E!! The True Conservative Story™

It was bad form not to announce my absence, I know.  Humble apologies to all who visited E!! and found me absent.

I decided to buy a MacBook and iPhone the morning before the night before my 3-day trip to L.A. for the Heritage Resource Bank Conference, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) New Media Workshop, and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Blogger Reception & Meet-up. (Great and fun and very worthwhile, all. More about them in another post, along with my after thoughts.)

Right after I made the purchase decision, I decided to unplug my home PC/tower and take it to the Apple store so the nice Apple people could magically transfer all my data to my new MacBook while I was out of town.  Which meant I had access to Gmail and the Internet on my iPhone but was otherwise offline from Thursday morning until now, when I got my MacBook plugged in and configured and my iPhone synched up.  (If I had been thinking ahead, I would have set up an iTunes account when I was still plugged in so I could have downloaded WordPress in advance of my iPhone purchase…but I wasn’t.)

Now that I have all this fabulous mobile/wireless technology, I will never again be separated from my blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other accounts.

Joy!!

This is a test of the E!!mergency blogcast system. This is only a test. If this were an actual blog emergency, you would receive instructions…

Since I don’t have an agent or a PR department, I have no choice but to shamelessly promote myself (see award #4).  I think there is a blog badge or button coming at some point; I’ll proudly post it here when it arrives.

If you’re in the Chicago area (or want an excuse to be) and would like to attend the awards banquet and ceremony on April 18, click here for tickets.  Presenters and VIP guests include Michelle Malkin, John Fund, Stephen Moore, Mary Katherine Ham, Paul Jacob, and Joe the Plumber (yes, really!)

A quote in honor of Sam Adams, the namesake of the award:

“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate and tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

The award-bestowing Sam Adams Alliance is a 501(c)(3) “To Do Tank” based in Chicago.  They educate, inform, and empower citizens about important political issues through New Media tools (blogs, wikis, Google groups, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)  Among other things, they created Blogivists:  the platform/server upon which this blog was started.

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I do realize this isn’t the Grammys and that the Thank Yous are the most boring part of any awards event…but in addition to a general “thanks” to my readers and fellow bloggers, I would like to specifically acknowledge a few people for their support of this blog:

A faithful reader (aka The Venerable Mr. Crum) recently mentioned that I haven’t been providing my recent Ladyblog posts for your (his) convenience. Here they are:

Condi Signs with William Morris, Wants to Help U.S. Children Become Global Citizens

After O’ers

“My Daddy’s Name is Donor”

He’s Too Sexy for These Shirts

Vanity, Maybe Thy Name Really IS Woman (or At Least, This One)

I Will Remember to Relate Everything to Women. I Will Remember…

Feminist (or anti-Feminist?) Quotations

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Nevada’s most incorrigible tax hater, Chuck Muth, penned a pretty good one today.  Read it for yourself, but here’s a sum-up with a little E!! on the side:

The Silver State’s usual tax-and-spend suspects are crying a river over what amounts to a 10% budget cut (not 15%, not 22%, and not 34%, as has been reported by various hysterical persons who shall go unnamed).

Yes indeedy, 10% is the official figure that Andrew Clinger, the state’s official Budget Director, is officially using in his official correspondence with people.  According to Clinger, Gov. Gibbons’ proposed general fund budget this year “is $632.9 million smaller than last biennium,” a reduction of 9.3 percent. 

So why all the discrepancies, disparities, and dispepsia over huge budget cuts?  Let’s have a little history (and MATH) lesson and see:

2003:  The Legislature increased taxes by more than 3/4 of a billion dollars.  And there were no spending cuts.  Then-REPRESENTATIVE Jim Gibbons criticized then-Governor Kenny Guinn for not cutting 3/4 of a billion dollars from the budget rather than raising taxes. 

2005:  Wonder of wonders, Nevada had a budget surplus of about 3/4 of a billion dollars.  Gov. Guinn put some of the surplus into the Rainy Day Fund and rebated $300 million back to the taxpayers.  The general fund budget was around $6 billion.

