The Other McCain

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

Is Charlie Sheen Really ‘Winning’?

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | 21 Comments

Between the Fukushima crisis and the war in Libya, I sort of lost track of the important news:

So to hear some tabloid websites tell it, the TV business has basically forgotten about all of Charlie Sheen’s astoundingly bad behavior and is now in a race to get him back in primetime. CBS honcho Leslie Moonves, per the musings of Radar Online, is basically begging Charlie Sheen to come back to Two and a Half Men and has told all other parties involved in the dispute to do whatever it takes to make the Warlock happy. Meanwhile, over in Mayor Harvey Levin’s TMZ township, some of the most important brass at Fox met with Sheen and are already discussing how to find a way to have the ex-sitcom star take on Conan, Jay and Dave with his own late-night show. Sheen isn’t just winning, according to this narrative — he’s practically the most in-demand actor in Hollywood right now! But is any of this true?

What Josef Adalian then offers is just guesswork. Maybe well-informed guesswork, but still just guesswork.

And while my own guesswork is almost certainly less well-informed, I’ve got a hunch that Team Sheen is just trying to hype their guy’s profile: “Yeah, got a lot of meetings with network executives! Talking about new contracts! We’ve got CBS eating out of our hand, baby!”

Not buying it. Notoriously temperamental hooker-chasing cokehead obscenely denounces the hottest TV producer in Hollywood, then has a psychotic breakdown in public . . . annndd everybody’s just dying for a chance to work with him now? I doubt it.

But it’s Hollywood. Crazier things have happened there.

Category: Celebrities

Economic Terror Plan for ‘Redistributing Wealth and Power in the Country’

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | 26 Comments

Such eminences as Barbara Ehrenreich and Cornel West were featured speakers at Left Forum 2011, a conference held this past weekend at Pace University in New York City. Left Forum traces its history to a series of events first organized as the Socialist Scholars Conference and sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America.

The theme of this year’s Left Forum was “Towards a Politics of Solidarity,” and among the speakers was former SEIU official Stephen Lerner. His shocking presentation was captured on audio and featured at The Blaze and Business Insider. Lerner described his plan for a “10-state mobilization” against J.P. Morgan Chase beginning in May, seeking “to inspire a much bigger movement about redistributing wealth and power in the country.”

“We need to figure out . . . through direct action . . . how we are really trying to disrupt and create uncertainty for capital, for how corporations operate,” Lerner said. “There are actually extraordinary things we could do right now to start to destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement.”

Lerner, who spoke on two panels during the conference, suggested encouraging homeowners to stop paying their mortgages. Saying that 10% of “underwater” mortgage borrowers are in “strategic default” — refusing to make payments but taking advantage of delays in the forceclosure process — Lerner said if the number of strategic defaults were doubled “you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again.”

Lerner said: “[W]hat would happen if we organized homeowners en masse to do a mortgage strike? If we get half a million people to agree, it would literally cause a new financial crisis for the banks — not for us. We would be doing quite well. We wouldn’t be paying anything.”

Referring to the recent union-led protests in Wisconsin, Lerner envisioned “moving the kind of disruption in Madison . . . to Wall Street,” confronting banks with the accusation that they “stole $17 trillion.”

“We have to think about how, together, we are building something that really has the capacity to disrupt how the system operates,” Lerner said, describing “a very simple strategy” for such a disruption: “How do we bring down the stock market? How do we bring down their bonuses? How do we interfere with their ability to be rich? And that means we have to politically isolate them, economically isolate them  and disrupt them.”

Advocating “brave and heroic battles challenging the power of the giant corporations,” Lerner said that he and others decided that JP Morgan Chase “would be a really good company to hate” and said they “are going to roll out over the next couple of months what would hopefully be an exciting campaign about JP Morgan Chase that is really about challenging the power of Wall Street.”

Describing a weeklong campaign of disruptive “direct action” and “civil disobedience” — tentatively scheduled for the first week in May — Lerner said the disruptive protests would “connect three ideas”: “that we are not broke, there is plenty of money”; “they have the money, we need to get it back”; and that capitalists are using New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “and other people in government as the vehicle to try and  destroy us.”

