John Twarog

John Twarog

John is a 2012 alumnus of the National Journalism Center. He is a graduate of Canisius College in Buffalo NY, and is currently in graduate school in Georgia. Follow him on Twitter at @johntwarog.

“Occupy the RNC” Instructional Video Advises Firebombing Police Officers

“ResistRNC,” a five day Occupy protest of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida this August, has some chilling new videos posted on their website that encourages horrific protestor violence towards police.

In a statement at the top of the action webpage, resistRNC says, “if you are looking for ideas to help you with your action planning, here are some helpful videos!”

In one of ResistRNC’s “helpful videos,” a young man is seen lighting a Molotov cocktail on fire, and then hurling the firebomb towards a group of police.

By /// July 11, 2012

WaPo calls out President Obama for misleading Tweet about Romney

Although accusations have circled that the Obama campaign has  coordinated efforts with The Washington Post against Mitt Romney, the newspaper’s “Fact Checker” took it to task for spreading false information about the GOP candidate through its official Twitter account.

Last week, President Obama’s official Twitter account posted the following tweet about Mitt Romney:

“FACT: In 2010 and 2011, Romney paid less than 15% in taxes on $42.5 million in income—much less than what many middle-class families pay.”

The Post examined the claim made by the president and eventually concluded that the claim was not true.

By /// July 10, 2012

AEI’s Arthur Brooks makes a ‘Moral Case For Free Enterprise’

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has an interesting new video making an intriguing case for the morality of free enterprise.

The video starts out with a simple story about the Smith family and their dog, Muffin. Muffin is beloved by the Smith’s, and the family is devastated when she is accidentally hit by a car, and goes to “doggy heaven.” Bizarrely, the family decides that the best use for their dead dog is to cook and consume her (strikingly similar to the childhood dietary practices of a certain U.S. president).

AEI President Arthur Brooks uses this story to make a case for how society perceives free enterprise as moral or immoral, and how that perception, “is very unlikely to be swayed by logical arguments.”

By /// July 10, 2012

Chris Christie tells the federal government to leave the states alone and to mind its own business

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told the federal government to mind its own business during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Monday morning.

“The fact of the matter is, I have more government employees per square mile than any other state in America,” Christie said, referring to federal stimulus money for hiring back state employees. “I don’t need any more”

The governor referred to stimulus as a “temporary Band-Aid” and highlighted how his predecessor spent $1 billion of federal stimulus on education in a single year. This forced Christie to need to cut over $800 million from the education budget in his first year as governor to balance the budget.

Christie has made quite a splash since taking office, quickly establishing a reputation as a fearless leader with a non-nonsense approach to reforming New Jersey’s broken economy.

By /// July 9, 2012

Top Democrat donors Calvin Klein and Michael Kors are big users of Koch brothers’ products

Prominent Democrats such as Howard Dean and others have been urging their followers to boycott products made by the Koch brothers  such as Brawny towels to protest the Citizens United decision and their political donations.

The anti-Koch narrative was especially prominent following Wisconsin Scott Walker’s victory when DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz falsely claimed  that the Koch brothers’ donations were responsible for the Democrats’ loss.

Yet interestingly enough, some of the top celebrity donors to the Democratic National Committee and  to Democratic candidates seem to be quite fond of the Koch brother’s products and use Koch materials in a number of their fashion designs.

By /// July 5, 2012

Rasmussen: 40 percent of American’s surveyed think Eric Holder should resign

A Rassmussen poll released today shows that less than half of all Americans want to see Attorney General Eric Holder resign.

The numbers surprising, considering the way Holder has handled  the investigation into the Fast and Furious scandal and attempts to prevent states from implementing necessary voter ID laws.

By /// July 3, 2012

Rep. Allen West’s opponent tells him ‘Go back to Plantation’

In an what could be seen as a display of racism towards an U.S. Army veteran and sitting U.S. congressman, Rep. Allen West’s, R-Fla, challenger Sheriff Bob Crowder,  his GOP primary opponent,described by West’s supporters as a liberal, has told him to, “Go back to Plantation, not Washington.”

Crowder has been described as a “Democratic plant” and as “Democrat lite” in the GOP primary by the Shark Tank blog.

The sheriff’s remarks came during a political forum discussion for the Hobe Sound Chamber of Commerce in Florida.

Oddly enough, a citizen supporting Crowder quoted the remarks again in a letter to the TC Palm that criticized West and sought to promote his Democrat challenger.

By /// July 3, 2012

In Pauly Shore: Pauly-tics, former RNC chair Michael Steele joins Shore onstage for ‘Obama got Osama’ rap

Comedian Pauly Shore had former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele join him on stage for an entertaining freestyle rap to commemorate the death of Osama bin Laden during his stand-up performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. Saturday night,

Shore and a member of his cast delivered a hilarious freestyle about the bin Laden mission, while Steele was keepin’ it real to the side of the stage.

The show itself was entertaining, and satirized several different political figures, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The performance also included a mock political platform for Shore if he chooses to run for President of the United States.

By /// July 2, 2012