Moe Lane

I understand what the Roy Blunt campaign is doing here, and they’re not wrong to bring it up. But it’s not the whole story.

The problem here is not that Robin Carnahan called Missouri a ‘mecca of progressivism.’  It’s not, and she didn’t mean it in that way anyway: her sarcasm and disdain for the people of Missouri who don’t think like her comes across, loud and clear.  But even that’s not the problem here. In fact, the problem here is her palpable contempt for not only Missourians (you get the feeling that one of the perks of a Senate seat for Robin Carnahan would be her getting away and staying away from flyover country for months at a time), but also the very progressives that she’s trying to woo.  (more…)

Admittedly, it’s the Ninth Circuit Court, so it’s even money whether or not that ruling stands. Yes, yes, it shouldn’t be and dice have no memory… but really: there’s a reason why “9th Circuit” is shorthand for “wacky judicial hi-jinks.”

Personally, I see no reason why I need to alter my elemental revulsion on the subject. Which is one reason why supporting the Linda McMahon campaign ended up being so easy for me…

Probably not, more’s the pity.

As you might have gathered, there’s been a surge of Strange New Respect for George W Bush lately from Lefty pundits and commentators who have abruptly become aware that they have somehow become part of a fringe extremist movement (in reality, many of them always were; they’re just getting ‘credited’ for it now). Jim Treacher lists some of these new supplicants to Bush, and offers the former President some advice on how to respond to them:

I’d love for somebody to ask Bush about it, and for him to say something to this effect: “Thanks for asking, but according to President Obama, I’ve caused enough problems already. I’m sure you folks can figure it out without me.” And then smile, and wish the questioner a nice day, and walk away.

I am completely in agreement with that attitude. Why? Because of this:

(more…)

Radio Ga Ga, Queen

I only know the chorus. Behold, my shame.

Yearggh?

The audio is here – he’s definitely of the opinion that while the backers of the Ground Zero Mosque have the right to build one on their own property (the mainstream position), they should show some delicacy and consideration for national feelings on the matter and move the mosque somewhere else (which is also the mainstream position). Of course, being Howard Dean he later called the Republicans a bunch of race-baiters, but that’s just Howard Dean being Howard Dean. The man has never recovered from the embarrassment of being Governor of what may be the single most Caucasian state of the Union, so he tends to overcompensate for that whenever possible. I suppose that it’s cheaper than therapy… (more…)

Go have a drink before you read this.  And be grateful that the six-pack of beer doesn’t have a clay pot attached that’s full of slowly fermenting barley mash.

Yet.

Music labels and radio broadcasters can’t agree on much, including whether radio should be forced to turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year to pay for the music it plays. But the two sides can agree on this: Congress should mandate that FM radio receivers be built into cell phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics.

Via Penny Arcade, who responded more or less as you might expect.

Moe Lane (more…)

(H/T Instapundit) Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I respect Barney Frank’s political skills.  I absolutely can’t stand what he uses those skills for, but I recognize that Rep. Frank has them, and that he knows how to use them effectively.  To give just one example, Rep. Frank was about the only Democrat to make it through last year’s August health care meltdown without looking like either an abject coward, or a purblind fool*. You don’t have to like him – and I don’t – to recognize that.

Which is why Rep. Frank calling the Obama administration “dumb” for putting out an expectation of 8% unemployment if the stimulus passed is so interesting. First off, it’s a refreshing change from the previous narrative, which was that you were a dirty racist right-wing homophobe for taking the Romer-Bernstein graph seriously in the first place**.  True, it turns out that people were idiots for taking the stimulus as a job saver seriously, but that’s a different issue. (more…)

This went around with regard to the bane of the political blogger’s existence (Left or Right): conference calls. Not all of them, but enough.

The worst part is that nobody ever actually intends for these things to be trials. But the more people that participate, the more chances there are for things to go wrong…

There was a Mickey Kaus / Dave Weigel twitter exchange on the likelihood of an amnesty gambit lame-duck session: Mickey thinks it’s likely, Weigel not so much.  Personally, I think that it’s not, for one specific reason: there are a lot of Democratic Senators who will be sweating 2012 as it is, because they aren’t precisely in a position where any remaining, lingering popularity of the President’s will necessarily rub off on them (hi, Senator Webb!).  You think that conservative activists can hold a grudge for two years?

Yeah: fortunately or unfortunately, so do those Senators.

But I could be wrong.

Erick Erickson over at RedState has already covered the story of how Nancy Pelosi has Embraced The Crazy by claiming that the Right is sending people over to her local events to ask questions about the Ground Zero Mosque… but I could not resist putting those comments in, as they say, context.

Look on the bright side: Embrace The Crazy is only Stage Two of Conspiracy Theory Thinking. She hasn’t hit Stage Three yet (It’s All Because Of The Joooooooooooooos…).

Yet.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

OK, I don’t really watch football anymore, but this is hysterical:

Kind of redundant – at that level, the amount of force is adequately described as “pretty goram hard” – but hysterical.

You Give Love A Bad Name, Bon Jovi

It’s actually not that bad a song.