Moe Lane

We say adieu to The Lord of the Rings – The Motion Picture Trilogy and put up instead Logan’s Run, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Why would anybody think that there’d be a reason?

Why, the very idea.

Moe Lane

For neither Republicans *nor* Democrats!

Some of you may have gotten a version of this email from Organizing For America, offering to help you sign up for a meeting at your local member of Congress’ office.  The problem is that the follow-up email is – according to Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein – causing people to believe that they have a confirmed meeting with their Representative or Senator:

…some constituents took the follow-up email to mean that they had a hard-and-fast scheduled meeting with their members of Congress, and around 100 such people showed up at Feinstein’s offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Feinstein spokesperson Gil Duran says. The visitors got upset when they learned they didn’t have a scheduled meeting, Duran says, adding that Feinstein’s office “expressed their concerns” to the White House.

Republican Members of Congress have reported similar problems. So, remember: (more…)

Jules Crittenden thinks that Tethered: A Novel is the bee’s knees, and while he may be matrimonially biased it did get some good reviews.  It’s not my standard fare – as far as I can tell, there isn’t a single exploding starship, implausible zeppelin, angels with rocket launchers, and/or allohistorical map anywhere in the book – but I figure that Jules wouldn’t steer me wrong.  Besides, it’s kind of interesting to see how the rest of the world impinges on the world of political blogging.

OK, so I’m weird that way.

Mickey Kaus wants to know:

I still don’t quite understand why Obama can’t bring hmself to say some variation of a) “There won’t be rationing” or b) there won’t be rationing under the Kinsley definition–”Any treatment that I, the President, would get you will get,” or c) “Medicare doesn’t ration now and won’t ration in the future, period. There will be no change in how Medicare decides what treatments to pay for. The goal is to get it to pay for more, not less.” Read My Lipitor!** No New Rationing.

Because the President doesn’t dare lie about something like that? The ads for 2012 would write themselves.

Ask me a hard one, next time.

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s just that she loves talking on her cell phone more.

The clip is from a longer one made by a 9/11 Truther, by the way. Which is very funny, because if the Democrats are losing that subset of their party over health care rationing then they’re in real trouble.

Moe Lane

I’ve mostly ignored the shenanigans of Meghan McCain, but this latest bit sparked a response from Allahpundit that I want to highlight:

…this whole line of attack demonstrates how fundamentally she misunderstands why so many “far right” Republicans don’t like her. As I think I’ve said before, McCain’s really no further towards the center than I am; she supports gay marriage, as do I, and she’s conventional on most other core conservative issues (guns, abortion, religion). And yet the base hates her while they, errrrr, tolerate me. Why is that? If the “old guard” of right-wingers is so retrograde, how does a wayward atheist like me end up co-blogging at one of the biggest righty blogs in America? Simple answer: I spend most of my time challenging the left while Meggie Mac spends hers challenging the right, so I have a certain baseline credibility on our side that she has yet to establish.

Well, I’m not an atheist, and I have a better relationship with my RS readers than Allahpundit has with his HA ones – but his basic point is one that I share. I’m openly for allowing same-sex marriage, and by a lot of people’s definitions I’m ‘pro-amnesty;’ I’ve even been known to remark that we could increase the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. But what I’m not is someone who’s into kicking say, social conservatives in the shin for the sake of kicking social conservatives in the shin: firstly, because they usually don’t deserve it; and secondly, because it’s neither good manners nor good political sense.  I don’t expect the groups that I do mock and go after to love me for it*, but I can expect at least respectful attention from the ones that I merely disagree with. (more…)

Then again, I went to bed insanely early (for me). The Sundries Shack reminds us that there’s also viewing opportunities tonight, moonlight and weather permitting. Useful orientation video here:

I’m going to try for just after dusk, myself.

(via @JTlol) Suffice it to say that the administration’s ‘town halls’ are about as free-form as a sestina.  And before anybody asks: I am not going to spend the morning writing thirty-nine rhyming lines of poetry that has as its subject this administration’s lack of willingness to face criticism.  It doesn’t amuse me enough to do it for free and I don’t see anybody with their checkbooks out.
(more…)

But the day is young.

Which should relieve the administration, given what she might have written if she did:

…I must confess my dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus for domestic policy. When will heads start to roll? I was glad to see the White House counsel booted, as well as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, and hope it’s a harbinger of things to come. Except for that wily fox, David Axelrod, who could charm gold threads out of moonbeams, Obama seems to be surrounded by juvenile tinhorns, bumbling mediocrities and crass bully boys.

Case in point: the administration’s grotesque mishandling of healthcare reform, one of the most vital issues facing the nation. Ever since Hillary Clinton’s megalomaniacal annihilation of our last best chance at reform in 1993 (all of which was suppressed by the mainstream media when she was running for president), Democrats have been longing for that happy day when this issue would once again be front and center.

But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises — or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens.

(more…)

Clementine, Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer

You know something? I’m going to go to bed early. It’s been a longish day and I’m tired.

Caleb put up another version of his Acticons post here, and I wanted to highlight this link to Neil Stevens’ own tip jar [FIXED!].  Neil does a whole lot of work for the Online Right; work that lets me have a soapbox from which to declaim.  Without him and folks like him, our communication is limited to how loud we can shout.

In other words, the infrastructure people need the help, too.

Via @jaketapper, the story that you always knew that you’d read some day.

SAO PAULO, Brazil – In one murder after another, the “Canal Livre” crime TV show had an uncanny knack for being first on the scene, gathering graphic footage of the victim.

Do I really need to keep going?

Too uncanny, say police, who are investigating the show’s host, state legislator Wallace Souza, on suspicion of commissioning at least five of the murders to boost his ratings and prove his claim that Brazil’s Amazon region is awash in violent crime. Police also have accused Souza of drug trafficking.

The ironic bit is, of course, that you could throw a script around this concept and sell it to any number of crime drama television shows in a heartbeat*.  Hell, take away the murders and the drugs and you’ve got a Scooby-Doo episode.

Well, maybe just take away the murders.

Moe Lane

*Except Law & Order: Infinite Regress. Too much work adding the three plot twists and twp places where they complain about New York judges.