The Other McCain

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

FMJRA 2.0: From The Jaws Of Victory

Posted on | October 13, 2012 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Having recovered from last night’s abrupt departure of the Nationals from the post-season, on with the return of linky-love to those who loved us this past week.

Liberals Beginning to Realize They’ve Overestimated Obama’s Popularity?

PAUL RYAN SCORES CRUSHING VICTORY OVER BIDEN IN DEBATE

A Different Spin On Obama’s Denver Clock-Cleaning

@hardball_chris ‘Pecksniff’ Matthews Goes After Welch’s Calling BS On BLS

Epistemic Closure Redux: The Campaign, the Debate and the Jobs Report

Why Do Democrats Like Elizabeth Warren Hate Science?

Obama Meltdown Beginning? Plus: Romney Campaign on ‘$5 Trillion’ Lie

Is ‘Full-Figured’ an Insult?

Another Republican Lie!

New Shotgun Shells Found To Pump Into Zombie ObamaCare?

FMJRA 2.0: Columbus Day Warmup Edition

Clownish Nobel Economist Tries To Defend Warmongering Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Stomped By Girl

As Predicted: Now That Obama Is Losing, Democrats Play the Mormon Card

‘THE MANTLE OF LEADERSHIP’ —
Text of Mitt Romney’s Speech at VMI

Movie Rated ‘R’ for Scene in Which Breitbart Rapes the Media Narrative

The Tears of Unfathomable Sadness

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

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

Mini-Jobs Blow

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.10.12

Will Ryan Hold Biden Accountable?

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

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

The ‘Dilbert’ Factor in Libya

Administration ‘Completely Wrong’ About Libya, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Admits, But ‘That Doesn’t Mean It Was False’

Sex and Sammiches

That Winning Combination

Benghazi Breakdown: Team Obama, Liberals Now in Full Freak-Out Mode

‘All Is Proceeding as I Have Foreseen’

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.12.12

Further Proof That Chicks Dig Mitt UPDATE: @Tawny_Kitaen, Too? OMG!

Four Score And Five Interruptions Ago. . .

Top linkers this week:

  1. (tied) Hogewash, Lonely Conservative, and Daley Gator (8)
  2. The Camp of the Saints (7)
  3. GayPatriot (6)
  4. DailyPundit (5)

There were a number of folks who just missed the cutoff by one or two posts. Maybe next week?

Speaking of next week, if you’re using Blogger or some other platform WordPress hates, please e-mail me your links no later than Friday, October 19th for inclusion in next week’s FMJRA. Thanks to everyone for the linkagery!

Category: FMJRA Award

The Obama-Clinton “Prisoner’s Dilemma”

Posted on | October 13, 2012 | 56 Comments

by Smitty

While they have a senior-subordinate relationship, at that altitude, Obama and Clinton are more like peers, especially in the broader scope of the Democrat Party, where Barack is hoping Bill will loan enough luster to Obama to somehow win re-election. Thus, Benghazi-quiddick (we should limit the -gate suffix on scandals lacking a death toll) resembles the classic game theory example The Prisoner’s Dilemma:

Two men are arrested, but the police do not have enough information for a conviction. The police separate the two men, and offer both the same deal: if one testifies against his partner (defects/betrays), and the other remains silent (cooperates with/assists his partner), the betrayer goes free and the one that remains silent gets a one-year sentence. If both remain silent, both are sentenced to only one month in jail on a minor charge. If each ‘rats out’ the other, each receives a three-month sentence. Each prisoner must choose either to betray or remain silent; the decision of each is kept secret from his partner. What should they do? If it is assumed that each player is only concerned with lessening his own time in jail, the game becomes a non-zero sum game where the two players may either assist or betray the other. The sole concern of the prisoners seems to be increasing his own reward. The interesting symmetry of this problem is that the optimal decision for each is to betray the other, even though they would be better off if they both cooperated.

Here, we have two public figures who both look negligent over a tragedy. And they hold grudges against each other going back. They can both get hammered together, or can try to minimize their damage by pinning blame on the other.

