The Other McCain

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

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

Posted on | June 28, 2012 | 50 Comments

Also, Rick Locke has Stage 3 lung cancer, as if we didn’t have enough wretched bummers to go around today, huh? Headlines from Memeorandum:

Supreme Court upholds health care law
— MSNBC

Health care ruling:
Individual mandate upheld
by Supreme Court
— Politico

Supreme Court Lets Health Law Largely Stand
— New York Times

No joy in Mudville. The Chief Justice hath spoken. And my wife is frantic with stress, because we’re going today to sign the papers on a rental house that’s smaller than the house we’re moving out of, in order to put ourselves somewhere that vicious perjuring bastard Brett Kimberlin can’t find us. Blogging About Hyper-Litigious Convicted Lying Terrorists™ was never part of my career plan, of course, but stuff happens, eh? We’ve got to pay to get the electric and cable turned on in the new (too small) place, and will probably have to rent storage for vast amounts of our stuff, so once more I am compelled to invoke the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIPS JAR!

Life sucks. Thanks, Brett Kimberlin. Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts.

 

 


Category: Health Care, Shoe Leather Fund, Supreme Court

Wonder If Anything Important Happens At The SCOTUS Today?

Posted on | June 28, 2012 | 19 Comments

by Smitty

Stacy has been too occupied of late to bequeath his wisdom upon the country. Today, hopefully, will be our Progressive nadir. The point were we read Madison in Federalist #62:

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?

. . .and offer a general ‘no kidding.’

It’s been a whacky two years and three months since the Code Red rally, which didn’t halt the Wicked Witch of the West and “Sleazy” Reid from debasing themselves the next day, on 21March2012.

I’ll come at Stacy’s “don’t care” position from another angle. What’s significant isn’t so much today’s data point in American history, but rather the engagement of the American people. If ObamaCare is overturned and the people gaff off the responsibility to pay attention, then ObamaCare will return in more ugly forms. Cancer is like that. If it’s upheld and the plurality of the people give in to O’Donnell-ism, then we are also toast.

Today’s decision won’t “solve” jack. Indeed, whenever a politician talks about “solving” anything, the tugging senstation at your hip is meaningful. Today marks a historic, meaningful blip on the grand course of recovering homo sapiens from homo bureaucratus. We’re exceptional, and here’s where it shows.

Check back for updates. In the meantime:



UPDATE: Pictures from a SCOTUS exhibition

Lively costumes!


The scrum at 0900

Category: Health Care, Supreme Court

SCOTUS ObamaCare Office-Pool Bet

Posted on | June 28, 2012 | 11 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
The thing about being dug in on a story — in the six weeks since May 17, I’ve done 61 entries in “The Kimberlin Files” — is that you ignore a lot of what would otherwise be Urgent Breaking News.

Late last night, I was checking Ace of Spades HQ, and it was nearly wall-to-wall ObamaCare SCOTUS ruling speculation.

Does the phrase “useless as tits on a boar hog” ring a bell?

Seriously: Who gives a damn? What possible difference could all this second-guessing make? The court will rule whatever the court rules, without regard for what a bunch of bloggers say about it.

I know, I know: Turn on the TV and all the talking-heads on Fox News are engaged in Very Serious Discussions about the case and its potential political impact. So let’s turn our blogs into little online imitations of a cable-TV pundit panel: Every man his own Krauthammer.

Look at this ridiculous gibberish, for example:

I think we all are pretty sure that Roberts will write an opinion, and Ginsberg will write the other opinion. What we don’t know is who’s writing for the minority, and who’s writing the actual holding.
I argued with this with Drew. If Kennedy has flipped to the liberals, he might permit Ginsberg to write the majority holding. Perhaps he is a Faint-Heart who thinks liberals will be mad at him, and so will vote with them, but doesn’t really believe in that vote all that much, and so will let Ginsberg write it.
But the Hot Air post reminds that Kennedy is fairly conservative as far as federalism, so: Even if he cast his vote with the liberals, he’d likely want to write the majority opinion to limit it. Even if he sided with the liberals, he wouldn’t want to sign over carte-blanche for more of this nonsense. He’d want to say “health care is unique, and don’t go trying anything else along these lines.”
Then again, I suppose that Ginsberg could agree with such an opinion, if it means she gets to deliver President Precious his Big Win.
But I would say — my guess — is that it’s probably 5-4 to overturn, with Roberts in the majority, Ginsberg in the minority.

