Monday, March 30, 2015
Flowing Curves of Beauty - Sci/Fi, the Cat's Away Edition
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Try, Try Again
Meet Fritz. Fritz can’t catch. His human tosses tasty
food to him. Hot dogs, steak. It doesn’t matter. Fritz can’t catch. You kinda feel sorry for Fritz because his
missed catches result in food hitting him in the face making a mess on his
adorable face.
I feel his human’s
frustration. My little furkid, Sophie,
won’t fetch. Maybe she feels like
playing a game of fetch is too much of a commitment. That’s okay though. Her unconditional love is all I really need.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Flowing Curves Of Beauty
“Where should
one use perfume?" a young woman asked. "Wherever one wants to be
kissed.” ― Coco Chanel
Sunday, March 22, 2015
March Madness: Duke Blue Devils Vs San Diego State Aztecs
Last
night’s action in the NCAA Tournament saw No. 1 Villanova fall to the NC State
Wolfpack. Though I picked ‘Nova to win
in my
brackets, it was heart-warming to see the Pack win. It was reminiscent of 1983
when the team known as “Phi Slamma Jamma” led by Jimmy V took the national
crown. (I miss Coach Valvano)
I
must confess that I wasn’t as invested as a fan in that game as I was 32 years
ago, but I kept my eye on it as the Tarheels methodically took apart the
Arkansas Razorbacks’ full court pressure to convincingly defeat them 87-78. The Heels now advance to the Sweet 16.
Today
my attention is turned to the game which pits my beloved Duke Blue Devils
against the San Diego State Aztecs. The
game will air at 2:40 PM ET on CBS.
These
two teams have met only one other time: December 2001 at Cameron Indoor Stadium
where the Atzecs lost 92-79. Today, playing in
Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena, it will seem like home field advantage for
Duke. The Aztecs have big guys in their
line-up that should match up well against Okafor and Marshall.
If
Duke can light it up like they did against RMU they should emerge the winner in
today’s game, but that’s predicated on an up-tempo game and the Aztecs not
being able to shut down Okafor. Duke
definitely needs to speed up the game and get out in transition in order to
beat the Aztecs. Oh, and foul trouble
for SDSU’s forwards.
GO DUKE
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Monica Lewinsky: The Bloodsport Of Public Shaming
Monica Lewinsky spoke
from the TED stage in Vancouver recently to tell the audience, “At the age of 22,
I fell in love with my boss. At the age
of 24, I learned the devastating consequences.”
In her speech,
entitled “The Price of Shame”,
Lewinsky recounts how she was betrayed by her friend Linda Tripp, was
threatened with jail time and was swept up in the maelstrom of President Bill
Clinton’s impeachment. Throughout the
national disgrace of Clinton’s unchecked libido, Lewinsky was the target of
slut-shaming.
She withdrew from
public view for more than a decade, but has reemerged to tell her story. I listened to her 22-minute speech and found
it compelling and moving. The temptress
is resigned to her mistakes, but forcefully speaks to the viciousness of
cyberbullying and makes a plausible argument that she was the first true victim
of the phenomenon of “cultural humiliation”.
I think when
President Clinton referred to her as “that woman”, he wounded her forever. Many believe she is speaking out now to
cripple the political future of the Clinton dynasty, but Lewinsky defended
herself saying, “It is time to stop tip-toeing around my past.”
For now, at least, I
believe her because no one would wish to “walk a mile in someone else’s
headline.”
Friday, March 20, 2015
March Madness: Duke Blue Devils Vs Robert Morris Colonials
According to ESPN, just 273 out of 11.6 million Tournament Challenge brackets
were a perfect 16-for-16 after Thursday’s games. My
brackets were likewise busted. *sigh*
Sam Vecenie, writing for CBS Sports, thinks Bobby Mo’s key to a win against my beloved
Duke Blue Devils is 6 ft. 6 guard/forward Lucky Jones who scored 21 points, 7
rebounds and 5 steals in their 4-point victory over North Florida. Duke’s Jahlil Okafor towers over Jones at
6-11. The Colonials will not have an easy job containing the big men who make
up the Blue Devils roster.
I made abysmal
predictions during the ACC Tournament which prompted one commenter to
write, “Please, please, please stop rooting for the team I root for.”
Like Coach K and
many of the other coaches whose teams made it to “the dance,” everybody starts
at zero in the tourney. Duke has made
appearances in 15 Final Fours and won 4 national championships. Tonight the drive for five begins.
GO DUKE
Curmudgeonly Cartoon: One Ringy-Dingy
Wow RT @IsaacDovere Reporter to Obama in Oval Office: "Have you called Prime Minister Netanyahu yet?" Obama: "Thank you everybody.”
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) March 19, 2015
Pres Obama also sent a Persian New Year's video to the people & leaders of Iran, urging them to embrace a deal barring nuclear weapons.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 20, 2015
At noon WH briefing today, look for @PressSec to be peppered with questions about Pres Obama's phone call yesterday with PM Netanyahu.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 20, 2015
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Why Is There No Starbucks In Ferguson?
On Monday, Starbucks CEO
Howard Schultz announced an initiative he dubbed “Race Together” in which he
asked his company's baristas to write "Race Together" on coffee cups
as an invitation to talk about race with customers.
Commuters who simply
wanted their morning java quickly became irritated at the company’s insipid
notion and took over the Twitter hashtag #RaceTogether mocking it to a fare-thee-well.
The
company's Senior Vice President of Global Communications, Corey duBrowa, was
forced to delete his Twitter account after a torrent of wilting criticism “overwhelmed”
him.
"We knew this
wouldn't be easy, but we feel it is well worth the discomfort," duBrowa bravely
wrote in an email to CNN
Money
.
The
campaign started in cities where protests had erupted over rising racial
tensions, like St. Louis, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland.
If Schultz and his
delicate flower, duBrowa, sincerely wanted to improve race relations they
should have begun their campaign with Rev. Al Sharpton who, while fanning the
flames of racial hatred in New York City following the assassination of police
officers Wenjin Liu and Rafael Ramos led a protest march in that city
with marchers chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want it? Right now.”
The
cops’ assassin was Ismaaiyl
Brinsley who posted on his Instagram account, “I’m putting wings on pigs
today. They take 1 of ours…let’s take 2
of theirs.”
Some
clever Twitter user decided to start a new hashtag, #NewStarbucksDrinks,
and so I decided to Photoshop the rev helping Schultz’s campaign with, yes, a
new Starbucks drink.
Netanyahu Defeats Obama
The
World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer was shellacked
in the 2010 midterms and his Democrat Party suffered an electoral blowout in
2014 and the drubbing continued on Tuesday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and his ruling Likud Party scored a resounding victory.
There will be no
celebration in the Oval Office and Secretary of State John Kerry and the dozens
of foolish Democrats who boycotted his historic speech before a joint session
of Congress will now be forced to tuck their tails between their legs.
Despite
his protestations to the contrary, The World’s Most Dangerous Community
Organizer has a seething disdain for PM Netanyahu. That disdain motivated him to conspire to
interfere in the democratic election of that nation. He did so by “secretly”
funding non-profit organizations that were hell-bent to replace Netanyahu’s
government.
Hey, @SpeakerBoehner, why not invite @netanyahu back just to rub it in?
#IsraelElections
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) March 17, 2015
The enemies of liberty and the enemies of #Israel will have to wait another day. #IsraelElections http://t.co/wJnkFA3Vs8
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) March 17, 2015
Stephen Kruiser suggests
this:
Expect the spinning to resemble the cartoon Tasmanian Devil by the morning. The last few days were absolutely polluted with stories about Netanyahu’s imminent political demise, with the most popular version of the tale being that he ruined his chances by angering great and powerful thin-skinned consumer of canines currently occupying the Oval Office.
One does not hurt Barack Obama’s feelings without some backlash.
Now that Obama has once again been revealed impotent in helping candidates not named Barack Obama to victory, his media petting zoo is out of sorts. They will be expending a lot of effort to explain exactly why this victory wasn’t really a victory.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Cankles Has Fallen
Jonah Goldberg painted captivating images in his article this past
Saturday at National
Review. He imagines the veteran
grifters of Team Clinton: Lanny Davis “in
the middle of a meeting with an African dictator when, suddenly, his assistant
hands him a note.” Upon reading the
note, which simply read “Cankles Is Down”, Davis abruptly terminates the
meeting declaring, “The Clintons need me.”
Goldberg then directs us to the banks of a bayou where James
Carville, who has caught a catfish, proceeds to devour its entrails in the
manner of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Gollum. His snack
is interrupted by a signal flare. He knows
instantly its meaning. Quickly, he steps
into his waiting limousine which speeds him to an MSNBC studio. Meanwhile the other gutter rat, David Brock,
“slinks out of his leather onesie” racing to his command center barking orders,
“This is a level-one Alpha scenario.
Cancel all leave.”
Goldberg was, of course, thinking of action movies where grizzled
old pros get together one last time to spin furiously as their dowager queen rapidly
sinks in the quicksand of scandal.
Goldberg
continues to posit, ”For 30 years, Hillary Clinton has been defensive bordering
on paranoia (with occasional forays far over the border). For 30 years, Hillary
Clinton has responded to every challenge—not just every scandal, but every
challenge (like HillaryCare)—by convening huge task forces of loyalists."
We now know that Cankles’ Emailghazi troubles are just beginning as
we learn that a State Department whistleblower told The
Daily Signal a “boiler-room operation” was set up to hide documents
after Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others attached to the CIA complex in
Benghazi perished in a hail of gunfire and mortar rounds.
As one commenter noted, this movie will be a “popcorn bonanza.”
UPDATE:
Dvorak
News broke the news today that the former Secretary of State used MX
Logic, a spam filtering service now owned by McAfee that had full access to all her classified State Department email in
unencrypted form. It could be read,
tapped, archived or forwarded to anyone in the world without anyone ever
knowing.
