Erick Erickson's Blog, page 44

Time to do What We Can For Ted Cruz

David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz are in a runoff in Texas.

Cruz has long odds in the runoff, given the margin of Dewhurst’s victory.

But it is very doable. Conservatives across the country, however, must unite today. This race must be a national priority for each and every conservative. It is not enough to pray for Ted Cruz, though that helps tremendously. We must put our money where our mouths are.

David Dewhurst is a multimillionaire who covets this Senate seat. He has an expert staff of consultants who know Texas very well and aim to win. Many of them are my friends. But as much as they want Dewhurst to win, I want Cruz to win.

We must do what we can for Ted Cruz.

Stand with Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, RedState, the Club For Growth, and so many others. Support Ted Cruz for the United States Senate. Send every spare penny you can muster to Ted Cruz this very moment.

Morning Briefing for May 30, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

May 30, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Time to do What We Can For Ted Cruz

2. Tim Noah’s Sad Parade

3. Let’s tax wealthy foundations the same way we tax wealthy individuals

4. Sex Selection Abortion in America

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1. Time to do What We Can For Ted Cruz

David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz are in a runoff in Texas.

Cruz has long odds in the runoff, given the margin of Dewhurst’s victory.

But it is very doable. Conservatives across the country, however, must unite today. This race must be a national priority for each and every conservative. It is not enough to pray for Ted Cruz, though that helps tremendously. We must put our money where our mouths are.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Tim Noah’s Sad Parade

The publication of Jonah Goldberg’s new book The Tyranny of Clichés has brought forth a number of responses from liberals and progressives, many of them either essentially proving Goldberg’s point or entirely avoiding grappling with the book’s substance. The latest entrant is Tim Noah, now writing with The New Republic, who seeks to offer a companion to Goldberg’s collection of liberal clichés with his own “conservative clichés.” It is clear from the column that Noah either (1) did not read the book, (2) completely missed its point, or (3) simply could not come up with counter-examples of the same type.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Let’s tax wealthy foundations the same way we tax wealthy individuals

Down with the 1%! End the social injustice of gross income inequality! Smash the unfair fruits of capitalist oppression, in which a wealthy few take care of well-connected allies, instead of circulating their money into the economy for the 99% to get to touch!

It’s time we started taxing wealthy foundations at the same rate we tax wealthy individuals. Gates. Ford. Getty. Kellogg. Hewlett and Packard. Moore. Mellon. Rockefeller. Soros. These are not just the 1%, but the 1% of the 1%.

Great wealth in the hands of a few is undemocratic, whether it’s directly by a person, or given over to these private corporations that serve as embodiments of boundless ego. Tax them to fund a truly charitable social safety net for all Americans.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Sex Selection Abortion in America

In the wake of Chen Guangcheng arriving safely in the United States, after years of persecution in China for his anti-abortion activism, The House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on H.R. 3541 (also known as the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act – PRENDA), a bill to ban sex-selection abortions in the United States. Although the US has strongly condemned China for their sex-selection abortion practices, only four states (AZ, OK, PA and IL) currently have laws banning the procedure. Sex-selection abortions have long been an issue around the globe, most notably in China and India, and studies show they are rampant in the US. A series of videos, the first of which was released by Live Action this morning, exposes the role Planned Parenthood plays in America’s sex-selection abortion problem.

The first video, shows a woman visiting a Planned Parenthood facility in South Austin, Texas. The woman, undercover for Live Action, spoke at length with a Planned Parenthood employee about how to proceed with an abortion should she find out that she is pregnant with a girl. The employee’s instructions included how to use local OB/GYNs to find out the sex of the baby and how to defraud Medicaid to pay for all the costs associated. She also advised the woman that many “regular” doctors would not provide an ultrasound should she indicate her desire to abort, as sex determination is usually made 5 months into the pregnancy and pretty much everything (including the brain) is already developed.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

One Metric on Impact: SWATting

Last week I wrote about the Speedway Bomber and current left-wing activist Brett Kimberlin. In 2011, after writing about Kimberlin, LA County Prosecutor Patrick Frey was rousted out of bed after midnight by the LA County SWAT Team. Someone had called 911 claiming to be Frey saying he’d just murdered his wife.

Sunday night as my family and sister’s family were around the dinner table and playing outside, sheriff’s deputies pulled into my driveway responding to an accidental shooting at my home.

One deputy was in the driveway. Another blocked the end of the driveway with his car. A neighbor tells me another was up the hill from the house.

