Moe Lane

Democrats taking this budget as seriously as 2010′s!

Emphasis on ‘may:’ they’re considering coming up with an alternative to the GOP budget plan that was released today.  If the Democrats feel like it.  And if Ranking Budget Member Chris Van Hollen can get his head around the big numbers involved.  That’s not guaranteed, given that Van Hollen’s past experience with big, scary numbers shows that he has a bad tendency to go full-bore delusional when he’s in trouble; besides, it would also probably require Van Hollen to be able to take off his shoes by himself, and, well, some things are harder than they look.

Yes, that was snide.  What makes you think I care?  I’m too busy being annoyed that the only grown-ups in Washington DC right now all have Rs after their names; it gets tiring to have to do all the intellectual heavy lifting on an issue.

Besides, the only people that will get huffy are Democrats, and they should be doing something more useful with their lives anyway.  Getting mad at the way that their elected officials are all off in the Magical Kingdom of Self-Abuse over budget policy would be an excellent start; you’d think that the drool and the vacant expressions and the general looks of genial idiocy that their legislators are displaying right now would bother Democrats, but apparently not…

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Jim Geraghty has the report.

And it is my devout hope that Tim Kaine brings the same competence and drive to the upcoming Senate election in Virginia that Tim Kaine previously brought to the Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Scott Brown, Martha Roby, Mo Brooks, Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin, Steve Womack, Paul Gosar, Ben Quayle, David Schweikert, Jeff Denham, Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner, Steve Southerland, Rich Nugent, Daniel Webster, Dennis A. Ross, Allen West, Sandy Adams, David Rivera, Rob Woodall, Austin Scott, Raúl Labrador, Joe Walsh, Robert Dold, Adam Kinzinger, Randy Hultgren, Bobby Schilling, Todd Rokita, Larry Bucshon, Todd Young, Tim Huelskamp, Kevin Yoder, Mike Pompeo, Jeff Landry, Andy Harris, Dan Benishek, Bill Huizenga, Justin Amash, Tim Walberg, Chip Cravaack, Alan Nunnelee, Steven Palazzo, Vicky Hartzler, Billy Long, Joe Heck, Frank Guinta, Charles Bass, Jon Runyan, Steve Pearce, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Chris Gibson, Richard Hanna, Ann Marie Buerkle, Renee Ellmers, Rick Berg, Steve Chabot, Bill Johnson, Steve Stivers, Jim Renacci, Bob Gibbs, James Lankford, Mike Kelly, Pat Meehan, Mike Fitzpatrick, Tom Marino, Lou Barletta, Tim Scott, Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Kristi Noem, Chuck Fleischmann, Scott DesJarlais, Diane Black, Stephen Fincher, Bill Flores, Quico Canseco, Blake Farenthold, Scott Rigell, Robert Hurt, Morgan Griffith, Jaime Herrera Beutler, David McKinley, Sean Duffy, Reid Ribble, John Boozman, Marco Rubio, Dan Coats, Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, Roy Blunt, Kelly Ayotte, John Hoeven, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Mike Lee, Mark Kirk, Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, Terry Branstad, Sam Brownback, Paul LePage, Rick Snyder, Susana Martinez, John Kasich, Mary Fallin, Tom Corbett, Bill Halsam, Matt Mead, and Scott Walker races.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Wait.  Byron’s right to imply here that it’s far too soon for GOP candidates to formally run for Preisdent; it’d make much more sense to hold off on a formal announcement until… September of this year, I think.  October, if people can hold out that long.

Mind you, starting exploratory committees and building a public presence are both fine; but a formal announcement isn’t a good idea.  The President is starting early because Obama needs all the time he can get to raise money; and because running for office beats all hollow trying to justify his record (which is frankly horrible) or actually being President (which he is frankly bad at).  There’s no need to emulate him, particularly since being a formal candidate at this point merely gives Democrats someone to aim at…

Moe Lane

Because there’s already been one.

Background: Ken Snider, Illinois state trooper and former regional head of Quinn’s security detail, abruptly resigned both positions (among others) last month. Turns out the resignations are allegedly related to Snider using a racial epithet – the racial epithet, in fact – towards an African-American college student, as prelude to a fight (it would be stretching things to call what happened next a ‘brawl,’ but apparently at least one punch was thrown).  No arrests were made, which heavily suggests that the student was clearly not at fault in this incident.

Given that the alleged incident occurred in a Carlinville bar on St. Patrick’s Day, it is likely that alcohol was involved.  Snider’s motivations are unclear, aside from the obvious: it’s been reported that he has been acting a bit erratically this year already.  At any rate, the prominent Illinois Democrat has since resigned from pretty much his entire political/professional slate since the incident occurred.

And… that’s it.  That’s all that happened to Ken Snider.  A lot of resignations. (more…)

Because they’re rude, and kind of juvenile sometimes. Funny as all Hell, but… undignified, really.

However, slamming George Lucas is merely a pleasure; there’s nothing guilty about it.

…with the Left-sphere.  It’s not so much that they’re dumb – although many of them are 110 IQ types trying to pass for 130 – it’s that they know what they know; and they know that they know better than anybody else knows.  Couple that with a general unwillingness to check their work and hilarity ensues.

Seriously, if you honestly think that the Speaker of the House would say the following:

Can’t pay your student loan? Face it your parents were lazy and you couldn’t afford college.

…to Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi – or pretty much anything else – then you’re just a dumbass.  And that’s just the first two sentences: the rest of the passage merely compounds the dumbassery.

Sheesh.  Say this for an adversarial relationship with the regular media: it teaches you elementary caution.

Moe Lane

The Messenger, Tony Seeger

Dammit, why wasn’t this around when I was 20?  I could have been, like, so totally into that guitar-harp thing, man.  It would have been deep.  DEEP.

I mean, it’s pretty freaking cool and everything, but it deserves a certain absolute monomaniacal focus to completely appreciate, I think.

On the question of whether Democrats have taken secret control of the redistricting process in California… really, at this point, how could you tell?  Right now (assuming Wikipedia isn’t smoking crack) the California partisan breakdowns are as follows:

…and, looking at the partisan breakdowns of Californian Congressional districts, I’m missing how a hypothetical Democratic conspiracy can make currently-Republican districts less Republican without also making rather more Democratic districts less Democratic.  This is where the devil’s bargain of racial gerrymandering bites Democrats on the hindquarters again; California’s heavy urbanization takes too much off the board when it comes to electoral skullduggery.

As Mickey puts it, the worst-case scenario would be the status quo.  Which is what I’m expecting will be the end result, mind you.

Alternate WWII webcomic (superheroes), with a definite pulpish “mystery men” flavor to it.  So far, so good.

This painting (presumably, the butler is singing) came up in a different context:

I like it, but do I like the sentiment?  Is it romantic?

That would be the escaped-and-now-found cobra, of course (turned out that the snake rather sensibly decided not to drift too far away from the free mice); the Bronx Zoo is calling for names.  @BronxZoosCobra has a sssssssuggesssstion, which I heartily endorssssse…

I distinctly remember that Marvel shot Captain America in the back.  After mocking him, as I recall, for not having a MySpace page.

MySpace.

(pause)

Yeah, that reference aged well.

But now Cap’s back.

Moe Lane

(Via @kevinbinversie)

PS: Yes, Captain America’s been back for a while.  I just wanted to mock the MySpace thing.