LorieByrd.com

Civitas Institute Conservative Leadership Conference

Today and tomorrow I will be at the Civitas Conservative Leadership Conference, hopefully doing some live blogging. Check out the list of speakers here. Rudy Giuliani will be speaking at the luncheon today and many other excellent speakers, including Fred Barnes, Mark Sanford, and Bob Erlich, will also be speaking at the conference. As an added bonus, I will get to see my long lost cousin, Scott Elliott and catch up a bit.  Should be fun.

Update: The Rudy luncheon ended about 15 minutes ago and now I am heading to the panel discussions. The ones I have seen so far are set up with chairs only, no tables, so I will probably not be doing any live blogging, but will report at the end. Just about anybody who is anybody in NC politics is here so it should be interesting. The Rudy speech was good and was well received. More later.

Update II: I listened in on a wonderful panel in which Angela McGlowan spoke. She is even prettier in person than on television and is smart as whip. I will be doing an interview with her sometime in the near future about her book Bamboozled. 

Update III: I attended a Reagan Legacy program at the conference that included Frank Gaffney. After an interesting discussion of personal stories from the panel members about Reagan, Gaffney got into the topic of the PBS movie he and others made about Islamofascism and moderate Muslims that PBS is refusing to air or to release. He said the best way readers could pressure PBS to air or release the movie was through emails/correspondence to PBS, but even more important, to readers' individual members of congress. Gaffney reminded us over and over that this was our money that was used to make this movie and our money supporting PBS. I will have more on this later.

Bob Erlich spoke at the evening meal. He is an amazing speaker. Everyone I spoke to about the speech was surprised he was so good. He spoke in very explicit terms about how responsible Republicans and conservatives are for the 2006 losses and how those losses should be used to motivate us for the next election.

Some thoughts about the Rudy speech...people were talking about it all day and everyone I talked to liked it, even if they don't like him as a nominee. One thing that seemed to impress, and I heard this independently from at least four different people, was the fact that at no time did Rudy try to pander to the conservative audience by trying to wiggle out of any position or explain any of them away. He explained it this way, if you agree with a candidate on 80 percent of the issues, then for the 20 percent you don't agree you have to decide how significant your differences are and how important those issues are to you overall. He said straight up that some people will find his positions on some issues will make it unable for them to vote for him. He said he would tell those people they should vote for someone else. In response to one question about gun control he asked the questioner "what do you think my position is?" making the point that some of the things people believed about his positions on gun control, abortion, gay rights, etc., are not the same as his positions. On gay rights he said he believed marriage should be between a man and woman and that he had performed over 200 marriages in his career and that all of them were between a man and a woman -- at least as far as he knew.

Catching Up

I am going to attempt to catch up a bit here, but it will probably take a few posts to do it fully.

First order of business -- I am slowly updating the site.  It is long overdue.  I just have not had the time to devote to it and have only occasionally been posting here.  What I want to do is make this a site that will connect to everything I am doing.  The first step in that direction is that I added a feed in the lefthand sidebar to Wizbang.   Since I do all my political blogging either at Wizbang or Wizbang Politics, and generally just cross post some of it every now and then here, it makes great sense. Don't ask me why I didn't do it sooner.  I set the feed to show the most recent five posts, but may adjust that.  It is a feed to all Wizbang posts, not just mine.   Here is a link to my RSS feed there.

I will also work on putting links in the sidebar to my column archive at Townhall and to my monthly column at the Examiner.  My Examiner blog board column runs on this page once a month.  Here is my most recent one.

Another thing I hope to do over the next few weeks, or months, depending on how much time I can find, is update my blogroll.  It is over a year old now and needs some serious updating.   There are lots of other things I will be doing here, but it may take me a while.  Thanks for checking in.

Sheryl Crow's Plan to Save the World -- One Toilet Paper Square at a Time

This is ridiculous (via Newsbusters):

By now you've heard about the environmental dust-up between singer Sheryl Crow and GOP operative Karl Rove at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Crow wrote about the incident at Huffington Post. She also added a new posting to her Stop Global Warming College Tour blog that includes "easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution." [...]

I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares [sic] of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. When presenting this idea to my younger brother, who's judgement [sic] I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further. I believe his quote was, "how bout just washing the one square out."

What do you think of this proposal?

Read the rest of the Newsbusters post for some of her other brilliant ideas including the dining sleeve (possibly even less hygenic than the toilet paper idea) and a "green" reality show.

Here is a report on the Karl Rove encounter with Crow and Laurie David.

Update:  Over the weekend Michelle Malkin posted a link to this NYT piece about some wealthy socialites who are encouraging the purchase of enviro-friendly Shaklee products and are also talking about doing things like turning the water off when they brush their teeth, but they are not getting rid of the second homes and private jets.

(Here is a money-saving household hint -- instead of buying expensive "green" cleaning products, you probably have some of the best around your home already. I have found that baking soda and just a little bit of water makes a great paste to clean stainless steel sinks and fixtures and fiberglass tubs. I discovered this by chance when pouring an old box of baking soda down the sink. I don't know whether or not it is safe for stainless steel appliances. I haven't found anything on the market that can beat it for cleaning my stainless kitchen sink or fiberglass tub, though. You just have to rinse really well with water. Baking soda can be purchased at warehouse club stores for less than ten dollars for a 12 lb. resealable bag, which has lasted me over a year. I guess I was being green without even trying.)

Sanjaya is finally going home

Sanjaya came in last after the country week vote on American Idol.  He ended on a humorous note changing the words of "Let's Give'em Something to Talk About" to say "let's give'em something to talk about -- other than hair." I have not blogged about the show this season, but have been watching all along.  I was impressed by most of the country performances last night, especially Phil and Jordin's.  Phil sounded better than any other time this season performing Keith Urban and  Jordin took on one of the most beautiful, and also most difficult, songs on earth (Martina McBride's "Broken Wing") and performed flawlessly.  McBride is one of my favorite country singers and she gave a great performance on tonight's show.   Melinda Doolittle seems to be the favorite, but you never really know what will happen on AI, so it is always fun to watch.

NBC Suspends Don Imus

I have been ignoring this story all day, but finally decided to post a few links. Evidently, Don Imus said some tacky (crude, nasty, and/or racist?) things last week about the members of a women's college basketball team. Al Sharpton complained. (What else is new?) Don Imus went on air with Sharpton to talk about it. Now NBC has decided to suspend their MSNBC simulcast of the Imus show for two weeks. Others have the specifics and some pretty good commentary/analysis as well. I might post some comments later after I stop laughing at the thought of Al Sharpton criticizing someone for making a stupid racist comment. I wonder where the two weeks came from? Is that the standard cooling off/punishment period for those making insulting comments?

Bryan at Hot Air has video and captures my thoughts exactly.

Go-to guy to apologize for making racist comments. What a world. Don Imus may well be and probably is a bigot, but Rev. Al Sharpton is worse no matter how you look at the situation. But now he gets to be Imus' judge and jury. What a world.

Wyatt Earp had one of my favorite lines, "Can we please stop calling Al Sharpton "Reverend?" Most Reverends I know aren't race-baiting, money-hungry a-holes."

Aaron at Lifelike Pundits has a response unlike any other I have seen.

Captain Ed thinks the two week suspension is appropriate. I think that if the most recent Imus comment is worthy of a two week suspension, what about all the other racially insensitive comments that have been made on the Imus show for all the years he has been on the air. I rarely ever listen anymore, but when I had a 45 minute commute into work I used to listen regularly and comments at least as offensive as the recent one were a regular occurrence. Don Imus did not make them himself, but others on the show (or in the pre-taped segments) did. Is NBC only listening to what is said on the show now that Al Sharpton is complaining?

Update: Sister Toldjah has a Sharpton flashback.

For more from Sister Toldjah, along with John Hawkins and Michael Illions, be sure to listen to the blogger podcast they did this weekend.

Update II:  La Shawn Barber has a column at Townhall today about "Seattle Public Schools' race-obsessed, guilt-tripping, finger-pointing bureaucrats."

Update III: I don't know who regularly appears on Imus lately, but I know I used to hear John McCain, David Gregory, John Kerry, Doris Kearns-Goodwin, and Tim Russert on the show quite frequently. Russert and Imus seemed particularly chummy. Does this mean that all those people are going to have to account for their frequent appearances on a show where racist comments and comedy sketches are part of the program? I am sure they will all just play along with NBC as if the most recent comments were something new, some unfortunate aberration, which they were definitely not.

Update IV:  Pat Dollard provides a Sesame Street visual.

Update V: More from Betsy Newmark and the best roundup I have seen so far at The Moderate Voice.

Cross posted at Wizbang.

 

Easter Bunny Funny

President Bush Has Been Too Nice To Democrats

In my latest Townhall column I say it is time for President Bush to stop being Mister Nice Guy. Democrats need to be called out for their reckless words and actions and be held accountable for the consequences.

One thing Republicans should have learned over the past six years is the importance of having a President who is a master communicator. Unfortunately they have had to learn it by having a President who is not one. Not only is President Bush not a master orator, but he has just been too darn nice to Democrats who are playing politics at the nation's expense.

...
When Democrats in Congress recently voted to attach a deadline for withdrawal (and a ton of pork) to a bill to fund the troops in Iraq, President Bush called a press conference and did call Democrats out for trying to meddle in war policy. He also said, "the consequences of imposing such a specific and random date of withdrawal would be disastrous," Of those comments, some said he was attacking the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi told the President to "calm down."

He doesn't need to calm down, he needs to get fired up, and fast. It is time for the President to start calling things what they are. He is good at doing that when talking about terrorists and totalitarian dictators. When it comes to identifying the disgusting, hypocritical, and downright dangerous behavior of some Democrats, though, he generally holds his fire.

...
There are serious consequences to leading Democrats spending the past three years telling the world the U.S. President lied about the reason for sending troops into battle to risk life and limb. There are consequences to Democrat lawmakers playing politics with a bill funding the troops in Iraq by insisting on deadlines that would hamstring the commander-in-chief and the military decision makers in the field. There are consequences to the Speaker of the House, third in line for the Presidency, undermining the current administration by attempting to conduct foreign policy in an extremely sensitive region of the world in direct defiance of administration policy and in spite of administration admonitions.

The President tried a "new tone" by extending the hand of friendship to Democrats when he took office, but got no credit for it. Anytime Democrats attack the President, sometimes with words and accusations more vile than anything they ever use on even terrorists, he is the one who gets blamed for the discord and gets ridiculed for his past stated intent to be a "uniter, not a divider."

Please follow the link to read it all.