Breibart Rocks Weiner Presser; Weiner Does the Right Thing
Weiner takes full responsibility, not resigning. He seemed genuinely remorseful.
He didn't apologize to Breitbart, or Dan Wolfe, or any of the other people who got shit for reporting honestly on the story. UPDATE: Okay, he's apologized to Breitbart and anyone else whom he misled or caused troubles for.
Prior to Weiner's appearance, Breitbart arrived, and the press gaggle descended on him, asking that he take the podium. He used his access to CBS's live feed to excoriate the MSM and the left-blogging liars, including Kos. It was kind of surreal.
If you missed it, make sure you see it.
So, Joan Walsh, Tommy Christopher, Kos and tons of other lefty media folks probably should follow suit, I'm thinking.
UPDATE: Bryan Preston isn't easing up.
UPDATEx2: More Weiner.
UPDATEx3: Stacy rounds up all the important developments, with video, and one of Weiner's internet acquaintances tells her story, including Weiner's bragging about biffing famous people. Which we all do. Right?
KARL: Last question. Is it inappropriate for a member of Congress to be following young women on their Twitter accounts not even from their district? You have several young woman in your account, you…40,000 people follow you and you only follow a couple of hundred.
WEINER: It’s really outrageous. The implication is outrageous. First of all, if you ask the question, if it’s outrageous, I have a right to say it’s outrageous. It’s outrageous, first of all, to do apparently zero research on how I did Weiner Yes. I went out and I asked do people want me to follow you? I have followed people who have asked me to follow them. I follow many people. You know, I follow Sarah Palin. I follow Paul Ryan. I might even follow you. I mean, the fact of the matter is what you’re saying, to not understand how social networks work, do you really believe I know the age, I know the positions, I know the job descriptions of everyone who asks me to follow them because I say yes. Now, have I made the mistake of not putting up on my twitter page just because I follow you doesn’t mean I agree with you and doesn’t mean I know you. That’s intuitive. Anyone who understands social media today, I have 40,000 followers. I asked people…
UPDATEx5: It's Only Words isn't letting him off the hook that easily, either.
Thanks to Memeorandum for the mention . . . and the gigantic round-up.
Next Question, Please… How Many Pedos to Fill the Congressional Hall?
If the Pavre Weiner is found to have sent such images to underage women Teenage Girls - which, I will say right this moment, he will invariably be found to have done... THEN and only THEN will we really know why this Doucebag doesn't want the Authorities investigating anything.
My guess his "private investigators" is more likely an "online reputation management firm" - attempting to disinfect the intratubes.
It's coming. Money on it. For the record.
I say this, as a man who makes these sorts of... erm... substantial moral lapses in judgment... cannot be said to have any qualms - or abide anything so arbitrary as say the age of consent.
My thoughts now turn to his poor wife. WTF was this turd thinking?
I don't think this is going to end well for him.
I think this is where this unfortunate episode is heading.
CHEAP TRICK weighs in...
Words and music by rick nielsen
People all over the world
They get up they get down
They get in they get out
They get pushed, they go back
Start all over again
Till they get to the end
I'm from a small town
Had a poor family
Mama was sick, papa worked the factory
I led a rich life
Never had to work hard
House in the country
Horses in my backyard
Next position please
Do i have to get down on my knees
Next position please
I'm in a hurry, so hurry please
Read between the lines
Learn a new message
Read the latest book
It's a new twist
Be the first one to have a new ideal
You'll never get bored with mirrors on the ceiling
Next position please
Do i have to get down on my knees
Next position please
I'm in a hurry, so hurry please
People all over the world
They get up they get down
They get in they get out
They get pushed, they go back
Start all over again
Till they get to the end
I wanna move up within the company
I can do better with an opportunity
Why don't they use me instead of abuse me?