UPDATE: Lerner was fired from SEIU in November by the union’s new president, Mary Kay Henry. Lerner’s penchant for “disruptive” tactics was displayed last spring, when he organized a mass protest at the Washington, D.C., home of Bank of America official Greg Baer, and Lerner told Nina Easton:

“Millions of people are losing their homes, and they have gone to the banks, which are turning a deaf ear. . . . People in powerful corporations seem to think they can insulate themselves from the damage they are doing.”

As Easton noted, Baer is a lifelong Democrat.

UPDATE II: Linked by If You Seek Peace — thanks! Now a Memeorandum thread with more blog commentary by Kathleen McKinley at Right Wing News, Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom and Jeff Dunetz of Yid With Lid.

UPDATE III: John Sexton at Verum Serum features video of Lerner in a 2009 appearance on Ed Schultz’s MSNBC show:

UPDATE IV: Remember that SEIU was sued for harassment and blackmail last week. And referring to Lerner’s ouster last year from SEIU, Ed Morrissey says:

Apparently, the first rule of Labor Nihilist Club is not to talk about Labor Nihilist Club. The second rule of Labor Nihilist Club? Keep your hands off the union cash, dude.

UPDATE V: It might be tempting to think that Lerner is a fringe kook with no larger influence, but Sam Foster at Left Coast Rebel observes an interesting coincidence: The day before Lerner made his presentation at Pace University, the AFL-CIO announced a new protest campaign against Morgan Chase:

Hundreds of workers, religious leaders, community activists and farm worker advocates rallied and protested in 200 cities across the couintry today to demand that JP Morgan Chase respect the basic human rights of people to have decent places to live and work.
Large banks such as Chase are flush with cash and protestors demanded the bank declare a one-year moratorium on home foreclosures. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chase has $19.5 billion worth of home loans in foreclosure—nearly 7.5 percent of its mortgage portfolio and more than any other big bank.
Nearly 400 people rallied at Chase headquarters in New York City. Speakers stood on the back of a truck with banners declaring “Chase: Morally Bankrupt” and laid out the case that as a result of the bank’s reckless pursuit of profits at any cost, thousands of people have lost their homes.
Today’s protests mark the beginning of a new, intensified campaign leading up to JP Morgan Chase’s annual meeting next month.

Here is the logo of the Left’s anti-Morgan Chase campaign:

Just a coincidence, I’m sure . . .

UPDATE VI: Bryan Preston is not afraid to call this what it is: Domestic terrorism.

UPDATE VII: Linked by Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints — thanks! — and thanks also to Bob and another commenter for pointing out this: Stanley Kurtz has documented that it was at the 1983 Socialist Scholars Conference that Obama became a convert to Alinksy-style “community organizing.” Obama was then a Columbia University senior, and among the participants in the SSC (forerunner of the Left Forum) were Frances Fox Piven and James Cone, “theological mentor” to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The full story is told in Kurtz’s recent book, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism.

Category: Economics, New York, Terrorism, Unions

‘Too Good a Pleasure to Forego’

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | 16 Comments

The quote in the headline is from Professor Glenn Reynolds about the delicious all-you-can-eat schadenfreude smorgasbord served up by liberals since St. Hopey’s War broke out Saturday. Some people seem to have forgotten the absolute viciousness of liberals during the Bush years. Last night, while doing some research, I ran across a Byron York item about Michael Moore at the 2004 Democratic convention:

“The right wing is not where America is at,” Moore said. “Most Americans, in their heart, are liberal and progressive. It’s just a small minority of people who hate. They hate. They exist in the politics of hate.”
“They’re not patriots,” Moore said. “They’re hate-triots, and they believe in the politics of hate-triotism. Hate-triotism is where they stand, and patriotism is where real Americans stand.” . . .
“I mean, they are up at six in the morning trying to figure out which minority group they’re going to screw today,” Moore continued. “The hate, they eat for breakfast. They are going to fight and they are going to smear, and they are going to lie, and they are going to hate.”

So, yeah, when a vitriolic irresponsible cretin like Michael Moore — a guy so clueless he actually thought John Kerry would be a good president — is exposed for the complete chump he is, I’m going to do everything I can to publicize his embarrassment. And hey, did I mention I’ve got a new column today at The American Spectator?

