The Other McCain

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

Is Norquist Thinking Wishfully?

Posted on | December 2, 2012 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

The whole clip is interesting, but the interviewer brings up the Tea Parties ~9:55. Grover’s premise is that Obama’s economic policies are going to have such a negative effect as to trigger a small-business backlash against Obama, presumably because after BHO has, say, doubled unemployment, there will be more loose people to demonstrate:

Via Tea Party News Network.

Donald Douglas cautions: “Don’t Promote Grover Norquist as Voice of Resurgent Tea Party Movement“, and links a Front Page Mag article that highlights GN’s various ‘odd’ connections.

They are indeed worrisome, but, if Norquist is on the board of the NRA and the ACU, should we blow off the NRA? Should we skip CPAC? The guilt by association is a slippery slope, for all have sinned, and fall shortly into the glory hole of Cthulhu.

My ambivalence on Norquist’s famous Tax Pledge is similar: you have to start somewhere, but self-congratulation for plugging one hull breach is silly if we’re still taking on water in five other locations. I’d like to know GN’s plan for moving from controlling taxation to unwinding the rest of the Progressive Project and restoring federalism and the notion of separation of powers.

Ground truth: there is a tremendous leadership vacuum on the right. While we can agree on a laundry list of things to do, there really is not yet any standard bearer with enough charisma, vision, and name recognition to unite the right. Thus, if Grover chooses either to promote or try to become that frontman, I’m not going to bother heckling until there is something more interesting available. Leadership is where you find it, and all purity test victories have a Pyrrhic flavor to them.

Category: Tea Party

ALABAMA 32, GEORGIA 28

Posted on | December 1, 2012 | 10 Comments

An exclusive report from our Alabama bureau:

By Bert The Samoan Lawyer
SPECIAL TO THE OTHER MCCAIN
TUSCALOOSA
In a stunning display of the ability to run out the clock, in a game punctuated by clock mismanagement on both sides, an Alabama team that displayed exactly the same weaknesses that it underlined in Sharpie, highlighted, and pointed to with those little 19th-century “pointing finger” logos in both the LSU and Texas A&M games, managed to hold on for a win that the Georgia Bulldogs would surely have procured had they simply stopped the clock with a spiked ball after their last first-down.
Alabama fans everywhere are praying that Notre Dame’s game-film viewing machines will break down, and that all its coaches were struck blind during Alabama’s last four games but, as Billy Joe Bob Stumpwater observed, “it’s ok if the Irish watched the Auburn game, just not the other three.”
The overwhelming fan sentiment, however, is “who cares; we’re going to the BCS and Georgia isn’t. And neither is Texas A&M,” as relayed by some blond girl in a houndstooth hat who followed up with, “I’m so drunk . . .”

Plans to provide exclusive blog coverage of the BCS Championship Game Jan. 7 in Miami are contingent on readers hitting the tip jar in a very serious way. Media credentials deadline is Dec. 14.

 

 

Category: Alabama, Sports

The Sexual Avant-Garde

Posted on | December 1, 2012 | 10 Comments

From the Wall Street Journal:

Writing to James Jones in 1965, [novelist William Styron] describes a weekend visit to the Vineyard by Jackie Kennedy: “We swam around quite a bit on the ocean beach and I rubbed a good deal of Sea n’ Ski foam on the widow’s thighs. . . . I hate to make it sound like such a sexy weekend . . . but our baby sitter got laid by one of the Secret Service.”

Instapundit linked that, although not under the category of “21st-century relationships” because, quite naturally, the decadent elite got there about a half-century ahead of the rest of us.

Category: History, Sex

‘Roid Rage’ in NFL Shooting?

Posted on | December 1, 2012 | 16 Comments

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher has reportedly murdered his girlfriend and then committed suicide. More details at Buzzfeed Sports.