I'm ten out of ten, not some whore in some movie
I wanna be the biggest gun in the world
I wanna see the tits on every girl
Next position please
You have to get down on your knees
Next position please
I'm in a hurry, so hurry please
(repeat to coda)
MORE CHEAP TRICK
RadarOnline, Star Have Steamy 200-Tweet Correspondence Between Weiner, Twitter Hottie
Via Jammie Wearing Fool, who adds:
Dude. Is. Finished.
Depends on what he means by "finished," I guess.
HuffPo/AOL integration rumored going badly
But since the unemployment situation is worse than it was during the Great Depression, they're in good company.
McCain-Collins Institute for Therapeutic Breast Staring Announces New Division
Women all over the country are cashing in on what people are calling a mother's natural liquid gold: human breast milk. A month's supply can cost anywhere from $300 up to $1,200 dollars. In contrast, a month's worth of formula costs an average of $200.
For Kamilla Vainshtok and other women like her, the transactions – all done online – can literally "pump up" their income. "Onlythebreast.com is basically a Craigslist for breast milk," Vainshtok told "Good Morning America." "There's buyers and sellers, there's an opportunity for them to meet each other."
Considering the FDA's position on raw milk, it's surprising that they haven't yet interdicted this commerce. Experts have expressed concerns, though:
But the exchange is not without risk. What little screening there is is all based on the honor system.
That allows for so many unknowns -- such as the donor's medical background, said Dr. Judy Goldstein, a pediatrician with Global Pediatrics in Manhattan. Purchasers also don't know if the donor mother has been on drugs.
"The skin of the mother could be contaminated … then the breast pump has to be sterile…," Goldstein added.
In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recommend buying breast milk on the open market. Such transactions could lead to the transmission of disease. However, it does recommend buying milk from approved milk banks. It may cost more, but the dangers are reduced.
We are branching out to open a series of approved milk banks. This could be an awesome franchise opportunity for you. Ask me or Stacy for information.
The MCITBS: Milking Breasts for All They're Worth!
D-Day Public Pensions, Finance, and Unions 6June2011
We're not all about dick jokes and bitching about pretty people around here.
Well, not only.
WHERE ARE THE GOONS OF YESTERYEAR
Glenn Reynolds notes that public union clerks don't make for the most intimidating union muscle. Ah, instead of good old-fashioned thuggery, they have to go to the more lawyerly fashion of unaccountable judges... until all of a sudden they are accountable. Funny how that happens.
But let's not let it go at that - Althouse asks if Reynolds is calling the Wisconsin public employees a bunch of sissies, and a commenter points out that he's contrasting the old image of union workers as blue-collar workers with little leverage versus cubicle warriors with huge political war chests.
PUBLIC FINANCE
Muni bond issuance down half compared to last year. And it's not because they don't need the money. I like this: "Restricting bond issuance, though, limits a government's ability to spend." "Though"?! That's the whole point, dude. The credit rating dropping, the interest rates increasing, this is a signal to drop the spending, doofus. Yes, I understand the concern about infrastruture, but I bet there's quite a bit of wiggle room in the operational budget from which cash can be wrestled.
"Fun" interactive graphic: sovereign debt contagion. I recommend putting your cursor on the U.S. first and seeing who's exposed to our debt... and see that the risk isn't reciprocated. Bwa ha ha ha. Suckers.
Ireland has lessons for Obama? Silly Richard Wolf. Obama learn something from an entity outside himself? Surely you joke.
By the way, the euro zone hasn't really had its crisis yet.
CALIFORNIA
Liberal-vs-liberal in pension smackdown of the year! San Francisco treat. I call it just deserts.
A councilman who has cutting pensions as a top priority announces his run for San Diego mayor. Oddly, this is a game of Name That Party! It's odd, because pretty much every other politician has his party named in the article. Why not this guy? By the way, he's a Republican.
Special asst to governor (no, not the one dealing with women issues): you know what really helps prevent pension crises? Actually putting adequate money in the pension funds. It works wonders.
COLORADO
Denver could raise retirement age to 60 for city workers. Oh, the humanity!
