The Other McCain

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

How Much Does Glenn Beck Pay Brian Sack to Make Tasteless Sarah Palin Jokes?

Posted on | September 16, 2011 | 28 Comments

Image from GBTV

“Regardless what you think of her, this rumor stuff is getting absolutely ridiculous. I don’t believe Sarah Palin slept with Glenn Rice, and this rumor-mongering is unfair to her kids — Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig and Dunky. Now, according to the book, it was a one-night stand. It was supposed to be a two-night stand, but she bailed halfway through.”
— Brian Sack, GBTV, Sept. 15, 2011

The blogger at God and Country First:

Tonight Brain Sack made an extremely poor taste joke about Sarah Palin. Don’t we have enough of that crap in the lame stream? I am not going to pay $10.00 a month to hear more. Brian has made a few tasteless remarks the last few days. Tonight’s pushed me very close to canceling my account. I really think you should get rid of him, mostly because he is NOT funny. One more example of the lack of comedic talent from conservatives. . . .
Glenn, can you imagine the Palin family sitting around TV watching your show via Roku and expecting to hear healthy conservative truth, and then have to endure that tasteless joke from Brain Sack tonight.

God and Country First has the video clip, if you want to see Brian Sack introduced as the man who, according to Glenn Beck, is going to put Jon Stewart out of business — by making “woodpile” jokes about Republican women, we must presume. Read more

Category: Glenn Beck, humor, Sarah Palin

LIVE AT FIVESIX – 09.16.11

Posted on | September 16, 2011 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Texas Execution Halted Pending Supreme Court Review

Murderer Duane Buck

Sentenced to death for slaying of ex-girlfriend and a man in her apartment; may be spared on account of psychologist’s race-related testimony

Task Force Criticizes Deportation Program
Panel of “top law enforcement officers” says Secure Communities has negative impact on public safety

Sgt. Dakota Meyer Awarded Medal Of Honor At White House
First living Marine since Vietnam to earn the medal saved 36 in Afghanistan

“Star Wars” Gets Real As Scientists Find Planet With Two Suns
Unlike Tatooine, Kepler-16b too cold to support life



POLITICS
Romney Trots Out Electability Argument

Mitt Romney

Paints Perry as too extreme to attract moderates, independents

The Speaker Digs In: No Tax Increase

Money Short For Levee Repairs




Governor Asterisk Gets Tom Ridge Endorsement

Will “Petty” Bio Win Sarah Palin Some Sympathy?

Blunt, Long Dubious About Obama’s Job Plan

Tacoma Teachers Defy Judge, Remain On Strike

Governor Christie Asked To Veto “Jersey Shore” Production Credits



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
London Crude Up 1% As Europe Worries Ease
Philip Anschutz Buys “Oklahoman” Newspaper, OPUBCO
Asia Stocks Rally As Gold Drops For Third Day
NYSE Owners Lose Big On Merger With Deutsche Boerse
Air France Splits $12 Billion Order Between Airbus, Boeing
RIM Drops As Investors Disappointed For Third Straight Quarter
Windows 8 Update: The End Of Adobe Flash?
Judge Sets Schedule In Google Digital Library Lawsuit
Democrats Call For Obama To Approve AT&T/T-Mobile Merger



SPORTS
NBA Players Show United Front At “Lockout League” In Vegas

Lakers guard & players union president Derek Fisher

Players reaffirm solidarity, get briefed on decertification by NFLPA head

Rays Close In On Red Sox, Wild Card With 9-2 Win




Dominant Tigers Dictate Pace And Play In 19-6 Drubbing Of Miss. State

A’s Snap Tigers’ 12-Game Win Streak

Many Falcons Fans Still Rooting For Michael Vick

NBA, Referees Agree On 5-Year Deal

Nats Pile On Late To Sweep Mets, 10-1



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Brad Pitt Finally Satisfied

Brad Pitt

The PARADE interview

“Real Housewives Of NYC” Cast Unsettled

January Jones: It’s A Boy!

