The Other McCain

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

‘Neal Sounded Weird’ — Did Rauhauser Interfere in a Texas Harassment Case?

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 15 Comments

Becca J. Lower has transcribed a BlogTalk Radio interview that Heather Chase did with Lee Stranahan. The backstory of the situation involved is convoluted in the extreme, and requires this brief explanation: In June, it was revealed that one of the leaders of an anti-Rush Limbaugh boycott (Matt “Shoq” Edelstein) had claimed connections to top Obama re-election officials during a conference call secretly recorded by a Texas man named “Randy Hahn” a.k.a. Jason Wade Taylor.

Taylor has subsequently been accused of harassing a Texas woman named Heather Chase. There are people who say bad things about Chase, just as there are people who say bad things about Taylor and Edelstein. However, I have no direct interest in trying to figure out who the villains and heroes are in that story. It may be that they’re all a bunch of kooks, but the point is, I just don’t care enough to bother attempting to unravel the accusations and counter-accusations about who did what to whom. What does interest me is the fact that Brett Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser got involved in this dispute — which centers on an allegedly threatening message Taylor sent to Chase — and in the process confirmed a lot of what we know about Rauhauser’s modus operandi.

In the interview (Lee has posted the audio at his site) Chase says that she got in touch with Rauhauser after Matt Osborne and others vouched for Rauhauser’s good intentions. Excerpts from the interview transcript:

STRANAHAN: Okay, so– before you talk about this, you’re kind of reticent to talk about the Neal Rauhauser thing, right?
CHASE: Yes, I am.
STRANAHAN: Why is that?
CHASE: Well, a lot of that is crazy and seems to be involved in a lot of political bickering, and possibly criminal stuff. But I don’t think that it’s directly related to Randy, except that now it seems that things are getting weird for this, too.
STRANAHAN: Yeah. And you– so, let’s talk about that: how did you end up in a position where Neal Rauhauser was texting with you? What happened there?
CHASE: Well last week I heard that Matt Osborne was interested in calming things down between people that have been having conflict with that group, which includes me and some of the other women who have been arguing and having a lot of trouble with Shoq because of some of his behavior. So I reached out to him, because I agree that we shouldn’t be having this sort of thing happening so we can all move on. Particularly because to me, the important thing here is this man, Jason, who’s been incredibly destructive.  . . .
STRANAHAN: Was Neal Rauhauser helpful at all?
CHASE: No, at least not according to the investigator who said that he spoke to Neal, that Neal sounded weird and was talking about a lot of other things that had nothing to do with this case. And so I contacted Matt Osborne, after I got back with my meeting with the investigator and asked him about it. And I was told that [Raahauser] had a higher agenda, I was told that the feds would be brought in on this. I have no idea if any of that is true. I have not been contacted by anybody like that. I’ve just been working with my investigator and my local police about this.  . . .
STRANAHAN:  Do you regret dealing with Neal Rauhauser and Matt Osborne on this at this point?
CHASE: I do.
STRANAHAN: Why is that?
CHASE: Because I think that it’s complicated what should be a very straight-forward case of this man [i.e., Taylor] who’s acting crazy and way out of bounds, and has threatened a lot of people and caused a lot of destruction. I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t want to make this as easy as possible for the investigators.

Hmmmm. So, on the recommendation of Osborne and others who were “interested in calming things down,” Rauhauser contacted police who were investigating Taylor’s alleged harassment of Heather Chase. But police told Chase that “Neal sounded weird and was talking about a lot of other things that had nothing to do with this case.” When Chase asked Osborne about Rauhauser’s involvement, she was told Neal has “a higher agenda” and “that the feds would be brought in on this.”

Let us ask: What interest do “the feds” have in the dispute between Chase and Taylor? What kind of “other things” did Rauhauser talk to the police about? And why was Rauhauser so eager to become involved in this dispute? We could speculate on answers to these questions, but what intrigues me is what it tells us about Rauhauser’s “higher agenda” and the means by which he pursues that agenda. If Chase’s description is accurate, then Rauhauser deliberately interefered in her harassment case and the effect of his interference was to confuse investigators with a lot of irrelevant crazy-talk.

There are many questions in need of answers here, among them a question recently asked by Patterico:

Why does it matter that Neal Rauhauser sounds so very, very much like “LulzShack”?

