The Other McCain

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

Power Line Got That Backward

Posted on | March 5, 2013 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Power Line points out that the Meteorologist-in-Chief is full of hooey, per this 13-word SOTU passage:

Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense.

But it’s not that this particular crap-shot to the dome is unusual. Even the famous

electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket

was delivered in the context of a discussion of cap-n-trade. What I’d like to see is an analysis of something, anything, on which this guy has been forthright, accurate, or at least honest about the reason that a prediction proved inaccurate.

The nicest thing I can say about this guy is that he reflects a fundamentally unserious country.

via Insty

Category: Barack Obama

The Rev. @ThorHalvorssen’s Universal Holiness Temple Choir of ‘Human Rights’

Posted on | March 5, 2013 | 12 Comments

Thor Halvorssen is, so far as I can tell, not one of the bad guys, although I don’t remember ever hearing of him until Monday night, when I was on the phone with a MalaysiaGate source who said, “It’s this Thor Halvorssen guy who’s really pushing it.”

OK, you got my attention there, Mr. Source.

What had happened was that I’d said to my source what any experienced reporter knows about this story. To borrow a favorite saying of James Carville, “When you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know it didn’t crawl up there by itself.”

Reporters don’t spend their workdays randomly scrolling through the Federal Agent Registration Act database to see if any bloggers are getting paid by foreign dictators.  That’s not how a story like this gets reported. Journalists are just too damned lazy.

No, someone had to have tipped off BuzzFeed about this Malaysian pay-for-play operation. Somebody found Josh Treviño’s FARA disclosure form (filed Jan. 24 of this year) and, as they say, “dropped a dime” on Treviño. And, my source told me, this Thor Halvorssen character might be the tipster, because he was jumping up and down on Twitter raising hell about the story.

“How do you spell ‘Halvorssen’?” I asked my source. Then I wrote down the name and looked up the guy on Google.

Journalism: It ain’t rocket science.

HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION
Thor Halvorssen – President and CEO
A human rights advocate and film producer, Thor Halvorssen founded the Human Rights Foundation in the spring of 2005. Thor began advocating for human rights in 1989 in London by organizing opposition to South African apartheid. After completing his secondary education in the United Kingdom, he attended the University of Pennsylvania; there he became a judicial advisor for students charged inside the college judicial system. Thor’s advocacy of individual rights earned him an Ivy Day Award from the university president for “protecting freedom of speech on campus.” Having witnessed countless violations of freedom of speech and due process on United States college campuses, Thor was instrumental in creating and developing the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, serving as its first executive director and then CEO from its founding in 1999 until 2004. Under his decisive leadership, FIRE became the nation’s pre-eminent student rights organization.

OK, then: A professional do-gooder.

And this was the guy who was all up in Josh Treviño’s face on Twitter, using words like “whore” and “shill”  and “corrupt” and “crimes,” because the Malaysian dictatorship is, well, a dictatorship.

Dictatorship = BAD.
Fluffy kittens = GOOD.

Being anti-dictator is a pretty easy gig, if you’re living in an affluent democracy on the other side of the world from the brutal regime. Vicious dictators usually don’t send their thugs to kill do-gooders in their offices on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

What’s that kind of anti-dictator work pay, Thor? Because this “journalism” racket barely pays the bills and, while I had been considering signing up at the temp agency for some light industrial work — driving a forklift, maybe — there’s no reason why I couldn’t pursue a new career as an International Human Rights Advocate.

Update the resumé, get a haircut, put on my good suit — where do I apply for a job like that? And, most importantly, what’s it pay?

Does it include health insurance? A 401(k)? What about travel expenses, paid holidays, sick leave and vacation?

For about $100,000 a year or so, I wouldn’t mind spending 40 hours a week denouncing foreign dictators.

“Kim Jong Un is a big fat sissy-pants!”
“Alexander Lukashenko’s mother dresses him funny!”
“Eat my shorts, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!”
“Down with — wait. Oh, sorry. It’s three o’clock on Friday. I’ve got a dentist appointment, and next Monday’s a holiday, so I’ll be back here Tuesday at 9 a.m. to denounce dictators, expose the abuses of authoritarian regimes, and support human rights everywhere.”

Let me tell you something I figured out a long time ago, Thor: Just because it’s “non-profit” doesn’t mean people aren’t getting paid. The entire environmentalist movement exists because, in the 1970s, a bunch of hippies figured out that protesting against pollution — everybody hates pollution, right? — could be a full-time job, if the hippies could convince a lot of big-money “philanthropic” foundations to cut them a check every year.

It worked out pretty good for those hippies, some of whom have long since retired in luxury after successful careers as professional (non-profit) environmental activists, having never done an honest day’s work in their entire worthless lives.

Damn, I hate hippies. There’s a reason why, whenever I see a “peace” protest, I get nostalgic memories of the Ohio National Guard.

Something those hippies figured out about the non-profit hustle was conferences. Years ago, I did a story about how the “AIDS prevention” racket had become an excuse for government officials to fly off to tropical resort destinations — ideally, on a Caribbean island, although Hawaii and Miami were also popular — to attend conferences about AIDS prevention. There were all kinds of non-profit AIDS prevention outfits at these conferences, with seminars and discussion panels and receptions sponsored by major pharmaceutical companies.

You  might not think “How to Convince Horny Dudes to Wear Rubbers” would require an annual three-day conference at a swanky hotel, but then again, you’re not employed by the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Education or a tax-exempt AIDS prevention group. And a lot of those people attend several such conferences every year.

If cynicism were a charitable cause, I’d be rolling in the green. Maybe I should apply for a Ford Foundation grant and set up a Society for the Advancement of Enlightened Cynicism.

As non-profit rackets go, the “human rights” racket ain’t bad. And I don’t think Thor Halvorssen is a bad guy. But I’m not sure “nagging people on Twitter” is a philanthropic endeavor.

 Also, how about renaming your 501(c) something a bit more honest? Like, for example, “Belaboring the Bloody Obvious.”

Human rights, good. Dictatorship, bad. 

Yours isn’t exactly a nuanced and complex message, is it, Thor? Is it truly a charitable activity to tell people stuff they already know, or to advocate opinions nearly everybody shares?

Don’t hate me for saying this, Thor. Hate is a bad thing, and I’m a victim — afflicted with Random Sarcasm Syndrome.

It’s genetic. I was born this way. Been a smartass my whole life.

“It’s for the children! Won’t somebody please think of the children?”

 Here’s the deal, Thor: I’m determined to tell the whole truth of this MalaysiaGate scandal, and let the chips fall where they may. Brutal dictatorships are bad things, and so are Republican bloggers who score fat consulting contracts and don’t cut me in on the action.

And our old buddy Jerome “Vis Numar” Armstrong is all up in this Malaysia deal, so I’d be kind of interested in learning how much Jerome was paid by the regime in Kuala Lumpur.

What I’m trying to say, Thor Halvorssen, is that Josh Treviño and his pay-for-play pals are likely to catch a lot of grief from a lot of people by the time this thing is said and done. Your ranting at them on Twitter is really kind of redundant. Also, really annoying.

I got nothing against you, Thor. Never really heard of you until Monday night and don’t want to start a grudge now.

But the holier-than-thou Pious Pharisee act doesn’t usually lead to good results, because a Pious Pharisee is never happy just to tithe his mint and cumin. No, indeed. Sooner or later, he’s gonna find himself a scapegoat who ends up getting nailed to a cross.

“Whited sepulchres.” You could look it up. Just sayin’ . . .





 

Category: Blogging, Foreigners

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.05.13

Posted on | March 5, 2013 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Venezuela’s Chavez Fighting For His Life

Still not dead; file photo from before cancer treatments began in 2011

Still not dead; file photo from before cancer treatments began in 2011

VP Maduro says Chavez suffering from respiratory infection, prognosis not favorable

Obama Reaching Out To GOP In Effort To Avoid Sequester
Democrats don’t have a plan, but don’t like ours

President Names EPA, Energy Picks
Will they be tasked with enacting climate change policies Congress won’t pass?



POLITICS
Jeb Bush Rejects Amnesty For Illegals

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

Splits from Rubio on immigration


Big Sis Blames Sequester For Long Airport Security Lines

9th Circuit Upholds Decision Striking Down Arizona’s Day Labor Law


NC House Votes To Clean House On State Boards & Commissions

House GOP Proposes Spending Bill Giving Increase To Defense, Veterans Affairs But Leaving Sequester Cuts Elsewhere Intact