Clinton absorbs Obama accuses
Clinton accuses In this variant, Clinton steps up and takes responsibility for failures as Secretary of State, scuttling her 2016 hopes, with the idea of saving Obama’s re-election.
I’ll point you to Kevin DuJan at HillBuzz for that analysis.		 If they both escalates the accusatory posturing, then the bleeding may not stop until both are completely ruined.
Yet, accusations are their stock in trade. They just have to do it subtly.
Obama absorbs They both stand there and take the hit. Re-election now, and possible election in 2016 for Hillary only happens if the electorate enjoys some truly raging outburst of amnesia.
Unlikely in Internet Age, thank you, Al Gore.
Taking responsibility is something you make your opposition do. Never apologize, never explain. Which outs both of them as lousy leaders.		 Obama steps up and admits how badly he tubed Benghazi-quiddick, in order to save Hillary’s 2016 presidential hopes.

The bad news about this ‘game’ is that the price of admission is four human sacrifices. Those deaths were tragic for the four, and their families. The shame for the United States, and the increased boldness of our enemies, is far worse. Then there is the damage done to the validity, the basic confidence the people have in our government, brought on by the shameless deceits of the Obama Administration.

No good can come of the Obama-Clinton game. Beyond the entertainment value, the best we can hope for is minimal collateral damage.

More at Granite Grok, and Roger Simon analyzes the electoral impact and the general pulse of the Left.

via Breitbart

Update: thank you for linking, Instapundit, Hogewash, Victory Girls, and Dinocrat.

Update II: linked at God’s Own Crunk. Also, for those who dislike the labeling in the table, please feel free to offer an improved version somewhere on this vast internet. Otherwise, my guess is you’re firing for effect. In the wrong direction.

Update III: more at Daily Pundit:

Some people think Barack Obama is cold and calculating. I don’t. I think he’s a tangled ball of twisted emotions, primary among which are fear and hatred. Some part of him might understand that he’ll damage himself by trying to damage the Clintons, but I just don’t think he’ll be able to help himself.

Getting inside that noggin isn’t the least bit interesting to me. I just want to see BHO distanced from levers of power.

Category: Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Uncategorized

Michael Brutsch, Troll Behind Reddit’s ‘Jailbait’ and ‘Creepshots’ Sections

Posted on | October 13, 2012 | 16 Comments

A couple of quick points up front:

  • I’ve never used Reddit, and had no idea that it rivaled Twitter and Facebook in terms of viral online distribution.
  • Adrian Chen and Gawker are vile scum.

Nevertheless, there is a car-wreck-on-the-highway factor in Chen’s article about Michael “Violentacrez” Brutsch that makes you stare with ghastly fascination at this seamy underside of the Web. Perhaps the grimmest part is when Brutsch begs for mercy:

When I called Brutsch that Wednesday afternoon and told him I knew who he was . . . he pleaded with me in an affectless monotone not to reveal his name.
“My wife is disabled. I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment,” he said. “I do my job, go home watch TV, and go on the internet. I just like riling people up in my spare time.” . . .
The problem was, he explained, that if his identity got out, his many enemies would start attaching lies to his name because they simply don’t like his views. They would say he was a child pornographer, when all he had done was spearhead the distribution of thousands of legal photos of underage girls. . . .They would Google-bomb his name and the word “pedophile” along with his publicly-traded company’s name. . . .
He needed to keep his anonymity to protect his ability to express things many people think but hardly anyone says. With Violentacrez, “I got the freedom to talk about my personal life, my personal feelings… I’m sure there’s more than one person in this building who’s a pervert,” he said, referring his office building.
He asked a number of times if there was anything he could do to keep me from outing him.

This is the stage of Kübler-Ross called “bargaining.” And as Dr. Phil might say, “How’s that workin’ out for ya, Mike?”

