The Other McCain

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

Romney: Maybe If I Make My Positions Sound Current, I Can Win

Posted on | December 22, 2011 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

Byron York, via Instapundit:

“You don’t think we would have gone in [to Iraq]?” asked MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.

“Well, of course not,” Romney answered. “The president went in based upon intelligence that they had weapons of mass destruction. Had he known that that was not the case, the U.N. would not have put forward resolutions authorizing this type of action. The president would not have been pursuing that course.”

Romney’s statement on MSNBC is not only a change from what he said on Fox a few days ago. It’s also a change from his position during his first run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2007-2008. In a January 2008 GOP debate in Florida, Romney was asked, “Was the war in Iraq a good idea worth the cost in blood and treasure we have spent?” Romney answered: “It was the right decision to go into Iraq. I supported it at the time; I support it now.”

What I want to hear from candidates is not only their current position on a question, but the reasoning behind the change from “I support it now” to “Well, of course not.”

Has the candidate switched advisors? Has he read some new book on the topic? Opinions evolve. Positions change as new information emerges. Got it. How about a little help here to walk back the whole Ministry of Truth feel?

Category: Iraq, Mitt Romney

Cli-Fi And Radical Feminism Go Together Like Czars And #OccupyResoluteDesk

Posted on | December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Thanks to Paco for ‘Cli-Fi’, which would expand to ‘climate fiction’, clearly. Equally brilliant: ‘an Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues‘. Melanne Verveer’s post was created by President Obama on April 6, 2009, yet does not appear to be on the usual czar list. Fortunately, if we all chip in $40/week, we can cover the pay of all the Czars, even the ones who are too stealthy for us to know about.
Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh informs us in Canada Free Press:

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, traveled to Durban, South Africa to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in order “to highlight the critical and largely untapped potential of women to combat climate change.” Who knew that women were so powerful that they could affect climate change!
As I read this brief report, I envisioned billions of dollars washing down the proverbial drain with the blessing of an eager administration to re-distribute our “socially unjust” and “unfairly earned, evil capitalist” wealth.
Ambassador-at-Large Melanne Verveer mentioned studies that have shown that women “are on the frontline of, and suffer disproportionately from, the impacts of climate change.” As I googled women’s suffering from the impact of climate change, I found no such studies.

Read the whole thing. Now, Dr. Paugh, what you’ve missed here is that we’re talking about Man-made Global Warming. Clearly, all of that thermal energy is radiated by the Y-chromosome, and thus we need brave truth-tellers like Verveer to speak truth to heat-generating power, and unplug it.

#OccupyResoluteDesk is all about redistributing wealth, but never political power.

Category: Barack Obama, Global Warming

Senior Game Player, Gamely, Denies Game In Progress

Posted on | December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Smitty


Hey, Steny, get stuffed, OK? There hasn’t been a budget from the Democrat-controlled Senate in the better part of a thousand days. People are reading Throw Them All Out, for all a quick search on the Kindle reveals no ‘Hoyer’ hits. Good work!

Still, no one with more than two active brain cells believes your hooey.

via Bluegrass Pundit

Update: linked at Red Alexandria.

Category: Democrats

LIVE AT FIVEEIGHT – 12.22.11

Posted on | December 22, 2011 | 6 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Rush Hour Bomb Blasts In Baghdad Kill 27, Wound 133

An Iraqi soldier guards a burned-out truck in Baghdad's Alawi district

Bombings occur against backdrop of renewed Sunni/Shia political friction

Democrats Seek Victory In Payroll Tax Cut Struggle
Democratic ops claim Speaker Boehner will cave

PRC Travel Agents Halt Pyongyang Tours
No cheap holidays in other peoples’ misery while mourning for Dear Leader continues



POLITICS
Mitt, Newt Trade Barbs In Iowa Ads

Newt Gingrich speaks at the University of Iowa in Iowa City

Gingrich challenges Romney to one-on-one debate
Team Newt Scrambles To Get On Virginia Ballot

Army Transfers Eight After Afghanistan Suicide



Romney Taking Aim At Obama Again

Wikileaker’s Defense Rests After Calling Two Witnesses

California Woman Charged With Funding Terrorism

Arpaio Investigation Drawing Mixed Reviews From Activists



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Stock Index Futures Point Higher
ECB President Draghi Warns On Eurozone Breakup
BoA To Settle Discrimination Charges For $335 Million
Minorities inexplicably excluded from home mortgage hosing inflicted on middle class
Chicago Sun-Times To Be Sold For More Than $20 Million
After A Year Of Disasters, Toyota Sees Record Sales
EPA Sets Controversial Cuts In Power Plant Emissions
Oil Rises For Fourth Day As U.S. Supplies Drop Most In A Decade
Micorsoft And CES: Mutual Backstabbing?
7″ LCD Panels Outselling 9.7″ Models
Amazon Updates Kindle Fire Software, Fixes Some Nagging Issues
Verizon To Get Probed By Justice Department?
Mozilla Releases Tablet-Friendly Firefox 9 For Android



SPORTS
Ninety Days, Floyd! When You’re Hot, You’re Hot!

Floyd Mayweather, 42-0 in ring, takes first loss in court

Pleads guilty to domestic violence; sentence puts Pacquiao fight in doubt

42-Yard TD Pass Lifts #16 Horned Frogs To Victory In Poinsettia Bowl



Harrison Barnes, Tarheels Dominate Texas

McCoy’s Concussion Prompts NFL Changes

$20 Million Can Buy Quality Time With Mr. Met

AJ Allmendinger Gets Coveted Kurt Busch Ride With Penske

Nyets’ Big Guy Kris Humphries Glad To Return



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Why Marc Anthony Wants J-Lo To Suffer

Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez: FILLED WITH HATE

Divorce proceedings turning nasty over custody issues

Helen Mirren Set To Guest Star On “Glee”

Slim, Radiant Adele “Back On The Grind” After Surgery

“Real Housewives Of NJ”‘s Joe Giudice Indicted On Impersonation, Fraud Charges


Mark Sanchez In Huddle With Victoria’s Secret Beauty

Harrison Ford Signed For “Ender’s Game”

Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel Engaged?

Meryl Streep Primed To Play Thatcher In “The Iron Lady”



FOREIGNERS
Brent Crude Hits $108 After Iraq Bombings
Nork Media Dubs Kim Jong Un “Outstanding Leader”
French Assembly Debates Armenian Genocide As Turks Act Thuggish
Close To End Of Presidency, Medvedev Urges Sweeping Electoral Reforms
U.S. Erred In Deadly Attack On Pakistani Border Post
PRC Officials Offer Rare Compromise To Rebellious Villagers
Pakistani Army Wants Zardari Out, But Not Coup
Lieberman Didn’t Write Europe Condemnation, Ministry Says
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Seeks Secular State
Ethiopia Convicts Two Swedish Journalists Of Supporting Terrorism



BLOGS & STUFF
NRO Corner: Boehner Hanging Tough In Payroll Tax Cut Fight
Weasel Zippers: Romney Agrees Obama’s Drunk Driving, Illegal Alien Uncle Should Be Deported
Gateway Pundit: Matt Damon Rips Obama, Says He’d Prefer One-Term President With Balls
Sister Toldjah: Budget Cuts Called For In LA To Offset High Cost of Filthy Occupier Hippies
PJ Tatler: Ron Paul In 1988 (Update: Walks Out Of CNN Interview Over Newsletter Questions)
Big Peace: Romney Says We Shouldn’t Have Invaded Iraq
Yid With Lid: 50 Best Political Quotes Of 2011
Lonely Conservative: Kim Jong-Il, Statism, Starvation, And The Stupid Ladies Of The View
Dorothy Rabinowitz: What Ron Paul Thinks Of America
Legal Insurrection: Shock – Totally Misleading Story About Newt Saying Gays Should Vote For Obama
GayPatriot: Putting Newt’s Response To A Gay Iowan In Context
Michael J. Totten: The Levantine Unraveling
Atlas Shrugs: 34 Congressmen Bow To Hamas-Tied CAIR, Demand Probe Of NYPD Anti-Terror Measures
American Thinker: Adolescent Hackers Post Cops’ Private Data In Retaliation For OWS Evictions


SOTD: Tomorrow

Category: Live at Five

God-Hating Feminist Blogger Denounces Iowa Republicans and Rick Santorum

Posted on | December 22, 2011 | 11 Comments

Let the undecided Iowans be undecided no more. Rick Santorum has been denounced by the notorious Amanda Marcotte:

