The Other McCain

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

When Bunnies Go Bad: 1968 Playmate of the Year Faces Prison for Shooting

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 25 Comments

She was known as Angela Dorian, but her real name was Victoria Vetri and she was what you’d call a starlet. Beginning at age 19, she appeared in a number of small roles on TV series — Cheyenne, Wagon Train, McHale’s Navy, Bonanza, Perry Mason, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — prior to becoming the 1967 Miss September in Playboy magazine. She was subsequently named 1968 Playmate of the Year.

After her Playboy appeareance, she had a part in Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and also appeared in other TV series, including Hogan’s Heroes, Star Trek and Batman. Her biggest part, it seems, was in the genuinely wretched 1970 movie When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, where the director apparently contrived to have Vetri as naked as possible as often as possible. Here is a video clip from that movie, parts of which are NSFW and all of which is incredibly stupid:

As bad as that was, it was nonetheless the pinnacle of Vetri’s acting career. Her last film credit was in an unspeakably bad 1973 movie called Invasion of the Bee Girls. But she resurfaced in October when, at age 68 and now known as Victoria Rathgeb, she was arrested and charged with attempted murder after shooting her husband, Bruce Rathgeb:

68-year-old Angela Dorian is still in custody for attempting to murder her husband Bruce after an intense argument in their Hollywood apartment on October 16. Bruce tells us . . . he had packed up his stuff and was heading for the elevator when she opened fire from behind.
Bruce tells us, “When she shot me, she walked away with no emotion … she didn’t give a s**t.”
Bruce . . . explains, “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this … I loved her for nearly 25 years.”
He adds, “A divorce would have been sufficient, not a bullet.”

Bruce Rathgeb developed an infection and was rushed to the hospital today. Meanwhile, TMZ reports today that the gun Victoria allegedly used to shoot her husband was a .380 Walther PPK which had been given to her by Roman Polanski. Read more

Category: Celebrities, Crime, Rule 5

Steele to Step Aside at RNC
UPDATE: New Report Says Steele Will Seek Another Term as RNC Chair

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 11 Comments

UPDATE 5:38 p.m.: Guess somebody guessed wrong:

Controversial Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who last month presided over the GOP’s biggest electoral gains since 1938, will announce tonight that he is running for re-election, Fox News has learned from two RNC members.
Ending weeks of rumors that he would not seek a second term, Steele plans to throw his hat into the ring during a conference call with RNC members at 7:30 p.m. ET, the sources said. Steele is said to be amused by false reports of his retirement and intentionally kept his plans secret for the last month in order to flush out competitors for the post, Fox has learned.

PREVIOUSLY: Creating an open contest for the chairmanship:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is expected to announce he will drop out of the highly contested race to keep his post, multiple RNC sources told FoxNews.com on Sunday. . . .
Critics have described the chairman as gaffe-prone and said he hasn’t raised enough money. The criticism has resulted in an array of challenges for Steele’s job from Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus, former RNC Co-Chairwoman Ann Wagner, longtime Republican official Maria Cino, former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis and former RNC Political Director Gentry Collins.

Via Memeorandum.

Category: Michael Steele, Republicans

Federal District Judge in Virginia Strikes Down Part of ObamaCare

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 5 Comments

Perhaps the first step toward repeal:

A federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a key provision of the nation’s sweeping health-care overhaul is unconstitutional, the most significant legal setback so far for President Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson found that Congress could not order individuals to buy health insurance.
In a 42-page opinion, Hudson said the provision of the law that requires most individuals to get insurance or pay a fine by 2014 is an unprecedented expansion of federal power that cannot be supported by Congress’s power to regulate interstate trade.

Without the indvidual mandate, the projected “savings” calculations don’t work, and so you might as well repeal the whole damn thing. Big first-round win for Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli (who is my favorite GOP candidate to challenge Jim Webb in 2012, FWIW).

The Virginia decision will be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, of course. More at Ace of Spades HQ, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Instapundit and Memeorandum.

Category: Health Care, Virginia

Maria Cino Unacceptable at RNC

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 3 Comments

After the news today that Michael Steele will step aside as RNC chairman, a friend called to warn me about Maria Cino, the GOP Establishment’s choice to replace Steele. My friend says Cino has ties to pro-abortion groups. Dan Riehl has documented Cino’s other problems:

Her lobbying for Obamacare on behalf of Pfizer and a $1,000 donation to Mike Castle during Delaware’s contentious GOP primary may prove to be deal breakers for members of the GOP grassroots . . .

Read the whole thing. BTW, does “Cino” rhyme with “RINO”?

Category: Republicans

Brittany Smith Found Alive, Police Say Jeffrey Scott Easley ‘Very Good Suspect’ in Death of 12-Year Old Girl’s Mother

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 4 Comments

Let’s begin at the beginning:

She was 41. He was 32.
They flirted over the Internet. He sent online kisses and declared her “hot.” She thanked him for his patience with her.
Jeff Easley moved into Tina Smith’s house . . . a few months ago, a neighbor said.
Their love story dissolved [Dec. 6] with a terrible discovery. A co-worker found Tina Smith slain in her home . . . Her 12-year-old daughter, Brittany Mae Smith, was gone, presumed abducted by Easley and “in extreme danger,” according to a state police Amber Alert.
Mother and daughter were last seen alive [Dec. 3], police said.

The lonely single mother meets the online boyfriend, and doesn’t spot the warning signs:

One neighbor said she’d seen Easley with Brittany, and it made her uneasy.
“This guy gives me the creeps,” said Roxann Pille. “Just the way he touches her, just the way he looks at her, gives me a very uneasy feeling.”
Easley’s MySpace page . . . pictures him with Brittany. Both are grinning broadly.
Brittany’s MySpace page lists her age as 18. Her MySpace and Facebook pages use the last name Easley.
Brittany is a seventh-grader at Glenvar Middle School.

There were other clues:

Brittany, her mother and Easley were active users of Facebook and MySpace, commenting on one another’s postings and noting the ups and downs of life almost every day to their circle of online friends. . . .
Tina Smith’s Facebook had this ominous message the day she died:
“God please protect us from the evils of this world.”
The next day, Easley’s MySpace status was updated, saying, “Got a lot on my mind.”
One of Brittany’s friends, Nicki Mullins, said Brittany didn’t feel comfortable around Easley. Another said she was scared of him. . . .
Brittany’s grandmother, Liz Dyer, wouldn’t discuss what she thought of Easley when she met him at Thanksgiving dinner. Ask social services, she told a reporter.
“They know what I think of him,” she said before hanging up abruptly.

A seventh-grade girl’s mother was killed, presumably by the man who abducted the girl and took her to California, where Brittany was found alive after a five-day national manhunt:

Virginia police detectives talked Sunday for the first time with a 12-year-old Virginia girl and the man who allegedly kidnapped her and has been deemed a prime suspect in her mother’s death.
Roanoke County police Detective John McPhail said that Sunday morning he and three colleagues discussed the death of 41-year-old Tina Smith with Jeffrey Scott Easley, currently in police custody in San Francisco, California, on warrants for abduction, credit card theft and credit card fraud.
While police are investigating Tina Smith’s death as a homicide, they have not said how she died.
They also talked with Brittany Mae Smith, Tina’s daughter, who police had been searching for since Monday. McPhail said the girl “will be heading back to Roanoke soon,” but did not disclose when exactly that might happen. . . .
Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder said Saturday that Easley is a “very good suspect” in the death of Tina Smith — his girlfriend and Brittany’s mother — who was found dead inside her Salem, Virginia, home last Monday.

Tina Smith and her daughter were evidently victims of one vicious man, but they were also victims of a trend. I’ve often said that the most dangerous man in the world is “mom’s boyfriend.” This is a fact abundantly evident from research. The epidemic of divorce and out-of-wedlock births has exponentially increased the risk to children, especially girls. Read more

Category: Crime, Family, Marriage, Virginia

Big Ugly Deal Faces Senate Vote

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 8 Comments

Generally speaking, “widespread support” is D.C. code for “loaded up with enough pork and welfare giveaways that a majority will hold their noses and vote for it.” Which is the basic story of the tax compromise:

Senators get their first chance Monday to vote on the tax-cut deal struck by President Barack Obama and Republicans in a test vote that is expected to get widespread support. . . .
The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said a “good cross-section” of senators in his party are ready to accept the deal.
Monday’s vote is expected to lead to passage in the Senate Tuesday or Wednesday. The bill would then go to the House.
The legislation would avert a Jan. 1 increase in income taxes for nearly all Americans, including middle and high earners. The package also would renew a program of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and put in place a one-year cut in Social Security taxes.
“Everybody understands what it would mean for the economy if we don’t get this done,” Obama adviser David Axelrod said. . . .
While many House Democrats have criticized the tax deal, Axelrod said he didn’t foresee “major changes” being made by the House.

The road to Hell is paved with bipartisanship.

Category: Economics, Senate, Taxes

The ‘Ick Factor’

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 18 Comments

“In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators.”
— William F. Buckley Jr., Up From Liberalism (1959)

Da Tech Guy blogs about the intellectual hand-wringing over “consensual adult” incest, a discussion provoked by the Epstein case. He helpfully links John Nolte’s comment on how “the idea is to get decent and thoughtful people to start second guessing themselves” about basic moral values. Sowing doubt is one of the easiest things in the world, especially in a society where young people are “carefully taught” (again, borrowing that Rodgers and Hammerstein lyric) that Progress and Science must inevitably disprove all traditional beliefs.  Read more

Category: American Spectator, Culture, Da Tech Guy, Sex

Espionage or Journalism?

Posted on | December 13, 2010 | 4 Comments

“There’s a huge difference between an individual or an organization reporting abuses in government or business one at a time and the same people stealing enough classified material to run a spy agency. But sleazy Julian Assange and his spy agency WikiLeaks are trying to pretend they are journalists. He even calls himself ‘editor-in-chief,’ sort of like Mata Hari calling herself H.L. Mencken or the Rosenbergs claiming to be Woodward and Bernstein.”
— Dan Gainor, “Media Can’t Decide Whether Espionage is Journalism”

Category: WikiLeaks
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