The Other McCain

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

NY-25 Flashback: Dan Maffei Still Trying to Comprehend His Own Defeat

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 10 Comments

Perhaps you can imagine the big grin with which I’m writing this, as I think back on that day last October when Da Tech Guy and I arrived in New York’s 25th District and the front-page headline was: “Dan Maffei leads Anne Marie Buerkle by 12 points in new poll.”

That would be former Democratic congressman Dan Maffei, who ended up losing by 567 votes to Republican Ann Marie Buerkle, and who the Politico reports is still trying to figure out how he lost:

As victims of the House Democratic election massacre speak out about what caused their ouster last November, they are pointing their fingers squarely at a Washington duo: Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.
Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved their party’s agenda too far left during the past Congress. And then they failed to help rescue the party’s mostly supportive lawmakers, two defeated first-termers who have joined Washington-based think tanks said Tuesday.
“Moderates and independents who leaned toward Obama didn’t come out because they saw a continuing polarization. Health reform was only supported by Democrats. So, the message from Washington was that Obama was getting his way,” said former Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.), who has become a senior fellow with Third Way, the centrist Democratic group.
Party leaders and liberal allies told him that he was too pessimistic last fall when he warned them that he was in danger of losing. Obama and Pelosi “couldn’t bring themselves to believe that it would be this bad,” said Maffei, who unsuccessfully sought a late campaign stop by Obama. “Low turnout was why I lost. My opponent [Republican Ann Marie Buerkle] was seen as fringe and voters didn’t think she could win.”

Look, if Dan Maffei wants to make excuses and scapegoat other people for his own failures, I suppose I ought to just laugh and move on. However, Maffei is actually kind of close to being right about what Obama and Pelosi did wrong. And the weird thing is, Democrats had plenty of warning . . . from me. Read more

Category: Ann Marie Buerkle, Congress, Democrats, Election, Health Care, Nancy Pelosi, New York

Caught on Tape: Fox News Executive Privately Doubts Obama Is a Socialist?

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 32 Comments

It’s another one of those “gotcha” moments with Media Matters as Wile E. Coyote and Fox as the Road Runner. Fox executive Bill Sammon (with whom I used to work at The Washington Times) was on a 2009 cruise sponsored by Hillsdale College and gave a speech where he said this:

“Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to quote, ‘spread the wealth around.’ . . . At that time, I have to admit, that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched. . . .
“Now imagine my surprise when this year, I witness President Barack Obama standing in the cross hall of the White House and having taken over the American car industry, look into the camera, and announce to the nation essentially, that he would personally vouch for the warranty on your car’s muffler. . . . All of a sudden, the debate over whether America was heading for socialism seemed anything but far-fetched.”

Eric Hananoki of Media Matters plays this up — “newly uncovered audio” of a “startling admission” — as the smoking-gun proof that BILL SAMMON LIED TO FOX NEWS VIEWERS!

Well, to start with, how did this audio become “newly uncovered”? Waaaayy down in his story at Media Matters, Hananoki explains:

Media Matters obtained audio of Sammon’s remarks by purchasing it through Hillsdale College.

Yeah: They sold audio of the speeches made by Sammon and others during this cruise. And so it wasn’t exactly hush-hush. And of course, in context, you see that what Sammon is saying about this “Barack the Socialist” meme is that it was what everybody on Fox was discussing at the time, and he took part in those discussions despite whatever private doubts he might have had about the term.

So big hairy deal. Greg Pollowitz at National Review:

There’s an old SNL skit with William Shatner playing Captain Kirk and Dana Carvey as Khan. Except in this SNL future, The USS Enterprise is now a floating restaurant in space, Kirk is the maître d’hôtel, and Khan is the health inspector. Khan sneers, during his inspection, “I have you now Kirk! There’s no sneeze-guard on your salad bar!” . . .

It’s a long run for short slide, and if this is the best Media Matters can do, George Soros should demand a refund. 

Meanwhile, I’m told that Bill Sammon is now requiring all Fox News employees to sign a pledge of their absolute 100% certainty that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, or else they’re fired.

You believe that, right? I mean, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.

UPDATE: As might be expected, the unhinged left-wing moonbat bloggers are jumping all over this Media Matters “startling admission” angle. And by the phrase “unhinged left-wing moonbat bloggers” of course, I mean . . .


Category: Fox News

Quandry: The Best Musical Re-Write Of The President’s Libya Speech?

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Catching up on the blogs, it looks like the POTUS sounded like Bush minus the passion. My estimate of the conservative mood ring concerning the speech is somewhere around U2’s “Zooropa”

The lyrics seem appropriate, for all the continent is a misfit:

We’re mild and green
And squeaky clean

Zooropa… better by design
Zooropa… fly the friendly skies
Through appliance of science
We’ve got that ring of confidence….

And I have no compass
And I have no map
And I have no reasons
No reasons to get back

And I have no religion
And I don’t know what’s what
And I don’t know the limit
The limit of what we got

But we are talking about the President of the United States of America. Who does some really dada things, like start a war and head to Rio:

Ultimately, we the re-write should go beyond recycled marketing and silly fruit stylings. Hope and Change should aspire to go beyond English entirely. Any other language, for that matter. It should avoid the crass old American cultural imperialism, embrace world music, and just stick its tongue right down the throat of multinational goodness:
At this blog, we strive day and night to make politics somehow interesting. You’re welcome.

Category: Barack Obama

Proof Positive Props

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

On a third blogiversary.

Category: Uncategorized

Answer: Because I Really Do Not Need A Rocket Suppository

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Ace asks: “Why Is the Media Covering Up The Kill Team Story?“. It was quite wrong for the media to endanger troops in the W era over Abu Ghraib. If you’ve let your emotional horses out of the barn, and feel that news of what a handful of twistos have done should be used as a reciprocal take-down of the current POTUS, then it’s time to issue a party foul:
Hammurabi kicked the bucket something like 3,750 years ago. That makes the ‘eye for an eye’ approach even older than the US Constitution, and equally intelligible to the likes of Ezra Klein. As a compromise position, why not wait until all of the investigations and court martials have run their course, then do a dispassionate compare/contrast? I have heard the vaguest of rumors concerning Jeremy Morlock (great name for a villain there) but it would be the height of uncool to pass them.
Demanding the Full Ghraib of the Kill Team story right now would lead to unintended consequences. In an era where the Middle East is going sideways, the economy is anemic, the budget deficit is malignant, and Natalie Portman is pear-shaped, do we really need to dwell on the fact that Jeremy Morlock hails from. . .of Wasilla, AK? You risk having Andrew Sullivan demand an accounting of every sperm cell the kid produced in the last five years, just to prove that none of them informed the conception of the most famous special needs child in human history.
In summary, the country is in various stages of undeclared war in multiple theaters. If we can package all the Bush-era butt-hurt about the Iraq war and Abu Ghraib in a two letter pronoun, “Do not let ‘it’ be”:

[Nota bene, for the non-headbangers out there: the Beatallica clip only makes sense if you’ve heard this.]
None of the snarkiness of this post is meant to diminish the seriousness of the issue. You’ve already had one court martial; there may be more to follow. The point I’m trying to hammer home is that stories of military malfeasance (and this one is a full-on doozy) are deeply serious and merit the utmost thoroughness in investigation in our free and open society. Particularly when the Administration likes to talk about how transparent it is. Or used to.
However, when the pursuit of justice crosses over into political scalp hunting, even when arguably justified, you risk an awful lot of collateral damage.
Keep that in mind.

Category: Ace of Spades, Aghanistan, Barack Obama

Fighting the War from Lenox Avenue

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 6 Comments

Command and control:

Obama will first attend a fundraising dinner, for $30,800 per plate, at the new restaurant Red Rooster. . . . The restaurant . . . is located at 310 Lenox Avenue. Tonight’s event is said to raise $1.5 million for Obama’s campaign.

Bryan Preston at PJ Tatler points out that while the Leader of the Free World will be shmoozing deep-pocket campaign contributors in Manhattan, Joe Biden will be relaxing in Aspen.

Like the man says: The country’s in the very best of hands!

