The Other McCain

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

Twitter As A Means Of Public Confession

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

It hurt, but I feel better. Still won’t swing Catholicism:

Category: Uncategorized

CNN: Sarah Palin Turned Down Invitation to Appear in Tonight’s Tea Party Debate

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 33 Comments

TAMPA, Fla.
Didn’t expect to get actual news during the media walk-through of the debate hall here at the Florida State Fair, but CNN Washington bureau chief Sam Geist disclosed to reporters that Sarah Palin had been invited to participate in tonight’s event sponsored by the Tea Party Express.

Palin ranks third in the latest CNN poll:

Rick Perry …….. 30%
Mitt Romney ……. 18%
Sarah Palin ……. 15%
Ron Paul ………. 12%
Herman Cain …….. 5%
Newt Gingrich …… 5%
Michele Bachmann … 4%
Jon Huntsman ……. 2%
Rick Santorum 2%

UPDATE: A couple of photos from the walk-through:


I gotta run: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is about to hold a press conference.

Category: CNN, Debates, Election 2012, Florida, Sarah Palin, Tea Party

Dana Loesch Explains Her Ephesians 6 Tattoo, Jolly Roger Necklace and More

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 10 Comments

TAMPA, Fla.
Now at the media filing center at the Florida State Fairgrounds on Highway 301. Just got back from lunch with Ali Akbar, Shaun McCutcheon and Dana Loesch, who’s here as a CNN commentator:

We’re about to do a media walk-through of the debate stage, so I’ve got to run. Hit the tip jar!





Category: CNN, Debates, Election 2012, Florida, Tea Party

“Te Atrocity” Of Schools

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Insty rounds up some more blowback over Paul Krugman, who dropped an upper decker at the NYT yesterday. Insty includes email from an anonymous academic:

But there’s also the invention of a “we were all united and then Bush ruined it” idea. This is nonsense. The professional and academic left immediately started with “the chickens have come home to roost,” “it’s our fault for supporting Israel, etc.”

Part of the cultural renewal, like PJTV and the new GBTV, is going to include draining the carbuncle that Academia has become. I’m thinking here about how to save for college for the World’s Youngest Blogger.

How do we ensure that we are providing real schools that aren’t Commie pinko incubators?

My guess is that starting from scratch may be easier than reforming the current collegiate contaminated crapper crop. As the higher education bubble bursts, one hopes to see new, lower-cost, higher-quality institutions arise. Sure, the accrediation weenies are going to balk at a resurgence of actual History being taught, of a lack of *Studies curricula for useless Bolsheviks to hide in, and salaries in line with what the market can bear.

But, if that’s what it takes to lower the likelihood of another Krugman, then that’s what we have to do.

Category: Education, Uncategorized

As If One Needed Another Reason For Uncertainty About Romney

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 25 Comments

by Smitty

American Exceptionalism is founded in liberty. Progressive anti-Exceptionalism is about making people clients of the State and then using appeals to fear to keep those clients parked on the plantation. Via Hot Air, Fresh Squeezed Politics produces the Romney flyer for Florida, which I will cleave in twain for posting here legibly.

I support Rick Perry all the way on the Ponzi Scheme issue, as far as correctly identifying it as a Ponzi scheme. We won’t get out of the 70-year pit in the snap of a finger, but correctly identifying the Ponzi scheme is the first step to stopping the digging.

If you haven’t described the exit strategy for the economically un-supportable, un-Constitutional federal over-reach embodied in the entitlement programs, you haven’t told be why I should vote for you.

Read more

Category: Mitt Romney

Fear and Loathing in Tampa

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 21 Comments

TAMPA, Fla.
Good morning and welcome to the site of tonight’s CNN/Tea Party Express debate. OK, maybe not actually the site yet. I’m still in the hotel room. The debate is at the State Fairgrounds out on Highway 301. I’m supposed to pick up my media credentials at noon, then there’s a walk-through of the debate site, etc.

I’m crashing here with GOP New Media legend Ali Akbar, and last night we went out for late refreshments with Shaun McCutcheon of the Conservative Action Fund and Kerry Picket of The Washington Times.

We were at a place called Bar Louie, which was unfortunately next door to some kind of disco nightclub. So while we’re sitting on the patio trying to talk politics, our conversation was being drowned out by the thumping music from next door, and there’s a strange parade of hoochies in tight miniskirts walking past on their way to the disco. So then we came back to the hotel to continue the discussion poolside, but then a furious argument developed over last year’s NY-23 election. This was a bummer, and I was tired, so I came back to the room and crashed, but Ali says he was up until 3 a.m.

Morning  weirdness: Pawlenty endorses Romney. What was Pawlenty’s price? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Anyway, the good thing is (a) we’re going to be having lunch with Dana Loesch in a little while, and (b) all of last night’s escapades occurred after I’d already filed my column for today:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer should begin the Republican presidential debate tonight by asking Jon Huntsman a simple question: “Why are you here?”
The former Utah governor’s campaign has no obvious political rationale and is barely a statistical blip in national polls. Since he officially announced his 2012 presidential bid in June, Huntsman has only once (in early August) polled as high as 4 percent. Five of the six most recent national surveys show Huntsman’s support among Republican voters at a mere 1 percent –less than the margin of error. Despite the effective non-existence of his support, however, Huntsman will be among the eight candidates on stage tonight (8 p.m. ET) for the debate at the Florida State Fairgrounds sponsored by the Tea Party Express.
Of course, Blitzer would never question the legitimacy of Huntsman’s candidacy for the simple reason that CNN anchor is a leading member of Huntsman’s most important constituency, the media. . . .

Read the rest at the American Spectator.

Category: Debates, Florida

ObamaCare, Taxes, And How You Know You’re Getting Rooked

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty (via Volokh)

Is it a tax or not a tax. . . shows the need both to revisit first principles and to admit when they have reached their limit. The distinction between taxes as internal to the country, and regulation of commerce is external to the border, is a good one.

Note that the tax/regulation distinction can be stated simply.

Note the general confusion concerning the funding nature of ObamaCare. Is it commerce, is it a tax, is it regulation of inactivity? The smartest guys in the room cannot, while coloring within the lines, make a simple statement of what picture ObamaCare paints and how it squares with America as we know it.

Every GOP candidate should be running on sticking a fork in ObamaCare as a first-day task.

Category: Uncategorized

Standing By For The Muslim Protest Against The Flight 93 Memorial

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Power Line catches us up on the ‘curious’ nature of the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA:

Rawls, Burnett and others have lodged additional criticisms of the design. They say that the crescent points toward Mecca and is, in fact, a traditional Islamic mihrab. They point out that one of the memorial’s most striking features (not yet constructed, I believe) is the Tower of Voices, which they describe as “a year-round accurate Islamic prayer-time sundial.” It is shaped–wait for it–like a crescent, and 40 wind chimes hang inside it, representing the 40 dead passengers and crew members.

Now, if Islam is a religion of peace, and terrorism is against Islam, then where is the host of imams decrying this clear tying of an evil terrorist act to their faith?

I should think they would demand a re-design, STAT. I mean, arranging the grave markers at Srebrenica in the shape of a fish would have been roughly as tasteful. And, presumably, unintelligible to adherents of the faith whose symbol is so utilized.

Category: Uncategorized
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