Moe Lane

Thank God I was not sent this personally.

The funny part?  I’ve never actually seen Human Planet; but this was still hysterical.

Why else lie about the Minnesota bridge collapse?

Mr. Obama noted that the United States has been given a “D” grade for its infrastructure and said U.S. roads, sewers and bridges are “all deteriorating.” He added: “We cut transportation by another third and what’s going to happen to America? We’re just going to have potholes everywhere? We’re just gonna have bridges collapsing everywhere?”

While experts say America’s aging infrastructure is a significant problem, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, which killed 13 people, was found to have been caused primarily by a design flaw.

Admittedly, that’s about the only thing that the Democrats actually have on Tim Pawlenty, so I suppose that they think that they might as well try to milk the deaths of 13 people for partisan gain.  One has to have one’s priorities in order, after all – and there’s almost nothing more important to President Obama right now than getting re-elected*.

Via Hot Air and Jim Geraghty.

Moe Lane

*I refuse to believe that he’d do anything to hurt his kids.

State Representative Daryl Metcalfe is one of the state legislators behind the Pennsylvania Open Workforce Initiative, which is a set of four bills designed to essentially transform Pennsyvlania into a Right-to-Work state (you can see a summary of the bills here).  Rep. Metcalfe has been pushing for this elementary bit of labor union reform for some time; only usually not when both the governorship and both houses of the state legislature were decisively controlled by Republicans.  We talked for a bit on the Initiative:

The high costs involved with Big Labor – particularly in the public sector – means that labor union reform is a hot topic on the state level right now.  I encourage readers to get involved in the issue.  Certainly the opposition is doing precisely that…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

It was all great fun, I’m sure – but the man has just stepped in it.

[Donald] Trump said he was “concerned” about [Rep. Paul] Ryan’s deficit plan, citing concerns that the plan would “tinker too much with Medicare” and harm senior citizens.

“I think Paul Ryan is too far out front with the issue,” Trump said. “He ought to sit back and relax.”

…Yeah, like that’s gonna fly with the Republican base.  Some of us ain’t filthy rich, Donnie: ‘relaxing’ isn’t exactly an option for us.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

…of a crucifix dunked in a jar of urine.  Now, as I understand the ground rules, here… while regretting of course that someone was pushed to commit such a deed, the true imperative here is to try to understand why somebody’s religious beliefs might drive them to respond to an outrage in this fashion?  We’re supposed to be opening a dialogue, right?  Isn’t the real crime here our lack of empathy and inclusiveness?

Hey, Ace and Instapundit have the right of it: if you reward bad behavior, you get more of it.  And if you teach people that throwing a punch will get them what they want, other people will start making fists.  I’m frankly surprised that it took this long – but then, Christianity is a religion of peace…

Moe Lane

This would be the Scott Ott of Scrappleface and PJTV: you might remember that he ran for Lehigh County Executive (Pennsylvania) last year, and came pretty close to winning.  He’s running for Lehigh County Commissioner this year; there are several seats up, so Scott’s part of a team this time.  Their goal is to put enough Republicans on the Commission to override the county Executive’s veto.

Speaking for myself (hopefully, not just for myself)… this is what needs to happen across the country, folks: changing the way the government does things requires not only activity on the federal level, or even the federal and state.  We’ve got to get in on the process at every level, from the bottom up.  Somebody’s got to do the heavy lifting, and the people doing it for the unglamorous jobs particularly deserve our attention and aid.  Because if they don’t do it and if you don’t do it, who will?

And… end of sermon.  Scott’s campaign website is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Hook, Blues Traveler

Yes, but of course you can believe me.

Well, it’s really the same question. Lee Stranahan asks “Why Do Liberals Applaud Awful Behavior?” Ann Althouse asks “Why did the anti-Palin protesters think it was right and good to shout her down?”  The answer is the same in each case:

Because they hate us.

Seriously, folks: this is news? We’re talking about people who think that this…

…falls within the range of ‘acceptable discourse.’  Or ‘coherency.’  And in their world, well, maybe it is.  But many of these people aren’t well, and they have neither the ability nor the actual desire to get better.

And at that, it could be worse: at least most of these people are too craven to do anything that’s actually violent.

Union solidarity is a myth.

David Freddoso has the details: essentially, the Teamsters and the UFCW are at cross-purposes when it comes to the Giant supermarket chain here in DC.  The Teamsters are angry at Giant because Giant parent company Royal Ahold is closing a Teamsters-controlled facility in Jessup, Maryland, in favor of a non-union one in Pennsylvania*.  This will be happening, and the real question is whether Royal Ahold will start the process with another Teamster-controlled Jessup facility.  As Freddoso mentioned, part of the Teamster’s push-back on this involves directly attacking the Giant supermarket chain’s reputation… which if successful will of course adversely affect the UFCW’s own workers. (more…)

(Warning: the below assumes you follow the Girl Genius webcomic – and, really: if you’re not, well, let’s just say that your unfortunate condition is in fact treatable.)

That’s a pretty innocuous statement to have a sneering grin like that associated with it…

Oh.

Ohhhhhh.

Yah, yah, hyu iz kind of screwed there, mine friend.

It’s the only way to be sure.

(Via The Campaign Spot) It’s fascinating to see a newspaper make the argument that its own Congressional District be broken up in order to get its own Congressman out of Congress, but bless me if the Gloucester Times isn’t doing precisely that:

It’s a long 19 months until the next election — and that’s no matter what shape the state’s redistricting takes.

But if Tierney’s role were squeezed out in the process of cutting the state’s congressional seat, it frankly wouldn’t be any great loss to his Gloucester and Cape Ann constituents.

People will remember John Tierney for that unfortunate wife-guilty-of-tax-fraud thing from last year.  To be fair, the Gloucester Times endorsed Tierney’s opponent in the 2010 elections – which means that the usual (justified) reaction of HAHAHAsuffer that people feel when a newspaper complains about Democratic malfeasance is actually not appropriate – but it does handily illustrate the problem of one-party states.  Heck of a thing when people have to hope for a wholesale redrawing of political maps in order to get rid of a particularly suboptimal Congressman…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Apparently he was spending too much time playing religious writer and not enough time on his job.  Which, given we’re talking about the Malta ambassadorship, takes some doing.  Doug Kmiec, of course, was formerly a strong pro-life advocate – and I mean strong – who nonetheless decided to support Barack Obama because Kmiec thought that it would excise his secret racist impulses Barack Obama is just so swell.

Two entertaining paragraphs:

[Kmiec] complained that, as a result of the inspector general’s recommendation that he end that work, “my voice has been prevented from speaking; my pen has been enjoined from writing; and my actions have been confined to the ministerial.”

…

In his letter to Obama, Kmiec said that in his post he had devoted time to “what I know you believe in most strongly, namely, personal faith and greater mutual understanding of the faiths of others as the way toward greater mutual respect.” The letter also said that he held “the highest respect for your leadership.”

You know… they told me that if I voted for John McCain, our foreign service would become a haven for sycophantic zealots dedicated to subordinating the secular sphere for the religious. AND THEY WERE RIGHT!