The Other McCain

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

Official #WeinerGate Theme Song

Posted on | June 1, 2011 | 10 Comments

(Hat-tip: Ladd Ehlinger Jr.)

Category: Anthony Weiner, Music, Scandal, Video

LIVE AT FIVE – 06.01.11

Posted on | June 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

TOP NEWS
Obama’s No-Strings Debt Limit Hike Dies In House

Speaker of the House John Boehner

Even the House Democratic leadership wanted it dead.

Pentagon Not Ruling Out Use Of Force Against Cyberattackers
Colonel Lapan: “…all appropriate options would be on the table.”
Palin Puts Bus Tour On Pause For Meeting With The Donald
Game of playing keep-away with the lamestream media continues
POLITICS
Supremes Reject Lawsuit Against Former AG Ashcroft

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft

Unanimous decision kiboshes lawsuits by those held as material witnesses but not charged

Special Session Begins For Texas Legislature
Obama Taps Environmentalist Bryson To Head Commerce Department

Navy’s Next Carrier To Be Named After JFK

Blagojevich: I Was Only Seeking A Legal “Horse Trade”
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
AT&T Ramps Up Lobbying For Proposed T-Mobile Merger
US Stocks Finish Month Higher, Shrug Off Weak Economic News
Shiller Says Housing As Investment Losing “Enthusiasm” (Video)
Intuit: Small-business Jobs Rise In Mountain States
Goldman Denies Offering Libya An Equity Stake
Gold Declines On Greece Bailout Speculation
Apple’s Very Own “Patch Tuesday” Deals With MacDefender Scareware
Zynga Moves Into Combat Zone With “Empires And Allies”
SPORTS
Lakers To Discover What Brown Can Do

Lakers head coach Mike Brown chats with VP of Basketball Ops Jim and team owner Jerry Buss

Former Cavaliers coach “not here to fill” Phil Jackson’s shoes

Just When You Think It Can’t Get Any Worse In College Football

Argentina’s National Soccer Team Settles Debt To Blessed Mother

Winnipeg’s Gain Is Atlanta’s Loss As Thrashers Move North

Espinosa Homers Twice As Nats Light Up Lee, Crush Phillies

Pirates’ Bats Come Alive Late Against Mets For 5-1 Win

Robinson Cancel Called Up To Astros: The Definition Of Persistence
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Donald Sutherland Cast As President Snow For “The Hunger Games”

Donald Sutherland

When you need the gold standard in creepy & evil…

Jennifer Lopez, Mark Anthony Trek Across Latin America For New Show

Queen Of Extremes: Angelina Jolie

That’s Princess Catherine To You

Hayden Panettiere Rebounds With NFL Hunk Mark Sanchez

Amy Winehouse Told:  Quit Booze Or Die
Cheryl Cole Feels “Hung Out To Dry” After “X-Factor” Firing

Snooki Loses License, Faces Possible Lawsuit After Crash

Jeff Conaway Family Insists On Autopsy To Rule Out Foul Play

Rep: Blake Lively Nude Photos Are Fake

FOREIGNERS
Qaddafi Regime Claims 700 Dead From NATO Bombings
Violence Erupts In Yemen As Cease-Fire Breaks Down
German E. Coli Outbreak Claims More Lives
Bundeskanzler Merkel On High-Profile State Visit To India
Murdered Pakistani Journalist Warned By ISI Over Terrorism Reporting
Bahrain Ends State Of Emergency, Promises Reform Talks
Israel’s Navy Trains For Incoming Gaza Flotilla
Suspect In Anna Politovskaya Murder Arrested
BLOGS & STUFF
Don Surber: So Quit Acting Like Papparazzi
Republican Redefined: Debt Ceiling Increase Goes Down In House
Allahpundit: Uh Oh – Wisconsin Board Ratifies Six Recall Elections Against GOP, Delays Decision On Democrats
Lonely Conservative: Commerce Pick Bryson Is “Green Evangelist”; Inhofe Promises Filibuster
Stars & Stripes: Ranger To Be Awarded Medal Of Honor
Jihad Watch: Chutzpah Alert – Belgian Muslim Organization Sues Sociologist For Linking Islam, Antisemitism
Verum Serum: Confirmed – Huntsman Supported Insurance Mandate (Video)
Doug Ross: The Obamaconomy In Two Mind-Blowing Pictures

