Author: Moe_Lane

Quote of the Day, HolyCoast.com edition.

“Nothing says global warming protest like panda bears with their hair on fire.”

Shoot, I wish that I had written that.

Moe Lane

PS: No, really.

firebears

I’ve got two competing theories on this:

  1. This is an example of an obscure, yet highly relevant and apropos (within the host culture) symbolism that is even now resonating across a critical demographic with regard to the global warming debate.
  2. People protesting global warming conferences from the Left are really kind of strange.

Honestly, I’m leaning towards 2).

Crossposted to RedState.

This ‘Jersey Shore’ thing is a train wreck, isn’t it.

Note the complete lack of a question mark: Hot Air knows it, Michele Catalano knows it, and I – whose family moved to a beach town on the Jersey Shore when I was eight, and where my mother lives still* – hoo boy, do I know it.  Indeed, I am fighting the urge RIGHT NOW to make snide comments about North Jersey/New York denizens like a good clamdigger.

OK, I’ll indulge myself with one: IROCs.

Just… IROCs.

Moe Lane

*You know Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.? Yeah, I’m from that area.

Ah, Homeland Security.

From Lowering the Bar:

Reports last week said that Tahaya Buchanan had simply walked into the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Atlanta, despite the existence of a nationwide alert seeking her arrest.  In fact, she apparently did this repeatedly for quite some time, because, you see, she worked there.

My wife thinks that it’s a little unfair of me to bring this up; after all, running searches like this is neither free, nor easy – and the woman was being looked for for insurance fraud, not Murder One (or even naval barratry).  Still.  It’s Homeland Freaking Security.  That’s worth at least an eyebrow-raise.
Moe Lane

Doing well by being a Congressman’s brother?

It’s amazing what they don’t mention in the news these days:

Wind Capital Group, led by President Tom Carnahan, said Monday it has closed on financing for Missouri’s largest wind energy development.

The lenders, led by Nord/LB, Bayern LB, Rabobank, Santander and Union Bank, are providing $240 million in debt facilities to support the construction and operation of the proposed Lost Creek Wind Project in DeKalb County, Mo. The debt facilities consist of a construction loan, term loan and letter of credit.

The project also is seeking $90 million in aid through the federal stimulus package.

Like, for example, that ‘seeking’ in this context effectively means ‘calling up your brother the Congressman’ (as Dana Loesch helpfully points out). Or that this project needs both stimulus money and a cap-and-trade bill to pass in order to survive (as 24thstate.com helpfully points out).

I’d ask why Russ Carnahan felt comfortable voting for legislation that would directly benefit his brother, except that I already know that Democratic legacy politicians typically don’t believe that they have to obey the rules that they expect the rest of us to follow.  Given the incredible amounts of deference that the rest of their party gives them, they may unfortunately have a bit of a point.

Moe Lane

PS: Ed Martin’s running in that district.

Crossposted to RedState.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09), insurance industry profiteer.

It’s about the hypocrisy, stu… err, ‘folks.’

This came up a couple of days ago:

…while Rep. Schakowsky likes to attack health insurance profits, those profits have found a way into her own pocket. Her 2008 financial disclosure statement to the U.S. House of Representatives reveals that she owns several mutual funds that, in turn, own stock in major health insurance companies and provide her with dividend income.

Through her mutual funds, Schakowsky has a stake in UnitedHealth, the biggest health insurance company in America. She also profits indirectly from Aetna, the third-largest U.S. health insurer, as well as online insurance retailer eHealth. Rep. Schakowsky even owns mutual funds that hold shares in foreign insurance companies, such as China Life Insurance and Ping An Insurance Group of China, as well as the Islamic Arab Insurance Co., which specializes in Shari’ah compliant funds.

In addition, Rep. Schakowsky’s mutual funds own shares in other companies and industries that she has singled out in the past, according to the most recent information available.

Back when Robin Williams was funny – back when I was a teenager, in other words – he was in a movie with Walter Matthau called The Survivors. One of the characters in it was the leader of what Hollywood imagined a survivalist group looked like; he went everywhere with a locked briefcase full of what he claimed was his master plan for rebuilding after civilization collapsed. Turned out that the briefcase was really full of stock certificates and land deeds that the guy bought with all the money that his followers were uncritically giving him.

And that’s Jan Schakowsky, right there.  Heck, she even invested in funds that own a piece of Halliburton.

Moe Lane

PS: Not benefiting from the health insurance industry and Halliburton profits that she decries would be part of her loudly-expressed moral framework, not mine.  It’s her job to either live up to her ideals, or else admit that she doesn’t try to.  Yelling at me won’t make her less of a hypocrite.

Deal with it.

PPS: Joel Pollak is running for this seat; there may be others.

Crossposted to RedState.

I’m gobsmacked. So is Sen. McCain. Heck, so is Sen. Durbin.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) Avoiding boggling gets harder and harder every day:

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin admitted Friday that he is “in the dark” about the national health care bill currently under construction by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In an exchange on the Senate floor, Republican Sen. John McCain asked Durbin, “Should we not at least be informed as to what the proposal is that the Senate Majority Leader is going to propose to the entire Senate?” Durbin’s answer: “I would say to the senator from Arizona that I am in the dark almost as much as he is, and I am in the leadership.” Durbin explained that during a Democratic caucus, Reid and the small group of senators involved in crafting the bill turned to their fellow Democrats and “basically stood and said, ‘We are sorry, we can’t tell you in detail what was involved.'”

Transcript here.

I can say nothing else except that while this is not enough to persuade me to show some sympathy to Dick Durbin (whom I despise for his attacks on minority students), this is still no way to run a railroad.  Or a Congress.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Warmingists shiver in Copenhagen.

No, really: those poor folks are stuck with bundling up and marching against global warming in what has become stereotypically freezing weather.  Although some of them have found a way to keep warm via physical activity:

Hundreds of youths dressed in black threw bricks and smashed windows as at least 30,000 people demonstrated in the centre of the city as world leaders debate global warming.

The rioters, whose faces were covered, went on the rampage in the heart of the city, prompting swift arrests as some 50 policemen in riot gear intervened.

The cops are probably swearing that Al Gore’s not there yet: if he was, the rioters would be snowed in right now, which would probably cut down on the property damage a little.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, yes, yes: they’re claiming it’s ‘climate change’ instead of ‘global warming’ these days.  I’m not all that interested in the theo-linguistic gymnastics that believers have to go through to not have to address the fact that it’s almost 2010 now and still no sign yet that Soylent Green is people.

Crosspsoted to RedState.

Actually, I agree with both Reynolds *and* Yglesias.

The country is indeed ungovernable.

…By Democrats.

I mean, seriously: remember what life was like four years ago, when it was the GOP running things?  Miss it yet?  You should: rather more of the people reading this had jobs back then.  And fatter retirement accounts.  And better value in their houses.  And soon – very, very soon – lower taxes.

Remember, folks: the GOP can run things without Democratic input. At least, the Democrats certainly spent six or so years saying that we did*.  In contrast, the Democrats can’t run a Sunday School picnic without a Republican supervising them every step of the way.

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t really think that Reynolds would disagree with this.  Or that Yglesias would agree, although I mention that last only out of completeness.

*Which is, by the way, not true.

Crossposted to RedState.