CPAC: MIGHTY MARK STEYN AND ME

If I didn't impress upon you how honored I was to have been invited to introduce Mark Steyn, forgive me.  He is illuminating and unabashedly clear. Of all that I heard and saw, Mark Steyn was  the most brilliant. He so gets it and articulates it with such force and passion.

I kicked off my intro with a little limerick:

There once was a kafir named Steyn
Muslims said wrote an offending line
Twas an imam he quoted
Now he's being swiftboated
But his battle is yours and its mine.

Steyn's speech ought to be reproduced and be mandatory reading for every . American that cares about what's happening to this  country. He excoriates the Republicans for moving to the left and abandoning the very tenets of our political philosophy.

Speaking with him prior to the event he expressed my concerns and distress over Romney's withdrawal. He, too, thought Romney was a great candidate.

Random points he made but watch the video:

He wouldn't use the word "small  government" because it buys into the liberal narrative - that big government is the norm.

He took out the Republicans for refusing to enforce the border.  Here we cop out to the impossibility of securing our own borders. We claim to be unable to keep people from sneaking over our sovereign borders but we will attempt (at least McCain will) to "change the heavens". We will expend untold treausure to address "global warming"  to cool things down a degree but we can't control . He also pointed out that the greatest increase in illegal immigration has come post 9/11.

The default mode of the culture is liberal; the key levers of society are liberal.  The defects of that approach seem increasingly apparent.

I can't write all my thoughts, I really hope Steyn runs his speech in full on his site.

Great American Rich Davis, Skye from Midnight Blue, Sharon Hyland whose husband is a Maine in Afghanistan and gave  up a six figure job to start "A Hero's Welcome"   and STEYN.

UPDATE: Here's a really clean copy (why townhall cut me out I'll never know)

Must See Video: Mark Steyn at CPAC

Comments

[digamma]

Swiftboated? What does that imply about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?

[Jeremiah]

Mark Steyn looks like Heath Ledger minus the Hollywood, pop culture pussification.

[RISE_UP]

Great reporting Pamela. You are invaluable. btw, swiftboated is not an insult to the Swift Boat Veterans at all. It just describes a mangling whether good or bad.

[eliXelx]

Please ask Mark Steyn if, in enforcing the capture, holding, judging and deportation of illegal immigrants he expects the cops to be even-handed and also find and detain the illegal Canadians, Brits, Scots, French, Germans, Saudis,Japanese, Chinese, Jamaicans, men and women, and on and on and on, who live and work in the USA without green cards (especially in and around Hollywood and New York City; I know at least 100 and there are probably 1 million!) and do the same to them as to the impoverished, benighted, hard-working Mexicans you people so love to hate.

Anything less would prove America really is a racist State!

[Yidwithlid]

YOU WERE GREAT !!!
I am very proud of you

[sheik yer'mami]

Hahaha! A Mountie always gets his (her) man....

[geo11]

Rise_Up should step down for being an idiot. Steyn was terrific and spot on. Thanks Pam for great reporting, as usual.

[justamomof4]

Awesome.

Pamela - I hope someone at CPAC discusses Alec Rawls latest findings on the Flight 93 memorial. It is tragic that US Park Service is complicit with this heinous insult is still continuing unabated. Their supposed investigation involved two individuals, an islamist (co-classmate with Murdoch and specializing in mosque design) and a muslim apologist - potential revert.
This issue would do well to circulate in the CPAC environment.
All the best!

[Shy Guy]

Rise_Up should step down for being an idiot. Steyn was terrific and spot on.

Posted by: geo11 | Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 10:39 PM

I'm sure you got Rise Up's post mixed up with eliXelx's.

Happens all the time. ;)

And, of course, eliXelx's comment is foundationless, though it reflects his wishful thinking.

[RISE_UP]

I just sawed off the bottoms of some old coke bottles and made you some glasses GEO11
Just in case it was your eyes. If it wasn't, well, .........

[Vince]

Pamela: You did great up there!

What an honor to introduce the smartest man in the world.

[EJO]

Mavourneen;
As usual, you did a superior job yesterday at CPAC. I didn't realize that you were such a clever rhymer. And as I have said before, I enjoy your enthusiasm.
I had never heard Mark Steyn speak before, so I was surprised to learn that he is such a smart speaker.
I have just one itty bitty problem/request. The sound quality of Cheney's, and Steyn's speeches was fairly bad. In my opinion. So I was wondering if you had a transcript of those two speeches, that you could print out on your blog, so that I, and of course other people, could read what was said.
Thank you for the work that you are doing.
Sincerely;
EJO

[Jeremiah]

Listening to the clip.

Money quote: "Just because Democrats are determined to play catch up to the Europeans is no reason for the Republicans to play catch up to the Democrats."

