The Other McCain

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

New York’s ‘Show-Me-the-Money Culture’ Produces Bizarre Bribery Scandal

Posted on | April 2, 2013 | 7 Comments

Reporting it at ViralRead:

A New York state senator and a city councilman from Queens were arrested today in what federal officials say was an illegal scheme to rig this year’s election for mayor of New York City.
The FBI arrested both state Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran for their roles in an a alleged bribery scheme to get Smith, a top Democrat, placed on the mayoral ballot as a Republican.

The money quote, so to speak, is from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara:

“Today’s charges demonstrate, once again, that a show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government. The complaint describes an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials who together built a corridor of corruption stretching from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland County and all the way up to Albany itself.”

More at Memeorandum.

Category: Corruption, New York

Police Hunt Homeless Suspect

Posted on | April 2, 2013 | 4 Comments

Tobias Dustin Summers is homeless. He is also a career criminal. And now he is the object of a manhunt in California:

Los Angeles police on Saturday identified a suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a young Northridge girl last week as a 30-year-old transient with an extensive criminal history.
Tobias Dustin Summers, who was released from jail in January after serving six days for a probation violation, is the primary focus of the police investigation, LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said at an afternoon news conference at police headquarters downtown.
Summers has a criminal history dating back to 2002 that includes charges of kidnapping, robbery, explosives possession and petty theft, Albanese said. Summers is not a registered sex offender, but authorities said he was arrested on suspicion of battery in 2009 in a case that involved child annoyance. . . .
Authorities described Summers as a transient who frequents North Hollywood and other areas of the San Fernando Valley.

Ten years ago, I wrote an article about the criminal threat posed by the homeless population:

A survey conducted [in 2001] by the Boston Rescue Mission found that 49 percent of their clients said they had criminal records, and 32 percent said they had spent time in prison, while 12 percent said they were discharged directly from a prison to a shelter.
A study in Cambridge, Mass., found that the homeless, though 0.5 percent of the population, accounted for 10 percent of all arrests during a two-year period — including 40 arrests for assault or aggravated assault, 18 for burglary, eight for robbery, 54 for shoplifting, 18 for sale or possession of narcotics, and one for rape.
In Los Angeles, a police sweep of the homeless in December resulted in 214 arrests, including the capture of more than 100 parole violators. . . .

You can read the whole thing, which is still as valid as it was in 2003, when a homeless man named Brian David Mitchell was arrested for the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart.

Category: Crime

LIVE AT FIVE: 04.02.13

Posted on | April 2, 2013 | 13 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Supreme Court Declares Appeals Court All Wet In Whirlpool Case

No class certification for YOU!

No class certification for YOU!

6th Circuit directed to reconsider endorsement of group lawsuit in light of recent Comcast decision


Capriles Gathers Momentum In Venezuela
Is Chavista candidate Maduro headed for a loss?


Death Penalty Sought For Aurora Killer
D.A. rejects defense guilty plea that would have given mass murderer life without parole



POLITICS
Connecticut Legislators Agree On Broad New Gun Control Measures

Useful fools

Useful fools

Gun grabbers still disappointed

Lawsuit Over Health Care Tax Could Kill ObamaCare

Clerical Error Led To Early Release Of Suspect In Colorado Prison Chief’s Murder

Texas DA’s Murder Has Prosecutors On Alert

Federal Judge Approves Stockton’s Filing For Bankruptcy

Attacks On Magnificent Mile, CTA Dim Glow From Drop In Chicago’s Murder Rate

Gov. Christie Signs Law Enacting Tight Restrictions On Teen Tanning



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Steadies Under $111, US Demand Drags: NYMEX $96.88, Brent $110.86
Stocks Fail To Follow Through On Record Close
Japan Stocks Slide As Yen Rises
Good News For Cable Cord-Cutters In Aereo Win
Feds Delay Implementation Of Small-Business Insurance Market
Icahn Buys 9.3% Stake In Nuance Communications
American Airlines, Orbitz Settle Lawsuits
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Airlines’ Appeal Of Ad Rule
American Greetings To Be Taken Private
Apple CEO Apologizes For Warranty Policy In PRC
Google’s Privacy Czar Resigns
Why Facebook Home Is Potentially Brilliant
WinPhone Gains At BlackBerry’s Expense
Nuance Launches Mobile Voice Ads: Annoyance Or Gold Mine?
Latest OS Share Data Shows Windows Still Dominating PCs
Feedly Updates Mobile App, Reports 3 Million Google Reader Refugees
Russian Government Selectively Blocks Site Access
Raspberry Pi Sells Out At $25 Price



