I was up to my neck in Right Online at the time, and so didn’t get around to blogging about it Friday, but to those of us who followed WeinerGate in-depth from Day One, this is one of those dangling loose threads — along with “PatriotUSA76″/”Dan Wolfe”/#bornfreecrew — that inspires continued fascination.
The bottom line? Don’t assume that people whom you know only through the Internet are who they really say they are, nor should you assume that people who profess to be “on your side” actually are.
That’s four times the length of a typical news story, and the piece essentially re-hashes a Democratic Party talking point about Thomas’s alleged “conflict of interest” which Democrats say should force Thomas to recuse himself from the upcoming case on the constitutionality of ObamaCare.
Is there any chance — any chance at all — that the editors of the Times would ever consider themselves obliged to devote such resources to advancing a Republican talking point?
And they wonder why they’re losing influence . . .
Secretary Gates defends strategy and legality of Libya operation
House strikes back against President’s violation of War Powers
Act, aims to cut funds; unlikely alliances form for, against measure McCain chides GOP for isolationism
Alyssa Campanella Wins Miss USA Competition
Wary contestants avoid controversy in wake of Prejean kerfluffle; outgoing Miss USA Rima Fakih parties down in last five days of reign
New this week to Rule 5 Sunday is the Argentinian blogger Opinador Compulsivo, who dedicates this NSFW Rule 5 Gallery to Soylent Green and Stacy McCain. All hail the spread of Rule 5 to America del Sur!
Check out the new collaboration of two of my favorite bloggers, Little Miss Attila and POWIP.
They call it Conservative Commune. I admit the second word has more appeal as an imperative verb than as a noun, but I admire the two so much as writers that I’ll just blogroll them and subscribe to their feed in any case.
Now, get over there and get your doggone blog on, readers!
MINNEAPOLIS
Three obese women are sitting on the other side of the cocktail table in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel where I’m writing this. They are not only obese, they also have iPhones, and are checking their messages while chatting about nonsense of no relevance to the serious political events that have transpired during the last three days at the fourth annual Right Online conference.
It’s the iPhones that annoy me most. My cheap Samsung cell phone died yesterday. I’m a professional journalist who, by all rights, ought to have the latest 4G mobile communications technology. Instead, I’ve got nothing, while this trio of fat women, just arrived in Minneapolis for a conference of government employees, can afford top-of-the-line stuff. It’s a whole different kind of “social justice” issue, you see: Those who feast on taxpayer largesse have wealth and leisure — to say nothing of ample grocery budgets, as is so apparent — while those in the private sector are lean and hungry, with no time to lounge around hotel lobbies exchanging idle gossip.
But there’s no time thinking about that stuff now because, as usual, I’m short on time. In 30 minutes, Erik Telford’s going to have a taxi at the front door to get us to the airport for the flight home and I’ve got to have this post finished by then, with my laptop packed and ready to go. No time to distill the Final Wisdom of the past three days. Just to quickly note:
I’ve got no time to upload video, nor time to write captions for all these photos I took. Just enough time to say, “Hit the freaking tip jar” and then — whoosh! — off to the airport I go. It might be nice to have a government job so I could get fat and carry an iPhone, but that ain’t my life, and it can’t be helped.
The media has yet to uncover Barack Obama’s college transcripts, but they are already questioning Michele Bachmann’s record as a foster parent.
It’s all about speaking truth to power, where ‘truth’ is drivel and ‘power’ means whoever the owner of the media dogs has directed these rabid bitches to attack, in this case Representative Bachmann.
This blog means no disrespect to the honest female dogs of the world by comparing reporters to them; merely a figure of speech.
MINNEAPOLIS — About 15 bloggers got a rare glimpse at an angry Herman Cain, when the Republican presidential candidate’s temper flared briefly during an informal press conference Saturday.
“If you’re trying to make me lose my cool, you’re almost succeeding,” Cain said, after McMorris-Santoro raised the question — one Cain had addressed at some length to begin the press conference — and when the TMP writer attempted to reiterate the question, Cain roared back: “I never said I would use any special precautions!”
KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?
CAIN: No, I will not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.
The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.
The question about Muslims was one of three points that Cain sought to clarify in his remarks at the beginning of his press conference. He also explained why he had been unwilling to sign a pledge offered by a pro-life group, saying that he is strongly pro-life, but had issues with the wording of the pledge; and he repeated his strong support for gun rights, which had been questioned by some Second Amendment activists. Taking questions from bloggers, Cain also discussed his disagreements with another 2012 GOP candidate, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, about the Federal Reserve system.
The press conference — with the candidate in shirtsleeves, sitting on a chair turned backward — followed Cain’s well-received speech at the fourth annual Right Online conference, hosted by Americans for Prosperity.
America is suffering “a severe deficiency of leaderships,” Cain said during the speech, which was interrupted several times by standing ovations.
“Small businesses . . . are hanging on for dear life,” Cain told the RightOnline crowd, assuring those struggling with the current recession: “Hold on . . . help is on the way.”