More on the same.... and scroll to the bottom for a lovely quote from the council president saying that one shouldn't mess with a successful pension system... after all, they need to attract employees. Employees that have lots of options for DB pensions with a retirement age of 55, apparently.
CONNECTICUT
Bridgeport isn't doing so hot. They're asking for permission to make only a $7 million contribution, when the calculated required contribution is $13.5M....and they really would have to pay $24M to make the fund whole. This is how trouble can start.
ILLINOIS
So after the massive fake-out from the state legislature that they were actually doing something about pensions, it's time to regroup and consider the options. It has been noted by various parties that one really big problem is that contributions to the fund have been way too low for the level of benefits being promised. For a fun look at history (sorry this isn't pretty, but the numbers are inherently ugly) - here are the fundedness ratios (total assets / total liabilities) for various pension plans for the past 10 fiscal years:
System, FY2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Teachers’ Retirement System, 59.5, 52, 49.3, 61.9, 60.8, 62, 63.8, 56, 39.1, 40.5
State Employees’ Retirement System , 65.8, 53.7, 42.6, 54.2, 54.4, 52.2, 54.2, 46.1, 33.9, 31.4
State Universities Retirement System, 72.1, 58.9, 53.9, 66, 65.6, 65.4, 68.4, 58.5, 41.9, 40.2
Judges’ Retirement System, 40.7, 33.7, 30.7, 46.2, 45.7, 46.4, 48.4, 42, 31.2, 28.8
General Assembly Retirement System, 34.9, 29.3, 25.4, 40.1, 39.1, 37.1, 37.6, 32, 22.7, 21.7
All systems, 63.1, 53.5, 48.6, 60.9, 60.3, 60.5, 62.6, 54.3, 38.5, 38.3
[Take a gander at GARS: that's the politicians' pension... now I've got an idea to reduce the state's liabilities....and maybe here's a different way to give them an incentive to do their damn jobs. People are unimpressed by the inaction.]
The Illinois pols' idea of a responsible bet: casinos for Chicago. Double down! Double down!
NEW YORK
Oh, a kerfuffle has poofed in NYC. The Comptroller, who once upon a time claimed to be an actuary (though I can find no record of his ever having had credentials.... I could be wrong, though), has a convenient little report saying that the city pension costs are going to dramatically drop... as a percentage of the city budget. And how does that work out in absolute amount, Mr. Liu? Needless to say, Bloomberg is pissed, because this is taking away negotiation leverage from him....well, if this is at all legitimate.
I haven't read the report itself yet, so I will leave comments on it til a later date. Here's the press release, here's the summary, and here's the full report. People will get hung up on the fund return assumptions (and sure, they should), but I'm more concerned about liability assumptions (so that will take me a while, and I probably don't have enough info to figure out if it's reasonable). But let's see the assumption of the denominator....
To quote the press release:
1.City pension costs will increase nominally through FY 2016, after which they will decline as a percentage of the City’s expenditures and revenues.
Note: In FY 2012, pension cost is $7.3 billion or 11.1 percent of the City budget. By FY 2016, pension cost will rise to $8.3 billion or 11.4 percent of the city budget. The increase in pension cost through 2016 would not be materially impacted by new benefit changes or tiers that are applicable only to new employees
So, basically, there's a projected $1B increase in annual costs projected in a 5 year period. That's quite a bit, don't you think? Almost a 14% increase. So to keep the percentage of the city budget about level, it requires the city budget increasing by the same rate.
And hey, what are the costs as a percentage of salary?
3.The primary reason for declining pension costs is the phasing-in of new employees whose benefits are significantly lower than those offered to municipal workers in the past. Police and Fire Pension Funds will experience the most significant costs decreases over the next 30 years.
■Police will decrease from 65.1 percent of salary in FY 2010 to between 39.2 to 33.4 percent of salary in FY 2040.
■Fire will decrease from 83.1 percent of salary in FY 2010 to between 46.6 to 41.5 percent of salary in FY 2040.
Yeah.... that still sounds pretty high. That's just the pension cost. How much do you put away in your 401(k)? I'm thinking it's not 40% of your gross salary.
RHODE ISLAND
Moody's downgrades R.I. debt based on pension cost issues.
A little bit of history behind Providence's cushy retirement benefits that have all of a sudden become unsupportable. Except it was really 30 years in the making, not something that "just happened".
In particular, there are these nice disability pensions that it seems some rather non-disabled people are collecting.
TENNESSEE
Governor signs bills that squashes collective bargaining for teachers
UTAH
The state wins an award for facing reality. [Yes, it's all politics.]
WASHINGTON
Gentlemen, start your lawyers! Unions look to sue over COLA-removal law.
WISCONSIN
The benefits battle continues, this time with the public safety workers [usually considered untouchable]
Down. Goes. Weiner.
A new woman has come forward with what she claims are photographs, chats, and emails with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). These appear to undermine severely Rep. Weiner’s explanations that he was the victim of a “prank” or a “hack.”
The detailed new information suggests that the Brooklyn- and Queens-based representative and the young woman in question were involved in an online, consensual relationship involving the mutual exchange of intimate photographs.
BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com were approached regarding this information more than a week prior to the separate, independent event of Friday, May 27, 2011, when a link to the now-infamous “gray underwear” photograph appeared publicly on Rep. Weiner’s Twitter feed.
We will be updating BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com throughout the day with photographs, timelines, and other clarifying details. However, we will not be releasing all of the material because some of it is of an extreme, graphic nature.
Via @sami_shamieh
Crotching Tiger, Hidden Weiner.
*******
With this news, Twitter is abuzz with calls for Weiner to resign. Not gonna happen, even if Breitbart's bombshell is Daisy Cutter big. Besides, it's not as though NY-9 would elect a non-Dem under any circumstances.
No, with Da Techguy, I agree that it's best to have him there, much diminished, as a constant reminder of the double standards. TEA Partiers are wanting to demonstrate at his offices, but I think it's not a good idea. At least not yet. Let Breitbart unload whatever he's got, guys, and think about it again. Let's not get involved in any flashmobbing.
Weinergate: Whole Lotta Love
Patterico has up an excellent post about Tommy Christopher's investigation into Weiner's Twitter relations with the high school girls whom he styles Betty and Veronica to protect their identities. The time line evidence suggests that in fact Veronica was telling the truth to Mike Stack when she stated that Betty had some pretty innocuous DMs from the Congressman, but changed her story when Betty's parents and hers got involved. In stark contradistinction to @GennetteC's mom, Betty's parents have fulminated on behalf of Congressman Weiner and against his critics.
There's a third girl, whom Patterico is calling Ethel in keeping with the Archie motif, and the post outlines the communications between Betty and Gennette regarding Congressman Weiner's DMs. Ethel and Betty get into a squabble over Ethel's outright statement that she's in love with the married Congressman.
It's pretty elaborate, but it does make a solid case on the evidence that what Tommy Christopher has helped to publicize is an extensively revised account of the girls' communications with the Congressman and with each other. It's distressing that Veronica, who has used her actual name in her tweets, is taking the fall for having been forthcoming, too. Reading Patterico's post, you'll understand a little bit more why Dan Wolfe might have gotten spooked about the publicity.
As many people have stated, the Congressman's own behavior has been the most damning evidence against him. The sudden doubling of the number of people he was following on Twitter, in order to dilute the focus on the original 91 is a part of that, of course. The lies about hacking that turned into lies about pranking are another part. His ridiculous claim that he's hired a private security firm in order to prevent federal resources from having to be consumed with this matter is another, and his behavior toward the press, whom he habitually courts, yet another.
Ladd Ehlinger's pretty disgusted with Dan Wolfe in hindsight, but if it weren't for Wolfe, we wouldn't have been afforded this glimpse into the creepiness of this preening progg.
