The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.22.12

Posted on | August 22, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Maybe He Is, Maybe He Isn’t

Akin testing support among anti-establishment Republicans, evangelicals and pro-life voters; continues to resist calls to drop out from Romney, GOP establishment

Scott Brown Presses GOP To Be “More Inclusive” On Abortion
Unhappy over proposed pro-life platform plank

Deval Patrick Stumps For Obama In The Midwest
Campaigning in Iowa and Wisconsin for embattled president



POLITICS
Paul Ryan Barnstorms Across Pennsylvania

At the American Helicopter Museum

Stresses the economy, Obama’s hostility to small business; protesting Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) heckled by Ryan’s audience

Secret Service Arrests Armed Washington Man Over Alleged Obama Threat

USDA Eyes Whether Tainted Beef Entered Food Supply

Kaiser/WaPo Poll Says Independents Favor Cooperation, Unhappy With Political System

Paul Ryan’s Economic Thinking More Like Reagan Than Tea Party



Lawsuit Filed Over California School District’s Sex Ed Course

FBI Investigated Congressional Skinny-Dipping In Israel

Livni Says Israel Should Stay Out Of US Politics



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Near Three-Month High As US Stockpiles Fall; NYMEX $96.87, Brent $114.60
European Shares Slide On Japan Data As Greek Meetings Loom
Asian Stocks Decline On Japan Trade Deficit, Greek Bailout
Dell Outlook Gloomy As PCs Slump
Apple, Facebook Fall As Tech Sector Drags Market Down
Stocks End Lower On Profit-Taking After Dow Hits Four-Year High
Soy, Corn Futures Soar On Declining Production Estimates
T-Mobile To Launch New Unlimited Data Plan
Windows 8: The Metro Mess
XBox Live Adds NBC News
Verizon Giving WinPhones Another Chance?
India Cracks Down On Internet After Communal Violence
Layoffs Hit PopCap; “Nintendo Power” Magazine Folds



SPORTS
Lincecum Stifles Dodger Offense, Giants Win 4-1

Hector Sanchez tags A.J. Ellis out at home

Jints extend lead in NL West to 1.5 games

Wainwright Gets 12 K’s In Shutout, Cards Crush Astros 7-0

Snakes’ Saunders Pounded For 9 Earned Runs As Fish Win Again, 12-3

Angels Halt Skid, Beat Red Sox 5-3

Reds Prospect Billy Hamilton Steals Record 146th Base

Eagles Get Good News On Vick’s Ribs

NHL, Players Association Looking For Way Out Of Impasse

Strasburg Dominates, Flores Homers As Nats Beat Braves Again



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Avril Lavigne Engaged To Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger

Chad Kroeger, Avril Lavigne

Secret six-month courtship culminates in engagement for Canadian rockers

Prince Harry Gets Wild And Nekkid In Vegas

Michael Strahan To Join Kelly Ripa As Co-Host



Cruise/Holmes Divorce Officially Final

Mariah Carey Irate At Prospect Of Sharing “American Idol” Judge Table With Nicki Minaj

Amanda Bynes Chalks Up Fifth Wreck In A Month

Natalie Portman Strips Down For Sexy Dior Ad



FOREIGNERS
Greek PM Pleads With ECB For More Time
Hackers Hit Moscow Court That Convicted Pussy riot
Russia Says Syria Has No Intention of Using Chemical Weapons
Ecuador’s President Says Assange Sex Claims Not A Crime In Ecuador
Syrian Fighting Spreads To Tripoli In North Lebanon
Leading Iranian Cleric Calls On Iran To Avoid War With Israel
South African Mine Shooting Could Spell Trouble For Ruling ANC
Romanian Court Quells Bid To Oust President



