The Other McCain

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

Can You Feel The Love In This ‘Toon?

Posted on | September 23, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Yowza!
Note the subtle distinction: ‘alone’ vs. ‘a loan’. Two different concepts here. Reference, now with suitably mindless techno beat:

Category: Barack Obama

RICK PERRY IN FREEFALL?

Posted on | September 23, 2011 | 53 Comments

Three headlines after last night’s debate:

Perry is blowing it
— Philip Klein, Washington Examiner

Orlando GOP debate: A strong
night for Santorum as Perry fades
— Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post

Rick Perry Blindsided Again In Debate On
Immigration, Rick Santorum Has Big Night
— Sam Stein and Jon Ward, Huffington Post

Now, those are different writers with different perspectives. Klein really hates Romney, because he fears Romney won’t repeal ObamaCare and Klein hates ObamaCare like God hates sin. Rubin’s OK with Romney. Stein and Ward are reporters rather than pundits.

My point is that there is universal agreement among them that Perry stunk up the place in Orland0 last night, and there is a majority view that Santorum did well. Let’s quote Stein and Ward:

What was clear is that Santorum gained enormously from another strong performance. He has gathered momentum with every debate — speaking with authority and expertise on policy and with obvious passion on issues in a way that resonates with the conservative grassroots. With Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) fading as voters question her electability, Santorum may be putting himself in a position to make some real noise in Iowa, which goes first in the primary process. Depending on how Perry does over the next few months, that could elevate the Pennsylvanian significantly.

Now, let’s go back to something I wrote Wednesday:

I also feel that more attention is due for Rick Santorum, whose fourth-place finish in the Ames Straw Poll would have been heralded as a newsworthy miracle, but was overshadowed by Perry’s entrance into the 2012 field and Tim Pawlenty’s exit the next day.

See? Santorum’s got a hard core of support in Iowa, and he seems to be picking up steam in the debates. Meanwhile, Bachmann’s campaign is reportedly experiencing financial difficulties.

Perry looked like a loser last night: “Cringeworthy.” We’ll get the results Saturday of a Republican straw poll in Florida, and if Perry doesn’t win that, the “Anybody But Romney” vote may start looking around for another horse to ride. Santorum might get a second look, and also I noticed that Michelle Malkin had warm praise for Herman Cain last night.

Nearly all of this is cited in my American Spectator column today:

Rick Perry may have forfeited his lead in the Republican presidential field during Thursday night’s debate in Orlando when he declared that those who oppose subsidizing college education for illegal immigrants are heartless.
“If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they have been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said, after being criticized by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for a Texas policy providing in-state tuition for illegals.
Romney, who vetoed a similar tuition bill in Massachusetts, pointed out that this amounts to a $22,000-a-year discount for illegal aliens, as compared to the tuition that would be paid by U.S. students from the other 49 states attending universities in Texas. “That doesn’t make sense to me,” Romney said.
It didn’t make sense to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum either. “You’re sort of making this leap that unless… the taxpayers subsidize it, [immigrants] won’t be able to go [to college].… The point is, why are we subsidizing it?… And why should they be given preferential treatment as an illegal in this country?” . . .

Read the whole thing. It’s still a long way to the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 6.

Category: Debates, Election 2012, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum

Is It All About The Frogskins, Thad?

Posted on | September 23, 2011 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

Egad, Thad. First by T-Paw, now you: had. I don’t know the price on that endorsement, but I hope it was good.

So, the Ruling Class is promoting Romney as their RINO tool of choice. We can rename ObamaCare, call it RomneyCare, and that will make it all more gooder. Or is it just that it is known that Romney will give good concession speech?

Commitment to the status blow is not what is needed to bring recovery, Thad. I think you know it, and that’s why this is all so sad.

Category: Thaddeus McCotter

LIVE AT FIVE – 09.23.11

Posted on | September 23, 2011 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
The Governor Strikes Back

Governors Perry and Romney take the stage before last night's debate

Perry fends off criticism of his stands on immigration, Social Security

Worried About That Hunk Of Space Junk? There’s An App For That
Android app monitors location of orbiting satellites

US Escalates Accusations Of ISI Ties To Terrorists
JCS Chairman Mullen accuses Pakistan’s government of supporting Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba terror groups



POLITICS
House Passes Disaster Aid; Senate Dems Say Bill Unlikely To Pass

Speaker of the House John Boehner

Dems butthurt over $1.6 trillion in cuts to “clean energy” programs

Jaycee Dugard Sues Feds Over Captor’s Parole Supervision

McConnell Dismisses Obama’s Bridge Visit

Texas Ends Tradition Of Lavish Last Meals

Ft. Worth Freshman Suspended For Speaking Out Against Homosexuality

FBI Arrests Suspected LulzSec Member

Tacoma Teachers Ratify Strike-Ending Contract



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Stocks Plunge On Worldwide Fears Over Economy
Struggling HP Names Meg Whitman CEO
Fed’s “Operation Twist” Fails To Convince Investors
Crude Oil May Continue To Fall Next Week On Lack Of Demand In US, PRC
Staffing Woes Cripple Fannie & Freddie Oversight, Watchdog Says
Facebook Looks To Extend Online Reach, Sharing
Gartner: iPad To Remain Top Tablet Through 2014
Google Rivals Not Shy About Throwing “Monopoly” Word Around
Oracle Seeks $1.16 Billion From Google In Android Case



SPORTS
Source: NBA To Cancel Training Camps

NBA commissioner David Stern

ESPN reports league is postponing training camps and post-season games

Rays Pound Lethargic Yanks 15-8

Dodgers Finish Home Season With 8-2 Win Over Giants


Canadian Displays Vaunted Racial Tolerance, Throws Banana At Flyers’ Winger

Mets Score Six In Ninth For 8-6 Win, Dent Cards’ Playoff Hopes

It’s Panic Mode In Atlanta & Boston As Time Runs Out In Wild Card Race

Peacock Impresses Again As Nats Gain First-Ever Sweep Of Phillies



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katie Holmes To Play “Slutty Pumpkin” On “How I Met Your Mother”

Katie Holmes, not looking much like a squash much less a pumpkin

WTF DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?!

First Look At Johnny Depp As Barnabas Collins

George Clooney On Fame, Pulling Pranks, And His Aunt Rosemary

Lohan Ignoring Advice To Do Community Service

Minka Kelly Turned Down Free Plastic Surgery

Second Reboot Of “Charlie’s Angels” Slammed By Critics

“X Factor” Not Matching Up To “American Idol”

Arnold Schwartzenegger Writing Memoirs

A-Rod On Split With Cameron Diaz: We’ll Always Be Friends

Brad Pitt Says Quotes About Jennifer Aniston Were “Misconstrued”

Rihanna Drops New Single “We Found Love” Early



FOREIGNERS
Ahmadinejad Makes Truther Claims After US Leads Walkout
Opposition Leader Wins Zambian Election
Pope Benedict Holds Open-Air Mass In Berlin
President Saleh Returns To Yemen
Turkish PM Erdogan Urges UN Pressure On Israel
US Ambassador: Assad Losing Support Among Key Constituencies
EU Excludes New Members Bulgaria, Romania From Travel Zone



BLOGS & STUFF
AmSpecBlog: Perry’s Awful Night
Investor’s Business Daily: Obama’s Jobs Bridge To Nowhere
Rush Limbaugh: “Mr. Boehner, Tear Down This Bridge”
Don Surber: CERN Says Einstein Was Wrong
Weasel Zippers: Dem Poll Shows President Is Millstone Around Party’s Neck
Ed Driscoll: “When It Comes To Beating The Corrupt Media, Romney Shows Real Promise”
Walter Russell Mead: Panic?
Fausta’s Blog: Bling!
Kara Swisher: It’s Official – Whitman In As CEO, Apotheker Out At HP
Megan McArdle: Is Irish Austerity Paying Dividends?


SOTD: Space Junk

Category: Live at Five

ORLANDO DEBATE: Open Thread UPDATE: ‘You Don’t Have a Heart’

Posted on | September 22, 2011 | 61 Comments

Nine Republican candidates will be debating in Orlando, Florida (Fox News , 9 p.m.) tonight and, rather than live-blogging, I’ll be aggregating and occasionally updating.

Karl Rove has “handicapped” the debate.

Thad McCotter is dropping out of the GOP race, after being repeatedly excluded from the debates.

UPDATE 9:25 p.m. ET: After the first commercial break, I think Herman Cain’s winning decisively so far. (Because I said so, that’s why.)

UPDATE 9:35 p.m. ET: Herman Cain just proposed eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency. Also, he correctly pronounced Chile: Chee-LAY.

He was praising Chile’s private retirement program, but I think he was also showing off the fact that he knows how to pronounce Chee-LAY.

UPDATE 11:15 p.m. ET: Frank Luntz couldn’t get his video clips to play during the focus group, but said that Perry’s “you have no heart” comment about illegal immigration was very badly received. Rick Santorum’s retort to Perry was very sharp. Overall, Mitt Romney was perceived as the winner, and Brett Baier had positive things to say about Herman Cain’s performance. (Chee-LAY!)  Also: Gary Johnson’s dogs.

UPDATE 11:40 p.m. ET: Allahpundit on Perry’s “you don’t have a heart” moment:

Perry’s answer is a transparent dodge, of course, and Santorum rightly calls him on it.  The question isn’t whether children of illegals should be educated, it’s whether they should be subsidized by taxpayers with in-state tuition rates.

Here’s the video:

Category: Debates, Florida, Fox News, Republicans

Unlike ‘Tawdry Gossip’ About Sarah Palin

Posted on | September 22, 2011 | 61 Comments

. . . rumors that Levi Johnston’s sister is the kind of floozy who poses naked for Playboy magazine have been confirmed and documented:

There have been rumors around Wasilla that Mercede was one of the sources for Joe McGinniss’s book. It was reported in June 2010 that Mercede’s anti-Palin blog (now defunct) was created by none other than Jesse Griffin, recipient of a shocking e-mail from McGinniss.

If anyone wishes to share “tawdry gossip” about Mercede Johnston — perhaps to confirm widespread speculation that she got a boob job before doing her Playboy shoot — you can do so in the comments.

Don’t worry: Your unverified, anonymous allegations about her will not be fact-checked. Instead, I’ll just attribute the smears vaguely to a “friend” or say that “many people in Wasilla” believe whatever dirty things you say about Mercede. And once I get a lucrative contract from Random House for the “unauthorized biography” of Levi’s sister, then I’ll be a famous “investigative journalist,” just like Joe McGinniss.

UPDATE: I am profoundly grateful to the commenter on a previous post who notes that, four days ago, Griffin posted a “checklist” of his goals — “a mental list of priorities” — he sought to accomplish when he first began attacking Palin on his blog. No. 7 from that list:

Having listed these goals — which he says he conceived as soon as “Sarah Palin burst on the scene” in August 2008 — then Griffin checks off how he has fulfilled them. And notice how he says he fulfilled No. 7:

Griffin is a deranged Trig Truther who even today describes Trig Palin’s birth as a “hoax.” When you consider how Griffin boasts of having “provided support to . . . Joe McGinniss,” and the friendly familiarity indicated by McGinniss’s e-mail to Griffin, what does this tell you about McGinniss?

UPDATE II: Bob Belvedere calls McGinniss a “creepy cheap whore” and includes an uncropped (NSFW) photo of Ms. Johnston.

Category: humor

SHOCKER: Joe McGinniss’s Credibility Destroyed by E-Mail to Jesse Griffin; UPDATE: Griffin Does Not Deny E-Mail

Posted on | September 22, 2011 | 43 Comments

“Jesse Griffin, the Alaska blogger who Saturday claimed in an ‘exclusive’ report that Todd and Sarah Palin were divorcing, will no longer work as an Anchorage kindergarten teaching assistant, school officials confirmed Wednesday.
“Griffin’s resignation followed revelations that the 49-year-old Griffin had posted (under the alias ‘Gryphen’) sexually explicit advocacy of pornography and masturbation on his ‘Immoral Minority’ blog.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Aug. 6, 2009

“I was introduced to author Joe McGinniss, who is up here researching HIS Sarah Palin book, and who also turned out to be a huge fan of both AKM’s and I.”
— Jesse Griffin, Oct. 3, 2009

Having previously expressed shock that Joe McGinniss would associate with a proven liar like Jesse Griffin, it was an even greater shock today to see that Andrew Breitbart has reprinted what appears to be an e-mail from McGinniss to Griffin.

And I say “what appears to be” an e-mail, because neither Griffin nor McGinniss has acknowedged the e-mail. It would be incredible that (a) McGinniss would have been such a fool as to trust someone as dishonest as Griffin with confidential communication of any kind, and (b) Breitbart managed to obtain such an e-mail. So, having stated these caveats . . .

HOLY F–KING CRAP!

From: Joe McGinniss
To: Jesse Griffin
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 6:15 PM
Subject: I have to ask you for help

Jesse–

Legal review of my manuscript is underway and here’s my problem: no one has ever offered documentation of any of the lurid stories about the Palins. . . .
[Y]ou write frequently that you know things you can’t yet post, but that soon “all will be revealed.” This has been going on since I first became aware of your blog, but as far as I know you haven’t substantiated a single claim or provided verification for a single rumor that you’ve posted about Sarah’s personal life, or the personal lives of any Palin family members. . . .
Neither from you, the Enquirer, AlaskaWTF, palingates.com or anyone else, have I seen a credible, identified source backing any of the salacious stories about the Palin family.
Thus — as Random House lawyers are already pointing out to me — nothing I can cite other than my own reporting rises above the level of tawdry gossip. The proof is always just around the corner, but that’s a corner nobody has been able to turn. . . .

If this e-mail is legit, McGinniss has made an admission so absolutely devastating that Random House would be entirely justified if they recalled the book, pulped it, and sued McGinniss for breach of contract.

Forget for a moment what McGinniss says about the “tawdry gossip” he repeated in the book and instead focus on this: McGinniss was privately communicating with — and revealing privileged information about his discussions with Random House lawyers to — an infamously untrustworthy person, who fabricated a clearly false divorce rumor about the Palins, and who was fired from his school job because of his NSFW blogging about pornography and masturbation.

For McGinniss to be associated in any way with a dishonest smear merchant like Griffin is bad enough. For McGinniss to be communicating in such a confidential and familiar way with Griffin — to divulge such things in writing, ending with a fond expression that he is “looking
forward to seeing” Griffin — reveals McGinniss to be a man of profoundly bad judgment.

McGinniss provides Griffin with a laundry list of “tawdry gossip” for which he admits there is absolutely no factual basis yet — as Andrew Breitbart details in a separate post — nearly all those salacious stories are included in McGinniss’s book as if they were true, and have been cited by the media as “revelations” allegedly unearthed by McGinniss’s investigative journalism!

READ THE WHOLE THING

UPDATE: At his blog, Jesse Griffin has confirmed — by not denying — the authenticity of the e-mail published by Breitbart:

[A] leaked email between Joe McGinniss and myself . . . is making the rounds, suggesting that Joe did not have the facts to back up the allegations in his book. (By the way he certainly does.)
Yes I have seen the article, as well as the vicious attacks directed at Joe and myself.
However at this time I cannot provide a comment because I believe that there is an ongoing investigation.
What I can tell you right now is that I DID NOT leak, or provide access, to any e-mails between myself and anyone else. Period!
I will also let you know that I will not help to provide traffic to that site by allowing a conversation about the article on this blog. I apologize, as I really dislike censorship, but I am sure you understand the decision.

Griffin’s nonsense about “an ongoing investigation” is obviously just a smokescreen to cover his own stupidity. In all likelihood, Griffin forwarded the McGinniss e-mail to people he thought he could trust, attempting to solicit their assistance. Griffin is such a damned fool he probably can’t remember who he sent it to, and he probably doesn’t even understand how damaging the e-mail is to McGinniss’s credibility.

BTW, readers are invited to contribute to my “unauthorized biography” of Levi Johnston’s sister, who is rumored to be one of McGinniss’s sources. I’m using The Joe McGinniss Method of Investigative Journalism, where vaguely sourced gossip is treated as fact.

UPDATE II: Attempting to defend himself, McGinniss e-mails Mediaite:

My email to Jesse Griffin was an effort to secure Alaskan help in obtaining further corroboration of allegations about Sarah Palin that came to my attention during my research. My reporting continued beyond the date of the email, and only information that checked out to my satisfaction and that of my publisher was included in the book. Ultimately, I published only those allegations which I found to be credible. Other allegations that could not be sufficiently verified, including some of those referenced in my email, are not in my book.

Again, refer to Breitbart’s point-by-point analysis of how the “tawdry gossip” appears in McGinniss’s book. Nearly every item on the list that McGinniss described to Griffin as lacking “substantiation” was included in the book with no proof whatsoever and usually with extremely vague attribution as to the sources making the claims.

It would appear, then, that McGinniss is offering as corroboration only his own personal judgment as to which allegations were “credible.” Other than Palin’s known political enemies — Colleen Cottle, John Stein, et al. — there are no named sources for these claims and, as Breitbart notes, McGinniss’s rather artful attributions to Cottle and Stein indicate that they are merely relating second-hand local gossip. But the subtitle of McGinniss’s book is not “Second-Hand Gossip From Wasilla, Alaska,” it’s “Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.”

What does this ugly and utterly unsubstantiated gossip, repeated by Palin’s enemies, have to do with “the Real Sarah Palin”? Nothing at all, except perhaps to indicate what a malicious pack of jackals her enemies are. And there is something profoundly ridiculous about idea that someone who relies on Jesse Griffin for research assistance is a sound judge of what is “credible.”

Category: Journalism, Sarah Palin, Scandal

Keep Plunging the Stake Into the Heart of the Social Security Vampire, McCarthy

Posted on | September 22, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

The Great Tea Party Awakening continues apace, thanks to this sort of truth telling:

As a great admirer of your work, I’m very surprised by your claim that Social Security’s designers and perpetuators have not attempted to perpetrate a fraud. The program was hatched in fraud. As I pointed out yesterday, FDR pretended it was an insurance program in order to sell it to the public; once Congress enacted it, he then told the courts it was not an insurance program but a tax in order to get it upheld (by justices he had successfully intimidated with a court-packing plan). He later admitted that disingenuously portraying the tax as a contribution for earned insurance benefits was “politics all the way through.” The goal was never to make the economics work. As you correctly point out, they don’t work, and FDR was well aware of that fact. The goal was to make sure, as he put it, that “no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.” Fostering a sense of public entitlement, he presciently reasoned, would induce politicians to position themselves as defenders of this entitlement — and never you mind the math.

Furthermore, the real objective of Social Security was not to set up a retirement insurance program. It was to lay the foundation for a full-blown entitlement state, complete with socialized healthcare. The original plan included a Medicare component, which was abandoned because FDR realized it would jeopardize passage of social security. (The push on Medicare, as I’ve recounted before, was renewed immediately after passage — although it took 30 years, due to deep opposition from the public and the medical profession.) As Gov. Perry points out in his book, while feigning to address a “crisis,” Social Security (like Obamacare) collected the taxes (“contributions”) for several years (from 1935 to 1942) before any benefits were paid out; and the eligibility age was pegged at 62 even though life expectancy was then 60. The goal was not to ensure a decent retirement for “beneficiaries”; it was to erect — in incremental stealth — an entitlement state that the public would never have supported if Progressives had been forthright about their ambitions. Social security was the foot in the door.

It’s a shame we can’t have this awakening without one mother of an economic hangover.

Also a shame: RINO squishes. The Founding Fathers frown, T-Paw.

Category: Social Security
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