A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
Yeah, Joe "Noun, Verb, Unconstitutional" Miller is still trying to win in Alaska.
Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller announced late Sunday that he would continue his challenge in federal court of the write-in election of rival Sen. Lisa Murkowski, but added he would not oppose certification of Murkowski's victory by state election officials.
U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline, who is hearing Miller's federal challenge, had already said he would probably lift his order staying certification, allowing Murkowski to assume office Jan. 5 without losing seniority or leaving the state short a U.S. Senator. In a prepared statement e-mailed to the media about 10:20 p.m., Miller said he planned to go ahead with his federal lawsuit "for the sake of the integrity of the election."
Integrity?
Miller's modern interpretation of the "Black Knight" from Monty Python isn't really helping him within the modern conservative movement - unless we are talking about people that think that anytime a conservative loses an election that it must mean that The Black Panthers, ACORN, Jeremiah Wright, and William Ayers met in a secret bunker in China to ensure that only the "socialist" would win.
Sarah Palin is out for blood (again) this time against an Alaska CBS affiliate. She's accusing the station's reporters of conspiring against Joe Miller, calling them "bastards" and suggesting that the initials CBS stand for "Corrupt Bastards Club." The station is strongly defending itself, though, calling her claims entirely unfounded.
Palin, Miller, and their supporters are basing their accusations on a snippet of audio they leaked to Andrew Breitbart's website Big Government. The audio is weak, and it's hard to suss out the context, but what you can hear sounds like KTVA reporters facetiously explaining how to turn a story into a sensation: specifically, jesting about finding a child molester who's voting Republican and tarring Miller by association. The conversation took place after one of the reporters left a message for a Miller spokesperson, but accidentally failed to hang up.
It's a veritable conservative trifecta of outrage.
Let's take a listen to the audio:
Clearly, whomever is involved in this conversation did mention "child molesters", but there is no indication that these people are planning on concocting a story to attack Miller or are just being snarky. Naturally, conservatives are insisting that the former is true, and that "context" has nothing to do with it:
KTVA’s explanation is absurd. What possible context can they put around the suggestion that they start looking for child molesters at a political rally in order to exploit that for their television coverage? That’s a “potential what-if scenario”? Is this a suggestion that came up in strategy sessions when discussing a McAdams campaign rally?
The only absolution KTVA could have possibly had was showing that this conversation didn’t take place among their staff, but was left on the voicemail by some other people or organization. Even if KTVA approached coverage of every political event in this manner, it would be an embarrassment. In this case, it shows a strong bias against Miller and gives a window into the editorial direction at KTVA.
Next up: will CBS management take action against their affiliate?
Considering how the modern conservative movement approaches Democratic candidates, I'm really wondering if this is the argument that Ed Morrissey is wanting to present.
But let's look at the definition of the word "context":
–noun 1. the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect: You have misinterpreted my remark because you took it out of context. 2. the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
I find it very hard to believe that anyone could divine any sort of context from the garbled audio that Andrew Brietbart's Big Journalism is peddling as the latest narrative puzzle piece designed to distract conservative voters.
In addition to Palin's complete lack of understand of who context works, she also seems to be unable to differentiate between the letters "S" and "C":
Apparently, college graduate Former Half-Gov Illiterata McAirHead thinks the letter C is the same as the letter S. CBS cleverly stands for “Corrupt Bastards Club” in her brain-deficient little unschooled world.
Palin, along with virtually every conservative in America, relies heavily on blaming the messenger rather than tackling the message - whatever it may be at the time. Her claims against CBS tend to fall more than a little flat when one considers the fact that KTVA is owned by the Alaska Broadcasting Co.:
KTVA News is owned by the Alaska Broadcasting Co., not CBS. No CBS staffers were involved and CBS has no knowledge of and no comment on these allegations.
Joe Miller has created enough problems on his own, so I'm not seeing how this trumped up accusation is going to improve his chances of winning against Murkowski. The GOP was already distancing themselves from Miller prior to this latest attempt to slander any media outlet that isn't Fox.
ABC's Jonathan Karl reports: A high-level GOP source tells me that party leaders have essentially given up on Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller and are now banking on a victory by write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski as the best bet for Republicans to keep the Alaska Senate seat.
Murkowski defied party leaders by running a write-in campaign after she lost the Republican primary last month. But with Miller's campaign faltering, the source tells me that Republican leaders are now worried that Democrat Scott McAdams has a shot of winning and that Murkowski may be the only way to stop him.
This will be nothing more than a launching pad from where people like Palin, Breitbart, and Miller can unleash boiler plate rhetoric and continue to portray themselves as perpetual victims and that would never engage in pushing fabricated stories about political candidates.
Conservatives are willing to go to bat for their own in just about any instance these days, it seems.
From claiming that Sharron Angle can win a debate by saying "man up" to Harry Reid all the way up to Sarah Palin saying is perfectly fine for Limbaugh to call people a "retard", conservatives are letting their own kind get away with that which they once decried not two years ago.
And while that hypocrisy is blinding in and of itself, one can't but marvel at the spin that Tea Bagger candidate Joe Wilson of Alaska is getting after his rented squad of goons temporarily detained a man at a recent rally.
