The Other McCain

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

Will Ryan Hold Biden Accountable?

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 8 Comments

Michelle Malkin reminds us of something:

Remember when President Obama bragged about Joe Biden’s fiscal discipline cred in 2009? “To you, he’s Mr. Vice President, but around the White House, we call him the Sheriff,” Obama warned government employees. “Because if you’re misusing taxpayer money, you’ll have to answer to him.”
Fast-forward to 2012. Call in the search teams. Since being appointed the nation’s stimulus spending cop, Sheriff Joe has taken a permanent donut break. He’s AWOL on oversight. In fact, he’s been bubble-wrapped, boxed and kept completely out of sight. The garrulous gaffe machine hasn’t sat down for a national media interview in five months.
The Democrats’ trillion-dollar “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” however, keeps piling up waste, failure, fraud and debt. Who benefited most? Big government cronies. . . .

Read the whole thing. Malkin makes an excellent point: If Biden was supposed to have been the enforcers of fiscal discipline, he’s been an abject failure and the scandals surrounding, for example, “nearly 4,000 stimulus recipients who received $24 billion in Recovery Act funds — while owing more than $750 million in unpaid corporate, payroll and other taxes.”

Maybe Paul Ryan will bring this up Thursday night.

UPDATE: Speaking of “big government cronies,” did you know that Barack Obama was a guest at the wedding of ABC’s Martha Raddatz, who will moderate Thursday’s debate. No bias there!

Category: Debates, Election 2012, Joe Biden, Michelle Malkin

Mini-Jobs Blow

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 20 Comments

by Smitty

Bluegrass Pundit links the WaPo discussing the unintended consequences of ObamaCare:

Darden Restaurants Inc. declined to give details but said the test is only in four markets across the country. The move entails boosting the number of workers on part-time status, meaning they work less than 30 hours a week.
Under the new health care law, companies with 50 or more workers could be hit with fines if they do not provide basic coverage for full-time workers and their dependents.

Mentioning this story to Mrs. Other Smitty, and she told me to google Gerhard Schröder’s suck-tacular ‘Mini-Jobs’ program in Germany. Turns out this turd notion is a floater in the UK, as well:

German “mini-jobs” are just what it says on the tin: precarious employment for up to €400 (£315) per month, likely to be extended to €450 in 2013. Whether a “mini-job” is an additional or a main job, “mini-jobbers” are exempted from tax and social insurance payments for earnings of up to €400, and employers’ social insurance contributions are considerably below those for equivalent regular jobs.
“Mini-jobbers” thus forgo core benefits of regular employment, such as building up pension claims. Beyond a basic threshold, income from “mini-jobs” also entails the reduction of unemployment benefit for recipients. In March 2012, an initiative, led by the social-democratic governed Länder in Germany’s upper chamber in March 2012, to impose a limit of 12 weekly hours for “mini-jobbers” – and thus effectively a minimum hourly wage – failed.
According to the most recent figures of the German Employment Agency, 7.3 million Germans, or one in every five employees, held “mini-jobs” in September 2010 – an increase of 1.6 million since 2003. The number of workers taking “mini-jobs” as additional side-jobs to make ends meet almost doubled from 1.3 million in 2003 to 2.4 million in 2010. About two thirds of “mini-jobbers” are women, and most “mini-jobs” are to be found in the low-skill segments of service sectors, led by catering, hospitality and construction.

Read the whole sordid thing. And then read Sowell’s Basic Economics. In general, it seems that giving vast control over labor markets to government is akin to giving your male kin to Sandusky, or your money to Corzine–no good can come of it.

The real reason the Left and the media are fighting so hard to drag #OccupyResoluteDesk across the finish line ahead of Romney may not so much be love of Obama personally. Rather, fear of a repeat of the 1980s, when Reagan applied an economic laxative to this country, and the Lefties had to endure so many ears of prosperity for which they could not take credit.

Update: more at The Lonely Conservative

Category: Economics

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.10.12

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Pelosi Offers Debate Advice To Biden

From sideshow joke to savior of the campaign?

No, I didn’t find this in the Onion.

