We got a lot of New Media folks here today. And folks running for office: I’m hoping for a good number of candidate and politician interviews. Already got Richard Mourdock, who’s in the middle of a primary run for Senate in Indiana.

More seriously, we’re hoping to get a bunch of interviews out of this, as usual.

Rock The Casbah, The Clash

I think that it was James Lileks who argued that bands like the Clash killed the Seventies dead, dead, DEAD.  If so… thanks.

THIS IS NOT A DIFFICULT CONCEPT TO GRASP.

MOE LANE

PS: VIA INSTAPUNDIT.

Anyway, one of the more egregious things being done – again, involving then-Speaker Pelosi in at least one case – was the practice of offering Members of Congress a favorable position from which to buy into an IPO.  Pelosi in particular used this practice to buy into a Visa IPO, right before credit card legislation that hampered Visa got somehow sidetracked in Congress for a year; she ended up making a killing on the (again, ‘LEGAL’) deal.  And, naturally, the amendment that would ban this practice in the future has been named the ‘Pelosi Provision’ by Republicans.  By all accounts, the former Speaker is unhappy about this; I am uncertain whether or not that she is as unhappy about this as I am that the woman made several million unfortunately-legal dollars off of her former position to manipulate and delay legislation, but I somehow doubt it.

The bill is largely expected to pass, by the way: the real fireworks will be in conference.  If the thing gets defanged, it will be there – so keep an eye out for that particular problem.  It wouldn’t be the first time that a troublesomely reformist piece of legislation got revised out of existence, while out of camera range…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Politico reports that the STOCK Act’s original sponsors Louise Slaughter and Tim Walz are unhappy that the Republican majority has taken away their bill and are now busily reshaping it.  Alas for Rep. Slaughter, it’s not exactly Eric Cantor’s fault that she was incapable of getting it passed in the first place…

Personally, I’m getting tired of the cowardice of politicians.  Particularly when it comes to dealing with sour market conditions.

Yes, I know that state Senator Constance Johnson thought that she was merely making a point about abortion.  That’s because she’s not very bright.  Very many people can tell the quantitative difference between a gamete and a zygote – even if they have to look up the words in the dictionary – and many of those people will not be amused at being lectured to like this.  Probably best for her to pretend that she meant it that way all along.

I’d say that this will make it hard for Sen. Johnson to rise further from her current position as state senator, except that Oklahoma Democrats are finding it quite hard enough to get ahead as it is…

Mind you, the author will still vote for Obama in November. Which is why I’m so contemptuous: don’t expect respect from me if you can’t even respect yourself…

Via Hot Air Headlines.

I think that Jonathan Last is misunderstanding Matthew Yglesias’ interests, here (the short version: the latter seems to think that American cities only had one newspaper apiece in the old days, and the former is mocking the latter in response).  The Yglesias ‘brand’ has always been ‘precocious youngster;’ which is easy enough to do when you’re a kid blogging from Harvard, but considerably harder when you’re a thirtysomething, fairly doctrinaire liberal who has had all the interesting bits burned away after spending several years in Establishment Left ‘journalist’ knocking-shops*. So, there’s not exactly a reason to avoid being sloppy: the occasional dumb mistake is perfect for simulating that fresh-faced look, no?

Now, I’m not saying that Yglesias deliberately got it wrong about how many American cities had multiple newspapers in the Good Old Days; I’m merely saying that he’s got no real pressing economic reason to do the necessary research.

Moe Lane

*Look it up.

• Bart Gordon (forced to retire, 2010)
  
• Bobby Bright (removed, 2010)
  
• Dan Boren (cutting and running, 2012)
  
• Gene Taylor (removed, 2010)
  
• Heath Shuler (cutting and running, 2012)
  
• Joe Donnelly (switching out to lose Senate race, 2012)
• John Barrow (going out fighting [cruelly redistricted], 2012)
  
• S.H. Sandlin (removed, 2010)
  
• Walt Minnick (removed, 2010)

In other words, it turns out that they really are a myth, now.  It used to be that they were a myth because you couldn’t count on them to vote conservative when it counted; now they’re a myth because it’s getting harder and harder to find them in their supposed natural habitat.  Which is a shame, but then nobody forced them to keep supporting a party leadership that pretty much hates everything that conservative Democrats supposedly stand for…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Or is the answer “Don’t bother asking?”

The entire article by Albert Hunt is possibly a bit too snide about various Republicans, but this part is at least on-point about Obama’s behavior at the annual Alfalfa Club dinner:

Obama hates such dinners. Some of his aides, in particular his political adviser David Plouffe, urged him not to spend an evening mingling with the 1 percent. Yet he chose to go, and attendees said it was the first time they could recall a speaker leaving before the other side had its fun. In addition, Obama’s 87-year-old predecessor was present.

Imagine the criticism five years ago if President George W. Bush had walked out on a dinner before Hillary Clinton spoke, with Bill Clinton in the audience.

But that would in fact not have happened, because George W. Bush is in fact smarter than Barack Obama.  Particularly when it comes to assessing the long-term personality damage that can result when you’re the most powerful man on the planet – and you never, ever let yourself forget that.  Not that I’m suggesting that President Obama’s mind is going to snap like a rubber band under the strain.  Merely that he’s already taken a job that is visibly aging him… and, in his case, probably burning spare lifespan as well.  These institutions exist for a reason, believe it or not…

Via Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt.

Moe Lane (crosspost)