LIVE AT FIVE: 06.27.14
Posted on | June 27, 2014 | 7 Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
TOP NEWS
Partition Not Seen As Cure For Iraq

Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia on parade in Baghdad
Shiite Imam al-Sadr Issues Warning To ISIS Jihadis
Shiite leaders push for PM al-Maliki’s resignation
Kerry Challenges Putin To Prove He’s For Peace In Ukraine
:facepalm:
Supremes Strike Down Massachusetts Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones
Infringes on pro-life protesters’ 1st Amendment rights
POLITICS
Special Prosecutor: Scott Walker Not Targeted In John Doe Probe

“Just one more step in setting the record straight.”
Mary Burke, Mother Jones hardest hit
Supremes Nix Obama’s “Recess” Appointments
Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Dies, 88
VA Reform Bill Delayed Until After Independence Day Holiday
Federal Judge Upholds Colorado Gun Restrictions
Obama Seeks $500M To Equip, Train Syrian Rebels
NYC Council Approves Ordinance To Issue ID To Illegals
Pennsylvania Considers Performance-Based Layoffs For Teachers
Officials Claim CIA Let Iraq Spy Network Wither
Groups Seek UN Help To Restore Detroit Water Service
Miami Police Chief Calls For Changes To Critical Mass
Senate Immigration Bill Declared Dead
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Drops As Iraq Crisis Not Seen To Affect Supplies: NYMEX $105.79, Brent $113.20
Nikkei Leads Losses In Asia After Hawkish Fed Remarks
GoPro Shares Soar 30% In Debut
NZ Dollar Shines In Subdued Currency Market
Crafts Retailer Michaels Raises $473M In IPO
Restrained Consumer Spending Damps US Growth Optimism
Android Wear Devices Are Remote Controls For Phones, Not Dick Tracy Gadgets
The Aereo Ruling: Winners And Losers
Facebook Battles Manhattan DA Over Warrants For User Data
Google Starts Scrubbing Search Results After EU “Right To Be Forgotten” Ruling
Google Cardboard: The Best Wearable You’re Not Wearing
SPORTS
Twins’ Surge Screeches To A Halt
Twins had no solution for Weaver
Ninth inning rally falls short as Angels seal the sweep with 6-4 win
Hope Solo Apologizes After Arrest
Astros Avert Sweep, Stun Braves 6-1
Pooped-Out Pale Hose Get Blanked By Blue Jays
West Indies Bowl Out NZ For 293 In Third Test
Newly Appointed ICC Chair Srinisavan Under Fire From Aussie Media
World Cup: US Loses, Advances Anyway
Cubs Pull 5-3 Win Over Nats Out Of The Fog
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
The Shailene Woodley Outtakes

Vanity Fair’s July cover girl
Defending Miley Cyrus, aspiring to play Stevie Nicks
Shia LaBeouf Arrested At Broadway “Cabaret” Performance
Sherri Shepherd Exiting “The View”
Lindsay Lohan To Make West End Theatre Debut In “Speed The Plow”
Beyonce, Jay-Z Show Wedding Video, Baby Pics As Tour Opens In Miami
J-Lo Gets A Visit From Ex Casper Smart
Bravo Bloodbath – Entire Cast Of “Real Housewives Of NY” But One Gets The Axe
Tom Hanks In Talks To Reunite With Meg Ryan In “Ithaca”
FOREIGNERS
Argentina Tests US Court Decision By Posting Interest Payment
Ukraine Rebels Free Four OSCE Observers, Four Still Captive
Norks Test New Precision-Guided Missiles
Iran Reportedly Sent Military Advisors, Head Of Quds Force To Iraq
EU To Ignore UK’s Cameron, Install Juncker
Reports On Jimmy Savile Reveal Litany Of Abuse
Blast At Gas Pipeline In Andhra Pradesh Kills Fourteen
EU Leaders Put Differences Aside To Commemmorate First World War At Ypres
Pakistan Army: No Good Or Bad Taliban; Every Terrorist Will Be Taken Out
Ukraine To Sign EU Deal That Sparked Maidan Revolution
BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Obstructionism Is Patriotic
Twitchy: Chris McDaniel – “We Haven’t Conceded” As More Allegations Of Fraud Surface
Military Times: Are The Marines Procuring Themselves To Irrelevance?