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

#WeinerGate OMFG! @RepWeiner Gives Worst Press Conference EVAH! (Video)

Posted on | May 31, 2011 | 74 Comments

I’ll add commentary and links in a few minutes. But it’s kinda superfluous after this astoundingly bad performance:

UPDATE: Ace of Spades finds the video . . . arousing.

The video is from Mediaite.

UPDATE II: Having previously remarked on the power of simple sentences, we see in this video how Weiner fails to provide a simple answer to the simple question conservative bloggers have been asking for three days: If you are the victim of a crime, why haven’t you reported it to the police?

People who had previously doubted Weiner’s guilt are, I’m sure, now beginning to doubt his innocence. And after a politician famous for his media savvy has such a spectacular meltdown on camera, it’s hard to pretend it’s not newsworthy.

Ed Morrissey is now blogging it at Hot Air (via Memeorandum).

Linked by Unified Patriots and by Bob Belvedere at The Camp of the Saints — thanks!

UPDATE III: Donald Douglas has video of a CNN segment on WeinerGate featuring an interview with Andrew Breitbart, and some astoundingly dismissive comments by CNN “legal analyst” Jeffrey Toobin.

Questions for Jeffrey Toobin: Did the people who elected and re-elected Anthony Weiner know they were voting for a man who, though married, would send photos of his phallic tumesence to a 21-year-old coed he never met? Is it merely a “lighthearted story” if an influential member of Congress (apparently) does such a thing, and then tries to claim he was the victim of Internet identity thieves whom he (strange to say) shows no interest in prosecuting?

I’d just like to know your opinion of these things, Mr. Toobin, because if my congressman, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) starts Tweeting pictures of his junk to my 21-year-old daughter, I wouldn’t consider it a “lighthearted story.”

Just sayin’ . . .

UPDATE IV: LInked by Brian Preston at Pajamas Media and by That Mr. G Guy — thanks!

Weiner is starting to lose his liberal media Teflon: “Evading questions . . . is a strategy most often utilized by people with something to hide, and will only further pique the media’s interest. Weiner either has something to hide, or he has no idea how the media operates.” (My hunch: The former.)

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin returns from family vacation and writes: “Weiner’s certainly not doing himself any favors with his Talk-y McTalkingpoints deflection of the brouhaha. Even the Beltway press is not buying it.” You want to be sure and read the whole thing, because she gives Ace a little love-tap.

UPDATE V: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Some readers are reporting temporary outages due to server overload. I’ve put in a request for extra bandwidth from our host-servers. My apologies for the temporary technical problem.

UPDATE VI: OK, looks like the bandwidth issue has been resolved. Speaking of “issue,” did you know Jeffrey Toobin has some issues? And by “issues” I mean, shtupping Jeff Greenfield’s daughter.

At least Tweets don’t cause pregnancy.

“A lighthearted story,” I’m sure.

CNN: The Most Trusted Name in News
(And by ‘News’ We Mean ‘Shtupping the Daughters of CBS Analysts’)

UPDATE VII: Did you see how I just totally jacked that classic Ace riff? But if it wasn’t for the jokes I steal, I’d have nothin’.

But I only steal from the best, and I try to give back. Ace and his merry Morons have been killing on WeinerGate. To wit: “Of course, no Democratic sex scandal is complete until Amanda Marcotte embarrasses herself.”

Also, place your bets on the WeinerGate denouement. My money says: Terse statement of admission late Thursday, followed by tearful hugfest with Rachel Maddow on Friday.

Linked by Conservative Hideout — thanks!

UPDATE VIII: Breitbart’s message to Toobin: Mess with the bull, you get the horns, baby. Breitbart name-checked CNN’s Toobin — mentioning Toobin’s own sex scandal — during an interview on Fox Business.

