The Other McCain

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

New Year’s 2011 Resolution

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

I gotta get my crazy wingnut mojo back. Not only did I fail to get a Malkin Award nomination this year, but I failed to make it onto the Village Voice‘s list of “10 Best Rightblogger Rants of 2010.”

Professor Glenn Reynolds made both lists. When I’m getting out-wingnutted by a Yale Law graduate, obviously my mojo is MIA.

You should subscribe to the RSS feed, so you won’t miss any of the excitement in 2011: Year of the Wingnut!

Category: Blogging

Foreclosures Rising, Home Prices Slumping: Can You Say ‘Double-Dip’?

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 7 Comments

The stimulus that didn’t stimulate has now been exhausted, and all the gimmicks by which the Obama administration attempted to hide the economic catastrophe — remember “Recovery Summer“? — have failed to change the somber reality:

U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks’ efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.
The regulators said one reason for the increase in foreclosures is that banks have “exhausted” options for keeping many delinquent borrowers in their homes through programs such as loan modifications.
Newly initiated foreclosures increased to 382,000 in the third quarter, a 31.2 percent jump over the previous quarter and a 3.7 percent rise from a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in their quarterly mortgage report.

Meanwhile, even if you can still afford your mortgage, the value of your home is going down:

In October, Gary Shilling of A. Gary Shilling & Co., predicted that house prices would fall another 20%.
In the two months since, house prices have resumed their decline. . . .
[Shilling said:] “Who ventures into homeownership if he doesn’t know the size of his next paycheck or even if he’ll have one?
“Also, with almost a quarter of all homeowners with mortgages under water with their mortgage principals exceeding the value of their houses, many can’t sell their existing abodes even if they wanted to buy other houses.”

And 2010 was the worst year for bank failures since 1992:

So far this year, the 157 banks that failed had total assets of $92.1 billion compared to 140 bank failures with total assets of $169.7 billion in 2009. . . .
As of Sept. 30, when the FDIC released its last quarterly report, there were 860 banks on the agency’s “problem list.”
Since 2008, 322 banks have failed with combined assets of $633.7 billion and total cost to the FDIC of $79.5 billion.

If the housing market doesn’t recover, the construction business can’t recover and the only reason the financial industry is still holding up is because the Fed is pumping currency like there’s no tomorrow.

Alas, tomorrow eventually arrives. Consumer confidence is declining, and when the Daily Kos headline is “Economic experts see better year ahead,” am I the only one who sees this as a portent of doom? Wasn’t it the “economic experts” who got us into this mess?

Double-dip recession, here we come!

UPDATE: Linked by Donald Douglas at American Power.

Category: Economics

Christine O’Donnell’s Not a Witch, But They’re Gonna Burn Her Anyway

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 19 Comments

What to make of reports that former Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is under federal investigation for campaign finance violations? Her campaign manager Matt Moran is quoted by ABC News:

“The anonymous source seems politically-motivated and may well be tied to the ultra-liberal, George Soros-financed, former Sen. Biden staffer-run CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] complaint,” Moran said.
The left-leaning watchdog group filed complaints with the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office and Federal Election Commission in September alleging the Republican candidate misused campaign funds.
“These charges are already being addressed with the FEC,” he said. “We are confident that they will be resolved in the New Year, and put an end to the frivolous sensationalism regarding this matter.”

Moran’s got a point. The FEC usually handles campaign-finance investigations in a quiet manner and it is seldom much of a headline when the FEC imposes a fine. More importantly, nine times out of 10, violations are only really newsworthy when they involve the winner of an election. The American Spectator‘s Aaron Goldstein asks: “If O’Donnell is under federal investigation shouldn’t the FBI apprise O’Donnell before they tell the AP?”

The attempt to inflate this investigation into a big story — top of Memeorandum — via leaks prominently featuring anonymous Delaware Republicans most likely represents the state GOP’s desire to drive a stake through O’Donnell’s political heart. It’s spiteful and pathetic.

