by Eric Dondero
I attended the Right Bloggers conference yesterday in Austin at the UT campus AT&T Center. There were about 90 in attendance from all over the state. The list of speakers and panelists was impressive: On-line Media guru Patrick Ruffini, Roger L. Simon, President of Pajamas Media, champion Tweeterer Dr. Melissa Clouthier, frequent Cable News commentator Matt Lewis and of course Andrew Breitbart.
The message heard over and over from just about all the panelists, was that the Right could beat the Left on-line and that our side clearly had the momentum. There was a genuine Tea Party atmosphere. There was euphoria over Scott Brown's recent win. Money bombs for Right candidates for office were also mentioned frequently. There was a definite emphasis on unity on the Right, and steering clear from divisive issues. The importance of keeping "libertarians," as part of the team, was brought up a couple times by panelists and questioners.
As for technology, Simon in particular emphasized the importance of citizen journalists, and the use of the video camera. He mentioned specifically the recent Global Warming summit in Copenhagen as a way to trip up Leftist frauds, and getting them on record with their own words.
Simon made some news, as well, by admitting that PJ Media had yet to have a profitable year. He said straight out that PJ had made some crucial mistakes early on, mostly by paying writers too much. But then he added that nobody in the blogosphere was making any money. In fact, Breitbart added that Huffington Post was the biggest of all losers. Both agreed that we'd soon see old media dying, or morphing into an entirely different animal, most especially the NY Times, and other similar liberal newspapers.
Simon added that the new direction for PJ, and he believes for the Right blogosphere in general should be more video-based. Also, Twitter was a big topic of discussion. All panelists were positive on the new media, most especially the host Governor Perry himself.
It was revealed by Governor Perry's introducer, before his luncheon speech, that "Yes, that really is the Governor himself who Tweats," not any of his staffers. And he joked out loud that the Gov's Tweat were not at all vetted by his staff.
The Governor was animated as usual. Public policy was not his major topic, rather building the conservative movement to challenge the Left using new media, was the priority at hand. He seemed most excited about the upcoming appearance on his behalf of fellow new media politico and champion Facebooker Sarah Palin. The pair will appear at a big event in Houston on Feb. 7. (Tickets are going fast. I plan to attend.)
Then for the finale the Governor introduced his pal Andrew Breitbart. The two had gone shooting at a shooting range the day before, and afterwards had a couple brews at J. Black's on Austin's famed 6th Street along with some Right bloggers. (See Rob Cooper's Urban Grounds, blog on the event, "A Day at the Gun Range with Gov. Rick Perry.")
I must say, there was genuine warmth between Rick and Andrew. They sat and chatted for 30 minutes in some row chairs, about all things technical. During his speech, at one point the Governor hoisted his leg up onto the table, lifted up his pant leg to reveal his specially made leather boots with a cannon and insignia "Come and Take It!." He pointed to Andrew and said this is what the spirit of Texas is all about. (Reference to Texanos drive for Independence in 1836.)
Andrew gave his personal history and his journey from Liberal to "Western-style Conservative." It was the Clarence Thomas hearings for US Supreme Court Justice, that began to turn him. He was amazed at Ted Kennedy's hypocrisy on the matter. Here was the ultimate womanizer questioning a man whose worst crime in 6 years was to crack a joke in front of Anita Hill about a pubic hair on a Coke can. Andrew also wondered why it was that supposed Liberals, who were supposed to be Pro-Free Speech, were subpeoning records of Thomas's movie video rentals.
For Andrew, the clincher from his turn from the Left, came with the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair. He mentioned the pilloring of witness Linda Tripp, the utter hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton on the matter, and the sheer hypocrisy of all his Hollywood Liberal friends who defended Clinton's daillances, but at the same time would have crucified a similar incident by a Republican.
Andrew also talked at length about ACORN, and gave a detailed accounting of their exposure by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles.
He talked of how difficult it was to be a Rightist in Hollywood. And recounted a story in 2006, when he was surrounded by 40 Hollywood socialites at a party in his own fourier badgering him for his support for President Bush and the War in Iraq.
Towards the end he gave a hint of good things to come, regarding an attendee to the conference who sat in the back row: Brandon Darby of Austin. The young man had been deep in the heart of the Leftist "Machine." But he became disillusioned over their hypocrisy during Hurrican Katrina. Working in New Orleans, ACORN's hometown, he saw first hand their scurrilous fundraising tactics, and lack of real commitment to help the poor and disadvantaged, using the crisis more for their own means. After being threated by ACORN to be "run out of town," cause he wasn't a Malcom 'X' radical Leftists, he turned into a whistleblower on their operation. (Read his full story at BigGovernment.com Sept. 9)
Andrew ended with a prediction: "If they (the Left) didn't like what happened in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, we're going to use all our resources to expose them" in the coming year... He promised that more shoes would drop which would make the ACORN scandal look like child's play.
It was great for me to see old friends. Cindy Mallete of Americans for Prosperity was there, as well as Bryan Preston, Communications Director for the Republican Party of Texas. And I also met new friends who I had known solely on-line like Rob Cooper with Austin's hardhitting Right blog - Urban Grounds. I managed to briefly say Hi to the Governor, and to chat for a couple minutes with Andrew.
Afterwards, I took the wife to see the Texas Museum of History (photo), literally right across the street from the AT&T Center. Spectacular museum. See it if you get the chance.
By the time we got home, I had a Tweet. From the Governor, thanking us for attending the event.
Sign up for Gov. Perry's Tweets at Twitter.com/governorperry
Current NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden, speaking a few weeks ago at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, explained how our nation's space program is at a crossroads and pledged to continue manned missions into space.
If you're thinking to yourself, "that's sort of a small window for a luxury hotel suite," well, you're right. But it's only because this room occupies the entirety of a repurposed Cold War-era East German aircraft.
