The Other McCain

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

Rule 5 Wednesday: Snowed Out At The Tax Mines

Posted on | March 6, 2013 | 16 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho
Profound and abject apologies for the lateness of this week’s parade of pulchritude; pushed myself a little too hard and too long last weekend, and wound up too worn down to get any posting done on time. As usual, be circumspect as to where you open the links, as many of them are NSFW.
WyBlog leads off this week with a celebration of his one millionth hit featuring — who else? — Raquel Welch. Fishersville Mike notes Kelli Pickler‘s advent on Dancing With The Stars, Laughing Conservative presents Nazan Eckes, and Lowering The Boom pairs the Unspeakable Armenian with Irina Shayk. Subject To Change has a tasteful assortment of Rule 5, while Animal Magnetism offers Rule 5 Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. Conservative Counterpoint checks in with Dana Hamm, while Ninety Miles From Tyranny has a threefer this week: Lingerie Ladies, Hot Pick of the Evening I, and Hot Pick of the Evening II. The Pegu Blog returns after a long absence with a video review of Oakley’s “The Flask”. Yes, there is Rule 5 content! Blessed Blasphemy has sweater puppies! First Street Journal continues their tribute to women in uniform with the Portuguese Army. Also, Eye of Polyphemus is on Blake Lively this week.
EBL graces us with a whole herd of links this week, including kite flying (topless and otherwise), Diana Krall, House of Cards, Chris Matthews & Hillary (NMS), All This And Brains Too (via Instapundit), sleep, Nadia Lockyer Auditions For OAG, and Connie Hines. Also, Susan Stimpson!
A View From The Beach has a bunch of Christina Applegate pix in celebration of her nuptials, Sea Shepherds Committed Piracy, Found: Lost Continent (with cavegirl content), Seven Excuses For Another Cup Of Coffee, A Rumble In The Force, Way To Go Silvio!, Cavegirls Had Better Teeth, and Perfect Form.
Soylent Green submits a fine collection of NSFW snoochery, beginning with Monday Motivationer Lindsay, followed by Tuesday Titillation Nikki Anne, Humpday Hawt Mandy Dee, Fursday Featurette Kalin Olson, Corsetation Sequestration, Overnighty Sam Buxton, 4 Million Minions, Bath Night With Audrey, and A.M. Awesome Tasha.
Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe is Adriana Sklenarikova, his vintage babe is Dyan Cannon, and the Sex in Advertising segment is Nina Agdal’s Carl’s Jr. Super Bowl Ad. Dustbury reminds us of Dorothy Stratten and Karen Carpenter. At The Camp of the Saints, it’s Lucy Collett and the Rule 5 News.
DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes this week include Anahi, a Bikini Model Photo Shoot, Hot Mexican Weather Gals, Raquel Pomplun,Dora Noemi Kerchen, Grace Kelly, Tianna Ta, Katrina Law, Jessica Cediel, Keke Palmer, Ashley Vee, Assorted Asian honeys, Arianny Cleste and Brittney Palmer, Chelina Manuhutu, more Dora, Marta Dabrowski, Lynn Allmendenger, Kana Yume, Michelle Sanchez, Angelique Boyer, The Hottest Race Car Driver Yet?,  a Rule 5 Linkfest, and Sabine Jerneljanova.
Thanks to everyone for their links! Deadline to submit links to the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox is Saturday, March 9.

Category: Rule 5

Lying by Euphemism: ‘New Revenues’

Posted on | March 6, 2013 | 8 Comments

Journalism is supposed to be about truth. Jackie Calmes and Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times are engaged in deception:

With Republican leaders in Congress forswearing budget negotiations over new revenues, President Obama has begun reaching around them to Republican lawmakers with a history of willingness to cut bipartisan deals.

“New revenues” = INCREASING TAXE RATES.