Study: Twitter Opinions Don’t Match The Mainstream

Christie Blasts D.C. Leadership Over Sequester



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Prices Rebound In Asian Trade After Drop: NYMEX $90.33, Brent $110.43
Dow Climbs To Five-Year High As Fed Bets Offset Chicoms
Asian Shares Rebound, Easy Policies Feed Risk Taking
Fed’s Yellen: Forceful Stimulus Still Needed
Kass Accepts Buffett’s Challenge To Present Bearish Questions
Forbes Billionaire List 2013: Carlos Slim #1 Again
Australia’s Central Bank Stands Pat On Rates, Keeps Easing Bias
J.C. Penney Falls After Vornado Reportedly Sells Shares
Fannie, Freddie To Hand Securitization Business To New Firm
White House Joins FCC In Siding With Consumers On Unlocked Cell Phones
Oracle Releases New Java Patch To Address This Week’s McRat Problem
Twitter To Shut Down Android, iOS Versions Of Tweetdeck
Chromebook: A Great Second Computer
Microsoft Forges Ahead With Anti-Google “Scroogled” Campaign
IDC: Smartphones To Overtake Feature Phones This Year; All Eyes On BRIC Nations
“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” Sails With The Pirates



SPORTS
NRA To Sponsor April Sprint Cup Race At Texas Motor Speedway

Works for me

Works for me

First NRA-branded race at a top racing venue

Baylor’s Brittney Griner Scores 50 In Season Finale, Breaking Big 12 Record

Leafs Rally With Three Goals In Third To Beat Devils 4-2

LeBron James Helps Heat Win #15, Timbermutts Fall 97-81


Irish Top Huskies In Triple OT, Take Big East Title For Second Year

Malkin Returns, Pens Beat Lightning 4-3

Brewer Scores 22 In Nuggets’ Win Over Depleted Hawks

Danny Espinosa Looks To Mimic Ian Desmond’s Breakout



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Thanks, But No Thanks, Charlie

Lohan: not interested in #Winning!?

Lohan: not interested in #Winning!?

Lindsay reportedly rejected Sheen’s mentoring offer

Bradley Cooper: Oscars Mean Nothing Now That My Father Has Died

LaToya Takes Charge Of Michael’s Kids, Negotiates Reality Show

Allison Williams Comes Of Age On “Girls”

Jennifer Aniston’s Foodie Tour Of Connecticut


Lawyers, Managers Advise Clients To Avoid “Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills”

Harrison Ford Signs On For “Anchorman 2”

Holly Madison Checks Into The Hospital For Baby Delivery

Don Pardo Misses SNL Gig After Breaking Hip

Miracles’ Founding Member Bobby Rogers Dies, 73



FOREIGNERS
Malaysian Troops Attack Armed Filipino Clan In Borneo
Chicoms Focus On Consumers To Drive Growth
Kenyatta Takes Early Lead As Kenya Counts Votes
Dennis Rodman A Poor Pick To Play Ambassador To The Norks
Palestinian HUnger Striker Demands UK Impose Sanctions On Israel
Cardinals Begin To Meet In Vatican Ahead Of Conclave
Her Majesty Is Tough Old Lady: Walks Out Of Hospital (Video)
Biden, Netanyahu Stress Points Of Unity In Speeches At AIPAC Meeting



BLOGS & STUFF
1389 Blog Celebrates One Millionth Page View!
Michelle Malkin: Philadelphia Horror – Trial Of Baby-Killing Monster Kermit Gosnell Begins Today
Babalu: Dominican Escort Admits She Was Paid To Make Claim Against Senator Menendez
Weasel Zippers: Flashback – Ashley Judd Compares Coal Mining To Rape
Daily Caller: Is This The Most Damaging Fact About Ashley Judd’s Past?
James Pethokoukis: Jeb Bush Says Yes To Legalization, No To Citizenship
Power Line: Obama’s Job Approval Number Tumbles
NRO Corner: Liberal Meme – Scalia Wants To Deny Minorities The Right To Vote
Protein Wisdom: Florida Legislature Rejects Medicaid Expansion
Hot Air: California, Net Exporter…Of Residents
Blaze Blog: WaPo Editors Say Obama Group Should Be Called “Paying For Access”
Gateway Pundit: Homeland Security Buys 2700 MRAP Vehicles To Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile
NewsBusters: HuffPo Shocker – “How Obama’s Politics Led To The Sequester”
Israel Matzav: Those Who Believe Obama Doesn’t Support Israel Enough Outnumber Those Believing He Supports Israel Too Much by 3:1
Jammie Wearing Fools: NYT Obama Sequester Hysteria – 125K Families Could Become Homeless
PJ Tatler: Today’s Hysterical Gun Freakout