Flowing Curves Of Beauty
There are some days you should go back to bed with a hot
brandy, a box of chocolates and a warm energetic companion.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Curmudgeonly Cartoon: Meanwhile, Back At Chappaqua
Throne-sniffer
Maureen Dowd, surprised me yesterday with her “Open
Letter To hdr22@clintonemail” in which she snarled, “…you knew you could count on the complicity
of feminists and Democratic women in Congress” as she recounted the pathologically unpresidential
behavior of her husband’s cigar
fetish in the Oval
Office.
Dowd goes on to say, “You seem like an annoyed queen,
radiating irritation at anyone who tries to hold you accountable.” She goes a
step further giving her take on “Clinton Fatigue”, perhaps because she remains
enamored with The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer saying, “You’re
still idling on the runway, but we’re already jet-lagged. It’s all so drearily
familiar that I know we’re only moments away from James Carville writing a
column in David Brock’s Media Matters,
headlined, ‘In Private, Hillary’s Really a Hoot.’”
On Saturday, March 14, 2014 Ed Klein, who broke
the story about Mrs. Clinton’s email scandal, told Larry Kudlow on his WABC
radio show that this Administration “is up to its eyebrows in efforts to stop”
her and Valerie
Jarrett has launched six investigations into her years as Secretary of State.
This movie is rated 5 out of 5 stars; so pull
up your recliner, grab your popcorn and enjoy the show folks.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
North Carolina Tarheels Vs. Notre Dame Irish: ACC Championship Game
I took a lot of
ribbing last night as my beloved Duke Blue Devils trailed the Irish of Notre
Dame throughout the entire semi-final game.
At the half, Duke trailed by 15 but chipped away at the huge Notre Dame
lead. Duke got within 4 but never
overcame the deficit. ND Coach Mike Brey
refused to double-cover Jahlil Okafor and chose instead to foul him. Watching him try to make a free throw at the
charity stripe was painful to watch. Last
night’s loss by Duke could imperil their No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
While the “all-Tobacco
Road” championship will not happen tonight, I have to root for the Tarheels
against the Irish. The Heels are riding
high after defeating No.1 seed Virginia.
Tipoff is at 8:30 PM
ET and the game will air on ESPN. The Tarheels are 24-10 this season averaging 77.8 points and shooting 47.3
percent while defensively they are allowing 67.8 points. The Irish
are 28-5 averaging 78.6 points and shooting 50.9 percent. They’re allowing their opponents to score
65.2 points.
As you can see, the stats for both teams are fairly equal,
but for the very first time in Carolina’s history, the Heels defeated two
higher seeds—No. 4 Louisville and No. 1 Virginia in the ACC Tournament. During the regular season there were obvious
problems on both ends of the court for Carolina in terms of finishing off
teams. I don’t want to be an ACC
chest-thumper but…the ACC is one of the toughest conferences in the country.
Notre Dame, in all their years in the Big East Tournament,
never made it to the final and they haven’t advanced past the first weekend in
the NCAA Tournament since 2003, in fact, they haven’t even won a tournament
game in four years. So, I’m going to
boldly predict a win for the team I only ever root for when Duke is not
playing. I hope Carolina ruins St.
Patrick’s Day for Notre Dame’s leprechaun mascot.
Oh, and their shoes are ugly.
GO
HEELS
And
since no basketball post would be complete without some pom-poms, check out
these lovely Tarheels cheerleaders.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Basketball Heaven: ACC Semi-finals
It’s going to be a BIG night tonight. Game One of the 2015 ACC Tournament
Semi-finals features the North Carolina Tarheels against the Cavaliers of
Virginia. The game airs on ESPN at 7:00
PM. Following that game will be the biggie: my beloved Duke Blue Devils vs. Notre Dame.
As I’ve written many
times before, none of my friends are Duke fans.
They are all huge fans of the Tarheels.
I’ve invited them all to Casa de Curmudgeon for a little camaraderie,
adult beverages and a taco bar.
I’m going to whip out
all my Duke Campus Crystal barware engraved with the Iron Dukes logo and a Duke
chips and dip bowl and a couple of Duke serving trays, after all my quests need
to be reminded whose house they’re visiting.
Drinks will be served
at the bar in the kitchen and I’ll set up a buffet in the den with tortilla
bowls that can be filled with shredded beef, lettuce, cheese, sour cream and
their choice of hot or medium salsa, Pico de Gallo and guacamole. There’ll be some Grilled Corn with Avocado Pico
de Gallo, Mexican Rice and Dulce de Leche Brownie Bites for dessert.
Carolina looked
really strong in their defeat of the Cards yesterday afternoon. The Heels are averaging more points per game
than the Cavs but their percent shooting is fairly equal. I think the Heels pull this one out late in
the game.
At 9:00 PM THE game is on. Duke faces the Irish of Notre Dame for the
third time this season. Ordinarily my
friends might seek to leave after the Carolina game, but they hate despise
dislike really can’t stand that school so they will hang around to join
me in cheering on the Blue Devils to victory.
