The Other McCain

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

‘Subversion, Inc.’: Book-Partying in D.C. With Author Matthew Vadum Tonight

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 5 Comments

The notorious “Beltway cocktail party circuit” is a political cliché, suggestive of effete insiders conspiring over martinis in some sort of Machiavellian power-status cabal. There is some truth to that cliché. Washington, D.C., is very much a town where who you know is more important than what you know, and the most important thing is always what you know about who you know.

People in the nation’s capital really do conduct a lot of business over cocktails (or beer), and so I’m off to D.C. tonight to attend a book-signing party for my buddy Matthew Vadum, whose book Subversion, Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

In addition to being my buddy — which should be recommendation enough — Vadum is the nation’s foremost expert on ACORN’s nefarious activities, having covered them for years as an investigative journalist with the Capital Research Center. And in a Washington Times column he reminds us that (a) ACORN is still in business, contrary to rumors of their demise, and (b) they’ve collected tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding over the years:

America’s long-suffering taxpayers scored a resounding victory as the Supreme Court told one of the nation’s foremost tax-eating groups to take a hike.
The high court denied an appeal last week by the radical left-wing gangster group ACORN, ruling in effect that Congress was entitled to cut off federal taxpayer funding for the group, which routinely perpetrates voter fraud and encourages welfare recipients to buy houses they have no hope of paying for.
ACORN still matters because reports of its demise have been exaggerated. Although the national ACORN organization filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Election Day last year, ACORN is restructuring itself in time to help re-elect its former employee, President Obama, next year. ACORN’s voter-mobilization arm, Project Vote, is conducting business as usual out of ACORN’s D.C. offices.
The ACORN network has taken in an astounding $79 million in federal funding, and those are only the grants I could find in the U.S. government’s antiquated databases. . . .

So I’ll be in D.C. tonight celebrating Vadum’s excellent new book — more than 400 pages, with more than 700 footnotes — and encourage you to buy it now. When you purchase Subversion Inc. through the Amazon Associates link, you get a low price and I get a small commission, and the resulting profit may help convince my wife that hanging around D.C. cocktail receptions is a legitimate journalistic endeavor, rather than just an excuse to party with Vadum.

Category: ACORN, Books, Corruption, Crime, Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

Why Does Alec Baldwin Fear Women?

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 34 Comments

Newsbusters calls attention to Alec Baldwin’s Twitter rant against GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann:


Of course, Baldwin boldly defended Anthony Weiner as “the modern, high functioning man.” Richard McEnroe on Twitter reminds us of Baldwin’s infamous phone call to his 12-year-old daughter:

When I previously called attention to Baldwin’s abusive call to his daughter, another writer accused me of siding with “our whole feminist society” — certainly the first time I’ve ever been accused of that.

Let me say this about Alec Baldwin (and perhaps to Alec Baldwin, since I intend to Tweet this post at him): He is not a stupid man nor an ignorant man. Rather, he is one of those celebrities who, as P.J. O’Rourke once said, are not content with wealth and fame, but also crave a reputation for moral altruism.

That’s really all there is to Hollywood liberalism.

Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) have labored long and skillfully to portray liberalism as a sort of charitable do-gooder philosophy. The beauty of liberalism is that it doesn’t require that you actually do anything to help the poor and downtrodden. All you have to do is vote Democrat, and you’re automatically entitled to think of yourself as a philanthropist.

Alec Baldwin is a liberal because being a liberal makes him feel good about himself, and allows him to bask in the admiration of his fellow liberals, who believe that merely being a liberal makes you the moral equal of Mother Teresa selflessly treating lepers in Calcutta.

And it doesn’t cost him a dime.

Alec Baldwin is neither stupid nor ignorant, but rather is an example of the power of liberalism to delude intelligent and educated people by appealing to their moral vanity.

Thomas Sowell wrote an entire book about this — The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy — and yet the syndrome Sowell so persuasively described continues to ensnare intelligent people like Alec Baldwin, simply because they can’t be bothered to read the book. And perhaps also because, as a matter of self-interest, they don’t want to lose the professional and social advantages that accrue to liberals in those environments (entertainment, academia, media) where liberalism prevails.

Category: Celebrities, Election 2012, Michele Bachmann

Dear Stacy

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 19 Comments

by Smitty

Please make sure no one finds out I was born in Oregon. It would be shameful for anyone to know that the state where I was born has been completely sodomized by a crop of un-American degenerates. Yes. California. I blame expat granola-heads for destroying my home state’s moral fiber.
Stacy, I know my little bit of birth trivia is safe with you.
Thanks, man.
Chris

Category: Uncategorized

Gloat Zone

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 18 Comments

“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said Tuesday that she’s not ready to announce whether she’ll run for president, but did not deny a report that she has made her decision.”
— The Hill, June 28

Palin Decision Expected Next Week
— The American Spectator, June 17

So it now appears that what “one Republican source” told me was right on the money: Palin was getting ready to make her decision on 2012. Of cource, nobody knows what the decision is, or when it will be announced. But I’m feeling pretty doggone Undefeated, you might say.

