"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
by Smitty
With the economy increasingly under water, you may need some alternate means of getting to work:
TOM has submitted a fresh application for some of that wonderful O-Dough, which we eagerly, expectantly, desperately await, to develop further this new technology for you, our readers. It’s all about you, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding.
Dan Riehl scored a huge scoop late Sunday night with a letter that Joe Miller’s lawyers sent to Alasksa’s lieutenant governor and the chief of the Division of Elections, regarding the activities of a Murkowski campaign operative on Election Day:
Murkowski observer Mike insisted that he had the right to access the Division of Elections computer database and “check voter records.” Over the Miller campaign’s objections, Mike was allowed to use the state computer for 20 minutes before Division Director Gail Fenumial fortunately ordered him off the state computer.
Shenanigans? Quite possibly, yet when the Miller campaign complains about this kind of stuff, Murkowski accuses them of being “paranoid.” That’s a point I address in my latest report at The American Spectator:
Of course, it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you, and Miller’s supporters already had solid reasons to suspect that Murkowski would stop at nothing to retain her Senate seat. Chief among these reasons was the fact that Anchorage political consultant Andrew Halcro placed a call first thing Wednesday morning to Scott Kohlhaas, chairman of the Alaska Libertarian Party. Halcro was asking whether the Libertarians would be open to having Murkowski replace their Senate nominee, Dave Haase. Halcro is a former Republican state legislator best known for his boundless hatred of Sarah Palin. After Palin won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2006, Halcro waged a third-party campaign aimed principally at attacking the Republican and earned him the nickname Mr. Nine Percent, that being his share of the vote. Since being chosen as John McCain’s running mate two years ago, of course, Palin has become world-famous and Halcro’s bitterness toward her has only increased.
It was Palin’s early endorsement of Joe Miller that was widely credited with launching the underdog to victory, and thus the intrusion of ex-Republican Halcro into the post-primary phase of the Senate campaign is scarcely surprising. Certainly Miller’s supporters could be forgiven for wondering if Halcro would be reaching out to the Libertarians on Murkowski’s behalf without the senator’s permission, especially after he disclosed to the Anchorage Daily News that he had spoken by phone with Murkowski. . . .
Please read the whole thing. Trying to summarize six days of craziness in 1,000 words proved to be enormously challenging, perhaps as difficult as replacing the valve head on a 2004 KIA Optima:
That’s my 17-year-old son Jim working on the car Sunday. He and our buddy Carlos expect to have it running tomorrow evening.
Let me be clear: I am not blaming shady Murkowski campaign operatives for this expensive repair, but who knows what other shenanigans will be afoot by the time I make it to Anchorage?
PREVIOUSLY:
“So, you guys, I wrote an essay at The Daily Beast – do you all know that I write there? I totally do – that was the bomb when my snuggly lion of the Senate, TEd Kennedy, died. I’m a Progressive Republican so I’m above all that icky partisan stuff. And I’m super cool and hip and a true individual – and all my friends who invite me to their parties say that Ted Kennedy was awesome.”
That’s just one excerpt from the “lost” chapters that Lori Ziganto and Jenn Q. Public say didn’t make it into the final edition of Meghan McCain’s Dirty Sexy Politics.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.
And Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
by Smitty (h/t Rhiel World View)
I just don’t see the value in belittling the President over a still shot. Or non-grasp of basic athletic skills. Granted, it’s been tradition at least since Chevy Chase used to go after Gerald Ford on SNL. I remember reading that Ford used to have a sense of humor about it. But commencing with W., the personal ad hominem seems to have gone beyond the dozens and into the realm of propaganda.
If you have a video clip of BHO demonstrating a non-grasp of depth perception, fine. But ‘less is more’ when it comes to this sort of thing. The ‘Boooosh is an idiot’ line was equally tiresome, recall.
Did you notice the country is in a financial crisis? Let’s collaborate on holding the GOP feet to the fire:
[DeMint] warns: “This may be our last chance with voters, because if we’re given the majority . . . and don’t reform Washington, everybody is going to say, ‘What’s wrong with these guys? We need a third party.’”
by Smitty
Modern sophists don’t believe in any sort of absolute truth. This makes conversation challenging, as they will frequently attack the definitions of terms in lieu of dealing with reality. I call this Orwellian language use the Progressive Inverted Tongue, and I doubt not from which PIT it emerges.
Two fine examples came through the Reader recently:
Stogie publishes a Global Warming lexicon that will help you understand the twists and turns of a conversation on how science, too can become corrupt.
The Lonely Conservative features Star Parker in a trailer for ‘I Want Your Money’ discussing the Welfare State, and offering a personal account of how welfare achieves the opposite of what it sets out to do.
PIT is a shorter, more general version of Opposite Words, from the mighty House of Eratosthenes. We’ll see if the term meets Morgan’s approval.
“The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers. And engineering is an ‘up or out’ profession: you either move up the ladder or face unemployment.”
This is true in many other professions, notoriously including sales. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman was, after all, a story about a salesman who had grown too old for what is really a young man’s game. If you don’t become an executive — e.g., vice-president of sales — it’s not likely you’re going to reach retirement age doing the same job you were doing when you were 25.
From the standpoint of economics, seniority has no intrinsic value. Indeed, there are many professions in which mere experience is less valuable than the superior energy and adaptability of youth. It was therefore a foolish thing for labor unions, at their height of their power in the mid-20th century, to insist on the “last-hired, first-fired” principle of seniority which protected older workers, per se, at the expense of efficiency.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and if you think you can get ahead without improving your skills — constantly hustling to stay ahead of younger competitors in the work force — you’re at risk of becoming obsolete.
Excuse me if there’s no time to extend this into a full-blown essay. I’m still working as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life. Lots of the people I once worked with in the news business are now in some other line of work.
Me? I’ve got a deadline for tomorrow’s American Spectator.
by Smitty
Rule 5 has always celebrated beauty and honor, and honors the outgoing Miss Venezuela, Stefania Fernandez, who handily crushed a tyrant with a flag, lighting up the following blogs with a bolt of Pure Awesome:
In this conceptual re-enactment, a white-haired Stefania Fernandez confronts and vanquishes the evil Chavez: Continue reading Rule 5 Sunday →
Sources in Anchorage inform me that the five-member executive board of the Alaska Libertarian Party will convene in an emergency meeting today to discuss efforts by Lisa Murkowski’s supporters to secure the LP nomination for the Republican senator should she fail to overturn Joe Miller’s 1,668-vote margin in the GOP primary.
Meanwhile, about 5 a.m. ET today, Joe Miller sent a Tweet linking to this story by Sean Cockerham in the Anchorage Daily News:
Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said in an e-mail Saturday that there are many calls going out to Alaskans who voted absentee ballots, asking them who they voted for in the primary. . . .
“I believe, and time will prove it, (the calls) are being done for nefarious purposes,” DeSoto said in the e-mail. “It is definitely not being done by the Joe Miller campaign. It is being done, I believe, by the National Republican Senatorial Committee or someone they contracted with as the beginning of a legal battle to throw out ballots.”
It is public information who requests absentee ballots. Both the Murkowski campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign on Saturday denied making calls to absentee voters.
Yeah, of course they’d deny it. Just like they’d deny harrassing Joe Miller’s volunteers. But there’s more from the ADN story:
NRSC Communications Director Brian Walsh . . . said the single NRSC lawyer sent to Alaska to assist Murkowski with the ballot count, Sean Cairncross, returned to Washington, D.C., on Saturday after 72 hours in the state. “This has been much ado about nothing,” he said.
Wait a minute: How much of its donors’ money did the NRSC spend to send its top lawyer to Alaska for three days? Because I’m planning my own trip to Alaska, I know that flights to Alaska can be very expensive. A short-notice booking for a three-day trip? And I’m betting the NRSC lawyer didn’t fly coach class, either.
UPDATE: Democratic polling firm PPP:
In a three way contest with Murkowski running as the Libertarian candidate Miller leads but with only 38% to 34% for Murkowski and 22% for McAdams.
See, this is how the Palin-hater Andrew Halcro (who is behind the Lisa-for-LP talk) helps out Murkowski, the NRSC and — not coincidentally — Democrats.
Encouraging hope of a Murkowski third-party bid (“She’s still in it! She’s fighting for you!”) prevents Murkowski’s supports from coming to grips with the reality of her defeat, and thus delays efforts by Miller to unite the GOP base and reach out to independent voters. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Murkowski’s people are talking to McAdams about letting her have the Democratic nomination.
As for Andrew Halcro’s scheme, remember that the No. 2 official in the Alaska LP said it’s “99% . . . no way” that the Libertarians would take Murkowski.
UPDATE III: The Alaska LP executive committee meeting lasted more than two hours, but the committee members were sworn to secrecy about the result. A press conference is scheduled Monday in Anchorage — I’ll update with details later — and Alaska LP chairman Scott Kohlhaas could be making an appearance on Fox News.
Meanwhile, Dan Riehl’s Republican sources say that the NRSC is up to shenanigans on Murkowski’s behalf and adds:
Murkowski could still win this election legitimately. But, if she wins it any other way, and especially if the NRSC helps her do it, the DC GOP’s house is going to start burning down before they even gain control of the one on the Hill.