Moe Lane

Since someone was asking.

But let’s be more cheerful, shall we? Here’s 6 Movie Plots Made Possible by Bafflingly Bad Decisions. I have to say: Cracked.com has a clever model for posts.

Moe Lane

Dr. Helen has a definite point:

Often, I hear Republicans and conservatives say that we are “doomed.” This negative cognitive self-talk is pathetic. It is crippling. Don’t engage in it.

You are never doomed until you are dead. There is always something that can be done. The anger of the American public is only just beginning. It is an energy that will be needed in the coming days, weeks and months to protest, stand up, debate, argue and get in the face of every government official, public figure and others who support a bill that leads us down The Road to Serfdom.

(H/T: Instapundit) Not being an intellectual*, I’m going to put my response in somewhat more populist terms. I agree with Helen that anger is an energy. Nonetheless:

“Don’t get mad. Get even.”

Moe Lane

*I thought I was, once: but it turns out that I was just a science fiction geek. Frankly, I prefer it this way.

[UPDATE] Err… yes.  Yes, of course that was an intentional typo in the title.

Well, this is an interesting report:

Via @thebcast.  My first inclination is of course to believe this Ken Hamidi fellow… as is my second, third, and fourth inclination. And none of those links directly involve Kenneth Gladney: in fact, not all of them involve right-wing sources.  Nonetheless, innocent until proven guilty… even when it comes to SEIU’s purpleshirts.  If they have evidence to show that Hamidi was at fault, I’m sure that it’ll become obvious soon enough.

Moe Lane

Doing what, you ask?  Bless your heart, who cares?  I’m sure that the Governor-elect will find something for him to do.

In the short term, [Current VA Senate Majority Leader] Saslaw’s challenge will be to hold his party’s 21 seats. McDonnell might try to tip the balance of power in the Senate by luring a Democrat in a vulnerable district into his administration.

One key senator Friday did not rule out the possibility of accepting such an offer. Sen. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania) , a longtime school administrator who was considered for secretary of education under both Kaine and Warner, said he would be willing to discuss an administration job.

“I would certainly be willing to talk to the governor-elect and his staff about whatever they want to talk about,” he said. “I’m not looking for that, I’m not seeking that, but I’m willing to talk to them about anything.”

Via NotLarrySabato, who is inexplicably not as happy about this act of potential bipartisanship and outreach as the rest of us.  Of course, it’s not as fun when it’s the other side doing it to you.

Moe Lane

It’s not far from where they live, of course.

Last night former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura made a secret visit to the devastated military families at Fort Hood.

The Bushes instructed the commander of the mourning military base that they wanted no publicity. With their Secret Service detail, Bush and his wife made the 30 mile trip unannounced from their ranch near Crawford, Texas Friday evening.

Note the lack of photos (Top of the Ticket had to use a stock picture from Qatar in 2003, apparently).  And I am fighting the urge to editorialize this.

It is… difficult.

Moe Lane

When I heard that the President’s first reaction to the Fort Hood terrorist attack was to go quickly through the prepared version of his speech and then talk about the attack, I shrugged. I knew that we weren’t getting somebody who could connect with the American people on a fundamental level (I suspect that it was a large part of his novelty appeal, after sixteen years of Presidents who could and did), and Glenn Reynolds was right: the President defaults to academic mode*.  I’m sure that it seemed like a good idea at the time.

When I skimmed over the revelation that the President had mixed up the Medal of Honor with the Medal of Freedom, I again shrugged, although less readily.  He’s a Democratic politician, I thought.  Outside specific geographic areas they simply can’t be expected to remember details like that.

But now I hear that he had gotten the medal wrong of somebody he had given the medal to himself not three months earlier, I cringed.  This is precisely the sort of error that a well-trained and well-organized Presidential staff is expected to routinely avert; the fact that it slipped through suggests that this administration has neither.  And that is the fault of the Chief of Staff.

I want to make this point clear: yes, the White House staff is supposed to be better at this.  They are supposed to be competent.  They are not.  And I am not directly blaming the President for their incompetence: he had a reasonable expectation that the person that he has delegated to ensure their competence would do his job.  That COS Emanuel turned out to be this sloppy at his administrative duties is honestly a surprise to everybody.  But the man needs to go, and be replaced with someone with the right skill set.

Moe Lane

*I know that his supporters are fond of thinking of the President as being an avatar of either Kennedy or FDR, but in reality he’s much closer to Woodrow Wilson.  And I’m not going to pretend that this is a compliment.

Annnd here’s the other one.

Pinball Wizard, The Who

Although I never really go ‘into’ Tommy, sorry.

Moe Lane

I didn’t do one last night, so I’ll do tonight.  The first one is an old favorite, although I usually stop somewhere around the three minute mark:

Thick As A Brick (Edit No 1), Jethro Tull

I understand that they look for this sort of thing.

Sergeant Munley, 34, was unconscious after being shot three times by Hasan and was rushed to hospital after she lost so much blood doctors thought she would die.

She was shot twice in the left thigh and once in the wrist but still managed to bring Malik down with four shots of her own.

Dr Kelly Matlock, who treated Munley in hospital, said: “She opened her eyes and said, ‘Did anybody die?’ That’s what she said.” Sgt Munley has now been told that Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 38 but her actions saved the lives of many others.

Via Hot Air, which also has a rather pointed suggestion about the need for Congressional hearings into the Fort Hood terrorist attack. Turns out that the terrorist responsible for the attack has a link to Anwar al-Awlaki; it would probably be a really good idea to find out just how this kind of breakdown occurred in our domestic anti-terrorism watch.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Pretty good stuff: sort of like Reptoids, but without the Jew-hating. Nice to see Wash and Inara get work. I don’t quite believe that it was intended to be an allegory of the current administration; but I suspect that when the second part shows up next year it’s going to have an extra heaping of quiet criticism. The folks at ABC are even now looking at the numbers, and thinking hard about the consequences.

And, dammit, they’re still using the ‘we need your water’ excuse. As Larry Niven once noted, they came in cruising right past Saturn’s rings, which are made of ice and has nobody shooting at them.

Moe Lane

PS: You know you want this.

[UPDATE] I was emailed that it was Louie Gohmert (R TX-01). Looking for video.

[ANOTHER UPDATE]: Short, sweet, and to the point:

I’m not following the floor action on the House health care rationing bill – I figure it’ll eventually pass the House somehow, and I am still fighting a cold – so I didn’t see this.  Which is a shame, because it must have been hysterical:

Fun stuff…Hoyer led the House in cheering for John [Dingell]. Nice touch and all but then a Republican got up and asked unanimous consent that [Dingell] be given back the Chairmanship of the House Energy And Commerce Committee. Pelosi replaced him, the Dean of the House, with Henry Waxman because [Dingell], being from Michigan, would never have moved on Cap and Tax.

Well played. I’d love to know who did this, and whether it was done on his or her own initiative.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I was going to make a millibear joke, but I decided against it.  This is freaky enough as-is:

Fortunately – and contra IMAO – this is happening over in Germany, not here.  Which is good, because that just ain’t right.