Technology and the Political Sex Scandal

Kate Zernike spins away the Weiner sex scandal, blaming technology, "Naked Hubris":

Certainly there are things particular to Washington that make sex scandals as predictable as swampy weather in July — and to politicians in general, especially lately, as the recent scandals involving Arnold Schwarzenegger (child out of wedlock) and John Edwards (child out of wedlock, and last week indicted for allegedly lying over his affair) have served to remind.

But technology keeps adding new and in many ways more seductive temptations to the mix. And this is happening at a time when, many argue, a more prying press corps, stricter public standards and greater partisanship have combined to make Washington oddly more puritanical than it once was. Hamilton, after all, had confessed his affair to investigators in Congress several years before he was actually exposed for it. But 15 years after the House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, revealing lurid details of his sexual dalliances with a White House intern, most politicians now know that they can’t count on the press or their peers to stay silent about straying.

Yep, just another summer sex scandal in D.C. Move along. You wouldn't even be looking if bloggers hadn't intruded on the privileged ways and means of the official D.C. Democratic establishment.

Sitting Can be as Deadly as Smoking

Recent studies show prolonged sitting is bad for your health, and bloggers sit a lot, so this especially bad news. Gretchen Carlson had a segment on Fox News, but see also Ann Althouse: "'Linda had no idea her desk was so deadly, noting how 'sitting is probably killing me'.'"

Althouse bought a desk, which is part of the solution. I'm going to do some walking this week:

MediCare: Too Good to Last

From Charlie Cook, at National Journal:

“Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Benefits Over a Lifetime,” a study by C. Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane for the Urban Institute that was released in January, demonstrates quite vividly why senior citizens like Medicare so much. A single man earning the average wage, $43,100 in 2010 dollars, who retired in 2010 will pay an average of $55,000 in Medicare taxes over his lifetime and will receive $161,000 in Medicare benefits. A similarly situated woman will pay the same $55,000 in Medicare taxes but will get $181,000 in Medicare benefits (because women live longer than men). A one-earner couple in that situation, again paying $55,000 in Medicare taxes, would receive $342,000 in benefits. If you’re a Medicare recipient, why wouldn’t you think that the program as we know it is a great deal?

But, obviously, it’s not sustainable. With federal budget deficits soaring and worries about a national-debt crisis in our future rising, how is it possible to keep Medicare as we know it? If the federal government, over the long haul, isn’t in a position to make up the gap between what people are paying and the benefits they’re receiving, Medicare taxes have to go up, benefits have to be cut, or deductibles have to be raised on high-income retirees.

That's the key nugget, but read it all. Democrats are getting a free ride on this politically, despite the fact that the GOP's got the honest approach to policy. As usual.

RELATED: See also Andrew McCarthy, "Not Entitled."

'State of Emergency' Rally, Los Angeles, May 13, 2011

I couldn't make it. I covered Noam Chomsky the weekend before, and then David Horowitz a couple of days after --- and we were at finals week, and I was finishing up all of my grading. But I would have loved to have made it. The place was swarming with communists. For weeks before my union leadership was flooding the campus e-mail system with announcements on bus transportation to Pershing Square. State administrative regulations were violated in this, but no one on my campus seems to care, as long as it's far left-wing agitation that's being promoted.

Anyway, Ringo was there, with an awesome photo-essay: "L.A. Teachers Unions "State of Emergency" Rally - Los Angeles, CA 5/13/2011."

And Reason.tv always features killer reports:

Malibu Organizes Shore Leave for Crew Members of USS John Paul Jones

I've mentioned numerous times my visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in 1999. The aircraft carrier parked about a mile offshore from Santa Barbara harbor. It was anchored for four days. I saw a lot of guys dressed in their white uniforms cruising up and down State Street downtown. Local charter operators were hired to ferry tourists out to the ship. There were some sailors showing visitors around the lower deck, where aircraft are housed and maintained when not in use. But after that, I was allowed to cruise around on the flight deck. The carrier was facing west, into the sunset and I sat out on the edge of ship, just a few feet from the safety nets. It was a trip. A whole world unto itself, it seemed. And as I've noted, this was at the end of the 1990s, shortly after the U.S. airwar over Kosovo. American power was at a pinnacle and no one was talking about American decline.

