The Other McCain

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

Failure Is Not a Public-Relations Problem: The Brutal Economics of ObamaCare

Posted on | February 4, 2014 | 11 Comments

“Obama: Anatomy of a World Leader,” by Alex Gray (detail)

The Congressional Budget Office report about the economic impact of ObamaCare is out, and it paints an ugly picture. The Hill:

The new healthcare law will slow economic growth over the next decade, costing the nation about 2.5 million jobs and contributing to a $1 trillion increase in projected deficits, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released Tuesday.

The Washington Post:

The Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by more than 2 million in coming years, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday in the most detailed analysis of the law’s impact on jobs.

ObamaCare is a disaster in pretty much exactly the same ways that Republican opponents of the bill predicted four years ago, although it’s also been a disaster in ways that even its harshest opponents did not predict. The problem for Obama, Democrats and their media allies is that they have treated the failure of ObamaCare as a matter of public-relations, as if the reality of failure could be concealed by a P.R. blitz claiming that it was actually a success. But the laws of economics can’t be changed by wishful thinking or political spin, and the failure of ObamaCare is a matter of basic economics.

 

 


Category: Barack Obama, Economics, Health Care

#BlogBash Nominations Are Open

Posted on | February 4, 2014 | 16 Comments

Wow, time flies: The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is now barely a month away — it convenes March 6 at National Harbor near Washington, D.C. — which means it’s time for you to nominate your favorite blogs for the Blog Bash Awards.

In case you don’t know it, Blog Bash is the hottest ticket at CPAC. The whole buzz about New Media means that a lot of people who aren’t bloggers are eager to hang out with bloggers, so inevitably there is a crunch where (a) the need to make sure that all the actual bloggers are admitted intersects with (b) the ticket requests by VIPs and sponsors, and (c) fire code capacity of the venue. The Blog Bash committee has lots of headaches to deal with every year, but managing The RSVP List From Hell is arguably the worst of it.

OK, so the awards nominations: Last year, I won the Best Investigative Post award for “‘A Faint Whiff of Vigilante Hysteria’: Weinergate’s Kimberlin Connection.” In a sense, that June 2012 post was representative of the weeks I spent covering the Brett Kimberlin saga, but it was also my best one-stop effort to explain how all the pieces of that complex story fit together:

Kimberlin has been targeting Patterico since October 2010, and it was evidently [Neal] Rauhauser’s anti-Patterico blogging that brought him into Kimberlin’s orbit so that, by October 2011, Rauhauser seemed to be describing Kimberlin as his client.
As Investors Business Daily reporter David Hogberg observed at Aaron Walker’s hearing [May 29, 2012], Rauhauser is now accompanying convicted felon Brett Kimberlin to court.
Another coincidence: What do “SWATting” victims Patterico and Mike Stack have in common, other than the fact that, as Patterico himself notes, Rauhauser hates their guts?
Is Rauhauser being paid by Brett Kimberlin — with proceeds from tax-exempt non-profits — to pursue these vendettas? . . .

You can read the whole thing, just in case you forgot what kind of craziness Kimberlin and Rauhauser unleashed in 2011-2012. Notice that I was asking questions, rather than making accusations.

To this day, we still have not learned the details of the relationship between Kimberlin and Rauhauser, details that I suspect would explain a lot of what still remains mysterious.

Also, notice the use of the word “evidently” and the phrase “seemed to be.” You think I don’t understand libel law? There is a vast difference between (a) accusing someone of wrongdoing and (b) describing a reasonable interpretation of facts that anyone may observe. If there was some other explanation of the observable facts, it would behoove Kimberlin and Rauhauser to supply that explanation, rather than suing those who have reported and commented on the facts. But I digress . . .

Blog Bash award nominations are open, and this year, I would hope to be considered for my efforts in beating back the “Free Kate” movement in their attempt to create a “lesbian loophole” in Florida’s age-of-consent laws. When I first became aware of the Kaitlyn Hunt story on May 22, it seemed the Gay Victimhood Narrative was on the verge of prevailing. Mainstream media were lavishing sympathetic coverage on the accused sex offender, who was supported both by the ACLU and by Florida’s largest gay rights group. Yet key elements of the “Free Kate” narrative were false, and I took alarm at what appeared to be a sneaky attempt to use Kaitlyn Hunt as the photogenic poster girl for what Rush Limbaugh had called a movement to “normalize pedophilia.”

Less than five months later, however, Kaitlyn Hunt took a plea bargain and was sentenced to jail. This wasn’t the result of “investigative journalism,” I don’t think, but look at the criteria in the category of “Best Activism Post”:

Nominate a blog post that fostered significant activism — be it calls to Congress, people in the street, boots on the ground, etc.

Hmmm. Could the collective pushback against the “Free Kate” narrative be described as “significant activism”? If so, I think a lot of people would say I “fostered” the hell out of it, between my blogging here and my reporting at Viral Read. Indeed, I “fostered” it so well the Free Kate freaks threatened to “shut down” my blog! (Why does the Left so routinely resort to “shutuppery”?)

All right, if you want me to be recognized for that “activism,” which blog post out of the many should you nominate?

May 25, 2013: Aggravating Circumstances: Against the #FreeKate Campaign for Sexual Anarchy

That was the fourth day (and the sixth post) of my coverage of the Kaitlyn Hunt story, in which I tried to make clear (a) how the facts of the case explained why Florida prosecutors were not willing to reduce Hunt’s felony charges to misdemeanors; and (b) why citizens should be alarmed by the misleading arguments made by Hunt’s supporters in the “Free Kate” movement:

People who care about America’s future should be angry about this case and, personally, I’m so angry I’m starting to get angry at other people for not being angry about it.
If we can’t draw the line here, folks, there is no hope at all.
Supporters of Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt are making flawed and dangerous arguments which, if we don’t argue back against them, could subvert the rule of law and bring about a culture of sexual anarchy, where school children are violated and corrupted “consensually” and parents have no legal recourse to prevent such outrageous behavior.
Are judges and prosecutors in Indian River County, Florida, reading this blog? Are the citizens of Florida reading it? Are readers concerned about the direction of our culture sharing these arguments on your Facebook pages and via e-mail with your friends?
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Will you let it be said that you did nothing?

Read the whole thing, and if you agree that was worthwhile blog “activism,” please nominate me for a Blog Bash Award.

 

Category: CPAC

Could Jamie Casino Find ‘A Smidgen’ Of Corruption At The IRS?

Posted on | February 4, 2014 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Via Brietbart and Instapundit, we may have found just the guy who can help our poor, beleaguered, yet supremely self-assured Rodeo Clown-in-Chief. Clearly, #OccupyResoluteDesk needs help to track down that non-existent smidgen of corruption so dreadful in its purely fanciful form that it caused Lois Lerner to take the 5th.

This blog sees a Chief Executive in a jam, and raises the call to get that man some assistance sorting all this. Say, an electoral tsunami on the first Tuesday in November.

 

Category: Barack Obama

LIVE AT FIVE: 02.04.14

Posted on | February 4, 2014 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Tech Firms Reveal Secret US Demands For Data

File photo shows server racks at a Google data center; Agent Smith not shown :v

Google, Facebook, others reveal data requested by secret FISA court


Christie Reiterates: No Role In Lane Closures
Acknowledges federal subpoena during radio show



Israelis Take Kerry’s Boycott Remarks As Threat
Strategic Affairs Ministers Sheinitz: “Israel will not negotiate with a gun to its head.”



POLITICS
Fractures Emerge Between Obama, Congressional Democrats

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is opposed to President Obama’s prime trade initiative

Senate Democrats also want Keystone pipeline approved as they eye the 2014 elections


Senator Hatch Rebukes IRS Over Reinstatement Of 2013 Performance Bonuses



Auditors Say VA Lacks Control Over Its Own Data, Leaks Could Result

Recruiting Fraud, Kickback Scandal Rock Army

Treasury Secretary Asks For Bipartisan Approach To Debt Ceiling

Farm Bill Survives Test Vote In Senate, Faces Heavy Criticism

Democrats Introduce Bill To Temporarily Fix Net Neutrality



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Drops On Weak Manufacturing Data From US, PRC: NYMEX $96.64, Brent $105.98
Asian Shares Extend Rout As Shares Slide In Japan
Chattanooga VW Plant Vote Will Settle Union Question
Suspected Data Breach At Holiday Inn, Marriott Hotels
Layoffs Expected At Disney Interactive
Trader Joe’s Bails On NE Portland Store
CEO Of iOS News App “Paper” Tells Facebook To Stop Using Their Name
Google Chromecast SDK Lets App Developers Supersize Their Apps For TV
Facebook Turns Ten, But Are Its Days Numbered?
Sprint Brings Push-To-Talk To More Android Devices
Apple Building Its Own Content Delivery Network?



SPORTS
Cooney Scores 33 As #1 Syracuse Tops Notre Dame

Trevor Cooney carries the Orange offense

No other Syracuse player reached double figures

Hendricks Lifts Oilers To 3-2 Win Over Sabres

Griffin Scores 36, Clippers Fall To Nuggets Anyway

Red Wings Shut Out Canucks In Tortorella’s Return

Nyets Hold Off Sixers 108-102, Snap Three-Game Skid

Pens Edge Sens 2-1

Mets Sign Kyle Farnsworth To Minor-League Deal

Avalanche Bury Devils With Third Period Rally, Early OT Shot

Mavs Rout Cavs 124-107

#6 Villanova Rolls To 20th Win

Fister Avoids Arbitration, Signs For One Year, $7.2 Million



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Laura Prepon Returning For “Orange Is The New Black” Second Season

Well, most of it.

Creator Jenji Kohan says series moving to more of an ensemble cast


Taylor Swift Bumrushed By Obsessed Fan At London Concert

Miley Cyrus Doesn’t Care What You Think

Justin Bieber Sex Tape Shocker


“Teen Wolf” Books Dylan Sprayberry For Season Four

Prosecutor Wants Chris Smith Jailed Now

Fremantle Media To Adapt “American Gods” As Dramatic Series

Warner Brothers Already Working On Sequel To “The Lego Movie”

Kevin, Danielle Jonas Welcome Baby Daughter



FOREIGNERS
Ireland Must Do More To Tackle Corruption, EU Warns
Student With Rifles Kills Two In Standoff At Moscow School
Al-Qaeda Breaks Ties With Syrian Affiliate
Mandela’s $4 Million Estate To Be Split Among Family And Trusts
Thai Opposition Challenges Ballots In Court
Susan Rice Blasts Israel For Criticizing Kerry
Knox Judge Faces Allegations Of Impropriety
Syrian Air Strikes Kill At Least 18 In Aleppo
More Than 50 Jihadis Killed In Iraq’s Anbar Province
Saudi King Decrees Punishment For Jihadis
US, EU Officials Push For Ukraine Aid Package



BLOGS & STUFF
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Anyone Remember Heroin Chic?
Doug Powers: Obama Tells O’Reilly Administration Scandals Keep Surfacing Because Fox News Keeps Reporting Them
Twitchy: “Dana Loesch Is My Hero” Conservative Superstar Totally Kills It On The View
American Power: Montreal Woman Dies After Hijab Caught In Escalator
American Thinker: Why Gays Have So Much Influence Over Our Culture
Blackfive: ROTC Cadet Spit On At Phoenix Open
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Jesse Myerson Doubles Down On Stupidity
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – Exchange Screwup? Sucks To Be You.
Conservatives 4Palin: Sarah Palin – “Please Remember Prayers For Chris Kyle’s Family”
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, February 3
Jammie Wearing Fools: Another Obamacare Success Story – Sick Kids Denied Specialty Care In Washington
Joe For America: Donations To Karl Rove’s Groups Drop 98% After Targeting Tea Party
JustOneMinute: Woody Allen
Pat Dollard: Muslim Arrested For Arson Attack On Gay Nightclub Was Also State Department “Cultural Ambassador”
Protein Wisdom: Suddenly Serious Topic – Is The GOP On A Suicide Mission?
Shot In The Dark: Grandma Bea
The Jawa Report: Sandra Fluke Contemplates Run For Congress
The Lonely Conservative: Common Core Panelist – “The Children Belong To All Of Us”
This Ain’t Hell: To Karzai, Taliban Are “Brothers”, Americans Are “Rivals”
Megan McArdle: Obamacare Wonks Flunk Data Analysis