The Delaware Republican Party is a ridiculous joke, and state GOP chairman Tom Ross is the punchline. But O’Donnell does herself no good by responding with conspiracy-theory accusations.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl chews the Weekly Standard‘s John McCormack a new one and points out that Melanie Sloan of CREW has clear ties to Democrats.

As to Dan’s accusation that I was “link-whoring” with my disparagement of conspiracy-theory explanations: O’Donnell’s worst enemies have always been Tom Ross and the state GOP insiders. So for her to say that Democrats were the ones pushing the FEC investigation — and to make it sound like “Joe Biden’s out to get me” — sounds nutty.

That Democrats may be wanting to clear a path for Beau Biden to take over for Chris Coons in 2012, OK. That both Republicans and Democrats may therefore have motives to bury O’Donnell, OK. But for the candidate herself to be saying this stuff . . . well, it’s just too Nixonian.

Category: Christine O'Donnell, Delaware

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.30.10

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE – 12.30.10

TOP NEWS
Mayor Bloomberg Says 911 Fell Short

Mayor Bloomberg, Sanitation Commissioner Doherty

“This is the best sanitation commissioner this city has ever had. Period. Bar none,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

California Ends 2010 On Soggy Note
Rainfall finally ends

Danish Intelligence Foils Terror Plot Against Newspaper
Arrests follow Swedish attacks just two weeks ago



POLITICS
O’Donnell Slams Reported Federal Probe As “Phony”

Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell

Campaign manager Moran slams AP and CREW for use of anonymous sources, “false claims”

Posthumous Pardon For Billy The Kid?




States Prepare To Follow Arizona On Immigration Laws

Newark’s Mayor Deals With Storm, Critics: A One-Man Snowplow?



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Seventh Person Arrested In Insider Trading Probe
Snowstorms Postpone $1 Billion In Sales
Stocks Reach Two-Year High In Light Trading
Nintendo Warns 3D Games Could Ruin Kids’ Eyes
10 Problems With Smartphones And Tablets That Need To Go Away
Geinimi Malware Aims At Chinese Android Users



SPORTS
Brett Favre’s Penalty? Three Minutes’ Pay, Happy Retirement

Vikings QB fined for failure to cooperate

Analysis couldn’t prove Favre sexted pix of his junk to Sterger

Duke Downs UNC-Greenboro For Coach K’s 880th Win

Crosby’s Points Streak Ends At 25, Penguins Fall To Islanders


Friedgen Gets What He Deserves: Bowl Victory As Terps Finale

Illinois Ruins Baylor’s Return To Bowls, Wins Texas Bowl 38-14

Celtics Lose Garnett And The Game As Pistons Roll 104-92



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Snooki’s Hamster Ball Stunt Not Going Down In Times Square

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi

Apparently MTV kinda sorta forgot to clear their little stunt with the powers that be.

Nicole Richie Probation Ends Early

Candace Cameron Bure’s Battle With Bulimia

Isabelle Caro, Model In Anti-Anorexia Campaign, Dies, 28

Not So Fast: Demi Lovato Won’t Be In “The Avengers”



FOREIGNERS
Ivory Coast “On Edge Of Genocide”
U.S. Revokes Venezuelan Ambassador’s Visa After New Ambassador to Venezuela Rejected
Anti-assimilation Group’s Letter Sparks Controversy In Israel
Mexican Army’s Failures Hamper Drug War
Columbian Drug Lord Pedro Guerrero Dies In Raid



BLOGS & STUFF
Joanne Jacobs: The Wrong Lunchbox
Commentary: It’s FOX News Leading The Ratings, And It’s Not Even Close
Weasel Zippers; Kucinich Likely To Lose Seat As Ohio Drops Two House Seats In Redistricting
The Jawa Report: If Christians Were Treated Like Muslims
Jammie Wearing Fool: Outgoing Democratic Congressman – We’re Descending Into Fascism Or Something
Stanley Kurtz: Cathy Young Defends “No Labels”


— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

The Virtue of Virtue

Posted on | December 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

“Cripes, Dominic, I’ve never seen anything like it. Let me tell you something — if you want a good Catholic girl, that Mary is the one. She wouldn’t let me get anywhere with her.”

