The Other McCain

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

Ruling Class Overlords Repair To Davos For Cthulhu Worship

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Protein Wisdom links Breitbart in celebrating the World Economic Forum in Davos. It sounds as though the Commies are realizing that if you subvert capitalism to the point that you destroy it utterly, you’re going to have to come up with a new source of crap with which to flood the world.

But if there is one thing Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner can do, it is crapflood.

This blog would like to point to The Protocols of the Elders of Cthulhu, a fine farce founded on Protocols Of The Meetings Of The Learned Elders Of Zion that ran a couple of years ago, but remains just as valid of as Obam’s State of the Union address today.

Category: Economics, Protein Wisdom

Walter Russell Mead On Liberalism

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

His article is long enough to merit a hard copy and several reads, but here is one of the meatier portions, emphasis mine:

There are several ugly truths that the country (and especially those states whose governments are bigger and bluer than the rest) must soon face. One concerns taxes. The debate today at the elite level is about whether the rich should pay more. Given the historic lows of marginal and capital gains tax rates, this is a debate of consequence for reasons having to do with fairness. But it distracts attention from a more fundamental political reality: Voters simply will not be taxed to cover the costs of blue government, and in most cases they will vote out of office anyone who suggests otherwise. That, at base, is what the Tea Party movement is all about. Voters with insecure job tenure and, at best, defined-contribution rather than defined-benefit pensions simply refuse to pay higher taxes so that bureaucrats can enjoy lifetime tenure and secure pensions.
Second, voters will not accept the shoddy services that blue government provides. Government must respond to growing consumer demand for more user-friendly, customer-oriented approaches. The arrogant lifetime bureaucrat at the Department of Motor Vehicles is going to have to turn into the Starbucks barista offering service, and options, with a smile.
Third, government must reconcile itself to its declining ability to manage a post-blue economy with regulatory models and instincts rooted in the past. We need to be thinking about structural changes based on properly aligned incentive architecture, not regulatory systems based on command protocols.

All three of these good points orbit the notion of information.

Taxes are so complicated as to be unworkable. Past some crossover income, one wonders if it is possible to do them correctly. Let’s get the question out there: Why must the 16th Amendment exist? If we can put a moon on the man, why cannot we devise a system whereby every state is billed by DC annually, and let the states compete for citizens to pay the taxes? Pardon my rampant capitalism, but there it is. The counterargument would be that striking the 16th Amendment and nuking the IRS merely moves the problem of funding the government. Sure, my plan makes government revenues likely crater. Bug; feature, who can say? But tax reform should be simplified, and the information about who lives where, for tax purposes, should be opaque to DC. The federal government has no business operating below the multi-state and international level.

Services should be located at the appropriate government level. In addition to emancipating our wallets, we absolutely must get the federal government out of education, retirement, housing, and individual health delivery. Government always will be a solution in search of a problem, and, like kudzu, bureaucracy needs some machete lovin’. The information age is about realizing that paying for a bureaucratic mob to shuffle from meeting to meeting, staring at PowerPoint slides all day (I’m not hinting that Dilbert is set in a building in DC, I’m telling you straight away.)

Economic management is a fine oxymoron, but what we seem to need is more economic liberty, and something other than the Federal Reserve. While Ron Paul may not be too electable, that doesn’t render his economic ideas less than 100% spot on. You can tell the potency of Paul’s truth by the studious way it is avoided in the debates. If Paul is wrong, our insane media clown posse owes us a thorough discussion of the topic and a rational examination of the various candidate ideas. Government’s appropriate role is referee, but too often it is suiting up and playing for its chosen side, as Schweitzer details.

Later in his article, formatting mine:

Finally, Americans want to believe that all four goals work together:

  • that defending their security,
  • promoting their prosperity,
  • preserving their freedom and equality and
  • fulfilling their global mission

are all part of an integrated package and worldview—and that the commonsense reasoning of the average American can understand the way the pieces fit together. They are, in other words, looking for more than a set of unrelated policies that accomplish certain discrete goals: They want those policies to proceed from an integrated and accessible vision that meshes with their understanding of traditional American values and concerns.

