The Other McCain

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

FMJRA 2.0: I Got Them Old Flu Shot Blues Again, Mama

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Danica Patrick Makes Absurd Political Statement, Bog Dwellers Hardest Hit

In Apologizing for Global Warming Hoax, Peter Gleick Blames His Victims

The New Media Proletariat

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.17.12

GOP Debate, Arguably, Still Going Strong

Is Ian Masters Looking For A Job In, I Don’t Know, Say, Tennessee?

Our Tolerant Liberal Overlords (Unexpectedly!) Mock Dancing Lesbian

We Forgive You, Foster Friess

Old, Odd Fuddy-Duddys And Anyone Else Who Digs Liberty: Hie Thee To The East Lawn At High Noon On 24 March

What the Liberal Media Don’t Want Americans to Know About Contraception

‘Top GOP Senator’ Freaks the Hell Out Over Mitt Romney’s Michigan Meltdown

The Paradox Of Progressive Idiocy, Billy Bragg Edition

‘. . .He Leaves Very Big Shoes To Fill,’ Kennedy Said

Could Nancy Jacobs Do A Better Job Of Taking Care Of Veterans Than ‘Dutch’ Ruppersberger?

FMJRA 2.0: Lord Of The Thighs

‘They Have Begun to Consider the Implications of a Santorum Victory’

‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran Weeps For The Poor Wee Bureaucrat

Notes on an Unfinished Letter of Apology (Or, Does Ed Morrissey Torture Cats?)

Rule 5 Sunday: Secret World

Are We Really Just Too Stupid To Merit Free Elections Anymore?

Professor Jacobson, Maybe We Should Both Start Blogging About Sports …

From The ‘You Really Must Be Having Me On’ Department

Poll Proves Mitt’s Mud Gun Works?

The Last Time I Got a Cold …

Does Keith Olbermann Think It’s OK to Have ‘Consensual’ Sex with 14-Year-Olds?

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.21.12

Campaign Cash Shows Unsustainable ‘Burn Rate’ for Romney and Gingrich

Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Meanwhile, Back on the Campaign Trail …

You Should Only Vote Against The GOP Nominee If Your Name Is Pyrrhus

Remind Me Again Why The Income Tax Is A Good Idea?

Franklin County, Ohio, GOP E-Mail Encourages Volunteers for Romney

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.22.12

Romney’s Money Problems — and Mine

Satan Angered by New Poll Showing Santorum Ahead 34%-18% in Wisconsin

CNN ARIZONA DEBATE

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.23.12

Have the Deciders Decided? Examining the Post-Debate Examinations

Erick Erickson, Santorum Consultant?

Call Off The Election: #OccupyResoluteDesk Has Another Five Years

Snarlin’ Arlen Does What He Does

Bloviating Blame Manager Lashes Out At This Blog

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Chirpractor At Large

LIVE AT FIVE – 2.24.12

Jeff Quinton, My Blog Buddy

Fear And Loathing In Romneyland

Michigan: Fish Fry Friday

Top linkers this past week:

  1. (tied) Katy Pundit and The Camp Of The Saints (9)
  2. (tied) Daily Pundit, The Lonely Conservative and That Mr. G Guy (8)
  3. Don Surber (7)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery, and apologies for not being well enough to get this up over the weekend. Deadline for this week’s FMJRA will be Friday, March 2.

Category: FMJRA Award

EXCLUSIVE: Election Day in Hell, Michigan: Does Romney Have a Snowball’s Chance of Winning?

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 20 Comments

Election Day reporting from Hell, Michigan, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012

THREE MILES FROM HELL, Michigan
On my way from Troy to Grand Rapids — site of Rick Santorum’s Michigan primary victory party tonight — I got a late start and realized I wouldn’t make it in time for Senator Santorum’s 3 p.m. event at his campaign office there. That’s when it hit me: I should go back to Hell.

Saturday night’s trip was fun, but I hadn’t done much actual political reporting during that visit, so clearly I needed a return trip to answer the question, “How is the turnout in Hell?”