Are you proud of that, Ace? Competing in the SCOTUS-Wonk Derby?

It’s like “Veepstakes” talk, if you see what I mean. For about three months now, everybody’s rattling their yaps about who Romney’s going to pick as his running mate, as if what a bunch of TV pundits say on the subject is anything other than a cheap and harmless way to fill 10 minutes of airtime for the amusement of hard-core political junkies.

Ultimately, it’s moot: Romney picks whoever he picks, and all those hours of “Veepstakes” speculation? Just so much wasted time, like one of those silly reality shows, as if it really matters to anyone who gets “fired” by the Donald on Celebrity Apprentice.

Your thing on whether the Politico pre-spin indicates the White House knows they’ll get a bad ruling from SCOTUS, that’s kinda fun. And I also like how you jacked ’em up with this one:

Dudes, the opinion was at the printer days ago.  The conference vote was like two months ago.  The opinions were finished, edited, and proofed like three weeks ago.

Exactly. And thus all the pundit speculation is like kids on Christmas Eve, hoping Santa Claus will bring them a pony.

My $20 says 5-4 to strike down the mandate, but 5-4 the other way on the rest, to permit a salvage attempt on what’s left of ObamaCare, with Kennedy mumbling something about the need to recognize legislative authority, yadda, yadda.

It’s probably a lousy, ill-informed bet, and that’s the point: Who cares whether my speculation is right or wrong? Not me. Nobody at the Supreme Court is reading my blog, and it’s not as if we’re living in a democracy, where everyone’s opinion counts.

We’ve abandoned democratic self-governance, punted our sovereignty to a cabal of nine unelected legal experts — out-sourced it, really. Let’s admit it: A nation in which Celebrity Apprentice and Jersey Shore are actually profitable entertainment franchises is not a nation capable of self-governance.

Whatever the Supreme Court rules about ObamaCare, it’s irrelevant to our ultimate fate. We’re Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption.

Category: Ace of Spades, Supreme Court

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.28.12

Posted on | June 28, 2012 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE: 06.28.12

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Kofi Annan Proposes Unity Government For Syria

Syrian President Bashar Assad receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Damascus

Russia supports this idea, even if Assad himself excluded

Colorado Blaze Devours Houses, Chars Land On Air Force Academy
Over 30,000 flee their homes



No Retraction For Romney On WaPo Outsourcing Story
It’s wrong in general and in specifics, but the Post is sticking by it



POLITICS
Governor Brown Signs California Budget Relying On Tax Referendum

Gov. Jerry Brown signs the budget

Taxes proposed in initiative would raise $8.5 billion

Scott Brown: Holder Should Resign

Stowaways In Container Ship Docked In NJ?

EPA Proposes Elimination Of Beach Water Testing Grants


NH Lawmakers Override Voter ID, School Vetoes

Delaware Senate Approves Online Gambling

Christie: Democrats Won’t Deliver On Promised Tax Cut

Kansas Family Planning Clinics Seek Second Injunction To Preserve State Funding



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Mixed In Asian Trades; NYMEX $80.41, Brent $93.21
Latest EU Summit Promises More Of The Same
LightSquared Chief Charged With Hedge Fund Scam
Durable Goods Orders Jump In May After Two Months’ Decline
Republican Congressman Chides Crowdfunding Restrictions
Barclays Fined $452 Million In Interest-Rate Probe
JP Morgan Trading Losses May Reach $9 Billion
News Corp Set To Formally Announce Split
Google Showcases Nexus 7 At I/O Event
Google Glasses Make Dramatic Debut At Conference
NZ High Court Rules Megaupload Warrants Invalid
EU Court Rejects Microsoft’s Appeal, Reduces Fine To $1 Billion
BlueStacks AppPlayer Puts Android Apps On OS X
Microsoft To Feel Surface Heat From PC Makers
Netflix Wants Congressional Help Against Cable Data Caps



SPORTS
Yankees Lose Pettitte, Sabathia To Injuries

Joe Girardi and Andy Pettitte talk on the mound after Pettitte gets wanged by a line drive off the shin

Yanks GM Cashman says no trades imminent; will rely on minor leaguers to help preserve 4.5-game lead in AL East

BoSox Buchholz Released From Hospital, No Timetable For Next Start

Angels Pound Orioles 13-1 For Two-Game Sweep

Silly Time For NASCAR Free Agents

Phillies’ Utley Returns To Majors With A Bang

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers Voted NFL’s #1 Player By Peers

Romero’s Wildness Helps Boston Beat Toronto 10-4

Nats’ Bats Stay Hot, J-Zim Gets Run Support For Once In 11-5 Win



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Ann Curry Says Goodbye To “Today”

Soon to be former "Today" co-host Ann Curry

Could Natalie Morales also be bailing?

Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer Expecting Twins

Katy Perry Needs “Catnap” From Busy Schedule, Won’t Be In Freddie Mercury Biopic


Charlie Sheen Puts The Party On Pause To Promote “Anger Management”

Don Grady Dead At 68

Tyler Perry Talks “Madea’s Witness Protection”

Science Channel Staging “Firefly” 10th Anniversary Panel At Comic-Con 2012 Featuring  Whedon, Fillion, Tudyk, Baldwin, Others

Oprah To Appear On Unspeakable Armenians’ Reality Show



FOREIGNERS
Turkey Deploys Flak Units, Artillery To Syrian Border
Egypt’s Generals Eye Turkish Model
At EU Summit, It’s Everyone Against Merkel
Indian “Spy” Surjeet Singh Returns From Pakistan Jail
Queen Meets With Former IRA Chief In Belfast
Friction Increases Between PRC, Philippines, Vietnam Over South China Sea Atolls
Jewish, Muslim Leaders Unite To Condemn German Court Ruling Outlawing Circumcision
Nigerian Police Kill 17 Suspected Jihadis
Aussie Senate Rejects Asylum Bill



BLOGS & STUFF
NRO Bench Memos: E.J. Dionne’s Anti-Scalia Tirade
Maggie’s Farm: Bipartisan Healthcare Reforms
Megan McArdle: Waiting For The Supremes
Weekly Standard Blog: Colorado’s Epic Firestorm Reveals Danger In Air Force Cuts
Weasel Zippers: Congressional Black Caucus To Walk Out On Holder Contempt Vote
Lonely Conservative: This Is A Bad Week To Be A Democrat
James Pethokoukis: The WaPo Is Going To Stick By Its Anti-Romney Offshoring Story? Really?
Wake Up America: Clinton Appointee Judge Hinkle Paves Way For Florida Ineligible Voter Purge
Washington Free Beacon: Donilon Double-Dips
Gateway Pundit: New Obama Regulations Prescribe Slope On Putt-Putt Courses
Power Line: Karl Rove? Whodat?
NRO Corner: Did “Fast And Furious” Not Happen?

Category: Live at Five

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

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 21 Comments

Neal Rauhauser: Democrat consultant at 2010 Netroots Nation conference

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
A Democratic political consultant harassed the victim of a SWATting hoax, employing the online alias “The Gaped Crusader” to taunt popular conservative blogger Patrick “Patterico” Frey and others.

Neal Rauhauser became obsessed with Frey during the 2011 Anthony Weiner cybersex scandal, declaring in a July 2011 post at the Daily Kos blog that Frey “looks to be a pretty good candidate for the planner/operator behind Weinergate.” Both Frey and Mike Stack — a New Jersey resident who helped expose Weiner’s online activities — were targeted by so-called “SWATting” hoaxes in June and July 2011.

Frey published a 3,000-word post at his Patterico.com site Wednesday morning that provides extensive evidence showing Rauhauser, a consultant who has previously worked for Democratic politicians including Rep. Raul Grijalva, used the “Gaped Crusader” alias in a two-month cyberstalking campaign in November and December 2011.

