The Other McCain

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

Cenk Uygur Is A Tool, And Andrew Breitbart Is A Hero

Posted on | February 15, 2012 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

I still haven’t worked with the video from CPAC of Breitbart and Citizens United, but that video promises to more or less explode. The feisty Breitbart works on Cenk here, who seems to throw out the famous ObamaCare spitting incident merely to poke Andrew. I couldn’t make it more that a third of the way through this; Uygur is too irritating:

Via Hot Air

Via Instapundit, Walter Russell Mead really misses the point:

That is how lame Occupy is. This so-called “movement” doesn’t even have the clout and enthusiasm to match one wing of the Tea Party—the weak wing.

The point isn’t to be a proper movement in the slightest. I’m still unsure about Ladd Ehlinger’s point that #Occupy is intended to tilt the election. My opinion is that the intent of #Occupy is to have a chilling effect on the Tea Parties; to get thugs in place with a threat of violence that will diminish the size and scope of pro-liberty demonstrations this year. To suck the oxygen out of public demonstrations entirely, as legitimate ones will hurt Obama’s popularity.

The Left can’t create anything, but it can destroy to control, as they are attempting to do with the right of assembly. Barack Obama, who is orchestrating the affair, (with sufficient layers of indirection to remain legitimate, of course) is failing utterly to uphold the Constitution here. This Administration, like Scottish cooking, seems built on a dare. The latter, culinary, the former, political.

Category: Andrew Breitbart

New Obama Administration Strategy: Make Stuff Up

Posted on | February 15, 2012 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Via PJ Tatler:

On two different Sunday talking head shows, WH chief of Staff Jack Lew said that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass a budget.

Snipping out the quotations:

[Lew] said it twice on different national news shows, so it was no slip of the tongue. The Washington Post and National Review have characterized Lew’s statement as a “misleading” “stumble,” since it’s factually incorrect. Senate rules forbid filibustering a budget, so it only takes 51 votes to pass. Lew has served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget and is currently the chief of staff at the Obama White House. If ignorance is his best defense, it’s an exceedingly poor one. Vice President Biden and President Obama both served in the Senate, Biden for six terms, and Biden is currently the Senate’s president pro tem. He can case tie-breaking votes. But he shouldn’t need to; there are 53 Democrats in the Senate.

One really would like to fall short of the opinion that the Obama Administration really just doesn’t care at all, and they are just phoning it in until the election.

However, the sheer sloppiness on display here makes that increasingly hard to avoid. These clowns are paid from public funds; is it too much to ask that they demonstrate basic competence and integrity? Is it time for an intervention?

More news on the general debacle that is this budget from the Senate Republican Policy Committee, again via PJ Tatler. Just remember that taxes are fun, and this will all go swimmingly.

Category: Barack Obama

LIVE AT FIVESIX – 02.15.11

Posted on | February 15, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Tentative Deal Reached On Payroll Tax Cut Extension

Speaker Boehner and other GOP conferees

Deal extends payroll tax cut, doc fix, unemployment through end of year

Michigan: Gettysburg For Romney And Santorum
Romney trying to deal with Santorum Surge

PRC Leader Remains Inscrutable
Xi Jinping’s visit boosts profile but offers little insight into the next leader of the Chicoms



POLITICS
Unsettled Texas Primary Might Slip Into May

Putting together the puzzle of Texas redistricting

Attorney general, minority groups can’t agree on how to divvy up four new Congressional seats

Geithner Says Administration Aims To Reduce Corporate Rates, Cut Specific Breaks


L.A. Mayor Villaraigrosa To Chair Democratic Convention

Virginia House Passes Personhood Act

U.S. Weighs Sharp Cuts To Nuclear Stockpile

Another Bungled Caucus In Maine?