The answer to that question would seem to be quite interesting.

UPDATE: In comments below, Heather Chase explains that it was she who asked Rauhauser to provide specific information about Jason Wade Taylor to police investigating her claim that Taylor harassed her. Rauhauser and his associate Matt Osborne had said they had information about Taylor’s past behavior, Chase explains:

The part I found confusing was the officer’s reaction. First, Neal said in his text messages to me that the officer was concerned about my credibility and that he “took care of that” for me. When I showed the officer those text messages, he denied that stridently and explained that wasn’t what he’d said at all. He’d said that having other case numbers regarding Taylor’s actions toward others would help give the case as a whole more credibility.
He then told me that Neal sounded strange and talked about a lot of things that had nothing to do with the case. He seemed very skeptical of Neal and told me that he had not actually given him anything I’d specifically requested (case numbers, evidence, etc.).

That clarifies the reasons for Rauhauser’s involvement, but not what “things that had nothing to do with the case” Rauhauser talked to investigators about. Meanwhile, in a somewhat related development, a U.S. district judge in Maryland has dismissed Aaron Walker’s federal lawsuit against Brett Kimberlin, although Walker’s state lawsuit against Kimberlin (and Kimberlin’s co-defendant Rauhauser) in Virginia is still going forward.

 

Category: The Kimberlin Files

An Hour With Sandra Fluke

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

Had I an hour with Sandra Fluke,
I’d read to her from the Gospel of Luke,
To watch the jeering Jezebel puke,

And take some bets on the time it took,
Though such mark me a Christian crook.
These days we all need a little book,

As the economy has us down on our luck,
Since the Fickle Finger of ‘Fairness’ struck,
And the President: he don’t give a bother.

via Insty

Category: Uncategorized

John Willis, R.I.P.

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 5 Comments

The Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune reports that my former colleague and good friend John Willis has died of a heart attack at age 63, quoting publisher Otis Raybon, “John was a mentor for many young and upcoming journalists and will be missed by  many.”

When I first met John in the late 1980s, I was sports editor of the Calhoun (Ga.) Times and he was working for a weekly regional business journal that had been purchased by News Publishing Company, parent company of the Times and several other newspapers in Georgia and Alabama. We renewed our acquaintance in 1991 after I was transferred to the company’s flagship daily Rome News-Tribune, where John was business editor. He was one of a handful of reporters for the Rome News-Tribune who made it to work on the day of the Great Blizzard of 1993, and gave me a ride to the office after my car got stuck in the snow.

In addition to his excellent all-around skills as a journalist, John had the cynical sense of humor and talent for sarcasm common to great newspapermen, and his ascerbic wit made him a cheerful and much-loved newsroom presence. We often traded lines from our favorite comedies, including Blazing Saddles and Animal House.

Category: Journalism

Naked Protesters: Unattractive People Demand Action to Protect Boondoggle

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 18 Comments

In terms of newsworthiness, it might be a clever idea to have, say, Brad Pitt and Anne Hathaway stage a naked protest in Harry Reid’s office, demanding action to reduce out-of-control federal spending. On the other hand, it’s hard to see the logic of sending out a bunch of ugly freaks to harass John Boehner about their pet boondoggle:

Seven naked protesters swarmed the office of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday for some 20 minutes of loud chanting against cuts to AIDS funding.
Among their chants: “Boehner, Boehner, don’t be a dick, budget cuts will make us sick.” And: “Fight AIDS. Act up. Fight back.” And: “End AIDS with the Robin Hood tax, no more budget cuts on our back.” And: “Budget cuts are really rude, that’s why we have to be so lewd.”

The ugly freaks got a blip of publicity that didn’t do much to explain what they were actually protesting about. However, one photo showed a protester with the phrase “Fund HOPWA” painted on his torso, and a bit of Googling identifies the acronym: Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS, a 20-year-old program under the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with a budget of more than $300 million a year.

