Year: 2010

Ezra Klein Offers Hope!

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Just two hours ago, I was saying we’re totally screwed on The Pork-Laden Bipartisan Legislative Gang-Rape Atrocity From Hell otherwise known as the tax-cut “compromise.” But liberal Democrats in the House are still talking smack, and Ezra Klein thinks they might be crazy enough to blow the whole deal:

If I were the White House, this would be my nightmare scenario: The House amends the deal, ticking off Republicans. That opens space for Republican critics of the deal — who now include Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and the largest tea party organization — to argue that it’s insane to negotiate with a Democratic House when there’ll be a Republican House in two weeks. Senate Republicans, who are now looking for a way out of a deal that’s unpopular with their base, throw up their hands and say we were open to negotiating, but if the president can’t hold his own party on a deal he struck, it doesn’t make sense to waste any more time on it, and we’ll just figure this out in January when the new Congress is sworn in. At that point, talk radio and Fox News have spent weeks yelling about what a bad deal this is, and so the new Republican hardliners in the House demand more concessions. And no one really knows what happens next.

What happens next? Pudding, baby!

And with Mike Pence and some other House conservatives now saying they’ll vote against the deal, there’s this from Allahpundit:

This is the first time I’ve thought the whole deal really might collapse in the House. . . . With House progressives in revolt, Obama realistically needs all of the Blue Dogs and almost all of the GOP to push this thing through, but I don’t know how much longer House Republicans can hold on.

So there is yet a glimmer of hope, although I’m still pretty sure we’ll get totally screwed one way or the other.

BREAKING: Gunman Opens Fire During School Board Meeting in Florida; UPDATE: Inspired by ‘V for Vendetta’? UPDATE: Gunman ID’d as Clay Duke, Claimed ‘Wealthy . . . Enslave 95% of the Population’; Shot Himself, Police Say

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Total weirdness:

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A gunman opened fire during a Florida Panhandle school board meeting Tuesday, police said. . . .
WMBB television reporter Nadeen Yanes told her station that the man came up to the podium at the Bay District School Board meeting and said he had a motion. He then pulled out a can of red spray paint and painted a V with a circle around it.
Yanes told the station he pulled out a handgun and started talking. She said school board member Ginger Littleton hit the gunman with her purse and he pushed her to the ground and started firing randomly. . . .

What? “V for Vendetta”?

UPDATE: Panama City News-Herald:

Reporter Daniel Carson was in the room and here is his account, given after making a statement to police:
“They had just got into the action item portion of the agenda, having a discussion about a revision to school board policy. This guy had been sitting in the back of room, not acting irratically or anything. He got up and walked to podium, but I couldnt see that he had a gun.
“He pulls out a can of red spray paint, muttered something like ‘you’re a bunch of assholes’ to school board … and draws on the wall a red circle with ‘v’ through it. He pulls out this gun that turned out to be a cap gun, I think, and he started talking to the school board and told everyone to clear the room except the men on the school board.
“Then Ginger Littleton, I think, swung her purse at him. Nobody knew it was a cap gun. I couldnt tell if he hit her or not, but looked like she kind of went down. She’s not injured by the way.”
Carson was outside the back door of the room with two others, including Bay Defense Alliance representative Leon Walters and teacher Dianne Wishart, and they cracked the door to see what was happening inside.
“We kept peeking in to make sure he hadn’t killed the entire school board. We closed the door, and I heard two pops. Mike Jones must have entered from another door inside the building and shot the guy. . . .
A reporter has confirmed that former School Board member and district security chief Mike Jones shot the gunman.

UPDATE II: Suggestion of a possible motive:

School board spokeswoman Karen Tucker told the News Herald . . . she recognized the alleged gunman as someone who had been sitting in back of the meeting room, and added that he said something about “firing his wife.”
Tucker said she then ran to an office in the building and Jones was contacted. Jones “came running down and into the board room and then there were shots fired,” she told the News Herald.
“Thank God he was here,” Tucker is quoted as saying. “I heard the gun shots … I thought he had hurt one of our people.”

UPDATE III: The News-Herald has now identified the gunman as Clay Duke and confirms the earlier report that his wife had been fired by the school system. Duke is now reported to be dead.

UPDATE IV: Thanks to a Twitter friend for pointing out the “V for Vendetta” motif on Clay Duke’s Facebook page:

I’m not very familiar with “V for Vendetta,” so I don’t know what this says about the gunman’s motivations. But I’m pretty sure that if this guy had been some kind of right-wing kook, we’d have heard about it by now.

UPDATE V: From Duke’s Facebook profile, expressions of a class-warfare hate-the-rich scheme:

Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V)… no… I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rich Republicans, Rich Democrats… same-same… rich… they take turns fleecing us… our few dollars… pyramiding the wealth for themselves. The 95%… the us, in US of A, are the neo slaves of the Global South. Our Masters, the Wealthy, do, as they like to us…

He was 56 years old. And full of hate.

UPDATE VI: On his Facebook profile, Duke describes his religion as “humanism.” He links to the Web site of Metanoia Films, and to The Progressive Mind. Here is the trailer for the Metanoia Films production, Human Resources:

Human Resources Trailer from S DN on Vimeo.

UPDATE VII: Latest AP update: “Panama City Police Sgt. Jeff Becker says after reviewing video footage of the shooting, it was determined that the gunman fatally shot himself.”

UPDATE VIII: Panama City’s WJHG-TV:

Tensions built while Duke questioned the school board, and told the group that “Somebody is going to die today.”
WJHG’s video footage shows Duke as he began firing, and SWAT teams responded and burst in.
School Board Superintendent Bill Husfelt says that the gunman had “almost a smile” on his face, and seemed determined that he was going to die.
Duke fired several shots with a small caliber pistol at school board members, and then traded shots with Mike Jones, security for the Bay County School District. Mike Jones is a retired Detective with the Panama City Police force, a man who Husfelt calls “a hero.” In all, between 15 and 20 shots were fired, though police now say Duke died from a gunshot from his own gun.

We can expect that, over the next couple of days, reporters will piece together an account of Duke’s slow-motion descent into a depression-related psychosis.

UPDATE IX: Another telling detail: “State records show Duke, 56, served four years in prison about a decade ago for aggravated stalking and other crimes.”

UPDATE X: VIDEO: Florida School Board Shooting

In Which Ace of Spades Notices the Big Tax ‘Compromise’ Is Greased With Pork

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“Obama needs this deal as much as the Republicans want it. We do not have to play the shakedown game and pay him off in billions to get him to do what he is already forced to do.”
— Ace of Spades, “The Porky Tax Deal”

This is kinda like the moment at which a Swedish socialist woman realizes that Julian Assange isn’t wearing a condom. You start wondering if maybe you should have figured out this guy was a lying sleazeball before you removed your panties and gave him access to your naughty parts.

Or voted for cloture.

Whatever. These analogies are never perfect.

At any rate, now that Senate Republicans have signed off on the deal, suddenly House Democrats — those courageous heroic fighters for social justice! — decide there’s no point keeping up the pretense of opposing this gang-rape of the American taxpayer.

Blame it on the rohypnol of “bipartisanship,” you cheap sluts.

UPDATE: More morning-after regrets:

Republicans poring over a 1,924-page overarching spending bill proposed by Democrats to cover the rest of the fiscal year are threatening to grind the legislation to a halt, citing massive earmark spending, which, if passed, would be enacted into law without debate in the full Senate.
Two sources who spoke to Fox News are describing the legislation as “a total mess.”

We don’t need a Tea Party. We need a “Take Back the Night” rally!


