Moe Lane

I just saw this:

In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that health insurance plans, as of January 1, 2013, will be required to cover contraception, including FDA-approved emergency contraception. “These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need,” she said. The Catholic Church has been pushing the White House to allow Catholic hospitals to opt out of providing contraception that it considers the termination of a life, and many in the abortion rights community are worried that the president will grant that exemption. Additionally, many Democrats invested in President Obama’s re-election are worried that if he grants that exemption, he will alienate liberal women voters they will need come November.

…and I feel the need to explain something, here.  The Roman Catholic Church considers ‘emergency contraception’ – otherwise known as the ‘morning after’ pill – to be an abortificant.  The Roman Catholic Church does not permit its hospitals to perform abortions.  And the leadership (note the distinction) of the Roman Catholic Church is utterly indifferent to what taking a firm line on this might do to Barack Obama’s re-election chances. (more…)

(H/T: Instapundit) A quibble on this Hill article on Democratic retirements: technically, nine out of the seventeen (and counting) Democratic retirees are running for other offices.  I’m guessing that they overlooked Bob Filner of California, who is running for Mayor of San Diego. For that matter, I think that Mike Ross of Arkansas is probably thinking about running for Arkansas governor in 2014; current (Democratic) governor Mike Beebe is term-limited, and you can still pretend to be a conservative Democrat in Arkansas and not be laughed at by the voters for the self-evident absurdity.

Past that, I’m not really all that surprised that some of the more senior Democrats are bugging out; they probably should have left last session.  If you look at the last Congress, you’ll see that seventeen Democrats retired: this is somewhat lower than the the twenty-eight Democrats who retired prior to the 1994 shellacking (and the twenty-two Republicans who quit prior to the 2006 one).  I suspect that this was due to the Democratic leadership exerting its influence over weary Congressmen, in the ultimately vain hope that keeping those seats occupied would also keep them safe for the party*. Now that the Democrats are probably back in the wilderness for at least a cycle or two, the appeal of more time in the wilderness may not appeal, for some. (more…)

Via Drudge comes the beginnings of clarity on this issue: it’s now being tacitly admitted by the Pakistan government that Saturday’s conflict was initiated by their own troops.  Essentially, Afghan/American troops were raiding Taliban in Afghanistan when Pakistan troops fired on them (the Pakistan government maintains that their troops were attacking on what they thought were insurgents).  NATO airstrikes were the result, which shot up two military posts and killed over twenty Pakistani troops.

The Pakistanis’ claim here is that they alerted NATO forces that it was their military posts that were being shot up (although they apparently informed NATO earlier that they had no troops in the area); one Afghan response to that was that the insurgents that NATO/Afghan troops were hunting had retreated to said posts and continued to shoot from there.  Which, if true, more or less illustrates the reason why you do not offer tactical shelter to people who are shooting at United States troops.  The end result will be the local real estate getting reconfigured into a state best described as ‘lunar landscape.’ (more…)

The Boston Herald’s Michael Graham, who is somehow managing to hold it together at the tragic news that Barney Frank is cutting and running:

Barney Frank is leaving office at the end of his term. Maybe he just wants to spend more quality time with his pot-growing prostitute friends in the sub-prime lending business.

I apologize for the mean-spiritedness of that last comment. It’s particularly mean-spirited because it’s demonstrably true.

Not to mention, restrained.

Moe Lane

PS: The conventional wisdom is hardening that Frank is cutting and running because redistricting really did hurt him.  I dunno if I really buy into that, but the upcoming brawl for the seat should still be interesting to watch.

America, Simon & Garfunkel

(pause)

They really weren’t very happy a lot, that generation?  Poor bastards.

Has the Curse been lifted?  Inverted?  Simply not taking The Hidden Mystery into account?  It’s a surprisingly relevant question to ask, considering the expectations of next year.

If this story is true:

…as reported on the front page of the Richmond Times Dispatch, the Richmond Tea Party delivered an invoice for charges incurred in our previous three Tax Day rallies at Kanawha Plaza because Mayor Jones chose to allow Occupy Richmond protesters to convene in the same park for two weeks.

[snip]

On November 14th, representatives of our Tea Party attended the City Council meeting to speak to the Mayor and Council during the citizen forum. Mayor Jones, apparently too busy to listen to his constituents, got up and left before we spoke. He had no problem inviting members of the Occupy group to his office for a closed door meeting days later, at the same time refusing to meet with us.

His administration, however, found the time to send us an audit letter…

(Via PJ Tatler) (more…)

[Please note the edit below: the implication in the CNN article was that Bauer's endorsement of Gingrich was welcomed by the campaign, but there's still wiggle room for Team Newt. I've emailed the Gingrich campaign to confirm.]

Team Newt announced today that they [CNN reported today that the Gingrich campaign] had picked up the endorsement of Andre Bauer, who is: a former Lt. Governor of South Carolina; a former gubernatorial candidate; and a potential candidate for the new SC-07 seat.  If that name sounds familiar, it should… because Andre Bauer was also the person that current South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley gutted like a newly-caught river trout for Bauer’s (alleged) role in attempting to wreck Haley’s marriage and career:

(more…)

R.I.P, or R.I.H., depending on your point of view.

Such a quiet death rattle, all things considered:

As a practical matter, the Obama campaign and, for the present, the Democratic Party, have laid to rest all consideration of reviving the coalition nurtured and cultivated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal Coalition — which included unions, city machines, blue-collar workers, farmers, blacks, people on relief, and generally non-affluent progressive intellectuals — had the advantage of economic coherence. It received support across the board from voters of all races and religions in the bottom half of the income distribution, the very coherence the current Democratic coalition lacks.

You’d expect more of a reaction from the New York Times, all things considered. After all, the New Deal coalition has not just existed and affected American politics for my entire life; it’s done that for my parents’ entire lives.  Which is not to say that it’s particularly surprising that the New Deal coalition would eventually dissolve, of course; it’s almost eighty years old, and been taking body blows for the last thirty.  Political alliances and movements come in and out of existence all of the time, and that’s just the nature of things.  There still should be less of a shrug about it all, though.

(more…)

Via @pinkelephantpun; more as we get it.

[UPDATE]:  CNN now reporting this (via Weasel Zippers).  Note that this is probably not a redistricting compromise: John Olver (MA-01) had previously announced his retirement in October.  One wonders if a shoe is going to drop with regard to Frank’s sudden announcement…

[ANOTHER UPDATE]: There’s going to be a press conference? (Via @michellemalkin)  Oh, boy…

Have you bought enough yet to tide you over until 01/20/013?

Moe Lane

PS: I’d like to note for the record that I was originally in favor of the fluorescent bulbs… until it turned out that they didn’t actually last longer than incandescent bulbs, and that the mercury made disposal… problematic, by the government’s own rules set. I could live with an LED bulb, if they can prove the similarly-grandiose claims made for them and if the price goes down a bit. That’s not optimal for people who want the inefficiency in light creation (otherwise known as ‘heat generation’), but one step at a time.

After all, what were you planning to do today that was going to be cooler than this?

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane (more…)