Of course, Chen had made up his mind to “dox” Brutsch, a 49-year-old resident of Arlington, Texas, before he ever contacted him, and you’d have to be a sadist to enjoy reading Brutsch’s desperate attempt to avoid the consequences of his exposure, despite the fact that Brutsch is a vile sociopathic monster undeserving of sympathy.

What do I mean by “vile sociopathic monster”? Brutsch created (and was a sort of online cheerleader for) some of the worst possible stuff on Reddit, most especially the “Jailbait” section:

His speciality is distributing images of scantily-clad underage girls . . .
Violentacrez decided to create a safe space for people sexually attracted to underage girls to share their photo stashes. . . .
Jailbait was the online equivalent of systematized street harassment. Users posted snapshots of tween and teenage girls, often in bikinis and skirts. Many of these were lifted from their Facebook accounts and thrown in front of Jailbait’s 20,000 horny subscribers.
Violentacrez and his fellow moderators worked hard to make sure every girl on jailbait was underage, diligently deleting any photos whose subjects seemed older than 16 or 17. Violentacrez himself posted hundreds of photos. Jailbait became one of Reddit’s most popular subreddits, generating millions of pageviews a month. “Jailbait” was for a time the second biggest search term bringing traffic to Reddit . . .

Yeeeesshh. “Millions of pageviews a month.”

His name is Michael Brutsch — that’s B-R-U-T-S-C-H — and he lives in Arlington, Texas, and if he should suffer brutal violence at the hands of a mob of enraged parents who descend on his home, brandishing baseball bats and tire irons, well, that would probably be illegal.

Far be it from me to condone reckless vigilantism.

In his defense, perhaps, some might protest that this was all just harmless online fun, and that IRL (in real life), Brutsch is an honest, decent, responsible, law-abiding citizen. However . . .

In 2010, Violentacrez hosted a legendary “Ask Me Anything” thread” . . . He was asked what was the creepiest thing he’d done “IRL” . . . . “That’d be a tough call,” Violentacrez wrote, “Perhaps oral sex with my 19-year-old stepdaughter.” It was completely consensual, he claimed in the post, and went on to brag about how awesome it had been in graphic detail.
This happened over ten years ago, Violentacrez claimed. When his then-wife, the girl’s mother, found out, she “got mad, then got over it,” Violentacrez wrote.

OK, either (a) he was lying, or else (b) he’s a complete monster. And even if he was lying, what kind of monster would tell such a lie?

Chen says he was tipped to to Brutsch’s identity by “a former online friend . . . [who] had become disgusted with his obsession with underage girls.” Brutsch was responsible for a lot of other offensive content at Reddit, but “Jailbait . . . apparently sprung from a sincere interest.”

An “obsession with underage girls”? A “sincere interest”? And Brutsch — again, that’s B-R-U-T-S-C-H, of Arlington, Texas — boasted “in graphic detail” about the “awesome” sex he had with his stepdaughter?

Probably nothing to it. Just harmless Internet shenanigans.

On the other hand, lots of folks in Texas have guns. Maybe some of those gun-toting Texans will notice the part of Chen’s article excerpted by Britton Peele of the Dallas Morning News:

The Gawker story contains quotes from both Brutsch and others who have interacted with him, including one user who once visited him while on business in Arlington. ”He’s a really a good guy,” she said. “He has the manners of a Southern gentleman. A bunch of neighborhood kids were over playing at his house.”

Reckon he has a “sincere interest” in those “neighborhood kids”?

B-R-U-T-S-C-H . . .

Category: Uncategorized

NMA Animators Rock The VP Debate

Posted on | October 13, 2012 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

This is laugh out loud funny:

The real loser here is SNL, who simply cannot top this. Add being funny to the list of jobs that Progress has outsourced to China.

via The Blaze

Category: Election 2012, humor, Video

World’s Youngest Blogger: Not That Ryan Isn’t Tough, But I Could Take Joey B.

Posted on | October 12, 2012 | 16 Comments

And, as for Ms. Raddatz. . .

Category: World's Youngest Blogger

Four Score And Five Interruptions Ago. . .

Posted on | October 12, 2012 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Four score and five interruptions ago our zany uncle brought forth on this continent a new indignation, conceived in contempt for liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created to serve the state.

Now we are engaged in a soft civil war, testing whether that indignation, or any indignation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great debate-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a blog post for he who here gave 90 minutes of his life that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should blog this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave man, living not dead, who struggled here, has consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what he did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which he who fought that gasbag has thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from this honored candidate we take increased devotion to that cause for which he gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that this candidate shall not have felt like he died, devoured by a vast, shark-like maw,  in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

via Breitbart

Update: good linkage from Stacy on the Right, The Daley Gator, and the American Catholic

Category: GOP

Further Proof That Chicks Dig Mitt UPDATE: @Tawny_Kitaen, Too? OMG!

Posted on | October 12, 2012 | 49 Comments

The so-called “gender gap” is caused by ugly women who feel rejected by successful men, whereas the really smart, sexy, confident chicks are wild about the Mittser:

Four years ago, Lindsay Lohan referred to Obama’s Presidential victory as “amazing,” but cut to 2012, and it seems the “Mean Girls” star has had a serious change of heart.
“I think unemployment is very important for now, so as of now I think (my vote) is Mitt Romney,” Lohan told reporters, including FOX411’s Pop Tarts, at the Mr. Pink Ginseng Drink Launch Party Los Angeles on Thursday night.
Lohan also hinted at mysterious underlying motives for supporting the GOP candidate and turning her back on Obama under wraps. . . .
“It’s a long story, but you’re going to have to wait for that,” she remarked . . .
Last month, the troubled actress went as far as to tweet the President requesting he “cut taxes for those who need it: middle-class families, small businesses” as well as “those that are listed on Forbes as ‘millionaires’.”

(Via Memeorandum.) Of course, I understand that some readers may be puzzled by this: Hitherto, this blog has treated Lindsay Lohan as just another celebrity bimbo, a troubled starlet whose personal foibles (and impressive cleavage) were fodder for humorous jibes. This is admittedly true — but she just endorsed Mitt Romney, so now she’s our celebrity bimbo, and that makes all the difference in the world.

We love you, Lindsay, and we hope you’ll help persuade other sexy starlets to see the light. “Rule 5: Hollywood Hotties for Mitt”!

Readers may want to hit my tip-jar, so I can get some on-the-scene coverage of this Important New Development in the 2012 campaign. IYKWIMAITYD.

 




 

UPDATE: Folks, I think we’ve got a trend happening:

Udpdate II (Smitty): welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Celebrities, Election 2012, Hollywood, Mitt Romney, Rule 5

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.12.12

Posted on | October 12, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Joe Biden Channels The Joker

Y SO SERIOUS?

“…between contemptuous and deranged…”
Democrat base seems to have liked it, though


Shuttle Endeavour Makes Last Journey Through Streets Of LA
City annoys businessmen along route by encouraging people to stay home



Mayor’s Pick To Head Chicago Public Schools Resigns
CEO Jean Claude Brizard leaving “by mutual agreement”



POLITICS
SecDef Warns Of Potential For “Cyber-Pearl Harbor”

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

Calls For Congress to enact new standards for cybersecurity of infrastructure

Judge To Sentence Fugitive Indiana Doctor Who Hid For Five Years 

Sherman-Berman Debate Almost Gets Physical

Romney: Obama Would Rather Save Big Bird Than The American Family

Colorado, Oregon, Washington Initiatives Could Legalize Marijuana In Defiance Of Federal Law