2007:  Gov. Guinn is out; Gov. Gibbons is IN.  Gibbons SHOULD HAVE proposed a budget which included the 3/4 of a billion in cuts he’d suggested to Guinn back in 2003, which is to say he should have proposed a budget of around $5.5 billion (allowing for inflation and giving a little leeway and such).  But instead Gibbons suffered from sudden budget amnesia (SBA) and proposed about a billion dollars MORE in state spending.  So the Gibbons budget was nearly $7 billion.

2008:  Astonishingly enough, The Economic Forum projects actual revenues coming into the state coffers at around $5.5 billion.

SO, here we are, 2009:  Looking at the insufficient funds left over from 2007’s budget and faced with having to roll back spending to 2005 levels based on current state revenues.

AND the big-government gurus want the 2009 Legislature to spend NOT ONLY the $7 billion the government already can’t afford, but ANOTHER $1 billion on top of that!   Yes, it’s true:  the spendy spenders are demanding $8 billion in government spending while the state is only taking in $5.5 billion.

AND – here’s the big finish, folks! – the Spenders are calling any talk like the Talk I just talked (i.e. only spending what we are actually taking in), an “irresponsible $2.5 BILLION BUDGET CUT.”

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Any questions?!

An astute reader wonders why no one (not Obama, not the poet) flipped a few words around and used “seven score and four years ago” in today’s rhetoric – especially as Obama did other things that mimicked Lincoln’s inauguration. 

It’s been 144 years since Lincoln was assassinated and the south surrendered.

(If you didn’t know it, a score is 20 years.)

I agree with every word of this post called “Why I Hate Inaugurations” by the always thoughtful Joe Carter. Here’s most of it:

I cannot bear to watch the religious fervor, the tears and chants and beaming visages, for the promotion of a man or woman to a secular office. We do not live in a monarchy; we do not crown queens and kings in American.

Lest we forget, the President of the United States is the servant of the American people. (Despite what actors like Ashton Kutcher think, we do not serve him.) There is something unseemly, and dare I say, almost un-American, about making such a spectacle about a public servant taking office.

Transition ceremonies should be dignified, graceful, and modest – the exact opposite of all that Inauguration ceremonies have become. For this one, President Bush even declared a state of emergency for the entire city of DC so that taxpayer money could be diverted from the FEMA budget for this spectacle. This disgraceful action by our outgoing President barely raised a shrug from the populace. We no longer question our kings.

Many of our fellow citizens have lost all sense of decorum and perspective about this event. The transition of Presidential power from one man to another does not mark a significant transition in the culture of America. Our worries, fears, and concerns do not abate because there is a different man in the White House. Our dreams, hopes, and happiness do not increase because of who occupies the Oval Office. This change in government does not portend a change in human nature or the hearts of our fellow citizens. America — all that is good and bad about us — remains the same.

Fortunately, the unseemly pageantry of the Inauguration will be over by tomorrow, allowing us to move on to what truly matters in our country. Perhaps then all of us, even those of us in DC, can move beyond the deification of the political to focus once again on what truly matters.

Not much posting today because I was busy prep’ing for my KLAS Channel 8 interview re: Governor Gibbon’s State of the State speech next week, Nevada policy issues, and the role of blogging, citizen journalism and new media in politics. Clips will be televised next week in the days leading up to the speech.

I’m too tired right now to repeat what I said on camera, but I’ll sum it up for you sometime before next week’s event. Right now, I’m going to have drinks and dinner with Andrew and the Venerable Mr. Crum.

Cheers!

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A few readers have commented, some publicly and some privately, that they (1) found this post pretty funny, and (2) were a little shocked to learn that I am not always completely proper.  Or nice.  Some, like Local So-and-So, say they are a little annoyed to find they’ve needlessly been minding their manners around me.

I usually don’t use profanity because in general I’d rather emphasize points with clever phrasing and well-placed modifiers (adverbs and adjectives, for all you non-grammarians).  Once in a blue cheese moon, though, some sarcasm, irreverence and a curse word or three can come in quite handy.  A nice little Rant gets the blood flowing and lets off steam, and I think that’s fine – as long as Ranting does not become a habit.  (Then it just becomes tiresome.)

Occasionally something really rubs me the wrong way – like my daytime employer repeatedly pressuring me, and all its employees, to contact Congress and support their industry-related agenda, which as a conservative is not MY agenda.  I think it’s highly presumptuous and improper and possibly even in violation of some sort of employment law and have thus refused to comply.  And yesterday I had a little fun with my outrage.

In general, in terms of manners and rules here on E!!, I don’t mind a little “color” but don’t want any deliberate, personalized nasty-ness.  I do realize color is in the eye of the beholder, of course.

For an idea of what I find brilliant and loveable in terms of sarcasm, satire and the like, see Iowahawk.  He is one of our great modern-day scribes:  smart, scathing, derisive, outrageous, and funny like few can be.  His recent Senora Kennedy post had me laughing so hard and so long that my stomach ached and I had to pee.  (There is no higher praise when it comes to funny.)

I don’t claim to be living in the same comic galaxy as Iowahawk, and wouldn’t be silly enough to try to get there in my cute little cardboard rocketship.  Comic geniuses are like albinos:  very rare, and born (not made).  I admire Iowahawk from afar and despite the line he walks and often crosses, I am never offended.  In my book, funny covers a multitude of sins.

Anyway, for those who were shocked or disappointed by my letter, be assured that things like that are rare here on E!! – and know that your kind pardon, if granted, is appreciated.

I was recently encouraged, by the executives of an organization that shall go unnamed so I can keep my day job, to write a letter to my Congressman touting the benefits of the Fix Housing First Proposal.

Here’s my letter.

Dear Congressman (or woman)(or Dina Titus):

Rumor has it that you are considering additional action in re: to the housing market.  As I understand it, the Fix Housing First proposal consists of the following:

1.        The federal government will offer a gi-normous and historically unprecedented supercalifrajalistic tax credit to anyone buying a house in 2009, and anyone who took last year’s lesser tax credit or bought their house prior that can bite the proverbial Big One because they aren’t getting doodleley squat.  In essence, those retards who had the poor sense to purchase a domicile before you and your Wall Street pals f***cked the economy into a coma are SOL:  too bad, so sad, cry me a Hudson River, etc.

2.   In addition – and again, this is only for those bless’d and priveleged few who choose to buy homes in 2009 – the federal government will guarantee a super-sweet taxpayer-subsidized loan at a low, Low market rate of 2.99 or 3.99.  Those who were short-sighted enough to finance their homes at 5, 6, or 7% – what a bunch of losers!! – will just have to continue at those rates and hope that sometime in this millenium, they or their unfortunate descendants can break even…or at least not have to file bankruptcy and sell special personal favors out behind the local WalMart.

Naturally, as someone who enjoys being regularly screwed over by my elected officials, I support the Fix Housing First proposal.  In addition to priveleging a few citizens over the vast majority and attempting to artificially stimulate an entire industry with the taxpayer dollars OF that majority, it will effectively grind into dust my last vestiges of faith in fairness, equity, and the American Way. 

I now realize that virtues such as these are for fools and idealists, and I thank you for freeing me from the naïve weltanschauung that has enslaved me for the better part of my life.  Now instead of wasting my time aspiring to liberty and justice for all – what crack-smoking maniac thought up THAT ridiculous concept? – I can now embark on a life filled with bitterness, vitriol and rage and go to my grave cursing both man and God, as is only befitting of an enlightened person of the twenty-first century.

Congratulations on your confirmation into Congress, and if you pass the Fix Housing First bill, may your earthly blessings be exceeded only by super-special surprises stored up for you in the Seventh Circle of Hell.

Sincerely,

Citizen Sue

My friend over at Blue Collar Muse has made the Finalists list for the 2008 Weblog Awards in the category of Best Conservative Blog. It is well deserved, and I am just delighted for him.

When added to the joy of being married to the dazzling and intelligent Much Younger Trophy Wife, BCM’s cup surely overfloweth.

Three readers have asked me to provide links to my posts on other blogs/sites.

I hope it is not too bold to assume these readers do not find those other blogs/sites as completely riveting as E!! and so do not wish to visit them and scroll and click through their content.

(But in fairness and all seriousness, my lady readers should try to read LadyBlog. It’s pretty interesting most of the time, very funny some of the time, and somewhat controversial once in awhile ~ as it was this week.)

Anyhooha (for that joke, see here in the Comments), here are my most recent other posts:

Pimp My Corpse

Cardboard Controversy

My sister was reported missing 30 days ago today.  The investigation continues.  My family is very grateful to all who have inquired and sent their well wishes as well as those at Michigan State who organized the recent candle light vigil for her.

You can continue to email me or Google “Krista Lueth” for the latest news from Michigan, but – sad as I am – I both need and want to get back to E!! 

Krista’s gifting and passion was plants, gardens and horticulture.  Mine is reading, researching and writing.  Many years ago as we talked about Life and Meaning, she quoted an approximated adage: “If we make our play and our passions our work, we’ll never grow tired.”  

At the time we thought we had many years of “playing” and exchanging stories ahead, but I guess growing old together was not meant to be.  I’ll so miss hearing about her victories and joys and/but I know that she would want me to move forward and try to have mine.

She was that kind of sister.

Love you!!

(Today is the 10th anniversary of my marriage to The Venerable Mr. Crum. Tonight there will be champagne and peking duck with plum sauce.)

Far Right Democrat reminds us about George Orwell’s 1984ian government organization, the Ministry of Truth, and wonders how quickly KOS will do likewise in the way of rewriting history (i.e. change the official story) on mandated health care when Obama reverses himself and endorses it.

Of course, the modern day Ministry of Truth – the mainstream media – does this all the time.  As do nearly all politicians, especially during election cycles. 

Revisionist history:  it’s what’s for breakfast.

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You know, if you don’t have a blog and have been thinking about starting one, or if you are blogging somewhere else and getting few (or no) hits, I highly recommend joining Blogivists.  It’s easy to sign up, fun to choose your design template, and a breeze to start posting.

Blogivists offers four things you won’t find on a lot of other blog sites:

Instant Audience – If a blog post falls in the forest but nobody hears it, does it make a difference?  Blogging can be a lonely pursuit when you first begin, but with Blogivists your blog will be added to the group directory on Day One.  Also, the most recent Blogivists posts are jumped to the front page for all to see.  Right from the start, my E!! blog got hits and comments galore – thanks to the support of the Blogivists community.

Instant Search Rankings – Because Blogivists is already ranked in Google and other search engines as well as on Technorati and other blog ranking sites, your blog will catch the attention of the web spiders and other bloggers.  This means you’ll be elevated up the rankings much faster than if you’re operating alone.  Every time your latest post pops up on the Blogivists front page or another Blogivist links to your blog, you earn rank and authority points. 

For example, when I started my E!! blog in June 2008 I was ranked #5 million or so among active blogs on Technorati, yet today I am ranked at 220,559 which is top 5%.  Also, if you Google “Elizabeth Crum” or “Nevada conservative blogs” my blog now comes up #1 on page one.  Pretty amazing for someone who’s been blogging for less than 5 months!

Support – The Blogivists IT team is nice and very helpful.  It’s easy to fill out an online support ticket, and you’ll get personal attention whenever you have questions or issues.  Also there are Help pages and webinars to guide you along as you learn the blogropes.

Awards – Besides the $250 Blogivist of the Month award, there are the Sammies and other prizes available for bloggers who want to shoot for something big.  It’s motivation to stay passionate and keep at it, which is really what it’s all about.

