The Other McCain

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

#JayCarneyExcuses Don’t Make Me Give You The Full Jessup Again

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | 20 Comments

by Smitty

Is there an American who looks a bigger ass than Carney? None. None bigger ass.

Channeling Colonel Jessup:

Category: humor, Libya

As a ‘Christofascist Godbag,’ I Need Some Civility Lessons From Melissa McEwan

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | 73 Comments

Let me begin this response to Melissa McEwan by citing Ann Coulter, not because she is a woman — certainly not one of those “liberal women constantly talking about their vaginas suddenly pretending to be offended by the word ‘slut'” — but because Coulter dared to tell the truth about Max Cleland’s Vietnam war injuries.

Flashback to 2002 (and I should include a “trigger alert” for liberals traumatized by that year’s mid-term elections) when Cleland was running for re-election to the Senate in Georgia. His Republican opponent Saxby Chambliss hit Cleland hard for having insisted on union rights for Homeland Security employees, Democrats claimed this was an attack on Cleland’s patriotism and, because of Cleland’s status as a disabled Vietnam War veteran, when Chambliss won the election, “Democrats began citing Cleland’s lost Senate seat as proof that Republicans hate war heroes,” to quote Coulter.

Among those who worked to craft that false narrative was notorious liar Eric Boehler, who said “Cleland lost both his legs and his right hand to a Viet Cong grenade” — which is a damned lie: Cleland was not wounded by hostile enemy action. His was not a combat injury, but inflicted by an American grenade that somebody dropped at at a division assembly area where Cleland decided to “have a beer with some friends.” Cleland himself never claimed to have been a hero, but liberals dishonestly did so, as part of a calculated strategy of playing the “chicken hawk” card against George W. Bush in the 2004 campaign.

Ann Coulter called this what it was — a lie — and when the usual suspects (Molly Ivins, Al Hunt, Joe Klein) reacted by trying to claim Coulter was impugning Cleland, Coulter let it rip in a memorably brutal February 2004 column that included this:

Liberals are not angry because I “lied”; they’re angry because I told the truth.
I wouldn’t press the point except that Democrats have deliberately “sexed up” the circumstances of Cleland’s accident in the service of slandering the people of Georgia, the National Guard and George Bush. Cleland has questioned Bush’s fitness for office because he served in the National Guard but did not go to Vietnam. . . .
Liberals simply can’t grasp the problem Lexis-Nexis poses to their incessant lying. They ought to stick to their specialty — hysterical overreaction. The truth is not their forte.

What the Cleland episode illustrated was how liberals shamelessly exploit victimhood for political gain, and never expect to be called out on it, because  then the liberals will accuse conservatives of being insensitive to victims. In her 2006 book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, Coulter explains how the “absolute moral authority” of Cleland, Cindy Sheehan and the so-called “Jersey Girls” (anti-war Democrat widows of men killed in the 9/11 attacks) was tantamount to a doctrine of infallibility: They’re victims, so you can’t argue with them.

Well . . . rape.

Can we just begin this part of the discussion by making clear that nobody is in favor of rape? Certainly, Republicans are not pro-rape, but maybe Juanita Broaddrick would have something to say about the Democrat policy on rape. (“Better put some ice on that.”) It should not be necessary to issue disclaimers like this — I’m also anti-burglary, anti-car-theft and anti-aggravated-assault — except that liberals have spent so much time trying to turn rape into a partisan issue. Exploiting rape to elect Democrats is acceptable (ask Todd Akin), but is grievously wrong when Republicans do it. In 1988, Democrat concern for Willie Horton’s victims Cliff and Angela Barnes manifested itself mainly as Mike Dukakis blathering on about his ACLU membership and liberals accusing Republicans of racism.

