Likelihood of Success

Ron Coleman’s pretty good blog

Archive for the ‘Politics and Poker’ Category

Brown Palace Hotel and brownshirts in Denver

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 27, 2008

The CensorThese days you’d think that perhaps (maybe from reading my other blog) free expression, commercial or otherwise, were solely an Internet issue, and the MSM is mostly on the other side of it, hiding behind some pretextual body of law or another. (And perhaps you’d think free expression were solely a suntan lotion issue!) But it’s not:

DENVER–Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit. . . .

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Read the whole article (via Glenn Reynolds), which includes language we don’t even bleep out at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® or here, and video.

Pretty bad. It’s actually chilling when they don’t merely have lawyers send letters but use blue muscle to prevent the press from doing its job. I think they call that “prior restraint”? I don’t know what could possibly be in that “signed complaint” from the Brown Palace Hotel to justify this — should we ask them?

Maybe this is one Floyd Abrams could actually win?

UPDATE:  Glenn links back here (thanks) and to this story from the Washington Post, which includes this gem:

Jamie Glennon, a spokeswoman for Denver’s Joint Information Center, said Eslocker “was advised numerous times by the police before he was apprehended to stop blocking the sidewalk and entryway to the hotel.”

Yeah, “joint information” sounds about right!  Rocky Mountain high and all.  Either that or — despite how they look in the picture — those Denver sidewalks are mi-i-i-i-ighty narrow.

Cross-posted on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®.

Posted in Medialites, Oppression, Politics and Poker | 12 Comments »

I didn’t write this myself

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 25, 2008

David Greenberg writes in Slate:

Biden’s exit from the 1988 race is worth recalling in detail, because his transgressions far exceeded Obama’s own relatively innocent lifting of rhetorical set pieces from his friend Deval Patrick, which occasioned a brief flap last February. Biden’s misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect.

It turns out, in fact, that Biden’s just meshuga. But yeah, let’s not forget! Let’s talk all about it. After all, he’s a U.S. Senator, right? We assume he’s a crook. But no, Biden really did take the art form of political prevarication to a new height:

Biden admitted . . . that while in law school he had received an F for a course because he had plagiarized five pages from a published article in a term paper that he submitted. . . .

For all these disclosures, Biden remained unbowed. “I’m in the race to stay, I’m in the race to win, and here I come,” he declared. That meant, of course, that his days were numbered. . . .

“I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect,” Biden sniped at the voter. “I went to law school on a full academic scholarship.” That claim was false, as was another claim, made in the same rant, that he graduated in the top half of his law-school class. Biden wrongly stated, too, that he had earned three undergraduate degrees, when in fact he had earned one—a double major in history and political science. Another round of press inquiries followed, and Biden finally withdrew from the race on Sept. 23.

Political comedy gold! Yes, Joe Biden was Bill Clinton before we’d heard of Bill Clinton, and for far less, too. At least he’s not skinny. I guess it’s a function of when your political involvement gelled: For me, when I think of Joe Biden, I instantly think of the plagiarism. Then the goofiness. Then the hair.

UPDATE: Thoughts, and second thoughts, from Glenn Reynolds.

MORE:  More!

Posted in Narcissus Rex, O Mores!, Politics and Poker | 2 Comments »

The last best trope

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 24, 2008

Instapundit:

IN THE MAIL: I CAN’T SEE THAT MANY INSTAPUNDIT READERS buying this book. On the other hand, the back-cover question — “How many Democrats does it take to lose the most winnable election in American history” — looks like it may be answered . . . .

Do you ever think about how many consecutive presidential elections Democrats have characterized as “the most winnable election in American history”? I would say that would include every single election that a Republican has won since since after 1980. (No one would have described Carter’s reelection campaign that way.)

This is not merely because Democrats exist in a friendly-media echo chamber. It is because they are constitutionally unable to acknowledge the existence of two sides of issues, much less elections, with any degree of objectivity :

Abortion is not a controversial practice; it is a fundamental human right. Same-sex “marriage” is not a stunning social innovation; it is a basic civil liberty. And George W. Bush… Ronald Reagan… and now John McCain… these are not merely men of unusual achievement and leadership whose views one may disagree with, however vociferously; they are mental and moral midgets deserving of the deepest contempt and comparison with the greatest war criminals of history.

That’s why they think it will do to throw up the likes of the awful candidates they have to oppose, and to argue with a straight face that a silver-spoon mediocrity such as John Kerry is axiomatically superior to a George W. Bush because the latter is alleged to be a silver-spoon mediocrity. That makes perfect sense to a Democrat. Yours is Hitler; what else do you need to know about ours, except that he is very, very great by contrast, and that anyone who disagrees is also a Nazi?

That is why, for Republicans, at the presidential level just about every election is “the most winnable election in American history” — no matter how many times and how unabashedly the national media crown the next JFK. From time to time, Democrats will come up with a Bill Clinton, whose moment will be right, and they will win a cycle of four or eight. But by and large they do not engage seriously, and have no memory; not the slightest understanding of why the galant, heroic John Kerry lost to the most wicked, dumbest President ever in the middle of the wrongest, most immoral war ever waged.

Democrats consider every election to be theirs for the taking because they are so obviously right about such clear axioms of political and moral reality that it hardly matters who leads the ticket, who shares it, or what they say along the way. Every election is theirs to lose because only an idiot or a murderer could disagree with them on the issues.

It is this fact remains our last, best hope. And when time to time it fails us, it is always there next time, not because we believe it, but because they do.

UPDATE:  It rolls on!  “Democratic operatives are enraged that the ‘most arrogant bunch’ they ever saw are ‘on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics.'”

Posted in Medialites, Politics and Poker | 1 Comment »

Check, please!

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 19, 2008

Lee Stranahan on the John Edwards scandal:

It’s already becoming something people are talking about informally but it’s just a matter of time before lawsuits start because it’s becoming clear that Edwards used campaign money to take his girlfriend on the road with him. Times are hard and this could become a new and innovative economic stimulus plan for Democrats.

(Via IP.) That’s a good one.

Hey, wasn’t Senator Edwards a crack trial lawyer in his day? Let’s see how he works the defense table. (UPDATE:  Great minds….)

Less funny:

New information breaks on the front page of the New York Times last Friday and a DailyKos diarist writes about it. The response is largely pictures of kittens and recipes and people telling the writer to STFU; same basic response that I got when writing about Edwards before I was banned. Yes, I have a personal stake in this but it’s also news. The L.A. Times ran a piece on the ‘feud’ between Kos and me. Markos lied about never having heard of me. His upcoming book has a ‘review’ blurb on Amazon by Elizabeth Edwards. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence, though.

What does Glenn Reynolds say? “Meet the new Kos, same as the old boss…”

Posted in Politics and Poker | 1 Comment »

Imagery Award for August

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 19, 2008

John Hawkins on Roseanne Barr’s blog follies:

[P]icture Kos sitting down to write for a couple of hours, but getting drunk first and then having a complete mental breakdown. Ok, now you know what Roseanne’s blog is like.

Of course we’re mostly grateful he didn’t ask us to picture… Roseanne Barr.

Posted in Americana, Blogophilia, Politics and Poker, Sisyphus | Leave a Comment »

Bloggers use deoderants, eat cupcakes

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 13, 2008

The headline reads:

Bloggers enraged over “pretty face” fakery – Yahoo! News

What does the story have to do with bloggers?  Not a darned thing!

Bloggers were up in arms on Wednesday over China’s decision at the Olympic opening ceremony to have a pretty little girl lip-synching for the real singer who had crooked teeth.

Many said they felt cheated because one of the most touching moments of the critically acclaimed ceremony was not the real deal.

“Frankly, I think that’s disgusting. Honestly, they’re seven and nine years old! So young!” one New York teenage girl wrote angrily in her blog.

Pay no attention!

Pay no attention!

And so on.  So what’s going on here?

It looks as if Reuters doesn’t want to get China angry, so it’s not writing the story the bloggers are writing.  It’s merely writing a story about… what bloggers are writing.  Hey, they’re writing about the “pretty face” thing!  Those wacky bloggers!

How well is that going to work?  Talk about lip-synching!

Posted in Medialites, Oppression, Politics and Poker | 1 Comment »

Beyond resolution

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 10, 2008

It’s not the extramarital affair part, any more than it was with Bill Clinton or Eliot Spitzer, that makes the story-with-a-story about John Edwards newsworthy. Rather it was the indignant denials from his “camp,” the hypocrisy from someone who made moral judgment of others the linchpin of his platform. And in this case — arguably unlike the others — it’s the gross media favoritism shown in ignoring, even squashing, a legitimate news story about a liberal candidate even as both equivalent news and even utterly unsubstantiated smears about conservatives are regarded as fair game in the MSM.

