Moe Lane

Another foot and a half tomorrow. Two things.

1. Somebody find out where the hell Al Gore is, and if it’s in the Northeast, MOVE HIM SOMEWHERE ELSE.
2. I really, really, really want to cover the HI-01 special election for RedState now.  Please.  Please.

When I was a kid, I always wanted to learn how: never got around to it.

That’s from Tap, and it’s 20 years old, depressingly. I remember seeing Sammy Davis Jr a few years before his death at a video awards show for something or other: they had just seen some younger folks perform, and it was his turn. The camera panned back, he looked down at his feet – and shouted down at them “WE’RE GONNA DANCE NOW!”  And damned if he didn’t.

That’s it.  I needed a break, and this will do.

Moe Lane

Of course they went sexual over the written reminders on THAT WOMAN’S hand.

:rubbing temple with hands:

Of course they did. And they wonder why not even their allies (more accurately, their owners) take them seriously.

Via Instapundit, comes the latest slap in the face to Libertarians-for-Obama by the Obama administration.  Slashdot:

“US government policy is that photos produced by federal employees as part of their job responsibilities are not subject to copyright in the US. But Kathy Gill writes that after originally putting official White House photos in the public domain, since January the Obama White House has been asserting that no one but ‘news organizations’ can use its Flickr photos taken by the official White House photographer, who is a US government employee…”

You mean, like this?

Original here.  Relevant language on the Flickr account:

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

A shame whoever wrote that didn’t read this (linked to by the White House Flickr account itself). (more…)

…they send Joe Biden, according to Andrew Malcolm.  Andrew’s being perhaps the slightest bit unkind to the administration this morning – there may have been a legitimate reason for the President not to have attended the Vancouver Olympics himself, although the fact that Biden is combining the trip with a fundraiser for Patty Murray is diagnostic – but I’m more fascinated with the Vancouver logo than I am whether or not the President’s being more petulant than usual. I mean, look at it:

About the only thing that you can say about it is that at least this one doesn’t look like it’s having sex.

Moe Lane

PS: And shouldn’t the arms be black?

PPS: I’m just going to give up entirely on the lack of capitalization, mind you.

…so people will understand that I’m about as interested as David Freddoso in being overly nice in pointing out his past bloviating. My back isn’t actually killing me, right now, but that’s only because I was being very, very careful about removing all that anemic winter from the car.  I’m going to be forty in a couple of months; I don’t bounce back from straining myself over anemic winters like I used to.

Three observations about our marvelous new technological paradigm:

1. Everything in print gets recorded these days. Everything.
2. Nothing ever goes away. Ever.
3. The only thing that people are patient about when it comes to online matters is in waiting for just the right moment to demonstrate that someone is an idiot.

I would join David in suggesting that RFK Jr get out of the weather prediction/doomsaying business, only I can’t for the life of me think of anything else that he’d be any less incompetent at.  Ditch digging?  He could learn that on the job.

Moe Lane

PS: Just to reinforce the scorn: the plural of anecdote is not data; I am not obligated to accept your religious beliefs as being scientifically valid; and this is why political dynasties are a bad idea.

Enjoy your morning.

Crossposted to RedState.

When The Saints Go Marching In, Louis Armstrong

I haven’t absorbed all that much from my decade-long sojourn in Maryland, but I have this one down pat: THEY STOLE OUR [EXPLETIVE DELETED] TEAM.

PS: “He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anybody along the way.” Damn, but that’s one hell of a brag.

Come, I will hide nothing from you: Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter got picked because it follows a theme set by last weeks BotW Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I’m just a sucker for this genre, apparently.

Moe Lane

As always, Cohen was going to stick it out to the end, right up to the moment that he decided to spend more time with the members of his family that don’t currently have restraining orders on him.

Illinois Democratic Lieutenant Governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen announced Sunday evening that he is withdrawing from the race amid revelations about his personal history.

Cohen, a millionaire pawnbroker and cleaning supplies company executive who emerged the victor in last week’s primary, had been accused of holding a knife to the neck of his ex-girlfriend, a prostitute, in 2005.

It has also been revealed in recent days that Cohen had once been accused of abusing an ex-wife. Cohen has also acknowledged using steroids for a period of time.

Word is that the Democrats are trying to find a replacement – a bit of a surprise to second-place finisher Arthur Turner, but then ‘democratic Illinois Democrat’ is an oxymoron – and it is my devout hope that the questionnaire gets leaked to the press. Between this, the entire ‘avoid paying taxes’ thing, and the rumors that another major philandering scandal’s going to hit a sitting Democratic governor tomorrow, the party leadership may end up deciding that the best way to get halfway normal candidates is to raise them from birth in a big plastic bubble…

Moe Lane

PS: Jason Plummer for Lt. Governor. He doesn’t cut women.
Shoot, I was looking forward to running on that one, too.

Crossposted to RedState.

Well, everybody’s turning – Congress is at 18/78 approval/disapproval, which makes you wonder about the four percent who can’t make up their minds – but the Democrats have gone from 45% to 30% in a month, which … well, is this not a pretty graph?

Particularly that 15 point drop among Democrats, which is not so much a drop as a ‘dive.’  Unfortunately, the nature of graphs such as these cannot convey a sense of a tumbling, end-over-end, unpowered fall; not that I’m suggesting that anything happened in the last month that might have caused a catastrophic engine failure for the Democratic party.

Moe Lane

PS: For those Democrats wondering why no-one in their party leadership doesn’t seem to want to embrace this as evidence that Congressional Democrats should embrace the President’s agenda… look at the graph of independent support.  It’s been eroding over the last year… and started to steadily erode once the Democrats acquired their super-majority in July 2009.  For many Congressional Democrats, this is the only job that they’ve ever known; they get twitchy when people suggest strategies that might end up forcing them to actually have to work for a living.

Crossposted to RedState.

Get yourself a glass of something nice before you start in on the article: it’ll heighten the enjoyment.

Even as he accepted the resounding backing of the Pennsylvania Democratic state committee here Saturday, party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter’s vulnerability was on vivid display as he botched the name of a key Democratic officeholder in his acceptance speech.

“I’ll be fighting hard for the entire Democratic ticket. Senator Andy. . . Andy . . .” Specter said, before pausing briefly, squinting his eyes.

“From Chester County,” he continued, losing his train of thought after clinching an emphatic 229-72 U.S. Senate endorsement vote from party regulars just minutes earlier.

“Dinniman,” the crowd responded almost in unison, referring to the state senator who represents West Chester. One committeeman seated in the audience dropped his head and shook it.

This should be an entertaining primary: Joe Sestak has 5.1 million dollars to play with, and is inclined to spend it – both because he wants the nomination, and because by now there must be at least a little desire for Blue-on-Blue revenge on Sestak’s part. Personally, I don’t see why either candidate is so eager to win the position of Being The Guy Who Loses To Pat Toomey, but they are, which is… nice of them, I suppose.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

(Via Althouse & Instapundit) Apparently, you don’t sing “My Way” in a Philippine karaoke bar.

You just don’t.

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

Especially the karaoke bars that are also brothels. Although they have gay men in those to defuse tensions over the brothel workers and the karaoke machines. Apparently, in the Philippines gay men don’t do karaoke (fairly obviously, they also don’t patronize female brothel workers). I shouldn’t raise an eyebrow at any of this: American customs look just as weird to the outside world, sometimes.

Still.

Ol’ Blue Eyes?

…off of the car.  Well, not currently; but it is not going swiftly, mostly because there is no good place to put all the loose globalwarming to the side that isn’t already being occupied by another car.  This would be an excellent time for me to acquire superpowers centered around either water or fire; unfortunately, there are no radioactive ice weasels handy and I don’t know where to find the Hidden Portal of Flame.

In other words: erratic posting today.

At least, it was for Kleinheider, coupled with a big heaping of sour grapes about how nobody wants to come out and march for left-populism the way that they want to march for right- and libertarian-populism (not quite the same thing).  For that matter, the sexual connotations in Kleinheider’s first paragraph* would provide interesting fodder for a remote psychological viewing, if I inclined that way.  On the other hand, I haven’t actually seen THAT WOMAN’s speech, so I probably shouldn’t even be opining on the subject.  On the gripping hand: it’s Sunday, and since when do people not opine on subjects just because of… any reason, really?

See Instapundit for a round-up of more reactions.

Moe Lane

*The erotic and sexual aspects associated with vampirism in modern Western society are of course well known; I suggest this post for a perusal of some of the literature.  And this one for a more pragmatic take.

Lola, The Kinks

I first learned of this song from, God help us, the television program Family Ties.

Moe Lane

PS: By the way, the purpose of the Alex P Keaton character was to mock conservatives. Clearly there was a failure to communicate on somebody’s part, there.

D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T:

In trying to explain why our political paralysis seems to have gotten so much worse over the past year, analysts have rounded up a plausible collection of reasons including: President Obama’s tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, the blustering idiocracy of the cable-news stations, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for any important legislation. These are all large factors, to be sure, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit in our current predicament: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.

What? No. Jacob Weisberg doesn’t want to move. He just wants all of you to move. And approximately 90% of the population of the United States, apparently.

Moe Lane

PS: If you’re scratching your head about what was so bad about this article, do me a favor?  Tell everybody about it, and mention your political affiliation in the process.  Can you do that? You can?  Great!  Thanks a bunch.

PPS: H/T Hot Air Headlines, by the way.  Sorry: the firstborn suddenly decided to engage in antics.

How do we feel about calling Gibbs ‘The Mouth of Obama’ from now on? Does it give him too much style? – because he’s a bit of a nebbish, honestly.

To properly appreciate this one, imagine that Senator Kit Bond (R, MO) said this in a tone that is normally associated with the comparison of the relative volume of a particular individual to the upper range of the speaker’s more memorable individual bowel movements, to the detriment of the former:

“I don’t debate Press Secretaries.”

Story here and here: bs at RedState otherwise covered it nicely here.  Mind you, Gibbs wouldn’t be such an arrogant so-and-so if the White House press pool was doing its job properly.  In this, in fact, we see the comedy of the Obama administration in miniature: they’re so accustomed to not being challenged that they don’t quite know how to handle it when they are.

And no: they’re not handling it well.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

(Reminded by AoSHQ) I could come up with a convoluted reason to repost this widget for the Adam Kinzinger campaign, but I shan’t:

It’s just that it’d be great if the campaign had to reset the total amount that they were going for with days to spare. This district should be ours, and incumbent Debbie Halvorson doesn’t put her constituents first; so if you’re mildly cursing because the snow is stopping you from ordering that pizza that you wanted, well…

Moe Lane

PS: As you know, I don’t have discretionary income, really. But I gave Adam something. Because it’s important.

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s lunchtime anyway and it’s not like I can drive anyway. Shoot, I’m not entirely sure where my car is.

This post brought to you by Groundhog Day:

Unsurprising.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove which Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15. That matches the President’s ratings just before the State-of-the-Union Address. While Obama received a modest bounce in his ratings following the speech, today’s results suggest that the bounce is over (see trends).

If you’re having trouble visualizing what that signifies, let me show you:

Although in my case this bleak picture is being countered by the smell of warm, dark, rich cocoa. The cocoa sustains me. It allows me to continue on until the snow ends and the snow shovels may begin their clattering play. The cocoa is my shield and support.

The Obama administration has no cocoa.

Moe Lane