Sep 9, 2012

Remember


"In the ruins of two towers, at the western wall of the Pentagon, on a field in Pennsylvania, this Nation made a pledge, and we renew that pledge tonight: Whatever the duration of this struggle, and whatever the difficulties, we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men—free people will set the course of history." - President George W. Bush.  January 29, 2003 

Apr 4, 2012

Light of Liberty Less than Flattering to Progressivism


Our boy Mr. Farley has waxed most eloquently regarding the insights wrought from our first documentary film adventure:Liberty or Lies? The following from American Thinker...
Light of Liberty Less than Flattering to Progressivism
By Brien Farley
Photodegradation is a chemical process by which certain materials -- Vitamin C and some plastics for example -- deteriorate when exposed to light. Recently, while conducting a kind of experiment of my own, I discovered another material that is highly photodegradable: progressivism.I have been producing a documentary film series about conservative talk radio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (you can see parts one through four at www.libertyorlies.com).
The documentary consists of interviews with local conservative talk show hosts as well as some of the area's most prominent critics of the format.I call it Liberty or Lies? As the title suggests, it is an attempt to answer the question of whether conservative talk radio in Milwaukee -- or anywhere else -- is a legitimate expression and advocacy of American liberty, or just a bunch of hateful, racist lies. I am a conservative and a fan of conservative talk radio and have always believed the latter criticism to be baseless. But the relentlessness and ubiquity of the charges have long given me cause to wonder, "What are they hearing that I'm not? Are they right, somehow?"
Past analyses of this debate have, in my opinion, proven scant, superficial, and disingenuous; so I sought to really penetrate the brouhaha over conservative talk radio and present my findings thoroughly, soberly, and respectfully to as wide an audience as possible. My goal was to produce the documentary to the broadcast standards of Milwaukee Public Television and submit it to them for airing. After viewing parts one through four of the series, MPTV management was sufficiently intrigued to ask if I could edit a two-hour condensed version to accommodate their program schedule. I happily obliged. They screened my "made-for-TV" version, saw that -- like the series -- it contained about as much criticism of conservative talk radio from the left as it did defense of it from the right, and deemed it worthy of broadcast.
"There's little question that conservative talk radio has had a significant impact on political conversation and results in Wisconsin over the past few years," said MPTV general manager, Ellis Bromberg, in the station's press release announcing the show. "We think this documentary does a good job of explaining, in a balanced way, why that has been the case."
But, alas, "balance" is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Days before Liberty or Lies? even aired, I received a phone call from a local Democrat Party activist asking me just what I thought I was doing by producing such a program, and didn't I realize I was "promoting dangerous ideas." When I explained that I felt my documentary showcased an important discussion about contemporary Americans' understanding of free speech and free markets, he told me I was his enemy and hung up. An email from another liberal who had evidently previewed my Liberty or Lies? website said, "As a Progressive, I see quite a bit of Right-wing bias in the film....you bring on poor representatives for opposing views."After the airing, liberal/progressive viewers were furious, as the following excerpts from emails to MPTV suggest:
* "We have no interest in financially supporting such an indiscriminate provider (MPTV) of such glaringly biased promotion."
* "Were your guests chosen specifically for their ill-informed views? Or is ignoring empirical data a qualifier for commentary on your shows?*I am very surprised that the doc Conservative Talk Radio: Liberty or Lies? was so slanted. I am disappointed. There was no doubt that it was slanted to the Right. I wonder what the motivation was to put this doc on. MPTV is usually not so biased."
* "I am deeply disappointed by the documentary you aired tonight regarding Conservative radio. This was promoted as a topic to be debated and was shamefully in favor of the Right wing. Living in a city void of Progressive programming, your TV channel further insulted the Liberal part of your viewing audience!"
* "Let me guess, the producers of Liberty or Lies? are Conservatives, right? We will not be contributing to MPTV this year. This program gave at least 80% of the screen time to the Right wingers. This is not what we expect from public television. It was not a balanced presentation."
* "Please do not bother asking me for any more money. I just watched the show on Conservative radio in Milwaukee. I was hoping to see an un-biased presentation about Right-wing radio. Instead I see a very Right-leaning show...I do (or did) expect more from PBS. I will never watch your PBS station again."