Here's Ed Morrissey doing his best to cast Joe Miller's crew in a positive light:
If a reporter starts shoving security guards in any setting, he should expect to get arrested by the security guards as a consequence. That’s battery, and that charge does result in arrest. Miller has the right — and probably the duty — to provide security for his events, and private security guards have the ability to detain people who violate the peace. Anyone doubting that has never worked in retail and watched private security detain suspected shoplifters, as well as those who become disruptive. They had better be clear on the basis of the detention, however, because if they have no basis for it, they can themselves be charged with false arrest.
That doesn’t seem to be a problem here, though, since Hopfinger himself admits to shoving a security guard. Throwing the first punch doesn’t make one a martyr for the cause. It may, however, make for a lively debate tonight.
Funny how Morrissey left out some key information.
One of the guards grabbed Hopfinger's video camera. Later, Hopfinger said that when he got the camera back, the segment covering the span of the arrest was missing. An Anchorage police officer offered to take the camera into custody and have it examined in the crime lab to investigate whether evidence had been destroyed, but Hopfinger declined. He said he needed the camera and the remaining video for his work.
The guard who grabbed the camera said Hopfinger had dropped it in the scuffle and denied erasing anything. The guard wouldn't give his name.
But it's the paragraph immediately following that takes this story to another level.While Hopfinger was still in handcuffs, the guards attempted to prevent other reporters from talking to him and threatened them too with arrest for trespass. A Daily News reporter interviewed Hopfinger anyway. No other reporters were arrested, though a few shoving matches and chest bumps ensued as the guards attempted to cordon off Hopfinger and block photographs and videos from being taken of the bizarre school scene.
Not only does Miller's security team sound more like trigger-happy SS officers, but they certainly don't understand what constitutes trespassing. After all, this is the candidate that had people literally parading for him in the streets with assault rifles.
I'm not completely convinced that Hopfinger assaulted a person at the rally in such a manner that it would require physical restraints. Then again, conservatives too often dive into semantics when it comes to these types of stories. Moreover, what does Miller have to say about this? He did witness it. I'm not expecting much of an answer outside of he was protecting his Constitutional rights.
I'm reminded of people like Michelle Malkin who consistently level specious and false allegations at Democrats, utilizing the "thug" meme in order to paint a picture that anyone that voted for Obama obviously has ties to the mob in some way and are more than willing to overstep authority and use physical force to silence their opposition. Guess Malkin has decided to opt out of this one until she can find away to blame Obama for this happening.
UPDATE:
Karoli at Crooks And Liars takes a deeper look into Miller's "security force".
Caught this over at The Political Carnival and it reminded me of people like Michelle Malkin and her faithful droogies at HotAir screaming and crying about "thug politics" that the Democrats allegedly employ.
Here's the background to the players involved:
The wife of the campaign manager for U.S. Senate Candidate, Joe Miller, threatening people at our table at an official campaign event. She knew that she was on video, she approached our table without solicitation. The guy with the camera also knew that he was on video. The guy with the camera is a pr person for Joe Miller. The guy with the camera attempted to fight members of our party when they went outside to make a phone call. I have zero, I repeat zero involvement with the Murkowski campaign. I was not asked to take or post this video by any group or individual.
I'm not entirely sure if this woman just can't handle her drink or if she is so unglued naturally that this is the common way in which she handles her's and her husband's political lives. Seems like she's in the wrong business.
One would think, considering the speed with which these stories get around in the modern socio-political landscape, but why have the major media outlets been silent on this? I'm not even including Fox"News" in that query, as this is precisely the type of footage they DON'T want seeing the light of day.
Naturally, Paul Bauer had to respond in way that made it look like David Stieren was blackmailing him. In a press release from Bauer's offices, his side of the story attempts to paint the confrontation as being NOT about any facet of the campaign and that recording the confrontation was, I'm not kidding here, a violation of election rules.
I am appalled that FCC licensed talk show hosts can literally conspire to change the course of a federal election by using the airways in the way they did, and blackmail a federal candidate’s campaign, Bauer said. There was definite collusion between Morris Communications radio talk show hosts David Stieren and Dan Fagan, with UAA College Republicans conspiring to air the video and force the Joe Miller campaign staff into a compromising position with the intent to disrupt and influence a federal election campaign, Bauer said. Furthermore, the conversation between the campaign managers wife which was disclosed several times by her in the video that this conversation was between two people, had nothing to do with the Miller campaign; was video graphed by non-participants, the UAA College Republicans, then aired the video to the public without permission with the intent to degrade and intimidate persons, and used against Joe Miller Bauer said. Bauer believes this is a violation of privacy rights and federal elections campaign rules, and is calling for a state and federal investigation into the matter. Bauer also said that he has concerns on how UAA club funds may be used to enhance political agendas without the full disclosure and approval from its members.
I'm unsure of the circumstances under which Bauer left the Miller campaign, but it's safe to say that if this video hadn't make it to the internet that he would have been tossed out on his ear anyway. You can't have and unhinged spouse and her lapdog camera-man threatening people in front of dozens of witnesses without word getting back to you that your campaign might not be able to wiggle out of this situation easily.
I really do wish the audio was a little clearer, because most of what the man with Mrs. Bauer said was either too muffled or simply inaudible. Not only that, but what did Mrs. Bauer say to the woman on the other side of the table? And what happened outside the bar? It's alleged by Stieren was confronted by the cameraman, but it's also alleged by Bauer that the confrontation happened the other way. But without proper validation - like say footage of the so called altercation - it's best not to get into rank speculation.
The end result is that the Miller campaign has a lot to answer for. And as for myself, I think the media at large should seriously be kicking themselves for missing this one.
