The Other McCain

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

Hillary Clinton: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

Posted on | December 18, 2013 | 24 Comments

If you’re old enough to remember Watergate, you remember that line — “GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!” — from the “Doonesbury” cartoon strip about the accusations against Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell. And considering that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once worked as a junior aide to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigations, I thought that line would be appropriate to this news from Egypt:

The Egyptian Attorney General, Hisham Barakat, alleges that Clinton collaborated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
World Net Daily (WND) reports that Clinton has been named in a criminal complaint with Naglaa Mahmoud, the wife of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, to incite domestic insurrections in Egypt.
The charges say that Clinton and Mahmoud conspired to topple Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He’s the Egyptian general who has been commander in chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and the minister of defense, since Aug. 12, 2012.
Researcher Walid Shoebat reported on his blog that criminal charges have indeed been filed against Clinton and Morsi’s wife. Shoebat speaks fluent Arabic and is a former Palestinian Liberation Organization operative. He says the news of the charges were reported in Arabic, by credible sources, which he translated.
WND says, “Shoebat translated the transcript from an Egyptian Mehwar TV channel news video in which television reporter Nasr Qaffas explains on camera details of an interview Turkey’s Anatolia news agency conducted with Naglaa Mahmoud.”
The transcripts from the Mehwar TV news video is said to include comments by Naglaa Mahmoud which implicate Huma Abedin, the wife of former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner.  . . .
According to Anatolia Press, Mahmoud said, “I have between my fingers, a treasure trove of secrets from the White House and Mrs. Clinton fears my wrath. I will not speak about Huma Abedin.”

One hesitates, in such circumstances, to leap to conclusions based on a single report that cites sources of unknown reliability. 

“It would be a disservice to Mrs. Clinton and her character to prejudge the woman, but everything known to date could lead one to conclude she’s guilty! That’s guilty! GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY!!”

 


Category: Egypt, Hillary Clinton

Sen. McCain And Intellectual Integrity: Let His Carcass Caucus With Democrats

Posted on | December 18, 2013 | 25 Comments

by Smitty

Breitbart has the video of a certain grumpy old man, far past his sell-by date, pretending to lecture others about “intellectual integrity”. Enough. The old duffer has been in office for decades, while the integrity of the American government itself has spiraled down like an A-4 Skyhawk hit by Commies over enemy territory arriving at the Healthcare.gov crash.

And yet this Ryan-Murray budget debacle funds ObamaCare, while backstabbing the veterans that have been the backbone of Republican Party support:

Ahead of the final vote, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., tried unsuccessfully to use a parliamentary tactic to force a vote on the amendment, which he wrote to undo the cuts for military retirees.
A provision in the already House-passed bill would cut retirement benefits for military retirees by $6 billion over 10 years.
Sessions wanted to instead eliminate an estimated $4.2 billion in annual spending by reining in an IRS credit that illegal immigrants have claimed.
He and fellow senators argued the bill unfairly sticks veterans and other military retirees with the cost of new spending.

Precisely whom do you think you’re fooling, Senator McCain? Fox echoes your point on the Senate floor in the Breitbart clip about avoiding another shutdown:

The Republican-led House passed the bill last week in an effort to avoid another stalemate leading to a potential government shutdown, like the one in October that polls showed was largely unpopular with voters.

The unpopularity has very much to do with the perception that Congress, as a whole, is just a pack of liars.

The GOP is supposed to be the adults in the room, John Sidney, but this budget deal increases spending for the next two years. That’s like vowing to quit cheating on your wife in the future, and referring to your new commitment as “fidelity”, while on your way to the strip club. “To really do what we want, we’re going to have to win elections,” said Rep. Paul Ryan.

