The Other McCain

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

What’s In Mitt’s Wallet?

Posted on | January 17, 2012 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Perry cut right to income taxes at his first opportunity during the debate last night. Apparently, Mitt’s campaign has never heard of the Streisand Effect, where topics that really are of no interest (her house, his cash) become endlessly fascinating because people are so adamant about evading them.

Why was the otherwise firm and confident Mitt doing such a fine Fred Astaire on the tax topic?

First of all, I really don’t care. Private property should remain such. From that standpoint, I actually support Mitt’s reluctance. Again, though, the Streisand Effect: the fact that he’s hemming and hawing, draws attention to the question. His motives for evasion, far more than the details, are very much a question for the Dude Who Would Be POTUS.

What might Romney’s income tax returns reveal? I’ll do what Stacy hates, and speculate:

  • He might be in a tussle with the IRS, and legitimately need time to sort some legal issues.
  • If you’ve read Throw Them All Out, we might discover that he has made quite the pile o’ cash in various legal, but politically challenging ways. For example, Senator John Kerry was cited in TTAO for hauling in cash from legislative knowledge of health care stocks. I’m confident nothing like that could have possibly occurred in Mitt’s case, for all he must know quite a bit about the companies in the field as a result of RomneyCare. But releasing tax returns would help dispel such concerns.
  • It could be that Romney just, through no illegal action of his own, wound up within the 1% of the 1%, NTTAWWT, IYKWIMAITYD. I repeat: I don’t care, and class warfare sucks. But why not just go for some transparency on the point?

I guess if he locks in the delegates before disclosure, it’s all good.

Update: Daily Pundit wants transparency in exchange for his vote, which makes sense.

Category: Mitt Romney

LIVE AT FIVESEVEN 01.17.12

Posted on | January 17, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS

Going dark to protest SOPA

Wikipedia Joins Web Blackout SOPA Protest
Reddit, Boing Boing, others shutting down Wednesday in protest of “piracy” bill



Fuel Tanker Arrives At Iced-In Nome
Russian tanker makes port, starts oil pumping

Syrian Official Defects, Says Regime Will Fight At All Costs
Consensus is that most of the 5000 dead are victims of the Assad regime





POLITICS
As Rivals Attack Mitt’s Record, His Claims Spread Confusion

Mitt Romney unleashes awesome computational powers

Gingrich, Perry attacks not making anyone happy but the Dems

Walker Recall Organizers To Submit Petitions Today

Gingrich: My Positions Shouldn’t Offend Blacks


Rick Perry Stands By Marines Accused Of Urinating On Taliban

Border Patrol To Toughen Policy On Returning Illegals

Mississippi Pardons Spur Changes In Trusty Program



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Euro Zone Inflation Dips In December Opens Door To ECB Cut
PRC GDP Grows 8.9%
Spain’s Borrowing Costs Fall At Auction
U.K. Inflation Drops Sharply
Oil Rises To Three-Day High As Saudis Target $100 Crude Price
Steve Wozniak: 8 Reasons Android Is Better Than iOS
Facebook IPO Set For May
Nokia Windows Phone Now Free At Walmart
Hackers Hit Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Websites



SPORTS
Kobe Cools Off, But Fisher Saves Lakers

Kobe's run comes to an end

Bryant’s streak of 40-point games comes to an end, but Lakers still beat Mavs 73-70

Jayhawks Inflict First Loss Of Season On Baylor, 92-74



Elway Grudgingly Sticks With Tebow For 2012

LeBron James, Kobe Bryant To Play For U.S. Olympic Squad

England Crumbles Under Ajmal’s Off-Spin: 52 For Five On First Day At Dubai

Nationals, Flores Agree To One-Year Deal



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Brody Jenner, Avril Lavigne Split

Brody & Avril in happier times

Careers and relationship never quite in synch

Madonna Shrugs Off Elton John’s Fury Over Her Golden Globe: “I Don’t Feel Bad”

Jesse Metcalfe Engaged To Cara Santana

Golden Globes 2012 Fashion

Lindsay Lohan Sneaks Into Golden Globe Parties

Katy Perry Expected To Come Out Of Hiding At Marc Cuban’s Super Bowl Party

“Bachelorette” Star Kasey Kahl Arrested For Being A Drunken Mess

Kid Rock On Cigar: “Yeah, I Do Get Special Treatment”

If You Want To Participate In A Futile, Bizarre Giveaway Contest, The Carolina Hurricanes Have You Covered



FOREIGNERS
Divers Blast Holes In Cruise Ship Wreck; Missing Raised To 29
Reports: Syria Heading For Civil War
At Least 26 Dead, Many Injured In Beirut Building Collapse
Kim Jong Il’s Oldest Son Expects Nork Regime To Collapse
PM Cameron Says No New Yacht For The Queen, At Least Not In The Budget
Euro Parliament Chooses Germany’s Schulz For President Over Two UK Candidates



BLOGS & STUFF
Big Government: Controversy Mars Santorum’s Endorsement By Evangelical Leaders
Michelle Malkin: South Carolina – The Final Five
Legal Insurrection: Clarity
Pat Dollard: West Says He’d Step Up To The Plate If Asked To Run As VP
Weasel Zippers: Holder Uses MLK Day To Blast GOP Voter ID Proposals As Racist
Radio Equalizer: Arianna Huffington Slams First Lady Over Apparent Indifference To Poverty
Frank J.: Private Sector Experience? Oh, No!
Michael Walsh: The Strange Birth Of New York’s Gun Laws
Allen West: Mr. President, Please Don’t Play The Race Card In 2012


SOTD: Burnin’ For You

Category: Live at Five

SOUTH CAROLINA GOP DEBATE

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 33 Comments

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
UPDATE: 11:57 p.m. ET: The debate’s been over for an hour, and all the dudes who were just Twittering have left. Bandwidth is now excellent, but I’m on deadline for The American Spectator.

UPDATE: 10:42 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum says he voted 100% with the NRA: “lifetime A-plus rating.” Takes a shot at Ron Paul for voting against a bill to protect gun manufacturers.

UPDATE: 10:39 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney says he’s in favor of gun ownership, but does not threaten to shoot the Wi-Fi provider in the filing center, who is a varmint.

UPDATE: 10:33 p.m. ET: Wonderful discussion just now about Social Security reform. Bandwith issues on the WiFi again. I’m convinced Bain Capital should take over this WiFi system. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE: 10:27 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich pronounces Chile correctly: Chee-lay. Because he’s not “relatively stupid.”

UPDATE: 10:25 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney has a plan for everything — except fixing this f–king WiFi system, which is ruining my night.

UPDATE: 10:15 p.m. ET: Perry just suggested a “gong” would be appropriate for Ron Paul. Also, he name-checks Daniel Pearl.

UPDATE: 10:13 p.m. ET: Rick Perry talks Turkey. He wants to “go to zero” with their foreign aid.

UPDATE: 10:11 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum says, “President Obama has dealt with it about as badly as possible.” The question was about foreign policy and Syria, but the same answer could apply to anything Obama has done.

UPDATE: 10:08 p.m. ET: The past five minutes of debate were deleted by this hopelessly screwed-up WiFi system, which is controlled by warmongers on behalf of international bankers who don’t want you to know how awesome Ron Paul’s answers were.

UPDATE: 9:55 p.m. ET: Two guys in front of me, who are in here on media passes, aren’t writing a damned thing. They’re on Tweetdeck, however, chewing up bandwidth that I’d like to use to liveblog. Because they’re racist or something.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich is getting cheered for talking back to Juan Williams. Newt is pretty damned awesome in debates. Commercial break.

UPDATE: 9:52 p.m. ET: Excuse the long delay in liveblogging. The WiFi system here is discriminating against me. Because of Newt Gingrich, I think.

UPDATE: 9:41 p.m. ET: Ron Paul tries to distinguish between “military spending” and “defense spending,” and then wants to talk about “international banking,” but Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal won’t let him. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE: 9:38 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney just talked for about what seemed like 15 minutes. Maybe it just seemed that way because it’s Romney.

UPDATE: 9:36 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum is asked about unemployment benefits, and gives a good answer. Newt Gingrich gets a similar question and gives an awesome answer.

UPDATE: 9:32 p.m. ET: Rick Perry is asked about voting rights, and comes down somewhere to the right of John C. Calhoun. I’m pretty sure I heard a few rebel yells amid the applause from the audience.

UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. ET: After the commercial break, Mitt Romney is asked about Jon Huntsman’s “perfectly lubricated weathervane” comment. Mitt answers that he is not perfectly lubricated, but in fact sometimes squeaks when the wind blows.

UPDATE: 9:22 p.m. ET: Rick Perry jumps in and says, more or less, “States Rights!” That’s always an applause line in South Carolina.

UPDATE: 9:21 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum is tearing Mitt Romney a new one over Romney’s “super PAC” ads claiming Santorum supports felon voting rights.

UPDATE: 9:16 p.m. ET: Ron Paul is asked about why all the 9/11 Truthers love him — wait, no. He was asked about his attacks on Rick Santorum and said the regular stuff Ron Paul always says. Santorum responds: I’m from Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: 9:14 p.m. ET: Mitt was asked about something. Blahblahblah job creation blahblahblah put Americans back to work blahblahblah.

UPDATE: 9:12 p.m. ET: Rick Perry was asked about his “vulture capitalism” attack on Romney. He wants to get rid of Dodd-Frank. Mitt gets to respond, and sounds suspiciously vulture-like.

UPDATE: 9:10 p.m. ET: The first question — with two follow-ups — went to Newt Gingrich, who was somewhat weaselly in his answers to questions about his attacks on Mitt Romney. Then Mitt got a chance to respond and sounded very Mitt-ish.

UPDATE: 9:08 p.m. ET: Sorry for the slow start on the liveblogging. More than 200 reporters in this media filing center, and the WiFi connection is strained to the max.

– – – – – –

We’re here at the Sheraton Convention Center on Oak Street, ready to bring you the liveblogging at 9 p.m.

Category: Debates, Election 2012, South Carolina

South Carolina Pre-Debate Thread UPDATE: New Rick Santorum TV Ad in S.C. Hits Romney as ‘Just Like Obama’

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 12 Comments

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
We’re currently an hour and a half before the start of the South Carolina Republican presidential debate (9 p.m. ET, Fox News) and I’m set up here in the cavernous Media Filing Center at the Sheraton Convention Center. Thought I’d use this post to dump in a bunch of photos, videos, etc., beginning with this special video featuring my loyal assistant, 13-year-old son Jefferson:

Do what he says: It’s for the children!




UPDATE: The Rick Santorum campaign has just released this new TV ad in South Carolina:

The ad script:

Obama supported the Wall Street bailouts… So did Romney.
Obama gave us radical Obamacare… that was based on Romneycare. Obama’s a liberal on social issues.
Romney once bragged he’s even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues.
Why would we ever vote for someone who is just like Obama? When we can unite around Rick Santorum. And beat Obama.

Mark Halperin of Time magazine: “Amazing to think about what would have happened if this ad had been run in Iowa for all of December with real money behind it.”

Yeah, but imagine the impact it will have during five days in South Carolina. Surge, baby!

UPDATE II: Just interviewed Santorum communication director Hogan Gidley about the new ad. “Rick said today, it’s time to draw a line in the sand,” Gidley said, acknowledging that Santorum didn’t attack Romney until after the pro-Romney “super PAC” started airing ads here which Santorum said included “lies” about his record in Congress. “Mitt tried to do this to Huckabee in 2008,” said Gidley, who was executive director of the South Carolina state GOP at the time. “We’re not going to put up with it.”

UPDATE III: A couple of photos from today:

Ron Paul is not a Truther. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.

Rick Perry has exactly three supporters in South Carolina.