SPORTS
Football Legend Jack Pardee Dies, 76

Pardee, the coaching the Oilers, is drenched after a victory over the Steelers in 1991

Pardee, then coaching the Oilers, is drenched after a victory over the Steelers in 1991

One of Bear Bryant’s “Junction Boys” at Texas A&M, he went on to coach the Oilers, Bears, and Redskins as well as WFL, CFL and USFL teams

Celtics Lose To Timbermutts

Blackhawks Beat Predators 3-2 In Shootout

UConn Ladies Crush Kentucky 83-53, Advance To Final Four

Rangers Stop Jets 4-2

Red Sox Pound Shaky Sabathia For 8-2 Opening Day Win Over Yanks

Price Saves 18 As Habs Beat Hurricanes 4-1

Hawks Thrash Cavaliers 102-94

Harper, Strasburg Give Nats Opening Day Win Against Fish



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Britain’s First Black Marchioness: How I Beat The Snobs

Emma McQuiston

Emma McQuiston

Former actress and celebrity chef marrying into one of Britain’s most eccentric aristocratic families

Ryan Gosling Will Beat Down Any Trick Who Calls Eva Mendes “Baby”

No, Lindsay Did Not Demand Adderall In Plea Deal, Lawyer Says

“Buckwild” Star Shain Gandee Found Dead, Probably From Carbon Monoxide

Heidi Klum Saves Son Henry From Drowning

“Glee” Star Cory Monteith Checks Into Rehab For Drug Abuse

Beverly Mitchell Welcomes Daughter Kenzie Lynne

Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Selena Gomez, Laurence Fishburne Join “Rudderless”

New Book Claims Freddie Mercury Snuck Princess Di (Disguised As A Man) Into A Gay Bar



FOREIGNERS
Islamic School Fire Kills 13 Children In Yangon, Burma
Caroline Kennedy Eyed As Possible Ambassador To Japan
Hamas Re-Elects Meshaal As Leader
Female Tourist Shun India After Fatal Delhi Rape; 35% Decline
Privately Owned Daily Newspapers Return To Burma After 50 Years
Sudan’s Bashir Orders Political Prisoners Released
Feminists Get Hot And Bothered Over Signs Pope Francis May Be Liberal
Norks Appoint “Reformer” To Top Leadership Post
6000 Syrians Killed In March, Deadliest Month Yet
Tribal Women To Challenge Men At Pakistani Polls



BLOGS & STUFF
American Power: Oops! Small Businesses Limited To Single Health Plan Under ObamaCare
First Street Journal: Curtis Bostic For Congress!
Michelle Malkin: The Bloody Company Hollywood Keeps
Allahpundit: Democratic Gay Marriage Pool Update – Bob Casey Now In Favor Of SSM
Pat Dollard: Pro-Palestinian Nonprofit Apologizes For Accusing Jews Of Using Christian Blood During Passover
The Blaze: Lady Gaga Turned Down $1 Million Offer From RNC
Gateway Pundit: US Moves Destroyer Off Korea, PRC Mobilizes Forces In Border Region
NRO Corner: GOP Rep Matt Salmon Says His Gay Son Hasn’t Changed His Opinion On Gay Marriage
Protein Wisdom: As The Country Slides Into Liberal Fascism, Conservatives Are Being Set Up As The Scapegoat
The Virginian: NPR’s First Person Shooter Fantasy
Ed Driscoll: Gray Lady = Great Timing
Via Meadia: NYT Pushing “California Comeback” Over Heads Of Poor, Jobless
Weasel Zippers: Palestinian Islamists Stone Jews Trying To Pray At Temple Mount On Passover
NewsBusters: The New York Times’ Mortifying Easter Error
Watts Up With That?: James Hansen To Leave NASA For Full Time Activism
The Truth About Guns: Universal Background Checks Will Increase Spree Killing
Jawa Report: Heartbreak! Fatwa Issued Against Jabba’s Palace Lego Set
Lonely Conservative: White House Sends Furlough Notices To OMB Workers


Apologies for the lack of linkagery yesterday; I was still recovering from the flu. Also, I’m terrible at April Fools jokes.