While the motive for this murder-suicide is yet unknown, whenever I see something like this in the news — professional athletes engaged in extreme violence — I automatically suspect it may be a side-effect of steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

This suspicion may be misguided: Romantic relationships between ordinary people turn violent all the time without any parties to the crime being under the influence of Dynabol, etc. Still, whenever the crime involves one of these musclebound behemoths, I always think, “Roid rage.”

UPDATE: Kate at Victory Girls reports that Belcher’s slain girlfriend was named Kassandra Perkins, and the couple had a 2-month-old baby.

Category: Uncategorized

At The VA GOP Advance

Posted on | December 1, 2012 | 21 Comments

by Smitty

I just took in Morton Blackwell’s post-mortem on the election. He quoted extensively from Goldwater:

I had a very exciting time at the Republican National Convention. My conservative allies and I all worked very hard in the presidential election.
When I woke up the day after the election, everything I had worked for appeared to be in ruins. An extreme leftist had been reelected president of the United States.
Some liberal Republicans immediately began to blame newly activated conservatives for the presidential defeat. I knew they were wrong. It was clear to me that these newly active conservatives would be the key to major future victories for conservative principles.

Blackwell quoted the Lincoln Four-Step, and pointed out that the air game (consultants blowing piles of money on SuperPAC ads) at the expense of the ground game was a big non-winner, as it is a mis-allocation of resources. No kidding, said starving bloggers across the land. Aside: is Citizens United still the worst SCOTUS decision evar, or does the re-election of BHO mean people exercising freedom of speech in groups is OK again?

Another point brought out by Blackwell was that Ronald Reagan managed to say unpleasant things pleasantly. Mr. Romney never seriously articulated why the class warfare rhetoric is so false. Not all fights are tasteful, genteel, and on the ground of the general’s choosing.

The need for a permanent campaign was another drum he beat. Politics is NOT my number one priority in life. For the Left, it seems like it may be. There seem to be Statists who view politics as life itself. A lady in the audience mentioned a rich Obama family (around Richmond, maybe) that put up four Obama operatives for a full year leading up to the election. Think of Democrats as political Jehova’s Witnesses. I say that in admiration of a work ethic, not endorsement of either viewpoint. I don’t want to make politics that important, frankly. But the need to get people to set aside a modest amount of time to engage and build a coherent conservative response cannot be understated. “A Republic, if you can keep it,” said Franklin. We have to keep it.

“Organization wins elections,” said a fellow in the crowd. Not just the phone calls and door knocks by random people from wherever. The precinct captains who know their turf are what the GOP lacks. As a terrible neighbor who hardly knows anyone on my block, I have to own my slice of the problem. If we’re not engaging in a minor invasion of privacy to get to know people, we’ll be suffering increasing major invasions of privacy from Leviathan.

Sissy Willis on Twitter points to a mea culpa from Alaska:

Sarah Palin warned us, and that is irrefutable. But I have learned from it the hard way. Instead of “forward,” which is the current battle cry, it seems that “backward” is the new norm. I shudder to think what this country will be like in the next four years.
Yes, Sarah warned us, and some listened. I don’t agree with her all the time, but what is intriguing is that she somehow knew. How, I ask? Not sure, but she knew, and that is fact. Maybe I should have listened.

Update: thanks, Instapundit!

Category: Uncategorized

Fleet Street to Be Neutered?

Posted on | December 1, 2012 | 10 Comments

As a journalist, I’ve long admired and envied the aggressiveness and flair of the British press. During the 1990s — when for the first time the Internet allowed Americans to see foreign newspaper coverage in “real time” — Fleet Street’s coverage of the Clinton scandals was often as important as anything published in U.S. papers. This attracted notice at the White House, where the role of the British press, specifically the Telegraph‘s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, was mentioned in the infamous 1995 “Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce” report.

What I love about the Fleet Street boys is that they understand their jobs in a very simple way: Get the scoop on the big story that sells papers.

This pragmatic attitude leaves little room for partisan bias, and still less for the obnoxious “make a difference” idealism that infuses so much American media with political correctness. It doesn’t matter on Fleet Street whether the corrupt or philandering politician is Tory or Labour, so long as the scandal is juicy, because the newspaper reader loves scandal stories, the editors all know it, and no reporter can afford to let himself be scooped on a big story like that.