Shortly after the first U.S. cruise missiles hit their targets Saturday, the collateral damage became apparent — not in Libya, but on the home front, where liberal credibility was shattered by President Obama’s sudden resort to military action against Moammar Gaddafi’s regime. Those who had hailed Obama’s ascent as the dawn of a new age of peace, an end to the alleged “cowboy” belligerence of the Bush years, exploded with a mixture of outrage, confusion and chagrin as their hero flung the country into war in North Africa.
None was more indignant than Michael Moore. The left-wing filmmaker had spent George W. Bush’s presidency in frothing rage at Republicans whom he accused, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, of practicing “the politics of hate.” That same year Moore released Fahrenheit 9/11, a dubious “documentary” which portrayed Bush as a secret ally of Osama bin Laden. And in April 2008, on the eve of the crucial Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, Moore publicly endorsed Obama because, he said, “the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting.”
Evidently, in Moore’s view, Obama’s words and actions have recently gone in the same direction. Saturday afternoon, the director unleashed a torrent of mocking messages on Twitter: “We’re going to keep bombing countries until we get it right.… May I suggest a 50-mile evacuation zone around Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize?… Bombing Libya today was like an Iraq War anniversary present to ourselves!” Indeed, in an irony not lost on Moore, the attacks on Libya by a U.S.-led coalition fell on the eight-year anniversary of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, which liberals had long cited as Exhibit A in their case against the Bush administration. . . .

Read the whole thing, because the walk-off quote is as awesome as the flavor of fresh schadenfreude.


Category: Barack Obama, Instapundit, Liberals, Libya, Michael Moore

Movement To Kill The VampireEnd The Federal Reserve Gaining Steam

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

I liked Ron Paul’s book ending the Fed. Looking at the Constitutional notions of protecting liberty and private property, as well as the empirical results of the last century, the Federal Reserve seems to have been a slow motion disaster. Too much power in the hands of an unelected, opaque few, say I.

A criticism of Paul’s book is that it’s thin on describing what to do with all the blood we save in a Fed-free world. Veronique de Rugy links to Cato Institute series to give some ideas about where to go and what to do when we arrive there.

Remember: the Fed is celebrating 100 years in 2013. Let’s do that with a bit of wood right through its godforsaken, undead heart.

Category: Ron Paul

LIVE AT FIVE – 03.22.11

Posted on | March 22, 2011 | 2 Comments

TOP NEWS
President Faces Growing Criticism Over Libya

Desert in flames, missiles headed for Tripoli; film at 11

Rare bipartisan agreement that Obama screwed up
Time Magazine Accuses Obama Of Exaggerating Atrocities To Justify War In Libya


Concern About Mission Creep Grows As More Bombs Fall On Libya
Qaddafi’s Son Khamis Killed In Palace Air Strike

Hopes Rise As Power Restored At Fukushima Plant (Video)
Facts whisper, fears scream during crisis
Work resumes at Fukushima after smoke scare



POLITICS
A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS: Tim Pawlenty Is First Major Candidate To Declare For 2012

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty

Joins Herman Cain, Gov. Buddy Roemer in the race for the GOP nomination

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Reports “Oversight”, Failure To Pay Almost $300K In Airplane Taxes



GOP Contenders Split On Defense Spending

Panicky California Legislators Attempt To Block Reactor License Renewals

Alabama Lawmakers Consider Arizona-Style Immigration Law

Senator Manchin (D-WV) Breaks With Party And President, Rejects Debt Ceiling Increase Without Spending Cuts



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Stephenson Returns AT&T To Ranks Of Big Spenders With Purchase Of T-Mobile For $39 Billion
Whither Sprint If AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Approved?
Japan Bonds Fall As Yen Intervention Props Up Stocks
Shell Deep-Water Drilling Plan Approved, But Legal Challenges Likely
US Home Prices Hit Nine-Year Low
Chase Ends Debit Card Reward Program
Google Accuses PRC Of Interference With GMail
Microsoft Sues B&N Over Nook E-Reader, Claims Patent Infringement By Android Device



SPORTS
#11 Lady Bulldogs Bring Down #3 Bruins, 89-75

Gonzaga's Courtney Vandersloot drives to the basket

Vandersloot becomes first player in NCAA history to score 2000 points, hand out 1000 assists; UCLA kicked in second round for second straight year

Tennessee Fires Coach Pearl

Barry Bonds Perjury Trial To Begin Before Jury Of Eight Women, Four Men

Swagger Back In Richmond After Rams & Spiders Deliver NCAA Victories

NFL Asks Judge To Wait For NLRB Before Deciding On Lockout

Knicks Fade At End As Celtics Charge To Victory

ACC Stronger Than Expected With Three Teams In Sweet 16

Nothing Harsh About Cooke’s Suspension



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
CBS Wants Charlie Sheen Back To Work – Now

Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer in action

CBS’ Moonves putting the arm on Warner Brothers to get “Two and a Half Men” back in production

The Way: Interview With Martin Sheen & Emilio Estevez

Sammy Hagar Admits Alien Abduction

Kate Walsh: I Feel Like A Loser For Not Having Kids

Bam Margera KO’d In Bloody Texas Hotel Fight

Paris/Bruno DA Allegedly A Cokehead

ABC Ready To Trim Soap Lineup: Will “All My Children” Get Cut?

Kiefer Sutherland Announces Release Date For “24” Movie



FOREIGNERS
“Road Of Death” Links Benghazi, Tripoli (Video)
Arab League Chief Slams Air Strikes Despite Backing No-Fly Zone (Video)
Yemeni Ambassador To UK Calls On President Saleh To Resign (Video)
Putin And Medvedev Spar Over Libya
Syria Protests Spread, Authorities Pull Back
IDF Hits Gaza After Palestinian Rocket & Mortar Barrage



BLOGS & STUFF
Daily Caller: Webb Critical Of President’s Libyan Intervention
Joanne Jacobs: 38% Flunk Citizenship Questions
Lonely Conservative: Israelis Don’t Know Much About Sarah Palin, But They Do Know She Loves Israel
Legal Insurrection: “Why Are You Apologizing All The Time?”
Doug Powers: Wanted – Buyer For Claire McCaskill’s Airplane
Power Line: Soak The Rich? They’re Already Soaked
Bryan Preston: Army Apologizes For “Kill Team” Photos, Braces For Backlash
Cubachi: Governor Walker Was Right – Majority Of Emails Supported Him
NRO Media Blog: NY Mag – NYC Bike Lanes Are Like 9/11
Jawa Report: McGill University Ignores Islamist Student’s Threats
Moe Lane: Where’s The Antiwar Movement?
Protein Wisdom: Juan Williams Takes Gloves Off – “Defund NPR Now”
AP: Harp Seals Give Up Clubbing In Canada, Now Chillax In American Waters


— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

The Truly Pathetic Thing Is …

Posted on | March 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

. . . Obama never could have gotten elected without these kooks:

Just a bunch of mainstream moderate American swing voters. Meanwhile, Dennis Kucinich says the president has committed an “impeachable offense.” Apparently, Kucinich has discovered that there is this thing called a “Constitution” for which Obama has no respect.

It took more than two years for Kucinich to figure this out.

UPDATE: Monday, Obama finally got around to telling Congress we were at war. “Hey, guys, I don’t know if you’ve been watching TV over the weekend or anything, but . . . “

UPDATE II: What’s the Arabic word for chutzpah? Because Qaddafi’s got a lot of it:

Libya’s government says more civilians have been killed in a third night of air and missile strikes by coalition forces enforcing a no-fly zone.

See what I mean? Qaddafi can order the deaths of a thousand innocent Libyans before breakfast, but the minute the U.S. starts dropping bombs, “Civilians are dying! Oh, noes!”

Here’s a TV news report (from a network in India, I believe) and notice the Libyan regime spokesman at the end talking about innocent civilians being killed:

Yeah, if there is one thing ruthless dictatorships are famous for, it’s their tender-hearted concern for the lives of innocent civilians.

Category: Barack Obama, Liberals, Libya, Military

Mandatory Binding Arbitration

Posted on | March 21, 2011 | 5 Comments

That’s the only possible solution to the ongoing labor dispute at Three Beers Later, where Richard McEnroe was forced to cross his own picket line, established in solidarity with the unpaid HuffPo bloggers.

My worst fear is that Richard’s militant labor unrest against himself will inspire Smitty and Wombat to begin demanding a 10% increase of their pay and even though 10% of nothing isn’t all that much, I must refuse their demand on principle.

Because this is a greedy capitalist blog. When I finally figure out a way to fully monetize the value of our traffic, I’ll cut my co-bloggers a check before I jet off to my private Caribbean island. In the meantime, the floggings will increase until morale improves.

So you see why I’ll be keeping a close eye on the continuing crisis at Three Beers Later, where rumor has it that their management may be bringing in scabs.

Category: humor, Three Beers Later, Unions

Press Conference in Chile Gives Obama Chance to Lie in Two Languages

Posted on | March 21, 2011 | 10 Comments

Our Commander-in-Chief’s eloquent insincerity was matched only by his insincere eloquence in a press conference that just ended in Santiago, Chile. I live-Tweeted it, so let me check my notes . . .

Yeah. “Complete bullshit,” it says here. “Diplomatic argle-bargle. Political yadda-yadda.”

At one point, Obama was just banging out the domestic-politics buzzwords — “jobs,” “investments,” “innovation,” etc. — as if he were campaigning in Cleveland or Indianapolis.  He filibustered as if he were trying to run out the clock. (Basic press-conference tactic: Take a softball question and spend five minutes on a meandering answer, then — “Times up!”)

When he finally got a multi-part question about Libya, Obama spoke of international multilateralism as a “core principle.” In other words, the United States can only take military action when (a) there is a “consensus” that action is necessary, and (b) we have “coalition partners” joining us in the action.

A “core principle”!

After that, my eyes glazed over, but the rest of it was mainly the argle-bargle, yadda-yadda, let’s-look-presidential-while-not-actually-saying-anything-meaningful routine. We’ll see how the MSM plays this.

UPDATE: The first Associated Press report isn’t exactly hard-hitting.

UPDATE II: Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post:

[I]t’s no surprise that President Obama is focusing almost entirely on the planned brevity of the U.S.’s military involvement and the near-unanimity of the international community in support of the actions taken against Libya.
“Our military action is in support of an international mandate,” Obama said today during a press conference with the president of Chile; later he highlighted the “powerful international consensus” behind the attacks.
Obama and his political team have to hope that his rhetoric on the war — that it is necessary and will be short — matches the reality on the ground. The longer the conflict goes on, the more likely opposition to it will grow and the bigger political problem it could be for the White House moving forward.

Hope and Change military formula: “International consensus” + short U.S. involvement = AWESOME!!

You see, of course, that this “core principle” of Obama-ism is merely a guarantee that we will never take on any difficult or controversial military challenges — just easy, weak targets that our spineless European “allies” find it convenient to take down. Anything that France doesn’t like, we can’t do. But if France wants it, we can’t say no.

OBAMA: Because ‘Leadership’ Needs an Antonym.

UPDATE III: CBS provides the basic “what-the-president said” story:

The United States maintains that Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi must give up power, President Obama said today, even as the current United Nations mission — and U.S. military involvement — remains more limited.
“I have… stated that it is U.S. policy that Qaddafi needs to go,” Mr. Obama said in a press conference from Santiago, Chile. “But when it comes to our military action, we are doing so in support of U.N. Security resolution 1973. That specifically talks about humanitarian efforts, and we are going to make sure that we stick to that mandate.” . . .
Mr. Obama . . . reiterated today that the United States plans to hand off control of the Libya mission to an international coalition “in a matter of days, and not a matter of weeks.”
The first phase of the mission — taking out Libyan air defenses to establish a no fly zone — has been completed, the president said, but “the situation is evolving on the ground.”
The U.S. took a leading role in the initial phase because “we’ve got some unique capabilities” that are “much more significant than some of our other partners,” Mr. Obama said.
The president said that while it was important to act quickly to send a message to Qaddafi, the U.S. managed the initial operations in a way that “ensures that our partners, members of the international coalition, are bearing the burden of following through on mission.”
“Obviously, our military’s already very stretched and carries large burdens all around the world,” he said. “Wherever possible, for us to get international cooperation, not just in terms of word but in planes and resources and pilots, that is something we should actively seek and embrace.”

In the elite-journalism community, this kind of basic reporting is sneered at as mere “stenography.”  Elite journalists are big on giving readers context, which 9 times out of 10 means, “Here, let me tell you what to think about this.” So the story gets cluttered up with lots of dependent clauses and stuff.

Just tell me what the president said. I can decide for myself what it means. And when I tell you my opinion — e.g., “complete bullshit” — I don’t pretend that this is something “sources said.”

Category: Barack Obama
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