Even Seals Hate Gingers, Apparently




“Glee”‘s Heather Morris Would Give Up Acting For Her BF; Explains Implant Removal

“Chuck” Spies Rebecca Romijn For Sexy, Dangerous Role

CW Network Rebooting “Beauty And The Beast”

Gerard Butler Explains Drastic Weight Loss



FOREIGNERS
Rebel Forces Speed Toward Bani Walid
Denmark Elects Center-Left Coalition
ROK Holds Nork Defector In Assassination Plot
Egypt Reimposes Emergency Laws
After 15 Months, Belgians Achieve Breakthrough In Talks To Form New Government
Revolution In Yemen Moves At A Crawl



BLOGS & STUFF
Via Meadia: Carville’s Panic Attack
Yid With Lid: Gallup – Obama’s Support Among Jews Continues To Erode
Weasel Zippers: White House Denies Rep. Duncan Hunter’s Request To Attend Fellow Marine’s Medal Of Honor Ceremony, Backs Down When Confronted By Press
Jim Geraghty: Is Perry Blowing His Chance To Build A Big Lead Early?
Allahpundit: Jimmy Carter Gives Mitt Romney Kiss Of Death
Riehl World View: Perry Supporters Should Stop Digging
PJ Tatler: Author Michael Z. Williamson On Poverty In The US
American Digest: APOCALYPTO! The Porn Must Go On!
NRO Corner: A Stimulus Too Far?
Lonely Conservative: Obama’s Green Jobs Boondoggle
AmSpecBlog: Who Are You calling “We”, Kemosabe?


SOTD: Lucretia My Reflection

Category: Live at Five

Steven Crowder, Social Security, a Video Camera and a Few Too Many Red Bulls

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 9 Comments

An automatic formula for viral YouTube immortality:

Steven, if you’re going to chug a four-pack of Red Bulls, you might as well just save time and go straight for the meth, dude.

Category: humor, Video

Sex, Drugs and … Fifth-Graders?

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 11 Comments

The Associated Press reports:

District of Columbia public schools are planning to test students on their knowledge of human sexuality, contraception and drug use this spring.
According to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the exam will be the first standardized test on health and sex education in the country. The 50-question exam will be given to students in grades 5, 8 and 10.
The city’s rates of childhood obesity, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy are among the highest in the country. School officials say the test will help determine what students know about risky behavior.

Do the students lack knowledge or do they lack virtue?

This is my longstanding general objection to sex education, per se.

We live in an age where knowledge about “human sexuality” has never been more available, even to fifth-graders, and yet when liberals see high rates of “sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy” — i.e., health statistics betokening widespread promiscuity among youth — they immediately suggest sex education as the remedy.

The simplest disproof of the Liberal Theory of Sex Education is to ask whether problems related to adolescent fornication were more or less frequent in 1948, when there was little if any sex education in school and the Comstock Act was still generally enforced.

Yet liberals apparently believe that teaching kids the Latin names of reproductive organs (shown in cross-section anatomical charts of the pelvis) and other such things will somehow lead to a reduction of “risky behavior.” But let us apply their theory to another problem mentioned in the AP article, childhood obesity.

Certainly D.C. schools teach children the usual stuff about nutrition, caloric intake, metabolic processes, carbohydrates, protein, et cetera. And in a classroom of 20 fifth-graders, these lessons are taught equally to all. But despite this universality of nutritional education, some students are still fat while others are skinny.

We see from this example that the mere imparting of dietary knowledge is not a sufficient remedy to the problem of childhood obesity. By analogy, we ought to realize that neither will mere sexual knowledge fix the problems arising from adolescent promiscuity.

Sex education fails in practice because it is wrong in theory.

The entire rationale for sex education in public schools is mistaken, and details of the curriculum are trivial in comparison to the enormous intellectual error by which the schools justify sex education in the first place. And yet the acolytes of error nowadays are such an overwhelming majority of administration and faculty that anyone who might dare question the Liberal Theory of Sex Education is intimidated into silence.

Those who are skeptical toward sex education (as is true with skeptics of anything beloved by liberals) are categorically dismissed as ignorant, backward and prejudiced.

To be against sex education is to be an uptight prude, hopelessly old-fashioned, quite likely some sort of Religious Fundamentalist, and perhaps even an enemy of Scientific Progress.

Facts and logic debunking the Liberal Theory of Sex Education are simple to produce (I’m not yet 500 words into this blog post) and yet few will raise their voices to object to this waste of taxpayer money, because they fear being stigmatized for objecting. Therefore Wrong and Error triumph because the would-be forces of Truth and Right lack the most important virtue of all — courage.

