Month: April 2010

This is not actually cognitive dissonance.

‘This’ being this picture (H/T Hot Air):

In order it to be cognitive dissonance, the people involved would have to have an internal conflict about the idea that they were simultaneously: declaring their area to be ‘hate’-free; and wishing for a woman’s death. Given recent history, it is too charitable to suggest that any of them have managed to have gotten so far as to think about the contradiction.

Moe Lane

PS: They hate you, too. I don’t recommend hating them back – it’s bad for your mental and spiritual development – but neither do I recommend trusting any of them with anything that you’d rather not lose. Continue reading This is not actually cognitive dissonance.

Ydiot and ‘I Go To Work.’

I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t see much purpose to Ydiot – Matt Yglesias showed promise back in the day, but four years at The American Prospect beat most of it out of him, and what remained got efficiently smothered by The Atlantic – but I have to admit that if it didn’t exist then I never would have seen this:


I Go To Work, Kool Moe Dee

This is my new theme music. It’s got everything: bad hip-hop, gratuitous James Bond references, ninja posses, a guy in a ‘cyborg’ suit, and impressively low production values.  Plus, there’s the name.  And the hat. I’m pretty sure that I could get away with the hat.  If I ever figure out what kind of hat that is, I will put it on my Wish List.

THIS I SWEAR.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh VP Biden admits bad job situation!

Not that he knows it, yet.  Why? Because when Joe Biden Opens His Mouth, it’s always a random disaster.  As Andrew Malcolm reports:

Speaking for Mark Critz, a Democrat running for a House seat who’s “the real deal” as opposed to some others who Biden says have been “real turkeys,” the Obama administration’s chief gaffemeister said:

We’re going to be creating somewhere between 100 and 200,000 jobs next month, I predict.

Which is a pretty wide range.

It’s also an admission that the administration still hasn’t actually stopped the bleeding:

But let’s set a more modest goal: return to more or less full employment in 5 years –which means seven lean years of depressed employment. To keep up with population growth over those 7 years, the United States would have had to add 84 times 127,000 or 10.668 million jobs. (If that sounds high, bear in mind that we added more than 20 million jobs over the 8 Clinton years). Add in the need to make up lost ground, and we’re at around 18 million jobs over the next five years — or 300,000 a month.

So that’s a useful benchmark. Even if we add 300,000 jobs a month, we’re looking at a prolonged period of suffering — a huge cost from the Great Recession. So that’s kind of a minimal definition of success. Anything less than that, and it’s bad news.

And guess which right-wing shill of the conservative movement said that? – That’s right: Paul Krugman, back in December of 2009.  Guess Biden’s behind on his technical reading…

‘Reading.’ Oh, I slay me.

Moe Lane

Alexi Giannoulias pouting about the Broadway Bank thing.

A couple observations about embattled Senatorial candidate Alexi Giannoulias’ (D CAND, IL-SEN) recent bitter comment:

“Just about every sentence that Congressman Kirk utters these days is a noun, a verb and Broadway Bank,” Giannoulias complained to the City Club of Chicago,

Three, in fact:

  1. Dude.  Ripping off Joe Biden*?  What are you going to do next, ask a paralyzed man to stand up and take a bow?
  2. If you don’t want to be associated with a now-closed bank that gave $20 million loans to convicted pimps and bookies, don’t work for one.
  3. You couldn’t shut up about your blessed family bank connection & experience in your last election, remember?

Isn’t YouTube fun? If there’s an unfortunate / ironic / awkward campaign commercial that’s not on there, somewhere, it’s not for lack of people trying. Continue reading Alexi Giannoulias pouting about the Broadway Bank thing.

#rsrh Specter Swift-boating Sestak?

:Shrug: Sure…

…assuming, of course, that you’re using the term ‘Swift-boating’ correctly – i.e., to mean ‘accurately describing an opponent’s shortcomings‘:

In the latest salvo, [Rep. Joe] Sestak accused [Sen. Arlen] Specter of swift-boating his military record.

The senator released a 30-second spot earlier this week that said the former Navy admiral was relieved of duty at one point for creating a “poor command climate.”

As Ed Morrissey notes, this is perfectly accurate; it in fact ended Sestak’s Navy career. And while leaving the Navy under a bit of a cloud may be a matter of indifference to Official Washington (and a net positive to the progressive Democratic base), it will probably not resonate all that well with statewide PA voters, which is why Specter’s bringing it up.  And why Sestak – who has staked out a position as being the best Democrat to be beaten by Pat Toomey this year – loudly flinched in response.  They must have assumed that if it wasn’t an issue in 2006, it wouldn’t be one in 2010.

Many things that weren’t issues in 2006 or 2008 will be issues in 2010, though.  It’s merely Sestak’s bad luck that he has to address them in a Senate primary and not a House race.

Moe Lane

PS: Toomey.

Alexi Giannoulias’ (D CAND, IL-SEN) Broadway Bank closing?

So it would seem:

The bank is open now — but the worker says they’ve been told at close of business “that’s it.”

Black curtains have been put up today. You can’t see in.

The Giannoulias campaign says the curtains are to “block the sun”, although the sky is overcast and rain is predicted all weekend.

(Via Capitol Fax Blog) Although you have to wonder whether they meant ‘block the sunlight,’ what with it being the best sort of disinfectant, and everything.  But the big question is: what will Chicago’s pimps and bookies do with one less financial institution that’s sympathetic to their unique business needs?

Moe Lane

PS: Mark Kirk for Senate.  Getting business done for Illinois; not giving Illinois the business.

Crossposted to RedState.