Archive for March, 2008

N.Y. Post: GOP Achilles’ Heel

Published by Ryan Sager March 28th, 2008 in Misc. Elephantitis. 0 Comments

My column in the Post this morning gives my rundown of the GOP’s prospects in the interior West this cycle and recounts Wednesday’s panel:

DENVER — CHEERED as Republicans may be by the Clinton-Obama wars, the fact is that long-term trends still favor the Democrats this fall. To see the problem, consider the interior West - the eight states between the Midwest and the Pacific Coast: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

This week, I spoke at a panel put on here in Denver by the America’s Future Foundation, a youth-oriented libertarian-conservative group. The topic: “How the West Will Be Lost.”

In fact, having heard my fellow panelists’ takes on the situation in Colorado and the rest of the region, the use of the future tense looks optimistic: The GOP is already well on its way to losing the West.

The reasons were well summed up by the president of Colorado’s Independence Institute and a popular conservative radio talk-show host in the state, Jon Caldara: “We lost our values. We lost our way.”

There is one way the GOP can pull it out: The Democrats can nominate Hillary.

Deep Blue in Colorado

Published by Ryan Sager March 27th, 2008 in Misc. Elephantitis. 1 Comment

The Rocky Mountain News this morning runs an account of the America’s Future Foundation panel I spoke at last night in Denver (cheery panel title: “How the West Will Be Lost”):

A group of conservative writers and thinkers gathered for a panel discussion Wednesday night at the Oxford Hotel where the beer was free, the talk was fast and the mood - at least when it came to the 2008 presidential race - was a deep blue funk.

The title of the forum - presented by Face the State, America’s Future Foundation and the Independence Institute - summed up the general pessimism, “How the West Will Be Lost - Democrats’ Strategy to turn the Mountain West Blue and What Libertarians and Conservatives Can Do About It.”

The speakers generally agreed that the coalition Ronald Reagan assembled of social conservatives, libertarians, limited-government proponents and free-marketeers is fractured.

They differed, however, on the extent of the split or what can be done to put that coalition together again.

I’m quoted in the story as the voice of pessimism — which will hardly be earth-shattering news to friends and family. Hey, I’m a gloomy guy.

It was a great panel and a great audience in a part of the country usually relegated to fly-over status. While we did disagree on how bad things have gotten and what the chances are for repairing them out here in the interior West, the one thing we all agreed on was that Colorado is Ground Zero in the changes that are coming to the region politically. Both houses of the Legislature taken over by the Dems in 2004, the governorship taken over in 2006. A Senate seat gone. Another House seat gone. All that’s left is for the state to get colored blue in November.

I’ll have more on the panel and why that may or may not happen shortly. In the meantime, thanks to AFF and Face the State for having me and to everyone who came out.

Citizens United Update

Published by Ryan Sager March 24th, 2008 in Misc. Speech. 0 Comments

The Supreme Court has decided not to take up the Citizens United case I wrote about Friday.

The Court basically said it doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case, so this wasn’t a refusal to hear the case on its merits.

The SpeechNow.org case is still making its way through the system.

N.Y. Post: Un-free Speech

Published by Ryan Sager March 21st, 2008 in Misc. Speech and Misc. Self Promotion. 0 Comments

In my post column today, I look at two upcoming, important free-speech cases:

Let’s face it: The 2008 election season is well under way, yet political speech remains decidedly un-free in America - held hostage to the vanity of John McCain and the cynicism of his accomplices in Congress and the media, who seek to silence their political opponents in the name of clean government.

…

Citizens United, an activist conservative group, wants relief from burdensome disclosure and disclaimers rules in ads for its documentary, “Hillary: The Movie.” While the film isn’t necessarily the most high-minded of cinematic projects (sample from the script: “She is steeped in controversy, steeped in sleaze.”), it is - as political speech - every bit as deserving of First Amendment protection as the newspapers of the early republic or the communist Daily Worker.

The other case relates to SpeechNow.org, which wants to run ads against politicians who support campaign-speech regulation. They’re aiming for irony, and will likely see their efforts to speak out against speech regulation shut down by … speech regulation.

How the West Will Be Lost

Published by Ryan Sager March 20th, 2008 in Misc. Self Promotion and Misc. Elephantitis. 0 Comments

If you happen to be in the Denver area next Wednesday evening (March 26), I’ll be on an America’s Future Foundation panel about the political fortunes of the GOP in the West (a topic, of course, close to my heart): “How the West Will Be Lost.”

Pessimistic, but I think correctly so (at least it’s pessimistic from a partisan, GOP perspective). Here’s the description from the Web site:

It’s no mistake that Democrats will be hosting their national convention in Denver. Liberal funders have invested heavily in Colorado as part of a multi-cycle strategy to turn traditionally red states in the mountain west blue. But have Republicans and the Religious Right put more libertarian-leaning mountain states up for grabs? Looking at the primaries, does Huckabee’s success indicate the growing or waning influence of evangelicals in the Republican Party? Does Ron Paul’s fundraising success indicate a growing influence of libertarians? And what to make of McCain? Join our panelists as we discuss the future of libertarians, conservatives, and evangelicals in the West.

Also on the panel will be Gene Healy of the Cato Institute, Jim Pfaff, president of the Colorado Family Institute, and Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute. It will be moderated by Brad Jones of FaceTheState.com.

