Moe Lane

No reason.

Prélude from Suite No. 1 in G Major for Cello, BWV 1007, Yo-Yo Ma

Would that it was. 2007+ got bad fast.

Odd, isn’t it?  The GOP wins big last Tuesday night, and we – like adults – avoid unseemly celebrations about it.  Given the almost double-digit unemployment, horrible economy, crushing debt load, and the rest of the Democratic legacy we’re inheriting, it seems… childish… to make the welkin ring*.  But by God Nancy Pelosi’s going to have a party on Wednesday ‘honoring the accomplishments’ of the 111th Congress.  You know: the double-digit unemployment, horrible economy, crushing debt load, and all that.

Mind you, this is mostly to convince those House members who managed to survive Pelosi’s help this election cycle that they want to make her their leader in the next election cycle, too.  I’d say that going along with this mad scheme of the woman’s was insane, but then it’d leave me without a word to adequately describe the belief that shoving Obamacare down all of our throats would somehow translate into gaining seats.

Moe Lane (crosspost) (more…)

Discovering that the third-party spreadsheet you’ve been working from for the last hour doesn’t have the one piece of information that you need to demonstrate just how stuck the Democratic party is going to be next cycle when it comes to redistricting.

I mean, they’re stuck any way you look at it – they managed to lose just the right number of state legislative seats and/or ballot initiatives to totally make their few state-level wins effectively worthless when it came to redistricting* – but it’d be nice to show.

:twitch:

:twitch:

:twitch:

Moe Lane

*Seriously, redistricting was one of the few reasons that I can think of that would make the Democrats actually want California, and the voters just handed redistricting over to a commission.  Oops?

I don’t normally buy political books, but Decision Points looks interesting. Worth checking out, at least.

And so, with associated thumb-pricking, exits Something Wicked This Way Comes.

I’m a little surprised that Hot Air and Mediate took this long to determine that Olbermann’s suspension was just a publicity stunt: after all, I called it last week.  Although it would have been funny if he had been traded out for Grayson.

Moe Lane

PS: If you’re wondering how a mere two days’ off could be an effective publicity stunt, consider that it was directed towards the netroots.  That crowd is… undiscriminating in what gives them satisfaction, poor fellows.

I don’t know whether this guy has nerves of steel, or is just a really good actor: I suspect that the former, judging from the lack of panicked gusts of breath or shaky camera footage.  Either way, impressive.

Mind you – and no offense to Joy – but even a black bear is unpredictable. Sometimes it wants to say ‘Hi’ and have a beer. Sometimes it wants to rip your face off. Sometimes it wants to rip your face off, then say ‘Hi’ and have a beer. Because it’s a bear.

Moe Lane

PS: Always a good excuse to repost this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpwdcmjBgNA

They’re claiming that their group “exceeded expectations” by holding the RGA to a ‘mere’ +6 GOP gain overall, with five Democratic pickups and one Independent one.  To begin with, that number is still up in the air: the Minnesota results have not yet come in… but even if you spot the Democrats that one, this is, well, a silly thing for the DGA to say.  Let’s look at the battlefield, shall we?

• Democratic pickups.  CA, CT, HI, MN, RI*, VT.  First off, gaining California?  Worth crowing over, sure.  CT likewise.  We fought for both of those pretty hard. Minnesota likewise, although the state legislature flipping to GOP rules out the primary reason that the Democrats wanted the state (ie, gerrymandering Michele Bachmann’s seat out of existence).  Nonetheless, the DGA’s pickups were all in safely Blue states (Minnesota is the purplest), which means that they gained effectively nothing when it comes to the Presidential election in 2012.  And as for redistricting: aside from Minnesota, the only fertile ground there would have been California… which has just taken redistricting out of the hands of the legislature.  Oops. (more…)

“The voters were stupid and ignorant.”

…at least, that’s why I think that I bothered to save this one from the weekend; it’s a HuffPo piece, which means that it’s both inaccurate AND hideously biased.  I suppose that blaming the voters – and the GOP, of course! – for the Democratic party’s generally lackluster fundraising, recruiting, and electoral efforts is more appealing than concluding that perhaps the voters actually were paying attention, and voted accordingly.

But I should be nicer about this.  It’s always easier to assume that in any dispute between yourself and the people, it’s the people who are always self-evidently wrong…

Moe Lane

Seemed a lot like more of the same.

Regular posting starts tomorrow, I guess.  Everybody seems to be catching their breaths.

UAV drone technology is about to hit the civilian market.  Unfortunately, there’s at least three good reasons why you just can’t shotgun the stupid things on sight…

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: What?  Oh.  In order:

1. The pellets have to come down somewhere.
2. Urban areas tend to have noise control laws.
3. Too big a debris field.

Comment being “Yeah, I know that wasn’t actually a big deal. Still.”

I don’t know whether this new sobriety on the part of the House GOP caucus is due to conviction, or fear:

Since all the Republicans will really control after January is the House of Representatives, much of what Boehner and Cantor have had to say has involved changes internal to the House. The new House will, for instance, systematically review federal regulations that depress job creation. It will also require that before bills reach the floor their sponsors articulate what constitutional authority justifies the action they propose and why it is an action better taken at the federal than the state or local level. Boehner and Cantor, moreover, have promised to bring back the practice of rescission bills, which take back spending that has been appropriated but not yet spent; to ban earmarks; to build the House schedule around committee hearings rather than floor votes; and to do away with silly votes to commemorate local events or declare national popcorn month.

…and I don’t really care, either. And I suspect that neither do any of you: just as long as it gets done. As Yuval Levin notes, the above represents a symbolic first step – obviously, there’s a whole list of things that we need to do, which IS going to be painful; see Ace of Spades for a very clear-headed assessment of just how painful those things are likely to be* – but as Levin also notes, symbols matter.

And elections have consequences.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

(more…)