Category: Live at Five

The Final Push in South Carolina: Candidate Showdown at Aunt Chilada’s

Posted on | April 1, 2013 | 10 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
It’s about 100 miles to Hilton Head and took me more than two hours today, but I wanted to be there for this event:

Republicans crowded into a Hilton Head restaurant Monday afternoon to hear Republican congressional candidates Curtis Bostic and Mark Sanford discuss issues in their final meeting before Tuesday’s runoff in the 1st District special election.
The two candidates took questions for more than an hour during the “First Monday” forum at Aunt Chilada’s, a day before voters in the Lowcountry district choose the GOP nominee who will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Bush in the May 7 special election to fill the House seat vacated by the appointment of Tim Scott to the Senate. . . .

You can read the whole thing. The big national news from SC-1 today was that Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch scrubbed her Twitter account, perhaps in an effort to hide messages that would estrange Republican voters. What does this mean? If Sanford wins Tuesday, Democrat think Colbert Busch can peel off some GOP voters disgusted with Sanford.

The potential for a backlash against Republicans if they nominate Sanford is a factor his supporters refuse to acknowledge. Dana Pico at First Street Journal sees it:

Mr. Sanford’s affair is not the disqualifying issue for me. Rather, the problem is that he showed terrible, terrible judgment in thinking he could get away with his actions, and he abandoned his post!
He abandoned his post. That is disqualifying. . . .
The way he did it, just taking off, virtually guaranteed that the whole smarmy thing would become known; sitting Governors don’t just take off like that. If he had somehow thought that he would get away with it, he’s an idiot. That stupidity alone makes him a lousy candidate; abandoning his post makes him a completely unacceptable one.

 Democrats have a poll showing Colbert Busch leading in this district. Do voters really want to make these cute kids cry?

CURTIS BOSTIC for U.S. CONGRESS

 


 

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election, South Carolina

Sometimes, It Really Matters

Posted on | April 1, 2013 | 18 Comments

Social media a key part of the campaign
for Mark Sanford, Curtis Bostic
— Charleston Post and Courier

CHARLESTON, S.C.
The campaign action today is down on the south side of the district with events in Beaufort and Hilton Head and, with the Republican runoff Tuesday, we’re down to the point of the race where it’s all about turnout: Get out the vote.

What “social media” has accomplished for Curtis Bostic here is to raise awareness of who he is — a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Desert Storm and married father of five — and to inform the public that this runoff offers an important choice. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, Dr. James Dobson, Concerned Women for America, the 60 Plus Seniors Association, One Nation PAC and former Congressman Henry Brown have endorsed Bostic. Not just the fate of the 1st District, but the reputation of the Republican Party is at stake on Tuesday. The Hilton Head Island Packet:

Sanford disappeared for five days while he was governor in 2009, telling his staff he was out hiking the Appalachian Trial. Later, he tearfully revealed at a Statehouse news conference he was in Argentina seeing a woman he later called his soul mate and to whom is now engaged.
Sanford, mentioned then as a possible presidential candidate, ended up divorcing his wife, Jenny.
Bostic says that behavior has left Sanford a compromised candidate who would give the Democrats a shot at taking back a district they have not held in more than three decades.

Given a credible alternative to Sanford, an alternative to handing Democrats and the media — but I repeat myself — a chance to use the Appalachian Trail hiker as a club to beat up Republicans and revive the “war on women” meme, what conservative wouldn’t choose Curtis Bostic instead?

That was what was on my mind the morning of March 20 when I wrote, “S.C. Primary: Will Tea Party Rally Behind Curtis Bostic Against Mark Sanford?” It seemed obvious to me then, and still seems equally obvious to me now, that this was the opportunity to make a difference. Others disagree, and we don’t need to name names of people who made the calculation that the “name-ID” factor was so overwhelmingly in Sanford’s favor that there was no way Bostic could close the gap.

Maybe they’re right. And maybe Will Folks is right, too.

