The Other McCain

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

I Stopped Reading at the Part Where Sully ‘E-Mailed His Four Young Assistants’

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 43 Comments

Stopped reading and started laughing:

It was noon in Washington, D.C., when the shooting began in Tucson. Across the country, reporters and media executives rushed to cover the story of the gunman, the Congresswoman he shot at close range, and the 14 other victims. But the news couldn’t reach one of the Internet’s most important writers. For Andrew Sullivan, M.P.A. ’86, Ph.D. ’90, the editor of a blog called TheDish.com, the weekend is a time for rest, and having teed up on Friday afternoon a half-dozen evergreen posts for Saturday, he had turned off his communication devices and was sleeping in.
Sullivan had been lightly ill that week, so he slept unusually late, until almost two in the afternoon. Before he was quite ready to deal with the world, he checked his mailbox — and woke up fast. Along with the news of the shooting was an urgent question from readers: Andrew, where are you?
Sullivan winced. He e-mailed his four young assistants: “We have to go cable” — that is, pump out blog posts 24/7. . . .

You can read the whole thing.

And then you must — absolutely must — hit my tip jar for $20. Not that $20 will go far toward hiring “four young assistants,” but it will replace the shirt I just ruined when I spit coffee all over the place.

UPDATE: Damn that Sissy Willis! She urged me to read more of the article, and I saw this:

“The Dish has twice as many readers as the New Republic and more than National Review,” Sullivan says. And on the Atlantic site, the Dish also ruled. Some days, according to Alexa.com, which measures site traffic on the Internet, the Daily Dish accounted for more than half of the visitors to TheAtlantic.com. In cold numbers: Andrew Sullivan—one blogger, with a small budget and a minimal staff—has presented Tina Brown with a gift of about 1.3 million Internet readers.

More readers than National Review? Really? Who are these people?

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers! It’s amazing that Professor Reynolds can run a blog — and he’s kinda successful, you know — without “four young assistants” at his beck and call.

Category: Andrew Sullivan

Congratulations to Little Miss Attila

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

. . .on the occasion of 1 megahit on her blog.

Confession: I’m dumbfounded she’d not past that milestone long ago. I blame other slackers in the dextrosphere.

Here something crunchy to celebrate, lady:

Update: fellow Fedorable Fishersville Mike is pushing 100k.

Category: Little Miss Attila

British Sending Military Advisers to Libya; Russia Says Aid Violates U.N. Mandate

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 6 Comments

It may be too early to call it a hopeless quagmire yet, but the situation is definitely getting squirrelly now:

Britain said Tuesday it is expanding its presence in Libya with military advisers and the European Union said it is prepared to send troops for humanitarian assistance if requested by the United Nations. . . .
Britain said it is sending a contingent of experienced military officers to the rebel stronghold of Bengazhi in an advisory role.
The team will work with Libya’s Transitional National Council on how the opposition can improve military organizational structures, communications and logistics, the British Foreign Office said. It will also assist in the delivery of critically needed aid.
“This deployment is fully within the terms of UNSCR 1973 both in respect of civilian protection and its provision expressly ruling out a foreign occupation force on Libyan soil,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Tuesday.

The Foreign Secretary was at pains to declare that this deployment isn’t actually a deployment:

The British personnel will be under strict orders not take part in planning or executing military operations, Mr Hague said: “It’s not boots on the ground, it’s not fighting forces. These are not people to fight on the battlefield, these are people to advise on organisation.”

There was, however, a strong dissent from a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council as to whether all this aid to anti-Qaddafi forces is within the scope of the “humanitarian” mandate of UNSCR 1973:

Russia said on Tuesday Western attempts to topple Muammar Gaddafi were a violation of a U.N. resolution on Libya, which only authorized the use of force to protect civilians.
“The U.N. Security Council never aimed to topple the Libyan regime,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “All those who are currently using the U.N. resolution for that aim are violating the U.N. mandate.”
Given such a Western position, the Libyan opposition was refusing to negotiate a ceasefire with the regime in Tripoli, Lavrov said. “It is crucial to establish a ceasefire,” he said on a visit to Belgrade.

The question, of course, is why no one in the White House press corps has recently asked our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president whether he’s happy with the progress of “Operation Odyssey Dawn.” Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive is disillusioned:

From his Nobel Prize speech to his Libya speech, Obama has become the chief advocate of war, boasting of its utility and expanding its justifications.
He’s turned into a better salesman for war than his predecessor, and he’s running the empire more efficiently—and with less antagonism.
More bombs, less bombast: That’s the Obama doctrine for you.

UPDATE: Allahpundit highlights the impotence of our European allies.

UPDATE II: Phineas at Sister Toldjah:

Britain and her allies (including us) have invested tons of their prestige in this effort to oust Qaddafi and they can ill-afford to let the rebels lose. . . . The whole public purpose of this mission was to protect civilians from Qaddafi, so how do you do that when your “allies” on the ground are incompetent?

As I said yesterday, the Obama administration is faced with a choice: Either commit enough military force to topple Qaddafi, or else blame the whole disastrous mess on Hillary.

UPDATE III: Now a Memeorandum thread. Today is the one-month anniversary of “Operation Odyssey Dawn.” Robert Spencer warns that U.S. intervention is aiding jihadists. And the pathetic haplessness of our European allies is examined by Doug Bandow at The American Spectator.


