Orlando Diary: 'Mom's going to kill us'

That's my son Jim's verdict about the enviable poshness of our existence here at the Hilton International Resort in Orlando.

I've got an excuse. I'm here to cover the final stop of the Tea Party Express. How was I to know that Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog had booked us into such luxurious accommodations? My teenage son (yeah, that's him in the poolside photo) is spending the trip sprawled on the king-size bed watching the big-screen TV, or lounging around the pool and chilling in the hot tub. Me? I'm sitting here blogging, just like I'd be doing in my own basement.

Enjoy these three short videos of Jim's scuba lesson. And please tell Mrs. Other McCain we miss her!

UPDATE: Barbara corrects me: It was her friend Susan Wellington of Michigan who selected the Hilton as our Orlando headquarters. So now we know who to blame for destroying my blue-collar, low-budget blogger street-cred.

NY23 recount: What it really means

A source with the Doug Hoffman campaign called this morning to tell me that the official ballot count in the NY23 special election had narrowed the margin.

Michelle Malkin asks, "Did Doug Hoffman concede too early?" Well, there are still about 10,000 absentee and military ballots that won't be added to the count until next week. While my source doesn't expect there to be enough votes to change the outcome, there is encouragement for Hoffman supporters in discovering that the official count shows a closer result than the unofficial 5,000-vote margin on Election Night.

Furthermore, my source points out, the fact that Democrat Bill Owens was sworn in -- and voted for ObamaCare -- before the official result was certified by New York election officials, demonstrates the fundamental lawlessness of Nancy Pelosi's regime in Washington.

And, yes, according to my source, Hoffman is currently "leaning toward" challenging Owens in 2010. The backstabbing RINO Dede Scozzafava won't be around to screw things up next November. In two words:

HOFFMANIA LIVES!

'Twitter Narcissism'? A few thoughts on the legitimacy of self-promotion

A Twitter exchange between Jon Henke and Jim Treacher causes my friend Jeff Quinton to contemplate the issue of "Twitter narcissism":

There is nothing done on Twitter or anywhere else online that isn’t driven in some fashion by desire to have other people see it. That includes everything Henke writes online, everything Treacher writes online, and even this blog post. That's the whole point of the forum. If you didn't want to make your ideas known, why bother to even post?

Exactly. The term "self-promoter" is commonly used as a pejorative, but one of the great insights of the New Media age is this: If you don't promote yourself, nobody else will.

If you have your own TV or radio show, if you have a new book or a political campaign, you automatically enlist the support of professional P.R. people whose job is to get you publicity. But if you're just a blogger, a writer, a consultant -- an individual without your own built-in publicity apparatus -- it's up to you to make yourself known to the world.

Self-promotion is entirely legitimate. If you do good work, if you've got ideas or services that can be helpful to others, then self-promotion -- i.e., do-it-yourself publicity -- is actually beneficial to others because, without it, people would be unaware of your good work.

You know who taught me this? David Horowitz. From his years of experience, Horowitz evidently discovered a profound truth: Publicity is too important to be entrusted to the P.R. staff. If Horowitz has a new book or activism venture, he does not hesitate to become personally involved in the promotional effort. Many were the times, during my years at The Washington Times, when Horowitz would call or e-mail me to say, "Hey, why haven't you written about our new project?"

Now, if someone as eminent as David Horowitz can do that, who am I to disdain such methods? I'm a shameless self-promoter for the simple reason that there is no cause for shame. I'm a capitalist: I Write For Money.

I'm selling a product in the marketplace. You -- the reader -- are the consumer. If my stuff is good, then making other people aware of my stuff is a philanthropic humanitarian endeavor: Let all mankind benefit from the blinding brilliance of my sagacious insights!

Megalomania? Maybe. But it's a far different thing than the self-obsessed narcissism involved in a quest for mere celebrity -- the Reality TV Ethos wherein talentless people seek to become famous for being famous. I'm not a wealthy dilettante like Paris Hilton or Meghan McCain.

I'm an online freelancer -- a New Media entrepreneur. I'm actually working for a living here, and self-promotion is part of the job. To repeat myself:

Just because you don't know what I'm doing, don't assume that I don't know what I'm doing.

