The Other McCain

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

Sarah Palin Interview At Breitbart.Com

Posted on | January 26, 2013 | 65 Comments

by Smitty

Mark Levin reports

1. What’s next for you?
Short term: I encourage others to step out in faith, jump out of the comfort zone, and broaden our reach as believers in American exceptionalism. That means broadening our audience. I’m taking my own advice here as I free up opportunities to share more broadly the message of the beauty of freedom and the imperative of defending our republic and restoring this most exceptional nation. We can’t just preach to the choir; the message of liberty and true hope must be understood by a larger audience.
Focus on the 2014 election is also imperative.

The lady is among the more charismatic figures of our day. What one hopes to see is serious direction and substantial reform, i.e. that which the GOP is not delivering.

I don’t doubt the lady can do it. The question is the degree to which the GOP elite is willing to go ‘scorched earth’ rather than permit her to succeed. After all, it’s not “her turn”.

Read the whole thing.

Update: color Mataconis unimpressed:

Category: Sarah Palin

#NRISummit: Scarborough 2016?

Posted on | January 26, 2013 | 36 Comments

Joe Scarborough exits the National Review Institute Summit

Strange to say, on the “What’s Wrong With the Right?” panel this morning — which included Reihan Salam, Bill Kristol, Yuval Levin, John Podhoretz and Ross Douthat — the most stubbornly outspoken opponent of “big government Republicans” was MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.

Scarborough said that George W. Bush’s big-government measures “completely muddied the brand” of the Republican Party, and he was applauded by many of the 700 people attending the National Review Institute Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Was this the start of a 2016 presidential campaign for the former Florida congressman who has become the token Republican host on liberal-leaning MSNBC? Last fall, Scarborough dismissed reports that he was considering such a campaign, saying he has “the best job in the world” and “no desire to leave.” But one veteran political  observer noted the contrast between Scarborough’s engagement with the audience and the more aloof intellectuals on the panel: “That’s the politician in him.”

PREVIOUSLY:

 

Category: Fear. Loathing.

Daniel Hannan Is One Of The Reasons We Don’t Lose Hope

Posted on | January 26, 2013 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

The Oxford Union

Founded in 1823, the Union has hosted world leaders in virtually every field. These have included Presidents Nixon, Carter and Reagan, Michael Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Diego Maradona, the Dalai Lama, Benazir Bhutto and Mother Teresa. More recently we have been honoured by visits from speakers as varied as Shakira, Tony Benn, Martin Sheen, David Cameron, Sir Ian McKellen, General Petraeus, and Johnny Depp.

Genius on display:

One is stunned to think that, in stark contrast, some people find a certain teleprompted lightweight is a great thinker and speaker.

This video should go viral.

via Liberty News Network

Category: Uncategorized

Debating Gay Marriage With Cynthia Yockey On Da Tech Guy’s Radio Show

Posted on | January 25, 2013 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

I’ve been invited to debate my dear friend Cynthia Yockey of A Conservative Lesbian on Da Tech Guy’s show tomorrow afternoon, on 26 January 2013, from 2-3 PM EST, if the technical gremlins are smiling.

My arguments will consist of pure, heated denunciation, in the style of that 18th century fire breather Jonathan Edwards using that immortal chestnut Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God as an outline. Why make the rubble bounce, when you can pulverize it into a brimstone-scented incense? I ask you.

Of course I’ll be doing none of that. Cynthia and Pete Da Tech Guy have been friends for years, and this is an opportunity both to showcase his new, syndicated format, to encourage Cynthia on a project that I understand is in progress, and to exchange ideas where we vary substantially in the kind of rational way you used to think possible with the Left. One does not intend to offer religious arguments, at least as a going in position.

DaTechGuy syndicated run begins at a temporary time on the Money Matters Radio network from 1-3 PM EST bringing you Matt O’Brien talking about a new initiative to stop Obamacare in its tracks in our the first hour and in our second hour the great debate. Chris Smitty Smith of The Other McCain on one side and Cynthia Yockey from A Conservative Lesbian on the other with the topic, Gay Marriage!

The call in number is 888-205-2263 the live stream for the Money Matters Network is here and or you can listen live via TuneIn.

Woo hoo!

Category: Cynthia Yockey, Da Tech Guy

What Difference Does Sarah Palin Make?

Posted on | January 25, 2013 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

“It’s my understanding that Gov. Palin was offered a contract by FOX, and she decided not to renew the arrangement,” the source close to Palin told RCP. “She remains focused on broadening her message of common-sense conservatism across the country and will be expanding her voice in the national discussion.”
The source declined to say whether Palin would pursue a television contract with another news network, such as CNN.

Found curled up weeping in a corner with his thumb in his mouth, Anderson Cooper could only sob “Nooooo” at the thought. Over at MSNBC, Piers Morgan was channeling Vincent again:

Vincent: Oh no. The problem. The problem, Pansy! It’s started again!
Pansy: Oh! Oh, don’t worry, darling!
Vincent: Ohhh… ohhh…
Pansy: I say!
Vincent: I must have fruit!

What will Sarah do? I’m really not bothered in any case, so long as the Lefty heads keep ‘sploding.