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
U.S. Stocks Recover Most Losses On Greece, HP News
Britain Defends Its Austerity Measures
Berkshire Adds DirecTV, Liberty Media Stakes
Fed Clears Capital One Purchase Of ING Direct
Yahoo’s Talks To Sell Asian Assets Unravel
Gold Ends Lower, Posts Third Straight Session Loss
Paulson Calls For Hartford Split
Oil Prices Down Very Slightly As Investors Assess Greek Austerity Plan; Natural Gas Up 4%
Torn Between Two Motorola Droids
Lightsquared Faces U.S. Prohibition After Interference Report
Angry Birds Officially Take Wing On Facebook
AT&T Customers Surprised by “Unlimited” Data Speed Limits
New Service To Stream Local TV Stations In New York



SPORTS
LINSANITY! Knicks Win Sixth Game In A Row

Knicks guard Jeremy Lin celebrates after sinking game-winning three-pointer against Raptors last night

Knicks beat Toronto 90-87

Irsay Says It’s Peyton Manning’s Decision Whether To Stay With Colts

Rangers Blank Bruins, Continue To Pull Away From Eastern Conference




Lakers Overcome Kobe’s Poor Shooting, Beat Hawks 86-78

Kiprusoff Stops 41 Shots As Flames Rout Leafs 5-1

Spurs Clinch Win With Stretch Run Against Pistons, 99-95

Waltrip Gearing Up To Rewrite History

Nawroz Mangal: From Refugee To Role Model As Afghan Cricket Skipper

Gammons: MLB Wants Washington To Be Good



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Playmate Of The Year: This Is What Domestic Violence Looks Like

Claire Sinclair

Marston Hefner arrested, but Sinclair unwilling to press charges.

Nancy Grace Suggests Whitney Houston’s Death May Have Been Murder

Shakira Attacked By Sea Lion In South Africa



Whitney Houston’s Funeral Moved To Church At Family’s Request

Kate Winslet On Seeing Herself In 3-D “Titanic”: “Make It F***ing Stop!”

Lindsay: Did I Forget To Do My Taxes – Again?

Rumer Willis’ New Home Burglarized



FOREIGNERS
Explosion Damages Oil Pipeline In Homs
Arabs Open Way For Arming Syrian Resistance
Israeli Envoy Ties Thailand Bombs To India Attack
German Economic Boom Casts Shadow Over French Election
Indian Police Arrest Five In Bomb Attack
Tony Parsons: Don’t Try It On, Argentina
After Revolution In Egypt, Womens’ Taste Of Equality Fades
Soldiers Find, Detonate Car Bomb In Northern Nigeria
Athens Smolders After Anti-Austerity Riots



BLOGS & STUFF
Fausta’s Blog: Hezbollah In The Tri-Border And Tri-State Areas
Dana Loesch: Do Keith Olbermann And Markos Moulitsas Think Rape Doesn’t Matter?
K-Lo: Love Isn’t All McDreamy – Valentine’s Day, From The Hart
Megan McArdle: When STDs Are Untreatable
Newsbusters: Martin Bashir Compares Rick Santorum To Stalin
AmSpecBlog: Santorum, Social Conservatives, And Swing Voters
Don Surber: Poll – Catholics Abandon Obama
Jawa Report: We Don’t Have John McCain To Kick Around Any More
Big Journalusm: Left, Right Agree – Media Matters Is Toxic
Sister Toldjah: NC Nanny State Says Preschooler’s Lunch Not Nutritious Enough
Riehl World View: ma And Pa CPAC With Melissa And Erick
Babalu: Oliver Stone’s Own Islamic Spring
Ramesh Ponnuru: Our Religious-Freedom Baseline

Category: Live at Five

Cody’s Totally Excellent CPAC

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | 18 Comments

Cody with Daniel and John Santorum at CPAC, Feb. 10, 2012

His blog is called “Modicum of Insanity” (formerly “Letters From a Young American”) and he’s a student at Patrick Henry College. Two weeks ago, he sent me an e-mail to explain that he just got credentialed for CPAC — his first time at the conference — and to ask if I had any suggestions. Among the advice I gave him was this:

Sex at CPAC is strongly discouraged. Enjoy the conference, enjoy the parties, meet everybody you can meet, but don’t try to “score.” The resemblance to Mardi Gras or Spring Break is (mostly) superficial. “Networking within the movement” is not a synonym for “trying to get jiggy with that cute chick I met at the reception.”

And also this:

A cocktail party in D.C. is not like a kegger with your college buddies. Yes, people consume Adult Beverages at D.C. cocktail parties, but not in the collegiate spirit of, “Hey, dude, let’s get totally hammered.” . . . Getting drunk and obnoxious is frowned upon in D.C. if only because, hey, it’s politics and most of these a–holes are obnoxious enough when they’re sober.

My pre-CPAC advice to Cody is kind of interesting, in light of the post-CPAC commentaries offered today by Erick Erickson and Melissa Clouthier, both of whom express concern that too many young people at the conference were getting hammered and trying to get jiggy. This is actually something that has worried me at least since 2007, the year when an especially rowdy bash hosted by the Maine College Republicans got shut down.

Do we worry too much about these kids? I don’t know. While some of them were obviously enjoying the Adult Beverages with tremendous gusto, it is impossible to estimate how much “getting jiggy” was going on. Probably a lot less than us old folks might fear, given the 3-to-1 male-to-female ratio amongst the college-age contingent. And probably not enough to worry about an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea.

Unless you were paryting with the Maine CRs, in which case you might be in serious danger. Just sayin’ . . .

No one can responsibly disagree with Melissa’s argument against the super-short and super-tight party dresses which some Republican coeds seem to consider de rigeur for a night on the town. Also, the bare cleavage — c’mon, guys, testify for me here — makes it quite difficult to concentrate on anything else except the bare cleavage.

Nevertheless, while emphasizing my responsible agreement with Melissa’s argument, I also understand that not every girl who goes out clubbing in high heels and a skintight dress with a daring display of décolletage is a hussy, a floozy or a tramp. Or a Maine CR.

However unwise or indecorous it may be to follow the fashion trend toward bare-as-you-dare styles, in some sense it’s like makeup and jewelry: Items that were once frowned upon as whorish, tacky and/or ostentatious are now acceptably fashionable. (Am I the only one who remembers when hoop earrings were considered kinda racy?) Lamenting fashion trends is an enduring trend unto itself and — wow, I’m really giving away my Old Fogey status this time — I’m also old enough to remember when traditionalists frowned upon women wearing slacks or jeans. So I want to be responsible without being overly judgmental.

Dan Riehl’s eagerness to see CPAC hotties in tube tops? Irresponsible!

Anyway, my young friend Cody had a totally excellent CPAC, not least because I helped him get media access to a Rick Santorum meet-and-greet Friday. It was pretty simple, really: I arrived about five minutes before the event was supposed to begin, and found a huge crowd lined up to get in. Cody was in the huge crowd with some of his friends.

So I went around and found a side door that was unlocked, talked briefly to the Santorum campaign staff, then went back out into the crowd, grabbed Cody and said, “Come with me.” Bing, bang, boom — in like Flynn — and I introduced him to the campaign staff so that they knew he was OK. You can read his report at his blog.

Cody also has an item about the awesome Blog Bash at CPAC, in which he quotes an article at Yahoo News by my buddy Chris Moody. Cody probably doesn’t realize it, but when Moody was a young kid new to D.C., he had the good fortune to meet me at a happy hour party, which was the springboard to all his subsequent success.

OK, I admit, Moody’s awesome skilz might have been a minor factor in his subsequent success, but this kid Cody’s got some skilz, too. Check out his post about Sarah Palin at CPAC, wherein he shows that he’s already picked up the trick of getting a photo in a media scrum: Hold your camera up high and point down, then click, click, click — you may shoot a gazillion shots and only get two or three usable ones, but what the heck? Nobody but you ever sees the blurry discards.

Going through my own photos, I found exactly one shot of Cody, with Utah congressional candidate Mia Love:

For some strange reason, I never got a photo of Cody with his charming girlfriend, who has curly brown hair and beautiful eyes. She wasn’t wearing a tube top or stiletto heels, so I guess Melissa approves.

Also, Cody didn’t write about our awesome lunch with two of my American Spectator colleagues, including associate editor Jim Antle. Cody might fit in at the Spectator, although I worry that our esteemed Editor-in-Chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is probably more in agreement with Dan Riehl on the issue of hotties in tube tops. NTTAWWT.