Category: Election 2012, Sarah Palin

VIDEO: Hey, the Economy Sucks

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 9 Comments

In this Bloomberg TV interview, Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, doesn’t really have any good news and says he expects housing prices to decline another 7% in the next year:

By the way, I’m not a big fan of using “consumer confidence” as an economic indicator, as if mere mood were a tangible factor. The underlying economic reality is far more important than how people feel about the economy, yet we often see financial journalists writing articles that suggest recessions are caused by people feeling discouraged or pessimistic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 145 points Tuesday — good news, right? Yeah, but it closed at 12,188.69. That’s actually below the closing price (12,307.35) on June 13, 2008. So the stock funds in your 401(k) are right back where they were three years ago, and substantially below the DJIA peak of 14,093.08 in October 2007. Meanwhile, home prices are at their lowest point since 2003 and projected to go even lower. And unemployment, of course, has been 9% or higher for 23 of the past 25 months.

Given all these indicator of a bleak economic reality, it is therefore idiotic for financial journalists to pretend that low “consumer confidence” is mysterious or irrational.

Category: Economics

‘A More Perfect Union’?

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 27 Comments

“To attempt to abstract from the Preamble to the Constitution a lever for transforming it into an instrumental document is . . . to invent powers that do not exist. And it is also a transparent attempt to import the second paragraph of the Declaration — as a mandate for national self-creation, refounding — into our fundamental law. A contemporary point of reference for all such nonsense as follows from an activist view of the Preamble and Declaration is Mortimer Adler’s We Hold These Truths, a book ‘about’ the Constitution whose wweaknesses are specificed by its very title. After Adler identifies the Declaration as a ‘preface’ to the Constitution, we know how his argument will tend: that in the end that Declaration will, if allowed, swallow up the Constitution — except for the Preamble, as ideologically construed.”
— M.E. Bradford, Original Intentions: On the Making and Ratification of the United States Constitution (1993)

“We can pat ourselves on the back about the past 223 years, but we cannot let the Constitution become an obstacle to the U.S.’s moving into the future with a sensible health care system, a globalized economy, an evolving sense of civil and political rights. The Constitution, as Martin Luther King Jr. said in his great speech on the Mall, is a promissory note. That note had not been fulfilled for African Americans. But I would say the Constitution remains a promissory note, one in which ‘We the People’ in each generation try to create that more perfect union.”
— Richard Stengel, Time magazine, June 23, 2011

Aaron Worthing identified 13 specific factual errors in Stengel’s article, but it strikes me that Stengel’s biggest mistake is the one which Bradford noted in Adler’s work: Conflating the Declaration and the Constitution in such a way that the Constitution’s limitations on federal authority are effectively voided, so as to make the phrase “a more perfect union” a mandate for endless experimentation in pursuit of egalitarian objectives.

Advocates of unlimited centralized power habitually seek to portray the Constitution as an obsolete remnant of the “horse and buggy” era, a pejorative phrase popularized by liberal proponents of the New Deal, key elements of which were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. By the 1950s, however — after two decades of Democrat presidents — the court’s former conservative majority had been replaced by liberals, and for more than three decades the Supreme Court itself became an instrument for the expansion of federal authority.

Stengel is another one of these modernists, perceiving the Constitution’s limits as a hindrance to progress: “[W]e cannot let the Constitution become an obstacle to the U.S.’s moving into the future with a sensible health care system,” et cetera.

The Constitution says nothing at all about health care, of course, but Stengel’s enthusiastic phrase “moving into the future” conveys his idea of the past as bad place, where things were not “sensible” because of those silly old-fashioned limits on federal power.

Horse and buggy. Powdered wigs. Private health insurance.

Which of those things doesn’t belong on the list? Read more

Category: Constitution, Media Bias

LIVE AT FIVE – 06.29.11

Posted on | June 29, 2011 | 4 Comments

TOP NEWS
Ten Civilians Dead In Kabul Hotel Attack

Afghan security policeman directs traffic near the InterContinental hotel

Death toll doesn’t include six splodeydopes killed by security forces or autodarwinated

Bank Of America Near $8.5 Billion Settlement
MBS holders sue over toxic assets;  other suits likely

New Mexico Fires Threaten Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab – Again
Second fire in eleven years to affect lab, where some radioactive wastes are stored



POLITICS
Maverick Palin Still Mum On Her Intentions

Governor Palin greets crowd in Pella at premiere of "The Undefeated"

“I think Palin enjoys teasing and tormenting the political media,” said Dennis Goldford, professor of politics at Drake University. “She shows a little bit of political leg, and then she covers it up again.”

Bachmann Praises Moratorium On Federal Income Tax During NH Visit

Minot Moves Into Recovery Mode

Cornyn Presses Napolitano Over Immigration Case Dismissals

Tax Standoff Blocks Progress On Budget Talks

Compromise On Pledge In Oregon Town Has Some Seeing Red

Obama Defends Record In Iowa Campaign Stop

After Some Chaos, Texas Legislature Passes Education Funding Bill

Pawlenty Slams Obama’s Mishandling Of Foreign Policy



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Lagarde Wins Top IMF Job, Presses Greece On Debt
Twitter’s Biz Stone Walks Away, Restarts Obvious Corp.
Home Prices Up Slightly In April Over March, But Still Down From Last Year
MySpace Sale Near; News Corp. Shortlists Two Bidders
Oil Trades Near Highest In Four Days As US Supply Drops, Greece Vote Nears
Google Takes Direct Aim At Facebook With Google+
NASA Clears Last Shuttle For July 8 Launch
Hackers Gone Mild: Six Rebels Turned Insiders
LeapFrog Unveils $100 Tablet For Kids
E-Reader Ownership Explodes Past Tablets



SPORTS
Gamecocks Repeat As College World Series Champs

South Carolina caps postseason streak with championship

5-2 defeat of Florida Gators makes Gamecocks just sixth team to repeat as college baseball champs

Beckett Back But Lee Is Better

Dodgers Battle Moves On In Bankruptcy Court



Astros Drop Seventh Straight At Home To Rangers

Rockies Edge White Sox 3-2 In 13 Innings

Zito’s Return Highlights Giants’ Sweep Of Doubleheader

NFL Commissioner, Labor Leader Hold Private Meeting

Mets Hit Two Grand Slams, Rout Tigers 14-3

All This And Five Errors Too: Nats Drop Second Straight Under New Management



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“Ugly Betty” America Ferrera Makes Beautiful Bride

America Ferrera and her husband Ryan Piers Williams

Marries longtime boyfriend in intimate ceremony Monday night with just close friends and family in attendance

Halle Berry In Court – Trouble Brewing Over Custody

Emma Stone In Vanity Fair

David Duchovny, Tea Leoni Separate

Mel Gibson Settles Divorce Case With Wife

J-Lo No Show For “American Idol”‘s 11th Season?

Martin Short Joins “How I Met Your Mother”

Heidi Klum “Not One To Play Hard To Get”

Selena Gomez Stands Up For Single-Parent Families



FOREIGNERS
Greeks Turn Up The Heat As Austerity Vote Nears
Video, Photos Released Showing Chavez Visiting Fidel In Cuba
Egyptian Protesters Clash With Security Forces In Cairo
State Department Sees “Progress” After Syrian Activists Meet
Israeli Advocacy Group Helps Delay Departure of Gaza Flotilla
Iran Test-Fires Missiles, Reveals Silos
PRC And Germany Ink $15 Billion Trade Deals
Bond Girl Michelle Yeoh Deported From Burma For Role As Aung San Suu Kyi
Turkish PMs Refuse Oath In Protest Of Jailed Colleagues
Jews & Muslims Agree: New Dutch Ban On Ritual Slaughter Is Religious Persecution



BLOGS & STUFF
The Lonely Conservative: ABC News Surprised That A Black Woman Supports Sarah Palin?
Moe Lane: George Stephanopoulos Thinks Ben Franklin Wasn’t A Founding Father?
Don Surber: Media Beclowns Itself Over Bachmann
Mark Levin: George Stephanopoulos – Flake
Jawa Report: Transvestite Senior Al Qaeda Leader Captured
Weasel Zippers: Kucinich Tells Syrian TV “President Assad Is Highly Loved And Appreciated BY His People”
iOwnTheWorld.com: Glenn Beck & Family Attacked In New York Park
NRO Online: More Details Emerge In Wisconsin’s “Chokegate”
Blackfive: Obama Ignored Military On Afghan Withdrawal
Andrew Stiles: Coburn, Lieberman Unveil Plan To Save Medicare
Sister Toldjah: ATF Head To Tell All About Gunwalker?
PJ Tatler: Stephanopoulos Tells Bachmann “We’ll Investigate Your Foster Kids”

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

On the Bright Side, I Doubt the Navy Would Put Smitty in a Luxury Hotel

Posted on | June 28, 2011 | 8 Comments

While I haven’t heard anything today from our fearless Admiral of the Afghan Seas, I presume he’s in some relatively safe and non-luxury billet, while Taliban terrorists are holed up at the best hotel in Kabul:

Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers attacked Kabul’s Hotel Inter-Continental in a carefully orchestrated attack that began Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday.
About four hours after the attack began, International Security Assistance Force helicopters fired at insurgents on the roof, killing as many as three of the gunmen, ISAF spokesman Maj. Tim James told CNN. . . .
There were no indications that U.S. military or diplomatic personnel were at the hotel, U.S. officials told CNN.
The Inter-Continental is popular among international guests. A news conference had been scheduled to take place there Wednesday to discuss the planned transition of security from international to Afghan forces that U.S. President Barack Obama announced last week.

Apparently the Taliban didn’t get the Obama administration memo about Peace, Unicorns and Rainbows.

Category: Aghanistan, Terrorism
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin