Badger Pundit 2.0: Breitbart is here

The shocking news of March 1 that Andrew Breitbart, our modern-day Sam Adams, had died suddenly at age 43, has triggered a reorientation of this blog.

This blog launched in February, 2011, as a vehicle for chronicling, criticizing and, yes, even ridiculing, the fourteen Democrat Wisconsin state senators who violated their oath of office and acted extralegally by fleeing the state in order to deprive the Senate of the quorum needed to vote on a bill proposed to address the State’s budget crisis.  Later this blog addressed extralegal and other outrageous conduct by various other members of the extreme left, both in Wisconsin and throughout the nation, focusing in particular on the “Occupy” movement.  By and large, although the blog addressed serious topics, the posts were kept lively and colorful in tone, sometimes even tongue-and-cheek, and typically commentators wrote in this spirit as well.

Breitbart’s death has left a void impossible for any one person to fill, but if his death spurs his many admirers to redouble their efforts to advance the principles he espoused, in the fullness of time Breitbart may prove even more influential in death than he was in life.  This blog can play at most a small part in that effort, but to make an impact a more serious focus will be required.

A major part of this blog’s reorientation in the near term will involve attention to one of Breitbart’s principal concerns, the rampant anti-conservative bias of the mainstream media, in particular, the mainstream media’s failure to hold liberal public figures to the same harsh standards of criticism imposed on conservative public figures.  (To prevent that focus from being diluted, the past content of this blog has been marked private, although it likely will eventually be restored for archival and reference purposes. — Update:  Earlier posts restored 3/10/2013.)

The subject of media bias is particularly worth focusing on at this juncture in the context of Wisconsin, given outrageous comments made on March 2 about — ironically — Andrew Breitbart.  These outrageous comments expressing glee at Breitbart’s death and vowing to take illegal actions to desecrate Breitbart’s grave were made by arguably the leading liberal talk show host in Wisconsin, John “Sly” Sylvester of Madison’s WTDY.  So far the mainstream media have failed to criticize this liberal talk show host who made outrageous comments about a conservative, even though currently the mainstream media are engaging in intense criticism of a conservative talk show host (Rush Limbaugh) who made much less outrageous comments about a liberal (Sandra Fluke).  Sylvester’s outrageous comments and the mainstream media’s tolerance of them will be addressed on this blog in the near future.

If this blog’s reorientation could be described in three words, it would be:  “Breitbart is Here.”  This reoriented blog will be a success if it can reflect even a bit of the energy, spirit, and practical wisdom conveyed by Breitbart during his first visit to Wisconsin at the start of the “Battle of Wisconsin,” on February 19, 2011, shortly after the progressives unleashed their campaign of chaos.  The speech he gave that day was vintage Breitbart, and the National Review’s video of the speech is one of Breitbart’s most-viewed speeches.  Here is is a one-minute clip capturing the core of Breitbart’s message that day.

(Update:  YouTube version  here.)