President Obama wants to RAISE TAXES, which Republicans oppose, but these lying bastards at the New York Times — dishonest partisan propagandists, endeavoring to assist their fellow Democrat — realize that the president’s proposal might be less popular if they described it truthfully, and so they begin with this 11-word dependent clause that hides the truth and shifts the blame:

With Republican leaders in Congress forswearing budget negotiations over new revenues . . .

In other words, if you buy what Calmes and Weisman are selling, you believe that the problem in Washington is that Republicans won’t negotiate, and that the ideal way to solve the budget problem is with “new revenues,” which could be had easily if weren’t for those Republicans “foreswearing negotiations.” As far as concerns the economic error in the underlying fallacy of their hidden premise, Ronald Reagan once explained that in a single sentence:

“We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”

Oh, to be back to the good old days, when the debt was only a trillion dollars! But of course, we can’t cut spending — President Scaremonger won’t let that happen — and therefore the question is how to raise taxes. Never mind that the government could actually collect “news revenues” if it would just stop strangling economic growth with its vicious policies.

No, in the fanatical brains of Democrats, it is necessary as a matter of “social justice” that the rich (however you define that term) be forced to “pay their fair share” (however you define that term). Words have actual meanings, except when Democrats are talking, and then you always have to ask yourself, “What do they really mean when they use words like ‘rich’ and ‘fair’?”

Once you know that someone is attempting to deceive you — and Calmes and Weisman have advertised their deceptive purpose in the first sentence of their article — then all you need to wonder is why they’re lying. Perhaps sinister motives inspire them:

“The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?”

 That Orwell fellow was onto something.

 

Category: Barack Obama, Budget, Economics, New York Times

American Guts: #StandWithRand

Posted on | March 6, 2013 | 26 Comments

by Smitty

Rand Paul took the floor of the Senate around noon today for a good, old-fashioned filibuster. Spot on. The purpose is to find out just where the 5th Amendment line is on drone strikes on Americans on American soil. The direct effect of the filibuster is to threaten a delay of a vote to confirm John Brennan as CIA chief.

The last time this happened was, for a quick Google, Bernie Sanders in 2010.

Paul has been joined by Senators Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Jerry Moran, and given support by former Senator Jim DeMint. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has made it bipartisan. Go, webfoot!

Let this be an important symbolic victory, and let it wake up the sleeping giant to the threat parked within our borders.

Live feed: C-SPAN

(h/t Becca)

Update: Soopermexican =>

Update II: linked by That Mr. G Guy. Thanks!

Update III: linked by The Lonely Conservative

Update IV: linked by God’s Own Crunk

Update V: linked by American Glob see also Legal Insurrection for important notes on how the Southern Poverty Law Center tries to smear this patriot.

Update VI: linked by The Camp of the Saints

Category: Uncategorized

Thoughts on Teamwork

Posted on | March 6, 2013 | 11 Comments

Have you ever hit Da Tech Guy’s tip jar? I have and you should. Have you ever contributed to the Protein Wisdom monthly fund drive? I have and you should. And how about hitting Jimmie Bise’s tip jar? Are you some kind of Commie bolshevik pinko sympathizer, or are you gonna do something to help these guys in the fight?

Well, I could go on and on suggesting bloggers who could use your contributions. It is the general idea that matters. As I once remarked, the world is divided into two kinds of people: Good people, and sons of bitches who never hit a blogger’s tip jar.

The spectacle of “MalaysiaGate,” about which I have written much already and plan to write more soon, brings to mind the subject of generosity and cooperation. Cynical sarcasm is my stock in trade. I’d be shortchanging my own tip-jar hitters if I didn’t make wisecracks like this:

Brutal dictatorships are bad things, and so are Republican bloggers who score fat consulting contracts and don’t cut me in on the action.

The self-deprecating humor is sincere. If powerful Malaysian interests had been willing to pay $400,000 to obtain the services of a natural-born smartass, how quickly would I have cashed that check? Immediately. 