Category: Great Britain, Libya, Russia

Once In A Lifetime

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. . .
This essay pinpoints the systemic problems with the Federal government, surveys the current approaches, and offers a concise outline of What I Would Do.
The problem is centralization. Pournelle’s Iron Law has birthed a Ruling Class that delivers speeches, debt, laws by the pallet, transient Socialist programs, and propaganda, while knee-capping liberty in the process. Power is increasingly held in DC, and increasingly gathered, unconstitutionally, within the executive.

And you may find yourself in another part of the world. . . Read more

Category: Constitution, Paul Ryan, Progressivism

Dark Thoughts Of 2012

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

Apparently the 18 hour road trip to Texas was a bit too much alone time for Ladd Ehlinger.

1) The Republican candidate will lose to Obama, no matter who is picked and 2) The “Red Wave” of 2010 will be reversed. Sorry to be a wet blanket here, but from my observations it seems inevitable. 
But if I’m right, it also seems to me that 2012 could then also be the year of freedom for Texas. Assuming, of course, that the right players do the right things. Success favors the well-planned.
And as I drove past farmland and urban centers, I began a thought experiment on what those right things should be.

RTWT. It’s not long, and one hopes that he’s largely planning/viewing a variation on the theme of Red Dawn, rather that serving up a prophecy.
Over at Works and Days, Victor Davis Hanson sketches 7 major symptoms of Obama-itis, offers 4 diagnostic points (erratic, disengaged, cynical, Machiavellian, etc.), and offers 3 prognoses. As usual, an intriguing read.
What seems missing in VDH’s analysis, however, is the notion of how the symptoms and diagnoses have worsened in the 30-ish months since BHO was elected. In the space of a month, we’ve just seen him start a Kinetic Military Action, without, some say, sufficient Congressional approval. We’ve also seen him use a signing statement to hoist a middle finger directly at Congress. Three questions come to mind:

  • Is he daring Congress to muster an impeachment effort?
  • Is he cracking up? Could he be hauled out in the I-love-me jacket at some point? (Heaven forbid this–seriously.)
  • If either of the above is true, what comes next?

I predict that what happens in the next year and a half is going to blow the layer of feeble, Progressive crust off the top of the country, and the real Americans are going to step up to the plate and Fix This Noise.
Obama isn’t really all that important. The country is reaching its political/economic nadir. If it wasn’t him, some other boob would have been polished and set in his position. Somebody nicer than Obama might have worsened the problem. Obama’s willingness to offer the Full Alinsky has even the most ruby rubes self-identifying before the re-election campaign is in full swing. A primary challenger to Obama is by no means impossible, particularly if the negative glideslope continues apace.
So sorry, Ladd: we waste our hate if we spare the man any. Rather, let us deal dispassionately with the calculated outrages. Let us focus the passion on sane candidates with valid policies that can turn this disaster around. And let us gird our loins for something that will have even Stacy McCain

Category: Barack Obama, Election 2012, Ladd Ehlinger

Carol’s Closet Rocked The Tampa Tax Day Tea Party

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | Comments Off on Carol’s Closet Rocked The Tampa Tax Day Tea Party

by Smitty

Our excellent blog friend Carol had the privilege of getting video of Marco Rubio. I confess total jealousy.

Category: Blogging

Anti-Monarchist Christopher Hitchens Stubbornly Resists Royal Wedding Mania

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 14 Comments

Give him credit at least for consistency:

Convinced republican that I am, and foe of the prince [i.e., Charles] who talks to plants and wants to be crowned “head of all faiths” as well as the etiolated Church of England, I find myself pierced by a pang of sympathy. Not much of a life, is it, growing old and stale with no real job except waiting for the news of Mummy’s death? Some British people claim actually to “love” their rather dumpy Hanoverian ruling house. This love takes the macabre form of demanding a regular human sacrifice whereby unexceptional people are condemned to lead wholly artificial and strained existences, and then punished or humiliated when they crack up.

Of course, this anti-royal ax-grinding is merely Hitch’s way of cashing in on the online traffic harvest to be reaped by writing anything — anything — about the pending nuptials between Prince William and Kate Middleton (soon to be Princess Catherine). The royal wedding will be live-streamed on the Internet and People magazine has cleverly figured out how the couple’s future daughter could be queen (working the feminist-monarchist angle, you see).

Me? I don’t have to write another word about the dynastic duo in order to exploit the royal wedding Web-traffic bonanza, because I planned ahead. That’s right: I’m now the No. 1 Bing result and the No. 2 Google result for “Kate Middleton upskirt.”

I think Hitch would appreciate that.

Category: Celebrities, Great Britain

Charles Manson, Environmentalist

Posted on | April 19, 2011 | 7 Comments

You don’t have to be a sociopathic mass murderer to believe in global warming — but it sure helps!

Crazed cult leader Charles Manson has broken a 20-year silence in a prison interview coinciding with the 40th anniversary of his conviction for the gruesome Sharon Tate murders — to speak out about global warming.
The infamous killer, who started championing environmental causes from behind bars, bemoaned the ‘bad things’ being done to environment in a rambling phone interview from his Californian jail cell.
‘Everyone’s God and if we don’t wake up to that there’s going to be no weather because our polar caps are melting because we’re doing bad things to the atmosphere.
‘If we don’t change that as rapidly as I’m speaking to you now, if we don’t put the green back on the planet and put the trees back that we’ve butchered, if we don’t go to war against the problem…’ he added, trailing off.

(Via Dr. Milton Wolf.)

Category: Global Warming
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