Category: Live at Five

Lesbian Teacher Could Face Life Sentence for Molesting Two Girls in California

Posted on | February 3, 2014 | 96 Comments

Andrea Michelle Cardosa, 40, was arrested Monday in Riverside County, California, and charged with 16 felony counts after two former students accused her of sexually molesting them. One of the victims, Jamie Carrillo, made headlines last month when she posted a YouTube video of a phone conversation in which she confronted the teacher she said began having sex with her when she was only 12:

Carrillo, now 28, titled the video “A call to my childhood rapist teacher.”
“I was only 12 years old when I met you. Do you realize that you brainwashed me and you manipulated me and that what you did was wrong?” Carrillo said in the video.
“Yes. And I regret it. I only — I just wanted to help you,” Cardosa responded.
“How is having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old student helping?” Carrillo said.

Prosecutors say Cardosa’s molestation of Carrillo “took place between 1997 and 2001, when the victim was in middle school and high school.” After Carillo went public with her accusations, a second victim, now 18, came forward to say she “was allegedly abused [by Cardosa] while she was in high school in Perris in 2009 or 2010.” For some reason, news accounts about this case don’t describe Cardosa as a lesbian.

“You ruined my life. You ruined my childhood. Do you realize that?”

UPDATE: “Former Teacher Andrea Michelle Cardosa Arrested: Faces Sex Crimes Charges After YouTube Video Allegations.”

 

Category: Crime, Education, Gays, Sex

Hoffman Planned Heroin Binge?

Posted on | February 3, 2014 | 33 Comments

After Sunday’s deliberately unsympathetic notice of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death — millionaire celebrity junkies  don’t qualify for my pity — I hadn’t expected to return to the topic.

Once a junkie’s dead, that’s it. Corpses don’t make much news.

However, Donald Douglas reports that police found 50 bags of heroin at Hoffman’s apartment, indicating he planned a long binge.

Possession of 50 bags of heroin? That’s a felony, last time I checked.

The wealthy felon’s final binge proved to be unexpectedly short.

End of story.

 

Category: Celebrities

Another IRS Stonewall

Posted on | February 3, 2014 | 7 Comments

The old “ongoing investigation” trick:

The Justice Department has rebuffed a House Republican’s plan to hold an oversight hearing this Thursday featuring a key criminal investigator from the team reviewing mishandling of tax-exempt status applications by the Internal Revenue Service.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked Justice attorney Barbara Bosserman on Jan. 28 to testify “due to the administration’s failure to provide necessary information about its IRS investigation.” Bosserman, who is a leader in the Justice investigation into the IRS controversy, has donated money to President Obama’s political campaigns, which GOP lawmakers including Jordan believe represents a conflict of interest. Bosserman is a career attorney; career employees are allowed to donate money to political candidates.
The Feb. 6 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing is titled, “The IRS Targeting Investigation: What is the Administration Doing?”
But Bosserman will not appear, said Deputy Attorney General James Cole in a Jan. 30 reply to Jordan, as published in a tax-exempt organizations newsletter edited by attorney Paul Streckfus.
“The department’s longstanding policy, applied across administrations, is to decline to provide Congress with non-public information about ongoing criminal investigations,” Cole wrote.

