The Other McCain

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

The Vulgar Left’s ObamaCare Arguments

Posted on | July 3, 2012 | 38 Comments

by Smitty

<rant>
Regulating commerce; the power to tax. Whatever. Somebody get ahold of Jake Tapper and have him ask that miserable twerp Carney: “How is it not fundamentally dishonest that the Administration cannot make a clear, simple, straightforward case for ObamaCare and just put it out there?” The administration has tacked and jibed over the last 2.5 years with enough agility to make Dennis Connor seem a slouch. Even the heavyweights like Hinderaker get sucked into the petty details of how, with enough mental gymnastics, we can contort ObamaCare into something akin to a policy, and deal with it as such. Fine. Full court press.

Step back though and consider what a fundamentally dishonest enterprise ObamaCare has been. Truly, it represents how un-forthright (forthleft?) Barack Obama and the entire Progressive movement have been. And we all know that, for all the resources they’ve sunk into ObamaCare, they don’t even really give two hoots about it: it’s another brick in the wall leading to single payer.

Let this blog post be a hearty “get stuffed” to the administration and the lying liars that support it. Take your arguments and return them to Hell. If you tried to run a business with your snaky approach to, well, anything, you’d be bankrupt overnight. But we live in an age where craven thieves connected to the aristocracy of pull just get bailed out with fake money issued by an illegitimate government in a decadent age.

Think I’ll let this go while it’s still brief and family-friendly. Get pissed, people, and let’s put the November election past the margin of fraud.
</rant>

Update: linked at The Camp of the Saints.

Update II: linked at Daily Pundit:

If the Strauss & Howe Generations Theory is correct, we are already in a historical process that will culminate in an existential crisis for the United States of America, most likely a Depression-like financial collapse (already in progress), a violent revolution, a global war, or some combination of the three – possibly all of them. I can easily see a pathway to all of them from where we are now.

I think the Internet marks the nadir of Progressivism. Sure financial collapse, but I don’t see how anybody sustains anything like a global war. Even the regional fisticuffs like Afghanistan are a substantial strain.

Category: Health Care

LIVE AT FIVE: 07.03.12

Posted on | July 3, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Occupods Suffer Tweet Defeat

Filthy commies getting busted on the Brooklyn Bridge in 2011

Judge rules tweeting much like shouting out the window; not entitled to privacy protections

Human Rights Watch Report Accuses Syria Of Torture
“A crime against humanity”

Mexican Leftists Whine About Presidential Election Results
Lopez Obrador, other disgruntled PRD pols mutter darkly about media manipulation



POLITICS
Amid Tight Race, Obama And Romney Take Summer Breaks

Heading for Camp David

Romney heads to New Hampshire family estate as his campaign continues grinding away at Obama’s thin lead

Former Philadelphia Archdiocese CFO Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $900K


Under Siege: “Stop & Frisk” Splits New York City

Christie Feuds With NJ Democrats Over 2013 Tax Rollback

California Ski Resort Town Files For Bankruptcy

Rangel’s Primary Win In Doubt



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Rises Above $84 As Iran Sanctions Begin To Bite: NYMEX $84.41, Brent $98.21
Weather Channel Buys Weather Underground
GlaxoSmithKline Pleads Guilty, Fined $3 Billion For Drug Marketing
US Manufacturing Shrank In June; First Time In Three Years
Euro Shares Expected To Open Higher On Fed Stimulus Hopes
Best Buy LBO Rally Cools
Microsoft Takes $6.2 Billion Hit For Ad Business
Samsung Galaxy Tab Ban Remains In Effect As Appeal Rejected
Friday’s Storms Raise Questions About Safety Of Cloud Computing
Firefox OS Devices Coming To Sprint
HBO Go App Gets Android Tablet Support



SPORTS
A’s Chase Dice-K Early, Roll Past Red Sox

BoSox' Daisuke Matsuzaka hits the shower after 28 pitches

Brandon Moss jacks 3-run dinger to lead Oakland past Boston, 6-1

Nyets Get Johnson From Hawks

Rays Rally To Top Yanks 4-3

Brodeur, Hedberg Re-Sign With Devils, Parise Iffy

David Ortiz Turns Down Invite To Home Run Derby

O’s Pitchers Struggle Late, M’s Bats Catch Fire In 6-3 Win


Reds Prospect Steals 100th base Of Season

Extra-Base Hits Fuel Pirates’ Romp Over Hapless Astros

Tyler Clippard Named Delivery Man Of The Month



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katie Holmes’ Kidnap Fear As $cientology Goons Lurk Outside Her Building

Prisoner in her own home?

Neighbors call cops on lurking thugs
Related: Katie Divorcing Tom To Keep Suri Out of Co$ “Sea Org” Boot Camp
Rupert Murdoch Weighs In: Tweets “Scientology Is Evil”

Some Guy On A Cable Network Almost Nobody Watches Comes Out As Gay; Neither Viewer Shocked

First Look At Naomi Watts As Princess Diana

“Glee” Cast To Return For Season 4

Charlie Sheen’s Former Assistant Rick Calamaro Dead – Drugs Found

Simon Cowell Fascinated By “Shy” Britney Spears

Susan Sarandon Joins “Hell & Back” Voice Cast

Erin Andrews Hired By Fox Sports After ESPN Contract Expires



FOREIGNERS
Assad Regrets Downing Of Turkish Jet
Arab League Says Syrian Opposition Must Unite
Jihadis Destroy Ancient Sufi Tombs In Timbuktu
UN Global Arms Treaty Talks Stalled
Australia, Indonesia Agree To Strengthen Naval Ties In Bid To Fight People Smuggling
Voice Of Mumbai Attacks Points Finger At Pakistan
Aid Workers Released In Somalia Raid
Britain’s Quiet War On Iran
81 Dead, Half A Million Flee Monsoon Floods In Northeast India



BLOGS & STUFF
Legal Insurrection: Pretzel Tax Logic
Protein Wisdom: “Why Are Republicans So Awful At Picking Supreme Court Justices?”
Victor Davis Hanson: Justice Roberts – Tragic Figure
Allahpundit: CNN Battleground States Poll – Romney 51, Obama 43
Senator Jim DeMint: Ezra Klein’s Incomplete And Misleading Claims On Obamacare Taxes
Gateway Pundit: Eric Holder Plays The Victim
Jim Geraghty: Doing Double Duty At Justice
Via Meadia: Time To Vacate Wall Street
Israel Matzav: Romney Coming To Israel, But Will He Meet With Abu Mazen?
Jawa Report: Florida Democrat Evelyn Garcia, Close Friend Of Debbie Wassermann-Schultz, Goes On Anti-Israel Tirade
Sister Toldjah: They Still Don’t Read The Bleeping Bills!
Weasel Zippers: WaPo Claims Global Warming Behind Colorado Fire
Jammie Wearing Fools: Secret Service Shuts Down Anti-Holder Protest Over “Suspicious Package”
Hit & Run: Ambinder Gets Spun By The White House On Hypothetical Second-Term Drug War Pivot
Marginal Revolution: Edward Lucas Defends Latvia


Live At Five will return on Monday, July 9.

Category: Live at Five

FMJRA 2.0: Lead Lined

Posted on | July 2, 2012 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Lead Lined

— compiled by Wombat-socho

This week’s edition was delayed by a lack of power in the burrow and in my netbook, which was adequate for doing Rule 5 posts but not up to the heavy lifting the FMJRA requires. Pray for a steady supply of wattage this weekend, Loyal Readers.

Aaron Walker SWATted?

UPDATED: Aaron Walker Granted Emergency Order in Maryland Hearing, Calls Ruling ‘Important Victory’

Conspiracy Theorist ‘Qritiq’ Conspires Against Neal Rauhauser’s Targets

Convicted Perjurer Brett Kimberlin Has 8:30 a.m. Hearing in Maryland Today

The Silence of Mark Singer; Also: Kimberlin v. Walker Hearing Monday

Rule 5 Sunday: Away From Home

Insanity as an Ideology

Healing Butt-Hurt: Theory and Practice

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.26.12

#TCOT #BrettKimberlin #SWATting Important Event 9:30 p.m. ET Tonight!

Ain’t Braggin’ If You Can Do It

Professor Glenn ‘Exhibit E’ Reynolds

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 06.27.12

Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) Legitimizes Obfuscation

‘The Gaped Crusader’: Brett Kimberlin Associate Neal Rauhauser Stalked and Taunted SWATting Victim Patrick Frey

SCOTUS ObamaCare Office-Pool Bet

Wonder If Anything Important Happens At The SCOTUS Today?

Life Sucks: Supreme Court Upholds ObamaCare and … It’s Moving Day

Michele Bachmann ObamaCare Decision Response At The SCOTUS

Save The ObamaCare Adrenalin For GOTV Efforts

Ott Finds Humor In ObamaCare Decision

Mataconis: Less Guano, Please

World’s Youngest Blogger, Wheels Edition

UPDATE: Lying Felon Brett Kimberlin Scores a Draw in Maryland Hearing

Top linkers for this week:

  1. His Serene Majesty, The Emperor Blogwhoricus Maximus (12)
  2. EBL (10)
  3. Lonely Conservative (8)
  4. Instapundit (5)

Hm. Hits are up, clicks and shares are up, and yet links are down. This makes me a sad wombat. Here’s hoping things get back to normal next week! Deadline for submitting links for Saturday’s FMJRA will be Friday, July 6; thanks in advance for your linkagery!

Category: FMJRA Award

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
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin