Month: September 2009

White House targeting… Gov. Paterson (D, NY).

They apparently started by making a quiet request that he drop out, and I’m going to guess that Paterson told them ‘no.’ So they leaked the news.

To repeat: so they leaked the news.

ALBANY – In a stunning request, the Obama administration has made it clear to poll-challenged Gov. Paterson that the White House would prefer he not seek election to a full four-year term next year.

The Obama administration sent the message through White House political affairs director Patrick Gaspard, who met with the governor at his campaign headquarters for nearly two hours last Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.

Continue reading White House targeting… Gov. Paterson (D, NY).

I’d have to disagree with this xkcd comic.

The argument – that an alien species would interact with the universe in ways that we would not think to look for – kind of falls down on its face with the hypothetical. A sentient ant colony would notice right away that large sections of their observed universe would contain a near-infinite number of objects and activities that were not explainable as natural phenomena but could be explained as the result of conscious, artificial action: the buildings alone would give the game away. It’d be like us working on SETI and not noticing that Alpha Centauri happened to have a Dyson sphere.

At least, that’s my first take. No doubt people will pop by to tell me why I’m wrong.

Big Government going after NEA next?

Regarding Ace’s thoughtful sound about Patterico’s speculation on what Andrew Breitbart has scheduled for our enjoyment this week: PUNCH Politics reminds us that transferred NEA/Ministry of Information staffer Yosi Sergant was partnered with “HOPE” artist Shepard Fairey.  Which may explain why Big Government went to the trouble of pointing out the tagging done against Fairey last week.  It’s a nice transition: ACORN to Fairey to Sergant… and if you don’t think that mainstream journalists aren’t keeping track of what Big Government is running now, well.

Moe Lane

PS: It really is that incestuous, among the professional activists of the Left.

Crossposted to RedState.

The White House rejects interstate competition in health insurance.

This is actually from September 9th – you can tell, because they’re hyping the President’s speech as being a game-changer – but it’s instructive nonetheless. In this clip, Axelrod was asked, point-blank, why the administration isn’t trying to change the rules to let insurance companies compete across straight[*] lines, and his refusal to give a straight answer is almost as funny as is watching Wolf Blitzer pushing him to give one.

Mind you, the actual answer – “There isn’t anything in that scheme that benefits a Democratic client group, and interstate competition is part of the Republican plan that we keep lying about not existing, so we won’t support it” – is politically… fraught.  Nonetheless, it’s instructive to remember that this administration has no interest in a bipartisan solution to health care reform, and even less interest in getting the Democrats in Congress under control.  All the President wants is a bill to sign and the opportunity to declaim that he’s reformed health care.  Anything will do at this point.

(Via Below the Beltway, via The Other McCain)

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[*As RS commenter NightTwister guessed: this is a Freudian slip, but I’m not going to fix it. On reflection, I like it better this way.- ML]

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: I don’t know what to think. Seriously.

I mean, when I read that the chance of it happening may have been wrecked by Dick Cook getting fired (Disney muckety-muck), I was relieved. I was very disappointed by the second and third movies (the first, of course, rocked on toast). And heck: I didn’t even know that they were planning to make a fourth film.

But then I read the working title.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

On. Stranger. Tides.

As the Onion AV Club noted:

A 1988 Tim Powers novel called On Stranger Tides concernes pirates, a character called Jack, and the search for the Fountain Of Youth. And as POTC fans may recall, Jack and Barbosa ended At World’s End hinting that they planned to get their Ponce de Leon on. A compass couldn’t point us in a straighter direction.

So now I’m stuck.  Johnny Depp starring in a reboot of a franchise that takes its plot from a FREAKING TIM POWERS NOVEL.  There will be nothing mediocre about the result: it will reach Iron Man / Star Trek levels of awesomeness, or it will suck utterly.  There can be no middle ground.

Reviewing the August Fundraising numbers.

Wouldn’t you know it: I decide not to do anything consequential and the fundraising numbers become available. Short version: the GOP out-raised the Democrats for the first time since April; the NRSC beat out the DSCC for the second month; the NRCC continues to stay essentially tied with the DCCC; and the Democrats aren’t paying their debt down.

Raised CoH Debts
RNC 7.87 20.97 0.00
DNC 6.89 15.34 5.33
NRSC 3.10 5.10 0.00
DSCC 2.20 6.70 2.90
NRCC 3.15 4.20 2.00
DCCC 3.30 10.73 4.67
GOP 14.12 30.27 2.00
Dem 12.39 32.77 12.90

Continue reading Reviewing the August Fundraising numbers.