Capitalism is a beautiful thing. If I don't make money at this gig, it undermines the legitimacy of my megalomania-for-profit scheme. So hit the tip jar.

Rebellion in Florida GOP?

Here in Orlando for today's last stop of the Tea Party Express, I find some interesting local news:

The rebellion against Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer appears to be coming to a head. As first reported by Gary Fineout of The Fine Print, a number of GOP leaders Florida are demanding a "special emergency closed meeting'' of the state party's executive board.

Notice that the St. Petersburg Times is forced to admit they got beat by a blog. Gary Fineout reports:

Greer, the state GOP chairman since 2007 and an ally of Gov. Charlie Crist, has been accused of everything from playing favorites, turning his back to dirty tricks by party operatives and failing to properly supervise the use of party credit cards. While some have characterized Greer’s critics as a small minority, the call for the meeting shows that recent incidents are beginning to worry party leaders.

Part of the controversy involves the Florida GOP's relationship with accused Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein. No wonder Charlie Crist is starting to panic.

We must achieve energy self-sufficiency by rolling the rock

by Smitty

The Sisyphean challenge of improving US oil production may be linked to upgrading the sad state of American rock'n'roll, according to the Constitution Club.

I, for one, recommend we start with Chickenfoot:

Orlando: Life is good

When Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog invited me to join her in Orlando to cover Thursday's final stop of the Tea Party Express tour, her offer to provide a hotel room seemed an afterthought.

A hotel is a hotel is a hotel, right? Wrong. This place puts the "luxe" in deluxe.

My son James just got back from a swim and I heard him on the phone to one of his buddies, "Dude, this is the most awesome place ever."

After 27 hours on the road to get here, I'm almost too tired to enjoy it. Almost, I said. But I'll be enjoying it in my sleep.

by Smitty

Mac Beach has a great quote from a radio caller:

"It's a badge of honor to be called a teabagger by a scumbag."

I thought that our modern liberal overlords were superior to all that name-calling, but there you have it. Why can't Young 4 Eyes get them to be the morally superior people they claim to be?

Four hours to Orlando!

We stopped off in Savannah, where we met up with Ali Akbar:

Note the Spanish moss in the tree. Earlier today, the boys and I had lunch at an Atlanta landmark:

Chili cheesesteak, rings, F.O. -- family tradition!

Veteran Says Thank You

by Smitty

I'd like to thank the blogosphere for supporting veterans and projects like Valour-IT.

Furthermore, those who support political involvement along Constitutional lines are a great source of encouragement. Those who swear to support and defend the document are increasingly discouraged by the willingness to of some to move in directions that are inimical to the blessings of liberty.

The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."

Let us keep it, based upon your support, ye Americans

Senator DeMint Sponsors Term Limits

by Smitty (h/t Audacity of Hypocrisy)

Senator DeMint continues to impress. As incumbency is one of the three Big Evils of the Federal Government (interference with private citizens and the Federal Reserve's "Cosmic Credit Card" being the other two), anything to help restore citizen representation as a meaningful concept at the Federal level is welcome:

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) cosponsored the bill. Coburn has long supported term limits. He retired from the House in 2000 after being elected in 1994, pledging only to serve three consecutive terms.

Coburn then ran for Senate and won in 2004. Brownback is stepping down from the Senate in 2010 to run for governor, citing his support for term limits. Hutchison is running for governor against incumbent Rick Perry (R), who is running for a third term in 2010. If elected, Perry will become the longest serving governor in Texas history.

While the argument that limiting the people who can be on the ballot is a Bad Thing, the level of debt and corruption generated in the last century would seem to indicate that incumbency is an order of magnitude worse, or better.

New USNA Raaaaacial Purity: Pure Bollocks

by Smitty (h/t La Shawn Barber)

Leaders of the U.S. Naval Academy tinkered with the composition of the color guard that appeared at a World Series game last month so the group would not be exclusively white and male.

Accounts differ as to who was added to or removed from the Oct. 29 color guard. But the net result was that one of the six who marched on Yankee Stadium's field, Midshipman 2nd Class Hannah Allaire, was selected because her presence would make the service academy look more diverse before a national audience.

Human diversity cannot exceed 23 chromosomes. Anyone continuing to perpetuate the myth that the thin veneer of genetic variation that makes people physically distinguishable Means Anything needs to go take a biochemistry course and disabuse themselves of their medieval notions.

Policy makers, senior officials and the media have got to stop perpetuating the intellectual vomit of racism. Making decisions based upon the color of peoples' skin is false, false, and false.

How sick, embarrassing, craven, an insult to all USNA graduates, as well as the country they serve, these shenanigans.

Update: I'll double down on my point. I claim, with gold-medal hand-waving, that the Political Correctness on display here is a diluted form of the institutional falsehood that helped create the context for last week's Fort Hood tragedy.

Update II: PowerLine has a summary and links.

Stacy needs to interview Gorbachev

by Smitty

Ed Driscoll re-tweets Mikhail S. "The US need their own Perestroika these changes have started now and can be seen in Obama."

From Wikipedia: "Its literal meaning is 'restructuring', referring to the restructuring of the Soviet economy. Perestroika is often argued to be one reason for the fall of communist political forces in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and for the end of the Cold War."

One hopes that Mikhail refers to the Tea Party Express and general American awakening to the fact that the Progressives have hijacked the country and its destiny over the last century.

I submit that an interview by Stacy McCain would help clear up the ambiguity. Maybe those American Spectator bigwigs can set it up. Even if he meant the opposite, and he intends perestroika to mean the continued diplomatic, military, and economic deconstruction of all we hold dear, it is my contention that the look in Stacy's eyes will help calibrate Mr. Gorbachev's thinking.

Classic Rush and BHO on the Ft. Hood Tragedy

by Smitty

My feeling on the official reaction to Ft. Hood mirrors that at the time of the USS Cole attack. Policy drives strategy. You'd likely get a much different reaction from the uniformed talking heads away from any recording devices. Not so sure about the elected boobs and their spokespuppets. Dan Riehl, for one, isn't impressed by the Campaigner in Chief. Rhetoric and a couple of bucks will get you coffee at Starbucks.

While I'm here at the dealership trying to squeeze a couple more years out of the '02 PT Cruiser, the iPod Shuffle is a great way to block out the CNN drones on the flat panel. Some jackass grilling the head of the Veteran's Administration (from memory)

Clown: "Is it possible that you've got a lot of work to do to support veterans suffering from PTSD? What are you going to do to get it done?"

The reason I don't have a cabinet-level job is that I would shred the idiot:
"First, you ask a question, and then assert your desired answer in the follow-on. Second, you treat the topic as though it were some mathematical problem with a closed-form solution. Why don't you quit treating your audience and me like idiots, and we can have a discussion."

Rush is far less pathetic than CNN. Fifteen years ago they released a rather grungy outing called Counterparts. The second track on there, "Stick it Out" has a lyrical passage that seems apropos the rampant gutlessness on display from senior leadership concerning Fort Hood:

Each time we bathe our reactions
In artificial light
Each time we alter the focus
To make a wrong move seem right

You get so used to deception
You make yourself a nervous wreck
You get so used to surrender
Running back to cover your neck

"Stick it Out" is followed by "Cut to the Chase" which does a fine job of recovering the mood. Maybe someday these words will bring BHO to mind:

You may be right
It's all a waste of time
I guess that's just a chance
I'm prepared to take
A danger I'm prepared to face
Cut to the chase

OK, I don't seriously expect that, either. But one can wish, even if hope has that scuttled look.

Southbound

by Smitty

Aliester, over at American Glob writes that Road Scholar Stacy McCain is headed to Florida for next Tuesday's Triumphal Tea Party arrival.

There was something of a fat-chewing going on. For a nominal hit to the tip jar, you too can freely associate with Stacy the Notorious Free Associator. Although you should RTWT, Aliester ends with:

The libertarians need to stop bashing the neocons, the neocons need to stop trashing the Paulistas, the beltway pros need to stop trashing the grassroots and on and on...

Michael Steele, the head of the Republican National Committee, says he wants to build a big tent. Let’s give it to him.

We can start by working together. Let’s settle the small stuff after the 2010 elections.

I'd expand that thought to note that the bulk of the 'small stuff' arguments I here seem to be built upon the notion that only DC can lead on any issue.

Let's put pluribus over unum for domestic questions, which is where that 'small stuff' should play itself out, good people.

Congratulations, Dr. Kaufman

Even though you've chosen to celebrate your millionth hit with a non sequitur swipe at me -- Rule 4! -- a million hits is a million hits, and success is to be commended.

However, (a) your Site Meter total is actually 981K and (b) you joined Site Meter in May 2005. Also, ~22K visits/month you're currently on a 250K/year pace. As they say on the essay-question finals: Compare and contrast.

Don't diss the Rules, Doc. And next time you go looking for somebody to piss off, don't catch me in a bad mood.

We're going to Disney World! Er, actually, no, but it's kind of in that neighborhood

As previously blogged yesterday, I've been invited by Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog to join her in Orlando to cover Thursday's final stop of the Tea Party Express tour.

Mrs. Other McCain has to work, so she can't make the trip, but two of my sons -- James, 16, and Jefferson, 10 -- will be coming along for the ride. Jeff was packing this afternoon and I said, "Make sure you bring a swimsuit." And he asked, "Why?" I said, "There's a pool at the hotel and besides, it's Florida. We may get a chance to go to the beach."

It's not a vacation for me, but it is for two of my six kids. And if you guessed that this is the post where I put up a picture of my cute kids and try to guilt-trip you into hitting the tip jar, you're right.

That's my wife and three youngest at a Hagerstown Suns minor-league baseball game last year. Consider this a "family values" message for aspiring bloggers. If you want to succeed in the blogosphere, it helps to have a beautiful family.

Now, please hit the tip jar. Even if we can't afford to go to Disney World, these kids are going to eat a lot of footlong hot dogs ($3), drink a lot of Slushies ($2), play Skeeball at the boardwalk arcade ($10), and demand that I stop every time we see a "Fireworks" sign at the Interstate exit ($50).

The Shack is back!

Yes, that's right, folks: Jimmie Bise Jr. has ended his blogging hiatus at the Sundries Shack, and thus resumes his crucial role in our insane scheme to take over the entire freaking blogosphere.

Carrie Prejean sex video?

Oh, this is not going to be good for her:

Sean Hannity . . . had the 22-year-old author on his Fox News Channel program last night.
As he so succinctly put it, "We might as well go right to it." . . .
Prejean replied . . . yes, there was a tape she had done as a teenager. She made it for a distant boyfriend whom she loved at the time. She said TMZ can call it a "sex tape" if it wants. But she was alone on the video, and no one else was in the room.

Groan. Bad for Carrie. Good for "Carrie Prejean sex video" Google-bombers. Even I hate to have to troll for that kind of traffic, but if conservative bloggers don't do it, the Perez Hiltons will monopolize it. And that would be wrong.

Mamas Don't Let Your Daughters Grow Up to Be Downloads.

UPDATE: Among the conservative bloggers joining the Google-bomb bonanza: Ann Althouse, Doug Mataconis, the BlogProf and Professor Donald Douglas. This shouldn't have to be explained, but you shouldn't actually post the Carrie Prejean sex video when (and if) it ever actually comes out.

The whole point here is to prevent the Left and sleazy celeb-tabloid blogs from getting all the Google-search traffic. Every time a porn-freak Googles "Carrie Prejean sex video," there should be at least a 50% chance he'll click onto a blog that makes him ask himself, "Don't you have anything better to do with your life, you sick freak?"

Maybe it will change their life, maybe not. But either way, I'm figuring that a good percentage of those sick freaks aren't down for the whole deficit-spending Obama/Pelosi liberal agenda.

Even sick freaks can vote, you know. I'm figuring there's probably enough recovering porn addicts in Nevada to beat Harry Reid, if we can just find a way to reach them. So maybe this Carrie Prejean sex video is a blessing in disguise.

Lemons = lemonade?

UPDATE II: Jimmie Bise looks on the bright side.

UPDATE III: Turns out Monique Stuart beat me -- no pun intended -- to this story last week:

Carrie Prejean demanded more than a million dollars during her settlement negotiations with Miss California USA Pageant officials -- that is, until the lawyer for the Pageant showed Carrie an XXX home video of her handiwork. . . .
Let’s just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.

Not good for Carrie.

Is Obama bungling the Middle East?

Sammy Benoit thinks so:

President Obama's Middle East policy is in ruins. While the U.S. continues to press Israel for a settlement freeze (and a freeze on Jerusalem), Obama's strategy is falling apart piece by piece. He has turned the Israeli populace against him and strengthened the hand of Prime Minister Netanyahu. At the same time, he has eroded his own support among American Jews and other U.S. friends of Israel. This is why he has pressured political hacks such as Congressman Steve Israel to lend their names to the anti-Israel group known as J Street. . . .

You should read the whole thing. It seems Obama is repeating the errors of the Clinton administration, trying to make peace with people who don't actually want peace -- unless you define "peace" as the liquidation of Israel, which is the ultimate objective of Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Sammy blogs at Yid With Lid.

Tucker Carlson continues slow-motion rollout of DailyCaller.com

Having missed its previously expected Nov. 9 debut, the site is still "coming soon" but at last Tucker has finally hired an actual reporter, my old buddy Jon Ward of The Washington Times:

I'm excited to announce that I have accepted a job as senior political and White House reporter for "The Daily Caller," the new political news website being launched by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel. . . .
As I told Tucker the first time I met him, I'm invigorated by the opportunity to inhabit the new media space while reincarnating timeless journalistic values . . . I also think the Daily Caller's revenue-based compensation system for freelance work is going to be an innovative and precedent-setting part of being successful in a web-only venture. . . . (Emphasis added.)

Right. If Tucker ever actually gets the site online, his "revenue-based compensation system" will separate the haves from the have-nots. Whereas Tucker and the permanent staff (presumably including Ward) will receive actual salaries, the freelancers will be paid on a page-view basis.

When this plan was first described to me, I was like, "Whoa!" Having worked as both an editor who commissioned freelance work and as a freelancer, this sounds an awful lot like what we call "working on spec" -- first, you write the article, and then we'll decide if we're going to publish it and what we'll pay you, if anything.

That's OK, if you're a beginner looking to break into the game. But it's an insult to offer that kind of arrangement to an experienced professional, a known quantity in journalism who can be relied upon to deliver quality copy on deadline. The freelancer pitches an idea via phone or e-mail and the editor says "yea" or "nay." The fee is agreed in advance, and acceptance of the finished piece is more or less guaranteed, providing the writer can deliver what he promised. The freelancer gets that kind of commission agreement before he ever begins writing the article.

It's a simple fee-for-service arrangement and, while feelings can sometimes get hurt by a rejection, as least if when the freelancer gets the assignment, he knows up-front what the payment will be. This "revenue-based compensation system" that Carlson projects for the Daily Caller looks like a recipe for resentment from writers who feel they're being gypped: "Hey, why did you promote So-And-So's story at the top of the page, and not my story?"

When Jimmie Bise and I have occasionally discussed our own ideas for an online news operation -- and I agree with Jimmie that such a site could be launched on $500,000 first-year budget with no problem -- I've always insisted there should be a budget category for payments to freelancers. Fees might range from $20 to $200 per item, but if your average fee were $75 per item and you had a $75,000 freelancer budget, that's about 20 items a week right there. And in the world of online journalism, the freelancer who could reliably deliver three items a week would be earning more than some reasonably successful bloggers.

Anyway, if Tucker's partner Neil Patel is the same Neil Patel who wrote "Beginner’s Guide to Finding the Right Business Partner" -- irony alert! irony alert!

Of all the things that Tucker Carlson's ever done in his life, there is nothing in his biography to suggest he knows how to improvise a news operation on a shoestring budget. He may yet succeed wildly, but given that he announced in May that he'd be online in a matter of weeks -- and that the Daily Caller roll-out has now taken nearly six months, which is eons in the Blog Age -- the omens do not appear fortuitous.

To repeat: It had better not suck.