The Other McCain

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

Christiane Amanpour and ABC News Bring Healing to Tucson … Uh, Wait …

Posted on | January 15, 2011 | 34 Comments

Warner Todd Huston at Publius Pundit recounts how the media’s “Kumbayah” moment worked out:

One would think that once you were the collateral damage of an assassination attempt, you’d be much less apt to be issuing death threats of your own to people. Sadly, shooting victim J. Eric Fuller was not so sensitive as one might think his experience would make him. At a townhall meeting Saturday, an incensed Fuller issued a death threat to local Tea Party leader Trent Humphries.
Fuller is a liberal that has been heard in interviews claiming that Sarah Palin and conservatives are at fault for the Arizona shooting. …
Fuller blurted out his threat near the end of the meeting being filmed by ABC News for a piece to be titled, “After the Tragedy: An American Conversation Continued.”
KGUN TV Channel 9 news reported that Fuller dramatically took a photo of Tea Party leader Humphries and then said to him, “You’re dead.”
He was immediately taken into custody by Pima County Sheriffs.

Ed Driscoll notes that KGUN is a “remarkably politically incorrect” thing to call a TV station. The Left, predictably, is claiming that Fuller was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Via Memeorandum, with more comment from  NewsBusters, Michelle Malkin, Protein Wisdom, Scared Monkeys, Moe Lane, Hot Air, Moonbattery, iOwnTheWorld.com, Legal Insurrection, Thatmrgguy’s Blog and Althouse.

UPDATE: Death-threatening Fuller was a hero to Charles Johnson. Who couldn’t see that coming?

Category: Arizona

Tucson, Zeitgeist and Madness: The Obsolete Politics of Jared Loughner UPDATE: Another E-Mail From a Zeitgeist Follower; Movement Leader Issues ‘Message to Members’

Posted on | January 15, 2011 | 44 Comments

In the comments of a previous post, the blogger at 24Ahead.com elbowed me as a “Tea Party enabler” — an epithet that he would also apparently apply to Glenn Reynolds — and I think it’s time to clarify a few points about why I’ve spent the past four days digging into the Zeitgeist angle on the Tucson massacre.

Remember that I am a newsman by profession, and learned that trade on the job under the tutelage of Old School editors. So when I saw Jared Loughner’s friend Zach Osler tell ABC News that Zeitgeist had a “profound” impact on Loughner’s worldview, and then Ashleigh Banfield failed to follow-up with more questions, it pissed me off.

It appears quite possible that Zeitgeist was to Loughner what the Beatles’ “White Album” was to Charles Manson. And here was Banfield who, when confronted with what looked like the equivalent of “Helter Skelter” written in blood, utterly dropped the ball as a reporter.

The director of Zeitgeist has threatened legal action against ABC News, and now Zach Osler is turning down interview requests from other reporters. So the opportunity fumbled away by Banfield may be difficult to recover.

Meanwhile, it seems, the major media have turned their attention to covering reaction to the Tucson massacre as a political volleyball game. And this, too, is pissing me off. Read more

Category: ABC, Arizona, Conspiracy Theories, Crime, Shoe Leather Fund, Tea Party, Zeitgeist

Herman Cain: ‘A Good Solid Conservative Who Can Get the Base Excited’

Posted on | January 15, 2011 | 24 Comments

The Wall Street Journal certainly has excellent sources:

The lack of a clear 2012 Republican presidential front-runner is prompting lesser-known figures to consider joining the race.
Instead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, some conservative groups are looking for fresh faces and asking: Why not Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan or former Godfather’s Pizza Chief Executive Herman Cain? . . .
“We need a good solid conservative who can get the base excited, and that person just isn’t out there right now,” said Karen Beseth, a New York-based conservative blogger who is now backing Mr. Cain. . . .
Mr. Cain launched a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday, and said in an interview that he hopes to appeal to “regular folk.”

If the Lonely Conservative keeps talking to the media like this, she might become a lot less lonely! Check out Citizens4Cain.com.

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, The Lonely Conservative

Obligatory: Video in Which Tucson Killer Jabbers About ‘Illegal Wars’ Like Your Average DKos Diarist or Cindy Sheehan

Posted on | January 15, 2011 | 36 Comments

UPDATE: Someone has finally re-uploaded the video to YouTube:

PREVIOUSLY: It was taken down by YouTube, but those greedy bastards at the Los Angeles Times got it through an open-records request and “embed disabled” it so you have to go to their Web site to see it.

However, unlike Jared Lee Loughner, I’m cool with the whole capitalist greed thing, so I guess I’ll just “tone down the rhetoric” before they take out a restraining order and get me locked up in a loony bin. Anyway, the takeaway from this creepy video is:

  1. Jared Lee Loughner didn’t like “illegal wars,” which are “unconstitutional,” an opinion you might have heard a lot circa 2002-2006 if you were hanging out with smelly peaceniks at International A.N.S.W.E.R. marches or Ned Lamont rallies.
  2. Jared Lee Loughner habitually used the term “genocide” to describe anything he was against — “Mom, this broccoli-and-cheese casserole tastes like genocide!” — just like every Chomsky-spouting punk who ever protested an Ann Coulter speech on a college campus.
  3. Jared Lee Loughner’s interpretation of the Constitution is nearly as crazy as the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas.
  4. Jared Lee Loughner hates cops, considers grammar a form of “mind control,” and felt that getting a “B” in class was a violation of his First Amendment rights. If he hadn’t become a mass murderer, he might have had a promising future as an ACLU lawyer.
  5. Jared Lee Loughner is bonkers, wacko, schizoid, daft, zany, deranged, demented and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he’s batshit crazy and also quite likely nucking futz.

Unfortunately, Jared Lee Loughner didn’t have a Harvard diploma and a blog at The Atlantic Monthly. So when Loughner wanted to destroy a female politician with whom he was pathologically obsessed . . .

What? Too soon?

UPDATE: ABC News also has the video:

Meanwhile, Brian at Red Dog Report wonders why a key connection is being ignored:

The Media has completely ignored the impact that conspiracy movie “Zeitgeist” had on Jared Loughner’s psyche. . . . Most likely, it is because Loughner’s Zeitgeist conspiracies do not fit the media’s narrative. . . . They have decided to just write him off as a lone wolf lunatic. And have moved on; awaiting the next Palin “scandal.”

What’s annoying as all hell is that it was ABC News that broke the “Zeitgeist” exclusive on Wednesday and yet they haven’t followed up on their own scoop.

Either they’re too stupid to understand the connection or else . . . Look, I hate to use the word “conspiracy” in this context, but if Loughner’s friend had told ABC News that Mark Levin or Michael Savage or Glenn Beck had a “profound impact” on the gunman’s worldview, don’t you think we would have seen some follow-up reporting by now?

  • Zeitgeist: Watch the Conspiracy Movie That Had a ‘Profound Impact’ on Tucson Mass Murder Suspect Jared Loughner

    • UPDATE II: Speaking of Cindy Sheehan, Da Tech Guy sees the media playing the “absolute moral authority” card.

    Category: ABC, Arizona, Crime, Da Tech Guy, Red Dog Report, Video, Zeitgeist

    Don’t Tell My Wife

    Posted on | January 15, 2011 | 11 Comments

    “Honey, I’ve got to go cover another Tea Party rally,” I tell her, and she thinks it’s all about politics — lower taxes, limited government, stuff like that — but now Frances Fox Pivens has decided she’s a Tea Party expert and lets the cat out of the bag:

    Ed Driscoll reminds us that everything is about sex. Especially blogging. FMJRA. IYKWIMAITYD.

    Category: Ed Driscoll, Sex, Tea Party

    An Important Anniversary

    Posted on | January 14, 2011 | 7 Comments

    On this day a year ago, I arrived in Boston to cover the Scott Brown campaign. I’d taken a train from D.C. — leaving at 3 a.m. — and arrived at 11 a.m. in downtown Boston where I was picked up by Pete Da Tech Guy, whom I’d never met before. The tales of what ensued over the next six days — yea, verily! — they are the stuff of legend.

    Because I couldn’t afford a hotel (hell, I could barely afford the train fare) Pete let me crash on his sofa in Fitchburg. He drove me wherever I wanted to go. He took me to restaurants and rallies and churches. He introduced me to people who became sources for some of my stories. And he turned out to be quite a resourceful reporter himself. He has that rare and essential journalistic skill, the ability to strike up conversations with complete strangers.

    Pete is, as his nom de blog suggests, a computer technician by trade. He’d been laid off from his job and was doing whatever PC repair jobs he could hustle up while trying to find another job. He wasn’t blogging with the idea of making a living at it. But over the course of the past year, he applied himself to the task with tremendous ardour.

    And he prayed diligently.

    Lo and behold, he is not only an increasingly successful blogger, but also a columnist for the Examiner — his latest column just got the ‘Lanche — and he has now started his own Saturday night radio show on Worcester’s WCRN 830 AM, a 50,000-watt powerhouse. (All presidential candidates need to know that Pete’s show reaches all over New Hampshire, and his advertising rates are surprisingly affordable.)

    Go visit Da Tech Guy — and be sure to hit Da Tip Jar!

    Category: Da Tech Guy, How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog, Massachusetts

    Priebus Elected RNC Chair on 7th Ballot

    Posted on | January 14, 2011 | 14 Comments

    UPDATE XV: On the seventh ballot, Wisconsin GOP chairman Reince Priebus got 97 votes and was thereby elected the new chairman of the Republican National Committee.

    Tough fight. Congratulations to the winner.

    Hopefully he won’t seek vengeance against his opponents. They say those Cheeseheads can be heinously vindictive.

    Just ask Troglopundit.

    UPDATE XVI: The final account at The Hill.

    Linked by Fire Andrea Mitchell — thanks!

    * PREVIOUSLY *

    UPDATE XIV: Tea Party favorite Ann Wagner of Missouri quits, does not endorse any other candidate. I now expect Reince Priebus to clinch on the seventh ballot.

    UPDATE XIII: Sixth-round results – Reince Priebus 80, Saul Anuzis 37, Mario Cino 34, Ann Wagner 17. That means Priebus is just five votes from clinching. Cino is fading, and if Wagner or Anuzis want to stop Priebus, they must unite their votes now — and then try to peel some votes off Cino.

    UPDATE XII: Sixth-round balloting is now under way. With incumbent Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele now out, there are four candidates left. Should Wisconsin GOP chairman Reince Priebus gets more than 70 votes on the sixth ballot, either Saul Anuzis of Michigan or Ann Wagner of Missouri will have to drop out and throw her or her support to another candidate, if they want to stop Priebus. The important question is, “Do they want to stop Priebus?”

    UPDATE XI: With Steele now having dropped out and Priebus at 67 votes after the fifth ballot — with 85 votes needed to clinch — it is now reported that Saul Anuzis is meeting with Ann Wagner.

    UPDATE X: Fifth ballot results – Reince Priebus 67, Maria Cino 40, Saul Anuzis 32, Ann Wagner 28, plus one vote for an ineligible write-in.

    UPDATE IX: He Who Never Linketh:

    Cino . . . happens to be Boehner’s pick and an establishment favorite. She’s also a Bush pal, so she should have no trouble getting big donors on the phone if she wins.

    He Who Never Linketh got burned by citing a Tweet from Dave Weigel that had Steele denying he would drop out, right before Steele did, in fact, drop out. The fifth ballot voting is over. We’ll have the tally in a moment.

    UPDATE VIII: Steele endorses Cino — rhymes with RINO. The battle will get ugly now.

    UPDATE VII: STEELE DROPPING OUT! Fifth ballot voting is about to begin.

    UPDATE VI: Fourth ballot — Priebus 58, Steele 28, Wagner 28, Cino 29, Anuzis 24, and an ineligible write-in vote. The Steele drop-out rumor is still just a rumor. Lot of backroom meetings reported. But he’s losing support on each successive ballot, and unless he throws his support one way or the other, his support could become irrelevant, if Priebus keeps gaining steadily.

    UPDATE V: I just heard via Ali Akbar that incumbent chairman Michael Steele dropped out after the fourth ballot. Results of that vote in a minute.

    UPDATE IV: Nobody has dropped out yet. Fourth ballot is now under way.

    UPDATE III: The latest rumor is that Steele is meeting with Wagner, the Missouri state party chairman who has strong support from some leading Tea Party activists. If Steele drops out and can swing all of his support to Wagner, that would put Wagner ahead of Priebus and within 20 votes of clinching it.

    UPDATE II: Steele has reportedly called his supporters into a closed meeting, which may indicate that the chairman is ready to drop out and throw his support to one of his challengers.

    UPDATE: Third ballot — Priebus 54, Steele 33, Wagner 32, Cino 28, Anuzis 21. So Wagner and Priebus gained, while Steele, Cino and Anuzis are losing support. My source reports a rumor that Anuzis will drop out before the fourth ballot, but no word yet on who (if anyone) might get his support.

    ORIGINAL POST 3:03 p.m. ET
    Second ballot count: Reince Priebus 52, Michael Steele 37, Maria Cino 30, Ann Wagner 27, Saul Anuzis 22. More RNC news at Memeorandum. The third ballot was getting underway when I got this news.

    Only 85 votes are needed to win the chairmanship. Unless there is a powerful “Anybody But Priebus” sentiment among RNC delegates, it looks like the Wisconsin GOP chairman will lock it up soon.

    Category: Michael Steele, Republicans, Wisconsin

    ‘Tea Party Envy’ and the Academic Elite

    Posted on | January 14, 2011 | 4 Comments

    “We’ve long seen how tea party envy has been a common theme for the Obama era . . . and in [Harvard University history professor Jill] Lepore’s interview we see the lament that academic elites have failed to tap the tea party’s populist vibrancy. And so, when people and movements find themselves failing to be on the right side of history . . . they lash out. They attack and disparage. And they engage in libelous accusations that work to destroy any efforts at civil debate they purportedly claim to champion.”
    — Professor Donald Douglas, American Power, “Harvard’s Jill Lepore Ties Jared Loughner to Tea Party ‘Constitution Worship’ “


    Category: American Power, Arizona, Education, Tea Party
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