LIVE AT FIVE: 05.14.13

GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! viralread.com/2013/05/13/ver… GOSNELL CONVICTED ON 3 MURDER COUNTS – via @viralread #tcot #prolife

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 13, 2013

CNN headline:

Doctor found guilty of first-degree murder
in Philadelphia abortion case

Memeorandum thread, and everybody should read Steven Ertelt’s description of the three murder victims:

Baby Boy A was the biggest baby that Kareema Cross had ever seen delivered at Gosnell’s abortion “House of Horrors” clinic in the four years she worked there. He was delivered to 17-year old Shaquana Abrams at 29.4 weeks gestation, according to an ultrasound record. Baby Boy A was so large, he did not fit into the plastic shoe box that Gosnell tossed him in. Cross said she saw the baby pull in his arms and legs while Gosnell explained the movements as “reflexes” telling her the baby really didn’t move prior to cutting the baby’s neck. Baby Boy A was so large, Gosnell joked that “this baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.” Cross and fellow employees Adrienne Moton and 15-year old Ashley Baldwin were all so “startled” by the size of the baby that they all took photos of the baby with their cell phones.
Baby C was an intact baby of over 25-weeks gestation. Kareema Cross testified that she saw Baby C breathing and described the up and down chest movements she observed for 20 minutes. She told the court she saw Lynda Williams lift the baby’s arm and watched as the newborn drew it back on its own power. Afterwards, Williams inserted surgical scissors into the baby’s neck and “snipped” the spinal cord. Gosnell was said to be in the room at the time. This baby’s murder charges were unintentionally dismissed in the place of Baby F, but were reinstated after Judge Minehart discovered his error.
Baby D was described by witnesses as 12-15 inches long with the head the size of a “big pancake” when he was delivered into a toilet. Kareema Cross testified that she saw the baby struggling, using swimming motions in an attempt to get out of the toilet bowl. Adrienne Moton pulled the baby out and “snipped” the neck, as Gosnell had taught her to do, while the mother watched. Gosnell has also been charged with Criminal Solicitation of Moton to commit murder of Baby D.

Babies “A,” “C” and “D” — they never had names and we don’t know who the mothers or fathers were. All we know is that Kermit Gosnell murdered them. It was premeditated, “with malice aforethought.” And somewhere covered by those “penumbras and emanations,” liberals think there is a right to kill babies.

Evil. MT @stevenertelt: BREAKING: NARAL Blasts Pro-Lifers After #Gosnell Found Guilty of Murder bit.ly/12pRzPk

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 13, 2013

@rsmccain @amandamarcotte Let’s be real: #Gosnell did nothing other abortionists don’t do, it’s just that he was much sloppier.

— Dana Pico (@Dana_TFSJ) May 13, 2013

@rsmccainYeh, Mad Mandy condemned Gosnell for not washing up the sink afterwards, that’s about it

— KBDaBear (@kbdabear) May 13, 2013

Disgraceful NYT on Gosnell’s living, breathing victims: ‘Fetuses … removed from their mothers’ bit.ly/ZVAcmx

— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) May 13, 2013

You know how liberals like to pretend that all women are in favor of abortion? Those liberals obviously have never met my wife.

My wife’s reaction to #Gosnell verdict: “Now are they going to chop him up into little pieces and suck his brains out?” (She’s #prolife.)

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 13, 2013

Category: Abortion, Crime

The Fate of Basseley Nakoula

Posted on | May 13, 2013 | 31 Comments

Whatever happened to Nakoula, whose video didn’t really inspire the ‘demonstration’ that didn’t actually happen in Benghazi?

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 13, 2013

@rsmccain Nakoula is in La Tuna Federal prison in West Texas bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFi… Scheduled for release on 9/26/13

— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) May 13, 2013

“Hillary’s promise of vengeance to the father of a fallen SEAL wasn’t that we’d get the jihadis who killed him but that we’d punish the filmmaker. That’s perverse, but in keeping with the fact that she decided to run ads on Pakistani TV apologizing for the film while Islamist cretins menaced American diplomats across the region.”
— Allahpundit, Oct. 25, 2012

The wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time: Nakoula was out on “supervised release” for a federal bank fraud conviction. He was $700,000 behind on restitution payments and operating under an alias when he made “The Innocence of Muslims,” a crappy movie that got turned into a YouTube video clip that in turn became the pretext of riots in Egypt and then — it is now generally acknowledged — was utilized as a flimsy excuse by the State Department in an attempt to distract from its embarrassing failures in the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Having become unintentionally famous, the con man Nakoula was arrested and hustled into federal court amid unusually high security two weeks after the Benghazi attacks. We need not wonder why Eric Holder’s Justice Department made this a top priority:

“We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
— Hillary Clinton, Sept. 14, 2012

There was a sort of argument last week between Ken White at Popehat and some conservatives who insist on calling Nakoula a “political prisoner.” Alternately, Rich Lowry calls Nakoula a “patsy,” but this really isn’t the argument we need to be having.

The Nakoula case isn’t about anyone’s free speech rights. The First Amendment doesn’t protect the right of convicted criminals to operate under aliases in potentially lucrative business while owing restitution to the victims of their earlier crimes. While I wholly endorse the right to speak truth about Islam — and to hell with any mob of violent savages who object — Ken White is correct that Nakoula is neither a “political prisoner” nor a heroic martyr for free speech.

But this isn’t really about Nakoula at all, is it?

What the case of Nakoula actually demonstrates is the strangely misplaced priorities of the Obama administration: Eight months later, they still haven’t caught any of the terrorists who killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, but they needed only two weeks to apprehend Nakoula.

“We got him,” Hillary told a relative of a #Benghazi victim, referring to Nakoula. You got what? The YouTuber who had nothing to do with it?

— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) May 6, 2013

You know who wasn’t ordered to stand down? The 10-member SWAT team that arrested crappy YouTube video guy. #stillinjail

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 6, 2013

Genuinely dangerous people seem to have no problem eluding federal investigators. Ariel Castro kidnapped women and kept them in his Cleveland basement for more than a decade, while the FBI never even considered the wife-beating school-bus driver a suspect. Nor was Castro the only menace to evade the FBI.

Too bad the feds didn’t take Tamerlan Tsarnaev as seriously as they took Basseley Nakoula.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 13, 2013

The good news? The feds are finally cracking down on those dangerous high-capacity pressure cookers. About damned time, too . . .

Category: Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, Libya, Scandal

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.13.13

Posted on | May 13, 2013 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
As Many As 19 Injured In New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade

New Orleans police searching for suspects

No fatalities; two children hit

Nawaz Sharif Hopes Third Time’s Lucky As Pakistan’s PM
What will he do about endemic economic woes and corruption?

Treasury Department, Federal Reserve To Investigate Bloomberg News Over Privacy Breach
How much were journos able to snoop using company’s terminals?

POLITICS
Democrats Claim 2016 Politics Driving Benghazi Controversy

Wishful thinking

Senators Durbin, Feinstein claim it’s all about getting Hillary

Environmentalists Vow To Elect Markey

Ohio Senate Plans Small Business Tax Cut

GOP Gets Tough With Obama: Obstructions And Delays Disrupt President’s Agenda

Senator Alexander Says HHS Secretary Sebelius’ Actions May Be Illegal

Elon Musk Quits Zuckerberg’s FWD.us

GOP Slams IRS’ Tea Party Targeting As “Chilling”, A Form Of Intimidation

Detroit’s Emergency Manager Offers Dire Report

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Falls As Dollar Strengthens: NYMEX $95.21, Brent $103.24
Nikkei Hits 5 1/2 Year High On Weak Yen; Financials, Exporters Lead
PRC Investment Slows As Production Trails Estimates
Old Tech Fuels New Energy Boom
ECB’s Visco Says Economy Could Withstand Deposit Rate Cut
Lloyds Banking Chairman Bischoff To Retire Next May
JP Morgan Board Unanimously Backs Dimon As CEO
Sony Xperia ZR Lets You Shoot Full HD Video Underwater
Samsung 5G Hits 1Gbps In Tests
With Windows Blue, Microsoft May (Finally) Do The Right Thing
Google Quietly Kills SMS Search
Facebook’s iPhone Culture Builds An Overzealous Home On Android
Apple Deluged By Police Demands To Decrypt iPhones
Google Fights Glass Backlash Before It Even Hits The Street
Google Wallet Chief’s Resignation Another Bad Sign For NFC

SPORTS
Red Wings Finish Off Ducks 3-2 In Game Seven

Red Wings celebrate their win

Detroit does it without having to play in OT, for once

Warriors Beat Spurs 97-87 In OT, Tie Series At Two Apiece

Leafs Edge Bruins To Force Game 7

Rizzo, Cubs Agree To Seven-Year Extension

Lundquist Shuts Out Caps As Rangers Force Game 7

Mets, Valdespin Get Crushed By Pirates 11-2

Reynolds’ Pinch Hit In Tenth Gives Tribe Sweep Of Tigers

Giants Wrap Up Homestand With 5-1 Drubbing Of Braves

Astros Rally Late, Can’t Overcome 12-1 Rangers Lead

Frustration Abounds As Nats Fall To Cubs Late

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Barbara Walters Announces 2014 Retirement

Barbara Walters

Punching out after 53-year career; started with NBC’s “Today Show” in 1961

Seth Meyers To Replace Jimmy Fallon On “Late Night”

Lindsay Lohan Told She’ll be Jailed If She Changes Rehab Clinics

Halle Berry Loves Mother’s Day Because She Doesn’t Have To Plan It

NBC Cancels “The New Normal”

ABC Renews “Nashville”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Scandal”, More

Kanye West Flips Out On Photographer After Banging Head On Sign

Britney Spears And Her Brood Cruise For Coffee

FOREIGNERS
Chicom Anti-Corruption Agency Probes Top Planning Official
The EU Shadow Over David Cameron’s US Agenda
Predictably, Norks Wig Out Over USS Nimitz’ Arrival For War Games
Pope Francis Bestows Sainthood On Italians Massacred By Ottomans
Netanyahu Takes Flak Over Bed On Plane
British Tories In Fresh Turmoil Over EU
After Car Bombings, Turkey Calls For World To Act Against Syria
Boko Haram: Nigerian Opposition Rejects Emergency Rule
Australian Government Again Delays Foreign Aid Increases
Filipino Clans, Celebrities Dominate Midterm Polls

BLOGS & STUFF
Valley of The Shadow: Two Hacks Who Hate Nixon And Watergate, But Excuse Obama
Weasel Zippers: IRS Probes Extended To Groups Criticizing Government, Teaching About Constitution
Scared Monkeys: Senator Collins Disappointed That Obama Hasn’t Personally Condemned IRS Excesses
PJ Tatler: WaPo Calls For IRS To Be Investigated
Nice Deb: Pickering And Mullen Accept House Committee’s Invitation To Submit Depositions On Banghazi
Legal Insurrection: David Gregory Calls Carney’s Explanations Of Revised Talking Points “Not Accurate”
Gateway Pundit: Sorry, Libs – Whistleblower Hicks Not A Partisan Hack, He’s A Democrat
Ed Morrissey: Petraeus Called Final Benghazi Talking Points “Useless” The Day Before Rice’s Full Ginsburg
Atlas Shrugs: A Savage Culture – Jihottie
Riehl World News: Smitten Teen Girls Stir Up #FreeJahar Mania For Boston Marathon Bomber
Lonely Conservative: Happy Mothers Day
Gateway Pundit: Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich – Of Course Benghazi Talking Points Were Politically Scrubbed
Boris Johnson: We Must Be Ready To Leave The EU If We Don’t Get What We Want

Category: Live at Five

My Wife Is a Soldier’s Mom

Posted on | May 12, 2013 | 25 Comments

Army son will be up at 4 a.m. Number 15 in his “chalk” at Airborne school — first man out of his plane in Monday’s first jump.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 13, 2013

Today was Mother’s Day, and I realized I never got around to posting the photos of my Army son’s graduation from Infantry School. My wife cried, she was so proud of him. Here he is, wearing the infantry “blue cord,” with his favorite drill sergeant:

It was nice to see the boy all grown up and, despite all that training, still cocky as ever. Here he is during his 72-hour pass in Columbus:

Not much question where he gets the good looks, is there?

So now our son’s in Airborne school, and Monday will be his first jump. Paratroopers are divided up into “chalks” of 30 men, and the Number 15 man in the chalk is the first to jump. Hooah!

Mother’s Day is, by custom, also the final day of National Offend a Feminist Week, which Mr. G. celebrates with an entirely appropriate declaration: “Now go get me a beer.”

Category: Military, Mrs. Other McCain, National Offend a Feminist Week

No, You’re Not a Feminist

Posted on | May 12, 2013 | 12 Comments

Two years ago, I got in a long argument with my friend Little Miss Attila about feminism, specifically her claim that there is such a thing as “conservative feminism,” which I countered by citing the history of modern feminism from Betty Friedan to Susan Brownmiller as demonstrating that feminism always was a movement of the radical Left. And it still is, as can be seen by the ways in which feminists habitually align themselves in solidarity with other so-called “progressive” movement radicals. Consider this example, which I found in an article highlighted in the “Top Stories” feature of the blog Feministing:

Welcome to the very first post in Feministing’s new sex advice/education column! I’m Elliott, a poly queer kinky trans POC community organizer and radical sex educator. I’ve been educating folks on how to safely and consensually let their freak flags fly for 10 years. I’ve been a peer educator through Planned Parenthood’s ”Reach One Teach One” program, worked at the Sexual Offense Prevention Policy Offices of Antioch College, was a founding member of the Sex E Collective at the New School, and peddled sex toys at the feminist and queer-owned stores Smitten Kitten and Babeland.
I believe that having hot, safe(r), and consensual sex is a vital tool in reclaiming our bodies and giving patriarchy and misogyny a big old kick in the pants, as well as a potential tool for self-care and healing. I always approach this work from a body-positive, sex-positive, queer-positive, trans-positive, anti-oppressive lens . . . My framework is one that supports for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse, as well as one that stands in solidarity with folks who participate in sex work. I strongly oppose slut-shaming and victim-blaming, and want this to be a space where everyone feels comfortable bringing any and all questions.

Anyone can read that and see that there is nothing “mainstream” about it and certainly it does not reflect a conservative viewpoint. It’s about movement solidarity, and so there is the obligatory rainbow-flag-waving “poly queer kinky trans” identification, the citation of credentials that include working for Planned Parenthood, and the ritual denunciation of patriarchy and misogyny.

This is a declaration of the Left’s position on sex, offered by a self-described “radical sex educator,” and featured as a Top Story at Feministing. You cannot be a feminist if you don’t share that perspective, because the editors of Feministing do not tolerate dissent, as made clear by their comments policy:

What isn’t tolerated (and if you’re unsure, err on the side of caution):
– Blaming the victim
– Fat-shaming
– Racist, sexist, ageist, transphobic, sizeist, ableist, homophobic commentary
– Plain malice (i.e.: comments that don’t further the dialogue, but instead just harshly imply to writer that they need to educate themselves or that they are stupid) and personal attacks. Even if most of your comment is constructive, if the last line is “so thanks for that, asshole” we will probably not post it.
– Dismissal, silencing (ie: anything along lines of “Ehh, i don’t think that matters too much” or “This isn’t an issue”)
– Questioning the feminist validity of a topic or post (ie: Why do you care about this? You should really care about x, y, z because its more important)
– Derailing: Anything way off topic or leads the discussion in a completely different and unproductive from the original post

Now suppose, for example, that you think prostitution is a bad thing. YOU CANNOT BE A FEMINIST, because Feministing’s “poly queer kinky trans” radical sex columnist Elliott Fukui advocates “solidarity with folks who participate in sex work,” and disagreement would probably be considered “questioning the feminist validity” of that viewpoint. Therefore, no criticism of prostitution at Feministing.

This is what those who allege the existence of “conservative feminism” as a meaningful category fail to grasp: The Left created feminism, the Left defines what feminism is and what feminists believe, and the Left is not seeking conservative input. Conservatives are an enemy that the Left intends to destroy, and feminists are the Left’s allies in that cultural and political war of elimination.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering what “poly queer kinky trans” radical sex educator Elliott Fukui chose as the topic of his first Feministing sex column, here’s a couple of hints:

Lubrication is going to be your best friend throughout this process. . . .
Once you have penetrated to the base of your hand . . .

Maybe you want to read the whole thing. Or maybe you don’t.

But remember: “Questioning the feminist validity” is not permitted at Feministing. Here, however, it’s still National Offend a Feminist Week, so maybe someone can explain why feminism requires lubrication.

Category: National Offend a Feminist Week, Sex

World’s Youngest Blogger: Did You Love Momma Today?

Posted on | May 12, 2013 | 5 Comments

If you can’t bring the cute, bring the flowers. Better still, bring both.

Category: World's Youngest Blogger

A Short Lesson in Liberal Media Bias: Has Alex Koppelman Forgotten Fitzmas?

Posted on | May 12, 2013 | 32 Comments

Alternate Headline: It’s Not a Real Scandal, Until @alexkoppelman Decides ‘There Is Something to It.’ newyorker.com/online/blogs/n… | @jeffgurner

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) May 12, 2013

Scandals always highlight the disparity in how differently the media treat Republicans and Democrats. We are grateful to Alex Koppelman for this latest example:

It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.
On Friday, ABC News’s Jonathan Karl revealed the details of the editing process for the C.I.A.’s talking points about the attack, including the edits themselves and some of the reasons a State Department spokeswoman gave for requesting those edits.

How many millions of words were wasted by liberal journalists on the phony Valerie Plame “scandal,” and who ever could have doubted that it was a Democrat “obsession” — a ginned-up mountain of paranoia inspired by a minor molehill of events?

Does no one else remember how liberals pretended that Valerie Plame’s employment status at the CIA was America’s most closely-guarded national security secret, until that afternoon in July 2003 when Richard Armitage mentioned her to Bob Novak? And have we completely forgotten that the real scandal — the story Novak was actually trying to report — was the mystery of how Plame’s husband Joe Wilson, a diplomat with no genuinely relevant expertise, got the assignment to travel to Africa on a CIA-sponsored trip to investigate British intelligence reports that Iraq had obtained uranium ore from Niger? Has it also now been forgotten that, because Novak would not identify his sources, Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) launched a witch hunt that blamed Karl Rove and/or Dick Cheney for “outing” Plame, who was not exactly a secret agent, thus leading to an investigation that resulted in the prosecution and imprisonment of Scooter Libby?

For the love of God, have we forgotten “Fitzmas,” the 2005 rumor that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s federal grand jury was about to indict Rove or Cheney or both? Who could ever forget the ridiculous farce of “investigative journalist” Scott Leopold “reporting” in May 2006 that Rove had been indicted? I’ll bet Alex Koppelman recalls that fateful day — June 13, 2006 — when it was announced that Rove definitely would not be indicted.

All of that ridiculous “PlameGate” nonsense was taken very seriously by the mainstream media, as though it were a real scandal that might implicate the president in High Crimes and Misdemeanors, and yet it was transparently absurd from start to finish.

So fast-forward: Terrorists kill a U.S. ambassador and four other Americans in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi, and Obama administration officials — obviously concerned about political fallout during an election year — begin stacking up lies like cordwood. Everything we know about the matter leads to the conclusion that the administration failed before, during and after the attack, that they consistently lied at every step of the way, and that they’re quite likely still trying to hide the truth, especially in regard to who gave the “stand down” order to cancel a Special Operations rescue.

According to Alex Koppelman, however, this was just a “Republican obsession” until Jonathan Karl of ABC reported it, even though Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard had previously reported the same basic story about the edited Benghazi talking points.

Here’s a breaking story Koppelman might want to investigate: For a long time, it seemed like the idea of liberal media bias was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

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Category: Libya, Media Bias, Scandal

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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: 05.14.13

#Gosnell Convicted: Quick Reactions

The Fate of Basseley Nakoula

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.13.13

My Wife Is a Soldier’s Mom

No, You’re Not a Feminist

World’s Youngest Blogger: Did You Love Momma Today?

A Short Lesson in Liberal Media Bias: Has Alex Koppelman Forgotten Fitzmas?

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

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