LIVE AT FIVE: 06.26.13

Last week, American Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. called and asked me to take a look at a Wall Street Journal op-ed column by Kevin G. Norton, “Benghazi’s Record of Broken Trust.”

Tyrrell asked me to contact Norton, which I did. Tyrrell explained he was curious about a question: Where was Obama? You may remember Chris Wallace asked this last month on Fox News:

Strange to say, we still have no answer to that question:

Unlike Chris Wallace, most in the press corps have been willing to accept the administration’s non-answers, so that we are left with what Rich Lowry has called “a blank spot” in Obama’s presidency. And to invoke the famous words of the former Secretary of State, what difference at this point does it make? Perhaps not much to civilians stateside, who might be tempted to dismiss the whole affair as another political kerfuffle in Washington, but it means a great deal to those who devote themselves to serving their nation overseas. Just ask Kevin Norton.
“It’s bothered me ever since it happened,” the 36-year-old former Army captain says of the administration’s response to the Benghazi attack. “It makes no sense at all.”
Norton served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Third Infantry Division in 2005, and was reactivated for deployment to Afghanistan as a combat adviser in 2009. Like every other American soldier, Norton was trained to “leave no man behind.” He summarizes the common understanding of troops under fire: “Everybody knows that if the s—t hits the fan, they’re going to do whatever it takes to get you out of there.”
What happened in Benghazi, Norton said in a brief telephone interview, was an “egregious violation” of that basic promise our nation makes to its courageous men and women who put their lives at risk to serve America in potentially hostile foreign countries. Although it appears Ambassador Stevens and State Department aide Sean Smith were both killed before any U.S. forces could have rescued them, the same is not true of two former Navy SEALS, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Both of them were part of a security detail that tried to save Stevens and Smith at the consulate, and were tasked with evacuating other Americans after the initial attack. Woods and Doherty were killed in a subsequent assault on the CIA annex in Benghazi. More than six hours elapsed between the first alarm from the consulate — “We’re under attack, we need help, please send help now” — and the attack on the annex in which mortar shells killed Woods and Doherty. By 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, Secretary Panetta was told of the desperate crisis in Benghazi and, about an hour later, Secretary Clinton called CIA Director David Petraeus to coordinate a response. Exactly why that response was insufficient to save the lives of Woods and Doherty remains hotly disputed. . . .

Please read the whole thing at The American Spectator.

Category: Barack Obama, Libya

Your Morning OJ Reference

Posted on | June 25, 2013 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Everyone remembers Johnny Cochran wee jingle:

IF THE FACTS DON'T FIT, YOU MUST AGIT: #Prop => A George Zimmerman Prosecution Primer http://t.co/f8wQCSf0AN @instapundit

— Smitty, Chirpologist (@smitty_one_each) June 25, 2013

The other reference.

Category: humor

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.25.13

Posted on | June 25, 2013 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
US Presses Russia As Mystery Over Snowden Deepens

Russian policemen standing in front of the Ecuadorian Embassy

Leaker supposedly was to fly to Cuba today, but wasn’t aboard today’s Aeroflot flight

Nelson Mandela In Critical Condition For Second Day
Announcement made by RSA President Zuma

Immigration Bill Advances In Senate
Border “Surge” Amendment Exposes GOP Rift As 15 RINOs Vote With Democrats For Bill

POLITICS
Supreme Court Sends Affirmative Action Case Back To Lower Court

Policeman stands watch in front of the Supreme Court

Appellate court failed to use strict scrutiny in upholding University of Texas’ use of affirmative action

Did IRS Also Scrutinize Liberal Groups?

Judge Orders ~3300 Inmates At Risk From Valley Fever To Be Moved

Utah Ban On Gay Marriage Likely To Stick Regardless Of Supreme Court’s Decision

Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone Gets High Court Review

Supreme Court To Weigh Recess Appointments

Texas House Approves Abortion Restrictions

Union-Connected Group Slips IRS Scrutiny

Senator Rips Pentagon Over Contract With Russians Supplying Assad Regime

Supreme Court Won’t Block Sales Of 15% Ethanol Blend

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Drops After Biggest Increase In Three Weeks: NYMEX $94.95, Brent $100.86
PRC shares Extend Losses, Sink To 4 1/2 Year Lows
Founder Zimmer Resigns From Mens’ Wearhouse Board
Mass Layoffs At Top-Flight Law Firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Carl Icahn Seeking $5.2 Billion In Loans For Dell Takeover Bid
McDonald’s Removes Halal Food Items From Menu After Lawsuit
iOS 7 Beta Arrives With Updates, Version For iPad
Rivals Microsoft, Oracle Bonding In The Cloud
Hands On With AOL Reader
Device Shipments Up 6% To 2.4 Billion In 2013, Mostly Driven By Android Phones And Tablets
Microsoft Parks Cloud Over $700 Million Iowa Data Center