The dates of the “Gaped Crusader” online harassment of Frey, Stack and others are important because Rauhauser has boasted of his connections to Brett Kimberlin, director of the tax-exempt 501(c) group Justice Through Music Project (JTMP), and to another non-profit group, Velvet Revolution (VR), co-founded by Kimberlin and progressive blogger Brad Friedman. Rauhauser has described Kimberlin as a “client” and represented himself as an agent of VR in a September 2011 e-mail to leaders of the Occupy Boston protests. Rauhauser accompanied Kimberlin to a May 29 Maryland court hearing where blogger Aaron Walker was arrested for having written about Kimberlin’s criminal past.

Kimberlin has become the subject of widespread controversy since May 17, when Walker published a 28,000-word account of how he says Kimberlin tried to “frame” him for an assault charge earlier this year. Walker, a Virginia attorney, had provided legal assistance to Seth “Socrates” Allen, a progressive blogger who criticized Kimberlin, Friedman and VR in postings at a variety of liberal Web sites, including Daily Kos and Democrat Underground.

Kimberlin is a convicted felon who in 1981 was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for a weeklong bombing spree in Indiana that maimed a Vietnam veteran and blew up a police car. Released from prison in 2001, Kimberlin founded JTMP and VR in 2005; the two groups have since raised more than $2 million in tax-exempt contributions.

Rauhauser, a founder of the Democrat political consulting firm Progressive PST, was a featured speaker at the 2010 Netroots Nation conference organized by the Daily Kos blog. He described his specialty as “solving problems in the social media work space for political campaigns and causes.”

Rauhauser’s reputation was damaged by his role in the so-called “TwitterGate” scandal in 2010, when he was accused of organizing an online harassment campaign against Tea Party activists. The association between Kimberlin and Rauhauser evidently began in July 2011, when Rauhauser used his “Stranded Wind” account at Daily Kos to write, “someone forwarded me the complaint [made by Kimberlin] regarding Frey running a cyberstalking campaign in conjunction with South Easton, Massachusetts resident Seth L. Allen.”

Rauhauser has called himself a computer “hacker,” and is a known associate of Gregg Housh, a figure connected to the “Anonymous” hacking conspiracy. In a comment posted at a progressive blog in October 2011, Rauhauser described being contacted by a “very big dog from the Anonymous pen” who agreed to assist Velvet Revolution in an apparent plan to attack enemies of Rauhauser and Kimberlin.

In a May 25 blog post at Patterico, Frey described how he was “SWATted” in July 2011, handcuffed in a police raid prompted by a fake phone call. Frey identified Kimberlin, Rauhauser and former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert as those he suspected of complicity in that incident.

In identifying Rauhauser as “The Gaped Crusader,” Frey noted multiple similarities between Rauhauser and his online alias, including an obsession with the 2011 WeinerGate scandal, which forced a formerly popular New York congressman to resign in disgrace.

Rauhauser claimed that Anthony Weiner was the victim of a conspiracy, and elaborated his theories in multiple postings at Daily Kos under his “Stranded Wind” psuedonym. On July 4, for example, Rauhauser claimed — without citing any evidence — that a “Christian Infowar Militia” had attacked Weiner. Rauhauser then repeatedly attacked Frey in a series of Daily Kos posts:

Rauhauser has boasted of his contacts with law enforcement — including the FBI — and routinely accuses his enemies of criminal activity. Among the targets of Rauhauser’s accusations was an Alabama man, Greg W. Howard, who was viciously harassed during the 2010 TwitterGate scandal. In August 2011, Rauhauser filed a criminal complaint against Howard with the Alabama attorney general’s office, saying that Howard “has constantly menaced me via the Internet.”

In fact, Rauhauser had described in two August 2010 articles at the Open Left site his plans to use “a synthetic presence” — i.e., false identities colloquially known as “sockpuppets” or “trolls” — against conservative activists online, to “penetrate their anonymity,” in order to ”get up inside their network and collect actionable information.” Rauhauser explained that he hoped to be able to bring civil lawsuits or criminal charges against his political enemies:

“People engaged in provocative online conduct feel insulated; they’re in the comfort of their own home, if they’ve engaged in a little bit of caution they may feel completely anonymous, and this emboldens them. Specifying the strategy we’ll use to break their anonymity won’t permit any mitigation on their part without adjusting their behavior, which counts as a win for us. We’re dealing with people who have likely had no interaction with the court system beyond a traffic ticket; the potential for a pro se litigant to force them into expensive, long distance, lengthy, discovery laden litigation doesn’t seem to cross their minds.”