Category: Barack Obama, Joe Biden

New York Times Tries Again

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 11 Comments

The first time the New York Times tried to report on the case of an 11-year-old girl gang-raped in Texas, they provoked a feminist firestorm because elements of their story appeared to blame the victim. Now they have tried again and (as even Echidne of the Snakes admits) managed to avoid the most egregious problems with the first story. But as Echidne also notes, the Times still finds it necessary to point out that the victim was tall for her age and wanted to be a fashion model.

However, whereas the first story saw the Times more or less enlisting itself as an advocate for the defense, this time around they feel obliged to mention that the suspects aren’t all a bunch of Boy Scouts:

The police say the girl was raped on at least six occasions, from Sept. 15 to Dec. 3. Nineteen boys and men, ages 14 to 27, have been charged in connection with the rapes. . . .
What begins to emerge is the nightmarish ordeal of a young girl over two and a half months involving an eclectic group of young men, some with criminal records, who shared a powerful neighborhood bond.

OK, so that little admission gets tucked into paragraph six. The reader who is patient enough to keep reading until paragraph 17 — yes, I said, paragraph seventeen — will then be rewarded with this information:

That defendant, Eric B. McGowen, 19, who was on probation for burglary, and two other male teenagers picked her up at her house, and took her to a house in Precinct 20, the affidavits said. . . .
The girl was taken to a blue house with white trim and a heart-shaped welcome sign — a house with a troubled history. The head of the household, Rayford T. Ellis, has a long criminal record and is a registered sex offender; one of his sons, Authur Ellis, 27, was arrested this year on murder charges. Neither man is charged in this case.
The police say a younger son, Rayford T. Ellis Jr., 19, an iron worker known as Mookie, shot and killed a teenager at the same house in August 2008. The younger Rayford Ellis was awaiting trial on manslaughter charges when he was arrested in early February on charges that he had raped the girl. (He has fathered at least five children with four young women, according to paternity suits.)

That stuff might be kind of relevant, don’t you think? In fact, I’d say it’s sufficiently relevant that it should have near the top of the story, along with this from paragraphs 21 and 24:

[Another suspect] Jared L. Cruse, also 18 . . . has since been charged with robbing a grocery store in the next county. . . .
According to indictments, one man accused of participating was Kelvin R. King, 21, who was out on bond while awaiting trial on rape and robbery charges.

So at least four of the rape suspects have also been charged with other crimes, including burglary, robbery, manslaughter and rape. While they’ve managed to avoid the blame-the-victim narrative of their first story about the case, then, what the New York Times has done in this second story is what we in journalism call “missing the lede.” And while the Times managed this time to mention that the victim is Hispanic — the daughter of Mexican immigrants — they once again fail to explain what made this Texas story the subject of national controversy: The accused gang-rapists are all black, and New Black Panther leader Quannell X is claiming racial bias in the case.

But if you weren’t reading Ace of Spades HQ, you might not realize this. And if the facts about the prior records of the suspects were arranged in any coherent manner, this might look like a story about the unfortunate consequences of leniency in the criminal justice system. Let me take a stab at re-writing the lede:

Two suspects in the horrific gang-rape of an 11-year-old Texas girl were out on bond awaiting trial on other charges at the time, while a third suspect was on probation and a fourth has since been arrested for robbery.
Court documents show that four of the 19 rape suspects have records involving other felonies, including accusations of rape and manslaughter, and that a home where prosecutors say the girl was victimized was owned by a registered sex offender whose son and nephew are among those charged in the case.

See? Journalism is not rocket science or neurosurgery.

Maybe the New York Times should let Paul “Climate of Hate” Krugman take a swipe at this Texas story. I’m sure he can find some way to blame this on Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party.

Has the Times fired Bill Keller yet? Because I’ve got $20 that says Keller gets the axe before May 1. First-quarter losses will be reported in April, and the failure of their new online paywall should be evident PDQ.

Category: Crime, New York Times, Texas

Pardon Me While I Wallow In Schadenfreude About The VA Dems

Posted on | March 29, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Via Retire Jim Moran, we have The Virginia Democrat with a delightful lunchtime diversion for you, emphasis mine:

The Virginia Democratic Party has been “leaderless” for almost two years. We’ve had hit rock bottom. Let’s talk about some of the things that need to be fixed for me to come back into the fold (e.g out of Independent status)… let’s start at the top: Read more

Category: Democrats, Jim Moran, Virginia
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