The Other McCain

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

Stephen Kruiser Offers A Manic Take On Politics, And Zen Meditation, But Mostly The Politics

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

I was reminded on Twitter that Stephen Kruiser is The Man, and that prompted me to get this video posted from Saturday. If you only have time for one, take the second, where I give Stephen a pants check and he recognizes me from whenever in the past.

The first part is Stephen warming up:

He reacts to the ObamaCare ruling here, and interacts with the cameraman (me) ~2:55:

The climax:

Category: Health Care, humor, Virginia

Supreme Court Chief Justice-At-Large Nathan Jessup Re-interprets The ObamaCare Decision

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

“Americans, we live in a world that has entitlements, and those entitlements have to be guarded by bureaucrats, with legislation. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Mr. Teapartier? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom.
You weep for Liberty, and you curse the Progressives. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Liberty’s death, while tragic, probably saved government positions. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves government positions.
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want those entitlements, you need those entitlements. You tell one-word jokes like ‘honor’; ‘code’; ‘loyalty’.
We use these words as the backbone of a life spent extending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very entitlements that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide them. I would rather you just said: ‘Thank you’, and went on your way.
Otherwise, I suggest you crack open a .doc, and start finding ways to extend Progress. Either way, I don’t give a damn what Liberty you think you are entitled to.”

Category: humor, Supreme Court

Zilla Bears No Ill Will Toward Me Over The Absurd Tick Post

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

I just got an email from Zilla, who suffers from Lyme disease, concerning the tick post yesterday. In truth, I was struck by the physical similarity of the tick’s abdomen spot to the Apple logo, and went for a sophomoric riff, without even giving Zilla a thought.

To those who, perhaps not seriously, sought to cast guilt upon me in the comments: I do have a finely-tuned conscience, but plays to guilt and fear really never get to it.

Zilla is a cool lady, and totally merits whatever support you can spare.

Category: Zilla of the Resistance

A Drawer Full of Sockpuppets: Another Neal Rauhauser ‘Persona’ Exposed

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | 44 Comments

Neal Rauhauser was a speaker at the 2010 Netroots Nation conference

“Soliciting assistance in his plots — recruiting a gang of followers — functions psychologically as a means for Rauhauser to validate his grandiose narcissistic conception of himself as a heroic leader.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, June 15

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
One of the most persistent characteristics of Neal Rauhauser is his use of online aliases. He’s a sort of sockpuppet factory and once wrote that he had created more than 100 Twitter accounts. Some of those accounts were apparently created for Democrat politicians who had hired Rauhauser’s Progressive PST consulting firm. However, it is known that Rauhauser has also operated a number of intentionally deceptive online aliases, the protection of which was the subject of a very interesting treatise Rauhauser wrote on “persona management.”

Did I say “very interesting”? Why would Rauhauser be so obsessively concerned with “IP address concealment,” offering advice on how to protect a “persona” on a laptop with such elaborate measures that these secrets would be secure even “if you’re arrested and questioned”?

What criminal online behavior, conducted under a secret identity, requires that kind of protection? We can only speculate on possible answers to that question, and let’s just stick to the known facts: Rauhauser habitually uses online personas, such as the “Gaped Crusader” alias with which he cyberstalked and harassed Patrick “Patterico” Frey.

So today, while researching some background on the Progressive PST consulting firm that Rauhuaser co-founded with Beth Becker in 2009, I stumbled onto a Daily Kos diary from March 2010:

I had a back channel discussion with a member of [Georgia Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson’s] staff, and Congressman Johnson gave us a truly amazing thirty minutes of his time on Monday, answering questions about health care reform, his job as the southeast regional whip, and giving us some insight into what Congress will do next … and how we can help.
Present for the interview were Sandi Behrns, Karoli Kuns, Jesse LaGreca, Beth Becker, and Neal Rauhauser.

Hmmmm. Becker and Rauhauser are both mentioned, along with Sandi Behnns, who subsequently joined Progressive PST in 2010. This item about the Hank Johnson interview was the last DKos diary posted under the account called simply “twitter,” and it aroused my curiosity.

The “twitter” DKos account was created in October 2009 and posted 10 diaries and 68 comments before becoming inactive after March 23, 2010. What sort of subject matter did “twitter” write about? One was the “Kossack Twitter Mojo Report,” which showed that Neal Rauhauser’s account (“Stranded Wind”) was one of the top 10 Daily Kos contributors, according to Klout rankings. Although Rauhauser had only 1,056 followers on Twitter as of March 19, 2010, his Klout ranking was nearly as high as DKos founder Markos Moulitsas, who had 11,541 followers.

The first time the “twitter” account ranked Kossacks by their “mojo” (on Feb. 26, 2010) Rauhauser actually ranked second and “twitter” wrote:

[T]he ranking system we use, @Klout, can determine how many of those followers are actually paying attention. This is important — remember those automated processes? Twitter is infested with salesbots and they breed. If you get one and you don’t promptly squish it the next day it’ll have a dozen of its species follow you and it’ll spiral out of control from there. @StrandedWind does the programming for this stuff and he blocks five accounts for every four real people he gets.
What about the ones without any True Reach at all? Well, to get the full picture on an account they have to sign up for a @Klout account. We can get them to rank lists for us, but digging through followers requires that they have Oauth access, a safe way to share details about your account with their service.
We like Klout for rankings but it changes slowly, just like a real world poll. You definitely need an account there to fully participate, but for day to day exploration @Twitalyzer does similar things and it has lots of fun ways to look at your position on Twitter, find others who are interested in the same things you are, and so forth. If you’re brand new and looking for good people to connect with you should take some of the more active people on this list and put them into @Followerwonk.
If you want to get on [Twitter] and get hooked up right away Followerwonk is an immense help. One of the very best places to start is checking into the friends that are shared by @StrandedWind and @Sandibehrns, two of the top rated Progressive activists on Twitter.

You see? The “twitter” account was actually Rauhauser, using a third-person sockpuppet voice that would proclaim to the progressive community at Daily Kos — the top blog on the Left — that Neal Rauhauser was really a super-savvy social-networking guy.

Self-promotion was one of the original purposes of Rauhauser’s deceptive sockpuppetry. This “twitter” account is at least the third DKos identity Rauhauser is known to have used, along with “Stranded Wind” and “Iowa Boy” (the latter of which transmitted ugly gossip about Rauhauser’s ex-wife). Rauhauser is obsessed with online secrecy and deception, and has used his various aliases to manipulate both his enemies and allies.

Go read Patrick Read’s 2010 TwitterGate follow-up, “Democrat Cyber Stealth Revealed: Neal Rauhauser & Radical Thugs,” and contemplate how Rauhauser acquired the influence that he used for such purposes.

Study Rauhauser’s history long enough, and you understand that his progressive friends were exploited by Rauhauser for purposes that had very little to do with advancing any legitimate political or policy goals, but had a great deal to do with Rauhauser’s self-aggrandizing effort to make himself a sort of kingpin/hero of the Left.

Rauhauser is ultimately his own worst enemy.

He is rather like the fellow who imagines himself a shrewd poker player but who has a number of “tells” that enable other players to know when he’s bluffing. His habits are deeply engrained and predictable, and his inevitable blunders make Rauhauser perhaps even more dangerous to his allies than he is to his enemies.

In recent days, Rauhauser has committed new blunders, and when his latest errors are revealed, his friends will suffer new embarassments.

— Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 
Update (Smitty): welcome, Instapundit readers. Check out Saturday’s Stephen Kruiser video.
 

 

 

THE KIMBERLIN FILES:

 

 


Category: The Kimberlin Files

Neal Rauhauser’s War on Women

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | 14 Comments

How much is Brett Kimberlin paying his associate Neal Rauhauser? Apparently not enough to enable Rauhauser to make his child-support payments: Rauhauser is reported to be more than $30,000 behind on his child-support and has paid only $70 this year.

He once boasted of using martial arts against his ex-wife.

Category: The Kimberlin Files

LIVE AT FIVE: 07.02.12

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Institutional Revolutionary Party Projected To Win In Mexican Elections

A woman votes in Atlacomulco

PRI claims win in Presidential election for first time in 12 years, also projected to win majorities in both legislative houses



Former Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir Dies, 96
Will be buried today at Mt. Herzl alongside wife

Former DPJ Chief Ozawa Leaves Ruling Party Over Sales Tax
51 other legislators join him, in a blow to PM Noda



POLITICS
Obamacare Decision Good For Raising Money

Romney campaign: up over $5.5 million since decision announced

Obama campaign claims to have outraised Romney but won’t release figures

Rangel’s Victory Margin Shrinks As Primary Challengers Head To Court

Gunman In Ft. Bragg Shooting Dies

GOP Leaders See November As Time To Defeat Obamacare

DOJ Refuses To Prosecute Holder, But “Fast & Furious” Investigation Far From Over


Governor Perdue Vetoes Bill To Allow Hydraulic Fracturing In North Carolina

Gun Group Finances Shooting Camp With Chicago Gun Buyback Program

Governor Jindal Says Louisiana Won’t Implement Obamacare



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Slides Below $84 On Waning EUphoria, Signs Of Weakening PRC Economy: NYMEX $83.79, Brent $96.16
Doubts Greet Plan For Eurozone Bank Regulator
HSBC Says PRC Factory Activity Worsening
Bristol-Myers To Buy Amylin For $5.3 Billion
USPS To Begin Processing Plant Consolidations
Germany’s Linde To Buy Lincare In $4.6 Billion Deal
Thousands Protest Construction of Walmart In LA’s Chinatown
Samsung Seeks Stay On Galaxy Nexus Injunction
Apple Pays $60 Million To Settle PRC Trademark Suit Over iPad Name
Best Buy Slashes Prices On New Apple Laptops
Booker Goes #Waywire
Amazon Cloud Outage Takes Down Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, More
Twitter Turns Off Tweets To LinkedIn
Nike+ FuelBand ICE Makes Fitness Transparent



SPORTS
Mariners’ Offense Still Missing In Extra-Inning Loss To Red Sox

"So, either of you guys heard anything about these so-called bats?"

M’s not clearing Mendoza line at Safeco

Michael Jordan’s Son Arrested After Omaha Hotel Scuffle

Mets’ Three Errors Costly In 8-3 Loss To Dodgers


Rangers’ Darvish Fans 11, Still Loses To A’s 3-1

Rosters Unveiled For 83rd All-Star Game

Erica Enders Becomes First Female NHRA Pro Stock Winner

No Runs, No Answers As Astros Lose Series To Cubs

Nationals Beat The Heat And The Braves, 8-4



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katie And Suri Move Out

Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise

Mother and daughter move out of Cruise’s NYC apartment into their own digs
Related: Co$ Denies Tailing Holmes

Chris Brown Busted For Gun Possession At BET Awards



Miley Cyrus Wins Over Future In-Laws

Hilaria Thomas Marries Some Famous Dirtbag

Kunis & Kutcher Openly Affectionate During Lunch Date

Ted And Magic Mike Take Box Office Lead

Young Potter Stars Split As The Magic Wears Off



FOREIGNERS
Thousands Protest In Hong Kong As PRC Installs New Governor
Gunmen Attack Churches In Northeast Kenya
Coptic Emigres Fear For Egypt’s Future
Turkey Scrambles Jets On Syrian Border
Syrian Opposition Rejects Peace Plan Over Assad
Cameron Facing Rebellion Over EU Plans
Pakistan Says Mumbai Attackers Were Helped By 40 Indians
Iceland Reelects President For Fifth Term
Venezuela’s Presidential Campaign Officially Begins



BLOGS & STUFF
Legal Insurrection: Alone Again, Naturally
NRO Corner: Did Roberts Cave To Media Pressure?
Gateway Pundit: Audio Of Obama Lawyer Arguing Mandate Is Tax Stuns WH Chief Of Staff
Weekly Standard Blog: WaPo Blames “Manmade Climate Warming” For Devastating Weekend Storm
American Power: Washington May Be Without Power For Days
Unfortunately that doesn’t include Congress or the bureaucracy.
Protein Wisdom: “How Liberals Win”
Glenn Reynolds: The Supreme Court, Obamacare, And Legitimacy
Just One Minute: Taubes And The Emerging Conventional Wisdom On Refined Carbs
Potluck: A Tale Of One Tragedy And Two Campaigns

Category: Live at Five

Updated Doom Tick Turns You Into Vegan, Apple Zealot

Posted on | July 1, 2012 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

HotAir’s bug scare is bad, but we can do worse. Far worse:

And if that doesn’t mess you up, there is work on a still newer bug that can turn you into a vegan Apple zealot who drives a Prius.

Category: humor

As Long As We’re Viewing ObamaCare With Integrity, What About Social Security?

Posted on | July 1, 2012 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

The main reason I figured the SCOTUS was going to find ObamaCare Constitutional was that punting it could open up challenges to the rest of the Progressive project, e.g. Social Security.

Progressivism is antithetical to liberty as we know it. The silver lining crew is attempting to find something good in the Thursday’s whuppin’. And you can re-fight it like a Civil War battle all you like. Whether or not history shows that Roberts gave us the Full Denton doesn’t matter: that’s the decision.

So, instead, let us prove ourselves an exceptional nation. Let’s muster all the patriotic attorneys general, and the great conservative legal minds, and set about saying that a tax is a tax; that godforsaken sacred cow Ponzi scheme known as Social Security is a tax, and send it to the butcher along with ObamaCare.

Who is with me?

Update: linked at Daley Gator

Category: Health Care, Social Security
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