R.I.P., W.F.B. (j.) - 1925 - 2008

Porcupine is proud to own an original hardback copy of 'God and Man at Yale'. The thesis of the book is that liberal faculty is busy inculcating students with liberal doctrines, often making at least a public agreement with a progressive point of view a prerequisite for a good grade, while abandoning the true mission of the University, which is classical and rigorous education. The book may seem a well worn theme, until you pause to consider that it was written in 1951.

William F. Buckley, Jr., Gentleman of Connecticut has passed away. There will be many news stories about him. Porcupine especially like the phrase in the Associated Press obituary - 'reptilian languor' - for Buckley's unique and often satirized style (really, it's so apt that Porcupine suspects the AP of having had this written for a while). William F. Buckley was the George Saunders of conservatism - silkily spoken, impeccably presented, and utterly addicted to the last word.

Buckley lived to debate - the livelier and more intelligent his opponents, the better - and he single handedly invented the public affairs debate show with 'Firing Line', the PBS fig leaf of conservatism from 1965 to 1999. Buckley pulled the plug on the show himself, announcing that he wished to give a competitor a chance in a new millennium. Eyes cast down, doodling on his pad, twisting further and further in his chair, Buckley would listen to his opponent - until that mistake, that inopportune word. Then, the eyebrow raised, the hooded eyes lit up, and the devastating rebuttal would begin in the odd drawl that was his speech.

Much will be written about his life and his ideas for a little while. He was a mass of odd contradictions - he angrily quit a job at the magazine American Mercury (before going on to found The National Review) because he felt it was anti-Semitic; yet he had no problem saying that southern states were right to reject the Federal government and uphold Jim Crow laws based on state's rights and white majority rule. He urged the Republican Party to purge itself of John Birch Society members as he thought them conspiracy obsessed loons; yet he was one of the few intellectuals to defend the basic premise of Sen. Joe McCarthy's investigations into communist tendencies. When your heard Buckley SAY it, it all sounded logical at the time.

He was a brilliant rhetorician. He helped Goldwater and Reagan begin their political careers. When he began publishing The National Review, intellectual discourse was primarily David Susskind liberalism, a sort of New Deal hangover. He provided a Right Brain to go with the Left, and a balance in the arena of ideas. Porcupine greatly admired his debating and writing skills (non-fiction only - his spy novels were dreadful). Before Goldwater, there was Bill Buckley - the beginning of the modern Conservative movement. It is a shame to see so much wit and style leave the public square.

Tired Old Script

Nowhere has it been more apparent that mainstream reporters are cliche clinging, almost pre-programmed in their coverage of stories, than in the coverage of the primary races.

Recently on Media Nation, Porcupine was debating a Boston Globe article by Jeff Jacoby, called "What Would Reagan Say?" , which implied that Romney's Michigan pledge to reinvent the car industry (something his Dad actually did with the introduction of the compact car) was anti-Reagan pandering.

Well, I'm more of a Goldwater Republican myself, but as to what would Reagan say, per Mr. Jacoby? Reagan would say he bailed out Chrysler.

Reporters like to follow a well-worn rut when doing political reporting. Romney has more delegates, more first place finishes, and more campaign funds than any other candidate and yet the Punditocracy keeps syaing he'll have to drop out. Because he isn't following their script. Of course, the front loaded primaries weren't on their script either, and that is what is driving events. The reporters sound like Paul Harvey talking about what was, not is or will be.

Why was all the media attendion on South Carolina, with 31 delegates, instead of Nevada with 34? Because that's how the old script was written. I'm sorry that reporters loathe Mitt Romney (Why? He's always been unfailingly polite with them...) but media can't shape public opinion any more just like unions can't deliver membership as voters any more either. Actual voters are choosing Mitt Romney - he's gotten more votes than any other candiate, too. In fact, in Nevada, he got more votes by himself that all the Democratic candidates put together!

McCain cannot win without independents to prop up his numbers in open primaries. In the closed primaries coming up, Mitt Romney will secure the nomination. Florida will be the beginning.

Boxing Day!

