Right Pundits is a political gossip and news organization focusing on election information and editorial opinion, but you will see entertainment, sports, and general interest topics thrown in according to the interests of writers and the standards of our editorial board.
RightPundits.com started in 2006, becoming the first in a string of multiple websites which span the news and entertainment world under the “Right” brand. In the news division, Right Pundits and Right Juris Law were joined recently by Right Cuisine. In 2008 we merged in Blue Star Chronicles, sometimes called Right Military for consistency. Future websites in the news division will include topics on history, science, and the arts.
Sister websites in the entertainment division include Right Fielders, Right Television, Right Cinema, Right Bollywood, Right Fashions and Right On Music. Future sites in the entertainment division will include a photo gallery, teen entertainment website, and a site focused on celebrity babies.
The RightPundits.com site is independent of political parties and philosophically representative of a wide variety of primarily conservative viewpoints. The publisher himself is a libertarian while most of our writers and editors represent a conflicting variety of conservative perspectives. What we ideally hope to achieve through “blogger diversification” is a broad enough cross-section of ideas to make the website a worthy read. If we provoke you to thought at least some of the time, we are probably doing our jobs well.
Because we are a collective of various viewpoints each person’s view expressed on Right Pundits stands on its own legs. The other bloggers won’t necessarily support it, so do not leave here thinking “Right Pundits website thinks….. ” We are individual bloggers expressing individual opinions under the guidance of an editorial policy that encourages diverse viewpoints.
Ideas for news articles are always welcome.
Patrick McCain - Publisher / Editor-in-Chief
Patrick McCain holds advanced degrees in Business and Economics from the University of California. He is a published author and historian. McCain serves on corporate boards and is active in the non-profit sector and the Catholic church. He is 44 years old and currently resides near San Francisco.
McCain has been described on another blog as a “somewhat mysterious, but very talented blogger known only as “McCain,” while an incensed commenter described a wire service article as “…. another daily fix of nonsense straight from the parallel universe courtesy of MCCAIN.”
His political philosophy is that of a libertarian in the tradition of John Stewart Mills, or more recently Barry Goldwater. His economics are quite libertarian. He is also a conservationist who is active in local environmental groups.
Beth Shaw - News Division Director
Beth Shaw holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from a Southern University. Beth is married and has two children and two step-children. All of her children are grown and are strewn out all over the world. Beth was born, raised and is living in Georgia. She has lived in many other areas of the country, but still hasn’t found anywhere better than Georgia. She comes from a long line of Georgians, knows that the South is one of the best kept secrets in the country and hopes it stays that way!
Beth started blogging in 2005 with the plan to use the blog as an outlet for the stress of having a son deployed in the Global War on Terrorism. Her blogging quickly transformed into a broader range of topics including issues having to do with the Global War on Terrorism, terrorism, military issues, politics, cultural issues and anything else that draws her interest. She owns Blue Star Chronicles, Thursday Thirteen and co-owns McCain Blogs. She guests blogs at times on several other blogs. During her time blogging she has been called ‘a dedicated advocate of our military’, ‘intellectual and passionate’ as well as a ‘dangerous hate-filled lunatic’.
Beth is politically conservative. She is more interested in the issues than being aligned with any particular movement or political party.
Cathryn Friar - Managing Editor
Cathryn has a Master’s Degree and works in Public Administration. She is politically conservative and concerned with a wide variety of issues including the War on Terror, Pro-Life issues, Judicial Activism, and Illegal Immigration. She currently owns Blatherings blog and guest blogs on others occasionally.
Cathryn is married and she and her family reside in the Pacific Northwest.
Bryan McAffee (BTM) - Legal Editor and Staff Counsel
Bryan McAffee graduated from the S.J. Quinney School of Law at the University of Utah, where he also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law and Family Studies.
Bryan practiced law in Nevada before going to work full-time in the legal publishing industry. Bryan is also the father of 3 daughters and spends most of his time fighting for a spot in the bathroom He is also an amateur author of fiction and enjoys playing the guitar in his spare time.
You will also find Bryan at Right Juris.
Ignatius Reilly - Staff Writer
Ignatius Reilly is the pen name of a 33-year-old attorney and published author who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He lived in New York City for most of his life, before moving to California two years ago with his wife.
He spent many years actively working on liberal causes during college in New York City, until he began to recognize the enormous benefits of conservative economic and crime policies during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations.
Since then, he has been politically independent, tending to be conservative on issues like energy, crime prevention and the war on terror, while he leans liberal on social issues and health care.
JoAnne Thomas - Staff Writer
JoAnne Thomas was raised as a Navy brat and moved so many times that its hard for her to say where she’s from. She spent most of her youth in the deep south and is the oldest of eight children. She was the proudest Brownie and Girl Scout ever put on the planet in Key West from the mid 1950’s through 1961.
She attended Davenport College and Grand Valley State College in Michigan (now known as Grand Valley State University).
JoAnne has been married, divorced and widowed a few times. She has three wonderful children, two are Alex P. Keatons and the other is a clone of their mother from her rebellious youth and looks like Elizabeth Hasselbeck with brunette hair. She has grandchildren ranging in age from 5 to 24. JoAnne loves the fact that her children have old fashioned values, great morals and feels they are true blessings in her life.