Anyway, I'm reminded of that with this story at Los Angeles Times. The USS John Paul Jones is in Malibu and the organizers put together a "Navy Days" festival for sailors to spend time ashore. See, "Navy crew welcomed to Malibu for shore leave":

Surfers in Malibu are used to sharing the waves with paddleboards, sailboats and the occasional Russian billionaire's 390-foot yacht. On Friday they were startled to see a 505-foot Navy destroyer anchored off Surfrider Beach near the Malibu Pier.

The destroyer John Paul Jones was making the Navy's first-ever port call in Malibu and giving its 270-member crew shore leave there for the weekend.

The community-organized Navy Days is offering sailors free shuttle rides up and down the 26-mile-long city, beach volleyball and kayak excursions, and discounts at shops and restaurants Saturday and Sunday.

The crew and their families have been invited to a barbecue at Sharon Gee's family-owned Malibu ranch. Athletic facilities and an art museum at Pepperdine University will be open to crewmembers, and 10 university shuttle vans will offer sailors transportation to Sunday morning church services.

"Some crewmembers have signed up for museum tours at the Getty Villa," said City Councilman Jefferson "Zuma Jay" Wagner, who operates a Malibu surf shop. "This is not your same old Navy."

Locals planned the event for a year, and some said they don't expect another opportunity like this in their lifetimes. RTWT at the link.

Also, check this page for information on the USS John Paul Jones.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Key Al Qaeda Operative in 1988 Embassy Bombings, Killed in Somalia

At Atlanta Journal Constitution:

NAIROBI, Kenya — The al-Qaida mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed this week at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu by Somali forces who didn't immediately realize he was the most wanted man in East Africa, officials said Saturday.

The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed — a man who topped the FBI's most wanted list for nearly 13 years — is the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.

Mohammed had a $5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the Aug. 7, 1998, embassy bombings. The blasts killed 224 people in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans also died.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who was on a visit to Tanzania on Saturday as Somali officials confirmed Mohammed's death — called the killing a "significant blow to al-Qaida, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa.

"It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere — Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, and our own embassy personnel," Clinton said.

More at that link above, although I think the same lessons apply now that applied after the Abbottabad raid: Targeted killings don't kill the Al Qaeda organization. Depending on whom you talk to, global jihad constitutes an amorphous, multi-faceted terror network, with many alliances of convenience and substantial ties to state actors, such as Pakistan. There's lots of work to do in that sense. See, for example, Jayshree Bajoria, "Pakistan's New Generation of Terrorists."

'Super 8'

My mom's visiting. We're heading out right now to take the boys to "Super 8."

Reviewed at the Los Angeles Times. And New York Times.

BONUS: At Pajamas Media, "Super 8: A Return to Vintage Spielberg?"

Anthony Weiner to Enter Treatment Center!

Well yeah.

But still, this ain't over until he sucks it up and announces his resignation.

At New York Times, "Weiner to Enter Treatment Center and Seek Leave From House." And Memeorandum.

Wall Street Journal Weekend Interview: Michele Bachmann, 'On the Beach, I Bring von Mises'

I think Bachmann gains the most by Romney's decision to skip the Iowa straw poll in Ames, but we'll see.

And from Stephen Moore's interview:

"If I'm in, I'll be all in," says Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, artfully dodging my question of whether she's running for president. Given that she just hired campaign strategist Ed Rollins, whose past clients include Ross Perot and Mike Huckabee, rumors abound. "We're getting close," she says, "and if I do run, like all my races, I will work like a maniac."

That's pretty much how she does everything, and it helps explain how the relatively junior congresswoman has become a tea party superstar—and uniquely adept at driving liberals bonkers.

After spending a good part of two days with her in Washington as she scurries from one appointment to another, I have no doubt that Ms. Bachmann will announce her presidential bid soon. And it would be a mistake to count her out: She's defied the prognosticators in nearly every race she's run since thrashing an 18-year incumbent in the Minnesota Senate by 20 points in 2000. Says Iowa Congressman Steve King, "No one has electrified Iowa crowds like Michelle has."

Ms. Bachmann is best known for her conservative activism on issues like abortion, but what I want to talk about today is economics. When I ask who she reads on the subject, she responds that she admires the late Milton Friedman as well as Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. "I'm also an Art Laffer fiend—we're very close," she adds. "And [Ludwig] von Mises. I love von Mises," getting excited and rattling off some of his classics like "Human Action" and "Bureaucracy." "When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises."

RTWT at the link.

She needs to fire Ed Rollins before making a formal announcement. I doubt it's a good thing to be going negative on potential opponents before you've even thrown your hat in the ring. And Palin won't take that stuff sitting down. I like both of these women. My preference ordering is Palin first, Bachmann second. After that I'm still undecided. Thus whatever happens, should they both be candidates for the nomination, we could see some ugliness among two of the top tea party favorites. But that's politics.

RELATED: At Legal Insurrection, "Michele Bachmann Needs To Dump Ed Rollins Now."

Nancy Pelosi Calls for Weiner's Resignation!

At CNN, "Calls mount for Weiner's resignation:"

Three weighty Democratic voices -- including Nancy Pelosi -- on Saturday called for the resignation of embattled U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who has been under fire after admitting to inapporpriate communications with women online.

The House Minority Leader, and the chairmen of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in separate statements called for Weiner to step down.

The New York congressman has resisted calls to resign.

Via JammieWearingFool, "The End is Near: Pelosi Calls for Weiner's Resignation."

Anthony Weiner Transcripts: Lurid Sex Talk Revealed

At New York Post, "Weiner's exchanges between teacher, teen revealed" (via Memeorandum).

Weinergate took a lurid new direction with the disclosure yesterday that Rep. Anthony Weiner invited a "hot sexy baby" to an X-rated date via the Skype network, which provides text, talk and video chats.

Racy new e-mails -- sent just a month ago -- detail exchanges between Weiner and Traci Nobles, the 34-year-old Georgia teacher and cheerleading coach who has surfaced as his fifth sexting partner.

"i cant stop thinking about you. I'm touching myself as we speak. i want you inside of me. i need to see you mr. congressman. please don't disappoint me!" Nobles wrote on May 5, according to Radar Online.

Weiner, who had corresponded with the woman since August, replied the next day: "Please understand i am a very important man. I'm always busy but i promise i will make time for you soon! Don't the pictures I send keep you satisfied?"

The following day Weiner suggested they take it to another level:

"So i will make sure to keep some time open so we can have a cyber session via skype. Does that make my hot sexy baby happy?"

Hours after the e-mails were unearthed, Delaware cops descended on the home of a 17-year-old high school junior to ask her about online communications she had with Weiner.

The transcript is here.

And Zombie takes note that during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in 1998, MoveOn.org was created with the goal of "censuring and moving on" from the scandal. Well MoveOn was taken, so Zombie suggests SitOn.org:

Progressive American women! We need Anthony Weiner in top condition to help forge a progressive solution to our nation’s problems. And the only way he can concentrate is if he satisfies his strong sexual desires. So we encourage you all to sit on his raging erection whenever you get the chance.

To encourage this patriotic behavior, we now announce the formation of SitOn.org, a political “action” committee to help Rep. Weiner get some action.

How can you help? Sit on it!

Zombie says guys can help out too:

And if you’re a man, or don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account, then you do your part by placing these banners on your blog to encourage other attractive young progressives to sit on his “weiner”.

Indeed, progressives are already blogging about how much they love Anthony Weiner, like New York blogger Carl Salonen, who likes 'em "Young and Hung."

Crowd Cheers Anthony Weiner!

At New York Daily News, "Scandal-scarred Congressman Anthony Weiner took out his dirty laundry Saturday - and was roundly cheered by onlookers as he walked to his local dry cleaners." Also, at CNN, "New Yorkers weigh in on Rep. Weiner."

Sarah Palin's E-Mails

If anyone needs evidence that she remains the unchallenged GOP frontrunner, even though she's unannounced, just see the news: "News Outlets Pounce on Palin E-Mails."

Reliapundit has the winning headline, "PALIN PROVES SHE'S A REPUBLICAN: SENT 24,000 EMAILS, AND NOT ONE CROTCH SHOT."

Also, at Gateway Pundit, "LA Times Won’t Release Obama-Khalidi Tape But Posts 24,000 Sarah Palin Emails" (via Memeorandum). And it is pretty amazing. The Times has the archive posted, and here's the big story there this morning: "Sarah Palin's emails underscore polarizing effect."

Right. Had to be "polarizing."

See also Powerline, "ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT FOR THE LEGACY MEDIA." And Legal Insurrection, "Behold The Mainstream Media Eating Its Own Anti-Palin Bile - A Running List of Headlines."

Andrew Breitbart Visits Newport Beach, Receives Standing Ovation

At The Daily Pilot, "Breitbart: 'Vindication running through my veins'":

NEWPORT BEACH — Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing blogger who broke the Rep. Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, strolled into the Newport Beach Golf Course's Tea Room restaurant Wednesday evening to a standing ovation.

There to promote his book, "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!", and Mike Munzing, who is running for a House seat next year, Breitbart played to the crowd and media waiting for him.

"[Weiner's] polls are probably going to go up because of his degeneracy," Breitbart said. "I don't like any of this kind of behavior" ...

More at the top link.

I'm looking but don't see a full video clip of Breitbart's talk. I wrote about it Thursday night, but here's J.T. Geehr, on Facebook:

It was so fun to just listen to him. He is hysterically funny and thoroughly delights in telling stories. Whenever he's being interviewed on tv, interviewers cut him off, so you don't really get to hear what he's like. He had just flown back from NY and had to be exhausted, but he was still charming and gut-bustingly funny. He is fearless!

Well said, but I'm gonna keep looking for a clip.

Meanwhile, there's some local network coverage, at CBS, "Andrew Breitbart Receives Hero’s Welcome In Newport Beach." And KTLA, "Blogger Who Exposed Congressman Weiner Speaks in SoCal."

Also, at O.C. Register, "'Weinergate' blogger: It's mischievous fun."

Stand Up for Israel

I get e-mails from the folks at San Diego Israel Coalition. In turn they send me information available from StandWithUs.

NewsBusted: 'Barack Obama's new reelection campaign strategy'

Via Theo Spark:

New Anti-Weiner Advertisement

This is just a glimpse of what's to come, er, ahead.

At Politico, "Stop Sexting and Spending":

The first ad mentioning Rep. Anthony Weiner’s scandal has hit the airwaves, calling on members of Congress to focus on cutting government spending and not on their tawdry sex lives.

“In a time of record debt, some in Congress are not taking the spending crisis seriously,” begins the video, produced Ending Spending, a 501(c)(4) run by Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts.

Huffington Post Beats New York Times in Traffic

I read the New York Times just about everyday, although not for the "objective" analysis or anything. The paper still has phenomenal resources and tremendous talent, but you gotta keep 'em honest. And Huffington Post? Well, Pamela Geller calls 'em PuffHo, so there you go.

At Forbes, "Huffpo Tops NY Times in Traffic, But With a Huge Asterisk."

RELATED At Nieman Lab, "#Twittermakesyouloved: Jill Abramson’s now on Twitter." (Background at Glenn Reynolds.")

The Left's Media Apologists

Awesome letter to the editor, from Carl Schroeder, at STL Today, "Weiner scandal makes some people thankful for alternative news outlets."

Historically, the press served an extremely important function of holding our elected officials accountable. However, the modern day mainstream media has, for the most part, abdicated this role in order to be unabashed apologists for all things liberal.

RTWT.

Romney to Skip Iowa Straw Poll

At WSJ, "Romney to Skip Key Poll in Iowa":

Mitt Romney will skip a key early test for Republican presidential candidates by forgoing the Iowa straw poll in mid-August, a decision that could recast the contest in the nation's first presidential nominating state.

The Iowa straw poll, held in Ames, is one of the landmark events of the nominating contest. Mr. Romney's decision sends the clearest signal yet that he doesn't want to wade deeply into the social issues that carry particular weight with Iowa Republicans and instead intends to present himself to voters nationally as a successful businessman who can improve the economy.

Mr. Romney's campaign said he would still compete in Iowa's caucuses, now slated for February, 2012. But the former Massachusetts governor's absence from the Aug. 13 straw poll will likely diminish his chances, some Iowa officials say, while raising the odds that whoever wins the poll will be best positioned to claim the status as Mr. Romney's top rival for the nomination.

More at the link. I think it's a mistake. Romney's still going to compete in Iowa next year, so why the hesitance this early on? Better to go all in for the initial beauty contests, like this straw poll, and see how it plays. Romney invested heavily in Ames in 2007, and came out with a win. And he took second in the Iowa caucuses in 2008. Seems as if Romney thinks that social conservatives --- who dominate the GOP caucus electorate --- don't care about economic issues. But everybody cares about economic issues right now, so why miss the chance to make the case in the Hawkeye State?

On the other hand:

In the 2008 election cycle, Mr. McCain skipped the Ames poll and then placed a distant third in the caucuses before going on to win the nomination.

So who knows? Prediction is hard, especially about the future.