Month: April 2011

Politico: Conservatives are pro-cancer!

Either that, or Politico hires some pretty sloppy writers.  Personally, I’m voting for the latter.

The background: Politico decided to write an article that attempts to answer the eternal question, For just how long will George Soros keep throwing money down the rathole which is the Activist Left*? It’s an interesting question in its own right – the article suggests that Soros is getting pretty darn tired of piling up his money in the policy equivalent of an empty field, then setting the pile on fire – but there was one throwaway line in the piece that made me roll my eyes at what fools these mortals be:

And — like Koch brothers’ philanthropy — the recipients of Soros’s largesse do not all fit into neat liberal-conservative constructs.

Soros’s Open Society Foundations, for instance, have contributed $431,000 since 1996 to the Cato Institute to fund its drug reform, civil liberties and anti-corruption programs. And the Kochs have contributed tens of millions to the arts and cancer research.

OK. Stop right there. Continue reading Politico: Conservatives are pro-cancer!

#rsrh Someone remind me in July…

…to look at the quarterly financial reports for Obama for America.  Right now the numbers are meaningless; it’s completely unreasonable to expect that the President could raise the same amount of money in the first quarter of 2007 (almost $26 million) that he did in a portion of the first quarter of 2011 ($2.3 million).  However, it is reasonable to compare 2nd quarter 2007 ($33 million) to 2nd quarter 2011; you see, when the Obama campaign brags about the $750 million that they raised last go-round (and their plans to surpass that with $1 billion this go-round) they’re including the roughly $350 million that they raised (and spent) on the primary. If the Obama campaign is truly serious about bettering that total, that means that they have to better their total now, which is incidentally a period where the President is not actually competing against any sort of meaningful primary opponent.  If they don’t, they won’t hit $750 million.  They’ll be lucky to even hit $500 million, in fact.

Unless the Obama campaign thinks that they can raise roughly two and a half times as much in the general election in 2012 as they did in the general election in 2008…]

Moe Lane

#rsrh Trump vs. Obama at #nerdprom !

…Nah, still not worth watching the entire White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but Allahpundit has an open thread up on it over at Hot Air.  If you must have the live feed, it’s here.

I figure that if there’s any sparks, fireworks, or kanly duels tonight it’ll end up on YouTube anyway.

Moe Lane

[UPDATE]: OK, one short observation about the live feed (I had to make sure that it worked): dag, but that is one whitebread crow… Hey!  I know that guy!

(pause)

Dammit, this is how they suck you in.

The trouble with Kindles.

Or any other e-book reader, really.  It’s not the fault of the Kindle itself, but rather how some publishers are handling it.

Goes like this: I read recently an article about James M Cain that made me say, Hmm.  I’ve never actually read him, and this guy thinks that a couple of his books are downright amazing.  True, it’s the Atlantic saying that, but Hollywood made movies out of said books that are supposed to be really good, back when Hollywood wasn’t filtering everything for ideological bias.

So I decided to go look up The Postman Always Rings Twice on Kindle… and it’s ten bucks.  Well.  That’s… pretty expensive for the format, really.  What are my alternatives?  Well, see for yourselves:

So.  Ten bucks is too much for the text of a commonly-available-in-libraries book, even if it is instant access.  And almost six bucks ($1.63 for the cheapest paperback option, plus $3.99 for shipping) is too much for a takes-up-physical-space version of the same book sent to me three or four days from now, considering that I’m a little sensitized to costs after seeing the too-high Kindle price.  If the Kindle book had been five bucks, or even six, I’d have bought it already and be reading it right now instead of writing this post.  Instead, I’ve decided that it’s easier just to wait until the next time I’m at the library.
Continue reading The trouble with Kindles.

QotD, But the Grey Lady Isn’t Bitter edition.

Nope.  Writing this sentence did not cause nigh-physical pain for its author.

A group including former White House officials, union leaders and one of Hollywood’s biggest producers have joined forces to start an outside effort to help President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2012 by using the very sort of anonymous, unlimited donations from moneyed interests that the president has so deplored.

Nope. Not at all, nosireebob.  That thin screaming that you’re hearing?  Nope, that’s not the death of hope and innocence in the battered soul of a newspaper reporter who has realized that he has been implicitly working for a political faction who has been secretly laughing at him for his stupid naivete.  Not all: it’s actually just gas.

It’s just gas, blast your eyes.

Via RCP.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh White House Uppity Reporter Suppression Update.

Background here: short version, the White House allegedly told the San Francisco Chronicle that one of their pool reporters was persona non grata after she committed the heinous crime of recording and reproducing a bunch of activists embarrassing themselves and the President via some bad choral singing.  This offended the Chronicle… particularly when the White House (again allegedly) then started threatening the paper if they talked about this.

Which is, by the way, a stupid threat to make to a newspaper.

Anyway, now the Chronicle reports that the White House is in full “Who, us?  Threat?  Somebody made a threat to the paper?  That doesn’t sound like something that we’d do” mode on the threat, which suggests that a grown-up finally noticed what the kids were doing in the back seat.  Or that the Executive branch staff is about to implode from sheer incompetence.  Seven-five odds and pick ’em.

Moe Lane

PS: Remember: these are the same people who we’re trusting with our nuclear arsenal.  Have a nice day!

#rsrh Jay Cost: Be afraid, Democrats.

Be… pretty afraid.  I’m going to summarize/translates Jay’s four reasons why the Democrats should be worried about the 2012 Republican candidate:

  1. We’ve got some serious fellas running.  Romney and Pawlenty; probably Daniels, at this point; and Jay considers Huntsman serious, though I don’t know if I do.  Yes, hold that objection for after the fold.
  2. We’re not going to see a proxy class warfare battle in ’12 like we did in Obama/Clinton in ’08. The aforementioned candidates are all pretty much variations on a theme: white governors with crossover appeal who are moderately conservative.
  3. Donald Trump isn’t going to be the nominee, and neither will any other fringe candidate. Behold the awesome moderating power of using primaries as opposed to caucuses!  Using ’08 again: it’s no coincidence that Obama won more caucuses, while Clinton won more primaries.
  4. There  will be no enthusiasm gap.  More on this after the fold.

Continue reading #rsrh Jay Cost: Be afraid, Democrats.