Moe Lane

The interesting bit in this article on union pushback against the new movie Won’t Back Down is not this one…

In real life, Parents Across America, an advocacy group which has received union funding, has launched a “fight Hollywood” campaign asking members to contact entertainers at all involved with the film or even a summer concert to kick it off. The intent, according to its website, which lists phone numbers and emails of agents and publicists, is to brand the film as a “feel bad, not feel good” movie. On their list: Davis and Gyllenhaal, plus Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Jack Black, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Josh Groban.

…it’s this one: (more…)

(Via Instapundit) OK, quick background: Barack Obama made a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a few days ago.  Reports for that speech uncritically repeated a wildly inflated crowd size: 18,000+ in a venue that seats 5,000 (local reporting suggests to me that a crowd estimate of 8 to 9 thousand would have been a good deal more accurate*).  It turns out that the sole source for the inflated number was probably none other than Milwaukee mayor (and two-time WI-GOV loser) Tom Barrett: he apparently told an Obama staffer what the crowd size was, who then told the person writing up the WH pool report, and then it got reported uncritically as fact by lazy – or, sure, busy – reporters all over the country.

The reason why I bring this up? It’s because – contrary what you might think, or have been told – it is not actually always true that all you need to control the public perception of a movement or cause is to control how the Media reports on it**.  If that were true, then the Tea Party would never have gotten off of the ground, and the Occupy Wall Street movement would have. And if you’re believing your own agitprop… well.  Things have a way of sneaking up on people who make that particular error.

(more…)

I first saw the tip-off from @mattmackowiak, but said tweet unfortunately needs some typos corrected:

• FL-18 (not FL-08): “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee canceled a week of airtime in Rep. Allen West’s (R-Fla.) district starting Oct. 9, according to multiple sources tracking the buy.”
• NC-08: “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee canceled a second week of advertising in Kissell’s 8th district. Roll Call has learned that the DCCC’s independent expenditure arm canceled a reservation for advertising in the Charlotte media market from Oct. 9-15. This comes after the DCCC canceled a reservation from Oct. 2-8, as first reported by Roll Call.“
• WI-08 (not WI-07): “The Service Employees International Union [NOT the DCCC - ML] has canceled a previously scheduled television ad buy in support of businessman Jamie Wall’s (D) challenge of Rep. Reid Ribble (R).”

Nonetheless: good news for the Republican House majority.  Whether the Democrats like to admit it or not, not having the money to protect one beleaguered incumbent and challenge two House freshmen is rarely good news.

Well, it’s rarely good news for the party without the money.  I imagine that the GOP finds this very good news indeed.

Moe Lane

Folks, this is the definition of ‘insanity.’

Gov. Scott Walker’s law repealing most collective bargaining for local and school employees was struck down by a Dane County judge Friday, yet another dramatic twist in a year and a half saga that likely sets up another showdown in the Supreme Court.

See Hot Air for analysis, including the (accurate) prediction that this ruling will be overturned by the WI Supreme Court with all due speed.  I just want to note that the politics of this are pretty awful for the Democrats.  Not to belabor the obvious, but the people of Wisconsin are happy with their collective bargaining reforms.  It saves them money and keeps the budget solvent; besides, the people who are against said reforms are pretty freaking bizarre.  If the Wisconsin Democratic party wants to go over the cliff, the Wisconsin Republican party will be happy to help them.

And that’s pretty much it. Again: thanks.

Moe Lane

Such an innocent looking passage, to spark such panic from the Left. 

From Paul Ryan’s convention speech yesterday:

President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two.  Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account.  My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.”  That’s what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year.  It is locked up and empty to this day.  And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

This is, by the way, a perfectly accurate statement.  There was a GM plant in Janesville.  Barack Obama did make a speech there in 2008.  He did, in that speech, make those comments*.  And the plant did not “last another year” – despite, I should note, the Obama administration’s bailout of GM that the administration is kind-of, sort-of touting as an ‘achievement.’  These are all true things; which has not kept the Left from screaming otherwise, to the point where the Obama campaign has officially (and in my opinion, unwisely) called Paul Ryan a liar. (more…)

I am paraphrasing.

The Wisconsin Capitol’s new police chief said Monday that he plans to crack down on protesters who don’t follow the building’s rules because he wants to restore a sense of normalcy and safety to the statehouse.

Chief David Erwin told The Associated Press in an interview that he respects people’s right to petition their government, but that he believes some protesters’ behavior has crossed into intimidation.

Apparently there are STILL a remnant of the most brainwashed progressives showing up every day to scream at legislators; Capitol Police have finally gotten the state Attorney General to agree to process civil citations (the county DA is a Democrat, and thus apparently disinterested in civic* hygiene).  They’re also going to make people get permits.  Expect protests; just don’t expect anybody in the media to bother covering them.  After all, these people are Democrats who failed; it doesn‘t get any more disavowed than that.