Rand Paul PAC Runs Ads Against Democrats In Florida, Ohio, West Virginia

After Fiery Florida Rally, Obama Focuses On Debate Prep

Romney: Libya Attack A Valid Campaign Issue



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Continued Tension In Syria, North Sea Rig Maintenance Drives Oil Up: NYMEX $92.25, Brent $115.46
Foreclosures Hit Five-Year Low
Dollar Rises As Spain Sparks Caution
Infosys Under Pressure, Brokerages Cautious On Stock
Sprint Confirms Talks With Japan’s Softbank
US Trade Deficit Widens As Exports Fall
Drought Cuts US Crops Below Demand For First Time In 38 Years
AMD: Third Quarter Unravels Amid Weak Demand, Excess Inventory
Samsung Galaxy S III Mini: Big Compromise In A Small Package
Amazon Launches Kindle Paperwhite, Lending Library In UK
US Appeals Court Overturns Ban On Samsung Phone
September US Retail Video Game Sales Down 24%



SPORTS
Fun While It Lasted: A’s Fall To Tigers 6-0

Oakland fans cheer their A’s

Verlander dominates in game 5 shutout

Hardy Clutch As O’s Force Game 5

Giants Oust Reds, Advance To Pennant Series

Earnhardt Sidelined After Second Concussion In A Month

ESPN College Guru Beano Cook Dies, 81

Wallach, Ausmus On Deck For Red Sox

Indiana Reaches WNBA Finals

Hasselbeck, Titans Pull Off Upset Over Steelers

Detwiler, Werth Rise To The Occasion For Nationals In Game 4 Also, Teddy wins again after getting Nats fired up



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Lindsay Lohan Comes Out For Romney

Lindsay Lohan

Predictable abuse erupts in article comments
Also, “My Mom’s Not On Coke!”

Bobbi Kristina Announces Engagement To Nick Gordon

Justin Bieber: That’s Not My Junk In That Nude Photo

Colton Haynes Leaving “Teen Wolf” After Two Seasons


Cops Raid Nelly’s Tour Bus, Seize Heroin And Massive Quantity Of Weed

Fox #1 With 18-49 Demographic, CBS Wins With Total Viewers

Liz Taylor’s Affairs With JFK, Reagan Exposed In Tell-All

NBC To Air Munsters Reboot As Halloween Special

Taylor Swift Smoulders On “Rolling Stone” Cover, Denies Cheating Charges



FOREIGNERS
Threat Looms Over Bali Bombing 10th Anniversary
Turks Remove ECM Gear, Other Military Electronics From Detained Syrian Plane; Russians Demand Explanation
Taliban’s Shooting Of 14-Year-Old Sparks Outrage In Pakistan
France Uncovers Jihadi Bomb Plot, “Biggest In Years”
Yemeni Security Chief At US Embassy Killed In Sanaa
Hezbollah Admits Flying Drone Over Israel
No Credible Opposition To Netanyahu In General Election?
Putin Defends Decision To Send Remaining Two Pussy Riot Members To Siberian Prison Camp



BLOGS & STUFF
WyBlog: Obamabot Desperation Time – Disgusting Anti-Mormon Bigotry Circulating On Facebook
NRO Corner: First Post-Debate Impression? Biden Behaving Badly
AmSpecBlog: Biden’s Goal The Wrong One
Lonely Conservative: Joe Biden Thinks It’s All A Big Joke
Breitbart: Media Hammers Joe Biden – “Stop Smirking!” “Weird” “Jerk”
Allahpundit: Angry Old Man Yells At Paul Ryan For 90 Minutes
Power Line: Biden’s Libya Dodges
Maggie’s Farm: Rude Biden Turns Off Many Independents
Protein Wisdom: Stephanie Cutter Claims Benghazi Attack Only An Issue “Because Of Romney And Ryan”
Gateway Pundit: Stephanie Cutter, Bret Baier Clash On Fox
Weasel Zippers: Leg Thrill Alert – New FL Poll Finds Romney Up 51-44, Beating Obama Among Hispanic Voters
NewsBusters: NYT Ignored Libya Hearings “Because There Were Six Better Stories”
Legal Insurrection: PPP Finds Warren Rising – Or Is That Just The Increase In Sample’s Party Spread?
Zero Hedge: Data Massaging Continues
Beltway Confidential: Obama Campaign Refers To Liberal Bloggers As “Tinfoil Hat Crowd”

Category: Live at Five
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