The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Klitschko Might Take On Putin And Win

Posted on | February 23, 2014 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Who is Vitali Klitschko? As a result of his having lived in Germany and having a sports medicine related doctorate, it turns out Mrs. Other Smitty has actually had a conversation with the fellow. Talk about a small world. Given that Vladimir Putin has a black belt, I’d nominate Klitschko to go a few rounds with Vlad. Can’t think of any other world leaders who’d not leave the ring in a body bag. Vitali promises to be an interesting figure to watch.

Elsewhere, Stacy noted earlier that Yulia Tymoshenko was freed. More from Fox:

Tymoshenko, the long-jailed blond-braided heroine of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, left imprisonment on Saturday after the Ukrainian parliament voted to decriminalize the charge on which she was convicted.

She increasingly appears to have the upper hand in the political battle as to who will be the next leader of Ukraine, winning the backing Sunday of a leading Russian lawmaker and congratulations from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. senators on her release.

Tymoshenko’s name circulated Sunday as a possibility for acting prime minister pending May 25 presidential elections, but she issued a statement via her party Sunday asking her supporters not to nominate her for the position.

She may want to focus her energies instead on campaigning for president and building up strength after her imprisonment. She spoke to an excited crowd of about 50,000 in Kiev’s Independence Square Saturday night from a wheelchair because of a back problem aggravated during imprisonment, her voice cracked and her face careworn.

And the Crimea has come out in favor of Russia, an unsurprising move:

Crimea, the only chunk of Ukraine where the revolution has failed to take hold. Connected to the mainland by two narrow passes, this huge peninsula on the Black Sea has long been a land apart, an island of Russian nationalism in a nation drifting toward Europe. One of its biggest cities, Sevastopol, is home to a Russian naval base that houses around 25,000 troops, and most Crimean residents identify themselves as Russians, not Ukrainians.

If five years of U.S. foreign policy implosion is any indicator, we can expect #OccupyResoluteDesk to offer the same vigorous backing to the Ukrainians that was afforded the Green Revolution in Iran. If the no-talent rodeo clown ever met a strongman he didn’t like, I’m unaware of it.

Two months into the 100-year anniversary of WWI, we’ve got unrest in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Thailand. Pray for peace.

Finally, via Twitchy:

Category: Ukraine

Bill Schmalfeldt: ‘CEASE and DESIST’!

Posted on | February 23, 2014 | 64 Comments

Bill Schmalfeldt wants you to believe he is a victim.

“Bill Schmalfeldt doesn’t have principles. Bill Schmalfeldt doesn’t have values. Bill Schmalfeldt doesn’t have beliefs. Bill Schmalfeldt has enemies, and then nothing, a black and dank and empty void of sullenness.”
— Ken White, Aug. 6, 2013

Deranged cyberstalker Bill Schmalfeldt has been fired by Examiner.com and banished from Daily Kos. Bill Schmalfeldt is an adjudicated harasser according to Maryland courts; he created a “Dead Breitbart” smear site; and his cruel harassment of Lee Stranahan’s family made him notorious.

However, Bill Schmalfeldt refuses to take responsibility for his own misfortune, instead scapegoating John Hoge — who, according to law, is actually a victim of Schmalfeldt’s harassment — and insisting that Hoge and others are to blame for Schmalfeldt’s continuing record of self-inflicted embarrassments and failures.

As a public service, therefore, we reproduce here Bill Schmalfeldt’s recent “Open Letter,” in which he depicts himself as a victim of death threats, defamation and copyright infringement:

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL WHO MAY SEE THIS
It is 8:40 am on Saturday morning, February 22, 2014. Over the past several days I have received five death threats from people who are clearly either readers of my blog, my Twitter feed, or the blog of WJJ Hoge III, 20 Ridge Road, Westminster, Md.
By virtue of a peace order Mr. Hoge won against me in June 2013, which was extended for six months in Dec. 2013, I am not permitted to directly contact Mr. Hoge. But I know that he will see this Open Letter, I know he will comment on it. I know his readers will comment on it. Therefore, I feel this is as close as I can legally come to letting him know that I am putting my foot down and demanding that he CEASE and DESIST all defamatory writing about me and CEASE and DESIST using copyrighted images of me.

CEASE AND DESIST ALL DEFAMATION
OF MY CHARACTER AND REPUTATION.
I am an educated, respected, retired professional in the community. I have spent over thirty years in my profession and in the service of my country building a positive reputation. I have furthered this positive reputation by volunteering for medical research designed to find better treatments for Parkinson’s disease, from which I have suffered 14 years.
WJJ Hoge III and others are engaged in spreading false, destructive, and defamatory rumors about me.
These are the elements necessary for a plaintiff to prove a case of defamation in Maryland:
“(1) that the defendant made a defamatory statement to a third person, (2) that the statement was false, (3) that the defendant was legally at fault in making the statement, and (4) that the plaintiff thereby suffered harm. A defamatory statement is one ‘which tends to expose a person to public scorn, hatred, contempt or ridicule, thereby discouraging others in the community from having a good opinion of, or associating with, that person.’” Offen v. Brenner, 402 Md. 191, 935 A.2d 719 (2007), quoting Smith v. Danielczyk, 400 Md. 98, 115, 928 A.2d 795, 805 (2007).
Accordingly, I demand that (A) WJJ Hoge III of 20 Ridge Road, Westminster, Md., immediately cease and desist his unlawful defamation of me and (B) provide me with prompt written assurance within ten (10) days that he will cease and desist from further defamation of my character and reputation. Hoge’s Peace Order against me notwithstanding, he is allowed to contact me.
Accordingly, I also demand that Mr. Hoge moderate the comments on his blog (Hogewash), removing defamatory statements by others. As the host of his blog, he bears the responsibility of ensuring that he maintains a libel-free blog. He has not done so.
If Mr. Hoge does not comply with this cease and desist demand within this time period, I am entitled to seek monetary damages and equitable relief for my defamation. In the event he fails to meet this demand, all reading this should be advised that I will pursue all available legal remedies, including seeking monetary damages, injunctive relief, and an order that Mr. Hoge pay court costs and attorney’s fees. His liability and exposure under such legal action could be considerable.
Mr. Hoge may continue to write about me. But whatever he writes must be provably true. He must cite how he knows his information to be true. He must be able to point to third party sources, other than his co-defendants in Brett Kimberlin’s lawsuits against him that prove the truth of his allegations. Mr. Hoge is hereby forbidden to use my image in his blog postings without my express written permission. All images of myself that are taken by a family member are my personal property for which I own the copyright.
WILLIAM M. SCHMALFELDT

Bill Schmalfeldt’s attempt to make Hoge responsible for the “death threats” allegedly received by Schmalfeldt would have to clear the high hurdle of the landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision, Brandenburg v. Ohio. Perhaps some readers can cite the relevant case law on “fair use” regarding copyright materials. As for the “character and reputation” that Schmalfeldt alleges others have defamed . . .

Well, it’s the “Butt Stuff,” isn’t it, Bill?




 

 

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Category: Bill Schmalfeldt

FMJRA 2.0: Washington’s Birthday Hangover Edition

Posted on | February 23, 2014 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Does #LGBT Care About a Religious Extremist Burning a Gay Bar?

Liberals Hate Books They Don’t Read

Workers 712, Union Thugs 626

About the @EllenPage #Lesbian Thing…

Miracles Still Happen

Venezuela: ‘The Government Is Taking Us into the Slaughterhouse’

Yeah, I’m Sure @Denise_Richards Won’t Have Any Problems With This

“Old Worn Out Suits And Shoes, I Don’t Pay No Union Dues”

‘Defamatory Attacks’

Liars Gotta Lie, Failures Gotta Fail

In Which @AceOfSpadesHQ Becomes a First Amendment Cause Celebre

‘Feminist Dogma’

