Month: December 2010

Freshmen House assignments.

The Hill reports that the following House freshmen will be given slots on the following committees:

  • Appropriations: Alan Nunnelee, Steve Womack, Kevin Yoder, & Tom Graves on Appropriations.
  • Energy: Cory Gardner, Morgan Griffith, Adam Kinzinger, David McKinley, Mike Pompeo, and Charlie Bass.
  • Financial Services: Quico Canseco, Bob Dold, Sean Duffy, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Bill Huizenga, Robert Hurt, Steve Stivers, Steve Pearce, and Michael Fitzpatrick.
  • Ways and Means: Rick Berg and Diane Black on Ways (four more members out of the ten total were elected in 2008).

There are a good number of Tea Party members in that list (and a bunch who are not; I expect that my respected colleague, friend, and RS boss Erick Erickson is going to be annoyed at the Appropriations lineup); it looks like about a third of the freshman class were put on these four important domestic committees.  As Ed Morrissey notes, we have to keep an eye on who Boehner puts on in Rules (whose membership is pretty much the Speaker’s personal prerogative), and which freshmen (if any) get Armed Services/Foreign Affairs.  I personally would like to see Allen West get a spot on the latter – if only because having him on that committee would ensure that there was never a dull moment around there.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

I link to this out of sentimentality (NSFW!).

I don’t agree with this old Irish guy on the basic issues of the Irish collapse:

…but when I close my eyes and listen I can hear my father and paternal grandfather in the rhythms of the guy’s speech*.  They were good union men and honest working-class Democrats, and I miss them both terribly; it was nice to kind of listen to them again.

And that last exchange was pure Lane.

Moe Lane

*Including the profanity. Oh my God, especially the profanity.

QotD, Lamenting Democrats edition.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) House Democrats are not handling their recent spanking well.  They’re especially distraught over losing control of the House in such an insanely short time:

“We only had it for four years,” one senior Democrat lamented. “It took so long to get it back, and now it is all gone.”

Well, that’s what happens when politicians run as moderates and rule as liberals, Sparky.  This is also what happens when a political party lets itself be run by its liberal fringe on the legislative level and by a feckless dilettante on the executive.  And, finally, this is what happens when politicians ignore necessary business in order to pass ideological wish lists – then inform the American people that it’s all for their own good, so don’t worry their pretty little heads over it.  And what are the consequences of all of that?  The political party guilty of such behaviors gets promptly backhanded by the American people.  As we saw.

Learn or don’t learn, as you blessed well please – but do not whine about it.  It’s unbecoming.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading QotD, Lamenting Democrats edition.

Finished Dead or Alive this weekend.

The latest Tom Clancy – and I hadn’t noticed until I actually had the book that it had ‘With Grant Blackwood’ in the title.  Anyway, at 950 pages Dead or Alive is a honking big book… and it probably should have been cut up into three separate books of about 275 pages each.  And I don’t mean just hacking up the book into three roughly identical pieces and rebinding them, either.  There were three simultaneous plotlines going on (military, political, espionage).  Each plot needed its own book.  Done right, it would have been highly innovative.

As to the book itself: for 950 pages it wasn’t a bad read – but watching Clancy have to contort more and more around the alternate timeline of the Jack Ryan universe is kind of weird.

More judicial Obamacare salvoes this week.

There are two cases in Florida and Virginia expected to be decided this week over the constitutionality of Obamacare.  The underlying issue is whether the US Constitution gives Congress the right to force its citizens to engage in commerce (specifically, whether Congress can mandate individuals to buy health insurance).  Which, the last time I checked, it does not; and while I understand that Obamacare’s remaining defenders are obligated to argue otherwise, I am not particularly obligated to treat either them or their argument more seriously than is merited.  In this case, that means: not at all.

The real issue here is not whether the individual mandate is thrown out – even the administration is tacitly admitting that it may not survive scrutiny – but whether the individual mandate can be declared unconstitutional without immediately invalidating the rest of the legislation.  There is an issue called ‘severability‘ that is germane here: the short version is that if one portion of a piece of legislation is declared unconstitutional, then the entire law is supposed to be thrown out unless there’s specific language indicating otherwise.  Said language never made it into Obamacare, thanks to the stellar parliamentary skills of Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Reid.  It’s not a slam dunk – I’ve had actual attorneys tell me that the Supreme Court has shown a reluctance to be that hard-nosed about severability – but it’s something to keep an eye on.

The Virginia court decision is expected for tomorrow: the results should be interesting.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Will Michael Steele not seek re-election?

There is a good deal of evidence suggesting it – Michael Steele is not canvassing for support, has no team in place to help him get re-elected RNC chair, and will have a conference call on Monday that many think will have his announcement that he won’t seek re-election – but at best it’s a suggestion, not a fact. Given the fiscal difficulties that the RNC is facing right now, it might be prudent for Steele to step aside and let somebody else take the reins. We’re going to need a strong focus on the twin categories of raising money and putting boots on the ground; so distractions at this point are not particularly welcome. And it would almost certainly be best if we had a clean break between the RNC of the past and the one of the future. Continue reading Will Michael Steele not seek re-election?

Mass Effect 3 trailer.

Apparently, we have to wait a year until the game’s out, darn it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WcQvjTcxY0

…and no final DLC announced yet for Mass Effect 2.  I just finished my second KOTOR 2 run-through (with desultory thoughts of doing a third, only different character class and gender); what am I going to do until Dragon Age 2 comes out?