As Twitchy reported earlier, Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day has been a huge success. Supporters of free speech, tasty chicken and religious freedom are turning out in droves.
Even as many progressive tolerance tyrants cling bitterly to their failed Chick-fil-A boycott, some are actually encouraging conservatives to “eat mor chikin” … on the off-chance it might kill them.
Breitbart made his name by sowing outrage. He promoted the hidden-camera videos that helped take down the liberal community activist group ACORN. He exposed the sex-charged online romp of the now ex-Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. He hyped a video that left the misleading impression that an Agriculture Department employee was giving a speech defending racism. In fact, she was condemning it.That's the MSM meme, which is bogus. See William Jacobson, "Saturday Night Card Game (Repeat after me: “The Shirley Sherrod tape was not misleading”)."
@thomasaroberts@rjasoncottrell@tlrd An independent franchisee posted the sign, which he’s taken down.We proudly serve ALL customers!
— Wendy's (@Wendys) August 1, 2012
The Twitter feed for@wendys right now looks like a public relations nightmare.
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) August 1, 2012
"This is one independent franchisee’s personal opinion. We are proud to serve customers of varied races, backgrounds, cultures and sexual orientation, with different beliefs and values. Bearing that in mind, this franchisee has decided to remove the messages from his restaurant signs."Wendy's contact page is here.
OK, still not quite sure what@wendys means. They say they're proud to serve all ... just want to say#Chickfila is too bit.ly/R7Nt6g
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) August 1, 2012
There is a very obvious reason why all of the conservatives defending Chick-fil-A only talk about it as defending “traditional marriage,” ignoring president Dan Cathy’s vitriolic comments and the company’s odious donations. They want to minimize the validity for outrage and reduce the issue to one of mere First Amendment privilege. Conceding to that spin allows the true harm of funding ex-gay ministries and anti-gay hate groups to go unchecked. Chick-fil-A and its president Dan Cathy are nothing short of religious bullies, and attacking the LGBT community for standing up for themselves is an expression of either ignorance in regards to Chick-fil-A’s offenses, apathy for LGBT equality, laziness, or a combination of all three.Cathy's comments weren't "vitriolic."
In other spare moments, [Vidal] demolished intellectual rivals like Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley Jr. with acidic one-liners, establishing himself as a peerless master of talk-show punditry.Actually, attacking your opponents with ad hominem invective isn't exactly "demolishing" your rivals, as this famous video from 1968 shows:
During a discussion of the Vietnam War, Buckley -- in his aristocratic drawl -- compares opponents of the war (including Vidal) to Nazi appeasers. Vidal, in his own aristocratic drawl, fires back.Yeah, a queer alright.
Vidal: The only pro- or crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself...
Buckley: Now listen you queer, quit calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered.
Now let’s take a look at the partisan breakdown (D/R/I) in the sample data for each state, and compare them to 2008 and 2010 exit polling:Here's Gallup from last week: "Democratic Voting Enthusiasm Down Sharply From 2004, 2008." And check Take My Liberty, "Enough with the bogus polling data."
* Florida: CBS/NYT 36/27/32, 2008 37/34/29, 2010 36/36/29In other words, these polls are entirely predictive if one believes that Democrats will outperform their turnout models from the 2008 election in Florida and Ohio. That would require a huge boost in Democratic enthusiasm and a sharp dropoff in Republican enthusiasm — which is exactly the opposite that Gallup found last week.
* Ohio: CBS/NYT 35/27/32, 2008 39/31/30, 2010 36/37/28
* Pennsylvania: CBS/NYT 38/32/26, 2008 44/37/18, 2010 40/37/23...
The customers chickfila gained will give 'em extra business short term. The ones they lost will pass 'em by forever. bit.ly/NyEdvI
— J. Casper (@repsac3) July 28, 2012
Chick-fil-A generated $492 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization on revenue of $1.12 billion in 2011, PrivCo said. It added that the company’s 44 percent Ebitda margin was “virtually unheard of in the restaurant industry.”It's a huge and growing business, and while it may lose a few fascists --- people like Walter James Casper III --- it's clearly a phenomenally successful concern with a huge constituency of people of good faith and decency.
The chain has the biggest sales per unit in fast-food, according to QSR Magazine. In 2011, the company generated gross sales of $2.9 million per location, outpacing the average unit sales of runner-up McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) (MCD) by $400,000, the magazine said in its August 2012 issue.
PrivCo said it valued Chick-fil-A at $4.5 billion using peer multiples of Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s, Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s Co. (WEN) (WEN) and closely held Wichita, Kansas-based Wil-Ken Enterprises Inc., which operates Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits restaurants. The calculation factored in the company’s 3-year annual growth rate and Ebitda margins, the report said.
The chicken chain has a value of at least $4.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, based on the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda and price-to-earnings multiples of four publicly traded peers: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, San Diego-based Jack In the Box Inc. (JACK) (JACK) and Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM) (YUM), the owner of the KFC and Taco Bell brands.
“It is a very impressive business story,” said Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo, in a telephone interview. “Whatever people think of the politics, when you look at how we quantify the amount of money they are forgoing every year by being closed on Sundays, you have to respect that.”
Truett Cathy keeps Chick-fil-A stores closed on Sundays as “a testament to his faith in God,” according to the company’s website. Jerry Johnston, a spokesman for the company, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.
Cruz has Chick-Fil-A at victory party#txrunoff#txsen instagr.am/p/NxCunHAvz9/
— Jane Cummins (@janecummins) August 1, 2012
HOUSTON — Ted Cruz, an insurgent backed by the Tea Party, defeated the candidate favored by Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday in a runoff election for the Republican Senate nomination that revealed a wide rift in Texas between the party establishment and restless, anti-incumbent activists on the right.More at that top link.
With the come-from-behind victory, he is heavily favored to win the Senate seat being vacated in November by Kay Bailey Hutchison and appears likely to become a star of the national conservative movement.
Mr. Cruz, 41, is the latest conservative rebel to bring down an established party leader, tapping into simmering anger and anti-incumbent frustration within the Republican ranks nationwide.
These dissident triumphs include, in this year’s primaries, the defeat of Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana by Richard E. Mourdock and Deb Fischer’s win over a veteran Republican for the Senate nomination in Nebraska. They also echo Marco Rubio’s Senate victory in 2010 over a sitting Republican governor, Charlie Crist of Florida.
Mr. Cruz, who is Cuban-American, has drawn comparisons to Mr. Rubio, another 40-something Cuban-American who quickly became an icon of fiscal and religious conservatives around the country. Mr. Cruz’s rapid ascent has already shaken up the Texas Republican Party.
“Mr. Cruz’s success shows that the center of the state party has moved decisively to the right,” said James Henson, a political scientist at University of Texas. “The Republicans are in much more treacherous terrain, not because of threats from Democrats, but threats from within the party.”
It's a tragedy that Milton Friedman—born 100 years ago on July 31—did not live long enough to combat the big-government ideas that have formed the core of Obamanomics. It's perhaps more tragic that our current president, who attended the University of Chicago where Friedman taught for decades, never fell under the influence of the world's greatest champion of the free market. Imagine how much better things would have turned out, for Mr. Obama and the country.Continue reading.
