The Other McCain

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

Review: “2016: Obama’s America”

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 37 Comments

by Smitty

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): 2016 is a fantastic first therapeutic step for that Lefty friend of yours.

This blog doesn’t do movie reviews, being generally too caffeinated for extended screen staring. However, 2016: Obama’s America seemed a bloggable event. Here it goes.

For a movie with a futuristic title, 2016 spends the bulk of its time looking back, trying to get into the head of Barack Obama. If you find inner workings and hidden mechanisms of the subject head of no interest, then this is not the movie for you. Dinesh D’Souza, our guide to that head, uses Dreams From My Father as a roadmap. This is genius, as it obviates accusations that D’Souza was faking it as he went. As for the author of DFMF, [insert riff here].

The other key piece besides DFMF for scope is the auteur himself: D’Souza introduces 2016 by discussing his own, substantial biographical similarity to his subject. This is important because having an interviewer of Indian extraction grants the sort of outside-in perspective given by Borat, while remaining watchable. (I cashed out of Borat, playing on the hotel movie channel where I happened to be, at the rodeo scene where the Star Spangled Banner was butchered.)

So we have a quasi-foreigner peering through the lens of DFMF and offering the thesis that BHO is an echo of Barack Obama Sr.’s anti-colonialist views. I don’t disagree that this may be a significant component of his thinking. In confining himself to DFMF, D’Souza avoids material that would be incendiary. The target audience, again, seems to be people on the Left who need to come to grips with having been duped in 2008, and need to begin somewhere with just a little less bombast than the Mike Church show.

D’Souza’s task seems to be to portray Obama as coherent, if not likable. While D’Souza’s conservative views are in plain sight, D’Souza is anxious to show, through the faces and words of people who knew Barack Obama Senior as well as BHO, that BHO’s ideas have a starting point, and a historical context. There is a sense to it, whether or not you find it agreeable.

And I don’t. D’Souza wants to simplify the last four years to Barack working out his issues with his dad, as seen in DFMF. Well, I don’t think that more than a superficial analysis. I simply don’t believe much of anything about Barack. Every state from or about the fellow has to be assigned a probability of truth.

D’Souza’s scope, for example neatly avoids that pesky literary biography. While likely an example of pure marketing gimmickry, that and so many other details (Pakistan?) call into question whether much of Obama’s public record has a factual basis.

And so, having spent the bulk of the run time getting the audience to the 2008 election, D’Souza looks at some highlights from the administration. That bust of Churchill looms large for its colonial significance. The Obama Administration’s bizarre, spastic inability to relate the facts concerning the bust were at once silly and worrisome. Middle Eastern and domestic policy, seen through an anti-U.S. lens which sets America up as a neo-colonial power, and then then determines to topple the U.S., does make a depressing sense.

Ultimately, though, the results are what matters, not the motives or the analysis. Some time is spent on the race question, which D’Souza handles deftly. Obama, an interview passage with Shelby Steele suggests, is the uber-huckster, translating latent societal guilt into political power. People “wanted” to help Barack. This is how he wound up on the Harvard Law Review. The 2008 election was a triumph of mental judo, scaling Obama’s skill to eclipse Hillary Clinton’s campaign. But, while “Vote for Obama to prove you’re not raaaaacist” worked in 2008, the oratory didn’t scale. The cold light of day and the hard realities of economics meant that there was no recovery. The results aren’t there.

Now, according to D’Souza, for anti-colonialist Obama, this is all ‘fair’. Some karmic debt is paid if the entire world is a shanty town. I guess. Past all the crypto-Marxist theories, I can’t accept that BHO really wants an economically wasted country for himself and his daughters. It’s just too nihilistic, too ‘Borat’ of a worldview to accept, even in the possibly flaky head of another. Thus, I am not prepared to accept D’Souza’s thesis fully.

Where this movie is extremely valuable is as therapy for independent and blue-dog Democrat voters who need some kind of dispassionate means getting some perspective about 2008. In offering a non-shrieking place for Obama supporters to begin an introspective review of where we were told we’re going, where we are, and where we’d like to be, D’Souza has mad a valuable contribution.