* "For heaven's sake! I just watched the first hour of Liberty or Lies? and am simply astonished that MPTV could run something so clearly biased under the description of 'analysis'...You owe your viewers an apology!"
* "It really just impressed on me all the more the need for balance and government oversight against big money corporations who can buy their way into anything."
Others, however, liked the show.
* "Thank you for airing Brien Farley's documentary Liberty or Lies? on Channel 10 last night. I enjoyed it so much I'm looking forward to the next showing. I thought it provided a very balanced and in-depth coverage of the topic.
* "It will make me consider watching more of the news programs on MPTV and PBS. If only we would hear more of both sides from PBS's NewsHour. Their Liberal slant is so obvious it shouts at you. Both sides were represented on talk radio show (Liberty or Lies?) ... in their own words. If only that could happen in local papers, local TV, national TV, and yes PBS in general. Thanks again for being so brave as to let the Conservative side be heard."
* "Thank you for airing Liberty or Lies? It was well done."
Milwaukee conservative talkers Charlie Sykes, Jay Weber, and Vicki McKenna posted the show on their blogs. Vicki told me that recent recall election survivor, Wisconsin State Senator Alberta Darling, was "practically gushing" about the documentary. Conservative bloggers wrote favorable reviews.
Conservatives embracing a documentary featuring liberal/progressives declaring conservative talk radio a one-sided, GOP talking-point parroting, democracy-damaging forum for hateful and racist misinformation? What's going on?
What's going on is photodegradation. With Liberty or Lies? I simply captured the liberal/progressive case against conservative talk radio and the conservative defense of it and laid the two out, side by side, in the plain light of day. What is fascinating is that in this light it seems the conservative case shines all the brighter while, over the course of the program, the liberal/progressive case deteriorates into a baffling hodgepodge of misconception, groundless speculation and brazen absurdity. No wonder liberal/progressive viewers are angry. They don't like what they see in the mirror.
Revealed here is not (as some suggest) that I have deliberately selected poor representatives of the left's case against conservative talk radio -- indeed they are among Wisconsin's most popular liberal/progressive commentators -- nor that I employed slick production techniques to diminish their arguments; what is revealed here is the fundamental fraud of American progressivism. Those who would represent progressivism are forced to perform all manner of logical contortions and suspensions of belief in attempts to make their philosophy appear consistent with traditional American values because, in fact, it is not at all consistent with traditional American values.
Just behind the well-marketed folklore of the progressive as the open-minded, uber-compassionate champion of social justice is raw collectivist authoritarianism that believes itself justified in using any means necessary to impose its utopian vision on American society (the "fundamental transformation of America") regardless of the consequences.
Locally and nationally, conservative talk radio exposes this fraud every day; thus hysterical retaliations from the left like the Media Matters/Sandra Fluke sex farce and the "climate of hate" slander following the Tucson shooting. Instructive in these retaliations is that liberal/progressives seek not merely to expose and admonish those they believe to be wrong or distasteful, but to destroy them via the power of government. This is not liberal, progressive or American. It is tyrannical.
Herein lies the true value of conservative talk radio. As both creature and advocate of the free market, steadfastly channeling the principles of the American Founding -- limited government, individual liberty, free market economics -- into modern society, it proves an intolerable irritant to the enemies of those principles. In their zeal to discredit and silence the medium, progressives are drawn forth into the open light where their actions betray the emptiness of their "social justice" rhetoric and their abhorrence of the day-to-day exercise of liberty.
Many times over the course of producing Liberty or Lies? I have wondered, "Why am I doing this?" I have a family, a job, and lots of other things I need to be doing. "All this about a radio format?" What I have come to realize is that my documentary is about much more than a radio format, and that conservative talk radio is about much more than political talk on the right. They are about my country and whether or not we retain the intellectual and moral capacity to discern, pursue, and secure the blessings of liberty and resist the seductive promises of the utopian.
In the light of liberty, the choice has been made clear: liberty or lies. The time to decide is now.
-Brien Farley lives in Genesee, Wisconsin and is producer of "Liberty or Lies? Conservative Talk Radio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin." For more information go to http://www.libertyorlies.com/.

Nov 5, 2011

Liberty or Lies?

We are most pleased to share with you at this time a glimpse of the "special assignment" which has consumed the better part of our lives for the past several months. We have leant our vast insight, incomparable historical perspective, and editorial mastery to our personal secretary (Mr. B Walter Farley) in his ambitious production of LIBERTY OR LIES?: a documentary series regarding Conservative talk radio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Parts one through three are available for viewing at http://www.libertyorlies.com/. Parts four through six remain in production but you are provided sufficient orientation as to what the comprise.



We shall write more about this later. But for now... It's back to the editing suite!

Cheers,



Charlie

Sep 10, 2011

The 2001-2011 Awakening

Rediscovering America the Hard Way

Whether by the tender caress of a lover’s hand or the butt end of a burglar’s shotgun, waking up is important to do. For as blissful as slumber is—physical, spiritual, civilizational — it does leave one rather vulnerable to the whims of others. (As seen here).

For the United States, the past ten years have comprised a series of awakenings; excessively rude awakenings indeed, but awakenings nonetheless. From the attacks of September the 11th 2001 through the Standard & Poor's credit rating downgrade, American citizens have found themselves slapped wide-eyed by the news of the day more often than at any point since, perhaps, the second world war. Not to suggest the nation hadn’t endured its share of tragedies since that time, but that none amounted to the level of existential threat as have certain of the events since the dawn of the second millennium.

For instance, the moment the second plane plunged into the second tower and that appalling realization gripped us all—this was intentional, no one could ever again enjoy the sweet dream of American invulnerability. Seven years later, as it became plain the financial collapse was the result of government regulations forcing banks to make loans to millions who could not possibly pay them back, no one could ever again drift off to slumber to the enchanting fairy tales of “social and economic justice.”

But alas, in both cases, many did. As the dust settled at ground zero, the Pentagon and on Wall Street, these individuals pointed to American preeminence as the impetus to Islamic mass murder, and the failure of the free market as the trigger for financial collapse and recession. With incessant rhetoric, a charismatic presidential candidate, and hapless Republic opposition, they won power in 2006 and 2008. And since that time, their unbridled pursuit of the Progressive utopia has brought them, and the country, to near ruin.

Today there remain devoted Leftists, disguised in the workaday charade of traditional American “Progressive” yib yab—not the least of whom may be the once charismatic presidential candidate himself—who are quietly pleased to see America forced nearly to her knees, both at home and abroad. The balance of the citizenry, however, is revolting. The degree varies, from Tea Party devotee to disaffected Democrat, but Americans are nonetheless revolting against this alien and ominous Leftward lurch.

We contend that this revolt, what we call the awakening of 2001-2011, as costly as it has been, will emerge in time as one of the most significant and propitious watersheds in American history. For daily an intimate, genuine and comprehensive awareness of the utter bankruptcy of the Progressive folklore that has been enfeebling this nation for more than a century is giving way to an equally intimate and intense awareness of the value of the First Principles of the American Founding.

We are not here in any way attempting to put a happy face on the lives and property destroyed on September the 11th 2001 and the war that has followed, nor the lives and property diminished by the current economic stranglehold. But instead to echo those who note that in life there are personal tragedies which awaken one’s mind to greater focus, one’s will to greater fortitude and one’s soul to greater awareness of God. The attacks of September the 11th 2001 were such a tragedy for the United States of America, rousing her from her post-war World War II moral and civic torpor moments before her enemies made off with her invaluable and irreplaceable inheritance.

Chastened and alert we stand guard once again, reminded anew that, indeed, eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty.

Cheers,

Charlie

Jun 6, 2011

Special Assignment Update and A Postcard from Wisconsin

Gentle readers,

While we regret to inform you that we remian on special assignment (taking a bloody good bit longer than originally anticipated!) we are very happy to tell you that said assignment is coming along swimmingly and should be presentable for your waiting eyes and ears by mid/late July. Do stay tuned!

In the meantime, the following missive from Wisconsin State Representative, Paul Farrow, of the 98th Assembly District provides rather a perfect illustration of the moral character of the now nationally infamous Wisconsin Left. Enjoy!





Rep. Farrow: Letter to Capitol Police Chief Tubbs
6/2/2011

Chief Charles Tubbs
Capitol Police
2 East Main # B2
Madison, WI 53072-0001


Chief Tubbs,

I am writing in reference to recent disturbing events in our Capitol building.

As you are aware, throughout the winter months and now stretching into spring, many citizens of Wisconsin and other states have come to the Capitol to have their voices heard regarding legislation which was being debated. Overall the citizens, legally, were well-behaved but the sheer numbers and volume resulted in a significant disturbance to the Capitol’s operation.

This has continued with the Solidarity Singers who, for the past two months and running, have commandeered the Rotunda at precisely 12:00 noon each weekday and proceeded to express their displeasure at the top of their lungs. For 60 minutes, the lawmakers and staff are disrupted from their daily business and visitors to the building stop dead in their tracks in an attempt to decipher the noise and lyrics that reverberate throughout the building.

The most egregious disturbance occurred this past Tuesday, May 31st. As you know, the American Red Cross was scheduled to hold its annual Blood Drive at the State Capitol, between the hours of 9am-3pm. Dedicated volunteers and medical professionals arrived as scheduled, and began to set up the blood drive. Loyal donors and Capitol staff lined up, waiting to donate blood and potentially save a life. However, they soon found it impossible to complete the task.

