Democrats Use Stevens Tragedy to Wish Death on Palin

It's pretty awful, but no surprise whatsoever. Full post at Conservatives for Palin:

This is just a small sampling of the sort of hatred that the left and the Democrats dished out towards Governor Palin and her family in response to the nation losing one of it's most well-known senators. It is to their shame that nobody on their side has displayed the sort of leadership it would take to get that kind of hatred under control within their ranks. I do believe they are spiraling into a very dark place because nobody told them to STOP! Knock it off! No, nobody on their side calls them out at all. It is accepted behavior therefore they have allowed that hate to fester and grow.

This is who these people are. These are not marginal freaks. This is the mainstream of the Democratic Party. I report this stuff all the time.

Blogging in Retreat

Perhaps. See the analysis at "Take This Blog and Shove It!":

Tech writers continue to tout social media as a transformative phenomenon in its infancy. That’s certainly true for such sites as Facebook, which boasts more than 500 million active users, or Flickr, which hosts some 4 billion photos. YouTube also shows no sign of slowing down. But those sites offer clear benefits to users, including the ability to easily stay in touch with friends, indulge in a game of Mob Wars, share baby pictures, or watch videos of fashion models falling down, in exchange for their time and efforts.

Many other elements of the user-generated revolution, meanwhile, are beginning to look sluggish. The practice of crowd sourcing, in particular, worked because the early Web inspired a kind of collective fever, one that made the slog of writing encyclopedia entries feel new, cool, fun. But with three out of four American households online, contributions to the hive mind can seem a bit passé, and Web participation, well, boring—kind of like writing encyclopedia entries for free.

Evidence of this ennui is everywhere. Amateur blogs, the original embodiment of Web democracy, are showing signs of decline. While professional bloggers are “a rising class,” according to Technorati, hobbyists are in retreat, and about 95 percent of blogs are launched and quickly abandoned. A recent Pew study found that blogging has withered as a pastime, with the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who identify themselves as bloggers declining by half between 2006 and 2009. A shift to Twitter—or microblogging, as it’s called—partly accounts for these numbers. But while Twitter carries more than 50 million tweets per day, its army of keystrokers may not be as large as it seems. As many as 90 percent of tweets come from 10 percent of users, according to a 2009 Harvard study. The others are primarily “lurkers”—people who don’t contribute but track the postings of others. Between 60 and 70 percent of people who sign up for the 140-character platform quit within a month, according to a recent Nielsen report.

Citizen journalism also has stabilized. Fewer than one in 10 Web users say they have created their own original news or opinion piece, according to Pew, and comment sections on blogs or mainstream media sites, which were supposed to turn the old one-way media model into a two-way street, are often too profane, hateful, or off-point to attract people. Only one in four Web users has left a comment—probably no more than wrote letters to the editor in decades past, says Brian Thornton, a University of North Florida professor who has studied the history of the letters page.

Image Credit: Doc Weasel. (NSFW)

JetBlue Attendant 'Banging His Boyfriend When the Cops Showed Up'

This guy's getting a cheery write-up in People Magazine, "In His Own Words: JetBlue Flight Attendant Steven Slater's 20 Year-Career." And local news reports say he's out on bail, "Fed-Up Flight Attendant is Out of Jail." And Towleroad has the background, "JetBlue Flight Attendant Steven Slater Held on $2500 Bail."

But it's far left-wing Gawker that picks up on the oft-missed angle, "Cranky Flight Attendant Was Banging His Boyfriend When the Cops Showed Up":

Yesterday we heard how the disgruntled flight attendant's altercation with a passenger (which was related to a suitcase and/or overhead bin bonking Slater on the head) culminated in him announcing over the plane intercom, "To the fucking asshole who told me to fuck off, it's been a good 28 years. I've had it. That's it," then grabbed two beers from the galley, activated the jet's inflatable slide, and bolted off the job. The content of Slater's rant remains in dispute: Some say he called the passenger a "motherfucker" instead of an "asshole," and others dispute who told whom to "fuck off." (And although he seemed to suggest he'd been working as a flight attendant for 28 years, he started working for the airlines 20 years ago.)

Either way, the word "fuck" occurred twice, and the act of fucking occurred once: As soon as the surly steward arrived at his beachfront home in the Rockaways, he jumped into bed with his boyfriend, and was mid-coitus when the police arrived to arrest him for reckless endangerment and trespassing. The New York Daily News reports the scene of the arrest:

He boasted to skeptical cops that he really did escape by chute with his carry-on luggage.

"Oh, yes, I did! I threw them down first and I went down after," he told cops, sources said.

He was grinning as police walked him in handcuffs to a squad car. "He left with a big smile on his face," said neighbor Curt Karkowski.

The New York Post adds that Slater told authorities he was HIV-positive. During his arrest Slater was photographed in a sage green t-shirt and madras shorts. Many outlets have noted that Slater's MySpace profile (which we raided yesterday) testifies to a history of "alcoholism and substance abuse." Did a life crisis predicate the haughty high-flier's mid-tarmac meltdown? ...

More details at the link.

Actually, seems like a nice guy. But I can't help thinking of the gay hookup culture, reported last night. (And while gays are in the spotlight with the Prop 8 ruling, out in the real world it's like they're showing up for a job interview drunk and cursing. Those applications get thrown in the trash.) And if you missed it, you might need a drink while you're reading Out Magazine's, "Has Manhunt Destroyed Gay Culture?"

Manhunt is rarely mentioned in newspapers or magazines. Occasionally it shows up in stories about public-health crises (of which more later). A little more often, reporters discover the Manhunt profiles of public figures, who are subsequently embarrassed, or worse. The mayor of Spokane, Wash., and the chairman of the school board in Richmond, Va., for instance, both lost their office after their Manhunt profiles were made public. Last year, a 24-year veteran of the Norwalk, Conn., police department was arrested for having sex with two 15-year-old boys and trying to arrange to meet a third -- all of whom he found on Manhunt. Nude pictures from profiles reputed to belong to Thomas Roberts, the former CNN anchor, and American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, were circulated on blogs and mentioned in gossip columns. And yet Manhunt members still seem to think they can get away with anything there: The profile of one of the world’s most powerful entertainment executives includes full-length naked photos of him, clearly showing his face, having sex with another man. Another famous master of industry advertises on Manhunt as a hung top, with a headless version of a widely published portrait of himself. God only knows how many more ticking time bombs lie among the profiles.

But the most powerful secrets that live on Manhunt aren’t the ones we keep from the outside world. The most powerful secrets on Manhunt are the ones we keep from ourselves. Practically every gay man has his own version of this secret, which we learned to keep while growing up in the closet: the secret fear that, if we were truly known, we would never be loved.

And speaking of the gay hookup scene, I guess TBogg's felicitous readers are on the inside (with respect to Greg Gutfeld's Muslim gay bar initiative):

Closeted homocons won’t go there because there are too many people around with cell phone cameras, and in general gay bars have been closing across the nation, including in NYC, because it’s easier to hook up online. On the plus side, that means Greggie & “friends” will be throwing their money away.

It's always something kinky at freaknozzle TBogg's.

RELATED: See Heather Robinson, "I Was an Eyewitness to Flight Attendant Steven Slater's Rant on Jet Blue #1052." (Via Memeorandum.)

Leftists Smear Andrew Breitbart With Goat Bestiality Video

At King Charles' Twitter page, "Breaking: Video Surfaces of Breitbart in Compromising Position with Goat":

I guess this is a variation on the "goat-f**king Republican" smear, at Daily Kos:

Andrew Breitbart is a scare mongering lying fuck, but he is an effective scare mongering lying fuck. Now if you all think this latest controversy about Andrew and Fox News is going to change what these folks do you are crazy. Standing up and calling them liars is not going to stop them or stop them from being effective. These folks play on the emotions of people. The emotion of fear, and they are good at it. Our side needs to remember that the truth and facts do not win you the hearts and minds of people, it is irrational emotional arguments that rule the day. We need to stir up our own shit and rile up people and cause all sorts of crazy to happen...

Or we need to stop rising up and getting all pissed at these morons and just marginalize them and stop taking anything they say seriously. We need our leaders to just ignore Fox News, no need to announce they are doing it, just do it. Ignore them, don't answer their questions, don't go on their shows, don't even send them press releases. Just stop dealing with them.

Next, choose one right wing nut as your enemy. Every good guy needs an enemy so choose one and fight with him and ignore the rest ...

Also, "Out-Of-Context Snippet Makes Andrew Breitbart."

Patricia Neal in 'The Fountainhead'

Patricia Neal died Sunday at her home in Martha's Vineyard. She was from my parents' era, but "The Fountainhead" is a classic for the ages, and I do believe I enjoyed that book more than "Atlas Shrugged."

LAT has the obit, "Patricia Neal dies at 84." She had a difficult life.

Portia de Rossi Takes Her Hus — , Er, Wife's, Name

I'm missing something. Either that, or Portia de Rossi's gone badly off the radical feminist reservation:

If you take your husband's name, you must be dependent and incompetent. If you don't, of course, you're a ball-busting feminist — or that even more pitiable creature, someone without a husband at all. And, in most cases, you still have a name that came down to you patrilineally anyway. Luckily, there is one woman who's thrown off the chains of the nomenclature patriarchy and received only praise for it. I speak, of course, of Lady Gaga.

Sheesh.

Gaga's an open-borders extremist so what does she know? Anyway, the screencap's to The Daily Caller, which links to The Daily Mail, "Portia de Rossi to become Mrs DeGeneres as she takes Ellen's name."

These two make one high-profile Prop 8 couple, dontcha know? (They were married August 2008, months before the November election, in Beverly Hills). But I'm wondering if this is some statement on the consolidation of the post-feminist world. Things do change:

Taking your husband's surname, traditionally, makes you an auxiliary, an adjunct, the cute female sidekick, a spinoff, a derivative, Mrs. Him. But for some women now, it's an assumption, rather than a loss, of power -- shared power. "Instead of feeling like I 'belong' to my husband now that I have his last name, I feel like we are on equal footing, says Amy Owings, 34, a executive assistant in Overland Park, Kan. "We are both Owings, so now I claim him as much as he claims me."

Still, I'm out of the loop on lesbian culture. Is it a pathbreaking thing for gay women to adopt the dominant cultural identification of the patriarchical Mr. and Mrs. nomenclature? No doubt Catherine MacKinnon's steaming over this: "Feminism stresses the indistinguishability of prostitution, marriage, and sexual harassment."

RELATED: "Portia de Rossi: A Gay Staunch Feminist."

Heads Explode on Memeorandum

Via William Jacobson:

God, it's like a treasure-trove of leftist piranhas going after their own. I love Jane Hamsher's post, "Tribalism is the Last Refuge of Political Scoundrels, Including Robert Gibbs."

Spiro Agnew — sorry, Robert Gibbs — says “the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.” Well, the Obama in the White House is not representative of the Obama who organized, campaigned, raised money and ran for office, so I guess it’s a wash.

Read the whole thing. I don't think Jane will admit she campaigned (shilled) for a liar, a loser, a hypocrite, and a likely one-termer.

And at Daily Kos, our other commie blog bellwhether (and this is from Comrade Markos himself), "Inartful":

If the White House thinks their problems are reserved among a handful of progressive critics, then I'm afraid, because it tells me they're really out of touch with the undercurrent of discontent faced by Democrats this year.

And from my favorite overrated left-wing analyst (now going to the overrated unofficial newspaper of record) Nate Silver, "As Liberals Lose Hope, the White House is Losing Its Cool":

One problem that Obama is having -- and not just on the left, although it might be most acute there -- is the dissonance between the grand, poetic narratives of the campaign trail and the prosaic and transactional day-to-day grind of governance.

Gee, you think, Nate?

Well, maybe LGM's Scotty Lame-ieux's got the plan:

We need our own Ari Fleischer; even if he can’t be as accomplished a liar, at least he’d know to keep his focus on his actual enemies.

This president's a liar, Scott (even Snooki says so). The press secretary can't fix that. And thanks for confirming that, yes, sadly, we are enemies.

Billy Idol ‘Live and Loud’ at Pechanga

My wife and I will be there:

Only a few tickets remain for what promises to be a seriously rockin’ night when 80s rock rebel Billy Idol takes the stage at 8 p.m. on Aug. 11 and 13 at Pechanga Resort & Casino’s Showroom Theater.

Featuring longtime partner and guitarist Steve Stevens, fans can expect some new tunes, along with favorites like “Rebel Yell,” “Mony Mony,” “White Wedding” and “Dancing With Myself.”

James 'We're About to Die Down Here' Carville Sucks Up Obama Slams in Time for Midterms

Well, when it gets to the point where Democrats WON'T run on their record, it's understandable that even harsh critics of the administration are sucking it up in hopes of minimizing the carnage.

Here's James Carville hilarious taking back his "folks are dying down here" rant from April, "Obama played his cards right on BP":

My mother, Ms. Nippy Carville, was a woman of many talents. Two in particular stand out. She was a superb cook (the author of a successful cookbook), and she was an excellent bridge player.

She always cautioned me that it was important that one "review the bidding" before the play. Now that it's becoming apparent that the efforts to cap the well at Deepwater Horizon are going to be successful, we should pause and pay homage to Ms. Nippy's advice by reviewing the bidding.

Any fair assessment would have to conclude that in spite of some people's criticism of the early response, (and by "some people" I mean Ms. Nippy's firstborn son James), one also must give credit to a much improved and vigorous response to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf.

RTWT.

Haley Barbour's already claimed that Obama's done "more right than wrong" on the BP spill (highly questionable), so I guess that wasn't too hard for Carville.

Love the clip, in any case.

Melodi Dushane Video: Woman Punches McDonalds Worker Over McNuggets

According to Mediaite, "This Woman Really Likes McNuggets. A Lot." And my wife and I agree the funniest part is when the next driver in line pulls up and gets his order like clockwork:

The incident occurred early on New Years Eve Day but the dramatic security camera footage has only reached the internet yesterday where it can now be enjoyed by McNugget fans everywhere. While all of the punching and window smashing in the clip are fun, I really think my favorite part is the truck that pulls up after Dushane speeds off. While I’m assuming the guy probably stopped to help, I like to imagine that he just said, “Hey, you guys look busy but can I get my Sausage Biscuit now? I’m in a hurry.”

Also, "Crazy Security Footage Is Best McDonald's Viral Ad Ever."

The lady was drunk, by the way. Picture here: "Melodi Dushane Punches McDonalds Worker Over McNuggets."

Post-Anti-Americanism?

I'm sure Howard Fineman is a good guy (hardly a netroots freak), but seriously, he should read some of the scholarly literature on hegemony and U.S. power. Signs in Europe of a post-post-9/11 anti-Americanism simply signal that continent's ever increasing irrelevance in great power international politics. See, "Europe can’t even be bothered to hate America any more":

I got on a recently completed three-week trip to Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. America is no longer admired, imitated, or feared. We remain—for now—a safe haven for dollars (of which there are too many in the world). But we increasingly are seen less as a model or as an empire than as a cautionary tale of national neglect and decline.

Some Europeans can’t quite hide their schadenfruede. The British—whose publications and personalities are increasingly (and annoyingly) influential in the colony they lost 227 years ago—are global leaders in condescension (think Simon Cowell). But for America they add a special twist of bitter lemon to their analyses. It’s the triumph of the doddering older brother who no longer has to be grateful to his junior. Memories fade, and the Brits no longer feel they have to be kind out of homage to our having saved them from Hitler.

A couple of examples from the genre. Writing in the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash sees a Third World shabbiness when he visits the United States. “Every time I come back to the United States,” the Oxford don writes, “the airports, the roads, the public spaces look more tattered, battered, old-fashioned. Modernity is no longer self-evidently here.”

Edward Luce, a brilliant and diligent reporter for the Financial Times, surveyed the American landscape and came up with a mournful portrait that echoes, in equal measure, Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, and Robert Altman. Citing incontrovertibly bleak statistics about the struggles of middle-class Americans, and the growing disparity between the really rich and everyone else, he concludes that the U.S. is losing its essential character: it is no longer the land of opportunity and upward mobility; no longer the place where the future will surely be better, and more prosperous, than the past ...

Oh God ... tha's all I can read.

Folks are better off reading Michael Mandelbaum, "The Downsizing of American Foreign Policy." And Mandelbaum's no declinist, by the way. Let's get this economy pumping (ahem, President Obama), and we'll get America back on top in world public opinion (hope and change ain't doin' the trick).

RELATED: "Do States Ally Against the Leading Global Power?"

Rand Paul News — 'Aqua Buddha' and Jack Conway

Mostly fluff, but interesting.

From Ben Smith, "Paul campaign attacks GQ reporter." The reporter in question is Jason Zengerle, who's also with The New Republic. Focus on that angle, not legal threats. Hang the JournoList albatross around GQ's neck. (More on this at Memeorandum.)

And related, "Democratic Operative Busted Smearing Rand Paul at Fancy Farm":

Too bad people cannot deal openly and honestly with real issues and argumentation. Actually, it’s a good thing: these kinds of antics actually show them for what they are: liars. Jack Conway and company will have to do better. Furthermore, this confirms what tea party goers have claimed elsewhere, as this Fox article reports.

Also at Mediaite, "Jack Conway Supporter Caught Disguising Himself As Racist Rand Paul Fan." And R.S. McCain, "Fake Republican, Real Hate: Democrat Tries Moby ‘Racist’ Smear on Rand Paul."

Victor Can 'Rot in Hell' While Ross 'Pulls Out Even When He Masturbates' — Just Samples of Yesterday's Leftist High Brow Blog Commentary...

Freaks. Yeah, but standard on the left.

Instaputz literally wishes death upon Victor Davis Hanson (for his comments on Hugh Hewitt's), and TBogg uses disgusting sexual slurs to attack Ross Douthat for his commentary on gay marriage.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps next we'll see Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman blog Representative Paul Ryan in blackface? (Jane Hamsher's never been honored in Oslo, so no doubt a Krugman turn at that kind demonology will lend leftists even greater credibility with the genre.)

RELATED: "The Smart vs. the Dumb." And, "Fire Paul Krugman. Now."

Celebrating Lifelong Heterosexual Monogamy as Unique and Indispensable

I've dealt with these arguments over and over again, but I must say Ross Douthat's piece yesterday was an extremely clever analytical outing. He makes the case that marriage not only is entirely unnatural, but has virtually collapsed as a social institution as well. The clincher is the last couple of paragraphs where he describes marriage is a civilizational ideal that's "unique" and "indispensible," and concludes:

That ideal is still worth honoring, and still worth striving to preserve. And preserving it ultimately requires some public acknowledgment that heterosexual unions and gay relationships are different: similar in emotional commitment, but distinct both in their challenges and their potential fruit.

I've read around the horn quite a bit, and Douthat was certainly successful in firing up the masses. With the exception of the Steve Chapman piece (excerpted with additional commentary at Protein Wisdom), it's mostly howling gay bloggers who're up in arms about it. Glenn Greenwald's piece appears to have little familiarity with actually law (or at least moral foundations of the law), but Andrew Sullivan in fact wrote a pretty good essay. Click on Memeorandum to sample some of the responses.

And I suppose it's a good thing that Sully and Rick Ellensburg et al. are pushing for marriage, considering how the gay hookup culture --- despite its murderous health and safety risks --- is still pretty much the rage, at Gawker:

Sonja Schmidt Reports on the Immigration Debate From Phoenix

Click the image to watch:

Meet the Women of Hezbollah

At The New Republic:

Since the 1980s, the Shia terrorist group Hezbollah has not been given to blunt public moralizing about the need for women to wear the veil. It originally made no secret of its desire to convert Lebanon into a Shia Islamic state—the organization’s 1985 manifesto called for the establishment of “Islamic government” and the conversion of Christians to Islam—but these efforts proved exceedingly unpopular, given Lebanon’s plurality of Christian and Sunni Muslim citizens. So when its leader, Abas Musawi, was assassinated in 1992, his successor Hassan Nasrallah refrained from offering explicit support for theocracy in Lebanon—and largely backed away from efforts to impose conservative religious traditions on Hezbollah's female constituents. But now, suddenly, the organization is again behaving in a way that evinces deep insecurity about the decorum of Shiite women.

Here's one example. Two months after Israel interdicted the Mavi Marmara, another aid flotilla is preparing to set sail toward the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of Gaza. This Lebanese fleet, slated to depart in the coming weeks, is led by the Miriam, a vessel manned solely by females. The idea behind this creative and progressive staffing is to raise the negative impact on Israel if it tries to enforce the blockade against a boat full of sympathetic ladies.

Yet it turns out that not all Lebanese women are welcome on the cruise. In June, the Kuwaiti daily As Siyassa reported that the curvaceous Lebanese diva Haifa Wehbe—perhaps the most famous woman in all of Lebanon—tried to sign on, but was rebuffed by Hezbollah. Why? Apparently Hezbollah was concerned that Wehbe’s “immodest” attire would “harm the reputation of all the women participating in the trip.”

More at the link.

I'm not seeing a caption, but that looks like Haifa Wehbe at the screencap. Either way, what a sweetie.

Gen. David Petraeus Plans Three-Week Media Blitz to Build Support for Afghan War

At Politico:

After seven silent weeks, Gen. David Petraeus begins aggressive messaging on Afghanistan: David Gregory announced yesterday that he will broadcast “Meet the Press” from Kabul next Sunday, with Petraeus’ first U.S. interview since he took command in Afghanistan. That will launch a spate of appearances that are being spread out over three weeks so Americans will be more likely to hear his message, even during the August doldrums. This week, Petraeus will begin communicating with the Afghan people. Then after “Meet,” the general will do the BBC later that week. The following week, Petraeus has sit-downs with “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric, then Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, who’s returning from breast-cancer treatment. At month’s end, George Stephanopoulos will take “Good Morning America” on the road to see the general. Major U.S. and European print and radio outlets will be sprinkled in. Then in the weeks that follow, the general plans to keep up a strong battle rhythm of engaging with the media and making his case.

Impeach Obama Van Patrolling Streets of Chicago

The new hope and change, via Founding Bloggers:

Prop 8 Ruling Barely Registers in California

My latest essay at Pajamas Media, "Candidates tiptoe around hot button issues while an amateurish flip-flop on immigration gets the GOP gubernatorial hopeful in trouble":

Check the Pajamas homepage for lots more great commentary and analysis.

Eye-Rollgate: Stay Classy, LSM — And Shannyn Moore!!

Eye-Sarah Palin responds to Eye-Rollgate:

I'd say Palin handled it pretty well, so no wonder the eye-roll's the thing. Freakin' lefties are jonesin' for something, anything, to keep the demonology alive.

See William Jacobson, "Palin Eye Roll Derangement Syndrome."

RELATED: Allahpundit suggests Shannyn Moore's a "Palin-hater." You think?