Month: August 2012

#rsrh I do not object to the Libertarians becoming Louisiana’s opposition party.

Because it’s starting to look like that might happen:

Subtract the results of the Second Congressional District, and it is possible that the votes for Libertarian and no party candidates in all of the other U.S. House contests will exceed those cast for Democrats across the rest of Louisiana, belying the notion that state Democrats are anywhere near a sustained and successful rebuilding effort.

The final qualifying statistics registered Republicans having one or more candidates in all six districts, in five of which they are favored overwhelmingly, Libertarians contesting all but the First, and Democrats competing in just three, and in the Second their Rep. Cedric Richmond is the heavy reelection favorite.

Continue reading #rsrh I do not object to the Libertarians becoming Louisiana’s opposition party.

Barack Obama: The Cheney from Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Id. [UPDATED]

Classical reference.

[UPDATE: I have no idea why the last wave of editing didn’t go through before publishing. Fixed.]

I understand that Ta-Nehisi Coates had to pad his word-count for this NYT piece – executive summary: Coates’s desire to remain true to his principles, such as they are, are apparently subordinate to his desire to see Barack Obama act out towards Republicans.  This bothers him enough to whine about it, but not enough to actually do anything to try to stop Obama from acting in such a fashion – but there are two points I want to make, if only for my own peace of mind’s sake (because God knows that Coates never, [ever] listens to anybody else besides himself):

  1. Coates has it precisely backwards: we are not afraid of Barack Obama now.  Which is why everybody in the GOP is mocking him.  And while I mocked Barack Obama in 2008 [my] (and a bunch of other people[‘s]) [message was] effectively blocked from [being] propagated by the mainstream GOP, which frankly was scared of Obama back then.  This cannot be brought up again enough times: Barack Obama has always been like this.  Some of us told you so, back then.  You should have believed us.
  2. Coates also seems to think that Barack Obama has turned into Dick Cheney.  That is, of course, absurd: if Obama was Cheney he’d be doing a better job, not to mention a more ethical one.  No, what Barack Obama has turned into is the nightmare devil-troll edition of Dick Cheney that lurks in the collective subconscious of the American Left.  Which, again, means [both] less competence and ethical awareness than the original.

Other than that, the article is… well, pretty stupid, actually.  Those two things I mentioned above were just the clumps of stupidity that managed to float to the top.

Via Instapundit.

-A tale of two campaigns: contrasting Romney-Ryan’s access with Obama-Biden’s.

So, to review the bidding: when Romney picked Ryan, Establishment Democrats (and their liberal lackeys) cackled in response that the GOP would now have to hide from the entire state of Florida, thanks to Mediscare.  No way that they were going to go all-in, there.

Yeah, about that?

Continue reading -A tale of two campaigns: contrasting Romney-Ryan’s access with Obama-Biden’s.

#rsrh @stefcutter: GOP Deep Cover Operative?

Via @RyanGOP comes this gem from Obama’s Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter.  Context: CNN wanted to know why the heck Barack Obama hasn’t done a press conference in two months, and was instead sitting down with Entertainment Tonight and People Magazine. Cutter’s response?

The Fix sums up the clip nicely (if not intentionally): “Obama adviser says People magazine ‘equally important’ as political media.” And it is… to the Obama campaign.  After all, why should the President care if the news shows are mad? It won’t have any real effect on their coverage of him anyway. Continue reading #rsrh @stefcutter: GOP Deep Cover Operative?

#rsrh “Is PolitiFact campaigning for Obama?” Yes. Next question?

I’m not being dismissive of Dustin Siggins’s post walking through yet another example of how, yea indeed, Politifact is campaigning for Obama; instead, I’m anticipating Glenn Reynolds, who will undoubtedly say something along the same lines just as soon as he sees Siggins’s post.  I’m also reminding Politifact that their dilution of their brand – for the sake of the Democratic party, no less – has not gone unnoticed…

RIP, Harry Harrison.

(Via Ace) I somehow missed that he had passed, earlier this week.  Harry Harrison was always one of the more complicated folks when it came to, say, the alternate history genre: he did a lot of good work… but you weren’t always sure when.

[There was going to be a picture here, but… Tumblr apparently expects to steal other people’s bandwidth? The heck?]

Still, the major reason why The Stainless Steel Rat doesn’t seem dated, despite being a half-century why, is because Harrison had that much influence over how other science fiction authors wrote.

Boston Globe slams Joe Biden for gaffes, and liberals for hypocrisy. (That was not a typo.)

What is this newspaper, and what have they done with the Boston Globe?

Because I never thought that I would see a major Democratic newspaper lecture a Democratic Vice President like this – and lecture liberals for letting said Vice President get away with murdering his own rhetoric for so long:

Liberals routinely dismiss Biden’s gaffes as the rhetorical excesses of an overly exuberant speaker — it’s “Joe being Joe.” And there can be something appealing about a politician who throws caution and the script that goes with it to the winds. Yet when conservative speakers get overly exuberant and cross a rhetorical line, they are presumed racist or culturally insensitive, rather than refreshingly free-spirited. One standard should apply.

Continue reading Boston Globe slams Joe Biden for gaffes, and liberals for hypocrisy. (That was not a typo.)

#rsrh PBS’s Gwen “Bain-is-like-Solyndra” Ifill ‘livid’ at not being debate moderator.

Via @mlcalderone comes a touch of schadenfreude at Gwen Ifill’s reaction at the news that Jim Lehrer got the nod to be a debate moderator.  Well, schadenfreude for me:

More surprising was the reaction at PBS’s NewsHour, Mr. Lehrer’s home for more than 35 years until his retirement last year. The morning editorial meeting was under way on Monday when The Drudge Report revealed the names of the four moderators. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, the leaders of the program’s political coverage, were stunned to see the names.

In the suddenly gloomy meeting, some wondered if the list was legitimate. Others murmured that the selection of Mr. Lehrer was a setback for the “NewsHour,” which has been trying to show off younger stars like Ms. Ifill. Ms. Ifill, in particular, was livid, according to several people present. “I was indeed disappointed,” she confirmed Friday.

Continue reading #rsrh PBS’s Gwen “Bain-is-like-Solyndra” Ifill ‘livid’ at not being debate moderator.

“F*ck you, that’s not your dog anymore.”

That was my first reaction to this story:

Two Denver hikers are locked in a bitter battle over the fate of a German Shepard named Missy, who was abandoned by one and then rescued by another at 13,000 feet.

Scott Washburn found the dog bloodied and near-death atop Colorado’s Mt Bierstadt and then organized a search and rescue party to save her.

He wants to keep the dog, alleging that Anthony Ortolani lacks the ability or compassion to care for the creature, which went without food and water for eight days.

Continue reading “F*ck you, that’s not your dog anymore.”