What kids need to know about sex can be summarized in four simple English words: “Keep your britches on.” No Latin phrases required.

If grown-ups had enough courage to speak the truth, we could send the Professional Sex Educators to the unemployment office, where perhaps they can be retrained to do something genuinely useful with their lives.

Category: Education, Liberals, Sex

‘This Neofascist Fantasy’

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 25 Comments

Dr. Andrew Sullivan, M.D. OB/GYN, esteemed director of the prestigious Tina Brown Center for Advanced Republican Obstetric Investigation, uses the title quote in reference to moi, a “deranged rightist.”

My post evidently wasn’t good enough for a Malkin Award nomination, but his comment is at least a welcome reassurance of my sanity. Being called “deranged” by Sully is rather like being called “fat” by Meghan McCain or called “ignorant” by Al Sharpton.

Elsewhere, Recovering Liberal M. Joseph Sheppard credits me with the “inner core humanity to do and say what is right and damn the torpedoes” — a compliment I’ll gratefully strive to deserve, reminding me of an incident when I was a boy of about 10.

Our family was vacationing at Daytona Beach, and we’d rented one of those heavy-duty inflatable floats. Late in the afternoon, it fell my task to return the float to the beachside vendor, which I did with some well-taught words of courtesy: “Thank you, sir.” And then the vendor returned my thanks, telling me I was “a gentleman and a scholar.”

This phrase is a sort of commonplace old-fashioned saying, but as a 10-year-old I’d never heard it before and so I’m sure, as I walked back to our motel, I strode the dunes with a newfound pride and dignity at having been recognized as a gentleman and a scholar. Read more

Category: Andrew Sullivan

Barry Manilow, Paulista

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 20 Comments

Maybe he’s the one who’s been trolling the comments at Hot Air:

“I like him. I like what he says, I do. I like what he says. I think he’s solid,” said Manilow, who confirmed to TheDC in an interview at the Capitol on Thursday that he contributed to Paul’s last campaign for president.
“I agree with just about everything he says. What can I tell you?” Manilow added.

For younger readers who may not know who Barry Manilow is, he sang your mother’s favorite song, when your mother was a lonely and somewhat chubby eighth-grader in the mid-1970s.

RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT
Because He Came and He Gave Without Taking

Category: Celebrities, Election 2012, Ron Paul, Video

Todd Palin Defense Fund Update

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 136 Comments

While I am grateful for the enthusiastic response to my suggestion that Sarah Palin’s supporters donate to create a legal defense fund for her husband, some of the commenters seem to be under the impression that I’m joking about this. But you see, as a veteran of 25 years in the news business, I understand the tangible publicity value of the Todd Palin “One Nation Joe McGinnis Ass-Whupping Tour.” And if you think about GOP primary voters, the benefits in terms of political strategy should be obvious enough. Imagine the headlines:

New York Post, Oct. 6, 2011
PAPA GRIZZLY
Author of Palin Smear Book Hospitalized,
Todd Charged After ‘Brutal’ NY Assault

Joe McGinniss underwent emergency surgery Wednesday night after police say the author was beaten senseless by Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s husband Todd at a Manhattan party where McGinniss was signing copies of his new book about the former Alaska governor.
“It was one of the most brutal attacks I’ve ever seen,” said Venona Wineglass, who was waiting in line to get her copy of the controversial anti-Palin book signed at the Upper West Side reception when, she said, Todd “came out of nowhere” and began punching McGinniss. “He was just like bam, bam, bam, and it took three guards to pull him off.”
While police charged Todd Palin with assault and resisting arrest, his wife was campaigning in South Carolina, two weeks after officially announcing her GOP presidential candidacy. Her campaign spokesman refused comment on the McGinniss incident, while the candidate — currently a distant third in polls, behind Rick Perry and Mitt Romney — told a rally in Spartanburg, S.C., that she wants to “focus on the issues important to ordinary Americans and not be distracted by the lamestream media.”
Surgeons at St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital expect McGinniss to be able to continue his book tour despite his injuries . . .

Politico, Oct. 12, 2011
Palin Passes Romney in New Poll

Sarah Palin has moved into second place among Republican presidential contenders, passing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the latest Rasmussen poll.
The former Alaska governor, whose late September announcement stunned nearly all political observers, was at 21% in the Rasmussen survey conducted Oct. 8-10, up nine points over a poll conducted just five days earlier, and ahead of Romney, whose support dropped to 16%. Texas Gov. Rick Perry remained in first place in the GOP field, according to Rasmussen, although his 32% number in the latest survey is down slightly from his previous 34%.
Several analysts attributed Romney’s dip in the polls to his statement last week condemning Todd Palin’s beating of Joe McGinniss . . .

Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 14, 2011
Palin’s Husband Arrested After
Second Assault on McGinniss

The husband of GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin was arrested Tuesday after police say he attacked author Joe McGinniss at a Rittenhouse Square bookstore where McGinniss was signing copies of his controversial new “unauthorized biography” of the former Alaska governor.
Police Lt. Darnell Robinson said Todd Palin was arrested on charges of assault and resisting arrest after he suddenly rushed McGinniss at the Barnes & Noble where the author of “Rogue” had just begun reading from the book. It was the second such attack on McGinniss in the past two weeks, and Lt. Robinson said a police officer on duty was able to restrain Mr. Palin “after two or three punches.”
McGinniss suffered “multiple contusions and broken teeth,” according to a spokeswoman at University Hospital, where the author was treated and released. Mr. Palin was released on $50,000 bail after a hearing where municipal judge Vincent D’Anofrio ordered the Republican candidate’s husband to wear a radio-monitoring device pending another pre-trial hearing next month . . .

Media Matters, Oct. 15
Limbaugh Applauds McGinniss Beating;
‘Hit Him Again, Todd,’ Radio Host Says

Right-wing talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh yesterday endorsed Todd Palin’s repeated attacks on investigative journalist Joe McGinnisss, whose new book chronicles the genuine evil of Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
“Damn right, he deserved it,” Limbaugh said on his Wednesday show, calling Todd Palin an “American hero” after his second savage beating of McGinniss at a Philadelphia bookstore Tuesday.
“It’s about time some of these lowlife maggots like McGinniss learned they can’t just print lies about Republicans — hit him again, Todd!” Limbaugh said, introducing a Paul Shanklin parody song set to the tune of Michael Jackson’s 1982 song, “Beat It.”
Limbaugh also issued a challenge to what he called “femi-nazis,” demanding that they condemn McGinniss’s sexual innuendo against Sarah Palin . . .

Washington Post, Oct. 19
Palin Refuses to Condemn Husband’s
Attacks on ‘Smear Merchant’ McGinnis

Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin said she is not responsible for her husband’s assaults on the author of a controversial “unauthorized biography” of her, but refused to make a direct condemnation of Todd Palin’s beatings which have twice sent Joe McGinniss to the hospital.
“Todd is just Todd, you know,” Palin said during a Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press,” where she was repeatedly asked about her husband’s assaults on McGinniss. “I mean, he’s always been kinda protective of me, and I’ve tried to tell him he shouldn’t be beating on people like that but I guess . . . Well, he’s kinda got a bit of temper sometimes.”
However, Palin dismissed McGinniss’s book as the work of “a disgusting smear merchant trying to make money off a bunch of lies,” and said the headlines about her husband’s one-man war against McGinniss were “just a lamestream media tactic to distract people from the real issues that matter to America.” . . .

New York Times, Oct. 21
Palin Now First in GOP Field
Candidate Unexpectedly Surges in New Poll

Sarah Palin has moved to first place in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll of likely Republican primary voters, eclipsing former front-runner Rick Perry.
Palin’s unexpected surge — now with 37% support in the nationwide survey conducted Oct. 15-17 — comes despite a flurry of negative coverage of her campaign and the controversy surrounding her husband, Todd, who has twice made physical assaults against investigative journalist Joe McGinniss, author of a new book about the former Alaska governor.
“This completely defies conventional wisdom,” said longtime political analyst Larry Sabato, describing Palin’s gain as “freakish . . . maybe a statistical anomaly of some kind.”
Meanwhile, thousands of supporters in Manchester, N.H., chanted “Todd! Todd! Todd!” at a Thursday rally where Palin’s husband appeared briefly onstage with the new GOP front-runner. Vendors did a brisk business selling “Hit Him Again, Todd” T-shirts and bumper stickers at the mid-day event, where Sarah Palin said economic growth “remains the No. 1 focus of my campaign, despite all the smears and distractions from the lamestream media.” . . .

USA Today, Oct. 25
Author McGinniss in Seclusion,
Search for Todd Palin Continues

A nationwide manhunt for Todd Palin continued for a second day Monday, and author Joe McGinniss cancelled the remaining dates on his book tour after the husband of GOP front-runner Sarah Palin eluded an FBI dragnet.
Police say that Todd Palin’s “whereabout are still unknown” after he apparently removed a radio-monitoring device — ordered by a Philadelphia judge following Palin’s second beating of McGinniss Oct. 13 — sometime Sunday morning. The candidate’s husband had been scheduled to join her at an afternoon rally Sunday in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but did not appear at the event. Palin campaign officials say they haven’t seen Todd since he left a Des Moines hotel without explanation that morning.
The mysterious disappearance came shortly after McGinniss appeared on “Meet the Press” and reiterated several of the accusations made in his controversial unauthorized biography of the former Alaska governor. McGinniss had been scheduled to appear at a Chicago book-signing party Monday afternoon, but cancelled the event after Todd Palin went missing and a red Ford Bronco, leased by the Palin campaign, was found abandoned in the parking lot of a commuter rail station in suburban Oak Park, Ill., Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin continued her four-day bus tour of Iowa. Now leading by double-digits in the latest Gallup/USA Today poll, Palin did not directly address the controversy surrounding her fugitive husband Tuesday night at a rally in Davenport, where an unexpectedly large crowd — estimated at more than 20,000 — waved signs with slogans like “Go Get Him, Todd!” and “We [Heart] First Dude.”
Sarah Palin told the cheering crowd “we have to keep focused on economic growth, putting an end to crony capitalism and fixing the mess in Washington, D.C.” She said supporters shouldn’t “be distracted by phony controversies ginned up by the lamestream media.” . . .

Now, this is merely a hypothetical and I grant that some readers may indulge a laugh at the mental image of Joe McGinniss flinching at every loud noise for fear of another brutal Todd Palin ass-whupping, but that’s not the same as me admitting it’s just a joke. This is known as the Stacy McCain Plausible Deniability Clause in the campaign journalism Code of Ethics, because whatever I may write about any candidate, the campaign can always offer the official response, “Oh, hell, it’s Stacy McCain — everybody knows he’s crazy,” and they’re automatically off the hook for whatever “sources close to the campaign” may have told me.

Pleading insanity is more than a legal tactic, of course. It’s also a valuable marketing tool. Let’s face it, this blog gets thousands of hits a day from people just clicking over out of curiosity: “What kind of crazy stuff has that fool written this time?”

Absolute gonzo has rarely been tried as a political strategy. However, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro, and if Todd Palin shows up at a Joe McGinniss book signing — just for a “friendly chat,” you see, rather than a felonious assualt — maybe some of y’all will realize that my “One Nation Ass-Whupping Tour” idea was only half-joking.

I’m not saying which half, though.

TODD PALIN LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
Just in Case He Actually Needs It, IYKWIMAITYD

UPDATE: For the benefit of Andrew Sullivan readers.

Category: Books, humor, Media Bias, Sarah Palin

AttackWatch: Cynthia McKinney Calls BHO A War Criminal

Posted on | September 15, 2011 | 10 Comments

by Smitty (via PJ)

Dear old Cynthia,

“Our president is committing war crimes,” McKinney, an unapologetic supporter of departed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, told the crowd. “What does that make him? A war criminal.”

At another point in her speech, she has this to say about Obama: “If you’re the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, then make peace.”

See, Cynthia:

  • Moammar Gadhafi is a Bad Man. You mark yourself a Bad Woman, or a Foolish Woman, to support such.
  • Engaging in an act of war is not, itself, criminal. If you have specific evidence, Cynthia, you need to get that into a court. Merely ‘crying wolf’ about criminal acts would increase the deflection on your beclownment meter, if you weren’t already torquing the thing into a crescent.
  • The Nobel Peace Prize ceased to be meaningful around the time Yassir Arafat received his. Do you still think it meaningful, or that BHO is somehow deserving thereof?

Poor, confused ‘Tripoli’ (Trippy) Cynthia. Is she the black ‘Hanoi’ Jane Fonda?

Category: Uncategorized
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin