The Other McCain

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

Let’s Be Extra-Accurate Here

Posted on | December 8, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Daily Pundit:

America can win any war it chooses to fight, quickly and permanently.
The leftists, internationalists, and other creeps who have veto power in our nation’s governance just refuse to let us do so.

The snarky reply is that, sure, you can roll over anyone you like, but can you send enough hippies to #Occupy?

The less snarky reply is that it’s really hard for a national leader to hold the Clausewitzian Triangle together. Even when there is some justification, e.g. the Civil War or Iraq, Presidents like Lincoln and Bush face massive blowback for their policies.

And with justification. Keeping this short, I won’t re-hash Lincoln or Bush’s war records, but the point is that our system means that everybody in a position of power is answerable. OK, maybe not Ben Bernanke, but still: everybody whose decisions can lead to immediate loss of life, if not money, is answerable.

Holding the Rooseveltian ‘Big Stick’ is fine, and we shouldn’t get too Ron Paulish about relinquishing it. And the occasional flexing of the muscle behind that stick isn’t a bad thing. Yet less is more. The fact that the Left can yap is a sign of strength, not weakness. Admittedly, they need to think through why they can yap a bit more often. That too is healthy.

Having visited some suck-tacular corners of the planet (Afghanistan, Indonesia) I, for one, have scant interest in seeing U.S. expeditions heading that way. I’m sorry, is it politically incorrect to say that those places suck? HINT: move to one of them, and your criticism of my opinion will have more weight. It’s one thing to enjoy the notion of Team America: World Police. It’s quite another to wake up in a suck-tacular place and remind yourself why you’re there. 🙂

Category: Blogging, Foreigners

In the Presence of His Newtness

Posted on | December 8, 2011 | 36 Comments

Newt Gingrich speaks Wednesday at the Republican Jewish Coalition
2012 Presidential Forum, Washington, D.C. (Photo by Robert Stacy McCain)

Is it just me, or does Newt Gingrich constantly emit the signal that we should be grateful he has condescended to communicate with us mere mortals? And do Republicans really want to nominate this guy?

Polls say, “Yes,” which leads me to conclude that Republican voters are profoundly masochistic, and are acting on a subconscious desire to be humiliated at the ballot box next November.

The support for Gingrich puzzles and worries me. It’s as if Republicans are defensively trying to rid themselves of the taint of anti-intellectualism left over from the Bush years. But then you remember that Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” was supposed to be the antidote to the reputation of “mean-spiritedness” the GOP acquired during the 1990s.

The shift toward Newt strikes me as a retrograde movement — “Hey, let’s go back to the Good Old Days of 1995!” — and I just can’t imagine Americans going for this kind of Blast From the Past trip. But I don’t mean to give you a lengthy discourse about what’s wrong with Newt, I’m just writing some words to go with the photos I took yesterday, so let’s get to the pictures.

Newt as seen from the third-floor balcony that served as the press gallery for Wednesday’s event. When I wandered into the balcony, I was greeted by Tony Lee of Human Events, who wanted to share stories about his experiences covering the Cain Train derailment. But the pain from Cain is impossible to explain. If you want to know how bad it got, read Joe Budzinski’s account of trying to cover a Cain fundraising event in November. Now back to Newt . . .

Newt is surrounded by a press scrum while greeting well-wishers after his speech. Notice the man at right in Hasidic wardrobe. Here’s video of the scrum chasing Newt through the lobby:

Back in August, when Gingrich placed eighth in the Ames Straw Poll, the media mostly ignored him. Now that he’s the front-runner, Newt’s like the Justin Bieber of the GOP field and paparazzi chase him everywhere.

Alana Goodman of Commentary works on a blog post. When i got home I checked and found she’d written a post about how Newt was against “radical” change in May but is in favor of “fundamental” change now.

The view from the back of the press gallery. Note the laptop screens, and also notice the man standing at stage left, waiting for Newt to finish talking. He had to wait a long time.


Category: Election 2012, Newt Gingrich

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.08.11

Posted on | December 8, 2011 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
New Romney Ad Turns Up The Heat On Gingrich

Still image from new Romney video

Ad stresses length of Romney’s marriage and commitment to LDS church, contrast to Gingrich pretty obvious




Sandusky Facing New Charges In Sex Abuse Case
More accusers come forward; Sandusky jailed pending $250K cash bail

Protests Continue In Moscow As Gorbachev Calls For Nullifying Elections
When even the Communists accuse you of rigging the elections, you know you’ve f***ed things up



POLITICS
Aging Survivors Mark 70th Anniversary Of Attack On Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor Survivors' President William Muelhieb salutes the Color Guard during the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor

120 survivors among the crowd of 5,000 commemorating Pearl Harbor Day; largest turnout since 50th anniversary in 1991

Cop Killer Mumia Spared Death Penalty

Protesters Arrested In DC After Shutting Down K Street

White House Pushes For Cordray Vote But Senate GOP Not Budging

Grassley Calls For Ouster Of Justice’s Breuer Over “Fast & Furious” Scheme

Occupy SF Cleared From Plaza But Reconstruction Work Remains



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Investors Await Outcome Of EU Emergency Meetings
Asia Stocks Fall On Aussie, Japan Economic News
Federal Panel Says Government, Industry Need To Do More To Address Fracking Environmental Concerns
Delay Of Wal-mart In India Means Politics Is Killing Cucumber Farmers
Martha Stewart Bringing Products To Penney’s
Gold Declines As European Leaders Gather
Justice Department Investigates E-Book Pricing
OnLive Brings Cloud Gaming To Tablets, Mobile Phones
Verizon Puts Down Its Big Red Foot
Android Users Can Detect Carrier IQ, Everyone Else Out Of Luck
PRC Pad Peddler Wins Rights To iPad Name From Apple



SPORTS
Big East Adds Boise State, Four Other New Teams

Boise State now in Big East...what?

Conference now spans all four time zones; San Diego State, Houston, SMU and Central Florida the “other four”

The Albert Pujols Derby: Is Everyone Nuts?



Pens’ Crosby To Sit Out Two Games As A Precaution

Mark Buehrle Joins Free Agent Migration To Miami

Ex-Syracuse Coach Not Charged Despite Evidence

Lakers Owner Buss Hospitalized For Blood Clots In Leg



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Lindsay Lohan To Unveil “Playboy” Spread On “Ellen”

Lindsay Lohan

Cover’s already leaked to the intertubes


“Teen Mom” Amber Portwood: “I’ve Been Diagnosed With Extreme Bipolar And Disassociative Disorder”

Brad & Angelina’s Family Toy Shopping Trip


Alec Baldwin Deletes Twitter Account After Getting Kicked Off American Airlines Flight

Harry Morgan Dead At 96, Played Colonel Potter On “M*A*S*H”

Different Stroke For Kristen Wiig

Giuliana Rancic: “My Breasts Have Never Defined Me”



FOREIGNERS
“Assad’s Story Is Not Believable” (Video)
Mexico Claims To Have Foiled Plot To Smuggle In Kadafi’s Son
Generals Reassert Power In Post-Election Egypt
NATO Chief Rebuffs Russian Threats To Missile Shield
EU Summit Signals Crunch Time For UK’s Cameron At Home And Abroad



BLOGS & STUFF
Don Surber: Poll Says Newt Is Tea Party Favorite
Weasel Zippers: McRINO Will Probably Endorse Romney
Power Line: Was “Fast & Furious” All About Gun Control?
American Thinker: Plan B – Barack Obama And The Morning After Pill
Sister Toldjah:: The Moron Alec Baldwin
Jihad Watch: Imam Bans Women From Touching Bananas & Cucumbers
Blackfive: Fort Hood Massacre Nothing More Than “Workplace Violence” Per DoD
Legal Insurrection: The Company He Still Keeps
Lonely Conservative: Democrats Lose Nearly One Million Voters In Battleground States
Volokh Conspiracy: Did Gingrich Break The Law With Bolton Promise?
Atlas Shrugs: 5th Circuit Upholds Holy Land Foundation Convictions
PJ Tatler: Pearl Harbor Day Menu For Obama Kids At Sidwell Friends? Teriyaki Chicken And Edamame
Big Hollywood: Michael Moore Stops Lying Long Enough To Call Obama Wall Street’s Man
Boston Herald: Mayor Menino Tells Occupy Campers To Take A Hike
Rush Limbaugh: The So-Called Conservative Media Attacks Newt Gingrich


SOTD: Turn Up The Radio

Category: Live at Five

My Day (and Night) in D.C.

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 34 Comments

ROSSLYN, Virginia
Greetings from the ninth-floor office overlooking the Potomac River that is headquarters of The American Spectator. I’m working on a borrowed computer that doesn’t have a slot for the digital memory chip that contains photos and video I shot today at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Presidential Candidate Forum. So I’ll upload that tomorrow. Meantime, word pictures will have to do.

My reasons for coming down to D.C. today were fourfold:

  1. A 1 p.m. interview with Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada);
  2. The RJC forum;
  3. Trying to talk my bosses at the Spectator into giving me some travel expense money; and
  4. A party tonight on Capitol Hill.

So I began by renting a car. The deer-damaged KIA finally has been repaired, but I’ve still got to pay some fees to the DMV to get the tags and stuff, and I have a visceral aversion to dealing with bureaucracy. Anyway . . .

Raining cats, dogs and other small mammals in the D.C. area today. This means traffic was even worse of a mess than usual. Washington is full of people who can’t drive worth crap on a clear sunny day, and a rainstorm is an almost insuperable challenge for these incompetent vehicular menaces. The District of Columbia is the only place in America where they offer the driver’s exam in braille, and the laws against “discrimination” are so stringent in Washington that it’s considered a human-rights violation to deny a license to the mentally handicapped. 

D.C. gives licenses to people who are too stupid to figure out how to buy a bus pass, and the taxis are all driven by guys from Ethiopia and Eritrea, where the nuances of such words as “merge” and “yield” seem to have been lost in translation. At least 15% of the drivers in our nation’s capital are recently released inmates of St. Elizabeth’s. I’m pretty sure the guy who cut me off on Constitution Avenue today was John Hinckley.

Did I ever mention I hate driving in D.C.? And it’s a deeply personal hatred. Everybody here complains about “traffic,” as if it were some amorphous inevitable thing. But bad traffic is caused by bad drivers, so every trip into town is for me a non-stop cussfest against the idiots responsible for this godawful mess. Anyway . . .

So I was a half-hour late getting to the Russell Senate Office Building for my interview with Dean Heller, but they understood that this was not my fault, and the interview was wonderful. Heller is a great conservative facing a 2012 challenge from Shelley Berkeley, a corrupt liberal pawn of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid axis. Go give Senator Heller $25 or $50 for his re-election campaign now.

Once we’d finished the interview, I hailed a cab and went to the Ronald Reagan Center for the RJC shindig. No sooner had I signed in at the media credentials table than I encountered Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his entourage entering the auditorium. Got some pictures then went inside where Newt Gingrich was talking. And talking and talking.

Let’s face it: If you want a president who can spontaneously deliver a five-minute policy seminar on any topic under the sun, Newt’s you’re guy. Dude opens his mouth and entire paragraphs come tumbling out, each paragraph including at least one “frankly” and one “fundamentally.”

The RJC audience seemed to dig Newt’s act, but frankly, I’m fundamentally opposed to his candidacy.

Didn’t stick around to hear Perry’s speech, although I’m told his three-point plan for Middle East peace was excellent, if only he could have remembered the third point.

Of course, I missed Rick Santorum’s RJC speech this morning. Fortunately, Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times was there:

Former Sen. Rick Santorum said there’s good reason why he’s talking a lot more about foreign policy than other Republican candidates.
“Because I believe that there’s a very good chance that by next election day, the national security issues in this country will be of higher priority in the eyes of the American people than the economy,” he said Wednesday morning in Washington. . . .
Invoking the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the former Pennsylvania senator slammed President Obama for a policy of “appeasement” with regard to Iran that has allowed that nation to become a much bigger threat.
“I know people in this country are tired of war. But our Pearl Harbor already happened,” he said.
Iran has grown stronger because of Obama’s indifference, he argued. The so-called Arab spring should have begun in Iran in 2009, but Obama failed to support democratic uprisings there. And yet he threw an ally of the United States and Israel — Egypt — “under the bus” in the face of demonstrations that included the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The president, for every thug and hooligan, for every radical Islamist, has had nothing but appeasement,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen, learn from history.”

My sarcastic friend Dave Weigel mocks the “Santorum surge,” but Dave will be laughing out the other side of his face when Santorum claims victory Jan. 3 in Des Moines. Go give Rick Santorum $25, $50 or $100 just to spite Weigel. Anyway . . .

So I was standing out in the lobby after the Gingrich speech with several other reporters (including S.A. Miller of the New York Post, whom I used to work with at The Washington Times) who were on Newt stakeout duty, and guess who walked by? Scooter Libby, who is now a foreign-policy expert at the Hudson Institute.  That was cool.

The reporters and I were standing around talking Iowa caucus travel plans when — whoosh! — a couple of camera guys took off running: Newt had been spotted, and I raced to catch up with the scrum, getting pictures and videos.

“No more questions,” Newt was saying, as he posed for pictures with some of the event attendees. But reporters kept sticking microphones in his face and asking questions he’d just said he wouldn’t answer. The TV camera guys were really just shooting B-roll, and I was mainly trying not to get trampled by the scrum. There is nothing quite like a mob of media surrounding a Republican presidential front-runner.

Oh, and Trampled By The Scrum would be a great album title for an alternative-rock band.

Then I hopped a Metro train across the river here to The American Spectator office where I wasn’t really surprised to learn that they didn’t have any travel expense money for me today.

Maybe next week. Gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Hit the freaking tip jar.

Now I’m due for a party tonight hosted by the Prosper Group, an “online strategy” operation smart enough to invite me to their party. Expect incriminating pictures tomorrow of Republican operatives having decadent fun, some of whom will be buttonholing me in the near future to write nice things about their clients.

This is why you pay me the medium bucks, eh?


Category: Election 2012, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Shoe Leather Fund

Blago Gets 14 Years

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 7 Comments

Somebody’s got to take the fall. It’s the Chicago Way:

Disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison after he made a final plea for leniency, acknowledging his guilt and saying, “I am unbelievably sorry.” 

So how is Blago “disgraced,” while Obama is still wonderful? How is it that Blago was prosecuted by a federal Justice Department headed by the “disgraced” Eric Holder?

Category: Chicago, Corruption, Crime, Democrats

Let’s Face It: Jesus Railed Against The ‘Archbishops’ Of His Day

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

Hot Air recirculates some heated breath from Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams says Jesus would have joined protesters from the anti-corporate Occupy movement who have been camped outside London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for more than seven weeks.
In a British magazine, the leader of the world’s 78 million Anglicans worldwide insisted that Jesus would be “there, sharing the risks, not just taking sides.”

If you read the Gospels, Jesus’s encounters with people generally took one of two tracks: if they were people in authority, or ought to know better, he lowered the rhetorical boom. The rest of the people were dealt with far less harshly.

Since Jesus, it’s become something of a sport to attempt to rebrand the carpenter whose job was to bring salvation to fit whatever cause is at hand. What a demotion.

Somebody needs to politely suggest to Rowan Williams that he may be as far off base today as the Pharisees were in the day of Jesus. The notion that the secular effort of the #Occupy movement has even the slightest overlap with Jesus’s mission is daft, as un-Biblical as an ‘Archbishop’, and arguably heretical. Jesus, for example ensured the taxes were paid.

