The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE – 08.03.11

Posted on | August 3, 2011 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Short-Term FAA Funding In The Works

Senator Barbara Boxer

Democratic Congressional leadership proposes clean funding bill to get furloughed workers back on job, taxes collected again; will GOP agree to unanimous consent without cuts to subsidy program?



Budget Battles Shift To Smaller Arena
Joint committee will face same issues that made debt ceiling problem so intractable

Mubarak Returns To Cairo For Trial
Rival youth groups brawl outside trial venue, reflecting divisions in Egypt over former dictator’s actions



POLITICS
Reuters: Obama Damaged By Outcome Of Debt Ceiling Fight

President Obama has some remarks after signing the debt ceiling bill

Only a hack like Bob Shrum would think the President was being reasonable

Huntsman Slams Romney On MassCare

Missouri Law Bars Teachers, Students From Friending On Social Media Sites

Mississippi Primaries Thin Field For Governor’s Race

Lobbyist Forms Two Veterans’ Groups To Back Perry Run

Obaam Still Poised To Celebrate 50th Birthday With Fundraisers



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
US Keeps AAA Rating But Moody’s Assigns Negative Outlook
Investors Fear New Economic Downturn
Italian Borrowing Costs Hit Ten-Year High
Marathon Oil Considering More Spinoffs
Is The Bull Market Over?
Facebook Buys A Book Publisher
Biggest Series Of Cyberattacks In History Uncovered; PRC Suspected
Google Gears Up For Battle With Groupon
HP Drops TouchPad Price To Spur Sales
AOL Delivers Personalized Magazine To The iPad



SPORTS
Nassau County Exec Explores Options After Voters Nix Stadium Bonds

Nassau Coliseum, home of the NHL's New York Islanders

Mangano looking to stimulate jobs, retain Islanders after lease expires in 2015

NBA Files Labor Charge, Lawsuit Against Union

Weaver Appeals Six-Game Beanball Suspension


Home Run In The Rain Boosts Tigers Past Rangers, 6-5

Danica Patrick To Remain Loyal To Indy 500 Even After Move To NASCAR

The Big Donkey’s Season-Long Misery In Chicago Continues

Ellsbury Lines Walk-Off Single In 9th To Keep Red Sox Atop AL East

Home Run Barrage Propels Nats To Another Victory Over Braves



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Redmond O’Neal Arrested On Narcotics Charges

Redmond O'Neal, son of Ryan and Farrah Fawcett

Traffic stop finds heroin in his car

Friends “Not Surprised” By Ronson’s DUI Arrest

Jennifer Lopez Gives Vanity Fair First Interview After Divorce

Miley Cyrus Fans Are Not Amused By Her Shenanigans

“Two And A Half Men” Season Premiere Two-Parter Loaded

Royals On A Shoestring

Kings Of Leon Bandmates Urging Caleb Followill To Enter Rehab

Linda Evangelista Seeking $46K/Month Child Support

Blake Lively, Leonardo DiCaprio Go Riding Bikes In NYC



FOREIGNERS
Iraqi Leaders Authorize Maliki To Discuss Longer Stay For US Troops
UN Revives Resolution To Condemn Syria
Aid Groups In Somalia Granted Leeway To Feed Militants
NATO Sends More Troops Kosovo After Border Unrest
Pakistan Asks US For Clarity In War On Terror
“Comedian” Gets Six Months For Murdoch Pie Attack



BLOGS & STUFF
Nice Deb: Tea Party Groups To Tour Wisconsin In Support Of Republicans Facing Recalls
Allahpundit: Mike Lee To Form New PAC, May Use It To Primary GOP Incumbents
Babalu: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Joe Biden Mind
Cafe Hayek: Shame On You, Joe Nocera
PJ Tatler: Pelosi Already Plotting To Kill Entitlement Reform In “Super Congress”
Don Surber: Saving Matt Damon
Firedoglake: The Hidden History Of The Debt Limit Hijack – Democrats Started It
Paul Ryan: Where’s Your Budget, Mr. President?
The Lonely Conservative: The Munchhausen President
JammieWearingFool: General Honore Blasts Congress
Jihad Watch: Muslim Prison Inmates Planning “Massive Attack”?
Bret Stephens: The Obama Downgrade, Alphabetically
Jeffrey Lord: American Tipping Point