Newsmax: Computer Experts Doubt IRS Lost Trove Of Lerner E-Mails
American Power: Coincidence Or Crime? Anti-McDaniel Race-Baiting Flyers Look Like Work Of Haley Barbour Super-PAC
American Thinker: A Heartbreaking Unspoken Consequence Of Obama
BLACKFIVE: The Elephant In The Room – The Wolf Or Diplomatic Notes
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Speaking Of Anti-Semites…
Conservatives4Palin: Obama’s Amnesty Schemes Causing Spike In Young Illegals
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, June 26
Jammie Wearing Fools: Irony – IRS Thug Lois Lerner Received “Prestigious” Council On Governmental Ethics Law Award
Joe For America: ISIS Terrorists Rape Christian Mother, Daughter, Kill Four Others
JustOneMinute: The Soccer/PoliticsMash-Up
Pat Dollard: MS Tea Party Claims At Least 800 Illegal Votes In Hinds County Alone
Protein Wisdom: My Response To The GOP Pragmatists
Shot In The Dark: The ACLU Gets One Right
The Jawa Report: Kurds Ice UK Jihadi
The Lonely Conservative: Medicaid Made $14.4M In Improper Payments In 2013
This Ain’t Hell: VFW Calls For Boycott Of Mexico
Weasel Zippers: North Alabama’s Only Abortion Clinic Closing Today
Megan McArdle: Lois Lerner’s E-Mails – Ruh-Roh
Shop Amazon – Contract Cell Phones & Service Plans
Media Bias and Women With Penises
Posted on | June 26, 2014 | 43 Comments
“I am willing to wager that Molly Ball has never once applied the terms ‘extreme’ or ‘fringe’ to any contingent of the Democrat Party coalition. . . . No matter how far off into Crazyland a leftist may wander, so long as he or she continues to support the Democrat Party, no liberal journalist will ever stigmatize them as angry extremists. It’s only Republicans who get shoved through the plate-glass window, so to speak.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, “The Angry Fringe,” The American Spectator
Talk about ironic coincidences: I woke up in the wee hours to find Molly Ball of the Atlantic characterizing Chris McDaniel’s supporters as fringe extremists, cranked out a thousand-word response at The American Spectator before 7 a.m. and then, checking Molly Ball’s Twitter account, discovered she had just won an award from the National Press Club:
Molly Ball of The Atlantic won the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis for her coverage of the divided Republican Party after the 2012 election.
The National Press Club is decadent and depraved, to borrow a famous phrase, and the fact that they gave Molly Ball an award is therefore proof that her analysis must be badly flawed. Q.E.D.
Here’s the genuinely weird part, though: I like Molly Ball.
She’s actually one of the more “fair and balanced” reporters within the viciously biased liberal gang of Mainstream Journalists.
A distaff Dave Weigel, as it were.
Molly Ball is an excellent reporter and a good analyst who, unlike the Vox/Salon/TPM crowd, doesn’t rely on Media Matters to tell her what to think. She actually goes out and talks to Republicans, which is something you’ll never catch Brian Beutler doing.
Yet as Rush Limbaugh says, if all he wanted to do is talk about liberal media bia, he could do it three hours a day, five days a week, and the same is true for bloggers. At some level, every story that interests me is a story about media bias. If the New York Times and other mainstream media had reported about Brett Kimberlin’s “progressive activism,” there would have been no need for me to pay attention, and I wouldn’t be getting sued for millions of dollars.
By the same token, I wouldn’t be writing daily about radical feminism if it weren’t for the fact that the mainstream media are so intent on pretending there is no such thing as radical feminism. All feminism is mainstream, the liberal media would have us believe, and only feminism’s opponents deserve the Extreme Fringe label. Gosh, if only there were an award-winning reporter available . . .
