Official Hot 97 Summer Jam 2010 video Rick Ross and Fatjoe perform their latest hits Angels Remix and Roesae’. Filmed and produced by James ‘ Kraze’ Billings.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
By Jordan Cruger
“I guess it was bound to happen.”
Those were the words of Senator John McCain as he campaigned in South Carolina’s primary, in 2000, against then-Governor George W. Bush.
McCain was referring to Bush’s attacks on his character, as McCain campaigned for more conservative South Carolinians to gain what his camp thought would be unstoppable momentum if he won the state.
Twelve years later the story is the same with Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. Demagoguery has ruled the day for Santorum and Gingrich. They are both resorting to attacks on Romney that they know the conservative base loves. They’ve added a new bad word to the ultra-right dictionary – “moderate.”
Just look at Rick Santorum on Nevada caucus night. Confident as ever, he blasted the frontrunner Romney for being just that, “moderate.” He even went as far as to compare Romney to other moderates who lost elections in the past: Gerald Ford in ‘76, George H. W. Bush in ‘92, Bob Dole in ‘96, and John McCain in ‘08. His comparisons are unfair however, as all were running in general elections, and at difficult times for Republicans.
Santorum failed to admit his own ultra-conservatism took him from a 6 point victory in his reelection to the U. S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 2000 to a resounding 18 point crushing landslide defeat to Robert Casey, Jr. in 2006. Let him try to excuse himself by calling it a tough year for Republicans, when also in 2006 a Republican from the same Northeast Region, in Maine, a blue state, won a sound 53 point reelection victory. That was Olympia Snowe, a moderate.
Yes, the all too personal affront to any Republican today is to call them a moderate. Apparently showing any reasoning power or governing capability through some compromise is too unbecoming for the base. For years, with needless arguments on social issues which never created a single job, the GOP has been washing out Republicans that make sense. Republicans who can speak to social progress to bridge the gap. People like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman were and are now being ostracized as “liberal” or “RINO” (Republican in Name Only).
That is only sad because moderate Republicans were once the voices of reason that kept the GOP stable. People like Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, Charles Percy, Edward Brooke and Mark Hatfield were pro-business leaders, and yet able to disagree with Democrats while working for the needs of the people they served. Whether or not he wants to admit it, Mitt Romney is that sort of Republican. After years in the private sector, in 2002 he ran successfully as a progressive Republican for Governor of Massachusetts and started a health care program in that state that remarkably worked.
Yet all of this is a problem for the modern Republican Party. The demagoguery of people like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, Joe Walsh and other reactionary Tea Partiers lies in dismantling parts of government that have actually benefitted people who do depend on services by the government. Some of what they say, however, does hold substance.
Much of the government has become bloated. The tax code, for example, is in dire need of reform, and much to the Tea Party’s credit they are very consistent on cutting spending. But today we are being confronted by anti-intellectual politicians who think folksy one liners, gutting some necessary parts of programs and battles on family values are the way to build governing strategy. These people are not working for the greater good. They are using doctrinaire methods of politicking and further dividing, not just Republicans, but Americans as a whole.
It is pivotal to take our party back from far right extremists who Governor Rockefeller repudiated. We need more pragmatic Republicans, thinkers who are not afraid to politically expand their base. We need moderates to start speaking up. What is needed now is a “moderate insurgency,” the same type of energy that was used to defeat others in the sensible center. And yes, we must challenge the extremists who are in office, as well.
Many, many moderates here in the Northeast are interested in bringing back the old guard of politically independent Republicans, those not beholden to ideology or ideologues. Somewhere in this party there is still a Nelson Rockefeller or a Jacob Javits. I still believe it is possible to regain our lost ground.
About the Author: Jordan Cruger is Vice President at the John Jay College Republican Club. He is very active in political campaigning and is a Political Science Major at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Hip Hop Republican » Commentary on Music, Politics & Culture
“Click Here to Get This Ringtone: NickiMinajRingers.blogspot.com Official lyrics video for Nicki Minaj’s new single “Starships”. I DO NOT OWN THIS MATERIAL, ALL CREDIT TO THE OWNER Official song available on iTunes Subscribe for new lyric videos as soon as new Nicki songs are released.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK:on.fb.me EGOTRIPLAND.COM brings you this crazy rare 1991 interview (and freestyle) featuring GZA (then doing business as the Genius), Ol’ Dirty Bastard (then going by Ason Unique), and RZA (then known as Prince Rakeem) on short-lived, local Bronx public access program, Rhythm & Soul. Video courtesy of all-star contributor J-Zone’s VHS archives. For more to the story, check out bit.ly twitter: @egotripland fb: egotripnyc
Video Rating: 4 / 5
“An atheist, a libertarian, and an evangelical walk onto a stage…”
Anywhere else, such a description would be a lead into a punchline. CPAC, however, is a world onto itself—and the stakes at the 2012 CPAC convention were no laughing matter.
A veritable conga line of conferences, seminars, speakers, and open bars, the event allowed for crucial networking opportunities and exposure for candidates, pundits, students, and undecided voters. Of course, the week focused on the presidential candidates, but more interesting to see were some of the surprising shifts that seem to be developing at the grassroots level.
While there were no shortage of speakers and presentations emphasizing a focus on conservative social policy, the real stars of the show were those that were able to articulate visions of the party focusing on American Exceptionalism, sound fiscal policy, strategies to empower social mobility.
Allen West, and particularly Marco Rubio, made these the cornerstones of their presentations, and the roars of adulation that followed spoke for themselves. “Why can’t they be running for president?” was probably the single most asked question at the convention.
In a seminar on GOTV strategies, a moderator offhandedly asked the attendees who their favorite candidate was, to a cacophony of responses. The second question—who’s been your favorite speaker—had a reply so unanimous and so loud that it could be heard from well across the hall.
Rubio’s speech had a profound impact on the convention. It succeeded in bringing together an audience coming from divergent religious, social, and fiscal backgrounds, fiercely competing in support of their chosen presidential candidates—as did West’s.
Where the 90s had our party caricatured as one focused on the “3 Gs” – “God, Guns, and Gays” the next decade is shaping up to be one that sees a party shift towards the “3 Es” — “Exceptionalism, Economics, and Empowerment.” For those in attendance, it was no surprise to see the results to the “personal core beliefs” CPAC straw poll.
The response “My most important goal is to promote individual freedom” dwarfed all other priorities combined, including a focus on gay marriage, abortion, the military, second amendment rights, and terrorism. Naysayers are likely to point out the obvious—that the convention was over 55% under the age of 25, and that there has always been a traditional slant away from social issues among younger voters.
The fact is, however, that anyone who was on the ground was able to see just how broadly the sentiment was shared—across virtually all geographic, socioeconomic and age ranges represented at CPAC.
The “3Es” managed to find themselves into the core arguments of nearly all of the issue-based discussion panels: approaches to military spending, strategies for education, attracting more minorities to the party—and the list went on.
All things considered, they seem like an obvious trio to hammer onto as central tenets for the party. For all of his eloquence, Obama has consistently failed at articulating a feeling of American Exceptionalism; from bows to Saudi Kings to apologism at home and abroad, Obama, if not a “malaise” President, has certainly failed to inspire a feeling of it being “Morning in America.”
As for the economy? It’s obviously the number one issue on voters minds, and with more and more blue collar workers losing their jobs overseas everyday, while Obama continues to refuse to initiative policies like the keystone pipeline that could have added tens of thousands of new jobs with the swipe of a pen, it may be the most critical factor to Republican 2012 victory. Empowerment?
It covers a lot of ground, but boils down to a hunger for a fair shake at the American Dream, without arbitrary government dictates or bureaucratic roadblocks creating a glass ceiling for our personal pursuit of happiness or those of our children.
It empowers lower income parents with big dreams and big dedication for their children to have the vouchers they need to take them to a school where they stand an honest chance at a good education; replacing policies that institutionalize inter-generational poverty with programs that provide strong educational, apprenticeship and mentorship programs to turn tax users into tax payers; allowing those disenfranchised with government retirement plans to invest their money as they see fit; and providing the resources for small businesses to form and prosper without obstruction, to hire the most qualified candidates for every position without bureaucratic meddling, and to be able to provide returns to their owners and shareholders that are capable of making their businesses a more attractive investment than opportunities abroad.
A 3E agenda is more than a socially conservative, or libertarian, or Baptist, or atheist view of America—it is the only blueprint capable of saving our government from walking off of the precipice into an economic and moral abyss. The CPAC attendants knew it. Rubio knows it. West knows it. Herman Cain knows it. Obama and the current administration clearly do not.
The hope, now, is that the remaining candidates for the Republican residential nomination will be able to tap into the new paradigm shift, and generate the same explosive energy that Rubio, West and Cain achieved at the convention.
For the sake of the nation, I for one would much rather see Rubio or West as 2012 VP serving under any of our remaining presidential candidates, than the 2016 presidential nominee of a nation ran into the ground by four more years of disastrous fiscal and foreign policy.
If we want to empathize with struggling voters, energize the electorate, and exorcize the Obama administration, it’s time for us to upgrade to a 3E network.
About the Author: Andrew Simon is the former Vice President 2004-2006 of the Campus Conservatives at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alta. He has worked and volunteered for Lee Richardson, a Member of Parliament Calgary, Alta. Between 2002-2005 Andrew organized a program focused on underprivileged communities in which, in exchange for volunteering to share a skill, tutor, or mentor, low income adults and their children were eligible to go to lessons taught from any other member of the initiative at no cost.
Hip Hop Republican » Commentary on Music, Politics & Culture
A new film laments the housing project’s failure for mostly the wrong reasons.
Progressives have long sought a revisionist history of Pruitt-Igoe, the 32-building public housing complex in St. Louis famously demolished in 1972. An historian interviewed in Chad Freidrichs’s new documentary, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, describes the stakes well:
“We don’t want people to think of Pruitt-Igoe as a failure if they’re going to then translate that failure to all public housing or all government programs or all social welfare or all modernism. That’s what Pruitt-Igoe has been freighted with.”
Indeed it has: the startling image of the Minoro Yamasaki-designed complex collapsing into dust and rubble—eerily foreshadowing the collapse of the World Trade Center, which Yamasaki also designed—became a symbol of liberal reformers’ shortcomings: their skepticism about the virtues of the private economy and their excessive faith in the abilities of technical experts and of government to serve not just as protector, but provider.
Read More: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/bc0217hh.html
Hip Hop Republican » Commentary on Music, Politics & Culture
Lloyd Banks – Live @ BB King, NYC – “Power Live” – 5/26/10 Follow Lloyd Banks backstage as he rehearse for the show, performs hits such as “Poppin’ dem thangs”, “Straight Outta Southside”, or “Beamer, Benz, and Bentley” He is later joined on stage by Tony Yayo, who performed his new club banger: “Pass The Patron” Live Lloyd Banks’ new album “HFM2″ coming summer 2010 “Beamer, Benz, or Bentley” 1st official single off his upcoming album. Download here: bit.ly watch video here: www.youtube.com Download “Pass The Patron”: ning.it
Video Rating: 4 / 5
We just couldn’t let these stories hit the cutting room floor! Beastie Boys fans and music fans in general will enjoy these random anecdotes from hip-hop pioneer Adam “Adrock” Horovitz. Hear how Adam decided to buy his first drum machine, how he discovered LL Cool J, or his thoughts on the art of sampling existing records.
Video Rating: 4 / 5