Month: July 2010

#rsrh Obama the cosplayer.

I like Jay Cost. He’s a smart guy. But he ain’t no S/F geek, and it shows in articles like this:

You cannot explain how Obama the candidate or Obama the President communicates with the public by assuming that it is all a product of strategic thinking. A strategy implies a goal and a credible explanation as to why a particular action will help accomplish that goal. Too many of his activities are inexplicable by this language of strategic rationality. Recall the Summer of 2008 when candidate Obama seemed particularly weightless: the “Seal of Obama,” his European tour, his grandiose convention stage. There was something more to each of these than the simple determination that they were the best ways to spread his message to the masses.

There was also that entire “Office of the President-Elect” thing, but that was obviously just for that two month period where the President-elect needed his binky. Oh, did I write that out? My bad. Continue reading #rsrh Obama the cosplayer.

Strickland, Fisher cronies/donors indicted.

OK, this one is going to require a bit of background.  Short version: Ohio courts have just indicted a bunch of Democrats – some of whom have links to both Governor Strickland (D-OH) and Lt Governor Fisher (D-OH) – in a complicated real estate corruption case.  The word ‘tendrils’ comes to mind: stick around and you’ll see why. Continue reading Strickland, Fisher cronies/donors indicted.

#rsrh Hodes’ Vegas jaunt.

So.  Paul Hodes.  Congressman, Senatorial candidate, and a table-pounder on the subject of unemployment benefits (although judging from his polling, he probably has personal reasons for that right now).  Well, Congress had a vote last week on precisely that topic, after months of the Democrats trying to work out a way to turn their mere seventy vote majority in to actual legislation. So did Rep. Paul I-care-so-deeply-about-the-plight of the-unemployed-I-could-just-vomit Hodes enjoy casting his vote?  His vote of vindication?

In fact, did he even vote on it at all?

No, of course he didn’t.  Vegas beckoned, baby.

Vegas. Continue reading #rsrh Hodes’ Vegas jaunt.

Meet Michael Grimm (R CAND, NY-13).

Mike’s one of the GOP candidates for the district – the primary hasn’t happened yet – for the seat whose current incumbent (Mikey McMahon) just made the news for distributing a list of Grimm’s Jewish donors. Yeah, I know: you’d think in this day and age… anyway, Mike took the time to talk to us:

Mike’s site is here. Note the endorsements: Giuliani, McCain, & Palin. Pretty impressive spread there, huh?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh Deepak doesn’t have a clue.

(Via Transterrestrial Musings and AoSHQ) You’d think that this would stop being funny after the third viewing. It doesn’t.

Probably because Deepak Chopra doesn’t even remotely comprehend why everybody is either laughing at him, or is ticked off at him (blond woman who swallowed an unripe lemon, I am looking at you) for the way that he is clearly not getting it. It’s so good I don’t even care whose side I’m supposed to be on on this one.

Meet Scott Bruun (R CAND, OR-05).

Scott’s running a campaign that’s making the DCCC nervous – to the point where they’ve decided to throw money at his opponent as part of their DOOMList – and we spoke this morning about that and other matters.

Scott’s site is here, and it’s a measure of the cycle that we’re legitimately talking about taking seats in Oregon. Roll on November…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Mike McMahon (D, NY-13): my opponent takes JEWISH money!

[UPDATE] Via Hot Air: let the damage control begin!  McMahon shoots the messenger, and completely fails to explain why she delivered the message in the first place.  Remember, folks: fish rots from the head down.

Rep. McMahon is claiming that he wanted to make sure that people knew that the 200K that his opponent Mike Grimm raised last quarter – which is, by the way, quite good for a challenger – wasn’t locally raised.  Well, to start off with: there’s usually no particular stigma involved in getting money from out-of-district, although I suppose that NY-13 might be one of those districts where such things are important.  Secondly, and more importantly: you’d think that if McMahon wanted to prove that Grimm was getting mostly out-of-district money he’d pass out a list of Grimm’s out-of-district donors.  Not a list of Grimm’s Jewish donors.

You’d think. Continue reading Mike McMahon (D, NY-13): my opponent takes JEWISH money!

#rsrh “‘Me first’ rallies.”

Via Fausta’s Blog, today’s moment of Chris Christie awesomeness.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…the best quote from that?

…they had a rally in Trenton against me. 35,000 people came from the teachers. You know what that rally was? The “me first” rally. “Pay me my raise first. Pay me my free health benefits first. Pay me my pension first. And everybody else in New Jersey, get to the back of the line.” Well, you know what? I’m not going to sit by and allow that to go unnoticed, so we’ll shine a bright light on it, and we’ll see how the people react.

Continue reading #rsrh “‘Me first’ rallies.”

Oil spill update.

So, let us recap: an unexpected leak has dumped highly alarming amounts of crude oil into the water, taxing the resources of local authorities.  Wildlife and wetland areas are already affected, and there’s no sign of swift relief.  The governor of the state primarily involved – a state that frankly cannot afford more bad things happening to it – is screaming for the relevant federal authorities to get out of neutral and actually help, and screaming largely in vain.  And, of course, nobody’s quite sure how much crude has leaked, and how culpable the oil company is in the leak, and whether the same federal authorities that aren’t helping now are responsible for missing the conditions that caused the original leak.

Michigan can’t just seem to catch a break. Continue reading Oil spill update.