BLOGS & STUFF
WyBlog: Obama And The Econuts Conspire To Keep Gas Prices High
Conservatives4Palin: Akin Accuses Romney Of Exploiting Situation For Political Gain (Audio)
American Power: GOP Platform Rejects Rape & Incest Exceptions For Abortion
Power Line: Will Michigan Be Competitive?
Lonely Conservative: Paul Ryan Happy To Cling To His Guns & Religion
Wake Up America: Romney Sees Seven-Point Gain In Wisconsin After Ryan Pick
iOwnTheWorld.com: Here Come The Lefty Word Spinners
Allahpundit: Obama To Upstage GOP convention By Unleashing Garrulous Idiot In Tampa
Moe Lane: Today’s Surprisingly Challenging Photoshop Fodder
Gateway Pundit: Obama Blew Half A Million In Stimulus Cash On MSNBC Ads
Jawa Report: Canadian Boxer Turned Jihadi Killed In Dagestan
Jihad Watch: Robert Spencer On Jihad At The DNC
Legal Insurrection: Is Liz Warren Tanking?
Red State: DC Circuit Court Tosses Out EPA Pollution Rule

Category: Live at Five

E-Mail From Mrs. Akin

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 42 Comments

Depressed by the Politics of Dumb, I went to bed early, but woke up after an hour and checked my e-mail to find . . . this:

Dear Friends,
My husband is a man of principle and courage. He’s a great husband and a wonderful father to our daughters and sons, but he’s not perfect. He made a mistake and he apologized for it. Now we need to move forward and defeat Claire McCaskill.
Todd is 100% pro-life, Claire is 100% pro-abortion. Claire was the deciding vote in support of Obamacare, she voted for the failed “stimulus” and was Barack Obama’s biggest cheerleader when he ran for President in 2008.
For all these reasons, Claire needs to go. We need your help today to defeat Claire in November.
Donate $3 right now to show that you’re in this fight with Todd!
Sincerely,
Lulli Akin

Go home, Mrs. Akin, to your selfish husband. Go home, I say, and please pray that your husband’s stupidity and narrow ambition — which have already guaranteed the re-election of Claire McCaskill — have not also guaranteed us another four years of Obama.

Go home, foolish woman, and stay there, and remind us no more of this horrible  disgrace that you and your husband have imposed upon us.

Category: Election 2012, Missouri, Senate

Separated At Birth: Kerry Gauthier / Gerry Connolly Edition

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 18 Comments

by Smitty

You be the judge:

Likes young men

Likes young men

Likes ObamaCare

Kerry Gauthier really owes his constituents a thorough explanation. Not that I care fig #1 what Kerry and consenting adults get up to, insofar as laws are unbroken. Yet this post, besides a free swipe at the risible Gerry Connolly (go, Chris Perkins!), is intended to raise awareness to the media effort to smear Todd Akin and draw attention from a public figure who:

Authorities have said Gauthier, 56, admitted having a liason with the boy. They say he won’t be charged in the July incident because the boy was older than 16, the legal age of consent, and no money was exchanged.

See also Andrew J. Patrick.

Update: welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Democrats, Minnesota, Virginia

The Politics of Dumb

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 30 Comments

In a Twitter exchange with Steve Ertelt of Lifenews.com — who has called on Todd Akin to step aside — I made this point:

There is a price to be paid for pandering and dumbing down: You attract stupid voters — and stupid candidates.

There are people who claim that Todd Akin is not irremediably stupid. OK, fine. His assertion that women have a biological defense against becoming pregnant as a result of forcible rape does have advocates, however controversial:

Dr. John C. Willke, a general practitioner with obstetric training and a former president of the National Right to Life Committee, was an early proponent of this view, articulating it in a book originally published in 1985 and again in a 1999 article. He reiterated it in an interview Monday.
“This is a traumatic thing — she’s, shall we say, she’s uptight,” Dr. Willke said of a woman being raped, adding, “She is frightened, tight, and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic.”
Leading experts on reproductive health, however, dismissed this logic.
“There are no words for this — it is just nuts,” said Dr. Michael Greene, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. David Grimes, a clinical professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, said, that “to suggest that there’s some biological reason why women couldn’t get pregnant during a rape is absurd.”

What scientific evidence could there be — how could anyone possibly demonstrate in a study — the idea that “spastic” fallopian tubes somehow hinder fertilization in a woman who has been raped? Stipulating that this theory is something within the realm of possibility (however remotely), where is the evidence?

But never mind that: Even stipulating that Dr. Willke’s theory of “spastic” fallopian tubes is valid, all he asserts is that fertilization is “less likely” in rape than in consensual sex, so that pregnancy as a result of rape is still possible. Does Dr. Willke have any data to quantify this factor? Can we say that the spastic-tube factor reduces the likelihood of pregnancy by 15%? Or 20% or 30%?

The point is obvious enough: Even if this effect (the existence of which we stipulate for the sake of argument) resulted in a 50% or 60% reduction of the risk of rape causing pregnancy, there would still be many hundreds of such pregnancies each year in a nation where, according to FBI statistics, nearly 85,000 forcible rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2010.

Perhaps there are scientific studies on this spastic-tube factor of which I am unaware or, as seems rather more likely, Harvard’s Dr. Greene is correct in dismissing it as “just nuts.”

Whatever. Dr. Willke’s theory is controversial at best, laughably implausible at worst, and basicaly irrelevant to the argument over abortion either way. So when Todd Akin brings up this theory in an interview about his Missouri Senate race, he is being stupid. And then, when this results in a political firestorm, Akin doubles down on stupid:

Arguing that he misplaced the word “legitimate,” Akin explained — during a follow up interview with Dana Loesch — that he meant to argue that women sometimes lie about being raped:

AKIN: You know, Dr. Willke has just released a statement and part of his letter, I think he just stated it very clearly. He said, of course Akin never used the word legitimate to refer to the rapist, but to false claims like those made in Roe v. Wade and I think that simplifies it….. There isn’t any legitimate rapist…. [I was] making the point that there were people who use false claims, like those that basically created Roe v. Wade.

HEY, STUPID, DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? I’M PUTTING THIS IN ALL-CAPS BOLD TO MAKE SURE, OK?

The real problem with Akin’s remark wasn’t his awkward phrasing — using the word “legitimate” to distinguish actual rapes from “false claims” of rape — but rather his idiotic idea that this would be a good time to discuss Dr. Willke’s bizarre “spastic tube” theory.

Yeah, great sense of timing there, pal.

UPDATE: To extend the argument, my point is that Akin didn’t just make a stupid remark, he was too stupid to understand what was so stupid about it. And yet 36% of Missouri GOP primary voters thought, “Hey, let’s make this stupid guy our Senate nominee.”

We can’t blame the other 64% of primary voters for Akin, but once he’s shown himself to be hopelessly stupid, how can anyone claim that conservatives are now obligated to line up behind Akin and support him 100%? Yet I go onto Twitter and see people making this argument, that it is somehow disloyal — an act of cannibalism — to demand that Akin step down. Because I guess that’s how conservatives prove that they are superior, by their courageous defense of stupidity.

UPDATE II: Rebecca Kiessling is an attorney who is pro-life and was herself conceived as a result of rape. So I think we have to say she’s got complete moral authority here:

“If you are 100% pro-life with no rape exceptions, there is no need to question the veracity of a rape victims’ account, because you are against all abortions. It would not matter if a woman was not or not raped,” she continued.  . . .
“Rape exceptions in the law actually put the government in the position of having to ascertain when the child was conceived, who the father is, whether the child was conceived during the alleged rape or during intercourse with her husband or boyfriend, and if the child was conceived during the time frame of the alleged rape, then the government would need to determine whether the sexual intercourse was consensual or not,” she explained. “So rape exceptions serve to perpetuate the injustice against rape victims that their accounts are to be viewed with skepticism, and it further leaves the majority of impregnated rape victims wholly unprotected under the law. Rape exceptions suggest that a ‘real rape victim’ couldn’t possibly love ‘the rapist’s baby’ and that rape victim mothers don’t exist.”

We need more smart people like Rebecca Keissling speaking for the conservative cause, and fewer stupid Republicans like Todd Akin.

UPDATE III: Missouri resident Jim Hoft:

It’s official. The 5:00 PM deadline just passed and Todd Akin refused to step down. What a disgrace.