Category: Live at Five

‘MalaysiaGate’ Day Four: Conspicuous Silence and Convenient Memory Lapses

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 22 Comments

June 2008: Jerome Armstrong posted to Photostream this photo of him and
Josh Treviño meeting with Zaid Ibrahim in Malaysia (click image to enlarge)

Questions about the “MalaysiaGate” controversy — in which American bloggers were paid as part of a foreign government’s public-relations campaign — continued to be asked Monday, the fourth day since Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed reported on conservative blogger Josh Treviño’s disclosure to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Gray reported Friday that Treviño filed his disclosure in compliance with the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), listing $389,724.70 he collected as part of the Malaysia deal, reportedly brokered by Internet consultant David All.

Treviño and All, both aligned with the Republican Party, were partners with Democrat campaign consultant Jerome Armstrong in a now-defunct Web site, MalaysiaMatters.com, that was part of the paid P.R. operation. Treviño also disclosed that he paid 10 “independent contractors” to provide “opinion writing” about Malaysia in 2009 and 2010. Those payments totalled $130,950, including $36,000 to Ben Domenech, $30,000 to Rachel Ehrenfeld, $24,700 to Brad Jackson, $11,000 to Christopher Badeux and $9,500 to Rachel Motte. Minus those payments to subcontractors, Treviño’s net share of the Malaysia deal amounted to more than $250,000 over the course of three years, from May 2008 to April 2011. His FARA disclosure, filed Jan. 24 this year, described Treviño’s clients:

Government of Malaysia, its ruling party, or interests closely aligned with either, acting through one or more of APCO Worldwide and the David All Group (May 2008 through September 2008), and FBC Media (February 2009 through April 2011), with whom registrant had its relationship.

The Malaysian P.R. campaign generated online articles in a number of publications including Red State, National Review, Huffington Post and the Washington Times. An October 2010 article Domenech wrote for the San Francisco Examiner (“The search for moderate Muslims“) included these paragraphs:

Yet one example of a call for moderate engagement that may prove quite profitable for our relationship with the Muslim world can be found in the Malaysian example. While on a trip to New York last month, during which he called for a “global movement of moderates” to retake the center of the international conversation, I asked Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak about the experience in his country.
“We have always taken the position that Islam is an integral part of public policy in Malaysia. By doing so, we have taken the wind from the sails of the extremists. There is no contradiction between being moderate and being Muslim,” Najib told me. “Being moderate, taking the middle path, is fundamental to Islam. It is one of the pillars of Islam. Muslims have rights, but it’s also enshrined in the teachings of Islam to safeguard non-Muslims in your midst. It’s wrong for Muslims to even be unkind to non-Muslims.”
One prominent example in recent months has been the jailing of two Muslims convicted of church arson during a series of religiously motivated attacks earlier this year. They were given five year jail sentences.
“We want to show that we are fair. If you desecrate a church, or a mosque, or a temple, the punishment is and should be the same,” Najib said.

Rosie Gray’s Friday article at BuzzFeed focused on Treviño’s report and the work of his Republican-aligned “independent contractors,” resulting in extensive coverage at Democrat-leaning sites like Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow blog. However, since my Sunday report about the role of Democrat consultant Jerome Armstrong in the MalaysiaGate story — including an update Sunday night — progressive bloggers appear to have lost interest in the story.

Whereas the Friday report by Gray quickly generated an extensive thread at the Memeorandum blog aggregation site, none of the liberal blogs that wrote about Gray’s story has linked my report about the involvement of Armstrong, a former business partner of Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Armstrong and Moulitsas co-authored the 2006 book, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics.

Armstrong, who worked on former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s failed 2004 Democratic presidential primary campaign, runs the Webstrong consulting firm whose site describes its business:

WebStrong provides integrated communications solutions to help you to connect with your audience, be part of the conversation, influence the debate, build a community, and organize and empower your supporters. We help you create buzz, change public policy, win elections, find your audience, and mobilize them into taking action.
Our strategic consulting services services include public relations, reputation management, coalition building, advertising, social media management, and online advocacy for political, entertainment, sports and issue-based clients.
Our technology services include an integrated organizing platform (Netroots DNA), as well as traditional CMS, CRM, broadcast email, social media integration.

Armstrong’s firm lists numerous elected Democrats among its current or former campaign clients, including Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, as well as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, recently confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State.

The Web site of Armstrong’s consulting firm, whose client list also includes the powerful left-wing labor union SEIU, also specifically cites “political leaders in Malaysia” among its international clients.

Webstrong site describes its Malaysian busiess

Jerome Armstrong’s involvement in the MalaysiaGate deal was reported by Ben Smith at Politico in 2011, but Gray’s BuzzFeed article Friday about Treviño’s report to DOJ did not mention Armstrong’s role in the lucrative P.R. campaign, creating the impression that it was strictly a Republican operation. Not only did this inspire partisan sneering by liberal bloggers (Daily Kos said it proved the GOP “really is just an astroturf operation from top to bottom”), but it also influenced other media coverage, including a commentary on CNN’s Reliable Sources by media critic Howard Kurtz: 

Some American journalists it turns out have been secretly taking money from the government of Malaysia. One of them according to “Buzzfeed” is conservative commentator Joshua Trevino who was paid $390,000 over a three-year span and paid out smaller sums to other right leaning journalist was to write about Malaysia.
Now Trevino who lost his column in London’s “Guardian” for not coming clean about the payments lied to “Politico” in 2011 saying I was never on any Malaysian entity’s payroll and I resent your assumption that I was.
Trevino now tells “Buzzfeed” the payments were part of a fairly standard PR operation and when “Buzzfeed” editor Ben Smith asked him about them, quote, “I ought to have come clean with him at the time.”
The “Huffington Post” has deleted Trevino’s posts for his violation of its ethical guidelines. By the way, taking money from a foreign government without not disclosing it, is not some typical PR operation, it is outright deception.

Also, and rather ironically, the Russia Today network (reportedly “funded by the Federal budget of Russia through the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation“) had a report about what it called “Paid Propaganda”:

There has still been no answer to the question I raised Sunday, “How Much Cash Did Jerome Armstrong Collect in the ‘MalaysiaGate’ Operation?” Asking that question, however, apparently prompted further reporting by Rosie Gray, who published a lengthy news article Monday afternoon at BuzzFeed:

Two of the main players in the campaign funded by the Malaysian government that placed undisclosed propaganda in the American press did not file with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), an omission that lawyers say could place them in legal jeopardy. . . .
Trevino, who last week belatedly filed his own foreign agent registration, told BuzzFeed on Sunday that Armstrong was hired to be his liberal counterpart on MalysiaMatters. . . .

Click here to read the rest of the article. Gray’s account includes quotes from an e-mail Armstrong sent to Ben Smith in 2011, basically dismissing his work for the MalaysiaMatter.com site as an insignificant “temp contract,” neither secretive nor sinister, but without saying how much he got paid for doing it. The fact that Treviño says he was advised by a lawyer that he was required to file a FARA report with DOJ, however, raises the question of whether Armstrong’s failure to register as a foreign agent was a violation of federal law.

Gray writes tersely: “Armstrong did not reply to repeated requests for comment.” Thus, the merchant of “integrated communications solutions” is not communicating. Gray also reports that it appears, because David All’s project was under the aegis of APCO Worldwide, it would have been APCO’s responsibility to report its Malaysian-funded advocacy to the government under FARA. However, this does not explain the Malaysian amnesia that makes it difficult for David All to remember how much he or Armstrong were paid:

“It’s so long ago,” All said when reached by phone on Monday.  . . .
“I’m sort of gathering more information and looking into this a little bit more,” All said.

This is certainly quite convenient: Having scored a deal that enabled him to pay nearly $400,000 to Treviño and an undisclosed (but probably not insignificant) sum to his good friend Jerome Armstrong, now David All needs to gather more information and look into this in order to recall who got paid what. And while All can’t tell Rosie Gray how much cash he or his Democrat partner Armstrong collected, All was apparently willing to leave Josh Trevino, Ben Domenech and other conservatives twisting in the wind — as disgraced and humiliated scapegoats — even as the Malaysian pay-to-play operation he organized was portrayed everywhere as a strictly Republican scandal.

What next in MalaysiaGate? Well, while David All rummages through dusty file boxes full of cancelled checks and invoices in his desperate search for the impossible-to-remember dollar figures on the deal he brokered for his buddies, I expect Rosie Gray will do more of her thorough reporting. And perhaps other reporters will be able to remember the phone numbers of people on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Justice who might care to comment — hey, can’t hurt to give it a shot, right? — on the news about the work done on behalf Malaysian interests by people who (allegedly) failed to comply with the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

Is it possible that any members of congressional committees dealing with Foreign Relations are considering investigations? Is the watchful eye of Attorney General Eric Holder examining whether federal laws are being adequately enforced? Is there a snowball’s chance in hell that liberal bloggers will take further notice of MalaysiaGate now that the involvement of a Democrat political consultant is part of the story?

