Hello, 'Rons & 'Ettes. It's me again -- the Damn Dirty RINO you've all come to know and dread. I'm filling in for Maet tonight as he attends to important matters, but try not to despair. I'll make my best effort to suppress my long-winded tendencies and just get on with the links you've grown accustomed to here on the ONT over the years.

Having notched another calendar year on the planet this week, I've been doing a bit of introspection. And, frankly, I don't usually enjoy doing that. For some reason, every time I allow myself to start re-examining some of my life choices hitherto, it culminates in me sitting alone in a drunken stupor at the local Waffle Hut with the inner workings of a western omelet running down the front of my Yngwie Malmsteen t-shirt.

But, this year is different. This year, I've decided seize the initiative.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 06:00 PM | Comments (726)
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Stace McCain has a post about a guy who now works for Chris Hughes, a FaceBook billionaire who bought the bastion of White Skin Privilege The New Republic, complaining that Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post means "the other guys had won..."

I invite you to read this with the following lens in mind: Consider this particular idiot's interest in maintaining the Privileges and Immunities of the New Class to which he belongs, and his anger at parvenue interlopers like Jeff Bezos threatening those Privileges and Immunities. The New Class is very proud of its central role in the drama called The American Political and Social Discussion. This is their status; this is their value.

And if outsiders claim to be worthy of playing roles in this scripted play? Well, that means less spotlight time for the New Class.

And look at Jeff Bezos. Why, you can practically smell the ink still drying on Bezos' money. I mean, rrrreally.

Is it so terrible that a self-made billionaire now owns the Post rather than a clan of heiresses and nepots? Yes it is, from his point of view, as those heiresses and nepots actually flatter his Class by pretending themselves to be on the same plane (that is, those of the actual higher class condescend to the New Class) whereas, well, who knows about this Bezos character with his weird thoughts about "profitable enterprises" and "capitalistic zeal."

And why no grousing about his own billionaire employer? Wellll... I'd imagine that Chris Huges, being a longtime and major Democratic fundraiser and supporter, has sufficiently made his bones, as they'd say in LCN, and thereby established and proven his fidelity to the New Class this wannabe aristocratic twit (sp?) belongs to.

And, Obama's on Leno tonight. He may be the first member of the media to ask Obama about terrorism, and maybe even the new Benghazi revelations.

And, Open Thread.

And, The Middle Class.

Posted by: Ace at 04:14 PM | Comments (232)
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Wendy Davis told John McCormack that she didn't know what happened in the Gosnell case, using the ploy of Strategic Ignorance to avoid his next question (What do you think we should do to avoid future Gosnells?).

She claimed she had no idea of what happened in Gosnell's clinic, despite launching a filiibuster against a law directly inspired by Gosnell, then added all she did know about Gosnell was that he operated a regulated ambulatory surgical center.

Which is a strange thing to have as the One Thing you know about Gosnell. It would be as if a friend just said something about John Wayne Gacy's clown paintings, then you say, "Yeah, I guess we can see the hints that he was a serial killer of young runaway boys," and then he goes, "Whazthatnow? Serial killer? You mean John Wayne Gacy, celebrated painter of clowns, killed someone? You're saying that the Thomas Kincaid of red floppy shoes is some kind of serial killer? Wow. Mind. Blown. Whoa. I totally did not see that one coming."

Anyway, she made this risible claim as part of her argument that:

1) Gosnell's ambulatory surgical center was unregulated.

2) All other ambulatory surgical centers are regulated, ergo

3) We have no need of a law requiring regulation of ambulatory surgical centers which perform abortions.

And is that true? Is it true that abortion centers are always regulated, and it was just Gosnell's that escaped a look-see by authorities?

No of course not. As a member of the thuggish left she is more or less required to lie with every utterance.

The left calls this "having a fighting spirit."

Posted by: Ace at 03:24 PM | Comments (115)
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Because the Middle Class.

I have lightly added to this report by John Nolte to make it more relevant for our current political debate.

A Monmouth University poll released late last week And the Middle Class was notable for the fact that, like many other polls, it showed President Obama upside down on job approval with registered voters--41% approve to 54% disapprove Fighting for Jobs for the Middle Class. A closer look, though, reveals the poll's most startling find: Obama has lost credibility with the middle class, and also, More Importantly, The Middle Class. When asked if Obama is sincere about refocusing his presidency on the middle class, And the Middle Class, only 46% believe it, Middle Class, while a full 50% do not, Middle Class or Not Middle Class All That Matters to Me Is the Middle Class.

Independents are more skeptical than overall voters And The Middle Class. A full 54% (the number 50% represents what might be termed "The Middle Class of Percentages") don't believe the president, while only 42% do.

And the Middle Class.

And the Middle Class.

And the Middle Class.

As Ike Turner said to Tina, I only beat you because I love The Middle Class.

Posted by: Ace at 02:42 PM | Comments (220)
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The Justice Department has been so hands-off this guy you'd think he racially intimidated voters in Philadelphia.

Thank CNN for making this happen, seriously. Khattalah has been embarrassing the White House for the better part of year, happily chirping to western media that he’s free as a bird despite fingers having been pointed at him as a possible ringleader of the attack since last October. The straw that likely broke the camel’s back, though, was CNN airing its own interview with Khattalah just last week — while taking care to emphasize that, although the feds allegedly had never approached him, they had no trouble getting him to sit down for a two-hour interview. That’s one “smart power” humiliation too far. Between that and Thursday’s bombshell about the CIA’s mysterious activities in Benghazi during the attack, the White House had to do something. The closer we get to the anniversary of the attack, the more nakedly political the charges would look; why not act now, while most of the public’s distracted by the big Al Qaeda terror threat in Yemen?

Posted by: Ace at 02:05 PM | Comments (111)
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I'm just catching up on this. Live feed of press conference in progress.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:23 PM | Comments (228)
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Don to Dawn to Don.

If this sounds weird, it's not. It's weirder. Apparently he had a bout of amnesia and completely forgot his last fourteen years of living as a (sorta) woman. He actually accused his wife of having faked his gender transformation.

It's kind of like a version of Total Recall you don't really want to see. Quaid, get your ass to Forever 21.

ABC News editor Don Ennis strolled into the newsroom in May wearing a little black dress and an auburn wig and announced he was transgender and splitting from his wife. He wanted to be called Dawn.

But now he says he suffered from a two-day bout of amnesia that has made him realize he wants to live his life again as Don.

“I accused my wife of playing some kind of cruel joke, dressing me up in a wig and bra and making fake ID’s with the name ‘Dawn’ on it. Seriously,” Ennis wrote in an e-mail to friends and colleagues Friday, explaining his shock after he woke up from what he called a “transient global amnesia” last month.

“It became obvious this was not the case once I took off the bra — and discovered two reasons I was wearing one,” he said, referring to his hormone-induced breasts.

I don't understand the part about "accusing his wife." I guess he means by the phone? I can't see her having stuck around through his fourteen years of gender peregrinations.

But if he was calling her on the phone, wouldn't he know that she'd left him, which would imply that years had gone by, which... Eh forget it it's like trying to work out the last scene in Back to the Future.

“I thought it was 1999 . . . and I was sure as hell that I was a man,” Ennis said in the e-mail titled “Not Reportable, Very Confirmed.”

“Fortunately, my memories of the last 14 years have since returned. But what did not return was my identity as Dawn,” said Ennis, who had been wearing lipstick, skirts and heels.

“I am writing to let you know I’m changing my name . . . to Don Ennis. That will be my name again, now and forever. And it appears I’m not transgender after all.

All this email needs is an "And I'm all better now" and a string of uncrackable Zodiac-style codes made up of hermaphroditic stick-figures for an Act 3 and baby we've got a movie.

Corrected: I called him a reporter. He's an editor.

Well, biologically he's an editor. Who knows what he is "in his heart."

Posted by: Ace at 01:09 PM | Comments (317)
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As Allah points out a lot, Rubio has lost so much standing with his Amnesty Follies that he's required to be More Catholic Than the Pope on every other issue.

Still, this is very helpful. The media has spent some time elevating Rubio because of his willingness to shill for amnesty. We might as well use that media-created cachet for our own purposes.

“[T]here has to be some point at which we say, ‘Look, this is the issue where we draw the line,’” Rubio said. “I mean, on this issue we’re willing to fight no matter what the consequences, politically or otherwise. If that issue is not Obamacare, I can’t understand what issue it would be. And that’s the point I tried to make — of all the issues out there, if there was one issue that we should be willing to go to the limit on, this is it. I mean, you look at the impact this thing is going to have October 1 on every aspect of our economy. There’s literally not one aspect of our economy that is not negatively affected by Obamacare. And if that’s not an issue we’re willing to fight to the end on, I’m not sure there is such an issue that we’d be will to do that on.”

Rubio argued the House has the power to pass a bill that would defund Obamacare and then send it to the Senate. If the Senate, led by the Democratic Party, chose to dismiss that bill and opt to shut down the government, the onus would be on the Senate, a point he said had not been made enough.

BTW, this has started out a Bad Blogging Day and it will continue along that track. So it's going to be quickie links today. Apologies.

Posted by: Ace at 11:48 AM | Comments (191)
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Alex Witt has discovered the budget-busting capacity of ObamaCare in the form of all those trillion-dollar votes to repeal it.

MSNBC anchor Alex Witt is still steaming over the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. On SaturdayÂ’s edition of her program Weekends with Alex Witt, the host spent considerable time fuming about the House GOPÂ’s 40th attempt to thwart ObamaCare, even hilariously worrying that the repeal votes were costing taxpayers money.

Addressing Jackie Kucinich of The Washington Post, Witt inquired, with no hint of irony, “So Jackie, these votes, do they cost money? I mean, are people wasting time and costing taxpayers money by holding these votes?”

You can see how ridiculous someone might have looked saying such a thing at the link.

Posted by: Ace at 11:13 AM | Comments (179)
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Opening argument for MAJ Hasan's court martial for the Fort Hood killings was today. Hasan is representing himself. Notably, he would have pleaded guilty except that you can't plead guilty to a capital offense under the UCMJ.

Not to worry, he's happy to tell the jury all about it:

The Army shrink accused of staging the Fort Hood massacre admitted Tuesday that "the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter."

...

A son of Palestinian immigrants who grew up in Virginia, Hasan also does not deny shouting "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" — before committing the deadliest mass shooting ever on a U.S. military base.

I hope somebody set aside a supply of sodium pentobarbital for him.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:24 AM | Comments (260)
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