Author: Moe_Lane

#rsrh Neil Abercrombie, you ignorant slut*.

So.  Gov. Abercrombie wanted to puncture the Birther balloon.  That’s a laudable goal: so once he took office as governor, Abercrombie announced that he was going to settle this once, and for all.  Outstanding.  Only… it turns out that, Gosh darn it, Hawaii state law prevents the governor from releasing birth record information!

…WHICH WE ALREADY KNEW, BECAUSE YOUR PREDECESSOR SAID SO TWO YEARS AGO.

Sorry about the YT link to a Birther, but that’s the only audio link that I can find; I’ll be happy to replace it once I find something suitable.  Anyway: back in 2008 it was determined that it was illegal for birth certificates to be released without the holder’s permission; nothing has changed since then; and apparently you’ve never talked to Gov. Lingle on her way out the door – so the only damned thing that you did in your quest to be ‘helpful,’ Governor, was to throw fresh gasoline on the fire.

I repeat: Neil Abercrombie, you ignorant slut.  Learn how and when to keep your mouth shut, OK? Hint: if your handlers are frantically waving at you off-screen, then that’s a good time.

Moe Lane

*This is one of those responses that must be earned: we of the VRWC just don’t give it away.

#rsrh Hey! Want to keep radicalizing me…

…with regards to adopting a more pro-life position?

Then have people keep writing passive-aggressive Kermit Gosnell-situation apologetics like this one.  Actually, the problem isn’t the writing; it’s the publishing.  Because every time I see a pro-choicer start off on this topic without admitting that the Gosnell story confirms the absolutely worst fears and suspicions of the pro-life movement*, I get just a little bit angrier.  And the angrier I get, the more I stop caring that people have a problem with me having a problem about being lied to.

But I hear that the other side wants to find some common ground?  Fine.  Let’s start with “Born-alive babies are not to be killed.”  Then the pro-choice movement can explain how they [expletive deleted] that one up, and what they’re doing to keep from [expletive deleted] that up again.

Also, Ms. Kuschmider?

And you do not have the right to impose your personal sexual morals on anyone else. You don’t. It’s rude. So please don’t try.

You go first.  Thanks in advance!

Moe Lane

*Fears that we were told were ridiculous, exaggerated, hyperbolic, and generally silly.

#rsrh PotUS disses OfA members, four seconds in.

Not to pile onto the President – yes, it is amazing that I manage to avoid random lightning strikes, isn’t it – but I have a bit of advice to the Second Stage Lensman currently slumming as American chief of state: when your organization has gone through considerable time and trouble to create an email list which attempts to give its members the (illusory) feeling that they are part of a politically activist Gideon’s Band… do not insult said members’ intelligence by implying that they default to being unaware of when the State of the Union address is.

Yes, yes, I know: if the administration thought that the average OfA member was capable of tuning in to watch the President on Tuesday without being reminded of it first, the administration would never have sent out the email in the first place.  But there’s subtle.  And then there’s unsubtle.  And then there’s “As some of you know…”

Sheesh.  A simple “As you know…” and I wouldn’t have been able to do this post.  Real elementary goofball error there, Team Barry.

Moe Lane

PS: No, there’s no semantic content in the rest of the remarks.  Was there supposed to be? – Seriously, I think that it’s unfair to ding the President for that; it’s like dinging the sky for not being plaid.

NO! *BAD* MR. PRESIDENT! BAD!

NO BISCUIT!

President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

[snip]

The new spending could include initiatives aimed at building the renewable-energy sector—which received billions of dollars in stimulus funding—and rebuilding roads to improve transportation, people familiar with the matter said. Money to restructure the No Child Left Behind law’s testing mandates and institute more competitive grants also could be included.

If you want expansions in Big Green payoffs and road pork, Mr. President, pay for it by cutting elsewhere first.  And if you want to enhance your re-election prospects by fiddling with NCLB, do it on your dime.  Until then… The People Have Spoken, and they have said: Stop wasting our money, you daft idjits.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: What?  What else needs to be said?  Cuts first, cuts that hurt; then we’ll talk about what to fund, and at what priorities.  Welcome to the New Order Of Things: that ain’t Pelosi holding the gavel anymore.

PPS: Clearly, the President has decided to not take my advice and adopt a mindset not notably different than, say, Budget Chair Paul Ryan’s.

#rsrh Critiquing the CBO critiquing.

I don’t know why this Reason.com article was even necessary: I don’t pretend to be a hardcore fiscal pundit, but you don’t need to be one in order to understand the CBO scoring process.  Congress tells them what to assume when they score a bill.  The CBO then puts together an analysis based on those assumptions.  If the assumptions are not, to turn a phrase, reality-based – as they were rather notoriously not in, say, the 110th and 111th Congress – then the analysis is going to be flawed.  Or, as the first commenter here alluded: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

The answer thus is to make sure that Congress is being run by people who are not making bad assumptions in order to justify spending money that we don’t actually have.  We’re making a decent start on that, but there’s a way to go yet.