Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, returns to Pundit Review Radio this Sunday evening at 8pm EST.
We will be discussing Glenn’s new book, An Army of David’s: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when large companies and powerful governments reigned supreme over the little guy. But new technologies are empowering individuals like never before, and the Davids of the world-the amateur journalists, musicians, and small businessmen and women-are suddenly making a huge economic and social impact.
In Army of Davids, author Glenn Reynolds, the man behind the immensely popular Instapundit.com, provides an in-depth, big-picture point-of-view for a world where the small guys matter more and more. Reynolds explores the birth and growth of the individual’s surprisingly strong influence in: arts and entertainment, anti-terrorism, nanotech and space research, and much more.
The balance of power between the individual and the organization is finally evening out. And it’s high time the Goliaths of the world pay attention, because, as this book proves, an army of Davids is on the rise.
“George Orwell feared that technology would enable dictators to enslave the masses. Glenn Reynolds shows that technology can empower individuals to determine their own futures and to defeat those who would enslave us. This is a book of profound importance-and also a darn good read.-MICHAEL BARONE, senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and author of Hard America, Soft America
Adding his own unique insight and perspective to the topic will be longtime technology industry editor and publisher Paul Gillin. Paul has had a distinguished career in IT journalism, working as senior software editor at PC Week and later editor and publisher of Computerworld Magazine. Paul was also founding editor of TechTarget.
This is some serious brain power we have lined up for you Sunday! Glenn and Paul are two of the sharpest minds on the topic of technology and how it is empowering people, one from the new media and one from the old or traditional media.
You can listen online by going to WRKO and you can join the conversation by calling 877-469-4322. .
To listen to Instapundit’s previous visit with us, click here.
About Pundit Review Radio
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. This unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening at 8pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Bostonâ??s Talk Leader.
About a month ago on our radio program Kevin and I interviewed a college classmate and current director of WalMartWatch Andrew Grossman regarding Maryland’s Democratic legislatures unilateral imposition of a “fair share health care” law on companies that employ over 10,000 people (which in Maryland’s case is only WalMart). I said on the program that the imposition of such a law was nothing more than a Big Labor Union/ Democrat backed “back door tax” on Wal Mart to, in essence, increase their labor costs so that unionized companies could better compete.
Andy claimed that WalMartWatch and the Democratic legislators were really just concerned with ensuring better “healthcare” coverage for their employees (despite the fact that 86% of WalMart employees have some form of healthcare coverage). They just wanted WalMart to act “responsibly.” With all due respect to Andy and his organization, I wish organizations such as WalMartWatch would level with the public and just admit that they exist for the sole purpose of exerting as much financial and political pressure possible on non-union corporations until they say “Uncle.” Everybody knows this is what this whole charade is all about. Big Labor has steadily seen its membership erode for the past 30 years since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and is so desperate for new membership that they will do anything to regain power whether it benefits workers and consumers or not. After all, some times you have to “break a few eggs.
During our interview with Andrew, I claimed that this had little to do with “healthcare” and concern for “working Americans” and more to do with using Maryland as a strategic jumping off point point from which to impose similar “fair share health care” laws in other states until WalMart and other larger non-unionized companies cave to Big Labor and unionize their employees.
Looks like my initial theory has been confirmed. The liberals are crafty. They know that they can’t impose these discriminatory and anti-competitive taxes via the prescribed legal legislative process, so that get a law passed by a Democratic legislature that has the votes to over-ride a governor’s veto and wahlaa, a hundred or so socialist-lib-Dem carreer bureacrats who have never had a real job in their lives impose a treacherous tax on the largest single employer in the country whose only crimes include employing more Americans than any company in the U.S. and giving poor/fixed income American consumers the lowest prices available on virtually every product under the sun.
From today’s Wall St. Journal (subs req).
The announcement came in the form of two federal lawsuits filed by the Retail Industry Leaders Association against the state of Maryland and Suffolk County, New York. At issue are the “Wal-Mart” laws that both jurisdictions recently passed, which would require a few large companies to pay more for their workers’ health care. The lawsuits argue the statutes are “discriminatory,” which may be the legal understatement of the year since both target only a few employers.