The Irish are going
to have to battle a tenacious little point guard in Tyus Jones. The third Plumlee brother, Marshall, and
Jahlil Okafor are going to be tough to defend so the question for tonight’s
game is: Will Duke face an explosive offense or the
team that last night needed 12 minutes to get its first field goal of the
second half? After the drubbing Duke
gave NC State last night, I’m betting Duke emerges the victor and plays for the
ACC Championship crown tomorrow night.
GO DUKE
And since no
basketball post would be complete without some pom-poms, here’s some lovely
cheerleaders for you to peruse.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
"Traitors" of the Lost Snark
In keeping with our Harrison Ford themed headlines...I give you Moooove On dot Org!
Dear MoveOn member,
What's the word for American citizens who undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly with a foreign government?
"Traitors," according to the New York Daily News—referring to the 47 Republican senators who signed a letter to the Iranian government with the goal of derailing sensitive and potentially historic nuclear negotiations.
I've been
hearing this "47 traitors" horse hockey being tossed about for too long
now. What's the word for American citizens who undermine the diplomatic
efforts of the American president by communicating directly with a
foreign government? Traitors?? Let me take you on a little trip down
memory lane, and then you tell me!
According to wikipedia:
In the fall of 2002, (Baghdad Jim) McDermott and fellow Representatives David Bonior of Michigan, Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Mike Thompson of California visited Iraq; in Baghdad they met with members of parliament and the Iraqi Foreign Minister...
Wow!
George Bush is president in 2002. (He was a Republican in case that
small detail slipped anyone's mind.) Jim McDermott, Democrat, David E.
Bonior, Democrat, who served as Democratic whip in the House from 1991
to 2002. Mike Thompson, Democrat. Nick Joe Rahall II, Democrat:
Rahall and another Congressman of Arab descent traveled to Syria and ignored State Department policy by meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat...
Great!
Nicky Joe is a twofer! He was not only trying to "undermine the
diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly"
with the foreign government of Iraq, but tried to "undermine the
diplomatic efforts" of the American State Department by communicating
directly with a foreign leader (and part time terrorist), Yasser Arafat.
So
these four...traitors(??) didn't just send a letter to Saddam Hussein.
What's that they say? When you care enough to send the very best? They
traveled to Iraq and met with the Iraqi foreign minister and members of
their parliament.
Now, typically foreign policy isn't
the purview of the House of Representatives, there probably isn't a lot
in the budget for treason (according to good liberals), so where did
they get the funding to pay their way to Iraq? Funny you should ask!
Muthanna Al-Hanooti was an official with a Michigan "charity" that offered to pay their way. But, in reality, Saddam Hussein offered Al-Hanooti some 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil
in exchange for the charity funding the treasonous (according to
liberals) quartet. Saddam apparently used Iraqi intelligence agents
(read: "spooks") to fund the intermediary.
And, as they say in the infomercials, But wait! There's more!!
Remember
the Sandinistas? Ronald Reagan was president. (He was a Republican, in
case that has slipped anyone's mind). Remember how many Democrats tried
to thwart Reagan?
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hammered John Kerry in 1985 for interfering in diplomatic negotiations with Nicaragua’s Marxist government as a (Democrat) Massachusetts senator.
... Kerry and then-Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (Democrat) visited Nicaragua in 1985 to cut a deal with the Sandinista government, which was close to the former Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan, however, was already set on overthrowing the Marxist government in Nicaragua by sending aid to a group of Nicaraguan rebels — the contras.
So,
Kerry and Harkin were "trying to "undermine the diplomatic efforts of
the American president by communicating directly" with a foreign
government". Which makes them (say it with me, America!)
Traitors.
Traitors.
(By
the way, if you really wanted to call Kerry a traitor, there's more
than enough material, but that's a story for another day!)
In
1984, Speaker of the House Jim Wright, Democrat (Are you starting to
see a pattern here?) sent a letter - SENT A LETTER! - signed by ten
Democrats, to "undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American
president by communicating directly" with a foreign government"!
Senators John Sparkman (D-AL) and George McGovern (D-SD). The two Senators visited Cuba and met with government actors there in 1975. They said that they did not act on behalf of the United States, so the State Department ignored their activity.
Senator Teddy Kennedy (D-MA). In 1983, Teddy Kennedy sent emissaries to the Soviets to undermine Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy. According to a memo finally released in 1991 from head of the KGB Victor Chebrikov to then-Soviet leader Yuri Andropov...
...Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). In 2002, Rockefeller told Fox News’ Chris Wallace, “I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq...
...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). In April 2007, as the Bush administration pursued pressure against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to visit him.
Traitors, traitors, traitors, traitors, TRAITORS!!!!
Can
you say "hypocrisy"? I will bet you a large lunch at a drive in of
your choice, that you will not be able to find a liberal, Democrat, no
good lying weasel (but I repeat myself) who called any of these
Democrats "traitors".