Exactly why the federal government has a program to provide housing for AIDS sufferers but not, say, people with herpes or chlyamida, can only be explained in terms of identity politics. Over the past 30 years, clever organizers have succeeded in making AIDS a propaganda sledgehammer with which to bludgeon politicians. “AIDS funding” includes a vast category of government spending, of which HOPWA is a classic example, that is considered sacrosanct because anyone who doesn’t support it will be slammed as a heartless homophobe.  In September, the White House released a report from the Office of Management and Budget describing plans for budget sequestration:

According to page 98 of the very official and incredibly dense report, HOPWA is slated to lose 8.2% of its funding, or $27 million should the sequestration take place. In very real terms, since HUD calculated that for every $1 million of funding, 192 households are served, the sequester would mean the loss of housing assistance to 5,184 households. In addition, outside of HOPWA reductions, according to calculations from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, “More than 185,000 households would lose their tenant-based rental assistance vouchers, 92,400 households would lose their project-based rental assistance housing, and 145,900 people would be remain homeless, instead of being housed under the Homeless Assistance Grant program. In addition, more than 140,000 currently housed households that include an elderly person or a person with a disability would receive reduced unit maintenance and lower levels of supportive services in units funded by Section 202 Housing for the Elderly or Section 811 Housing for People with Disabilities.”

In other words, it’s about money — tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants — and the people who get that money are insisting that they won’t give up one red cent of it, despite the fact that the federal government is headed toward bankruptcy.  As far as I’m concerned, HOPWA belongs in the same “Stuff We Can’t Afford Anymore” category as Big Bird and the National Endowment for the Arts.

BTW, apologies to anyone mystified by my 24-hour absence from the Internet. Don’t believe those crazy rumors that I was arrested for staging a naked protest against federal funding for Auburn University.

 


Category: Budget

Benghazi Tragedy Lives On As Farce

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Vadum offers an excellent summary of the news to date:

A Washington Post editorial supports the left-wing Congressional Black Caucus’s wild contention that Republicans are out to get Rice “because she is an African American woman.” Perhaps the editorial writers forgot that President George W. Bush’s secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, an immensely popular figure in the GOP, was also a black woman.

The newspaper then implies that Republicans are secret members of the Ku Klux Klan, citing a recent letter signed by 97 House Republicans questioning Rice’s fitness for the post of top U.S. diplomat. The paper casually opines that “[M]ore than 80 of the signatories are white males, and nearly half are from states of the former Confederacy.”

Like defense lawyers for an obviously guilty client, these left-wing journalists are working overtime to confuse the public about what happened in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration’s role, and what it all means. Democrats and the mainstream media are trying to obstruct progress in the investigation by misdirection, grabbing at any shiny object within reach.

I’d like to think that if conservatives keep the pressure on, #OccupyResoluteDesk’s 2012 re-election could be the most pyrrhic since that of Nixon in 1972.

Alas, I’ve moved to the notion that BHO wins a third term on a write-in, as our entire Constitutional order implodes. [Hint: reverse psychology.]

Meanwhile, where is RSM? And where is Cassone’s video to go with his Benghazi anthem?

Category: Uncategorized

U.S. Senator Erick Erickson?

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 30 Comments

by Smitty

I do like the cut of his jib. Seriously, patriots: if you thought unwinding a century of Progressive drift was going to be easy, re-calibrate. We’ve barely gotten into the Sinai, and the deadweight wants to get back to the government handouts in exchange for pyramid work. Stand by for two generations to pass before we can return to being the Promised Land.

But to get there, you have to show up.


The only way to restore confidence in elections is overwhelming turnout.

You may have disagreed with Erickson on this or that nuance, but, for the other 99.8% of the discussion, the guy is spot on.

So get recharged over the holidays, and come back in 2013 ready to preach liberty and guys like Erickson in the breadline!

via Insty

Category: Uncategorized

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 11.28.12

Posted on | November 28, 2012 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Ayotte: No Answers On Benghazi? No New SecState

Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-NH

Backed by Graham, insists nobody involved in Benghazi debacle will get new job until the Senate has answers

Administration Shifts From Negotiations To Brute Force
Obama campaign being revved up again to press for higher taxes

Marvin Miller Dead At 95
Players’ union leader fought to bring free agency to baseball; many argue he belongs in the Hall of Fame



POLITICS
Bob Dole Hospitalized At Walter Reed

Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole

Contra Harry Reid, it’s a routine procedure and he should be out today.

