Bluey Blog - Official Blog of Robert B. Bluey

A New Kind of HillaryCare?

Robert Novak has an interesting item in today’s column about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s possible move to the right on health care. After learning the hard way that socialized medicine would sell in America in the early 1990s, Clinton could, as president, follow her husband’s example on welfare reform, Novak surmises. As evidence, he cites Hillary’s recent meeting with Regina Herzlinger. The conservative health care analyst advocates universal health insurance provided by the private sector.

Blogging Bootcamp for Liberals

The liberal New Organizing Institute holds its week-long Campaign Boot Camp in Washington next week, training about 60 people in the ways of the Internet and online organizing. An e-mail I got from NOI’s executive director Roz Lemieux said this:

Twenty of them are in a “data track” where they’ll focus on voter files, polling, targeting, etc. The rest will focus on leveraging technology for field, media and communications.

When the bootcamp is all done, there will be a job fair at George Washington University on July 8. Can you tell that I’m a bit envious of the left’s work in this area? Seeing just how organized they actually are should make conservatives nervous. It should also motivate us to do something about it.

New JibJab for the Fourth of July

On My Radar: Friday, June 29, 2007

As Congress heads home for a week-long recess, I’m looking forward to the break as well. The past few weeks have been consumed by the immigration debate in Washington, leaving me little opportunity to focus on the big picture. As we head into the summer, I’m really looking forward to finding some time to read, relax and plot a course for the months ahead.

• An Incredible Week on the Long March to Right America - Mark Tapscott, The Examiner
• Overpowering the Immigration Overhaul Bill - Mary Lu Carnevale, Wall Street Journal
• McCain’s Courage - Sen. Tom Coburn, National Review Online
• McConnell’s Vote on Immigration Bill Shows Distancing From Bush - Laura Litvan, Bloomberg
• Immigration Bill Failure Proves Rasmussen’s First Law of Politics - Rasmussen Reports

• Trade Promotion Authority Could Vanish with a Whimper - Daniella Markheim, Heritage Foundation
• End of a Free-Trade Era - Doug Bandow, American Spectator
• Ailing Party: The GOP debate over health care - Michael Tanner, National Review Online
• Analysis: Experts rate Mass. health plan - Rosalie Westenskow, United Press International
• Big Ethanol wins big on CAFE - Timothy P. Carney, The Examiner

• Democrats on Capitol Hill silencing minority on web - David All, TechRepublican
• Move over, MoveOn: GOP’s a-comin’ - Mike Allen, Politico
• Hillary Clinton’s ‘Patriotic’ Tax Hike - Amanda Carpenter, Townhall
• New ‘missile defense caucus’ forms in House - Associated Press
• Like House colleagues, senators keep earmarks quiet - Drew Griffin & Kathleen Johnston, CNN

• Gordon Brown’s Early Test - Nile Gardiner, National Review Online
• GOP sees an icon in Thatcher - Kathryn Jean Lopez, Albany Times Union
• Bush, Putin May Mask Tension With Comity - Brendan Murray & Catherine Dodge, Bloomberg
• Kyoto: Not For All The Coal In China - Editorial, Investor’s Business Daily
• The Value of Security Contractors in Iraq - Michael Hardiman, CNSNews.com

Mel Martinez’s Hollow Words

The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Sen. Mel Martinez, has had a bad month. Between his approval ratings dropping drastically and his ill-fated amnesty bill getting sacked in the Senate, he can’t seem to win. Now he’s lashing out at critics of the amnesty deal.

“The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer,” said the Florida senator, according to the Associated Press. I guess it goes to show that Martinez hasn’t been paying attention. Several weeks ago the Heritage Foundation released a report about what those very next steps should be. And yesterday, after the bill’s collapse, Heritage’s Matt Spalding taped this video.

We’ve laid out the course of action for Martinez. Why doesn’t he stop complaining and read our plan?

Coulter Comments

Kudos to my friends at Human Events for adding comments to their articles. Their blog has always had comments, and the articles sort of had them, but the new feature is a great improvement. And opposed to some sites where you have to register, Human Events requires only an e-mail address.

The new approach seems to be working quite well. This week’s Ann Coulter column has 1,062 comments.

The NTU Conference in Pictures

Hat tip to Andy Roth at the Club for Growth for linking to pictures from the National Taxpayers Union conference earlier this month. I spoke about the importance of blogging along with Andy and Charlie Gerow of QubeTV. In the above photo, panel moderator Damien Brady of NTU is on the left and Andy is on the right.

Money for Bloggers

Have a brilliant idea about a modern media project but don’t have the money to make it happen? The Searle Freedom Trust could be the answer. It’s seeking applications for grants of up to $250,000 for projects that promote freedom using modern media. Here are some recent awards:

• $100,000 for a think tank to produce “viral videos” on government intervention
• $100,000 for an organization to sponsor film and web-video internships
• $75,000 for a website to host a contest of free-market videos
• $27,000 for a contest to encourage blogging on campus issues by college students
• $100,000 for a think tank to produce and market a video on an issue central to its mission

The deadline is October 1. The only catch is that you must have a non-profit affiliation. And because that’s the case, I’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to share an idea, please send me an e-mail.

Waiting for the iPhone

RedState’s Erick Erickson and Clayton Wagar are 35th in line at an Atlanta mall waiting for the release of the iPhone at 6 p.m. Here’s another shot from Clayton’s Flickr page. I’m told they arrived at 9 a.m. Not a bad way to spend a Friday. Too bad my wife won’t let me have one.

UPDATE — June 30, 11:42 a.m.: I think Erick likes his iPhone. “The iPhone is amazing and the keyboard is awesome,” he writes. Meanwhile, Josh Trevino is twittering up a storm about it.

Mike Pence Saves Us From the Fairness Doctrine

Conservatives are on a roll. Only hours after derailing the immigration bill yesterday, they made a preemptive strike at the Fairness Doctrine, hopefully putting an end to a Democrat-led plot to revive a failed policy regulating talk radio.

Rep. Mike Pence’s (R.-Ind.) amendment to the financial services appropriations bill passed, 309-115, prohibiting funds from being used by the Federal Communications Commission to impose the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters. The measure was co-sponsored by Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Tex.) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.). Its passage was hailed by Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio).

Pence will now push for passage of his Broadcaster Freedom Act. (See my related post earlier this week.)

Once again, bloggers deserve credit for rallying to the cause. I hope these two victories show our lawmakers that we’re a force to be reckoned with.