Moe Lane

I believe that the technical term for this would be ‘glass ceiling.’

Via @mkhammer comes this latest example of Do As I Say, Not As I Line-Item Budget from the Obama administration. Executive summary: the Obama administration is allegedly paying its female staffers roughly 18% less than its male ones.  I’m using the term ‘allegedly’ because the original report did not separate out staffers by gender, forcing “some assumptions to be made based on the employee names” (as the Free Beacon put it); I’m reporting it anyway because Barack Obama was – well, he wasn’t actually notorious for it in 2008, but not for lack of trying.  Anyway, he had a real problem with this sort of thing as a Senator, and it’s not exactly clear that being President has taught him to improve his ways.

More at Hot Air; I don’t know if Allahpundit remembers  that Ed Morrissey was on this story in 2008, too.  Probably not: both RedState and Hot Air have published a lot of material since then.  God knows that this administration seems determined to keep feeding us these opportunities to point out its flaws… (more…)

Obama apparently doesn’t believe anything that *he* says, either.

Statement (Via Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt):

“Every time prices start to go up – especially in an election year – politicians dust off their three-point plans for $2 gasoline. They head down to the pump, make sure a few cameras are following them, and start acting like they can wave a magic wand and you’ll have cheap gas forever. Sound familiar?” Obama said.

Oddly enough, Mr. President… it does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ka_tjPLJwVI (more…)

Just for calibration… back in April of 2009 I attended the DC Tax Day Tea Party; and one of the more interesting moments of that day was when a box was found to have been thrown over the White House fence, causing the US Secret Service to pretty much push everybody out of Lafayette Park.  Never knew who threw the box (obviously, nothing in it), could have been an overenthusiastic protester, could have been a Lefty troublemaker, but hey, rules are rules. (more…)

Huh.  Doesn’t scan.

But never mind that, Comrade.  Surely it must be understood that oversight of the glorious proletarian class struggle against the capitalist bosses and their running-dog international banker lackeys requires a full effort from those chosen to speak on behalf of the workers, yes?  And since the Struggle has reached a critical moment, the stresses on, and expectations of, those individuals so chosen are at their highest point.  It is well understood that at such moments of crisis that resources must be allocated with an eye to the higher aims of the Revolution, and not necessarily to a sentimental devotion to faux-egalitarian thinking.  As has been said: “From each, according to his ability. To each, according to his needs!”

It is thus obvious that the needs of the Struggle absolutely requires the use of $700/night hotel rooms as an alternative to commutes. (more…)

Rosa DeLauro: Connecticut Democratic Congresswoman.  Married to Stanley Greenberg, Democratic strategist and former Clinton adviser.  Both credibly linked to the biotech megacorporation Monsanto – I mention this not because I care, but it never hurts to remind the netroots that they’re brazen hypocrites when it comes to their supposed opposition to GM foods – and former landlords to then-DCCC chair (and current Chicago mayor) Rahm Emanuel.  Although ‘landlord’ should really apply to people who charge rent to their tenants, I suppose – particularly when the tenant had the ability to steer fat contracts to the landlord’s polling firm.  Ach, well, we’ll save that investigation for 2013.  It’ll give Issa something to do after he finishes burning out the rot in the Justice Department.

But I digress. (more…)

…for that matter, so am I.

‘These people’ being the media, and their contemptible willingness to accept a double standard when it comes to violent rhetoric.  After screaming for so long about every possible hint of a suggestion of a possibility of violent speech from the Right, it’s amazing what will be forgiven when it comes from the Left:

Tom Friedman — who knows a bit about Hezbollah — calls the tea partiers the “Hezbollah faction” of the GOP bent on taking the country on a “suicide mission.” All over the place, conservative Republicans are “hostage takers” and “terrorists,” “terrorists” and “traitors.” They want to “end life as we know it on this planet,” says Nancy Pelosi. They are betraying the founders, too. Chris Matthews all but signs up for the “Make an Ass of Yourself” contest at the State Fair.  Joe Nocera writes today that “the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests.” Lord knows what Krugman and Olbermann have said.

Then last night. on the very day Gabby Giffords heroically returns to cast her first vote since that tragic attack six months ago, the Vice President of the United States calls the Republican Party a bunch of terrorists.

Regardless, No one cares.

(more…)

Just on the off chance that Alec Baldwin ever runs for political office in the near future… whoever is researching this, be sure to have your boss ask Alec how that residential status tax audit turned out.  Or why he fought it in the first place, seeing as Baldwin was for raising taxes on… well, people as rich as him… back in 2006.