Let’s not kid anybody. Honesty is a virtue, and it would be dishonest to present myself as morally superior to Josh Treviño, Ben Domenech and their friends, simply because I have never sought the kind of reputation that would make my services valuable to the ruling regimes of foreign nations. My intentional clownishness is a way of preventing myself from ever being tempted with such an offer, and also to prevent becoming the kind of self-important Serious Person whose colleagues laugh at him behind his back as the pompous douchebag he really is.

Please, laugh at my face, not behind my back.

And my face is mighty damned laughable, we must admit.

Being the court jester is a fun gig, and involves little responsibility, but I try to do my part as a member of the team, understanding that my success is dependent on the team’s success, and membership on the roster requires that I do work that is of value to the team’s common project. And this is just a 350-word preamble to an excerpt from an e-mail I sent in reply to a friend who had written to me about the MalaysiaGate story:

Ambition is a good thing. No one would get out of bed in the morning unless they had some expectation that their day’s labor would advance their own well-being. But unless ambition is wedded to morality — a sense of honor and duty — it will inevitably become a purely selfish thing. The sense of rat-race competition, the insatiable desire to exceed the fame and fortune of one’s peers, creates the idea that “everybody does it,” and that the only difference between winners and losers is that losers are insufficiently ruthless.
Loyalty must be a two-way street, and success requires teamwork. The selfish hot dog, who attempts to monopolize all the prestige of an organization by derogating his potential rivals and denying them credit for their share of the work, is seeking rewards he has not truly earned. Afflicted with narcissism, however, such people generally have the view that they are entitled to all they can get their hands on, that their personal excellence is such that they are born to rule over others, rather than to serve in any humble or obscure station. From the perspective of that worldview, the backstabbing and cronyism and conflicts of interest are just the way of the world, and anyone who criticizes those who succeed by such methods is merely envious at having been beaten at a game they were too stupid to play well. . . .
I understand that I’m playing a team sport. My success is not an isolated achievement, and I owe much to the assistance of others. Having been helped, I am obligated as a matter of duty to help others.
Generosity is not merely a moral obligation, but is necessary to the success of any cooperative enterprise. However great our personal qualities, however tireless our labors, none of us can succeed without the willing assistance of others. And such assistance is hard to obtain unless people are recognized and rewarded for their help.

Cynthia Yockey just called to tell me she wants to come to CPAC, but needs money to hire someone to watch her ailing father — for whom Cynthia is sole caregiver — for two or three days. I didn’t have time to listen to all her problems, much less to solve them myself, but I told Cynthia, “Don’t worry about the money. We’ll take care of that.”

Please don’t make me a liar. Go hit Cynthia’s tip jar now and read her excellent story about Commies, too.

 

Category: Blogging, Cynthia Yockey

Hugo Chavez, Looter

Posted on | March 6, 2013 | 43 Comments

Weird that the New York Times would publish this:

The legacy of his 14-year “socialist revolution” is apparent across Venezuela: the decay, dysfunction and blight that afflict the economy and every state institution.
The endless debate about whether Mr. Chávez was a dictator or democrat — he was in fact a hybrid, an elected autocrat — distracted attention, at home and abroad, from the more prosaic issue of competence. Mr. Chávez was a brilliant politician and a disastrous ruler. He leaves Venezuela a ruin, and his death plunges its roughly 30 million citizens into profound uncertainty. . . .
The once mighty factories of Ciudad Guayana, an industrial hub by the Orinoco River that M.I.T. and Harvard architects planned in the 1960s, are rusting and wheezing, some shut, others at half-capacity. . . .
Underinvestment and ineptitude hit hydropower stations and the electricity grid, causing weekly blackouts that continue to darken cities, fry electrical equipment, silence machinery and require de facto rationing. . . .
Reckless money printing and fiscal policies triggered soaring inflation, so much so that the currency, the bolívar, lost 90 percent of its value since Mr. Chávez took office, and was devalued five times over a decade. In another delusion, the currency had been renamed “el bolívar fuerte,” the strong bolívar — an Orwellian touch.
Harassment of privately owned farms and chaotic administration of state-backed agricultural cooperatives hit food production, compelling extensive imports, which stacked up so fast thousands of tons rotted at the ports. Mr. Chávez called it “food sovereignty.”
Politicization and neglect crippled the state-run oil company PDVSA’s core task — drilling — so that production slumped. “It’s a pity no one took 20 minutes to explain macroeconomics to him with a pen and paper,” Baldo Sanso, a senior executive told me.

