Category: Media bias

Welcome Guest Author Richard Easton, and his Proposed New Format for Presidential Debates

This article was originally posted over at Ricochet.com, and I am happy to make Calling-all-RushBabes available to spread his wisdom.  Comments very welcome!

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There has been widespread dissatisfaction with previous presidential debates between the Republican and Democratic candidates. In 2012, Candy Crowley stated shortly before the second debate that she would not abide by the contract she signed. She then interfered in the debate on the side of Obama. In 2008, the vice presidential debate moderator, Gwen Ifill, was completing a biography of Obama. One can easily surmise that financial considerations alone gave her a bias favoring Joe Biden. Clearly, her book had the potential to sell more copies if Obama won the presidency. One may ask why the Republicans didn’t insist that these biased moderators be removed. This tacit agreement to participate in a process that was biased against them may partially explain why they lost both races.

How can you solve the problem of biased moderators? I suggest eliminating them and using the model of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates. There were seven debates, one in each congressional district, each of which was three hours long. The first debater spoke for 60 minutes, the second spoke for 90 minutes, and the first responded for 30 minutes. Today’s Americans don’t have the attention span for an unstructured three-hour debate. I suggest that the candidates cover specific questions in fifteen-minute segments. A coin toss determines which debater speaks first for five minutes. The second debater then speaks for 7.5 minutes, and the first speaker responds for 2.5 minutes. There is a timer in place of the moderator. This allows for more time for speakers to talk without interruptions while also allowing them to challenge each other. In contrast to the behavior of Candy Crowley in the second debate, Jim Lehrer in the first debate asked general questions and let the candidates talk. My proposal codifies this by eliminating the moderators and putting the focus on the questions.

How are the questions determined? One possibility is to have a liberal and a conservative scholar each selecting half of them. Victor Davis Hanson would be a good choice for the conservative scholar. Another alternative would be to have each campaign select 25% of the questions, with the scholars picking the remainder. All of the questions would be known in advance to the public. The only unknown in advance of the actual debate is who speaks first on a question. This alternative is fair to both sides and removes the media from the debates.

The fall debates have recently been of two hours’ duration, including about twenty minutes of commercials. Using my proposed fifteen-minute segments, this would allow for six questions in a debate with ten minutes for closing statements. Recently, there has been both an opening and closing statement, but I suggest eliminating the opening segment to allow for more questions.

My unbiased proposal allows voters to understand better how the candidates think about issues than under the current process. It will be difficult to stall for 7.5 minutes. It will challenge candidates to speak intelligently for that duration and the debates will be improved.

How would this change be implemented? Currently, the Commission on Presidential Debates organizes them. One possibility would be to petition the members of the commission to make this change. Another alternative would be to bring this to the attention of the leading Republican candidates. Removing the press from the process eliminates the possibility for bias to affect the result. If the Democrats refuse to consider this change, the Republican candidate could refuse to participate in the debate. There is no reason to give one side an advantage in shaping public opinion.

The West Virginia GOP Has it Right

People seem to be getting all worked up and outraged at this poster that was displayed at a West Virginia Republican booth.

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They have the right idea, in my opinion.  As I recall at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, members of the rather-large “Somali community” in Seattle were seen rejoicing at the horror of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York by a gang of Islamist Terrorists.  None of the terrorists was Somali, but they were all Muslims.

Islam is an Evil Religion.  The two Muslim women elected to congress from the states of Michigan and Minnesota have continually displayed their Muslim hatred of Israel and Jews.  They belong to Evil, and the one pictured above demonstrates it every day.

Is This New York Abortion Law Evil?

Or, as Ben Shapiro puts it,

New York Governor Cuomo wants to ban the Death Penalty…Except for Unborn Children; go ahead and kill those.

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Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the most comprehensive abortion law in the United States.  This new law, passed by the now-100%-Democrat controlled Legislature, allows termination of a pregnancy up to the moment of birth.  Yes, that is correct, New York now allows a full-term BABY to be murdered if the mother and her doctor deem her health in danger.  Various “news” outlets describe this as “updating” New York abortion laws, and “adding strong legal protections” for “abortion rights”.

The above-mentioned Governor of New York is nominally a Catholic.  As I remember it, the Catholic Church forbids contraception, and defines abortion as murder.  And the Catholic Bishops have reacted to this new law that is celebrated by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Bishops call for Cuomo to be excommunicated.