Moe Lane

(Via @kevinbinversie)

*Never having attended a Madison protest, I cannot state with any authority about whether it was a matter of public hygiene as well.  Although certainly some of those people appeared to have been non-initiates in the mysteries of soap…

You know, Politico does itself – or, more to the point, its readership – no favors when it does stupid nonsense like this:

‘Greeted by a crowd of hundreds.’  Hmm. What does a ‘crowd of hundreds’ look like, anyway? Why, apparently like this (credit: Drudge, care of Gateway Pundit):

(more…)

The most entertaining part of this story about Paul Ryan’s journey to the VP nomination: the candidate’s evasion of the media, the night before.

Ryan returned home in the early afternoon and went inside through the back as he was locked out of his side door, telling reporters who stood watching on the sidewalk he must have forgotten his keys. That would be the last time anyone saw the congressman in Janesville, because sometime after 3 p.m., he exited his home into the back yard (where reporters couldn’t see) and went into the woods.

“I grew up in those woods. The house I grew up in backs up to the house I live in, so I know those woods like the back of my hand. So it wasn’t too hard to walk through them. So I just went out my back door, went through the gully in the woods I grew up playing in. I walked past the tree that has my own tree fort I built back there,” Ryan said.

Hey, Democrats, don’t feel so ashamed: why, I hear that Joe Biden once had to stand in line for the Amtrak dining car for a whole hour.

(more…)

Christian Schneider has the details, and they’re hysterical.  Short version: John Lehman is – assuming that he wins the various recall challenges – the new Democratic state senator for Wisconsin Senate District 21.  Small problem for Lehman, though: he’s eligible for recall himself a year from now.  Even worse: his district has been previously redrawn, the better to excise out the folks that voted for him in the last recall.  Basically, it works out like this:

If a small percentage of district residents (about 15,000 people) decide they want to hold a new election under the new map, they must simply wait until July 2013 to begin recalling Lehman. And if Lehman is recalled, he will lose the seat. According to the GOP’s demographic numbers, the new 21st Senate District is 57.5% Republican, while the old district was split evenly.

I really, really hope that Wisconsin Democrats truly enjoy the breeze that is coming out of the door that they’ve opened, here.  And I would like to gently remind them: it’s a little late to try to placate Wisconsin Republicans now.  You people threatened their families.  That’s not going to be forgiven in a hurry.

Moe Lane

Assuming that the poll is correct – or even correct enough – sixteen points is… a pretty comfortable lead.  What may be more of interest is that Rep. Baldwin only gets about 42%-44% against the other Republican candidates; she’s effectively tied with all of them.  This is not good news for the Democrats; they are simply not prepared for an election battlespace where they have to pump money and energy into Wisconsin.

Particularly since these results don’t exist in a vacuum. If Wisconsin is really as in-play as its numbers suggest (and Rasmussen is showing a trend in the WI Presidential race that suggests that it is), then… what about the other states in the area?  The Midwest was exceptionally blue in 2008; but since then the Democratic party’s taken, as they say, an arrow in the knee.  Has everybody calibrated accordingly?

…specifically, that he had, um, stuff to do that kept him from Wisconsin until progressives had been sufficiently spanked by the electorate last Tuesday – anyway.  It’s not just a lie; it’s a stupid lie.  And we all know that it’s a stupid lie.  The President only cares about getting more money and (not incidentally) re-elected.  Since the participants in the Wisconsin recall will already undoubtedly be ponying up personally – they’re rather good at that, from what I hear – and since too-close an association with said forces will end up being a net negative for the President, then clearly progressives need to understand why Obama just wants to keep their relationship… special.  Secret. The world can’t understand the purity of the bond that they and he share.

:shrug: You can’t make me respect somebody who won’t respect themselves.  I believe that we’ve gone over this already, yes?

Moe Lane

PS: For the record: George W Bush had his flaws, like everybody else.  But I’m blessed if I can think of any time where Bush showed anything like the casual contempt towards his own political base that Barack Obama routinely shows towards progressive and liberal Democrats.  Even when Bush was breaking with us over things he at least had the elementary decency of respecting our dignity…

Lord, please continue to make my enemies’ cheerleaders ridiculous.  Amen.

From Hot Air Headlines comes this entertaining Wisconsin post-mortem, and the first paragraph will tell you why I used that adjective:

A controversial incumbent hangs on and retains his job despite fierce opposition in a bad economy. Sounds like a hopeful scenario for the Obama campaign, right? Instead it was Republican Scott Walker’s impressive victory in Wisconsin. If President Obama is smart—and he is nothing if not that—he will go to school on Walker. Here are some lessons he has probably already absorbed.

I’ll just list the ‘lessons’ - Money Matters Most, Ground War Can’t Counter Air Superiority, The Base Ain’t Enough, Go Ugly Early, and Class Warfare Has Already Begun – to reassure my readers that the Democrats (well, Paul Belgala) haven’t actually learned a darn thing from Wisconsin.  No, that actually covers The Base Ain’t Enough: Paul Begala seems to think that the President doesn’t need to move any further to the right to keep independents, which is funny as all get-out.  Just like the thought that the President learns lessons; but that’s not what I want to get into.  What I want to get into is what’s missing from that list of lessons. (more…)