She’s 61 years old and has had a great life. She’s done it all. She has done everything from being a car hop on skates to being a go-go dancer in the 60s. She’s been a mental health advocate and an office manager in an accounting firm. She’s been a bartender and a waitress when times were hard and never asked for a hand out. She’s caused herself a multitude of life’s problems due to stubborn-ness and made a mistake or three along the way.
Through it all, she’s still got her spunk, attitude and darn great legs.
Shannon Bell - Staff Writer
Shannon is a 36 year old husband and father of two beautiful children. He currently lives in the southeast, the most beautiful part of the country, because it’s still mostly red. Shannon has been married to his best friend for ten years now.
He lives by strong Christian conservative values, and feels that this country still has it’s best days ahead of it, if we could just get the government and political correctness out of the way. His favorite quote: “Where Liberty dwells, there is my country. - Ben Franklin
Shannon currently works as a territory manager and serves as Youth Pastor at his local church. “The children are our future, they must be shown the way. Shannon owns The Admonition blog.
Ryan Petersen - Staff Writer
Ryan Petersen is a graduate of The University of Tulsa College of Law. While in Law School his article “Be Our Guest, But Please Don’t Stay: A Comparison of U.S. and German Immigration Policies and Guest Worker Programs” was published by the Tulsa Journal of Comparative and International Law. Currently, Ryan is an attorney trying to build his family law practice in Provo, Utah.
Ryan received his BA in Political Science, with a Certificate in International Relations, from the University of Utah. Ryan has always loved discussing politics and the PolySci degree was perfectly suited for his interests. He was known as the “token realist” in all of his International Relations classes.
Ryan has followed politics for as long as he can remember and lives by the motto “If you don’t vote you can’t complain about the country.” He considers himself conservative and bores his poor wife and two sons to tears with all of his talk of politics. He also recently obtained his concealed carry permit and a fun Glock 23 to justify the permit.
Justin McAffee - Staff Writer
Justin McAffee works in the legal profession in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he lives with his wife and daughter. His firm specializes in general civil practice, business and real estate law, and estate planning.
McAffee is a lifer in the study of political science, raised under the roof of a well published constitutional law scholar. He has focused his scholarship in the areas of second amendment rights, the right of privacy, the role of the supreme court, the powers of the president, the media and politics, and general political philosophy.
McAffee is a conservative with an independent streak. Politics are his passion, and he aspires to utilize his time and talents in the affairs of the political world.
Frank Smith
Frank Smith has been a math teacher for 36 years in Connecticut. He is happily married with two children, one who just graduated from college with a degree in psychology, and the other an arts major in New York.
Frank has been involved with creating statewide testing for NCLB and has been analyzing districts math results for 10 years. Has has worked on a panel for AIR (American Institute of Research) that dealt with the “Nation’s Report Card”, the NAAP test.
Now you know why Frank is our go-to man for analysis of poll data.
MBT
Maureen Bethany Twain (MBT) is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio (Sharonville, to be exact), but lived in Dayton, OH, New Haven, CT, & Rochester NY. Currently (and probably for many years to come) - she lives in Howard County Maryland (Clarksville), between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.
MBT has been married for 19 years, with two teenage children.
She is a registered patent agent with a biotech background has done cancer and HIV research. She is a Ph.D. (Wright State Univ.) and an undergraduate degree in biology from Univ. Cincinnati. She also studied at Yale University and University of Rochester in New York.
She has a trustee position at the local Community College and an adviser to the Boy Scouts of America. MBT ran [ed- and barely lost] for state office in 2007. Her political leanings are those of a self-described “moderate conservative” but she hates such labels. She has been an activist and candidate for public office.
Tina Rodriguez
Ms. Rodriguez has a long, distinguished career in government and private industry.
While still employed in government to this day, her position is considered “classified”.
On the side she is a lifelong student of economics, history, and politics. She has multiple Bachelor’s Degrees in the Social Sciences.
She has no training as a Ninja, although she does have training in “specialized” weaponry.
Tina considers herself an “independent conservative.”
Brian Jones
Brian lives in a small town in the Midwest. No stoplights, no police, no traffic. He drives a pickup truck with a shotgun under the seat. He is an avid hunter and is fanatical about fishing. Brian has lived in Germany, Switzerland and South Korea and has visited most other countries throughout Asia and Europe while working.
Brian vividly remembers watching the Iran hostage situation and the Jesse Jackson/Carter and the Reagan/Bush debates of ‘79 with his Grandpa in Los Angeles; he was four at the time. He is conservative to the core, which puts him left on some issues.
Brian also knows a bit about constitutional law, the makeup and personalities of the US Supreme Court (excluding Roberts and Alito), and history. Brian has three degrees from places of “higher learning” which sit in a box in his storage shed.
Mark De Fleur (MDefl)
MDefl is 42-years old with a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University. During the 1990’s he worked on 2 losing campaigns in the state of Pennsylvania. He has been employed in the financial services industry for the past 15 years and have achieved a high level of success. MDefl blogs as an outlet to express his creative abilities or lack thereof depending upon your point of view.