Month: May 2009

Buzz about Charles Lollar for MD Governor?

Charles Lollar is the chairman of the Republican Party’s Charles County Central Committee in Maryland. Businessman, major in the Marine Reserve (served in Kosovo), involved in the Tea Party movement: he’s not yet declared for next year’s gubernatorial race, but his name keeps coming up in local discussions. There’s also now a Draft Charles Lollar site. Generally, this guy sounds like he’d be at least a candidate for consideration. Embarrassingly, while I live in Maryland myself I am not as checked out on local politics as I should be (an error that I’m in the middle of rectifying), so that’s about all I know on the subject. Local readers are welcome to fill in the gaps of my ignorance.

On this, at least.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

White House staffers make five-year-olds cry.

(Via Drudge) Who do they have in charge of visitor relations for that place, anyway?

…Actually, do they have somebody in place for visitor relations?

Sobbing Kindergarteners Snubbed for Steelers?

Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment.
The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out.

“We were going to the White House, but we couldn’t get in so I felt sad,” 5-year-old Cameron Stine said.

Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president’s luncheon with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn’t come in.

Incredibly, White House staffers attempted to push back on this story, in flagrant ignorance of the elementary political truth that a politician cannot win any argument with a crying five-year-old child. I will be merciful and not reproduce their justification, although I will note that it strongly implies that the parents of a busload of crying five-year-olds are all liars.

Video after the fold.

Continue reading White House staffers make five-year-olds cry.

Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL), Freshman Congressional Idiot.

And I want a pony.

The moral of this story?

Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation.

So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law.

Don’t let Congressmen go to Disney World. As Allahpundit put it, “One fun ride on the teacups and they’re ready to lay down a mandate for 300 million people.”  Particularly when we’re in the middle of an economic downturn and a rising unemployment rate – and if you don’t get why either’s important in this context, I suggest that you give Rep. Grayson’s office a call; he may be hiring.

Moe Lane

PS: You know how you know when you’ve said something dumb in this business?  When even a reliably Democrat-friendly media entity like Politico can’t help but snark.  From later on:

So far, no group has come out in opposition of the bill. Nor has anyone announced opposition to roller coaster rides, cookouts on the beach or salt-water taffy on the boardwalk.

You can almost see the Politico ruffling Grayson’s hair and telling him what a big Congressman he’s getting to be, there.

Crossposted to RedState.

Meet Rick Crawford (R-Candidate, AR-01).

Starting with the background: AR-01 is one of those districts that is… interesting. It is currently rated as R +8 in the Cook Political Report, but is held by a soi-disant ‘Blue Dog Democrat’: in this case, Marion Berry. Berry has been in that seat since 1997: he won the 2006 election with 69% of the vote; and he was unopposed in 2008.
rick_bronc1
However, he will not be unopposed this term.  Rick Crawford is going to be challenging him; it’s reported that the NRCC is looking at him as part of their planned campaign against selected ‘Blue Dogs’ that did not get challenged in the last election cycle.  Rick is a business owner (AG Watch, a radio agricultural network) and military veteran (Army, bomb disposal) with strong roots in the area; he’s pro-life, pro-Tea Party, ready to run on an agricultural platform and is just as exceptionally happy to see the back of Arlen Specter as most of the people reading this, particularly after what Specter did to Kemp’s memory.

The NRCC is taking a challenge to this district seriously, and it’s no surprise why: while Barry has been comfortably winning elections lately – and didn’t have a challenger last cycle – the district itself has shifted on the national level (Gore in ’00, Bush in ’04, McCain in ’08).  Plus there’s the entire agricultural subsidy thing, which Berry is notorious for (and, apparently, has set up an arrangement to allow himself to continue to benefit from personally).  Then there’s the ongoing neutering of the Blue Dogs in general; as this NRCC radio ad (H/T: ARRA News Service) points out, Barry’s voting for what Pelosi’s proposing.

As noted above, Rick’s website is here, this is his current donation link, and here’s his Facebook page.  We will no doubt see more campaign-related items as time goes on.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Rep. Jesse Jackson’s campaign payments to wife.

Rep Jesse Jackson Jr (D-IL) – already under a federal probe for his possible connections with former Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich – is now dealing with questions about payments from his campaign to his wife Sandra Jackson:

Jesse Jackson Jr. Pays Campaign Funds to Chicago Alderman Wife

May 21 (Bloomberg) — Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.

Jackson’s political committee also gave at least $298,927 in cash and in-kind contributions to Sandra Jackson’s campaign fund, which bankrolled her races for a city council seat that pays more than $100,000 per year and an unpaid position on the Cook County Democratic Committee.

Sandra Jackson, known as Sandi, received the $95,000 for political consulting after pledging during her campaign to give “my full attention” to the alderman’s post.

I would normally be nodding agreement with CREW spokesperson Melanie Sloan when she points out that this mostly shows ‘the scandal in Washington often is what’s legal,’ except for this one little bit.
Continue reading Rep. Jesse Jackson’s campaign payments to wife.

Annnnnd we take one step closer to plastiskin bandages.

Remember that previous post on SCIENCE!?

Well, here you go. See how this:

At a collective Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft booth at the 2009 BIO in Atlanta, the researchers are presenting a computer model of the overall system, along with the three fundamental sub-modules. The first module prepares the tissue samples and isolates the two cell types; the second proliferates them. The finished skin models are built up and cultivated in the third, and then packed by a robot.

The researchers still have a lot of meticulous work ahead before the machine will be finished. The difference between success and failure often depends on details, such as the quality of the skin pieces, processing times of enzymes, and liquid viscosities. Furthermore, the cell cultures must be monitored throughout the entire manufacturing process in order to provide optimal process control and to allow timely detection of any contamination with fungi or bacteria. The skin factory is expected to be finished in two years. “Our goal is a monthly production of 5,000 skin models with perfect quality, and a unit price under 34 euros. These are levels that are attractive for industry,” Saxler continues.

…turns to this.

Thanks to advances in biotechnology, German researchers can now rapidly mass produce swatches of real human skin. At 34 Euros per unit, this manufactured skin is so cheap you might soon find it for sale next to bandages in the pharmacy.

Not that the io9/Gizmodo article is really inaccurate; merely that it nearly caused an entirely different – and overly enthusiastic – article to be written. Way of the world and the Internet, I guess.

Moe Lane

CREW is sad that Obama wants to end the Plame game.

Very, very sad:

CREW learned today that the Obama administration is opposing our request that the Supreme Court reconsider the dismissal of the lawsuit, Wilson v. Libby, et al. In that case, the district court had dismissed the claims of Joe and Valerie Wilson against former Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Richard Armitage for their gross violations of the Wilsons’ constitutional rights.

Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. It is surprising that the first time the Obama administration has been required to take a public position on this matter, the administration is so closely aligning itself with the Bush administration’s views.

They may even cry.

Via Protein Wisdom: CREW’s site is apparently being hammered right now, but I think that this is the full text. At any rate, this should only come as a surprise to those people who bought into the agitprop that there was any point whatsoever to le affaire Plame past getting the Democratic base profitably riled up about the GOP. Which, admittedly, apparently includes most of the left-blogosphere.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.