Moe Lane

A. By getting the microphone cut off, of course. Via Breitbart TV and the B-Cast:

For the record, I find the sight of Big Green shills stomping on the free speech of an independent whistleblower – yes, that was fun to write; thanks for asking – to be just a sign that they themselves know that they’re having problems pushing their agenda these days. When even the BBC’s no longer a reliable stenographer (H/T: AoSHQ), well…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Yes, everybody else knows that the President’s trust-me yesterday on ending DADT is more of the same: nicely prepackaged rhetoric; good, standard delivery – and absolutely no substance whatsoever.  And that won’t change.  So you, and a large portion of the left-sphere, are now unhappy about the whole situation.

And?

I mean, really: what are you going to do about it?  Vote Republican?

Moe Lane

Links via Instapundit & Jake Tapper.

Crossposted to RedState.

Check out the bobble at the end.  Not conclusive, but at least worth noting.

Via Scott Ott‘s Facebook account; I agree with Scott that Chip Reid’s asking a legitimate question about Reagan’s notable lack of a Nobel Peace Prize*.  I will also note that my wife laughed out loud at Gibbs’ suggestion that the Washington pundit class get out more; so did I, but that was also because Gibbs needs to be at the head of that particular line.

Moe Lane

*I already know the answer, though.  So does Scott.  So does Chip Reid.  Heck, so does Gibbs.  But really, what is he going to say? “Well, they led my boss in unto temptation, and he’s enthusiastic about giving in?”

Which is the real reason that they never offered it to Reagan.  He would have accepted it, graciously – and then used it to further his vision of peace, not the Nobel prize committee’s.

Crossposted to RedState.

Because I’m in that Tom Lehrer-y mood right now.

“Silent E,” Tom Lehrer

(pause)

Wow. I don’t remember it being that surreal.

Let me start off by saying that fanfic is not inherently bad, of course. It is often very, very bad: but then, every so often you get something like The Darth Side, which was infinitely better than 2/3rds of the films that it drew from. However, I’m well aware that to a Yalie calling his work ‘fanfic’ is a bit of a killing insult, which is why I’m using it.

Exhibit A (H/T: Melissa Clouthier): “A Prize Too Far,” which is Chris’ attempt to give voice to the imaginary President Obama that he inexplicably endorsed last year. You see, his President Obama would reject the Nobel Peace prize as being premature:

I don’t know the Norwegian words for “Let’s get real,” but I tried earnestly to convey in plain English that awarding me the Nobel Peace Prize, at this stage of my presidency, opens the committee itself to the charge that it dispenses its gold promiscuously, without regard to actual accomplishment. To give the award to Albert Schweitzer, or Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu or Lech Walesa or Andrei Sakharov is one thing. To give it to me is, well, another. To put it in very blunt terms, it is hard for me to believe otherwise than that I have been presented this award for not being my predecessor.

And Chris’ President did it in such a gracious, understanding, wise manner, too. Trulystatesmanlike, it was. I almost teared up at the luminous nobility of it all.  A shame that this is the real world, huh?  And in the real world, the President that we have – which the President that Chris supported – did not make a speech like that.  Will not make a speech like that.  Possibly even cannot make a speech like that.  And no amount of sympathetic magic will change that.

But on the bright side: at least Chris didn’t Mary-Sue himself into the piece.  Although I suspect that this might have just been due to a quick rewrite of the first draft.

Moe Lane

PS: There’s not a chance in hell that President Obama would ever have the nerve to publicly refer to the man who wrote this song.

Crossposted to RedState.

Today? Not so much.

Well, there was Red Thunder. But I’m really not sure how much a deliberate evocation of a previous generation of science fiction counts in this context.

Via @phxgonline.

…and that while they also opposes gay marriage 53/39, the numbers are increasing after the dip from last year*; and, at any rate, the movement since 2006 seems to be mostly coming from Republicans.  Full details here, and it’s ostensibly good news for same-sex marriage supporters (like Instapundit, GayPatriot and, well, myself).  It’d be reasonable to expect that this administration might be trying to work on some sort of compromise, right?

Nope.  Not any time soon.  There’s going to be no significant movement on same-sex marriage on the federal level before at least 2013.  You can forget about ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, too: it’s too tied to the same-sex marriage issue to be repealed.

Why?

African-Americans are 40/52 against civil unions.

That’s why.

Moe Lane

PS: Hey, it’s not my fault.

*I personally blame the fight against Proposition 8 for that.

Crossposted to RedState.

Little bit of a sore throat, maybe a fever, a littl… wait.  None of you care, and none of you should care.  There’s nothing interesting about me being sick.

Fine.  Marge Simpson’s going to be on the cover of Playboy.  Yeah, that’s right: Hugh Hefner’s so desperate for ideas at this point that he’s mining the depths of Internet pr0n.  And there are depths there, by God.

You can go bleach out your brain now.

…this Reason article (“Praise Our Nobel Laureate, You Churlish Anti-American:” H/T: Instapundit) is still worth linking to, for two reasons. The first is this paragraph:

[NPR correspondent Don] Gonyea argues that because he is receiving the award for not being George W. Bush, and for changing American foreign policy by continuing super peaceful Predator drone attacks on the Taliban and pouring more troops into Afghanistan, this might “remind swing voters” that “he has done a lot for the United States around the world.” Well. Having Norwegian lefties reminding fence-sitting Americans that Obama makes Europeans swoon will probably be as effective as encouraging readers of The Guardian to write condescending letters to voters in Ohio, informing them that most people who pay a television license and subscribe to The New Statesman think George W. Bush is a mentally retarded Nazi.

The second reason is for revisiting the Guardian’s infamous Operation Clark County – which was easily one of the top five Left own-goals of the 2004 election. For those who weren’t paying attention then: the paper tried to micro-target a swing district in Ohio by having their readers send pro-Kerry letters to random voters in that county.  And how did that go? (more…)

54 billion in deficit reduction, 110 billion in reduced health care costs. Via the CBO’s blog, via Hot Air.

That’s a decent amount of savings, there: it’s a shame that the Democratic party would rather that trial lawyers got the money. After all, trial lawyers can be counted on to give the Democrats some of it.

Crossposted to RedState.

(Via Dan Collins of POWIP) Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) is back from Honduras – despite the best efforts of the Democrats to stop him from going – and he’s unkind about what has been pretty obviously an attempt by the American government to admit that we made a mistake and picked the wrong side of the Honduras issue:

[American policy re: the Zelaya ouster] was set in a snap decision the day Mr. Zelaya was removed from office, without a full assessment of either the facts or reliable legal analysis of the constitutional provisions at issue. Three months later, it remains in force, despite mounting evidence of its moral and legal incoherence.

[snip]

In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

When I asked Ambassador Llorens why the U.S. government insists on labeling what appears to the entire country to be the constitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya a “coup,” he urged me to read the legal opinion drafted by the State Department’s top lawyer, Harold Koh. As it happens, I have asked to see Mr. Koh’s report before and since my trip, but all requests to publicly disclose it have been denied.

(more…)

Time for the usual nonsense:

DENVER—A Denver parade in honor of Christopher Columbus is on—despite a phony e-mail that circulated Thursday saying the downtown celebration was canceled for lack of funds.

The Sons of Italy’s Columbus Day Parade Committee in Denver was shocked to learn of the e-mail sent to the media, which was signed by Sons of Italy President Richard SaBell. The fake e-mail said protesters had “ruined” the event and tarnished the legacy of an Italian hero.

(Via Instapundit) Ah, the activist Left. To evoke Norm from Cheers: can’t live with ‘em, pass the beer nuts.

Moe Lane

PS: We will now pause for the usual whines about how we shouldn’t assume a political motivation for this one.  I’m hoping for something particularly defensive and/or brassy this year: the Left’s a little riled up right now.

Crossposted to RedState.