Moe Lane

Very entertaining news from Stu Rothenberg:

An unusual number of Democratic candidates running this cycle are basing their victory scenarios on the existence of Independent or third-party candidates in their races. Are their hopes reasonable or are they merely grasping at straws?

They’re merely grasping at straws.  To skip ahead a bit:

…more often than not, Independents and third-party candidates see their support evaporate as Election Day approaches, as voters realize that a vote for an also-ran is a wasted vote.

For an example of this, look no further than the 2009 NJ gubernatorial election. If you look at the polls for that election, you’ll see that virtually every scenario that had Jon Corzine ahead relied on double-digit results for the third-party candidate.  The Democrats even went to the point of doing robocalls for the third-party candidate, which ended up doing nothing much for Corzine.  Third-party support had been declining in NJ for weeks beforehand, precisely in the fashion and the reasons that Stu noted above.
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Closing Time, Semisonic

In case you haven’t noticed, Weird Al Yankovic has a damn good ear for memorable songs. His polka selections for each of his albums are definitely pulling from the cream of the crop.

There are very few films that I would call ‘pitch-perfect,’ and Men in Black is one of them. Nothing to add, nothing to take away, and all in good fun.

And the “Mr. Jones. Mr. Smith.” was perfect. Somebody hopefully got a raise for that.

And so, adieu to Shoot ‘Em Up.

Apparently, it’s the 460th anniversary of the introduction of chocolate to Europe.  Or not: how the heck do you put a date on that sort of thing?

…Forget it.  It’s Chocolate Day.  There are three foods that I will always consume: bacon, chocolate, and Coca-Cola.  Interestingly, I am not in favor of combining any of the two directly – yes, even Coke and chocolate ice cream.  Gotta be vanilla…

Moe Lane (more…)

What could possibly go wrong?

Justin Bieber is apparently the subject of a new Internet prank, which now has the singer facing a tour of North Korea.

Bieber held a contest on his website encouraging fans to vote for where the next stop on his “My World” tour should be, with no restrictions on which countries could be voted for.

Oh, dear.

The contest ended up with more than half a million votes to send the 16-year-old teen icon to the communist nation.

4chan…

…and I don’t think that we need to go any further than that, do we? With that name you know how it ends, after all.  Anyway, somebody at Hot Air Headlines really, really wants this to happen; I’m just mildly impressed that the second place finisher was apparently Israel.  Which he should totally… sing, is it?  I’m apparently not in his target demographic*… for.

Moe Lane (more…)

The title is “The education debacle of the decade” – and wasn’t it, just? It’s about the Democratic party’s successful efforts to re-segregate the DC school system, in the guise of killing the Opportunity Scholarship Program… and I’m being even blunter about this than author Bob Ewing says that the Washington Post is being (no link to WaPo at site):

It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the [OSP] program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions.

Sure, teachers’ unions hate school choice.  Exposing a monopoly to market forces always ticks off the monopolists.  But even if the teachers’ unions had been on-board with the OSP, the single-minded way that the Democratic party leadership went hammer and tongs after this small program tells me that white, Democratic legislators have a real problem with poor minority students suddenly appearing in their white, privileged, private schools.  And now that they have both branches of government, they’re finally in a position to do something about it. (more…)

The report is that West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin (D) will be pushing for having a 2010 special election for the late Senator Robert Byrd’s seat.  In this he’s joined by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R), who shares with Manchin a desire for the job.  Which is fine: neither politician is making a secret of it and they’d be the most likely candidates for 2012 anyway.

There does seem to be a general consensus that while a special election is not required, it would be desirable:

Secretary of State Natalie Tenant has already called on state lawmakers to revise the law to allow for a special election.

“For me, there is a distinct line between how I personally feel and what I can legally do,” Tennant said on her website late last week. “I personally believe that the voters of the state should be allowed to elect a successor to Senator Byrd sooner than November of 2012.”

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Not-quite-what-he-intended-to-say sub-edition:

President Bush, a White House official said, “was not facing the same level of obstruction.  Twenty-eight of President Obama’s nominees have been held on the Senate floor for more than three months. At this point in the Bush administration, only six of his nominees had been waiting that long.”

Interestingly enough, at this point the two administrations had something in common: a Democratic-controlled Senate.  Apparently, the Obama administration is now admitting that their boss is less competent at domestic politics than was Bush; something that we all already knew, but it’s nice to have it confirmed.

See also Hot Air for more, and The New Ledger for why all of this is abject cowardice on the part of the White House.  A quick summary: Donald Berwick hates our healthcare system, wants to replace it with the monstrosity that the British have saddled themselves with, and the White House knows that a confirmation hearing would a: have all of that come out; and b: force a bunch of Democratic Senators to vote in his favor just before the midterm elections.

You know, George W. Bush wasn’t afraid of a little controversy when he thought that the underlying issue was important enough.  How does it feel to have voted for a coward for President, anyway? – I wouldn’t know; I’m a Republican.

Moe Lane

My colleague haystack already went off on this King Samir Shabazz, but there’s no way that I let this pass without comment:

Let me put this in some perspective for you, Attorney General Eric Holder. I happen to be the father of one of these white babies that this would-be race warrior advocates killing.  Where I come from – which is to say, planet Earth – we do not give special consideration to people who advocate killing babies because of their skin color.  Letting this man and his ilk off the hook for carrying weapons and intimidating voters in a polling place is giving special consideration.

Moe Lane (more…)

Hey, it’s the 90s!

Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover, Sophie B. Hawkins

Sort of like the 80s, but with less big hair.  Also: if you squinted just right, this was… OK.  It wasn’t ever grunge, but it was kind of like grunge’s embarrassing mom.

(Via Camp of the Saints) He’s kind of alarmed that people might do unto him as Kanjorski did unto others*.

[Lou] Barletta said Kanjorski won’t hold town hall meetings because he is afraid of “nuts to hit me with a camera and ask stupid questions.”

“Kanjorski is the one who paid a man with a camera $10,000 to follow me and my family around for five months in 2008,” Barletta said. “Kanjorski’s campaign manager (Mitchell) admitted this in a Times Leader story in November 2008.”

Indeed, he did (more on that here).  Aside from the fact that it’s not the people holding the cameras that are doing the hitting, it’s very interesting that Paul Kanjorski seems so affronted that he might actually be held accountable for his votes.  Besides, the racist already freely spouts off on C-SPAN: why should he be so worried about video footage made by private citizens?

Moe Lane

PS: Lou Barletta for Congress.

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Mark Tapscott calls this the “least surprising news of the week:” [NLRB]* recess appointee Craig Becker is under investigation for ethics violations.

Aside from impartiality, the other concern about Becker was that the former associate general counsel for the radical Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and AFL-CIO lawyer would be embroiled with conflicts of interest regarding unions he’s now charged with overseeing.

Sure enough, on June 2, Becker joined in on an NLRB decision involving SEIU Local 1957 and denied St. Barnabas Hospital’s request to review a union election. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked the Inspector General to examiner Becker’s conflict of interest in the matter. An investigation is underway.

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