It didn’t take Big Labor long to go to step 2 in their plan to ensure that all companies become as anti-competitive, inefficient, and unproductive as GM and other companies whose backs have been broken by Big Labor.
This is an unusual show of solidarity for the 400 or so member retail trade group, and it suggests more companies are figuring out that organized labor’s campaign against Wal-Mart is merely a warm-up to a broader assault. Thanks to the exhortations of the AFL-CIO, some 30 states are now considering so-called fair-share health-care laws that force companies to devote a certain percentage of their payroll to health care. The common denominator is that all of these laws largely single out non-union employers.
If you can’t beat em, tie really heavy weights aroung their ankles:
The union strategy is to force any competitive, non-unionized company to incur the same labor-induced costs as their own beleaguered employers. Unionized grocers such as Safeway, Albertson’s and Kroger have been losing the fight against their lower-cost competitors, and shedding jobs in the process. In the past decade, more than two dozen supermarket operators have sought bankruptcy court protection or liquidated. The union goal is to stop this bleeding by dragging the Wal-Marts and Costcos to their cost level.
The good news is that…
the judiciary isn’t likely to let such legal gerrymandering stand. The trade group argues that both laws run afoul of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, widely known as Erisa. One of Erisa’s goals was to create a system in which nationwide employers could offer workers uniform benefits, free of conflicting state mandates. The courts have routinely struck down state laws that mandate particular benefits. In one well-known 1980 case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Hawaii law requiring employers to provide workers with comprehensive health care.
Now if only the powers that be at Wal Mart would stand up for itself against these union thugs:
Ironically, the one company that may still be underestimating the union threat is . . . Wal-Mart itself. Even as the retail association (of which Wal-Mart is a member) was going to court, CEO Lee Scott was writing a Washington Post op-ed promising Marylanders that his company will remain in their state no matter how expensive it gets. If this is the kind of PR advice he’s getting from Michael Deaver and the other outside image consultants he’s retained, Mr. Scott is overpaying.
This entire battle over Wal-Mart will be the domestic “two Americas” wedge strategy that the Democrats will employ to pit the “rich” verses the “poor” in the upcoming ’06 mid-terms. When you have no positive vision or agenda, all you can do is divide people along sex, race, and class lines. The libs are really good at it-except for the fact that they don’t win a lot of actual elections.
Directly out of the liberal play-book (Bible) the Communist Manifesto. Pathetic that the party who claims to represent “average working Americans” will use them as political pawns in their never ending pursuit to reclaim political power.
Matt from Blackfive has the latest batch of photos from Abu Ghraib. Check them out ASAP.
To hear Matt’s interview on Pundit Review Radio, click here
Is the MSM going overboard on its coverage of the Cheney shooting?
Here is the lead of an Associated Press story that ran today,
If the man wounded by Dick Cheney dies, the vice president could in theory at least face criminal charges, even though the shooting was an accident.
No, of course not. Meanwhile, back in a land called reality…
Bush plans huge propaganda campaign in Iran
The Bush administration made an emergency request to Congress yesterday for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government, in a further sign of the worsening crisis between Iran and the west.
US lawmakers call for review of Dubai port deal
Seven US lawmakers called for a top-level US government review of the security implications of a deal giving a Dubai-based company control of six major US ports. The lawmakers sent a letter to US Treasury Secretary John Snow expressing reservations about the deal in which British port and ferries group Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company would be bought by DP World of Dubai.
UPDATE: White House (Somehow) Defends Port Deal
Commercial photos show Chinese nuke buildup
Commercial satellite photos made public recently provide a new look at China’s nuclear forces and bases — images that include the first view of a secret underwater submarine tunnel. A Pentagon official said the photograph of the tunnel entrance reveals for the first time a key element of China’s hidden military buildup. Similar but more detailed intelligence photos of the entrance are highly classified within the U.S. government, the official said.
“The Chinese have a whole network of secret facilities that the U.S. government understands but cannot make public,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “This is the first public revelation of China’s secret buildup.”
Saddam talked of WMD attack in U.S.
Tapes show him â??almost obsessedâ?? with weapons, donâ??t prove he had them
WASHINGTON – Among the treasure trove of information captured after Saddam Hussein’s fall were tape recordings of the Iraqi leader discussing weapons of mass destruction with top aides.
Transcripts of Saddam’s tapes reviewed by NBC News show him ruminating about future terror attacks in the United States using weapons of mass destruction.
“We shouldnâ??t be surprised to see a car bomb with nuclear [material] explode [in] Washington, either germ or chemical,” Saddam tells aides. “So this is coming,â? Saddam says on the tapes, â??but not from Iraq,” he adds, seeming to indicate that Iraq would not be the source of any such attack.
What ties to AlQaeda? Sigh.
New Fatwa Says Islamic Law Does Not Forbid Use of Nukes
On February 16, 2006, the reformist Internet daily Rooz (www.roozonline.com) reported for the first time that extremist clerics from Qom had issued what the daily called “a new fatwa,” which states that “the shari’a does not forbid the use of nuclear weapons.”
And we now return you to your regularly scheduled 24×7 coverage of the Cheney shooting incident.
UPDATE: The great Michael Barone has related thoughts
Google search, “Cheney shooting – all 3,761 related”
Google search, “Gore Saudi Arabia – all 121 related”
It’s not that the Cheney shooting isn’t big news. It is. Made bigger by his stubborn refusal to disclose this earlier. Made even worse by this,
White House Finds Humor in Hunting Mishap
The White House has decided that the best way to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney’s shooting accident is to joke about it.
President Bush’s spokesman quipped Tuesday that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn’t be confused for hunter’s safety wear. “The orange that they’re wearing is not because they’re concerned that the vice president may be there,” joked White House press secretary Scott McClellan, following the lead of late-night television comedians. “That’s why I’m wearing it.”
Ugh. Stupid strategy from any perspective. It’s one thing to ‘move on’, another to make light of the situation. Especially when we are talking about a 78 year old victim.
That is not the point here. The Google search shows the discrepency in priorities, on way the media views what is important. Al Gore gives a truly repulsive performance in Saudi Arabia, and it barely gets a mention. He gets a pass. This guy was almost president and from all indications he wants to run again, this is news. Big news.
Cheney, and now the White House, are getting what they deserve based on how they have handled the situation. Al Gore is not getting what he deserves, not even close.
UPDATE: For my thougts on how the episode has been handled from a pure media relations perspective, click here.
Tim Graham over at The Corner makes an interesting observation,
The Washington Post did their original front-page Monday news story on Quailgate? Check. Today, another front-page story questioning the slow alerting of the media? Check. Outraged unsigned Post editorial? Check. Outraged column by liberal Eugene Robinson? Check. Two Style section pieces to lead off the Beltway buzz? Check.
Anything on Al Gore’s America-bashing speech in Saudi Arabia? Not in the paper, yesterday or today.
Repeat after me…agenda driven journalism. They cover what fits their agenda, and blow right past those stories that don’t.
I read this article today and that got me thinking,
Hillary Won’t Run
That’s my prediction, and I’m sticking to it.
by Douglas MacKinnon in The Weekly Standard
Everyone in politics just assumes Hillary is running. Maybe she won’t? After all, her poll numbers are pretty weak.
The left wing of the Democrat Party is pissed because she supports the Iraq War. To make matters worse for her, the activist base, the professional campaigners on the left, have latched onto WalMart and they have every intention of making them a big campaign issue. On Pundit Review Radio we interviewed WalMartWatch Executive Director and former college classmate Andrew Grossman. Feeling good after their victory in Maryland, this group is well funded and they aren’t going away anytime soon.
Hillary’s hypocrisy on the issue won’t stay buried forever. She is learning this the hard way.
Last week, she returned a $5000 donation from WalMart,
Clinton campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis said the money was returned “because of serious differences with current company practices.”
Now wait just one minute. Hillary Clinton served on the WalMart board of directors from 1986-1992, during the company’s greatest period of sales and geographic growth.
Employes grew from 170,000 to 371,000
Sales grew from $11.09 billion to $43.86 billion
Net Income grew from $450 million to $1.60 billion
Retail Space grew from 53 million sq. ft. to well over 110 million sq ft.
During this period, WalMart was hardly shy about their intentions,
1989 Annual Report
(the company) set new sales and earnings records in fiscal 1989, while accelerating our new store program and strengthening the company for the long term benefit of our shareholders-customers-associate partnership.1990 Annual Report
275,000 Associates completed the most explosive decade of growth in WalMart’s history1991 Annual Report
A New Decade. A new era for WalMart, an era in which we plan to grow a truly nationwide retailer
Some on the left, like the Village Voice’s Ward Harkavy, have been pointing out Hillary’s hypocrisy on labor issues since she first ran for Senate,
Twice in three days last week, Hillary Rodham Clinton basked in the adulation of cheering union members. Her record of supporting collective bargaining, however, is considerably worse than wobbly.
Pity the thousands of unionists at last Tuesday’s state Democratic convention who chanted her name, and the hundreds of retired Teamsters at Thursday’s luncheon in midtown who had interrupted their Founder’s Day meal to hear the corporate litigator turned union-loving Democrat deliver a campaign speech.They would have dropped their forks if they had heard that Hillary served for six years on the board of the dreaded Wal-Mart, a union-busting behemoth.
The difference today is that WalMart is a huge issue for the Democrat base. They are energized against the company, well financed and emboldend by the recent anti-WalMart legislation they got passed in Maryland. Hillary won’t be able to duck the issue this time around, especially in a national campaign.
And she CERTAINLY won’t be able to get away with nonsense like this,
NY Daily News
Hillary has a wobble over Wal-Mart days
WASHINGTON – Sen. Hillary Clinton easily pointed at Wal-Mart yesterday as not doing enough about health care but found it a little tougher when asked if she had ever suggested the retailer do more when she was on its board of directors.
Well, you know, I, that was a long time ago, I have to remember,” she stammered, before pointing to her work on health care while First Lady.
Where to start with this one? Is Hillary admitting that she was an absentee director, the kind of person that was on the board, accepting stock grants and rubber stamping everything management wanted? Is that what she is telling us? That she was part of the problem that led to the tsumani of Wall Street scandals at companies like Tyco and Enron? The conventional wisdom today is that it was lazy, empty suites on corporate boards that allowed these scandals to happen. Hillary is now admitting that she was part of the problem.
Or is she admitting that she was lying when she waxed so eloquently about the vitures of WalMart and its founder Sam Walton in a 1987 documentary?
What she is doing is unintentionally revealing something else about her character. That she is a user, of anyone and everything she can to further her own ambitions. When she was toiling away at the infamous Rose Law Firm, a seat on WalMart’s board was a very prestigious position, especially for someone from Arkansas.
Seems pretty obvious that Hillary’s position on the board was a quid pro quo situation. WalMart wanted Hillary for her connections to the governor, and she wanted them for the legitimacy and opportunity they afforded her. Here’s more from WalMart’s First Lady,
In 1986, when Hillary was first lady of Arkansas, she was put on the board of Wal-Mart. Officials at the time said she wasn’t filling a vacancy. In May 1992, as Hubby’s presidential campaign heated up, she resigned from the board of Wal-Mart. Company officials said at the time that they weren’t going to fill her vacancy.
So what the hell was she doing on the Wal-Mart board? According to press accounts at the time, she was a show horse at the company’s annual meetings when founder Sam Walton bused in cheering throngs to celebrate his non-union empire, which is headquartered in Arkansas, one of the country’s poorest states. According to published reports, she was placed in charge of the company’s “green” program to protect the environment.
Like most people in the Clinton’s lives, the second they cannot get anything for themselves out of the relationship, they kick you to the curb, at least. Hillary wants us to believe that she has “serious differences with current company practices” yet those practices remain the same as they were when she was on the board of directors. WalMart was good for young Hillary, gave her credibility and opportunity, not to mention generous heapings of cash and stock.
To say that Hillary is in a no win situiation with regard to WalMart is an understatement. Pathetic, half baked answers like she can’t recall differences she aired as a company director, and returning campaign cash from a comapny on whose board she so proudly served, are not going to cut it, with her own base, or anyone else for that matter.
Could it be WalMart that saves us from President Hillary?