It was last March when I wrote:

John Edwards — whom, I will admit, I never liked politically, though of course our sympathy must go out to him and his family on a personal level — is one of two things:

Either merely an inveterate liar, or a complete moral retard. Democrats are certainly used to having one or the other of those as their candidate, but chances are there’s at least one better one in this year’s field.

I took some heat in the comments back then and played with this issue like an old piece of gum. Well. Is our choice any clearer now?

UPDATE: Hey, and maybe it actually even mattered?

UPDATE: Ouch!  (And more ouch.)

Posted in Americana, Medialites, Narcissus Rex, O Mores!, Politics and Poker | 5 Comments »

The lights go out in Georgia

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 10, 2008

It’s not even close:

U.S.-allied Georgia called a unilateral cease-fire — “We are not crazy,” said President Mikhail Saakashvili — and claimed its troops were retreating Sunday from the disputed province of South Ossetia in the face of Russia’s far superior firepower. Russia said the soldiers were “not withdrawing but regrouping” and refused to recognize a truce.

The tactical reality is completely besides the point, actually. The Georgia adventure will always be remembered as Putin’s Grenada: An opportunity to rationalize a strategically meaningful, but far more symbolically significant, local annoyance into a mismatched demonstration of new resolve, a shaking off of reluctance to utilize force, and an opportunity for cheaply-bought national pride. For Putin, it is all that and more, seeing as how his project is so essentially revanchiste, and the ongoing existence of Georgia both as an independent state and a putative American ally is an ongoing poke in the eye to his neostalinist dreams.

Roger Kimball’s article (via Glenn) comparing the McCain and Obama statements on the situation also demonstrates nicely how, like the Grenada invasion, the Putin war on Georgia has the quality of distilling a wide range of political and moral realities. So many Cold War moments do.

Cross-posted on Dean’s World.

Posted in Euroids, Oppression, Past is prologue, Politics and Poker, Stragety | 2 Comments »

Vanity press

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 7, 2008

Instapundit links to a Drudge report that no one is buying Nancy Pelosi’s book. That’s hardly surprising; most congressional “leaders” are uninspiring and uninspired. The support of their respective caucuses is in fact a counter-indication of originality or boldness, which are just about the only thing anyone reading a book by a politician can hope for. (Unless he’s really skinny, I guess.)

The sad part for Pelosi is that the practice by which publishers bestow massive donations on their favored politicians via utterly unrecoverable publishing “advances” was barred by the House of Representatives. Therefore she could not get even a fraction of the phenomenal sweetheart advance paid to then Senator-elect Hillary Clinton for her various scribblings — which, while they were bought by many, still did not come close to earning out the advance paid by a publishing industry supposedly beset by economic crisis.

That means Pelosi must have really thought people would want to buy her book.

Chilling. That’s what enough time in Congress does to people.

UPDATE: Left-wing “media monitor” Media Matters insists that the Hillary Clinton book did, in fact, earn out its advance — making it the exception that proves the rule, but an exception nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Gelt, Narcissus Rex, Politics and Poker | 7 Comments »

Timothy Noah, master of self parody

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 6, 2008

I kept checking to make sure this wasn’t just something I missed on April 1st, but no:

When white people are invited to think about Obama’s physical appearance, the principal

Boy, could this guy pass!

Boy, could this guy pass!

attribute they’re likely to dwell on is his dark skin. Consequently, any reference to Obama’s other physical attributes can’t help coming off as a coy walk around the barn. A whole genre of humor turns on this reality. A Slate colleague informs me that an episode of the TV sitcom Happy Days (“Fonzie’s New Friend”) had its 1950s-era characters nervously discussing the fact that a black man in their midst was so … skinny. Was it true that skinny people liked fried chicken? That they were good at basketball? And so on.

No, really. Seriously.

So we, who thought we could take some solace regarding our melanin deficiencies in our endowments of underlying flesh, turn out to be no-good racists again on that score too.

I feel like a bit, fat idiot.

UPDATE:  Racist idiot, that is.  (Via Glenn.) (Bumped.)

Posted in Homo sapiens, Politics and Poker, Sisyphus, Style | 4 Comments »