Moe Lane

Outside the Beltway (via @vermontaigne) is possibly a bit bemused that the meme of Occupy Wall Street being a haven for dirty hippies has by now hit the mainstream.  There’s a reason for that: OCCUPY WALL STREET IS A HAVEN FOR DIRTY, FILTHY HIPPIES. And it’s so blatantly obvious that even the regular media is noticing.

Don’t believe me? Watch this Daily show clip (via the above OTB link):

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Raspberry Beret, Prince

You know, I had forgotten just how hysterical the VH-1 Pop-up videos were.

“…because I will not limbo in Idaho.”

Morning Dew

This is only now penetrating my consciousness. It’s been a long two weeks.

Moe Lane

PS: My response, a few minutes in: “Wait. The monkeys, they are not real?”

This winner ‘allegedly’:

• Stole a car
• Stole a car with his three year old kid in tow
• Stole a car and got chased by cops
• Abandoned the car while leaving his kid behind
• Called the kid’s mother to tell her to pick up the child at the crime scene
• And… left a BB gun on the dashboard for the child to brandish and point at the cops gingerly approaching the stolen car.

Fortunately, this is not one of those stories: the child was not actually shot.  Thank Heaven for small favors: this is one of those situations where selling the child to gypsies (a favorite, if somewhat cringeworthy to modern ears, threat of my parents’ generation) could be legitimately argued as being a humanitarian intervention…

Via Drudge.

Moe Lane (more…)

And I wish them joy of the attempt.  The Hill, musing on why beleaguered Montana Senator Jon Tester opposes Obama’s latest attempt to be relevant on job creation:

…those facing tough reelection fights will smell the same danger Tester has: that President Obama’s latest jobs bill is less a real jobs program with any chance of passage than a reelection strategy that could end up pushing Obama’s remaining congressional majority – the Democrat-held Senate – over a cliff.

House Democrats fell into this trap in 2010: putting their careers on the line for Obama initiatives like “cap and trade” that had no chance of becoming law. One term later, Senate Democrats are poised to do the same for a stimulus and tax plan that has no chance of becoming law – but serves up a useful sound bite for a president “running against Congress.”

(Via Instapundit) Frankly, Senate Democrats might as well line up behind Obama’s plan: it’s not like doing otherwise will save them.  Tester, both Nelsons, McCaskill, and Manchin are in serious trouble this cycle.  Heck, Casey, Stabenow, and Brown of Ohio aren’t exactly sitting pretty right now, either?  And that’s not even bringing up the half dozen Democrats who are retiring, thus making most of those seats prime pickup territory.  Under the circumstances, well, show some party loyalty.  Maybe it’ll get you a nice lobbying job in 2013.

Or not.  Either way, to dispute the Hill story title: Tester isn’t the canary.  The canaries were Jimmy Webb of Virginia and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, both of whom have already looked at the map of 2012 and decided that it just wasn’t worth the aggravation…

Moe Lane

Good stuff as usual from Aaron Diaz; I liked especially re-imaging Lex Luthor as a benevolent, friendly geek in his public/corporate persona.  It’s a step up from the usual knee-jerk ‘visibly evil mega-corporation villain.’  The rest is visually interesting, in the retro-Futurist way that Diaz likes to draw technology.

Now if he’d just update Dresden Codak more often…

It’s short for “Not In My BackYard.”

(Via Hot Air Headlines)  It would seem that the people who actually live and work in NY-08′s Eighth District (epicenter of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests, at least according to this map) are getting sick and tired of the dirty filthy hippie freeloaders:

Panini and Company Cafe normally sells sandwiches to tourists in Lower Manhattan and the residents nearby, but in recent days its owner, Stacey Tzortzatos, has also become something of a restroom monitor. Protesters from Occupy Wall Street, who are encamped in a nearby park, have been tromping in by the scores, and not because they are hungry.

Ms. Tzortzatos’s tolerance for the newcomers finally vanished when the sink was broken and fell to the floor. She installed a $200 lock on the bathroom to thwart nonpaying customers, angering the protesters.

The article goes on to point out that this sentiment, while not universal, is widely shared among local businesses and residents; particularly the ones that have to directly deal with Occupy Wall Street’s lack of porta-potties and love for drum circles.  I suggest, however, that if anybody living or trying to do business in this district has a problem with the aforementioned dirty filthy hippie freeloaders then they should take it up with their Congressman Jerry Nadler, who is reportedly encouraging the continuing degradation of local property values.  His local contact information is below: I’m sure that Nadler’s staff would love to hear from those of his constituents who are enjoying the tip of his rhetorical spear right now*… (more…)

And I might, at that.

Original here.  Forget where I saw it first, sorry: it’s going around.

It is criminal that this did not make the Top Ten of bad 80s songs:

The Warrior, Scandal featuring Patty Smyth

CRIMINAL.

I DONT CARE WHAT THE H8RS AT ROLLING STONE THINK IT SHOULDNT BE IN THE TOP TEN LISTEN TO IT JUST LISTEN TO IT

Safety Dance, Men Without Hats

DAMN YOU ALL THE VIDEO HAS MORRIS DANCERS

(Via Hot Air)

Moe Lane

PS: “We Built This City,” on the other hand, really was pretty freaking craptastic, and the video was worse.

You should be able to listen in via here: the program is Cam & Co., which starts at 9 PM EST and goes on until midnight. I should be on some time after 10 PM.

Meanwhile: Attorney General Eric Holder is very upset:

In his most forceful criticism of Republicans during his time as attorney general, Holder said that he had said little so far about the gun-smuggling probe because the Justice Department inspector general is investigating it but that he could not sit idly by while a Republican congressman suggested that law enforcement and government employees be considered accessories to murder.

Actually, ‘sitting idly by’ would be a bit of an improvement there, Mister Attorney General. For that matter, ‘sitting idly by’ is more or less the basic defense that Holder is trying to make in the first place: to wit, that the Attorney General had not lied when he falsely claimed that he was unaware of Operation Fast & Furious* before April of 2011 or so.  Apparently, Holder had somehow missed the import of multiple memos from July 2010 that spelled out that the operation involved straw purchasers who were “responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels;” it’s an interesting thing to see a Cabinet official attempt to make the argument that he’s too intellectually incurious to be guilty of perjury, but I guess that you have to play the hand that you’re dealt.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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I also don’t know how much they should worry about this:

In a far-ranging poll Penn Schoen Berland conducted for The Hollywood Reporter of 1,000 registered voters to gauge moviegoing tendencies of Democrats vs. Republicans, it’s clear political allegiances have shifted entertainment viewing habits. Jon Penn, the firm’s president of media and entertainment research, says that before Freeman’s words, interest in Dolphin Talewas considerably higher among conservatives and religious moviegoers than among liberals. After the remarks, 34 percent of the conservatives who were aware of them, and 37 percent of Tea Partiers, said they were less likely to see the film — but 42 percent of liberals said they were more likely. (Five days after Freeman’s remarks, 24 percent of all moviegoers were aware of them.)

In fact, overall, 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of Tea Partiers consider a celebrity’s political position before paying to see their films, compared with 20 percent of Democrats.

After all, Hollywood seems happy enough with the outcome (more Democrats going to movies); and the Hollywood-Democratic party strategic alliance doesn’t exactly seem about to collapse. Or to stop insulating the former from poor market decisions. (more…)