The Other McCain

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

I Guess The Real Question Is: ‘Can An Amphibian Like Troglopundit Be Elected’?

Posted on | February 20, 2011 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

Hopes of a domestically boring time period while I’m over by the Hindu Kush have proven futile. One would not have picked Wisconsin as the epicenter of the meltdown, but there it is. The teachers jumped the shark, and the Democrats jumped the border.
Chicago Boyz point out that, in addition to quirky quorum rules, the Wisconsin constitution may have some ugly repercussions in store for the Senators Who Were Not There. The comments at the ‘Boyz are not optimistic that the cheeseheads are packin’ the gear to do something like that.
This compels me to point out the opportunity to drag Troglopundit from his bog and turn his serial bloviations into something productive for society. Sure, there may be the occasional misstep, a bill declaring a Danica Patrick Appreciation Day, for example, but I submit that this is a manageable risk for the great state of Wisconsin.


TROG FOR WISCONSON SENATE!

In all seriousness, one hopes that conservatives remember to be both steadfast in opposing the Left’s attempts to debase the meaning of the 2010 elections, as well as forgiving of these benighted fools who seem to think that it’s OK to like about being sick to protest, and have doctors pile lies upon lies to justify their falsehoods.
The sun is setting on the Progressive Era (or however the Left would label the last century of the E PLURIBUS collapsing into the UNUM). The Left is reacting with all the grace of an alcoholic denied the bottle. But financial sobriety is coming, oh yes. And, as the redeemable Lefties you know get past their delirious tremors, don’t forget that even Ronald Reagan was once a Lefty.
God bless the United States of America.

Category: Troglopundit, Uncategorized, Wisconsin

FMJRA 2.0: Dirty Love (Frank Zappa, R.I.P.)

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 5 Comments

CPAC Ends, Media Lies Continue

The Bottom Line is the Punchline in Obama’s Laughable Joke of a Budget

Raymond Noodles

CPAC Day 3: Everybody Write-In Your Straw-Poll Favorite: Ann Coulter; UPDATE: Rejecting My Advice, CPAC Attendees Vote for Ron Paul, Mitt Romney

Wisconsin Updates

Paging Jill Filipovic

Breathtaking: Liberal Calls Herman Cain ‘Minstrel,’ ‘Coon,’ ‘Sambo,’ ‘Monkey’

‘Civility’

Which Flag?

I Didn’t Rape Tommy Christopher

We Have Always Been The Party Of No

CPAC Day 3: ‘Flu-Like Symptoms’

CPAC Day 3: Fear and Loathing and
Tri-Corner Hats in the Kruiser Cabana

Stupid Google Tricks

FMJRA 2.0: Real As Anything You’ve Seen

Rule 5 SundayMonday: Ready To Go

LIVE AT FIVE – 2.14.11

‘Obama the Moderate’ Myth

$35,000 a Month, Plus Expenses

‘We’ll Always Have CPAC’

Surprise: Supporters of Most ‘Transparent’ Administration Launch Smear Campaign Against GOP Congessman Investigating Most ‘Transparent’ Administration

Because They’re Better Than You

NYU Fires Nir Rosen, Liberal Writer Who Slammed Lara Logan as ‘War Monger’

It’s a Good Day for Bieber Blogging

Jill Filipovic Throws Me Some Traffic; Little Green Footballs, Not So Much

Pennsylvania Teacher Suspended for Telling Truth About Kids Nowadays

U.S. to Join Anti-Israel Bloc at U.N.?

Darrell Issa: Unintimidated

Cheesehead Revolution?

Democrats Believe Secret to Winning Back Congress Is … Pro-Abortion Voters?

LIVE AT FIVE – 2.18.11

‘Slash-and-Burn’? Yeah, More of That!

Like a Broken Clock Twice a Day …

Top linkers this week:

  1. Maggie’s Notebook (15)
  2. Lonely Conservative (10)
  3. POWIP (8)
  4. Da Tech Guy (7)
Category: FMJRA Award

She Went Down to the Demonstration …

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 12 Comments

. . . to get her fair share of abuse, but even Ann Althouse can’t always get what she wants.

She found a woman holding a sign that said, “Please don’t teabag our children.” (Question: Did that woman have any children of her own? Or was the phrase “our children” employed in the progressive, collectivist sense?)

She also interviewed the shockingly scruffy doctor providing notes for excused absences. (Wanna bet he’d also be happy to write you a prescription for medical marijuana?)

And she got some good video of the crowd with soundtrack by Andrew Breitbart. (Andrew’s speeches can be a mind-blowing experience.)

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: Troglopundit has got some photos, including one with a protester’s sign: “Elections matter: Now get back to work!”

Category: Ann Althouse, Wisconsin

He’s a Liberal, and Also Crazy

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 10 Comments

Excuse me if that seems redundant, but it appears that one Democrat in Congress was even more crazy than the rest:

Three days before the Nov. 2 election, U.S. Rep. David Wu’s most loyal and senior staffers were so alarmed by his erratic behavior that they demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treatment.
Their concern had been spiking for weeks in tandem with the Oregon Democrat’s increasingly unpredictable performance on the campaign trail and in private. He was loud and sometimes angry, some of them told The Oregonian. He said kooky things to staff and — more worrisome with a tough election fast approaching — around potential voters and donors. . . .
Several staff members confronted Wu for the final time on Oct. 30. Wu’s psychiatrist was brought into that meeting . . . The meeting was held after four consecutive days of troubling behavior that led the staff to agree that Wu needed a higher level of medical care . . .
“This is way beyond acceptable levels and the charade needs to end NOW,” wrote Lisa Grove, a senior and long-serving campaign pollster, in an e-mail to colleagues that day. “No enabling by any potential enablers, he needs help and you need to be protected. Nothing else matters right now. Nothing else.” . . .
Faced with a stalemate, the campaign essentially shut down at the very time when most other candidates were at their most frenzied. No public announcement was made, but campaign staff withdrew and Wu did not hold another formal campaign event until he emerged on Tuesday night after winning a seventh term.
Last month, The Oregonian reported that at least a half-dozen members of Wu’s staff had resigned after he won re-election in November. That group included his longtime chief of staff and his spokeswoman. In addition, he lost his campaign pollster and his fundraiser. . . .
For some staffers, the beginning of the end was Wednesday, Oct. 27, when Wu delivered a belligerent and rambling 19-minute monologue to Washington County Democrats that some in the audience said was inappropriate for the friendly crowd. His behavior left staff members aghast. . . .
In the early morning of Saturday, several odd messages written from Wu’s private House of Representatives e-mail address were sent to some staffers, all female, with still others copied on them. . . .
At that point, staff knew something was terribly wrong with their candidate. That Saturday, Oct. 30, they checked for available hospital beds and consulted with his psychiatrist. Veteran pollster Grove sent staffers the e-mail that signaled the end. She declined to comment for this story but earlier told The Oregonian that she would never work for Wu again.
There was no doubt Wu was having a rough 2010. He had separated from his wife, and he faced a credible opponent — Republican Rob Cornilles — in a difficult year for all Democrats. He told people he had stopped drinking in July.
But staffers and others who encountered Wu say his behavior that fall was not an ordinary response to stress. As the campaign wore on, they said, Wu became unpredictable and sometimes loopy, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and often not making sense. Nor would he own up to their concerns. . . .
He made few campaign appearances and near the end of the campaign was even placed under what one campaign official characterized as “house arrest.” . . .
Wu had shown signs of erratic behavior before. In 2007, he accused the Bush White House of acting like fake Klingons. In 2003, he appeared to go catatonic before a crucial vote on Medicare.
Sources reported that over the years Wu would have normal periods, followed by times when he seemed disturbed. Each episode seemed more erratic, they said. But just before the election, they said, was the worst they had seen.
As Election Day approached, the prevailing mood, according to one person, “was that the only thing worse than losing the campaign would be winning it.”

Those are merely highlights — or rather, lowlights — or a much longer article. All in all, it sounds like Wu was exhibiting bipolar tendencies, probably aggravated by the stress of separating from his wife.

In other words, a midlife crisis.

What’s interesting is that his loyal Democratic staff kept all this quiet, so the crazy Congressman could get re-elected.

UPDATE: Suggested TV commercial for David Wu’s 2012 re-election campaign.

Category: Congress, Democrats, Oregon

Wisconsin Updates
HERMAN CAIN VIDEO ADDED

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 147 Comments

Tea Party activists staged a “Stand With Scott Walker” rally today at the Capitol in Madison. Our man Troglopundit was on the scene and Tweeted that the union goons outnumbered the pro-Walker crowd. But he also Tweets this:

Speaker: Know when we got the idea for this rally? Thursday. Thousands of you here!

Given the short notice — I didn’t write about it until yesterday afternoon — the turnout seems pretty impressive: Instapundit has a crowd photo. He also has this video interview with Andrew Breitbart:

Lots more at The Lonely Conservative and Da Tech Guy points out that the union goons crossed the line with their Nazi analogies.

UPDATE: Blogs are way ahead of the regular news outfits on this story. Michelle Malkin:

Free-market champion and conservative businessman Herman Cain declares Madison “Ground Zero” in the battle against Big Labor.

That’s the first quote I’ve seen from Cain’s speech, and he spoke more than two hours ago. You would think that when a presidential candidate gave a speech at a major event like this, reporters on the scene would rush to be the first to report it. But you would be wrong. Anyway, Malkin is using reports via Twitter to cover the rally and posts this Twitpic of the scene:

UPDATE II: Jim Hoft is on the scene phoning in reports and sending photos via Lady Liberty. Meanwhile, the governor is standing tough and the Democrats are trying to back down:

Gov. Scott Walker on Saturday rejected an overture from a Democratic state senator that public employee unions had agreed to make financial sacrifices contained in the budget-repair bill in return for the right to bargain collectively.

So after all this protesting, now the unions want a “compromise”? Yeah, they’re losing this battle and they know it. John Fund at the Wall Street Journal explains why the Battle of Madison is so important.

UPDATE III: The New York Times reports from Madison, but evidently failed even to notice Herman Cain’s speech. Someone recently pointed out the blinding whiteness of the union protesters in Madison, but I’d hate to invoke that famous word with 5 A’s.

Meanwhile, from California, Joe Fein at Valley of the Shadow writes:

The protests by the Teacher unions (and the professional protesters called up by OFA and President Obama) in Madison, Wisconsin are almost a bad re-play of the Anti-war protests of the Bush years (both Bushes). Thus, deja vu.

UPDATE IV: Robert Costa of National Review got this video of Herman Cain’s speech:

Man, the people were cheering so loud they were drowning him out! (Nice fedora, BTW.)

UPDATE V: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE VI: Welcome, Gay Patriot readers! And now Robert Costa has his report online at National Review.

UPDATE VII: Civility: No arrests reported at Tea Party protests. Just so we don’t forget what the protests are about:

Walker has called on 14 Democratic state senators, who fled the state rather than allow a quorum permitting a vote on the bill, to return to Madison.
Bill opponents say they won’t allow a vote unless Walker negotiates on the plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for everything but wages. The legislation also would require most employees to pay more for their pensions and health insurance benefits.
“I have been informed that all state and local public employees — including teachers — have agreed to the financial aspects of Gov. Walker’s request,” said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat. . . .
Walker, who says the state is “broke,” is asking legislators to pass his Budget Repair Bill to combat a $137 million shortfall through June 30. An upcoming two-year budget for 2011-13 must address a pending $3.6 billion deficit, he said.
The governor’s press secretary, Cullen Werwie, released a statement Saturday calling on Erpenbach, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller and other Democrats to return from Illinois.
“These are many of the same senators who, two years ago, rammed through a billion dollar tax hike in 24 hours with no public input,” the statement said. “The quickest way to resolve the current situation is for the Democratic senators to stop shirking their responsibilities and debate the bill in Madison.”
Opponents say the proposed legislation is an attack on workers’ rights.

“Worker’s rights,” my ass! You’ve got no “right” to be employed by the state, nor any “right” to hold taxpayers hostage and demand that they give you more money or more benefits.

UPDATE VIII: Now a Memeorandum thread! I’m so happy I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!

UPDATE IX: Linked by Moe Lane — thanks!


Category: Andrew Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, Herman Cain, Tea Party, Unions, Wisconsin

‘Disgusting’ Childbirth?

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 23 Comments

Megan McArdle hasn’t had any babies yet, but she knows women who have:

The women I know who have given birth, whether pro-life or pro-choice, do not romanticize it. They speak, of course, of the miracle that it is. But they also speak, often rather too frankly, of how difficult and often disgusting the process is. If a substantial number of pro-lifers are women who have given birth–and they are–then we pro-choicers can’t simply tell ourselves that it’s because they haven’t really thought about what birth entails.

Pundette is a mother of seven and permits her husband to respond to McArdle:

So this is what is at the bottom of the pro-choice argument — they are “disgusted” by pregnancy and birth? I thought it was supposed to be the crazy fundamentalists that hated the human body and feared sex. How sick do you have to be to be revolted by the process that brings new life, that brought your life, into being?

What accounts for these differences in attitude? Anti-natalist sentiments are a natural byproduct of the Contraceptive Culture, which propagates the belief that sex without pregnancy is normal, and where pregnancy is considered a rare medical anomaly.

This way of thinking — nowadays so common that we don’t even recognize it as an ideological phenomenon — is an inversion of nature.

From a strictly biological point of view, procreation is the only purpose of sex. People who like to condemn conservatives as being “anti-science” because we don’t go along with the global-warming crusade ought to be asked to explain why they are so hostile to the scientific purpose of sex, i.e., making babies.

Ah, but for the past half-century, Big Science has been in the business of preventing childbirth, you see. So the anti-baby industry has diligently promoted all the arguments and attitudes necessary to the marketing of contraceptive products and services. And this marketing campaign — for that’s what it was — has succeeded so phenomenally that the Contraceptive Culture is now nearly ubiquitous, and people don’t even stop to ask themselves: “Why do we think this way?” Read more

Category: Abortion, Contraceptive Culture, Family, Planned Parenthood, Pundit & Pundette, Religion

Dreams of a Government Shutdown?

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 5 Comments

Republicans in the House have been pulling long hours to enact a continuing resolution that would extend funding for the rest of the fiscal year. And if they fail to get it passed before the current continuing resolution runs out, they plan to pass a stopgap short-term measure to prevent a government shutdown. Meanwhile, it appears, Democrats hope Boehner fails:

A high-ranking aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told chiefs of staff of Democratic lawmakers that a government shutdown is more likely than not, according to attendees.
Speaking at a regular meeting of the top aides to House Democrats, Pelosi’s floor director, Jerry Hartz, offered, unprompted, his assessment that the odds favor inaction before the government runs out of money, sources said.

This is almost certainly wishful thinking on Hartz’s part. Even the most ideologically rigid of Tea Party freshmen know the history of how Clinton (with the assistance of the media) demonized Gingrich’s Republicans over the 1995-96 shutdown, and are eager to avoid a repeat.

Furthermore, given their campaign mantra of “jobs, jobs, jobs,” the GOP freshmen want to be seen as working pragmatically on fixing the economy. It’s possible that the Democratic majority in the Senate could, by obstinate resistance, create a “no deal” standoff with House Republicans — but that wouldn’t cause a shutdown, just a resort to more short-term continuing resolutions while the impasse was negotiated.

And, at some point, President Obama might have the chance to cause trouble by wielding the veto. But again, that just takes us back to short-term continuing resolutions, and leaves Obama exposed to the accusation that he’s refusing to cut spending.

Some conservatives will be disgruntled by Boehner’s desire to avoid a dramatic showdown with Obama. For example, Ace of Spades was enraged by yesterday’s vote against an extra $22 billion in cuts, and Dave in Texas rages again today. But the GOP House leadership has to be thinking three moves ahead in this chess game, and a “reasonable compromise” now — however much it enrages conservatives — will put Boehner in a stronger position when he’s negotiating with the Senate and the President.

To my enraged and disgruntled friends: Chill.

Once they’ve got the continuing resolution in place for the rest of the fiscal year, House Republicans will immediately begin the budgeting process for the next fiscal year, and that’s when the real fun starts rolling. All you’ve got to do is wait a few weeks, OK?

At any rate, Pelosi’s fantasies of a government shutdown — giving her a chance to claim that House Republicans are a bunch of wild-eyed fanatical extremists — are almost certain to remain a fantasy.

Category: Ace of Spades, Budget, Congress, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi

Bahrain, Libya Protests Continue

Posted on | February 19, 2011 | 2 Comments

If you thought camel-riding pro-Mubarak goon squads in Cairo were shocking, check out the news from Libya:

Defiant after four decades under Moammar Gadhafi’s hard-line rule, thousands of Libyans voiced their discontent in the eastern city of Benghazi, where a doctor treating the injured Saturday described hovering helicopters firing into the crowds and the sound of gunfire.
The doctor said dozens of injured people were hospitalized, most suffering from gunshot wounds.
“The situation is critical right now,” said the doctor who CNN is not identifying for security reasons. “The city is effectively under siege.”

Here’s video from Libya:

Meanwhile in Bahrain:

Thousands of protesters converged on Pearl roundabout midday Saturday, retaking the public square that’s been the site of two bloody confrontations between police and demonstrators earlier this week.

And here’s video from Bahrain:

Category: Bahrain, Libya
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