The Other McCain

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

What I Needed Today …

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 16 Comments

. . . was a plausible excuse to run a picture of smokin’ hot Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli taking off her bikini top. Read more

Category: Celebrities, Rule 5

‘We’re Here! We’re Queer! And Now, Unfortunately, We’re Unemployed!’

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 18 Comments

Bend over and take it, influential gay journalists!

The editorial staff of the influential gay lifestyle magazine Out is being laid off with one month’s severance as of Friday, Capital has learned.
But according to Out editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin, it’s more complicated than that.
Hicklin said he will hire back an unspecified number of editors on a contract basis into a new company he is founding called Grand Editorial. It will operate the magazine as a contractor for Here Media, sister company of Regent Entertainment Inc., which acquired Out in 2008.
Hicklin told Capital there will be no reduction in the frequency of the magazine or other major changes to the content.
“This was not a cost-cutting measure,” he said.

“Not a cost-cutting measure”? Could it be — just throwing this out there as a possibility — that Hicklin’s “complicated” scheme to replace a salaried staff with freelance contractors is an attempt to avoid providing health insurance coverage and other benefits?

Would I be correct in guessing that Out‘s offices are located in New York City, a jurisdiction notorious for its onerous regulations? Would I also be correct in guessing that Out has a lot of middle-aged staffers whose existing health problems and potential future risk for such problems have made the cost of insurance coverage extremely expensive?

Just askin’ questions . . .

Category: Gays, Journalism

The Year I Was Born: 1959

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 38 Comments

Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, Fidel Castro staged a communist revolution in Cuba, Marilyn Monroe starred in Some Like it Hot, and the British embassy was worried about Kenyan students:

A memo from a British diplomat in Washington to Whitehall — released today by the National Archives in West London — sets out their concerns about the young Kenyans.
Dated September 1, 1959, it says: ‘I have discussed with the State Department. They are as disturbed about these developments as we are. They point out that Kenya students have a bad reputation over here for falling into the wrong hands and for becoming both anti-American and anti-white.’
In one of the Foreign Office files, the future president’s father appears on a list of Kenyan students as ‘OBAMA, Barack H’ — they shared the same name.
At the age of 23, he enrolled at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu to study economics with classmates including Ann Dunham, a 17-year-old white American from Kansas. The couple had a short marriage that led to the birth in 1961 of the future president, Barack Obama II.
Mr Obama Snr was among 100 or so Kenyan students brought to America by the African American Students Foundation.
U.S. and British officials were deeply suspicious of this outfit, observing that the AASF — though backed by singer Harry Belafonte and actor Sidney Poitier — had links to a Kenyan nationalist leader.
‘The motives behind this enterprise, therefore, seem more political than educational,’ warned a letter from the British Embassy in Washington.
It added: ‘The arrival here of these students, many of them of indifferent academic calibre and ill-prepared for the venture, is likely to give rise to difficult problems.’

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

UPDATE: Like an exclamation point: Dick Clark just died.

Category: Barack Obama, Great Britain, History

Aww, Shucks, Ma’am, ‘Tweren’t Nothin’ …

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 15 Comments

After yesterday’s post about Jennifer Stefano, Bob Beckel’s F-bomb and Neal Boortz’s “rabid shrew” comments, the ladies at AFP Pennsylvania hail me as a “BeckelGate Hero.”

If a blog could blush . . .

UPDATE: She shares her side of the story:

What I want people to take away
from my exchange with Bob Beckel

UPDATE II: The video, in case you missed it:

No kidding: Despite his ideological liberalism and Democratic partisanship, Bob Beckel is beloved by (almost) everyone who knows him. Beckel is a recovering alcoholic who has helped counsel many others with similar problems. And being the token Democrat on Fox News has got to be a tough job.

Also, you should be sure to follow Jennifer Stefano, Katy Abrams and AFP Pennsylvania on Twitter.

Category: Celebrities, Fox News, Pennsylvania, Tea Party

House Republicans Head Off Obama Administration’s Threat to Hunting

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 31 Comments

Audrey Hudson at Human Events reports:

The House on Tuesday passed legislation giving hunters and fishing enthusiasts access to certain public lands to pursue their sport and also blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from banning lead for use in ammunition and fishing tackle.

This is one of those laws that people with common sense might think would be unnecessary. Why would anyone want to prohibit hunters from having access to public land? After all, hunting is an essential (and cheap) method of wildlife managment, to prevent herds from breeding out of control, as has happened with whitetail deer in many parts of the country. But the Obama administration isn’t staffed by people with common sense:

[Sponsors of the House bill] cited an article in U.S. News and World Report stating the proposal to ban hunting on BLM land was in response to urbanites that “freak out” when they hear gunfire, and that the decision was an effort to reduce “social conflict.”

This is not a joke, as Paul Bedard reported in November:

Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.
Officials say the administration is concerned about the potential clash between gun owners and encroaching urban populations who like to use same land for hiking and dog walking.
“It’s not so much a safety issue. It’s a social conflict issue,” said Frank Jenks, a natural resource specialist with Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres. He adds that urbanites “freak out” when they hear shooting on public lands.

If the Interior Department would consider prohibiting firearms from public land for such absurd reasons, what could be next?

Federal law already bans the EPA from regulating lead ammunition, however, more than 100 environmental groups petitioned the agency last month to ban it claiming the lead can poison those who eat wild game shot with the ammunition, or other animals that accidentally ingest the metal in dead carcasses.
“There is no scientific evidence for their position,” [Republican Rep. Doc] Hastings said. “So this (bill) makes it crystal clear Congress has primacy on this issue and it should be respected.”

Read the whole thing. Ask yourself: What economically feasible alternative is there to lead ammunition? Answer: There is none.

Category: Congress, Environmentalism

CNN’s Jack Cafferty: ‘Lingering Questions About Mormonism … Odd and Insular’

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 49 Comments

A steady drip, drip, drip from the major media continues, and notice how this is framed as helpful advice to Mitt Romney:

Now that Mitt Romney is likely the Republican nominee he may begin talking about his Mormon faith. Politico reports a lot of Republicans think he should embrace his Mormonism publicly so people can better understand him. . . .
Mormonism is a big part of who Mitt Romney is. He traveled to France on a two-year mission for the church as a young adult, and who raised his five sons as Mormons and has held several church leadership positions. Nevertheless, Romney doesn’t really like to talk about it. . . .
His aides say he has no immediate plans to make another formal speech at least for now, but maybe he should. It would help clear up lingering questions about Mormonism, a religion that still seems odd and insular to many.
Mormonism has a tainted past that includes racism and polygamy. a CNN/ORC poll taken last October shows 17 percent of Americans would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who is a Mormon. That’s not a small number. . . .
Here’s the question: Mitt Romney is a Mormon. How much will it matter?

See? Cafferty’s just askin’ questions. And in the process of asking questions, he brings up the “tainted past” and mentions — oh, just by the way — that Mitt spent two years as a Mormon missionary and “held several church leadership positions.”

Perhaps you didn’t notice how ABC’s Diane Sawyer managed to bring up the same issue in “just-askin’-questions” mode:

Sawyer brought up Romney’s Mormon faith, prompting, “Would you sit down sometime and really talk the two of you about something that holds a lot of curiosity for people?”
Signaling that this would be a campaign issue, she continued, “So, do the people think you’re reluctant to talk about being Mormon?”

These are the overtures to the grand opera, folks. Did you know that last summer, Ron Howard bought the movie rights to Under the Banner of Heaven, a book about murders committed by members of an fundamentalist Mormon extremist splinter group? While there’s no way they could complete a major motion picture before the election, I’m willing to bet stories about the making of the movie will start showing up in the major media this fall.

Drip, drip, drip . . .

Category: ABC, CNN, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Religion

A. Bernard Archer and Barack Obama

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 21 Comments

Q. Name two people who have done bad things to dogs.

Last month, a woman in Newton County, Georgia, hired 19-year-old Bernard Archer to do work around her house, including take care of her dogs. It seems that Bernard’s idea of “taking care” of the dogs was kinda unusual: He raped them.

Oh, and they were pit bulls.

As for Barack Obama, we don’t know what breed of dogs he ate.

Were they cuddly cocker spaniels? Labrador retrievers? Poodles?

Category: Barack Obama

Illegal Alien Steals 5-Year-Old’s Identity; Mother Will Testify at Hearing Today

Posted on | April 18, 2012 | 34 Comments

Jennifer Andrushko will testify today at an 11:15 a.m. hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. Also testifying will be Dr. Ronald Mortensen, who tells the story of how an illegal alien stole the identity of Mrs. Andrushko’s 5-year-old son Carter:

The perpetrator is Lidia Aguirre, also known as Lidia Chavez.
Carter’s Social Security number has allegedly been used by Lidia Aguirre, who is unlawfully in the United States to illegally obtain jobs with a series of employers including T.J. Maxx and the Zermatt resort in Midway, Utah.
Ms. Aguirre faces three charges of identity fraud and two forgery charges for a total of five, third degree felony counts. . . .
Identity fraud and forgery are serious felonies that are committed by the vast majority of illegal aliens working in the United States. According to the Actuary of the Social Security Administration, three quarters of illegal aliens pay payroll taxes. Since they cannot legally obtain a valid Social Security number, they use forged documents and when the information on the document belongs to another person that is identity fraud under Utah law. . . .
In Utah, two high profile law enforcement officials, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Salt Lake Police Chief, Chris Burbank, both tend to justify and downplay the seriousness of these crimes. . . .
Chief Burbank justified the use of fraudulent documents by illegal aliens and found it humorous when audience members shouted out locations where fraudulent documents could be purchased.
Chief Burbank’s office reportedly refuses to even log-in identity theft cases and simply refers individuals to the Attorney General’s website for identity theft victims. Burbank then reports that there are no recorded instances of illegal alien driven identity theft in Salt Lake City.
With only limited exceptions, Attorney General Shurtleff, pursues policies that ensure that illegal aliens are able to obtain and use fraudulent documents without fear of arrest and prosecution.

Read the rest. The chairman of the subcommittee is Rep. Elton Gallegly, California Republican, who is an advocate of E-Verify:

Congress needs to pass and the president needs to sign into law the Legal Workforce Act immediately. The Legal Workforce Act would make it mandatory for all employers to use E-Verify – an easy-to-use, accurate, computer-based, employee verification system that ensures employees have a legal right to work in the United States. It will open millions of jobs for American workers while removing counterfeiting and fraud from the hiring process.

Read more.

Category: Congress, Crime, Immigration
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