The Other McCain

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

Very Nicely Played By The Gipper

Posted on | February 3, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

via Adrienne’s Corner

Category: Republicans

LIVE AT FIVE – 02.03.12

Posted on | February 3, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
House Republicans Rip Into Attorney General

Attorney General Holder

Panelists slam Holder for lack of cooperation on “Fast & Furious” probe; some panelists demand resignation as Democrats spin hearings as partisan attacks

Related: Family of slain Border Patrol agent sues government




Police Kill Two As Egyptian Rioting Continues
Second day of soccer riot sees violence spread to Suez

U.S. Fears Iran’s Links To Al Qaeda
Teheran may have provided aid to terrorist group



POLITICS
Surprise: The Donald Endorses Romney

Donald Trump and the Romneys in Vegas

Unpleasant surprise for Gingrich, but how much impact will it have?

Komen CEO Denies Partisanship Involved In Planned Parenthood Defunding



Senate Passes Insider-Trading Ban

Inoculating Against Religious Freedom

Detroit May Avoid State Takeover With Bing’s Union Deal

Obama’s New Jobs Plan For Veterans: Bring Back The CCC

Roseanne Barr Running For Green Party Nomination



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Hovers Above $96 Ahead Of U.S. Jobs Report
PRC Premier Raises Prospect Of Aiding European Rescue After Meeting Chancellor Merkel
Swiss Probe Twelve Banks Over Manipulation Of Interbank Lending Rates
Treasury Proposal Would Widen 401K Options
Greece Seeks Second Rescue, Fights To Stay In Euro
Stocks Stall Ahead Of Jobs Report
Bernanke Says Fed Won’t Tolerate Inflation To Boost Employment
Gold Futures Retreat From 11-Week High
Verisign Admits Multiple Hacks In 2010, Mum On Details
Be Everywhere: Google’s Real Social Strategy
WinPhone 8 Details Reportedly Leak
Puffington Host To Launch Live Streaming This Summer
Nokia Still Leads Global Mobile Market, With Samsung Right Behind
Google Joins Twitter In Support For Local Censorship



SPORTS
Doctor Clears Peyton Manning To Return To NFL

Peyton Manning

Colts still concerned about QB’s health

Josh Hamilton Has A Drink In Dallas Bar

“They Use You Up”: Hall Of Famer Tony Dorsett (Among Others) Suing NFL



Gagner Ties Gretzky’s Record In Oilers’ 8-4 Thumping Of Blackhawks

Nuggets Halt Clippers’ Streak With 112-91 Rout

#7 Duke Beats Virginia Tech 75-60

Nationals Sign Edwin Jackson For One Year, $10 Million

Pakistan Looking For Sweep Of England In Third Test Game; 53 For 7 After First Innings



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Leslie Carter Dead Of Overdose, 25

Leslie Carter, 1986-2012 RIP

Pop singer sister of Aaron and Nick Carter under treatment for depression at the time

Demi Gets Visits From Bruce And Ashton

Beyonce Offered Judge Spot On “X Factor”

Gwen Stefani Discusses Split Rumors


How The Duchess Of Cambridge Is Spending Valentine’s Day While The Duke’s In The Falklands

Brad Pitt Kick-starts His Kids With Coke


Will “Back To The Future” Find Its Way To Broadway?

“Hunger Games” To Get One-Week IMAX Run

No Manscaping For Daniel Radcliffe – Also, Ladies, He Prefers You Without The Wax



FOREIGNERS
UK Defense Secretary Denies Duke’s Tour In Falklands Is Provocation
UNSC Reaches Wobbly Consensus On Syria
NATO Defense Ministers See Afghanistan Combat Beyond 2014
Iran Trying To Hit Israeli Targets In Retaliation For Scientists’ Deaths
Khmer Rouge Chief Jailer Gets Life Sentence
Prokhorov Plans $17 Billion Charity Giveaway If He Beats Putin
164 Dead As Cold Snap Grips Europe
Nork Leader Backs Natural Gas Pipeline To ROK, Russia Says
Aussie PM Gillard Comes Under Pressure