What would also help the GOP win elections would be to purge the deadwood, e.g. YOU, Senator McCain, to clear the way for some conservative candidates.  An actual reform platform, articulated by fresh, uncompromising faces of integrity: that would have voters saying “Maybe the Republicans aren’t a lying pack of swine, after all.”  The indifferent majority, too disgusted with the spectacle of you selling out time and again (Amnesty? Do we hear amnesty?), might be motivated to show up at the ballot box and return the GOP to power.

So either snuggle up with Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and the boys, or just retire, but please relieve stop torturing the Republican Party with your presence. And take your fatuous daughter with you.

Category: Andrew Breitbart, Budget, Red State, Republicans

LIVE AT FIVE: 12.18.13

Posted on | December 18, 2013 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Diplomatic Row Between India, US Escalates

Devyani Khobragade

India outraged by vice-consul’s strip search, imprisonment with drug offenders


Russia Offers Ukraine Financial Lifeline
Moscow hands Kiev $15 billion in loans, steep gas discount


Pope Francis Shares His Birthday Breakfast With The Homeless
The Supreme Pontiff celebrated his 77th birthday yesterday



POLITICS
Homeland Security IG Resigns Under Ethics Cloud

Charles Edwards changes offices

Promptly hired for different job within DHS

Democrats Urge Courts To Clear NSA Phone Snooping

Head Of Minnesota Health Exchanges Quits

Senate Promises To Fix Military Retirement Cut

Senator Coburn’s Wastebook: Extravagant Spending Amidst Claims The Cupboard Is Bare

Congressman Frank Wolf  (R-VA) To Retire; Also, Jim Matheson (D-UT) Stepping Down



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Ticks Up Ahead Of US Stockpile Report: NYMEX $97.41, Brent $108.56
Herbalife’s Clean Audit Won’t Deter Ackman’s Pyramid Claims
ADM To Move Headquarters To Chicago
Gold Shakes Off Fed Fears To Post Gains
Christmas Shopping Hits Homestretch
AMC Entertainment IPO Raises $332 Million
Meg Whitman Gets A Raise: HP Hikes CEO’s Salary From $1 To $1.5 Million
Google, HP Recall Chromebook 11’s Original Charger
Now, Just Wink To Click Photos With Google Glass
Facebook Plans To Roll Out Video Advertising
YouTube Launches On Roku 3
Tech Giants Invest In Internet Infrastructure



SPORTS
Portland Blazing Along With Best Record In NBA

Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge goes one on one with the Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki

Offseason moves pay off as dark horse squad goes 22-4

O’s Sign Closer Grant Balfour

Kings’ Rookie Goalie Blanks Oilers For Third Shutout In Five Games

Warriors Rout Pelicans 104-93


Wild Snap Canucks’ Win Streak With Shootout

Japanese Star In Demand – But Also In Limbo

Sharks Score Early & Often, Hang On To Beat Blues For Season Series Sweep

Obama Names Gay Athletes To Sochi Delegation, Omits Politicians

Nats Extend Triple-A Deal With Syracuse



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
John Mayer & Katy Perry Premiere “Who You Love” Video

All this…and a mechanical bull?

Video features real couples riding the bull


Warner Brothers Sets “Gilligan’s Island” As Josh Gad Vehicle

Justin Bieber Says He’s Retiring, But Is He?


Kelly Rowland Gets Engaged On Skype

Bruce Willis Expecting Fifth Child

Michael Jordan’s Expecting Twins

Disney Tackling Jesse Owens Story With “Olympus Has Fallen” Director

Village Voice Recounts R. Kelly’s Glory Days Of Raping High School Sophomores



FOREIGNERS
Rajan Surprises Yet Again As RBI Leaves Rates Unchanged
Burma Opium Production Rises Again
UN Estimates Hundreds Dead In Wake Of South Sudan Coup Attempt
Merkel’s New Cabinet Includes First Female Defense Minister
Former Thai PM Elected To Lead Opposition Democrat Party
US Sending $25 Million In New Typhoon Aid To Philippines
Foreign Office Catches Flak Over UK Doctor’s Death In Syrian Jail
Graft Probe Intensifies Turkey’s Political Rivalry
UK Women Get Six Years, Eight Months Jail Sentence From Peru For Being Drug Mules
Ukraine Opposition Demands Details On Agreement With Russia



