Americans Value Their First Amendment Press Freedom

Rasmussen reports that 85% Say Freedom of the Press More Important Than Helping Newspaper Industry:

Americans continues to oppose government-driven solutions for the newspaper industry’s problems in large part because of their concern that they threaten the press’ independence.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 85% of Adults believe that maintaining freedom of the press is more important than supporting the newspaper industry. Only six percent (6%) put supporting the newspaper business first.

Are the American people saying that freedom of the press should not only belong to those that own one or buy ink by the barrel, but also to each individual citizen? Now that would be truly amazing news, but the polls internals do not explore the idea of freedom of the press as an individual right.

Chuck Purgason Needs Volunteers

I've uploaded several segments from my interview with Chuck Purgason (R-MO) on Friday. Purgason is running against Roy Blunt (R-MO) in the Republican primary for the US Senate seat that is will be vacant after Kit Bond's (R-MO) retirement. Once all of the video from my interview is posted, I'll put all the segments in a YouTube playlist. Above, I've posted Purgason's response to my question about what he's doing to build his campaign for the August 3rd primary. You can find more of my interview at my YouTube channel.

Previously:

• Chuck Purgason

Rule of the Sophists

Victor Davis Hanson at Pajama's Media on Government by the Faculty Lounge:

Ambiguity in speech, not clarity was preferred; the ability to adduce ten different points of view was always considered superior to deciding on one. Tantrums, the occasional obscenity, the knife-in-the-back memo always assumed a sort of rule that such rascality never earned a punch in the face; the art was to be as cruel as possible without resort to violence. Yet when gut-check time came to vote openly yes or no and take the consequences, most voted present by skipping out or abstaining.

Thus we are now ruled.

Chuck Purgason

I interviewed Chuck Purgason (R-MO) this afternoon at the Gateway Arch. Purgason is running for the US Senate seat that will be vacated by Kit Bond (R-MO). His main opponent in the primary is Roy Blunt (R-MO). Blunt's state-wide name recognition and leadership role in the House of Representatives (he's the Republican whip) make him the presumptive GOP nominee and a formidable opponent. There are other candidates; however, Purgason is the only candidate with significant legislative experience; therefore, he's the one best able to challenge Blunt for the nomination.

Purgason has criticized Blunt's votes in support of TARP, No Child Left Behind, and other expansions of the Federal government. State's rights (10th Amendment issues) are very important to him as is a balanced budget. Purgason said that if the Show Me State sends him to Washington, DC, he will not vote for a budget unless it is balanced.

I will be uploading video from my interview late this weekend.

What is a green job?

Washington Examiner reports billions for 'green jobs,' whatever they are:

The Labor Department is shoving money out the door for 'green jobs,' yet at the same time is admitting it doesn't know what a 'green job' is.

The Overton Window

On his radio show today, Glenn Beck talked about the trailer (above) for his soon-to-be-released thriller, The Overton Window. The trailer is a dramatic reading of a poem that plays a critical part in Beck's new book. The poem is Rudyard Kipling's The Gods of the Copybook Headings:

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Glenn Beck and the Road to Serfdom

A day after Glenn Beck recommended Friedrich von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, it's sold out (h/t: Instapundit). Luckily, there are a couple of alternatives available for those too impatient to wait. Sharp Elbows (a conservative blog for the A. D. D. generation) will be glad to know that there's a comic book edition (h/t: again Instapundit). Reader's Digest published a shortened version of Hayek's masterpiece and that version is available online as a PDF. Interestingly, Amazon not only has the "definitive edition" ranked #1 in books, but they have it in stock, in hardback, and downloadable for Kindle. I suppose they became the world's largest book store by squirreling away copies of what the people want before the people know they want it.

That said, I will caution readers eagerly awaiting the arrival of this great book, that it is not an easy read. I've read it twice. The first time, I didn't understand it. Hayek's formal arguments leverage a lot of classical philosophy that I was not familiar with. Before re-reading The Road to Serfdom, I discovered The Proceedings of the Friesian School. Friesian.com is a little difficult to navigate... I usually scroll down to "Topics and Essays" and poke around there for something to read. Between my two readings of The Road to Serfdom, I read the Friesian essays on Ancient Greek Philosophy and I believe this made Hayek's book much more accessible the second time. If you need a break from philosophy and economics, I recommend the essay on The Practical Rules of Bureaucracy.

As Glenn Beck would surely agree: Welcome to our autodidactic world!

Bill Corrigan calls out Charlie Dooley's Self-Dealing with Public Funds

KMOX reports that County Executive Ignores Questioning On Casino Poll:

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley is ignoring questions about a poll, paid for with taxpayer dollars.

It asked about a potential casino along the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in north county. The poll only included registered voters and divided their responses by political party.

The County Executive used the results to decide against supporting a new casino.

Republican challenger Bill Corrigan issued a news release, saying the poll 'breaches public trust' and calling on Dooley to 'immediately reimburse the citizens on St. Louis County for this political poll.'

Corrigan also cites the polling of the persuasiveness of messages and questions on the health of the economy.

KMOX attempted to ask Dooley about the poll after Tuesday's meeting of the County Council. He kept his head down and walked through the chambers, the hallway and to the elevator without responding to a KMOX reporter.

The survey's cost was $11,600.

The Post Dispatch's Political Fix has details about why Corrigan wants Dooley’s campaign to pay for county casino poll:

Corrigan’s statement called the poll political because it:

> Excluded non voters.

> Gave poll results by political party.

> Asked respondents their opinion of economic conditions.

> Asked for reaction to messages.

> Was conducted a few months before an election.

...

The poll found that 58 percent of the respondents opposed a casino along the Mississippi River north of Interstate 270 in Spanish Lake when first asked about it and 53 percent did after being asked about various issues relating the project. The poll said 37 percent favored the casino when first asked and 44 percent favored it hearing about the issues. Dooley cited the poll as a reason to oppose a Spanish Lake casino.

If you'd like to do something about the fiscal mismanagement of St Louis County government, please consider supporting Bill Corrigan's campaign.

Poetic Justice

Dorothy Rabinowitz opines in The Wall Street Journal about the alien in the White House:

A great part of America now understands that this president's sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class. He is the alien in the White House, a matter having nothing to do with delusions about his birthplace cherished by the demented fringe.

I've had this sense, too, and it reminds me of a poem that I had to memorize in the eighth grade. Here is Sir Walter Scott's The Patriot:

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who ne'er to himself hath said,
"This is my own, my native land!"
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned,
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel's raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish could claim;
Despite these titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

Congratulations Jim Hoft!!!

The Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft is #2 in Right Wing News's 40 Best Conservative Blogs of 2010! I don't know how they overlooked this blog their rankings when the photographic evidence is clear: Jim Hoft takes direction from me.