2010 : Page 26 : The Other McCain

Clearing the Browser Tabs

Posted on December 7, 2010December 8, 2010Comments

Borrowing Jimmie Bise’s meme once more, it’s been a heckuva few days, with offline work stacked up like cordwood, various Dad-the-taxi-driver errands to run, etc., and so many trolls and feminists to smack around.

Honestly, I’d ignore those pests, but it’s Holiday Traffic Suckage Season. At this time of year, the potential traffic lost by not blogging every breaking political development is not so great a loss compared to the pleasure provided to regular readers who love to watch me work out on a troll.

Anyway, there’s a backlog of stuff I was thinking of blogging about, but never got around to:

Obama held a press conference yesterday, punk-smacking liberal critics of the tax compromise and generating some of the most insanely watchable programming in MSNBC’s history. Chris Matthews, Ed Schulz, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell — they gave Obama pummeling that would have been branded a hate-crime had any conservative done it. (If you missed it, just wait until you see video of Olbermann’s “special comment.”) For conservatives, it was an all-you-can-eat schadenfreude buffet after two years of hearing how the Republican Party is handicapped by its grassroots base of uncompromising extremists.
Da Tech Guy did a total roundup of the tax-cut compromise story. There was also a press conference roundup from Professor Glenn Reynolds.
Organizing For American, the shadow 2012 Obama campaign, released the president’s video explanation of the tax-cut compromise, FWIW.

Danielle Crittenden decided to take up her husband’s favorite hobby, bashing Sarah Palin, during which she transposed to Palin (and Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham) a bowdlerized version of the theme of Dinesh D’Souza’s most recent book. Crittenden thus imputes to Palin the notion that Obama is “seeking vengeance against the white man on behalf of his African ancestors.”
“Helen of Oy!” — That there’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
Like herpes, the Julian Assange controversy just won’t go away, and I think I’m starting to see why I keep getting whacked as a pro-rape misogynist: I’ve been out of the game too long. After reading Kate Harding’s post at Salon, it becomes obvious that young folks have been indoctrinated into the Latex Cult of the Divine Condom, against which I have blasphemed. I hung up the spurs in 1989, just about the time “Thou Shalt Use Protection” became Holy Writ. By criticizing the feminist rage against Assange’s transgression of Prophylactic Gospel, therefore I became a heretic in the eyes of every woman who has ever suffered from a herpes/ chlamydia/ HPV infection after belatedly discovering that “safe sex” isn’t always safe. And I was crucified on a condom cross.
“Special Report: STD fears sparked case against WikiLeaks boss” and “After All the Drama Over State Secrets, It’s Sex With a Radical Feminist That Screws Assange” — See what I mean? In the Age of the Hook-Up, virtue has been re-defined, so that things like courtesy, kindness and loyalty are inconsequential, in comparison to requisite obedience to the “Thou Shalt Use Protection” imperative. One imagines that, at some point in the future, members of Generation Y will be buried beneath tombstones declaring: “Josh Dettweiler, 1993-2074. Always Wore Condoms.”
Andrew Sullivan manages to use the Assange story to take a jab at Sarah Palin. But you saw that coming, right?
Allahpundit notes the possibility that Julian Assange will be Time magazine’s “Perpetrator Person of the Year.”
One of my pet peeves about the MSM is the seldom-noted habit of allegedly neutral journalists of making anything Republicans do seem shady and scandalous. There is no activity so mundane or routine that it can’t be tarted up into a Blockbuster Exclusive Front-Page Scoop, as long as it involves Republicans. The latest? Newly-elected GOP congressmen are raising money in a sinister attempt to get re-elected! Quick, somebody notify the Pulitzer committee.
Joe Fein at Valley of the Shadow catches up on his fisking of “60 Minutes,” so it’s a two-weeks-for-one deal. Be sure to hit Joe’s tip-jar while you’re over there.
Reboot Congress blogged the Barrett Brown beatdown, while my suggestion that somebody needs to transcribe Brown’s “Project PM” video was cruelly mocked by Sam Foster at Left Coast Rebel.
You may ask yourself, “What could possibly induce a man to dump Kim Kardashian?” The answer: Mayra Veronica.

So that’s the roundup. Please hit the tip jar, or you’ll make my children cry.

Your Weekly “Sixty Minutes” Fisking

Posted on December 7, 2010

Apparently the dutiful Joseph Fein was overcome last week by the mind-bending horrors of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos Sixty Minutes, since we were forced to do without his fisking of that alleged news program last week. He’s back this week, though, with a double-header for your reading pleasure!

Jill Filipovic and Amanda Marcotte to Denounce Keith Olbermann in 3, 2, 1 . . .

Posted on December 7, 2010December 7, 2010Comments

Defenders of Julian Assange are now “downshifting from Camille Paglia to Three Days of the Condor,” resorting to a conspiracy-theory defense of the WikiLeaker’s First Amendment right to condom-free sex with Swedish socialists:

Here’s how an evidence-free, innuendo-filled personal attack on a rape accuser trespasses the mainstream political debate. On his Twitter feed, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann (162,000 followers) links to a rambling blog post arguing that Anna Ardin, the Swedish feminist who accused Assange of rape, is an anti-Castro activist with connections to CIA front groups. . . .

Read the whole brutal thing by Michael Moynihan, whose wife is Swedish, but not socialist, and therefore safe from Julian Assange’s penis.

UPDATE: Despite the fact that Olbermann was up to his usual tricks — re-Tweeting crackpot conspiracy theories from Holocaust-denying anti-Semites in order to smear innocent rape victims — we have discovered evidence that, indeed, the accusations against Julian Assange are part of a right-wing plot. Thanks to Kirk James Murphy of Progressive Alaska, we now have a photo of the so-called “Swedish feminist” who is at the center of this international scheme to frame Assange: Continue reading Jill Filipovic and Amanda Marcotte to Denounce Keith Olbermann in 3, 2, 1 . . . →

‘I Feel As If I’m in a Surreal Swedish Movie Being Threatened by Bizarre Trolls’

Posted on December 7, 2010December 8, 2010Comments

No, this has nothing to do with Barrett Brown. Rather, the quote is from Mark Stephens, lawyer for Julian Assange, describing his feelings at attempting to get his client off the hook for his not-entirely-consensual hook-ups with two Swedish socialist women.

The same quote would also fairly describe my surprise at finding none other than Amanda Marcotte accusing me of being “pro-rape” in the comments of last night’s post about Assange.

Also, Tommy Christopher condescends to notice me. Not in a good way.

Before we go wading into that troll-infested argument, however, let’s pause to consider a remarkable fact: Interpol is now issuing warrants for men who fail to wear condoms.

Perhaps Julian Assange should convert to Catholicism and ask the Pope to testify on his behalf.

OK, now that I’ve added Catholics to the long list of people who hate me today, let’s just go ahead and offend everyone else: George Bush had it all wrong. Instead of claiming that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, he should have instructed the CIA to gin up evidence that Saddam refused to wear condoms, at which point Amanda Marcotte would have demanded an immediate invasion of Iraq.

The good news: A British judge has denied Julian Assange bail, which means he won’t be free to keep leaking U.S. national security secrets on the Internet.

The bad news: A British judge has denied Julian Assange bail, which means some other poor shmuck will now have to satisfy the twisted carnal cravings of Swedish socialist women.

More good news: The Left is thrust onto the horns of a dilemma, forced to choose between conflicting principles of feminism and anti-Americanism.

More bad news: This has given Naomi Wolf an excuse to write a column.

In such a storm of controversy, by what lights should a conservative steer? Simple enough: Find out what side of the argument Andrew Sullivan has taken, and get on the other side.

A useful reality-check from Greenwald. I have to say the coincidence of these strange sexual charges and the ire of so many governments is extremely convenient, don’t you think? It’s like a movie. And no bail? Assange is on the road to underground hero status.

The old conspiratorial “question the timing” mood, eh? Perhaps this entire plot against Assange has been contrived by that notorious arch-villain, Sarah Palin’s uterus.

Well, Amanda Marcotte is in my comments. You perhaps remember Marcotte as having helped coin the immortal slogan, “Vote for Edwards, Godbag Christofascists!” And you remember how Senator Edwards — so loyal and courageous and committed to True Feminist principles — defended Marcotte. Continue reading ‘I Feel As If I’m in a Surreal Swedish Movie Being Threatened by Bizarre Trolls’ →

Pearl Harbor Day Reflection

Posted on December 7, 2010December 5, 2010Comments

by Smitty

COLUMBIA, SC, CAMP MCREADY– At roughly the halfway point of my Abbreviated Introduction to the Army course, along comes the Day That Will Live in Infamy. While in Hawaii in July 2010, my wife and I made some time to get down to Ford Island with the then-brand-new camcorder. One profound aspect of the memorials there is the juxtaposition of the USS Missouri museum with the USS Oklahoma memorial:

From Shaun Schafer:

The surprise raid on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and air bases at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor left 21 ships heavily damaged or sunk. The Oklahoma was one of only three not to return to service.
The other two, the USS Arizona and USS Utah, remain on the floor of the harbor. The Arizona, which has a gleaming white memorial astride it midship, remains a tomb for most of its lost crew. The Utah rests on the harbor floor, largely forgotten.
The Oklahoma wound up hundreds of miles from the harbor, resting in a grave of her own making, in the crushing depths of the Pacific Ocean.
“The way she went down just proves that she had a mind of her own, and was a great lady right to the end,” Goodyear said.

