Harrington vs Schultz – Round 2

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Karen Harrington, candidate for Congresss in Florida’s 20th district where she will be trying to unseat the infamous Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Some of you may remember that Harrington was unable to defeat Schultz in the 2010 elections, but Mrs. Harrington believes things will be different this time and answers my questions as to why and how that will be the case and what reasons might have existed in 2010 that will not exist today.

I also interviewed FreedomWorks Dean Clancy about their Tea Party Debt Commission where they are hoping to provide a grassroots answer to the “Super Committee” by having a super committee of our own.  Listen in to find out how you can get involved.

All this plus my usual awesomeness can be found at the link below.

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The President’s Spending Cut Prediction was Only Off by 4,000 Billion Dollars.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina’s 5th district, had strong words today for House Democrats demagoguing the Cut, Cap & Balance proposal from Republicans.  Mulvaney correctly categorizes the Democrat’s own proposal as Duck, Dodge & Dismantle.

Sit back and enjoy some awesome schooling from one of the authors of Cut, Cap & Balance.

And in case you need further evidence of how ahead of the curve RedState is, look no further than our very early front page interview with the Congressman.

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Cross-Posted at Redstate.com

Of Demons and Debt Ceilings

This week I am interviewing Ann Coulter about her new bestseller Demonic, a history and analysis of the mob mentality of the American left.  As expected, Ms. Coulter had her wits, her snark and her razor sharp mind ready to go in both the book and this interview.

I also interview Dean Clancy, the Legislative Counsel for FreedomWorks, about the impending Debt Ceiling.  We discuss whether or not it matters, what we as Republicans should do, and how best to deal with the likely impasse.

I also take a few minutes to talk about the art of negotiation and compromise as well as address my new status as a Palin supporter as established through last week’s review of the film “The Undefeated.”

Renewing America – July 18, 2011

Tune into Renewing America with Ben Howe every Monday night at 9pm EST, only on FTR Radio.

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Palin.

It’s been almost three years since I, along with many others, was introduced to Governor Sarah Palin. In that time we have been saturated with coverage of her and just about everybody on the left and the right, has had the opportunity to get to know who she is and what they think of her.

At least that’s what I thought.

New York Times Brushes Off Ethical Concerns

For those of you who missed it, The New York Times recently ran some controversial, front-page stories regarding the natural gas industry.  Specifically, some are questioning whether or not this was an agenda driven hit piece on the gas industry.

Ken Boehm, of the National Legal and Policy Center, has called for an investigation into the matter where he lays out what the issues are:

I write to request a formal inquiry by the Public Editor into a series of articles published last week in The New York Times about the natural gas industry and the investment banking world.  In the “Drilling Down” series, Ian Urbina alleges that there is a speculative bubble in the shale gas industry, “in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles.”  But at least two of the sources for his articles are not industry insiders at all.  Rather they appear to be two individuals whose agenda is to publicly disparage the shale gas industry’s image and outlook.

The accusation sounds soft at first, but harsh words followed:

I am concerned that the Times, in a serious breach of long-established journalist   standards, ignored, concealed, or was misled regarding the conflicts of some of its key sources.

Not using industry sources to support this series would be oversight enough, but Boehm had a specific person in mind.

In fact, however, the likely source of some of these emails is Arthur Berman of Labyrinth Consulting Services in Sugar Land, Texas, who does not work for the shale gas drilling industry.  As Mr. Urbina acknowledges at one point in the June 25 story, Arthur Berman is actually “one of the most vocal skeptics of shale gas economics.”  Yet the Urbina stories do not disclose that Mr. Berman is much more than that.  He is the creator and leading popularizer of the shale gas “bubble” critique embraced by Mr. Urbina, and seems to have been his main source.  Perhaps most egregiously, the Urbana stories also neglect to mention that Arthur Berman makes his living providing investment advice based upon his own position as a shale gas critic.^[1]

Compelling to say the least.

You Asked For It Democrats

As I noted last night, there is some serious concern amongst lefties that the Republicans are trying to steal the Wisconsin Democrat primary process during the current recalls taking place in response to Governor Walker’s budget.  They’re in full panic mode over at the house of Kos. (I’ll let you go look as opposed to sullying our site with a link to that dreck)

Suffice it to say, some are quite upset that an open primary means that anyone can vote if they so choose, regardless of party affiliation or ideology.  That’s why it’s called “open.”  But, in spite of this, Tom Tolan, a writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has also taken to connecting a business called Patriot Advisors to the Republican party of Wisconsin.

First the denial from the GOP:

The state GOP has been saying it’s not doing anything to help any of their protest candidates in Tuesday’s elections, other than to help them collect signatures on their nomination papers.

Then the damning evidence!

Last week, calls were made to voters in Hopper’s district, and a flier was sent out, in support of John Buckstaff, the protest Democrat challenging King on Tuesday. The flier was identified with a little-known group called Patriot Advisors, which registered June 29 with the state Government Accountability Board to oppose King and support Buckstaff.

The same group also registered to oppose Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse), who’s challenging Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse), and in favor of James Smith, the fake Democrat in that district. Calls in favor of Smith were reported in that district. A reporter left messages at a phone number listed on Patriot Advisors’ filing, but they were not returned.

One problem: I’ve spoken directly to sources close to the group, and they say that Patriot Advisors did respond to the reporter, but the reporter simply decided not to include their response in his story.

Manufacturing Necessity

Last week, America had the joy of it’s first Twitter town hall.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m a big fan of Twitter, and I even believe that doing some type of town hall variant via Twitter is a great thing.  However, regardless of the venue, President Obama is a master of making incoherent, false, and/or misleading statements in 16,000 characters or less, and last Wednesday was no exception. One of those answers was in response to this tweet:

Out of his three and a half minute response to this question, someone on youtube picked out this highlight:

 

For the video impaired, let me summarize: Our dependence on foreign oil will only be solved by jamming unwanted products down the throats of the American people, regardless of the impact on employment and industry. That’s right; it’s all about increased fuel efficiency standards. His response shows how little he actually knows about the auto industry, or worse, how much he intends on misleading the public.

Operation: Chaos

One might recall a recent contentious special election which took place in NY-26 in which an otherwise favored to lose candidate Jack Davis, pretended to be a tea party candidate and disrupted the otherwise bellwether election.  In fact, the trickery in this election went so far as to create entire fake websites dedicated to spreading misinformation to the voters in the hopes of confusing them and getting them to vote the “right” way.

This is nothing new of course, Democrats love to play tricks to win, it’s Alinsky 101. They’ve practically made an art out of creating fake tea party candidates to siphon votes away from Republicans (as scheme that was attempted in more than one location).  And interestingly, cases such as those linked above are directly tied to the Democrat party apparatus.  While there are plenty more examples of individuals who may or may not have official ties trying to muck things up on their own, one thing is certain: Democrats have been and continue to look for ways to infiltrate the GOP and direct where votes will go through misinformation and blatant fraud.

But now, it’s the Republicans that are under fire for supposedly using the very same type of trickery.

Excuse Me While I Save The World

Having completed Andrew Breitbart’s book Righteous Indignation, I took a few moments to talk to him about it and how it came about.  The conversation found it’s way to subjects ranging from Eric Boehlert’s unhealthy obsession with things that are Big, to a little reported rift that has developed between Andrew Breitbart and Glenn Beck.  Suffice to say, the conversation was very interesting.

Prior to the interview, I brilliantly railed against the standards that the Obama administration is putting forth for fuel efficiency (you know, the ones that make the Nissan Leaf, Smart Cars & the all powerful Prius dirty polluters?), as well as a few words on the madness that is the TSA.

Renewing America – June 27th

Renewing America with Ben Howe airs Monday nights at 9pm EST only on FTR Radio.

Cross-Posted at RedState.com

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