Category: CPAC

Rule 5 Tuesday

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Ah, what a wretched week. The internets at home die the very morning of CPAC, Sunday gets eaten by a CPA exam review class, and preparing for this morning’s Business Law exam devoured Monday. Well, here we are, two days late and a C-note short…


Laughing Conservative leads off this week with Leryn Franco, while the Tiki Blog posts about guilt free sex. Randy’s Roundtable had a midweek twofer with Elle Liberachi and Cindy Taylor, while over at Reaganite Resistance there’s a Miss Sweden of the brunette persuasion. Eye of Polyphemus reveals why we tolerate Scarlett Johansson, and the JerseyNut comes up with some other reasons. Great minds and all that, eh? Jake Finnegan’s Burkalesque Babe last week was Adele.


El Opinador Compulsivo checks in with Uma Thurman, Sofia (SMOKING!) Vergara, a post on new trends in T-shirts, and Argentine homegirl Pamela David. Meanwhile, A View From The Beach went with Amanda Righetti, bikini ice fishing, cave girl DNA a la Frazetta, Mrs. Tom Brady, Ukrainian girls, and some Mongolian banjo for your edification. Related, because it’s Valentine’s Day, I present Mongolian throat-singing sensation Yat-Kha doing “Love Will Tear Us Apart”.


Soylent Green kicked off the week with some Monday Motivationer Mayhem, followed by Tuesday Titillation with Brigitta, a Back To The Classics Humpday Hawtness, a spot check, Extraterrestrial Visitors Day, Corsetation Confabulation Friday, and Happy Hour with Cali. Also, Saturday Night Snooch!


Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe was Kylie Bisutti, while the Sex In Advertising feature has Legs Up To Here. Vintage babe was Merle Oberon, the wacky nekkid vegetarians are back, and not only is there a Maria Menounos bikini pic, there’s Elizabeth Emken Rule 5.
The Camp of the Saints chips in with Lucy Bayet, the Rule 5 News, and Evellyn Quagliato.


Dustbury had Sarah Michelle Gellar and Emma Watson last week, while Three Beers Later shook us all night long. Awwww yeah, AC/DC. 🙂
The POH Diaries took note of Kate Upton’a cover girl status,


Last but definitely not least, the DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes last week included Jules Asner, Jenn Sterger, Lela Rochon, Amber Lancaster, Elizabeth Banks, plus Asian Babe Wednesday; also also, Asian Babe Saturday!


Thanks to everyone for their linkagery and their patience! Deadline for next week’s Rule 5 Sunday is Saturday, February 18.

Category: Rule 5

Sincerity, Courage and Other Secrets Behind the Surprising Santorum Surge

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | 73 Comments

Rick Santorum and his wife Karen greet supporters
at a barn near Roland, Iowa, Aug. 6, 2011

How many times on the campaign trail did I hear Rick Santorum describe himself as “Steady Eddie”? Not the flashiest guy at the dance, he’d say, but at the end of the evening, he was the one the girls were proud to bring home to meet their mother. Back when he was still in single digits in Iowa, Santorum gave that little talk at nearly every campaign event, to reassure Republican voters that no matter what the polls said, and no matter what they were being told about “electability,” they should listen to their hearts and vote for the “consistent conservative.”

Seems like a million years ago, doesn’t it? I’m thinking back to that August afternoon in a barn amid the cornfields near Roland, Iowa, when I showed up on a Saturday as a favor to Lisa Graas, to cover her favorite candidate, the guy nobody believed could win. Now take a look at the headlines today:

Poll: Rick Santorum takes
slight lead in GOP race
— CBS News

Santorum Catches Up With Romney in New Poll
— New York Times

59% of Catholics Disapprove
of Obama’s Job Performance
— Rasmussen Reports

That last headline should serve to remind you of something I kept in mind back when nobody else was paying attention to Santorum: Blue-collar Catholics are a vital “swing” constituency, and a Republican who can appeal to those voters is always formidable, whether in a primary or a general election. People kept talking about the evangelical vote in Iowa, but there are a quite a few Catholics in Iowa, too, and once they “came home” to Santorum in the closing weeks of the caucus campaign, that helped boost him up to double digits in the polls. And then, just about the time he pulled even in Iowa with Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, a lot of other Republican voters said, “Hey, let’s take another look at Steady Eddie.”

Now that we’re in the midst of what I’ve called “Santorum’s Second Surge,” Steady Eddie is getting another look from a lot of people, including liberals like Jonathan Chait, who wonders if Mitt the Moderate is really more “electable” than Extreme Santorum.