Alas, the ruthlessness of the competition was such that Fleet Street reporters resorted to hacking cell phones and bribing police, and now the British government is considering regulations on the press. Alex Massie of the New Republic laments:

But the culture of British journalism is itself something worthy of protection. Fleet Street has long prided itself on its ability to live on its wits. Its practitioners are members of a grubby trade; unlike their American cousins they do not consider themselves members of a profession. Despite lacking the protection of anything as grand as the First Amendment the British press have largely managed to thrive until now in its own scrappy way, living on its wits while serving the public.

That’s exactly it: In recent decades, American journalism has gotten away from the “grubby trade” mentality, as the profession has attracted more missionary idealists whose progressive political commitments take precedence over the crude readership-value calculations of newsworthiness that inspire the Fleet Street headline-chasers.

As much as civilized tastes might recoil at a cynical commercial mentality in the media — “If it bleeds, it leads,” as local TV news programmers are wont to say — there is a danger also in the alternative, of editors and producers anointing themselves Platonic archons with the authority to impose idealistic myths on the public through coverage that is selectively presented to favor an allegedly superior sensibility.

UPDATE: At an event this past week in Washington, I met Jon Swaine, a young British reporter who was recently promoted to the Telegraph’s D.C. bureau. He published an article Tuesday with this intriguing headline:

FBI most wanted ‘hiding with Mormons’

It’s odd that I hadn’t seen that story in the U.S. press, and yet typical that a British reporter would find it newsworthy. Nothing like a good crime story to sell newspapers, and the unusual angle — a murderer who may be hiding within a religious community — makes it interesting.

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

 


Category: Great Britain, Journalism

Happy Fiscal Cliff Holidays

Posted on | December 1, 2012 | 7 Comments

Charles Krauthammer on the negotiations: “Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War.”

What’s interesting is how President Obama is arguing that the election was a referendum in favor of what he calls his “balanced approach” to deficit reduction — i.e., increased taxes on the rich — but his bargaining position in these negotiations is entirely unbalanced: Not only is he refusing to budge an inch on entitlement spending, he actually wants more deficit “stimulus” spending and unlimited authority to increase the debt ceiling.

In other words, as Krauthammer suggests, Obama’s “negotiations” are actually a demand for unconditional surrender. Is this really what Americans voted for on Nov. 6? Ace of Spades sees tyrrany:

Obama is a tyrant.  If Republicans do not lift the debt ceiling, it is perfectly obvious what he will do, as he’s argued for it before:  Like Putin, he will begin unilaterally asserting power he doesn’t have.

Maybe this is what the 52% who voted for Obama really wanted, a Dictatorship of Hope. On the other hand, Jennifer Rubin thinks Republicans are handling the negotiations well:

For now, however, Senate and House Republicans are playing it right. They have even got the mainstream media to notice how unreasonable Obama’s non-offer, offer is. (“no concessions“). Some even recognized that the president’s “offer” in response to the Republicans’ move on revenue was identical to his post-election opening bid.
In their own ways, Sen. Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the past couple of days rather expertly. McConnell’s reaction to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s ludicrous proposal — laughter — was exactly right. It is a joke, and rather than railing at specific parts, a guffaw nicely communicates to voter how un-serious the president is at this point.
Likewise Boehner’s more-in-sadness-than-in-anger tone after his call with Obama keeps his party from becoming unhinged and keeps a respectful dialogue with the president.

Not really a big fan of “respectful dialogue with the president,” but whatever. The game here is that each side is trying to make the other side seem unreasonable, to affix blame in advance if the whole thing goes sideways. The problem for Republicans is that the media will blame them, no matter how unreasonable Democrats may be. There is thus no possibility of making this a political victory for the GOP, and since the only alternative seems to be knuckling under and giving Obama everything he wants, neither is there any realistic hope of a policy victory.

