BluegrassBulletin.com

Why I Have Not Been Blogging

When I started this publication the blogosphere in Kentucky had been kick started by a kick in the mouth.  A foul mouthed, mean spirited, rankly partisan website took the Commonwealth by storm.  I wanted to offer a more honest and respectful forum for debate.

Since then I have found that most people have tuned out of the mainstream media.  People now rush to their comfort zones for information.

Studies have shown that the explosion of interest in Facebook has devolved into people gravitating to groups, friends and sources that reaffirm their own beliefs.  People either love or hate CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC and the other TV channels.  Each has an agenda and people tend to watch the channel that tells them what they want to hear and already believe.

My experience in politics has led me to a similar conclusion.  Despite how "revolutionary" some newbies to the political process feel about their patriotism it is my observation that they tend to follow and support only those candidates who tell them what they want to hear.  It's a sick game.  People lusting for power, fame and maybe even riches, play the public these days by preaching that they are driven by altruistic principles.  I've been around long enough to have sniffed out their dissimulation.

And I've also come to believe that because people have become so distrustful of news, facts and opinions, that it is far harder to earn their trust.  So many people are addicted to the gotcha game, or the relentless pursuit of finding fault or have ended up among the seemingly growing corps of the weak minded that their approach to life has seduced them into a state of belligerence toward anything that doesn't match their preconceived notions.  And for those who have been beguiled into supporting the "new politics" over time they begin to exhibit cognitive dissonance when confronted with the truth that their favorites are really no different that the ones they oppose.

I believe we are in a very dangerous state of mind right now.  National pride and national identity have been effectively destroyed.  We are a nation of special interests without a strong common bond.  Everybody distrusts everybody else and this makes us weak both in the perception of the world and in the reality of where we stand in the world.

Rush Limbaugh jokes that he is right 99 point something or other percent of the time.  I have tried over the past 7 years to seek to be right all of the time, but I am human and sometimes despite my best efforts at observation, study and reasoning the unexpected causes a different result.

I sincerely appreciate the support I have gotten from this effort.  I sincerely appreciate the folks who are regular readers and who share my posts.  I also appreciate the debates I've had with those who disagree, some of them at least.  I prefer to debate in a fair and polite forum rather than in the mud of name calling and hatred.

But I have concluded that this voice has become one of many where in the beginning I was one of a very few.  I have proposed to some folks who I think know alot about human nature that a larger more effective conservative project is needed in order to penetrate the noise.  I still believe this is true but I no longer believe that this format is of much use in making any significant difference in the world.

Just before a recent trial a wonderfully talented consultant sat me down and told me that I was trying to solve too many social and legal issues in one case.  She said I needed to dial myself back, focus on how to win this one case for this one client and let the other cases with other clients and other lawyers in other courtrooms combine to make the difference I sought.  She was right then and it applies now.

So, I will be focusing on my law practice, on my farm, on my family on my aging body and leave the crazy world of public interest in the game of politics to others.

I might post from time to time and if you are interested in seeing what I do without having to find me everyday, consider using the subscribe button in the upper right of this blog to get notified if and when I post.  I can tell you that this week I will be posting some endorsements with reasons behind them.  But after that, I'm just going to kind of fade away.

I will continue to keep paying to keep this blog up and all of my archives alive as well.  As time goes by perhaps you might find something I said to have come true.  Or you may want to revisit the political history chronicled here as it developed.  But the job of reporting and commenting on political things appears to me now to be more of a distraction than a contribution.

Stay tuned.  Subscribe.  God bless.

Slow Blogging

Buried under a mountain of professional obligations I will likely not have time to blog today.  Stay tuned.  Thanks for your support.

Bloggers Get "Institutional Media" Status In Court

From POLITICO:

A federal appellate court ruled Friday that the author of a blog post deserves the same treatment in a defamation case as "institutional media."

The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held unanimously that there is no difference between a journalist for a media outlet and another speaker when it comes to First Amendment protections.

On Friday, Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote for the unanimous court that, especially in the age of the Internet, the distinction between traditional journalist and other speakers doesn't matter in this case (opinion here).

"The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities, engaged in conflict-of-interest disclosure, went beyond just assembling others’ writings, or tried to get both sides of a story. As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable," Hurwitz wrote.

Cases are sometimes "case specific" but this ruling seems to paint with a fairly broad brush.

For those of you who like me believe that free speech must never be squelched, this is good news.

Holidays And Schedules And End Of Year Juggling

They say it happens when you get older, that time seems to go faster.  I've even heard people offer what seems to be very logical explanations for that phenomenon.  I don't care about explanations, I am witness to the fact.

To me it seems like just a week or so ago I was happily harvesting and canning tomatoes from our 140 tomato plants which somehow produced a bumper crop having been seedlings under a fluorescent fixture not long before that.  How they got so big, and so full of fruit so fast astonished me.

Next thing I know it's Thanksgiving and now Christmas.  Seriously, where has this year gone?

So with very few days left and so many of you, like me I suppose, busy with last minute tasks, wrapping up business as well as presents, shopping for food for family, planning meals, coordinating visits and trying to pack as much in to the last week or so of 2013 as possible, I will be scant in my postings.

No need to re-hash the news, since most of it is depressing already.  No need to comment on stupidity since after another year has passed it doesn't seem like the volume of stupidity has been reduced.

We will all be more useful to our family and friends if we take a little break from the ugliness of the world and concentrate on the reason for the season.

Of course, if it is newsworthy and time worthy, I'll be right back here, but for the rest of this holiday season I will be with family.

Thank you for your support throughout the year.  Our readership has held steady and increased a bit while most other sites have either folded, turned off or become nothing but aggregators.

I am thankful for you and the time you spend reading this publication.  Merry Christmas.

Slow Blogging

Professioal obligations will receive my full attention this morning.

Keep checking back. 

Thanks for your support.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

From our family to yours, we wish you the best that life has to offer and share with you our humble thanks to God for all of life's blessings.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.  See you Friday.

Slow Blogging

Professional obligations regarding an upcoming trial will receive my full attention today.

Keep checking back.

Thanks for your support.

Grimes And Liberal Fake Outrage Drive Huge Traffic To My Blog

Yesterday I blogged that Alison Lundergan Grimes had been endorsed by Michelle Obama as the kind of Senate candidate that deserved a “big fat check” because Grimes would help pass Barack Obama’s gun control plans and defend Obamacare along with advancing the rest of his agenda.

A reporter who was at the event (which was primarily for women) revealed this comment heard in the hallway.

In introductory remarks (which I overheard in the lobby, where I was held as the pool reporter for the event), Colorado senator and DSCC chair Michael Bennet said looking back at Democratic gains over the last few cycles, it was "very clear that the way we won them was by running women." [Capital New York]

So the DSCC has decided that women can do better running against men as they continue their efforts to peg the GOP as waging war on women.  Isn’t that a little like the tactic of using human shields when firing mortars?

So what happened as soon as Alison was caught red handed signing up to be a willing recruit in Obama’s army, being identified as an important part of Obama’s plans, cozying up to the most unpopular, progressive, gun grabbing, abortion supporting, economy crashing, job destroying president of the modern era? Here’s what happened.

The liberals ran to their media buddies at places like The Huffington Post, feigning outrage over my blog post in which I criticized Alison’s newly revealed devotion to Obama by suggesting that perhaps she was now the new “Obama Girl”.

Listen to what I said again.  Instead of pressing Grimes to explain or deny her apparent devoted loyalty to the Obama agenda the liberal media, driven by the DSCC no doubt, ran interference for her.  When I got home last night I discovered that my blog post was being linked all over the Internet with fake outrage that I would dare call her a “Girl”.  I didn’t call her a “girl” I likened her to the “Obama Girl”.