Democrats have been trying to
criminalize differences of opinion for years. (Remember the Boland
amendment?) Aside from the Jonathan "I know the entire Democrat base is
stupid" Gruber crowd, this is demagoguery of the worst kind. Well,
maybe not the worst kind. Nancy Pelosi bleating that Republicans wanted
to defund Homeland Security and leave America defenseless, because they
wanted to defund the part of Homeland Security that funded Obama's
illegal illegal alien program is petty demagoguery.
Of
course, you can find examples at least as far back as Newt Gingrich's
speakership, when Newt proposed giving MORE money to school lunches, but
funding it through the states, demagogues and their accomplices in the
MSM spread the lie that the Republicans wanted to "starve kids", because
they wanted to eliminate federal funding for school lunches. More money
for school lunches = starving kids, if the feds aren't in charge of the
funds.
So, I guess you could say that dishonest, lying Democrats
(but, I repeat myself!) accusing Republicans of being traitors for
doing no more or no less than the things they themselves do is just more
of the same when it comes to demagoguery.
Basketball Heaven: ACC Quarterfinals
Retirement has it perks. Yesterday I enjoyed the second round of games
in the ACC Tournament. I slopped up on
the couch and watched the afternoon matches between Clemson and Florida State
followed by North Carolina and Boston College.
I jumped in the shower after the
Tarheels shellacked the Eagles, fed my little furkid and headed out to my
favorite watering hole to join friends to enjoy the contest between North
Carolina State and the Pitt Panthers. I
stayed through the first half of the Canes/Hokies game and then headed back to
Casa de Curmudgeon and turned in for the night.
The game plan today is to watch the
first two quarterfinal games and then join my posse at the same watering hole
to root for my beloved Duke Blue Devils.
I’m hoping for a victory so they can advance to the semi-finals and then
on to the championship game on Saturday.
ESPN will carry the 12:00 PM tipoff
featuring the Virginia Cavaliers and the Florida State Seminoles. The Cavs have one the best defensives in the
country so I think FSU is going to lose this game.
At 2:30 PM Louisville is set to play the
North Carolina Tarheels. This is their
first ACC Tournament since joining the conference. I’m not sure how they’re going to react to
the venue of the Greensboro Coliseum which will be filled to the rafters with
fans rooting for their “home” teams. The
two teams split their regular season meetings, but I’m predicting a victory for
the Heels.
My evening will be spent with friends watching
the two remaining games of the quarterfinals that pit my beloved Duke Blue
Devils against the Wolfpack of North Carolina State. The Pack had a really strong game against the
Pitt Panthers and they knocked the Blue Devils from the ranks of the unbeaten
back in January, but Duke drew a double-bye for the tourney so they are
well-rested. This game is going to be
brutal, but I think Duke is hungry to win.
The final game of the quarterfinals will
see the Irish of Notre Dame go up against the Miami Hurricanes. I can’t stand either team and could care less
who wins. Wait. No, that’s not true. I’m going to root for the Canes in this one. I don’t think they can pull off the win, but
that doesn’t mean I can’t root for them.
GO DUKE
And because no basketball post would be complete without
some pom-poms, check out the gals of the ACC.
UPDATE 2:15 PM: Poor FSU. They never had a chance against the Cavs. They threw clunker after clunker and were slow running down court to defend and wound up losing 58-44.
UPDATE 4:42 PM: For a team that can't decide which league they want to play in, they may want to consider yet another after losing pitifully to Carolina 70-60. 'Ol googly-eyed Rick Pitino told his players not to foul with 21 seconds left in the game. Now the Tarheels face Virginia tomorrow in the semi-finals.
FINAL UPDATE: I couldn't contain my joy watching the Blue Devils manhandle the Wolfpack. The final score was 77-53. NC State fell behind by double digits early in the first half and never had a chance at recovering. Notre Dame barely escaped against the Canes. They ran hot and cold but managed to win 70-63.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Basketball Heaven
In Tuesday’s first
round of the ACC Tournament, Boston College defeated Georgia Tech and Wake
Forest lost a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech.
Today’s Second Round
match-ups, which will air on ESPN and ESPN2, has No. 8 Clemson playing No. 9
Florida State, No. 5 North Carolina vs. No. 12 Boston College, No. 7 North
Carolina State playing No. 10 Pitt and No. 6 Miami goes against No. 14 Virginia
Tech.
The ACC Tournament is a three-day battle on the
hardwoods for the crown before the winner heads on to their NCAA dreams.
No. 1 Virginia will play the winner of the
Clemson/Florida State game in Thursday’s Quarterfinals. I believe FSU will defeat Clemson. Louisville will be pitted against the winner of
the North Carolina/Boston College game.
North Carolina will edge out the Eagles.
As a
big-time Dookie, the 7 PM game between NC State and Pitt is of enormous
interest as the winner will face my beloved Duke Blue Devils in the
quarterfinals on Thursday. I smell a
victory for the Wolfpack due to Pitt’s weak defense.
Finally, the winner of the Miami/Virginia Tech game will meet
the Irish of Notre Dame at 9 PM on Thursday.
