Moe Lane

…don’t remember where I saw it first, sorry:

This is how you apologize to a man who hits women.  Which is to say: you do not.

Ye gods and little fishes.

So, Wednesday – while campaigning in Illinois, although I understand that we’re supposed to pretend that Obama isn’t actually campaigning, for some bizarre reason – the President of the United States faced with a technical question (the effects of new EPA’s soil and dust regulations on Illinois farmers) by a technical expert (an Illinois farmer).  Despite the fact that the technical question is in fact supposedly within Barack Obama’s level of expertise, the President decided instead to make slight fun of the probably-not-voting-for-him-anyway technical expert by chiding him about believing rumors and suggesting that the technical expert call the Department of Agriculture.

Well.  There was a Politico reporter who actually decided to see what would happen if s/he did precisely that.  So s/he did.  As near as I can tell, the original inquiry about “information related to the effects of noise and dust pollution rules on Illinois farmers” turned into a two day affair involving at least ten phone calls, seven separate, discrete offices (almost all of which also included internal phone tag), and at least twelve individuals.  And as for the final answer?  This is what they sent (yes, sent, via safely distancing email):

“Secretary Vilsack continues to work closely with members of the Cabinet to help them engage with the agricultural community to ensure that we are separating fact from fiction on regulations because the administration is committed to providing greater certainty for farmers and ranchers. Because the question that was posed did not fall within USDA jurisdiction, it does not provide a fair representation of USDA’s robust efforts to get the right information to our producers throughout the country.”

Shorter USDA: “I dunno. Call the President.” (more…)

…I’ve read all day: “And that’s why you should learn to pick your battles.”

Dude.  If your SO wants towels, let her have the damn towels.  If for no other reason than the oldest set of towels then automatically become available for projects that would otherwise would be off limits for ‘good’ towels.

Via @stoo11.

Moe Lane (more…)

[UPDATE]: It turns out that the word was ‘waste,’ not ‘rich.’ At least, it sounded that way after listening to it a half dozen times with the volume up.  I therefore retract the sneer, with apologies for my now-unsourced suggestion of diminished mental capacity of Senator Lautenberg.

Original Title: Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) is 87 years old.

It is frankly beginning to show.

“Eliminate the rich.” The ironic bit?  This was totally an own-goal: the original question was about using drug seizure revenue to fund the government.  Which is a potentially problematical situation in and of itself… but at least it doesn’t touch on the politically tricky subject of whether its a good idea to systematically eliminate the economic class that’s currently expected to make bricks without straw* jobs without a stable economic environment.

Via @Markimpomeni.

Moe Lane

*I would apologize for slipping a Biblical reference in there, except that if you’re the sort that has the vapors over that kind of thing then the last week or so has probably sent you into a coma anyway.

…at least, he would have if DeFazio had been a Republican saying this about a Republican President:

[DeFazio] added: “One guy asked me… give me 25 words what [Obama's] about and what he’s done for me. I’m like… ‘it could have been worse?”

But DeFazio is a Democrat, so he’s probably safe (at least, in the primary): the Left will either be too scared or too incompetent to replace him in a primary.  Then they’ll turn around and give DeFazio money, because that’s what the Democratic base does.

Hey, if they won’t even respect themselves then don’t ask me to respect them, either.  It’s not my fault that they’re that way.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

PS: Also, Oregon is apparently in play.  Umm… thanks?

(Via Hot Air) Russ Feingold’s not running for Senate in 2012. He’s not running for Governor in a hypothetical (and futile) 2012 recall election. He’s not running for Governor in the 2014 general election[*]. Russ Feingold’s just running away:

“After twenty-eight continuous years as an elected official … I have found the past eight months to be an opportunity to look at things from a different perspective,” Feingold said in the email, first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert. Feingold said he is “thoroughly enjoying the life of a private citizen.”

Funny about that: I’m enjoying Russ Feingold’s life as a private citizen, too. More than I suspect that he is, brave words to the contrary. (more…)

Stephen Moore, reacting perhaps just a bit hostilely to Jay Carney’s… look, I’ll get into it after the quote:

Economic bimboism is rampant in Washington.

And Carney’s one of the bimbos, apparently.  What seems to have set this off was Carney’s rather snotty response to Moore’s colleague Laura Meckler; Meckler had asked the very reasonable question about how subsidizing people to not work actually creates jobs.   The problem is that it’s only a reasonable question if you’re not personally and politically invested in Keynesian economic theory… which Carney proceeded to demonstrate by rudely suggesting that Meckler’s question called her right to work at the WSJ in question.  He then duckspoke the standard Keynesian line that subsidizing the unemployed gives them money to spread through the system, thus indirectly creating jobs.  That this rosy model assumes that government acts as a perfect fiscal superconductor* is lost on Carney, but not on Stephen Moore** – who proceeds to go off on Carney, then macroeconomics in general.

(more…)

So What, Miles Davis

Ever get the feeling that these people are starting to run out of arguments?

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

Note that the people that I’m really sneering at are the people at The Guardian who somewhat tortured what was a moderately innocuous paper on the range of First Contact scenarios into a ZOMG STOP RELEASING CARBON DIOXIDE OR THE ZETA RETICULANS WILL COME AND ANALLY PROBE OUR BRAINS.

No, that isn’t actually a non-sequitur: I have it on excellent authority that the anterior region of the body is indeed where the average Guardian employee keeps his or her cerebral cortex.

(Via @stoo11)

Allahpundit calls it our generation’s version of Kremlinology; I call it a waste of time.  The Obama administration also thought that the best strategy for 2010 was to run on how totally awesome Obamacare and the ‘stimulus’ were.  And if cap-and-trade had passed, they’d have tried to run on that, too.

So, really, who cares?

…in the following manner to CAIR’s not-particularly-polite request that he disassociate himself from Pamela Geller and Brigitte Gabriel:

It’s because “Fuck you, you terrorist-defending sanctimonious assholes,” while an appropriate response, is probably not suitable for official House stationery. (more…)

You know, I didn’t actually wake up this morning and decide Hey, let’s talk about Governor Rick Perry all the time today! I mean, I still have two RS Gathering mini-interviews to process, new interviews to set up, trying to figure out how to get to NJ this weekend when the 9/11 motorcycle riders are taking the same route at the same time, that sort of thing.  Seriously, I would like to dwell on other things.

But apparently the media is refusing to play ball. Which means that, as a media parasite and all that, I apparently have to follow suit. (more…)