Month: January 2010

Plouffe on the loose! …doesn’t quite scan.

Two thoughts on this Mark MacKimmon article on the return of Plouffe:

  1. It is wonderful to see that the fine old geek tradition of casually discounting the intelligence and judgment of the American people continues unabated in the online community*.
  2. Nowhere does it state in the article just how it is that having David Plouffe back on Barack Obama’s team is going to help the Democrats keep seats in November.  That’s probably because it won’t.

Via Hot Air Headlines… and I’m sure that I had more reasons for saving the original draft from this morning than are readily apparent.  Ach, well.

Moe Lane

*Calling it wonderful is sarcasm, which is another fine old geek tradition.

Adam Nagourney’s failure of imagination.

There’s a good deal to criticize in this article – not least of which is its rather sad attempt to equate the potential November election problems of the two parties – but I’d like to highlight one particular stumble, right out of the gate:

Republicans are luring new candidates into House and Senate races, and the number of seats up for grabs in November appears to be growing, setting up a midterm election likely to be harder fought than anyone anticipated before the party’s big victory in Massachusetts last week.

Bolding mine. “Likely to be harder fought than anyone anticipated.”

Actually, not just no. Hell, no.  Anybody who could look at a map could have told you last November that this election cycle was going to be problematical for the Democrats; in fact, maps were drawn illustrating the opportunity.   The increasingly favorable conditions about this midterm were only going to be a surprise to people not paying attention.  Or to people not imaginative enough to look past confident assurances that this time there would be a permanent political realignment.  Or to people who just wanted to believe that last.

It’s an open question which category Adam Nagourney and Carl Hulse fall into, of course.  Or categories.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

xkcd gets it wrong.

Doesn’t happen all that often.

childrens_fantasy

…but, really, I find it amazing that xkcd has never heard of Agatha’s Law:

Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!

I mean, the hero of this particular strip is a science-inclined type who’s just been able to personally observe dimensional travel.  Directed dimensional travel, under the control of a human operator.  He needs to get done with mourning the loss of his heroic fantasy adventure vacation and get started with reverse-engineering that shit.

Latest Cape Wind excuse: “A long-submerged ancestral burial ground.”

(Via Riehl World View) Let us start by correcting the Washington Post’s headline for it:

Cape Wind’s fate unclear, even in Obama’s hands

The title implies that for some reason this President is immune from the automatic suspicion that habitually occurs when an elected official has to make a decision that is vehemently and personally opposed by one of the official’s close political allies.

…two Obama appointees to agencies connected to the project’s review have links to its chief opposition, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

U.S. National Park Service head Jonathan Jarvis is the brother of alliance consultant Destry Jarvis. And Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt has worked for the alliance. Both are recused from any decisions involving Cape Wind.

And yet, the National Park Service is taking seriously claims that a stretch of water is a National Register of Historic Places Traditional Cultural Property, and the FAA is… never mind the FAA right now, and let’s go back to the NPS thing:

The Wampanoag argued the project would interfere with sacred rituals which require an unblocked view of the horizon and would be built on a long-submerged ancestral burial ground.

This is not actually creative of the Kennedy family: the ‘ancestral burial ground’ anti-development ploy has been around for decades, although this is the first time that I’ve seen it used for an offshore coastal situation.  That being said, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.  After all, the Kennedys can’t even get Marcia Coakley elected these days…

Moe Lane

Don’t do this, George Lucas.

Just… don’t.

…now the original Star Wars films could be given a modern make-over and converted into 3D.

Director George Lucas has hinted that the new advances in technology mean it is now a possibility to see all six films re-made.

Please, let it be over. Maybe in thirty years or so a new director will be able to repair the damage that you have done to your own masterpiece. Until then, let it go.

Via AoSHQ Headlines.

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t care what your ‘artistic vision’ says. I don’t care what your ‘evolving sensibilities’ challenge you to change. I don’t care if you are the ultimate arbiter of canon, and even if you were able to control the rest of the world in the same way that you were apparently able to control the t-shirt trade I would still sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world:

Damn your eyes, George Lucas.

HAN.
SHOT.
FIRST.

Breaking: thank you for DE-SEN, Democrats.

(Via AoSHQ) Beau Biden looked at the calendar, looked at the actuarial tables, and decided to wait until 2014.

Delaware attorney general Beau Biden announced Monday that he will not seek election to the U.S. Senate seat once held by his father, Vice President Joe Biden.

The younger Biden told supporters in an e-mail that he will run for re-election as attorney general rather than seek the Senate seat his father held for 36 years.

Biden’s decision comes on the heels of a GOP upset in Massachusetts last week that ended the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It leaves veteran Republican congressman and former two-term governor Mike Castle, one of the most successful politicians in Delaware history, still waiting for a Democratic opponent.

I’m translating, mind you. Also, I’m not really surprised.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I blame… what is the current thing to blame divorce on, anyway?

I really should get cable TV, if I want to keep up. Anyway:

Experts have told of their surprise after witnessing a rare “divorce” between a pair of swans at a Gloucestershire wildfowl sanctuary.

The Bewick’s swans have returned to winter at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge – but both have brought new partners.

It is only the second time in more than 40 years that a “separation” has been recorded at the centre.

Staff have described the new couplings as “bizarre”.

Mind you, this ‘bizarre’ thing is coming from people who apparently can tell swans apart by their ‘unique bill pattern.’ Although if one of the swans suddenly bought a cap, a leather jacket, and a sports car, that might also be a tell…