The Other McCain

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

Will Fox Dump Glenn Beck?

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | 26 Comments

That’s what David Carr of the New York Times suggests: Beck’s contract is up in December and maybe he and the Fox folks don’t see eye-to-eye.

Howard Portnoy at Hot Air Green Room is dubious about this theory, citing Scott Baker at the Beck-sponsored Blaze blog.

I don’t watch Beck’s show enough to offer any definitive judgment, but it is my general impression that Beck’s show was much better in 2009 than it has been in recent months. Beck did valuable work in showing the connections between various radical elements of the organized Left and the Obama administration. 

There were a lot of people who sort of woke up after the 2008 election asking themselves, “How did we get here?” And what Beck did, with his chalkboard talks and so forth, was to provide these newly-engaged people with a very watchable seminar on the history and structure of the American Left, keyed on current events.

That was very good, but in recent months, whenever I tune into Beck on Fox, I get the idea that he’s preaching more than teaching. The show is now less about fact and more about feeling. He seems less interested in politics and history, more interested in forging an emotional connection with his viewers. But that is merely my perception, and it may be that regular Beck-watchers will say I’m mistaken.

Suggestion: Somebody at the network needs to have a sit-down meeting with Beck and explain that this is the Fox News Channel — not the Fox Patriotism Channel or Fox Faith Channel. Focus the show a bit sharper on here’s-what’s-happening-now and filling in the here’s-what-you-don’t-know background behind the headlines.

Also, a rooftop concert in London with Billy Preston on keyboards might be helpful: Get Beck!

Category: Fox News, Glenn Beck, Hot Air

Moammar Qaddafi, ‘Winning’?

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | 10 Comments

Nobody can decide how to spell his name, and yet Moammar Qaddafi continues to hold on in Libya, while oil jumps past $100 a barrel, endangering The American Way of Life. (Ah, for the good ol’ days, when U.S. foreign policy was outsourced to Halliburton and the Mossad.)

Frankly, I expected the Libyan strongman’s regime would collapse shortly after his voluptuous Ukrainian nurse skipped town, but a week later Moammar keeps hanging in there like Charlie Sheen surrounded by a coterie of enablers. So this compels us to update you on the latest news from Benghazi:

Libyan forces attacked rebel-held areas again on Monday, reportedly seizing control of the oil town of Ras Lanuf after most residents evacuated.
But even as troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi tried to reverse the rebels’ territorial gains, a former Libyan prime minister appeared on the state-controlled television station and called for negotiations to end the weeks-long uprising.
In Washington, President Obama warned Libyan officials close to Gaddafi that they would share the blame for “unacceptable” violence against civilians, and he noted that NATO is holding consultations in Brussels on a wide range of options, “including potential military options.”

Which is to say, we’ve got no freaking clue how this thing is going to turn out. I’m sure Qaddafi’s just shaking in his shoes: “A NATO meeting in Brussels? Oh, noes!” Meanwhile, he’s getting support from a fellow member of the Evil Dictators Club:

Moammar Gaddafi is hunkered down, some once-loyal aides have abandoned him for the rebel side, and President Obama and other leaders are demanding he step down.
But he still has a friend – the man who received the al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. . . .
Chavez has in recent days venerated Gaddafi for his revolutionary credentials and asserted that the United States is about to invade the North African country to seize its oil. He also convened a meeting Friday in the Venezuelan capital in which his allies, including Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, agreed to a vague peace mission to end the violence in Libya.
“The countries of the Bolivarian alliance are demanding the United States and the world powers respect the people of Libya,” Chavez said to cheering, red-shirted supporters. “No to imperialist intervention in Libya! No to a new imperialist war that looks for oil over the blood of innocents!”

Hugo and Moammar, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Here’s an Associated Press video report on the fighting in Libya:

On other fronts, it looks like Libya’s neighbors are trying to horn in on some of that “imperialist intervention” stuff:

Egypt Quietly Invades Libya
The rebellion against the Kadaffi dictatorship in Libya has not produced any official outside help, but Egypt has apparently sent some of its commandos in to help out the largely amateur rebel force. Wearing civilian clothes, the hundred or so Egyptian commandos are officially not there, but are providing crucial skills and experience to help the rebels cope with the largely irregular, and mercenary, force still controlled by the Kadaffi clan. There are also some commandos from Britain (SAS) and American (Special Forces) operators are also believed wandering around, mainly to escort diplomats or perform reconnaissance (and find out who is in charge among the rebels).

So we’ve got Egyptian commandos leading anti-Qaddafi forces, while Qaddafi gets love-notes from Hugo Chavez and Obama apparently expects a NATO meeting in Brussels to strike fear into the dictator’s heart.

How’s that Hope and Change workin’ for ya?

Forgive me for suggesting that, in the good ol’ days, this problem would be solved by Dick Cheney picking up the telephone and speaking a single sentence: “Find Qaddafi and blow his ass away.”

And we’d be paying no more than $2.39 a gallon for regular unleaded by the end of next week.

Category: Libya

Echoing Da Tech Guy: Recycling Falsehoods Takes On The Sheen Of Idiocy

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | 21 Comments

by Smitty

Da Tech Guy notes yet another regurgitation of slanders against the marquee talent of this blog. Search the archives; Google the topic. He’s fully refuted those tired old slurs numerous times. It is the height of intellectual dishonesty to peddle such scurrilous piffle.
glamourdammerung, let us forgive you this foolishness. May God grace you with some maturity.
As a further suggestion, perhaps Wonkette could step up to the plate and admit that these anti-Stacy McCain statements are as true as the one about how he saved Bulungi from an invasion by the Semi-Conscious Liberation Army pouring over the border from Zambiniland, back in his soldier of fortune days. See? At least that bit of nonsense has a scrap of humor to it.

Update: linked at Three Beers Later.

Category: Blogging, Da Tech Guy

Sorry, Charlie

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | 30 Comments

The Trainwreck Called Charlie has taken up entirely too much of my attention lately, but at least I got an American Spectator column out of it:

Celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky described Sheen’s condition as a “psychiatric emergency,” most probably the manic phase of bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) and requiring hospitalization: “He’s in an acute manic state right now.… Notice how he goes from thought to thought and they are sort of disconnected? That’s acute mania.” . . . Pinsky’s concerns were echoed by others in Hollywood who have dealt with mental illness or addiction issues, including actor Gary Busey, who said Sheen is in a “tailspin,” and Tom Arnold, who accused those close to Sheen of exploiting his problems.
Perhaps the biggest of Sheen’s problems is that he has succeeded so well by exploiting his own reputation as the baddest of Hollywood’s bad boys. . . .

Please read the whole thing, which is 1,200 words long. Frankly, it would be easier to write 50,000 words about the “fricking rock star from Mars” than to boil down his catastrophic collapse into a single column.

Excuse me for reiterating what seems to me the most inarguable evidence that Charlie is completely batshit insane: He went from being married to fabulous beauty Denise Richards — the mother of his two adorable daughters — to shacking up with no-better-than-7-on-the-10-scale Natalie Kenly and Rachel Oberlin who, as porn performer “Bree Olson,” was winner of the 2008 “Best Anal Scene” award.

OK, you may say, looks aren’t everything. True enough, but is there any level on which Charlie’s skanky “godesses” could be, as he claims, such triumphant conquests as to make his lifestyle the envy of every man in Hollywood? He’s the highest-paid star in the history of television, and the best he can do is a couple of low-rent bimbos like that?

Dude, if that’s “winning,” what does “losing” look like?

Category: American Spectator, Celebrities

LIVE AT FIVE – 03.07.11

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE – 03.07.11

TOP NEWS
White House Seeks To Reassure Muslims In Advance Of King Hearings

Protesters rally in New York against King hearings to begin Tuesday

Deputy NSA Denis McDonough: “‘Muslim Americans are not part of the problem…”
:facepalm:

Congressional Leaders Show Few Signs Of Compromise As Budget Deadline Looms
McConnell dubious about Dems’ seriousness as whining continues from Kerry and others about cuts

Qaddafi Escalates War Against Rebels
Artillery, gunships employed by loyalists; Egyptian commandos supporting rebels?