Right on schedule, Rick Santorum is getting a push in Iowa amongst people who probably don’t know how to use the googles anyway. . . . It’s important to remember that while Iowa wingnuts are wingnutty in all the usual ways, they prioritize “bitches ain’t sh-t” way more than the Republican voters do in other states, and so Santorum’s puppy dog-like excitement for portraying women as life support systems for uteruses and nothing more will probalby [sic] help him in Iowa. It’s the main reason that Huckabee — who was less noisy in his opposition to contraception than Santorum, but who still was perceived as the most gleefully misogynist Republican contender last time around — won the caucus. Perhaps next cycle, we’ll see a candidate who has supported legislation to paint scarlet letters on sexually active women’s clothes pull ahead in Iowa.
I just don’t see why there’s so much fuss over Iowa. . . . whoever wins Iowa doesn’t really matter, does it? . . . Iowa is just a many month battle for Republicans to compete for the title of Who Hates Women the Most. . . . If you’re really mired, as the Iowa Republicans are, in the notion that any use of the vagina for anything other than pushing out babies is seriously wrong and needs to be punished severely, you’d think that Bachmann’s willingness to go there . . . would do it for you. But maybe anxieties about voting for a woman are drowning that out.
Point is, a little ritualistic fealty to the gods of f–king over the ladies, while disgusting, doesn’t seem to have that much of an impact on who eventually gets the nomination.

Perhaps, as Ms. Marcotte suggests, Iowa Republicans are too stupid to use Google, in which case I’ll helpfully remind you exactly who she is:

  • In January 2007, Ms. Marcotte was hired as “blogmaster” for the John Edwards presidential campaign;
  • As soon as her hiring became public knowledge, Ms. Marcotte’s long history of hateful epithet-strewn extremist rants — against Republicans, against “misogyny,” against religion, etc. — became a subject of controversy;
  • In response to the controversy, Ms. Marcotte attempted to cover-up her history by deleting some of her past rants at her blog Pandagon; but
  • Unfortunately for Ms. Marcotte, conservative activists had already collected caches of the deleted rants.

Among the most notorious of Ms. Marcotte’s rants was a Pandagon post from Jan. 21, 2007, concerning the “rape” hoax prosecution of the Duke University lacrosse team, in which she wrote:

Naturally, my flight out of Atlanta has been delayed. Let’s hope it takes off when they say it will so I don’t miss my connecting flight home.
In the meantime, I’ve been sort of casually listening to CNN blaring throught the waiting area and good f–king god is that channel pure evil. I had to listen how the poor dear lacrosse players at Duke are being persecuted just because they held somone down and f–ked her against her will — not rape, of course, because the charges have been thrown out. Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all would up about it? So unfair.

As was eventually demonstrated, of course, the Duke players had been falsely accused by a habitual criminal who had become angry after a dispute over payment for her services as a stripper. Despite a lack of real evidence against the players, they were prosecuted by a Democrat district attorney who was concerned about his re-election. The prosecutor was subsequently disbarred and the Duke players were exonerated.

Ms. Marcotte’s grossly unfair and inflammatory post about the Duke case was only one of countless such unhinged rants she’d posted at Pandagon. She seems incapable of writing two consecutive sentences without “f–k” or “sh-t,” despises Christianity and its adherents — “Godbags,” as she calls them — and views all opposition to abortion as motivated by “misogyny.”

These habits make her extremely popular with the progressive Left, which was why Edwards hired her along with another feminist blogger, Melissa McEwan. But Ms. Marcotte’s anti-religious diatribes included such items as this:

Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?
A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.

Even Iowa Republicans — whom Ms. Marcotte says are too stupid to use Google — would not be surprised that this blasphemy was considered outrageous by William Donohue of the Catholic League:

The head of a conservative Catholic group is demanding that former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, fire two of his campaign bloggers, charging that they are “anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash talking bigots.” . . .
The Catholic League president said the language is “incendiary, it’s inflammatory. It’s scurrilous and has no place being part of someone’s resume who’s going to work for a potential presidential contender.”In a statement released by the Catholic League, Donohue laid the blame at the bloggers’ feet. “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar, trash-talking bigots,” he said. “He has no choice but to fire them immediately.”

A prominent Catholic Democrat, New York attorney Brian O’Dwyer, also demanded that Marcotte be fired:

“The blogger’s continuing hostility to Catholics and other Christians, especially in the centrality of the Virgin birth, is both morally wrong and, for Senator Edwards, politically stupid. Senator Edwards was horribly flawed in refusing to see the importance of how offensive the blogger’s earlier comments were to people of faith. This latest so-called review, published after Edwards refused to fire her for earlier anti-Catholic writings, should now wake him up and lead him to finally do the right thing as his campaign tries to move forward. Bigotry of any kind should have no role in the Democratic Party, or in any presidential campaign.”

Within a week both Ms. Marcotte and Ms. McEwan were compelled to resign, a decision that Ms. Marcotte specifically blamed on Donohue and the Catholic League:

Unfortunately, Bill Donohue and his calvacade of right wing shills don’t respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills . . . Bill Donohue — anti-Semite, right wing lackey whose entire job is to create non-controversies in order to derail liberal politics — has been running a scorched earth campaign to get me fired for my personal beliefs and my writings on this blog.
In fact, he’s made no bones about the fact that his intent is to “silence” me, as if he — a perfect stranger — should have a right to curtail my freedom of speech. Why? Because I’m a woman? Because I’m pro-choice? Because I’m not religious? All of the above, it seems.

See Michelle Malkin’s archives for much more.

Iowa Republicans will, I hope, forgive the necessity of my recounting at such length this background information about Amanda Marcotte, but she says you’re too stupid to use Google, you see.

And you also see how Amanda Marcotte — who fantasizes about using “Plan B” to abort the baby Jesus —  has singled out Rick Santorum as the Republican candidate she hates the most.

Isn’t this hateful rant from Amanda Marcotte the strongest possible endorsement for Rick Santorum? Iowa, be undecided no more!

RICK SANTORUM for PRESIDENT
Because Amanda Marcotte Really, Really Hates Him

Update (Smitty): linked at Ric’s Rulez.

Category: Feminism, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Behold, I Bring You Peace, Goodwill, and Also This Gratuitous Vintage Pinup Girl

Posted on | December 21, 2011 | 19 Comments

There are exactly two kinds of ideas in the blogosphere:

  1. Bad ideas; and
  2. Ideas worth stealing.

Therefore I’ll begin with a hat-tip to William Teach at Pirate’s Cove, from whom I swiped the idea of using vintage cheesecake to grab attention for an odds-and-ends aggregation — as Jimmie Bise of Sundries Shack calls it, “clearing the browser tabs.”

Jeff Goldstein has a long post in which he talks about “offending some with my use of the word ‘incestuous’ [to describe certain aspects of the conservative blogosphere] though it strikes me from my recent attendance at BlogCon that the networking that goes on there is intended to bring about just such relationships, which doesn’t make the relationships inherently bad — but does describe figuratively the way opinion is often disseminated through a hierarchy of sorts.”

You should read the whole thing, which involves what I was feeling bad about yesterday: The discord caused by the (evidently advance-coordinated) endorsements of Rick Perry by Ace of Spades, Red State and Mike Flynn.

My own reaction was, “Are you freaking crazy? Perry? Really?”

However, some other bloggers who were more favorably disposed toward Perry — and I guess Jeff is included in that number (Correction: Jeff endorsed Bachmann) — were left to wonder why they didn’t get invited to participate in this JournoList-style conspiracy on behalf of the Smilin’ Texan. But I’ve gotten bad vibes from the Perry campaign from the get-go, and sowing enmity and suspicion in the blogosphere is just what could have been expected. And since we’re on the topic of doomstruck campaigns . . .

Newt Gingrich supporter Bill Quick is magnanimous:

The whole notion that news reporters have to be unbiased is hokum, by the way. It gained currency in the twentieth century, mostly as the left took over the mainstream media (and the journalism schools, another 20th century development). Like much in the march of the left through western civil society, it was a tactic, a deliberately designed lie to cover up the fact that the journalism establishment was biased to the hard left, to the point that Walter Duranty could visit the Stalin’s murderous Soviet Union and come back singing paens of “unbiased” rhapsodic praise for it.
Give me an honest reporter any day — and that includes being honest about his own opinions and biases.

Despite being wrong about Newt, Bill is right about this: Prior to the 20th century, newspapers were almost always blatantly partisan in their political outlook. The ostentatious pose of journalistic neutrality was, as Quick says, invented by liberals for nefarious purposes. A story can be factually accurate without being neutral, let alone “fair and balanced.”

I’m tempted to dig up the obituary I wrote for The Washington Times when former CPUSA Chairman Gus Hall died, just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. But trust me: Readers were not left in doubt as to whether a no-good Commie traitor like Gus Hall was doomed to everlasting torment in the flames of Hell — a neutral, objective fact.

Speaking of neutral objectivity: For all I know, Shushanna Walshe of ABC News could be to the left of Gus Hall in her politics, but her daily “Good Morning, Iowa” digest is must reading, if you want to know what’s happening in the Iowa caucus campaign. I found it by accident while Googling for a particular item about Rick Santorum and was strongly impressed by this massive and nearly comprehensive aggregation.

And in other news:

OK, so much for tonight’s foray into Blog Ideas Worth Stealing. On the other hand, there are Bad Ideas like publicly drooling all over a candidate you haven’t officially endorsed. Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell.

UPDATE: What would an odds-and-ends headline aggregation be without a shameless profit opportunity, huh?

Yeah, there’s no way that Amazon order is going to reach you in time for Christmas now, but the great deals continue and you can buy some more great stuff for you, right?

Category: Blogging, Neutral Objective Journalism, Rule 5

War With Iran? Cue The Fear!

Posted on | December 21, 2011 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Instapundit relays the Mead:

In a recent interview with CBS news anchor Scott Pelley, Panetta said “the United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us”. He continued: “We will take whatever steps are necessary to stop them”. A nuclear Iran is “unacceptable”. When US secretaries talk about “whatever steps are necessary” they are not usually talking about holding one more meeting of the sanctions committee. They are thinking shock and awe rather than cookies and tea.
Panetta said the Iranians could have a bomb in a year or less; we’ve heard this before. The point is, Washington doesn’t believe the mullahs have stopped building. Unless that changes, the Obama administration is headed toward war with Iran, quite possibly before November of 2012.

I view any of this through the lens of Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi Arabia.

For all the hue and cry about Israel this, and the Palestinians that, keep in mind the two real drivers in the region are the Shiite/Sunni tension and regime security for the oil producers. The former is about faith; the latter, cash.

Nobody really wants to see a dirty bomb, and the technological and ecological fallout from that. That hypothetical bomb, like virginity, is a one-shot deal. Short of direct physical threat to regime survival, pickling off a nuke, even a dirty bomb, just isn’t all that likely.

Ah, but the teasing one can engage in! As with the aforementioned virginity, the knowledge that a country is in the nuclear club really puts some extra shake in the hips. Which is why our various OPEC allies in the region don’t mind having the Great Satan flex a bit in the region.

Too, saber rattling is always worth points in the polls. And maybe he’ll even be able to contend that pulling the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan was to reconstitute them for the shiny new effort.

Another war? Sure. And now, from 30 years ago, let the band Fear take it away:

Bonus, for Vodka Pundit: “I Believe I’ll Have Another Beer“

Category: Instapundit, Iran, Saudi Arabia

Dear Mr. Cain

Posted on | December 21, 2011 | 22 Comments

Who cares, at this point, that Robert Costa got “the exit interview” instead of me? I’m over it, and too busy planning for my Iowa trip to worry much about it now. But this kind of bothered me:

The media: When Cain launched his campaign, “I didn’t realize how vicious it was and I didn’t realize how one-sided it was,” he says. “For the people who say we could have handled it differently, send me the plan. . . . If I make a mistake, criticize me fairly. But if you’re going to take a tape that’s 40 minutes long and pull out 15 seconds and forget about the other 39 minutes and 45 seconds, that’s a disservice to the American people. It gives [journalism] a bad name.”

Agreed. But if you’re wondering now how you might “have handled [the media] differently,” be aware that some of your friends who actually work in the media tried to offer advice, but were ignored by your staff.

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Media Bias
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