UPDATE IV: Via Allahpundit, now it’s Newt Gingrich making the “nobody but me” argument that was for many months the special property of Rick Perry’s supporters:

“If you vote for Sen. Santorum, in effect, you’re functionally voting for Gov. Romney to be the nominee.”

Yeah: Vote for the twice-divorced Freddie Mac lobbyist supported “green energy” with Nancy Pelosi and who is, by the way, the most divisive public figure in the history of divisive public figures. Because only he can beat Romney. That makes sense, right?

LIVEBLOGGING HERE!

Category: Debates, Election 2012, South Carolina

Fall Off The Planet, Harry Reid

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

What a walking monument to cretinism, as Hoft notes:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has failed to produce a budget in over 1000 days, told Face the Nation yesterday that the Republicans need to ditch the “tea party extremism.”

Funny thing to hear ‘ditch’ in the same context as Harry Reid. May he never find himself stretched out in one.
I’m really not sure which half of American Goatrope is worse:

via Gateway Pundit
Category: Democrats

How Low Will They Go? This Low.

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 63 Comments

Rick and Karen Santorum greet supporters
in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Jan. 16, 2012

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
I just got through covering Rick Santorum’s speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition event here. Afterwards, Senator Santorum, his wife Karen and their four oldest children — Elizabeth, John, Daniel and Sarah — greeted supporters here for tonight’s debate. The senator’s wife was kind enough to say a few words to my son Jefferson. who came along on this trip as my assistant.

So I came back to sit down and upload photos and video and check my e-mail, and there was an e-mail informing me that the Daily Beast has done a story about Mrs. Santorum’s ex-boyfriend from nearly 30 years ago, before she met her husband.

Stop and think about that for a minute, folks. I’m 52 — a year younger than the senator and a year older than his wife — and I’m thinking back to who I was and how I lived 30 years ago.

Would I want somebody doing a story based on an interview with one of my ex-girlfriends from back then? Would I want my wife and children and friends to read such a story?

Exactly what political relevance or news value this Daily Beast story has, I’m at a loss to explain, but I’m shocked that they would publish such a thing, especially considering how any critical inquiry into Barack Obama’s past associations was declared off-limits —  even racist — four years ago.

Update (Smitty): linked at The Camp of the Saints.

Category: Election 2012, Media Bias, Rick Santorum, South Carolina

A Simple Graph To Explain Why Merely Changing The Names On The Doorplates Means, Roughly, Jack

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

This is the Information Age. We’re using technology to streamline enterprises and improve profitability. Except in government. Technology, should, for a quick guess, be a liberating force. The laws, theoretically, ought to need less people to administer over time, no? Ha ha, quite the opposite: that word processer churns out even more laws, requiring even more clowns to pretend to administer.

I don’t agree with the title of the graph: this problem is not an Obama-centric one. It has everything to do with the nature of bureaucracy. While amputating Obama from the body politic and cauterizing the wound remains our first priority, in the longer run, asking ourselves who these civil servants are and are they really needed is a job that Has. Got. To. Be. Done.

via Protein Wisdom

Category: Uncategorized

Values UPDATE: Santorum Calls On Mitt To Release Tax Returns

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty


A refreshing 32-second palate cleanser. Godspeed, Rick.

via The Corner

Update: via The Hill

“I don’t know why he hasn’t released his tax returns. I think he should,” Santorum said in an interview Monday on the Laura Ingraham radio show. The former Pennsylvania senator added that it was important especially for “someone with [an] enormity of wealth,” like Romney.
“Well, let’s see how he manages his own economy,” Santorum said.

It isn’t clear what exactly Dr. Strange-glove buys through obscurity here. Are we going to discover Romney paid for Kenyans to attend Columbia, or something?

Update II: linked by The Lonely Conservative. And by the way, hasn’t Dr. Strange-glove’s campaign heard of The Streisand Effect? If there is some strategy behind what they are doing, please leave it in the comments.

Category: Rick Santorum
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