Moe Lane

…to hear this Charles Lollar fellow talk.

He’s good. Solidly conservative and he gives a good, impassioned speech. If he does decide to run for Maryland Governor, right now I’d vote for him in the primary. We spoke briefly after the speech; we couldn’t quite make the time for a video interview on the spot, but hopefully we’ll be able to conduct a telephone interview in the near future.

Moe Lane

PS: Folks: join your county’s Republican party organization. They won’t know what you want to do, or what you want them to do, if you’re not there to tell them.

*http://www.howardcountygopclub.com

Crossposted to RedState.

…this one from Robot Carnival (director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo) is fun, in a very, very, specialized way.

Robot Carnival did a bunch to convince people that this ‘anime’ thing was an honest-to-God art form; I’m surprised that it’s so hard to find these days.

Live-action Voltron.

But I need to make something clear. See this?

This is the Voltron we want, only not animated. We don’t want a new look, a new direction, or a post-modern ironic reexamination of the underlying meta-thematic narrative. We want giant goram flying lions that turn into a giant goram robot with a sword. So don’t get cute with this.

Capisce?

Moe Lane

Some details from the story (covered here and here):

• Yes, in fact: there was trafficking in human organs involved.  At least one individual has been brought up on charges of attempting to sell a liver.
• The list of individuals and charges can be found here: we’re looking at conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and again, at least one charge in trafficking in human organs.  There are at least two Republicans on the list; but the Hudson County Democratic Party organizational chart is probably going to end up looking like there was a sudden outbreak of the bubonic plague.
• There is currently no indication that Governor Corzine was aware that numerous Democratic officials were allegedly involved in any conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and/or trafficking in human organs.  He apparently missed it completely.
• The FBI raided Community Affairs Commissioner (and NJ Cabinet member) Joseph Doria’s office, presumably in relation to their investigation of conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and/or trafficking in human organs charges; Doria has resigned.
• Gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie (R) is also involved in this up to his eyeballs; in the sense that he was the one that started the investigation two years ago as a… I believe the term is, ‘crusading US Attorney.’
• An attempt to get a statement from Senator Robert Menendez (D, NJ), Hudson County Democrat and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was unsuccessful.  There has been no press release and/or statement made at the time that this post was written.

And that’s how it stands at the moment.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Or so it seems. We’re having difficulty keeping up.

UPDATE: OK, more information:

2 N.J. Mayors Arrested in Broad Inquiry on Corruption

The mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus, a state assemblyman and dozens of others were rounded up early Thursday as the F.B.I. swept across four counties in New Jersey as part of a two-year corruption and money-laundering investigation that ranged from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn and has even reached into the State House in Trenton.

Agents raided the home of Joseph V. Doria Jr., commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, who also is the former mayor of Bayonne, an official confirmed Thursday morning.

Among the roughly 30 people arrested by mid-morning were Hoboken Mayor Peter J. Cammarano III and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, both Democrats, and Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, a Republican from Forked River, in Ocean County. Mr. Cammarano, who turned 32 on Wednesday, was elected mayor June 9 and sworn in July 1, after serving as councilman-at-large since 2005.

I’ve done a spreadsheet of the people named so far – and let me note: there’s something fun about a story where you need to do a spreadsheet in order to keep up with this sort of thing.

There’s going to be a press conference at noon, and it should be riveting.

Moe Lane

PS: You know who else is from Hudson County? Senator Robert Menendez.

Crossposted to RedState.

First off, here it is.

I know that it’s a over-complicated visual mess – but then, so is the health care rationing plan that it represents. Which is why the Democrats don’t want people to get too good a look at it:

Democrats are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority’s health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate.

House Republicans are crying foul and claiming that the Democrats are using their majority to prevent GOP Members from communicating with their constituents.

The dispute centers on a chart created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan.

At first glance, Brady’s chart resembles a board game: a colorful collection of shapes and images with a web of lines connecting them.

But a closer look at the image reveals a complicated menagerie of government offices and programs that Republicans say will be created if the leading Democratic health care plan becomes law.

(more…)

…and why it showed up in a press conference about the President’s proposed health care rationing program – OK, I can’t help you there.  But you can get the basic details of the Gates arrest here (via John Lott’s Website).

The scene – two black men on the porch of a stately home on a tree-lined Cambridge street in the middle of the day – triggered events that were at turns dramatic and bizarre, a confrontation between one of the nation’s foremost African-American scholars and a police sergeant responding to a call that someone was breaking into the house.

It ended when Gates, 58, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct in allegedly shouting at the officer; he was eventually taken away in handcuffs.

But the encounter is anything but over. Some of Gates’s outraged colleagues said the run-in proves that even in a liberal enclave like Harvard Square, even with someone of Gates’s accomplishments, a black man is a suspect before he is a resident.

Bolding mine, and there to highlight my sardonic observation:  what do you mean, “even?” Not to be rude about it, but there ain’t no racist like a Bostonian racist*.  Which is not necessarily a knock on the cop; it’s a knock on the neighbor who called the cops on Prof. Gates in the first place.

Moe Lane (more…)

Getting hate mail for this yet?

Well, it’s still pretty early in the morning.  Plenty of time for your compatriots to address your heresy properly:

Mother Knows Best

The president is “not familiar” with the bill. No one can explain how it will work yet, as Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told a contentious town meeting. There are various plans, and negotiations are still in the early stages.

But whatever it is, we should be for it.

Am I missing something?

Yes. He won, he knows best, so “shut up.”

Moe Lane

PS: No, actually, this is precisely who you voted for, Susan Estrich.  While you were all the while mocking the people who were telling you differently.  So if you’re annoyed, first be annoyed at yourself for your incredulity, then at the administration for taking advantage of it – and then go back at being annoyed at yourself, rather than bring my side into the summer of your discontent.  Enabling you is no more on our agenda than it is on the President’s.

Crossposted to RedState.

Thought I was just trying to be funny?

Guess what?

Nope.

Elvis is everywhere.

I trust that we will not have an embarrassing repetition of this?

Moe Lane

Lawyers, Guns And Money, Warren Zevon

Not really the same tune, obviously: but it’s an interestingly sparse acoustic version in its own right.

Moe Lane

PS: Incidentally, Lawyers, Guns & Money is also a really good supplement for Unknown Armies, which is a really good urban fantasy roleplaying game.

It being Wednesday, we say good-bye to Grosse Pointe Blank and let all of you know that they’ve finally decided that Star Trek will be coming out on DVD on November 17, 2009. Just in time for Thanksgiving. Heck, just in time for November 17th, which I’m sure is a viable holiday somewhere.

Moe Lane

PS: Homemade Bread Day, apparently.

Courtesy of Senate Republicans (and Jim Geraghty), Obama Straw Man Bingo!

I wouldn’t use this in conjunction with ethyl alcohol, mind you. Maybe if it wasn’t a weeknight…