State Department: Oh, That Libya Attack? Yeah, That Was Terrorism
White House left twisting in the wind

Romney Says Mortgage, Charity Deductions Not Going Anywhere
Embracing a moderate persona, or just being sensible?
Also, abortion not on the agenda



POLITICS
Owners Of “Sesame Street” Want Obama To Pull Big Bird Ad

Not the actual ad

Use of character unauthorized, CTW says

Board Of Supervisors To Vote On Sheriff Mirkarimi’s Fate

Number of  EndemonisedAmerican Protestants In Steep Decline

Supremes To Reconsider Racial Quotas

Florida Democrats, Hispanic Group Hit With Vote Fraud Charges

Schumer Grandstands Again While Bipartisan Senate Group Looks For Agreement On Tax Reform

Supreme Court Dismisses Secret Surveillance Suits Against Telcos

Walsh, Duckworth Tangle In Raucous Debate



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Rebounds On Supply Jitters: NYMEX $89.83, Brent $112.45
Feds Allege Mortgage Fraud At Wells Fargo
IMF Says Eurozone Capital Flight Will Come Back To Haunt UK
Walmart Takes On Banks With Prepaid Amex Card
Marathon Buys BP Refinery In $2.5 Billion Deal
Cummins Cuts Guidance, Plans Jobs Cuts
Variety Magazine Grabbed By Web Rival Deadline.com In Fire Sale
New Jersey No Longer Worst For Business
Microsoft Rolls Out Massive Windows 8 Update
Ten Tips For Playing “Dishonored” Without Shedding A Drop Of Blood
Slingbox Announces New Models
Lenovo Offers A Thinkpad With A Twist
More HTML5 Deemed Ready-To-Use In Firefox 16
Analyst: No Blackberry 10 Phones Until March 2013



SPORTS
Anderson Pitches A’s Past Tigers To Avoid Sweep

Coco Crisp saves another one

Oakland blanks Detroit 2-0 to stay alive in the ALCS

Giants Win In Extras To Force Game 4

Try As He Might, Sanchez Can’t Carry Jets

Lakers’ Howard Cleared For Practice Scrimmages

Red Wings Announcer Budd Lynch Dies, 95

JJ Watt Goes From Pizza Delivery Guy To NFL Star

NASCAR Won’t Penalize Kurt Busch For Talladega Flipout

Tim Tebow Gets Shirtless For God, The New York Jets, And Servant Women



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Rhea Perlman Gives Danny DeVito The Boot After Thirty Years

Rhea and Danny

Actress finally got tired of his wandering eye, filed for divorce Monday

Olivia Wilde Talked A Lot About Her Vagina Yesterday

Sarah Palin Writing A Fitness Book?

Fleetwood Smack: Stevie Nicks Has Harsh Words For “Idol” Diva Nicki Minaj

Matthew McConaughey Drops Weight

Unspeakable Armenian And Rapper BF Looking For Miami Mansion

Lady Gaga Visits Assange At Ecuadorean Embassy

“Dancing With The Stars” Double Elimination Results



FOREIGNERS
Taliban Target Teenage Rights Activist; Surgery To Remove Bullet Successful
Mexico’s President Lauds Marines For Killing Zetas Kingpin
Official Warmth, Public Rage Greet Merkel In Athens
Netanyahu Calls For Elections After Coalition Fails To Agree On 2013 Budget
Aussie PM’s Misogyny Speech Goes Viral
Norks Rattle Sabers, Threaten ROK, US With ICBMs
Newly Elected Georgia Leaders Promise To Look West



BLOGS & STUFF
The Looking Spoon: When Obama Meets Jerry Maguire
Zilla Of The Resistance: Andrew Sullivan Has A Sad
WyBlog: The Same Government That Can Force You To Buy Healthcare Could Keep You From Selling Your Old iPod
Villainous Company: Et Tu, Big Bird?
NRO Corner: Obama Camp Claims “Strong Grassroots Outcry” Over Attacks On Big Bird
Lonely Conservative: Romney Wonders What’s With Obama’s Big Bird Obsession
Riehl World View: Left Turns On Obama Over Big Bird Ad; Bush Prosecuted Those Wall Streeters, Where’s Eric Holder?
Tim Cavanaugh: Obama Vows To Protect Big Bird; US Ambassadors, Not So Much
Weasel Zippers: Gallup Poll Of Likely Voters Shows Romney Up 49-47
Power Line: How Romney Flipped Obama’s Narrative
Allahpundit: On Eve Of Hearings, State Department Admits There Was No Protest Before Benghazi Attack
Gateway Pundit: US Rich Pay More In Taxes Than Any Other Industrialized Nation, Report Says
Jennifer Rubin: Obama Cultists’ Crackup
Jammie Wearing Fools: Ann Romney Says “Say, That Obama’s A Really Sore Loser, Huh?”

