Month: December 2009

Rep. Clyburn abandons public option on behalf of Democratic party.

Here we go.

The House’s third-ranking Democrat said Sunday that he can support a healthcare reform bill without a public option.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) — a proponent of a government-run public plan — said that he could back the bill as long as it creates more choice and competition in the insurance industry and reduces costs. “It’s of no consequence” whether it’s done via the public option or not.

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Translation: House Democrats are going to abandon the public option. Ignore the nonsense about more choice and reduced costs: that’s for the rubes and the netroots. They went with the #3 House Democrat to make the announcement because both Pelosi and Hoyer want to appear to be reluctantly going along with this, instead of enthusiastically: if the endgame ends up reminding you of their FISA ‘capitulation,’ well, there’s a reason for that.  Anyway, this is probably back on track for being settled by the State of the Union address.  In fact, they’re probably right now working out how many liberal House members can vote ‘no’ on the bill and still get it to pass.

I’d be offended at the Democratic leadership’s upcoming betrayal of their own (loudly stated) principles, if only I believed that they had them in the first place.  As I didn’t and don’t, the best that I can muster is a slightly cynical moue of distaste.  And that’s only because I’ve never gotten to use the word ‘moue’ in a post before.

Moe Lane

PS: The final language on federal funding on abortion will be at whatever point between Stupak’s and the Senate’s version that will cause the NRLC to stop threatening to score the final vote.  If that call hasn’t been made yet, it will be.

Crossposted to RedState.

Rhetorician’s Year of Failed Narratives.

#2 was particularly tasty, although my essentially kindhearted and easygoing nature dictates that I be kinder these days to those poor folks trying to spontaneously generate a left-populist movement out of… well, nothing.  Nothing at all*.

(H/T: Instapundit)

Moe Lane

*I know, I know: it’s fun.  Not as much fun as watching elements of the Left now try to co-opt a movement that they spent half a year sexually slurring, of course.  Those people really need to learn to embrace the concept of long-term planning.

Crossposted to RedState.

Rasmussen: plurality now opposes ‘stimulus.’

This is not the most important passage from the article, though:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 30% of voters nationwide believe the $787-billion economic stimulus plan has helped the economy. However, 38% believe that the stimulus plan has hurt the economy. This is the first time since the legislation passed that a plurality has held a negative view of its impact.

This is:

The Political Class has a much different view than the rest of the county. Ninety percent (90%) of the Political Class believes the stimulus plan helped the economy and not a single Political Class respondent says it has hurt. (See more on the Political Class).

If you’re wondering why the Democratic party’s leadership seems so determined to keep marching over the cliff: well, there you go.  On the other hand, Rasmussen’s ‘Political Class’ designation is subject to criticism and controversy.  On the gripping hand, that criticism and controversy is usually from people who either don’t want to be identified as elites, or resent not being identified as populists…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Book of the Week: Sentry Peak.

It’s a few years old, but the inside blurb promises that Sentry Peak is going to be the weirdest American Civil War novel that you’ll ever read; and while that may or may not be strictly true, it’s certainly up there. Take a look at the cover for confirmation of that. First of a series.

And so, it being Sunday we say goodbye to Zodiac.

Moe Lane Continue reading Book of the Week: Sentry Peak.

Word of advice for 2012 convention planners?

Pick somewhere easily accessible via train.

In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed new restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane.

The government was vague about the steps it was taking, saying that it wanted the security experience to be “unpredictable” and that passengers would not find the same measures at every airport — a prospect that may upset airlines and travelers alike.

But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions, saying that passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. It was not clear how often the rule would affect domestic flights.

Ooh, ooh, I can answer this one! The answer is “A lot!” After all, the people making the rules here don’t actually have to suffer under them, so there’s no negative feedback loop to keep them from saddling us with onerous travel restrictions designed to hide the fact that the system did not, in fact, work.  So expect the geniuses currently running the government to make sure that that the rules are blindly applied across the board; it beats thinking, right?

For more, see The Agitator, via RS McCain; and Hot Air.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s Dave Barry’s Year in Review time again.

Highlight of the New Year season, in my not-humble-at-all opinion.  A taste:

But the big political drama takes place in Washington, where David Souter announces that he is retiring from the Supreme Court because he is tired of getting noogies from Chief Justice Roberts. To replace Souter, President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor, setting off the traditional Washington performance of Konfirmation Kabuki, in which the Democrats portray the nominee as basically a cross between Abraham Lincoln and the Virgin Mary, and the Republicans portray her more as Ursula the Sea Witch with a law degree. Sotomayor will eventually be confirmed, but only after undergoing the traditional Senate Judiciary Committee hazing ritual, during which she must talk for four straight days without expressing an opinion.

The man’s still got it; apparently, nobody can figure out where he hides it, so they can’t take it away anyway.

DHS Director Janet Napolitano: “the system worked.”

I… I… I…

…words fail me.  Via Hot Air Headlines:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.”

Moe Lane

PS: No, not even profanity.  It’s that bad.

Crossposted to RedState.

Cognitive Dissonance Watch: Marc Ambinder and Obama golf.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I could care less that the President played golf in the aftermath of the attempted airplane atrocity.  I might feel differently if there was anything that he could have usefully done – or, for that matter, if there was anything useful that I could rely on him doing – but there wasn’t, and I can’t, so the POTUS can go ahead and tee up.  Less harm done, all around.

That being said, watching Marc Ambinder try to tap-dance around the President’s failure to immediately engage the situation – without Ambinder once referring to ‘My Pet Goat*’ – by declaring it to be part of a deep strategy is almost as much fun as watching his own comments section betray him by quoting Jim Geraghty in response.  I swear, it’s like the Left doesn’t take into account modern information storage technology when they write their columns.

Moe Lane

*Hey, just because I don’t use that title as part of a rather sad fetish scenario doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize that said scenario is a cherished part of many antiwar types’ Special Time.  Or that I don’t recognize that they now have to start thinking fast if they want to keep using it.

Crossposted to RedState.

Paragraph of the Day, post-Christmas hangover edition.

Although I suspect that the majority of the people reading this didn’t go as overboard this year on Christmas as they have in the past.  Anyway, Samizdata (via Ed Driscoll, in reaction to what was an atypically dumb UK Times article):

It may seem a Scrooge-like message for this time of year to point out that you cannot spend money that you don’t have; businesses cannot invest money that has not been already saved, and that interest rates must reflect the balance of supply and demand for savings. The “Austrian” economic insight that money is a claim on resources, and that two people cannot hold the same claim on a resource at the same time, needs to be relentlessly rammed home.

Because the alternative, of course, is to have objective reality do it for you. And the thing about objective reality? It’s rarely gentle.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.