Here’s a story assignment for Molly Ball: There will be a conference of radical feminists in London Aug. 30-31. Among the speakers is Janice Raymond, a Women’s Studies professor at the University of Massachusetts who is the bête noire of transsexuals. The conference is “woman only” and, if Molly can prove that she does not have and never has had a penis, she could attend that conference and report on the “extreme elements” and “angry fringe” of the feminist movement — some of whom are so extreme that even I agree with them (e.g., people with penises are not women).
Am I joking? Do I really think that the Atlantic would send their award-winning political reporter to London to cover a conference of Marxist lesbian man-haters? I don’t know if they would, but I do think they should. It isn’t hard to imagine what excellent opportunities for genuine gonzo journalism might result from such an assignment, and if men weren’t forbidden to attend, I might be rattling the tip jar to scrape up plane fare to London myself. (Go ahead and hit my tip jar anyway — just to piss off the feminists.)
What kind of reporting could Molly Ball do at FemiFest 2014? She could do it in the same Anthropologist-Among-the-Natives style that liberal journalists use when covering CPAC every year. Or she might do it in “investigative undercover” style to Expose the Hidden Secrets of Radical Feminism, like a liberal journalist sneaking into a Koch-funded event. The possibilities are tantalizing, even aside from the lurid concupiscent imagination of what goes on behind closed doors at an international convocation of hard-core dykes.
No kidding: I believe Molly Ball could return from London with enough notes for a 10,000-word Serious Journalism article about radical feminism that could make the cover of the Atlantic print edition. perhaps becoming the basis of a book on the subject, and such a book is long overdue. Mainstream liberalism has spent decades pretending that radical feminism doesn’t exist, but in the post-Windsor era, aren’t these Marxist lesbian fanatics more relevant than ever?
It is a central part of our radical feminist analysis that gender is a tool of women’s oppression, not women’s liberation. FemiFest organisers share the view that gender is a human created power hierarchy based on reproductive sex. This gendered power arrangement relegates women to a social status that is secondary to men. None of the organisers consider ourselves to have an innate gender — neither masculine, feminine, trans, cis, gender queer, or any other gender. We are gender abolitionists who have been raised and socialized as girls and women because of our female bodies in the context of a male supremacist social system.
Yeah, baby. Keep talking sexy like that and I might buy you a drink.
LIVE AT FIVE: 06.26.14
Posted on | June 26, 2014 | 6 Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
TOP NEWS
Iraq’s Al-Maliki Tells US To Get Stuffed
No national salvation government for Iraq
Rejects Kerry’s calls for unity government
Russia Renounces Right To Send Troops Into Ukraine
West demands end to fighting
Supremes Uphold Cell Phone Privacy
Court requires police to get a warrant before rumbling mobiles
POLITICS
E-Mails Show Lerner Wanted IRS To Audit Chuck Grassley – Before He’d Even Filed

Lerner and Senator Chuck Grassley
More evidence of political targeting
Two Senior VA Officials Step Down
Boehner To File Suit Against White House For Failure To Execute Laws
EPA In Denver = Everybody Pooping Anywhere
Army: “No Reason To Believe” Bergdahl Collaborated With Taliban
Democrat Megadonor Tom Steyer Accused Of Hypocrisy
NYT Credits Black Democrats With Cochran’s Win
More Missing E-Mails, Crashed Hard Drives, This Time At The EPA
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Drops On “Unexpected” Rise In Inventories: NYMEX $106.68, Brent $114.20
GoPro Prices Shares At $24 Ahead Of IPO
Econmy Shrank At 2.9% In Q1, Effect Seen As “Temporary”
B&N To Spin Off Nook As Sales Continue To Fall
Limited Free Wifi Coming To NYC Area Airports
Regions Bank Fined $51 Million For Accounting Fraud
House Passes Bill To Expedite LNG Export Approval
Google Drive Update Brings Native Editing For Microsoft Office Files
Like Other Tech Giants, Facebook Very White, Very Male
IBM, Lenovo Trying To Address US Security Concerns Over Server Deal
Netgear CEO Says “Internet Of Things” The Place To Be
Eleanor Holmes Norton Kills Driverless Car
SPORTS
Lincecum No-Hits Padres For Second Time

Lincecum gets a big hug from catcher Hector Sanchez
4-0 win makes Lincecum, legendary Christy Mathewson two of a kind
Braves Shut Out Punchless Astros
Yankees Avoid Sweep, Top Blue Jays 5-3
NFL Lifts Payout Cap In Concussion Settlement
A’s Pound Mets’ Wheeler, Who Blames Stolen Signs
Brown Boots It Away As Phillies Fall To Fish
Vanderbilt Edges Virginia For First CWS Title
Snakes Edge Tribe 9-8 In Extras
Price K’s 11 To Deny Pirates The Sweep; Rays Win 5-1
Cuba Punishes Six Baseball Players For Trying To Defect
Strasburg Shelled, Nats Fall To Brewers 9-2
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Eli Wallach Dies, 98

Officer: “…wanted in 14 counties of this state, the condemned is found guilty of the crimes of murder, armed robbery of citizens, state banks and post offices, the theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison, perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children, inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion, receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, passing counterfeit money, and, contrary to the laws of this state, the condemned is guilty of using marked cards… and therefore the court sentences you,
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez-“,
Blondie: “-known as ‘The Rat’.”
Officer: “-to hang by the neck until dead. Proceed.”
A great actor of the stage, film and TV for over sixty years.
First Look At “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Norks Threaten War On US Over Seth Rogen Movie
“Survivor” Contestant Crushed Between Railway Cars
Adam Levine: “I Did Not Have Sex With Lindsay Lohan!”
Britney Spears, David Lucado Break Up
Melissa McCarthy’s Interview In People
Chris Brown: I Reject Your Plea Deal And I’m Going To Jail!
Kate Gosselin’s Single Mom Blues
OITNB’s Natasha Lyonne To Guest On “Girls”
Justin & Selena Caught On Tape Doing Coke At L.A. Club
Sarah Jessica Parker Eyes Series Return With “Busted”
How “Rizzoli & Isles” Dealt With Lee Thompson Young’s Suicide
Andrew Stern’s Suicide Due To Divorce, Depression
ADL Says Gary Oldman Hasn’t Groveled Enough
Mila Kunis Gives “Cold” Interview
Kaley Cuoco Wears Sports Bikini, Exposes Toned Tummy
Brad Pitt’s WW2Drama “Fury” Releases First Full Trailer
Lourdes Leon Follows Mom’s Footsteps To University Of Michigan
FOREIGNERS
At UN, Argentina Remains Defiant On Debt
ROK PM Keeps His Job After Nominees Withdraw
Bombing At Abuja Shopping Mall Kills 21
Shiite Violence Traps Sunnis In Baghdad
Narendra Modi May Outshine Barack Obama On Twitter
Sudan Summons US, South Sudan Ambassadors In Meriam Ibrahim Row
UK Loses Allies In Bid To Block Juncker Presidency
Bahrain Court Acquits Senior Opposition Figure
Four Killed As Express Train Derails In Bihar – Was It Sabotage?
Polish PM Survives Vote Of Confidence After Bugging Scandal
BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: Kathleen Kane Makes A Fool Of Herself…Again
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Gary Oldman Mistakenly Apologizes To Anti-Defamation League
The Quinton Report: Sore Loserman 2014
Michelle Malkin: Exposed – How The VA Red-Flags “Disruptive” Vets
Twitchy: “Blackberry Smash” – E-Mails Reveal Detail About Lois Lerner That IRS Commissioner Koskinen “Didn’t Know”
American Power: Criminal Alien “Stash Houses” Thrive Along US-Mexico Border
American Thinker: Controlling The Islamic Threat To The West
BLACKFIVE: The Mouse That Roared
Conservatives4Palin: Governor Palin – “Irregularities In #MSSEN Must Be Fully Investigated”
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, June 25
Jammie Wearing Fools: Awesome! 38 Employees Behind Bungled Oregon Obamacare Exchange To Get Fat Bonuses
Joe For America: Government Plans Massive (Illegal) Child Processing Center
Pat Dollard: Sarah Palin – “If Republicans Are Going To Act Like Democrats, What’s The Use?”
Protein Wisdom: The Colin Powell GOP
Shot In The Dark: Unexpected
The Jawa Report: US Cuts Off Its Nose To Spite Its Face In Afghanistan
The Lonely Conservative: Feds Spent $5 Billion On Obamacare Exchanges And They Aren’t Done Yet
This Ain’t Hell: Phony Vietnam Vet Introduces Bill To Suspend 4th Amendment Protections
Weasel Zippers: Dem Rep Bennie Thompson Says Thad Cochran Should Reward Black Voters For Helping Him Win GOP Primary
Megan McArdle: Big Losers In GDP Report? Democrats
Join Amazon Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for College Students
Yalie Aspires to ‘Change … What Heterosexual Sex Looks Like’
Posted on | June 25, 2014 | 24 Comments
Alexandra Brodsky (@azbrodsky) writes a lot about rape:
When someone attempted to rape me my freshman year, I asked my college, Yale University, for help, but instead I was basically advised to keep quiet. I shouldn’t formally report the assault, I was told. Despite my clear and repeated “no”, school administrators cast the whole event as a misunderstanding among friends.
In other words, the administration at Yale is pro-rape. This is the point of her anecdote, and if you are skeptical of Brodsky’s implication that officials of this elite institution do not take attempted rape seriously, then you must be pro-rape, too.
Without any knowledge of the details of the incident Brodsky describes, I suspect that — contrary to her implication — Yale officials were (and are) enormously sympathetic to the plight of Brodsky and other students like her. The problem, however, is that these types of incidents are typically a “he said/she said” situation, where she says she was the victim of an assault, he denies it and, because there are no witnesses or relevant evidence, it is impossible to determine guilt as a matter of criminal law. What can school officials do in such a situation? Stipulate that Brodsky is telling the truth about her “clear and repeated no”; also, however, stipulate that the incident did not actually result in intercourse. What is the difference between “attempted rape” and “she said no, so I stopped”?
Again, I don’t know the details of the particular case, but if Yale officials who did know the details saw it as “a misunderstanding among friends,” why? This question remains unanwswered, but Alexandra Brodsky is one of several plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit against Yale, and she now writes about rape with such frequency that some might say she’s parlayed this one incident into a career.
In a recent column at Feministing, Brodsky recounted a series of morning-after complaints she says she’s heard from women:
I don’t know. I mean, it’s not that bad, but he did that thing where he kept trying to negotiate with me when I said I wouldn’t sleep with him.
It’s not that bad, but when I wanted to leave he called me a cunt and blockaded his door.
It’s not that bad, but he was really rough, like choking shit, even after I told him it was too much.
It’s not that bad, but he took off the condom without telling me halfway through.
Complaint Number One is not a description of a crime. “Trying to negotiate” after an initial refusal is not attempted rape; otherwise the prison overcrowding problem would be even worse than it is.
Complaint Number Two is probably not a crime, either. It might be evidence that you’re dating a dangerous psychopath, but as long as you escaped without physical injury, you are not the victim of a crime. Are we going to start locking up every guy who slams doors and says rude things when he’s angry? And should we also lock up women who do the same thing?
Complaint Number Three is evidence that the guy you’re dating has watched too much porn and also may be a dangerous psychopath.
Complaint Number Four is evidence that you’re dating a liar.
It seems to me that Miss Brodsky may be trying to tell us that guys at Yale are all lying psychopaths who watch too much porn. Something about those high SAT scores just makes guys weird, I guess.
She’s not willing to stop there, however. No, sir. Miss Brodsky works herself up into a paroxysm of feminist fury that concludes thus:
But this isn’t a contained infection. We can’t just cut it out. It’s a cancer, a pernicious proliferation of what we already are: the “not that bad” is cordoned off from “real violence” only for our own convenience. So we will have to disrupt the whole body, and though all men can help, most won’t want to. Today’s allies might think it’s easy not to be a rapist but find it harder to accept that their desires are not paramount. The flowchart is less appealing when it demands, in successive boxes, Do you believe you are entitled to the fulfillment of your fantasies? Do you believe the women who refuse to oblige deprive you unjustly? Do you believe sex is yours? You do. You do.
It won’t be pretty or comfortable to change not only what heterosexual sex looks like but who gets to judge it and who is allowed to be angry in the morning. Who is allowed to stop excusing and forgiving and so who is no longer–endlessly, endlessly–forgiven and excused.
Suggestion: Maybe you should get yourself some cats, Miss Brodsky.
As for you single guys out there — especially you porn-addicted psychopaths at Yale — let me offer some advice: Assume that every girl you meet is a radical lesbian feminist. This is a pretty safe bet at Yale, probably, but if you happen to encounter a woman who seems interested in you, despite the fact that you have a penis, act as if you are surprised. React with stunned disbelief.
“What? You’re heterosexual? You’re kidding me, right? I mean, sure, I find you very attractive, personally, but when I pointed you out to my friends, they all said you look like a total lesbian.”
Will that work as a pick-up line? I don’t know, but at least you’ll have some interesting conversations. And if she’s absolutely determined to prove she’s heterosexual — hey, that’s consent, buddy.
Your Feminist Future
Posted on | June 25, 2014 | 25 Comments
#YesAllWomen can become crazy cat ladies!
A Wisconsin woman who was charged with stealing back 15 cats from the Humane Society was arrested for violating the conditions of her bond.
Lee Ann Shore, 46, was arrested last month after she allegedly broke into the Coulee Region Humane Society in Onalaska, Wis. to get cats that were seized from her earlier in May.
Shore’s apartment had been condemned, according to Coulee Region’s executive director Heather Hankins.
“They took out 17 cats, and the reason being that the living conditions were not suitable for people or animals,” she said.
While we don’t have much information on Lee Ann Shore‘s life history or educational background, I’m willing to take a wild guess.
Women's Studies major? MT Woman stealing back her cats from shelter arrested again. http://t.co/Xmw5pmxQa4 pic.twitter.com/rCD0fjhig9
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) June 25, 2014
Lest you think the “crazy cat lady” jokes are merely a hateful stereotype of feminists as unloved, lonely and mentally ill, permit me to call your attention to the life of Shulamith Firestone. In 1967, Firestone was a founder of Chicago’s “West Side” group, the first Women’s Liberation group in America. In 1970, she published one of the most influential of early feminist books, The Dialectic of Sex.
Soon after that triumph at age 25, however, Firestone “disentegrated rapidly, losing her emotional equilibrium and her sense of herself in the world,” as feminist historian Susan Brownmiller wrote, a polite way of saying that Firestone had a nervous breakdown and lost her mind.
She had been nearly forgotten by the time she died in 2012:
When Shulamith Firestone’s body was found late last August, in her studio apartment on the fifth floor of a tenement walkup on East Tenth Street, she had been dead for some days. She was sixty-seven, and she had battled schizophrenia for decades, surviving on public assistance. There was no food in the apartment, and one theory is that Firestone starved . . .
You can read the whole thing, but the question is this: If Shulamith Firestone “battled schizophrenia for decades,” exactly when did that battle begin? Is it not possible that the radical feminism which made her famous in the late 1960s and early ’70s was, in fact, simply an early symptom of the madness that ultimately destroyed her?
There are 3 kinds of feminism: 1. Feminism that is wrong. 2. Feminism that is crazy. 3. Feminism that is both wrong and crazy.
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) June 23, 2014
GOP Establishment Turns Out Democrat Voters to Defeat Conservative Candidate
Posted on | June 25, 2014 | 132 Comments
Remember that headline, bookmark this page and circle June 24 on your calendar, because the result of Tuesday’s primary runoff in Mississippi was an ill omen that portends Republican defeat in November.
Check back here on Wednesday, Nov. 5, to see if my helpless sense of dark foreboding doom is correct, but today it seems obvious: If the Republican Party spends money to turn out Democrat voters against a conservative in a GOP primary — the paid professional party apparatus doing this as a deliberate strategy — what message does that send to conservatives, whose votes are crucial to whatever hope Republicans have of winning an electoral majority?
You can read the New York Times analysis of Tuesday’s result in Mississippi and glean whatever “moral of the story” you wish, but my visceral sense of what it means can be summarized in one word: Disaster.
Maybe that’s just me.
Whether what the Republican Party did to re-nominate Thad Cochran was illegal is one question, and Chris McDaniel has vowed to challenge the outcome of the runoff, to answer that question.
However, there is no question at all that what the Republican Party did in Mississippi was wrong — both morally and politically. To seek the assistance of your political enemies in order to defend the seat of a corrupt and ineffective septuagenarian like Thad Cochran? This is not, as some GOP operatives are telling each other, a clever “strategy” for defeating an insurgent challenge; this is lying and cheating — a breach of trust that brings shame to the party, per se.
If Republicans are not trustworthy, if they are not honest, why would any honest person call himself a Republican? Loyalty must be reciprocated in order to have any meaning, and GOP leadership on Tuesday betrayed the loyalty of their party’s supporters.
Contrary to my very deep sense of gloom today, it is still possible that the Republican Party will capture the Senate majority in November, so that Mitch McConnell’s cronies can address each other as “Mister Chairman” again (which is all they care about). Given all the advantages the GOP takes into this mid-term election, it would take an extremely incompetent fall campaign by the Republicans to prevent McConnell from becoming Majority Leader.
Despite my dark mood today, therefore, I cannot predict as a certainty an embarrassing GOP failure in November. All I’m saying is that if everything falls apart for Republicans between now and Election Day, if the Democrats catch all the lucky breaks while the GOP is cursed with misfortune, so that McConnell’s selfish ambition is thwarted and Harry Reid remains the Majority Leader . . .
Well, if that happens, remember June 24 as the point of no return.
‘Progress’ As Cultural Bulldozer
Posted on | June 25, 2014 | 25 Comments
by Smitty
Anthony Daniels, aka Theodore Dalyrmple, speaking at Hillsdale of the lower class in England, emphasis mine:
Certainly the notions of dependence and independence have changed. I remember a population that was terrified of falling into dependence on the state, because such dependence, apart from being unpleasant in itself, signified personal failure and humiliation. But there has been an astonishing gestalt switch in my lifetime. Independence has now come to mean independence of the people to whom one is related and dependence on the state. Mothers would say to me that they were pleased to be independent, by which they meant independent of the fathers of their children—usually more than one—who in general were violent swine. Of course, the mothers knew them to be violent swine before they had children by them, but the question of whether a man would be a suitable father is no longer a question because there are no fathers: At best, though often also at worst, there are only stepfathers. The state would provide. In the new dispensation the state, as well as television, is father to the child.
Read the whole damning indictment, which is certainly not far off of the current American debacle.
I guess Mrs. OtherSmitty and I are some kind of rebellious counter-culture figures, staying employed, married, and taking our children to church, instead of raising them to look to the government for another Baal-out.
LIVE AT FIVE: 06.25.14
Posted on | June 25, 2014 | 7 Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
TOP NEWS
Baghdad Claims Successes In Anti-ISIS Fight

Meanwhile, John Kerry pleads with the Kurds
Officials say fighting continues at Baiji, border crossings retaken
Putin Asks Duma To Revoke Ukraine Military Force Authorization
A good will gesture to Kiev?