A reader reminds me:  “Don’t forget about the email alerts, too.  I wouldn’t have known about your blog had I of not been a subscriber to Blogivists.”

 I am delighted to have been awarded the first Ever Blogivist of the Month award by the Sam Adams Alliance Blogivists group. 

Cash prize:  $250

Warm, happy feeling:  Priceless

Being part of Blogivists has been more fun that any blogger should rightfully have.  There are many skilled (and funny) bloggers in the group, and it’s been big fun to blog, click-o-vate, comment, and make merry.  I feel honored to have been picked for the first monthly award and look forward to seeing who wins for November!

Thanks to all – and Blog On!

A few of you know I recently signed on as Director of Policy at All American Blogger.  I also agreed to manage and edit AAB’s Nevada Edition multi-author blog which you can now enjoy. 

It is my hope that NE can be a Corneresque forum for Nevada readers:  a hodgepodge of news and opinion; lively and informed conservative-libertarian viewpoints; at times serious; at times silly; and hopefully never boring.

There are also other AAB state blogs both existing and coming online soon.

Many are saying this election was a failure of Conservatism.  Not so.  It was the product of poor Republican leadership and big government policies.  Fiscal discipline went out the window.  Earmarks were snatched up eagerly.  Corruption scandals sprang up too often.  Communication and message management were poor.

In short, the Republican party became undisciplined, greedy, weak and ineffective.  This dirtied and eroded the Republican brand such that it became unrecognizable and uninspiring. 

We need new leadership.  We need new voices and/or the renewing and rejuvination of existing voices.  Our elected officials need to stop concerning themselves with power grabs, pandering, and placating.  We must unapologetically and unashamedly stand on True Conservative values.

We need to get back to basics and get on message, recognizing that effective and persuasive communication matters.  As Laura Ingraham said today, “We must cultivate a new generation of leaders who are both proud of their conservative beliefs and comfortable articulating them with vision, clarify and optimism.” 

I hereby invoke part of Russell Kirk’s introduction to Ten Conservative Principles:

Perhaps it would be well, most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order.

The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.

In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience, says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers.

I have always loved Kirk’s Ten and that intro.  Not an ideology but ”a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the social order.”

Conservatives are skeptical of change for its own sake and will always pause to ask, “but what are the unintended consequences?”  Conservatives value that which has been good, and is good, and are not eager to dismiss that good in favor of untested new ideas.  Conservatives are open minded but cautious.  Social experiments are looked upon with great skepticism.  As Kirk later writes:

Therefore the intelligent conservative endeavors to reconcile the claims of Permanence and the claims of Progression. He thinks that the liberal and the radical, blind to the just claims of Permanence, would endanger the heritage bequeathed to us, in an endeavor to hurry us into some dubious Terrestrial Paradise. The conservative, in short, favors reasoned and temperate progress; he is opposed to the cult of Progress, whose votaries believe that everything new necessarily is superior to everything old.

Just so.

I surely must be dreaming…because my election predictions made NRO along with those of Kenneth Blackwell, Alex Castellanos, editor Kathryn Jean Lopez, Rob Long, John Miller, John Pitney, Lisa Schiffren, and the great Mark Steyn.  (Mine is the third blurb down.)

What an honor.

Now if only my prediction is wrong and McCain wins handily, I can go home and really enjoy that bottle of champagne that’s chilling in the fridge.

I’m scheduled to be on KNPR’s State of Nevada with Dave Berns tomorrow to discuss the election.  Others on the panel will be political consultant (and my friend) Chuck Muth, City Life editor Steve Sebelius, and Las Vegas CBS/Channel 8 Face to Face’s Jon Ralston (who I’ll be meeting for the first time).  Listen in if you can or check the website for the archive later on.

Apparently some of my readers, including The Venerable Mr. Crum, are often pressed for time and do not always have time to scroll through all of LadyBlog just to find my posts. 

It’s sweet that they care only about me, though I must say in all fairness that the other BlogLadies are nearly as bright and funny as I.  (ha ha!)

