You Can Call Me Al
Ah, the Eighties. And Miami Vice
Month: August 2009
Rahm Emanuel will never be Speaker of the House.
Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to leave this administration with his reputation intact.
Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to win back the seat that he gave up to become Chief of Staff.
Even if the Democrats keep control of the House of Representatives.
He’s made too many new enemies on his own side in his new job. And there’s no ideological / theological reason for those enemies to not take out their frustrations on him.
Just saying, that’s all.
Crossposted to RedState.
Well, at least he didn’t blame it all on the Jews.
Sorry: it’s just after years of joking about being a minion of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, seeing the President of the United States play that card – in all seriousness – is kind of bemusing.
Obama: GOP conspiracy out to kill health reform
President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton’s reform plan.
“I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, ‘Look, let’s not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, ’94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook,” the president said.
I suppose that we look very big and scary from the outside, Mr. President, but I assure you: there’s nothing to fear, here. After all, they let me be part of the VRWC, and as several of my readers can personally attest, I among the mildest and most inoffensive of men. It’s a very odd conspiracy that would let me have any sort of role in it, let me tell you! I mean, I don’t even get paid for this*. So you don’t have to be frightened of me.
No, what you should be frightened of is that Zogby’s going to have you clocked in at a 45% approval rating tomorrow morning. And this after three weeks or so of having your minions call us every name in the book – at least, the ones not screaming about your backroom deal with PhRMA. So, by all means: keep on doing everything that you’re doing, just like this.
Much obliged!
Moe Lane
*Ahem.
Crossposted to RedState.
Today is HP Lovecraft’s birthday.
He’d be 109 [as per comments below, he’d be 119, dammit: I keep thinking that the Nineties happened just last week] today if he was still alive – or brought back from the essential Saltes
So, here: have some cake.
I’d sing the song, but the Hounds of Tindalos
Reviewing the July Fundraising numbers.
Short version: Democrats had a good month for the DNC – they beat out the RNC for a change – which was enough to let them end with a edge in amount raised and total cash-on-hand of a couple million. Fortunately, July fundraising for the congressional and senatorial committees was not a repeat of June’s: despite their having a significant edge in membership, the DSCC lagged the NRSC and the DCCC barely edged the NRCC. And the debt still remains significant on the Democrats’ side.
| Raised | CoH | Debts | |
| RNC | 6.26 | 21.84 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 9.29 | 16.32 | 5.13 |
| NRSC | 2.75 | 4.43 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 2.04 | 7.15 | 3.33 |
| NRCC | 3.08 | 4.01 | 2.75 |
| DCCC | 3.20 | 10.22 | 5.30 |
| GOP | 12.09 | 30.28 | 2.75 |
| Dem | 14.53 | 33.69 | 13.76 |
FrankJ has some not-useful advice for MSNBC.
In responding to this post FrankJ noted that the underlying problem for MSNBC is that nobody particularly wants to watch them anyway, so he offered a suggestion to boost their viewership:
Maybe if they set Keith Olbermann on fire and threw him off a building, people would tune in to see that. I’d consider it. So, that’s something for them to think about.
I am startled by this advice. Surely FrankJ is acquainted with the classics
What were they going to do on Tuesday night?
I’m tempted to start all my posts with “Herewith, a brief primer…” now.
In the process of revisiting his ripping into Gerson/Wehner’s Commentary piece, RS McCain creates his ultimate editor’s rejection letter:
You thieving scoundrel:
We pay writers by the word. I’ve consulted our lawyers, who agree that your effort to get me to pay you for the sentence, “Herewith, a brief primer,” constitutes attempted petty larceny by the laws of this state and may also be prosecuted as a federal felony under the mail fraud statutes.
I’m cutting you a break this time, but if you ever again try to swindle me with a cheap scam like this, you’ll be buying yourself a one-way ticket to Leavenworth.
Please find another career for which you are suited, as journalism is clearly beyond your abilities.
Sincerely,
The Editor
Having read it all the way through… yup, the Commentary piece was as dull as dishwater. Roughly half of it was telling us things that we already knew, and the rest needed to be hacked down about 60%. So herewith, my brief primer:
Continue reading I’m tempted to start all my posts with “Herewith, a brief primer…” now.
CYV Watch: Robot Theater does Pulp Fiction.
And everyone was doing so well, too.
Remember: Continue reading CYV Watch: Robot Theater does Pulp Fiction.
Proposing to your fiancee: Yes/No.
Working with Disneyland to create a music/dance number with a theme, rehearsals, and advance planning:
Using your position as a state legislator to acquire scarce city resources for your proposal – which includes the police threatening to make a false arrest of your fiancee:
Del. Jon S. Cardin found the woman of his dreams, and suddenly those three little words were on his lips: police-involved proposal.
The Baltimore County Democrat and girlfriend Megan Homer were aboard a friend’s boat in the Inner Harbor on Aug. 7 when on-duty city marine officers boarded the vessel. Pretending to search for contraband as a city police helicopter whirred overhead, the officers reportedly told Homer to turn around so they could handcuff her. When she did, there was Cardin down on one knee.
More here. Jon Cardin is the nephew of Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), who is known for… well, he beat Michael Steele in 2006. Up to this point, Cardin seemed poised to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, but I think that he’s shown a certain flair here at using public facilities for his own personal gratification that should serve him well in the Maryland Democratic party.
It’s only funny if you don’t have to actually pay for antics like this. Or the police investigation which will undoubtedly find a convenient scapegoat for Jon Cardin’s aristocratic pretensions. Speaking as somebody who will get saddled with a portion of the bill for both, well…
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Nutter plays games with Philly legal system funding.
(Via Drudge) I’m putting this one up mostly because of the last name – it’s Mayor Michael Nutter, and the game is “Give us money or we’ll shut down services that you don’t want to shut down.” It’s apparently a favorite game of urban Democrats, given that it seems to happen with distressing regularity in our larger cities:
Nutter Warns Of ‘Virtual Shutdown’ Of Courts
[snip]
The city has asked the state to approve a temporary sales tax increase in Philadelphia and allow changes to how the city makes its pension payments.
Without those changes, Nutter says nearly 1,000 police officers and 200 firefighters would be cut.
The reason for the cynicism is that threatened cuts like these are never in areas where voters might shrug and go “Fine” – which is of course where the cuts should be, for precisely that reason. Staying within budget is hard; it’s much easier to spend it all on feel-good projects (for various definitions of ‘feel-good’) and scare the taxpayer with budget cuts. In other words, Philly voters should contemplate that this is a problem that’s largely of the City of Philadelphia’s own making.
Alternatively, Philly voters could perhaps contemplate that the real problem is that they’re electing too many Democrats…
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.