Moe Lane

Kristi is challenging Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin for South Dakota’s at-large House seat, and we were able to finally speak with her briefly:

Kristi’s site is here.

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.  Disinformation, smishinformation.  It’s all about the crass commercialism of the Amazon.com link.

“Aliens on the sea floor.”  Pshaw, Glenn.  Clearly the ‘oil slick’ is part and parcel of the ongoing civil war between the Innsmouthite traditionalist and the Strossian reformer factions of the Deep Ones, and we’re just trying to keep it hushed up, lest we see a resurgence of breakaway Antarctic Space Elder Race terrorism again.  It was bad enough the last time that they were actively attempting to use our seaborne neighbors’ internal political conflicts to get their own back; the fallout (literally) from dealing with the Neu Schwabenland redoubt was bad enough, but Elder Race shenanigans breed South American fascists like a Innsmouthite breeds shoggoths – and that means that weak-minded artists will become prey for the Great Old Ones.  The human race simply cannot handle another assault on its sanity like Evita.

It simply cannot.

Moe Lane

Seriously, what is Rep. Clyburn’s problem?

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) theorized that an operative ran unemployed Army veteran Alvin Greene’s (D) South Carolina Senate campaign to create a “mess.”

The Hill touches on the major objections to this… well, ‘theory’ and ‘hypothesis’ both seem to give this more credit than it deserves: perhaps ‘allegation?’  Whatever one wishes to call it, it seems to assume that there would be some point for putting Candidate A in the designated ‘crushed by DeMint in November’ slot, rather than Candidate B.  At this point in South Carolina politics, the various Federal and state executive seats are all pretty much foregone conclusions: John Spratt (D) is the most at-risk incumbent, while the Democrats are not expected to flip any seats in this hostile election atmosphere.  So it’s a good question to ask why anybody would bother risking a scandal just to make sure that the rubble bounced farther.

Or am I over-analyzing this?  Is it just that, after 70 years of being carefully taught to do so, Rep. Clyburn’s simply comfortable with the idea that all Bad Things that happen are the result of sinister, hidden forces?

Following up on this “pseudo-populist-rhetoric-from-Democrats has consequences” post from a couple of days ago, there’s this happy comment:

“I think at least in the short term there is going to be a great deal of frustration with people who were beating the hell out of us — then turning around and asking for money,” said a senior executive of a Wall Street bank.

More here.  Hey, what are they going to do?  Give money to Republicans?

…Oh.  Right.

Moe Lane

With less than four months to go before the fall elections, the greatest growth industry in the country right now is the tea importation business: everybody who has any interest in the November results is trying his or her hand at precognition.  Gallup is no exception:

This year’s low approval ratings for Congress are a potentially ominous sign for President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress. Gallup has found greater party seat change in Congress in midterm elections when Congress has had low approval ratings.

Specifically, in the five midterm elections in which Congress’ approval ratings at the time of the election were below 40%, there was an average net change in seats of 29 from the president’s party to the opposition. That includes the 1994 and 2006 elections, when the net change in seats was large enough to pass control of the U.S. House from one party to the other.

They currently track Congress’s approval rating at 20%. (more…)

From “Total Balalaika Show,” Leningrad Cowboys

Hey.

We won.

Tongues of Serpents is Naomi Novik’s latest entry in the Temeraire series, and it’s coming out in a week. Personally, I’d love to review it ahead of time, but since nobody sends me science fiction or fantasy books to review…

And so, farewell to The Fuller Memorandum.

In case you’re wondering, that’s J-Adams Prime and Starker Johnny Double-B that I picked there.

Blame Ace of Spades HQ.

Yeah, so I saw this – on CNN, actually (it was what was playing at the Mickey Dee’s where we stopped for emergency fries-and-diaper change):

A cancer expert whose medical assessment of the Lockerbie bomber helped lead to his early release has been quoted as saying the Libyan could live for another 10 years.

[snip]

[Karol] Sikora is cited as saying: “It is embarrassing that he’s gone on for so long.”

No, it’s embarrassing that we and the Brits let this terrorist go free.  The term that Dr. Sikora needs to be using is ‘damning.’

Which I use in its theological sense.

Blake Gopnik*(Via Hot Air Headlines):

Norman Rockwell is often championed as the great painter of American virtues. Yet the one virtue most nearly absent from his work is courage. He doesn’t challenge any of us, or himself, to think new thoughts or try new acts or look with fresh eyes. From the docile realism of his style to the received ideas of his subjects, Rockwell reliably keeps us right in the middle of our comfort zone.

Norman Rockwell, Southern Justice (1963):

Moe Lane:

Blake Gopnik?  Geh kak afen yam.

(more…)

(H/T: Instapundit) A fascinating bit of trivia for people out there: if you’re a Democrat, and you go  keep telling a group of folks- in this case, Wall Street and other wealthy New York Democratic donors – that they’re unmitigated scum who need to be drained of every drop of their dirty money if they want to avoid being lynched by an angry Mob led by the White House and Congressional Democrats – hey, guess what happens!  They stop giving Democrats money!

No!  Really!  They do!

A perfect storm of events — the recession, Wall Street anger at Washington, donors who feel ignored by the White House and interest group dissatisfaction — has Democrats bracing for a brutal fundraising period and fearful of losing dominance in longtime donor stronghold and megarich New York.

While the exact quarterly figures won’t be known until after the July 15 filing deadline, a number of Democratic campaign insiders said the past few months were a mighty struggle to raise cash for candidates.

(more…)

Remind me why people like to travel for fun, again?