Moe Lane

Probably the funniest interview that you’ll read today; almost certainly funnier than the flick that they’re going to be in.  A taste:

Wired.com: After the Observe and Report premiere in Austin during South by Southwest, there was some awestruck talk about your zombie-fighting plan. What is the plan, and what part did it play in your getting hired for the roles?

John Yuan: The plan is to make it to a hardware store near our home. It’s a fort, but not an obvious choice like a mall or police station. It has everything we need for short-term survival as well as the tools we’ll need to carry the seeds of civilization out of the hellhole that L.A. is going to turn into.

Matt Yuan: We hate to say this, because it’s kind of our trump card, but yes — Jody did hire us because of our zombie-survival plan. In fact, our plan has gotten us hired dozens of times.

John Yuan: Well, that and our Adonis-like physiques.

Via AoSHQ, which also had this:

I don’t know: new background image?

Moe Lane

PS: If you don’t have a zombie plan, get one. Also: ooh…

Andrew Malcolm apparently felt obligated to make sure that the correction of the truly offensive thing that his host newspaper (the LA Times) did was made as public as possible.  I might normally raise an eyebrow at that, but in this particular case I can understand the impulse for damage control.  It’s way over the top.

FOR THE RECORD:
TV listings: The Prime-Time TV grid in Thursday’s Calendar section mistakenly listed MTV’s “Jackass” show on the MSNBC cable schedule at 7 and 10 p.m. where instead MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” should have been listed.

If I was one of the owners of Jackass I would be seriously considering a libel suit right now: I am not a lawyer, but I imagine that the damage that the LA Times has just done to the brand by maliciously associating it with Keith Olbermann would easily justify one.  And then there’s the implied insult in the veiled suggestion that fans of Jackass might also like Olbermann…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

You Can Call Me Al, Paul Simon

Ah, the Eighties. And Miami Vice has a lot to answer for.

Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to leave this administration with his reputation intact.

Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to win back the seat that he gave up to become Chief of Staff.

Even if the Democrats keep control of the House of Representatives.

He’s made too many new enemies on his own side in his new job. And there’s no ideological / theological reason for those enemies to not take out their frustrations on him.

Just saying, that’s all.

Crossposted to RedState.

Sorry: it’s just after years of joking about being a minion of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, seeing the President of the United States play that card – in all seriousness – is kind of bemusing.

Obama: GOP conspiracy out to kill health reform

President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton’s reform plan.

“I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, ‘Look, let’s not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, ’94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook,” the president said.

I suppose that we look very big and scary from the outside, Mr. President, but I assure you: there’s nothing to fear, here. After all, they let me be part of the VRWC, and as several of my readers can personally attest, I among the mildest and most inoffensive of men. It’s a very odd conspiracy that would let me have any sort of role in it, let me tell you! I mean, I don’t even get paid for this*. So you don’t have to be frightened of me.

No, what you should be frightened of is that Zogby’s going to have you clocked in at a 45% approval rating tomorrow morning.  And this after three weeks or so of having your minions call us every name in the book – at least, the ones not screaming about your backroom deal with PhRMA.  So, by all means: keep on doing everything that you’re doing, just like this.

Much obliged!

Moe Lane

*Ahem.

Crossposted to RedState.

He’d be 109 [as per comments below, he'd be 119, dammit: I keep thinking that the Nineties happened just last week] today if he was still alive – or brought back from the essential Saltes, of course – which is not a particularly significant number, aside from being a prime.  Nonetheless: as reader giddysinger knows, I rarely pass up a chance to yell Cthulhu fhtagn! on this site.

So, here: have some cake.

I’d sing the song, but the Hounds of Tindalos have got nothing on Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. when it comes to going after people who trespass on their territory.

Short version: Democrats had a good month for the DNC – they beat out the RNC for a change – which was enough to let them end with a edge in amount raised and total cash-on-hand of a couple million. Fortunately, July fundraising for the congressional and senatorial committees was not a repeat of June’s: despite their having a significant edge in membership, the DSCC lagged the NRSC and the DCCC barely edged the NRCC. And the debt still remains significant on the Democrats’ side.

(more…)

In responding to this post FrankJ noted that the underlying problem for MSNBC is that nobody particularly wants to watch them anyway, so he offered a suggestion to boost their viewership:

Maybe if they set Keith Olbermann on fire and threw him off a building, people would tune in to see that. I’d consider it. So, that’s something for them to think about.

I am startled by this advice. Surely FrankJ is acquainted with the classics? Perusing them would have revealed the obvious flaw in this plan:

What were they going to do on Tuesday night?

In the process of revisiting his ripping into Gerson/Wehner’s Commentary piece, RS McCain creates his ultimate editor’s rejection letter:

You thieving scoundrel:

We pay writers by the word. I’ve consulted our lawyers, who agree that your effort to get me to pay you for the sentence, “Herewith, a brief primer,” constitutes attempted petty larceny by the laws of this state and may also be prosecuted as a federal felony under the mail fraud statutes.

I’m cutting you a break this time, but if you ever again try to swindle me with a cheap scam like this, you’ll be buying yourself a one-way ticket to Leavenworth.

Please find another career for which you are suited, as journalism is clearly beyond your abilities.

Sincerely,

The Editor

Having read it all the way through… yup, the Commentary piece was as dull as dishwater. Roughly half of it was telling us things that we already knew, and the rest needed to be hacked down about 60%. So herewith, my brief primer:

(more…)

And everyone was doing so well, too.

Pulp Fiction

Remember: (more…)

Working with Disneyland to create a music/dance number with a theme, rehearsals, and advance planning:

Using your position as a state legislator to acquire scarce city resources for your proposal – which includes the police threatening to make a false arrest of your fiancee:

Del. Jon S. Cardin found the woman of his dreams, and suddenly those three little words were on his lips: police-involved proposal.

The Baltimore County Democrat and girlfriend Megan Homer were aboard a friend’s boat in the Inner Harbor on Aug. 7 when on-duty city marine officers boarded the vessel. Pretending to search for contraband as a city police helicopter whirred overhead, the officers reportedly told Homer to turn around so they could handcuff her. When she did, there was Cardin down on one knee.

More here.  Jon Cardin is the nephew of Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), who is known for… well, he beat Michael Steele in 2006. Up to this point, Cardin seemed poised to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, but I think that he’s shown a certain flair here at using public facilities for his own personal gratification that should serve him well in the Maryland Democratic party.

It’s only funny if you don’t have to actually pay for antics like this.  Or the police investigation which will undoubtedly find a convenient scapegoat for Jon Cardin’s aristocratic pretensions.  Speaking as somebody who will get saddled with a portion of the bill for both, well…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

(Via Drudge) I’m putting this one up mostly because of the last name – it’s Mayor Michael Nutter, and the game is “Give us money or we’ll shut down services that you don’t want to shut down.” It’s apparently a favorite game of urban Democrats, given that it seems to happen with distressing regularity in our larger cities:

Nutter Warns Of ‘Virtual Shutdown’ Of Courts

[snip]

The city has asked the state to approve a temporary sales tax increase in Philadelphia and allow changes to how the city makes its pension payments.

Without those changes, Nutter says nearly 1,000 police officers and 200 firefighters would be cut.

The reason for the cynicism is that threatened cuts like these are never in areas where voters might shrug and go “Fine” – which is of course where the cuts should be, for precisely that reason.  Staying within budget is hard; it’s much easier to spend it all on feel-good projects (for various definitions of ‘feel-good’) and scare the taxpayer with budget cuts.  In other words, Philly voters should contemplate that this is a problem that’s largely of the City of Philadelphia’s own making.

Alternatively, Philly voters could perhaps contemplate that the real problem is that they’re electing too many Democrats…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.