This would be delicious.

Other than financing a few fringe libertarian publications, the Kochs have mostly avoided media investments. Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune CompanyÂ’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.

By early May, the Tribune Company is expected to send financial data to serious suitors in what will be among the largest sales of newspapers by circulation in the country. Koch Industries is among those interested, said several people with direct knowledge of the sale who spoke on the condition they not be named. Tribune emerged from bankruptcy on Dec. 31 and has hired JPMorgan Chase and Evercore Partners to sell its print properties.

The papers, valued at roughly $623 million, would be a financially diminutive deal for Koch Industries, the energy and manufacturing conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., with annual revenue of about $115 billion.

Politically, however, the papers could serve as a broader platform for the KochsÂ’ laissez-faire ideas. The Los Angeles Times is the fourth-largest paper in the country, and The Tribune is No. 9, and others are in several battleground states, including two of the largest newspapers in Florida, The Orlando Sentinel and The Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. A deal could include Hoy, the second-largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, which speaks to the pivotal Hispanic demographic.

Yes, newspapers are dying but they still have their uses. The key to buying them would be not branding them as "conservative" (libertarian in actually) but keep them "mainstream". Don't ghettoize yourself, just make some key personnel appointments and let nature take its course.

The New York Times doesn't call itself "liberal" it just does its thing. Conservatives need to adopt that model.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:19 PM | Comments (509)
Post contains 322 words, total size 2 kb.

Our friend Andy is somewhere in Georgia terrorizing wild turkeys. Or drinking Wild Turkey. Maybe both*. I am your substitute gun guy today. I don't do this for a living you know, so let's do this thing. Let's have sex.

Where to start.. Oooo.. Andy left me a template. Lessee here...

Gun Thread April 21 2013

CONTENT

Ok I think content goes here. The United States Senate engaged in some superflous idiotic drama in the wake of Newtown (never let a crisis go to waste) and attempted to push the leftish gun-grabbing agenda with some incremental anti Second Amendment nonsensical legislation. Hurried law is bad law, see New York state.

They started with a) ban "assault weapons" (a non-sequitor, all weapons may be used to assault persons), 2) ban high-capacity magazines (washed up overactor Jim Carrey screamed about this for weeks, along with carnival barker Piers Morgan) and 4) enhanced background checks, whatever the hell those are.

The Brady bill (1993? I don't feel like lookin it up) established the National Instant Criminal Background Check system, which is managed by the FBI. If you purchase a firearm from a dealer with an FFL, you are subject to the requirements of this law before you can take possession of the weapon. In some states (like TEXAS mofos!) proof of a previous background check or possession of a state-issued concealed carry license is considered as fulfilling the requirements of this law.

So if I bought a weapon today, I still have to fill out form 4473, but they don't have to call me in. Incidentally that's the form that Buzz Lightyear didn't complete when he was buying a used AR-15 which requires you to declare whether the weapon is for you or somebody else. Also he's an idiot.

Anyway, our pal Slublog had some very smart things to say about the response of President Obama who threw down after getting beaten in this round, pitching a fit in his Rose Garden press conference surrounded by props. You should read it all, but this was my favorite part:

Still, the president wasn't just angry because he lost. He was angry because he lost to people who hold an opinion he's unable and unwilling to understand and who he seems to regard as beneath him. Last night, Obama showed us the anger that lurks under the no-drama exterior and revealed what we on the right have known for years - he's thoroughly a man of the left, and shares the left's contempt for those who believe that the second amendment is not a collective right, but an individual right for a collective purpose - ultimately, the preservation of a "free state." Our belief in individual liberty makes us inconvenient, and our refusal to acquiesce to the Benevolent and All-Knowing, All Providing Nanny State makes us barriers to the goals of the left.

Bitter clingers.

Gun Of The Week

(answer below)

This must be where the gun of the week goes. Ok.

Marksmanship Award

All the LEOs who shot the shit out of that boat where the second asshole bombing brother was bleeding out.

That boat's got more holes in it than my alibi about last Saturday night.

more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:15 AM | Comments (384)
Post contains 691 words, total size 5 kb.

AlextheChick: The Early Years

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the randomly scattered, yet with deeper, hidden patterns Sunday Morning Book Thread here at the award-winning AoSHQ.

I don't have a big 'theme' for the book thread this time, so here are some random, book-related items that have been knocking around inside my head this week.

On the Reading of Exhausting Books

In the comments of last week's thread, Molly k. wrote:

I had been thinking about Gulag Archipelago since the day it was featured in the "reading part" of the thread. I found a used copy on Ebay and it showed up yesterday. I got through the first 40 pages last night before I fell asleep. It has potential I think but it's a slow read. The writing in the book I got is so small I almost need a magnifier to read it.

I wanted to reply to this last week, but since I am still unable to post a comment, I couldn't. So I hope Molly is here to read this. Here is what I say about that: Yes, I agree. Archipelago a slow read, and can be very tedious. At least, parts of it. For example, in the chapter on getting arrested by the commie authorities, Solzhenitsyn goes into mind-numbing detail concerning who got arrested, when they got arrested, how they got arrested, what sorts of arrests characterized different years of the post-tsarist, commie era, interspersed with eyewitness accounts of atrocities committed by the authorities, and also some of Solzhenitsyn's biographical details. This last bit is important. You can skim through much of this stuff if you like, but be careful, because without warning, Solzhenitsyn will suddenly start talking about himself, how he came to run afoul of the Soviet authorities, how he was sent to prison, etc. So you don't want to miss out on that. Also, he makes a number of references to Russian history and literature, and expects the reader to know what he's talking about. I stumbled many times over these things.

Solzhenitsyn is doing this for a reason, and not because he's a Russian writer who writes long, tedious books. He wants Lenin's/Stalin's/Krushchev's/etc. atrocities to be recorded for the sake of history so they won't be forgotten. Frequently, what he has put into print in the Archipelago series exists no one else. If it weren't for him, the commies would have succeeded in covering it up, keeping it hidden, and eventually, flushing it down the memory hole. So all of these details that read so tediously to us are vitally important to have in there, so they may be kept alive, so that the world may remember, and evil may be confronted with its own fruits.

I encourage you to stick with it. If necessary, limit your reading to a little bit at a time. I think you'll find it's worth the effort.
more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:04 AM | Comments (206)
Post contains 1258 words, total size 8 kb.

Ball status: DROPPED (with apologies for the NYT link):

The F.B.I. responded to the [Russians'] request in 2011 by checking “U.S. government databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history,” it said in a statement.

In January 2011, two counterterrorism agents from the bureau’s Boston field office interviewed Tamerlan and family members, a senior law enforcement official said on Saturday. According to the F.B.I.’s statement, “The F.B.I. did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign,” and conveyed those findings to “the foreign government” by the summer of 2011. (emphasis added)

Yet ...

After TamerlanÂ’s visit to Dagestan and Chechnya, signs of alienation emerged. One month after he returned to the United States, a YouTube page that appeared to belong to him was created and featured multiple jihadist videos that he had endorsed in the past six months. One video featured the preaching of Abdul al-Hamid al-Juhani, an important ideologue in Chechnya; another focused on Feiz Mohammad, an extremist Salafi Lebanese preacher based in Australia. He also created a playlist of songs by a Russian musical artist, Timur Mucuraev, one of which promoted jihad, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists. (emphasis added)

That's some awesome police work there, FBI.

What, we found out he didn't have a Chechen Jihadi MySpace account and wasn't a member of Friends of Hamas, so we just checked the boxes and closed his file?

I mean, I know law enforcement has a hard job to do, and some of this is like looking for a needle in a haystack. But it's beginning to look like this guy had a big, red ribbon tied to the needle.

Posted by: andy at 03:05 AM | Comments (665)
Post contains 313 words, total size 2 kb.

So my wife was on a domestic business trip and found this bag of what she thought was licorice. Since I am hopelessly addicted to the stuff she bought it, with the bonus of it being a perfect example of our hopelessly racist society.

Too bad it was thoroughly mediocre "chocolate licorice," whatever that is.

And did I say domestic?

I meant Hong Kong.

The next time I hear one of my many idiot relatives spout off about our supposedly racist attitudes, I will throw this in his face. We are, as many of the globe trotting Morons will attest to, one of the least racist countries on earth, and don't let anyone say otherwise.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:23 PM | Comments (595)
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

As usual, and sadly, when you want in-depth news coverage of American events, you should probably start with the British Press.

In this case, it's the Daily Mail. And, boy, do they have a weird story today about the 3 people who were taken into custody following the capture of Jihadi Terror Suspect #2.

The main part of the story is getting the attention, and prompted the Drudge link: one of the Bombers friends taken into custody had a "Terrorista #1" license plate.

But there is something else about the story that is buried at the end that bothers me. This is a case where a lot of time will be spent determining the nature and extent of these bombers international ties, whether the first suspects relatively recent trips to Russia meant anything significant, and whether they were part of a larger cell. Keeping that in mind, these paragraphs are buried in the Mail story:

The neighbour said that when the the police raided the apartment there were armed officers on the tennis court out the back on a tennis court lying down with their guns pointed towards the apartment.

The FBI later brought a U-Haul truck to the rear of the apartment but did not take anything away.

The neighbour said that when the boys were led out she heard ‘scuffles’ and that they were led away with their hands in zip ties.

The neighbour said ‘I’ve not spoken to them since the bombings. They have thick accents so I find it hard to understand them anyway.

Two Russian speaking men in their early 20s later arrived at the apartment and told reporters they were journalists from the Boston Globe.

They then entered the apartment through an unlocked patio door. When asked what they were doing they said: ‘We are friends of theirs. They are talking, they are talking’ and closed the door.

When Mail Online rang the City desk of the Boston Globe, a man said: ‘We’re very busy right now. Consider us informed’.

If accurate, this seems very strange to me. Does the Globe have two 20-something year old Russian speaking men on staff? Did they send two "journalists" out to "check out/gain entry" to the apartments of the 3 people in custody? Were these guys lying to gain entry? If the Globe doesn't have these folks on staff, who were they?

I really doubt that these self-proclaimed "friends" of the 3 people in custody went over and let themselves in to the apartment out of an abundance of concern for whether the plants were watered or pets fed. If I'm right to be skeptical, what were they doing there? When did they leave? How long did they stay? Did they remove anything?

Apparently, the Daily Mail's journalists found this behavior odd also, as they called the Globe to report it.

Maybe there is an innocent explanation for all this. After all, the FBI had already swept the place. But, given the story arc of this case, I don't think this story should be ignored. I hope that whatever the Mail witnessed is being checked out by the appropriate authorities.

Anyway, I don't blog much anymore, but this Mail story just seems strange to me. Could be nothing. Could be something. Thought I'd at least throw this story out there before it got lost in the rush of events, as it seems like something that ought not be overlooked as the investigation into the people associated with this horrible act of terror continues.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm @jackmcoldcuts. Thanks for reading this far.

Posted by: Jack M. at 10:38 AM | Comments (386)
Post contains 627 words, total size 4 kb.

Schumer: Senate immigration bill would make country safer. Really?

"Our bill, while certainly it gives a path to citizenship and legalizes people right away, we will know the identities of everybody. And that makes the country safer," Schumer said in an interview with Univision set to air Sunday. "So I think our bill would actually – it's too early to tie it to any specific incident – but overall, it'll make the country a lot safer."

Image source. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:58 PM | Comments (756)
Post contains 631 words, total size 6 kb.

If you started out with a completely random bullshit Bing/Google search for some phrase like "petulent aluminum cows stampede", how many clicks are needed to reach every reachable place on the internet? My theory is the answer is 5 or less.
more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:52 AM | Comments (179)
Post contains 122 words, total size 1 kb.

Via Mickey Kaus...who could have seen this coming? I mean, besides everyone.

“I think no one can go back and guess or surmise how much the unpaid taxes would be for the entire group,” said David Marzahl, the president and CEO of the Center for Economic Progress, a group that works on tax issues with low-income and immigrant groups.

Negotiators had to choose between a hard-line approach favored by Republicans, like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), that would have required immigrants and employers to painstakingly piece together a tax history so the government could collect what is owed and a less burdensome option of focusing on people who already have a past-due bill with the Internal Revenue Service.

They chose the milder approach and punted the details to the Treasury Department and IRS to hash out down the road.

The legislation now simply requires any currently undocumented immigrant to pay “any applicable federal tax liability.” That most likely means that only those people who filed tax paperwork like a W-2 or I-9 form with their employer could potentially be hit by a tax bill, and only if they missed a tax payment in the past.

...

Negotiators continued using the term “back taxes” when selling the plan and trying to allay concerns among conservatives that the proposal would not be tough enough on immigrants who entered the country illegally.

“The term back taxes is part of their lingo, but I think what people want is to make sure people are paying their fair share,” said Marshall Fitz, the director of immigration policy at the liberal Center for American Progress. “There isn’t this punitive retribution mentality like you have to go back and correct all of your mistakes.”

The dishonesty of the amnesty crowd is breathtaking even by the usual low standards of politics. Of course, since they won't even admit it's amnesty (and it is amnesty), this isn't anything remotely surprising.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:03 AM | Comments (272)
Post contains 356 words, total size 2 kb.

Posted from my turkey blind.

Talk quietly.

Posted by: andy at 04:01 AM | Comments (455)
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.