Moe Lane

(H/T: On Park Street) To sum up this Reason article on developing nations and climate change despair:

The Chinese and the Indians have no intention of giving anything but lip service to the quaint religious beliefs of Western climate change fanatics. They have no incentive to, and a powerful incentive not to: they are poor, and they wish to stop being poor, and there is no way to do that and not industrialize. If the aforementioned religious fanatics wish to try to force an economic Crusade upon the Chinese or the Indians in response, it is not entirely obvious that it will not backfire in the fanatics’ collective face.

The White House knows this, but it actually is not very good at making people do things that they don’t want to do, so don’t count on them to bail the country out of this mess.

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That’s House Minority Leader John Boehner’s response to CoS Rahm Emanuel’s rather… well, sad… statement that the White House has turned the economy around:

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Yes, I’m late to this particular party; and yes, it was Joss Whedon’s own decision… still.  Why precisely do they expect me to go watch it, without the cast OR the director?

Hey, fun game. Which was better: Once More, With Feeling, The Body, or Hush? I mean, obviously it was Once More, With Feeling – but I suppose that I should give other people a chance to justify their choice.

[UPDATE]: And if you think those numbers are bad, wait until Specter caves on card check to appease his new owners.  His constituents are purely going to hate that.

Via Hot Air Headlines, Nobody loves a traitor.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s 2010 reelection lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey has shrunk to a tie with 45 percent for Specter and 44 percent for Toomey, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. And voters say 49 – 40 percent that Sen. Specter does not deserve reelection.

[snip]

Specter, first elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1980 but who switched to the Democratic Party earlier this year, holds a commanding 55 – 23 percent lead over U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak in the race for the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side Toomey buries Peg Luksik 47 – 6 percent.

[snip]

In other trial matchups Specter would defeat Luksik 47 – 40 percent, while Toomey would edge Sestak 39 – 35 percent.

That last bit may be what dooms Sestak’s candidacy… except, of course, that the Democrats are already trying their best to sabotage his (and Maloney’s, over in NY) primary challenge anyway. Meanwhile, the NRSC is backing Toomey, thus avoiding the bloody primary that we were all expecting and dreading before Specter changed sides.

So: thanks for not retiring, Arlen! Make sure that you vote for health care rationing!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,”
- Harry Schoell, CEO of Cyclone Power Technologies

(Via Wired, via Genrewonk)

For those just catching up now, Cyclone Power Technologies is one of the companies working on the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR™), which uses ‘biomass’ for fuel* (it’s also steam-powered, which is an important consideration right there). I’m not sure whether this qualifies as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ publicity: calling your biomass-eating robot ‘EATR’ suggests that you’re prepared to milk whatever you can get for the full effect. And what’s with this ‘green’ nonsense? I mean, come on: EATR burns things for their steam. By definition something like that has a ‘carbon footprint,’ to use the theological term.

Moe Lane

*Which means that it doesn’t do this:

Which is actually a pity.

You remember: back in April the President called on the Cabinet to reduce the budget by 100 million. True, it was immediately pointed out that this would be roughly equivalent to… well, we’ll let Political Math explain it*:

…still, every little – every very, very, very little – bit helps, right? So, today’s the day that we hear about those cuts!

White House misses deadline on spending cuts report

Asked about the spending cuts, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that information still was being compiled.

…or not. Via Berman Post, via Instapundit. (more…)

Via JammieWearingFool comes news that Rather’s lawsuit has been rejuvenated:

The anchor’s $70 million lawsuit against his former employers got a new lease on life today when a Manhattan judge restored his previously dismissed fraud claim against the network.

[snip]

The fraud charge contends the network’s trickery cost Rather millions by scapegoating him for a flawed report on President Bush’s Vietnam era military service, and then keeping him off the air – torpedoing the chance for a $4 million a year gig at CNN or another cable channel.

He now makes an average of $1.5 million a year at HDNet, the papers say.

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Early night tonight: I’m off to watch the Watchmen.

For great justice. And beer!

Desperado, Eagles

Moe Lane

Missouri’s 3rd District has a Cook rating of D+7, by the way: it’s Gephardt’s old seat. Russ Carnahan got 67% of the vote last time. It’s not out of reach – no seat ever is – but if it’s a target for next year this is the first I’ve heard of it. In other words, it’s in Blue Country.

And Carnahan still can’t parrot talking points about the Democrats’ health care rationing plan without getting mocked and booed. Via Ed Driscoll:

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42/38 Republican/Democrat: fourth week in a row that it’s been favoring the GOP, so expect it to bounce back soon.  And then expect it bounce back again to favor the GOP, because while any individual week may not matter, the trend is indicative of the notion that the Democrats have managed to do in three years what it took the GOP twelve: lose the mantle of being the trustworthy party.

If you like, you can instead couch it in terms of Bad vs. Worse.  As long as you understand that the best way to fix Bad is to get some skin into the game on the local level.

Crossposted to RedState.

While I do not approve of how What Would Tyler Durden Do? described Lady GaGa – it’s not nice to people with that condition – still…

Yeah. Apparently, it is easy being green; all you have to do is go out into the swamp, pick a spot that’s particularly rich in felt and googly eyes, and start reaping a deadly harvest.

Moe Lane

PS: I have never been so glad for a foreign language voice-over in my life.

It’s come out (via Cynthia Yockey – sorry, Cynthia) that Just a Girl in short shorts talking about whatever got effectively shut down by Google. Again. Details here and here. Like Cynthia, I recognize that the obvious advice – don’t rely on Google for anything about your website that you don’t mind losing if the company decides to turn on you – is unwelcome because it’s so unfair, but life isn’t fair, or even unfair in our favor often enough.

As for videos, though: Heritage New Media Partners offers a free hosting service.  Keep that in mind if YouTube decides to play “Oops, we lost your campaign video” games again next year.

Crossposted to RedState.