The archbishop said that when Jesus said “give Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” he was asking “what’s the exact point at which involvement in the empire of capitalist economy involves you fatally.”

Really, you Archie-comic Bishop? What was the context of Jesus’s famous statement?

And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. (Mark 12:13)

The authorities were begging the question: “Have you given up cheating on your taxes?” And Jesus, masterfully, cut the inquisitors to the bone. Furthermore, what do you mean by “involvement in the empire of capitalist economy”? Judea was a Roman province at the time of Jesus’s physical life. Are you making an economic assertion about how the economy worked then? Are we still clinging to the fiction that the British or American economies are purely capitalist now?

Lord have mercy on you sir, and may the Holy Spirit give you an unction to study the Word with some real, prayerful, un-polluted understanding. Because right now, it looks like the rebukes that Jesus laid on the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of his day may apply to you, as well.

Category: #Occupy, Religion

Rush Nails It On The Craven GOP

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Rush Limbaugh went ballistic about both the Obama 06Dec speech, and the corresponding spinelessness of the GOP in refusing to attack #OccupyResoluteDesk. Of local note is the Timmy Kaine run for Senate.

Face it: rather than gearing up for the next concession speech in 2012, the GOP needs to take this class warfare speech of Baracks and parse it, break it down, and fire it right back at Barack, word for word.

Don’t back down, double down. The country is at stake. Let’s find out who the little children are at GOP HQ and gently toss them in the broom closet until after the election next November. ‘Not going after Barack’ was John McCain’s path to victoryconcession speech in 2008; fear of a reprise in 2012 is exactly why no one wants Mitt on the ticket. Let’s put on our big boy pants now, GOP, and git ‘er done. But even if Mitt simulates gumption, is there any way he can convince conservatives that he isn’t a method actor in a bureaucracy play?

Fischersville Mike with the pithy observation:

Blue Virginia seems awfully excited by Barack Obama giving a speech where Teddy Roosevelt talked in 1910.
Roosevelt was the former president in 1910.
Obama will be a former president in 14 months.

Pithier still, the IowaHawk, via LI

via Atlas Shrugs

Category: Barack Obama, Democrats, GOP, Rush Limbaugh

Rick Santorum: Praise by Sarah Palin ‘Absolutely Critical’ to His Money Surge

Posted on | December 7, 2011 | 43 Comments

When Sarah Palin singled out Rick Santorum for praise last week during her appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, she got a lot of people’s attention. Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal and Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review took notice, as did America’s leading practicioner of Neutral Objective Journalism.

Far more important, however, was the attention Palin’s praise generated among her most loyal admirers:

For Santorum … her words may have been answered prayer, providing the underdog candidate with the kind of fundraising boost his low-budget campaign needs in the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
“Our small dollar donations have just dramatically increased, which is, you know, a great sign for us… and I think Sarah Palin’s comments were  absolutely critical to that,” Santorum said, adding that there has also been a noticeable “spike” in traffic to his campaign website. …

Please read the whole thing. Since Palin broke her supporters’ hearts with her Oct. 5 announcement that she wouldn’t be a candidate in 2012, a lot of pundits seem to have decided that she is no longer  politically relevant. Yet Palin still has a powerful influence over the many thousands of grassroots conservatives who admire her and some of them — especially including Lisa Graas — are quite literally praying that she’ll make her magic happen by endorsing Rick Santorum.

Crazy? Yeah, but crazy things have been happening all year in the fight for the Republican 2012 nomination, And you know if Sarah Palin were to shock the world with an endorsement before the Iowa caucuses, outraged reactions from “experts” like Karl Rove would be like a gift-wrapped present under somebody’s Christmas tree in her home on the shores of Wasilla’s lovely Lake Lucille. I’m just sayin’ . . .

You can say that’s just crazy-talk, but it’s not crazier than this: Only one candidate in the 2012 Republican presidential race has visited all 99 counties in Iowa, and he’s also the only candidate who knows the title of the national anthem of Vanuatu.

I’m not kidding. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Neutral Objective Journalism, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Vanuatu
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