SPORTS
Blackhawks Beat Bruins 3-2, Win Stanley Cup

Blackhawks collect the Cup

Chicago scored two in the third period for a comeback win after Bruins jumped out to an early 1-0 lead
Boston’s Bergeron Played With Broken Rib, Torn Cartilage, And Separated Shoulder

Hellickson, Rays Cool Off Surging Blue Jays

Big Ten, Pac-12 Announce New Bowl Affiliations

O’s Option Veteran Pitcher Garcia To Triple-A

Indians Send Down Carrasco, Call Up House

Shaw To Replace Karl As Nuggets Coach?

Clippers, Celtics Still Waiting League Approval For Rivers Trade

Brantley Carries Tribe To 5-2 Victory Over Orioles

Harper To Begin Rehab Tonight At Single-A Potomac

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Heidi Klum Is Removing Her Seal Tattoo

Because frankly, all of the other pix today were fugly.

Keeping the stars, losing the Seal

Police Question Scottie Pippen After Malibu Assault

Paramount, Brad Pitt Setting Sights On “World War Z” Sequel

George Lucas Gets Married

Rapper Fat Joe Gets Four Months For Shorting Uncle Sam’s Take

Jim Carrey Condemns Gun Violence In His New Movie “Kick-Ass 2” (After Cashing Checks)

Paula Deen Loses Smithfield Ham Endorsement Deal; Thanks Fans For Support – But Al Sharpton’s Got Her Back

Chris Brown Accused Of Assaulting Girl In Nightclub

Former “Full House” Actress Jodie Sweetin Files For Divorce

Amanda Bynes Declares Herself A “Hero” For Having Nose Job

FOREIGNERS
Former Italian Premier Berlusconi Gets Seven Years, Lifetime Ban From Politics In Prostitution Case
Egyptian Army Ready To Step In If Anti-Morsi Rallies Turn Violent
Islamist Governor Of Luxor Resigns To Prevent Bloodshed
Brazil’s Rousseff Calls For Constitutional Reform To Placate Protesters
Afghan Forces Crush Taliban Attack On Presidential Palace
Musharraf May Be Among Former Rulers Charged With Treason
Qatari Emir Set To Hand Over Power To Son
ROKs Issue Cyberattack Alert As Government Sites Shut Down On 63rd Anniversary Of Korean War

BLOGS & STUFF
Stephen Crowder: What We’ve Learned From Paula Deen’s Racism
Michelle Malkin: Mass Illegal Alien Amnesty Violates Our Founding Principles
Sarah Palin: Holes In The Border As Big As The Holes In Their Amnesty Bill
Vodkapundit: Et Tu, Marco?
Senator Ted Cruz: Latest “Deal” From The Senate? Pass Amnesty Now, Read The Bill Later
Hot Air: White House Trying To Rein In SecState Kerry?
Moe Lane: THE SEED THAT IS JOHN KERRY CANNOT BE CONTAINED OR DEFINED.
Allahpundit: Cold War – US Tells Russia To Cough Up Snowden, Or Else
Commentary: Putin Is Cleaning Obama’s Clock
Power Line: How Could A Goofy Techie Expose Our Government’s Incompetence?
AmSpecBlog: Supreme Court Punts On Affirmative Action
Volokh Conspiracy: Preliminary Thoughts On Fisher V. University Of Texas
NRO Corner: “Lookout List” Not Much Broader Than Originally Thought, Contrary To Reports
Bryan Preston: IRS Chief Admits Agency Improperly Targeted Groups Through May 2013
Ed Driscoll: Leave Barry Alone!!!
Professor Bainbridge: Memo To Roger Goodell – I’ll Take My NFL Football Without Obamacare Propaganda, Thank You
Conservatives4Palin: NYT Says Evil Gun Companies Should Pay Blood Money Or Something

Category: Live at Five

Rule 5 Monday

Posted on | June 24, 2013 | 32 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Better late than never. Don’t click the links when & where you shouldn’t. If excitement lasts more than four hours, consult your doctor.

Laughing Conservative leads off this week by dishing up the spicy Adriana Curry, followed by Blackmailers Don’t Shoot with Pretty Girls On A Thursday: Booth Babes Edition, and Randy’s Roundtable with Emmanuelle Vaugier. 90 Miles From Tyranny brings us Girls With Guns and Morning Mistress, while Animal Magnetism checks in with Rule Five Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon, this week featuring Czech bombshell Vica Kerekes. Reaganite Republican has some Russian Rule 5 controversy with Miss Russia, Elmira Abdrazakova, who apparently isn’t Slavic enough for some folks. Fishersville Mike contemplates new series Back In The Game and wonders if it’ll last into the next NBA season. First Street Journal’s contribution this week is Mostly Marines.

EBL goes from Vladimir Putin to nekkid Russian whale swimmers in nothing flat before offering Bob Dylan, Hairy Leg Stockings, Kate Upton Topless On A Horse, and what I can only conclude is some drug-fueled Photoshopping of Paula Deen*.

A View From The Beach has What Amber Heard, a great Russian ad, TSA Goes Into Slut-Shaming, Beauty (Not Brains) Contests, Some People Will Do Anything For Science, Don’t Bet Against The Redheads, and Musical Weirdness.

Wine, Women and Politics returns with Alice Goodwin, Alison Waite, Gracie Lewis, and Rachel Burr.

Soylent Green this week had Your AM Angel and Afternooner Leanna before starting off the work week with Monday Motivationer Lisa Marie, followed by Tuesday Titillation Melissa Riso, Humpday Hawtness Melissa Jacobs, Evening Awesome Alanna, Falconsword Fursday Cristy, Soylent Solstice Spassfabrik, T-GIF Friday, Cameltoe With Distractions, Afternooner Julia, and concluding with Overnighty Rebecca.

Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe was Odette Annable, his vintage babe was Shelly Fabares, and Madonna has the Sex In Advertising covered. Dustbury offers Alessandra Ambrosio and Cyndi Lauper for our consideration, while at The Camp of the Saints, it’s Miriam Gonzalez. Three Beers Later checks in with Georgia peaches, Jesse James, Laura Bell Bundy, The Jane Dear Girls, and Dustin Lynch’s She Cranks My Tractor.

The DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes this week included Ellen Roche, Ana Carolina de Fonseca, Jamilette Gaxiola, Kay Silvay, Betty Nguyen, Rosci Diaz, Aina Kaneshiro, Paula Andrea Giraldo, Serinda Swan, Miss USA Erin Brady, Tatiana Ramos, Krista Ayne, Ayana Tanigaki, and Juliette Cabrera.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Links for next week’s Rule 5 roundup should be in the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox no later than Saturday, June 29.

*Actually SFW, but whether it’s going to require brain bleach anyway is another matter.

Category: Rule 5

‘It’s Tough to Be a Man, Baby!’

Posted on | June 24, 2013 | 67 Comments

The title line from the unfortunately forgotten 1983 comedy D.C. Cab came to mind today when I encountered yet another reaction to the controversial new bestseller by Dr. Helen Smith, Men on Strike: Why Men are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream–and Why it Matters. It seems that everyone has an opinion on this book, one way or the other, and a pseudonymous contributor to Ricochet offered his own anecdotal reflections:

Here’s a bit on Fox and Friends discussing it. One quote from the book pretty much sums up the problem as seen by the author:

[The] new world order is a place where men are discriminated against, forced into a hostile environment in school and later in college, and held in contempt by society. Maybe there is no incentive to grow up anymore. It used to be that being a grown-up, responsible man was rewarded with respect, power and deference. Now, not so much.

While all that is true, I think it misses another, possibly bigger, dynamic, namely that being a man is hard. . . .
While the things pointed out in the book may be true, I think the real reason many men are abandoning traditional roles is plain old-fashioned selfishness. Society pushes self first in every aspect of our lives. Selflessness and sacrifice are scorned. Boys are taught about their rights rather than instructed in what is right. The author is wrong. Real men were never in the marriage/family game for what they could get out of it; rather, they were in it because it is the right and good thing to do, even if it’s hard.

Although I hesitate to quote anyone saying flatly that the InstaWife is wrong (!) certainly the Ricochet commentator has a point: A stoic commitment to duty, without regard for narrowly selfish interests, is the essence of responsible manhood. My father worked 37 years at the Lockheed Georgia plant in Marietta not because he had no other ambition beyond the factory gates, but because providing for his family was his foremost obligation as a man. And very few young people today, male or female, seem to understand that old-fashioned idea.

