Moe Lane

Let me tell you a tale of the incompetence of Vice President Joe Biden.  Trust me, this one is even better than usual.

Once upon a time, back in the days when Joe Biden was a bad Senator instead of a bad Vice President, he had a staffer named Victoria Nourse.  Ms. Nourse’s major claim to fame was ‘helping’ to write the (later deemed partially-unconstitutional) Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that was one of Senator Biden’s signature pieces of legislation; ‘helped’ is in square quotes because originally Biden took full credit for the law – like Biden typically does – until he got caught at it in 2007.  This was, of course, perhaps a little awkward… but then events transpired in 2008 that Senator Biden became Vice President Biden, which meant that Ms. Nourse could be given a nice consolation prize of a federal judgeship.

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And it’s not a moment too soon.  The Wisconsin State Journal tries to put a nice face on the situation – possibly out of pity – but the basic message of this article on WI public sector unions adjusting to the end of automatic dues collection is pretty clear: a significant proportion of public sector union members don’t consider membership worth the price.  The only numbers of retained dues-payers that the article could get on the record were from two local ones, and those numbers are 50% to 70%; as Legal Insurrection helpfully points out, that works out to a dropout rate of between 30% and 50% percent.  And who here thinks that, if the unions had a 90% dues retention rate, that they wouldn’t be bragging about that?

I’ll just end by noting this: I don’t really know how next week’s recall elections are going to go – at least, not with 100% certainty.  But it’s just not feeling like DOOM is onrushing for the Wisconsin GOP…

Via AoSHQ Headlines.

‘Captain Israel’ Takes on ‘Foreskin Man’ in Epic New Comic Book

I got nothing, sorry.

That’s what Jay Cost thinks, and he’s got five good reasons why he thinks that: Obama’s access to money, the White House, Democratic client groups, African-American voters, and the Democratic party establishment.  Whether this is ‘fortunate’ or not depends on whether you’re looking forward to either having to defend Democratic policies since 2007, or whether you’re gleefully anticipating rolling those policies into a nice, thick roll and using them to beat at the heads and shoulders of Democratic politicians, all the way down to the county commissioner level.

Guess which camp I’m in.

More seriously, if the Democrats want this guy gone then they’re going to have to convince President Obama that he needs to be the first President since LBJ to not run for re-election.  And the odds of that happening are are just short of nil, of course – so I don’t know what the netroots’/progressives’ Plan C is going to be, here.  Complain, whine, and get entertainingly cross and querulous about having to live with the consequences of their actions, I guess.  They seem to default to that anyway.

Moe Lane

…what am I doing with that title? I’m keywording for the benefit of future researchers for the Bureau of the Interior who will need to look up this story about how the town of Elk Creek, Nebraska may be sitting on top of what may be an incredibly valuable (and incredibly strategic) deposit of rare earths, including niobium.  Short version: a lot of our favorite technological toys require a bunch of extremely rare elements, and unfortunately the luck of the draw of where they’re located hasn’t been all that great from our point of view.  So if it’s true that this Nebraska site is real and exploitable (the citizens of Elk Creek, by the way, ARE ALL FOR BEING EXPLOITED, assuming of course that they get their cut), having a source for these elements that isn’t under the firm control of the People’s Republic of China (or even Brazil) will be all to the good.

However, obviously any development along these lines will have to wait until the current administration leaves office, given that Barack Obama’s general attitude towards mineral and resource exploitation is to require that it be done by foreign entities and on foreign soil whenever possible*. Hence, the need for keywords as the title: I assume that this is going to be a bit of an action item in January 2013…

Moe Lane (crossspost) (more…)

…which is to say, the latter was hanging out and grooving to the former. Like they do.

LiveLeak (via the AoSHQ sidebar) can’t figure this one out, but it doesn’t seem too confusing: it’s a whale. Whales dig music. I had MoeLane.com’s scientific/technological advisor* analyze the video, and she says that the whale’s probably hearing something, even past the glass. So it’s, you know, chilling and stuff. Wouldn’t you?

(pause)

What? Am I now not allowed to admit liking mariachi bands?

Moe Lane

*Otherwise known as “Dear.”

Norwegian Wood, The Beatles

This wasn’t the song that I’ve had stuck in my head all day, but I already did the one that’s been stuck in my head all day this year.

How to report this welcome news that the Stars Are Not Yet Right:

…(based on the punchline of this)- without immediately creating what you fear.

Yeah, it can be done.  But it’s on the knife’s-edge now, just isn’t it?

Speaking as a pro, myself: this is how you do it, folks.

Seriously, what else needs to be said? – Aside from “Jay, you ignorant slut,” of course.

Details as I get ‘em, but apparently they’re going to go with the House bill and short-term exempt the small airport closings.

I’ll explain all of this in a minute. (more…)

Hey, don’t look at me.  Or Rasmussen Reports.  We’re just reporting results.  Object to the American people:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 69% say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data in order to support their own theories and beliefs, including 40% who say this is Very Likely. Twenty-two percent (22%) don’t think it’s likely some scientists have falsified global warming data, including just six percent (6%) say it’s Not At All Likely. Another 10% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here .)

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A lot of people seem to think that this formal – or form – letter by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke “certifying” that Iceland is in violation of the International Whaling Convention’s moratorium on, well, whaling is a fairly significant step in getting Iceland to choose between whaling and sanctions; but if you read it, you’ll see that Iceland’s been certified as being in violation for almost a decade now.  Despite breathless commentary like this of sanctions being threatened (or even about to be threatened), nothing of the sort has happened. (more…)