The Other McCain

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

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Spin Masters: [Epic Subtitle Goes Here]’ By David Freddoso

Posted on | February 14, 2013 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

That the mainstream media is about as useful as a chocolate teapot isn’t news. When the Statism gets hot, the media melts. However, there is room on the bookshelf for a crisply written, well-referenced and indexed summary of just how bad it was in 2012. As time fades, it’s easy to forget that Benghazi, while a spectacular failure, was just a brick in a Berlin bulwark of baloney from these guys. Props to David Freddoso (whose Wikipedia page needs an update) for the excellent Spin Masters: How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama.

As an example of why this book stands out, here is a taste of the third chapter, “What Recovery?”:

Americans didn’t need much help from the media to realize during the 2012 campaign that the stimulus hadn’t been a big success, or that the recovery was not proceeding along the lines Obama promised. The press were slow even to pick up on the fact that nearly all of the improvement in the unemployment rate from its peak (at 10 percent) was the result of people leaving the work force, not of job creation keeping up with population growth. But most Americans probably still aren’t aware of the many ways in which the American job market is fundamentally changing during the Obama recovery–nearly all of them for the worse. Those stories weren’t really told. (p39)

Freddoso then proceeds to enumerate some ‘story ideas’ that a competent, non-partisan media would have offered, or, dare I say personally, would have been rammed home were Obama a Republican incumbent in the same economic position:

  • Obama’s “Gray Jobs” Recovery–younger workers are no’ doing so weel.
  • Obama’s Low-Wage Jobs Recovery–what job growth there has been for younger workers is for bottom feeders.
  • Obama’s Part-Time Jobs Recovery–as blogged here => Mini-Jobs Blow.
  • Obama Doesn’t Learn from Mistakes–BHO truly is to jobs what Al Gore is to weather.
  • The Disappearing Workers–Elaborating upon the quotation above, having people bail out of the economy once their unemployment expires goes a long way toward propping up the numbers.
  • Dirty Fuels Drive the “Obama Recovery”—

    • Obama has tried to take some credit for the gas part of this fossile fuel bonanza–the more environmentally friendly part. But he spends a lot more time demonizing oil companies that are currently building America’s economic future–the ones that are hiring people to wages well above the national average and making the Obama recovery look a lot better than it otherwise would. (p56)

  • Amid New Union Push, Right-to-Work States Gain an Edge–A union is a corporation without a product, and the laws of Economics are stubbornly resistant to demagoguery.

To criticize something of this fine little volume, the closing chapter “Fighting Back With Good Ideas”, seems casually optimistic: “Good ideas will ultimately trump any apparent structural advantage that either political party enjoys today.” (p211). Sorry, David: this is not a chess match. The election itself was no intellectual exercise, as noted by the mighty Iowahawk:


Thus, good ideas are necessary, but not sufficient. The common sense, intellectual appeal of conservativism has to be backed up with solid cultural moves, or the Left’s Gustav Le Bon plays will keep on being Lucy van Pelt holding a football to the GOP Charlie Brown of the day.

The conservative media strategy needs a thorough re-work across the culture. As Instapundit suggests, picking up some magazine properties would make some sense. I, for one, would like some relief from the shameless acts of hooverism on the local news.

In summary, Freddoso’s latest outing is quite a worthy addition to any respectably conservative book collection. Thanks, David!

a cheap shot at Stacy McCain

“What should I write?”
“Take a cheap shot at McCain.”
“OK: `Smitty, I can’t believe you’re still working w/that jackass. (Oh, hi, Stacy.)`–David Freddoso”

Category: Books, Uncategorized

Liberals Outraged Like It Was a Bad Thing for Hillary to Have Sex With Animals

Posted on | February 14, 2013 | 21 Comments

Why so judgmental, Mother Jones?