PRC Denies Police Beatings Of Foreign Reporters
Restrictions on reporters tightened


SecDef Gates Goes To Afghanistan
Will meet with President Karzai, who is due to announce plans for NATO forces to hand off security responsibilities to Afghan forces



POLITICS
Daley Downplays No-Fly Zone For Libya

WH Chief of Staff William Daley and the President

“Lots of people throw around phrases of ‘no-fly zone,’ and they talk about it as if it’s just a…video game or something. Some people who throw that line out have no idea what they’re talking about.”
O RLY?

Wisconsin Recall Drives Could Make History

Utah Adopts Immigration Alternative

NY Teacher Cuts To Raise Class Sizes



Mayor Gray Acknowledges “Missteps”, Calls For Investigation

Crowd Jeers Bloomberg Along Queens Parade Route



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Wen Says PRC Set For Five More Fat Years Of Growth
Oil Prices Rise As Libyan Unrest Continues
Tribune Company Bankruptcy Nears Finish Line
Google Removes Android Malware So You Don’t Have To
Space Station Astronauts Bid Farewell To Shuttle Discovery
RIM Loses Marketing Chief



SPORTS
Bulls Lead East By Full Game After Win Over Heat

Derrick Rose flies to the hoop despite Chris Bosh

Fourth straight loss for the Heat

Carl Edwards Gets Sweet Redemption In Vegas

Rory Sabbatini Wins PGA Honda Classic

Callahan Leads Rangers In 7-0 Rout Of Flyers

Stoudemire, Knicks Top Hawks Without Anthony

Bob Knight Cusses On Camera During ESPN Game Day Show

Sabres Moving Into Playoff Contention?

Celtics Go Buck Hunting, Score 89-83 Win


Beltran Solid In Mets Win Over BoSox

Angels Rout Snakes 7-2



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Halle Berry, Willow Smith, Tyler Perry Winners At NAACP Image Awards

Halle Berry scores!

Also picking up awards: Denzel Washington, Vanessa Williams, Alicia Keys

Lindsay Accuser May Have Screwed Prosecutor: “Evidence” Videotape Sold

Why Is Paris Hilton Tweeting Charlie Sheen?

Miley Cyrus Plays Justin Bieber And Fergie On SNL

Kanye West’s “Monster” Video Banned BY MTV
Didn’t even know that was possible.

Baby #3 On The Way For Guy Ritchie!

Phil Collins Quits Music Biz, Citing Health Problems



Doesn’t She Scrub Up Well? Amy Winehouse Back To Her Best In Moody Photoshoot

Nene Leakes Vents On Talk Show About “Backstabber” Star Jones



FOREIGNERS
PRC Sees Positive Trend In Relations With US
Japan PM Kan’s Options Increasingly Bleak After Foreign Minister Resigns
Ivorian Rebels Move South As Gbagbo Supporters Loot Abidjan
Knives, Petrol Bombs Return To Cairo Streets
Ireland’s Fine Gael, Labor Parties Agree To Coalition Government
New Carnival After Gangs Neutralized In Rio Slum
Protests Against Bhatti Assassination Continue In Lahore
Estonia Reform Party Headed For Victory As Economy Improves After Cuts



BLOGS & STUFF
Scientists Monitor New Kilauea Eruptions
Another Black Conservative: Fleebaggers To Return Soon?
Mediaite: Is NYT Just Stirring The Pot On Glenn Beck?
Lonely Conservative: Obamacare Waivers Now OVER 9000! Over 1000
Legal Insurrection: So Tell Me About Jon Huntsman
Jammie Wearing Fool: White House Sucks Up To Muslims Before Hearings On Radical Islam
Daily Caller: Sen. Lamar Alexander – Trump Has No Chance Of Winning
Jim Geraghty: Tennessee Dems Call Collective Bargaining Repeal “Fascism”, “Terrorism”
American Power: Green Energy Plan Wastes Millions At L.A. Community Colleges
Proof Positive: What Would Jesus Cut?
Althouse: “It’s Not Your Grampa Jon’s Magazine Any More…”


— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

‘Where the Boys Are’

Posted on | March 6, 2011 | 15 Comments

“I’m not frightened and I’m not being coy. It’s just that I’ve … I’ve never done anything like this before.”
— Merrit Andrews (Dolores Hart) in Where the Boys Are

I’m on deadline tonight and, knowing I’d be working late, decided to take a late afternoon nap. Drowsing with the TV on, I awoke and flipped channels, landing on TCM to find myself entranced by the 1960 spring-break classic, Where the Boys Are.

