The drafters and defenders of the health-care law have only themselves to blame for this mess. With a filibuster-proof Senate and total domination of the House, they did not trouble to build the consensus necessary for transformative legislation of this scope.

More importantly, they did not take seriously their obligation to legislate within the limits set by the Constitution. Indeed, when a reporter asked in October 2009 what the constitutional basis was for the statute, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissively responded, “Are you serious?”

Either the drafters of the legislation should have stayed within the generous bounds of authority established by prior precedent, or the administration’s lawyers needed to offer a legal defense for going beyond those precedents that does not do violence to fundamental structural features of our Constitution. They could hardly expect the independent judiciary to write Congress a blank check of plenary regulatory authority, without discernible limit.

Although, to be fair to the Democrats: the judiciary had been more or less doing precisely that, up to now.  Of course, that just encouraged Congress to spiral more and more inward, until it reached a point where the judiciary got alarmed.

Moral of the story: don’t get grabby.

And hi-jinks ensued.  Remember: the below took place while Anthony Weiner was apparently hiding offstage.

I mean, Andrew wasn’t even supposed to be there that day.  I got to watch it unfold in real time, myself – and let me tell you.  It was epic.  This is why we loved Andrew – hell, this is why the press loved Andrew; he’d get up in front of people and just keep talking to them.

And that’s it.

Moe Lane

It’s a phone call that could have gotten me killed.

In this post you will hear that audio clip. You will also read about a months-long campaign of harassment carried out by at least three individuals: Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, and Brett Kimberlin — much of it directed at critics of Brett Kimberlin. This harassment includes repeated references to critics’ family members, workplace complaints, publication of personal information such as home addresses and pictures of residences, bogus allegations of criminal activity, whisper campaigns, frivolous legal actions, and frivolous State Bar complaints.

And finally, you will hear a comparison of one of those men’s voices to that of the man who made the call that sent police to my home. And you’ll read a declaration from a forensic audio expert comparing those two voices.

Charming people we have out there, huh? – Also: if you want more details about this story, just do the rounds of your favorite right-blogs today. Trust me; you’ll get an eyeful.

At a news conference after the meeting, [Marion] Barry and several Asian American leaders sought to present a united front, saying that the dialogue is an important step toward defusing long-standing tension between blacks and Asians. Asked about the underlying sources of the conflict, Barry said the United States “has had racial tensions since it was founded.”

“The Irish caught hell, the Jews caught hell, the P[*]lacks caught hell,” Barry said, invoking a word that Polish people have viewed as disparaging. “We want Ward 8 to be the model of diversity.”

It’s so… wasteful, frankly.

(H/T Hot Air) Anyway, credit where it’s due to the View: they handled their response to Larry Flynt’s latest tired outrage (creating an obscene fake picture of conservative commentator SE Cupp) about as well as anybody could have expected them to.

No excuses, no apologetics, no attempt to try to change the subject when Cupp pointed out that this was not an exactly surprising thing to have happen to a prominent conservative/libertarian woman.  Particularly when it comes to Larry Flynt, who is of course a bitter old paraplegic who – due to an sudden encounter with a sniper bullet in the early Eighties – hasn’t had an erection for longer than some people reading this have been alive. Not that this was a particular blow to the gene pool, all things considered.

Hey.  Freedom of speech, remember?  Because I just had the happy thought that if Flynt doesn’t want to follow the courtesies of Western society – if, in fact, he wishes to defecate all over them – then he has no kick coming* when people treat him the same way…

Moe Lane

*Ahem.

(pause)

Well, actually, yes, you are being helpful.  Just not to me*.

Moe Lane

*I’m being facetious.  Sort of.  The question of what New Media brings to the table is still very much an open one.  I mean, it’s not yet established that it isn’t this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ST2K4U_XQ5Y#

Not that it’s a good ad; it’s actually a horrible one.  But it seeks out new and exciting ways to be horrible, which is… refreshing.  Heck, it almost made me forget that there is no such thing as a conservative Democratic politician, and that this Jeff Barth fellow would of course immediately line up behind Nancy Pelosi’s crony agenda (assuming that he actually survives the primary, and likewise survives the general election).

Almost.

Moe Lane

PS: It needs hardly be said, but I will anyway: Kristi Noem for SD-AL.  It is a measure of the current election cycle that her seat is not considered to be particularly at risk, mind you…

Gilbert & Sullivan needs no excuse.

At the end there – right after Ron Barber refuses to admit that he’s voting for Obama – Jesse Kelly holds up what looks like some cash in seeming response, complete with a Yeah, I called this look-around.  Which – if true; it may be significant of something else – was pretty prophetic of Kelly, honestly.

Moe Lane

PS: I’m voting for Romney, by the way.  See how easy it is, Barber?

PPS: “January?”  Dude, that made like zero sense.

PPPS: Jesse Kelly for AZ-08.

Seriously, why?

I’m not even offended; I just don’t get the point.  As Do Gooder Press notes, this is clearly not “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” – which is fine; I liked the story, but it’s not really good action movie fodder.  And we already have a perfectly serviceable action movie called Total Recall.  Why bother doing a remake?

Moe Lane

PS: One observation… I do not like the way that the Democratic Establishment creates convenient surrogates for proxy attacks against the Right, only to discard said surrogates the moment that the attacks are no longer required. These are people; messed-up people, but still people. They are not disposable soda cans.

Just saying, man.

Apparently, Ron Barber – the Democrat running to replace Gabby Giffords in the AZ-08 special election – has a bit of a problem with the entire ‘Democrat’ thing:  “[Republican nominee Jesse] Kelly asked Barber to declare who he’ll vote for in November for president, and Barber – although a Democrat with an incumbent president of his party – refused, saying he’s focused on his own campaign.”  This is a somewhat eyebrow-raising evasion – one would think that a Democrat currently running in a Democratic-held seat with a Democrat in the White House would be less coy – and it tells us several things:

• As @chucktodd noted, this is a tacit admission that the AZ-08 race is very, very close.  Close enough that Barber doesn’t want people associating his name with the President’s.
• And as The Madison Project noted, this is an incredibly disingenuous evasion anyway.  Of course Barber will be voting for Obama.  More importantly, if both he and Democrats somehow win in November Barber will also be voting for Pelosi to become Speaker of the House again.  And he’ll be voting for every stupid thing on the wish list of the liberal fringe running the Democratic party right now – with one or two exceptions, solely to make it look like Barber is independent.  That was what they tried to do in the 111th Congress, after all; and there’s no sign that the have Democrats learned any better.
• Finally, and this is me noting this: anybody who still seriously thinks that the Obama campaign has a shot at winning Arizona should consider that the people who actually have to run in Arizona apparently have a different opinion.  If Ron Barber doesn’t dare bring up Barack Obama’s name in a special election in June, what are the odds that people are going to give that name a better reception in November?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Special election is June 12.  Jesse Kelly for AZ-08.

[UPDATE/PPS]: Well, that didn’t take long.  Kind of futile – Barber’s original statement was made during the only debate that they’re having for the special, which means that this ‘clarification’ of his announcing Barber’s support for Obama in November probably won’t have the same legs – but then, said clarification isn’t really for Barber’s benefit. The Obama administration has a vested interest in acting as if they have a chance in Arizona; they don’t particularly have a vested interest in keeping the AZ-08 seat.  They should, but they don’t.