Japan’s Abe Fires His “Third Arrow”
PM promises to slash corporate taxes, reduce shelters
POLITICS
Cochran Squeaks Past McDaniel In Tight GOP Senate Runoff

Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel
Unofficial returns show Cochran ahead by 6600 votes
Rangel Claims Victory, Espaillat Won’t Concede
Beauprez Wins Colo. Primary, Will Face Hickenlooper In November
Lankford Wins Okla. Senate GOP Primary
Defrocked Methodist Pastor Who Performed Son’s Gay Wedding Reinstated
IRS Agrees To $50K Settlement For Leaking Marriage Group’s Donor List
Archivist Faults IRS For Not Reporting Loss Of E-Mails
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Iraq Crisis Keeps Brent Over $114: NYMEX $107.50, Brent $114.29
Red China’s Stocks Drop To One-Month Low Before New Issues
Wall Street Drops As Traders Sell Blue Chips
US Set To Resume Crude Oil Exports After Four-Decade Ban
Hachette Acquisition Turns Up The Heat On Amazon
American Apparel Hires Outside Investigators
Microsoft Exchange Online Suffers Nine-Hour Outage
Montana Data Breach Exposes 1.3 Million Records
Google To Unveil TV Set-Top Box
Facebook Still Reigns Among US Teens
Google, Microsoft Clouds Now Cover MongoDB
SPORTS
Royals Get Kershawed At The K

No luck at the plate for Lorenzo Cain
Dodgers blank KC 2-0
Virginia Routs Vanderbilt 7-2, Forces Game 3 In CWS
Mets Rough Up Kazmir, Crush A’s 10-1
Archer Tagged For Five Runs As Rays Fall To Bucs Again
Kinsler Homers In Return, Tigers Stomp Rangers 8-2
Upton Brothers Both Go Yard As Braves Edge Astros 3-2
Blue Jays Hang On For Win After Yanks Boot Away Six-Run Rally
Zimmerman Jacks 2-Run Sayonara Homer After 15 Innings, Three Wiener Races
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Emily Ratajkowski: The Bombshell Of Summer

Everything else was borderline NSFW
GQ’s cover girl for July
Gary Oldman Fires Back At ADL’s Anti-Semitism Charges
Katie Cleary’s Husband Suicides After She Was Photographed With Leo DeCaprio, Adrian Grenier
Fox Rebooting “Predator” With Shane Black
Justin Bieber Moves To Beverly Hills Condo – Which He’s Already Hotboxed
Justin Theroux Would Like To Bring Jennifer Aniston To The Afterlife
Hank Baskett’s Shemale Mistress Revealed
Pentatonix Joins “Pitch Perfect 2”
Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes Joining Coen Brothers “Hail, Caesar!”
Lana Del Rey Ends Engagement To Barrie-James O’Neill
Miley Cyrus Has Enlisted Little Sister Noah As Her “Pussy Police”
Billy Joel Rescues Woman In Hamptons
FOREIGNERS
Pentagon Says Advisers Arrive In Baghdad
Business Lobbies At Odds With Administration Over Russia Sanctions
Meriam Ibrahim Arrested At Airport
Her Majesty Declines Seat On Iron Throne
Italian PM Renzi Plans Economic Blitz
Cameron Taunted By Juncker Over “Lack Of Common Sense”
Le Pen, Wilders Fail To Forge Coalition In EU Parliament
Iron Dome Intercepts Two Gaza Rockets As Barrage Continues
Mexican Troops Capture Leader Of Tijuana Cartel
BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: The Brutal Choice In Iraq
Doug Powers: Koskinen
Twitchy: MD Dems Nominate Man Who Botched Obamacare Exchange For Governor
American Power: McDaniel Won’t Concede To Decrepit Race-Baiter Cochran
BLACKFIVE: SSG Ryan Pitts To Receive Medal Of Honor
Conservatives4Palin: Governor Palin Makes Sense Of A Revealing Primary Night With Hannity
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, June 24
Jammie Wearing Fools: MSNBC Shreds NYT, WaPo For Lack Of IRS Coverage
Joe For America: NYT Plays The Bully, Gets Punched Out
JustOneMinute: Where Is Nate Silver When The Times Needs Him? (Parts I AND II!)
Pat Dollard: New Poll Shows Majority Of Americans Believe IRS Deliberately Destroyed Lois Lerner’s E-Mails
Protein Wisdom: On Paid Maternity Leave
Shot In The Dark: Flexible
The Jawa Report: Cornhole Watch – Kassim Alhimidi, 26 Years To Life
The Lonely Conservative: White House Ignored Warnings Form Kurds On ISIS
This Ain’t Hell: More About That “Rousing Success” Called Obamacare
Weasel Zippers: “Why Aren’t We Putting Them On A Bus?”
Megan McArdle: Millenials Skip The Ring And Mortgage
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