In what must be an ominous sign to Team Weiner, Andrew Breitbart said on radio today, according to Pat, that there's new information and that the story's nowhere near done, Pat notes. Michelle Malkin and others have noted that Weiner had the reputation of a skirt chaser, and an old Vanity Fair article that paints him that way has been making the rounds. All of this backs up Dan Wolfe's contention that he'd first homed in on Weiner not only for his politics, but also because of his spotlight hogging and the rumors that he'd seen circulated regarding potential scandal involving him.
The picnic continues.
Moving Day
More like moving week, actually, in that we're taking time to go through a bunch of garbage and, well, not move it. Yesterday, we had some friends and a rental truck (not telling which company unless they pay Dan for advertising) to move a bunch of our stored items and a few pieces of furniture that were on the main floor and easily moved. Today, I hired some professionals to move the heavy, awkward, and stair-case-requiring items. I may not be a genius, but I'm no moron and I like to keep my friends.
I'm freaking exhausted.
Last time we moved, it took us two runs in a 26 foot truck to go through the mountains. So far, I've made two runs in a 14 foot truck (not renting more) and the single trip by professionals focussing mainly on the furniture. Everything else will be transported by van or car in what will seem like 50 trips. Now, if I can just get the kids to contribute.
Did I mention I'm effing tired.
My Suspicion as to the Real Motivations Behind The San Fran “Circumcision Question”
With apologies to Dan for burying his more thoughtful post downpage.
1) Homosexuality - one mustn't maim young boys in this manner - if we can spare just one future gay possible lover/partner man from not being able to enjoy the base pleasure of "docking" - just one - he will be able to attain the penultimate in sexual disfigurement of his soul! The more, the merrier! Please, please, please turn my Cross into a Lifestyle!
2) Religion - Jews gave us Christianity! Bastards! Christians with their insistence on that damnable heterosexual orthodoxy. Christians with their refusal to see that human life is a resource belonging to Society! Jews and Christians with their insistence that there is some Creator God that deserves to be worshiped and expects Mankind to attain ever higher towards Perfection and further away from the basest and most animalistic desires! He gave us penises, after all: and that reason has nothing to do with procreation... but rather everything to do with blowing wads all over everything with complete abandon in whatever form of ejaculatory expression the human mind can conceive of. Our penises will not be oppressed! Our jyzz must be liberated and "splattered all over... Manhattan".
3) Pride - look at me! I am irreverent and offensive, daddy! I know better... about... everything! Nothing is sacrosanct. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is larger than me and my climax! Meat... must... be... satisfied!
4) Equivalence - It is no different than cutting the clitoris from a Muslim girl! Except, this regards boys and men... Girls, schmirls... I must have my unadulterated penis! Teh Docking!
5) Jews! JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSS!
6) Did I mention those dirty JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS?
Follow Dan!
All the Kool Kidz are doing it...
Creature Commentariat
- Mike Giles on Teh Gays and Teh Fashion of Starvation
- Enoch_Root on Teh Gays and Teh Fashion of Starvation
- Lance McCormick on Teh Gays and Teh Fashion of Starvation
- Enoch_Root on Teh Gays and Teh Fashion of Starvation
- Mary Mullane on Rasmussen: Consumer Confidence Falls to New 2 Year Low and other Polls
Categories
Recent Grist
- Teh Gays and Teh Fashion of Starvation
- Cruise Ship Tragedy & Bain Capital
- The Mansion of Your Life (an open letter to Grandchildren)
Feed the Kraken.
