Moe Lane

Go/no-go? There’s no denying that he’s got the advantage of demonstrating that he can take a punch from the Left and respond in kind (only harder).  Assuming Scott Walker wins next year: should he go for it?

Moe Lane

Here’s my current list: as always, this is a subjective take.  Brief explanations after the fold; I will note that candidate recruitment has its usual priority, but that it is perhaps time that we on the Right as a group start thinking about how to win with mediocre candidates, too.  God knows that our opposite numbers have learned to do precisely that.

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…while killing rather more citizens accidentally.

The New York Times baldly says why (bolding mine): “One day before President Obama is due to deliver a major speech on national security, his administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged that the United States had killed four American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.” Best to have that finally on the record before said speech, eh?  – Particularly since the administration needs to tread the difficult path of following George W Bush’s basic counter-terrorism policy while still roundly criticizing George W Bush’s basic counter-terrorism strategy*.  Thus pleasing nobody, but then this administration has rarely shown any sort of concern that their actions might be offensive, annoying, or (these days) even comprehensible to others. I understand that it’s part of their, and I use the term loosely, ‘charm.’

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…Bless his heart.

“Look, I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down,” Mr. Weiner said in an online video. “But I’ve also learned some tough lessons. I’m running for mayor because I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance to work for you.”

I know, I know: the jokes write themselves: and they will be written, I assure you.  Buuuut here’s the problem, though: when it comes to the Democratic primary, Anthony Weiner’s probably the best of a bad bunch who could actually win.  And if he wins the primary then he’s in good shape to win the election, unless of course the New York GOP suddenly gets replaced with sinister android doubles secretly devoted to a master plan for world domination*.  In other words, I’m faced with a situation where I may have to sigh a lot and say Well, he’s better than either Bloomberg was, or Quinn would have been.

Which isn’t hard, of course.  I’d offer some advice along those lines to Weiner, except that I actually happen to despise the smug son of a bitch.

Moe Lane

*Said plan would presumably involve the state GOP winning critical races in New York, which would at least make for a refreshing novelty.

• One is a lone wolf.
• Two is usually some odd, co-dependent, usually fraught dysfunctional relationship.
• Three is a conspiracy:

A Chechen man with ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed by an FBI agent in Orlando early today when the man attacked the agent, the FBI said in a statement.

The FBI identified the person shot and killed as Ibragim Todashev, 26.

According to the FBI and local news accounts, the shooting took place in an apartment building on Peregrine Avenue while Todashev was being questioned about the bombings and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

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Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes, Paul Simon

Video is live, links are studio.

…Sue me.

Oh, my.  Progressives for sale, indeed:

A liberal think tank with close ties to the Obama administration took money from General Motors and other businesses it did not disclose while campaigning for policies benefitting those companies, according to The Nation magazine.

Members of the “Business Alliance” of the Center for American Progress (CAP) include bailed out car company GM, unsafe Bangladeshi factory utilizer Walmart, and embattled solar energy company First Solar, according to a membership list obtained by the liberal magazine.

CAP, as the article lovingly goes on to note, supported the auto bailout.  Reading between the lines, this seems to be a grudge match between CAP and The Nation, or maybe a grudge match between the Clintonistas and the hardcore progressives, or maybe even the first shots of 2016.  Not that you care about that, any more than I do: all you care about is whether both sides are ready and able to carve each other up into seething little lumps.  (more…)

It’s not so much that I really disagree with the punishment, here*:

High school seniors were banned from graduation after releasing 10,000 crickets into its halls as a prank.

East Carter High School in Grayson, Ky., stopped seven students from attending Saturday morning’s celebration because of the cost of the cleanup.

…it’s just that the protesters’ sign (quoted in this post’s title) gives me an excuse to put this up. Again.

Moe Lane

PS: Blame Drudge.

*Although I do, kinda. I would have made the kids pony up the cleanup fee and apologize to the school before getting their diplomas. Then again, I am a rank hypocrite, given that I almost got tossed out of my high school graduation for duckwalking and I regret nothing.

It seems the most obvious move, and one that would justify getting these people physically at the White House itself.

Background here:

Spotted: @joshtpm @capehartj @ezraklein & other lefty columnists headed into the West Wing as a group. POTUS coffee? Carney meeting? Anyone?

— Ari Shapiro (@arishapiro) May 21, 2013

Well, this should be fascinating to watch.

A letter obtained by The Los Angeles Times reveals that Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of overseeing requests for tax-exempt status who first broke the news of that division’s targeting of conservative groups, plans to invoke her right against self-incrimination in scheduled testimony before a House committee on Wednesday.

And here’s your moment of comedy! (more…)

Or am I supposed to pretend that the fig lead of an ‘Op-Ed’ applies in this situation?

As former Justice Department officials who served in the three administrations preceding President Obama’s, we are worried that the criticism of the decision to subpoena telephone toll records of A.P. journalists in an important leak investigation sends the wrong message to the government officials who are responsible for our national security.

Personally, I give the NYT +1 for sticking to its status as a Democratic house organ, in the veritable teeth of opposition by pretty much everybody else in its ostensible profession; alas, I have to give them -10 for tacitly backing off of its official position from a week ago – and -100 for having to resort to Jamie Gorelick.  I mean, not to poison the well or anything, here – but I’d check twice if Jamie Gorelick told me that the sky was blue.  And then assume that she was right for entirely the wrong reasons.

So, yeah, I guess that I’m poisoning the well.  But I’m right, dammit.

Moe Lane

PS: If the NYT wishes to smile and deny, they’re welcome to repeat their prior opposition to the DoJ’s targeting of the AP.  They won’t – the Op-Ed is a lot more palatable to their commenters than the original editorial was, it seems – but they’re welcome to.

It’s so nice when they update the classics.

Well.  Isn’t this a thing:

Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative reporter, says that her personal and work computers have been compromised and are under investigation.

“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public.”

Of course, one shouldn’t jump to any kind of conclusions: after all, it would be the height of stupidity for, say, executive branch officials to order an illegal, politically-motivated break-in against an opponent in order to glean confidential information oh wait.

Moe Lane (crosspost)