E!! » Elizabeth Crum

Gone Fishin’

E!! — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:45:39 +0000

Got an email from an old friend who found me not here.

Should’ve posted a “Gone Fishin’” sign (and have done so now).

I’ll be back someday (when the time is right), but in the meantime here is where to find me these days:

– Editing and managing the Nevada News Bureau

– Blogging on The Blog there (now branded E!!Politics)

– Doing political analysis & commentary wherever I’m hired or invited

Also: Follow me on Twitter @elizcrum

Progress!!

E!! — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:03:26 +0000

All my blog pages and archived posts are now here at the new blog location. (Thank you, Andrew!!)

Unfortunately, my sidebar widgets, blogrolls, link lists, and ”In the Media” blurbs did not carry over, so I’ll have to re-build those.

But I think I can safely blog here now without fear of losing things in cyberspace…so, happily, I’ll start blogging again tomorrow!!

Sincere thanks to all my readers for their patience and support during these very trying weeks.

The Last 5 Days: Insanely Busy but Incredibly Productive

E!! — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:58:24 +0000

It was bad form not to announce my absence, I know. Humble apologies to all who visited E!! and found me absent.

I decided to buy a MacBook and iPhone the morning before the night before my 3-day trip to L.A. for the Heritage Resource Bank Conference, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) New Media Workshop, and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Blogger Reception & Meet-up. (Great and fun and very worthwhile, all. More about them in another post, along with my after thoughts.)

Right after I made the purchase decision, I decided to unplug my home PC/tower and take it to the Apple store so the nice Apple people could magically transfer all my data to my new MacBook while I was out of town. Which meant I had access to Gmail and the Internet on my iPhone but was otherwise offline from Thursday morning until now, when I got my MacBook plugged in and configured and my iPhone synched up. (If I had been thinking ahead, I would have set up an iTunes account when I was still plugged in so I could have downloaded WordPress in advance of my iPhone purchase…but I wasn’t.)

Now that I have all this fabulous mobile/wireless technology, I will never again be separated from my blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other accounts.

Joy!!

Blogging from my iPhone

E!! — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:35:31 +0000

This is a test of the E!!mergency blogcast system. This is only a test. If this were an actual blog emergency, you would receive instructions…

The Sammies

E!! — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:30:33 +0000

Write-ups of and photos from The Sammies will prob’ly start to surface today; I’ll post links here as I find them.

Here’s a nice piece and a couple of photos from Illinois Review (that’s me on the far left, next to Mary Katherine Ham).

And here’s Warner Todd Huston’s write-up. (How on earth did I miss talking to WTH?! Darn it!!)

Here’s Bob Weeks’ blurbs at Kansas Meadowlark. Including mention that Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher presented me with my award.

E!! Wins Sammy for Blogivist of the Year

E!! — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:12:38 +0000

Since I don’t have an agent or a PR department, I have no choice but to shamelessly promote myself (see award #4). I think there is a blog badge or button coming at some point; I’ll proudly post it here when it arrives.

If you’re in the Chicago area (or want an excuse to be) and would like to attend the awards banquet and ceremony on April 18, click here for tickets. Presenters and VIP guests include Michelle Malkin, John Fund, Stephen Moore, Mary Katherine Ham, Paul Jacob, and Joe the Plumber (yes, really!)

A quote in honor of Sam Adams, the namesake of the award:

“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate and tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

The award-bestowing Sam Adams Alliance is a 501(c)(3) “To Do Tank” based in Chicago. They educate, inform, and empower citizens about important political issues through New Media tools (blogs, wikis, Google groups, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) Among other things, they created Blogivists: the platform/server upon which this blog was started.

I do realize this isn’t the Grammys and that the Thank Yous are the most boring part of any awards event…but in addition to a general “thanks” to my readers and fellow bloggers, I would like to specifically acknowledge a few people for their support of this blog:

- My mom, Anne, who nurtured my love of the English language via weekly stacks of books from the local library and who points out my typos before anyone else sees them

- My husband and best friend, The Venerable Mr. Crum, who turned an independent “I’ll-never-get-married” girl into a very happy wife and who makes me yummy snacks when I’m blogging and forget to eat

- My mother-in-law, Angie, who has become a good friend and blesses me constantly with her kind words (and occasional blog comments)

- Our 3 terrific kids – Kayela, Gavin, and Kylee – who have brought much love and laughter into my life

- My uncles David and Tommy, who cheer me on from afar (both are that rare breed: staunch New England conservatives)

- My mentor and friend, Chuck Muth, who suggested that I start blogging and pointed me to Blogivists, and who has played a part in nearly every good thing that has happened for me in Nevada media and politics

- Tiffany Anderson, Charlene Ragsdale, Carrie Hawkins, Carol Schultz, and Darci Dubreuil, who are as faithful in cheerleading as in friendship

- And finally, for the presence of all these incredible people in my life, and the successes of the past year, my humble thanks goes to The Man Upstairs. I surely don’t deserve the many blessings God has rained down upon me. His grace is just amazing.