Porcupine received a remarkable Christmas gift this year - a copy of his own creation! A copy of Porcupine's Gazette for November 15, 1797!

The paper, a heavy weight using cotton or linen as part of its makeup, has four sheets. The two exterior sheets are entirely ads. Foreclosed property, a new shipment of fine Madeira, a dozen cases of Jamaican Pimentoes at a reasonable price, a new legal office setting up. Thee is a self-congratulatory notice for a girls deportment and boarding school which had been entirely able to avoid any virulent illness in the past year, due to their emphasis on hygiene and good manners. And, a notice that a Negro woman was being sold to settle an estate - but Philadephia was rather further south than Boston, and such sales were still common.

The two interior sheets have news stories, and what struck Porcupine the most was how some subject matter remains a subject for debate. A Dr. Priestly had recently written a pamphlet debating the Divinity of Christ, and Porcupine roundly excoriated such an idea, fit for nothing but those newfangled Unitarians. Porcupine had composed a satiric lecture on 'The Fine Art of Bragging', in the voice of his enemy, Thos. Jefferson, rather in the spirit of The Colbert Report. And most timely, Porcupine reported on a Lottery, sanctioned by the State of Delaware, to raise $4,000 to replace a burned out factory building, and a schedule of the expected payouts for the tickets.



Still, the best thing of all was to see Porcupine's logo once again - a puffed out Porcupine, with an expression of feral glee, excitedly turning his head for the latest rumor and news. Indeed, a mere 210 years has meant fewer changes than one might expect!

Christmas Perennial

Porcupine does not usually find wisdom on the television listing page, but he wants to credit Kevin McDonough who writes the 'TV Tonight' column for the Cape Cod Times with an exceptional insight.

In writing about tonight's offerings, he spoke about "It's A Wonderful Life", which Porcupine just finished watching on Ch. 7, the NBC channel. This is what he wrote about the film:

"Among the more haunting and effective moments in the film shows how Bailey's neighborly small town has been transformed into a tacky honky-tonk because of the forces of short-sighted greed - personified by the Scrooge-like Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) - have been allowed to triumph in his absence.

I'll allow the usual gang of moralists to judge the current state of television and even Christmas entertainment, but it's hard not to wonder if we all live in Pottersville now.

How else do you explain the number of shows that celebrate the values of casinos, gambling, tattoo parlors, bailbondsmen, bounty hunters, highway chase footage, the arrest of drunk-and-disorderly suspects and the tabloid exploits of a steady parade of
sleazy celebrities?"

Well, like George Bailey on the bridge, we have a decision to make. Without our cooperation, Pottersville will wither and die on the vine.

Fox News Gets It Dead Wrong!

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But look’d too near have neither heat nor light.
John Webster (1580?–1634)

The last debate before the Iowa Caucuses! The horserace is on in earnest, the bets are being laid, and the Punditocracy was slavering over who would attack who - Mitt on Huck? Fred on Rudy? Alan Keyes on....just EVERYBODY??? (They were right about that). They strapped themselves in, giddy as children, to watch the GOP carnage.

But this debate was being hosted by Iowa PBS and the venerable Des Moines Register, and the single questioner was editor Carolyn Washburn, not some familiar Beltway type who could be disposed of with the usual 15 second bio. Ms. Washburn had other ideas. "By the time I get on stage, I will have spent between one and four to five hours with most of the candidates,'' she said. "I got to look them in the eye and get a sense of who they are.'' David Yepsen, the Register's veteran political columnist, said that the candidates should expect a grilling by Washburn. "She asks tough questions and pointed questions,'' he said. "She doesn't mess around. She's really being diligent about this.''As Carolyn Washburn began her questoning, she said, "We'll dig in on issues that need more clarification. Iraq or illegal immigration may come up because, of course, everything is interreoleated, but we're not going to spend concentrated time on those" (as opposed to CNN, which devoted the entire first half of the SnowHoax Debate to the single issue of illegal immigration). Here are some of the 'dull' questions that were asked -

The Comptroller General of the United States said that the US faces a tsunami of debt that is a great threat to our national security. Does you agree that our country's financial situation creates a national security risk, and why or why not? (As it happens, this was the first question, and it caused Porcupine to sit up in his green leather chair a litle bit.)

What sacrifices would you ask Americans to make for debt reduction?

What about the relationship between international trade and human rights violations?

What segment of taxpayers - poor, middle class, wealthy or corporate - are paying more than their fair share under the current system?

What specific changes would you make to NAFTA?

Do you think it's more important for the next President to be a fiscal conservative or a socail conservative?

What government program is vital enough that you would be willing to run a defecit in order to sustain it?

What educational standards does the U.S. need to adopt or improve to compete in the global economy, what will you do to moveus to those standards, and what's your timetable?

A TRANSCRIPT of the debate is here, and a link to video at Iowa PBS is HERE.

Aah, but where were the FIREWORKS? Fred Barnes said the debate was dull and groused that it was all 'just stuff they had heard before'. WHERE? In what alternative debate universe? Mort Kondrake called Ms. Washburn 'Nurse Ratched' for having the temerity to actually enforce time limits. Porcupine wonered if this was a Fox phenomonon, and checked in with the others - Blitzer on CNN and MSNBC's Nora O'Donnell (not a relation to Larry O'Donnell, surely?) were also calling the debate dull and bland. The 'top tier' candidates didn't get to 'engage' one another one on one. The scrupulous inclusion of all candidates was such a drag! And the subjects - HOW can they compete with Bible Boy, or Stars and Bars, or Sanctuary Mansions? WHERE is the sound bite?

How insulting to the populace that the 24/7 mainstream television media universally decried the only debate with substance as not worthy of attention. They only want sizzle, and don't care about steak, and expect the rest of us to subsist on a diet of cotton candy, too, to make the headlines more shocking for the well-coiffed newsreaders that have replaced reporters on television.

Ath the end of coverage, Brit Hume sniffed that he didn't see how there would be any 'lead' for the news, as it was all so serious. He seemed to think that was a bad thing.

Reaction Run Amok

"I used to laugh and dismiss this talk about how we were — that there was a liberal bias in the mainstream media. But I have to say in the four years I’ve been at Fox, I’ve come to believe that there is a bias.”
Chris Wallace, Interview on Politico.com, Dec. 10, 2007

Porcupine has been laid very low with a variant of the virus which actually closed the Chatham schools, and can do little but fret, make demands, drink liquids and look at the television. Nevertheless, on Sunday, he witnessed the most virulent and frightening display of hate speech he has ever seen on a national news broadcast, made all the more disturbing in that the transgressor was given free rein, and was only mildly contradicted. Of course, he IS a big television editor.

Last Sunday, the McLaughlin Group took up The Speech. On the McLaughlin Group web site, the segment is called 'The Latter-Day Saint'. With his usual gusto, John McLaughlin began the discussion by saying, "Okay, Mitt and Jesus".

MR. ROMNEY: (From videotape.) There is one fundamental question which I'm often asked: What do I believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Question: Does this acceptance of the divinity of Jesus Christ hit the issue of Mormonism head-on?

MR. O'DONNELL: No. There's a big problem. Look, I'm not a Mormon, but I do play one on TV....

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Are you a Christian? (Actually, Porcupine learned from his later interview on Hugh Hewitt that Mr. O'Donnell is a classic lapsed Boston Cafeteria Catholic).

MR. O'DONNELL: -- On Big Love, the HBO series (O'Donnell has a recurring role on the show as a shyster lawyer, taking his scriptwriting skills honed on The West Wing and using them in service of his bigotry), that has been a real headache for Romney. Here’s the problem. He dare not discuss his religion. And he fools people like Pat Buchanan who should know better. This was the worst speech, the worst political speech of my lifetime, because this man stood there and said to you, this is the faith of my fathers. And you, and none of these commentators who liked this speech, realize that the faith of his father is a racist faith. As of 1978, it was an officially racist faith. And for political convenience, in 1978, it switched, and it said okay, black people can be in this Church. He believes, if he believes the faith of his fathers, that black people are black, because in Heaven, they turned away from God. In this demented, Scientology-like notion of what was going on in Heaven before the Creation of the Earth, and the Garden of Eden is in Minnesota....

