From YouTube:
Jeremy Kaine and Tony Maglione from Doug Hoffman’s Plattsburgh, New York, campaign office tell America what is at stake in the Nov. 3 Congressional special election in upstate New York.
Dear Stacy McCain just got back from his trip to NY-23 to check on the campaign of Doug Hoffman, who is the Conservative Party candidate, and I recommend a visit to The Other McCain for his insights. Hoffman was endorsed this week by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin because the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, supports liberal policies, including big stimulus spending and an end to the secret ballot in votes on whether or not to unionize.
What interests me about this race is the uproar among conservatives and Republicans over the choice of Scozzafava by the local Republican committee over Hoffman based on their belief that her liberal positions would ensure her victory. Like the grassroots organizing behind the Tea Parties and the town hall healthcare reform meetings this summer, it shows the disconnect between Republican and conservative leadership and pretty much everyone they are supposed to be leading, but aren’t. However, in 2009, for the first time ever, the grassroots have tools they can use to find other like-minded people, communicate, develop a consensus, create a plan of action and implement it easily and cheaply — using just e-mail, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — with almost no leadership required.
The sweetest thing about this right now is that the Alinsky tactics that Obama and his team employ are founded on a now-obsolete model where there’s a leader to personify, isolate, demonize and destroy. It’s just as well there’s no leader to attack — and they are making themselves look foolish by attacking Fox News, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh while appeasing America’s real enemies.
Another element that Alinsky’s model of destruction depends on, which is now obsolet, is the presence of media gatekeepers who decide who gets into the marketplace of ideas and who is denied. So — in the summer of 2008, Sen. John McCain was denied space on the op-ed pages of the New York Times to answer an op-ed by Obama. The masters of the universe in his campaign who later fragged Gov. Palin — who was weeks from being considered for the VP slot then — were not bright enough to post Sen. McCain’s op-ed on Facebook. However, now, in the fall of 2009, Gov. Palin is using Facebook to pwn both Obama AND the clueless among the Republican Party such as Newt Gingrich, who endorsed Scozzafava for NY-23. The gates have been trampled down by a stampede and it’s looking like Gov. Palin is the first one to figure out the new rules of how this game is played in the era of the Internet and social media.
Go, Sarah!
P.S.
How is it I’m the first one to make a play on Tales of Hoffmann? Where are the other opera lovers in the right-wing blogosphere? The clip below is Montserrat Caballé and Marilyn Horne in concert singing the duet “Belle Nuit,” also known as “Barcarolle,” from Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann) by Offenbach. I swear Joss Whedon adapted a plot from this opera for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” if that piques your interest.
Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour,
Souris à nos ivresses,
Nuit plus douce que le jour,
Ô belle nuit d’amour!
Le temps fuit et sans retour
Emporte nos tendresses,
Loin de cet heureux séjour
Le temps fuit sans retour.
Zéphyrs embrasés,
Versez-nous vos caresses,
Zéphyrs embrasés,
Donnez-nous vos baisers!
vos baisers! vos baisers! Ah!
Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour,
Souris à nos ivresses,
Nuit plus douce que le jour,
Ô belle nuit d’amour!
Ah! Souris à nos ivresses!
Nuit d’amour, ô nuit d’amour!
Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!
Translation:
Time flies by, and carries away
our tender caresses for ever!
Time flies far from this happy oasis
and does not return.
Burning zephyrs,
embrace us with your caresses!
Burning zephyrs,
give us your kisses!
Your kisses! Your kisses! Ah!
Lovely night, oh night of love,
smile upon our joys!
Night much sweeter than the day,
oh beautiful night of love!
Ah! Smile upon our joys!
Night of love, oh night of love!