You might think Hell would be full of Democrats, but an informal Saturday night survey of patrons at the Dam Site Inn revealed that there were a lot of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul supporters there, and so I reset the GPS and made my way back through Pinckney and hooked a left on the road to Hell.

Arriving at the general store and post office — Hell in a Handbasket — the place was empty except for the manager, who was working in Hell’s Kitchen, preparing the cilantro dijon garlic mayo for their Hellacious Cuban Sandwich. This sounded tempting, and when the manager asked if I would like one, I said, “Oh, Hell, yes!”

The general store, Hell in a Handbasket

While she prepared my sandwich, I asked the manager (who refused to give her name) if she was a Republican, and she was. Did she have a favorite candidate? Had she voted yet? No, she hadn’t voted, and she was kind of struggling with her choices.

It figured: An undecided voter in Hell. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Michigan, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul

The Chevy Volt Was A Positive Experience That Enhanced My Self-Esteem

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

I, for one, rejoice at the emotional lift derived by our good POTUS thanks to the Chevy Volt. Not everyone can experience the joy of being a corporate executive; fewer still, the historical immortality of being POTUS. Don’t they just go together like peanut butter and chocolate?

And now, #OccupyResoluteDesk must get back to important foreign policy questions:

via Insty via AutoBlog

Category: Barack Obama, humor

Media Gets ‘Tantalizing’ Thrill From 2007 Palin E-Mail Joke About Divorce

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 23 Comments

You’ve really got to wonder about people who would waste time chasing after stuff like this:

Also there is one tantalizing e-mail from Sept. 26, 2007 — almost a full year before she was tapped for the unsuccessful GOP presidential ticket — with the subject line saying “Marital Problems.” Addressing two of her gubernatorial aides, she said “So speaking of … If we, er, when we get a divorce, does that quell ‘conflict of interest’ accusations about BP?”
That is apparently a reference to the oil company her husband, Todd, worked for. The oil company and the state would have a lot of dealings, but what exactly is meant in referring to the conflict of interest is not clear.

Of course, it was a joke:

In a Twitter post Saturday, Palin poked fun at the media for their treatment of her e-mail, writing: “Good work, media. My ’07 ‘divorce’ email was a joke mocking you for making up divorce rumors. Keep up the, er, credibility-building efforts!”

And they call her stupid?

Category: Media Bias, Sarah Palin

You Can’t Stand For Much Without Implicitly Rejecting Something

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Eric S. Raymond faced some well-reasoned blowback for asserting an anti-SOPA/PIPA position from someone saying ESR overplayed his hand:

The best any of our public faces can hope for is to represent us to 95% confidence and speak up knowing that some 5% are going to be disgruntled about it.
I know that our values push us towards so much respect for individual dissent that we tend to think unanimous consent is required before anyone can speak for the group. You’re expressing that very well when you report that you agree with me but feel a need to speak up for those who don’t. Trust me, I feel similar doubts about my standing to represent us every time I have to write something like that open letter.
The trouble with those thoughts is that they’re a counsel of paralysis.

Raymond might have quoted this blog’s motto,

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

ESR is one of the better thinkers in circulation these days. You might not agree with ESR point for point, and I don’t, but you can have confidence that whatever position ESR is assuming, he has really thought about it carefully and come to a conclusion in the classically liberal fashion of considering all the conclusions and selecting the least-worst position.

The nihilistic Lefty alternative of tolerating everything, however stupid, is explored here by Evan Sayet:

Category: Blogging

Santorum Turns the Tables on Mitt in Michigan With Robo-Calls to Democrats

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 43 Comments

Rick Santorum greets supporters in Lansing, Monday, Feb. 27, 2012

“[T]he devastating oppo hit has been the defining characteristic of the Romney campaign since December . . .”
— Reid J. Epstein and Zachary Abrahamson, Politico, Feb. 24

“It has been confirmed that a robocall making the rounds in Michigan the day before the state’s GOP primary comes from the Rick Santorum campaign and urges Democrats to vote for Santorum and against Mitt Romney.”
— Evan McMorris Santo, Talking Points Memo, Feb. 27

TROY, Michigan
How much has Mitt Romney’s campaign used dirty tricks in the 2012 campaign? A lot, I’d say. While I always suspected that the sexual allegations against Herman Cain were pushed to the media by the Rick Perry campaign, others whose knowledge I trust have since assured me that Team Mitt was behind it.

