"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
Unlike Courtney Stodden, however, there are no creepy 51-year-old Hollywood types trying to get jiggy with 16-year-old Mycah Emerson.
She’s not a singer or actress, and I doubt she could get parental permission for marriage. However, Russ Emerson says he’s planning to take Mycah to the DMV to get her driver’s license.
Honestly, it never would have occurred to me to buy a $199.99 piece of jewelry via an Amazon link from my favorite blogger, but at least one “magnificent bastard” did, and thereby accomplished two purposes:
Although I won’t be the one spooning with you tonight — NTTAWWT, but there are limits to my gratitude — I’m about 90% sure that the recipient of this gift must have been your wife. Why?
Because that’s a brilliant way to hide the fact you’re giving money to a blogger. Your wife will see the bill, of course, and if you bought a $199.99 piece of jewelry for anyone but her, you’d be dead meat.
And I don’t think you can hire a divorce lawyer via Amazon.
Are you a conservative married to a liberal? Is that why you’re so sneaky about supporting TheOtherMcCain.com? Or is your wife a fiscal conservative who raised hell the last time you hit the tip jar?
It’s probably best not to ask too many questions. Your wife might read this and get suspicious. Or my wife might read it and get suspicious.
Either way, thanks for shopping our Amazon Associates links, which is my third-favorite way to earn money by blogging.
My second-favorite way is when readers hit the tip jar for $10 or $20 — or best of all, one billion dollars (which really impresses world-famous supermodels and glamorous movie stars). The tip-jar proceeds are usually available within 3 business days, whereas it takes a couple of months before I get a check from Amazon.
What is my most favorite way to earn money blogging? Continue reading To the Reader Who Bought the 1/8 Carat Gold and Diamond Heart Pendant →
by Smitty (h/t Lucianne)
It’s time for another episode in my serial apology to the rest of the country for my Congresstool, Jim Moran. Fresh, in the manner of something dropped in a field by a bull, from his 10′ Fairy Sculpture triumph, we have a new museum on offer from “Gentleman” Jim (emphasis mine):
“With 160 museums and monuments along the National Mall, there is no one institution telling the complete narrative of the many, vibrant ethnicities that make up the fabric of the American experience,” Moran said in a press release. “There should always be room for museums in our nation’s capital devoted to all manner of art, cultural and scientific accomplishments.”
The release goes on to explain that Moran’s district, which is near Washington, is “something of a melting pot itself.”According to the language of the resolution, H. Con. Res. 63, the museum is necessary because Americans are not well enough informed about their history.
Well, Mr. Moran, you’re correct. Insofar as as that ignorance has permitted you to stay in office far longer than an informed electorate would tolerate, that is. However, the frequency of emails from a certain retired Colonel Patrick Murray offers, one hopes, better possibilities for next year.
Damn that VodkaPundit: He got to this joke headline before I did. Great drunks think alike, I guess. But enough about us — let’s talk about the government hiring criminal thugs to rip off innocent taxpayers:
The Broward [County, Fla.] Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Nelson Santiago stole around $50,000 worth of electronics over the past six months from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport’s Terminal 1.
Santiago — a TSA officer since 2009 — was caught earlier this week by a Continental Airlines employee taking an iPad out of someone’s luggage and stuffing it into his pants, the cops say.
After being arrested Monday on two counts of grand theft, police say Santiago admitted to stealing computers, GPS devices, video cameras, and other electronic merchandise from luggage he was supposed to be screening.
(Via Memeorandum, with links by Hit & Run, The Lonely Conservative and Weasel Zippers.) Santiago was reportedly selling the stuff by posting it online while he was still “at work.” The fact that this thief was hired in 2009 might lead suspicious minds to wonder whether hiring standards at this agency — part of Janet Napolitano‘s Department of Homeland Security — have been lowered since January 2009.
No way. Because that would be completely irresponsible — like selling guns to Mexican drug gangs and illegal immigrants. And only crazy right-wingers could ever imagine that any federal agency would ever do something like that.
RE-ELECT PRESIDENT OBAMA
A Government Of Thugs, By Thugs, For Thugs
by Smitty
Protein Wisdom has right around zero confidence in the Speaker of the House. In contrast, the Gray, room-temperature Lady quotes Boehner has having slightly more sack:
The president and leaders of the House and Senate are scheduled to meet on Sunday to review proposals to reduce the deficit. But Mr. Boehner’s remarks suggested that it was unlikely that a quick deal could be struck, and Mr. Obama gave no indication to the contrary, even as he urged a speedy resolution.
“The sooner we get this done,” Mr. Obama said, looking grim as he commented on weak employment data that was released a few hours earlier, “the sooner that the markets know that the debt limit ceiling will have been raised and that we have a serious plan to deal with our debt and deficit, the sooner that we give our businesses the certainty that they will need in order to make additional investments to grow and to hire, and will provide more confidence to the rest of the world as well so that they are committed to investing in America.”
Mr. Boehner stretched his arms wide to symbolize the scale of the differences dividing Republicans and the president, and said: “I don’t think things have narrowed. I don’t think this problem has narrowed at all in the last several days.”
While this is not an explicit debate in the series for next year, one hopes that Mr. Boehner understands that he was elected to carry out the restraining order. This is the moment. The very reason that the House turns over every two years is so that the Will of the People can provide the course correction to an Execute running amok. The Constitution has been essentially turned into a urinal cake by the Progressives; to budge now is to admit that the century-long project to undermine the fabric of the country has been successful.
Call BHO’s bluff, Boehner: we offer support and more tissue than even you can run through.
Quoting his Insta-badness quoting Felix Salmon:
Treasury will send out checks anyway because it can’t stop. “It’s far from clear that it’s even possible to stop making the 3 million payments that Treasury makes automatically every day. Doing so involves a massive computer-reprogramming effort which I’m sure could not be implemented overnight — and for political reasons nobody is going to get started on such an effort until after all hope is lost for a deal in Congress.”
Nonsense: you secure power to the presses and the servers, and there will not be bit #1 emitted. This is more of a junkie/needle problem than a technical one.
Krauthammer is sanguine:
Look, all of this idea that the liberals [are] in a frenzy and pushing back — on what? What exactly has Obama offered on entitlements? I know it’s in the headlines. I know it’s been heavily leaked in advance of this meeting today. I know it’s what Obama wants everybody to think, that he’s prepared to be the grand — the national savior, the compromiser. . . .
But what exactly is on the table? … I would say if Obama wants to show he’s serious about entitlements, he needs to offer a structural change, let’s say in Medicare. There is a rumor that it’s going to be means testing, meaning the rich will pay more and the elderly poor will pay less, which I think is eminently reasonable. But why would a liberal resist that? Isn’t that what liberals are arguing, for fairness in having the rich contribute more?
What’s interesting here is that the Progressive sacred cows were previously unmentionable. The fact that they are being circulated at all is at least some measure of improvement. Don’t back down, Boehner!
As we reported yesterday, Obama reportedly offered to trade cuts to Social Security in return for Republicans agreeing to close a few tax loopholes. Democrats are desperately trying to spin this, as Talking Points Memo reports today, but some of Obama’s key “progressive” supporters are threatening to boycott his 2012 re-election:
Dear MoveOn member,
News just broke that President Obama is offering to cut Social Security as part of the debt deal they’re working out in Washington right now. And reports say he’s stopped pushing to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for millionaires in these negotiations.
If both these things are true, it’s an absolute outrage. When asked, 75% of MoveOn members said that if a deal like this were to go through, they’d be less likely to donate to or volunteer for President Obama’s re-election campaign. . . .
Here’s the text to copy into your Facebook status when you share this graphic: “If Barack Obama cuts Social Security to pay for the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, I won’t ever give his campaign another dime. Repost and reshare this image if you agree.” . . .
Read the rest at Letters From a Young American, who supports this boycott. Of course, he wasn’t going to give Obama a dime to begin with — but it’s the thought that counts, right?
by Smitty (h/t Instapundit)
This prediction is served without malice. I feel nothing about the Commander-in-Chief, one way or the other.
Against those, and other equally negative inputs (Pigford), BHO will have to arrive at a means to avoid losing the election. I predict Eric Holder will be the vehicle, or, rather, dude going under the vehicle, to achieve this. The means to avoid losing in an election BHO cannot win will be to resign, Nixon style, because the integrity of the administration has been unexpectedly (did I already use that word in this post?) tarnished.
This occurs at the point where the maximal amount of cash has been squeezed from the donors. Of course. “BFD” Biden generates a bit of work for the portrait guy, and finishes out the term. It’s not as classical as OediPUTUS Wrecks, but there you have it.
In a story about Thursday’s debate in California’s 36th District congressional special election, Los Angeles Times reporter Jean Merl twice uses the word “discredited” in reference to KTTV’s reporting on Democrat Janice Hahn’s gang-intervention program:
The exchange came as national women’s groups accused the Huey campaign of trying to discourage women from voting in the South Bay-based 36th Congressional District and the National Republican Congressional Committee touted an “update” of a discredited Fox News report that accused Hahn and a city gang intervention program of hiring and supporting active gang members. Hahn vigorously denied the report again Thursday. . . .