But really, who are we to judge? Let him who has not impregnated a friend’s daughter cast the first stone.

(BTW, a friend of mine asked, “Why is Breitbart making this about the media, instead of about Weiner? Because that’s what Breitbart is about 24/7: Understand that he doesn’t care whether any particular TV personality or newspaper writer is liberal. But he’s sick and tired of liberals holding up a warped funhouse mirror that distorts everything. Andrew knows exactly what he wants to accomplish, and he certainly seems to be accomplishing a lot more than some people who just sit around whining about media bias.)

UPDATE IX: Linked by Nice Deb, Republican Redefined, Outside the Beltway and Gay Patriot — thanks!


Category: Anthony Weiner, Congress, Scandal, Video

The Power of Simple Sentences

Posted on | May 31, 2011 | 19 Comments

Why is Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) ready to “move on” now?

Some statements are either true or false. Expressing things in simple declarative sentences helps clarify meaning, so that we can either agree or disagree as to the truth or falsehood of such statements. Here are three examples:

SENTENCE 1

On Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

SENTENCE 2

On Sept. 11, 2001, nineteen Islamic radicals perpetrated the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history.

SENTENCE 3

On May 27, 2011, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) used his Twitter account to send a photo of his bulging crotch to a 21-year-old college coed from Seattle he had never met.

There are people who doubt Sentence 1 and/or Sentence 2, but most who have studied those incidents have concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin in Dallas, and that Mohammed Atta & Co. were responsible for 9/11. We now turn our attention to Sentence 3.

Do we know that Sentence 3 is true? No.

Do we know that Sentence 3 is false? Again, no.

What we have are (a) the uncontested fact that, on Friday, Weiner’s Twitter account was used to send a YFrog link of the aforesaid bulging crotch photo, and (b) the statements of Weiner and his spokesman that the congressman was the victim of “hackers,” an accusation of criminality subsequently softened to “prank.”

We do not need to choose between these alternatives in order to conclude that it is a worth the effort required to determine the truth or falsehood of Sentence 3. Read more

Category: Anthony Weiner, Congress, Corruption, Crime, Journalism, Media Bias, Scandal

New South American Drug Is Almost Enough To Make Your Head ‘Splode

Posted on | May 31, 2011 | 27 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Digg)

As someone who has trouble with drinking coffee without addiction, resulting in minor flu-like symptoms upon withdrawal, the notion that people cede any liberty to chemicals is weird. Sure, nicotine doesn’t affect the conscious that much, but still. And drunkenness lost its appeal over a decade ago.
Beyond the drugs that are old and minor enough to be acceptable to many are those more potent and addictive. The military has mandatory annual training concerning drugs. We go online to find out what people mainline these days. One feels old to read about what strange new experiments in illegal autobiochemical manipulation are afoot.
Yet this new oxi compound sounds like the stuff of a zombie apocalypse:

oxi, a highly addictive and hallucinogenic blend of cocaine paste, gasoline, kerosene and quicklime (calcium oxide) that is wreaking havoc across the Amazon region.

How potent is it?

“The difference between cocaine and oxi is like the difference between drinking beer and pure alcohol,” said a federal police operative on the Peru-Brazil border, who refused to be named.

And

“The effects of oxi are so devastating,” he said. “When a person starts using oxi they spend days just using, without eating properly. They start to become very thin, almost skeletons, and they want to use more and more. If you do not stop you are a candidate to either die of an overdose or of other consequences of the oxi.”

Now, one is tempted to wonder if this isn’t just a trifle over-hyped.

Thought Experiment
But let’s step back from that extended family member who gave up their life for a needle, a rock, or some powder. Put on your hyper-cynical, libertarian hat and ask: are überdrugs more of a feature than a bug?
I’m not saying that somebody sacrificing their life and soul for transient pleasure in chemicals is less than tragic.
I’m not saying that the unintended consequences on innocent victims is less than sinful.
I’m wondering if some sort of de-humanizing spectacle of people who voluntarily live in some vast, enclosed “Truman Show” pit, with some food and all of the dope they can do, food, and cameras aplenty for a debased reality TV spectacle would have some deterrant effect.
Let junkies that truly hate themselves be lowered in.
Let there be a pit in the middle where they can throw the bodies of the overdosees.
Let people voluntarily sort themselves into the humans, and the zombies who want to worship at a chemical altar.
Would such a spectacle of debasement have any deterrent effect?

Category: Farce

God Rest CWO4 Christopher R. Thibodeau

Posted on | May 31, 2011 | 28 Comments

by Smitty

I just returned from the memorial for Chief Warrant Officer Christopher R. Thibodeau. The 4th Aviation Combat Brigade is all over Afghanistan; he had been operating much to the south.
When a fellow flyer, choking, mentioned during the eulogy that he’d found out two days prior to his demise that his wife is pregnant, I broke down.
Lord, grant his wife strength.

Category: Aghanistan

Da Tech Guy, Da Columnist
UPDATE: While Praying Pete Is Lifted Up, Guess Who’s Still Falling Down?

Posted on | May 31, 2011 | 32 Comments

Peter Ingemi, a.k.a. Da Tech Guy, has a column in the New York Post explaining why #WeinerGate can be understood in 140 characters or less.

UPDATE: The contrast could not be more remarkable. Pete’s column is linked nearly everwhere — Instalanched, linked by Donald Douglas and Dan Collins, his very own Memeorandum thread — and meanwhile, guess who resorts to linking every crazy conspiracy theory the DKos crowd can imagine?

Something you should know: When I first met Pete in January 2009, he got on my nerves because he seemed to be constantly mumbling to himself. I’ve got a mild hearing problem in my left ear, and when I was riding in Pete’s car, I kept saying, “Huh? What did you say?”

And then Pete explained that he was praying the Rosary.

As a Protestant of Calvinistic tendencies, I’m not much for that Catholic stuff — the ritual, the cult-like invocation of Mary and the saints, etc. — but even a backslid Baptist like me cannot fault this one thing about Pete: He prays without ceasing.

Some people believe in nothing. Some people believe in themselves. Some people believe in “luck.”

Some people believe in much more.

Category: Anthony Weiner, Da Tech Guy, Journalism, Scandal

The AOSHQ Legal Department: Now Offering Advice to Victims of ‘Pranks’

Posted on | May 31, 2011 | 37 Comments

Today, my American Spectator column on WeinerGate gave me a chance to use the phrase “concupiscent arousal.”

Twenty-five years in the news business, and this is the first time I’ve ever had that opportunity, for which I’d like to express my gratitude to @RepWeiner.

Was it good for you, too?

My column also gave me an opportunity to use the phrase “the award-winning Ace of Spades HQ,” which really needs to be used more often, because Ace is indeed an award winner, having been honored in 2007 as Best Conservative Blog, as well as CPAC Blogger of the Year in . . .

Was it 2008? I can’t remember. CPAC is always such a blur.

Anyway, when I grow up, I want to be Ace of Spades. That guy’s got funny like Rosie O’Donnell’s got double chins.

Ace is also a brilliant legal mind. No kidding: The dude’s got a law degree from an actual university, which I can’t name for fear of being sued by their alumni association.

You will recall that Weiner lawyered up yesterday, but evidently he didn’t hire Ace to represent him. The putz schmuck congressman is obviously getting some very bad legal advice, or else he never would have said he doesn’t want to treat this “distraction” — i.e., the criminal hijacking of his online identity — as anything more than a “prank.”

Prank? Prank?

So Ace of Spades donned his professorial robes to deliver a seminar for “prank” victim Anthony Weiner.

Go read that now. It’s excellent.

And I was happy to see a guest appearance by a certain Dateline NBC correspondent. You can ask Ace who suggested that one. After all these years of stealing his jokes, it was nice to give something back.

Oh, wait — almost forgot: Follow Ace on Twitter, because he’s been slamming it lately.

Category: Ace of Spades, Anthony Weiner
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