Moe Lane

Ed Morrissey noted today that the paid-for-with-your-tax-money White House Director of Progressive Media and Online Response Jesse Lee seems to have an unhealthy obsession with countering Kevin Eder’s Twitter feed – much to the amusement of, well, everybody*.  Lee then apparently decided to up his game by responding to Ed, which may or not represent a guilty conscience; a tacit admittance that Morrissey’s point was well taken; or a particularly comprehensive AI simulation program.  It’s hard to tell with the Left on Twitter, sometimes; they get worked up so over every little thing.

Still, while it’s fun to kick them, I don’t think it’s something that you want to make a habit of.  After all, the Online Left’s job is to keep us from doing our job, which is to show up the Left’s masters not doing their jobs.  Or, as I put it back in 2010: When I’m on my way to the main hall to deliver a message I see no reason why I should stop at the kennels along the way.

Which is why this isn’t a front page post on RedState. Frankly, Jesse Lee needs to up his game if he wants to get that kind of attention on a regular basis.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*No, we’re not sure why Kevin was so honored, either.  And by ‘we’ I am including Kevin, who is just as entertained and surprised as the rest of us.

Reason’s  A. Barton Hinkle, addressing the odd way that Hard Left protests are categorized as mostly peaceful, even when they’re not – and how Right-protests are intimated as being prone to violence, even when they’re not.

None of us should be so foolish as to think violence and incendiary rhetoric are the exclusive province of one side only. They’re part of human nature, which everyone shares. So you have to wonder why press reports so insistently call one side “largely peaceful,” even when it’s not, while insinuating, with zero evidence, that the other side is about two seconds away from a killing spree.

Because the media likes having the Right as a boogieman, of course – which means that the Hard Left benefits in the short run.  Which also means that the Right knows darn well that they have no margin for error when it comes to bad PR, and the Hard Left knows that it can get away with quite a lot.  Which finally means that in the long run the Right can actually get things done, while the Hard Left is forever doomed to watching other people create new realities*, without the Hard Left’s input.

Moe Lane

Via Instapundit.

(more…)

One Thing, Finger Eleven

Sorry.  Feeling kind of King in Yellow-ish tonight.

(pause)

Well, without the creeping madness and detachment from the constraints of reality itself.

Does this look familiar?

“Ed Miliband thinks that the strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are still underway. The government has acted in a reckless and provocative manner, but it is time for both sides to set aside the rhetoric and get around the negotiating table and stop this from happening again.”

If it does, then you’re already eagerly clicking through to get the inside skinny on what is already going down in history as one of the most… pure… examples of its kind in the history of on-message canned statements. If it does not, then you want to click here first to watch said statement, in all of its… glory.

Moe Lane

55 has two major meanings, in fact:

• First off, it’s ‘merely’ Governor Bobby Jindal’s approval rating in Louisiana last year – and unchanged, six months before the election*.
• Second, it’s the number of signatures on the latest recall petition against Jindal – a petition that expires next week.

If you look at the above Politico article from December, you might suspect that the Politico author might just be the slightest bit disappointed in the second bullet point… although it’s highly unlikely that the author’s name would have been on the petition, even if she did live in Louisiana.  Which is kind of the point.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Bobby Jindal for Governor.  Like this was a hard call to make. (more…)

I would like to note for the record that there is not yet any indication that any kind of personal information, including credit card information, was stolen from the Obama for America (OfA) campaign website during the period when it was insecure.  Preliminary accounts indicate that the hack was limited to a redirect of mobile applications to a list of general ‘anti-government criticisms.’

Nonetheless, computer security is of course very important, so I suggest that OfA subscribers contact info@barackobama.com if they have any concerns or questions about the status of their accounts, or the security of the data found within.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

[UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers.]

…by Peter Beinart – short version: the prosecutors are going to get blamed for any collapse in the case, despite the fact that they acted without regard to the social status of the accused, in good faith, and were open and forthcoming about details in the case, including the negative ones.  All of which is true, by the way: but it’s a damned shame that Beinart can admit the truth of that, and not admit that pretty much the same can be truthfully said about the US military with regard to Abu Ghraib*(H/T: Instapundit).  The difference is, of course, that spittle-flecked antiwar hatemongers like Beinart absolutely hate any suggestion that they should be denied their Special Time when it comes to duly designated Hate Objects.  The US military counts; apparently, former IMF heads don’t.

Of course, I may be too harsh on the fellow.  Based on Beinart’s prior musings on Abu Ghraib, it simply may be that he has structural problems in his brain that make the irony imperceptible to him**.

Moe Lane (more…)

I didn’t have the heart to toss it out after a couple of days (we have lots of clutter).  So, I’ve been watering it and making sure that it got some sun.  I noticed the literally blossoming result this morning:

Message received.

Or so I have been told, by someone who actually understands the machinations involved in the magic thinky box.

It’s still creepy as all hell.

Via AoSHQ, I think.  I didn’t save the original link, sorry.

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

It’s still in the early stages – the Governor has started the paperwork process and Comptroller for Maryland Peter Franchot supports the idea – but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and goodness knows that the Democrats keep doing precisely that when it comes to Internet taxes.  Franchot (who, as the Red Maryland podcast above notes, is likely running for Governor in 2014) is claiming that the revenue that Maryland would glean would be roughly $160 million; given the way that Maryland’s Democratic-controlled government has wrecked the state’s economy recently, that number is a glittering prize.

A real pity that it’s a mirage.  (more…)

We’re now at the point in the second half of the episode where the Case Is About To Collapse because of the Sudden Revelations About The Chief Defense Witness, and then Somebody Brings Up The Detail From The First Half Of The Episode That Nobody Followed Up At The Time*.  Next up: Sam Waterson Makes A Quiet, Yet Pent-Up Angry Closing Speech Which May Or May Not Work.

Moe Lane

*I drove for five hours today, and I’m tired; I’m sure that you’re familiar with both Law & Order; and the DSK rape accusation case, anyway.  If not, ask me to explain all of this after I’ve had a full night’s sleep.

Link.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. (more…)