the hosts. If you want to get in the call queue before the show, call 5 – 10 minutes before the show starts. The number is 718-305-7176. If you want to get into the queue after the show, you can also Skype in. Just scroll to the top of the page and hit the little Skype logo next to the phone number (or as my good friend the Reactionariez calls it the Skipity Skype button) and follow the instructions of the lovely English lady on the other end, and you will be in the queue, If you want to listen as a guest in the room and not log in to chat in the room, the only way to engage the conversation that way is on Twitter. Just use the hashtag #RedRightBlue.
Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Hell, tell a Liberal. The weather outside in most places might be frightful, but things are always delightful when you listen to Red, Right, and Blue!

The Greatest Danger to Our Freedom

Here is a very interesting piece that Blake Stephens had posted in The Patriot Zone.

Some of you print notices to groups of folk. My hope is that ALL of you will read to the last line of this email and if you do believe that this man of wisdom, Alexander Tyler in 1787, hit the nail on the head with his statement about Democracies, you will share this information with your clientele and friends. Even tho’ we have a representative republic, I think it does apply to America today –
PS> Amazing statistics on the recent election, too.
This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.
I have always heard about this democracy countdown.. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not
that we deserve it.

How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their
new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a
Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply
cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'
'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time
that voters discover they can vote themselves
generous gifts from the public treasury.'
' From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'
'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations
from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'
'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed
through the following sequence:
1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage'

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota points out some interesting facts concerning the 2008 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Democrats: 19
Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Democrats: 580,000
Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2
Republicans: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the United States is somewhere between  the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's
population already having reached the 'governmental
dependency' phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty
million criminal invaders called illegal's and they
vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete
this message. If you are not, then pass this along
to help everyone realize just how much is at stake,
knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our
freedom.

Even though the piece Blake posted had mentioned the numbers from the 2008 election, I think we can see it more with the 2012 election which put Obama back in office on the backs of the mooches, leaches, and parasites of this nation. Those people are the ones who Neal Boortz calls the “Dumbass dumb masses” who do not care about politics or if they do, it is only for 4 months and then only want a handout and not a hand up.

I had mentioned in past blog entries that Atlas is shrugging right now, and if we do not do anything that the weight of the world will cause Atlas to throw it off of his shoulders. I am thinking that when we reach the final stage of Tytler’s circle (from dependence back into bondage) that it will be too late for this country as we know it. Obama and the Democrats are fiddling while America is burning.

Rundown for December 1, 2012

Join Rick Bulow and Billie Cotter (host of Nobamanation every Thursday at 8 PM Eastern on Conservative Nation Radio) as they give you the week in news from the citizen’s point of view. Today they will open the lines up and let the callers dictate which way the show will go, within reason of course. There will also be a return of the popular segment called Schmuck of the Week and more including your phone calls.
So join us today at 1:30 PM Eastern, 12:30 PM Eastern, for Red, Right, and Blue. The chatroom at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservativennationradio/2012/12/01/red-right-and-blue will be open 30 minutes early for a pre-show meet and greet as well as so Billie and I can do some last minute show prep. The phone number to call in once the show starts (or at least 5 minutes before then if you want to get in the call queue) is 718-305-7176 and as soon as the show starts you can join the call queue using Skype. Just scroll to the top of the show page and next to the phone number is a little S button (or as my good friend the Reactionariez calls it the Skipity Skype button) that as soon as the show starts you can click. Just follow the instructions from the flirtatious English lady and then you will be placed in the call queue and will be on the air soon. Also, if you are listening in and on Twitter but unable to join the chatroom that is not a problem at all. Just join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #RedRightBlue.
Tell your friends. Tell your friends. Hell, tell a Liberal. Though the weather might turn cold in your neck of the country or world, things are ALWAYS hot on Red, Right, and Blue.
(This show honors the troops, and there is one special soldier out there that this show is dedicated to honoring and also saving. That soldier is PFC Corey Clagett. Go to http://www.coreyclagett.com for his story)

Corey Clagett

The year was 2006. The place was near the Muthana Chemical Complex south of Lake Thar Thar, Iraq. The backdrop was Operation Iraqi Freedom. The target was a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq training facility southwest of the city of Samarra. Colonel Michael D. Steele commanded the 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat, 187th Infantry Regiment (also known as Rakkasans), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and worked with Iraqi Army soldiers throughout Salah ad Din province defeating insurgents, Al Qaeda cells, and uncovering numerous caches of weapons and explosives. He sent Alpha Company to Samarra to assist the Rakkasans.

On May 9, a Blackhawk helicopter dropped Corey’s squad off on an island consisting of two homes. The squad then approached one of the homes and discovered three military-aged males using two women as human shields. Corey’s squad handcuffed and detained the three men while the squad leader, Staff Sergeant Girouard, radioed Command to report the three detainees. The response was, “Why aren’t these terrorists dead yet?”

Girouard held a meeting of the entire squad. He then ordered Corey and another soldier, William Hunsaker, to kill the three detainees. Corey and Hunsaker were coincidentally the two lowest-ranked members of the squad.

Following the meeting, Girouard cut off the detainee’s zip-ties and ordered Corey and Hunsaker to shoot them. Corey recognized that he had been given an unlawful order. However, he knew the Rules of Engagement were to “shoot to kill.” Corey was aware of the Intelligence and knew that under the new “catch and release” program, the detainees would likely be released very quickly. These consequences weighed heavily on Corey as these detainees, once released, would most likely provide damaging intelligence to al Qaeda or even kill other U.S. soldiers. As the youngest and lowest ranking member of the squad, he was fearful of the consequences of disobeying the order.

Corey decided to follow the order and accompanied by Hunsaker, told the detainees to run away and then began to shoot, killing two of them. The third detainee was mortally wounded and then shot in the head by Specialist Graber.

When the squad was charged and detained, Corey was abused by American guards, often going unfed and being forced to sleep in the fetal position while chained. His conditions were harsher than those at Guantanamo. While the others who were charged were let off easily, with one even being promoted and subsequently redeployed to Iraq, Corey was charged with 18 years and spent 4 years in solitary confinement in Leavenworth.

His mother, Melanie Dianiska, is trying to spearhead all efforts for the military to grant clemency for Corey. One of her efforts is taking his case to the internet, with the site http://www.coreyclagett.com and also taking it to various radio shows online. The intention is to garner public support for Corey and also get media attention for him. It is unfair that others had been handled with kid gloves and received lighter sentences while Corey has been handled with iron gloves and received a harsher sentence.

The Rundown for November 17, 2012

Join Rick Bulow and Billie Cotter (Host of Nobamanation every Thursday at 8 PM Eastern under the Conservative Nation Radio) as they go through the week in news. This week they will have Melanie Dianiska, mother of PFC Corey Clagett, as she speaks about her son’s involvement in Operation Iron Triangle during the Iraq War in which he was imprisoned for following orders. What orders were he given? Why was he imprisoned? Where is the Defense Department on this? These questions and more will be answered. She will also take your questions.
Come join us for today at 1:30 PM Eastern, 12:30 PM Central. The chatroom at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservativennationradio/2012/11/17/red-right-and-blue will be open 30 minutes before the show for a little pre-show banter and also get ready for the show. The phone number to call in is 718-305-7176 and you can also skype in as well. Just hit the little blue S next to the phone number at the top of the page (or as my good friend the reactionariez call it the Skipity Skype button) and you will be in the call queue. If you are unable to be in the chat but are able to listen to the show, you can also interact on Twitter, just use the hashtag #RedRightBlue.
Tell your friends. This is one heart-wrenching show that you do not want to miss.