Also Thursday, fallout from a since-discredited Fox TV news report again roiled the campaign. An “update” of the controversy — stemming from allegations Hahn and the city of L.A. gave money to active gang members — featured a gang member saying Hahn had intervened on his behalf when he was arrested, plus a statement from a city attorney who asked not to be identified.
The Huey campaign has distributed copies of the original report and the National Republican Congressional Committee told The Times’ it has spent about $5,000 and sent text messages to voters directing them to the website it created about the updated report.
Notice two things: Not only does Merl repeat the word “discredited,” but she also twice calls this a “Fox News” or “Fox TV news” story — clearly attempting to convey the impression that the investigative reporting by Chris Blatchford was done by the national cable-TV news network, rather than by the news department of the local Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, KTTV.
Readers of Jean Merl’s article might certainly be excused for thinking that this “discredited Fox News report” had been proven false. But Blatchford’s story — both the 2008 story and his 8-minute updated report Thurday — cited facts regarding the gang-intervention program that have been reported by other news organizations, including the local tabloid L.A. Weekly. Here, watch the entire eight minutes yourself, if you have not already done so:
KTTV provides a transcript of the program at its Web site. Can the Los Angeles Times be bothered to do some actual reporting of its own, rather than mere public relations stenography for Democrats? Has the LA Times even bothered to report that Democrats are worried enough about Tuesday’s CA-36 special election that they got Obama’s Organizing for America to send out e-mails seeking volunteers for the Hahn campaign?
Joy –
There are only five days left until the special election in California’s 36th Congressional District on Tuesday. With this race coming down to the wire, every one of those days will be crucial to our efforts to help Democratic nominee Janice Hahn pull out a victory.
OFA California volunteers will be making calls for Janice from now until the election. One of the phone banks is in Pasadena on Sunday — can you make it?
Here are the details:
What: Make calls for Janice Hahn
[then the address is listed–it’s in Pasadena proper]
When: Sunday, July 10th, 3:00 pm — RSVP now
If you can’t make that phone bank, we’ll be making calls at each OFA California office every day from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. — find and RSVP for one of those events here.
Janice is running a campaign to create new jobs, invest in clean energy, and stop the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it. When she gets to Congress, she’ll be a great voice for California and a strong ally for President Obama and other Democrats in Washington.
Join us in Pasadena on Sunday:
http://my.barackobama.com/Calls-for-Janice-Hahn
Thanks,
Mary Jane Stevenson
That e-mail was sent to Joy McCann (Little Miss Attila), while Darleen Click of Protein Wisdom got a similar e-mail directing her to a separate OFA office on Vine Avenue in downtown Los Angeles Ontario, Calif. (Correction per Darleen’s comment below. — RSM)
UPDATE: Let’s see if the LA Times calls the local NPR affiliate “discredited” for accurately reporting Thursday’s debate:
During a debate at KPCC Thursday, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn — a Democratic candidate for Congress — found herself fending off charges she helped a gang member get out of jail. . . .
An earlier report by Fox 11 TV news that Hahn pushed for the release of an active gang member has been dogging the South Bay Democrat. Fox reporter Chris Blatchford quoted an unnamed Los Angeles City Attorney who said Hahn’s office played a role in the release of convicted felon P.J. Steve, who’d ostensibly worked as a gang interventionist.
“I never worked on behalf of a known convicted gang member to get them out of jail,” Hahn said. In response to a question from KPCC’s Larry Mantle, she added that the man’s distraught mother visited her office, and that she did make a call.
“The only call I ever made was just to say ‘what was the purpose of the arrest of this person?’” she said.
Blatchford (quoting an unnamed deputy city attorney) said he was “told Hahn’s office called and said P.J. Steve worked for her and because he was a gang intervention worker for her they asked for an O.R. release and it was granted.” An O.R. release is a release on an defendant’s own recognizance.
If readers haven’t followed this story closely, they can be forgiven for not understanding what is being alleged, what is being denied, what is now confirmed and whether or not Blatchford’s report is “discredited.”
The Crips gangster “P.J. Steve” presented at his trial a certificate of appreciation signed by Janice Hahn — this is a fact that no one has disputed. Now we have Hahn’s confirmation that she placed a call to police on behalf of “P.J. Steve” after the gangster’s arrest on rape charges. An attorney in the prosecutor’s office told Blatchford that “P.J. Steve” was released on his own recognizance based on Hahn’s call.
Hahn denies exercising that kind of influence with LAPD, but ask yourself: If you were a cop and a powerful city council member called your office “just askin’ questions” about a suspect’s arrest, what impression would such a phone call make on you?
UPDATE II: “Journalism is hard!”
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