The other day, I used the term “narcissistic sociopath” to describe Folks, who became nationally notorious in 2010 when he claimed to have had an affair with Nikki Haley. Today, Folks responded — you knew he would, right? — to that description, and his response amounted to an apologia for utter cynicism about the political process in America:

Here’s the thing, though: America is almost $17 trillion in debt, has over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities and has decided the one thing it wants to “create” above everything else is more dependency. So, whether Mark Sanford beats Curtis Bostic (or Curtis Bostic beats Mark Sanford) – all we’re talking about at the end of the day is which gnat won a wrestling match on Topsy the elephant’s ass just prior to Thomas Edison switching on 6,600 volt current that killed the poor beast . . .
It just doesn’t matter that much anymore.
Like that guy from Deadspin says, “it’s all professional wrestling.”
More to the point, South Carolina is on the verge of not mattering that much to me anyone because it is clearly never, ever, ever going to change.

The thing about cynicism is, it’s too easy nowadays.

Believing that elections really matter? That’s hard.

Nevertheless, I choose to believe. As bad as it is — and South Carolina GOP politics is about as ugly as it gets — surrendering to cynicism would be a coward’s choice, because you can’t make a difference if you don’t think it makes a difference.

CURTIS BOSTIC for U.S. CONGRESS

 


 

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: South Carolina

Bostic Campaign ‘Surging’ Before Runoff?

Posted on | March 31, 2013 | 21 Comments

Volunteers at Curtis Bostic campaign headquarters make phone calls Friday

CHARLESTON, S.C.
What a way to celebrate Easter Sunday — out on the campaign trail. Well, it’s better than a Cesar Chavez tribute, I suppose.

The fact that the 1st District runoff will occur on the Tuesday after Easter adds an extra element of uncertainty to the outcome, because many people will be on vacation, which will likely mean an even lower turnout. Slightly more than 50,000 cast ballots in the March 19 GOP primary, about 20,000 of them for Mark Sanford and 7,000 for Curtis Bostic. Exactly how many of the 33,000 who voted for the 14 other candidates will show up Tuesday and — who they will vote for — is a mystery. A Daily Kos report Friday wondered if the race was shifting against Sanford:

Is Curtis Bostic surging at the last possible moment? He and Mark Sanford, his Republican runoff opponent, met on Thursday night for their only debate, and surprisingly, Sanford went on the attack. (So did Bostic, over Sanford’s infamous misdeeds while governor, but you expect the underdog to do that.) Sanford went after Bostic for voting in favor of spending increases while serving on the Charleston County Council, and also criticized his attendance record.
The fact that Stanford wasn’t content to play nice just days before Tuesday’s election is noteworthy in and of itself, but here’s an added twist: Sanford may have seriously stepped in it. Bostic says his absences from the council “were related to his wife’s battle with cancer.” Ouch.

How many voters are even aware of that debate gaffe? Will it make a difference? It’s hard to tell. A head-to-head match-up between Sanford and Bostic, based on a poll taken before the March 19 primary, showed Sanford leading by 13 points.

Since then, however, Bostic has appeared in two debates opposite Sanford, has run a new TV ad, and has sent out campaign mailers that describe him as a “fiscally conservative leader we can trust.” This, in addition to endorsements by Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter and former Rep. Henry Brown, who represented the 1st District for a decade. That’s probably what “surging” looks like, and one South Carolina blog cites a “source within the Democrat Party” as saying that their own polling shows a “very tight race” in the runoff.

UPDATE: Photos illustrating the campaign (click to enlarge):


The full-color mailer the Bostic campaign sent to Republican voters on Friday. Another mailer is scheduled to hit local mailboxes on Monday.

Headlines in the Charleston Post and Courier from Friday, Saturday and Sunday show how the local paper is covering the runoff.

UPDATE II: Linked by Donald Douglas at American Power — thanks! — and you can see the full-page newspaper ad that Mark Sanford’s campaign ran today. For some reason, neither Sanford’s ex-wife nor his fiancée is pictured in the ad.

UPDATE III: Headline at the Summerville (S.C.) Patch:

Social Media Analysis Predicts Bostic Win Tuesday

Hmmm. Wonder how that happened . . .

UPDATE IV: Mark Sanford’s sister is worried and sent an e-mail:

I’ve heard from as far away as Greenville (a huge evangelical church there from which the Bostic Campaign has requested phone calls and additional vans) exactly what the Bostic Campaign is doing. They are working in many evangelical churches, and they have the respective church leaderships organizing vanloads of their parishioners going to the Board of Elections all this week to vote early. They’re keeping the vans through Election Day next Tuesday. In Beaufort, they are working with several large churches — one is the Community Bible Church in Shell Point (a man I know there said he was going to vote for another candidate in the primary, but had been told directly by his pastor to vote for Bostic.) There are lots of others of these very large churches up in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and North Charleston that they’re working with as well.

UPDATE V: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Meanwhile, the irrepressible Will Folks responds to my description of him as a “narcissistic sociopath.” Small egos are rare in politics.

 


 

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: South Carolina

FMJRA 2.0: No Bicycles

Posted on | March 31, 2013 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The 1% Progressive Bloggers Club and the Bourgeois Dialectic of Comrade Yglesias

Why John Avlon Hates Sarah Palin

Headin’ to South Cackalacky!

‘The Dream Is Dead’

The Other War on Women, or: It’s Not Harassment When Democrats Do It

How Franklin Foer Fired Timothy Noah

‘You Better Back It Up’: Security Guard Tasers Aggressive Woman on Video

FMJRA 2.0: March Madness

Rule 5 Sunday: Time After Time

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.25.13

#TrustCurtis @Bostic4Congress Campaign Has Eight Days to Stop Sanford in S.C.

Syria: It’s Complicated. Also, It Sucks.

Headline Contrast

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.26.13

South Carolina ‘Cash Money’ Loyalty

‘We Record What Is to All Known’

The Power of Prejudice

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.27.13

Can the Shoe Leather Fund Send Me to South Carolina? O, Ye of Little Faith!

The Fanatic Disciples of Equality

Vote Democrat! ‘Your Slave-Holding, Murdering, Adulterous, Baby-Raping, Incestuous, Snaggle-Toothed, Backward-A**ed, Inbreed, Imported Criminal-Minded Kin Folk’

Gold Price Jumps — Unexpectedly! — as Cyprus Tries to Halt Capital Flight

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.28.13

Greetings from Charleston! Debate Between Bostic and Sanford 7 p.m. ET UPDATE: BOSTIC WINS DEBATE

South Carolina Debate Aftermath

Top linkers this week:

  1. Rick’s Rants (13 the hard way)
  2. Da Tech Guy (5)

Bunch of folks who just missed the cutoff this week, and a bunch of first-time linkers. Stick around, folks! Deadline to submit links for next week’s FMJRA is Friday, April 5.


 

Category: FMJRA Award

Obama Hasn’t ‘Evolved’ That Far … Yet

Posted on | March 31, 2013 | 12 Comments

Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services requested public comment on a proposal to provide taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery, but scrubbed the proposal off their Web site as soon as it was reported by news agencies. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air understands the Obama-logic:

Congress has been arguing over how to limit the current Medicare/Medicaid systems to keep them from going broke and taking the American economic system with them.  Some genius at HHS thinks this is the most propitious moment to talk about sticking taxpayers with sex-change surgery bills?
Smooth move.  But don’t think for a moment this won’t come back later, either.

Of course not: Under the radical dispensation, that which is not forbidden is mandatory, and to say that someone has a “right” to do something will be interpreted to mean that taxpayers are obligated to pay them to do it. This is what the entire fight about “marriage equality” is about: Granting same-sex couples access to whatever government benefits married couples get.

Our national motto has been changed from “E Pluribus Unum” to “What’s In It For Me?”

There is no real opposition to people cohabiting, having wedding ceremonies and calling their unions “marriages” — live and let live, whatever floats your boat — but there is understandable resistance to government action that requires us to treat such pairings as perfect analogs of man and wife. In addition to any traditional moral objections, there is the suspicion that this sort of radical “equality” will end up costing taxpayers money and restricting individual freedom. And one individual freedom that is already being eroded is the right to express traditional moral objections, so that the Family Research Council can be stigmatized as a “hate group” and targeted for terrorism by the sans-culottes of the new Jacobinism.

Remember: Sandra Fluke argued that it is “discrimination” for insurers not to cover sex-change surgery and, last year, a federal judge invoked the Eighth Amendment in ruling that Robert Kosilek, imprisoned for murdering his wife in 1990, has a constitutional right to a  taxpayer-funded sex-change. My reaction at the time:

The Eight Amendment? If a convicted murderer doesn’t have a vagina, that’s “cruel and unusual punishment”? As strange as this sounds, it is entirely logical if you accept the premise of sexual “rights” as understood by liberals.

Please read (or re-read) “The Problem With Sexual Rights.” We are traveling a road paved with weird intentions.

 

 


Category: Barack Obama, Culture, Sex
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