Take that with a grain of salt, if you wish, but it’s something I’ve kept in mind the past three weeks as I’ve watched Rick Santorum being hounded by the media over “controversies” that looked for all the world as if they were ginned up by a certain rival campaign with a notable aptitude for “the devastating oppo hit.”

Politics ain’t beanbag, James Carville likes to say, and students of the campaign game must admire the skill with which Romney’s oppo squad digs up stuff and pushes it to the media.

Nevertheless, I was laughing along with Rick Santorum when he showed up on Sean Hannity’s TV show Monday night and was asked about his campaign’s robocall to Michigan Democrats, which Mitt Romney called “a new low” in the 2012 race.

“You mean when he runs a robocall of my voice from four years ago saying good things about him, that’s not a low moment? And when I run a call basically calling Democrats that are eligible to vote here to vote for us, and encouraging people to come and vote for us, and we talk about our manufacturing plan and what we are going to do to create jobs, it’s a very positive robocall. Talking about what we are doing to create jobs in Michigan. . .
“Of course, you know, it’s interesting that he criticize me for attracting Democrats because one of the things that Governor Romney’s people say is [Santorum] can’t attract Democrats. Well guest What? We will wait and see. I think I can.”

Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it? It’s about time Team Mitt got a nice stiff dose of their own medicine, and now Allahpundit’s sweating it:

Nate Silver’s model now gives Santorum a 36 percent chance of pulling the upset, up from 23 percent over the weekend, and PPP is reporting “encouraging things” for [Santorum] in the phone calls it made this afternoon.

Even if Santorum has accomplished nothing else, making Mitt-huggers sweat the Michigan results is what I’d call a “moral victory,” a little revenge for the bum’s rush at Romney HQ Thursday.

The downside? It might be another very long night for me, waiting at Santorum’s Primary Night party past midnight while the lead shifts back and forth and the guys on TV keep saying it’s “too close to call.” That would be a total bummer, because Santorum’s Primary Night party is in Grand Rapids, more than 150 miles from here.

So I’m picturing myself on the phone with my editor at the American Spectator at 1 a.m., pleading for more time to finish my column, filing it at maybe 2:30 a.m., then having to drive all the way back here to crash about 5 a.m., and get up in time to check out at noon. And then on to Ohio, to begin another week of coverage leading up to Super Tuesday.

Show of hands: Who thought Mitt would have had the nomination practically locked up by now? Who expected Romney would have to fight like hell just to win his home state? After Mitt won Florida and Nevada, I thought he might be on the verge of running the table, but somehow Santorum keeps on fighting back.

Anyway, I went to Romney’s rally last night in Royal Oak, and here’s my American Spectator column today:

The state’s top elected Republican officials took their turns on the stage of the Royal Oak Music Theatre: Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, Attorney General Bill Schuette and finally Gov. Rick Snyder, who introduced the man the crowd had come to see, Mitt Romney. Wearing jeans and a navy blazer, Romney spoke for about 12 minutes, giving a variation of his standard stump speech, quoting the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” and the Declaration of Independence.
“I happen to believe that if we want to have a strong economy and good private-sector jobs, it helps to have a president who’s had a private-sector job,” the former Massachusetts governor said, drawing cheers from more than 500 supporters in attendance in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. Romney said his arguments for strengthening the economy are “the reason that I can defeat Barack Obama in Michigan in the fall.”
Before he can do that, of course, Romney must first show he can win Michigan in February and, on the eve of Tuesday’s GOP primary here, that proposition was still very much in doubt. While Romney has recovered from the slump that had him trailing by double digits in his native state two weeks ago, the latest polls show the longtime Republican frontrunner barely leading Rick Santorum. (One late poll even showed Santorum with a slight lead.) While Romney has outspent his Republican rival here and has deployed his professional campaign staff effectively, the intensity of the fight in Michigan has exceeded what anyone would have predicted a month ago. In 2008, Romney defeated John McCain here by an 80,000-vote margin, and Michigan was widely expected to be a “safe” state for Romney this time around. . . .