Category: Abortion, Election 2012, Missouri, Senate

Top Missouri Republicans Call for Akin to Quit Senate Race; He Says He’s Staying In

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 33 Comments

Statement issued from the office of Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and endorsed by former Missouri Republican senators John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, John Danforth, and Jim Talent:

 “We do not believe it serves the national interest for Congressman Todd Akin to stay in this race. The issues at stake are too big, and this election is simply too important. The right decision is to step aside.”

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection reports that in an interview on Dana Loesch’s radio show today, Akin said he won’t quit.

Via Memeorandum, with further commentary by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air and Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit.

UPDATE: On Twitter, I was wondering whether this is a hostage standoff, a suicide watch, or quite possibly both. This is the only situation of its kind that I can remember. There have been somewhat similar situations before, but nothing exactly like this. Nearly everybody across the spectrum on the GOP side is telling Akin to quit, yet he’s still doing the Marvin K. Mooney act:

Akin told conservative talk radio host Mike Huckabee he’s staying in the race.
“We are going to continue with this race for the U.S. Senate,” he said Tuesday afternoon. . . .
The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a strongly-worded statement after Akin’s radio interview, encouraging him to step aside.
“It should not be lost on anyone that some of the only voices not calling for Congressman Akin to do the right thing and step aside are Claire McCaskill and the leaders of the pro-abortion movement. Senator McCaskill knows that the only way she wins re-election is if Todd Akin is her opponent in November,” NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said in a statement. “We continue to hope that Congressman Akin will do the right thing for the values he holds dear, but there should be no mistake — if he continues with this misguided campaign, it will be without the support and resources of the NRSC.”

How does Akin imagine he can possibly defeat McCaskill without any national basis of support, and with every Republican official of any rank or influence opposing him? What sort of madness — “legitimate” madness — has gotten hold of Akin’s mind?

Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat.

UPDATE II: “There’s no fixing stupid.” Indeed, a candidate stupid enough to say what Akin said is a candidate stupid enough to think he can survive after saying it, so that error is stacked atop error. Sort of like the magic of compound interest, in a way.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election 2012, Missouri, Senate

Rove: Akin ‘Irreparably Damaged’; UPDATE: NRSC Turns Against Akin

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 16 Comments

Karl Rove just appeared on Fox News and pronounced Todd Akin’s campaign doomed beyond hope of redemption, saying that his Crossroads GPS super-PAC would not “throw good money after bad” for the “irreparably damaged” Republican Senate candidate.

Rove pointed out that calls for Akin to step aside have been nearly universal, from the party leadership to the conservative grassroots. Ann Coulter wrote a special column at Human Events saying that Akin must quit “if he loves his country.” The Associated Press reported there are “ominous signs” for Akin, and mentioned the candidate’s attempts to apologize:

In a radio interview with former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Akin repeatedly apologized for the remarks but also vowed to stay in the race.
“The good people of Missouri nominated me, and I’m not a quitter,” Akin said.
The uproar began Sunday, when St. Louis television station KTVI aired an interview in which Akin was asked if he would support abortions for women who have been raped.
“It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said.

The nomination that Akin attributes to “the good people of Missouri” was in fact a 36-percent plurality in the Aug. 7 GOP primary. There are reports — as yet unconfirmed — that leading Missouri Republicans, including John Ashcroft, will hold a press conference and call on Akin to step down.

UPDATE: CAC at Ace of Spades HQ dismantles a poll that appeared to show that Akin was still competitive. Akin has issued an “apology” ad but Ed Morrissey comments:

While this ad strongly suggests that Akin doesn’t have an exit strategy in mind, the day is still long. I would be slightly surprised if Akin remained in the race by 5 pm CT today.

Akin’s belief that he can stay on the Republican ticket is contradicted by this headline:

NRSC sends out list of conservative
pundits calling for Akin to step down

Kind of a big hint there.

Category: Missouri, Senate

McCaskill: Akin Is A Knuckle Dragger. My Knuckle Dragger. Can’t Take Him Before November 6, Or Ima Cry

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 5 Comments

by Smitty


HotAir, emphasis original:

According to WaPo, the combined $1.5 million that McCaskill’s campaign and Democratic groups spent in the last weeks before the primary “attacking” Akin as a true conservative was more money than his own team spent on ads over the course of the entire campaign. That’s how badly they wanted to face him, and their strategy worked so well that they might get Brunner or Steelman or maybe even a more established Missouri Republican instead. Keep an eye on Jim Talent: He denied today that he’d run again for his old seat, possibly because he’s in line to be defense secretary under President Romney, but the calls for him to replace Akin on the ballot have already begun. Your country needs you, Jim.

Claire will have to unpack her narratives:

Came home from campaigning last spring.
Saw people, places and things.
We barely had arrived,
Pollsters asked us to describe
The people, places and every last thing.
So we unpacked our narratives.

I unpacked “knuckle dragging” first.
Those pro-lifers are the “worst.”
Then I picked “Christianist” and
Next I picked “raaaaacist” and
Then I was ready to tell them my tale,
’cause I’d unpacked my adjectives.

Narratives are words you use to really frame things,
Handy words to carry around.
Dems are sunny, Republicans are rainy
Boys are dumb and women brainy
Narratives can show you which way.

Narratives are often used to help us destroy things
To say how thin how fat how short how tall.
Girls who are tall can get taller,
Boys who are small can get smaller,
Till Claire is the tallest
And Claire is the smallest of all.

We hiked along without care.
Then we found a GOP bear!
He was a hairy bear!
He was a scary bear!
We beat a hasty retreat from his lair,
And described him with Narratives!

. . .

Category: Democrats, Missouri

Regulations Not The Problem: Complexity

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

I disagree here:

How government became a deviant subculture is a story of good intentions gone awry. We tried to avoid government abuse by replacing individual responsibility with detailed rules and objective legal proceedings. Never again would officials play favorites or indulge personal prejudices. Government would be an efficient assembly line.

I assert that there is nothing particularly deviant about civil servants. Indeed, on an individual level, my experience has been that people who are risk-averse enjoy the tenure-like comfort of a public-sector job, swapping some gross pay for benefits. Our descent into Orwellian hell has not been about trading responsibility for rules. Rather, it is that, given time, budget, staff, and word processors, our government has reached critical morass.

Which operating system has more systems deployed: Microsoft’s Win*, or the various Unix flavors (with Apple’s line standing far closer to Unix)? Linux, in particular, is wrecking all non-desktop comers (supercomputers, routers, servers) because Linus Torvalds is ruthlessly anti-bloat. The U.S. Code is far more like Windows, with its tendency to add more layers of noise atop the existing crap, without insufficient trimming of legacy crap.

And why is this? Howard’s article misses the crucial point: $

The collapse of everything into DC has been driven by the fact that DC is where the loot is. There will be no significant reform of any sort until there is (a) a come-to-Beavis meeting on the Federal Reserve, and its role as the chief cancer of the world, and (b) a commitment to de-scoping Leviathan.

We’ll get there, by hook or by crook. Stein’s Law seems thoroughly played out.

Update: What’s up with Bill Quick? In the first place, Ubuntu is a full distribution; kernel, Debian apt package manager, X11 windowing environment, desktop, and sundry apps. Linus Torvalds controls the Linux kernel. To say that Linux is Ubuntu is to say Congress is the United States.
Secondly,

the whole move to DC is not driven by the fact that DC is where the money is. That puts the cart before the horse. The reason that DC is where the money is, is DC’s ability to steal money collect nationwide taxes and regulatory fees, as well as do unlimited borrowing (states and municipalities have to actually balance budgets, sort of) which lets it siphon floods of money from locales and regions to Rome on the Potomac.

I really don’t see the importance of the cart/horse distinction here. I’ll give you coroutines. How ’bout that? However you’re slicing it, it had better end up in major reform and decentralization.

via Instapundit

Category: Congress, Instapundit
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