The Other McCain

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

World’s Youngest Blogger Dances To Muse

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

He’s really not ready to hit the floor with Bristol Palin yet:

Here is the full cut that he was watching on the computer. Not a bad little piece of electronica:

Category: Video, World's Youngest Blogger

The ‘Dilbert’ Factor in Libya

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 13 Comments

“Mother, do not wonder that my loyalty is growing weak. . . . I am sick and tired of the disaster and the fools that bring disaster upon us.”
— soldier in the 79th New York Infantry regiment, 1863

The cartoon strip “Dilbert” is popular because it relates an experience common to nearly everyone who has ever worked inside a dysfunctional workplace: A clueless boss, backstabbing colleagues, and the plight of the competent, hard-working guy who is just trying to do his job.

What we call “office politics” is a constant hindrance to effective teamwork. It is unfortunate that so often people are both incompetent and ambitious, that such creatures seek positions of authority for which they are not qualified, and that once they obtain these positions, the incompetents “bring disaster upon” the loyal subordinates whose valuable advice they habitually ignore.

Thus I was reminded of that New York soldier’s letter home to his mother, complaining about the incompetence of Union army commanders, when I saw the video in which former State Department security official Eric Nordstrom complained about the unhelpfulness of his superiors:

On the one hand, there is this specific situation and the disaster in Benghazi, but on the other hand, Nordstrom’s complaints about his bosses reflect an all-too-common experience, something with which many people can empathize. Too bad that this “Dilbert” situation took place under circumstances where human lives — and, indeed, the national security of the United States — were at stake.

“One of the last things my husband said to me before he was killed, when I would ask him, ‘Chris, what do you need over there? What can I send you?’ he said, ‘I need a new president.’”
— Jane Horton, whose husband was killed in Afghanistan

Amen, Mrs. Horton!

 


Category: Election 2012, Libya

The Libya Question: What Did Obama Know and When Did He Know It?

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 25 Comments

We seem to be looking at a classic Washington cover-up scandal:

The State Department is now telling a new story about the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11. It’s completely different than what we heard from President Obama and other officials in the days after the terrorist attack.

It’s amazing the things you can learn when you start issuing subpoenas and requiring people to testify under oath under penalty of perjury.

UPDATE: Hard-hitting new ad on the Libyan scandal:

UPDATE II: If you’ve seen a few cover-up scandals like this over the years, you know that the next thing that happens — once it becomes obvious that the liars won’t get away with it — is that the administration finds a Designated Scapegoat to take the fall.

Whose résumé will get updated with the unfortunate “resigned in disgrace” entry? I nominate the odious disgrace that is Susan Rice.

Trust me: Hillary is waaayy too powerful to take the fall for this.

UPDATE III: The pattern of such scandals makes the course of events fairly predictable. First of all, the people who did the right thing — the honest, competent professionals — have an inherent interest in establishing the fact that they weren’t the ones who screwed up. Take, for example, former State Department security officer Eric Nordstrom:

[N]ot only did Nordstrom repeatedly request more security for the diplomatic mission, the State Department didn’t even bother to respond to his last two requests

UPDATE IV: Joel Engel at Legal Insurrection:

In yet another story that you won’t find in the New York Times, Charlie Spiering in the Washington Examiner reported that Hillary Clinton was scheduled to meet President Obama at the White House today “as more damaging details about the terrorist attack against a United States consulate in Libya emerge.” . . .
Their story is unraveling, and only the acquiescence of the mainstream press has kept it from becoming a full-blown scandal.  So what did the president and his secretary of state discuss today?  Foreign affairs?  Or better lies?  My guess is better lies.
Clinton’s State Department, and therefore in all probability the White House, had forewarning of at least a growing danger when“foreign fighters” began flooding over the Egyptian border prior to the attacks.  And, worse than doing nothing, they actually prevented security from being beefed up, though they had been warned that the level was “inappropriately low.”

Don’t expect this story to go away. There is a limit to the media’s ability to ignore such a scandal, when people like CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Jake Tapper are so clearly fed-up with the administration’s routine incompetence and brazen dishonesty.

UPDATE V: Despite months of constant practice, Jay Carney still isn’t very effective in his capacity as Official White House Liar:

 

PREVIOUSLY:

 


Category: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Libya, Scandal

Citizens Must Help Fight Crime!

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 9 Comments

Ignored by the mainstream media, a horrible crime wave is terrorizing America, as vandals are defacing the automobiles of innocent motorists. Fortunately, citizen-journalist Richard Vail has helped expose this shocking nationwide vandalism spree, and has captured photographic proof of how Americans are warning their fellow citizens about these criminals.

God bless you, Good Samaritans!

Category: Crime, Election 2012, humor

Obama Official on Vote-Fraud Scheme: ‘This Is So Funny. It’s Cool Though.’

Posted on | October 10, 2012 | 13 Comments

What if you’re registered to vote in a swing state, but you’ve moved to a state that’s not in play for the presidential election? No problem, according to Stephanie Caballero, a DNC employee who is also a regional field director in Texas for Obama’s Organizing For  America:

“So I spent some time in Florida, and I got my voter registration card for Florida. So and I know that we have you know it’s a battleground state there,” the Project Veritas reporter said to Caballero.
“Keep it, keep it… so you’re going to vote by ballot?” Caballero responded. . . .
The videographer responded: “Yeah, I don’t want to get in trouble. But like I said, if no one’s going to know I don’t have a problem with it, yeah. So anyway, but…”
Caballero then said: “Oh, my God. This is so funny. It’s cool though.” . . .
After Caballero sets the videographer up to vote in Florida, she asked the Project Veritas investigator: “Are you going to do what I think you’re going do?”
The videographer responded: “Well, I mean, if no one’s gonna know…”
Caballero audibly laughed, then said: “You’re so hilarious!”

Watch the video:

(Hat tip: Memeorandum.) Darn that James O’Keefe and his crafty hidden cameras! How dare they catch Democrats telling the truth about their indifference to vote fraud. What kind of evil person would link O’Keefe’s Project Veritas and urge you to hit their tip jar for $100?

 

Category: Corruption, Crime, Election 2012, James O'Keefe, Video

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
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