The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE – 04.13.12

Posted on | April 13, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Norks’ Neighbors React To Missile Launch

ROKs watch a simulation of the failed Nork launch

PRC state media: Reactions to launch are all about us, really

Zimmerman Bail Hearing Next Week, Attorney Says
Beginning of a protracted legal struggle


Dershowitz: Zimmerman May Be Acquitted

Obama Smacks Down Ex-RIAA Lobbyist Rosen In Ann Romney Flap
Says candidates’ wives should be off limits



POLITICS
Newark Mayor Taken To Hospital After Saving Woman From House Fire

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Treated for burns and smoke inhalation

“Fox Mole” Fired: Whistleblowing Hero Or Vengeful Jerk?

Jury Selection Underway In John Edwards Criminal Trial

NY Assembly To Hold Hearings On Raising Minimum Wage

California Supremes Rule Employers Must Schedule Breaks, Not Liable If Employees Don’t Take Them

Both Parties Slam Gov. Patrick For MassCare Theatrics

NRA Looking For Reassurance From Romney As Convention Opens



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Drops For First Time This Week As PRC Growth Slows, Saudis Aim To Lower Prices
ECB Favors Bond Buying Over Bank Loans
Google Announces Unusual Stock Split; Governance Watchdogs Butthurt
PRC Economic Growth Falls To Lowest In Three Years
Wells Fargo Faces Bias Allegations
GAO Says Postal Service Overstaffed, Overbuilt
Facebook Offers More Disclosures To Users
B&N Unveils Glow-In-The-Dark Nook
Sony Smartwatch Brings Facebook, Twitter, Texting To Your Wrist
Video Game Sales Shrink 25% In March



SPORTS
Watson Scores 16 As Bulls Beat The Heat 96-86

Bulls guard CJ Watson drives to the basket

Bulls outscore Heat 12-2 in OT, pull four games ahead in East

Rangers, Bruins Win Openers

Coyotes Knock Off Blackhawks In OT, 3-2

Saints Name Vitt Interim Coach

Pirates Swept By Dodgers, Lose 3-2

Sharks Stun Blues In 2nd OT

Predators’ Weber Fined For Hit On Zetterberg

Love-Less Timbermutts Knocked Out Of Playoff Chase

Nats Blow Late Lead, Pull Out Wild Win Over Reds In Home Opener



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Scarlett Johansson: Back In Stride

Stepping out

The Vogue interview.

Obama: Kanye West Still A Jackass

Ridley Scott Drafts Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem For “The Counselor”



Mel Gibson Responds To Joe Eszterhas

Shocker On “American Idol”: Favorite Gets The Hook

Mindy McCready: It’s A Boy!

J.K. Rowling: The Casual Vacancy

“Hunger Games” Star: U.S. Should Lower Drinking Age To 18



FOREIGNERS
ROK Won Up After Nork Rocket Fizzles
Syrian Activists Report Clashes Between Loyalists, Rebels Near Turkish Border
South Sudan Willing To Withdraw From Dispute dAreas, But Wants DMZ
Mali’s New President Threatens “Total War” Against Tuareg, Islamist Rebels
PRC, Philippines Withdraw Protests In South China Sea Dispute
PRC Police Gag Widow Of Murdered Briton As Heywood Investigation Reopened
Israeli Security Forces Prepare For Pro-Palestinian “Flytilla”



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: A Non-Apology “Apology” From Hilary Rosen
Power Line: Two Flops Of Cosmic Proportions
American Power: “Frame-Fail” For The New York Times
American Thinker: Romney Tops Obama By 2 In Fox Poll, Even In Rasmussen
Weekly Standard: Obama Hammered In Interview For “Jetting Around”, Taking Vacations While Americans Suffer
Marginal Revolution: Publication Day For An Economist Gets Lunch
Daniel Henninger: Demolishing Paul Ryan
Tina Korbe: Obama Punts On Gay Discrimination Ban
Professor Bainbridge: Can I Have WordPerfect 5.2 Back?


SOTD: Stuff Like That

Category: Live at Five

Feminism, Careerism, Lesbianism

Posted on | April 12, 2012 | 128 Comments

Still a month to go before “National Offend a Feminist Week,” but some folks can’t wait, eh? I’ll save the lecture for the updates, but first let’s aggregate today’s headlines (via Memeorandum and Twitter):

Ann Romney Fights Back: Debuts on Twitter
to Counter DNC Advisor’s Insult
— ABC News

Rosen apologizes over comments against Ann Romney
— CNN

Democrats declare war on women?
Update: Frequent White House visitor?
— Hot Air

Hilary Rosen, Frequent White House Visitor
— National Review

Team Romney To Obama:
You Started The War Over Women
— BuzzFeed

Conservatives Attack Hilary Rosen
For Raising Children As A Lesbian
— Think Progress

New Tone alert: Libs attack
Ann Romney as ‘cunt,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘whore’
— Twitchy

Once again demonstrating the enduring truth that, if it weren’t for double standards, Democrats would have no standards at all.

UPDATE: Remember last month when the Southern Poverty Law Center added “misogyny” to its Hate Group list? Not an accident.

UPDATE II: You now what we need here? Some good old-fashioned male chauvinist objectification:

Who Is Hotter? Hilary Rosen or Ann Romney

Brilliant. Which reminds me . . .

Hands off my “Ann Romney bikini” Google-bomb!

UPDATE III: What the hell? Liberals consider this an “apology”?

Spare me the faux anger from the right who view the issue of women’s rights and advancement as a way to score political points.

Rosen is defending, not apologizing for, her hateful attitude toward traditional wives and mothers. And please tell me who spent weeks trying to “score political points” on this issue, huh?

UPDATE IV: What started it all:

Maybe Rush Limbaugh should call Hilary Rosen a “slut,” just for the pure fun of it. (BTW, is that her maiden name?)

Category: Election 2012, Feminism, Mitt Romney

The Fox Factor: Newt, Sarah, Mitt, Rick, Bias and ‘The Mother of All Spin-Jobs’

Posted on | April 12, 2012 | 61 Comments

Newt Gingrich tells the truth:

During a meeting with 18 Delaware Tea Party leaders here on Wednesday, Newt Gingrich lambasted FOX News Channel, accusing the cable network of having been in the tank for Mitt Romney from the beginning of the Republican presidential fight. An employee himself of the news outlet as recently as last year, he also cited former colleagues for attacking him out of what he characterized as personal jealousy.
“I think FOX has been for Romney all the way through,” Gingrich said during the private meeting — to which RealClearPolitics was granted access — at Wesley College. “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.” . . .
“I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point [who] said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney,’ ” Gingrich said. “And there’s no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches FOX.”

Four quick points:

  1. Newt can say this, now that his campaign is $4 million in debt and he’s got zero chance of winning the nomination.
  2. Newt used to work for Fox. I suspect he’s been talking to CNN executives about a future gig.
  3. It’s not Murdoch who makes the calls, but Roger Ailes and top executives and producers who are the shot-callers at Fox News.
  4. Scott Conroy does something here that annoys my inner copy editor, namely writing FOX in all caps, as if it were an acronym, which it’s not. The name originated as 20th Century Fox, a company that was purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and re-branded, first as the Fox broadcast TV network and then in such cable spinoffs as Fox News Channel (FNC). But the word “Fox” is not an acronym, and people who want to write it “FOX” — evidently trying to match the acronyms by which other networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc.) are known — are simply wrong, and must be corrected, lest the erroneous example be imitated.

Scott Conroy has done excellent work in his career — scooped me on my own beat more than once — but that one little thing gets on my nerves so bad I could scream. However, I digress . . .

Having closely scrutinized coverage of this year’s campaign, I know what Newt’s talking about, and certain stipulations must be made: Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren were quite even-handed in their treatment of the GOP candidates. Sean and Greta both gave time to underdog candidates, including Rick Santorum and Herman Cain during the months when they seemed permanently stuck in the campaign purgatory of “second-tier” status.

Coverage of the campaign by the dayside programs on Fox News, however, seemed to be dictated by behind-the-scenes producers who exhibited a clear bias toward front-runners and even — as during the ludicrous Donald Trump faux-candidacy — toward certain Big Names that were merely the objects of ill-informed presidential speculation.

Let’s just say it, OK?

I love Sarah Palin, and would have loved to cover her campaign if she had run, but once Rick Perry jumped in (and remember, Palin had endorsed Perry in his 2010 primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison) it seemed blindingly obvious that Palin wasn’t running. The subsequent six-week will-she-or-won’t-she game struck me as a made-for-TV drama cleverly scripted by Roger Ailes for the specific purpose of boosting his own network’s ratings.

There: Now, I’ve said it.

In terms of political judgment, Bill O’Reilly is a nincompoop, his entire worldview shaped by his New York D’Amato/Giuliani Republican Party machine frame of reference. The commentators who appear most frequently on Fox’s D.C.-based programs — Chris Stirewalt, Stephen Hayes, etc. — all bring to the table their own prejudices. And the network’s reverential touch-the-hem-of-his-garment attitude toward Karl Rove makes me want to puke. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Fox News, Media Bias, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin

Let’s Try To Help Hah-vuhd Further Beclown Itself

Posted on | April 12, 2012 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Via the Blaze, word of the new course you can take:

According to the Harvard course catalog, “Understanding Obama” is taught by the president’s longtime mentor Charles Ogletree. Here’s how the course is described:

This reading group will focus on the way in which race, religion, and politics have impacted the development of President Obama as a leader. We will explore his views as a biracial child, his time as a student at Harvard Law School, the successes and failures of his political campaigns, and the way religion and his views on faith nearly derailed his campaign. Finally, time will be spent analyzing the challenges he faces as President of the United States in establishing both his domestic and global policies.

This blog would like to extend a joy-buzzer wielding hand to the Yahd, with a few other course suggestions:

  • Just Deconstructing the Difference Between Social Justice, Racial Justice, and Plain Old Justice-Justice

    This applied Alinsky lab course will help successful Community Organizers take their game to another level by offering practical off-campus learning experiences. Students will take field trips to other states where tragedies have occurred and apply advanced propaganda means to scuttle the truth and substitute alternate narratives in its place. The capstone project will involve simulated fomenting of a race war.

  • Barack Obama’s Startling Intellectual Sports Mastery

    This course will help equally nebbish students understand that the real arena for sports is in the mind. It’s quite alright to be a mediocre basketball player, a general embarrassment on the golf course, and stand accused of throwing like a little girl in your mom jeans. This course will nevertheless give you the chops you need to sound Cosellian in your sporting erudition, while you feel like a triathlete about yourself. Pre-requisite: Stuart Smalley 101.

  • From Voodoo to Doodoo: Postmodern Economics

    This course is about applied prevarication using bogus statistics, non-Tuftian displays of quantitative information, and euphemisms for currency inflation. Students will disregard facts with a nihilistic regard for reality and truth, and instead focus on the pseudo-optical discipline of public rectal solar projection. Guest lecturer “Zimbabwe” Ben Bernanke is back to offer fascinating, opaque insights into how an audience can be both enriched and beggared, as he simultaneously fills students with ‘knowledge’ while sapping the value of their specie.

