Month: March 2011

Missouri redistricting hurts Russ Carnahan.

The below is being floated as a potential redistricting map for Missouri:

I’ll summarize the changes as follows: Missouri loses a district, thanks to the 2010 Census. On the Republican side, Vicki Hartzler is liking this map least: she had some R areas taken away from her and given to Emanuel Cleaver, and has been given some D areas from Luetkemeyer.  On the other hand, on the Democratic side Cleaver’s district is now somewhat less urban.  This is not necessarily a disaster for Cleaver: he’s that rarity, a Democratic African-American that white Democrats will vote for anyway.  But the really nice news?  Russ Carnahan’s district was chopped up like a chicken for the stewpot: half of it went to Jo Ann Emerson (who didn’t break a sweat winning last year with 65% of the vote) and the rest looks like it’s in William Clay’s (majority-minority).  Bottom line: I am not an expert on Missouri county vote totals, but it looks like Missouri’s going to go from 6R/3D to 6R/2D. Continue reading Missouri redistricting hurts Russ Carnahan.

So. New Mass Effect 2 DLC.

I somehow missed that “The Arrival” was due to, err, arrive for Mass Effect 2 until the notification that it was now for sale appeared in my inbox last night.  So, being pretty much useless today for anything requiring actual sentience I bought, downloaded and played it.

Short version: not bad, but not “Lair of the Shadow Broker.”  It ties into the upcoming Mass Effect 3 better than DA:O’s “Witch Hunt” ended up tying into Dragon Age 2.  Worth the seven bucks for Admiral Hackett, a surprisingly difficult (at-first) … [spoilers below fold]

Continue reading So. New Mass Effect 2 DLC.

Union Reform bills pass in Ohio, Indiana Houses.

In Ohio, the final vote on SB 5 was 53-44; it’s already passed the Ohio Senate, but changes made to the bill require another quick vote on the legislation either today or tomorrow. This particular legislation goes a bit farther than the groundbreaking Wisconsin union reform bill; it redefines collective bargaining privileges for public sector union employees to cover wages only, institutes merit pay for public sector union workers, and makes strikes by public sector employees illegal. Most interestingly, it extends collective bargaining reforms to police and firefighter unions, which is quite possibly a reaction to the rather contemptible activities and passive-aggressive threats done and made by Big Labor in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, in Indiana the final vote on HB 1216 was 54-44: this reform bill will raise the threshold for union payscales for public work projects from $150,000 to $350,000, and will also no longer require non-union companies to guarantee union jobs on projects in order to bid on them. Entertainingly, this was one of the ostensible reasons that Indiana state representatives hid in Illinois for a month. Short version: it did not end well.

And, of course, a few days ago the Florida state House passed HB 1021, which bans the automatic collection of public sector union dues. Slowly but surely, reform is coming to help embattled states fight the entrenched partisan interests strangling trade and wealth generation from within…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Bill Maher is scum that walks and talks.

I understand why Allahpundit’s weary of the dirty little filthy-mouthed misogynist and his equally dirty enablers, but there are three good reasons why Maher’s antics need to be smacked at every time he opens his woman-fearing mouth:

  1. What Bill Maher does is wrong.
  2. If you don’t make it clear that Maher is not operating in a manner compatible with a civilized human being, he’ll get worse.
  3. If the aforementioned enablers (ex: NOW, or the rest of the Activist Left) don’t like being held to their own – loudly screamed – standards, then they should learn to shut up at lesser offenses than Maher’s, the hypocritical suckweasels.

I think that this covers it.

Moe Lane

RedState Interview: Gov. Scott Walker.

As you are undoubtedly aware, Wisconsin has become one of the primary battlefields for labor union reform: having lost at the ballot box last November, Democrats and Big Labor both have been fighting a vicious rear guard action against any attempts to reform collective bargaining and organizing ever since. Currently, the focus is on several hypothetical recall elections – and an actual judiciary election (David Prosser vs. Joanne Kloppenburg) that has already demonstrated that Kloppenburg is happy to associate herself with people who would trivialize pedophilia, just to win. It’s that kind of situation, unfortunately: and I spoke with Governor Scott Walker about it and related matters this morning.

The recall elections in Wisconsin are particularly important because outside money from Big Labor and national Democrats is pouring in; the Republican state senators affected are going to need all the help that they can get. The Republican Party of Wisconsin has set a site called Frontline Wisconsin to help fund whatever races occur: the money goes directly to the state senators in question – and, more importantly, will let them know that they haven’t been forgotten. Given that they and their families have been threatened with death for doing their jobs – threats ignored by the so-called ‘leadership’ in the national Democratic party, mostly because the national Democratic party has no intention of breaking with Big Labor’s corrupt leadership – these senators could use the support.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Ron Klein (D, Nothing in particular) cuts and runs.

The DCCC was kind of hoping for a different answer, here:

Former Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.) said Wednesday he is not going to run next year for the seat he lost to Rep. Allen West (R) in November, despite entreaties from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In remarks at a Pompano Beach political event, Klein said DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) asked him to run again.

Rep. Israel is having a bad cycle generally, and it’s only March of 2011: as Jim Geraghty and the NRCC cheerfully noted, the available pool of targeted seats has gone from 61 to 37 to 14 to 13.  And in a Presidential cycle, too…

Via The Other McCain.

Moe Lane

Barack Obama on US Military: available for “being volunteered by others.”

The technical term for this is ‘mercenary free company.’

I believe that this qualifies as a “Kinsley gaffe:” which is to say, a politician accidentally telling the truth. Background: this was from a press conference where the President was trying to explain why his foreign policy was such an improvement over georgewbushgeorgewbushgeorgewbush’s, despite the fact that it lacks a coherent conceptual framework, an overall philosophy, a clear set of objectives, and any sort of domestic input and/or oversight. But it has the French on-board, so that’s good! We’re much better when we permit other countries to get to move our soldiers around on the geopolitical board.

NO. REALLY. That’s what he said.

…that’s why building this international coalition has been so important because it means that the United States is not bearing all the cost. It means that we have confidence that we are not going in alone, and it is our military that is being volunteered by others to carry out missions that are important not only to us, but are important internationally.

Bolding mine, and screencap here. See Ed Driscoll and Ed Morrissey for more; it is only by their good example that I am restraining myself from lapsing into some fairly vile profanity over this.

Continue reading Barack Obama on US Military: available for “being volunteered by others.”

#rsrh The *wrong* White House Easter Egg Outrage.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) It is not that the Easter Eggs are wooden.

In a continued effort to make the Easter Egg Roll more environmentally friendly, all eggs have again been crafted in the United States from Forest Stewardship Council-certified hardwood.

Note the ‘again’: they were wooden last year, too (in 2009 they were apparently still using real eggs).  And giving the kids a wooden commemorative egg stretches back to the previous administration and probably longer.  It looks like what happened is that somebody decided to just expand the wooden egg thing to its logical conclusion; green silliness aside, there is an argument that this is a reasonable way to minimize waste and cleanup.  In other words, while the National Egg Board may take it on the chin,  the fact that the White House lawn will be less organically messy next month doesn’t really bother me. Continue reading #rsrh The *wrong* White House Easter Egg Outrage.