Town hall meeting at the Oak Park library, July 17, 2013 — from Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters — vigorous nodding, oratorical jujitsu:

The evening wore on. An aide brought Harmon two frosted water bottles. Rep. Camille Lilly swigged an orange drink.

An audience member praised an activist who said the state should amortize its pension debt, asked why not.

“I had the opportunity to present that,” said Lilly, recounting her experience in Springfield, as she did frequently in these town halls. She spoke dramatically, as she did frequently, and as Sen. Don Harmon explained what was wrong with this proposal, nodded vigorous assent, as she also did frequently.

Someone mentioned Mike Madigan, speaker of the house and the state’s most powerful official, as part of the Illinois problem. Lilly mused. It was “interesting” how legislation comes forth in the house, she said, as if to be ironic, drawing laughter. She paused, then added that she had “gone and asked the speaker” to bring a bill forth (pause), “and it was brought up.”

It was a sort of oratorical jujitsu, checking laughter, presenting Madigan as not so bad after all. She was all smiles, kept hand gestures going throughout, sure of herself, as if toying with her listeners, perhaps unaware of what she was doing, in view of her often unfocused speechifying.

Illinois Blues is available in paperback, epub and Amazon Kindle formats.

Case in point:

The liberal media’s determination to elect Hillary Clinton to the White House has become blatantly transparent in their coverage of the Republican National Convention here.

Anyone who ever doubted that major network news operations are staffed with partisan Democrats needed only have observed the way allegedly “objective” reporters inflated Melania Trump’s opening-night speech into a phony scandal that absorbed hour after hour of coverage.

The immediate reaction to Mrs. Trump’s speech was positive, but then someone pointed out uncanny similarities between three sentences in her speech and Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention. The media went into hysterics: “Plagiarism! Scandal!”

They had their opening, they took it.

Glenn Reynolds sums up the mass-media problem:

Think of them as Democratic operatives with bylines (and no consciences) and you won’t be far wrong.

And press credentials.

In this “conversation,” as CNN’s Don Lemon refers to it several times, L. is to ask questions, Sheriff Clarke is to answer them. Not with a question either — even if that is one way to advance a discussion, or argument, and this is an argument.

Do not answer L’s question with a question, especially one that leaves L stuck for an answer. Nothing to stop L with putting another question if he were up to it and the producer allowed it.

Sheriff C. got repetitive, yes, but only after L insisted on the q&a, interview format, where it’s C’s role to respond. Which is no way to have a conversation.

Rare is the interviewer that wants or can handle an interviewee who acts like an independent agent. (O’Reilly is no paragon in this respect.) Which is why so much TV interviewing is useless and boring.

The main bullshit here is the “conversation” gambit, which underpins Lemon’s (and most interviewers’) performance.

The Aleppo scene, now. Obama’s Samantha blaming Bush once upon a time.

At issue are public statements that play to the anti-police audience, that is, those who buy the message. He plays to them, reinforcing that narrative.

The police assn. president asked:

How the hell did we ever become the bad guys in this country? I can not imagine how we got here. It is the irresponsible reporting of the media and irresponsible statements from people who are credible – like the president, like celebrities.

Source: Cleveland Police Association President Steve Loomis: Obama “Has Blood On His Hands” | Video | RealClearPolitics

Be of good cheer, Trumpsters.

Just days before the Republican National Convention is expected to formally nominate him for president, Donald Trump has taken his largest lead yet over Hillary Clinton.

Source: White House Watch – Rasmussen Reports™

I find a lot to like in this by Newt G.:

“Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.

Source: Gingrich, Obama social media fight over Gingrich plan for Muslims

Getting us talking (and ultimately doing something) about two biggies: security and the economy.

Donald Trump hit two home runs this week. The first, immediately following the horrific terrorist truck attack in Nice, was his statement in a media interview that if elected he would ask Congress for a declaration of war to combat global terrorism

Source: Trump-Pence Would Send A Clear Signal on War And Also the Economy – The New York Sun

Very interesting stuff here from NY Sun.

Obama’s proposed “authorization” limits U.S. involvement, whereas now it’s not limited.
Declaration of War, as Trump intends, puts us on a war-to-victory footing. None of the live-with-terrorism motif as announced by the French premier post-Nice — and I’d say lurking in the background of our “new normal” president as in the matter of slow economic growth and hard economic times.

Neither America nor France has to learn to live with terror. Nor does anyone have to accommodate it.
This was one of the points that Ariel Sharon used to make in the years leading up to — and during — his passage as prime minister of Israel. “Fight terror,” was his mantra. He said it to us and thousands of others at every turn.
All Americans are with France, and all Americans know that our country is every bit as much of a target as the land that gave us Lafayette. It’s not a fight from which any country can shrink.