[A] promotional video produced last year under the supervision of Adam Brandon, executive vice president of [FreedomWorks] and a [Matt] Kibbe loyalist. The video included a scene in which a female intern wearing a panda suit simulates performing oral sex on Hillary Clinton. . . .
A former FreedomWorks official says Kibbe and Brandon ran the group as a “cult of personality” geared toward promoting Kibbe, and that Kibbe at times issued crude guidelines for hiring women based on their appearance. . . .
“I heard complaints of insensitive, boorish behavior and of obnoxious references to the condition of pregnancy,” [former FreedomWorks honcho Dick] Armey says. “Such comments put you in jeopardy of lawsuits.” . . .
Some FreedomWorks staffers worried last year about a promotional video created ahead of FreePAC, a FreedomWorks conference held on July 26, 2012, where thousands of conservative grassroots activists nearly filled the American Airlines Center in Dallas to hear from tea party favorites, including Glenn Beck and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The short film hailing FreedomWorks was intended to play on the large video screens inside the arena.
In one segment of the film, according to a former official who saw it, Brandon is seen waking from a nap at his desk. In what appears to be a dream or a nightmare, he wanders down a hallway and spots a giant panda on its knees with its head in the lap of a seated Hillary Clinton and apparently performing oral sex on the then-secretary of state. Two female interns at FreedomWorks were recruited to play the panda and Clinton. One intern wore a Hillary Clinton mask. The other wore a giant panda suit that FreedomWorks had used at protests to denounce progressives as panderers. (See here, here, and here.) Placing the panda in the video, a former FreedomWorks staffer says, was “an inside joke.”
Another FreedomWorks staffer who worked there at the time confirms that “Yes, this video was created.”

Well, my hands are clean here: Somebody at FreedomWorks blacklisted me back in 2010, so of course I wasn’t invited to “FreePAC,” and nobody asked me if it was a good idea to make a video of Hillary Clinton having sex with a giant panda. NTTAWWT.

What I can’t understand is why liberals pretend like they disapprove of “inter-species intimacy,” when this is a favorite practice — indeed, a cherished right — of Typical Democrat Voters™. 

 

Category: Freedom Works, Hillary Clinton

Stormfront for Liberals: The New Republic

Posted on | February 14, 2013 | 46 Comments

Chris Hughes: Liberal white-guilt peddler from Elite City

“The New Republic has abandoned its liberal but heterodox tradition and embraced a leftist outlook as predictable as that of Mother Jones or the Nation.”
— Marty Peretz, former publisher of The New Republic

After Facebook zillionaire Chris Hughes purchased The New Republic, he proclaimed that the magazine, which has long since lost the prestige it enjoyed in the 1980s and ’90s, would “strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias.” This proclamation was instantly falsified by the magazine’s first print cover story under the new publisher, a smear of the Republican Party by Sam Tanenhaus.

That inspired a memorable Twitter beatdown of Chris Hughes by Ace of Spades — if you haven’t seen it, you simply must — who pointed out that, despite its partisan heckling of Republicans as “The Party of White People,” The New Republic‘s editorial staff is a monochromatic swath of vanilla honkydom. What is true of The New Republic is, of course, true of liberalism in general. The folks who were most eager to brand the Tea Party movement “racist” were white liberals, and this tells you something about what Shelby Steele called the White Guilt mentality of liberals: “Vote Democrat, cracker, in order to signify your moral righteousness on race issues.”

Never mind, of course, whether the policies of the Democrat Party actually result in any genuine improvement in the quality of life for African-Americans: When all that matters is your bien pensant good intentions toward black people, the efficacy of policy can be ignored as a trivial concern. Skepticism toward liberal policies becomes evidence of mala fides — for example, you’re a racist if you take seriously the “mismatch” critique of affirmative action — and intelligent examination of alternatives is thereby rendered impossible.

Essential to this way of thinking is the demonization of Republicans as representative of negative values: Racist, sexist, homophobic, greedy, redneck, theocratic, clueless, rich people. 

Rhetoric about ideological liberalism thus ignores the unthinking partisanship — the enthusiastic cheerleading mentality that views the success of the Democratic Party as necessary to the good of the American people — which is the genuine nature of “bias” in 21st-century political journalism. The press corps is nowadays overcrowded by propagandists who think of every story in terms of startling simplicity: How will this help Democrats or hurt Republicans?

Isn’t that why the national media have so strenuously tried to ignore the death of Jennifer Morbelli? Bad news for the abortion industry is bad news for Democrats, and therefore a woman’s death after a late-term abortion . . . well, that’s not news at all!

Liberals never examine their consciences, mainly because membership in the Party of Death requires them to discard their consciences, but also because honesty and self-awareness are not prerequisites for success as a partisan hack. The descent of liberal journalism into unmitigated partisan hackdom in the Obama Age is not a phenomenon that The New Republic will ever examine in its pages, because they don’t employ any writers capable of stepping outside the bubble of epistemic closure that envelops them. It is a magazine that employs clever liberal writers to tell slightly less clever liberal readers that their liberalism is synonymous with cleverness — and also, Vote Democrat, you crackers!