So when it was reported that Cleveland “house of horrors” rapist Ariel Castro is a registered Democrat, this was the kind of fact liberals were certain to ignore. The media was happy to have the Cleveland story (and the Jodi Arias verdict) as an excuse not to cover the Benghazi hearings, but now that we know the perpetrator was a Democrat, we’re likely to see a bit less coverage. And given how the media have spent the past four years endlessly trying to pin the Tea Party label on a mass murderer — from Tucson to Aurora to Boston — there must have been a huge letdown for liberals when they learned Ariel Castro is not a Rush Limbaugh listener. And, because this is National Offend a Feminist Week . . .

After checking to see whether Ms. Marcotte had indeed addressed that story (she hadn’t), I then decided to check on feminist writer Melissa McEwan. Marcotte and McEwan worked together briefly in 2007 on the John Edwards presidential campaign, a thought that always makes me smile when I think of this headline:

 Vote for Edwards, Godbag Christofascists!

As wretched as Marcotte is, it was McEwan whose penchant for obscene diatribes against Christianity did the most to get them fired from the Edwards campaign. The ironic denouement — Edwards being exposed as an adulterer, cheating on his cancer-stricken wife and siring a love child with a ditzy would-be documentary film-maker — ought to have been enough to give both Marcotte and Edwards second thoughts about how they had been blinded by their progressive ideology. But if feminists ever thought twice, they wouldn’t be feminists, would they?

Anyway, I checked, and McEwan had actually written about the Cleveland case, so I taunted her:

This was . . . ah . . . not an informed decision. McEwan responded:

No, Robert Stacy McCain, the reason this case is hard for me is not because Ariel Castro is a registered Democrat. The reason this case is hard for me is because I was raped by a man who not only raped me in my own home, but also used to take me to his home, at the end of a gun, and lock me in his basement, and hurt me there, too. It’s hard for me because, when his father found me, shivering and afraid, he told his son, “Tell her to make a pizza while she’s down there,” before he walked back upstairs and shut the door behind him. It’s hard for me because I was forced to make fucking dinner for the abuser who called me his girlfriend and his cruelly indifferent father.

So now my thoughtless error permits the narrative ju-jitsu, and my insensitivity to victims becomes the subject of the story.

Well, I’m willing to drop this and move on. Healey’s First Law of Holes, and all that. But neither am I going to be lectured about decorum by deranged hate-filled moonbats. So I’ve considered what arguments I might make if these fanatics decide to belabor the point.

Did I mention she’s crazy? No, but she did.

And it’s still National Offend a Feminist Week, you know.

 

Category: Crime, National Offend a Feminist Week

Has Somebody Told @Jack Dorsey That Twitter Was Invented by Ed Markey?

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | 5 Comments

“Breaking down those monopolies in the 1996 Telecommunications Act unleashed $1 trillion worth of private-sector capital that has created thousands of jobs — yes, you know the names, Google and eBay and Amazon and Hulu and YouTube and Facebook and Twitter — but there are thousands of other companies, many of them here in Massachusetts . . . that are the heartbeat of the new innovation economy . . .”
— Rep. Edward Markey, March 27

Everybody laughed the first time Ed Markey — apparently channeling his inner Al Gore — claimed credit for the development of online businesses that he had nothing to do with starting. And since when are Democrats about unleashing “private-sector capital,” huh?

The aroma of bovine excrement around Markey’s preposterous assertion has lingered since March, but might have dissipated were it not for the fact that Markey has made this same claim — that “breaking down those monopolies” was what made Twitter and Facebook possible — the central focus of a new campaign ad:

Right: Ed Markey invented Twitter, and Elizabeth Warren is a Cherokee princess, and I am the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte. But this isn’t just a joke about the delusional fantasies of liberals, because  polls show Ed Markey is a surprisingly vulnerable Democrat:

Two polls released this week — one by Public Policy Polling (PPP) and another by  WBUR-TV — show Republican Gabriel Gomez within striking distance of Democrat Ed Markey in next month’s special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry’s appointment as Secretary of State. Gomez, a former Navy SEAL, has targeted Markey as a career Washington politician, the “poster boy for term limits.” . . .
While liberals have defended Markey, pointing to his role in promoting the 1992 Cable Act, the key measure that made possible the expansion of broadband Internet access was the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As my ViralRead colleague Ali Akbar’s research shows, that bill originated in the Senate, not the House, and Markey’s involvement in its passage was insignificant — Republicans controlled both houses of Congress at the time.
It wasn’t as if Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole were relying on Markey’s self-declared “leadership” to get votes for what was, in fact, a relatively uncontroversial measure, whose chief critics were left-wingers like Ralph Nader and Markey’s Massachusetts colleague Barney Frank.

Markey isn’t just claiming credit for inventing Twitter, Google and Facebook. He’s claiming credit for Newt Gingrich’s bill!

Go read the full report at ViralRead. (No, he didn’t invent ViralRead.)

And of course, I’m grateful that our readers are willing to help support the blog by making contributions through PayPal and shopping at Amazon — both of which were #InventedByEdMarkey.





 

Category: Massachusetts, Senate

The Big Benghazi Lie: State Department Deleted Key Facts From Talking Points

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | 20 Comments

Jonathan Karl of ABC News reports that an entire paragraph of the CIA’s original assessment of the September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was deleted after political objections were raised by a State Department official. The deleted paragraph — which referenced prior CIA warnings about terrorist attacks in Libya — was one of numerous revisions made in the talking points:

White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department.  The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.
That would appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points in November.
“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012.  “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”
Summaries of White House and State Department emails — some of which were first published by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard — show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points.

ABC has published an eight-page document showing the 12 versions of the administration’s Benghazi talking points.

 


Category: Libya

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.10.13

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Feds Force Defense Distributed To Pull Plans For Plastic Gun From Website

The Defender

The Defender

Defense Department argues posting 3D printer plans is equivalent to weapons export

Lindsey Graham Challenges Chairman Of Joint Chiefs On Benghazi Testimony
Demands General Dempsey return to Capitol

GOP Leadership To Boycott Controversial ObamaCare Panel
IPAB “death panel” will receive no nominee recommendations from Boehner or McConnell



POLITICS
NYC Council Weighs Ordinance Allowing Non-Citizens To Vote

Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Queens), the sponsor

Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Queens), the sponsor of the non-citizen voting ordinance

Would allow taxpaying aliens to vote after six months’ residence

Senate Republicans Block Vote On EPA Nominee

Boston Marathon Bomber’s Corpse Buried Outside Massachusetts

Minnesota House Votes For Gay Marriage


No Delay For Trial Of Fort Hood Mass Murderer

Obama Makes Speech In Texas, Pivots Back To Jobs Again

Markey Hauls In Millions From Outstate PACs, Pushes Gomez To Sign “Peoples’ Pledge” Forgoing Same

Muslim Cleric Invited By Pentagon To Pray Over Fallen SEALs Condemns Them During Service



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Crude Falls Toward $104: NYMEX $96.15, Brent $104.27
JP Morgan Accused Of Illegal Collection Practices By California
Yen Falls Past 100/Dollar For First Time In Four Years
Hackers Steal $45 Million In ATM Card Breach
US Home Building Surging, But Job Growth Isn’t
Student Debt A “Roadblock” For Wider Economy
Icahn Joins Southeastern To Challenge Dell Offer
Fannie Mae Books $8 Billion Profit, Will Return $59 Billion To Treasury
Jobless Claims Fall To Unexpected Five-Year Low
30-Year Mortgage Rate Rises To 3.42%
Nvidia CEO: As Android Disrupts, Tablets Replace Low-End PCs
Softbank CEO Says Dish’s Bid For Sprint Full Of “Wishful” Numbers
FCC Advances Plan For Faster In-Flight WiFi
Facebook Buying Social Mapping/Traffic App Waze For $1 Billion
Amazon Working On Smartphone With 3D Display
Microsoft Mulling Nook Media LLC Purchase
For $300, A Utah Company Can Retrieve Vanished Snapchats
Mozilla’s Firefox OS Also To Appear On High-End Phones
Ouya Game System Gains Funding; Retail Date Pushed Back
Diablo III Auction House Staying Offline At Least Another 24 Hours



SPORTS
Penguins Blank Islanders To Retake Series Lead

Pens goalie Vokoun struggles for the puck against Islanders center Bailey

Pens goalie Vokoun struggles for the puck against Islanders center Bailey

Coach Bylsma commits reserves, routs Islanders

Snyder Says Redskins Will Never Change Name

Royals Hit Three Dingers In 6-2 Rout Of Orioles

Wild Blown Away In Decisive Game 5

Mets Beat Pirates 3-2 On Pinch-Hit Sayonara Homer

Senators Swamp Canadiens 6-1 To Advance

Dan Shaughnessy Accuses David Ortiz Of Juicing

Tebow Mum On NFL Future During Public Appearance

Tribe Sweeps A’s With 9-2 Win

Angels Protest Game, Avoid Sweep By Astros With Late Rally

Nationals Hang On For Two-Game Sweep Of Tigers



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“American Idol” Producers To Can All Four Judges?

Mariah, Randy, Nicki and Keith

Mariah, Randy, Nicki and Keith

Sources say producers concerned that core audience is gone
Randy Jackson Leaving “Idol” Regardless Of Rumors

“24” Eyes Return As Limited Series On Fox

Amanda Bynes Cops A Plea

Britney Spears Flaunts Vegas-Ready Bikini Body

Miley Cyrus Tops Maxim Hot 100

CW Renews “The Carrie Diaries” And “Nikita”

Michael & Dina Lohan Summoned To Family Therapy To Help Lindsay

“Criminal Minds” Stars Close Deals To Return As Series Renewed For Ninth Season

Jake Gyllenhaal Reads A Poem, Contributes $5000 To Mental Health Care For Military Veterans



FOREIGNERS
Bangladesh Factory Collapse Death Toll Hits 1034
Philippine Envoy Apologizes To Family Of Slain Taiwanese Fisherman
Former Pakistan PM’s Son Shot, Kidnapped At Rally
Former Guatemalan President Rios Montt Denies Ordering Genocide
Norks Reveal Allegations Against Detained American Kenneth Bae
Having Failed At Everything Else So Far, Kerry Heads For Israel To Restart Mideast Peace Process
US Responds To Karzai, Denies Wanting Afghan Bases
Philippines Mulls Withdrawal Of Troops From UN Peacekeeping Force In Syria
Assad Seeks Hezbollah Support, Will Supply “Advanced” Weapons
Kenya Lawmakers Accuse Kenyatta Of Undermining Constitution



BLOGS & STUFF
Leather Penguin: Benghazi Hearing Postscript – Where Do We Go From Here?
Doug Powers: NBC’s Chuck Todd Thinks Administration’s Actions On Benghazi “Very Rational”
Michelle Malkin: The Crucifixion Of Jason Richwine
Rush Limbaugh: Heritage Immigration Study Under Assault
NRO Corner: IQ And Immigration Policy
Lonely Conservative: Biden Calls For Illegal Immigrants To Get Dignity & Respect They Deserve
Weasel Zippers: Pwe Poll Says Fewer Than Half Support Pathway To Citizenship For Illegals
Rich Lowry: The Benghazi Patsy
Matt Welch: Benghazi Hall Of Shame
Ed Driscoll: The Benghazi hall Of Shame Has Multiple Wings
AmSpecBlog: Romney Blocked RNC Benghazi Ad
Power Line: “Invitation” – A BenghaziGate Poem
Bryan Preston: Senator Coburn Hints Another Benghazi Shoe May Drop
Bill Kristol: “The Queen’s Henchmen”
Allahpundit: Unknown Senator Blocks Lee Resolution Condemning “Abusive, Unsanitary & Illegal” Abortion Practices
Robert George And Ramesh Ponnuru: Congress And The Gosnell Case
Questions And Observations: Contradictions? See The US Government


THIS MAN SENT HIS LINKS TO THE FMJRA. LATER, HE WAS NAMED HAND OF THE KING. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

THIS MAN* SENT HIS LINKS TO THE FMJRA. LATER, HE WAS NAMED HAND OF THE KING. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

*Not an actual blogger. Your mileage may vary. Offer not valid in Westeros, The Shire, and other fictional polities lacking the internet. Please consult your doctor to see if linkagery is right for you.


Category: Live at Five

Teaching Your Kids to Hate You

Posted on | May 9, 2013 | 16 Comments

Donald Douglas calls attention to an interesting argument by Bruce Thornton about the “trickle-down” of leftism in education:

We often focus on the ideological biases of the university, where the more lunatic examples of political correctness get the most attention. But in education as in economics, there is a trickle-down effect. The grandees at the elite universities train the PhD’s who go on to second and third tier institutions, where they in turn train the students who get high school and grade school teaching credentials. They also write most of the textbooks that end up in K-12 classrooms. Thus the progressive ideology metastasizes throughout the educational system, determining the curriculum, the textbooks, and the point of view of the teachers. At that level the ideas may be garbled, half-baked, incoherent, and a collection of clichés and slogans. But they are still toxic and effective at transmitting a world-view to impressionable minds.

Please go read the whole thing, because this is exactly right: When I graduated from a state university 30 years ago, the curriculum was not corrupted with “critical theory,” “post-modernism” and other such fashionable nonsense. Our professors were perhaps, on average, a bit more liberal than our parents, but none of our professors were ranting Marxists or other such fringe ideologues.

Sixties radicalism was mainly a phenomenon of elite universities — Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, etc. — and the subsequent vogue of “political correctness” (i.e., cultural Marxism via the Frankfurt School) was likewise manifested mainly at upper-tier schools. However, in recent decades,  this elite radicalism has diffused itself throughout academia. It was a shocking revelation to me a few years ago was when Orit Sklar and Ruth Malhotra had to sue to overturn a speech-code regime (and were demonized by gay and Muslim radicals) at Georgia Tech.

Georgia Freaking Tech? The “North Avenue Trade School,” as Lewis Grizzard derisively called it? If this kind of radicalism had made it all the way to Georgia Tech, surely it was now ubiquitous, and subsequent anecdotal reports (including from my own children) confirm that the humanities and social-science faculties are overwhelmingly radical — not merely “liberal leaning,” but staffed by hard-core leftists — even at small-town community colleges.

Certainly, less than 15% of Ph.D.’s in history and political science granted by American universities in the past 20 years went to anyone who could be accused of having ever voted Republican. Whatever number of kids from Republican backgrounds enroll in college with an idea to pursue careers in the humanities, the number of conservatives who go on to graduate school in those fields is drastically smaller for three reasons: (a) students who enrolled as conservative freshmen get brainwashed into liberalism by the time they graduate; (b) university faculty and administrations are openly hostile to conservative students; and (c) “diversity.”

More than 15 years ago, when I inquired with a friend who is a history professor about the possibility of pursuing a graduate degree in that field, he told me plainly, “Don’t even bother. For a white male nowadays, a history Ph.D. and $1.25 will buy you a cup of coffee.”

The only white males who can get hired into tenure-track positions at most universities are either (a) gay, (b) radical leftists or (c) both. Even if a conservative history student was brilliant — with an honors degree from a top school — the only way he could possibly make it through to a Ph.D. and a tenured professorship at a university would be to disguise his political views.

This has been true for so long in academia (and especially on elite campuses), that the phrase “liberal professor” is nearly redundant — almost all professors in the humanities, arts and social sciences are liberal, if not indeed left-wing extremists, so that Professor Richard Dekmejian’s hateful views are scarcely unusual on campus, and if not all professors are domestic terrorists, most are at least deeply sympathetic to the anti-capitalist cause.

As university faculties have tilted ever farther to the left, this tilt has necessarily been replicated in K-12 education, and this process of ideological diffusion — what Bruce Thornton calls “trickle-down” — is gradually making educated a synonym of liberal. If it weren’t for homeschoolers and church schools and whatever mental resistance to brainwashing Rush Limbaugh inspires, all educated young people would be liberal young people.

Still, this trend is much worse at the elite level. In general, the higher the tuition, the more extreme the leftward bias of the campus, so that you might as well send your kid to the University of Pyongyang as to send him to Harvard. A few years ago, I met a conservative who had recently graduated from Yale, but there was only one of her, and that was 2007  or so, I think.

One hears rumors that about a half-dozen Republicans will get Ivy League diplomas this spring, but I don’t pay much attention to that kind of idle gossip. Let’s be honest, eh? There are probably more Baptists at Brandeis than conservatives at Columbia.

Finally, Sarah Hoyt linked me yesterday, but only to argue that I was wrong about selection effects in the media. But she’s a novelist, not a journalist, so I suppose she’s as reliable an expert on that as I am on the Ivy League, having never set foot on any of their campuses. My hatred of the academic elite is perhaps not their fault but mine, as I am temperamentally incapable of tolerating snobs.

Not a lot of Ivy League alumni at Fort Benning, but if any of those Harvard boys think they’re a match for my son, let ’em give it a shot.

Category: Education, Intellectuals

Whittle Breaks It Down To The Soft Drink Level For The Thirsty

Posted on | May 9, 2013 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Category: Uncategorized

Hope and Chains: #WarOnWomen Kidnapper Is Cuyahoga County Democrat

Posted on | May 9, 2013 | 26 Comments

Amanda Berry (left); Ariel Castro (center); Gina DeJesus (right)

“If any of the brothers were a Republican, this news would have been trumpeted by the mainstream media as tangible proof of the Republican War on Women — a narrative invented by Democrat strategists and maintained by the media in a successful effort to defeat Republican candidates in the 2012 election cycle.
“However, when a real act of war on women is perpetrated by a Democrat voter in the manner that even the most zealous Democrat strategist couldn’t have dreamed up in their worst nightmares — involving abduction, imprisonment, rape, torture, malnutrition, beatings while pregnant, and killing babies — the media doesn’t think the party affiliation is relevant.”
— Oleg Atbashian, American Thinker, “Ariel Castro, Cleveland Kidnapper, Is a Registered Democrat”

Let’s be clear: The fact that Cleveland “house of horrors” suspect Ariel Castro is a registered Democrat does not mean either:

  1. That all Democrats have rape dungeons in their basements;
    or
  2. That every resident of Cuyahoga County is a sexual predator.

These are illogical inferences, and quite possibly harmful stereotypes. Some violent sex offenders might sue you for libel if you accuse them of being Cuyahoga County Democrats. But what kind of monster would kidnap his daughter’s best friend?

Even while police and the FBI searched for DeJesus — who prosecutors now say was one of three women kept captive and repeatedly raped in Ariel Castro’s Seymour Avenue home — the accused kidnapper’s daughter was interviewed on America’s Most Wanted. …
Investigators now say that DeJesus was kidnapped that day by Arlene’s own father, who offered the girl a ride and then chained up Gina — along with his other victims, Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry — in the basement of the West Side house where they were held captive as sex slaves during years of horrific abuse. In an interview Thursday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Arlene Castro said she was “devastated” to learn that her best friend had been her father’s victim . . .

Read the whole thing at ViralRead, and while you’re at it, see if you can get feminist @AmandaMarcotte to notice this story.

Did I mention that this is National Offend a Feminist Week?

However, I must point out that investigators in Cleveland have cleared Ariel Castro’s brothers, Pedro and Onil, of any charges in connection with the rape case. So apparently they’re not kidnappers or rapists, but they might still be Cuyahoga County Democrats.

 

 

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Category: Crime, Media Bias, National Offend a Feminist Week
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