Read the whole thing. The Irish writer, Rory Carroll, is actually a man of the Left and seems to view Chavez’s failures as idiosyncratic and personal, rather than a necessary correllate of the dictator’s Marxist ideology. The belief that rich people are inherently evil, and poor people inherently virtuous, so that “social justice” requires that private wealth be expropriated in the name of “the people” — this is a harmful idea, a very bad idea.

Good people do not cherish such bad ideas. Good men do not become Marxist dictators. The entirety of Chavez’s vicious character could have been known to anyone who bothered to read a single chapter — “Why the Worst Get on Top” — of Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom.

But why bother to read that much? You could summarize what Chavez so predictably did to Venezuela with a single word that Ayn Rand used to describe the left-wing politicians in Atlas Shrugged: “looters.”

Chavez was a looter, a bandit, a vandal incapable of building anything except a movement that destroyed everything.

We could say the same of others, much closer to home.

 

Category: Economics, Venezuela

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.06.13

Posted on | March 6, 2013 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Hugo Chavez Is Dead

He was on God's list.

Hundreds gather to mourn

Dies at age 58 after 14 years as Venezuela’s president

Syrian Refugees Reach One Million
Majority of refugees are in Jordan and Lebanon

L.A. Mayor’s Race Headed For Runoff
Garcetti, Greuel top vote-getters in primary, but neither wins majority



POLITICS
Senate Intelligence Committee Endorses Brennan

DCIA nominee John Brennan

DCIA nominee John Brennan

GOP still wants answers about Benghazi

White House, GOP Working Together On Budget Flexibility For DoD, VA, Possibly Other Departments

Flight Attendants Cry Foul As TSA Backs Down On Swiss Army Knives And Other “Weapons”

State’s Main Witness In Zimmerman Case Caught In Lie


Gov. Quinn’s $35.6 Billion Budget: One In Five Dollars Goes To Pensions

White House Cancels Tours, Blames Sequester

Rand Paul Slams AG Holder For Refusal To Rule Out Drone Strikes In U.S.

Sen. Coburn Urges USDA To Nix Wine Tasting Amid Sequester Warnings

Sen. Klobuchar Makes Herself Useful, Creates Bill To Legalize Unlocking Mobile Phones



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Jumps As Chavez’ Death Creates Uncertainty: NYMEX $91.08, Brent $112.04
U.S. Stock Futures Trade Higher After Record Close
Samsung Invests $112 Million In Japan’s Sharp
European Shares Extend Rally; Vodafone Jumps
Martha Stewart Defends J.C. Penney Deal In Macy’s Trial
Corn Drops A Second Time This Week As Snow Boosts U.S. Crop View
Top Outside Shareholder Demands Dell Open Its Books
HP, Dell Feeling The Heat From Shareholders
Cree Rolls Out Cheaper LED Bulbs
Beats Raises $60 Million To Spin Off Streaming Music Service
Roku 3 Enhances Remote, Improves Search
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 With Verizon LTE Coming Tomorrow
Apple Introduces Updated “Education Only” iMac For $1099
Google Play Marks Anniversary By Giving You Discounts
Microsoft Faces EU Fine For Not Giving Users Choice of Browsers
Lara Croft Is Back, But Not As You Know Her
Big Screens, Viral Media On Display At Microsoft’s TechFest



SPORTS
Thunder Hold Off Lakers’ Charge, 122-105

Westbrook leads OKC with 37

Westbrook leads OKC with 37

Oklahoma City wins season series


Blackhawks Extend Streak To 23 With Win Over Wild

Buckeyes Down Hoosiers 67-58


Blue Jackets Edge Oilers In Shootout, 4-3

Baseball Playoffs Moving To New Fox Cable Network In 2014

Nash Scores Two To Lead Rangers Over Flyers

Celtics Hold Off Sixers, 109-101

Soriano Makes Quick Work Of Spring Training Debut



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Taylor Swift Fights Back In Vanity Fair Interview

Not happy with Poehler and Fey

Not happy with Poehler and Fey

Quotes Katie Couric: “There’s a special place in Hell for women who don’t help other women”
Amy Poehler Responds: “I’m Going To Hell…But For Other Reasons”

Holly Madison Welcomes A Daughter

Jon Stewart Taking Summer Hiatus From “Daily Show” To Direct Movie

Duchess Of Cambridge Hints It Might Be A Girl

Terence Howard: Oprah Sex Scene Was Like A Dream Come True

Carly Rae Jepson Kowtows To GLAAD, Cancels Boy Scout Jamboree Appearance

Lamar Odom Fighting Baby Mama For Custody

Bret Michaels Has Meltdown Over “Celebrity Apprentice” Elimination

Justin Bieber Shows Up Two Hours Late To London Concert, Gets Booed

Matt Lanter Set As Male Lead In CW’s “Oxygen”

Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill Cancel Engagement

Jennifer And Justin Will Say “I Do” In Hawaii

Les Moonves Says “Dexter” Ending After Season 8



FOREIGNERS
Chavez Mourned By Scum Around The World
Technical Problems Slow Kenya Vote Count
Norks Vow To Cancel 1953 Cease Fire
Malay Forces Kill 13, Hunt Gunmen After Sabah Assault
PRC Premier Wen: Pollution, Risk Downside Of “Blind Expansion”
Biden: Obama Not Bluffing On Iran
Cardinals Begin Pre-Conclave Talks



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Oberlin College – Still Manufacturing Hate Crime Hoaxes After All These Years
NewsBusters: Krugman Whines “Quoting What I Said In The Past Is An Ad Hominem Attack”
Roger Noriega” Jimmy Carter Sends His Condolences To Hugo Chavez
Ed Driscoll: Hugo Chavez’ Socialist Symmetry In Saying Sayonara
Gateway Pundit: Jimmy Carter Mourns “Positive Legacies” Of Hugo Chavez
Twitchy: Sic Semper Tyrannis – Hugo Chavez Dead
Nick Gillespie: Rep. Serrano (D-NY) On Chavez – “A Leader Who Understood The Needs of The Poor”
Babalu: Chavez Is Dead, Let The Blame-Throwing And Divinization Begin
Yuval Levin: The 2014 Budget
James Pethokoukis: Paul Ryan Keeps Telling The GOP How Hard It Will Be To Balance The Budget. Why Won’t They Listen?
Patterico: White House – We Must Cancel All Tours Because Of Sequestration! Also, We’re Hiring
Bryan Preston: Memo Proves Administration Wants Sequester To Hurt Really Bad
Jihad Watch: Saudis To Teach “Correct Concept Of Jihad” In Schools
Jawa Report: All Your Drones Are Belong To Someone Else
Allahpundit: Also Not Invited To CPAC? Bob McDonnell
Power Line: Are Republicans Doing Better Than You Think?


Category: Live at Five

Should Mitt Romney Go To Detroit, Or Venezuela?

Posted on | March 5, 2013 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Some wags want to draft Mitt Romney to re-habilitate Detroit from the joys of decades of Democrat party policy. However, a far more sizable executive job opening now awaits to the south: Venezuela. Eugene Robinson exemplifies the slack-jawed Lefty urge to suck up to something authoritarian.


Surprisingly, my German wife says that many in the former Commie zone of East Germany recall that era with fondness??!??! So we can expect the usual suspects to maintain their daffy stance:

Category: Venezuela

Go, Kira Davis!

Posted on | March 5, 2013 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

Somebody needs to rid us of these turbulent Bushes:

Mr. Priebus, in 2012 the GOP missed a HUGE opportunity to push out some more “diverse” faces to bring the message of liberty and smaller government to their communities. There is a sizable community of Black Republican/conservative bloggers who highlight that message every day. Many work in their spare time. Can you imagine what they would have been able to do for the GOP if there had even been a tiny amount of party dollars behind them?
We’ve already blown that opportunity but another one presents itself. As we begin to think about 2014 and 2016 we need to continue thinking about how we change our image. Exit polls showed that many minority voters liked Mitt Romney’s message but in the end did not feel comfortable voting for him because they didn’t “trust” him. We need to give them a reason to trust us.
I’m sorry, but throwing a rich white guy in front of a bunch of people who have been taught from kindergarten to distrust rich white guys is not going to cut it. I have a suggestion for a new strategy, and some people will not like it because it involves a few people getting out of the way and/or making room for new faces. Some people will have to decide if their status is more important to them than their country.

If I thought the GOP was interested in across-the-board reform, and not more interested in the party as such, I’d be more inclined to donate.

There may be some grand plan, some rationale, for what’s been going on the last couple of years. Hanlon’s Razor applies. But if the GOP has been incompetent, what a peculiar failure of imagination! Have the minds of all the GOP elites been so filled with Reagan quotes that there are no brain cells remaining to. . .carry out the basic capitalistic ideas that Reagan espoused?

This piece in The Hill strikes me as way too inside-baseball:

And for their efforts, Team Obama was roundly mocked. “Saturday Night Live” did a hilarious skit over the weekend that had the president trot out the Village People to show how deep the cuts would hurt. When they are laughing at you, Mr. President, you aren’t winning.

Read the whole thing. Here is the cheesy cold open clip. I did happen to watch it, and immediately was distracted, not merely by the typically inane SNL attempts at mockery, but the cast member in the dress whites. As a recovering squid, the non-attention to a proper uniform (What. Is. So. Hard. About. A. Square. Knot?) achieved a mission kill on me:

The GOP may be playing slightly better defense, but there is a substantial gap between fighting a running retreat and winning, despite the tone of The Hill. The little bit of crosswind that The Hill is talking about won’t be taken lightly by the White House, which is going to continue to attack, attack, attack, careless of whether anyone notices that frontal assaults are not exactly governing. The voters haven’t cared much in the past.

And then there is the Jeb Bush question. The blog won’t fault the guy for exercising his right to run for office, if he accepts the total lack of support from conservatives. Having invested so much of ourselves in the struggle to hold off the Progressive onslaught, and restore some capitalistic, representative flavor to our debt-addled government, the idea of Yet. Another. Bush. is a swift kick in the midriff.

If the task is to justify the Left’s attacks on conservatives as a sad pack of tools, manipulated by plutocrats, then I can’t think of a better way to go than “Jeb Bush 2016.” This is not an ad hominem attack on Jeb. He’s got as good a record as any, and a plethora of great qualities. Fine. I really don’t dislike the guy in the slightest. I’m just saying that Bush41 was in the Executive Branch from 1980 to 1992, and Bush42 from 2000-2008. If the United States of America is so thoroughly cratered that only a handful of families can produce Presidents, then the game is far beyond lost. We should just scrap the 22nd Amendment, and all of these oh-so-stressful campaigns and elections, and just call Obama ‘Pharaoh’.

So, full circle, I hope the GOP elites pulls its head out, and realized that the Obama is the end of Progress, and some other course is required. Our limited, federal, Constitutional government beckons, people.

via Sissy Willis and Insty

Category: Republicans
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