UPDATE (Smitty): welcome, Instapundit readers!

 


Category: Intellectuals, Journalism, Liberals

CNN Scrapes Bottom

Posted on | February 14, 2013 | 23 Comments

John Hinderaker summarizes a panel on cop-killer Chris Dorner at The Third-Place Cable News Network Nobody Watches:

CNN’s panel is excited about Chris Dorner. They can understand why lots of people think he is a “superhero.” They think his deeds were “exciting,” like a “Denzel Washington movie,” and agree that Dorner shed valuable light on the critical issue of police brutality. Their panel is more or less a Chris Dorner fan club, with one lonely exception who thinks the most salient fact is that he was a murderer . . .

Meanwhile, according to The Third-Place Cable News Network Nobody Watches, it’s a potential “career ender” for Sen. Marco Rubio to take a sip of water during a televised speech.

Category: CNN

LIVE AT FIVE: 02.14.13

Posted on | February 14, 2013 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
San Bernardino Sheriff Says Murderous Ex-Cop Not Deliberately Burned

Remains of the cabin where the fugitive killer was hiding

Driver’s license with name of killer found among ashes of burned-out cabin

Few States Looking To Extend Preschool To Four-Year-Olds
Critics point to ineffectiveness of Head Start as reason to reject President’s goal

Lew Defends Work At Citigroup, Talks Tax Reform At Senate Hearing
Opposes sequestration, concentration on deficit reduction



POLITICS
Senate Democrats Schedule Hagel Vote Despite GOP Roadblocks

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Republicans want more answers from Administration on Benghazi and from Hagel on speech payments

Detroit’s Mayor Dave Bing Announces Partnership To Raze More Abandoned Homes, Defends “Difficult Decisions”

Sen. Paul Threatens Hold On Brennan Nomination For CIA

New Medal For Drone Pilots Outranks Bronze Star For Valor

Senate Opens Immigration Hearings With Grilling Of Secretary Napolitano By GOP

Senator Collins Announces She’ll Vote Against Hagel



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Jumps To $119/Barrel: NYMEX $97.59, Brent $118.71
US Airways, American Merge In $11 Billion Deal
Asian Shares Gain On Improving Sentiment, G20 Eyed
Japan’s GDP Decline Strengthens Abe’s Case For Stimulus
Time Warner Plans To Sell Part of Magazine Unit
Cisco’s 2Q Earnings Rise Above Street Estimates
Bank Of Korea Freezes Key Rate For Fourth Straight Month
New Legg Mason CEO Outlines Plans For Turnaround
Michigan Firm Spent $142 Million In Federal Grants And Produced…Nothing
Oreo Maker Mondelez Results Weaker Than Expected; Stocks Fall
Stock Futures Rise, Retail Sales Inch Higher
Apple Loses iPhone Naming Rights In Brazil
Why Running Android Apps On The Surface Pro Is Bad For Microsoft, Android, And Developers
Europol Busts Cybercrime Network Based In Spain
Apple Drops MacBook Pro Retina Prices, Boosts Specs
Nexus Devices Getting Android 4.2.2, Google Now Widget
Intel Web TV Box Coming This Year With Live Streaming Ability
Valve Reportedly Laying Off Dozens Of Employees
A Smaller Rival Takes Aim At Pandora
Cult Classic “System Shock 2” Being Re-Released



SPORTS
Celtics Grind Out Ugly Win Over Bulls

Celtics’ Brandon Bass dunks over the Bulls’ Joakim Noah in the first half of Wednesday’s game

Bad shooting from both teams prolongs agony of 71-69 Boston win

Brennan: IOC Loves American Money, But Not Americans

Senators’ Karlsson Suffers Cut Achilles Tendon, Out Indefinitely

Orange Crushed: Huskies Beat Syracuse 66-58

Blues Edge Red Wings In OT 4-3

Nyets Beat Undermanned Nuggets, 118-108

Magic Forward Turkoglu Gets 20 Game Suspension After Testing Positive For Steroids

Paul George’s First Triple-Double Helps Pacers Bury Bobcats

Barry Bonds Seeks Dismissal Of Felony Conviction

2013 Daytona Speedweeks Schedule

Nationals Notes: Gio Gonzalez Braced For An Unusual Spring



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Kate Upton Says Her Body Shut Down After Antarctic Photo Shoot

Kate Upton poses at the launch party of the SI 2013 Swimsuit issue

“When I came back, I was losing my hearing and eyesight. My body was shutting down because it was working so hard to keep me warm.”

