Moe Lane

Is it outside the realm of possibility that… this might not actually suck?

Supposedly played by Scott Joplin himself.

Maple Leaf Rag (Album Version), Scott Joplin

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: there is a part of me that enjoys the baffled outrage.  These people apparently didn’t expect this sort of thing from this administration:

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”

Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.

(more…)

It’s pronounced ‘Michael:’ he’s running in Charlie Rangel’s seat, assuming of course that Charlie Rangel doesn’t get ousted in the primary itself.

I like our chances on this one. Rangel’s got a serious primary challenger, he’s got a very poor ethical reputation right now, and Faulkner’s the sort of candidate that you want to have on hand for a general election challenge when in a situation like this.

But you have to speculate to accumulate, as a wise man once said. Donation page for Rev. Faulkner here.  His main sites are here and here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Watching this guy try to justify Israel-bashing is alternately infuriating and darkly amusing, but I wanted to highlight this one epitome of idiocy:

Some critics of Israel are motivated by a wish that it did not exist — that it would just somehow go away. But this is the politics of the ostrich: Flemish nationalists feel the same way about Belgium, Basque separatists about Spain.

If I were a Flemish nationalist or a Basque separatist, I do believe that I would be mortally insulted at the way that my cause had just been equated with a movement that includes people who make unapologetic calls to kill every Jew in the world.

This should have been up a couple of days ago, but I’m having computer issues. Dan Coats did a conference call on Monday, and I took the opportunity to ask him a question on Republican unity, post-primary:

Actually, I asked two questions, but the first wasn’t much of anything; just Coat’s reaction to Evan Bayh’s tacit admission that Brad Ellsworth is going to lose the election. It was a funnier question in my head than it was in the actual call.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Apparently I’m not in a political mood yet this morning: this Dresden Codak comic still has me laughing. From a director who adapts classic books to movies without actually reading the former first:

I was hesitant to do the The Grapes of Wrath, due to its similarity to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes*, but my financier insisted on at least one Steinbeck adaptation.

And that’s not even the punchline. (more…)

Kneel before Zod!

…or else he’ll sic Dick Cheney on you*.

…beats me.  I’m just in that kind of mood.  This probably sparked it off.

Moe Lane

*Don’t think that the President wouldn’t make the trade RIGHT NOW if it was somehow offered.

Don’t.

Fun site that was just sent to me. A taste:

“My name is a killing word” is a serious badass line.  Assuming, of course, that you can pull it off.  And assuming that the other guy’s seen Dune.

Eh, so he’s a schmuck. Still a good song.

‘Let It Be,’ Let It Be , The Beatles

Not deep cinema by any stretch of the imagination: but Daybreakers was a pretty good popcorn flick and it won’t ladle too much dead weight onto the eventual sequel.

And thus, no more The War of the Worlds. At least, not until we invent a working FTL drive.

Newly-chosen candidate Carly Fiorina (R CAND, CA-SEN) had a conference call today, and spoke somewhat about an issue of some interest to both myself and the California agricultural community: the delta smelt.

For those who are unaware: the delta smelt is, to quote Rep George Radanovich (R, CA-19), “a worthless little worm that needs to go the way of the dinosaur” – mostly because it’s a two-inch fish whose protection under the Endangered Species Act caused the government to turn off the water in the San Joaquin Valley. That cost the state of California almost a billion dollars in lost revenue… and it turns out that the stupid fish aren’t even in (alleged) danger from agricultural needs; they’re in (alleged) danger from Sacramento sewage.

We will now pause while our Californian readers murmur, “Not surprised at all.” (more…)