So said Da Tech Guy’s Uncle Sam, a real ladies’ man, in 1943 after he made a play for young Mary Quartarone– who married Sam’s brother Dominic in 1947 and became Da Mom.

Category: Da Tech Guy

22-Year-Old Maryland Woman Gets Naked in Convenience Store

Posted on | December 29, 2010 | 5 Comments

In front of the donut rack!

On 18 December 2010 at 8:56 AM, deputies from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Royal Farms store on Royalty way in Hebron, MD for a disorderly female inside the store. Information had been received from store employees that Jennifer Riegler had removed all of her clothing and was strolling naked through the store. Riegler allegedly was accosting both patrons and employees with sexually suggestive comments and behaviors prior to lying on the floor in front of the donut rack. . . .

Inside Charm City has a photo of the perp, who reminds me of Britney Spears — not in a good way.

When Britney went nuts, it was in all the tabloids. When regular people go nuts, it’s just an incident report for the cops.

Category: Crime, Maryland

Julian Assange, Libertarian ‘Reactionary’?

Posted on | December 29, 2010 | 12 Comments

Donald Douglas has another link-heavy roundup about the Julian Assange rape case, including a link to leftist blogger Bill Weinberg’s post called, “Enough with the Julian Assange hero worship”:

The most blatantly irritating thing is abject demonization of the women who have made the charges of sexual abuse against Assange. In any other context, the summary dismissal of a woman’s rape accusations would be seen as utterly politically incorrect. But Assange gets away with anti-feminist rhetoric that would do Rush Limbaugh proud.

See what he did there? Weinberg (who loves the anti-American aspect of WikiLeaks) does the Signifying Jive by comparing Assange to the hated Limbaugh. Weinberg also disses the suddenly unfashionable Naomi Wolf and otherwise puts himself on the side of the angels in the interminable “Was it rape-rape?” argument.

Tempting as it would be to engage Weinberg about the “abject demonization” of Assange’s accusers, however, my attention was instead riveted by what Weinberg calls “reactionary” statements Assange made in a Time magazine interview:

“The United States’ Founding Fathers took [Enlightenment principles] further and the federalism of the United States also, of relatively powerful states trying to constrain federal government from becoming too centralized. . . .
“But after World War II, the federal government of the United States started sucking the resources to the center, and the power of states started to diminish. Interestingly, the First Amendment started overriding states’ laws around that time, which I see as a function of increasing central power in the United States.”

Wow. Assange praising federalism, criticizing the centralization of power and even taking a shot at the so-called “incorporation doctrine”?

Has he been reading Lew Rockwell?

Has he been watching Glenn Beck?

Is there some kind of Rothbardian anarcho-libertarianism influence on Assange’s worldview? Will we next find Assange favorably citing General Lee’s prophecy to Lord Acton that “the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it”?

Does the SPLC know about this?

Meanwhile, CNN’s Jessica Yellin defends herself against Glenn Greenwald’s accusation that she is “leading the crusade against the transparency brought about by WikiLeaks.”

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


Category: American Power, WikiLeaks

Anatomy of an Online Hoax

Posted on | December 29, 2010 | 10 Comments

Peter Steiner long ago captured perfectly how the online world has abetted deceit: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

Brooks Baynes tells the story of a “a woman who went by the name Jo Von Hollenzollern,” formerly known as @femmepatriot on Twitter, who insinuated herself among online Tea Party activists and seems to have hoaxed a lot of people. Furthermore, Brooks suspects this same person may have since emerged under new aliases to perpetrate a new hoax.

People who engage in that kind of activity are destroying a precious commodity: Trust.

But as Reagan said, our policy should be “Trust but verify.” It appears that some people vouched for @femmepatriot based only on their online connnections and/or telephone conversations with someone they’d never met. Having these people vouch for her gave @femmepatriot an underserved credibility.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! As one of the commenters notes, we’re not 100% sure Professor Reynolds is human. There’s something vaguely Vulcan about him . . .


Category: Blogging
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin