Moe Lane

How… extraordinary.

Barader was seized in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and US intelligence forces, according to US government officials quoted in the New York Times. Mullah Barader has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with US and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials. Though Barack Obama has banned US agencies from using forms of torture such as waterboarding, Pakistani questioning techniques are frequently brutal.

Via Ann Althouse, via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, I voted for the other guy.

Crossposted to RedState.

I too can name that tune in five notes.

Ahhhh… the Old Standby, “there are 435 individual elections, each decided on a case-by-case basis” claim. I remember offering that weak hope myself in 2006, right before we got walloped as so many of those individual elections turned the same damn way. Gee, it was almost as if there was some unifying force that strongly influenced each election and turned the majority of swing voters in the same direction.

The problem here for the Democrats is that they assumed that the President’s sky-high approval ratings of January 2009 – or even April of 2009 – would not have dropped this far by now. “You’ve got me,” and all that.  Nobody really expected things to be any different, in fact: back in 2009, whenever I noted how badly the administration was polling I would note that ‘well, yes, of course the polls will go back up again, but…’ before I got on with the kicking.  And I’ve always been the rampaging optimist about this sort of thing.

So it’s a bit of a pickle for the Other Side, what-what?  Well, I’m sure that they’ll think of something.  Eventually.  Almost certainly.  Hey, they could blame Bush!  It won’t work, but warm fuzzies from nostalgia are not something to be spurned.

Moe Lane

And this is actually slightly embarrassing to admit: I hadn’t realized that Christina Hendricks was Our Mrs. Reynolds until Instapundit pointed that out.  She did that good a job.

[pause to look up the 'special hell' bit]

Damn, but that show was just one good quote after another.

The one he’s not going to be needing anymore?

Somehow I suspect that not much of it is going to find its way to the DSCC.

Via Hot Air.

Moe Lane

“That would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.” Wow, thanks! That’s going to be great for our campaign ads this fall, Senator. We can pretty much use that one everywhere.

Crossposted to RedState.

This song is going to be stuck in my head ALL DAY now, thanks to The Gormogons. Which is, by the way, not a bad group blog – although I’ve got nothing against Esperanto speakers.

Fair warning: this specific bit made my wife laugh in slightly bitter agreement:

Almost exactly one year ago when Obama was attempting to appoint the same old tax-challenged Washington cronies to his change administration, we wrote here about why Washington doesn’t work — and doesn’t get it. It still doesn’t.

One overlooked reason: Despite their growing grumbles, America’s voters kept electing the same partisan pols. When better than 80% of senatorial incumbents and 90+% of House incumbents get reelected from both sides, often using the most partisan, negative advertising, the lesson learned properly by those pros is that the voters are the hypocrites, denouncing partisanship and gridlock and punishing such tactics by repeated reelection.

This is a warning because while she’s a Republican herself, she’s not the partisan hack that I am about it.  So her vote this November will be a vote against, rather than for.  I’d appreciate it if the GOP’s career politicians kept that in mind, even after next January; I really don’t want to have to go through all of this again in six years…

Moe Lane

As in, there isn’t one.

Jim Geraghty dumped a bit of cold water on this not-yet-officially-refuted rumor that Senator Mikulski is planning to retire:

…the least she’s ever gotten in a Senate race is 60 percent. Evan Bayh faced a tough reelection bid, but Mikulski’s biggest-name opponent so far, is Queen Anne’s County Commissioner Eric Wargot. She’s raised $3 million, he’s raised $176,526. Even in a terrible year for Democrats, she should be safe.

If Mikulski is contemplating retirement, it’s not because she fears she’ll lose in 2010.

…which is true enough: if Mikulski is retiring (we should probably get that confirmed today), it won’t be because of the current political environment.

But from now on, reasons for Democratic drop-outs no longer matter.  Particularly in the Senate. (more…)

Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Come, I will hide nothing from you: I’ve never really listened to the lyrics, so I have no idea what this song is actually about, except California. It’s just sort of background music to me.

…what? Oh, Gail Carriger (the woman who wrote Soulless) had mentioned that she considered him “probably the best writer America has ever produced.” I think that this is not quite true*.

Not quite. If you’ve never read John D MacDonald, then to paraphrase Spider Robinson, I envy you: you have the wonderful sensation of enjoying his books for the first time to look forward to.

Just thought that I’d give him the shout-out.  It’s been pretty politics-heavy lately.

Moe Lane

*It is, however, an excellent way to make me kindly-disposed towards the writer.

…I wanted to have something to read at the food court before I did my clothes shopping, I had heard some good things about Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate), and, well, it’s nice to have both the wherewithal and the opportunity to just buy a book and be able to read it on the spot. All in all, I liked it: the author has an ear for writing period dialogue, and she was gratifyingly familiar with the time period (mid Victorian; probably 1880s). The novel is alternate fantasy (not quite horror, despite the existence of vampires and werewolves*); I’m not going to give a review, because I’m bad at book reviews, but it was well worth at least one read, and I look forward to the sequel with some interest.

Plus, it has dirigibles.

Moe Lane

*Probably because both were fully in Society, and quite keen to avoid being cut from it.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Do these people actually understand how this looks?

But debating Dick Cheney on terrorism? The Obama White House says it’s happy to do that anytime, as it did with Sunday’s split-screen standoff between Cheney and Vice President Joe Biden.

The dueling appearances, along with what is a clear administration strategy to play up its newly aggressive approach in Afghanistan, show a White House determined to project a posture of strength on national security and trying to gain the upper hand with Republicans who wish to portray Obama as weak.

“We have never engaged in chest-beating on what we’re doing on terrorism,” said a White House official, who was pleased by how the interviews had played out. “But this dynamic where we’re responding to criticism from the former vice president gave us the opportunity to explain what we’re doing, without just going out and talking tough.”

Except that what they didn’t do was debate Cheney. They whined about him. And then they bragged about whining about him. Anonymously. Joe Biden wouldn’t actually dare go face-to-face with Dick Cheney on this issue. Heck, he won’t dare go face-to-face with Scott Brown.  And don’t get me wrong: that might even be smart strategy on Biden’s, or the White House’s, part.  But this isn’t September 2008: the Democrats aren’t able to have it both ways quite this comprehensively anymore…

Moe Lane

If you were reading Hotline On Call exclusively, you’d think that Indiana Democrats were going to have to pick a candidate to replace Evan Bayh on the ballot:

Candidates running for statewide office in IN have to collect 500 signatures from each of the state’s 9 districts. Those signatures are due by tomorrow.

Once signatures are in, candidates have until Friday to officially file for office.

Bayh could still file to run, then drop out. But if he does not file his signatures tomorrow, no other Dem is expected to collect the required [4,500] signatures by then, meaning Dems will get the chance to pick their own nominee.

Not… quite. (more…)