Oh, before I forget my manners,  thank you Politico, thank you Huffington Post, thank you ABC, thank you Daily Mail, and all of you shrill and hysterical liberals on Twitter and Facebook for driving so much traffic to my blog.  I doubt that Michelle Obama’s identification of Grimes as one of Obama’s likely anti-gun votes would have been spread as far and wide as it turned out to be if it wasn’t for you.

And while I’m at it, let me also say a word about the republican response to the liberal screech.  Really?  You let the same people who photoshopped Sarah Palin without mercy, who rally in support of the murder by abortion of millions of baby girls, who supported Weiner and Spitzer and Slick Willy despite their sexploits, who never once called for Martin Bashir to apologize for saying someone should ‘defecate’ in Sarah Palin's mouth and who pretend to care about women only when it is politically advantageous, back you down?  Really?  I’m disappointed.  No wonder the party is always on its heels.

Why wasn’t there a relentless push back demanding that Grimes answer the question, “do you or do you not support Obama and his agenda”.  Why wasn’t there a relentless call for her to return any money she got at the feet of the First Lady who said those checks would help pass gun control?  Did she take money under false pretenses?  If so, shouldn't she return it?  And if she keeps the money yet continues to say she’s not onboard with Obama’s gun control policy then isn't it obvious that she can’t be trusted any more than Obama can?

You mean to tell me, GOP, that you’re going to let the liberal media set the tone, drive the story and run interference for Grimes’ and her handshake deals at an Obama-fest without making it the top story of the season?

Haven’t you let Alison stay silent long enough while the echo chamber of her liberal friends beats you to death in the press?

And let’s get one other thing straight.  What does “Obama Girl” mean anyway?  It has come to be a short hand description of a grown woman who has a crush on Obama.  An “Obama Girl” is a grown woman who ignores the facts, and supports Obama because, well, he’s Obama.  It’s not the sexist use of the word “girl” standing alone, it’s the use of a modern description of an “Obama Girl”, an Obama groupie, you know, like the ones who faint and go all GaGa at his events, or smile and politely accept money from people who have been told she is going to be another Obama vote in the Senate.

So before Alison and her army of tweeters pass out from gasping and screeching in phony agony, let me point out one other thing.  My little blog description was taken big time by your over-reaction and fake outrage.  And do you know what that accomplished? 

I can assure you that while your made up “war on women” claim might play well in some other parts of the country, Alison Lundergan Grimes being revealed as Obama’s new groupie is the story which voters in Kentucky care about far more than your phony liberal claims. 

I made my point, the photo I posted was funny, and thanks to you nit wits who spread it far and wide (as I knew you would as soon as I took it down) you have only yourselves to blame for making her the culprit in the spot light that she should be and letting the world see the funny photo that you spread around.

Now, is there a republican out there with the gumption to push back, or are you going to continue to let the media con you into surrendering another big issue?  I mean, you let claims of “racism” shut you down every time you criticized Obama.  

Can’t you see that the dems have just switched to a new fake outrage, the claim that hitting “women” hard in the political arena is the “new taboo”?

Oh, and in case you hadn’t noticed, all of the effort to make women “off limits” is just in time for “Hillary-2016”. 

Geez, where's the conservative media to push back against this tripe paste when you need it?

Related articles

Grimes Is The New "Obama Girl"?

NRSC: Sorry for Obama Girl tweet

Sexist Republicans Endorse Calling Alison Grimes the New 'Obama Girl'

GOP tweets altered image of Grimes as 'Obama Girl'

GOP tweets altered image of Grimes as 'Obama Girl'

GOP tweets altered image of Grimes as 'Obama Girl'

GOP tweets altered image of Grimes as 'Obama Girl'

Slow Blogging

I am engaged in a re-tooling effort for the website and will not be able to do much over the next day or so to publish but be assured, my down time is being spent digging very deeply into a few hot stories that I am certain will make it worth the wait.  Cheers!

More Americans Turning To Internet For News

I am very happy to have been recognized as the top Conservative website in Kentucky by the Washington Post and to have the growing number of readers which we enjoy. 

With so many other sources of news out there, thank you for reading the BluegrassBulletin.