BLOGS & STUFF
Dead Republican Party: Odds And Ends
Doug Powers: Dueling Headlines, “War On Fox News Is Over” Edition
Twitchy: Tolerance! Whiners Unfollow Mr. T After Tweet About School Gun Violence And Prayer
Sister Toldjah: #Obamacare – If We Bought Coffee The Way We Now Buy Healthcare
Chicks On The Right: People Are Offended By NORAD Tracking Santa Now Because People Need Stuff To Bitch About
Moe Lane: Tweet Of The Day, Microsoft To Take Over Healthcare.gov Edition
Camille Paglia: It’s A Man’s World, And It Always Will Be
American Power: Obama Hijacks NSA Technology Meeting To Fix #Obamacare
American Thinker: How Obama Ran Down The Nuclear Doomsday Clock
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Second Day Of Dickens – Most Fun Villain? Mr. Quilp
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, December 17
Jammie Wearing Fools: If Obama Had A Son, He Could Look Like This Punk Arrested For Seven “Knockout” Assaults
JustOneMinute: David Brooks Versus The Thought Leaders
Pat Dollard: Texas Becomes Ground Zero For Obamacare Navigator Problems
Protein Wisdom: Twelve Republican Senators Vote To Advance Budget Bill That Boosts Spending
Shot In The Dark: Chanting Points Memo – That Humungous Surplus!
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – Men Need To Be Needed
The Lonely Conservative: How The EPA Will Kill Jobs And Hike Your Energy Bills
This Ain’t Hell: Army War College May Remove Confederate Images
Megan McArdle: Is Obamacare Really An Improvement On The Status Quo?


Kindle Countdown Deals: Limited time discount on Kindle-exclusive books

Category: Live at Five

Haters Gonna Hate, Deniers Gonna Deny

Posted on | December 17, 2013 | 36 Comments

Rush Limbaugh did a brilliant riff on Chris Cillizza’s claim that only “hate” can cause people to vote Republican:

The Democrats always win the generic ballot, except when they don’t — and when they don’t, it causes an earthquake in Washington, and this has caused an earthquake. Just a couple of months ago the Democrats were winning big in the congressional ballot right after the government shutdown. So everything the Democrats and the media believe was borne out by their poll. That is: Every American loves the government. They can’t get through the day without the government.
When the government gets shut down, people get depressed and scared and panicked and are afraid to leave home, and then they blame the Republicans for it, and then the Democrats and the media celebrate. “Mission accomplished!” But two months later, the Republicans are cleaning the Democrats’ clock in the generic ballot. I mean, Charlie Cook, the dean of political analysts, says he has never seen this gigantic a shift in the generic ballot in such a short period of time.
Never.
He has never seen anything like it. So how do they explain it? What could cause such a massive reversal in just two short months? The obvious conclusion is… HATE. Hate of government. Hate of Washington. Hate of Democrats. The fact that the Republicans are leading in the generic ballot, meaning more people prefer Republicans at this point in time when the poll is taken, must mean that hate is alive and well. . . .

Read the whole thing, because it really is brilliant. Speaking of brilliant, advocates of anthropogenic global warming theory came up with a brilliant way to win the debate: Silence opponents.

See, this is how science works: You assemble a consensus of “experts” who agree with your theory, and then you conspire to prevent anyone who disagrees with you from getting any government grants or journal publications or academic positions. Then, if necessary, you conceal any data that doesn’t conform to your theory and, once you’re done with that, you proclaim “The Science Is Settled” and begin censoring public forums so that the truth of your theory can never be criticized by anyone anywhere.

See also, Lysenkoism.

Oh, by the way: The Environmental Protection Agency’s top climate change expert pleaded guilty to fraud. Might be kinda relevant.

 


Category: Global Warming, Polls

Obama: Less Popular Than Syphilis

Posted on | December 17, 2013 | 37 Comments

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

OK, maybe the headline is exaggerating a bit, but Obama’s poll numbers have definitely cratered in the past ten weeks. These two headlines were an interesting contrast of how the polls get spun:

Obama’s Current Approval Rating
Is The Ugliest Since Nixon
— Business Insider

A Drop in Opposition to Obamacare
Helps Stabilize a Struggling Presidency
— ABC News

ABC offers the “glass half-full” interpretation, viewing the dead-cat bounce as good news for the President, although we don’t actually know whether the situation is “stabilizing,” because future events could make things even worse for the White House.

Show of hands: Who remembers ABC News doing this kind of upside spin for George W. Bush during his second term? Anybody?

No, of course not. Whether or not the ABC interpretation is accurate, it takes a lot of digging in the poll numbers lately to find any encouraging news for Obama. Yet ABC’s Gary Langer was willing to do that kind of digging, because . . . Yea, Democrats! Go team!

It’s as simple as that, really. The media reports poll data according to their own hopes and expectations, and what they want is the same thing Democrats want, i.e., for this to be a short-term decline in the President’s numbers as a result of the problems related to the HealthCare.gov website, not the policy per se. The media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) are not prepared to accept the possibility that the President’s program is actually unpopular. ObamaCare simply can’t fail, from that partisan perspective, and so the reality of its failure must be explained away as a matter of misperception.

For the past five years, we’ve seen this blatant pro-Obama spin so often, in so many different contexts, that I fear we’ve begun taking it for granted, as if it is normal for journalists to engage in this kind of partisan rah-rah routine. And the stark contrast between the media’s reverential awe toward their idol and Obama’s sinking polls is a phenomenon that the media can only explain by saying that the people must be wrong!

 

 


Category: Health Care, Media Bias, Polls

‘We’re Still Kinda Stunned’

Posted on | December 17, 2013 | 34 Comments

Y’know, I really do mean to get back to blogging about some actual politics today, but I keep getting distracted. Like, I was over at AOSHQ reading Ace’s very insightful commentary on the Senate budget vote — Gabriel Malor is such a squish, am I right? — and was prepared to blog about it when I saw this sidebar headline:

Man Wins Sex With Hookers
But Dies Hours Before Prize

The 86-year-old winner of Howard Stern’s “I Want to Get My Grandpa Laid” contest was sadly unable to claim his prize after choking to death on a piece of steak just hours before he was scheduled to have a threesome with two high-class hookers.
“The guy was so full of life,” Johnny Orris’s grandson Ed told the New York Daily News.
It was Ed who entered Grandpa Johnny in the Bad Grandpa tie-in contest, hoping to give the lonely, horny widower one last hurrah.
“He was ecstatic,” said Ed. “He’d been that way ever since our trip to the Stern show.”
The deed was set to be done at the world famous Moonlite BunnyRanch in Mound House, Nevada.
To get his strength up for what he said would be the “Super Bowl of Sex,” Grandpa Johnny treated himself to a steak dinner at Harveys Lake Tahoe resort the night before the big game.
It would be his last meal.
After just a couple of bites of prime rib, Grandpa Johnny started choking.
“It was unbelievable,” Ed recalled. “The paramedics worked on him for 30 minutes. We’re still kinda stunned.”

It’s almost as if God was giving you a hint, eh?

 

Category: Sex

It’s a @CharlieSheen Christmas, Bitch!

Posted on | December 17, 2013 | 47 Comments

Perhaps you’ve forgotten the complete manic breakdown Charlie Sheen had in February and March 2011, when he announced that he was “tired of pretending I’m not special . . . a total freaking rock star from Mars,” trashing everybody, boasting about his drug intake and publicly flaunting his porn starlet “goddess” girlfriends.

What’s wrong with Charlie Sheen? Simple: He has been enabled.

His wealth and fame have been exploited by Sheen as a license to escape responsibility and treat other people as his inferiors. The TV producers who pay Sheen big bucks are part of the problem, but the real problem is Charlie Sheen himself. There are other celebrities who make big money but are not abusive a–holes. The narcissistic black hole of damaged ego at the center of Sheen’s “Hollywood Bad Boy” act has been indulged and enabled by everyone around him for so long that he doesn’t even realize how wrong it is to treat other people like objects whose only purpose in the world is to admire him and/or provide him with pleasure.

Anyway, Sheen erupted at his ex-wife Denise Richards this week:

Denise Richards is the Grinch who stole Christmas … at least according to Charlie Sheen — who’s pissed at his ex-wife for pulling the plug on his holiday plans with their daughters.
Sources close to Sheen tell TMZ Denise informed Charlie this weekend she didn’t want him to join her, Sam, and Lola on their family Christmas trip — and didn’t really explain why.
We’re told the news sent Charlie into a tailspin since he’s already not seeing twins Bob and Max this year for Christmas — they’ll be with temp guardian/Brooke Mueller’s brother Scott.
Sheen lashed out at Denise by tweeting a pic of a chopped up baseball bat — a souvenir from their wedding — with the caption, “The lie is over. I’m done being treated like a relative with a one-way ticket. #DuhNeese.”

This is typical Sheen: He habitually treats people like crap and then is outraged when they don’t tolerate his abuse.

“You’re a f***ing liar. So, you know what it’s like,
f**k you. OK, I hope you rot in f***ing hell.
You’re a piece of s**t f***ing liar and
I hope you f***ing rot in hell. So f**k you.
I hope I never f***ing talk to you again,
you f***ing c**t. F**k you.”

 Has Charlie forgotten that voice-mail message he left Denise Richards in 2005? Does he think she has forgotten it? And yet, rather than thinking about all the hurt he has inflicted on his ex-wife over the years, when she does something that makes him angry, the narcissist Charlie Sheen thinks of himself as the victim — and compounds the damage by publicly insulting her as “DuhNeese.”

Dude: Denise Richards was once the hottest woman on the planet.

There was a time when millions of guys would have died for just one smile from her, and she consented to marry you, and I don’t care what “a total freaking rock star from Mars” you think you are, you should have been grateful for that, but you weren’t.

No, you blew it, Charlie. And that’s all ancient history now, but it’s not like you’re the only dude on the planet who has problems with his ex-wife, and I make it a point never to express pity for dudes in your situation, because there’s a matter of principle involved.

“My ex-wife’s a crazy, evil, two-faced castrating bitch!”

Yeah? Well, you married her, didn’t you?

It wasn’t like somebody put a gun to your head. There are more than 3 billion women on the planet, not all of whom are crazy, evil, two-faced castrating bitches and so, even if your ex-wife is the worst woman in the world, you’re still not completely blameless.

You had a choice, and chose badly.

Or maybe not. Maybe your ex-wife is not the worst woman in the world, and you are to blame for your broken relationship. But either way, you cannot escape responsibility and the fact is, even as a 42-year-old mom, your ex-wife is still pretty doggone hot, whereas you are an increasingly grizzled old creep whose “bad boy” act has long since lost its charm. There is no reason anyone should feel sorry for you, and every reason for us to feel sorry for your ex-wife, who will always be The Only Good Thing About Starship Troopers.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to order Wild Things from Amazon Instant Video and watch “the good parts” in slow motion.

 

Category: Celebrities

‘Nobody Matters Less to Our Society Than Young Black Women. Nobody.’

Posted on | December 17, 2013 | 18 Comments

The headline quote is from a very long Village Voice interview with former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Jim DeRogatis about the sexual accusations against pop singer R. Kelly. Since the release of the singer’s latest album, Black Panties, DeRogatis has quite evidently become angry at the way Kelly’s predatory conduct has been glossed over, or even tacitly endorsed, by some music journalists.

Part of the problem, as the interview makes clear, is the issue of race: “Kelly never misbehaved with a single white girl who sued him or that we know of. Mark Anthony Neal, the African-American scholar, makes this point: one white girl in Winnetka and the story would have been different. No, it was young black girls and all of them settled [their lawsuits against Kelley]. They settled because they felt they could get no justice whatsoever. They didn’t have a chance.”

That’s only part of the problem, however: Civil lawsuits are a poor substitute for criminal prosecution. Because Kelly’s accusers filed civil suits and accepted settlements rather than making criminal charges, the impression was created that the crimes alleged against Kelly weren’t actually crimes, and that the girls involved were just “bitches, hos, and gold diggers,” as DeRogatis says.

Another part of the problem, DeRogatis explains, is that many music journalists aren’t very good journalists. That is to say, they’ve never done any actual reporting outside the world of record reviews and publicity-oriented interviews, and therefore don’t really know how to report a crime story:

A lot of people who are critics are fans and don’t come with any academic background, with any journalistic background, research background. Now, nobody knows everything, and far be it from me to say you’ve got to be a journalist or you have to have studied critical theory in the academy. Part of what we do is journalistic. Get the names right, get the dates right, get the facts right. Sometimes, on a very rare number of stories, there’s a deeper level of reporting required.

The interviewer, Jessica Hopper, makes this point:

Some of our young critical peers, they’re 24 and all they know of Kelly’s past is some vague sense of scandal, because they were introduced to him as kids via Space Jam. A lot of your reporting on this is not online, it is not Google-able. Collective memory is that he “just” peed in a girl’s mouth. . . .
I feel that a lot of younger journalists came up through blogs, not journalism school. They are fearful to write about it because they don’t know what they can say, what language they can use, if they can be sued for even acknowledging charges.

 Now, let’s be clear: This is not about whether or not you went to journalism school. I didn’t go to j-school, nor did a lot of the journalists I’ve worked with over the years. In fact, many editors will tell you not to major in journalism, but to study history or political science.

The point is, most of the skills involved in reporting can only be learned on the job in real-world situations. How do you learn to do cops-and-courts reporting? By doing cops-and-courts reporting. Unfortunately, a lot of people in the world of journalism today have never had the experience of working at a small newspaper where a staff writer has to be able to do all kinds of reporting: If the cops-and-courts guy is out sick, somebody in the newsroom draws the short straw and has to go get the daily blotter report down at the sheriff’s department.

Anyway, as Jessica Hopper says, a lot of the original reporting about the accusations against R. Kelly is “not Google-able,” which is another problem of 21st-century journalism: The absurdly lazy belief that everything worth knowing about any subject will show up on the first page of a Google search. Everything on Wikipedia is accepted as gospel, and nothing else matters.

At the end of her interview with Jim DeRogatis, Hopper embeds multiple Scribd documents with Lexis-Nexis printouts of the original Sun-Times reporting about the accusations against R. Kelly and she quotes DeRogatis about Kelly’s crimes:

Rapes, plural. It is on record. Rapes in the dozen. So stop hedging your words and when you tell me what a brilliant ode to pussy Black Panties is, then realize that the next sentence should say: “This, from a man who has committed numerous rapes.” The guy was a monster! Just say it! We do have a justice system and he was acquitted. OK, fine. And these other women took the civil-lawsuit route. He was tried on very narrow grounds. He was tried on a 29-minute, 36-second videotape. He was tried on trading child pornography. He was not tried for rape. He was acquitted of making child pornography. He’s never been tried in court for rape, but look at the statistics. The numbers of rapes that happened, the numbers of rapes that were reported, the numbers of rapes that make it to court and then the conviction rate. I mean, it comes down to something minuscule. He’s never had his day in court as a rapist. It’s 15 years in the past now, but this record exists.

 

Category: Crime, Culture, Music, Sex
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