Moe Lane

Give House Democrats credit: their latest version of the health care rationing bill actually moved the numbers a little.  Just not in the way that they hoped.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the House version of health care reform legislation last week, but most voters are still opposed to the effort.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 42% now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s down from 45% a week ago but unchanged from two weeks ago.

Much obliged; the drop in support from the last time the Democrats unveiled a version of health care rationing was starting to abate, so having this handy reminder of who’s running Congress these days – and the implications – is really, really handy.  Some people might quibble that if Democrats wanted to be really helpful they’d have scheduled their latest announcement last Saturday, but I’m not greedy.  This will do nicely for tomorrow’s races.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

From Corzine +5 to Christie +2 in less than a week.  I’m not prepared to announce DOOM just quite yet, but it’s going to be a nail biter any which way.

Moe Lane

PS: Chris Christie for Governor.  Stay on target.

Crossposted to RedState.

47/41 Christie/Corzine, according to PPP.

If true… well, hell.

Moe Lane

PS: Chris Christie for Governor.

Crossposted to RedState.

Told you I was a sucker for Simple Gifts.

Simple Gifts, Alison Krauss;Yo-Yo Ma

This is very inside blog-ball; it’s mostly for the old-school warbloggers, most of whom will hopefully at least get a chuckle at this.

Quote #1 (via Megan McArdle):

Do you fight crime by leaving some gangs alone? That’s one of the arguments put forth by Mark Kleiman, author of “When Brute Force Fails.” In the book, the UCLA public policy professor argues that police forces get better results by focusing most energy on the most prolific criminal gangs, and punishing them swiftly, to motivate other potential criminals to stay inactive. Is this the solution?

Quote #2:

Muammar Qaddafi: ‘I Saw Iraq and I Was Afraid’

As the debate continues over what effect the war in Iraq has had on the larger war on terrorism, there is one indication that it had a powerful effect on Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s decision to give up his weapons of mass destruction.

It received little notice at the time, but in an interview with the British Spectator in September, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Qaddafi had told him in a phone conversation that “I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid.”

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Another one on the can’t-wait list: Torch of Freedom is Eric Flint and David Weber’s sequel to Crown of Slaves, which is itself one of the books of Weber’s Honorverse space opera series. Sort of Hornblower, only with starships. Suffice it to say that I buy these in hardcover, when I can.

So, it being Sunday, we replace the previous sequel (Imager’s Challenge: The Second Book of the Imager Portfolio) with this sequel.

Having listened to Lullaby a couple of times, it’s good stuff for kids; I particularly liked the Simple Gifts track.

And yeah, that sale was pretty much driven by Twitter. There is money in this stuff.

Came across this, in the process of watching Not Larry Sabato pound his head into a concrete wall at the way that The Virginia Democratic Party is in the process of imploding in their state elections.

Marvelous fun.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes.

On allegations that she requested that unofficial Jon Corzine ally Chris Daggett drop out of the New Jersey race, the former governor replied:

So, to the good people of New Jersey, please know that Daggett’s claims are false. I’ve never even suggested he should drop out of the race.

…wait for it, wait for it…

But, come to think of it…

Ouch. You want to keep playing, Daggett?

Moe Lane

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines.)

Crossposted to RedState.

[FURTHER UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.  Note the petition below.

[UPDATE]: Thanks to Randy Mastro and RedState’s Francis Cianfrocca – who will have a lot more to say about these races – here’s the petition cataloging said skulduggery; and you will not find it dull reading. (If you’re having trouble reading it, try here.)

It’s not that our opponents are geniuses at skulduggery.  It’s that they’re unaccustomed to being challenged on it.  When they do, they make mistakes. [Witness this latest from NYC for an example:]

A City Council hopeful won’t cough up documents related to whether the Working Families Party is scamming the campaign finance system — because the case could involve “criminal liability,” according to documents released yesterday.

The bombshell development was revealed at a court hearing where lawyers for the WFP and the campaign of Staten Island candidate Debi Rose tried to get a suit against them tossed.

Former Giuliani administration Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, the lawyer opposing the Rose campaign, called it an “extraordinary development.”

The suit itself – I’m working to get a copy of it sent to me – alleges that WFP (which is, of course, a front for ACORN) is violating campaign finance laws by having WFP front group Data and Field Services provide “canvassing and other services for [City Council candidate Debi] Rose in her primary campaign against [current Conservative candidate* Ken] Mitchell for which the firm received far less than the market value.”  In that context, trying to avoid financial disclosure on the grounds of possible self-incrimination is at the very least eyebrow-raising; which is why they tried to walk back on it before 24 hours had passed. It should also be noted that the Rose race in Staten Island is not the only one where this sort of thing went on; Queens City Council candidate James Van Bramer is likewise heavily involved with WFP/Data & Field Services, as this diary from the Daily Kos (of all places) makes clear.  I’m sure that his campaign is watching this case unfold with great interest.

The moral here?  Well, aside from the obvious one of “ACORN taints everything that it touches,” it’s this: one-party rule makes people stupid.  And stupid people make mistakes.  Keep that in mind the next time you’re trying to decide whether or not to fight City Hall.

Moe Lane

*Who is actually a Democrat.  Welcome to New York fusion politics.

Crossposted to RedState.

As in, how to shout out a warning without… actually shouting out a warning.  In this case, he’s getting just a little worried about his fellow Democrats turning out.  To put his findings in handy table form:

The voter numbers are in millions, and the percentage at the end represents the percentage of McCain/Obama voters of 2008 that PPP expects to vote in the 2009 elections. While this is not-precisely-horrible news for Corzine*, it’s not good news at all for the Democrats next year:

Maybe those numbers will improve some over the weekend- and Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine certainly aren’t the best candidates- but if that pattern continues on into next year Republicans will win back the House.

The reason why is because there are a lot more Democrats in Congressional Districts that McCain won than vice versa: and there quite a few Democrats in districts that Obama didn’t actually win by all that much.  It’s going to be interesting to see how the state legislature races in NJ and VA play out this year; the results might possibly be even more of a harbinger than those of the governors races…

Moe Lane

*It would be good news, if more people actually liked Jon Corzine.  Or at least didn’t despise him.

Crossposted to RedState.

#1 of Cracked.com’s “The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today)”

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