Update: linked at Daily Pundit

Category: Barack Obama, humor

LIVE AT FIVE – 04.12.12

Posted on | April 12, 2012 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Prosecutor Files Second-Degree Murder Charges In Trayvon Martin Slaying

George Zimmerman

Zimmerman turns himself in at county jail, intends to plead not guilty; experts say murder rap will be tough for prosecutors to convict on

Lull In Fighting After Syria Deadline
No pullback by Assad loyalists, but no firing in former combat zones either
Related: Erdogan Says NATO An Option To Defend Border With Syria
May invoke Article 5 if Syria keeps firing across the border


Indonesia’s Tsunami Warning System Passes Quake Test
Some panic but little damage



POLITICS
Politifact Finds Romney’s Claim Of Womens’ Job Losses True But Embarrassing To Obama

Mitt Romney

Post, AP beclown themselves yet again

No Parole For Charles Manson This Time Either

FDA Calls For Voluntary Restrictions On Livestock Antibiotics



Richlands, NC’s Chief Of Police Loses Gun, Badge

CNN’s Hilary Rosen Slams Ann Romney, Gets Bipartisan Smackdown On Twitter

Debate Reveals Little Difference Between Lugar, Mourdock

Ron Paul Not Planning To Endorse Romney Any Time Soon



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Inches Toward $102 On Weak Dollar
Feds Allege Apple, E-Book Publishers Fixed Prices
Stocks Make U-Turn, Rising After Yesterday’s Decline
Italy 3-Year Yields Seen Jumping At Auction
VW Conducting National Search To Fill Chattanooga Jobs
US Foreclosures Fall To Lowest Point Since 2007
Natural Gas Falls To Lowest Point In Decade
Solar Firm BrightSource Pulls IPO
IBM Unveils PureSystems Private Cloud Packages
Microsoft Wins Restraining Order In Motorola Patent Case
Google Plus Gets Facebook-Like Makeover
Microsoft-Accenture Venture To Fluff Azure’s Clouds
Verizon To Start Charging For Cell Phone Upgrades
Amazon Now Lets You Trade In Used CDs



SPORTS
Bynum Plucks 30 Rebounds As Lakers Crush Spurs

16 points, 30 rebounds, one crushing win

No need for Kobe as Lakers romp 98-84

Flyers Erase 3-0 Deficit, Stun Pens In OT

Knicks Edge Bucks In Battle For Eighth Place

Persistent Kings Make Canucks Pay, Win 4-2


Lincecum, Giants Fall Hard In Colorado

Swisher’s Sayonara Homer Lifts Yanks Over O’s In 10th For Sweep

Strasburg Hits Benchmark, Picks Up Win



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Britney To Get Record $15 Million Payday To Serve As “X Factor” Judge

Hollywood's latest power couple?

It’s a package deal: Brit’s fiance Jason Trawick will be credited as producer

Mr. Big Officially Off The Market

Marc Anthony Files For Divorce From J-Lo


Pop Princess Mollie King Finds Her Prince (Harry)

Kanye West Thinks K-Dash Is His Beyonce

Axl Rose Not Attending Rock & Roll HOF Ceremonies, Declines Induction

Denise Richards To Reunite With Charlie Sheen On Anger Management



FOREIGNERS
Strong Earthquake Strikes Off Mexican Coast
Japan’s Diet Passes Resolution Against Nork Launch; Patriot ABM Systems Deployed On Defense
Did Heywood Stash Bo Xilai’s Foreign Financial Secrets As Insurance?
PRC Papers Express Consensus On Purge: “Sacking Bo Xilai Is Right
New Frontiers Party Chief Park Geun-Hye Gets Credit For Party’s Surprising Win In Parliamentary Elections
Mugabe Looking Fit On Return From Singapore
Snap Elections For Greek Parliament Called For May 5
Cameron Says World Should “Get Behind Burma”



BLOGS & STUFF
The POH Diaries: Eric Holder Praises Al Sharpton, George Zimmerman Charged With Second Degree Murder
American Thinker: Is Gawker’s “Fox Mole” A Real Person?
Lonely Conservative: On Average, Obama’s White House Pays Women 18% Less Than Men
Weasel Zippers: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairs Accuse Allen West Of “McCarthyism” After Communism Allegation
Legal Insurrection: Hillary Rosen – Ann Romney Never Worked A Day In Her Life
Texts From Hillary: TTYL
NewsBusters: CNN Uses Bogus Politifact Rating To Discredit Romney Campaign Claim
NRO corner: Obama v. Romney – Activism v. Leadership
Michelle Malkin: Don’t Do Business With Progressive Appeasers
Protein Wisdom: EPA Levels $438K In Fines, Mandatory “Environmental Projects” On School Bus Contractor For “Excessive Idling”
Jawa Report: Florida Atlantic U’s Jews Receive “Eviction Notices” To Leave Or Face Arrest