Following are a few of my most recent LadyBlog posts.  Forward the links and/or leave comments if you wish; it earns us points with the editors.

Planetary First:  Rwanda’s Parliament Has Female Majority:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/30/planetary-first-rwanda%e2%80%99s-parliament-has-female-majority/

Well Done, Laura Bush:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/29/well-done-laura-bush/

Next Season’s Dancing With the Stars:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/24/next-seasons-dancing-with-the-stars/

Sarah Palin’s Shoes:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/22/sarah-palins-shoes/

Ledeen on Noonan:  Singling Out Palin (lots of comments on this one; good discussion):  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/17/ledeen-on-noonan-singling-out-palin/

Women and the Commentariat:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/16/women-and-the-commentariat/

Mr. Nintendo, Meet Ms. Couture:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/08/mr-nintendo-meet-ms-couture/

A Shoe by the Side of the Road:  http://culture11.com/blogs/ladyblog/2008/10/01/a-shoe-by-the-side-of-the-road/

A number of concerned readers have inquired about the Civility/Comments post.

No, I have not received any death threats.  There was, however, a rather nasty (and untrue) comment posted yesterday, and I deleted it.  Which is my prerogative as Queen of this tiny blogdom.  This is not a democracy, and I don’t have to tolerate Nonsense if I don’t wish it.

Note to that commenter, since I’m typing this:  I am nobody’s Yes Girl.  I agree and/or disagree with whomever, whenever, and however I please, based on my values and the facts at hand.

As I said, I don’t mind disagreement – even in the extreme – but readers need to state their case rationally and decently.

Apt Quote – an E!! Favorite

I wish that I may never think the smiles of the great and powerful a sufficient inducement to turn aside from the straight path of honesty and the convictions of my own mind.” — David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. VII, p. 372

Opposing viewpoints and criticisms are welcome, but nasty remarks will be deleted.  State your comment or case with some civility – preferably citing facts and examples - or be silent. 

(And if you can’t be intelligent, at least be funny.)

Written Friday night, soon after scanning the latest polls and reading that Chris Buckley is casting a vote for Obama:

Rich ~ I ask your indulgence with this entire email.  I know we don’t know one another and that a handful of emails from me to you over the years, and you occasionally responding “thanks,” don’t really justify what is to follow.

But, you are the editor of National Review, and tonight I am a distraught conservative, so here it is:

I got tears in my eyes reading Chris Buckley’s whole post.

Chris seems cheerful enough about all this, so it’s not for him I cry. His dear father is no doubt quite content (and causing some kind of harmless mischief) in the great Hereafter, so no need for tears there.

I feel a sense of grief and loss; what is it…?

Chris Buckley is wrong; of that I am sure; but still it feels sad.

It seems to me that the splintering of the conservative movement, and its mixed political fortunes, and a sort of crisis of identity, have led us here. Fractured, floundering, weak, perhaps conservatism no longer knows what It is and so cannot inspire and compel as it once did. (I am so tired of talk of the Big Tent…)

It seems to me attempts at fusionism have (so far) failed: if McCain is the prototype and/or product, surely we must admit that? Chris Buckley admits it, with gusto: he now throws his hat in the ring for the uber-liberal senator from Illinois, saying Obama is preferable to the inauthentic and often unconservative McCain.

Is Obama to be elected and are we conservatives to be banished to the fringe, then, as we once were? For decades the establishment ignored us. Only because of Bill Buckley and then with Reagan did history really take note.

But what principle, what policy, what politician, what philosopher will unite us now?

From 1944 to 1991 we were held together by the glue of anticommunism. Barry Goldwater tried to carry the torch onward; Frank Meyer’s fusionism attempted the same and seems to live on in the postmodern pursuit of authenticity through freedom and virtue.

But. An inclusive doctrine – which conservatism has become – though seemingly practical, can lend itself to problems. Indeed, can anyone deny that we have landed ourselves in quite a spot?

When someone like Chris Buckely throws all hierarchies out the proverbial window and says he is voting for Obama, what then?

Has the postwar conservative intellectual movement lost its way; will it now become unrecognizable?

What has become of American conservatism?

One of the happiest days in the life of a new blogger is a mention at Instapundit. 

Still all warm and fuzzy from my KNPR radio appearance this morning, I logged in to E!! to see that Instapundit linked up to yesterday’s ACORN post.

Thanks Glenn!

The audio from this morning’s KNPR segment will be loaded here soon.  Segment summaries, links and email addresses are up now.

Here’s a shot of Duane Lester and me at a New Media training/presentation at the Conservative Leadership Conference here in fabulous Las Vegas this past weekend. 

Duane (one of the many geniuses over at All American Blogger) called me “major league cool” on their blog today so we are now BFFs.

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Adapted by Elizabeth Crum - E!! - from “A kingdom for a stage” by William Shakespeare [from Henry V]

O for a Muse of moderation, that would ascend
The brightest netwave of invention,
A kingdom for a Sage, senators to act
And bloggers to behold the swelling scene!

Then should the warlike pol, like Reagan,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash’d in like hounds, should dollar and dividend
Crouch for employment. And pardon not, O Blogivists,
The doltish congressmen who dare

On their unworthy stage to recommend forth
Their idiotic plans:  can that intellectual vacuum hold
The vasty notions of fiscal responsibility?  Or will we cram
Within this week the very blunders
That did affright the kings of Wall Street?

O, pardon! since a crooked politician may
Protest while pocketing a million;
So let us, Bloggers in this great sphere,
Type, click and upload on screens galore.

 Today within the corridors of Congress
We see confined two indistinguishible parties,
Whose egos are exceeded only by their greed
And perilous corruption splits all asunder:
Piece out their imperfections with your posts;
Into a thousand parts divide their rhetoric,
And make it clear to all who rules this realm:

The Blogosphere, in all its glory rides

Printing our apt remarks i’ the receiving Web;
For ’tis our thoughts that now shall thump our kings,
Chase them here and there; Twittering and
Turning the empty accomplishment of many years
Into pithy posts:  for the further supply of which
Welcome us Bloggers to this great Webstory;
We pundit-like your online reading pray,

Bookmark our blogs, and kindly judge our daily Play.

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After debunking a couple of rumors and lies on E!! this week, I’ve decided to spread the word that I am a bit of a Research Geek – and encourage readers to email me with “Is It True?” questions/links.

If you read or hear something that makes you go “Hmmmm….?” or are lacking information on a person, place, or thing and you’d like to find out Just The Facts, Jack…

Please email me the info and I’ll do some digging and post any/all discoveries (along with a big Thank You to the reader who asked) on E!!

Please note that my fact-finding is guarantEEd to be non-partisan.  In other words, no matter who it benefits, I will find out the truth – and Tell It like it is.

K-Lo @ The Corner just posted a fun email I sent her.  My day is now complete… 

(And I think I’ll stop waiting for Obama’s announcement; it’s obviously not happening today.)

BUT WAIT:  An emailer on The Corner thinks they were avoiding announcing while Rush was on the air and are now waiting for Hannity to go off air.  Which is 5 minutes from now so we’ll see…

OR MAYBE (another Corner e-mail):

Since Obama’s doing the texting thing…he’s going to release in the next two hours, as all the 20/30 somethings start going out with their friends on the East Coast—that way it will dominate their evening festivities, as each member gets a text at various times. Probably stupid if true, but that’s how they think—that everybody is a metrosexual hanging out like its an episode of Sex and the City or Friends, or going to wine-tasting parties….

I promise to give up all shameless self promotion when I’m a famous nationally syndicated writer/editor.  But for now, I’m tickled to announce that yesterday’s E!! post on Dem/Progressive want ads for campaign help (and the lack of any for the GOP) in Nevada got the attention of Politico @ Real Clear Politics here.