[eavesdropper]

Atlas - outstanding introduction!

Thanks to Mark Steyn for asking YOU to do the honor.

As you said, it's only right that the smartest and wittiest voice against the Jihad takeover, be introduced by the loudest and sexiest voice.

You looked terrific and Mark paid you high tribute several times saying, "why is it you can only find the truth about what is happening is on blogs like Atlas Shrugs?"

Mark was on the money and you were terrific.

BZ!

[Mark]

Congrats Pamela! That was a great introduction.

Always a pleasure to read/listen to Mark Steyn.

[Josef K]

There's you, Steyn and Levant...

And then there's everybody else.

[Samuel Cyrus]

Love your work and love Mark Steyn. My only issue is that 'SwiftBoating' was all about telling the truth to power while most Imams and the essence of Islam in advancing its cause is about telling lies where that will help. Can you replace 'SwiftBoating' with another term that better represents the facts? Thanks.

[Pamela Geller]

The term swiftboating was meant as a joke.
It was a deliberate play on words pointing to leftist orwellian media bullshit.

The swiftboat vets told the truth.
Mark Steyn told the truth.

It was a joke.

Lighten up :)

[Le Deluge]

Wow, an inspiring speech, thanks for putting it up here. What he says about Europeans being attached to the welfare-states metaphorical teat is true.

But, you have to understand, that even for those who oppose the welfare-state, their is often no other choice but to go to the welfare-state for help. I.e, the effects of the NHS has been to destroy most private doctors through taxation and put the price of private health care beyond most peoples reach. The standard of NHS care is also dropping, going the same way as Cuba..

I think it is moraly acceptable to take money from the welfare state IF you oppose the welfare state, for the following reasons:
+ It is restituting part of the money took from you, even if it's more than was took, you could have invested that money.
+ Not taking the money would mean more of it goes to the looters and moochers, the buerocrats and welfare demanders.
+ Adding self-martyrdom to the injustices of the welfare-state is not the best way to fight it.
Rational criticisms welcome =D.

[ivantheyidfrombradford]

As someone from the UK two obvious comments come to mind :

'Orwellian' - of course with the Blair/Brown administration we have had massive loss of personal liberty and increase in state intrusion since 1997. The UK ranks very badly, even when compared with other EU countries, in surveys of personal freedom, state surveillance etc. We have 4.2 million CCTV systems for population of 60 million - levels close to those in North Korea. As for Orwell the best joke is the truth - Orwell changed his name by deed poll. His original name was George Eric Blair. So we should speak of a 'Blairite' society not Orwellian. What fun their will be when he gets his new job as full time EU President - Gordon Brown will probably have a heart attack thinking of that 'b*****d' coming back as his 'gaffer' once again.

One of the previous posters was asking about British and other European illegal immigrants working in the US. The laugh is unemployed UK citizens get generous state benefits - Mexicans don't. South Americans who get into the US illegally are being forced too by sheer economic necessity - most EU citizens who work illegally in the US can have quite a comfortable lifestyle at home.

[Bigfoot]

If you want to hear Mr. Steyn's speech cleanly, put it on pause, and then listen to the V-log until it is done. (There doesn't seem to be a way to pause the V-log.)

I know at least 100 and there are probably 1 million!) and do the same to them as to the impoverished, benighted, hard-working Mexicans you people so love to hate.

No, eliXelx, the hard-working Mexicans are not the ones we love to hate. The ones we don't like are those who smuggle drugs into our country, who vandalize and trespass on private property, who pollute the environment by dumping waste including trash and feces along their trails, who join gangs and commit crimes after they enter, and use racism as an excuse when you point these things out. This unjustified use of "the race card" is itself a racist act.

Yes, we should deport illegals of other ethnicities. There are plenty of visa-overstayers that we should go after. But what you (and others) need to understand is that our problem with illegals from Mexico (or farther south) is not because they have brown skin and not because they speak Spanish, but because of their bird-flipping contempt for our laws.

[Dumbo]

On the subject of Swiftboating, funny no one has yet come up with a satisfactory accounting of Bush's last days in the ANG, but I guess if you flyi a really dangerous F-102 over the SW US, you don't have to do any accounting to all the jackals in the media, especailly when family and friends are there to help you out. AS far as illegals go, toss them all out. Every country has a right to enforce it's immigration laws. Except here when you do it the race hustlers cry racism, so what!!?? Just look at the countries these peons came from to give you an insight into our future if we don't stop this crap.

[Jerry Reed]

Ivan, you're from Bradford? And you're Jewish? Man, you must have balls of steel.
I feel uncomfortable living only a few tens of miles away in York, being as it (Bradford) is, the nearest Muslim ghetto.