The Other McCain

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

Obama’s Down. Can GOP Put Him Out?

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 20 Comments

“There is only so much disaster-control you can do. When you’re in a disaster, you can spin it as ‘not that bad’ or ‘not my fault’ . . . but you cannot actually spin or speechify a horrific state of affairs into a positive one.”
— Ace of Spades, “Obama on the Ropes? Two GOP Polls Say He’s At His Lowest Point (So Far…)”

Nevertheless, Obama must try the impossible:

Having spent two decades in the pews of Reverend Wright’s church listening to the Hate America Gospel, President Zero is perhaps not familiar with the actual Bible. He therefore may not catch the near-sacrilegious resemblance between his sermon in Raleigh and Christ’s charge to His disciples: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Everyone raised as a Christian will, however, recognize the hint of blasphemy in this spontaneous expression of Obama’s fundmental narcissism, and the cultic implications in the shouted adoration from his liberal flock. It’s a wonder they didn’t cover his path to Raleigh with palm fronds, or bring the blind and deaf to the rally, hoping to be healed by touching his garments. And I don’t doubt many talk-radio hosts will make the most of all that, as well they should.

Nevertheless, talk is just talk and what we need now is action to maximize the strategic momentum gained by Tuesday’s triumph. Read more

Category: Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatism 101

Democrats Discover the SCOAMF Factor

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 33 Comments

“The Democratic Party’s rare loss of a congressional seat in its urban heartland Tuesday, accompanied by a blowout defeat in a Nevada special election, marked the latest in a string of demoralizing setbacks that threatened to deepen the party’s crisis of confidence and raise concerns about President Barack Obama’s political fortunes. . . . In a high-level campaign conference call Tuesday afternoon, Democratic donors and strategists commiserated over their disappointment in Obama. A source on the call described the mood as ‘awful.’”
— Jonathan Martin, Ben Smith and Jake Sherman, “Twin Defeats Spark Democratic Fears,” Politico

Nothing is sweeter in politics that those occasions when you deliver a victory so shocking in its implications that it sends the opposition into an existential crisis. Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 9th District — echoed by the lesser-noted GOP landslide in Nevada’s 2nd District — was such an occasion and, as the commentariat rushes to analyze and interpret this historic event, conservatives need to avoid liberal efforts to distract from the real message: Barack Obama is a Stuttering Clusterf**k of a Miserable Failure.

Democrats don’t want to admit this, for obvious reasons. Three years ago they interpreted Obama’s election as ratifying their own deepest beliefs — that the Republican ascendancy of 1994-2006 was a political mirage, that the conservative movement’s ability to influence the national discourse was on the wane, and that demographic trends were leading toward a permanent progressive majority. Years of efforts and many millions of dollars expended to attack and discredit conservative voices — the Media Matters/MSNBC onslaught against Fox News, talk radio, Andrew Breitbart, et al. — were designed to suppress criticism of the progressive message. And with Obama’s election in 2008, liberals got their hands on a cudgel that they were eager to wield with bloodthirsty zeal: If you don’t vote Democrat, you’re a racist! Read more

Category: Barack Obama, Election, New York

Could Anthony Weiner Offer Jim Moran Some Life Coaching?

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 16 Comments

by The World’s Youngest Blogger

Review dad’s posts below. I’m not even two months old yet, and it’s as obvious as an empty milk bottle that the government has run the country dry with spending too much.

Read more

Category: Jim Moran, World's Youngest Blogger

That Puts Stacy And Me At +7, Right?

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Volokh reproduces a study in institutions and public confidence by the AP-National Constitution Center poll, showing that the extreme/no-confidence value for blogs is –39, but the military is +46. I guess we just sum those figures for this blog, since I’m in the military and Stacy’s the marquee blogger.

Yeah, new math: yeah.

Category: Blogging, Military, Volokh Conspiracy

Peopleware Goes To Software

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Megan McArdle makes a point that I think I can clarify a bit:

The jobs that are being automated are the stable, well-paying jobs where you could settle in and know exactly what you’d be doing for years. As Arnold says, if you can define it, you can probably outline it specifically enough to outsource, either to a lower-wage worker somewhere else, or to a computer.

Restated, jobs that involve information management, especially in well-bounded cases, are readily re-stated in software.

So, knowing how to

  • write code,
  • administer information systems,
  • do jobs that have a significant ‘real-world’ component (fixing cars),
  • involve creativity,
  • are not easily structured in code (customer service)

are likely to remain longer.

Interestingly, these decades into the information age, one tough nut to crack is picking over somebody else’s idea of an information system, when it comes to maintaining or re-engineering information systems. The Daily WTF is replete with examples.

Years ago, I was working on porting a client/server system to a web-enabled database. ASP against Oracle 8i, to date myself and hint at the fun it entailed. The application was hugely reporting-intensive. The old Project Manager had been retained as a consultant.

You tried to avoid being clever, but I was kind of backed into a corner. So I coded a rather smart .asp file that looked at the user’s request, and then did a lot of surgery to it before presenting something to the database for the query. A messy database schema sort of looked like the logical whole you would have thought it was.

Punchline: the old PM looks at the work, and tells me I have replaced 200+ explicit queries in the original client/server code. I heaved a sigh of relief, because this explained some of the odd column orderings of the reports, which detail I had no interest in capturing.

Back on topic, though, the Information Age has blown away vast swaths of the private sector, and is even now crushing the public sector. Private citizens just do not require the government, especially the federal government, managing their birth, housing, health, education, employment, and retirement. Private citizens do not need legions of civil servants reading email, shuffling from meeting to meeting, and emitting PowerPoint all day. This must stop.

Request to somebody with better data access: can we refer to civil service hires as ‘positions’, and private sector as ‘jobs’? I should like to see what the employment numbers look like without the invisible hand of Uncle Sam stirring the pot.

Category: Uncategorized

Can McCotter Survive Where Bush Found Himself Whacked?

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Via McCotter on Twitter, my other favorite blue state Republican, after the recently beclowned Pawlenty, is introducing legislation to stabilize Social Security:

The McCotter plan salvages both the Old Age and the Disability trust funds from that projected insolvency without reducing benefits, raising taxes, or increasing the age of retirement eligibility. Read more

Category: Uncategorized

Lynn Woolsey: The Full Loaf!

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 32 Comments

Watching Democrats lose a district they’ve held for 88 year? Classic! Watching Democrats make complete idiots of themselves? Priceless!

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) stressed that it was important for Democrats to not cave in on pieces of either Obama’s jobs plan or the [Congressional Progressive Caucus’s] job-creation agenda.
“Half a loaf is not enough in the United States of America,” Woolsey said. “The whole proposal is what we must have now.”

Well, (a) I thought it was those “Tea Party extremists” who always refused to compromise, and (b) “The only good Republican is a dead one“? Thanks for the civility lessons!

Category: Liberals

LIVE AT FIVE – 09.14.11

Posted on | September 14, 2011 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Turner Scores Upset Win In NY-9

Bob Turner and wife Peggy celebrate victory

Catholic Republican’s election seen as stinging rebuke for Obama’s Israel policy in this predominantly Jewish district

Taliban Attack On Kabul Over After 20 Hours
Afghan Police root out last holdouts; seven dead including three civilians


Amodei Crushes Marshall In NV-2
57-36 margin not seen as indicative of anything in this solidly Republican district



POLITICS
Census: Poverty Rate Hits 15%; 1 In 6 Below Poverty Line

Thousands line up for an Atlanta job fair

Median income falls 7% from 2000 after inflation adjustment; poor, minorities hardest hit

Obama Taking His Jobs Road Show To NC

Elizabeth Warren To Challenge Scott Brown

Fewer Pat-Downs For Kids From TSA


Democrats Concerned Over Obama’s Planned Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid

Carl Lewis Reinstated On NJ Ballot

$6 Billion In Disaster Relief Clears Senate, Fate In House Uncertain



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Google Flight Search Takes Off
Demand For Missoni Line So Hot, It Crashes Target’s Web Site
Euro Falls; No Imminent End To Sovereign Debt Problems Seen
Moody’s Cuts French Bank Ratings As Euro Crisis Deepens
US Stocks Register Back-to-Back Gains For First Time This Month
CBO Chief Seeks Wholesale Reordering Of Government Priorities
Microsoft Unveils Windows 8
Intel Brandishes First Android Tablet
Samsung Takes Apple Patent Battle To France
Nielsen: Americans Spend 25% Of Online Time On Social Networks



SPORTS
Wakefield Gets 200th Win In Rout Of Jays

Tim Wakefield finally gets a win

Overcomes shaky start, wins with lavish run support

Mariano Rivera Notches 600th Save In Win over Mariners

NBA Negotiations Go Sour




Eagles’ Vick To Face Tough Crowd In Return To Atlanta

NCAA Hits Boise State With Three-Year Probation

Big 12’s Prospects Of Holding Together Grow Dimmer

Verlander By The Numbers: 100, 23 And 11

Orioles Play Spoiler, Rally Behind Wieters To Beat Surging Rays

Nationals Get To Parnell, Beat Mets 3-2 Again



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Christina Hendricks Is Too Busy For Children Right Now

Christina Hendricks

Talking about cooking, marriage, and babies with People magazine

“It’s Like Washington Crossing The Delaware To Get To Hooters”
(h/t Moe Lane)

Material Girl Forces Volunteers To Look Away At TIFF

Paul McCartney To Wed This Weekend

Michelle Williams: My Week With Michelle

JJ Abrams Officially Commits To Direct “Star Trek 2”

CBS Developing Modern “Sherlock Holmes”, Adapting “Mommy-Track Mysteries” Books

Lady Gaga Holds Nothing Back About Her “Self-Indulgent” Past

Britney Spears Is Not Getting Engaged



FOREIGNERS
Iran Judiciary Denies Americans’ Release Is Imminent
US envoys To Meets Abbas, Netanyahu In Effort To Halt Palestinian UN Bid
Bani Walid Residents Given Two Days To Leave Before City Attack
11 Killed, Hundreds Injured In Argentina Bus/Train Accident
Turkey’s PM Warns Of Syrian Civil War
New Japanese PM Concerned Over Growth Of PRC Military
Heavy Rains, Flooding Leave Hundreds Dead In Pakistan
Abuse Victims Ask International Court To Prosecute The Vatican



BLOGS & STUFF
Riehl World View: So Much For NRO Being Conservative
Michelle Malkin: The Right And Wrong Way To Talk About Gardasil/A Really, Really Stupid Attack On Palin
Allahpundit: E-Mails Reveal White House Closely Monitored Energy Department Deliberations On Solyndra
Hit & Run: Solyndra – A Big Story For The Wrong Reasons
Weasel Zippers: Obama’s Jobs Bill Makes Unemployed A Protected Class, Allows Suits For Discrimination
Megan McArdle: Need Someone To Protest Against Your Union? There’s a Union For That!
Power Line: Connecting The Dots – How The Left Works
Lonely Conservative: Poverty Soars Under Obama’s Leadership
Sister Toldjah: Tone-Deaf Prez To Give Jobs Plan Speech At NC Company Shipping Jobs To Costa Rica
Legal Insurrection: Pennsylvania Federal Court Strikes Obamacare Mandate


SOTD: I’ve Done Everything For You

Category: Live at Five
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