The Other McCain

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

‘It’s Not About Politics, It’s About News’

Posted on | January 6, 2013 | 15 Comments

That, in seven simple words, is what Ali Akbar has been thinking about for the past month. He and I have had several long conversations about what an effective, innovative New Media operation would look like and, by the end of this month, he plans to start rolling it out at Viral Read.

Not much to see there now, but don’t sweat it. An expanded team has been recruited, a site re-design is in beta mode and, most of all, Ali’s been doing a lot of research about what exactly he wants to do. What he wants to do is something that works, something that succeeds.

Like I said, there have been a lot of long conversations, but if Ali hasn’t been making much noise online the past few weeks, there is a reason.

Go look at MediaGazer. Go look at TechMeme. Go look at WeSmirch. Lots of news in the world has nothing to do with politics. For that matter, go look at the Drudge Report and figure out how many of the headlines — at a site universally recognized as a major force in political news — don’t have anything to do with politics, per se.

Everybody knows Ali Akbar is an experienced Republican operative and conservative activist. But to do what he wants to do with Viral Read, Ali had to get his mind outside his purely political self and think like a businessman — as an entrepreneur, as a publisher.

So he’s been looking at what works — and what doesn’t work. He’s been looking at what succeeds — and what fails. He’s been looking real hard at that kind of stuff. He doesn’t plan to fail.

Nor has he failed to plan, but he has figured out (and this is something I have repeatedly emphasized in our long conversations) that being innovative and creative in New Media requires an experimental approach. If someone had told you in 2005 that Michelle Malkin was going to launch Hot Air, turn it into one of the go-to sites on the Internet, then sell that site and, a year later, launch Twitchy, which would in turn become one of the go-to sites on the Internet . . .

Well, there was just no way to anticipate that, just as there was no way to know in advance that Andrew Breitbart was going to suddenly zoom into glory in 2009 as a result of a video sting operation against ACORN by a couple of kids named James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

An entrepreneurial attitude toward New Media requires a trial-and-error approach. You have to try different things, see what works and what doesn’t, and then revamp your original plan (whatever that may have been) to accommodate the reality of a rapidly changing marketplace.

So whenever Ali has the new and improved Viral Read ready to go, don’t expect a Major Public Announcement. Instead, expect . . . news.

Because that’s the name of the game. Also, cute puppy pictures.

Category: Journalism

OBAMA’S THIRD TERM? Democrat Proposes Repeal of 22nd Amendment

Posted on | January 6, 2013 | 49 Comments

When I saw the news from Barbara Espinosa on Twitter this morning, I thought it was some kind of crazy joke:

Crazy as it is, however, it’s not a joke: Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) on Friday re-introduced as H.J. 15 the same bill he offered last year, “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment” — i.e., to end the two-term limit on the presidency, enabling Obama to be “President fo Life.”

The Twitchy Team is all over it, but as Barbara points out, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell this this thing could ever pass the ratification process. Of course, the Democrat Party’s contempt for the Constitution is so complete, they don’t care. They’d declare martial law, prohibit dissent as a “crime against the people” and govern by decree if it weren’t for the fact that conservatives are armed to the teeth. That probably explains why Obama is the greatest gun salesman in American history.

UPDATE: Worth noticing that it was a young friend of ours whose Tweet helped get this story onto the Drudge Report:

Gabby Hoffman, superstar! Keep an eye on that kid. She’s going places.

–


Category: Barack Obama, Constitution

Anatomy Of A Great Tweet

Posted on | January 6, 2013 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Look at this thing of beauty:

Category: Uncategorized

Damn It, Jim, I’m a Blogger!

Posted on | January 5, 2013 | 16 Comments

OK, so Pete Da Tech Guy wrote a post about loyalty, citing the persistence of my gratitude toward Alyssa Milano for an RT in September 2010.  Pete recalled that he had his own celebrity Twitter moment, a Tweet from William Shatner. (Eat your heart out, Jonah Goldberg!)

At the end of his post, Pete mentioned that he was still $370 short of his fundraising goal, and I was trying to think: How can we fix that?

Of course, Pete is famously Sicilian and naturally my mind started turning in that direction . . .

 

About 40 minutes passed and then . . .

How awesome is that? Not only did I get a Tweet from Captain James Tiberius Kirk, but it turns out he’s Twitter buddies with Alyssa!

Remember, however, that this happened because of Pete’s inspirational thoughts about loyalty, and there’s still his fundraiser to worry about, so please go hit Da Tip Jar.

As for me, I must keep pressing onward, to explore new Twitter frontiers, to boldly go where no blogger has gone before . . .

 

Category: Uncategorized

Hey, GOP: The IRS Is A Substantial Reform Target

Posted on | January 5, 2013 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Let’s face it: the IRS tax code is still a nightmare. It is too complex, too costly and too unfair. There is something fundamentally wrong when roughly 60 percent of hardworking taxpayers have to hire a professional just to do their taxes. You shouldn’t need an army of lawyers and accountants to understand our tax code. We need a simpler, flatter, fairer tax code that’s designed for taxpayers.
That’s why we have to start to work on real solutions to return accountability to our tax code by eliminating special interest loopholes. I believe in a simple principle. When it comes to the tax code, everyone should play by the same rules. Your tax rate should be determined by what’s fair, not who you know in Washington.

If the GOP wants to continue getting crushed in elections, just continue coloring within the Progressive lines, accepting the consumption of liberty by Leviathan. The tax code has long since ceased to become a means of funding legitimate government budgets. We don’t pass budget legislation anymore, and the taxes that are collected are pit into which all too small leap over shall fall. Way to go, DC: you’re as oppressive as King George III ever was.

But where is the reform? GOP candidates just repeat “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs,” as though the Federal government somehow isn’t shot through with rot and in need of a tear-down and retooling. We all know it does. So, if the GOP ain’t got the sack to:

(a) Articulate the real systemic issues,
(b) Lay them at the feet of the Body-surfing Hawaiian Orator,
(c) State what major chunks of the Federal Government are getting lopped off,

then just what good is the GOP, anyway?

via Insty

Category: GOP

‘Learning French,’ IYKWIMAITYD

Posted on | January 5, 2013 | 47 Comments

Valérie Allain as Mireille Belleau in French in Action (1987)

“Many have criticized the depiction of Mireille as gratuitously sexist. The camera often lingers on the actress’s chest and bare legs. ‘You’re seeing the videotape through a male gaze,’ said one female teaching assistant who asked not to be identified.”
— New York Times, March 4, 1990

Maybe Ace of Spades should teach a course, “Methods of Humor,” because he absolutely killed me with this casual walk-up to the joke:

Anyone keeping to those New Year’s declarations? I’m continuing trying to learn French . . .

Did my left eyebrow arch suspiciously at that set-up? I can’t say that it did, and I certainly didn’t suspect the punchline to which it was leading:

I’m mostly using “French in Action,” an immersion course from the 80s, which used to run on PBS. Anyone remember it? I actually did remember it — seeing it here and there — and it stuck in my mind chiefly because the main actress is gorgeous and has the highbeams on in 30% of her scenes (here, at about 1:40-2:00). I remember actually watching it just for the highbeams.
When the videos were used at Yale, three female students lodged a protest due to “sexism” — because the girl’s legs get featured a fair amount, and, of course, her highbeams. Which, in fairness, are halogen. Blinding.

It’s funny, but he’s not kidding. This French chick is, comment dites-vous? Oui, très érotique. Her name is Valérie Allain, and she was 21 when the series aired on public television. She’s now a 47-year-old mother of two, but thanks to the miracle of film, she is forever the delightful ingénue for students of French — and students of high-beams.

We’re talking high-beams of such startling intensity that you may never fully recover from the acute retinal trauma, my friends. Read more

Category: Ace of Spades, Celebrities, Culture, Education, Feminism, France, Hollywood, Movies, Rule 5

World’s Youngest Blogger:
Yeah, I Own Shakespeare

Posted on | January 5, 2013 | 11 Comments

How mean, green bovine?
Category: World's Youngest Blogger

FMJRA 2.0: Beautiful World

Posted on | January 5, 2013 | 14 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Obama Promises 2013 Gun-Grab Bill; Warns ‘There Will Be Resistance’

Fiscal-Cliff Kabuki Nears Final Scene UPDATE: House GOP Wants More Spending Cuts Before Final Vote

Ted Cruz Vows to Lead Opposition to Dianne Feinstein’s Gun-Grab Bill

FMJRA 2.0: Heavy Metal

Tenured, Yes. Radical, My Ass.

CNN’s Foreign Subversive Piers Morgan ‘Threatens’ to Leave U.S. Over Guns

Late Entry for ‘Worst Person of the Year’

Rule 5 Sunday: Come Dancing

TINFOIL HAT: Sec State Injured, SEAL Killed During Iran Incident?

‘It Ain’t True’

Maybe We Should Send Charlie Sheen to the University of Maryland

The Chicago Way: Obamaland Reports 500 Homicides (So Far) This Year

‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Rumored; Obama Supporters Cheer Tax Increases on Rich

Penetration, However Slight

Palin: ‘Conservatives Must Stay Engaged’

House Passes Fiscal-Cliff Deal 257-167

The Demographics of Envy

Kathy Griffin, Andrew Sullivan and Other Desperately Unfunny ‘Faggot’ Jokes

Tina Brown’s Mysterious Career: How Much Is That Zeitgeist in the Window?

Subsidized Stupidity

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.03.13

Green Energy Underpants Gnomes

Gun Control and the Politics of Ignorance

Alternate Headline for Current TV Deal

@DailyPundit, Optimist At Large

It’s Never Enough for Liberals

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.04.13

If Current TV Was Worth $500 Million, How Is BuzzFeed Worth $200 Million?

Top linkers this week:

  1. Rick’s Rants, the only linker with more than 5 this week – Rick made eight the hard way, in a week where nobody else had more than four. Some people like Tweets and Facebook shares, but I for one care nothing for them. I say, there is nothing on God’s gray earth so exalted as that prince of internet acknowledgements, the link!

Thanks to everyone for their links. Deadline for next week’s FMJRA is Friday, January 11.

 

Category: FMJRA Award
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