Rauhauser was subsequently accused of recruiting a number of individuals whom he called “beandogs,” who used Twitter to engage in an orchestrated campaign “to harass, threaten, provoke, disparage, intimidate, verbally assault, berate & employ hate-speech against those not in agreement with his brand of politics,” as conservative logger Patrick Read described it in September 2010.

The use of Internet aliases was the subject of an article Rauhauser posted online, describing “Persona Management” methods for maintaining online secret identities in order to avoid detection by others, including law enforcement agencies.

One of the targets of Rauhauser’s online activities was a conservative activist who uses the Twitter handle “@ZAPEM,” who Rauhauser believed to be a New Jersey woman named Michelle Lessick. ZAPEM played a key role in exposing Rauhauser’s role in the TwitterGate scandal.

Frey’s exposure of Rauhauser’s “Gaped Crusader” persona highlights the ways in which Rauhauser has employed deceptive methods in his online activities. In February, Rauhauser sent to law enforcement agencies (including the FBI) a bizarre document titled, “Andrew Breitbart’s ISR Cell?”

This document described a far-fetched conspiracy theory involving Frey, Andrew Breitbart, Mike Stack and the HBGary firm, among others. Rauhauser’s accusations, which seem implausible, may have succeeded in confusing officials responsible for investigating the SWATtings of Stack and Frey, crimes that have remained unsolved for the past year.

Red State editor Erick Erickson was SWATted in May. Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Texas Rep. Kenny Marchant and more than 85 House Republicans called on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate these crimes. Despite increasing pressure, sources say, the federal investigation has lagged, perhaps because of the indifference of political appointees in the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, Kimberlin has continued filing a series of lawsuits and criminal complaints against bloggers in an attempt to silence his critics. In a Maryland court hearing Tuesday, Judge Nelson W. Rupp Jr. issued an emergency ruling that lifted a gag order that had prevented Aaron Walker from blogging about Kimberlin, who responded by filing his own motion that accused Walker of inciting harassment against Kimberlin. The same day Walker scored his courtroom victory in Maryland, he was targeted by a SWATting attack.

PATTERICO: Brett Kimberlin Associate “Gaped Crusader” — And the Evidence Connecting Him to Neal Rauhauser

(Note: This report was originally posted in a series of updates. The “update” notations have been removed for ease of reading.)

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

 

 

THE KIMBERLIN FILES:

 

 


Category: Aaron Worthing, Patterico, Terrorism, The Kimberlin Files

World’s Youngest Blogger
Can Has Cheezburger?

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Why, yes: yes, he can.


11 months old, doing fine as the Minister of Cute.

Reference

Update: apropos nothing, I present:

Category: World's Youngest Blogger

Instapundit Recovered From The Incident

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

As I was joking on Twitter earlier:

He has also noticed the S.A.L.V.E. project, which can also be purchased in dead tree format here.

Category: Instapundit

Best Paragraph I’ve Read All Year

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Randy Barnett’s retrospective on the ObamaCare decision buildup over at Volokh is awesome, but if you have only time for one paragraph, read this:

I especially want to thank Orin Kerr for his unstinting and unflagging skepticism from day one. I admit that, at times, I found his posts personally annoying, and my one regret over the past 2+ years of litigation is in sometimes letting my annoyance show. But this was entirely my problem, not his. His indefatigable resistance to every argument offered against the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate was essential to the growth and improvement of these arguments, especially in the first year of their development. He was a one-man moot court testing every claim, refusing to be brow beaten into concurring with a conclusion he simply could not accept. There is no question in my mind that our theories would not have developed as well as they did without his intellectual combativeness and persistence. If the challenge happens to succeed tomorrow, he will merit some share of the credit for that outcome.

It takes a mature person to admit that firm criticism was a big help, but it takes a full-on giant to deliver that firm criticism consistently.

Thank you, Orin Kerr, for your work here, and thank you, my own “Orin Kerr” figures the world over.

Category: Blogging
« 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