Moe Lane

(Full disclosure: I am an Amazon.com Affiliate for Maryland.)

Glenn Reynolds noted this apparent contradiction in what Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s position actually is with regard to having Amazon.com collect sales tax: is the Republican Governor for it, or against it?  I say ‘apparent’ because there isn’t one, really; there’s just not enough context.

Basically, the position that Haslam is taking is that the state of Tennessee trying to impose an Amazon tax would probably wreck ongoing negotiations between the state and Amazon.com when it comes to getting a couple more job-creating distribution centers built in-state (which it probably will).  Haslam also thinks that a national, standardized system for sales tax is both necessary and proper:

[Haslam] said Tennessee is already losing between $300 million and $500 million a year on untaxed Internet sales — a growing number since the states and Congress have been unable for more than a decade to agree on a “streamlined sales tax” process enabling online retailers to collect taxes easily for the nation’s thousands of state and local taxing jurisdictions.

“It’s not going to begin eroding the state’s tax base; it already is. Something has to happen nationally. The whole streamlined sales tax is a big deal, and I’m more than willing to play a leadership role,” Haslam said. “It has to be addressed on a national level or we’re going to keep playing these kinds of move-around games.”

(more…)

My friend and colleague Caleb Howe already has this up at RedState, but stuff like this irritates the living life out of me:

Short version: (Democratic) DC Council members are putting together a taxi medallion law that will force out independent owner-operator cabbies in DC, in favor of connected cab companies… who will, of course, eagerly rent medallions (at a high markup) to the former independents.  Hence, sharecropping: which, as anyone who has read history can tell you, is feudalism without the charm*.

(pause)

Ever get the feeling that the Democratic party leadership kind of misses that entire patron/client thing? – Because they keep coming up with stuff that would bring those days back.  Old times, they are not forgotten, indeed.

Moe Lane

*Actually, no, feudalism does have its charms.  If you happen to live in a system where its understood that loyalty and responsibility flow both up and down the chain.

It’s… probably going to suck.

Claire Berlinski has it right, I think: it doesn’t quite ring true for Maggie Thatcher.  The family’s also reportedly not happy about the script.  So, my remaining hopes on it not sucking are now reduced to:

• Early trailers often make a movie that doesn’t suck look like it sucks.
• Meryl Streep has sufficient professional pride (and enough of a healthy desire to not wreck her largely apolitical professional reputation) to not do a hack job.

Neither hope is precisely forlorn, but it doesn’t look good.

Please remember: this is not a happy monkey.

This is a monkey that is debating whether or n0t to savagely bite you.  Generally speaking, the answer defaults to ‘yes.’  Monkeys are not particularly introspective when it comes to biting things.

This is a happy monkey:

…you can tell that by the details that teeth are not visible; and the hand is full of a stolen camera, instead of, say, monkey feces. (more…)

PJ Tatler caught this one.  President Barack Obama, during his so-called “Twitter Town Hall” yesterday:

…we will have to make tough decisions about Defense spending, or even on programs that I like…

(Via Jim Geraghty)

Seriously, the administration needs to cut down on the number of occasions where the President is allowed to talk off the cuff, and unscripted. He’s incredibly bad at avoiding disaster at such things.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: No, he said it.

For the Onion AV Club, which got to provide the backup vocals.

They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba

The only way that this could have been improved would have been for John Flansburgh to have worn an Iron Man suit… no, no, that would have caused the Singularity, and I can’t have the Singularity happen before I do laundry.

Via Nodwick.
(more…)

Solsbury Hill, Peter Gabriel

Danged if I know whether this was the original video.  Peter Gabriel, remember?  The guy’s a bit odd.

I think that this one is old, but it’s still funny – if only because nobody thirty years from now is going to have a clue about what it actually means.

Do Glass Pipes, Incense Prove Teens Are Practicing Shamanism?

I think.

I’m not sure who to blame for this.

Somebody has to take the fall for it, though.

Moe Lane

PS: Yeah, I was waiting for the CGI effect, too.

I quibble at ‘surprising,’ mind you:

The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause: unheralded changes in Mexico that have made staying home more attractive.

And perhaps ’cause’ instead of ’causes:’ the article makes it clear that there are a bunch of unrelated circumstances involved, ranging from lower family size to increasing Mexican GDP to skyrocketing narco-terrorist-related activity on the border to generally improved services to a rather hostile environment to small businesses in the USA to a somewhat easier path to getting legal work visas.  The short version?  The suggestion is that the illegal alien population in America is pretty much stagnant right now*.  And, since it’s the New York Times that we’re talking about, the subtitle writes itself:

Democrats, professional activists hardest hit**.

Moe Lane (more…)

For those who have forgotten, Herb Kohl…

Kohl.  Herb Kohl.  The senior Senator from Wisconsin?  Yes, Wisconsin has two Senators.  I know, I know: you’d never realize it from the news or anything, but they actually had more than one.  It’s a constitutional requirement, in fact.

…at any rate, Kohl is retiring in ’12 (or at least, won’t be showing up for work anymore), which means that the seat he occupies is of interest for the first time in decades.  Russ Feingold was assumed to be the front-runner for it, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that Feingold losing to Ron Johnson has snapped the former’s political will like a rotten branch, so there’s an opportunity for the ambitious.  It’s sort of what like what happens when a tree falls in a dense forest; the sudden influx of sunlight can cause rapid growth among the stunted saplings that had hitherto been denied the res0urces needed to thrive*.  One such sapling is Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who is apparently on the cusp of running. (more…)

The sound that you’re hearing is the muttered “Uh-oh” of a plethora of staffers at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives.  Of particular interest is the letter that Oversight Chair Darrell Issa and Judiciary Ranking Member (for now) Chuck Grassley sent to Attorney General (for now) Eric Holder regarding Melson’s testimony… but we’ll get that in a moment.

For those coming in late: Issa and Grassley are investigating the horrifically botched Fast & Furious program that Justice/BATFE had put together, starting in late 2009.  F&F was this ingenious method by which the federal government ended up knowingly and deliberately permitted illegally-resold firearms to be supplied to Mexican narco-terrorists; said narco-terrorists then proceeded to use those guns to shoot various hostages, Mexican civilians and police officers, at least one US Border Agent… as you can imagine, the Mexican government is not exactly pleased about any of this, which is why elements within said government are currently muttering about extradition treaties.  This is where Kenneth Melson comes in: he is the Acting Director of BATFE, and was apparently picked to be the duly-assigned sacrificial lamb in this particular drama.

Only, it turns out that Melson doesn’t actually believe in any of that dulce et decorum est pro Duce mori stuff; so he grabbed a lawyer and started talking to Issa & Grassley – on July 4th, no less. (more…)