Please read the whole thing. And hit the freaking tip jar!

 

 

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Category: Election, Michigan, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum

The Ad Is Just Fantastic, That Is Really What I Think. Oh, By The Way:
Which One’s Pink?

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty (via American Power)

The non-snobby one with the Santorum sign at the end, of course:

Maybe I’m the only one who immediately thought of. . .

but Santorum’s ad is dated 18 January, more than a month before Rick pointed out the Orwellian snobbery of #OccupyResoluteDesk saying everyone should go to college.

I’ll weigh in agreeing with Santorum, and against Walter Russell Mead; education is where you, subjectively, find it. Conversely, technology, like laquer, can make a turd shiny, but has little effect on intrinsic turdiness. #OccupyResoluteDesk is a prime, expensive, and particularly petulant example.

Now, I hold an engineering undergraduate degree, and two master’s. I have intentions of returning to the ivory tower to pursue a doctorate in Computer Science, one of these decades. Why? Mostly because I like the mental chess match of check-mating a problem with software pieces.

Now, my father earned a G.E.D., and my brother has a high school diploma. Does my relative nerdiness within my family translate into superiority? Probably it could, if I was the sort of fool who prized intellectual point scoring over wisdom.

That’s the beauty of American Exceptionalism: it keeps the smarmy academic types in line when, despite Nobel Prizes, Academy Awards, and more degrees than a thermometer, one man’s vote is as good as another, and the biggest doof can point to the purportedly smartest guy in the room and say: “No, there are not 57 states, you godforsaken Commie.”

I wouldn’t accuse Rick Santorum of being perfect, but we’re choosing a POTUS, not a savior here. Speaking of which, #OccupyResoluteDesk’s handlers are, even now, preparing him for another outburst of Bush blaming:

Category: Barack Obama, Rick Santorum

MICHIGAN GOP PRIMARY TODAY

Posted on | February 28, 2012 | 6 Comments

TROY, Michigan
It’s 7 a.m., which means the polls just opened in today’s Michigan Republican primary. Polls will be open until 8 p.m. The front-page banner headline story in today’s Detroit Free Press:

TODAY, MICHIGAN VOTE COUNTS
It’s a make-or-break day for Romney, Santorum

After two weeks in the headlights of the national hunt for a Republican presidential candidate, Michigan voters go to the polls today, and the outcome could help determine whether the grinding slog continues or Republicans finally start to rally around one candidate.
Polls are inconclusive, except to show the race is a toss-up.
Michigan native Mitt Romney, who won the state’s primary in 2008 against eventual nominee John McCain, has the strongest organization in 2012 and is reminding voters of his Michigan roots and credentials to fix the ailing economy.
But Rick Santorum has been riding a wave of support from his more conservative base — a bloc of voters that may be far more excited about getting out to vote.
A Santorum win would give him fresh momentum headed into Super Tuesday, March 6, when 10 states vote, and wound Romney — long considered the heir to the nomination.

That lead is kind of bland, but the story gets meatier on the jump page:

For months, it appeared Michigan would be, without doubt, Romney country: He was born in Detroit and raised in Oakland County, the son of a three-term governor and former auto executive.
But then — just as Romney’s Jan. 31 victory in Florida seemed to almost seal the nomination for him — Santorum, an also-ran in some of the earlier primaries, pulled off a three-state sweep in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Feb. 7.

An apt summary, although it omits the Feb. 4 Nevada caucuses, a humiliating defeat for Newt Gingrich. Newt’s press-conference tantrum in Vegas that Saturday night signaled the implosion of his campaign and set the stage for Santorum’s surprising Feb. 7 trifecta.

Anyway, my custom on Election Day is to sleep late, as I expect to be up past midnight reporting the results. I’m writing this at 3 a.m. and scheduling it for 7 a.m., having just made a run to the convenience store to grab the local paper.

Category: Election 2012, Michigan
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