E!!’s Ladyblog Digest

E!! — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:10:16 +0000

A faithful reader (aka The Venerable Mr. Crum) recently mentioned that I haven’t been providing my recent Ladyblog posts for your (his) convenience. Here they are:

Condi Signs with William Morris, Wants to Help U.S. Children Become Global Citizens

After O’ers

“My Daddy’s Name is Donor”

He’s Too Sexy for These Shirts

Vanity, Maybe Thy Name Really IS Woman (or At Least, This One)

I Will Remember to Relate Everything to Women. I Will Remember…

Feminist (or anti-Feminist?) Quotations

Million, Billion, Gazillion: whatEVER

E!! — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:07:17 +0000

Nevada’s most incorrigible tax hater, Chuck Muth, penned a pretty good one today. Read it for yourself, but here’s a sum-up with a little E!! on the side:

The Silver State’s usual tax-and-spend suspects are crying a river over what amounts to a 10% budget cut (not 15%, not 22%, and not 34%, as has been reported by various hysterical persons who shall go unnamed).

Yes indeedy, 10% is the official figure that Andrew Clinger, the state’s official Budget Director, is officially using in his official correspondence with people. According to Clinger, Gov. Gibbons’ proposed general fund budget this year “is $632.9 million smaller than last biennium,” a reduction of 9.3 percent.

So why all the discrepancies, disparities, and dispepsia over huge budget cuts? Let’s have a little history (and MATH) lesson and see:

2003: The Legislature increased taxes by more than 3/4 of a billion dollars. And there were no spending cuts. Then-REPRESENTATIVE Jim Gibbons criticized then-Governor Kenny Guinn for not cutting 3/4 of a billion dollars from the budget rather than raising taxes.

2005: Wonder of wonders, Nevada had a budget surplus of about 3/4 of a billion dollars. Gov. Guinn put some of the surplus into the Rainy Day Fund and rebated $300 million back to the taxpayers. The general fund budget was around $6 billion.

2007: Gov. Guinn is out; Gov. Gibbons is IN. Gibbons SHOULD HAVE proposed a budget which included the 3/4 of a billion in cuts he’d suggested to Guinn back in 2003, which is to say he should have proposed a budget of around $5.5 billion (allowing for inflation and giving a little leeway and such). But instead Gibbons suffered from sudden budget amnesia (SBA) and proposed about a billion dollars MORE in state spending. So the Gibbons budget was nearly $7 billion.

2008: Astonishingly enough, The Economic Forum projects actual revenues coming into the state coffers at around $5.5 billion.

SO, here we are, 2009: Looking at the insufficient funds left over from 2007′s budget and faced with having to roll back spending to 2005 levels based on current state revenues.

AND the big-government gurus want the 2009 Legislature to spend NOT ONLY the $7 billion the government already can’t afford, but ANOTHER $1 billion on top of that! Yes, it’s true: the spendy spenders are demanding $8 billion in government spending while the state is only taking in $5.5 billion.

AND – here’s the big finish, folks! – the Spenders are calling any talk like the Talk I just talked (i.e. only spending what we are actually taking in), an “irresponsible $2.5 BILLION BUDGET CUT.”

Any questions?!

Announcing “RFC” Radio For Conservatives: News, Rock, Talk

E!! — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:46:19 +0000

Those of you who read E!! regularly know that I never ask for money and have NO advertising on my blog. I don’t even have a Support button on my side bar. But today I’m asking for two kinds of donations: money and/or a minute or two of your time.

It’s not for myself but for a worthy and Fun Project. (Click here to see our Cool splash page!) RFC is a partner project of All American Blogger and is owned by All American Media, of which I am a founder and apparently an employee of some sort.

Radio for Conservatives will be a 24/7 internet radio station PLUS interactive website CREATED BY AND FOR CONSERVATIVES. As the splash page so succinctly says, we will feature News, Rock, and Talk. And as you can see from the splash page, we will look really cool while doing it.

(What kind of News, Rock, and Talk, you ask? Oh, my Dearies, it is the kind you will Love. You will laugh. You will cry. No doubt you will ask, “Where has RFC Radio been all my life?” and “Who are the creative geniuses who dreamed all this up?”)

If you choose to help us out with a few dollars, all donated funds will go directly to equipment and software costs and/or service fees. None will go to our team who will continue to slave away for free in our quest for Liberty and Virtue.

So far, due to the generosity of 9 contributors, we have raised $376 of the $600 that is needed for a Go - so we are more than half way there. If you can spare a few bucks, please donate. And if you have any questions, shoot me an email and I’ll be glad to tell you more.

Also, sometime in the next few weeks, I invite you to contribute to the RFC launch by forwarding our flash page around and leaving a pithy comment on the RFC STUDIO LINE: 623-582-3432. We will play the best of them on February 16 and throughout Launch Week!

Example: “Hi! This is Bill calling in from El Paso, Texas! Just wanna wish y’all the best and say I think RFC Radio is going to be hotter than than a stolen tamale on the Fourth of July!”

Example 2: “Hi! This is Beantown Bloggah callin’ in from freakin’ Beantown, where else?! I heard you RFC guys ah wicked smaht, so I’ll be listenin’ except when I gotta run to the packie.”

Etc.

Thanks for your support and let the RFC count down begin!

Update: Here’s more on RFC from our friends at Politeia.

Seven Score and Four Years Ago

E!! — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:44:55 +0000

An astute reader wonders why no one (not Obama, not the poet) flipped a few words around and used “seven score and four years ago” in today’s rhetoric – especially as Obama did other things that mimicked Lincoln’s inauguration.

It’s been 144 years since Lincoln was assassinated and the south surrendered.

(If you didn’t know it, a score is 20 years.)