Moe Lane

Having watched for a while the entertaining meltdown that is the Democratic party’s House Ways & Means chairmanship crisis, I’d thought that I’d take a look at the top seven replacements for Charlie Rangel (via Jen Rubin) and quickly point out the… complications.

• Fortney Pete Stark, CA-13.  Crazy.
• Sander M. Levin, MI-12. Public option squish*.
• Jim McDermott, WA-07.  Seditionist.
• John Lewis, GA-05. Racist.
• Richard E. Neal, MA-02. Fifth in seniority.
• John S. Tanner, TN-08. Retiring.
• Xavier Becerra, CA-31. Seventh in seniority.

No, Neal and Becerra’s lack of seniority is an issue for Democrats.  They don’t rotate out their leadership like the GOP does.  Which makes the way that everybody skips past Levin a bit odd: looking over the guy’s record… well, there isn’t much of one.  He’s this 78 year old guy who’s been in Congress for 28 years and doesn’t seem to have done anything particularly noteworthy while he was there.  This is, of course, a personal tragedy and searing indictment of the man’s life choices: but it’s not precisely an obstacle to his taking the chairmanship, rambling progressive attack video or no.

Besides, even if it was: it’s only until January 2011 anyway.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState. (more…)

Unlike the folks at Hot Air or Ace of Spades HQ, I’m actually reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (that wasn’t meant to be a knock; the book happened to come out the day before I happened to be in a bookstore*):

…so far, it’s pretty good. Set Grahame-Smith obviously took full advantage of the breakaway hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to have an actual writing career (as opposed to a writing career dedicated to making fun of the 43rd President of the United States, which is honestly a bit dead-end these days, in addition to being rather sad). Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter probably won’t win the Hugo, but so far it doesn’t insult the intelligence and it appears to be well-researched.

That being said, there are rumors of a movie: it’ll probably suck.

Moe Lane

PS: Oh, my:

*Yes. It grieves me, too, that major SF/fantasy publishers don’t send me books by my favorite authors in the hopes that I will mention them on my 800K hit a year blog. Truly, the universe is conspiring against me.

Truly.

I’m sorry, but this song does not so much have innuendo as it is loaded down with it.

Brand New Key, Melanie

It was written in 1971. The only things that people wrote songs about in 1971 were sex, drugs, and Vietnam.  Or so it seems to my generation.

Not because 2012 was any good; I haven’t seen it, but I heard that it was pretty bad.

It’s the Movie of the Week because this fake trailer deserves to live.

Tell me I’m wrong.

And so, farewell to Airplane II: The Sequel.

You know Eric Massa: he’s the progressive Congressman from NY-29 who doesn’t know what ‘treason’ is. Remember this?

Yeah, they just ate that up with a spoon at the Netroots Nation thing. And now Massa’s retiring, officially for health reasons; but amid… allegations. Which is interesting; because the first, logical assumption that such allegations involved “show us on the doll where the Congressman touched you, son” may be a bit off of the mark. It may be more along the lines of the Congressman attacking a subordinate’s sexual orientation in a manner reminiscent of anti-gay bigots, virulent homophobes, and/or the new Chair of the House Ways & Means committee. At least, that’s how I’m reacting to his admission of ‘salty language‘…

But all of that pales before the real question: when is Massa giving back Rangel’s dirty money? I won’t bother asking why he took it in the first place, as I already know the answer. Besides, as of 3:30 PM EST the man’s irrelevant anyway.

Well. More irrelevant.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I could also drive a subway train, take tickets, tell people which platform to take, and – most importantly – stand around on the steps and the clock and shoot the breeze with my dad’s fellow employees and union members*.  It’s a NYC thing: hard to explain to people who aren’t from the area.

So, regarding the kid doing ATC work at JFK: it sounds like: a, the adult was right there; and b, the child was easily up for handling the not-particularly-challenging task of repeating that various airplanes were cleared for takeoff.  Which means I’m not going freak out over it.

Moe Lane

*Hell, if it weren’t for nepotism rules I’d probably be a railroad man myself; my family has a knack for it.

If you’re wondering when I’m going to drop this particular subject; I’m not.  I don’t like it when people try to murder women and children.  Judging from the hate mail I usually get from these posts, my disapproval is harshing the mood of at least a (very) few people’s masturbation fantasies, which is all the justification that I need right there.

But, hey: small price to pay to pander to people’s religious beliefs, right? It’s not like Democratic politicians ever pump their own gas.

To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon.

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving must simply increase, according to a forthcoming report by researchers at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

The 14 percent target was set in the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget for fiscal 2010.

Ace of Spades Headlines has already used the ‘tar, feathers, and pitchforks’ joke, so let me go to my backup response: if the 111th Congress raises the average price of gas to seven bucks a gallon, the major result will be that the 2010 Election Night map will give the impression that the entire country was dipped in raspberry jam.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I couldn’t improve on this Ed Morrissey post, no matter how hard that I tried.  So just watch the video:

…and privately chuckle at how expanded the New Hampshire Democratic party’s Maalox budget must be, these days. Ach, well, nobody held a gun to their head and made them run a howling progressive for Congress.

No, really.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. And Campaign Spot readers.

The New Ledger sat down with Governor Rick Perry a few weeks ago, and in the course of talking about Perry’s success (and his working principles of governing) came this exchange:

TNL: …do you think Republicans will win if they embrace that sort of approach in other states with all their challenges? And what does that look like?

Perry: Well, look at a state like Virginia, where Bob [McDonnell] just won by doing something very similar. He said we’re going to stop spending irresponsibly, we’re going to cut taxes, we’re going to encourage and enable those who risk their capital — job creators — and having what I would describe as a progressive energy policy, where he’s going to drill offshore in a way that’s environmentally sensitive and happens to be supported by his two Democratic senators.

That’s all pretty simple. These are not complex things — they’re challenging, but they’re straightforward. It’s not about understanding what you need to do as much as it is about having the courage to do it.

You look at a state like California. There are going to be some really tough decisions that have to be made to save that state. If Jerry Brown gets up and says “I’ve figured out a way to make this less painful,” well, here, smoke this — because at the end of the day, it’s going to be painful. Because that’s a state that has for too long made the easy decisions instead of the hard decisions.

If you are a state that has just said yes all the time to everything, there is a comeuppance, a day of reckoning for you. It’s right now.

It’s ‘right now’ in New Jersey, too. (more…)

The Safety Dance, Men Without Hats

Just because it’ll get stuck in your head, too.

UPDATE: OH MY GOD HE’S GOING TO GO DOWN SWINGING THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER.

Ahem.

Charlie Rangel emerged from a closed-door meeting in Nancy Pelosi’s office Tuesday night to declare that he’s still the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and hasn’t agreed to give up his gavel – even as some media outlets were reporting that he’d done just that.

___________

At last.

Harlem Democrat Charles Rangel now says he will step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, NBC News has learned.

He may make the move as early as tonight and Michigan Democratic Rep Sander Levin will temporarily take over the committee.

See also: AoSHQ, JammieWearingFool.

Two things:

1. Note: his replacement is not Pete Stark. I wonder why.
2. “John Carter of Mars Texas, thou art avenged!“

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.