One Week, Barenaked Ladies

In that zone.

Short summary of the book: imagine that the various flavors of Nazi occultism worked. This is the book that Osprey would have put out describing the various forces involved and the history of what unfolded. Full color. Filled with a lot of real stuff, mixed in with a lot of shout-outs to various fiction genres. Very Cthulhu Mythos friendly: if you’re running a Delta Green game just go ahead and pick it up right now because you’ll be mining it for campaigns.

The percentage of people who think that the IRS story is very important dropped from 55% to 51% in the last month, sure – but in that same time period the reaction to it has solidified.  Half the country thinks that the IRS was ordered by the White House to target conservative groups.  And guess what?  It’s including parts of the country that the administration was kind of hoping wouldn’t be susceptible:

“Younger Americans are much less likely than older Americans to believe in White House involvement, and there is, not surprisingly, a partisan divide as well,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “But the Obama administration may be losing independents on this matter. In May, only 36% felt the White House ordered the IRS to target conservative groups; now that number has crossed the 50% threshold.”

Now, whether or not the perception that the IRS was directed by the White House to target conservative groups is true or not depends, I think, on the definition of ‘White House.’ I think that Barack Obama has enough cunning to avoid giving a direct order.  I hope that his immediate staff is similarly not crazy-stupid-insane.  But I expect that somebody in the Executive Branch has his or her fingertips all over this; such things occur when the President does not have a competent Chief of Staff, which has been a perennial problem for this administration.  Mind you, when it does come out a lot of people aren’t going to make distinctions that fine-grained.  Which is, I guess, the point.

Moe Lane

PS: To be fair to Plouffe: polls can be wrong.  But I think that it’s funny how fast somebody can flip from Look at the people trying to explain away the poll demographics to Man, those poll demographics are flawed.  And the other way around, to be sure.

President Obama: “If you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your emails.”

— The White House (@whitehouse) June 18, 2013

…we are not persons, we are not inhabitants, and we are emphatically not subjects. We are citizens. 

Included with malice aforethought: there may be the odd person stopping by who is downright revolted by the sentiments (and the sentimentality) in the above video.  In that case, let me offer my sympathies.  It must be a horrible thing, to be an alien in the country of one’s birth.

Moe Lane

*And let emperors flee.  We’ve killed our share of would-be world conquerors, over the years.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R) announced Tuesday that he will officially challenge Sen. Mark Begich (D) in 2014, transitioning from an exploratory committee to a full-fledged campaign.

“This intense exploratory effort has convinced me that I have the support necessary to build a winning campaign,” Treadwell said on his Web site. “Today I’m taking the next step by announcing that I will not seek re-election as Alaska’s lieutenant governor and have begun to file documents required as a candidate for the United States Senate in 2014.”

(More via Roll Call) Lt. Governor is a good get; Treadwell was elected in 2010 and Sean Parnell isn’t going anywhere, any time soon, so this is a good lateral move for the Lt. Governor.

As for the race: Treadwell starts off trailing Begich, which you should probably expect to hear from every Democratic operative who is suddenly panicky at the thought that Joe Miller might not be the Republican nominee.  They will also probably talk up Miller, for more or less that very reason.  I am not passing judgement on either man, but I can’t help but notice when the Democrats prefer one Republican candidate to another, and a large part of their strategy for Alaska assumes Joe Miller as being Begich’s opponent.

Guess we’ll see.  On a larger note: whether or not you think that one man or the other makes for the better GOP candidate, the fact that a freshman Democratic Senator is getting an opponent at Treadwell’s level of service – one who could easily win re-election – demonstrates that 2014 is not shaping up to be a good time for the Democratic party.  Half of a successful election strategy is in convincing enough of your potential opponents that they should not even bother; this seems to have broken down for Begich in Alaska…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

GREEN SLIME in the Philly sewers!!!!! : http://t.co/CsJbbktBCS

— Moe Lane (@moelane) June 18, 2013

…and here’s the title song:

It’s criminal that the song isn’t available on Amazon. By the way, that is actually a white dude singing it, which is kind of disturbing when you consider that the movie itself apparently doesn’t get more ethnic than ‘Italian.’ I mean, the damn thing was made in Japan and has tentacle monsters: you’d think that there’d be at least some Asians around to be chased. Unless there are? I haven’t seen the full flick yet, obviously.

RT @DRUDGE_REPORT: Green fluorescent fluid oozes out of Philly sewers… http://t.co/4S52hJ4MpF | BOLO for ninja turtles.

— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) June 18, 2013

What it actually is is apparently a harmless dye used to see where the leaks are, because, hey, fluorescent green is easy to see.  Also – and I’m guessing that the PWD will not admit to this – it kind of freaks people out, but in a good way.  That is, it freaks people out in ways that produces News Of The Weird media pieces, but not in ways that cause people to load up on melee weapons and descend into the sewers to fight Glowing Cacodemons.  I feel that we can allow our utility services their little jokes, especially since the kids love this sort of thing anyway.g

Unskew CNN? RT @davidplouffe: Suspicion is independents in CNN poll skew too conservative too. Bad polls more frequent now. Fact of life.

— Adrian Gray (@adrian_gray) June 18, 2013

NOBODY.

Moe Lane

PS: I will admit: I thought that David Plouffe would have gotten the Unskew vaccine as a matter of course.  But it would seem that the man has a smaller skill set than two successful Presidential elections might have suggested.  Fascinating.

Holiday/Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Green Day

Moe Lane

*Turns out my old barbershop didn’t close; the guy just didn’t feel like coming in at 10 AM. Hard to argue with him on it, given that the strip mall is dead at that time of the morning.

Best known, of course, for his advocacy of (and eventual fall over) health care rationing, Sir Donald Berwick has modestly decided to run for Governor of Massachusetts:

“As a doctor, an educator, an innovator and someone who has dedicated his professional career to making things work better and to helping people – I am ready to lead,” the Newton Democrat said in a statement announcing his candidacy.

In other news, NSTAR announced likely lower rates for its Boston customers, thanks to new energy production estimates that take into account increased output from its new Granary Burying Ground facility.  Turns out that the kinetic energy that can be currently derived from Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Otis, Robert Paine, and Paul Revere spinning in their graves is enough to power several turbines.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*No, he really was knighted.

PS: MASSACHUSETTS.

PPS: I have been asked to note that “a statewide election featuring an architect of some of the most unpopular features of Obamacare ought to be a big honking signal in the sky for Scott Brown to enter this race.” …True, that: he should.

Moe Lane

PS This would be State Senator Elbert Guillory.  Just flipped parties, he did.

Just thought that you might find the guy interesting, that’s all.  Don’t know anything more, ya, you betcha.