The Hurricanes whipped the Hokies twice in the regular season and will
likely emerge the winner tonight.
I am going to be in basketball heaven for the next three days
watching teams that comprise the very best of men’s college hoops. I make no secret of my love for Duke. I know America hates them, but hey, with a
28-3 record and ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll they
are indisputably a title-winning team.
The hate piles up for Duke in the same way it does for the New York
Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys; they’re worthy opponents.
And since no basketball post would be complete without some lovely cheerleaders, have a gander at these pretty young things.
UPDATE 2:32 PM: The Noles barely defeat the Tigers 76-73 after losing a 20-point lead.
UPDATE 4:57 PM: With 5:01 left in the game, if became apparent the Eagles could not overcome the big lead the Tarheels had. Carolina wins 81-63.
UPDATE 9:13 PM: The Panthers played hard, but struggled throughout the game never once taking the lead. The Wolfpack skinned the cats 81-70.
FINAL UPDATE: Hokie's turnovers killed their chances to win against the Canes. Their only lead in the game came in the second half and quickly disappeared as they lost 59-49.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Curmudgeonly Cartoon: The Server Will Remain Private
Hillary knows how to home brew a server.
Hillary does not know you can have two emails on ONE device.
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) March 10, 2015
Hillary Clinton is actually saying she thought it easier to set up a “homebrew” server than to figure out two accounts on 1 device.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) March 10, 2015
"One device" is Hillary's talking point. Not good enough.
— Crystal Wright (@GOPBlackChick) March 10, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
Hillary Clinton and the Emails of Doom
...or, No Sequel for Hillary!
Her emails regarding Benghazi have already been subpoenaed. It's just a matter of time.
Stick a fork in her, she's done.
* Craig Livingston, employed by the Clintons at the time of the FBI file scandal, although no one would admit to having hired him
** Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary, allegedly responsible for erasing 18 minutes of White House office recordings
***For brevity's sake, I did not use the prerequisite number of exclamation points generally used by the Left in such cases.
**** I know. Where's the mind bleach when you really need it?
Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art
My friend Adrienne, over at Adrienne's Corner, put up a post minimizing the importance of Hillary's email in flagrante delicto,
characterizing it as a "tempest in a teapot". I'm sure that plenty on
the Left would love for us to believe this, and have in the meantime,
come up with some of the lamest excuses, defenses and doublespeak I have ever heard
from a liberal, bar none.
Surprisingly, though a number
of folks on the Left are outraged by her conduct as well. Let's examine
(and shred) some of the arguments put forth on Hillary's behalf.
Her emails were public (because she sent them out publicly ) Lannie Davis,
long time Clinton apologist, tried to make the argument that Hillary
had made her emails public because she sent out so many of them publicly. Let's call this the "iceberg defense". As long as you can see part of it, just assume you've seen it all!
what she did was open. She sent these e-mails to thousands of people with that e-mail address. So there's no intent to hide...
This
is absurd on the face. Any email she sent to you is not necessarily
public to me. The fact that thousands of people may have received emails
from Hillary's account, means the account may have been public,
but not the emails. Apples and Orangemen. The fact that she sent out
thousands of emails is irrelevant unless all of them are archived with
the government so that they can be searched, and if need be, subpoenaed.
If she sent 1,000 emails to Kim Kardashian and 20 to Vladimir Putin,
turning over all the Kardashian emails doesn't mean her email was
"public". They are public when the public has access to them all,
according to prevailing law. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was
passed because some government officials had to be forced by law to turn
certain documents that should have been part of the public record, over
to 'we the people'. But, FOIA doesn't give you access to Hillary's
private server, therefore the original documents are in fact being
hidden away from the public who owns them.
Any
possibility that there are emails from Ambassador Chris Stevens to his
boss and good friend Hillary Clinton, telling her of deteriorating
conditions, requesting more protection for the compound at Benghazi?
Emails from Hillary to Chris telling him to pound sand?? It would be
most unusual if there weren't.
Any emails to Saudi
Arabia around the time the Saudis gave $25 Million to the Clinton
Foundation? From them? Any veiled (pun intended) hints of a quid pro quo?
No Independent Legal Authority This from former alleged conservative turned conservative inquisitioner David Brock.
He says the NYT had 'no independent legal authority' to say that
Hillary broke any law. This sounds a little bit like the Al Gore's
fundraising excuse, back in 1996, when the Clintons were looking at a
different controversy in accepting money from foreign governments.
"There is no controlling legal authority",was what the vice president said. David Brock notwithstanding, there was a 2009 regulation
Hillary's house is NOT in an appropriate agency record keeping system."agencies that allow employees to send and receive official electronic email messages using a system not operated by the agency, must ensure that federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency record keeping system."
The State Dept manual on foreign affairs stated that employees "must use a secure, department approved computer system". Who, dear Hillary, aside from yourself, in your department approved your personal system? Craig Livingston*? Was there a tape back up run by Rose Mary Woods**??