Years later, when the memoirs are written, I expect that Obama will stand more revealed as combining the worst features of a Commie radical and a Mafia thug. 2016’s portrait of Obama as a man struggling to figure out what to do with that mental image of dad is a beginning. And it’s good for now. Plenty of time for a more sordid truth to emerge later, once the economic situation is less dire.

Update: linked by Rhetorican.

Update II: Another review at Stacy on the Right.

Update III: linked by Fishersville Mike.

Update IV: Another review at Perfection Under A Red Umbrella

Category: Barack Obama

Scott Ott On Fire; But It’s A Dry Heat

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | Comments Off on Scott Ott On Fire; But It’s A Dry Heat

by Smitty

This clip contains weapons-grade dry humor. View with caution and no beverages within the vicinity of the mouth:

Category: humor, PJTV

The World’s Youngest Blogger: Keep A Handle On That Ice Cream

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 5 Comments

Category: World's Youngest Blogger

Todd Akin Rapes Missouri GOP

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 41 Comments

The only question is whether it was a “legitimate” rape:

Whereas Rasmussen polling showed Romney leading pro-abortion President Barack Obama at the end of July and having Romney leading the race in the Show Me State all year, now Obama has the lead.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Missouri Voters finds President Obama with 47% support to Romney’s 46%. Three percent (3%) favor some other candidate in the race, and three percent (3%) more are undecided. At the end of July, Romney led by six percent and he has not trailed Obama in any Rasmussen poll all year.
“As the controversy over Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment continues, Mitt Romney’s lead in Missouri has vanished,” Ramussen says. “Missouri now moves from Leans Romney to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Electoral College Projections.”

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit was an unwilling victim and, unlike the “Magic Uterus,” the Missouri GOP had no natural defenses.

That’s not a hurricane headed toward Tampa: It’s a tropical depression.

 





 


Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention, Missouri, Polls

20 August 2012: ‘Prime Minister’ Obama Should Pay Attention To Detail

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 6 Comments

by Smitty  (via KSDK)

For context, there was the ‘Dishonorable Disclosures‘ video, where a cadre of non-active Spec Ops folks called out the administration for politicizing and jeopardizing warfighters in the effort to capitalize on the demise of bin Laden. The video has north of 3 million hits on YouTube. One might say a nerve has been struck.

And so #OccupyResoluteDesk further beclowned himself in St. Louis:


Emphasis mine below:

Washington (CNN) – President Obama says he’s not worried about the impact of a film and ad campaign produced by a group of retired Special Ops soldiers.
The 22-minute-long film is called “Dishonorable Disclosures.”
It criticizes the Obama administration for releasing too many details about last year’s Osama bin Laden raid and killing.
The president says, when watching a film like this, viewers should consider the source.
“I won’t take this film to seriously, I gather that one of the producers is a birther who still doesn’t think I was born in this country. You got ah, one who was a Republican candidate for office and a proud card carrying member of the Tea Party. So ah, yeah this is obviously a partisan film. I’d advise that you talk to General McRaven who is in charge of our Special Ops. I think he has a point of view in terms of how deeply I care about what these folks do each and every day to protect our freedom,” said Obama.
President Obama has regularly cited the killing of bin Laden as a campaign promise he fulfilled, and the head of special operations, Admiral William McRaven, recently said Mister Obama deserved credit.
The Op Sec Education Fund raised about a million dollars to produce the film.

It really is a bad thing, ‘Senator’ Obama, when you underscore the criticism of you as being inept, disconnected, and contemptuous of the corps of men and women who serve this country. Especially when you’ve been touted as some kind of a superior intellect, ‘Judge’.

via Riehl World News

Category: Barack Obama

Tampa, Here I Come

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 67 Comments

Driving to Tampa today, after a restless night haunted by the helpless feeling tbat we are doomed beyond all hope of redemption.

Todd Akin had the chance to do the right thing Tuesday, and selfishly refused. Now, with the encouragement and support of Mike Huckabee, Akin is digging deeper the grave in which the Democrat-Media Complex are planning to bury the Republican Party.

The problem is not merely that Claire McCaskill is cackling with glee — suddenly leading by 10 points in Missouri — over the Senate seat that Akin foolishly fumbled away. Rather, Akin will now become the most famous name at the Republican National Convention:

The Republicans’ convention messaging will be thrown off, Baker said, “If Joe Biden goes to Tampa and says, ‘Where’s Todd Akin?’”

Todd Akin has made himself the Willie Horton of 2012.

All the work every Republican has done this year, every dollar the Republican Party has raised, will be wasted because of one selfish fool.

This is what I see — the Neutral Objective Facts of the situation — and I can’t shake it. Friends have tried to console me. They’ve told me that my overwhelming sense of despair is irrational.

“Look at the polls!” they say. “Good news!”

OK, fine: I know nothing about politics. All my years of experience and observation count for nothing, and so my gut-hunch is not to be trusted.

Never mind. I’ll drive to Tampa with Ali Akbar. I will spend the next several days listening to Republicans describing their plans for victory, and I will try to recover some sense of hope.

Maybe something will happen to change the trajectory.

Maybe Todd Akin will make the mistake of attending the convention in Tampa and accidentally bump into Mitt Romney, who will then attempt to strangle Akin with his bare hands. Mitt will be booked into the Hillsborough County Jail, while the convention will be thrown into confusion. The delegates will make Paul Ryan their presidential nominee, with Marco Rubio as his running mate. This shocking turn of events will create a surge of momentum the GOP will ride to victory Nov. 6.

OK, that probably won’t happen, but it could happen — and it’s a scenario at least as realistic as Todd Akin getting elected to the Senate.

Don’t try to talk me out of a dark mood like this. That just makes it worse, increasing my sense of emotional isolation.

There’s only one known cure: Hit the freaking tip jar.

 





Category: Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention

Bouie In: ‘Off-Beat Tales Of Racism And The Master Baiter; Wax On, Wax Oft’

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Via Jim Treacher’s Twitter feed, we have Jamelle Bouie Racism Plays a Big Part in our Politics. Period. This piece is so wretched that I won’t link it directly; you’ll have to swing through Google. And why might that be? Let me help: the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex (RIC) derives too much power from the status quo, that’s why. This is not to say that there wasn’t:

  • A massive historical example of racism known as slavery.
  • A 1787 Constitution that horribly enshrined the evil of slavery.
  • A bloody Civil War fought to correct the injustice of slavery.
  • A Civil Rights movement, led by Republicans like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leading to a Civil Rights Act championed by Republicans like Donald Rumsfeld.

Now, I’m not going to contend that you can’t find some Nazi-tattooed jackwagon in a compound somewhere ranting on about our precious bodily fluids. But the RIC is so far out there, I would be unsurprised to discover that the RIC supports the neo-AZI swine. Because if integrity is just another abstraction, anything is possible. However, as a veteran who has served with the entire rainbow spectrum of Americans, across the country and around the world, I’d like to share six letters:

ENOUGH

A sampling of Racism Plays a Big Part in our Politics. Period.:

Bouie Smitty
The power and symbolism of Obama’s election is compromised by the extent to which his presidency has been shaped by white expectations and white racism. Obama can’t show anger, he can’t propose policies tailored to African Americans and he can’t talk about race. In other words, he can’t remind white Americans that their president is a black man as much as anything else. On what basis, other than your pointed finger, do you base ‘white racism’? Are Thomas Sowell and Allen West racists? Both have criticized BHO. But if Obama had the wisdom of the former and the raw American courage of the latter, Barack would be giving any comer the Mondale treatment in November. Barack probably also wouldn’t govern like a miserable Commie.
Barack can show all the anger he wants, if he first puts forward something like an adult idea. When budget proposals earn zero (0) votes in Congress, one is tempted to question: should budgets be written in the political equivalent of crayon? (Aside: is Jim Clyburn a racist for failing to support BHO?)
Barack needs to convince Americans he is a sober adult. Then we can throw on some Ray Charles, or whatever, with the fellow.
At the risk of sounding cynical, I expect that Coates will inspire howls of unfairness from the Right. It’s almost forbidden to discuss the role racism has played in shaping opposition to Obama. Conservatives dismiss such concerns as “playing the race card”—and use it as an opportunity to accuse liberals of racism—while more neutral commentators note that Bill Clinton also faced a rabid conservative opposition. But as Coates points out, no one called Clinton a “food stamp president” or attacked his health care plan as “reparations.” Local lawmakers didn’t circulate racist jokes about the former Arkansas governor, and right-wing provocateurs didn’t accuse Clinton of fomenting an anti-white race war. I am not howling that this piece is ‘unfair’. Fa(ir|re) is what you pay to ride a bus; and no amount of racist Affirmative Action is going to create enough racial feng shui to retire the Racism Industrial Complex.
Indeed, it is a fantastic thing that this tired trope’s trotted out. So that the false charge of racism can be crushed.
The unrepentant Bill Clinton faces opposition from honorable men who cannot abide philandering scum. When Bill brings forth fruit meet for repentance, he’ll merit being given the time of day.
Clinton may not have been called a “food stamp president” because his welfare reform was one aspect of his administration that did not involve suction. Obama, however, blows that.
And fomenting a race war? How about we ask George Zimmerman just who is fomenting what, m’kay? Jamelle, you’re either obliviously ignorant, or a hack’s hack, and a tool for hacking forth more hacks from the hack stash, if you refuse to recognize what this administration has done in its effort to squeeze another swipe from the race card.

You can track down the source and read the entire, despicable thing if you want. I’ve got enough. . .matter stuck to my shoe for the nonce. As a palate cleanser, here is that chestnut from, of all people, Jon Stewart:

Here me, you Lefty jackwagons: false claims of racism have the merit of an Elizabeth Warren genealogy claim. Bring forward a specific case of purely DNA-based decision making (i.e. racism) and I’ll cheerfully call it like it is. By the same token: Stuff. Your. False. Generalizations. I’m calling out dishonest arguments wherever, whenever I see them.

The good nature of honest Americans has been thoroughly abused by academics and politicians in the RIC. But the Jamelle Bouies of the world have cried wolf too many times: Blitzer has reached the saturation point, CNN’s ratings are parked in the toilet, and sincere Americans are pushing back against the lies of the RIC.

By the way, Jamelle: you’re not a bad writer, style-wise. Now, please quit perverting your talent with this RIC filth. Let me double down: come on down to CPAC 2013 for some Road to Damascus action. Find out what conservatives are really about. Meet some genuinely great women and men like Alfonzo Rachel:
The only loser here is the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex. If you hate racism, take time to grab another paragraph from Jamelle’s lame exercise in finger pointing, laugh at it, and send me the link. Racism and the RIC have got to go.

Update: great follow-up post at The Camp of the Saints.

Update II: thanks, Hogewash!

Category: Barack Obama, Racism

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 08.24.12

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Mitt Romney Prepares For The Hard Sell

Mitt Romney

Reveals more of his personal side, but not interested in becoming celebrity

Prosecutors: Aurora Shooter Angry Over Poor Performance
DA demands school records



Assad’s Backers In Aleppo Defect To Rebels
Support, cash now flowing to al-Tawheed Brigades



