The Other McCain

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

Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) Legitimizes Obfuscation

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Daily Pundit points to GIGO and its effect on global warming research:

Nobody in climate science knows what GIGO means anymore?

Dude, without GIGO, the notion of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming couldn’t even exist. Which would eliminate a lucrative honeypot for a lot of “scientists.” So GIGO is a feature, not a bug.

Hey, don’t forget their spokes-twit, Saint Albert of Gore (emphasis mine):

Over the years, as the science has become clearer and clearer, some industries and companies whose business plans are dependent on unrestrained pollution of the atmospheric commons have become ever more entrenched. They are ferociously fighting against the mildest regulation — just as tobacco companies blocked constraints on the marketing of cigarettes for four decades after science confirmed the link of cigarettes to diseases of the lung and the heart.
Simultaneously, changes in America’s political system — including the replacement of newspapers and magazines by television as the dominant medium of communication — conferred powerful advantages on wealthy advocates of unrestrained markets and weakened advocates of legal and regulatory reforms. Some news media organizations now present showmen masquerading as political thinkers who package hatred and divisiveness as entertainment. And as in times past, that has proved to be a potent drug in the veins of the body politic. Their most consistent theme is to label as “socialist” any proposal to reform exploitive behavior in the marketplace.
From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption. After all has been said and so little done, the truth about the climate crisis — inconvenient as ever — must still be faced.

Yuv got ta buh-LEEV, children!

Category: Democrats

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 06.27.12

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Hatch, Rangel Beat Back Primary Challengers

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

Elsewhere in New York, David Duke-endorsed former Black Panther goes down in defeat

Turkey Warns Syrian Military To Stay Clear Of Border
Military response promised

Mediation Fails, Stockton City Council Votes For Bankruptcy
Biggest city to file for bankruptcy



POLITICS
Senator McCaskill To Skip Democratic Convention

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

Also stayed home to campaign in 2004

Local Police Step Up Immigration Enforcement

GOP Goes Long Vs. Gillibrand

Appeals Court Rules Against States In Challenge To EPA Greenhouse Gas Rules

Condoleeza Rice Nixes Romney VP Talk


Obama, Marc Anthony Appeal For Latino Votes In Florida Campaign Stop

Tea Party Claims Another Scalp As Bridenstine Defeats Sullivan In Oklahoma

Pentagon Holds First Gay Pride Event



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Below $80 For Fifth Day As US Stockpiles Continue To Rise: NYMEX $78.99, Brent $92.58
Obama To Allow More Arctic Drilling…In 2016
Merkel Vows “No Euro Bonds As Long As I Live”
Best Buy Jumps On Buyout Rumors
US Consumer Confidence Falls To Five-Month Low
IRS Offshore Tax Programs Pull In $5 Billion
Are The BRICs Cracking?
Apple Wins Samsung Galaxy Tab Sales Ban
Google To Launch Android Tablet At I/O
Zynga Shares Drop As New Games Unveiled
Google’s Artificial Brain Learns To Find Cat Videos
Apple Shuts Out PRC, India In Expansion Of iTunes Music & Video
Iran Trade Sanctions Get Personal In Apple Stores



SPORTS
Darvish: 10 Ks, 10 Wins

Rangers starting pitcher Yu Darvish

First major league pitcher to win first seven home starts as Detroit falls 7-5

BCS Gets Boot; Four-Team Playoff In For 2014

Giants Shut Out Dodgers 2-0


Kenseth To Leave Roush Fenway Racing After 13 Seasons

Rizzo’s Two-Hit Debut Helps Cubs Top Mets

Red Sox Rally Late To Beat Toronto 5-1
Related: President Booed In Boston For Bringing Up Youkilis Trade

Bustin’ Out: Nats Offense Comes To Life In 12-5 Thrashing Of Rockies



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Screenwriter Nora Ephron Dead At 71

Nora Ephron, 1941-2012, RIP

Oscar nominee for Sleepless In Seattle, others

Jennifer Lawrence Rescues Girl Who Collapsed On Her Front Lawn

50 Cent “Doing Fine” After Accident

Who Is Savannah Guthrie, Besides Ann Curry’s Replacement?