BLOGS & STUFF
Big Journalism: NPR Bitterly Disappointed As Komen Divorces Planned Parenthood
Pat Dollard: Twenty Democrat Senators Demand Komen Reinstate Planned Parenthood Funding
AmSpecBlog: Romney’s Moronic Indulgence Of Trump
Sister Toldjah: Former Congressman Bob Etheridge Running To Replace Perdue; Heath Shuler Retiring From Congress
CatholicVote.Org: Why Does Obama Do what He Does? Jesus Is The Answer!
Lonely Conservative: Obama Only Wants To Tax The Rich Because It’s What Jesus Would Do
PowerLine: Respecting Eric Holder
Weasel Zippers: Carney On Why Obama’s Forcing Catholic Employers To Pay For Contraception: People Of Faith Need Rubbers Too
Allahpundit: Panetta Says We’re Pulling Out Of Afghanistan A Year Early
Ed Morrissey: Rasmussen In Arizona – Romney 48, Gingrich 24, Santorum 13
Mickey Kaus: What Does Obama Do All Day?


SOTD: Wasting Time

Category: Live at Five

Barney Frank’s ‘Groundhog Day’ Sneer Inspires Sean Bielat Fund-Raising Pitch

Posted on | February 2, 2012 | 11 Comments

A derogatory comment by Rep. Barney Frank has been turned against him in a fund-raising e-mail from Republican Sean Bielat, who is running for the seat vacated by the Massachusetts Democrat’s retirement.

Frank used a Facebook posting to accuse Bielat, a Marine veteran and businessman, of moving to Massachusetts specifically to seek his 4th District seat, comparing Bielat — whose wife’s family lives in Pennsylvania — to “Punxsutawny Phil,” the nationally famous star of Groundhog Day.

Bielat, whose hard-fought 2010 challenge to Frank was credited with pushing the Democrat into retirement, replied to his erstwhile opponent with a fund-raising e-mail to supporters, pushing back at what he calls a “petty and juvenile” attack.

“Today is Ground Hog Day, and for the next six weeks, I’m asking my supporters to send ‘Barney and Friends’ a message by donating to my campaign,” Bielate wrote in the e-mail (full text below). “The movie Groundhog Day tells the story of a reporter who learns important lessons as he repeats certain mistakes over and over again. We as a nation also need to learn to stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It may be funny in the movie but it’s anything but funny in real life.”

Given that Punxsutawny Phil has forecast six more weeks of winter, Bielat anounced a goal of $100,000 in six weeks ending March 15. He is expected to face Democrat Joseph Kennedy III in the 4th District race.

* * * TEXT OF SEAN BIELAT E-MAIL * * *

Message to “Barney and Friends”:
Internet “Trolling” Has Consequences!

Although Barney Frank has (thankfully) announced his retirement, he still appears to be campaigning…not for himself, but for Joe Kennedy III. Recently, Barney took to Facebook to lob a metaphorical grenade at me and my campaign. Never one to let facts get in the way of a good argument, Barney added a strange egotistical twist in his petty and juvenile post, much to the amusement of his progressive “fans”. (Fortunately, my fans took over his Facebook page and let him know what they thought about his shameful remarks.) Read it for yourself here:

Shortly thereafter, John Walsh, the Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party was quoted in The Hill using similarly outrageous talking points.

First, let’s set the record straight. My wife and I moved back to Massachusetts in 2007, a few years after graduate school at Harvard, because I was working for a Boston technology company and Hope was earning a PhD at Boston University. Unlike certain career politicians, we made our decisions based on my career in business and Hope’s career in education. Period. (Besides, how much sense would it make for a Republican to move to one of the most liberal towns in Massachusetts just to run for office? Barney sure must think a lot of himself if he thinks we would shape our life decisions around him!)

After the election, Hope and I did indeed move temporarily to Pennsylvania. That’s about all Barney got right in his post. (Of course, we made it easier for him to get his facts correct by publicly telling all our supporters about our move via Facebook and our campaign home page, so it wasn’t exactly a major secret!) Why did we move out of Massachusetts for a few months? Our son, Theo, had some medical complications at birth in 2010. We simply wanted to be closer to family when our second child was born, should similar health issues arise again. I am pleased to announce that Hope is doing great and Theo now has a happy, healthy baby sister named Seraphina who we all love dearly!

Barney’s post retirement announcement attack was irrelevant and his post was simply untrue. While Hope and I wish him all the best in his retirement and upcoming wedding, we’d hate to think that his complete lack of political integrity would translate over to his personal life. (Oh, and by the way, we promise not to “wedding crash” for the purpose of heckling, just as his partner Jim did at this 2010 campaign event.)

With all this said, I’d like to thank Barney for his ridiculous post because it gave me an idea. Today is Ground Hog Day, and for the next six weeks, I’m asking my supporters to send “Barney and Friends” a message by donating to my campaign. The movie Groundhog Day tells the story of a reporter who learns important lessons as he repeats certain mistakes over and over again. We as a nation also need to learn to stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It may be funny in the movie but it’s anything but funny in real life.

Barney Frank’s ideas were bad for Massachusetts and bad for the country. All signs indicate that young Joe Kennedy III, (who, ironically, just moved into MA-4 from another district and is the grandson of Robert Kennedy, who moved to New York to run for the US Senate) will parrot those ideas…and he’ll have the entire progressive Democratic Party apparatus behind him.

Do we want more of the same or do we want some “change” that actually makes sense? If you believe the latter, please donate today.

Our goal is to raise $100,000 by March 15th. I will be updating our progress toward that goal via Facebook and Twitter posts and my team will soon post a “meter” on our donation landing page that you can share with your friends across various online networks. Visit our Facebook page and follow me on Twitter.

Einstein said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and our own Elizabeth Warren, and all their progressive minions have cast a shadow over our liberty, security and prosperity for far too long. Electing another liberal to replace Barney Frank will do nothing but continue our national decline and make the American Dream even less attainable for our kids and grandkids.

Let’s change how this movie has played out for the last 30 years. Let’s stop the endless spending. Let’s rein in big government. Let’s end “nanny state” policies that stifle individual freedom and economic growth. Let’s put America back to work and restore the American Dream for Massachusetts residents and all citizens of this great nation!

Thank you for taking the time to read this note and please donate today!

Sincerely, Sean Bielat

Let’s do this together. Please donate what you can and, even if you can’t, please share this email with your friends. Please donate today.

Category: Election 2012, Massachusetts, Sean Bielat

Mead’s Rose Colored Glasses: Still Fetching

Posted on | February 2, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Liberalism is far out, man.

Part two of Mead’s geosynchronous review of the Progressive cratering is up. Read the whole series, if you’ve time:

Right now the right has something of a monopoly on this thinking, but when and if the left begins to reconnect with the ideas of emancipation and empowerment that are part of its historical vision, we are likely to see change. Marx hoped that someday the state would wither away, and the idea of groups of citizens exercising responsibility over their own affairs and taking power from career officials to give it to popular assemblies and grassroots cooperatives used to be central to the imagination of the left.
Liberty is an essential element of any version of the American dream, but our idea of liberty is as social and associational as it is individual, and the third criterion that any new American system will have to satisfy has to do with the quality of our social and community life. While Americans have never accepted the right of external authority to define their ideas of family and community, liberty exists in a communal context for most Americans. The adolescent and the young adult seek the freedom to get up and go, to try new things and meet new people, but at some point these young people usually come to see freedom as the right to live with their family and community as they see fit, rather than the freedom to move unconstrained through life like a lonely meteor in the night sky. Our concepts of freedom and of prosperity are linked to a vision of a society in which the family (however defined) is independent and in which individuals who want to form a family and embark on a religious or spiritual faith journey with the like-minded can do so with reasonable dignity and ease.

Possibly Marx himself really believed in a ‘Kingdom of God (Hold the God)’ sort of Utopia, but by the time these thoughts reached the desk of Otto von Bismarck, the ancient notion of PANEM ET CIRCENSES was reborn. ‘Freedom of action’ (liberty) was replaced with a managed ‘freedom from fear’ that meant we all work for the state, and not the state for us. While crass titles of nobility are no longer issued, the Ruling Class is back with a vengeance, offering such delightful variations on the theme of “Shut up” as “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

Why, yes we are serious, Mead. The family is still composed of a male and a female, who ought to marry and raise children to a mature, traditional understanding of liberty. The likelihood of any significant, shiny, new existential expression of the common sense informing our founding documents is really low. Our country is an experiment in self-rule, has engaged in a century-long, disastrous attempt by the Ruling Class to chain us in debt.

I’m eagerly awaiting for something like sober criticism from Mead in this series. I mean, for $15 trillion worth of debt, I wand more than an extended David Brooks mix. Call me feisty.

via Insty

Category: Blogging, Culture, Instapundit

Quin Hillyer Denounces Jeffrey Lord as a ‘Purveyor of Smear Jobs … Despicable’

Posted on | February 2, 2012 | 32 Comments

The escalating craziness among Republicans — which I have already mentioned twice today — has now spilled over into a feud between two esteemed contributors to The American Spectator, and now the hot-blooded Southerner Quin Hillyer has called out his antagonist:

Jeffrey Lord, who has intellectual integrity about equivalent to Bill Clinton’s, has become a purveyor of smear jobs utterly divorced from facts, logic, and decency. After an exchange of about a dozen emails back and forth in which he refused to acknowledge simple facts — not opinions, facts — the time has come to show him up for his growing and despicable hackery.

As usual in such matters, the gentlemen are disputing over the honor of a lady, in this case Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post. My friend Quin and I have sometimes disagreed quite strongly, and I have myself taken note occasionally of Ms. Rubin’s evident pro-Romney bias, but have not followed the argument and am thus unaware of what my friend Jeffrey Lord could have written that would inspire Quin to such invective. I am reminded of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s famous parting words to Braxton Bragg:

“I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to.  You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them, and I will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you endeavor to inflict upon me.  You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly.  I dare you to do it, and I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.”

If Lord and Hillyer cross paths at CPAC next week, the fight is likely to be far more interesting than any speech or seminar at the conference.

Category: American Spectator

Florida Conservative to Limbaugh: ‘I Don’t Think That I’ve Ever Been Accused of Being an Establishment Republican!’

Posted on | February 2, 2012 | 33 Comments

As I said this morning, everybody’s gone crazy, and it seems that even Rush Limbaugh drank the kooky Kool-Aid, inspiring a paranoid outburst that Florida state Rep. Scott Plakon felt obliged to correct:

As a longtime fan and admirer of Rush Limbaugh, I was disappointed to hear his comments regarding the work of the Congressional Redistricting Subcommittee on which I am honored to serve. His suggestions that we “rigged” the maps to force Allen West out of Congress are simply ludicrous. I was there…it didn’t happen…I know. It is especially surprising to see Mr. Limbaugh join with the chorus of left wing groups that are attacking our work.
I can only presume that Mr. Limbaugh’s lack of knowledge of our process, laws and constitution would lead him to make such statements and would lead him to take these kind of cheap shots at Representative Will Weatherford and the work of our committee. . . .
I was the only Florida legislator to endorse Herman Cain (when he was at 5% in the polls) before September 24th, the day he won Presidency 5 and started his climb in the polls. Last week I endorsed Rick Santorum. I’ve filed and/or passed the Health Care Freedom Amendment, the red-light camera repeal, the cap and trade repeal, etc., etc. I don’t think that I’ve ever been accused of being an “establishment Republican”!

Read the whole thing. People need to chill out.

Category: Election 2012, Florida, Rush Limbaugh, Sunshine State Sarah

Troglopundit Is Not Only an Acromegalic Sideshow Freak, But Is Also Wrong

Posted on | February 2, 2012 | 15 Comments

My friend Lance Burri was once famous as the second ugliest conservative blogger in Wisconsin. That was before Sean Hackbarth and his ludicrous hipster soul-patch moved to Washington, D.C., however, and the Towering Man-Mountain of Cheeseland has since ascended to the pinnacle. But I digress . . .

Troglopundit has wasted several thousand pixels in defending the folly known as The Rick Perry “Only Conservative Who Can Beat Mitt” Bandwagon and, because his wrongness is so transcendently self-evident, I thought I’d link it, denouncing the Trog as a worthless varmint.

Just because he is my friend.

If Lance were my enemy, I’d praise him, and then he would be added to the Official Tabitha Hale List of Unimportant Bloggers™ on which list my own name is permanently foremost.

Category: Rick Perry, Rule 2, Rule 4, Tabitha Hale, Troglopundit

Woo Hoo! The CPAC 2012 Schedule!

Posted on | February 2, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

I hope to see vast amounts of our readership there. The schedule is up, so we can start planning how to be in seven places simultaneously.

Category: CPAC
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