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Look at that tag line on the podium.  No Time to Wait.  And the title of the new law is the “Reproductive Health Act”.  However, one thing the act ignores is the fact that the pregnant woman is not the only individual affected by abortion.  What about the child?  Well, this new law in New York deems that child disposable.    The statistics show that, in New York, more black babies are aborted than are born.  Does this indicate discrimination against minorities?  Nope, the Progressives in New York are perfectly fine with it, since Abortion is their Holy Sacrament.

And what about the Abortion Doctors?  Doesn’t the Hippocratic Oath say “First Do No Harm”?  I guess that in New York, the Culture of Death rules even the medical profession.    This list was taken off a Web Site called “safest abortion”, by a medical group, NY OB-GYN Associates.

  • Teenagers do not need their parent’s permission to have an abortion.
  • There are no waiting periods
  • No need for state approval
  • Patients can perform their abortion in their doctor’s office.
  • New York State Medicaid covers abortion for women with a low income.

Although, there are some pro-life doctors who have spoken out against this destructive (literally!) new law.  But it appears that they are in the minority.

It is a crying shame, what Feminism hath wrought in the United States, and around the world.  Human beings are reduced to the status of afterthoughts, permitted to be done away with, even if they can sustain life if allowed to be born.  I never had children myself, but this new law makes me very sad.  I weep for the babies who will not be allowed to live, and contribute to the tapestry that is Humanity.

 

A Twitter Conversation I’d Like to See

Nancy Pelosi to President Donald Trump:

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Postpone that State of The Union address, due to YOUR government shutdown.

 

President Donald Trump to Nancy Pelosi:

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Mrs. Speaker Pelosi, GO POUND SAND.

Since I’m not on Twitter, even if this conversation happens, I’ll miss it (well, not really).

Go President Trump!  Do Not give in to the Forces of Progressivism that are attempting to ruin your Presidency!

Do you have children or grandchildren? You might be interested in this. And not in a good way.

Hubby and I have a new great-niece, who just turned one year old.  For her birthday, I went to the book store to find a nice picture book (we will not be giving her any toys, just books for birthdays and Chanukah). What I found was not very nice, in my opinion.  It seemed to me that most, if not all, recently-written kids’ books are written with some kind of political theme in mind.  We have known for many years that the “educational” establishment has been indoctrinating our young people with the standard Progressive world view, including diversity, inclusion, homosexuality, environmentalism, feminism, and “gender-fluidity”, among many other disgusting themes.  Don’t we remember the furor surrounding the book Heather has Two Mommies, that was featured in some elementary schools a while ago?

I found it interesting that, for the last weekend in December, the Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal both did features on new “literature” for today’s “woke” kids.  The title of the Seattle Times story was “12 groundbreaking books for young readers of all genders“. (emphasis mine).  The point of view is right there in the title, you don’t even have to read any further.  Some of the titles are My First Book of Feminism (for Boys); From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea (written by a “trans-gender woman”); Mae Among the Stars, written about a black woman who went into space, “to push back against sexism and racism”; Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different: True Tales of Amazing Boys who Changed the World Without Killing Dragons, written to push back against “toxic masculinity”; and “The Best Man”, urging boys NOT to become “masculine”.  Hey, parents, this is what your kids are being urged to read!  Your boys are being taught that to be a boy, who does boy stuff, is a bad thing! Your girls are being taught that if they do not end up as scientists or astronauts, it’s because of Sexism.

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In the Wall Street Journal, their children’s book editor Meghan Cox Gurdon says, in her piece entitled “You’re Never Too Young to Take a Stand”:

“When posterity looks back at the children’s books of 2018, it will notice a strong political current that, as in a river, progresses in one direction.  Posterity will observe, for instance, that the presidential election of two years before continued to have a downstream effect in the form of numerous picture books that celebrate certain ways of seeing the world and offer a rebuke to others.”

She cites picture books that have themes of acceptance of immigrants, tearing down all barriers, and acceptance of same-sex marriage.  Yes, little kids are learning about homosexuality and same-sex marriage!  She mentions a young-adult book about a dystopia that includes bad US government interning Muslim citizens, and the good American teen who helps a fugitive escape from a prejudiced land to Canada.  And she mentions  all the books of 2018 that featured the female Supreme Court Justices, and no mention of the males.  Girls Good; Boys Bad is the refrain.  And her final mention is a book entitled Woke Baby.

So, instead of looking for new books for my little niece, I will be buying her the well-loved books of the past, including Babar the Elephant, and Madeleine.  Parents, be very careful out there when choosing literature for your kids.  Read everything first, and make sure that what they are reading isn’t as subversive as all these books seem to be.