POLITICS
Protesters Begin To Arrive In Tampa For GOP Convention

Tropical Storm Isaac

Officials say up to 15,000 protesters expected despite possibility of storm

Missouri Conservatives Rally To Akin, Blast GOP Establishment




Former Ambassador Ryan Crocker Busted For DUI

Ex-SEAL In Legal Jeopardy Over Obama Raid Book

ICE Agents Sue To Stop Obama’s Non-Deportation Orders

Ryan Speaks Out Against Defense Cuts

Gallup/USA Today Poll: Americans Souring On Presidential Candidates, Parties

Romney: Bernanke Is Finished As Fed Chairman



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Falls On Doubts About US Growth: NYMEX $95.64, Brent $114.55
Euro Falls For First Time In Five Days As Samaras Prepares To Meet Germans, French
Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly (sic!) Rise
Dow Falls For Fourth Day As Traders Watch Fed
Asian Markets Fall On Weak Economic Data From Pretty Much Everywhere
HP Posts $9 Billion Quarterly Loss
Fed Earns $17.7 Billion Profit On AIG Bailout As Last Assets Sold
ROK Court Holds Apple, Samsung Guilty Of Mutual Patent Violations, Awards Token Damages, Bans Sales Of Offending Products
Microsoft’s Logo Gets A Makeover
Consumer Watchdog Wants FCC To Police 4G Marketing
Amazon Set To Introduce New Kindles At September 6 Event
Almost half Of Consumers Uninterested in 4G
Dish Network Sued By FTC Over Do Not Call Violations



SPORTS
Red Sox Lose Wild Slugfest To Angels

Alfredo Aceves stares in disbelief as Morales belts another homer

After shameful lack of attendance at Pesky’s funeral, Red Sox beaten by Angels 14-13

Lance Armstrong Refuses To Participate In “Witch Hunt”; To Be Stripped Of Tour De France Titles & Banned For Life

Zito, Giants Roll To Fourth Straight Win, Beat Braves 5-2

A’s Ross Sent Down After Shaky Start, 5-0 Loss Against Rays

Phillies Offense Comes Alive Late, Saves Leaky Defense In 4-3 Win Over Reds

The Cup Is Ours: A Manifesto

Tigers Slip Past Jays In 11th

Diamond, Gardenhire Ejected, Twins Lose To Rangers 10-6



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katy Perry, John Mayer Split

Katy Perry & some sleazy musician type

Guess it wasn’t a real connection after all

Britney Tells Judge She’s Ready For End To Conservatorship

Sheepish Prince Hal Meets With Queen, Prince Charles After Naked Photo Flap

First Look At The “Carrie” Remake



Kathie Lee Confirms It: Taylor Swift Crashed The Wedding

Madonna Forgives Elton John – Or Does She?

Everyone Is Making Up Lies About Lindsay Lohan. Again.

Not Only Did He Get Beaten Down By A Rapper, He’s Facing Life In Prison



FOREIGNERS
Environmentalist Wackos Storm Russian Arctic Oil Rig
Norwegian Mass Murderer Found Sane, Sent To Jail
Politician Hijacks Miners’ Funeral, Accuses South African Government Of Complicity In Their Deaths
Nationalism Fuels Senkaku Island Dispute Between Japan, PRC
Indian Opposition Sticks To Demand For PM Singh’s Resignation, Parliament Adjourned
Japan Turns Up Heat In ROK Row – Debt Plan, Forex Deal On The Line
Syrian Civil War Loosening Ties Between Damascus, Beirut
Hong Kong Activists Combine Pro-China, Anti-Beijing Stances
US Discussing More BMD In Asia, Says It’s Against Nork Threat
Egyptians Unimpressed By Threatened US Aid Cuts



BLOGS & STUFF
Power Line: Huckabee Doubles Down On Akin
Gateway Pundit: Akin Trails McCaskill By Ten Points
Betsy Woodruff: Reid’s Glass House
Kevin Williamson: Gawker, Bain, And The Caymans
Lance Armstrong: “Enough Is Enough”
Micheal Brown: An Open Letter To Mark Potok
Riehl World News: Romney Calls For Giving States Control Over Drilling On Federal Lands
Ulsterman Report: How Romney Used Obama’s Own Ad Campaign To Win Voters
Allahpundit: Fox Poll Of Likely Voters – Romney 45/Obama 44
Belmont Club: Where No Man Has Gone Before
Shark Tank: Wasserman-Schultz Called Out As Extremist
Legal Insurrection: Democrats Would Rather Be Seen As Celebrating Death Than Talk About The Economy
Andrew Malcolm: Barack Obama Actually Said This

Category: Live at Five
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