Moe Lane

This one is the special election called for Oregon’s First District after incumbent David Wu retired.  Suddenly.  Under circumstances best described as “murky.”  Or possibly “neurological.”  It’s a D+8 district, but the Democrats are certainly acting as if it’s in play.  Rob’s a small business owner who ran against Wu in 2010 and gave the incumbent his toughest re-election fight; we talked about his chances in this contest, and a few other things as well.

Rob’s site is here; the special election is January 31st, but early voting starts in mid-January.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

And notes that:

I don’t think I’ve ever read a definition for art that wasn’t stupid.  Generally speaking, when a person constructs a thought-machine of this kind, what they’re actually trying to do is determine what isn’t art.  I have always been white trash, and will never cease to be so; what that means is that I was raised with an inherent distrust in the Hoity and a base and brutal urge to dismantle the Toity.  This is sometimes termed anti-intellectualism, usually by intellectuals, when what it is in truth is an opposition to intellect for intellect’s sake.

I remember that when I was younger, I called myself an intellectual – until one of my friends gently told me that no, I was not.  At the time, I was offended; I stopped being so years ago.  Frankly, it’s much more interesting to be a nerd.

Watching this Debbie Wasserman Schultz video is surprisingly difficult: you keep expecting her to crack up at the nonsense that she’s spouting off. But… no.

Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson: “Unemployment has gone up precipitously since he took office.”

DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “That is simply not true. In fact, unemployment has now dropped below 9%. It’s continuing to drop. He’s been focused on – ”

Carlson:  “Yes, but it’s higher than when they promised that the stimulus would lower it to 8%.”

Wasserman Schultz:  “That narrative doesn’t work for you anymore.”

Carlson: “It’s not my narrative. I’m just talking about facts of where the unemployment numbers are.”

Wasserman Schultz: “You just said that the unemployment rate is going up since he took office, and it hasn’t.”

Carlson: “Is unemployment higher now than when President Obama took office?”

Wasserman Schultz: “What’s happened since President Obama took office –  “

Carlson: “Is unemployment higher than when he took office?”

Wasserman Schultz: “Unemployment is nearing right around where it was when President Obama took office and it’s dropping. You just said that it’s been increasing and that’s not true.” (Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” 12/12/11)

(more…)

What?

Oh, no reason.

(Cheerfully ripped off from several colleagues.)

…it’s not even that they’re complaining now about how awful the President is while studiously ignoring that INFINITELY PREDICTABLE OUTCOME when they were making their endorsement picks in 2008.  Everybody makes mistakes.  But Reason.com has to own up to them.  2008 was a disaster for the country and a disaster for the GOP… but – and this is a person who is pretty sympathetic to libertarian arguments speaking – it was an unmitigated disaster for libertarians.  In the great game of bad vs. worse, Obama was ‘worse.’   And, by God but we have been paying for it since then.  Including me, despite the fact that Obama getting elected was not my fault.

Kind of grates, honestly.

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

The Little Drummer Boy, Harry Simeone Chorale

Two weeks.

Between Jon Huntsman buying 10kbet.com, the Democrats and of course Rick Perry…

…folks were pretty eager to hit this one. Hard.

He’s up for a radio talk gig.

He’s in the homestretch.

He’s got his competitors closing the distance.

I threatened to write my posts in iambic pentameter if people didn’t vote for Ben.  And then I wrote a sonnet – ON TWITTER* – just to drive that threat home.

Am I bluffing?  Well.  Let’s not find out.

Moe Lane

*No, really. Well, kinda. Sorta. It’s complicated.

I think that tweets and posts that made the threat
To use the Muse beloved by the Bard
Would soon outgrow the joke and be ill-met -
Besides, the task would soon become too hard.
What’s this I’ve said? is not Iambic’s strength
Found in its favor of the English tongue?
Too true, too true: but give too long a length
To jokes, and you will find your welcome done.
Photonic webs of words we weave both day
And night, and so we seek the clever phrase
That elevates our text above the fray:
But play too long becomes mere work, not play.
And so the cautious bard knows when to make
A promise that he scruples quick to break.

Look, just vote for Ben, OK?

So let me set the background, here.  Crossroads GPS  is a 501(c)(4) associated with American Crossroads (a 527 advocacy group which has Karl Rove advising it; this will be important later), and it put out this ad on Massachusetts Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren (who is running, of course, against Republican Senator Scott Brown).  Said ad helpfully points out that Warren was up to her eyeballs assisting the 2008 TARP bailout – yes, the same bailout that she’s now trying to be a class warrior against:

Summation of the video: Elizabeth Warren talks a good game, but she was involved in TARP, in a supervisory role – so if people don’t like the way that TARP unfolded, blame her.  The ad alludes to the way that Warren sucked up to the Chamber of Commerce in order to try to get support to be made the formal head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Moving away from the ad: Warren also tried that with the 2010 crop of freshmen House Republicans, with about the same amount of success.  On the other hand, Warren did manage to put into place the man who would eventually succeed her as chief CFPB bureaucrat… one Raj Date, former executive at Capital One and Deutsche Bank.  All in all, this is all pretty standard, somewhat interchangeable Washington insider (Democratic edition) stuff from Warren.  Nothing special, alas. (more…)

(H/T: @sissywillis) Interesting piece here from Victor Davis Hanson about our current President’s attempt to find a persona among his predecessors that will suit Obama.  Obama will never find it, of course; a lifetime spent allowing others to define him has crippled precisely the capacity for discernment that President Obama would need to successfully reinvent himself.  Or possibly Obama’s never just invented himself in the first place.  Either way, he’ll keep looking until the day he dies.

Still: if Obama’s simply looking for a palliative then I suggest that he try the Woodrow Wilson persona; it’s a better fit than most.  Although if you’ve read Liberal Fascism then you’ll know that I don’t actually mean that as any sort of complement.

Moe Lane

Background: OR-01 is a D+8 district which has not gone Republican in decades.  This should normally make it reasonably safe for the Democrats… except that the seat is vacant because David Wu… well.  Something happened in David Wu’s head.  Possibly something neurological; definitely something that caused what was at best a sex scandal and at worst… something else.  So – and despite the best efforts of his caucus – Wu resigned; which may not actually help his party all that much.  The recent record suggests that voters like to punish parties when one of their House members gets caught showing theirs off; and this situation would certainly qualify. (more…)

So, I’ve got Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim all up on my Steam account, and I’m contemplating.

Go/No Go?