On one level, it’s a silly teen comedy, with ridiculously corny elements, e.g., Frank Gorshwin as a hipster leading a “dialectic jazz” combo with Connie Francis joining in to sing. On another level, however, there is much to recommend Where the Boys Are. The wide-screen Technicolor cinematography of semi-tropical Florida scenery is eye-catching in a way films nowadays so seldom are. The scenes are composed in a way that any student of design would admire. The story is a bit of teen-bikini beach fluff, as Joseph Riesenback says in his IMDB review:

Four college girls escape the freezing north during spring break and head to Ft. Lauderdale because as the title says, that’s where the boys are. Not much to make a film about I suppose, but stories have hit the big screen with a lot less plot than that going for them.

What director Joe Pasternak does with that lightweight plot, however, is quite remarkable. Where the Boys Are is something of a morality play, with Dolores Hart playing an intellectual student who espouses avant-garde ideas about sex (not very explicitly; this was, after all, an MGM musical in the Eisenhower era). An impressionable freshman, played by Yvette Mimieux, decides to put those avant-garde ideas into action, with predictably disastrous results.

Where the Boys Are is a fascinating time capsule, recalling a time when “good girls don’t” was a widely recognized moral standard, and youthful romance was seen primarily as a means to an end, namely marriage. 

The word for this process is, of course, “courtship.” I imagine many young women — too young to have known the customs and rituals of that bygone era — who take time to watch the relatively innocent romantic mischief of Where the Boys Are must ask themselves, “How could it ever have possibly been that way?” And I also imagine they wish there were a time machine to take them back to that romantic place.

Myself, I was mesmerized by the beauty of Dolores Hart. Oh, those wide-set blue eyes! What an altogether lovely girl. And a bit of research led me to discover that in 1957, at age 18, she was cast in Loving You with Elvis Presley. This cinematic pairing was such a hit that she was next cast opposite Presley in his best film, 1958’s King Creole.

Well, whatever happened to Dolores Hart? Some readers already know the answer, and are probably smiling at the surprise that’s coming next, because Dolores Hart became Read more

Category: Catholics, Culture, Movies

Democrat Group Declares War on Koch: ‘Secretive Republican Billionaire Brothers’

Posted on | March 6, 2011 | 8 Comments

If you ever sign up for the e-mail lists on liberal Web sites, you’ll soon become accustomed to getting fundraising appeals keyed to the latest moonbat obsessions. Democracy for America — the “progressive” group started by Howard Dean after his 2004 presidential campaign meltdown — just sent me this one:

Robert –
The Wall Street Journal reports — “Conservatives in Wisconsin are getting nervous that three Republican state senators may defect on the collective-bargaining reform vote.”
NBC news in Wisconsin reports — “four moderate Republicans are wavering and could break with the GOP and vote against Walker’s budget repair bill.”
And Talking Points Memo reports on a brand new poll by a Republican leaning pollster — “Rasmussen Poll: Almost Six In Ten Wisconsin Voters Disapprove Of Gov. Walker.”
Our strategy is working. We can win this fight. Please contribute $25 to keep our T.V. ad playing statewide — and non-stop — until Republicans cave.
The New York Times reports — “Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute.”
The secretive Republican billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch bankroll the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which had a budget of over 40 million dollars last year. They’ve spent millions backing Governor Walker and pushing an anti-worker agenda.
But now the Koch Brothers have met their match — and it’s you.
We’re united together with the people of Wisconsin and our partners at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in fighting to stop the war on working families. Republicans and the Koch Brothers are on the run playing defense, but we can’t stop until we win.
Keep the pressure up on Wisconsin Senate Republicans to abandon Governor Walker and his anti-worker budget. Contribute right now to keep blanketing the state with our T.V. ad.
This isn’t just Wisconsin. We’re all in this together. Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, all across America, Republicans are waging a war on working families.
It’s up to us to stop them.
Thank you for everything you’re doing to win.
-Charles
Charles Chamberlain, Political Director
Democracy for America

Let’s call this what it is, shall we? It’s a scam, intended to exploit (a) the MSM’s hyping of paranoia about the “secretive Republican billionaire brothers”; and (b) the gullibility of liberals who think giving $25 to DFA — “Contribute right now”! — is going to stop the alleged “war on working families.” Here is the one-minute ad that donations to DFA would supposedly “blanket” on Wisconsin TV:

Really? I mean, really? You have to appreciate the cleverness of this scam: Send a guy with a camera to a protest, turn it into a YouTube video, and then hustle the rubes for donations, claiming that this will put that video all over TV.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of people who get that e-mail don’t live in Wisconsin, and will have no way of verifying how often this ad actually runs. Nor will these moonbats bother to check next year’s disclosure forms for DFA, to try to figure out what percentage of their donations were actually spent on this project.

  • Fact: People who click the “donate” link in this e-mail are re-directed to an Act Blue donation page.
  • Fact: DFA spent $1.2 million on salaries and benefits during the 2009-2010 election cycle.
  • Fact: DFA paid $1.5 million to Integral Resources, a Massachusetts-based telemarketing firm during that two-year period.
  • Fact: During the same two-year period, DFA reported more than $7 million in revenue, and ended 2010 with $1.3 million cash on hand. ActBlue collected more than $61 million and ended with $4 million cash on hand. For both organizations, these totals represented the most they had ever collected in an election cycle.
  • Fact: During the 2010 elections, Democrats were on the receiving end of an ass-kicking of historic proportions.

Please, by all means, gullible moonbats: Give your money to these DFA/ActBlue scammers. And when the “secretive Republican billionaires” kick your asses again, remember who told you so.

Category: Democrats, Progressivism, Wisconsin

Rule 5: The Science Is Settled

Posted on | March 6, 2011 | 8 Comments

It may not have been definitively proved by the medical community that the study of sweater puppies is good for guys, but one thing science HAS proved is the validity of Rule 5. As summed up most pithily by the eminent Gerard Van Der Leun earlier this week at chez Attila:

Tits gits hits.

Word.

So without further ado, let us begin the roundup of Rule 5 posts! In pride of place, Smitty refers us to the blog What Would Tyler Durden Do?, specifically to this Joanna Krupa post.

The Valley of the Shadow sends us this pic of the LA art scene, while the POH Diaries post a spring break advisory along with some Courtney Cox bikini pix. More like this, please. 🙂

The Rio Norte Line offers a suggestion for a British Invasion we can all appreciate, while Three Beers Later offers Charlie Sheen-related Rule 5 for our consideration. Also, Denise Milani!

Soylent Green offers underwear in lieu of corsets, a celebration of Public Sleeping Day (NSFW), and an equally – nay, MORE NSFW farewell to Steamboat McGoo whose post title is too long for me to copy here. Also also, Carbon Comeliness (NSFW)!

As a cool-down after all that cardiac stimulation, Fishersville Mike has some NCAA Rule 5. Or may I suggest this short video via In My Copious Free Time? More conventionally, Mind Numbed Robot returns to the Rule 5 lists with the luscious Larissa Riquelme. Elsewhere, Maggie’s Notebook combines tasteful Rule 5 with the vile game of golf to produce these pix of Anna Rawson.

Bob Belvedere does his part for heart health with this post of Marilyn Lange, and not content with that noble work, adds Tanya Song, a bevy of barely-clad lovelies, Terri Welles, and finally Jane Russell.

Mr. Hill from Dustbury offers some Lee Remick and Angie Harmon links; Proof Positive has Mimi Anden, Connie Stevens, and a helpful health tip.

Finally, from Pirate’s Cove comes amusing news about Miranda Kerr and some Rule 5 for Spring Break.

Thanks to all for their links! Please send in next week’s links by Saturday to Rule 5 Wombat

UPDATE: I am informed that I missed linking to GVDL’s exquisite collection of racks. Go forth and be HEALED!

Category: Rule 5
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