Month: March 2013

Top Democratic donors promise to flip Senate to Republicans in 2014.

Much obliged, guys.

Kenneth Lerer, a New York businessman who is chairman of Buzzfeed.com, and David Bohnett, a technology entrepreneur and philanthopist [sic] based in Los Angeles, are both major financial supporters of Democratic candidates, having each given scores of large contributions over the years. They are both key players in the political fundraising world and wield influence among other donors and fundraisers.

Neither will give another dime to any Senate Democrat who does not support expanded background checks, I’m told — and both will suggest to other donors that they do the same.

Continue reading Top Democratic donors promise to flip Senate to Republicans in 2014.

Attention, Republican Senators planning any random pushback against the administration…

…and/or any public spectacles along those lines: April 10th is your target date.  I repeat: April 10th is your target date.

President Barack Obama will launch a new round of schmoozing with his political opponents when he sits down to dinner with a dozen Republican senators on April 10.

Obama has been trying to gain Republican cooperation on a host of items on his second-term agenda including a deficit-reduction package, an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws and a tightening of gun regulations.

(Via Instapundit) Now, Senator Paul’s filibuster was genuinely spontaneous and genuinely compelling, so I would recommend that any Senators that are aiming to misbehave not try to reproduce it; instead, they should try to come up with something new.  Perhaps someone could put together a… no, wait, this is a public forum.  Any Congressional staffers interested in tactical suggestions or ideas should feel free to contact me privately. Continue reading Attention, Republican Senators planning any random pushback against the administration…

So I get a mass email from my kid’s school. They want volunteers for Career Week.

They want people to come in and tell the kids what they do.

:pause:

Yes, Good God, of course it is a temptation. But I got the kids’ grammar school experience to consider. Just because you have to face a tiger when it’s menacing your kids doesn’t mean that you have to let one out of its cage in order to create that scenario.

Moe Lane

PS: From private email:

Anti-science religious fanatics attack President Obama, suggest conspiracy.

They’re especially mad because they worked so hard to elect Barack Obama last year, and this is what they ge… what’s that?  Oh, you thought that I was talking about Republicans?  Oh, don’t be silly: we’ve long since worked out that Barack Obama lies when it suits him.  Which is to say, pretty much all the time.  Anyway, heeeeeeeeeere’s the Luddites:

Nearly a dozen protesters gathered today in front of the White House to protest what they say is President Barack Obama’s lax stance on genetically modified food, which they believe poses serious health risks to consumers.

Video at the link.  Anyway, I forget: is this the patriotic kind of dissent, or the unpatriotic kind?  It’s so hard to keep track these days.

Via:

Moe Lane

I’m shocked at this Cracked.com article on guns.

To wit: 5 Mind-Blowing Facts Nobody Told You About Guns. It… doesn’t suck. It is, in fact, a reasonably fair look at the situation that readily admits – in fact, highlights – that gun crime is down and has been down for some time.  I’m not even upset about the “bunch of grown men collecting firearms like little girls collect Barbie dolls” bit because, well, it’s true: in my experience, many of them do*.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, some useful stuff in there.  I should also note, more seriously, that one thing that should be addressed far more often in the gun control debate is the problem of handgun suicide.  It often gets ignored, largely because one side can’t use it as a scourge with which to flog the other one and the other side doesn’t want to give the one side free ammo.  But we really should do something about that… and as soon as I figure out something, I’ll let you know.

Moe Lane

*Sayeth the grown man who spent cash money to give all his dolls action figures Mass Effect 2 squad members new outfits that had no effect on the game whatsoever but did make them look pretty, oh so pretty and nice.

Janet Napolitano doesn’t use email? …Riiiiiiiiiigght.

Via @rickwilson comes this eyebrow raiser:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano doesn’t believe in using email.

“I think email just sucks up time,” Napolitano told an incredulous group of reporters on Tuesday, speaking at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

Napolitano, who said she doesn’t text or “Twitter” either, said she may use email “at some point,” but right now, it’s not in the cards.

I love the ‘incredulous’ bit – because no, I don’t believe that, either. I’m pretty sure, in fact, that Janet Napolitano is using email, only she’s Richard Windsoring it.  I wonder what her name looks like when you anagram it…

…oh, dear.  Let’s just pretend that I didn’t put up that link, shall we?

Moe Lane