Category: Sarah Palin

Early Start for #UnsustaintableBarTab at the #NRISummit: Beer and Loathing

Posted on | January 25, 2013 | 40 Comments

Rich Lowry gives a video interview at the NRI Summit

WASHINGTON, D.C.
No sooner had I walked into the lobby of the Omni Shoreham Hotel than I was accosted by John LaRosa, Republican campaign consultant and originator of the #UnsustainableBarTab. “What? Are you stalking me?” LaRosa said. “Did you follow me from the airport?”

We immediately went to the room where his fellow consultant Brad Marston was waiting. We then headed back down to the smoking area, on the way encountering National Review reporter Rob Costa, who’s prepared for the riot I’ve been trying to incite at this weekend’s summit. Costa’s not a smoker, so we bid him adieu and headed out to the front of the hotel where the snow was being whipped around by a cold wind.

“Hey, I just came from Boston,” Marston said. “This is balmy.”

We checked in and got our credentials, then went to the restaurant for a late lunch/early happy hour. While we waited for our sandwiches to arrive, National Review‘s Kevin Williamson walked in and was invited to join us. We started telling tales of the past campaign, including hilarious anecdotes about Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich that can only be repeated off the record, and then only if someone else is picking up the tab — which John and Brad were, of course: “Media relations” being a legitimate tax-deductible business expense.

We adjourned the convocation and I headed down to the ballroom where some 700 were gathered for the Summit. Ran into Joe Schoffstall, Bruce Carroll and Stephen Gutowski, all of whom are Rising New Media Superstars (and now owe me beers for the shout-out).

The first Controversial Moment of the evening occurred early:

What? Fawning praise for the loser? Is this what we’ve come down to? Praising the “splendid candidate” who lost? Well, I needed a smoke after that, and on my way back down, I ran into my friend Orit Sklar and got into a conversation about the retirement of Saxby Chambliss (for which Ali Akbar deserves much credit) and the likelihood of a multi-candidate primary. Tom Price will almost certainly run for the seat in 2014, but . . .

Well, obviously, this was all strictly off-the-record and not for attribution — just two friends talking privately. Hey, did I mention that some of my friends are Republican campaign consultants?

Category: Fear. Loathing.

How Long Can the ‘Dollar Bubble’ Last?

Posted on | January 25, 2013 | 18 Comments

If you think this is the solution, you are the problem

“Sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money. Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debt that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be.”
— Professor Glenn Reynolds

Everybody who knows anything about economics — that is to say, everybody who isn’t a liberal — is concerned about the Federal Reserve’s policy of deliberate inflation: Devaluing the dollar as a monetary solution to the nation’s underlying fiscal and economic problems. There is no real recovery, and no end in sight to deficits so, hey, let’s just print a lot of paper. It’s as logical as the Magic Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coin.

This unsustainable zero-interest policy began during the Bush administration and has been continued for nearly five years. How long before the inevitable Day of Reckoning? We don’t know. What will that monetary Day of Reckoning look like? Mike Rogers has a few thoughts:

It can’t happen here; We’re too big (to fail?); The whole world wants Dollars; We could never become The Weimar Republic/ Zimbabwe/ Greece/ 1960s Britain … After all, OUR financial wizards are too smart to let that happen!
Not so much! Just because Ron Paul has been telling us for a long time that the Federal Reserve was bad for us, doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Let’s check a few bullet points, and then I’ll explain why the warning signals are flashing a little more urgently these days . . .

Please read the whole thing. Don’t say you weren’t warned: Buy gold — a bargain today at $1,667 an ounce — and stockpile ammunition.

 

Category: Economics, Gold, Weimar America

Fear and Loathing at the #NRISummit: Can We Survive the Sarcasm Deficit?

Posted on | January 25, 2013 | 40 Comments

Perhaps National Review‘s famed cartoonist Roman Genn can do a savage caricature of the donnybrook brawl I’ve been trying to incite for this weekend’s National Review Institute “Future of Conservatism” Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Was it a smart career move to kick Jonah Goldberg in the knee? No, of course not, but there are a lot of things I’ve done over the years that could be characterized as the diametric opposite of “smart career moves.” I’ve always preferred the Eric Stratton Philosophy of Life:

Boon: I gotta work on my game.
Otter: No, no, no! Don’t think of it as work. The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.

Some readers misunderstood my purpose in subjecting Jonah Goldberg to the kind of blunt sarcasm I habitually aim at liberals. Do I want a fight with Jonah? Oh, hell, no — he’s the size of a linebacker, and I’m not enough of a journalistic celebrity to rely on the “David Gregory Loophole” in D.C.’s strict gun-control policy. So I’ll be unarmed and defenseless when I show up at the National Review Summit this afternoon.

Although I understand they’ve hired heavy security at the Omni Shoreham to deal with any troublemakers, what’s to stop Jonah Goldberg from slipping the guards $100 to look the other way while he pounds my head up against a brick wall?

No, I don’t want to go mano a mano with that savage giant. My point in depicting the NRI Summit as a conclave of effete snobs was to incite grassroots resentment, to inspire a populist mob to pay their $250 and show up at the Omni Shoreham howling for blood: Stir up some kind of controversy — “fireworks” as the headline-writers say — that will provide an approximation of actual news for me to report.

Readers who contribute to the Shoe Leather Fund aren’t paying me to go down to D.C. so I can write up the tedious proceedings of a series of panel discussions. No, the tip-jar hitters want some real news: At least a couple of angry shouting matches, if not indeed a brutal mob beatdown on Joe Scarborough. It was a smart idea to invite America’s Least Popular “Republican” TV Personality™ to this event, if only on the basis on the venerable principle that there is no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary. Speaking of obituaries . . .

When I told a certain investigative journalist friend of mine I was coming to town for the NRI Summit, he said, “You mean the one with the panel on ‘what’s wrong with the Right,’ where the answer to the question is, ‘The people on stage’?”

Panel: What is Wrong with the Right?
Moderator: Reihan Salam, National Review Online
Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard
Yuval Levin, National Affairs
John Podhoretz, Commentary Magazine
Joe Scarborough, MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’
Ross Douthat, New York Times

Notice — and I hate to be the one to point this out — that there isn’t a single female or Latino on that panel? So there’s one answer to your question: “Intellectuals who are clueless about optics.” This is not to endorse a tokenistic system of affirmative action among the rightward intelligentsia, but when you exclude key demographics and the closest thing to a “youth” presence you can offer is 33-year-old Harvard classmates Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat . . .

Finish that sentence however you want.

If the proprietors of Conservatism, Inc., want to run their operation as an Old Boys Club for Ivy Leaguers, who am I to object? It’s a free country. My advice was never solicited, and it’s unlikely the heirs of the Buckley Legacy would listen if I offered unsolicited advice. So I kick ’em in the knee, give ’em free publicity, and hope maybe some of our readers will pay $250 for the right to ask a few pointed questions.

And, honestly, it won’t be a totally lame snobfest. A few of the participants in this weekend’s NRI Summit proceedings:

Mark Steyn, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Charles Krauthammer, Laura Ingraham, Michael Barone, Kathryn Lopez, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Mona Charen, Mia Love, Peter Thiel, Mark Krikorian, James Pethokoukis, Amity Shlaes, Kevin Williamson, Robert Costa, Jay Nordlinger, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, John O’Sullivan, Larry Kudlow, Ed Whelan, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, John Fund, Tim Phillips, Heather Higgins, Kellyanne Conway, Cleta Mitchell, Jim Geraghty, Jim DeMint, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Arthur Brooks, Maggie Gallagher, Brad Wilcox and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal

Maybe you think all of those people are part of the problem, and you can pay $250 to get in their face and tell ’em so. But surely any conservative could look at that list and see at least a few names that might be part of the solution, and you can pay $250 to show up and cheer them.

The point is that I’m not anti-NRI Summit. I am anti-boredom, however, and even if the angry dissent and controversy — “fireworks”! — are as dramatically phony as professional wrestling, we need some infighting and bloodletting and perhaps even random violence among the panelists, if only to justify my spending a weekend in D.C.

If you’re not going to pay $250 to attend this event, it would be absurd for me to expect you to hit my tip jar for $10 or $20 just so I could write up a bunch of intellectual navel-gazing and tepid policy discussions. No, you want some real live action for me to report:

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Conservative journalist John Podoretz is “expected to recover” from the critical injuries he suffered during a savage fistfight that broke out Saturday afternoon during a panel discussion on immigration policy at the National Review Institute Summit.
Podhoretz was “conscious and responsive,” said a spokesman at George Washington University Hospital, where the Commentary magazine editor was rushed by paramedics after he charged the stage during a presentation by Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“It was totally unexpected,” said Krikorian, who was questioned and released by Metropolitan Police. “All I did was defend myself.”
Stunned witnesses said Podhoretz seemed to become agitated when Krikorian made several sarcastic references to the “open borders lobby” and “gutless neocons” whom he blamed for recent political setbacks suffered by the Republican Party.
“John started trembling and then his face became contorted by rage,” said Jim Geraghty, a National Review staffer who was moderating the panel. Geraghty said that Podhoretz shouted “anti-Armenian slurs” before charging across the ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel and attempting to attack Krikorian, who responded by slamming Podhoretz into the floor. . . .

Could that really happen? We certainly can’t rule it out. Bad blood between Krikorian and the “gutless neocons” has been brewing for years. Everybody knows who he’s talking about. Podhoretz’s irrational Fear and Loathing of Armenians isn’t exactly a secret, either.

That’s why readers want to contribute to the Shoe Leather Fund and send me down to D.C. for the weekend: If there’s going to be trouble — and it’s at least an outside possibility these vicious internecine rivalries might lead to an all-out riot at the National Review Institute Summit — you’re gonna want me to provide an on-the-scene report of this epic battle. Because I’m strictly a Neutral Objective Journalist.





 

 


Category: Conservatism 101, Fear. Loathing., Intellectuals, Jonah Goldberg, Neutral Objective Journalism, Rule 4, Shoe Leather Fund
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