False equivalence "Hillary did nothing wrong, everybody has a private email account!" Everyone may have a belly button, too, but that's equally irrelevant. Having an additional
email account to one's government account is not unusual for public
officials. In fact, Congressmen are forbidden by law to use their gov't
email for fund raising or campaign events, so they use private accounts
for those, as liberals are pointing out with glee. "See? See?
Congressman Hornblatt has a private email and it's RIGHT ON HIS BUSINESS CARD!!!"*** However, not one of them uses a private account exclusively for conducting government business. That's a distinction that falls solely to Hillary Diane Rodham Milhous Clinton.
In fact, you do remember the faux outrage over the suggestion that a Republican governor may have conducted some government business on a private email account? Romney? Palin??
"What were they trying to hide???" What if they had conducted ALL of
their communications on a private email server, say one called GOP.org?
Would the lynching be public or would they be flayed and boiled in oil
first? Can I get even a small fraction of the outrage there, for one of
the highest office holders in the land, who used a private email account
EXCLUSIVELY for all her government business, none of it properly
archived in government agencies?
"Bush did it" in 2007, something
something, missing emails, something something, Bush and Cheney did it,
too! More false equivalence. Whatever Bush and Cheney did, you can be
100% certain that Bush did not exclusively conduct government business
on private email, with some private server in Crawford, Texas.
You can also be 100% certain that Bush was not soliciting cash for any
private eponymous foundation and arranging any quid pro quos for infusions of cash to foreign governments.
Hillary turned over 55,000 emails. That's a LOT! State Dept spokesperson Marie Harf
may be easily impressed with large numbers. And shiny objects.
Actually, it's 55,000 pages of documents. Out of how many emails? Ever
get a highly detailed email or one with attachments that ran more than
one page? Me too.
Even if that were 99.999% of the
government documents generated, it would not be enough. If there were
55,002 emails she sent, and she conveniently neglected to hand over two
incriminating ones, it circumvents both the spirit and the intention of
the law, and the record is incomplete. Short of giving all the servers
to the government for a forensic evaluation, there cannot be full
compliance. The Clintons sending out copies of however many
emails they want is not evidence that the email was totally or properly
archived. The servers need to be turned over. Every document she
authored as Secretary of State needs to be properly archived. This is
part of the history of this country and this government. Those emails do
not belong to Hillary.
The Clintons should turn over all
the servers to an impartial third party or court, to separate the
personal from the professional, so that the professional can be archived
and searchable. Until then, one can never know if there has been a full
compliance with the law.
At that time, there was no time requirement. Now there is. Again, the lovely Ms. Harf strains credulity. Even though there was not a 60 day requirement, as I believe is the case today,
is it reasonable to assume that Hillary was in compliance if after two
years, she only turns documents over after they were subpoenaed?
If a politician generates hard copy documents on their own stationery, are they entitled to store them in their garage until such time as someone compels them to be delivered?
"And she has given everything, according to her staff, to the State Dept."Key words being "according to her staff".
But! But! There's a lot of private
information on them too! All of the Clintons' private emails! This is
just a "fishing expedition" by Republicans! Gosh. Actions have
consequences! Even Hillary's. No one made Hillary set up her own private
email servers. If she had wanted to keep her personal email separate
from those emails which properly are the property of the people of the
United States, then the "smartest woman in the world" should have
figured out to keep her personal emails on her private servers and
emails dealing with the office of the Secretary of State should have
been archived on government servers from the very beginning. Period.
National Security Risk We know that Hillary's email was hacked. What we don't know is how many times and by whom? A hacker who goes by the name of guccifer
hacked Hillary's email and published a number of them. But, if a common
everyday garden variety hacker could hack Hillary's email, how about
teams of hackers from foreign governments? Could a foreign government or
governments have hacked Hillary's email for confidential or even
classified information? We don't know. That's one of the reason why the
government needs to conduct a forensic search of her private servers.
The
thought occurred to me, given the insecurity of Clintonemail, that if a
foreign government or governments had hacked her account, they would
have had the inside scoop, play by play of US foreign policy, for
possibly as many years as she was Sec State. Imagine the foreign policy
failures of the last six years. What if Barack Obama is not the
bumbling, fumbling incompetent we've come to know and love. What if the
reason he was so easily thwarted by Putin in the Ukraine, by Bashar
al-Assad ignoring his red lines, by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and
the mad mullahs of Iran was not because he was a foreign policy noob,
but because there was a gigantic hole in his secure communications, and
nations unfriendly towards the US were listening in?
Did
Hillary ever in her entire tenure as Secretary of State send a
classified document via email? Not inconceivable, in fact, probable.
That means at least for a time, that document was stored on whatever
device she was using, her Blackberry, perhaps, desktop or laptop and a
copy of it was created (illegally) on the server in her Chappaqua home.
How is this any different than the felony that Gen. Petraeus was charged
with in having classified documents in an unsecure location. Because
Petraeus brought his in notebooks and Hillary brought hers in "1"s and
"0"s?
But! But! Secret Service Agents surrounded the server in her house
Physically, maybe. But secure against hacking? See: Guccifer. Oh, and
did I mention it's against the law? Was the Secret Service even aware
the servers were there, possibly with classified information on them,
much less needing protection against intruders? Knowing the Clintons, I
rather doubt it. Was her webmaster a frequent visitor at the house? Was
it by any chance Craig Livingston??
The law changed after Hillary left office
True. But that doesn't mean that many of the same requirements weren't
in place before the law changed. The law became more specific, but the
underlying principles of archiving official US mail in US government
agencies, via whatever medium, did not change.
Questionable foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation That's
what put everyone onto the missing emails in the first place. It seems
that the Clintons have been accepting tons and tons of money from
foreign governments, laundering it, er benevolently
distributing it, after passing through the sticky fingers of Bill and
Hil, who spent about a million dollars just on transportation last year,
even providing first class tickets for an actress and her dog to some
such "charitable" event. The Clintons continue to live like kings and
queens, filtering millions through their charitable organization
(charity apparently begins at home!), along with the millions of dollars
of government pensions, presidential expenses and speaking fees.
We do know that the State Dept. sent literally billions of dollars to the government of Haiti. And in 2012, the government of Haiti gave a gold mining permit to Hillary's brother, the first one coincidentally, issued in 50 years. Quid pro quo,
anyone? Maybe having a record of correspondence between the Secretary
of State, or the Clinton foundation (or both) and the government of
Haiti might tell a tale!
How many other deals conducted
by the State Dept may have been preceded or closely followed by
"contributions" to the Clinton Foundation? Yet another reason, if not
the primary reason, to keep their correspondence secret and
unsearchable?
Put the shoe on the other foot Forget
all of the arguments you've heard to date. Now suppose the identical
circumstances exist, but the official in question was George Bush, Sarah
Palin, or Dick Cheney, or even...Richard Nixon? If they told you,
"Look, I've given you all the pertinent emails, because I said
I've given you all the emails. Trust me!" At this point, does anyone,
however so gullible, say, "Oh, well! If you say so, it must be true.
Nevermind!"
Guilt by association... What Charles Krauthammer refers to as "Early Onset Clinton Fatigue",
is Hillary's close association with...Bill and Hillary! As bad as the
'dialing for dollars' of the Clinton Foundation, the apparent quid pro quos
of Hillary's State Dept, with a strong suspicion of dialing for dollars
for the Clinton Foundation, the missing emails and possible cover up of
Benghazi, and perhaps even criminal enterprises, the longer Hillary's
integrity stands in question, the more apparent it is, that she does not
have any! This whole sordid affair has stirred up Clinton scandals long
forgotten, but never resolved. Cattle futures? Rose Law firm records?
Travelgate? Whitewater? FBI files? Every shady deal that Hillary ever
stuck her fingers into is now coming back to haunt her, like King
Hamlet's ghost. "Out, out, damned servers!", she shrieks.
Speaking
of self inflicted wounds, how does Hillary ever completely convince
anyone, other than the Kool-Aid drenched, low information voters, that
she has indeed turned over all official emails? Having been the sole
custodian of her emails, both good and bad for six years, how could any
outsider know how many emails, or servers that might be incriminating
that are not turned over? Do you ask the fox how many chickens
were originally in the henhouse? Would you believe him? Exactly how many
emails were there? How long is a rope?
Given the Clintons' long and checkered past, can anyone believe that they a) never did anything even questionably unethical, or b) they haven't tried to cover it up, ala the Rose Law firm billing records. Or Filegate or travelgate or who hired Craig Livingston...
Bottom Line for the Drama
Queen of Chappaqua Hillary is sticking to the typical Clinton playbook:
dribble out a little information and then hunker down until things hopefully
quiet down, then, it's "old news". But this is, I'm convinced, the
beginning of the end of Hillary's political career. I'd been thinking for a
little while now that Hillary was just being coy about running for President,
because, if she's a potential or viable candidate, she's courted by media
outlets, her speeches command more money, her influence carries more weight.
All of this translates into cash. And then, there's her ego, but...follow the
money!
After Hillary makes it clear she
is not running, she's yesterday's news. Period. Her influence shrinks,
her speeches aren't as exciting (or expensive). No one is quite so eager
to purchase access to citizen Clinton as they might to candidate Clinton,
with a hope of being President Clinton. The media would turn its eye to
actual candidates, leaving Hillary in the dustbin of history, to spend
the rest of her life to knitting booties for the grandkids and making
sweet, sweet love to Billy Jeff.****
Her emails regarding Benghazi have already been subpoenaed. It's just a matter of time.
Stick a fork in her, she's done.
* Craig Livingston, employed by the Clintons at the time of the FBI file scandal, although no one would admit to having hired him
** Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary, allegedly responsible for erasing 18 minutes of White House office recordings
***For brevity's sake, I did not use the prerequisite number of exclamation points generally used by the Left in such cases.
**** I know. Where's the mind bleach when you really need it?
Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art
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