So, how are those internal polls working out for you, Neil Newhouse? I mean, we’re dealing with the inevitable consequences of defeat. Scapegoating John Boehner and Mitch McConnell for “weakness” in the fiscal-cliff negotations is really just a way of blaming Republican congressional leaders for the defeat of the Republican presidential candidate, and that is neither fair nor pragmatic.

Elections matter. We lost. We’re screwed. Happy Holidays.

 

Category: Budget

Neal Rauhauser Goes Dark?
UPDATE: Law Enforcement?

Posted on | November 30, 2012 | 38 Comments

UPDATE 4:45 p.m. ET: At least two people who have been following this story tell me they suspect the unexplained disappearance of Neal Rauhauser’s blog may be a consequence of a criminal investigation. While these explanations are merely speculative at this point, one possibility is that Rauhauser has attracted FBI attention because of his involvement with the “Anonymous” hacker group. One source mentioned a certain hacker whose chat logs on a computer hard drive have come under scrutiny by the FBI.

A law enforcement angle in the shutdown of Rauhauser’s blog related to his Anonymous invovlement would, perhaps, explain the simultaneous silence by the “Occupy Rebellion” Twitter account, which openly supported the Anonymous hackers.

*** PREVIOUSLY (2:37 p.m. ET) ***

Mike Stack informs us that Neal Rauhauser’s blog has disappeared, after two months of cranking out smears and conspiracy theories about the alleged evils of various enemies of Rauhauser and his client Brett Kimberlin. Meanwhile, Rauhauser’s pet Twitter troll, “Occupy Rebellion,” has switched her account to “private” setting.

Why this happened or what it means is purely a matter of speculation, but one obvious possibility is that it may have become apparent to Brett Kimberlin that these cyberstalking presences were jeopardizing his case as defendant in the Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. lawsuit in Virginia.

UPDATE: John Hoge suggests:

Perhaps, he needs to coordinate a defense for the hearing on Tuesday. Maybe he’s just tying to hide.

There’s a key hearing in the Virginia case on Tuesday, and one of the motions to be heard will be Aaron Walker’s motion for a default judgment against Rauhauser. If Neal has belatedly decided to contest the suit, then trying to make the evidence of his continued harassment disappear would be an obvious move. Another possibility is that one of the various innocent people Rauhauser has dragged into his bogus conspiracy theories — and trust me, I hear from such people routinely — decided to take legal action against him.

UPDATE II: Mike Stack updates to say that the disappearance of Rauhauser’s blog will be permanent, but doesn’t say why it happened.

Anyone who’s studied Rauhauser’s methods know that this is typical: Neal has deleted more Internet content than most people have ever created — blogs, Scribd files, PDFs, Twitter sockpuppets, you name it. He has a childish love of the “you can’t catch me” game, and when his online mischief inevitably leads to trouble, Rauhauser tries to scrub the evidence off the Web. Then, when he re-emerges from hiding, Neal has some self-serving excuse about how he did nothing wrong, he was a victim of right-wing enemies, and anyone who claims otherwise is a paranoid wingnut.

Unfortunately, the truth accumulates and Rauhauser eventually runs short of people who believe his lies. There are always telltale clues that Neal can never quite explain away entirely, e.g.:

Hmmm. It seems to me that “Liberal Grouch” (Bill Schmalfeldt) is saying that his cyberstalking and harassment — which he ludicrously describes as “investigating” — are part of an organized intimidation campaign to shut up Brett Kimberlin’s critics. And seeing as how Schmalfeldt has taken over the “Breitbart Unmasked” site that many suspected was originally a Rauhauser project, maybe this reveals a fundamental truth about events of the past several months.

UPDATE III: Becca Lower offers a line from Sir Walter Scott:

The consequences of our crimes long survive their commission, and, like the ghosts of the murdered, forever haunt the steps of the malefactor.

“Consciousness of guilt,” as the detectives like to say. Throwing things in the river is only a misdemeanor littering offense, unless what you’re throwing in the river is the weapon used in a murder.





Category: The Kimberlin Files
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