Moe Lane

Any other Democratic pollster I’d mock, but PPP’s Tom Jensen has earned a certain forbearance:

Americans are now pretty evenly divided about whether they would rather have Barack Obama or George W. Bush in the White House. 48% prefer Obama while 46% say they would rather have the old President back.

[snip]

These numbers suggest some peril for Democrats in making Bush a focus of their messaging this fall.

To put it mildly. (more…)

I paraphrase.

Fantasy*: “Publicizing a liberal online plot to crash the Tea Parties will destroy the movement once and for all!”

Reality: “Publicizing a liberal online plot to crash the Tea Parties actually immunizes the protests tomorrow.  Yes, it’s annoying.  So are the side effects from a cowpox vaccine.”

Mind you, both Fantasy and Reality wildly over-estimate how many anti-Tea Partiers will be bothered to actually infiltrate and instigate something tomorrow.

Moe Lane

*TPM’s Fantasy, not Hot Air’s.  Hot Air is rolling its eyes at this, too.

Those of you reading this, in say, 2060 or so:

I doubt that the comments section of news sites are reflective of the electorate’s views as a whole. I suspect those who leave comments are more passionate, over-caffeinated, perhaps angrier, and probably quicker to denounce everyone on the other side. They just aren’t like the intelligent, astute, even-tempered charming types who read political blogs.

…let me just stop a few academic papers before they even start.

1. Jim Geraghty is being heavily sarcastic.  His own site(s) do not feature comments sections, mostly because absent active site moderation they would be rapidly overrun by liberal racists/misogynists/homophobes/bigots looking for a socially acceptable venue to express their racism/misogyny/homophobia/bigotry via projecting said racism/misogyny/homophobia/bigotry on conservatives.  Also, it would attract p3nis enlargement spam.
2. Very few American males actually do worry overmuch about the size of their p3nises.  We have no idea why every other email that the average American gets is spam offering help in correcting this non-problem.
3. The ’3′ above is there to substitute for an ‘e,’ in the futile hope of avoiding more spam.
4. Where was I?  Oh, yes: on the other hand, your era’s conventional wisdom is correct: the most amazingly useless, pointless, and counterproductive commentary in the world really was to be found on YouTube.  The collective intelligence of the blogosphere’s commentariat went up ten IQ points as soon as people noticed that you could comment on that site.
5. And, oh, yeah: we just thought RickRolling was funny.  There wasn’t any kind of conspiracy.  Sorry?

Moe Lane

(Via Instapundit) Professor Bainbridge strains mightily to appeal to sweet reason…

At bottom, my problem with [Bruce] Bartlett’s argument that we can afford higher taxes and greater regulation is that regulation and taxation are like the story about how to boil a frog. If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.

In the United States today, the thermostat is still set pretty low. The Heritage Foundation has warned us, however, that the Obamabots have turned up the heat a tad. It is the proper function of conservatives to resist and to seek to turn down the heat. It would be nice to have Bartlett and [James] Joyner with us.

…but it is too late: the two that he’s trying to reach are gracefully finishing their transition to the Other Side, where their social views are compatible enough with existing mandated opinion, and where they may find available a discreet amount of funding for apostates*.  I say this with no real heat: such things happen. I will say this, though: when they do complete their transitioning, they will demonstrate it by attacking Professor Bainbridge.

Such things also happen.

Moe Lane

*Which is frankly something that the Right needs to emulate. As Tom Clancy patriotically delighted in reminding the world, the CIA paid top dollar for defectors.

I am officially gobsmacked. POTUS:

“Whether We Like it or Not, We Remain a Dominant Military Superpower.”

Here’s the video, in case the site above doesn’t load:

I got nothing, sorry.

[UPDATE]: No, wait, I do have something. Dude. READ THIS STUFF ALOUD FIRST BEFORE YOU GO IN FRONT OF A CAMERA. Find somebody on staff who doesn’t love you and read it in front of him or her. Watch to see where the winces are.

I know, I know: you’re thinking that this has to be a metaphor for something. Maybe the stock market. Maybe the midterms. Maybe even the Global War on Terror. But no. Three year old. Tightrope. Siberian tigers.

Sorry.

…OK, they do (1-2 ‘small’ glasses of wine/day), and it’s unfortunately… sensible.  At least, when you’re my age.

Sensible drinking can substantially reduce your risk of a stroke, but only if you don’t enjoy a cigarette at the same time, research suggests.

A study of over 20,000 people in the UK found non-smokers who drank moderate amounts were nearly 40% less likely to have a stroke than non-drinkers.

But once cigarettes were added, this protective effect vanished.

It’s always somethi…

Wait.  I quit smoking years ago.  So it’s all cool.  As soon as I can determine whether insensible drinking counts.  Or at least drinking until insensible.  Which, knowing my tolerance these days, takes us right back to what are called ‘sensible’ levels…

Sixty-five million dollars’ worth. The entire budget, in fact:

Gov. Chris Christie is taking $65 million, the entire allocation, from the state’s global warming fund, and $5.9 million, from the toxic waste site cleanup program, to help close the over $10 billion deficit in his $29.3 billion 2010-11 state budget, the state environmental protection commissioner said Monday.

In discussing the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed $380.6 million budget before the Assembly Budget Committee in Trenton, Commissioner Bob Martin said he hopes the loss of the $65 million, funding for the state’s role in a regional effort to combat global warming, will only be for one year. He told the committee that DEP staff will continue to attempt to work against global warming and so-called greenhouses gasses despite the lack of money.

(Via Cubachi, via @MelissaTweets) I am confident that Bob Martin will be able to continue working against global warming. In fact, I am confident that he will be just as successful at it this year as he was last year: and you may take that statement any way that you like.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Ah. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s guts.

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I had the opportunity to meet with New Mexico candidate (and NRCC Young Gun) Jon Barela yesterday for a quick interview and discussion:

The district (currently listed as Likely Democratic by Cook) itself is interesting; it’s a traditionally Republican district and the last poll for it was prior to passage of the health care debacle. Rep. Heinrich not only supported the bill; he supported a public option, and is also on the wrong side of pretty much every conservative issue of the 111th Congress, from the ‘stimulus’ on. Heinrich even managed to co-sponsor card check legislation, which is particularly unfortunate for him right now. The basic theme to this campaign, in other words, is that the incumbent is not only too liberal for the district; he’s too liberal for his own local party, to the point where some Democratic delegates were voting for Barela in their pre-primary election.  This is not a sign of a secure incumbent.

Jon’s site is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

By two ophthalmologists, apparently.  That’s pretty much the story: he was on a flight with his partner, the two ophthalmologists decided to voice their disappointment with Frank’s error in government, Frank’s partner said something rude about the ophthalmologists’ gender, and it all went downhill from there.  Personally, I’m with Glenn Reynolds on this: if Barney Frank doesn’t want to hear unflattering things said in public about his legislative technique, Barney Frank is welcome to start driving more. And if he feels that dealing with this is beneath his dignity as House Finance Services chair, well, the way things are going that won’t be an issue anyway, starting next January.

Moe Lane

PS: I’d like to note for the record that the participants of only one side of this argument have actually ever worked for a living, and it ain’t the ones who were in favor of the Democrats’ health care debacle.

Not. OUR. Fault.

Via Just One Minute (indeed…) comes your feel-good story of the day: Congressional Democrats have managed to thoroughly muck up Congress’ own health care coverage, particularly for new hires. Both staffers and legislators:

The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.

But the research service found that this provision was written in an imprecise, confusing way, so it is not clear when it takes effect.

The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.

Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.

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