Should be a fun time. Colorado really is ground zero in the West-turning-Blue story.

And he was never called on at a press conference ever again. The End.

Published by Ryan Sager March 19th, 2008 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments

With David Paterson’s extra-curricular activities having taken over the news about his new administration in the past few days, I just wanted to highlight this video of Sun Albany correspondent, one-time M.O. guest-blogger, and all-around serial bigamist Jacob Gershman asking the incoming governor whether he had ever patronized a prostitute (while holding public office):

Nice timing on Paterson’s part with the quip (”Only the lobbyists.”). What a pause.

And balls of steel on Jacob’s part. That’s one to tell the grandkids. When they’re old enough.

Our New Robot Masters

Published by Ryan Sager March 19th, 2008 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments

First, there was terrifying, buzzing military robot dog:

Then, there was the literal robot master — a machine that will play fetch with your dog all day while you’re out:

The robot fetch machine actually looks a bit unsafe (floppy ears + rusty springs = bad combo). But I’d rather have the latter in the house than the former.

If Only…

Published by Ryan Sager March 17th, 2008 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments

…it were the Democrats who’d been running up the national debt the last 10 years.

Then this ad would make sense.

Voiceless Phone Calls

Published by Ryan Sager March 17th, 2008 in Misc. Neuro. 0 Comments

Instead of annoying everyone around you on your cell phone, now just strap on a neck band and communicate from brain to vocal chords to phone to software to phone:

OK, so it’s pretty unwieldy right now. It looks even stupider than a Bluetooth headset. It’s first application will likely be patients with ALS. But in not too many years we’ll probably see a commercial version.

The New Scientist writes it up here.

The Memescape

Published by Ryan Sager March 17th, 2008 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments

On this, Eliot Spizer’s last day in office, I find myself thinking not so much of the fate of our great state — we’re screwed, get over it — as about the joy that is yearly pop-culture memes. One of the delights of the beginning of every year is the fact that we simply do not, cannot, know what phrases, images, etc. will be newly iconic in a year’s time.

At the start of 2007, who among us could have imagined that the phrase “wide stance” would take on such delightful connotations? Or that “Don’t Taze Me, Bro!” would not only be mixed, but re-mixed?

And so, I asked myself at the beginning of 2008: What’s next? As always, I was surprised.

“Client-9″

So simple. So elegant.

And yet, I can’t help feel it’s a bit of a disappointment. While it’s fun to bat around (”You may know me as Client-9,” “David Paterson, aka, Client-10″), it’s not quite as malleable as “wide stance” or “don’t taze me.” It just doesn’t seem like it can be applied to as many situations, or mutated in as many ways.

I guess the cat’s out of the bag now, but I’d like to see more use made of: “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

Such as:

  • After a disagreeable meal: “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my stomach.”
  • When drowsy: “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my pillow.”
  • Pulled over for speeding: “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my speedometer.”
  • When hurling a schoolyard insult: “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of yo mama.”
  • Caught cheating on your prostitute: “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my other prostitute.”

It’s a little harder to remember, so it’s probably doomed. But I thought I’d throw it out there.
You can also try, as I have repeatedly now, telling your spouse upon his or her arrival home: “Today, I want to briefly address a private matter.” Somehow, it makes the follow up “I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning” go down a lot smoother.

What other memes await us in 2008? I can’t wait ’till the future gets here.

N.Y. Post: Gone Baby Gone

Published by Ryan Sager March 16th, 2008 in Misc. Elephantitis. 0 Comments

In today’s Post, I review Grover Norquist’s new book, Leave Us Alone:

[Norquist’s] book manages to diagnose and prescribe treatment for the ills of the modern-day Republican Party with hardly a mention of the tumor in its guts: Bush-Rove-style Big Government Conservatism.

Norquist breaks down modern political actors into two camps: the Leave Us Alone Coalition and the Takings Coalition. The Leave Us Alone Coalition, he says, consists of taxpayers (the ones who want lower taxes, anyway) businessmen, property owners, gun owners, homeschoolers and conservative religious types threatened by the secular mainstream - Catholics, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Mormons. The Takings Coalition consists of government workers, labor unions, trial lawyers, welfare recipients and much of academia - or, as Norquist puts it, folks who “raise your taxes to subsidize Piss Christ while explaining that your church cannot be used for child care until you cover up all those icky crucifixes.”

But has the Republican Party of the last 10 years really been under the sway of a Leave Me Alone Coalition? Far from it. That’s the sort of coalition libertarian Republicans wish they had, but it’s certainly not what’s existed in practice.

It would be nice if the GOP’s problems were as minor and self-correcting as Norquist argues — requiring, mainly, that Red Staters breed and New Deal liberals die (in the natural course of getting old, of course, nothing more drastic). They are, however, not.

Happy Election Season

Published by Ryan Sager March 12th, 2008 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments

David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’

A surprisingly sane view of politics, recognizing that the world is not a never-ending series of injustices crying out for revolution.

Wire Over

Published by Ryan Sager March 11th, 2008 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments

This is the best David Simon interview I’ve seen since the end of “The Wire” this Sunday.

Turns out Rawls really was gay — for those of us long puzzled by that throwaway reveal. But there was never any plan to do anything with that information.

 

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