Month: May 2009

Senator Harry Reid’s *un*favorables hits 50.

Somewhere in Nevada, a Republican has just decided to run for Senator. We do not know his or her name, but whoever it is, he or she worries Senator Harry Reid right now:

CARSON CITY — Nearly half of Nevadans have had enough of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the powerful Democrat heads into his re-election campaign, a new Las Vegas Review-Journal poll finds.

About a third of the state’s voters would re-elect Reid if the 2010 election were held today, according to the poll, but 45 percent say they would definitely vote to replace him. Seventeen percent would consider another candidate.

The findings are echoed by another poll question about Reid’s popularity that finds the four-term incumbent to be a polarizing figure in his home state.

Half of Nevada voters had an unfavorable view of Reid, while 38 percent had a favorable view and 11 percent a neutral opinion.

More via Chris Cillizza, who is actually going to some trouble to shoot down the most likely objections to this poll.

The article goes on to quote Reid’s campaign manager as saying “The only poll that really matters is on Election Day.” This common sentence in Politician translates to “we’re doomed, but we’re not going to give you the satisfaction of seeing us wince,” and is one of the reasons why there’ll probably be a serious challenger or challengers by this time next week. Getting below 50% favorable is a sign of alarm for a politician; having a 50% unfavorable rating is a harbinger of upcoming disaster. He can still win, but there won’t be a repeat of 2004’s easy win for him. Put another way, the Democrats don’t want to have to fight for that particular seat, but at this point they don’t have a choice…

Crossposted at RedState.

For all your “Laugh at Sy Hersh and his acolytes” needs.

But before you do, watch this video that has audio of Hersh talking about how the JSOC was an assassination squad under the orders of the Executive branch.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yes, of course I’m going to harp on it. It’s my blog entry and the uncritical belief in whatever Sy Hersh says has been one of the more pathetic undercurrents in the left blogosphere for years now. Think of this as an intervention. An intervention of ridicule. Continue reading For all your “Laugh at Sy Hersh and his acolytes” needs.

It’s always about the monkeys, with Frank J. The post-apocalyptic, mutated monkeys.

Frank J. has written an article about the future of the Republican Party for Pajamas Media (man, I need a better agent. Or any agent. Or, possibly, a more realistic appreciation of my skill set) that probably doesn’t need more than the title to tell you what it’s all about: GOP Warlords vs. the Cybernetic Monkey-Men.

Being a daring thinker, Frank has looked upon the future, concluded that it will feature the complete collapse of society, and has planned accordingly:
Continue reading It’s always about the monkeys, with Frank J. The post-apocalyptic, mutated monkeys.

Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey!

Ace tipped me off to the new Sherlock Holmes movie (coming out in December): he’s got some thoughts about this one that you should check out. And before you start worrying, apparently Guy Ritchie (director) and Jude Law (Watson) are both Holmesians, while Robert Downey (Holmes) is… Robert Downey. So, there’s already a couple of good signs that it won’t suck.

But to segue, while looking up the answer to a question that my lovely wife asked (“Was Sherlock Holmes was the physical confrontation type?”) I came across bartitsu.org, a site dedicated to the… well, there’s some controversy whether bartitsu is a ‘real’ Victorian martial art, and not helped by the fact that Doyle called it ‘baritsu.’ Still, people seemed determined to reproduce it now; they have books out (Bartitsu Compendium, Volume 1: History and the Canonical Syllabus) and the aforementioned website.

And this article on the umbrella as a combat weapon is quite good, although I shall politely not address its claim to be an authentic journal article from the Victorian era.

[UPDATE] I have been informed in comments that the article is quite real. I stand abashed.

It’s a shame Keith Olbermann’s not more popular.

If he was, my pointing out that this denial by Sy Hersh that he ever claimed that Cheney had a death squad was directly contradicted by audio found at this post:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

“It’s an executive assassination ring, essentially.”

…might have some more oomph. Alas, it’s Keith Olbermann, and it’s Sy Hersh: nobody with a functional brain stem takes either seriously.

Which is not really a shame, I suppose.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

White House’s ‘Blame Bush’ reflex embarrasses them, EPA.

More than usual, that is.

It goes like this (H/T & links via Ed Driscoll and OpenMarket.org).

A memo from the EPA surfaced a while back that mentioned in passing that regulating greenhouse gasses to the extent desired by the most fervent global warming believers might have an adverse effect on the impious, too:

In contrast, an endangerment finding under section 202 may not be not the most appropriate approach for regulating GHGs. Making the decision to regulate CO2 under the CAA for the first time is likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S. economy, including small businesses and small communities. Should EPA later extend this finding to stationary sources, small businesses and institutions would be subject to costly regulatory programs such as New Source Review.

As this was somewhat alarming, once you translated it into Standard English, the White House eventually started a little pushback that no, they wouldn’t be junking the entire American economy just quite yet.  So far, so good: after all, you don’t need to be a conservative to know that the government produces a lot of unfortunately relevant documents that later have to be eliminated and/or repudiated*. Continue reading White House’s ‘Blame Bush’ reflex embarrasses them, EPA.

Dueling Quotes of the Day.

We have two prime contenders for this one.

Jim Geraghty, on the Virginia Democratic Primaries:

One of my readers* summarized the Democratic field this morning as “the corrupt brother of a corrupt anti-Semite, an upstate New Yorker who failed as DNC Chair and who has no real ties to the state, and some Virginian who keeps hitting people with his car.”

Allahpundit, on the… business… decision of Newsweek to cut circulation, raise prices, and go from puff news pieces to puff opinion pieces:

…if you’re a lefty and love the New Yorker but struggle with some of the bigger words, now there’s a magazine for you.

I can’t decide, myself.

Moe Lane Continue reading Dueling Quotes of the Day.

You know, I’m not a vegetarian…

…but this doesn’t sound half bad:

Potato Burrito

To make this non-vegetarian, you could add sauteed ground beef or spicy sausage to this simple recipe.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 16 oz. pkg. frozen hash brown potatoes
  • 1 cup chunky salsa
  • 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  • 6 flour tortillas

Preparation:

Cook hash brown potatoes as directed on package. Add salsa, cheese and green onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until hot. Fold mixture into warmed flour tortillas and serve. 6 servings

Although I’m thinking that sour cream wouldn’t be out of the question for this one.