There was no shooting at my home. Someone called 911, claimed to be at my home, and claimed to witness a shooting at my home.

As the one deputy and I spoke, the other deputy walked up the driveway, positioned himself behind the car in the driveway, and kept his eyes on me and his hand on his gun. My three year old ran between us all thinking it was so cool to have a police car in the driveway with its blue lights flashing.

Luckily, after I had starting writing about Kimberlin, I advised the Sheriff’s Department to be aware this could happen.

It was a prank, but not just any prank. This is a prank left-wing activists are increasingly deploying against those who dissent from their political views. When Barack Obama told his supporters in 2008 to bring guns to knife fights, some of his supporters took him more literally than I assume he intended.

The stories of what is happening are not getting much traction outside of right-of-center blogs and the occasional opinion column at the Wall Street Journal, D.C. Examiner, and Washington Times.

The Obama campaign set up a website listing major donors to a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. Naturally, individuals listed by the Obama campaign saw their lives turned upside down by investigators linked to Democratic opposition research firms. They, their families, their businesses, and their employees were harassed. Seemingly random people from random states started requesting old court case files involving the donors.

It was intimidation.

And now this. Brett Kimberlin has created several organizations that have gotten money from the Tides Foundation and other organizations. Kimberlin spent many years in prison, convicted of a series of bombings in Speedway, Indiana. Now, when conservatives start pointing out his past and his ties, they have been subject to swatting and other forms of bullying.

We do not live in a Banana Republic, but the left does not seem to care. I take my family’s swatting as a badge of honor. We are having an impact. It is very necessary though that we continue to speak up and not be silenced.

The activities of these people suggest one thing clearly — they are losing. We must ensure they do.

Morning Briefing for May 29, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

May 29, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. One Metric on Impact: SWATting

2. The Harrassment of Patterico & Its Roots In Left-Wing Activism

3. Obama Wants to Redistribute Our Sovereignty with the Law of the Sea Treaty

4. Wisconsin: Barrett Fails to Play Big in First Debate

5. Failed Earmark Culture Should Not Return

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1. One Metric on Impact: SWATting

Last week I wrote about the Speedway Bomber and current left-wing activist Brett Kimberlin. In 2011, after writing about Kimberlin, LA County Prosecutor Patrick Frey was rousted out of bed after midnight by the LA County SWAT Team. Someone had called 911 claiming to be Frey saying he’d just murdered his wife.

Sunday night as my family and sister’s family were around the dinner table and playing outside, sheriff’s deputies pulled into my driveway responding to an accidental shooting at my home.

One deputy was in the driveway. Another blocked the end of the driveway with his car. A neighbor tells me another was up the hill from the house.

There was no shooting at my home. Someone called 911, claimed to be at my home, and claimed to witness a shooting at my home.

As the one deputy and I spoke, the other deputy walked up the driveway, positioned himself behind the car in the driveway, and kept his eyes on me and his hand on his gun. My three year old ran between us all thinking it was so cool to have a police car in the driveway with its blue lights flashing.

Luckily, after I had starting writing about Kimberlin, I advised the Sheriff’s Department to be aware this could happen.

It was a prank, but not just any prank. This is a prank left-wing activists are increasingly deploying against those who dissent from their political views. When Barack Obama told his supporters in 2008 to bring guns to knife fights, some of his supporters took him a metaphorically than I assume he intended.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Harrassment of Patterico & Its Roots In Left-Wing Activism

Let me add one thing here. Every belief system – political, religious, philosophical, lifestyle – attracts some nutty people, some stupid people, some evil and dangerous people. You can’t judge those belief systems by their craziest adherents. Liberalism, as understood in the United States over the past half-century or so, involves the belief in a lot of nonsense, but it is basically a peaceable creed.

But increasingly since the late 60s, we have seen the emergence of a particular style of activism – occasionally aped in some corners of the Right, but systematically practiced on the Left – that takes as its creed “the personal is political” and that everything is politics, and follows that to its logical conclusion by such methods as:

-Picketing the homes of political opponents and business executives.

-Boycotts aimed at donors and sponsors of political causes and political commentators.

-Efforts to “out” political opponents, ranging from disclosing the identities and addresses of anonymous or pseudonymous writers to targeting closeted homosexuals among Congressional staffers.

-Googlebombs designed to skew internet searches for information about a targeted person.

-Reporting targeted opponents to ISPs, hosting companies or Twitter as spam.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Obama Wants to Redistribute Our Sovereignty with the Law of the Sea Treaty

One of the problems we find in politics these days is the rash of bills with rather Orwellian titles. The best example in recent years is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (you know, Obamacare). But fortunately, some things have titles that are all too appropriate. The Law of the Sea Treaty is one of them, which is rather fittingly known as LOST.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Wisconsin: Barrett Fails to Play Big in First Debate

Sitting in the pressroom before Friday night’s televised debate between Governor Scott Walker (R) and Mayor Tom Barrett (D) the question was: will Tom Barrett do anything to change the momentum of the race? Since emerging from a divisive primary fight on May 8 that saw him trounce Big Labor’s candidate of choice, Kathleen Falk, Barrett has been working to shift the momentum of the race to his favor. Operatives on both sides agree that with almost no independent voters left to fight over, the election comes down to voter turnout and the margin of victory will likely be unpredictable and close.

Unconfirmed reports are that early voting in the Democrat-vote rich City of Milwaukee, Barrett’s home turf, total 3,300 due largely to coordinated efforts by labor groups and community organizing outfits.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Failed Earmark Culture Should Not Return

From Congresswoman Adams (R-FL)

The 2010 election spurred hundreds of Americans to call for a change in the direction our nation was taking. They were sick of the reckless spending of the Democrat-controlled Congress and they wanted their representative to be above the culture of corruption in Washington, D.C. As a result, November saw 87 new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives with a mandate to enact changes to the way Washington, D.C. works.

I was proud to be one of those historic freshmen. Over the past year and a half, I have spent my time in Congress trying my best to serve my constituents and uphold the conservative principles on which I ran.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

SWATting the Ericksons

Last week we spent a lot of time writing about Brett Kimberlin and the incident involving blogger Patterico where someone spoofed his phone number and told 911 he had shot his wife.

Tonight, my family was sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner when sheriffs deputies pulled up in the driveway.

Someone called 911 from my address claiming there had been an accidental shooting.

It wasn’t nearly the trauma that Patterico suffered, but I guess the Erickson household is on somebody’s radar.

Luckily it was two sheriffs deputies who knew me and I had already, last week, advised the Sheriff’s Department to be on the look out for something like this.

Barack Obama’s Very Bad Week & #BrettKimberlin

We’re going to get into Barack Obama’s spending habits, very bad week, and a whole lot more today. Yes, I’ll even get into Brett Kimberlin.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Ted Cruz Responds to DewCrist’s . . . Dewhurst’s Lies

Ted Cruz is firing back at David DewCrist.

Neal Rauhauser, Bomber Brett Kimberlin, and Political Terrorism

Ever hear of swatting? It’s a tactic used by left-wing activists and others these days to spoof phone calls in order to get SWAT Teams to show up at houses. It has happened to several conservative activists.

Consider this your must read of the day. It is LA County Prosecutor John Patrick Frey, who blogs as Patterico, describing just what harassment he and his family were subjected to by the online left.

The mainstream media, which has greater sympathies with the left than the right, would prefer not to cover stories like this. But it is getting to the point where they ignore the ongoing, sustained harassment of conservatives because they are conservatives.

*I’ve since dropped the Daily Kos connection from the title as I’m told now that Rauhauser is no longer there.

Daily Kos’s Neal Rauhauser, Bomber Brett Kimberlin, and Political Terrorism

Ever hear of swatting? It’s a tactic used by left-wing activists and others these days to spoof phone calls in order to get SWAT Teams to show up at houses. It has happened to several conservative activists.

Consider this your must read of the day. It is LA County Prosecutor John Patrick Frey, who blogs as Patterico, describing just what harassment he and his family were subjected to by the online left.

The mainstream media, which has greater sympathies with the left than the right, would prefer not to cover stories like this. But it is getting to the point where they ignore the ongoing, sustained harassment of conservatives because they are conservatives.

Relief Fund For People Harassed By Brett Kimberlin

The other day I mentioned Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin’s ongoing harassment of bloggers who dare to point out his sordid past. Several have lost jobs due to harassment and still others have felt the need to flee for their safety.

A relief fund has been set up you can contribute to right here. As the site notes:

Blogger Aaron Walker and his wife lost their full-time jobs as a result of Brett Kimberlin’s attacks. Robert Stacy McCain lost his home. Others are suffering professionally and personally in unimaginable ways.

The National Bloggers Club has created this special initiative, which enables supporters to make financial donations to a relief fund as a show of support.