Oh, *no*. *More* political maps inciting violence!

Putting targets on Congressmen!

They even explicitly used the word ‘targeting!’ Those awful Republicans!

…Oh, wait, that’s a DCCC map. Dated February of this year. Look at it fast, before they sanitize.

Verum Serum has much, much more; including one more Democratic map from 2004 (which includes the perfectly nonviolent phrase ‘Behind Enemy Lines’). Look, I know that the DCCC pulls in its personnel from the shallow end of the Democratic Party’s political gene pool these days, but surely they can at least check first the stuff that gets babbled by Van Hollen, yes? This kind of language has a long history to it, and given that yet another Republican office has been vandalized (this time in Michigan), I think that it’s time that the Democrats start cooling their inflammatory rhetoric suggesting otherwise…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh Maryland considering Amazon tax again?

Yes.  Of course.  Because Amazon won’t pull their affiliate program out of Maryland – thus making the entire exercise moot – the moment that it passes.  Just like they didn’t do it in North Carolina or Rhode Island, and just like they aren’t still thinking about doing it in New York, depending on how the court cases go.

And before I hear about how this won’t have any effect on individual affiliates, so Amazon.com is being absurd:

The bill would require a Web retailer like Amazon.com to charge sales tax on orders to Maryland customers if the retailer gets more than $10,000 in sales a year from affiliate marketers — sites run by businesses or individuals in the state that have contracts to send sales traffic to large retailers.

Ten grand in sales, not profit.  That’s small.  How small? Let me put it this way:  MoeLane.com’s referrals last year would have required Amazon to collect sales tax.  Not that I saw ten grand in revenue, or even a tenth of that (and the amount that I did see was duly taxed by the State of Maryland, even though as far as I can tell the State of Maryland didn’t do anything specific to earn its cut).  And if these Senatorial idiots Richard S. Madaleno and Ulysses Currie (both Democrats, of course) have their way, I – and the State of Maryland – won’t see a tenth of that tenth, because my Amazon Associates account will be terminated before the ink’s dry on the signature of their shiny new law. 

And then nobody gets any money.

My only comfort is that I didn’t actually vote for any of these people.  Being a Republican, and everything.

Moe Lane

PS: Full disclosure, in case it isn’t obvious: I am an affiliate of Amazon.com (ahem). At least, for right now.

Obama’s drilling bribe is insultingly small.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Does he really think that this is sufficient to peel off cap-and-tax opposition? Let’s do some strategic bolding:

The Obama administration’s plan adopts some drilling proposals floated by President George W. Bush near the end of his tenure, including opening much of the Atlantic and Arctic Coasts. Those proposals were challenged in court on environmental grounds and set aside by President Obama shortly after he took office.

[snip]

The first lease sale off the coast of Virginia could occur as early as next year in a triangular tract 50 miles off the coast that had already been approved for development but was held up by a court challenge and additional Interior Department review, officials said.

But as a result of the Obama decision, the Interior Department will spend several years conducting geologic and environmental studies along the rest of the southern and central Atlantic Seaboard. If a tract is deemed suitable for development, it is listed for sale in a competitive bidding system. The next lease sales — if any are authorized by the Interior Department — would not be held before 2012.

Let me put it another way: the White House is implying the promise of jam tomorrow – in reality, it’s just a study to revisit the denial of jam yesterday – in exchange for jam today. Only the jam today is actually a swarm of angry wasps.  Try again, Mr. President.  Start with rescinding your interference with the Bush drilling permits, and expect to give up more.  A lot more: your opponents are not interested in indulging the Greenies’ quaint, somewhat primitive religious sensibilities.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

A quick observation on the 8-K Fun.

Drawing on streiff’s excellent post: there has been at least one nice repercussion that has come from the entire sordid 8-K affair.  Thanks to it, you can pretty much filter out the ‘geniuses’ with no practical business experience; they’re the ones who have never seen an 8-K in their life, don’t know what one is for, don’t know when one needs to fill one out (or even why), and are especially startled to discover that there have to be fairly stringent penalties in place in order to convince corporations to fill out nitpicking paper-trail bureaucratic clap-trap without having to be nagged constantly for it.

You know.  Idiots.

Megan McArdle is not an idiot – and miracle of miracles! – neither is most of her comments section, for a change.  Gives you an idea of just how comprehensively Waxman – who has apparently never seen an 8-K in his life, doesn’t know what one is for, doesn’t know when one needs to fill one out (or even why), and is especially startled to discover that there have to be fairly stringent penalties in place in order to convince corporations to fill out nitpicking paper-trail bureaucratic clap-trap without being nagged constantly for it – mucked up this one.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Brent Budowsky and the poll-watcher’s delusion.

I don’t normally fisk, but let’s unpack this passage, shall we?  This article – called, amusingly enough, “Matt Drudge and the Republican delusion” – was dated March 25th, 2010 (today is March 30th, 2010):

Recently a Gallup poll, of course highlighted on Drudge, found that Obama’s numbers had (then) turned more unfavorable than favorable.

Presumably this one: 46/48 favorable/unfavorable.

This has (now) dramatically changed, unreported by Drudge, with Obama’s favorables now well above his unfavorables.

Presumably this one: 51% favorable.  March 25th, 2010.
But not this one: 47/50 favorable/unfavorable March 29th, 2010. That’s USA/Gallup: the current regular Gallup three-day has him at 48/46 favorable/unfavorable; check back again at 1 PM EST, but I don’t expect a massive jump.

The generic Democratic vote is leading the generic Republican vote in the last Gallup congressional election survey.

He means this survey: 47/44 Dem/Rep.  March 16th, 2010.
Not the latest one: 44/47 Dem/Rep. March 30, 2010 (no story yet).

The healthcare bill has passed and the president’s polls have moved up. Democratic numbers have crept up.

And, as you can see, they have crept right back down again.  Let’s add two more from Gallup, since we’re here: when they polled on reactions to the bill on the 23rd, the poll numbers were 49/40 in favor… and when they polled it again on the 29th, the numbers were 47/50. Continue reading Brent Budowsky and the poll-watcher’s delusion.