Open Letter To Mike Church, aka @TheKingDude On The Military

In The Mailbox, 02.20.12

Ukraine Unravels

‘The Second Time as Farce’: @sandraylk’s Recycled Marcusean Marxism

If #ObamaCare Helps At Least One Person, Other Human Wreckage Is OK

If Breitbart Had Managed To Get An Ambassador Snuffed, Maybe Andrew’s Wife Would Be Left Alone

How to Hate Your Parents

Quote Of The Half-Decade @TedNugent

Because @kmcdonovgh Knows You’re a Victim of Heteronormative Patriarchy

Republican Party Staring Victory Right In The Face, Wetting Itself

Tennessee Worker Liberty Offends UAW; NLRB Appeal Ensues

Top linkers this week:

  1. Regular Right Guy (11)
  2. Political Rift (6)

I blame the lack of Live At Five and Rule 5 posts for the poor turnout this week, though I suppose the weather might have been a factor.


Category: FMJRA Award

Freedom Wins in Ukraine?

Posted on | February 23, 2014 | 36 Comments

For now, at least, the boot-heel has been lifted:

KIEV, Ukraine — Abandoned by his own guards and reviled across the Ukrainian capital but still determined to recover his shredded authority, President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled Kiev on Saturday to denounce what he called a violent coup, as his official residence, his vast, colonnaded office complex and other once impregnable centers of power fell without a fight to throngs of joyous citizens stunned by their triumph.
While Mr. Yanukovych’s nemesis, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, was released from a penitentiary hospital, Parliament found the president unable to fulfill his duties and exercised its constitutional powers to set an election for May 25 to select his replacement. But with both Mr. Yanukovych and his Russian patrons speaking of a “coup” carried out by “bandits” and “hooligans,” it was far from clear that the day’s lightning-quick events would be the last act in a struggle that has not just convulsed Ukraine but expanded into an East-West confrontation reminiscent of the Cold War.

We can only wait and see what develops from here.

 

Category: Ukraine

LGBT Activist Declares: ‘We Need to Start Making Their Lives a Living Hell’

Posted on | February 23, 2014 | 98 Comments

Have you ever heard of Dr. Scott Lively? Me neither, but he’s a conservative Christian who leads a group called Defend the Family International. Dr. Lively has been branded a hatemonger by the Southern Poverty Law Center, so I figure he must be a Great American.

Friday, Dr. Lively and others held a press conference at the National Press Club in D.C. to announce the formation of the Coalition for Family Values, where they issued a press release “praising the Russian Federation for passing pro-family laws and encouraging other nations to follow suit.” Needless to say, gay-rights groups were not happy about this, and the press conference was interrupted by hecklers.

When video of the press conference made the rounds, an LGBT activist named Chloe Nelson posted this comment on Facebook:

It’s time that the LGBT community forms a new organization that targets homophobes, bigots, religious zealots, religious fanatics, and all other assholes who are against equality, and human and civil rights for all people.
By targeting these bigots, and publishing every little detail of their sex lives, or personal lives, taking pictures through their windows, and getting the pics out on the internet, showing every little thing that they do, including how they wipe their asses when in the bathroom, or for that matter if they’re wiping their asses in the kitchen — we’ve got to catch it on camera.
The time to just sit back and take it, are over with for the LGBT community. We need to get rid of bigots like these homophobic religious assholes, and if it means exposing every little thing about them, then that’s what we need to do.
We need to start making their lives a living hell by constant observation and publishing pics and articles every time they fart, or spit, or even look cross-eyed. It’s obvious these bigots only understand one thing, and that is persecution, discrimination and bigotry.
Here come the LGBT bigots, gonna prey on the religious zealots, fanatics, and bigots who think their shit don’t stink, and think they can control everyone else’s life.
LET’S GET RID OF THESE BASTARDS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!

“Eliminationist rhetoric,” as Professor Reynolds would say. And what’s the deal with disrupting a press conference?

The conference was briefly disrupted when three LGBT activists (one of them a non-English-speaking Russian) stood up to try to read a statement. We did not allow them to control the room, and asked the National Press Club security to remove them, which they did. Upon realizing that they would not be allowed to stay, the leader of the trio, Ellen Sturtz (self-described as an“Angry Old Lesbian“ on her business card) began screaming “I’m a Homo-Fascist!” and tossed a wad of leaflets in the air. They turned out to be flyers with the title “Lively is Deadly” attempting to convey the message that I am a dangerous person who wants to harm homosexuals around the world.

There are multiple layers of irony here: Dr. Lively was supporting the suppression of pro-gay speech in Russia, while the protesters were suppressing anti-gay speech in America. My dangerous extremist idea? Let’s stop suppressing speech.

But the totalitarians now march beneath the Rainbow Flag:

When the activist insists on speaking, Dr. Lively says, “this is what I would like to bring to the attention of everyone in this room — this is what we call ‘homo-fascism.’”
“‘Homo-fascism,’” he continues, “is a hard-left, totalitarian mindset that attempts to suppress all perspectives on the homosexual issue except those that favor their positions.”
“Every time the pro-family people try to tell the truth about homosexuality,” Dr. Lively says, “we are interrupted by homo-fascists. Now, I would like to ask if there is security here . . . because I would like to ask you to remove these two people from the press conference.”

Remember when what’s-her-name, the actress, “came out” as lesbian at a conference last week? Did conservative Christians heckle her or disrupt her speech? I think not.

By the way, someone should tell Dr. Lively to stop calling these goons “homo-fascists.” They’re actually homo-Marxists.

(Hat-tip: Jeanette Runyon on Twitter.)

 

Category: Gays

Even A River Of Lies Cannot Flow Uphill

Posted on | February 22, 2014 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Look: Progress is dead. The final piece of FDR’s Second Bill of Rights arrived, and it was a river of lies, with headwaters in hell.

It’s the law of the land, they tell us, passed fair and square by both houses of Congress, crowned as constitutional by the highest court of the country, and ratified by the people in Obama’s reelection. They note that other historic reforms—Medicare, Social Security—had troubled beginnings and then were embraced by the nation, and that even the Civil Rights Act of 1964, preceded by outbreaks of terrible violence, was accepted quite quickly once passed.

Not so with Obamacare, to which resistance over time has only grown stronger. “Current and former administration officials .??.??. have been surprised at how steadfast the opposition has remained,” the Washington Post reported last summer, quoting MIT economist Jonathan Gruber saying, “It used to be you had a fight and it was over, and you moved on.” But few have moved on, for reasons which are not all that hard to tease out: It’s not working out, in fact it’s a disaster; it’s blowing holes in the federal budget; the win-to-lose balance is way out of kilter, as many more people are hurt than helped by it. Obamacare may collapse on its own for practical reasons, but there is a fourth strike against it that adds a dimension of weakness no comparable measure has faced: Much of the country believes it’s a fraud, passed dishonestly, and not deserving of moral authority. In short, they find it nearly illegal, highly immoral, and possibly fattening. And their minds won’t be changed.

Read the whole thing. The notion of there being a “law of the land”, itself, is being destroyed by this evil. As ancient commenter Madison noted:

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?

Not that Madison was a prophet, or anything. He merely had more common sense than Princess Pelosi and Harry “the Cadaver” Reid combined.

via Hot Air

Category: Health Care

Spewing Forth The Lukewarm GOP

Posted on | February 22, 2014 | 53 Comments

by Smitty

We don’t really have explicit proof that John McCain threw the 2008 election, like Butch Coolidge was supposed to do in Pulp Fiction. I’m sure McCain must’ve felt a little sting at some point, but the old chap is far beyond pride.

The 2010 Tea Party uprising seems to have caught the GOP by surprise. The GOP leadership’s body language to the base seems to be: “Shut up and get back to manning the oars; navigation input from the rowers is neither necessary, nor desired.”

Thus we saw no significant rallies in 2011, and 2012 was a reversion to McCain form. Again, I’ll fall short of explicitly saying that Mitt Romney himself deliberately wasted everyone’s time. But if BHO gets to own the demise of Ambassador Stevens, then Mitt owns the failure of his campaign. Why might these failures be occurring?

For starters, Daily Pundit chides Stephen Green over being willing to vote for Zombie Nixon over Udall, pointing out that, on the issues, the two are about as distinguishable as chicken-fried steak and schnitzel:

Sure, some elections matter, but what matters even more is why we are electing people, and what they do after we elect them. If, as is the case with Udall and Nixon, the party label is a distinction without a difference, then advising people to crawl over broken glass to vote for one or the other may result in a lot of eviscerated voters, but no material changes.

On a related note, we have Joan of Argghh’s feedback to Sowell on Ted Cruz, where the normally awesome Thomas “expresses concern” over Cruz’s popularity, and Joan responds:

As if we on the Right are no better at evaluating an ideal from reality than the mascots of the Left. I take strong exception to that aspersion. I’m listening to Ted Cruz and find him interesting in that he seems to know what it will take to grab attention in a Media stronghold, not that his ideas leave me breathless. He has moxie and he has solid values and he’s unafraid. Will he be a good leader if given the chance? Ah, there’s the rub.

Now, I’m as reasonable as the next person, even willing to be shown a better way, but if Mr. Sowell is asking me to seriously consider the possibility that Ted Cruz is promising me things that appeal to the same crass envy that Obama gleefully cultivates in his own followers I must scratch my head and wonder if his disconnect with his own supporters can be so vast. It may simply be an emotional ploy, wrought by an old man’s fears. If so, I share them and sympathize. But either way, it’s obvious that the GOP hit squad is starting early with the Palinization of Ted Cruz. Instead of being cast as an air-head, they’ll demonize him as dangerous to their plans. Those “plans” that will work this time, they swear!

Over here at the navigation plot, I can tell you that our current Progressive course is breeding collapse. Herbert Stein is kicking in. If the Vichy GOP have some kind of reform plan, they need to circulate it STAT!

Karl Rove and the High Priests of Progress are already trying to circulate dead fish such as Chris Christie and Jeb Bush. If the goal is to serve up a third un-inspirational piece of work, to complete some sort of Tri-f**kta of Fail, then we need only listen to what the Really Smart Guys and the codpiece media are saying.

And I’m not trying to sound like some kind of Cruz sycophant. It is entirely possible that, for all he seems a guy sticking to his principles, his soul could be devoured by Cthulhu. Truly, we need adherence to principles, not hero worship. It is not enough that Ted be Cruz; we all need to be our own variations on Ted Cruz.

But the broader point here isn’t about Ted Cruz. Rather, that the vacuum left at the top of the GOP by the lack of leadership like that of Cruz is truly devastating. You can love or hate McConnell and Boehner all day long, but if you took them both to court, you could not convict them of having any vision. They’re both just caretakers of the Progressive regulatory State, here to make sure that we’re only buried in 9,000 pages of new regulations, instead of the Democrat’s full 10,000.

Dump that noise. It’s high time for reform.

Update: Hot Air’s quotes of the day post is timely:

Notwithstanding the Republican establishment’s campaign to marginalize them as what the Journal obligingly labels a “rump kamikaze caucus,” their ranks are swelling. Without them, the Republicans would not have recaptured the House in 2010. Increasingly, they mount primary challenges against Beltway relics. They don’t win all the time, but they win quite a few — like long-shot Ted Cruz’s stunning primary rout over the party’s preferred candidate. And there is a more serious danger for GOP leadership: The conservative base increasingly wears the establishment’s disdain as a badge of honor.

Beltway Republicans do not seem to grasp how ominous this is.

We’ve trusted the GOP’s words, and will now set about using those words on the GOP elite as a suppository.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Category: GOP

The World’s Youngest Blogger: Is BHO A Reference To Dilbert’s Colleague Wally?

Posted on | February 22, 2014 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Category: World's Youngest Blogger
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