Alyson Hannigan: A Mental Patient Is Trying To Kill Me


Katy Perry Doesn’t Approve Of The Chris Brown/Rihanna Reunion

Hugh Laurie In Talks For Villain Role In George Clooney’s “Tomorrowland”

Taylor Swift Disses Carrie Underwood, Avoids Ex John Mayer At The Grammy Awards

Connie Britton Is A Late Bloomer

Hugh Jackman On his Surprising Hollywood BFFs And Mother’s Abandonment

Ke$ha Drinks Own Urine In Documentary

Steve Martin And Wife Welcome First Child



FOREIGNERS
Pope Benedict Appears At Final Public Mass
Obama Speaks To Abe About Nork Nuke Test
Australia Aware Of Alleged Spy Before Death In Israel
100th Self-Immolation Reported In Tibet
Egyptian Authorities Flooding Gaza Tunnels To Curb Smuggling
VP Says Chavez Getting “Complex And Tough” Treatments
Cruise Ship Went From Love Boat To Horror Honeymoon
Egyptians Turn To Black Market For Hard Currency
Zimbabwe Sets Date For Constitutional Referendum



BLOGS & STUFF
Looking Spoon: How Bing Manipulated Their Data To Give A False Positive Impression Of Obama’s SOTU Performance
Naked Politics: Politics, Poland Spring And Senator Marco Rubio
The Blaze: Maybe That Water Break Added To His Aura
Neo-neocon: Today, It’s The Water
Newsbusters: Scarborough Says Rubio’s Not Ready
Ed Driscoll: In The Future Everyone Will Have His Own Zapruder Film For 15 Minutes
The Lid: NONSENSE! Illegal Alien Tells Congress “Don’t Call Me Illegal”
Twitchy: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper Drank What?


Israel Matzav: Republicans Say They Have The Votes To Delay Hagel
Power Line: CNN Slides Ever Lower
Hit & Run: We’re Not Going To Have An Adult Conversation About State Violence, Are We?
Tim Blair: Sympathy For The Dorner
NRO Corner: Students Told To Stop USA Chant, Take Off American Flag Bandanas
Protein Wisdom: “Whether That Was The Intent Or Not, That’s The Way It Comes Across”
Gateway Pundit: Senator Burr Says CIA Has “Flatly Refused” To Give Up Benghazi-Related Documents
Blackfive: And Son, This Medal Is For…
Veronique De Rugy: A Tired, Bad Proposal
JustOneMinute: Raising The Minimum Wage (And My Blood Pressure)
Jammie Wearing Fools: House Democrat Kills Time During SOTU By Tweeting “I Love You” To Bikini Model
Althouse: “Our Court Needs To Address And Solve Its Workplace Safety Issue”
The Lonely Conservative: The Obamas To Vacation In Palm Beach. How Nice For Them.

Category: Live at Five

Obama’s Amazing Bullshit Factory

Posted on | February 13, 2013 | 11 Comments

Barack Obama is to bullshit what Willy Wonka was to chocolate, and America has bought the golden ticket.

Bad policy cannot be advocated by honest rhetoric. Dishonesty is therefore a hallmark of bad government. In terms of honesty, the Obama administration’s rhetoric is somewhere in the range between Baghdad Bob and North Korea.  Kirsten Powers says Tuesday’s State of the Union address was as if “President Obama’s chief speechwriter has been replaced by a cliché-generator circa 1960.” 

When he wasn’t spouting clichés, Obama was employing euphemisms, including repeated use of “investment” to describe federal deficit spending. Given the track record of Obama’s “green jobs” projects, we might as well “invest” in Lotto scratch-off tickets.

Not content with clichés and euphemisms, Obama also employed The Big Lie — why bother with small lies? — to insist that despite the $5.8 trillion he’s added to the national debt already, none of his new spending would add a single dime to the deficit:

(Hat-tip: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.)

 

Category: Democrats

They Buried Jennifer Morbelli Today

Posted on | February 13, 2013 | 19 Comments

It’s Ash Wednesday, and a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher was laid to rest in Westchester County, N.Y. Her story is now gaining international attention, but the New York Times and the national TV networks can’t be bothered to report the death of a woman who died after a late-term abortion by Dr. LeRoy Carhart. So the story got covered by Viral Read:

A 10 AM service was held this morning at New York’s Holy Name of Jesus Church for 29 year-old Kindergarten teacher Jennifer McKenna Morbelli. ViralRead was on the scene.
Morbelli died Thursday at Shady Grove Hospital in suburban Montgomery County, Md., after undergoing a late-term abortion performed by Dr. LeRoy Carhart at the Germantown Reproductive Health clinic. Pro-life organizations including Operation Rescue have reported that Morbelli arrived at the clinic late Sunday, Feb. 3, and returned to the clinic for the next three days, including a nine-hour visit on Wednesday, Feb. 6. Morbelli was reportedly rushed to the hospital early Thursday morning and died hours later after suffering “massive internal bleeding,” Operation Rescue reported.
In a humble eulogy, Morbelli’s sister Kristin remembered how wonderful her sister was; how she always was ‘sticking up for her’ in ways no one else would. ViralRead’s New York City based correspondent reported that in the view of her family, Morbelli had accomplished more in 29 years than most do in a lifetime. In her mother’s stead, Kristin read a letter from her mother and father to Morbelli, a feat incomprehensible to anyone who has never laid a loved one to rest. Roughly 150 mourners were present for the services.
The priest who presided over the services delivered a consoling homily in which he remembered his favorite childhood nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty. He stated that much like Humpty Dumpty, God will put both Jennifer and her unborn child, Madison Leigh, back together again. . . .

Read the whole thing.

 


Category: Abortion

Why Does @BridgetteDunlap Want to Suppress the Truth About Abortion?

Posted on | February 13, 2013 | 92 Comments

Monday night, after praising Jill Stanek’s reporting of this story, I found myself criticized on Twitter by Bridgette Dunlap, a law student who has a fellowship at Fordham University’s Leitner Center for International Law and Justice:

OK, fine, Bridgette: Let’s have a long, ugly quarrel on Twitter where you lecture me about privacy rights and I’m forced to advocate the public’s “right to know” argument by which the New York Times justifies leaking classified national-security information.

Accuse me of disrespecting the Morbelli family’s grief, denounce me for seeking to exploit this woman’s death for the sake of politics and I will repeat what I’ve said before: I don’t care, just stop ignoring this story.

This story isn’t about me or you or Jill Stanek. This story is about an abortionist who left a woman to bleed to death. If you want to target Jill Stanek for a lawsuit, please go right ahead, Bridgette, and I’ll cover the lawsuit, because that will call attention to the shameful enormity of the bloody career of this disgraceful butcher, LeRoy Carhart.

Double-dog dare ya.

No, Bridgette, you wouldn’t dare pursue such a lawsuit, because you know as well as I do that the more Americans learn about what “late-term abortion” really means, the more they’ll be horrified to know that the United States is one of only four countries in the world — along with China, North Korea and Canada — where abortions are legal in the 33rd week of pregnancy.

This is a gruesome stain on our national conscience, and it ought to be against the law. Because you know that the truth about late-term abortion would disgust decent people, Bridgette, you’re attempting to intimidate journalists into believing (wrongly) that naming Jennifer McKenna Morbelli as the victim of Carhart’s butchery, or using a previously published photo of her is somehow unethical or illegal.

Hey, I got news for you sweetheart: I didn’t start doing this job last week, and you don’t scare me a bit.

Jennifer Morbelli’s death is now being investigated by state officials in Maryland; it is therefore a matter of public record and I defy you or anyone to argue that it is not legitimate news.

Meanwhile, your attempt to suppress the truth will only cause more people to report the truth: “Streisand Effect,” look it up.

Here’s Matt Vespa covering the story at PJ Media, and here’s Ken Klukowski reporting it at Breitbart.com. Just in case that’s not enough coverage for you, Bridgette, the U.K. Daily Mail is now on the story:

Anti-abortion activists have taken up the tragic case of a 29-year-old woman from upstate New York who died while terminating her advanced pregnancy, demanding the closing of the clinic where the procedure was performed.
On Monday, more than 150 pro-life activists gathered near the clinic in Germantown, Maryland, accusing the head of the medical center, Dr LeRoy Carhart, of being directly responsible for the death of Jennifer McKenna Morbelli last week.
‘We will not rest until this clinic is shut down and the license of LeRoy Carhart is revoked. God let it be so,’ the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said at the demonstration.

Welcome to the Information Age, Bridgette. And good luck with your career as a commissar in the Thought Police.

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Category: Abortion
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