Category: Live at Five

Yes There Are Two Paths You Can Go By, But In The Long Run, BHO Is Leaden; Romney, Golden

Posted on | October 9, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Where are the corresponding montages from the CommiesDemocrats? Lots of great nuggets, after a review of #OccupyResoluteDesk’s wretched record:

via NiceDeb

Category: Barack Obama, Republicans, Video

Expect the Unexpected: Why Liberals Suddenly Melted Down After the Debate

Posted on | October 9, 2012 | 21 Comments

Da Tech Guy points out that the latest Pew poll has caused the Washington Post‘s Jon Cohen to join the ranks of “poll denialists.”

Until this week, only conservatives were calling attention to the Democrat/Republican/Indpendent distribution of poll samples, which were often showing skewed numbers that defied any rational expectation of what the 2012 electorate would look like.

In several polls, we saw Romney actually leading among independents, yet self-described Democrats were so overrepresented in the sample, Obama was still ahead — sometimes by margins that were quite literally incredible: There is no way Obama is going to win Ohio by 10 points, no matter what Quinnipiac says.

The panicked meltdown reaction by Obama supporters, now that polls are beginning to reflect reaction to last week’s debate beatdown, should have been expected, as Ace says:

So part of the extreme emotional deflation of people like Sullivan . . . is due to their having invented in their minds a conquering hero, an Eternal Champion . . .
And he’s never been that. He’s been a very average politician, whose only above-average skill is giving a scripted, TelePrompTed address to people who already support him.
So for people like Sullivan, this is a bit of a bitchslap to their entire fantasy worldview, the day they saw Obama As What He Is rather than What They Fantasized Him To Be.
And they’re shocked by this. They feel their psychical mooring-lines stretching to the break.

Yes, exactly. However — and I’m not just trying to one-up Ace here — a major part of the problem is that liberals were snuggled inside their media-provided cocoon of Conventional Wisdom. It wasn’t just deluded hysterics like Andrew Sullivan who had bought into counterfactual conceptions of the electoral landscape. Remember that during last month’s Democratic National Convention, I interviewed veteran Democrat campaign strategist Joe Trippi:

RSM: My thought is that this one — it’s gonna be about the debates. Do you feel that way?
TRIPPI: I don’t think so. I mean, if someone makes a mistake in the debates, that’s going to be pretty costly, but I think … once you get into this kind of a polarized campaign, what tends to happen is that each side’s folks watch and cheer their guy on, there aren’t a whole lot of undecideds left out there to move in a debate. So I’m one of those — I’m a contrarian. I don’t think the debates are really going to matter unless somebody gaffes.

Trippi didn’t expect the unexpected. No one expected a first debate so overwhelmingly in Romney’s favor as to completely re-set the election, but anyone who recalled how Romney ripped up Newt Gingrich in the Jacksonville, Florida, debate in January at least should have considered a Romney debate victory as possible.

So when the unexpected happened, those who weren’t psychologically braced for the impact found themselves stunned and disoriented. (Headline: “Police Called to Henry County GOP Headquarters After Man Attacks Romney Sign with Scissors.”) Compare the two experiences:

  • Most conservatives have never been huge Romney fans, but were skeptical of pre-debate polls showing the Republican getting buried by Obama. This just didn’t make sense, and those of us who were labeled “poll denialists” by Jonathan Chait felt that the poll samples were demonstrably unrealistic. We were pleasantly surprised by Mitt’s strong debate performance.
  • By contrast, most liberals were huge Obama fans, showed no skepticism toward the polls, did not take seriously the possibility that the samples were skewed, and were so shocked by the debate that their own reaction made Obama’s defeat seem even worse than it was.

Notice that John Podhoretz points to recent poll results, mostly favorable to Romney, as unreliable. This is a point that should not be ignored: Such extreme volatility and wide divergence in polls ought to teach us to take polls with a grain of salt. And this is just as true now that polls are showing good news for Romney: With four weeks remaining until Election Day, we still don’t know who will win, and even the good news — Romney gaining ground in Ohio — isn’t good enough that we can begin making plans to attend President Romney’s inauguration.

Still, we can smile at the weirdness inside the Obama campaign reported by Toby Harnden of the London Daily Mail: “David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, was stunned that the President left the  stage feeling that he had won the debate.” Related: “The Traits of a Narcissist.”