Sponsors
Blogroll
- A Voice from the Closet
- Ace of Spades HQ
- adeliemanchot
- American Power
- American Thinker
- Anchoress
- AnthropoCon
- Baby Troll Blog
- Backyard Conservative
- Bad Science
- Baldilocks
- Big Feed, The
- Big Government
- Big Hollywood
- Big Journalism
- Bit Maelstrom
- Blackfive
- Blog Prof
- Blogshevik, The
- Bob Belvedere
- Bookworm Room
- Brussels Journal
- Catawissa Gazetteer
- Chap-O-Matic
- Chris Wysocki
- Christopher Taylor
- Classic Liberal, The
- Coach Is Right
- Coalition of the Swilling
- Conservatives4Pailin.com
- Coordinated Illumination
- Corner at NRO
- Cranky Conservative
- Cynthia Yockey
- Da Techguy
- Daily Caller, The
- Daily Mush, The
- David Thompson
- DC Trawler, The
- Don Surber
- Doug Ross @ Journal
- Dustbury
- Emerging Corruption
- Eye of Polyphemus
- Fausta's Blog
- Feed Your ADHD
- From the Right Lane
- Front Page Mag
- Gateway Pundit
- Goldfish and Clowns
- Grand Rants
- HAEMET
- Heartland Murmurs
- Hot Air
- I Own the World
- I Wish I Was a Geordie
- IMAO
- Iowahawk
- Is This Blog On?
- James Gunn
- James Joyner
- Jammie Wearing Fool
- Javelina Bomb
- Jawa Report
- Jennifer Townsend Photography
- Jimmie Bise
- Johanna Hopes
- John Hawks Weblog
- Jookoos News
- Just Russ
- Kathleen McKinley (Rightwingsparkle)
- Kill Truck
- King Shamus
- Knifework
- Lead and Gold
- Legal Insurrection
- Liberty at Stake
- Liberty At Stake
- Lightning News, The
- Little Miss Attila
- Luminarium
- Maggie's Farm
- Man Pants (Ninnuh's blog)
- Mark Steyn
- Medary
- Meepbobeep's Journal
- Melanie Phillips
- memeorandum
- Mi Vida Loca
- Michael Yon
- Michelle Malkin
- Midnight Blue
- Mike Hendrix & Co.
- Mike in New Hampshire [RIP. Never forgotten]
- Mind Numbed Robot
- Miserable Donuts
- Moxie
- MsUnderestimated
- My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
- Naked Empress
- Natural Born Conservative
- Neo-neocon
- Newsbusters.org – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
- Nice Deb
- No Sheeples Here
- Oatmeal, The
- Obi's Sister
- Old Grouch
- Once Upon a Time in the Webs
- Opera Rat: The Blog
- Paco Enterprises
- Pal 2 Pal
- Paragraph Farmer, The
- Patterico's Pontifications
- Phelony Jones
- Pixie Place II
- POH Diaries, The
- Pool Bar, The
- Potluck
- Power Line
- Public Secrets
- Pundit & Pundette
- pw
- Q and O
- Question Obama
- Radical Middle
- Redstate – Conservative News and Community
- Renner's Here
- Rhetorican
- Rhymes with Right
- Ric's Rulez
- Richard Fernandez
- RightNetwork
- Ruby Slippers
- Salty Droid
- Sanity Inspector, The
- Scott Effin' Burgess
- Serr8d's Cutting Edge
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Sissy Willis
- Six Meat Buffet
- Snark. And Boobs.
- Sono Annoiato
- South Texian
- Stop the ACLU
- Sultan Knish
- Supply Side Politics 2.0
- That Mr. G Guy's Blog
- That's Right
- The B-Cast
- The Blago Files
- The College Politico
- The Conservatory
- The H2 – New Location, Same Retardation
- The Hayride
- The Other McCain and Smitty
- The Rude News
- The Trogolopundit
- Theo Spark
- Three Beers Later
- Tigerhawk
- Tim Blair
- Trevor Loudon
- Unreligious Right, The
- Useful Info Nation
- Useful Info Nation Blog
- Vally of the Shadow
- Vanderleun
- Verum Serum
- Victor Davis Hanson
- Vodkapundit
- Walking on Eggshells
- Washington Examiner
- Watts Up with That?
- Weasel Zippers
- Yid with Lid