ROK Strips Jill Kelley Of Honorary Consul Title

GOP Senators Unhappy With Susan Rice Meeting; More Questions Unanswered


Female Soldiers Sue Pentagon Over Ground Combat Ban

Senate Democrats Divided Over Benefit Cuts

Kyl, McCain, Hutchinson Introduce Immigration Reform Plan

Pac State Democrat (BIRM) Senators Still Don’t Understand Economics, Call For Gasoline Price Probe



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Prices Slump After OECD Cuts Growth Forecast: NYMEX $87.22, Brent $109.80
Eurozone States Face Losses On Greek Debt
Asian Stocks, Metals Fall On Fiscal Cliff Concerns
Treasury Again Declines To Name PRC A Currency Manipulator
Green Mountain Coffee Profit Up 22% On K-Cups
PRC Stocks Decline To 2009 Lows As Trading Decreases
Barge Industry Wants Federal Action On Falling Mississippi River Levels
Patent Office Rejects Dunkin’ Donuts’ Claim To “Best Coffee In America”
Ericson Files Patent Suit Against Samsung
Manager Responsible For Apple Maps Debacle Has Been Sacked
Commenters Push Facebook Policy Changes To Public Vote
Nintendo Sells 400K Wii U Consoles In First Week
Two Windows 8 Hybrids Work Better As Laptops Than Tablets



SPORTS
#1 Hoosiers Roll Past Tar Heels, 83-59

Indiana head coach Tom Crean encourages his team

Indiana defense proves it’s for real

Lakers Fall To Pacers On Last-Minute Hill Shot

Love Grabs 24 Rebounds As Timbermutts Beat Kings 97-89

Glendale Approves Arena Deal For NHL’s Coyotes

Harden Fuels Rockets’ Fourth Straight Win

Phillies’ All-Star Catcher Carlos Ruiz Gets 25-Game Suspension For Speed

Are The Nationals Better Off Letting LaRoche Walk?



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Charlie Sheen: “Two And A Half Men” Cursed

Charlie Sheen and Angus Jones

Former cast member reacts to flap over Angus Jones’video

Melissa Rycroft Wins DWTS All-Stars Finale

Gabriel Aubry Strikes Out In Family Court

Brad Pitt: Wedding Will Happen “Soon”

Lisa Robin Kelly From “That 70’s Show” Arrested For Assault

“He Plied Me With Booze”

Jessica Chastain Smolders Between The Sheets



FOREIGNERS
Pakistan Fires Nuke-Capable Ballistic Missile
Police, Anti-Morsi Protesters Clash In Cairo
France To Back Palestinian Bid For UN Status
Car Bombs Kill 20 In Damascus’ Loyalist Suburbs
Congolese Rebels Send Mixed Signals On Goma Withdrawal
Neighbors’ Fury: Asian States Angered By New PRC Passports
Tzipi Livni Returns To Politics, Forms Centrist Party To Oppose Netanyahu
Onion Fools Peoples’ Daily With Kim Jong-Un “Sexiest Man Alive” Article



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Yet Another Interior Department Scandal Unfolds
Brent Bozell: Pushing Conservatives Off The Fiscal Cliff
Lonely Conservative: PoliSci Prof Says Give Up Your Whiteness, American-ness, Maleness, Heterosexuality
Weasel Zippers: Rice – We Didn’t Mean To Lie About Benghazi
Power Line: It Doesn’t Pay To Work
Gateway Pundit: When Work Is Punished – The Sad State Of Obama’s America
Allahpundit: Hey, Remember When Democrats Loved The Filibuster?
Erick Erickson: Regarding Saxby Chambliss
The Blaze: Rand Paul Warns Against GOP Becoming A Dinosaur
Gretawire: Laura Ingraham Off The Air; In Talks With Distributors
Rick Moran: Is The GOP Doomed By The Generation Gap?
Protein Wisdom: After Victory, Liberals Want Income Redistribution

Category: Live at Five

Not Sure About @rsmccain Whereabouts

Posted on | November 27, 2012 | 18 Comments

by Smitty

I had a good day at work, nerding about on this and that.

The last week has been all about a fiction project of mine, as I’ve been re-writing a 30k word draft. 1/3 through my draft chapters, I’m up to 22k words, and liking my characters/plot even more. So there’s that.

Meanwhile, RSM didn’t answer a cel call, or SMS. No idea about the story with him. Sorry.

Update: sorry, Instapundit. No call, no SMS.

Category: Uncategorized
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