Yet this does not prove Dr. Helen wrong. The incentives that once encouraged men to do the right thing — the sensibility of duty — were complex and layered, not simple and superficial. Our culture once venerated Great Men who by word and deed exemplified that nobility of character required to accept responsibility for failure, and to quietly pursue the course of honor, rather than to scapegoat others for our misfortunes and dishonestly seek undeserved glory.

No man should crave a respect he has not truly earned, nor resent the humiliation for any failure that was within his power to avert.

In every enterprise we undertake, therefore, we must do everything within our power to achieve success and, should our efforts fail, blame only ourselves: “It is all my fault.”

People don’t think that way any more. Craving a good reputation in a superficial culture, they concern themselves with the external representation of virtue, rather than its true essence, and lose sight of the distinction between seeming and being.

A society that celebrates victimhood has little regard for the spirit of loyalty and humility that endures hardship without complaint. It is precisely these manly virtues which deserve more praise, and which are instead stigmatized by the radical egalitarian obsession with “rights.”

And you should buy Men on Strike: Why Men are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream–and Why it Matters.

Category: Books, Culture, Dr. Helen, Feminism

Ben Smith Wants You to Ignore This

Posted on | June 24, 2013 | 122 Comments

As soon as Edward Snowden came forward as the “face” of the NSA leaks, the question immediately suggested itself: “Hero or Traitor?”

Revelations about the NSA surveillance program had made worldwide headlines. Coming on the heels of other scandals, it seemed to fit into an emerging neo-Nixonian picture of the Obama administration. As I wrote Friday at The American Spectator:

Welcome to America in 2013, where Hope and Change have transmogrified into Fear and Loathing, where even a liberal reporter who last year praised Obama as “one of the most talented politicians around” could not resist the pervasive paranoia inspired by what voters were once promised would be “the most transparent administration in history.” Between the IRS secretly punishing the president’s political enemies, the Justice Department secretly seizing reporters’ phone records and the NSA’s secret surveillance, the only thing transparent about this administration is its dishonest hypocrisy.

One little problem: The IRS scandal and the DOJ scandal are genuine scandals — clear-cut abuses of power — whereas the NSA surveillance program had no actual victims. That is to say, while the NSA’s access to phone and e-mail records raises Fourth Amendment concerns about potential abuse, there is no one who can point to an instance where actual abuse has occurred. So far as we know, no one has been arrested on the basis of illegally obtained information or targeted by the NSA because they’re on Obama’s Enemies List of political opponents.

Apparently, Glenn Greenwald’s idea to solve this problem was to present the world with Edward Snowden as the hero-victim, making him the symbol (as Greenwald saw it) of how the administration was punishing courageous truth-tellers. However, rational people (a category from which Greenwald long ago excluded himself) recognized this as problematic: Snowden wasn’t an IRS employee revealing important truths about unlawful political abuse of government power, or a DOJ staffer disclosing the surveillance of journalists. Snowden had top-secret clearance at an agency whose express mission it is to gather communications (“signals intelligence,” or sigint) about America’s enemies. There is a world of difference between these two categories, and my antennae detected this difference when I saw the quote from Snowden praising Army Pvt. Bradley Manning as “a classic whistleblower” who “was inspired by the public good.”

Thanks for clearing that up, Ed: Having declared that Manning is a traitor who should be shot by a firing squad, I needed nothing else but your praise of him to form an opinion of you. If Bradley Manning is your hero, you can share a cell with him at Leavenworth.

Army privates don’t get to decide what classified documents the Army keeps secret, and 29-year-old computer nerds don’t get to decide what NSA operations our enemies can know about. And there was a certain too-good-to-be-true quality to the narrative:

Hollywood Script: Hipster Geek With Hot
Girlfriend Fights ‘Omniscient’ Government

Something about this movie scenario I instantly disliked. If leaking top-secret information made Ed Snowden a hero, then everyone with access to classified information who doesn’t leak it is a villain. And the more I looked at the backstory, the less I liked it:

After leaving the CIA a few years later, however, Snowden seemed disillusioned and suspicious toward government. In a comment on an Ars Technica article about surveillance software developed by Cisco, Snowden expressed concern about “how little this sort of corporate behavior bothers those outside of technology circles.” Criticizing what he called an attitude of “unquestioning obedience,” Snowden suggested that such surveillance had “sneaked in undetected because of pervasive government secrecy.”

Oh, what fresh hell is this? When I see the word “corporate” used as a pejorative, coupled with a jab at “unquestioning obedience,” I don’t think of Jefferson, Madison and Patrick Henry. Instead I think of Theodor Adorno, C. Wright Mills and Herbert Marcuse — the leftist indictment of 1950s America as proto-fascist oppression. I also think of every disgruntled misfit I’ve ever had the misfortune to know, malcontent whiners grumbling about the “bosses” and doing their best to spread demoralization throughout the organization.

Lee Stranahan yesterday finally went off on the conservatives who have made their pilgrimage to the Sacred Temple of Saint Edward the Whistleblower, where Glenn Greenwald presides as High Priest.

About damned time somebody said it. Greenwald had been secretly communicating with Ed Snowden for months. Greenwald timed the disclosure of the NSA documents and then presented the world with the Heroic Truth-Teller in a carefully scripted morality tale, and some people swallowed the entire narrative without stopping to think: How do we know Ed Snowden is actually telling the truth?

Gen. Keith Alexander says Snowden is lying and so we have to ask ourselves who we believe, the career Army officer who has dedicated his entire life to defending America from its enemies, or the dropout gamer who is Glenn Greenwald’s new man-crush?

Meanwhile, emerging from the JournoList conference call to share with us the Official Media Consensus, Ben Smith declares that Ed Snowden’s motives ares now utterly irrelevant to the narrative.

Permit me to quote from memory: “Fuck you. War.”

ADDENDUM: How strangely coincidental that Ben Smith decided to declare Snowden’s motives irrelevant as soon as Saint Edward embarked on the Grand Tour of America’s Adversaries.

If you hate America and love the idea of it being at risk, Snowden is your guy. So is Greenwald. If you don't hate America, you bet wrong.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Category: Crime, Journalism, Military

@TedCruz & The Broken Immigration Record: Heard This Bef–Heard This Bef–

Posted on | June 24, 2013 | 25 Comments

by Smitty

Senator Cruz at Red State:

On Monday at 5:30pm, the United States Senate will vote on the most sweeping immigration reform proposal it has considered in almost 3 decades – and it will do so having only seen the nearly 1200 pages of text for approximately 72 hours. Americans – including myself, my fellow senators and our staffs – are still trying to figure out exactly what is in the new Schumer-Corker-Hoeven “deal.”
Sound familiar? Pass it to find out what’s in it? Reminiscent of Obamacare, the lengthy amendment to replace the Gang of 8’s original bill was crafted behind closed doors and introduced late on Friday, after many members had left town. In the 2007 immigration debate, close to 50 amendments were considered. But this year, we have only debated 9 – with some of us being completely shut out.
Given only a weekend to review the language, we will now vote on whether to end a debate that never really began. To be clear – this is not a difficult vote. On process alone, we should all vote “no.“ This was by design – the President, Harry Reid and the Gang of 8 preferred all along to ram through a “deal,” and not have a real debate – just like Obamacare.

Read the whole sordid account.
Via his petition link:
There really isn’t terribly much hope in the Senate. Meanwhile, to clip Drudge:

And as if all that didn’t suck enough:

Opponents of the Gang of Eight immigration bill have spent the weekend looking for hard-to-find changes in a piece of legislation that was substantially re-written by the Hoeven-Corker amendment. But there’s one big change that’s right out in the open — impossible to miss, in fact.
The original Gang bill ended with a section designated Title IV, which was headlined REFORMS TO NON-IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAMS. The Hoeven-Corker version of the bill added a Title V, with the headline JOBS FOR YOUTH. The measure would provide $1.5 billion in the next two years to provide jobs for Americans between the ages of 16 and 24. It was originally pushed by Democratic Sen. Bernard Sanders, who wanted to come to the aid of young workers who were “hard hit by the Wall Street-caused recession.” Now, Sanders says immigration reform will further damage youth job prospects.

How rich would we all be if they’d just taken all of the giveaways, divided by the population, and cut us all a check? The answer is: no more rich, because proper economics don’t work the way this tooth-fairy government seems to think they do.
John Boehner, you’d better not go wobbly.

Category: Immigration, Red State, Republicans

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The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.26.13

Benghazi: The Unanswered Question

Your Morning OJ Reference

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.25.13

Rule 5 Monday

‘It’s Tough to Be a Man, Baby!’

Ben Smith Wants You to Ignore This

@TedCruz & The Broken Immigration Record: Heard This Bef–Heard This Bef–

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

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