"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
by Smitty
This has been all over the net. Most recently from Power Line. But it showed up in the Reader along with the following, via iOwnTheWorld:
Sean Bielat, the Marine veteran who mounted a surprisingly strong Republican challenge to Barney Frank in the 2010 mid-term election, has sent a fundraising e-mail to his supporters, seeking contributions for his planned 2012 campaign for the Massachusetts 4th District seat.
In the e-mail, obtained exclusively by The Other McCain, Bielat seeks donations in the amount of $17 for his campaign, which he plans to announce officially Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Bielat’s likely Democrat opponent for the newly redistricted MA-4 seat will be Joseph Kennedy III.
“The Massachusetts Democrats are desperate to reclaim Barney Frank’s district and re-brand it as yet another ‘Kennedy Seat,'” Bielat wrote in the e-mail. “We can’t let this happen! Putting someone into office simply because of his family is bad for Massachusetts, and it’s bad for the nation.”
Strong online fundraising helped turn Bielat’s 2010 campaign against Frank into a race that garnered nationwide attention. After MA-4 was re-districted to include more Republican voters, Frank announced he would retire rather than seek re-election, a decision many attributed to the expectation that Bielat would once against run for the seat.
* * FULL TEXT OF BIELAT E-MAIL * *
January 12, 2012
Dear —-,
In 2010, I made it my goal to retire Barney Frank. With the help of thousands of people in Massachusetts and across the country, against all odds, we ran a highly competitive campaign against a 16 term incumbent in a gerrymandered district designed to protect him. We gave Barney Frank quite a scare and many pundits have suggested that our efforts played a significant role in his recent retirement announcement. While we fell a bit short on Election Day, we built a network of people who cared enough about tomorrow to get involved today.
2010 was also an amazing year for me personally. My wife Hope and I were blessed with our first child, Theodore. In 2011, were blessed once again, with the birth of our daughter, Seraphina. As all parents know, having a child changes your view of the world and gives you a new sense of purpose. Suddenly, changing this country’s course to build an America with even more promise became less of an abstraction.
Many people have asked if would consider another run for Congress. Running for office isn’t a decision to be taken lightly, and Hope and I weighed the pros and cons of another run. After much consideration, it all came down to this–We looked into our kids’ eyes and asked ourselves:
“What can we do to provide the best possible future for our children?”
The answer was clear. Simply resting on past accomplishments, and patting ourselves on the back for whatever role we played in Barney Frank’s decision to retire, wouldn’t be enough. In order to create the right future for our kids and our country, we must continue to work. For this reason, I’m happy to say that I will be a candidate for Congress once again in 2012.
Recently I sent a tweet regarding my plans for 2012.
@SeanBielat I have made a decision re: another run for Congress. Save the date: January 17th. #tcot #mapoli #MA04
This simple tweet appears to have helped launch a campaign…not mine, mind you, but that of Joe Kennedy III, the grandson of Robert Kennedy and son of Citizens Energy Director Joe Kennedy II. The Massachusetts Democrats are desperate to reclaim Barney Frank’s district and re-brand it as yet another “Kennedy Seat”. We can’t let this happen! Putting someone into office simply because of his family is bad for Massachusetts, and it’s bad for the nation. Sending more people to Washington spouting the same tired rhetoric is perhaps worse.
Wasn’t 30 years of Barney Frank enough? Wasn’t 64 consecutive years of Kennedys in Congress enough? Now Democratic Party insiders think that they can replace Barney with yet another Kennedy, a young man who has never lived in the district, but has a famous last name, to secure a seat for another several decades.
That’s why I need your immediate support. My formal announcement is on January 17th, but we are at work already. My goal is to raise $25,000 by the time I announce–that gives us just over 4 days.
Please consider donating $17 to commemorate January 17th, the date we officially begin the effort to elect a new voice for Massachusetts. The Kennedy family will be able to raise huge amounts of money without difficulty; however, ours is a grassroots campaign and we will only win with your help. Please contribute if you’re able to.
The people of Massachusetts deserve better. The country deserves better. Our kids deserve better. We need to stop the runaway progressive train and put America back on the right track. Your donation will go a long way toward restoring jobs, preserving our liberty and security, and bringing about some “change” that actually makes sense. It’s time to restore America’s greatness. Can you help us? Donate today!
Thanks for taking the time to read this note and thanks for being willing to get involved in shaping this country’s future!
Sincerely,
Sean Bielat
Candidate for US Congress
Massachusetts-District 4
p.s. In 2010, we showed that we could take on an entrenched incumbent like Barney Frank. Now the 4th District is much more competitive due to redistricting, and since it’s an open seat, we have an excellent chance of winning…but only if we get the support we need.
Sean Bielat (R-MA) is a US Marine, a successful businessman and a proud father. To donate now, visit SeanBielat.org. Please also follow his tweets and posts on Twitter and Facebook and share his updates across your online networks..
‘The Phantom Menace’ in Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 9, 2011
“Perry’s decision to make his announcement in South Carolina was widely viewed at the time as a genius move that would lock down his support in a crucial early primary state, and once he emerged as the most viable conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, Perry would have no trouble making up whatever he’d lost in Iowa by dissing Ames.
“Such was the conventional wisdom in August . . .”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Oct. 17, 2011
“There could be some populist cred for Perry if big donors tied to Wall Street start leaving him, but that’s a big trade-off for the funding Perry desperately needs in South Carolina. If he can’t put ads on the air and compete with Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich, then Perry won’t go anywhere in his last-gasp effort to stay in the race. He’s already at the bottom of the pack in the latest Insider Advantage poll, at 5%. Even Jon Huntsman scores better than Perry in South Carolina, at 7%.”
— Ed Morrissey, Jan. 12, 2012
“Oops he did it again. When asked to name and provide the number of federal departments he’d eliminate as president, Texas Gov. Rick Perry managed to list three, but they weren’t the three agencies he consistently names on the stump or that he attempted to name when he committed his now infamous ‘oops’ moment.”
— ABC News, Jan. 13, 2012
“Mitt Romney still holds first place in the South Carolina Primary field, while his opponents jockey for second with the voting eight days away.”
— Rasmussen Reports, Jan. 13, 2012
While I was in New Hampshire, I occasionally startled my hosts with outbursts of profanity, cussing my way toward deadline. It’s my theory that unless you thoroughly cuss out your computer once in a while, the damned things become arrogant. So I’d be sitting there in Mike Rogers’s kitchen, frustrated by the effort of trying to upload a video, and suddenly erupt in a fit of vulgar shouting at my laptop.
But it’s not just the computer that’s testing my patience these days. It’s also the campaign itself. Because I see a widespread confusion prevailing among conservatives that has been generated by the same bandwagon-jumpers who, in August, kept telling us that the Mighty Rick Perry Juggernaut was going to roll all the way to Tampa and then on to the White House.
The Perry myth — “Howdy, Thank You, Erick“ — has gone through several permutations in the months since Perry’s debate disasters torpedoed his poll numbers. But the myth has enjoyed a zombie afterlife in the form of a phrase that the Perrybots made ubiquitous back in the heyday of the Smilin’ Texan’s frontrunner glory:
“A Vote for [Blank] Is a Vote for Romney”
You could fill in the blank with any name — Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, whoever — and it didn’t matter to the stooges and shills who were riding aboard the Mighty Rick Perry Juggernaut. Their peculiar variation on the Bandwagon Fallacy involved not merely the hyping of Perry as The Only Man Who Could Beat Romney™, but also the orchestrated derogation of any other “Not Romney” candidate.
Ergo, supporters of all other Republicans were dismissed as hopelessly naive: “Don’t you know that a vote for [your candidate] is a vote for Romney?” Continue reading Campaign-Induced Tourette’s Syndrome →
by Smitty
Meghan McCain, the daughter of Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, often refers to herself as a Republican, but rarely as a “conservative.” And on Wednesday night’s broadcast of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” she suggested former President Ronald Reagan would fall in line with her — especially on the issue of same-sex marriage.
See, Maggie, the debt just blew by the GDP, and #OccupyResoluteDesk is trying to panhandle another $1.2 trillion.
Now, Maggie, you might, at a high level of abstraction, you might call what the President has done to the Constitution, the economy, and our culture as a form of sodomy.
But it’s substantially the case that most are worried about. . .federal government, not feral gay problems. Less, not more, sexuality in politics, please.
via Fire Jim Moran
by Smitty
Who is this Rand Paul guy, and why is he violating the Iron Law of Bureaucracy?
The half million dollars represents about 16 percent of Paul’s annual budget. He contended no senator had returned as much to taxpayers, though at least two senators disputed that claim. An aide to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said his office returned $636,036 in unspent money to the Treasury in Fiscal Year 2010 and another $503,161 in 2011.
Somebody tell Paul that Progress sucks, as in moving budgets in the vertical direction.
via Bluegrass Pundit
by Smitty (via Pundette)
At least that’s the French verb ‘to impale’, to answer Pundette’s question “What’s the French word for ‘skewered’?”
People can say what they like about Bain. My chief gripe is that there is one candidate with a history of swinging a meat cleaver when required, sure, but the one whose putting the frogskins where his mouth is happens to be someone else.
In 2008, Republicans nominated John McCain’s war record, and we got four years of #OccupyResoluteDesk. Mitt has the cash, even if his tax returns are as visible as Obama’s college transcripts, but is his business record going to save us from four more years of #OccupyResoluteDesk, or merely provide a convenient Gekko figure from which Obama can ‘save’ the country?
As much as Ron Paul’s past and foreign policy positions make him hard to consider for the nomination, I hope that he continues to do well and help the GOP dislodge its head from that sunless location.
Also, via Colmes, Dogs Against Romney features a famous female, But I Think Cattiness Hinders.
— compiled by Wombat-socho
TOP NEWS
Torn Between Defending And Attacking Romney
Loving capitalism while hating Romney: the backlash against the Bain Capital attacks
Security Expert Agrees With Tehran: It’s The JOOOOS!
Professor says scientist’s death has all the hallmarks of a Mossad hit
Missing Alabama Teen Declared Dead
Judge closes door on Natalee Holloway
POLITICS
Gov. Haley’s Support For Romney Shocks Tea Party
“It was like your best friend took up with a really bad boyfriend.” – Karen Martin, Spartanburg Tea Party
Sioux Tribe Looks To Teens To Revive Demand For Buffalo
Michigan Judge Jails Bridge Owners For Contempt
Officer Recommends Court-Martial For Wikileaker
Obama Back For Another $1.2 Billion Increase In Debt Limit
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Announces Retirement
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Euro, Stocks Up Ahead Of Italian Debt Sale
Delta May Try To Buy Troubled AMR
Brent Rises Above $112 On Supply Fears
CIT Reportedly Stops Backing Sears Supplier Loans
Home Depot Accelerating Plans To Hire 70,000 Seasonal Workers
Wall Street Ekes Out Gains For Fourth Day
For Investors, It’s All About The Dividends
December Retail Sales Weak, Jobless Claims Up
Angry Crowd Eggs Beijing Apple Store After iPhone 4S Launch Botched
EPIC To FTC: Revamped Google Search May Violate Privacy, Antitrust Rules
Buyers Hang On For Cheaper, Faster Windows 8 Ultrabooks
No High Score For Video Game Sales In 2011
CEO Confirms Dish Network To Close More Blockbuster Stores Than Originally Planned
SPORTS
Magic Center Howard Smashes Free Throw Record
Breaks 50-year-old record set by Wilt The Stilt; scores 45 points with 23 rebounds in Orlando victory over Golden State
43 All Out! Sri Lanka Hits New Low
Habs Trade Cammalleri To Calgary
Hawks’ Al Horford Injures Pectoral, Expected To Miss Three Months
Grizzlies End Knicks’ Streak At Four With 94-83 Win
Daytona Testing Underway, Danica Begins Prep For 500
Red Wings Top Coyotes In Shootout, Jimmy Howard Gets 100th Win
Used Car Salesman Gets Two-Year Extension As MLB Commish
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Heather Locklear Hospitalized After 911 Call
TMZ says it’s booze and prescription pills
Madonna Worried The Royals Will Hate Her
Sinead O’Connor Seeks Help On Twitter After Suicide Attempt
Halle Berry Says It’s NOT An Engagement Ring!
Minka Kelly Snubbed Jake Gyllenhaal
Celebrity Trainer Tracy Anderson Is Pregnant
Camille Grammer: Why I’m Keeping Kelsey’s Last Name
Brittany Murphy’s Dad Sues L.A. Coroner, Disagrees On Cause Of Death
“Vampire Diaries” Stars Laugh Off Proposal Rejection Rumors
FOREIGNERS
Despite Video Outrage, No Halt To Peace Talk Moves
Taliban Say Marine Video Won’t Hurt Afghan Talks
Burma Frees High-Profile Dissidents In Amnesty
Candidates Make Final Push Ahead Of Taiwan Vote
Haiti Marks Anniversary Of Devastating Earthquake
Shimon Peres Denies Israel’s Involvement In Iranian Assassinations
Pakistan PM Gilani: I Don’t Need Confidence Vote
Japan PM Noda Reshuffles Cabinet After Embarrassing Gaffes
Thousands Of Gay Marriages Performed In Canada May Not Be Legal
BLOGS & STUFF
Powerline: What Really Happened In Gaffney?
JustOneMinute: Battling Back On Bain
Riehl World View: The GOP Is Embarrassing Itself
Althouse: The Left Blogosphere Freaks Out Over Its Own Inability To Distinguish Between Hard To Believe And Falsifiable
Mark Meckler: Now That NYC Gun Charges Have Been Dropped, I Can Speak Out
Atlas Shrugs: Obama Hated And Refused Photos With Troops
Mediaite: C-SPAN Getting Hammered With Prank Calls About Romney’s Package
American Thinker: A Portrait Of The First Lady As An Angry Young Woman
Weasel Zippers: Holder’s Justice Department Backs Obama’s Illegal Pro Forma “Recess” Appointment
Zilla Of The Resistance: Flames, Fevers, Furnaces, And Other Fun Stuff
Lonely Conservative: Conservatives Outnumber Moderates, Liberals
SOTD: Cosmik Debris
by Smitty
Virginia Right points to Open Secrets, where, nestled cosily amongst the usual suspects for a Democrat, we see Bain Capital supporting former governor Timmy Kaine in his bid to replace Jim “Browser” Webb in the Senate.
“Just how Conservative is Mitt Romney?” asks Virginia Right. The CPAC propaganda arrived today, and I see Willard Mitt is on the agenda. Hopefully it goes better than the Protecting the American Dream Summit in November, where WMR went over like the Beatitudes in a synagogue.