The Other McCain

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

Is @MaggiePolitico the Favorite Girl in David Axelrod’s Stenography Pool?

Posted on | May 16, 2012 | 7 Comments

Drew M. at AOSHQ catches Team Obama’s Pet pushing Democrat oppo research against a dude who appears in a new Romney campaign ad. Here’s the ad, and the dude Hagerman blows up is Jason “Jay” Clausen, who got laid off from his job in Iowa:

Permit me to say, from long experience, that political reporters get tips from all kinds of sources all the time. The identity and motives of the tipsters are often not known, just a voice on the phone or a pseudonymous email account. The facts are the facts, without regard to who reports them or why. But if this isn’t an oppo-dump, what is it?

The question is whether Maggie Haberman would protect the confidentiality of a Republican source who gave her such a cheap little piece of dirt about a Democrat, or whether her Opposition Research Stenography Service is only available to Team Obama.

Haberman has reported things that I have gladly linked in the past, and I’m sure I’ll link her again in the future.

She is a good reporter. But if, as I suspect, she’s pushed this tawdry cheap shot at the behest of PROFESSIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY POLITICAL OPERATIVES, perhaps next time they ship her a load of dirt, she would DO HER READERS THE FAVOR OF BEING HONEST ABOUT WHERE SHE GOT IT.

I’m sorry. Was I shouting? Kinda stressed out lately . . .

My point is that you don’t have to burn your sources in order to be honest with your readers. If Democrats were pushing dirt, you can give the reader a general sense of that without being specific. But I wasn’t born yesterday and I know an oppo-dump when I see one. I saw it done to both Herman Cain and Rick Santorum during the GOP primary campaign, and knew damned well that it came from rival Republican campaigns.

If Maggie Haberman wants to swear out an affidavit that she independently took it on herself to do a public-records search on Jay Clausen, then I will admit my suspicions were misplaced.

Prove me wrong, or I’ll take your silence as an admission I’m right.

 


Category: Election 2012, Media Bias, Mitt Romney

You Have To Admire A Broken Record That Can Skip For 3+ Years

Posted on | May 16, 2012 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Younger readers may not understand that, historically, recordings were distributed on vinyl discs, with audio information transferred from the vinyl to amplification electronics via a needle. The information was laid out in a spiral on the disc. It was fragile, and slight damage could turn that spiral into an infinite loop.

Bush did i–Bush did i–Bush did i–Bush did i–Bush did i–Bush did i–Bush did i–Bush did i–. . .

Carney, I hope the money is worthwhile, because you’re pretty much never going to live down having worked for this administration.
Category: Barack Obama

Sarah Palin, Herman Cain Help Nebraska Underdog Deb Fischer Win Primary

Posted on | May 16, 2012 | 33 Comments

The first sentence of this story about the GOP Senate primary by Josh Lederman in the Hill absurdly portrays state Sen. Deb Fischer’s victory over Nebraska State Attorney General Jon Bruning as “dealing a blow to both the Republican establishment and the Tea Party.”

This is stupid. If the Republican establishment loses to a candidate backed by both Sarah Palin and Herman Cain, of course the Tea Party wins. What else could explain it?

Fischer, a rural rancher who has never held statewide office, had long been written off in the race to replace retiring Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). But Fischer turned the table on her two GOP opponents in the final week of the campaign despite being out-fundraised many times over. . . .
For months, Bruning had a clear double-digit lead over Fischer and [State Treasurer Don] Stenberg. Few Republicans saw a realistic opportunity for Fischer to overtake Stenberg, and even fewer thought Fischer could pull off a first-place finish.
But in the waning days of the primary, polls showed major movement in Fischer’s direction, and Fischer said her grassroots efforts and positive campaign had finally paid off. Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) and former presidential candidate Herman Cain waded into the race to back Fischer, and a super-PAC controlled by Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts pumped $200,000 into the race to support Fischer and attack Bruning.
Stenberg’s third-place finish was a bruising defeat for fiscal-conservative groups who backed him, including Club for Growth and Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) Senate Conservatives Fund. The Club spent more than $700,000 to attack Bruning, and DeMint’s PAC dropped more than $1.1 million on ads promoting Stenberg.
Meanwhile, Tea Party Express, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) all backed Bruning, who was widely considered the establishment candidate.

Anyway, Fischer will now face former Democrat Sen. Bob Kerrey in the race to fill the Senate seat being vacated by the Democrat Nelson, considered an almost sure pickup for the GOP.

Exactly how so many people — including DeMint and the Tea Party Express — backed the wrong horses in this three-way primary, I don’t know. But for Lederman to interpret this miraculous win for Fischer as a defeat for the Tea Party is just flat wrong.

UPDATE: Instead of letting Josh Lederman tell us What It Means (in the first paragraph of the story, so you couldn’t miss it), let’s try this instead:

Congratulations to Deb Fischer
by Sarah Palin on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 9:35pm ·
As recently as a week ago, Deb Fischer was dismissed by the establishment. Why? Because she is not part of the good old boys’ permanent political class. The message from the people of Nebraska is simple and powerful: America is looking for real change in Washington, and commonsense conservatives like Deb Fischer represent that change. I applaud Moms like Deb Fischer who are bold enough to step up and run on a conservative platform to restore America and protect our children’s future. Congratulations to the people of Nebraska. As the Huskers’ fight song goes: “The eyes of the land, upon every hand, are looking at you. Fight on for victory!”
— Sarah Palin

And That’s the Way It Is.

Category: Election 2012, Nebraska, Republicans, Senate, Tea Party

Perhaps Not Since Johannes Gutenberg Invented Movable Type …

Posted on | May 16, 2012 | 34 Comments

. . . has any event in the history of Western civilization been more significant than the forthcoming publication of Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds’s The Higher Education Bubble. This 56-page booklet, the 29th in the brilliant Encounter Broadside series, has been breathlessly awaited for months, in expectation that it will revolutionize our nation’s education system. Here is the publisher’s summary of this eagerly anticipated work:

America is facing a higher education bubble. Like the housing bubble, it is the product of cheap credit coupled with popular expectations of ever-increasing returns on investment, and as with housing prices, the cheap credit has caused college tuitions to vastly outpace inflation and family incomes. Now this bubble is bursting.
In this Broadside, Glenn Harlan Reynolds explains the causes and effects of this bubble and the steps colleges and universities must take to ensure their survival. Many graduates are unable to secure employment sufficient to pay off their loans, which are usually not dischargeable in bankruptcy. As students become less willing to incur debt for education, colleges and universities will have to adapt to a new world of cost pressures and declining public support.

That’s about 120 words of a 7,000-word treatise destined to be remembered as one of the most profoundly influential documents in 21st-century intellectual history. How do I know that it’s 7,000 words? Because he told me about it over barbecue and beers the last time I was in Knoxville. And he picked up the tab.

Also — full disclosure — I’ve been procrastinating for two weeks on transcribing an interview I did with Harry Stein, whose excellent new book, No Matter What…They’ll Call This Book Racist: How our Fear of Talking Honestly About Race Hurts Us All, is also published by Encounter. So I really owe Roger Kimball and the fine folks at Encounter a solid, to say nothing of the obvious reasons I’d want to curry favor with Instapundit, who has thrown me a crapload of traffic over the years.

Furthermore — forget “full disclosure,” because my career by now is such a Gordian knot of shady ethical compromises I can’t even begin to count the potential conflicts of interest involved — there is the outside possibility that Roger Kimball and the fine folks at Encounter might be interested in a book I’d like to write.

INTEGRITY LIKE PAUL F**KING ANKA, BABY (And Other Great Riffs I Shamelessly Stole From Ace of Spades)

Well, that’s the working title, anyway. Kind of a work in progress that I haven’t actually started writing yet. I’m flexible, and if Roger and the fine folks at Encounter want me to turn it into a scathing tell-all biography of Millard Fillmore — hey, cool, whatever.

Call me, Roger. We’ll do lunch. Love ya, man.

Wait — hold on. We seem to have slightly digressed here . . .

Damn these psilocybin flashbacks. My point is that Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds has written The Higher Education Bubble, which is due for publication on June 26. However, through special arrangement with Amazon.com, you can pre-order this forthcoming blockbuster now, and be among the first to own this $5.99 volume that is sure to become an instant classic.

P.S.: He’s got a blog that’s kind of popular.

 

Category: Books, Education, Instapundit, Neutral Objective Journalism

Rule 5 Tuesday

Posted on | May 15, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Left Bank of the Charles kicks off this week’s (belated) Rule 5 roundup by noticing the Obama campaign’s focus on womens’ breasts, and I don’t mean in a medical way. The Rio Norte Line shows that the Mexicans’ Federal Election Institute may not know Stacy, but they sure know Rule 5. The POH Diaries noticed that a former Nevada state senator is a write-in for Maxim’s Hot 100. Laughing Conservative brings back Emily Ratajkowski, while Randy’s Roundtable takes a midweek break with Martha Hunt and Felisia Mcginn. Zion’s Trumpet marks Friday with some attractive ladies, Fishersville Mike finds some NBA rule 5, and Reaganite Republican recommends Natalie Vertiz, sometimes known as Miss Peru. Jake Finnegan’s Burkalesque Babe this week is Florence Colgate, and the Rio Norte Line reminds us to check out the Femen Newsletter for May.


A View from the Beach has Poppy Montgomery, Greek & Mexican weathergirls, Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass”, and finally, girls with ground sloth fossils.


El Opinador Compulsivo has not one but two high-res posts. Also, Julia Orayen, a Bond Girls Timeline, Danii Minogue, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and a bikini mishap.


Soylent Green’s Monday Motivationer is Heather, Tuesday’s titillation is provided by Mara, while Audrey Nicole provides the Humpday Hawtness. Also, Afternoon Awesome, and a furry interlude. Also also, Jaclyn Swedberg!


At The Camp Of The Saints, it’s Alicia Machado and Jayne Mansfield; Proof Positive had Xenia Tchoumitcheva, Jill St. John, Bar Rafaeli, and everyone’s favorite (?) breast-feeding mom. Also, Carla Bruni! Dustbury has Tamron Hall and Kristen Wiig.


The DaleyGator is apparently lost in the swamps this week; pinch hitting for him is Three Beers Later, which chose to observe National Offend A Feminist Week by exploring the topics of exercise, specifically cardio workouts, office ladies as they used to be, lurid tales of the Vanuatu Legation Constabulary, and finally an observation of how far feminism has brought us.


Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline for next week’s Rule 5 roundup is Saturday, May 19.

Category: Rule 5

Answer: Yes. Also, Naked Celebrities.

Posted on | May 15, 2012 | 9 Comments

“Is long-form journalism doomed to being subsidized by traffic-baiting animal slideshows?”
— Joe Pompeo, “‘Businessweek’ editor won’t say whether they’re making money, describes the ‘luxury’ of doing long pieces“

Category: Journalism

Rutherford B. Hayes Weighs In On #ObamaInHistory

Posted on | May 15, 2012 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

News of #OccupyResoluteDesk’s tampering with Presidential biographies on whitehouse.gov, going back to Calvin Coolidge, is currently rocking Twitter. Also, note this brutal Tumblr feed.

Reached for comment, Rutherford B. Hayes, related BHO’s record to an aromatic old saw from the South:
Of course we refer to BHO's record, not the man.

By what miracle is Obama going to crawl out from under this derision and mount anything like a Presidential campaign, one is left to wonder. More at Twitchy.

Update: check out The Lonely Conservative, playing the Calvin Coolidge card!

Category: Barack Obama, humor

Was #Anonymous Busted Because of Barrett Brown’s Betrayal — or Blunders? UPDATE: Hacker ‘Anarchaos’ Pleads Not Guilty in Federal Court Appearance

Posted on | May 15, 2012 | 12 Comments

By sheer chance today, I happened across an intriguing post at Ameristroika suggesting that Barrett Brown played a key role in the takedown of the Anonymous/LulzSec criminal hacker conspiracy.

To summarize briefly: The indictment of LulzSec hacking suspects Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, Darren Martyn, Jeremy Hammond, and Donncha O’Cearrbhail mentions an unindicted co-conspirator.

There are enough intriguing coincidences — e.g., a tip to the Feds from a Kansas IP address, some months after Brown had mentioned plans to visit Kansas — to raise suspicions. Was Brown an FBI informant? Has he turned snitch since the FBI raid in March? Was it all a clever scam by Brown to score a book deal?

Permit me to suggest an alternative theory: Brown isn’t as smart as he likes to think he is, and got sloppy. He trusted someone he shouldn’t have trusted, and that person turned out to be a snitch.

Has Brown now rolled over and started giving up his former accomplices in a cowardly effort to save his punk ass? We’ll find out eventually, I guess, but the question is how soon we’ll find out.

UPDATE: One of the accused hackers thinks he can beat the rap:

A Chicago man pleaded not guilty Monday to criminal charges that he participated in a series of cyber attacks allegedly carried out by “LulzSec,” a globe-spanning collective of computer hackers who targeted government and corporate websites last year.
Jeremy Hammond, 27 years old, briefly appeared in Manhattan federal court to be arraigned on the charges.
After the hearing, a small group of supporters gathered outside the courthouse with signs saying “Free Hammond. Solidarity With All Hacktivist Prisoners” and “Burn The Prison Society.”
In a new indictment returned earlier this month, federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleged that Mr. Hammond, who allegedly went by the online names “Anarchaos,” “POW” and “ghost,” was a member of the LulzSec conspiracy and participated in some of the group’s hacking activities.

UPDATE II: Remember that “LulzSec” was a spinoff of “Anonymous,” a pre-existing network of so-called “hacktivists” that made headlines by swarming online to defend Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks project. And the online battles continue between the pro-Anonymous and anti-Anonymous. Barrett Brown’s name is mentioned several times by Sean Gallagher today at the tech Web site Ars Technica in an article about “Jester,” an enemy of Anonymous.

Brown first came to my attention in September 2009, immediately after the Great LGF Blogwar. When I learned in February 2011 that Brown had emerged as a public spokesman for Anonymous, I immediately predicted that Brown was either already under FBI surveillance, or else soon would be under surveillance.

Barely four months later, the British made the first arrest in the “Lulzsec” case, and soon the hacker named “Sabu” had turned snitch against his accomplices — although his accompliced didn’t know it — and the whole thing came tumbling down. But I’ve always thought Brown’s dumbass idea of making himself the public face of Anonymous was the key by which investigators unlocked that puzzle.

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Category: Barrett Brown, Crime
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