While it’s a great thing that there is no lingering resentment over the Second World War, the neglect of the history bears review.

The rest of the story of BB-37 is the stuff of classical tragedy:

“Sold for scrap, she was en route to the West Coast when she mercifully broke her tow and sank. . .” In the background of the shot of the Oklahoma memorial sits the flip side of the coin, USS Missouri:

Sometimes you’re the hero; other times, the footnote, per the Fickle Finger of Fate. I’ve met a few survivors of brushes with greatness. Most understand that the distance between hero and footnote is measured in tiny units of Fortune. Real heros often don’t take their heroism too seriously, grasping that much of it is pure circumstance. Not infrequently, it’s affixed after the fact by non-participants seeking to organize events.
Should one’s turn come, one hopes that preparation and Destiny drives toward a Missiouri outcome. A reading of the Book of Job, however, instructs that, sometimes, Oklahoma will be the result.
As has been noted:

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
–Job 1:20-21

Julian Assange Arrested in London

Posted on December 7, 2010December 7, 2010Comments

BBC:

The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by police in London.
The 39-year-old Australian, who was the subject of a European arrest warrant, denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden. . . .
Scotland Yard said Mr Assange was arrested by appointment at a London police station at 0930 GMT.

The Guardian: “A group calling itself Justice for Assange is planning a protest outside City of Wesminster magistrates court at 1.30pm.”

Well, of course they are. Take notes, guys: If you ever get accused of date-rape and want to rally a bunch of leftists to your defense, make sure you leak a lot of damaging U.S. national-security secrets first.

UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens has weighed in:

As for the public’s right to know and the accountability of our covert or confidential agencies, it is only a short time since the entire American liberal consensus was witlessly applauding a clumsy and fruitless prosecution, directed entirely at the hopelessly overdramatized exposure of a relatively minor CIA official, married to a monster of conceit who makes Assange look bashful. It then turned out that Valerie Plame’s job description had been made public by Robert Novak and Richard Armitage, who also had in common with Assange a rooted opposition to the administration’s Iraq policy. Elements of the left and the right appear to have switched positions on full disclosure since then. . . .

But Hitchens here glosses over a crucial distinction: Novak wasn’t publishing national security documents hacked (or leaked) from the State Department. He was merely reporting what he had been told by an administration official in answer to a fairly obvious question, to wit: How the hell had the CIA decided on Joseph Wilson, of all people, as the man to investigate reports that Saddam had attempted to obtain uranium ore from Niger? And the answer was: His wife works at the agency.

Valerie Plame wasn’t “outed.” She wasn’t a covert agent, and her public identification created no risk to her or (so far as we know) to anyone else.

As for Hitchens’ conclusion that Assange “is plainly a micro-megalomaniac with few if any scruples and an undisguised agenda,” who could argue? It remains to be seen whether Assange is also guilty of “rape-rape.”

Much more news and commentary at Memeorandum.

The Angry Left Turns Against Obama

Posted on December 7, 2010Comments

Have you ever seen Fatal Attraction? He’s Michael Douglas, the Democrats are Glenn Close, and now it’s bunny-boiling time:

Resentments between President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats that began simmering even before their mid-term disaster are nearing a boil on Capitol Hill, as liberals make clear that Obama’s efforts to strike a lame-duck deal with Republicans will come at a cost: Open and on-the-record taunting about whether the president is a patsy. . . .
The general sentiment, as described by one participant: “What the [heck]? Could we have a little fight before we cave? Why go right to surrender?”
Outspoken Democrat Anthony Weiner of New York compared it to “punting on 3rd down — it seems the president is not seeing the value of being on [the] offense.”
“You can’t let Republicans win on this. There’s no more central campaign promise made by President Obama than to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and he needs to be willing to fight on this,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which on Monday circulated quotations from some of Obama’s 2008 campaign organizers who are threatening to pull their support in 2012 over the tax cut. . . .

You can go read the whole thing. Of course Adam Green’s list of angry leftists “threatening to pull their support” don’t mean a word of it, and Obama knows it. This is just empty noise. They’ve got nowhere to go, no alternative candidate with the guts to challenge Obama in the 2012 Democratic primaries.

Look at Ezra Klein playing the role of the Left’s David Brooks, admiring the crease in the presidential pants-leg. Meanwhile, the actual Left is all sputtering impotent rage about the “monstrous” compromise.

And as for “outspoken” Anthony Weiner’s complaint that Obama “can’t let Republicans win,” guess what? Republicans already won.

Biggest GOP landslide in more than 60 years.

And, dear reader, you helped make this happen. Continue reading The Angry Left Turns Against Obama →