Allegedly reformed alleged car thief Darrell Issa is “having a moment“:
After two years of feverishly chasing any hint or suggestion of wrongdoing by the Obama administration, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) may finally be having his moment….
Issa’s double-barreled investigations have forced the administration to navigate some of Washington’s most cliched political territory — explaining what officials knew, and when they knew it…..
But the White House is banking on Issa overplaying his hand; Democrats say that is his preternatural instinct and a tendency that has undermined his credibility in the past…[T]o date none of Issa’s investigations, or any other GOP probe, has forced a Cabinet secretary out of office. No independent prosecutor has been appointed of the sort that hounded the previous four administrations. Democrats believe this is because Issa is drawn to headlines, chasing the hot story rather than committing himself and his staff to the long slog of digging through documents to uncover hidden information…
Yeah, every so often our senior rescue dog “has a moment”, and it always degenerates into the two human householders arguing about which of us let him get into the garbage/catbox/Indian food leftovers while we clean off his hairy arse.
The Washington Post profiles the ‘activist’ who’s “asked 1,000 people to march across the Potomac on July 4 carrying loaded rifles”, and it turns out he’s not even a real gun nut — just a giant drama queen/performance artiste:
… Invoking Gandhi while advocating the carrying of loaded firearms is typical of Kokesh, who in his six years as a professional rabble-rouser has embraced positions on every side of the political spectrum.
His past activism has been focused on issues other than guns — things such as peace in Iraq, free speech in the U.S., and presidential candidate Ron Paul. And in most cases, his past stunts didn’t carry a risk of violence; they were theatrical, sometimes even comic.
The one constant through all of it: Kokesh’s tactics are designed to bring media attention to him personally — as well as whatever cause he’s fighting for. In that way, this one is like the rest.
“The thing about Adam is he’s a publicity hound. He loves the attention. He’s got a huge ego,” said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the women’s peace group Codepink, who has worked with Kokesh on past protests. “And I think he’s really enjoying this one.”…
When Medea Benjamin calls you a publicity hound, well…
Meanwhile, Slate‘s Will Oremus reports back on Larry Page’s talk at the Google I/O Conference:
… To recap, Page criticized Microsoft for treating Google as a rival, blasted Oracle for caring too much about money, and then whined about everyone being so negative. Heck, if it weren’t for those other companies standing in the way, Google would have probably already solved world hunger. Well, except for all the laws and bureaucrats and journalists who are also standing in the way.
Fortunately, Page has an idea. What if Google could just build its own country with its own rules and do whatever it thought best for everyone?
“Maybe we can set aside part of the world,” he mused. “I like going to Burning Man. As a technologist maybe we need some safe places where we can try things and not have to deploy to the entire world.” (As The Verge noted in its live blog, “Larry wants a beta-test country, guys.”) He later lamented that people are reluctant to disclose their medical problems and speculated that the insurance industry was to blame. “We should change it so they have to insure people,” he said. “Maybe we have a safe place where people can go live in a world like that and see if it works.” Other tech companies could presumably come too, as long as they agreed to give Google free access to all their products and data and not to worry about making money themselves…
Hey, maybe Darrell Issa and Adam Kokesh could move to Larry Page’s country, and UNLEASH THE AWESOME! To be honest, I thought we already had a “beta-test” no-rules region right here in these semi-United States, and it is called “Texas”. Now if Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert can just persuade Rick Perry to change its name to “GoogleWorld”, or maybe “Galtonia”…
Early Morning Open Thread: Douchecanoes, All the Way DownPost + Comments (50)