Bottom line of Chait’s analysis: It’s really a lot harder to judge “electability” in advance of the general election campaign and Santorum might be more trouble for Obama than most experts imagine.

Of course, such a question takes us off into an unpredictable future. Santorum still has an enormous uphill fight if he’s going to beat Romney, and we’ll have to wait and see if Santorum can withstand the tsunami of negative attack ads that Team Mitt will inevitably unleash against him. Meanwhile, however, we find Santorum earning a certain grudging admiration from unexpected sources:

“I’ve wondered about him and the whole concept of working women and family. But stylistically, which is a part of the game . . . he has something that Mitt Romney doesn’t. There is a connect. I mean, I don’t agree with anything he says, but I like the guy.”
— Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC

This is something I’ve noticed with some of the young liberal reporters who were “embedded” on the Santorum campaign: They disagreed with him without hating him. Why? I think it might be that “Steady Eddie” factor. Even when his campaign seemed utterly hopeless, Santorum just kept on going, and he never budged an inch on the issues. Maybe you think he’s an “extremist,” but he is a sincere extremist — he really believes what he believes in, and isn’t just pandering — and he also shows a stubborn courage, sticking to his guns no matter what, even when he knows his views are unpopular.

It’s that kind of stubbornness that wins Santorum admiration, and sometimes even surprising agreement, from people you would never expect to hear praising him. (Barbara Walters? Hello?)

One more thing: America loves an underdog.

If by some miracle Santorum actually ends up winning the Republican nomination in Tampa, he’ll be one of the biggest comeback stories in American political history. Defeated for re-election to the Senate in 2006, he entered the presidential campaign with seemingly impossible odds against him. The mainstream media ignored him and, with few exceptions, the pundits gave him no chance at all. In the first six months after he announced, he raised less than $1 million, and finished 2011 with less than $300,000 cash on hand. Just three weeks ago, many people were still saying Santorum might as well quit. And now . . .

Well, a lot of flashier guys have come and gone from the 2012 GOP field, but Steady Eddie’s still at the dance, isn’t he?

Category: Election 2012, Rick Santorum

Bravo, Senator Sessions, For Beclowning Zients On BHO’s Orwellian Budget

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | 6 Comments

by Smitty (via Insty)

Stacy’s morning post about the preposterous budget stays current, as that extended shaggy dog story continues to win friends among the sober. Via The Examiner, Sessions attains and holds the high dudgeon on this sad little crapflooder from the Executive branch:
Read more

Category: Barack Obama, Democrats, Republicans

Happy Valentine’s Day to the (Totally HAWWT) Future Mrs. Steven Crowder

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | 46 Comments

In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry . . .
— I Timothy 4:1-3 (KJV)

Steven Crowder gets some CPAC PDA from his fianceé, Hillary

“My theory is that, in contemporary culture, young ladies have become unaccustomed to being paid compliments outside the context of being ‘hit on.’ Because of feminism and political correctness, young guys have never learned to flatter a girl merely for the sake of flattery.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Feb. 28, 2010

Every great love story ends “happily ever after,” and my concern for Traditional Family Values is often expressed by three words of encouragement to young couples: “When’s the wedding?”

One of the tragedies of 21st-century American culture is that young people from affluent backgrounds have been indoctrinated to think of marriage as a horrible financial burden, which must be avoided until one has completed  college (and perhaps also grad school), and landed one’s Dream Job with all the perks — middle-class salary, 401(k), health insurance, et cetera. To do otherwise, the Indoctrinators of Youth have taught them, is to doom oneself to a life of impoverished misery.

Urgent News Bulletin to American Youth: That’s crazy.

If you listen to that nonsense, you’ll be 37 years old on your wedding day. I’ve often remarked that many upper-middle-class parents who would not dare disapprove if their daughter came home from college and announced she was a lesbian would, however, be outraged if their daughter came home from college and announced that she had eloped to marry her boyfriend.

There is no law that says college students can’t tie the knot, nor is there any law that requires young couples to pay for a lavish wedding, and anyone who says you can’t afford to get married is lying.

You can get married at the courthouse. A marriage license costs next to nothing. And two can live as cheaply as one. Read more

Category: Marriage, Mrs. Other McCain, Rule 5, Sex
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