Feds Say Scarlett Johansson Deserves $66K From Hacker

Spice Girls Reunite To Announce West End Musical

James Cameron To Film Three “Avatar” Sequels Simultaneously

Charlie Sheen Parties In NY, Hotel Room Not Trashed

James Franco Still Pursuing Amanda Seyfried Even After “Lovelace” Wraps

Rielle Hunter Says She & John Edwards No Longer A Couple



FOREIGNERS
Fierce Fighting Rages Close To Damascus, Assad Admits Country Is At War
120 Rescued As Asylum-Seekers’ Boat Sinks
Morsi Names Six VPs Including Woman, Christian; Resigns From Muslim Brotherhood Party
Officials In PRC Forced Abortion Case Made To Resign
Heavy Rains, Mudslides In Bangladesh Kill 50
Tower Housing Big Ben To Be Renamed Elizabeth Tower To Honor Queen
Abu Hamza Confession Proves Pakistani Involvement In Mumbai Terror Attack
Lords Reform Fractures Tories As Backbenchers Dissent



BLOGS & STUFF
WyBlog: One Step Closer To Skynet
Nice Deb: Steny Hoyer Indicates Contempt Vote Will Be Bipartisan
Hit & Run: CNN Contributor, Journalist Of The Year Asks “Why Do People Need to Know So Much Darn News that the Government Would Rather They Didn’t Know?”
Doug Ross: Holder Also Withholding Documents He Shared With Terrorists
Rush Limbaugh: Regime Refuses To Enforce Border, Tells Arizona To Go To Hell
Sarah Palin: “Death Panel”, Three Years Later
Ed Driscoll: Convention Clusterfark Bad Omen For Dems?
Atlas Shrugs: Women In The New Egypt? “Please God. Please Make It Stop.”
Lonely Conservative: Obama Prepping Thousands Of Lawyers For November Election
American Thinker: Chicago Homicides Leap 38% In One Year
Jawa Report: Jay Carney Pretends Obama Not Booed In Boston Despite Transcript
Weekly Standard Blog: We’re From The Government, And We’re Here To Help You Lose Weight

Category: Live at Five

Professor Glenn ‘Exhibit E’ Reynolds

Posted on | June 27, 2012 | 34 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
The Lonely Conservative took a glance at the ridiculous motion Brett Kimberlin filed Monday in Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court, pointing out that “Exhibit E” is a photo of Instapundit wielding a very large gun. Exactly how Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee Law Professor, is supposed to represent “death threats” to convicted felon Kimberlin, I’m not sure.

Fortunately, it seems Judge Rupp was not impressed by Kimberlin’s claims to victimhood (and apparently didn’t realize that Professor Reynolds is notorious for drinking puppy smoothies).

If you’ll look at Exhibit D in Kimberlin’s motion, you’ll notice on Page 10 that he quotes a Tweet of mine, made on May 21. That was the day Kimberlin caused a security panic at my wife’s employer by calling up and claiming that I was “harassing” him. (As contrasted to the manner in which Kimberlin “harassed” Carl DeLong, you see.) After I posted “Never Doubt That God Answers Prayer” — announcing my departure to an Undisclosed Location — someone on Twitter sent me a message:

Buy a gun and learn to use it if you don’t already know.

To which I responded:

Pump-action 12-gauge is very simple to operate. Just sayin’ …

The intent of Brian’s message was clear: “Be prepared to defend yourself.” And the intent of my reply was equally clear: “Don’t sweat it.”

How is it a “threat” to Brett Kimberlin for one of his intended victims — a law-abiding citizen whose home and family this notorious criminal had menaced — to indicate that he doesn’t intend to be a victim?

In point of fact, a 12-gauge shotgun is highly recommended as a home-defense weapon and, as I told Brian, is simple to operate. You don’t really have to aim it, really. Just point it in the general direction of an intruder and pull the trigger and the godawful roar of the thing will put the fear of God into him, even if he’s not hit.

Of course, if he’s hit, he’s likely to be dead PDQ.

And I specified a pump shotgun for this simple reason: Imagine you were an intruder trying to sneak into a house in the middle of the night and you heard that racking sound of someone chambering a round in a pump shotgun. Wouldn’t you immediately run for your life?

A few years ago, a knife-wielding crackhead broke into my younger brother’s house in Georgia and made the mistake of not running when he heard that sound. The crackhead ruined the carpet when he bled out.

My younger brother is still alive and well.

End of lesson in home defense.

“Better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six,” folks say down home. And as the science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein once astutely observed, “An armed society is a polite society.”

Being a peaceful man by nature, I regret that matters have escalated to the point that I have been reminded why the Second Amendment is the surest defense of the First Amendment.

Brett Kimberlin is a lying cowardly punk who in 1981 was sentenced to 50 years in prison and who, by all rights, should still be in prison, rather than attempting to intimidate honest citizens.

I said “attempting to intimidate honest citizens,” because I am not intimidated in the least by Kimberlin’s lies and threats, and I will not be silenced. “Truth is great and will prevail,” as Thomas Jefferson said.

Remember that this is still a Shameless Capitalist Blog, and keep in mind The Five Most Important Words in the English Language . . .

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

— Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

 

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Ain’t Braggin’ If You Can Do It

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Via Mataconis and Andrew Sullivan is a Yet Another Post Bemoaning Internet Communication (YAPBIC):

Enter?—?ambiguously?—?Twitter. The strict 140-character limit (shorter if you want retweets), established at the length of a text message, has defined the service since its launch in 2006. The tweet is a literary form of Oulipian arbitrariness, and the straitjacket of the form has determined the schizophrenia of the content. A tweet is so short that you can get right to the point?—?but so short, also, that why should it have one? Twitter’s formal properties bend, simultaneously, in opposite directions: toward the essential but also the superfluous, the concise but also the verbose.
There’s not much point in deploring the over-tweeters of the under-important. Just unfollow them. (Except, of course, where the elaborate social politics of Twitter forbid unfollowing.) But two-faced Twitter has also brought about, in its opposite aspect, the very last thing to have been expected from the internet: a renovation of the epigram or aphorism, a revaluation of the literary virtues of terseness and impersonality.

Twitter:

  1. Is a tarted up/down variation on the theme of IRC.
  2. Is just a means to an end: communication. Bemoaning the constraints of the form is like whining about the rules of the sonnet.
  3. Has already been used for stories and books.

In other words, N+1 has no substantial complaint that I can find. This is all pure stylistic whinging. Of the sort you engage in when you’re, you know, getting thrashed in the hash tag games. If N+1 could wield a tweet with the virtuosity of the Iowahawk, would they carry on like this? Doubt it.

The Beckett reference in the N+1 post does remind me that I need to tout my own little Amazon effort:
Stacy and I get our Estragon and Vladimir on for two scenes mocking the Obama Administration in “Waiting for O-Dough”, plus one bonus scene stuck into “Czar d-Oz”. With the opening “OediPOTUS Wrecks” and the closing creepy CTHULHU story, S.A.L.V.E. is one answer to the question: What sort of debris will the fallout from the higher education bubble burst look like?
At least one reader isn’t feeling ripped off:


S.A.L.V.E. is also available in dead tree format for just a few pennies more.

Category: Andrew Sullivan

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

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 21 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Somebody forwarded to me this e-mail announcement from Tabitha Hale of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Intergrity:

Tune in for tonight’s important webinar!
SWATtings and lawfare impact all of us. Our freedom to blog the truth is being compromised, and it’s our duty to fight back. Tonight, we’re hosting a webinar with Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, and Aaron Worthing to discuss the tactics being used to silence bloggers and what is being done to fight back.
All the details are below — please register and help us tweet it out. Any help with promotion is a help.
Thanks for all you do. Keep fighting.
– – – – – – –

June 26, 2012
For Immediate Release

Franklin Center Joins Lee Stranahan, Popehat, Aaron Worthing, Mandy Nagy And Others To Discuss Protection Of The Free Press
Tonight at 9:30pm EDT, The Franklin Center joins Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, and last night’s SWATting victim Aaron Worthing on a webinar to discuss recent attacks on bloggers and the suppression of free speech.
Convicted domestic terrorist Brett Kimberlin and his associates have repeatedly terrorized bloggers and others who highlight his story with over 100 frivolous lawsuits and 4 SWATting attacks. SWATting is a dangerous tactic that involves calling a police department to report a false crime to get a SWAT team dispatched to the victim’s house. The attacks have included bloggers Patterico, Erick Erickson, and as recently as last night, Aaron Worthing.
Yesterday, Rep. Sandy Adams of Florida and 87 cosigners sent another letter to AG Eric Holder urging investigation of costly SWATting tactics. In her statement, Adams said “SWAT-ting is quickly becoming a scare tactic used against political bloggers in an effort to stifle their First Amendment rights.”
Tabitha Hale, New Media Director at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Intergrity, says “These tactics are just appalling. A free press is essential to a free society, and attempts to silence those who are telling the truth are entirely unacceptable. We are glad to have a small part in the fight to protect the First Amendment by supporting victims of these attacks. We will always err on the side of free speech.”
Information on tonight’s webinar is below. Learn what is at stake and learn how to protect yourself and your act of journalism.

Title: Fighting for a Free Press

Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Time: 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM EDT

Reserve your space at the following link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/630051426

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

* * * * * * * *

Everyone familiar with the phrase “Not Good Enough for BlogCon” understands why the New Media Director of the Franklin Center made damned sure that I cannot participate in this event.

However, given the enormous importance of the subject, I sincerely urge you to participate in this event, and also ask you to help promote participation on the largest scale possible.

Tell everybody you know: BE THERE!

Just because I’m persona non grata doesn’t mean you should be, too.

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

Category: The Kimberlin Files

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

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 29 Comments

Neal Rauhauser at the ‘Netroots Nation’ Conference

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
How stupid does “Qritiq” think we are, huh? The day after Aaron Walker is SWATted, why would Qritiq (who, several people claim, is actually a New York City schoolteacher named Lane Lipton) decide to publish contact information clearly aimed at getting complaints lodged against Patrick “Patterico” Frey?

Do I even need to cite all the evidence that indicates Qritiq is someone who has been doing the bidding of Neal Rauhauser? Is it necessary for me once again to reference those posts from August 2010 in which Neal Rauhauser explained his entire strategy?

What Rauhauser has been aiming to do, for nearly two years, is to gather (or perhaps we should say, manufacture) “evidence” of a right-wing conspiracy, so that he and his allies, by claiming they are targets of “harassment,” can file civil lawsuits or criminal complaints. Then, as Neal has quite explicitly explained, he expects to use the discovery process (in civil action) or subpoena authority (in criminal cases) to acquire information that can be used to continue this strategy.

Rauhauser is, in essence, attempting to use the legal process to engage in the same kind of “hacking” that LulzSec perpetrated against HBGary (a crime with which Neal was obsessively interested). Apparently now in cooperation with Brett Kimberlin’s 501(c) Velvet Revolution, Rauhauser wants to pursue a fishing expedition that will have the result of putting vast caches of e-mails — private, personal, business, politics, government — into Neal’s hands.

This was, for example, the strategy we saw in action when Rauhauser boasted of hand-delivering a subpoena for James O’Keefe’s e-mails, from the New Hampshire attorney general’s office, to a New Jersey courtroom where there was a case between O’Keefe and Nadia Naffe.

By publishing the contact information for Patterico’s employer, Qritiq is doing her part to advance Rauhauser’s strategy, generating a new wave of complaints and attempting to prompt some kind of investigation that might ultimately make Patterico’s e-mails legal “fair game.”

Anyone who will take the time to research Neal Rauhauser’s conspiracy theories (and his own descriptions of his motives and methods) will understand how everything fits together. Are Rauhauser’s claims of a right-wing conspiracy so ludicrous and implausible as to suggest that Neal is quite literally insane? Yes, but . . .

Despite all that, if Rauhauser can ever get courts and law enforcement agencies to buy into any of his claims, so that Neal gets hold of private information he can use against his enemies, the kookiness of his theories will ultimately be irrelevant: Neal wins.

Having spent 40 days reporting this story — and I was on the phone with four different sources this morning — I am just now beginning to see clearly what is actually happening. The “accuse the accusers” strategy, whereby Rauhauser and Kimberlin introduce zany conspiracy claims via criminal complaints and civil actions, strikes most rational people as lunacy. Yet it is actually much shrewder than it looks, because this tactic steadily creates a sort of bread-crumb trail of legal “evidence” for the existence of the (alleged and entirely imaginary) right-wing conspiracy that would be the premise of a RICO claim.

Google “RICO + Rauhauser,” and you find that Patterico understands exactly what Rauhauser & Co. have been up to, the evidence of which has been piling up on the Internet for months. Why do you think, dear reader, that Rauhauser has been so wildly obsessed with “Zapem”? Because going back to the TwitterGate episode in 2010, Zapem and her friends have been witnesses to how Rauhauser operates, and have been monitoring Neal’s operations ever since — and Neal damned well knows it. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

  • It’s impossible to know everything that people are doing behind the scenes to manipulate this situation. Rauhauser claims to have frequent (friendly) contacts with law enforcement, and may be using those contacts to spread disinformation. But of course, Rauhauser lies so routinely that even when we have e-mails or “scrubbed” online documents in which Neal says he’s done something, these statements might be just more lies and crazytalk. (The possibility that Rauhauser’s trying to prepare an insanity defense is something I can’t rule out.)
  • Law enforcement’s reluctance to take action against what I’ve come to think of as the Kimberlin-Rauhauser Axis may be the result of honest confusion. Neal and Brett seem to think they’re crafty enough to fool the FBI, which I don’t think they are. But they’ve managed to spread enough confusing nonsense — the “Christian Infowars Militia” cell! — that it might be difficult for agents to make a clear-cut case of criminal wrongdoing that they can take to a federal grand jury.
  • We don’t know the extent of cooperation among Kimberlin, Rauhauser and others, including the people behind various “sockpuppet” accounts. For all we know, Rauhauser’s been pushing his nutty schemes independently, without telling Kimberlin what he’s doing, even though we have clear evidence of a client-consultant relationship between them. So pointing the finger of blame at Kimberlin may be a mistake, at least until there is genuine proof that Rauhauser did X, Y, Z at the direction and with the approval of Kimberlin. “Plausible deniability,” you see.
  • The SWATtings are the tip of the iceberg, and we do not yet have clear proof that Rauhauser or Kimberlin were in any way responsible for or complicit in these dangerous hoaxes. There is, of course, evidence that seems to suggest that Rauhauser had early knowledge of the SWATtings, but publicly engaging in speculation beyond the basic facts of this limited evidence is extremely unwise.

A lot of people are working behind the scenes to gather and sort through the evidence. There are ongoing private investigations and, I have been told by multiple sources, the FBI is carrying out its own investigation. Citizen-journalists trying to move the story forward must be careful to stick to the facts, and avoid making any false accusations or jumping to premature conclusions.

Finally, to any law enforcement personnel who may read this: The “accuse the accusers” strategy is aimed most directly and intensively at those who pose the greatest threat to Rauhauser’s operation. Patrick “Patterico” Frey has published vast amounts of facts regarding this case, and is prepared to publish much more, and there is every reason to believe that Qritiq’s post is part of an effort to silence Patterico.

UPDATE: Patterico examines some very interesting evidence. Read that and ask yourself, “Why are Kimberlin and Rauhauser acting worried?”

UPDATE II (Smitty): Welcome, Instapundit (AKA ‘Exhibit E‘) readers!

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

 

 


Category: Conspiracy Theories, Patterico, The Kimberlin Files

Spec Ops SuperPAC? Really?

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 28 Comments

by Smitty

I don’t really go for concern trolls, as I was relating to Mataconis on Twitter earlier. But, as noted byhat tip to Nice Deb, there is a Rubicon being crossed when veterans as such become politicized.

Granted, the one driving that politicizing is none other than #OccupyResoluteDesk himself. Incapable of leadership in any positive way, Barack stoops to victory laps over a killing. BHO should emulate the troops who actually conducted the operation, and shut up about it.

And so now the troops are going to break that silence. The military will pursue some political leverage. The Military-Industrial Complex already swings a mighty, yet passive bat in the budgeting and economics of the country. Now military members will drive politics actively?

Sure, there were Swift Boat Veterans for Truth trying to help John Kerry’s ailing memory in 2004. That was a historical point. With the focus kept narrowly on the Osama bin Laden raid, this SuperPAC could be a simliar ray of sunshine to disinfect a corrupt campaign.

However, this is one SuperPAC that could lead to wildly unforeseen consequences. Not wishing to sound all Rick Moran about this, but this is worrisome. One hopes that the organizers of this SuperPAC don’t lose site of the American tradition of military subservience to elected officials and the voters who put those individuals in office, even if those individuals are corrupt pieces of work.

Update: promoted from the comments:

Larry Bailey wrote:

I am one of the founders of the “Super Pac,” and I can assure you that no line has been crossed or will be crossed regarding the separation of the military from its commander-in-chief. Special Operations Speaks Out explicitly excludes active-duty personnel from affiliating with it.

Excellent news. Roman empire comparisons are tedious, so the further away we steer from a Praetorian Guard picking our POTUS, the better off we are.

Category: Barack Obama, Military

We Need More Like Diana Irey-Vaughan Running for Offices Like PA Treasurer

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Diana’s campaign for state treasurer of Pennsylvania made news at a PA State GOP gathering:

But none delivered a speech that roused the crowd more than State Treasurer candidate and Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan.
Don't let the attractive appearance distract--she's tough as nails.
She began with her record and performance as Commissioner, jumping on a key moment to tie her opponent Rob McCord to the President, which the GOP believes is key to picking up seats in the fall.
“Even though I’ve done much of the same kind of work as my opponent, he’s made comments that he doesn’t believe I’m qualified to do this job. You see, my opponent has a Harvard degree and I don’t. But I can think of another elected official on Pennsylvania Avenue with the same Harvard degree and how’s that working out for you?”

Irey-Vaughn is married to a U.S. Army LtCol serving in Afghanistan. When Diana promises to “win the election the Army way,” this blogger is certain that she refers to a deep, patriotic willingness to leave her opposition feeling like a wall of HESCOs landed on them.

DIANA IREY-VAUGHAN
for Pennsylvania Treasurer!
She packs more heat than Timothy Geithner.

Category: Election 2012, Pennsylvania
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