International Hero of World Peace Julian Assange Free to Rape Again? Not Yet

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The Swedes seem determined to deprive the LeakyWicker of further opportunities for semi-consensual condomless sex with socialist women:

The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is to remain in jail after the Swedish authorities decided to challenge a decision by a British court to grant him bail on allegations of rape in Stockholm.
A judge in London granted Assange £240,000 bail with strict conditions, including a curfew and the surrendering of his passport.
But when counsel for the prosecution indicated it would appeal, the judge told Assange he would remain in jail until a hearing at a higher court within 48 hours. . . .
Some of Assange’s celebrity supporters attended the hearing, including socialite Jemima Khan, Bianca Jagger and Fatima Bhutto, niece of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Outside, one protester held up a placard that read “Sex crimes, my arse!” But media outnumbered the protesters, who were about 30 strong. . . .

Warning to socialist women everywhere: There may be fewer than 48 hours remaining until Julian Assange is once more on the prowl.

UPDATE: Michael Moore pulls a publicity stunt, offering to post bail for his America-hating comrade:

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with.

Moore probably figures Assange can give him some pointers on how to score with Swedish socialist babes.

UPDATE II: Jim Geraghty easily eviscerates Moore’s ludicrous assertion that President Bush “ignored” warnings about the 9/11 plot. Moore is merely recycling one of those Things All Liberals Believe which, of course, are never actually true.

UPDATE III: The New York Times:

In granting bail, Judge Howard Riddle ordered that Mr. Assange appear again in court on Jan. 11. He also said that between then and now he must reside at Ellingham Hall, a Georgian mansion in Bungay, in eastern England, owned by Vaughan Smith, the founder of a club for journalists. Mr. Assange must spend every night at the mansion and will be electronically tagged so the police can track his movements, the judge said.
Additionally, Mr. Assange will be under curfew every day from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will be required to report daily to the police from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. His passport is already with the police and, under the terms of his bail, he is not permitted to travel abroad.

So, all you socialist women who fantasize about getting kinda raped by an International Hero of World Peace, you know where to find him.

Proposed slogan for Ellingham Hall:

If the Mansion’s Rocking, Don’t Come Knocking!

UPDATE IV: All you people who have accused me of being “pro-rape” for having criticized feminist reaction to the sexual assault charges against Assange — and you know who you are — should immediately denounce Ed Morrissey of Hot Air:

[T]he investigation into Assange for rape relies on some questionable legal definitions — which is probably why Sweden hasn’t actually charged Assange with anything yet. . . . It’s difficult to know whether the claims of the two women about differing levels of consensual approval will be treated as a criminal offense by the courts at all, or whether prosecutors will even bother to come to court in the first place.

Obviously, Ed hasn’t felt the righteous wrath of feminist indignation or he would know that (a) women never lie about rape and (b) women have the right to change their minds about consent at any point — including after the sex is over, when they belatedly discover that the guy they shagged is a herpes-infected two-timing slimeball. And furthermore (c) anyone who advises women to exercise responsible caution in choosing their sexual partners is a misogynistic bigot.

Also: Feminists are free to mischaracterize any opponent’s argument, to demonize the opponent in the most tendentious way possible. But if you think you can play the same game against them, this only goes to prove that you’re a misogynistic bigot — a term that may be defined as “someone who makes fun of feminists.”

UPDATE V: Headline hilarity from Glenn Greenwald:

Attempts to prosecute WikiLeaks
endanger press freedoms

Greenwald evidently assumes that (a) there is some inherent right to publish illegally obtained documents;  (b) Julian Assange is a member of the “press”; and (c) among the most important “press freedoms” is the right of a journalist to have condomless sex with Swedish socialist women.

My wife, who is neither Swedish nor socialist, assures me that I have no such “right.” But then again, I’m not an International Hero of World Peace.

PREVIOUSLY:

The Fierce Fury of the Angry Mob of Impassioned Bipartisan Moderates

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Few things are more predictable than this: Whenever Republicans are on the upswing — whenever conservatives are on fire with enthusiasm, proclaiming their core principles and clearly on the winning side of important issues — the mainstream media will devote enormous coverage to an alleged groundswell of discontented moderates whose demands for “bipartisanship” and “civility” are accompanied by condemnation of “divisiveness” and complaints that “extremists” are ignoring the vast majority of independent “centrist” voters.

Let the reader note that we never heard any such complaints about “divisiveness” and “extremism” after Obama was elected and Democrats were ramming their partisan agenda through Congress.

If you’ve been paying attention to politics for the past 20 or 30 years, this kind of stuff is as predictable as critical acclaim for a ballet movie with lesbian themes. (The Black Swan is this year’s Brokeback Mountain, and lesbian ballerinas, like gay cowboys, exist mainly in the imaginations of screenwriters seeking the kind of épater les bourgeois symbolism that makes Oscar voters feel good about rewarding “art.” But I digress . . .)

All of this is to explain what notorious candy-ass Allahpundit calls the RINO/DINO Alliance, an alleged “movement” with a manifesto co-authored by David Frum:

On Dec. 13, more than 1,000 citizens from the 50 states will convene in New York to change the odds. They are founding a movement – No Labels. Among them will be Democrats, Republicans and independents who are proud of their political affiliations and have no intention of abandoning them. A single concern brings them together: the hyper-polarization of our politics that thwarts an adult conversation about our common future. A single goal unites them: to expand the space within which citizens and elected officials can conduct that conversation without fear of social or political retribution.

The purpose of No Labels, of course, is to give the most irredeemably stupid “independent” voters an excuse to keep voting for Democrats. The mere fact that “No Labels” gets an 808-word free advertisement on the op-ed page of the Washington Post should tell you all you need to know about this alleged movement: It’s a ginned-up Establishment scam with no real activist constituency. Continue reading The Fierce Fury of the Angry Mob of Impassioned Bipartisan Moderates →

Bernie Sanders Be Damned: Tax Bill Wins Senate Cloture Vote by Huge 83-15 Margin

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Late yesterday afternoon, the Senate held its cloture vote on the compromise deal that would extend the Bush tax cuts for another two years. Despite weeks of shameless demagoguery about tax cuts for “millionaires, billionaires and these big CEOs who ship jobs overseas” (to quote Harry Reid)  and the filibuster by Vermont’s socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, the vote to end debate was a lopsided cakewalk:

In a 83-15 vote, the Senate quashed a filibuster by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Va.).
Fifteen lawmakers voted against it, including five Republicans: Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), John Ensign (Nev.) and George Voinovich (Ohio).
Nine Democrats and one independent voted against the bill: Sens. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Russ Feingold (Wis.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Pat Leahy (Vt.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Mark Udall (Colo.) and Sanders.

How did they get 80+ votes for cloture? Pork. This bill contains more pork than a Carolina barbecue shack. Jimmie Bise sees it as a major defeat for Republicans, who “gave away hundreds of billions of dollars in pork for a few magic beans.”

Nevertheless, a poll found that 69 percent of the public supports the compromise bill, and Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has video of John McCain “passionately arguing that the new porkier version of the bill is a total betrayal of last month’s election. And that he’ll be voting for it anyway.”

Despair not. There is still a glimmer of hope that the House Democrats will listen to their grassroots and reject the bill, or add a bunch of obnoxious amendments so heinous that Senate Republicans will have an excuse to reject it. While I’m generally in favor of Democrats screwing over their base by selling out to corporate lobbyists — anything that demoralizes the Democrat grassroots is a good thing — in this case, I’d like to see them stand up for their misguided socialist principles, which is the only way we’ll avoid this godawful bipartisan compromise.

But what are the real prospects for Courageous Principled Democrats wrecking this shoddy deal? Not good, my friends. Not good at all. 

The WaPo’s Greg Sargent expects Pelosi to give House Democrats a chance to huff and puff — put on a C-SPAN show of opposition for the benefit of their gullible constituents — and in the end, a majority will vote “yea” on this legislative gang-rape of the American people.

Because, let’s face it, we were askin’ for it, running around in short skirts and lipstick and telling pollsters we want to keep our tax cuts and get 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, too. Continue reading Bernie Sanders Be Damned: Tax Bill Wins Senate Cloture Vote by Huge 83-15 Margin →

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.14.10

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TOP NEWS
Veteran Diplomat Richard Holbrooke Dies, 69

"America's Troubleshooter" Richard Holbrooke, 1941-2010

Died from ruptured aorta; surgery proved fruitless

Judge Hudson Strikes Down Obamacare Mandate
Virginia’a argument that mandate not permitted under the Commerce Clause prevails

Steele Hardens Up, Will Run Again For RNC Chairman
Criticized for fund raising, financial missteps; several challengers appear

POLITICS
Senate Approves Tax Compromise 83-15

Obama advisor David Axelrod rules out changes in the tax deal

The heat is on for snarling, uncooperative House Democrats

Prosecutors Recommend 57 Months For Ex-Lobbyist
Magliochetti pleads guilty; oddly, no mention of Jim Moran

Miller Appeals Ballot Decision To Alaska Supreme Court

Supremes Reject Appeal Calling For Larger House of Representatives

New Mexico Residents Want 3-Mile Setback For Wind Power Turbines

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
NASDAQ Snaps Eight-Day Winning Streak
Dow up slightly, S&P flat at close
Dell Plans More Data-Storage Acquisitions After Purchase Of Compellant
Offshore Trading In Yuan Picks Up
What You Need To Know About The Gawker Breach
tl;dr: Stay off those sites. No traffic for the suckas.
Microsoft To Roll Out Windows Tablets At CES
Booming Asia Drives Android Sales

Continue reading LIVE AT FIVE – 12.14.10 →

When Bunnies Go Bad: 1968 Playmate of the Year Faces Prison for Shooting

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She was known as Angela Dorian, but her real name was Victoria Vetri and she was what you’d call a starlet. Beginning at age 19, she appeared in a number of small roles on TV series — Cheyenne, Wagon Train, McHale’s Navy, Bonanza, Perry Mason, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — prior to becoming the 1967 Miss September in Playboy magazine. She was subsequently named 1968 Playmate of the Year.

After her Playboy appeareance, she had a part in Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and also appeared in other TV series, including Hogan’s Heroes, Star Trek and Batman. Her biggest part, it seems, was in the genuinely wretched 1970 movie When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, where the director apparently contrived to have Vetri as naked as possible as often as possible. Here is a video clip from that movie, parts of which are NSFW and all of which is incredibly stupid:

As bad as that was, it was nonetheless the pinnacle of Vetri’s acting career. Her last film credit was in an unspeakably bad 1973 movie called Invasion of the Bee Girls. But she resurfaced in October when, at age 68 and now known as Victoria Rathgeb, she was arrested and charged with attempted murder after shooting her husband, Bruce Rathgeb:

68-year-old Angela Dorian is still in custody for attempting to murder her husband Bruce after an intense argument in their Hollywood apartment on October 16. Bruce tells us . . . he had packed up his stuff and was heading for the elevator when she opened fire from behind.
Bruce tells us, “When she shot me, she walked away with no emotion … she didn’t give a s**t.”
Bruce . . . explains, “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this … I loved her for nearly 25 years.”
He adds, “A divorce would have been sufficient, not a bullet.”

Bruce Rathgeb developed an infection and was rushed to the hospital today. Meanwhile, TMZ reports today that the gun Victoria allegedly used to shoot her husband was a .380 Walther PPK which had been given to her by Roman Polanski. Continue reading When Bunnies Go Bad: 1968 Playmate of the Year Faces Prison for Shooting →