Pat Buchanan: Are you saying that his Mormonism disqualifies him from being president of the United States?

LO’D: I’m saying he’s got to answer…when he was 30 years old…

PB: He does not have to answer..

LO’D: …and he firmly believed in the faith of his fathers that black people are inferior, when did he change his mind? Did the religion have to tell him to change his mind? And when he talks about the faith of his father, how about the faith of his great-grandfather, who had five wives?

PB: Well, look. My great-grandfather had slaves. And I don’t believe in slavery. (Buchanan also went to to note that Baptist Churches actively condoned slavery, and cited scripture to support for their position, but he was hard to hear under O'Donnell's rant. Eleanor Clift just looked like a deer gazing at headlights, and spoke briefly, only when spoken to.)

Larry O'Donell is the Senior Political Analyst at MSNBC. But his shouting and screaming over others actually frightened and shut up John McLaughlin, no mean feat. How can anyone think that he can cover this race with any kind of objectivity? Imagine for a moment if he began to shout about Joe Lieberman in 2000 that his kind were responsible for the crucifxion of Christ by denying him, and Lieberman would be taking money from the usury of his coreligionists. Would he still be on the air, let alone remain the person who edits the stories of others?

This was no 'off-day' for Larry O'Donnell - he went out of his way to reiterate is views in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt radio show HERE.

Hewitt persistantly asks a question that has also occured to Porcupine. If Romney is reponsible for racism of Mormons, than why isn't Kerry or Kennedy responsible for sexism against women? Why isn't Sen. Clinton responsible for the vote her church took to reaffirm a decision to bar gays from the clergy in 2004? This is O'Donnell's disingenuous response:

HH: Then I assume you are condemning Biden and Leahy and Kennedy and Kerry for being part of a sexist organization which they haven’t condemned?

LO’D: No. They’ve got the same flexible relationship to it that I do. You know Kennedy. You know Teddy’s in favor of abortion rights, he’s for…

HH: Well, no, he hasn’t come out and condemned the Church. We should be demanding they condemn the Church.

LO’D: No, no, no. They all have to live, you know, they live with this very uncomfortable…the Catholic…Democratic liberal politicians who are Catholic, and you know there are many coming out of the Northeast, Italian Irish Catholics, they have an extremely uncomfortable relationship with the Church, and they’re kind of always ducking, because there’s always that possibility that a Cardinal somewhere will call them on the abortion issue, as one did during John Kerry’s run for the presidency, with John Kerry. And you know, there’s a bob and weave that all Catholic politicians who are pro-choice are doing all the time. But that…

HH: But shouldn’t they have to stand up and defend what they believe, and condemn, or at least leave the Church of which they are a part?

LO’D: No, Catholicism, as I told you, is extremely flexible, and the Church doesn’t say you have to leave. Rudy Giuliani doesn’t leave…Rudy Giuliani, there was a time, you know, in Catholicism, in the 50’s, for example, in the kind of pre-divorce explosion in the United States, where if a Catholic got divorced, it was considered automatic excommunication. Now all the guys we’ve mentioned, with the exception of Mario Cuomo, have been divorced. And they continue to consider themselves Catholic. The Catholic Church doesn’t say they’re not Catholic. It’s, you know, there’s a 21st Century version of Catholicism. There’s a late 20th Century version of American Catholicism that allows for all sorts of things that were not allowed, and not believed in the first half of this century, including, by the way, the notion, prior to 1950, that if you weren’t a Catholic, you would not go to Heaven. That was a universal… "

So we non-Catholics were all going to Hell, but O'Donnell is concerned about past racism. But hey - those guys are liberals, so no questions need be asked.

It should be noted that there actually IS no 'late 20th century version' of the Roman Catholic Church, except in the 'flexible' imagination of Larry O'Donell. Oh, and the Chruch is anti-gay, too, but that's 'flexible' as well.

