War funding passes, of course.

Hot Air Headlines categorized yesterday’s vote to sustain war funding as “Wikileaks docs can’t stop Congress from passing war funding bill:” it honestly surprised me that this could have been the reason for the leak in the first place.  I assumed general petty nastiness; after all, the leak was undoubtedly instigated by members of the organized antiwar movement, which means that they don’t need a specific reason to be evil and vicious.

Not that it made any difference, of course.  And it won’t make a difference in the fall, either.  Back in 2006, I – like most of the Right, really – still took the Democrats seriously when they ostensibly took the organized antiwar movement’s position on the GWOT.  Fortunately for the planet, we shouldn’t have: once in power Establishment Democrats fairly blatantly broke every promise that they made to the organized antiwar movement.  Not that the organized antiwar movement deserves more (or any) consideration in that regard: they combine having fairly vicious and bigoted policy goals with a remarkably masochistic willingness to submit to humiliation after humiliation, just as long as the kicks and beatings are interspersed with the occasional almost-kind word.  Still, it’s been over three years of degradation; you’d think that those people would have noticed by now. Continue reading War funding passes, of course.

#rsrh Correcting Newsweek. Again.

I’m not going to get into the supposedly-ratified first 13th Amendment that banned titles of nobility – no, really; I’m not getting into it, and I don’t really care if people think that I’m a tool of the Illuminati for doing so* – but this bit from Newsweek makes my teeth ache:

Desiring to get out in front of the issue—or possibly seeking to score points against the Federalists, who had their own embarrassing ties to the British aristocracy—Republican Sen. Philip Reed of Maryland introduced an amendment meant to strengthen the existing “emoluments clause” in Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution.

God, it’s bad when a major newsweekly isn’t even up to the editorial standards of Wikipedia. Continue reading #rsrh Correcting Newsweek. Again.

Charlie Rangel will not resign…

…and will ride this puppy all the way down, bless his heart.

For those living in a cave, Charlie Rangel* (D, NY) is about to get served with ethics charges by the House Ethics committee for committing ethical violations (mostly involving real estate) beyond the power of the House Ethics committee leadership to plausibly overlook… not that they didn’t try their best.  In keeping with this tradition of benign overlooksight, it turns out that Rangel met with the Ethics Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D, CA) without any pesky Republicans around to hear about any particular deals that Rangel might or might not have been willing to make to avoid embarrassing the Democratic party in public.  I can’t imagine why the GOP would be worried about that, though: it’s not like Rangel gave three Democratic members of the Ethics Committee campaign money… oh.  Right.  He did. Continue reading Charlie Rangel will not resign…

To the #DGA : now THIS is a campaign ad.

Seeing as the one that the Democratic Governors Association came up with recently was simultaneously: foul-mouthed; pathetically lame; and very possibly in violation of American copyright law… I’d thought that I’d take pity on the poor, doomed fellows and let them take a look at what a good campaign ad looks like.  From the RGA, a reminder that there’s an election in 14 weeks:

14 Weeks from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

And I invite the DGA to try to beat that. Mostly because it’s remarkably funny to watch them flail around trying to look like actual winners.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Kerry’s tax avoiding: right idea, wrong reason.

I agree and disagree with John Hinderaker about John Kerry, Millionaire (he owns a mansion and a yacht).  The basic background: Senator Kerry (D, MA) built and bought a yacht overseas and has parked it outside of Massachusetts so as to avoid paying Massachusetts taxes on it, which are fairly significant.  At least, he was: now that he’s been caught Kerry is making it-was-a-big-misunderstanding noises.  Of course.

On the general point that John makes, I agree that if you have a choice between a state that puts an onerous tax burden on the construction and maintenance on an item that you wish to own, and a state that does not, it is only rational to pick the state that does not.  In this case, Rhode Island decided that it wanted the business more than it wanted an ‘equitable’ tax burden; Massachusetts did not.  Both states got what they wanted.  RI got the business, and MA got the smug feeling of knowing that the rich would get soaked if they tried to do business in MA.  It’s hardly RI’s fault that MA is now realizing that smug doesn’t balance a spreadsheet. Continue reading Kerry’s tax avoiding: right idea, wrong reason.

‘How to talk to a liberal?’

You mean, about politics and stuff?  Oh, that’s easy:

Don’t.

Seriously, I have no expectations of changing any of my liberal friends’ – several of whom read this blog – minds on any topic.  In fact, I only get into political discussions offline with people that I know damned well, and preferably on topics where we’re all in general agreement on the broad outlines anyway.  I only get into political arguments with my mom, because I know that she enjoys getting my goat on it and she’s not going to let politics get in the way of her grandkids*.  And I’m not the sort to hang out with people who espouse pedestrian, dreary conspiracy theories (and all political conspiracy theories are dreary and pedestrian, unless they involve Rod Blagojevich). Continue reading ‘How to talk to a liberal?’

Paul Ryan guts Chris Matthews.

Yeah, I know.  This is news?

I don’t like to encourage taking Chris Matthews seriously… and I guess that I’m not doing that here, either.  God knows that Rep. Paul Ryan (R) didn’t particularly raise a sweat in making both Matthews and Rep. Joe Crowley (D) look like dolts:

The ref should have stepped in and stopped that fight, huh? Crowley should be particularly incensed, given that he got knocked down by the spillover. I mean, really: by the time it was over Rep. Crowley was effectively bragging that his district was too poor to support small businesses that were successful enough to be affected by the tax rollback. That’s either… stupid, or ignorant; take your pick, they’re about equally unflattering to Crowley’s mother-wit. Continue reading Paul Ryan guts Chris Matthews.