I hope Mead understands that rational thought, and the information that a rational mind can manage, are under daily assault from these Postmodern jackwagons.

When we have scientists and public figures trying to blow the global warming myth; the overpopulation myth; the raaaaacism myth; the truth/gender/family as social construct myths up the public backside, we face a much greater struggle than merely figuring out what shape Liberalism 5.0 is going to take. It’s a war, Mead.

 

Category: Intellectuals

Departing for Jacksonville: What’s Up Today Down in the Sunshine State?

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | 14 Comments

My flight leaves Baltimore-Washington International Airport about 9 a.m. and arrives in Jacksonville about 1 p.m. By the time this post goes live, I’ll be on my way to the airport. But I’m troubled by the news reports indicating that Rick Santorum has evidently decided to leave the campaign trail in Florida after tonight’s debate:

Speaking to reporters here [in Naples], the former Pennsylvania senator said was unsure if he would be in Florida the night of the primary, committing only to campaigning in the state [Thursday and Friday]. On Saturday, he’ll head home to Virginia for fundraisers and to prepare his tax records which he plans to soon make public.
Santorum said this weekend will be the first time he’s slept in his own bed since Christmas. . . .
But the GOP hopeful has been seen strong crowds in the South, drawing more than 1,000 supporters to a Megachurch here. And his rhetoric suggests he has no plans to leave the race anytime soon.
“This race has just started. It’s a three man race. We’re going to be in this race for the long term,” he said.

OK, on one hand, this makes a lot of sense. Florida is a winner-take-all state, and if the best Santorum can hope for is third place (as polls currently indicate) it’s only logical that he would rather raise money in Virginia than to spend money traveling around Florida in a last-minute effort that might boost his final showing by a few percentage points, without making any significant difference in terms of delegates.

Nevertheless, it will cost him some potentially valuable media exposure to be off the trail, and a disappointment to his Florida supporters if their candidate doesn’t show up for a Primary Night event in Orlando.

Turning to more practical considerations, however, the campaign calendar becomes more complex and challenging after Florida. There’s the Feb. 4 caucuses in Nevada, expected to be a test of strength between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. (Lots of Mormons and libertarians in Nevada.) I’d be surprised if either Gingrich or Santorum decided to make an all-out effort there, although if they could knock Romney down a few points, it might enable the Paulistas to deprive Romney of a win.

A better chance for Santorum would be on Tuesday, Feb. 7, when both Minnesota and Colorado hold caucuses. With two states on one day, Santorum could focus his strongest campaign effort in one (probably Minnesota, an industrial state with lots of Catholics), trying to score a stronger-than-expected finish, and leave the other to Romney and Gingrich.

Then, however, there’s a three-week gap in the calendar before the Arizona and Michigan primary on Feb. 28, and I’d expect Santorum to go all-out in Michigan: It’s home turf for Romney (whose father was the state’s governor 40 years ago), but it’s also the kind of blue-collar Midwestern industrial state that has been the focus of Santorum’s economic message. If by some miracle of dogged determination, Santorum could pull an upset win in Michigan — his second victory over Romney — the 2012 campaign would be a whole new ballgame. And that would be doubly true if, while Santorum’s got Romney pinned down in Michigan, Gingrich mounts a similar all-or-nothing battle against Romney in Arizona.

That kind of strategic hypothetical is getting way ahead of the game, however. Meanwhile, there’s Florida, where Allahpundit says Romney “seems to have stopped the bleeding, at least. . . . Looks like Mitt’s Freddie Mac attacks at the last debate were more effective than we thought.”

OK, but who is this “we,” Kemosabe? Never mind. From the standpoint of stopping Romney, Santorum’s reported pull-out from Florida is good news because it could help Newt hand Mitt another defeat, confirming that Romney’s “inevitability” is over. But Newt continues playing the “grandiose” game, generating headlines like this:

Gingrich Pledges To Establish
Permanent Base On The Moon
‘By The End Of My Second Term’

Yeah, he’s pandering for aerospace industry votes on the Space Coast, but those people probably don’t mind. It’s only somewhere down the line — when Romney or Obama cuts a TV attack ad talking about the outrageous cost of this space project — that Newt will be forced to pay a political price for spouting kooky sci-fi stuff like this.

UPDATE: Ruh-roh — Newt down by six in the latest Florida poll? High stakes in tonight’s CNN debate. Much will depend on how Wolf Blitzer runs the show. Will he have Mitt and Rick beating up on Newt? Rick and Newt beating up on Mitt? The moderators of these debates exercise an important influence over the proceedings, and some Ph.D. student in communications could get a dissertation of how this year’s debates have been stage-managed.

Late last night I got an e-mail from CNN’s lovely and charming publicist, Jennifer Scoggins, telling me I’m OK with the credentials for the debate. The question is whether there will be room for me in the filing center.

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in the Sunshine State, Florida, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.26.12

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Navy SEALS Rescue Somalia Hostages

Seal on maneuvers in Alaska


Daring raid frees two kidnapped aid workers

Obama, Arizona Governor Brewer Have Tense Exchange In Phoenix
POTUS didn’t like her book, apparently


Gingrich Erodes Romney’s Lead Among Hispanics
Makeup of Florida’s Latinos: 29% Cubanos, 20% Puerto Ricans, 26% from Central and South America, 15% Mexican, 10% other, 4% Dominican



POLITICS
Nielsen: State Of The Union Speech Numbers Down 12% From Last Year

POTUS, pondering

Down 13% compared to W’s 2004 SOTU; half the audience of Sunday’s NFL playoff game despite being on all major networks

Giffords Steps Down To Focus On Recovery



SecTreas Geithner Says He Wouldn’t Serve In A Second Obama Term

Right-to-work Measure Clears Indiana House

Michele Bachmann To Run For Reelection In MN-4

Oakland Police Could Face Federal Takeover



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Gold Rises To Six-Week High On Fed Rate Vow
Amazon Looking Into Taking On Netflix
J.C. Penney Overhauls Stores, Pricing In Major Makeover
Fed Announcement Boosts Markets
Apple Briefly Surges Past Exxon In Market Cap
ROK Economic Growth Slowed In 4Q Of 2011
Oil Gains On Fed Decision, Ends Below $100
HP Plans September Release For WebOS Software
Nokia’s Lumia 900 WinPhone To Debut At $99 On AT&T
Google Maps Now Displays Emergency Alerts
THQ Scraps Kids’ Games To Focus On Core Titles



SPORTS
Family, Friends, Penn State Players Say Final Goodbyes To Joe Paterno

People pay their respects as Paterno's hearse passes through State College, PA

Colts Hire Ravens Defensive Coordinator Chuck Pagano As New Coach

Mavericks Get Title Rings, Promptly Lose To Timbermutts



Oklahoma State Upsets #2 Missouri, 79-72

Habs Head Into All-Star Break With 7-2 Rout Of Red Wings

Cavaliers Outhustle Sloppy Knicks, 91-81

India Trails Badly In Third Day Of Final Test, 238 (8 out) to 604 (7 out, declined)



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Demi Had Seizure Before Hospitalization; Being Treated For Anorexia
Can’t handle her nitrous?

Brad Pitt On The Unmentionables: Marriage, Politics, And Religion

Miley Cyrus Goes To Town On X-Rated Birthday Cake

Rihanna Gets “Thug Life” Tattoo

“The Office” Spinoff Starring Rainn Wilson In The Works For Mid-2013 Launch

Drew Barrymore Converting To Judaism

Heather Locklear Not Going To Rehab

Finally, Jay Leno Sued For Not Being Funny

Prolific TV Actor James Farentino Dies, 73



FOREIGNERS
Egyptian Show Mix Of Anger, Jubilation On Anniversary Of Protests

Demonstrators carry an obelisk inscribed with the names of those killed in last year's protests


Rallies reflect rifts since toppling of Mubarak regime

Soldiers Oust New Guinea Defense Chief, Demand Reinstatement Of Former PM

Israeli-Palestinian Talks End With No Progress

Two Buildings Collapse In Rio de Janeiro

21-Year-Old Student Stops Rogue Indian Bus Driver, Prevents Further Death & Damage; Nine Dead, 27 Injured

Qadafi Loyalists Take Back Bani Walid

PRC Police Open Fire On Tibetans As Protests Spread

Nigerian President Sacks Police Chief After Wave Of Jihadi Attacks

Scotland’s First Minister Lays Out Independence Referendum Question

Leader’s Exit Spurs Grim Reckoning In Yemen



BLOGS & STUFF
Jonathan Last: Thou Shalt Not Write Bad Things About Obama
Legal Insurrection: Are We Seeing The Beginning Of The End For The Santorum Campaign?
Just One Minute: I Hate The Smell Of BS In The Evening
Allahpundit: Warren Buffett Asks, Have I Mentioned Lately That My Secretary’s Paying A Higher Tax Rate Than I Am?
Pirate’s Cove: Obama’s One Good Idea? Ban Congressional Insider Trading
Heritage Foundation: 10 Dubious Claims From Obama’s State Of The Union
Wall Street Journal: Romney’s Fair Share
Jawa Report: Obama, The Master Of Public Speaking
Elliott Abrams: Gingrich And Reagan
Michelle Malkin: Media Matters Coordinates With Democrats On Keystone Pipeline, Also Claim “20,000 Jobs Not That Many”
Ed Morrissey: Gingrich To Pelosi – “Spit It Out!”
Don Surber: Obama Plagiarizes Ford Ad
FDL: Financial Fraud Unit Designed To Fail?


SOTD: Lightning Strikes

Category: Live at Five

This Patton Clip May Or May Not Be Something You Need

Posted on | January 25, 2012 | 26 Comments

by Smitty

In the following scene, the hard-nosed spirit of American Exceptionalism offers a bit of needed calibration to the Tea Partier:

This post may not be for you, but it may be for someone you know. There seems to be a lot of angst these days about this or that candidate, and can they beat #OccupyResoluteDesk in November.

Shag all that.

  1. Barack is a tool. By which I mean: no one political figure is the problem. BHO, in particular, is not worthy of your emotion. The real problem, in 2012 and beyond, is the crying attitude in the clip above. Progressivism has been a government tissue distribution program, intent on reducing Americans to dependent crybabies.
  2. The candidates all suck. Guess what: they’re human. This November is an election, for heaven’s sake, not a soteriological quest. If it seems like the President is that important, this over-importance itself is the issue. We sure could use a man like Calvin Coolidge again. But we may need a ‘Patton touch’ to help us find our inner, individual President.
  3. We’ve partied like rock stars, and the hangover follows. I don’t do wallowing in guilt too well. It’s not like I feel personally bad about the realities of the cratered economy. What we have to know, unlike Mitch Daniels, is that the social safety net was never a federal task and has become a mirage. The 10th Amendment has to be respected, and the states have to pick up the tab. And if you say the states can’t, then you need to ask why. A lucid analysis will help get you past your sobbing soldier scene.
  4. The bad guys laugh when we cry. The Ruling Class hopes for nothing more than the dissipation of the 2010 Tea Party energy. The self-appointed Progressive elite don’t really want you asking too many hahrd questions. They want you moaning in the small child fashion, and looking to DC for your next handout.
  5. A good chunk of the population is too far gone. Just as Moses had to walk through two generations of Israelites in Sinai to weed out the weepers, we are going to have to spend a significant number of election cycles to spare our children a tragic fate:Is that a comfortable realization? No. I would that all Americans were thinking rationally. Empirically, one in five still, unexpectedly, approve of #OccupyResoluteDesk. “They’s some men you just cain’t reach.” But hopefully this post reaches some.

And, no, I am not making some general justification of physical abuse here. Somebody crying little twit is likely to misread this post. I’m saying that, occasionally, we all need a wakeup call.

Category: Tea Party

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley Is a Stupid, Dishonest and Incompetent Swine

Posted on | January 25, 2012 | 37 Comments

Just printed my boarding pass for Jacksonville, where I’m sure CNN’s lovely and charming Jennifer Scoggins will approve my media credential request for Thursday’s super-awesome Florida Republican debate. (There was an e-mail mix-up earlier, but I’m sure we’ve got that straightened out, right?) Because of scheduling contingencies, I booked my flight to Florida one-way and, given the crooked thieving shenanigans of state government here in Maryland, I may never come back:

One of Gov. O’Malley’s tax proposals this year is to extend the sales tax to digital products. That means digital media you download: ebooks, apps, music, newspapers, videos, ringtones, audio greeting cards and more could become subject to the state’s sales tax of 6 percent. So that 99 cents iTunes song you buy would cost around $1.05.

My friend Jeff Quinton at QuintonReport.com alerted me to this outrage and got an Instalanche out of it. And this could be the last straw for me.

I’ve lived in Maryland more than 14 years, ever since I moved up here to work at The Washington Times in November 1997. My friends have often asked, “Why Maryland? Their taxes are so high. You should move to Virginia.” And there was always a reason, or at least a plausible excuse.

For years, the commute to the Times office on New York Avenue, and the availability of a more direct bus/rail connection than could be found in Virginia, was the best argument to stay in Maryland. Then our daughter enrolled at Highland View Academy here in Hagerstown, and we moved into faculty housing on campus, where my wife subsequently became the food service director or, as she prefers to call herself, The Cafeteria Lady.

Frankly, however, the best argument for staying in Maryland now is inertia. We’ve lived in this house for seven years, and the mere thought of having to pack everything into a moving truck — my office library alone would take days to pack — is enough to give me a headache.

Nevertheless, O’Malley’s lamebrain Internet tax might make me do it. Because in all likelihood, as we witnessed in California last year, if the state tries to tax online sales, Amazon will pull out, and I need that Amazon money. Read more

Category: Amazon, Maryland, Quinton Report, Taxes

Intended as Satire, But Unfortunately, Some People Really Think This Way

Posted on | January 25, 2012 | 12 Comments

“What’s so wrong with being dependent on government? Of all the things to depend on, isn’t government the smartest choice? You could depend on yourself, but come on. You know yourself; you fail all the time. You could depend on your friends and family, but they’d eventually get sick of you. But government will always love you and always be there. Long after you’re dead and forgotten, there will be government.”
— Frank J. Fleming, New York Post, “Don’t We Need a Food Stamp President?”

Category: Barack Obama

Can Newt Be Trusted? Calls Mitt Romney ‘Anti-Immigrant’ in Spanish-Language Ad

Posted on | January 25, 2012 | 53 Comments

You may remember last week’s CNN debate in South Carolina, when Rick Santorum hit Newt Gingrich with this:

I will give Newt Gingrich his due on grandiose ideas and grandiose projects. I will not give him his due on executing those projects, which is exactly what the president of the United States is supposed to do.
Four years into his speakership, he was thrown out by the conservatives. . . . I served with him. I was there. I knew what the problems were going on in the House of Representatives when Newt Gingrich was leading there. It was an idea a minute, no discipline, no ability to be able to pull things together.

The “grandiose” Gingrich doesn’t seem to think the rules apply to him, and the things he has been saying about immigration are . . . well, nuanced.

So now Newt’s defenders will have to explain to us once more why Gingrich is a trustworthy conservative, after his campaign aired Spanish-language radio advertisements accusing Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant”:

Sen. Marco Rubio scolded Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign over a Spanish-language radio ad that accuses rival Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant”
“This kind of language is more than just unfortunate. It’s inaccurate, inflammatory, and doesn’t belong in this campaign,” Rubio told The Miami Herald when asked about the ad.
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”

Michelle Malkin notes that Gingrich’s attack echoes Spanish-language ads by SEIU (!) making similar accusations against Romney, and adds:

The truth is that neither Gingrich nor Romney has a strong, consistent overall record on border security and enforcement. But at least Romney’s been traveling in the right direction…while Gingrich once again echoes left-wing language and plays the race card to get ahead.

Immigration is an issue where almost no one is tough enough to suit my inclinations. I’m somewhere off to the right of Tom Tancredo and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, waaaay out there. And you know something funny? Malkin linked a report card by the tough-on-immigration group Numbers USA ranking the current candidates for president.

Guess who scores the best grade? Just sayin’ . . .

Category: Election 2012, Florida, Immigration
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