Month: May 2011

QotD, Glad To Hear It Edition.

It’s a pleasure to hear it, in fact.

“I think he’s trying to stay in the political scene,” said Jim Kitchens, a Florida-based pollster who worked for [former Congressman Alan] Grayson and who remains in his inner circle. “He enjoyed being in Congress, he really did.”

I mean, it would just purely suck if my helping to throw this idiot out on his ear caused him to simply shrug philosophically and go on with his life.  Bitterly nursing a grudge is just what the doctor ordered.

Moe Lane

Via Hot Air Headlines.

#rsrh You can take South Carolina’s incandescent bulbs…

…when you pry them from their cold, dead hands:

South Carolina lawmakers are taking a stand in favor of states’ lights.

Which is a great first line, by the way. The basic gist of the article is that the South Carolina legislature is debating a bill that would permit incandescent bulbs to continue to be made in-state, solely for in-state use. As you probably know, incandescent bulbs are being phased out nationally in favor of compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, on what is turning out to be perhaps dubious evidence that they’re cheaper over the long run.  I think that we can likewise discount the suggestion that CFLs are better for the environment, what with the entire “partially made out of mercury” thing.  South Carolinan legislatures have a habit of being a bit stubborn about things, so it’s not too surprising that they’re doing this.

Will it work?  Maybe, maybe not: I don’t know how you keep out of state folks from buying your bulbs, and once it becomes interstate commerce, well, the feds swoop in.  But I’ve noticed that people don’t like having these little things taken away from them for no good reason… or even when there is a good reason, really.  Something about being mature adults who can make their own choices, or something like that.

Plus, the mercury.  A lot of people didn’t really grok the bit about the mercury.

Moe Lane

Via Instapundit.

#rsrh Olympia Snowe shoring up right flank.

At least, that’s how it looks from this Politico article.  It’s at the point where Snowe is openly feuding with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (much to the pleased bemusement of Senate Republicans):

It started in 2009, when Snowe lamented being shut out of Democratic negotiations over the health care bill, continued as Reid bashed her in a 2010 magazine interview and culminated in recent weeks when the two engaged in a rare public spat on the Senate floor.

The two sparred over a noncontroversial small-business reauthorization bill, with Reid accusing Snowe of “killing” the bill and Snowe saying Reid reneged on a promise to bring up her amendment.

Continue reading #rsrh Olympia Snowe shoring up right flank.

Illinois DREAM Act passes Illinois Senate…

…thanks to Illinois Combine.

The Illinois Combine, for those unfamiliar with the term of art, refers to an unfortunate reality in Illinois politics: to wit, Illinois is not precisely a two-party state.  There is a Republican Party of Illinois, and there is a Democratic Party of Illinois – but the party bosses of both more or less ignore everybody else and run the state to suit themselves.

Case in point: the Illinois DREAM Act.  This law sets up a private* college scholarship fund for illegal aliens – which, speaking as a pro-amnesty squish, is a bad idea.  Not because kids who were brought here illegally shouldn’t get an education (although many of the people currently going ecstatic over the bill will happily accuse their opponents of thinking precisely that); but because rewarding behavior encourages it, and official scholarship funds for illegal immigrants rewards the original illegal immigration**.  And it’s not even as bad a bill as it could have been: an earlier version of the bill included handing out driver’s certificates – or, as we in the political business like to call ’em, ‘pre-made voter fraud coupons.***’ Continue reading Illinois DREAM Act passes Illinois Senate…

Chuckie Schumer’s Do Not Ride Amtrak plan.

I have a very quick question for Sen Chuck Schumer regarding his desire to create a list of people who are not allowed to go on Amtrak… no, really: the Senator from NY apparently got a little scared by reports that al-Qaeda was thinking about debating about targeting American rail lines.  There’s no real indication that there’s an active terrorist plot to do that – not malignantly sexy enough, apparently – but, well, Democratic politicians panic easily.

Anyway, let’s set the scenario: I am in the Newark-Penn Station train station located in New Jersey.  I wish to take an Amtrak train to the Trenton, New Jersey train station*. Please note that both locations are fully within the confines of one state: please also note that Amtrak tickets may be purchased with cash, which traditionally does not require providing ID.  So here’s my question: under what authority is Congress allowed to either restrict or regulate my intrastate transportation? Please be specific, including the underlying Constitutional clause.

No, I’m being perfectly serious.  Do-not-fly lists cover international flights, not national ones; if the need to regulate the latter ever came up, you could possibly stretch the Commerce Clause to fit (we do it for everything else involving interstate activities, apparently).  But even then, the default domestic flight crosses state lines, except in the very largest states; Amtrak provides services to people who travel inside states, and I’d like to know precisely where the federal government would derive its authority to regulate such activity.  Continue reading Chuckie Schumer’s Do Not Ride Amtrak plan.

BREAKING: ThinkProgress pig-ignorant about military.

Legal Insurrection tipped me to this one: apparently, ThinkProgress (link available via Legal Insurrection) got itself in a bit of a tizzy over a story in the Mexican press that one of the Navy SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden was the son of Mexican immigrants, which apparently means (according to TP) that we need to pass the DREAM Act* and that the military is by the way keeping Latinos down.  Now, let’s establish something right off of the bat; I don’t know who was on that SEAL team, and it would not surprise me in the slightest to hear that one or more of them were of Latino ancestry.  Or any other ancestry, frankly.  That’s not the point: the point is that when you’re a hardcore partisan ideologue using a story for agitprop, you should probably check the story first to make sure that you don’t get burned.

ThinkProgress did not check the story first.

Quick: read this sentence (from the original Mexican newspaper article that sent TP into a tizzy) and tell me what’s wrong with it.  It’s OK if you don’t speak Spanish: neither do I, really – and I still can pick out the howler, so you should be able to, too.

El soldado Rubén Mejía, nacido en este país y de padres guanajuatenses, ha sido ascendido a sargento por el operativo en que un equipo enfrentó y dio muerte a Bin Laden.

“Sargento.”

Continue reading BREAKING: ThinkProgress pig-ignorant about military.