The Other McCain : Page 1406 : "One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up."

"It’s certainly a colorful expression of his personal preference." http://t.co/MKamR33GwZ — @mkhammer, putting it mildly

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 19, 2013

You’ll excuse my confusion, but amidst the hyperventilating screeches — GLAAD claiming that Phil Robertson was pushing “vile and extreme stereotypes” — maybe I missed what it was the Duck Dynasty patriarch actually said that was wrong.

“It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would
be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me.”

Is it a “vile and extreme stereotype” to say that gay men engage in anal sex with each other? Or is it in some way objectionable for heterosexuals to say that they prefer the opposite sex? Why is this offensive? To whom is it offensive and why?

“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty,” A&E said in a statement, which was reported by The Hollywood Reporter. “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”

Again: Why? Not just why has Phil Robertson been placed on hiatus, but why is A&E obliged to proclaim that they are “strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community”? Is someone threatening to sue them for discrimination?

Mary Katharine Ham points out that Duck Dynasty “averages 14 million viewers per episode,” 4 million more than the much-ballyhooed finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad. A major reason for the show’s popularity is the down-to-earth backwoods Bible-thumping wholesomeness of the Robertson family, whose values Phil Robertson rather bluntly expressed in a magazine interview.

It would seem to me that A&E is cutting off its entertaining nose to spite its profitable face, and that once again the tail is wagging the dog: The gay minority (no more than 4% of the population) dictating to the straight majority, as if the 96% had no rights at all.

Remember back when "gay" was not a synonym for "constantly in a frothing fit of outraged political anger"? http://t.co/qUlK2FDg27

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 19, 2013

Brett Kimberlin’s Conspiracy Theory and Other Recent Legal Proceedings

Posted on December 18, 2013December 18, 2013Comments

Brett Kimberlin could have been sentenced to 230 years in federal prison

“Kimberlin seemed to be the only one with a possible motive — to distract police attention from the Scyphers murder and delay or halt their quiet investigation of him.”
– R. Joseph Gelarden, Indianapolis Star, “Kimberlin case a maze of murder, deceit,” Oct. 18, 1981

“I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money . . .”
— Brett Kimberlin, Oct. 11., 2010, e-mail to Patrick Frey

The World’s Worst Pro Se Litigant™ continues to pursue his $1 million Maryland lawsuit, Kimberlin v. Walker, et al., as well as his federal RICO lawsuit, which has been dubbed Kimberlin v. The Universe, et al., as if either of these nonsensical pieces of amateur litigation has the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of success.

Unfortunately, the frivolous litigation that a perjuring bomber files against innocent people must nonetheless be taken seriously by the defendants, and therefore motions must be filed and so forth. Even if I were not among the innocent defendants in these cases, they would still be amusingly newsworthy, i.e., the notorious criminal who says he has been defamed by a vast conspiracy of law-abiding citizens. In response to my attorney’s motion to dismiss the Maryland suit, filed last month, Brett Kimberlin filed a motion that included this:

Regular readers know that I moved out of Maryland in mid-2012 to avoid harassment by Brett Kimberlin and his associates. Now, in order to assert that I am subject to the jurisdiction of Maryland courts, Kimberlin asserts (in his own words) a “conspiracy theory” claiming that John Hoge is my “agent” whose actions may be “attributed” to me “in furtherance of a conspiracy.” In other words, Brett Kimberlin alleges I am responsible for Hoge’s actions — that Hoge has acted as my “agent” in Maryland — and Kimberlin claims he can “demonstrate” this as a matter of fact.

You may ask: What is this 2006 Mackey v. Compass Marketing case that Kimberlin cites? It involved two corporate executives who were accused by a plaintiff of conspiring to reduce the commission rate they paid to a broker who lived in Maryland.

That case had nothing to do with defamation, harassment and the other “tortious actions” that Kimberlin alleges against the defendants in this suit and, I would argue, this difference is quite important, because what I have actually done (as opposed to what the convicted perjurer Brett Kimberlin falsely alleges I have done) is to report about and comment on various newsworthy events, a sort of business quite unlike the paying of commissions to brokers. In fact, my reporting and commentary were (and are) matters directly related to the exercise of freedom of speech and freedom of the press under the First Amendment. Readers should forgive me for suspecting that Kimberlin will be required to clear quite a high threshold of proof to claim that my communications with John Hoge constitute a conspiracy, rather than the ordinary business of a journalist citing sources for accounts of events.

Well, I am not a lawyer and it would perhaps be imprudent to discuss any further my own view of this particular matter. Maybe later I’ll share more amusing excerpts from Brett Kimberlin’s conspiracy theory case, but of more immediate interest:

Aaron Walker has published his motion to dismiss Kimberlin’s federal RICO lawsuit, and has also published his lengthy supplemental memorandum to that motion;
and
John Hoge notes that, even before Walker published the memorandum, that filing was already being discussed by certain persons on the Internet as if they had direct familiarity with the document.

It is perhaps merely a coincidence that Bill Schmalfeldt seems to be privy to every detail of Brett Kimberlin’s legal proceedings, but if one were prone to constructing conspiracy theories, one might allege that Schmalfeldt and others are Kimberlin’s agents.

Brett Kimberlin’s pro se litigation is outrageous because, if he had sought the counsel of any competent attorney, that attorney would have been obliged to tell him that his conspiracy theory is nuts and that he has zero chance of prevailing in court, and therefore no such lawsuit ever would have been filed. However, because no court has yet imposed sanctions on Kimberlin, the dishonest felon continues to persist in this pattern of “lawfare” harassment.

Exit Question 1: If it is defamation and harassment for the defendants to have expressed suspicion that certain people are acting on behalf of Brett Kimberlin, how are Kimberlin’s own false conspiracy allegations (e.g., that Hoge is my “agent”) not also defamation and harassment?

Exit Question 2: If your answer to the previous question is that Kimberlin’s allegations are privileged because they were made as part of a civil lawsuit, doesn’t this tend to incentivize such litigation, so that the safest way to smear a person’s reputation is to file a frivolous lawsuit crammed full of malicious accusations that would be libelous if they were published as journalism?

Exit Question 3: When are courts going to take notice of Brett Kimberlin’s own boast that he files lawsuits merely for the purpose of harassing people against whom he has a grudge?

BOMBER SUES BLOGGERS

After ObamaCare

Posted on December 18, 2013December 18, 2013Comments

Guest Blog by Dana from Ohio

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (aka Obamacare or the ACA) is proving to be difficult to implement. Can it be fixed?

It was difficult legislation to comprehend and difficult legislation to pass. It passed even though a majority of the U.S. was against it. It has endured court challenges and is still facing a few. It’s the court case that has yet to be filed that may stop this “train wreck.”

Active court cases focus on the funding of subsidies for health plans purchased on the federal exchange versus the state exchanges. The legislation set up subsidies for plans purchased through the state-based exchanges but made no provisions for plans acquired through the federal exchange. The real challenge will be when the individual mandate kicks in. Once the individual mandate is imposed legal standing to challenge it can be established.

The Obama administration had to go back on calling the individual mandate a penalty. It argued before the Supreme Court that it was a tax and not a penalty. The legislation held up because the individual mandate was deemed constitutional as a tax. But what kind of tax is it going to be? It’s not a sales tax, an excise tax nor an income tax. It’s a tax on…. nothing. It’s a tax for not doing as we’re told; a tax on bad behavior. It’s a tax on just being a citizen of this country. How can such a “tax” stand?

The ACA is barely standing under its own weight. The individual mandate will bury it.

The question before the nation is not “Can we fix Obamacare?” but rather “What are we going to do after Obamacare?”

Harvard Genius Caught in Stupid Hoax

Posted on December 18, 2013Comments

The elitist theory that Harvard students are the smartest people on the planet continues to be contradicted by reality:

A Harvard student has been charged in connection with Monday’s bomb threats which shut down four Harvard buildings and canceled finals for many students.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says Eldo Kim, 20, of Cambridge, emailed several bomb threats to offices associated with Harvard University, including the Harvard University Police Department and the Harvard Crimson, the student-run daily newspaper. . . .
According to the complaint, two officials of Harvard University, and the president of the Harvard Crimson, received identical anonymous email messages bearing a “subject” line that read “bombs placed around campus.” . . .
In the email, Kim allegedly wrote: “shrapnel bombs placed in science center, sever hall, emerson hall, thayer hall, 2/4. guess correctly. be quick for they will go off soon.”
Kim was scheduled to take a final exam at 9 a.m. in Emerson Hall. According to investigators, when he heard the alarms go off, “he knew his plan had worked.”

His “plan had worked”? Well, assuming that his plan was to get himself arrested on federal felony charges . . .

The threats drew authorities from the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the United States Secret Service; the Harvard University Police Department; the Cambridge Police Department; the Boston Police Department; and the Massachusetts State Police. . . .
The maximum penalties under the bomb hoax statute, are five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

Any common criminal could have explained to Kim that his plan was a bad idea, but they’re not “smart” enough to go to Harvard.

Via Memeorandum.

Hillary Clinton: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

Posted on December 18, 2013December 18, 2013Comments

At last, the international criminal Hillary Clinton may be brought to justice! http://t.co/5Ri2R917Z0 @jnewby1956

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 18, 2013

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!!”

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

Posted on December 18, 2013December 18, 2013Comments

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.