SOTD: Both Ends Burning

Category: Live at Five

I … See … Crazy People

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 72 Comments

One of the amazing things about the whole debt-ceiling episode is how it has caused liberals to say stuff even crazier than the crazy stuff they usually say. Michael Lind at Salon:

The debt ceiling crisis is the latest case in which the radical right in the South has held America hostage until its demands are met. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln refused to appease the Southern fanatics. Unfortunately, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress chose not to follow their example and instead gave in. In doing so, they have encouraged the neo-Confederate minority in Congress to find yet another opportunity in the near future to extort concessions from America’s majority by sabotaging America’s government.

That’s some 180-proof crazy. But when it comes to pure high-octane crazy, nobody beats Amanda Marcotte:

Now it’s time to reflect on how our country has gone so far off track that we can’t even handle the basic responsibility of keeping the country from plunging into a manufactured crisis that nearly led to economic collapse. There are multiple causes, but one that hasn’t been discussed much is abortion.
Yes, abortion. Or, more specifically, the sustained sex panic that has been going on in this country since the sixties and seventies, when the sexual revolution occurred and women secured their reproductive rights. . . . [I]t’s sex panic that helped create the modern right-wing populist, and it’s the modern right-wing populist that created the current crisis. . . .
The genius of conservative leadership was that they were able to take all this anger about sexual freedom and desegregation and put the blame on two enemies: Democrats and the federal government.

So it’s neo-Confederates and/or “sex panic” that cause people to, uh . . . . Wait, what are we talking about? The federal debt.

The only way to exempt yourself from these bizarre accusations is to support infinite deficit spending. Otherwise, you’re like a giant inkblot in a Rorshach test, onto which Michael Lind and Amanda Marcotte will project their paranoid fears. You can’t simply debate fiscal policy with people like Lind and Marcotte, because they are endowed with the Magical Mind-Reading Power of Liberalism, which enables them to discern that you’re really a sex-panicked neo-Confederate upset about desegregation and “reproductive rights.”

It’s like having Charles Manson call you a psychotic.

UPDATE: Here’s a classic. On Sunday morning, Marcotte proclaimed to the world that “sex panic” explained the debt-ceiling dispute. But Tuesday, once she’d seen Lind’s neo-Confederate theory, she suddenly decided his theory was exactly right:

Southern whites have disproportionately tried to fuck up everything great about this country, all because of their racial resentments and backasswards views on gender . . .

Notice that “backasswards views on gender” now emerge as a uniquely regional trait of the South, as Marcotte evidently hopes to engraft her “sex panic” theory onto Lind’s Dixiefied theory. But either way, it’s the same thing: If you don’t agree with liberals, it can only be because there’s something wrong with you.

Your disagreement therefore licenses liberals to diagnose your disorder, a prerogative to which they are entitled, because they are your intellectual and moral superiors. And I remind you that this habit — diagnosing dissent as pathological — has been a signature trope of liberalism for more than half a century: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Category: Budget, Feminism, Liberals

Preshizzle Brings The Double Dizzle

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Yid with Lid enumerates the news, then points out the coming Equality of Condition:

The only possible good news coming out of the latest economic reports is the “class warfare” approach is likely to end soon. Not because of any change of heart by the President, but because the ruined economy will leave everyone in the same, poor class.

As we were chatting on Twitter, YWL and I, it came to me that facing reality is not a Bad Thing, though it may be temporarily painful. Frankie Smith (no relation) doubles down on the double dip with the new transportation plan we’ll be using when we can no longer afford to fuel individual cars:

Category: Uncategorized

Higher Education Bubble, IYKWIMAITYD

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 17 Comments

If Glenn Reynolds hasn’t linked this yet, it’s only a matter of time:

As the cost of college skyrockets, and students and recent graduates get buried under “piles of student debt and a job-scarce, lackluster economy,” more and more of them are turning to “sugar daddies,” says Amanda Fairbanks at The Huffington Post. Sites like SeekingArrangement.com, SeekingTuition.com, and SugarDaddyMeet.com allow young, mostly female students to post “sugar baby” profiles and hook up with a “sugar daddy” for “mutually beneficial relationships,” which often involve a trade of money for companionship and sex. Is this a new way for today’s 20-somethings to pay for college?

Old and busted: “But you’re so much more mature than all those other silly college kids.”

New and hot: “I’m sure those student loan payments must be killing you.”

Category: Education, Instapundit

Dow Drops 266 Points, Both Sides Race to Claim Defeat in Debt-Deal Compromise

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 14 Comments

Who didn’t see this coming? For months we were warned that financial catastrophe would ensue unless Congress raised the debt ceiling. So Congress raised the debt ceiling and . . . financial catastrophe:

Stocks plunge as economic concerns grow

Associated Press
NEW YORK — A sell-off is erasing all of the year’s gains in the stock market, which has hit its longest losing streak in two years.
All three major stock indexes fell today as investors reacted to more signs of weakness in the U.S. economy and poor earnings from several big companies.
The S&P 500 fell 33 points to close at 1,254. The Dow lost 266 to end the day at 11,867. The Nasdaq composite fell 75 to close at 2,669. . . .

Meanwhile, in an event unprecedented in the history of spin wars, conservatives and liberals rushed to claim that the other side won.

Emily Miller of The Washington Times proclaims that the GOP caved and gave Obama everything he wanted, but Dave Weigel at Slate calls it “a generational defeat for liberals”:

It ended with scenes straight from a Nora Ephron movie, or one of those weaker West Wing episodes with Kristin Chenoweth as the way-too-competent consultant. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House to cast her first vote since surviving a bullet to the brain. The House and Senate passed a debt-limit deal that got the votes of Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. The crisis concluded with a Rose Garden speech, as if someone had just won a war.
All of that obscured the truth about the debt crisis. The truth: It was completely insane. It was, as Democrats say, largely unprecedented and mostly unnecessary. It was, as Republicans say, fogged up with hype that made the politics and market moves uglier than they needed to be. The inevitable tick-tocks of the deal and the slide shows of winners and losers obscure the fact that Washington just blew two months negotiating a 10-year budget cut right before it was about to knuckle down and … negotiate the 2012 budget. . . .
In the Bush era, Republicans once deemed the debt-limit hike as “passed” in another funding bill. In February 2009, Democrats simply added an $800 billion hike in the debt limit—from $11.3 trillion to $12.1 trillion—to the stimulus bill. There was a consensus: Play with the debt limit and you lose. That was true until July 2011, when Republicans played with the debt limit and won. . . .

So here we have a liberal (and really, Dave, any illusion that you’re not a liberal has long since ended) declaring forthrightly that the GOP won, whereas not a single conservative friend of mine agrees.

It has been said that victory has many fathers, while defeat is an orphan, but this bill looks like an unwanted legislative bastard.

Ace of Spades has relevant thoughts, including a dig at Weigel.


Category: Budget, Dave Weigel

The Refreshing Daniel Hannan

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

The lucid speech, the extremely dry humor, the calm facing of the challenges:

Hannan is truly a light in the Progressive darkness.

via Theo Spark

Category: Great Britain

Jonah Goldberg, in Fine Form

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 35 Comments

Worked up into a long-overdue rant:

Tom Friedman — who knows a bit about Hezbollah — calls the tea partiers the “Hezbollah faction” of the GOP bent on taking the country on a “suicide mission.” All over the place, conservative Republicans are “hostage takers” and “terrorists,” “terrorists” and “traitors.” They want to “end life as we know it on this planet,” says Nancy Pelosi. They are betraying the Founders, too. Chris Matthews all but signs up for the “Make an Ass of Yourself” contest at the State Fair. Joe Nocera writes today that “the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests.” Lord knows what Krugman and Olbermann have said.
Then last night, on the very day Gabby Giffords heroically returns to cast her first vote since that tragic attack seven months ago, the vice president of the United States calls the Republican party a bunch of terrorists. . . .

Read the whole thing. You can also read the Joe Nocera New York Times column that helped set off Goldberg’s rant.  Scott Whitlock at Newsbusters has video of Chris Matthews, in case you missed this:

“Why did [Obama] let this develop for six months…this drum roll of the Republicans saying, ‘We’ve got the baby. You don’t get the baby back unless you pay us?’ Why do you let the other side have the baby, to use kidnapping terms?”

Meanwhile, the supposed radical Tea Party terrorist plan passed the Senate 74-26. So three-quarters of senators are “hostage takers,”  including such fanatics as Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Al Franken, John Kerry, Debbie Stabenow . . .

Category: Budget, Jonah Goldberg, Media Bias, MSNBC, New York Times, Senate, Tea Party

‘That Evil Hour …’

Posted on | August 2, 2011 | 50 Comments

How long, O Lord, how long? Where will it end?
All I ever wanted out of this campaign was enough money to get out of the country and live for a year or two in peaceful squalor in a house with a big screen porch looking down on an empty white beach, with a good rich coral reef a few hundred yards out in the surf and no neighbors.
Some book reviewer whose name I forget recently called me a “vicious misanthrope” . . . or maybe it was a “cynical misanthrope” . . . but either way, he (or she) was right; and what got me this way was politics. Everything that is wrong-headed, cynical & vicious in me today traces straight back to that evil hour in September of ’69 when I decided to get heavily involved in the political process . . .
But that is another story. What worries me now — in addition to this still unwritten saga of the California primary — is the strong possibility that my involvement in politics has become so deep and twisted that I can no longer think rationally about that big screen porch above the beach except in terms of an appointment as Governor of American Samoa.
I coveted that post for many years. For a while it was my only ambition. I pursued it relentlessly, and at one point in either 1964 or ’65 it seemed within my grasp. Larry O’Brien, now the chairman of the Democratic Party, was the man in charge of pork-barrel/patronage appointments at the time, and he gave me excellent reason to believe my application was on the verge of bearing fruit. I was living at the Holiday Inn in Pierre, South Dakota, when the good news arrived. It came on a Wednesday, as I recall, by telegram. The manager of the Inn was ecstatic: he called a cab immediately and sent me downtown to a dry-goods store where I bought six white sharkskin suits — using a Sinclair Oil card, which was subsequently revoked and caused me a lot of trouble.
I never learned all the details, but what was finally made clear — in the end, after a bad communications breakdown — was that O’Brien had pulled a fast one on me. As it turned out, he never had any intention of making me Governor of American Samoa, and when I finally realized this it made me very bitter and eventually changed my whole life.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72

Don’t know about anyone else, but I can totally relate to that, and not merely because of Thompson’s gonzo sarcasm about O’Brien promising him a gig in American Samoa. (The actual 1964 correspondence between Thompson and O’Brien is included, pp. 454-455, 457, in Thompson’s first volume of collected letters, The Proud Highway.) Frazzled after months covering the 1972 Democrat primaries, and once more up against a deadline to supply what he called “The Final Wisdom” of it all, Thompson was hinting at a basic truth about politics:

A small number of people reap whatever direct benefit is gained by the labor of many thousands.

Well-connected insiders are appointed to cushy diplomatic jobs. Campaign consultants cash in their contracts. Lobbyists get paid to hustle the politicians to provide special consideration to interest groups. The rest of us — the field hands of the political plantation, as it were — have only the pleasure of gazing at that big Greek Revival mansion with its Ionic columns and saying to ourselves: “We’ve got our guy in there.”

This is true whether we are Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives. “We” win, but “they” govern.

Sic semper hoc. Read more

Category: Budget, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Herman Cain, Iowa, Shoe Leather Fund
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