UPDATE: Ace ripped up Nate Silver on Twitter with such thorough brutality, he got his own Twitchy post out of it, but you still should read his blog post about Silver’s “forecasting model”:

It’s like the Global Warming “models” — they discount actual data which does not agree with their model.  The Pew poll didn’t fit the model, so it’s plainly incorrect.

Silver’s predicted 25% chance of a Romney win is actually an improvement since Oct. 4, when he rated Romney’s chances at a measly 12.9% . It was his Sept. 8 forecast that had Romney at 20.2%, which prompted me to dismantle Silver’s assumptions at The American Spectator:

What reason is there to believe that Silver’s “Five Thirty Eight Forecast” has any predictive value? Or, better yet: What if its predictive value is entirely a function of its authority, as a self-fulfilling prophecy? If the poll expert at the most prestigious paper in the United States says that Romney’s campaign is doomed beyond all hope of redemption, isn’t it possible that this will have the effect of discouraging Republicans and influencing late-deciding “swing” voters to jump aboard the bandwagon of the Democrat candidate they believe to be a certain winner?

Silver clearly has begun hedging his bets. If Romney should eventually win, Silver will expect us to forget his previously misguided “forecasts,” insisting that he was merely reporting data.

 


Category: Barack Obama, Democrats, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Polls

23 Million Reasons to Ignore Big Bird

Posted on | October 9, 2012 | 16 Comments

With the polls beginning to indicate a sudden meltdown in the president’s support, the Obama campaign has nothing to offer now except ridiculous distractions about Muppets. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney keeps focused on the important issues of this election:

“About 23 million Americans, still looking for a good job. You’ve got college graduates this year, came out last spring, who are still looking for work. About half the college graduates that came out couldn’t find a job or a college-level job. Food stamps — when the president took office, 32 million people on food stamps. Now there are 47 million people on food stamps. I mean, these are these are tough times with real serious issues. So you have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird. I actually think we need to have a president who talks about saving the American people and saving good jobs and saving our future and also saving the family farm.”

Citing actual facts in a campaign: It’s just so unfair, isn’t it? And even the producers of Sesame Street are sick of the Obama campaign.

UPDATE: Sometimes the jokes just write themselves:

 

Category: Economics, Election 2012, Mitt Romney

@Gabby_Hoffman Wonders Whether Her Brain Also Counts as a ‘Lady Part’

Posted on | October 9, 2012 | 11 Comments

Has any recent phenomenon been more strange than the Left’s embrace of the Vagina Monologues as an expression of female “empowerment”? This theme — gynecology as ideology — reveals the underlying narcissistic appeal of identity politics, wherein the craving for self-esteem is satisfied by celebrations of group solidarity

This groupthink trend is what causes leftists to attack actress Stacey Dash as inauthentic — a race traitor — for her endorsement of Mitt Romney. (“hoe kill yourself“? Really? You stay classy, liberals.) Heaven knows what abuse will be heaped on Gabby Hoffman for questioning the Democrats’ “vote-with-your lady-parts” message:

The question beckons: Should women vote with their brains or their lady parts? If the latter best resonates with our gender, then they might want to reevaluate their priorities.
Much like their radical feminist supporters, many Democrats think that government-subsidized birth control is the only issue concerning women.
The Left, with the Democrat Party claiming to be the party of women, ironically has hurt women the most. CNSNews.com reported in July that 780,000 more women are unemployed since Obama took office in 2008. . . .

Read the whole thing. And follow @Gabby_Hoffman on Twitter.

Category: Election 2012, Feminism

The Tears of Unfathomable Sadness

Posted on | October 9, 2012 | 19 Comments

Andrew Sullivan emotionally implodes over the latest poll:

The Pew poll is devastating, just devastating. Before the debate, Obama had a 51 – 43 lead; now, Romney has a 49 – 45 lead. That’s a simply unprecedented reversal for a candidate in October. . . .
Seriously: has that kind of swing ever happened this late in a campaign? Has any candidate lost 18 points among women voters in one night ever? And we are told that when Obama left the stage that night, he was feeling good. That’s terrifying. On every single issue, Obama has instantly plummeted into near-oblivion. . . .
Look: I’m trying to rally some morale, but I’ve never seen a candidate this late in the game, so far ahead, just throw in the towel in the way Obama did last week – throw away almost every single advantage he had with voters and manage to enable his opponent to seem as if he cares about the middle class as much as Obama does. . . .

Read the rest. I should resist the temptation of schadenfreude.

I should. But I can’t.

 

Category: Uncategorized
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