“Vis Numar sees all!”

 

UPDATE: I regret my previous omission of credit to former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert, whose research turned up many of the facts about Armstrong’s consulting business, including the photo of Armstrong and Trevino in Malaysia.

 

PREVIOUSLY:

 


Category: Blogging, Scandal

@Rare-in To Go

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 17 Comments

by Smitty

Email rumors abound today of a new right-of-center news site called Rare that is set to launch Real Soon Now. It looks like this is a venture backed by Cox Media Group, and edited by somebody who is excellent, as judged by her career trajectory, but with whom this blog has had a totally schizophrenic relationship, for reasons that are beyond my control.

This is an exciting development. There aren’t a lot of challenges we have that more traditional voices in the media can’t help solve. Bookmark Rare now for good justice.

Category: Uncategorized

Wondering If Lawyers Aren’t Really A Test Of The Infinite Mercy Of The Almighty

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Nicely done, by a lawyer:

Via Wysocki

Category: Uncategorized

However, She Is Not a Witch

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 6 Comments

Headline, New York Daily News:

Former Miss Delaware Teen USA
lost tiara over porn role that
paid just $1,500: producers

Category: Delaware, Scandal, Sex

Is It Time For The Two Scandinavian Ladies To Sing On Defunding ObamaCare?

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Heritage notes:

This week, the House plans to take up a bill that would fund the government for the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year. As of March 1, we are now living under the sequester that was passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in the summer of 2011. This continuing resolution would fund the government through September 30 under the sequester while also attempting to mitigate the cuts on defense programs by attaching a defense appropriations bill.

Red State is sounding the alarm:

If nothing is done to stop them, GOP leaders plan to put forth a clean CR that funds Obamacare. This is unacceptable.
With health insurance premiums skyrocketing, employers dumping workers from health plans, and new reports predicting trillions in new debt as a result of Obamacare, we must defund this behemoth before it fully takes effect next year. Many of the new members pledged to defund Obamacare, yet they have dithered for two years in the hopes that it would be struck down by the Supreme Court or that Republicans would win the White House. In fact, 105 current members of the House GOP Conference signed a letter last August committing to defund Obamacare.
Let’s not be fooled, if Obamacare is allowed to take effect for one year, it will be impossible to reform Medicare, roll back dependency, and balance the budget. This is the GOP Waterloo.

Craning the ear toward the future, I hear the GOP leadership saying, “Hey, 2012 was an ObamaCare referendum. Suppositories and elections matter.” There’s not much left to do but link ABBA, AFAICT:

That is, until the whole sorry mess just crashes. The logic of the Progressive Project seems to be that it ain’t done until the last shreds of the Enlightenment are burned to heat this vast Utopia.

Thus, it looks like time to talk about the post-crash planning.

Update: Bill Quick, as usual, comes off as a total GOP apologist:

The GOP has literally become the party of Gutless Old Pussies, terrified to resist the victorious democrats on any significant welfare state issue because they are also convinced of the truth of Mittens Romneycare’s infamous observation about the “47%”:
Romney’s 47% remark – USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney told a group of donors in a secretly taped video that 47% of Americans will vote for President Obama because they are “dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims.”

Hence their new strategy for holding onto their powers and perks is to avoid being seen as offensive to the great welfare plantations currently owned and operated by the Democrat Faction.

Apologist; antagonist: I keep confusing these words. Let me be the apologist: while it’s stirring to see an Ernest E. Evans ring up ‘all ahead flank III’ and go right down the enemy throat, politics is more a game of survival and attrition. The voters opted to relive the 1930s last November, History and Economics be damned. If there is ever to be hope of reform and restoration, then not taking further direct hits is crucial. It looks like the GOP may be striking a balance between letting the facts of Sequestration intrude upon Obama’s narrative, without getting beaten with a Continuing Resolution stick. A maximally brave strategy? Certainly not.
But ObamaCare is the law of the land. It’s likely to succeed in substantially wrecking health care in the U.S. The wiser course would seem to be to drive for gradual market reforms. But the Voters. Must. Demand. Such. and say so at the ballot box.

Category: Health Care
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