Barry Manilow, Paulista

Posted on 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

Todd Palin Defense Fund Update

Posted on 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.

AttackWatch: Cynthia McKinney Calls BHO A War Criminal

Posted on 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?

Could You ‘Never Forget’ Folks Choose Not To Remember Until, Say, Feb 2013?

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

Drudge’s headline puts the question front and center:But is this phenomenon just Jewish? Is there any constiuency that still thinks the dampness on their back is rain?

Without drawing any line connecting the dots between this century and the last, one wonders to what degree the leadership of other communities, as a sin of omission, let ‘things’ go too far?

Enough of that. Let us be positive. The citizens of the U.S. are in at least the early stages of coming to grips with the wreckage of Progressivism. The ones arguing against liberty are fairly well-known crapflooders. We just have to be willing to return government to its proper, Constitutional role of managing events occuring above State level (i.e. federal), and emancipate the people from the Progressive noose about the neck, hand in the wallet, crap in the culture. Yes, there is some cruft that’s built up during the decades of federal over-reach, but: is it self-justifying? Can we look at that debt and say it was worth it? Does a tradition of economic folly since FDR somehow lock us into perpetuating the folly?

These are the sorts of things I hope go through the minds of the leaders of every constituency that supported BHO in ’08. Don’t let me do more than encourage you both to think and to vote.

Shifting the topic slightly, Zycher is worth quoting:

Class warfare is not pretty, and I see little evidence that it works politically, but there is a more fundamental issue that arises in the wake of the president’s ongoing demonization of millionaires, billionaires, oil companies, owners of private jets, ad infinitum. To wit: The constitution — the basis for the preservation of American liberty — is antidemocratic, that is, it is structured to defend unpopular minorities against the whims and passions of political majorities. No public official, far less the president of the United States, can campaign against unpopular groups that have broken no law, without undermining the fundamental principle that the rule of law shall prevail over political lynch mobs, and that the rights of the least popular or powerful are an essential component of the rights of all. This general point seems rather obvious, and I am surely not the first to make it. But I have not seen it elsewhere, perhaps because I have failed to look in the right places.

The other aspect of class warfare is that it runs contrary to the idea of private property. I’ve no interest in your wallet. I may be a little less materialistic about my wallet than some, but this is not an open invitation to pilferage. The Tenth Commandment about not coveting should answer the mail for those of any serious Judaism or Christianity, as far as I can tell.

James Carville Brings The Funny

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

Carville at CNN says that the White House should panic, emphasis mine:

2. Indict people. There are certain people in American finance who haven’t been held responsible for utterly ruining the economic fabric of our country. Demand from the attorney general a clear status of the state of investigation concerning these extraordinary injustices imposed upon the American people. I know Attorney General Eric Holder is a close friend of yours, but if his explanations aren’t good, fire him too. Demand answers to why no one has been indicted.

Mr. President, people are livid. Tell people that you, too, are angry and sickened by the irresponsible actions on Wall Street that caused so much suffering. Do not accept excuses. Demand action now.

Carville writes as though this were some traditional political problem. As though BHO wasn’t well aware of what’s afoot. As though putting any pressure on Holder wouldn’t bring the Administration crashing down with a dull, rotten-wood thump. RTWT.

The Todd Palin Legal Defense Fund

Posted on Comments

Todd Palin helps his wife sign autographs after her Sept. 5 rally
in Manchester, N.H. (Photo by Peter Ingemi.)

A source who doesn’t need to hide behind a cloak of anonymity:

“This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with my wife. His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo, and smears. Even The New York Times called this book ‘dated, petty,’ and [said] that it ‘chases caustic, unsubstantiated gossip.’”
— Todd Palin

During my trip to Wasilla last year, I told Todd Palin that if he had shot Levi Johnston, no jury in the world would have convicted him, and his wife’s poll numbers would have gone up.

Our conversation was informal and off-the-record, so readers are left to imagine Todd’s reaction, but certainly the Palins can’t be held responsible for every crazy thing a journalist says. (It was, after all, merely a hypothetical.) And neither can the Palins be blamed for what I’m suggesting now.

Joe McGinniss deserves The Mother of All Ass-Whuppings, and Todd Palin ought to give him exactly what he deserves.

So I’m asking readers to go make a $25 donation to SarahPAC to help defray Todd’s legal expenses when he shows up at McGinniss’s first book signing and pounds that scurvy worm into a bloody pulp.

Please give $25 to SarahPAC, so that we can bail Todd Palin out on that assault charge — and then fly him to the next Joe McGinniss book signing to deliver yet another brutal ass-whupping.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Just give $25 to SarahPAC, you see, and we’ll cover Todd Palin’s legal expenses and fly him to wherever Joe McGinniss appears in public, turning McGinniss’s book tour into a nationwide beatdown tour.

After McGinniss gets out of the hospital from his first ass-whupping, he’ll probably get a restraining order against Todd. Still, Random House will be forced to hire armed security to protect Creepy Joe because, hey, what’s a restraining order to an insulted husband who’s got thousands of loyal supporters donating $25 each to cover his legal expenses?

Bonus suggestion: Sarah PAC should hire a documentary crew to chronicle Todd Palin’s “One Nation Joe McGinniss Ass-Whupping Tour.”

Proceeds from sales of the DVD would go to defray Joe McGinniss’s medical bills. “Compassionate conservatism” and all that.

TODD PALIN FOR FIRST DUDE
Because Once His Wife Is President, He Can Start
Whupping Asses in the White House Press Corps

UPDATE: Linked by Da Tech Guy, God’s Own Crunk, Republican Redefined and Jay Tea at Wizbang — thanks!

Meanwhile, dismayed by the number of commenters who think I’m (merely) joking: TODD PALIN DEFENSE FUND UPDATE!

Somebody’s Taking My Advice?

Posted on Comments

One hesitates to presume influence, especially when what one advises is just common-sense stuff that seems obvious. So yesterday I wrote that Republicans should “relentelessly expose the Solyndra scandal” and added:

GOP presidential candidates can help maximize the impact of exposure by making Solyndra the focus of their attacks on the incumbent’s policy agenda. We ought to hear the phrase “Solyndra scandal” in every stump speech, every press release and every Republican debate.

And that post ended with the suggestion that readers “e-mail it to your favorite local or national talk radio host, or Republican presidential candidates.” And about three hours later . . .

Joining GE in the pantheon on crony capitalism is another Obama favorite that has been in the news of late: Solyndra. The President hailed this “green energy” company in a speech last May as “the true engine of economic growth.” When he announced the $535 million guarantee to Solyndra, Vice President Biden said that investments like this are “exactly what the Recovery Act is all about.” (Dear God…If the failed Solyndra venture has been what it’s “all about,” then that explains a lot.) As I pointed out in my speech at the Reagan Ranch Center last February: “History has proven again and again, when government picks the winners and losers, we’re stuck with the losers, and we the taxpayers subsidize failure!” And that’s what we’re seeing now, as the FBI raids the solar energy company’s headquarters to glean more information after the company was handed half a billion dollars in “green energy” Stimulus funds from the American taxpayer only to later declare bankruptcy. More than one thousand Solyndra workers lost their jobs. Now as the truth comes out, we discover that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of Energy’s rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and they tried to move the money through so quickly they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the company (about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with the way the deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid before we the taxpayers see any relief. That is sickening. And that’s how it works: workers lose their jobs, wealthy political cronies stand a good chance of getting their money back, and the U.S. taxpayer gets the shaft. Again. . . .

You can read the whole thing. My silly suggestion that it was inspired by a blog post here was meant for laughs. Like I said, it’s common-sense stuff that seems obvious. So maybe this is just one of those “great minds think alike” situations. But remember that my advice was offered to “GOP presidential candidates,” which means . . .?

AttackWatch: HR2911 Thugs The Title ‘American Jobs Act’

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, in a nearly IowaHawkean bout of tee-hee-hee,

President Obama repeatedly asked members of Congress to pass the American Jobs Act last week. But when no Democrat filed Obama’s bill after he presented it to Congress, a conservative congressman swiped the name for his own legislation.

See, if you were to have somebody submit the legislation first, things like this may not happen. Alternative titles for the President’s legislation:

  1. The Steamer, Formerly Known As The American Jobs Act
  2. S^*t My Union Owner Says
  3. @AttackWatch Bait

In related Texan news,
Whoops! Looks like I was scooped by The Lonely Conservative.

Oh, and the AttackWatch dead pool? It’s a late Friday afternoon data dump on the way to the bar.

Update: linked at Daily Pundit.

Update II: Surber-lanche!