Deceiver.com.  Doesn’t always have stuff that you can use – but when they do, it’s usually tasty.  And they have the saving grace of bipartisan finger-pointing.

Oh, Davey.  I know that it’s all mean and stuff that his man-god is going to have to run as a mere mortal in ’12, but that doesn’t excuse amateur tactics on David Axelrod’s part, right?  If he wants the line-item veto so badly in order to combat all that nasty pork that the President supposedly doesn’t want to approve, then Obama should dust off H.R.4890, have it resubmitted to the House, and tell the Senate to pass it this time.  The Democrats have huge majorities in Congress -

- at least, for the next two months -

…so they’d have plenty of time to get the bill passed.  They could do it in a week.  If they really wanted to; which they don’t, which is why they’re trying to foist this off on Republicans.  Of course, as Ed Morrissey notes, this is all really about how President Obama is panicking over the thought of us getting our hands on the budget that the Democrats were too gutless to pass in an election year.  Much better to get one last session at the trough before the grownups take charge in January.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

The two being, of course, Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan. The Other McCain [link fixed: thanks to Constant Reader BigGator5 for catching the oops] has the links – I don’t feel like disinfecting my computer this morning, sorry – but the gist of it is that Sullivan (who is doing his best to keep people from remembering that he actively worked to ensure the defeat of John McCain in 2008) is getting very bombastic on the war (topic: assassinating terrorists), and Greenwald (who is doing his best to keep people from remembering that he actively worked to ensure the defeat of John McCain in 2008) is stamping his feet and pouting about how anybody could possibly think that it’s a good idea to specifically target American citizens actively engaged abroad in acts of war and treason against their former country.  It’s all very… dramatic; but then, so is high school.

I had a sneer written out at this point, but what can I say about the antiwar Left that is more cutting than the vision that greets them every day when they look in a mirror?

Red Dog Report, Weasel Zippers, and the Washington Times all – gleefully, as well they should – report that Harry Reid introduced legislation that would have ended birthright citizenship in 1993. This makes Reid’s recent declaration that he couldn’t understand why any Hispanic could destroy his son in the polls be a Republican seem a bit… what’s the word? Nuanced? Contradictory? I’ve got it: “hypocritical.”

Seriously, there’s no wiggle room in the language that he introduced:

TITLE X—CITIZENSHIP 4 SEC. 1001. BASIS OF CITIZENSHIP CLARIFIED. In the exercise of its powers under section of the Fourteenth Article of Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Congress has determined and hereby declares that any person born after the date of enactment of this title to a mother who is neither a citizen of the United States nor admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident, and which person is a national or citizen of another country of which either of his or her natural parents is a national or citizen, or is entitled upon application to become a national or citizen of such country, shall be considered as born subject to the jurisdiction of that foreign country and not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States within the meaning of section 1 of such Article and shall therefore not be a citizen of the United States or of any State solely by reason of physical presence within the United States at the moment of birth.

Now, I happen to oppose ending birthright citizenship. I’ve always opposed ending birthright citizenship, and I don’t think that I will ever stop oppose ending birthright citizenship* – no matter how unpopular taking that stance makes me. So it gives me no little pleasure to note that this makes me fundamentally different than Harry Reid, who is being a hypocritical, duplicitous, and quite possibly racist suckweasel on this issue; I add ‘quite possibly racist‘ because it’s entirely possible that Harry Reid tried this trick because he doesn’t believe that Hispanics know how to read…

Moe Lane (more…)

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.

(Via Deceiver) Those wacky Inspector Generals. Always noting inconvenient truths:

Boy, the Energy Department is really having trouble practicing the energy efficiency it keeps preaching: The latest inspector general’s report found that the DOE often neglects to turn down the thermostat, wasting millions of dollars in energy every year.

The latest report found that “the Energy Department failed in many cases to use controls on heating, ventilation and air conditioning that are a primary means of conserving energy during non-working hours,” as Dow Jones Newswires put it. That could have cost the DOE more than $11 million.

Small potatoes, considering that we’re facing the wasting of trillions of dollars every year, for the forseeable future?  Sure.  Could the Department of Energy been even worse?  Undoubtedly.  Is it still obnoxious that, yet again, a government agency isn’t doing itself what it’s delighting in telling us to do?  Ya, you betcha.

Moe Lane

*I swear that this popped into my head before I saw the WSJ title.

Crossposted to RedState.