In fact, this past Tuesday, the decibel level became so unbearable that the Red Cross professionals were forced to close the blood drive and turn away donors. They resorted to rescheduling for Thursday, June 2nd. It is a travesty to think that selfless individuals, willing to donate their own blood to help another in need, would even be put in that predicament. The issue I raise is not, of course, the ability of the Protest group to express its displeasure. There is no question that they certainly are within their constitutional right to do so. I fully support free speech and citizen engagement in the political process. However, I have an enormous problem when the rights of one group infringe on the rights of all others, or completely deprive the opportunity to utilize our State Capitol.

I have read the First Amendment many times. Interestingly enough, nowhere in the Amendment does it include the word “volume.” There is no justifiable reason that one group should be able to shout down the rights of another – or “sing down”, as the case may be.

Yesterday, I was hoping to speak with you directly and gather more details about what transpired on Tuesday. My staff phoned your office, and requested a return call to discuss this matter. Although I did not receive a response, we did garner some interesting information.

As you know, for many years, the policy regarding use of the Capitol grounds has been quite simple. Each and every group - be it civic, educational, or yes, political in nature – has been required to fill out a permit application. This application is kept on file, to ensure that all activities are on the calendar and both staff and security are aware. Furthermore, the permits prevent scheduling conflicts and possible friction between groups.

I was greatly disturbed to learn that the Solidarity Singers have no such permit. Capitol Police staff confirmed that the group has neither requested nor completed such a form. According to your office, the group has “spoken with you” and both sides have a “verbal understanding.” This is troublesome at best, and downright appalling at worst.

I am further outraged to learn that the American Red Cross did, in fact, complete the permit application process. As in every year past, the group completed the form and followed the policy guidelines flawlessly. The reward for their prudence? To be totally disrupted, and ultimately, forced to abandon their nonprofit event.

Sadly, the American Red Cross is not the only group which has been trampled upon by the Solidarity Singers. In the spring, typically thousands of schoolchildren come from all across the state to visit their State Capitol. They travel on buses, sometimes from several hours away, to tour with fellow students and teachers and learn about our state government.

Unfortunately, over 50 of those groups had to cancel their trips this year, during the height of the protest. Just last week, I had a group visit from my district. I witnessed the children holding their hands over their ears, asking their parents and chaperones, “What is that noise?” and “Can you make that stop?” Meanwhile, the protestors attempted to hand them the ‘Union Hymnal’ and encourage them to pantomime for the TV cameras that happened to be in the vicinity. It was extremely disheartening to see the youthful innocence of children exploited.

The reason for the permit policy is for both the Capitol and security staffs to work in concert with one another and ensure the safety of everyone in the building. As we have seen in the past, failure to require groups or organizations to submit a permit for use of the building, contributed to the state spending an additional $7 million for increased security and repairs to the Capitol.

Again, the Singer group is within their right to be present within their building. They are within their right to make their opinion known through whatever channels they choose – be it speech, whispers, or yes, song. But, they must be held to the same standard as every other group. The fact that you have allowed them to dictate the policy is profoundly sad. I request that you immediately rectify this situation, and require the same process of any organization or group, including the Solidarity Singers, both now and in the future.

This is what consistent policy looks like.

Sincerely,
State Representative Paul Farrow
98th Assembly District




Oct 21, 2010

On Special Assignment


We implore your forgiveness but have taken leave on a most important and fascinating assignment, the fruits of which we intend to share with you all in spring 2011. We assure you it is highly relevant to the electoral revolution taking place currently throughout these United States.

In the interim, we will, of course, be Tweeting at http://twitter.com/ChurchillsParot (yes, just one "t". Bloody technology!) and we vigorously encourage you to reference our friends at The Heritage Foundation and their Foundry blog in our abscence for your continuing information and edification. We are quite confident you will be well served.


'Til spring...


Cheers,

Charlie

Sep 17, 2010

Whither Limited Government? Constitution Day 2010.


"We are faced today with two different roads, one of which follows the path of liberty set by our Founders in the Constitution, and one which diverges from that path and leads us down the road to tyranny."

-Former Attorney General Edwin Meese, III




Better yet, read the bloody Constitution!


Cheers,


Charlie

Sep 15, 2010

"Can You Hear Me Now?"


Yet another primary, yet another cadre of true-blue conservatives decidely closer to taking office. My dear "Progressive" friends (in both parties), are we getting the message yet?


See you in November.

Cheers,

Charlie