Author: Moe_Lane

#rsrh A better alternative to “None of the Above…”

…even the one with teeth that Mickey Kaus (via Instapundit) is advocating here: if you don’t like either of the two major party’s candidates, join one of the parties and make sure that it produces better candidates.   Admittedly, that’s work and everything; but it’s also a lot less dismissive of the people who are already engaged in the dull, unglamorous life of maintaining and and growing the local party infrastructures.  For that matter: the purpose of a representative is to represent.  Even a dunderhead can do things for his or her constituents while in office, and even dunderheads can have a staff.  Vacant slots on the legislative chart can do and have neither.

I’m a little surprised that Mickey’s arguing this, actually: the man ran for Senate, after all.  Admittedly, given his views he was running under the wrong party…

Science is magic that works*.

Sorta via Neil Stevens (I read xkcd religiously myself):

…Yeah. My favorite crazy phenomenon was the 100 mpg carburetor/cars that ran on water/’gas pill’ that the auto/oil companies supposedly suppressed, back in the day. ‘Back in the day’ being the 1970s, when the US Army would have paid any sum that you might have wanted for a truck with four to five times the range of the ones that they were using.

Note, I did not say ‘tank.’  I said ‘truck.’

Moe Lane

*I forget who said that first.

Dick Blumenthal lying about death penalty stance.

The death penalty has been an issue in the recent Connecticut gubernatorial election, and it seems to have spilled over into the Senatorial election, too – mostly because Dick Blumenthal can’t be bothered to remember if he started loving the death penalty in 1990, or in 2005. Then again, knowing Blumenthal… he probably decided that he could claim both and get away with it. It’s a habit with the man.

Below is a sort of timeline, sort of collected quotes that will demonstrate that… well, that Dick Blumenthal lies through his teeth. It’s pretty straightforward, but here’s the executive summary: Blumenthal claimed that he’s been for the death penalty since he first ran for Attorney General, the historical record contradicts that assertation handily, and it’s plausible to assume that Blumenthal’s conversion on the issue had to do with the political benefits from executing a notorious Connecticut serial killer. That last part’s speculative, which is why I write ‘plausible.’

Last note: some of these quotes and excerpts were made available to me. I’ve provided online sources where I could.

Part I: Blumenthal’s shifting narrative.

1990 is, obviously, twenty years ago. But let’s keep going with this: Continue reading Dick Blumenthal lying about death penalty stance.

#rsrh QotD, Read. The. Whole. Thing. Edition.

Frank J, of course:

…the Democrats will counter that the Republicans also suck. And while this is true, it’s not really going to help them. As I pointed out before, both a dog incessantly barking and a zombie apocalypse are things that everyone would agree suck. Yet no one during a zombie apocalypse, while hiding out in a boarded up mall, would turn to the other survivors and say, “We don’t want to kill all the zombies; then we’d have to go back to being woken up at night by that annoying dog next door.” But this is the best argument the Democrats can come up with. “Remember how awful the Republicans and Bush were? You hated them. You don’t want to go back to that.” Yes, why would people want to go back to when 6% unemployment was considered high?

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: The fact that Frank J does not have a column in a major newspaper somewhere is the most searing indictment of the mainstream media that I can think of.  This entire piece encapsulates the 2010 political scene brilliantly, succinctly, and – above all else – entertainingly.  That last bit is important: the New Media types that do get imported into Old Media venues these days are often… not.

#rsrh Get your Barney Frank bribe money in early!

A colleague of mine pointed out an interesting wrinkle in this stunning news that Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA-04) has actually loaned his campaign $200K – which is, by the way, not the sign of a confident campaign – to wit, that the next 200K that Barney Frank raises goes back to him.  Not the campaign; him.

Ever want to buy a chairman of the House Financial Services Committee?  Now’s your chance!  And it’s a fire sale, folks: whether or not Barney keeps his job as Congressman in November, he’s not exactly expecting to be the Financial Chair after January.  So if you want to make a deal, now’s the time…

Moe Lane

PS: Or you could donate to Sean Bielat.  OK, so they’re not exactly trying to draw from the same financial sources.

Ivy League to bring back ROTC any second now, right?

Instapundit passes along an excellent point from one of his readers: the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy has been ordered suspended, via judicial fiat.  The military has complied with the court order, although they strongly disagree with it: there is a moratorium on enforcing DADT, and openly gay soldiers may serve.  Whether you are happy with this development or not*, there is one detail about this which is kind of important: the stated reason Ivy League colleges typically give for forbidding ROTC programs on campus has just gone away.  The military just stopped discharging openly gay soldiers.  It’s over.  The Ivy League won.

So let’s get those ROTC programs back on those campuses.

NOW.

Seriously. Theoretically, this should happen by, say, lunchtime: but the effective deadline for this is by next January.  That’s when at least one House of Congress abruptly shifts to the control of the political party that takes the Solomon Amendment seriously.  Not to mention the political party that’s going to be looking for places to cut the budget everywhere they can.

Hint.  Hint.  [Expletive deleted] hint.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Ivy League to bring back ROTC any second now, right?

DCCC calls racist… six House Democrats.

And one Republican – but that’s unsurprising of the DCCC.

The six House Democrats in question would be “Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Gene Taylor of Mississippi, Pete DeFazio of Oregon, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina and Jim Marshall and John Barrow of Georgia:” those are the six House Democrats who have gotten endorsements from a group called ALIPAC (Americans for Legal Immigration PAC), which is fairly obviously a group that heavily favors a stronger line on immigration policy. Why this exercise in bipartisanship is relevant – and so entertaining – is because ALIPAC had also endorsed AZ-08’s Jesse Kelly, which led DCCC spokesman Andy Stone to refer to a combat veteran as follows:

“Another [National Republican Congressional Committee] Young Gun candidate, another Nazi tie[*] — it should come as no surprise,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement Monday. He said the group was “on the racist fringe” and that it was “backed by anti-Semites and white supremacists.”

And – just to make it clear – at least one of those delegates (Mike McIntyre) was bragging about his ALIPAC endorsement. Which I believe means that Andy Stone, DCCC spokesman, has just called at least one of his own employers a Nazi, anti-Semite, white supremacist.

(pause)

Oops?

Moe Lane (crosspost) Continue reading DCCC calls racist… six House Democrats.