Category: Live at Five

Good News, Bad News

Posted on | April 12, 2012 | 16 Comments

Mitt Romney calls Rick Santorum and says, “Rick, I’ve got good news for you, and I’ve got bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?”

Santorum says, “Well, gosh, Mitt, I just quit the race, and I’m still kinda bummed out. Guess I could use the good news first.”

Romney says, “OK, you’ll be glad to know, my advisers and I have been talking it over and, with all the hard feelings after that tough primary campaign, we think it’s really important to unify the party. So we want you to give a primetime speech at the convention in Tampa.”

Santorum says, “Wow, Mitt! Thanks! That’s really a great gesture, and I appreciate how much this will mean to getting conservatives fired up for the fall campaign. But . . . what’s the bad news?” Read more

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum

Don’t Tell Michael Zak

Posted on | April 11, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

. . .but Leno had a genuinely funny tee-hee-hee on you-know-who. If the Grand Old Partisan finds out, I could be in deep Krugman.

Category: humor, Mitt Romney

A Couple Things Wrong, Jim Antle

Posted on | April 11, 2012 | 61 Comments

Jim Antle of the American Spectator gets almost everything right in this column about the 2012 campaign. His two most glaring errors:

Yet if Santorum had done just a bit better in Michigan and Ohio, we could be having a very different discussion right now. Santorum showed future conservative contenders how to go hunting where the ducks are. As the New York Times columnist Ross Douthat observed, a Republican like Bobby Jindal could take the Santorum coalition — Southerners, Midwesterners, evangelicals, Catholics, and Reagan Democrats — and build on it.

  1. Error: Never quote Ross Douchebag.
  2. Error: Bobby Jindal zigged when he should have zagged.
    I remember the Sept. 13 CNN Tea Party Express debate in Tampa, encountering Bobby Jindal as he exited the CNN tent outside the auditorium. Jindal had endorsed Rick Perry and was appearing on CNN as a Perry surrogate along with Objective Political Analyst Erick Erickson.

The Perry campaign was a predictable disaster — “The Phantom Menace” — and the way Jindal climbed aboard that bandwagon irritated me at the time. I’ve always liked Jindal, but Ross Douchebag’s idea that Jindal “could take the Santorum coalition” is based on the presumption that Santorum has no future plans for that coalition.

It’s one of those ideas Ivy-educated Boy Geniuses get, like “Tim Pawlenty, Conservative Alternative to Romney,” or “Second Look at Newt.”

Pundits like to think up clever ideas that impress their peers as “counterintuitive,” but are actually just counter to common sense. The really genius ideas, however, are always the kind of common sense things that seem stupid to people who think of themselves as clever.

What does common-sense genius look like? I remember when Steve Foley called me on Election Night 2010 and said, “Whaddya think about Herman Cain?” That was a genius idea. I remember when Lisa Graas said to me in August, “Hey, while you’re in Iowa, do you think you could go check out Rick Santorum?” That was a genius idea.

Now, here’s another common-sense genius idea: Rick Santorum spends the next four months working on his convention speech. And I mean honing it ’til it shines: Every word, every pause, the whole thing committed to memory and rehearsed until it is absolutely perfect.

So that when Santorum gets his primetime moment in Tampa, millions of Americans will say, “Damn. Why didn’t Republicans nominate him?”

Yesterday, somebody started the “Rick 2016? Facebook page.

Common-sense genius, you see.

Category: American Spectator, Election 2012, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum
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