(Hat-tip: Joe Schoffstall at Capitol City Project.)

This is predictable cover-up strategy:  Key witnesses plead the Fifth in congressional hearings and the “ongoing investigation” becomes an excuse for the administration to tell Congress nothing about the investigation which may or may not actually be “ongoing” in any meaningful sense. The administration is investigating itself, and if you think this kind of “investigation” will find any wrongdoing by anyone, you don’t understand how the game works.

RECENTLY:

Category: Scandal, Taxes

Bill Schmalfeldt Continues His Insane Investment in Brett Kimberlin’s RICO Suit

Posted on | February 3, 2014 | 32 Comments

Bill Schmalfeldt ranting, 2011. (Image via Thomas Anderson at Vimeo)

Am I now or have I ever been engaged in an interstate racketeering conspiracy? No, and the allegations by Brett Kimberlin in his federal lawsuit (which John Hoge dubbed Kimberlin v. the Universe, et al.) are utterly absurd. Yet the manifest absurdity of Kimberlin’s conspiracy theory is no deterrent to the bizarre revenge fantasies of deranged cyberstalker Bill Schmalfeldt. And his enthusiasm for the RICO suit highlights Schmalfeldt’s role in “Team Kimberlin.”

Occasionally I am reminded of the multiple ironies of my circumstance as a civil defendant. Perjuring bomber Brett Kimberlin claims in his Maryland lawsuit, Kimberlin v. Walker, et al., that the five defendants have conspired to defame him, and that one of those defamations is to use the phrase “Team Kimberlin” to describe the various persons and online entities that have harassed Kimberlin’s Enemies List. If you are unfamiliar with the background, or have forgotten how this story developed, let me remind you:

  1. The initial cause of my interest in the Kimberlin case was the involvement of disgraced Democrat consultant Neal Rauhauser;
    and
  2. Rauhauser’s role in the story connected the Kimberlin saga directly  to the “WeinerGate” scandal of 2011.

The significance of this is that Rauhauser was evidently the first member of “Team Kimberlin,” and that it was the attempt at “brass knuckles reputation management” — the online harassment of Patrick Frey, Mandy Nagy, Andrew Breitbart, Aaron Walker and others, in which Rauhauser’s involvement was self-evident or strongly suspected — which made Brett Kimberlin an object of widespread attention in 2012. So while Kimberlin now claims in court that he has be wrongfully “harassed,” this is all ultimately a result of Kimberlin’s association with Neal Rauhauser, and yet anyone who mentions the harassment by “Team Kimberlin” (which Rauhauser seems to have coordinated) is accused of defamation.

Whether Bill Schmalfeldt was original a volunteer or a recruit in “Team Kimberlin” is irrelevant to the fact that he is now the most prominent advocate of Kimberlin’s cause. And the closeness of the connection between Kimberlin and Schmalfeldt is that less than 72 hours passed between the time I filed my motion to dismiss in the RICO case and the time Bill Schmalfeldt obtained a copy of that response and began ranting about it online this morning.

Neal Rauhauser was yammering about a RICO lawsuit — aimed at Andrew Breitbart and Patterico, among others — for months before I ever became aware of Brett Kimberlin, and as soon as Kimberlin’s lawsuit was filed in October, Rauhauser bragged online that he has been involved in “research” for that filing. Every lawyer who looked at Kimberlin’s complaint immediately spotted fatal errors, and so I chose to expend minimal effort in answering it. Why should I sweat it, when top-dollar lawyers for my fellow defendants had so clearly pointed out the legal and factual flaws? So my own motion to dismiss was pretty simple:

Motions to dismiss have been filed by other Defendants in the instant lawsuit . . . Defendant McCain incorporates all those motions herein by reference and adopts the reasoning contained therein in support of this motion.

Piece of cake. Let Bill Schmalfeldt rant himself into a frothing fury.




 

 


Category: Bill Schmalfeldt, Conspiracy Theories, The Kimberlin Files
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin