Global Warming Update

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Got about three inches of snow last night at my house on the west slope of South Mountain in Washington County, Maryland. But the climate-change scaremongers say that’s weather, not climate, like we’re too dumb to know the difference. Brendan O’Neill:

Anyone with a shred of self-respect who had predicted The End Of Snow would surely now admit that he was wrong. But no. Perhaps the most revealing thing about the snow crisis is that it was held up as evidence, not that the experts were mistaken, but that the public is stupid.

(Via Instapundit.) Meanwhile, here’s a good reason to welcome global warming. Just a little bit warmer . . .

‘When You Remove A Cancer, What Do You Replace It With?’

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by Smitty

That was Thomas Sowell’s answer to Peter Schiff Robinson [oops!], in response to the demand for a follow-on to the Federal Reserve.
If you’ve read End The Fed, and you should, you’ll enjoy hearing Prof. Sowell, an academic actually worthy of your respect, state simply that the Federal Reserve simply ain’t packin’ the gear and should be abolished.
Go, Sowell!

4 Dems Vote to Repeal ObamaCare?

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Kinda. It was a procedural vote:

[T]he new Republican-led House took a first step Friday toward a symbolic vote to repeal his landmark health care overhaul law, which would provide coverage to more than 30 million Americans without health insurance.
But the 236-181 largely party-line vote is unlikely to amount to more than a political message, since Democrats who still run the Senate have promised to block efforts to scrap the law and Obama has veto power. . . .
The House action set the rules for a debate next week that will culminate in a simple for-or-against vote on repeal, scheduled for Wednesday.

That’s from an Associated Press story that’s so busy trying to tell you What To Think that they barely tell you What Actually Happened.

More from The Lonely Conservative and Gateway Pundit.

Like I said this morning, it’s important that Republicans force a vote on this issue so that “moderate” Democrats can’t hide.

Make Democrats the ObamaCare Party. The American people hate ObamaCare. Because the American people are raaaaacist!

Best. Republican. Scandal. EVAH!
UPDATE: Is ‘Lurid’ Photo a Hoax?

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The Party of Faith, Family and Freedom — and Famous Congresswomen Getting Their Breasts Licked by Disgraced Bankrupt Ex-Billionaires Reportedly Under Federal Investigation.

Left Coast Rebel is among the bloggers commenting on this story. I’m thinking maybe Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Larry Craig, Mark Sanford, David Vitter and Mark Foley should form a new 527 organization, perhaps with G. Gordon Liddy as their honorary chairman:

Republicans for Reform
Bring Back the Good Old Days
When GOP Scandals Were
Slightly Less Embarrassing

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE II: In the comments, some readers raise the related questions (a) is this a PhotoShop? and/or (b) does the “exclusive . . . lurid photo” posted by Radar Online actually show what it claims to show?

While I don’t want to turn this into a full-on RatherGate-style photo-fisking, one commenter who suspects fakery writes: “If you really *look* at it, Mary is leaning back, and the other woman is at least a foot closer to the camera and sticking her tongue out at somebody out of frame.”

There’s definitely something odd about the lighting/perspective of the photo. And here’s Radar’s description of what it claims to show:

In a scandal set to rock Capitol Hill, RadarOnline.com has learned the image was taken at an out-of-control event four-years-ago, at Blixseth’s $75 million Porcupine Creek estate in Rancho Mirage, California.
With her head thrown back, Bono’s plunging bra is exposed as Blixseth — who now dates Dallas actor Jack Scalia after splitting from her husband Tim in 2008 — is seen diving into the politician’s cleavage with her tongue out.
“Mary was partying hard,” one source, who was at the event, told RadarOnline.com. “She was blitzed and clearly having a great time.”

This description is not, however, proven by the photo. Bono appears to be sitting on a sofa, engaged in conversation with someone seated to her left. What is described as a “plunging bra” actually looks more like a swimsuit. Was this taken at a pool party? Was Bono wearing a brown sundress over a black swimsuit? So as evidence that Bono was “partying hard” or “blitzed,” this photo just doesn’t work.

Darn it.

Mary Bono was one of the “Cap-and-Trade 8” House Republicans who voted for that job-killing Waxman-Markey bill, so I’d have no problem with her resigning from Congress. But other than getting a $1,500 contribution from Blixseth and having her on the campaign’s fund-raising committee, this scandal seems a tad overblown.

Another point: Blixseth is the one reportedly under FBI investigation, not Bono. Lots of people give money to political campaign and, while it may be embarrassing when a contributor is caught in shenanigans, this does not automatically implicate the recipient of the donation in whatever it was the contributor did wrong. See my recent American Spectator column, “The Scandal of Being Republican.”

UPDATE II: Linked by Threedonia, Uncoverage and Little Miss Atilla — thanks!

UPDATE III: Guest-blogging at Michelle Malkin’s site, Doug Powers offers a good example of how the foreground/background photo illusion works.

The Blog Post in Which I, Stacy McCain, Defend Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller

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You never expected this day would come and, frankly, neither did I. But Mary Katharine Ham just Tweeted this:

BREAKING: DailyCaller gets story tip, looks into it, decides not to publish. http://bit.ly/ihrWnr Escandalo de hermanos de Koch!

That shortlink is to a Salon story in which Alex Pareene tries to gin up a scandal story based on reports that the Daily Caller tried to . . . uh, gin up a scandal story.

It’s what you’d call a “long run for a short slide,” so I’ll summarize it: Jane Mayer of The New Yorker wrote a story about the Koch brothers’ funding of various free-market operations that have supported the Tea Party movement. Someone sent a tip to Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller claiming that Mayer had committed plagiarism. He spent a week investigating the allegation, which didn’t pan out. End of story.

That is to say, it would be the end of the story, except that Pareene tries to turn it into something sinister:

According to a knowledgeable source, Tucker Carlson was heard saying that the reason the story needed to go up this week, specifically on Monday or Tuesday, was because the National Magazine Awards submission deadline was on Thursday. Apparently, Carlson wanted to throw the New Yorker into enough of a panic that they wouldn’t submit the Koch story for an Ellie.
If this is true, the Caller story looks a lot more like a political smear campaign than “traditional” reporting.

Whoever Pareene’s “knowledgeable source” is, Tucker Carlson needs to hunt them down and beat them to a bloody pulp. The editorial decision-making process of a news organization is proprietary information.

What you publish is what you publish, and nobody outside the newsroom should ever learn what goes on behind the scenes — the sausage-making process of journalism, as it were — except when the boss decides to make it public. If you’re going to go blabbing newsroom secrets in such a way as to expose your employer to ridicule, you are the lowest form of scum on earth.

Staffers who go telling tales about whose story got spiked, et cetera, are working against the organization that pays their salaries, and such treacherous insubordination cannot be tolerated or it will destroy newsroom morale.

If you’re gonna work for Tucker Carlson, you had best by God be working for Tucker Carlson.

UPDATE: Let me explain a bit about how stories sometimes don’t pan out. In the newspaper business, you get used to dealing with The Nut in the Lobby — somebody who walks in with a crazy story they expect the newspaper to investigate. Some of these people are mentally ill, and some are just “concerned citizen” types. But all of them have seen a few too many TV dramas where “investigative journalists” are portrayed as superhero crusaders for justice. Continue reading The Blog Post in Which I, Stacy McCain, Defend Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller →

BREAKING: Bomb Scare in D.C.
UPDATE: Napolitano Was Target

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This is beginning to annoy me:

At least one package has ignited at a D.C. postal facility, D.C. Police tell WTOP.
Police say one or two packages ignited at a facility in the 3300 block of V Street in Northeast shortly after around 2:45 p.m. Friday.

If this is the same dude that sent yesterday’s incendiary packages in Maryland — allegedly because of road signs — I hereby dub him The Douchebag Bomber, because he keeps interrupting me while I’m working on important stories. And when I get annoyed, I start making jokes on Twitter:

UPDATE: Ed O’Keefe at The Washington Post is liveblogging the developments.

UPDATE II: The package was reportedly addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. What kind of sick freak would want Napolitano to see his package? I guarantee you, criminal profilers at FBI headquarters are now telling their investigators: “Be on the lookout for a ginormous douchebag.”

UPDATE III: Video from Associated Press:

Full story from the Washington Post:

A package addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited in a District postal facility Friday, authorities said, a day after two similar parcels containing low-grade incendiary devices flashed in Maryland government buildings. . . .
The incendiary parcel confirmed fears that Thursday’s packages in Maryland were not the only ones in the mail and gave heightened urgency to an already large investigation involving myriad local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

The perpetrator is obviously not an actual terrorist: Real terrorists would never target Janet Incompetano. She’s their only hope!

My Adorable 8-Year-Old Daughter Just Thanked Me for a Turkey Sandwich

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Turkey and cheese on a croissant, to be more specific. It happened that Reagan and I were the only ones at home at lunchtime today, so when I went up to the kitchen to pour myself another cup of coffee, she came to me and said, “Dad, could you please fix me some lunch?”

Sure, I said, and she answered, “Thanks! You’re the best Dad ever!”

Perhaps you’re a parent and you’re saying to yourself, “My children have never thanked me for a turkey sandwich. What’s this McCain guy’s secret?”

Two words: Continue reading My Adorable 8-Year-Old Daughter Just Thanked Me for a Turkey Sandwich →