Imus was fired for less, but the punditocracy will continue to protect its own, while claiming that MSNBC and CNN (host of the Debate of the Plants) are bastions of cool headed unbiased reporting.

YouTube Republic

Well, the snowman was there and said Hi! to Mitt Romney in his helium voice. The Florida Republican YouTube debate was tonight. A CNN transcript is HERE, and YouTube's video recap is HERE.

Porcupine thought the questions were decent enough on the whole, if a little predictable. Why there were no questions of the enviornment, health care or education is a travesty. It was nice to see all the candidates get some time, and Duncan Hunter was a particular beneficiary of the work of Anderson Cooper to give all eight a chance to participate. UPDATE - the mom with toys from China was a union manager; the girl asking about abortion works for the Edwards campaign; and the Log Cabin Questioner is a declared Obama supporter, in ADDITION to the Clinton campaign plant - Porcupine's opinion of the questions and the editing process has just taken an elevator ride to the basement.

Each candidate got their own 30 second YouTube spot as well. Guiliani’s 30 second spot was the very best, using his quirky humor to take credit for 'Decreased Snowfall in New York!'. But the humor blew up in his face when he accused Romney of not merely having a sanctuary city, but a sanctuary mansion by having illegals work on his law. “Wait a minute – if you hire a company to paint your house or put on a roof, do you go out and demand to see the papers of anybody who is a different color or has a different accent than you? THAT is Un-American!”. Later, Fred Thompson chipped in that he was surprised Guiliani would bring up employees, as 'I guess we've ALL hired some people who didn't work out exactly the way we thought they would...', a reference to Bernard Kerik.

McCain was the straight talk guy again. On amnesty to Ron Paul - 'That kind of isolationism brought on WW II'; on torture to Romney - 'I am shocked that you think that kind of tretment could ever be used by Americans' and suggesting that we need to either abide by the Geneva Convention or leave it. Romney said he didn’t think it was wise for a candidate to be too specific, which Porcupine happens to think is a prudent position but a poor debating point.

Mike Huckabee had the best spontaneous jokes of the night, and his appeal is obvious. He personifies compassionate conservatism, and comes across as warm and engaged.

The only real ringer of the night was a YouTube question selected from retired Army general, Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr. After listing his military credentials, he said at the end of his video that he is an openly gay man and wanted to know why gays can't serve in the professional military. It produced discomfort from all the candidates as Anderson Cooper needled them to respond. Later, Politico reported that Kerr was on the Steering Committee of "Veterans for Kerry", and now Nightline reports that he serves on the advisory committee for the Clinton campaign.

Anderson Cooper opened the debate by saying that "All the questions come from you", and that there were 5,000 questions, about 2,000 more than the Democrat debate attracted. CNN represents this as 'The People's Debate'. Based on Cooper's choice to have the Clinton campaign not only be selected to ask the questions, but to be seated in the audience for follow up, Porcupine is curious as to what 'people'they refer to, as Porcupine awaits the use of Karl Rove as a questioner in the next Democrat debate.

What's-His-Name, that Guy Running for President....

Porcupine has learned why so many of the twenty-odd candidates haven't been able to get their ideas across. Nobody has heard them.


From an excellent piece in Journalism.org, "The Invisible Primary", comes the following statistics -

While Hillary Clinton led in the derby for press exposure (she was the primary subject in 17% of all campaign stories), the largely antagonistic attention of conservative talk radio accounted for most of that edge. Clinton was the focus of nearly a third of all the campaign segments among the conservative talkers studied (the three most popular conservative radio voices, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage). Clinton is not nearly as a popular subject among liberal radio talk show hosts.

The second-most covered candidate, Democratic rival Barack Obama (14% of stories), got a boost in that coverage from being the No. 1 focus of all the candidates from network evening news.

Two Republicans were next in media exposure. Giuliani led among Republicans with 9% of the stories, followed by McCain at 7% and Romney at 5%.

They were followed by former Senators John Edwards (4%) and Fred Thompson (3%), whose level of coverage relative to their party rivals probably puts them in what is best considered a second tier. Interestingly, Thompson, the lobbyist, actor and former Tennessee Senator, enjoyed this level of coverage (and name recognition in polling) even though he did not actually enter the race until
September.

The rest of the candidates would have to be considered not second-tier but third, at least in media attention. None received more than 2% of the coverage.

Put another way, of the more than 1,700 campaign stories examined from January to May, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee each were the focus of fewer than a dozen stories. The second tier Democrats fared only slightly better. There were five stories about Chris Dodd, 28 about Bill Richardson, one about Dennis Kucinich, and 41 about Joe Biden. For most, their coverage peaked the day of their announcement and went downhill from there.

How dominant were Clinton and Obama as newsmakers? Together, these two candidates commanded essentially the same amount of coverage as all the of the GOP hopefuls combined.

So, in a sense, we have nobody but ourselves to blame. Conservative pundits talk about the Democrats and Liberal reporters talk about...the Democrats.

The entire piece is worth reading, and is a good objective display of how conservative ideas and principles have tough sledding in getting exposure - even if at least half of the country agrees with them.

His LAST Debate

Porcupine usually likes a party. The guest of honor revealed his flagrant bias at this one. From Examiner News -

The event was a 'birthday Party' for the MSNBC political show 'Hardball'. Included among the guests were such NBC/MSNBC brass as NBC Senior Vice President Phil Griffin (the former "Hardball" executive producer called "Hardball" the "best show on cable television"), "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert, "Today" show executive producer Jim Bell, NBC News Specials Executive Producer Phil Alongi, "Meet the Press" Executive Producer Betsy Fischer, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC Vice President Tammy Haddad, "Hardball" correspondent David Shuster and Vice President for MSNBC Prime-Time Programming Bill Wolff.

In fact, the only person Porcupine noticed missing is Helen Thomas, the Wicked Witch of the West Wing. Reading the list of luminaries present, it is fair to say that they represent the 'unbiased' mainstream media that is 'objectively' covering the Presidential race, and more specifically, the Republican candidates. To continue:

Chris Matthews had barely finished praising his colleagues at the 10th anniversary party for his “Hardball” show Thursday night in Washington, D.C. when his remarks turned political and pointed, even suggesting that the Bush administration had "finally been caught in their criminality."

In front of an audience that included such notables as Alan Greenspan, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, Matthews began his remarks by declaring that he wanted to "make some news" and he certainly didn't disappoint. After praising the drafters of the First Amendment for allowing him to make a living, he outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations. The Clinton camp, he said, never put pressure on his bosses to silence him.

“Not so this crowd,” he added, explaining that Bush White House officials -- especially those from Vice President Cheney's office -- called MSNBC brass to complain about the content of his show and attempted to influence its editorial content. "They will not silence me!" Matthews declared. "They've finally been caught in their criminality," Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred.

He then drew an obvious Bush-Nixon parallel by saying, “Spiro Agnew was not an American hero."

Matthews left the throng of Washington A-listers with a parting shot at Cheney: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

Following his remarks, a few network insiders and party goers wondered what kind of effect Matthews' sharp criticism of the White House would have on Tuesday's Republican debate in Dearborn, Michigan, which Matthews co-moderates alongside CNBC's Maria Bartiromo.

"I find it hard to believe that Republican candidates will feel as if they're being given a fair shot at Tuesday's debate given the partisan pot-shots lobbed by Matthews this evening," said one attendee.

Indeed. And of course, they were not.

Matthew's behavior and questioning has been widely commented on. This was to have been a debate on economic issues, and about halfway through - apparently bored with actual policy points which might give voters an insight into how the next President will handle the economy, jobs, social Security, the Federal deficit, and so on - he decided to ask Rudy about the Yankees management. Of course, Chris never WAS any good at math. He also allowed a spin-out into the Iraq war, and was downright rude to Fred Thompson.

This man is unfit to host a League of Women Voters School Committee debate, much less a national debate on economics. He should not be allowed to moderate at any more GOP debates - ever - until Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin have had a crack at Hillary and Obama.